everything happens so much
social media tire fire watch, overtime in tampa (and philadelphia), we are all canucks
what a day
So, the world is hell. We have extremely entered the chill zone and I am sure everything about our *checks notes* 10 mounting national catastrophes will be fine. For the record, if you’re not sure how, here’s an article on disabling video autoplay on social media, which will probably be an important thing in the next week to 10 years, for normal and fine reasons.
It is ok to take a break from consuming human tragedy. I’m not quite sure how to, and it feels bad to in a way because it’s so important, but it’s not sustainable to maintain this baseline level of horror. There are also so many different things to get varying kinds and degrees of upset about at once that it’s almost hard to keep track. If anyone figures out how to balance and process all this, let me know.
Do what you can, stay safe, and take care of yourselves.
player and team statements to date
First off, thanks to hockey media for finally having the guts to ask about these things. I know it’s only been 2 ish days, but it would be nice to see some interest from NHL players without prompting.
What we got isn’t bad*, evaluating on a “hockey players in the media” scale. This is a start, but it’s more than fair to be running low on patience at this point. The NBA is striking (not allowed per their CBA), and granted, it’s more personal for a lot of them, but the NHL needs to and can do better. (hopefully we see a strike but I’m not holding my breath)
Update, the Reds and the Brewers will also not be playing baseball tonight. Still no word of anything from the NHL
*provided it is followed up on with the appropriate actions
Anyway, this is a hockey newsletter specifically not for increasing our collective existential dread, and there’s been a lot of hockey news. Here’s all that:
The Arizona Coyotes will lose their 2nd round pick for 2020 and their first round pick in 2021 for combine testing policy violations
They could also lose more picks if Taylor Hall re-signs. It is good, in my opinion, that the league isn’t allowing these kinds of trade conditions moving forward.
The Athletic put out a piece today on the intricacies of bubble testing
There were also two features in the Athletic about families: one about Anton Khudobin and his father, the other about Toronto natives in the eastern bubble. Both are worth a read in my opinion
Blues GM Doug Armstrong said that ~20% of their playing roster members were somehow adversely impacted by covid in the lead up to camp. That’s quite a few.
log off! go outside! have a beer! take a nap!
Everyone is having a normal one, but especially Paige Lorenze, Logan Couture, and Jonathan Marchessault. They’re not mad! Please don’t say they got mad! As someone who is also frequently mad online and who would probably also micromanage their online reputation if I had one, I suppose(?) I get it, but like…guys. I also get the urge to do posting when you’re frustrated, and getting sucked into an argument because you think you’re right and it’s going to work out eventually. However, I can also confirm that it basically doesn't ever work out, and you should just Log Off.
Jonathan Marchessault was in no mood to have his time wasted last night. I’m not sure what you call arguing in your instagram comments if not that, but à chacun son goût. “suck on your mummy’s titties,” is a hell of a phrase, and one that he’s since apologized for using. To be fair, it was comments on family pictures, which I get is sensitive, but sometimes it’s good to just not engage when you’re upset!
Logan Couture would like us to know, the day after people were gunned down by a militia guy in Wisconsin, that he, too, is a victim of political violence. Couture, a Canadian who cannot vote in the United States election, apparently was talking about voting in Toronto Ontario and mentioned Donald Trump and got sucker punched. He then spent the whole morning arguing with people on Twitter dot com about his rationale. Seeeeeeveral hours later, he posted an inadequate notes app apology. Also, the timing of the apology and the team’s statement coinciding with the beginning of the NBA strike? Shitty timing! He isn’t the only NHL player with bad politics, but he’s the only one who talked about them today. Logan, log off, you’re being tone deaf.
I am trying to imagine the flurry of PR texts that Kasperi Kapanen must have woken up to this morning. I can’t. His girlfriend, Paige Lorenze, spent a few hours very late at night informing everyone on twitter dot com who interacted with her that she was in fact, not mad, they were mad, and they she was not, in fact, insecure about her relationship. Being in the public eye to the extent that they are has got to suck, but name searching must make it worse. Go to bed, Paige, it’s 2 AM.
Anyway, here’s games.
very over over time
Game one of this series was boring and I hated it. Game two, on the other hand, was much more interesting. Also, game 5 is Sunday at 8 ET.
A sequence of events:
Zach Bogosian broke his stick, which lead to an absolute sea of humanity in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy, which lead to a goal for Nick Ritchie.
It would have been a tie game a few minutes later (Barclay Goodrow), except Tampa was offsides because Brayden Point took his sweet time exiting the zone
John Cooper was Not Pleased.
The game actually got tied when Blake Coleman took a dive and scored, off of a pass from Zach Bogosian, who undressed Torey Krug before diving himself. It’s funny.
Brad Marchand scored off a pass from David Pastrnak
A minute later, Nikita Kucherov tied it again with a deflection from Kevin Shattenkirk
Connor Clifton would like us all to know that Pat Maroon is a “fat fuck”
Blake Coleman scored again
Brad Marchand scored again
Ondrej Palat saved us from the horror of multiple OT’s by scoring in the first one
Final Score: 4-3, Bolts
“the Jake Markstrom show”
Going into game 2, the Canucks had never beaten the Golden Knights in regulation. Across 11 games, they had two overtime wins, and nine losses. Now, they have one regulation win. Nice.
Folks, Tyler Toffoli is back. Nine seconds into his first shift back after a high ankle sprain kept him out for 10 days, he scored. Robin Lehner was very good early on, but it was also a great night for Allan Walsh, Marc-Andre Fleury’s agent, because he didn’t look so hot near the end. Bo Scorvat had another two goal night, and started early. Given his assists on both goals, Elias Pettersson now has 6 multi-point games this postseason and leads the NHL. Also, Jacob Markstrom was so good that one of the commentators referred to this game as the “Jake Markstrom show,” but also, the Canucks blocked approximately one million shots.
Alex Tuch, very zoomy, broke the ice for Vegas with a goal midway through the second. Elias Pettersson scored his own goal shortly after that, for a 3 point night. Tyler Toffoli also had an assist on the Peterson goal, for his own three point night. Hell of a return. Bo Horvat, now the leader in playoff goals, got another. We had two examples of the beautiful game in the third, with Zach Whitecloud tipped into the bench and Elias Pettersson returning a glove. Tanner Pearson got an empty net goal, and that was it.
Final Score: 5-2, Canucks
posts, who can say if they’re bad or not
This was a much better game for the Flyers than game 1. They 1: did not get shut out, and 2: won.
I don’t know what happened, but somehow, Semyon Varlamov stopped being the unbeatable playoff monster for this game. Coming off the longest shutout streak for the Islanders, he was pulled mid-game for Thomas Greiss, because it was 3-0 at that point. The first period was the Kevin Hayes show, with two goals high blocker side. Sean Couturier got the third unanswered Flyers goal, and Varlamov was benched.
Then things kind of tipped the other way, with three unanswered Islanders goals. Anders Lee, playoff enemy, got the first one. He was followed by Anthony Beauvillier, and then it looked like maybe nothing would happen. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored very near the end of the game, and brought the Flyers into their first overtime game this postseason. Fortunately it wasn’t too long, and Philippe Myers got his first career overtime goal. I hate playoff overtime.
Final Score: 4-3, Flyers
Stuff Watch
national dog day watch
The Coyotes team dog
The Wild team dog(s)
Some Rangers and their dogs
Some Cats and their dogs
elimination station
PK Subban, big dance memes guy
Claude Julien (MTL) is doing well and says he will coach again next year and that it wasn’t a heart attack
unfit update watch
Vladimir Tarasenko (STL) will have another shoulder surgery and be reevaluated in 5 months
retirement watch
Mike Green(EDM) made his retirement official (reported a few weeks ago)
Rosters
no updates
Philipp Grubauer (COL)- lower body injury, no timeline for return
Matt Calvert (COL)- unfit, will not play game 3
Erik Johnson (COL)- out indefinitely
Hunter Miska (COL)- will likely come in to give the Avs a 3rd healthy goalie
Ben Bishop (DAL)- unfit to play
Stephen Johns (DAL)- still out
Johnny Boychuk (NYI)- still out
Steven Stamkos (TBL)- ruled out indefinitely
Jan Rutta (TBL)- status unchanged
Ryan McDonagh (TBL)- injured in game 1
Micheal Ferland (VAN)- left the bubble to deal with [undisclosed], likely post concussion related
Tyler Myers (VAN)- “mildly separated” shoulder, possible for round 2
Tomas Nosek (VGK)- unfit to play