The Lake Tahoe games are this weekend, l o l, and what’s up with those creepy whispering commercials about it?
news roundup
The Tampa/Dallas game tonight will also be postponed, due to the ongoing power and weather catastrophe down there (stay safe, Texan readers)
About Victor Hedman (TBL), who is really good
Team Stonks, or as Emily Kaplan called them, “Power Rankings”
You already know who did it, so I will not link it, but it is “hate William Nylander because of ??? and xenophobia” o’clock. A reminder: he’s good.
About the NHL schedule
Several players will wear Willie O’Ree inspired skates during warmups or games
Numbers stuff: “response goals,” and environmental impacts/chemistry
stuff watch
Harvey the Hound (CGY) is 37 years old now. Previous Harvey coverage is here.
The Manitoba Moose know about the pride rock thing.
Fancy goalie angle charts, cool!
Seattle construction update, featuring a tunnel
Perfect Angel, all grown up: it’s the Islanders dog
Mike Smith (EDM) has joined…the ear mask gang
Evidence of Jets (video)
Dicks is selling Lafallo Kings jerseys. I’m Iaffing.
wrong answers only (we’ve renamed “wild speculation corner”)
What are roommates Jack Hughes and Ty Smith saying? Wrong answers only.
Our leading candidates:
“When they give you those warm hand towels on the plane, what do you do with yours? I keep putting mine in my bag because I'm too polite to say I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with them.”
“Oh yeah, that's what we called the groupchat with Quinn and Luke. My Brother My Brother And Me was taken, so we changed it to The 3H Club”
“So there’s this monster, right? Long neck, swims?”
Write in if you know.
watchin’ da game
the horlinge of the litill balle with hockie stickes or staves
Made an uplifting little playlist to go with this, which is going to be a touch on the long side because I do not intend to write about the Sabres for a little while.
Necessary disclaimer: The Sabres have been out for a while, and during said while, several players had the coronavirus. This is a huge issue, and we can expect it to be a factor in play! It is important to try to stay normal about the skid this team has started, in light of all of that. (no one is being normal and I’m kind of also not) Anyway, game recap.
Off the top, happy first NHL win to Ilya Sorokin (NYI). On to the game.
Stop me if this sounds familiar: Anders Lee (NYI) scores the first goal of the game, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (NYI) scores the second. Both goals happen in the first period. It should sound familiar because it is exactly what happened last game.
There are goals that happen because the scorer is independently good. There are also goals that happen because the scor-ees are independently bad. The Lee goal was mostly the second kind. I’m not sure who messed up the most. Thinking it was Kyle Okposo, who looked like he completely lost track of what was happening, but it could also have been literally anyone else, except Henri Jokiharju, who messed up the least. It’s a whole thing. That said, it is probably time to sunset Okposo and At Minimum, really reduce his role, especially when you have young forwards you’re burying in Rochester who are ready.
Taylor Hall (BUF) had a nice looking breakaway opportunity, but it didn’t quite work out. Hall was also responsible for the only event in the second period I found worth noting, when he bopped a guy in the face with his stick and got a penalty, but he got crosschecked in the back and that’s why the bopping motion happened and anyway, officials, please. Can’t blame the officials for the fact that he’s shooting 3.2% this season, though. Cursed. No Sabres can shoot. It’s fact. (Also they seem to have stopped trying to shoot. They had three shots on goal in the second period.)
Speaking of shooters who can’t shoot, I’m putting my clown makeup on about top line Jeff Skinner (BUF). When we did season previews and it looked like Skinner was going to be buried on the fourth line, I said, “Let Jeff Skinner fail on the merits, not because you bury him behind Tobias Rieder.” Somewhere, a monkey’s paw curled. I was a fool. I was an awful fool. We got to see Skinner on the top line last night, and also the previous night, and nothing happened for the top line. What did happen, however, is that the bottom 6 got smacked around without him, in a hockey sense. He’s generally been unlucky and put in a bad spot, but last night he was just bad all on his own.
But eventually, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, a Sabre showed up. Victor Olofsson scored in the third period. The thing you haven’t heard before, though, is that he, uh, was offsides. So there you go. Still 2-0. Look, man, this is unfortunate. It’s even more unfortunate when you consider:
I? They do what?!
We also had the two Sabre-est happenings ever during this game:
Sabretooth was out with a sign (normal). The sign was for Jessie Pegula (fine, but weird when you’re at the Sabres game that the Sabres are losing, no?)
The Sabres twitter account tweeted the picture up top with a second or two to go, and then immediately deleted it because Anders Lee basically immediately scored on the Sabres’ empty net. Lol. Wait until the game is over, Sabres twitter account—things can always get worse.
Final score: 3-0, Islanders
Plus side: The Sabres led in hits. Also, Will Borgen seems cool. Also, hopefully, as more players come back into the lineup and guys have more time to recover, play improves. Also they should positively regress because no one can shoot this badly forever
other games
Caps/Pens: 3-1, Caps (see pregame shenanigans)
That’s Norris Favorite Nick Jensen (WSH) to you
Vitek Vanecek (made saves) and Richard Panik (got his 100th assist) got the special Capitals headbands
Devils/Rangers: 5-2, Devils
Igor Shesterkin (NYR) is good at his job
It is perfectly legal for Pavel Zacha (NJD) to score. More and more people are saying this.
Avs/Vegas: 3-2, Avs
Max Pacioretty (VGK) scored a goal
Nazem Kadri (COL) is the first player in franchise history to get multiple go ahead goals in the final minute of regulation (he did it again last night, assisted by Bowen Byram)
Wild/Kings: 4-0, Kings
Jaret Anderson-Dolan (LAK) is climbing the Anderstandings (which will be updated weekly on Sundays, moving forward)
Jonathan Quick (LAK) had his first career shutout against the Wild
hnsts awards
Suit of the Day goes to Ryan Graves (COL). Runner up: Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (COL)
where are they now/boneswatch
transactions:
Eric Comrie (NJD) and Connor Carrick (NJD) are on waivers, Devin Shore (EDM) cleared
new in in:
Don’t have the coronavirus- John Hayden (ARI), Casey Mittelstadt (BUF), Dylan Cozens (BUF), Curtis Lazar (BUF), Andreas Athanasiou (LAK), Travis Zajac (NJD), Dmitry Kulikov
Brendan Smith (NYR, UB) and Shea Theodore (VGK) played last night
Johan Larsson (ARI) is done being suspended
Mikko Koskinen (EDM, precaution) backed up on Monday
Artemi Panarin (NYR), Torey Krug (STL), and Marco Scandella (STL) will be available tomorrow
Gustav Forsling (FLA, UB) was activated off of IR
new in out:
Dennis Gilbert (COL) left last night’s game with a facial injury
Jacob Trouba (NYR) left last night’s game and will be out 4-6 weeks with a broken thumb
Anton Lindholm (CHI, but really Rockford) will be out 4-6 weeks with a broken thumb
updates:
Justin Bailey’s (VAN, IR) injury is a separated shoulder
Henrik Lundqvist (WSH, heart) is going for runs again!
Pierre-Luc Dubois (WPG) is on IR now
Rasmus Sandin’s (TOR) bone contusion is on his foot and he’ll be out a few weeks
Marco Rossi (MIN, covid complications, 6 weeks+) posted from Austria that he’s feeling better. Love to see it.
Erik Karlsson’s (SJS) lower body thing could be a groin injury
no updates:
The MassMutual NHL East Division:
DtD- Jakub Zboril (BOS, UB), Matt Grzelcyk (BOS, LB), Ryan Murray (NJD, sick but not covid), K’Andre Miller (NYR, UB), Jack Johnson (NYR, groin), Brian Pinho (WSH)
IR- Ondrej Kase (BOS, UB, indefinite), Nico Hischier (NJD, leg), Filip Chytil (NYR, UB), Wade Allison (PHI, ankle, weeks), Isaac Ratcliffe (PHI, lung/rib, March), Morgan Frost (PHI, shoulder, months), Brian Dumoulin (PIT, LB), Jared McCann (PIT, LB)
LTIR- Zemgus Girgensons (BUF, hamstring, July), Juuso Riikola (PIT, UB), Zach Trotman (PIT, Knee, 2-4 weeks), Evan Rodrigues (PIT, LB), Michal Kempný (WSH, achilles, April-June)
Covid Protocol- Nico Hischier (NJD), Filip Chytil (NYR), Justin Braun (PHI), Claude Giroux (PHI), Morgan Frost (PHI), Jakub Voracek (PHI), Oskar Lindblom (PHI), Scott Laughton (PHI), Travis Konecny (PHI)
It will be a while: Tyson Foerster (PHI, shin, 3-4 weeks)
The Honda NHL West Division:
DtD- Nicklas Hjalmarsson (ARI, UB), Cale Makar (COL, UB), Martin Frk (LAK, LB), Jared Spurgeon (MIN, UB), Jaden Schwartz (STL, LB), Sammy Blais (STL, UB), Robin Lehner (VGK, UB)
IR- Sonny Milano (ANA), Brendan Guhle (ANA, MCL, ~two weeks), Josh Manson (ANA, oblique, ~4 weeks), Drake Caggiula (ARI, LB), Erik Johnson (COL, UB), Matt Calvert (COL, post concussion symptoms), Sean Walker (LAK, nose), Alex Stalock (MIN, UB), Radim Šimek (SJS, UB), Tyler Bozak (STL, UB), Robert Thomas (STL, thumb, 4-6 weeks)
LTIR- Pavel Francouz (COL, LB), Vladimir Tarasenko (STL, shoulder), Brayden McNabb (VGK, LB)
Covid Protocol- Hunter Miska (COL), Gabe Landeskog (COL), Sam Girard (COL), Tyson Jost (COL), Carson Soucy (MIN), Cam Talbot (MIN), Jonas Brodin (MIN), Brad Hunt (MIN), Victor Rask (MIN), Tomáš Nosek (VGK)
It will be a while- Scott Perunovich (STL, shoulder, out for the season)
The Scotia NHL North Division:
DtD- Mikael Backlund (CGY), William Lagesson (EDM, UB)
Covid Protocol- Ryan Dzingel (OTT, post trade)
IR- Ethan Bear (EDM, head), Gaetan Haas (EDM), Nate Thompson (WPG, LB)
LTIR- Derek Ryan (CGY, finger), Oscar Klefbom (EDM, shoulder, next year), Zack Kassian (EDM, UB), Wayne Simmonds (TOR, wrist, end March), Jack Campbell (TOR, leg), Micheal Ferland (VAN, head), Travis Hamonic (VAN, UB), Tyler Motte (VAN)
The Discover NHL Central Division:
DtD- Roope Hintz (DAL, LB), Darren Helm (DET, LB), Noel Acciari (FLA, UB, 7-10 days)
Week to week- Anthony Cirelli (TBL, UB)
IR- Max McCormick (CAR, UB), Zack Smith (CHI, back, April), Andrew Shaw (CHI, concussion protocol), Brent Seabrook (CHI, back), Connor Murphy (CHI, hip, 10-14 days), Matiss Kivlenieks (CBJ, LB), Gus Nyquist (CBJ, shoulder, April), Alexander Radulov (DAL, LB), Tyler Seguin (DAL, hip, April), Stephen Johns (DAL), Ben Bishop (DAL, knee, March), Tyler Bertuzzi (DET, UB), Luca Sbisa (NSH, UB), Mattias Ekholm (NSH), Brad Richardson (NSH, UB), Mathieu Olivier (NSH), Connor Ingram (NSH, player assistance program), Ryan Johansen (NSH, UB), Mitchell Stephens (TBL, LB, months)
LTIR- Jonathan Toews (CHI), Kirby Dach (CHI, wrist, April/May), Alex Nylander (CHI, knee, April/May), Nikita Kucherov (TBL, hip, regular season)
Covid Protocol- Calvin Pickard (DET)
Timeline unclear- Petr Mrazek (CAR, thumb, March)
questions, comments, concerns, suggestions?
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