movember (a monday in november)
how about a "thank you, jim?", the latest in very good boys, connor mcdavid go brrr
Hey so what on earth is this?
Anyway, Happy Monday, and here’s your news.
the news
PNW Solidarity Report:
They have the worst goal differential in the Pacific, and they’ve lost their last three games, giving up 19 goals across the three, it’s the Vancouver Canucks. They are on a skid unparalleled by anything in the last 20 years. Someone should be getting fired soon, just as they were last time. Ideally, it would be Jim Benning. The only team in the division with a worse record is the neighboring Seattle Kraken.
Hopefully the Pacific Northwest, a region historically known for rain, sees some brighter days soon.
Rick Bowness Absolutely Knows What’s Up:
The Dallas Stars are 5-6-2 on the season and have been #GoingThruIt recently. Following their 4-2 loss to the Predators, they had a long players only meeting, which is interesting to everyone except Rick Bowness, who absolutely knows what happened and knows it is nothing to worry about at all. They’re fixing it!
More on this as it develops.
Connor McDiscourse:
For some reason, we’re talking about whether or not calling penalties against Connor McDavid would make hockey better or not. It would. It is so fun to watch that guy do his thing, and so not fun to watch people try to hurt him to stop him.
Anyway here is the best take on this, just do your job refs:
The NHL is run by old people, who believe the league’s success comes from big hits, lucky bounces, fighting and bulls on skates … I probably won’t live to see the day when a young McDavid can romp through 20 years of an NHL career without sacrificing various body parts to the God of “you think Gordie Howe had it easy?” but pour skill hockey in my television feed and I’ll never get enough of it.
Dogwatch:
The Buffalo Sabres have a dog now, and he’s named Rick, and he’s a very good boy. I have, of course, already forgotten all the nonsense this dumb franchise does, because I mean, look at this little guy!*
Also in dogs: the Bolts dog attends a race, the Wild dog goes grocery shopping, and Captain and Biscuit meet each other
*Rick is 70 pounds
This Week In Terribad:
Now-former Anaheim GM Bob Murray, previously cleared on a technicality for assaulting a woman with a chair, resigned and is entering an alcohol abuse program after reports that he was abusive to staff.
Regarding the ongoing Blackhawks settlement situation, Rick Westhead did two threads on the issue (cw, the obvious) here and here, and we’re not going to discuss all of that, but suffice it to say, it’s more process as punishment for the victims and their loved ones, and it sucks.
Our thanks to Antoine Roussel (ARI), for having some level of moral clarity around this whole thing.
“Their judgment was so bad,” he said. “Toews, for example, he represents the NHL, he represents like the perfect hockey player. And like when he goes up out of his way and somehow defend those guys, I know they might be your friends, but it’s not the time for friendship.”
Signings and Such:
Nic Dowd (56% in the faceoff circle! 3rd NHL player from Alabama! 1/2 of successful podcast “Between Two Blue Lines!”) extended for 3 years with the Washington Capitals at a very reasonable 1.3M AAV.
A fond farewell to Leo Komarov, who left the Islanders to sign with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL. It’s closer to home for Komarov, who played one game with the Islanders this season, and he’ll probably get more playing time.
The Avalanche claimed Nicolas Aubé-Kubel off waivers from the Flyers.
Hello Officer: 5 mustaches that make you double check the posted speed limit
Sidney Crosby (PIT)
Adam Lowry (WPG)
Dylan DeMelo (WPG)
Zemgus Girgensons (BUF)
Alex Killorn (TBL)
Also:
The Ottawa Senators are the season’s first postponement due to covid.
Referees try doing your job challenge (impossible!): Thatcher Demko (VAN) was framed for delay of game, and Sidney Crosby (PIT) was allowed to throw a child headfirst at a wall. Nifty.
What’s… going on here.
How to say all the Jets’ names
Zach Fucale (WSH) became the first goalie to have a shutout in his NHL debut in 6 years. Nice.
The Ottawa Senators have a captain now, and it’s Brady Tkachuk.
Jack Eichel (VGK) had his neck surgery and it went well
The rest of the preseason stuff will eventually happen. Promise.
how’s our driving?
Every week, we’ll revisit ten of our unconfirmed/denied predictions to see how we’re doing
Alexander Ovechkin will pass Brett Hull and Jaromir Jagr, will not pass Wayne Gretzky this season (hot take)
Ovechkin passed Brett Hull (741) this week, and is on track for a 65 goal season (though production will probably not stay at that level), with 12 in 15 games. The magic isn’t gone at all. He’s at 742 career goals now, 24 shy of Jagr at 766. It’s happening, and it’s happening soon. He also has 604 career assists, which makes him 29th all time in points. The 604th assist, from last night, was particularly cool. This guy rocks!
Tim Stützle will be the Senators leading scorer
Drake Batherson (7-9—16) is going off this year, so it’s really going to be tough for Stützle (1-5—6) to make up that ground, but he still could. We’ll see.
The Devils will make the pl*yoffs
The worst record in the Metro belongs to the Islanders, and is 5-4-2. The worst record in the Atlantic is 4-10-1 (Senators), the worst record in the Central is 1-13-1 (Coyotes), and the worst record in the Pacific is 4-10-1 (Kraken). All of this is to say that the Devils are in the 4th spot in the Metro right now, at 7-4-3, but the Metro is, once again, the most competitive division, so these things can change, and likely will.
Connor McDavid will discover the true meaning of Christmas, will also score exactly 154 points.
Last newsletter, he was scoring at a 180 point pace for the season, and now it’s 158. Getting closer! (Obviously we’d prefer that he get about 1,000 points this season, because man, it’s fun to watch)
John Gibson 4 Vézina.
John Gibson’s .903 save percentage is currently 39th in the league, and his 2.98 GAA is 44th. It seems unlikely, but we believe.
The Kraken will make the playoffs
It’s 15 games, and there are 8 in the season, but oh boy, it doesn’t look good. In fairness to the Kraken, their opening road schedule was tricky, and it’s about to get bad again, but last place in what everyone thought was a tremendously weak Pacific division is, well, not great. I don’t think they do it.
Jordan Binnington will not, in fact, be good again
.915 in 11 games with a 2.8 GAA. He’s been good (except for his behavior, which has been bad, ask Nazem Kadri). Oops. Our Bad.
Jason Dickinson will continue his tradition of taking pucks to the face regardless of which team he is on
On October 15, 2021, Jason Dickinson was shown on the bench with a cut on his face. On November 13, 2021, he got punched in the face by Ben Hutton. No pucks yet, but the facial injuries roll on.
Lou Lamoriello will win the Jim Gregory again
Let’s get the Islanders into a playoff spot first. I think they get there, but as previously mentioned, its a tough division.
Carter Hart will be good again.
.931 in 9 games, that’s the Hockey News, So To Speak, effect.
questions, comments, concerns, suggestions?
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