you simply must: ha ha ha
the nhl does an act of moral courage, we are taking "fly or die" awfully seriously, some belated dogs
news roundup
About the Willie O’Ree skates
The draft lottery rule changes are official
What do coaches really mean in their postgame availabilities? Bruce Boudreau explains.
A review of some offseason moves, are they good? are they bad? It will not surprise you that Tyler Toffoli (MTL) and Cody Eakin (BUF) both get a mention
Aaaaand speaking of offseason acquisitions, how about that Taylor Hall (BUF) guy?
Preemptive excuses for when your team makes a shitty trade
The NHL is apparently transitioning to “sustainable lighting”
About how Terry Smith came to design the Sharks logo
so brave, king!1!!
Controversial NHL ref Tim Peel has very much not been fired. He will, however, never call an NHL game again, which I suppose is kind of the same thing, but also he was retiring this year anyway and he was just doing what the league does so who can say if it’s bad, actually?
Why was Peel non-fired-fired? Well, you see, he got caught on a hot mic last night doing a little bit of what we in the business refer to as “game management.” That is to say, he decided that the Red Wings had taken enough penalties and that it was time to give the Predators one, for a change, despite the fact that there wasn’t really much to go on. (for some reason, local radio had Matt Duchene, who was not there, on to talk about it, and he was not happy) Oops. Hate to admit what everyone has been doing forever out loud with my mouth on TV. That’s not great. Kind of embarrassing, actually. Now ideally, something like this would mean that we could reevaluate officiating practices league-wide, given that “game management” and “even” reffing happen All The Time, and that this is not at all a Peel specific problem. But that would make too much sense.
So instead of doing the thing that would make sense and be good, the NHL has decided to handle the obvious symptom, rather than the cause. Colin Campbell, the guy who emailed officials who were penalizing his son, is concerned about “the integrity of the game,” so something’s gotta be done! Lol. If this were the concern, 1: he would not have emailed officials to stop penalizing his son (again, lol), and 2: he would say something like, “hey guys just call the rulebook, thanks.” He has not.
Since letting refs go is a thing now, maybe we could do something about all the guys who just stand there and say, “hey, this TBI is not a problem for me, by all means, keep playing.”
Yeah, I don’t know, man, I am thinking that the NHL does not deserve much, if any, credit here. They’ve got a gigantic problem that they don’t see as a problem, and the only reason Peel is gone is because he just said it out loud to the wrong audience. (Peel should absolutely have been gone a while ago but hey) Not holding my breath for anything better.
women’s hockey corner
The Toronto Six’s Lindsay Eastwood and Megan Quinn share their favorite goal celebrations
Why and how each NWHL playoff team should and could win
NWHL Previews: the Whale, the Whale again, the Pride
stuff watch
Better-late-than-never dog day content: NWHL, Leafs, Riveters, Rangers, Columbus
The Ducks showed up looking cool tonight (wear these during a game, cowards)
Vlad Gavrikov (CBJ) has a new baby
Hockey players, they’re just like us (watch TV)
Jake Oettinger (DAL) has a full blackout kit now, also, here are some Stars antics
The Caps dog, a very good boy
In which Cal Petersen and Alex Iafallo (LAK) eat some hot sauce
TJ Oshie (WSH), in his own words, “has problems”
watchin’ da game
“i’ve been officially concerned for a while”
Things are looking incredibly nice for the Devils for the next like, 10 years. After last night, they have a league leading 115 points from players 23 or younger, 8 of which came last night. The team with the next most? Ottawa, with 89. Very nice, indeed.
It started with Mikey McLeod (23), who scored halfway through the first off of an. assist from Ty Smith (21). This was the first game in quite a while where the Devils were the better rested team, and it really showed. The Flyers, who played last night in a game that went to overtime, looked absolutely brutal in every way that mattered. Their best players got absolutely caved in at 5 on 5, and in fact, while Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Oskar Lindblom were on the ice, the Flyers had exactly zero percent of the shot attempts. Yikes. At even strength, the Devils had more than 82% of expected goals, which is as big a disparity as I can remember seeing. I hope the Flyers figure it out, because the last few weeks have just been, not good*. (at one point they got booed off the ice…oh dear.)
Anyway, in a fortunate turn of events for the beleaguered orange boys, the refs made a game-management-ass call against Ty Smith (NJD), and Joel Farabee got his 14th goal of the season (tied for 13th in the league) on the ensuing Flyers power play. There were a few wild scrambles in front of MacKenzie Blackwood (NJD), but he kept the puck out of the net, and with 6 seconds left in the first, Kyle Palmieri put the Devils up by one.
In the second, Yegor Sharangovich snagged another goal for the Devils (more like yay-gor am i right), and with 23 seconds left in the period, Travis Zajac got one more. Ow. Patrick Sharpe said during the intermission report that he was “officially concerned” about the Flyers, and the other guy said he’d been concerned, and they’re right. This is not how this team should be doing!*
Sean Couturier (PHI) went into overdrive in the third, scoring two goals, the second of which was while the Flyers had an empty net. The Flyers weren’t able to come all the way back, but they had some very good opportunities near the end. To that I say: leading teams should shoot the puck on the empty net more.
Final score: 4-3, Devils
*in fairness to all struggling teams, this is simply a shitty time and everything is a lot harder for everyone
other games
Cats/Hawks: 3-2, Hawks
Kevin Lankinen (CHI) is very very good
Anton Strålman (FLA) scored off a nice feed from Noel Acciari
Wings/Predators: 2-0, Predators
Roman Josi had an assist in his return to the lineup
Mathieu Olivier had the other goal
Bolts/Stars: 2-1, Bolts
Roope Hintz had the only Stars goal, and it was a good one
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, Steven Stamkos from the circle
Avalanche/Yotes: 5-4, Yotes, SO (somehow the first time the Avs have gone to a shootout this season)
Jakob Chychrun (ARI) with a hard one
Nathan MacKinnon’s (COL) 200th goal
hnsts awards
A full scholarship to Vanderbilt University’s Bettman College of Clownology and the Clown Sciences goes to Tim Peel, who got caught on a live mic in the Detroit/Nashville game saying that he was doing a makeup call that he’d fully pulled out of thin air, lol
The Department of Player Fuck You Award for Thing You Shouldn’t Have Done goes to Radko Gudas (FLA), for shoving Mattias Janmark (CHI) into the boards in a way that could be called “head first.” That is bad-ko, to me. Should probably have gotten at least a minor but hey here we are!
Suit of the Day goes to K’Andre Miller (NYR). Runner up: Jack Hughes (NJD)
where are they now/boneswatch
transactions:
Leo Komarov (NYI) cleared waivers
2018 draftee Seth Barton has signed a 2 year ELC with the Wings after the conclusion of UMass Lowell’s season
Tyce Thompson has signed a 2 year ELC with the Devils, following the conclusion of Providence College’s season, will join them soon
Max Willman has signed a two year contract with the Flyers
new in in:
Vitali Kravtsov (NYR) is with the taxi squad
Roope Hintz (DAL, LB) and Mikael Granlund (NSH, UB) played last night
Igor Shesterkin (NYR, groin) was activated off of IR
Noah Dobson (NYI), Craig Smith (BOS), David Krejčí (BOS), and David Pastrňák (BOS) do not have the coronavirus
Alex Ovechkin (WSH, LB) is back
new in out:
Bowen Byram (COL) is out with a lower body injury
Aleksander Barkov (FLA) is day to day with a lower body injury
Covid List- Zach Parise (MIN)
Tyler Pitlick (ARI) is day to day
Elvis Merzļikins (CBJ) is out with an illness that is not the coronavirus
updates:
Antti Raanta (ARI), Niklas Hjalmarsson (ARI, UB), Joey Daccord (OTT, leg, a while), Matt Murray (OTT, UB), and Jack Eichel (BUF, neck, the foreseeable future), are on IR
Nate Bastian’s (NJD, IR) injury is a sprained right MCL, he’ll be out 3-5 weeks
Pending cardiac screening, Phil Di Giuseppe (NYR) should join the team tomorrow
Brandon Tanev (PIT, UB) is on IR retro to March 18
Morgan Frost (PHI, shoulder, IR) is making progress and could be back for the end of the season
Austin Watson (OTT) will be 4-6 weeks with a broken hand and/or thumb
no updates:
The MassMutual NHL East Division:
Non-specifically “out”/DtD- Trent Frederic (BOS, LB), Jarred Tinordi (BOS, UB), Kyle Okposo (BUF, UB), Collin Miller (BUF), Tobias Rieder (BUF), Carter Hutton (BUF, LB), Lars Eller (WSH, LB)
IR- John Moore (BOS, IR), Tuukka Rask (BOS, back), Zach Senyshyn (BOS, UB), Kevan Miller (BOS, knee), Jeremy Lauzon (BOS, hand, late March), Ondrej Kase (BOS, UB, indefinite), Brandon Carlo (BOS, concussion), Linus Ullmark (BUF, late March), Jake McCabe (BUF, ACL/MCL/meniscus, August), Will Borgen (BUF, arm, mid April), Nico Hischier (NJD, sinus fracture, April), Jack Johnson (NYR, hernia, next year), Kirill Ustimenko (PHI, hip, next season), Robert Hägg (PHI, UB), Mark Friedman (PIT, UB), Evgeny Malkin (PIT, LB, week to week), Teddy Blueger (PIT, UB), Beck Malenstyn (WSH, achilles, June)
LTIR- Zemgus Girgensons (BUF, hamstring, July), Anders Lee (NYI, ACL, next year), Jason Zucker (PIT, LB), Michal Kempný (WSH, achilles, April-June), Henrik Lundqvist (WSH, heart, next year)
Covid list: Jake DeBrusk (BOS), Sean Kuraly (BOS), Brett Howden (NYR)
The Honda NHL West Division:
non-specifically “out”/DtD- Conor Timmins (COL, UB), Johan Södergran (LAK, back), Olli Määttä (LAK, UB, early April), Matt Dumba (MIN, LB), Marcus Foligno (MIN, not any time soon), Kyle Rau (MIN, UB), Ivan Lodnia (MIN), Matt Nieto (SJS, LB), Rūdolfs Balcers (SJS), Tyler Bozak (STL, UB), Max Pacioretty (VGK, LB)
IR- John Gibson (ANA, LB), Sonny Milano (ANA), Darcy Kuemper (ARI), Martin Frk (LAK, LB), Louie Belpedio (MIN, rib), Marco Rossi (MIN, covid complications, next year), Mackenzie MacEachern (STL, UB), Erik Foley (STL, concussion), Oskar Sundqvist (STL, ACL, next year)
LTIR-Carter Rowney (ANA, meniscus, see ya next year), Hampus Lindholm (ANA, wrist, April), Erik Johnson (COL, UB, not any time soon), Pavel Francouz (COL, LB), Carl Gunnarsson (STL, knee, the season), Ivan Barbashev (STL, ankle, mid April), Colton Parayko (STL, back), Alex Pietrangelo (VGK)
It will be a while- Scott Perunovich (STL, shoulder, out for the season)
Covid list- Danton Heinen (ANA), Ben Hutton (ANA), Jacob Larsson (ANA), Anthony Stolarz (ANA), Andrew Hammond (MIN), Zach Sanford (STL)
The Scotia NHL North Division:
Non-specifically “out”/DtD- Brett Ritchie (CGY, LB), Joakim Nordstrom (CGY, LB), Tyler Parsons (CGY, ankle), Kailer Yamamoto (EDM, UB), Kaiden Guhle (MTL, hand), Ben Chiarot (MTL, hand, late April), Tyler Toffoli (MTL, LB), Rasmus Sandin (TOR, foot, mid March), Frederik Andersen (TOR), Bo Horvat (VAN, LB), Brandon Sutter (VAN)
IR- Alex Stalock (EDM), Marcus Högberg (OTT, LB), Derek Stepan (OTT, shoulder, the season), Artem Anisimov (OTT, UB), Tanner Pearson (VAN, LB, mid April), Jay Beagle (VAN), Nathan Beaulieu (WPG, UB, end of March)
LTIR- Oscar Klefbom (EDM, shoulder, next year), Slater Koekkoek (EDM, collarbone), Micheal Ferland (VAN, head), Justin Bailey (VAN, separated shoulder), Elias Pettersson (VAN, UB), Bryan Little (WPG, ear, not this season)
Covid protocol-Joel Armia (MTL), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (MTL), Travis Boyd (VAN, provincial quarantine after waiver claim)
The Discover NHL Central Division:
Non-specifically “out”/DtD- Petr Mrázek (CAR, thumb), Jake Gardiner (CAR, back), Anton Lindholm (CHI, broken thumb), Alexander Radulov (DAL, LB), Blake Comeau (DAL, UB), Radek Faksa (DAL, LB), Jonathan Bernier (DET, LB), Ryan McDonagh (TBL, LB)
Week to week- Vincent Trocheck (CAR, UB), Mark Borowiecki (NSH, UB)
IR- Teuvo Teräväinen (CAR, UB), Max McCormick (CAR, UB), Gus Nyquist (CBJ, shoulder, April), Emil Bemstrom (CBJ, LB), Joel Kiviranta (DAL, LB, “a while”), Ben Bishop (DAL, knee, mid April), Tyler Seguin (DAL, hip, mid April), Stephen Johns (DAL), Tyler Bertuzzi (DET, UB), Jared McIsaac (DET, shoulder, April), Noah Juulsen (FLA), Luca Sbisa (NSH, UB), Ryan Ellis (NSH, UB, April), Matt Duchene (NSH, LB, mid April), Connor Ingram (NSH, player assistance program), Luke Kunin (NSH, LB, late March), Brad Richardson (NSH, LB), Mitchell Stephens (TBL, LB, April), Anders Nilsson (TBL, concussion, not this year)
LTIR- Andrew Shaw (CHI, concussion), Zack Smith (CHI, back, April), Jonathan Toews (CHI), Kirby Dach (CHI, wrist, April/May), Alex Nylander (CHI, knee, May), Nikita Kucherov (TBL, hip)
It’ll be a while- Chad Krys (CHI, shoulder, next year)
questions, comments, concerns, suggestions?
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