Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Hockey Thoughts Before The Stanley Cup Final

05/25/2018 at 5:21pm EDT

from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- There are going to be lots of thinkpieces about what we can learn from Vegas and Washington. I’m paraphrasing, but Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said something along the lines of, “It shows what happens when you have a total buy-in from everyone in an organization,” when asked about the Golden Knights by Bob McCown and Stephen Brunt on Prime Time Sports last week.

As for Washington, one former Capital said recently, “If you could write a book about what happened internally from the minute they lost to Pittsburgh last year until now, you’d have a best-seller.”...

- We probably won’t know the truth until training camp, but there is a chance Ryan Kesler does not play in 2018–19. Anaheim’s centre gutted through 48 regular-season and playoff games, his discomfort and pain obvious to teammates and opponents alike. From what I understand, he will not be having surgery (that’s been done). Instead, he’s undergoing some aggressive rehab and treatment in an effort to improve the hip area. The team and agent are not commenting, but word is he is not interested in retiring, wants to play and is doing everything he can to get there. But it might be a situation where he sits out and tries to come back in September 2019.

- The Competition Committee met Thursday in New York City, and out of that came news that goalies will be expected to wear the updated chest protectors in 2018–19. The tighter pants became mandatory in February 2017, and the chest pieces were supposed to follow last year. That didn’t happen because the manufacturers couldn’t get it done. Now, at last, we are there. I don’t have the specific measurements, but the new designs are sloped at the shoulders, less “boxy” overall and more contoured along the body, and have thinner elbows/forearms.

more Thoughts...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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