The TSN Hockey Insiders discuss how one of the bidders for the Senators has a land claim to LeBreton Flats, how 4-5 teams are pushing to have Scott Howson replaced as AHL president and CEO, why Taylor Hall's return is being hampered by the Bruins' cap issues, and more.
Plus at the end of the video, the NHL is thinking about ways to market the game.
from Joshua Kloke of The Athletic,
Ryan Hartman walked into the Minnesota Wild practice facility with a sense of resolve. The nine-year NHL forward had been a healthy scratch the previous evening against the Philadelphia Flyers.
But righting a wrong was only one of the items on his to-do list.
“Today,” Hartman said, nodding while looking around the Wild dressing room, “is tax day.”
As he does once a month, Hartman will work his way around the Wild dressing room and collect money from his teammates.
The previous night, Hartman pored over a spreadsheet with updated tallies of who owes what. He sent out a flurry of text messages to teammates: “This is what you owe. I’m coming for you tomorrow.”
Call Hartman what you want: the taxman, the team treasurer, the fine master. Hartman has a volunteer position in charge of handling a consistently growing pot of money accrued from Wild players. Most teams require a player like Hartman because large amounts of money changing hands among teammates is a tradition in the NHL. That money is gathered in large part to encourage team building. Part of the money collected is because players voluntarily have put “money on board,” a practice of promising an amount of money before a game a player will owe should the team win, be it for playing in their hometown or, say, if they’re playing in a milestone game.
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from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,
This generation — and probably most importantly, the next several — needs its own version of The Golden Goal.
A Gretzky to Lemieux, in on goal, he shoots…he scores. Mario Lemieux has scored for Canada, explosion for the ages that will essentially become a historical films moment, one that will be played on a loop of highlight reels and YouTube channels for eternity.
That the best player on the planet, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, spoke so passionately on the subject in the wake of the World Baseball Classic was a massive step towards making this dream a reality.
And good on McDavid and others for speaking out.
Because for all of the hurdles on the horizon for bringing back the World Cup of Hockey and eventually the Olympics — and yes, we understand there are some significant hurdles — if the players truly want this, there will be a pathway to making it happen.
When it comes to helping grow the sport both within North America and especially globally, there is no better way to do so.
"It’s about saying this community is valuable and important and we want to honour them."
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 26, 2023
Brian Burke joined Ron MacLean to discuss Pride Nights across the NHL and supporting the LGBTQ+ community. pic.twitter.com/fFo3kiG4XM
from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
In 40 some years of being around NHL dressing rooms, I can’t think of anyone I had to deal with that I liked better than James Reimer. He was polite, available, professional, friendly and courteous, no matter what the circumstances happened to be. And in one night, with one decision, he changed what many people think of him by refusing to take part in the pre-game Pride ceremony of the San Jose Sharks.
All anyone wanted was for Reimer to be as welcoming and inclusive as he has been his entire career. Instead, he took a stance, the wrong stance, and his otherwise terrific reputation has now been soiled.
In Washington, the celebrations seem nonstop for Alexander Ovechkin as he continues his assault on the all-time goal-scoring records. What he thinks of inclusivity has never been at issue so it isn’t news of any kind: What he thinks about Vladimir Putin — now that’s problematic and upsetting and far too silent.
He has traditionally and spiritually been supportive of a Russian war monger who has attacked Ukraine and is currently avoiding the warrants for the numerous international laws against humanity he has broken.
We worry about Reimer and by extension Eric Staal and his brother Marc, because really, costs aside, hockey is for everyone. And we celebrate Ovechkin and any of his fellow Russian pro players who happen to support the warmonger, Putin and look the other way.
Neither side feels right to me.
And at the same time, the Maple Leafs play game after game with TikTok on their helmets, because the Canadian version of the Chinese company has paid for sponsorship rights. All this going on as the governments in both Canada and the United States have TikTok removed from their phones, and the U.S. is consumed with the potential spying going on through TikTok.
read on plus topics like this...
In each of the past several summers, Connor McDavid was asked what he could do to improve his game. And his answer was always the same.
“I want to score more goals.”
So instead of just saying it, McDavid did what McDavid does.
via the YouTube page of Sportsnet,
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman join Ron MacLean to share some fresh NHL intel, including possible rookie signings out of the NCAA and CHL and the latest on the Ottawa Senators sale.
from Larry Brooks of the NNew York Post,
My opinion on the matter that is engulfing the NHL is that the Panthers organization showed great courage in holding a night in support of the LGBTQ+ community in a state where such corporate endorsement is not always looked upon favorably by governing bodies with power to punish.
I believe captain Matthew Tkachuk’s unambiguous support of inclusivity is significantly more noteworthy than the decision of Eric and Marc Staal to defer from participating in Thursday’s pregame warmups in which all of their teammates wore Pride-themed jerseys.
“A night like tonight, for me, is really about including everybody,” Tkachuk said. “In my opinion, it’s by far the greatest game in the world, and everyone’s invited in my locker room and our locker room as an organization.”
And I believe that the unqualified endorsement of the NHL’s initiative by Connor McDavid certainly outweighs the significance of San Jose goaltender James Reimer’s decision to opt out of pregame warmups when the Sharks held their Pride Night a week ago.
I am not sure how to recap this, but boy I sure would like to see a video without all the added graphics/cgi added in. But then, the NHL is not marketing to me.
from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,
He said he knows there are still plenty of fans who like to see the fists fly. He also believes clubs with that certain toughness factor are tough to beat, especially come playoff time — even in a league that increasingly emphasizes speed and skill.
“So I don’t think it should ever leave,” said Marchand, 34, who grew up in Nova Scotia but played for three teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. “Again, I think it does hold guys accountable still, to a point where cheap shots are allowed or big enough hits and you can go after guys, and I think it does keep guys in check a little bit more.
“If you lose that ability, then it does open the doors to a whole other . . . you’re completely relying on player safety [in the NHL office] for each and every play, and then that’s going to get out of control.”
Some of what’s happening in the “Q,” mused Marchand, might simply be traceable to the province’s separatist yearnings.
“You know, they’re just a little bit different, those guys up there [in Quebec],” he said. “They’re on their own page. They want their own country. And maybe that’s all — they’re just trying to advocate for what they can.”
more and other topics too
The world watched as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to push Japan to the World Baseball Classic title, but it was also a grim reminder to hockey fans who have been starved from best-on-best play since 2016. Does the NHL have any plans to bring back the World Cup, or Olympic participation? What have been the hurdles to make it possible? TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun discuss this and more.
from Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic,
NHL star Evander Kane said in judicial papers filed last week that he wagered sometimes as often as 50 times a day, which is in large part why he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with liabilities topping $26 million.
Kane’s post-trial brief, in the lawsuit brought by his biggest creditor, Centennial Bank, laid out the player’s family background and tried to explain how that played a part in his spiraling debt in spite of overall career earnings that have reached $76 million.
“Kane was raised on the east side of Vancouver, which at the time was a lower-class area of the city,” the post-trial brief reads. “His mother Sheri was a stay-at-home mother when Kane and his sisters were growing up because they could not afford daycare.”
“Kane was drafted by his first team when he was seventeen years old, and he began playing professional hockey straight out of high school at the age of eighteen,” his lawyers wrote in the post-trial brief, which the judge requested after the trial, which took place on Jan. 23 and 25. “He has never taken any college or college-level courses, nor any courses or training about accounting, money management, or business development (and the NHL does not provide any financial education to its players). Although Kane became a highly compensated athlete in his fourteen-year career, he was raised in a working-class family that never owned a home, struggled financially, and lived month-to-month.”
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NEW YORK, NY (March 21, 2023) – The National Hockey League (NHL) and its longstanding partner Fanatics, today announced a new 10-year agreement which, beginning with the 2024-25 season, will see Fanatics become the League’s authentic outfitter of on-ice uniforms and supplier of authentic jerseys at retail. The deal marks the next stage of the NHL’s partnership with Fanatics, which over the past two decades has evolved to include NHL e-commerce and retail operations, fan apparel and headwear, replica jerseys, licensed memorabilia, performance and training products, on-ice Stanley Cup® Champions apparel and headwear, and now official on-ice uniforms and authentic jerseys sold at retail.
from Daniel Ngor of The Hockey News,
If a team loses in overtime or a shootout, it’s a loss – end of story. And teams shouldn’t be rewarded with a point in the standings for losing a game.
Here are nine examples of how ludicrous the NHL standings and playoff seeding have been since the 2005-06 season when the league introduced the shootout format to break ties.
1. 2005-06 VANCOUVER CANUCKS & LOS ANGELES KINGS
Fresh out of the 2004-05 lockout, NHL hockey had returned. With its return, the NHL had a new format of settling games - the shootout. Like with the previous formats with ties, the shootout resulted in the losing team earning a point.
The 2005-06 Vancouver Canucks had eight overtime or shootout losses compared to the 13 the Edmonton Oilers had. The Canucks’ record that season was 42-32-8, and they finished with 92 points, which ranked ninth among Western Conference teams. The Los Angeles Kings finished 10th, also winning 42 games.
The Oilers, meanwhile, finished eighth in the conference with a record of 41-28-13 for 95 points. The Oilers embarked on a magical playoff run which ended in defeat to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup final. But they shouldn’t have qualified for the playoffs at all because the Canucks’ and Kings’ winning percentages (both .512) were better than the Oilers' (.500).
via Sportsnet's YouTube page,
On this edition of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek discuss the impending sale of the Ottawa Senators, The QMJHL's decision to ban fighting, the near- fight between Jordan Binnington and Marc-Andre Fleury, and more.
It is always a negotiation for the commissioner and never a collaboration. There is always a demand. As it now stands, the PA escrow debt to the league supposedly stands at around $100M. The commissioner, thus, is holding NHL general managers hostage for about $3M a team no owner would miss — and would be recouped the following season as per the MOU documenting terms of the extension.
-Larry Brooks of the New York Post where you can read more on this and other hockey topics..
from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,
Taking a couple days with family, but editor Rory Boylen won’t allow any rest or relaxation without some thoughts on the GM meetings. So here goes:
WE’RE GOING TO GET A QUICK LOOK AT NEW NHL/NHLPA DYNAMICS
Marty Walsh officially begins next week as NHLPA Executive Director, and we’ve already got something to ask him. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indicated that while the players’ COVID escrow debt is being paid off faster than expected, it probably won’t be eradicated by the time the 2023-24 cap number needs to be set.
So, we’re looking at a $1M raise, instead of, maybe, $4.5M.
“It could be a discussion,” Bettman said Wednesday. “We’re hearing around the bend from players and others that there may be interest in having that, but one thing to keep in mind if we’re going to raise the cap and the escrow hasn’t been paid off, is then we’re going to have to look at raising the escrow rates…The two are inextricably tied together.”
“Others” is undoubtedly GMs and teams. We saw how constipated the league was until right before the trade deadline. Too many clubs squeezed tight to the cap. They crave flexibility like a thirsty person craves water. Anyway, this is true insight into what the Commissioner is thinking.
from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,
The answer, of course, is that there is no way to guarantee officials are perfect, and there’s not going to be a way, either now or down the road, to make them perfect. There will always be a degree of subjectivity in the interpretation of the rules, and that is not going to change.
This isn’t to say we can’t do better on the officiating front. This writer has advocated numerous times for the addition of a third referee in the NHL, one who would occupy an “eye-in-the-sky” position off the ice and could buzz in with a stoppage of play when they see some infraction the on-ice officials have missed.
Using a third referee would be a notable change, but people said there would be terrible difficulties when the NHL went from a single referee for games to two referees for games, beginning in the 1998-99 season. For the six decades years prior to that, only one referee was the norm and was what everyone was accustomed to. But fans, players, coaches and officials all adjusted, and we’d argue the game is better officiated now because of that change.
The same could and would happen with three referees. But even then, mistakes would be made, calls would be missed, and people in all cities would begrudge officials for “bias” against them. To the contrary – fans have to recognize the increased speed of the game makes it impossible for hockey referees to get everything right. And if there was a legitimate case to be made for referees having a bias against a player or team, the league would move very quickly to address the problem. But most officials are admirably professional in all their tasks.
from Kristen Shilton of ESPN,
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is confident as ever that the league is in a good place, with no plans to see it expand further in the immediate future.
"We're not in an expansion mode right now," said Bettman on Wednesday, after wrapping up the league's annual GM meetings. "There continues to be a number of people, entities and cities expressing interest in having an NHL franchise where they don't have one, places like Atlanta, like Houston, like Quebec City. But it's not really something, at least right now, that's anywhere close to the front burner for us."
Rumors have swirled about the NHL exploring new cities that might support a team. Atlanta in particular is a popular projection, partly based on its history with the league. The Atlanta Flames were there from 1972-80 before moving to Calgary, and the Thrashers lasted from 1999-2011, when the team relocated to Winnipeg.
NEW YORK (March 15, 2023) – The National Hockey League today announced key dates for the remainder of the 2022-23 season:
Monday, April 17
Start of 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Monday, May 8
2023 NHL Draft Lottery (7 p.m. ET, ESPN, SN, TVAS)
Saturday, June 3
Tentative start of 2023 Stanley Cup Final (TNT, SN, TVAS)
Sunday, June 4 – Saturday, June 10
2023 NHL Scouting Combine presented by adidas (Buffalo)
Monday, June 26
2023 NHL Awards (Bridgestone Arena)
Wednesday, June 28
Round 1 of 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft (7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, ESPN, SN, TVAS) (Bridgestone Arena)
Thursday, June 29
Rounds 2-7 of 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft (11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT, NHLN, SN, TVAS) (Bridgestone Arena)
real gamevia the YouTube page of the NHL,
The NHL partnered with Disney to produce the first ever NHL Big City Green Classic featuring the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers.
The real NHL game highlights are below, NYR defeated the Caps 5-3.
from Dan Rosen of the NHL website,
The NHL general managers concluded Tuesday that it's best to continue to study and gather information before acting on any of the main topics they discussed in breakout groups Monday, the first day of their annual meetings. In particular, those include adding video review for high-sticking minors and delay of game penalties, but they will also hold off on changing the policing of fighting after clean hits.
"The expression we often use is the possible unintended consequences," Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said. "We're going to keep thinking about it and try to anticipate everything."
The 32 GMs separated into four groups of eight Monday. They convened in a large group setting Tuesday to go over their discussions and findings.
The feeling on video review is that it's a work in progress because, though the technology exists to aide in the accuracy of a call, there is no consensus on the implementation of the review process for penalties such as high-sticking minors and pucks over the glass.
For example, the NHL already allows the officials, at their discretion, to review their own calls on high-sticking double minors and is happy with how that process is working. NHL director of officiating Stephen Walkom said there have been about 100 such penalties this season, of which 35-40 percent have been reviewed by the officials.
But there are nearly eight times more high-sticking minor penalties than double minors through the course of a season, so the worry is that expanding video review to allow the minor penalties to be looked at will kill momentum and lengthen games.
"We could have 750 high sticks this year, and we certainly don't want to be checking every one," Walkom said. "That's a lot bigger issue."
from Greg Wyshynski of ESPN,
For years, the NHL tried to figure out how to collect real-time data during games using technology. The 1990s saw the much-derided FoxTrax "glow puck," in which an array of infrared emitters and electronics were placed inside the puck. The NHL started seriously exploring puck and player tracking again in 2014, although its cost and some quality control problems with the pucks created growing pains.
The latest incarnation -- dubbed NHL Edge and powered by SMT -- has been the most successful version of puck and player tracking for the league. It collects data through sensors on player uniforms and inside the puck itself. There's also an optical tracking component that validates that data "within a few milliseconds," Lehanski said.
The data goes beyond player and puck location. The sensors measure speed and distance for skaters and on their shots, among other data points.
Now that it had a tracking system it was confident in, the NHL started chasing the big ideas it had for that data. For example, using real-time puck and player tracking to recreate a hockey game in a virtual 3D environment, with animated players and camera angles that couldn't be accomplished in the real world.
That was something a Netherlands-based company called Beyond Sports was already doing for professional soccer matches. The NHL partnered with the firm and began showing demonstrations of virtual hockey games, which could be viewed on screens or using VR goggles. The players were big and blocky. The action was slower than in an actual game. But the potential for the technology was obvious, and it has only been refined since then.
more, note the first part of the article is about the animated game tonight...
from Jesse Granger and Michael Russo of The Athletic,
Goalies in general seem to be dislodging nets often this season, and the league is taking notice. The NHL Situation Room in Toronto has been keeping a close eye on the matter, clipping video of every time it occurs as part of a presentation to the general managers at this week’s meetings in Manalapan, Fla. Earlier this winter, the league also planned to conduct a series of tests to determine the force it takes to knock its nets off the moorings and if they could make changes to the way to the way nets and pegs are made, or the way nets are installed into the ice in order to better secure them. The hope was for this data to be presented this week in Florida.
After conversations with several top goalies, most believe the biggest reason for net dislodging isn’t necessarily the moorings themselves, but more so an incorrect installation.
“Sometimes, when the net comes off once, there’s a lot of snow that goes into the hole,” Predators goalie Juuse Saros said. “If the refs don’t clear the hole, then the peg doesn’t go deep enough. I feel like that’s usually the problem, so they need to remember to take the snow out.”
The NHL has used the Marsh Peg design to hold its nets in place since 1991. The plastic anchors were originally 1 5/8 inches long, but in 2002, the league increased them to 1 7/8 inches. They sit in drilled holes in the ice, but can become less effective if they are not sitting at the correct depth. This provides a possible explanation for why some goalies will go weeks without dislodging a net once, then have it happen multiple times in a single game.
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from Michael Russo and Sean Gentile of The Athletic,
An expansion of the NHL coach’s challenge system to include reviews of same-team high-stick penalties and incorrect “puck over glass” calls was discussed on Day 1 of the league’s general manager meetings, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.
The league’s most recent tweaks to the system came before the 2019-20 season, most notably attaching a two-minute delay of game minor to a failed challenge of any sort, rather than simply a missed offside.
Now, according to Daly, another expansion is “a possibility” based on how the rest of the meetings unfold.
The league’s approach to fights that take place after clean hits was also discussed in a series of breakout sessions, Daly said, adding that the topic is likely to come up again over the next two days.
Player safety
The league would like to make skate cut-protective equipment on wrists and legs mandatory.
“We want to get to a situation where there’s some kind of mandate to use it,” Daly said.
continued ($) with more topics...
via the YouTube page of Sportsnet,
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman share their thoughts on the potential for the NHL to crack down on some of the fighting rules.