Articles in NHL Teams

from Mark Madden of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

If the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have a good, hard think about doing what’s needed instead of what they prefer, they could be buried by Thanksgiving. No playoffs for the first time since 2006.

The Penguins are too old, not fast enough and not good enough to play a high-octane blitzkrieg attack style for 60 minutes vs. every foe every night. It’s not 2017.

The blown leads confirm that. So do the turnovers. So does the general sloppiness. The list of problems is lengthy. The stench is overwhelming.

Indulge ego, go splat. That’s what’s happening.

It’s not an arrogant form of ego. The Penguins, particularly their coach and core, sincerely believe they can operate as they always have. They’re convinced, not conceited.

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* In front of a sellout crowd in their home country, Mikko Rantanen netted a hat trick and Patrik Laine posted a multi-point game as the Avalanche claimed victory in the first of two contests in Finland for the 2022 NHL Global Series. Colorado and Columbus will face off in the final match today.

* Sebastian Aho posted a four-point performance, including his fifth career hat trick, to help the Hurricanes defeat the Sabres and earn their fourth consecutive comeback victory.

* Connor McDavid will look to join a short list of active players to reach the 25-point mark in 12 or fewer contests in a season as the Oilers face off against the Stars on a 14-game Saturday.

On the other hand, it’s starting to feel as if a lot of McDavid’s big nights are getting lost in the shuffle, as if there’s one standard expected of him and a separate lower standard for the rest of the league.

-Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic. Much more ($) on McDavid, a look at Erik Karlsson and other topics.

from Ryan S. Clark of ESPN,

Mitchell Miller, a prospect whose draft rights were relinquished after it publicly surfaced that he and a classmate were convicted of assaulting and bullying a developmentally disabled classmate, signed an entry-level contract Friday with the Boston Bruins.

The 20-year-old defenseman was a fourth-round selection of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020. Shortly after he was drafted, however, a report by the Arizona Republic detailed how Miller and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 of racially abusing and bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, who is Black.

In the report, Meyer-Crothers' mother alleged that Miller started abusing her son in second grade while also using repeated racial epithets.

"When I was in eighth grade, I made an extremely poor decision and acted very immaturely," Miller said in a statement released by the Bruins on Friday. "I bullied one of my classmates. I deeply regret the incident and have apologized to the individual. Since the incident, I have come to better understand the far-reaching consequences of my actions that I failed to recognize and understand nearly seven years ago."

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via the NHL PR department,

The Hockey Hall of Fame will celebrate its Class of 2022 during Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Weekend from Nov. 11-13, followed by the official induction ceremony in Toronto on Monday, Nov. 14. This year’s list of Honored Members includes Daniel Alfredsson, Roberto Luongo, Riikka Sallinen, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin in the player’s category, while the late Herb Carnegie will be inducted as a builder.

Almost 22 minutes to watch.

from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,

There were moments before the surging Kraken opened the scoring floodgates here Thursday night when goaltender Martin Jones was the only thing standing between them and a second-period deficit.

And then, after second period goals by Morgan Geekie, Jamie Oleksiak and Alex Wennberg stunned the home crowd at Xcel Energy Center arena, it would be Jones coming through again with two huge stops late in the frame to keep his team’s sizable lead heading to intermission. That lead stood up from there and Wennberg added his second of the night in the third period of a 4-0 win over the Minnesota Wild for a Kraken team that’s now captured three straight and four of five.

“Momentum’s obviously a big part of games and to be able to go in with a three-goal lead and then come out and really shut them down for the first five or six minutes of the (third) period was really good,” Jones said afterward.

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Watch the game highlights below.

Many of you know Gordie Howe is the only idol I have had. No other athletes, no public figures. no one in Hollywood. Just Gordie.

As a kid I must have collected his autograph over 300 times, so much so he knew my first name and kidded with me on numerous occasions.

Thursday night Alex Ovechkin met Mark Howe, son of Gordie and a Hockey Hall of Fame member himself, for the first time.

Ovechkin showed respect with a little head bow towards Mark Howe, who showed his respect with a few shoulder and arm taps.

Those little gestures settled my soul and now I too can wish Alex Ovechkin all the best as he chases down the number two goal scorer in history. But until Ovechkin gives me an elbow to the ribs or takes my pen for the 10th time, Gordie Howe remains alone at the top of my pedestal.

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

On the night they put the steady, consistent Lee Fogolin, and the persistent, tenacious Ryan Smyth into the Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame, it was the New Jersey Devils who used all of the above to take home the two points.

The speedy, entertaining and opportunistic Devils scored twice in seven seconds and three times in the third period, erasing a 3-1 Oilers lead and snapping Edmonton’s five-game winning streak like an old wooden Koho on a cold Alberta day.

“I definitely feel we should have won. I definitely feel like we created enough chances,” said Connor McDavid, who scored his 12th goal in Game 11 and added a helper for his 24th point. “We probably gave up too many chances, but I thought (goalie Stuart Skinner) gave us a great chance to win.

“You have a team on the ropes… and you’ve got to put them down. You have to find a way to close that one out.”

In the grand scheme, this 4-3 loss will provide a touchpoint for third-period leads down the road. In the short term, it was simply a case of a Devils team that has found itself, reeling off its fifth straight win in impressive fashion.

They fell behind Edmonton 3-1 after two periods, and the Oilers had laid claim to this game. But the Devils are into the details, and they took this game back with a smart, structured and sneaky game plan — including the game-winner off a nice set play that caught Edmonton sleeping.

continued and the game highlights are below...

via the YouTube page of the NHL

Check out all the goals scored on Thursday November 3rd, 2022, including a bizarre goal from Claude Giroux, 2 goals in 7 seconds for the win by the Devils, Andrei Kuzmenko’s 1st NHL hat trick and more from a jam packed Thursday night.

* Elias Pettersson pocketed the third five-point game of his NHL career as Vancouver vanquished Anaheim at Rogers Arena.

* Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring at Little Caesars Arena and tied the NHL record for most goals with a single franchise.

* Friday’s two-game slate opens with the Blue Jackets and Avalanche contesting the first half of their 2022 NHL Global Series back-to-back at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland.

from Shawn P. Roarke of NHL.com,

Patrik Laine's presence is everywhere in this city.

The Columbus Blue Jackets forward is being used heavily to promote the 2022 NHL Global Series against the Colorado Avalanche, his face all over billboards and television.

Walk into almost any bar in the city and there will be a Laine jersey, often signed, hanging on the wall, be it a Blue Jackets jersey or one from the Winnipeg Jets, his first NHL team. Some bars even have the blue-and-orange jersey from Tappara, the team in Liiga, the top professional league in Finland, that Laine played for before heading to the NHL.

Go to perhaps the most famous wing place in the city, Hook Restaurant, and there is Laine on the menu with Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, his co-creator of the hat-trick, a dish that includes 33 chicken wings and waffle fries.

"Not everyone has a dish named for them," Laine said with a laugh.

There have been a lot of laughs this week for the 24-year-old, who is reveling in the opportunity to be in his home country during the NHL regular season, a rarity since he was selected by the Jets with the No. 2 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft.

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15 saves in just over 5 minutes.

* John Tavares scored a hat trick as the Maple Leafs erased a one-goal deficit, marking the first time in franchise history that the club’s first five wins of a season have been in come-from-behind fashion.

* Victor Olofsson, Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each posted a multi-point performance as the Sabres scored five goals in the third period of a game for the first time in nearly seven years.

* The Bruins (9-1-0, 18 points) and Golden Knights (9-2-0, 18 points) will both take to the ice as part of a 13-game Thursday with hopes of becoming the first teams to collect 10 wins in 2022-23.

from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

As Penguins players funneled out of the cramped visitors’ dressing room here, chucking equipment bags onto a cart without anyone uttering a single syllable, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin sat a few feet from one another, heads down, their frustration not hard to detect.

“It’s not easy,” Malkin said. “It’s a tough situation.”

“It’s not a great feeling,” Crosby continued. “We have to find a way to get out of it.”

The escape plan for the Penguins’ current funk could take on any number of forms and might soon require a heavy equipment operator, but at this point it’s impossible to ignore that there’s a large hole developing after what transpired at KeyBank Center, the Penguins blowing another third-period lead and suffering a 6-3 loss to the Sabres.

It extended Pittsburgh’s losing streak to six, something that has happened only one other time in the Mike Sullivan Era (Feb. 20-29, 2020). Furthermore, it’s the third time the Penguins have lost when leading after two periods in the past 17 days, already matching their total from the 2021-22 season. It’s the third time a Sullivan-coached team coughed up five-plus goals in the third period.

continued and watch the highlights below...

7 minutes and 15 ticks of your time.

from Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News,

Going back to last season, Dahlin’s return to form has been a pleasure to watch. He regained confidence as a puck carrier and worries much less about what he has to do to make up for a mistake. Dahlin is comfortable understanding there will be far more highs than lows if he pushes the pace and attacks every play as if the next goal is the only one that matters.

Dahlin began to use his skating and physical tools in a more cohesive nature. He pairs his mobility and on-ice vision on the breakout to move the puck up ice. The Sabres' top defender cuts through traffic in the neutral zone with his puck skills and identifies skating lanes in transition to gain clean entries into the offensive zone. Once there, he becomes a rover, manipulating defenders high in the zone and making plays with his feet, hands, and offensive mind.

His defensive play has improved by proxy as well. With the confidence to make plays and use his tools, he’s more effective at preventing goals because he has the puck more often. The best defense in the modern NHL is a good offense. You can’t be scored on if the puck is on your stick.

Playing confidently has also helped his ability to actually defend in-zone as well. Using his speed as well as his 6-foot-3 frame has allowed him to cut off cycles effectively and wrestle the puck off opponents along the wall. He’s become a bit more consistent at clearing the net front and he has continued to excel at staying in front of opposing attackers in space.

more

from Eric Francis of Sportsnet,

He dropped the gloves to get his team back into the game, he scored the Calgary Flames' opening goal and he was involved in a pair of defensive lapses that led to their undoing.

No one was better positioned to assess the Flames’ third-period collapse than Nikita Zadorov.

“We’re not a young group of players,” said the hulking defenceman following his club’s second consecutive third-period letdown on Tuesday.

“We’re definitely one of the oldest and experienced teams in the league, and it’s definitely unacceptable for us. It can happen to young teams, but it cannot happen to us. It’s definitely on all of us. We made individual mental mistakes in crucial minutes and it cost us the game.”

It’s one thing to blow a one-goal lead in the final 10 minutes against Connor McDavid, like his team did Saturday.

It’s quite another to do it against a Seattle club that trailed 4-2 with 11 minutes left, only to surrender three goals in a five-minute spree that gave the Kraken their franchise’s first winning record.

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Below are the game highlights.

via the YouTube page of the NHL,

Check out all the NHL goals scored on Tuesday November 1st, 2022, including a multi-goal game for Connor McDavid, who now has 11 goals in 10 games, Erik Karlsson's 1st career hat trick, a Bruins comeback and more from a busy Tuesday night.

* Erik Karlsson and Evander Kane scored hat tricks Tuesday, while Nikita Kucherov joined rare NHL company as the Lightning overcame deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 to stun the Senators.

* The Bruins scored four unanswered goals to march past the Penguins in their final head-to-head game before squaring off outdoors in the 2023 Discover NHL Winter Classic.

* The 2022 NHL Global Series Interactive Information Guide is now available to download for registered users via the League’s Media site. The Avalanche and Blue Jackets contest the first half of their back-to-back set at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland, on Friday.

from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Sportico confirmed Tuesday what a lot of us suspected, that the Ottawa Senators are preparing for a sale.

The NHL has tiptoed around this inevitability since Eugene Melnyk died last March — both out of sensitivity to his daughters and the practicality of the situation. Sportico valued the team at $655M, but that’s a lowball....

- St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong played human shield for his team on Tuesday, giving them a day off from annoying reporters after five straight losses. “It's 10 per cent of the season, so I don't want to overreact, but we certainly can't underreact too,” he said. One of the first things he did was back coach Craig Berube. That’s relevant because Armstrong waited a little longer than many of his peers would before extending Berube last season.

“I told the players the coach is not going anywhere because he came from the American Hockey League where he coached young players and made them better, and he coached veteran players and made them win here. So he can do both.”...

- I don’t believe Toronto’s brain trust is in any rush to make a coaching change, and the preference is not to. Sheldon Keefe and Mike Babcock are making around $7M this season, but it goes beyond the finances. There is recognition, however, that if things don’t get back on track, decisions could get made for them.

The team is 75 per cent owned by telecoms, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in eight years of working at one, it’s that they don’t like people to be comfortable when things aren’t going well. Wayne Simmonds going down to AHL Toronto to make room for Pontus Holmberg screams like some kind of paper move, because if Simmonds was going to the AHL for any length of time, it would be a much bigger story. We’ll see what comes out of it.

more on the first two topics plus other Thoughts...

via Elliotte Friedman tweet,

Still branded as 32 Thoughts, but this time it's 23. Aiming for shorter bursts twice per week. Hope it's acceptable to the audience:

from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,

A new report from Sportico ranking the valuations of every NHL team made one thing perfectly clear: it’s never been a better time to be an NHL team owner. Franchise values surged so that the average franchise is reportedly up nine percent and pegged at a combined total of $32.4 billion. That’s not chump change. That’s a success. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has done very well for the owners who employ him.

Indeed, if we take a closer look at the financial mechanisms in place for the NHL, we see why Bettman and team owners so willingly agreed to an extension of the collective bargaining agreement in 2020. Owners are making money hand over fist, while players’ salaries have, in some regards, flatlined. As owners have watched team values soar, many players’ paydays have hit a ceiling. Bettman’s hard salary cap has worked as intended, and players’ leverage has disappeared prior to, and under the reign of NHL Players’ Association boss Don Fehr. There are a few options the players have to try and regain some leverage, and the one that does exist is not a half-measure. We’ll get into that in a handful of paragraphs from now. But let’s get back to Sportico’s appraisal of NHL teams.

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The TSN Hockey Insiders discuss the Senators exploring a sale of the team, whether there's a feud between Mitch Marner and Sheldon Keefe, when we are likely to see Barry Trotz behind a bench again, and more

Watch at TSN

NEW YORK (Nov. 1, 2022) – Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid, Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak and New York Rangers left wing Artemi Panarin have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the month of October.