Articles in NHL Teams

With the win, he moved past Patrick Roy and is now in second place for career wins.

He won't catch Martin Brodeur at #691.

TORONTO/NEW YORK (Jan. 15, 2024) – The National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today that forward Valeri Nichushkin of the Colorado Avalanche will be unavailable to his Club for an indefinite period while he receives care from the Player Assistance Program of the NHLPA and NHL.

Under the terms of the joint program, he will return to the Club when cleared for on-ice competition by the program administrators.

NEW YORK (Jan. 15, 2024) – Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson, Calgary Flames center Blake Coleman and Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending Jan. 14.

Team sport isn’t about individuals. It isn’t about contracts. It isn’t about trophies and all-star team choices.

It’s about a group of players coming together, working together, playing a system, playing with structure, playing with intensity, working in cohesion with the coaching staff.

Right now, the Maple Leafs are none of those things.

-Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun where you can read more on the Leafs.

* The Red Wings staged their seventh third-period comeback win of the season – tied for the most among all teams – with the help of 2024 All-Star Alex DeBrincat and captain Dylan Larkin.

* Rangers forward Artemi Panarin and Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner both scored to reach milestones Sunday and became the fastest players in their respective franchise’s history to do so.

* The Kraken (9-0-0) will look to match the idle Oilers (10-0-0) for the longest winning streak in the NHL this season when they face off against the Penguins during Monday’s 10-game slate.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Another 12 goalies were signed to NHL contracts — including Ilya Samsonov post arbitration — before the Maple Leafs got around to finalizing their deal on Jones, some seven weeks after the free agency process began.

In all, it took some lost offers, missed opportunities, clarity on the condition of Matt Murray, and a touch of good fortune for the Leafs to sign Jones on Aug. 9 for the same money David Rittich signed for in Los Angeles as the first goalie reportedly signed for on July 1.

“We talked for a long time to get a deal done” said Brad Treliving, the Leafs general manager. “Our first reaction after signing him was — ‘great’. Our second reaction was ‘Can we get him through waivers in two months time?’

“It used to be you needed two goalies to get through a season. Now if you look around, you need three.”

Jones, the 29th goalie signed last summer in free agency, cleared waivers in October and has since become paramount for the Maple Leafs success. Playing behind a spotty defensive team, Jones ranks second in the NHL in goals against average and second in league save percentage....

“We were surprised he was available to be honest,” said Treliving. “Everybody has their own situation every year, they do the math, they look around, they see what’s available. It’s like playing musical chairs. You count how many seats there are available and there are only two per team.
“He told us at the beginning he would be competing for a spot on the Leafs.”

more and other notes on hockey

from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,

Team president Luc Robitaille declined to comment on the team’s state. But it’s clear that a promising start to their season has dissolved into a muddled middle. On Dec. 7, after a shutout win at Montreal, the Kings were 16-4-3. Since then, they’re 4-6-5.

“We’re at that point where the line [between] winning and losing is so fine,” coach Todd McLellan told reporters Thursday in Florida. “At the beginning of the year it came easily, now it’s really tough. But everybody, cliches that coaches use and reporters and players, that the adversity will help you later on, well, it’s never any fun when you’re in it, and that’s where the frustration comes from.

“But I like the fact that we are sticking with each other and we’re really digging in, trying to pull ourselves out. If it was going the other way, I’d be concerned.”

The turnaround has to come by efforts from everyone. That includes renewed energy from a fourth line that once was the team’s spark plug, more assertiveness and scoring from $68-million-dollar man Pierre-Luc Dubois, offensive contributions from a defense corps that can and should be supporting the attack, and better decisions from McLellan too.

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* Saturday will be packed with announcements for the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend, including the unveiling of the 12 additional players selected via fan vote across ABC/ESPN+ (during first intermission of the Rangers-Capitals game at 1 p.m. ET) and Sportsnet, NHL Network and TVA Sports (during pre-game shows before 7 p.m. ET games).

* The second 16-game day of the season (third in League history) begins with the first ABC telecast of the season (simulcast on ESPN+) and will see the 2023-24 regular-season schedule reach the halfway mark (with the NJD-FLA game) before a four-game Hockey Night in Canada slate. Click here for #NHLStats ahead of the halfway mark.

* Friday’s games saw the Flyers and Predators improve their playoff positioning with wins, setting the stage for a jam-packed Saturday that will include all 32 clubs – four of which are riding a winning streak of at least eight games.

via the NHL PR department,

After the League’s two newest franchises ushered in 2024 outdoors following a calendar year to remember, the #NHLStats team is delivering another look at storylines entering the second half of the 2023-24 regular season which will hit Saturday when the Devils and Panthers contest the NHL’s 656th game. All stats below are entering play Friday, Jan. 12 (through 650 GP).

* For the first time in NHL history, four teams are simultaneously riding an active win streak of eight-plus games after the Panthers, Oilers, Jets and Kraken all earned wins Thursday.

* Elias Pettersson and Mathew Barzal both scored a game winner after posting four-point outings. The Canucks and Islanders were two of six teams to record an overtime win Thursday, marking the third day in NHL history to feature six games decided in overtime (also 6 on April 13, 2023 & Feb. 7, 2019).

* Jordan Kyrou and Yegor Sharangovich each scored a hat trick to add to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation, helping both the Blues (21-18-1, 43 points) and Flames (19-18-5, 43 points) move within two points of a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

* NHL Central Scouting will release its mid-season rankings for the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft today at 11 a.m. ET. Full rankings will be available on NHL.com.

Sam Reinhart with his 30th goal is also the OT winner with less than two clicks on the clock.

Game highlights of the Panthers 3-2 win over the LA Kings can be found below.

6 1/2 minutes to watch.

* NHL players from 26 clubs will have one more chance to make their case for the 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend (Feb. 1-3 in Toronto), with the fan vote open until 11:59:59 p.m. ET tonight and voting leaderWilliam Nylander looking to secure his spot via a strong performance on ESPN (7 p.m. ET at NYI).

* Avalanche forward NathanMacKinnon, set to appear in the NHL All-Star Game for the fifth time, tied a franchise record first set by JoeSakic while also matching WayneGretzky and PhilEsposito on another NHL list.

* Jason Robertson collected his 15th goal of the season to help the Stars close in on the Jets in the Central Division standings, while the Flyers staged a multi-goal comeback to win as they continue their playoff push and tune up for the 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series (Feb. 17).

From week 13 in the NHL.

from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

The Blues hope to avoid such a years-long downturn. As they build around Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Jake Neighbours, Scott Perunovich and Joel Hofer, reestablishing a more determined identity will be paramount.

The Blues lost it under coach Mike Yeo. They regained it under successor Craig Berube and made their improbable run to the Stanley Cup. But they lost it again last season, dooming Berube to his recent dismissal.

Now interim coach Drew Bannister is trying to restore it on the fly during this season. He has many proud veterans to help with the process, with some who have won big here (captain Brayden Schenn, Jordan Binnington, Colton Parayko, Oskar Sundqvist) and elsewhere (Brandon Saad, Nick Leddy, Torey Krug).

If the Blues can lay a strong foundation during the months ahead, they could build something substantial as more young talent arrives.

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from Chris Johnston of The Athletic,

The teetering relic of a once-proud organization is half a season down and still a long way from port.

Losers of 12 straight, all in regulation, the San Jose Sharks appear in danger of capsizing entirely.

“We’re in one right now,” conceded Sharks coach David Quinn after Tuesday’s 7-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which by his estimation was the worst of the 32 defeats they’ve endured already this season.

How does this get better? What does better even look like?

The Sharks haven’t even started shedding every possible asset ahead of the March 8 trade deadline and just hit the halfway point on pace for a 42-point campaign — a total already eclipsed by two-thirds of the NHL’s teams!

They have played at the level of a 1990s-era expansion squad, which is nearly impossible to do in a league that’s since started handing out loser points like Halloween candy and seen the introduction of a salary cap to flatten the competitive gap in the name of parity.

continued ($)

via the YouTube page of the NHL Network,

The biggest blockbuster of the season so far went down between the Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers. NHL Now brought in Elliotte Friedman to talk about the trade.

via the NHL's YouTube page,

The holiday season may be over, but there's still weird to give out including the strangest goals of the year, Buoy and Biz going at it and the next chapter of the Sebastian Aho saga!

20 minutes to watch.

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

You could say this has been a long time coming, but this type of deficient performance has been a recurring theme for the last five weeks in which the Rangers have won eight of their last 16 (8-7-1) while losing by three or more goals five times.

So this 6-3 defeat Monday night at the Garden to a Canucks team that is the highest-scoring team in the league overall and at five-on-five while boasting the NHL’s best goal-differential at plus-53 was not a singular event for the squad that has gone 4-4-1 over the last nine contests and have seen its puffy playoff cushion slowly deflate.

There were too many turnovers in key areas — again. There were too many poor decisions with and without the puck — again. There were too many mistakes positionally — again. There were too many Grade A opportunities with which Igor Shesterkin was forced to contend — again.

Defensive-zone coverage and defensive play was reminiscent of the bad old days when Dave Karpa, Igor Ulanov manned the blue line. Well, maybe not that bad. On third thought, yes, maybe it was on this night on which Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoglander scored circus goals 1:14 apart late in the second period after the Blueshirts had come within 3-2.

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* Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson joined J.T. Miller as the second and third Canucks players to reach the 50-point mark this season while the captain also put his name on an exclusive all-time NHL list among defensemen.

* Nathan MacKinnon extended his season-opening home point streak to 22 games as the Avalanche earned their League-leading 17th home win of the season.

* Connor McDavid and the Oilers put their seven-game win streak to the test during a 10-game Tuesday with a contest nationally broadcast in both the U.S. (ESPN+, HULU) and Canada (SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS-D).

from Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet,

- Have we reached the point where the Winnipeg Jets are the story of the season yet? Manitoba’s boys notched two more wins on the weekend, dumping the Ducks 3-1 in Anaheim on Friday and blasting Arizona 6-2 in the desert 48 hours later. Winnipeg has now ripped off six straight victories and hasn’t lost in regulation since losing 2-1 in San Jose on Dec. 12 in its first game after elite sniper Kyle Connor was sidelined long-term with a knee injury.

The Jets have not surrendered three goals in 60 minutes since the last day of November, a stretch of 17 contests. Since Dec. 1, Winnipeg has an .882 points percentage (first in the league), allowed 1.76 goals-per-game (first) and scored 3.53 (sixth). In terms of individuals in that timespan, backup Laurent Brossoit — who got the W Friday — is first in save percentage (.952) among tenders with five games, while top man Connor Hellebuyck is third (.935). Up front, Nikolaj Ehlers — who scored in both weekend wins — is setting the pace with 20 points in 17 outings, while Gabe Vilardi, Vlad Namestnikov and Nino Niederreiter have all stepped up in Connor’s absence.

- Sticking with the hot hands, Carolina lost 2-1 in a shootout to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, but has now picked up at least a point in 12 of its past 13 outings to climb from outside the playoff picture to second in the Metro. The Panthers, meanwhile, continue to build on their Cup final appearance with a stellar season. Florida won a wild one in Colorado on Saturday, leaving Denver with an 8-4 victory for its seventh straight win. The Cats are currently just two points back of Boston for top spot in the Atlantic.

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