Articles in NHL Teams

from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,

There’s a resoluteness to Ducks coach Greg Cronin that has rubbed off on his players and made them believers in him and in themselves.

It’s early in the season, as he frequently says, but his influence was evident Sunday in the Ducks’ impressive 4-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights at Honda Center, another jewel in a shiny six-game winning streak built on gutsy comebacks against some of the NHL’s premier teams.

Maybe Cronin’s patience comes from having toiled for so long in the minor leagues, in college rinks and as an NHL assistant coach, a journey that didn’t bring him an NHL head coaching job until he was 60. Maybe his firmness comes from his instincts to be a teacher and to be fair, to not play favorites and stick to his principles when he easily could give in to superstars who have greater job security than most coaches do.

When creative young forward Trevor Zegras played shoddy defense in a game at Columbus last month, Cronin didn’t hesitate to bench him for the third period. When dynamic center Mason McTavish made a bad decision during four-on-four play Sunday that gave Vegas an outnumbered rush, Cronin made sure McTavish — a cornerstone of Ducks’ future — knew he had goofed.

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from Mark Madden of t5he Pittsburgh Penguin Review,

When the Penguins kept the core three together, it guaranteed the Penguins would ultimately go splat.

A few disclaimers:

• Trading Evgeni Malkin in, say, 2018 for the huge return he would have fetched would have been no guarantee that the Penguins wouldn’t go splat. But it would have provided a legitimate chance to rebuild around Sidney Crosby and maybe win again.

• The Penguins may not be going splat just yet, though warning signs are plentiful. It is, however, 100% inevitable.

• The Penguins won’t avoid going splat, however temporarily, via changing their on-ice method. They refuse to do that. They will play fast despite getting slow. (Barring a coaching change.)

• Going splat is no insult to your precious fandom. No team wins forever. The Penguins were legit threats to win the Stanley Cup every year between 2008-18, doing so three times and making another final. Be grateful.

read on

NEW YORK (Nov. 6, 2023) – Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, Los Angeles Kings goaltender Cam Talbot and Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending Nov. 5.

* The Ducks rallied from a multi-goal, third-period deficit to hand the Golden Knights their first regulation loss of the season and did so just 10 days after serving the Bruins their first defeat.

* Vitek Vanecek earned his 80th career win with a 32-save performance, including an save-of-the-year candidate, against the Blackhawks.

* A four-game Monday features a doubleheader on Sportsnet and TVA Sports as the Maple Leafs host the Lightning while the Canucks eye their 50th goal of the season when they host the Oilers.

from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

This in from former NHL referee Tim Peel, now a hockey commentator on the Snipes and Stripes podcast with former Blackhawks star Jeremy Roenick, his viral and provocative suggestion that the Edmonton Oilers should fire Jay Woodcroft and hire Joel Quenneville as coach.

Peel’s suggestion is, of course, setting hair on fire. It’s gone viral on social media, just as most wild-eyed things do. I’m not going to dig into Quenneville’s case, partly because I think his hiring is a non-starter in Edmonton, but mainly because I’m surprised to see fans and pundits so quickly abandon Jay Woodcroft.

Yes, the Oilers now have the second worst record in the NHL. But talk of axing Woodcroft has escalated rapidly? But to what end? What good will it do? Is it not far more prudent to allow a successful coach like Woodcroft and his successful players some time and space to work their way out of this? Ten more games at least?

We’re going to hear plenty such talk “Fire Woodcroft” in days to come, with plenty of names mentioned as possible replacements for Woodcroft. That talk will only end when Woodcroft gets this team winning again. But I expect that will happen.

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from Tracey Myers of the NHL's webssite,

Jack Hughes is week to week with an upper-body injury the New Jersey Devils forward sustained in the first period of a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday.

Hughes is in New Jersey with the Devils' medical staff and will not play against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; MSGSN, NHLN, NBCSCH, SN, TVAS).

The 22-year-old crashed shoulder first into the end boards at 9:56. He split two defenders and carried the puck into the slot before taking a shot that was stopped by Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. Hughes then lost his balance and slid into the boards.

He got up on his own and skated to the bench, then was part of a power play that began at 10:50 but soon left the ice for good. He missed the final 9:05 of the first and all the second period before New Jersey announced he would not return.

"Actually, I think we're fortunate," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "He came back, he tried a shift, we got him on his way home to be taken care of by people back in Jersey."

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Video of the injury is below.

Watch below.

update 6:50 pm,

NEW YORK (Nov. 5, 2023) – New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for high-sticking Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo during NHL Game No. 167 in New York on Saturday, Nov. 4, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 2:56 of the second period. Barzal was assessed a minor penalty for high-sticking.

The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

The consensus pick as the eventual Stanley Cup champion by predictors across the National Hockey League only a month ago, absolutely nobody saw what is unfolding here in Edmonton.

The Oilers lost again on Saturday, a dispirited, soft and defenceless 5-2 loss to Nashville, and sit at 2-7-1 after 10 games of the 2023-24 season.

A playoff miss is very much in the cards, and as such, everything is on the table in Edmonton. That includes firing head coach Jay Woodcroft, whose non-competitive, lackadaisical team looks exactly like the one that got Dave Tippett fired, and Todd McLellan before him.

“I thought we lost a lot of puck battles today. Didn't like seeing that,” assessed Woodcroft after the game. “We gave up a couple goals that were specifically right at the net. Not a good sign for us. That's an area that we have to control a lot better.”

Those two goals comprised two-thirds of a Ryan O’Reilly hat trick, as he twice out-muscled Edmonton’s top defenceman, Darnell Nurse. It was a metaphor for a team whose best players haven’t been their best players at all, and on Saturday, O’Reilly took Nurse to school.

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Game highlights are below.

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The concept of Ryan Reaves acting as either a deterrent or an avenger was once again exposed as one of the NHL’s greatest myths when No. 75 sat idly by when Toronto teammate Timothy Liljegren was injured by Brad Marchand’s patented can-opener move toward the end of the first period in Boston on Thursday.

Oh, there was some yapping toward the Boston captain from the bench in the wake of the unpenalized, reckless play that sent the defenseman crashing into the boards and onto the long-term injury list. That, however, represented the sum and substance of the Maple Leafs’ response that featured one-time Bruin rental and current Leafs winger Tyler Bertuzzi smirking or laughing at the end of the bench.

Imagine how Brendan Shanahan, among the handful of greatest and most menacing power forwards in the history of the league, would have reacted if Bertuzzi had been his teammate in that instance. If only the Maple Leafs had someone like Shanahan running the hockey operation.

Oh.

Five-point-five million dollars to Bertuzzi for what? Well, at least the 37-year-old Reaves is in at just $1.35 million per on the first season of a three-year deal that can be swallowed whole by the AHL allowance at any time.

Maybe Reaves does add a dollop of courage to more contact-adverse teammates. That’s what I’m always told by folks on teams who hire the winger. I have a hard time believing there is tangible impact to that. I think that is just what people say because it’s what people always say about players like that. Off his year-plus with the Rangers, Reaves is a huge, quite likable personality who adds charisma to the room but has little constructive impact on the game after the initial sugar rush of No. 75’s presence.

continued plus more topics,

Finally, bigger disappointment thus far, A) the Sabres who don’t seem to be prepared; or, B) the Flames, who don’t have Darryl Sutter to blame anymore?

Perhaps you would prefer to cast your vote for, C) the Wild, still a season away from Mats Zuccarello’s two-year extension kicking in.

via the YouTube page of the NHL,

We are off and running as October got off to a fast start with golden goals from Vegas, Cole Caufield showing off his amazing hand-eye, McDavid displaying his strong skating skills, Makar unleashing a wicked backhand and Tage Thompson showcasing his silky mitts!

from Steven Ellis of The Daily Faceoff,

Most teams have either hit, or are about to hit, the 10-game mark in the season. It’s still early days, but these seven NHLers coming off 50-plus point campaigns in 2022-23 need to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later:

Nazem Kadri, C (Calgary Flames)

Just about any Calgary Flame could qualify here, especially Jonathan Huberdeau. But Kadri has been even quieter, with just four points in 10 games. Three have come in the past two outings, so he’s finally starting to show a bit more. But he’s still on pace for 33 points, which would be the lowest full-season output of his NHL career. Expectations were surely lower than Huberdeau’s once he came over, but Kadri is making $7 million annually until 2029. After seeing a 31-point drop last year, and potentially even more this year, that will hurt.

Brent Burns, D (Carolina Hurricanes)

At 38, it was only a matter of time until Burns regressed. He had one of the best seasons of his career last year, putting up 18 goals and 61 points in a full 82-game slate. This year, he has four points in 11 games, which isn’t that bad for a defenseman on the surface. But three of them came in a row during the first four games of the year, and he’s been skate-bitten for the most part over the past two weeks. He’s on pace for just over 30 points, which would be a massive change for a player who hasn’t fallen below the 40-point mark in a full season since 2011-12.

more players

* Louie Belpedio scored the second of two Flyers tallies in the opening 1:31 to record the first goal of his NHL career, while Kevin Hayes had his first two markers since joining the Blues during the offseason.

* The second of four 15-game days of the season will take place today, with only the Ducks and Devils idle on the first Saturday of November. The action starts at 3 p.m. ET when Leon Draisaitl, ConnorMcDavid and the Oilers host Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg and the Predators. Edmonton has a 12-game point streak against Nashville, their longest active run against one club, with Draisaitl (22-12—34 in 12 GP) and McDavid (7-21—28 in 11 GP) combining for 62 points across those contests.

Why? Watch below.

from Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now,

The sample size is small, just nine games, but the Pittsburgh Penguins figure that’s enough time to assess what Erik Karlsson can give them.

“He is the player we thought we were getting,” coach Mike Sullivan said.

Well, to some extent, anyway.

Karlsson’s offensive output, two goals and four assists, isn’t bad, but that’s nowhere near the pace that would be required for him to match the 101 points he put up in San Jose last season, when he earned his third Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman....

“I think there’s another level to his game,” Sullivan said. “We’re going through a little bit of a feeling-out process, but (Karlsson) is a guy who can drive offense. He can drive offense 5-on-5. He can drive offense on the power play. That’s what we envisioned when we acquired him.

“We’re working through a process here to try to capture his very best game. … We all have seen elements of his ability to drive offense. We’re hoping we’ll get a little more consistency with that throughout the course of a 60-minute hockey game, but he’s a guy we’re excited about having and we have to figure out how to maximize his ability level.”

read on

from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

If you’re talking full 82-game seasons, not seasons shortened by pandemics or lockouts, then it’s been more than two decades since a team won fewer than 20 games. That was Atlanta back in 2001-02. The Thrashers had 19 wins. Colorado, in 2017, when they had that 48-point season and got Makar, had 22 wins. But San Jose, which remains winless in 10 games — 0-9-1 — has a chance to be historically bad. They have only 10 goals scored in 10 games. Their goals for/goals against differential is a minus-35. For the first handful of outings this season, their goaltending kept them in games on nights they were wildly outplayed. That’s not happening lately. The Sharks clearly miss Logan Couture’s leadership, but the problems run far deeper than that.

Without Couture, who has been out since the start of the season with an undisclosed lower-body injury, without Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier, they look rudderless. And arguably, their second most talented forward after Tomas Hertl, Alexander Barabanov, is out four-to-six weeks with a broken finger.

It’s too early to predict which team might finish atop the NHL standings, but it is not too early to assume the Sharks are going to settle into the basement, which would give them the greatest odds to win the 2024 draft lottery and draft Macklin Celebrini, the Boston University freshman, first overall next summer.

more ($) on the Sharks and discussion on the Senators, Flames and The Hughes Corporation...

from Roy MacGregor at the Globe and Mail,

Tuesday was trick or treat night, followed immediately by the Day of the Dead, the Aztec Dia de los Muertos, where all are to remember those who have passed.

It seemed, at times, as if Eugene Melnyk, the controversial, unpredictable owner of the Ottawa Senators who died in early 2022, might have somehow returned for a little trickery.

Certainly, Michael Andlauer seemed rather startled, if not quite spooked, when in a Wednesday news conference the exasperated new owner said, “In the last 10 days, we’ve had three losses, three injuries, a 41-game suspension, and the loss of a first-round pick.”

(Now four losses after losing 3-2 to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.)

Only last month, Andlauer, whose group paid some US$950-million for the franchise, was feeling nothing but love in Ottawa. He brought beloved former captain Daniel Alfredsson back into the organization. He brought back respected former team president Cyril Leeder. He even brought back Lyndon Slewidge, the retired police officer, to sing the anthem at the home opener, which the promising young team won.

But then came the losses, leaving the team with a 4-5-0 record, last in the Atlantic Division.

read on

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

Boy, oh boy. Could this have been a night to remember.

Sam Gagner — “Poppa Oiler” — rolled back into town and scored twice. Edmonton forged a wild comeback with 50 shots on goal. A victory at home, and the first back-to-back wins of the year.

What a story!

Instead, it was the same old story: a defensively derelict team made enough egregious errors to give up their usual four, and the Edmonton Oilers lost again — this time by a 4-3 count against the Dallas Stars.

“We just made too many boo-boos tonight. Again,” said Evander Kane, who continues to outplay Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl here in Edmonton. “Three of their goals are odd-man rushes, and they end up in the back of our net every time. We can’t expect to score four, five goals every night. It’s just not realistic.”

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Below are the game highlights.

* Quinn Hughes factored on five of 10 Canucks goals and matched a franchise record for points in a game by a defenseman as Vancouver skated to its highest-scoring contest in over 30 years.

* Another Hughes brother had a big night – Jack posted a multi-point performance for the Devils and maintained his spot atop the NHL in points. The 2023-24 season marked the first in NHL history where brothers led the League in points among all players and scoring by defensemen at this stage (outright or tied, through 156 GP).

* Jonathan Marchessault netted a hat trick to guide the Golden Knights to victory as they became one of three teams to extend their respective streaks Thursday. With every hat trick this season, AstraZeneca will donate $5,000 to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation up to $500,000. Click here for more information.

7 minutes worth of saves.

from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

One more note, on the surprising 6-2-1 Vancouver Canucks — one of the nice stories of the early season under new coach Rick Tocchet.

I reached out to a few of the head coaches who have faced them so far this season, and here’s what they had to say:

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, whose team lost 5-3 to the Canucks on Oct. 21: “I thought they had an incredibly consistent game that night. You know, we don’t see them enough. We only played them twice last year. We lost (Oct. 21), it was a tie game late — they had a two-goal lead and we tied it and then lost it late. You hate losing but I wasn’t overly upset with my team because I thought they (the Canucks) played a hell of a game.

“They were good. Very, very structured. They look like they’re all on the same page. They played a very consistent game for 60 minutes.”

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, 4-3 winners over Vancouver on Oct. 19: “Well-balanced team. High-end skill surrounded by workers. The goalie gives them confidence, and the coach gets the best out of them.”

more ($) plus talking with Phil Kessel...