Articles in NHL Teams

* The first full week of the season opens with a nine-game slate Monday, highlighted by Penguins captain Sidney Crosby looking to become the fifth player in NHL history to start a campaign with three consecutive three-point performances.

* Head coaches Jim Montgomery, Paul Maurice, Derek Lalonde and Peter DeBoer can all improve to 3-0-0 with their new clubs, while Rod Brind'Amour and the Hurricanes also look to extend their season-opening winning streak.

* Kraken forward Matty Beniers (4-9—13 in 13 GP), who has found the score sheet in 12 of 13 games since making his NHL debut on April 12, can join rare company by continuing his point-per-game pace.

from Michael Russo of The Athletic,

Two games into this ugly start to this campaign, scoring goals is the least of the Wild problems.

They are bleeding goals and can’t get a save from either of their goalies.

“You can’t expect to win games when you let in 14 goals in two games,” veteran Mats Zuccarello said Saturday after a 7-6 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, one game after the Wild gave up seven in a season-opening throttling by the New York Rangers. “Sometimes we play defense like we’re a fucking junior team.”

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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- This is why the Ottawa Senators basically gave Matt Murray to the Maple Leafs. They paid him to go away because they couldn’t trust him to be healthy. And the team and the coaching staff stopped believing in him. When that happens to any team you have no chance of success. Now Murray is a Leaf, and one game in he’s injured. And if you were wondering about him prior to the season, you have more reason to wonder now.

- If you add WHA goals to NHL goals, which hockey history has conveniently ignored, Gordie Howe is the all-time scoring leader with 975, 35 more than Wayne Gretzky. If you add the professional goals Alexander Ovechkin scored in Russia before coming to the NHL, he would be at 816 goals. Instead, right now, the official count is Gretzky at 894, Howe at 801, and Ovie at 780. Ovie will pass Howe midway through this season.

a few more hockey notes

* The Flames torched the Oilers with four goals in the opening 10:18 to earn a win in this season’s first edition of the “Battle of Alberta” – a game that featured stunning similarities to the opening matchup of their 2022 Second Round series.

* Kevin Fiala tallied three points against his former club to help the Kings outlast the Wild in a back-and-forth 13-goal affair – the highest-scoring contest of the season so far.

* Sidney Crosby recorded his second straight three-point outing to start the season while surpassing two Hall of Fame members on all-time lists in the process.

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

After a game in which he gave away the puck on a critical shorthanded goal against, then had it bounce over his stick on the opposition’s winning goal, J.T. Miller cut off a question about his level of frustration: “I've been on for all eight f------ goals. I'm pretty frustrated.”

Only three of those goals-against were on Sunday, when the Vancouver Canucks blew another multi-goal lead and lost 3-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers. But Miller has been on the ice for all eight goals surrendered in what is close to becoming another alarming start for his National Hockey League team.

In the Canucks’ season-opener Wednesday in Edmonton, Miller witnessed first-hand the five straight goals the Oilers poured in to win 5-3 after trailing 3-0.

Of course, the Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two of the best players on the planet. The Flyers do not. They don’t even have Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek anymore.

But just like on Wednesday, the Canuck power play surrendered a shorthanded, tying goal late in the second period before the home team won it late in the third. With a slow grounder trickling towards the Canucks’ goal, Miller saw the puck bounce over his blade in front of goalie Thatcher Demko, who was easily beaten by Travis Konecny when the Flyer surprised him by skating out from behind the net.

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The NHL viewing experience in 2022: You’re trying to follow the play, then this unwanted screensaver jolts away from the close-up and pans out to the whole sandwich. The word “IMPOSSIBLE” was painted in shouting capital letters in the rest of the available board space.

That’s as best I can describe one of the new virtual board ads, which are superimposed on the boards in each TV market’s broadcast. Those watching the Root Sports Seattle broadcast on Thursday, when the Kraken beat the Kings, might have seen the Impossible Burger ad; those watching the Los Angeles feed would have seen something else.

Watching NHL games these days, you think a little too much about a local-market power semiconductor company, which … sigh … is the point.

-Matt Porter of the Boston Globe where you can read more on this plus other topics like...

Mattias Samuelsson is the first NHLer to sign a seven-year, $30 million contract before scoring his first NHL goal. The pain-in-the-butt Sabres defenseman entered this season with all of 54 games on his ledger, but now will make some $4.3 million a year until he’s 30.

Quite a bet for Buffalo. If the cap really is going to rise by some $10 million in the next three years, as the league has estimated, and Samuelsson (son of Kjell Samuelsson) continues to hold down a top-four role next to Rasmus Dahlin, then that figure looks fine.

Other teams are making similar calls. The trend is for teams to sign their under-23 players — ones who aren’t at the Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, Adam Fox, or even Miro Heiskanen levels — to seven- and eight-year extensions as their rookie deals are expiring. In the last two seasons, Buffalo (Samuelsson, Tage Thompson), Carolina (Jesperi Kotkaniemi), Montreal (Nick Suzuki), New Jersey (Jack Hughes), Ottawa (Josh Norris, Tim Stutzle), and St. Louis (Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas) signed young talent through the bulk of their 20s.

* Mark Scheifele scored the Jets' first goal of the season for the fifth time in his career and became one of nine players in NHL history to score as many such goals with a single franchise.

* A trio of new faces lifted the Red Wings to a win in their season opener at Little Caesars Arena, including Elmer Soderblom who joined rare company with a game-winning goal in his NHL debut.

* The Blues will be the 32nd team to contest their season opener on the first 14-game Saturday of the 2022-23 season – a night that will feature a doubleheader of the ‘Battle of Ontario’ followed by the ‘Battle of Alberta’ nationally broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada.

Burnzie returns to San Jose.

from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

Anyone who believed that missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season might have dampened the spirit of those who support the Knights didn’t attend a home opener against Chicago on Thursday night before 18,467 at T-Mobile Arena.

They didn’t stand in line at a Gold Carpet arrival ceremony to gather autographs and pictures and high-fives from players.

They didn’t enjoy yet another pregame theatrical performance entitled, “Welcome to The Golden Age.” Where things like a new era, a new age, one with possibilities and beginning anew were major themes.

They didn’t hear that thunderous “Knight!” during the national anthem.

It’s not the worst thing. Demonstrating to fans that reaching the postseason is hardly ever assured. That in the world of professional sports, things like missing 500 man games to injury can really put a damper on those Stanley Cup hopes.

Upset the Knights missed out?

Yeah. Go cheer for Buffalo.

read on

from Jim Souhan of the StarTribune,

The Wild opened their season Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center by opening a clear path to their goal.

They wanted to remind everyone that they were a playoff team last year. They reminded everyone that they were a terrible playoff team last year.

One that dumped its second-leading scorer. One that is banking on the mystical factors known as "chemistry'' and "continuity'' and "sheer luck'' to be anywhere near as good this season as they were last year.

The final score: New York Rangers 7, Wild 3.

Call them the Minnesota "Wil.'' They left out the "D." So should we.

"Our D game was awful,'' Wild coach Dean Evason said.

The Rangers are a quality team. The Wild made them look like Gretzky's Oilers.

read on

Game highlights are below.

* The Rangers achieved a rare franchise feat with seven goals in their first road game of the 2022-23 campaign, while New York’s 2022 First Round opponent Pittsburgh raced to a 3-0 lead in the first 5:10 of its season-opening win Thursday.

* New Flames players Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar all found the score sheet in their team debut, while Mason Marchment and Wyatt Johnston combined for three goals during their first game in a Stars uniform.

* Kraken forward Matty Beniers, who made his League debut last April, continued the noteworthy start to his NHL career as Seattle improved to 1-0-1.

* Carolina opens its five-game road trip in San Jose on Friday, with new Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns set to face his former team for the first time since being traded by the Sharks during the offseason.

Jonathan Drouin was one of the Habs not in uniform in Montreal's home opening win over Toronto. When can we expect the centre to be back healthy and helping the Habs? After being placed on waivers, what's next for Wayne Simmonds? Which coaches are due up for extensions? TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger, Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston discuss this and more.

Watch at TSN and/or read the transcript from the segment.

from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

Welcome to NHL99, The Athletic’s countdown of the best 100 players in modern NHL history. We’re ranking 100 players but calling it 99 because we all know who’s No. 1 — it’s the 99 spots behind No. 99 we have to figure out. Every Monday through Saturday until February we’ll unveil new members of the list.

Lapointe is ranked No. 98 on The Athletic’s list of the top 100 players of the NHL’s post-1967 expansion era — likeable and popular off the ice, sometimes tremendously underrated on the ice, one of the NHL’s greatest all-time practical jokers, someone always trying to lighten the mood while playing for a series of demanding, all-business coaches.

On the ice, there’s almost always a pecking order to the Big Three and it usually goes Robinson, Savard and Lapointe. But in his autobiography, “Robinson for The Defence,” Robinson wrote of Lapointe: “In his heyday, a great defenseman — and not too far behind Bobby Orr. He rushed. He played the body. He blocked shots (and had two eye injuries to show for it). He was there in the heavy traffic and he had one of the best point shots in the game.

“Guy Lapointe simply did everything — and the people who compared him to (Brad) Park did him a disservice; he was better than Park because he could do more.”

In all, Lapointe won six Stanley Cup championships with the Canadiens and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993. In 884 NHL games, Lapointe recorded 171 goals and 451 assists for 622 points. He also produced 70 points in 123 career playoff games.

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via the Columbus Blue Jackets,

The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed winger Patrik Laine on Injured Reserve, club General Manager and Alternate Governor Jarmo Kekalainen announced today. He is expected to miss three-to-four weeks due to an elbow sprain suffered in Wednesday's game at Carolina.

Laine, 24, who scored the club's first goal of the season vs. the Hurricanes before suffering the injury, has recorded 177 goals and 151 assists for 328 points in 408 career games with the Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets since making his NHL debut in 2016-17. Last season, he scored at a point-per-game pace for the first time in his career as he tallied 26-30-56 and 24 penalty minutes in 56 outings.

NEW YORK (Oct. 13, 2022) – Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for interference against Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs during NHL Game No. 10 in Edmonton on Wednesday, Oct. 12, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 20:00 of the first period. Nurse was assessed a minor penalty for interference.

The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Watch the play below.

from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,

On the team-improvement front, general manager Ron Francis signed offensive-minded defenseman Justin Schultz and imported the new forwards partly to help Grubauer out. The thinking is that the longer the Kraken maintain offensive possession, the less time teams will have to test Grubauer.

Schultz also balances out a blue-line corps that skewed toward left-handed point shots and slower-moving, defense-first types.

The Kraken can roll out three balanced defensive pairings with nobody forced to play on their opposite-shooting side.

It looks great on paper. But paper isn’t where the Kraken play games. Though they could potentially compete with Vegas, Los Angeles and Vancouver for standings positioning beneath Pacific Division favorites Calgary and Edmonton, they can’t take several weeks to get going.

“The ‘compete level’ has been high,” Gourde said of training camp. “The intensity is high. It’s been super fun. And the new faces, the new additions have been working very hard.”

And that must continue beyond a winning preseason for the summertime fixes to flip results in the Kraken’s favor.

much more

Connor McDavid started the 2022-23 campaign with a bang, surpassing the 700-point mark after a four-point outing, recording the first hat trick of the season and leading his club to a three-goal comeback win.

* After raising their Stanley Cup banner into the rafters, the Avalanche improved the defending champions’ record in season openers to 60-26-16 (102 GP) in a contest that featured six power-play goals.

* For the second time in as many days and eighth time in NHL history, a season-opening game was decided by a go-ahead goal in the final 30 seconds of regulation as Josh Anderson capped a frenetic finish in the 20th all-time head-to-head season opener between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs.

* Thursday is set to feature several players debuting with new teams as well as a trio of teammates embarking on their 17th NHL season together.

Just over two minutes to watch.

Longer version is below

No I won't be doing this every game night, but I am in hockey mode so here we go.

The comment section belongs to you, have at it if you so desire.

Schedule for tonight is below.

from the Buffalo Sabres,

The Buffalo Sabres have signed coach Don Granato to a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Wednesday.

"Don's passion for the game and leadership skills have been on display since the moment we met," Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said. "He is someone who the players have a tremendous amount of respect for, and he dedicates himself to bettering each individual on the team.

"Don's mentality of 'earning it' resonates throughout the team - it is more than just a mindset, it is a driving force for our players and staff. I appreciate his thoughtfulness when it comes to developing our players and the open communication we are able to have about the team. I am happy to extend Don's contract, keeping him in Western New York for many years to come."

continued

from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,

When the members of Toronto’s NHL brain trust were asked to account for the sixth straight first-round playoff ouster of the Shana-plan era last spring, the rationalizations were many.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe said with a straight face that he was heartened the Maple Leafs got more “respect” in the handshake line than they had been afforded in other post-season defeats. If coming up with new explanations for the same old results isn’t easy, Keefe, at least, got points for creativity, if not credibility. Team president Brendan Shanahan insisted he was encouraged to see his team play with “fight.” General manager Kyle Dubas, meanwhile, said he was pleased the team faced the reality of another abrupt exit with less “excuse-making” than in previous years. If the overdog Leafs have never been lovable losers, at least they’re accountable ones.

Amid the stay-the-course rhetoric, in which Dubas insisted they were “proud of the progress” even though they’ve yet to make any actual hay in the post-season, the GM also tossed in an eyebrow-raising claim about his team.

“It is still a young group,” the general manager claimed.

That, of course, was the go-to rationalization of perennial defeat in Leafsland for a long while. When the Leafs gave the Capitals a first-round scare back in 2017 — even when they lost to Boston in Game 7s in 2018 and 2019 — it was easy enough to play the age card and assume inevitable maturation. It was easy enough to make the case that the Leafs were an ascendant team with an unlimited ceiling, and that the pileup of first-round outs would add up to teaching moments for eventual triumph.

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via the NHL PR department,

Based on opening-day rosters announced by the NHL, excluding Injured and/or Non-Roster players; Ages as of Oct. 7, 2022; Players listed by birth country

711– Number of players on official season-opening rosters.

290 – Number of Canadian players, the most of any country (40.8% of 711).

265 – Number of players age 25 or younger (37.3% of 711).

206 – Number of U.S. players (29.0%). In 2021-22, 324 U.S.-born players skated in at least one regular-season game – the most ever.

from Michael Russo of The Athletic,

Welcome to NHL99, The Athletic’s countdown of the best 100 players in modern NHL history. We’re ranking 100 players but calling it 99 because we all know who’s No. 1 — it’s the 99 spots behind No. 99 we have to figure out. Every Monday through Saturday until February we’ll unveil new members of the list.

VARENNES, Que. — The long driveway is filled to the brim with trucks. Landscapers are there, putting the finishing touches on the new house, and a dock is being put in on this refreshingly breezy July day about 40 minutes southwest of Montreal....

When the super-athletic, acrobatic eventual Hall of Famer and the man who kicks off The Athletic’s NHL99 project as the 100th-best player in the NHL’s modern era isn’t stopping pucks, winning games, playing practical jokes on his teammates, hanging with his wife and playing with his three children, this is a glimpse into his life.

On this day, hours before Fleury would decide to forgo free agency and re-sign with the Wild for two years, he is relaxed, downright hospitable and reflective about where he’s come from and what he thinks his NHL legacy will be.

When reminded about his three Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins, his five All-Star Game appearances, his Vezina and Jennings trophies and the fact that in NHL history only Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy have won more than his 520 regular-season and 92 playoff games, Fleury smiles, blushes and stares once more at the blue St. Lawrence River.

“It’s hard to believe,” he says. “It’s surreal. Those were my heroes.”

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