Hiya and welcome to everyone. After splitting a back to back against the Broons this past weekend, the Wings are hoping to extend the winning to two games in a row. They showed some character against the top team in the league with a win that was important to the team’s identity, confidence, and coaching as the season winds down.

The Wings are in “Music City” tonight to take on the Predators, a team that is big, young, and tough. Even if the Preds aren’t necessarily vying for a WC spot, expect lots of physical play. Because, Hockey….

It’s the Wings vs the Preds. The puck will drop around 8:00 PM and will be broadcast on Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). Also available on NHLPP/ESPN+ and BSSO.

It’s a Live Blog!

TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston join Gino Reda to discuss the biggest news and storylines at the GM meetings, including the injury statuses of some top players, the expansion of coaches challenges and more.

Watch at TSN

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."

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RALEIGH, NC. - Don Waddell, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that forward Andrei Svechnikov will undergo reconstructive surgery on his right ACL on Thursday morning, performed by Dr. Marty Isbell of Raleigh Orthopaedic. Svechnikov will miss the remainder of the 2022-23 regular season as well as the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"After further consultation with global experts in this field, it has been determined that the best course of action for Andrei's future is to have this surgery, and to have it done by our team orthopedist, Dr. Marty Isbell," said Waddell. "We're confident that Andrei will make a full recovery."

Svechnikov, 22, ranks tied for second among Hurricanes skaters in points this season (55) and is third on the team in goals (23) in 64 games played. Carolina's first-round selection, second overall, in the 2018 NHL Draft, Svechnikov has scored 112 goals and earned 152 assists (264 points) in 347 career NHL games with the Hurricanes.

NHL senior executive VP of hockey operations Colin Campbell and director of officiating Stephen Walkom recap day 2 of the GM meetings where expanding video review and fighting were discussed.

Watch at TSN

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...

Ice Hockey is one of the world's most popular sports. Played at every level, from youth and as a hobby to amateur and professional in the United States and Canada, there's also a healthy ice hockey season in the United Kingdom, Russia, Serbia, and further afield.

I have a scheduled Dr. appointment this morning.

ETA return is by 10:30am. See you then.

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.

more ($)

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Regarding the Rangers, who continue their Ye Olde Patrick Division Week with the Caps at the Garden on Tuesday before the Penguins hit Broadway for a Thursday-Saturday double feature.

1. Here the Blueshirts are, fighting to nail down third place in the division and trying to crest just ahead of the playoffs while looking for all the world like a team coming out of training camp searching for an identity.

2. When I see Patrick Kane, whose game is as unrecognizable as the uniform he is wearing, I flash back to late March 2014 and a haggard, exasperated Marty St. Louis giving himself an extended face wash at a practice rink in Calgary while talking about having gone scoreless for his first 13 games as a Ranger.

Changing colors after a lifetime is not as easy as changing into a new top. But Kane, conspicuously low-key through his first 10 days in Blue, should stop being so diffident. Easier for me to say than for No. 88 to do, most likely, but management did not move heaven and earth to bring him here so that Kane could be just another guy in the chorus line.

Of course, reuniting Kane with Artemi Panarin was the way to go at the start. Their connection formed the initial impetus for the Rangers to even conjure this move. But maybe there was a good reason Streisand and Redford never tried to recreate the chemistry they had in “The Way We Were.”

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* Artturi Lehkonen had three points in his return to Bell Centre as Colorado scored a season-high eight goals to defeat Montreal and climb the Central Division standings.

* Alex Tuch returned to the lineup and tallied a second straight game-winning goal to help the Sabres rally past the Maple Leafs and inch closer to the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.

* ESPN, Disney Channel and the NHL are teaming up to bring fans the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" on Tuesday, which features the Capitals clashing with the Rangers in the first-ever live, animated NHL game telecast.

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.

from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Not everyone is cut out to be filling the role. During his Detroit tenure, coach Jeff Blashill sought to convince Anthony Mantha that he’d be a 30-goal scorer were he willing to occupy the net front on a regular basis. Blashill went as far as to show Mantha footage of a master of the role, James van Riemsdyk of the Philadelphia Flyers. But he was never able to convince Mantha to embrace the concept.

No one needed to explain the value of net front work to Chiasson. And at 6-foot-4 and 208 pounds, he’s in possession of the physical tools to make him play effectively there. But there’s a lot more than size that goes into net front expertise.

“Puck support, being able to be available. He can get the puck from the half wall. I think that has a part to do with it and then that timing of when to take the goalie’s eyes, when to be available, those are things we’re looking for.”

Chiasson has directly factored in all four power-play goals scored by the Red Wings over the past three games. He scored two of them himself. In Sunday’s 4-3 win over Boston, Chiasson scored once with the man advantage and was screening Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman on another power-pllay tally.

People are still talking about the behind the legs cross creas dish Chiasson made to Larkin. a power-play marker last Wednesday agains the Chicago Blackhawks.

“He’s a pro,” Lalonde said. “I think the guys appreciate him.

“Sometimes, when you look at power play net-front guys, everyone just looks at if they bang home a rebound, or if they make that play he made the other night, the backhand through his legs back door tap in to Larks.”

more

His salary history at CapFriendly

from John Lane of the NHL's website,

Artistic impression will come to life with the first live, animated NHL telecast when the Washington Capitals play the New York Rangers in the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney+).

The alternate broadcast, inspired by Disney's Emmy-award winning comedy "Big City Greens," will feature live, real-time volumetric animation of players and teams modeled after characters on the show.

Steve Levy and Mark Messier will have the traditional broadcast of the regular-season game (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SNE, SNP, TVAS and SN NOW) from Madison Square Garden, while Drew Carter and Kevin Weekes will call the special broadcast. In ESPN's Studio Z this past Friday, each wore motion capture suits working to display animation and respective avatars for the simulation modeled after characters from the show.

"I really want my curiosity to be deep, my excitement for it," said Weekes, a former NHL goalie. "Hopefully that ends up translating into the broadcast itself because we're being transported, certainly for me, I'll be transported into a different world. And more importantly, we want to be able to transport the viewer, the listener, into a different world.

"Not only are the players the artists, but so too are the characters, and now we're going to kind of merge and integrate those two in the storytelling via the animation and via that technology."

continued

from Charlie O'Connor of The Athletic,

Philadelphia Flyers culture. It’s a nebulous, multifaceted concept — but very, very real.

The Flyers are tough. They take care of their own. They promote from within. They spend whatever it takes to win. They don’t believe in taking steps back to take bigger steps forward. True stewards of Flyers culture, the thinking goes, carry the torch of founder Ed Snider, in a relentless march toward inevitable success.

In the 1970s and 1980s under Snider, the march began. It continued through the 1990s, even as Comcast entered the picture and purchased Snider’s Spectacor, keeping Snider as chairman. The collective of former players and executives even continued to successfully trudge forward in the early 2000s, as the Flyers made another Stanley Cup Final appearance.

But the NHL’s implementation of the salary cap in 2005 slowed the Flyers’ advance. Snider’s death in 2016, of course, took away the embodiment of said culture. And on March 10, 2023, the man handpicked by the organization’s remaining stewards — Chuck Fletcher — was released from his duties as general manager and president of hockey operations.

If ownership has the courage to accept hard truths, March 10, 2023, could also stand as the moment when the old Flyers culture — along with all of its remaining champions — was finally, mercifully deemed in need of retirement.

After all, the fingerprints of Flyers culture were all over Fletcher’s ultimately failed tenure as GM.

continued ($)

NEW YORK (March 13, 2023) – Arizona Coyotes right wing Clayton Keller, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Mitchell Marner have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending March 12.

from Travis Yost of TSN,

A couple of years ago, amidst a surge in scoring across the National Hockey League, I argued teams with weak offences were increasingly being left behind. For a variety of reasons, the grind-it-out teams of the last 20 or 30 years have been left behind, with skill and up-tempo hockey being rewarded in the current environment.

A lot of the focus in this area has been at even strength, where the lion’s share of an NHL game is played. The teams that can fill the back of the net with regularity in the regular season, generally speaking, qualify for the playoffs these days. The teams that struggle to score are usually sitting at home come April.

Here is another wrinkle to consider: even-strength scoring has stabilized at multi-decade highs. What hasn’t stabilized is rate scoring on the power play, which continues to accelerate. This season has seen remarkable production on the man advantage – teams are not only scoring at blistering rates, but expected goals (which measures both shot volume and the quality of those shots) are moving in the same northward direction:

continued

from Wayne Scanlan of Sportsnet,

Very early in the Vancouver game, Senators forward Claude Giroux found himself wide open in the slot and ripped a shot off the inside of the post.

The puck stayed out, bounding harmlessly through the crease. As the camera panned to Giroux back at the bench, he screamed a single word, apparent to all who can read lips: “FRICK!!” Or, something close to that which can’t be repeated in family publications.

The moment was fairly representative of the Ottawa Senators Lost Weekend out west – back-to-back losses to Vancouver on Saturday (5-2) and Calgary on Sunday (5-1).

NHL Highlights: Flames 5, Senators 1Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 5:34Loaded: 2.97% Fullscreen

Though the Senators hung on to beat Seattle 5-4 on Thursday, this trip began with a 5-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. So, the Sens have lost three of four and been outscored 15-3 in those losses.

This isn’t exactly the prescribed recipe for grabbing ahold of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, losing three games to teams not currently in playoff positions themselves.

Ottawa is certainly not out of the race but they have certainly lost precious ground.

continued

from Gilbert Ngabo of the Toronto Star,

John Tavares helped the Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Blackhawks. Then he helped create a memory that will last a lifetime for a young fan recovering from brain surgery.

Henry Pye, 11, had a large tumour removed last December at the Hospital for Sick Children. He couldn’t sit up, move his head, open his eyes or talk for several days after the operation. Once he started to make progress and regain strength, his family began to think about ways to celebrate his recovery.

They decided to take him to a hockey game.

“It was our first outing in real life after the surgery and it was his first time at a Leafs game, which was an amazing experience,” said Tanya Pye, Henry’s mother. “We were just so happy we could go out again.”

A fun night at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 15 would become unforgettable for Henry’s family thanks to the “serendipitous, random act of kindness” of a stranger and the generosity of the Leafs captain.

continued

from Sportsnet,

Sean Reynolds and Elliotte Friedman preview this week's GM meetings, looking at the role of the executive committee leading up the meetings and what issues on and off the ice will be discussed throughout the week.

watch at Sportsnet