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THREE HARD LAPS
* The Lightning and Panthers earned wins on Saturday and are set to meet as the top two teams in their division at this stage of a season for the fifth time and first since 2015-16.
* Defenseman Dougie Hamilton extended his double-digit point streak and a group of goaltenders also continued recent strings of success.
* The Golden Knights will set their sights on a second six-game winning streak of the season when they face the Kings on NBCSN.
from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
- You know who is having a pretty good season? P.K. Subban, who has all but eliminated The Big Mistake from his repertoire and is playing reliably understated hockey in New Jersey, that’s who.
The Spirit of 76 has one year with a $9 million cap hit remaining on his deal. If the Devils retain half, contenders with needs on the right side of the blue line could do much worse than acquiring Subban.
- I have written this for years, but if the league wants to crack down not only on head hunters but also on the organizations that protect them, then: A) Teams should not be able to replace players suspended for headshots in the lineup, meaning they’d play a man short for the duration of the sentence; and, B) Head coaches should be suspended for the same length of time as the players they routinely enable.
- I don’t think John Tavares has done enough at this point to be a Hall of Famer. Do you?
more, including where are all the goalies from Quebec...
Dylan Larkin and Jeff Blahill first in one video, game highlights are below. added 10:37pm, watch Mickey Redmong below, not game related.
Games like this happen on occasion but they are very hard to watch. Not much entertainment value tonight.
The Stars scored late in the 2nd period to take 1-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Then midway through th 3rd period, Dallas added another goal to make it 2-0 and a few minutes later scored their third goal.
No more scoring, Dallas wins 3-0.
The HNIC panel disussed- General talk leading up to the trade deadline (all North division) and would the Coyotes move Conor Garland?
via Sportsnet,
The Wings have managed to pull out two wins in a row, due in large part to the play of Bernier, who is by far the best Wing this season. Well, he's not available tonight, and, we don't know how long he'll be out. The guys really need to step it up, since whoever else is in net just hasn't been anywhere near as good.
The Wings seem to be playing with more confidence of late, and, it shows on the scoreboard. So here's hoping for lots of Wings scoring, the D coming to play, and a still tired Stars team.
It''s a Live Blog!
from Justi Bourne of Sportsnet,
By the raw boxcar stats, Jesse Puljujarvi is not setting the world on fire in the month of March. He’s scored twice and added an assist, largely on the back of a one-and-one performance against the Flames on Wednesday night, and that wouldn’t be enough to raise even an eyebrow of a fan from any of the league’s other 30 teams.
But if you’ve been watching the Oilers enough, big No. 13 seems to have moment after moment where you go “Huh … it really feels like there’s something here with that kid.”
Edmonton’s game Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets was a game where both teams were on the second half of a back-to-back and had travelled, with both landing in Edmonton close to 1 a.m. And boy, did the play reflect that. It looked like most players were stuck in mud, with offensive zone possessions largely consisting of high-to-low passes with two forwards standing near the front of the net, a shot, and no second chance opportunities. But there was Puljujarvi, just about the only player with some pop in his step, hunting the puck with a verve not normally reserved for your average mid-season slog.
His ice time reflected it.
Puljujarvi’s TOI season-high at even strength going into Thursday was 17:40. Head coach Dave Tippett added a full 1:21 on to that, with the big Finn surpassing the 19-minute mark for the first time all season. His total of 19:31 was the second most he’s played in any game over the past three seasons.
from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,
The Panthers woke up Tuesday in first place overall, for the first time since Dec. 28, 1996. The span of 24-plus years (8,844 days, to be exact) between stints atop the NHL, after a minimum of three games, is the longest in league history. Only Detroit, playing as the Motown Dead Wings from 1974-95, went 20 years or more without reaching No. 1 on the charts.
Entering the weekend, Florida hadn’t lost two in a row all season. Captain Aleksander Barkov is a Hart Trophy candidate. Aaron Ekblad is finally living up to his draft billing. Tampa Bay castoff Carter Verhaeghe and backup netminder Chris Driedger have been pleasant surprises.
Vatrano, meanwhile, was one one of six Panthers to hit the 10-goal mark by the midway point of the season. Both of his linemates — rookie Owen Tippett, 22, and Eetu Luostarinen, 22 — were born after the Year of the Rat, but this isn’t a rookie party. Keith Yandle, 34, still has offensive game. Barkov, Ekblad, and Jonathan Huberdeau are each about halfway to 1,000 career games. Hard-to-play-against factor comes from veterans Patric Hornqvist (scoring at a 67-point pace and annoying opponents nightly), Radko Gudas, and Noel Acciari.
If the club’s newly formed department of goaltending excellence, headed by Francois Allaire and Roberto Luongo, can get something out of Sergei Bobrovsky, so much the better. He’s currently a league-average netminder making $10 million. Then again, Bobrovsky might wind up being someone else’s issue. The Panthers have one of the brightest prospects around in Boston College’s Spencer Knight.
more plus other hockey topics...
from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,
It says something about the unexpected turn the Toronto Maple Leafs season has taken that these two statements can both be true:
1. Jack Campbell will make his second start in 53 days when the Leafs complete a back-to-back against the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
2. Jack Campbell can start grabbing control of his team’s crease if he performs well.
Losses in six of the last seven games can’t be placed exclusively at Frederik Andersen’s feet, nor even can Friday’s 4-3 defeat on an 18-shot night for Calgary. But they’ve chipped away at the confidence in the formerly unassailable No. 1 and that makes Campbell’s opportunity a golden one with his team desperately in need of a win.
“I expect him to battle the way that he has,” said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. “I know he’s played great for us so he’s a guy that goes in with a ton of confidence.”
Watch the game highlights below.
Watch the stream below and if needed, I will add to this post with any news from the skate.
Enjoy your day.
added 11:32am, Blashill after the skate.
THREE HARD LAPS
* A busy Saturday in the NHL is set to span nearly 12 hours and conclude with Oilers captain Connor McDavid pursuing a nine-game point streak and the 60-point mark on the season during Hockey Night in Canada.
* Alex Ovechkin scored twice to help the Capitals rally and moved into tie with Gordie Howe for fourth place on the League’s all-time multi-goal games list.
* Max Pacioretty also netted two goals and has scored eight times since March 1 – tied with Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen for the most among all players over that span.
I will be taking it very easy tonight and may not be available to update.
So let's make this an open post with tonight's schedule below. Feel free to comment on the games or anything hockey related.
I will be back Saturday morning.
from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,
The Detroit Red Wings consider Jonathan Bernier day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
That sounds relatively optimistic given he left the ice needing help from two teammates. He didn’t practice Friday, and coach Jeff Blashill said “my gut is yes” when asked if Bernier will at the very least miss Saturday’s game against the Dallas Stars at Little Caesars Arena.
“Right now it’s day to day,” Blashill said. “I don’t know if that stretches into a week or weeks. It’s all based on the healing process. I can’t tell you how long that is going to be.
“He’s been evaluated and I would just say it’s one of those injuries that could heal quickly, could take longer. We’re just not sure.”
If you are an athlete, there is a likelihood that you will suffer from muscular injuries because of running, jumping, and overstretching.
There are different types of injuries athletes such as neck injuries, back injuries, sprains, and strains which are often painful. With such injuries, athletes are forced to spend time on the side-line to recover.
Blashill first, Larkin below.
via Ansar Khan tweet,
RedWings practice:
Fabbri-Larkin-Mantha
Zadina-Namestnikov-Gagner
Svechnikov-Rasmussen-Ryan
Helm-Glendening-Erne
Brome-Filppula-Nielsen (gray jerseys as extras)
DeKeyser-Hronek
Staal-Stecher
Nemeth-Merrill
Djoos
Cholowski-Biega (extras)
Cholowski assigned to taxi squad today.
added 12:26pm, Khan...
power play units:
Rasmussen (net front), Erne (bumper), Larkin-Zadina (flanks), Hronek (point).
And
Fabbri (net front), Gagner (bumper), Mantha-Ryan (flanks), Cholowski (point).
Based on this, looks like Cholowski in for Djoos tomorrow vs. Dallas.
from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,
Poor Don Granato.
When I asked the Buffalo Sabres' interim coach an hour before Thursday's snorefest in KeyBank Center how he was going to get these guys to compete, he started out by saying, "That's a million dollar question and that's what we're pushing for."
Actually, around here, it's really a six or eight or nine million dollar question.
On yet another bizarre day in and around the rink that reeked of 2021, the Sabres were toyed with by the Boston Bruins. It was a name-the-score game that ended 4-1. The shots on goal finished 37-24 after the count was 35-16 midway through the third period.
That's a 13-game winless streak, one shy of the franchise record set by the 2015 tankers....
The Sabres play with no jam, no vigor and no fight. They're 0-17-1 when trailing after two periods. Battling back is simply too hard or too much of a bother for them.
After the game, Granato promised to demand more and push harder. We'll see how that goes in practice Friday.
Game highlights are below.
Six ticks away from three minutes long.
Extended game highlights are below.
from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
Steve Yzerman made several low-risk moves during his first year as Detroit Red Wings general manager, seeking undervalued players whose careers had stalled without relinquishing much.
His acquisition of Robby Fabbri has been by far the most fruitful. The Red Wings acquired a skilled player who has provided much-needed offense. Fabbri went from the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues to what was the worst team in the NHL last season but has benefited from the opportunity he wouldn’t have received with his former club.
Fabbri, playing on the top line with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha the past several games, scored all three goals Thursday in Detroit’s 3-2 victory over Dallas.It was his second career hat trick – his first since Dec. 28, 2016, when he played for the Blues – and gives him a team-leading nine goals in only 22 games.
“He competes hard, he can score,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Very first day we got him he showed us he can score on one shot. Some guys need tons of shots to score, some guys have the ability to score on one shot. He does it different ways. And he brings a good edge and competes hard. When Robby is playing his best, he’s super-competitive.”
from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,
THREE HARD LAPS
* Teenagers Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras scored their first career goals 2:29 apart to help the Ducks rally and collect two points.
* Eight teams have reached the 40-point mark this season, but with a win on Thursday the Lightning maintained their position above the rest.
* Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal for the second time in as many days as the Oilers moved into a tie with the Maple Leafs atop the Scotia North Division (in terms of points).
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