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Archives for March 2017

Snapshots: Bruins, Blue Jackets, Golden Knights, Devils

March 7, 2017 at 6:26 pm CDT | by Mike Furlano Leave a Comment

News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • The Boston Bruins recalled forward Austin Czarnik from the Providence Bruins, reports Ty Anderson of WEEI. The recall comes on the heels of the Bruins announcing that Ryan Spooner is out indefinitely with a concussion. Czarnik is treading water in his first NHL season, scoring 5G and 8A in 47 NHL games. He also has 2G and 6A in 7 AHL games. The Bruins signed Czarnik out of Miami University (OH) in May 2015 and he’s been with Providence up until the start of this season.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets make two notable additions to its game roster tonight against against the New Jersey Devils, reports the Columbus Dispatch’s Tom Reed. Coach John Tortorella inserts Finnish rookie defender Markus Nutivaara back into the lineup after Nutivaara sat out of Columbus’s last three games. Nutivaara was the odd man out after the Blue Jackets acquired defenseman Kyle Quincey at the NHL trade deadline. The Blue Jackets also replace injured forward Josh Anderson with rookie T.J. Tynan. This will be Tynan’s NHL debut. Right now he has 7G and 23A in 55 games for the AHL Cleveland Monsters.
  • The Blue Jackets also announced that defenseman Ryan Murray is scratched from tonight’s game due to a lower-body injury. The former 2nd overall draft pick has 2G and 9A in 59 games while averaging 18:37 minutes a game. Murray had somewhat of a breakout campaign last year before regressing production-wise. Murray and Nail Yakupov highlight the NHL Entry Draft’s unpredictability as both were drafted with the first two picks, and yet neither has met expectations.
  • Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee spoke to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnson today about potential expansion draft selections. While McPhee was coy about specific strategy, he indicated that he’s received calls from many teams —helpful because those calls shape how the Expansion Draft team predicts who may be available at the draft. McPhee also stated that he will not make agreements to avoid drafting an exposed player until closer to the expansion draft itself to maximize the return.
  • The New Jersey Devils have reassigned defenseman Karl Stollery and forward Kevin Rooney back down to the AHL Albany Devils. Stolley has played 11 games for New Jersey so far this season, recording three assists in that timeframe. He’ll rejoin Albany where he has 1G and 13A in 44 games. Rooney failed to record a point in three games for New Jersey, but has 10G and 7A in 57 games for Albany.

Boston Bruins| Columbus Blue Jackets| George McPhee| New Jersey Devils| Vegas Golden Knights

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Ryan Spooner Out Indefinitely With Concussion

March 7, 2017 at 4:49 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 1 Comment

With the Boston Bruins in the thick of a playoff race, they’ll have to operate without the services of one of their young players. Ryan Spooner has been diagnosed with a concussion and will be held out of the lineup indefinitely as he goes through the NHL’s concussion protocol. Spooner suffered the injury last night against the Ottawa Senators.

Spooner has had an interesting season so far, putting up points despite being on the trade block and not getting along with the head coach. His 34 points in 65 games actually puts him sixth on the team, ahead of pricey offseason addition David Backes. The 25-year old looked like he would put up his second straight 40+ point season, and be in line for a hefty raise this summer when he became a restricted free agent for the second time. Always able to rack up assists, Spooner has dominated the AHL level and at times looked like he could break out in the NHL and become a premiere set-up man.

This latest injury is a tough one to have happen at this point in his career, and one Bruins fans know all too well when it comes to elite playmakers. The Bruins are currently sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division, four points ahead of the Maple Leafs. Losing Spooner right now doesn’t help, though with Drew Stafford now in the mix perhaps his absence won’t be as noticeable. Hopefully for Spooner and the Bruins, he’s able to return in time for the playoffs—assuming they make it in.

Boston Bruins| Injury

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St. Louis Blues Sign Tage Thompson To Three-Year ELC

March 7, 2017 at 4:24 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The St. Louis Blues have locked up their most recent first-round pick, signing Tage Thompson to a three-year, entry-level contract today. Thompson had been playing at the University of Connecticut, but will report to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL for the remainder of the season on an amateur contract. His entry-level deal will not kick in until the 2017-18 season. Tage Thompson

Thompson is the son of former NHL defenseman and current Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson. Playing mostly center ice for the Huskies, the younger Thompson is a dominant power forward that uses his size (6’5″, 200-lbs) to remove defenders from the puck and attack the net with powerful strides. Although he is still a work in progress in the defensive end, many believe he will turn into an excellent two-way player that can slot in anywhere in the top-nine.

Playing mostly with Kieffer Bellows, the New York Islanders prospect who was selected seven spots ahead of him in the draft, Thompson put on a show of force at the World Juniors for Team USA and was a big part of their run for gold. His hands, skill, and quickness don’t lag very far behind his size because as he explained to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch back in January, he spent most of his developmental years as an undersized player before hitting a growth spurt a few years ago.

Using that size and skill, he’ll now head to his first taste of professional hockey as the Wolves try to clinch first place in the Central Division. With 32 points in 34 games for Connecticut, he definitely won’t lack any confidence in his game as he adapts to the AHL level. It will be interesting to see if the Wolves will use him at center or on the powerplay, both places they’ve lacked since Ivan Barbashev has stayed up with the Blues.

Newsstand| St. Louis Blues| Transactions

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Canucks Notes: Goldobin, Markstrom, Tryamkin

March 7, 2017 at 3:42 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 1 Comment

The Vancouver Canucks will welcome the Montreal Canadiens to town tonight as they look to stay relevant in the playoff race. The team currently sits six points back of St. Louis and though it is a very outside possibility, they want to stay in it as long as possible. They’ll have to shake up their lineup tonight, as Loui Eriksson will be out for “a week to two weeks” according to Willie Desjardins. In his place, the newly acquired Nikolay Goldobin will get a chance to skate with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi on the team’s second line. He’s excited about the prospect, and amazed at the amount of media talking to him prior to the game; “It wasn’t like this in San Jose!” he said before going on to say how happy he was to be in Vancouver.

  • The team also relayed the news that Jacob Markstrom is still “at least a week away”, but did skate before the practice by himself. Markstrom hasn’t played since February 16th but would be a big help to the Canucks down the stretch if he can get back. The 27-year old goaltender looks like he’ll get a shot at the starting job next year as Ryan Miller is a free agent this summer. Markstrom’s extension will come into play next year, which will see him paid $3.67MM per year for the next three seasons.
  • 22-year old Nikita Tryamkin has been a revelation for the Canucks this season, as he’s shown his capability to be a part of their defense going forward and showcased his big-hit ability early in the season. He has been out since February 19th though, and still isn’t quite ready to return. Despite skating earlier this morning with the team, he’ll miss his sixth straight game.

Vancouver Canucks| Willie Desjardins Bo Horvat| Loui Eriksson| Nikita Tryamkin| Nikolay Goldobin| Ryan Miller| Sven Baertschi

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Washington Capitals Sign Kristofers Bindulis, Hampus Gustafsson

March 7, 2017 at 2:10 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Washington Capitals have snapped up two interesting college free agents today, signing Kristofers Bindulis and Hampus Gustafsson to entry-level contracts. The two have signed for three and two years respectively, beginning with the 2017-18 season. Bindulis was rumored recently to be on the radar of several teams around the league. Both players will report to the Hershey Bears of the AHL on tryout agreements for the remainder of the season.

Bindulis was at the Capitals’ development camp last summer, of which he told Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post “I really enjoyed my time over there.” The 6’3″ defenseman has started to fill out into his big frame and should get a chance to play with the Bears as they try to make it into the post-season. In this his freshman year at Lake Superior State, Bindulis registered 12 points in 28 games.

It’s Gustafsson that may be even more interesting than Bindulis however, as the 23-year old forward is a finalist for the Hobey Baker award and has been a consistent scoring threat during his four years at Merrimack College. Gustafsson uses his huge frame (6’4″, 200-lbs) to fight for every inch of the ice, and can be a dominant net-front presence on the powerplay. While there are questions about the games of both players—like there are with any unproven young talent—both have some upside and a shot at making the NHL one day. First though they’ll test themselves in their first taste of professional hockey in the AHL.

Newsstand| Transactions| Washington Capitals

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NHL Will Not Change Definition Of Off-Side

March 7, 2017 at 1:14 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 1 Comment

Though it was discussed heavily at the GM Meetings this week in Boca Raton, Florida, the NHL will not change the off-side rule according to Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. The idea theorized was that the player wouldn’t need to have his skate blade on the ice to be considered on-side, just breaking the plane of the blue line as if it extended upwards from the ice. Similar to the endzone in football, this would allow review officials to more easily determine whether a scoring play was on-side or not.

This season has seen several reviews take close to 10 minutes as officials tried to see whether the very tip of a skate blade was touching the blue line or not. Though the proposed change would obviously make it easier to tell, it was also regarded with some opposition from traditionalists who didn’t want to change the rule just because of some review issues. The league will obviously want to speed up that process, but changing the off-side rule sounds like it’s off the table for now.

Also from the meetings, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports that the GMs were told there is no update on NHL participation at the 2018 Olympics. Though many players have expressed that they want to go no matter what, the league is still shuffling its feet on whether to break in the middle of the season again for a tournament that many owners dislike. The possibility of losing a key player to injury is a huge risk for teams that are competing for the Stanley Cup, and the league wants to build their own product—The World Cup of Hockey, held this past fall in Toronto—into the premiere international tournament.

While the GMs discuss how to improve the game and create more offense, many media members including TSN’s Ray Ferraro pondered various different rule changes on Twitter. One idea of expanding to the international-sized rinks was shot down immediately, with Ferraro saying that it does not in fact increase offense, just creates dead areas on the ice. Whether that’s true or not, Dave Stubbs of NHL.com put a period on the conversation when he noted that adding 15 feet of ice to every rink would eliminate many premium seats—no league owner would sign off on that.

Injury| Olympics League News| World Cup

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Kris Letang Not Close To Returning, Will Not Travel With Team

March 7, 2017 at 12:14 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 1 Comment

When Kris Letang was originally injured prior to the Pittsburgh Penguins Stadium Series game against the Philadelphia Flyers on February 25th, he was listed as day-to-day and expected to rejoin the club within a matter of games. Now, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, head coach Mike Sullivan has told the media that he won’t be travelling with the team and that he’d update them when “he’s getting close.”

The Penguins are off on a five game road trip that will take them through western Canada before facing the Flyers again in Philadelphia on March 15th. If Letang isn’t travelling with the team, he likely at least is out for those first four games. Sullivan wouldn’t tell Mackey or anyone else what exactly the injury is, and it has been shrouded in secrecy since it happened. With it being revealed that T.J. Oshie’s latest “upper-body” injury was actually a concussion, it does cause a little more trepidation when speculating about what may be ailing Letang.

In his last game before being taken out of the lineup Letang played almost 29 minutes, a huge amount for anyone suffering from an injury. In fact, the star defenseman hadn’t played less than 23 since the January game against Detroit in which he suffered a leg injury. That time he was placed on injured reserve and held out two weeks.

Wednesday night against the Jets will mark the sixth straight game he’s missed with the mysterious upper-body injury, and the team could use him back. Though they added depth in both Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit near the deadline, the team is still in the thick of a race for seeding in the Metropolitan Division.

While they are still 3-2 without Letang in the lineup, they’ve obviously missed his presence on the back end. It will be interesting to see where the team lies in the standings when he finally returns. It’s safe to say that the Penguins did well adding depth to their blueline though, as they’re without Letang, Trevor Daley and Olli Maatta for the forseeable future.

Injury| Pittsburgh Penguins Kris Letang| Mark Streit| Olli Maatta| Ron Hainsey| Trevor Daley

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Snapshots: Sopel, Sproul, Greene

March 7, 2017 at 11:02 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

In what has become a regular occurrence since they launched, The Players’ Tribune has released another unbelievably open and revealing article about a former NHL star. Brent Sopel pens a memoir of his time in the league and the struggles he faced growing up and well into his adult life. The article touches on his very late diagnosis of dyslexia, and ends with a call to action to help Sopel and his organizations get children the help they need growing up.

Like Corey Hirsch’s incredible story about the depression he battled throughout his NHL career, and the revealing stories of Devin Setoguchi, Jordin Tootoo and the link between hockey and alcohol, Sopel allows the reader inside the life of a professional hockey player for a moment or two and shows it’s not just what is seen on the ice every night.

  • According to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, it’s the end of the line for Ryan Sproul this season, who has an ACL injury and will decide in two weeks whether it needs surgery. His season is over either way, meaning that recently recalled Robbie Russo will get an extended look for the Red Wings on defense. Russo will make his NHL debut tonight against the Maple Leafs.
  • Though he missed practice yesterday, the Red Wings will have Gustav Nyquist in the lineup tonight. The forward returned from his six-game suspension on Saturday night, but played less than 14 minutes for the team. With just 29 points in 57 games this season, it looks like the 27-year old Nyquist will take a step back this season after posting three consecutive years with at least 17 goals and 43 points.
  • Thoughts go out to New Jersey Devils captain Andy Greene and his family, as the defenseman is at home following the passing of his father. Andrew Gross of The Record reports that he’s expected to be back with the team on Thursday, though obviously it’s still undecided.

Detroit Red Wings| Injury| NHL| New Jersey Devils| Players| Snapshots| Toronto Maple Leafs Andy Greene| Devin Setoguchi| Gustav Nyquist| Jordin Tootoo

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Washington Capitals Send Paul Carey Back To Minors

March 7, 2017 at 10:11 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Washington Capitals have re-assigned Paul Carey to the AHL today. As Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post points out, it’s an interesting move with a road trip coming up to the west coast that will see the team play San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles in the span of four nights.

Carey has played four games for the Capitals this season, but has made his mark at the minor league level. With 44 points in 48 games, he’s been a key part of the Hershey attack and will now go back to help them try to lock down a playoff spot. The Bears are tied with Bridgeport for fourth place in the dominant Atlantic Division, and are at risk of missing the playoffs despite a 31-17-11 record.

Selected in the fifth round by the Colorado Avalanche back in 2007, Carey has only suited up for 30 NHL games across his fairly successful professional career. A graduate of Boston College, he’s always been able to put up points but never received much of a chance at the highest level. The 28-year old has just two NHL points in those thirty games.

AHL| Washington Capitals Paul Carey

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Morning Notes: Thornton, Jokinen, Panarin

March 7, 2017 at 9:13 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

When Joe Pavelski slid the puck past Nikolaj Ehlers and into the empty net at the end of the San Jose-Winnipeg game last night, it sealed more than just the win. Since it had been Joe Thornton who broke the play out of his end, he registered the secondary assist and the play would go into the history books. That play would be Thornton’s 1000th assist of his career, a feat only previously accomplished by twelve other men in the history of the NHL.

Thornton, now 37 years old, is in the midst of arguably the worst offensive season of his career with only five goals and 41 points through 65 games. The Sharks are in first place with a bullet in the Pacific Division though, and the pending free agent has still been a big part of it. If he wants to play another few years, teams will certainly take one of the greatest passers of all-time into the mix as Thornton hunts down the next name on the assist-list. Joe Sakic is next with 1016, while Wayne Gretzky is still the untouchable leader at 1963.

  • If you asked Florida Panthers fans about their greatest player, they might say Olli Jokinen who leads the franchise in goals and points. As reported this weekend, the Finnish forward has signed a one-day contract with the club to retire tonight as Panther. In 567 games, Jokinen scored 419 points and captained the team for several years.
  • In the latest piece from Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune, Artemi Panarin apologizes for his comments back in 2012 on Russian TV. A clip from the show had surfaced around corners of the internet and featured Panarin using some racially charged comments. He and the team immediately responded to Hine’s story and apologized for any harm the comments may have made. The 25-year old winger has never been involved in anything like this during his short time in the NHL, and seems to genuinely regret having made the comment.

Florida Panthers| RFA| San Jose Sharks Artemi Panarin| Joe Pavelski| Joe Thornton| Wayne Gretzky

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