Jimmy Howard Recalled From Conditioning Stint
The Detroit Red Wings today announced the recall of Jimmy Howard from his latest conditioning stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Howard had been sent down on March 4th and played two games for the AHL squad, allowing just two goals on 54 shots including a shutout of the San Antonio Rampage last night. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that Jared Coreau, up in Howard’s absence will return to the AHL on Thursday or Friday.
Howard hasn’t played in an NHL contest since December 20th thanks to several setbacks during his rehab of a lower-body injury. Before the injury, the 32-year old netminder was off to the best start of his career, carrying a .934 save percentage through his first 17 games of the season. Despite seemingly losing the number one job to Petr Mrazek last season, Howard looked re-energized and ready to prove he could still be a starter in the NHL. Now he’ll have another handful of games to prove it again.
The goaltender’s $5.29MM cap-hit is a tough price to pay for the Red Wings as they turn to Mrazek in the crease, meaning Howard will likely be available again this summer. Whether any team wants to take on that much is still unknown, though once the season is over the Red Wings could retain part of his salary going forward. Despite being last in the Eastern conference, Detroit is actually in quite a tight cap situation as they head into next season. With Tomas Tatar and Andreas Athanasiou both needing substantial raises, they will have almost no room to add anything to help the squad.
While the cap is set to go up slightly for next season, Detroit is a long way from being a contender with their current roster and will likely have to re-think how they’ve built their forward group. While they sold off any expiring assets at the deadline this year, it wasn’t really enough to hit a full reset button. Showcasing Howard for a possible trade in the offseason would be a big part of starting their rebuild.
Ryan Spooner Out Indefinitely With Concussion
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.
NHL Will Not Change Definition Of Off-Side
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.
Kris Letang Not Close To Returning, Will Not Travel With Team
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.
Snapshots: Sopel, Sproul, Greene
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.
Atlantic Notes: Cassidy, Radulov, Plekanec, Carrier, Kulikov
The Bruins have played their way right back into the thick of the postseason chase under interim head coach Bruce Cassidy, going 8-2 in his first ten games behind the bench heading into play on Monday night. Accordingly, CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty suggests that the time is right for GM Don Sweeney to lift the interim title and make him the full-time head coach.
Shortly after the trade deadline, Sweeney told reporters that he’s open to lifting the tag at the end of the season although he left the window open to do so later this season if he feels the time is right. Haggerty argues that if the GM is already content with the idea of making the change more of a permanent one, it should be done sooner than later so there’s no opportunity for a distraction during the stretch run.
This is Cassidy’s second stint as a head coach after holding the job for parts of two seasons with Washington more than a decade ago.
More from the Atlantic:
- The Canadiens announced via their Twitter account that Alexander Radulov is likely to miss his second straight game against the Canucks tomorrow with a lower body injury sustained after blocking a shot last week. The Russian right winger has returned to the NHL with a bang this season and sits second on Montreal in scoring with 46 points in 63 games; his 31 assists lead the team. Additionally, the team noted that center Tomas Plekanec is listed as day-to-day although the nature of his injury is undisclosed.
- Sabres left winger William Carrier is set to miss his 17th straight game tomorrow against the Flyers, notes John Vogl of The Buffalo News. It doesn’t appear a return is imminent either as he has yet to start skating as the bruise on his knee is not hearing anywhere near the rate the team was hoping for. Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov is also expected to sit that game out with a concussion.
East Notes: Hyman, Tynan, Eichel
The Toronto Maple Leafs have outplayed all of the preseason expectations of the club, and much of that has to do with the excellent performance of Auston Matthews in his rookie season. The first-overall pick has become an impact player right away with 55 points in 64 games, despite spending the whole season skating alongside fellow youngster Zach Hyman. When the team was winning, everything seemed fine with that arrangement but now that they’ve lost five straight people are starting to call for some more experienced wingers to be put with Matthews.
Craig Button of TSN thinks (video link) that’s “laughable” though, as he details the amount of room Hyman creates with his forechecking ability and unstoppable energy level. Hyman has just 25 points all season, and is one of the most divisive players in Toronto at the moment. While he obviously works as hard as any player in the league, some question his offensive upside and whether he can be an option long-term on Toronto’s top line. For now, the team looks like they’ve moved William Nylander away from that group and back to the wing of Nazem Kadri to try and spark some offense (via Kristen Shilton of TSN).
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled T.J. Tynan from the AHL on emergency conditions after Josh Anderson was given a 7-10 day timeline for his knee injury. Tynan was up just a few days ago but still has yet to make his NHL debut with the Blue Jackets. The undersized winger is an excellent passer and has 30 points in 55 AHL games this season. The Blue Jackets have a rematch with the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night, after defeating them 3-0 on Sunday evening.
- Jack Eichel has been the oft-forgotten member of the exceptional 20 and under club this season because of the injury that held him out of 21 games to start the season. The young Sabres forward is here to remind you of his talent though, with 42 points in 45 games and a shot at passing his full-season mark of 56 last year. Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News writes that greatness isn’t far off for Eichel when it comes to the NHL, and that he expects him to play a big role at the World Championships this spring if the Sabres do in fact miss the playoffs. If he’s healthy next year, Eichel could easily push to be crowned among the best young players in the game. He’s just scratching the surface of his offensive potential.
Snapshots: Schultz, Ryan, Folin
When the Pittsburgh Penguins traded a third-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers last year for Justin Schultz, they thought they were adding a depth defenseman with a bit of upside. What they got instead, is the fifth-highest point producer in the league among defenders. Behind only Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Duncan Keith and Victor Hedman, Schultz is providing #1-type production for less than half of what the Blues are paying Carl Gunnarsson and his four points.
That ridiculously low deal is what brought Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to wonder what hell earn this summer when he becomes a restricted free agent for the final time. Mackey thinks that Kevin Shattenkirk‘s four-year, $17MM extension in 2013 is the low-water mark for what one might expect this summer, which would already represent an almost $3MM raise per season. The Penguins don’t look to have an issue with the raise though, as they’re likely taking $5.75MM off the books when Marc-Andre Fleury eventually leaves town.
- The San Jose Sharks have sent Joakim Ryan back to the AHL, with David Schlemko expected to play in tonight’s game against the Winnipeg Jets. Ryan was brought up just yesterday when it looked like Dylan DeMelo may not be ready to re-join the team. Instead, DeMelo did play his first game in almost two months and with it the need for Ryan was removed. He’ll head back down to the AHL where he has dominated this season, registering 33 points in 46 games.
- Christian Folin will miss at least three weeks with an upper-body injury, the Minnesota Wild announced today. The 26-year old defenseman suffered the injury last night against the Sharks, and will be out for almost the rest of the season. While the team recently had Jonas Brodin re-join the lineup, this is another hit to a defense group that isn’t as deep as they would like heading into the playoffs.
- The New York Rangers will be scratching Adam Clendening tonight and inserting Steven Kampfer in his place. In the latest article from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Clendening doesn’t agree with the demotion but will take it as motivation going forward. Tanner Glass is also expected to get into the lineup for the Rangers, who take on the surging Tampa Bay Lightning tonight in Florida.
Teammate Reveals T.J. Oshie Was Out With A Concussion
When T.J. Oshie was held out of the last four games with an “upper-body injury”, many believed it to be an aggravation of the shoulder problems he had dealt with earlier this season. Last night in a post-game interview for NHL Tonight (h/t Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post for pointing it out), teammate Justin Williams let it slip that Oshie had suffered a concussion the last time the Capitals had faced the Philadelphia Flyers. This led to some animosity between the two clubs, and Williams fighting with Nick Cousins early in the game.
Oshie is no stranger to head injuries, having suffered a concussion in 2014 that kept him out of the lineup for two weeks. He even once joked that the Columbus goal-cannon almost “gives you a concussion every time, especially if you’ve had concussions in the past.” He’s taken head shots before too, though the time Marco Scandella hit him in 2014 he returned to the game after a period.
The Capitals’ winger returned to action last night against those same Flyers, playing over 19 minutes in his first game back. Obviously over the concussion symptoms, it will be something to watch for the rest of the season as players are often more susceptible after suffering multiple brain injuries. It will also be interesting to see if he immediately returns to his high-level of performance from this season, which has brought about 43 points in 51 games.
This comes at a time when the league is embroiled in a lawsuit surrounding the protection and care of their current and former athletes in regards to head injuries. Rick Westhead of TSN has covered this story from the beginning, with his latest entry surrounding the battle between the league and Dr. Bennet Omalu, a neuropathologist that was integral in the NFL’s battle with CTE; Omalu’s story was also adapted into the Hollywood film Concussion, released in 2015.
Ondrej Pavelec Reportedly Done For Season
Ondrej Pavelec‘s trying season is now over.
Despite last week’s reports that he was expected to start sometime during the Jets’ current six-game home stand, things have changed quickly in Manitoba. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun is reporting that Pavelec will have season-ending surgery on Monday. He has not played in nearly a month, last suiting up for a 4-2 loss against Minnesota on February 7. Pavelec is 4-4-0 in eight appearances this season.
The season got off to a tough start for Pavelec, who was waived and assigned to the AHL at the end of training camp. In 18 games with the Manitoba Moose, Pavelec had eight wins with a 0.917 SV% and 2.78 GAA. He was recalled in mid-January and played eight of the next nine games, but has not made any appearances since leaving that Wild-Jets game on February 7. The Jets placed him on injured reserve (IR) with a lower-body injury on Valentine’s Day. Pavelec was initially expected to miss about a week.
If this is it for Pavelec’s season, then it’s also the end of his long tenure with the Thrashers/ Jets organization. A pending-UFA, Pavelec was selected 41st overall by Atlanta in 2005, and has played parts of 10 seasons with the franchise. In 379 appearances, Pavelec has a record of 152-158-47 with a 0.907 SV% and 2.87 GAA. He also posted 17 shutouts. After making 57 starts in 2013-14, he’s slowly lost the starting role to a combination of Connor Hellebuyck and Michael Hutchinson.