Good morning Hockey fans,
Hope all is well with you. We are back with more news from around the league.
- The Edmonton Oilers have now extended their winning streak to 11 game after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 to 2. The team has been red hot and have now broken their original record of 10 games, which was also a franchise record (impressive given that this team used to have legends like Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and Anderson). The team continues to roll and they are now 24-15-1 with 49 points and are moving up quickly in the standings. They will host Seattle on Thursday, another team who was on a heater as of recently.
- The NHL has teamed up with Justin Bieber’s fashion label called Drew House and Adidas to create a new collection of jerseys for the NHL all-star game in Toronto coming up in February. They are featured with 4 different colours: blue, red, yellow and white colours, emblazoned with a large NHL crest on top of a star. Let us know what you know as the chatter online has been divided.
- In PWHL news, Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored the game-winning goal against the New York team to make it 3-2, and to make it the first win on home ice for Montreal at Place Bell. The game was fun and electric and had 6,334 fans in attendance. In 5 games she currently has 4 goals and 1 assist.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have been super busy by signing Jason Dickinson to a 2-year, $8.5 million dollar contract extension (with an AAV of $4.25 million) and Nick Foligno to a 2-year, $9 million dollar extension. Both appeared to be pieces that other teams were interested in trading for, but it seems like Kyle Davidson wanted to keep these guys to surround Bedard. Dickinson, 28, who was in the final year of his contract has had a solid career for the Blackhawks has 14 goals and 7 assists in 44 games. Foligno, who is currently out due to injury, has 8 goals and 9 assists in 39 games this season. We will see what else will take place.
- Speaking of the Blackhawks, it sounds like Corey Perry is looking at getting back to the game and looking at his options. A lot of teams are doing their due diligence and looking at possibly bolstering their bottom 6 by signing Perry to their team for a low cheap contract. He also has shown interest in going to a possible contender. Some teams that are more at the forefront of the rumours are Edmonton, Toronto, and Florida. Although this is still speculation, we might see Perry soon back on the ice.
- For the Columbus Blue Jackets, it hasn’t been a good season, as they are 14-21-9 on the season and are currently at the bottom of the standings, struggling. To make matters worse, their goaltender Elvis Merzlikins has requested a trade, and that he would like a “new scenario”. This comes after a great 4 to 3 OT win and performance against the Vancouver Canucks. The challenge is that he still has 3 years left on his 5.4 million dollar contract, which might deter some other teams. But Merzlikins can be a strong goalie and a change of scenery might do both the player and organization good, as it seems that Columbus is pivoting towards Daniil Tarasov.
- Finally Valeri Nichushkin of the Colorado Avalanche has announced that he will be entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program for an indefinite period of time. We wish him all the best and hope Nichushkin gets the assistance and help he needs and that we see him back on the ice as he is a dynamic player.
Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Then remember to tune in each week to get all the latest news in the world of hockey. For more hockey news, different takes or if you want to chat about anything hockey give me a follow @hockey_two on TWITTER and give us a follow on YouTube, or at https://twoguysandhockeytalk.com/.
- Pawel ‘The Cat’
