Good morning Hockey fans,
Welcome to the New Year. Hope all is well with you and that you all enjoyed a wonderful break or holiday season. We have a clean calendar slate for the upcoming new year, but there is still a lot of hockey news from around the world of hockey.
- The PWHL launched in the New Year with a game between Toronto vs. New York game (showcased on Sportsnet) winning 4-0 and having defender Ella Shelton make history by scoring the first goal of the league. Although Toronto didn’t win, the game was full of big hits, plays and some great highlights and to top it off, it was a sell out crowd. It was a great game. Montreal then played Ottawa on Tuesday, while Minnesota will visit Boston on Wednesday. Speaking of Minnesota, they announced that American hockey star Kendall Coyne will be the inaugural captain of PWHL Minnesota today, while Lee Stecklein and Kelly Pannek were made alternate captains. Currently, the PWHL has 157 players representing around 12 countries and we hope to continue to report on the league as the year goes along. Thus far, it seems like the league is going strong.
- In more shocking news, the defending champions Team Canada have been eliminated from the 2024 World Juniors in Sweden, after a late Czech goal by Jakub Stancl in the quarterfinals. This comes after a fairly strong showing by Canada, and it leads a path for a possible new champion. Finland also beat Slovakia 4 to 3, while the USA pummelling Latvia 7 to 2, and Sweden beat Switzerland 3 to 2 in overtime. We are now moving into the semi-finals but we are also seeing some great young talent emerging, some whom we may see real soon in the NHL. Teams like Arizona Coyotes and the St. Louis Blues each have 7 prospects at the tournament showing how well these teams draft, while teams like Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers have none. We get to see the USA play Finland and Sweden play Czechia, each competing to play for Gold. Also shout out to Gothenburg, Sweden for hosting thus far a great tournament.
- The NHL is also set to announce the first 32 players that will participate at this year’s (2024) edition of the NHL All-Star Game. The league will select a player to represent each team to take part in the annual mid-season game, and then fans will get to vote on the final 12 players. This event has seen some highs and lows over the past few years, and as noted in our episode last season, has struggled with viewership, so the NHL will have to reconstruct the event to make it more memorable and enticing for all hockey fans. Toronto will be hosting the event, so it should be a good one.
- On January 1, 2024, the NHL also hosted the Winter Classic in Seattle featuring the Kraken take on the Golden Vegas Knights. Both are the latest expansion teams, and overall the experience looked amazing on tv (we hope fans in the stands had a blast). Seattle ended up beating Vegas 3-0 but the event was a spectacle. Both teams arrived in style representing each of their cities (Vegas players dressed up as Elvises, while Seattle players as fishermen from Pike Place Fish. I think the event continues to be a hit for the NHL and we can’t wait to see who will be hosting next year.
- If you think Connor McDavid can’t get any better, he is now the fifth fastest player to reach 900 points in the game of hockey, completing the unbelievable task in 602 games. This comes after a 5 point night for the Oilers captain where they beat out the hot Philadelphia Flyers 5 to 2. The only other players to accomplish such a feat were Peter Stastny in 589 games, Mike Bossy in 582 games, Mario Lemieux in 463 games and Wayne Gretzky in 385 games. To just look at that list is very impressive.
- Speaking of milestones, another one made was Marc-Andre Fleury of the Minnesota Wild, who became the fourth goalie in NHL history to play in 1,000 games when he started the game on Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets. The only other goalies to have done so are Martin Brodeur in 1,266 games, Roberto Luongo in 1,044 games and Patrick Roy in 1,029 games. Although he spent the bulk of his career in Pittsburgh, making 691 appearances in 13 seasons with the team, he continues to be a solid goaltender and elite leader on and off the ice. We think that’s a pretty solid career, worthy of being in the HOF.
- Finally, we also had HC Davos win the famous Spengler Cup 5 to 3 against Dynamo Pardubice on the 100th anniversary of the first event, as Davos hosted the event. For fun history hockey buffs, The Spengler Cup is the world’s oldest invitational hockey tournament. Davos has now tied Canada for the most titles won at 16. It’s been a difficult journey for Davos but they played their hearts out and the tournament had a lot of emotions, energy and intensity.
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’
