Good afternoon Hockey fans,
Hope all is well with you. We are back with more news from around the league with Round 2 already on the go.
- Rick Bowness, Head Coach of the Winnipeg Jets has announced that he will be retiring from his role, after nearly 40 years of being involved in hockey. He is coming off a 4-1 series loss to the Colorado Avalanche, and was a head coach for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars plus assistant or associate roles many others. He is also a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy for the first time this year after guiding the Jets to a 52-24-6 record this past season. We wish him all the best in retirement.
- There are now 8 teams left playing in Round 2 (New York Rangers vs Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche vs Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers vs Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins vs Florida Panthers). Which of these will end up in the final four? You let us know.
- There are a lot of questions again for the Toronto Maple Leafs and upper management after another Game 7 loss in the first round vs the Boston Bruins. There are a lot of balls up in the air, such as whether the Head Coach Sheldon Keefe is done or will he return, the question about the Core 4 and whether they will be split up and traded, will Brendan Shanahan stay on as President on Hockey Operations, and who will play in net next season after Woll’s injury and Samsonov’s inconsistency, plus the weak powerplay. There will be a lot of changes happening in the coming weeks.
- The Ottawa Senators are working on a contract to bring in Travis Green as their new Head Coach. Green, 53, was the interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils this season after the team parted with Lindy Ruff, going 8-12-1. He was previously the Head Coach for the Vancouver Canucks. We wish him all the best.
- A few of the NHL award nominees have been announced such as the Aleksander Barkov, Auston Matthews and Jordan Staal were named finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy (the award given to the player who excels in the defensive aspects of the game), while the Vezina Trophy has nominated Sergei Bobrovsky, Thatcher Demko and Connor Hellebuyck as the 3 finalists. We also know that Connor Bedard, Brock Faber and Luke Hughes were named finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy (the best rookie player in the league) and Quinn Hughes, Roman Josi and Cale Makar were named finalists for the Norris Trophy (the best defenceman in the league). Finally Rick Bowness, Andrew Brunette and Rick Tocchet were named finalists for the Jack Adams (the best coach of the year). Please let us know your picks.
- The PWHL has announced the 10 potential games for the opening first round starting on May 8. The two best-of-five semifinal series will feature PWHL Toronto against PWHL Minnesota, and PWHL Montréal against PWHL Boston. This should be 2 exciting series that we are looking forward to watching.
- Dave Hakstol was also fired as coach of the Seattle Kraken on Monday and there hasn’t been a replacement picked yet. The Seattle Kraken went 34-35-13 this season and failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing 6th in the Pacific Division, one year after advancing to the Western Conference Second Round. There were some rumbling that the players in their exit interviews weren’t a fan of his coaching style but the team also didn’t meet their expectations in Year 3 and have some big ambitions into Year 4. We wish Dave Hakstol all the best in all of his future endeavours.
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’
