Good afternoon Hockey fans,
Hope all is well with you. It’s been a wild month of hockey with a lot of highs and lows and we have some news from around the league.
- The Ottawa Senators are heavily in the news in the past few weeks, after some big news coming from the club after parting ways with GM Pierre Dorion, being docked a 1st-round draft pick for its role in an invalidated trade involving Evgenii Dadonov (where Vegas tried to send him to Anaheim) and Steve Staios being announced as the interim GM. There has been a lot of speculation as to whether much will come of this or if there will be more blowback, but right now there is a lot of noise around Ottawa.
- The Washington Capitals have placed veteran forward Nicklas Backstrom on LTIR. The team noted that Backstrom will be stepping away from the game a week ago after dealing with numerous injuries over the past few seasons, and only playing 8 games this year, scoring one point. He still has two years remaining on his contract, costing the team (with an AAV of $9.2 million), but with the move to LTIR, they will have some options to pick up a player in a trade. They are currently 8-4-2 on the season after a slow start.
- We also sadly announce the passing of Roman Čechmánek at the age of 52. Čechmánek played parts of four NHL seasons with both the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings, putting up a 110-64-28-0 record with a 0.919 SV% and 2.08 GAA. On the international stage, Čechmánek represented Team Czechoslovakia/Team Czechia 13 times, winning an Olympic Gold Medal in 1998 and World Championships in 1996, 1999, and 2000. We send our thoughts, prayers and condolences to his family and friends. He will be missed.
- The Edmonton Oilers have fired their head coach Jay Woodcroft and defensive coach Dave Manson after a 2-9-1 start this season and brought in Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey to take over. Their first game as an NHL head coach ended with his first victory as the Oilers cruised to a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on Monday night. This is after an abysmal start for a team with Cup aspirations and to get both McDavid and Draisaitl going. This is also after Jack Campbell got dropped down to the AHL affiliate for the team (Baskersfield) and has had a poor start. We do hope he finds his confidence and can once again be called up to the NHL.
- The Vancouver Canucks have announced that defenceman Carson Soucy will be up to eight weeks with lower-body injury. Soucy, 29, left the Sunday game against the Montreal Canadiens after blocking a shot in the second period. Soucy has played 13 games, putting up 2 goals and 3 assists and has been an integral part of the great run thus far.
- It also sounds like Nikita Zadorov, 28, a defenceman from the Calgary Flames has requested a trade out of Calgary. He has a cap hit of $3.75 million and he is in his 3rd season with the Flames. Through 13 games he has 2 goals and 4 assists as Calgary is 4-7-2, sixth in the Pacific Division. Will they move more players like Noah Hanifin or Chris Tanev? There is a lot to determine in the Calgary and there may be a re-tool in the near distant future.
- The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) have unveiled the jerseys they will wear (with their city name across the chest) for the league’s inaugural season, starting in January. They are not as colourful or dynamic as they can be, and I think this is a big loss as they missed a great branding opportunity. They also announced that teams will have two sets of jerseys during the first season, teams will wear dark jerseys on home ice, and lighter coloured jerseys while away.
- It was also announced that the police in England have arrested a man in connection with the death of Adam Johnson during a Nottingham Panthers hockey game last month. Johnson, 29, died after his neck was cut during a game against the Sheffield Steelers in the Elite Hockey League on Oct. 28 at Sheffield’s Utilita Arena. This has spurred a lot of discussion about equipment, specifically neck guards being implemented and we have seen some key players like Tom Wilson from the Washington Capitals. This hasn’t become league mandated, but may be in the coming seasons.
- Finally, the NHL and the GMs are discussing 3-on-3 overtime rule changes to decrease the number of games ending in shootout, something adopted before the start of the 2015-16 regular season. This is still in the early stages, but there is a push for something else as people find another solution. Some proposals are being suggested like in Basketball, where once a team has taken the puck across centre ice or the blue line, they cannot just take it right back out. Although nothing is set in stone, once we learn more we will be first to report on it.
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’
