NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – February 27, 2020
Marc-Andre Fleury records his 61st shutout, Jay Bouwmeester won’t return to action this season, Jake Muzzin sidelined for a month, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury kicked out 29 shots to shut out the Edmonton Oilers 3-0. With 61 career shutouts, Fleury moves into a tie with Turk Broda for 17th on the all-time list. Oilers winger Andreas Athanasiou left the game with a lower-body injury, but coach Dave Tippett doesn’t think it’s serious. The Golden Knights (78 points) are on a seven-game winning streak, widening their lead to four points over the Oilers and Canucks for first place in the Pacific Division.
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury picked up his 61st career shutout in a 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers (Photo via NHL Images).
J.T. Compher’s third-period goal lifted the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The Avalanche (81 points) have won four straight games and sit three points behind the first-place St. Louis Blues in the overall Western Conference standings. The Sabres (66 points) remains eight behind the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division.
The Los Angeles Kings edged the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1, extending the latter’s losing skid to four games. Kings goaltender Calvin Petersen made 35 saves, while Patrick Marleau was held scoreless in his first game with the Penguins (80 points), who remain four back of the first-place Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division.
HEADLINES
STLTODAY.COM: Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester expressed his appreciation to the medical people who save his life after suffering a cardiac incident on the bench during a recent game. While his condition is improving, Bouwmeester said he’s done playing hockey for this season. He also admitted his playing career remains uncertain after having an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) surgically implanted in his chest to monitor and control his heartbeat.
TORONTO SUN: Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin will be sidelined for the next four weeks with a broken hand.
MONTREAL GAZETTE: Canadiens defenseman Victor Mete is done for the season as he recovers from a fractured foot.
VANCOUVER SUN: Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom underwent surgery to repair a minor meniscus tear in one of his knees. He’ll be reevaluated in two weeks, though there’s speculation he could be sidelined up to four weeks.
NHL.COM: New Jersey Devils forward John Hayden was fined over $2,000.00 by the department of player safety for cross-checking Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi on Tuesday.
Kudos to the Flower
Knights surging; to me looking more and more likely as the SC reps of the West. Lehner as back-up (over Suban)….. poise/maturity and 918 vs 890…… forggeddaboudit !!!
Re Pens/LA
Pens were expected to win š¢
Peterson played great and effectively won that game
Lots of great chances by Pens; tons of shot attempts
3 posts/crossbar and a puck that rolled laterally across the goal line but didnāt cross
A deflected shot that Jarry had ZERO chance on
The Kings also had bouts of keeping Penguins stymied
The new players…
Sheary looked engaged and hungry; and fast … very goodš
Marleau didnāt look out of place ; will take a couple of games to get things going in new system š
Rodriguez had limited minutes but looked fine š
Zucker was not his usual self and fumbled things a few times… Iām not worried in the long run; players have down games
Sully needs to really really really watch game tapes.
He mustnāt see at ice level what is grossly obvious…., JJ just canāt be played anything but press box or highly highly limited bottom pairing minutes
Caused the winning goal; screwed up several times in D zone; almost caused 3 more GAs; and basically screwed the offensive threat in LAs end at least 8-10 times by seriously over-shooting a pass ; errantly sending puck to an open corner much closer to an LA player when at least 1 or 2 Pens were wide open; coughing the puck up when mildly under pressure; and/or fumbling an easy pass to him. He also had a shot at the net where Peterson was laterally way out of place exposing JJās shot to basically 1/2 the net wide open…. he missed the net entirely!!!
Riikola on the other hand was poised ; faster; did not make those errors ; kept many rushes alive and most of all did not make gross errors in his end exposing Jarry; and kept pressure in their end with crisp passing (giving/receiving))
Riikola was paired for a very short stint earlier in the season with Tanger and the duo played extremely well…. Sully; give it a shot…. put Riikola up with Tanger and put JJ back to bottom pairing (with extremely diminished minutes)
I am begging for a very very quick recovery and return of Dumo and Marino
In the Ottawa Citizen this morning there’s a story that pretty well sums up why I dislike Melnyk and why I think the Senators will be playing in a new location within 3 years (I started off 2 years ago saying 5 at the most).
https://ottawacitizen.com/business/local-business/melnyks-ex-pilot-awarded-two-weeks-compensation-melnyk-appeals
Small wonder some players can’t wait to get out of town. If only there was some way the league could force a sale to someone like Guy LalibertĆ© – who has indicated he’s interested.
Otherwise it’ll be the Houston Whatevers by 2023
Melnyk is a disgrace to all NHL and business management. There seems to be one or more incidents per year that show his lack of concern for business acumen.
Well, if there’s a bright side to a franchise move to Houston, Smitty, it’ll be that it will become a helluva commute for all those Habs and Leafs fans living in the Ottawa area š Of course they can always go to Buffalo or Detroit – only 7 to 8 hours drive. On a GOOD winter’s day.
Actually Buffalo and Detroit are great places to watch a game and worth the drive. Their fans are friendly and very knowledgeable .
I’d like to see the sens move to Quebec City
Nice to see Quebec City get a team again but I don’t think there will be another Canadian team, at least not anytime soon. I’m from Hamilton and still find it frustrating that in court Bettman admitted that NHL projections at that point were that Hamilton would have been the 4th highest revenue generating franchise in the league and they still didn’t want to go there, something like 2000 Sabres season ticket holders live in Hamilton, so I guess no way we’re ever getting a team. Maybe the Rangers can come back to Hamilton?
Hi tb
One of my clients was part of that economic analysis
Bettman IMHO despises Canada
The massive increase in revenues for the NHL if they moved say Clb or Arz (both drawing massively from shared revenues) to a Canadian city means nothing to Bettman.
Per that same analysis done years ago a second team in Toronto was forecasted to immediately become 3rd in league revenues (behind Ranger & Leafs) at that time and just nosing out Habs; and in fact due to local competition and media ownership of the Leafs; actually forecasted to increase Leafs revenues as well by a tad shy of 10%
Lets just extrapolate operating income …. using last year; use a Clb move to second team in T.O.
Before anyone flips; Iām just using this as a mathematical hypothetical
Leafs Op income 18/19 was a tad over $100 M $ USD
Iāll use 5% increase for Leafs (not 10) by adding a new team…. so $5 M increase
New T.O. …. 3rd place …. call it 4th place or just behind Habs … say $90 M op inc for 2nd T.O. team vs Clb (that had a negative $15 M op inc in 18/19)…. $105 M upward swing there plus $5 M from Leafs ….league op inc net gain $110 M from that hypothetical move
Bettman has absolutely no care for that picture… itās his way or the highway and he will never admit a mistake
Remember … same study had a hypothetical Halifax franchise forecasted revs and op income higher than Arz and Clb …. Halifax greater metro …. ~400 K; Clb > 2M; Phoenix ….. not far from 5M
Please donāt misunderstand me; a Houston franchise will do well
Itās watching 1/2 empty stadium in Sunrise when everybody knows Quebec would sellout 3 years straight within a day of opening sakes (remember Jets!!)
ā¹ļø
If you think Montreal has a difficult time attracting UFAs due to a multitude of reasons – high taxes and Draconian language laws being two of the main ones (the latter for an Anglophone family) – imagine Quebec City, the epicenter of those laws.
Never going to happen again. Hamilton, however, would be such a natural for a team but that’s as far removed from reality as Quebec City for entirely different reasons. as tb notes.
Hi W17H
If they have to move …. it better be to QC/PQ
Iāve visited the City (beautiful BTW) and toured the Videotron Centre…. great venue!!!
Will be going to Quebec City again this summer and really looking forward to it…. I have to dust off my nigh 4 decade old Grade 13 French vocabulary