NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 10, 2021
Carey Price reveals treatment for substance abuse while Ducks GM Bob Murray is placed on administrative leave for improper professional conduct. Details and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
HEADLINES
MONTREAL GAZETTE: Canadiens goaltender Carey Price broke his silence yesterday regarding the reasons why he entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program last month. In a statement released on his Instagram account, Price said he sought treatment for substance abuse after years of neglecting his mental health. He admitted it could take some time before he returns to action. The 34-year-old goaltender also expressed appreciation for the support and well wishes he’s received.
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Price didn’t owe the public an explanation for seeking help but it was brave of him to do so. He’s dealt with an unimaginable burden of pressure as a superstar in one of hockey’s most demanding markets. Success and millions of dollars does not make a person immune from struggling with mental health issues. Best wishes to Price and his family in his ongoing recovery.
DAILY FACEOFF: The Anaheim Ducks placed general manager Bob Murray on administrative leave following the initial findings of an internal investigation into allegations of “improper professional conduct”.
Frank Seravalli reported sources claimed Murray allegedly created a toxic workplace atmosphere through repeated verbal abuse and harassment of Ducks players, coaches and personnel. His intimidation tactics and temper tantrums fostered a climate of fear throughout the organization.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Seravalli indicated the Ducks GM was with his team in Vancouver yesterday when the news was delivered. He was ordered to leave the team immediately and return to Anaheim on his own. Murray’s fate could be decided once the team receives additional findings from the investigation.
This news comes less the two weeks following the release of the report into allegations by Kyle Beach that he was sexually assaulted by former Chicago Blackhawks video coach Bradley Alrich in 2010. That report cost Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman his job over his handling of the allegations.
TSN: The Pittsburgh Penguins have settled a lawsuit filed by a former minor-league assistant and his wife. Jarrod and Erin Skalde accused the team of negligently retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed Erin and threatened retaliation against Jarrod for reporting the incident.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hey, NHL teams, here’s a thought: stop hiring and protecting abusive scumbags and sexual predators.
GAME RECAPS
NHL.COM: The New Jersey Devils overcame a 3-2 deficit to thump the Florida Panthers 7-3, handing the latter their second straight regulation defeat after going 10-0-1. Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves, Ty Smith had a goal and two assists and Andreas Johnsson scored twice.
Detroit Red Wings forward Vladislav Namestnikov tallied two goals and Alex Nedeljkovic kicked out 31 shots in a 4-2 upset of the Edmonton Oilers. Connor McDavid and Jesse Puljujarvi replied for the Oilers after the Wings opened a 3-0 lead. Moritz Seider put the game away with an empty-net goal. Detroit extends its record to 7-5-2.
A 37-save effort by Adin Hill carried the San Jose Sharks over the Calgary Flames 4-1. Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Jonathan Dahlen netted three unanswered third-period goals for the Sharks, who now sit 7-4-1 on the season.
The Los Angeles Kings extended their winning streak to six games by nipping the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on an overtime goal by Adrian Kempe. Cal Petersen made 33 saves for the win as the Kings’ record sits at 7-5-1. Canadiens winger Jonathan Drouin missed his third straight game as he still feels lingering effects from a recent head injury.
Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson made 41 saves in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Winger Troy Terry netted the game-winner to extend his points streak to 12 games as the Ducks (7-4-2) have won five straight games. Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes each had two assists in a losing cause.
The Carolina Hurricanes (10-1-0) downed the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on an OT goal by Martin Necas. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos opened the scoring but Teuvo Teravainen tied in the third period. Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves. Before the game, the Hurricanes placed winger Nino Niederreiter (lower body) on injured reserve.
A shootout goal by Ryan O’Reilly gave the St. Louis Blues a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington made 39 stops while teammates Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou each had a goal and an assist. The Blues’ record sits at 8-2-1.
Vegas Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith scored twice in a 46-second span in the third period as his club doubled up the Seattle Kraken by a score of 4-2. Vegas defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore each had a goal and an assist. The Kraken (4-8-1) have dropped four of their last five contests.
Patrice Bergeron tallied the game-winner late in the third period as the Boston Bruins beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy picked up his 200th career NHL victory. The Senators (3-8-1) have lost five straight games. Bruins forward Trent Frederic left the game after being hit in the second period by Senators defenseman Josh Brown. Earlier in the day, Senators defenseman Victor Mete became the sixth member of the team placed on COVID protocol.
The Chicago Blackhawks overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Marc-Andre Fleury made 42 saves while shootout goals by Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat completed the comeback. The Blackhawks (3-9-2) have won two straight games under interim head coach Derek Kings. Jeff Carter scored two goals for the Penguins. Earlier in the day, the Blackhawks placed winger Mackenzie Entwistle (ankle injury) on IR. He’s expected to miss four-to-six weeks.
IN OTHER NEWS…
NBC SPORTS: Tuukka Rask returned to the Boston Bruins practice facility in full goalie gear working out with the club’s goaltending coach Bob Essensa. The 34-year-old Rask underwent hip surgery three months ago and remains an unrestricted free agent. Whether he returns with the Bruins or signs with another NHL club remains to be seen.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rask has already indicated he’s open to returning to the Bruins on an inexpensive one-year deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s back in the lineup at some point in the New Year.
THE DENVER POST: Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon missed practice yesterday with a lower-body injury.
CBS SPORTS: The Nashville Predators placed Filip Forsberg (upper body) on injured reserve.
Good on ya Carey with your courage to come forward and open up about your struggles with substance abuse. All the best in your recovery and return.
Murray…. are more and more of these going to surface? Pens just settled out-of-court on theirs… I would expect a non-disclosure agreement with that…. Will their be an NHL investigation … who knew what and when; and what did they do? With NDs in place, investigation would have trouble getting information directly
What was Brunette doing playing his back-up(Knight) in B2B games when he had an extremely rough night (Knight -lol) on the first one. Then Knight has an even rougher game against Devils…. And Brunette didn’t pull him….Panthers had closed to 3-4 by end of second; but Knight let in two early in 3rd. He was not looking good. Why not pull him??
Pens/BlackHawks …. Goalers duel…. Jarry has been doing his all to help Pens have a chance to win… both goals last night he had no chance. His only falter this year is 0-3 in shootouts. Great on breakaways in-game; but he has lost all 3 shootouts. That said, the Flower was spectacular especially in the 3rd….when Pens pounded him with 20 shots; and made two good saves in the shoot-out. Carter 2 goals 👍👍👍, but Pens are missing their big guns huge
Murray has been the Ducks’ GM for 13 years. Whatever unprofessional tactics he’s been carrying out didn’t just happen. Obviously, all of the s**t is hitting the fan following the Hawks matter.
As for the Penguins situation, notwithstanding the settlement, if the NHL really desires to get serious about culture change, there must be an investigation and consequences.
Lyle’s got it right. Stop protecting the scumbags.
With you Howard
You gotta think more skeletons on more clubs will be coming out of their proverbial closets
The Boston / Ottawa game feature 3 or more big open ice hits/ Frederick got clocked a nice clean hit by Brown. (Frederick might want to talk to his teammate about that pass.) McAvoy landed a couple of nice hits.
The best thing about these big clean hits, was there were no fights after the hit. The only retaliation was another clean hit.
It was entertaining hockey
Carey’s being paid an exorbitant amount of money….suck it in and play hockey. Never liked the garbage Rask has pulled over the years but Ullmark and Swayman? Rask would be major improvement over what they have now. still need a second line centre and the way they were running amok in their own end the other night another good d under the Xmas tree would most likely take care of that situation hopefully before then. Get busy Sweeney!! You had all spring and summer to iron this out and you failed the grade. Liked the benching of Hall, Cassidy showing he’s got gumption.
Rick which way is the wind blowing today?
Suck it up? You really need to either educate yourself better about mental health issues or you need to just shut your trap. This isn’t the first time you’ve said something like this and it is downright deplorable.
you have the right to your opinion but we also have the right to roast the living hell out of it if you are going to keep making completely out of touch comments like this.
You have my support Price and I’m sure many others as well. Don’t pay any attention to the Rick W Murray’s of the world.
I’ll just stop reading Rick’s comments, they’re a waste of my time.
To Mr. Murray – I can’t believe that you are that cold of a human being that you do not understand that mental health issues are real. “Suck it in” does not work. All that does is prolong the agony. Please educate yourself or look closer into your family tree and you may find someone along the way that also had issues unless of course you came from the perfect family.
Flying V, he is either trolling, or just likes to talk/type tough, for whatever reason.
You call whether to engage.
I here you Ray but I choose to engage when it comes to something like this because I want to let people like this know that there are many of us out there who will not stand by quietly while they spew their garbage and that those who need support have it.
This type of trash talk is not the same as my team is better than yours. It is hateful and idiotic and has no place here or anywhere else.
I love this game and people like him, (RWM), do not deserve it.
Flying V, do you think it is possible that folks who type stuff like that are doing it because they believe that it will make us perceive him as some tough guy who sucked it up when he had to?
Which he very likely did, because that is what we men have done for centuries until recently. Still shallow and obvious, and I would prefer not to be perceived that way.
Guys of my and his generations still think that way, even though I try to understand it and be open to it. I struggle because it is imbedded. I can compartmentalize with the best of them and carry on.
At least now I don’t judge. Rick ain’t their yet.
Attention, attention, attention.
I guess he’s out of stupid bold predictions today?
It was an entertaining game to watch. The most interesting part to me was the Bruins power play goal…the tying goal maybe? Dave Poulin noted that the B’s top line had just been out for a long shift so the “second pp unit comes on first” and the Sens seem to do ok on the penalty kill. Then, the top crew comes on and the puck movement speed around the zone goes up by an incredible amount and it’s in the net. Not sure who was on the ice for the beginning of the penalty kill but I suspect Chabbotl which…was a coaching blunder as he should have had his “secondary penalty killing crew on”
Although I wish the Canucks would have won it was an exciting game with tons of scoring chance going both ways. Fantastic game!
Montreal is a tough market and many players have difficulty in the market.
The local media shares in the responsibility putting extreme pressure on the players..
Andre Racicot was named red light racicot and referred to as such in every artice.
Patrice Brisebois was named Breeze-by and referred to as such in every article.
Expectations of fans and media feeding them who live vicariously through their team, seen almost as a religion make it amazing for Price to have ice filing his veins or this long.
I have no love for the TML but it may be apparent that I have posted in favour of the core 4 who imho get crucified far beyond what they deserve.
I have to agree with all of this.
No player is perfect and never will be and they are not the ones who built these teams.
Everyone today seems to have mental issues. You are being paid an incredible amount of money to play the game you love. PLAY IT and shut up.
Neanderthal’s are entitled to their opinions and others are entitled to recognise neanderthals for who and what they are.
On the plus side posters who tend to disagree with and might snipe at each other from time to time see him for what he is.
As evidenced in recent situations of bullying, abuse and harassment in the NHL (or anywhere for that matter), there is no place for either those involved directly in the sport or those fans like you who think this type of attitude is acceptable.
You should show these posts you make to somebody who actually knows you instead of hiding behind a screen name.
Perhaps then someone can insist on you getting the help you need. You either do not realize the hurt you can cause others with your words and need to address that or you don’t care and the people who know you should have a glimpse of who you really are.
I really and truly hope someone you know can actually help you.
Hey Rick…go get us coffees schlep… And none of that black rifle shhite !
Lyle, do you really have to keep an idiot like that around ? he’s ruining my fun.
Follow your own advice and ignore his comments.
People have a right to their opinions and people have a right to agree or disagree with them and this of course is a comment section where we can all reasonably expect there will be a difference of opinion.
Just remember that at the end of the day this is a privately run site and Lyle has the final say on what crosses the line for being allowed here.
I think Lyle does a fantastic job letting us say some rather spicy things sometimes but stops us when it goes too far.
I myself have had comments deleted and in every case I not only accept that but agree that my own comments had either gone to far or just went too far off topic.
I don’t mind these comments for the very reason that seem people actually think this way and they only way to change that is to keep the conversation going.
I’d love to see more open discussion amongst all the NHL from the top to the bottom, owners, management, players, staff and volunteers alike and as we fans pay for this sport to exist we should jump all over the bad things and keep pushing for change in a good and productive way.
I would love it if you would shut up. Suspect most here would like you to find a deep dark hole to troll in. It would your kind of place as opposed to being here.
You know. I’m not quite so far over the line as someone else who is posting here. BUT. But, this is a business. An entertainment business owned by very rich individuals. These same people over many decades have shown an unrelenting resistance to change\help\empathy within their organizations. The “its a tough sport, suck it up mantra” crosses all sports and isn’t just confined to hockey. Furthermore, the sympathetic masses are delusional if they believe the owners will tolerate these mental health “time outs” any longer than it being a passing fad.
They’re going to be doing much more deep diving diligence at the draft into family history and backgrounds. Like, private eye, personal privacy violation crap. Heck it’s probably already happening with young draft prospects’ social media footprints.
It’s a business of money.
Bob Murray was tough to play for; now you want to revisit his pass and say that wasn’t expectable.
Please give me a break.
Hazing, verbal, was all expectable behavior and now were some think we live in a new society and want folks to pay for what was expectable behavior at them times. Let make him lose his job, take away his livelihood.
The pass week 2 incident of today perfect society.
Chanting at female goaltender “wh@@e” and “suck our d@%Ks” in the state of Pennsylvania
Aboriginal young man being taunted by the home fans.
A long ways to go for the revisionist
It was never acceptable behavior. Just because bullies got away with it doesn’t mean it was ever right. Maybe we didn’t or couldn’t stand up to the bullies then but we can now and we should.
As you said it is imbedded with some but what is also imbedded and even exists to some level in the NHL is protecting each other. Teammates for the most part stick up for each other from transgressions from their opponent’s, right?
It’s a shame that Mario and company ignored the line in the the coaches resume that said proficient in abusive scumbaggery and sexual predadation.
Chrism are you putting, a verbal abuse in the same category as a sexual predator?
Yet the abuse the young female goaltender took in your state, where no one did anything including her own coach you stayed quiet and say nothing?
Wha? I was making a sarcastic comment referring to Lyles statement above regarding hiring certain people. As in I doubt teams knowing hired people they believed would act in said way.
Now Lyle was dead right about needing to stop protecting them.
It’s not confined to just hockey. It exists everywhere. The difference now is that social media has given a voice to those who need help and those who support that need.
Businesses must learn to accept that as a reality and adapt accordingly or they will go by the wayside just like these old outdated mantra’s.
I’ve worked in the restaurant business my whole life. Worked my way up from a dishwasher as a teenager to a business owner of multiple successful restaurants and bars as well as other side projects in different area’s.
Suck it up, you need a doctor’s note, etc. was just the way it was in my work environment’s and is was a negative experience that happened all to often to the detriment of both the business management and the employee’s until I decided to change that type of attitude and approach in my own business practices.
I said you don’t need a note. You don’t need to supply a reason. Take any and as much time you need and for whatever reason you need it for and you have my full support in doing so. Get better. Come back invigorated and without feeling like you are being judged or looked down or worried if you are going to lose your job.
You want people going to work and feeling good, not bad. Get rid of the stress on everyone. A happy staff is a productive staff and that is good for people and for business.
Sure people would ‘take advantage’ of that with that business model but it didn’t affect anyone else as it was not leaving me short staffed and no additional pressure was put on me or my staff to make up for the lack of production and most importantly people either really needed and/or appreciated that type of non-judgmental environment in order to deal with any issues they have without the added pressure coming from someone who holds their livelihood over their heads.
My solution to staffing was very simple.
I would just over schedule. If people called in, no problem. I had extra staff anyway. If no one called in, no problem. I would offer the shift off to anyone who just maybe wanted to have the day off. If no one called in or wanted the day off, I would just use the extra staff to do extra projects that would both improve the business and the work environment for everyone. A win-win.
No more chasing down doctor’s notes or wasting time trying to shame people into working. Work what you want/need. That simple.
I was happy not having to deal with that type of workplace negativity that comes from disgruntled management and employees and instead created a work environment that was really good and far more stress free and believe me, the food service business can be a very stressful one.
The solution is to adapt, not hold fast to outdated beliefs.
So to keep this NHL related I’ll give you just one example of what the NHL could do and they are more than capable of deciding to make these changes because they are a private business and can decide themselves it is time to move forward.
They could expand the allowable roster size in order to account for players who need time off instead of keeping the allowable roster limit so tight that it creates a difficult situation when there is need to shuffle your roster players around.
There is no difference right now if an injured player can’t play or a player needs personal time off…it has too much of an impact sometimes depending on your role so in the event that it is not a physical issue sidelining you you must now chose between your own well being and your paycheck because there is too much pressure put on one person for what should be a team game.
Allow for an extra goaltender or extra forwards/defensemen or just a general increase in players and the owners/GM’s can decide what they will invest in as good way to cover absences or allow for more flexibility.
You don’t have to adjust the game, just adjust the ability to have a supporting cast for both the organization and its employee’s.
Are you kidding me???? Social media. The main influence to the worst society of people.
He says on a social media site.
Ya Caper, Social Media turned out to have some pretty significant downsides.
And if we think Facebook is bad here in North America, it is way worse in other less developed countries.
All of them need to be subject to law suits just like other publishers are, or they need to get out of the news business. Break them up as they sure don’t mind getting paid to break us up.
Let’s keep this thread from derailing into a screed against social media and return to the original subject at hand.
Very well said Mr V , take an empathic approach you will live longer and have many friends.
The angst spewed by Murray and his ilk are a reflection of insecurity as they know they don’t measure up and would fold under any pressure.They are frightened.
jorge you just hit the the nail on the head. Yes you are better then everyone else., you are exactly what i’m referencing on social media; enjoy your glass house.