Nashville Predators News & Notes
Check out the report cards for Craig Smith, by Nick, and P.K. Subban, by Sarah, if you missed them yesterday!
Preds Suffer First Preseason Defeat on Final-Minute Goal | NHL.com
The Preds (Calle Jarnkrok) scored a power-play goal, which I think makes this article officially a fever dream.
Other News & Notes
Jaromir Jagr is still scoring goals at age 47 | ProHockeyTalk
Jágr was drafted by the Penguins the same week I was born, and that fact gets more mindblowing every year he continues to be out there playing extremely competent top-level professional hockey.
My talk is about aging and since I don’t mention Jagr explicitly I feel compelled to tell you that he was still good when he retired. I still hope he’ll come back and play again. pic.twitter.com/7A5f28T1Vk
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) September 14, 2019
Jets coach Paul Maurice says he met with Dustin Byfuglien | Sportsnet.ca
I get that Jacob Trouba didn’t want to play in Winnipeg, but you have to wonder if they have regrets right around now. The bigger question, of course, is why Maurice thinks that Jiří Tlustý’s nudes getting published in a tabloid in 2007 was worse than not having about a third of the 2019 Jets’ core available.
NWHL sells Boston Pride to Miles Arnone | The Ice Garden
Arnone is local, enthusiastic about women’s hockey, and has plans for the Pride. This sounds like good news for the NHWL; hopefully it plays out well for the players who’ve signed with the Pride already or who do so now.
NBC Sports NHL Player Survey: Change or keep current playoff format? | ProHockeyTalk
Ben Bishop thinks the NHL should have a play-in for the wild card spots so that fans don’t feel like a team that got really close to the playoffs but missed failed, which sounds great–his reasoning aside–until you remember Connor McDavid getting injured in a meaningless Game 82 last year and think about some star getting injured in a play-in Game 83 where their team wasn’t in playoff position to start and went on to lose the play-in game/series anyway.
Canadiens’ Ryan Poehling out indefinitely with concussion | Sportsnet.ca
The team reports that Poehling didn’t start showing symptoms until the morning after the hit, just in case we hadn’t had enough recent reminders that current safety measures are wildly inadequate. Good wishes to him for a speedy recovery.
NHL goaltenders getting concussions at an alarming rate | AP News
Speaking of not enough being done about player safety. If the NHL is that worried about increasing scoring, they can make the nets bigger.
Salary cap economics squeezing out NHL’s middle class | ProHockeyTalk
“Stanley Cup-winning experience isn’t worth what it used to be. Neither is experience of any kind.”
Or, in other words, more and more teams are asking people to perform well on the ice in exchange for drawing a salary as a player.
Why Maple Leafs’ Michal Neuvirth followed his heart to Toronto | Sportsnet.ca
Not included in the headline: Kyle Dubas has invested extensively in making the best medical staff and trainers he can pay available to his players. Because that just doesn’t fit with the Toronto mystique (in fairness, Neuvirth said some nice things about the Toronto mystique as well as the medical facilities). It’s one of those non-capped incentives that financially stacked teams can offer, and it’s a good one.
Dan Girardi hangs up his skates after 13 NHL seasons | ProHockeyTalk
Sweep aside, Girardi finished his career on a surprisingly high note with the Lightning.
Details released for Chicago stop of PWHPA’s Dream Gap Tour | The Ice Garden
I wonder if I could mail myself to one of my Chicago friends to check this out. Probably not. Airfare might be cheaper.