Nashville Predators News & Notes
Nashville Predators 4, St. Louis Blues 2 Recap: First Period Explosion Propels Preds to Win | On the Forecheck
In case you didn’t even bother watching the game because you ignored my excellent advice that one of these days they were going to win another hockey game, Carson has you covered with the recap.
Arvidsson injury puts damper on Predators’ much-needed win | ProHockeyTalk
Sure does 🙁
St. Louis’ Robert Bortuzzo will have a hearing Sunday for Cross-checking Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) November 24, 2019
Other News & Notes
Hayley Wickenheiser inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame | The Ice Garden
Wickenheiser is a frickin’ legend. What more is there to say?
Flames haven’t solved their problems, but losing streak is over | ProHockeyTalk
Are they us? Are we them? The ProHockeyTalk piece on the Preds ending their skid didn’t go into the problems with extended losing streaks on team play, but catches us up in the Flames piece.
Oilers’ Klefbom defying common hockey practice as team’s No. 1 defenceman | Sportsnet.ca
What Klefbom is doing that’s defying hockey practice while being the Oilers’ #1 is…not being a player that everyone agrees is a #1. Okay, Mark. Okay. (For the record, Klefbom is not awful, and probably improving, but definitely not the otherworldly best-in-the-league guy that dtmaboutheart’s WAR model had him at before the Avs hired him and the model went offline. Buddy, that was McDavid you were looking at.)
Yanni Gourde of the Tampa Bay Lightning is better than you think | Raw Charge
Alan over at Raw Charge takes a great look both at Yanni Gourde and how we evaluate players.
Canadiens’ defensive issues the root of ‘unacceptable’ loss to Rangers | Sportsnet.ca
Oh good, they’re going after Jesperi Kotkaniemi now. The kid’s like eleven years old. I think we should just not allow Montreal to have young centers any more.
Report: Nicklas Backstrom has begun contract extension talks with the Capitals | Russian Machine Never Breaks
My entire commentary when I first saw this on Sportsnet was going to be “WITHOUT AN AGENT? Oh buddy. Pal. Friend.” but then I decided to grab the RMNB take on this and discovered Alexander Ovechkin’s mother negotiated his current contract.
Is it just me or are the Caps weird?
How minor hockey survived the chaos of the Fort McMurray fires | Sportsnet.ca
This was one of those times that silly entertainment, like watching a bunch of strangers chase a piece of rubber around the ice for a while, really matters–when it’s something normal, something distracting, something to hang on to.
Crouse scores, leaves with injury as Coyotes beat Kings | ProHockeyTalk
HC Rick Tocchet weighing in to express concern about an injured player’s brain even when the player himself wasn’t concerned is good. More NHL teams need to start doing that, both because the culture leads people to try to brush off injuries and because brain injuries specifically make it hard to, uh, use your brain to evaluate your wellness.
NHL players weigh in on controversial Calvert injury, Canucks goal | Sportsnet.ca
Speaking of brain injuries! Ryans Johansen and Ellis are among the players interviewed here. Spoiler: nobody except, apparently, Gary Bettman thinks that refs should allow play to continue while a player is lying on the ice bleeding from his head.
Secret Women’s Hockey Showcase announced as next Dream Gap Tour stop | The Ice Garden
Toronto gets all the cool stuff. 🙁
Mike Babcock not rushing into next head coaching job | Sportsnet.ca
I would love to be earning as much money to not coach the Toronto Maple Leafs as Mike Babcock is.