nhl`s daily clips - Philadelphia Flyers

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SPORT-SCAN
DAILY BRIEF
NHL 10/10/2014
Anaheim Ducks 752726
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Ducks drop opener, 6-4, to Pittsburgh Penguins Ducks poised to send goalie John Gibson vs. hometown
Penguins Opening night flop for Ducks in 6-4 loss Rocky start for Ducks' new kids Final: Penguins 6, Ducks 4 Ducks season preview: Pressure, expectations are high for
Bruce Boudreau Keys to Ducks' 2014-15 season Corey Perry’s hat trick not enough as Anaheim Ducks lose
opener to Pittsburgh Penguins Arizona Coyotes 752734
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Jets slam Coyotes in front of sellout crowd for opener Boivin: Skepticism over Arizona Coyotes ownership issues is
par for course NHL chief discounts fears of Coyotes leaving Move to wing not ruled out for Coyotes C Sam Gagner Game day: Winnipeg Jets at Arizona Coyotes D'Anna: Why hockey belongs in the desert Arizona Coyotes confidential with Devan Dubnyk New season means clean slate, fresh start, plenty of
optimism for Arizona Coyotes Smith, Coyotes lay egg in season-opening loss Bettman on Coyotes sale: 'It will make franchise even
stronger' Boston Bruins 752744
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3 Takeaways From the Bruins' 2-1 Loss to the Red Wings Jordan Caron Called Up for Bruins Game in Detroit Claude Julien tinkering with his lines through injuries, new
players Carl Soderberg starts strong for Bruins ‘Slowly but surely’ fighting is exiting the NHL Down 2 centers, Bruins’ Claude Julien turned to familiar lines Bruins win opener, and it’s all good Bruins offense takes nap Bruins Notebook: Patrice Bergeron returns after scare Bergeron said he's fine after hits Bruins fall short in Detroit Bruins get right back at it with the Red Wings tonight Talking Points: Red Wings 2, Bruins 1 Haggerty's thoughts from Bruins vs. Red Wings Haggerty: ‘Concerned’ if NHL goes away from fighting Cunningham stakes claim to fourth-line spot with Bruins Smith doesn't skip a beat after short camp Bruins recall Caron in last bit of roster juggling Haggerty's Morning Skate: Thursday, October 9 Lucic trying to get 'in sync' with Spooner, Fraser What we learned: Bruins 2, Flyers 1 Robins' NHL debut at age 32 is a swinging success Buffalo Sabres 752766
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Sabres will not take nights off Sabres’ Reinhart survives a hit and hopes to eventually
thrive New season, same old problems for Sabres Pegulas expected at tonight’s Sabres opener Amerks eager for season to begin Buffalo Sabres lose opener Newest Amerk Zac Dalpe no stranger to Rochester Calgary Flames 752773
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Mason Raymond scores three, Karri Ramo plays saviour as
Flames steal one in Edmonton Flames notes: Hartley makes sure Calgary players attend
Oilers’ pre-game ceremony Flames’ farm team issues apology after backlash over
awkward mascot unveiling Flames' prized prospect Sam Bennett to have shoulder
surgery Flames scratch veterans Wideman, McGrattan Calgary Flames beat Edmonton Oilers for first win of season Calgary Flames' Dennis Wideman dropped for Oilers game Calgary Flames face-off against the Oilers in Edmonton
home opener Calgary Flames confirm Sam Bennett to have surgery on
shoulder Carolina Hurricanes 752782
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It's time for the Canes to get started Ward to start Canes opener; alternate captains named Chicago Blackhawks 752784
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Blackhawks expecting rough and tumble season Thursday's recap: Blackhawks 3, Stars 2 (shootout) NHL debut dream come true for Trevor van Riemsdyk Stellar Corey Crawford stars vs. Stars Patrick Kane gets shootout goal, but Crawford earns
‘goaltender win’ in Blackhawks opener Blackawks’ Trevor van Riemsdyk excited to make NHL
debut Five suspended Notre Dame football players won’t play vs.
North Carolina Blackhawks braced for daunting, but ‘fun’ division race Blackhawks set for another exciting roller-coaster ride Crawford shines in net as Hawks win opener Blackhawks top Stars 3-2 in shootout in opener Pieces all in place for Hawks practice facility near UC Inking Toews, Kane to long-term deals ensured Hawks'
long-term success Rozner: Youth will be served on Blackhawks' blueline Crawford shines in Blackhawks' shootout winner over Stars Five things to watch: Blackhawks open season against Stars Dallas Stars looking to emulate Blackhawks success Konroyd's keys for the Blackhawks 2014-15 season opener Blackhawks: Trevor van Riemsdyk set to make NHL debut Kane puts shootout woes behind him, delivers winner for
Hawks Crawford saves the day for the Hawks Rapid Reaction: Blackhawks 3, Stars 2 (SO) Trevor van Riemsdyk joins brother in NHL W2W4: Blackhawks at Stars Blackhawks season preview: 5 questions Hawks looking to put together full season Colorado Avalanche 752811
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No fight, no shot in opener for Avs A year after routing Anaheim, Avalanche gets worked at
Minnesota Catching Aqib Talib's "foul football" at a Broncos game Avs out of sync in 5-0 loss to Minnesota Wild to open the
season Rockies resignations first step out toward relevance Avalanche at Minnesota Wild gameday Avs' Tyson Barrie to face Wild's Matt Cooke first time since
injury Report: NFL likely to give Kroenke extension to transfer
ownership of Avs, Nuggets
Columbus Blue Jackets 752819
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Blue Jackets fans have new food choices this season Blue Jackets show group effort that is needed for them to
win Blue Jackets notebook: Run of abdominal injuries has team
puzzled Blue Jackets 3, Sabres 1: Jackets come out firing NHL: Blue Jackets out to avoid another slow start Solid start for big-thinking Blue Jackets Dallas Stars 752825
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Jason Spezza's debut with Dallas Stars overshadowed, but
he still makes an impact - good and bad He said it after Stars lose in shootout to Blackhawks: 'It was
panic mode and shoot it' Cold facts: What Dallas' opening-night loss means for
remainder of season Stars continue to raise bar on season despite shootout loss
to Blackhawks Cowlishaw: Stars a completely different team from 19
months ago, but sometimes progress takes its sweet time Former teams die hard; Jason Spezza still in 'adjustment
process' with Stars Stars' Patrick Eaves hoping to make most of opportunity
after Erik Cole's slip up Stars drop season opener to Blackhawks in shootout Detroit Red Wings 752834
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Why the Red Wings beat the Bruins Thursday night Jeff Seidel: Blend of youth and veterans leads to Wings’
victory Red Wings beat Bruins, 2-1, in season opener Andrej Nestrasil will take relish in NHL opportunity Red Wings drop big time in ESPN's future rankings Fighters having trouble finding jobs in NHL 'Everybody is excited' as Detroit Red Wings open season John Niyo: Red Wings pick up pace in promising opener Red Wings open with special victory over Bruins Instant Analysis: Special teams, Mule shine for Wings Gregg Krupa: Fighters are a vanishing breed in NHL Red Wings' Andrej Nestrasil excited for NHL debut Red Wings' Jimmy Howard not fazed after first shot goes in,
off to good start with 2-1 win over Bruins Red Wings 2, Bruins 1: Gustav Nyquist scores winner in
season opener, Detroit limits Boston's chances Second-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Bruins 1 First-period analysis: Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Season opener vs. Bruins is
rematch of last spring's playoff series MLive NHL writers agree on Detroit Red Wings' playoff fate,
disagree on Stanley Cup champion Red Wings' lineup vs. Bruins: Andrej Nestrasil's big day
finally arrives as he prepares for NHL debut Five reasons to be pessimistic the Red Wings' playoff streak
won't continue for a 24th season Five reasons to be optimistic the Red Wings' playoff streak
will continue for a 24th season Red Wings hoping better health, another year of experience
lead to improved play on back end Red Wings return same group, but better health, growth of
young players could lead resurgence Nyquist gets another timely goal to help troubled power play Pat Caputo - Been a long time since there has been this
much uncertainty about the Detroit Red Wings Red Wings open with a win, edge Bruins 2-1 RED WINGS: Dream comes true for Andrej Nestrasil Wings lay out blueprint for success in victory over Bruins Notes: Weiss, Cleary out, Nestrasil in for Wings' season
opener Gave: Can Wings pass torch -- without dropping it? Edmonton Oilers 752864
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MacKinnon: Encouraging signs during Oilers season-opener,
despite familiar outcome Oilers spring a leak against Flames in season-opener Return of ’84 Oilers players like an NHL family reunion for
City of Edmonton Brad Hunt to pair with Justin Schultz on Edmonton Oilers
blueline for season-opener Focus zeroes in on Leon Draisaitl as Edmonton Oilers rookie
makes NHL debut tonight Winning ugly for Oilers much preferable to losing well, right? Draisaitl will have all eyes on him in his NHL coming-out
party Oilers Game Grades & Three Stars Oilers accentuate the positives - and there are some - in loss
to Flames After sitting out preseason, Oilers defenceman Jeff Petry's
shoulder ready for Game 1 start Edmonton Oilers lose 2014-15 season opener to Calgary
Flames Oilers '84: Gretzky's 50 goals in 42 games wasn't even a
story Oilers '84: Cam Tait snubbed the Stanley Cup game Oilers '84: Gretzky chases Joe DiMaggio Oilers '84: Fighting for credibility Oilers '84: When Wayne Gretzky was named captain Oilers '84: Much more than just Wayne Gretzky Oilers '84: Gretzky pounds Devils, calls them 'Mickey Mouse' Oilers '84: Fuhr & Moog - Making each other better Oilers '84: The time they lost 11-0, and more blowouts Oilers '84: Rod Phillips, the former voice of the Oilers, on
winning the Cup: "It was just so hard to believe" Oilers '84: Round 2: Flames versus Oilers rivalry is born Oilers '84: Round 3: They started to believe Oilers '84: Final: We are the Stanley Cup champions! Oilers '84: Stanley had more fun in Edmonton Oilers '84: A Stanley Cup journey begins Oilers '84: Don Jackson's won five titles in the last six years Oilers '84: Raimo Summanen will finally put on his Stanley
Cup ring Third-period collapse lets Flames score three on Oilers Florida Panthers 752893
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Penalties, power-play goals plague Florida Panthers in
season opener Recap: Tampa Bay vs. Florida Florida Panthers’ Willie Mitchell wants to spread Stanley
Cup-winning attitude Florida Panthers (0-0-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (0-0-0),
7:30 p.m. (ET) PENALTY PARADE: Tampa Bay Lightning score three
power play goals, top Florida Panthers 3-2 in OT ... Scottie U BANNER NIGHT: Willie Mitchell watches old mates raise
banner, ready to lead Florida Panthers to new heights .. Panthers show grit in 3-2 overtime loss to Lightning Panthers' Mitchell hopes team proves critics wrong Hedman scores in OT, Lightning beat Panthers 3-2 Los Angeles Kings 752902
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Kings' Brayden McNabb has to be a fast learner as Jake
Muzzin sits out What we learned from the Kings' 4-0 loss to Sharks Nabb has uneven debut and new 'mentor' Kings' flat effort surprised Coach Sutter Game recap: Sharks 4, Kings 0 On the media: Bob Miller’s ringing endorsement of why he
wants to keep going with the Kings Kings “great hosts,” but may not host large events soon Sutter, Quick respond to opening night loss Practicing finishing, and Quick’s end zone communication The View from San Jose Lewis, Muzzin updates, and how McNabb is affected Waking up with the Kings: October 9
Minnesota Wild 752914
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Postgame: Wild expects a different Avalanche team in
Saturday's rematch Chart: Wild bombards Avalanche Souhan: Wild's Parise leads the right way in season opener Chart: Wild's second-period outburst Game recap: Wild 5, Colorado 0 Wild notes: Early schedule 'makes no sense' Parise, Wild blank Avalanche 5-0 in opener Wild opens new season in style with shutout win over Avs Russo: Iginla renews rivalry tonight when Wild meets Avs Gameday preview: Colorado at Wild Wild 5, Avalanche 0: With club-record 48 shots, Minnesota
rolls in opener Tom Powers: Wild play near-perfect opener Wild: Eye scare convinces Kyle Brodziak to try wearing a
visor Wild's Matt Cooke says he can feel the change in his game Devils cont'd 752961
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Montreal Canadiens 752928
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Plekanec scores third goal of season as Habs edge Capitals
in shootout NHL debut on Sportsnet sets network record After season opening struggle, Maple Leafs’ top line must be
better Sportsnet's new motto isn’t less is more, it’s more is more
and plenty of it Tokarski helps Habs escape Washington with shootout win Habs Game Report: Gallagher pots shootout winner Cameras mounted everywhere in Rogers' NHL debut About last night … 24CH show will return for third season Tokarski gets start in goal for Habs against Capitals; Moen
replaces Weise on fourth line Nashville Predators 752938
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Predators rally to beat Senators 3-2 in opener Predators could benefit from Titans' struggles #AstroButch dons Predators jersey at space station Predators want to crank up the shot count Weber, Fisher, Neal named Predators' captains New Jersey Devils 752943
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opener 752949
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Timely Carom Assists Nash and Rangers in Opener; Devils
Also Win They almost blew it, but Devils see the positives in win over
Flyers Devils' rookie Damon Severson's NHL debut is one to
remember Rapid Reaction: Flyers spoil big comeback, fall 6-4 to Devils
in home opener Rapid reaction: Devils outlast Flyers, 6-4, in wild seasonDevils vs. Flyers regular season opener: 5 things you should
know Flyers home opener: 5 things fans need to know 5 tidbits from the Devils' morning skate in Philadephia Without Martin Brodeur, the NHL season just won't feel right
| Politi Bits Devils' Adam Larsson on sitting out season opener: This is
my toughest benching yet Devils' morning skate: Damien Brunner, Jacob Josefson,
Adam Larsson to sit? 5 bold predictions as the Devils open the regular season 5 Devils to watch as the regular season begins vs. Flyers NHL schedule: What channel is Flyers-Devils game on? Severson "fantastic" in Devils/NHL debut; Plenty of goals in
opener as Cammalleri, Ryder start fast Devils regain their composure in time to pull out wild, 6-4 win
in Philadelphia in season opener Live post: Devils at Philadelphia Flyers, 10/9/14 (2014-15
opener)
Clowe happy to be ready for Devils' opener after summer of
uncertainty; "Fresh new start" for Tootoo Jagr recalls being "awful" in his first opener; Severson
showing no nerves before NHL debut Larsson: "This is probably toughest healhy scratch":
Brunner, Josefson also out for Devils' opener Brunner, Josefson and Larsson still look like they're odd men
out for Devils' opener in Philadelphia Mike Cammalleri excited to play first game as a Devil,
embracing structure in New Jersey Devils notes: Larsson unhappy to be healthy scratch Devils win wild opener over Flyers, 6-4 Devils: Five questions entering the season Devils open NHL season with 6-4 win over Flyers in
Philadelphia on Dainius Zubrus’ go-ahead goal Hondo takes Royals to flush Devils win opener by defeating Flyers in high-scoring affair New York Islanders 752972
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Boychuk, Leddy give Islanders hope for glory as season
begins Three new Islanders to watch in 2014-15 3 keys to Islanders' success Islanders support GM Garth Snow's many moves After retooling roster, Islanders believe they are a contender Islanders' sale from Charles Wang to Jonathan Ledecky,
Scott Malkin finalized New York Rangers 752978
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Timely Carom Assists Nash and Rangers in Opener; Devils
Also Win Rangers’ Dan Boyle injured in win over St. Louis Blues, has
broken hand, could miss 4-6 weeks Rick Nash scores two goals to lead NY Rangers over St.
Louis Blues in season opener Rangers face tough test vs. St. Louis Blues in NHL regular
season opener NBC analyst Mike Milbury says 'it's time to get rid of fighting'
in NHL, with so many enforcers struggling to Rangers’ Zuccarello makes first career trip to fight club Boyle injury dampens Rangers’ season-opening win over
Blues Rangers 3, Blues 2: Boyle out 4-6 weeks Live Blog: Rangers beat Blues, 3-2 Duclair excited, not nervous, for NHL debut; Stempniak
returns to St. Louis as a Ranger Rangers-Blues: Morning skate report Five questions facing the Rangrers Rangers notes: Fight time for Zuccarello Rangers beat Blues, 3-2, but lose Boyle Mats Zuccarello fights with T.J. Oshie, emerges unscathed Rick Nash's goal with 1:50 left gives Rangers a 3-2 win over
Blues in opener Rangers-Blues in review; Live Chat Friday at noon Rangers 3, Blues 2 … post-game notes Rangers at Blues … It’s Go Time! Rangers at Blues tonight (8 p.m.) … pregame notes Season preview: Predictions … Ducks over Bruins in Stanley
Cup Final Ottawa Senators 753001
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Ottawa Senators fail to hold off Predators in season opener Game day skate: Wiercioch, Greening, Condra out Konecny to wear C for 67's Ottawa Senators rookie Lazar feels 'like a little kid' Senators call on "big heads" to promote season kickoff Strong start vital for Ottawa Senators MacLean goes with 20 best for Ottawa Senators opener Senators drop season opener to Predators Philadelphia Flyers 753009
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Still on Flyers' payroll, but Pronger now has a league job Flyers' Coburn could be out for a while Flyers' 'D': Help available, but not the right help Flyer in the hole Flyers make things difficult — again Flyers drop wild home opener to Devils Flyers Notes: Pronger's NHL job raises questions on
conflicts Jagr, still going strong, faces Flyers in home opener Hextall guarded on Pronger 'til NHL deal done Flyers' 6-4 loss creates another 0-2 start Schenn, defense at a loss against Devils McCaffery: With defense hurting, Flyers need more out of
Mason Reports say Pronger will work for NHL, Hextall silent Flyers don’t go on defensive in loss to Devils Flyers' defense shredded in home loss to Devils 10 observations from Flyers-Devils Instant Replay: Devils 6, Flyers 4 Source: Pronger's new job won't penalize Flyers Braydon Coburn out with lower-body injury Flyers-Devils: 5 things you need to know Flyers Skate Update: Check yourself before you wreck
yourself Bellemare: Playing in NHL 'a big step' for France Flyers' slow start 'might have been jitters' 5 things to watch in Game 2: New Jersey Devils at Flyers Coburn, Pronger putting team in tough salary cap spot Sloppiness reigns supreme in Flyers loss to New Jersey
Devils Braydon Coburn's loss could be haunting for 0-2 Flyers Flyers suffer major blow losing Braydon Coburn to injury that
could be long-term Devils vs Flyers - LIVE analysis and fan chat during the
game Pittsburgh Penguins 753041
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Dupuis shines in home opener as Penguins down Ducks,
6-4 Whitehall's Gibson makes Consol debut for Ducks Penguins notebook: Sutter says he'll adapt to playing with
Malkin Rossi: Johnston started strong before opener Penguins notebook: Dupuis anxious to prove he still can play Crosby, Dupuis lead Penguins over Ducks, 6-4, in opener San Jose Sharks 753047
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Sharks say team culture changing for the better Sharks' Marleau: 'Everyone has a voice' McLellan bluntly addresses Sharks' captaincy decision St Louis Blues 753050
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Stastny scores in debut but Blues fall 3-2 Bluenotes: Lehtera excited to make his NHL debut Elliott faces early onslaught of shots Nash helps Rangers edge Blues in opener Bernie: Blues' long journey resumes Blues ready for opening night Hockey Guy: Rangers come to town shorthanded Blues comeback falls short as they lose to Rangers in the
opener Big night for Nash as Rangers beat Blues 3-2 Blues celebrate their past while kicking off another season
opener Tampa Bay Lightning 753060
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Bolts will go where Bishop takes them Lightning open season with 3-2 OT win against Panthers For Lightning fans, gameday experience begins before they
reach their seats Early Bolts notes: Panik claimed by Toronto Lightning tops Panthers in OT in opener Euphoric about Lightning opener against Panthers Lightning's Eric Brewer a surprise scratch Panik on getting "fresh start" with Maple Leafs Brewer a surprise scratch, Panik claimed by Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs 753069
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Carlyle takes jab at Kessel, Bozak: Feschuk Is NHL executive John Collins on radar to replace MLSE
CEO Tim Leiweke? Leafs' Kadri may try to get under skin of Sidney Crosby Hockey analytics suggest Tyler Bozak belongs on Maple
Leafs’ top line despite himself Maple Leafs claim Richard Panik off waivers Maple Leafs top line had poor game in loss to Habs, Bozak
says Will Chris Pronger join NHL’s department of player safety? Penguins' Crosby expects Maple Leafs' Kadri in his face Maple Leafs' top line must be better Sloppy play will go away, Nazem Kadri says Leafs acquire Lightning winger Richard Panik Leafs top line needs to be better: Carlyle Toronto Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk’s brother
Trevor makes NHL with Chicago Blackhawks Rogers Sportsnet draws fewer viewers to NHL opening night
than CBC, still sets network record Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier trying to
put bad goal behind him Toronto Maple Leafs add forward depth by claiming Richard
Panik How did Rogers fare in its opening NHL broadcast? A diary
of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens game Toronto Maple Leafs’ season-opening loss shows highs and
lows of life with young talent Vancouver Canucks 753109
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Chris Tanev questionable for Canucks' home-opener No chemistry lessons needed for Vrbata and Sedins Lady Luck is smiling on Alex Burrows Canucks' dismal faceoff performance gets Coach Willie's
attention Losing Tanev for any length of time would be a blow to
Canucks’ blue line Canucks Hat Trick: Gallagher on Kassian’s break, the fourth
line and those wacky ref cams The Morning Skate: Thank goodness the Canucks’ opener
was a midweek game, so no hangover, right? Washington Capitals 753087
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Postgame: In opener, Capitals missed chances to bury
Canadiens Capitals vs. Canadiens: Game 1 discussion thread Capitals rookies Liam O’Brien, Andre Burakovsky to make
NHL debuts Mike Green out for Capitals’ season-opener vs. Montreal Without fanfare, Capitals resolve second-line center battle Andre Burakovsky scores but Capitals settle for shootout
loss in opener Capitals rookies Andre Burakovsky, Liam O’Brien thrilled to
make debut Mike Green will miss Capitals’ opener with unspecified
upper-body injury
Capitals cont'd 753095
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Capitals can't deliver knockout blow after early lead Burakovsky scores, but Caps lose opener to Habs in 2-1
shootout A proud hockey father shares his life lessons Canadiens to start backup goalie Tokarski vs. Caps When will Caps see Green back in the lineup? Mike Green: 'We expect to win the Cup' Websites 753117
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netter 753121
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ESPN / Pronger hiring is completely baffling Sportsnet.ca / Oilers can carry play, but winning is another
thing Sportsnet.ca / Gotta Hear It: Jagr mimics Ruutu-to-Tootoo
call Sportsnet.ca / Gotta See It: Sedin’s hardworking emptyUSA TODAY / 10 with something to prove this season USA TODAY / NBC's Mike Milbury: 'It's time to get rid of
fighting' YAHOO SPORTS / Mike Babcock's coaching future: The
Wings? Big bucks? Or both? Winnipeg Jets 753101
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Jets howl in Arizona Lowry debut packs 'em in Chevy says Slater, Scheifele, Maurice keys Jets win season opener 6-2 against Coyotes Proud papa Dave Lowry thrilled to see son Adam make NHL
debut with Winnipeg Jets Jets assign O’Dell to IceCaps Winnipeg Jets rookie Adam Lowry just trying to enjoy
'special day' Jets blast Coyotes in high-flying opener 1 SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129
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Anaheim Ducks
But a high-sticking penalty on Ducks forward Matt Beleskey and a lost puck
by defenseman Sami Vatanen led to Crosby's second goal, beating Gibson
stick side late in the second.
Ducks drop opener, 6-4, to Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh forward Blake Comeau was then left unattended 54 seconds
later, again sailing to Gibson's right.
By Lance Pugmire contact the reporter
"We know where we need to go from here. We've got to do a better job
helping our goaltender," said Getzlaf, whose turnover on another Ducks
power play led to a final, short-handed goal.
Penguins score three goals in first period en route to a 6-4 victory over the
Ducks in season opener
Asked where he goes from here, Gibson said, "Practice tomorrow."
Sidney Crosby has two goals and an assist to lead Pittsburgh to the victory
Corey Perry has a hat trick for the Ducks, who erased a three-goal deficit
before falling, 6-4
The sentiment of starting 21-year-old Ducks goalie John Gibson in his
hometown seemed like a story penned by a romantic.
Gibson ate dinner at home a night earlier, led his team onto the ice in front
of sold-out Consol Energy Center and glanced up to find an estimated 200
friends and family members who had piled into their seats.
Instead of the glorious ending, however, it was a cascade of hockey
tragedies.
Returning NHL most valuable player Sidney Crosby scored two goals and
had an assist, and the Pittsburgh Penguins scored three goals in less than
14 minutes Thursday night, opening the regular season with a 6-4 victory
over the Ducks.
"I should have had some of them. I think all of us didn't really play our
game," Gibson said after enduring 39 shots. "They just played better than
us tonight."
Many Ducks, including centers Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler, said
repeated breakdowns both on the defensive end and in the neutral zone left
Gibson "hung out to dry," spoiling the sixth career hat trick by Ducks
forward Corey Perry.
"That was terrible," said Ducks defenseman and former Penguin Ben
Lovejoy. "We didn't have an answer for them. They came consistently with
speed, completely outplayed us. Tough situation for him — his hometown,
first game of the year — but the team in front of him didn't play nearly well
enough and we have to find a way to be better. Far too many things went
wrong."
Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said he envisioned Gibson starting over
fellow goalie Frederik Andersen in this game as soon as the schedule was
released.
Lance Pugmire
Andersen had 20 regular-season wins to Gibson's three last season, and
the Danish goalie was more effective in the preseason, when Gibson didn't
gain a victory.
"Seemed like a natural to put him in his hometown," Boudreau said. "He
wanted it, everyone was here. He welcomes pressure. That's what we went
with, figured both of them would play two games on this road trip.
"This wasn't John Gibson … there was nothing he could do on the third,
fourth or sixth one. Our gaps were so bad … too many odd-man rushes.
We'll rectify it."
Andersen will start Saturday night in Detroit.
Crosby won a faceoff that new first-line mate Patric Hornqvist gathered and
fired past Gibson's glove side 5:16 into the game.
Just 2:06 later, Crosby glided past Ducks center Nate Thompson and
Lovejoy to bang a shot off Gibson's chest to the net.
Gibson admitted his nerves were "a little more than usual."
New addition Kesler delivered a wake-up call by slamming in a pass from
Getzlaf to make it 3-1, the first of three Ducks' goals with a man advantage.
"You score three power-play goals, you should win, but defensively we
have to get better," Kesler said. "There's 81 games left. We're going to
learn from our mistakes starting tomorrow."
Two Perry goals tied the score with 7:43 left in the second period.
LA Times: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752727
Anaheim Ducks
Ducks poised to send goalie John Gibson vs. hometown Penguins
By Lance Pugmire contact the reporter
John Gibson likely to start in goal for Ducks against his hometown Penguins
Ducks' Cam Fowler says he feels good enough to play against Pittsburgh
John Gibson didn’t match the preseason success of Frederik Andersen and
he’s short of his fellow Ducks goalie’s NHL experience, but in Gibson’s
homecoming game tonight, he’s the expected starter.
“He’s a gamer, and he’ll give us every chance to win,” Ducks forward Corey
Perry said of the 21-year-old Gibson.
Gibson was first off the ice at the Ducks’ morning skate Thursday before
their season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins, a strong indicator of
who’ll start.
Andersen, 25, won 20 regular-season games last season to Gibson’s three,
and he was 2-1 in the preseason with a shutout and 1.65 goals-against
average while Gibson was 0-2-1 with a 3.28 goals-against average while
playing with younger teammates.
Yet, Andersen was the one doing extended work at Thursday’s practice,
among other non-starters.
Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau declined to discuss who would start.
“In the end, their play will decide who will get the bulk of the games,”
Boudreau said. “Right now, it’s pretty even. They both ended camp on a
high note. They should both be ready.”
Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who helped Gibson win by shutouts in
both his NHL regular-season and playoff debuts last season, said the team
will again rally around whoever’s in net.
“John came in and did an outstanding job, and was a big part of our
playoffs,” Lovejoy said. “The 18 guys in front of him have the utmost
confidence in his abilities.”
Pittsburgh’s newly acquired forward, Patric Hornqvist, said it doesn’t matter
who’s in net for the Ducks.
“Who cares?” Hornqvist said. “They’re both great goalies. That’s nothing
we can control, so why waste energy on that? We need to keep [first-liners
Corey] Perry and [Ryan] Getzlaf off the board, and control their power play.
Be close to them, don’t give them time or space.”
FOWLER SKATES: Lovejoy’s defensive partner, Cam Fowler, skated again
Thursday, a week after falling in practice, and said afterward he feels good
enough to play against Pittsburgh’s potent lineup, pending Boudreau's and
the coaching staff’s blessing.
“You know when you’re ready,” Fowler said. “You want to be at 100
percent, not to do any harm to yourself or the team. You need to be at full
capacity in these games. The last couple days have been good.”
PENGUINS NOTES: Penguins standout Evgeni Malkin is scheduled to play
at right wing after just two full practice days recovering from an undisclosed
off-season injury. A typical center who had 49 assists last season, Malkin is
being eased back into action by new Pittsburgh Coach Mike Johnston.
Pittsburgh forward Pascal Dupuis is also set to return to the ice after
suffering a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament on Dec. 23. He’s expected
to be on the line with Malkin and center Brandon Sutter.
“Long time coming for me, but at the same time, perfect timing,” Dupuis
said. “Knee feels great, body’s ready. Being part of the whole week of
preparation for game one is great. Starting on the same level as everyone.”
Hornqvist, acquired from Nashville in the off-season, said working with
Malkin and returning NHL points leader Sidney Crosby on the power play
has “great potential ... get the chemistry going and go from there.
Obviously, great to start against such a great team. Let’s make a statement
and go from there.”
Crosby said he expects a “high-paced game with a lot of energy,” and
intends to send high pressure at Gibson, working during the game to
establish where the goalie is vulnerable.
752728
Anaheim Ducks
Opening night flop for Ducks in 6-4 loss
BY ERIC STEPHENS / STAFF WRITER
Gibson’s support system made itself heard when his name was announced
as the starter. He said he heard his clan during the warm-up and wasn’t
distracted. “First game at home,” he said. “It was nice to have them come.”
Boudreau said he had been thinking about going with Gibson to lead things
off as far back as the end of last season. Frederik Andersen, who'll go
Saturday in Detroit, outplayed Gibson during the preseason, but the coach’s
mind was made up.
Published: Oct. 9, 2014 Updated: Oct. 10, 2014 12:17 a.m.
“As soon as I saw the schedule, it seemed like a natural to put him in, in his
hometown,” Boudreau said. “He’d want it. I know he’d have a lot of people
here.
PITTSBURGH – It jumped out in big block letters at John Gibson, his coach
Bruce Boudreau and the many family members and friends the moment
they got a look at the Ducks’ 2014-15 schedule.
“He welcomes pressure so I didn’t think that would be an effect. And we
talked to him and Freddie about it at length. They both understood the
situation.”
October 9. Pittsburgh. Gibson, the Ducks’ next great goaltending hope, is
going to be back in town.
Orange County Register: LOADED: 10.10.2014
A day that was supposed to be one to remember quickly became one to
forget. The first NHL game in your hometown will always carry a memory,
but the Pittsburgh Penguins rudely treated one of the city’s own in his return
to the Steel City.
Some 200 strong were in Gibson’s corner Thursday night at Consol Energy
Center, but they watched Sidney Crosby score twice and Pascal Dupuis get
a goal and three assists as the Penguins raced past the Ducks, 6-4, in the
season opener for both teams.
The Ducks felt they let their young netminder down. Gibson, 21, wasn’t
sharp, but those in front of him let the Penguins have their way with
numerous odd-man rushes up the ice.
“Obviously our reading the rush and zone coverage and stuff wasn’t where
we wanted it to be,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “We’ve got to do a
better job helping out our goaltender.
“We kind of hung him out to dry tonight and tried to play a run-and-gun
game against a team that scores at will.”
Defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who was on the ice for three goals against with
partner Cam Fowler, offered up a blunt review.
“That was terrible,” Lovejoy said. “We didn’t have an answer for them. They
came through the neutral zone consistently with speed. Just completely
outplayed us.”
The Ducks were routed, 6-1, in their opener at Colorado last season, but
went on to post franchise records with 54 wins and 116 points. But this one
to kick things off was hardly better, not even with three goals from Corey
Perry for his sixth career hat trick.
There was no victory lap for Gibson, who came up late last season and
posted shutouts in his NHL and playoff debuts. Three goals were scored on
him in the first 13-plus minutes, and all six came within 39 shots in a
disjointed effort by nearly all Ducks involved.
Patric Hornqvist snuck a shot past Gibson that glanced off Fowler on his
glove side. Crosby roared down the left side just 2:06 later and beat the
netminder with a shot that should have been stopped.
Pittsburgh made it 3-0 on Dupuis' first goal off a feed from Olli Maatta
before the Ducks decided it was time to actually engage. But Gibson wasn’t
about to lay blame at the feet of his defenseless teammates.
“I think I should have had some of them that I let in, too,” Gibson said. “I
think all of us didn’t really play our game.”
There were redeeming moments. Ryan Kesler, the club’s prized summer
acquisition, did breathe some life into his new team by ripping in a powerplay goal to start a comeback, and Perry tallied back to back early in the
second to tie it at 3-3. Kesler added two assists in an eventful Ducks debut.
But the Ducks couldn’t get out of their own way, thanks to more shoddy
plays. Breakdowns led to Crosby snapping the tie on an odd-man rush and
Blake Comeau making it 5-3 late in the secod on another fast break.
Brandon Sutter added a shorthanded goal on another Ducks breakdown
early in the third, easily supporting Marc-Andre Fleury’s workmanlike 25shot effort.
“We want to play better,” Lovejoy said. “There were far too many things that
went wrong. We need to figure this out because that was embarrassing.”
752729
Anaheim Ducks
Rocky start for Ducks' new kids
put weight on his left leg. Fowler wasn’t able to play in the final exhibition
but resumed skating Monday.
Bryan Allen didn’t skate and remains day-to-day due to a lower-body injury.
Allen wasn’t expected to play as he is now the team’s seventh defenseman.
Published: Oct. 9, 2014 Updated: 8:35 p.m.
PITTSBURGH – Change has made the Ducks get their youth on and it is
standing out on their brand-new third line.
The Ducks have held on to high draft picks Emerson Etem, Rickard Rakell
and Devante Smith-Pelly like prized possessions and they’re getting the
opportunity to make the step and become NHL regulars.
The chance came right away in Thursday’s season opener against
Pittsburgh. It is an entirely new look with Andrew Cogliano bumped up to
the second line since Saku Koivu (retirement) and Daniel Winnik (Toronto)
are gone.
There were high hopes among the new-kid line before the game but it was
an inauspicious beginning. Etem, Rakell and Smith-Pelly finished a
combined minus-5 while not factoring in any goals as the Ducks took a 6-4
loss.
Etem, 22, made the opening-night roster for the second consecutive year.
The hope is for him to be more consistent so he’ll stay with Anaheim, rather
than have to do more time in the American Hockey League.
“I almost have a different game plan,” said Etem, a Long Beach native. “I’m
taking it game by game, day by day, shift by shift. I’m taking it one step at a
time.
“I’m setting short-term goals and I think that goes for our line too. We’re
playing a third-, fourth-line energy role. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve
got to be consistent with it and we’ve got to stick with it.”
Rakell edged top prospect William Karlsson for the third-line center job
merely on experience as Karlsson’s next NHL game will be his first.
Karlsson was impressive in camp and is expected to play on the team’s
four-game road trip.
Rakell, 21, said Coach Bruce Boudreau gave him a extra shot of confidence
when he used him during the 2014 playoffs. “That shows that you have
what it takes to play on this level,” the center said. “All I got to do is just do
it.”
Boudreau says the three are ready for increased roles because they’re now
into their third year of being in the organization and have spent bits of time
with the Ducks.
“They’ve gone through the ups and downs of inconsistency of being young
guys, which is totally expected,” the coach said. “They’ve got a little bit
more responsible. There’s a responsibility now.
“They all played together as a line last year in Norfolk. They know each
other pretty well.”
KESLER JUMPS RIGHT IN
It didn’t take long for Ryan Kesler to have an impact. The center had a goal,
two assists and won 54 percent of his faceoff draws.
Kesler already added heft to the power play when he ripped in a one-timer
from Ryan Getzlaf, one of the Ducks’ three goals with the man advantage.
Getzlaf called him “a shooting threat” who can make plays on the left side.
“I just wish it was in a winning effort,” Kesler said. “Points and everything,
it’s nice. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to win. Saying that, we got
81 more games. There’s no panic in that room.”
Nate Thompson and Clayton Stoner also made their Ducks debuts.
Thompson lost six of 16 draws in 13 minutes of ice time while Stoner was a
plus-1 with four credited hits in just more than 15 minutes.
INJURY UPDATES
Cam Fowler was back for the opener after his availability was put in
question last week when he took a spill in practice and left the ice unable to
752730
Anaheim Ducks
Final: Penguins 6, Ducks 4
October 9th, 2014, 6:18 pm ·
· posted by ERIC STEPHENS
PITTSBURGH -- Led by Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis, the Pittsburgh
Penguins treated John Gibson rather rudely in his homecoming to the Steel
City.
Crosby scored twice and Dupuis had a goal and three assists as the
Penguins easily solved Gibson and the Ducks with a 6-4 victory in the
season opener for both teams Thursday night at Consol Energy Center.
The Ducks were routed, 6-1, in their opener at Colorado last season but
went on to post franchise records with 54 wins and 116 points. But this one
to kick off 2014-15 was hardly better, not even with three goals from Corey
Perry for his sixth career hat trick.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau elected to start Gibson, 21, in goal instead of
Frederik Andersen despite Andersen posting better numbers across the
board during the exhibitions. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in suburban
Whitehall, Gibson had 200 friends and family members in attendance.
There was no victory lap for the prized prospect, who came up late last
season and posted shutouts in his NHL and playoff debuts. Gibson was
torched for three goals in the first 13-plus minutes and allowed all six on 39
shots in a shaky effort by him and the Ducks.
Patric Hornqvist got his first goal with the Penguins by sneaking a shot past
Gibson on his glove side. Crosby roared down the left side just 2:06 later
and beat the netminder with a stoppable shot.
Pittsburgh made it 3-0 on Dupuis' first goal off a feed from Olli Maatta
before the Ducks were even awake. Ryan Kesler did breathe some life into
his new team by ripping in a power-play goal at 14:22 of the first.
Kesler, the Ducks' major acquisition this summer, made an immediate
impact, as did Perry. The winger led the Western Conference with 43 goals
last season and he had back-to-back scores that tied it at 3-3 in the second,
but the Ducks couldn't overcome their shoddy play.
A bad play by Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen on the penalty kill led to a
4-on-2 return rush by the Penguins and Crosby converted for a 4-3 lead.
Blake Comeau made it a two-goal lead when he finished off a pass from
Dupuis on another odd-man rush.
Brandon Sutter added a shorthanded goal on another Ducks breakdown
early in the third. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots for the Penguins.
752731
Anaheim Ducks
Ducks season preview: Pressure, expectations are high for Bruce Boudreau
PITTSBURGH – Bruce Boudreau isn't going to score any goals or set up
any for teammates. He won’t kill any penalties or win any faceoffs.
There will be no way he can physically impact how the Ducks will fare in
this coming season of great expectations. And yet, fairly or unfairly, their
2014-15 season is really about him.
The long road that the Ducks want to travel begins Thursday night against
the Pittsburgh Penguins at Consol Energy Center. How and where it ends is
something that can further define Boudreau and his place in NHL coaching
history.
The Ducks’ final resting spot for 2013-14 is one Boudreau painfully knows
all too well. A Game 7 blowout loss to the Kings at home was the bitter pill
swallowed, and the sickening feeling worsened when their rivals ended by
hoisting the Stanley Cup for a second time in three seasons.
Going beyond the second round this time around is the mission. It doesn’t
belong only to Boudreau, but it feels that way when six division champions
that he has helmed – the past two in Anaheim – haven’t broken through to a
conference final.
A sustained Cup run is the only thing missing from Boudreau’s otherwise
enviable resume, and the question has come at him enough that he can
answer it before it is asked.
“I want to win as much as anybody,” said Boudreau, who in September got
a contract extension through 2017. “Are you kidding me? I’ve won at all
levels in the past. And championships at all levels that I’ve ever had to play
or coach at.
around and that “he dealt with a lot of (stuff) that you don’t normally have to
deal with” last season.
“For our locker room, we are what we are,” Getzlaf said. “We know who our
coach is. We know what his capabilities are. And we’re fully confident in
each other. The only time that’s going to be made of that is in the media.
“I’m sure it’ll come out eventually that if something goes wrong at the start
here, it’s going to be on his shoulders. And it (stinks) that it’s a little extra
pressure on him. But we all have pressure every day. And we got to deal
with it.”
Veteran defenseman Francois Beauchemin believes the expectations are
greater than in 2006 after the Ducks lost to Edmonton in the West final.
Back then, they had Selanne, Scott Niedermayer and Jean-Sebastien
Giguere, before adding Chris Pronger to put them over the top.
The key, according to Beauchemin, is to never take the easy way.
“We had veteran guys there to show us the way,” he said. “But this year it’s
our turn. We know that the players that we have, the type of team that we
have, that we can go further than when we want last year.
“Obviously it was a tough loss against L.A. We know we have the personnel
to do it. We just got to make sure to put it together for the whole season.”
The emphasis, it seems, won’t be on adding another Pacific Division title
when that hasn’t gotten the Ducks where they want to go. It conflicts with
Boudreau’s natural desire to win every game.
If there is anything Boudreau will do differently, it is getting his team’s
defense up to match its penthouse level on offense and doing more to hold
others accountable in the moment instead of when trouble has arrived.
In the end, it is Boudreau who will be held accountable.
“I’m the guy behind the bench so I expect that I’m going to be the one that’s
going to answer to failure or success,” Boudreau said. “I can’t let it worry
me. I think and I do know that I have conviction that what I’m doing is the
right thing to do.
“Hopefully you go out and you get that message to the team and they play
as good as they can play.”
“Except for this one. Of course, it would be a great thrill.”
In October. In January. In June.
The Ducks have won big in the regular season. So has Boudreau. Winning
playoff series is the focus and Bob Murray, the team’s general manager,
emphasized that this summer.
Murray saw fit to change up a team that set franchise records with 54 wins
and 116 points – totals that topped the Western Conference while being
one point away from the Presidents’ Trophy.
Landing prized center Ryan Kesler and adding defenseman Clayton Stoner
and center Nate Thompson were about adding layers of grit and physical
play, the kind that their title-holding, ring-bearing neighbors up the freeway
are noted for.
There will be five new regulars and a new goaltending tandem to start.
Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu retired while Jonas Hiller is now in
Calgary, with Frederik Andersen and John Gibson set to claim the net.
The changes might lead to the Ducks feeling their way a bit in the early
going rather than tearing out of the gate as they’ve done two seasons
running. And the particulars say that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
“The biggest thing is just not to panic,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “If
we come out of the gates hot, then we come out of the gates hot. There
could be a learning curve. Who knows? That’s the biggest thing when you
go into a season with expectations.
“Last year, we didn’t have too many of them. This year, there’s expectations
on our group and you’ve got guys that are going to have to learn how to
deal with that. It’s a long season. We just got to play and get better every
day.”
Boudreau can navigate teams through 82 games. Whether he can lead a
team to a Cup remains up for debate, and harsh criticism levied by Selanne
in the authorized biography on the franchise icon only added lighter fluid to
the smoldering discussion.
Getzlaf has faith and sees the question of Boudreau being a championshiplevel coach as a media creation. He recalls how Boudreau turned the Ducks
752732
Anaheim Ducks
(spares: 5 Bryan Allen – 28 Mark Fistric)
Goalies
Keys to Ducks' 2014-15 season
31 Frederik Andersen
36 John Gibson
The Ducks wanted center Ryan Kesler at the trade deadline last season but
had to wait until the offseason. He will take some pressure off No. 1 center
Ryan Getzlaf.
JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Player in the spotlight
The Ducks desperately tried to land Ryan Kesler at the March trade
deadline but couldn’t. They’ve got him now. The feisty center adds a bit of
everything and will take some of the pressure off Ryan Getzlaf. They’re a
formidable one-two punch down the middle as long as Kesler stays healthy.
Time to step up
GM Bob Murray and Coach Bruce Boudreau handed the goaltending reins
to Frederik Andersen and John Gibson in the 2014 playoffs. Andersen and
Gibson both have the ability to be a No. 1 goalie, but they must push each
other to greater heights over the grind of an 82-game season.
Unsung hero
Winger Andrew Cogliano isn’t the offensive force he was pegged to be
coming out of Michigan. He’s just a speedster who has adapted his game
and does a lot of good things every night. His consecutive-game streak is
540 and counting.
Three keys to the season
1. Better details: They’ve still got the talent to win big, but the Ducks have to
improve their power play, penalty killing and work in the faceoff circle; they
ranked a respective 22nd, 13th and 20th in those categories.
2. Improved defense: The Ducks were ninth (2.48) in goals against, but they
can be better. Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm are silky smooth but can
add a dose of grit, while physical addition Clayton Stoner needs to become
a shutdown force.
3. Potential fulfilled: Murray has held on to drafted forwards Kyle Palmieri,
Devante Smith-Pelly and Emerson Etem like pieces of gold and it’s time
one or two (or all) become consistent contributors.
Will win the Stanley Cup if …
… Boudreau and his outfit can win playoff games at Honda Center,
particularly a Game 7. The Ducks are just 5-6 at home in the postseason
under the fourth-year coach, and Boudreau’s Game 7 albatross is wellchronicled. The Ducks have the talent to unseat the champion Kings but,
once and for all, they need the will to do it.
PROBABLE LINEUP
Forward lines
19 Patrick Maroon – 15 Ryan Getzlaf – 10 Corey Perry
7 Andrew Cogliano – 17 Ryan Kesler – 33 Jakob Silfverberg
16 Emerson Etem – 67 Rickard Rakell – 12 Devante Smith-Pelly
39 Matt Beleskey – 44 Nate Thompson – 18 Tim Jackman
(spare: 38 William Karlsson)
Note: Dany Heatley and Kyle Palmieri are expected to be regulars but are
currently injured.
Defense pairs
4 Cam Fowler – 6 Ben Lovejoy
47 Hampus Lindholm – 23 Francois Beauchemin
3 Clayton Stoner – 45 Sami Vatanen
752733
Anaheim Ducks
Corey Perry’s hat trick not enough as Anaheim Ducks lose opener to
Pittsburgh Penguins
far from the net and Patrick Maroon stole the goaltender’s pass and sent it
to Perry in front of an empty net.
Crosby finished off a 3-on-2 break by snapping a show low over Gibson’s
blocker with 2:26 left in the second to put Pittsburgh back in front for good.
LA Daily News: LOADED: 10.10.2014
Posted: 10/09/14, 11:44 PM PDT |
By Will Graves
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH >> The Pittsburgh Penguins spent the offseason revamping
the front office, replacing the coaching staff and tinkering with a roster that
went five straight springs falling to lower-seeded opponents in the playoffs.
Yet some things remained constant. Well, one thing mostly: Sidney Crosby.
The two-time MVP scored twice and added an assist as the Penguins beat
the Ducks 6-4 on Thursday night to make Mike Johnston a winner in his
NHL head coaching debut.
“We have a lot of new faces,” Crosby said. “You’re always excited to play
the first one but especially with so many new faces I think we used that
energy to our advantage.”
Pascal Dupuis added a goal and three assists in his return from knee
surgery. Patrick Hornqvist, Blake Comeau and Brandon Sutter also scored
for Pittsburgh while Olli Maatta chipped in three assists. Marc-Andre Fleury
made 25 saves.
Corey Perry had the sixth hat trick of his career for the Ducks, who
collapsed after erasing an early three-goal deficit. Ryan Kesler added a
goal in his debut with Anaheim. John Gibson struggled while making his
first start in his hometown, stopping 33 of 39 shots.
“We want to play better,” Anaheim defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. “There
were far too many things that went wrong. We need to figure this out
because that was embarrassing.”
The 21-year-old Gibson earned the starting job following a stellar playoff in
which he took over for Jonas Hiller. Coach Bruce Boudreau wanted to give
Gibson the nod in the opener so the Pittsburgh native could play in front of
friends and family. He also had to play in front of the Penguins, who
pounced early and never trailed.
“We’ve got to do a better job helping out our goaltender,” Ducks center
Ryan Getzlaf said. “We kind of hung him out tonight and tried to play a runand-gun game against a team that scores goals that well.”
That part won’t change under Johnston, hired to replace Dan Bylsma in
June and tasked with making sure Crosby and Evgeni Malkin’s primes don’t
go to waste.
The early returns were promising.
Hornqvist, acquired from Nashville in a draft-day trade that sent talented but
turbulent forward James Neal to the Predators, needed all of 5:16 to make
an impression. Playing alongside Crosby helped. Crosby won a faceoff at
the right dot and slipped a pass to Hornqvist at the top of the circle. The
wrist shot deflected off Gibson’s arm and into the net and the Penguins
seemed to exhale.
“We hadn’t had that line together in preseason, only once,” Johnston said.
“You’re always hoping that those combinations would work as you expect. I
thought Patrick Hornqvist added a lot to that line tonight.”
Crosby doubled the lead just over two minutes later, streaking down the left
side and firing a shot that Gibson couldn’t get a handle on. The goal was
the seventh in the 10 home openers during Crosby’s now decade-long
career.
Dupuis, nine months removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right
knee, tapped in a perfect setup from Maatta to make it 3-0 before the
season was 15 minutes old.
The Ducks, however, quickly erased all the good vibes.
The Ducks rallied to tie the game at 3-3. Kesler scored his first for Anaheim
with an easy power-play goal 14:22 into the first. Perry then pumped in two,
including arguably the easiest goal he’ll score all year when Fleury ventured
752734
Arizona Coyotes
Jets slam Coyotes in front of sellout crowd for opener
Tippett shortened his bench in the second, relying more on Doan who was
far and away the team's best forward. Doan, who turns 38 today, played
15:57 with two assists, three shots, three takeaways, five hits and a fight
with Wheeler that left Doan's knuckles ripe with cuts after the game.
Sarah McLellan, azcentral sports 11:51 p.m. MST October 9, 2014
But a one-man offense by the team's oldest player certainly isn't a recipe for
long-term success. Finding what is tops the team's priorities in the
aftermath of this one.
By choosing not to keep up with the offseason spending that retooled the
Western Conference's elite teams, the Coyotes put their faith in a style that
relied on strong goaltending, smart defending and a discipline to excel at
the details to remain competitive.
It didn't take long – the season's first game – for them to discover what to
expect when those principles aren't in play, a 6-2 mismatch in front of an
announced sellout of 17,125 Thursday at Gila River Arena against the
Winnipeg Jets, who many figured to be one of the conference's
afterthoughts.
"The goaltending's gotta get better," coach Dave Tippett said. "If the
goaltending doesn't get better, then we're going to struggle like that."
Former Coyotes draft pick Blake Wheeler scored twice and added an assist
while center Bryan Little also had a pair of goals as the Jets used a fourgoal first period – three in 5:38 – to push past the Coyotes for the fifth
straight time.
Goalie Mike Smith understands that this approach positions him to accept
the bulk of the glory when the Coyotes are on-point and the majority of the
blame when they're not, and he wasn't shrinking from this role after a 21save effort.
"My average games are better than most I think, but that wasn't close," he
said. "That wasn't where it needs to be, and I'll take responsibility for that."
Wheeler's first goal was a bad-angle shot from the half-wall that slipped
between Smith's pad and the near post at 8:33. Only 15 seconds later, the
Jets made it 3-1 when they capitalized off a faceoff win in the Coyotes zone
with Wheeler tipping a point shot from defenseman Zach Bogosian.
The Jets capped off the period when another shot – this one from the
faceoff circle by defenseman Mark Stuart – snuck between the post and
Smith's right pad at 14:11.
"I never got comfortable tonight," Smith said. "It was one of those games I
didn't feel good on my feet, didn't feel comfortable in the net."
The Jets opened the scoring on a two-on-one after an offensive-zone
turnover by the Coyotes with Little burying a shot seven minutes in.
Coyotes winger Mikkel Boedker tied it at 1 only 38 seconds later after
receiving a pass from behind-the-net from captain Shane Doan.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman talks on issues pertaining to the Coyotes.
The Coyotes went to the box seven times in the first – nine total – and
negated their only power play opportunity of the period when winger B.J.
Crombeen, added in the summer to provide grit on the wing, became overaggressive after the whistle and engaged center Jim Slater in a fight Slater
didn't sign up for.
"The discipline factor put them on the power play too much and when you're
chasing the game already, that's against the odds of getting back in it,"
Tippett said.
Another 2-on-1 break for the Jets, this one a combination of an unlucky
bounce and an unfortunate line change, made it 5-1 at 12:31 of the second
when defenseman-turned-forward Dustin Byfuglien tipped a pass from
Wheeler up and over Smith.
The Jets added a sixth goal shorthanded at 5:07 of the third when Little
skated in around defenseman Keith Yandle, cut to the middle and went fivehole on Smith before center Martin Hanzal tapped in a puck in the crease at
8:25 to make it 6-2.
"From first shift to the last one, it didn't seem like we were ready because
we were slow," Hanzal said. "We didn't win any battles. We took too many
penalties, so it's unacceptable."
An undermanned offense was viewed as a potential problem spot for the
Coyotes after losing forwards Radim Vrbata (free agency) and Mike Ribeiro
(buyout), and those concerns were validated against the Jets.
"We got running around a bit out of position in some spots that were
uncharacteristic of our team, but this whole group has only played probably
one game together," Smith said. "So it's growing pains and unfortunately, it
cost us two points the first game and we got embarrassed in the midst of it.
It's definitely a wakeup call for our team."
Arizona Republic LOADED: 10.10.2014
752735
Arizona Coyotes
Boivin: Skepticism over Arizona Coyotes ownership issues is par for course
Paola Boivin, azcentral sports columnist 10:42 p.m. MST October 9, 2014
The room inside Gila River Arena that housed Gary Bettman's news
conference Thursday was uncomfortably warm, prompting the NHL
commissioner to look over at Coyotes owner Anthony LeBlanc.
Despite the possibility of a new-look ownership, Bettman said that shouldn't
be perceived as another offseason of limited player acquisition on the
horizon.
"If anything, if there's another partner adding to the resource depth the
franchise has, it may give them an opportunity to do more," he said. "I
believe George (Gosbee) and Anthony and their partners wouldn't bring in
somebody — if they decide to bring in somebody — that they weren't
completely comfortable with."
It's a fair statement.
The pair has done nothing but shown an authentic desire to keep the team
here and saved a franchise that was on the brink of leaving.
"When we ran the team, it was much cooler in here," Bettman mused.
And it was close.
Blame the thermostat, and maybe, too, a little bit of hot air.
Forbes reported on an internal memo from the NHL Players Association it
obtained that was dated just before the Glendale vote and said unless the
arena lease was approved the league "would immediately pursue one of
several backup alternatives which likely would entail a prompt relocation of
the franchise. While there are several potential cities ... it appears that
Seattle is the most likely."
To be clear, the emergence of Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andre
Barroway as a potential new investor could be a good thing. An infusion of
revenue could mean more opportunities to add personnel to a team that
was a limited player (again) in the offseason.
But Bettman's defiance that everything is hunky-dory was off-putting, too.
"Actually at this point I don't understand the (fan) exasperation," Bettman
said. "Everything we've told you for the last four years has come to fruition,
just the way we told you it would. …
"So for people to still be cynical at this point or question either our intention
or IceArizona's intentions, I think is grossly unfair at this point."
Is it?
Ownership issues have hounded this franchise throughout a lifespan that
included four years of NHL ownership.
Just this week, former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn was quoted in the
Seattle Times as saying "Most people don't realize how close we were to
actually getting an NHL team," and talked of the contingency plan in place if
a Glendale City Council vote hadn't passed in July of 2013.
So please, don't blame fans for their skepticism.
They were blindsided by the report in the New York Post that Barroway is
interested in a 51 percent role, which would make him a majority owner.
Bettman's interpretation: "What it means is the franchise is heading in such
a direction that there are people with substantial resources who want to be
a part of this and want to bring additional assets and support to the
franchise."
Fans' interpretation: If the franchise is heading in such a great direction,
why would current ownership IceArizona be so willing to share the wealth?
The Post also reported the team lost $24 million last season.
Bettman wouldn't discuss a dollar figure but even if it was half of that, the
Coyotes are on pace to arrive at the out clause that allows them to move
from Glendale if losses surpass $50 million after five seasons.
When asked if he could say with certainty an out clause wouldn't be an
issue in four years, Bettman said, "I have no idea. I'm not tracking it on that
basis. The lease was signed with the expectation that the team would be
here for the long haul. … I would be surprised if we find ourselves in that
situation."
Later he added, "I know in this day and age it's very easy to be cynical.
There's nothing to be cynical about with respect to this transaction."
It's not like Thursday's season opener at Gila River Arena made fans feel
any better.
It was called a sellout but there were several hundred empty seats in the
upper levels, suggesting some fans remain hesitant to go all in.
And the on-ice performance suggests the team is paying the price for being
financially hamstrung for so many years.
A 6-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Giving up three goals in 1 minute, 48
seconds early in the game.
Maybe it's an aberration.
But with all that has happened, don't expect fans to give them the benefit of
the doubt.
Even though Bettman can be overly defiant, I also understand he is doing
his job, which means selling his product and putting a happy face on
uncertainty.
"By every measure, the club is doing much better," he said. "Some people
had an expectation that turning things around after league operation for so
many years was like turning on a light switch. I was never under that illusion
but when it comes to ticket sales, sponsorship support, the renaming of this
building to Gila River Arena … it's been all good.
I think the vital signs are terrific and heading in the right direction."
That may be true. But don't blame this community for skepticism.
It has had its heart broken more than a few times.
Reach Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on
Twitter at Twitter.com/Paola Boivin. Listen to her streaming live on "The
Brad Cesmat Show" on sports360az.com every Monday at 10:30 a.m.
752736
Arizona Coyotes
NHL chief discounts fears of Coyotes leaving
Peter Corbett, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:18 p.m. MST October 9,
2014
A potential new investor in the Arizona Coyotes would be a big plus for the
franchise, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who on
Thursday slapped down speculation that it would result in the team leaving
Glendale.
Bettman, speaking hours before the Coyotes' season opener at Gila River
Arena, said interest in the Coyotes from an investor — whom he declined to
identify — indicates the club is stronger than when the NHL sold it last year
to the current ownership group headed by Anthony LeBlanc.
"Someone has decided that this is a good place to invest," Bettman said.
"That's good for the game, the league and this community."
A week ago, news reports about a potential new majority owner and heavy
losses last season sparked fears among Coyotes fans who have endured
half a decade of financial turmoil and speculation that a new owner would
move the team.
D'ANNA: Why hockey belongs in the desert
Bettman would not confirm who the potential investor is, but he did say the
person approached the Coyotes ownership group without any involvement
from the league.
It has been widely reported the potential investor is Andrew Barroway, a
Philadelphia hedge-fund -manager.
Reaction to rumors about the team leaving town is "somewhere between
unfair and disappointing," Bettman said.
Discussions between the investor and the current ownership group should
be concluded fairly quickly, he said.
"I don't view this as something that is going to -linger for weeks or months, if
it happens," the -commissioner said. "Both sides have to decide if they're
going to be comfortable getting married."
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman talks on issues pertaining to the Coyotes.
Glendale officials are hoping a new investor could stabilize the Coyotes,
allow the team to pay down its loan and perhaps invest more in its payroll
for -players.
Glendale City Councilman Gary Sherwood said the city could try to
renegotiate its contract with Ice-Arizona, the entity that manages the team.
Bettman said a new investor would not seek to -renegotiate the city's
agreement with the Coyotes.
The Coyotes have a clause in the agreement that would allow the team to
leave Glendale after five seasons if the team's combined losses exceed
$50 million.
LeBlanc said last month the team does not expect to exercise its so-called
out clause.
Glendale, meanwhile, spent $1 million more than expected in the first year
of a 15-year agreement with the Arizona Coyotes after parking and concert
revenue at the city's arena fell short of projections.
The city, burdened by its sports-facility deals, paid the Coyotes $13.5
million in fiscal 2014 to manage the arena and keep the team in Glendale.
But hockey and other events generated only $5.8 million in revenue for
Glendale, about $1 million less than projected.
752737
Arizona Coyotes
Move to wing not ruled out for Coyotes C Sam Gagner
"This is a subject — domestic violence — that we've been focused on in
terms of education and counseling for more than a decade," Bettman said.
Famous voice
Renowned ring announcer Michael Buffer was on hand for the pregame
festivities, and he introduced the Coyotes players, coaches and training and
equipment staff before signing off with his trademark catchphrase, "Let's get
ready to rumble!"
Coyotes center Sam Gagner made his debut in the position he's played
most of his career, but a switch to the wing hasn't been ruled out.
Gagner was between wingers Rob Klinkhammer and Lauri Korpikoski for
Thursday's season opener against the Winnipeg Jets and after dealing with
an upper-body injury the final week of training camp, the Coyotes didn't
have enough insight into how the change would pan out to go with it for
Game 1.
"His injury kind of set us back on that evaluation a little bit," coach Dave
Tippett said. "We put him back to where he's most comfortable. We feel like
with Klinkhammer and Korpi beside him, that's size and speed with him,
and hopefully it can be a good line for us."
With Gagner up the middle, that pushes Kyle Chipchura out of the lineup
but Chipchura also has the potential to play on the wing. Tippett doesn't
view the options at center as a problem — "You can never have a logjam
up the middle. The more good middle men you have, the better off you are,"
he said — but finding a home for Gagner could determine the hierarchy for
the entire forward group.
In the meantime, Gagner expects the see-saw and hopes to find a comfort
level regardless of where he's at.
"It doesn't really matter to me," he said. "I'd like to find a role and help this
team out any way I can."
Bettman talks
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman took in the Coyotes season opener
without an announcement of a shakeup of the team's ownership group in
tow.
Although Bettman wouldn't confirm or deny Andrew Barroway's pursuit of a
stake in ownership, Bettman hailed the potential move as a positive one
and said the interest was unsolicited. He also said he believes the future of
the Coyotes is rooted in Arizona and dismissed rumors of relocation as
"unfounded."
A few other highlights from his discussion:
• The league hasn't forgotten about planting an All-Star Game in the Valley
after it lost its previous one when the 2004-05 season was wiped out by a
lockout.
"We don't have a date, but we owe you a game," he said.
• Last season, the Coyotes were rumored to be in the mix to host an
outdoor game but plans for future locations hasn't been set.
The NHL is hosting two this season after holding six last season.
"We'll do more than that next year, but we haven't zeroed on where,"
Bettman said.
• Despite the league setting revenue records for each of the last 10 years,
according to Bettman, expansion isn't currently on the NHL's agenda.
"It's not a current priority for us," he said. "I suppose that could change at
one point. I'm not sure when. No timetable, but not right now."
The imbalance between the conferences — the Eastern Conference has 16
teams while the West sits at 14 — isn't enough of a reason to add to the
league.
"You don't engage a major business transaction just to satisfy some
people's version of symmetry." Bettman said.
• When asked what steps the NHL has in place to combat the domesticviolence issue that's plagued the NFL this season, Bettman said players
receive counseling once or twice a year from behavioral counselors and
those meetings include the topic of domestic violence. That subject is also
brought up in annual meetings between teams and the league's security
department.
752738
Arizona Coyotes
Game day: Winnipeg Jets at Arizona Coyotes
-The Coyotes went 9-3-2 in October of 2013-14.
-The Jets beat the Coyotes 5-1 Jan.13, 2014, in Maurice's first game as
head coach.
-The Jets went 19-12-5 after Maurice was hired.
-The Jets are 2-2 when opening the season on the road.
-Winger Blake Wheeler had 18 points over his final 15 games last season.
Jets at Coyotes
Puck drop: Thursday at 7 p.m.
TV/Radio: FSAZ/KTAR-AM (620).
Possible Coyotes lines:
Boedker-Vermette-Doan
Erat-Hanzal-Moss
Klinkhammer-Gagner-Korpikoski
McMillan-Vitale-Crombeen
Ekman-Larsson-Michalek
Yandle-Stone
Summers-Murphy
Smith
Potential scratches: Schlemko, Hodgman and Chipchura.
Injury update: None.
Possible Jets lines:
Kane-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ladd-Little-Frolik
Lowry-Perreault-Byfuglien
Galiardi-Slater-Thorburn
Stuart-Trouba
Bogosian-Enstrom
Clitsome-Pardy
Pavelec
Potential scratches: Postma, Peluso and Halischuk.
Injury update: None.
On the Jets:
"They're a hard-working team," coach Dave Tippett said. "I had the
opportunity to work with their coach Paul Maurice at the World
Championships. He's a very good coach. They'll be very well-prepared.
They're a big, fast team. Their wingers are big and fast, and they're going to
try to play a hard-forechecking game."
Center Sam Gagner is among three players making their Coyotes debut
tonight. Forwards Joe Vitale and B.J. Crombeen are the others.
"It's a little different," Gagner said. "I think at the end of the day, you're still
playing hockey and I think you prepare the same way. It's different around
new guys and kind of new systems and everything but definitely excited for
tonight."
It isn't hard to detect the excitement of a new season.
"It's like the first day of school," Tippett said. "You show up, and you're
looking to see how things are going to go. Our guys are excited and
enthusiasm -- that goes right from Doaner (captain Shane Doan) to Connor
Murphy."
-The Coyotes are 17-13-4 in season-opening games and 3-2 under Tippett.
They're 7-1 in openers at home since 1996-97.
-Doan has 12 points in 18 career season openers.
-Defenseman Keith Yandle had 32 points in 41 home games last season.
752739
Arizona Coyotes
D'Anna: Why hockey belongs in the desert
John D'Anna, 11:11 p.m. MST October 9, 2014
Editor's note: Arizona Republic Page 1 editor John D'Anna wrote this
column in 2012 when the Coyotes were playing in their first-ever Western
Conference Finals.
This story was originally published on May 11, 2012.
Let's get something straight. That there should be ice hockey in the desert
is not the least bit preposterous.
After all, Phoenix has had at least one professional hockey team -- and
sometimes two -- for nearly 50 years.
Neither is it preposterous that our team should be just four wins away from
the Stanley Cup finals.
Three of the past seven Stanley Cup champions came from warm climates:
Carolina, Anaheim and Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay. (Since this article was
written, the Los Angeles Kings have won two Stanley Cups.)
If we have learned anything at all from the likes of desert rats Garfield
Heard, Luis Gonzalez and Al Michaels, it's that we can -- and should -believe in miracles.
Several months ago, one of my bosses told me that the only way the
Phoenix Coyotes would ever appear on the front page was if they won the
Stanley Cup or if they left town for good.
But if there's one thing I know after 30 years of newspapering, it's that
readers love a good story. And the Phoenix Coyotes are a good story.
So, here I am, writing a story for the front page on what makes our team
and this sport so special and its fans so passionate.
It's kind of like explaining the Three Stooges. It's tempting to say that you
either get them or you don't and leave it at that.
But there's so much more to it. Hockey is not so much a cult as a culture.
And maybe not a culture so much as a religion. And, like any religion, it has
its history, rituals and tradition. There is good (Shane Doan) and evil
(Brendan Shanahan). There is temptation and sin. And, in the end, there is
redemption (Mike Smith) and a hockey life well spent is rewarded with a
drink from a chalice.
Let me say here that I was not born into a hockey family. My father is from
Tucson, which had only one ice rink when I was growing up. When I was 12
and my dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Ohio, I saw my first game
as a Boy Scout usher at a Dayton Gems game.
From that moment, I was hooked. That's what hockey does to you.
But what is it exactly that hooks you, and why? For me, it comes down to a
few fundamental truths: The game is fast and dangerous, which makes it
thrilling. Its athletes are tough, resilient and, above all, passionate. And
while hockey is sometimes unapologetically brutish and violent, it is a
beautifully simple game that is amazingly difficult to play.
It is also, at its heart, a family game, a legacy that is passed from
generation to generation, whether those generations live in Minnesota or
Canada or Russia or, yes, even right here in the desert.
Like I said, I was not born into a hockey family. But my children were.
To watch a game in person is to see an NHL player like Coyotes speedster
Mikkel Boedker reach a velocity of up to 20 mph. If a player collides with an
opponent at that speed, it's like hitting a wall in your car at 40 mph without a
seat belt or an air bag.
Concussions, shoulder separations and fractured collarbones are the
inevitable result. Yet somehow, night after night, players from peewee
leagues to beer leagues to the NHL charge at breakneck speed into the
corners to battle for the puck.
About that puck. It's 6 ounces of frozen, vulcanized rubber. When coming
off a player's stick -- a weapon in itself -- it can reach speeds of more than
100 mph. It becomes a projectile, a missile, an implement of destruction. If
it hits a player in the face, it will shatter bone and disgorge teeth.
Two years ago, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith was hit in
the mouth by a puck and lost seven teeth. Seven teeth. He missed only
seven minutes of the game. This season, Coyotes defenseman Rostislav
Klesla took a stick to the face in the first round of the playoffs, then a puck
to the face in the second. The second time, during a game against
Nashville, he re-entered the game wearing a face mask and kept throwing
his body in front of the puck to keep shots from reaching the one guy whose
job it is to stop it.
Even the skates are treacherous. Coyotes defenseman David Schlemko
nearly severed a tendon in his foot when his feet got tangled up along the
boards during a game earlier this season and has just now made it back
into the lineup. In 2008, a Florida Panthers player named Richard Zednik
had his jugular vein slashed by a skate blade in a tumble in front of the net.
In 1989, a Buffalo Sabers goalie named Clint Malarchuk had his carotid
artery slashed in a game and nearly bled out on the ice. The only thing that
saved him was a trainer who'd been a combat medic in Vietnam.
Malarchuk was back at practice four days later and played in a game five
days after that.
Former Coyotes defenseman Danny Markov once got hit in the face with a
slap shot. It broke his nose and took 25 stitches to close the gash in his
forehead. He missed several shifts and then came back into the game.
When a reporter asked him how he was able to do it, he said simply, "I have
my work to get done."
You see that kind of character day in and day out in hockey. I've met
athletes from all the so-called major sports, and each has its knuckleheads,
even hockey.
But maybe it's because Canadians are so darned nice, or maybe it's
because the players truly appreciate the financial and 5 a.m. sacrifices their
families had to make to keep them in the sport; but pound for pound,
hockey players are among the most courteous and respectful athletes away
from the arena.
I once attended an event where Doan, the Coyotes captain, was supposed
to drop by for an hour and sign autographs. But the event had been
promoted in the media, and when Doan arrived, there were kids and adults
lined up out the door and halfway around the building. The flustered event
organizer apologized profusely and asked him if he could perhaps stay a
little longer. He told her not to worry, that he would stay.
"How long can you stay?" she asked.
"Until everyone gets an autograph," he replied without hesitation.
I contrast that with the time I witnessed a big-time baseball star, now in the
Hall of Fame, literally run away from three little children who wanted an
autograph, jump on the team bus and close the door.
Doan follows a long line of players with character. In 1972, when a Russian
goal judge tried to rob the Canadian national team of a goal, a team official
tried to get to the scorer's table to protest. He was intercepted by Russian
militia guards. Pete Mahovlich of the Canadian team waded into the stands
and backed the Russians down with his hockey stick.
And of course we all know what happened in 1980, when a bunch of
college kids finally learned that playing for their country was more important
than playing for themselves.
The Stanley Cup is the best-known trophy in all of sports. It is the only one
where each team member, coach and owner who has ever won it has his
name engraved on it. At the end of the final game of each playoff series, the
victors and the vanquished line up at center ice and shake hands.
In 1996, my wife caught me watching Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals
between the Colorado Avalanche and the Florida Panthers. She didn't get
it, even though it was triple overtime and the players had been on the ice
nearly five hours.
But the next year, I took her to the very first Coyotes preseason game in
Phoenix, against the Edmonton Oilers. When it was over, she asked if we
could get a refund on our Diamondbacks season-ticket deposit and buy
Coyotes tickets instead.
Two years later, when my son was 3, it was my wife who insisted we sign
him up for hockey. About a year after that, I decided that after all those
years of being a fan, I too had to give it a try. I had just turned 40 and felt I
was still too young for golf. Besides, my wife by that time was really into
hockey players, and I figured maybe she'd like me better.
I scored my first goal in a league game that year, in a tiebreaker shootout
with my dad and my son watching. The truth is that I was so awkward on
the ice that the goalie didn't even think I'd get a shot off. But I felt like
Wayne Gretzky. I'll never forget that moment.
And that's what hockey is really all about, the moments.
Moments like Shane Doan scoring his first hat trick after 1,161 games and
16 years in the NHL. Like Coyote rookie Krys Kolanos beating the greatest
goalie of all time on a penalty shot. Like Jeremy Roenick taking the ice
wearing a face mask after Derian Hatcher broke his jaw in nine places.
And moments like tying your 5-year-old's skates at 5:30 a.m. in a locker
room where it's so cold you can see your breath. Or watching his team mob
each other after winning the state championship. Or finally being able to
exhale when he gets up after a vicious hit and skates back to the bench
under his own power, then takes his next shift like nothing else matters.
Moments. Like the one we are on the brink of. Which is why my family will
be in the stands at Jobing.com Arena on Mother's Day instead of at some
restaurant.
752740
Arizona Coyotes
Arizona Coyotes confidential with Devan Dubnyk
Sarah McLellan, azcentral sports 7:23 a.m. MST October 9, 2014
Position: Goalie.
Age: 28.
Last season: Dubnyk struggled to establish consistency and despite starting
the season as the Edmonton Oilers' starter, he was traded in January to
Nashville. His stint there, however, was brief and he was eventually flipped
again to Montreal. He finished the season with the Canadiens minor-league
team. Dubnyk, who went 11-18-3 last season with a .891 save percentage
and 3.43 goals-against average, signed with the Coyotes for one year July
1.
2014-15 outlook: With guidance from goalie coach Sean Burke, Dubnyk
could very well rediscover his stride with the Coyotes. As a backup, he
won't have as many minutes to accomplish that but the lack of pressure
could create the perfect storm for finding his groove.
Camp focus: Dubnyk has been using the face time with Burke to tweak his
style, namely by learning how to be aggressive while staying in the paint.
With No.1 Mike Smith set to eat up most of the workload, it isn't clear when
Dubnyk will make his first start so practice time has become important.
"I'm not sure when the next one will be, but there will be lots of practice
time," he said.
Quick hits
- Most memorable game: First NHL win. "We were at home against Detroit
and leading 2-1, and they actually scored with 0.8 seconds left. They had to
go upstairs and make sure it crossed the line and sure enough, it was in
and tied the game. To go through that and then we won in the shootout, it
was nice to get that one out of the way. I'll never forget that one."
- Hockey idol: Fred Brathwaite.
- Celebration move: "Not really. I'm pretty subdued, usually. I play better
when I'm relaxed and calm and usually just try to stay level with that. But I
might have to learn from Smitty (Mike Smith). I've seen he's had some good
celebrations, so maybe I'll pick up a couple."
- Slapshot or Miracle: Miracle.
- Best hockey hair: Brandon McMillan.
752741
Arizona Coyotes
New season means clean slate, fresh start, plenty of optimism for Arizona
Coyotes
Sarah McLellan, azcentral sports 10:23 a.m. MST October 9, 2014
The NHL is clearly a forum for men, but at the start of a new season, it can't
help but resemble a schoolyard playground.
The sticks are new, like freshly sharpened pencils. The uniforms are still
clean and pristine — without the creases and scuffs created during the
recesses in between the action. And everyone's grades are the same
because the tests are still waiting to be distributed.
"At the beginning of the year, you haven't failed yet," said captain Shane
Doan, on the brink of Grade — er, Year20. "Nothing's gone wrong.
Everything's right, and there's that enthusiasm that everything is OK. It's a
great feeling."
Optimism is never higher than it is today, with an opening-night countdown
reflecting hours instead of days.
Sure, it might get better than this — at least for one team — but it's more
likely excitement will fade and losses deflate morale and hope becomes
scarce by January.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
And that's why we watch and care and stay engaged until the end. Because
as much as this game is about passing and failing tests, it's also just one
prolonged edition of dress-up.
Some teams complete the makeover and reinvent themselves, and others'
makeup gets smeared before it sets.
"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past, whether you've won Stanley
Cups or you haven't made the playoffs," new classmate B.J. Crombeen
said. "You've got to come out and reprove yourself each and every year,
and I think everyone is always excited about that."
But perhaps the most truthful angle to this paradigm is that the smart ones
— the players who capture attention and win your loyalty — never really
stop being childlike. They haven't lost the passion that started them on this
journey, the enjoyment of lacing up skates every day and the desire to be
the best.
Days before the start of a season they're stopping in front of teammates to
shower them with ice and erupting into a fit of giggles because their
opportunity is still alive and well.
"I'm probably one of the bigger kids in the fact that I love whatever game
we're playing," Doan said. "Whatever thing we're doing, I love to play and
have fun and goof around and spraying snow, doing stupid things that are
childish. But it's that youthful enthusiasm that I think you have to have in
order to get through the grind of it and enjoy it, and if you ever lose it and it
becomes like a job, then you're working. And when you're working, you're
not creative."
And in a world of Peter Pans, that's the goal — to stave off that duty for as
long as possible. It isn't easy, especially with statistics and standings and
peripheral commentary. All that quantifies and qualifies adversity can erode
the privilege and confuse it for responsibility.
VIDEO: Meet the 2014-15 Coyotes
But today, before the red ink has delivered the verdict, the possibilities are
enticing. And not until the final game of the season, when the Stanley Cup
is paraded out, will the love for this sport be brighter.
Anything can happen between then and now.
"You can't wait to get out there and compete," Doan said. "That's the best
part of the game."
So enjoy what's on the agenda.
Class dismissed.
752742
Arizona Coyotes
Doan was actually the one Coyote worth talking about in a consistently
positive light on Thursday, but when your 38-year-old captain looks like one
of your fastest players, you've got a problem.
Smith, Coyotes lay egg in season-opening loss
More Coyotes
Box score
Craig Morgan
Bettman: Sale 'will make franchise even stronger'
FOX Sports Arizona
OCT 10, 2014 1:48a ET
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- If you're looking for silver linings from Thursday's
night's debacle at Gila River Arena, this is about all we can offer:
Prospective buyer Andrew Barroway opted to skip his scheduled trip to the
Valley until his deal to purchase 51 percent of the team is finalized. He
didn't have to watch the Coyotes open the season with a humiliating 6-2
loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
So there's that.
This game was all but over in the first period when the Jets got four goals -at least two that goalie Mike Smith should have stopped -- to grab a 4-1
lead and post their fifth straight win over the Coyotes.
"We need better goaltending than that. It's as simple as that," coach Dave
Tippett said. "It puts you on your heels. We got back to 1-1 and I thought we
were all right. Then we gave up a couple quick ones and we were chasing
the game."
With the game tied 1-1, Smith allowed one-time Coyotes draft pick Blake
Wheeler to score from the boards on a shot that looked like it was slightly
deflected but still should have found no daylight from such a bad angle.
Wheeler scored 15 seconds later on a redirect of Zach Bogosian's shot
from the point, and Mark Stuart ended the period with a long goal that
slipped between Smith's pad and the post and went to review despite clear
evidence the puck was in.
Worst home-opening losses in Coyotes/Jets franchise history
pi-nhl-arizona-coyotes-generic-100214
Score
Opponent Date
6-1
Toronto
6-2
Winnipeg Oct. 9, 2014
6-3
Los Angeles
5-2
Quebec
Oct. 13, 1985
5-2
Dallas
Oct. 12, 2002
4-1
San Jose Oct. 10, 1996
3-0
Boston
Oct. 6, 1981
Oct. 4, 1991
Oct. 10, 2010
"I never got comfortable tonight. It was just one of those games where I
didn't feel good on my feet; didn't feel comfortable in the net," Smith said.
"It's no excuse. You have to find ways to make saves when you're not
feeling your best."
Let's be clear that this is one game. Lots of teams lay eggs in season
openers. Just ask the defending Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings. This
game won't make or break Arizona.
But the Coyotes had talked all season about getting back to their pack
mentality. About upping their compete level. About defending better in their
own end. About grinding out goals. About being more disciplined. About
getting top-10 goaltending.
None of that was on display Thursday in a game in which Arizona
committed nine penalties, several of them ill-timed. The Jets were faster,
hungrier and just plain better. Smith wasn't even close to the only culprit in
the Coyotes' woes. You would have had to cast a wide net to corral all the
guilty parties in this one.
"Nothing was good," captain Shane Doan said. "There were times when we
had pressure and we played the way we wanted. But when we did get
opportunities we didn't score and it seemed every opportunity they had they
capitalized on."
The players the Coyotes brought in this offseason to inject some character
were not good. Joe Vitale turned the puck over on an early goal and lost
more faceoffs than he won. B.J. Crombeen played just nine minutes but still
finished a minus-2. Martin Erat, a holdover the Coyotes need to re-establish
his offensive game, was a minus-4 in the first period.
There is plenty to work on when the Coyotes convene for practice on
Friday.
"We aren't as bad as people think we are right now, and obviously people
think we're pretty bad," Doan said
foxsportsarizona.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
752743
Arizona Coyotes
Bettman on Coyotes sale: 'It will make franchise even stronger'
Craig Morgan
FOX Sports Arizona
OCT 09, 2014 10:04p ET
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's press conference
Thursday at Gila River Arena didn't cover much new ground as the Arizona
Coyotes and their fans await the completion of Andrew Barroway's 51
percent purchase of the club.
But Bettman did clarify a few points without naming Barroway as the
investor. Here are the highlights:
Bettman said the NHL did not play any role in soliciting investors for
IceArizona or the Coyotes.
"There's been no need," he said. "We learned about this after the contact
was initiated by the interested party. The current ownership group wasn't
soliciting additional partners, nor were we."
NHL sources confirmed to FOX Sports Arizona last week that the Coyotes
have received numerous expressions of interest from potential investors
over the past year at higher valuations than the one at which IceArizona
purchased the franchise last year ($170 million).
"I guess it's a testament to what (owners) George (Gosbee) and Anthony
(LeBlanc) and the partners have done," Bettman said. "Nothing is finalized
and it's conceivable nothing could get finalized; it's possible something will
get finalized. What it means is the franchise is heading in such a direction
that there are people with substantial resources who want to be a part of
this and want to bring additional assets and support to the franchise."
As for speculation that Barroway wants to buy the team to move it to
another market, Bettman said "that's all unfounded; that's off the mark."
More Coyotes
Top 10 questions as Coyotes open season
Bettman noted that the team has made significant progress in ticket sales,
corporate sponsorships and other revenue streams in just one year of
ownership.
"All the things that we promised you would happen," he said. "So for people
to still be cynical at this point and question either our intentions or
IceArizona's intention I think is grossly unfair at this point.
"By every measure the club is doing much better. I don't know if some
people had an expectation that turning things around after league
operations for so many years was like turning on a light switch, but I was
never under that illusion."
The New York Post recently reported the Coyotes were valued at $305
million, which came as a surprise to many, given the purchase price one
year earlier.
"There are two things to say about that," Bettman said. "There have been
other recent transactions in the NHL which reflect the fact that franchise
values are increasing for NHL teams.
"Two, I think you're seeing that across all sports, among the four major
sports, and I think that's a trend we're going continue to see because of,
among other things, the importance of sports to media in this digital age
where technology is changing on a daily basis the way people consume
entertainment, particularly sports."
Despite Bettman's non-committal statements on the progress of the deal,
NHL sources told FOX Sports Arizona that the deal is close to completion
with paperwork and minor legal issues the only current holdups.
When the sale is complete, "I think it will make the franchise even stronger,"
Bettman said.
foxsportsarizona.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
752744
Boston Bruins
3 Takeaways From the Bruins' 2-1 Loss to the Red Wings
Jeff Pini
@JeffPini
Boston.com Staff
October 9, 2014 10:27 PM
bruins red wingsThe Bruins came out sluggish against the Red Wings on
Thursday, and while they led 1-0 in the first period, they couldn't muster any
other offense and lost 2-1. Paul Sancya/AP
Just 24 hours after their 2014-15 season opener at the TD Garden, the
Bruins hit the ice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to face the Red Wings in the
Wings' first game of the year. Thursday’s game really wasn’t as close as the
final score indicated, as the Bruins looked tired and failed to build any
momentum before it was too late, as the Red Wings earned a 2-1 win to
drop the B’s to 1-1-0 his season. Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s
game:
1. It Was Clear Which Team Played 24 Hours Prior
The answer? The Bruins. Having been on the TD Garden ice some 600
miles away against the Flyers on Wednesday, the Bruins came out flatfooted against the Red Wings, who were fresh being one of the 22 teams
that didn’t play on Opening Night of the NHL season.
The Red Wings recorded the first seven shots of the game and forced many
early icing calls on the B’s as the Black and Gold couldn’t control the puck
in transition. A few timely saves by Tuukka Rask kept the game scoreless
for the first 8:26 before the Bruins became shorthanded as Dennis
Seidenberg was sent to the penalty box for interference, but the B’s were
able to stop the Wings’ power play from scoring.
It took the Bruins 12 minutes to finally record their first shot on net, but they
made it count, as Patrice Bergeron picked off an errant pass from Jonathan
Ericsson and beat Jimmy Howard to give the B’s a 1-0. The Bruins finished
the period trailing in shots 10-5, but lead 1-0 heading into the intermission.
They would end up totaling just 17 shots in the loss, tying their season-low
from a season ago.
2. Bergeron Leaves in Second Period With Injury, Returns
Bruins fans had to hold their collective breath early in the second, as
Patrice Bergeron went into the corner fighting for the puck with Niklas
Kronwall and went down after crashing awkwardly into the boards. He
skated off the ice, but later came back with just under seven minutes to play
in the period. It was later revealed that Bergeron was just "respecting the
[concussion] protocol of the league" when he left the bench and was never
worried about the incident.
With top line center David Krejci already on injured reserve, the Bruins
could not afford to have Bergeron miss any significant period of time. Their
30-goal scorer from a year ago had a goal in 14:26 time on ice in the
Bruins’ second game of the season. He needs to be on the ice to lead the
B’s if they hope to get off to the start of the year on the right foot.
3. After Wrist Surgery, Lucic Still Getting Back Into It
Milan Lucic missed much of training camp and the preseason due to
offseason wrist surgery, and two games into the Bruins season, it appears
he is still shaking some rust off. In the B’s win over the Flyers on
Wednesday, Lucic played 15:22 and registered a block while also playing
1:22 on the power play.
On Thursday, Lucic played 15:02, including 2:44 on the power play and 11
seconds on the penalty kill. He recorded two hits, but also had two
giveaways in the Bruins’ 2-1 loss.
Lucic has long been one of the Bruins most productive forwards, as his 59
points last year was fourth on the team, with linemates David Krejci and
Jarome Iginla finishing first and third, respectively. If Lucic can get back to
his bruising, physical form once Krejci returns from injured reserve, then the
two can rediscover the chemistry that has helped them become a strong 1-
2- punch on the Bruins’ top line that has seen the right side become a
revolving door over the past three seasons.
Boston Globe LOADED: 10.10.2014
752745
Boston Bruins
Jordan Caron Called Up for Bruins Game in Detroit
Steve Silva
@stevesilva
Boston.com Staff
October 9, 2014 2:08 PM
The Bruins have called up right wing Jordan Caron ahead of Thursday's
game in Detroit as part of three roster moves made today.
The 23-year-old Caron appeared in 35 games for Boston last season,
scoring a goal to go with two assists. Caron was most recently assigned to
the Providence Bruins on Tuesday.
Right wing Brian Ferlin and goaltender Malcolm Subban were assigned to
Providence to complete the moves for the Bruins who play their first road
game of the season tonight following Wednesday's 2-1 win over the Flyers
at TD Garden Wednesday.
752746
Boston Bruins
Claude Julien tinkering with his lines through injuries, new players
Evan Sporer
@ev_sporer
Boston.com Correspondent
It didn’t take the Bruins long to get in the win column as the puck dropped
on the 2014-15 season. And while two points are all Boston could really ask
for in its home-opener against the Flyers, the Bruins still have much to
figure out, especially when it comes to their lines.
Claude Julien experimented for much of the second half of the game with
both his line combinations and defensive pairings. It began midway through
the middle frame when Julien broke up his top pairing of Zdeno Chara and
Dougie Hamilton, balancing out the depth chart and putting Chara with
Adam McQuaid, and Hamilton with Dennis Seidenberg.
Then the forward lines began to get jumbled, perhaps the catalyst of which
was Bobby Robins serving seven minutes in the box for a charging penalty
and subsequent fight. The Bruins lines were bound to be something of a
makeshift situation with both David Krejci and Gregory Campbell out with
injuries, and Julien tried a number of different iterations.
“It’s not just a work in progress,” said Julien. “We’ve got some injuries to
some key players. When you’re missing Krejci—and then you look at their
lineup and their top three lines with the veterans that they have there.”
Even how Julien would have elected to go about things with a full
complement of players was unclear. Krejci and Milan Lucic were expected
to remain on the same line, likely with Loui Eriksson, but there was no
guarantee. The Patrice Bergeron line with Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith
remained intact. Otherwise, all bets were off, and Lucic opened the season
flanked by Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser.
“I think [chemistry] got better as the game went on,” Lucic said after the win.
“Obviously we didn’t play much together in the preseason or anything, but
the good thing was we didn’t get scored on, which is one of our jobs.”
Chris Kelly, who netted the game-winner, and skated on the third line with
Eriksson and Carl Soderberg, said he thought his team responded well to
the situation.
“Someone said before the game, everyone’s here for a reason and
everyone has a job to do,” said Kelly. “I think everyone came out here and
performed and did what they do best.”
Still, there were moments where the inexperience and lack of continuity was
apparent. In the first period, Lucic fired a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone
that was several feet behind Spooner. On a carry-in attempt later, Spooner
was a bit ahead of the play, and was whistled for offside.
“That’s why we want to get into sync, and timing’s a huge part of that, and
hopefully we can find that right away tomorrow night,” Lucic said.
Things may become even more jumbled when Krejci and Campbell are
ready to play. Craig Cunningham filled in for Campbell on the fourth line,
while Spooner slotted in for Krejci. It may not be as simple as plug-and-play
if Julien deems the replacements deserve more minutes, and that’s when it
can turn into a numbers game.
Yet for the time being, Julien will make do with the group he has, and play
things according to the circumstance.
“I had to juggle lines tonight,” Julien said. “People that are used to watching
me coach aren’t used to seeing that too much. But I do it when I have to.
“Tonight I felt I felt I had to put certain players together at certain times
during the game.”
752747
Boston Bruins
The Bruins have 12 regular-season games this month, following two
preseason games.
By Amalie Benjamin
“I know we have some situations where we’d like to be able to work on
certain parts of our game and we don’t always have the time, but you pick
your poison and you do the best you can,” Julien said. “You tweak those
things along the way. We’re not unique. I think it’s the same for a lot of
teams. It’s just a coaching adjustment that you have to make.”
| Globe Staff October 10, 2014
Minor moves
Carl Soderberg starts strong for Bruins
DETROIT — The last time the Bruins played the Red Wings in a meaningful
game was in April, as Detroit was overwhelmed in five games in the first
round of the playoffs. It was a Bruins series win helped by the play of Carl
Soderberg, who had found his sweet spot at his natural position of center.
He bowled over the Red Wings, helped by a favorable defensive matchup,
and showed the Bruins (and the rest of the NHL) that he was a player who
could be relied upon in crucial situations — and not just in the offensive
zone.
Having Soderberg at his best is also important now, as the Bruins entered
the first week of the season down two of their centers. With David Krejci
and Gregory Campbell out, Soderberg’s line has essentially been promoted
to the No. 2 line — and it played like it in the season opener.
Not only did Soderberg have two points against the Flyers on Wednesday
— a power-play assist on Reilly Smith’s goal and an assist on Chris Kelly’s
game-winner — he played responsibly all over the ice. It was something
that impressed coach Claude Julien as he went back over the game tape.
“With David Krejci and Patrice [Bergeron], who are well known around the
league as being great centermen, Carl is a big body and I think he gets
maybe overlooked because of that,” Julien said. “I looked at his game
[Wednesday] night and not only offensively, but defensively [he was good],
like he was backchecking, covering up, his back pressure, and all that stuff.
He played a heavy game.
“When I looked at the computer afterward, I really liked what he did. So,
he’s a huge asset in the situation where we’ve got some injuries, a guy that
can step up and play some top-two line minutes and then play against the
top lines of other teams.”
Asked about his defensive game, Soderberg said, “I think when I played
centerman last season I felt like I find my spot more in my own end, too. As
a winger I didn’t feel quite comfortable in the D zone, but as a centerman I
feel really comfortable.”
And he plays that way, too.
This is a big year for Soderberg, who becomes an unrestricted free agent at
the end of the season.
He spent 2013-14 proving that he can be an NHL center after many years
in Sweden, and now it appears he’s going to do his best to prove to teams
that he should be in consideration for a top-six spot.
“We miss Dave a little bit, and I try to do what I can to help the team, and
hopefully he’s back soon and we are even stronger,” Soderberg said. “We
have two of the best centermen in the league, and I’m glad I can help them
out sometimes. Even when I’m in the third line, I love to play there.
“I think we are really strong in the center position.”
They are, and with Soderberg’s continued strong play they’re getting ever
stronger.
“I know that probably on other teams he might be [a top-six] player,” Julien
said. “For us to have him slotted in that third spot is a luxury for us.”
Keeping busy
It’s not an easy start to the season, at least in terms of the schedule. The
Bruins kicked off with a back-to-back, with the second game on the road,
then make it three in four days with a home game against Washington on
Saturday. They follow that with four games next week, three on the road,
starting Monday against Colorado.
“We don’t make excuses,” Julien said. “It’s the reality of the schedule. We
just have to go out there and play and put those excuses away. Our guys
are in good shape. We try to manage that the best we can and that’s what
professional athletes do.”
The Bruins made three transactions Thursday morning, completing the
roster manipulations for salary cap purposes that occurred Tuesday.
Malcolm Subban and Brian Ferlin were sent to Providence, and Jordan
Caron was called up . . . Caron was the healthy forward scratch for the 2-1
loss to Red Wings, with Matt Bartkowski the scratch among the
defensemen for the second straight game . . . Campbell (abdomen) did not
make the trip but did skate back in Boston. “He’s progressing every day,”
Julien said. “I think right now I can say that everything that’s related to his
recovery is positive.” . . . Wednesday’s win made the Bruins 13-3-1 in their
last 17 games against the Flyers, going back to 2009-10, including four
straight wins . . . Kelly’s game-winning goal in the opener was the 16th of
his career, and first since March 24, 2012.
752748
Boston Bruins
‘Slowly but surely’ fighting is exiting the NHL
By Kevin Paul Dupont
One pulled punch after another, the fight game is dropping out of the NHL.
Boston fan favorite Shawn Thornton finds himself punching the clock (and
any willing opponent) in Sunrise, the NHL’s sleepy south Florida town
where hockey went to retire. The Maple Leafs made heavyweight Colton
Orr a surprising roster cut at the start of this week. Mustachioed muscleman
George Parros, last seen as the resident enforcer in Montreal, is out of
work.
At this hour, fighting remains a tolerated part of NHL play, still punishable
by a five-minute major penalty, but it’s clear it is being counted out.
“Slowly, but surely,’’ Bruins tough guy Milan Lucic said with a tinge of regret
in his voice, “it’s dwindling away.’’
Here in the Hub of Hockey, where fighting was an essential ingredient of
the swashbuckling Big Bad Bruins of the 1960s and ’70s, the fan base
retains a tribal appreciation for the guys who ply the sweet science. There
are legions of Lucic followers, many of whom sport his No. 17 proudly on
their backs. And Wednesday night, with the Flyers on Causeway Street for
the season opener, ex-UMass-Lowell winger Bobby Robins (Class of 2006)
took over Thornton’s vacant position as wannabe fourth-line tough guy.
A new hired gunman was on the job. For now, at least.
Video: Bobby Robins makes NHL debut
After making his NHL debut with the Bruins, Bobby Robins said, “I Definitely
Have the Itch Now, I Want To Stay in This League.”
“I’ve seen some good ones,’’ said John Healey, who Wednesday night
began his 46th year as a Bruins season ticket-holder (Section 306, Row 12,
Seat 3). “Terry O’Reilly, Stan Jonathan, Cam Neely . . . and, hey, Bobby Orr
was a pretty good fighter, too. He just didn’t go that much.’’
Healey, from South Boston, for many years was a member of the Gallery
Gods, the Hub’s hockey cognoscenti who formed decades ago in the old
Garden and often sat together in the balcony.
The graying Gods are still around, but far fewer in number, and sit in
scattered locations in the upper bowl. They aren’t what they used to be, in
part because of the game’s spiked economics. Healey said he paid $1 per
seat when he first bought season tickets, and this year he is paying $45.
“I think it would ruin the game if they got rid of fighting,’’ said Healey,
decked out in a Black-and-Gold sweater, No. 1 on his back. “If a guy hits
you on the back of the head, you should be able to do something about it,
right? If you’re going to get rid of something, get rid of the shootout.’’
Much like Lucic, it was Robins’s willingness and ability to fight that finally
helped him land NHL work. It just took him a lot longer than Lucic, who
made the jump directly from junior hockey (Vancouver Giants) to the NHL.
Robins traveled as far as Northern Ireland (Belfast Giants) to keep his
dream alive, and finally landed an NHL varsity job these last couple of
weeks in training camp, ironically in an era when the very skill that got him
here is being marginalized around the league.
Prior to his first NHL shift, the 32-year-old Robins acknowledged that it will
be his endless work to improve his skating, and not perpetuating his
established fighting, that will allow him his best chance to remain in the
bigs.
“If you can’t keep the pace,’’ he said, “you can’t play.’’
Midway through the second period, Robins performed as expected, trading
heavy punches with Philly defenseman Luke Schenn in front of the Flyers
bench. First bout of the season, the Boston rookie with No. 64 on his back.
Just the type of exchange the Bruins like: Their fourth-line winger sent off
with one of the opposition’s top defensemen.
In part, it was Thornton’s diminishing leg speed that made him a Boston
roster casualty over the summer. But it never was truly his skating that
carried him to the show. Ever willing to put up his dukes, Thornton has his
name etched twice on the Stanley Cup (once with the Ducks, once with the
Bruins), the majority of his valued nightly contributions registered with his
fists and not his scoring touch.
Lucic, only 26 years old and now with 486 career games, could end up
being counted in the last wave of players to have their fists highlight their
résumé. Had it not been for how he pounded his way through the teenage
talent pool of the Western Hockey League, where he averaged nearly 150
penalty minutes over two seasons with the Giants, no telling what would
have become of his career trajectory.
“If we went 10 years back to when I started as a 16-year-old, a big element
for myself that got me looks in the junior ranks, and got me looks by scouts
was that element of toughness, that element of fighting, and that’s what
gave me a look and a chance to get on those junior teams,’’ said Lucic.
“It got me drafted. Yeah, I mean, I only had 9 goals and 10 assists my draft
year. But I also had 25 fights that year.
“At the end of the day, what really gave notice to people was that
toughness, the fighting element of my game.
“I think it would be a lot more difficult. Who knows if I would have gotten a
look today?’’
Meanwhile, the love of old-school justice lingers in the stands. The
venerable Gallery Gods aren’t alone when it comes to enjoying the sight of
a couple of guys mixing it up.
They grew up in the rock-em-sock-em NHL, a league that once tolerated
bench-clearing brawls and ice sheets strewn with gloves and sticks as the
residue of donnybrooks. In the old Garden, some of the fights continued
down the runway that once separated the home and visiting benches and
spilled into the hallway beneath the stands.
Such routine brawls disappeared more than 20 years ago, before the Bruins
moved into their new Garden.
“The hockey that I like to watch is the brand that the Bruins fans like to
watch,’’ said Lucic, asked if he agreed that many Bruins fans would
consider hockey without fighting to be a diluted brew. “I guess it would be
kind of like decaf — still tastes like coffee, but you don’t get the kick, right?’’
Who’s to argue with the menacing, 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound Lucic? He is
who he is because he could pack a punch, and even he wonders how his
life will be if the fight game goes away. His game is best when his emotions
are running hot, usually after he has tangled in a fight, especially so on
home ice in front of a full house.
Can Lucic bring his game to full throttle if the fight game goes away?
“I don’t think so,” he said. “From a personal standpoint, I don’t think so.
“I like watching the Flyers play, because they play with that jam, they
forecheck, and they mix it up and all that kind of stuff. Because it is like a
double espresso, right? That’s what you want.’’
And the future? Does the NHL stand at the cusp of fight-free hockey?
“We will have this conversation in five years,’’ said Lucic, “and see what it is
like.’’
752749
Boston Bruins
Down 2 centers, Bruins’ Claude Julien turned to familiar lines
By Fluto Shinzawa
During the preseason, Chris Kelly did not skate many shifts with Carl
Soderberg and Loui Eriksson.
learned this the hard way in the second when the two crunched the
Philadelphia agitator into the boards.
Julien prefers a stable lineup. He likes knowing he has four lines he can roll
regularly in rhythm. He is not much for changing lines and trying new stuff.
He had no choice against the Flyers because he was missing two regular
centers.
“We’ve got some injuries to some key players when you’re missing Krejci,”
Julien said. “You look at their lineup with their top three lines and the
veterans they have, at times after power plays and penalty kills, you’ve got
to make sure you have the right people out there. I had to juggle lines
tonight. People used to watching me coach aren’t used to seeing that too
much. I do it when I have to. Tonight, I felt I had to put certain players
together at certain times of the game.”
A quality that’s ingrained in hockey players, however, is muscle memory.
So it didn’t really matter that Kelly and his third-line mates from last season
didn’t get many reps together in training camp. All they had was one
practice together Tuesday and a tuneup in Wednesday’s morning skate
before they skated for real against the Flyers.
Familiarity was also integral to the Bruins’ first goal. Early last year,
Soderberg and Smith regularly worked the backdoor power-play setup.
Soderberg held the puck at the near post. When defenders closed in,
Soderberg slipped the puck to Smith at the far post.
They clicked, just like they did last year.
Eventually, teams wised up to it. But it worked again Wednesday night in
the first period.
“We hadn’t really played together throughout training camp,” said Kelly, who
scored the game-winning goal in Wednesday night’s 2-1 win after strong
down-low work by his linemates. “We played together last year when the
three of us weren’t injured. I thought as the game went along, we got
clicking better and better.”
Bergeron initiated the play by winning a puck battle against Andrew
MacDonald in the right corner. Soderberg gained control and saw Smith
slashing backdoor. Soderberg’s pass ticked off Bergeron’s skate and onto
Smith’s blade. Smith tucked home the puck at 10:39 of the first.
David Krejci did not play in Wednesday’s season opener because of an
undisclosed injury. Krejci, who was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, will
not be eligible to play in the next two games either.
Chris Kelly knocked in a loose rebound with 1:51 remaining to give the
Bruins a thrilling 2-1 win over the Flyers.
Gregory Campbell missed the entire preseason because of a core injury.
His season-opening duty was taking a solo twirl before his teammates went
out for their morning skate. Their absences are part of the reason the
Bruins kicked things off with four forwards who spent most of last year in
the AHL: Matt Fraser, Ryan Spooner, Bobby Robins, and Craig
Cunningham.
This is not how the Bruins wanted to open the season.
So Claude Julien did what would be natural for any coach. He turned to
what was familiar.
Training camp proved one thing: that Patrice Bergeron centering Brad
Marchand and Reilly Smith will be a dynamite two-way line. That threesome
was a definite to roll together against the Flyers.
Julien also reunited Kelly with Soderberg and Eriksson. Two lines with a
history, he figured, would be a good starting point.
“It was important for me to have two lines that were familiar with each other
tonight in the situation that we’re in,” Julien said.
Like most coaches, Julien starts with a pairing he can trust. Marchand and
Bergeron have skated together since 2010-11. Soderberg and Eriksson had
success last year.
Julien looked for similar pairings on his other two lines. Fraser and
Spooner, who played with Milan Lucic on the third line, had seen time
together in Providence. On the fourth line, Julien deployed Cunningham
with Robins, along with Daniel Paille in his usual spot on the left side.
Cunningham and Robins shared some AHL shifts on Providence’s third line
last season.
“He’s a hard-working guy, too,” Robins said of Cunningham. “Very skilled,
very fast. He’s a strong player, strong skater. He’s not afraid to get his nose
dirty. He’s the kind of guy who can play on pretty much any line. He can be
a first-line skill guy. He can be mucking with the fourth-liners.”
The lines held up. Bergeron turned ace center Claude Giroux (one shot, 4
for 21 on faceoffs, 20:17 of ice time) into a ghost. Kelly scored the winner
by gaining net-front position to whack home the rebound of an Adam
McQuaid shot, which the defenseman ripped off following good puckprotection work by Soderberg and Eriksson.
Julien praised Lucic (zero shots in 15:22 of ice time) for being a safe,
dependable, and thorough presence alongside Spooner and Fraser.
Cunningham and Robins teamed to be a head-cracking duo. Zac Rinaldo
“It’s the start of the year. I’m sure teams will crunch down on it,” Smith said.
“I’ll take it when it’s there. If Carl keeps on finding me backdoor, I’m
definitely going to be there.”
The Bruins won the puck-possession battle. They ripped off 58 shots (33
landed on goal, 15 were blocked, 10 missed the net) while limiting the
Flyers to 44 attempts. Their top two lines carried the mail by combining for
21 attempts. They supported each other in the offensive zone. They cycled
efficiently. They went to the net.
Familiarity served them well.
752750
Boston Bruins
Bruins win opener, and it’s all good
By Dan Shaughnessy
Hockey Night in Boston.
Drop the puck.
Three fist pumps for Rene Rancourt.
One down, 81 to go.
And last . . . but not least . . . Everything Is Awesome.
Chris Kelly knocked in a loose rebound with 1:51 remaining to give the
Bruins a thrilling 2-1 win over the Flyers.
It’s hard to remember that Chiarelli and Julien were facing firing squads just
a few years ago. It’s true. A mob was gathering on Causeway Street when
the Bruins dropped their first two games at home against Montreal in the
srping of 2011. All was forgiven and forgotten when those Bruins came
back and won the Cup. These are good days for the Bruins — almost as
good as the early 1970s when the B’s were more popular than the Rolling
Stones.
And so Wednesday night was a party night, the Bruins’ 214th consecutive
sellout. Owner Jeremy Jacobs was seen strolling through the press box and
shaking hands, Julien was greeted with a loud roar, and the introduction of
Zdeno Chara rocked the railroad tracks down below. Fans flooded the Pro
Shop and enjoyed the new amenities in the Legend’s Club. A few of the
Patriots took in the game from a sixth floor box and ate ice cream sundaes
between the second and third periods.
The Bruins returned the love. Reilly Smith snapped home a feed from Carl
Soderberg for a power play goal in the middle of the first period. Old guy
rookie Bobby Robins thrilled the bloodthirsty masses with his first major
league fight. The Flyers tied it in the third, but nobody really worried. Chris
Kelly won it for the Bruins with 1:51 left on the clock.
It was, in other words, a perfect night for the Hub’s Hockey Krishnas.
On an unseasonably warm October night in Boston (sort of like Stanley Cup
weather in June, dontcha think?), the 2014-15 Bruins defeated the
Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, in their 90th season-opener Wednesday night.
“Our core group is still our core group,’’ Julien said before the game. “And
as far as I’m concerned I coach the same way all the time.’’
Everything looks just swell with the Spoked-B’s. General manager Peter
Chiarelli and coach Claude Julien are more secure than Ed Markey on
Capitol Hill, there hasn’t been a peep about last spring’s Game 7 flameout
at home against the Canadiens, and nobody seems to mind a summer of
subtraction without much addition for the Black and Gold. Most Bruins fans
feel that the local heroes are bound for another Stanley Cup ride.
I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of enjoying Boston’s 21st-century
sports renaissance as a soft landing spot for professional athletes and
teams. In the bad old days, players in our town were slandered and libeled.
They heard words they never heard in the Bible. A regular season or playoff
collapse would be rewarded with a lifetime of humiliation. Red Sox
shortstop Rick Burleson said it himself when the Sox folded in 1978: “The
abuse we have taken and the abuse we must be prepared to take for the
entire winter, we richly deserve.’’
Not anymore. Everybody loves everybody now. It’s Fanboys Gone Wild.
Any team that wins a championship gets a lifetime pass.
The embarrassing, ill-prepared 2014 Red Sox were never taken to task this
year. Boston fans soaked up NESN happy talk, paid the highest prices in
baseball, sang “Sweet Caroline,” and enjoyed watching “the kids” finish in
last place. After all, those lovable, cuddly Sox won the World Series in
2013. They won three in 10 years. So there’s no need for accountability
anymore.
The Celtics are coming off a 25-win season, destined to be an NBA bottomfeeder for the forseeable future, but why get caught up in inconvienant
truths. Boston’s top draft pick, Marcus Smart, might have bent the rims
(zero baskets in 29 minutes in his professional debut), but his was still a
solid, promising performance. Hank Finkel, much-maligned long ago when
anything less than a championship was unacceptable, no doubt wishes he
could play for the Green in 2014.
And of course the paranoid Patriots can do no wrong again now that they
righted the ship against the house-of-cards from Cincinnati. Critics and
inquiring minds were put in their place during the Sunday night beatdown.
Remember: the Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years.
All of which brings us to the local hockey team, a fine band of skaters who
compiled the most points in the NHL during the 2013-14 regular season.
The Bruins flopped badly in the second round of the playoffs, getting
outscored, 7-1, in Games 6 and 7 against the hated Habs. No problem. We
love hockey. We love the Bruins. And even though the Bruins are a year
older and just went through a standstill summer (goodbye Jarome Iginla,
Johnny Boychuk, Shawn Thornton), just about everybody is on board for
the new season that undoubtedly will result in another trip to the Stanley
Cup Finals.
It’s amazing. The late Don Zimmer was booed when he took out his lineup
card on Opening Day in 1979 — one year after winning 99 regular-season
games, but today a little spring collapse by the Bruins is quickly erased in
the New England mind.
Amen to that. President’s Trophy here we come.
752751
Boston Bruins
Bruins offense takes nap
“We had a tough game. At the end we had a few good chances and we
were really hoping to take it into overtime and potentially get a point or two,”
said Marchand. “But that stuff happens. You can’t expect to win if you don’t
have a good game. And that’s what happened tonight.”
Boston Herald LOADED: 10.10.2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Steve Conroy
DETROIT — The Bruins were bad in the first period at Joe Louis Arena,
they were worse in the second and, when several late attempts to tie the
game just missed the mark, the hockey gods were in the mood for justice.
The end result was that, 24 hours after earning their first victory of the
season, the Bruins came away with a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings last
night.
Coach Claude Julien took into account numerous factors — that the B’s
played on Wednesday, they were facing an energized Wings team in their
home opener, they were without Patrice Bergeron for much of the second
period — and chose to look for a silver lining
“At the end of the night, we can sit here and know we probably didn’t
deserve it,” said Julien, whose team managed just nine shots on net
through the first two periods. “But you don’t always win games that you
deserve and you don’t always win games that you thought you should have
won. Those things happen, and I felt if we went out and played a solid 20
minutes in the third, we had a chance. We were just a goal down, and we
tried.
“Resilience is probably the best example of our team tonight. After two
tough periods, we still found a way to make it a game.”
The real silver lining, however, was that the B’s best all-around player left
the rink apparently healthy. Bergeron, who has a history of concussions,
was run into the boards awkwardly, but cleanly, by Detroit defenseman
Niklas Kronwall early in the second period. He was slow to get up and
eventually went to the dressing room and the quiet room. The hockey loving
people of New England finally exhaled when, at 13:13 of the second, he
returned.
“He respected the protocol, he felt OK, he went in (to the quiet room)
because that’s what we should do and it’s the right thing to do. And he
came back,” said Julien. “It was done properly. It was respecting protocol of
the league, for all the right reasons.”
As for the game, it may be hard to believe, but the Bruins actually held a
lead. They did not get a shot on net until the 12:01 mark of the first period,
and that one went in. Bergeron picked off a Jonathan Ericsson pass near
the blue line and beat goalie Jimmy Howard with a hard wrist shot over the
glove for the 1-0 lead.
The best Bruin from that point on was Tuukka Rask, who got his team into
the second period with a lead before getting beat on two goals on which he
had little chance. The Wings tied it at 3:52 when a Danny DeKeyser shot
pinballed off Johan Franzen’s stick, then Justin Abdelkader’s backside and
in.
Bergeron finally returned later in the period, but on his first shift, he took a
slashing penalty that led to the eventual game-winning power-play goal. On
the kill, Craig Cunningham had a chance to get the puck out along the
boards, but Henrik Zetterberg stole it to set up a pretty play that led to
Gustav Nyquist’s goal.
Cunningham took responsibility.
“I wasn’t hard enough on it,” he said. “This is the NHL and guys come quick.
Obviously I was disappointed I didn’t get that puck out and it ended up in
the back of our net.”
Thanks again to Rask (22 saves), the B’s got out of the second only down a
goal and, in the third period, they finally started to create some sustained
pressure. Brad Marchand was robbed on a great glove save by Howard
and, after Franzen went off for elbowing Bergeron with 2:34 left in
regulation, he clanged the post.
The Bruins’ threat essentially ended when Zdeno Chara was called for
interference with 1:46 left.
752752
Boston Bruins
Bruins Notebook: Patrice Bergeron returns after scare
Not many Bruins had a good night last night, but the makeshift third line of
Milan Lucic, Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser produced zero shots on net. .  .  .
Chara had a game-high six shots. .  .  .
The B’s officially made the paper transactions of sending Malcolm Subban
and Brian Ferlin to AHL Providence and recalling Jordan Caron. Matt
Bartkowski and Caron and were last night’s healthy scratches.
Steve Conroy
DETROIT — The play — and perhaps even more so, the aftermath — did
not look good.
Early in the second period, Patrice Bergeron was chasing down a puck in
the Detroit zone and Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall crunched him
into the end boards, squeezing Bergeron’s head and shoulder between the
defender’s body and the boards.
Bergeron went to the ice and got up very slowly. He finished his shift, but
after going to the bench he went directly down the runway to the dressing
room. He would not resurface again until 13:13 of the second period. Coach
Claude Julien later revealed that Bergeron, who has a history of
concussions, underwent the league protocol for suspected concussions and
he was checked out to be good to go.
But while many fans surely felt their hearts go in their throats, Bergeron said
he wasn’t concerned even as he was headed into the quiet room.
“It’s one of those protocols that you have to respect, I guess. I had to go to
the quiet room and it takes forever to go through that test. It took a little bit
of time, but otherwise I was fine the whole time,” said Bergeron.
Bergeron has had four known concussions. The first one, from a hit by
then-Philadelphia Flyer Randy Jones, cost him nearly the entire 2007-08
season. The most recent one he suffered was on April 4, 2013.
Fans weren’t the only ones concerned.
“Any time a teammate goes down, you’re nervous,” said his longtime
linemate Brad Marchand. “But he’s a very strong guy and very resilient and
he came back. We were obviously very relieved, but definitely worried when
he went out.”
Bergeron took another high hit with 2:34 left in the contest when Detroit’s
Johan Franzen elbowed him along the boards in the Bruins’ zone. Bergeron
doubled over a bit, but stayed in the game.
“That one I got the wind knocked out of me. I had room there on the wall
and he took it and (put) his elbow out,” said Bergeron.
Did he think Franzen targeted him?
“He’s the only one that knows that. I can’t answer for him,” said Bergeron.
“To me, I kind of got through. I was in line with him and then I took the
space that was open to get through the hit. He missed me, so he threw the
elbow out, I thought. I didn’t see the replay, though.”
Minutes spread out
In Wednesday’s season opener against Philadelphia, Torey Krug was the
low man on the minutes totem pole for defensemen with 17:20,the high
man was Adam McQuaid with 21:47 and the other four Bruins defensemen
fit snugly in between. Last night, the high-low differential was 22:39 (Krug)
and 17:06 (Kevan Miller).
Now there will surely come a day when you see Zdeno Chara’s or Dennis
Seidenberg’s minutes dwarf the rest of the pack, and the Even-Steven
approach of the last two nights had a little to do with the back-to-back
games. But Julien is confident that he’s now in a position where he can do
that.
“It would be (ideal),” said Julien of the spread-out minutes. “Now we’ve got
some experienced guys on the back end. Where we though we were young
before, the now have at least a year or more under their belt. There’s
probably a little more of sense of experience back there that allows us to
spread the minutes.
“That’s (Wednesday) and it can change on a game-to-game basis, but it
was nice to be able to see that, especially with two games in two nights and
the tough schedule we have to start the season. The more we can do that,
the better it’s going to be.” .  .  .
752753
Boston Bruins
Bergeron said he's fine after hits
Steve Conroy
DETROIT—The play – and perhaps even more so, the aftermath – did not
look good.
Early in the second period at Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday, Patrice
Bergeron was chasing down a puck in the Detroit zone and Red Wing
defenseman Niklas Kronwall crunched him into the end boards, squeezing
Bergeron's head and shoulder between the defender's body and the
boards.
Bergeron went to the ice and got up very slowly. He finished his shift, but
after going to the bench he went directly down the runway to the dressing
room. He would not resurface again until 13:13 of the second period. Coach
Claude Julien later revealed that Bergeron, who has a history of
concussions, underwent the league protocol for suspected concussions and
he was checked out to be good to go.
But while many fans surely felt their hearts go in their throats, Bergeron
said he wasn't concerned even as he was headed into the quiet room.
“It's one of those protocols that you have to respect I guess. I had to go to
the quiet room and it takes forever to go through that test. It took a little bit
of time, but otherwise I was fine the whole time,” said Bergeron.
Bergeron has had four known concussions. The first one, from hit by the
Philadelphia Flyer Randy Jones, cost him nearly the entire 2007-08 season.
The most recent one he suffered was on April 4, 2013.
Fans weren't the only ones concerned.
“Any time a teammate goes down you're nervous,” said his longtime
linemate Brad Marchand. “But he's a very strong guy and very resilient and
he came back. We were obviously very relieved, but definitely worried when
he went out.”
Bergeron took another high hit with 2:34 left in the contest when Detroit's
Johan Franzen elbowed him along the boards in the Bruins' zone. Bergeron
doubled over a bit, but stayed in the game.
“That one I got the wind knocked out of me. I had room there on the wall
and he took it and (put) his elbow out,” said Bergeron.
Did he think Franzen targeted him?
“He's the only one that knows that. I can't answer for him,” said Bergeron.
“To me, I kind of got through. I was in line with him and then I took the
space that was open to get through the hit. He missed me, so he threw the
elbow out, I thought. I didn't see the replay, though.”
752754
Boston Bruins
Bruins fall short in Detroit
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Steve Conroy
DETROIT—The Bruins played a bad first period at Joe Louis Arena tonight,
a worse second period and, though they had their chances late to tie the
game, they simply couldn’t find the back of the net behind Detroit goalie
Jimmy Howard.
The result was a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings after the hosts scored
twice in the second period to finally grab control on the scoreboard after
they controlled the game pretty much everywhere else.
The one silver lining in the game was that, after some nervous moments in
the second period, it appears that Patrice Bergeron avoided injury after
crashing hard into the end boards. Bergeron, who has a history of
concussions, was chasing a puck in the Detroit zone and was ridden hard
int the boards by Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall. He got up slowly before finishing
his shift. He then skated off and went down the runway. He missed most of
the second period before returning later in the second to finish out the
game.He also took another hit from Johan Franzen, who was called for an
elbow. Brad Marchand hit the post on the PP and then Zdeno chara nullified
the advantage with an interference penalty.
The Bruins went with the same lineup as they did in their home opener on
Wednesday, and again came away with a 1-0 lead. But by no means did
they play as well in the first as they did at the Garden.
The B’s were outshot 10-5 and had to kill off two penalties in the first, but
they were still able to come away with the lead, thanks to Bergeron.
With his team still looking for its first shot on net at 12:01 into the game,
Bergeron picked off a bad Jonathan Ericsson pass just inside the blue line.
With Brad Marchand creating a quick 2-on-1 by filling the lane to Bergeron’s
right, Bergeron seemed to freeze goalie Jimmy Howard with a quick glance
over to his linemate before beating Howard with a snap shot over the glove
from his off wing.
That was it for offense for the B’s, who could not sustain any pressure and
had difficulty breaking out of their zone, usually making unforced errors.
752755
Boston Bruins
Bruins get right back at it with the Red Wings tonight
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Steve Conroy
DETROIT — Fresh of their 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, the
Bruins are in Detroit tonight for the Red Wings' home opener.
They did not skate this morning so it is not yet known whether coach
Claude Julien will make any tweaks to the lineup. Julien wasn't telling who
his goalie will be tonight, either. Tuukka Rask did have a rather easy time of
it last night so it wouldn't be out of the question for him to get the back-toback starts.
One thing we know about the Detroit lineup is that Pavel Datsyuk, arguably
the best player in the world when healthy, will not be in the lineup. He's still
sidelined by a shoulder injury he suffered in training camp.
The Bruins did make three paper transactions, officially sending down to
Providence Malcolm Subban and Brian Ferlin, who were never with the
Boston club for the opener after being officially recalled on Tuesday. They
also recalled Jordan Caron, who never actually left Boston after being
reassigned to Providence on Tuesday.
Such is life in the salary cap world.
752756
Boston Bruins
Talking Points: Red Wings 2, Bruins 1
Joe Haggerty serves as Comcast SportsNet's NHL Insider.
October 10, 2014, 12:00 am
Gustav Nyquist's power-play goal in the second period lifted the Red Wings
to a 2-1 victory over the Bruins on Thursday night.
GOLD STAR: Patrice Bergeron put the Bruins on the board early, and it all
came on a nifty individual play when he stole a puck from Jonathan
Ericsson before sniping it over Jimmy Howard’s shoulder. He also returned
to the game after suffering a violent-looking hit from Niklas Kronwall, and
spending some time in the locker room during the second period. Patrice
Bergeron finished with two shot attempts in ice time just shy of 15 minutes,
and won 12-of-21 face offs in a largely one-on-one battle with Henrik
Zetterberg. Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand were the only three
Bruins players that really stood out in an otherwise flat emotional game.
BLACK EYE: There’s some blame to go around, but Milan Lucic now has
zero shots and only two registered hits through the first two games of the
season. He’s clearly still getting his timing back after coming back from left
wrist surgery, but there’s also a lack of emotional component to his game at
this point. There are very few stretches where you don’t notice Lucic over
the course of two straight games, but he’s been largely invisible in the
games against Philly and Detroit without David Krejci riding alongside him.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins were outshot 10-4 in the second period, and
gave up a pair of goals to the Red Wings while also whiffing hard on a 4-on3 power play where they were passing up clear shooting lanes. The Bruins
seemed to have a real problem finishing off offensive plays in the game,
and struggled to even create scoring chances with just 17 shots on net.
HONORABLE MENTION: Tuukka Rask stopped 22-of-24 shots and was
standing on his head in the first couple of periods while the flatfooted Bruins
skaters allowed 20 shots to the Red Wings. The first goal was a double
deflection in front of the net that ended with Justin Abdelkader knocking it
past Rask, and the second power play score was a PK breakdown that left
things wide open in front of the net. Otherwise Rask was flashing the glove
and stopping a couple of freak plays that ended with scoring chances for
Detroit players.
BY THE NUMBERS: 7 – the number of shots on goal for the Bruins players
not named Zdeno Chara or Brad Marchand, a pathetic number of shots for
a 60-minute game that indicates a whole lot of passengers for the Black
and Gold.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It definitely was a sloppy start - even in the second
[period] we got back on our heels also. It wasn't a good effort.” –Patrice
Bergeron to the @NHLBruins twitter account following the loss to the
Wings.
Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
752757
Boston Bruins
Haggerty's thoughts from Bruins vs. Red Wings
October 9, 2014, 8:45 pm
Here are five thoughts from the third period with the Bruins falling to the
Detroit Red Wings by a 2-1 score after 60 minutes of play at Joe Louis
Arena.
1) It’s certainly early, but it looks like the Bruins are missing quite a bit of
offensive finish up front at the forward positions. It will improve some with
the return of David Krejci, but where are the finishers on the power play?
2) Dirty, dumb elbow by Johan Franzen on Patrice Bergeron with the Red
Wings protecting a 2-1 lead with only a couple minutes to go in the third
period. Unfortunately it was wiped out by a Zdeno Chara goalie interference
call after Brad Marchand hit the post with a shot from the wing.
3) Through two games Milan Lucic has two hits and zero shots on net while
looking pretty uncomfortable with Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser. He looks
out of sync and had a couple of turnovers as well. There has been little
evidence of Lucic’s game in the preseason, or in the first two games of the
season.
4) Bruins actually look okay defensively for the most part, but they were
bailed out a little bit more by Tuukka Rask in this game while being outshot
by a 24-17 margin. Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand accounted for 10 of
Boston’s 17 shots on net, so that means the rest of the team accounted for
seven shots on goal for the entire game. That’s a lot of passengers.
5) I expected a slow start to the season with some new faces and with key
players coming back from injuries, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing
here in the early going.
6) For all the Brad Marchand haters, they must have been celebrating the
embellishment call on the B’s agitator in the second period.
SECOND PERIOD
Here are five thoughts from the second period with the Bruins trailing the
Detroit Red Wings by a 2-1 score after the first 40 minutes of play at Joe
Louis Arena.
1) Patrice Bergeron left the ice for nearly the entire second period after a
Niklas Kronwall crashed him into the end boards. It looked like it was more
lower body-type injury than upper body-type injury, though, and Bergeron
did return for the last few minutes of the second period.
2) Pretty timid 4-on-3 PP possession for the Bruins with Ryan Spooner,
Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and a fourth B’s player that I couldn’t immediately
ID were just dusting the puck, and passing it back and forth to each other
with no movement whatsoever. Even worse nobody was willing to shoot the
puck, and defenders were sagging off Ryan Spooner as he refused to take
the puck to the net with an open lane. Chara had couple of wide open shots
on that possession and hit the post after ripping a shot through Jimmy
Howard’s pads, however.
3) Dennis Seidenberg still looking slow and rusty out on the ice, and didn’t
react quickly enough to Gustav Nyquist attacking on a Detroit power play.
He looks like he’s still working his way back to feeling normal with the right
knee, and the Bruins will have to be patient until he is all the way back. This
is part of what made the Johnny Boychuk deal such a risk for the Black and
Gold.
4) Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist scoring goals taking it right into
the heart of the Bruins defense: Abdelkader redirected a puck in front
during five-on-five play, and Nyquist did the same into the teeth of the PK
after some fancy passing on the man advantage. Overall the Red Wings
look much crisper than the Bruins through two periods.
5) Milan Lucic with zero hits and zero shots on goal through his first five
periods of the 2014-15 season. Could be a bit before the B’s power forward
gets it going this season.
FIRST PERIOD
Here are five thoughts from the first period with the Bruins leading the
Detroit Red Wings by a 1-0 score after the first 20 minutes of play at Joe
Louis Arena.
1) Really slow, sluggish first period for the Bruins as the Detroit Red Wings
had the better of the chances, but Johan Franzen and Luke Glendening
couldn’t cash in on opportunities right in front of Tuukka Rask. Darren Helm
clanged one off the crossbar on a Wings power play at the end of the first
period. They were outshot 10-5 in the first period.
2) Vintage Patrice Bergeron as he picks off a Jonathan Ericsson outlet
pass, and then fires a sniper shot over the shoulder of Jimmy Howard to
give the Bruins the game’s first goal. That line continues to be firing on all
cylinders right now, and carrying the B’s offense as they have to with so
much upheaval on the Milan Lucic line right now.
3) Craig Cunningham with a 4-for-4 performance in the face-off circle
through the first 20 minutes He continues to do some of the little things.
4) A strong 10:01 of ice time for Adam McQuaid in the first period to lead
all B’s skaters. That’s two strong nights in a row for the rugged defenseman
as he’s being given a shot at a top four position with the black and Gold.
5) The Bruins continue to not play very good hockey at this point. They’re
attempting to shake off the preseason cobwebs, but it isn’t happening yet
aside from a couple of individual players like Bergeron.
752758
Boston Bruins
Haggerty: ‘Concerned’ if NHL goes away from fighting
Joe Haggerty
October 9, 2014, 8:15 pm
Is the curtain finally starting to come down on fighting in the NHL?
On Wednesday, NHL on NBC analyst and former Bruin Mike Milbury took a
stand against fighting.
Insider Joe Haggerty and Michael Felger joined SportsNet Central to give
their take.
Haggerty hopes fighting doesn't completely disappear.
"What I don't want to see is a ban on spontaneous fighting," said Haggerty.
"one player taking liberties against another and another player coming to
his defense or two players who don't like each other sorting it out honorably
one-on-one with bare-knuckles brawling.
"If that's taken away from hockey, I really have concerns about the sport.
Because people that really love the sport - the diehards - really like that
stuff. And they're going to start to shy away a little bit if that happens.
752759
Boston Bruins
Cunningham stakes claim to fourth-line spot with Bruins
October 9, 2014, 4:30 pm
So far, so good for Craig Cunningham.
The gritty center, looking to stake a claim on the fourth line, made a positive
contribution in the sandpaper-and-energy departments in the Bruins' 2-1
win over the Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday at TD Garden. The 24-yearold finished with four registered hits and held his own with a 6-for-12
performance in the faceoff dot, all the while looking the part of a grinding,
hard-to-play against, card-carrying member of the fourth line during his
11:53 of ice time.
He teamed with Bobby Robins for a 1-2 combination hit on Zac Rinaldo that
brought the B's a burst of energy in the second period -- and sparked a
subsequent fight between Robins and Luke Schenn -- and Cunningham
nearly created an offensive play for himself on a one-man rush in the
waning seconds of a penalty kill. Cunningham also helped protect the
Bruins with some impressive PK shifts with Daniel Paille in place of Gregory
Campbell.
“They did a great job," said Reilly Smith. "Bobby was hitting everything that
moved and gave us some energy with that fight. Cunny was all over the
place. Cunny was winning tons of battles. So little stuff like that goes a long
way, for sure.”
Cunningham also helped protect the Bruins with some impressive PK shifts
with Daniel Paille in place of Gregory Campbell. And perhaps best of all,
coach Claude Julien put the fourth line on the ice with the score tied 1-1
and six minutes to go in the third period, showing a great deal of trust in
some unproven players. They rewarded Julien with a blue-collar shift that
eventually forced Rinaldo to take a penalty, and put the Bruins on the power
play with the game on the line.
“I think we’re still proving ourselves every day," said Cunningham. "[Julien]
gave us a pretty good opportunity as a fourth line and we were excited
about it. I thought for the most part we took pretty good advantage of it.
“I got a pretty good opportunity tonight [on the penalty kill] and just tried to
take advantage of it. [I’ve] done a lot of video with the coaches and tried to
work on those little parts of my game. Killing with [Paille] is easy. He’s a
great killer and he’s usually in the right spot. I just kind of let him go and
read off of him and he helps you out all over the ice.”
They didn’t score on the PP, but the Bruins built momentum that eventually
resulted in Chris Kelly’s game-winner with less than two minutes to go.
“I thought a guy like [Craig] Cunningham did a great job tonight, him and
Dan Paille," said Julien. "But Cunny, for a young player coming in did a
great job . . . I thought a guy like Cunningham really saved us from more
damage by being so good on the penalty kill.”
The versatile, dogged Cunningham saved the Bruins, and also began to put
his own imprint on a fourth-line spot that’s up for grabs.
752760
Boston Bruins
Smith doesn't skip a beat after short camp
October 9, 2014, 1:15 pm
BOSTON – Reilly Smith said he still doesn’t feel completely comfortable
after a shortened training camp, but that didn’t stop him from opening the
scoring for his Boston Bruins this season.
The B’s right winger scored the opening goal in Boston’s 2-1 win over the
Philadelphia Flyers in their home opener, and did it just like so many times
last season: he crashed down from the left point on PP and snapped home
a backdoor pass from Carl Soderberg.
It was part of a strong evening of work for Smith, Patrice Bergeron and Brad
Marchand, who also held down Claude Giroux’s line throughout the game
as well.
“It’s getting better every day,” said Smith, who also looked a little faster than
he did last year during his 20-goal campaign with the Bruins. “You’re
obviously not going to be in mid-season form game one, but it’s been a
steady progression and I think it’s going pretty well so far.
“I’ve been kind of seeing a couple of trends [on the power play]. Carl’s good
at making those passes and going through. I don’t know how he sees it, but
they do a good job winning the puck in the far corner. It seems like
whenever they got a time with a puck on their stick they were able to make
good plays, so I’m just trying to be the beneficiary of that.”
So a modest Smith didn’t want to take credit for the goal he scored. How
about holding Claude Giroux scoreless with only one shot on net in a solid
defensive effort for the Black and Gold, and especially their line vs. Philly’s
best. Did Smith want to hog all the credit for that?
"[It’s] Bergy [Patrice Bergeron]. Bergy was doing a good job. He was
winning tons of face-offs, which was giving us the puck pretty much every
time we got out there,” said Smith. “So he did a good job, and Marchy [Brad
Marchand] was just kind of just being March. Winning every puck in the
corners and making good plays, so those guys did a good job.”
That’s true, but Smith wasn’t half-bad either coming off a camp where he
was only able to play in the last two preseason games.
752761
Boston Bruins
Bruins recall Caron in last bit of roster juggling
October 9, 2014, 1:15 pm
The Bruins have finally put the salary-cap paperwork to bed and set their
roster the way they want it.
In a paper move on Thursday morning, the B’s assigned Brian Ferlin and
Malcolm Subban -- two players who have been working out with Providence
for days -- to the P-Bruins, and recalled Jordan Caron to the NHL roster
after he’d cleared waivers four days ago.
Some might have thought that the 23-year-old Caron getting placed on
waivers meant the end of his time with the Bruins, but it really just means
the former first-round pick has no current value on the trade market.
The transactions leave the Bruins with roughly $1.7 million in cap space,
and both Gregory Campbell and David Krejci sitting on the injured reserve
list to start the regular season. It makes sense from a cap perspective as
Caron is the cheapest cap alternative for a 13th forward, and there’s
probably even a decent chance that he’ll be in the lineup on Thursday night
against a Detroit Red Wings team that isn’t much interested in the fighting
game.
Caron had a good training camp in a fierce battle for roster spots, but he’s
still a very limited offensive player who managed just one goal and three
points along with a minus-8 rating in 35 games last season.
752762
Boston Bruins
Haggerty's Morning Skate: Thursday, October 9
October 9, 2014, 1:15 pm
*NHL commissioner Gary Bettman loves the view from the top of the world
in this video piece from Fox Sports after a sit-down with The Sports
Network.
*Hell has officially frozen over as Mike Milbury says “let’s grow up and get
rid of [fighting]” in hockey.
*Tim Panaccio says there is much to go over and decide upon if Chris
Pronger is to join the NHL’s Player Safety Department while also still sitting
on the Flyers roster.
*Here are the four best things from Opening Night with the NHL, courtesy of
Hockey Night in Canada.
*There’s no animosity between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Ryan
Johansen, but there is a whole lot of rust.
*Some solid best and worst lists for the NHL from the Globe’s Fluto
Shinzawa.
*For something completely different: Can you believe that Jon Stewart was
almost given the “Meet the Press” gig? I think that’s a great idea, by the
way.
752763
Boston Bruins
Lucic trying to get 'in sync' with Spooner, Fraser
October 9, 2014, 11:45 am
BOSTON – Milan Lucic was already expected to have a gradual start to his
season, and that project was made doubly challenging when David Krejci
went down with an undisclosed injury in the last exhibition game. Krejci is
out at least the first three games of the regular season, and Lucic is now
skating with a pair of rookies in Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser.
They looked a little disjointed and out of sorts in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over
the Philadelphia Flyers on opening night at TD Garden, and that makes
sense given that they only had two days of practice together. The passes
were just a little bit off, the breakouts were pretty far from smooth and Lucic
wasn’t much of a presence (zero shots on net, zero hits) in 15-plus minutes
of ice time while helping to cover for his young linemates.
They totaled three shots on net and five overall shot attempts in a quiet
night for all three players with the Soderberg line and Bergeron line carrying
the day offensively.
So how did it feel on the ice?
“I think it got better as the game went on. Obviously we didn’t play much
together in the preseason or anything, but the good thing was we didn’t get
scored on, which is one of our jobs,” said Lucic. “I think we have a lot to
build on heading into tomorrow night’s game. We’ve just got to try to get in
sync a little bit more, and hopefully it’ll happen sooner or later.”
“I think Spoons [Ryan Spooner] and Fraz [Matt Fraser] played as linemates
in Providence, so I’ve just got to do my best to fit in with them. It’s a tough
test [Thursday night] with Detroit, never an easy place to play, and never an
easy team for us to play against.”
That’s the good thing for Lucic. He now can continue easing his surgically
repaired left wrist into the power and strength game that makes him an
effective player, and the trio gets a second straight night to start getting the
line chemistry going after being thrown together at the last minute.
752764
Boston Bruins
What we learned: Bruins 2, Flyers 1
Minus
*Dougie Hamilton looked great during training camp, but he faltered a bit in
his first game of the season. The 21-year-old made some poor decisions to
pinch that left the B’s defense scrambling in odd-man situations, and had
some careless turnovers with the puck while getting a little too fancy. There
isn’t much to worry about with Hamilton, however, expect one bad game
that he’ll quickly shake off.
October 9, 2014, 10:15 am
*Milan Lucic had zero shots on net, zero hits and very little lasting impact in
his 15-plus minutes of ice time. Unfortunately this might be what we see
more often than not for No. 17 at the start of the season.
Here are three things we learned in last night’s 2-1 win for the Boston
Bruins over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden on opening night of the
NHL season.
*Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser have played together quite a bit in
Providence, but there was little evidence of any chemistry between the two
players skating alongside Milan Lucic. They combined for just three shots
on net, and the entire line looked just a little bit off throughout the game.
1) It’s going to be slow-going for Milan Lucic. The B’s left winger finished
with one shot attempt and no hits, and wasn’t an impact player in 15:22 of
ice time. Part of that was attributable to Lucic acting as the responsible
veteran forward paired with young guys in Ryan Spooner and Matt Fraser,
and part of it is the expected slow going to Lucic’s season coming off left
wrist surgery. The big power forward is normally a slow starter anyway, but
he his timing and willingness to throw his body around with reckless
abandon isn’t there yet this season. His shooting and hands also don’t
seem to be in midseason form quite yet either, and it would seem there’s no
question he still has some discomfort in that left wrist. In some ways all of
these early regular season games might be something closer to preseason
games for Lucic leading up to next week’s road tilt against the Montreal
Canadiens. Between Lucic’s recovery and David Krejci’s injury, it’s not an
ideal start to the season for that line.
2) The Carl Soderberg-to-Reilly Smith backdoor play is still working on the
Bruins power play. Pretty much all of Smith’s six power play goals last
season came off the backdoor play as he would come crashing down from
the left point position, and the Big Swede would get him the puck as he cut
toward the net. It was a bit of a different play this time around as things
broke down while Bergeron and Soderberg won puck battles down low, but
the play remained the same as Soderberg and Smith connected once the
winger crashed the net. One would expect we won’t see that play succeed
as much this season as penalty kill units were coached to look for that play
from that duo as the season on. But it’s good to see some very familiar
things from last year’s successful Bruins power play even though architect
Geoff Ward has moved on to a coaching gig in Germany.
3) Patrice Bergeron is still the single best shutdown forward in the entire
NHL, and proved it against one of the league’s most dominant centers.
Bergeron matched up with Flyers center and Hart Trophy candidate Claude
Giroux all night, and held the Philly star to just a single shot on goal. Even
better Bergeron dominated Giroux in the face off circle while holding the
Flyers center to just 4-of-21 on the draw, and didn’t allow the Flyers top line
to have the puck much of the time. Bergeron added an assist and eight shot
attempts in his 18:23 of ice time, and allowed both fancy stats enthusiasts
and eyeball traditionalists to marvel at his dominance in a prime time
matchup. More performances like that will make it a certainty that Bergeron
will win his third Selke Trophy, and his second consecutive Selke honor as
the league’s premier defensive forward. Wednesday night’s game film
should immediately be sent to NHL Award voters for their consideration
before national media start concocting campaigns for perfectly fine players
like Anze Kopitar. Bergeron is the real deal and showed it again vs. the
Flyers.
Plus
*Patrice Bergeron was dominant at both ends of the ice, and completely
outplayed Claude Giroux in their head-to-head matchup. His eight shot
attempts, 18-of-23 face off wins and workmanlike assist on Reilly Smith’s
power play goal were strong efforts on all fronts, but that’s exactly what
we’ve come to expect from No. 37.
*With David Krejci out of the lineup with an injury, Carl Soderberg stepped
up and played a strong game in the middle of the ice while assisting on both
of Boston’s goals with key passes. Soderberg also blocked a couple of
shots for the Bruins including one right off his knee, and showed there’s a
gritty side to his offensively impressive game.
*Three shots on net, two hits and a blocked shot in 21:47 of ice time for
Adam McQuaid in his first NHL game since January, and he helped set up
Chris Kelly’s third period game-winner with his strong shot from the high
point. McQuaid jumped up to the top pairing with Zdeno Chara on a handful
of occasions in place of a struggling Dougie Hamilton.
752765
Boston Bruins
Robins' NHL debut at age 32 is a swinging success
October 9, 2014, 8:45 am
BOSTON -- When it was all said and done, it was a pretty good day at the
office for Bobby Robins, playing in his first NHL game as a 32-year-old
rookie.
The longtime AHL enforcer dropped the gloves for his first NHL fight in
Wednesday night’s 2-1 season-opening win over the Philadelphia Flyers,
and also showed more than enough of the three-zone viability that Claude
Julien demands from his players.
Julien knows it’s a feel-good story for the journeyman winger, finally making
it to the NHL after long stints in the ECHL and AHL along with Northern
Ireland and Austria. But he also knows it’s about Robins being an asset on
a new energy line that fared pretty well in its first time out. Both Robins and
rookie Craig Cunningham were effective playing alongside Daniel Paille,
and gave the Bruins a little grit, a little toughness, a little attitude and a great
deal of energy.
“I think right now he’s looking after himself," said Julien of Robins. "He
wants to stay here and he’s playing hard. That’s what you saw from him.
He’s a great example for guys that have been toying around in the minors
for a long time. To know that there’s still some hope at the end of the
tunnel, and it’s not over just because you’re 30 years old.
“If you were him, wouldn’t you be happy right now? It’s a great feeling. [It
was his] first regular-season NHL game, legit NHL game. You participate in
it and you do your job and you do it well and come out of there with a win.
So it’s a good start for him. As a coach, you love seeing those kinds of
success stories happen in front of your eyes.”
Robins provided the energy the Black and Gold were actively seeking, and
the physical portion of the evening’s program was impressive as well.
Robins finished with a team-high five hits in 6:58 of ice time and, more
importantly, passed the first toughness test from one of the league’s
trouble-makers.
Zac Rinaldo was throwing heavy, legal checks on Bruins players in the first
half of the game, and took runs at everybody from Dennis Seidenberg to
Dougie Hamilton. Then Robins took matters into his hands as part of his
responsibility to protect his teammates.
Robins and Cunningham lined up and stapled Rinaldo to the side boards at
the same time right in front of the Philadelphia bench in the second period,
and that quieted the Flyers attacker for the rest of the game. The collision
forced a scrap between Robins and Luke Schenn, who stepping up for
Rinaldo, and by that point Robins had performed his job to near perfection.
“I was wondering when that would happen," Robins said. "I figured if I
played hard enough, fights usually happen. So I was wondering if it would
happen in the first game. Luckily, it turned out to be a good one.
“I just saw a good opportunity to get a good run at Rinaldo there, and he’s
known to be a pretty big hitter. [He] took a few runs at our guys, so I was
hoping to get a good bump on him. One of his teammates came in and
stuck up for him.”
It looked like Robins and Schenn were still yapping at each other in the
penalty box after the scrap, but it turned out to be exactly what makes
hockey players such a unique breed.
“[Schenn] was asking if it was my first NHL game,” said Robins. “So, I said
yeah. He just said, 'Good fight', the normal stuff guys say after a fight.”
Now that some of the important firsts are out of the way, Robins just wants
to play at a high volume for every single one of his shifts and bring out the
best in his teammates through the tireless example of his sheer force of will.
He reached the pinnacle on Wednesday, cracking the opening-night roster
and then performing ably with Cunningham and Paille, So Robins was
appropriately grateful to anybody and everybody that helped him out along
the long road to the Bruins.
“It was awesome," he said. "Just after nine years to have that happen was a
dream come true. [It’s special] to play here at the Garden after playing four
years at UMass Lowell and always watching the Bruins for the past bunch
of years. It was a very special feeling; I’ll never forget it.
“I definitely want to keep going. I don’t want to just play one game; I want to
keep stringing together games, and stringing together good games, and
make that a season, make that two seasons, and make that a career and
keep going. So, I’ve definitely got the itch now. I want to stay in this league.”
Robins had his wife and young daughter Liberty in the stands at the Garden
watching him develop that itch on Wednesday night, and its looking like his
parents will make the trek to Detroit to potentially watch their son do it all
again Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Bobby Robins waited a long time for that first sniff of the NHL action. On
Wednesday, he played like a guy that doesn’t want to go anywhere for a
while.
752766
Buffalo Sabres
Sabres will not take nights off
By Bucky Gleason | News Sports Columnist | @TBNbucky | Google+
on October 10, 2014 - 12:09 AM
Ted Nolan was asked Thursday morning about the similarities between his
first tenure in Buffalo and the team he’s coaching this season.
Roll back the clock 18 years, and the Sabres were woefully thin on talent
and supposedly going nowhere under their first-year head coach.
Nolan, more polished at age 56, talked about being older and having a
better handle on his nerves going into a new season.
It wasn’t long, of course, before he reached the heart of his philosophy and
his unwavering expectations for any team he’s ever coached.
“My expectation for every season has always been the same,” Nolan said
before the Sabres’ 3-1 loss to the Blue Jackets in the opener. “I never try to
predict. Predictions are hard. The one thing we can say is that we want to
predict that we’re going to give an effort on most nights. If we do that, we’ll
be fine.”
Nolan proved as much long ago. The Sabres will be fine if they work hard
and play with the heart and passion his first team showed in 1995-96. Fans
in their early 20s are too young to recall the hardest-working team in
hockey, the rock ‘em, sock ‘em Sabres from the final season in Memorial
Auditorium.
He has been revered as a great motivator, but the compliment often came
with suggestions that he was behind in X’s and O’s. Maybe it was true
during his first lap around the NHL, but continuing that narrative now is like
saying a 22-year-old accountant learns nothing about business at 40.
Nolan has a gift for pushing the right buttons, for inspiring his players to
perform beyond their potential, for getting them to believe in themselves
and care about the people around them, for spreading a contagious hunger
that becomes a dangerous characteristic of his teams. Hockey will forever
remain an effort sport.
“Ted made a comment the other day that he doesn’t believe any guy comes
to the rink and wants to play bad or doesn’t want to work hard,” Tyler Myers
said. “For the most part, I thought everyone worked hard tonight. It gets
back to working smarter. We know what kind of group we have. It’s not
going to come easy for us.”
Obviously, his message has reached his dressing room. When asked about
expectations Thursday, their responses were almost universal. Effort is the
top priority for now. The results will come in time.
The common thread comes as little surprise considering how the Sabres
were constructed during the offseason. Veterans now making up their
leadership core had to work early in their careers. Gionta supposedly was
too small, Matt Moulson too slow, Josh Gorges lacking speed and skill.
All are good, honest players because they’re loaded with intangibles. Nolan
thrives with tough and relentless underdogs. It’s one reason Girgensons,
the gritty Latvian, has a spot on the third line in Buffalo while Mikhail
Grigorenko, the super-skilled Russian, opened the season in Rochester.
The characters have changed, but the story sounds eerily familiar. Insert
Gionta for Donald Audette, Foligno for May, Girgensons for Michael Peca.
You should know the 1995-96 Sabres continued playing hard the next
season under Nolan. In fact, they won the division. This is where it starts.
Buffalo finished fifth in the division and missed the playoffs by a mile, but
the community adored their lunch-bucket mentality. Who could forget the
Mad Hatters? Rob Ray had 287 penalty minutes and was third on the team
behind Matthew Barnaby and Brad May, not counting the fights they had in
practice.
“He believes in something that I’ve been taught all my life,” Gorges said.
“You have to work for things in life. Nothing good in life ever came easy. If it
did, everyone would have it. You have to earn your stripes. You have to
earn your ice time. You have to earn your respect. It pushes people to work
that much harder.”
The Sabres embraced their coach and fed off his energy and intensity.
They took great joy in making their opponents miserable and along the way
became one of the toughest, most beloved teams in franchise history. They
went down often, but they also went down swinging.
Buffalo News LOADED: 10.10.2014
And that’s all anybody is asking from the Sabres this season. It’s not about
fighting but establishing an identity and competing.
For now, it would be wise to ignore the score and concentrate on their
effort. Buffalo hockey fans are astute enough to identify which players come
to play.
The Sabres are a long way from winning. It was evident Thursday, when
they failed to sustain the push required to win in this league. They made too
many mental mistakes. They’re in the process of finding their way. They
were still in the game before falling in the final eight minutes and allowing
another goal late in the third period.
And there were some promising signs. Zemgus Girgensons responded after
Jack Skille opened the scoring with a pretty goal while fighting off a check
and beating Sergei Bobrovsky. The third line in particular was a handful
with Girgensons between Marcus Foligno and Chris Stewart.
“It was there,” Gionta said of the effort. “Guys care. Guys want to win. I
don’t think anyone goes out there and doesn’t work hard. It was just some
of those mistakes we made that led to their opportunities and some of their
goals.”
Buffalo was picked to finish near the bottom of nearly every credible
publication, but they could surprise some people if Jhonas Enroth continues
playing the way he did while making 37 saves Thursday. Nobody should
underestimate the impact Nolan can have on a young, rebuilding team
when he has their full attention.
You could sense a vastly different vibe Thursday than a year ago, when
Ron Rolston was behind the bench. Rolston was over his head. He wore
gardening gloves to practice, for heaven’s sake. I’m still not sure if he was
uncomfortable in hockey equipment or too soft for gardening.
At least Nolan has credibility with own players.
752767
Buffalo Sabres
Sabres’ Reinhart survives a hit and hopes to eventually thrive
By John Vogl | News Sports Reporter | @BuffNewsVogl | Google+
on October 10, 2014 - 12:08 AM
Nerves finally caught up to Sam Reinhart just before the puck dropped for
his NHL debut. Jack Skille caught up to him about 10 minutes later,
welcoming the rookie to the big leagues in rough fashion.
Reinhart survived and hopes to eventually thrive.
Aside from being the recipient of a big hit from Skille, Reinhart had a quiet
opening night Thursday during the Sabres’ 3-1 loss to Columbus. He had
no shots and lost seven of his 11 faceoffs in 13:37 of ice time.
“I want to get a lot further than here in my career, so I’m happy to get the
first one over with,” Reinhart said in First Niagara Center.
The most noteworthy moment for the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft
was Skille blasting him from the side and into the boards with 9:30 gone.
Defenseman Mike Weber took exception and scuffled with Skille before
dropping the gloves against the Blue Jackets’ Jared Boll. Reinhart skated to
the penalty box to give a nod to Weber.
“I certainly thanked him,” the 18-year-old said. “It says a lot about this
group. It’s very close. To see someone do that for me is obviously pretty
nice.”
Reinhart centered for left wing Cody Hodgson and captain Brian Gionta,
with the trio combining for five shots (four from Gionta). Coach Ted Nolan
deemed Reinhart’s debut as “OK,” then noted the rookie faces big
challenges in coming games against Chicago and Anaheim.
“He’s got to understudy and understudy quick,” Nolan said.
“I felt my confidence getting higher and higher through the game,” Reinhart
said. “I feel if I can make decisions quick like I’m capable of, I’m able to
keep up with the pace.”
Reinhart will likely watch a game tonight. His brother, Griffin, is scheduled
to make his NHL debut for the New York Islanders. So what does it mean
when brothers make their opening appearances on back-to-back nights?
“It means my parents are busy,” Reinhart said.
The travel miles will indeed pile up in a hurry for Paul and Theresa
Reinhart, who watched Sam and are scheduled to be in Carolina to see the
Isles. Sam Reinhart is two years younger than the New York defenseman
and became the sixth-youngest player in Sabres history. Pierre Turgeon
was the youngest in 1987.
...
The Commish is coming to town.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will be in Buffalo on Monday, The News
has learned. He is scheduled to have a joint afternoon news conference
with Mayor Byron W. Brown, followed by an appearance at the game
between the Sabres and Anaheim Ducks in First Niagara Center.
The purpose of the visit is not yet known, but the news conference is not in
connection to a Winter Classic, a team source said. League officials had no
comment.
...
From one opening night to the next, the Sabres turned over more than half
their roster. Only nine players in the lineup – Jhonas Enroth, Weber, Cody
McCormick, Hodgson, Drew Stafford, Zemgus Girgensons, Rasmus
Ristolainen, Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis – dressed for last season’s opener
in Detroit.
The Sabres’ first scratches of the year were right wing Brian Flynn and
defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Tyson Strachan. The Blue Jackets
scratched former Buffalo forward Corey Tropp.
The stat of the night belonged to Sabres left wing Nicolas Deslauriers, who
played a game-low 6:55 but had a game-high six hits.
...
Nolan, who finds positivity in most any situation, also believes in symbolic
gestures. He used one of his favorite symbols to begin the Sabres’ season.
At the start of Buffalo’s first morning skate, the coach stationed the players
on the circle at center ice. He talked for a moment, then the players all
skated to the faceoff dot for a group hug. It was their first step toward the
2014-15 campaign.
“I really believe in the power of a circle and the strength of a unit,” Nolan
said. “There’s no stronger symbol there is than the symbol of a circle. It’s a
circle of a drum that beats to Mother Earth and what have you, so it’s a little
symbolic thing.
“Every journey begins with that first step, so I thought it would be a nice
gesture if we take that first step together. We have 82 games. It’s a long
journey, but let’s enjoy the ride.”
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Buffalo Sabres
New season, same old problems for Sabres
By Mike Harrington | News Sports Reporter | @BNHarrington | Google+
on October 9, 2014 - 10:11 PM
, updated October 10, 2014 at 12:18 AM
Too hyped for opening night. Jittery and indecisive with the puck. Don’t
forget overmatched in talent.
Pick your reason. Any might apply. Ultimately, the Buffalo Sabres made far
too many mistakes to survive in their season opener Thursday night.
Badly outplayed but somehow locked in a tie game with the Columbus Blue
Jackets with less than 10 minutes left, new captain Brian Gionta made the
night’s biggest faux pas by killing Buffalo’s lone power play with an
offensive-zone hooking penalty.
Columbus winger Cam Atkinson converted for the tie-breaking goal with
7:15 to go and the Blue Jackets went on to a 3-1 victory in First Niagara
Center.
“For sure, it’s a tough one,” Gionta said of his tie-up below the goal line with
Columbus defenseman Dalton Trout. “That’s on me. We need to be better
at that. I just tried a jam play and the stick rode up on him. It was one of
those things.”
Atkinson converted with two seconds left in the penalty, wheeling out of the
left corner, pulling the puck around sprawling defenseman Andre Benoit
and beating goaltender Jhonas Enroth off the glove. Artem Anisimov added
insurance on a wicked one-timer from the slot with 2:26 to play
Sabres owner Terry Pegula and his wife, Kim, attended the game as
scheduled on the eve of their news conference introducing them as the new
owners of the Buffalo Bills. There was no introduction of the Pegulas, nor
recognition by fans.
The Pegulas and the non-sellout crowd of 18,215 saw pretty much what
might be expected from this year’s edition of the Sabres: Flashes of
promise here and there mixed in with plenty of struggles for a team picked
by virtually every expert to once again be one of the bottom teams in the
NHL.
That, of course, would make Buffalo a prime contender for the Connor
McDavid/Jack Eichel sweepstakes in the June draft.
As he was during two rock-solid preseason starts, Enroth was the main
reason the Sabres stayed competitive. He probably will have to be on most
nights this season as he takes the crease on a full-time basis for the first
time.
The Blue Jackets outshot the Sabres, 40-22. And they exactly doubled
Buffalo in shot attempts, with the 78-39 disparity a clear indication of how
much they dominated puck possession.
“I’ve been feeling pretty well during camp,” Enroth said. “I just tried to keep
building on my camp and stay in good habits, be a little bit better every
day.”
The Sabres’ puck habits, in need of major improvement over last year, will
bear watching as the season progresses. The defense, featuring three new
players, struggled to move it at times and was too quick to move it at
others. Turnovers in the neutral zone were a problem that led to a bunch of
odd-man rushes on Enroth. So was overpassing at times in the offensive
end.
“The first period was OK and then we never found our footing,” Gionta said.
“We talk about going north-south with the puck all the time,” said coach Ted
Nolan. “We got in the offensive zone and we tried to make that rink-wide
pass. You play a good team like Columbus, they’re going to pick those
passes off. The chances of creating something off an east-west pass is not
very likely.”
Perhaps the best solo rush the Sabres made all night produced their only
goal. Just as was the case in their season-opening loss last year in Detroit,
Buffalo’s lone tally was by center Zemgus Girgensons.
The 20-year-old dubbed “The Latvian Locomotive” was true to his name
with a bull-rush into the Columbus zone off a Marcus Foligno chip-in.
Girgensons pulled the puck around startled center Alexander Wennberg
and beat Sergei Bobrovsky to pull the Sabres even at 14:42 of the second
period. It came just 81 seconds after Columbus’ Jack Skille opened the
scoring.
“I got the puck through and it was a breakaway,” Girgensons said. “Nothing
more than that there. That could have given us a little bit of boost but it was
kind of late in the second and in the third we came out a little flat.”
The Blue Jackets had four shots on goal in the first 90 seconds of the third
period and ultimately outshot Buffalo, 16-8, to take control.
Game One of 82 for a roster of 10 new players. Loss One of what could be
many more.
“Our young guys are obviously one year older and I’ve been saying we
don’t want to go through that season we had last year,” Enroth said. “We
want to win more games. We don’t really care who’s getting drafted next
year.”
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Buffalo Sabres
Pegulas expected at tonight’s Sabres opener
on October 9, 2014 - 7:46 AM
, updated October 9, 2014 at 1:27 PM
There’ll be some buzz in Pegulaville tonight.
One day after Terry Pegula won approval to become the new owner of the
Buffalo Bills, Pegula’s Sabres open their 2014-15 season at home against
the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Terry and Kim Pegula are expected to be at the hockey game tonight,
which should make for an especially exciting time for fans.
Puck drop is 7 p.m. Before the game, starting at 4:30 p.m., the team will
host its “Party in the Plaza” in Alumni Plaza outside First Niagara Center,
with food and beverages for sale along with a live band. Special
appearances by Sabres alumni and Sabretooth are also part of the event.
Fans are encouraged to arrive early, and a pregame handout will be
distributed.
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Buffalo Sabres
Alongside on the ice or on the bench will be veteran Matt Ellis. At 33, and
starting his 13th pro season, he's the elder statesman on the team. He's
also a leader and mentor.
Amerks eager for season to begin
He still loves to play but he also understands he has a dual role.
Kevin Oklobzija, Staff writer 11:48 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
"Part of my job is showing the young guys how to be a pro, showing them
how to grow their game," Ellis said.
Ask newcomer Zac Dalpe what he knows about the Rochester Americans
and he provides an instant reply.
"I think they've got the coolest jerseys I've ever seen," said Dalpe, who was
assigned to the Amerks on Tuesday.
The next order of business for Dalpe and his teammates: make sure the
storied red, white and blue sweater gets some serious use in the spring.
While the Amerks have reached the postseason for three consecutive
years, they haven't won a Calder Cup playoff series in a decade. They
haven't won the American Hockey League championship since the John
Tortorella-coached team hoisted the Cup in 1996.
Now, with the puck about to drop for their 59th AHL season, there is an air
of anticipation in their dressing room at Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester
Community War Memorial. The Amerks play the Adirondack Flames at 7:05
p.m. Friday.
"You talk to everybody on the team and they seem happy; it's a lively
room," Dalpe said. "I'm excited and confident."
Coach Chadd Cassidy believes goaltending — with incumbent starter
Nathan Lieuwen and upstart Andrey Makarov — and defensive-zone play
will be two big strengths.
The most important thing as the season progresses: Learning what it takes
to win tight games, because that's what playoff hockey is about.
"We have to be comfortable in close games," said defenseman Drew
Bagnall, the team captain. "Close games aren't a bad thing.
"There's nothing better than real-life experiences in games, in the heat of
the moment, when you know one play can be the difference."
The defensive corps features a good amount of snarl, with Bagnall, Nick
Petrecki and Matt MacKenzie.
Video: Bagnall named captain
Veteran defenseman says it's his job as a leader to set the "battle level"
every night. Video by Kevin Oklobzija
"I have to set the battle level every night," Bagnall said.
Those are the words every goalie appreciates.
"For me it's pretty comforting," Lieuwen said. "I feel like no one's going to
come near me because those guys are pretty scary."
The forward lines have some proven scoring — center Phil Varone, left
winger Luke Adam and Dalpe — as well as two players projected to be
future point producers for the parent Buffalo Sabres.
Right winger Joel Armia was Buffalo's first-round pick in 2011. He started
slowly as an AHL rookie in 2013-14 but showed solid promise down the
stretch. Mikhail Grigorenko, chosen 12th overall in 2012, finally gets to play
only pro hockey this season after bouncing between major junior and the
NHL the past two years.
Grigorenko performed well in training camp with the Sabres, but they
believe having him be a prime-time player for the Amerks will be best for his
development. He said he's OK with that plan.
Video: RocSportsTalk: Huge week for hockey fans
Hockey writer Kevin Oklobzija and Jeff DiVeronica talk Sabres, Amerks and
RIT hockey. Video by Jeff DiVeronica
"Personally, for me, I feel better when I play big minutes," Grigorenko said.
"Right now my main focus is to get better as a player and help this team win
games."
Last spring, after a seventh-place finish in the Western Conference, the
Amerks lost in the fifth and deciding game to the Chicago Wolves during
their first-round playoff series.
"We can build on that," third-year defenseman Jerome Leduc said. "It's a
new season, a new start and I think it will be pretty exciting."
Democrat and Chronicle LOADED: 10.10.2014
752771
Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo Sabres lose opener
BUFFALO – Few things depress a hockey team like taking an offensivezone penalty while on the power play.
So it's no surprise that with Brian Gionta serving a hooking minor midway
through the third period, the Columbus Blue Jackets scored the winning
goal in what became a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in their NHL
season opener on Thursday night.
Cam Atkinson eluded a sweep check by out-of-position defenseman Andre
Benoit and then fired the puck past goalie Jhonas Enroth with 7:15 to play
to snap a 1-1 tie.
It's also no surprise that after the game, Gionta pointed a finger of blame
squarely at himself.
Just two minutes before Atkinson's goal, the Sabres had power-play
pressure of their own. As Jackets defenseman Dalton Prout gained control
of the puck near the Columbus net, Gionta attempted to steal it back. He
hooked him instead.
"I just tried the jab play and my stick rode up on him," he said. "An offensive
zone penalty ... It kills everything. It kills the momentum, it kills the game.
"That's on me, for sure."
That's a prime example of why the lifelong Greece resident and 14th-year
veteran of pro hockey is wearing the captain's C for the Sabres. No
excuses, no hiding; just a blunt acceptance of a mistake.
Thus, Gionta's homecoming game in western New York — he hasn't played
a hockey season here since 1996-97 with the Junior A Niagara Scenic —
ended with disappointment after an exhilarating start.
He was the last player introduced during pre-game ceremonies and he
received the loudest ovation from the crowd of 18,215. At least 30 of those
fans were there soley to watch him — parents, other family members and
friends.
"Coming to a new team and being welcomed like that, it was pretty special,"
he said. "I thought the crowd was mine."
While the Sabres have improved from a year ago, when they won just 21 of
82 games, they're certainly not on par with a playoff team like Columbus.
They were outshot 40-22 and Zemgus Girgensons scored their only goal,
tying the score at 14:42 of the second period.
"I didn't like our effort," coach Ted Nolan said. "It was OK at best.
Sometimes when there's so much hype, you don't match it."
Only Enroth kept it close.
"We need to be better," Gionta said.
752772
Buffalo Sabres
Newest Amerk Zac Dalpe no stranger to Rochester
Zac Dalpe may be new to the Rochester Americans but he's not new to
Rochester.
Several years back, the fifth-year winger spent around a month each
summer working out and skating.
So how does a hockey player from Paris, Ontario, end up in Rochester for
his summer training?
His agent, Steve Bartlett of Pittsford-based Sports Consulting Group, brings
his younger clients to town for a little pro hockey orientation camp of sorts.
It's a chance to skate with -- and learn from -- his older clients who make
Rochester home, such as Brian Gionta, Ryan Callahan, Nathan Paetsch,
Scott Nichol and others.
Thus, Dalpe already has fairly good knowledge of the area, making the
transition to his new team a little easier.
Dalpe, 24, was reassigned by the parent Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday after
clearing waivers. He joined the Amerks on Wednesday and said he already
likes what he sees.
"I really like the leadership group the coaching staff picked," he said,
referring to captain Drew Bagnall and alternates Matt Ellis and Phil Varone.
"They represent the type of team we want to be."
Dalpe signed with the Sabres as a free agent in July. He has played 96
NHL games in his career (9-8-17). He was with the Vancouver Canucks last
season (4-3-7 in 55 games).
*******
Our annual Meet the Amerks page will be posted online by this evening -and, of course, in print in the morning.
We'll also be giving away the page (on a heavier stock of paper) at Friday
night's Amerks season opener.
Feel free to stop by our booth in the upper atrium before Friday's game,
from 5:30 p.m. to around 6:15 p.m. or so, to talk a little hockey (or
whatever) with myself and Amerks Hall of Famer Jody Gage.
752773
Calgary Flames
Mason Raymond scores three, Karri Ramo plays saviour as Flames steal
one in Edmonton
By SCOTT CRUICKSHANK, Calgary HeraldOctober 10, 2014 1:04
AM135x42RIVlogo
EDMONTON — A game-wrenching hat trick, which included the 100th goal
of his National Hockey League career.
In his first appearance in the Battle of Alberta.
In only his second date with his new employers.
Great stuff.
But you wouldn’t know it.
Not from Mason Raymond’s demeanour following Thursday’s 5-2 win over
the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place.
Mellow — that might be the word for it.
“It’s still settling in, I guess,” deadpanned the Calgary Flames winger.
“These are things you think about, you want to achieve. Then when you
achieve it, you’re going to sit back and reflect. Probably it’ll sink in more in a
little bit. But, obviously, I’m proud to do that.
“That’ll be a memorable one. Getting my first as a Flames — and I was
lucky enough to get three.”
More than one reporter tried to get Raymond going.
But no. Cool as a cucumber. Comically cool.
“Mase, he’s the ultimate pro, really,” said Joe Colborne. “He doesn’t get too
up or down. The two of us were driving to the airport together (after
Wednesday night’s loss) . . . and he’s as upbeat as you can get when we’re
down. And it seems like after we win, he’s never content. It’s something that
a bunch of us younger guys look at and realize that’s what you want to be
doing.”
Not that Raymond hadn’t been concerned about scoring.
“He felt like he wasn’t finishing (chances) in the first,” said Colborne. “He
kept coming up to me and saying, ‘Keep them coming my way. Sooner or
later.’ And I kept telling him, ‘I’ve watched enough of your games. I know
you can bury.’ Sure enough, you keep feeding a guy like that and he’s
going to put it in the back of the net.”
(Hartley, by the way, declined to name a starting goalie for Saturday’s visit
to St. Louis.) In addition to Raymond’s second career hat trick — while a
member of the Vancouver Canucks, he’d also hung one on the Flames at
the Saddledome — Jiri Hudler and T.J. Brodie scored.
After 40 minutes, though, the Flames had been lucky to be deadlocked —
even though they’d been up two goals after only four minutes.
The shots were 25-11 — it seemed like it was only a matter of time.
“After the second period, there was lots of unhappy boys in there,” said
Hartley, nodding toward the visitors’ dressing room. “A few choice words
were flying around. The boys deserve credit. They regrouped. We went to
work. That’s our DNA. We have to out-work the opposition on a game-togame basis.”
Early in the third, Lance Bouma made a terrific tap pass to Raymond, who,
off the races, scorched a slapper past goalie Ben Scrivens. That gave the
Flames the lead at 4:34.
Then Raymond, on a sweet feed from Colborne (his third helper of the
night), made it 4-2 at 14:42.
T.J. Brodie rolled in a power play puck with 40 seconds remaining.
“We weren’t playing desperate hockey,” said Raymond. “But I thought it
was real good how we bounced back with some character and proved to
ourselves that we can win these games that are tie games or one-goal
games. Talking to the leadership group and other guys here . . . there were
so many tight games last year, you need to get those wins.
“Like I said, this is a key win for us.”
Raymond, on the night the Oilers were honouring their 1984 championship
team, didn’t appear too guilty about ruining the occasion.
“Well, we had our little party spoiled,” he said of the Flames’ seasonopening loss Wednesday to the Canucks. “But that was a cool little tribute
out there, obviously seeing Wayne (Gretzky) and Mark (Messier) and the
other guys.”
Calgary Flames 5, Edmonton Oilers 2
The Herald’s Three Stars
1. Calgary G Karri Ramo — Saves his team’s bacon. In the first period. In
the second. And, yup, in third, too.
2. Calgary LW Mason Raymond — Tips in his 100th goal in the first period.
Bangs in two more in third. Hat trick.
3. Edmonton RW Teddy Purcell — Scores once in his Oilers debut. Around
the puck, around the net, all night long.
The Summary
Post-game, though, Raymond was low-key.
Flames 5 Oilers 2
“Of course, it’s nice to contribute and be part of the win, for sure,” he said,
shrugging. “But, as I said, those two points are huge for us. That gets us in
the win column and going in the right direction.”
First Period
Said coach Bob Hartley: “I’m sure it’s very special. We had him on rightwing the first two periods. I thought that he was a little bit lost.”
2. Calgary, Hudler 2 (Monahan, Byron) 4:16.
A pause. A grin.
Penalties — Colborne Cgy (hooking) 11:42.
“I can tell you that Mason Raymond is a good left-wing for us.”
Second Period
Contributions were many.
4. Edmonton, Hall 1 (Nugent-Hopkins, Schultz) 11:25 (pp).
Especially from Karri Ramo, given the Flames’ long stretch of, well,
nothingness — seven shots in 35 minutes (over the bulk of the first period
and all of the second). Is there any wonder their early 2-0 lead went poof?
Penalties — Eberle Edm (tripping) 2:44, Brodie Cgy (hooking) 10:14, Stajan
Cgy (tripping) 10:34.
But the fact that — despite goals to Teddy Purcell and Taylor Hall, despite
the lopsidedness of it all — the Flames never trailed, that’s a credit to the
Calgary goalie.
“If it wasn’t for Karri Ramo, the outcome could be different,” said Hartley,
whose team was outshot 40-26. “Karri was solid. We kind of lost our game
a little bit. We got caught in turnovers. They were moving the puck well. We
know what they have — so much talent, they can really buzz in the
offensive zone. We gave them many occasions to do this. We were lucky.
“If we leave here with two points, it’s all about Karri.”
1. Calgary, Raymond 1 (Giordano, Colborne) 3:16.
3. Edmonton, Purcell 1 (Perron, Yakupov) 12:59 (pp).
Third Period
5. Calgary, Raymond 2 (Bouma, Colborne) 4:23.
6. Calgary, Raymond 3 (Colborne, Hudler) 14:42.
7. Calgary, Brodie 1 (Glencross, Backlund) 19:20 (pp).
Penalties — Pouliot Edm (slashing) 18:24.
Shots on goal by
Calgary 7 4 15—26
Edmonton 14 11 15—40
Goal — Calgary: Ramo (W, 1-0-0); Edmonton: Scrivens (L, 0-1-0).
Power plays — Calgary: 1-2; Edmonton: 2-3.
Referees — Ghislain Hebert, Tim Peel.
Linesmen — David Brisebois, Ryan Galloway.
Att. at Edmonton — 16,839.
The Scratches
* Calgary — D Dennis Wideman, RW Devin Setoguchi, RW Brian
McGrattan
* Edmonton — LW Luke Gazdic (shoulder), D Oscar Klefbom, D Darnell
Nurse, C Will Acton
Up Next
The Flames wing eastward on Friday to prepare for Saturday’s clash
against the St. Louis Blues. The third stop of the six-game trip is Tuesday in
Nashville.
Calgary Herald: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752774
Calgary Flames
Flames notes: Hartley makes sure Calgary players attend Oilers’ pre-game
ceremony
“Whenever there’s a champion — whatever their recipe — for a few years
after, teams are trying to find . . . the tools,” he said. “The year after, you sit
in your room and you’re looking for a mirror.”
Back in 1984, Hartley, then 23, “was the best windshield-maker around.”
Still years away from coaching even junior, he was nonetheless a sports
nut.
By SCOTT CRUICKSHANK, Calgary HeraldOctober 10, 2014 1:03
AM135x42RIVlogo
“Obviously, I watched those games, just like a normal Canadian hockey
fan,” said Hartley. “My house could be on fire and I would probably tell the
fireman to wait till the end of the game.”
EDMONTON — Like most instances of bad judgment, it had seemed like a
good idea at the time.
WIDEMAN SITS OUT
Bob Hartley can acknowledge this now.
“I’ll be honest with you guys,” the Calgary Flames coach said Thursday
morning, “I made one big mistake.”
He explained.
On Nov. 18, 2006, with the Montreal Canadiens scheduled to honour Serge
Savard before puck-drop, Hartley made the decision to keep his Atlanta
Thrashers in the dressing room.
After all, why should the visitors be exposed a long-winded ceremony, to a
surefire distraction?
So the Thrashers stayed out of sight while, to great fanfare, the No. 18
sweater was raised to the rafters.
“I talked with our leadership core,” recalled Hartley. “They felt it was a big
game and they wanted to be focused. We all agreed that maybe it was the
best thing for us to sit in the locker-room and be focused. They kicked our
butt.”
Hartley, Thursday morning at the team hotel, had announced that Dennis
Wideman, the team’s highest-paid player, would not be in the lineup against
the Oilers.
Wideman pulls down a salary of $5.25 million through 2016-17. Raphael
Diaz drew in.
The Flames coach was asked about sitting someone like Wideman, a
veteran commanding millions in pay.
“I’m not a banker, I’m a coach,” Hartley had replied.
Minutes later he added: “It’s not a matter of injuries.”
Additionally, winger David Jones took the place of enforcer Brian
McGrattan. Meaning only winger Devin Setoguchi has not played yet.
“My message is very clear — we’re going to carry 23 bodies,” said Hartley.
“You want to be in the lineup for every game for the 82 games, you’ll have
to show up for the 82 games. Free ice time doesn’t exist in Calgary.”
Apparently, it’s important to get that message out right away — after all, it’s
only Game 2.
But it was more than the 3-1 loss that ate away at Hartley.
“Oh, they know,” said Hartley, smiling. “They know. They got it.”
“This summer, I met Serge Savard and I apologized,” he said, “because, on
my part, it was a big lack of respect.”
Which is why you saw the Flames — all of them — present when the
Edmonton Oilers toasted their 1984 Stanley Cup-winning crew.
“I addressed it with our players,” said Hartley. “Whenever there’s going to
be a retired jersey or a ceremony like (Thursday’s), you can count on the
Flames to be part of those ceremonies.”
That, of course, had been no average team.
Those Oilers won five championships — with interruptions by the
Canadiens (1986) and the Flames (1989) — in seven seasons.
But 30 years ago? That had been the first sip from the Cup.
“Those guys — Gretzky, Coffey, Messier, Lowe, all those guys — they’re a
big part of the history of the Oilers, but they’re also a big part of the history
of hockey,” said Hartley. “Us, as an organization, have to show respect. It’s
great for all of us. We can always learn from other people that won.
“For our young players, to be able to see those guys, to see what’s going
on, I think it’s a big positive for us.”
More than a collection of superstars had been on display at Rexall Place.
More than just oodles of ability.
“To win you have to face adversity,” said Hartley. “You need to develop
mental toughness. Everyone who goes far in the playoffs . . . you lose a
tough game because of a bad break or you missed an open net or
whatever. Suddenly, you get on the plane or you get home at night and say,
‘We’re done.’ But the next morning, you have to roll up your sleeves and
say, ‘We’re still alive,’ whether you’re down or you’re still up in a series. You
have to fight back.
“That’s leadership. So those guys, yes, they have lots of talent. But I’m sure
there was tonnes of leadership and guys who took charge. You can always
learn from champions.
“It was not luck that they won.”
It’s a given that the high-flying Oilers of the 1980s changed hockey.
But Hartley points out that winners are always influential.
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Calgary Flames
Flames’ farm team issues apology after backlash over awkward mascot
unveiling
Calgary Herald October 10, 2014 1:00 AM135x42RIVlogo
The Calgary Flames’ American Hockey League affiliate was forced to issue
an apology on Thursday after a skit introducing new mascot Scorch the
Flame drew the ire of fans.
In an attempt to explain the backstory of the new mascot, the Flames
produced a skit with the local fire department. But when photos showed a
firefighter being overpowered by the flaming stuffie, Twitter went alight with
backlash over the image.
The questionable backstory — Scorch is supposedly the lone-surviving
ember of a fire which destroyed much of Glens Falls in 1864 — didn’t help.
“Earlier today we unveiled our new mascot Scorch,” reads a statement from
Adirondack Flames president Brian Petrovek posted on the team’s website,
“In an attempt to provide background material for the character who will be
the face of our team, particularly with young fans, we crafted a story that
Scorch was the remaining ember from the tragic fire that destroyed much of
Glens Falls in 1864. We also crafted a skit that helped to launch the new
mascot — with the help of the Glens Falls Fire Department. While it
seemed in good taste when it was on the drawing board, it is evident now
that it was in poor taste.
“On behalf of our entire organization we want to apologize for our
thoughtlessness today.”
752776
Calgary Flames
Flames' prized prospect Sam Bennett to have shoulder surgery
By Scott Cruickshank, Calgary HeraldOctober 9, 2014135x42RIVlogo
The news — Sam Bennett needing surgery on his cranky left shoulder —
wasn't great.
Nor was it entirely unexpected.
So Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving stopped short of
declaring it a worst-case scenario for the 18-year-old.
"I look at it as, 'What's the best way to ensure that we have a good
outcome?' " Treliving said this afternoon. "So you explore all the different
avenues. Ultimately, the decision's made to get the issue fixed.
"Anytime you're having surgery, that's not perfect by any stretch. But we
have no reason to believe that this won't be . . . I hate to use the word
'routine,' but lots of players have gone through this."
Next week, the Flames' prized prospect goes under the knife in Cleveland,
Ohio, and begins a long rehabilitation process.
"Sam's still at a very, very young age, in the early part of his career," said
Treliving. "So we get it addressed. He gets back and we move on."
With an expected four- to six-month recovery period, Bennett now has no
chance to represent Canada at the world junior tournament. Additionally,
the Kingston Frontenacs, of the Ontario Hockey League, will be without
their star centre for the bulk of the winter — if not the entire thing.
But since being scratched from the NHL pre-season finale Saturday in
Winnipeg, the Flames — and Bennett — have known that surgery was a
possible outcome.
"This is a guy — you know this — his whole mission in life was to be playing
for Calgary this year," said Treliving. "So then, all of a sudden, to be dealing
with this? That's probably not his best day.
"For the last day or so, though, he's been actually really good, saying, 'OK,
this is going to get me fixed. This is going to address the issue. This gives
me a chance now to manage the process from start to finish.' His attitude
has been terrific."
Officially, Bennett, the fourth-overall draft pick this past June, remains on
the injured non-roster list — with two other subjects of shoulder surgery,
right-winger Emile Poirier and defenceman Corey Potter.
Post-operation, Bennett will return home to Holland Landing, Ont.
"He'll spend some time there," said Treliving, "then he'll be coming back to
Calgary. We'll be managing the rehab."
752777
Calgary Flames
* Taylor Hall-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Jordan Eberle
* David Perron-Mark Arcobello-Teddy Purcell
Flames scratch veterans Wideman, McGrattan
* Benoit Pouliot-Leon Draisaitl-Nail Yakupov
* Matt Hendricks-Boyd Gordon-Jesse Joensuu
October 9, 2014. 1:12 pm • Section: Flames Insider, Uncategorized
=
Scott Cruickshank
Oilers Pairings
* Nikita Nikitin-Mark Fayne
Bob Hartley, this morning at the team hotel, announced that Dennis
Wideman, the team’s highest-paid player, would not be in the lineup tonight.
Wideman, who pulls down a salary of $5.25 million, will sit against the
Edmonton Oilers. Raphael Diaz draws in.
* Andrew Ference-Jeff Petry
* Brad Hunt-Justin Schultz
=
The Flames coach was asked about sitting someone like Wideman, a
veteran commanding millions in pay.
Oilers Goalies
“I’m not a banker, I’m a coach,” replied Hartley.
* Viktor Fasth
Minutes later he confirmed: “It’s not a matter of injuries.”
=
Additionally, winger David Jones takes the place of enforcer Brian
McGrattan. (Meaning only winger Devin Setoguchi has not played yet.)
Oilers Injuries
“We have 23 healthy bodies right now,” said Hartley. “It’s just a matter of . .
. it’s a back to back, so it’s just like with goalies. So it’s not like Dennis
Wideman or Grats had an awful game (Wednesday in a 4-2 loss to the
visiting Vancouver Canucks). We’re bringing fresh blood into the lineup.”
Wednesday, Wideman, in addition to getting drilled by Alex Burrows, got
16:30 of ice time. He was minus-one.
McGrattan, meanwhile, took 11 shifts and recorded two hits.
Calgary Flames right winger Brian McGrattan unleashed a punch on
Winnipeg Jets right winger Anthony Peluso during first period NHL action at
the Scotiabank Saddledome on January 16, 2014.
“My message is very clear — we’re going to carry 23 bodies,” said Hartley.
“And (Wednesday), it’s not like we had three kids sitting. We’re going to
keep playing our young players. But, again, always remember — it has
always earned and never given.
“You want to be in the lineup for every game for the 82 games, you’ll have
to show up for the 82 games. Free ice time doesn’t exist in Calgary.”
Apparently, it’s important to get that message out right away — after all, it’s
only Game 2.
“Oh, they know,” said Hartley, smiling. “They know. They got it.”
=
Flames Lines
* Curtis Glencross-Sean Monahan-Jiri Hudler
* Mason Raymond-Mikael Backlund-Lance Bouma
* Johnny Gaudreau-Joe Colborne-Paul Byron
* Brandon Bollig-Matt Stajan-David Jones
=
Flames Pairings
* Mark Giordano-T.J. Brodie
* Ladislav Smid-Raphael Diaz
* Kris Russell-Deryk Engelland
=
Flames Goalies
* Karri Ramo (1-1-0, 2.53 GAA, .928 — lifetime against Oilers)
* Jonas Hiller
=
Oilers Lines
* Ben Scrivens (0-1-0, 3.24 GAA, .857 — lifetime against Flames)
* LW Luke Gazdic (shoulder)
752778
Calgary Flames
we win, he's never content. It's something that I know that a bunch of us
younger guys look at and realize that's what you want to be doing.”
Calgary Flames beat Edmonton Oilers for first win of season
TJ Brodie also scored for the Flames, while the Oilers settled for a pair of
powerplay tallies — Teddy Purcell's strike before the first intermission and
then Taylor Hall's rocket on a five-on-three advantage in the middle frame.
By WES GILBERTSON, Calgary Sun
The Oilers undoubtedly had all the momentum after Hall's goal, but Ramo
— and Raymond, and the rest of the Flames — apparently had other ideas.
First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 10:24 PM MDT | Updated: Friday,
October 10, 2014 12:09 AM MDT
RaymondForWeb10 Flames winger Mason Raymond celebrates his goal
with teammates against the Edmonton Oilers in the third period at Rexall
Place. The Flames won 5-2 on the strength of Raymond's hat-trick.
As a kid, Mason Raymond dreamed of filling the net for the Calgary Flames.
So to score his first as a member of his hometown team ... well ... that was
special.
And then to snipe a second?
To bury a third?
And to celebrate that hat-trick in his first instalment — not counting the ones
he watched from the seats at the Saddledome as a youngster — of the
Battle of Alberta?
To be honest, the Cochrane kid hadn't quite wrapped his head around that
in the immediate moments after Thursday's 5-2 victory over the Edmonton
Oilers at Rexall Place.
“It hasn't set in yet, but that'll be a memorable one, getting my first as a
Flame,” Raymond said. “And then I was lucky enough to get three.”
You could argue the Flames were lucky enough to escape with the victory.
Raymond isn't the only guy to thank for that.
In fact, if not for Karri Ramo's 38-save performance in Calgary's crease, the
Oilers could have turned it into a rout before their out-of-town guests did.
A spectator for Wednesday's season-opening loss to the Vancouver
Canucks, Ramo delivered several key stops Thursday as the Flames
celebrated their first victory of the season and put a bit of a damper on the
Oilers' 1984 Stanley Cup reunion.
Raymond and right-winger Jiri Hudler scored one minute apart in the
opening period — Raymond's first of the night was a sly deflection, so
sneaky that the officials didn't even give him credit for getting a piece of
Mark Giordano's shot for darn near an hour — but it was Ramo who
ensured the Flames didn't have to dig out of a hole after a sluggish second
stanza.
The Oilers were outshooting the Flames by a 25-11 margin after 40
minutes.
“He was the only reason that we were still in that game,” said Flames centre
Joe Colborne. “It easily could have been 5-2 after the second.”
“If it wouldn't be for Karri Ramo, the outcome could be totally different,”
echoed Calgary's bench boss, Bob Hartley. “Karri was solid.”
And Raymond made sure he was rewarded for it.
With the score knotted 2-2 early in the third frame, the 29-year-old leftwinger — wearing No. 21 for the Flames — raced into Edmonton's zone
and ripped a slapper over Ben Scrivens' glove-hand for the go-ahead goal.
All indications were that Ramo wasn't going to let another squeak by, but
Raymond provided some valuable insurance with just over five minutes
remaining, capitalizing on a sweet cross-crease feed from Colborne to put
the finishing touches on his third big-league hat-trick.
Raymond's first goal as a member of the Flames was also No. 100 of his
NHL career, but the off-season signing tried to shine the spotlight away
from his own accomplishments.
“Mason is just the ultimate pro, really. He doesn't get too up or down,” said
Colborne, who picked up a career-high three assists against the Oilers.
“The two of us were driving to the airport together (Wednesday) after the
loss and he's as upbeat as they get after we're down and it seems like after
“After the second period, there was lots of unhappy boys in there. There
was a few choice words that were flying around,” Hartley said. “The boys
deserve credit. They regrouped, and we went to work, and that's our DNA.
We have to outwork opponents.
“Second night of a back-to-back. We got goaltending. We responded well in
the third period. It's a good feeling.”
The Flames are now headed to St. Louis, where they'll have their hands full
in Saturday's date with the Blues (5 p.m., Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 960 The
Fan)
Calgary Sun: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752779
Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames' Dennis Wideman dropped for Oilers game
First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 09:10 PM MDT | Updated:
Thursday, October 09, 2014 09:15 PM MDT
EDMONTON — Bob Hartley controls playing time, not paycheques.
As the Calgary Flames bench boss reminded, “I’m not a banker, I’m a
coach.”
True enough, but don’t underestimate the value of the message that Hartley
delivered to his squad by sitting defenceman Dennis Wideman — the
highest-paid guy on the Flames’ roster — for Thursday’s Battle of Alberta at
Rexall Place.
Wideman crashed into the boards after a hit by Vancouver Canucks pest
Alex Burrows in Wednesday’s season-opener at the Saddledome, but
Hartley made it clear his lineup changes against the Edmonton Oilers were
“not a matter of injuries.”
It’s a matter, even if his skipper wasn’t going to publicly criticize him
Thursday, of needing more from the 31-year-old blueliner.
NHLers are technically paid by the day, but with an annual salary-cap hit of
US$5.25 million, Wideman’s wage works out to $64,000 and change per
game.
At his best, he can log big minutes — he averaged a team-leading 25
minutes per night in the lockout-shortened campaign in 2012-13 — and can
quarterback the powerplay.
However, he worked on the Flames’ third pairing in Wednesday’s opener
and didn’t register any hits or blocked shots in 16:30 of ice. He finished with
a minus-1 rating.
Just-signed Raphael Diaz replaced Wideman on the Flames’ back-end
against the Oilers, while enforcer Brian McGrattan also was a spectator,
with David Jones — another big-ticket salary at $4 million per campaign —
drawing in.
Right-winger Devin Setoguchi, who certainly didn’t wow in exhibition action,
has been a healthy extra for both games.
“It’s not that Dennis Wideman or Grats had an awful game. It’s just that
we’re bringing in fresh blood in the lineup,” Hartley explained. “We’re going
to keep playing our young players, but again, always remember that it has
to be ‘Always earned, never given.’ You want to be in the lineup every
game for the 82 games, you’ll have to show up for the 82 games.
“Free ice-time doesn’t exist in Calgary.”
Off the
Many of the Oilers legends — from Wayne Gretzky to Mark Messier to Paul
Coffey to Jari Kurri — are in Edmonton to mark the 30th anniversary of their
1984 Stanley Cup triumph, and Hartley was adamant his squad would be
on the bench for any pre-game festivities. In fact, Hartley admitted a “big
mistake” in skipping a special ceremony in Montreal while he was coach of
the Atlanta Thrashers. “It was the Serge Savard night, where they were
retiring his jersey,” Hartley recalled. “I talked with our leadership core and
they felt that it was a big game and they wanted to be focused and
everything, and we all agreed together that maybe it was the best thing for
us to sit in the locker-room and be focused. They kicked our butt, and we
missed the ceremony. And this summer, I saw Serge Savard and I
apologized to him because I think, on my part, it’s a big lack of respect.” As
it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of hoopla about the 1984 Oilers reunion,
although Rexall Place roared when Gretzky, Messier and another former
captain, Lee Fogolin, were introduced for a ceremonial puck-drop.
Around the boards
Gretzky racked up 2,857 regular-season points during his record-setting
career. If my math is correct, the Flames’ current 23-man roster has
combined for 2,474. Yeah, they didn’t call him the Great One for nuthin’ ... A
fascinating stat from TSN research man Kevin Gibson: You only have to go
back to 2010-11 for the last time the Oilers opened their season against the
Flames, but just seven of 40 players from that contest are still skating in the
Battle of Alberta. Edmonton’s current alternate captains — RW Jordan
Eberle and LW Taylor Hall — were making their NHL debuts that night,
while D TJ Brodie, D Mark Giordano, LW Curtis Glencross and C Matt
Stajan are still employed by the Flames, and D Ladislav Smid has switched
sides ... The AHL’s Adirondack Flames open their regular-season slate
Friday on the road against the Rochester Americans, the farm club for the
Buffalo Sabres.
752780
Calgary Flames
Mason Raymond - Mikael Backlund - Lance Bouma
Brandon Bollig - Matt Stajan - David Jones
Calgary Flames face-off against the Oilers in Edmonton home opener
DEFENCE
TJ Brodie - Mark Giordano
Kris Russell - Deryk Engelland
Ladislav Smid - Raphael Diaz
GOAL
Karri Ramo
Flames vs. OIlers 2014 pre-season Joe Colborne from the Calgary Flames
tangles with Steve Pinizzotto from the Edmonton Oilers in NHL pre-season
hockey action at the Scotiabank Saddledome in downtown Calgary, Alta. on
Sunday September 21, 2014.
Jonas Hiller
SCRATCHES: RW Brian McGrattan, RW Devin Setoguchi, D Dennis
Wideman.
Report an error
INJURED: C Sam Bennett (shoulder), D Corey Potter (shoulder).
Flames at Oilers
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
TV: Sportsnet 360
RADIO: Sportsnet 960 The FAN
THE MAIN STORYLINE: Less than 24 hours after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to
the Vancouver Canucks in their home-opener at the Saddledome, the
Flames will shoot for their first victory of the new campaign in Thursday's
Battle of Alberta in Edmonton. It should be a special night at Rexall Place,
with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier & Co. all in town to mark the 30th
anniversary of the Oilers' Stanley Cup triumph in 1984, their first of five titles
in a seven-year span. The Flames would love to spoil to the celebrations.
LINEUP NOTES: After a late-night arrival in Edmonton, the Flames didn't
skate Thursday morning, but Flames head coach Bob Hartley confirmed
that defenceman Dennis Wideman — the highest-paid player on Calgary's
roster — and enforcer Brian McGrattan will be healthy scratches, with
Raphael Diaz and David Jones replacing them. Karri Ramo, who served as
Jonas Hiller's backup on opening night, will be between the pipes for the
visitors at Rexall Place.
The Oilers will open their season with all of their top offensive eggs in one
basket, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins working between alternate captains
Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle on Edmonton's first line. Thursday's Battle of
Alberta also marks the debut of centre Leon Draisaitl, the third-overall
selection in the 2014 NHL Draft. Ben Scrivens is the starter for the Oil.
BURNING QUESTION: Will a trip to the press-box be the alarm-clock for
the wake-up call that Flames blueliner Dennis Wideman needs? Although
Wideman was slow to get back to his feet after a hit from Canucks pest
Alex Burrows in Wednesday's loss, the Flames made it clear that the
US$5.25-million man is a healthy scratch.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: If Flames forwards Mikael Backlund, Lance Bouma
and Mason Raymond are still skating together on the shutdown unit, they'll
be anxious to redeem themselves after a combined minus-7 showing
against the Canucks. Backlund was three strokes under par in the opener.
FAST FACT: In five instalments of the Battle of Alberta last season, the
road squad won every game. The Flames made three trips north to
Edmonton, celebrating a pair of overtime triumphs — Jiri Hudler and Sean
Monahan were the heroes — and then embarrassing their hosts in a 8-1
rout of the Oilers in March.
QUOTE TO NOTE:
“Those guys are legends in the game and you have to respect everything
they've done, but on another note, we're here to get a job done and rain on
their parade and get the two points. It'll be cool to see those guys on the
ice, but as soon as that puck drops, it's down to business.”
— Flames LW Brandon Bollig on seeing Gretzky, Messier & Co. in
Thursday's pre-game ceremony
Flames' projected lineup
FORWARDS
Curtis Glencross - Sean Monahan - Jiri Hudler
Johnny Gaudreau - Joe Colborne - Paul Byron
752781
Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames confirm Sam Bennett to have surgery on shoulder
Calgary Flames prospect Sam Bennett is going under the knife.
The Flames confirmed Thursday that Bennett, the fourth-overall pick in the
2014 NHL Draft, will have surgery on his shoulder.
The 18-year-old centre will be out four to six months, which means that he
won't be available to skate for Team Canada at the world junior tournament.
Bennett appeared in three pre-season games for the Flames, collecting a
couple of assists, but it's clear now that he wasn't fully healthy.
The 6-foot-1 pivot played through the pain of a separated shoulder last
season with the Ontario Hockey League's Kingston Frontenacs and will
have surgery on that same wing.
“Obviously I want to be playing (in the NHL). That was my goal this year,”
Bennett told reporters Tuesday. “I think after I get this all healed up, I'll just
be that much more confident and that much more stronger when I do get a
chance to play.”
752782
Carolina Hurricanes
It's time for the Canes to get started
Peters will be behind the bench for the first time as an NHL head coach. A
year ago, he was an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings and on the
visiting bench when the Wings and Canes played the season opener at
PNC Arena.
It will be a different experience for the Three Hills, Alberta, native.
By Chip Alexander
calexander@newsobserver.comOctober 9, 2014 Updated 3 hours ago
“Oh, it’ll be exciting,” Peters said. “It’ll be exciting for numerous reasons. I
look forward to it, but I look forward to the opportunity to open the season
and get off to a good start. That’s first and foremost in my mind.”
It’s time.
RALEIGH — For the Carolina Hurricanes, it’s time.
Training camp has ended and seven exhibitions have been played. Two
major injuries – to center Jordan Staal and winger Jeff Skinner – have been
absorbed. The Canes have a new coach, Bill Peters, who has brought in a
new voice, new vision and new structure.
It’s time to play. On Friday, just a little past 7 p.m., the puck will drop on the
2014-15 season at PNC Arena. The New York Islanders will be the
opponent, just as they will be Saturday when the teams face off again at
Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.
“Obviously the excitement’s there,” Canes captain Eric Staal said Thursday.
“For us to get going, we’re pumped for that. It will be fun.”
Jordan Staal, out three to four months with a broken leg, will be at PNC
Arena for the opener, Eric Staal said. Skinner, out indefinitely with a
concussion, might not be able to be at the game.
To go into a new season without their best offensive forward and defensive
forward is not a good situation for the Canes. Prognosticators have Carolina
finishing last in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division and last in the Eastern
Conference.
“But we can’t worry about anything like that,” Eric Staal said. “We have to
worry about what we’ve got to do here. With the type of people we have, we
will do that.”
Peters said Cam Ward would be the starting goaltender for the opener. He
also announced defenseman Andrej Sekera would serve as a permanent
alternate captain this season, and defensemen Jay Harrison and Ron
Hainsey would rotate as alternate captains until Jordan Staal, who wears an
“A,” returns from injury.
Given Anton Khudobin’s strong play in net last season, many assumed he
might be the Canes’ No. 1 goalie. Ward, the 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy
winner when the Canes won the Stanley Cup, had the better preseason
outings and earned the start.
“We like both our goaltenders and will need both our goaltenders,” Peters
said. “(Ward) had a real good summer and he’s healthy. He came in here
and played real well. He was good in the preseason. Anton was right there
with him, too, and we could have gone either way.”
Ward and Khudobin were sidelined by injuries last season – Ward twice
missing a chunk of games with a groin injury. Khudobin, after recovering
from an ankle sprain that kept him out 21/2 months, was named the NHL’s
first star of the month for January and set a franchise single-season record
for save percentage.
Ward returned to Raleigh this summer off a rigorous offseason conditioning
program, determined to return to the form that made him the Canes’
franchise goalie.
“With my injuries, you try to get in the best shape possible so you prevent
those injuries from happening again,” he said. “But it’s also cleaning up your
mindset, being fresh mentally to not to carry the past experiences. Put them
away, realize those don’t exist anymore and move on.”
There will be new faces in the Canes’ lineup for the opener. Victor Rask,
21, will make his NHL debut and center the second line with fellow Swede
Elias Lindholm and Nathan Gerbe. Winger Patrick Brown, 22, also will be
playing his first NHL game.
Center Jay McClement is beginning his 10th NHL season but first for the
Canes. His parents and in-laws have made the 12-hour drive from
Kingston, Ont., for the season opener, he said.
“There’s always a lot of buildup and anticipation,” he said. “It was a long
summer and this is what you work for. There’s going to be adrenaline, on
both sides, but usually after the first couple of shifts things settle down. You
just have to make sure you’re focused and ready to go.”
News Observer LOADED: 10.10.2014
752783
Carolina Hurricanes
Ward to start Canes opener; alternate captains named
By Chip Alexander
calexander@newsobserver.comOctober 9, 2014 Updated 15 hours ago
Hurricanes Blues Hockey
Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward (30) makes a glove save in the
second period of a preseason NHL hockey game against the St. Louis
Blues, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 in St. Louis.
TOM GANNAM — AP
The day before Carolina's season opener, Canes coach Bill Peters had a
few final announcements to make.
Cam Ward will start the opener in net against the New York Islanders,
Peters said Thursday.
Defenseman Andrej Sekera has been selected to be a permanent alternate
captain, the coach said. And until alternate captain Jordan Staal returns
from his broken leg, defensemen Jay Harrison and Ron Hainsey will rotate
as alternate captains.
While many assumed before training camp began that Anton Khudobin
might be the Canes' No. 1 goalie, based on his strong play last season,
Ward had the better preseason and won the job -- for the opener. Peters
said an evaluation would be made after every game, and the Canes face
the Isles again Saturday in Uniondale, N.Y.
"We like both our goaltenders and will need both our goaltenders," Peters
said. "We're comfortable playing in front of both of them.
"(Ward) had a real good summer and he's healthy. He came in here and
played real well. He was good in the preseason. Anton was right there with
him, too, and we could have gone either way."
Both Ward (groin) and Khudobin (ankle) were sidelined by injuries for parts
of last season. Khudobin, with Ward out, was named the NHL's first star for
January and set a franchise single-season record for save percentage.
But Ward returned to Raleigh this summer off a rigorous offseason
conditioning program, determined to return to the form that made him the
Canes' franchise goalie.
"With my injuries, I tried to get in the best shape possible," Ward said
Thursday. "Your mindset also has to be that you put away past experiences
and realize they don't exist anymore. I’ll just take it one day at a time.”
Forward Pat Dwyer, who wore a yellow no-contact jersey Wednesday, is
back at full strength.
News Observer LOADED: 10.10.2014
752784
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks expecting rough and tumble season
One-timers: The Hawks will launch their home opener Saturday against the
Sabres with a red-carpet event starting at 5 p.m. on Madison Street before
the game at the United Center. … Kyle Cumiskey was a healthy scratch for
the Hawks against the Stars. Fellow defenseman Michal Rozsival (upper
body) and winger Kris Versteeg (lower body) did not make the trip to Dallas.
Chicago Tribune LOADED: 10.10.2014
By Chris Kuc contact the reporter
DALLAS — It began in Dallas and will end in Denver.
The Blackhawks kicked off their 82-game quest for the Central Division title
Thursday night when they faced the Stars at American Airlines Center.
The season-long thrill ride promises to be a wild one with plenty of twists
and turns as the division is loaded.
Open link
"It's going to be intense hockey every night of the week in our division
somewhere," Hawks winger Patrick Sharp said before he was a catalyst in
tying the opener and then watched as Patrick Kane scored the winner in the
shootout to give the Hawks a 3-2 victory. "Everybody thinks they're a playoff
team, but there are only eight spots."
Of the eight teams to reach the Western Conference playoffs last season,
five came from the Central. After offseason moves, the division and
conference appears to be even stronger. The 91 points the Stars
accumulated last season to nab the eighth spot might not be enough this
time around.
"You're playing a tough game every night and in these tough games you
have to win because you're going to see teams up in the high 90s and
maybe even 100 points that are going to struggle to make the playoffs,"
Kane said. "That's just the way it is, especially in the West, so you have to
take advantage of every game."
The Avalanche finished on top of the Central last season with 112 points,
followed by the Blues (111), Hawks (107), Wild (98), Stars (91), Predators
(88) and (Jets 84).
"All the teams in this league are good," Hawks center Marcus Kruger said.
"Our division looks pretty tough. All teams got stronger. We don't mind
playing good teams, (so) it will be a lot of fun."
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville doesn't foresee any cakewalks on the
schedule.
"There are definitely no easy games in the Central Division, and if you think
there are any easier games outside the division, you're going to be wrong,"
Quenneville said. "The league is so competitive and so close this year, it's
going to be a great race."
That serious battle-testing may not be beneficial to a team's overall record,
but it can lead to improvement when the playoffs roll around.
"When you play a high level of competition, when the hockey is intense
whatever time of year it is, it serves your team well," Sharp said. "You learn
how to play in those tight games, those one-goal games and those critical
situations. There are going to be a lot of those within our division and we're
prepared for them."
Short bench: The Hawks were undisciplined and handed the Stars six
power plays during the victory. That led to Quenneville shortening the
bench and rolling three lines and two defensive pairings throughout much of
the game. Jeremy Morin finished with 5 minutes, 32 seconds of ice time,
and fellow winger Daniel Carcillo had 4:43. On the back end, David
Rundblad had 6:25.
"We took way too many penalties," Quenneville said. "(Six) in the first two
periods, so we got out of sync and we were killing penalties and hemmed in
in our end. We didn't have the puck much in our end. We didn't generate
any offense, not a threat. We took too many careless penalties."
Strong start: While the Hawks were getting out of the gate slowly,
goaltender Corey Crawford kept them in it with a big effort against the
Stars. He finished with a combined 32 saves through overtime and stopped
three more shots in the shootout.
"I felt good," Crawford said. "I was seeing the puck well, reading the plays,
staying pretty patient for the most part. That was pretty solid overall, I think."
752785
Chicago Blackhawks
Thursday's recap: Blackhawks 3, Stars 2 (shootout)
Patrick Kane gets Blackhawks off to great start with game-winner in
overtime.
Patrick Sharp gives Blackhawks a chance with goal for tie before Patrick
Kane won opener in shootout.
The summary
The Blackhawks were sloppy early in the regular-season opener but came
alive in the third period to record a scintillating 3-2 victory over the Stars in a
shootout Thursday night at American Airlines Center.
Patrick Kane scored the winner in the shootout while Patrick Sharp and
Duncan Keith each had a goal and an assist in regulation. Trevor Daley and
Cody Eakin scored for Dallas.
Hawks' plays of game
Kane scored the lone goal in the shootout with a magnificent stick-handling
move that finished with a backhander past Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen.
"You work on a couple moves that you think will work and you try some
things in practice," Kane said. "It's nice to score the first one of the season."
With the Hawks trailing 2-1 midway through the third period, Sharp fired a
laser from the top of the right circle while on the power play to knot things
up 2-2.
In the nets
Corey Crawford was the Hawks' best player and ended up the winner with a
combined 32 saves through overtime and three more in the shootout.
Lehtonen wasn't tested often early on but when the Hawks ramped up the
pace late in the game ended up the loser.
On the power play
The Hawks finished 1-for-5 (Sharp) while the Stars were 1-for-6 (Daley)
with the man advantage.
The number
9: Keith shots the Stars blocked.
The quote
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville: "We have to call the cops; we stole two
points. Crawford was great (in) that first period (and) the second period
even better. We got going in the third but … call that a goalie win. (The
Stars) were quick and they came at us. Finally, we picked it up in the third,
but certainly it was tough to watch for 40 (minutes)."
Up next
Vs. Sabres at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the United Center.
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Chicago Blackhawks
NHL debut dream come true for Trevor van Riemsdyk
DALLAS — Young defenseman Joel Quenneville took the ice 36 years ago
with the Maple Leafs in his first NHL game, so the now-Blackhawks coach
knew exactly what Trevor van Riemsdyk was feeling during his debut
Thursday night in Dallas.
“It’s a very memorable and special day,” Quenneville said before the Hawks
tipped the Stars 3-2 in a shootout in the season opener at American Airlines
Center. “You always remember your first shift, where you played that first
game and, hopefully, you’ll have some good memories from it.”
So, how did that first shift go back in 1978?
"I forgot," Quenneville said with a smile before adding, "I remember where:
New York City, Madison Square Garden. That was a long time ago."
Years from now, van Riemsdyk will reminisce about Thursday night after he
converted a Cinderella training camp into his first appearance in the NHL.
The 23-year-old went from an unknown to being paired with Niklas
Hjalmarsson along the blue line for the Hawks. The opportunity arose
because of the Saturday trade of Nick Leddy to the Islanders and an upperbody injury to veteran Michal Rozsival.
"I didn't even really think about it as it all was going on," van Riemsdyk said
of going the distance in camp after being an offseason free-agent signing.
"If I was there another day, I was going to give it my best and work hard and
practice hard and see where it got me. I'm still kind of doing that. Every day
I'm here I'm just going to work hard and play my game."
Quenneville was impressed by van Riemsdyk's poise and hockey sense
during exhibition games and when the dust settled on the 23-man roster to
start the season, the newcomer was still around. Pretty heady stuff for a
player who spent the last three seasons playing in college for New
Hampshire.
"Part of my game is just knowing when to keep it simple and when to kind of
try to do a little more," van Riemsdyk said. "Up at this level the guys are so
good, so skilled, so strong that there are not as many opportunities to do
something maybe a little fancier. Normally, the simple play is probably
going to be the right one. That's kind of been my goal — just to keep it
simple, limit the turnovers and try to just be in the right spots and be a good
teammate and be there for my partner when he needs me."
Van Riemsdyk's parents weren't scheduled to be on hand in Dallas for their
son's debut as they instead attended their other son's NHL game
Wednesday night in Toronto when the Leafs' James van Riemsdyk
continued his career.
What advice did big brother have?
"He just said, 'Enjoy it, it's still hockey,'" Trevor van Riemsdyk said. "'It's
meant to be fun. Just play your game and keep it simple, play hard and
things will work themselves out.'"
752787
Chicago Blackhawks
Stellar Corey Crawford stars vs. Stars
By MARK LAZERUS Staff Reporter October 9, 2014 10:43PM
Updated: October 10, 2014 12:22AM
DALLAS — Patrick Kane’s backhander in the shootout — a flick-of-the-wrist
roof job from the doorstep, one of those things that only Kane seems to be
able to do — was a thing of beauty and technically won the season opener
on Thursday night.
But Kane knew the Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars was all
Corey Crawford’s.
“[Joel Quenneville] calls it a goaltender win, and that was more evident
today than ever before,” Kane said. “He was awesome. He made some
unbelievable saves.”
Quenneville even broke out his “call the cops; we stole two points tonight”
line, last heard after Ray Emery’s one-man show in Calgary early in the
2013 season. For good reason, too. The Hawks had no business winning,
not with the way they played the first 40 minutes.
For two periods, the Hawks were sloppy, discombobulated and thoroughly
outplayed. It took them more than seven minutes to get their first shot on
goal of the first period. It took them more than six minutes to get their first
shot of the second period. Quenneville had shortened his bench as his
players racked up penalties, and the Hawks were getting run out of the rink.
If not for Crawford (32 saves) repeatedly bailing his teammates out — he
stopped Brenden Dillon and Shawn Horcoff breakaways in the second
period, among others — the scoring would have been as lopsided as the
early shot total. Instead, Dallas only led 2-1.
Then came the third — a manic and freewheeling period that saw both
teams play at a breathtaking pace — and the inevitable Hawks pushback.
Kane was denied on a power play by Kari Lehtonen. Johnny Oduya drilled
the post. Then, finally, Patrick Sharp scored on a power-play blast at 11:10
to tie the game at 2, setting up Kane’s heroics in the shootout
(accompanied by a goose egg put up by Crawford, of course).
“That was a big win for us,” Crawford said. “A lot of momentum changes.
Way too many penalties.”
Despite the utter domination of the puck by Dallas, the Hawks actually led
1-0 after one period on Duncan Keith’s goal. But Trevor Daley and Cody
Eakin scored to make it 2-1 Dallas through two.
Still, somehow, the Hawks regained their composure and escaped with a
victory.
“You get two points on the road against a tough team, you can’t really
complain too much,” Kane said. “But we know we can come out with a
better effort.”
Chicago Sun Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
752788
Chicago Blackhawks
Patrick Kane gets shootout goal, but Crawford earns ‘goaltender win’ in
Blackhawks opener
BY MARK LAZERUS Staff Reporter October 9, 2014 10:18PM
Updated: October 9, 2014 11:46PM
able to do — was a thing of beauty, and technically won the season opener
on Thursday night for the Blackhawks.
But Kane knew the Hawks’ 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars was all Corey
Crawford’s.
“[Joel Quenneville] calls it a goaltender win, and I think that was more
evident today than ever before,” Kane said. “He was awesome. He made
some unbelievable saves.”
line, last heard after Ray Emery’s unforgettable one-man show in Calgary
early in the 2013 season. For good reason, too. The Hawks basically had
no business winning this one, not with the way they played the first 40
minutes.
For two periods, the Hawks were sloppy. They were discombobulated. And
they were thoroughly outworked and outplayed. They couldn’t get out of
their zone, they couldn’t get through the neutral zone, and they couldn’t get
into the offensive zone. It took them more than seven minutes to get their
first shot on goal of the first period. It took them more than six minutes to
get their first shot of the second period. Quenneville had dramatically
shortened his bench as his players racked up penalties, and the Hawks
were getting run out of the rink.
“The first two periods weren’t very pretty, and obviously not the way you
want to come out and start a season,” Kane said. “That was an ugly 40
minutes.”
early shot total.
to tie the game at 2-2, setting up Kane’s heroics in the shootout
(accompanied by a goose-egg put up by Crawford, of course).
With Kris Versteeg injured, with Jeremy Morin finding a spot in the penalty
box and possibly the doghouse with a foolish first-period cross-check, and
with unproven defensemen David Rundblad and Trevor van Riemsdyk in
the lineup, Quenneville basically rolled three lines and two defensive
pairings for much of the game. Morin and Daniel Carcillo each barely
played, and Niklas Hjalmarsson and Oduya spent as much time with each
other as they did with their young, new defensive partners.
1-0 after one period. Duncan Keith’s shot from the right wall somehow
squeezed past Kari Lehtonen in the final minute of the first period, giving
the Hawks a 1-0 lead on just their third shot of the game.
But Dallas kept pressing in the second — up 15-3 in shots on goal at one
point — and finally tied it on a power-play goal by Trevor Daley at 10:13.
Five minutes later, Cody Eakin was left all alone in the slot, and he fired a
laser-beam of a wrist shot past Crawford for a 2-1 Dallas lead.
Still, somehow, the Hawks regained their composure and their coordination,
and escaped Dallas with a victory to open the season.
better effort.”
752789
Chicago Blackhawks
Stellar Corey Crawford stars vs. Stars
By MARK LAZERUS Staff Reporter October 9, 2014 10:43PM
able to do — was a thing of beauty and technically won the season opener
on Thursday night.
But Kane knew the Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars was all
Corey Crawford’s.
“[Joel Quenneville] calls it a goaltender win, and that was more evident
today than ever before,” Kane said. “He was awesome. He made some
unbelievable saves.”
line, last heard after Ray Emery’s one-man show in Calgary early in the
2013 season. For good reason, too. The Hawks had no business winning,
not with the way they played the first 40 minutes.
For two periods, the Hawks were sloppy, discombobulated and thoroughly
outplayed. It took them more than seven minutes to get their first shot on
goal of the first period. It took them more than six minutes to get their first
shot of the second period. Quenneville had shortened his bench as his
players racked up penalties, and the Hawks were getting run out of the rink.
early shot total. Instead, Dallas only led 2-1.
to tie the game at 2, setting up Kane’s heroics in the shootout
(accompanied by a goose egg put up by Crawford, of course).
1-0 after one period on Duncan Keith’s goal. But Trevor Daley and Cody
Eakin scored to make it 2-1 Dallas through two.
Still, somehow, the Hawks regained their composure and escaped with a
victory.
better effort.”
752790
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackawks’ Trevor van Riemsdyk excited to make NHL debut
DALLAS — Trevor van Riemsdyk considers himself a pretty mellow guy. He
doesn’t hop around screaming after a victory or beat himself up too much
after a botched play.
But he’s still human. And he knew his usual afternoon nap might be a bit of
a struggle Thursday.
‘‘I’ll try,’’ the rookie defenseman said before he made his NHL debut against
the Dallas Stars. ‘‘I’ll try to keep the same routine, and we’ll see if I’ll be
fighting against the pillow or if I’m able to get to sleep. We’ll see.’’
Less than a month ago, van Riemsdyk figured he’d start the season in
Rockford. The fact he’s in the NHL hasn’t really sunk in yet.
‘‘It’s crazy to think where I was just a little bit ago,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m just going
to try to make the most of it.’’
Van Riemsdyk didn’t see his first shift until six minutes had passed. He
walked right into an oncoming 3-on-2 but survived unscathed and played
nearly 12 minutes.
Line ’em up
Kris Versteeg’s injury moved Ben Smith up to the third line, leaving the
Hawks with a fourth line of Daniel Carcillo, Marcus Kruger and Jeremy
Morin. Coach Joel Quenneville said it wouldn’t change the way he coached
or use his lines, though.
‘‘I don’t think anybody has the freedom to play only one direction and not
worry about their own end,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to be comfortable with all
our lines defensively.’’
No move yet
Unless Versteeg is put on long-term injured reserve, which would require
him to miss 24 days and 10 games, the Hawks don’t have the salary-cap
space to replace him on the roster. Peter Regin would be the likeliest callup, but the Hawks are going with only 12 healthy forwards for now.
752791
Chicago Blackhawks
Five suspended Notre Dame football players won’t play vs. North Carolina
BY LAMOND POPE Sun-Times Media October 9, 2014 8:44PM
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The five Notre Dame players being held out of games
and practices for suspected academic dishonesty won’t play Saturday
against North Carolina.
Coach Brian Kelly didn’t have any concrete answers on their fates beyond
this weekend.
“I’m hearing some things,” Kelly said after Thursday’s practice. “But I’m
going to let (the players) share any information that they have with you. As
it stands right now, I do not have any of those players back at practice.”
Wide receiver DaVaris Daniels, cornerback KeiVarae Russell, defensive
lineman Ishaq Williams, linebacker Kendall Moore and safety Eilar Hardy
have gone through honor-code hearings. A university spokesperson said
Sunday the results of the review were confidential and Notre Dame would
not disclose them.
Kelly said he wasn’t “certain on all of them right now” when asked if he
expected any of the five would be back at some point this season.
“I couldn’t comment on all five. And I don’t have anything specific to tell you
one way or the other,” Kelly said. “Some of the things I’m getting are not
firsthand information, so it’s hard for me to really answer the question with
100 percent certainty.”
Appeals could be one possible reason for delays in uncovering all the
answers.
“To be clear, I don’t have any concrete finality on any of the five,” Kelly said.
“Because the process for them, there is an appeals process for them and
they may want to exhaust all of that that is in front of them relative to an
appeal. It really is up to the player, the student-athlete, to really discuss it.
“... If they’re going through an appeals process, if they’re doing that, I don’t
think it’s my place to get into that. I think that that’s up to them.”
Kelly said there could be a range of outcomes for the five. The players are
still going to class and are welcomed in the football complex.
“We all know that we’re at that point where decisions are being made or
have been made and I don’t have all the answers at this point,” Kelly said.
“All I know is as the football coach, they’re not practicing.”
752792
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks braced for daunting, but ‘fun’ division race
“There are definitely no easy games in the Central Division,” Hawks coach
Joel Quenneville said, agreeing with his Dallas counterpart. “And if you
think there are any easier games outside the division, you’re going to be
wrong. … As soon as you underestimate your opponent in this league, in
today’s game, you have no chance.”
Updated: October 9, 2014 11:09PM
DALLAS — After an offseason arms race that saw the gap between the
Blackhawks and the Kings and the rest of the Western Conference get even
narrower, Lindy Ruff’s Dallas Stars see themselves as contenders. So do
the St. Louis Blues. And the Colorado Avalanche. And the Minnesota Wild.
And the Anaheim Ducks. And the San Jose Sharks. And…
“I looked through the schedule, and I couldn’t find any easy games,” Ruff
said Thursday morning.
The reporters surrounding him outside the Dallas Stars dressing room
laughed.
“No,” Ruff said. “I’m serious.”
The long road to the Stanley Cup Final begins on Thursday night with the
up-and-coming Stars hosting the establishment Hawks at American Airlines
Center. And while it’s foolish to take anything meaningful away from the
opener — it’s merely one game of 82, and the first one, at that — it serves
as a reminder of just how good the Central Division and Western
Conference appear to be, and just how difficult it will be just to get to April,
let alone June.
“Just looking at our division, it’s probably the toughest one I’ve seen in my
[nine] years in the NHL,” Hawks defenseman Johnny Oduya said.
The Stars had maybe the biggest offseason in the league, adding longtime
Ottawa Senators star Jason Spezza to give them a tremendous one-two
punch at center behind Tyler Seguin, as well as Ales Hemsky. The Blues,
meanwhile, signed star center Paul Stastny away from the Avalanche. The
Avs signed future Hall-of-Famer Jarome Iginla. The Wild added sniper
Thomas Vanek. The Ducks got better down the middle with Ryan Kesler.
Even the Predators added James Neal. Meanwhile, the two teams
everybody’s chasing and modeling themselves after — the Hawks and the
Kings — added Brad Richards and re-signed Marian Gaborik, respectively.
The disparity between the West and the East is as lopsided as it’s ever
been.
“It’s going to be more exciting for the fans,” Stars forward Antoine Roussel
said. “But it’s more pressure for us, for sure.”
Keep in mind, the Hawks finished in third place in the Central Division last
season, behind Colorado and St. Louis, and didn’t have home-ice
advantage in the first round. They’re once again a chic pick to win the
Stanley Cup and for good reason. But just getting a top-four spot in the
Central will be a challenge. There will be little margin for error, little time for
slumps.
“It’s going to be more fun,” Corey Crawford said.
In fact, five different Hawks used the word “fun” to describe the looming
Central Division gantlet. And that could be an unexpected benefit of a
loaded division in a loaded conference. In the first “regular” regular season
in three years — no lockout, no Olympic break — seemingly every game
will be a “big game,” even in the winter doldrums, when the excitement of
the start of the season has faded, and the playoffs are still months away.
When nearly every game is a potential four-point swing in the standings,
complacency shouldn’t be an issue.
“It’s exciting to know that we’re in the toughest division in hockey,” Patrick
Kane said, “and to know that every game’s going to mean something, and
every game’s going to be like a playoff game.”
The Hawks have gotten used to most opponents bringing their best efforts
against them over the last two seasons. They’re used to big games and big
stages sharpening them and toughening them up for the postseason. That’s
an advantage they have over the newcomers and the challengers to the
league’s elite.
But April’s a long way away. And the Hawks — and everybody else in the
West — have their work cut out for them.
752793
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks set for another exciting roller-coaster ride
what you look back to afterward. If you can come through it, you can come
out stronger.
“That’s a positive thing. I don’t think a bad thing always has to be a bad
thing.’’
So buckle up for the ride. It could be another wild one.
BY RICK MORRISSEY Staff Columnist October 8, 2014 10:30PM
They’ll tease you. They’ll play with your head. They’ll drive you to drink and
make you pay for the cab ride home.
They’ll look dominant at times and bored at others. They’ll rack up a large
number of regular-season points but not enough for your liking. Their
goaltender will make you fall in and out of love with him.
That’s what the Blackhawks have been known to put their fans through, and
though they say they’ll make a concerted effort to make the journey a little
smoother this season, I’d recommend shock absorbers. The craziness
starts again Thursday night in Dallas, as the Hawks begin their quest to do
what they should’ve done last season.
Once again, they have one of the most talented rosters, if not the most
talented roster, in the NHL. More than a few experts are picking them to win
the Stanley Cup. It would be nice if they played up to that level all the time,
but for some reason they don’t. Why do children get tired of their food and
start playing with it? Who knows? They just do.
The Hawks have the gift and curse of being able to turn it on when they
want to, a phenomenon we saw too many times in the 2014 playoffs. The
series against St. Louis and Minnesota were much closer than they should
have been. It’s not a stretch to say that mental and physical fatigue from
those two scraps played a role in their heartbreaking Game 7 exit against
the Kings in the Western Conference final.
Letting up at times might be part of their DNA, but it would be easier on
everyone, including coach Joel Quenneville, if they kept their collective foot
on the pedal more often.
That will be one of captain Jonathan Toews’ messages to the team right
from the beginning. Be hungry Thursday night and stay that way for an
entire season. Toews said Wednesday that there were times last season
when the Hawks lacked the mindset of the 2012-13 championship team,
which “could just hang on to one-goal leads and go out there and protect a
lead for an entire third period and just be calm and relaxed and keep
playing our game no matter what the score. Sometimes we might have
gotten away from that a little bit last year.
“.  .  . That’s one thing we can be better at. We’re going to be in a lot of tight
games, and let’s learn how to play better with leads and make sure we don’t
give teams chances and a feeling that they can come back.’’
Last season was a disappointment because the Hawks know that if they
had gotten past the Kings, they would have won the Cup. If they don’t win a
title again this season, it will be a huge letdown as well. With a nucleus of
Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Brandon
Saad, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford, the Hawks
have every reason to believe they can win their third title in six seasons.
The window isn’t closing on all that talent. The window is wide open, and
the opportunity to win it all is right there, just asking to be grabbed by such
a talented team. The Hawks aren’t looking for sustained excellence. They’re
looking for sustained championships. Anything less is some version of
failure.
Other franchises would sell their souls to fail like the Hawks did last season.
The Hawks aren’t other franchises.
This is a deep team, one that Toews says is “absolutely” better than last
year’s model. The Hawks hope the improvement will show up in shootouts
and in overtime games, two areas in which they were poor last season.
For all the emphasis on getting off to a quick start and keeping an edge all
season, there’s no doubt there will be ups and downs. That’s how the
Hawks roll. And it’s not all bad.
“It’s good for teams to go through maybe some slumps where you get
challenged a little bit more, things are not going your way,’’ defenseman
Johnny Oduya said. “That’s when you build character. A lot of times, that’s
752794
Chicago Blackhawks
Crawford shines in net as Hawks win opener
Mike Spellman
The Blackhawks knew they were heading into a hornet's nest Thursday
night in Dallas.
"There are definitely no easy games in the Central Division and if you think
there are any easier games outside the division you're going to be wrong,"
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters earlier in the day.
"Teams that think they can make a run at winning the Stanley Cup
obviously want to have a great start to the year," Jonathan Toews said.
"We need to be ready for it with that same mentality."
Yeah, that didn't happen -- for quite a while, that is.
The improved Stars had the Hawks on their heels from the get-go and
never let up over the first 40 minutes, and if not for the play of goalie Corey
Crawford, the Hawks would've been heading home losers in their season
opener.
But Crawford simply wasn't having any of that, stopping 32 of the 34 shots
he faced, a handful in jaw-dropping fashion, and the Hawks rallied late to
somehow sneak out of Dallas with a 3-2 shootout victory.
"We have to call the cops," Quenneville said. "We stole 2 points tonight.
"Crow was great."
Was he ever, particularly in the first two periods when the Stars outshot the
Hawks 24-11.
Crawford is now tied with Murray Bannerman for fifth-most wins in franchise
history with 116.
The Stars came out flying, outshooting the Hawks 8-1 just past the midway
point of the first period. For the entire period the Hawks could muster just 3
shots.
But somehow, some way Duncan Keith made the third one a charm when
he sent a puck on net from the top of the circle that beat Kari Lehtonen to
open the scoring with less than a minute remaining in the period.
The Hawks were outshot 16-8 in the second period and trailed 2-1 after
two, but over the final 20 minutes of regulation they found a way to pick up
the pace and it paid off.
Patrick Sharp's power-play goal midway through the third tied the game at
2-2 and a spectacular save by Crawford on a shorthanded break in the final
minutes ensured at least a point for the Hawks who a year ago were a
middling 17-8-15 in 1-goal games.
Patrick Kane scored in the shootout, and -- no surprise here -- Crawford
stopped all 3 attempts he faced to give the Hawks the big win.
"Q called it a goaltender win, and I think it was more evident today than
ever before," Kane told reporters. "He was awesome."
Daily Herald Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
752795
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks top Stars 3-2 in shootout in opener
Associated Press
Patrick Sharp scored the tying goal in the third period, Patrick Kane had the
only goal in the shootout and the Blackhawks beat the Dallas Stars 3-2
Thursday night.
The Stars had turned away several good scoring chances for the highscoring duo of Kane and Jonathan Toews before Sharp beat Kari Lehtonen
11:10 into the third.
Kane beat Lehtonen high on the glove side in the shootout. Corey Crawford
stopped Dallas tries from Tyler Seguin and newcomers Jason Spezza and
Ales Hemsky.
The Stars opened on the same ice where last season ended in a first-round
playoff series against Anaheim. Chicago lost Game 7 of the Western
Conference finals to the Los Angeles Kings.
752796
Chicago Blackhawks
Pieces all in place for Hawks practice facility near UC
The NHL hiring Chris Pronger to work for the league's Player Safety
Department.
No comparison:
Sure the Breeders' Cup was huge.
Mike Spellman
Follow @dhspellman
And some of those Million days were unreal.
But for pure buzz, nothing compared to the buzz Cigar brought with him that
summer day in 1996.
The incomparable one will be missed.
There's something missing around the United Center.
One for the thumb:
Let's see, you've got the arena itself and just adjacent to it a brand-new,
sparkly Bulls practice facility.
Wolves coach John Anderson has won four championships with the
franchise, so when he says this year's squad may be the most talented yet,
I say Rosemont should be rockin' this spring.
Meanwhile, a long 3-pointer from those new digs sits a lovely parking lot
(which I adore for its convenience), but which I'm thinking will eventually
become home to a brand-new, sparkly Blackhawks practice facility.
And what do I base this on?
Well, nothing, actually.
Picture that:
In retrospect, I was in a no-win situation when the higher-ups announced
they wanted me and fellow Hawks writer John Dietz to pose for a picture to
run in Thursday's paper.
Just a hunch.
I tried, believe me, even going as far as to ask young Dietz to wear
something that made him look fat and bald.
There have been rumors that the Hawks are ready to pull the trigger on a
new home, and when president  /  CEO John McDonough didn't flatly deny
interest in one earlier this week, well, this big head started a'spinning.
He didn't comply ... and thus the result.
And it thinks it's gonna happen.
Poor guy:
And it should.
You could really see how pumped Kris Versteeg was to get this season
going and put last year's struggles behind him.
All the pieces are in place:
My apologies.
Now that Mike Borzello has been named the Cubs new "catching and
strategy" coach.
The injured knee was all good. He was skating better.
Seriously, what kind of a combo is that?
Hey!
Then he suffers an injury on a fluke play this week at practice and may be
out three weeks ... or longer.
That was some Ryder Cup, huh?
Ugh.
Geesh.
And finally:
But gotta say I truly enjoyed the war of words that ensued between Phil
Mickelson and captain Tom Watson.
Give me a Royals-Giants matchup in the World Series.
Not sure:
Who's right or wrong, but if Phil has that much passion and thinks he knows
what it takes to turn around the U.S. team's miserable performances of late,
I say:
"Ladies and gentlemen, your next playing captain: Phil Mickelson."
Creepier? You decide:
The evil doll in that new movie or "Kevin," the ventriloquist dummy from
Progressive?
I'm going with Kevin.
Question:
What the heck is this town going to be like if the Bears drop their next two
games?
Teetering like Wallenda:
Brandon Marshall?
Hope not
Cannot. Believe It:
Jan Hooks dead at 57.
Beyond sad.
For my money, the funniest actress ever to grace the SNL stage. Just rewatched her in the 'Bette Davis video will' skit to confirm.
Yep, genius.
Real good move:
The guy simply had the confidence going again.
Please!!
752797
Chicago Blackhawks
Inking Toews, Kane to long-term deals ensured Hawks' long-term success
Mike Spellman
Follow @dhspellman
The man at the very top of the Blackhawks organization never had a doubt.
Should we go ahead and sign our two stars -- Jonathan Toews and Patrick
Kane -- to identical 8-year, $84 million contract extensions?
Absolutely.
"If you don't have the right guys, you wouldn't go that long," chairman
Rocky Wirtz said at the unveiling of the new Blackhawks retail store
Tuesday. "These kids are very classy. It hasn't gone to their heads. They're
not going to buy a bigger house. They're not going to buy a bigger car.
They're not going to buy 45 suits.
"Like today, you don't see Jonathan Toews come in with an entourage of 15
or 20 people -- he just comes in by himself. He parks his car like everyone
else. That's just the kind of person he is and the kind of person Patrick
Kane is.
Kane, on the other hand, had a few missteps early in his career. But in the
last couple of years, the always-likeable kid has simply blossomed into a
more mature, more complete player with the sky being his limit.
"It's been fun to see the evolution of this young man becoming a star and
being so comfortable with all that and handle it so well," McDonough said. "I
think in my career it's one of the most rewarding things I've seen.
"He's in a very good place right now in his career."
"He's going to be like Shaquille O'Neal if he keeps this up," Toews said of
his buddy's national exposure. "He's always had a knack for being front and
center, that's just who he is. Obviously an exciting player and just a good
person.
"As he said this summer, he's really matured at his own pace. It's good to
see him get that notoriety off the ice -- he's the type of guy who enjoys it
and does really well with it. It's good for our team and our sport as well."
But the beauty of Kane and Toews is that despite accomplishing what they
already have by their mid-20s (can you believe it?), they just keep on
pushing and pushing.
Kane arrived in camp in great shape minus a few pounds, and Toews, a
tireless worker, continues to search for ways to improve.
"People always want to point at stats and all that stuff. You know what? If
that comes and that improves, that's always a bonus," Toews said.
"They're not in this about themselves and we're lucky to have them with us."
"For me, I think there's always little things -- maybe it's not even as much on
the ice as it is on the bench and in the locker room that I want to focus on in
just the way I handle things.
Indeed.
"I've learned a lot in my years as captain. There's always room to improve."
The two stars, who began their Blackhawks careers together in 2007, have
already provided a bonanza for an organization that had been in free fall for
more than a decade. In their time together, the Hawks have made six
consecutive playoff appearances, reached the Western Conference finals
four times -- and most importantly, have hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup twice
already.
Speaking of improvement ...
"It's amazing." Toews said. "I don't think anyone would've predicted that,
but I think if you ask anyone in our organization, especially our leaders at
the top who make things go, they have big visions of where this team can
go -- getting to this point and where it can go from here as well."
That includes a front office headed by team president John McDonough,
who knew the lure of bigger money would have been out there for the
Hawks' dynamic duo if they so wanted, but who also realized that the allure
of remaining in Chicago and keeping the magic rolling would play a role for
two players who are all about winning.
"They could've waited this out and could've gone home if they wanted to -or to any number of other franchises," McDonough said. "But they know
what the upside is. We're almost at historic proportions here.
"I think they want to perpetuate that -- they want to keep that going. They
are forever going to be pillars of this franchise, symbols of success,
symbols of this generation.
"I think they made a very good decision."
And now that Kane and Toews are signed and sealed, there's no reason to
think they won't deliver again -- and maybe sooner rather than later. The
wise guys in Vegas sure think so, listing the Hawks as the favorites to win
the Cup again this season, which begins tonight in Dallas.
"We've been there before and what's said outside of our locker room -good or bad -- we just have to learn to not listen to it and just focus on
what's being said inside the room," Toews said. "It's good. There's always
going to be more pressure, more expectations. We'd want it to be that way."
Inking Toews to a long-term extension may have been the biggest nobrainer in sports history, given what the guy gives a team day in and day
out -- not just on the ice but in the locker room as well. The cat was simply
born to lead.
"I just think his play, his leadership speaks for itself," said Hawks coach Joel
Quenneville. "I think he's a premier captain and leader in the league. We
couldn't be more fortunate as a team and as an organization to have Jonny
as our captain and our leader.
"At a young age, it's pretty remarkable how he just carries himself the right
way. He's a perfect example of what you're looking for in a captain."
After coming within 1 goal of a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final last
season, Toews closed by providing fans an answer they're going to like
when asked if the Hawks are a better team than a year ago.
"Absolutely." Toews said.
752798
Chicago Blackhawks
Rozner: Youth will be served on Blackhawks' blueline
Barry Rozner
"Whether up front or on the back end or in the net, I don't really care how
old they are, but I do know we're gonna be in a position where these guys
are gonna have to play, whether it's this year or next year."
As for Leddy, he clearly lost the trust of his coach and confidence in himself
as he regressed last season, but there is no denying his spectacular skating
and puck-moving ability that few defensemen in the league possess.
Follow @BarryRozner
Whether he ever fully develops into a good player is still to be determined,
but in New York he'll need a patient assistant coach who is willing to teach
him what he doesn't already know.
It is a tricky business, this business of trying to win the Stanley Cup every
year.
"Nick's got a lot of room in his game to grow and I still expect him to be a
better defenseman than he was the last couple years," Quenneville said.
"More quality ice time will give him a chance to develop.
The Blackhawks are in that position because of an exceptional core of
players.
"He didn't get a great opportunity here. You have four in front of him who
get a lot of the important minutes. Nick didn't get a lot of that time.
What makes it complicated is that core is also very expensive and getting
more expensive all the time.
"Everybody was healthy the last couple years and he never got the chance.
I wish him well and hope he takes advantage of a better situation where he
gets a chance to play more quality minutes."
The trick is to work young players into the lineup whenever possible,
moving them slowly from the third and fourth lines toward the first and
second, and from the third and fourth sets of defense toward the first and
second.
It must be done every season or soon a team finds itself old and expensive
and with no room to maneuver against the salary cap, but it must also be
done without sacrificing the opportunity to win that season.
That's tough to do with inexperienced players, but the only way they get
experience is to play, ideally with increased minutes each season. The
more young players are added and effective, the more you can move out
older, more expensive players, remain under the cap and continue to
compete for the big prize.
Welcome to the Chicago Blackhawks' cap conundrum, and no one has a
more difficult task than head coach Joel Quenneville.
"We definitely want to win the Stanley Cup this year," Quenneville told us
on the "Boers and Bernstein" show on the Score on Tuesday. "We always
look at the next game and the next shift from a coaching perspective.
"But we do have moments where we have to face reality. We have to look
and we are aware of what's gonna happen down the road where some of
these kids have to get injected into our lineup.
"They're gonna have to play and they're gonna have to play meaningful
minutes as we go along."
With Nick Leddy and Sheldon Brookbank gone and Michal Rozsival getting
older and more fragile by the moment, the Hawks are adding new faces on
the back end.
After Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny
Oduya -- Rozsival is injured at the moment -- the Hawks are auditioning 23year-old Trevor van Riemsdyk, 23-year-old David Rundblad and 27-yearold Kyle Cumiskey to begin the season.
That doesn't even include -- in the AHL -- 23-year-old Klas Dahlbeck and
21-year-old Adam Clendening -- both of whom are NHL ready or close to it - and coming quickly is 22-year-old Stephen Johns, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound
beast from Notre Dame and the appropriately-named hometown of
Wampum, Pa.
"We have three young guys on the back end to start with, which is a big
number, and we'll see how it all evolves," Quenneville said. "There's
probably a couple guys in the minors who probably feel they're ahead of
these guys as well, so you could argue who's deserving or who's gonna be
better at the end of the road.
"But that's part of our development and part of the process where these
guys will tell us where they all fit. It's a healthy situation to be in."
That's potentially a lot of youth for a coach who's been criticized in the past
for preferring veterans with whom he's familiar over youngsters who might
just be more productive.
"I don't mind playing these guys," Quenneville said. "I think with play they're
gonna get better, and that's kind of the big picture.
"I think young guys on your team makes it a healthy environment. They
bring energy at critical times of the year when their enthusiasm is infectious.
That's a good thing.
Credit Quenneville and GM Stan Bowman for working together on this, for
understanding there are certain players the coach doesn't want to play, but
also getting the coach young players he needs to play.
They both know it has to happen and for a few lucky kids it's happening
now.
And not a moment too soon.
752799
Chicago Blackhawks
Crawford shines in Blackhawks' shootout winner over Stars
Tracey Myers
October 9, 2014, 10:30 pm
DALLAS – The Chicago Blackhawks entered the season opener with
altered third and fourth lines and defensive pairs because of injuries or
trades. Couple that with too many penalties and a shortened bench due to
them, and it can be quite the predicament.
It’s at times like that when you need a big performance from someone. On
opening night, the Blackhawks got that from their goaltender.
Corey Crawford stopped 32 of 34 shots and Patrick Kane notched the
shootout winner as the Blackhawks came from behind to beat the Dallas
Stars 3-2 on Thursday night. It was a big night for Crawford, who was busy
early and solid throughout, also denying the Stars any goal in the shootout.
“We have to call the cops: we stole two points tonight. Crow was great,”
coach Joel Quenneville said. “He played (well) in that first period, second
period better. We got going in the third but certainly call that a goalie
(victory). They were quick and they came at us. Finally we picked it up in
the third but it was tough to watch for 40.”
[WATCH: Duncan Keith gives Blackhawks 1-0 lead over Stars]
Duncan Keith had a goal and added an assist. Brent Seabrook blocked six
shots. Kane had an assist as well as that shootout winner, a pretty
backhander that bested Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen.
The first two periods weren’t pretty from the Blackhawks’ perspective. Give
some of that credit to the Stars. Dallas is an improved team and looking to
make a statement this season, both in the Central Division and the Western
Conference. The Stars were fast and they were relentless.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, were sloppy. They took six penalties,
including five in the first two periods. That led to Quenneville running three
lines and two defensive pairs through those first 40 minutes.
Amid the mess, Crawford stayed steady.
“No question he was the first star of the game,” said Patrick Sharp, who had
a power-play goal in the third. “If not for him we would’ve been in a lot of
trouble, especially early on. Even down the stretch, the last minute of the
third, shootout, whatever you want: take a clip from any part of that game
and he was the best player on the ice.”
Crawford was busiest through the first two periods, where he stopped 22 of
24 shots. Trevor Daley’s power-play goal and Cody Eakin’s shot eluded
him, but despite their better play the Stars had just a 2-1 lead after 40
minutes.
“I was just in there trying to do my job,” Crawford said. “It definitely was a
pretty slow start for us. We gained our timing as the game went on and
gained our confidence and that speed and puck possession game as we
went further into the game. You could see that. I’m sure the guys could see
that from the bench — I could see that from my net — that we started to get
it back and were creating more chances and better plays in the neutral zone
to get into their zone. It was way better in the third.”
The Blackhawks also stayed out of the box most of the third, allowing them
to get their system going more. Sharp scored his goal just seven seconds
into the power play before Kane won it in the shootout.
It wasn’t the ideal season opener for the Blackhawks. They did some
uncharacteristic things, especially with all those penalties. But it’s Game 1
and there are going to be some flaws. Fortunately for them, their goaltender
didn’t have many of them in this one.
“We had some chances on the power play, it capitalized. I think we have
some players who can find a way and pick it up and the end, but we don’t
want to rely on Crow like that all the time,” Keith said. “At the same time, it’s
a game we’ll try to build off of. First game.”
752800
Chicago Blackhawks
Five things to watch: Blackhawks open season against Stars
Tracey Myers
October 9, 2014, 3:15 pm
DALLAS – Be honest, you missed them. You’ve been thinking about them
since the season ended on June 1 and you’ve been pining to see them ever
since.
Well, you got your wish: Five Things are back.
Wait, did you think we were talking about the Blackhawks?
Well, welcome back to both of them, as the Blackhawks open their season
Thursday night against the Dallas Stars. The Blackhawks have been
champing at the bit for this moment. For players, training camp seemed to
drag on forever this fall. Now they’re back against a Stars team that is
looking to be a Central Division contender.
[MORE HAWKS: Trevor van Riemsdyk set to make NHL debut]
How will Game 1 go? You know the drill. Here are Five things to watch for
in tonight’s Blackhawks-Stars game.
1. Third- and fourth-line intrigue.
Whether you like Kris Versteeg or not, the ripple effect of his lower-body
injury, which will keep him out three weeks, has revamped the Blackhawks’
third and fourth lines. Ben Smith moves up to the third line with Bryan
Bickell and Brad Richards, and Daniel Carcillo jumps onto the fourth line
with Jeremy Morin and Marcus Kruger. This is where playing for coach Joel
Quenneville comes up crucial: he juggles things often, so everyone is used
to adjusting to different partners and combinations quickly. These two lines
will have to do that tonight.
2. Watch out for the Stars.
Dallas went through a few struggling seasons but they got back to the
playoffs last spring. As heartbreaking as that first-round loss was to the
Anaheim Ducks, the Stars took stock on their resurgent season. They want
more. They got more in the offseason in the hopes of achieving that, and
they’ll be using tonight’s game to find out where they start. The Blackhawks
have to be ready for a speedy, hungry Stars squad.
[MORE HAWKS: Konroyd's keys for the Blackhawks 2014-15 season
opener]
3. Second-line synchronicity.
Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw and Patrick Kane are back together as the
Blackhawks’ second line. It was a great combination last spring and looked
pretty good in the team’s final preseason game in New York, too. Why does
it work? Saad explains: “We have good chemistry off the ice and that leads
to on the ice. We’re all good friends and we seem to have fun together out
there. We tend to stay loose, play our game and our games fit well
together.” The Blackhawks want that all to work again.
4. Get that penalty kill working immediately.
Remember last year’s season opener? The Blackhawks’ kill, so fantastic
the season before, gave up goals on three of the six power plays the
Washington Capitals had that night. Yikes. Yes, the Capitals had a good
power play last season – No. 2 in the NHL – but the Blackhawks’ penalty kill
struggled for a while after that. They need their kill to be strong this season
from the start.
[MORE HAWKS: Five questions facing Blackhawks heading into opener]
5. Adjust fast on defense.
Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook will be a familiar defensive duo tonight
but, in the post Nick Leddy era, it’s a different look after that. Trevor van
Riemsdyk, making his NHL debut, will partner with Niklas Hjalmarsson.
David Rundblad, who played in just five games with the Blackhawks last
season, is with Johnny Oduya. The Stars are going to do their best to
exploit the changes, and the Blackhawks have to be ready for that.
Tags:
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, Blackhawks, hawks, chicago, nhl, Hockey,
Dallas Stars, Stars, Dallas, Central division, Central, Kris Versteeg, Ben
Smith, Bryan Bickell, Brad Richards, Daniel Carillo, Jeremy Morin, Marcus
Kruger, Joel Quenneville, Anaheim Ducks, Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw,
Patrick Kane, NEW YORK, Washington Capitals, Duncan Keith, Brent
Seabrook, Nick Leddy, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Niklas Hjalmarsson, David
Rundblad, Johnny Oduya
752801
Chicago Blackhawks
Dallas Stars looking to emulate Blackhawks success
Tracey Myers
October 9, 2014, 3:00 pm
DALLAS – Defenseman Trevor Daley has been here for the Dallas Stars’
ups and downs, the latter being a five-season playoff drought.
The Stars’ fortunes started looking up last spring, however, when they
made the postseason for the first time since 2007-08. Couple that with
some key summer acquisitions, and the Stars aren’t just looking to make
the playoffs this season. They’re looking to be a threat in the Central
Division.
The Blackhawks face a different Stars team on Thursday night, one that’s
entering 2014-15 full of optimism instead of big questions. It’s a team that
sees what the Blackhawks have done recently and wants to mold itself the
same way.
[MORE HAWKS: Trevor van Riemsdyk set to make NHL debut]
“You look at their lineup it’s up and down, very dangerous,” Patrick Kane
said. “A lot of skill (in the) first two lines and the last two lines are hardworking, tough to play against lines.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The Stars’ renaissance starts with general manager Jim Nill, who was with
the Detroit Red Wings for 19 years – 15 of which he was the assistant
general manager. The Wings won four Stanley Cups in his time there. Nill,
hired in April of 2013, brought in coach Lindy Ruff and acquired Tyler
Seguin later that summer. This past summer he brought in, among others,
Jason Spezza.
“I know when the deals happened, my phone was off the hook with group
text messages from all the boys,” Daley said. “We’ve been excited, not just
from our finish last year, how we finished – we were disappointed, but
seeing where we came (from) and what we did after – and to see our team
get better was even more exciting.”
Now to see how it all pans out. The tests started immediately with the
Blackhawks, who, despite not winning the Cup last season, have been
picked by several outlets to win it this season.
“They set the standard of teams today,” Daley said. “You look around the
league, they won two of the last (five) years. We get a chance to see where
we are at; it won’t be easy for us, and not for them.”
[MORE HAWKS: Konroyd's keys for the Blackhawks 2014-15 season
opener]
It won’t be easy after that, either. Thanks to realignment the Stars are in a
time friendly division but the Central is otherwise going to be formidable.
The Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues battled for the top spot last season
with the upstart Colorado Avalanche, who won the division. Couple that with
the Western Conference as a whole, and it just gets that much tougher.
“I looked through the schedule and I couldn’t find any easy games. No, I’m
serious,” Ruff said. “When you look at the West and you try to predict: San
Jose, LA, Anaheim, you go through it, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, it’s
tough. And I think Vancouver’s going to be better. That margin, I think,
between the top and the bottom has been squashed together and the
games on a nightly basis are all going to be tough.”
Tags:
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, Blackhawks, hawks, chicago, nhl, Hockey,
Dallas Stars, Stars, Dallas, Trevor Daley, Patrick Kane, Jim Nill, Detroit Red
Wings, Red Wings, DETROIT, Stanley Cup, Lindy Ruff, Tyler Seguin,
Jason Spezza, Central division, Central, St. Louis Blues, Blues, St. Louis,
Colorado Avalanche, avalanche, Colorado, WESTERN CONFERENCE,
San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks
752802
Chicago Blackhawks
Konroyd's keys for the Blackhawks 2014-15 season opener
Staff
October 9, 2014, 1:30 pm
Steve Konroyd
1.) Beware of a couple of dynamic duos for the Stars. Yes, everyone
remembers what a breakout year it was for Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn
last year for the Dallas Stars. They combined for 71 goals, which was the
fourth most in the league among NHL duos. What you might not be aware
of is that Jim Nill, GM of the Stars, picked up two highly-prized free agents
in the offseason. Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky will anchor a strong
second line that teams have to be aware of. They played together towards
the end of last year in Ottawa and showed great chemistry, and they will be
trying to impress their new team and the fans in Dallas with a solid first
game. The Blackhawks need to play the man and not the puck with these
four guys.
[RELATED - Tonight on CSN: Blackhawks collide with Stars in season
opener]
2.) Get to Lehtonen early. Kari Lehtonen is a world-class goalie who blocks
a lot of shots because of his size. At 6-foot-4, he is fairly athletic but known
more as a shot blocker. He will make the first stop but a lot of times, the
loose change will lay in front of him waiting for a rebound attempt. That’s
where the Blackhawks have really taken advantage of him during the last
two years. He has just one win in the last eight games he has played
against the Hawks. Go to the net hard and you will be rewarded.
3.) Penalty Kill has to be good right from the start. Although the Blackhawks
PK finished on a strong note in the regular season and playoffs, the start of
the season was a different story. These guys won’t forget that they allowed
four power play goals on just nine chances in the first week of the regular
season to start last year. It shakes your confidence as a penalty killer and
it’s hard to recover from. At one point in December, they ranked 26th in the
penalty kill and were getting scored on at an abysmal 27 percent rate. They
turned it around in mid-December and the rest of the season they allowed
only 13 percent of the power play chances against them end up in goals
against. No bad penalties and strong kills.
752803
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks: Trevor van Riemsdyk set to make NHL debut
Tracey Myers
October 9, 2014, 1:15 pm
DALLAS – Trevor van Riemsdyk smiled the entire time the media
interviewed him on Thursday morning.
It’s the expected reaction when you find out you’ll be making your NHL
debut, and the young defenseman was feeling the excitement and
butterflies that come with the call.
“A little nervous, I’m not going to lie,” said van Riemsdyk, still smiling. “But
I’ve just got to keep it simple like I’ve been doing. I’m sure once I get
bumped around once or twice out there I’ll get right back into it. It’ll be fun.”
van Riemsdyk will partner with Niklas Hjalmarsson and Corey Crawford will
start when the Blackhawks face the Dallas Stars in the season opener for
both teams. For van Riemsdyk, Thursday’s start is a result of all the hard
work he put into the Blackhawks training camp. A consistent player
throughout it, van Riemsdyk impressed Blackhawks brass and coach Joel
Quenneville, leapfrogging others expected to earn roster spots.
“It’s a very memorable and special day. You’ll always remember it, how it all
plays out. You always remember your first shift, where you played that first
game and hopefully you’ll have some good memories from it,” Quenneville
said. “We’re kind of aware, in that first period or so, you kind of watch to see
how they’re doing, see how they’re handling it. But he showed us pretty
good composure in the preseason games, so he should be all right tonight.”
Patrick Kane said van Riemsdyk’s approach has been good throughout
camp, and that he’ll be OK as long as he takes tonight’s game the same
way.
“He’s very poised with the puck, very patient,” Kane said. “When you play
the first game, when you play like that, good things are bound to happen.
I’m sure he’ll try to play it simple. One thing I like about him, any time you
call for the puck he gets it to you, so I love playing with defensemen like
that.”
[MORE HAWKS: Blackhawks collide with Stars in season opener]
Van Riemsdyk will try to keep that same approach. It’s worked so far.
Whether he stops smiling before the puck drops, we’re not sure.
“I mean, personally, I’m not one to get really too overly high or overly low. I
try to keep it even keel. I think that will kind of help me tonight,” van
Riemsdyk. “I know I’ll definitely be really excited. But I know from talking to
(my brother) James and the coaching staff and people with a lot of good
stuff to say to just play my game, don’t try to do too much out there and it’ll
be good.”
752804
Chicago Blackhawks
Kane puts shootout woes behind him, delivers winner for Hawks
By Scott Powers
DALLAS -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane took scoring just one
shootout goal last season personally.
He expects more out of himself. Kane has always considered his scoring
ability -- particularly when given a one-on-one opportunity with a goaltender
-- to be one of his greatest strengths. Converting just once on 11 shootout
chances wasn't acceptable, and the 25-year-old worked on perfecting
various scoring moves in the offseason.
Kane didn't have to wait long to test one of them. The Blackhawks reached
a shootout in their season-opening game against the Dallas Stars on
Thursday, and Kane was second in line to go up against Stars goaltender
Kari Lehtonen.
Kane picked up speed as he took possession of the puck at center ice and
continued with some pace until he reached the middle of the two circles. He
slowed down and began handling the puck from to left to right rapidly as he
drifted toward the net. Within a few feet of Lehtonen, Kane finally faked as
he was going to his left with his forehand, quickly moved the puck to his
right, lifted it with his backhand and shot it over Lehtonen's left shoulder and
into the top-right corner of the net.
Kane didn't go through an elaborate celebration, as he's known to do after
scoring a regular goal, but he said he was feeling good inside.
"Yeah, it's frustrating when you think you're good at something and you
can't seem to figure it out," Kane said. "It's nice to start off this year the right
way in that category.
"You work on a couple moves that you think will work and you try some
things in practice. It's nice to score the first one of the season, obviously. I
know I have as many as I did last year right now, so it'd be nice to keep
improving on that and be a factor in that and get us some more points when
needed."
Kane wasn't improvising, either, as he approached Lehtonen. He was set
on his strategy from start to finish.
"Yeah, I knew what I was doing the whole way down today," Kane said. "I
had kind of a gut feeling, whether it was watching video before the game or
trying some things in practice, I just kind of put a move in the back of my
head and stuck to it the whole way.
"I know the backhand was good for a while, then I was working on that
slowdown move that seemed to be pretty effective for a little while. You've
just got to switch it up. Try to come down with a couple moves. You look at
Tazer [Jonathan Toews]. He comes down every time and has a different
move and ends up scoring a lot. Try to put some different things in your
arsenal."
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville liked the look of Kane's move
Thursday. He was also happy to pull out two points in the shootout.
"Yeah, beautiful play," Quenneville said. "Beautiful play. … I think that was
definitely a sore spot for us last year. We didn't pick up an extra five or six
points in that area over the course of 82 games. Puts you in a decent spot."
ESPNChicago.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
752805
Chicago Blackhawks
Crawford saves the day for the Hawks
By Scott Powers
DALLAS -- Chicago Blackhawks hockey has looked a certain way in recent
seasons.
It’s been about puck possession, getting the puck out of their defensive
zone -- through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone in rapid fashion
-- limiting opponents' scoring chances and rolling four lines.
The hockey the Blackhawks were playing through 40 minutes of their
season opener Thursday against the Dallas Stars resembled something
much different.
"Certainly, it was tough to watch for 40," Blackhawks coach Joel
Quenneville admitted afterward.
The Stars had a lot to do with that. They were fast and aggressive and had
the Blackhawks struggling to connect on the simplest of passes out of their
defensive zone. Penalties also factored, with the Blackhawks compiling six
through the first two periods and fighting off power plays for nearly 10
minutes. They were taken completely out of their usual game.
Add all those ingredients together and the Stars could have made a
significant statement and trounced the Blackhawks to start the season. The
Stars had the quantity -- 54 total shots, including 24 on net -- and quality to
put the Blackhawks away.
Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford wouldn't allow that to happen.
While his teammates were searching for any sort of rhythm on Day 1,
Crawford quickly found his groove. He denied chance after chance,
including a couple at point-blank range, and kept the Blackhawks in the
game. He ended up with 32 saves, including 14 in the second period, and
stopped all three of the Stars' shootout chances to carry the Blackhawks to
a 3-2 victory.
Quenneville thought someone should call 911 on his team.
"We have to call the cops; we stole two points tonight," Quenneville said.
"Crow was great -- that first period, the second period even better. You
know we got going in the third. Certainly, call that a goalie win. I thought
they were quick and they came at us."
Crawford's teammates understood what he did for them.
"I think no question he was the first star of the game," said Blackhawks
forward Patrick Sharp, who had a goal and an assist. "If it wasn't for him,
we would have been in a lot of trouble, especially early on. Even down the
stretch, the last minute of third period, shootout, you want to take a clip from
any part of that game, and he was the best player on the ice."
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane used his own share of adjectives to
describe Crawford's performance.
"I know Q [Quenneville] calls it a goaltender win, and I think that was more
evident today than ever before," Kane said. "He was awesome. He made
some unbelievable saves. Couple breakdowns by us that we can probably
clean up a little bit, and even in the last minute he had a big save when we
were on the power play. So we'll call that one, in Q's words, a goaltender
win."
Crawford shrugged off the praise. It was all in a day's work from his
perspective.
"I don't know about bailout," Crawford said. "Just in there trying to do my
job. It definitely was a pretty slow start for us. We gained our timing as the
game went on and gained our confidence and that speed and puckpossession game as we went further into the game. You could see that.
"I felt good. I was seeing the puck well, reading the plays, staying pretty
patient for the most part. That was pretty solid overall, I think."
752806
Chicago Blackhawks
Rapid Reaction: Blackhawks 3, Stars 2 (SO)
By Scott Powers
DALLAS -- Here’s a quick look at the Chicago Blackhawks' 3-2 shootout
victory over the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on Thursday:
How it happened: The Blackhawks pulled out the season-opening game by
winning in a shootout. The Stars controlled possession for much of the
game, but didn’t have the goals to show for it. Duncan Keith first put
Chicago ahead with a late first-period goal. Dallas answered with two
second-period tallies. Trevor Daley scored a power-play goal at 10 minutes,
13 seconds of the frame and Cody Eakin added a second goal at 15:04.
The Blackhawks fought back and tied the game when Patrick Sharp netted
a power-play goal from the top of the right circle at 11:10 of the third period.
Things remained that way through the rest of the third and overtime. The
Stars outshot the Blackhawks 34-26 on goal. Stars goaltender Kari
Lehtonen made 24 saves; Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford had 32.
Chicago forward Patrick Kane scored the lone shootout goal.
What it means: The Blackhawks looked out of sorts for the first 2½ periods
Thursday and must feel fortunate to pull out the two points. The Stars could
have run away with that game if it hadn't been for Crawford’s play. It didn’t
help the Blackhawks that coach Joel Quenneville already shied away from
playing the fourth line, particularly Daniel Carcillo, and defenseman David
Rundblad. The Blackhawks might have to look into placing Kris Versteeg on
long-term injury reserve if Quenneville can’t trust Carcillo. It’s the only way
the Blackhawks can afford to bring someone up from the AHL.
Player of the game: Crawford stole the game for the Blackhawks. He had
32 saves and denied all three of the Stars’ shootout opportunities.
Stat of the game: The Stars blocked nine of Keith’s shots and combined for
26 blocks in all.
What’s next: The Blackhawks host the Buffalo Sabres at the United Center
in Saturday's home opener. Four of the Blackhawks’ first five games are at
home.
752807
Chicago Blackhawks
Trevor van Riemsdyk joins brother in NHL
"He hasn't been calling every day [with updates]," Frans said. "We're
certainly trying to give him a lot of room. I can't imagine the pressure the
kids are under and they don't need their parents breathing down their necks
every moment."
Frans is confident Trevor won't be too overwhelmed playing his first NHL
game. It's just not in Trevor's personality.
By Scott Powers
DALLAS -- Frans van Riemsdyk never set out to have two sons in the NHL.
It just happened.
van Riemsdyk
Trevor van Riemsdyk will join his brother James in the NHL when he debuts
Thursday night in Dallas.
Trevor van Riemsdyk, 23, will become the second son of Frans and Allison
van Riemsdyk to play in the NHL when he makes his debut for the Chicago
Blackhawks on Thursday. Their eldest son, James van Riemsdyk, 25, plays
for the Toronto Maple Leafs and has been in the NHL since 2009.
"It's sort of extraordinary at least from our perspective," Frans said in a
phone interview on Thursday. "That was never part of a sort of plan. It
happened. It's sort of a dream come true. We're a hockey family. We all
love hockey. It's just a wonderful thing to be passionate about. To see it get
to this level is extraordinary. We feel very honored and privileged that we're
even in this situation with the potential to have two sons who can make nice
careers in the NHL."
James, a forward, and Trevor, a defenseman, grew up in New Jersey,
played for Christian Brothers Academy and went on to play for the
University of New Hampshire.
James' ticket to the NHL came when he was selected No. 2 overall in the
2007 draft. Trevor didn't develop as quickly and was never drafted. His NHL
opportunity came when he signed with the Blackhawks in March after his
junior season at New Hampshire. He also had other NHL teams after him.
The Blackhawks were excited about adding Trevor to their defenseman
fold, but no one ever thought he would be in the mix for an NHL spot this
early in his career. He played well for the Blackhawks' rookie team in
London, Ontario, in September, and Rockford IceHogs coach Ted Dent let
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville know Trevor stood out during the
tournament.
As each day of training camp passed, Quenneville liked more and more
what he saw out of Trevor. Other highly-touted defenseman prospects were
sent down to the AHL and Trevor continued to stick around. Finally,
Quenneville saw enough to place Trevor on the team's season-opening
roster and start him alongside Niklas Hjalmarsson against the Dallas Stars
on Thursday.
"It's a good surprise," Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said
earlier this week. "We were hoping Trevor would fit into our plans at some
point. We didn't put a timetable on it. He's come in and played very well. But
hat's off to him. He's a great story. He didn't probably get as much attention
as some of the other guys who've been here, so that's a great story for
Trevor."
Trevor was still in awe of his situation after participating in the team's
morning skate at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
"Yeah, I don't think it's really fully hit me yet [that] this is it and that I'm going
to be playing in a game here," Trevor said. "It's crazy to think where I was
just a little bit ago. I'm just going to try to make the most of it.
"Definitely excited to get it started tonight. A little nervous, I'm not going to
lie. But just got to keep it simple like I've been doing. I'm sure once I get
bumped around once or twice out there I'll get right back into it. It'll be fun."
James and Trevor have exchanged a number of texts over the past few
weeks. Trevor often looks to his older brother for guidance. Frans said he's
been careful not to put pressure on Trevor since camp started.
James VanRiemsdyk
Older brother James van Riemsdyk was drafted
No. 2 overall in 2007 by the Philadelphia Flyers and now plays with the
Maple Leafs.
"He's a very calm person, which I think reflects in his play," Frans said.
"He's very poised, very calm. He sort of goes about his business. He's
always been that way. He doesn't get too high or too low. He's very even
tempered. He's a bit on the shy side from that. When it comes to competing,
you see his drive come to the surface."
Frans attended James' season-opening game in Toronto on Wednesday,
but he couldn't make it to Dallas for Trevor's first game on Thursday. He
plans to make the trip to Chicago for the Blackhawks' home opener on
Saturday if Trevor is in the lineup.
"We're incredibly proud of what he's accomplished so far," Frans said.
"Obviously it's a great treat to have two sons playing for Original Six
franchises. It's a huge thrill."
By the way, there is one more Van Riemsdyk son.
"We have a younger son who finished up in high school, playing junior
hockey, trying to follow his own route, his path," Frans said. "He's
committed to New Hampshire. We'll see what the future holds."
752808
Chicago Blackhawks
W2W4: Blackhawks at Stars
By Scott Powers
DALLAS -- The Chicago Blackhawks open the 2014-15 season on
Thursday. Here's what to watch for when they face the Dallas Stars at the
American Airlines Center:
• The Central will likely be the NHL's toughest division again. The
Blackhawks ended up in the Western Conference finals last season, but
finished third in the Central and went just 13-13-3 against division
opponents. The Blackhawks went 4-1-0 against the Stars and 3-0-0 at the
American Airlines Center last season. Patrick Sharp led the Blackhawks
with 10 points, including six goals and four assists, against the Stars last
season.
• Brad Richards makes his regular-season debut for the Blackhawks. He
will center the third line with Bryan Bickell and Ben Smith as his wings. The
Blackhawks' other lines are Patrick Sharp-Jonathan Toews-Marian Hossa,
Brandon Saad-Andrew Shaw-Patrick Kane, Daniel Carcillo-Marcus KrugerJeremy Morin.
• Blackhawks rookie defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk will play in first NHL
game. He played at the University of New Hampshire last season. He will
be paired with Niklas Hjamarsson. The Blackhawks' others defenseman
pairings are Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook and Johnny Oduya-David
Rundblad.
• The Blackhawks will be without forward Kris Versteeg and defenseman
Michal Rozsival. Versteeg is expected to miss about three weeks with a
lower-body injury. Quenneville said Thursday there hadn't been any further
discussion about placing Versteeg on the long-term injured reserve and
recalling another forward. The Blackhawks have 12 healthy forwards on
their roster. Quenneville said Rozsival skated again on Thursday. He's been
out the past week with an upper-body injury.
• The Stars' major addition in the offseason was forward Jason Spezza. He
was excited to get going and open the season against the Blackhawks.
"Well, it's a great test and it can give you great momentum," Spezza said
after the morning skate. "It's going to kind of put you up against one of the
top teams in the league. It's a good measuring stick for you right off the bat
for sure."
• The Blackhawks' last lost a season-opening game in 2011, falling 2-1 to
the Stars 2-1 on the road to begin the 2011-12 season. The Blackhawks are
37-31-1-2 all-time in season-opening games.
752809
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks season preview: 5 questions
By Scott Powers
1. Are the Chicago Blackhawks better built to win the Stanley Cup this
season?
The Blackhawks were a favorable bounce away from reaching the Stanley
Cup finals again last season, so it’s difficult to say last year’s team was
poorly constructed. But it did have flaws. Michal Handzus couldn’t duplicate
his 2013 playoff performances and held the Blackhawks back as their
second-line center. The acquisition of Kris Versteeg never gave the
Blackhawks the boost they hoped for because his knee just wasn’t strong
enough to get him around the ice quick enough. Brandon Bollig and the
fourth line became a liability when Marcus Kruger and Ben Smith were
taken off the line. Nick Leddy and Michal Rozsival also had their share of
mistakes at the back end. Chicago also lacked the center depth to match up
with the Los Angeles Kings.
Brad Richards may not be the swiftest on the ice, but his vision and powerplay experience are assets for the Blackhawks.
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman addressed most of those
issues in the offseason. Handzus is gone and Brad Richards is in. The
Blackhawks feel more confident with Jonathan Toews, Andrew Shaw,
Richards and Kruger down the middle. Teuvo Teravainen could also be in
the mix at center at some point this season. Jeremy Morin was re-signed
and actually will be provided a consistent opportunity to play. Bollig was
traded. Signing Daniel Carcillo was unexpected, but Blackhawks coach Joel
Quenneville has said he likes a fourth line of Smith, Kruger and Morin.
Versteeg looked faster in the preseason, but his recent injury, which will
likely keep him out three weeks, is another bump in the road for him. If
healthy, the Blackhawks have four lines capable of giving them more depth
than they had a season ago. Defensively, they’re rolling the dice with some
inexperience but still have four reliable defensemen. Corey Crawford still is
good enough in net to win a Stanley Cup.
The Blackhawks are favored by many to win the Stanley Cup, but they
certainly aren’t a sure thing. They are better on paper in some areas
compared with last season, but the defense has to be a concern to start the
season. Versteeg’s injury already has set the team back. With him healthy,
the Blackhawks have four strong lines. Without him, the Blackhawks aren’t
as deep. The Central Division is going to be a gauntlet. There certainly will
be many challengers and a favorable bounce may be required somewhere
down the line, but the Blackhawks do have the pieces to win another
Stanley Cup.
2. What does Brad Richards’ addition mean to the Blackhawks?
Richards is undoubtedly an upgrade over Handzus. Richards isn’t a speed
demon, but he can get up in the play, has vision and can create for himself
and others. His power-play experience should also come in handy. The first
question about him is where he fits in now. He was aligned to center
Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane through five preseason games, but
Quenneville caught another glimpse of Saad, Shaw and Kane together and
everything changed. Richards was moved to center the third line. The
second question is how Richards will hold up over the entire season. His
play varied for the New York Rangers throughout last year's regular season
and playoff run. Richards is out to prove he still has plenty left in the tank
and is hungry for a Stanley Cup, so the motivation is in place.
3. How good does Corey Crawford need to be in net for the Blackhawks to
win?
There have been two Corey Crawfords in recent seasons. There has been
the one who is average during the regular season. He has some good
games and some bad games, and he ends up somewhere in the middle of
the pack among the league’s goaltenders. Then there’s the Crawford who is
lights-out in the playoffs. The Blackhawks could have been eliminated by
the St. Louis Blues in the first round last season if it wasn’t for Crawford.
The Blackhawks are hopeful Crawford is more of the latter than the former
this season. He doesn’t have to match Tuukka Rask’s numbers, but he has
to give Chicago a consistent chance to win the game whenever he steps
into the net.
4. Can Brandon Saad take the next step?
The Blackhawks saw glimpses of Saad’s potential during his first two
seasons, but they hadn’t witnessed anything like his play against the Kings
in the Western Conference finals. He was dominant. His skating, strength,
work ethic, offensive skill set and patience were all at another level. And it
was apparent that he and Kane were creating something special out there.
Saad must now prove he can repeat that more often than not. While he has
established himself as a top-six forward, he still has shown signs of being a
young player, especially from a consistency standpoint. Aside from it being
his third year in the NHL and him being a year older, Saad should benefit
being alongside Kane again. The sample size is large enough now to see
Saad and Kane produce when they’re together. On another note, the
Blackhawks were at their best last season when Quenneville had Toews,
Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa together.
5. How much does Nick Leddy’s departure affect the Blackhawks?
The Blackhawks had to trade someone to get under the salary cap. That
was the reality of their situation. But by making Leddy the one to go, the
Blackhawks are taking a risk with some unproven defensemen. You know
what you have in Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Johnny Oduya and Niklas
Hjalmarsson. You don’t exactly know what Kyle Cumiskey, David Rundblad
and Trevor van Riemsdyk will provide. Even to an extent, it’s difficult to
gauge what Rozsival still can give the Blackhawks. Chicago may be just
fine without Leddy and may find the right combination of defensemen to
make things work. But there will be a trial period before the Blackhawks can
be confident in all six of their defensemen. If the Blackhawks can figure out
their fifth and sixth defensemen, their chances of winning another Stanley
Cup improve.
752810
Chicago Blackhawks
Hawks looking to put together full season
By Scott Powers
CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks nearly reached the Stanley Cup
finals again, but they didn't have the regular season they wanted last
season.
They set out to disperse any notion of a Stanley Cup hangover early in the
season and achieved that with a strong start. They were actually pretty
good throughout the first half of the season, going 27-7-7 after 41 games.
Chicago Blackhawks
Jonathan Toews says the Hawks have to try to regain the pace they had
during the lockout season.
But the second half of the season was a different tale. They went 8-4-7 from
New Year's to the Olympic break and then 11-10-1 from the break to the
start of the playoffs, finishing third in the Central Division and fifth overall in
the Western Conference. They weren't exactly coasting in the playoffs.
The Blackhawks aim for improvement this season. Winning another Stanley
Cup is again their ultimate goal, but they want their path there to be smooth
throughout the season.
"It does matter, the regular season, I think," Blackhawks forward Bryan
Bickell said. "To get in the playoffs is our first goal and maybe win our
division. Our division is so tough nowadays. We had 107 points and
finished third in our division, so it's going to come down to the start and the
whole regular season. It's important to us.
"It's better to have more later rather than early. It's not always how you
start, it's how you finish. I believe in that. Hopefully we can have a good
start and finish the same way."
Captain Jonathan Toews believes the Hawks need to have a sense of
urgency beginning with the season opener on Thursday against the Dallas
Stars.
"It always seems to be a race from the All-Star break to the end of the
regular season," Toews said. "Whereas it might feel like that race is going
to start right off the hop this year. We'll be ready for that. It's just getting one
inch at a time and we're going to have to work for every single game. We're
almost going to be looking for that pace we had day in and day out
throughout the lockout year."
One major reason for that rapid pace is how good the Central has become
in recent years. The Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues finished
ahead of the Blackhawks last season, and the Minnesota Wild and Dallas
Stars weren't too far behind. The Blackhawks went 13-13-3 in the Central
last season.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville belives that challenge will only be
tougher this season.
"I believe it's stronger," Quenneville said. "St. Louis is better, Dallas,
Colorado's young. For sure, it's going to be better. Conference probably
feels it's better as well. Points are going to be hard this year, and making
the playoffs will be a big accomplishment, so let's get off to a good start."
The Blackhawks especially struggled last season to pick up points in onegoal games. Their .425 winning percentage in one-goal games ranked them
27th in the league. They went 17-8-15 in those games. During the 20122013 regular season, they were second best in the league with a .704
winning percentage in one-goal games and went 19-3-5.
Toews is aware the Blackhawks weren't as good at finishing off close
games last season.
"It's something we'll definitely have to reaffirm over and over in our locker
room throughout the year. I think there were situations in the playoffs or
even regular season when we didn't quite seem to have that, I don't know if
you want to call it a veteran mindset in the locker room that we had the
previous year where we could just hang on to one-goal leads and go out
there and protect a lead for an entire third period and just be calm and
relaxed and keep playing our game no matter what the score was.
"... We might have gotten away from it a little bit last year, but I think it's a
thing we can reinforce that that's one thing we can be better at. We're going
to be in a lot of tight games, let's learn how to play better with leads and
make sure we don't give teams chances (or) at least a feeling they can
come back in some of those games. It's up to us to really keep that pace
high for 60 minutes."
752811
Colorado Avalanche
No fight, no shot in opener for Avs
"We didn't engage. We avoided every battle," said Roy, whose heavy sighs
after the loss communicated his disgust even more sharply than his critical
words. "I was surprised to see how easy it was to play against us."
By Mark Kiszla
The Avs get another shot at Minnesota on Saturday, during their home
opener at the Pepsi Center. Free advice to Cooke: Keep your head on a
swivel. The first shot of the game might be a fist directed at a lowdown, dirty
Wild man certain to be greeted in Denver by a chorus of boos.
The Denver Post
Denver Post: LOADED: 10.10.2014
Posted: 10/09/2014 11:30:02 PM MDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 11:30:14 PM MDT
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hockey never forgives or forgets a sin. So sooner or
later, the bad blood that began when Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie
painfully limped off the ice in April after a cheap shot by Minnesota forward
Matt Cooke will come back to bloody a victim wearing a Wild uniform.
"One day," Patrick Roy told me Thursday, "it might be the opposite. One of
our players will hurt one of their guys. And I'm sure everybody is going to be
very happy to remind (Minnesota) what happened to Tyson Barrie."
During an embarrassing, puzzling and alarming 5-0 loss to Minnesota on
Thursday night, maybe somebody on the Colorado bench should have
hopped over the boards and thrown a punch at Cooke, just so the Avs
could get off one good shot in the game.
Here is what was so disturbing: Against the team that rudely bounced
Colorado from the playoffs last spring, the Avalanche did not put up a fight.
Before the puck drops before every game in the Xcel Energy Center, the
good people of Minnesota shout "Let's play hockey!" so loudly it was
confounding how the Avs were disturbingly somnambulant instead of
skaters with jump.
Oh, bad feelings linger in the Colorado dressing room for the Wild and
Cooke in particular. But, strangely, it seemed as if the Avs actively tried to
cool their animosity for Minnesota.
"It's like a volcano. It goes dormant," explained Colorado defenseman Erik
Johnson. "But it might wake back up again. It was a hard-fought series, and
there's a good rivalry brewing between Colorado and Minnesota. There's no
love lost between these two teams."
At 11:25 a.m. on the opening day of the NHL regular season for Colorado,
the first player to step on the ice for the morning skate was Barrie, in the
same arena where Cooke wrecked Barrie's knee and turned the momentum
of a playoff series with a dirty hit 171 days earlier. The ugly, knee-on-knee
shot by Cooke resulted in a seven-game suspension for the Wild player
with a history of creating mayhem first, then apologizing later.
"It was definitely awful. Mentally, it was the toughest thing I've ever had to
deal with in hockey. When it happened, I realized it wasn't going to be the
last time I saw the playoffs. It was frustrating. But it is what it is," Barrie said
after the team's morning workout. "This is the place where my season
ended. I like jumping right back in the fire. And if we can beat Minnesota
right off the hop, we can put last year behind us, both the playoff loss and
what happened to me personally."
The Avs, however, came out shockingly flat against Minnesota. Barrie
competed with fire. His Colorado teammates? Not so much.
Despite being given two power-play opportunities early in the first period,
Colorado had difficulty generating a shot, let alone a strong scoring chance.
The lack of puck possession, cited frequently by the gurus of hockey
analytics as a primary reason to fear the Avalanche is headed for a big fall
down the standings in the Western Conference, was a glaring problem.
Poor offensive production that plagued the Avs throughout the preseason
has obviously not been remedied, forcing Roy to tinker with his scoring lines
on the fly against Minnesota, as he worked Matt Duchene and Ryan
O'Reilly together in the hope of recreating some old magic.
While one game is too small a sample size to draw sure-fire conclusions,
Jarome Iginla — the highly decorated, 37-year-old winger signed as free
agent during the offseason — looked, quite frankly, like an old and slow
legend. Goalie Semyon Varlamov often saved Colorado's bacon last
season. Against the Wild, he was shelled so unmercifully that Roy
mercifully pulled Varly after two periods, after he allowed five scores on 38
shots.
752812
Colorado Avalanche
A year after routing Anaheim, Avalanche gets worked at Minnesota
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Remember opening night a year ago? The Avalanche
demolished Anaheim 6-1 at the Pepsi Center.
The Ducks were a pretty good team, finishing first in the Western
Conference and advancing to the semifinals of the conference playoffs.
I remember thinking about the 2013-14 opener in the third period Thursday
in Colorado’s dismal 5-0 opening-night loss at Minnesota, and Avs
defenseman Nate Guenin brought it up in a postgame interview.
Minnesota has defeated Colorado in five of the last six games, after the Avs
went 4-0-1 against the Wild in the 2013-14 regular season and won the first
two games of the playoffs series. The tide has undoubtedly turned.
Avs captain Gabe Landeksog did not like the term “struggle” when I asked if
losing five of the last six to Minnesota is especially dissappointing:
“It was a seven-game series that we lost last time, so I don’t know it was a
struggle,” Landy said. “It was one goal away in overtime (in Game 7), but
certainly they played well tonight and deserve to win this. We have one
more to go (Saturday) so we’re not going to hang our heads or feel sorry for
ourselves. We’re going to move on and get ready for Saturday.”
Look for a Mark Kiszla column posting soon, and an enhanced game story
from the link above. Heading home. Follow Nick Groke (@NickGroke) for
Friday practice updates. Saturday’s rematch against the Wild at the Pepsi
Center, 7 p.m.
752813
Colorado Avalanche
Catching Aqib Talib's "foul football" at a Broncos game
By Benjamin Hochman
The Denver Post
Posted: 10/09/2014 05:49:38 PM MDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 08:15:02 PM MDT
Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib poses at Govnr s Park Tavern with Broncos
fan Bill Randall, who caught the ball Talib threw into the stands during the
Sept.
According to a recent study, the odds of a spectator catching a foul ball are
precisely one in a gazillion.
Then there are those fans who forever say they caught a foul ball, and then
we come to find out that they actually "retrieved" a foul ball. It ricocheted off
a big fella's belly, bounced down six rows, finally sputtering out on the
ground next to your seat, where you reached down and picked up the
baseball, an accomplishment mirroring the thrill and danger of scratching
your leg.
Now consider than one Denverite this Broncos season caught the
equivalent to a "foul football," heaved high into the stands by a player after
a play. Not retrieved, but actually caught.
"I've gone to Broncos game for 11 years, I've never even seen a ball thrown
in the stands," said Bill Randall, who has hands like Bill Russell.
In the Broncos' second game of the season, Denver led Kansas City 24-17,
with 3:08 left. You might recall it was third-and-5, and the Chiefs had the
ball on their 39. Alex Smith fired a dart, which was snatched by Denver
cornerback Aqib Talib, who easily and blissfully zipped all the way to the
end zone.
"I thought it was over," said Talib of his touchdown, giving Denver a 14point lead.
And so, he chucked the thing up into the north stands, trying to reach his
family and friends in a luxury suite. Instead, the ball sailed into a cluster of
orange and blue, snatched by Randall, 51, who stands 6-foot-3 like
Demaryius Thomas (but probably runs like Philip Michael Thomas).
But amid his fellow flabbergast fans, Randall spotted the flag.
Offsides.
Yep, the Broncos' Quanterus Smith had jolted offsides, nullifying the
interception and giving the Chiefs a fresh set of downs with a fresh new
football.
Up in the north stands, Randall posed for pictures, while the Chiefs drove
toward the south stands. Ultimately, Terrance "Pot Roast" Knighton batted
down Smith's fourth-down pass attempt in the red zone, preserving a
victory.
So this week, I co-hosted a radio show with 102.3 ESPN's Nate Kreckman
at Govnr's Park Tavern. We interviewed Talib on-site, and during the
commercial break, fans brought jerseys and hats for the cornerback to sign.
A tall gent approached him and said, "This is the ball you threw in the
stands."
It was the rarest of reunions, or actually, the rarest of meetings. Plucked out
of a gathering of 76,900 fans, Randall plucked the pass out of mid-air, and
now here he was, meeting Talib. The two posed for a photo and, of course,
Randall had Talib autograph the football.
"Now, the only way to complete it is," Kreckman deadpanned, "you've got to
get Quanterus Smith to sign it."
752814
Colorado Avalanche
Avs out of sync in 5-0 loss to Minnesota Wild to open the season
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
Posted: 10/09/2014 09:47:14 PM MDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 10:35:17 PM MDT
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Opening night in Minnesota had a similar feel as
Games 3 and 4 of Colorado's playoff series in April against the Wild. The
Avs looked out of sync in those playoff games, and even worse Thursday
night at the Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild had all the energy, and the Avs had virtually no sync.
In what was billed as an improved Avs team with new additions Jarome
Iginla, Brad Stuart and Daniel Briere adding leadership to a young and
talented corps, Colorado looked like a rudderless ship in a 5-0 loss before a
sellout crowd at the "X."
"We didn't compete," Avs coach Patrick Roy said. "Competing was the word
that was missing from our game. We didn't engage. We avoided every
battle. They were faster on every puck than we were. I was also surprised
to see the lack of execution. A lot of passes in the skates and stuff like that.
It's hard to be positive today, the way we played.
"They were sharp tonight. That team is a good team. I'm going to give them
credit for their performance."
Minnesota produced 38 shots and led 5-0 after the second period, limiting
the Avs to just 13 shots. The Wild finished the game with a team-record 4816 advantage in shots. It was over long before the Avs skated off and
packed their bags for Saturday's rematch against the Wild at the Pepsi
Center.
Minnesota led 1-0 after the first period Thursday and the Wild's four-goal
second-period barrage came after a big Avalanche push to start the frame.
But the visitors couldn't get a puck past goalie Darcy Kuemper and Jared
Spurgeon's goal made it 2-0 and got the Colorado meltdown going.
Spurgeon, a defenseman, pinched in from the right point with a puck battle
against the left boards. The Wild took possession and Zach Parise
delivered a diagonal pass that Spurgeon one-timed past Varlamov. Avs left
wing Alex Tanguay was caught high in the zone, and Spurgeon made him
pay.
Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Cooke, left and Colorado Avalanche
defenseman Tyson Barrie tangle up on the far boards in the first period of
the
Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Cooke, left and Colorado Avalanche
defenseman Tyson Barrie tangle up on the far boards in the first period of
the Wild's opener at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Oct. 9, 2014. (John
Autey, Pioneer Press)
Parise made it 3-0 to epitomize the discrepancy between the teams. He got
two rebounds off his own shot and put a backhand past Varlamov at 7:01 of
the second. The next score also highlighted Colorado's unsightly play in
front of Varlamov.
Avs defenseman Nate Guenin didn't get enough on a backhanded reverse
to partner Brad Stuart behind the net, and after Briere and Varlamov
appeared to check each other off the loose puck near the left post, Nino
Niederreiter crashed the net and got enough stick on the puck to guide it
over Varlamov's shoulder.
It was a lucky shot but the Avs made too many mistakes on the shift to
blame it on that.
Ryan Suter's big one-time blast off another Parise assist at 16:58 of the
period made it 5-0, and Varlamov was replaced by Reto Berra to begin the
third period.
"Tough start for me," Varlamov said. "Of course, I don't want to give up five
goals to start the season. But we'll have to come back and play well in the
next game. It's a long season. We have to forget about this game and focus
on playing like we played last year."
It was ugly from the outset for the Avs. Despite going on the game's first
two power plays, they were outshot 17-5 in the first period, generating little
offense and giving up a lot. Varlamov was very good, but his lone mistake
led to Jason Pominville's goal off a big rebound, from a shot taken from the
right wing by Mikael Granlund. Varlamov couldn't track his rebound and
Pominville beat back-checking forward Jamie McGinn to the puck.
It all snowballed down from there for the Avs, who fell to 8-7-4 in season
openers since the franchise moved to Denver.
"Obviously not the start we wanted," Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said.
"They came out hard and it was one of those games that felt like they were
winning every battle and all the rebounds were bouncing around our sticks.
To get those bounces you have to work hard and that's what they did. We
weren't. We were losing battles and (losing 5-0) is what happens."
752815
Colorado Avalanche
Rockies resignations first step out toward relevance
By Benjamin Hochman
The Denver Post
Posted: 10/08/2014 08:59:53 AM MDT
Updated: 10/08/2014 10:55:46 PM MDT
Well, Rockies fans, you finally have something to celebrate in October.
Dan O'Dowd, gone. Bill Geivett, gone.
The Rockies are the afterthought of Major League Baseball, seemingly
trapped by the cultlike thinking of its leadership — and thus, as we've seen,
trapped by irrelevance on the field.
In order to change the culture, new general manager Jeff Bridich had better
defy the cult. Team owner Dick Monfort seemingly brainwashed the
organization by sticking with O'Dowd for all these years while instilling the
belief that his way is the right way — and the only way — to approach
baseball in Colorado.
Promoted from within, Bridich is an O'Dowd disciple. But he's not O'Dowd
Jr. Give him a little time to prove that. If you someday get your mentor's job,
won't you splash some of your own personality onto the position? You
might be a protégé, but you're not a clone, right?
"Both Dan and Bill were mentors. ... That doesn't mean that we agreed on
everything all of the time," the 37-year-old Bridich said Wednesday. "There
certainly was not an element of group think or a robotic thought process
where we all just got in line with the (same) thought. There were heated
debates at times — and there needed to be."
But making the Rockies relevant in a division with the Los Angeles Dodgers
and the San Francisco Giants, while playing in a ballpark at high altitude?
This innovative, Harvard-taught, outside-the-batter's-box thinker had better
be the Mark Zuckerberg of baseball.
On Wednesday, Monfort declined to take media questions (maybe we
should've just e-mailed him?). But, while introducing Bridich, Monfort said
he's "excited about a fresh start for the Colorado Rockies." This fresh start
should include Monfort staying far away from baseball decisions involving
the Colorado Rockies.
You're not a baseball man; you're a baseball fan.
The final decision Monfort should make on his own is hiring a team
president. No, you can't replace the late Keli McGregor, who was beloved in
this state and, to this day, referred to as the perfect executive to challenge
Monfort. Still, the Rockies need a boss, a proven boss. And someone from
outside the organization to view things from a fresh perspective.
WATCH: Colorado Rockies promote Jeff Bridich new GM, replacing Dan
O'Dowd
WATCH: Colorado Rockies fans react to Dan O'Dowd departure
Is it unrealistic to offer Colorado native John Mozeliak, the St. Louis
Cardinals' general manager, some sum that would make salary history for
an executive? Yeah, "Mo" has maybe the best job in baseball. But perhaps
it's worth a shot just to see what dollar number would get him to come home
and resuscitate the franchise that gave him his first job. As I found out with
a litany of women at Denver bars over the years, the worst that can happen
is they just shoot you down. If the Rockies want to stop being the Rockies,
they should consider overspending on a proven executive, not necessarily
to keep Bridich in check, but Monfort.
"There's no one specific, right, correct way to do this," Bridich said. "It's on
the individuals involved to relate well, to trust each other and be able to
challenge each other in ways that help this organization grow. That's the
culture I envision."
The Rockies are trying something, anything, to shake things up. That's what
we've been asking for all along. And with O'Dowd gone, our long National
League nightmare is over.
752816
Colorado Avalanche
Avalanche at Minnesota Wild gameday
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
ST. PAUL, MINN. — The Avalanche had a good hop Thursday morning in
preparation for the ensuing 8 p.m. local time season opener against the
Minnesota Wild. Click here for a game-day update focusing on the Tyson
Barrie/Avs-Matt Cooke rematch on the same ice Cooke delivered that kneeon-knee hit in Game 3 of the playoffs that ended Barrie’s season and led to
Colorado’s demise.
Here’s what Wild coach Mike Yeo had to say after Minnesota’s skate:
“You’re starting with a rivalry right off the hop. It’s going to force us to be
good. We know they’re going to be good. We have a lot of respect for that
team over there … There’s much to do about the fact that we’re playing
Colorado (in the season opener) and I have to imagine they’re feeling the
same way as us, that his is not Game 8 of the playoffs here. This is Game 1
of the regular season. What happened last year was last year. I think we
want to leave it behind just us as much as they want to leave it behind
them.”
Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu:
Avalanche end-to-end drills:
No lineup changes from what previously reported here. Semyon Varlamov,
of course, is in net, opposing Darcy Kuemper.
752817
Colorado Avalanche
Avs' Tyson Barrie to face Wild's Matt Cooke first time since injury
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
Posted: 10/09/2014 12:14:27 PM MDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 11:08:26 PM MDT
ST. PAUL, Minn. — There was plenty of oral buildup Thursday morning at
the Xcel Energy Center about the Avalanche's season opener, a much
anticipated rematch with the Minnesota Wild.
Despite being Game 1 and Game 2 of an 82-game season, this home-andhome series that concludes Saturday in Denver has a playoff feel to it.
"We're going to play our game, and the biggest thing is to get two points,"
said Avs fourth-line forward Cody McLeod. "We'll let that other stuff take
care of itself."
The other stuff includes Avs defenseman Tyson Barrie playing against Matt
Cooke for the first time since Cooke ended Barrie's season. Cooke was
given a seven-game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit in Game 3 of the
teams' first-round playoff series in April.
Minnesota went on to oust Colorado after Barrie — the Avalanche's top
offensive defenseman— suffered a strained medial collateral ligament in his
left knee and joined forwards Matt Duchene and John Mitchell on the injury
list. The Avs' lack of depth contributed to Minnesota winning four of the last
five games in a series that went the full seven games.
"I spoke to Tyson this morning about it and he's fine with it," Avs coach
Patrick Roy said after Thursday's morning skate. "The league did what they
had to do, and on our side we certainly want to focus on playing the game
tonight, not on any revenge from the playoffs last year and what happened
(with Barrie). We just want to play a solid game and that's where our focus
is, and where our focus should be."
Barrie, who is playing on the Avs' second pairing with Nick Holden, said his
injury and absence in April "was probably the toughest thing I've gone
through."
"But you've got to let it go," he added. "We've got a good, young, exciting
team and that won't be our last time in the playoffs. I don't want to take any
attention off what we're trying to do, and that's winning (Thursday night's
game) and then the one back home (Saturday)."
Footnotes. The Zach Redmond-Ryan Wilson defensive duo ended up being
scratched for the Avs' opener. Redmond and Wilson might play Saturday.
Redmond provides end-to-end skating ability. ... Former University of
Denver standout Jason Zucker played on Minnesota's fourth line. Zucker,
who was born in Southern California and raised in Las Vegas, said he
hopes to climb the ladder on a team that is deep up front. Zucker is one of
eight former Pioneers on season-opening NHL rosters.
752818
Colorado Avalanche
Report: NFL likely to give Kroenke extension to transfer ownership of Avs,
Nuggets
By Nicki Jhabvala
The Denver Post
Real estate mogul and billionaire Stan Kroenke become the full owner of
the NFL’s St. Louis Rams in August of 2010 after purchasing the interest of
late owner Georgia Frontiere. To receive the consent of the other NFL
owners, however, Kroenke had to agree to turn over control of his other
professional sports teams in Denver — the NBA’s Nuggets and the NHL’s
Avalanche — to his son, Josh, by the end of the year because of the NFL’s
cross-ownership rule. Per the agreement, Kroenke must give up his
majority stake in the Nuggets and Avs by December of 2014.
But according to Sports Business Daily on Monday, the league is likely to
give him a 12-month extension to transfer ownership to his son. (The NFL
allows such in-family transfers if the receiving member has no part in the
team’s operation.) The deal would require Kroenke to inform the league by
June of 2015 how he plans to divest his teams.
Texans owner and NFL Finance Committee Chairman Bob McNair told
SBD that the reason four years is not enough time for Kroenke to transfer
ownership is estate planning. McNair said he believed the extension would
easily receive approval Monday, but SBD’s sources said that not all owners
were in favor.
Kroenke recently purchased 60 acres near Hollywood Park in Los Angeles,
and the Rams’ current lease expires after this season, leading many to
believe Kroenke would push for a permanent exemption from the crossownership rule as part of his move to take the Rams to L.A.
752819
Columbus Blue Jackets
create an item and the winner is the one who sells the most. Ditri has won
three years running.
Blue Jackets fans have new food choices this season
Ditri’s sandwich this season is a classic Italian. Kowalski whipped up a
Cubano and DiGiovanni came with chicken and waffles. If the preseason is
any indication, Kowalski is leading.
By JD Malone The Columbus Dispatch • Friday October 10, 2014 5:30 AM
“It’s a long season,” Ditri said.
Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 10.10.2014
New things to enjoy at Nationwide Arena this Blue Jackets’ season extend
far beyond left winger Scott Hartnell.
When they aren’t cheering a goal, booing a call, or for the newly initiated,
wondering what icing really is, hockey fans will find fresh options for dining
and drinking.
Those attending home games this season — the home opener is Saturday
— will find a loaded kettle-chip cart, a Mexican cantina, a premium burger
bar and a stand that sells nothing but sausage, including some made in the
building’s kitchen by head chef Joe Ditri.
“We do as much in-house as possible,” Ditri said.
Last year, the in-house philosophy led to the purchase of a smoker that
supplies turkey, ham and beef to various spots in the arena, including a
smokehouse stand on the main concourse. The most popular item from the
smoker is bacon on a stick.
A smaller smokehouse stand will open on the second level this season, one
of several changes upstairs.
The one complaint that season-ticket holders have levied year after year is
that the upper-level concourse lacks variety in its concessions, said Tom
Booth, general manager for Delaware North Cos., the arena’s food and
beverage vendor.
“We’re trying to give them more options.”
To that end, additions upstairs include a Mexican concessions stand
serving nothing but Mexican beers and made-to-order burritos, tacos,
quesadillas and churros.
“You can’t even get a single hot dog,” Booth said.
At the second-level smokehouse, a grill was added, giving the stand more
variety than the standalone cart on the main concourse. Concessions
manager Nick Newman suggests a heart-stopping item known as the Three
Little Pigs: a Schmidt’s Bahama Mama wrapped in bacon and topped with
pulled pork.
Downstairs, new concessions include 614 Burger Bar. Patrons can order
several themed burgers, which are all made-to-order and come on a
brioche bun with a Blue Jackets logo burned into the top.
The kettle-chip cart tops freshly fried potatoes with chicken and alfredo
sauce, pulled pork or cheese and bacon. The plates of chips also come with
dipping sauces. There will be a monthly special, which the chefs will create.
Ditri hinted that the first “All-Star” offering could include one of his housemade sausages.
At preseason games, the kettle cart has become a sensation, Ditri said.
“People really, really like it,” he said. “People like to dip.”
Craft-beer offerings will expand, with both an Ohio-beer cart and a larger,
eight-handle craft cart. Both also carry a selection of bottles. The beers on
both will rotate throughout the season. Newman recommends Vander Mill
Ciders’ Totally Roasted hard cider, made with candied pecans.
For lighter fare, or to grab a single snack or beer, the arena carried over the
small markets introduced on both levels last year. Fries can be swapped
out for fruit cups at many stands or bought by themselves. The burger bar
also carries turkey and chicken sandwiches.
“They’re healthy until we put the cheese on them,” Ditri said.
Fan favorites Skyline Chili, Labatt’s beer and Papa John’s pizza are
mainstays. There will always be hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels and nachos as
well, Newman said.
The arena’s chefs — Ditri, Ed Kowalski and John DiGiovanni — compete in
a sandwich contest each year at one of the arena’s stands. The three
752820
Blue Jackets show group effort that is needed for them to win
Last night, at least, they showed — right down to the last rookie — that they
remember who they are.
Now, on to Game 2.
By Michael Arace The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday October 9, 2014
11:39 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Blue Jackets opened a new season with a 3-1
victory over the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center last night. It was
classic Jackets, if classic can be used for a team that needed 13 years to
create an identity.
The identity is there now. True, this was just the first 60 of a season that
goes 4,920 minutes, not counting overtimes. True, the opponent was the
Sabres, the second-youngest team in the league (after the Jackets), in full
rebuilding mode. Yet, if you are a Jackets fan, you recognized what you
embraced last spring.
Coach Todd Richards’ blueprint, based on general manager Jarmo
Kekalainen’s specs, was on full display. Four lines rolled and each was
integral. Jack Skille had a goal, and Jared Boll and Michael Chaput
assisted. Cam Atkinson had a goal, and Ryan Johansen and Nick Foligno
assisted. Artem Anisimov had a goal, and Scott Hartnell and Alexander
Wennberg assisted.
Offense was a group effort. Fourth-liners, scorers, imports and rookies
played a part. The defense was sound, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky
(21 saves) was one second-period bull rush from a shutout.
“We were fast, fast, fast, and everyone contributed,” Kekalainen said. “The
young guys were good, which was good to see. The one thing is, those
young guys should not be afraid of making mistakes. They should just play.
That’s what they did tonight.”
Kekalainen and his boss, hockey operations president John Davidson, have
spent months touting their rookies, Wennberg and Marko Dano in particular.
Some of your more grizzled Jackets watchers (ahem) have thought that the
praise was manufactured, in part to waylay fears about Johansen’s
protracted contract negotiations.
To paraphrase: “We’re not worried because we have Wennberg.”
Then it was announced that Nathan Horton had a degenerative back
condition and would be out indefinitely. Then Boone Jenner suffered a
broken hand and will miss four to six weeks. Then Brandon Dubinsky
became the latest Jacket to fly to Philly for a cheese steak and an
abdominal surgery.
Where was the pop at the top of the lineup? Johansen signed, but he is
going to need time to get in shape. Skille was plucked off waivers, and
that’s a help. Yet, this was a damaged team at the end of a boisterous
training camp. How would they put it together?
“Systematic play,” Richards said. “We’ve talked right along about wanting to
play fast. If you do your job, trust your teammates and everyone’s on the
same page, it works, and you can see it.”
It worked last night because Wennberg, Dano and Chaput did their jobs
without a hitch.
A month ago, I would not have thought that possible. I thought Chaput
might be ready for a fourth-line role. I liked Dano’s game. I thought
Wennberg was being oversold. I thought that Wennberg, who was being
asked to play important minutes in all situations, might be getting rushed.
And we in Columbus have seen too many players rushed.
Wennberg has grown on me. How? Johansen, who has seen the kid in one
practice and one morning skate, put it well.
“The first thing that came to my mind is he’s smart,” Johansen said. “I was
impressed with how well he and Dano knew the game and understood our
system. I’ve been playing for Richie for two years, and they already have it
down. That’s big for coaches and teammates, to have that trust.”
The Blue Jackets have to hope Horton’s injury is not career-threatening.
They are going to need him and Jenner and Dubinsky if they are to take
their place among the best teams in the Eastern Conference, weak as it is.
752821
Blue Jackets notebook: Run of abdominal injuries has team puzzled
By Aaron Portzline The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday October 9, 2014
11:36 PM
Jonathan Quilter | Dispatch Center Brandon Dubinsky is the sixth Blue
Jackets player in the past 18 months to have abdominal surgery.
Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen spent a few hours on
Wednesday reading a research paper on everyone’s favorite subject:
abdominal injuries.
It was topical again this week after center Brandon Dubinsky became the
latest Blue Jacket to have surgery by Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia.
Dubinsky is the sixth Jackets player to have such a surgery in the past 18
months.
“We’ve looked at everything,” president of hockey operations John
Davidson said. “We started looking last season. Is it something we’re
doing? Is there something we can do different?”
They have found nothing. They are cursing their luck. Last season,
defenseman Dalton Prout, and forwards Matt Calvert and Nathan Horton
had abdominal surgeries. After the 2013 season, forwards Jared Boll and
former Jacket Marian Gaborik had surgery on the same morning. Prout’s
injury was suffered while working out in the offseason. Calvert, Horton and
Dubinsky’s injuries had nagged them for weeks before getting much worse.
Dubinsky left practice in a hurry on Monday and flew to Philadelphia for
surgery on Wednesday. He’s expected to miss at least six weeks.
“No matter what you do, skating — just the motion of skating — is so hard
on the lower core,” Kekalainen said.
But Kekalainen has a theory.
“It’s hard on the body when you go from one speed — the voluntary camps
the players do before camp — to all of a sudden the speed of training camp
and the full practices with coaches,” Kekalainen said. “(Management) can’t
be part of those (voluntary skates), and the coaches can’t be part of that.
But maybe they need to go at a higher pace before camp starts, to get used
to it.”
Asked if maybe camp should start at a slower pace, Kekalainen responded:
“We have to look at the workload in training camp, maybe, but it’s pretty
hard when you play an exhibition game in three days.”
Kekalainen doesn’t pretend to be an authority. But he does have personal
experience on his side. This summer, he had surgery to repair three
abdominal tears. As a player, he had three hernia surgeries.
Slap shots
A new team rule requires players to wear helmets during pregame, on-ice
warmups. … Forwards Adam Cracknell and Corey Tropp, and defenseman
Cody Goloubef were healthy scratches last night against the Buffalo
Sabres. … Rookie forward Alexander Wennberg’s parents were on hand for
his debut. Fellow rookie Marko Dano’s father is headed to Columbus for
Saturday’s home opener against the New York Rangers.
752822
Blue Jackets 3, Sabres 1: Jackets come out firing
By Aaron Portzline The Columbus Dispatch • Friday October 10, 2014
5:47 AM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than the roar of a sold-out opening night crowd at
the First Niagara Center last night, the most distinct noise in the first period
was … PING!
The Blue Jackets had a series of prime scoring chances early against the
Buffalo Sabres, but they could generate only the sound of vulcanized
rubber striking the iron bars of the Sabres’ goal.
“I had one. (Nick) Foligno had two. (Artem) Anisimov had one. Hartsy (Scott
Hartnell) had a couple,” right wing Cam Atkinson said, charting those who
had been snakebitten. “We were throwing everything at them, and nothing
was going in. But I’m glad we stuck with it.”
The Blue Jackets overwhelmed the Sabres for most of a 3-1 victory, but
they didn’t reap the rewards until the last half of the third period, when
Atkinson and Anisimov scored less than 5 minutes apart.
“There were times I would look up … and I was thinking, what do we have
to do to score goals?” coach Todd Richards said. “(Anisimov) had basically
an empty net, and the puck went off the heel of his stick. We had a lot of 2on-1s in the second period, and I don’t know if it was the ice conditions or
us just failing to convert.
“You’re looking at these great opportunities, and you’re worried that maybe
it’s slipping through your fingers. But there was no panic. Our guys stuck
with it.”
Jack Skille, claimed off waivers from the New York Islanders on Sunday,
scored the Blue Jackets’ first goal. Sergei Bobrovsky had 21 saves.
The final margin hardly tells the story, though. The Blue Jackets put 40
shots on goal, had 22 more blocked and attempted 16 others that sailed
high or wide or — PING! — struck iron. The Sabres generated less than
half that total: 22 shots on goal, six shots blocked and 11 that were off the
mark.
“Couple pipes; couple crossbars,” Anisimov said, with a smile. “Nobody
could the puck behind the goaltender, or between the pipes.”
With 8:01 remaining in the second period, Anisimov had the puck on his
stick from about 3 feet in front of the Sabres’ net, with Buffalo goaltender
Jhonas Enroth leaning outside the goalmouth. Anisimov’s shot flubbed off
the heel of his stick, allowing Enroth to dive in front of it.
“Oh, man, Arty,” Atkinson said. “But I had a crossbar in the first. You just
can’t get down on yourself.”
Skille broke a scoreless tie at 13:21 of the second when his wrister from the
right faceoff dot beat Enroth high to his glove side.
The Sabres tied it 81 seconds later when center Zemgus Girgensons
barreled through center ice, went around Anisimov and got a clean shot on
Bobrovsky.
It wasn’t until the final second of a third-period power play that the Blue
Jackets went ahead.Atkinson and center Ryan Johansen were playing off
each other in the corner, when two Sabres drifted toward Johansen. That
allowed Atkinson space to skate the puck out of the corner and into the slot,
where he was alone. His shot went off Enroth’s glove before flopping into
the net.
Anisimov was struck in the left hand by the puck with 6 minutes left and
missed a shift. On his next shift, he was left alone in the left circle and beat
Enroth clean of a pass from new Blue Jacket Hartnell.
“We have to get better, but the speed of the game was good,” Richards
said. “There were certain points tonight where I thought we started to wear
them down.”
752823
NHL: Blue Jackets out to avoid another slow start
By Aaron Portzline The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday October 9, 2014
6:51 AM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Blue Jackets players left Nationwide Arena last
spring after a momentous first-round playoff series loss to Pittsburgh, they
were given a short, precise list of summer instructions:
1. Heal.
2. Train hard.
3. Be ready to win.
“We’ve been reminded a few times about the way we started last season,”
left wing Nick Foligno said. “Not that we needed to be reminded, really.”
The Blue Jackets open the season tonight at the Buffalo Sabres, and they
are intent on getting out of the gate with a sprint, not a stumble. Last
season, the Jackets were 5-10-0 on Nov. 7, a hole that took the rest of the
season to escape. They didn’t get over .500 until mid-January and ended
up with the No. 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
Slow starts are nothing new. In the past three seasons, the Blue Jackets
are a combined 21-41-9 in the first two months.
“It’s uncomfortable,” goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky said. “It’s a bad feeling
when you’re behind early. It’s tough emotionally. It’s an experience for
every player, and we learn from it. Everybody has to make decisions, how
to get ready, how to prepare yourself to get ready.”
The Blue Jackets went 7-1-0 in the preseason, which in most years would
be seen as proof of a club ready to roll. But this training camp has not been
a ramp-up to the regular season — more like a runway full of potholes,
speed bumps and obstacles.
Six weeks ago, coach Todd Richards could have jotted down his forward
lines and defensive pairs with confidence. Camp beckoned with few
questions and only a couple of spots available for players who could add
depth.
Then, right wing Nathan Horton was hurt jogging in Florida over the
summer and hasn’t skated yet. Nobody knows when he will play again.
Defenseman Ryan Murray underwent a knee scope in June and has been
slow to recover. Only now is he beginning to practice full steam.
Center Ryan Johansen missed all of camp and all eight exhibition games in
an ugly contract dispute. When he finally reached terms on a three-year,
$12 million contract on Monday, Richards did not display even a hint of
happiness. Why? Center Brandon Dubinsky, the Blue Jackets’ emotional
leader, had hurt his groin in practice earlier, and the club already was
fearing the worst.
Dubinsky underwent abdominal surgery yesterday and will miss at least six
weeks, the club said.
The Blue Jackets claimed Jack Skille and Adam Cracknell on waivers this
week, and they kept three rookie forwards on the roster — Michael Chaput,
Marko Dano and Alexander Wennberg — which means the club that plays
tonight will bear little resemblance to those lines and pairs that Richards
was planning in August.
Forget the exhibition games — some of the lines the Blue Jackets will use
tonight barely even practiced together.
“You can’t sit around thinking ‘What are we going to do?’  ” defenseman
Fedor Tyutin said. “It’s not ideal for us, but we have players who can step
up and fill the role.”
Asked if he would like another week of camp before the regular season
started, Richards managed a smile.
“Ha!” he said. “Yeah. Well, yes and no. I’m just like the players: I’m itching
to play and get the season started.”
752824
It wasn't easy. It ended up being the win the Jackets hoped and thought
they'd get heading into Saturday's home opener against the New York
Rangers, the defending Eastern Conference champions.
Solid start for big-thinking Blue Jackets
"Big game coming up Saturday," Richards said.
Zac Jackson
A few feet away, Bobrovsky was still riding an exercise bike outside the
locker room more than 30 minutes after the game ended.
FOX Sports Ohio
Being 1-0 is nice.
OCT 09, 2014 11:31p ET
These Jackets have plenty of miles left to cover.
foxsportsohio.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
BUFFALO -- The Columbus Blue Jackets kept knocking on the door -rather unpleasantly, the home team would say -- and kept getting turned
away Thursday night. They were the aggressors in the season opener at
Buffalo, the better team, but kept coming close with nothing to show for
their efforts and opportunities.
That changed in the third period, finally, as two goals in the final 7:15 led to
a 3-1 win and validated a 40-22 edge in shots.
The most telling sign, though, came afterwards. The Blue Jackets were
relieved, not ecstatic. They picked up and cleaned up quickly.
Being 1-0 is nice, and it's certainly better than the alternative. It's just the
beginning.
"Any win in this league is big," Jackets coach Todd Richards said
afterwards. "We wanted to start on the right foot. People have talked about
us getting off to slow starts in the past. That has happened and that's one
thing we're trying to guard against. We want to get off on the right foot here.
"We're dealing with some adversity, we have some players out of the lineup
and a win is a great way to start. We're happy. We're excited. We still have
81 games left. Lots of hockey ahead us."
When someone extended congratulations on an unbeaten start to Jackets
general manager Jarmo Kekalainen shortly after the game, he barely
looked up from his phone.
GET TO KNOW YOUR COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
Hockey season is underway and we've got your guide to who's who on
this year's CBJ roster.
"Thank you, but there are 81 games left," Kekalainen said.
Richards said essentially the same a little later. There will be ups and
downs. There will be tougher nights and tougher opponents. The Blue
Jackets think they've built a team for the long haul.
"We're a big strong team that can skate," Richards said. "When we use our
legs and our size, I think we can wear teams down. I think there were points
we were starting to wear them down.
"(This win) was a total team effort. Bob came up with some key saves when
we needed him to. All four lines played well. Young guys were great. Solid
team effort."
Bob, of course, is goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. He's one of the NHL's best
and a big reason the Jackets can think big. Ditto 22-year-old Ryan
Johansen, who just signed a new, rich contract this week and logged an
assist in a little over 14 minutes Thursday night as he plays himself back
into shape.
As Johansen talked to reporters after the game, team president John
Davidson reached into the scrum and extended Johansen a hand.
Blue Jackets beat Sabres 3-1 in season opener
Check out the game recap from the Blue Jackets' season opener.
All is well. More wins are coming.
"I think we have some pretty good pieces," Johansen said. "I'm excited."
Jack Skille, re-claimed via waivers just five days ago, got the first goal.
Alexander Wennberg, playing on the first line because Johansen wasn't,
got an assist in his first NHL game. The Sabres tied the game with a little
more than five minutes left in the second period and brought the crowd
alive, but the stronger and more mature team put it away in the third with
goals from Cam Atkinson and Artem Asminov.
752825
Dallas Stars
Jason Spezza's debut with Dallas Stars overshadowed, but he still makes
an impact - good and bad
MICHAEL FLOREK / STAFF WRITER
For the first time in 11 seasons, Jason Spezza played a meaningful game
as a member of a team other than the Ottawa Senators.
His first game as a Star turned into a fast-paced affair with the Blackhawks,
one Stars coach Lindy Ruff likened to a playoff matchup. It ended with the
Blackhawks beating the Stars, 3-2, in a shootout and showed Spezza this
new reality wouldn't be much different from the one he's experience for the
past 686 games.
"It seemed like more of an Eastern game," Spezza said. "It was a track
meet out there for a little bit. Everybody says the West is bigger, but with
our two teams that was a pretty fast paced game. There's not many games
that are going to be faster than that."
Spezza played on the second line with fellow newcomers Ales Hemsky and
Patrick Eaves. Spezza and Hemsky were also a part of the Stars' first
power play unit. There, they earned their first points as Stars. Hemsky
picked up the primary assist and Spezza the secondary after Trevor Daley
batted Hemsky's pass into his glove, set it down and buried a shot to tie the
game, 1-1, in the second period.
But Spezza had plenty more opportunities to make an impact that he didn't
connect on. Six minutes into the game, Spezza found his way behind the
Blackhawks defense. Brendan Dillon sent a pass his way. The puck
bounced off Spezza's skate and out of reach. In the shootout, Ruff sent
Spezza out first. The center went straight-on, slowed down, and sent a shot
towards Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford's five hole. Crawford closed the
pads in time.
In total, Spezza played 17:50 (the fifth most among Stars forwards) and
fired two shots on net to go along with his secondary assist. Hemsky saw
15:58 of ice time and lauched four shots on net. Eaves, getting an
opportunity in place of Erik Cole, didn't play on the power play or penalty kill
and saw just 7:29 of ice time because of it.
"I thought they really skated well," Ruff said of Spezza's line. "They got
some good opportunities."
"It was a good first night for them."
Dallas Morning News LOADED: 10.10.2014
752826
Dallas Stars
He said it after Stars lose in shootout to Blackhawks: 'It was panic mode
and shoot it'
On if the team can play with that fast tempo for a full game:
"In today's game you're going to have to. We are going to have to find ways
to do it and if you're not going to have that much pressure, you're going to
have to find ways to stop them from scoring goals. All around I thought our
game was pretty good, but not good enough."
On his goal:
MIKE HEIKA Published: 09 October 2014 11:36 PM
"It was panic mode and shoot it."
Stars Head Coach Lindy Ruff:
Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville:
On tonight's game:
On the new young defensemen in the lineup:
"You're probably writing a little different article if we win the shootout. It's
one point, it's the thing that sits above your stomach and makes you bitter.
You can't criticize one guy's effort in that game because the effort was
tremendous. I thought we basically dominated the game for basically the
first 40 minutes of the game. (Corey) Crawford was fabulous."
"I think we went into the game with a tough matchup, first game. I think that
it was part of the game-plan going into it to see how it worked out, see how
they handled it. Put them in situations where we felt they wouldn't be
exposed, but I think they both did fine."
On Kari Lehtonen':
On power play: "I like the power play a lot. We had good zone time. We had
presence, we had shots… It was threatening, it was dangerous. I liked the
power play."
"It was a tough first goal, but I really thought he looked like himself after
that. He made some in-tight saves, a couple where he looked really quick. I
have to give him credit for shaking that one off."
On the power play:
"It's got work to do still. It's a power play that doesn't have net-front
(presence), which, might work. There's some good ones that don't have
net-front. We didn't have much presence in the middle of the ice on our
power play. It was okay. It got on the board, that's a good thing, but there's
room for improvement."
On the penalty kill:
"The same [room for improvement]. It was a huge kill for us late, we had
some great blocks, some guys give up the body, but still we overplayed the
Sharp play. We should have been in front of that shot."
On Kane's goal and the shootout: "Beautiful play. Corey looked solid;
anticipated the bounce there. I think it was definitely a sore spot for us last
year."
Blackhawks Goaltender Corey Crawford:
On his play in tonight's game:
"Just in there trying to do my job. It definitely was a pretty slow start but we
gained our timing as the game went on. We gained our confidenceand that
speed and that puck possession game as we went further into the game.
And you can see that, I'm sure the guys can see that from the bench, I can
see it from my net we started to get it back; creating more chances and
better plays in the neutral zone to get it into their zone. I think it was better,
way better, in the third."
Stars Center Jason Spezza
On stopping breakaways in the third:
On tonight's game:
"I don't really think about it. That's the key part of it, not thinking too much."
"It's disappointing to not get the win out of it. We carried the play for most of
the night. They got some momentum with the power plays in the third. For
the most part, I thought we deserved a better fate tonight."
On his first game with the Stars:
"We created some chances and had good looks. It would have been nice to
bury one out there but it's a tight game. The other goalie played really well. I
was disappointed to not score in the shootout but it wasn't meant to be."
On first game as a Western Conference player:
"It seemed like more of an Eastern game. It was a track meet for a little bit.
Everyone says the West is bigger. But I think with our two teams, it's more a
fast-paced game. Don't know too many games that would have a faster
pace than that. Two quick teams with two good transition offenses. Both
teams skate well and that showed tonight."
On the power play:
"We got one goal. We were a little jittery early on, but that's to be expected.
We are forming a new unit together and learning tendencies. When you get
a team like (Chicago) they have been together for a long time and know
each other very well. We are still a work in progress and I think our power
play can be a lot better than it was tonight. I thought we showed glimpses of
doing some good things."
Stars Defenseman Trevor Daley:
On playing well but not getting the victory:
"(Chicago's) a great team, they're a good team and I felt for forty minutes
we carried the game, played some good hockey. The last twenty we took
some penalties and they got some momentum and we had the lead and
they needed to come back so I thought we handled it ok. That's something
in our game we are going to have to get better at and it shows why they are
a good team. They are patient for sixty minutes and found a way to win and
that's a level we have to get to.
752827
Dallas Stars
Cold facts: What Dallas' opening-night loss means for remainder of season
By MIKE HEIKA
The Goals
Chicago: On the Blackhawks’ third shot of the game, Duncan Keith scored
on a slap shot from the right circle with 43.7 seconds left in the first period.
Kari Lehtonen played the angle wrong and deflected the puck in through his
legs. 1-0 Chicago.
Dallas: After Patrick Eaves drew a four-minute power play on a high stick
from Chicago’s Niklas Hjalmarsson, Dallas scored 10 seconds into the
ensuing power play. Trevor Daley batted a puck out of the air from the right
circle and past a surprised Crawford at 10:13 of the second period. 1-1.
Dallas: With the Stars on the rush in transition, Ryan Garbutt tried to slide a
puck through a crowd into the middle of the ice. The puck deflected off a
Blackhawks player and went straight to Cody Eakin, who ripped a wrister
over Crawford at 15:04 of the second period. 2-1 Dallas.
Chicago: After Jordie Benn was called for holding the stick in the third
period. Patrick Sharp scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle
seven seconds into the ensuing power play 11:10 into the third period. 2-2
Chicago: Patrick Kane skated in during the shootout and lifted a calm
backhand over Kari Lehtonen’s glove hand. It was the only goal scored in
the shootout, as Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin and Ales Hemsky were
stopped by Crawford.
Three Stars
Corey Crawford, Chicago: Had 34 saves and kept Blackhawks in game.
Patrick Sharp, Chicago: Goal and an assist.
Cody Eakin, Stars: Key goal and won 61 percent of his faceoffs.
Save of the Game
Crawford was under siege for the first two periods and had to make an
assortment of acrobatic, intelligent and nifty saves. Probably the biggest
came when he stuck out his right pad to stop a Tyler Seguin rocket from the
point on the power play. But his glove save on Cody Eakin also was
impressive.
Hit of the Game
Stars captain Jamie Benn made two impressive hits on one shift in the first
period. Both came in the offensive zone, as Benn knocked over Chicago
defenseman Johnny Oduya right behind the Blackhawks goal and then
skated over and stood up Brandon Saad with a board rattler along the half
wall.
Discuss
The Stars unveiled their four-forward power play and had plenty of chances.
But there were plenty of ups and downs for the combo of Jamie Benn,
Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin, Ales Hemsky and Trevor Daley. Can this
power play be effective or is it a little too pass-happy?
What does it mean?
Stars played great against a great team, but in the end they received one
point in the standings and Chicago got two. That’s a loss when you
consider the battle for Central Division placement. Dallas still has to learn
how to live in big games and come up with big plays.
752828
Dallas Stars
Stars continue to raise bar on season despite shootout loss to Blackhawks
There’s a bar in the Stars’ locker room that you can’t see, but you can
definitely feel.
And it’s getting higher and higher each day.
Call it a culture, or a system or a Pavlovian way to program your players,
but it’s definitely taking hold and it’s definitely non-negotiable. The Stars this
week have made that bar very clear, and they credit it for a scrappy
performance in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday at
American Airlines Center to start the season.
“It’s one point, but it’s the thing that sits at the bottom of your stomach and
makes you bitter,” said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. “The effort was tremendous,
but you just have to be a little bit better in the finish.”
The Stars dominated the first two periods and skated the speedy
Blackhawks into the ice at times. But Chicago has twice won the Stanley
Cup in the past five seasons and showed that kind of calm. Dallas finished
with a 34-26 advantage in shots on goal, but Chicago had a 14-9 edge in
the third period. Dallas created six power play opportunities in the first two
periods, but the Stars had none in the third period and Chicago came back
with three in the final 20 minutes.
The Blackhawks scored on one of those power plays to tie the game and
won it in a shootout.
It was a turnaround built on the back of goalie Corey Crawford, who kept
Chicago in the game, but executed by a veteran Blackhawks team that
understands the kind of pressure that was created by the Stars.
“I thought in the third, we got back to the way we normally play and the way
we’re used to playing, and kind of took over,” said Chicago winger Patrick
Kane, who won the game in the shootout.
And that’s part of being a team that has been winning for a while and has
aspirations to win the Stanley Cup this season.
There’s been much hype during the preseason about the Stars being a
greatly improved team, and that creates pressure. But if the Stars want to
be a great team, they need to live in that world of pressure.
Ruff leaned on all four lines and all three defense pairs. Cody Eakin and
Brenden Dillon had great jump after missing most of training camp in
contract disputes. Alex Goligoski put in 26:12 in ice time, picking up where
he left off in the playoffs.
The new four-forward power play scored a goal, but also frittered chances.
Some key players suffered leg cramps near the end of the game and had to
miss a shift or two. It was a grab bag of good and bad.
“I thought for 40 minutes we carried the game, but we have to get better,”
said defenseman Trevor Daley. “It shows why they’re a good team. They
were patient and found a way to win, and that’s the level we have to get to.”
It was a great lesson. Kari Lehtonen was shaky early, but finished strong in
the third period. The Stars showed a puck possession potential that should
scare a lot of teams. They were physical (winning the battle of hits 25-12),
quick (winning the battle of faceoffs 36-30) and smart (giving the puck away
just nine times).
But there is this pesky thing about the final score, just as it was at the end
of the playoffs when the Stars gave up three goals in the final six minutes
and lost in overtime in Game 6.
“That game ate me all summer,” said Daley, who was named an alternate
captain before the season. “We were the better team, and we just let it slip
away. That’s something we have to get better at. That’s something we have
to learn.”
752829
Dallas Stars
Cowlishaw: Stars a completely different team from 19 months ago, but
sometimes progress takes its sweet time
TIM COWLISHAW Published: 09 October 2014 11:05 PM
It was a Saturday night in March, less than 19 months ago, and the Chicago
Blackhawks were in town. That was the only reason to be in American
Airlines Center that night.
On their way to a second Stanley Cup in four seasons, the Blackhawks
skated circles around the Stars for an 8-1 victory. It was 7-0 with 17 minutes
to play when Chicago appeared to call off the dogs. Stars coach Glen
Gulutzan said, “If this wasn’t an alarm clock, I don’t know what is.’’
It was. Fast forward to Thursday night, when a Dallas team with a different
coach, general manager, roster and uniform colors outplayed Chicago for
40 minutes, held the lead for much of the game — and collected a point
before losing 3-2 in an overtime shootout.
Sometimes progress takes its sweet time.
Dallas has been a nice pleasant stop on Chicago’s regular journeys deep
into the playoffs. The Blackhawks have won seven straight at the AAC. At
least they had to fight back and work for this one.
As an organization, the Stars couldn’t have asked for a better start to the
season. Well, short of a victory, that is.
The sellout crowd of 18,768 was larger than anything this club drew last
season when it ended its five-year playoff drought with a first-round sixgame loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
At the end of 65 minutes, before the teams went to a shootout, the Stars
had outshot the Blackhawks, 34-26. Dallas really controlled the game for
the first two periods, but coach Lindy Ruff’s desire to win the puck
possession battle throughout was sorely tested in the third period and fiveminute overtime.
The Stars outplayed the Blackhawks from the outset — Chicago didn’t
manage a shot on goal until beyond the 7-minute mark — and only some
great goaltending from Corey Crawford and one soft goal permitted by the
Stars’ Kari Lehtonen allowed the visitors a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Dallas tied it in the second period on a great play by Trevor Daley with the
man advantage. New Star Ales Hemsky’s pass tipped off a Blackhawks
player, and the puck sailed end over end toward Daley, who knocked it to
the ice with his wrist and fired the power-play shot past Crawford.
When Cody Eakin fired a shot past Crawford on a breakaway five minutes
later, the crowd erupted. But the Blackhawks’ contingent — maybe not as
large as in the past but still of considerable size and vocal strength —
shouted its approval in the third period when Patrick Sharp tied it on
another long shot from the back of the right face-off circle.
If the season opener was expected to be a showcase for the Stars having
the equal of Chicago’s top two lines, well, it’s one game out of 82. Jamie
Benn showed the physical style that has made him one of the league’s
great young talents, upending two Blackhawks on one shift. But he and
Tyler Seguin — both top-10 scorers in their first season together — were
held off the score sheet Thursday.
The new second line of Jason Spezza (longtime No. 1 center in Ottawa),
Hemsky and Patrick Eaves had some solid scoring chances, and Hemsky
and Spezza at least got the power-play assists.
If there was one considerable disappointment for the local favorites, it came
in the shootout where Lehtonen went just 1 for 2 in stopping pucks (Kane
roofed one off the backhand) while the Stars went 0 for 3.
Particularly troubling was Hemsky, who had the third shot, the one to keep
it alive. He lost the puck while skating through the right face-off circle and
barely collected it before firing harmlessly into Crawford’s pads.
The Stars take their new act on the road for three games in Nashville,
Columbus and Pittsburgh before returning to the AAC a week from
Saturday to face the Philadelphia Flyers. You can expect the Benn-Seguin
line to make some noise by then.
The Stars’ time is coming. But the Blackhawks, who lost a memorable
Western Conference Finals to the Kings last year while trying to defend
their most recent Cup, are still the Blackhawks.
752830
Dallas Stars
Former teams die hard; Jason Spezza still in 'adjustment process' with
Stars
Spezza played 686 games with Ottawa after being drafted second overall in
2001. He was traded to the Stars in the summer.
“It’s still an adjustment process for me,” Spezza said before Monday’s
game. “You don’t just change teams and expect it to be seamless. I feel like
every day I’m getting more comfortable. It’s different getting ready for a
game in a new arena and new setting, but I think all of the excitement I
have trumps the nervousness.”
Briefly: Cole and defenseman Jamie Oleksiak were healthy scratches. ... D
Sergei Gonchar is out 3-5 weeks with a fractured bone in his ankle…The
game was sold out with an attendance of 18,768. ... D Alex Goligoski
played in his 400th regular season NHL game. ... D Trevor Daley
celebrated his 31st birthday Thursday.
752831
Dallas Stars
Stars' Patrick Eaves hoping to make most of opportunity after Erik Cole's
slip up
Erik Cole was late for practice Monday, and that opened the door for Patrick
Eaves to jump onto the second line Thursday night in the Stars’ season
opener.
Cole, who practiced most of the preseason as the left wing on a line with
Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky, went to visit his family in Raleigh, N.C., on
Sunday and scheduled a plane to be back in plenty of time for Monday’s
practice at American Airlines Center. However, the plane was delayed, he
was late for practice, and then was made a healthy scratch Thursday
against Chicago. Eaves jumped into his place.
“Eaves has definitely earned the ice time. He’s had a good preseason and
played well,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think Erik has had a good
preseason. I’ve told him that I think pulling him out hurts us, because of
where we were playing him, but at the same time I have a team to run, and
everybody has to respect that there’s rules and you have to be places.”
Eaves, who was signed as a free agent in the summer, has a history with
Spezza. Eaves was a hot rookie out of Boston College when he landed on
a line with Spezza back in 2005. The Ottawa Senators’ first round pick (29th
overall) in 2003, Eaves had a hard shot and a good two-way game. The
youngster pocketed 20 goals in 58 games.
“I started out my career playing on a line with Spezz in Ottawa, so it’s good
to be back with him,” Eaves said. “We had some chemistry then, so I’d love
to try to get that back.”
Spezza said Eaves’ best talent is his shot, and that fits perfectly on the line.
“He can shoot it, so that’s good, because me and Hemmer sometimes don’t
like to shoot it,” Spezza said.
Ruff said Cole has a chance to earn his way back into the lineup with hard
work.
“It’s a hard experience, but he fully understands. It’s tough, but missing a
practice is tough, too, especially at this time of the year,” Ruff said. “I told
him it’s over with, and when you get back in the lineup, I expect the Erik
Cole that was going well in camp.”
752832
Dallas Stars
Cold facts: What Dallas' opening-night loss means for remainder of season
By MIKE HEIKA Published: 09 October 2014 07:42 PM
Chicago 3, Stars 2 (SO)
The Goals
Chicago: On the Blackhawks’ third shot of the game, Duncan Keith scored
on a slap shot from the right circle with 43.7 seconds left in the first period.
Kari Lehtonen played the angle wrong and deflected the puck in through his
legs. 1-0 Chicago.
Dallas: After Patrick Eaves drew a four-minute power play on a high stick
from Chicago’s Niklas Hjalmarsson, Dallas scored 10 seconds into the
ensuing power play. Trevor Daley batted a puck out of the air from the right
circle and past a surprised Crawford at 10:13 of the second period. 1-1.
Dallas: With the Stars on the rush in transition, Ryan Garbutt tried to slide a
puck through a crowd into the middle of the ice. The puck deflected off a
Blackhawks player and went straight to Cody Eakin, who ripped a wrister
over Crawford at 15:04 of the second period. 2-1 Dallas.
Chicago: After Jordie Benn was called for holding the stick in the third
period. Patrick Sharp scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle
seven seconds into the ensuing power play 11:10 into the third period. 2-2
Chicago: Patrick Kane skated in during the shootout and lifted a calm
backhand over Kari Lehtonen’s glove hand. It was the only goal scored in
the shootout, as Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin and Ales Hemsky were
stopped by Crawford.
Three Stars
Corey Crawford, Chicago: Had 34 saves and kept Blackhawks in game.
Patrick Sharp, Chicago: Goal and an assist.
Cody Eakin, Stars: Key goal and won 61 percent of his faceoffs.
Save of the Game
Crawford was under siege for the first two periods and had to make an
assortment of acrobatic, intelligent and nifty saves. Probably the biggest
came when he stuck out his right pad to stop a Tyler Seguin rocket from the
point on the power play. But his glove save on Cody Eakin also was
impressive.
Hit of the Game
Stars captain Jamie Benn made two impressive hits on one shift in the first
period. Both came in the offensive zone, as Benn knocked over Chicago
defenseman Johnny Oduya right behind the Blackhawks goal and then
skated over and stood up Brandon Saad with a board rattler along the half
wall.
Discuss
The Stars unveiled their four-forward power play and had plenty of chances.
But there were plenty of ups and downs for the combo of Jamie Benn,
Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin, Ales Hemsky and Trevor Daley. Can this
power play be effective or is it a little too pass-happy?
What does it mean?
Stars played great against a great team, but in the end they received one
point in the standings and Chicago got two. That’s a loss when you
consider the battle for Central Division placement. Dallas still has to learn
how to live in big games and come up with big plays.
752833
Dallas Stars
Spezza, Tyler Seguin and Hemsky all failed to net a goal for the Stars in the
shootout.
Stars drop season opener to Blackhawks in shootout
“It’s disappointing,” Spezza said. “We carried the play for most of the night
and they got some momentum with the power plays in the third, but for the
most part I thought we deserved a better fate tonight.”
By Travis L. Brown
Star-Telegram LOADED: 10.10.2014
DALLAS — For their long wait since the Dallas Stars were last in action in
Game 6 of the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Stars fans were
rewarded with bonus hockey.
Their wait for the Stars’ first win of the season will be longer, however, as
Dallas dropped its season opener 3-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks in a
shootout.
Patrick Kane netted the only goal of the shootout on a backhand over Stars
goalie Kari Lehtonen’s blocker.
“We created some chances and got some good looks,” Stars forward Jason
Spezza said. “It would have been nice to bury another one, but it was a tight
game out there and their goalie played really well tonight.”
The highly touted Stars’ offense opened the season with the kind of
pressure expected, forging a 34-26 edge in shots on goal, but scrambling
by Lehtonen kept Chicago in the game.
The Stars’ came out of the chute with fervor, putting immediate pressure on
Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford.
Once the initial burst by the Stars subsided, which the veteran Blackhawks
squad weathered, it was Chicago that found the back of the net first.
In what appeared to be a simple attempt to put the puck on net to generate
further offense, a snap shot by defenseman Duncan Keith found its way
past Lehtonen with 44 seconds left in the first period. It was just Chicago’s
third shot on goal of the game.
Halfway through the second period, Dallas’ effort was rewarded as
defenseman Trevor Daley scored the Stars’ first goal of the season on his
31st birthday.
Daley knocked a pass by new Stars forward Ales Hemsky out of the air with
his glove and swatted the puck out of the air and over the left shoulder of
Crawford on the power play.
“It was kind of just panic mode and shoot it,” Daley said.
Before the period was over, Dallas took a 2-1 lead when Cody Eakin found
a blocked shot and fired it over the glove of Crawford on his fourth shot of
the game.
It was a quick start for Eakin, who missed the majority of training camp
because of contract negotiations as unrestricted free agent.
Dallas’ lead would last until just under nine minutes left in the game when
Patrick Sharp sent a slap shot past Lehtonen seven seconds into a power
play.
The power play was created on a 2-minute minor for holding the stick on
Stars defenseman Jordie Benn.
Benn would take another minor for delay of game before the end of the third
period, resulting in two minutes of Blackhawks offensive haymakers in their
offensive end of the rink.
It was then Lehtonen that looked his sharpest in the game, finishing
regulation with 23 saves on 25 shots and gloving a close-range wrister by
Chicago captain Jonathan Towes to secure his team at least one point out
of the contest.
Dallas finished 1 for 6 on the power play, which everyone in the locker room
said is a work in progress.
“We were a little jittery early,” Spezza said. “It’s a little bit to be expected.
We are new and just kind of forming a unit together and forming tendencies.
If you look like a team like that, they’ve been together for a long time and
they know each other really well.
“We’re still a work in progress and I think our power play can be a lot better
than it was tonight, but we showed glimpses of doing good things.”
752834
Detroit Red Wings
Why the Red Wings beat the Bruins Thursday night
Helene St. James October 10, 2014
At Joe Louis Arena
IN THE FIRST PERIOD: Johan Franzen saw an early chance denied when
he rushed to a loose puck only to just miss sending it in over Tuukka Rask.
Luke Glendening slid a puck into the paint that Rask also deflected, as the
Wings reached four shots in the first six minutes while the Bruins had none
on Jimmy Howard. The Wings went on a power play at 8:26 but got less
going offensively with an extra skater than at even strength. After not
registering a shot through 12 minutes, the Bruins got on the board at 12:01,
when Patrice Bergeron converted a turnover into a clean shot that sailed
past Howard. A second power play yielded two shots, leaving the Wings
with a 10-5 advantage.
IN THE SECOND PERIOD: Henrik Zetterberg went off for interference at
:35, joined by Brad Marchand for embellishment. When Tomas Tatar went
off 42 seconds later, the Bruins had 1:18 of 4-on-3 power-play time, but
penalty killers and Howard did a good job holding them off. Justin
Abdelkader earned his first goal of the season at 3:52, when he deflected a
blue-line shot by Danny DeKeyser that evened the score at 1-1. Jakub Kindl
went to box at 6:48. The Wings thought they had scored with about seven
minutes to go, but video review upheld the no-goal call on the ice. Gustav
Nyquist scored at 14:46, when he sent in a wrist shot from the slot off a nice
feed from Darren Helm. Franzen also assisted. Shots were 20-9 to Detroit.
IN THE THIRD PERIOD: Brendan Smith went to the box for slashing at
1:44. The Wings mostly played shut-down through the period, having just
three shots through the first 15 minutes, while the Bruins managed to test
Howard five times in the same span. Howard made a nice glove save on
Marchand. Zetterberg zoomed around Boston's net for a scoring chance as
the clock ticked near four minutes to go. Franzen went to the box with 2:34
to go, but the Boston power play ended when Zdeno Chara followed suit at
at 18:14. Final shots were 24-17.
HOWARD ASSESSES VICTORY: "Most nights for us it's going to take a lot
of hard work for us and a full 60 minutes. There are a lot of games that will
mean something for us this year, so it's going to be a fun year."
MAXED-OUT MULE:Franzen had two assists in a strong performance,
earning praise from coach Mike Babcock: "I thought he was outstanding.
That was a real good game for Mule."
UP NEXT: Saturday against Anaheim.
Detroit Free Press LOADED: 10.10.2014
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Detroit Red Wings
Franzen finished with two assists.
Jeff Seidel: Blend of youth and veterans leads to Wings’ victory
“I’m trying to oversee a team that is trying to make the playoffs for the 24th
year in a row,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “At the same
time, we are trying to slowly turn this team over to a new generation of
players. That’s how we built the Red Wings in the late ’80s and early ’90s.”
Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press Columnist
In the second period, the Wings flipped the script.
Nyquist, the hot-shot 25-year-old, scored off assists from Darren Helm and
Franzen.
The night air was crisp and cool as thousands of Red Wings fans marched
toward Joe Louis Arena. There were excitement and anticipation and traffic
jams — the annual scene on opening night in Hockeytown.
Inside the Joe, music thumped through the loudspeakers, and a light show
danced across the ice.
“Let’s go, Red Wings!” the fans chanted, eight minutes before the game
even started.
“No surprise,” Howard said. “He’s a great player. He’s got that knack for the
net.”
But the play was actually started by Zetterberg.
“He started that whole thing,” Nyquist said. “I don’t really know how he did
it, but he got the puck to Mule and he chipped it to Helm. And Helm made a
real nice pass. It was an easy one to chip in.”
One by one, the Wings skated across the ice before their 2-1 win over
Boston.
A team victory
They introduced the kids: Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan and Gustav
Nyquist and Tomas Jurco. They saved the Wings last season after the
Olympic break, after the stars went down with injuries. The kids pushed this
team into the playoffs for the 23rd straight season.
“Howie made some huge saves at the end,” Nyquist said. “It was a great
overall team win.”
Then came the veterans.
The final moments were frantic, but Howard was strong.
As the game ended, the crowd was singing for joy: “Just a city boy… born
and raised in SOUTH DETROIT!”
Jimmy Howard was introduced and skated across the ice. He had a down
year last season, and this team needs him to play like he did in 2012-13.
Wings owner Mike Ilitch came down an elevator and got into a car, waiting
for him inside the arena; and Datsyuk walked down the hallway, wearing a
suit.
“Number 13, the magic man, Pavel Datsyuk.”
“We are a way quicker team,” Babcock said.
Datsyuk skated across the ice and waved to the crowd, but it was only a
tease. He has a shoulder injury and sat out Thursday night.
Quicker and younger.
“The birthday boy, happy birthday to the captain, No. 40, Henrik
Zetterberg.”
But the old guys are still leading the way.
The torch has not been passed. Not yet.
Zetterberg raised his stick and skated across the ice.
But those birthday candles keep adding up.
Yes, there was something sobering and ominous about Zetterberg having
such a public birthday, as he creeps toward advanced middle age — at
least, in hockey years. Zetterberg is 34 now, and Datsyuk is 36.
And as those birthdays keep adding up, you can feel the window closing for
this team.
At the same time, this team is transforming. The secret to this season will
be how the young kids blend their speed and youthful exuberance with the
wisdom and skill of the superstars.
Bruins draw first blood
As the game started, Howard took his spot in goal.
“Howie has been good,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “He has been
dialed in. He obviously worked real hard in the off-season. You get
rewarded for that.”
And then, before you knew it, some of that excitement started to fade, after
Patrice Bergeron scored the first goal of the season.
Boston Bruins 1, Red Wings 0.
Deflected goal ties it
In the second period, there were some cool moments, as the young players
blended in with the veterans.
Zetterberg, the 34-year-old captain, passed to Danny DeKeyser, a 24-yearold.
DeKeyser fired a shot.
Johan Franzen, 34, deflected the puck with his stick, and it deflected off
Justin Abdelkader for the goal, as the Wings tied it up.
Think about that. The puck went from an old guy, to a young guy, to an old
guy, to someone in between — a 27-year-old from Muskegon.
Red Wings 1, Boston 1.
“I thought that was a real good game for Mule,” Babcock said.
752836
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings beat Bruins, 2-1, in season opener
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press Sports Writer 1:11 a.m4
The Detroit Red Wings got their new season off to a satisfying start, using
their special teams to help secure a victory against a top-rate opponent.
The Wings topped playoff-foe Boston Bruins, 2-1 Thursday at Joe Louis
Arena, on the strength of solid puck possession, a refreshed power play
and a dependable penalty kill. The Wings had the advantage in shots all
night, overcame an early deficit, and overall did a lot of good things with the
puck in the offensive zone.
"I thought we played well all night," Justin Abdelkader said. "We skated
good, had some shots, lots of chances. Our special teams were really good
- we got a power play goal and defended on the penalty kill really good. It
was, overall, pretty good for us.
"This is one of the teams that everyone is talking about to be a Stanley Cup
contender and favorite, so it was a good measuring stick for us."
It got a little hectic near the end, when the Bruins got a power play with 2:34
to go in regulation, but Jimmy Howard was excellent and he got a little help
from a goalpost, too. The power play ended up lasting only 48 seconds
after Zdeno Chara interfered with Howard.
"We like to keep it interesting, keep everyone on the edge of their seat,"
Howard said, "so hopefully they come back."
Howard had to get a little equipment work done in the second period, after a
shot from Chara broke Howard's suspenders. "No surprise," Howard noted,
given Chara has a shot like a cannon.
For a while, it looked like Howard wouldn't see anything, as the Wings
segued from opening night introductions into a period of puck possession
that saw the Bruins unable to challenge Howard the first 12 minutes, while
Tuukka Rask was busy as the Wings buzzed. Johan Franzen had a
particularly good early chance when he spotted a loose puck by the crease,
but he couldn't get the puck up high enough.
As often happens when a goaltender doesn't see any shots for long
stretches, he gets beat when the puck finally does come his way. So it went
- Patrice Bergeron picked up a Jonathan Ericsson turnover and fired a
clean shot that sank over Howard's shoulder, at 12:01.
"I was like, sweet, way to start your night off," Howard said, laughing.
The Wings saw all their work with the puck pay off early in the second
period, when Danny DeKeyser ripped a shot from the blue line that Franzen
tipped before it deflected in off Abdelkader to tie the score.
With about seven minutes left in the second period, the Wings thought
they'd made it 2-1, but officials ruled no goal because it wasn't definitive the
puck crossed the goal line. Tomas Tatar had a solid chance denied during a
power play shortly afterwards, but it was Gustav Nyquist who made good.
Darren Helm got a hold of the puck to the left of Boston's goal and spotted
Nyquist in the low slot, quickly feeding Nyquist the puck for the conversion.
Helm is a newcomer to the power play, but he showed good instincts, and
his speed is any asset anywhere. For a team that struggled so much to
score with the man advantage last season, converting on the third
opportunity to start this season had to be a good boost of confidence.
"Our penalty killing was good," coach Mike Babcock said. "Killed too many
penalties. Our power play wasn't good early, but it scored a goal, so good
night for us."
The Wings get another great test Saturday, when the Anaheim Ducks come
to the Joe.
752837
Detroit Red Wings
Andrej Nestrasil will take relish in NHL opportunity
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press Sports Writer 1:14 a.m. EDT October
10, 2014
Andrej Nestrasil resorted to shutting off his phone; it was the only way to
get a little peace.
Since indications began earlier this week he'd appear in Thursday's
season-opening game for the Detroit Red Wings, family and friends back
home in Prague had inundated the 23-year-old with text messages, to the
point he, and the phone, were drained.
"I felt like somebody put glue in my hand two days ago," Nestrasil said, "and
stick the phone right in there, because I seriously the one day I came here, I
had 100% battery and in two hours it was gone. That was funny."
Nestrasil joked fans probably thought it was funny when his no. 49 and
name was called for introductions that preceded the 2-1 victory over
Boston.
"I'm guessing they had no idea who I am," he said, "but from my point of
view, it was really cool."
Nestrasil has been the happiest story to emerge from exhibition season.
Utterly guileless, he's revealed he was 99% certain he'd be sent to the
minors and the fact he wasn't has caused a smile that rarely fades.
"I feel great, because when you go to East Coast your first year, I really,
really appreciate the opportunity I'm getting here," he said. "I feel like
sometimes the guys who get to the NHL right away, they don't know how it
goes in the East Coast and in the AHL, they don't appreciate it as much."
The opportunity to make his debut at Joe Louis Arena arose because Pavel
Datsyuk is sidelined by a shoulder injury - but Nestrasil still also beat out
veterans Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary for a spot on a line with Darren
Helm and Gustav Nyquist. At 6-3, 200 pounds Nestrasil gives the Wings
another big forward, and one who can really skate, too.
"He seems like he'll work hard for you and he's got some good hands, skills,
vision," Helm said. "He's probably going to be a pretty good player for us.
He adds a different element to our team."
Nyquist said Nestrasil, "is good at protecting the puck in the O-zone and
also can make plays."
Nestrasil can't be sent down without waivers, and the Wings don't want to
risk his being picked up by another team. It's a turn of events that delights a
man who a few months back didn't believe he'd be in Detroit this time of
year.
"It wasn't that I didn't hope to play right away," Nestrasil said, "but the
counts I was doing in my head, with all the players we had - I thought I
might get a chance to play a couple of games over the season. I was
thinking the earliest around December. Now I'm already here, and I'm really
happy for that."
752838
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings drop big time in ESPN's future rankings
Brian J Manzullo, The Detroit Free Press 2:29 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
The Detroit Red Wings ranked No. 2 in last year's ESPN NHL "future power
rankings," which projects how NHL teams will fare three years from now.
Things changed quite a bit in a year, according to ESPN's panel of five
analysts.
The Wings are now No. 15, right in the middle of the NHL's 30 teams,
thanks to drops in all four categories: Roster (4.4 rating out of 10),
prospects (6.2), contracts (4.6) and management (8.6).
Several factors came into play for this.
"Heading into 2013-14, Jimmy Howard was seen as an Olympic goalie,
Stephen Weiss a smart free-agent addition and Daniel Alfredsson a steal in
free agency," ESPN's Craig Custance writes. "Weiss has been a flop,
Alfredsson may not play because of injury, and Howard needs to prove
again he's worth the long-term commitment given to him by GM Ken
Holland.
"There are also legitimate concerns as to whether franchise forwards Pavel
Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg can stay healthy. Detroit still rated an 8.6 in
the owner/GM/coach category, showing that the trio of Mike Ilitch, Holland
and Mike Babcock still has the respect it has earned, but the possibility of a
Babcock departure threatens that category moving forward."
The Chicago Blackhawks rank No. 1, followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning,
managed by former Wing Steve Yzerman.
It's worth noting these are just projections. But the Wings have work to do to
become one of the NHL's elite franchises again.
752839
Detroit Red Wings
Fighters having trouble finding jobs in NHL
Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports 2:17 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
Unemployed NHL tough guy Krys Barch fondly recalls a few seasons ago,
when he was considered essential to the Dallas Stars, especially against a
fighting team like the Boston Bruins.
“But with the game becoming faster and faster and more teams using four
lines on a regular basis, (fighters) who used to be one-dimensional really
have to be able to play,” he said. “That has changed it more than anything.”
Norton predicts that fighting might make a bit of a comeback if the NHL
expands. Expansion teams historically have brought in some tough guys to
grab fans’ attention while the team tries to become competitive.
“If they expand to four more teams, you won’t find 90 guys who can play,”
Norton said. “What’s the common thread on tough guys? They tend to be
inexpensive.”
Barch still hopes to land a job, but he is prepared if this is the end of the
line.
“We had Sean Avery and we had a bunch of line brawls,” he said. “I’ve
probably fought Shawn Thornton 10 or 12 times.”
“I’ve played a long time in the NHL and I’m appreciative of that,” he said.
“No matter what role you are in, it’s an honor to play.”
Once he recalls the Dallas-Boston starting lineups were posted on the white
board and then-teammate Mike Ribeiro was projecting aloud who would
pair off with whom if everyone on the ice started fighting.
“Ribeiro was laughing, and saying, ‘Geez, Barchie, you are going to take on
Zdeno Chara, and if we get in a line brawl, I’m going to have to fight Milan
Lucic,’” Barch said. “But I know guys would haven’t have been joking about
it if it wasn’t a huge thing on their mind.”
Barch, 34, who had 13 fights last season with the Florida Panthers and
more than 100 in his career, is proud to be a nine-season NHL veteran with
a history of protecting teammates. He is also stunned to find himself out of
work as part of what appears to be more downsizing in the significance of
fighting.
The Toronto Maple Leafs recently put tough guys Colton Orr and Frazer
McLaren on waivers and sent both to the minors.
“This appears to be an Eastern Conference trend, and I will be interested to
see how this blueprint works when they play Boston,” said Calgary Flames
executive Brian Burke, a noted supporter of fighting.
Popular tough guy Paul Bissonnette has 580,000 Twitter followers but no
NHL contract. George Parros, Kevin Westgarth, Jay Rosehill and Matt
Kassian also didn’t make NHL rosters.
“I remember when George Parros played in Anaheim, they had a whole
section for him in the souvenir stand,” said player agent Scott Norton.
Norton, who represents Vancouver Canucks tough guy Tom Sestito
(league-best 19 fights last season), said the marketplace for fighters is
limited.
“No matter how many Brian Burkes there are in the league, there are more
Stan Bowmans and Kenny Hollands who want to play the four-line skill
game and try to put the pressure on from the offensive standpoint,” he said.
According to hockeyfights.com, the number of fighting majors is down 36%
from six seasons ago.
Barch would argue that you need an enforcer to help you against a bigbodied team such as the champion Los Angeles Kings.
“As much as they say they don’t have an enforcer, if you go look at Jordan
Nolan’s fights, he gives it to a lot of guys,” Barch said. “They have a lot of
guys on that team that are willing to fight.”
A safety-first rule preventing players from taking off their helmets to fight
plays a role in the continued decrease in fighting. Also, the NHL is now
facing concussion lawsuits from former players.
“You wonder if there is influence from behind the scenes from the league
side of things,” Barch said.
No one is predicting that tough guys are becoming extinct. After blowing a
3-0 playoff series lead to Los Angeles, San Jose Sharks general manager
Doug Wilson signed 6-foot-8 tough guy John Scott (Michigan Tech) during
the summer.
“I think intimidation is always going to be part of our game,” said former
NHL player Ed Olczyk, an NBC analyst. “I think there is something to be
said to having that guy there, not for the message he sends to the other
side, but what it means inside your locker room.”
Nashville Predators GM David Poile said “there is a time and place” where
it becomes necessary for players to defend each other.
752840
Detroit Red Wings
'Everybody is excited' as Detroit Red Wings open season
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press Sports Writer 12:12 p.m. EDT
October 9, 2014
Andrej Nestrasil slept like a child, then woke up to the delightful news that
he'll be making his NHL debut this evening.
Nestrasil is penned in to play next to Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist
when the Detroit Red Wings open the 2014-15 season by hosting the
Boston Bruins at Joe Louis Arena (7:30, FSD).
"I'm really looking forward to it," he said after the morning skate. "The good
thing for me is that it's right after the camp. I'm still going to be a little
nervous before the game, but I've been here for a month and a half and I'm
really familiar with the things we do here. I think I'll be fine."
Nestrasil is in because Pavel Datsyuk is sidelined by a shoulder injury.
Datsyuk has skated every day this week, though, and is expected to be
back within a week.
The other lines during the morning skate had Henrik Zetterberg with Johan
Franzen and Justin Abdelkader, Riley Sheahan with Tomas Tatar and
Tomas Jurco and Luke Glendening with Joakim Andersson and Drew
Miller. That leaves Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary as healthy scratches.
Brian Lashoff is the odd man out on the back end.
Picking Nestrasil, 23, over Cleary and Weiss came down to the camp that
Nestrasil had. "He played well, and he's earned the right to start here
today," coach Mike Babcock said.
The Bruins, who bounced an injury-riddled Detroit team five games into the
playoffs last spring, stand as a good early gauge for the Wings because
Boston has a big, skilled lineup. The Wings have size of their own at the
start of this season -- Nestrasil, Sheahan and Jurco all add size up front to
a lineup that includes Franzen and Andersson.
Having started with captain's skates back in early September, then
segueing to training camp in Traverse City and back to Detroit for exhibition
games, Nestrasil isn't the only Wings player looking forward to tonight.
"Everybody is excited; everybody is going to be a little nervous," Helm said.
"It's the start of a new year, and you just have to relax and play hockey and
enjoy it."
752841
Detroit Red Wings
John Niyo: Red Wings pick up pace in promising opener
And from there, they kept coming, even if the goals didn't.
Howard didn't give up another, either, though. And unlike so many times
last year, the Red Wings didn't cough up a third-period lead Thursday.
"We came out for the third, and like a young group I didn't think we were as
assertive as we should've been," Babcock scolded afterward.
John Niyo, The Detroit News 12:14 a.m. EDT October 10, 2014
Detroit — Mike Babcock was visibly cringing as he talked about molasses
the other day.
And while he wasn't referring to the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919 — I'll
spare you the gory details, but you can look it up — he was recalling the
last we'd seen of his team.
The Red Wings were quickly ushered out of the first round of the playoffs by
the Boston Bruins last spring, but it was the manner in which they were
beaten — "They thumped us, they absolutely thumped us," Babcock said —
that really stuck with him.
For much of last season, in practice and in games, the Red Wings were a
step slow. That's a big reason why the Bruins were able to make such short
work of them in April. And no matter where you placed the blame — the
new faces or the old legs, the injuries or the inexperience — it was
excruciating for a coach who preaches pace, not patience.
So much so, in fact, that Babcock joked he could hardly bear to look some
days. Watching his team skate, he said, "It was just like molasses."
But no more, he vowed on the eve of the 2014-15 regular season.
"We can come at you," Babcock said, defiantly.
And as promised, the Red Wings did just that in their opener Thursday,
coming away with a 2-1 victory over the Bruins at Joe Louis Arena.
"We skated hard — we were a fast team tonight," said Gustav Nyquist, who
netted the eventual game-winner on the power play late in the second
period. "We wanted to come out skating, and we did that."
Controlling play
They certainly did, though to be fair, they were skating against a Boston
team that had played its own season opener just 24 hours earlier against
the Flyers.
"I didn't think (the Bruins) had as much juice as they'd normally have,"
Babcock admitted. "But I thought our team worked real hard."
While the shot clock reflected that effort early — the Bruins didn't put one
on net in the game's first 12 minutes — the scoreboard didn't. And when
Jonathan Ericsson committed a ghastly turnover in his own zone, the
reigning Presidents' Trophy winners were quick to capitalize as Patrice
Bergeron whistled a wrist shot over the shoulder of a napping Jimmy
Howard at 12:01.
And whatever you were thinking at that point, rest assured the Red Wings
— suddenly trailing, 1-0 — were thinking much the same.
"I was like, 'Sweet, way to start your night off,' " Howard said, sarcastically.
Added Babcock: "You're saying to yourself, 'Well, this isn't very good.' "
But no need to worry, it got better, much to the delight of an enthusiastic
sellout crowd on opening night.
The public-address system blasted "The Boys Are Back In Town" as the
home team skated out for pregame warm-ups. And the "Let's go, Red
Wings!" chant threatened to drown out the pregame ceremony that
followed. Another roar of approval greeted the first octopus landing early in
the first period.
But it wasn't until early in the second, when Danny DeKeyser's point shot
found a hole in a two-man screen in front of Boston's Tuukka Rask —
glancing off the stick of Johan Franzen and the back of Justin Abdelkader's
leg, as best anyone could tell — that the crowd really could erupt.
Keeping the lead
Later, when the Red Wings' power play — an albatross all last season,
finishing 18th in the league — finally clicked, so did the fans. Nyquist's goal
off a heady pass from Darren Helm — with Bergeron in the box for slashing
— gave the Wings their first lead at 14:46 of the second period.
But then they were forced to kill a penalty right away — Brendan Smith was
whistled for slashing less than 2 minutes in — and that helped ratchet up
the intensity again. Another Detroit penalty kill in the final few minutes of
regulation sealed it.
The good teams just find a way to win. That's what Babcock had reminded
everyone after the morning skate, taking note of Boston's opening 2-1 win
over Philadelphia.
"They just won a one-goal game — that's what they do every night," he
said.
Well, that's what his team did Thursday night. For the head coach, it was an
encouraging start. And a much easier game to watch, I imagine
Detroit News LOADED: 10.10.2014
752842
Detroit Red Wings
On the goal, Ericsson's pass up ice bounced off a Bruins player and directly
onto the stick of Bergeron.
Red Wings open with special victory over Bruins
Bergeron wheeled around and had a 3-on-1 break going the other way, but
decided to keep the puck and fired from near the dot.
Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News 11:24 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
The shot flew past Howard, and gave the Bruins a lead after the Red Wings
had out-shot them 6-0 to that juncture.
"Surprise, surprise, first shot goes in and I thought to myself 'Sweet, that's a
a good way to start your night off'," Howard said.
Detroit — The Red Wings certainly hope there will be plenty more of these
in the 81 games left.
But the evening got much better for Howard, and the Red Wings.
There were plenty of things that went right for the Red Wings as they
defeated the Boston Bruins — the team that ended the Red Wings' season
last April — 2-1 in Thursday's regular season opener.
"Overall we played a real good game," Nyquist said. "We skated hard and
we were a fast team. They played last night and we knew they'd be a little
tired, so we wanted to come at them hard and we did that."
Two second-period goals, including the tie-breaker on the power play by
Gustav Nyquist, proved to be the difference.
Justin Abdelkader opened the Red Wings scoring in the second period.
Jimmy Howard allowed a goal on the first shot he faced this season, then
stopped the remaining 16 shots he faced.
"This will be our receipe for success most nights," said Howard, who made
several big saves in the third period. "It'll take a lot of hard work for a full 60
minutes. There will be a lot of hard fought games. A lot of games that'll
mean something for us.
"It'll be a fun year."
Howard made a sparkling glove save on Brad Marchand near the
hashmarks with just under 12 minutes left in the game, preserving the Red
Wings lead.
The Red Wings also killed all four Boston power plays as special teams —
which have been stressed in the exhibition season — roving to be a major
plus in the regular season opener.
"Our team worked real hard," coach Mike Babcock said. "Howie didn't get
much work early but made good saves late. They played last night and in a
month or two, it won't matter. Right now it does matter. When you start the
season and play back to back, that's wear and tear on you for sure."
Boston had a power play with just under three minutes to play after Johan
Franzen was whistled for elbowing Patrice Bergeron.
The Bruins hit a crossbar on one attempt, but quickly lost the man
advantage when Zdeno Chara was called for interference.
Bergeron scored for the Bruins, who fell to 1-1-0 on the season.
"This is one of the favorites, one of the teams people are talking will be a
Stanley Cup contender," Abdelkader said. "It's a good measuring stick for
us. We have to follow it up and not be content."
Bergeron, the reigning Selke Trophy (best defensive forward) winner, gave
the Bruins a scare early in the second period.
Bergeron slammed into the boards racing to the puck with Jonathan
Ericsson and appeared to turn a knee and possibly slam his shoulder in the
boards.
Bergeron left the ice and missed most of the second period before
returning.
And it was Bergeron's slashing penalty on Johan Franzen that led to
Nyquist's power play goal.
On the goal, Darren Helm got a pass between the circle and goal line,
turned, and found Nyquist between the hashmarks.
Nyquist snapped a shot past goalie Tuukka Rask at 13:27.
The goal was welcome after two uninspired Red Wings power plays in the
first period.
Abdelkader opened the Red Wings' scoring at 3:52 of the secod period.
Danny DeKeyser's shot from the right point glanced off Franzen's stick,
then deflected off Abdelkader's body before fluttering past Rask, tying the
game.
Bergeron scored on the Bruins' first shot of the game at 12:01 of the first
period.
752843
Detroit Red Wings
Instant Analysis: Special teams, Mule shine for Wings
The Detroit News 10:38 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
Ted Kulfan: The Red Wings special teams look better than they did most of
last season. The power play had two rather unspectacular efforts in the first
period of Thursday's 2-1 victory over the Bruins, but Gustav Nyquist scored
the tie-breaking power-play goal in the second period. And the penalty kill
was successful on all four of its attempts. The Red Wings took advantage of
a good, tired opponent.
Gregg Krupa: The Red Wings' high speed kept Bruins neutralized almost all
night, after Boston played Wednesday. But Wings chronic failure to finish
plays in offensive end resulted in narrow, thrilling, 2-1 win.
John Niyo: For all the talk about the young guns, it had to be encouraging to
see some early contributions from a stubborn old Mule. Johan Franzen was
active and engaged in the opener against the Bruins, and without a doubt
that does make a difference for this team.
752844
Detroit Red Wings
"Specialty teams nowadays are so important, too," Ericsson said. "You
really can't afford to take any penalties. I think that's a big key in maybe way
guys are getting rid of their tough guys.
Gregg Krupa: Fighters are a vanishing breed in NHL
"I think the Red Wings haven't been, since maybe (Joey) Kocur and (Bob)
Probert's time, anywhere near the fighting teams."
Gregg Krupa, The Detroit News 9:34 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
If an even greater lack of deterrence concerns him, Red Wings coach Mike
Babcock is keeping it to himself.
Detroit — The Red Wings intend to fly with even less protection this
season, fewer tough guys to deter aggression from opponents against their
lineup that includes veteran, frequently-injured stars like Henrik Zetterberg
and Pavel Datsyuk.
Asked about the Bruins physical play and whether his team's increased
team speed can counter it, he steered away.
"I guess what I would tell you is that the Bruins just play right," he said.
"When I watch them, I like the way they play. They're organized. They've
got good players. They play hard. I like their game
Not that the Red Wings have done much fighting in recent seasons. But
with Todd Bertuzzi gone and Jordin Tootoo catching on with the Devils,
their ability to "keep the flies off" the stars and make the other guys pay
when they take too many liberties, is only more constrained on a roster that
places even more emphasis on speed and puck possession.
"(Boston) just won a one-goal game (over the Flyers on Wednesday).
That's what they do, every night. That's what good teams do, they find a
way to win games."
With personnel decisions fast and furious in the NHL the past week,
however, a question arises: Are the Red Wings actually the model and is
the rest of the NHL catching up?
Saying teams increasingly consider the pugilists unnecessary, analysts are
dubbing it a trend.
Across the NHL, tough guys, including Shawn Thornton, Jay Rosehill,
George Parros, Colton Orr, Frazer MacLaren and Kevin Westgarth, are
either without jobs or, in Thornton's case, with a new team.
The Bruins and the Maple Leafs say they are reducing their traditional
emphasis on aggression and intimidation.
Last season, the teams were first and second in fighting majors, the Maple
Leafs with 48 and Bruins with 46.
Now, both are talking about playing quicker, more skilled games.
"I think a lot of teams are looking for players that can do both," Bruins coach
Claude Julien said Thursday before playing the Red Wings at Joe Louis
Arena.
"You know, in this new NHL, a player that can defend his teammates, you
also want him to be able to play and give him at least some decent
minutes."
That was Tootoo's problem. His game was too one-dimensional.
For 18 years, Bertuzzi was precisely the player Julien describes, a skilled
and physical forward. But 39 is old in the NHL, especially having played like
that.
Pacifist Red Wings
The number of NHL games with a fight fell to 29.76 percent last season,
according to HockeyFights.com, the lowest since 2005-06. It has been as
high as 40 percent recently.
The Red Wings had the fewest fights, with seven, one less than the
Hurricanes, three less than the Devils and nine less than the Blackhawks.
Brendan Smith fought twice and Tootoo, Drew Miller, Justin Abdlekader,
Kyle Quincy and Daniel Cleary once each.
Bertuzzi might not have fought, but other teams knew he could, and often
that is just as good.
Smith proved that in the playoffs, as he willingly tempted fate with the
gargantuan Zdeno Chara. The result was he and Chara went to the penalty
box — together.
Smith helped establish the precedent a team not interested in fighting
might, regardless, when absolutely necessary.
"There's still a place for it in the game," Smith said. "You look at a guy like
(Boston's Milan) Lucic who is a big man, who is a hell of a player, who puts
up lots of points. But then, he is one of the toughest guys in the league, as
well.
"But the traditional, whatever you want to call them, I guess goon, or
enforcer, or whatever, sometimes their skills aren't as high."
Jonathan Ericsson has fought and has the size to grapple in other ways
with big opponents.
More skill needed
"Teams want to possess the puck," Keith Jones said Tuesday on NBCSN.
"And if you can't handle the puck, there's a good chance you're not going to
be in the lineup.
"So, if you fight, you have to be also able to play."
On the same broadcast, Mike Milbury — once a pugnacious player for a
pugnacious team, the Bruins of the late 1970s — was ready to declare the
day of fighting in hockey dead.
"It's telling me that it's time to get rid of fighting," Milbury said. "It's telling me
that it's over."
Whether it would lead to even more brutality on the ice because teams can
not deter opponents is an arguable point. In a game as quick and physical
as hockey, played by men who are increasingly big, strong and fast, fighting
has its place.
But the Red Wings seem destined to rely even more on speed, finesse and
power play goals for deterrence.
Sometimes it works. But it also tends to leave Zetterberg and Datsyuk
exposed.
How it plays out over the season will be among the factors in the Red
Wings success.
752845
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings' Andrej Nestrasil excited for NHL debut
The fact the defense has stayed together should be a plus, according to
Kyle Quincey.
"We know each other and we're comfortable with each other," said Quincey,
who re-signed last summer. "The systems haven't changed. We know them
and we just keep getting better at them every day."
Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News 7:10 p.m. EDT October 9, 2014
The Red Wings were in the mix for free-agent defensemen Matt Niskanen
(Capitals), Anton Stralman (Lightning) and Danny Boyle (Rangers), but all
signed elsewhere.
Detroit — Andrej Nestrasil admits that when he came to North America
three years ago, there probably weren't a lot of people who believed he
would play in the NHL.
Ice chips
"One hundred percent, no," Nestrasil said. "(But) I always hoped deep down
I would."
He's not hoping anymore after making his debut for the Red Wings in their
opener Thursday against the Bruins.
"I'm happy for that," the right wing said before the game.
Nestrasil made the Red Wings roster largely because of Pavel Datsyuk's
shoulder separation, which could keep Datsyuk out another week or two.
But Nestrasil was impressive throughout camp and exhibitions with his
scoring touch, size (6-foot-3, 200 pounds) and instincts.
After spending much of his first two years in North America in the ECHL in
Toledo before earning a full-time role in Grand Rapids last season, he
planned to take it all in.
"I really appreciate the opportunity I'm getting here," Nestrasil said. "I feel
sometimes the guys who get to the NHL right away, they don't know how it
goes in the East Coast League and the AHL, they don't appreciate it as
much.
"I'm really going to be happy and may be smiling the whole time."
In coach Mike Babcock's mind, Nestrasil earned the chance.
"Nesty played well," Babcock said. "He earned his right to start here."
Nestrasil had a breakout season with the Griffins last season, with 36 points
(16 goals), including 22 the final 22 games.
The offensive surge was unexpected, given that in his previous 50 games in
Grand Rapids he produced 10 points (six goals).
But his confidence and skill consistently showed, and the Red Wings
decided to keep the 2009 third-round pick over the likes of Landon Ferraro
and Mitch Callahan.
And when that happened, Nestrasil received several congratulatory call and
texts.
"I felt like some had put glue on my hand and stuck a phone right there,"
Nestrasil said. "The one day I came in here I had 100 percent battery life
and it was all gone in two hours. It was kind of funny."
'Huge drop-off' on defense
Red Wings fans believe the defense was an area the team needed to
strengthen and improve.
NBC's analysts believe the same.
"They're really going to need the back end of their defense to really play up
and beyond maybe what they can," said Eddie Olczyk, who broadcasts
national games on NBC with Mike Emrick. "There's a huge drop-off from
Niklas Kronwall, Danny DeKeyser and Jonathan Ericsson. There's a wide
range there, so you've got to play the hand that's dealt.
"Can those four, five, six, seven-number defensemen really be invincible
guys night in and night out and help the Red Wings? (That) is one of the
biggest holes that they have."
One defenseman Emrick believes will take a big step forward is Brendan
Smith.
"Smith will get even better than he did toward the end of last season,"
Emrick said. "Maybe he's the guy that rises to something important because
they're going to really need some help on defense."
'Getting better every day'
Tomas Jurco, who had minor league options remaining, showed his
offensive potential during exhibitions and earned a spot on the roster.
"It's only the first step," Jurco said. "I have a two-way contract (can be sent
to Grand Rapids) and I have to keep working hard. I don't think about
making anything yet. It's just a first for me and we'll see how it goes."
... Emrick, on the importance of Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg remaining
healthy: "When you have two guys that are so important to a team that don't
get a chance to play together because they're not healthy too often, and
Pavel is not going to be available at the start of the season, that really does
represent a concern."
752846
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings' Jimmy Howard not fazed after first shot goes in, off to good
start with 2-1 win over Bruins
By Ansar Khan | October 09, 2014
DETROIT – The first shot Jimmy Howard faced this season sailed over his
left shoulder to give the Boston Bruins the lead.
"Surprise, surprise! The first one goes in I was like, 'Sweet way to start your
night off,' " Howard said.
Fortunately for the Detroit Red Wings, it was not a sign of things to come.
Howard wasn't tested often Thursday, but stopped the final 16 shots he
faced, coming up with some big glove saves, in a 2-1 victory at Joe Louis
Arena.
"Howie sits there for 25 minutes, doesn't get any shots and the first one
goes over his shoulder and you're saying to yourself, 'This isn't very good,' "
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "But I thought Howie's been good.
He obviously worked very hard in the offseason. You get rewarded for that."
It was a good start for the Red Wings and a good beginning for Howard,
who needs to bounce back from a below average season.
The Red Wings controlled the play the first two periods, outshooting Boston
20-9. Howard had to be sharp during four Bruins power plays, including one
with 2:34 remaining in regulation that Boston turned into a six-on-four by
pulling goalie Tuukka Rask.
The power play lasted only 48 seconds before Zdeno Chara was called for
interference, when he knocked Howard's stick away from him.
"We like to keep it interesting, keep everyone on the edge of their seats so
hopefully they'll come back," Howard said. "My D did a tremendous job in
front of me. They deserve a lot of the credit.
"This is our recipe for success. A lot of nights it's going to take working a full
60 minutes. There are going to be a lot of hard-fought games and games
that mean something for us this year. It's going to be a fun year.
Second-period goals from Justin Abdelkader (3:52) and Gustav Nyquist
(14:46 on the power play) were the difference.
"I thought we played real hard," Babcock said. "They played last night (2-1
win over Philadelphia). In a month from now or two months from now it
doesn't matter, but right now it does matter. When you start and it's back-toback, it's wear and tear on you for sure."
Nyquist said it was a good team effort against the club that finished with the
best record in the NHL last season and knocked the Red Wings out of the
first round of the playoffs in five games.
"We didn't give up many chances, we covered for each other out there,"
Nyquist said. "We had our third guy with us the whole time and didn't give
up too many odd-man rushes. The chances they had, I think Howie made
some huge saves at the end there so great overall team win."
Michigan Live LOADED: 10.10.2014
752847
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings 2, Bruins 1: Gustav Nyquist scores winner in season opener,
Detroit limits Boston's chances
DETROIT – Gustav Nyquist spent the first six weeks of last season in the
minors because the Detroit Red Wings didn't have room for him on their
roster.
This year, Nyquist and the other young players promoted during the season
are with the club from the start. The Red Wings are counting on their speed,
energy and scoring ability to help them get off to a good start.
They did just that on Thursday, as Nyquist scored the deciding goal in a 2-1
season-opening victory over the Boston Bruins at Joe Louis Arena.
Justin Abdelkader also scored for the Red Wings. Johan Franzen assisted
on both goals. Jimmy Howard made 16 saves.
The Red Wings opened against the Presidents' Trophy-winning team that
knocked them out of the first round of the playoffs last spring in five games.
The Bruins had a six-on-four advantage with 2:34 left after pulling
goaltender Tuukka Rask following an elbowing penalty on Franzen. But the
power play expired after 48 seconds due to a goalie interference call on
Zdeno Chara.
The Red Wings host Anaheim on Saturday and then Boston comes back to
town on Wednesday, due to a quirk in the schedule.
The Red Wings outshot the Bruins 10-4 and scored twice to lead 2-1 after
40 minutes.
Red Wings beat Bruins 2-1 in season opener Gustav Nyquist scored the
game-winning goal on a power play and Jimmy Howard made 16 saves
Abdelkader tied it at 1-1 at 3:52, by being in the right place at the right time.
Danny DeKeyser's blast from the point was tipped by Johan Franzen and
deflected in off of Abdelkader's pants.
Nyquist converted at 14:46, on his team's third power play of the night. He
was in front of the net when he buried a nice pass from Darren Helm.
Nyquist, who led the Red Wings with 28 goals in 2013-14, hadn't scored in
the final 11 games, regular season and playoffs, after his winning goal
against the Bruins on April 2.
Coach Mike Babcock spoke before the game about the importance of
continued growth from the young players.
"We're really impressed with the development and depth of our group,"
Babcock said. "When training camp came to an end there were too many
guys for the number of chairs left, which is great. That wasn't the case as
much in the past. We didn't have as much depth.
"We have two D (Xavier Ouellet, Nick Jensen) and a goalie (Petr Mrazek) in
the minors we think are ready to play. We replaced six forwards off our
team with kids over time here. So I like that. We're getting to be a deeper
team. We didn't have as many of the star power as we used to but we have
good depth and we're hopeful those players are going to turn themselves
into good players."
The Red Wings started last season 0 for 10 on the power play in their first
four games.
The Red Wings thought they had scored at 13:13 when Franzen's shot from
behind the goal line got caught up in Rask's equipment. They thought the
goalie might have taken the puck over the line himself, but a video review
upheld the no-goal call on the ice.
Patrice Bergeron pounced on an errant pass by Jonathan Ericsson to give
the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 12:01 of the first period. It was Boston's first shot,
after Detroit had registered seven.
The Red Wings couldn't take advantage of what appeared to be a tired
Bruins team in the first period. Boston opened its season the night before
with a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia at home.
The Red Wings spent much of the period in the offensive zone, outshooting
the Bruins 10-5, but didn't get that much pressure or second chances
against Rask. They managed just two shots on a pair of power plays.
752848
Detroit Red Wings
Second-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Bruins 1
Brendan Savage | October 09, 2014
DETROIT – Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist scored second-period
goals to put the Red Wings ahead going into the third.
Abdelkader, parked in the high slot, redirected a slap shot from the point by
Danny DeKeyser at 3:52.
Nyquist gave the Red Wings their first lead of the season when he took a
pass in the slot from Darren Helm and one-timed it past Tuukka Rask on
the power play with 5:14 left.
Second-period updates
Red Wings 2, Bruins 1 (0:00): Red Wings outshoot the Bruins 10-4 in the
period, have a 20-9 advantage for the game. Bruins didn't get a shot for at
least the last seven minutes.
Red Wings 2, Bruins 1 (5:14): Nyquist takes a pass in the slot from Helm
and buries it on the power play to give the Red Wings their first lead of the
season.
Red Wings 1, Bruins 1 (6:33): Moments after the Red Wings thought they
had scored but were denied by a review (it appeared to be the correct call)
Detroit goes back on the power play when Bergeron goes off for slashing
Franzen. Shots are 17-9 Red Wings.
Red Wings 1, Bruins 1 (6:58): Red Wings outshooting the Bruins 5-4 this
period, 15-9 for the game.
Red Wings 1, Bruins 1 (13:12): Bruins get second power play when Kindl
goes off for interference.
Red Wings 1, Bruins 1 (16:08): Franzen redirects a slap shot by DeKeyser
in the high slot. Zetterberg with the second assist. But don't be surprised if
it's changed to Abdelkader's goal.
Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 (1:26): Bruins get their first power play when Tatar
goes off for tripping Miller.
Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 (19:25): Well, that didn't take long. Zetterberg goes
off for interference, Marchand for embellisment.
752849
Detroit Red Wings
First-period analysis: Bruins 1, Red Wings 0
DETROIT – The Bruins didn't get their first shot until more than 12 minutes
into the game but they made it count. Patrice Bergeron pounced on a
Jonathan Ericsson turnover and beat Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot from
the left faceoff circle at 12:01.
The Red Wings had the game's first seven shots and ended the period with
10 to Boston's five. Detroit had both power plays in the first but got just two
shots on Tuukka Rask.
First period updates:
Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 (0:00): Red Wings outshoot Boston 10-5. Detroit got
two shots on its two power plays.
Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 (2:37): Red Wings get the second power, too, when
Paille goes off for interfering with Howard. Shots are 8-4 Detroit.
Bruins 1, Red Wings 0 (7:59): Patrice Bergeron picks up a loose puck after
a Jonathan Ericsson turnover and fires a wrist shot past Howard from the
left faceoff circle. Bruins first shot of the game after seven by the Red
Wings.
Red Wings 0, Bruins 0 (11:34): Red Wings get the first power play when
Seidenberg goes off for interfering with Glendening in front of the Boston
net.
Red Wings 0, Bruins 0 (15:57): It's officially hockey season. The first
octopus hits the ice near the center red line.
Red Wings 0, Bruins 0 (19:59): Regular season is underway; loudest
pregame ovation during introductions might have been for Mike Babcock.
752850
Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Season opener vs. Bruins is rematch of last
spring's playoff series
Brendan Savage |October 09, 2014
GAME INFORMATION
• Who: Detroit Red Wings (0-0) vs. Boston Bruins (1-0)
• Faceoff: 7:30 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit
• Live coverage: Join the MLive live updates at 6:30 p.m. ET and follow
Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) and Brendan Savage
(@BrendanSavage) on Twitter.
• TV: Fox Sports Detroit
• Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1) and Red Wings radio network
• Latest line: Detroit +105
GAME NOTES
The 88th season in Red Wings franchise history begins with a matchup of
Original Six teams. The Red Wings lead the all-time series with the Bruins
252-235-95-1. Detroit will be without Pavel Datsyuk (shoulder) but the rest
of the Red Wings are healthy enough to play. Rookie Andrej Nestrasil will
make his NHL debut in Datsyuk's absence and Jimmy Howard will start in
goal. Boston beat Philadelphia 2-1 Wednesday night in its season opener.
The Red Wings are in search of their 24th straight playoff apperance, the
longest active streak in North America's four major pro sports leagues.
PREGAME LINKS
Here are some recent Red Wings-related stories to peruse until game time:
• Red Wings' lineup for opener vs. Bruins
• Five reasons to be pessimistic Red Wings' playoff streak will continue
• Five reasons to be optimistic Red Wings' playoff streak will continue
• Same Red Wings return but signs point toward possible resurgence
• MLive writers offer predictions for Red Wings' season, Stanley Cup champ
• Red Wings hope better health, year of experience lead to better defense
• Opener is chance to show if Red Wings have improved after playoff loss
• Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk ranked among NHL's top 50 players
• Rookie Andrej Nestrasil excited after surviving Red Wings' final cut
• Defensemen are key to Red Wings season, say NBC Sports broadcasters
752851
Detroit Red Wings
Stanley Cup final: Anaheim over Boston
BRENDAN SAVAGE
MLive NHL writers agree on Detroit Red Wings' playoff fate, disagree on
Stanley Cup champion
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings begin their quest for a 24th straight
playoff berth tonight, when they host the Boston Bruins at Joe Louis Arena.
The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs and there will
be two additional wild-card entries in each conference. The wild cards will
go to the teams that have the most points among those not in the top three
of a division.
Why the Red Wings will make the playoffs: The Red Wings are no longer
an elite NHL team but they've still got plenty of talent as well as the
experience of knowing what it takes to overcome adversity and reach the
playoffs. Their health can't be any worse than it was last season, when they
battled injuries the entire season but still managed to reach the postseason
for the 23rd straight season. Goalie Jimmy Howard is primed for a bounceback campaign, youngsters like Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar are ready
to take the next step in their budding careers, and Henrik Zetterberg and
Pavel Datsyuk are still as good as it gets when healthy. The Red Wings will
oust Detroit fan favorite Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in the opening
round of the playoffs before again losing to the Bruins.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
Red Wings writers Ansar Khan and Brendan Savage offer their predictions
for how the Red Wings will fare in the regular season, what their playoff fate
will be and who will win the Stanley Cup next June.
1. Boston Bruins
ANSAR KHAN
3. Tampa Bay Lightning
Why the Red Wings will make the playoffs: They will get more production
from top players Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen, who
should be healthier. Coupled with more growth from younger forwards, it
will be a much deeper team up front. Jimmy Howard will rebound from a
mediocre season and look more like the goaltender from the previous two
seasons. Defense is a concern and might need to be addressed with a midseason trade or a permanent recall of a top prospect from Grand Rapids.
Boston and Pittsburgh once again will separate themselves from the pack in
the Eastern Conference, but after that, the next six teams could be
separated by only a few points. They will extend the playoff streak to 24
seasons and lose in the second round.
Metropolitan Division
Eastern Conference
Conference final: Boston over Tampa Bay
Atlantic Division
Western Conference
1. Boston Bruins
Central Division
2. Montreal Canadiens
1. Chicago Blackhawks
3. Detroit Red Wings
2. St. Louis Blues
Metropolitan Division
3. Dallas Stars
1. Pittsburgh Penguins
Pacific Division
2. New York Rangers
1. Anaheim Ducks
3. Washington Capitals
2. Los Angeles Kings
Wild cards
3. San Jose Sharks
1. Tampa Bay Lightning
Wild cards
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
1. Colorado Avalanche
Conference final: Boston over N.Y. Rangers
2. Minnesota Wild
Western Conference
Conference final: Chicago over St. Louis
Central Division
Stanley Cup final: Boston over Chicago
1. Chicago Blackhawks
2. St. Louis Blues
3. Colorado Avalanche
Pacific Division
1. Anaheim Ducks
2. Los Angeles Kings
3. San Jose Sharks
Wild cards
1. Dallas Stars
2. Minnesota Wild
Conference final: Anaheim over Chicago
2. Montreal Canadiens
1. Pittsburgh Penguins
2. New York Rangers
3. Columbus Blue Jackets
Wild cards
1. Detroit Red Wings
2. Toronto Maple Leafs
752852
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings' lineup vs. Bruins: Andrej Nestrasil's big day finally arrives as he
prepares for NHL debut
Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary are healthy scratches. Pavel Datsyuk is
on short-term injured reserve (separated shoulder).
On defense:
Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson
Danny DeKeyser-Brendan Smith
Kyle Quincey-Jakub Kindl
Brian Lashoff is scratched.
DETROIT – The day Andrej Nestrasil dreamed of for many years but
thought would never come has arrived.
Nestrasil will make his NHL debut tonight as the Detroit Red Wings open
the regular season against the Boston Bruins at Joe Louis Arena (7:30, Fox
Sports Detroit).
"If you have asked anybody three years ago if I was going to play in the
NHL they would all tell you 100 percent no," Nestrasil said. "I always hoped,
deep down in the corner, that I would and the day's here and I'm really
happy for it."
The good-sized, skilled forward (6-3, 200) outplayed veterans Stephen
Weiss and Daniel Cleary, healthy scratches tonight, in training camp and
the preseason.
Nestrasil is skating on the wing with Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist.
"He's been playing great here in camp," Nyquist said. "Great player, lot of
skill and a big body as well. He's good at protecting the puck in the
offensive zone and can make plays, so I'm excited to be playing with him."
Nestrasil said he's not nervous.
"I slept like a baby," Nestrasil said. "It doesn't make me nervous that I'm
playing tonight. If it's something you expect maybe you'd be nervous so
because maybe I didn't expect it all I just didn't have time to catch up with
the whole thing."
Family and friends back home in the Czech Republic will be watching the
game late tonight on NHL Live, he said.
"So many people from back home texting me expecting me to play,"
Nestrasil said. "I told them all the calm down, it's day by day."
His was getting inundated with text messages.
"I felt like someone put glue in my hand two days ago and stuck my phone
in there because I seriously the one day I had 100 percent battery and two
hours it was all gone," Nestrasil said. "Today, I'm turning off my phone to
get a rest and get ready for the game."
The Red Wings' third-round pick in 2009, Nestrasil was a late bloomer as a
pro, spending parts of two seasons shuttling from Grand Rapids (AHL) and
Toledo (ECHL). He established himself last season with the Griffins.
He thanked a lot of people for helping him reach this point.
"First couple of weeks I stayed with (Jakub Kindl). He took care of me really
well," Nestrasil said. "I lived with (Tomas) Jurco last year in Grand Rapids.
I've known Tats (Tomas Tatar) ever since the draft day. He didn't know
English so I had to translate everything for him. These guys helped me out
a ton and I'm really happy they're here."
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said Nestrasil earned his opportunity.
"It's exciting for him," Babcock said. "I watched the Boston game last night
and (Bobby Robbins), 32 years old playing his first game, it's pretty
impressive, pretty exciting for him. No different for Nesty. You want to share
that with the people you love and the people that helped you along the way.
"I thought Nesty played well. We're in a situation without Pavel (Datsyuk, on
injured reserve with a separated shoulder) that we need another body. He
played well and he earned his right to start today."
Here are tonight's lines and defense pairings:
Justin Abdelkader-Henrik Zetterberg-Johan Franzen
Tomas Tatar-Riley Sheahan-Tomas Jurco
Gustav Nyquist-Darren Helm-Andrej Nestrasil
Joakim Andersson-Luke Glendening-Drew Miller
In goal:
Jimmy Howard (starting)
Jonas Gustavsson
The first power-play unit features Zetterberg, Franzen, Nyquist and Helm
(net front), with Kronwall on the back end. The second unit has Sheahan,
Tatar, Jurco and Nestrasil (net front), with DeKeyser on the back end.
752853
Detroit Red Wings
Five reasons to be pessimistic the Red Wings' playoff streak won't continue
for a 24th season
With the possible exception of the Beatles' music, nothing lasts forever. The
Red Wings' 23 straight playoff appearances is the longest active streak in
North America's four professional sports. It's also the fifth longest in both
NHL history as well as an in any sport. The Boston Bruins are No. 1 with 29
straight playoff appearances from 1968-96 followed by the Chicago
Blackhawks (28), St. Louis Blues (25) and Montreal Canadiens (24).
Sooner or later the streak is going to end and it was a chore to keep it alive
the last two seasons, when the Red Wings didn't make the playoffs until the
final week of the season each time. Is this the end of the run?
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings struggled to extend their postseason
streak the past two seasons, taking until the final week of the season both
years to reach Stanley Cup playoffs. They qualified seventh two years ago
and grabbed the eighth and final spot last spring to hike their streak to 23
straight seasons. Will the downward spiral continue? Here are five reasons
to be pessimistic about the Red Wings' chances to extend their streak:
Many key players are aging
Ten players on this year's roster suited up for the 2008 Stanley Cup
champions at some point and many of the Red Wings' top players are on
the downside of their careers. The Hockey News still rates Henrik
Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk as two of the top 40 players in the NHL but
both dropped in those rankings since last season. Zetterberg, 33, and
Datsyuk, 36, both missed 37 games with injuries last season and their
health has to be a concern. Other aging Red Wings who missed significant
portions of last season with injuries include Johan Franzen, 34; Stephen
Weiss, 31; and Jimmy Howard, 30. Their top defenseman (Niklas Kronwall)
is 33 and last year's leading scorer (Daniel Alfredsson) is not only 41 but
has yet to decide if his achy back can withstand a 19th NHL season. And
who knows what they'll get from 35-year-old Daniel Cleary if he can stay
healthy?
Too many question marks on the back end
Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson are proven NHL defensemen and Danny
DeKesyer, 24, has established himself as a potential star in only 76 career
regular-season games, flawlessly making the transition from college hockey
after signing as a free agent a little more than 18 months ago. But the Red
Wings are still waiting for Brendan Smith to become the player they
envisioned when they chose him in the first round (27th overall) of the 2007
NHL draft. Veteran Kyle Quincey can be inconsistent although he played
well in the second half of last season, Jakub Kindl took a step back in 201314 after breakout campaign in the lockout-shorted season and undrafted
Brian Lashoff is still a work in progress entering his second full NHL
season. The Red Wings have several highly touted defensive prospects in
Grand Rapids but they're all unproven at the NHL level.
No offseason upgrades to the offense
The Red Wings did nothing in the offseason through trades or free agency
to address their troublesome lack of production at times last season. The
only new face among the forwards is rookie Andrej Nestrasil and who
knows how much he'll produce let alone how long he'll be in the NHL once
Datsyuk is healthy. The Red Wings ranked 16th in the NHL last season with
an average of 2.65 goals-per game and their power play was 18th with a
17.7-percent success rate. They were shut out eight times last season, the
most since 2008-09 although it should be pointed out they reached the
Stanley Cup Finals that season. The Red Wings were held to one goal in
regulation 12 times last season, winning two of those games – one in a
shootout and another in OT. That means the Red Wings failed to score at
least two regulation goals in almost 25 percent of their regular-season
games.
Not physical enough
The Red Wings have long been a finesse team, much to the dismay of
some fans who would like to see them get tougher – especially now that
they're in the Eastern Conference, which is perceived as being more
rugged. With Mitch Callahan back in the minors, the Red Wings don't really
have anybody whose presence might persuade opponents from taking
liberties with their stars. Jordin Tootoo was signed as a free agent two
years ago to fill that role but he never panned out and was waived last
season. That's not to say the Red Wings are a bunch of sissies. Far from it.
Anyone who plays in the NHL has a tremendous amount of guts and (in
most cases) heart. But they're still a team built around skill and finesse for
the most part.
All good things must come to an end
752854
Detroit Red Wings
Five reasons to be optimistic the Red Wings' playoff streak will continue for
a 24th season
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings own the longest active playoff streak in
professional sports at 23 straight seasons. It's also the fifth-longest streak in
NHL history. The NHL record is 29 seasons by the Boston Bruins from
1968-96 and the Red Wings could tie the Montreal Canadiens (1971-94) for
the fourth-longest streak by qualifying for the playoffs next spring. Here are
five reasons to be optimistic they'll make it for a 24th straight season:
Experience
The Red Wings have 23 players from back last year's team, 10 who have
been in Detroit for at least the last five playoff berths and 10 who suited up
for the 2008 Stanley Cup championship team at some point. The group
includes forwards Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen,
defensemen Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson, and goaltender Jimmy
Howard. That kind of experience can be invaluable when times get tough.
The players back from last year's team overcame the adversity of dealing
with a rash of injuries that began in training camp to put the team in the
playoffs for the 23rd straight season. That builds character. These guys
know what it takes to reach the postseason.
Zetterberg and Datsyuk
The Red Wings top two players surely have to be healthier than they were a
year ago. Don't they? Zetterberg and Datsyuk both missed 37 games a
year ago and neither was at full strength during the first-round playoff loss
to the Boston Bruins, when Zetterberg only suited up for two games. Sure,
Datsyuk is already on the shelf after injuring his shoulder in the preseason
opener but both of the star forwards reported that they felt great entering
training camp after spending last season battling back and knee injuries,
respectively. The Red Wings are an entirely different team with their two
leaders in the lineup. The Hockey News still ranks them among the NHL's
top 40 players. They're special talents.
The youngsters
The only good thing about all the injuries last season was they allowed the
Red Wings to give some of their younger players more playing time than
they otherwise would have gotten. Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar played
like emerging stars, with Nyquist the hottest scorer in the NHL at one point.
Riley Sheahan emerged as a top-six forward, Luke Glendening proved he's
a capable role player and Danny DeKeyser continued to progress. Although
he'll start this season in the minors, goaltender Petr Mrazek played well in
nine NHL games and is more than capable if something happens to one of
Detroit's netminders.
Cash in reserve
Nyquist was forced to start last season in Grand Rapids of the AHL
because he had a minor-league option and the Red Wings ran into a
numbers crunch out of camp with too many players and not enough money
available under the salary cap. That's not a problem this year. The Red
Wings have about $3 million available under the salary cap if Daniel
Alfredsson doesn't return – and let's be honest, his future in Detroit is
looking more and more unlikely – which means they could have some
money available late in the season to make a trade or take on an expiring
contract in order to add a right-handed shooting defenseman who could
help in the push for a playoff position.
Jimmy Howard
Most NHL insiders rank Howard in the middle of the goalie pack entering
his sixth full season and that's probably fair given what happened in 201314. Howard is coming off the worst season of his six-year NHL career after
posting a 21-19-11 record, 2.66 GAA and .910 save percentage while being
limited to 51 games because of injuries. But in his first five seasons,
Howard was arguably a top 10 goalie. He often didn't have a lot of help last
season with a patchwork lineup that saw eight players make their NHL
debuts because of all the injuries. Knowing last season wasn't good enough
after signing a six-year, $31.75 million contract extension in 2013, Howard
spent the off-season working on his technique and has slimmed down
through rigorous training during the summer. He's primed to bounce back.
752855
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings hoping better health, another year of experience lead to
improved play on back end
DETROIT – Numbers don't always tell the story but in the case of the 201314 NHL season, they provide a pretty good indication of why the Detroit
Red Wings struggled to make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Red Wings allowed more goals than they scored.
The explanation for the difference between winning and losing doesn't get
any simpler than that.
The Red Wings were in the middle of the 30-team NHL in both goals scored
and goals allowed and they finished in the middle of the 16-team Eastern
Conference to grab the eighth and final playoff spot.
To be a better team in the season that begins tonight, they're either going to
have score a lot more goals – which seems unlikely given they didn't add
any offensive weapons in the offseason – or they'll have to be stingier on
defense.
With all that being said, it's unfair to place all of the blame for the Red
Wings' defensive struggles on the players who man the blue line.
The forwards – and goaltenders, for that matter – have to assume some of
the responsibility as well.
The forwards are healthier this season after the Red Wings battled injuries
all of season beginning in training camp. If Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel
Datsyuk can avoid long stays on the injured list – both missed 37 games
apiece last season – that will be a tremendous help.
"If we're fortunate to have Pav and Z play, and stay healthy, we're a better
team that way," Babcock said.
Finally, Jimmy Howard is coming off the worst of his five seasons as the
Red Wings No. 1 goaltender and is eager to put 2013-14 behind him.
Howard wants to prove he's more like the guy who won at least 35 games
in his first three seasons – playing in the 2012 All-Star Game – rather than
the one who had a 21-19-11 record, 2.66 goals-against average and .910
save percentage last season.
Howard was solid in three preseason appearances – ''he's looked great,"
Kronwall said – posting a 2-1 record with a 1.89 GAA and .954 save
percentage.
Improving on the back end obviously starts with the defenseman.
"We really haven't played as a unit yet," Howard said. "We pretty much split
... all of preseason, so we're going to see (tonight) exactly what we have. I
think it's going to be good. I think a lot of guys played with a lot of poise.
Even though it was preseason, it was good to see a lot of positives out
there.
"We can talk about it all day, but in the end it's just about going out there
and doing it," said defenseman Danny DeKeyser. "All seven guys in the
locker room that play D are all capable of doing it.
"The young guys are one year older. They did a tremendous job for us last
year hoping us keep the playoff streak alive. I think a lot of veterans are a
lot more healthy than compared to most years.
"Now it's just going out there and doing it. I think we have a solid group
here. Everyone knows how to play, but in the end it's about executing every
shift."
"It's just going to be going out there and proving people wrong."
The Red Wings allowed 221 goals last season for an average of 2.70,
leaving them 16th in the NHL. They scored 217 for an average of 2.65 per
game, also putting them 16th in the league.
They'll open the season tonight against the Bruins with the same defensive
corps they used for most of last season – Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan
Ericsson, Kyle Quincey, Jakub Kindl, Brendan Smith, Brian Lashoff and
DeKeyser.
While the personnel hasn't changed, the Red Wings believe there are
several reasons to be optimistic that they'll be better defensively this
season.
Smith, Lashoff and DeKeyser – all of whom are 25 or younger – have one
full year of NHL experience behind them after spending all of last season
with the Red Wings.
All spent time in Detroit previously but last season marked the first full NHL
campaign for each of them.
"Our guys got tremendous experience last year," said Kronwall, the
unquestioned leader of the defense. "We faced a lot of adversity last year
and I think that's something we battled through and came out on top. We
made it through the playoffs. So that's something that's going to make our
defense even better.
"Our younger guys are another year older, more experienced, and another
year we played together."
Ericsson is close to full strength and will be back on the top defensive
pairing alongside Kronwall after missing 34 games last season because of
three injuries – a shoulder subluxation, broken ribs and a broken finger.
The latter sidelined him for the final 3½ weeks of the regular season and
the first-round playoff loss to Boston.
"We have a group that's really come" on, said coach Mike Babcock.
"DeKeyser is a much better player. Smith's a much better play. Having Big
E, who didn't play much of the second half, back is important. Kronwall is
obviously a real solid player for us. Quincey was a real solid player in the
second half for us.
"We just talked about five guys that are I think are really coming and two in
particular have come from within in DeKeyser and Smith, so we expect
good things out of our back end."
752856
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings return same group, but better health, growth of young players
could lead resurgence
DETROIT – No introductions were necessary when the Detroit Red Wings
reconvened following another offseason that was too long for their liking.
They return virtually the same team that slipped into the final playoff
position in the Eastern Conference and bowed out quickly, in five games to
the Boston Bruins.
So what makes them believe they will fare any better in 2014-15?
Three reasons – better health from an aging but still effective core, more
growth from a talented, young nucleus and better goaltending from Jimmy
Howard.
The Red Wings ranked second in the NHL with 421 man-games lost to
injury. Some of their best players – Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg,
Johan Franzen and Jonathan Ericsson – were among those who missed a
significant portion of the season. Injuries are inevitable, but a little better
luck with health should translate into a few more points in the standings.
Some good came from the injuries -- young players thrust into more
prominent roles delivered. Gustav Nyquist – who still hasn't played a full
NHL season – led the club with 28 goals. The Kid Line of Tomas Tatar (19
goals), Riley Sheahan (24 points in 42 games) and Tomas Jurco provided
offense and energy. Rookie defenseman Danny DeKeyser was second on
the team in average ice time, playing in all situations.
"The kids that came up basically carried us into the playoffs," team captain
Henrik Zetterberg said. "Now when everyone is healthy and to have those
(young) guys on your team, it is exciting to see what we will do. We're going
to be a fast team with a really good mix of old guys and young kids."
Said Howard: "Without the younger guys the (playoff) streak probably would
have ended. Hopefully they're ready to take the next step."
The Red Wings, who open the season Thursday at home against Boston,
ranked 16th out of 30 teams in goals per game (2.65) and goals against
(2.73).
They believe their offense will be better because they can dress three
reliable scoring lines, even without Daniel Alfredsson, who tied for the team
lead with 49 points. He's still determining whether his ailing back will allow
him to play another season.
They need much more from projected second-line center Stephen Weiss,
who was limited to 26 games (two goals, four points) due to a sports hernia.
It would help if Franzen showed some consistency instead of only flashes of
dominance.
They also need their power play, under new assistant coach Jim Hiller, to
be better than 18th in the league.
The Red Wings couldn't address their biggest need in the offseason – a
right-handed shooting defenseman to quarterback the power play. They
brought back the same seven defensemen from last season, led by Niklas
Kronwall and featuring Brendan Smith, who could be poised for a breakout
year.
The unit will look better if Howard returns to form. The workhorse goalie
took a step back (2.66 goals-against average, .910 save percentage) after
two solid seasons.
The Red Wings are riding a 23-year playoff streak, the longest current run
in the four major sports (the next-longest streak in the NHL is 10 seasons
by San Jose). But they haven't advanced past the second round since
2009. They're not satisfied just to qualify.
"This organization is all about winning," Kronwall said. "You can't keep
getting kicked out of the first round. We need to get over the hump and
really get a good run going."
Coach Mike Babcock, whose future with the organization is uncertain as he
heads into the final year of his contract, always sees the glass as half-full.
"We're getting better again now, but we're not getting better with old guys,
we're getting better with young guys," Babcock said. "So last year was a
breakthrough year for us. When you're on the outside looking in you might
not see it, but to me, since '09 we've still been a good team.
"We're a Cup team. You could say the whole league is a Cup team because
it's so tight. But there are four or five teams that you look at – Chicago, L.A.,
Pittsburgh, Boston – they're Cup contenders. The rest of us are fighting to
be in that pool."
The Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins again appear to be the class of the
East. The Red Wings hope to be in the next tier, along with the New York
Rangers, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Columbus.
"I don't think anyone has got us pegged to win the Presidents' Trophy, so
we're going to have to grind," Babcock said. "I think that's the key for our
success -- depth up front and getting after the other team and really skating
and competing. We're really going to have to work and compete and learn
how to play together if we want to have success."
Once again, it figures to be a battle to make the postseason.
"I think it's been like that since Nick (Lidstrom) retired (after 2011-12),"
Zetterberg said. "Ever since then we haven't been assured anything for the
playoffs. Somehow we've found a way to make it there and we're going to
do the same this year."
752857
Detroit Red Wings
Nyquist gets another timely goal to help troubled power play
By Chuck Pleiness, The Macomb Daily
DETROIT >> Gustav Nyquist scored some timely goals for the Detroit Red
Wings last season.
He was back at it Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Nyquist scored the Wings’ lone power play goal on four chances to lead
them over the Boston Bruins, 2-1.
“That obviously feels real nice for the power play,” Nyquist said. “I thought
(the power play) was OK tonight. I thought we could have done some things
better but we still got some chances, I think. I think it worked a little better
than it had in the preseason.”
The goal also helped get a power play going that limped along on its first
two chances of the game.
On each of their first two man advantages, the Wings cleared the puck out
of Boston’s zone with passes back to the point where no one was at.
“I think we’re getting a little more on the inside right now,” said Nyquist, who
had 28 goals in 57 regular season games last year. “I thought our breakouts
didn’t really work the way we wanted, but that’s something we can improve.
But in zone, we’re getting a lot of bodies in front and I think that’s where
we’re going to score a lot of goals so I like that.”
Nyquist had no goals over his last 11 games, including playoffs. His lost
goal came on April 2, coincidently against the Bruins.
“No surprise,” Wings goalie Jimmy Howard said when asked about
Nyquist’s ability to score big time goals. “He’s a great player. He’s a hard
worker in practice. He stays after and works on his game. It’s not surprise.
He’s got that knack, nose for the net. He’s always in the right place at the
right time.”
But back to the Wings’ new and improved power play.
“Our breakout was so bad early we couldn’t get into the zone,” Wings coach
Mike Babcock said. “We had no deception, so we talked about deception.
Go back to our power play goal, (Niklas Kronwall) did a real good job of
bring it up one side, looking everybody off and then going to (Henrik)
Zetterberg who had easy access.”
Detroit’s power play began last season going 0-for-10 through four games.
“We weren’t getting any control (on the power play),” Babcock said. “When
you think about their power play, except the four on three, they didn’t have
a ton of control. That’s what good penalty kill teams do, they make you
chase it around the whole time and they keep you on the wall. So we were
finally able to make a play.”
The Wings’ penalty kill, which was stellar in the preseason, was 4-for-4.
The last kill was late in the third period as Detroit clung to a one-goal lead
after Johan Franzen was sent off for elbowing. The Bruins pulled their
goalie to make it a 6-on-4 advantage. And then Luke Glendening lost his
stick early in the two-minute infraction.
“I’m pretty confident in the penalty kill, so I thought let’s just kill it off,”
Babcock said. “We came out for the third like a young group, I didn’t think
we were as assertive as we should have been, so having the penalty kill,
you can be really aggressive. The part that really hurt us was when Glenny
lost his stick and then broke his stick.”
Macomb Daily LOADED: 10.10.2014
752858
Detroit Red Wings
Pat Caputo - Been a long time since there has been this much uncertainty
about the Detroit Red Wings
Year after year, the Red Wings have proven they are the one team in this
town worth trusting. Yet, while they have made thrilling runs to reach the
playoffs the last two seasons, this is also a franchise that has won just one
playoff series the last three years.
In the process, they’ve gone from decided favorites to sort of underdogs.
Used to be you always knew about the Red Wings. Not so much anymore.
By Pat Caputo
They could cut either way these days.
The Red Wings opened the season Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena with
the usual pomp and circumstance.
There was a slick pregame show, loud player introductions and a classic
Original Six matchup with the Boston Bruins, who knocked the Red Wings
out of the playoffs in the opening-round last season.
The game didn’t disappoint. The Red Wings’ 2-1 victory was thrilling and
compelling. It remains to be seen if it is foretelling.
After an off-season of alarming inactivity, yet with possible major changes
on the horizon in the not-to-distant future, it has been decades since there
has been this much uncertainty surrounding the Red Wings.
Not only does The Hockey News rate the Red Wings’ chances of winning
the Stanley Cup championship at just 40-to-1, their projection is Detroit will
finish behind the Florida Panthers and not make the playoffs. The Panthers
have made the playoffs just one time in 15 seasons and have finished 29th
and 30th overall in the NHL the last two seasons.
To open the season, TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, has the Red
Wings at 16th in their power poll – the definition of a bubble team in regard
to the playoffs.
It seems like every sentence written or said about the Red Wings’ resident
stars, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, contains the word, “aging.”
Goalie Jimmy Howard didn’t have a good season in 2013-14, and the
handwringing continued Thursday after he allowed an early goal. Yet,
Howard responded with several key saves after that, especially during the
third period.
“This is our recipe for success,” Howard said. “Most nights, it is going to
take 60 minutes of hard work. There are going to be a lot of hard fought
games.”
The Red Wings have no right-handed shot on the power play, so they had
just one player at the point and two along the wall with the man advantage
Thursday.
It’s an invention born out of necessity. It’s difficult to pass the puck backand-forth along the blue line without a lefty-righty combo. It’s kind of the
same concept of why you can’t have a left-handed second baseman in
baseball. It would make it nearly impossible to turn the double play.
Hey, it worked Thursday, though. The Red Wings scored the go-ahead goal
on the power play as Gustav Nyquist popped in a pretty feed from Darren
Helm during the second period.
Then there’s Mike Babcock. The Red Wings’ coach is not signed beyond
this year, is a big hero in Canada after leading that hockey-crazy nation to
back-to-back gold medal victories in the Olympics, and Toronto’s Randy
Carlyle is by far the NHL’s No.1 lame duck coach. Former Red Wing
Brendan Shanahan is the new team president of the Maple Leafs. Already
replaced were all of Carlyle’s assistant coaches after Toronto collapsed
down the stretch and missed the playoffs last spring.
The hockey world is putting two-and-two together, especially since the Red
Wings signed Jeff Blashill, the highly successful coach of their top minor
league team in Grand Rapids, to a three-year contract.
Babcock has said he wants to stay. General Ken Holland, armed with a
long-term contract extension, says the Red Wings want him to stay. But
there is no contract extension, nor indication there will be one signed any
time soon.
It’s a lot of drama, and conjecture, and it’s made it difficult to gauge what
will happen on the ice with this edition of the Red Wings.
Thursday was good, though.
“We did a good job in a lot of areas tonight,” Howard said. “We skated very
hard.”
752859
Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings open with a win, edge Bruins 2-1
By The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — When the Detroit Red Wings took the ice for their season
opener, coach Mike Babcock’s team already had one significant advantage.
The Red Wings hadn’t played the night before. The Boston Bruins had.
“A month from now, or two months from now, it doesn’t matter. But right
now it does matter, when you start and you play back to back, it’s wear and
tear on you for sure,” Babcock said.
Gustav Nyquist’s power-play goal in the second period lifted Detroit to a 2-1
victory over the Bruins on Thursday night. Boston managed only 17 shots
on goal and just nine through the first two periods.
The Bruins beat Philadelphia in their opener Wednesday.
Justin Abdelkader also scored for Detroit, which lost to the Bruins in the first
round of last season’s playoffs. Patrice Bergeron scored Boston’s only goal
Thursday.
Jimmy Howard had 16 saves for the Red Wings. Detroit was without star
forward Pavel Datsyuk, who is recovering from a separated shoulder.
Boston nearly tied it late in the third after Detroit’s Johan Franzen was
called for elbowing Bergeron, but Brad Marchand’s shot pinged off the post,
and Zdeno Chara was called for goaltender interference seconds later,
ending the power play with 1:46 remaining in the game.
“Any time you have back to backs with a couple of hours flight, you always
feel it,” Marchand said. “We just didn’t play our system very well. We
weren’t getting pucks deep and we were turning it over at the blue line.”
Nyquist led the Red Wings with 28 goals last season, and Detroit overcame
injuries to players like Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg to extend its
postseason streak. The Red Wings made the playoffs for the 23rd straight
time, but they were eliminated by Boston in five games.
The Bruins struggled to match Detroit’s energy early in Thursday’s game.
Boston didn’t manage a shot on goal until 12:01 into the first period,
although Bergeron scored on that one, beating Howard with a wrist shot
from the top of the left circle for an unassisted goal.
“Howie sits there for 25 minutes, doesn’t get any shots, and the first one
goes over his shoulder,” Babcock said. “You’re saying to yourself, ‘Well, this
isn’t very good.’ But I thought he really had good focus. Howie’s been good.
He’s been dialed in. He obviously worked real hard in the offseason.”
The Red Wings tied it in the second when Danny DeKeyser’s shot from the
blue line was deflected by Abdelkader past Tuukka Rask, the Bruins’
Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender.
“We knew it was big to come out to a big start because they played last
night, wear on their ‘D’ as much as we could,” Abdelkader said. “It was
good. They’re one of the favorites. They’re one of the teams everyone is
talking about to be Stanley Cup favorites, so it’s good for us.”
Abdelkader’s goal came moments after a shot by Chara slipped past
Howard, only to bounce off the right post.
Rusk had almost no chance on Nyquist’s goal, which came while Bergeron
was in the penalty box for slashing. Darren Helm found Nyquist in front, and
the 25-year-old Swede scored from point-blank range with 5:14 remaining
in the period.
“We played a pretty solid defensive game,” Rask said. “The second period
was real bad, by our standards.”
NOTES: Boston’s season low in shots in 2013-14 was 17. It happened
twice. ... Franzen was initially credited with Detroit’s first goal. He and
Abdelkader were both in the area of the deflection, but the goal was
eventually awarded to Abdelkader. ... Rask had 22 saves. ... Datsyuk was
unable to play Thursday, but he did suit up for player introductions before
the game and received a nice cheer from the home crowd at Joe Louis
Arena.
752860
Detroit Red Wings
RED WINGS: Dream comes true for Andrej Nestrasil
By Chuck Pleiness, The Macomb Daily
DETROIT >> If you had asked Andrej Nestrasil three years if this day would
ever come his answer was quite emphatic.
“If you asked anybody three years ago if I was going to play in the NHL they
would all tell you 100 percent no,” Nestrasil said. “I always hoped deep
down that I would.”
Well that day came Thursday at Joe Louis Arena as Nestrasil made his
NHL debut against the Boston Bruins.
Nestrasil started on a line with Gustav Nyquist and Darren Helm and also
was penciled in on the second power play unit.
“He played well and he earned his right to start,” Wings coach Mike
Babcock said.
Nestrasil spent two of the last three seasons between the East Coast
League and American Hockey League.
“I feel like sometimes if you get to the NHL right away and you don’t know
how it goes on the East Coast and the AHL so they don’t appreciate as
much,” Nestrasil said. “I’m going to be real happy my first shift. I may be
smiling the whole night.”
Nestrasil, who was the Wings’ 75th overall pick in the third round of the
2009 NHL Entry Draft, was impressive during training camp after totaling 16
goals and 20 assists in his first full season with Grand Rapids.
“I’m sure I’ll be nervous before the game, but it’s a little different when you
get called up from the AHL and you don’t know the guys here,” Nestrasil
said. “I’ve been here for a month and a half so I’m really familiar with the
things we do here and I think I’ll be fine.”
He didn’t learn he was in the lineup until Thursday morning.
“I slept like a baby (Wednesday),” Nestrasil smiled. “If it’s something you
expect maybe you’d be nervous so because maybe I didn’t expect it all I
just didn’t have time to catch up with the whole thing.”
And as NHL debuts go, Nestrasil’s cell phone was blowing up with text
messages on the days leading up to it.
“So many people from back home were texting me expecting me to play,”
Nestrasil said. “I told them all to calm down, it’s day by day.
“I felt like someone put glue in my hand two days ago and stuck my phone
in there because I seriously had 100 percent battery and two hours it was
all gone,” Nestrasil added. “Today, I’m turning off my phone to get a rest
and get ready for the game.”
Pavel Datsyuk (shoulder) missed his first season opener since joining the
Wings. Datsyuk, who is on short-term injured reserve, separated his right
shoulder on Sept. 22. He was slated to be sidelined four weeks. He began
skating with the team this week, but has not taken part in many drills and
has yet to be cleared for contact. … Jakub Kindl got the nod over Brian
Lashoff on the blue line. He’ll be paired with Kyle Quincey. … Stephen
Weiss and Daniel Cleary are both healthy scratches.
752861
Detroit Red Wings
Wings lay out blueprint for success in victory over Bruins
DANA WAKIJI
DETROIT -- The Red Wings did not play a perfect game Thursday, but they
certainly laid out the blueprint for success.
In the salary cap era, the Wings are no longer the team of highly-paid
superstars.
These days, the Wings have to play a high-energy, tight defense-style
game in order to win.
In their home opener against the Boston Bruins, they did just that in a 2-1
victory.
"This is our recipe for success," goaltender Jimmy Howard said. "A lot of
nights it's going to take working a full 60 minutes. There are going to be a
lot of hard-fought games and games that mean something for us this year.
It's going to be a fun year."
Howard had 16 saves.
The Wings held the Bruins without a shot until 12:01 of the first period.
Then, naturally, Patrice Bergeron's shot from the slot went over Howard's
shoulder.
"Surprise, surprise, the first one goes in, I was like, 'Sweet way to start your
night off,'" Howard said.
But the Wings got second-period goals from Justin Abdelkader on a
deflection and Gustav Nyquist on the power play to take a 2-1 lead.
"I think overall we played a real good game," Nyquist said. "We skated
hard, I think we were a fast team. They played (Wednesday) night so we
knew they were going to be a little tired so we tried to come out hard and I
think we did that."
The new power play looked anemic in the first period but got more traction
as the game went on.
"I think we're getting a little more on the inside right now," Nyquist said. "I
thought our breakouts didn't really work the way we wanted, but that's
something we can improve. But in zone, we're getting a lot of bodies in front
and I think that's where we're gonna score a lot of goals so I like that."
Johan Franzen assisted on both Detroit goals.
"I thought he was outstanding," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought
it was a real good game for Mule. They're veterans, him and (Henrik
Zetterberg), so their exhibition didn't go for them as good. I thought both
really competed hard for us (Thursday night) and they competed against
world-class players."
Then in the third period, the Wings held on for dear life, especially when the
Bruins had a late power play.
"I'm pretty confident in the penalty kill, so I thought let's just kill it off," Wings
coach Mike Babcock said. "We came out for the third like a young group, I
didn't think we were as assertive as we should have been, so having the
penalty kill, you can be really aggressive."
It's just the first game of 82, but the Wings certainly got off on the right foot,
showing what they're capable of when they skate fast and play hard.
"It was good," Abdelkader said. "They're one of the teams everyone is
talking about to be Stanley Cup favorites so it's good for us. It's night one.
We have to follow that up. Can't be content and happy."
foxsports.com LOADED: 10.10.2014
752862
Detroit Red Wings
Notes: Weiss, Cleary out, Nestrasil in for Wings' season opener
ART REGNER
Forward Andrej Nestrasil is making his NHL debut Thursday.
During the entire preseason, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, stressed that
whoever was playing "the best" would be in Detroi'st lineup, regardless of
their age, name or contract status.
Babcock made good on that declaration by deciding to sit veteran forwards
Stephen Weiss and Daniel Cleary in tonight's season opener at Joe Louis
Arena against the Boston Bruins.
"You put them on the ice; you're going to watch them play. Whoever plays
the best they get to play more," Babcock said after Thursday's morning
skate. "It doesn't matter what their name is, so that's what we're going to
figure out over time."
It's apparent that Babcock likes the situation that the Wings find themselves
in, not only are they a faster and younger team, but they also have depth,
which is something that hasn't always been the case.
"We're really impressed with the development and depth of our group, when
training camp came to an end there were too many guys for the number of
chairs left, which is great," said Babcock. "That wasn't the case as much in
the past. We didn't have as much depth. We have two D and a goalie in the
minors we think are ready to play.
When he eventually arrived in Detroit, he established himself as a
consistent goal scorer and led the Wings with 28 goals last year in 57
games and was tied for second in scoring with 48 points.
With expectations being high for him this year, Nyquist realizes that he'll be
a marked man out on the ice, but he tries not to think too much about his
reputation as a goal scorer.
As a matter of fact, he's just happy that he's on the verge of beginning his
first full season in the NHL.
"It's just exciting, I'm just excited that it's finally my first full year in the NHL
and that's something I think everyone works hard for," Nyquist said.
"Obviously it feels great to make the team from the start this year and be up
here from the start.
Nyquist is also encouraged by what Detroit's youngsters accomplished last
season and thinks it was just the beginning for the Wings' youthful core.
"Some of the guys here (including him) won't come up as unknown as they
were last year and that means the teams are going to be more aware of us
younger guys out there," Nyquist said. "But that's only going to make us
better I think and force us to take our game to the next level."
ERICSSON: IF WE'RE HEALTHY, WE'RE DANGEROUS
Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson was injured for a significant portion
of last season, playing in only 48 games.
But he doesn't want to dwell on the past, especially last year when the
Wings lost an almost unheard of 421-man games to injury.
"I'm really looking forward to this season. Hopefully we can stay somewhat
healthy and not be in the top three teams in man games lost," Ericsson
said. "If this team can be healthy, I'm really curious to see what we can do.
"So I like that. We're getting to be a deeper team. We didn't have as many
of the star power as we used to, but we have good depth and we're hopeful
those players are going to turn themselves into good players."
"If we have most of the guys healthy throughout the year, I really like what
we have got. The young guys really grew a lot last year and they're going to
keep growing.
One player that has played his way into the lineup, at least for now, is
forward Andrej Nestrasil, who will be making his NHL debut Thursday.
"I really like our chances. I wouldn't trade our team for any other team."
Drafted in the third round by the Wings in 2009 NHL Entry Draft, the 23year-old Nestrasil brings size (6-foot-3, 200 pounds) and skill to the Wings'
lineup.
In five preseason games, the Czech Republic native tallied twp goals, four
total points and was a minus-1.
"I thought Nesty played well. We're in a situation without Pavel (Datsyuk)
that we need another body," Babcock said. "He played well and he earned
his right to start today."
Nestrasil is expected to play on a line with Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist
and is looking forward to playing in his first NHL game.
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"If you have asked anybody three years ago if I was going to play in the
NHL they would all tell you 100 percent no," Nestrasil said. "I always hoped,
deep down in the corner, that I would and the day's here and I'm really
happy for it."
NYQUIST EAGER FOR SEASON TO START
At this time last year, Gustav Nyquist, may have been the most
disappointed player in the Red Wings' organization.
That's because he was sent down to Grand Rapids, even though he played
well enough to make the Wings' roster. But because Nyquist didn't have to
clear waivers, he was caught in a numbers game and shipped out of town.
As they say, hope always springs eternal at the start of the year.
752863
Detroit Red Wings
Gave: Can Wings pass torch -- without dropping it?
$3 million. And if he can unload a contract or two, don't be surprised to see
him make a deal for a veteran defenseman if one becomes available.
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Goals will be hard to come by for the Red Wings this season, so Jimmy
Howard's play in net will be critical.
In 1985-86, the Detroit Red Wings were the worst team in the NHL -- 21st in
a 21-team league -- after finishing 17-57-6 for a meager 40 points. But
something magical was happening for them that spring of 1986 that would
begin to shape the franchise we know today as one of the most consistently
excellent in sports.
If excellence is defined as making that playoffs. And that's as good a start
as any.
That spring, a group of youngsters, most of whom had been drafted a few
years earlier as well as a few notable college free-agent signees, were
playing for Detroit's top farm club, the Adirondack Red Wings, in Glens
Falls, New York. And they won the Calder Cup as champions of the
American Hockey League.
That roster included Joe Kocur, Bob Probert, Shawn Burr and Adam Oates,
who within a few years would form the nucleus of an NHL team that would
rarely miss the postseason for years to come. They were part of a special
time with some special teams as Detroit emerged from two decades of
oblivion to become a league power that only recently began to wane.
Now Wings fans can only hope history repeats itself.
It will have to if this team has any chance of making the Stanley Cup
playoffs for a 24th consecutive year. It will need some of those very good
youngsters who have been developing nicely in Grand Rapids, where
Detroit's top farm club won the Calder Cup again in 2013.
But while there is reason for optimism regarding these youngsters with
obvious NHL talent, it's important to note that youthful exuberance only
goes so far. This is still a man's league, and for the Wings to sneak into the
playoffs once more, they'll need big performances from their most important
players -- starting in goal.
The Wings front office and coaching staff had some blunt conversations
over the offseason with their goalie, and their message was this: "We need
you to be the kind of goaltender you were when you signed that nice, longterm contract."
Howard doesn't need to be an elite goaltender. He'll likely never be one. But
he absolutely must be efficient most nights and steal the occasional 2-1 or
3-2 game for his team. Goals will be hard to come by for this roster, so
goaltending will be critical. Without it, that lovely streak is over.
It's not too much to ask. Howard turned 30 last spring, an age when many
goaltenders are just reaching their prime.
We should know early on how this season will develop. The Wings, never
shy about starting the season on the road (in the mid- to late-'80s they had
to because the circus was always at The Joe then), are trying something a
little different. They're starting with three home games; four of their first five
are on home ice.
That was by design as Wings officials worked with the NHL schedulemakers over the summer. The thinking? Get a rabbit start on the pack while
they're fresh and healthy. These points in the first two weeks of the season
are just as valuable as those in the last two weeks, when beat-up teams are
fighting to make the playoffs or jockeying for position.
With the parity in the league now -- and those dreaded three-point games
that allow losing teams to take a point -- if you fall behind by five or six
points early, it can be hard to make up. Especially as injuries mount up, as
they always do.
That could backfire, too. If the Wings lose those precious early points at
home, they'll have to make them up on the road.
No matter how the season starts, don't expect GM Ken Holland to stand pat
with this roster. He has some wiggle room against the salary cap -- about
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As for signing his coach, a story that has been overhyped in recent weeks,
that's apparently a non-issue since a deal didn't appear to be imminent as
Opening Night approached.
The facts as we know them: Mike Babcock, who might well be the best
coach in the NHL, has been offered a respectful multiyear deal by the
Wings. And Babcock, who is pretty confident that he is the best coach in the
NHL, will respectfully decline that deal, coach out the rest of the season and
into the playoffs next spring, and sign elsewhere with the team that offers
him the richest deal for a coach in the history of the league.
And for what he's been able to do with this team the past two years, he
deserves it.
So next year at this time, we'll be writing about the new young coach behind
the Wings' bench, Jeff Blashill, and wondering if he can coach all those kids
he groomed in Grand Rapids into the NHL playoffs for a 25th consecutive
Red Wings season.
752864
Edmonton Oilers
Good times? Rolling. Right? Well, sort of. They were until they weren’t in a
third-period that bore a depressing resemblance to so many of the
breakdowns of 2013-14.
MacKinnon: Encouraging signs during Oilers season-opener, despite
familiar outcome
“There’s 82 games and sometimes you’re going to play well and it’s just not
going to happen,” Hall said. “Their goalie is going to play well.
By John MacKinnon, Edmonton Journal October 9, 2014 11:47 PM
“Sometimes you’re not going to play well and you’re going to get a gift of a
win.
EDMONTON - It had been a great week, no, make that month — heck, let’s
call it a strong summer season for the Oilers brand.
Which was hardly a given as a followup to a penny dreadful 28th-place
season that Oilers GM Craig MacTavish himself had termed a “debacle.”
The fans’ incredible passion, it turns out, is a renewable resource.
Between regular dollops of intriguing downtown arena news, the selection
of talented centre Leon Draisaitl third overall in the NHL draft, the
recruitment of free agents like Benoit Pouliot, Mark Fayne and Teddy
Purcell, along with a trade for veteran defenceman Nikita Nikitin, it was an
upbeat run-up to the 2014-15 NHL season, unlikely as that might have
seemed.
Oh, and summoning the 1984 Stanley Cup championship team to relive the
glory years obviously works effectively as a pleasing, but temporary
antidote to a debacle.
“We’ve got to keep on even keel. I think that’s something in the past, we’ve
played well and then we’ve kind of veered off because we don’t get results.
We want to stick to our game plan and stick to the process, for sure.”
In truth, there were positive signs for the Oilers.
Their energy line, or fourth line, if you like, of Boyd Gordon, Matt Hendricks
and Jesse Joensuu played a strong game, hemming the Flames in their
own zone much of the time.
Their second line, centred by rookie Draisaitl, with Yakupov and Pouliot on
the wings, showed flashes of offensive creativity, including one shift midway
through the second that provoked a rousing ovation from the crowd of
16,839.
But the defensive spasms in the third period that permitted the Flames to
take over a game they had been widely outplayed in were all-too-familiar to
Oilers fans.
Having Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Lee Fogolin drop the puck on
opening night is about as “feel-good” as moments get.
Like it or not, for the Oilers, this opening game really set in motion a
countdown not to a possible playoff berth this season, although that is
possible. Nor is it the launch pad for a breakout 2015-16 season, which also
is possible.
But it was just a moment.
No, the more crucial dynamic is that this was Step 1.
On Thursday night, that moment passed swiftly, but painfully for Oilers fans,
the outcome a 5-2 loss suffered in front of the entire ’84 Stanley Cup
championship team, Glen Sather and Kevin Lowe eyeballing the carnage,
side-by-side up in the press box.
in a journey to elite-level competitiveness for the Oilers by the time the
downtown arena opens in October 2016. That’s when the Oilers absolutely
need to be back in the business of playing deep into the post-season.
Helped considerably by some sloppy defensive zone play by the Oilers,
Calgary built a 2-0 lead on goals 60 seconds apart by Mason Raymond and
Jiri Hudler, both efforts goaltender Ben Scrivens might want a do-over on.
Oops.
There was probably little Scrivens could do about Raymond’s rocket slap
shot over the goaltender’s left shoulder early the third period, but how did
the Flames winger get so much time and space for that successful chance
to lift the Flames into a 3-2 lead?
In fact, Scrivens and the Oilers had no answer for Raymond, who scored
the hat trick, his third coming off a deft tip-in of a cross-crease pass from
Joe Colborne at 14:42 of the third period.
Look, you don’t want to make too much of opening night, clearly. It’s not just
a small sample size, as the decimal point divas are wont to say, it’s a tiny
one.
Still, the fans want to see something, they look for shards of hope,
fragments of a game that can at least set a positive tone at the start of the
season.
The preamble to the opener was all about the Oilers talented core players
— Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Justin
Schultz — taking ownership of the beginning of a turnaround.
Is this the season these gifted young players play as well away from the
puck as with it? As well in the defensive zone as on offence? As effectively
five-on-five as they can be during power plays? On and on.
Against a rebuilding team like Calgary, the Oilers demonstrated their best
defence is to be on the attack as much as possible, which they most
certainly were.
Through two periods, Edmonton outshot Calgary
25-11, with a cluster of those chances coming on power plays.
That’s also where the Oilers scored their goals, the first by Purcell, the
second by Hall, who one-timed a setup from Nugent-Hopkins while the
Oilers were enjoying a five-on-three man advantage.
The current team, finally, needs to start providing fresh momentum to the
Oilers brand. If a team can do that while losing, that’s what the Oilers did on
Thursday night.
It was a loss, but Game 1 was an encouraging step toward that goal. In an
82-game schedule, as Hall said, it was one moment, and a mixed one, at
that.
Let’s see whether the Oilers flush the disappointment and hold onto their
strong play.
It may be an unpopular word for many fans, but it should be said, at least
after Game 1 — patience. A little patience, at least.
Edmonton Journal: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752865
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers spring a leak against Flames in season-opener
Raymond scores hattrick as rival Flames post victory
By Joanne Ireland, Edmonton Journal October 9, 2014 11:05 PM
EDMONTON - There have been other games, other seasons, when the trio
has been thrown together and tasked with the assignment of igniting the
Edmonton Oilers.
But when Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle skated out
on Thursday night, for the club’s first shift of the new season, it was a
chance to pronounce they were ready to settle in for longer than a game or
two.
In the opener against the Calgary Flames — a game the Oilers would lose
5-2 after a slow start at Rexall Place — the line was effective five-on-five
and they turned a five-on-three power play into a 2-2 tie when Hall beat
Flames’ goaltender Karri Ramo with a one-timer.
Click to watch the team's post-game interview or read the Edmonton
Journal Oilers writers Jim Matheson, Joanne Ireland and John MacKinnon
play-by plays from the game.
Trouble was, the Oilers couldn’t produce five-one-five nor could they
contain Mason Raymond, who notched three of the four goals for the
Flames, now 1-1 after a 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks one night
earlier.
“That’s a frustrating way to start the season,” said head coach Dallas
Eakins, pointing to the power play, the penalty kill and the faceoff numbers
(59 per cent). “We had a lot of good in our game.
“But the mistakes we made ended up in our net. We’re going to have to
learn our lessons moving forward.”
Both the Oilers goals came from the power play but despite generating 40
shots on net, another 18 blocked and 17 wide of the target, they now head
to Vancouver to play the Canucks on Saturday with a record of 0-1.
The top line will remain intact.
“We’re getting a chance right off the bat. I don’t think I’ve had this before,”
said Eberle. “This is a chance to really take control of the team, to be the
line that creates momentum.
“We’re going to get a lot of minutes and lot of opportunity. We’ve shown we
can play together, we like playing with each other. More than anything, you
want to get the power play clicking.”
Oilers pay price for slow start
Maybe it was just the last of the off-season dust but two goals, just one
minute apart, four minutes into the 2014-2015 campaign, was not the ideal
way to get things going.
Especially not with the 1984 Stanley Cup in the building, forging the Oilers
past and present.
Raymond, with his first of the night, tipped a shot from Mark Giordano to set
things in motion, then Jiri Hudler snapped a Mark Fayne turnover past
goaltender Ben Scrivens to give the Flames a 2-0 advantage.
Four minutes into the third, Raymond sent a bullet past Scrivens. Ten
minutes later, Raymond struck with a redirect, then T.J. Brodie, with a
power play goal, added the final blow.
Teddy Purcell, one of the Oilers’ off-season recruits, converted a pass from
David Perron on the Oilers’ first power play of the night then by the time the
teams had filed out for the third, Edmonton had a 25-11 advantage on the
shot clock and an opportunity to secure yet another win on opening night.
Instead, their record in openers now stands at 19-12-4.
New kids on the block
Before Leon Draisaitl headed out to play his first regular season game, just
four short months after he had been drafted third overall, Eakins told the
centre “Go play. I don’t want you in awe of anything.”
The 18-year-old left the game with a 54 per cent faceoff win percentage and
at this pace, is set to play significantly more than eight games.
On the back end, Brad Hunt, who had played in just three mid-season NHL
games, made the team because of his ability to move the puck – and shoot
the puck. He didn’t hold back against the Flames, registering one shot on
net, three attempts blocked and a second-period blast that hit the post.
Meanwhile, Fayne and Nikita Nikitin, also recruited in the off-season to
serve as the Oilers shut down defensive pairing had their struggles. Fayne
was minus three.
From goal songs to singing the blues
There’s no telling yet how many goals the Oilers will score this season but
when they do produce on home ice, their song will be Stadium Love by
Metric. The ditty, which was selected after a fan poll that drew more than
2,700 submissions, replaces Pitbull’s Don’t Stop The Music.
Defenceman Dennis Wideman, the Flames highest paid player, was not in
the lineup against the Oilers and it had nothing to do with an injury he
picked up in the season opener against Vancouver. Wideman, who collects
$5-million a year in salary this season, or, $60,975.60 a game, was
replaced by Ralphael Diaz while winger David Jones was playing in place of
Brian McGrattan.
752866
Edmonton Oilers
Return of ’84 Oilers players like an NHL family reunion for City of Edmonton
Lumley, who has settled in Edmonton since his days with the Oilers,
routinely hands over the ring, and said hours might pass before he sees it
again. When he’s asked why he so freely hands it off, his response is
always the same.
By Joanne Ireland, Edmonton Journal October 9, 2014
“I tell them that my dad died the summer before I started playing with the
Oilers, my mom a few years before that, so when I came here, my
teammates became my friends, the organization became my family.
EDMONTON - Fans who gobbled up 12,000 tickets in less than an hour will
Friday watch the Boys on the Bus return to Rexall Place after 30 years.
But the 1984 Oilers Stanley Cup champions might be more excited about
their reunion than even the city is about hosting them, Wayne Gretzky said.
“This team had such pizzazz and flair about it, so many Hall of Famers ... it
was the perfect formula for memories,” said former Oiler Dave Lumley, his
fingers grazing his Stanley Cup ring.
When another 2,000 seats were released after the arena was reconfigured
to make more room, those too were snapped up.
The proceeds will go to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation; the
belly laughs will be free — and there’s no doubt there will be an abundance
of laughs given the bond that the 1984 crew fostered 30 years ago.
“It kind of reminds me of Grade 10, back in high school, when everybody
goes their separate ways in the summer,” Lumley said. “Now take away
how everybody looks ... and it’s like it was only three months ago that we
were all together.”
The ’84 Oilers are now grey-haired men whose reunion has not only
brought them back for the first time since that championship, but has also
rekindled memories for those who watched them go on to win a total of five
championships over the heady course of the next seven years.
Reassembling the crew was a “little bit of a no-brainer,” said Paul Coffey.
Since arriving Tuesday, the group has dined at the home of current team
owner Daryl Katz, appeared at the Oilers’ season opener, and was
scheduled to attend the opening of the Edmonton Oilers Ambulatory Clinic
at the Stollery before sitting down to retell stories at the gala.
“It picks up just like it left off,” said Grant Fuhr.
The man who has had a heavy hand in the production of the gala, Don
Metz, has been reliving those moments, too. Now the president of Aquila
Productions, he was a cameraman working for CFRN when Gretzky first
arrived in Edmonton, and he has since been tied to the Hall of Fame legend
and to the team.
He is not the least bit surprised by the buzz that has hit the city
“Even my 87-year-old mom and my 85-year-old dad phoned, and told me to
say hi to the boys,” said Metz. “It resonates because they were a part of the
community. They were part of the family. They were like family.
“This is a blue-collar town, but the town had a swagger back then. We had
champions in the town. And they didn’t look at them as celebrities, they
looked at them as though they were their sons.”
There’s also been a long shadow cast by those teams, particularly since the
Oilers haven’t been in a playoff game since the 2006 Stanley Cup final
against the Carolina Hurricanes.
“Whenever you meet people,” said Taylor Hall, now in his fifth season with
the club, “they talk about the Oilers ’80s teams. A lot. They are so proud of
them. That’s what the city holds on to.
“I’m sure that long after I’m gone, they’ll still remember teams like that.”
Hall, who was born in 1991, said his first memories of the Oilers were the
1997 playoffs when Todd Marchant scored the overtime goal in Game 7 of
the opening round of a playoff series against the Dallas Stars.
“For the players, it reminds us what celebrations can be like and what the
city can turn into, with a winning team,” Hall said. “That’s obviously the goal.
That’s what we want. But in this day and age, I think five Cups in seven
years for any team is a little bit crazy (to fathom), with the salary cap and
the parity in the league. But those teams were special.”
As for that well-worn ring of Lumley’s? Well, the bauble in question has
accompanied him to virtually every one of his speaking engagements.
“And throughout the years, the people of northern Alberta have treated
every one of us like family. When you have success, who do you want to
share it with? Family and friends.”
752867
Edmonton Oilers
Brad Hunt to pair with Justin Schultz on Edmonton Oilers blueline for
season-opener
By Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal October 9, 2014
EDMONTON - Defenceman Brad Hunt, who played three mid-season
games last year after a call-up from AHL Oklahoma City, will partner with
Justin Schultz on the Edmonton Oilers blue-line Thursday night against the
Calgary Flames.
The validation of his worth from Eakins, after an excellent camp, comes
resoundedly from this pairing.
Eakins says Hunt can do the job defensively at his size (five-foot-nine, 185
pounds) because he’s got a great stick, also the puck’s often on his blade;
he’s not chasing.
But mainly, he’s there because he’s got some major offensive juice to his
game.
Eakins wants Hunt playing because he can work the point on the powerplay
(50 points in 66 games with the Barons’ last year), and he thinks offence.
“He’s not looking to pass (point), he’s looking to get a shot on the net, and
that’s why he’s here,” said Eakins.
Calgary Flames tweak lineup coming off loss to Vancouver Canucks
The Flames, who lost 4-2 to Vancouver Canucks at the Saddledome
Wednesday in their first game, are starting a six-game road trip with
Thursday’s matchup with the Oilers.
The game wasn’t as close as the score indicated in the Canucks’ game,
and the Flames will make two lineup changes for Edmonton.
They’re sitting their highest-paid D-man, Dennis Wideman, for Swiss puckmover Ralphael Diaz, who is on his fourth team in the last year (Montreal to
Vancouver to New York and a tryout signee in Calgary).
When asked of the decision to sit the expensive Wideman, Flames head
coach Bob Hartley jokingly said “I’m not a banker, I’m a coach.”
They may have been trying to move Wideman for some time, but his
contract is counter-productive in trade talks.
They’re also taking out their best beat cop, fourth-line winger Brian
McGrattan (the Oilers aren’t playing Luke Gazdic, who is on injured reserve
for the time being).
Calgary still has Brian Bollig, the ex-Chicago Blackhawks winger, who can
drop the mitts, and D-man Deryk Engelland, the former Penguin, to get
nasty if need be.
They’re dressing winger David Jones, a $4-million sitter in their opener, in
place of McGrattan.
Karri Ramo will be in net for Calgary after Jonas Hiller did a good job in the
loss to Vancouver (last goal was empty-net, a spectacular sliding one by
Henrik Sedin).
Ryan Jones lands on Canucks farm
Ex Oiler winger Ryan Jones has signed a pro tryout offer in Uitca, the
Canucks’ AHL farm club.
He didn’t take any NHL free-agent tryouts last month, but he has to get
playing, somewhere.
Another one-time Oiler, goalie Jeff Deslauriers, was recently released from
a tryout with the Isles’ AHL farm in Bridgeport. He’s at loose ends for now.
752868
Edmonton Oilers
Focus zeroes in on Leon Draisaitl as Edmonton Oilers rookie makes NHL
debut tonight
Centre will have right-winger Nail Yakupov on right side of line
By Jim Matheson, Edmonton Journal October 9, 2014
Edmonton Journal hockey writers preview the upcoming NHL season and
the leadership needed from the core players of the Edmonton Oilers. Video
by Shaughn Butts, Edmonton Journal.
EDMONTON - Hall of Famer Jari Kurri, a member of all five Edmonton
Oilers Stanley Cup-winning squads who's in town for Friday's 1984 team
reunion, watched the Thursday morning skate by today's gang in blue and
orange, and asked “which one is Draisaitl?”
Leon Draisaitl might get that a lot in the early going to his first National
Hockey League season. Maybe he’ll join Jordan Eberle, Ryan NugentHopkins and Luke Gazdic in scoring in his first NHL game as Oilers, or
maybe his first point will be an assist to his winger Nail Yakupov Thursday
night against the Calgary Flames at Rexall Place.
He’s more playmaker than shooter although he was whirling by the face-off
circle Thursday morning and firing no-look shots into the empty net, so he’s
no one-trick pony.
All 16,839 eyes at Rexall Place will be on the 18-year-old to see how he
does at his NHL coming-out party.
It would have been interesting if the Calgary Flames' precocious centre
Sam Bennett -- the No. 4 pick in the June draft, one spot after after Draisaitl
-- was also on the ice Thursday for a little comparison, but the Flames’
medical staff has decided he needs shoulder surgery after an ongoing
problem and he’ll be out four to six months.
That’s a similiar time frame to the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor
Hall, who went under the knife, too, in recent years.
Earlier this week, RNH thought Bennett would be better for it, if he
remedied the problem with surgery, as he did. Draisaitl may be more
relaxed now than he was in exhibition season.
“I think there is a free moment for a player like Leon (after being gauged in
pre-season). The players realize they’re always being evaluated in the
meetings, in the weight room, during games, but the biggest part with Leon
is … as I told him this morning, ‘just go play.”’ said coach Dallas Eakins.
“I told Leon I didn’t want him in awe of anything, whether that’s our next
game in Vancouver where he might go ‘Oh my god, I’m on the ice with the
Sedins.’ I know that probably goes through a young player’s head, but he
deserves to be here, he’s earned it. He’s an NHL player, let’s get on with it
and the faster we speed up that process where he feels he can do the job in
this league, the better the results will be for him and for us."
Yakupov has moved around in camp, but playing with Draisaitl may be a
good fit, with Game 1 on a line together coming Thursday.
“Nail has to help Leon through this. They have a great relationship (forged
over a summer of training here) but Nail has to show some leadership,” said
Eakins.
“Nail may get the puck more with Leon being able to to distribute it, and
Leon will be constantly be looking to that side (right) because he’s a lefthanded shot (centre).
"We want Nail to attack the net; Nail’s always playing best when scoring
and getting chances. We want energy and responsibility and I certainly
don’t want that player (Yakupov) passing up shots."
Edmonton Journal hockey writers Jim Matheson and Joanne Ireland and
sports columnist John MacKinnon join sports editor Craig Ellingson for the
first Oil Spills podcast on the 2014-15 NHL season, as the Edmonton Oilers
prepare to face the Calgary Flames in their season-opening game Oct. 9,
2014.
752869
Edmonton Oilers
Winning ugly for Oilers much preferable to losing well, right?
the right game plan and executed it.” Getting in an 0-2 hole 4:16 in is never
a solid formula, though.
“The goal we gave up early in the third was tough. We had the momentum,
but that’s hockey. There’s 82 games and sometimes you’re going to play
well and lose and sometimes you don’t and get a gift of a win,” said Hall.
October 9, 2014. 11:48 pm • Section: Posted by:Jim Matheson
Perron is dead right when he says “if we get 40 shots we’re going to win a
lot (games). But he cut right to the chase. “The first 10 games we have to
be .500 at the worst. We have to stay in the fight the whole year,” he said.
When the glory days Oilers had their Stanley Cup reunion press conference
on the ice at Rexall Place Wednesday, they made sure they had the result
of the ’84 final game up on the scoreboard–5-2 Oilers. And as Wayne
Gretzky, Mark Messier and Lee Fogolin left the building Thursday after
taking part in a touching ceremonial opening face-off as former captains,
the result on the scoreboard–5-2 Calgary. There’s the difference in teams.
The current Oilers won all the puck-possession stats which should make
the Corsi folks happy, outshooting the Flames 75-39 (on net, missed or
blocked) and they won 59 percent of the 66 face-offs, and they still lost by
three goals. If that had happened with Gretzky and Co, we know what the
score would have been to belabour the point. We’re not here to bury the
2013-2014 Oilers, though, or overly praise them, but they found a way to
lose a game they should have won by three, and no matter how many good
things they did, they got an L. You can’t really rationalize losing. No points,
and, really, that’s all that matters, right? No more moral victories.
This was a game against a Calgary team that was outclassed by Vancouver
Wednesday, that went into a rope-and-dope after going up 2-zip on the first
three shots on Ben Scrivens, that was holding on for dear life after 40
minutes outshot 25-11 on net and yet the Flames dug in in the final 20 (1515 shots on net). They got the third goal that turned the Oilers fragile, three
minutes into the third, Mason Raymond’s third of the night, a slapper that
ripped by Scrivens. They outchanced the Oilers as the clock wore down,
not a good sign, really, and the Oilers somehow lost (only 16 wins in their
last 42 here, if you’re counting, and we all should be). Now they’re off to
Vancouver and LA and Arizona. Uh, oh.
Oilers’ coach Dallas Eakins doesn’t always address his team after games
but he felt the need to clear his throat, and accentuate the positive. Make
no mistake, there were a lot of good things–Teddy Purcell, who scored, and
David Perron, who fed him, and Mark Arcobello (12-3 on the draws) was
the best line, Nail Yakupov had some jump, the powerplay was 2-for-3, they
had 40 shots on Karri Ramo. But Mark Fayne, usually a solid defender, had
a tough night (minus 3). Scrivens might have liked Raymond’s third back
(his second career HT, , although he got good wood on it coming off the
left-wing. The mistakes they made really burned them.
They lost, and isn’t that what it’s all about? Never mind the unhappy fan
who threw an Oiler hoodie onto the ice. Especially with eight of the first 11
at Rexall, when they absolutely must take advantage before the annual trip
east because the bulls and horses and cowboys take over their rink. Truth
is, the Oilers didn’t take it to the Flames in the third when they were hanging
on, even with those positives earlier.
“If we’d played like crap and were totally outplayed I’d come out there and
say it but I didn’t see the game that way,” said Eakins. “That was far, far
different than last year. Was the result what we wanted? Absolutely not.
We’re not going to be patting each other on the back because we played a
good game and lost. You always want the points.”
He made a point of talking to his players, though. “I just told them to
breathe. This will take time and I don’t know how much time but I’m worried
about our team’s mindset. I don’t want last year and all the years before
turning into a giant snowball…a here it goes again,” he said. “If we’d played
terrible, I’d have told the team that and that would have been the end of it.
They thought they played a good game too. We made mistakes that cost us
but I didn’t want them in there with their heads down, feeling terrible about a
night where there was a ton of good, with some learning as well.”
“Their first goal (Raymond tip of Mark Giordano shot) they made a pass
under our sticks…they were all on the ice. The second one was a tough
one, bad hand-off (Scrivens to Fayne) behind the net and our defenceman
left his coverage (Jiri Hudler goal all alone in front of the net). But, our
bench was still really good. It wasn’t like ‘oh, no here we go again.’ We
shook it off,” said Eakins. “Two mistakes we should have covered off, but
we can make adjustments on the goals that were scored.”Taylor Hall, who
got a PP goal on Ramo with a high blast off a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins feed
on a 5-on-3, was right that “we did a lot of good things…we outshot them
and that’s not always going to win you games but we feel like we came with
752870
Edmonton Oilers
Draisaitl will have all eyes on him in his NHL coming-out party
Posted by:Jim Matheson
Hall of Famer Jari Kurri watched the Thursday morning Edmonton Oilers’
skate, and asked “which one is Draisaitl?”
Leon Draisaitl might get that a lot in the early going to his first NHL season.
Maybe he’ll join Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Luke Gazdic in
scoring in his first NHL game as Oilers, or maybe his first point will be an
assist to his winger Nail Yakupov Thursday night against the Calgary
Flames at Rexall Place. He’s more playmaker than shooter although he
was whirling by the face-off circle Thursday morning and firing no-look
shots into the empty net, so he’s no one-trick pony.
But Draisaitl, who won’t have his former German national teamer dad Peter
at the game because he’s now coaching in the Czech Republic, but all eyes
(all 16,839) will be on the 18-year-old to see how he does at his NHL
coming-out party. It would have been interesting if Calgary’s precocious
centre Sam Bennett, the No. 4 pick in the June draft, one after Draisaitl,
were also on the ice Thursday for a little comparison but the Flames’
medical staff has decided he needs shoulder surgery after an ongoing
problem and he’ll be out 4-6 months. That’s a similiar time frame to Oilers’
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall, who went under the knife too. Earlier
this week, RNH thought Bennett would be better for it, if he remedied the
problem with surgery, as he did.
Draisaitl may be more relaxed now than he was in exhibition season. “I
think there is a free moment for a player like Leon (after being guaged in
pre-season). The players realize they’re always being evaluated in the
meetings, in the weight room, during games but the biggest part with Leon
is…as I told him this morning, ‘just go play.”’ said coach Dallas Eakins.
“I told Leon I didn’t want him in awe of anything, whether that’s our next
game in Vancouver where he might go ‘omygawd I’m on the ice with the
Sedins.’ I know that probably goes through a young player’s head but he
deserves to be here, he’s earned it. He’s an NHL player, let’s get on with it
and the faster we speed up that process where he feels he can do the job in
this league, the better the results will be for him and for us,” said Eakins.
Yakupov has moved around in camp, but playing with Draisaitl may be a
good fit, with game one Thursday. “Nail has to help Leon through this, they
have a great relationship (forged over a summer of training here) but Nail
has to show some leadership,” said Eakins.
“Nail may get the puck more with Leon being able to to distribute it, and
Leon will be constantly be looking to that side (right) because he’s a lefthanded shot (centre). We want Nail to attack the net; Nail’s always playing
best when scoring and getting chances. We want energy and responsibility
and I certainly don’t want that player (Yakupov) passing up shots,” said
Eakins.
**
Defenceman Brad Hunt, who played three mid-season games last year
after a call-up from OKC, will partner Justin Schultz. The validation of his
worth from coach Dallas Eakins, after an excellent camp, comes
resoundedly from this pairing. Eakins says Hunt can do the job defensively
at his size (5’9″, 185 pounds) because he’s got a great stick, also the puck’s
often on his blade; he’s not chasing. But mainly he’s there because he’s got
some major offensive juice to his game. Eakins wants Hunt playing
because he can work the point on the powerplay (50 points in 66 games
with the Barons’ last year), and he thinks offence. “He’s not looking to pass
(point), he’s looking to get a shot on the net, and that’s why he’s here,” said
Eakins.
**
The Flames, who lost 4-2 to Vancouver Canucks at the Saddledome
Wednesday in their first game, are embarking on a six-game road trip with
Thursday’s matchup with the Oilers. The game wasn’t as close as the score
indicated in the Canucks’ game, and they’ll make two lineup changes for
Edmonton. They’re sitting their highest-paid D-man Dennis Wideman for
Swiss puck-mover Ralphael Diaz, who is on his fourth team in the last year
(Montreal to Vancouver to New York and a tryout signee in Calgary).
When asked of the decision to sit the expensive Wideman, coach Bob
Hartley jokingly said “I’m not a banker, I’m a coach.” They may have been
trying to move Wideman for some time but his contract is counterproductive in trade talks.
They’re also taking out their best beat cop, fourth-line winger Brian
McGrattan (the Oilers aren’t playing Luke Gazdic, who is on injured reserve
for the time being). Calgary still has Brian Bollig, the ex Blackhawks’ winger,
who can drop the mitts, and D-man Deryk Engelland, the former Penguin,
to get nasty if need be. They’re dressing winger David Jones, a $4 million
sitter in their opener, in place of McGrattan.
Karri Ramo will be in net for Calgary after Jonas Hiller did a good job in the
loss to Vancouver (last goal was empty-net, a spectacular sliding one by
Henrik Sedin).
**
Ex Oiler winger Ryan Jones has signed a pro tryout offer in Uitca, the
Canucks’ AHL farm club. He didn’t take any NHL free-agent tryouts last
month, but he has to get playing, somewhere. Another one-time Oiler,
goalie Jeff Deslauriers, was recently released from a tryout with the Isles’
AHL farm in Bridgeport. He’s at loose ends for now.
**
I didn’t see any current Oilers taking any selfies with Mark Messier, Wayne
Gretzky or Paul Coffey as the Hall of Famers and many of the 1984 Stanley
Cup reunion gang worked the room that looks absolutely nothing like it did
for them back for the glory days Oilers 30 years ago. Certainly, the players
of today seemed a whole lot more engaged with 99 in their bathhouse than
seeing the media horde on an opening NHL night.
“The players were very excited this morning…a lot of them were concerned
that they wouldn’t get a chance to interact with the (Stanley Cup) guys,”
said Eakins, who only has four players–Andrew Ference, Matt Hendricks,
Viktor Fasth and Boyd Gordon–who were alive when Gretzky and Co. won
in 1984.
752871
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers Game Grades & Three Stars
Derek Van Diest First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
Calgary Flames 5 Edmonton Oilers 2
Wed, Oct 10 at Rexall Place
Three Stars
1. Mason Raymond, CAL
Scored his third career hat trick to put a damper on the reunion festivities.
2. Kari Ramo, CAL
Was bombarded in the contest, but was able to keep his team in the game.
3. Teddy Purcell, EDM
Scored the first goal and had numerous other chances to add to his tally.
oil Grades
Overall D
Offence C
Defence D
Goaltending C
Power play A
Penalty kill A
Toughness C
Effort D
Why they lost
They did well to come back in the contest, but figured they had done
enough after tying the game 2-2. Did not keep up the pressure in the third
period.
big play
David Perron takes the puck along the right boards on the power play and
fires a cross-ice pass to Teddy Purcell on the other wing. Purcell corrals the
pass and fires a shot that beats Flames goaltender Karri Romo for the
Oilers first goal of the game.
big save
Flames centre Mikael Backlund found himself in front of the net unattended
in the third period and was denied by Ben Scrivens from in tight.
Up Next
Oilers at Vancouver Canucks, Saturday (8 p.m.) Rogers Place.
Edmonton Sun: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752872
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers accentuate the positives - and there are some - in loss to Flames
By Terry Jones, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
EDMONTON - It took less than five minutes after the ‘84 Oilers’ captains
Lee Fogolin, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky performed the ceremonial
face-off duties to get down 2-0 to the Calgary Flames.
“I’m not going to walk out here and say we played crappy, because we
didn’t. We made mistakes. We lost that game. And that’s totally
unacceptable.
“It’ a frustrating way to start the season. But I thought we had a tonne of
good in our game. I can’t remember us being that good offensively last
year. Maybe a couple of times. But off the top of my head, I can’t remember
them. And I would.
“I thought our power play was excellent. I thought our penalty kill was good.
We were excellent on faceoffs. Even when we lost the faceoffs we were
able to get them back. But the mistakes we made ended up in the back of
our net.
So it was ‘situation normal’ that way.
“Will we out-shoot teams 40-26 every night? No. But if we do that every
night, we will have a very, very good season.”
The Oilers have a horrid history when it comes to games when banners
were raised and celebrations were involved.
But ‘situation normal’ these last eight years isn’t what the Oilers are
shooting for this season.
And that’s especially coming off a 4-15-2 start last season with a 1-7 start in
their first eight home games.
As Opening Nights go, there was plenty of pressure on the Oilers, not just
because of all the players from the 1984 Oilers team which won the first of
five Stanley Cups here. But last year’s out-of-it-by-Halloween start to the
season, 28th-place finish and the fact their next three games are on the
road and that Calgary had played the night before made this as crucial as
Oct. 9th games go.
The stupid thing with this one is that for the longest period of time after the
pair of quicks in the first five minutes, Edmonton didn’t just out-play Calgary.
They dominated the Flames.
D-o-m-i-n-a-t-e-d.
They were by far the best hockey team on the ice.
The shots were 14-7 after the first period, 25-11 after the second and it was
a 5-2 Calgary win when it was over.
And coach Dallas Eakins kept the dressing room closed for a couple
minutes after the game to do damage control with this team which had won
only 16 of 41 at home last year.
People don’t want to hear about moral victories around here anymore.
When they Oilers lose 5-2, they lose 5-2.
The first Oilers jersey of the season was thrown on the ice after the game
last night.
“My message was just to breathe.
“I’m worried about our team’s mindset.
“I don’t want the ‘Last year’ and the ‘All the years before’ that have gone on
and for this to turn into a giant snowball rolling.
“Like ‘Here we go again.’
“If we played a terrible game, I would have told the team that and that would
have been the end of it. But I thought we played a good game. They feel
like they played a good game. They understand we made mistakes that
cost us the game and we have to rectify those.
“But I didn’t want us sitting in here with our heads down feeling terrible
about the night. There was a tonne of good.”
He doesn’t want a carryover here because of one loss.
“I don’t want ‘Oh no, here it comes again.’
“It’s not coming here again.
“Last season is gone. And all the seasons before that are gone as well. We
can’t have this tightness and start having a grip come around us because
we lost a game.
“Believe me, I’m going to give you the positives and the negatives. If we
played like crap and we were totally out-played tonight, I’m going to come
out here and say it. But I didn’t see the game that way.
“I saw a team that was far, far different than last year.
752873
Edmonton Oilers
After sitting out preseason, Oilers defenceman Jeff Petry's shoulder ready
for Game 1 start
By Derek Van Diest, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
EDMONTON - Jeff Petry didn’t have the benefit of preseason games to
prepare for Thursday’s opener.
The Edmonton Oilers defenceman was nursing a sore shoulder throughout
training camp and was unable to suit up during training camp.
“Eventually I was going to have to play in a game, so it might as well be
now,” Petry said, prior to Thursday’s contest. “It wasn’t ideal missing all of
the preseason, but it is what it is. I’ve recovered from the injury and now it’s
time for the regular season and I’m ready for the first game.”
Petry went into training camp fit and looking forward to strong year. The
Oilers second-round pick — 45th overall — in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft,
had struggled the previous season, along with the rest of the club.
However, Petry suffered a setback early into training camp, which left him
on the sidelines.
“It happened on our first day on the ice, the third shift of that first
scrimmage,” Petry said. “I just got hit and went into the boards funny.”
Towards the end of training camp, Petry was back practising regularly with
the Oilers and probably could have snuck in an exhibition game prior to
dressing for the opening game of the year.
“I was really pushing to get into that last one,” he said. “I was cleared for
contact, but it was something that, if I didn’t play in it, it bought me five extra
days to recover. We all agreed that it was probably the best to not play in
that last preseason game and get ready for the first regular-season game.”
First night jitters
Leon Draisaitl was going to try and keep the nerves in check heading into
the season opener.
The Oilers rookie, who looked impressive in preseason, did a good job of
that, centring the Oilers second line between Benoit Pouliot and Nail
Yakupov.
“I think I’ve been in kind of situations like that before, other home openers,”
Draisaitl said. “All I have to do is worry about myself and make sure I start
the game off the right way. I’ve been dreaming about this my entire life. It’s
a dream come true and it’s something really special.”
After getting off to a slow start, Draisaitl and the Oilers settled in, with the
hosts taking the play to the visitors as the game went along. The Oilers had
the Flames pinned in their own end for long stretches of the game.
Classic goal
Jordan Eberle had a memorable night the last time the Oilers opened the
season at home against the Flames.
The Oilers winger scored a highlight-reel goal what would be his NHL
debut.
In the opening game of the 2010-2011 season, Eberle took a lead pass off
the boards from defenceman Jim Vandermeer and went in on a two-on-one
break with Shawn Horcoff. Eberle danced around a Flames defenceman
then roofed a backhander over goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
“That was four years ago now,” Eberle said. “It’s funny when you think
about it. I don’t remember much, just that I took a pass off the boards. I
don’t know what I was thinking, on a two-on-one the last thing you want to
do is try to beat the defenceman, but I just kind of got around him and put it
in. It happened so fast.”
The goal was considered one of the best scored that season.
“Everyone will always remember their first goal,” Eberle said. “I always said,
I would have taken a shot off my butt or off my leg, but it just happened to
go in another way. It was a special moment for me, it was nice to have my
whole family here and do it on Hockey Night in Canada on opening night.”
Among champions
The 1984 Oilers mingled with the current edition of the team during the
morning skate Thursday prior to the season opener.
The scene was almost surreal as legends of the past mingled with players
who weren’t even born during the glory years.
“It’s cool to see what champions look like and how they go about
themselves,” said Oilers defenceman Brad Hunt. “It’s kind of unexplainable
to meet all these great players and see the things they’ve done in this city
throughout their careers, it’s really great to see.”
752874
Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers lose 2014-15 season opener to Calgary Flames
By Robert Tychkowski, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
They promised Mess they wouldn’t do this.
Didn’t they?
They should have.
With Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and the rest of the 1984 championship
team in town for a Stanley Cup reunion, the least the Edmonton Oilers
could have done was deliver a home-opening victory over the tired and
lowly Calgary Flames.
Instead, they wound up spoiling their own party.
Led by a hat-trick from Mason Raymond, the Flames rolled into Rexall
Place and hung a 5-2 defeat on the new look Oilers.
Seriously, 5-2 Flames. On opening night, with Gretz and Mess in the house,
with the Flames playing their second game in two nights.
Five. Two. Flames.
And it started early.
The red carpet hadn’t even been rolled up yet and the Calgary Flames had
a 2-0 lead. And after Edmonton spent 35 minutes undoing the damage,
Calgary rolled up the sleeves and got it done when it counted, scoring three
times in the third period to put it away
The home opener began with the expected volume and electricity, starting
when the new-look Oilers were introduced one by one and rising to a
deafening roar when Messier, Gretzky and Lee Fogolin were ushered out to
drop the opening faceoff.
Everything was going according to script.
Then the game started. And an evening that began with so much love and
hope quickly deteriorated into the nightmare scenario, with Calgary scoring
on their second and third shots of the game, Mark Giordano at 3:16 and Jiri
Hudler at 4:16 to send 16,839 unwashed fans into stunned silence.
Again? You can’t be serious!
But after eight anxious minutes Edmonton stopped the bleeding with a
power play goal from Ted Purcell and slowly took over the period. They
trailed 2-1 at the first intermission, but were all over the Flames the rest of
the way and had a 14-7 shot advantage after 20 minutes.
The Oilers continued swarming Calgary in the second period and should
have taken the lead - shots were 25-11 through 40 - but all they could
manage was one goal, a rocket of a one-time from Taylor Hall on a 5-on-3
power play play to make it 2-2 after two periods.
Then Raymond added his second and third of the night, TJ Brodie scored in
the waning moments and that was that.
**return soon for post-game quotes**
752875
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Gretzky's 50 goals in 42 games wasn't even a story
By Terry Jones First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
Two years earlier Wayne Gretzky had set the hockey world on its ear when
he scored 50 goals in 39 games.
The previous record, owned by Rocket Richard, 50 goals in 50 games, for
years was the sexiest in the sport.
When your correspondent talked to The Rocket before Gretzky shattered
his 50-in-50 record, he was incredulous.
“It's hard to believe. I started thinking about my record being equaled when
the first expansion came. But I never thought it would be surpassed. And
he's going to make it, maybe before his 42nd game!”
Gretzky scored five against Philadelphia the next night, Dec. 30, 1981, and
made it in 39.
Flash forward two years.
Next to nobody seemed to notice when Gretzky scored 50 goals in 42
games.
If his 50 in 39 was regarded as the most incredible accomplishments in the
history of hockey then you'd figure 50 in 42 would be the second most
incredible accomplishment.
“That's the second fastest 50 of all time and there's no hoopla,” said
assistant coach John Muckler. “It's taken for granted. I guess that shows
how great he is.”
752876
Edmonton Oilers
I was a member of the South Edmonton Jaycees who planned a golf trip in
Jasper for the third weekend in May.
Oilers '84: Cam Tait snubbed the Stanley Cup game
No problem, I thought. I’ll go for a weekend with the boys in the mountains,
watch Game 5 on television and be back in plenty of time for Game 7 in
Edmonton.
By Cam Tait , First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 06:00 PM MDT
Despite having a 3-1 lead going into Game 5 in Edmonton, I went to Jasper
instead of staying home.
It was just after 5 p.m. on 149 Street and Stony Plain Road on May 27,
1984, when three young girls stopped for a red light.
They looked at the vehicle on their left and did a double take.
When they realized that, yes — it was indeed Wayne Gretzky driving the
Mercedes Benz in the left turning lane, they began frantically, even
hysterically, waving at him. One young lady started to get out of the vehicle
at the intersection.
Gretzky genuinely smiled, gave them a friendly wave, and then, just on cue,
the light turned green and he turned south.
Eight days after the Edmonton Oilers won their first Stanley Cup, I had a
front row seat to see the magical and emotional wave Edmontonians were
riding.
We gathered in a small motel room around an even smaller television to
watch the hockey Gods make history in Edmonton on May 19, 1984.
We were all ecstatic when the Oilers won. So was the town of Jasper: I
remember people honking their horns for hours after the game in the
streets.
Strangers were giving everyone high-fives and hugs.
I was a couple of hundred kilometres away but I felt an incredible amount of
excitement.
Wanting to get in on the action, I called then CFRN radio host John Short
on his show after the game. But after waiting for half an hour on hold and
calculating my long distance bill I hung up.
It was hard to believe such an incredible feat was achieved in Edmonton.
Gretzky invited me for a brunch date at the home of his girlfriend Vicki Moss
on the south side of Edmonton.
And, now, 30 years later, I realized just how special it was.
Just as I was about to call a cab to drive me home, he made a motion for
me to hang up the telephone.
But also for Edmontonians who shared in a sense of civic pride like never
before.
“I’ll drive you home, Cammie,” he said.
We all felt like champions — and dancing in the streets at intersections.
But getting started was an adventure. I can’t walk because I have cerebral
palsy.
(Cam Tait is the special project advisor for Challenge Insurance.)
I use a wheelchair — and that’s what caused the challenge.
The wheelchair folded up fine. But it had never been put into the trunk of a
Mercedes Benz convertible.
That’s what Gretzky was driving that day, a car he had recently won.
I sat in the front seat and heard a few a few clunks, bangs and the odd
groan from Gretzky.
He must have been there a good 10 minutes trying to get my chair to fit.
Finally, I heard the trunk slam and he got in the driver’s side.
“And they said it couldn’t be done,” he said as he turned on the ignition.
That same statement probably was muttered by countless hockey
observers about the young start-up Edmonton Oilers. How could they
possibly win a Stanley Cup a mere five seasons after they joined the
National Hockey League?
I admit: I was one of them.
I knew the Oilers would win a Stanley Cup in the 1980s. I just didn’t think it
would be in the spring of 1984.
Many have mentioned their playoff run but I’ll do it again, because it’s so
remarkable.
Fifteen wins.
Four losses.
The first series was a best-of-three, and they swept the Winnipeg Jets in
three games. Then, there was the epic seven-game series with the Calgary
Flames, with the Oilers winning.
Next, Edmonton advanced to the Stanley Cup finals beating the Minnesota
North Stars in four straight.
They went on to win the Stanley Cup on home ice over the defending
champs New York Islanders. Edmonton won that best-of-seven series 4-1.
I didn’t think it would be done so soon and I’m kicking myself to this day.
When the Stanley Cup championship schedule came out, I honestly thought
the series would go seven games.
Certainly, for the players.
752877
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Gretzky chases Joe DiMaggio
To young Mr. Murray Joe DiMaggio was a coffee pitch man, not the 13-time
All-Star, three-time MVP, nine-time World Series winner and Baseball Hall
of Famer voted the game's greatest living player in baseball's centennial
year in 1969.
I immediately went up to DiMaggio and quickly pitched the premise of my
column and asked if I could possibly talk to him briefly when we landed.
By Terry Jones, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 06:00 PM MDT
Over this sports columnist's career, it seems like a ridiculously high
percentage of stories have simply dropped out of the sky and fallen in my
lap. It's been phenomenal.
Maybe the most memorable of all the stories that appeared to fall out of the
sky, I managed to get in the sky.
I was headed to the 1984 Super Bowl in Tampa Bay. At the time Wayne
Gretzky had a point-scoring streak that would eventually reach a mindboggling 51 consecutive games.
To me, the only thing in sport that compared was the 56-consecutive game
hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees in 1941.
I'd already written a column on it from Gretzky's perspective, but the guy I
really wanted to interview on the subject was DiMaggio himself.
Gretzky's point of reference now resided in other sports. He was already
being referred to as the Babe Ruth of hockey. But it struck me that the
storyline should be Pete Rose and Joe DiMaggio.
He made no commitment.
During the flight, a stewardess came up to me and asked if I was the writer
who wanted to talk for a few minutes to Joe DiMaggio. She said Mr.
DiMaggio had an empty seat beside him up in first class and had asked her
to go back to the cheap seats and invite the biggest guy back there to join
him for a few minutes.
She led me to first class where DiMaggio couldn't have been more
engaging.
“I don't know if I'm going to be much help to you,” he said, but added he'd
recently read something about Gretzky's streak and was interested.
“So nobody in hockey has ever had a streak anything like this? And my
baseball streak is the only on to compare him to? Where's he at now?” he
asked.
“One shy of your record if you count the ones at the end of last year,” I
informed him.
“You can't count the ones from the end of last year,” said DiMaggio. “They
don't allow you to count the ones from last year in baseball.”
Rose had the National League record for most consecutive games with at
least one hit with 44. DiMaggio had the major league record with 56.
DiMaggio was wonderful. He asked me as many questions about Gretzky
as I asked him about his streak and how it compared.
As Gretzky closed in on Rose, scoring at least one point in 40 consecutive
games, I pitched the concept at the kid who once played baseball in
Ontario's Inter County League.
I informed DiMaggio that Gretzky told me that his hitting streak was a bigger
accomplishment than his hockey streak.
“I really don't know how to compare it,” said Gretzky.
As a columnist I always found Gretzky to be excellent when you gave him
something fresh to chew on and it was a daily challenge to do that. Gretzky
loved statistics in all sports and this one, involving the sport he once loved
as much or more than hockey, had his interest.
“If that's true, then how is it that no one else in hockey has ever had one
like he's had?” was DiMaggio's response.
With a grin on his face, DiMaggio did make one point on behalf of a
baseball hitting streak.
“I really can't explain why nobody has ever come close to a streak like the
one I have when all those baseball players have long ones.
“One thing he doesn't have to worry about that I had to worry about. He
won't have to worry about a hockey game getting rained out in the middle of
the second period. I was at 35 or 40 games when my streak was almost
called on account of rain.”
“Logic says it's tougher to do in baseball.
DiMaggio discussed it for more than a half hour.
“I have more than four or five shifts a game to get my points. A baseball
player is going to get four or five times at bat and he could get walked every
time.
“I think his streak is remarkable,” he said. “I think he's remarkable. From
what I can gather, he doesn't need any help from me. He can carry on.”
“Really, I have to think it's tougher in baseball.
“I have no pressure at all. The greatest thing about this streak is that it
doesn't bother me. When I set the record for the streak the first time, when
it was 28, I thought about it a lot. There was a lot of pressure to get it. This
year, it's been fun.”
After two weeks getting nowhere reaching DiMaggio, a man notorious for
not granting many interviews, I headed to the Super Bowl telling guys in the
sports department if Gretzky kept the streak alive, I was going to find the
legendary Yankee Clipper, Marylin Monroe's former husband, and get that
interview if it was the last thing I did.
It turned out to be the first thing I did.
There I was, sitting in the Gate 6 departure lounge, preparing to board
Northwest Flight 735 with Jim Murray, a 21-year-old employee of Modern
Architectural Specialties Ltd. of Edmonton, who was a Super Bowl contest
winner and had befriended me on the first legs of our trip which took us to
O'Hare in Chicago.
We were among the last to board when, suddenly, young Mr. Murray gave
me the elbow.
Gretzky carried on to the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline
“Greater And Greater.”
And people not only began to join this columnist in speculating on whether
or not he could match DiMaggio's number but began to speculate if it was
possible for him to get a point every single game of the season.
With that prospect in mind, your agent contacted Sonny Reizner, the most
flamboyant and well-known odds-maker in Las Vegas, to see if he'd quote
some odds.
“Five hundred to one,” Reizner said when he got back to me.
“Wayne Gretzky is capable of being the highest scorer in the NHL, the NFL
and the NBA combined. I've never hung a number on anything like this
before. But even as great as Gretzky is, it's inevitable; his streak has to be
stopped.”
Gretzky pushed it to the limit one night in Chicago. He scored an empty net
goal at 19:58 of the third period.
Finally, at 51, it came to an end.
The Los Angeles Kings beat the Oilers 4-1. And Gretzky went 0-0-0.
“I'm disappointed that it's over,” said No. 99.
“Look,” he exclaimed. “That's Mr. Coffee.”
“I guess I didn't win any money for anybody with those 500-to-one odds.”
At the time the man they called Joltin' Joe and the Yankee Clipper was
doing commercials for a coffee-maker.
And there he was.
752878
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Fighting for credibility
By Terry Jones, October 09, 2014
The Edmonton Oilers, in 1983-84, didn't need any hissing contests with the
team on the other side of the Hudson River from Manhattan. They had
enough going with the team on the other side of the East River.
And smack dab in the middle of the schedule were three games against the
four-time Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders, the ultimate of games
which new captain Wayne Gretzky had labeled “designated games” which
came to be called credibility games and also included the Philadelphia
Flyers and Boston Bruins.
The Oilers had been swept by the Islanders in the 1983 Stanley Cup final,
of course, and the Islanders had titled their season 'The Drive For Five.'
And while it didn't have the same set-up as the Stanley Cup final the year
before, there was no lack of buzz before the game.
“Last year, psychologically, they weren't intimidated by us, knowing they
had beat us easily during the regular season,” said defenceman Kevin
Lowe.
The Oilers lost again, 4-2.
It was now eight straight.
“At some point you have to get tired of saying it was a learning experience,”
said coach/GM Glen Sather.
The Oilers got themselves up for the next one two weeks later on Long
Island.
“Every time we play the Islanders it can do nothing but help our hockey
club,” said assistant coach John Muckler.
“It's better to beat them and lose than to beat the bleep out of some team
10-1. A 10-1 game is only good for your ego. And frontrunners can find
themselves getting too cocky. I'd like to play them 12 or 15 times a year.
Each time you play them you have to learn. The Russian hockey club didn't
become great playing weak teams. Years ago they always wanted to play
Canada.”
Added to the lineup for that second credibility game against the Islanders, it
must be mentioned, was Kevin McClelland. Sather, already making a name
for himself as a deal-maker, traded Tom Roulson to Pittsburgh for
McClelland, then languishing with their Baltimore farm club. The trade
would later prove to be more than significant.
But not that night. The Oilers would be down 4-0 by the end of the first
period and lose 8-5. It soiled and spoiled the occasion of Gretzky scoring
his 300th NHL goal and setting yet another NHL record by picking up a
point in his 31st consecutive game.
Back on the Island for the third and final regular season meeting between
the two teams, the Oilers struck out again.
In the nine “designated games” Gretzky had circled, three each against the
Islanders, Flyers and Bruins, the Oilers' record was a less-than-inspiring
two wins, six losses and a tie.
But at least Sather liked some of what he saw in the 5-3 loss to the
Islanders.
“That's the way we'll continue to play against them,” said Slats. “We hit
them a lot. We played tough.”
But the Oilers hadn't gained the credibility they were seeking. Counting the
sweep in the Stanley Cup final, if there was a rematch for the big silver
trophy in the spring, the Islanders would go into it knowing they'd won the
last 10 meetings.
752879
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: When Wayne Gretzky was named captain
Edmonton Oilers captain Lee Fogolin hands off the "C" to Wayne Gretzky
It was the usual scene in the dressing room after practice on the morning of
Oct. 4, 1983.
There was the regular game of table tennis in the middle of the room.
Trainer Barrie Stafford was administrating to a training camp casualty.
Equipment man Lyle 'Sparky Kulchinsky was giving a lecture to a rookie.
And members of the media were scattered around the room, sitting beside
individual players, working on their own chosen angles for the day.
Once the last player had left the ice, Lee Fogolin stood up and made the
unusual request that the media leave the room. When we returned, Wayne
Gretzky was the new captain of the Edmonton Oilers.
752880
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Much more than just Wayne Gretzky
By Terry Jones, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 07:35 PM
The trouble with writing Edmonton Oilers history is that so much of it is
Wayne Gretzky history.
It was like that on the way to their first Stanley Cup in 1984. But by now
there was so much more to Glen Sather's hockey team than No. 99.
Like Jari Kurri.
“Going for 50?” Gretzky asked Kurri late in the season.
“No way,” said the Fabulous Finn.
“Why not?” said No. 99.
“I'm a two-way player,” responded the young man who taught himself
English by watching Happy Days.
Kurri ended up with 52 goals, 61 assists and 113 points, all personal bests.
And long before the NHL Awards were passed out, the Oilers were
lamenting that he'd scored too much to win the trophy he deserved the
most, the Selke for defensive play.
Kurri, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Grant Fuhr and Kevin Lowe had joined
Gretzky in the NHL All-Star Game.
Glenn Anderson had his first 50-goal season that year with 54. That made
three 50-goal scorers and that was an Oilers first.
Coffey's 40 goals and 126-point season gave the Oilers four 100-point men.
Messier had 113. Anderson would have made it but ended up a point short
with 99.
Other than Gretzky, it was Coffey who was the story of the the Oilers
season. He'd arrived.
Coffey had taken a lot of criticism for a thoroughbred. An early nickname
had been Paul Cough-up. He was once called “a regular pastry chef …
turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.”
“People said things about me and they hurt,” said Coffey. “But I deserved
the criticism. I imagine I was pretty hard to live with in the dressing room.
I'm sure I was just a jerk. The guys would joke, you know, and I'd take it the
wrong way. It wasn't much fun. But I learned about character and mental
toughness.”
Gretzky ended up with 87 goals and 118 assists for 205 points and again
won the Art Ross and Hart Trophies. At a just-turned 22, he ended the
season with 393 goals, 558 assists and 914 points.
The Oilers rewrote the record book again. They won an unprecedented 57
games, scored 446 goals and finished first overall with 119 points.
But it was such a weird year with their failures in the “credibility” games and
those blowout losses including the 11-0 loss in Hartford, that nobody knew
what to expect in the playoffs.
The question as the Oilers prepared for the playoffs was if, like Paul Coffey,
all his young teammates had learned enough about character and mental
toughness to be able to make them Stanley Cup champions.
One thing for sure. The Oilers weren't lacking for coaching expertise. Not
only had Sather assembled a first-rate set of assistant in John Muckler and
Ted Green by this point, the forgotten factor in what was about to happen in
the spring of 1984 was the addition of temporarily unemployed Captain
Video, Roger Neilson, to work the film room in the playoffs.
752881
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Gretzky pounds Devils, calls them 'Mickey Mouse'
By Terry Jones, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014 06:00 PM
New Jersey Devils coach Billy MacMillan
Wayne Gretzky would go on to become the spokesman for the sport, but on
the night of Nov. 19, when the Oilers beat the New Jersey Devils 13-4 on
the road, he was speaking for himself.
No. 99 had just registered his first eight point night in the NHL and Jari Kurri
scored five. And after the game, Edmonton Sun hockey writer Dick Chubey
pushed the button which caused a firestorm of reaction around the hockey
world.
Gretzky called the Devils “Mickey Mouse.”
Ron Low was playing goal for the Devils most of this long night. And it was
no fun at all for Gretzky to be running up the score on his old team-mate
and friend.
“It got to the point where it wasn't even funny,” Gretzky told Chubey in the
post-game dressing room.
752882
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Fuhr & Moog - Making each other better
By Brian Swane, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
One is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, a six-time NHL All-Star, a
winner of both the Vezina and Jennings trophies, and ranks No. 9 in the
regular season and No. 3 in the playoffs on the NHL’s all-time win list.
The other is an Olympian, appeared at four All-Star Games, is also a
Jennings trophy recipient, and sits at fifteenth and tenth in the regular
season and post-season, respectively, among the NHL’s winningest
goaltenders.
For five full seasons in the mid-eighties, they were together as the
Edmonton Oilers’ goalies. Sometimes one was the starter, other times he’d
be the backup. More often than not, the duo functioned as “1” and “1A”.
752883
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: The time they lost 11-0, and more blowouts
By Terry Jones, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
There were times when covering the 1983-84 season the thought of there
maybe one day being a reunion built around it were ludicrous. Unless it was
something in the order of the Casey Stengel's 1963 'Can't Anybody Here
Play This Game?' New York Mets.
One night the Edmonton Oilers lost 9-2 to the Washington Capitals. Another
night they lost 7-1 to the St. Louis Blues. On yet another evening they
dropped one 8-3 to the absolutely awful Toronto Maple Leafs. And they
finished up one five-game road trip losing all five, being outscored 33-9 and
losing the last one 11-0 to the Hartford Whalers.
752884
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Rod Phillips, the former voice of the Oilers, on winning the Cup:
"It was just so hard to believe"
By Derek Van Diest, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
Rod Phillips young and not young
Those fortunate enough to be around during the Edmonton Oilers 1984
Stanley Cup run likely have fond memories of the club.
Many of those memories were formed by descriptions broadcast over the
radio in the days where not every game was televised.
Rod Phillips, the voice behind those descriptions became nearly as
legendary as the players themselves, chronicling what would go on to
become one of the greatest teams in NHL history.
752885
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Round 2: Flames versus Oilers rivalry is born
Edmonton Oilers Dave Semenko
The greatest run of sensational playoff hockey series between two teams in
Stanley Cup history, many believe, were the Edmonton Oilers-Calgary
Flames best-of-sevens of the ’80s and early ’90s.
The first was in 1984. And it came with zero expectations.
The Flames weren't expected to be so much as a speed bump.
752886
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Round 3: They started to believe
By Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun
Oilers fans banner 1984
Four more wins and the Edmonton Oilers would be back in the Stanley Cup
final. But as the Edmonton Oilers headed into the Campbell Conference
Final against the Minnesota North Stars, coach Glen Sather had a problem.
In Game 7 of the Calgary series he started an ice cold Andy Moog in goal.
Then, when Moog was left helpless on a 3-on-1 situation, Sather gave him
the hook and went back to Fuhr, who won the game. All's well that turns out
well, except now Sather had two unhappy goaltenders on his hands.
He decided to go with Fuhr in Game 1 and was rewarded with several
super saves early before the Oilers took control and eventually won it in a
breeze 7-1.
752887
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Final: We are the Stanley Cup champions!
The Stanley Cup ceremony Oct. 13, 1984
It was 'The Drive For Five' versus 'The Run For One'.
In 1984 the NHL had decided to institute the 2-3-2 World Series concept for
the Stanley Cup Final, which would open in Long Island.
“I hope you guys use more notebooks this year than you did last year,” said
Kevin Lowe as the hockey writers from around the league gathered in
Uniondale the day before the game, referring to the Oilers being swept in
the final the year before as the Islanders won their four straight
championship
752888
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Stanley had more fun in Edmonton
Today, there's an official Keeper of the Cup, supplied by the Hockey Hall of
Fame, wearing white gloves, who takes Stanley from place to place and
appearance to appearance in an orderly and scheduled sort of way way.
And it's all good stuff.
But in 1984 when the Edmonton Oilers first won the Stanley Cup, it was
wild and crazy. And wonderful. Oh, so wonderful.
“There was never a city where Stanley met so many people and spent so
much time with the players,” remembers Kevin Lowe.
752889
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: A Stanley Cup journey begins
Stanley Cup 1984
When you talk to Olympic gold medal winners years after their careers are
complete, the thing they tell you is that it's the journey they eventually
treasure more than the moment.
And you can bet that most of the stories being told at the Edmonton Oilers
30th Anniversary Reunion of the first Stanley Cup win in 1984 will be from
the journey.
Five years after joining the NHL in the merger with the WHA, the Oilers won
the Stanley Cup. Five years. And then they won five.
752890
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Don Jackson's won five titles in the last six years
It was a team picture with a lot of guys who won the first of five Stanley
Cups with the Edmonton Oilers and a handful who won another one with
the New York Rangers.
But one man in that picture could claim he's won five titles in the last six
years.
Don Jackson was only around for two Stanley Cup championships in
Edmonton but he keeps bringing home winners coaching in the Eishockey
Bundesliga, the major pro league in Germany.
752891
Edmonton Oilers
Oilers '84: Raimo Summanen will finally put on his Stanley Cup ring
By Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun
In 1984, Raimo Summanen didn't play enough games to qualify to get his
name on the Stanley Cup.
Forget the fact there was room for the owner to put his dad's name, Basil
Pocklinton, now X-ed out, on the Cup.
But he did get a Stanley Cup ring.
752892
Edmonton Oilers
Third-period collapse lets Flames score three on Oilers
By Robert Tychkowski, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
The Edmonton Oilers season opener is tonight. They're hosting the Calgary
Flames and the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Follow along below as gameday
unfolds.
AND, don't forget to check out all our coverage on the Edmonton Oilers'
1984 reunion.
752893
Florida Panthers
▪ Upshall was briefly knocked out of the game after he took an elbow to the
jaw from Radko Gudas in the second period.
Penalties, power-play goals plague Florida Panthers in season opener
Upshall said he never saw Gudas coming as he was working the puck out
of the Florida zone when Gudas came in, lifted his shoulder and collided
with Upshall.
By George Richards 10/09/2014 11:30 PM
Upshall returned to the game after being down on the ice for a while.
The Lightning is a very dangerous offensive team, especially when it has
more players on the ice than its opponent.
There was no penalty for Gudas — who was squirted with Gatorade by
Upshall in a game last year and was ejected after going after the Florida
bench — although Gudbranson did take an unsportsmanlike penalty for
sticking up for Upshall.
And it’s not like the Panthers didn’t know this, either.
On Thursday night, Tampa Bay took advantage of the Panthers’ parade to
the penalty box as it won the season opener 3-2 in overtime at Amalie
Arena.
All three of Tampa Bay’s goals came on the power play — two of which
were when Florida had just three defenders on the ice — including the
game winner 49 seconds into overtime.
Tampa Bay ended up with seven power-play chances; Florida had just two.
“We took too many penalties but, for the most part, I thought we played
hard,’’ said Scottie Upshall, who was in the box for overtime after colliding
with goalie Ben Bishop at the end of the third period.
“It was 6-1 in penalties. We felt we were working hard, but the calls just
weren’t coming to us. You can’t leave [Roberto Luongo] out to dry in a
situation like that.’’
With Luongo in goal, Florida had a puncher’s chance against the more
skilled Tampa Bay team.
Florida took the initial lead in the second period only to find itself trailing 2-1
in the third.
A goal by Jonathan Huberdeau tied things with Luongo (29 saves) giving
the Panthers hope for more than just the one point in the standings they
headed home with.
But in overtime, Florida was caught on a quick line change as Bishop
corralled the puck near the corner and sent a slick pass to Victor Hedman
at center ice. Hedman walked in on Luongo and beat him with the shot,
ending Florida’s opening-night win streak at three.
The Panthers lost all four meetings to the Lightning last season and don’t
play Tampa Bay again until March 1.
“I thought we played well, but you can’t be in the penalty box seven times
against those guys,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said. “They have a great power
play and move the puck well. But I really liked our game. We wanted two
points but got one. You know what, I’ll take it.’’
The Panthers were held to three shots in the opening period but definitely
showed the Lightning they weren’t going to be pushed around.
Despite their early offensive problems, Florida took the first lead of the night
when defenseman Erik Gudbranson unleashed a 45-foot bomb that zipped
over the glove of Bishop.
Florida didn’t get to enjoy its good tidings for long, however, as Sean
Bergenheim was flagged for interference 31 seconds later.
The Panthers couldn’t stop the Lightning power play with Tyler Johnson
charging in and popping the puck over Luongo’s glove to tie the score.
Florida fell behind 2-1 early in the third when Ryan Callahan — on a 5-on-3
chance — backhanded a loose puck past Luongo.
But two minutes later, Jonathan Huberdeau got his first goal of the season
when he fought down low and jammed a puck past Bishop.
Florida then kept things close and hoped to pull out the win in overtime. The
final power-play chance, this one a 4-on-3 advantage for the Lightning, was
too much.
“I thought we battled hard, but they had a lot of power plays,’’ Luongo said.
“They have a lot of talent, and they’re going to make you pay. It’s a tough
way to lose. I wanted to come up with a few more saves to give the boys a
chance. We’ll keep working on our game.’’
“I just have a sore jaw and that’s typical for a head shot,’’ Upshall said. “The
ref obviously said he didn’t see it, and that was the explanation.’’
Gallant wouldn’t comment on whether or not he thought Gudas would end
up being suspended for the incident.
“He got hit in the head and no one saw it,’’ Gallant said. “What can you do?”
Miami Herald LOADED: 10.10.2014
752894
Florida Panthers
Recap: Tampa Bay vs. Florida
By Sports Network
Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Victor Hedman's goal 1:11 into overtime
lifted the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers in the
Ryan Callahan and Tyler Johnson each netted a goal while Valtterri
Filppula tallied two assists for the Lightning, who have taken three straight
games against Florida in Tampa and 12 of the last 14 meetings overall.
Ben Bishop stopped 19-of-21 shots and added an assist on the gamewinner from Hedman.
Erik Gudbranson and Jonathan Huberdeau each scored a goal for the
Panthers. Roberto Luongo made 29 saves in the setback.
Scottie Upshall's interference penalty at the end of the third period gave the
hosts a power play entering the extra session. During a Florida line change,
Bishop sent a pass up the near boards to Hedman, who skated in from the
blue line and wristed a shot over the right shoulder of Luongo to win it.
Earlier, in a physical first period, Tampa Bay outshot the vistors 8-3 as both
teams headed into intermission scoreless.
The Panthers then opened the scoring 5:03 into the third on Gudbranson's
blast from the point. Gudbranson recieved a pass from Dylan Olsen,
following a faceoff win by Derek Mackenzie, and ripped a slap shot past
Bishop to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
The Lightning answered just over two minutes later as Filppula sent a pass
across ice to Johnson, who one-timed it into the net to tie the game at 1-1.
Some tic-tac-toe passing set up a chance for Tampa early in the third, but
Luongo stopped Johnson in front of the crease with a sliding save to keep
the game tied. Minutes later, a turnover in the Florida zone saw Callahan
one-time a wrist shot right into the chest of Luongo.
Tampa Bay was on a 5-on-3 power play when Filppula put a shot on net
and Callahan stuffed in the rebound for a 2-1 lead.
Huberdeau attempted a pass across the crease and Radko Gudas
deflected the puck right in front of his net. Huberdeau followed the disc and
deposited the loose puck into the back of the net to tie the game with 10:44
remaining in the third.
752895
Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers’ Willie Mitchell wants to spread Stanley Cup-winning
attitude
By George Richards 10/09/2014 9:03 PM
Like many around the country, Willie Mitchell watched the Los Angeles
Kings banner-raising ceremony on television.
Mitchell, however, had a little something to do with the Kings winning the
Stanley Cup last season.
Now with the Panthers, Mitchell said he enjoyed watching his former
teammates on the ice at Staples Center and has fond memories of the
Kings’ incredible run — Los Angeles won three Game 7s in the Western
Conference playoffs — to the title.
“You kind of wish you were there because it was so cool to see,’’ Mitchell
said.
“It was the culmination of all of the events; the journey, winning, the parties
afterward. The banner is the last thing left, the nail in the coffin.’’
But was watching the ceremony from a hotel in downtown Tampa a little
bittersweet? Mitchell said it wasn’t as he’s already moved on and that he’s
ready for the challenges of helping his new team into the postseason —
and beyond.
“It’s motivation. Winning the Cup is the best feeling in the world, and we
want to win it here,’’ said Mitchell, who was named the eighth captain in
Panthers history on Monday.
“Obviously we have to climb some hills before we climb that mountain.
Everyone has a clean slate, no one has the Stanley Cup right now. It’s up
for grabs and everyone wants to take it away from them.’’
It’s that sort of attitude, coach Gerard Gallant said, that makes Mitchell such
a leader within the Panthers locker room and why he was a natural choice
as the new team captain.
“He was happy to sign here and was excited to come here,’’ Gallant said.
“Willie has been excited to be a Florida Panther since Day 1. He didn’t
come here to retire. He signed a two-year deal and wants to be a good
player and a good leader.’’
In three years with the Kings, Mitchell won the Cup twice.
This summer, he had a few days with the Cup and took it back home to
British Columbia where he surprised his grandfather, 88-year-old Les
Mitchell, with it.
“He had a tryout with the Rangers in the Original Six days so it was only
fitting that I took it over to him and chucked it onto his lap,’’ Willie Mitchell
said. “That was pretty special.’’
Mitchell said he texted a few of his old teammates in Los Angeles as well as
members of the Kings’ front office on Wednesday before turning in for the
night.
The Kings haven’t given Mitchell his 2014 Stanley Cup ring yet, but he’s
expecting it to arrive in South Florida sometime soon.
When asked if he would rather wait until the Panthers visit Los Angeles next
month, Mitchell said he preferred to just get the ring in the mail instead.
“I’m sure they’ll send it before then,’’ Mitchell said. “I don’t need anything
special. It’s great, it’s a life-long memory, but it’s over now. On to the next
journey, the next chapter.’’
▪ Although the Lightning is considered one of the top teams in the Eastern
Conference this year, that sure wasn’t the case when Gallant played here.
Gallant joined the Lightning in its second season — which was Florida’s first
in the league — and played 51 games in 1993-94.
The Lightning finished 12 points behind the expansion Panthers that
season.
“We played a lot of golf, I remember that,’’ Gallant said.
752896
Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers (0-0-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (0-0-0), 7:30 p.m. (ET)
By Sports Network
(SportsNetwork.com) - The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning
begin the season on equal footing, but the latter club has the talent to
dominate their Sunshine State rivals in 2014-15.
Both clubs aim to get the season off to a good start when the Lightning host
Thursday's Atlantic Division battle at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2011 and
the club expects to not only return to the postseason in 2015 but also
challenge for the Eastern Conference title.
"It's nice to be (noticed) around the league as potentially one of the top
teams, but that's where the work comes in," Lightning captain and star
centerman Steven Stamkos told his team's official website. "We have to
make sure we fulfill our own expectations of coming in and wanting to learn
and wanting to get better, and we've done that so far."
The Panthers, meanwhile, missed the postseason for the 12th time in 13
seasons last spring and are headed for the same fate in 2014-15 unless
they manage to play well above expectations.
Tampa Bay won all four meetings against Florida last season, piling up 22
goals against the Panthers in the process. The Bolts have won 11 of 13 in
this series and Florida has dropped two straight and five of its past seven
tilts in Tampa.
Even though the postseason run ended shortly after it began with a fourgame sweep at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, there were plenty of
positives to draw at the end of 2013-14. Tampa Bay hopes to build on the
good things beginning with tonight's season opener.
If anything, general manager Steve Yzerman, who is entering his fifth
season leading the Bolts, has to hope his club and head coach Jon Cooper
learned some valuable lessons in resiliency. Stamkos provided the team
with one test in dealing with adversity, but there was also the Martin St.
Louis saga, which ended with Yzerman granting the team captain's demand
for a trade by shipping him to New York for former Rangers captain Ryan
Callahan.
The Callahan trade worked out well enough Yzerman decided to re-sign the
forward to a six-year, $34.8 million contract rather than let him hit free
agency. In addition to retaining Callahan's services, the Lightning also
brought in a handful of free agents over the summer, including fellow exRangers Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle.
Yzerman also lured forward Brenden Morrow and goaltender Evgeni
Nabokov to Tampa. The latter player provides depth in case No. 1
netminder Ben Bishop goes down again to injury like he did right before the
start of last spring's playoffs. Bishop is probable for tonight's game after
undergoing surgery in the offseason to repair a wrist injury.
Morrow is questionable for tonight's game due to a strained lower back,
while highly-touted forward prospect Jonathan Drouin is out with a fractured
thumb.
Although the perpetually rebuilding Panthers have made the playoffs only
once in the last 13 seasons, there is a glimmer of hope for the upcoming
season thanks to the return of a familiar face.
Panthers general manager Dale Tallon welcomed back prodigal son
Roberto Luongo by acquiring the veteran goaltender in a trade at last
season's deadline. Although the Panthers finished 29th in the NHL
standings in 2013-14, Tallon hopes having a legitimate No. 1 option
between the pipes will at least help his team stay in the race for a
postseason spot next spring.
Luongo, who put up solid numbers in a 14-game run with Florida at the end
of last season, returns to the fold after spending seven-plus seasons with
the Vancouver Canucks. Prior to being shipped off to the Canucks in 2006,
Luongo had spent the previous five seasons with the Panthers and none of
those campaigns ended with a trip to the playoffs.
The current Panthers are blessed with a wealth of young talent, but that
always seems to be the case in Florida due to the franchise's status as
perennial basement-dwellers. However, through last season's trade for
Luongo and a flurry of activity this offseason, Tallon has added several
veterans with winning resumes to the mix as he tries to get Florida back to
the playoffs for the second time since taking over the GM post following the
2009-10 campaign.
Gerard Gallant, taking on his first NHL head coaching job since being fired
by Columbus following the 2006-07 season, has the unenviable task of
turning Tallon's makeshift roster into a playoff team.
Tampa Bay was 25-10-6 as the home team last season, while the Panthers
owned a dreadful 13-25-3 mark as the guest.
Florida will play its home opener Saturday against New Jersey, while the
Bolts will host Ottawa on the same day. Tampa opens the season on a fourgame homestand before embarking on a five-game road trip.
752897
Florida Panthers
PENALTY PARADE: Tampa Bay Lightning score three power play goals,
top Florida Panthers 3-2 in OT ... Scottie Upshall takes cheap shot, returns
to game
-- Upshall was briefly knocked out of the game after he took a elbow to the
jaw from Radko Gudas in the second period.
Upshall said he never saw Gudas coming as he was working the puck out
of the Florida zone when Gudas came in, lifted his shoulder and collided
with Upshall.
Upshall returned to the game after being down on the ice for sometime.
George Richards
TAMPA -- The Lightning are a very dangerous offensive team, especially
when they have more players on the ice than its opponent.
And it's not like the Panthers didn't know this, either.
On Thursday night, Tampa Bay took advantage of the Panthers parade to
the penalty box as it won the season-opener 3-2 in overtime at Amalie
Arena.
All three of Tampa Bay's goals came on the power play -- two of which were
when Florida had just three defenders on the ice -- including the game
winner 49 seconds into overtime.
Tampa Bay ended up with seven power play chances; Florida had just two.
"We took too many penalties but for the most part, I thought we played
hard,'' said Scottie Upshall, who was in the box for overtime after colliding
with goalie Ben Bishop at the end of the third period.
"It was 6-to-1 in penalties. We felt we were working hard, but the calls just
weren't coming to us. You can't leave [Roberto Luongo] out to dry in a
situation like that.''
With Luongo in goal, Florida had a puncher's chance against the more
skilled Tampa Bay team.
Florida took the initial lead in the second period only to find itself trailing 2-1
in the third.
A goal by Jonathan Huberdeau tied things with Luongo (29 saves) giving
the Panthers hope for more than just thee one point in the standings they
headed home with.
But in overtime, Florida was caught on a quick line change as Bishop
corralled the puck near the corner and sent a slick pass to Victor Hedman
at center ice. Hedman walked in on Luongo and beat him with the shot
ending Florida's opening night win streak at three.
The Panthers lost all four meetings to the Lightning last season and don't
play Tampa Bay again until March 1.
"I thought we played well, but you can't be in the penalty box seven times
against those guys,'' coach Gerard Gallant said. "They have a great power
play and move the puck well. But I really liked our game. We wanted two
points but got one. You know what, I'll take it.''
The Panthers were held to three shots in the opening period but definitely
showed the Lightning they weren't going to be pushed around.
Despite their early offensive problems, Florida took the first lead of the night
when defenseman Erik Gudbranson unleashed a 45-foot bomb that zipped
over the glove of goalie Ben Bishop.
Florida didn't get to enjoy its good tidings for long, however, as Sean
Bergenheim was flagged for interference 31 seconds later.
The Panthers couldn't stop the Lightning power play with Tyler Johnson
charging in and popping the puck over Luongo's glove to tie the score.
Florida fell behind 2-1 early in the third when Ryan Callahan -- on a 5-on-3
chance -- backhanded a loose puck past Luongo.
But two minutes later, Jonathan Huberdeau got his first goal of the season
when he fought down low and jammed a puck past Bishop.
Florida then kept things close and hoped to pull out the win in overtime. The
final power play chance, this one a 4-on-3 advantage for the Lightning, was
too much.
"I thought we battled hard but they had a lot of power plays,'' Luongo said.
"They have a lot of talent and they're going to make you pay. It's a tough
way to lose. I wanted to come up with a few more saves to give the boys a
chance. We'll keep working on our game.''
There was no penalty for Gudas -- who was squirted with Gatorade by
Upshall in a game last year and was ejected after going after the Florida
bench -- although Gudbranson did take an unsportsmanlike penalty for
sticking up for Upshall.
"I just have a sore jaw and that's typical for a head shot,'' Upshall said. "The
ref obviously said he didn't see it and that was the explanation.''
Gallant wouldn't comment on whether or not he thought Gudas would end
up being suspended for the incident.
"He got hit in the head and no one saw it,'' Gallant said. "What can you do?"
752898
Florida Panthers
BANNER NIGHT: Willie Mitchell watches old mates raise banner, ready to
lead Florida Panthers to new heights ... Jason Garrison back in the
Sunshine State
Posted by George Richards
"It's different here although the weather is kind of the same,'' Garrison said.
"This is a different team, different organization. Honestly, if it wasn't for the
weather, I wouldn't feel like I'm back in Florida. It's been great here and I
look forward to getting this season going. There is a lot of skill on this team,
a lot of talent.''
-- Although the Lightning are considered one of the top teams in the
Eastern Conference this year, that sure wasn't the case when Gallant
played here.
Gallant joined the Lightning in its second season -- which was Florida's first
in the league -- and played 51 games in 1993-94.
TAMPA -- Like many around the country, Willie Mitchell watched the Los
Angeles Kings banner-raising ceremony on television.
Mitchell, however, had a little something to do with the Kings winning the
Stanley Cup last season.
Now with the Panthers, Mitchell said he enjoyed watching his former
teammates on the ice at Staples Center and has fond memories of the
Kings' incredible run -- Los Angeles won three Game 7s in the Western
Conference playoffs -- to the title.
"You kind of wish you were there because it was so cool to see,'' Mitchell
said.
"It was the culmination of all of the events; the journey, winning, the parties
afterward. The banner is the last thing left, the nail in the coffin.''
But was watching the ceremony from a hotel in downtown Tampa a little
bittersweet? Mitchell said it wasn't as he's already moved on and that he's
ready for the challenges of helping his new team into the postseason -- and
beyond.
"It's motivation. Winning the Cup is the best feeling in the world and we
want to win it here,'' said Mitchell, who was named the eighth captain in
Florida history on Monday.
"Obviously we have to climb some hills before we climb that mountain.
Everyone has a clean slate, no one has the Stanley Cup right now. It's up
for grabs and everyone wants to take it away from them.''
It's that sort of attitude, coach Gerard Gallant said, that makes Mitchell such
a leader within the Panthers locker room and why he was a natural choice
as the new team captain.
"He was happy to sign here and was excited to come here,'' Gallant said.
"Willie has been excited to be a Florida Panther since Day 1. He didn't
come here to retire. He signed a two-year deal and wants to be a good
player and a good leader.''
In three years with the Kings, Mitchell won the Cup twice.
This summer, he had a few days with the Cup and took it back home to
British Columbia where he surprised his grandfather, 88-year-old Lester
Mitchell, with it.
"He had a tryout with the Rangers in the Original Six days so it was only
fitting that I took it over to him and chucked it onto his lap,'' Willie Mitchell
said. "That was pretty special.''
Mitchell said he texted a few of his old teammates in Los Angeles as well as
members of the Kings' front office on Wednesday before turning in for the
night.
The Kings haven't given Mitchell his 2014 Stanley Cup ring yet but he's
expecting it to arrive in South Florida sometime soon.
When asked if he would rather wait until the Panthers visit Los Angeles next
month, Mitchell said he preferred to just get the ring in the mail instead.
"I'm sure they'll send it before then,'' Mitchell said. "I don't need anything
special. It's great, it's a life-long memory, but it's over now. On to the next
journey, the next chapter.''
-- Jason Garrison left the Panthers following their 2012 playoff season to
play closer to his hometown when he signed with Vancouver as a free
agent.
This summer, the Canucks traded him back to the Sunshine State although
he didn't come back to the Panthers.
On Thursday night, Garrison took on his old teammates as a member of the
Lightning.
The Lightning finished 12 points behind the expansion Panthers that
season.
"We played a lot of golf, I remember that,'' Gallant said.
-- Florida's three scratches Thursday: defenseman Colby Robak as well as
forwards Brandon Pirri and Jimmy Hayes.
752899
Florida Panthers
Panthers show grit in 3-2 overtime loss to Lightning
By Harvey Fialkov, Sun Sentinel contact the reporter
Panthers first shot on goal of season came with 11:24 left in first period
Willie Mitchell won two Cups with the Kings
Panthers rookie Aaron Ekblad plays in first NHL game
The Panthers end a three-game season-opening win streak, but notch a
well-earned point as their franchise mark on opening nights goes to 10-7-22 and 6-11-3-0 on the road. However, the Lightning's dominance over their
Atlantic Division foes continue as they are 8-1-1 over Florida since 2012,
including five straight.
Luongo, making his first season-opening start for Florida since the 2006
season, was spectacular with 29 saves, several of the spectacular variety.
The Panthers' PK unit seemed instantly upgraded with Luongo and the
addition of center Derek MacKenzie, but they were victimized by three
PPGs in seven opportunities.
"They had a lot of power plays; they have a lot of skill so they're going to
make you pay,'' Luongo said. "It's a tough way to lose. … All in all we'll take
a good road point.''
Well, make it a memo with an asterisk.
It was too much to ask to stop a 5-on-3 advantage in the third period set up
by a silly delay of game penalty by defenseman Dylan Olsen. Just 59
seconds into the two-man advantage, former Rangers captain Ryan
Callahan punched in a rebound of Valtteri Filppula's shot to give the
Lightning a 2-1 lead at 7:17.
While the Panthers showed a newfound grit and toughness as well as their
usual third-period resilience, their same old penchant for giving the potent
Lightning too many power plays bit them in the end of a 3-2 loss in overtime
at a sold-out Amalie Arena Thursday night.
But the Panthers clicked on a delayed penalty when Jonathan Huberdeau
swatted in his own rebound off a Brian Campbell shot at 9:16 to set up
overtime. Rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad, playing in his first NHL game,
notched his first point with the secondary assist.
Willie Mitchell
After a scoreless first period, Gudbranson snapped the scoreless tie at 5:03
of the second period with a long, straightaway slapper just inside the blue
line. It was only Gudbranson's sixth goal in his 170th game.
Earlier this week defenseman Erik Gudbranson said that the season opener
against the Lightning would be a good time to send a message to the
league and their cross-state rivals that they weren't the same old Panthers.
Caption Willie Mitchell
Kim Klement, USA Today Sports
Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson (9) shoots as Florida Panthers
defenseman Willie Mitchell (33) defends during the second period at Tampa
Bay Times Forum.
Erik Gudbranson
Caption Erik Gudbranson
Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Boyle (11) skates with the puck as
Florida Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson (44) defends .
Tyler Johnson
Caption Tyler Johnson
Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson (9) shoots and scores a goal
against the Florida Panthers during the second period.
Erik Gudbranson
Caption Erik Gudbranson
Florida Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson (44) is congratulated by
teammates after he scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the
second period.
Ben Bishop
Caption Ben Bishop
Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (30) defends the goal against the
Florida Panthers during the second period at Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The final dagger came as the regulation horn sounded with Panthers
forward Scottie Upshall called for goalie interference. Just 1:11 into
overtime Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (19 saves) caught the Panthers on a
line change and sent a two-line pass to Victor Hedman,who strolled in and
wristed it through the legs of goalie Roberto Luongo.
"I thought we played real well, but obviously you can't be in the penalty box
for seven penalties,'' Gerard Gallant said of his first game as Panthers
coach. "They got a great power play and move the puck real well. Five-onfive we're a real good team … We wanted two [points], we got one, I'll take
that.''
However, just 31 seconds later Sean Bergenheim gave back the
momentum with an ill-timed interference penalty that eventually ended up in
the net. A sweet, fake and cross-ice pass by Filppula set up Tyler Johnson,
who steered it past Luongo at 7:12 for a 1-1 tie after two.
A few minutes later Luongo - as he is expected to do this season - kept the
game tied when he stymied a breakaway by Ondrej Palat by straddling the
puck that led to new Panthers enforcer Shawn Thornton landing a
haymaker to Palat's chin.
Lightning's notorious hit man Radko Gudas, who ended Kris Versteeg's
season a few years ago, doled out a vicious elbow to Upshall's head,
sending him and his stick flying. Gudbranson rose to Upshall's defense as
somehow the officials missed Gudas' hit which will probably end up in a
suspension.
"The ref obviously said he didn't see it,'' said Upshall through a sore jaw.
"It's tough, we took too many penalties. You can't leave Luongo out to dry
like that.''
The Panthers were outshot 8-3 in a close-to-the-vest scoreless first period
with not one true scoring chance, yet it was an excellent recipe for success
in a road opener against the lightning-fast Lightning team that blew them
out 7-2 in Tampa's home opener last season.
The Lightning had one excellent scoring opportunity when former Panthers
defenseman Jason Garrison uncorked his trademark howitzer that Luongo
kicked out. Blossoming second-year forward Nikita Kucherov was banging
the rebound on the doorstep but Panthers center Dave Bolland, the
Panthers highest-paid free-agent signing this offseason, crosschecked him
to the ice to save a goal.
That was a harbinger of the Panthers determination to protect their net at all
costs as players took turns tossing Lightning interlopers down, including
defensive partners Gudbranson and Olsen.
Panthers scratches
As expected the Panthers scratched forwards Brandon Pirri and Jimmy
Hayes, as well as defenseman Colby Robak, who made his first openinggame roster.
Sun Sentinel LOADED: 10.10.2014
752900
Florida Panthers
Panthers' Mitchell hopes team proves critics wrong
Staff
33. Willie Mitchell
By Harvey Fialkov, Sun Sentinel
Ice HockeyWillie MitchellFlorida PanthersNHLTampa Bay LightningLos
Angeles Kings
Panthers captain/defenseman Willie Mitchell says even though he’s 37 he
still gets butterflies on opening night.
1. Roberto Luongo
4. Dylan Olsen
5. Aaron Ekblad
7. Dmitry Kulikov
11. Jonathan Huberdeau
Here are the 2014-15 Florida Panthers following their final round of cuts.
“The anticipation of the season no matter how old you are or how long you
play is a special day,’’ Mitchell said after morning skate at Amelie Arena. “A
[teammate] said he’s got butterflies and I said, ‘Perfect, that’s a guy you
want to line up with. Everyone starts with a clean slate and a chance to
take the big silver thing away from the L.A. Kings. That’s what everybody
is trying to do. …We’re trying to get on the same page and learn the
systems and we’ve been doing that and getting better and better.’’
Mitchell has full respect for the talent-laden Lightning.
“That’sa good hockey club for sure and I feel we’re a good hockey club.
We’ve had a lot of changes but we look to have more depth in the lineup.
Some young players starting to come into their own and old players hope
to settle down some things,’’Mitchell said. “Who’s kidding who? This
organization wasn’t in a good spot last year and we look to prove some
peoplewrong. We’ll use that for motivation for sure.’’
Most publications, including the Hockey News, predict that the Panthers will
improve this season but not enough to make the playoffs.
Fellow defenseman Aaron Ekblad is excited about playing his first NHL
regular-season game, but he’s trying to control his enthusiasm.
“Yeah, it’s one of the biggest [milestones],’’ said Ekblad, 18. “I think
milestones are a never-ending thing but obviously you want to have a great
game and get some wins and then I want to have a good first and second
half and get into the postseason. I consider them neverending.
“I just want to go out there and play the way I know how to play and let my
instincts take over.’’
Ekblad admitted he got too pumped u p for his first NHL exhibition game
against Nashville, and had a clunker of a game that included two giveaways
and a minus-2 ice rating.
“If you get too excited you don’t play the way you know how to play. I know
what it takes. So I’ll just be ready, that’s all you can ask for and hope you
play well.’’
The Panthers lines are the same as they were during their West Point
practices:
Huberdeau-Barkov-Jokinen; Upshall-Bjugstad-Boyes; Bergenheim-BollandFleischmann; Kopecky-MacKenzie-Thornton; D-men: Campbell-Ekblad;
Kulikov-Mitchell; Gudbranson-Olsen.
Sun Sentinel LOADED: 10.10.2014
752901
Florida Panthers
Hedman scores in OT, Lightning beat Panthers 3-2
By MARK DIDTLER
TAMPA, Fla. —Ben Bishop made the needed saves and also set up the
game-winning goal.
Victor Hedman scored on a power play off a feed from the goalie 1:11 into
overtime, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 in
their season opener Thursday night.
"I thought he was in command of his game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper
said of Bishop.
Hedman took Bishop's pass at the offensive blue line, skated in all alone
during a Panthers line change and beat Roberto Luongo from the left circle.
"I tried to shoot high and fortunately it got in," Hedman said. "I don't think
we played our best, but good teams find a way to win and that's what we
did."
Bishop stopped 19 shots in his first regular-season game since dislocating
his elbow late last season. He also had a wrist injury in the second half of
last season that impacted his stick-handling.
"It's nice," Bishop said about his assist. "I was looking for an odd-man rush."
Tampa Bay also got goals from Tyler Johnson and Ryan Callahan. Valtteri
Filppula had two assists.
The Lightning went 3 for 7 on the power play, while Florida failed to score
on two chances.
"Unfortunately, the power plays cost us," said Luongo, who made 29 saves.
"We've just got to be more disciplined there."
Erik Gudbranson and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Florida in Gerard
Gallant's first game as Panthers coach.
Callahan scored on a rebound of Filppula's shot during a 5-on-3 power
play, putting Tampa Bay up 2-1 at 7:17 of the third.
Florida pulled even at 2 when Huberdeau put a shot past Bishop during a
delayed penalty call at 9:16 of the third. Tampa Bay had six of the seven
power-play chances up to that point.
After Gudbranson opened the scoring at 5:03 of the second, Johnson tied it
at 1 when he beat Luongo from the low right circle during a power play 2:09
later.
Luongo stopped Ondrej Palat's breakaway backhander with 9 minutes left
in the second. He also stopped Johnson during a 2-on-1 early in the third.
Florida's Scottie Upshall was briefly shaken up in the second after a
questionable hit by Tampa Bay's Radko Gudas. No penalty was called on
the play.
"He got hit in the head and nobody (saw) it, so what can you do?" Gallant
said. "It's disappointing, but nobody (saw) the call."
Tampa Bay won all four games between the teams last season. The
Lightning also took a pair of preseason games this year, outscoring the
Panthers 7-1.
NOTES: Bishop has won all five of his games against Florida. ... Tampa
Bay D Eric Brewer (965 NHL games) was a healthy scratch. "It's their
decision," the 35-year-old Brewer said. "I don't like it. It's not easy." ...
Lightning rookie F Jonathan Drouin (broken right thumb) is practicing with
the team and nearing his NHL debut. ... Florida D Aaron Ekblad, selected
first overall in the 2014 draft, had an assist in his NHL debut. ... Luongo
needs one victory to tie John Vanbiesbrouck (374) for 13th place on the
career list. ... Tampa Bay lost RW Richard Panik on waivers to Toronto. ...
U.S. women's team player Anne Schleper will skate with the Lightning in
practice Monday.
Palm Beach Post LOADED: 10.10.2014
752902
Los Angeles Kings
Kings' Brayden McNabb has to be a fast learner as Jake Muzzin sits out
Doughty said he thought it "actually got worse" as the game went on.
"We were doing things we don't usually do," he said. "We looked like a slow
team. We're usually a fast team."
By Lisa Dillman contact the reporter
Injury to Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin has accelerated the development
of Brayden McNabb
Kings' Trevor Lewis is day to day after injury suffered in season opener
Coach Darryl Sutter juggles lines in practice after Kings go scoreless in
season opener
At least one byproduct of defenseman Jake Muzzin's injury is that it has
forced the Kings to speed the development of Brayden McNabb.
Muzzin sat out the season opener against the San Jose Sharks because of
an undisclosed upper-body issue and said Thursday after practice that he
could miss a couple more games, calling it a fluke injury.
Forward Trevor Lewis, who was injured in the 4-0 loss to the Sharks, is day
to day because of a mid-to-upper-body injury, according to Kings Assistant
General Manager Rob Blake.
Lisa Dillman
The Kings have back-to-back games this weekend, at Phoenix on Saturday
and against Winnipeg at Staples Center on Sunday. If Muzzin sits out those
games, the next contest is Tuesday at home against Edmonton.
"Right now, we're in this position where [McNabb] has got to play," said
Kings Coach Darryl Sutter. "Quite honest, that's good for our team. If he
can continue the steps going forward, keep improving and then, touch
wood, when we get everybody back, maybe he stays in the lineup."
Once the coaching staff realized Muzzin could miss a few games, they
made the decision to accelerate McNabb's on-ice education. The youngster
has been paired with Drew Doughty.
"We're going to put him in every situation Muzz would have been in," Sutter
said.
Said McNabb: "I thought the first half of the game went pretty well. A little bit
of an adjustment the second half."
Muzzin and Doughty praised McNabb's development from the beginning of
camp to the season opener. "It'll be fun to watch him grow," Muzzin said.
Doughty said he expected to play a few games with McNabb until Muzzin
returned to the lineup.
"I thought he played pretty well," Doughty said. "We obviously got to get
used to each other a little more. Besides the one goal against we were on
for — which was kind of both our faults, letting that [Tommy Wingels]
breakaway go by — besides that, we played really well together."
Doughty has embraced his inner mentor in regard to McNabb, saying he
has a huge upside: "I'm going to try to take him under my wing and do
everything I can to help him, get him into the lineup permanently."
It was suggested that Doughty was the new Willie Mitchell.
"I don't know about Willie Mitchell, but maybe Robyn Regehr," Doughty
said, drawing an amused look from the very serious Regehr.
There was a sense of increased urgency in practice after Wednesday
night's clunker against the Sharks following the banner-raising ceremony.
Sutter tweaked lines, putting Justin Williams with center Anze Kopitar and
Marian Gaborik, center Jarret Stoll with Dwight King and Dustin Brown, and
center Mike Richards with Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan.
"Last night, I don't know if we spent it all in the ceremony," Sutter said.
"Quite honest, it was one of the few times that I haven't gotten the right read
on the team.
"Maybe the only time. I can always tell if they're a little off or something.
And even during the game, there were times where we could create it and
make it, but then it was like a penalty or a mistake or something and then it
would ebb again."
752903
Los Angeles Kings
What we learned from the Kings' 4-0 loss to Sharks
By Lisa Dillman contact the reporter
The Kings fell to 0-2 in their Stanley Cup banner games following 4-0 loss
to Sharks
The Kings felt defenseman Jake Muzzin's absence in loss
Some extra thoughts on the season-opening game for the Kings at Staples
Center, a decided stumble against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday
night. They next play at Arizona on Saturday and return home for a game
on Sunday against Winnipeg.
They struggle in banner-raising games
OK, I jest ... but they have been outscored, 9-2, in the two games at which
they have raised the Stanley Cup banner. Chicago beat them, 5-2, after the
banner was raised at Staples Center to celebrate the 2012 win.
Home on the range
Kings Coach Darryl Sutter brings the Stanley Cup to his farm in Viking,
Canada.
Teams don’t always lose on those special occasions. It just seems that
way. But the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2013 and started off the
next season by beating Washington after their banner-raising event.
Project Mike Richards might need more time
Center Mike Richards hired a trainer, worked out diligently in the summer
and came to camp saying all the right things about his increased
commitment.
This came after Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi decided against
buying out the contract of Richards. In fact, the Kings never exercised either
of their two permitted compliance buyouts.
Opening night was a rough one for Richards. To be fair, he had plenty of
company. Richards was a minus-two, lost 13 faceoffs and won just two. His
linemates, Dwight King and Justin Williams, also were each a minus-two
Jake Muzzin’s absence had repercussions on the blue line
You take away half of the team’s top shutdown pair and it is going to have
an impact, naturally.
Defenseman Jake Muzzin, who missed the season opener with an
undisclosed upper-body injury, formed an effective partnership with Drew
Doughty in the run to the Stanley Cup.
Not only did they miss his presence but it forced youngster Brayden
McNabb into a bigger role too soon. McNabb played with Doughty and
faced the best of the Sharks, rather than the likes of bottom six forwards.
752904
Los Angeles Kings
Nabb has uneven debut and new 'mentor'
posted by RICH HAMMOND
Jake Muzzin, who missed Wednesday’s game with what is believed to be a
hand injury, practiced Thursday but said he is unlikely to play Saturday.
Brayden McNabb would stay in the lineup, as Doughty’s partner.
`Ìt was just a fluke injury that’s going to keep me sidelined for a couple
games,’’ Muzzin said.
What does that mean for the Kings? McNabb, 23, had 37 prior games of
NHL experience but made his Kings debut against the Sharks. He played
23 minutes, 27 seconds and had a minus-1 rating.
Coach Darryl Sutter gave a succinct analysis of McNabb’s game,
essentially that the defenseman started out well then regressed as the
game advanced. McNabb, acquired by the Kings from Buffalo last April,
hadn’t played in an NHL game since January.
McNabb looked solid at times, but also got exposed at others, including in
the second period, when Sharks center Tommy Wingels split McNabb and
Doughty at the Kings’ blue line and scored on a breakaway.
`Ìt’s not like we’re going to take him out and have him watch, things like
that,’’ Sutter said. ``Right now he’s got to play, and, quite honest, that’s
good for our team, because if he can continue the steps going forward, just
keep improving, then – touch wood – when we get everybody back, then
maybe he stays in the lineup.’’
The Kings clearly see McNabb as having a long-term future. That’s why,
even with Muzzin (presumably) out for just a short period, they trusted
McNabb to play alongside Doughty, rather than moving veteran Robyn
Regehr into that spot.
Sutter, without being prompted, even mentioned the possibility that McNabb
might stay in the lineup when Muzzin returned. That’s why they’re trying to
get McNabb up to speed now, with significant minutes in all situations,
including power-play and penalty-kill time.
``That’s part of the responsibility, when you play with (Doughty),’’ McNabb
said. `Ìt’s something that I’ve got to be ready for, and I’ll try to get better
each day.’’
Doughty said having to change partners -- he was with Muzzin for much of
last season, and all of training camp -- didn’t bother him, and had extensive
praise for McNabb.
``Brayden has got a huge upside,’’ Doughty said. `Ì can see him continuing
to get better and better as the season progresses. I’m going to try to take
him under my wing and do everything I can to help him and get him into the
lineup permanently.’’
That’s Doughty, age 24, talking about being a mentor to McNabb, 23, but
Doughty has entered his seventh NHL season and is now fully regarded as
a veteran.
`Ì like being in that spot,’’ Doughty said. `Ì’m not the kid anymore, so I’ve
got to do some things differently.’’
752905
Los Angeles Kings
Kings' flat effort surprised Coach Sutter
Darryl Sutter’s predictive skills apparently need some early-season finetuning. His players’ games definitely need to be sharper.
Sutter said he didn’t see it coming, that the Kings’ stale effort Wednesday
night in their 4-0 season-opening loss to San Jose caught him by surprise.
The Kings raised their Stanley Cup banner in front of a charged-up Staples
Center crowd, then spent most of the next three periods looking like they
needed naps.
`Ìt was one of the few times that I haven’t had the right read on the team,’’
Sutter said Thursday. ``Maybe the only time. I can usually tell if they’re a
little off or something.’’
It was just one game, and the Kings get a mini-break before their next
game, Saturday at Arizona, but Sutter didn’t just sit back and hope that
natural correction would elevate the Kings’ game before then.
In practice Thursday, Sutter moved up Justin Williams to play right wing on
the first line, alongside Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar, then created a
new-look third line, with Jarret Stoll moving up from the fourth line to center
Dwight King and Dustin Brown, who swapped places with Williams.
The Brown-Williams shift is one that Sutter has made regularly during the
past two seasons. The Kings also practiced without winger Trevor Lewis,
who is considered day to day with an undisclosed injury.
Perhaps the moves will shake up the Kings a bit. After a stellar preseason,
they looked flat against the Sharks.
The Kings trailed 1-0 after a decent first period, then allowed three secondperiod goals, including two in a 14-second span, and goalie Jonathan Quick
got pulled before the third period of the 4-0 loss.
The simple answer might be that the Kings were emotionally spent after the
25-minute, pregame Stanley Cup celebration, but defenseman Drew
Doughty noted that the team actually got worse as the game progressed.
``We looked like a slow team,’’ Doughty said. ``We’re usually a pretty fast
team. We’re usually good on the forecheck and at turning pucks over and
creating cycles that way. We didn’t have very much offensive-zone time. In
the neutral zone, we have to move the pucks quicker.’’
Jake Muzzin, who missed Wednesday’s game with what is believed to be a
hand injury, practiced Thursday but said he is unlikely to play Saturday.
Brayden McNabb would stay in the lineup, as Doughty’s partner.
If Lewis is unable to play, his spot might go to winger Jordan Nolan, who
practiced on the fourth line Thursday with Mike Richards and Kyle Clifford.
752906
Los Angeles Kings
Game recap: Sharks 4, Kings 0
``We just didn’t come prepared to play. We didn’t come out the way we
needed to. I thought the mood in the room was good. It just didn’t translate
once the game started.’’
DUSTIN BROWN
(on the game…)
Here’s my look at how things went for the Kings last night in their 4-0 loss to
San Jose…
THE GAME IN 140 CHARACTERS
Cup down, banner up. Double Wingels, then Quick pulled. Fans thrilled,
then sad, then bored. Lewis hurt? Too many penalties, not enough work
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT
`Ì thought the last couple of days, our energy level was really good.
Emotionally, tonight, for whatever reason, we had nothing.’’ -- Kings coach
Darryl Sutter
``We just didn’t play well. We weren’t very sharp moving the puck and
coming in and out of our zone. We struggled moving it quickly and tape-totape and as a result that makes it really hard to get up the ice.’’
(on whether the pregame ceremony was a distraction…)
``Well, there are worse problems to have. It’s one of those things that go
with the territory and I don’t think that’s why we were sloppy. I mean, we
were sloppy because we didn’t prepare properly.’’
SHARKS CENTER TOMMY WINGELS
(on whether this was a big game…)
MY GAME STORY
`Ìt absolutely was. It has been a long summer thinking about this game,
when the schedule came out and this was our first game. The media loved
it, the fans loved it, but us players loved it too. Not a better way for us to
start the season.”
Banner won’t block Kings’ broader vision
SHARKS CENTER JOE THORNTON
STAT OF THE NIGHT
(on the game…)
-- Joe Pavelski dominated Mike Richards in the faceoff circle and won 12 of
15 draws.
``To beat the champs 4-0, they were probably a little bit distracted tonight
but a win is a win.’’
WHAT WENT WELL
SHARKS COACH TODD MCLELLAN
-- Despite the concerns about pregame-ceremony hangover, the Kings
were actually solid in the first period.
(on the long pregame wait…)
-- Before his early departure, Trevor Lewis had six shots on goal.
WHAT WENT WRONG
-- Pretty much everything else. The Kings didn’t generate consistent
pressure in front of Antti Niemi, they lost the special-teams battle, lost the
faceoff battle and didn’t show much fight after falling behind 2-0.
ANY NEWS?
-- Fourth-line winger Trevor Lewis left the game in the third period for
undisclosed reasons. Coach Darryl Sutter offered no update after the game.
-- Martin Jones replaced Jonathan Quick in goal for the third period, but
apparently not because of any injury issues.
MORE POSTGAME QUOTES
KINGS COACH DARRYL SUTTER
(on the game…)
`Ì thought it was all right. We killed those penalties in the first, and (then)
the tripping penalty we took that they scored on. Then they scored basically
a faceoff goal in the offensive zone. It’s a tough game, tough to take any
good parts out of it. You don’t like pulling goalies the first game of the year.’’
(on Jonathan Quick…)
`Ì didn’t pull Quick because of his performance. Like I said, I don’t like
pulling goalies the first game of the year, or ever, but at that point in the
game it’s not Jonathan’s deal, it’s Jonesy’s (Martin Jones’) deal.’’
JONATHAN QUICK
(on the game…)
`Ìt wasn’t good enough. They were better than we were. They got the win. I
don’t think it had anything to do with all that stuff we had to do before (the
game). They were the better team.’’
(on the pregame ceremony…)
``You’re just kind of tired of it. You just want to play hockey.’’
ALEC MARTINEZ
(on the game…)
``They earned the right to have that pregame ceremony and they obviously
enjoyed it and the fans were rewarded for it. That’s why they played for the
Stanley Cup at the end of the year so once that was over, the game started.
The rivalry is always going to be there and it was there again tonight. I
thought that if we could get the lead it would work. If they got the lead and
the energy built then it was important for us to score first and try to build on
it.’’
POSTGAME NOTES
-- The Kings were shut out in a season-opening game for the first time since
1975 and for only the fourth time in franchise history. It was their first
shutout loss in a home opener since 2008, also against San Jose.
-- The Kings are now 5-5-0 in their last 10 home openers, and 4-6-0 in their
last 10 season openers.
-- The Kings outshot the Sharks 34-30.
-- The Kings went 0-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.
-- Alec Martinez had a game-high five blocked shots.
-- Tyler Toffoli and Kyle Clifford each had a game-high four hits.
-- Drew Doughty led the Kings in ice time with a game-high 27 minutes, 28
seconds.
-- The Kings won 29 of 71 faceoffs (41 percent). Jeff Carter won 12 of 21
while Mike Richards won 2 of 15.
-- The Kings had their 91st consecutive regular-season sellout, with a
standing-room only crowd of 18.514.
752907
Los Angeles Kings
On the media: Bob Miller’s ringing endorsement of why he wants to keep
going with the Kings
Even if the cost of renting a banquet room at the Encino Glenn Golf Course
and getting the invites out isn’t all that much different than hosting a
daughter’s wedding, Miller and his wife, Judy, learned how to take the
moment to greater heights by turning their four-hour window with the Cup
into a fundraiser for the Lutheran Social Services of Van Nuys.
Just a couple of weeks before the Kings clinched the Cup, the LSS building
suffered an estimated $65,000 in fire damage.
By Tom Hoffarth, Posted: 10/09/14, 2:20 PM PDT
In dramatic fashion, the Stanley Cup had just been slowly lowered to the
Staples Center ice via an open Plexiglas case so it could be included in the
Kings’ pregame championship banner-raising ceremony Wednesday night.
In something more of a traumatic fashion, the Cup eventually made its way
into the Chick Hearn Media Room between the first and second periods,
propped up on a table and left to its own devices.
All iPhone heck broke loose.
“Organized chaos,” said NHL designated Keeper of the Cup Phil Pritchard
as he stood calmly off to the side and watched a gaggle of media types
going gaga with selfies.
Bob Miller walked into the room moments later, saw the commotion and
couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s unbelievable,” the Kings’ Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster who served
as master of ceremonies for the opening event. “I just like seeing the look
on people’s faces when they see the Cup. You don’t need any other form of
entertainment. All you need is the Cup on a table and everyone’s happy.”
With his 76th birthday coming up Saturday, and his 42nd season with the
team grinding to a new beginning, this could have been the perfect walk-off
career moment for Miller.
Eight years ago when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
Miller said his greatest fear was “that I retire and the Kings win a Stanley
Cup the next year.”
Two titles in three years has apparently produced quite the opposite effect.
“To see that banner go up again, and hear the crowd screaming and
hollering, it means so much to Kings fans who have been so loyal,” Miller
said during a moment Wednesday to ponder the goose-bump moment that
he just experienced.
“Some of these fans were thinking for years — as I was — that we’re never
going to see this happen. Then, it’s twice in three seasons? And it’s just as
thrilling the second time. And I hope the third and the fourth.”
Because ...
“When you win it, you just want to keep going, you know?” Miller continued,
his eyes lighting up and his voice getting stronger. “You want to go around
and show off the new ring and everything else.
“I know people have asked Vin (Scully, the Dodgers’ 86-year-old Hall of
Fame broadcaster who expects to be back for his 66th season in 2015),
‘Are you ready to retire?’ They ask Ralph Lawler (the Clippers’ 76-year-old
play-by-play man starting his 36th season). They ask me.
“And I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute, all our teams are winning now. Why are
we talking about retiring?’
“Sure, the preparation and stuff that go into this as the years go by,
memorizing new names and numbers, players moving all over ... but there
are times when the game is going on, and it’s so exciting, and I say to
myself, ‘Where would I rather be than right here?’ And I really feel that
way.”
Miller could be lobbying the Kings to just do home games soon for Fox
Sports West. As it turns out this season, he and partner Jim Fox will have
70 FSW regular-season games, with 12 going to national TV partners, like
Wednesday’s opener on NBCSN.
The routine can get tedious, especially in the winter going to the East
Coast.
If the first time hosting and attending Cup parties in the summer after the
Kings clinched a title seemed surreal, the second time around was a
moment to make a real contribution to the community.
The Millers’ party, which had nearly 250 in attendance in early September,
ended up raising $10,000 to help the nonprofit, which assists local families
in need with food and clothing.
“The first time we had the Cup, it all seemed to happen so quickly right after
the championship,” Miller said. “This time, we had more time to plan
something. We set up a free-will donation box and raised $3,000 from that
alone. Then one person came up and said he wanted to donate $5,000 the
next week. That turned out to be $7,000. That was very satisfying to see
people chip in like that.”
What happens next in the Miller family Stanley Cup tour? He said he’d
consider taking it to the University of Wisconsin, where Miller started his
broadcasting career in Madison.
“I’d love to look into that, getting the Cup out on the university ice rink,”
Miller said. “It’s such a great hockey town. I know they’d enjoy it.
“I’m not sure how that would work. I really haven’t investigated it too much. I
don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here.”
RECORD, PAUSE, DELETE
Gauging the media’s high- and low-level marks of the week, and what’s
ahead:
WITH THAT MESS OVER ...
Number crunching by the Sports Business Daily reveals viewership from
the 16 MLB playoff games to this point may be averaging 3.4 million a pop,
but that’s down four percent from last year, when there were 20 games to
see through the league division series. We’re surprised the deficiency
wasn’t more, considering ESPN, TBS, Fox Sports 1 and the MLB Network
all grabbed at least one game and added to viewer confusion at a time
when the sport seemed more focused on boosting exposure for lessaccessible network partners. FS1 and the MLB Network may have set
records for viewership of its channels, but they still came in below the pergame average in most instances, as TBS carried the bigger audiences
among all cable TV channels on the three nights it had an American
League Division Series contests. While FS1 has five of the potential seven
National League Championship Series games, it will serve as a better
alternative side-dish for Saturday’s Game 1 (5 p.m., Channel 11). In light of
the success ESPN had with its “Megacast” set-up in covering the Florida
State-Auburn 2014 national championship college football game —
particularly, the ESPNEWS channel watching four coaches break down the
action as if they were in a film room — FS1 may be of more value to those
who aren’t attached to the Giants or Cardinals as it tries to pull off a statand-graphic driven show featuring sabermetrics and social media debate
simultaneous to the Fox feed in a split screen with Joe Buck, Harold
Reynolds and Tom Verducci. The key will be if FoxSports.com senior
baseball editor Rob Neyer is able to inject his knowledge into the
conversation with San Diego Padres manager Bud Black and Fox studio
analysts Gabe Kapler and CJ Nitkowski. Don’t get all geeked up if the
results aren’t polished right away. They may be trying to do too much the
first time, but it would be more provocative if this is continued through Fox’s
coverage of the World Series.
THE EISEN EFFECT
A new Fox Sports Radio lineup that will fully reveal itself Nov. 3 calls for
handing over the 9 a.m.-to-noon spot to a show hosted by Rich Eisen,
simulcasting something that the anchor host of the NFL Network launched
this week on DirecTV’s Audience Channel. What isn’t clear yet is if that
show will be included in the next readjustment phase in store for the L.A.
affiliate KLAC-AM (570). A to-be-named, year-around “L.A. Dodgers Show,”
simulcast with TWC SportsNet L.A., will eventually be inserted into the
KLAC lineup, something that developed with the latest Dodgers’ flagship
renewal agreement. Word is that could be inserted into the 6-to-9 a.m. slot
currently held down by the popular Dan Patrick show. Could Patrick air on a
delayed basis from 9 a.m.-to-noon and bump Eisen from the L.A. rotation,
since it is very NFL-heavy in an NFL-empty town? Other Fox Sports lineup
changes include pushing Jay Mohr back to noon-to-3 p.m., repositioning
Steve Gorman to 3-to-5 p.m., followed by JT “The Brick” and Tomm Looney
(5-to-7 p.m.), Jason Smith (7 to 11 p.m.), Ben Maller (11 p.m. to 3 a.m.) and
Andy Furman and Mike North (3-to-6 a.m.). The local KLAC version of
Petros Papadakis and Matt “Money” Smith stands to remain in the 3-to-7
p.m. slot, knocking out Gorman and JT “The Brick.”
MR. DEDES COMES TO TOWN
Spero Dedes, who left the Lakers in 2011 after six seasons just as they
were about to name him their new TV play-by-play man, has relocated to
Manhattan Beach and brought with him a full load of work thanks to CBS
Sports. The 35-year-old New Jersey native and Fordham grad spent the
past three seasons doing radio and TV games for the team he grew up
watching, the New York Knicks, but departed at the end of last season
because of CBS’ full-time offer that included a higher roster spot on their
NFL game coverage and more college basketball games through March
Madness. Dedes, paired up with Solomon Wilcots on CBS NFL games, also
has a wrangled a Monday night football postgame show for the NFL
Network and will handle a package of basketball games for the Pac-12
Network. “Being away from it now, I appreciate the Lakers’ job I had and
have a greater appreciation for that organization now,” Dedes said. “When
you work for them, it’s hard to work for anyone else. It was inevitable that
the run with the Knicks was going to end because they had reached their
limit in how flexible they could be with my desire to do more network
assignments. I’m just thankful how CBS has been working out well.”
LA Daily News: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752908
Los Angeles Kings
Kings “great hosts,” but may not host large events soon
Staff
For the perception – and perhaps fair criticism – that there is an inherent
“east coast bias” in the gravitation of National Hockey League news, the
Los Angeles Kings have hosted and been involved in many large scale NHL
events.
Los Angeles hosted the 2002 All-Star Game, the 2010 NHL Draft, and a
2014 Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium that was viewed as a major
success by the league. The Kings have also taken part in NHL Premiere
games in Europe in 2007 and 2011, will travel to the Bay Area for a 2015
Stadium Series game and won Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014.
Partly by their ability to host large events, and partly by virtue of their own
success, the Kings have owned a share of the league’s spotlight, even if it
wasn’t until recently that they began appearing more regularly on nationally
televised games on NBC and NBCSN.
Given the frequency of the major events that the Kings have been a part of,
it’s likely that the league will look outside of Los Angeles when there comes
a choice in where to host such an event, never mind that the club has won
two of the last three Stanley Cups.
“Well, there’s no question that this organization, AEG, the Kings and Los
Angeles can host major events,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on
Wednesday. “What we did, what the Kings did in Dodger Stadium with the
Ducks was captivating. I remember being here that weekend, and the
Grammys were taking place and a variety of other things, and nothing was
getting the attention that the game at Dodger Stadium got. But we do have
30 clubs, and they all want everything, so we have to spread it around a
little bit. There’s no question that the Kings have been, are, and can be
great hosts for any major event.”
That there are highly successful teams in the United States’ three largest
markets – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – is a positive development
for the league, as Bettman explained, though parity throughout the league
is still paramount.
“Market size, particularly when you’re dealing with two major media
markets, has an impact in terms of gathering attention,” Bettman said. “But I
got asked that question when I did the media availability here before the
Stanley Cup Final started, and it’s frankly more important what’s taking
place on the ice. You can have the biggest markets in the world, but if the
game isn’t exciting and compelling and competitive, it’s not going to
generate a lot of interest. The Kings, for example, had a magical,
spectacular run in last year’s playoffs, and I think that was as important – if
not more – than the fact that it was taking place with a team based in Los
Angeles. And, also, it’s interesting. We talk about competitiveness and
competitive balance, and you see it. I mean, as the season starts, most of
the prognostications I’m seeing are all over the place as to who’s going to
make the playoffs and who’s going to win the Cup. Nobody knows, but
there aren’t a whole lot of teams that are out of the conversation, and that’s
one of the things that we think is paramount about our system.”
The 2015 All-Star Game will be held in Columbus, Ohio on January 25. The
2015 NHL Draft will be held in Sunrise, Florida on June 26-27, 2015. No
further All-Star Games or drafts have been announced at this point.
No decision has been made on reintroducing the NHL Premiere, which
brings a small collection of teams to Europe to start the NHL season in an
effort to broaden the league’s international footprint. Bettman said the
continuation of the Premiere could be tied to the efforts to reintroduce the
NHL-organized World Cup of Hockey.
LA Kings Insider: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752909
Los Angeles Kings
Sutter, Quick respond to opening night loss
Staff
The Kings obviously weren’t thrilled with what transpired during
Wednesday’s season-opening loss, and after Thursday’s practice they
shared their opinions on how to string together a stronger effort in
Saturday’s game at Arizona.
Obviously the game was only one out of 82 on the year. There’s no panic or
despair or frustration, only disappointment in the failure to follow up a
special moment in team history with a performance that matched the
pageantry.
“I don’t know if we spent it all in the ceremony,” Darryl Sutter said. “Quite
honest, it was one of the few times that I haven’t gotten the right read on
the team. Maybe the only time. I can always tell if they’re a little off or
something. Even during the game, there were times where we could create
it and make it, but then it was like a penalty or a mistake or something, and
then it would ebb again. At the end of the night, they didn’t need that many
opportunities to get a three-goal lead.”
Heading into this weekend’s back-to-back slate – well, the Kings aren’t
really focused on the back-to-back aspect.
“I think first and foremost we want to win the first game, and then you go
from there,” Jonathan Quick said.
Wednesday’s performance will be a motivating factor to get the collective
performance back up to regular season levels.
“Obviously it’s not something that you just kind of let go,” Quick continued.
“Like mistakes, you’ve got to get better at it. It’s not preseason anymore. It
wasn’t our best hockey last night, and there are obviously a lot of things we
have to work on to continue to get better, but even if we had won that
game, we’d be saying the same thing. We’d still be saying we have things
we have to work on to get better. It’s part of the season. It’s not something
you just forget about, it’s something you have to learn from.”
One potential adjustment could be a recalibration of the team’s lines. There
were no line rushes during the off-day practice, but based on color coding,
Justin Williams skated alongside Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar, Dustin
Brown skated alongside Dwight King and Jarret Stoll, and Mike Richards
was moved in between Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan. Andy Andreoff was
coded with the unaffected Tanner Pearson – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli line.
It’s a bit misleading to categorize Richards as a “fourth line center,”
considering he ranked fourth amongst the team’s forwards in ice time last
season and is used in all situations.
Still, it would be an interesting development should he open return to action
this weekend alongside role players in Clifford and Nolan during even
strength play. A greater feel for this weekend’s alignment will come during
morning skates on Saturday and Sunday.
752910
Los Angeles Kings
Practicing finishing, and Quick’s end zone communication
Staff
On Thursday the Kings practiced an interesting end zone drill that was “sort
of a spin of a forecheck drill,” as it was described by Darryl Sutter.
In the drill, the team used either no defensemen or one defenseman in
transitions into the offensive zone, leading to some bizarre odd-man rushes
that greatly challenged the two goalies. Three-on-zeroes aren’t exactly easy
to stop.
“It’s just tough because you don’t have your own players to read off of,”
Jonathan Quick said. “In a game, there would be situations where they
would definitely shoot, but like in that drill, they were passing it two or three
times, so it kind of wears on you a little bit.”
During a practice in which the goalies didn’t always stand much of a
chance, a question was raised whether the drill was partly in response to
Quick’s performance on Wednesday, in which he stopped 23 of 27 shots
and was disrupted by a forechecking Patrick Marleau who got in between
Quick and center Mike Richards, disrupting a hand-off behind the net and
leading to Matt Nieto’s tap-in.
It wasn’t. The drill was meant to get the players more frequently into “finish
situations” while helping to get them “to be a little quicker going up the ice,”
as Sutter explained. It’s not a regular drill that the team practices, but it’s
one that they’ll occasionally use with a pair of defenders.
“I think that was the first time I had seen it,” Quick said. “Like, power plays,
there are set plays you’re working on. That’s more they’re just making
plays, so it’s tougher to read. It’s definitely not one of the easier drills for a
goalie, it’s kind of difficult. Obviously we did it for quite a long time, so it
really gets the legs after a little bit.”
As for the goal scored by Nieto in last night’s game, Quick described how
he communicates with defensemen and centers when bodies converge on
the same spot.
“Well, when it’s me playing the puck, they’re the ones talking,” he said.
“When they’re playing the puck, I’m the one trying to help them out. So it
kind of goes back and forth. Like, there are times if I make a read that I
think’s the right read, I’ll make that play before hearing anything from my Dman or the center or whoever. It’s just kind of a team effort in that sense.”
752911
Los Angeles Kings
The View from San Jose
Staff
David Pollak: Sharks blank Kings 4-0 in opener
The Sharks started off the 2014-15 NHL season Wednesday night with a
convincing 4-0 victory over the same Los Angeles Kings who bounced them
out of the playoffs and set off a summer of franchise self-analysis.
CSNBAYAREA.COM
Kevin Kurz: Instant Replay: Wingels, Sharks topple Kings in opener 4-0
After the Kings raised their second Stanley Cup championship banner in
three seasons in a lengthy and loud pregame ceremony, Tommy Wingels
scored two gorgeous goals, and Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto also
converted to give the Sharks a 4-0 win over the Kings in the season opener
for both clubs.
Kevin Kurz: Rewind: Not just another regular season opener for Sharks
They’ll love it even more on the flight back to the Bay Area. The Sharks won
every facet of the game against their rivals, and after a bizarre offseason,
can finally start to move forward with their hockey lives.
ESPN.COM
Arash Markazi: Kings stand above all L.A. teams
In desperate need of a winner, Los Angeles has hitched its wagon to the
Kings and, in the process, has transformed itself into a hockey town. It
won’t ever be confused with Detroit or Montreal, but the idea of Los Angeles
being apathetic about its hockey team is now about as old as a Marty
McSorley illegal stick joke.
NHL.COM
Curtis Zupke: Kings blame loss on poor preparation, not ceremony
Most of the energy from the ceremony dissipated in the opening minutes of
the first period and went downhill from there. Having been through this
before, the Kings said the ceremony was not a distraction nor an excuse.
They didn’t have any explanation otherwise.
GRANTLAND.COM
Katie Baker: From the Jaws of Victory
I don’t make it a habit to believe in ghosts, but the SAP Center still feels
miserably haunted: There is a chill in the air that can’t be wholly explained
by the temperature differential between the rink and the bright, sunny
outdoors.
SB Nation – FEAR THE FIN
The Neutral: Sharks beat Kings despite taking a 3-0 lead
And, cruelest of all, the Sharks took a 3-0 lead on the Kings then proceeded
to extend that lead with a fourth goal rather than withering away.
752912
Los Angeles Kings
Lewis, Muzzin updates, and how McNabb is affected
While Clifford attempted to skate around the carpet, Doughty simply leapt
over it.
“Yeah, Dewey doesn’t take directions very well,” Muzzin said. “They told us
to skate around. It was pretty funny.”
Staff
Trevor Lewis, who was unable to finish Wednesday’s season-opening 4-0
loss to the San Jose Sharks, did not skate at practice on Thursday and has
been deemed day-to-day with a “mid-to-upper-body injury,” as first reported
by Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times.
Also amongst the small group of early season walking wounded is Jake
Muzzin, who did not participate in Wednesday’s game. There’s the potential
he could also miss games this weekend. The Kings will travel to Arizona for
a game on Saturday before returning home to conclude the back-to-back
set against Winnipeg on Sunday.
“Practice-wise, skating, lungs, everything feels fine,” said Muzzin, who did
participate in Thursday’s practice. “It’s just kind of a fluky injury that I have
to sit out for a couple of games.”
The injury is extra-frustrating for the 25-year-old defenseman who broke out
with a fine season as Drew Doughty’s defensive partner a year and
reported to training camp in excellent shape – as did many of his
teammates.
“You prepare to play in the first game, and all summer you get ready for that
game, and it’s an emotional game with the banner going up and all that
stuff,” Muzzin said. “To be sidelined and have to watch, it’s frustrating. But
it’s part of the game. Everyone gets hurt and you’ve got to miss a couple
games. There are injuries here and there, and [I’m] just listening to the
doctors and [we’ll] go from there.”
San Jose Sharks v Los Angeles KingsThe injury opened the door for
Brayden McNabb, who skated alongside Drew Doughty and logged 23:27
of ice time in his Kings debut last night – the second highest total on the
team – and was purposely placed in challenging situations, as Darryl Sutter
explained.
“I thought he was really good early, and then I think as the game wore on
he wasn’t as effective as he was early in the game,” Sutter said. “Hey, the
big part of it is keeping your pace and passing the puck hard and getting
your feet in the right position and getting where we want the defensemen to
be on the ice, and that’s a big curve. And I think he was fine. That’s in no
way criticism, but you know what? We’ve had to go through that with a lot of
young defensemen here, and right now we’re in this position where he’s got
to play, so it’s not like we’re going to take him out and have him watch,
things like that. Right now he’s got to play, and, quite honest, that’s good for
our team because if he can continue the steps going forward, just keep
improving, then – touch wood – when we get everybody back, then maybe
he stays in the lineup. So it becomes all of that part of it too, instead of
saying he is the odd-man, or the guy that’s waiting to go in. It puts pressure
on everybody then. We played him in a lot of situations that if Muzz
would’ve been healthy, then he was probably the odd guy out last night. So
basicaclly what we decided was we’re going to put him in every situation
that Muzz would’ve been in. So that was the decision we made, and really,
it’s the ebst way to look at it in terms of fulfilling that role. He’s probably the
most capable player of doing it.”
The situation allowed Doughty to continue to gain experience as a
defensive mentor for a less-experienced partner.
“I think he has to [serve in a mentor role],” Sutter said. “As he gets a year
older, or every year, there are guys that are going to be younger than him,
whereas before that wasn’t necessarily the case. I think it was pretty much
on Slava, and them paired with older guys. We’ve seen that with Drew
already with Muzzin, for sure, and then last night with Brayden.”
Despite sitting out, Muzzin maintained his sense of humor when recalling
last night’s banner ceremony, in which he took part. It was an appropriate
ceremony, per Muzzin, “minus the wipeout.”
He was referring to a tumble Kyle Clifford took when accidentally skating
over a corner of a black carpet as the players assembled in a circle during
player introductions that culminated in the Stanley Cup being lowered from
the rafters shortly before the Stanley Cup banner was raised.
752913
Los Angeles Kings
Waking up with the Kings: October 9
Staff
Previous: October 8 postgame notes
After a more toned down banner ceremony than that which celebrated their
2012 Stanley Cup, the Kings returned to the ice with a whimper in a home
loss in which their emotional involvement did not represent the necessary
step forward from what was summoned during the preseason. There will
inevitably be parallels drawn between this game and the 2012-13 opener
against Chicago. Neither game constituted anything close to the club’s best
effort, and even down to a micro, anecdotal level, the Kings fell behind by
an odd-angle first period goal in both games and trailed 4-0 in the second.
But while the pre-game pageantry will obviously be cited as a factor in the
team’s shortcomings, they faced outstanding competition in both games.
Really, any impact from the ceremony is just an excuse and doesn’t
acknowledge the fine performance from the visitors, who played a smart,
simple and mostly mistake-free game, killed off all Los Angeles power plays
and relied on a strong performance by Antti Niemi in net. When these
teams met in San Jose for a meaningless game last week, the Kings gave
the impression that they were the more prepared team to start the season.
“They’re ready over there, and we’re going to have to open up our season
against them in seven or eight days. We better get going,” Logan Couture
told reporters that night. Mission accomplished.
This is a slightly tinkered Sharks roster than the one that blew a threenothing series lead to Los Angeles last spring and bowed out in the first
round of the playoffs. Tyler Kennedy, James Sheppard and Raffi Torres –
three players who held important depth roles – are out with injuries, and
when I looked at a projected San Jose lineup that included a third line of
Tye McGinn (36 games of NHL experience), Chris Tierney (NHL debut) and
Tommy Wingels, I saw a significant advantage in Los Angeles’ depth,
should that line match up against Dwight King, Mike Richards and Justin
Williams. Though those lines didn’t always see the ice at the same time, the
complete opposite occurred. McGinn, Tierney and Wingels were all plustwo on the evening, with Wingels scoring twice, and King, Richards and
Williams were all minus-two, with Richards winning only 2-of-15 faceoffs
(though many were waged against Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton). Tierney
was especially impressive in his debut performance. The 20-year-old former
second rounder was dangerous in the first period, generating a pair of
quality-ish chances early, splitting the Kings’ defense and getting taken
down on a borderline-non call, and then drawing a slashing penalty on
Jarret Stoll. The former London Knight won four-of-eight faceoffs. 19-yearold rookie defenseman Mirco Mueller was poised in his debut and showed
an ability to quickly advance the puck in transition.
Last night’s Kings performance didn’t deviate far enough away from the
typical, early season slop fests that are often seen around the league in the
first week of the season. They were only shorthanded four times, though
one of those situations came as the result of one of those stick fouls that
tends to irk Darryl Sutter, and another followed an unnecessary neutral
zone tripping call against Clifford that was well sold by Wingels and led to a
Patrick Marleau goal that doubled the visitors’ lead. Shortly after Marleau’s
goal, a miscommunication between Williams and King on a winnable and
clearable puck equidistant from the two wingers led to hesitation on who
would play it, and the Sharks capitalized by maintaining their zone time and
drawing a Richards boarding call at the end of the shift. This happens. It’s
early season hockey. It was a poor performance, but after a one-game
sample size it’s not as if we’re all going to be wearing our Concerned
Faces.
It will be interesting to see how Brayden McNabb continues to progress. He
was placed in awfully difficult situations alongside Drew Doughty, who only
had three games of preseason action himself. Again, this was a one-game
sample size, and McNabb, who is penciled in as a seventh defenseman,
was thrust into 23:27 of ice time and saw heavy usage against one of the
most dangerous top-six offensive units in the league. Sutter said “I thought
he was really good early, and I think it wore on him as the game went on,”
and there’s no reason to disagree there. Evaluations based on one-game
sample sizes are meaningless, and it will be interesting to see how McNabb
develops after showing steady progress from early in the preseason
through Frozen Fury. If there’s anything that can be learned from last night,
it’s that there is a big gap between the cadence of play and the emotional
level needed to succeed between the preseason and the regular season.
752914
Minnesota Wild
Postgame: Wild expects a different Avalanche team in Saturday's rematch
Blog Post by: Michael Russo
October 10, 2014 - 12:07 AM
Zach Parise sounded the alarms this morning that the Wild needed to get
out of bad habits.
I reminded him after tonight’s 5-0 pounding of the Colorado Avalanche that
could have been a heck of a lot worse than the final score.
“We responded well,” Parise said, laughing, admitting he was nervous.
Turns out Parise also had his game face on during an all-business postmorning skate scrum with reporters.
Parise was outstanding tonight, as was the rest of the Wild, which
registered a franchise-record 48 shots, out-attempted Colorado 78-29! in
shots and had the puck virtually all game.
Somehow in a game where the Wild spent virtually the entire night in the
offensive zone, the Wild out a 4-2 power play deficit. Pretty remarkable, eh?
But the Avs were no better there either, managing no shots on those four
power plays against last year’s 27th-ranked PK.
But, as all-business coach Mike Yeo pointed out in the postgame, the
pivotal kills came in the first period in a scoreless game. Wild was much
more assertive against Colorado’s talented cast.
Parise had a goal, two assists and had nine shots, and he was a careerbest plus-4. 29th 3-point game and 117th multi-point game for Parise. He’s
turning into a pretty decent Avs killer since his arrival in Minnesota.
Mikael Granlund was just awesome. He had two assists, won battles, shot
pucks and defended well. He was also a career-best plus-4.
Jason Pominville, the third cast member on the line who led Minnesota in
goals last season and was second in the NHL in scoring in the preseason,
had a goal and assist for his 126th multi-point game and honestly asked
how many goals the Wild would have scored if he didn’t miss the net on five
of his nine stabs at the Colorado goal.
Nino Niederreiter, relentless all game, had seven shots and a goal. Jared
Spurgeon scored a pretty awesome goal on a pretty awesome setup from
Parise after a tremendous shift by Granlund, Ryan Suter scored a goal and
assist and was plus-3 and Darcy Kuemper got to be a spectator with 16
saves for his third career shutout.
I got Kuemper to the side after the game and I’ll probably write about this in
Saturday’s paper, but he talked a lot after the game about how much he
has learned the last year about how to play and function in a game he
doesn’t see a lot of shots in. Frankly, in the Wild’s stingy defensive system,
you better have a goalie who can stay in the game not seeing a lot of shots.
Remember, in his season debut last year in Toronto, the Wild played a very
similar game to tonight where it dominated at least on the shot clock. And
Kuemper, I believe, gave up three goals on seven shots in like 32 minutes
to get chased.
Read the gamer for some good quotes. Patrick Roy wasn’t happy with his
team, saying they didn’t compete and weren’t engaged and were easy to
play against.
"Our top two lines need to be our best players and tonight they got
outplayed and outworked,” he said. “If we want to have some success,
they're going to have to be our best players.”
Added captain Gabriel Landeskog, “That's what happens. A team that wins
battles looks that good against a team that doesn't.”
Yeo was all business postgame. There was no celebration by any means.
As Suter said, the Avs were “stale.”
As Granlund said, “It’s cliché. But it’s all about the next game.”
And Yeo’s message to his team that his players repeated was, “Let’s not kid
ourselves, Colorado was not at their best tonight.”
Saturday’s rematch will be quite different as they grasp the energy their
crowd provides in their home opener.
“To sit here and expect us to go and play 82 games like that, it’s not going
to happen,” Yeo said.
But Yeo felt good going into this game and said there was never a moment
of stress, never a moment where he felt the game was slipping away.
He said he could go down the list and name every player that played well.
He tried hard to not single out anybody even when reporters asked about
Parise or the top line.
He did acknowledge that he loved the grit and energy that Ryan Carter
provided. Carter joked that it probably wasn’t the best start to his Wild
career when he took a minor – one of three for him on the night – on his
shift.
Overall, very good start to the season for the Wild. But it’s one game. And,
Saturday will be a much great challenge.
That’s it for me. I have got to rise early to write my Sunday package (the
first of the season!) before practice. Please read the gamer, notebook and
Jim Souhan’s column in Friday’s paper.
I have an afternoon flight to Denver after practice that I’ll need to hustle for,
so the post-practice blog may have to wait until I get up in the air.
Star Tribune LOADED: 10.10.2014
752915
Minnesota Wild
Chart: Wild bombards Avalanche
Staff
October 10, 2014 - 12:15 AM
under siege
The Wild bombarded Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov with a franchiserecord 48 shots. Breakdown:
Wild Avs
First period 17 5
Second period 21 8
Third period 10 3
752916
Minnesota Wild
Souhan: Wild's Parise leads the right way in season opener
Article by: JIM SOUHAN
Star Tribune
October 10, 2014 - 12:32 AM
He’s playing for his father.
He’s playing in his hometown.
He’s playing to fulfill his hockey-lifetime contract.
He’s playing for the joy of being an athlete in his prime, at the height of his
skills, for a team that has learned to turn promise into points.
Zach Parise spent Thursday morning urging his teammates to remember
how to play hockey the hard way, the right way.
He spent Thursday night making a contentious game look easy as tic-tactoe.
In the Wild’s season opener, Parise scored three points as the Wild beat
Colorado 5-0 at the Xcel Energy Center.
He probably figures it was the least he could do.
Parise has dedicated this season to his father, who is in the advanced
stages of lung cancer. If Zach’s play Thursday was offered as an homage, it
was a poetic one.
“He wasn’t able to come tonight,” Parise said. “It’s pretty tough. Yeah,
definitely, I was thinking about him at the beginning of the game. It was
going through my mind.”
The person asking about J.P. Parise promised not to constantly bring up his
father’s health. “Hey,” Parise said, with a wan smile and a shrug. “It’s
reality.”
J.P. would have enjoyed seeing this game in person. His son put on a
show.
On the first goal of the game, after Ryan Suter’s breakout pass hit Mikael
Granlund, and he fired toward the net, Parise crashed toward the goalie,
leaving Jason Pominville wide open for a tap-in.
On the second goal, Granlund and Pominville won a battle for the puck,
kicking it to Parise, who fed Jared Spurgeon for a one-timer on a night
when the Wild’s defense constantly cycled toward the net.
On the third goal, Granlund won a faceoff and Parise took it from there,
skating around a defenseman, firing a shot on net, hitting the goalie with the
rebound before backhanding in his first goal of the season.
On the fifth goal, Parise brought the puck from behind the net and spotted
Suter, feeding him a backhand pass for a slapshot that made it 5-0.
The Wild was on its way to a blowout choreographed by its star. Parise
earned his 29th career three-point game, and helped the Wild outshoot
Colorado by a ridiculous margin: 48-16.
This didn’t feel like a first chapter. It felt like a mission statement.
“I was a little nervous this morning,” Parise said. “But I thought we
responded pretty well. That was five guys playing together.”
Leadership is hard to quantify but easy to identify.
This is what it looks like: Parise crashing the net. Parise digging pucks out
of the corner. Parise finding open teammates all over the ice.
This is what it sounded like Thursday morning, when Parise worried that his
team wouldn’t be ready to play: “The most important thing is to understand
how we played and what worked for us and what worked for us last year
and how hard we were to play against at the end of the season,” he said.
“There were times we’d go 10, 12, 14 minutes without giving up a shot on
net. That frustrated the other team and made us successful. We can’t afford
to get too much of a fancy game early in the season.”
What’s funny is that the Wild played so effectively on defense, so
thoroughly dominated puck possession, that the shots came easily.
“Those games are fun,” Parise said. “We’re getting chances a lot. Our line
is playing well. That’s the way we want to play and support each other. And
when we had a chance, tonight I thought we did a good job of bringing it to
the net.”
Before the game, the Wild unveiled their new scoreboard. Unlike a lot of
previous seasons, the creature comforts offered by the X were
overshadowed by actual hockey.
“You have to have the confidence that we’re going to do the right things,”
Parise said. “We’re not going to score five every night, but we can play the
right way every night.”
J.P. would approve of that message.
752917
Minnesota Wild
Chart: Wild's second-period outburst
October 9, 2014 - 11:59 PM
Staff
from 1-0 to 5-0
The Wild scored four second-period goals in a 12:21 span — all at even
strength — to take control of Thursday night’s game. Zach Parise was in on
three of them.
4:37
Jared Spurgeon, pinching in, went five-hole on a nice feed by Parise.
7:01
Parise beat goalie Semyon Varlamov on his third whack at the puck.
13:21
Nino Niederreiter drew a crowd crashing the net and scored unassisted.
16:58
Ryan Suter one-timed a slapshot after a feed by — guess who? Parise.
752918
Minnesota Wild
Game recap: Wild 5, Colorado 0
MICHAEL RUSSO
October 9, 2014 - 11:58 PM
game recap
Star Tribune’s Three Stars
1. Zach Parise, Wild: One goal, two assists (29th career three-point game
and 117th multi-point game), nine shots, plus-4.
2. Mikael Granlund, Wild: One goal and one assist, plus-4.
3. Ryan Suter, Wild: One goal and one assist, plus-3.
By the numbers
8-4-2 Wild’s record in season openers.
12-0-2 Wild’s record in home openers.
126 multi-point games for Jason Pominville (goal, assist)
0 shots allowed on four Avalanche power plays.
1,7 goals and shots for Nino Niederreiter.
11 of the Wild’s 19 players under the age of 25.
752919
Minnesota Wild
Wild notes: Early schedule 'makes no sense'
Article by: Michael Russo
Star Tribune
October 10, 2014 - 12:49 AM
Zach Parise looked at the Wild schedule a few weeks ago, was reminded
that it played two games in the season’s first nine days and said, “It makes
no sense.”
“It’s like you’re all of a sudden behind. You can go 2-0 and be in 12th
place,” Parise said, laughing. “I don’t like that.”
The schedule is the schedule though, all teams play 82 games eventually
and the Wild will just have to deal with a bizarre schedule to start (after its
home-and-home with Colorado on Thursday and Saturday, Minnesota
doesn’t play again until next Friday in Anaheim) and an especially difficult
one.
Ten of the Wild’s first 11 games come against teams that made the playoffs
last season.
“You can’t look past these points right now,” Parise said. “With the way it’s
stacked up, you fall behind early, it’s tough to get back in. It seems like the
teams you’re chasing never lose a game, so we want to get started in the
right direction and get some good habits early and play well and win some
games right away.”
In Mike Yeo’s first three seasons as Wild coach, the Wild got off to 3-3-3, 66-2 and 3-3-3 starts, respectively. Twenty games into last season, Yeo said
he already decided that he would organize this training camp differently with
the intent of getting off to a faster start.
Early in camp, Wild players were split into three groups so players would
get more reps. Most regulars played at least four of the six exhibition
games.
Players say they’ll just look at the tough schedule as a challenge.
“It’s good to jump right into the tough competition,” forward Charlie Coyle
said. “I like that we’ll face all these teams now and see what everyone has
to bring this year.”
Familiar face
The announcements came in succession July 1, but as the Wild agreed to a
three-year, $19.5 million deal with Thomas Vanek, Jarome Iginla agreed to
a three-year, $16 million deal with Colorado.
The Wild showed great interest in Iginla, the career leading scorer against
Minnesota, before choosing Vanek. The Wild was hesitant to give Iginla, 37,
a third year.
“I was definitely considering it,” Iginla said of signing with the Wild. “A good
team, a good hockey city that keeps adding guys and is very competitive.
They obviously ended up getting Vanek, but there were discussions.”
Goalie shuffle
Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom likes the new referee helmet cam being used
in telecasts:
“At least they can’t say they didn’t see it anymore. Now there’s proof,”
Backstrom joked.
Speaking of Backstrom, Yeo said he wouldn’t “lose any sleep” over
deciding to start youngster Darcy Kuemper over the vet in Thursday’s
opener.
“[Kuemper] had a good camp, but it wasn’t an easy decision because of the
way that Backy performed in training camp,” Yeo said.
Given Kuemper’s playoff history at home (three goals in three games)
against Colorado, Yeo said, “[Starting him] felt like the right call to make.”
Giving Iowa a try
Cody Almond has returning to Geneva, Switzerland, in his back pocket, but
the center who didn’t make the Wild this week plans to give AHL Iowa a try
first.
General Manager Chuck Fletcher has gotten calls from a few NHL teams
looking to trade a player for Almond. However, the Wild prefers a draft pick
rather than taking a contract back.
Etc.
• Avs defenseman Erik Johnson, a Bloomington native, took a lot of flak
from his Minnesota buddies this past summer for losing to the Wild in the
playoffs.
“My response is you should probably cheer for us because if the Wild wins
a Cup, you’re not going to be invited to any Cup parties,” Johnson kidded.
“That switches their opinion pretty quick.”
• Wild winger Justin Fontaine (glute) missed the opener but isn’t far from
playing. Yeo said the Wild simply wanted him to get enough reps in practice
to get up to game speed after missing part of camp. Defenseman Keith
Ballard (chest) skated Thursday but didn’t play.
752920
Minnesota Wild
Parise, Wild blank Avalanche 5-0 in opener
Article by: DAVE CAMPBELL
Associated Press
October 10, 2014 - 12:30 AM
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild could not have started the season
stronger.
This game was so good they found themselves acknowledging afterward
they probably won't be able to repeat it.
Zach Parise scored one of the Wild's four goals in the second period and
assisted on two others, helping them overwhelm Semyon Varlamov and the
Colorado Avalanche 5-0 Thursday night.
"We caught Colorado on an off night. Let's be honest: They're a much
better team than that," Parise said.
The franchise-record 48 shots on goal and the fourth career shutout for
goalie Darcy Kuemper were nice, sure, but the Wild were already sounding
a little anxious about having to face the Avalanche again two days later in
Denver.
"To sit here and expect us to go and play 82 games like that, it's not going
to happen. And I can tell you, to play two games like that, it's not going to
happen," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We're going to have to be ready for a
different game. That's still a very good hockey team. That's still a team that
won the division over there."
For the Avalanche, coming off a franchise-record 52 wins, this was a
stunningly flat start. They had four power plays and didn't put a single shot
on net, finishing with just 16 for the game.
"Competing was the word that was missing in our game. We didn't engage.
We avoided every battle. They were faster on every puck than we were,"
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said.
Jason Pominville scored in the first period on one of Mikael Granlund's two
assists and helped set up a goal by Jared Spurgeon in the second. Nino
Niederreiter and Ryan Suter scored, too, prompting chants of "Sieve! Sieve!
Sieve!" from the fired-up overflow crowd.
Varlamov, who gave up five goals on 38 shots, was replaced by Reto Berra
for the third period.
"Varly played great. There were a lot of point-blank chances that we know
we can't give up," said right wing Jarome Iginla, the all-time leading scorer
against the Wild who didn't attempt a shot.
The Avalanche will surely be ready to redeem themselves in the rematch.
"That's a tough game, but it's nice that we don't have to wait too long. We
get a chance to be a lot better than we were tonight," Iginla said.
The end-to-end dominance by the Wild was reminiscent of Games 3 and 4
of their Western Conference quarterfinal in April, when they outshot the
Avalanche 78-34 to even the best-of-seven matchup they went on to win in
overtime at Colorado in the decisive game.
Except this time, the Wild turned those scoring chances into flashing red
lights behind the net.
Suter set up the first goal with a long lead pass that bounced beautifully off
the boards to Granlund, whose shot off the rush was denied by Varlamov
but became a rebound for Pominville to poke in.
Then the Wild really poured it on after the first intermission. Parise was all
over the ice as usual, jockeying with Jan Hejda for position to knock in the
rebound of his own shot to put the Wild up 3-0 during a 4-on-4.
Ryan Carter and Erik Johnson were given simultaneous roughing penalties
for a scuffle around the Wild net that left Carter, who just signed with his
home-state team this week, with a bloodied forehead and nose.
But that was about all the fight the Avalanche showed on this night.
The Wild improved to 12-0-2 in home openers. They had a tie in 2000, their
inaugural game at Xcel Energy Center, and lost in a shootout last year.
With 11 players in their 20-man lineup age 24 or younger, there's plenty left
to prove, but with the poise and polish of leaders like Parise, Suter and
Pominville, there are building blocks in place for a legitimate contender in a
competitive conference.
Granlund is centering the Parise-Pominville line, and they were cycling
around the offensive zone so fast that Carter joked he was dizzy watching
from the bench.
"They've got some of the faster guys in the league on their team, but it
seemed like we were in their face through the neutral zone," Parise said.
"That's five guys playing together. It's a good sign."
Yeo has never been afraid to shuffle his lines, but that might be hard to do
with this group.
"That's a very confident group. They've got a lot of chemistry together and
they read off each other very well — in all aspects of the game, too," Yeo
said.
752921
Minnesota Wild
Wild opens new season in style with shutout win over Avs
That electricity seemed to make the Wild surge. But Varlamov was so
brilliant early, it looked like it would be a repeat of Game 3 last year when it
took Granlund’s overtime goal to break a scoreless tie with the Wild’s 46th
shot.
The Wild broke through much earlier this time, and then some. The Wild’s
top line led the charge.
Article by: Michael Russo
Star Tribune
October 10, 2014 - 12:44 AM
“We’ll just get out of the way and keep letting them do their thing,” Yeo said.
The Wild wasn’t celebrating after though. A rematch comes Saturday in
Denver, and the Wild expects a much different opponent.
“We know that’s a much better team than they showed tonight,” Parise said.
Craig Leipold, sweating and jittery, couldn’t believe how calm his general
manager was before the Wild dropped the puck on the 2014-15 season.
Chuck Fletcher explained to his owner that Thursday’s game against the
rival Colorado Avalanche was only one of 82, that the Wild wouldn’t be
panicking if it lost or printing playoff tickets if it won.
If the Wild plays all 82 like Thursday though, there’s no doubt there will be
printing instead of panic.
In a stunning, one-sided clinic that offered an even greater “wow factor”
than Leipold’s magnificent new scoreboard, the Wild outhustled and
outclassed the Avs from start to finish of a 5-0 browbeating.
“It was fun. Those games are fun,” Zach Parise said after his one-goal, twoassist, nine-shot performance.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of stress through the course of the game because
there was not a period of the game where I felt like things started to get
away,” added coach Mike Yeo. “Really, really strong 60-minute effort.”
The NHL, recognizing how exhilarating last year’s Western Conference
quarterfinals was, scheduled the Wild and Avs in a season-opening homeand-home, the first coming on national TV to ratchet up the intensity.
That audience had to be shocked watching the Avs being beaten to every
puck by the relentless Wild. The Avs were overwhelmed by the Wild’s
speed and looked like they were skating in cement during an entire evening
spent in their end.
The Wild fired a franchise-record 48 shots at goalies Semyon Varlamov and
Reto Berra and the Avs had no answer for the Wild’s free-wheeling top line
of Parise, Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville, who created the first
three goals and skated circles — literally — around Colorado defenders
virtually every shift.
“We didn’t compete,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said. “We didn’t engage. We
avoided every battle. They were faster on every puck than we were. … I
was surprised to see how easy we were, how easy it was to play against
us.”
Parise, a workhorse throughout, was a career-best plus-4. So was
Granlund, who had two assists. Pominville, a plus-3, scored a goal and
assist.
“You had to look away every once in awhile,” Wild newcomer Ryan Carter
said of the trio. “You get dizzy.”
Added Ryan Suter, who scored a goal, an assist and was plus-3: “They
were moving. They were making a lot of plays. It was so fun. I mean, you
could just watch them all night.”
The Wild, which scored five even-strength goals, broke out during a 21-shot
second period with four goals. Jared Spurgeon and Nino Niederreiter
(seven shots) also scored and Darcy Kuemper, the Wild’s $1 million No. 1
goalie at least for Game 1, made 16 saves for a simple third career shutout.
“What a game by the guys in front of me,” Kuemper said. “I didn’t have to
do too much.”
The pregame festivities included the unveiling of Leipold’s scoreboard,
which was perfect timing with Colorado in town. The crowd of 19,098 could
get jacked by seeing Niederreiter’s Game 7 overtime winner all over again.
The game ops folks shrewdly blended that moment with now-assistant
coach Andrew Brunette’s 2003 Game 7 OT winner that ended Roy’s Hall of
Fame goaltending career.
Both looked better in HD.
752922
Minnesota Wild
Russo: Iginla renews rivalry tonight when Wild meets Avs
Blog Post by: Michael Russo
October 9, 2014 - 1:16 PM
Wild and Avs tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC Sports Network and KFAN.
Fox Sports North is having an hour pregame show. I’ll be on it around 7:40
p.m.
I’ll also be on KFAN at 3:30 p.m. and please join by live chat on
startribune.com/wild at 2 p.m.
No better way to jump into this season than against last year’s first-round
opponent, Colorado. This is the first of two consecutive games against the
Avs.
“It’s two teams that are going to have same core players for a long time and
play a lot of games against each other,” Zach Parise said. “The way the
playoffs are set up now, we’re most likely going to see each other in the
playoffs quite a bit, too. It’s building and it’s getting there and it’s good to
start the yea this way.
“I guess it's recognized by the league, too. It’s a national game.”
Said coach Mike Yeo: “We all just want to get going. It’s 82 games. We
can’t make the playoffs with this win tonight.”
-- Again, to see the Wild lines, see the previous probably half-dozen blogs.
Keith Ballard and Justin Fontaine, both banged up, each skated this
morning but won’t play.
Fontaine is close, but Yeo said after his glute injury, the Wild wants to make
sure there’s no chance he could aggravate the injury, and that they want to
make sure he gets enough reps to make sure he’s up to game speed and
his conditioning is OK.
-- Jarome Iginla, the longtime Calgary Flames captain and all-time leading
scorer against the Wild and all-time leader against the Wild in just about
every offensive category, gets his Avs career started with consecutive
games against the opponent he loves to munch on.
“They’ve always been very disciplined,” Iginla said. “I’ve played a ton
against the Wild. They always seem to be very structured, very disciplined
and work hard and I don’t think that’s changed. In the past few years,
they’ve added more skill than maybe they’ve had in the past. They compete
very hard to go with that skill. They’re a good team and it’ll be a good
challenge.”
Iginla signed a three-year deal with the Avs July 1. The other team that
went hard after him? Minnesota, which ended up signing Thomas Vanek to
a three-year deal.
“I was definitely considering it,” Iginla said. “A good team, a good hockey
city that keeps adding guys and is very competitive.”
-- It’s pretty good start the season off with such a rivalry.
“It’s going to force us to be good,” Yeo said. “We know that they’re going to
be good. We have a lot of respect for that team over there.
“This is not Game 8 of the playoffs here. This is Game 1 of the regular
season. What happened last year is last year. We want to leave it behind us
as much as they want to leave it behind them.”
-- Former Gopher Erik Johnson, who got to eat a home-cooked meal at his
folks’ house last night, said he took a lot of flak from his Minnesota buddies
this past summer for losing to the Wild in the playoffs.
“My response is you should probably cheer for us because if the Wild wins
a Cup, you’re not going to be invited to any Cup parties. That switches their
opinion pretty quick.”
--Parise sounded the alarms again that the Wild needs to rid itself of those
summer hockey habits that showed up in a lot of the Wild’s 3-2-1
preseason.
He says the Wild needs to remember what made it so successful in the final
10 games of last season and the playoffs.
“Sometimes it does take a regular season game to get that back,” Parise
said. “That’s the thing that’ll be the most important thing is to understand
how we played and what worked for us and what worked for us last year
and how hard we were to play against at the end of the season. There were
times … we’d go 10, 12, 14 minutes without giving up a shot on net. That
frustrated the other team and made us successful. We can’t afford to get
too much of a fancy game early in the season.
“We have to be smarter in the regular season than [we were in the
preseason].”
What else?
-- Cody Almond has Geneva in his back pocket, but he plans to give Iowa a
try first. But he wants a chance to be an NHL player and GM Chuck
Fletcher has gotten a couple calls from teams. However, the Wild doesn’t
want a contract back for Almond. It wants a draft pick. But the teams
interested so far want to give up a live, breathing, human player.
-- Nik Backstrom, one of the funniest Wild players, was hysterical when I
was shooting the breeze with him this morning about this new referee
helmet cam that was debuted last night on TV.
"At least they can't say they didn't see it anymore. Now there's proof,”
Backstrom joked.
He said I could go with the quote. Once he saw the tweet, the goalie joked,
“I'm in deep trouble now. Suddenly I'm going to be the guy that's diving.”
-- Speaking of Backstrom, Yeo talked more about giving Darcy Kuemper
the first start tonight.
“It’s a decision that I’m not going to lose any sleep over because of the way
Darcy played. He had a good camp, but it wasn’t an easy decision because
of the way that Backy performed in training camp.”
In the end, Yeo said he evaluated both performances, and the opponent
also came into play and how Kuemper played against the Avs at home in
the playoffs. “It felt like the right call to make … today.”
-- That’s it for tonight. See you on the chat in a bit and on Twitter tonight.
752923
Minnesota Wild
Gameday preview: Colorado at Wild
MICHAEL RUSSO
October 9, 2014 - 12:54 AM
wild gameday
8 p.m. vs. Colorado • Xcel • NBCSN, 100.3-FM
Preview: The Wild, 7-4-2 in season openers and 11-0-2 in home openers,
begins the 2014-15 season against the reigning Central Division champs
and the team it eliminated in seven games in the Western Conference
quarterfinals. This is the first of a home-and-home; the Wild plays in Denver
on Saturday, then not again until at Anaheim next Friday. The Wild went 13-1 against the Avs last regular season and is 37-32-10 against them alltime, 20-14-5 at home.
Players to watch: RW Jason Pominville, who led the Wild with 30 goals last
season, was second in the NHL in the preseason with eight points. LW
Zach Parise had 10 points against the Avs last postseason and a four-point
game against them in the regular season. RW Thomas Vanek and RW
Ryan Carter will make their Wild debuts. G Darcy Kuemper, who gave up
three goals in three home starts against Colorado in the playoffs, gets the
opening night nod. Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla is the all-time leader
against the Wild with 67 points, 37 goals, 236 shots and 10-game winners.
He is second with 71 games played and 10 power-play goals. G Semyon
Varlamov is 7-4-1 against the Wild with a 2.13 goals-against average and
.929 save percentage in the regular season. C Nathan MacKinnon, last
year’s rookie of the year, had 10 points against the Wild in the playoffs.
Numbers: The Wild enters this season with a league-high 12 former NCAA
players on its roster. … The Wild scored seven power-play goals this
preseason.
Injuries: Wild RW Justin Fontaine (gluteus muscle) and D Keith Ballard
(chest) are out. Avalanche LW Patrick Bordeleau (concussion) and C John
Mitchell (migraines) are out.
752924
Minnesota Wild
Jarome Iginla, historically dominant against Minnesota, didn't have a shot
on goal.
Wild 5, Avalanche 0: With club-record 48 shots, Minnesota rolls in opener
The Avalanche went dumbfounding lengths of time without seeing their
offensive zone and even longer stretches without a shot on goal.
By Chad Graff
"It was probably a combination of us playing well," Parise said, "and I don't
think they played very well and they'll probably say that, too."
cgraff@pioneerpress.com
Minnesota scored four times in the second period alone.
Posted: 10/09/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT
At times, the domination was so thorough that it looked like the Wild were
going to score every shift.
Updated: 10/10/2014 12:02:45 AM CDT
Jared Spurgeon finished a one-timer.
Wild coach Mike Yeo on the his team's "full 60-minute effort."
Ryan Carter has been a member of the Wild organization since Monday. He
has seen the Wild's top line of Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund and Jason
Pominville just twice at practice.
But Thursday night, as that top line cycled the puck through the offensive
zone, moving the puck with ease around the Colorado Avalanche defense,
Carter joked he had to look away at times. He was getting dizzy watching
from the bench.
"It's a good problem to have," he said with a laugh.
Thursday night, in the season opener, the Wild put on a dizzying display of
dominance, trouncing their new rival, the Avalanche, the team they knocked
out of the playoffs last season, 5-0 at the Xcel Energy Center. They outshot
the Avs 48-16, setting a franchise record for shots in a game.
By the end, the Wild were toying with the Avalanche, who looked like a
younger brother who kept getting up knowing full well he was about to get
knocked down again.
For every part of three periods, the Avalanche had no answer for the Wild.
After Nino Niederreiter scored the Wild's fourth goal, he and his linemates
celebrated in the Colorado crease. The Avalanche didn't do anything about
the Wild's party at the goalmouth. They couldn't.
The Avalanche were lackadaisical, and the Wild were plenty ready to turn
that into a blowout.
"We caught them on an off night," Parise said. "Let's be honest."
Parise and his teammates made the Avalanche, who finished last season
with the third-most points in the NHL, look uninterested and overwhelmed.
Any time the Wild's top line was on the ice, it looked like Minnesota was on
the power play.
Parise finished with nine shots (remember, the Avalanche finished with 16),
one goal, two assists and a plus-4 rating. Granlund had two assists and
was a plus-4. Pominville scored a goal, recorded an assist and was a plus2.
And, amazingly, they hardly stood out from the rest of the Wild's roster,
which piled it on. The Wild had five goal scorers.
"I can sit here and just go through the list," coach Mike Yeo said. "I thought
that the whole team played a really good game tonight."
After the festivities of opening night, which featured the Xcel Energy
Center's multimillion-dollar renovations, after the introductions, after the
team's trouncing of Colorado, the Wild locker room was subdued.
While the players admitted it was fun to play in a game they dominated from
start to finish, they knew Colorado didn't play well.
The Wild seemed to win every loose puck.
"To me it's one word -- we didn't compete," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy
said. "Competing was the word that was missing in our game."
That was evident from the start.
The plethora of goals overshadowed the job the Wild's line of Charlie Coyle,
Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter did against Colorado's best players.
They bottled up Nathan MacKinnon, the teenage phenom who made the
Wild look silly in the playoffs last spring. MacKinnon didn't record a shot and
was a minus-2.
Thanks to relentless effort, Parise scored five seconds after a neutral-zone
faceoff. Niederreiter scored by beating Colorado to a loose puck in front of
the net. To finish the scoring, Ryan Suter teed a blast from the blue line.
Throughout the offseason, the Wild and Avalanche were compared as
budding rivals, teams with a mix of young talent and veterans.
Thursday night, there was no comparison.
After an offseason filled with plenty of optimism, the Wild provided even
more Thursday in their first game of the season, one of their most
dominating victories in years.
Pioneer Press LOADED: 10.10.2014
752925
Minnesota Wild
Tom Powers: Wild play near-perfect opener
By Tom Powers
tpowers@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 10/10/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT
Updated: 10/10/2014 12:58:22 AM CDT
Is it possible to peak in Game 1?
"I didn't have to do much tonight," Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper noted.
"What a game."
Keep in mind, there will be other, less fluid matchups for the Wild along the
way. There will be those teams that want to play rough and tough. And
there will be those teams that want to sit back and occasionally
counterpunch.
In those contests, the Wild will have to improvise. Those types of games
are not in the Wild's wheelhouse.
When other teams want to go for a skate, however, a good time will be had
by all in attendance in St. Paul. The Avalanche usually will oblige, although
they might be a bit leery after this one. Chicago is another example of a
team that plays a similar game. Those will be among the best nights to be
paying attention.
Well, there's no turning back now. The Wild set the bar awfully high
Thursday night by thoroughly drubbing the Colorado Avalanche. It was as
close to a perfect performance as I've seen. What could they possibly do for
an encore?
It is clear that the 2014-2015 Wild are an enhanced version of the 20132014 model. They are a bit faster, a bit less snakebit around the net. There
are no more Dany Heatley sightings three strides behind the play. The
defense has increased mobility and is far more engaged in jumping into the
offense. Even the fourth line is a quicker.
"To sit here and expect us to play 82 games like that, it's not going to
happen," coach Mike Yeo said. "And I can tell you, to play two games like
that it's not going to happen."
The Avalanche must be embarrassed. Chances are they will be much more
determined on Saturday. If the Wild play the way they did on Thursday,
however, it won't matter.
Too late, Mike. The genie is out of the bottle. From now on, nothing less
than five goals will do.
"Yeah, well, then there will be a lot of disappointed people," Yeo noted.
Today, the Colorado Avalanche are brushing ice chips off of their uniforms.
No slouches in the speed department, the Avs were made to look like
orange roadwork cones as the Wild sped past all evening, spraying them
with snow along the way.
Minnesota scored five but could have scored 10. The Wild outshot the
Avalanche 48-16. It's tempting to see Thursday's ultra-successful debut as
sort of a preview of what is to come. That's unlikely, though. Yeo is right:
For one game, the Wild's performance was off the charts. I don't think Guy
Lafleur and his Montreal Canadiens could skate like that every game.
"That was a lot of fun," Ryan Suter noted. "We were clicking."
Yes, "clicking" seems as good a word as any. I wonder what will happen
next game.
"Hopefully another win and another 50 shots," Zach Parise said with a
chuckle.
"We did things tonight that make us a good team. We're not going to score
five every night, I can tell you that right now. Break the news to everybody."
I hate to be the bearer of bad news.
"We'll try as hard as we can to replicate this kind of game on Saturday," he
added.
That's better. The Wild will face an irritated Colorado team in Denver on
Saturday.
"We know they are going to be better," Suter agreed.
After the kickoff luncheon and the wake-up rally and the scoreboard
unveiling and a thorough rehashing of last season's playoff press clippings,
there really was nothing left to do other than to play hockey. So the Wild
and Avalanche went at it in what was billed as a grudge match. It was
labeled as such because of their first-round playoff tango last season.
I don't know how much "grudge" was involved, but the Wild skated as if
their breezers were on fire. In a sense, it appeared to be a perfect openingnight matchup: Two high-octane teams usually content to motor along in top
gear. The Avs and Wild supposedly bring out the best in each other, often
combining for a high-speed show.
Yet this was a one-sided affair, setting up what really should be a grudge
match in Denver on Saturday. Roy is a proud coach, and I'm sure he
blistered his team quite nicely following the rout. So the rematch should be
a beauty.
If nothing else, Thursday's opener showed what will happen if a team
comes into Xcel unready, unwilling or unable to fire on all cylinders. That
team could wind up embarrassed, the way the Avalanche were.
752926
Minnesota Wild
Wild: Eye scare convinces Kyle Brodziak to try wearing a visor
By Chad Graff
Posted: 10/09/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 06:11:52 PM CDT
After years of family pleading, it took an in-game scare for Wild forward
Kyle Brodziak to put a visor on his helmet.
In Minnesota's final preseason game last Saturday, Brodziak took a stick to
the face just below his right eye. The eye filled with blood.
"I tried to open my eye and I couldn't really see anything for about two
minutes," Brodziak said. "It went away, though. Still, that initial scare was
enough to at least give it a try."
At the start of last season, the NHL mandated that any player with fewer
than 25 career regular-season games prior to the 2013-14 season must
wear a visor, a transparent shield that extend from the helmet to just above
where the nose ends.
The vast majority of NHL players wear visors whether required to or not.
Those who don't tend to be those playing physical games that might result
in a fight.
Now that Brodziak is sporting a visor, Keith Ballard and Stu Bickel are the
only Wild players who choose not to wear one.
Brodziak still doesn't love the idea of wearing one, but after the close call,
he said he'll try to wear it all season.
"I'll do my best to get used to it," he said. "(Thursday) will be my first game
with it. Visors just fog up, and it's a little hotter. It doesn't really affect your
vision, but once in a while it gets a little foggy. But I guess that's something
you get used to."
752927
Minnesota Wild
Wild's Matt Cooke says he can feel the change in his game
By Chad Graff
Posted: 10/09/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT
Updated: 10/09/2014 02:29:47 PM CDT
Matt Cooke spent part of the summer studying game film, something the
Wild forward has done since reforming his game in the wake of multiple
NHL suspensions.
It started with 17-game suspension for elbowing St. Paul's Ryan McDonagh
of the New York Rangers in a 2011 playoff game. After that one, Cooke,
one of the league's least-loved agitators, was criticized by his own general
manager, Pittsburgh's Ray Shero.
He hadn't been suspended since until his knee-to-knee hit on Tyson Barrie
ended the Avalanche defenseman's season in Game 3 of the first-round of
the playoffs last season.
Cooke was suspended seven games.
With the Wild set to open the 2014-15 season against the Colorado
Avalanche on Thursday, the hit has been a hot pregame topic. Barrie told
the Denver Post he needs to put it behind him; Cooke said he has been
playing differently.
"I think that even in preseason games, I felt myself being really responsible
and holding up and doing the right things," Cooke said. "At the end of the
day, I'm confident in the video work that I've put in in the past, and that I put
in in the not-so-far past. I did it this summer to re-instill it."
Wild coach Mike Yeo said he isn't worried about Cooke accruing more
supplementary discipline.
"This is a guy who has made a career out of playing a hard game," Yeo
said. "We talked a lot about how he changed his game, and he was doing a
great job.
What happened last season was unfortunate, but he's been in a situation
before where he was able to come back and play a hard game and a strong
game, but at the same time was able to walk the line and make sure he
didn't go over it."
Cooke is set to open the season on the second line with Mikko Koivu and
Thomas Vanek.
"I do it all the time," Cooke said of his video study. "I cut out games and
watch games of not just me, but games in general with the intent to see
body contact and things like that. It's amazing how with a split second either
way, hits could be drastically different.
"It's just trying to make the right decisions in your brain before you put
yourself in that position."
752928
Montreal Canadiens
Plekanec scores third goal of season as Habs edge Capitals in shootout
Joseph White
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press
Published Thursday, Oct. 09 2014, 10:40 PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Oct. 09 2014, 11:48 PM EDT
The Montreal Canadiens looked like a team playing its first back-to-back of
the season. They let the Washington Capitals take the first 14 shots and
spent far too much time in the penalty box during the opening period.
Yet they only trailed by one, and they eventually got their act together.
Tomas Plekanec tied the game in the third period with his third goal of the
young season, and the slow start evolved into a 2-1 shootout win Thursday
night.
“First period was probably the worst period since I have been a Montreal
Canadien,” said forward Brandon Prust, who’s starting his third season with
the team. “We were very fortunate to be down 1-0.”
Brendan Gallagher scored the decisive goal in the fifth round of the
shootout, and Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves for the Canadiens, getting
the start after Carey Price worked the 4-3 win over Toronto on Wednesday.
“We start to play, we start to hustle in the second period,” Montreal coach
Michel Therrien said. “We start to play with more passion. Tokarski was
great, gave us a chance to stay in the game.”
The result spoiled the Capitals debut of Barry Trotz, the longtime Nashville
Predators coach who was hired to get Washington back to the playoffs after
the team sat out the post-season last spring for the first time since 2007.
Trotz said he was nervous before the game, got chills during the national
anthems and had trouble calling out the line changes because Capitals fans
were so loud. He said his team lost the game because its dominant play in
the first period never produced a second goal.
“You have them on the floor, and you couldn’t just knock them out,” Trotz
said. “They were resilient, and they sort of crawled their way back into the
game. Shame on us we couldn’t bury them.”
Nineteen-year-old rookie Andre Burakovsky, the Capitals’ latest experiment
at second-line centre, scored his first NHL goal 6:43 into the game. The
2013 first-round draft pick hit a one-timer from the slot on a feed from Troy
Brouwer after Brouwer created a turnover near the Montreal net.
By the third period, Montreal was pinning Washington on its heels and got
one goal that counted and two that didn’t. Plekanec tied the game with 9:29
left in regulation, going high to beat Braden Holtby from the right circle.
The Canadiens thought they had evened the score about a minute earlier,
but Rene Bourque was cited for goaltender interference to wipe out PierreAlexandre Parenteau’s apparent goal. Then, with the score tied and 4:29 to
play, Bourque’s drive from the left circle was ruled a goal — until a video
review showed the shot hit the right post without clearing the line.
Capitals three-time league MVP Alex Ovechkin had an active game, taking
four shots on goal, drawing two penalties and getting credit for six hits as he
returned to left wing after playing mostly on the right side under previous
coach Adam Oates.
Notably, Ovechkin wasn’t among the first three Capitals in the shootout.
When he did get an attempt, in the fourth round, it was saved by Tokarski.
Ovechkin was only 2 for 16 in the skills competition last season.
“There’s guys that are really good at shootouts, and there’s guys that can
score 5-on-5,” Trotz said. “He’s just really good 5-on-5. I don’t think he’s
really great in the shootouts.”
NOTES: Burakovsky became the first Capitals player to score his first goal
in his NHL debut since Ovechkin on Oct. 5, 2005. ... Among the scratches
for Washington was D Mike Green, sidelined with an upper-body injury. ...
The Capitals welcomed former favourites Peter Bondra, Sylvain Cote, Rod
Langway and Craig Laughlin for the start of their 40th anniversary season.
Langway recalled that the team’s practice facility in the 1980s was in such a
bad neighbourhood that police had to watch the players’ cars. He also
called the old suburban Capital Centre “one of the worst buildings in the
league.” The team moved to the downtown Verizon Center in 1997.
Globe And Mail LOADED: 10.10.2014
752929
Montreal Canadiens
NHL debut on Sportsnet sets network record
David Shoalts
The Globe and Mail
The NHL’s debut on Sportsnet as part of its new broadcast deal with
Rogers Communications set a record for the network Wednesday night but
it was a mixed result overall.
While Sportsnet drew an average of 2.01 million viewers for the game
between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens, the most
ever for show on the network, the audience on English-language television
was down 14 per cent from the 2013-14 season opener between the Leafs
and the Canadiens on CBC television.
Mark Messier says Rogers adding more NHL games to its GameCentre app
is good news for hockey-lovers. The Hall of Famer says players should
utilize online technologies, but must be careful with how they use them.
Hockey
Video: Mark Messier discusses NHL hockey, online strategy
The president of Rogers Sportsnet says geography will play less of a factor
in determining which hockey games fans can watch, thanks to the 12-year
Rogers-NHL deal. A whopping 500 regular season games will air in Canada
next season.
Marketing
Video: NHL deal will give hockey fans more options: Rogers
However, Sportsnet is a cable-television network that does not reach as
many Canadians as the CBC’s over-the-air network, so Rogers executives
still consider their opening night as a success. Last season, the Leafs-Habs
opener drew an average audience of 2.332 million on the CBC’s Englishlanguage network in the last year of its contract with the NHL.
The total audience for Wednesday’s opener was down about 10 per cent
from a year ago, as the French-language broadcast on TVA Sports drew
952,000 viewers for a total of 2.7 million across Canada compared to 3.315
million one year ago on the CBC and RDS networks.
Rogers drew 55,000 fans on its live-streaming service, Rogers NHL
GameCentre LIVE, for the Leafs-Canadiens game. Seventy-five per cent of
the GameCentre audience watched the game online at home while 25 per
cent watched it on mobile devices.
“We’re off to a good start. [GameCentre] is still in beta mode, and there are
some gremlins to sort out but we got some great feedback from the fans. At
one stage there were more people watching the game on mobiles in
Toronto than all of the USA,”Guy Laurence, president and chief executive
officer of Rogers Communications, said in a press release.
752930
Montreal Canadiens
After season opening struggle, Maple Leafs’ top line must be better
Stephen Whyno
TORONTO — The Canadian Press
When two of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best players in the season opener
were Brandon Kozun and Stuart Percy – two rookies making their NHL
debuts – it doesn’t speak well of the team’s big-money stars.
Those stars, most notably the top line of James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak
and Phil Kessel, struggled against the Montreal Canadiens and must be
better as the Leafs look ahead to facing the Pittsburgh Penguins and New
York Rangers this weekend.
“I didn’t think we had a very good night,” Bozak said Thursday after an office workout. “Things weren’t really going our way. I don’t think the three of
us played very well. But it’s only one game and I guess the good news is
the only way to go is to get better.”
The top line was on the ice for two goals against, including P.K. Subban’s
go-ahead one in the third period. On the shift leading to Subban’s goal,
three of the Leafs’ best offensive players weren’t at their best on defence.
Coach Randy Carlyle likes to match up his first line against the opponent’s,
but in this case Montreal’s Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and PierreAlexandre Parenteau dominated.
“They played a lot of the game in our zone,” Carlyle said. “I think last night
was a prime example of some of the things that (our top-line players) were
trying to accomplish through the neutral ice and the turnovers that were
created cost us momentum in the game.”
Van Riemsdyk was less to blame in that department than Bozak and
Kessel, who were each playing their first game in more than a week after
missing time at the end of the pre-season with lower-body injuries.
Carlyle didn’t want to excuse Bozak and Kessel for being injured.
“It’s part of their responsibility to play to a higher level,” he said. “There’s
things that they have to do, and it’s not always on the ice. It could be off the
ice, as far as keeping themselves (ready), and there’s a program in place
with our strength and conditioning guys that when you’re injured, it doesn’t
mean you have days off.”
Bozak said he might’ve been shaking off a bit of rust but didn’t think it was
that much different for everyone else as the tempo gets turned up at the
start of the regular season.
The 28-year-old centre, who scored on the power play thanks to a nice
pass from Percy, didn’t think he and his linemates were nearly at their best
in several areas of the game.
“I think in the second we just got outworked a little bit,” Bozak said. “We lost
some assignments, we had some turnovers and they just wanted it more
than us for parts of the second and we can’t have that.”
Video study could help fix some things, and not just for the top line. Carlyle
pointed to a lot of positives, like contributions from young players and
“noticeable” special teams, but acknowledged that the Leafs need to adjust.
“We made some mistakes in the game structurally that, if we continue to
make them, it’ll be difficult for us to find ways to win,” Carlyle said. “I call it
puck support and turnovers. We didn’t support the puck on our breakouts,
we didn’t support the puck through the neutral ice, and we turned the puck
over and we gave them an opportunity to get their skating game going, their
forecheck game, and they created more off their offensive-zone cycles.”
Notes – Defenceman Cody Franson, who missed the opener with a
lingering knee injury, skated with other scratched players Thursday
morning. Carlyle said it’s a possibility that Franson could play Saturday
night against Pittsburgh.
752931
Montreal Canadiens
Sportsnet's new motto isn’t less is more, it’s more is more and plenty of it
Allan Maki
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Oct. 09 2014, 5:28 AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Oct. 09 2014, 11:01 AM EDT
From beginning to end, it was hailed as the start of the NHL’s new era; the
dawning of something bold, something never seen before. Like a highresolution TV monitor that stands 3.3 metres high and goes 11.5 metres in
length.
But as the game went along, the ref cam provided a unique perspective. In
the Calgary Flames-Vancouver Canucks encounter, the ref cam offered its
view of a Vancouver goal that was waved off then allowed to stand. That
the camera was involved in a critical situation had Sportsnet’s big thinkers
doing the dance of joy.
Sportsnet has banked a number of hockey features the way the CBC did.
The one shown last night was about the first female hockey academy in
Canada. The school, located in Warner, Alta., has a hockey program
coached and run by former NHLer Mikko Makela. Stories like that help
underline what the game means to Canadians and how it flourishes outside
the NHL’s sphere of influence.
So, what didn’t work for Sportsnet’s big-time debut? The Mark Messier
commercials got old in a hurry. The pre-game bit where Pang took a plastic
disk with the Canucks logo on it and plunked it into a computer that
displayed numbers and graphics was too hokey.
Call it the Zdeno Chara of TV monitors.
As for the hockey itself, the Leafs and Habs put on an entertaining show as
only long-time rivals can. Toronto was unable to hold the lead and wound
up losing by a late goal. [Yes, you’ve heard that before.] In the late game,
Vancouver beat the Flames, and yes, you’ve heard that one before, too.
And cameras? Rogers Sportsnet’s first offering of its all-in, all-the-time
hockey coverage came with 14 cameras to show all the action in its 11,000square foot studio. That’s right – its 11,000-square foot studio.
Overall, Sportsnet got to show off its bells and whistles then settle into what
was a solid night of broadcasting. It wasn’t all on the mark, but it will get
there one day.
Mark Messier says Rogers adding more NHL games to its GameCentre app
is good news for hockey-lovers. The Hall of Famer says players should
utilize online technologies, but must be careful with how they use them.
As new eras go, the NHL and its Canadian TV partner are one with a
shared belief: less is bad; more is good and never go small.
Hockey
Video: Mark Messier discusses NHL hockey, online strategy
The president of Rogers Sportsnet says geography will play less of a factor
in determining which hockey games fans can watch, thanks to the 12-year
Rogers-NHL deal. A whopping 500 regular season games will air in Canada
next season.
Marketing
Video: NHL deal will give hockey fans more options: Rogers
Of course, why go small when you’ve spent $5.2-billion for the NHL’s
Canadian broadcast and multi-media rights from now until 2027? For
Sportsnet and the NHL, their new era motto isn’t less is more; it’s more is
more and plenty of it.
More talking heads, more camera angles, more ways to watch NHL games
on your TV, your computer, your smart phone and tablet. Hockey morning,
noon and night, to be available on multiple networks in more than 20
languages, which should make Don Cherry’s Saturday night rants musthear television.
It was all there Wednesday evening.
The pre-game show for the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the Montreal
Canadiens featured an outdoor mini-concert by The Tragically Hip and a
mixed bag of familiar faces in different places – CBC’s George
Stroumboulopoulos chatting with Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos and Doug
MacLean along with former TSN analyst Darren Pang.
Stroumboulopoulos interviewed Leafs’ captain Dion Phaneuf. Not much
there. Later, there was a video of Stroumboulopoulos conducting a round
table with Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jonathan Toews of
the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers’ goaltender Henrik
Lundqvist. Now this was a fun format.
Freed from the inner sanctum of their dressing rooms, where saying
anything interesting is strictly prohibited, Crosby, Toews and Lundqvist
shared some laughs and acknowledged they weren’t wild about their
nicknames – the Kid, Captain Serious and King Henrik.
It was easy to envision future round tables involving other players, coaches,
general managers, NHL officials yakking on all kinds of subjects.
And what about cameras to broadcast the game? Sportsnet had a whole
bunch of those, too. There was the sky cam, which goes from one end of
the rink to the other at breakaway speed, and then there was the ref cam.
Okay, the ref cam looked goofy the first time you saw it – a small
contraption crazy glued to the top of a helmet. And when the ref camera
was used for the opening face-off in Toronto, the view was so distorted it
made you dizzy.
752932
Montreal Canadiens
Tokarski helps Habs escape Washington with shootout win
By Pat Hickey, Montreal Gazette October 10, 2014 3:05 AM
WASHINGTON — On a night when the Canadiens would have been happy
to escape with a single point, they’re ecstatic to leave town with two.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who wrested the backup goaltending job away
from Peter Budaj on the strength of his performance in the playoffs last
season, kept the Canadiens in the game until they could regroup and post a
2-1 shootout win over the Washington Capitals Thursday night.
“He’s a fighter, that’s what I like about him,” said Michel Therrien, who was
far from happy with his team’s performance in the first period, when they
were outshot 15-2 and found themselves trailing 1-0 after a gaffe by
defenceman P.K. Subban.
“We started to play, we started to hustle, but the first period we were
dominated,” said Therrien. “We started to play with more passion in the
second and third. Tokarski gave us a great chance to stay in the game but
our work ethic was better in the second period.”
Subban said the coach gave the players a pep talk after the first period and,
while he didn’t share any of the details, he said: “He talks after the first
period of every game but this one got us going.”
Subban said the Canadiens were behind the eight-ball and you could argue
that he put them there. His attempt to clear the puck was knocked down by
Troy Brouwer and that allowed Washington rookie Andre Burakovsky to
score on his first NHL shot.
“It hit the top of (Brouwer’s) stick,” said Subban. “I don’t know if he meant it.
I wasn’t trying to put it through him; I was just trying to clear it.”
Therrien did his part by tweaking his lines a bit in the second period. P.A.
Parenteau joined Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk and he thought he
had scored the winner in regulation — only to see his goal waved off
because René Bourque made contact with Washington goaltender Braden
Holtby.
“There was definitely contact, but I thought Bourque was pushed into the
goalie,” said Therrien.
“I thought Rene played really well and Lars (Eller) was better than he was
last night, and they’re going to be an important line for us,” Therrien said.
“And I was really happy with the way Brandon Prust stepped up and
showed he’s a leader.”
Tokarski said he expected the Capitals to come out strong in their home
opener but wasn’t quite prepared for his team’s malaise.
“As a goalie, you just have to be ready for the next shot,” he said.
In the shootout, Tokarski gave up goals to Nicklas Backstrom and Eric Fehr
but stopped Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Burakovsky.
“In the shootout, you just concentrate on each shot,” he said. “There’s no
real strategy, you just try to challenge the shooter ands make yourself big.”
Ovechkin had four shots on goal, including a potential game-breaker early
in the third period. He came out of the penalty box and unleashed a
slapshot on which Tokarski stretched to make a glove save.
Holtby had to be strong after a quiet first period. He had a rough start to the
shootout as Alex Galchenyuk put a move on him and David Desharnais
scored on his trademark hesitation move. But he stopped Parenteau and
Plekanec before he was beaten through the five-hole by Brendan Gallagher
for the deciding goal.
“I just watched what the other guys did and I thought the opening would be
there,” said Gallagher.
Montreal Gazette LOADED: 10.10.2014
752933
Montreal Canadiens
Habs Game Report: Gallagher pots shootout winner
By Pat Hickey, Montreal Gazette October 10, 2014 3:00 AM
WASHINGTON — Brendan Gallagher scored the winning goal in a
shootout to give the Canadiens a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals
Thursday night at the Verizon Center.
On a night when the Canadiens played catchup from the opening faceoff,
Dustin Tokarski kept the Canadiens in the game until Tomas Plekanec beat
Braden Holtby with a rising shot to the far top corner to tie the game at
10:31 of the third period. The Canadiens thought they had the equalizer
when P.A. Parenteau beat Holtby 80 seconds earlier, but the goal was
waved off because Rene Bourque interfered with the goalie. And the
Canadiens missed an opportunity to go ahead when Bourque hit the
goalpost on a power play at 15:31. It was ruled a goal on the ice, but it was
overturned after a video review.
Tokarski, who kept the Canadiens’ hopes alive with a big save on Alex
Ovechkin early in the third period, made 29 stops while Hotlby made 23.
Canadiens miss wake-up call: It would be an understatement to say the
Canadiens had a slow start. By the time Lars Eller registered Montreal’s
first shot on goal, on a power play at 17:26 of the first period, the Capitals
had 14 shots and a 1-0 lead.
It was a tribute to Tokarski that the Canadiens trailed by only one goal at
the intermission. Tokarski didn’t have a chance on the opening goal by
André Burakovsky, an Austrian-born Swede. P.K. Subban lost the puck to
Troy Brouwer as he attempted to move from behind the Canadiens’ net and
Brouwer found Burakovsky alone in front of the net at 6:43.
PK back on track: The PK in this case is the penalty-kill which has been one
of the Canadiens’ strengths in recent years. The Capitals’ power play,
which includes snipers Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, went 0-for-5
and they failed to get a shot on goal on three of their power plays. Montreal
had six of its first seven shots on goal while on the power play but they also
came up empty on five opportunities.
O’Brien shows grit: Liam O’Brien, the Halifax native who made the Capitals
as an amateur tryout, played sparingly but made an impression early in the
second period when he traded punches with Brandon Prust.
Lineup changes: Veteran Travis Moen replaced Dale Weise on the fourth
line to start the game and coach Michel Therrien made one significant move
during the game. He reunited Brendan Gallagher with David Desharnais
and Max Pacioretty and moved Parenteau to the Plekanec line.
Happy anniversary: The Capitals are celebrating their 40th anniversary this
season and they kicked off the festivities by introducing four former players,
including two who started their NHL careers in Montreal. Defenceman Rod
Langway began his Hall of Fame career with four seasons as a Canadien
and was part of a Stanley Cup-winning team as a rookie in 1979 while
forward Craig Laughlin played one season in Montreal before moving to
Washington. The other players were Peter Bondra, the team’s all-time
leading scorer, and defenceman Sylvain Coté.
What’s next: The Canadiens’ road trip continues Saturday with a game
against the Philadelphia Flyers (7 p.m., CITY, TVA Sports, TSN-690 Radio).
The Flyers fell to 0-2 Thursday night when they lost their home opener 6-4
to New Jersey. The trip concludes Monday in Tampa. The Canadiens’ first
game at the Bell Centre will be Thursday against the Boston Bruins
752934
Montreal Canadiens
Cameras mounted everywhere in Rogers' NHL debut
By Christopher Curtis, Montreal Gazette October 9, 2014
Cameras mounted everywhere in Rogers' NHL debut
Fans stand for Canadian national anthem before the first game of the NHL
regular season between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens
in Toronto on Wednesday, October 8, 2014.
Photograph by: Darren Calabrese , Montreal Gazette
The game, as it always seems to, lived up to its hype.
Tomas Plekanec’s last-minute goal capped off a thrilling 4-3 comeback win
Wednesday night for the Canadiens over their arch-nemesis Toronto Maple
Leafs in the first game of this year’s National Hockey League season at the
Air Canada Centre.
But while the on-ice action certainly delivered, the game’s telecast was a
little more uneven.
Rogers Media began its $5.2-billion broadcasting deal with the NHL
Wednesday night and seemed to pull every conceivable stop to capture
viewers’ imaginations.
For starters, there were cameras mounted to everything: the ref’s helmet,
the bench, cables above the crowd.
It seemed, for a moment, as though the beer vendors at the Air Canada
Centre might soon be enlisted to film portions of the game — think
“overpriced Pilsner cam” or maybe “sloshed guy cam” or “there’s vomit on
my $200 jersey cam.”
Some of these innovations seemed to work: the “sky cam,” which smoothly
moves alongside the play from above the bleachers, provided an almost
cinematic perspective to the game. Others, like the grainy, almost creepy,
“POV cam” — which shows players from the perspective of a sweatcovered device stuffed inside the bench area — had an amateurish quality
to them.
There was no glowing puck that lit up like some sort of space laser each
time it was fired at a goalie.
None of these gimmicks is etched in stone; some will likely be phased out
after angry letter campaigns, and it’s worth remembering that this was the
very first broadcast for Rogers under a 12-year deal. One marketing expert
says it’s normal, given the magnitude of the contract, for Rogers to try
pushing the limits a little bit.
“We’re a hockey-crazed nation, but we don’t have the kind of critical mass
there is in the United States,” said Bruno Delorme, who teaches sports
marketing at Marianopolis College in Montreal. “So there will always be a
need to try to maximize the value of the broadcasting deal by creating little
innovations. … It’s why the CBC offered hockey in Punjabi, it’s why teams
sell pink jerseys, to access as much of the market as they can.
“We forget that things like high-definition television was essentially
designed for watching sports on TV. Things like instant replay and slowmotion also come from sports broadcasting.”
It’s easy to take instant replay, slow motion and computerized graphics for
granted since they’ve become so ingrained in our sports viewing
experience. But they were mind-blowing innovations when first used.
Take the first use of instant replay, which came about during an Army vs.
Navy college football game televised on CBS in 1963. After fans watching
from home saw quarterback Rollie Stichweh dive across the goal line for a
touchdown and then, moments later, do the exact same thing again, playby-play announcer Lindsay Nelson had to remind viewers they weren’t
going insane. No, your TV isn’t broken, he reassured them, this is just an
exciting new breakthrough called “instant replay.”
But for all the innovations that have carried over into the present, we tend to
forget the flops that didn’t.
While sitting at a New York City sushi bar in 1999, two CBS engineers
came up with an inventive piece of technology for the network’s Super Bowl
broadcast. They would build a camera rig that surrounded the field and
could capture plays while spinning 360 degrees around the action — just
like in that movie The Matrix!
They sketched the idea on a napkin and it came to fruition two years later. It
produced an awkward, choppy effect and was never used again. Some
ideas, it would seem, look much better on a bar napkin than in practice.
Not unlike the Rogers broadcast, Monday Night Football — one of the
biggest innovators in sports broadcasting technology — briefly
experimented with its own referee-turned-camera-apparatus. The “ump
cam,” mounted to the line judge’s shirt, provided a boots-on-the-ground
view of the action. The angle offered a new and somewhat interesting
perspective to the TV audience, but it also looked like something a 12-yearold would film with the family’s flimsy, hand-held video camera.
There’s also the infamous case of a certain glowing puck used by a certain
American television network that branded it as the “biggest technological
breakthrough in the history of sports.” It made its debut during a 1996
broadcast of the NHL All-Star Game on FOX, was used sparingly
afterwards and then thrown in the waste bin, never to be spoken of again.
Ever.
Which brings us to Wednesday night’s broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet and
the $10 million it invested in new camera technology — the company
referred to this as the “biggest NHL innovation since the (instant) replay” in
a press release Monday.
There were encouraging signs: the Sportsnet crew began working
advanced hockey statistics into their analysis of the game, the play-by-play
and intermission segments were largely what Canadians have come to
expect from a first-rate hockey show. And while there were fumbles — the
674 camera angles, forcing Nick Kypreos to debate Doug MacLean as
buzzers chimed in and Twitter voted on a winner — it was certainly an
interesting night of television.
In any case, Rogers has another 11 years, 11 months and 30 days to work
the kinks out.
752935
Montreal Canadiens
About last night …
Posted by Mike Boone
With a Shootout win that assures them of a .500 road trip – at minimum – to
start the season, your Montreal Canadiens are making their coach look like
a genius.
Michel Therrien hasn’t won the Jack Adams Award just yet.
And comparisons to Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman may be a bit
premature.
But Therrien has been pushing the right buttons and pulling the proper
strings through wins in Toronto and Washington.
Starting Dustin Tokarski against the Capitals Thursday night was a bit of a
no-brainer.
The Canadiens will play 16 sets of back-to-back games this season. And if
Carey Price is going to stay healthy through the stretch run and playoffs –
which has not been the case two years running – the franchise goaltender
has to be rested at strategic spots in the schedule … like the second games
of back-to-backs.
Where the coach earned his early Adams consideration was Therrien’s line
juggling.
Almost exactly halfway through the game, Therrien changed right wingers
on his three scoring lines:
Eventual Shootout hero Brendan Gallagher was reunited with David
Desharnais and Max Pacioretty. P.A. Parenteau, who had been RW on the
top line, was dropped down to play with Lars Eller and Rene Bourque.
And the key move, from where I was sitting, was Therrien’s decision to put
rookie Jiri Sekac on a line with fellow Czech Tomas Plekanec and Alex
Galchenyuk.
All three lines found fresh energy, and the Canadiens clawed their way
back into a game that should have been lost after 20 minutes.
Playing their home opener against a team that didn’t check into their D.C.
hotel until 3 a.m. on game day, the Capitals nearly ran the Canadiens out of
the Verizon Center. The Canadiens didn’t register a shot until 17:35 had
elapsed in the game. They outshot the Canadiens 15-2. Shot attempts –
SoG + shots that missed the net + shots that were blocked – were 23-9 in
favour of the home team.
Washington won every foot race and puck battle. The Canadiens were in
disarray, running around their own zone, unable to complete two
consecutive passes while the Caps, in contrast, effortlessly cleared their
zone and kept Braden Holtby untroubled by anything resembling sustained
pressure.
Tokarski kept it close. The goaltender who made Peter Budaj expendable
was beaten only by 19-year-old Washington rookie Andre Burakovsky.
Tokarski’s heroics gave the Canadiens time to find their road-weary legs
and hang in a game that should have been over.
The Canadiens outshot the Capitals 22-15 over the final 40 minutes and
Overtime. But Holtby, unbeaten in five starts against the CH, stopped
everything until midway through the third period, when Plekanec converted
a sweet feed by Galchenyuk.
Gino Odjick, the former Canadiens enforcer, used to have a standard quip
after wins like this:
“Let’s get out of this place,” Odjick would say, “before the cops get here.”
A win is a win, and the two points could prove crucial in April. But the
Canadiens stole one on an off-night.
Tokarski was brilliant, of course.
So was Plekanec, who is on pace for 123 goals this season. The veteran
centre is making sweet music with his eventual successor – whose effort
included five hits – and I’d like to see Sekac stay with Pleks and
Galchneyuk.
Brandon Prust had five hits and threw down with rookie Liam O’Brien in a
spirited fight. Linemate Manny malhotra won 13 of 19 faceoffs, including a
crucial D-zone draw late in the game.
I didn’t think Travis Moen brought much to the fourth line. The Antichambre
gang speculated that Dale Weise would be back in against the Flyers
Saturday night. They also thought Therrien might give Michäel Bournival a
start, possibly in place of Rene Bourque.
Perhaps we’ll see jarred Tinordi in Philadelphia. Barry Trotz has the
Capitals playing a bruising, Western Conference-style forechecking game –
even without injured Tom Wilson – and the D corps had a tough night.
As did the power play. The Canadiens were 0-for-5 with the man advantage
in Washington, following 0-for-2 in Toronto.
The problem is the forwards. As Denis Gauthier said on L’Antichambre,
quoting one of his former coaches, the front of the net is like a bank: it’s
where you go to get the money.
With the exception of Brendan Gallagher, no Canadiens forward seems
willing to pay the price at the teller’s window. And that lets opponents’
penalty-killers to focus on P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov.
back-to-back road wins without a power-play goal?
Pretty impressive.
752936
Montreal Canadiens
24CH show will return for third season
Posted by Stu Cowan
The Canadiens announced on Thursday that the popular 24CH show will
return for a third season.
Weekly episodes of the behind-the-scenes show, following the Canadiens
on and off the ice, will start on Oct. 11 and air in French every Saturday at
5:30 p.m. on Canal D and 6:30 p.m. on RDS. There will also be a weekly
English version every Saturday on CTV Montreal starting on Oct. 18 at 3:30
p.m.
“The last season of 24CH was the first time a professional sports team
offered its fans a weekly series for an entire season, and the overwhelming
response resulted in even more programming,” Kevin Gilmore, the
Canadiens’ chief operating officer, said in a statement. “This season, we’ll
better acquaint fans with the players and other members of the
organization, showing them both at work and outside the Bell Centre and
the Bell Sports Complex. We’ll discover the Canadiens’ world and its global
scope by visiting our players’ home towns and CH fans worldwide, along
with the places where they get together.”
752937
Montreal Canadiens
Tokarski gets start in goal for Habs against Capitals; Moen replaces Weise
on fourth line
Posted by Stu Cowan
Coming off a 4-3 season-opening win in Toronto Wednesday night, the
Canadiens will be back in action Thursday when they face Alex Ovechkin
and the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., SN360, RDS, TSN Radio 690).
Goalie Carey Price, who stopped 24 of 27 shots against the Maple Leafs,
will get the night off in Washington as new backup Dustin Tokarski gets the
call. And Michel Therrien announced before the game that he had made a
coach’s decision and that Travis Moen will be in the lineup on the fourth
line, taking Dale Weise’s spot beside Manny Malhotra and Brandon Prust.
Here’s a preview of Thursday night’s matchup:
PAT HICKEY
THE GAZETTE
New look for Caps: There were some predictable changes after the Capitals
missed the playoffs last season. Brian MacLellan replaced longtime general
manager George McPhee and Barry Trotz became the team’s fourth coach
in four years. The Capitals still have firepower with goal-scoring machine
Alex Ovechkin, but Trotz is asking his team to play defence and that is a
foreign concept in the U.S. capital. MacLellan gave Ovechkin some help by
luring free-agent defencemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen from
Pittsburgh, but the goaltending is shaky with Braden Holtby (2.85 goalsagainst average last season) and journeyman Justin Peters.
Ticker’s time: Canadiens coach Michel Therrien likes his goaltenders to
share the work in back-to-back situations. Carey Price was the starter for
the season-opener Wednesday night in Toronto and that means that Dustin
(Ticker) Tokarski will face the Capitals.
The key is discipline: The Canadiens’ penalty-killing was a work in progress
during the exhibition schedule and that’s one reason why Therrien will
caution his players against unnecessary penalties. The Capitals’ power play
ranked No. 2 in the NHL last season and Ovechkin scored 24 of his leagueleading 51 goals on the power play. The Leafs went 1-for-3 on the power
play against the Canadiens in the season opener.
Back to back: The Capitals have more than home ice going for them in this
contest. They will be well-rested, while the Canadiens flew to Washington
after an emotional season-opener Wednesday night. The Canadiens played
17 sets of back-to-back games last season and had a 2-4 record when the
second game was on the road.
Feel-good story: Halifax native Liam O’Brien was expected to play this
season as an overage junior in Sherbrooke, but the Capitals handed him a
three-year entry-level contract after he scored a goal and added three
assists in five exhibition games. The 6-foot, 205-pounder played four
seasons for Rimouski and Rouyn-Noranda in the Quebec Major Junior
Hockey League, but was passed over twice at the NHL draft and attended
the Washington camp as an amateur tryout. He was assigned to Hershey of
the American Hockey League on Tuesday, but that was merely a paper
transaction related to the salary cap and he will dress against the
Canadiens as the Capitals’ fourth-line centre.
Channel hopping: Finding the Canadiens on television will be a chore this
season. By the time the Canadiens wrap up their season-opening road trip
Monday in Tampa, their games will have been on six different outlets. The
season-opener in Toronto was on Sportsnet and TVA Sports. The
Washington game is a regional game and will be shown on Sportsnet 360
and RDS. Saturday’s game in Philadelphia is a national telecast on City and
TVA Sports, and the Tampa game is a regional contest on City Montreal
and RDS. Complaints continue to filter in from fans west of Belleville, Ont.,
who are blacked out of the regional games. Rogers has put together a
package of Canadiens and Senators games on RDS for $59.95, but some
fans say their cable companies do not offer the deal.
752938
Nashville Predators
Predators rally to beat Senators 3-2 in opener
Eric Stromgren, estromgren@tennessean.com 11:50 p.m. CDT October 9,
2014
The Predators needed a couple of periods and a pair of power plays to find
the offensive spark in Thursday night's season opener against Ottawa at
Bridgestone Arena.
Eric Nystrom provided the eventual game-winning goal midway through the
third period in the Predators' 3-2 victory, Peter Laviolette's first as
Nashville's coach.
"I think it's important for a team to establish they can win in the third period
and that was probably the most important thing tonight," said Laviolette,
who got his 390th career victory. "They battled back. They didn't surrender.
They just kept pushing through and you have to give them a lot of credit
because they just kept their foot on the gas."
Shea Weber and Craig Smith also scored for the Predators. Pekka Rinne
finished with 18 saves in goal.
Climer: Predators could benefit from Titan's struggles
Kyle Turris and Alex Chiasson scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson had
34 saves.
The momentum shifted in the Predators' favor when James Neal drew an
interference penalty on Jared Cowen in the final minute of the second
period.
Near the end of that power play 1:36 into the third period, Filip Forsberg fed
Smith at the edge of the net to tie the game 1-1.
Weber put the Predators ahead 2-1 with 11:07 remaining by skating behind
the net and backhanding a soft shot over Anderson at the post.
"The puck went down and I just went down there and got it," Weber said.
"My initial thought was to just make a play to one of the forwards. Filip
backed off that d-man and there was a little more room than I expected."
The Predators took the lead 87 seconds later when Paul Gaustad's crossice pass connected with Nystrom.
"We were flustered a little bit and a little frustrated we weren't getting
results," Nystrom said. "But the power play went out and scored a quick
goal early and from then on we just pushed and pushed."
The Senators cut the lead to 3-2 on Chiasson's goal, but Rinne held firm
and the tying goal never came.
Tennessean LOADED: 10.10.2014
752939
Nashville Predators
Predators could benefit from Titans' struggles
David Climer, dclimer@tennessean.com 11:49 p.m. CDT October 9, 2014
The Predators opened the season on Thursday night with a unique
opportunity.
Make a run at the Stanley Cup?
Hey, let's not get carried away.
No, what we're talking about here is the franchise's opportunity to gain a
greater portion of Nashville's sports marketplace at a time when the Titans
are struggling so badly.
Think about it: The Titans have lost four in a row. We're seeing more and
more empty seats at LP Field. There is a growing disconnect between the
Titans and the community in terms of fan relations and business
connections.
They say winning is the best marketing tool. Suffice it to say, losing
undermines even the best marketing attempts.
Meanwhile, college football programs haven't exactly stepped into the void.
Vanderbilt is 1-5. Tennessee is coming off a collapse against Florida and
has lost three in a row.
It is against such a backdrop that the Preds enter a new era with the arrival
of Peter Laviolette as coach. It's a fresh start that began with a 3-2 win over
Ottawa.
I know what you're thinking: Hockey will never overtake football in this
market. Fair point. Football is our first love. Attendance numbers and TV
ratings don't lie.
But that doesn't mean the Preds can't make inroads, both in terms of
increased ticket sales as well as links to the business community. Every
time the Titans drop the ball in their dealings with local fans and
businesses, it is an opportunity for the Preds to gain market share.
Puck Heads don't want to hear such talk. They believe hockey can stand on
its own two skates regardless of any other sports enterprises in town.
And they're right — to a degree. The Predators have a loyal fan base. But
it's no secret that the Preds front office thinks it is imperative to grow that
fan base.
In a city the size of Nashville, competition for every sports dollar is fierce.
Beyond that, Nashville's remarkable growth (We are, after all, the "it" city)
means a lot of new faces in town. Might some of those newcomers, who
have no pre-existing allegiances, be drawn to a successful hockey team
rather than an unsuccessful NFL team? Sure.
That's why Laviolette's arrival is a plus. He hit town with a reputation for
aggressive, offensive-minded hockey. It should be an easier sell to potential
fans that didn't grow up around the game and don't appreciate the nuances
of the sport.
"It's an exciting style of hockey," said James Neal, a key off-season
acquisition for the Preds. "He wants to put pressure on the other team by
pushing the pace. …
"I think we've all adjusted pretty well to his system. There could be some
problems here and there while we adjust to each other, but I don't think it'll
take long for us to make everything work."
It also helps that the Preds upgraded their offense during the offseason.
Captain Shea Weber called it "a restart" for the franchise.
"I like it. I think it's positive," he said. "We have a lot of new people but
everybody's adjusting to each other. It's going to work."
For his part, Laviolette has experience coaching in a non-traditional hockey
market. He was with the Carolina Hurricanes from 2004-09. There, his style
of hockey saw an uptick in attendance in his first three seasons. Average
home attendance increased from 12,330 in his first season to 15,596 in his
second to 17,386 in his third.
Certainly, Hurricanes attendance got a boost from the Stanley Cup run in
'06 and a bump in season-ticket sales for the season that followed.
On Laviolette's watch, the Hurricanes fought for market share with the
NFL's Carolina Panthers. In his first season there, the Panthers were in the
midst of a run to the Super Bowl.
It's not an apples-to-apples comparison with the Preds/Titans situation, of
course, because the NFL's Panthers play in Charlotte, which is a 2½-hour
drive from the Hurricanes' base of operations in Raleigh. Suffice it to say,
however, that the Panthers have a pretty strong following in Raleigh.
Here, the Titans play within eyeshot of Bridgestone Arena.
It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. One team's loss can be another
team's gain.
752940
Nashville Predators
#AstroButch dons Predators jersey at space station
2014
Barry Wilmore, who grew up in the Una neighborhood and then played
football at Mt. Juliet and Tennessee Tech, showed some of his Predators
pride from the International Space Station.
A tweet Thursday morning from the International Space Station
(@Space_Station) showed Wilmore smiling while wearing a gold Predators
jersey.
“Hope we have a great #OpeningGame tonight @PredsNHL vs
@Senators#hockey” #AstroButchpic.twitter.com/QZNOQ275DS
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 9, 2014
"Hope we have a great #OpeningGame tonight @PredsNHL vs. @Senators
#hockey #Astrobutch," the tweet read.
Wilmore, 51, was joined by two Russian cosmonauts when they launched
Sept. 25 from the Central Asian spaceport in Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. Wilmore will assume command of the mission in November.
The crew will return to Earth in March.
752941
Nashville Predators
Predators want to crank up the shot count
2014
One obvious key in generating more offense in hockey is firing more shots
at the goal.
It is a big goal for the Predators in finding more goals this season.
"I think a high amount of shots will turn into more scoring opportunities,"
forward Colin Wilson said before Thursday's game. "If you look at the goals
from the first (preseason) game, people were throwing pucks to the net and
they were just going in. It's kind of the way the NHL has turned into a little
bit more."
The 47 shots on goal the Predators put on Columbus goalie Sergei
Bobrovsky last Saturday did not translate to victory in the 3-2 loss, but the
style in generating those shots was an encouraging sign for players and
coaches.
Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette talks about the training
camp and what the team hopes to take from the final preseason game into
the season opener against Ottawa.
"You get guys crashing, it really throws off the other defense and they turn
around and start looking for the puck," Wilson said. "We're going to be
forechecking hard and playing a fast-paced game with a lot of energy. I
think when you do that, the rest takes care of itself."
The high amount of shots was part of a crash-the-net playing style where
the forwards converge quickly toward the goal following the initial shot.
It will be part of the Predators' identity this season under coach Peter
Laviolette.
"I think everybody's adapted to the system very quickly and I think Lavy's
done a great job getting a certain energy and a certain identity to our team,"
Wilson said. "I think everbody's excited for this start."
On the season opener against Ottawa:
Captain Shea Weber: "We're excited for the home opener in front of our
home crowd. It's going to be a great night."
Defenseman Seth Jones: "There's still butterflies in your stomach. You're
excited. You're anxious to get the season started. Doesn't feel as new – just
one year under your belt makes a huge difference."
Goalie Pekka Rinne: "Just excited to get it started. It's been a long summer
and I feel like we're ready to go. Having the full training camp and the full
preseason games – couldn't come any more sooner. We're ready to go. I'm
ready to go."
752942
Nashville Predators
Weber, Fisher, Neal named Predators' captains
2014
Predators coach Peter Laviolette emerged from the locker room following a
team meeting after Thursday morning's skate with the team captains for
2014-15.
Shea Weber will wear the captain's 'C' on his jersey, with James Neal and
Mike Fisher wearing the alternate captain 'A' on their jerseys.
The four posed for a quick photo before Neal, a first-year Predator,
remained to answer questions from the media ahead of Thursday's opening
night against Ottawa at Bridgestone Arena ( 7 p.m., Fox TN, 102.5-FM).
"With Fish and Webs being here a long time, they're both local guys and
great guys at that," Neal said. "I'm just going to chip in everywhere I can. I
want to take this team to the next level and that's getting to the playoffs.
That's our goal."
Nashville Predators forward James Neal talks about his appointment as the
team's alternate captain after Thursday's morning skate ahead of the
season opener against Ottawa.
Laviolette said training camp was a good opportunity to assess the
leadership qualities among the players and felt it is a strong point on the
team.
"We have excellent leaders already in place here," Laviolette said. "I think
James really fits the bill. He brings a lot of experience to the table, he brings
a lot of successful experience to the table."
"I think it was the right choice and the right fit," he said.
Fisher, who will be the alternate captain for the third straight season,
remains out with a ruptured Achilles and the last timetable for his return was
sometime in late November.
His 'A' will be worn by various Predators until he returns. The first will be
defenseman Roman Josi, who is expected to skate with Weber in a pairing
against the Senators.
Weber has been the team's captain since 2010.
Tennessean Predators Insider Eric Stromgren and Tennessean Sports
Columnist David Climer share their thoughts on the Predators 2014-15
season opener against the Senators at Bridgestone Arena.
Morning skate lines:
Forwards
Bourque-Ribeiro-Neal
Forsberg-Roy-Smith
Wilson-Jarnkrok-Jokinen
Clune-Gaustad-Neal
Defensemen
Josi-Weber
Volchenkov-Jones
Ekholm-Ellis
Extras: Beck, Bartley, Stalberg (IR).
752943
New Jersey Devils
Zemgus Girgensons scored for Buffalo, and Jhonas Enroth made 37 saves.
Timely Carom Assists Nash and Rangers in Opener; Devils Also Win
CANADIENS 2, CAPITALS 1 Tomas Plekanec scored his third goal of the
young season, and Montreal recovered from a slow start for a shootout win
over host Washington and its new coach Barry Trotz.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSOCT. 9, 2014
shootout.
Rick Nash had two goals and an assist, including the tiebreaking score late
in the third period, and the visiting Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2, on
Thursday night in the first game of the season for both teams.
Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, the Eastern
Conference champions last season, and Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves.
BLACKHAWKS 3, STARS 2 Patrick Sharp scored the tying goal in the third
period, Patrick Kane had the only goal in the shootout and visiting Chicago
beat Dallas.
RED WINGS 2, BRUINS 1 Gustav Nyquist’s power-play goal in the second
period lifted host Detroit to a victory over Boston in the Red Wings’ season
opener.
Jaden Schwartz led the Blues with a goal and an assist. Paul Stastny also
scored, and Brian Elliott stopped 22 shots.
LIGHTNING 3, PANTHERS 2 Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal
1:11 into overtime, and Tampa Bay beat visiting Florida in the teams’
season opener.
After a fortunate carom off the glass, Nash scored the go-ahead goal with 1
minute 50 seconds remaining off a behind-the-back pass from Martin St.
Louis in front of the net.
PREDATORS 3, SENATORS 2 Craig Smith, Shea Weber and Eric Nystrom
all scored in the third period, and host Nashville beat Ottawa, giving Coach
Peter Laviolette a win in his debut.
The Rangers opened the scoring 4:01 into the first period on Nash’s low
shot from the slot off a Blues turnover in the defensive zone. Kreider was
credited with the assist.
New York Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
Schwartz tied it 1:32 into the third period when he chipped a rebound over
Lundqvist after a long shot from beyond the right circle by David Backes.
Alex Pietrangelo also got an assist.
Kreider put the Rangers ahead, 2-1, with a breakaway goal, assisted by
Nash and Marc Staal, with 13:30 remaining.
St. Louis tied it again with 9:18 left in the third when Stastny scored on a
goal that was originally credited to Vladimir Tarasenko. Instead, the assists
went to Tarasenko and Schwartz.
It was the first point with the Blues for Stastny, a St. Louis native who
signed a four-year, $28 million contract as a free agent in the off-season
after playing his first eight seasons in Colorado. He became the third family
member to play for the Blues, following his father, Peter, and brother, Yan.
Nash’s two goals were his 22nd and 23rd against St. Louis. He has 43
points in 51 career regular-season games against the Blues.
DEVILS 6, FLYERS 4 Dainus Zubrus scored the go-ahead goal in the third
period, and Michael Cammalleri had two goals to lead the visiting Devils to
a season-opening win over Philadelphia.
Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique and Patrick Elias also scored for the Devils.
Claude Giroux had a goal, and Wayne Simmonds scored twice to help the
Flyers rally from a three-goal deficit. Vincent Lecavalier also scored for the
Flyers, who lost, 2-1, in their season opener Wednesday night against the
Boston Bruins.
Cory Schneider won his first game in goal since taking over full time for
Martin Brodeur and signing a seven-year, $42 million contract in the
summer.
The Devils blew 3-0 and 4-3 leads before taking the lead for good on
Zubrus’s goal early in the third.
Jaromir Jagr had an assist on one of Cammalleri’s goals for his 1,756th
career point, sixth on the N.H.L.’s career scoring list. PENGUINS 6, DUCKS
4 Sidney Crosby, the N.H.L.’s most valuable player last season, scored
twice and added an assist as host Pittsburgh beat Anaheim.
surgery for the Penguins, who rolled to victory in their season opener and
Mike Johnston’s debut as coach.
Corey Perry had a hat trick for the Ducks, who were also opening their
season.
BLUE JACKETS 3, SABRES 1 Cam Atkinson scored the tiebreaking goal
on a third-period power play, and visiting Columbus beat Buffalo in the
Artem Anisimov and Jack Skille also scored for the Blue Jackets, who got
21 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Atkinson broke a 1-all tie with 7:15
remaining.
752944
New Jersey Devils
Braydon Coburn's loss could be haunting for 0-2 Flyers
Randy Miller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Randy Miller | NJ Advance
Media for NJ.com
Email the author | on October 09, 2014 at 11:14 PM, updated October 10,
2014 at 1:19 AM
PHILADELPHIA - The Flyers are just two games in, so starting yet another
season with consecutive losses isn't that big of a deal.
The way the Flyers played in dropping their home opener 6-4 to the Devils
on Thursday night is an issue.
A way bigger one is top-pair defenseman Braydon Coburn suffering an
injury during the Flyers' season-opening loss in Boston the night before,
one that apparently is significant.
Now what?
The Flyers first will take a day to regroup, then try to beat the Montreal
Canadiens at home on Saturday night to avoid starting 0-3 for the third year
in a row.
And after that, they'll try to get this this 10-game killer of an October
schedule without being buried in the standings like they were last season
when starting a franchise-worst 1-7.
"(Coburn) plays a lot of minutes," Giroux said. "He's usually the one that
plays the most minutes.We have to move on and it's a good chance for
others to step up."
That was a theme in the Flyers dressing room after this one regarding
Coburn's loss, for however long it is. But if the Flyers lose Giroux for a
stretch and call up prospect Scott Laughton from the AHL to replace him,
there's a big drop.
There also figures to be a sizable drop off replacing Coburn, where it stays
Schultz or not because GM Ron Hextall doesn't have the cap space to go
out and trade for a solid stopgap.
Andrew MacDonald, a third-pair guy with Schenn last season after arriving
in March trade from the Islanders, now is on the top pair with Schultz.
No offense to those guys, but they should be a third pair, not a first.
Nicklas Grossmann and Mark Streit are a pretty solid second pair, but they
have a lot of wear and tear, and thus can't be expected to take on more
minutes.
Berube has to be worried about his defense, but he sure acted like he
wasn't after this loss.
"It's two games," the coach said. "We've had some guys who have played
decently and we have had some guys that haven't. It's inconsistent right
now. I think were inconsistent as a team. I think sporadic at times out
there."
That's true, but face it, the picture the Flyers have painted of themselves
two games into 2014-15 is no Michelangelo or Picasso in the making.
And things could get worse in a hurry.
Keeping afloat won't be easy because despite having a bunch of skilled
forwards, not all of them are consistent two-way players and all of them
need to be to pick up a defense core that now is missing its two best from
last season.
"It's not easy to replace (Coburn)," goalie Steve Mason said. "I have to step
up and make key saves at key times and the rest of the guys on the
defensive unit have to step up and play better. As a defensive unit, myself
included, we need to be a stabilizing force back there."
Kimmo Timonen, diagnosed with blood clots this past summer, probably
isn't ever coming back and now Coburn, who was on crunches Thursday,
possibly will be lost for at least 4-to-6 with an injury that may be a broken
foot.
Star Ledger LOADED: 10.10.2014
"It is obviously a fill in by committee," Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds
said after a three-point night in which he scored twice in the final minute of
the second period to tie the game 3-3.
The Flyers better pray that Coburn's problem isn't a worse issue, because
while he's probably a second-pair guy on an elite team, he's needed to play
big minutes, kill penalties and be out there in crunch time.
His first game missing, the Flyers responded by allowing six goals - the final
one was an empty netter - to a Devils club that was held to one goal or
none 23 times last season.
"It's hard to replace (Coburn), but we've got guys capable," Flyers coach
Craig Berube said. "I thought Schultz came in there and played a good
game."
Nick Schultz, past his prime at 32 but very experienced, took Coburn's spot
in the Flyers' lineup after sitting out the opener and did OK on a night some
of the other defensemen were worse.
Luke Schenn was victimized by a couple of bad bounces, but still ended up
with a career-worst minus-5 after previously being a minus-4 just once - as
a rookie with Toronto in 2008-09.
Schenn's third-pair partner Michael Del Zotto wasn't much better at minus4.
As Berube's been preaching all training camp, team defense involves
forwards, and some of his best forwards were big minuses against the
Devils, too, as Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek were minus-3.
"It is a team game out there," Schenn said. "It is five guys. But it obviously
starts with the defensemen when you're getting scored on ... goals off the
rush, deflections, losing guys in front of the net, it was a frustrating game.
Those are things we'll look at and clean up. When it comes down to us,
every one of us, in particular me, have to play better."
Easier said that done.
752945
New Jersey Devils
They almost blew it, but Devils see the positives in win over Flyers
Rich Chere | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Rich Chere | NJ Advance
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 11:06 PM
PHILADELPHIA — Can the Devils play games like this all season and
expect to win?
Doubtful. But they saw the bright side of their 6-4 opening night win over the
Flyers.
"There are parts of our game I thought were excellent," coach Pete DeBoer
said. "The first period up until the last 5 minutes of the second period I
thought we were outstanding. Defensively we played a great road game,
built up a 3-0 lead, lost our composure for 5 minutes at the end of the
second and gave up a couple power play goals, but I thought we
regrouped.
"For the first game of the season there are a lot of stretches of positives.
We've just got to eliminate the 5 or 6 minutes of lack of composure."
Captain Bryce Salvador added: "I think it was a great game in terms of just
finding a way to win."
DeBoer was thrilled by the Devils' five 5-on-5 goals.
"We had more 5-on-5 goals than we had for weeks last year in different
stretches," he said.
And what did goalie Cory Schneider think?
"I think all of our blood pressure went up a little too much there," Schneider
suggested. "It wasn't typical Devils hockey, I would say. We gave up a little
too much there. It was great to get the win. I thought we showed a lot of
resiliency in the third to gut it out and the guys bailed me out a couple of
times with some big goals."
752946
New Jersey Devils
Devils' rookie Damon Severson's NHL debut is one to remember
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 10:49 PM
PHILADELPHIA — It was, quite simply, the debut of a star in the making.
Devils rookie Damon Severson took his NHL bow in Thursday night’s 6-4
victory over the Flyers and may have delivered the most impressive
performance of anyone on the team.
Sure, Mike Cammalleri scored two goals in his first game for the Devils (one
into an empty net), Michael Ryder had a goal with two assists and Cory
Schneider made enough big saves when his teammates broke down in
front of him to open the season with a win.
But Severson, who is only 20 years old, stole the show.
“I thought he was fantastic,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “He was composed,
not overwhelmed, he made plays. When the game turned and it became 33, I thought he got better, which is saying something for a young guy.”
And when the Devils were trying to protect a one-goal lead in the third
period while shorthanded, Severson was sent out on the penalty kill.
“I think it shows (DeBoer) has confidence in me to kill penalties or be on the
ice late in a game,” Severson said. “Obviously that was my first game, so
anytime you get thrown out there in situations where your team is up by a
goal and you need to play solid defense, it shows he has confidence in you
to really play strong defensively in your own zone.”
Severson was on the PK with Bryce Salvador. It was an unusual move for a
coach to rely on a kid playing in his first game at that point of a game.
“He deserved to be out there,” DeBoer noted. “He was playing well
enough.”
Indeed.
Severson also nearly scored his first NHL goal on a one-timer during the
third period.
“Too bad he didn’t score on that one I passed to him,” Salvador said. “I
would’ve liked to assist on his first goal.”
Actually, Severson said Cammalleri would’ve gotten credit for it.
“That was close. Cammalleri got a tip on that puck,” Severson said. “I was
hoping that was going to go in. Hopefully I get another chance like that
some game here and find the back of the net.”
Amazingly, Severson said he wasn’t very nervous in his debut.
“I think I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be. I was excited
more than anything,” he said. “I played in those five preseason games. I
think I’ve adjusted a little bit. I was just more excited than anything to get
things going.”
He will remember the night for two reasons: 10 goals scored and a win in
his first game.
“It’s not much Devils hockey. Devils hockey is usually a little tighter defense
and lower scoring games, I think, but all in all we got the win. That’s what
matters,” Severson said.
“I thought it was awesome. A good experience. First shift I don’t think I
touched the puck once. We neutral zone forechecked a few times, but I got
out there and got my feet underneath me. After that I was fine.”
He was close to brilliant and he left with a souvenir: The last puck used in
the game.
752947
New Jersey Devils
Rapid Reaction: Flyers spoil big comeback, fall 6-4 to Devils in home
opener
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 1:36 AM
PHILADELPHIA - What a crazy home opener it was for the Flyers.
The Devils weren't doing much yet built a 3-0 second-period lead, then
three quick goals by the Flyers suddenly tied it.
From there, the Devils went ahead, the Flyers tied it, the Devils went ahead
again ... and then they iced it with an empty netter in winning 6-4.
This was a bad, bad night for the Flyers, who besides dropping 0-2 for the
third season in a row lost top-pair defenseman Braydon Coburn to a lowerbody injury that could be a broken foot.
The Flyers showed a lot of resiliency playing their way back into the game Wayne Simmonds' two goals in the final minute of the second period tied it
3-3 - but they lost the momentum in the third and the game-winner was a
bad goal allowed by Steve Mason, who was beaten on a long shot by
Danius Zubrus.
The Flyers definitely have issues. Their defense was bad at times, the top
line isn't clicking and their forwards didn't much two-way hockey.
THE GOOD • The Flyers' power play was 2-for-5 after looking bad going 0for-3 in their opener.
• Wayne Simmonds scored the Flyers' second and third goals to tie the
game 3-3, then assisted on their fourth for a three-point night.
THE BAD
• Flyers D Luke Schenn has a rough night as he was a career-worst minus5. His previous worst plus-minus game was a minus-4 his rookie season
when he was playing for Toronto against Minnesota.
• Flyers RW Michael Raffl (minus-4) also struggled.
• The Flyers' top line continued a goal and two assists on two power-play
tallies, but Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Brayden Schenn were
scoreless with a combined minus-6 in 5-on-5 play.
FIGHTS
• There were no fights in the game, which isn't surprisingly because the
Devils fought just 10 times in 82 games last season. The only teams with
fewer fights were Detroit with seven and Carolina with eight.
MILESTONES
• Devils RW Jaromir Jagr assisted on the Devils' third goal to pass Steve
Yzerman for sixth place on the NHL's career scoring list. Jagr added
another assist, leaving him with 1,757 career points.
INJURIES
• Flyers D Braydon Coburn is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury that
occurred in Wednesday's season opener. His injury possibly is a broken
foot that occurred on a third-period blocked shot.
HEALTHY SCRATCHES
• Flyers: F Blair Jones.
• Devils: RW Damien Brunner, C Jacob Josefson, D Adam Larsson.
THE WEEK AHEAD
• Friday: Team meeting at Skate Zone, but no practice.
• Saturday: Montreal Canadiens at Flyers, 7 p.m.
• Monday: Anaheim Ducks at Flyers, 7 p.m.
752948
New Jersey Devils
Rapid reaction: Devils outlast Flyers, 6-4, in wild season-opener
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 12:48 AM
PHILADELPHIA — Michael Ryder scored a goal and assisted on two others
as the Devils opened the regular season with a 6-4 victory over the Flyers
at Wells Fargo Center.
Mike Cammalleri scored his first two goals (one into an empty net) for the
Devils and goaltender Cory Schneider started with a win. But it did not
come easy as the Devils blew a 3-0 lead.
HIGHLIGHTS
Michael Ryder scored a goal and added two assists. Ryder, who had a
disappointing 18-goal season in 2013-14, got off to a quick start by scoring
a first period goal in the opener. He also forced a turnover that led to Adam
Henrique's second period goal. For whatever it's worth, Ryder had two
goals in his first three games last season.
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Mike Cammalleri didn't waste any time getting his first Devils goal. He
redirected a Jaromir Jagr pass in at 5:33 of the send period.
Rookie defenseman Damon Severson came very close to scoring a goal in
his NHL debut, but his third period one-timer was stopped by Flyers goalie
Steve Mason.
LOWLIGHTS
Bad penalties. With the Devils cruising with a 3-0 lead in the second period,
Jordin Tootoo took an unnecessary penalty when he slashed Michael Del
Zotto. The Devils killed it off, but Patrik Elias hooked Matt Read at 15:30
and it led to a Claude Giroux power play goal that kept Philly's hopes alive.
The Devils wound up blowing the 3-0 lead. After Ryane Clowe took a
tripping penalty with 4.5 seconds remaining in the second period, Wayne
Simmonds scored on the power play with .06 seconds on the clock. That
tied the game, 3-3.
It was a tough night for Bryce Salvador, who could not have been pleased
with his game.
FIGHTS
None.
NOTABLE
Patrik Elias and Andy Greene each wore an 'A' as Devils alternate captains.
Bryce Salvador had the 'C' as captain. Travis Zajac will have an 'A' along
with Elias for home games.
The Devils were scheduled to leave for Florida soon after the game. They
planned to fly to Ft. Lauderdale and then practice in Sunrise Friday
afternoon.
Devils remained in their dressing room during the Flyers' pre game player
introductions. No one was in the visitors' bench, including trainer or
equipment manager. Cory Schneider led the team onto the ice just as the
last Flyer was introduced.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Saturday: Devils vs. Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., MSG-plus 2, WFAN radio, 7
p.m.
Tuesday: Devils vs. Lightning in Tampa, MSG-plus, WFAN radio, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday: Devils vs. Capitals in Washington, MSG-plus 2, WFAN, 7 p.m.
752949
New Jersey Devils
Devils vs. Flyers regular season opener: 5 things you should know
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 4:43 PM
PHILADELPHIA — The Devils open the 2014-15 season Thursday night
against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
Here are 5 things you should know:
1. The Devils are paying close attention to the change in the hash marks in
the face-off circles instituted this season. They were once 3 feet apart and
are now 5 feet, 7 inches apart.
“We’ve spent some time on that,” coach Pete DeBoer said Thursday.
“We’ve spent more time on faceoffs in this camp than we probably have in
other camps. There is less contact because there’s distance between
people, which means wins and losses are going to be cleaner.
“There is going to be more room and you’re going to be able to create
something. So, both defending that and trying to create something off that is
something we’ve spent some time on.”
Does he think the Devils will be good enough on draws?
“Yes I do. I think we’ve got some options there,” DeBoer explained.
“(Dainius) Zubrus takes some draws. (Mike) Cammalleri was really good
the other night on draws with Travis (Zajac) when he jumped in for him. So,
by committee I think we will be.”
2. How common is a Devils season opener in Philadelphia?
Somewhat common. The Devils have opened against the Flyers 5 times.
They opened in Philly three times in 1985, ’88 and ’89 and opened in New
Jersey in 2009 and 2011.
Oct. 10, 1985, 6-5 victory in Philadelphia
Oct. 6, 1988, a 4-1 loss in Philadelphia
Oct. 6, 1989, a 6-2 in in Philadelphia
Oct. 3, 2009, a 5-2 loss at Prudential Center
Oct. 8, 2011, a 3-0 loss at Prudential Center
3. A young defense in the season-opener.
Damon Severson is 20, Eric Gelinas is 23, Jon Merrill is 22. The lineup
doesn’t even include 21-year-old Adam Larsson.
How much responsibility does captain Bryce Salvador feel to guide these
kids?
“I put a lot of that on my shoulders,” Salvador told NJ Advance Media. “I
remember being in their shoes. I had some great older guys who helped me
along. It’s definitely time to return that favor. The biggest thing is showing
them how to prepare and be ready every game and how to deal with the
ups and downs.
"The toughest thing for a D-man is to be able to bounce back from maybe
making some timely errors. Other than the goalie, you’re usually the last
man standing and usually you have the last chance to affect the play before
a goal is scored.”
4. The Wells Fargo Center press box will be crowded with NHL scouts.
Those scheduled to attend are scouts representing the Chicago
Blackhawks (2), Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues, Colorado
Avalanche, Pittsburgh Penguins, Winnipeg Jets and Tampa Bay Lightning.
5. Flyers will have a pre game ceremony introducing players. So the puck
won’t drop until 7:13 p.m.
It will be Cory Schneider vs. Steve Mason as the Flyers come right back
with their goalie after he played in Boston.
752950
New Jersey Devils
Flyers home opener: 5 things fans need to know
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 5:06 PM
PHILADELPHIA - Two games in two days in two cities is a tough way to
start a new season.
Three in four is tougher.
That's what the Flyers are facing in a 2014-15 season that began
Wednesday night with a 2-1 loss in Boston to the Bruins, who scored the
tie-breaking goal 18:09 into third period.
Next up is Thursday night's home opener at Wells Fargo Center against the
Devils, a close rival that often gives them fits.
After that, the Flyers are off Friday, then get right back at it Saturday night
at home against the Montreal Canadiens.
Here are 5 things Flyers fans need to know before Thursday's home
opener:
1. New defenseman Michael Del Zotto looked good in his Flyers debut.
During his Rangers days, he showed that he can be an elite puck-moving
defenseman when he's not worrying too much about offense. He found the
right mix against the Bruins despite getting just one shot in 20:22 of ice time
and being on the ice for the Bruins' winning goal. More impressive is that
Del Zotto played well on a night defense partner Luke Schenn didn't have a
strong game.
2. Flyers head coach Craig Berube was clearly agitated over left wing Zac
Rinaldo taking a first-period retaliation penalty that led to Boston scoring the
opening goal. With the game tied 1-1 late in the third, Rinaldo took another
penalty that killed Flyers momentum. Rinaldo can be a real pest to
opponents when taking his fourth-line shifts with his hitting, but he still
crosses the line too much. If Rinaldo doesn't cut down on his penalties, he
could end up sitting out some games because the Flyers now seemingly
have a pretty good fourth-line option in Blair Jones, who was a healthy
scratch on Wednesday after having a very strong preseason.
3. Claude Giroux not playing well in the opener - he had no points, one shot
and lost 17 of 21 faceoffs - seems to indicate he's rusty from missing the
first week of training camp with a lower-body injury. Giroux's slow start last
season played a part in the Flyers starting a franchise-worst 1-7.
4. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare didn't look out of place making his NHL debut
at age 29 against the Bruins. Centering the Flyers' fourth line, Bellemare
showed good speed, solid two-way play and he contributed on the PK.
5. The Flyers' best line against the Bruins was Sean Couturier centering
wingers Wayne Simmonds and Matt Read. On a night a lot of Flyers
forwards were hesitant to shoot and failed to generate much offensive
pressure, this line was the best of their four. Couturier scored the Flyers'
only goal, too, although his tip-in was set up by top-line right wing Jakub
Voracek while the Flyers were in the midst of a line change.
752951
New Jersey Devils
5 tidbits from the Devils' morning skate in Philadephia
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 1:22 PM
PHILADELPHIA — Five tidbits from the Devils' morning skate at Wells
Fargo Center:
1. Rookie defenseman Damon Severson had no trouble sleeping before his
NHL debut.
"Yeah, I slept," Severson said. "I'm sure I'll be nervous, I want to just enjoy
every moment right now."
2. Jaromir Jagr, set to start his 21st NHL season, said he still gets excited
about opening night.
"Funny thing. You want to treat all the games the same, but it's not," Jagr
said. "There is so much time between the last game and the first game it's
kind of exciting. You want to impress and have the best game so your
confidence is better for the next (few) games. It's always special the first
game. Preseason games are not the same."
3. Coach Pete DeBoer explained why he is pairing Severson (and not Jon
Merrill) with Andy Greene.
"We wanted to give him a partner that could help him and there's no better
guy than Andy," DeBoer said. "He's the perfect partner for a young player in
his first game."
4. Ken Daneyko, who will begin his regular role as TV analyst alongside
Steve Cangialosi, showed up unshaven and took a lot of heat, particularly
from DeBoer.
Daneyko assured everyone that he would be clean-shaven for the game,
undoubtedly to the delight of Lou Lamoriello.
5. Mike Cammalleri, Martin Havlat and Jordin Tootoo all said they are ready
for their Devils debuts.
Jagr, looking around at a dressing room filled with some young
defensemen, recalled his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 1990, for the Pittsburgh
Penguins in Washington.
"My first game was awful," he said. "I started on the first line and finished on
the fourth line. Everybody was skating this way and I was skating the other
way. It wasn't a very pretty game for me, but I recovered.
"Thank God I played against New Jersey in my second game so I had a
chance to score (against current Devils goalie coach Chris Terreri on Oct.
7, 1990)."
752952
New Jersey Devils
Without Martin Brodeur, the NHL season just won't feel right | Politi Bits
Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Steve Politi | NJ Advance
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 4:30 PM
He is still looking for work, waiting for the phone to ring like a hopeful
rookie. Think about this: The last time the NHL season started without
Martin Brodeur on a roster, it was during the Bush Administration.
The George H. W. Bush Administration.
But the Devils will open the season tonight in Philadelphia without No. 30
on the bench for the first time in two decades. They've moved on with Cory
Schneider, who will have to be every bit as dominant as his predecessor
once was for this franchise to avoid a third straight season without a playoff
berth.
Brodeur? He hasn't moved on, and that feels a bit sad. He spoke to
reporters in Gatineau, Quebec, this week, where he was training with his
son, Anthony, and waiting for a general manager to call with an offer that,
so far, has not come.
He talked about writing a different ending to his career than the one he had
last season, where he split time with Schneider, dealt with trade rumors
and, ultimately, saw the old and brittle Devils miss the playoffs again.
“I’d love to be on a competitive team, that’s for sure,” Brodeur said. “If I’m
not going to play a lot I’d like to have a chance to win every time I jump
between the pipes. There are places I really don’t want to go, but there are
other places I wouldn’t mind going. There will be a couple nice fits out there
if it happens.”
Brodeur has every right to chase his own ending. The problem is, few
athletes – even the great ones – get to write a perfect one. Even Derek
Jeter, whose career mirrored Brodeur's from across the Hudson River,
might have had that game-winning RBI in his final Yankee Stadium
moment, but it came in a meaningless game.
He is 42 with 688 victories – no one else in hockey history has cracked 600,
much less 700 – and those three championships. He doesn't need to play
another minute of hockey to secure his legacy, but the drive is still there.
I often get asked which big-name athlete I've enjoyed covering the most
over the years, and I'll always say Brodeur. He was accessible,
introspective and always interesting. He didn't take himself too seriously.
And now, a hockey season for the first time in a long time will begin without
him – and, unless that phone rings, maybe end that way, too. The Devils
have moved on, but the greatest goaltender ever is still looking for work.
That still feels … weird.
752953
New Jersey Devils
Devils' Adam Larsson on sitting out season opener: This is my toughest
benching yet
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 12:53 PM
PHILADELPHIA — Devils coach Pete DeBoer tried to offer some
comforting words to defenseman Adam Larsson, who will be scratched from
Thursday night’s season opener against the Flyers.
But DeBoer’s assurance that Larsson’s time will come seemed to ring
hollow.
“I don’t really want a reason. All that matters for me is if I’m in or I’m out.
That’s the only thing I know right now,” a dejected Larsson said after the
Devils’ morning skate at Wells Fargo Center.
He did not want to find himself on the outside looking in, as he has in the
past.
“Now I’m here, doing it again,” Larsson said.
DeBoer said choosing his lineup was “splitting hairs with those decisions”
and understands the frustration of Larsson, Damien Brunner and Jacob
Josefson, who will all sit.
“That’s exactly what I told them. Their opportunity is going to be there,”
DeBoer insisted.
But when?
“It all depends on how the team plays,” Larsson said. “It’s up to the
coaches. It’s a tough time for me because I worked out hard in the summer
and I thought I had a good training camp, so this is probably the toughest
healthy scratch I’ve gone through.
“You can’t really focus on it too much or it will get in your way and in your
head. So I try to stay positive.”
Brunner said he is trying to stay positive.
“I can do that. I’m ready whenever they are. When they need me,” the
Swiss winger said.
But it is not easy to accept.
“My point of view is the team was pretty much set through training camp,"
Brunner claimed.
"They know I had a strong camp. If I get a chance to jump in, I’m ready
whenever that will be. I’m confident, I’m in good shape, I created a lot of
offense in practice and in the (preseason) games I played. I feel strong on
the puck.
“I have a lot of confidence right now. I’m not letting someone take out away
from me.”
Larsson couldn't hide his feelings. This is tougher than when he was
scratched in the past.
“Maybe because it’s a new season and you kind of build up hopes over the
summer and all that," Larsson said. "I know it’s just the first game and it’s a
long season, but you want to be in. It’s always frustrating no matter who you
are. Damien Brunner is probably frustrated.”
752954
New Jersey Devils
Devils' morning skate: Damien Brunner, Jacob Josefson, Adam Larsson to
sit?
Media for NJ.com
Email the author | on October 09, 2014 at 11:06 AM, updated October 09,
2014 at 7:01 PM
PHILADELPHIA — Devils coach Pete DeBoer had a lengthy on-ice
conversation with winger Damien Brunner just prior to the team's morning
skate Thursday in Wells Fargo Center.
It appears that Brunner, Jacob Josefson and defenseman Adam Larsson
will sit out the regular season opener against the Flyers (7 p.m.).
The Devils' morning lines:
Mike Cammalleri-Travis Zajac-Jaromir Jagr
Dainius Zubrus-Patrik Elias-Martin Havlat
Ryane Clowe-Adam Henrique-Michael Ryder
Ruutu-Gionta-Tootoo
Extras: Brunner, Josefson
Defense morning pairings:
Andy Greene-Damon Severson
Eric Gelinas-Jon Merrill
Bryce Salvador-Marek Zidlicky
Extra: Larsson
Goalies:
Cory Schneider
Scott Clemmensen
752955
New Jersey Devils
5 bold predictions as the Devils open the regular season
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 9:58 AM
PHILADELPHIA — Will the Devils make the playoffs after missing two
straight years?
Can Damien Brunner, Adam Larsson and Jacob Josefson get into the
lineup? Is there a big trade in the future?
These are among the questions asked by Devils fans.
Here are 5 bold predictions for this season:
1. Cory Schneider, the team’s undisputed No. 1 goalie, will prove the Devils
right and win 41 games.
2. The Devils will continue struggling to win shootouts as the season
begins, but by Christmas they will be unbeatable and it will be their shootout
points that get them into the playoffs.
3. Captain Bryce Salvador will have a strong season, but his biggest
contribution will be his steadying influence on the team’s young
defensemen.
4. Jaromir Jagr will announce that this will likely be his last NHL season. A
month later he’ll sign a 1-year contract extension.
5. Scott Gomez will be signed in early December.
752956
New Jersey Devils
5 Devils to watch as the regular season begins vs. Flyers
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 7:36 AM
PHILADELPHIA — Training camp and a six-game preseason schedule
were simply auditions for some and tuneups for others. Now comes crunch
time.
The Devils open their regular season Thursday night against the
Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. It’s the start of a grueling 82game schedule.
Here are 5 players to watch as the season begins:
1. Damon Severson. The rookie defenseman is just 20, but he acts and
plays like he’s 30. He forced the Devils to keep him on their 23-man roster
with an exceptional preseason, but can he keep it up? Breaking into the
NHL on defense is the toughest position of all.
2. Cory Schneider. He got the big contract extension and the assurance
that he’s the Devils’ No. 1 goalie. His stats were good last season, except
wins and losses. And that is what counts. Everyone believes he is the right
guy for the Devils, but now he must prove it. He’s ready to put the
responsibility on his shoulders.
“I always do,” Schneider said. “I may not verbalize it as much this year. I
was sort of hard on myself last year. That might have been partly because if
you don’t play well you might not play for a little while. I’m always tough on
myself, but I think this year I’ll be able to move on from it. I’m going to have
to learn to compartmentalize it and put it in my rearview mirror and get
ready for the next one. As much as people may critique you, there is ever a
worse critic than yourself.”
3. Adam Henrique. He scored 25 goals last season and is poised to be
even better this season. Of all the forwards on this team, there is no one
with a bigger upside than the 24-year-old Ontario native. The Devils would
like to keep him at center but he can also play the wing.
4. Ryane Clowe. He is coming off two concussions last season, and they
weren't his first two. It has been suggested that he avoid fighting, but can
he do it in the heat of the moment? He is a potential 20-goal scorer if he
stays healthy. There are very few people who aren’t pulling for Clowe.
5. Jacob Josefson. Even more than fellow Swede Adam Larsson, people
are waiting to see if Josefson can win over the coach and establish himself
as an NHL regular. When he does get into the lineup, it likely will be his last
big shot. Scott Gomez is waiting in the wings to be signed to a contract.
752957
New Jersey Devils
NHL schedule: What channel is Flyers-Devils game on?
Media for NJ.com
2014 at 8:11 AM
The Flyers took a tough season-opening loss Wednesday night when
allowing a tie-breaking goal late in the third period in a 2-1 road loss to the
Boston Bruins.
After the game, the Flyers flew home to Philadelphia for a quick turnaround,
as they'll be back at it Thursday night playing their home opener against the
Devils.
The Devils are coming off consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs, but
added some scoring over the summer and gained confidence going 4-1-1 in
the preseason.
Here is everything you need to know about how you can watch FlyersDevils game:
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
Devils TV: MSG Plus (Steve Cangialosi, Ken Daneyko)
Flyers TV: Comcast SportsNet (Jim Jackson, Keith Jones).
Devils Radio: WFAN Sports Radio 66 AM, 101.9 FM (Matt Loughlin, Sherry
Ross)
Flyers Radio: 97.5 FM The Fanatic OR 93.3 WMMR (Tim Saunders, Steve
Coates)
Here are 6 stories you need to read before the opening faceoff:
1. Flyers know they blew chance to steal win or point in opener despite
playing not playing best
2. Devils GM Lou Lamoriello discusses the decisions behind his 23-man
opening-night roster
3. 10 Flyers predictions for 2014-15
4. 6 questions for Devils forward Dainius Zubrus as he enters his 18th NHL
season
5. How did Flyers' Claude Giroux get great? Here's Craig Berube take
6. Martin Brodeur on post-Devils life: "I'm not here to steal anybody's job"
752958
New Jersey Devils
Severson "fantastic" in Devils/NHL debut; Plenty of goals in opener as
Cammalleri, Ryder start fast
Staff
With the Devils clinging to a 5-4 lead and fewer than nine minutes left in the
third period tonight, there was 20-year-old rookie defenseman Damon
Severson, in his first NHL game, on the ice with Bryce Salvador helping kill
off a Philadelphia Flyers’ power play.
The Flyers, who had turned the game around by scoring on consecutive
power plays in the final 4:16 of the second period, managed only one shot
on goal during that pivotal third period man advantage and the Devils went
on to a 6-4 season-opening win at Wells Fargo Center.
“He deserved to be out there,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said of Severson
playing on the PK in the third period. “He was playing well enough that he
should have been out there.”
Severson ended up playing 18:39, including 6:50 in the third period of what
was a one-goal game until Mike Cammalleri’s empty-netter with 1:00 left.
“I thought he was fantastic, composed, not overwhelmed, made plays,”
DeBoer said. “When the game turned and it became 3-3, I thought he got
better, which means something for a young guy.”
Severson, the Devils’ 2012 second-round draft pick, correctly took it as a
positive sign that his coach had the confidence in him to use him in
important situations in the third period of what had been a crazy game at
times.
“It shows that he has confidence in me to kill penalties or be on the ice late
in the game or anything like that,” he said. “You know, obviously that was
my first game so anytime you get thrown out there in situations where your
team is up by a goal and you need to play solid defense, it shows that he
has confidence
in you to really play strong defense really in your own zone.”
Defenseman Marek Zidlicky gave Severson the puck from the end of the
game as a keepsake from his first NHL game.
“A nice little souvenir,” Severson said.
Something to help him remember a night that was a dream come true for
him.
“It was awesome,” he said. “Good experience… my first shift I don’t think I
touched the puck once. We neutral zone forechecked a few times, but got
out there and got my feet under me. After that I was fine.”
And, though he had expected to feel some nerves, it didn’t show.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be,” Severson said. “I was
excited more than anything. After that first shift, I played in those five preseason games I think I’ve adjusted a little bit. I was just more excited more
than anything to get things going.”
Other than Severson, most of the positives for the Devils were on the
offensive side of the puck. They had five different players scored goals –
Cammalleri, Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique, Patrik Elias and Dainius
Zubrus, who scored the winner.
The first five goals were 5-on-5 tallies, which was a weakness for the
Devils’ last season as they ranked second to last in the league with just
128.
“We had more 5-on-5 goals tonight than I think we had in weeks last year
for different stretches,” DeBoer said. “That’s the good thing that we put
some pucks in the net, but we’ve got a lot of work to, do too.”
Ryder, who scored only two goals over the final 36 games last season, got
off to a great start with three points on a goal and two assists. His line with
Henrique (one goal, one assist) and Ryane Clowe (one assist) combined for
two goals and four assists.
The Devils got at least one goal from each of their top three lines. Jaromir
Jagr had a pair of assists, as did defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Martin Havlat,
who, like Cammalleri, was playing his first game as a Devil, picked up his
first point as a Devil with an assist on Elias’ goal.
“I thought Elias and (Martin) Havlat looked good out there together,”
DeBoer said. “I think we’ve got the ability to have three lines at any given
point that can hop over the boards and get you a goal. So, it’s a nice luxury
to have. We just have to keep that going.”
“It’s nice to score,” Zubrus said. “It’s nice for Cammalleri to score a couple
goals early and feel good. It’s good for everybody to have the confidence to
score goals. There were a couple of nice bounces that we got, too. We
don’t want to get too carried away here. Just play our game and I think
goals will come.”
Cammalleri, who led the team with seven shots on goal, was happy to get
off to a fast start in the goal column after he was brought in by the Devils –
signing the five-year, $25 million contract as an unrestricted free agent on
July 1 – to help boost their scoring.
“It does feel good,” Cammalleri said. “It was a little bit of a fortunate bounce
there. But we’ll take them all.”
He still thought his line with Travis Zajac and Jagr has some work to do,
though.
“I feel like we liked our intent a lot,” he said. “We like what we’re trying to
do. I think our execution can get a little quicker. I think our legs can get a
little quicker, our hands can get a little quicker. I know I can, for sure. But, I
like our thought process. I can see that.”
Jagr still sees the line as a work in progress, too.
“It’s one game,” he said. “Ask me after 82 games, I’ll tell you.”
Still, having Cammalleri score twice in his first game with the team was a
step in the right direction.
“Hopefully, he’s going to pass now,” Jagr joked. “I’m always open.”
***
Jagr’s two assists gave him 37 points in season openers (11 goals, 26
assists), increasing his NHL record total. He also moved two points ahead
of Steve Yzerman and into sixth place all-time with 1,757 for his career.
Severson even had a great chance to score in the opening minute of the
third period when Salvador fed him for a slap shot from the left circle and
goaltender Steve Mason had lost his stick. Mason was able to make a left
pad save, however, and then covered the rebound in the crease to his left.
“I didn’t even know,” Jagr said of moving ahead of Yzerman. “Thanks for
reminding me. I don’t pay attention to that.”
“He did a great job and came in and was just composed,” Salvador said.
“He didn’t try to do too much, which is it a tough thing to do. I’m happy for
him. Too bad, he didn’t score that goal when I passed to him. I would have
liked to assist on his first goal. But, it’s early and we’ll keep bringing him
along.”
Like a lot of other Devils, goaltender Cory Schneider saw room for
improvement in his game tonight, though DeBoer noted that he came up
with some timely saves in the third period. Schneider ended up giving up
four goals on 39 shots.
Severson pointed out that Cammalleri deflected his shot anyway, so it
would not have been his first NHL goal if it had gone in.
“It was close,” Severson said. “Mike Cammalleri got a tip on that puck there
too. He didn’t have a stick and I was hoping it would go in, but hopefully it’ll
get another chance like that some other game here and find the back of the
net.”
***
***
“For me personally, I felt good at times and I felt bad at times,” he said.
“There were a couple things that your intuition and your instincts take a
minute to kick in. So, obviously, I can be a bit better, but we’ll take the win
and go from here.”
Schneider thought he got caught cheating on Claude Giroux’ power-play
goal with 4:16 left in the second period, which started the Flyers’ comeback
from a 3-0 deficit. Zidlicky was blocking his vision of Giroux, who was at the
of the left circle and he ended up getting beat to the glove side when he
leaned in the opposite direction.
“I didn’t see (Giroux) with the puck out there and he sort of went to move
and he likes to throw it down to (Wayne) Simmonds, so I think I was leaning
to the wrong side that came through a few bodies,” Schneider said. “So, I’ve
got to stay home on that and wait until he moves the puck before I start
leaning.”
***
The Devils’ penalty kill came through in the third period, but did give up
goals on consecutive chances late in the second when the Flyers rallied to
tie the game at 3. The Devils ranked first in the NHL on the penalty kill last
season, but lost some key contributors on it in Anton Volchenkov, Mark
Fayne and Ryan Carter.
Still, DeBoer said he was “not really” concerned about it.
“I looked at the two goals that they got,” he said. “It wasn’t really positioning
things. We got a couple fluky goals early in the game and I think they got a
couple there where they were just seeing-eye shots that went in.”
“I don’t think there was really much on the PK,” said Salvador, who failed to
tie up Simmonds’ stick in front on the power-play goal that evened the
game with 0.6 seconds left in the second. “Giroux makes a nice shot there.
There’s not much you can do about that. And the second one, they throw it
at the net and it goes in. But, I think actually our PK was pretty good. It’s
early and it’s nothing to overanalyze.”\
***
The Devils outhit the Flyers, 36-30. Tuomo Ruutu had a team-high five.
Salvador., Merrill and Ryder had four each.
The Devils struggled again on faceoffs, going just 24-32 (43 percent). Elias
was the only Devil with a winning record on draws going 8-7. Zajac, usually
the team's best faceoff man, was 7-11.
Bergen Record LOADED: 10.10.2014
752959
New Jersey Devils
Devils regain their composure in time to pull out wild, 6-4 win in
Philadelphia in season opener
Staff
For starters, the Devils’ 6-4 season-opening victory in Philadelphia tonight
was hardly a work of art.
Still, though they felt the have a lot of room for improvement, they also
thought they did some good things – enough to get a win and begin this
four-game road trip the way they hoped.
“There’s parts of our game I thought were excellent,” Devils coach Pete
DeBoer said. “The first period up until the last five minutes of the second
period I thought we were outstanding defensively, played a great road
game, built up a 3-0 lead. We lost our composure for five minutes at the
end of the second, gave up a couple of power-play goals, but I thought we
regrouped.
“For the first game of the season, there’s a lot of stretches of positives.
We’ve just got, obviously, to eliminate the five or six minutes of (lost)
composure there.”
“The coaches will tell us if it’s one of those games that you throw out or you
sit down and really look at it,” said Mike Cammalleri, who clinched things by
scoring his second goal of the night – an empty-netter – with 1:00
remaining. “Hey, we found a way to win the game and that’s the most
important thing. It feels good to get the first one.”
The Devils surged out to a 3-0 lead by 5:33 of the second on goals from
Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique and Cammalleri. They unraveled in the final
4:16 of the second, however, allowing three goals, including two from
Wayne Simmonds in last 56.7 second to head into the intermission tied 3-3.
Goaltender Cory Schneider (35 saves) said it was “pretty quiet in the locker
room” during the intermission, but also composed.
“Obviously, guys were a little upset the way it ended,” he said, referring to
Simmonds’ tying power-play deflection with just 0.6 seconds remaining in
the second. “It was a tough goal to give up there at the end of the second.
We could have let it get to us, but we came back and had a good start to
the third and got the first goal and that was huge.”
The Devils did retake the lead on Patrik Elias’ goal 4:16 into the third
period, but the Flyers retied it only 15 seconds later on a Vincent
Lecavalier’s 2-on-1 goal after Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador made the
ill-advised decision to step up on Simmonds as he was carrying the puck
out of the Philadelphia zone.
The players said the coaches kept things calm on the bench, though, and
talked about regaining their structure in the neutral zone to get the game
back under control.
“The coaches were just (saying), ‘Stay calm boys. Play how we know how.
Let’s tighten up our neutral zone,’” Cammalleri said. “That’s the key for us. I
think if we can really tighten up the neutral zone and make it hard for them
to create speed, that was something we were able to do finally late.”
Dainius Zubrus gave them the lead for good at 7:13, by beating Mason from
the right circle and the Devils played much more under control after that,.
“It wasn’t typical Devils hockey I would say,” Schneider said. “The first half
of the game was textbook the way we wanted to play on the road and the
second half of the second got away from us a little bit, but overall I thought
we did a lot of good things.
“For me personally, I felt good at times and I felt bad at times. There were a
couple things that your intuition and your instincts take a minute to kick in.
So, obviously, I can be a bit better, but we’ll take the win and go from here."
From here, the Devils head to Florida for the second game of this seasonopening trip. They want to build off the positives of this game and clean up
the mistakes they made late in the second and early in the third.
“We just have to make sure we take the next game seriously,” Jagr said.
“We know it was our mistake last year to (win one of) the first nine games of
the season, (1-5-4). It cost us the playoffs. So, we have to make sure this
year, no matter what we have to get points right away early in the season
for confidence and everything else.”
***
Other topics DeBoer discussed in his postgame news conference:
On being able to stop the Flyers’ momentum after the second period:
“It was a huge. We could have been very rattled at the end of the second
period. I thought our goalie in the third made a couple big saves to settle it
down for us and the guys regrouped. We’ve got a veteran group and we
talked it through at the end of the second period and realized we were still
in a good position here to pick up some points and we did that.”
On the team’s scoring depth (five different players score goals – all at 5-on5):
“We had more 5-on-5 goals tonight than I think we had in weeks last year
for different stretches. That’s the good thing that we put some pucks in the
net, but we’ve got a lot of work to do too.”
On whether it was important for Michael Ryder (one goal, two assists) and
Cammalleri getting off to good starts:
“Absolutely. I thought Elias and (Martin) Havlat looked good out there
together. I think we’ve got the ability to have three lines at any given point
that can hop over the boards and get you a goal. So, it’s a nice luxury to
have. We just have to keep that going.”
On rookie defenseman Damon Severson in his NHL debut:
“I thought he was fantastic, composed, not overwhelmed, made plays.
When the game turned and it became 3-3, I thought he got better, which
means something for a young guy.”
On using Severson on the PK with Salvador in third period with the team up
5-4:
“He deserved to be out there. He was playing well enough that he should
have been out there.”
On if the penalty kill is a concern:
“Not really. I looked at the two goals that they got. It wasn’t really
positioning things. We got a couple fluky goals early in the game and I think
they got a couple there where they were just seeing-eye shots that went in.”
On the team rebounding after the end of the second period:
“I thought we should a lot of character, a lot of resiliency. It’s early in the
season, there’s a lot of things we want to clean up, but we did a lot of good
things tonight and found a way to get two points in a tough building.”
“We kept talking about it,” DeBoer said. “I think what you’re seeing is the
first game of the season. It’s not coming naturally yet, but we talked about
trying to get our structure back in the neutral zone and, I thought, over the
last two or three minutes of the game we did a much better job.”
On Schneider’s play:
“There was good and bad, that’s for sure,” said Jaromir Jagr, who assisted
on both of Cammalleri’s goals. “Good: We had a good start. Bad: We
couldn’t keep the lead. But, on the other side, we came back and even after
they tied it 3-3 we didn’t give up and still played from 0-0 again and we won
the game in the third period, so it’s a big plus.”
As DeBoer noted, Schneider came up with some time saves in the third
period, in which he stopped 12 of 13 shots, and then Cammalleri clinched
things with his empty-netter giving him a pair of goals in his Devils’ debut.
“I thought he was good at key times. When we needed some saves in the
third, I thought he was really good and that’s what we need.”
752960
New Jersey Devils
The Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead on Michael Ryder's goal at 12:05. Ryder
took a drop pass from Ryane Clowe and let go a wrist shot from the top of
the right circle that beat Mason high to the glove side.
Live post: Devils at Philadelphia Flyers, 10/9/14 (2014-15 opener)
That was a good sign for the Devils and Ryder, who scored only two goals
in the final 36 games last season. Andy Greene also assisted.
Staff
The goal came on just the second shot on goal of the game for the Devils.
The Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers 3-3 in the third period of tonight’s
game at Wells Fargo Center.
The Devils received the first power play of the night when Bellemare was
called for boarding Stephen Gionta at 13:22. The Devils didn't have any
shots on goal on it before Adam Henrique negated the final 44 seconds of it
by hooking R.J. Umberger in the offensive zone at 14:38.
This is the 2014-15 season opener for the Devils.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers did not manage any shots on goal during their abbreviated
power play affter the 44 seconds of 4-on-4.
The Flyers outshot the Devils 16-12 in the second period.
The Devils outhit the Flyers, 13-11, in the first period, but went just 4-10 on
faceoffs.
Adam Henrique scored just 2:05 into the second period to up the Devils'
lead 2-0.
Cory Schneider started in net for the Devils against Steve Mason for the
Flyers.
Michael Ryder left a drop pass for Henrique, who took a wrist shot from the
right circle that deflected in off the left skate of Flyers defenseman Luke
Schnenn in front.
Mike Cammalleri, Martin Havlat, Jordin Tootoo and Damon Severson are
making the Devils’ debuts. It is the first NHL game for the 20-year-old
Severson.
That came on the first shot on goal for either team in the second period and
just the sixth shot of the game for the Devils.
Defenseman Adam Larsson, center Jacob Josefson and right wing Damien
Brunner are the Devils’ healthy scratches.
Devils goaltender Cory Schneider kept it 2-0 with a left pad save on Jakub
Voracek's right post wraparound and his rebound attempt at 3:05.
Andy Greene and Patrik Elias are the alternate captains tonight. Travis
Zajac will wear an A for home games to start the season.
Mike Cammalleri made it 3-0 by deflecting in Jaromir Jagr's shot at 5:33.
Jagr turned and fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle that
Cammalleri tipped in over Mason's right shoulder for his first goal as a
Devil.
The Flyers opened their 2014-15 season with a 2-1 loss in Boston
Wednesday night. Defenseman Braydon Coburn was a late scratch tonight
because of a lower-body injury he sustained Wednesday. Nick Schultz is
taking his spot in the lineup.
Marek Zidlicky also assisted.
At 18-8-5, the Devils own the second-best points-percentage in seasonopeners (.661) behind Colorado (18-7-6, .677) – per Elias Sports Bureau.
That was career point No 1,756 for Jagr, moving him one ahead of Steve
Yzerman into sole possession of sixth place all-time. It was also his 36th
career point (11 goalas, 25 assists) in a season-opener, increasing his NHL
record total.
Cammalleri's goal made it three goals on nine shots for the Devils.
But the Flyers scored three times in the final 4:16 of the second period to tie
it.
The Flyers got on the board with a power-play goal from captain Claude
Giroux with 4:16 left in the second,. With Patrik Elias in the box for hooking
Matt Read, Giroux took a wrist shot from the left circle that Schneider under
the catching glove.
Wayne Simmonds cut it to 3-2 with 56.7 seconds left, patiently
stickhandling around a sliding dive attempty by defenseman Jon Merrill in
the slot and beating Schneider to the short side.
A Ryane Clowe trip of Mark Streit with just 4.5 seconds left in the second
period put the Flyers on the power play again. Simmond struck again with a
redirection in front with just 0.6 seconds left in the period.
Giroux beat Stephen Gionta on the ensuing right circle draw and Simmonds
went to the net to deflect Vincent Lecavalier's pass from the bottom of the
right circle between Schneider's pads. Video review confirmed the puck
crossed the line before the horn sounded to end the period.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers outshot the Devils 10-5 in the first period.
The Flyers registered the first shot on goal of the game -- a wrister from
defenseman Luke Schenn at the right point that Cory Schneider made a
pad save on.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare came close to giving the Flyers the lead on a
wrister from the top of the right circle at 2:55 that went over Schneider's
right shoulder and hit the crossbar.
The Devils didn't register their first shot on goal until a Bryce Salvador wrist
shot from the left point at 11:06 that goaltender Steve Mason easily gloved
down. The shots were 4-1 for the Flyers after that.
Here were the starting lineups:
DEVILS
Forwards: Mike Cammalleri-Travis-Zajac-Jaromir Jagr. Defensemen: Andy
Greene-Damon Severson. Goaltender: Cory Schneider.
FLYERS
Forwards: Brayden Schenn-Claude Giroux-Jakub Voracek. Defensemen:
Mark Streit-Nicklas Grossmann. Goaltender: Steve Mason.
Here is the Devils’ complete lineup for tonight’s game with the line
combinations and defense pairs from warm-ups:
Forwards: Mike Cammalleri-Travis Zajac-Jaromir Jagr; Martin Havlat-Patrik
Elias-Dainius Zubrus; Ryane Clowe-Adam Henrique-Michael Ryder; Tuomo
Ruutu-Stephen Gionta-Jordin Tootoo.
Defensemen: Andy Greene-Damon Severson; Bryce Salvador-Marek
Zidlicky; Eric Gelinas-Jon Merrill.
Goaltender: Cory Schneider (vs. Steve Mason)
Healthy scratches: D Adam Larsson, RW Damien Brunner, C Jacob
Josefson.
Injuries: none.
TV: MSG Plus
Radio: WFAN-AM 660, FM 101.9
752961
New Jersey Devils
Clowe happy to be ready for Devils' opener after summer of uncertainty;
"Fresh new start" for Tootoo
Staff
***
Tootoo has worn No. 22 throughout his NHL career, but was assigned No.
20 after signing with the team Tuesday. Defenseman Eric Gelinas already
had No. 22 for the Devils.
Tootoo said there was no discussion with Gelinas or anyone with the Devils
about Gelinas giving up No. 22 for him. He was just happy to have any
number.
“It is what it is,” he said.
In the days immediately following the conclusion of the 2013-14 season,
Devils left wing Ryane Clowe didn’t know if he would ever play an NHL
game again. Clowe, 32, had suffered his third concussion in less than a
year on a hit from Florida’s Quinton Howden on March 31 and was thinking
more about his overall health than whether he’d be ready for tonight’s 201415 opener in Philadelphia.
“At that stage, you just don’t know how you’re going to respond, how you’re
going to feel down the road, if you’re going to feel normal again,” Clowe
said after today’s morning skate. “As I started to feel better throughout the
summer, of course, I wanted to aim to start the season and, once you
realize that you’re going to probably play again and get back, then your goal
turns to playing consistently and staying in the lineup.”
Clowe was cleared medically to play before the start of training camp on
Sept. 19. He wanted to get comfortable in practices first, so he didn’t play in
the preseason until the Devils’ final two exhibition games.
Those two games helped him shake off some of the rust and he feels ready
for tonight’s game.
“I feel good,” he said. “I thought the preseason games helped. I think they
just make you a little bit more comfortable. But, besides that, there’s not
much you can do. If you feel good and you play your game, you don’t worry
about much else. You try not to overthink it. Even though you’ve had some
bad luck the last couple years, your goal is always to play the full season,
so that’s what I’ll try to do.”
Clowe says he is past the point of thinking about whether he’ll get hurt
again.
“You don’t want to go into the season thinking, ‘I’ve got to stay in the lineup.
I don’t want to get injured.’ You don’t want to have that mindset,” he said.
“You just try to put it out of your mind and play. The exhibition games I think
I felt that way. I wasn’t thinking about much on the ice. I was just playing.”
And, in general, he was feels much more comfortable than he did at the
start of last season when he was coming back from another concussion and
also getting used to being on a new team after signing with the Devils
during the preceding summer.
“Last year, to be honest, before I even got injured, I didn’t feel like myself on
the ice,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about the concussion. I was thinking
about the way we played. I was overthinking it. This year now, what a
difference I feel as far as everything comes so natural. I know exactly how I
have to play and what to expect and how we play as a team, so I feel way
more comfortable this year.”
***
Another Devil who has a special appreciation to be playing tonight is right
wing Jordin Tootoo. After spending most of last season in the AHL with
Grand Rapids and being bought out by Detroit this summer, Tootoo, 31,
was facing the possibility that his NHL career might be over.
He accepted an invitation to come to training camp with the Devils as an
unsigned tryout and played his way onto the roster on the fourth line,
signing a one-year contract for $550,000 on Tuesday.
“This is something that I had as a goal in mind coming into training camp, to
make that roster,” Tootoo said. “Obviously, this game is something that I’ve
been looking forward to all summer, not knowing if I would get this
opportunity. But hard work, perseverance, dedication all pulled through for
me.”
Tootoo, who has played in 539 career NHL regular season games with
Nashville and Detroit, views tonight’s game as “a fresh new start.”
“But, at the end of the day I’ve played in a bunch of openers before,” he
said. “This time around, I think it’s very important for me to just be
composed and play simple hockey.”
***
Here is the Devils’ complete lineup for tonight’s game with the line
combinations and defense pairs from the morning skate:
Elias-Dainius Zubrus; Ryane Clowe-Adam Henrique-Michael Ryder; Tuomo
Ruutu-Stephen Gionta-Jordin Tootoo.
Defensemen: Andy Greene-Damon Severson; Bryce Salvador-Marek
Zidlicky; Eric Gelinas-Jon Merrill.
Goaltender: Cory Schneider (vs. Steve Mason)
Healthy scratches: D Adam Larsson, RW Damien Brunner, C Jacob
Josefson.
Injuries: none.
TV: MSG Plus.
Radio: WFAN-AM 660, FM 101.9.
752962
New Jersey Devils
Jagr recalls being "awful" in his first opener; Severson showing no nerves
before NHL debut
Staff
Jaromir Jagr begins his 21st NHL season tonight when the Devils open
2014-15 in Philadelphia, but still remembers vividly the start of his first
season in the league as an 18-year-old with Pittsburgh.
The Penguins opened the 1990-91 season on Oct. 5 in Washington and
went home with a 7-4 victory, but it was not Jagr’s best game.
“My first game was awful,” Jagr recalled. “I started on the first line and I
finished on the fourth line. Everybody was skating this way and I was
skating the other way. So, it wasn’t a very pretty game for me. But, I
recovered.”
Two days later, the Penguins hosted the Devils and Jagr scored his first
NHL goal on Chris Terreri in another 7-4 victory.
“Thank God, I played against New Jersey the second game, so I had a
chance to score,” Jagr said.
I asked Jagr if he ever thanked Terreri, now the Devils’ goalie coach, for
that goal.
“Not yet,” he said. “I should.”
All these years later, though, Jagr, now 42, still gets excited for the start of
the season.
“It’s the funny thing,” he said. “You want to treat all the games the same, but
it’s not for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because there so much break
between the last game and the first game, so it’s kind of exciting. You want
to impress and you want to have the best game, so your confidence is
better for those next games.
“But, it’s always special the first game.”
And there’s always questions still to be answered.
“The preseason games are not the same, so I bet there’s a lot of guys who
are going to be nervous, excited at the same time,” Jagr said. “You just
make sure you have short shifts from the first minute. If you stay there long,
it might hurt you through the game and go from there. Play simple. They
have an advantage and a disadvantage. Philadelphia played their first
game yesterday (a 2-1 loss in Boston), but they might be a little bit tired.”
Jagr believes there are opportunities in season openers to take advantage
of teams that aren’t quite at their top level, yet.
“In my experience, I feel like the first game, especially in the first period,
there’s not many risky plays, everybody plays safe,” he said. “I always said,
‘Let’s take advantage of that’ and play different than everybody.”
***
Jagr will play in his 1,474th NHL regular season game tonight, tying him
with former Devil Doug Gilmour for 19th in NHL history.
The future Hall of Famer enters tonight’s game tied with Steve Yzerman for
sixth place all-time with 1,755 points after pulling even with Yyzerman with
a pair of assists in the Devils’ 2013-14 finale on April 13 against Boston.
Marcel Dionne is next ahead of him in fifth place with 1,771 points.
Jagr’s 705 career goals leave him three behind Mike Gartner for sixth place
in league history and his 1,050 assists place him 13 behind Yzerman for
seventh place.
***
On the other end of the spectrum is 20-year-old rookie defenseman Damon
Severson, who will be making his NHL debut tonight. Although Severson is
expecting to be at least a little nervous he didn’t look it this morning.
In fact, he said he had no trouble sleeping Wednesday night.
“It was good,” he said. “I was kind of relaxed, watched a little bit of those
first few games of the year, opening nights for the teams, and it was not too
bad. No problem.”
Severson shares a hotel room with defenseman Jon Merrill on the road. As
the only players on the Devils’ roster still on their entry-level contracts, they
are the only two that have to share a hotel room on the road. Everyone
else, per the CBA, has his own room.
“We’re good friends,” Severson said. “We’re both young defensemen, so it’s
easy to communicate with him. I get along with him well.”
***
Jagr was in his usual jovial mood this morning, teasing former Devil Ken
Daneyko, who will make his debut tonight as the in-game color analyst
during MSG Plus’ telecast.
Jagr was trying to get Daneyko to say “Ruutu to Tootoo, 2-on-1.”
“You’ve got to say it very quick – ‘Ruutu-to-Tootoo!’” Jagr said, laughing.
Tuomo Ruutu and Jordin Tootoo, of course, make up two thirds of the
Devils’ new fourth line – with Stephen Gionta as the center.
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New Jersey Devils
Larsson: "This is probably toughest healhy scratch": Brunner, Josefson also
out for Devils' opener
Staff
During training camp and the preseason, Devils defenseman Adam Larsson
said the one thing he didn’t want was to have to go through this season was
watching games from the press box again as a healthy scratch.
“And now I’m here doing it again,” Larsson said after today’s morning skate
at Wells Fargo Center.
Larsson will be a healthy scratch tonight along with right wing Damien
Brunner and center Jacob Josefson for the team’s 2014-15 opener against
the Flyers. Although it has to be frustrating for all three players to sit out the
first game of the season, Brunner was taking an outwardly positive
approach saying, “I’m ready whenever they are or when they need me.”
Larsson, 21, was having hard time doing that, though, after the talk this
summer that he would finally be given the opportunity to play regularly in
the top six this season after being in and out of the lineup as a healthy
scratch much of his first three seasons in the league.
“This is a tough time for me because I worked out hard in the summer and I
thought I had a good training camp,” Larsson said. “So, this is probably the
toughest healthy scratch I’ve been going through. But, you can’t really focus
on it too much or let it get in your way or in your head.
“I’ll try to stay positive.”
Larsson, the fourth pick overall in the 2011 draft, seemed to be having a
difficult time doing that today, though.
“Maybe because it’s new season and a new kind of built-up hopes over the
summer and all that,” Larsson said. “I know it’s just the first game and it’s a
long season, but you want to be in and it’s always frustrating no matter what
person you are. Even if you’re Damien Brunner this is probably frustrating.
So, it doesn’t really matter.”
The Devils are going with a young defense as they promised they would
this off-season with 23-year-old Eric Gelinas, 22-year-old Jon Merrill and
20-year-old rookie Damon Severson all in their lineup tonight. But, Larsson
somehow finds himself on the outside looking in again.
get to him. He knows that if there in an injury or if some forwards struggle to
score, he could be in the lineup pretty quickly.
He also believes strongly he will play well when that chance comes.
“It can go fast,” said Brunner, who had three assists in three preseason
games. “From my point of view, it was pretty much set through training
camp, but they know I had a strong training camp. If I get a chance to jump
in, I’m ready and I will have a good game whenever that will be. I’m
confident, I’m in good shape, I created a lot of offense in practice (and) in
the games I played. I feel good on the puck, strong on the puck.
“I have a lot of confidence right now, so I’m not letting someone take it away
from me. I’m ready whenever someone needs me.”
***
DeBoer is eager to see what his young defense can do in the regular
season.
“We’ve had some game situations in exhibition, but live, regular season
hockey is, obviously, another level up and it’s always another step up for
some of these young guys to jump into a regular season game,” he said.
“All the sudden, you’re playing Claude Giroux coming at you full speed. So,
I think they can all handle that level. Most of them other than Severson
have seen it before. He doesn’t seem like a guy that is going to get rattled
by that.”
Just in case, though, DeBoer has Severson, who will be playing in his first
NHL game, paired with veteran Andy Greene.
“We wanted to give him a partner that can help him and there’s no better
guy than Andy, I think, to help a young guy along.” DeBoer said. “He’s so
smart. He communicates on the ice. He’s a perfect partner for a young guy
playing his first game. So, we’ll go from there and see what happens.”
***
Other topics DeBoer discussed following the morning skate:
On the decision to go with a younger defense:
“We had a conscious decision at the end of last season that we had some
depth of young defensemen in this organization that had paid their dues
and were ready to be given an opportunity. At the same time, up top with us
last year we lacked, I felt, the ability to move pucks well enough through the
neutral zone, create enough offense, get the puck to our forwards at the
right time. So, both things kind of fit.
“And, we cleared the slate on everybody and came into camp with an open
mind and the 20 that had the best camps are the 20 that are playing tonight.
“I don’t really want a reason,” Larsson said. “All that matters for me is if I’m
in or I’m out. That’s the only thing I know right now.."
On whether there might more scoring chances off faceoffs now with the
hashmarks being widened from three feet to five feet, seven inches:
Although Devils coach Pete DeBoer said, “the 20 that had the best camps
are the 20 that are playing tonight”, he also noted there wasn’t much
difference between the players who are out tonight and those who are
playing.
“We’ve spent some time on that. We’ve spent more time on faceoffs in this
camp than we probably have in some other camps. There’s less contact
because there’s distance between people, which means wins and losses
are going to be cleaner, there’s going to be more room and you’re going to
be able to create something. So, both defending that and trying to create
something off that is something we’ve spent some time on.”
“There’s no doubt we were splitting hairs on some of those decisions,”
DeBoer said. “Like I said before, any of the three guys that are out today I
could stick in the lineup tonight and I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it and we
probably wouldn’t miss a beat. So, we were splitting hairs on some of those
decisions, but those are the tough decisions you have to make.
“This is a long season. They’re all going to get an opportunity and they have
to be ready.”
DeBoer had a conversation on the ice with Brunner before the morning
skate today and that was essentially his message to him and to Larsson
and Josefson.
“That’s exactly what I told them,” DeBoer said. “Their opportunity is going to
be there. It’s around the corner somewhere whether it’s next game or within
the next week, but it’s going to be there. It wasn’t an easy decision to make
the decisions we made, but it’s their job to keep themselves ready and
make sure we can’t take them out when they get back in.”
Larsson is hoping his chance will come soon, but also knows that might be
out of his control.
“It all depends on how the team plays,” he said. “It’s up to the coaches.”
Brunner never had a chance through the training camp to play on one of top
three lines, so he kind of saw this coming, but has been trying not to let it
On whether he thinks the Devils can be good enough of faceoffs with the
players they have (they ranked 27th in league by winning only 47 percent of
their draws last season):
“Yes I do. I think we’ve got some options there. (Dainius) Zubrus takes
some draws. (Mike) Cammalleri was really good the other night on draws
with Travis (Zajac) when he jumped in for him. So, by committee, I think we
will be.”
On if there is an advantage for the Flyers because they have already played
a regular season game or a disadvantage for them because they might be
tired from playing Thursday night?
“I’ll let you know at 11 o’ clock. I don’t know. I know we’re going to get their
best game. This is a team that didn’t have a good start last year and has
been talking about that, same as us. There’s a desperation level that we
know we’re going to see tonight and we should have the same.”
752964
New Jersey Devils
Brunner, Josefson and Larsson still look like they're odd men out for Devils'
opener in Philadelphia
Staff
The Devils are on the ice for their morning skate at Wells Fargo Center as
they prepare for tonight’s 2014-15 season opener against the Philadelphia
Flyers.
The Flyers opened their season Wednesday night in Boston, losing 2-1 to
the Bruins.
Cory Schneider will start in net for the Devils. It will be the first time he plays
at Wells Fargo Center in the regular season. (Montreal’s Bell Centre is the
only other current NHL arena he has never played in.)
Steve Mason will start in net again for the Flyers after also playing
Wednesday night.
All 23 players on the Devils’ active roster are on the ice for the morning
skate. The line combinations and defense pairs remain the same as the last
two days in practice, so it appears forwards Damien Brunner and Jacob
Josefson and defenseman Adam Larsson will be the healthy scratches
tonight.
Devils coach Pete DeBoer had a conversation on the ice with Brunner
before the start of the morning skate. He appeared to be explaining the
situation with the lineup tonight – but that is just a guess.
Center Scott Gomez has agreed to continue practicing with the team while
waiting to see if a roster spot opens up, but he is not allowed to travel with
the team while not under contract, so he remains back in New Jersey. He is
allowed to skate back there and use the team facilities.
Here is the breakdown of the Devils’ players skating this morning.
Elias-Dainius Zubrus; Ryane Clowe-Adam Henrqiue-Michael Ryder; Tuomo
Ruutu-Stephen Gionta-Jordin Tootoo; Extras: Damien Brunner, Jacob
Josefson.
Defenseman: Andy Greene-Damon Severson; Bryce Salvador-Marek
Zidlicky; Eric Gelinas-Jon Merrill. Extra: Adam Larsson.
Goaltenders: Cory Schneider, Scott Clemmensen.
752965
New Jersey Devils
Mike Cammalleri excited to play first game as a Devil, embracing structure
in New Jersey
Staff
The process of Mike Cammalleri getting acclimated to life in New Jersey is
already under way. He’s begun getting settled into a new home with his wife
and daughter and started to get used to the area and being a Devil in
training camp practices, team meetings and preseason games.
Cammalleri’s Devils career starts for real tonight, however, with the regular
season opener against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
It’s something he’s been looking forward to since he made the decision to
leave the Calgary Flames and sign a five-year, $25 million contract with the
Devils as an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
“I’m just excited,” Cammalleri said. “I’m just excited to get started and begin
this journey of the season. I’m excited about our team. We’ve had a lot of
fun so far and it will be nice.”
The Devils’ journey starts with a four-game road trip over eight days –
tonight in Philadelphia, Saturday in Florida, next Tuesday at Tampa Bay
and next Thursday at Washington. The road has a way of bringing a team
together and for a player new to the team, such as Cammalleri, it’s an
opportunity to get to know his new teammates better.
But, it’s difficult to say right now that beginning the season with such a trip
will help the Devils get off to the good start they are seeking. Last season,
they played seven of their first nine on the road and went 1-5-3.
“I’m not going to pretend there’s an advantage one way or the other,” said
Cammalleri, who scored 26 goals last season with the Flames. “If you win
your first four, that’s the place you wanted to start and if you lose your first
game, you’d have rather started at home. At the end of the day, it’s all
about winning and losing and you can spin that however way you want.”
Being a Devil can be eye-opening for some players because of the tight
ship general manager Lou Lamoriello runs, but that kind of structure is
actually one of the reasons Cammalleri wanted to sign with the team. He
still remembers the conversations he had about the team with former Devils
Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez (back with the team but still unsigned)
during his time with the Montreal Canadiens.
“We talked a lot about things here,” Cammalleri said. “We had a lot of bus
conversations about New Jersey. It just kind of organically came about in
conversation. The organization and Lou had a big influence on both of
those guys.”
Gomez might have bristled at times under the structure with which the
Devils are run at the start of his career, but has admitted since returning this
fall as an unsigned tryout that it seemed to bring out the best in him as a
player. And now he wants to be back in that atmosphere to revive his
career.
Cammalleri wants that structure as well. He believes it will help him excel
as a player.
“I like it. It’s a part of who I am,” he said. My personality and the way I live
my life, I’m a pretty disciplined person. I like structure. I like to be able to
rely on a structure and I think within that you can really excel as an athlete.
So, for me, I welcome that.”
***
From Elias Sports Bureau:
*At 18-8-5, New Jersey owns the second-best points-percentage in seasonopeners (.661) behind Colorado (18-7-6, .677).
*Jaromir Jagr has 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points in season-openers
during his career, which is an NHL record. Ray Bourque (9g-21a-30pts) is
second, while Joe Sakic (11g-16a-27pts) and Wayne Gretzky (9g-18a27pts) are tied for third.
***
From the pre-game notes:
*The Devils are 14-14-3 in road-opening contests following a 3-0 loss at
Pittsburgh last season. The club is 1-3-1 in its last five season-openers
overall.
*Among goaltenders that have played in at least 100 games since the start
of the 2010-11 season, Cory Schneider ranks first with a 2.05 goals-against
average (second Jonathan Quick at 2.14) and a .928 save-percentage .
Schneider finished his first season in New Jersey with a 1.97 GAA, which
ranked third in the NHL and first among goaltenders who appeared in at
least 35 games. Schneider posted the third-best single-season GAA in
franchise history behind Martin Brodeur’s 1996-97 (1.88 GAA) and 1997-98
(1.89 GAA) campaigns.
*Patrik Elias enters the season with career totals of 393 goals and 590
assists for 983 points in 1,155 regular season games. He’s looking to
become just the 91st player in league history to reach the 400-goal mark,
the 79th to collect 600 assists, the 80th to compile 1,000 points and the
101st to appear in 1,200 games.
752966
New Jersey Devils
Devils notes: Larsson unhappy to be healthy scratch
— Tom Gulitti
October 10, 2014
Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 1:21 AM
The Record
Larsson frustrated
During training camp and the preseason, Devils defenseman Adam Larsson
said the one thing he didn't want to have to go through again this season
was watching games from the press box as a healthy scratch.
"And now I'm here doing it again," Larsson said before being a healthy
scratch for the team's 2014-15 opener in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Although it was frustrating for all three players to sit out the first game —
Jacob Josefson and Damien Brunner were the other two— Brunner was
taking a positive approach, saying, "I'm ready whenever they are or when
they need me."
Larsson, 21, was having a hard time doing that, though, after the talk this
summer that he would finally be given the opportunity to play regularly this
season.
Severson fantastic
In his NHL debut, 20-year-old rookie defenseman Damon Severson played
18:39, including 6:50 in the third period of what was a one-goal game until
Mike Cammalleri's empty-netter with 1:00 left.
"I thought he was fantastic, composed, not overwhelmed, made plays,"
Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. "When the game turned and it became 3-3,
I thought he got better, which means something for a young guy."
After the first shift, Severson felt comfortable and DeBoer even used him on
the penalty kill in the third period.
"I wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be," Severson said. "I was
excited more than anything."
Jagr's milestones
Jaromir Jagr's two assists gave him 37 points in season openers (11 goals,
26 assists), increasing his NHL record total.
He also moved two points ahead of Steve Yzerman and into sixth place all
time with 1,757 for his career.
Jagr got his first NHL goal in the second game of the 1990-91 season.
It came against Devils goaltender Chris Terreri.
752967
New Jersey Devils
The craziness carried over into the third period as Elias put the Devils back
on top at 4:16, waiting in front to knock in a feed from Zidlicky at the bottom
of the right circle.
Devils win wild opener over Flyers, 6-4
The Flyers retied it only 15 seconds later with Vincent Lecavalier beating
Schneider from the right circle on a 2-on-1 rush.
October 9, 2014, 10:38 PM
AM
By TOM GULITTI
“The coaches will tell us if it’s one of those games that you throw out or you
sit down and really look at it,” Cammalleri said. “Hey, we found a way to win
the game and that’s the most important thing. It feels good to get the first
one.”
STAFF WRITER
Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 12:38
The Record
PHILADELPHIA – The foundation of the 2014-15 Devils is supposed to be
team defense and goaltending.
They had to rely on their offensive skill Thursday night at Wells Fargo
Center, however, to start the new season off in a positive way.
Dainius Zubrus’ goal 7:13 into the third period put the Devils ahead for good
and they held on for a wild 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Zubrus’ right circle shot went in off the stick of goaltender Steve Mason to
snap a 4-4 tie and give the Devils their fifth 5-on-5 goal of the night – a
weakness for them last season when they ranked second to last in the NHL
in that category. Mike Cammalleri, who made his Devils’ debut, scored his
second of the night into an empty net with 1:00 left to seal the win.
“I thought we showed a lot of character, a lot of resiliency,” Devils coach
Pete DeBoer said. “It’s early in the season. There’s a lot of things we want
to clean up, but we did a lot of good things tonight and found a way to get
two points in a tough building.”
The Devils talked since the start of training camp about having more
scoring depth and it was on display Thursday as five players netted goals.
Michael Ryder had a goal and two assists. Linemate Adam Henrique had a
goal and an assist. Patrik Elias also scored and Jaromir Jagr and Marek
Zidlicky had two assists apiece.
“It’s nice to score,” Zubrus said. “It’s nice for Cammalleri to score a couple
of goals early and feel good. It’s good for everybody to have the confidence
to score goals.
“There were a couple of nice bounces that we got, too. We don’t want to get
too carried away here. Just play our game and I think goals will come.”
It looked like it might be an easy night for the Devils when they jumped out
to a 3-0 lead by 5:33 into the second period, but a meltdown in the final
4:16 of the period resulted in the Flyers scoring three times to pull even by
the end of the period.
The Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead when Ryder ripped a wrister from the top of
the right circle over Mason’s catching glove 12:05 into the game.
Henrique scored just 2:10 into the second period when his wrist shot from
the right circle deflected in off the left skate of Flyers defenseman Luke
Schenn.
Cammalleri made it 3-0 by deflecting in Jagr’s shot at 5:33 for his first goal
as a Devil after signing with the team as an unrestricted free agent this
summer.
Just when it appeared the Devils were in complete control, however, they
unraveled.
Claude Giroux got the Flyers’ comeback started with his power-play goal
with 4:16 left in the second, beating goaltender Cory Schneider under the
glove from the left circle. Wayne Simmonds cut it to 3-2 with 56.7 seconds
left in the period, patiently stick handling around a diving block attempt by
defenseman Jon Merrill and beating Schneider from the left circle.
A Ryane Clowe trip of defenseman Mark Streit with just 4.5 seconds left in
the second period put the Flyers on the power play again. And, Simmonds
struck again with a redirection in front with just 0.6 seconds left in the
period.
“I think all of our blood pressures went up a little too much there,” Schneider
joked.
752968
New Jersey Devils
Devils: Five questions entering the season
— Tom Gulitti
October 9, 2014
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 1:21 AM
The Record
Five questions for the Devils
1. Will they be able to score enough? After ranking second to last in 5-on-5
scoring last season, the Devils signed free agents Mike Cammalleri and
Martin Havlat to try to boost their offense.
2. Can Cory Schneider handle the workload of a No. 1? He's the man now
in net with Martin Brodeur gone, but he's never played more than his 45
games in 2013-14. The Devils are hoping he can start up to 70 this season.
3. How will their young defensemen hold up? With four defensemen age 23
or younger on their opening night roster, there will be growing pains. Coach
Pete DeBoer has to let them learn from and play through their mistakes.
4. Can Jaromir Jagr repeat his 2013-14 performance? He'll turn 43 on Feb.
15 and the Devils need him to play first-line minutes again and at least
match last season's 67 points.
5. Will they be better in the shootout? They can't be worse than last
season's 0-13 record. Winning a few could make the difference in bid to get
back to the playoffs.
752969
New Jersey Devils
Devils open NHL season with 6-4 win over Flyers in Philadelphia on Dainius
Zubrus’ go-ahead goal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, October 10, 2014, 12:26 AM
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dainius Zubrus scored the go-ahead goal in the
third period and Michael Cammalleri had two goals, leading the New Jersey
Devils to a season-opening 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on
Thursday night.
Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique, and Patrick Elias also scored for the
Devils.
Claude Giroux had a goal and Wayne Simmonds scored twice to help the
Flyers, who lost 2-1 in their season opener Wednesday night against
Boston.
The Devils won the first of a four-game road trip, the second-longest stretch
to start a season in team history.
Cory Schneider won his first game in goal since taking over full-time for
Martin Brodeur and signing a $42 million, seven-year contract in the
summer.
Zubrus’ goal early in the third.
Elias had snapped a tie game with a goal early in the third to make it 4-3.
Much like they did in the second period, the Flyers came storming back with
the tying goal. Lecavalier, a disappointment last year in his first season with
the Flyers, scored off a 2-on-1 break to make it 4-all.
Zubrus, though, wiped out the momentum with the go-ahead goal only 15
seconds later. Moments after the Flyers killed a penalty, Zubrus poked the
puck from the right circle off goaltender Steve Mason’s stick, and the lead
held this time.
The Devils seemingly had the game in hand after three straight goals on
nine shots against Mason.
Mason, starting his second game in two nights, was caught up in a pair of
deflections that gave the Devils the early edge.
Jaromir Jagr skates against his former team. Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty
Images Jaromir Jagr skates against his former team.
Ryder fired one from the circle over Mason’s right shoulder for a goal in the
first.
The Devils added two more in the second, both on deflections. Henrique’s
shot went off Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn’s skate and Cammalleri
scored off a similar bounce for a 3-0 lead just 5:33 into the second.
New Jersey’s Jaromir Jagr had an assist on the goal for his 1,756th career
point, sixth on the NHL’s career scoring list. He also assisted on
Cammalleri’s empty-netter in the final seconds.
Down by three, the Flyers rallied.
Giroux, still rounding into shape after missing part of the preseason with an
unspecified injury, cut it to 3-1 on a slapper.
Simmonds then scored twice in 57 seconds to tie it at 3. His first goal was
pretty much kicked into the net. Simmonds stuck his second one just under
the buzzer. His tying goal was reviewed — and when the videoboard
showed his goal just made it with 0.6 seconds left, the crowd roared.
Simmonds has been on a bit of a hot streak at home, although his last two
games were separated by about six months. He scored three goals against
the New York Rangers in Game 6 of a first-round Eastern Conference
playoff game.
Mason stopped only 20 shots after posting 31 saves in the opener.
NOTES: Flyers D Braydon Coburn was a late scratch with a lower body
injury. He was on crutches during player introductions. ... The Devils and
Flyers don’t play each other again until Jan. 3. ... The Devils are 19-8-5 in
openers since 1982.
New York Daily News LOADED: 10.10.2014
752970
New Jersey Devils
Hondo takes Royals to flush
By Hondo
October 10, 2014 | 1:57am
The benevolent Devils were good to Hondo Thursday night, pushing around
the bullies in Philly, just like Dave “Lock of the Night” Blezow predicted they
would. As a result, the deficit was pared to 1,400 saberhagens.
Friday night: Mr. Aitch, who also made his weekly NFL selections, will take
a shot in the ALCS opener with the one and only Jimmy Shields — 10 units
on the Royals. As for the series, he will back KC with another 10 units. And
finally, Hondo’s college knowledge tells him to put 10 on the Cardinal to rule
against Washington State.
JFK is among five airports that soon will begin to screen for Ebola. Let’s
hope that doesn’t distract any of the TSA agents from their real job — stripsearching granny. … From emauler Ed Buckmir: Rex Ryan and Joe and
Teresa Guidice have a lot in common — they made some very bad
decisions in New Jersey and now all will be going away soon. … An
amateur hypnotist in Kenner, Wash., has been accused of having nonconsensual sex with a woman he hypnotized. Emailer Donny Mac guesses
that Rev. Sharpton’s former lawyer, the diminutive Sanford Rubenstein,
probably already is practicing the art — “You are getting sleepy … you are
craving cashews.”
New York Post LOADED: 10.10.2014
752971
New Jersey Devils
Devils win opener by defeating Flyers in high-scoring affair
By Associated Press
October 9, 2014 | 10:26pm
PHILADELPHIA — The Devils wasted leads in two straight periods and
were rattled on the road, in danger of a season-opening collapse — before
Cory Schneider settled in at the right time in net to send New Jersey out a
winner.
Dainus Zubrus scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and Michael
Cammalleri had two goals, leading the Devils to a 6-4 win over the Flyers
on Thursday night.
The Devils won the first of a four-game road trip, the second-longest stretch
to start a season in team history.
Schneider won his first game in goal since taking over full-time for Martin
Brodeur and signing a $42 million, seven-year contract in the summer.
“He was good at key times,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “When we
needed some saves in the third, I thought he was really good.”
Schneider stopped 12 of 13 shots in the third and had 34 saves overall.
Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique, and Patrick Elias also scored for the
Devils.
Claude Giroux had a goal and Wayne Simmonds scored twice to help
Philadelphia rally from a three-goal deficit. Vincent Lecavalier also scored
for the Flyers, who lost 2-1 in their season opener Wednesday night against
Boston.
Schneider played a career-high 45 games last season and now, as the
undisputed No. 1 goaltender, might be expected to push that number to 65
or more. Schneider had a 16-15-12 record last season and posted a 1.97
goals-against average, third best in the NHL.
“My guys bailed me out a couple of times with some big goals,” Schneider
said. “It just seems like that was the kind of game last year that might have
gotten away from us.”
The Devils nearly let this one get away, too. They blew 3-0 and 4-3 leads
before taking the lead for good on Zubrus’ goal early in the third.
752972
New York Islanders
Boychuk, Leddy give Islanders hope for glory as season begins
By Brett Cyrgalis
October 10, 2014 | 1:50am
It has been talked about internally, and it has been vetted publicly.
The expectations for the Islanders have grown by leaps and bounds in the
past week, with trades being made for two legitimate defensemen to shore
up their biggest weakness. So, for the team that has made the postseason
once in the past seven seasons and most recently won a playoff series in
1993, this 2014-15 regular-season campaign opens on Friday in Carolina
against the Hurricanes not with flimsy excitement, but with attainable goals
of springtime hockey.
“There is a different feeling, for sure,” coach Jack Capuano said on
Thursday at the Coliseum before boarding a plane bound for North
Carolina, the first of a back-to-back, home-and-home, the final home
opener in Uniondale coming on Saturday. “As I told the guys, the past is the
past. We spent some time with them this morning to talk a little bit about
moving forward, and our thought process. They’re excited.”
This is a time of the year when all 30 teams are excited, when optimism
reigns supreme. Yet in the Islanders’ locker room, the mood was slightly
different, slightly more jovial and fresh. There was Johnny Boychuk
cracking sarcastic jokes with his teammates, and Nick Leddy a bundle of
smiles as he walked through the hallway. Those two defensemen have
brought national attention to this once-proud franchise that can call itself
suburban for only one more season before moving to Brooklyn’s Barclays
Center.
The attention from the outside comes in the form of predictions for a
successful team. These two additions — along with the offseason signings
of talented forwards Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin and goalies
Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson — have made many think the Islanders
could be right in the mix near the top of the Metropolitan Division.
“We want to play for the Cup,” star center John Tavares said. “It’s a
process, and first and foremost, we want to get to the playoffs.
“But those expectations are there. It’s a journey we want to take, and those
guys are certainly going to be a big part of that, and that’s what the exciting
part is — they’re really going to help us be a better hockey team.”
Boychuk is the most significant addition, coming in a trade with the Bruins
on Saturday — the same day general manager Garth Snow pulled a deal
with the Blackhawks for Leddy, both salary-cap casualties. The 30-year-old
Boychuk is a physical defender who is also slipping right into a power-play
role, with regular man-advantage quarterback Lubomir Visnovsky still
dealing with back spasms.
“Expectations should be pretty high for us,” Boychuk said. “We have a good
team, and we know what we have in here. We have to work together to get
to that kind of mentality.”
At that first practice back on Monday, Boychuk was quickly made aware of
the team around him.
“When I stepped on the ice, I was kind of looking around because I was just
seeing how fast and how hard they worked,” he said. “It just makes you
better.”
Leddy also adds offensive skill from the back end, and at just 23 years old,
has some upside.
“Garth has done a great job for our hockey club,” Capuano said. “They’re a
group that’s very committed in there and they know their time is now.”
752973
New York Islanders
Three new Islanders to watch in 2014-15
Updated October 9, 2014 7:58 PM
By ARTHUR STAPLE arthur.staple@newsday.com
Johnny Boychuk
The mainstay of an elite Bruins defense joined the Islanders just last week,
but he already is trying to lead by example and by words. "People shouldn't
take us lightly anymore," he said, and that was after one practice as an
Islander. He is the veteran defenseman the young Isles 'D' needs and
provides the big shot from the point the power play certainly could use. He
was a steady but complementary player on a Boston 'D' with Zdeno Chara;
here, Boychuk can be the man.Mikhail Grabovski
Considering the Isles are his third team in three seasons, Grabovski may
feel he has something to prove, even though his falling out and buyout from
the Leafs was seen as a mistake by Toronto. Grabovski did fine in
Washington last season, but he's only seen the playoffs once, back in
2012-13. Starting the year on the wing with youngsters Brock Nelson and
Ryan Strome, Grabovski could recover his confidence at both ends of the
ice and be a second-line force.Chad Johnson
Sure, Jaroslav Halak is the presumptive No. 1 goaltender, but No. 1 hasn't
been the biggest trouble spot for the Islanders in recent seasons. They
haven't had a reliable backup to step in when needed. Johnson is only 28,
but his first full season as an NHL backup in Boston last year was a solid
success. If he can increase his workload a bit and step in when needed, the
Isles will be light years ahead of the past few seasons.
Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752974
New York Islanders
3 keys to Islanders' success
October 9, 2014 7:48 PM
Goaltending
Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson have won elsewhere and their presence
has given the rest of the Islanders confidence. Now they could do with
strong starts in goal.
Protecting leads
No one was worse at holding third-period leads in the NHL than the Isles
last season (15-6-6 when leading after two), and the Isles coughed up 15
two-goal leads (2-6-7 in those games). Team defense has to be better
throughout the game and especially with the lead.
A healthy captain
John Tavares was on a personal-best scoring pace when his season ended
in Sochi. He's not injury prone and it goes without saying the Isles need
Tavares for the full slate. We'll say it anyway.
752975
New York Islanders
Islanders support GM Garth Snow's many moves
As rallying cries go, Garth Snow's crass comments on TSN from draft night
in June don't exactly have an inspirational ring.
Snow was asked at the time about the negative perception expected from
NHL experts after trading up into the first round to select Joshua Ho-Sang,
a skilled player who was not projected to be a first-rounder. The defiant
Snow used profanity live on televisions all across Canada to defend the
move.
But while those off-color remarks may have upset some around the league,
they had a different effect on the core of his Islanders team.
"Well, first off, I started dying laughing," John Tavares said, laughing again
at the memory of his general manager cussing. "There's definitely a
perception about the team here and people obviously have a right to their
opinions, but being here every day, we know what we have and what we're
working toward. We've made a lot of changes within the locker room;
obviously, Garth added guys and made changes. We're driven to win and
we're trying to find the right solution.
"We know we're not going to be getting a lot of publicity or a lot of hype
from people, and that's fine. We just have to go about our business and do
what we can do to get to where we want to be."
Tavares and Kyle Okposo, the Isles' leaders in the room, could have taken
the opposite tack: They could have found their GM's brazen reply
embarrassing, the fitting capper to a 2013-14 season that was filled with
embarrassing Islanders moments.
Instead, they are following Snow's "Isles vs. the world" lead. Both Tavares
and Okposo noted that NBC and NBC Sports Network, the U.S.
broadcasters of NHL hockey, declined to schedule the Islanders even once
among their 103 combined telecasts this coming season.
"When they ask for things [like taping promos], I don't understand why when
they didn't want to put us on there," Tavares said. "I guess it just adds fuel
to the fire for us."
"You always want to play in front of an audience, especially in those
national games, being from the States," Okposo said. "I feel like we're an
exciting team to watch, we play a fast, up-tempo game, we score a lot of
goals. So yeah, I definitely felt a little slighted."
An NBC source said the network has "flex" scheduling for its late-season
games, so the Islanders (and Panthers, the only other team out of 30
without a scheduled national game) could play their way on to a national
broadcast.
The real rallying cry for the Islanders in their final Nassau Coliseum season
is a bit simpler: Win. Win, and the hockey world will come around.
In fact, it seems the pundits already have. In light of Snow's most recent
moves last week, trading for defensemen Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk,
a majority of the media experts around North America have picked the Isles
as a playoff team.
"Maybe we get slighted, but you have to put together a winning squad to
kind of shut 'em up and make people believers," Okposo said. "I'm excited
to get going and do that."
Even the coaching staff, led by the profoundly unheralded Jack Capuano -Vegas has him pegged at 3-1 odds to be the first coach fired, right behind
the Maple Leafs' Randy Carlyle -- believes this is a good season to come in
feeling angry.
"We've all got a chip on our shoulder, coaches too," Capuano said. "This is
the attitude we should all have."
752976
New York Islanders
After retooling roster, Islanders believe they are a contender
Surgery for Grabner. Michael Grabner underwent sports hernia surgery
Thursday and is out indefinitely. Grabner was placed on injured reserve on
Monday, so the Islanders were not counting on him in the short term. The
recovery time typically is four to six weeks, but Grabner had only a week of
training camp, so he could be out longer.
The goal, as stated by everyone from Islanders general manager Garth
Snow on down, has been the same the past few seasons: Make the
playoffs, win a Stanley Cup.
But there's a bit more conviction behind those goals as the 2014-15 season
dawns. Instead of hoping that a few homegrown young players or
somewhat-past-their-prime veterans could get hot and carry the Islanders to
an unlikely playoff berth, there is genuine belief this season, thanks to
Snow's many offseason and preseason moves and John Tavares' drive to
get back to his perch as one of the league's best players after an injuryshortened 2013-14 season.
"We're all aware what a disappointment last season was," Tavares said.
"Garth was pretty aggressive this summer and the message is that last
season wasn't good enough for anyone. We've been building for a long time
and it's on us now to take that next step."
Snow began his offseason makeover early, trading a fourth-round pick to
the Capitals for goaltender Jaroslav Halak on May 1 and signing the new
No. 1 goalie to a four-year, $18-million deal a month later.
On July 1, Snow signed a veteran backup goaltender, Chad Johnson, plus
a handful of depth forwards. Out of those, 24-year-old Cory Conacher
emerged on the opening-night roster, playing alongside Tavares and Kyle
Okposo on the top line.
The next day, Snow surprised the league by inking former Maple Leafs
teammates Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin to four-year deals,
giving the Isles serious depth among their forwards.
And the remodeling continued all the way into this past weekend, when
Snow again gave the league a jolt by trading for Johnny Boychuk and Nick
Leddy simultaneously, adding two Stanley Cup-winning defensemen to a
banged-up young corps just a week before the season.
"There's good things happening here," Boychuk said upon his arrival.
All led by Tavares, whose first season as captain was one he might just as
soon forget. Snow traded Matt Moulson, Tavares' longtime linemate and
closest friend on the team, to the Sabres along with three draft picks for
Thomas Vanek just a couple of weeks into the season. That trade provided
a couple of incredible months for the top line but the team continued to
fizzle, blowing 15 two-goal leads (2-6-7 record in those games) and getting
the league's worst goaltending.
Then came the Olympics and Tavares' first opportunity to represent
Canada, but he suffered a sprained knee in the first elimination game,
ending his NHL season with 22 games left. Vanek was traded for a pittance
compared to what Snow gave up and the Isles ended the season meekly
once again.
"It's a new experience being a captain and you learn a lot from going
through it," Tavares said. "We had a lot of challenging times last year, so
there was a lot of reflecting, trying to figure things out. You're a leader,
you're always the one looking yourself in the mirror to try and find solutions
and help the team, bring the team together."
Tavares can do that better on the ice than anywhere else. The new
additions have slotted longtime Islanders such as Frans Nielsen and Travis
Hamonic into better roles, so coach Jack Capuano will have flexibility in
how to allocate ice time.
Second-year forwards Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome are starting the
season on the same line. Rookie Griffin Reinhart will make his NHL debut
on Friday night with key defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky and Calvin de
Haan starting the season on injured reserve.
Ten players will dress for Friday night's opener against the Hurricanes who
weren't in uniform when the 2013-14 season began.
"We feel good about the group we have," Okposo said. "It's on us now."
752977
New York Islanders
Islanders' sale from Charles Wang to Jonathan Ledecky, Scott Malkin
finalized
By NEIL BEST neil.best@newsday.com
The Islanders confirmed Thursday the finalization of the sale of the team
from Charles Wang to businessmen Jonathan Ledecky and Scott Malkin.
The new owners are scheduled to be introduced at a news conference
Wednesday at Nassau Coliseum, where the team is set to begin its 43rd
and final season there Saturday.
Yesterday's announcement came nine days after the sale received
unanimous approval from the NHL's Board of Governors. At the time,
commissioner Gary Bettman said some details needed to be finalized but
that the goal was to close the deal before the Islanders' regular-season
opener Friday night in Carolina against the Hurricanes.
Under the terms of the deal, Ledecky and Malkin initially will own a minority
stake, then assume majority control two years from now, with Wang
becoming a minority owner.
Bettman said last week no issues were raised by the Board of Governors -which is composed of representatives of all 30 NHL teams -- regarding
Wang's insistence on a two-year period of ceding control. Bettman also said
the deal "provides an orderly transition, which was important to Charles."
The initial agreement between Wang and the new owners was announced
Aug. 19. Financial terms have not been disclosed, but franchise values in
all major pro sports have been rising rapidly.
Ledecky was chairman of Lincoln Holdings, which held interests in the
NHL's Washington Capitals and the NBA's Washington Wizards. Malkin is
chairman of UK-based Value Retail, a syndicator of high-end European
retail outlets. The two were roommates at Harvard in the late 1970s.
Bettman said last week that Ledecky and Malkin would "bring in some
additional ownership expertise, resources."
752978
New York Rangers
Zemgus Girgensons scored for Buffalo, and Jhonas Enroth made 37 saves.
Timely Carom Assists Nash and Rangers in Opener; Devils Also Win
CANADIENS 2, CAPITALS 1 Tomas Plekanec scored his third goal of the
young season, and Montreal recovered from a slow start for a shootout win
over host Washington and its new coach Barry Trotz.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSOCT. 9, 2014
shootout.
Rick Nash had two goals and an assist, including the tiebreaking score late
in the third period, and the visiting Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2, on
Thursday night in the first game of the season for both teams.
Chris Kreider had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, the Eastern
Conference champions last season, and Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves.
BLACKHAWKS 3, STARS 2 Patrick Sharp scored the tying goal in the third
period, Patrick Kane had the only goal in the shootout and visiting Chicago
beat Dallas.
RED WINGS 2, BRUINS 1 Gustav Nyquist’s power-play goal in the second
period lifted host Detroit to a victory over Boston in the Red Wings’ season
opener.
Jaden Schwartz led the Blues with a goal and an assist. Paul Stastny also
scored, and Brian Elliott stopped 22 shots.
LIGHTNING 3, PANTHERS 2 Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal
1:11 into overtime, and Tampa Bay beat visiting Florida in the teams’
season opener.
After a fortunate carom off the glass, Nash scored the go-ahead goal with 1
minute 50 seconds remaining off a behind-the-back pass from Martin St.
Louis in front of the net.
PREDATORS 3, SENATORS 2 Craig Smith, Shea Weber and Eric Nystrom
all scored in the third period, and host Nashville beat Ottawa, giving Coach
Peter Laviolette a win in his debut.
The Rangers opened the scoring 4:01 into the first period on Nash’s low
shot from the slot off a Blues turnover in the defensive zone. Kreider was
credited with the assist.
New York Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
Schwartz tied it 1:32 into the third period when he chipped a rebound over
Lundqvist after a long shot from beyond the right circle by David Backes.
Alex Pietrangelo also got an assist.
Kreider put the Rangers ahead, 2-1, with a breakaway goal, assisted by
Nash and Marc Staal, with 13:30 remaining.
St. Louis tied it again with 9:18 left in the third when Stastny scored on a
goal that was originally credited to Vladimir Tarasenko. Instead, the assists
went to Tarasenko and Schwartz.
It was the first point with the Blues for Stastny, a St. Louis native who
signed a four-year, $28 million contract as a free agent in the off-season
after playing his first eight seasons in Colorado. He became the third family
member to play for the Blues, following his father, Peter, and brother, Yan.
Nash’s two goals were his 22nd and 23rd against St. Louis. He has 43
points in 51 career regular-season games against the Blues.
DEVILS 6, FLYERS 4 Dainus Zubrus scored the go-ahead goal in the third
period, and Michael Cammalleri had two goals to lead the visiting Devils to
a season-opening win over Philadelphia.
Michael Ryder, Adam Henrique and Patrick Elias also scored for the Devils.
Claude Giroux had a goal, and Wayne Simmonds scored twice to help the
Flyers, who lost, 2-1, in their season opener Wednesday night against the
Boston Bruins.
Cory Schneider won his first game in goal since taking over full time for
Martin Brodeur and signing a seven-year, $42 million contract in the
summer.
Zubrus’s goal early in the third.
Jaromir Jagr had an assist on one of Cammalleri’s goals for his 1,756th
career point, sixth on the N.H.L.’s career scoring list. PENGUINS 6, DUCKS
4 Sidney Crosby, the N.H.L.’s most valuable player last season, scored
twice and added an assist as host Pittsburgh beat Anaheim.
surgery for the Penguins, who rolled to victory in their season opener and
Mike Johnston’s debut as coach.
Corey Perry had a hat trick for the Ducks, who were also opening their
season.
BLUE JACKETS 3, SABRES 1 Cam Atkinson scored the tiebreaking goal
on a third-period power play, and visiting Columbus beat Buffalo in the
Artem Anisimov and Jack Skille also scored for the Blue Jackets, who got
21 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Atkinson broke a 1-all tie with 7:15
remaining.
752979
New York Rangers
considered a good fit with the exception that Pronger is, well, still on the
Philadelphia Flyers’ roster.
Rangers’ Dan Boyle injured in win over St. Louis Blues, has broken hand,
could miss 4-6 weeks
Pronger, 39, is not technically retired, even though he is finished playing
due to a career-ending eye injury sustained in 2011. He is still paid by the
Flyers and is listed on their roster as a long-term injury exception.
BY Pat Leonard
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The NHL says it does not view Pronger’s status with the Flyers as a conflict
of interest that should prevent him from contributing at the league level.
However, it is believed that Pronger will not weigh in on Flyers incidents in
his new post.
Friday, October 10, 2014, 1:33 AM
ST. LOUIS – The Rangers’ defensive depth was a cause of concern during
training camp. Now, it will be tested.
Veteran Dan Boyle, who was brought in this offseason to the Blueshirts’
second pair in lieu of re-signing Anton Stralman, broke his right hand during
Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Blues and is expected to miss four-to-six
weeks, coach Alain Vigneault said postgame.
“We lost Dan Boyle during the game,” Vigneault said when asked if he
would make lineup changes Saturday night in Columbus. “He’ll be out
probably four to six weeks, so we’re going to make a change on D. Up front,
(Jesper Fast) blocked a shot and he’s a little sore right now so we’ll see
how that turns out. But I need to watch the game again, and if we need to
make some changes, we will.”
Boyle wasn’t particularly impressive in his Rangers debut. He made some
smart steps up to slow multiple St. Louis rushes, but also struggled with his
puck management early on and was part of an 0-for-3 Rangers power play.
His injury then limited him to only 1:27 of ice time in the third period before
Vigneault delivered the bad news.
Matt Hunwick, 29, the seventh defenseman who slightly edged Mike Kostka
and Steven Kampfer in an underwhelming training camp battle, is the only
extra defenseman on this season-opening road trip. The former Avalanche
and Bruins defenseman is expected to enter Saturday’s lineup against the
Blue Jackets.
But it’s likely that third-pair right side defenseman Kevin Klein will see
significant time, if not full time, in Boyle’s slot to the right of Marc Staal for
the foreseeable future.
LITTLE BIG MAN
At the 5:07 mark of the third period in Thursday night’s heated affair, Henrik
Lundqvist knew that play had stopped and knew there was a fight starting
behind his net. He just didn’t realize it was the 5-7, 179-pound Mats
Zuccarello.
The pesky winger - who was under the Blues’ skin all night - dropped the
gloves for the first fight of his NHL career, challenging Blues forward T.J.
Oshie.
“I was in net and turned around and knew that there was a fight there and I
see Zucc. I was shocked!” Lundqvist said, laughing. “But it was impressive
to stand up like that. You could tell already in preseason he was playing
with a lot of edge to his game and he’s a strong player. When he plays like
that, it’s good for the team.”
Zuccarello’s combination of edge and skill is exactly the reason he is so
consistently effective, but he knows it’s the skill that keeps him relevant.
“For me as a smaller guy, I have to play with that edge. Those situations
are gonna happen,” Zuccarello said. Then he smiled and added: “But I’m
not going to make a living on fighting.”
NO DIVING
In the NHL’s new rules governing embellishment, the diving penalty given to
Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko puts him one more infraction away from
a $2,000 fine from the league. A player receives a warning upon his first
embellishment penalty, then the fines start and increase incrementally up to
$5,000. Additionally, a player’s fourth diving infraction will begin fines for his
coach, also starting at two grand.
DOUBLE PRONGED
On Friday, the NHL reportedly will announce the hiring of former NHL
defenseman Chris Pronger into its department of player safety, which is
752980
New York Rangers
Rick Nash scores two goals to lead NY Rangers over St. Louis Blues in
season opener
Nevertheless, the Rangers exited feeling invigorated by playing playoff-level
hockey, something they’ve done for so much of this calendar year.
“It felt like the building was ready and the guys were excited,” said Henrik
Lundqvist (23 saves). “We missed it.”
BY Pat Leonard
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 1:49 AM
ST. LOUIS — The Blues stared down the Rangers on Thursday night with a
hostile crowd, a heavy lineup and a relentless spirit, bent on ruining the
visitors’ season-opening trip to the Midwest.
The Blueshirts answered with Rick Nash, and the power forward’s threepoint outburst was enough for an uncommonly intense 3-2 victory at
Scottrade Arena for the determined Rangers, who came out with something
to prove after last year’s magical but unsuccessful postseason ride.
“I was thinking on the bench there in the last five minutes: That felt like a
playoff game,” said Nash, whose second goal with 1:50 remaining snapped
a 2-2 tie. “It’s a huge start. When the schedule came out, I couldn’t think of
a tougher place to start than on the road in St. Louis.”
Unfortunately, the win came at a heavy price. Second-pair defenseman Dan
Boyle broke his right hand during the physical affair and is expected to miss
four to six weeks, coach Alain Vigneault said. Still, the Rangers persevered.
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“We gave them some life with some penalties and turnovers, but I just like
the fact that we stayed with it,” captain Ryan McDonagh said.
Nash was dead on in his prediction of the environment that awaited the
Blueshirts. This game featured scoring and skill, but it also got ugly.
The teams were whistled for 14 combined penalties. Mats Zuccarello fought
Blues forward and 2014 Team USA Olympic shootout hero T.J. Oshie. A
knee-on-knee from Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi on Blues center Paul
Stastny (goal), who signed in his hometown this offseason, got the home
crowd’s blood boiling.
Even some St. Louis Cardinals were in attendance and received a standing
ovation when introduced leading up to the National League Championship
Series, which begins Saturday. The arena was hostile. The Rangers (1-0-0)
lost their first two leads before finally regaining the advantage for good.
“The Blues play a man’s game. They make it very difficult to get up ice.
They play a very savvy game, and because of that, there’s going to be
confrontation,” said left wing Chris Kreider, Nash’s linemate who also was a
force with a goal and an assist.
Kreider and Nash worked off each other beautifully. Kreider’s takeaway
from New Rochelle product Kevin Shattenkirk, and his poke of the puck into
slot, set up Nash for the Rangers’ first goal of the season 4:01 into the first
period. Then Nash fed Kreider for a breakaway finish and 2-1 lead 6:30 into
the third, answering Jaden Schwartz’s rebound goal for St. Louis.
But it was Martin St. Louis, temporarily at center in the absence of Derek
Stepan (broken left fibula), who set up Nash’s game-winner with a no-look,
backhand pass to the slot off a strange carom from the boards. He made
the pass because Nash pointed him to the puck. That followed Stastny’s
goal 10:42 into the third.
“I saw it right away,” said Nash, who next will lead the Rangers against his
former team in Columbus on Saturday night. “(Martin St. Louis) had no idea
and I yelled at him.
“I was trying to point to him where it was, and he said he heard me and just
turned around because he had no idea.”
The victory concealed several concerns, though. While offseason signing
Lee Stempniak was impressive, Boyle was underwhelming before he
sustained the injury. Derick Brassard’s top line, with Zuccarello and Carl
Hagelin, didn’t possess the puck enough, and young players J.T. Miller,
Anthony Duclair and Jesper Fast were unimpressive.
Fourth line center Dominic Moore at least was the Blueshirts’ savior on
faceoffs (12-of-16).
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New York Rangers
Rangers face tough test vs. St. Louis Blues in NHL regular season opener
later Thursday or Friday. That would make him available for Saturday’s
game in Columbus if needed. Hayes and Malone will be the scratched
forwards on Thursday night. Malone has size that one would think could
help the Rangers against a big team like St. Louis, but Vigneault has opted
to leave him sidelined for now.
CAM NOT THINKING ABOUT CONTRACT
BY Pat Leonard
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, October 9, 2014, 4:52 PM
ST. LOUIS – Morning skate number one of 82 is in the books, and the next
time the Rangers take the ice, the puck will drop on their season opener
Thursday night at Scottrade Center in St. Louis (8 p.m., TV: MSG).
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock allowed that “usually most first games have a
level of bizarreness to them,” and there certainly were butterflies in both
locker rooms on Thursday morning, but the good kind:
The anxiousness to get it all started and see how two of the NHL’s most
imposing clubs, one from the East and one from the West, stack up.
“The Rangers know how to win,” Hitchcock said. “Going through what New
York went through last season … A.V., he built it up real strong, he gave
them a reason to compete and play for each other. That’s a tough nut (to
crack for a coach).
He added: “They don’t just have speed and skill. They have moxi to ‘em.
We think we have some moxi, too.”
The Blues are big, strong and imposing, especially down the middle with
centers David Backes, Paul Stastny, Jori Lehtera, and Maxim Lapierre.
Stastny’s four-year, $28 million free agent deal with the Blues this season
turned a lot of heads, considering the addition of the former Colorado
Avalanche stud makes a good team look even tougher.
BREAKING DOWN THE RANGERS, POSITION BY POSITION
The Blues’ depth down the middle could be an especially difficult strength
for the Rangers to handle in their regular season opener, given that without
Derek Stepan (broken left fibula, out until at least Nov. 3), they are fielding
the group of Derick Brassard, Martin St. Louis, J.T. Miller and Dominic
Moore.
St. Louis is not a natural center. Miller is still young. Alain Vigneault said he
will wait and watch how the game evolves to determine his plan for whom to
use on face-offs, an area that could become an issue.
I didn’t want to pester backup goalie Cam Talbot with this question all
season, so I figured I’d get it out of the way this morning:
Henrik Lundqvist is signed until the end of time at $8.5 million per season,
and Talbot is due to hit unrestricted free agency next summer off a deal that
pays him just $562,500 per season. So if Talbot wants to start, or make a
lot more money, how it could possibly happen with the Rangers? Could this
be his final season in New York?
Talbot, 27, I’m glad, didn’t back away from the question. He actually
challenged my premise that this dilemma is a foregone conclusion. In
Talbot’s mind, before he even thinks about his next contract, he still has to
provide the Rangers with a second sample size of work to demonstrate
consistency.
He’s only appeared in 23 total NHL games, including two playoff matches.
“Last season I think I proved I can play, but now I have to prove that I can
stay at the level,” Talbot said. “(The next contract) is not something I’ve
thought about. I’m only focused on getting ready for this season. That’s it.”
Proving whether he can match last year’s 12-6-3 record, 1.64 goals against
average and .941 save percentage, will dictate Talbot’s future value. And
Talbot’s right: He has a ways to go to demonstrate whether he deserves
more money and more games.
OPPOSING PLAYER TO WATCH
Jori Lehtera, C, Blues: The Finnish forward is 26 years old but will make his
NHL regular season debut on Thursday night centering St. Louis’ third line.
Hitchcock said as much as everyone is excited about Stastny, no one
should be surprised if postgame the conversation is about Lehtera. The
center from Helsinki had 12 points in 10 games for Finland at the 2014
World Championships, and he also helped Finland capture bronze at the
2014 Winter Olympics.
CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP – EH, EH
Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester will play in his 718th consecutive
game on Thursday night, which marks the longest active streak in all of the
major professional sports, according to the team.
RANGERS LINEUP
Still, the Rangers, the reigning Eastern Conference champions, are no less
confident and are excited to resume their quest for the Stanley Cup back at
the beginning.
Forwards: Carl Hagelin-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello, Chris KreiderMartin St. Louis-Rick Nash, Anthony Duclair-J.T. Miller-Lee Stempniak,
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast
That will include an NHL debut for left winger Anthony Duclair, 19 – “I’m
really excited” – and team debuts for Dan Boyle, Tanner Glass, and Lee
Stempniak, a 2003 fifth-round pick of St. Louis who played his first three
seasons and change for the Blues.
Defensemen: Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi, Marc Staal-Dan Boyle, John
Moore-Kevin Klein
St. Louis, of course, also boasts defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, 25, who
hails from New Rochelle, N.Y., and grew up rooting for the Rangers.
Shattenkirk scored the tiebreaking power play goal to beat the Rangers, 21, at the Garden last season.
Extras: F Ryan Malone, F Kevin Hayes, D Matt Hunwick, G Cam Talbot
“It’s a fun game for me to start out with because I’ll have a lot of family
watching,” Shattenkirk said. “It’s always nice to play against the team you
grew up watching.”
Shattenkirk admitted the Blues view the Rangers as the top team they
established themselves as last season, even if they’re made changes.
“Whether you know it or not, you’re a better team experience-wise and you
know what it takes to get there,” he said of the Rangers.
Asked of the Blues’ aspirations to go the distance, he nodded: “We set that
bar every year for ourselves.”
It all starts Thursday night.
HAYES READY IF NEEDED
Rookie Kevin Hayes (shoulder) officially made the Rangers’ roster, traveled
to St. Louis despite his ailment, and is available to come off short-term
injured reserve, Vigneault said. Hayes was to be medically cleared either
Goalie: Henrik Lundqvist
ST. LOUIS BLUES LINEUP
Forwards: Patrik Berglund-David Backes-T.J. Oshie, Alexander Steen-Paul
Stastny-Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz-Jori Lehtera-Joakim
Lindstrom, Steve Ott-Maxim Lapierre-Ryan Reaves.
Defensemen: Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo, Jordan Leopold-Kevin
Shattenkirk, Barret Jackman-Ian Cole.
Goalie: Brian Elliot
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New York Rangers
NBC analyst Mike Milbury says 'it's time to get rid of fighting' in NHL, with so
many enforcers struggling to make rosters
BY Pat Leonard
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, October 9, 2014, 3:43 PM
Former Islanders GM Mike Milbury (how do you like this throwback pic?)
has come to the conclusion that if enforcers can't find jobs in the NHL, it
might be time to eliminate fightning altogether. Lee S. Weissman/New York
Daily News Former Islanders GM Mike Milbury (how do you like this
throwback pic?) has come to the conclusion that if enforcers can't find jobs
in the NHL, it might be time to eliminate fightning altogether.
Mike Milbury spent 1,552 minutes in the penalty box during his 12-season
NHL career. In 1979 as a Boston Bruin, he even climbed into the Madison
Square Garden stands and clubbed a Rangers fan with a shoe.
But Milbury, now an NBC analyst, said on Wednesday night that he
believes it may be time to end fighting in the NHL. The signs are there that
the league could be evolving that way, with several enforcers unsigned and
without jobs to open the 2014-15 NHL season.
“It’s telling me it’s time to get rid of fighting,” Milbury said on a pregame
show of the increasing number of unemployed tough guys. “It’s telling me
it’s over. As much as I liked a good scrap in my day, there are too many
issues here involving concussions. Too many problems. Teams are going
away from it. Let’s grow up and get rid of it.”
According to hockeyfights.com, the number of fighting majors is down 36%
from six seasons ago. USA Today Sports detailed on Wednesday how
many tough guys failed to make NHL rosters this fall, ranging from Krys
Barch to the Twitter-popular Paul Bissonnette, to George Parros, Kevin
Westgarth, Jay Rosehill and Matt Kassian.
Rangers fourth-line winger Tanner Glass, a willing fighter, told the Daily
News during training camp that it’s rare nowadays compared to several
years ago for NHL players to jump on ice and look for a fight just for
fighting’s sake.
More teams are recognizing that signing an enforcer takes the spot of a
player more capable of meaningful minutes, an approach Glass agrees
with.
“You should be able to skate and contribute in other areas,” Glass said.
Since many teams are subscribing to the theory of assembling deep, fourline teams rather than top heavy offenses, they are finding more reasons to
leave the enforcers out of the picture.
Simultaneously, concerns about concussions and a heightened awareness
about their repercussions have pushed fighting further to the fringe of
hockey.
When people say fighting should be illegal in hockey, the factual response
is: It is. A fight sends you to the penalty box for five minutes. Instigators in
the last minutes of a game get an automatic one-game suspension.
However, it makes sense to wonder if the NHL eventually will increase
those penalties to deter these fisticuffs for good.
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Rangers’ Zuccarello makes first career trip to fight club
By Larry Brooks
October 10, 2014 | 2:09am
ST. LOUIS — Mats Zuccarello had never before dropped his gloves in a
hockey game, not in the NHL, not in the AHL, not in the KHL, not in
Norway, not in Sweden.
Yet there he was, all (listed) 5-foot-7 of him, throwing punches in a spirited
bout against T.J. Oshie at the 5:07 mark of the third period of the Rangers’
season-opening 3-2 victory over the Blues on Thursday.
“I was trying to get a little spark,” Zuccarello said. “He slashed me, we
looked at each other, and I said, ‘Why not?’ There has to be a first time for
everything.
“I’m not going to make a living fighting, but it was nice to contribute in some
way on a night where I was fighting the puck a little bit and our line was
too,” said No. 36, whose unit — including Derick Brassard and Carl Hagelin
— rarely had the puck in the offensive zone. “This was a gritty, grinding
game. It was good to contribute.”
It turns out Kevin Hayes could join the lineup as soon as Saturday night in
Columbus.
That’s because, coach Alain Vigneault disclosed following Thursday’s
morning skate, the first-year pro out of Boston College opened the season
on non-roster Injured Reserve and is thus not subject to the seven-day rule.
“He could be medically cleared [Friday],” Vigneault said of Hayes, who
sustained a shoulder injury in last Friday’s exhibition match at the Garden
against the Blackhawks. “In that case, he would be available to us for
Saturday and if we need him, we could use him.
“I like a lot of things he brings to the table; his skill set, his size. He had a
real good camp. For [this game], this is the lineup we have. Once he clears
[medically], if we have some decisions to make, we will.”
Vigneault may have a decision to make, with Jesper Fast questionable with
at the least a sore left wrist he sustained blocking a second period shot
even though he took a regular turn in the third.
Ryan Malone, a healthy scratch, would provide another option if the coach
changes his complement of forwards that struggled most of the final two
periods.
Anthony Duclair, who made his NHL debut at the age of 19, had a couple of
impressive shifts in the first period but was ineffective through the second
and third periods, finishing with 11:12 of ice time. The winger did not get on
for the final 7:38. … The Rangers were outstanding on the penalty kill,
surrendering just four shots in snuffing all five Blues’ advantages over 8:22.
The Blueshirts allowed only one shot while St. Louis was on an extended
3:32 advantage midway through the second that included a 28-second fiveon-three. … The Rangers were 25-31 at the dots, with Dominic Moore
going 12-4. Marty St. Louis finished 4-7 after losing all four of his first-period
draws. J.T. Miller, who had a good preseason, was 0-8.
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New York Rangers
Dan Girardi (9:41), and McDonagh (9:37), and to a lesser extent Marc Staal
(8:01) and Kevin Klein (7:09).
Boyle injury dampens Rangers’ season-opening win over Blues
Faceoffs were an issue, as expected. Cohesion was an issue. But
determination was not, not for a minute.
By Larry Brooks
“We didn’t expect it to be easy. The third period was a real challenge for
us,” Lundqvist said. “But we responded.”
October 9, 2014 | 11:09pm
Now the Rangers must respond to Boyle’s injury just as they are attempting
to respond to Stepan’s. On to Columbus for Game 2 Saturday night.
ST. LOUIS — It happens every time, doesn’t it, that injuries strike teams in
areas in which they are most vulnerable?
It happened to the Rangers in training camp when Derek Stepan suffered a
broken leg that will sideline him for at least the first 10 games, thus
removing the club’s No. 1 center from an already quite thin depth chart
down the middle.
And it happened to the Blueshirts yet again in Thursday’s pulsating,
season-opening 3-2 victory over the Blues when Dan Boyle sustained a
broken right hand that will sideline him for four-to-six weeks and thus force
the Rangers to dip into a very, very questionable reserve list on the blue
line that currently features Matt Hunwick as next up.
The injury to Boyle — blocking a Jori Lehtera shot 1:53 into the third period
— will present a hurdle for the Rangers to overcome, but it surely did not
dampen the club’s enthusiasm following the victory achieved on Rick
Nash’s second goal of the night that broke a 2-2 deadlock with 1:50 to go in
the third period.
“I was thinking on the bench during the last five minutes that it was like the
playoffs,” said Nash, scoreless in the final against the Kings despite an
otherwise bold effort. “It’s hard to think of a tougher place to start the
season than here, so this was huge for us.”
Nash got the winner from in front, converting Marty St. Louis’ no-look
backhand feed after a Blues’ clearing attempt took a crazy hop off the wall
and caromed back into the zone, right into the slot.
“I saw it right away,” said Nash, whose wife is expecting the couple’s first
child any moment. “I yelled at Marty. I tried to point. He had no idea [where
the puck was], but he heard me.”
This wasn’t a particularly pretty one for the Rangers, but pretty doesn’t
show up either in the standings or the stats package. The Blueshirts didn’t
generate much and they were outplayed rather decisively through most of
the final two periods, but they played with resolve, grit and resourcefulness
against one of the league’s best and brawniest teams in a chippy and edgy
opener.
“I like the we stayed with it, and I like the fact that we battled,” captain Ryan
McDonagh said. “We made a few too many mistakes and we went to the
box too often, but we battled hard.
“That mentality has to be a staple with this team.”
Mats Zuccarello, who did not have a particularly good game, embodied that
mentality by dropping the gloves against T.J. Oshie at 5:07 of the third
period for the first fight of not only his NHL career, but his hockey life. Tale
of the tape: Zuccarello 5-foot-7, 180 pounds; Oshie 5-11, 190.
“It was behind me, and when I turned around and saw it was him, I was
shocked,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who was very sharp in recording a 23save victory. “At the same time, it was impressive.”
The Rangers couldn’t generate much of an attack after the first period. They
made too many fundamental errors with and without the puck in their own
end and in the neutral zone. But they never cracked, not when the Blues
tied the game 1-1 at 1:32 of the third and not when the Blues tied it again at
10:42 after the Blueshirts had gone ahead on Chris Kreider’s breakaway
goal at 6:30.
No doubt Nash — who somehow played just 14:36 — and Kreider —
whose brilliant takeaway from Kevin Shattenkirk set up No. 61 for the first
goal 4:01 into the season — were the team’s two best forwards.
But even as the club scrambled for nearly all of the final 20 minutes, they
didn’t buckle under. Coach Alain Vigneault essentially went with four
defensemen after Boyle — who had struggled badly in his own end — went
down. The coach gave John Moore 3:13 in the third while heaping time on
752985
New York Rangers
Rangers 3, Blues 2: Boyle out 4-6 weeks
Staff
It was a good start in the win-loss column for the Rangers, who beat a
tough and physical Blues squad, 3-2, tonight at Scottrade Center.
But the victory came at a price.
Coach Alain Vigneault announced after the game defenseman Dan Boyle
broke his hand blocking a shot and will be out 4-6 weeks. At 1:53 of the
third period, Boyle blocked Jori Lehtera’s slap shot. That was his last shift of
the game. Boyle walked through the dressing room and it appeared to be
his right hand that had been injured.
So Matt Hunwick now may make his Rangers’ debut Saturday at Columbus.
The Rangers will also likely call up another defenseman from Hartford
(AHL) perhaps Conor Allen, who could see playing time.
The Rangers will also need to replace Boyle as the power play quarterback
on the first unit. John Moore may get the first crack.
Jesper Fast also has a sore left hand, which was taped, after blocking Ian
Cole’s slap shot at 1:31 of the second period. Fast said he was sore but OK
but coach Alain Vigneault said the team would have to see how he is Friday
when it practices in Columbus.
It seems like there’s a decent chance Kevin Hayes will make his Rangers’
debut against the Blue Jackets as he’s activated off injured reserve.
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New York Rangers
Henrik Lundqvist
Blues:
Live Blog: Rangers beat Blues, 3-2
Patrik Berglund-David Backes-T.J. Oshie
Alexander Steen-Paul Stastny-Vladimir Tarasenko
Staff
Jaden Schwartz-Jori Lehtera-Joakim Lindstrom
Steve Ott-Maxim Lapierre-Ryan Reaves
OK, it’s tough to have a measuring stick game in the season-opener. There
are still too many variables and unknowns about the 2014-15 season.
Yes, the Rangers are expected to be one of the top teams in the Eastern
Conference and the Blues are once again expected to be one of the better
teams in the West.
And both coaches, the Rangers’ Alain Vigneault and Blues’ counterpart Ken
Hitchcock, were looking at tonight’s game as a good way to gauge where
their respective clubs might be this early in the season.
“The Rangers know how to win,” Hitchcock said after his team’s morning
skate. “Going through what New York went through last year, especially the
way Alain built it up, they had a tough start, tough schedule. He built it up
real strong at the end of the year and they had great chemistry, they found
a reason to compete and play for each other. That’s a tough nut. That core
is back. I told our players today we’re in for a real challenge. They just don’t
have speed and skill. They’ve got moxie to them. That’s what I think our
players are looking forward to. We think we’ve got moxie and
gamesmanship, and we know they do after watching them in the playoffs.”
Said Vigneault, “They’re a team that plays the right way. It’s a good test for
us tonight.”
Of course, Vigneault was reminded, Hitchcock was looking at his first six
games, which also includes games against the Kings, Ducks and
Blackhawks - perhaps the West’s top three Stanley Cup favorites - as a test
while Vigneault was limiting his discussion to the Blues.
“Hitch is older than I am,” the 53-year-old Vigneault said of the 62-year-old
Hitchcock. “He’s got to look ahead.”
While the Blues have added free agent center Paul Stastny from the
Avalanche, the Rangers are scrambling at center with Derek Stepan
(fractured left fibula) on long-term injured reserve and forced to miss at
least the first 10 games. Marty St. Louis is being tried in the middle, in
between Chris Kreider and Rick Nash. He looked just OK in his only
preseason game at center and once Kevin Hayes (shoulder) is medically
cleared - likely by Saturday’s game at Columbus - the lineup may change.
Vigneault must also figure out who he can rely on to take key faceoffs,
particularly in the defensive zone.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Vigneault said of St. Louis. “He’s a real smart player.
Other than not having taken a lot of faceoffs in his career, he knows how to
play. He knows how to play whether he’s the first forward on the forecheck
or the first forward back in our zone so I’m real comfortable with him.
“(Faceoffs) we’ll wait as the game evolves,” Vigneault added. “Faceoffs is
not just the guys taking the draw. It’s the forwards getting in there, the Ds
getting in there and helping out. We’ll see how it works out and if we have
to make some adjustments, we will.”
One statistical oddity: The Blues are the only team Henrik Lundqvist has yet
to beat in his career. Lundqvist comes into tonight with a 0-4-0 record and
2.81 goals-against average against the Blues.
From an earlier post today, here are the lineups:
Rangers:
Chris Kreider-Marty St. Louis-Rick Nash
Carl Hagelin-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Anthony Duclair-J.T. Miller-Lee Stempniak
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
John Moore-Kevin Klein
Jay Bouwmeester-Kevin Shattenkirk
Barret Jackman-Jordan Leopold
Ian Cole-Alex Pietrangelo
Brian Elliott
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New York Rangers
Henrik Lundqvist
Blues:
Staff
teams in the West.
us tonight.”
Rangers:
Brian Elliott
752988
New York Rangers
Henrik Lundqvist
Blues:
Staff
teams in the West.
us tonight.”
Rangers:
Brian Elliott
752989
New York Rangers
Duclair excited, not nervous, for NHL debut; Stempniak returns to St. Louis
as a Ranger
Staff
Four Rangers are set to make their team debuts tonight against the Blues:
Anthony Duclair, who, at 19, is making his NHL debut, veteran right wing
Lee Stempniak, 31, who started his NHL career with the Blues in 2005-06,
veteran left wing Tanner Glass and veteran defenseman Dan Boyle.
That will bring the number of players who have skated at least one regularseason or playoff game for the Rangers in the franchise’s 89-year history to
exactly 1,000.
Duclair and Stempniak will be linemates, centered by J.T. Miller.
Stempniak came to the Rangers via free agency, signing a one-year deal
worth $900,000 to play for his sixth NHL franchise. Duclair earned a roster
spot with a strong training camp, scoring three goals with two assists in five
preseason games and impressing the coaching staff with his speed and
defensive awareness.
“I’m really excited, it’s a dream come true for me tonight,” said Duclair, then
asked if he was nervous for his NHL debut. “I don’t really get nervous, I get
more excited. Like my first game against Chicago, I was excited.”
Duclair said his family is not coming out for tonight’s game but will be at
Madison Square Garden for Sunday’s home opener against the Maple
Leafs. Not afraid to pick the brains of his veteran teammates, Duclair knows
regular season play will be nothing like the preseason.
“It will ratchet higher,” Duclair said. “We’re not playing against junior guys,
we’re playing against guys who have been in the league. So it will be a
tough challenge.”
Stempniak, meanwhile, reminisced about his time with the Blues and the
shock that accompanied his trade to the Maple Leafs in 2008-09.
Stempniak has since also played with the Coyotes, Flames and, last
season, the Penguins.
“For me, it was a huge shock,” Stempniak said. “I was here three and a half
years, I had gotten off to a really good start my fourth year (three goals and
10 assists in 14 games) and I got traded right before Thanksgiving. I had
signed a three-year deal (for $7.5 million). I felt I was starting to come into
my own. I didn’t see it coming. That can never really happen again. Once
you’re traded, you have your guard up. I got to Toronto and I’m a little, by
nature, a s shy person so I got there and I didn’t jump in. Now, when I get to
a new team, I know they got you for a reason, you have to play to your
strengths. This is a great group of guys. It’s a really good team. That was
something that was appealing to me, to come to a team capable of winning.
I like this style of play with puck control and skating.”
752990
New York Rangers
Rangers-Blues: Morning skate report
Staff
Welcome to the 2014-15 NHL season.
The Rangers open tonight against the Blues here in St. Louis at the
Scottrade Center, where all players - 14 forwards, seven defensemen and
both goalies - were on the ice for the morning skate.
The Rangers’ lineup will be the same as has been practiced the past three
days so Ryan Malone and Kevin Hayes will be the extra forwards, Matt
Hunwick is the seventh defenseman and Henrik Lundqvist, natch, gets the
start in net.
Hayes is actually on non-roster injured reserve but can be activated
anytime after tonight’s game and coach Alain Vigneault said the 6-foot-3
rookie is expected to be medically cleared either later today or on Friday.
“If we need him after, we could use him,” said Vigneault, who was later
asked between the balance of keeping Hayes on the NHL or making sure
he gets steady playing time with Hartford (AHL) if he’s not doing so with the
Rangers. “All players are different. He had a real good camp. I like a lot of
things he brings to the table, his skill set, the size. So, for tonight, this is the
lineup we have. Once he clears, if we have some decisions to make, we
will.”
Here are the lineups:
Rangers:
Henrik Lundqvist
Blues:
Brian Elliott
As for Lundqvist with regards to the Rangers’ opening stretch of three
games in four nights (and five games in eight days), Vigneault was not
revealing anything about his goalie rotation beyond starting Lundqvist
tonight.
Odds are, though, that Lundqvist will also start Sunday’s home opener
against the Maple Leafs. So the question, for this stretch, is does he also
play Saturday in Columbus?
Also, from today’s Record, here’s a season preview on the Rangers.
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New York Rangers
Five questions facing the Rangrers
Staff
Good morning from St. Louis, where the Rangers open their season tonight
against the Blues at Scottrade Center.
The morning skate is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Until then, please ponder
these five questions about the Rangers’ upcoming season:
1. Can Rick Nash produce in the postseason? Assuming the Rangers make
the playoffs – and they’ve advanced four straight seasons and eight of the
last nine – all eyes will be on their power forward. Nash has just four goals
in 37 playoff games in his first two seasons with the Rangers.
2. Will injuries take their toll? Derek Stepan’s broken leg in training camp
has left the Rangers scrambling at center and experimenting with future
Hall of Fame right wing Marty St. Louis in the middle. A long-term injury to
one of their top six defensemen — among the best in the NHL — or goalie
Henrik Lundqvist could be devastating.
3. How good can Anthony Duclair be? Step 1 for the 19-year-old, a prolific
scorer in junior hockey, was making the team. If he can produce in the NHL,
the Rangers could boast three of the league’s speediest left wings with
Duclair, Carl Hagelin and Chris Kreider.
4. Who will be this season’s Benoit Pouliot? The perennially underachieving
Pouliot, in his only season with the Rangers, responded with a career year
before joining the Oilers via free agency. The Rangers need one of their
depth forwards — Lee Stempniak, Tanner Glass, Ryan Malone, J.T. Miller
and Jesper Fast — to do more than expected.
5. Will Marc Staal get a new deal? GM Glen Sather showed last season he
would trade a core veteran (Ryan Callahan) rather than lose him to free
agency. Staal’s contract status could become a major distraction
752992
New York Rangers
Rangers notes: Fight time for Zuccarello
— Andrew Gross
October 10, 2014
Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 1:21 AM
The Record
Fight time
The odds were against diminutive Mats Zuccarello being the first Ranger
engaged in a fight this season.
Yet the feisty right wing did just that, dropping the gloves in a spirited bout
against the much bigger T.J. Oshie behind the Rangers’ crease at 5:07 of
the third period.
"I turned around and saw Zucc and I was shocked," G Henrik Lundqvist
said. "At the same time, it was impressive of him to stand up like that. He
plays with an edge to his game."
It marked the 5-foot-7 Zuccarello’s first NHL fight, per hockeyfights.com.
"I hit him, he slashed me and one thing led to another," Zuccarello said.
Not intentional
D Dan Girardi drew the ire of the Blues when he stuck out his right leg while
checking Blues C Peter Stastny at 15:38 of the second period.
The livid Blues all rushed Girardi, starting a scrum that was quickly
contained as Stastny was helped off the ice, though he quickly returned to
the game.
Girardi, though, was issued a two-minute minor for tripping, not a kneeing
major.
"It was kind of an all-or-nothing play," Girardi said. "If I sit back, he’s going
to make a play. I’m not trying to hurt anybody. I’m glad I didn’t hit him right
on the knee."
Briefs
With Fs Anthony Duclair, Tanner Glass and Lee Stempniak and D Dan
Boyle making their Rangers’ debuts, exactly 1,000 players have skated in at
least one regular-season or playoff game for the franchise in its 89-year
history. … F Ryan Malone and D Matt Hunwick were the healthy scratches.
… Rookie F Kevin Hayes (shoulder) will be activated from injured reserve
by Saturday’s game in Columbus. … The Rangers lost 31 of 56 faceoffs.
J.T. Miller was 0-for-8.
752993
New York Rangers
“It was a hard-fought game by both teams,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault
said. “I really like our first period, but we lost a little momentum in the
second period with some decisions with the puck and going to the box.”
Rangers beat Blues, 3-2, but lose Boyle
In addition to Boyle, veterans Lee Stempniak and Tanner Glass and rookie
Anthony Duclair, 19, made their debuts.
October 9, 2014, 10:50 PM
AM
“I’m really excited, it’s a dream come true for me tonight,” said Duclair, held
without a shot in 11:12. “I don’t really get nervous, I get more excited.”
Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014, 12:37
By ANDREW GROSS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The Rangers' Rick Nash (61) celebrates with teammates on the bench after
scoring a goal in the first period against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in
St. Louis.
AP
The Rangers' Rick Nash (61) celebrates with teammates on the bench after
scoring a goal in the first period against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in
St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS – It’s a long journey from Game 1 to the playoffs, let alone the
Stanley Cup Final, as the Rangers learned last season.
But, to Rick Nash at least, Thursday night’s 3-2 win over the Blues at
Scottrade Center felt more like the postseason than a season opener.
“I was thinking on the bench the last five minutes it felt like the playoffs,”
said Nash, who had two goals and an assist, including the winner with 1:50
remaining in regulation off Marty St. Louis’ great feed after a fortunate
carom off the glass.
But the victory came at a cost for the Rangers as defenseman Dan Boyle, a
key free-agent signee and the team’s power-play quarterback, broke his
hand blocking Jori Lehtera’s slap shot at 1:53 of the third period. He will be
out four to six weeks.
That, and Jesper Fast’s sore left hand courtesy of blocking Ian Cole’s
second-period slap shot, put somewhat of a damper on an otherwise solid
win against one of the Western Conference’s top teams.
Nash and his line with converted right wing St. Louis in the middle and left
wing Chris Kreider combined for all three goals along
with three assists and Nash was also a contributor to the Rangers’ five-forfive penalty kill. The Rangers held a distinct skating advantage in the first
period and then were resilient as the Blues twice erased one-goal deficits.
“It was like something just switched,” defenseman Dan Girardi said. “This
morning we had a talk – because of training camp and the large group we
have not had a lot of time with just this group – and we wanted to make
sure we were really focused.”
The Rangers continue this stretch of three games in four nights – and five in
eight days – at Columbus on Saturday before returning to Madison Square
Garden to host the Maple Leafs on Sunday.
Henrik Lundqvist (23 saves) earned his first win in five tries against the
Blues, the last team he had yet to record a victory against.
“All the guys were excited, we missed it,” Lundqvist said. “It was a lot of fun
to be out competing. It was a great game to start with. The way we
responded as a team and personally after each goal was good.
“The third period was really a challenge, but we stepped it up big time.”
Kreider put the Rangers ahead, 2-1, at 6:30 of the third period on a
breakaway as he was sprung by Nash at the red line and the speedy left
wing beat Brian Elliott (22 saves) to the stick side. But Vladimir Tarasenko
tied it again at 2 at 10:42.
The Blues, who held an 8-4 shot advantage in the second period after being
outshot, 16-8, in the first period, tied the game at 1 at 1:32 of the third.
Lundqvist allowed a long rebound on David Backes’ shot and Jaden
Schwartz got past defenseman John Moore for the goal.
Nash, open in the slot, made it 1-0 at 4:01 of the first period thanks to
Kreider’s forechecking, which created a turnover.
752994
New York Rangers
Mats Zuccarello fights with T.J. Oshie, emerges unscathed
Updated October 10, 2014 1:30 AM
By STEVE ZIPAY steve.zipay@newsday.com
ST. LOUIS - There was Mats Zuccarello, helmet off, gloves off, hair flying,
scrapping with the much bigger T.J. Oshie behind Henrik Lundqvist.
It happened at 5:07 of the third period Thursday night, and it was significant
because it was the first fight of the diminutive but feisty Norwegian's pro
career.
"I tried to get a little bit of a spark; he slashed me," said the 5-7, 179-pound
Zuccarello, who took a pounding from the 5-11, 189-pound Oshie but
emerged uncut. "There's always a first for everything. It's good to get it out
of the way. Situations happen. Some games it's like this, playing a tough
team away, but I'm not going to make a living by fighting."
Lundqvist, who turned around to watch from the crease, didn't realize at first
that it was Zuccarello. "I was shocked," he said, "but at the same time, it
was impressive. You could tell already in the preseason he's been playing
with more of an edge. It's good for the team."
Blue notes
Dominic Moore won 12 of 16 faceoffs but the Rangers won only 45 percent
overall. "It's an area where we're going to have to improve,'' coach Alain
Vigneault said. "[Derick Brassard] and Dom were all right, Marty [St. Louis]
is going to get better and J.T. [Miller, who was 0-for-8] was just off tonight." .
. . With defenseman Dan Boyle out with a broken hand, the Rangers will
need to adjust their defense. Kevin Klein might have to move from the third
to second pair and Matt Hunwick could get his first start as a Ranger
Saturday . . . Fourth-line winger Jesper Fast, who injured his left wrist
blocking a shot but kept playing, might not be able to dress Saturday. Either
veteran Ryan Malone or rookie Kevin Hayes could make his Rangers debut
. . . Ryan McDonagh wore the "C'' for the first time. St. Louis and Marc Staal
wore "A'' as alternate captains. Dan Girardi will be an alternate captain at
home games . . . Vigneault said Kevin Hayes (shoulder injury) "will be
medically cleared [Thursday] or [Friday]. He had a real good camp; I like a
lot of things he brings to the table. If we have some decisions to make, he
can come off IR at any time."
Duke was ready
The Duke was as prepared as possible for his NHL debut.
Before 19-year-old Anthony Duclair hit the ice at Scottrade Center for his
first NHL regular-season game, he expected to be tested.
"I don't get nervous, I get excited. Like my first [preseason] game in
Chicago, I was so excited to get out there," said Duclair, who scored 50
goals in juniors for the Quebec Remparts last season and who had a
surprisingly productive training camp. "I think it's going to be the same
jitterbugs tonight."
The pace of the game, Duclair predicted, was "going to be a notch higher.
I'm not playing against junior guys, not playing against guys who played in
the American Hockey League. It's men who've been in the league a while
now, and obviously, it's going to be a tough challenge."
Duclair, who started on a line with Miller and Lee Stempniak and had 11:12
of ice time, has been asking a lot of questions on positioning, and that
continued Wednesday before the Rangers flew here. Vigneault dismissed
the possibility that Duclair wasn't ready, saying: "Players that are playing
tonight deserved to start the season with us."
752995
New York Rangers
Rick Nash's goal with 1:50 left gives Rangers a 3-2 win over Blues in
opener
Updated October 10, 2014 12:27 AM
By STEVE ZIPAY steve.zipay@newsday.com
ST. LOUIS -- Capping a high-end effort all over the ice, Rick Nash scored
his second goal of the game with 1:50 left Thursday night to give the
Rangers a season-opening 3-2 victory over the Blues.
The victory was dampened by the news that veteran defenseman Dan
Boyle, playing his first game as a Ranger after being signed as a free agent
from San Jose, will miss four to six weeks with a broken right hand after
blocking a shot early in the third period.
With the score tied at 2, Nash -- who opened the scoring at 4:01 of the first
period after Chris Kreider's steal along the right boards and then sprung
Kreider for a breakaway goal in the third -- buried a no-look backhand pass
from Martin St. Louis, who slid the puck under defenseman Jay
Bouwmeester.
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had said before the game at Scottrade Center
that season openers often have "a level of bizarreness to them," and on the
winner, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo's clearing pass caromed off the glass
and back into the Blues' end.
"I saw it right away. It hit the glass or the seam and fired back. I was yelling
to Marty that it stayed in the zone," Nash said.
Nash scored 26 goals last season but missed 17 games after an early
concussion. He had only three goals in the postseason.
The Blues, who beat the Rangers twice last season, had fought back from
1-0 and 2-1 deficits and had a chance to snap a 2-2 tie when Mats
Zuccarello was called for tripping behind the Rangers' net with 5:34 to play.
Henrik Lundqvist (23 saves) had to stop three power-play shots in order to
seal his first career win against the Blues after four losses.
"Great start for us. Five-onfive, we did a lot of good things. The penalty kill
was outstanding; saved us a couple times," Lundqvist said. "The way we
responded as a team after each goal was good. You can't expect it to be
easy to come into this building."
Ryan McDonagh, who wore the "C'' for the first time, said the Rangers, with
eight penalties, "spent a little too much time in the box. We should be
moving our feet more, but for the most part, I just loved our compete level."
The Kreider-St. Louis-Nash line, which coach Alain Vigneault assembled
because center Derek Stepan is out with a fractured fibula, totaled seven
points.
"They made the other team pay when they made some mistakes,"
Vigneault said.
The Rangers led 1-0 after two periods and took a 2-1 lead when Kreider
raced in on a breakaway and beat Brian Elliott on the blocker side at 6:30 of
the third. But Paul Stastny tied it with 9:18 left on a deflection off an oddman rush.
With the Rangers up 1-0 after two periods, Lundqvist tried to bat away a
rebound, but Jaden Schwartz, charging the net, beat him to the puck and
chipped it over him, tying it at 1:32 of the third period.
But the Rangers prevailed and headed to Columbus for the second game of
the season Saturday.
"The last five minutes, it felt like a playoff game,'' Nash said.
Said Vigneault, "We found a way to win in one of the toughest buildings in
the league."
752996
New York Rangers
Rangers-Blues in review; Live Chat Friday at noon
did a couple of cool little things with the puck. Don’t remember much of his
speed or skill in this game otherwise.
11) Dominic Moore is such a good, smart, fast, annoying player. I think he’ll
be better this year. Remember, he sat out the year before last and had a
tough time catching up. The only guy who can win a faceoff.
10 October 2014, 2:56 am by Carp in Game review Hockey New York
Rangers NHL Rangers Report - 13 Comments
12) St. Louis in St. Louis. Just had to write that. Marty didn’t look out of
place at center, other than faceoffs. Had a turnover that turned into a goal,
though it shouldn’t have turned into a goal. Hit the crossbar. Had the gamewinning assist. Guy competes, boy.
Thoughts:
13) I know, John Moore has had his struggles at times. And it was his man
that scored the first goal. But, geez, he’s 23. Most often, D-men develop
later. Still a ton of upside.
1) For opening night, that was one heckuva hockey game. Not perfect. But
great pace, physical, entertaining.
2) Dan Boyle broke his hand blocking a shot, and is out 4-6 weeks. Got to
wonder what that means, whether the Rangers call up somebody (Matt
Hunwick is a left D so they might need a right). Would they call up Michael
Kostka over Conor Allen (probably). Can they trade Joey Crabb for Steven
Kampfer? Seriously, I what I wonder even more what in Holy Hell they do
with the point on the power play now. They finally filled that spot with a legit
PPQB, and he lasted less than one game. Lee Stempniak is one obvious
guy. Ryan McDonagh is another. Could be a big problem. Of course, if they
can’t win a power-play draw, if they have to count on Chris Kreider to take a
faceoff on a power play, it won’t matter much who plays the point. Though I
did think, with Boyle back there, they had some good ones.NY Rangers at
St. Louis
3) Daily Nash-O-Meter. The needle broke off, early. Rick Nash made two or
three good plays before the first goal. Got nasty with David Backes late
first. Made the touchdown pass to Chris Kreider for the 2-1 goal in the third.
Scored the game-winning goal off that bad bounce for the Blues, and was
the one yelling to Martin St. Louis that the puck had taken that odd, high
hop off the glass. Then made a defensive play in the slot, knocking his man
down, at the buzzer. Make all the Nash jokes you want, but they’re going to
need a lot of goals from him just to get into the playoffs. He’s on pace for
164 goals and 246 points, which should get a few people off his back. And
you just know he’s going to get at least one in Columbus Saturday.
4) Chris Kreider=Beast. His goal was breathtaking. Kreider looked like Mess
on the goal in that he A) flew the zone even though there was danger in the
D-zone and B) lifted his back leg just before he scored. Big goal at a big
moment. Kreider’s speed on the puck turned it over on the first Nash goal,
then he made a great pass. Also had a hit on Pietrangelo on the gamedeciding turnover. And he’s not a rookie anymore. He looks like he’s up by
two gears from the preseason. I think he also made the PP pass on which
Martin St. Louis hit the crossbar. Correct me if I’m wrong. Or not.
New York Rangers v St. Louis Blues5) Henrik Lundqvist. Very sharp. Hard
to believe he had never beaten the Blues before, even if they don’t see a lot
of each other. Needs to handle that high puck that handcuffed him on the 21 goal better than he did. John Moore needs to be better than that, too, on
the backcheck. But I thought Lundqvist overall was pretty damn good
against a very good team, albeit one that sometimes struggles to score.
And I think he’s looked that way from Day 1 of camp.
6) The Captain looked pretty decent too. McMonster. And a big game by his
pards. Dan Girardi was kind of nasty with David Backes on the PK and
stole and cleared the puck 3-on-5. Then got away with just two minutes for
the knee that send Stastny limping off. They were terrific on the PK.
7) By the way, until the last game in Newark, I thought the Rangers’ D-men
had cut down on the snow angels this preseason. In this game last night,
they were able to move some bodies in front because they were on their
skates., especially Girardi. Worth watching.
8) Jesper Fast, on his first shift, prevented a chance by Ott in front. Hurt his
hand in the second, blocking a shot awkwardly. Returned, but not sure what
his status will be in Columbus Saturday.NY Rangers at St. Louis
9) Got to love the way the Derick Brassard-Carl Hagelin-Mats Zuccarello
line drives to the net. By the way, Zuccarello said to me two weeks ago,
“Someday I’m gonna get my ass kicked.” That day was yesterday.
Brassard, due to necessity, was on the PK and I thought he did great there.
One of his PK shifts nearly led to the first Jack In The Box goal of the
season, by Zuccarello at the end of one of his penalties. Zuccarello really
can’t take that offensive zone tripping penalty late.
10) Anthony Duclair. Didn’t notice him a lot. Probably a good thing for a 19year-old playing his first NHL game in that building against that team. He
14) I like the rough stuff and the grinding and the fights, but man, this speed
game is something to watch.
15) Overall, I thought the MSG Network broadcast was outstanding. MSG
stuck with the first scrum. Good work. Gotta love that Brian Leetch is back
in the studio.
Rockland Journal News: LOADED: 10.10.2014
752997
New York Rangers
Rangers 3, Blues 2 … post-game notes
09 October 2014, 11:31 pm by Carp in Hockey New York Rangers NHL
Post-game notes Rangers Report - 49 Comments
Team notes:
Dan Boyle, Anthony Duclair, Tanner Glass, and Lee Stempniak all
made their Rangers debuts in tonight’s contest. The Rangers have now had
1,000 players appear in at least one regular season or playoff game in
franchise history.
The Rangers were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in the contest. The
Blueshirts ranked third in the NHL on the penalty kill last season (198-for232; 85.3%), and didn’t allow a power play goal in 51 of 82 regular season
games.
New York was credited with 18 blocked shots in the game. Nine
skaters recorded at least one blocked shot, while three players (Dan Boyle,
Dan Girardi, and Ryan McDonagh) were credited with at least three blocked
shots.
The Blueshirts have recorded a point in 123 of their last 124 games
when leading after two periods, dating back to February 4, 2010 against
Washington (115-1-8 over the span).
New York won its first road game of the season after establishing a
single-season franchise record with 25 road victories during the 2013-14
season. The Rangers were the only NHL team that won at least 24 road
games in three out of four seasons between 2010-11 and 2013-14, and
they are tied for second in the NHL in road wins (84) since the start of the
2010-11 season.
The Rangers became the first team in NHL history to have players
wearing #61 (Rick Nash), #62 (Carl Hagelin), and #63 (Anthony Duclair) in
a regular season game.
3 Stars on Broadway:
Rick Nash tallied two goals, including the game-winning goal with
1:50 remaining in regulation, added an assist, tied for the team-high with
four shots on goal, and posted a plus-two rating in 14:36 of ice time. Nash
has tallied 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in 12 regular season
opening games in his career, including five points (two goals, three assists)
in three regular season openers with the Rangers. Nash tallied a gamewinning goal with less than two minutes remaining in the third period twice
last season. He also tied a single-season franchise record with nine gamewinning goals in 2013-14.
Chris Kreider registered a goal in the third period, recorded an assist,
was credited with three hits, and posted a plus-two rating in 14:43 of ice
time. Kreider recorded seven of his 17 goals last season in the third period.
Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves to record the victory while starting
his ninth consecutive regular season opener with the Rangers. With the
victory, Lundqvist has now won at least one game against every
organization he has faced in his career. The franchise’s all-time wins and
shutouts leader became the fifth goalie in Rangers history to play in parts of
10 seasons with the team (joining Mike Richter, Ed Giacomin, John
Vanbiesbrouck, and Gump Worsley), and became the third goalie in team
history to start at least nine straight regular season openers.
Blueshirt breakdown:
Martin St. Louis notched two assists, and posted a plus-two rating in
16:37 of ice time. St. Louis is 17 points away from reaching 1,000 in his
NHL career.
Anthony Duclair logged 11:12 of ice time while making his NHL debut.
The 19-year-old is one of 18 teenagers who made an NHL opening night
roster this year, and is the seventh-youngest player of the group. Duclair
also became the first player to wear #63 in a regular season game in
franchise history.
Ryan McDonagh tied for the game-high with four blocked shots and
tied for the team-high with four shots on goal while leading all skaters with
28:51 of ice time in his first game as Rangers captain. In 2013-14,
McDonagh logged at least 25 minutes of ice time in 40 of 77 regular season
contests and led the Rangers in average ice time (24:49).
752998
New York Rangers
Rangers at Blues … It’s Go Time!
09 October 2014, 7:30 pm by Carp in Hockey It's Go Time! New York
Rangers NHL Rangers Report - 738 Comments
Game 1.blues
Rangers at Blues.
Ya boys set out to duplicate and surpass what they did last season. Tall
task.
But they are as good or better than they were last year, theoretically
anyway.
They leap right back onto the horse with three games in four nights, a visit
to Rick Nash’s old haunt in Columbus against the Metro challenger Blue
Jackets on Saturday and the home opener, with the Eastern Conference
championship banner already in the ceiling, at the Garden Sunday against
powerhouse Toronto.
Ryan McDonagh plays his first game as Rangers captain; Anthony Duclair
makes his NHL debut; and Dan Boyle, Lee Stempniak and Tanner Glass
play their first games as Rangers. Kevin Hayes is cleared to return from IR
tomorrow. Ryan Malone and Matt Hunwick are prucha’d.
Henrik Lundqvist starts in goal, and Alain Vigneault was non-committal
about whether Cam Talbot will get the start in Columbus Saturday.
The big, bad Blues feature the pride of New Rochelle, Kevin Shattenkirk.
Included on the Blues’ injury list is Ben Ferriero. Remember him?
Reminder: We’ll have our first Live Chat of this regular season Friday at
noon. Be there. We will discuss whether the Rangers will go 82-0-0, 0-82-0
or 0-0-82. I can try to talk you down if the discussion is about the latter two.
752999
New York Rangers
Rangers at Blues tonight (8 p.m.) … pregame notes
Pregame notes Rangers Report - 88 Comments
St. Louis Blues v New York Rangers
Courtesy of the NYR:
NEW YORK RANGERS at ST. LOUIS BLUES
Thursday, Oct. 9, 8:00 p.m. ETblues
Scottrade Center – St. Louis, MO
Rangers: 45-31-6 (96 pts)*
Blues: 52-23-7 (111 pts)*
* Team records are from the 2013-14 regular season
TONIGHT’S GAME
The Rangers will open up the 2014-15 regular season against the St. Louis
Blues at Scottrade Center (8:00 p.m. ET —TV: MSG Network; Radio: ESPN
98.7 FM). Tonight is the first contest of a two-game road trip for the
Blueshirts before they play their home opener on Sunday, Oct. 12, against
the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Rangers posted a 45-31-6 record last season
(20-17-4 at home, 25-14-2 on the road), finishing second in the Metropolitan
Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. New York defeated
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Montreal in the playoffs to advance to the
Stanley Cup Final. St. Louis posted a 52-23-7 record last season (28-9-4 at
home, 24-14-3 on the road), finishing second in the Central Division and
third in the Western Conference. The Blues were eliminated by the Chicago
Blackhawks in the Central Division Semifinals.
RANGERS VS. BLUES:
·
All-Time: 75-42-16-0 overall (45-13-6-0 at home; 30-29-10-0 on the
road)
·
Last Season: The Rangers were 0-2-0 overall (0-1-0 at home, 0-1-0
on the road). New York was 2-for-8 on the power play (25%) in the two
contests. Derek Stepan led all Rangers with three assists and three points,
while Derick Brassard registered two assists against the Blues. Henrik
Lundqvist posted a 2.32 GAA and a .929 SV% in two appearances.
·
The Rangers and Blues have been separated by two goals or fewer
in 11 of the last 13 contests against each other, dating back to November 3,
2002
·
New York lists one former Blue on its roster: Lee Stempniak (2005-06
2008-09)
·
St. Louis lists no former Rangers on its roster
INDIVIDUAL CAREER LEADERS VS. BLUES:
·
Henrik Lundqvist - 5 GP, 0-4-0, 2.81 GAA, .905 SV%
·
Rick Nash - 50 GP, 21-19-40
·
Dan Boyle - 31 GP, 2-17-19
·
Martin St. Louis 19 GP, 4-14-18
·
Derick Brassard 22 GP, 3-14-17 – Brassard has more assists and
points against St. Louis than any NHL opponent
·
Kevin Klein has scored more goals against the Blues (four) in his
career than against any NHL opponent
UPCOMING MILESTONES
(28-for-132; 21.2%). New York was tied for 13th in the NHL on the power
play during the preseason (3-for-20; 15.0%).
·
Penalty Kill: The Blueshirts ranked third in the NHL on the penalty kill
(198-for-232; 85.3%), and were also third in the NHL on the road (109-for127; 85.8%). New York was also tied for third in shorthanded goals (10) in
2013-14. The Rangers were 13th in the NHL on the penalty kill during the
preseason (20-for-23; 87.0%).
2014 PRESEASON IN REVIEW: The Rangers posted a 3-3-0 record in six
preseason contests this year. Of the 35 skaters who played at least one
preseason game for the Blueshirts, 26 tallied a point, and 13 players
registered at least two points. New York won more faceoffs than its
opponent in each of the last five preseason contests, posting a 59.3%
faceoff win percentage (156-for-263) over the span.
AV SQUAD: Alain Vigneault has reached the playoffs in seven of the last
eight seasons, including each of the last six seasons. According to the Elias
Sports Bureau, the 2006-07 Jack Adams Award winner leads all NHL
coaches in wins (358), is tied for first in games coached (622), and ranks
seventh among all coaches (minimum 100 games coached) in win
percentage (.626) over the last eight seasons.
CAPTAIN MAC:Ryan McDonagh was named the 27th captain in Rangers
history on Monday. McDonagh, who was named Team MVP and received
the Players’ Player Award for being the Rangers who best exemplifies what
it means to be a team player in 2013-14, is the fourth-youngest captain in
franchise history, and is the 11th defenseman to receive the honor. Last
season, the 25-year-old established career-highs in goals (14), assists (29),
points (43), power play points (13), shorthanded goals (three), gamewinning goals (four), and average ice time (24:49). In the 2014 Playoffs,
McDonagh tied for first among NHL defensemen in assists (13), and ranked
second among NHL defensemen in points (17). He established a franchise
record for assists by a defenseman in one playoff series with eight during
the Rangers’ six-game series victory over Montreal in the Eastern
Conference Finals.
PERFECT 10: Henrik Lundqvist is entering his 10th season with the
Rangers. Lundqvist is the 37th player in franchise history to play in parts of
10 seasons with the team. He is also the fifth goaltender to play at least 10
years with the Blueshirts, joining Mike Richter, Ed Giacomin, John
Vanbiesbrouck, and Gump Worsley. If Lundqvist starts against St. Louis,
the Rangers’ all-time wins and shutouts leader would become the third
goaltender in franchise history to start at least nine consecutive regular
season openers (2006-07 – 2014-15), joining Giacomin (11 – 1965-66 –
1975-76) and Worsley (nine – 1954-55 – 1962-63).
Since entering the NHL in 2005-06, Lundqvist leads all goalies (minimum
200 appearances) in appearances (574), wins (309), GAA (2.26), and
shutouts (50), and ranks second in SV% (.920).
ROAD WARRIORS:The Rangers established a franchise record for road
victories in one season with 25 in 2013-14. The Blueshirts are the only team
who has won at least 24 road games in three of the last four seasons, and
they rank third in the NHL in road victories (83) since the start of the 201011 season.
RICK ROLLING: Rick Nash is the only player in the NHL to have an active
streak of 10 consecutive 20-goal seasons. Since joining the Rangers prior
to the 2012-13 season, Nash leads all NHL players in 5-on-5 goals per 60
minutes. Last season, the five-time NHL All-Star tied the Rangers’ franchise
record for game-winning goals in one season with nine.
SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS: Martin St. Louis leads all NHL players in points
(396) and ranks third among NHL players in assists (264) since the start of
the 2009-10 season. He is one of three players who have won the Art Ross
Trophy twice since the 2003-04 season (2003-04, 2012-13), along with
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. St. Louis, who was a finalist for the Lady
Byng Trophy last season and is a three-time recipient of the award, is also
one of two players in NHL history to skate in at least 1,000 career games,
record 600 or more assists, register at least 950 points, and not amass
more than 300 penalty minutes (along with Jean Ratelle). St. Louis was
named one of the Rangers’ four alternate captains for the 2014-15 season
on Monday.
SPECIAL TEAMS
SHORTHANDED SPECIALIST: Lee Stempniak leads the NHL in
shorthanded assists (seven) and shorthanded points (nine) since the start
of the 2012-13 season. Last season, he tied for fourth in the NHL in
shorthanded assists (three) and shorthanded points (five).
·
Power Play: The Rangers ranked 15th in the NHL on the power play
last season (48-for-264; 18.2%), and were seventh in the NHL on the road
APPROACHING 1,000: Entering the 2014-15 season, 996 players have
skated in at least one regular season or playoff game with the Rangers over
·
Carl Hagelin - five points away from 100 in his NHL career
the team’s 89-year history. Players on the Rangers active roster who have
yet to make their Ranger debuts are: Dan Boyle, Anthony Duclair, Tanner
Glass, Kevin Hayes, Matt Hunwick, Ryan Malone, and Lee Stempniak.
NUMBERS GAME:
·
Kevin Hayes will wear #13 with the Rangers this season. Hayes will
be the eighth player to wear #13 in franchise history, joining Jack Stoddard,
Bob Brooke, Sergei Nemchinov, Valeri Kamensky, Richard Scott, Nikolai
Zherdev, and Daniel Carcillo.
·
Anthony Duclair will become the first Ranger in franchise history to
wear #63.
·
No NHL team has ever had three players wearing numbers 61, 62,
and 63 in the lineup at the same time for a regular season game
DUC OF NEW YORK: Anthony Duclair was named the winner of the 2014
Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award as the top Rangers rookie in Training Camp. The
19-year-old led the team in points (five), tied for the team lead in goals
(three) and game-winning goals (one), ranked second in shots on goal (10),
and tied for third in assists (two) and plus/minus rating (plus-two) during the
preseason. Duclair is the first teenager to make the Rangers roster out of
training camp since Michael Del Zotto in 2009-10.
“It’s pretty special. I’m looking at the names engraved on this trophy like
Tony Amonte and Mike Richter, and with all of the history with this team, I’m
pretty humbled to share this award with them.” – Duclair on being named
the winner of the 2014 Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award
INJURIES:
·
Derek Stepan (non-displaced fractured fibula) placed on long-term
injured reserve
·
Kevin Hayes (shoulder) day-to-day
RECENT TRANSACTIONS:
·
Oct. 7 Assigned Chris Mueller to Hartford (AHL)
·
Oct. 6 Assigned Cedrick Desjardins, Ryan Haggerty, Marek Hrivik,
Steven Kampfer, Michael Kostka, Oscar Lindberg, Matthew Lombardi, and
Dylan McIlrath to Hartford (AHL); Acquired Joey Crabb from the Florida
Panthers in exchange for Steven Kampfer and Andrew Yogan.
753000
New York Rangers
7. Edmonton.
Wild cards:
Season preview: Predictions … Ducks over Bruins in Stanley Cup Final
East—Washington, Philadelphia.
West—Minnesota, Dallas.old RR logo
Rangers Report Stanley Cup playoffs - 127 Comments
Eastern Conference final:
Boston over Rangers.
Western Conference final:
Boston Bruins v Anaheim Ducks
Here we go. Or as Pitbull says, “Dale’.” The regular season began last night
and ya boys open up tonight.
So below are my predictions. As you know I correctly predicted every
division exactly last season, plus predicted in the preseason Los Angeles
over the Rangers in five in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.
Would love to see your picks, too. Just drop ‘em in the comments as usual.
MINE:
MetropolitanStanley Cup by me
1. Pittsburgh.
2. Rangers.
3. Columbus.
4. Washington.
5. Philadelphia.
6. Devils.
7. Islanders.
8. Carolina.
Atlantic
1. Boston.
2. Tampa Bay.
3. Montreal.
4. Detroit.
5. Ottawa.
6. Toronto.
7. Buffalo.
8. Florida.
Central
1. Chicago.
2. Colorado.
3. St. Louis.
4. Minnesota.
5. Dallas.
6. Winnipeg.
7. Nashville.
Pacific
1. Anaheim.
2. Los Angeles.
3. San Jose.
4. Arizona.
5. Vancouver.
6. Calgary.
Anaheim over Chicago.
Stanley Cup Final:
Anaheim over Boston.
753001
Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators fail to hold off Predators in season opener
penalty box. Chiasson nearly had his first goal as a Senator, but had to wait
until later in the game, as he couldn’t get his stick on a bouncing puck with
Rinne down and out. Chiasson then fed Erik Karlsson, but his shot missed
the net.
GAME FILE
Wayne Scanlan Published on: October 9, 2014
WHY THEY LOST
NASHVILLE – And they’re off!
For long stretches, the Senators played a decent road game but missed
some power play opportunities (1-for-5) and demonstrated some familiar
uh-oh moments in their own zone.
The Ottawa Senators finally got down to the business of the 2014-15
regular season and they opened with a disappointing loss on the road,
blowing a one-goal lead in the third period to fall 3-2 on opening night.
CHEERS
To the best arena music in the NHL, live or taped. Helps to be able to mine
the vast reserves of talent in the Music City.
The Predators scored all three of their goals in the third period, as the
Senators defensive coverage broke down.
JEERS
“I thought our competition level waned as the night went on,” said Senators
head coach Paul MacLean.
To the dive by James Neal on a soft shove by Cowen, who was penalized
for interference. The NHL is trying to get rid of diving and won’t like seeing
that act. Neal drew two Ottawa penalties.
Both teams were showcasing radically altered lineups, the Predators with
the additions of James Neal, Olli Jokinen, Mike Ribeiro and Anton
Volchenkov. The Senators, meanwhile, had eight new faces from their
opening lineup in Buffalo a year ago.
One of Ottawa’s fresh faces, 19-year-old Curtis Lazar, had his welcome-tothe-NHL moment in the first period, receiving a pass from Mark Borowiecki
only to find himself with his head down in the train tracks of the A-Train
himself, Anton Volchenkov. The ex-Senators defenceman leveled Lazar as
Chris Neil skated over to shove a couple of Predators in response.
“I got caught with my head down and Volchenkov kind of welcomed me to
the league,” Lazar said. “I saw him coming . . . but I have to keep my head
up. I think he took it a bit easy on me and I appreciate that.”
While the newbies did alright, it was a familiar figure in a No. 7 sweater that
scored Ottawa’s first goal of the season. Barely into the second period after
a scoreless first, centre Kyle Turris snapped a long wrist shot that beat
goaltender Pekka Rinne on the blocker side, off the post and in. Clarke
MacArthur and Borowiecki drew the assists.
It was Borowiecki’s first career NHL assist. He scored his first NHL goal last
season.
The Nashville Predators hosted the Ottawa Senators at Bridgestone Arena
in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, October 9, 2014.
Ottawa had two power-play opportunities in the second period, but couldn’t
pad the lead, then faced a kill to open the third period, with Jared Cowen off
on a questionable interference call.
In the early moments of the penalty carryover in the third period, a slick
goalmouth pass from Filip Forsberg to Craig Smith resulted in a tap-in goal
for Smith and a 1-1 game. A few minutes later, the Preds captain, Weber,
beat Senators goalie Craig Anderson on a wraparound play to give the
home team its first lead of the game. They added to it when Eric Nystrom
capitalized on a loose puck, as MacArthur’s pass to Turris got picked off.
Oooh, boy. Back to the drawing board as far as the stated goal of cutting
down on giveaways.
Alex Chiasson, with his first Ottawa goal, tipped a Cody Ceci shot to make
things interesting. In an attempt to tie the game, Mike Hoffman hit a post but
the puck just stayed out.
Longtime Predators centre David Legwand returned to Nashville and was
greeted by a video montage that concluded with a message of “Thank you,
Leggy!” The Bridgestone Arena crowd roared in approval.
“Leggy” had a good scoring chance in the second period, but fanned on his
shot as he took aim at his former teammate Rinne. Legwand finished his
night in the penalty box. First, he had to be directed out of the home penalty
box, which he went to instinctively.
“Fifteen years of going to the same box,” Legwand said afterward.
Playing on their own soft ice, the Predators had the majority of play in the
opening 20 minutes and owned the shot clock, 13-9, yet it was the visitors
who had the better scoring chances.
With the leftover momentum of a power play, the Senators had two brilliant
opportunities after Nashville’s James Neal returned to the ice from the
QUOTE (1) – Head coach Paul MacLean figured former Legwand’s return
home would be a good luck charm. “That just gives us even more
confidence in having him here . . . to help us along the way and I think it’s
going to be a special night for him.”
QUOTE (2) – A Nashville broadcaster speaking about the Predators. “We
haven’t had this much talent here since Paul Kariya left (in 2007).”
Ottawa Citizen LOADED: 10.10.2014
753002
Ottawa Senators
Game day skate: Wiercioch, Greening, Condra out
Wayne ScanlanPublished on: October 9, 2014
NASHVILLE • The Ottawa Senators will skate into game one with the same
lineup it has presented all week.
That means, Craig Anderson starts in goal and sitting out will be forwards
Colin Greening, Erik Condra and defenceman Patrick Wiercioch.
Curtis Lazar makes his NHL debut at forward and Alex Chiasson and David
Legwand, who returns to his former NHL home, will play their first games as
a Senator.
Head coach Paul MacLean says the three healthy scratches know where
they stand.
“Yesterday we had extensive conversations . . . at this point in time we can
only play 20 guys,” MacLean said. “Based on how training camp went, the
best 20 players are in the lineup tonight.”
MacLean didn’t rule out the scratched players getting into the lineup soon.
After Thursday’s game, the Senators fly to Tampa for a Saturday game
against the Lightning and then on to Sunrise, Florida for a Monday date with
the Panthers.
753003
Ottawa Senators
Konecny to wear C for 67's
Winger James Neal was a happy Pittsburgh Penguin last season, but the
Penguins playoff disappointment culminated in a Neal trade to Nashville for
forwards Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. The 40-goal man of 2011-12
was floored to get the news in June.
Mike Carroccetto / Ottawa Citizen
“I think any deal catches you off guard,” Neal said. “Yeah, I was shocked to
be traded, but I was shocked to be traded out of Dallas as well. When you
don’t win and you don’t have success, things change.”
NASHVILLE • For Curtis Lazar, this was Christmas in October, his first NHL
game.
“I woke up this morning and felt like a little kid again,” Lazar said before the
Senators opened their 2014-15 season against the Nashville Predators.
“You dream of playing in the National Hockey League and I’m going to get
that opportunity. I can’t wait to get going.”
Lazar’s debut was a family affair, with his mother and father (Karen and
Dave) sister Jenna and brothers Ryan and Corey in attendance. The
Vernon, B.C. family expects to go to all three games on the Senators first
road trip, including stops in Tampa and Sunrise, Fla.
“They’re the backbone of my life and everything I’ve worked towards,” Lazar
said. “I can’t wait to see them and celebrate this moment with them.”
Every rookie is nervous before his first NHL game, but Lazar expects to
exude an inner calm.
“I’m kind of weird that way, I play such a high energy game you’d think I’d
be freaking out a little bit but that’s when I realize, look, it’s a hockey game.
Just enjoy it.
“It’s the NHL and I’ve worked my whole life to get to this game,” Lazar said.
“I’m not going to let it pass by.”
The Predators provide an interesting element for Lazar —he trains in the
off-season with Nashville superstar defenceman Shea Weber. Weber
speaks highly of his protegé.
“He’s one of those kids that works hard and he’s got a good attitude,”
Weber said. “We’ve been working with the same trainer, he wants to get
better every day.”
Told that Lazar was looking forward to getting into a corner with Weber, the
big defenceman smiled, happy to hear it.
You might as well rub shoulders with the best, is how Lazar put it.
“I hope to battle it up a bit with him,” he said.
Lazar credits his teammates with making him feel comfortable. For the past
week he has centred a line with Chris Neil and Mike Hoffman. The buildup
has been palpable, but the big game junior player, with world junior and
Memorial Cup experience under his belt, doesn’t seem fazed.
Last spring, Lazar scored the overtime goal that sent his Edmonton Oil
Kings into the Memorial Cup final, where they upset the heavily favoured
Guelph Storm. What, him worry?
“I was actually quite surprised at how much sleep I got last night,” said a
beaming Lazar after the morning skate at the Bridgestone Arena. “I thought
I’d be a little restless but I slept like a baby.”
In the end, it will be up to Lazar to live up to own ambition and stay in the
Senators lineup. His coaches won’t be giving him an extra leeway as he
settles in.
“This is the NHL. We don’t have leeway,” said Senators head coach Paul
MacLean. “You can either play or you can’t. If you can’t play and get the job
done then we’ll get somebody else.”
Scratches
As expected, forwards Colin Greening and Erik Condra and defenceman
Patrick Wiercioch were to sit out the opener. MacLean says he may get
them into a game soon, depending on circumstances.
“We need to use everybody,” MacLean said. “We’re going to evaluate who
should be in our lineup based on our opponent, how we played the previous
game and what we need to do. Yes, I foresee them all getting into games
and making their way from there.”
Neal the Predator
Neal says he’s over the shock now and anticipates taking on a leadership
role with the Predators.
“I played my whole career to be in that position, to be that guy,” Neal said.
“It’s exciting to me.”
Methot still healing
MacLean said there is nothing new on defenceman Marc Methot’s
rehabilitation, back in Ottawa.
“Patience is still in vogue,” MacLean said.
753004
Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators rookie Lazar feels 'like a little kid'
By Bruce Garrioch, First posted: Thursday, October 09, 2014
NASHVILLE - Curtis Lazar learned Thursday night dreams do come true.
With his family from Kelowna in the stands, the Senators' top prospect
made his NHL debut in the club's season opener against the Nashville
Predators at the Bridgestone Arena.
"I feel like a little kid again," said Lazar before the game. "I grew up
dreaming of playing in the NHL, I'm going to get that opportunity
(Thursday), and I can't wait to get going."
It meant a lot that his parents Dave and Karen along with his siblings Ryan,
Cory and Jenna were on hand.
"It's going to be special. My family is going to be here," said Lazar. "They
mean a lot to me. They are the backbone of my life and everything that I've
worked towards. I can't wait to see them and celebrate this moment with
them."
Fortunately for Lazar, he was even going to get to see some familiar faces
on the ice. He works out in the summer with Predators' defenceman Shea
Weber, who has been very helpful to Lazar.
Actually, Lazar said he wouldn't mind an encounter with Weber on the ice.
He did take a big hit from Anton Volchenkov.
"Hopefully we can get in the corner and battle it out a little bit so I can
measure myself up that way," said Lazar.
Weber is a fan of Lazar.
"He's one of those kids that works hard and he's got a good attitude," said
Weber. "We've been working with the same trainer, so we've been talking a
bit, and he's the kind of guy who wants to get better every day.
"That's a good attitude to have for a young kid. It's exciting for him and it'll
be fun to play against him."
The Senators are happy to have Lazar but the next step he has to prove is
that he can stay. Coach Paul MacLean noted once the regular season
begins there is no margin for error.
Even if Lazar only plays 10 minutes a night he has to get his job done.
"This the NHL, you don't have a leeway," MacLean. "You either play or you
can't. If you can't play and get the job done then we'll find somebody else."
OFF THE GLASS
C Derek Roy, a Rockland native, spent parts of nine seasons with the
Sabres but now he's with his fourth team in the last three years. The 31year-old Roy signed a one-year, $4 million deal as a UFA in July, but he'd
like to make Nashville is home. "This is the first pick I had over the
summer," said Roy. "We talked a lot with Nashville. This was a good spot
for me and we were excited. I talked to a lot of teams. It was a tough thing
to go through in the summer." Roy has been troubled by injuries, however,
he's healthy and determined to have a strong season. After leaving Buffalo
in 2012, he's made stops in Dallas, Vancouver and last year with the Blues
... There is no update on the injury to Ottawa D Marc Methot. He hasn't
skated this week while the Senators are gone. "The patience is still in
vogue," said MacLean ... Mark Borowiecki took the first penalty of the
season when he was called for interference.
AROUND THE BOARDS
Making his debut with the Senators, C David Legwand left behind a legacy
in Nashville. The top pick in 1998 (No. 2 overall), he is in the franchiseleader in goals (210), assists (356), points (566) and games played (956).
He wasn't sure what kind of reception he was going to get from the
Predators' faithful. "We'll see," said Legwand with a smile before the game.
"We'll see if it's a Ryan Suter one or something else." Suter, who signed as
a free agent with Minnesota in July, 2012, was booed by Nashville fans
every time he touched the puck during his first visit back to the city.
Legwand was given a standing ovation after a video tribute during a first
period timeout ... Ottawa RW Chris (Oil Changers) Neil never gets tired of
opening night. "It's great," he said. "It's a long pre-season, three weeks of
putting your body through the grind and now it's go time. The games mean
something. It's exciting. The first game is always a fun one and it gets you
back into the groove." Neil gave Volchenkov a good hit along the boards...
Nashville winger James Neal said he was shocked at being moved by the
Penguins in June, but the transition has been easy. "No matter where you
are it's always going to be an adjustment. Everybody is going through an
adjustment here with all the new guys and the coaching staff," said Neal ...
Coach Peter Laviolette made his debut behind the bench. Barry Trotz was
the coach for 1,196 games with Nashville and had 557 wins before being
fired last spring.
Ottawa Sun LOADED: 10.10.2014
753005
Ottawa Senators
Senators call on "big heads" to promote season kickoff
Dani-Elle Dube, Ottawa Sun
The mystery of the cryptic lawn signs has been solved.
You may have noticed black, white and red signs around Ottawa that
looked as if they were part of the city's election race. But on Thursday, it
was revealed it was all just a big publicity stunt for the Senators to unveil
their new mascots.
Former prime ministers John A. MacDonald, Wilfrid Laurier, William Lyon
MacKenzie King and Robert Borden will now be cheering alongside
Spartacat at Senators home games as official team mascots. No word yet if
the new additions are here to stay or only temporary.
The announcement was made at City Hall Thursday, where fans and city
staff celebrated the start of hockey season in Ottawa.
Many, including Patrick McSweeney, president of the Red Scarf Union was
pleasantly surprised by the announcement.
"It definitely wasn't something that was expected," said McSweeney. "But it
seems like it will be a welcomed change."
But the decision to create new mascots modelled after previous prime
ministers has left some fans scratching their heads.
"My initial thought was that, if they're designed to appeal to kids like most
mascots are, they might come across as scary," said Patrick Smith. "Old,
grey-haired men with straight faces or frowns don't really scream 'get
excited for hockey', unless the face is Don Cherry's. That said, former prime
ministers in Ottawa makes sense because of the political nature of the city."
For McSweeney, the unconventional mascots are an excellent idea.
"They're bringing history to life and it's a good chance for our youth to learn
a little bit about history and see what our former prime ministers looked
like."
Senators fan Caree McCullough echoes that sentiment.
"I think it's great that the Sens are not the only first NHL team to have
multiple characters to for a team of mascots, but that they chose respected
men in Canadian history to bring more buzz for the capital's hockey team,"
said McCullough. "It is very fitting. As long as Sparty is still a part of it all,
fans will be happy."
753006
Ottawa Senators
Strong start vital for Ottawa Senators
By Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun
NASHVILLE - As the Senators raised the curtain on a new season
Thursday night in the Music City, they were determined to get off to a strong
start.
The old saying goes that it's not how you start but how you finish. Well, the
Senators can't win a title with a strong month of October, but they can take
themselves out of the face if they don't win.
So before the puck dropped against the Nashville Predators at the
Bridgestone Arena, the Senators were saying all the right things about
making sure they have a good start to begin the season.
"Over the years if you get off to a good start you can make things an awful
lot easier for yourself down the road," said coach Paul MacLean as the club
prepared for Game 1.
"Points are the points in October just as they are in April, but it seems way
harder to get them in April than they do in October. Being ready for the
games at the start and the most important thing for us is gaining momentum
as a team and finding ourselves. We feel we have a pretty good identity of
who we are. We have to take that into the regular season and build some
momentum with that."
This was something the Senators could not do last season. They couldn't
find any traction and they spent countless games searching for an identity.
A 4-6-2 October last year put them in a deep hole.
This time, the schedule isn't nearly as difficult as last year. The Senators
head to Tampa for a game Saturday and spend Thanksgiving in Florida
Monday before returning home to begin a four-game homestand next
Thursday.
"It's important for us, definitely," said captain Erik Karlsson. "We didn't have
the best start last year. The first 20 games, we're going to look that far, and
see where we're at after that.
"We realized last year that the way we started our season wasn't good
enough to get us all the way. I think we finished off pretty good. We had
spans later in the year where it was too late. We kind of shot ourselves in
the foot early. That's one of the mistakes we won't make this year early."
The Senators want to make sure they don't put too much pressure on the
young players in the lineup expected to play big roles. Mika Zibanejad has
been around but he's now the No. 2 centre.
Alex Chiasson, acquired from the Dallas Stars, is only in his second season
in the NHL. Centre Curtis Lazar was playing his first NHL game Monday.
The veterans don't want a room full of pressure.
"We stress (the strong start) and you try to tell guys it's a marathon," said
winger Bobby Ryan. "Some of these young guys have been through a full
season but they're still learning and there's a learning curve to being a pro.
"What we try to stress is, as a veteran group, is there's going to be peaks
and valleys. Stay on an even level through all of it. Don't let the lows get too
low. Certainly if things aren't going well, we've got to fall back to our
structure as a team. We missed a lot of that last year but we're fairly
confident that won't happen this year."
The first month of the schedule is kind to the Senators. There are days off
built in. They only have one back-to-back at the end of October. Now, is the
time to set the tone.
"It's very important. We got off to a slow start last year and it hurt us," said
winger Chris Neil. "We had some lulls through the season at some points
and some strong stretches but the slow start really hurt us.
"We have to find our niche of how we want to play. We've done a good job
in camp of identifying of what we want do. Now we just have to out and
execute."
The first game is behind the Senators but they have lots of work ahead.
753007
Ottawa Senators
MacLean goes with 20 best for Ottawa Senators opener
NASHVILLE - Somebody had to sit.
With 23 players, coach Paul MacLean was making no apologies for
scratching wingers Colin Greening and Erik Condra along with defenceman
Patrick Wiercioch for Thursday's opener against the Predators at the
Bridgestone Arena.
MacLean's job is to his ice his best lineup and he opted to sit the trio as the
Senators' season got underway.
"We've had conversations, (Wednesday) was extensive conversations and
(being scratched) was brought up with them, we just felt that at this point in
time we could only play 20 guys. Considering the way training camp has
gone the best guys are in the lineup," said MacLean.
Greening and Condra have been unseeded by winger Mike Hoffman and
rookie Curtis Lazar up front. Wiercioch is in a tricky situation with seven
blueliners in camp so there will be some juggling.
"Everybody had good camps. With Greening and Condra, they had good
camps. Other guys were just better," said MacLean. "That's good for our
team. That internal competition level is going to help make us better."
MacLean said he'll try to get the scratched players into games.
"We understand that we need to use everybody," he said. "We're going to
evaluate who should be in our lineup based on our opponent, how we
played the previous game and what we need to do.
"I guess I foresee them all getting into games"
753008
Ottawa Senators
Senators’ coach Paul MacLean didn’t think the Predators were at any great
advantage because they were getting the opportunity to start at home.
Senators drop season opener to Predators
"They turned up the volume in the third and generated some chances. We
just weren’t able to slow them down," said Anderson. "They were able to
get a few there. We’d like a different result.
"We’ve got to stay positive. It’s game one and we’ve lots of work ahead."
The road trip continues Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
NASHVILLE - The Senators left the Music City singing a hurtin’ tune.
Twitter: @sungarrioch
Trying to return to respectability and get back to the playoffs, the Senators
saw their opening night dreams dashed with a disappointing 3-2 loss to the
Nashville Predators Thursday night.
THREE STARS
Only newcomer Alex Chiasson and Kyle Turris were able to score for the
Senators, who suffered a third period meltdown by surrendering goals to
Eric Nystrom, Shea Weber and Craig Smith scored for Nashville.
Though goalie Craig Anderson was strong, the Senators made a few
horrible defensive errors that turned out to be costly. Chiasson’s tip for his
first goal with Ottawa was a highlight in third.
That came on the power play at 13:48 but by then the Predators were on
their way to victory and ruined former captain David Legwand’s
homecoming.
"The first half of the game we had the lead and they took over the game
halfway through," said coach Paul MacLean.
"There was some signs of some things we’ve been working on and we
didn’t stick with it. We have to stick with what we’ve been doing to have
success. We didn’t get it done."
With Ottawa clinging to a 1-0 lead going into the third, the Predators scored
three unanswered goals in the third period to get the victory.
After a turnover near the blueline, Nystrom gave the Predators a 3-1 lead at
10:20. It was Weber who gave Nashville the lead for good when he
backhanded it home at 8:53 of the third.
The Predators saved their best for last.
A cheap interference call on Jared Cowen late in the second resulted in a
power-play goal by Smith to tie it up at 1:36 of the third. He was the
doorstep and beat Anderson on the short side.
Smith was alone and took a perfect pass from Filip Forsberg. It sure looked
James Neal exaggerated the play late in the second when he went down
after getting lightly hit by Cowen.
"It’s frustrating. It’s something we’ve got to work on and have good third
periods,"said Turris. "It’s one game. We are working on some things. We
want to fix things and we have to fix them quick."
The Senators held a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes, but were outshot by the
Predators. Anderson was equal to the task while Rinne looked good in the
net for the Predators but wasn’t tested much.
Ottawa was outshot 23-14.
It’s early in the season, but the power play had some good chances in the
second and wasn’t able to cash in. It’s probably something that’s going to
take time. You can’t expect mid-season form.
The Predators had power play opportunities of their own but couldn’t cash
in late in the second with Legwand off for interference. He accidentally went
to the wrong penalty box and chuckled.
"It’s tough going to one for 15 years and then you’ve got to go to the other
one," said Legwand.
The only goal came at even strength.
Turris, playing his first game as the top centre, scored the first goal of the
season at 1:16 of the second to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead. His blast from the
top of the slot beat Rinne high on the blocker side.
Rinne had no chance on the goal and Mark Borowiecki picked up the first
assist of his NHL career..
Trying to get back to the post-season after missing the playoffs last spring,
the Senators know a strong start this year is imperative. The club had a 105-0-2 lifetime record vs. Nashville going in.
Shea Weber, Nashville
Shook off a bad slashing penalty early in the game to score Nashville's
second goal in the third period. Led the way with three hits after two and
played a typically solid game.
Alex Chiasson
Scored his first goal as a Senator in his first game with the club after
coming over in the Jason Spezza trade. Could have had two after missing
on a good chance in the first.
James Neal
Took an ill advised slashing penalty early but smartened up after his trip
to the box and had six shots and three hits halfway through the third period.
753009
Philadelphia Flyers
Still on Flyers' payroll, but Pronger now has a league job
FRANK SERAVALLI, Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014, 3:01 AM
DESPITE THE fact that he is still on the Flyers' payroll, Chris Pronger will
have direct input on any supplemental discipline handed out this season.
The NHL is expected to announce Pronger's hiring today in the Department
of Player Safety, confirming a TSN report. The league did not return an
official request for comment last night.
Unfortunately for the Flyers and their bean counters, the team will still be on
the hook for the remaining $5.15 million in salary due to him.
Pronger, who turns 40 today, also will remain on the Flyers' long-term injury
list and the team will receive a salary-cap cushion equal to his $4.94 million
salary-cap hit to use on a replacement player. His contract does not expire
until June 30, 2017, forcing the Flyers to operate in a different salary-cap
environment until then - even though he clearly will never play again.
Pronger cannot officially sign retirement papers without hamstringing the
Flyers' salary cap since he signed his 7-year contract extension when he
was 35 years old.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said he "didn't want to talk about"
Pronger's situation with the league, but admitted life would be easier
without his salary-cap complications.
"You'd like to have it off your cap," Hextall said last night. "It does affect us.
That certainly would have been best for us. It's one of those things that we
have no control over. Would we like it to go away? Yeah, absolutely. That'd
be great.
"I'll say this: We have no interest in stopping Chris from getting on with his
life. We don't want to hold Chris back. This is the NHL's announcement to
make, one way or the other. Until then, I don't really feel comfortable talking
about it."
Hextall said if the situation required Pronger to officially retire, making
Pronger's cap hit suddenly a serious problem, that would "be a totally
different story."
"I'm here to look after the best interest of the organization," Hextall said.
According to TSN's Bob McKenzie, the NHL believes "any perceived
conflict of interest is more notional than tangible." With Pronger working
under vice president of player safety Stephane Quintal, safeguards are
expected to be in place to prevent any potential conflict.
Similar safeguards have been in place in the department, according to a
source. For instance, director of player safety Patrick Burke - a former
Flyers scout and the son of Calgary Flames president Brian Burke - is
believed to refrain from judgments involving the Flyers and Flames.
McKenzie reported "varied reaction" from other NHL teams, ranging from
"horrified" to believing Pronger is "exactly what the league needs."
Pronger, who was suspended eight times as a player, is in a unique
position to judge since he knows firsthand the long-term implications of hits
to the head.
"Chris' case is unique," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters
Wednesday in Los Angeles. "There are salary-cap reasons why he couldn't
officially retire. I'm not sure that presents any problem at all to deal with.
He's done playing. He gets paid no matter what from the Flyers. He doesn't
owe them anything."
Philadelphia Inquirer / Daily News LOADED: 10.10.2014
753010
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers' Coburn could be out for a while
FRANK SERAVALLI, Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014
FOG WAS billowing out of the Zamboni entrance, with the Wells Fargo
Center's new lighting system on display, as each Flyer skated out to a
raucous introduction.
Through all the pomp and circumstance of the home opener, the Flyers'
longest-tenured player was conspicuously absent.
Braydon Coburn, wearing a suit, was standing at the edge of the bench
gripping crutches.
Coburn, 29, sat out what would have been his eighth home opener with the
team with an undisclosed "lower-body injury." He apparently suffered the
injury in the Flyers' 2-1 loss Wednesday night in Boston, despite playing
20:02.
"I believe this is going to take some time," general manager Ron Hextall
said. "He's not going to be 'day-to-day.' He's going to be re-evaluated
tonight and in the next few days. I don't have a prognosis or diagnosis."
Hextall refused to reveal the nature of Coburn's apparently serious injury,
instead opting to say that "consistency is a good policy" when it comes to
disclosing injuries. In the past, GM Paul Holmgren would reveal the nature
of an injury only if a player was going to miss an extended period of time.
Suddenly, the Flyers are without both of the defensemen - Kimmo Timonen
(blood clots) and Coburn - who made up arguably their best pairing last
season. They were also two of their biggest minute loggers. And it's only
two games into the regular season.
Defenseman Nick Schultz took Coburn's place in the lineup and made his
Flyers debut against the Devils. Schultz, 32, is a veteran of 882 career NHL
games. He signed over the summer to be the Flyers' spare defenseman
with a 1-year, $1.25 million deal.
"I probably don't feel as good about [our defense] as I did [Wednesday
night]," Hextall said. "When you lose a player, you lose a player. That's why
we signed Nick Schultz. He's a capable player. He's got to step in and he
can give us good minutes."
Coburn's injury will be the first test of Hextall's policy to let his young
prospects on the blue line, particularly Shayne Gostisbehere, develop in the
AHL. Hextall responded by saying he would look at "every option that's out
there" once he has an official diagnosis on Coburn, but added that he
"wouldn't have a problem calling up one of the guys that's been there for a
year or 2," presumably Brandon Manning, Oliver Lauridsen or Mark Alt.
Preseason slog
For the second training camp in a row, there was minor grumbling from the
Flyers' coaching staff about the setup of the team's preseason schedule.
They were one of just nine teams to play the full allowance of eight
preseason games, including one split-squad matchup and two different
spans of three games in 3 nights.
"The preseason schedule was a little bit hectic this year," coach Craig
Berube said Wednesday. "It was tough to get lineups together with back-tobacks and things like that."
If the Flyers would like to be better prepared for the regular season, they
hold the keys to their preseason schedule. Sure, building availability and
travel schedules come into play. But the NHL allows each team to draw up
its own exhibition schedule, which is then approved by the league. No
griping allowed.
753011
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers' 'D': Help available, but not the right help
Sam Donnellon, Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014
EMERGING FROM the tunnel shortly after the team did before last night's
home opener against the Devils, the Flyers' top defensive tandem from the
previous season poked out tentatively in street clothes, like groundhogs
ganging up to extend what could become an exceptionally early, and long,
winter.
Kimmo Timonen, recovering from blood clots, popped out first, followed by
Braydon Coburn, on crutches. Coburn had played the opener Wednesday
night, logging over 20 minutes in the Flyers' 2-1 loss to Boston and
apparently suffering a serious lower-body injury in the process.
"He's not going to be day-to-day," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said.
"I believe this is going to take some time . . .
"We'll go with what we've got."
And so . . . even before the first edition of his tenure as general manager
could put a divot into its ebullient new ice, the past was skating through his
present and threatening his vision for their future.
Because while it seemed clear that Shayne Gostisbehere, the Frozen Four
MVP, was among the top two or three defensemen on the ice during
training camp and preseason, it is also clear that Hextall intends for him to
spend a good chunk of his season in Lehigh Valley. And while it also seems
clear that 19-year-old Samuel Morin could contribute in a big way to the big
club right now, Hextall sent him back to his junior team last week with the
intent of him staying there for the full season.
"When you lose a player, you lose a player," the new GM said prior to last
night's hog-ugly, 6-4 loss to New Jersey. "That's why we signed Nick
Schultz. He's a capable player. He's got to step in and he can give us good
minutes."
Last night, it was over 14 minutes. Schultz was not on the ice for any of the
goals scored - pro or con - and so for a night, he was neither part of the
problem, nor part of a solution. And while Hextall at first answered, "We'll
look at every option that's out there" and later, "We'll look at all our options
and I'll pick the best option," he hedged on those vows, at least if preseason
performance is to be measured.
"I wouldn't have a problem calling up one of the guys that's been there for a
year or 2," he said.
That means no Gostisbehere. No Morin.
That means going with less than what you've got.
If this sounds just a little Sam Hinkie-ish well . . .
. . . Shooooosh.
Because full season-ticket plans are still available. And the Flyers, unlike
Hinkie's team, are not accustomed to playing their home games inside a
half-empty building. Even if they were, they have several top-line forwards
approaching their peak (Claude Giroux) or in the peak of their careers
(Wayne Simmonds) who expect to compete for a Stanley Cup that their
own GM has said is probably several talented pieces away.
Hextall sees Gostisbehere and Morin as two such pieces, and has stated
several times this summer and fall that he is wary of stunting their
development by rushing them onto a team that could sure use them even
before Coburn's unfortunate break.
"Tell me one player that's been hurt by being sent back to junior, being
trained the right way, playing in the AHL," Hextall said during training camp.
"Then you look at the players who have been hurt by playing in the NHL too
early. The list is long."
That has been true of a larger, more physical NHL. Last night the Devils
chose not to play defenseman Adam Larsson, the fourth overall pick of the
2011 draft. After playing in 65 games and notching 18 points as a 19-yearold the year he was drafted, Larsson has split time between New Jersey
and Albany and hasn't come near to fulfilling the promise that made him
such a high pick.
But there is also an argument to be made that Gostisbehere, all 5-10, 180
pounds of him, might be more at risk in the goon-friendlier AHL. As a 21year-old American-born-and-weaned college hockey player, he also has
undergone more seasoning than either Larsson had in 2011, or the younger
Morin has presently.
Last night's loss had more to do with a rare off night by Steve Mason than
any single defensive miscue, but there were plenty of those boo-boos. The
"Hey Yogi" award for this night belonged to Luke Schenn, who was on the
ice for five of the Devils' six goals, redirecting one of them past Mason while
he stood, unpressured, in front of him.
"Just a bad day at the office," Schenn said.
The look Mason gave him immediately afterward was priceless.
The Flyers allowed 235 goals last season, one less than their surprisingly
high-powered offense rolled up. It made for an uneven and nerve-wracking
ride, and a first-round exit against a Rangers team that had just a few more
of those talented pieces.
The mood in the room after that seven-game defeat was that they were
thisclose, and when the Rangers surprised their way to the finals, many in
the populace adopted that stance. But it is clearly not the new GM's view,
and if you have already bought your season tickets, well, get ready for more
games like last night's. Because help is not on the immediate horizon.
And if you were still mulling it?
Well, even if Hextall sticks to his plan, you still may see Gostisbehere by the
second half of the season. What you have to ask is whether his arrival will
be a finishing touch, or mark a more promising future.
753012
Philadelphia Flyers
and play better in front of [Mason]. We have a lot of work to do, we know
that."
Flyer in the hole
For his part, coach Craig Berube seemed less concerned about his team's
defensive play - saying, "two of their goals were flukes."
FRANK SERAVALLI, Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014
"In the third period, our 'D' got caught pinching a couple times," Berube
said. "We actually had a forward back but we kept giving up odd-man
rushes. Other than that, I thought the first two periods, I didn't see [gap
breakdowns] at all."
LUKE SCHENN laughed. Because, well, there was really nothing else he
could do.
He was still in a state of disbelief after the Flyers' 6-4 loss to the Devils last
night.
The only New Jersey goal to which Schenn wasn't either victim or witness
was the empty-netter that Mike Cammalleri scored to seal a disheartening
home debut.
One deflected off his stick past goalie Steve Mason. On another, Mason's
line of sight was cut off by Schenn in front.
"I'd say some were bad bounces," Schenn said. "I'd say some were things
we've definitely got to clean up.
"I'd say the overall night: Just a bad day at the office."
Two games do not a season make for the Flyers. Hey, even Peter
Laviolette still had a job at this point last year.
But the Flyers' most apparent fault through the first two sprints of this 82game marathon is exactly what most feared it would be: a shoddy defense
corps that is both too big and too slow to keep up in today's NHL.
With a career-worst minus-5 outing, Schenn was just the poster boy. His
partner in crime, Michael Del Zotto, was right behind him as a minus-4. That
was against a Devils team, albeit which is a bit stronger offensively, that
finished 25th in the league in goals last year.
The kicker is that last night was just a preview of perhaps the next month to
come, now that general manager Ron Hextall announced Braydon Coburn
is expected to miss a substantial amount of time with an undisclosed injury.
"I've had games like this, where things just don't go your way, but to this
extent . . . it's a tough one to swallow," Schenn said. "I don't even really
know what to say. It's frustrating, but it comes to a certain point where
there's not even really a point of getting mad. You just pick your head up
and get back to the drawing board."
It is almost as if the bulk of last night's "expert" predictions on the Flyers'
season played out on the ice over 60 seesawing minutes. The Flyers'
offense, charged by Wayne Simmonds' three-point night and star Claude
Giroux's kickstart, did its best to mask defensive deficiencies.
The Flyers trailed by three goals. Giroux struck on the power play, then
Simmonds muscled his way to two goals in the final 57 seconds of the
second period.
Even though the Flyers began the final frame seemingly with all of the
momentum, New Jersey was able to gain the defensive zone with such
ease that it didn't matter. The same had played out in Boston the night
before, when the Bruins owned the final 10 minutes.
The Flyers are more loose at the blue line than Ed Snider's purse strings.
They are seemingly so worried about being beaten in a footrace that they
back up too much, allowing for such a big "gap" between themselves and
the opposing attack, that it's easy to gain the zone.
"Zone entries are too easy," Schenn said. "That obviously starts with the
defensemen. When you get that clean of zone entries, a lot of stuff can go
bad. They get possession. They can look for [players trailing], like they did a
couple times. It allows them to get some bodies to the net and make some
plays, it's easy for us to lose guys in the defensive zone."
Mason certainly didn't help himself with a couple of the goals, which he
admitted, but he's been given an awfully tall order.
Really, no player on the team is immune. Yes, the gaps by defensemen are
too large, but the defensemen aren't receiving much help from the forwards
in back-checking.
"[There's] more pressure for us to play defense," Giroux said. "I think the
forwards, we have to play better defense. We have to protect our net better
Through two games, with the same record as last season, there is a
different feel around the Flyers. It is not one of lifelessness, or going
through the motions, which cost Laviolette his job. Rather, it is of one aware
of the problem but seemingly without answer.
"Last year, we were getting completely outfoxed," Simmonds said. "This
year, obviously we've had a couple slow starts. But throughout the game,
we're working hard, we're battling back, we're doing some good things."
Just not enough to cover up the bad things.
Slap shots
Claude Giroux posted seven shots on goal after just one in Boston on
Wednesday. He finished with a goal and an assist . . . New Jersey's Jaromir
Jagr, 42, extended his NHL record to 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in his
21 career season-opening games, dating back to 1990 . . . The Flyers have
lost three consecutive home openers at Wells Fargo Center for the first time
in team history . . . Wednesday's Flyers loss was the most-watched seasonopening game in the history of NBCSN, up 16 percent over last season's
matchup between Chicago and Washington.
753013
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers make things difficult — again
Sam Carchidi Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014
The Flyers have a knack for making things difficult on themselves.
They host Montreal on Saturday night and are in danger of slipping to 0-3
for the third straight season.
And after facing the Canadiens (2-0), the Flyers meet four of the league’s
projected heavyweights _ Anaheim, Dallas, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
A year ago, the Flyers started 1-7 and had to huff and puff to make the
playoffs.
“We don’t want to bring back last year; last year was last year, and it’s a
new year,” center Vinny Lecavalier said after the Flyers fell to 0-2 with a 64 loss to visiting New Jersey on Thursday. “I still think we played some
pretty good hockey, and we need to keep going. I think we need to clean a
couple things, probably like every team in the beginning of the year.”
Lecavalier had new linemates in the second half of Thursday’s loss. He had
been centering R.J. Umberger and Michael Raffl, but after the Flyers fell
into a 3-0 hole, coach Craig Berube altered three of his four lines.
Lecavalier centered Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds; Sean
Couturier centered Umberger and Matt Read, and Raffl moved to the top
line with Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek.
“There was nothing going on offensively for anybody,” Berube said. “I think
the effort was there, but nothing was happening so I just moved them
around. Added a little spark.”
But after tying the game at 3-3 (see story) by scoring three goals _ two by
Simmonds, one by Giroux _ late in the second period, the Flyers had some
defensive breakdowns in the final period and it ruined what would have
been a stirring comeback win.
“I don’t think we are going to have a problem scoring,” Simmonds said. “I
just think we have to work together as a five-man unit to help play defense
and we will be fine.”
Breakaways. The Luke Schenn-Michael Del Zotto defensive pairing was
minus-9. Schenn was a career-worst minus-5…..Simmonds (three points)
had his eighth career game with three or more points….Former Flyer
Jaromir Jagr had two assists for the Devils and moved into sixth place on
the all-time NHL list with 1,757 points….Patrik Elias scored his 36th career
goal against the Flyers _ the most he has tallied against any team….Flyers
center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, 29, hit iron in the first period in an attempt
to score his first career goal….The Flyers lost despite outshooting the
Devils, 39-26, and winning 57 percent of the faceoffs..,,Late in the game,
rookie Jason Akeson played on the top line with Giroux and Voracek.
753014
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers drop wild home opener to Devils
Sam Carchidi, Last updated: Friday, October 10, 2014
Wayne Simmonds threw his arms in the air as he embraced Claude Giroux,
Jake Voracek, and Vinny Lecavalier while the frenzied sellout crowd stood
in disbelief Thursday night.
Simmonds knew.
The right winger knew his shot had beaten the buzzer to end the
astonishing last few minutes of the second period, knew the Flyers had
come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, knew this game suddenly had a
different feel to it.
But the Flyers couldn't sustain the momentum.
Dainius Zubrus scored what proved to be the game-winner as the New
Jersey Devils outlasted the Flyers, 6-4, and ruined their home opener.
Mike Cammalleri iced the win with an empty-net goal.
The Flyers have lost three straight home openers for the first time in
franchise history.
During training camp, the Flyers talked about how they couldn't get off to
another slow start - and how their 1-7 record put them in a season-long hole
in 2013-14.
But here they are, 0-2 for the third straight season and without their two
best defensemen, Kimmo Timonen (blood clots) and Braydon Coburn
(suspected foot injury).
"It's obviously not the start we wanted; we have a lot of work to do," said
Giroux, who had two points but was minus-4. ". . . Our forwards have to
play better defense."
"There's plenty of games to go; no need to push the panic button," goalie
Steve Mason said.
Fifteen seconds after New Jersey took a 4-3 lead on uncovered Patrik Elias'
tap-in, Simmonds sent Lecavalier away on a two- on-one, and the 34-yearold center tied the score at 4 with 15 minutes, 29 seconds left in the third.
But after the Flyers killed a penalty, Mason allowed his worst goal of the
night, scored by former Flyer Zubrus from the right circle to give the Devils
a 5-4 lead with 12:47 remaining. Defenseman Luke Schenn, who was a
career-worst minus-5, was on the ice for all five Devils goals.
"That's a save you have to make at that time of the game," Mason said.
Zubrus scored on an odd-man rush as the Flyers were caught pinching to
try to create offense at the other end.
Simmonds' power-play goal, off a slick feed from Lecavalier with 0.4
seconds left in the second period, had tied the score at 3. Simmonds had
cut the deficit to 3-2 by scoring with 56.7 seconds to go in the second.
"We had the momentum, but unfortunately they got the bounces tonight,
and we weren't able to recover," Simmonds said. ". . . We're working hard
and competing. Good things will come."
Earlier, Giroux had trimmed the Devils' lead to 3-1 by scoring from just
above the left circle with 4:16 left in the second. The goal was scored 14
seconds after the Flyers went on a power play.
New Jersey, playing its season opener, scored on three of its first nine
shots - defensemen Schenn and newcomer Michael Del Zotto were on the
ice for all three goals - and took a 3-0 lead into the latter stages of the
second period.
Mason was screened on the first two goals, which were scored by Michael
Ryder and Adam Henrique. Former Flyer Jaromir Jagr (two assists) set up
the third goal with a spin-around pass from near the boards that was tipped
into the net by Cammalleri.
Trailing by 3-0, the Flyers put lots of pressure on goalie Cory Schneider (35
saves) but didn't score during a power play that lasted until midway through
the second. They seemed to build some energy - and confidence - from the
impressive power play, and they scored the next three goals.
The Flyers, who replaced Coburn with veteran Nick Schultz, dropped a gutwrenching, 2-1 decision in Boston on Wednesday and were playing the first
of 14 sets of back-to-back games. They are 26-15-6 all-time in home
openers.
753015
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers Notes: Pronger's NHL job raises questions on conflicts
Sam Carchidi, Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014
Even though Chris Pronger is still on the Flyers' payroll, NHL commissioner
Gary Bettman said he wouldn't have a problem if the onetime defensive
standout worked in the league's player-safety department.
And that's apparently what happened Thursday night, when Pronger was
hired, according to TSN, which also reported that he remained on the
Flyers' long-term injured list, meaning the team would still get $4.9 million in
salary-cap relief. The Flyers owe Pronger a total of $5.15 million for the final
three years of his contract.
Would the Flyers still owe Pronger that money if he took the NHL job?
Also left unsaid: If Pronger, who turns 40 on Friday, is still being paid by the
Flyers, how can he rule on league disciplinary issues without its being a
conflict of interest? How, for instance, could Pronger make suspension
decisions that affect the Flyers or their opponents?
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said he couldn't comment on cap
ramifications until the NHL made an official announcement regarding
Pronger.
Hextall did comment on some aspects of the situation. "We have no interest
in stopping Chris from getting on with his life," he said.
Even if the Flyers had to absorb his $4.9 million cap hit?
"That's a different story," Hextall said. "I'm here to look out for the best
interests of the organization."
Bettman made his comments about Pronger to reporters at the Los Angeles
Kings' banner-raising ceremony late Wednesday night.
If Pronger retired to take the NHL job and the league did not permit the
Flyers to get cap relief, the club would be in a major bind - and it would
handcuff them for three years.
If it affects their salary cap if Pronger takes the job, "I'll call him up tomorrow
and tell him not to do that," coach Craig Berube said with a smile before
Thursday's game against New Jersey.
Bettman, speaking to reporters in Los Angeles, called Pronger's case
"unique."
"There are salary-cap reasons why he couldn't officially retire, but . . . if in
fact we go that route [and hire him], I'm not so sure that presents any
problem at all to deal with," Bettman said. "He's done playing. He gets paid
no matter what from the Flyers. He doesn't owe them anything."
Hextall was asked if he was disappointed that career-ending injuries, such
as Pronger's, weren't addressed in the last collective bargaining agreement.
"It would have certainly been best for us, of course," he said. "You'd like to
have it off your cap, but it's one of those things we have no control over."
Breakaways
The flags at the Wells Fargo Center have been at half-staff in honor of
broadcasting icon Bill Campbell, who died Monday at 91. . . . Ed Snider,
one of the franchise's founders, on Comcast's Meet the Flyers show: "I think
we're going to surprise a lot of the so-called experts." . . . After Sunday's
tryouts, the Ice Team has 10 men and four women - the same mixture as
last year, the Flyers said.
753016
Philadelphia Flyers
Jagr, still going strong, faces Flyers in home opener
Sam Carchidi Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Former Flyer Jaromir Jagr, one of the greatest scorers in NHL history, will
help his ex-team open the home portion of its schedule Thursday night at
the Wells Fargo Center.
The New Jersey Devils' right winger, now 42, is coming off a 24-goal, 67point season.
In his Hall-of-Fame career, Jagr has 35 points in season openers, an NHL
record.
Tonight will be the Devils' first game; the Flyers opened Wednesday, and
dropped a gut-wrenching 2-1 decision in Boston as their offense managed
just 20 shots.
Jagr enters the season tied with Steve Yzerman for sixth place in NHL
history with 1,755 career points.He led New Jersey with four points against
the Flyers last season.
The Devils won their final three preseason games, all at home, to finish 4-11.
The Flyers could not get their offense untracked in Boston. Their top line
(Brayden Schenn, Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek) combined for just two
shots _ two less than Zac Rinaldo.
Steve Mason (31 saves) had an excellent opener, and the team played
solid defense.
"I thought we played better defensively as a unit," winger Wayne Simmonds
said after Boston scored with 1:51 left to snap a 1-1 tie. "It sucks that they
got a late goal, but we have another crack at it (Thursday) night and that's
the beauty of the game."
Mason is expected to face Cory Schneider, who was 2-1 with a 1.62 GAA
and .932 save percentage in the preseason.
753017
Philadelphia Flyers
Hextall guarded on Pronger 'til NHL deal done
Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014 8:26 pm | Wayne Fish Staff writer
PHILADELPHIA -- The whole current situation involving Chris Pronger
could have been avoided if retirement issues and how they pertain to the
NHL salary cap were addressed in the 2013 collective bargaining
agreement.
But they weren’t, so now the Flyers have to sit on the edge of their seats
and wonder what’s going to happen if Pronger does take a job with the
league’s Department of Player Safety.
In theory, if Pronger is officially hired (media outlets in Canada on Thursday
were reporting the deal is already done), the Flyers are on the hook for his
$4.9 million annual salary through 2017.
“It certainly would have been best for us (if the CBA had addressed the
matter in 2013),’’ general manager Ron Hextall said before Thursday night’s
game against the Devils. “You would like to have it off your cap. It does
affect you. But that’s one of the things you have no control over. Would we
like it (Pronger’s salary) to go away? Absolutely.’’
But it’s going to take some careful negotiations (the NHL Players’
Association is said to be involved) to get this matter straightened out, at
least to the Flyers’ satisfaction.
Hextall wouldn’t get into details about Pronger’s status, mainly because the
league has not yet made an official announcement.
“I really don’t want to talk about it,’’ Hextall said. “It’s the NHL’s
announcement, one way or the other to make. Once they make it, I’ll talk. I
don’t feel comfortable talking about it.’’
In a perfect hockey financial world, Pronger would be able to just retire (he’s
been inactive since November 2011, due to post-concussion symptoms/eye
injury) and his salary would come off the books.
Instead, he’s been on long-term injury so that his salary won’t count against
the cap.
Hextall said he wouldn’t try to hold Pronger to the contract, which runs
through 2017.
“Here’s what I’ll say and it’s got nothing to do with whether the league hires
him or not,’’ Hextall said. “We have no interest in stopping Chris from
getting on with his life.’’
But it’s clear Hextall will not take an unexpected $4.9-million cap hit sitting
down.
“That’s a different story,’’ he said. “I’m here to look out for the best interests
of the organization.’’
Flyers coach Craig Berube chuckled when asked what impact Pronger’s
potential career move would have on the team’s salary cap and its fortunes.
“I’ll call him up tomorrow,’’ Berube said, “and tell him not to do that.’’
Coburn sidelined
Defenseman Braydon Coburn suffered a lower body injury in Wednesday
night’s 2-1 loss at Boston and was scratched for the Devils game. Nick
Schultz made his Flyers debut.
“(Coburn) is going to be reevaluated tonight,’’ Hextall said. “It’s not going to
be day to day, it’s going to take some time.’’
The general manager did not rule out the possibility of surgery.
“I don’t know,’’ Hextall said. “He has to see doctors, see specialists.’’
Hextall said he’s leaning toward calling up a defenseman from the
Phantoms with at least a year or two of experience. That would rule out
college hotshot Shayne Gostisbehere.
“When you lose a player, you lose a player,’’ Hextall said. “That’s why we
signed Nick. He’s a capable player. He will give us some good minutes.’’
As for a player move, a lot of it depends on the Coburn prognosis.
“We’re going to wait and see the timeframe,’’ Hextall said. “We’ll look at
every option that’s out there. We’ll move one way or the other.
“I don’t know how long Cobie is going to be but we’ll look at every option.
It’s a tough question to answer because those (Phantoms) guys haven’t
played yet. I wouldn’t have a problem calling one of them ... a guy that’s
been there for a year or two.
“Injuries are something that happen. You go with what you’ve got. We have
a great bunch of guys that play hard. They played hard last night (in
Boston).’’
Burlington County Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
753018
Philadelphia Flyers
Coach Craig Berube agrees there are some coverage errors that need to
be addressed.
Flyers' 6-4 loss creates another 0-2 start
“We did a lot of good things but it’s not good enough,’’ he said. “Everybody
has to do better. The effort was good. We’re working hard as a team but we
had a few breakdowns and they went in the net.’’
Wayne Fish Staff writer | Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Short shots
PHILADELPHIA -- Different type of game, same disappointing result.
Defenseman Luke Schenn finished the game a minus-5 but Giroux, Jake
Voracek, Michael Del Zotto and Michael Raffl were right down there, too, at
minus-4.
One night after playing a defensively responsible game in a one-goal loss at
Boston, the Flyers couldn't keep the puck out of their own net against the
New Jersey Devils.
The Flyers did manage to overcome a three-goal deficit to tie the score
twice.
But Dainius Zubrus' goal broke that final tie at 7:13 of the third period and
the Flyers dropped their second straight game 6-4 on Thursday night at the
Wells Fargo Center to open the season 0-2.
This is the third straight season the Flyers have started 0-2. Cause for
alarm?
“Last year we were getting completely outclassed,’’ said Wayne Simmonds,
whose two goals late in the second period fueled the Flyer comeback. “This
year we’ve had a couple slow starts. But we’re working hard and we’re
battling back. We’re doing some good things.’’
Captain Claude Giroux also expressed an optimistic evaluation.
“It (0-2) is not the start we want,’’ Giroux said. “We have a lot of work to do,
we know that. We played a lot of good minutes the way we wanted, (but
there were) a lot of mistakes we’re going to look over. That’s how we’re
going to get better.’’
New Jersey took its 3-0 lead on a first period goal by Michael Ryder at
12:05 and second-period tallies by Adam Henrique (2:10) and Mike
Cammalleri at 5:33.
Goaltender Steve Mason received little in the way of defensive help,
especially on the Henrique goal.
“We’re 0-2,’’ Mason said. “Sure, we’d like to be 2-0. But there’s no reason to
push the panic button.’’
The Devils looked like they were going to run away after that early burst but
the Flyers weren't ready to call it quits.
Simmonds put together one of the more memorable minutes of hockey in
recent Flyers memory in the final minute of the second period, connecting
twice to bring the Flyers even at 3-3.
After Giroux's power-play goal at 15:44 cut New Jersey's lead to 3-1,
Simmonds deked past two defenders and scored with 57 seconds left to
play on a shot past Cory Schneider.
Then, with time running out, Simmonds finished off a Vinny Lecavalier feed
with only 0.6 seconds left on the clock.
"Our fourth line did a great job of getting the momentum for us,'' Simmonds
said. "We just went in there and followed their lead and from there we just
kept peppering their goalie. We finally started getting guys in front of the net
and things started to go our way."
The third period continued at the same frenetic pace. Patrik Elias scored to
make it 4-3 Devils but Lecavalier came back with a fine solo rush to even it
at 4. Then Zubrus scored to give the Devils the lead for a final time.
“Obviously we didn’t have the start we wanted,’’ Lecavalier said. “But I think
as the game went on you could tell our tempo was a lot better on our side.
We were first on the puck, we were physical, we were doing the little things
that make you win games.’’
Lecavalier, like Simmonds and Mason, doesn’t believe it’s time to worry
about an extended drought at the start of the season.
“It’s two different seasons and we don’t want to bring back last year,’’
Lecavalier said. “This is a new year. I think we played some good hockey.
We have to clean up a couple things and get two points against Montreal
(on Saturday).’’
“It’s a tough one to swallow, for sure,’’ Schenn said. “We’ll get back at it and
chip away at it.’’
Berube said: “He can play better, like everybody else.’’
Burlington County Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
753019
Philadelphia Flyers
Schenn, defense at a loss against Devils
“It is a team game out there. It is five guys,” Schenn added. “But it obviously
starts with the defensemen when you’re getting scored on. Goals off the
rush, deflections, losing guys in front of the net ... it was a frustrating game
and those are things we’ll look at and clean up.
“When it comes down to us, every one of us, in particular me, have to play
better.”
By Rob Parent, Delaware County Daily Times
PHILADELPHIA >> Luke Schenn has been dealt more than his share of
criticism during his career, some of it stemming from his status as a high
draft pick with higher expectations, and a lot of it resulting from the kind of
performances that can elevate him above the usual crowd of guilty parties
in a bad loss.
Schenn was never more deserving of game goat status as he was
Thursday night, however, turning in a failing minus-5 grade amid a 6-4 loss
to the Devils in the latest Flyers’ opening flop at Wells Fargo Center.
Make it three straight home opening losses for the Flyers, who will try to
avoid their third straight 0-3 start to a season Saturday night when they host
the Montreal Canadiens.
What was all that shrugged off stuff about needing to get a good start
again?
“There’s tons of confidence in here,” goalie Steve Mason said after allowing
five goals on 25 Devils shots to fall to 0-2 on the season. “It’s not a good
spot being 0-2; we’d like to be 2-0 absolutely, but there’s plenty of games to
go. There’s no need to push the panic button.”
To that shaky end, a quiet first period and mostly shaky second by the
Flyers gave little indication of what was to come. Down 3-0, they suddenly
scored three goals in the last four minutes, 16 seconds of the second period
to tie it up.
The Devils opened up with a goal at 12:05 of the first period by Michael
Ryder (three points), then seemed well on their way when Adam Henrique
and Mike Cammalleri scored twice within 3:23 early in the second.
The Flyers’ power play had been slowly gaining its footing, however, and
finally Giroux clicked on it with a well-placed wrist shot at 15:44. That
instantly swung the momentum, and Simmonds promptly scored goals at
19:03 and 19:59 to bring it to 3-3 after two periods.
Something happened in the locker room, however, as the Devils came out
carrying the play. Patrick Elias scored at 4:16 on a rush that went
undefended. But Lecavalier worked a perfect 2-on-1 break, kept it himself
and scored on a top-shelf wrist shot to make it 4-4.
The Flyers then killed off a Devils power play, but shortly afterward, another
defensive breakdown allowed Dainius Zubrus to swoop in unattended and
beat an out of position Mason for what would be the game-winning goal.
So what do you conclude other than the obvious about a defensively
exposed team looking for a quick fix? Well, maybe you just don’t.
“Just a couple of bounces here and there that didn’t go our way,” Couturier
concluded. “We lost two points again, but at the same time it’s not time to
panic. It’s only two games in and we have a great team and we know we
can have success.”
TWO THUMBS UP
Jaromir Jagr with two assists, helping...
But it was the Devils who regained momentum in the final frame, trading
shots and ultimately putting away another game that the Flyers somehow
thought should have been theirs to win. They aren’t paying attention,
apparently.
Mike Cammalleri to score two goals.
For with Kimmo Timonen already gone for forever (probably), Braydon
Coburn accidentally made his team’s weak spot all the more vulnerable by
coming up with an injury from the 2-1 season-opening loss in Boston
Wednesday. Coburn has been diagnosed with what general manager Ron
Hextall suspects is a significant “lower body” injury, one that forced Coburn
to scuttle around backstage last night on crutches.
Claude Giroux’s goal didn’t take away from a sub-par night.
“He’s a good defenseman,” Sean Couturier said of Coburn, “but at the
same time, we should always come back and help our defensemen whether
he’s in or not. So if we want to play some good, tight defense that’s what we
have to do; the little details, come back and help our defense and break
out.”
There was too little of that, although starting with that sudden three-goal
outburst, the Flyers really showed some encouraging offensive flashes.
Wayne Simmonds had two of those late second-period goals and Claude
Giroux and Vinny Lecavalier got on the board for the first time this season,
but they couldn’t overcome a scary-bad defensive performance.
Mason also was clearly off his game. When your team is porous
defensively, that’s not a good place for a goalie to be.
“Difficult game overall,” Mason said. “When you have deflections going in,
those are tough goals to get past. But you just have to move forward.”
That’s exactly what Luke Schenn said after what on a scoresheet looked
like his worst NHL outing.
“The easist thing to do is to worry about the guys who aren’t part of the
lineup,” he said. “You can sit there and say there aren’t certain guys in the
lineup, but it’s up to the guys who are playing to get the job done.
Obviously, tonight we didn’t. I, personally, didn’t. I’m frustrated, but at the
same time there’s no point on dwelling on it too much. We have a lot of
games coming up.”
Schenn’s performance probably doesn’t look so bad when you realize
defensive mate Michael Del Zotto and forwards Giroux, Jake Voracek and
Michael Raffl were all minus-4.
Not that it helps ease any pain.
TWO THUMBS DOWN
Luke Schenn with a monumental -5.
Delaware County Times LOADED: 10.10.2014
753020
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers have a crisis on the blue line. And they have a general manager
without an immediate remedy.
McCaffery: With defense hurting, Flyers need more out of Mason
“In the end, we’ll look at all our options,” Hextall said. “And we’ll pick the
best option.”
Staff
The best option is enough competent goaltending to win a home opener on
a night when the offense scores four goals.
PHILADELPHIA - The Flyers played one night in Boston, the next in South
Philly, pausing only for an avalanche of rationalization. To Craig Berube,
that was plenty of time to make a decision that could define a season, an
era and a policy.
He was not going to rest Steve Mason, not now, not so early. He was not
going to hint at a two-goalie system, not like he’d almost done in the last
postseason.
He was going to trust Mason the way the Flyers had trusted Mason in
January, adding another $12 million to his contract, and also adding the
message: Either he was going to be their goalie for a championship run, or
they weren’t going to have a championship run.
So Mason was not just the goalie for Game 1, but for Game 2.
“He can handle it,” Berube was saying, before the home opener against the
New Jersey Devils Thursday. “He proved it last year. The second half of
last year, he was playing a lot of back-to-back.”
He was, and it worked, and it might work again. But it did not work
Thursday when Mason was ordinary or worse, costing the Flyers in a 6-4
loss on a night when their aggressive, accurate offense kept sending the
capacity Wells Fargo Center crowd into an uproar.
No matter the goaltender, and the alternative is Ray Emery, he is likely to
be under some assault this season. Not only is Kimmo Timonen dealing
with a threat to his career with blood-clot troubles, but Braydon Coburn has
a lower-body problem likely, hinted general manager Ron Hextall, to linger.
Never particular deep on defense, there is only one way for the Flyers to
survive the loss of two reliable veteran defensemen. They are going to
require cut-above goaltending — the kind Mason hinted at during a hardluck 2-1 loss in Boston, but hardly provided against the Devils. Though New
Jersey did benefit from some tipped pucks early, its 5-4 lead came on an
even-strength, odd-man-rush Dainus Zubrus goal that a pricey goaltender
should repel.
“That’s a save,” Mason said, “that you have to make at that time of the
game.”
Mason alone didn’t doom the Flyers to their 0-2 start, as most of their
defensemen were more worthy of boos than the reconfigured and lessthan-popular ice-cleaning crew. Yet it is because the Flyers are short on
defense that they will need special goaltending to succeed, not just
goaltending good enough to enable blame-spreading.
“We have to play better defense, we have to protect our net better, and,”
Claude Giroux said, doing the captain thing, “we have to play better in front
of Mase.”
Mason faced 25 shots, five of them goals, and he looked tired in a back-toback games sort of way, even in October, just two games into a marathon.
The Flyers have a chance to succeed this season, particularly if their top
forwards produce. Thursday, Wayne Simmonds had two goals, both
impressive, and Giroux and Vinny Lecavalier added one apiece. That’s the
formula.
But it will only work if Mason provides acrobatic, game-changing
goaltending.
“I thought he played well,” Berube said, of the Boston game. “I thought he
looked sharp in net. I thought he was getting out of his net with the puck.
And he was involved in the game.”
Mason was involved in Game 1, and he was not involved enough in Game
2, on a night when the Flyers learned that Coburn would not be around for a
while. Even if Berube were considering Emery for the home opener, that
would have been a problem, too. Because the Flyers’ best defensemen are
either injured or stashed in some feeder program, meaning that Mason
must be able to excel in consecutive games or the Flyers will not qualify for
any springtime best-of-seven jamborees.
753021
Philadelphia Flyers
Reports say Pronger will work for NHL, Hextall silent
By Jack McCaffery and Rob Parent, Delaware County Daily Times
As the Flyers were preparing for their home opener against the New Jersey
Devils, reports leaked that Chris Pronger had been hired in the NHL’s
department of public safety.
Though Pronger has not played a shift since 2011 due to concussionrelated troubles affecting his eyesight, he has remained on the Flyers’
roster and is to be paid through 2017. If he becomes a league employee,
that would mean one of two things: That the league has a salaried player in
its executive offices … or that Pronger has technically retired.
While technically still a player, the Flyers have been able to deduct
Pronger’s $4.9 million annual salary from their salary cap. If he is officially
retired, the Flyers could have that $4.9 plopped back onto their cap.
Theoretically, that would be a restriction on acquiring new players.
Jagr remembered his season-opening debut as an 18-year-old with the
Pittsburgh Penguins against the Washington Capitals in 1990.
“My first, first game was awful,” Jagr said. “I started out on the first line and
finished up on the forth line. Everybody was skating this way and I was
skating that way. Very bad game. But against New Jersey in the second
game, I had a chance to score ... yes, I did.”
French fourth-liner Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was one of only a handful of
Flyers regulars participating in an optional skate Thursday morning at Wells
Fargo Center. He was doing so because he’s pretty positive he can play
better than he had in the team’s season-opening, 2-1 loss in Boston
Wednesday night.
“I was not impressed by my first period,” Bellemare said. “The first period
was not my strongest period ever. Maybe it was five days without a game,
then you play away at Boston. That’s not the simplest game ever. I would
have liked to have a game before it. But as the game went, the first period
was not the best for me but my two linemates (Zac Rinaldo and Jason
Akeson), they played good. ... In the second preiod we startd getting (the
puck) down in their zone. But it was not as much energy giving to the team
as I wanted.”
Perhaps Bellemare was being tough on himself, as coach Craig Berube
offered positive reviews of the 29-year-old free agent’s first NHL game.
“I’ll call him up tomorrow,” Craig Berube said before the game, kiddingly,
“and tell him not to do that.”
“Bellemare had a real good game,” Berube said. “I thought he skated well
and did a lot of good things.”
All reports are that it is too late and that Pronger is about to join the NHL’s
front office.
“I’ll say this,” Hextall said. “We have no interest in stopping Chris from
getting on with his life. I’ll tell you that.”
That said, Hextall made it clear that he would fight for the Flyers’ best
interests in any Pronger maneuver.
“That’s a different story,” the GM said. “I am here to look after the best
interests of the organization.”
Before it reaches that point, there is the possibility of a compromise.
“Chris’ case is unique,” commissioner Gary Bettman told the Associated
Press. “There are salary cap reasons why he couldn’t officially retire, but if
in fact we go that route, I’m not sure that presents any problem at all to deal
with. He’s done playing. He gets paid no matter what from the Flyers. He
doesn’t owe them anything.”
•••
Flyers veteran defender Braydon Coburn will apparently miss significant
time after being diagnosed with a lower body injury. Speculation is that
Coburn may have suffered an ankle or foot fracture after blocking a shot in
Boston Wednesday night.
Coburn appeared in team introductions Thursday night against the Devils
on crutches.
“It’s not going to be day-to-day,” Hextall said. “This is going to be … I
believe this is going to take some time. But I don’t have a final diagnosis or
prognosis.”
Asked to elaborate, Hextall only said, “I probably don’t feel as good about it
as I did last night. You lose a player, you lose a player. But that’s why we
signed Nick Schultz. He’s a capable player and he has to step in and give
us some good minutes.”
While the veteran free agent and seventh Flyers defenseman played
Thursday night against the Devils, Hextall indicated he may make a move
to bring one of the Phantoms defenders up as insurance with Coburn out.
He said that would hinge on the outcome of Coburn’s medical evaluation
late Thursday.
“We’re going to wait and see the timeframe, and then we’ll look at every
option that’s out there and we’ll go one way or another,” Hextall said.
Jaromir Jagr was logging season debut No. 24 against the Flyers. Before
the game, the 42-year-old Devils power forward said he couldn’t help but be
a bit thrilled.
“Maybe it’s because there’s so much of a break between the last game the
first game, so it’s kind of exciting,” Jagr said. “You want to impress, you
want to have the best game so that your confidence is better the next
games. But it’s always special, the first game.”
753022
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers don’t go on defensive in loss to Devils
By Rob Parent, Delaware County Daily Times
PHILADELPHIA >> A quiet first period and mostly shaky second by the
Flyers gave little indication of what was to come Thursday night at Wells
Fargo Center.
The Flyers, once again trying to avoid a slow start to a season, scored three
goals in the last four minutes, 16 seconds of the second to tie up the New
Jersey Devils. But it would be the Devils who regained momentum in the
final frame, trading shots and ultimately pulling away to a 6-4 victory at
Wells Fargo Center.
Wayne Simmonds had two goals and Claude Giroux and Vinny Lecavalier
got on the board for the first time this season, but they couldn’t overcome a
seriously scary-bad defensive performance. Feeling the heat from that,
goalie Steve Mason, overseeing his second loss in two nights, was clearly
off his game. Then again, at least over the last half of the game, it was as
wide open as this old-time rivalry gets.
The Devils opened up with a goal at 12:05 of the first by Michael Ryder
(three points), then seemed well on their way when Adam Henrique and
Mike Cammalleri scored twice within 3:23 early in the second.
The Henrique goal was indicative of what was going on all night — loose
play in the Flyers defensive zone. He scored off a puck that deflected off
Luke Schenn, who happened to be a minus-5 on the evening.
Cammalleri’s goal was simply made by old friend Jaromir Jagr, who twisted
Schenn around while performing a nice turnaround shot that Cammalleri
redirected past Mason.
But the Flyers power play had gained its footing as the night went along,
and finally Giroux clicked on it with a well-placed wrist shot at 15:44. That
instantly swung the momentum, and the Flyers crashed Cory Schneider’s
net on every shift.
That kind of play is perfect for Simmonds, who scored back to back goals at
19:03 and 19:59 to bring it to 3-3 after two periods.
Something happened in the locker room, however, as the Devils came out
carrying the play. Patrick Elias scored at 4:16, but on an ensuing rush,
Lecavalier worked a perfect 2-on-1 break, kept it himself and scored on a
top-shelf wrist shot to make it 4-4.
The Flyers then killed off a Devils power play, but shortly afterward, another
defensive breakdown allowed Dainius Zubrus to swoop in unattended and
beat an out of position Mason for what would be the game-winning goal.
Cammalleri scored his second of the night, again off a Jagr assist, into an
open net to ice it.
753023
Philadelphia Flyers
“It’s hard to replace him, but we've got guys capable,” Berube said. “I
thought [Nick] Schultz came in there and played a good game.”
Flyers' defense shredded in home loss to Devils
Schultz did (14:46 ice time) and was “even.” He, Grossmann (plus-1) and
Andrew MacDonald (plus-1) were the only three defensemen not minus in
the game.
Tim Panaccio October 9, 2014, 11:30 pm
Simmonds (plus-2) also should have been able to celebrate and feel good.
They have never lost three consecutive home openers.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” he said of the Flyers' issues two games in.
“There are a few things, mainly the slow start. But we’re working hard and
competing. Good things will come.”
Until now.
Better come quickly.
And it’s three years and counting with an 0-2 start.
As strong a game as the Flyers gave the Boston Bruins, a legit Stanley Cup
contender in their season opener, Thursday’s stunning 6-4 loss to the lowly
New Jersey Devils was alarming (see Instant Replay).
The five-man defensive play that coach Craig Berube emphasizes wasn’t
there, even allowing for a couple deflected goals.
And the individual defense? Luke Schenn was a career-worst minus-5.
Partner Michael Del Zotto, a newcomer, was minus-4.
The Flyers' best defensive pair from preseason to now is Nick Grossmann
and Mark Streit, and we haven’t even mentioned Braydon Coburn (on
crutches) won’t be back any time soon, either (see story).
Emotions ran the gamut in this game. The Flyers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to
tie at the buzzer in the second period only to lose it with breakdowns in the
third period (see highlights).
“Couple tough bounces. They got sticks on them, and then the goals in the
third period, they were back door. He was all alone and I didn’t see him,”
said goalie Steve Mason, referring to no Flyer within an area code of Patrik
Elias that broke a 3-3 tie.
“I’m not too sure what happened on that, but those are things we have to
shore up … and the fifth one (Dainius Zubrus), an odd-man rush and it’s a
save you have to make at that time of the game.”
Several players said the Flyers' gap coverages were too big. The Devils
came down the wings like it was an open freeway on him.
“They do a good job of pulling up and hitting the late guy,” Mason said. “It
makes the defenseman’s job hard to maintain a solid gap. Credit New
Jersey. They took advantage of that, created some good plays and some of
those plays resulted in goals.”
Mason himself wasn’t that sharp on two goals -- not the deflected ones -but again, it underscores the biggest fear about this team: Defensive
coverage.
“We need good gaps and can’t give people time to make good plays,”
Grossmann said. “Something we got to work on.”
Jersey had a couple early deflections and scored three times on its first
nine shots before the Flyers scored three in a row in the second period -two by Wayne Simmonds -- to draw even (see 10 observations).
It was a huge momentum swing. Yet it didn’t last. The bottom fell out on
Elias’ ridiculous goal to begin the third period that silenced the building.
“The third period, the D got caught pinching a few times and actually had a
forward back and ended up giving them a couple odd-man rushes,” Berube
said, arguing that he did not feel the five-man defense was all that bad
through two periods.
He did say there were two breakdowns that resulted in two goals -- one to
Mike Cammalleri early in the game -- and Elias’ killer in the final period.
“Over the first two games we’ve had some guys play decently and some
guys haven’t,” Berube said. “It’s inconsistent right now as a team. Sporadic
at times out there.
“Going into the third period, last year? I would have said, ‘Well, this is our
game.’ Considering the way we had third periods. But we opened it up too
much in the third and it cost us.”
Coburn’s absence -- the Flyers aren’t sure how long -- means others have
to step up. Yet the defense was already questionable with him on the ice,
so this now figures to be a more challenging task.
753024
Philadelphia Flyers
10 observations from Flyers-Devils
Sarah Baicker October 9, 2014, 9:45 pm
Devils spoil Flyers' home opener
Ten observations (and one for good luck) from the Flyers’ 6-4 loss to the
New Jersey Devils (see Instant Replay):
1. Has anyone ever seen a game that was so entirely dull until it was
suddenly extremely exciting? The Flyers can’t be happy with their first 30
minutes of play, but there’s a lot to like about what happened in the second
half of Thursday’s effort, especially the latter half of the second period.
2. As it did in Wednesday’s season opener, the Flyers' fourth line had
another strong game. It seemed like almost every shift the group took, it
held on to possession of the puck. It’s a testament to coach Craig Berube’s
and GM Ron Hextall’s desire to put together a team that can roll four lines
all game long. And so far, there’s a lot to like about it.
3. You can’t really complain about the job Nick Schultz did, entering the
lineup in place of the injured Braydon Coburn. He even took Coburn’s spot
on the first penalty-kill unit and handled the responsibility rather well.
4. But speaking of defense … yeah, the Flyers’ blue line looked slow
Thursday night. Anything else, though, would have been a surprise. The
Luke Schenn-Michael Del Zotto pairing really struggled through the entire
game.
5. Chalk it up to the opponent? Thursday’s game -- at the start, anyway -was one of the quietest home openers in recent memory. (Except for the
pregame drumline that performed at center ice, anyway.) But that’s the
thing about Devils games -- they’re almost always lacking for energy,
especially those played at the Wells Fargo Center in recent seasons.
6. As they did against Boston, the Flyers picked up steam as they went
along. But the slow starts -- an issue last season, too, you might recall -can’t become a habit, or else things could get worse before they get better.
7. The same can be said about the team’s power play, as well. After a
rough start, the power play seemed to click more as the game went on.
Claude Giroux capitalized just 14 seconds into a man advantage in the
second period to cut the Devils’ lead to 3-1.
8. How about Jaromir Jagr. At 42, he’s still got it. The blade of Jagr’s stick
has always seemed like a magnet to the puck, and it was no different
Thursday night. A few times, it felt like a game of keep-away, with Jagr
skating in circles waiting for Flyers defenders to come after him.
Unsuccessfully, of course.
9. Back-to-back games are tough on all hockey players, but especially on
goalies -- and that’s why you usually see a team’s backup netminder play in
one of the two. But Mason started against both the Bruins and Devils, and
looked a bit fatigued against the Devils. He allowed three goals on the first
nine shots he faced. Assuming he starts Saturday against the Montreal
Canadiens, he’ll have faced a lot of work in a short amount of time. You
have to hope he’s up to it.
10. It was very interesting to see line changes so early into a season;
usually those shuffles are reserved for at least a few games in. But Berube
opted to mix his players up in the second period, moving Michael Raffl up to
the top line, a combination that had some success at times last season.
R.J. Umberger spent time with Sean Couturier and Matt Read, while Vinny
Lecavalier returned to a line with Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn.
Bonus: The absolute best part of Thursday's game was the fact that the
Flyers no longer play Fallout Boy's "My Songs Know What You Did in the
Dark" when the team scores. I've been waiting for this for ages!
753025
Philadelphia Flyers
Instant Replay: Devils 6, Flyers 4
Coburn’s absence gave Nick Schultz his first start of the season. He worked
with Coburn’s partner, Andrew MacDonald.
Home openers
The Flyers are now 26-15-6 all-time.
Tim Panaccio October 9, 2014, 9:30 pm
Franchise record
A dubious one. This is the third straight year the Flyers lost their home
opener.
The atmosphere was perfect.
Back-to-back
Lots of Flyers orange in the stands at the Wells Fargo Center and plenty of
energy for a home opener.
This was the first of 14 such games this season.
Except the New Jersey Devils spoiled things with a 6-4 victory.
This is the third consecutive year the Flyers lost their first two games of a
season.
The scorefest saw a magnificent comeback by the Flyers fall short (see 10
observations).
They trailed 3-0 in the second period and scored three goals in the final
4:15 to tie the game, including two by Wayne Simmonds. Two of those
goals were on the power play.
Injuries
Braydon Coburn (lower body) did not play. His injury was announced before
the game (see story).
1st period
Michael Ryder roofed a shot under the crossbar on goalie Steve Mason at
12:05 of the first period off a nice pass from Ryane Clowe. Mason gave up
a couple bad goals in this one.
Deflected goal
Adam Henrique’s shot from the right circle at 2:10 of the second period
ricocheted off Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn’s skate and changed
directions on Mason for a 2-0 deficit.
And another
At 5:32 of the second period, Jaromir Jagr came up the right boards, did a
spin move and wristed the puck high coming off his spin. His shot hit Mike
Cammalleri and it was 3-0.
Shooting percentage
The Devils had three goals on their first nine shots. That .333 would look
great in baseball, too.
2nd-period comeback
It began with Claude Giroux’s power-play goal from the left circle at 15:44
with Simmonds screening goalie Cory Schneider at the net. Simmonds
made it 3-2 at 19:03 with a rip shot off a deft pass from Matt Read.
Buzzer-beater
Simmonds' second goal, on the power play, came at 19:59 as the horn
sounded. That power play began with 4.5 ticks on the clock.
3rd period
Patrik Elias was so alone off a rush that there wasn’t a Flyer within an area
code of him, including defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Luke Schenn.
Elias, who was camped in front, made it a 4-3 lead, but Vinny Lecavalier retied the game 15 seconds later on a 2-on-1 rush with, who else -Simmonds.
Bad goal
Dainius Zubrus beat Mason shortside off the rush after a successful Flyers
penalty kill to make it 5-4 Devils at 7:13.
Minus pairing
Luke Schenn was minus-5; Del Zotto was minus-4. You think the Flyers
don’t have issues on defense? Schenn is minus-6 this season.
New D pairing
Power play
The Flyers had all kinds of pressure on Schneider during their second
power play in the middle period. At one point, the puck was there in the
paint with Simmonds and Lecavalier jabbing at it. Schneider came up huge
with a couple saves while his defense blocked two more. Before the period
was over, however, the Flyers had two power-play goals.
Special teams
The Flyers were 2 for 5 on the power play; the Devils were 0 for 3.
Faceoffs
Through two periods, the Flyers had won 64 percent of their draws.
Scratches
Forward Blair Jones was a healthy scratch; Defenseman Kimmo Timonen
(blood clots) and forward Ryan White (torn pectoral muscle); and Coburn
(lower body).
753026
Philadelphia Flyers
Source: Pronger's new job won't penalize Flyers
October 9, 2014, 8:00 pm Staff
Chris Pronger has accepted a job with the league office in the department
of player safety, a league source confirmed to CSNPhilly.com, but the
Flyers won’t be penalized on their salary cap, the source also said.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie first reported Pronger's taking the job on Thursday
night prior to the Flyers' home opener against the New Jersey Devils.
A league source confirmed that and then added the Flyers will not be
penalized or sustain a crippling cap hit for Pronger’s accepting this job.
Pronger, the source said, will collect his NHL salary as he has been.
The source said, however, the Flyers will not benefit from Pronger’s
departure, which implies he will come off LTIR and go on injured reserve.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said he has not been officially informed
by either the league or Pronger himself, and isn’t sure how to react or what
comes next.
“I know the stuff that is out there. If I hear it's official, I’ll give you an update
from our side,” Hextall said. “It’s the NHL’s announcement to make and
once they make it, I’ll talk to you about it. I don’t feel comfortable talking
about it [now].”
Under the current CBA, when a player retires early, he doesn’t get paid, but
the club gets stuck with “dead” money against its cap that it can’t use
toward LTIR. Pronger has been on LTIR for more than two seasons.
He has this year, plus two more years left on his deal with a $4.94 million
cap hit and is owed $5.15 million in real dollars.
This situation could have forced the Flyers into a situation in which they’d
have to immediately trade a big contract or two to get cap compliance.
It is believed the league and NHLPA were to discuss how to handle this and
whether it met qualifications as a special situation that could perhaps lead
to a CBA amendment.
Apparently they found a solution.
“If they announce it, I will come out and talk,” Hextall said.
Since taking the GM job last May, Hextall has been under significant salary
cap distress and this only further complicates things for him.
Why this was never addressed when the current CBA was pieced together
in 2013 -- Pronger’s career ended long before that because of postconcussion syndrome -- remains a mystery. He is legitimately injured, yet
can’t retire without his club suffering financially.
getting on with his life.”
As for the CBA not addressing this, “That certainly would have been best
for us,” Hextall said. “You’d like to have it off your cap.
“It does affect you. But that’s one of the things we have no control over.
Would we like it to go away? Absolutely.”
Pronger performs some scouting and video analysis for the Flyers.
Deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly had no comment other to say there
would be no CBA amendment.
753027
Philadelphia Flyers
Source: Pronger's new job won't penalize Flyers
October 9, 2014, 8:00 pm Tim Panaccio and Sarah Baicker
Chris Pronger has accepted a job with the league office in the department
of player safety, a league source confirmed to CSNPhilly.com, but the
Flyers won’t be penalized on their salary cap, the source also said.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie first reported Pronger's taking the job on Thursday
night prior to the Flyers' home opener against the New Jersey Devils.
A league source confirmed that and then added the Flyers will not be
penalized or sustain a crippling cap hit for Pronger’s accepting this job.
Pronger, the source said, will collect his NHL salary as he has been.
The source said, however, the Flyers will not benefit from Pronger’s
departure, which implies he will come off LTIR and go on injured reserve.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said he has not been officially informed
by either the league or Pronger himself, and isn’t sure how to react or what
comes next.
“I know the stuff that is out there. If I hear it's official, I’ll give you an update
from our side,” Hextall said. “It’s the NHL’s announcement to make and
once they make it, I’ll talk to you about it. I don’t feel comfortable talking
about it [now].”
Under the current CBA, when a player retires early, he doesn’t get paid, but
the club gets stuck with “dead” money against its cap that it can’t use
toward LTIR. Pronger has been on LTIR for more than two seasons.
He has this year, plus two more years left on his deal with a $4.94 million
cap hit and is owed $5.15 million in real dollars.
This situation could have forced the Flyers into a situation in which they’d
have to immediately trade a big contract or two to get cap compliance.
It is believed the league and NHLPA were to discuss how to handle this and
whether it met qualifications as a special situation that could perhaps lead
to a CBA amendment.
Apparently they found a solution.
“If they announce it, I will come out and talk,” Hextall said.
Since taking the GM job last May, Hextall has been under significant salary
cap distress and this only further complicates things for him.
Why this was never addressed when the current CBA was pieced together
in 2013 -- Pronger’s career ended long before that because of postconcussion syndrome -- remains a mystery. He is legitimately injured, yet
can’t retire without his club suffering financially.
getting on with his life.”
As for the CBA not addressing this, “That certainly would have been best
for us,” Hextall said. “You’d like to have it off your cap.
“It does affect you. But that’s one of the things we have no control over.
Would we like it to go away? Absolutely.”
Pronger performs some scouting and video analysis for the Flyers.
Deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly had no comment other to say there
would be no CBA amendment.
753028
Philadelphia Flyers
Braydon Coburn out with lower-body injury
Tim Panaccio
Things went from bad to worse on Thursday night for the Flyers' defense.
Already shaky with two sets changing and less mobility without Kimmo
Timonen, Braydon Coburn suffered a lower-body injury against Boston and
will miss more than just a few games.
“He’s going to be re-evaluated tonight and in the next few days,” general
manager Ron Hextall said. “It’s not going to be day to day. I believe this is
going to take some time. I don’t have the final diagnosis or prognosis.”
Hextall wouldn’t bite at reporters' questions as to whether a bone fracture
was involved or if the injury might require surgery.
“He’s got to see a specialist,” Hextall said without specifying what kind of
specialist.
During the Flyers' pregame introductions, Coburn was seen on crutches.
Hextall said Coburn would likely not be placed on LTIR.
As for making a trade, bringing up a veteran (Brandon Manning) or rookie -Shayne Gostisbehere -- Hextall said he wanted to examine the time frame
and look “at every option out there.”
“We’ll look at all our options and pick the best option,” he said. “I don’t have
an answer … right now.”
He said calling someone up right now is “tough” because the Phantoms
have not played yet, then added he wouldn’t have a problem calling up “one
of the guy’s who has been down there a year or two.”
“Injuries happen,” he said. “Nothing you can do about it. We got a great
bunch of guys.”
753029
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers-Devils: 5 things you need to know
Tim Riday October 9, 2014, 2:15 pm
Flyers vs. Devils
7 p.m., CSN
The Flyers will begin the home portion of their schedule when they host the
New Jersey Devils tonight at the Wells Fargo Center.
This is the first of 14 sets of back-to-back games for the Flyers in 2014-15.
It is also the first of a three-game homestand.
Here are five things you need to know before puck drop:
1. Power struggle
The Flyers' new-look first power-play unit had a rough go in Wednesday’s
2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. It had trouble gaining the zone, forced
several passes and managed just four shots on Bruins netminder Tuukka
Rask. Something was definitely out of whack.
Maybe it was a lack of communication. Maybe it was first-game jitters. Or
maybe it was simply because Boston is an excellent penalty-killing team. At
this point in the season, it's really not something to panic about. We’re only
one game in, folks.
Fortunately for the Flyers, they have plenty of time to figure it out. What
they don't want to do is become predictable. Not every man advantage has
to start with Claude Giroux charging through the neutral zone after a drop
pass. The Flyers have several forwards capable of carrying the puck. Let
someone else try to gain the zone. Heck, an occasional dump-and-chase
could always do the trick.
2. In the cage
Steve Mason deserved a much better fate Wednesday night. The 26-yearold had a strong performance in a losing effort, turning aside 31 of 33 shots.
Mason had no chance on Boston’s first goal as he was hung out to dry by
all four Flyers penalty killers, who were caught on one side of the ice. The
game-winner was a fluttering broken-stick point shot that knuckleballed
toward Mason. The rebound landed right on Chris Kelly’s stick and he
deposited it in with 1:51 remaining to give the B’s the win.
“When you’re two minutes away from getting at least one point, you can’t,
whether you have the lead, you can’t lose hockey games in the last five
minutes,” Mason said after the game (see story). “You got to shut things
down.”
Mason will put the disappointing loss behind him rather quickly. He’ll be
back in the Flyers’ crease for Thursday’s home opener.
Cory Schneider enters the season as the Devils’ No. 1 netminder. That’s
right, the Martin Brodeur era in New Jersey has ended. The Devils elected
not to re-sign the future Hall of Famer and hand the reigns over to
Schneider, who signed a seven-year, $42 million contract in the offseason.
Schneider hasn’t faced the Flyers since Dec. 30, 2008, when he was a
rookie with the Vancouver Canucks. He entered that game after Curtis
Sanford went down with an injury. Schneider made 19 saves in 39 minutes
but took the loss after giving up the game-winning goal to Jon Kalinski. Did I
mention that game took place in 2008?
3. Forget about it
Patrice Bergeron put on a clinic in the faceoff circle Wednesday night. The
Bruins’ star center won 18 of 23 draws, including 10 of 12 against Giroux.
Giroux had a tough night overall, going just 4 for 21 (19 percent) on draws
and managing just one shot on goal. He did create several opportunities for
linemates Jakub Voracek and Brayden Schenn, but was largely shut down
by Bergeron and Boston’s deep defensive unit.
Giroux said the Flyers failed to execute in the first two periods against the
B’s and, at times, seemed skittish with the puck. Don’t expect that to last
long. The Devils have a young defense, led by Eric Gelinas, Jon Merrill and
Adam Larsson. The Flyers need to take advantage of that Thursday. Expect
them to be much more confident attacking and handling the puck in the
offensive zone.
4. Jagr and company
Jaromir Jagr — yes, 42-year-old Jaromir Jagr — was New Jersey’s best
player last season. He finished first on the team in assists (43), gamewinning goals (six) and points (67). He also scored 24 goals and appeared
in all 82 games.
The Devils struggled to score goals throughout the 2013-14 season. They
ranked 27th with 2.40 goals per game and finished an atrocious 0-13 in
shootouts.
So, naturally, Lou Lamoriello thought it would be a good idea to bring in
some help for Jagr. The Devils’ general manager added free-agent signees
Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat this past summer.
Cammalleri will likely skate on New Jersey’s top line with Travis Zajac and
Jagr. Havlat and former Flyer Danius Zubrus have been practicing on the
wings with veteran Patrik Elias in the middle.
5. This and that
• The Flyers own a 26-14-6 record in home openers. They will try to avoid
dropping a third consecutive opener at the Wells Fargo Center Thursday
night.
• The Devils led the NHL in penalty killing last season (86.4 percent) and
were the second-least penalized team in the league (8.0 PIMs per game).
• Sean Couturier scored the Flyers’ lone goal in the season opener. It took
Couturier 20 games to score his first goal of the season last year.
• With his next point, Jagr will pass Steve Yzerman for sixth all-time in the
NHL in points (1,755).
• The Flyers were perfect on the PK against New Jersey last season, going
14 for 14.
753030
Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers Skate Update: Check yourself before you wreck yourself
Sarah Baicker October 9, 2014, 1:15 pm
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare doesn’t know exactly what to expect. He’s only
seen videos of the Wells Fargo Center atmosphere.
But tonight, the new-to-the-NHL forward will get a sense of just how loud
and passionate the Philadelphia fanbase can be. He’s heard all about it —
and can’t wait to experience it himself.
“When we came on the ice (in Boston), there was a lot of booing and
everything, obviously, like that,” Bellemare said. “But now we’re going to
have the sixth [skater] with us, behind us — the whole rink cheering for us.
I’m really excited to see that.”
The Flyers opened their season on the road for the first time since 2011-12
Wednesday night, falling to the Bruins, 2-1. But thanks to a quick
turnaround, their attention moved on almost immediately to their homeopener opponent, the New Jersey Devils.
The Flyers went 2-2 against the Devils last season, with the Devils taking
both games played in Philadelphia. In order to put an end to that streak,
Jake Voracek said, the Flyers can’t get too excited. There’s always a
danger in that playing in front of the home crowd in notable games.
“It’s loud. It’s exciting,” Voracek said. “We’ve got to make sure we keep our
emotion in check at the beginning of the game and don’t get running
around.”
For R.J. Umberger, Thursday’s game is also a chance to play at the Center
as a member of the home team for the first time since 2007-08. He has
nothing but fond memories of the experience.
“I remember how much fun it was with the crowd being so intense,” he said.
“You always felt you had a home-ice advantage in this building, a little bit of
an intimidatio

nhl`s daily clips - Philadelphia Flyers

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