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CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • Nov. 25, 2017

Maple Leafs manage to hold off Hurricanes in third

By Chip Alexander

[email protected]

November 24, 2017 10:01 PM

RALEIGH The Toronto Maple Leafs scored four times in the second period Friday but couldn’t flatten the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Leafs had to hold off the hard-charging Canes in the third for a 5-4 win at PNC Arena.

The Canes trailed 4-1 after the second period and 5-2 in the third. But goals by Carolina’s Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin pulled the Canes within 5-4 in a tense final four minutes.

The Leafs took control in the second when Zach Hyman scored in the first minute of the period. Josh Leivo scored off the rush, former Canes defenseman Ron Hainsey had a goal and James van Riemsdyk picked up the Leafs’ fourth in an impressive period of hockey.

Only the work of goalie Frederik Andersen in the first kept the Leafs from possibly falling behind. The Canes dominated the period, getting off 14 shots to the Leafs’ four.

Andersen, once a Carolina draft pick, made all the plays, all the stops. He twice denied center Victor Rask, a healthy scratch for Carolina the past two games, and made a handful of strong stops to keep it a scoreless game after 20 minutes.

Derek Ryan scored off a Jeff Skinner pass in the second, and Jordan Staal scored early in the third on a delayed-penalty sequence. Patrick Marleau’s power-play goal-- after a questionable goaltender interference call against Skinner -- boosted the Leafs’ lead to 5-2 but the Canes kept pushing, outshooting the Leafs 47-25 in the ga,e.

The Canes were coming off a brutal 6-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday that led to a Thanksgiving Day practice, and Canes coach Bill Peters gave veteran goalie Cam Ward the start. The Canes had a lot of jump in the first period, but loose plays and missed defensive assignments in their zone were costly in the second.

By the third, Ward was out and Scott Darling in net. Marleau scored, but Lindholm’s goal came on second effort in front of the net and Hanifin’s score made for an exciting finish.

The Canes close their home stand Sunday against the Nashville Predators and then comes the real grind: 10 of 12 games on the road.

Canes' comeback falls just short against Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto, Canada — The Carolina Hurricanes nearly erased a three-goal deficit in the third period but fell just short in a 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Four different players scored for the Hurricanes, but Patrick Marleau's power-play goal in the third period ultimately proved to be the difference.

Final 1 2 3 Tot

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Toronto 0 4 1 5

Carolina 0 1 3 4

Preview | Box | Gameview | Recap

Three Stars

1: James van Riemsdyk, Tor (1G, 1A)

2: Jeff Skinner, Car (2A)

3: Frederik Andersen, Tor (43 Saves)

Copyright © 2017 by STATS LLC.

All rights reserved.

Here are five takeaways from this post-Thanksgiving tilt:

One

A loss is a loss, and the result the Hurricanes got tonight equaled the exact number of points they earned against the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

"We've got to find a way to come out on the right side of those," Jeff Skinner said. "The results are the exact same: you miss two points that you could have had."

But, all losses aren't created equally. To properly judge this game requires a deeper assessment. Yes, the Hurricanes have given up too many goals in their last two games. Yes, the Hurricanes are digging themselves holes too big from which to escape. Tonight, though, the Canes showed a fight and a will that wasn't evident on Wednesday.

"We'll take the third period and try to build on the good things," Skinner said.

Two

Coming off Wednesday's discouraging 6-1 defeat, the Hurricanes wanted to respond strong. The team came out buzzing in the first period with numerous scoring chances and a 14-4 shot advantage, partially aided by two power-play opportunities. Frederik Andersen was undoubtedly the difference in the Canes taking a 1-0 or 2-0 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes.

"It was a good start. We created a lot," Jordan Staal said. "We have to keep pushing, keep playing that way and not have those lulls."

"I was happy with the period," head coach Bill Peters said. "There's no reason to get discouraged. You've just got to stay with it, keep playing and continue to generate those

types of quality chances. I thought there were good looks in the first."

Three

But then there was the second period, in which the Maple Leafs capitalized with four goals on 12 shots. Zach Hyman, Josh Leivo and former Hurricane Ron Hainsey turned a scoreless game into a 3-0 match in the first 11-and-a-half minutes of the period.

The Hurricanes got one back when Derek Ryan kicked a Jeff Skinner pass to his stick and scored five-hole on Andersen in the slot. James van Riemsdyk, older brother of the Hurricanes' Trevor, stretched the Leafs' lead back to three goals just prior to the second intermission.

"We gave up too many goals to start. There was a few too many defensive lapses," Staal said. "We've got to tighten up."

"We've given up too many goals," Peters said. "I don't think we're going to outscore our decisions and mistakes. That's probably the thing we need to clean up ASAP."

Four

Down three heading into the third period, the Hurricanes could have again folded until the sound of the final horn.

But, to the Canes' credit, that's not what happened.

"There are a few guys in the room between the second and third that said we're not quitting on this game. We did that against the Rangers, and we weren't going to do that again," Staal said. "We made a push in the third. It was good to see everyone working and battling but tough to come up short."

Staal got the Canes back within two goals with his seventh of the season just over three minutes into the third period.

An unfortunate sequence followed shortly after. With the Canes playing with some life, Skinner skated out from behind the net, crossing right above the crease. Andersen stepped up, leaned into Skinner and then flopped like a fish out of water, drawing a goaltender interference call on the Canes' incredulous forward.

"That's a big point in the game. I thought I was just skating, that's all," Skinner said. "I didn't hear anything. I was probably doing most of the talking there. I didn't get an explanation."

CAROLINA HURRICANES


"I thought it was outside the blue paint. I didn't think there was much there, and I don't know if we were the actual ones who initiated the contact. I sure didn't think there was much," Peters said. "That ends up resulting in the game-winning goal, so that's a big call."

Sure enough, on the ensuing power play, Marleau banged home his ninth of the season, what turned out to be the game-winner.

"It's their winning goal. We did a good job getting a goal early in the period, and then they get one on the power play," Skinner said. "We come back, and we're just a goal short. It's tough. Those moments happen."

At the time, that goal wasn't what got the Canes into their 5-2 predicament, but it certainly loomed large considering the one-goal differential in the final score.

Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin scored goals about two minutes apart to make things interesting down the stretch, but the Hurricanes could not find the equalizer.

"I thought we did a good job of trying to come back and creating offense," Staal said. "We had some good looks right at the end, too."

"I was angry, but you've got to find a way to channel that. I think guys did a good job. Lindy got a big goal there for us, and then Hani followed it up. We were pressing there in the last couple minutes," Skinner said. "We had chances and opportunities to score, even in the last minute. … We just couldn't get that one."

Five

Victor Rask drew back into the lineup tonight after sitting out the last two games as a healthy scratch. It was a bit of a mental reset for the young Swedish center, whose production had gone a bit dry as of late.

Though he didn't factor in on the scoresheet tonight, he did a lot of good things. He was in the right places offensively and could have scored a pair of goals in the first period was it not for the play of Andersen.

Rask finished the night a plus-3 in 14:10 of ice time. He registered four shots on goal and three hits.

Up Next

The Hurricanes close out their four-game homestand when they face off with the defending Western Conference champion Nashville Predators on Sunday at 1 p.m.

"It's a big game for us, another big game. It's going to be a good challenge for us," Skinner said. "We'll be ready for it."

Second period dooms Hurricanes in 5-4 loss to Leafs

Carolina dominates the first and last period, but Toronto scores four times in the middle frame

November 25, 2017 Cory Lavalette

RALEIGH — As has been the case often this season, the Carolina Hurricanes controlled much of their game Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Hurricanes had a dominant first period in which they outshot the Leafs 14-4 and Toronto managed just one shot at even strength. But Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen — a one-time seventh-round pick of the Hurricanes who opted to re-enter the draft rather than sign with Carolina — was the difference, making several key stops to keep the opening period scoreless.

Then trailing in the third, Carolina pushed and scored three times to try and rally.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Toronto, however, did the bulk of its damage in the second period, scoring four times en route to a 5-4 win at PNC Arena.

“I think we maybe got a little bit impatient, is why we forced some things in the middle part of the game,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “But … you know it doesn’t work. You gotta stay structured, you gotta play the game the right way.”

Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin scored down the stretch to make it a one-goal game, but Andersen (43 saves) again answered the bell by making several stops when the Hurricanes had an extra attacker to close out the game.

The difference wound up being a third period power play goal by Patrick Marleau that came after a questionable goaltender interference call against Jeff Skinner.

Skinner and Andersen came together, with the latter appearing to be making the contact before falling. Skinner, who was visibly angry with the call and admitted so afterward, went to the box and watched as Auston Matthews found Marleau alone at the far post to beat Scott Darling — who relieved Cam Ward to start the third period — to push the lead to 5-2.

“It was a big goal for them. It was their winning goal, I think,” Skinner said while carefully choosing his words. “It’s … it’s a big point in the game. I thought, yeah, I thought I was just skating.”

Peters seemed less than thrilled with the officiating as well when asked about the Skinner call and a couple others during the game.

“I thought it was outside the blue paint,” he said. “I didn’t think there was much there and I don’t know if we were the actual ones who initiated the contact. I sure didn’t think there was much. So that ends up resulting in the game-winning goal, so it’s a big call.”

The Skinner infraction and subsequent goal came shortly after Jordan Staal had scored on a delayed penalty 3:08 into the third to make it 4-2 and bring to life the crowd of 15,241.

The Lindholm and Hanifin goals cut the lead to one, but Carolina — which outshot the Leafs 47-25, including 20-9 in the third — couldn’t get the equalizer by Andersen.

“Just a few too many defensive lapses,” Staal said. “Little plays, but they made us pay. When you let in five goals as a group, the odds of you getting a win are very slim.”

The lapses came early in the second and carried throughout the entire period.

First, after Cam Ward (12 saves on 16 shots) failed to clear the puck out of the zone, Jake Gardiner lured Ward out of the net and fed the puck to Zach Hyman in the goal mouth for a tap-in and a 1-0 lead just 53 seconds into the middle frame.

The Maple Leafs stretched the lead to two when Josh Leivo came blazing up the left wing and beat Ward in the glove side corner at 7:14.

Another ex-Hurricane stung Carolina when Ron Hainsey collected a loose puck off the boards and picked the stick-side top corner on Ward for a 3-0 lead just past the game’s midway point.

The Hurricanes finally cracked the Leafs and Andersen at 13:35 of the second.

Skinner ripped a shot that Andersen fended off, but the Carolina forward got his own rebound and found Derek Ryan alone at the doorstep. Ryan quickly went skate to stick and deposited the puck past Andersen for his fifth goal of the year to make it 3-1.

Toronto, however, had an answer for that goal. James van Riemsdyk shot a puck off the right post and it redirected off Ward’s skate an in for a three-goal cushion with 96 seconds left in the second.

That was it for Ward, who was replaced with Darling to start the third. Darling earned the loss because he allowed the power play goal to Marleau, which wound up as the game-winner.

Notes: Victor Rask returned to the lineup and had four shots on goal and three hits in 14:10. He ended up a game-best plus-3 despite not registering a point. … With an assist, Teuvo Teravainen extended his point streak to six games. Sebastian Aho’s five-game goal scoring and point streak was snapped. … Justin Faulk was credited with 15 shots attempts (four on goal) and eight hits.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Recap: Canes' Comeback Falls Just Short Against Leafs

by Michael Smith @MSmithCanes / CarolinaHurricanes.com

November 24th, 2017

The Carolina Hurricanes nearly erased a three-goal deficit in the third period but fell just short in a 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Four different players scored for the Hurricanes, but Patrick Marleau's power-play goal in the third period ultimately proved to be the difference.

Here are five takeaways from this post-Thanksgiving tilt.

One

A loss is a loss, and the result the Hurricanes got tonight equaled the exact number of points they earned against the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

"We've got to find a way to come out on the right side of those," Jeff Skinner said. "The results are the exact same: you miss two points that you could have had."

But, all losses aren't created equally. To properly judge this game requires a deeper assessment. Yes, the Hurricanes have given up too many goals in their last two games. Yes, the Hurricanes are digging themselves holes too big from which to escape. Tonight, though, the Canes showed a fight and a will that wasn't evident on Wednesday.

"We'll take the third period and try to build on the good things," Skinner said.

Two

Coming off Wednesday's discouraging 6-1 defeat, the Hurricanes wanted to respond strong. The team came out buzzing in the first period with numerous scoring chances and a 14-4 shot advantage, partially aided by two power-play opportunities. Frederik Andersen was undoubtedly the difference in the Canes taking a 1-0 or 2-0 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes.

"It was a good start. We created a lot," Jordan Staal said. "We have to keep pushing, keep playing that way and not have those lulls."

"I was happy with the period," head coach Bill Peters said. "There's no reason to get discouraged. You've just got to stay with it, keep playing and continue to generate those types of quality chances. I thought there were good looks in the first."

Three

But then there was the second period, in which the Maple Leafs capitalized with four goals on 12 shots. Zach Hyman, Josh Leivo and former Hurricane Ron Hainsey turned a scoreless game into a 3-0 match in the first 11-and-a-half minutes of the period.

The Hurricanes got one back when Derek Ryan kicked a Jeff Skinner pass to his stick and scored five-hole on Andersen in the slot. James van Riemsdyk, older brother of the Hurricanes' Trevor, stretched the Leafs' lead back to three goals just prior to the second intermission.

"We gave up too many goals to start. There was a few too many defensive lapses," Staal said. "We've got to tighten up."

"We've given up too many goals," Peters said. "I don't think we're going to outscore our decisions and mistakes. That's probably the thing we need to clean up ASAP."

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Four

Down three heading into the third period, the Hurricanes could have again folded until the sound of the final horn.

But, to the Canes' credit, that's not what happened.

"There are a few guys in the room between the second and third that said we're not quitting on this game. We did that against the Rangers, and we weren't going to do that again," Staal said. "We made a push in the third. It was good to see everyone working and battling but tough to come up short."

Staal got the Canes back within two goals with his seventh of the season just over three minutes into the third period.

An unfortunate sequence followed shortly after. With the Canes playing with some life, Skinner skated out from behind the net, crossing right above the crease. Andersen stepped up, leaned into Skinner and then flopped like a fish out of water, drawing a goaltender interference call on the Canes' incredulous forward.

"That's a big point in the game. I thought I was just skating, that's all," Skinner said. "I didn't hear anything. I was probably doing most of the talking there. I didn't get an explanation."

"I thought it was outside the blue paint. I didn't think there was much there, and I don't know if we were the actual ones who initiated the contact. I sure didn't think there was much," Peters said. "That ends up resulting in the game-winning goal, so that's a big call."

Sure enough, on the ensuing power play, Marleau banged home his ninth of the season, what turned out to be the game-winner.

"It's their winning goal. We did a good job getting a goal early in the period, and then they get one on the power play," Skinner said. "We come back, and we're just a goal short. It's tough. Those moments happen."

At the time, that goal wasn't what got the Canes into their 5-2 predicament, but it certainly loomed large considering the one-goal differential in the final score.

Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin scored goals about two minutes apart to make things interesting down the stretch, but the Hurricanes could not find the equalizer.

"I thought we did a good job of trying to come back and creating offense," Staal said. "We had some good looks right at the end, too."

"I was angry, but you've got to find a way to channel that. I think guys did a good job. Lindy got a big goal there for us, and then Hani followed it up. We were pressing there in the last couple minutes," Skinner said. "We had chances and opportunities to score, even in the last minute. … We just couldn't get that one."

Five

Victor Rask drew back into the lineup tonight after sitting out the last two games as a healthy scratch. It was a bit of a mental reset for the young Swedish center, whose production had gone a bit dry as of late.

Though he didn't factor in on the scoresheet tonight, he did a lot of good things. He was in the right places offensively and could have scored a pair of goals in the first period was it not for the play of Andersen.

Rask finished the night a plus-3 in 14:10 of ice time. He registered four shots on goal and three hits.

Up Next

The Hurricanes close out their four-game homestand when they face off with the defending Western Conference champion Nashville Predators on Sunday at 1 p.m.

"It's a big game for us, another big game. It's going to be a good challenge for us," Skinner said. "We'll be ready for it."

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Hurricanes vs Leafs Recap and Rank ‘em:

Canes drop 5-4 to Toronto The Leafs raked in the goals against the Canes in a wild

game.

by Justin Lape@LankyLape Nov 24, 2017, 10:13pm EST

The Carolina Hurricanes dropped a 5-4 decision to the

Toronto Maple Leafs. The Hurricanes have now allowed 11

goals over the past two games. Carolina outshot the Leafs

47-25 in Friday’s loss.

The Canes started the first period strong with an early

offensive push. Derek Ryan fed Sebastian Aho with a

smooth pass near the goal but Aho’s shot ended up in the

mesh. Carolina was gifted an early power play opportunity

after Zach Hyman tripped Teuvo Tervainen. Jeff Skinner and

Victor Rask both got off shots in close but were not able to

capitalize. Toronto Maple Leafs goalie and former Hurricane

draft pick Frederick Andersen made a stellar save on Victor

Rask at the 2:39 mark of the first period despite some great

offensive zone pressure. Soon after the save, Derek Ryan

was called for hooking but the Canes would kill off the

penalty after no shots by the Leafs. Carolina lead Toronto

14-4 in shots after the conclusion of the first period.

Toronto scored just 53 seconds into the second period on

their fifth shot of the game. Ward fell for a head fake and

ended up far out of position. Jake Gardiner fed Zach Hyman

in the crease who tapped it in for the game’s first goal.

Nazem Kadri earned the secondary assist on the goal,

extending his point streak to nine games. At 12:46 of the

second, Josh Leivo and fired a wrist shot over Ward’s glove

to put the visitors up 2-0. Former Hurricane Ron Hainsey

fired a wrist shot up high on Ward that found its way up high

with around eight minutes to go in the period to give the

Leafs a 3-0 lead. The Hurricanes responded with a behind

the net pass from Jeff Skinner that found Derek Ryan in front

who beat Andersen for his fifth goal of the season. With 1:36

in the period, James van Reimsdyk fired a shot from the

circle that went off the post and careened off the back of

Ward’s heel for the Leafs fourth goal of the game.

After Ward’s sour showing in the second period, Scott

Darling replaced him to start the third. Jordan Staal struck

early in the third period to bring the Canes within two after

the puck bounced to his stick after a bad shot attempt by

Justin Faulk. Teuvo Teravainen earned an assist as well on

the play, continuing the strong play of the TSA line. After a

questionable goalie interference call on Jeff Skinner, the

Leafs scored on the ensuing power play after a great slap

pass from Auston Matthews to Patrick Marleau who simple

tapped it in past Darling. After swapping chances back and

forth, the Canes added another goal to pull back within two

after Elias Lindholm wouldn’t be denied after multiple shots.

Noah Hanifin added another just 1:31 later to bring the game

within one goal. The Hurricanes pulled Darling with a little

over two minutes to go but to no avail. Despite some solid

offensive chances late, Andersen made a late steal to thwart

a chance at a Hurricanes comeback.

Carolina will look to end their four-game homestand on a

positive note as the Nashville Predators come to town on

Sunday afternoon. Coverage begins at 1 p.m. on Fox Sports

Carolinas.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Maple Leafs score four in second period,

hold off Hurricanes Carolina rallies but drops second straight

by Kurt Dusterberg / NHL.com Correspondent

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Toronto Maple Leafs scored four

goals in the second period, and Frederik Andersen made 43

saves in a 5-4 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC

Arena on Friday.

Ron Hainsey, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Gardiner each

had two points for Toronto (15-8-1).

Andersen made 14 saves in the first period to keep the game

scoreless, then held off Carolina's push in the final minutes.

"Obviously, we were holding on in the third," Hainsey said.

"He's been giving us all the goaltending we could ask for for

quite a while."

The Hurricanes (9-8-4) lost their second in a row despite late

goals from Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin that brought

Carolina within one.

Zach Hyman's fifth goal of the season gave the Maple Leafs

a 1-0 lead 53 seconds into the second period. After Nazem

Kadri held in an errant clearing attempt, Gardiner drew Cam

Ward out of the net, skated behind him and slipped the puck

to Hyman in front for a tap-in.

"We had a rocky first, and to come out and get us the lead

and get a roll going, it was important for us," Hyman said.

Toronto made it 2-0 on Josh Leivo's first goal of the season.

He chased down a long flip pass by Andreas Borgman along

the left side boards before cutting to the net and scoring

inside the far post at 7:14.

Hainsey made it 3-0 at 11:37 when he gathered a loose puck

at the top of the right circle and sent a wrist shot to the left

post.

Carolina cut Toronto's lead to 3-1 at 13:35 on Derek Ryan's

fifth of the season. Jeff Skinner followed his shot behind the

net and made a backhand pass to Ryan in the low slot.

The Maple Leafs went back up by three at 18:24 when van

Riemsdyk's shot from the slot hit the right post, bounced off

Ward's right leg and rolled back into the net to make it 4-1.

Scott Darling began the third period in relief of Ward, who

had 12 saves. Darling made eight saves.

Jordan Staal made it 4-2 when he gathered a loose puck and

scored into an open net at 3:08 of the third after Justin

Faulk's shot was blocked.

Patrick Marleau's power-play goal gave Toronto a 5-2 lead at

5:27 of the third. Auston Matthews made a hard pass to the

top of the crease, where Marleau redirected the puck for his

ninth of the season.

"I was hoping for it," Marleau said. "He made a great play

there. I just had my stick on the ice and he used me as a

backboard."

Lindholm went to the net to put in the rebound of Hanifin's

shot and make it 5-3 at 13:58. Hanifin made it 5-4 at 15:49

on a hard wrist shot from above the left circle.

Carolina pulled Darling for the extra attacker with a little more

than two minutes remaining in the third, but Andersen held

off the Hurricanes, making two saves on Ryan in close.

"Some nights are ugly. That's what it is," Toronto coach Mike

Babcock said. "They were quicker and jumped better than

us. Obviously, we scored some good goals, some timely

goals, but [Andersen] was the main event."

They said it

"It's always good to score in the NHL. I don't get any more

joy scoring against this team. I've got a lot of people over

there who helped me, and that's a team I'm rooting for. As I

said, scoring in the NHL is never a bad deal." -- Maple Leafs

defenseman Ron Hainsey, who played 300 games for

Carolina from 2013-2017

CAROLINA HURRICANES


"We've given up too many goals obviously, six and then five.

Don't think we're going to outscore our mistakes. That's the

thing we need to clear up ASAP." -- Hurricanes coach Bill

Peters on consecutive losses, including 6-1 against the New

York Rangers on Wednesday

Need to know

Marleau scored his 102nd game-winning goal to pass

Jarome Iginla for seventh on the NHL list. Toronto is 8-0-0

when he scores a goal. … The Hurricanes made their first in-

game goaltending change of the season.

What's next

Maple Leafs: Host the Washington Capitals on Saturday (7

p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, NBCSWA+, NHL.TV)

Hurricanes: Host the Nashville Predators on Sunday (1 p.m.

ET; FS-TN, FS-CR, NHL.TV)

Maple Leafs top Hurricanes in goal-

scoring affair RALEIGH, N.C. — The Toronto Maple Leafs started slowly,

and the Carolina Hurricanes finished fast.

Still, Toronto did enough in the middle of the game to pick up

a 5-4 road win over the Hurricanes on Friday night.

The Maple Leafs (15-8-1) got four goals from different

players in the second period to win for the seventh time in

nine games.

Patrick Marleau’s power-play goal at 5:27 of the third period

was the difference for the Leafs, who were outshot 47-25.

The Hurricanes (9-8-4) fell behind 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 before a

late rally. They lost their second straight home game, but it

wasn’t for a lack of effort early or late.

Carolina had a 14-4 advantage in shots in the first period, but

Frederik Andersen, who had 43 saves, was strong early.

"If we didn’t have Freddie tonight, I don’t know what the

score would be," Toronto winger Josh Leivo said.

The Leafs have made it a habit recently to start sluggishly in

the first period.

"The beginning is really important," Andersen said. "We’ve

got to be ready to play. The last three games we haven’t

been."

The win Friday ended a two-game winless streak for the

Leafs, who return home on Saturday. Coach Mike Babcock

said the slow starts will be addressed.

"We’re just going to talk about it and fix it because the

players aren’t happy," Babcock said. "I’m not happy, so we’ll

fix that."

Remaining Time -1:32

Babcock hails ‘main event’ Anderson after win over

Hurricanes

The Hurricanes, coming off of a lacklustre performance in a

6-1 home loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday

night, didn’t have anything to show for the strong start.

Andersen was that good, especially on a glove save on

Victor Rask near the end of the first period.

"That first period was an onslaught," Leivo said. "They just

kept coming at us."

The offence picked up for Andersen in the second period.

Zach Hyman scored 52 seconds into the period and then

Leivo, a fourth-line winger, added his first goal of the season.

Former Carolina defenceman Ron Hainsey gave Toronto a

3-0 lead.

Andersen stopped the first 22 shots, but Derek Ryan made it

4-1 before the end of the second period.

Jordan Staal scored the first of three third-period goals for

Carolina just over three minutes in. Marleau answered.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Carolina got to Andersen for two more goals, from Elias

Lindholm and Noah Hanifin, but Andersen was able to hold

off a late 6-on-5 flurry from the Hurricanes.

"Freddie was the man tonight for sure," Babcock said.

NOTES: Toronto winger James Van Riemsdyk had a goal

and an assist for Toronto to outdo his younger brother

Trevor, a defenceman for the Hurricanes. . Hainsey scored in

his first game back at PNC Arena. The veteran defenceman

played parts of four seasons for the Hurricanes from 2013

through ’17. . Cam Ward started in goal for Carolina for only

the second time in seven games, but was pulled in the third

period for regular starter Scott Darling. Ward allowed Toronto

to score on four of its first 14 shots.

UP NEXT

Maple Leafs: Host the Washington Capitals on Saturday for

their third game in four days.

Hurricanes: Host the Nashville Predators on Sunday to close

out a four-game homestand.

TODAY’S LINKS

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/article186446798.html

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/canes-comeback-falls-just-short-against-leafs/17139519/

https://nsjonline.com/article/2017/11/second-period-dooms-hurricanes-in-5-4-loss-to-leafs/

https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/recap-hurricanes-comeback-falls-just-short-against-maple-leafs/c-293335174

https://www.canescountry.com/2017/11/24/16697702/carolina-hurricanes-vs-toronto-maple-leafs-recap-canes-drop-5-4-to-leafs

https://www.nhl.com/news/toronto-maple-leafs-carolina-hurricanes-game-recap/c-293336856

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/van-riemsdyk-leafs-beat-brother-hurricanes/

1084954 Carolina Hurricanes

For Skinner, Williams as a wing man could be an answer

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

[email protected]

NOVEMBER 24, 2017 11:34 PM

UPDATED 3 HOURS 1 MINUTES AGO

Jeff Skinner seemed to be in the middle of everything Friday in the

Carolina Hurricanes’ 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at PNC Arena.

Whether setting up Derek Ryan for a goal, tangling with Leafs goalie

Frederik Andersen around the net, giving his opinion to the referees or

being a part of a big push in the final minutes of regulation, Skinner often

was front and center. Vocal, engaged.

More importantly for the Canes, 21 games into the season, Skinner might

have found the right line to be the most effective.

Canes coach Bill Peters has a found a lot of success — and winger

Sebastian Aho starting finding the net — in using Aho and Teuvo

Teravainen on a line with center Jordan Staal. The “TSA” line, it has

been called.

Skinner, after scoring a career-high 37 goals last season, has gone

through so many line permutations it’s hard to keep up with them. Ryan

has been his centerman much of the season and Skinner also has had

Victor Rask and more recently Elias Lindholm in the middle.

But there has been a growing list of wingers on the right side — Justin

Williams, Brock McGinn, Josh Jooris, Phil Di Giuseppe, Lindholm. In the

first three games of the season, Skinner played with Ryan and Janne

Kuokannen, a rookie.

If Skinner has any complaints, he keeps them to himself.

“It’s something I don’t really worry too much about because it’s not in my

control,” he said. “I can control how I play. That’s not always quite as well

as I’d like to, so that’s my No. 1 focus.

“When you’ve got guys sticking together it’s because they’re playing well

and they’re producing or you’re getting results. I’m not sure which comes

first, the chicken or the egg.”

On Friday, Canes coach Bill Peters had Skinner and Williams back

together, with Ryan in the middle. Williams and Ryan each had five shots

and Skinner three, and Skinner and Williams both had two assists.

Then there was the disagreements about Andersen. In the second

period, with the Canes buzzing around the net, the Leafs goal suddenly

became dislodged and play was stopped. It was hard to say if Andersen

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/article186446798.html

https://nsjonline.com/article/2017/11/second-period-dooms-hurricanes-in-5-4-loss-to-leafs/

https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/recap-hurricanes-comeback-falls-just-short-against-maple-leafs/c-293335174

https://www.canescountry.com/2017/11/24/16697702/carolina-hurricanes-vs-toronto-maple-leafs-recap-canes-drop-5-4-to-leafs

https://www.nhl.com/news/toronto-maple-leafs-carolina-hurricanes-game-recap/c-293336856

CAROLINA HURRICANES


or another Leafs player were responsible but no penalty was called

despite Skinner’s protestations.

It was a more dicey situation in the third. Trailing 4-1, the Canes picked

up a goal from Staal, but Skinner was called for goaltender interference

47 seconds after Staal’s goal.

Relays indicated Andersen was outside the crease and initiated the

contact with Skinner. But Skinner went to the penalty box and Patrick

Marleau scored what would be the deciding goal for the Maple Leafs.

“Those moments happen,” Skinner said. “There’s a lot of moments like

that in a game and obviously that one gets a little more magnified, given

the circumstances.”

Skinner called it a tough loss, and that it was for Carolina (9-8-4). But the

line of Skinner, Ryan and Williams might be one answer moving forward.

Peters had hoped to have Skinner with Ryan and Lee Stempniak this

season, but Stempniak has yet to play a game because of an unspecified

upper-body injury. With Stempniak out, Williams appeared to be the best

option at right wing and Peters has had the line together before this

season, including the Canes’ 6-3 win in Toronto on Oct. 26.

“It shouldn’t be very hard but at the same time it’s nice having continuity

and familiarity and knowing what your centerman’s tendencies are,”

Williams said. “But that only comes with winning consistently -- the same

lines. Hopefully we can do that.”

Skinner played with Jussi Jokinen and Tuomo Ruutu in his first NHL

game in October 2010, and maybe he’s not a hard winger to slot.

Whoever he plays with, he keeps scoring goals.

“It’s a long season and things are going to change,” Skinner said. “You’ve

got to be able to adapt and communicate with your line mates and try

and find that success and get on a roll.”

News Observer LOADED: 11.25.2017

1084955 Carolina Hurricanes

Maple Leafs manage to hold off Hurricanes in third

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

[email protected]

NOVEMBER 24, 2017 10:01 PM

UPDATED 3 HOURS 1 MINUTES AGO

RALEIGH The Toronto Maple Leafs scored four times in the second

period Friday but couldn’t flatten the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Leafs had to hold off the hard-charging Canes in the third for a 5-4

win at PNC Arena.

The Canes trailed 4-1 after the second period and 5-2 in the third. But

goals by Carolina’s Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin pulled the Canes

within 5-4 in a tense final four minutes.

The Leafs took control in the second when Zach Hyman scored in the

first minute of the period. Josh Leivo scored off the rush, former Canes

defenseman Ron Hainsey had a goal and James van Riemsdyk picked

up the Leafs’ fourth in an impressive period of hockey.

Only the work of goalie Frederik Andersen in the first kept the Leafs from

possibly falling behind. The Canes dominated the period, getting off 14

shots to the Leafs’ four.

Andersen, once a Carolina draft pick, made all the plays, all the stops.

He twice denied center Victor Rask, a healthy scratch for Carolina the

past two games, and made a handful of strong stops to keep it a

scoreless game after 20 minutes.

Derek Ryan scored off a Jeff Skinner pass in the second, and Jordan

Staal scored early in the third on a delayed-penalty sequence. Patrick

Marleau’s power-play goal-- after a questionable goaltender interference

call against Skinner -- boosted the Leafs’ lead to 5-2 but the Canes kept

pushing, outshooting the Leafs 47-25 in the ga,e.

The Canes were coming off a brutal 6-1 loss to the New York Rangers on

Wednesday that led to a Thanksgiving Day practice, and Canes coach

Bill Peters gave veteran goalie Cam Ward the start. The Canes had a lot

of jump in the first period, but loose plays and missed defensive

assignments in their zone were costly in the second.

By the third, Ward was out and Scott Darling in net. Marleau scored, but

Lindholm’s goal came on second effort in front of the net and Hanifin’s

score made for an exciting finish.

The Canes close their home stand Sunday against the Nashville

Predators and then comes the real grind: 10 of 12 games on the road.

News Observer LOADED: 11.25.2017

1085012 Nashville Predators

Predators blank Blues, improve to 9-2 in November

Joe Harris, Associated Press Published 10:25 p.m. CT Nov. 24, 2017

ST. LOUIS – Ryan Johansen had a goal and an assist, and Pekka Rinne

earned his second shutout of the season as the Nashville Predators beat

the St. Louis Blues 2-0 on Friday night.

Johansen’s scored his third goal of the season early in the first, and

Rinne made it hold up, stopping 34 shots as he shut out St. Louis for the

third time in his career.

Austin Watson added an empty-netter. Johansen earned his 200th

career assist on the insurance tally.

The Predators won their fourth straight game and improved to 9-2 in

November.

Carter Hutton made 26 saves for the Blues, taking his first loss in just his

sixth appearance as St. Louis was shut out for the second time this

season. Hutton made the save of the game, sliding across the crease to

rob Viktor Arvidsson midway through the third period.

The Blues went 0-for-3 on the power play, mustering just two total shots

as the Predators put up a wall on their own blue line. St. Louis entered

the game with the 24th-ranked power play in the league.

The Predators were held without a power-play opportunity for the first

time this season and the first time since Feb. 23, 2017, in a 4-2 victory

over Colorado.

It was the first meeting between the Central Division rivals since

Nashville eliminated St. Louis in the second round of the playoffs last

April.

Rinne won his eighth game in his last nine starts and improved to 20-16-

4 over the Blues. Rinne wasn’t tested much, but came up with glove

saves on chances by Vladimir Tarasenko and Chris Thorburn as the

Blues turned up the pressure in the third period.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Johansen ripped a one-timer from Filip Forsberg past Hutton to give the

Predators a 1-0 lead just 2:32 into the game. After scoring once in his

first 19 games, Johansen has scored twice in his last three.

Tennessean LOADED: 11.25.2017

1084963 Columbus Blue Jackets

Blue Jackets 5, Senators 2 | Atkinson, Foligno re-emerge in victory

By Michael Arace

The Columbus Dispatch

@MichaelArace1

Posted Nov 24, 2017 at 11:24 PM

Updated Nov 24, 2017 at 11:25 PM

The Blue Jackets stretched their winning streak to six games with a mid-

third-period crescendo and a crowd-pleasing coda in Nationwide Arena

on Friday night. Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno reappeared as the

Jackets scored three goals in the final 11 minutes of regulation and beat

the Ottawa Senators 5-2.

There were 17,083 fans in attendance, and they were happy they didn’t

have to chew on what is left of their nails for the full 60. Each of the

Jackets’ five previous victories came by one goal, and three of them went

beyond regulation.

“We weren’t sure what to expect in the third,” Jackets coach John

Tortorella said.

What they got was a game-winning goal from Atkinson, a snipe off a rush

by Foligno and an empty-net goal by Tyler Motte. Atkinson, whose last

goal had come Oct. 27, had a pair of goals on this night.

“I felt like I hadn’t scored in a year,” Atkinson said.

The six-game winning streak is the Jackets’ longest since their epic, 16-

game streak last season. The Jackets (15-7-1) sit atop the Metropolitan

Division and are tied for the third-highest point total in the league.

They got off to a flying start against Ottawa, a nasty-trapping, wicked-

counterattacking team. Think: Jacques Lemaire’s old get-it-and-go

Devils, more than Ken Hitchcock’s old trap-and-dump Stars.

The Jackets dominated possession in the first, during which they outshot

the Senators 14-4. One of the Sens’ shots, though, was a simple finish of

a two-on-one rush: Derick Brassard saucered the puck to Tom Pyatt,

whose goal gave the visitors a 1-0 lead at 10:56 of the first period.

The Senators’ lead lasted 26 seconds — or the time it took Atkinson to

poke the puck off the stick of Alexandre Burrows, take off on a naked

breakaway, deke down Sens goalie Craig Anderson and tuck a wee

forehand inside the right post. Just like that, it was 1-1.

The Jackets took a 2-1 lead at 7:28 of the second period on a goal by

Markus Nutivaara, his first of the season and the third of his career. It

was set up by Josh Anderson, who circumnavigated the Senators’

defense.

“Nobody stops that guy,” Nutivaara said of Anderson.

The Senators answered in Senatorial fashion when they took a blue-line

turnover by Artemi Panarin and scored on a lightning counter by Mike

Hoffman. Just like that, it was 2-2.

In the third period, the Jackets had to show the kind of patience that is

becoming their hallmark. The Senators had the puck for minutes on end.

The Jackets had trouble getting past the red line. Sergei Bobrovsky —

who faced 12 shots through the first 40 minutes — finally got busy and,

as he did, he entered a Zen-like state of ethereal limberness. He was

particularly impressive during a penalty kill midway through the period.

“It’s hard to play that game as a goalie,” Tortorella said, referring to a

long stretch of quiet followed by a whirlwind of business.

Atkinson stepped out of the penalty box and clapped one in from the top

of the left circle at 10:40 of the third. A few minutes later, Sonny Milano

sprang a rush for Foligno and Atkinson, and Foligno finished it off with an

unhesitating wrist shot under the crossbar. That gave the Jackets a two-

goal lead, and the crowd exhaled.

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 11.25.2017


Blue Jackets notebook | Amid issues, Tortorella likes potential for depth

By Josh Horton The Columbus Dispatch

Posted Nov 24, 2017 at 10:08 PM

Updated Nov 24, 2017 at 10:08 PM

With the Blue Jackets 23 games into the regular season, coach John

Tortorella describes his feelings on his squad as “half full.”

Sure, there are some worrisome things. Forward Nick Foligno has only

one point in his last 13 games. Center Alexander Wennberg is day-to-day

with an unspecified injury. Some of the Blue Jackets’ other veterans

expected to make a big impact on offense, such as Brandon Dubinsky,

Cam Atkinson and Boone Jenner, haven’t produced like many thought

they would.

But Tortorella’s optimism stems from some of the pleasant surprises that

have kept this team near the top of the Eastern Conference, along with

the stellar play of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Forward Oliver

Bjorkstrand, 22, entered Friday’s game second on the team with 13

points. Defenseman Markus Nutivaara has eight points in 17 games.

Pierre-Luc Dubois has recently emerged as the team’s top-line center.

Once the slumping veterans and those in the training room come back,

Tortorella hopes those who have stepped up already will provide

valuable depth.

“As we’ve always said, when another guy gets an opportunity, then your

team usually becomes a better team if they improve when they get

certain minutes they wouldn’t normally get when those other guys are

healthy,” Tortorella said. “Then when the guys are back, then you have

something.”

David Savard was a healthy scratch last Friday against the New York

Rangers, which allowed for the veteran defenseman to re-set his game.

Tortorella has liked Savard’s response since he rejoined the lineup.

“He has played better,” Tortorella said. “We want him to play quick. We

want him to make outlet passes. We felt like he was turning the puck

over too much. We felt the speed was catching up to him a little bit.”

Savard played alongside his usual partner, Jack Johnson, on Friday

against the Senators.

When it comes to 20-year-old defenseman Zach Werenski, Tortorella is

careful not to inhibit his playmaking ability.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


“There are no restrictions on his game,” Tortorella said. “We let him know

he’s not a defenseman, he’s no longer called a defenseman. I want him

to go. ... There are certain situations that he still has to learn and maybe

needs to slow down.

“I think there are situations that he might need to pull back, but you don’t

want to overcoach that. Because I don’t want hesitant. Just go.”

Columbus Dispatch LOADED: 11.25.2017


Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno end long droughts in Blue Jackets win

over Ottawa

By Aaron Portzline 4 hours ago

Nick Foligno was sprung out of the Blue Jackets' zone by a nifty pass

from Sonny Milano late in the third period, giving him a rare chance

against tight-checking Ottawa to skate unabated with the puck through

the neutral zone and into the attack zone.

The only thing slowing Foligno was the voice inside his head, and when

you haven't scored a goal in nearly a month, there can be a lot going on

upstairs.

“The worst part was, I was looking to pass the whole time,” Foligno said

after a 5-2 win over Ottawa on Friday in Nationwide Arena. “Somebody in

my head was just like, 'If you pass this and it doesn't go through, you're

going to kill you. You better shoot this.'”

Foligno shot. Far corner, his favorite spot. It was an important goal that

finally extinguished the Senators, who hung in there all night despite

being badly outplayed for long stretches.

It was Foligno's first goal since Oct. 25 — way back in the ninth game of

the season — and it gave the Blue Jackets a 4-2 lead.

“I told him he should have passed there,” Cam Atkinson joked.

Atkinson, who hadn't scored since Oct. 27, already had two goals and

was skating to Foligno's right as they closed in on Senators goaltender

Craig Anderson. He was looking for a hat trick.

“I saw that the top corner was open, so … sorry Cam, but I'll take that

one,” Foligno said. “I'll get you a hat trick some other game.”

The Blue Jackets, the hottest club in the NHL, have won six straight

games and are sitting in first place in the Metropolitan Division.

They have forged a 15-7-1 record despite limited contributions and long

droughts by some of their top players. But maybe that's starting to

change.

“I'm half-full here,” said Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, ever the

optimist. “I'm really encouraged by some of our younger guys … if they

can just stay with it, and some of our other guys can get going, I think

we'll have some more offense.

“You just never know if you can get all of that going together, but we're

going to try.”

This is the remarkable part:

The Blue Jackets are only one point behind the pace they set last

season, when they finished 2016-17 with 50 wins and 108 points, both

franchise records.

They were 14-5-4 (32 points) last season; they're 15-7-1 (31 points) this

season.

But last season, though 23 games, Nick Foligno (9-12-21), Cam Atkinson

(8-13-21) and Alexander Wennberg (6-15-21) were tied as the club's

leading scorers. That's a combined 23-40-63.

So far this season, Foligno (4-6-10) has been chilly after a strong start.

He ended a 12-game streak without a point on Wednesday and snapped

a 13-game streak without a goal on Friday.

Atkinson has just 6-3-9, though he missed four games with a hip injury

and infection.

Wennberg has only 1-8-9 in 18 games. He missed his fifth consecutive

game with an upper-body injury, and the club hasn't said when he might

return.

Total through 23 games this season? 11-17-28 from those three players,

less than half of last season's year-to-game pace.

But somehow the Blue Jackets have scraped by with secondary scoring

— Oliver Bjorkstrand, Josh Anderson, and Milano — and expert

goaltending from Sergei Bobrovsky. Friday was the first time in nine

games the Jackets scored more than three goals.

“I felt like I hadn't scored a goal in a couple of years,” Atkinson said. “It's

nice to be a part of it and get back to my way of playing.

“It's good to finally rack up a couple of goals as a team and win by more

than one goal.”

Atkinson and Foligno have both said that during long slumps it's the

frequent scoring chances that help sustain some level of confidence. But

that's a hockey cliche.

The only thing that mollifies a goal-scorer is scoring goals.

“Cam was a little frustrated,” Tortorella said. “I know I'm watching him

pretty close (on Friday) just to see if we can get him to touch the puck

more. Three of four shifts in a row, he didn't even touch it 5-on-5. An

offensive guy wants the puck.

“It's nice to say you get chances, but goal-scorers want to score. Cam's

been a little bit stuck here. Nick has been stuck.”

NOTEBOOK

Atkinson's first goal was scored off a tough couple of bounces for

Ottawa's Alexandre Burrows. The puck hopped over his stick twice and

he struggled to control it at the top of the slot in the Blue Jackets' zone

midway through the first. Atkinson swatted at the puck, knocking it behind

Burrows and sending Atkinson alone on a breakaway. Burrows wasn't

charged with a turnover because off-ice officials saw the bouncing puck.

Atkinson was credited with a takeaway.

The Blue Jackets' forecheck was really strong from the start of the game,

smothering Ottawa. It was as crisp and exacting as I can recall this

season, right up there with the Oct. 25 game (5-1 win) in Winnipeg. At

one point, the shots were 23-7 in favor of the Blue Jackets. The Senators

didn't come unraveled, but they couldn't go two strides without getting

checked or hit in their own zone.

Maybe adding Matt Duchene wasn't the right move for Ottawa. The jury's

still out, but it's been a rough start. In seven games since the trade from

Colorado, he has zero points and a minus-10 rating. He was barely

noticeable tonight, except when Blue Jackets' forward Tyler Motte landed

a big hit on him in the third period, just before Atkinson's go-ahead goal.

Motte had a goal, a plus-3 rating, two shots and a club-high four hits in

only 9:42 of playing time.

Not a great night for Artemi Panarin. He had a turnover that sparked

Ottawa toward the 2-2 goal by Mike Hoffman. He also had no points, no

shots on goal, one giveaway, one blocked shot and only 14:32 of ice

time, a season-low.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


After the game, G Joonas Korpisalo and RW Markus Hannikainen were

sent to AHL Cleveland. They'll play for the Monsters on Saturday vs.

Texas, then be back in time for Sunday's practice in Columbus.

You'll note that when the Jackets sent players to Cleveland last week,

Milano was included on the trip. Not this time. Milano again played

significant minutes (15:00) made a couple of bright defensive plays and

had the really sharp pass to spring Foligno for his goal off the rush in the

third.

Former Blue Jackets center Derick Brassard played well against one of

his former clubs. He made a beautiful saucer pass off his backhand at

10:56 to set up Taylor Pyatt's 1-0 goal. He also won 10 of 19 faceoffs.

The Athletic LOADED: 11.25.2017


How the Blue Jackets weathered 75 seconds of penalty-killing chaos to

post sixth consecutive win

By Tom Reed 2 hours ago

One of the wackiest penalty kills of the Blue Jackets’ season almost

required a chalk outline Friday night.

Less than five seconds into the Senators’ pivotal third-period power play,

poor Bobby Ryan crumpled to ice like a 12-point buck after Seth Jones’

scorching clearing attempt from behind the net hit the Ottawa forward in

the lower leg.

Then, things got weird.

The Senators had all the momentum for 75 seconds in a tie game. Four

shots on goal. Multiple seam passes through the heart of the Blue

Jackets’ penalty-killing box. Weary Columbus players unable to get off

the ice.

But Sergei Bobrovsky just kept stopping pucks, giving his team and a

crowd of 17,084 fans inside Nationwide Arena hope they could survive

the onslaught.

“I thought they were going to score three or four times,” Blue Jackets

defenseman Ryan Murray told The Athletic. “Bob kept getting pieces of

shots. Huge kudos to him.”

The Blue Jackets’ 17th consecutive penalty kill — as unorthodox and

discombobulated as any in the streak — somehow swung the contest in

their favor. Forty-one seconds after Cam Atkinson stepped out of the

penalty box, he rewarded Bobrovsky and the penalty killers with the

game-winning goal at 10:40 of the third period en route to a 5-2 victory.

While most will remember Atkinson and Nick Foligno scoring in a three-

minute span, it was the wild work of the Blue Jackets’ special teams that

set the stage for the late-game heroics.

“Who knows where the game goes if (the Senators) get the go-ahead

goal?” John Tortorella said after the club registered its sixth straight win.

“Does frustration start to set in with the team? It was a really important

penalty kill and our goaltender (was) a big part of that. I thought we fed

off of it.”

It was a bizarre and frantic sequence that showcased the fortunes of two

teams going in opposite directions in late November. The Blue Jackets

did almost nothing right and skated away with the lead. The Senators,

winless in five games, did almost nothing wrong only to the hear the

Nationwide cannon erupt after a missed opportunity.

“That’s hockey,” Bobrovsky told The Athletic. “Momentum swings are big.

You must stay strong when the storm comes at you and then you look for

your chances.”

The Jackets were the better team much of the evening, holding a 27-16

shot advantage at the time of Atkinson’s tripping penalty.

Suddenly, the Senators had a chance to steal two points. Bobrovsky

made a point-blank stop on Ryan during the delayed call.

“We definitely could have got the go-ahead goal,” Ottawa coach Guy

Boucher said.

After a television timeout, Brandon Dubinsky won the defensive-zone

draw to Jones and it appeared the blueliner would have an easy exit. But

Jones’ blast hit Ryan and the puck fell to the stick of Ottawa forward

Mark Stone, the team’s leading goal scorer.

Chaos ensued.

“It was my time to step up and help my teammates when it was needed

for the win,” Bobrovsky said. “I stayed focused and did my best.”

The netminder, who entered the game leading the NHL in goals against

average (2.02), had the presence of mind to scoot out to the top of the

crease and cut down the angle on Stone. It allowed him to make a

comfortable blocker save.

“I was in pretty good position and got out pretty close to (Stone),” the

goalie said.

Tortorella marveled at Bobrovsky’s concentration level in yet another

game in which he had little work through two periods.

In a span of seconds, the goaltender need to shift from cruise control to

Vezina Trophy highlight mode.

After Jones cleared the zone, the Senators reloaded and spent the next

60 seconds buzzing the Blue Jackets’ net. Stone, Erik Karlsson, Dion

Phaneuf, Derick Brassard and a one-legged Ryan worked the puck

beautifully, delivering three dangerous cross-ice passes.

Meanwhile, Jones, Murray, Dubinsky and Boone Jenner were looking for

a stoppage that never came.

“We lucked out,” Murray said. “They had some ‘grade A’ scoring chances

and we got a little tired and ran around a little bit and some pucks popped

into some bad areas.”

Bobrovsky somehow stopped a Stone point shot through a Phaneuf

screen before denying Brassard from the right circle.

“We were pressing, but their goalie is at the top of the league right now

and you saw why,” Boucher said.

Bobrovsky registered four saves, but never could freeze the puck.

Finally, an errant pass hopped over Brassard’s stick along the halfwall

and Dubinsky cleared, enabling the exhausted penalty killers to head to

the bench.

At this point, a “Lets Go Jackets” chant rose from the nervous crowd. The

second unit killed off the final 45 seconds without allowing another shot.

Everyone in the building sensed a golden opportunity had been missed

by Ottawa. Particularly the skaters on the Senators’ bench.

“We did everything but score on that last power play,” Boucher said on a

night Ottawa went 0-of-3 with the man advantage. “It does get frustrating

for the players when you think you deserve it and it’s not coming.”

Bobrovsky has that affect on lots of opponents right now. Just ask the

Red Wings’ Andreas Athanasiou and Canadiens’ Jacob de la Rose.

The Jackets penalty kill hasn’t yielded a goal since the three scored by

the Rangers in the third period of a 5-3 New York win on Nov. 6. That’s a

span of eight games.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


The Blue Jackets left the rink praising Bobrovsky and celebrating the end

of goal-scoring droughts for Atkinson and Foligno.

The Senators left the rink ruing a glorious chance that went begging. At

least Bobby Ryan lived to tell about it.


1085026 New York Rangers

Henrik Lundqvist’s 40 Saves Lead the Rangers Past Detroit

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSNOV. 24, 2017

The Rangers need goalie Henrik Lundqvist at his best to compete in the

Eastern Conference playoff race. Against the Detroit Red Wings on

Friday, Lundqvist was.

He made 40 saves — many of the acrobatic variety — and thanks to

Mats Zuccarello’s goal 37 seconds into overtime, the Rangers beat the

Detroit Red Wings, 2-1, at Madison Square Garden.

Zuccarello scored his fourth goal of the season, off assists from Brady

Skjei and J.T. Miller, and the Rangers improved to 12-9-2 with their third

straight victory and their ninth in 11 games.

“I feel really good,” said Lundqvist, who won for the 416th time in his

career. “There were chances both ways. To play the game was a lot of

fun, but it was also challenging.”

Zuccarello said Lundqvist’s playoff-level heroics were not a surprise.

“We expect him to be like that every game,” he said. “If we can help him

out, we know how good he can be.”

Chris Kreider also scored for the Rangers, who extended their home

winning streak to seven games. They are 9-4-2 overall at Madison

Square Garden. The Rangers also continued their trend of stingy

defense, allowing two or fewer goals for the fourth straight game and for

the sixth time in their last seven contests.

“A lot of people complain about low-scoring games, but for me anyway,

this was as entertaining as it could get,” Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault

said.

Tomas Tatar scored for Detroit, and Jimmy Howard stopped 29 shots as

the Red Wings fell to 10-9-4.

Lundqvist made 17 saves in the opening period, plus a sprawling game-

saver against Dylan Larkin at 11:58 of the third.

“I’m trying to be on my toes right now,” said Lundqvist, who improved to

11-6-2 for the season. “I’m aggressive but still patient. Right now I’m in a

nice flow where I don’t overthink things.”

New York Times LOADED: 11.25.2017


Mats Zuccarello scores in overtime to give Rangers third straight win

JUSTIN TASCH

Updated: Saturday, November 25, 2017, 1:46 AM

For those who ever wonder how much athletes take losses home with

them or how much they affect their lives beyond competition, here is

Henrik Lundqvist admitting after his latest feat of strength, a herculean

40-save performance in the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime win Friday night

against the Red Wings, that losing does indeed negatively impact his

everyday mood.

“To me, there’s only one thing that makes me laugh a lot, and that’s

winning. It’s hard for me to enjoy anything away from the rink, at the rink,

when we’re not winning,” Lundqvist said after tying his season-high in

saves for the second time in eight days. “In our last 11 games here, 9-2,

it’s easier to relax. It’s important to me that we do well and that we’re

winning. That’s the best solution.”

And the Rangers (12-9-2) have been doing a lot of that lately after a

brutal 12-game start to the season. They’ve won three straight and nine

of their last 11 contests, this one sealed by a Mats Zuccarello goal 37

seconds into the extra three-on-three period, sending a Garden crowd

that was as loud as it had been all season into a frenzy.

The only puck to get through Lundqvist Friday came with two seconds

remaining on a power play at 4:05, which broke the donut deadlock

caused by a thrilling goaltending display between Lundqvist and Jimmy

Howard before Chris Kreider tied the game at 10:17. In the six games

Lundqvist and Howard have faced off in their careers, no more than four

total goals have been scored; two ended 2-1 and two ended 1-0.

Lundqvist has stopped all 70 even-strength shots he’s faced over the last

three games. In his last 10 games, Lundqvist has a 2.05 goals against

average and a .937 save percentage.

“He’s confident in there. Looks like he’s enjoying himself,” Marc Staal

said of Lundqvist. “It looks like he’s having some fun. He’s smiling and

competing really hard.”

The Rangers were outshot 17-6 in a rough first period before turning it

around in the second, when Howard stopped all of the Blueshirts’ 16

shots.

Mats Zuccarello potted the winner 37 seconds into overtime.

“I think the first period we played really bad and we weren’t into the

game at all,” Zuccarello said, before jokingly adding, “too much turkey

yesterday for some of the guys maybe.”

There was a feeling when the Rangers fell behind early in the third that

they wanted to get one back for Lundqvist, considering it took 35 shots

for Detroit to finally get on the board. “He did his job tonight, and we

owed it to him to do ours,” Kevin Shattenkirk said.

They ultimately did, keeping their run going and thus their goalie happy.

“To see me laugh,” Lundqvist said, “that’s what we have to do.”

BOO NOT HIP

Center Boo Nieves suffered a hip pointer in the first period, tried to play

in the second but left early and didn’t play the final 37:07.

Vigneault said it “shouldn’t be something serious.”

New York Daily News LOADED: 11.25.2017


Rangers’ Boo Nieves forced to exit with ‘hip-pointer’

By Brett Cyrgalis November 25, 2017 | 2:51am

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Finally, the Rangers had a consistent fourth line, but it doesn’t seem like

it’s going to last very long.

The pivot of that group, Boo Nieves, was forced to leave Friday night’s 2-

1 overtime win against the Red Wings with what coach Alain Vigneault

called a “hip pointer” injury. It happened on a hit in the first period, and

despite trying to play early in the second, Nieves could go only two shifts

and missed the final 33:25, as well as the 37 seconds of overtime.

“Shouldn’t be something serious,” Vigneault said.

This was the third game that Nieves started between Jimmy Vesey and

Paul Carey, and the trio was creating an identity that was fast while

mixing skill and grit.

“They’ve given us real good zone time and have gotten good looks,”

Vigneault said after Thursday’s practice. “Jimmy had five primary

chances against Carolina [on Wednesday], Boo has the great speed and

is learning what it takes to be in the NHL, and Paul is a veteran depth

guy who is a good skater and works hard.”

Their success also kept David Desharnais as a healthy scratch for the

third straight game. Though Desharnais practiced on the wing Tuesday,

that’s not where he sees the veteran making the best contribution.

“I think he’s better for us at center,” Vigneault said.

With only one extra forward and no extra defensemen, a call-up from

AHL Hartford might be logical. The energetic Vinni Lettieri has eight

goals and 13 points in 17 games with the Wolf Pack, including five goals

in his past eight matches.

The Rangers released their jersey for the Winter Classic, to be played

outdoors at Citi Field on New Year’s Day against the Sabres. It is navy

blue with “RANGERS” across it in diagonal. There is a red “NY” in a crest

on the left shoulder, in tribute to this being an intrastate rivalry.

While discussing the merits of Pavel Buchnevich’s ascension to a more

valuable NHL player in his second season, Vigneault had to bring up one

of his growing pains. That was Nov. 4, when the 22-year-old Russian

was penalized for playing with a broken stick, which he apparently didn’t

know was a rule.

“We all knew about the skill set, [but] the skill set plus a more competitive

nature — plus understanding all the rules,” Vigneault said. “You can’t

play with a broken stick in this league, stuff like that. Once you pick up on

those, you can be a good player.”

John Amirante sang the National Anthem before the game, the second

time this season the longtime singer performed this season.

New York Post LOADED: 11.25.2017


Rangers’ Brady Skjei much more than a jersey on an SNL skit

By Larry Brooks November 25, 2017 | 1:49am

This is some of what George McPhee saw when, as general manager of

the then-embryonic Vegas franchise, he scouted the 2016 World

Championships in Russia.

“That No. 76, I like the way he carries himself on the ice,” McPhee said

during a chat between periods of a Rangers game in Florida last season.

“He has skill and I like the way he skates, but what I liked the most was

his presence. I didn’t know a lot about him, but he played with a chip on

his shoulder; a little bit cocky. That stood out.

“He’s not going to be available [in the expansion draft], is he?”

McPhee laughed at his own little joke. No, Brady Skjei, No. 76, would not

be made available in the draft and he obviously would not have been

even if he hadn’t been declared off limits because of experience

requirements.

Everybody not only knows Skjei’s name now, but even how to both spell

and pronounce it following last week’s Saturday Night Live skit in which

his jersey was featured. Skjei as in Shea and wait a second, what was

Mets’ COO Jeff Wilpon doing at Friday night’s match at the Garden

against the Red Wings, anyway?

Well, he was presumably watching the Skjei-Hey Kid play with the same

swagger McPhee had seen when No. 76 represented Team USA at the

conclusion of his first (and only) season with the AHL Wolf Pack.

Presumably watching Skjei lead the rush in overtime of an entertaining

match in which chances were abundant, but goals were scarce in a

throwback goaltending duel between Henrik Lundqvist and Jimmy

Howard.

It was 1-1 when J.T. Miller, Mats Zuccarello and Skjei lined up to start the

three-on-three against Tomas Tatar, Dylan Larkin and Danny DeKeyser.

Just under a half minute in, a puck bounced loose, Skjei was on it and

led a two-on-one down the right accompanied by Zuccarello on his left.

The 23-year-old defenseman carried and went into a spin-a-rama in an

attempt to shake DeKeyser and feed Zuccarello.

“When I’m out in overtime, I know I need to play defense, but my mindset

is to go for it and try to make something happen if the chance is there,”

Skjei said. “And on that play, it was there.

“DeKeyser was able to stay with me, so I tried a spin-a-rama there. Good

luck on that. It didn’t work, but the puck came back to me, and I was able

to kind of chop it in front to Zucc, who made a great shot.”

Zuccarello held the puck for what seemed an eternity before picking a

corner to beat Howard, and the Rangers had won 2-1 behind a masterful

40-save performance from Lundqvist to pick up the extra point that may

come in very handy down the line against a potential competitor for a

wild-card spot.

“For a second I thought Zucc was going to give it back to me,” said Skjei.

“That probably wouldn’t have worked out so well.”

There were plenty of mistakes made by both squads in this one, and the

Rangers had more than their share in allowing 40 shots through the first

50 minutes. Without mistakes, though, games would not be worth

watching. But Lundqvist, at the top of his game, was beaten only by

Tatar’s bullet, sharp angle right-wing shot on the power play at 4:05 of

the third.

“I was aware that [Howard] has played some really strong games against

us here,” accurately noted Lundqvist, who has allowed one even-strength

goal on 106 shots (.991) and four overall on 136 shots (.971) over the

past four games. “And the way he was playing, after the second period I

thought that one goal could be enough. When they got that one, I knew I

couldn’t afford to give another one.”

Skjei, who played a team-high 22:16 as he and partner Kevin Shattenkirk

have become the de facto first pair in Ryan McDonagh’s absence, also

assisted on Chris Kreider’s tying goal at 10:17 of the third period in

carrying into the left corner before a centering pass to Pavel Buchnevich

triggered the scoring sequence.

It was another example of this second-year player’s skill and self-belief.

Another example of what McPhee had seen two years ago in this

emerging nation with No. 76 on his back and his name on the tip of

everyone’s tongue.



CAROLINA HURRICANES


Rangers ride Henrik Lundqvist to win old-fashioned OT nail-biter

By Brett Cyrgalis November 24, 2017 | 10:23PM

This one came through in sepia tone, an old-time movie with the familiar

star making for quite the evening on Broadway.

At the end, it was Henrik Lundqvist winning this terrific goaltending duel,

his Rangers able to just outdo Jimmy Howard and the Red Wings for a 2-

1 overtime victory Friday night at the Garden. And it was Lundqvist

smiling and laughing, lighting up as Mats Zuccarello won it 37 seconds

into the 3-on-3 extra period, finishing while alone in front after a great

individual play from Brady Skjei.

“To me, there’s only one thing that makes me laugh a lot, and that’s

winning,” said Lundqvist, who finished with 40 saves, stopping all 17

shots he faced in the first period as his teammates were fighting through

their Thanksgiving tryptophan hangovers. “It’s hard for me to enjoy

anything away from the rink, at the rink, when we’re not winning. Right

now, I think over the last 11 games we’re 9-2, and it’s easy for me to

relax. It’s important to me that we do well, that we win.

“That’s the solution if you want to see me laugh — that’s what we have to

do.”

It has been 11 straight starts for Lundqvist, as his game has been utterly

revitalized and he has carried the Rangers (12-9-2), winners of seven in

a row at home, with him. The 35-year-old said he feels “rested” despite

playing a lot of games over a spread-out schedule, and he’s “just excited

to get an opportunity to play a lot of hockey right now.”

Surely, the Rangers are excited to have him, because for as much as

they have cleaned it up in front of him, when there is a breakdown, he

has been there to make the big save — just like old times.

“Think the first period we played really bad,” Zuccarello said. “We

weren’t into the game at all. Too much turkey yesterday for some of the

guys.”

But that went away as the Rangers took over in the second period,

getting 16 shots on Howard, who had just been pulled Wednesday night

when he gave up four goals on 19 shots to the Oilers in Detroit. But he

always seems to rise to the occasion when facing Lundqvist, evident

when he made three great saves in a matter of four minutes in the

second period. The first was a diving left-pad stop on what seemed like a

slam-dunk goal for Rick Nash with just over 10 minutes remaining,

followed by one on Kevin Shattenkirk and one on J.T. Miller.

The Rangers knew they were going to need to do more if they wanted to

beat Howard, as the two teams entered the third period knotted in a

terrific scoreless tie. But they also knew they had Lundqvist in their own

net.

“Hanky is our best player, our leader on the ice,” Zuccarello said. “We

expect him to be like that every game. If we can help him out, we know

how good he can be.”

But first, things turned for the Red Wings, who took a 1-0 lead on a

power-play goal from Tomas Tatar 4:05 into the third as Lundqvist had a

rare occasion when his defensemen couldn’t clear a screen, this one

from Justin Abdelkader. But the Rangers pushed right back, and Chris

Krieder was able to tie it at 10:17 when he backhanded a bouncing puck

through Howard’s legs, the Rangers sending the Garden into an honest

frenzy for the first time this season.

Then into the extra frame, the Rangers went that extra step to reward

their goaltender. Skjei broke it out of the defensive zone himself, skating

up the right wing, spinning at the right post and finding Zuccarello alone

in front. He was able to beat Howard, and the script played itself out as it

had so many times before.

“A lot of people complain about low-scoring games,” coach Alain

Vigneault said, “but for me, anyway, this was as entertaining as it could

get.”



How the Rangers can survive without Ryan McDonagh

By Brett Cyrgalis November 24, 2017 | 6:42PM

Replace was not a word the Rangers were using when thinking of their

missing captain, Ryan McDonagh, set to be out for a second straight

game with a mild abdomen strain Friday night against the Red Wings at

the Garden.

But his loss has been softened somewhat by the Rangers’ versatility on

the back end, with numerous blueliners being able to play both sides.

That includes Brendan Smith, who returned to the lineup Nov. 17 against

the Blue Jackets after a six-game absence as a healthy scratch with a

renewed vigor in his game — which is now needed more than ever.

“I think I’m still getting better,” Smith said after a 6-1 win Wednesday over

the Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., his third game back and an individual

performance coach Alain Vigneault called his “best game of the year.”

“Think I’m still getting a bit of the rust off,” Smith said. “Every game is

getting a little better, and that’s to be expected after sitting for quite some

time. I think I like where my game has been going, and I just want to

keep improving.”

Smith is a left-handed shooter, but he has proven to be comfortable on

both the left and right sides. His most effective pairing in his short

Rangers tenure has been on the right with the quick-footed Brady Skjei

on the left.

But since McDonagh went down, Smith has paired with Nick Holden,

another lefty playing on the off-side right. They were an effective pair

against the Hurricanes, and hoped to keep it going against the visiting

Red Wings.

“I’ve said this many times, being able to play more than one position is a

bonus,” Vigneault said. “Being versatile is a big bonus for a team,

whether it’s up front, or on ‘D’ if you can play the left or the right side. It

helps you a lot of times get ice time, because you can play more than

one spot. And if you can play it well, it’s real good for team.

“So in Smitty’s case, I think he’s probably a little bit more comfortable on

the left, like all players are on their natural side. But we’ve asked him to

play on the right, he’s done a good job for us.”

The ability to play both sides — really, the ability to play the right, with

McDonagh, Skjei and Marc Staal all far more comfortable on the left — is

a big reason why the Rangers chose to sign Smith to a four-year, $17.4

million deal this summer just days before he reached free agency. They

first became enamored of him when Smith showed up as a trade-

deadline rental from the Red Wings last season and was one of the

Rangers’ most ferocious defenders during their run to the second round

of the playoffs.

And he did most of it on the right side.

“Sometimes it’s easier,” Smith said of playing the right, “making some

plays, keeping pucks in at the blue line. Or having your feet up ice

because you’re on your natural side. There are pros and cons to both

sides, and I’m comfortable either.”

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Yet it wasn’t quite there early in this season, when Smith played his way

into street clothes. Vigneault found him worthy to play in just 11 of the

first 19 games, while the Rangers had gotten off to a disastrous 1-5-2

start. But his benching was seemingly a wake-up call that made an

impact, and Smith began to show it at Carolina.

“His gap was good, his decisions with the puck were good, jumped in the

play at the right moment and he was a big part of quite a few scoring

chances,” Vigneault said, with Smith having a sweet cross-ice assist on

Chris Kreider’s game-opening goal. “And he defended real well all night

with his gap and his stick position, his body position. That’s definitely

what we need from him going forward.”



Mats Zuccarello’s goal in overtime wins it for Rangers

By Steve Zipay

Updated November 24, 2017 11:06 PM

The Rangers and the Red Wings are getting used to overtime. Seven of

the last 13 games between them have been decided in in the extra

period.

On Friday night it was yet another overtime game, and the Rangers

prevailed.

Mats Zuccarello, on Brady Skjei’s hard-fought assist, beat goalie Jimmy

Howard just 37 seconds into the extra period for a 2-1 victory at Madison

Square Garden, the Rangers’ seventh straight win at home. Henrik

Lundqvist, who has allowed just four goals in the last four games, posted

40 saves.

Being hounded by two defenders in the 3-on-3 overtime, Skjei’s first pass

to Zuccarello, standing to Howard’s right, was blocked, but it bounced

back to the Rangers defenseman. He swatted the puck a second time to

the wide open Zuccarello, who waited and waited until he saw an

opening and fired in his fourth of the season for the game-winner.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do, I thought he was going to give the

puck back to me. I said ‘no no, no, shoot the puck,’ ” said Skjei.

The Rangers trailed 1-0 before Chris Kreider’s backhander bounced off

Howard’s pad at 10:17 of the third to tie the score. It was Kreider’s third

goal in the past two games. Tomas Tatar’s power-play blast, with Michael

Grabner in the box, at 4:05 of the third had opened the scoring. The goal

followed a failed attempt to clear by Marc Staal when Justin Abdelkader

deflected his pass.

“We were getting our chances,” said Skjei. “You’re going to score a few

times if you keep playing like that.”

Said Lundqvist: “It was a great finish by us.”

After the scoreless first period, when Lundqvist was forced to make 17

saves, the Blueshirts “talked in the locker room that we had to get going.

(We were) coming off Thanksgiving, but that’s no excuse,” said Skjei.

Lundqvist, who was making his 11th consecutive start, had also faced 17

in the first period in Carolina on Wednesday. “I’m trying to be on my toes

right now,” said Lundqvist. “I feel the last three or four weeks I’m playing

the way I want to play, I’m aggressive but still patient. Part of that is to

read the shots well, but also just battle in front. People talk to me about

starting a lot of games (20), but physically, you never really get tired, it’s

mentally. Right now, I’m in a nice flow where I don’t overthink things.”

With the win the Blueshirts, playing their second straight without

defenseman Ryan McDonagh (abdominal strain), are 12-10-2 and 9-5-2

at home; the Wings are 10-9-4. The Rangers captain will miss Sunday’s

game as well.

In the first 20 minutes, the Blueshirts were hemmed in not only by two

Detroit power plays, courtesy of penalties by Brendan Smith, but at even

strength, and Lundqvist had to foil breakaways by Dylan Larkin, with a

right arm save, and Gustav Nyqvist, with his glove.

The Wings also missed the net with seven shots and six were blocked.

And they did it with 11 forwards, having dressed seven defensemen. The

Rangers had just six shots on Howard in the first, who finished with 30

saves.

But Lundqvist, in a vintage performance, controlled rebounds and kept

the Rangers in.

“He’s confident in there,” said Marc Staal. “He looks like he’s enjoying

himself. It looks like he’s having some fun, he’s smiling and competing

hard. Obviously, he gives us a chance to win every game.”

Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 11.25.2017


With Boo Nieves injured, David Desharnais could be back in lineup

By Steve Zipay

Updated November 25, 2017 12:41 AM

Center David Desharnais, who was a healthy scratch for the third

consecutive game in favor of Boo Nieves, could be back in the lineup on

Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks.

Nieves — who essentially had edged Desharnais to street clothes in

taking over the fourth-line center role — played only 3:10 in seven shifts

in the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime victory over the Red Wings on Friday night

before leaving early in the second period with a lower-body injury. He did

not return. Nieves grabbed his left hip after a faceoff midway through the

first period. He had delivered two hits and won three of five faceoffs.

Unless the Rangers make a call-up from Hartford, Desharnais, 31, a free

agent who was signed to a one-year deal and is 2-6-8 in 20 games, will

dress. He has not played well defensively recently.

Nieves, 23, was playing his sixth straight game since recovering from the

flu, which sidelined him for three games. Since posting three assists in

his first game of the season on Oct. 23 against the Arizona Coyotes,

Nieves hadn’t produced any points but was adjusting to the NHL. In his

previous five games, he had won 54 percent of his faceoffs.

WINGS LOSE DALEY

The Red Wings also went down a man early. With 7:55 left in the first

period, defenseman Trevor Daley left for the trainer’s room after

appearing to injure his shoulder on an attempted mid-ice check. He was

in pain while lying on his back and did not return after being helped off.

Fortunately for the Wings, they had dressed seven defensemen.

ICE CHIPS

The Rangers will practice outdoors next Saturday at Central Park’s

Lasker Rink for the first time in at least 30 years. They have skated at

Wollman Rink in the past . . . Their blue jerseys for the Winter Classic

against the Sabres at Citi Field on Jan. 1 were unveiled Friday. In a nod

to their Original Six heritage, the word “Rangers’’ is diagonal across the

front of the sweater.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Newsday LOADED: LOADED: 11.25.2017

1085111 Websites

The Athletic / By the numbers: How much value have Peter Chiarelli's

trades cost the Oilers?

By Dom Luszczyszyn 15 hours ago

It’s been a miserable start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, a team

that came into the season with a lot of promise. They sit 29th in the

league with an 8-12-2 record at American Thanksgiving, and while

they’re not at the point of no return, they’re dangerously close.

The season isn’t over yet – even if it feels like it – and their underlying

numbers suggest the Oilers aren’t as bad as they look, but it should’ve

never reached this point. Not when you’re building around the most

valuable asset in all of hockey, Connor McDavid. Edmonton is here now

because of all the missteps since he was taken first overall in 2015 and

are learning first hand that having the best player in the world (apologies

to the two guys lighting it up in Tampa, but it’s still Connor) guarantees

nothing for team success. Not in this sport.

He needs support, especially up front where the Oilers have only scored

2.68 goals per game, good for 25th in the league. They’re generating

chances and have had a lot of bad luck offensively, but they’re also a

team that’s low on finishing talent outside their star players. The worst

part is they had support up front, they had finishing talent — they just

traded it away.

Players that can actually put the puck in the net (or put it in a good spot

for someone else to do so) are the hardest players to acquire and that’s

what made most of Peter Chiarelli’s moves as a GM so baffling. He was

willing to give it all up so easily for the types of players that were much

easier to come by as he attempted to build the Oilers in his image: a

team that was “tough” to play against.

Looking back through his deals reveals that he placed a premium on grit,

compete, sandpaper and other buzzwords that fit his archetype while

shipping out “soft” skilled players who can actually play with the puck.

That was the team identity Chiarelli seemed to settle on and if it meant

moving players that didn’t fit, then so be it. They built themselves in the

mould of the Kings and Bruins of five years ago and it shows on the ice.

It’s no surprise the Oilers have turned into a heavy, slow, trudging mess,

especially compared to the rest of the league which has transitioned

toward speed, speed, speed after seeing the last three Stanley Cups won

in a similar fashion. That’s not to say the team can’t win with the style the

Oilers were after, it means the Oilers built this team while sacrificing

talent at the alter of identity and came out behind most of the time.

Here are my questions for Chiarelli’s tenure as GM: how much value has

he cost them on this quest to be “tough to play against” and how much

better would this team be if he hadn’t made some of his most

controversial moves?

Hindsight is 20/20, but not when it comes to some of the Oilers most

notable trades of the last few years. Most of the deals Chiarelli has made

were panned immediately as it was obvious the Oilers were generally on

the losing side. It was so obvious that all the Oilers needed was one

person to say “Don’t do that!” (and actually listen to him or her) and

they’d be in much better shape than they are today.

So let’s go to that alternate universe: the universe where the Oilers had a

“Don’t Do That” person, someone who could clearly see that what they

were about to do was not the right move and convince their higher-ups it

was, in fact, a bad move. And then let’s measure how much better (or

maybe worse? Just kidding, it’s not worse) off the Oilers would be if

someone just said “don’t do that.”

Here are the transactions the magical Don’t Do That wand is going to

reverse. To reiterate, the moves have to be ones that did not need the

benefit of hindsight to nix. Three trades stick out, and you probably know

which ones.

June 26, 2015: Edmonton trades a 2015 1st (16th overall) and 2nd (33rd

overall) for D Griffin Reinhart.

June 29, 2016: Edmonton trades LW Taylor Hall for D Adam Larsson.

June 22, 2017: Edmonton trades RW Jordan Eberle for C Ryan Strome.

Three straight years of franchise-altering trades in late June. I’d start

taking vacations around that time if I was an Oilers fan.

Those three were obviously the most egregious ones, as you may know

since we’re still talking about them to this day, but there are other

dominoes that fall if those moves aren’t made. Milan Lucic doesn’t get

signed if Hall is still an Oiler. Ditto for Kris Russell who was afforded

mostly off the savings from dealing Eberle. Without Larsson (or Reinhart)

the Oilers probably don’t deal Brandon Davidson last season. And with

the crowded forward group, it’s unlikely they’d give a three-year, $1.95

million per extension to a bottom tier player like Zack Kassian.

Those are the big changes made thanks to the Don’t Do That person and

it’s hard to not see the Oilers in a significantly better position as a result.

Now, that doesn’t mean Chiarelli hasn’t made some good moves as GM.

The Cam Talbot trade was a great gamble on a back-up that showed a

lot of promise and adding Patrick Maroon for cheap was a great value

add that’s worked wonders so far. But those few good moves don’t make

up for how far the team was set back with some of his other moves.

Financially, the Oilers are arguably in a worse position now, too. The

cap-hit for the alternate universe team, after including potential

performance bonuses, would be just under $4 million cheaper than the

current iteration. They would have a pretty large hole on the right side of

their defence, but they also would have had cap space and options in

free agency to fix it that didn’t include trading away their better forwards.

We can’t add them in hindsight, but it’s something to keep in mind when

comparing rosters as alternative options were available to make the team

even better.

Now, let’s actually compare those rosters.

To do so we’re going to use my model which we use for our daily

projections. It’s based on a player’s last three years (weighted by

recency) of context-adjusted Game Score to estimate player strength and

because it’s done at the player level it can be combined to estimate team

strength. This model isn’t perfect and will be missing parts of the

equation (you can read about it here), but generally speaking it does a

pretty decent job of quantifying player value, and in effect team value.

Before the season started, it said the Oilers were probably a playoff

team, but a flawed one at that, one that on average hits 93 points and

was far from the contender many thought they were. Now that we’re 20

games in, their forecast has changed to 85 points thanks to their poor

start, but their underlying strength has only been downgraded slightly to

about 91.5 points. Under the hood, not much has changed.

The forward group is average, the goaltending is average (with plenty of

room to regress once Talbot finds his game again), and the defence is

just barely below average at 21st. The front office has paid a lot to have

the Oilers look the way they wanted and still end up being just average.

Now, the team they could’ve had? That’s a different story and it’s

because the three forwards they could’ve had (Hall, Eberle, and let's

assume Mathew Barzal, who the Islanders took with that first round pick)

are miles better than the ones that replaced them (Lucic, Strome,

Kassian). They’re over five wins better according to this model and that

shouldn’t be at all surprising given the names involved. There’s caveats

to that to go over soon, but the gap is large enough that it wouldn’t matter

too much. And the trade-off on defence is minimal, if admittedly flawed as

my model isn’t as keen on Larsson (a very good, albeit, one-dimensional

defender who’s obviously better than Matt Benning) as it should be and

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tends to overrate depth defenders like Davidson, even after adjusting for

context.

This team would arguably be a true talent 100.5 point team, the best

team in the West and the second best team in the league behind Tampa

Bay. This is what a Cup contender looks like, even if the defence doesn't.

Alternate universe team would have the same average goalie, the same

bottom 10 defence, but by far the best forward group in the league,

nearly two wins clear of Tampa Bay and Toronto. When your forward

group is that talented, it’s a lot easier to overcome a weak defence corps.

Forwards are the ones driving the bus on most teams, they’re where

teams get most of their value from. There simply aren’t many teams that

can get by without a good group of forwards, and Edmonton could’ve had

the league’s best by a significant margin.

On each line they could’ve had an incredible duo and wouldn’t have to

worry about splitting up McDavid and Draisaitl to spread out the offence.

That’s because on line two it would have been Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

with Hall and on line three Barzal with Eberle, a line that's worked pretty

well so far in Brooklyn. It’s a set of six that no team could match-up

against, especially when they’re balanced out over three lines, and it

would’ve made their support guys look even better.

And if you’re thinking it wouldn’t work because the lineup would be too

forward heavy, you only need to look at the Maple Leafs to see this exact

strategy working in spades right now with Auston Matthews, William

Nylander, Mitch Marner, Nazem Kadri, James van Riemsdyk and a

decent forward support group carrying a bottom 10 defence group and

average goaltending.

Of course, there’s a few caveats to this analysis to iron out and they start

and end with Barzal.

Even if the Oilers did draft him, there’s no guarantee he’d look as good

with them as he does with the Isles. A lot of his value is because he plays

on a top power play with John Tavares that’s been red hot lately and

there’s no guarantee he’d get the same opportunity in Edmonton. And

that’s if the Oilers drafted him. He was a near consensus top 10 choice,

but considering they traded that pick for a defenceman, there’s a

possibility the team would’ve drafted for need and taken a defenceman

with the 16th overall selection, likely leaving them with the next defender

taken, Thomas Chabot. He’s a damn good prospect, but he’d be another

leftie on an already crowded left side. It’s also not exactly fair to compare

what Barzal is now to what Reinhart was, but even at the time it seemed

rather obvious who had the much higher ceiling as well as the probability

of reaching it. It wasn’t the guy the Oilers traded for who had already

shown plenty of signs he wouldn't be an NHL regular.

No one really wants to hear the coulda, shoulda, wouldas – especially

when it comes to this team as it’s a topic that’s been beaten to death

already – but there’s value in measuring just how much they’ve lost and

how much the front office has cost the team. My model thinks it’s about

five wins of value, and while there’s some margin of error to that (Larsson

is better than I give him credit for, Barzal likely wouldn’t be as good on

the Oilers) it’s not enough to overcome five wins. They have basically

given up a Connor McDavid's worth of value. Any way you want to slice

it, the Oilers still come out behind. Far behind. I can’t imagine anyone at

this point who could, should or would defend these moves and say the

Oilers are a better team for it. They’re not, and all their current problems

are a direct manifestation of the mistakes they’ve made along the way.

Unfortunately for Oilers fans, we don’t live in the alternate universe where

they still have Hall and Eberle and maybe Barzal. We live here, in the

world where they gave up a lot to get a little. But while there’s always

going to be harsh reminders of what could’ve been, what they have in

front of them is still very much worthwhile. Even if the present looks dim

and the path that got them here is even darker, their future is still very

bright with all the young talent they still have – as long as they don’t trade

them away.


1085112 Websites

The Athletic / Dellow: Scoring is up, and increased effectiveness on

offensive zone faceoff wins is one reason why

By Tyler Dellow 11 hours ago

Life's hard when you work for a scrappy upstart media enterprise. You

don't get the press releases that the big dogs get (see Thought 14)

announcing that offence is up. You're forced to figure it out for yourself

through a complicated process of addition and division. Having done that,

I can confirm (I am new to the media game but understand that

confirming things that are well known to be true is part of how you add

value): offence is up. What's more, it's up for reasons other than simply

an increase in power plays: teams are scoring more goals at 5-on-5 than

they have in the past. (Well, most of them are.)

In the olden days of hockey analytics, those opposed to counting things

would say “You can't break down a hockey game with numbers! It's a

flow game! A series of fragmentary events wholly disconnected from

everything that has occurred in the past and will occur in the future!”

Even people employed in hockey would say this. For reasons that

escape me, these same people would also hire coaches. Who would

watch games and tell their players to do things that they thought would

bring success based on what they remembered from watching them.

They just weren't allowed to count things, as I understand it.

One of the amazing things you realize when you start to dig into

information that's recorded about the game is how much it's just a series

of repeating events with extremely similar outcomes that repeat over and

over and over. Individual players and teams have up years and down

years but there are numerical constants. In the big picture, it's the same

thing happening over and over. Change does occur — power plays are

getting ever more efficient as coaches get more aggressive — but it

tends to be pretty gradual.

There are a bunch of offensive indicators that are up this year at 5-on-5.

Teams are scoring 2.39 GF/60 at 5-on-5, which is higher than at any

point this decade. It's a significant bump from 2015-16, when teams

bottomed out, scoring just 2.16 GF/60 after drifting downward for years.

Unsurprisingly, shooting percentage bottomed out in 2015-16, too, with

teams shooting just 7.5 per cent at 5-on-5. (Obviously, this means the

league average save percentage was .925.) Shots and shot attempts had

been trending downward for years, too – they also bottomed out in the

offensive nadir of 2015-16, with teams averaging 28.8 SF/60 and 54.1

CF/60. Those numbers nudged upwards last year and moved up further

this year. Through games played Wednesday night, teams are shooting

7.8 per cent. Save percentage is down to .922. They're averaging 30.7

SF/60 on 56.7 CF/60.

Everyone has theories for stuff like this. A lot of people will point to this

year's slashing crackdown. I'm sure that doesn't hurt. I suspect that

something else plays a bigger role though — the Darwinian processes by

which coaching staffs identify things that work and discard things that

don't and by which general managers identify coaches who are good at

doing that and discard those who aren't. In order to illustrate this, I'm

going to focus on shifts that start with an offensive zone faceoff win.

Teams are doing better than ever after they win an offensive zone faceoff

this year. This is due to a bunch of things, some of which have been

building for a while, some of which are new this year. Goals are way up.

Shots and shot attempts are up too, a trend that's been building for a

while.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Finally, shooting percentage is way up on shifts starting with offensive

zone wins.

We know that shooting percentage is pretty variable but a bump like this

is pretty large a quarter of the way into the season.

If we peel the onion back a little more, we start to find some interesting

things. In order to do this, I've contrasted what's going on this year with

2015-16, the low point for 5-on-5 offence.

Let's start with what it's not. It's not about point shots being more likely to

go in — in 2015-16, 3.1 per cent of shots from above the circle went in on

offensive zone win shifts. This year, it's 3.2 per cent. An extra goal per

1,000 shots.

It's not about more rebounds being created either. In 2015-16, 7.2 per

cent of saved shots on goal resulted in a rebound. This year, that number

is at 7.0 per cent. (Rounding makes this difference look twice as large as

it actually is, too.) It is a little bit about teams doing a better job of putting

away rebounds — 19.5 per cent of rebound shot attempts have turned

into goals this year, as compared to 15.6 per cent in 2015-16. The

shooting percentage gap is about the same — 25.5 per cent versus 21.4

per cent.

That doesn't really explain much though — the NHL is up 28 goals on

offensive zone win shifts this year and that would account for about four

of them. There's something else happening. It largely seems to consist of

teams being a heck of a lot more efficient from a 650 square foot patch of

ice. This patch of ice goes from seven feet above the goal line to

nineteen feet above the goal line, extending 25 feet in either direction. In

2015-16, teams shot 12.6 per cent on non-rebound shots from that area,

which is pretty consistent with what they've done in the past. This year,

they're shooting 18 per cent. Let's just refer to this area as the slot, even

though it's a bit wider than the traditional slot.

That's something. It's so weird that I wondered if I'd screwed something

up or if the league has some sort of data tracking problem. Of course, it'd

be a hell of a data tracking problem if they were inventing goals too and

goals are up, so I think that this is actually correct.

So what does that leave? I'm wondering if teams are starting to come up

with more effective tactics after they win an offensive zone faceoff. A

surprisingly well-kept secret about offensive zone faceoff wins is that they

historically have resulted in a pretty low shooting percentage relative to

other points in the game. It makes sense when you think about it, of

course — when you win an offensive zone faceoff, the other team has

five guys in position to defend. Even if you get a shot off, you're likely

pretty heavily defended while doing so. Historically, a lot of these shots

come from the point, which are low probability shots anyway.

My pet theory is that, in addition to the slashing crackdown, some teams

are getting smarter with what they do after they win an offensive zone

faceoff and it's starting to show up in the results. In particular, I've got a

suspicion that teams are trying to spread the opposing defence out as

opposed to simply winning the puck back to the defencemen and, as the

Brits would say, putting it into the mixer. Crashing the net sounds great,

but the puck doesn't discriminate between the legs of the attacking or

defending team — it will hit either of them.

Moreover, I'm not sure that having more guys in and around the net

actually helps your chances of getting a rebound and I suspect that it

hurts your chances of getting a good shot off. A goal that St. Louis

scored against Edmonton last week illustrates this. The Blues won a

faceoff to Vladimir Tarasenko, who got a shot on goal. The St. Louis

centre, Brayden Schenn, hadn't moved toward the net until the rebound

came out. As a result, Connor McDavid hadn't moved either.

The end result was a contest for a rebound between the left shot Oscar

Klefbom, whose stick is on the wrong side of his body to contest the puck

and Jaden Schwartz, whose stick is on the right side of his body to attack

the puck and who has the advantage of being able to see what's

happening.

Consider what would have happened if Schenn goes right to the net after

winning the draw. McDavid, who's been getting — this is a quote — “a

gentle tickle” (!) from the Edmonton media for his defensive play of late,

presumably goes right with him. If that happens, McDavid's in a pretty

decent spot to knock that rebound into the corner. Deliberate or not,

Schenn's delay seems like it upped the chances of the Blues getting that

rebound simply because he didn't drag a defending Oiler towards the net.

I gathered some recent examples of goals scored off offensive zone wins

in the area that I'm talking about. Pay attention to how the movement,

particularly that of a forward away from the net, is pulling the defending

team apart. You see it on this Ducks goal with Rickard Rakell pulling up

high after the faceoff, belatedly pulling a Sharks forward with him

This, along with the other two forwards crossing, confuses the Sharks

defence and leads to the goal.

Watch Justin Williams, the inside winger, here. After the Hurricanes win

the draw, he bolts toward the boards. Two Chicago forwards move out

toward the point. When the puck is passed to Williams, the third Chicago

forward comes to him, creating the 2-on-2 situation down low.

Brock McGinn is able to disappear by going around the net. He pops up

on the other side for the easy tap-in. Yes, the puck bounced around a bit

but the point is that the Carolina movement resulted in him being wide

open.

That's David Pastrnak on the left wing here. Patrice Bergeron wins the

puck back to Charlie McAvoy. Two Los Angeles forwards head out

toward the points. Watch how Pastrnak's movement drags Drew Doughty

out as well, creating more space in the middle of the ice.

One final example. This one's a little different than the others because of

how St. Louis spreads their defence. If you look carefully, you'll notice

that Colton Parayko isn't even visible in the shot when the puck's

dropped — he's way off to the right.

Klefbom seems to mis-read where the puck is going, which touches off a

series of errors that are not unlike a building collapsing. Milan Lucic

gravitates toward Tarasenko, who is otherwise uncovered and Drake

Caggiula seems to decide that's a good spot to be as well. I strongly

suspect that Klefbom was supposed to go after Tarasenko off the draw if

Tarasenko ended up with the puck because he wanders out there like a

man with a guilty conscience who knows it's probably not a good idea at

this point.

St. Louis ends up with Tarasenko holding the puck, with two options on

his flanks, neither of which is really covered. He passes to Parayko, who

used the space available off the faceoff and never ended up getting

covered. Matt Benning is forced to run to him. This leaves Ryan Nugent-

Hopkins all alone with two Blues and Schenn taps in the gimme putt.

Obviously, there's some blown coverage from the Oilers here. It was

created, in part, by St. Louis' use of space though.

My best guess as to why teams are getting so much more effective on

offensive zone wins is that they're getting more thoughtful about using

space and movement to put the opposition on their heels. You can't really

prove this from video clips — the clips I've provided above are intended

to illustrate rather than definitively answer the question — but it's a quite

large and broad-based change.

This is, I think: a good thing. Goals are fun. Scoring chances are fun. If

coaches are finding ways to create more in the offensive zone through

movement and space, it makes for a more watchable game. In time,

coaches might even shake the reputation that they're to suck the fun out

of hockey.


1085113 Websites

CAROLINA HURRICANES


The Athletic / Mirtle: The surprising rise of Andreas Borgman – and what

it says about where the NHL is headed

By James Mirtle 20 hours ago

It is a lesson that has stayed with Andreas Borgman every game these

last few years.

The coach was named Martin Filander, who at the time was the bench

boss of Vasteras in Sweden's second division, the Allsvenskan. And his

orders — with no exceptions — were that no player could dump the puck

out of the zone.

Borgman smiles remembering the edict.

“He actually said we couldn’t rim the puck (around the boards) or nothing

like that,” he recalled. “So we had to play it. We had to try to figure it out.

“He had a good influence on me. We still keep in touch sometimes. He’s

still watching me.”

Watching how he exits the zone, no doubt.

At the time, Borgman had just turned 20 years old. He had been passed

over in the NHL draft several times and bounced around several teams

and leagues in Sweden. The fact he is now playing a regular shift in the

NHL, with the Maple Leafs, stuns some of his former coaches overseas.

He came from a long way back to get this far.

“He has only one season in the SHL in Sweden,” said Thord Johansson,

the coach who first discovered Borgman as a 16-year-old and brought

him to Timra, a small timber town four hours north of his hometown of

Stockholm. “I’m very surprised he made it so far. But he’s always been

determined.”

Borgman's rise has been both unusual and under the radar. Few

undrafted Swedish defencemen make much of an impact in the NHL,

after all. But Borgman has seamlessly stepped in and played all but two

games for the Leafs this season on their third pair, logging an average 14

minutes a night and rarely looking out of place.

His underlying numbers — or analytics — also have stood out, with

positive marks in puck possession metrics like Corsi and scoring chances

right from his first game in the league, despite his unfamiliarity with the

ice surface and many of the very basics of the NHL.

That side of his success, apparently, is not by chance. Those were the

exact same metrics he excelled at in Sweden last season, when he was

named the league's rookie of the year with HV71.

“Borgman had fantastic numbers last year,” said Simon Brandstrom,

whose firm SBPL Sports Data Analytics AB handles data analysis for

HV71. “HV destroyed possession wise last year.”

This kind of analysis is still in its infancy in the Swedish Hockey League,

but it has so far mimicked the early days in the NHL, with a focus on

countable measures like shot attempts, zone exits and entries. According

to Brandstrom, Borgman was a 60.4 per cent Corsi player in the SHL and

closer to 62 per cent in situations when the score was close.

The biggest reason, he explained, was how he came out of his own zone

with the puck.

“He had really good exit numbers,” Brandstrom said. “Carried the puck

insanely well.”

Some of that information made it down to the players.

“I saw some statistics, but not all of it,” Borgman said. “But I didn’t focus

on that. I was just trying to play good and that would show up… On those

teams, we almost never chipped the puck out or anything like that. We

always tried to keep it and play through the middle (of the ice). We never

actually go the boards and out. We always have to play it out.”

Here come the Swedes

Andreas Borgman's story isn't really one about analytics. As he states

above, it's more about trying to play well and that showing up in the data.

What Borgman's quick rise to becoming a capable NHL defenceman

likely reflects, however, is how hockey is changing in North America. And

how the way Swedish defencemen are trained to play the game fits well

within a style that covets good skaters and puck movers above all else.

That push toward Swedish defencemen has been slow and steady in the

25 years since Nick Lidstrom entered the league as an unassuming third-

round pick.

But those numbers are on pace to take a big jump this season. Including

Borgman, the NHL currently has 29 Swedish defencemen on pace to

play 30 games or more this season — an all-time high.

Including Timothy Liljegren and Calle Rosen, two newcomers with the

Marlies, there are 27 Swedish D-men in the AHL right now, the second

highest total ever for that league.

Somehow, a tiny European country of under 10 million people is now

producing about 12 per cent of the defencemen in the top two North

American leagues.

Players who have come up in Sweden's development system credit the

way they are taught to play the game from a young age.

“Sweden’s doing such a good job of developing defencemen,” explained

Christian Folin, who along with Oscar Fantenberg is one of two undrafted

Swedish defencemen playing a regular shift with the L.A. Kings this

season. “It’s a combination of fundamentals of the game. Skating really

well. We have a lot of good puck-moving defencemen.”

“We focus on skating a lot when we grow up and start playing hockey,”

added Coyotes star Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who raved about Borgman's

“unbelievable” play in the SHL last season. “Most of the Swedes are

good skaters and skilled guys. It’s a matter of getting a chance over here

and getting used to the game over here.”

Sweden started to introduce a new nationwide training protocol for

defencemen about 15 years ago. Ekman-Larsson said he noticed it as a

teenager, in some of the new concepts that were being brought in by

coaches to his small club team in Tingsryd.

The Swedish Ice Hockey Association also developed what journalist Uffe

Bodin says is known as the “hockey bible for defencemen,” a training

manual specifically aimed at teaching players good routes for breakouts

and outlet passes.

“I haven't seen it myself, but it has become kind of legendary now that

they're basically producing the best defencemen in the world,” Bodin

said.

The Swedish hockey federation was kind enough to pass along a copy of

the defenceman's bible a couple weeks ago. I obviously can't read

Swedish, but the few passages that I translated online were pretty

interesting, especially when paired with some of the diagrams.

Below is one that was based entirely on what defencemen did during the

gold-medal game at the 2006 Olympics, Sweden's second triumph at the

Games.

“Overview of the modern defenceman's attack actions” reads the

headline in this section of the manual. Note the diagram features the

word anfall — or attack — in capital letters on the far glass.

“The diagram shows offensive technical skills performed by the Swedish

defencemen during the 2006 Olympics,” it explains. “Overall it describes

30 situations where different variations of these skills are used. By

training our young Swedish defenders in these skills, we can prepare

them for the challenges they will face.”

CAROLINA HURRICANES


If it looks like something out of a science textbook, that's because it

should. Using more scholastic methods to teach hockey has become the

norm in Sweden. They did it first with goaltenders and now have

implemented similar systems for every position in the game.

Some Swedish coaches now have considerable educational background,

as teaching hockey is tied in with teaching in a more general sense.

Pedagogy has become key.

“(Sweden's success has) always been about the education and having

Nick Lidstrom as a role model,” Bodin said.

“They must be good at handling the puck,” Johansson explained of the

philosophy being preached to defencemen in Sweden. “That’s something

that’s very difficult when you work with juniors, as I do, because they’re

afraid to make a mistake. But we let them do it.

“(We want) good skaters who are good with the puck. They’ve got to be

good at defending, of course, but they’ve got to set up the play very

quickly and have good hockey sense.”

Which relates back to Borgman learning not to clear the puck. And HV71

dominating Sweden's top league last season.

And, likely, all of the Swedish defencemen flooding into the NHL and

AHL at a time when the game is opening up and getting away from

relying on brute strength on the back end.

“It’s a good development thing, especially for D-men,” said Connor

Carrick, Borgman's regular defence partner with the Leafs. “Create that

poise with the puck. I think that’s where the game’s changed, too. That’s

why you’re seeing more European defencemen having success. There is

a skill element.

“The best black-and-white answer for me was when I played for U.S.

national teams. We played Sweden, and they’d go D to D, back to D,

hinge it back, go to the far forward, bring it back. It seemed like they did a

really nice job of holding onto it. It was certainly something that was

coached. Whereas we were more chip it in and go get it.”

What is Borgman's ceiling in the NHL?

A lot of the attention on Borgman initially in Toronto was on his physical

play and toughness. It was unmistakable right away in training camp how

fit he was off the ice and fearless he was on it.

“He’s kind of surprising,” teammate Jake Gardiner said. “You don’t really

see a lot of Swedish guys being that physical and aggressive.”

As the season has worn on, however, what the Leafs other defencemen

have gained a greater appreciation for is Borgman's play with the puck.

He has made some highlight-reel moves in traffic that few expected and

led breakouts with authority.

His adjustment to a new league and a smaller ice surface has also been

relatively painless, despite the fact he admits he knew almost nothing

about the NHL before agreeing to join the Leafs back in May.

“He’s a great skater,” Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly observed after

one recent practice. “Good first pass. When you look at his edges and

the way he can skate and forecheck, I think that’s one of his best assets.

The adjustment period has been pretty short. He looks right at home.

And I think the more he plays, the more comfortable he gets, the more

offence you’re going to see.”

“I think that's his identity as a player — he relies on his puck skills,”

Carrick added. “He sees the ice well.”

Johansson, Borgman's old junior coach, marvels at the progress his

young protege has made. When Borgman first arrived at Timra, he had a

bad knee and was overweight. His skills were also very raw, and he

wasn't big for a Swede.

The organization wasn't sure if he would last the season.

“We thought 'My god, what is this?' ” Johansson recalled. “Okay, we’ll

give him a chance until Christmas or something. But he improved. He

improved very quickly. The next year, he was already on the under-20

team. He moved very quickly up on the teams here.

“Andreas has got something on the ice that we call the ‘pondus’ in

Sweden. (Editor's note: It translates roughly to mean poise.) His body

language is very strong. He’s very intense. If there’s an attack against the

boards or something, he’s there 100 per cent. Doing the job right now.

He’s very determined. When you see him on the ice, he’s confident. I

think he’s very strong in his mind. Mentally strong.”

What remains an unknown is how good Borgman can be. At 22, he is the

youngest defenceman on the Leafs blueline and one of the youngest

playing pro in the organization.

He has been caught out of position or turned the puck over at times this

season, in part because his aggressiveness has gotten the better of him.

Given his quick progression over the last five years, however, it's

plausible he continues to make rapid strides in his game and earn more

ice time on Toronto's blueline.

It's possible that, as the NHL becomes more and more focused on speed

and skill, he will be the perfect fit.

“I didn’t know anything about any of the teams here,” said Borgman, who

was heavily pursued by Nashville and several other NHL clubs. “After

talking to some Swedish guys, I felt like Toronto was a pretty easy

decision actually. It feels pretty good. I like the city, too.”

“I’m very surprised he made the (top) six or seven defenders with the

Maple Leafs,” Johansson admitted. “I’m very impressed about that. I

thought maybe he going to start in the AHL or something. But he made

it.”


1085114 Websites

The Athletic / The year that made Mike Babcock a coach: A season with

the Whitley Warriors in the British Hockey League

By Joshua Kloke 20 hours ago

Terry Matthews had many Canadian hockey players come and go over

the years. The Whitley Warriors coach knew it was customary for

talented players to head over to the British Hockey League and treat the

season as a holiday.

But when a 24-year-old defenceman named Mike Babcock arrived in

Whitley Bay in northeast England 30 years ago, Matthews immediately

knew he had someone different on his hands.

“He wasn’t here to enjoy himself and piss up like a lot of them do,”

Matthews said.

As the Warriors travelled north and south along the A1 highway, the team

would drink bottles of beer and play cards on the bus. The Canadian

players, who usually led the team in scoring, were no different.

Except for Babcock, who was already planning ahead.

“When we were on the buses and stuff, he was quite a studious type,”

Matthews said. “Always reading and studying.”

It was in Whitley Bay — a quaint, British, seaside town — that Babcock

discovered how to make the transition from player to coach and begin

CAROLINA HURRICANES


one of the most illustrious careers behind the bench. Babcock had just

graduated from McGill University in 1987 after playing four seasons as a

defenceman and was originally drawn to England for a teaching job at

Northumberland College.

But Babcock's proposed teaching gig wasn't to be. The Warriors owner

caught wind he was coming over and immediately signed him.

Babcock knew he wouldn't be playing long.

“I had promised my folks by 1990 I'd get a real job,” Babcock once said in

an interview. “It was just one of those things. You've got to get on with it

eventually. Sometimes growing up isn't as much fun. The college life —

even being a pro hockey player and single — the responsibilities aren't

quite there.”

The BHL was then sponsored by Heineken, and the influx of cash meant

owners of the arenas decided which import players would be brought

over. Each team was allowed three imports.

British defenceman Terry Ord had been playing for the Warriors since

1983. He knew most Canadian players came to the league and didn't

give the local players the respect he thought they deserved.

“They thought they were the dog’s bollocks!” Ord said.

Matthews himself had little say in players arriving and, having coached

the team for 15 years, was getting to the point where he was beginning to

accept that any Canadians given to him would arrive expecting a walk in

the park.

In Whitley Bay, Babcock stood out immediately. He began to understand

how to effectively assert himself as a respected voice in the dressing

room and on the ice. But he would never talk down to players, according

to defenceman Dave Ross.

“He knew we all had to go to work the next day,” Ross said.

Babcock also had the talent to talk a big game, as his 132 points over 36

games proved. And those points were imperative to staying employed.

Babcock’s salary — estimated by teammates to be between £150 and

£200 a week — was much higher as an import player than that of the

locals.

It was the equivalent to between £400 and £540 today, or $35,000 to

$47,000 (Canadian) for a full 52 weeks.

“As an import, you’re expected to be better — and you're expected to

play a lot,” said Luc Chabot, an Ottawa native who was one of the three

imports playing for the Warriors that season. “You basically know you

have to get four or five points. Some guys would show up, they’d play

two games, they’d have a bad weekend, and they're sent back home.”

In order to shut down opposition forwards, Babcock spent his share of

time in the sin bin. He showcased a ferocity that garnered 88 penalty

minutes in 36 games.

That was just fine by his coach.

“Any defenceman that doesn’t get penalty minutes,” Matthews said,

“there’s something wrong with him.”

Back then, Babcock was a shell of the bullish coach the hockey world

has come to know. Matthews described him as “a quiet lad.”

“He didn’t have an outgoing personality,” said Ord, Babcock's roommate

on road trips. “He was definitely one of the more focused Canadians that

had come over.”

Instead of talking to British players about what he had done back in

Canada, as so many of the Canadians were prone to do, Babcock

instead tried to appeal to British players about what they could do.

“He gained the guys’ respect by talking to them in a more knowledgeable

way,” Ord said. “He brought a different dimension. He had this art of

making you interested in what he was saying.”

Babcock was originally brought to Whitley Bay just to be a player, but his

interest in the technical elements of the game spilled over. It was in his

nature to try to help the team improve.

At one point, he approached Matthews about running some of the team's

drills. His biggest influence ultimately came through the changes he

implemented in practices.

“We didn’t practice the way we should have,” Matthews explained. “It was

more scrimmaging and then pulling different players out during the

scrimmage and giving them advice.”

Matthews was more of a motivational coach than a technical one, a

master of the rah-rah pre-game speeches. Having only picked up what

he learned from other coaches and having never attended any hockey

schools, he was not a coach who could help improve a player’s

technique.

That didn’t suit Babcock. After a few weeks, he got to work implementing

drills that would help teammates improve their games. Babcock

immediately lifted the standard for the Warriors, using his own knowledge

and passion.

“He made the drills a lot more intense,” Ross said. “He didn’t expect

anybody to just coast through the drills. You had to be going 110 per cent

with Mike when you were going through drills.”

Still, Babcock made sure to respect Matthews and his role behind the

bench.

“He didn’t overpower the coaches,” Ord said. “He would run drills — but

you always knew Terry was the coach.”

Much like the Toronto Maple Leafs when Babcock signed on as coach in

2015, he viewed the Warriors as a project that required fixing. He couldn't

help himself. On the dodgy ice surface of Whitley Bay Ice Rink, Babcock

first learned how to master what has become a hallmark of his coaching

style: getting the most out of individual players.

While Babcock tried to lead by example on the ice — and regularly

played 45 minutes a night — he knew he couldn’t do it alone. If Ross was

going to be paired with Babcock, he was also going to learn from him.

The Warriors practiced twice a week, from 10 p.m. to midnight. Babcock

wanted more.

“Most of us had to go to work the next day, but when the team got off the

ice at 12 a.m., he would tell me, ‘You’ve got to stay on with me,’ ” Ross

said. “We’d do little drills because he was my defence partner. We’d do

extra drills for 20 minutes after practice with specific skills. He made me

become a lot more professional as well in my outlook.”

It wasn’t just Ross.

“He made me a more confident player,” Ord said, “through the support he

gave me while I was playing.”

In what should come as no surprise to anyone that’s watched Babcock

coach the Leafs or Team Canada, one of his top priorities was improving

the Warriors defensively. High-scoring games were a reality of the BHL

at the time, with double-digit outcomes not uncommon.

“Because of the amount of goals scored, the discipline among some of

the teams wasn’t what it should be in defensive zones,” Matthews said.

One of the first things Ross noted when Babcock began running

practices was that he was “very, very dedicated to defending the net.”

“That’s what he’d grown up with, and he was using these drills to improve

our positional play: how to defend correctly, man mark and how to take

players out,” Matthews said. “I learned a lot from him in that regard.”

Whitley Bay's arena could fit approximately 4,000 spectators, but even

back in 1987 it was a relic of a bygone time. The Warriors owner didn’t

believe in spending money to keep the rink — which was built way back

in 1955 — up to what it could be when Babcock played.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


“He was a cheap bastard,” Chabot recalled.

The boards were crooked and the two teams’ benches were on different

levels. Everyone — players and coaches alike — described the ice

surface as “terrible.”

Still, fans packed the arena. The low roof meant that it felt as if

spectators sat directly on top of the players. For Sunday “Derby” games

against local rivals like the Durham Wasps, Ross said players would

enter the rink and be greeted by thousands of fans lining up around the

corner to get in.

Games were played on Saturdays and Sundays, with one home and one

road game. Late Sunday road games often saw the team returning by

bus at 6 a.m. Monday morning. Many players then had to head to their

day jobs.

Babcock lived in a three-bedroom Victorian house with Chabot and Scott

Morrison, the team’s other high-flying import, who led the team in scoring

with a ridiculous 224 points in 36 games. The imports' bills and housing

were paid for by the team, which meant Babcock could dedicate even

more time to studying coaching and pursuing his own interests.

To earn extra cash, Babcock would pile into a car with some of his

teammates and head north to Scotland, where they would buy used cars

at auctions and then sell them back in England.

By the end of his year in Whitley Bay, Babcock had become a

recognizable figure in and around the town. He often spent off days at a

variety of local golf courses.

“The year was a riot — the place was great, a lot of fun,” Babcock said

when asked about his time in the BHL earlier this week. “I would’ve loved

to have gone back.”

Though he played in England for just one season, Babcock changed the

perception of the Warriors. The club was a mid-level team when he

arrived, but they finished two points back of the league title that season.

As in European soccer, the championship is awarded to the team with

the most points at the end of the regular season.

Ord benefitted from Babcock’s direction, registering 62 points that

season, the most of his 14-year BHL career.

“He was always trying to find ways to open up the ice for us to get out of

our zone,” Ord said.

But toward the end of the season, Babcock began confiding in Ord his

desire to leave England and return to Canada. “He had said his heart

was in coaching,” Ord said.

In the playoffs for the league cup, the Warriors lost in the semifinals. The

small-town club suffered from stage fright. That marked the end of

Babcock's playing career.

The Warriors celebrated the end of the season by driving to the coastal

resort town of Blackpool for a two-night stay. They visited the local

amusement parks, played soccer on the beach and spent the evenings

blowing off steam at local bars and nightclubs.

“That was the first time I saw (Babcock) really let his hair down,” Ross

said.

Babcock returned to Canada soon after for his first head coaching

position at Red Deer College.

“Basically what it did for me is it gave me a chance to put on my resumé

that I’d coached,” Babcock said of his season with the Warriors. “I could

put it on my application for the job at Red Deer College.”

Babcock has kept in touch with some of his former teammates. He

returned to England four years ago for a trip with his family, visiting

Newcastle upon Tyne, just 16 kilometers from Whitley Bay. There, he

met up with Ross and some of the other former Warriors.

After dinner, Babcock invited the group back to his hotel to reminisce

about their one memorable season together.

Even though he was on holiday, Babcock still loved to talk hockey. The

conversation eventually turned toward Ross' recent role coaching Great

Britain’s youth teams.

Babcock wanted to hear about Ross’ experiences and, naturally, share a

few tips.

“When he came over,” Ross said, “he hadn’t changed at all.”


1085115 Websites

The Athletic / LeBrun: Shane Doan soaking up experience in hockey ops,

but future career prospects remain a mystery

By Pierre LeBrun 13 hours ago

The NHL GMs meeting had a fresh face in the room last week, one that

perhaps may join them in the same role some day.

For now, Shane Doan is acting like a sponge, trying to soak in as much

as he can from his senior colleagues in the NHL’s Hockey Operations

Department.

Doan, whose hire by the league was announced last month, jokes that he

just smiles and nods as he tries to take in as much as he can from

hockey ops vets such as Kris King, Mike Murphy, Rod Pasma and his

boss, NHL executive vice-president Colin Campbell.

“It’s an awesome group of guys, it’s like being on a team,” Doan told The

Athletic on Friday. “When you’re in that war room with them, they do an

unbelievable job. The way they manage and handle everything, I’ve

learned so much in a short amount of time. It’s been fun.’’

Doan is following in the footsteps of Brendan Shanahan and Rob Blake,

two other former players who tip-toed into their post-playing career by

joining the hockey ops group before eventually taking on bigger roles in

their executive careers.

“I think the experience of watching and listening to how the league works

from a different viewpoint, you see it as a player through one set of eyes,

and now you see it from a different set and hopefully you can get a better

understanding,’’ Doan said of what he’s got out of it so far. “I enjoy

working with Kinger and Collie and Murph and Rod, all the guys there,

they’re really good guys. I felt comfortable when I met and spoke with

them.’’

Doan actually spent some time in the Toronto war room with them at the

onset of the NHL season to get a feel and understanding of what the gig

would entail before deciding if he would sign on.

For the league, it’s a chance to bring in a player voice that has played

today’s game, something Campbell and King felt was important.

“Shane is fresh off the ice and the respect level that he gets is second to

none,’’ King, senior vice-present of NHL hockey ops, said. “He’s a real

good resource for us with today’s players because he’s respected and all

the players know him and like him. He understands the mindset of

today’s player.’’

That was King some 16 years ago when he retired. But the game has

changed and Doan gives the group a fresh perspective.

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“To have a guy that can tell us what the players are thinking or be able to

pick up the phone and talk to some of the players and get their feelings

on different things, that’s important. It’s good for all of us,’’ said King, who

played with Doan in Winnipeg and Phoenix.

Long term? Who knows where this gig will bring Doan, he honestly isn’t

sure. He says both Shanahan and Blake reached out when his hiring was

announced and he appreciated their feedback.

Will he follow in their footsteps and one day run an NHL team? Maybe,

maybe not, but Doan isn’t hiding there’s a reason he’s doing this.

“Without a doubt, there’s a reason why you would do this, to have this

opportunity it’s because you have a desire to do something along those

lines,” Doan said. “But at the same time, the situation would have to all

line up for it to work. Really, to be honest, I’m just enjoying learning. I

want to learn and see a different perspective. If that leads to something

else one day, it might or it might not, I don’t know, but I enjoy the learning

side of it regardless of whatever happens. No one knows what you’re

going to do in the future.’’

Doan is able to mostly work from his Arizona home which was a very

important facet to the job, he wanted to stay close to his family. It’s

similar to how Blake first got going with the league, being able to work

from Southern California.

Aside from going to Toronto to see how the war room worked, and to the

GMs meeting in Montreal, Doan also took in some games in Anaheim.

King said Doan will join him for an outdoor game to see how that works

and perhaps Campbell will want him in Florida in two weeks for the Board

of Governors meeting when the owners gather Dec. 7-8.

Doan was front and centre in helping the NHL Players’ Association

negotiate the last collective bargaining agreement back in 2012, an

experience which he agrees probably planted the seed in him as far as

him seeking to learn the business side of the game after his playing

career was over.

And so there he was last Friday at his first-ever GMs meeting, another

learning experience.

“It’s unique and I am completely a fly on the wall because I just sit on the

outside and listen,” Doan said. “There’s some incredible guys in there

that have a lot of influence on the sport I love. So to just sit in there and

listen, that’s something you can learn a lot from; just the way they handle

themselves and talk among themselves. At the same time, it’s similar to a

dressing room and the way that it works. Probably that cross between a

corporate boardroom and a dressing room which makes it very unique.’’

And perhaps one day he’ll be one of those GMs. Or not.

“Either way I will have enjoyed this.’’


1085116 Websites

The Athletic / Duhatschek Notebook: Jets' improved schedule, giving

thanks for parity, Gerard Gallant already Jack Adams worthy

By Eric Duhatschek 10 hours ago

ANAHEIM – Scheduling is almost always a bone of contention with NHL

coaches and no one knew the ins and outs of his team’s schedule better

than the Los Angeles Kings’ Darryl Sutter. Not exactly a new age man,

Sutter still paid far more attention to rest and recovery than you’d think.

Sutter knew how demanding the schedule could be for a team dealing

with West Coast travel — and how playing tired could damage a team’s

playoff aspirations. Fatigue contributes to injuries. Fatigue contributes to

mistakes. Too much fatigue and a team just can’t be at its best.

Last year was the first time the NHL introduced the concept of the bye

week, a five-day, mid-season break nominally intended to rest and

refresh an overworked collection of players. A good idea, in theory. But it

was also the first time since 2004 that the NHL played the World Cup,

which meant that the 82-game 2016-17 regular season would be

crammed into a 179-day window, rather than the 185 days it took to play

the year before.

The net effect of trying to play a full season in 11 to 12 fewer days took

its toll everywhere around the NHL, but it was particularly acute in

Winnipeg, where the Jets found themselves playing 28 games in 50 days

from their outdoor game in late October until the 11th of December. In

that span, they played back-to-back six times and only once did they get

more than a single day off between games. In early November, one road

trip took them to the East Coast, brought them home to the Central time

zone for a single game (against the Dallas Stars) and off on the road

again to play the Coyotes in Arizona. It was like that all year – ping-

ponging back from one trip to another, rarely getting the opportunity to

practice.

“Our schedule was incredibly difficult last year,” said coach Paul Maurice,

in an interview with The Athletic. “I’d never been through anything like

that before. I’d never seen anything like it before. If you take that

schedule and put us on the East Coast, maybe it’s a little more

reasonable. But then you throw our geography in there. We have one

team that’s an hour away (Chicago). Everybody else is two hours-plus.

We have a team in our division that’s not even in our time zone. A lot of

times, we were playing an East Coast game, then playing one at home,

and then going to the West Coast, so we tried to factor in when we

travelled back home. We don’t even worry about a one-hour time

difference; that’s just standard operating procedure for us.

“We played six sets of back-to-backs in that block – and we did eight-

time zone changes and we banged out 130 man-games lost to injury in

that stretch. We were three games under .500 after we lost in Calgary

and lost in Edmonton at the end of it and we had nothing in the tank. It

was tough.”

Accordingly, this year, while the bye weeks remain (Winnipeg’s is

between Jan. 13 and Jan. 20, just past the mid-point of the season), the

schedule is far friendlier, according to Maurice, who said the Jets didn’t

do much lobbying to change the schedule. Just eliminating the World

Cup added six additional days back into the schedule. Compared to last

year, the Jets play only 14 games in November (not 16) and play only six

in the first 11 days of December (not seven). In that seven-week span,

they also enjoy one four-day break and one three-day break and only

play back-to-back twice, including this Friday and Saturday in Anaheim

and San Jose respectively. But Friday’s was an afternoon game, thanks

to the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, so there will be a few additional hours

of recovery time.

In addition to improvements in goal and special teams’ play, a more

reasonable schedule is a significant contributing factor to the team’s

early-season successes, which had them in second place overall in the

Western Conference standings through Friday.

“I would say ours is now normal,” Maurice said. “Relative to last year,

we’re happy with it. We still have a block of games, from the third week of

November until the third week of December, that’s really tough, but I

think everybody has their bad month.”

There is no way to quantify the impact of the schedule on a team’s

injuries, but Maurice believes there is a correlation.

“Dallas kind of went through the same things we did last year; they had a

difficult stretch and then they got beat up by injuries, and you saw what

happened to them,” Maurice said. “There was a quote from Jon Cooper

(the Tampa Bay Lightning coach) last year after they’d played 14 games

in 28 days and he said, ‘this is crazy.’ Well, do it twice. And they got beat

CAROLINA HURRICANES


up by injuries and missed the playoffs. The schedule has a major impact

on results. It’s fairly even for a lot of teams. For some, it’s a little tougher

than for others. But for what we dealt with, I’d never seen anything like it.

“Maybe we’ve asked too much of these men.”

Ken Holland, the Detroit Red Wings’ general manager, probably didn’t

realize he was creating a monster when he innocently passed on an

observation to some of us many years ago: That in his research, the NHL

standings tended to move in tandem after U.S. Thanksgiving, which

roughly coincides with the end of the NHL’s first quarter.

Holland’s point was that if you were in the NHL playoff picture by this

week, the odds were good you would qualify for playoffs by season’s

end. Detroit made a habit of making the playoffs – 25 years in a row until

they finally lost out last year. Nowadays, of course, it’s possible to track

the veracity of practically every theory on a spreadsheet. Then, it was

mostly an empirical observation by a GM who’d discovered something

you’d intuitively think anyway – if you fell too far behind early in the

season, it is hard to make up that ground, even if there were 60 games or

so left to play.

In the last five years, Holland’s opus has been proven true just under 80

per cent of the time. Three times, 13 teams in the playoffs by U.S.

Thanksgiving held on. In the other two seasons, 12 teams did so. This

year, sorting out the Thanksgiving Day factor is further complicated by

the fact that as of Thursday, there were six teams tied for the final wild-

card spot in the Western Conference. Yes, Colorado, San Jose, Chicago,

Minnesota, Dallas and Anaheim all had 23 points. The Avalanche and

the Sharks had played the fewest games (20); had identical records (11-

8-3) and even had the same number of regulation and overtime wins

(10), which is the first tie-breaker.

But it’s a logjam, with 13 of the 15 teams able to assert they are actually

in a playoff position, if you ignore tie-breaking scenarios.

Over in the East, there was a tiny bit more separation. The three worst

teams all resided in the Atlantic – Montreal, Florida, and Buffalo – where

20 points separated first-place Tampa from the last-place Sabres,

practically a chasm by today’s standards. By contrast, the gap between

first-place Columbus and last-place Philadelphia in the Metropolitan was

just eight points. Currently, the two wild-card spots in the conference

were held by the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, Pittsburgh,

and last season's President’s Trophy winners, Washington, but even that

is a bit of mirage, given both had played 23 games, or three more than

seventh-place Carolina. And while the Rangers were on the outside

looking in, they were on an 8-2 roll in their last 10.

Accordingly, if the metrics of the past five years roughly hold true again, it

means three or four teams currently in the playoff mix will fall out by

season’s end. You pick. Logically, you’d have to think Vegas, slumping

Los Angeles and Vancouver are vulnerable in the West; while New

Jersey and Detroit would be the prime candidates to slip in the East. But

since there was nothing remotely logical – or predictable – about how the

first quarter played out, who knows what can happen.

Viva Las Vegas

To paraphrase my old friend Bob Johnson, Wednesday was a great day

for hockey in southern California because it gave me a chance to speak

with players and coaches on four teams in one day. I went to the morning

skates in Anaheim, where the Ducks were preparing to host the Golden

Knights; and then drove across town to see the Jets squeak out a 2-1

victory over the Kings at night.

The one thing that struck me was how remarkably similar the messaging

was from both Maurice and Golden Knights’ coach Gerard Gallant in

terms of keeping the focus narrow after both were off to unexpectedly

good starts.

“Really, we don’t talk about it,” Gallant said. “We’re not looking at it long

term. We’re looking at the next game. We know where we’re at in the

standings, but as soon as you start looking down the road, well …”

Gallant didn’t finish his thought, but the implication was clear. The minute

his hard-working, fast-paced team started thinking big-picture thoughts,

that’s when trouble might start. Divisional games, he acknowledged,

were more important. Vegas’s best chance of actually qualifying for the

playoffs will be to finish among the top three teams in the Pacific, which

is weaker in relative terms to the Central.

“The way I’m talking to our team, one game is not more important than

another one, but we all know it is,” Gallant said. “It’s a divisional game. I

don’t want to put any added pressure on our team. We just go out and

play the game, no matter who you play, and just play the best you can. If

you keep winning hockey games, the standings will take care of

themselves.”

The Golden Knights then went out and produced a wonderful effort

against the Ducks, spotted them a two-goal lead, didn’t panic, pushed

until they got back to even and then won it in the third. They are getting

unexpected performances from a number of different players, including

William Karlsson, who is getting a chance to play a top-six role in Vegas

and taking advantage of the opportunity. Karlsson’s 10 goals in 20

games is one behind team leader James Neal and already represents a

career high. The Golden Knights lost their three top goalies to injuries,

and while Malcolm Subban has been activated from injured reserve,

which has permitted them to return Dylan Ferguson to junior, they have

gotten five of their 10 wins with their fourth stringer, Maxime Lagace, in

goal. I’ve really never seen anything quite like it. No matter what happens

from here on in, it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which Gallant doesn’t

win the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s coach of the year.

This and that

Marian Gaborik was tentatively scheduled to return to the Los Angeles

lineup Friday; he’s been out all season, recovering from off-season knee

surgery. You can expect Gaborik to start in a limited bottom-six role until

he gets his skating legs under him, but then coach John Stevens will

have a decision to make. Does he put Gaborik up on the top line, with

Anze Kopitar, where they’ve had chemistry in the past? Or leave

Kopitar’s line intact, with Dustin Brown and rookie Alex Iafallo? Iafallo has

brought speed and energy to the unit, but has managed just one goal in

22 games. It may well be that facing lower-level defence pairs, playing

further down the lineup, might help ease Iafallo’s NHL transition.

Stevens, meanwhile, has managed to resurrect Brown’s career by

playing him lots – on average, 20 minutes and 12 seconds per night.

Brown’s four power-play goals leads the team.

Gaborik scored 27 goals for the Kings back in the 2014-15 season, but

the last two years have been injury-filled disasters – 22 points in 54

games two years ago; 21 points in 56 games last year. Part of being a

successful NHL coach these days is being an organizational pragmatist,

which is why Brown has a new lease on life under Stevens. The former

Kings’ captain, Brown is signed for four more years at $5.875 million per

season – heavy coin for a player whose role was diminished under Sutter

last year. If a player can’t play, he can’t play, but from the Kings’

perspective, it made sense to give Brown a fair chance to demonstrate

what was left in the tank – lots by the looks of the early season. The

same strategy will logically apply to Gaborik, who is 35 and has three

more years remaining after this year at $4.875 million. Under the new

Kings regime – with Rob Blake in as GM, Stevens behind the bench –

the Kings have had eight NHL rookies play at least two games this

season. The decision to put Brooks Laich on waivers was presumably

made to create a roster spot for Torrey Mitchell, acquired from the

Montreal Canadiens Thursday.

Now in his fifth season as the Jets’ coach, Maurice tried one outside the

box move in training camp, that seems to be paying dividends, by

bringing in retired referee Paul Devorski. The Jets last year were

assessed 275 minor penalties, second-most in the league behind

Calgary (277), and gave up 62 power-play goals. Only Colorado and

Dallas surrendered more. The year before wasn’t much better. They

played a man short 282 times. Arizona, Anaheim, and Los Angeles were

the only teams that were penalized more often. Not only did the Jets take

too many penalties, but they didn’t do a good job of killing them off –

CAROLINA HURRICANES


finishing 26th on the penalty kill two years ago and 25th last year.

Cumulatively, over that two-year span, the Jets lost the special teams’

battle by a wide margin, giving up 133 power-play goals and scoring just

86 times with the man advantage.

Turning that massive deficit into a plus, or simply having special teams

offset, was their objective and so far, matters have vastly improved.

Through Friday, the Jets had scored 15 power-play goals (on 66

attempts) and surrendered 16 power-play goals (on 74 attempts). In all,

11 teams have been penalized more than the Jets. They may not exactly

be choir boys yet, or have figured out what is and isn’t acceptable in this

era of increased vigilance, but they are improving.

Maurice explained to me that he came up with the idea of having an

experienced official at camp as part a three-pronged off-season plan to

reduce the number of penalties they took.

“It was clearly not a coach’s speech that was going to change it, because

we’ve had that a bunch of times,” Maurice said. “The first part was

considering a player’s original defensive position – and did your

positioning put you in a place to take a penalty or not? The second part

was developing the skill of defending one-on-one. And last was

understanding what the rules are and how they’re applied and why

they’re applied. We worked on all three.”

In training camp, Maurice said he ran one-on-one compete drills every

single practice, trying to teach “the skill of defending without getting your

stick up – and how do you change what you do. Part of that was

reviewing video on every players’ penalties that they took last year. We

went through that with them in the first week. All our repeat offenders, we

broke it down for them – because there’s a certain kind of player that

takes a certain kind of penalty; and so we saw all those.

“Then the last part of it was education. We are a really young team so we

needed a guy to come in, not to explain the rulebook, because that, we

get. But Paul (Devorski) has done 1,594 NHL games – and there are

certain tells. He’d say, ‘if I have to think about it, it’s not a penalty. You

know a penalty when you see it.’ He started talking about where your

stick is, where your free hand is – and can we eliminate the two or three

things that in his subconscious referee’s mind, means a penalty’s

coming?

“Having Devo on the ice, I thought was really good. I didn’t have him

running the practice, or blowing the drills. I just had him talking to the

guys. But I’d look over and see (Blake) Wheeler talking to him, or Buff

(Dustin Byfuglien). What we tried to do was break down all the factors

that led to the penalties we took last year and tried to address them. Paul

came in and he was great. He just talked to the guys and rolled around

the ice. It was good.”


1085117 Websites

The Athletic / The Blues' line: How St. Louis defensemen are scoring

goals by the bunches

By Evan Sporer 19 hours ago

When the Blues jettisoned defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk prior to the

2017 trade deadline, St. Louis parted ways with one of the most

offensively gifted players at his position. On paper, St. Louis' blueline was

worse off, even with the flexibility to give more minutes and

responsibilities to younger players like Colton Parayko and Joel

Edmundson.

But what St. Louis lost in Shattenkirk has, in practice, not created a

black-and-blue line situation. The Blues defensemen lead the NHL in

goals scored, accounting for 21 through Wednesday's games.

In that specific area of the game, the Blues were certainly pegged to

suffer without Shattenkirk. From 2011 to 2017, Shattenkirk led all Blues

defensemen in goals and goal per-game, with him and Alex Pietrangelo

accounting for close to 58 percent of those goals.

And even with Shattenkirk for three-quarters of last season, the Blues'

blueline wasn't the gold standard in terms of producing goals. In the

2016-17 season, St. Louis' defensemen ranked 15th in the NHL,

combining for 35 goals, according to Hockey Reference. The San Jose

Sharks led the league with 49, and nine teams' bluelines recorded 41 or

more goals.

Yet here is St. Louis, tops in the NHL in goals scored from its blueline

this season, with the sum of the remaining parts sans Shattenkirk

carrying the load and then some.

So at this point it seems fair to ask: Are the Blues doing something

systemically that is conducive to their defensemen scoring goals?

First, one point of clarification: Of the 21 goals scored by Blues

defensemen, three have come on the power play, so it's not like that stat

is boosted considerably by special teams.

And now for some context: The majority of these goals, as is the case

with the majority of St. Louis' offense, were generated with the forward

line of Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Jaden Schwartz on the

ice. For example, four of Pietrangelo's five even-strength goals have

been scored with the Blues' top forward line on the ice. Four of the six

even-strength goals scored by Edmundsson were scored with those

three forwards deployed.

Though it manifests itself in a number of different ways, there's a

common thread to many of these goals scored by Blues defensemen.

The St. Louis blueline is opportunistic but aggressive in when it chooses

to attack, very much a mandate from the head coach. On a Mike Yeo

team, the philosophy is very simple: Pick your spots, and take those risks

200 feet away from your own goal, but by all means be aggressive when

you can.

And that mantra can be seen in how St. Louis plays, and how many of

these goals are being created. Whether it's sustained offensive zone time

that fatigues the opposition out of position, or a spirited forecheck that

creates a turnover and a quick counter-chance, these are expeditious,

workmanlike sequences that are putting the defensemen in fantastic

positions to score.

One thing the St. Louis blueline does is make great weak-side reads

when the other team is overloading in the vicinity of the puck.

On this Vince Dunn goal, Robert Bortuzzo joins and leads the rush, helps

win the puck back for the Blues, and in a flash, the Avalanche are caught

with five skaters inside the faceoff dot before Dunn sprints into an

excellent scoring position.

When the Blues gain possession following a Carter Hutton save, St.

Louis takes off in transition, with Bortuzzo joining the rush.

The play ends up deep in the Avalanche's zone and in the corner, and

Bortuzzo is still in deep, below the faceoff dot. Colorado has for skaters

below the circles, and three that are directly or pretty close in puck

pursuit.

And while Colorado wins the puck back, Bortuzzo is still engaged in the

zone, close enough to the level of the puck that he can quickly make a

play with his stick. Though the Avalanche were poised to break out of the

zone in one moment, in the next, an aggressive play by a Blues

defenseman puts Colorado in terrible position.

When the puck ends up back on Paul Stastny's stick, the Avalanche have

five skaters packed into a tight area, and a tarmac-wide passing lane

smack in the middle of the ice. Stastny picks his head up, and Dunn has

CAROLINA HURRICANES


already identified the opportunity to crash the weak side and is in motion,

making himself a position target in the zone.

On the reverse angle, you can see how out-of-position the Avalanche

are. Because of aggressive plays by St. Louis defensemen — a joined

rush and forecheck by Bortuzzo, and a backdoor-cut by Dunn — the

Blues turn this play into a goal.

It would be one thing if this was an isolated instance, but this is how the

Blues defensemen have manufactured a handful of goals this season.

Instead of gaining the zone on a transition chance, this time St. Louis

skates it in and goes on the cycle. Because Alexander Steen ended up

making a play lower in his defensive end, Pietrangelo doesn't stay up on

the blueline, but rather roving around, almost like a free safety.

So when the Blues continue to cycle the puck around the wall and

Stastny gets in a board battle, Pietrangelo is close enough that he can

provide support from that middle-of-the-ice spot and get in on the play.

That aggressive pinch leads to another change in possession, at which

point the Canucks have all five in-zone skaters tilted from the left circle

in. Much like the Dunn goal, a quick, aggressive play on the wall with a

team over-committing to one side leaves a Blues defenseman all alone

on the weak side. When Edmundson recognizes this, he cuts toward the

slot, giving Stastny a clean look.

From the reverse angle, there is one other component to this sequence

that sets up the goal. Steen begins to creep down from the blue line

when Stastny comes out of the corner with the puck. Though he doesn't

factor into the scoring, because he puts himself in a shooting position,

Sam Gagner flips his stick into that passing lane. If Steen doesn't step

up, Gagner most likely occupies that space Stastny slips the puck

through.

One more similar Carl Gunnarsson goal, is this one against the Dallas

Stars. A Tarasenko chance that is initially stopped by Ben Bishop leads

to a change in possession, followed by a quick defensive regroup and

swarm by St. Louis, creating the weak-side counter opportunity.

The moment Dallas corrals the rebound and tries to turn up ice, Stastny

recognizes he can cut this play off on the near wall and create some

havoc. Behind him, Tarasenko is a secondary lane-plug, positioned to

create another speed bump.

This play isn't identical to the previous two, but you still have Gunnarsson

hopping into an offensive position on the weak side following a forced

turnover by St. Louis in the offensive zone (that's a lot of the same

criteria). Though the puck pinballs around and Gunnarsson's shot wasn't

on target, the gears to this machine are turning because the Blues make

the aggressive reads that catch the opposition off-guard.

The Blues defensemen are shooting 8.3 percent this season at all

strengths, not a remarkably high number, a testament to the shot quality

the unit and team are producing. These aren't lucky, fluke goals or

ridiculous individual efforts, but calculated, engaged moments that catch

teams in vulnerable moments.

And when it works, the Blues defensemen don't hesitate to jump into a

shooting lane and call for the puck, with an offensive mindset. The Blue

line very much has the green light when it sees red, and St. Louis is

manufacturing these opportunities through its structure and puck-hunting.


1085118 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Leafs’ Marleau continues to live up to contract

expectations

Chris Johnston

@reporterchris

November 24, 2017, 10:13 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. – There was no prolonged conversation after Mike

Babcock decided he needed to play Patrick Marleau out of position.

He simply called his Swiss Army knife in and said: “We’ve got you in the

middle. If you have any trouble with that let me know.”

Marleau hasn’t peeped up about it since. He’s played nine of the past 12

games predominantly as a centre, including Friday’s 5-4 victory over the

Carolina Hurricanes, and his coach expects to continue deploying him in

that manner when the road matchups make it advantageous to do so.

“I don’t have to sell him on nothing,” said Babcock. “He likes hockey.”

It’s an understated quality that has already made a big impact on his new

team.

There doesn’t need to be any cajoling with Marleau. He is as predictable

as the beat of a metronome and owns the coach’s implicit trust while

playing wing, centre, net-front on the power play and even killing the

occasional penalty.

In short order, Marleau has laid waste to much of the skepticism that

followed his $18.75-million, three-year signing over the summer.

He’s now on pace for 31 goals after picking up his ninth of the season in

Friday’s game, camping out at the edge of Scott Darling’s crease with the

man advantage and tapping home a nice feed from Auston Matthews.

“I was hoping for it,” said Marleau. “He made a great play there. I just had

my stick on the ice, he used me as a backboard.”

That goal allowed the Leafs to escape with two points on a night where

the ice was heavily tilted against them. They needed Frederik Andersen

to be terrific early – a noteworthy trend of late, with Toronto having been

outshot 65-38 in the first period of its last five games – before their

offensive skill eventually shone through.

This is a team capable of outscoring its problems thanks in large part to

Matthews, James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Marleau.

Against the Hurricanes, there were no shortage of defensive issues.

Carolina applied significant pressure for long stretches and made it

difficult for the Leafs to execute controlled zone exits.

“Once we started flipping pucks behind them – as boring as that is – we

had some more success getting out,” said defenceman Ron Hainsey.

“They were on top us. We were trying to make plays and it just wasn’t

happening.”

Marleau’s line wasn’t immune from those issues, but it’s notable how

infrequently that’s been the case.

The 38-year-old has consistently managed to come out in the black

possession-wise even after being flipped back and forth between centre

and right wing. He started his career with San Jose in the middle before

eventually being shifted to make room for Joe Pavelski.

He played some games at centre for the Sharks in recent years when

Logan Couture was out injured, but wasn’t originally viewed as a viable

option there when the Leafs signed him. It was only after Babcock

noticed opponents using last change to get their best players out against

Tyler Bozak’s defensively challenged unit that he changed his mind on

where No. 12 belongs.

“I don’t control the matchups, so I can’t get mismatched in any situation

with him at centre,” Babcock explained. “He can play against anybody

CAROLINA HURRICANES


and then I have more balance and I don’t have to spend my whole life

sitting guys on the bench [thinking] ‘Oh, did I miss that guy.’

“When their guy is waiting to hunt your guys – they always pick someone

to play against, right? And when they’re waiting for that guy and they

keep getting you, you never get out of your zone and it starts wearing

you out. You get tired of watching that so this way I don’t have to watch

it.”

The experiment should continue getting a good run with the Leafs facing

12 of their next 16 games away from Air Canada Centre. It’s arguably the

toughest stretch of the season and will require Babcock to lean heavily

on his most trusted options.

It says something about Marleau that the coach would rather not play him

as a centre but is choosing to do so for the betterment of the lineup as a

whole.

“I don’t know if he’d score as much if he played in the middle all the time,”

said Babcock. “And I want him to score and be putting the heat on D’s

because you’re behind the play and coming up later, he’s not as [active]

on the forecheck.

“His speed is so good you’d like to use that. So that’s the negative side.”

It hasn’t negatively impacted his ability to find the back of the net so far,

with Marleau now sitting at five goals in the nine games he’s played at

centre.

The one he scored against the Hurricanes made it 5-2 in the third period,

but wound up being the winner when Carolina’s furious comeback fell

just short. That moved him into seventh on the NHL’s all-time list with

102 game-winning goals – just seven shy of Brendan Shanahan, the

Hall-of-Famer turned Leafs president.

“He’s got to track Shanny down,” said Babcock. “I’m hoping he’s tracking

him down before the end of the year.”

Sportsnet.ca LOADED: 11.25.2017

1085119 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Struggling Oilers, Sabres search for answers to right

sinking ships

Luke Fox

@lukefoxjukebox

November 25, 2017, 12:08 AM

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The very idea of salvaging something worth keeping

from the east-west train wreck that is Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo

Sabres hockey right now elicits deep thought, blank stares, and laughter.

Yet we asked the young faces of these struggling franchises to pinpoint

something that’s gone right amidst all their squandered games and

shriveling expectations for 2017-18.

“Positives?” asked Connor McDavid, skeptically. Teammate Patrick

Maroon let loose a chuckle behind him. “Not many. We haven’t been very

good this year. I think everyone’s made that very clear. When I think

positives? Whew… I don’t know.”

A full 10 seconds of silence pass when the same question is passed to

Jack Eichel, who, you may recall, shares a draft year with McDavid.

Sunken in the stall of a pristine, expensive KeyBank Center dressing

room, a Sabres ballcap pulled as low over his eyes as the day’s

collective mood, Eichel thinks hard and sighs before pointing to an

improved penalty kill, to which he contributes.

Then he star-wipes wide to wrestle with the big picture and another draft-

lottery pace.

“We should stop feeling sorry for ourselves, complaining and making

excuses for what’s going on. We just need to come together and work

harder. That’s always the key to success,” Eichel says.

Sabres, Oilers: They suffer from the same disease. When the going gets

tough, they crumble. Following Friday’s near-joyless 3-1 Sabres victory,

the worst team in the East and second-worst in the West are a combined

2-20-1 when trailing after two periods.

“The severity of the momentum is too much. We get deflated as a team

or they score a goal,” Eichel explains. “We have to find a way to ride it

out when the momentum swings and the other team’s pressing and we’re

on our heels. We have to figure out a way to bend but not break.”

You’ll have to excuse them. They’re not at their best.

Heading into what was derisively titled the “Pissed-Off Bowl” by one

jerseyed-up fan with a drink in hand, the sides had a total of 13 wins to

rub between them at the season’s quarter mark. Eight individual teams

had that many or more, and one of those is the expansion Vegas Golden

Knights.

Ten minutes into a scoreless, jagged game, a lone fan booed loud in a

sold-out barn. Presumably he was unhappy with the level of play in

general.

Black Friday, indeed.

You can bet 29 GMs are wondering when the sales start.

“The character was questioned about the group,” said Todd McLellan.

The Oilers coach believes the dedication in practice is there and that all

the right things are being said in the room. It’s just the games where

things fall apart.

“We can’t go on the ice and play for them. We can push them, we can

prod them, we can poke them, but they need to make decisions that

aren’t always easy. They happen very fast.”

One could flip McLellan’s words with those of Sabres coach Phil Housley,

and they’d ring just as true.

“With our record, there’s a lot of questions out there about accountability

and trust,” Housley said. “They have to work it out together.”

That began in earnest Monday, after the Sabres lost to the Blue Jackets

but before they lost to the Wild.

Bit player Jordan Nolan called for more accountability in the press,

pointing the gulf in attitude and approach between this and his former

family, the championship Los Angeles Kings.

The doors closed for a players-only meeting. Kyle Okposo, who stayed

silent that night, believes veteran Jason Pominville’s message resonated

most. When the doors finally opened, the Sabres’ faces were a pall of

thousand-yard stares.

“We’ve got to grow up, mature,” Okposo said.

When Ryan O’Reilly isn’t on his game, he grows quiet and self-critical.

He’s trying to convince himself that, as the team’s best two-way centre

and highest-paid player, he needs to worry more about the group’s result,

not his own. Pick others up. Let them reciprocate. The mental valleys are

gruelling, more so when losing is what you know.

This isn’t even the worst feeling of losing O’Reilly has experienced.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


“It’s unfortunate, but I’ve been on some bad teams in Colorado. But the

expectations coming in here…” He reloads. “We were expected to be

fighting for a [playoff] spot. It’s going to take a lot to get out of this.”

Rolling over a slipshod Edmonton squad in decisive fashion on a jam-

packed but low-energy night is a baby step for a fan base that can easily

score hockey tickets below face value. (“I got friends giving them away

for free on Facebook,” one Buffalonian said.)

Core Oilers Cam Talbot and Oscar Klefbom sat with the flu. Leon

Draisaitl may as well have.

Buffalo got a jolt with the healthy return of its defensive horse, Rasmus

Ristolainen, who helped limit McDavid to three shots, zero points and a

44 per cent Corsi 5-on-5.

The Sabres ended a seven-game skid (trench?), the oft-ripped Eichel

excelled at both ends and scored for the second straight game, and the

Oilers — again — whiffed on an opportunity to link two regulation wins

together. They haven’t done it all season.

“Same story,” said McDavid, a dash-2 in loss number 15. “We get a win,

we come back and we don’t follow it up. I don’t think it was [lack of] effort

at all. We were just sloppy. It just felt like we were never really in sync,

anyone at anytime. Little passes that are easy to make, we didn’t

complete them. It’s just a group that’s out of whack. It is frustrating.

“We had high hopes for tonight, and we just can’t get it going.”

There are days, Darnell Nurse admits, when positivity is too slippery to

hold. That’s when he looks out, to McDavid, to the group that won a

playoff round last spring and appeared to the world like it would win a

bunch more soon.

“Games are gonna eat away at you. Plays are gonna eat away at you,”

Nurse says. “We believe in each other. As long as that belief stays within

this room, it doesn’t matter what’s going on outside of it.”

Outside, they’re already tabulating lottery odds.

Outside, the Pacific-leading Knights have won four games in a row. Ditto

the Bruins, Edmonton’s next opponent. The Oilers and Sabres

desperately need runs like that, yesterday.

Like Eichel, McDavid says it’s pointless to lick wounds and indulge in hurt

feelings.

“We’re the ones who got ourselves in this,” the captain said, “and we’re

the ones who are gonna get ourselves out.”


1085120 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Devils’ Cory Schneider continues to dominate Canucks

Iain MacIntyre

@imacSportsnet

November 24, 2017, 9:57 PM

NEWARK, N.J. – Daniel Sedin collected two points Friday night, and if he

gets two more under similar circumstances Sunday, you will see the most

joyless celebration of 1,000 points in National Hockey League history.

The goal and assist Sedin gathered against the New Jersey Devils hardly

mattered because the Vancouver Canucks fell 3-2, losing whatever

magic they had going when they opened their six-game road trip with 5-2

wins 24 hours apart against the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh

Penguins.

Actually, those points may be more meaningful in time if Daniel and

Henrik Sedin retire after this season because Daniel generated them

against an old friend and admirer, goalie Cory Schneider, who was

traded to the Devils 4½ years ago and has been crushing the Canucks

ever since.

The Canucks are happy with the trade, because it fetched Bo Horvat,

who has become Vancouver’s top centre and scored his team’s other

goal on Friday. They’re just not happy with it any time they play

Schneider, who is now 6-1-2 against them.

At least the Canucks scored on Friday – Sedin’s goal was a fluke – after

Schneider made 37 saves during a 2-0 shutout win in Vancouver on Nov.

1. The goalie, whose move was the most stunning twist in the Roberto

Luongo trade saga on the West Coast, had to make only 23 saves

against the Canucks on Friday.

"I think early on (after the trade) there was some extra motivation,"

Schneider said. "With where we are now and where they’re at, some of

that has been lost with a lot of guys moving on. I don’t know if we match

up well against them or I just happen to be hot or play well against them,

but they’re a fun team to play against. They shoot a lot of pucks and,

maybe, I’m a little more familiar with the twins. I seem to get up a little

more for these guys."

By allowing two goals, Schneider’s anti-Canuck numbers actually

diminished. Before Friday, he was carrying a 1.73 goals-against average

and .940 save percentage against his old team.

Even Canucks super rookie Brock Boeser was unable to score against

Schneider – and Boeser scores against everyone.

Boeser’s four-game goal streak ended, although the 20-year-old picked

up a second assist on Horvat’s power-play goal that halved the Devils’

two-goal lead at 10:37 of the third period and made the final nine minutes

interesting.

"We should have beaten him more than once, but that’s the way it is,"

Henrik Sedin said of Schneider. "He’s a good goalie. He suits their

system. I always saw him as a No. 1 for sure, even when we had Lou

and they were battling to be No. 1. I always knew Cory would be an elite

goaltender."

It was not lost on Schneider that this may have been his last time facing

the Sedins, who are 37 and have not decided if they’ll play beyond this

season, which has seen their roles reduced.

"To this day – I’m in my 11th year pro, which is hard to believe – when I

think of a consummate professional, I think of Henrik and Daniel,"

Schneider said. "Coming into the league, it was different than it is now.

Seven or eight years ago, you just watched and learned. You didn’t say a

whole lot, didn’t do too much and had to earn your way. Those two guys

were the best examples of that.

"They were the first guys in the gym, they were the hardest working.

They spoke up when they needed to and they took accountability. But

they never asked for anything in return. The way they went about their

business was crucial to my development."

Schneider said the Sedins should finish in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

"He thinks we’re good guys, but I don’t know that that makes us Hall of

Famers," Henrik, who has 1,031 points after an assist on Daniel’s bank-

shot goal in the second period, said with a smile when told of Schneider’s

remark. "I always enjoyed playing with Schneids. He’s just one of those

guys you respect. He comes in and works hard and he just wants to get

better. That’s been him from Day 1."

That sounds a lot like the Sedins.

The Canucks needed to work smarter in the second period, when the

Devils scored three times on Vancouver mistakes.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Taylor Hall found space between Canucks’ Derrick Pouliot and Sam

Gagner to shoot from the slot over goalie Jacob Markstrom’s shoulder.

Devils’ defenceman Will Butcher was allowed to streak unimpeded up ice

and embarrass Canuck blueliner Ben Hutton one-on-one before dishing

to Brian Boyle for New Jersey’s second goal.

And Damon Severson poked a rebound from the post into an unguarded

net for the winning goal after Sven Baertschi’s giveaway at the end of a

Canucks power play set up a breakaway for Hall.

"I liked how we pushed in the third," Canuck coach Travis Green said. "I

wasn’t crazy about some of our little details in the second period. When

you play a game like this where both teams play a structured game,

those little details are usually the thing that separates who wins and

loses."

A goalie may have something to do with it, too.


1085121 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Quick Shifts: ‘Terrifying’ Matt Martin talks Maple Leafs’

top-line cameo

Luke Fox

@lukefoxjukebox

November 24, 2017, 3:50 PM

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious

and less so, and rolling four lines deep.

1. Matt Martin is a healthy scratch Friday at Carolina for the first time in

his Toronto Maple Leafs tenure, as the club’s forward-line roulette wheel

keeps spinning.

Ironically, Martin’s benching comes on the heels of his look-see

alongside Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner, who both rave about

how their big, tough friend has nicer hands than he gets credit for.

I sat this week for a little chat with Martin, who’s always generous with his

time.

SN: Does it ever bother you that you get slapped with the enforcer tag

and put into a box?

Martin: “It all depends what role you’re given. You see the same thing

when Team Canada plays in the Olympics. You see John Tavares go

from MVP-calibre player to a fourth-line checker that kills penalties.

When I’m on the fourth line, I obviously don’t get as much ice time, so

you’re not in the flow of the game as much. Up the lineup, you’re making

plays, you feel good, you know you’re getting other opportunities to make

plays. You want to make plays when they’re available, but as a fourth

liner, you want to get pucks in and be responsible. That’s what the

coaching staff wants and expects. Top lines are relied on to score.”

Did your half-game in Montreal on the Matthews-Marner line open eyes

to your offensive skills?

“I make that [backhand] pass to Mitchy — he picks it up. Not every player

in this league can pick up a pass that’s behind them. I know I struggle

with that. That changes the way you think. Those are smart guys. They

find positions where it’s easy to make plays to them. I wanted to make

the most of that opportunity.”

How were you used differently on the New York Islanders?

“We played 12 minutes even strength every night. Me, Casey [Cizikas]

and [Cal] Clutter[buck] often got matched versus the other teams’ top

lines. I don’t think here we’ve gained that trust yet [as a fourth line]. You

gotta think: That was something we earned over time on the island. We

were together for three years. That kind of comfort level takes time.”

Marner describes you as “terrifying to play against.” When did you realize

you could strike fear into your opponent?

“As a defenceman it’s not easy to go back for pucks. Even when I’m first

back for a puck, I’m looking around to see who’s coming and how I can

prevent myself from getting hurt. I’m aware if it’s a more physical guy or a

smaller, skilled defenceman who’s not gonna come at me.

“Once you start thinking about that as opposed to making a play to your

D partner or winger or centreman, that’s when turnovers happen. Your

mind’s on the wrong thing. That’s in the backs of their minds — they

always know when you’re on the ice. Look at a guy like Ryan Reaves in

Pittsburgh now. Everyone knows when he’s on the ice. Zac Rinaldo on

[Arizona] — he’s a physical player. So you communicate. You have to be

aware of who’s coming after you. I’ve caused some trouble for

defencemen who are aware they’re going to get hit. They try to avoid

being hit, or protect for being hit, or try to rush a play — it causes

confusion and that’s when turnovers happen.”

Over the course of a game, you know when you’ve gotten into a D-man’s

head, then?

“For sure. It’s a tough job for defencemen back there. They make a lot of

great little plays that go undervalued. It’s never easy being last man

back, retrieving a puck, staring at the end boards and making a play the

other way. Sometimes they slow up and let you get the puck first. A lot of

times you’ll see them rim the puck when they’re not under pressure.

There’s a lot of things going through your mind at once, and to solve that

equation is not easy.”

If it’s not necessary to crush a guy, I’ve seen you use the bear hug. Is

that something that was taught to you? Or is that just staying loyal to the

code?

“I came in the league at an interesting time where they’re were still a lot

of the old-school tough guys. There was still touch icing. It’s made a huge

transition over the past eight years. No more touch icing, which is a lot

safer. When I hear the whistle, I’m never out there to hurt anybody,

especially on an icing play. It’s a dangerous situation, and on a dead play

there’s no reason for it. So I just grab him like that.”

2. The pre-tax salaries of NHL players are public knowledge, but

calculating the dollars skaters actually pocket takes work. Thankfully, the

good folks at Gavin Management did the math.

The results tweak the way you perceive the league’s top earners.

The first table below lists the 15 most handsomely paid players in 2017-

18, ordered by gross salary; the second ranks them in terms of actual

take-home pay.

Florida man Steven Stamkos, who’s earning every penny this season,

jumps from 14th to seventh after you consider his state’s soft tax hit — a

factor well publicized as he approached free agency in 2016.

Dallas star Jamie Benn leapfrogs Chicago’s twin gross leaders, Patrick

Kane and Jonathan Toews, for top spot in the net chart. Don’t mess with

Texas’ capitalism.

Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, Chicago’s Brent Seabrook and Pittsburgh’s Phil

Kessel ($9 million cap hits, all of ’em) don’t make the top 15 gross but fly

their way into the top 15 net.

The only player on a Canadian team cracking the top 15 net is Montreal’s

Shea Weber, who falls from fifth to eighth due to taxes, and he signed

that deal when he was with Nashville.

Difficult to scan this list and not wonder if tax rates will become a small

factor on the decision of an impending free agent like John Tavares. New

CAROLINA HURRICANES


York’s state income tax for those hauling more than $1.06 million

annually is 8.82 per cent.

3. A trip through Eastern Canada is just what the Arizona Coyotes team

doctor ordered. The NHL’s last-place team beat Montreal, Ottawa and

Toronto back-to-back-to-back.

This teaches us that the Yotes aren’t as bad as you thought. It also

reminds us that the Atlantic Division is the weakest. Here are the four

divisions’ combined head-to-head records:

Central vs. other three divisions: 64-31-13 (.653 PTS %)

Metropolitan vs. other three divisions: 71-49-18 (.580 PTS %)

Pacific vs. other three divisions: 60-57-11 (.512 PTS %)

Atlantic vs. other three divisions: 55-54-17 (.504 PTS %)

Combined, the Atlantic clubs sport a minus-29 goal differential. That

figure drops to minus-70 when you remove top seeds Tampa Bay and

Toronto.

If the Lightning and Maple Leafs don’t finish 1-2 in a division where the

Detroit Red Wings’ playoffs chances are real, it’s a blown opportunity.

4. A very brief oral history of the Toronto Maple Leafs attending the CFL

East final, which featured Marner’s Toronto Argonauts defeating Mike

Babcock and Tyler Bozak’s Saskatchewan Roughriders 25-21.

Auston Matthews: “I was pretty tired so I went home [early]. Morgan

[Rielly] and Freddie [Andersen] and I, we all went home and then the

game turned into an absolute barnburner … probably should have stayed

around for that last quarter.

Marner: “When I walked in today, Babs and Tyler were together at the

table, and I walked in wearing my Argos hat, hands up celebrating.”

Matthews: “Mitch and Bozie made a bet. I don’t know if he made a bet

with Babs. I wouldn’t make a bet with Babs.” [smiling]

“I still haven’t gotten my bottle of wine from last year’s world juniors [bet,

in which Team USA defeated Canada]. You’re out of luck if you’re betting

with him. I don’t think he pays up.”

5. “I love that fast, north-south style,” says Rick Tocchet.

A portion of Arizona’s early struggles can be attributed to goaltender Antti

Raanta’s injury, but another portion rests with a complete systematic and

philosophical overhaul in how to play the game.

I’ve asked a few NHLers how long it takes to adapt to a new coach’s

scheme, and they say at least a month. You want it to sink in faster, but

with rest so valuable and practice time so limited over the 82-game grind,

some times it can take even longer.

“[Dave] Tippett had us playing a more defensive game. Tocc wants us to

defend, too, but it’s more about playing with speed and going the other

way,” Oliver Ekman-Larsson explains.

“It’s more straight-up with Tocc than Tip. We played with the puck a little

more under Tip’s system. This is more north-south. That’s the big

difference.”

6. A change of scenery doesn’t always equate to an uptick in

performance, but when does Matt Duchene’s lack of productivity in

Ottawa become a concern?

Through six games, the assumed “best player in the deal” has zero

points and is a minus-8. Nashville’s Kyle Turris has five points in the

same number of games.

Ottawa tinkered with chemistry. Let’s see Duchene partnered with the

red-hot Mark Stone to get him rolling.

7. Legendary Sabres enforcer turned analyst Rob Ray spoke highly of

Evander Kane during a radio interview on Calgary’s Sportnset 960 this

week.

Buffalo is in disarray, but Kane has raised his rental stock through the

roof with his performance: 12 goals and 21 points through 22 games.

That the 26-year-old winger can finish is no revelation, but Ray went off

on Kane’s excellent leadership skills and responsibility. That’s new.

With Jack Eichel’s contract kicking in at the beginning of 2018-19 and

four other forwards — Jason Pominville, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson,

Ryan O’Reilly — already making $5 million or more next season, Buffalo

cannot justify keeping Kane even if he wants to stay.

8. Keith Kinkaid is the closest facsimile the NHL has to The Emoji Movie,

except he’s funnier. (The nine per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating is

generous.)

After each victory, the New Jersey Devils backup goaltender tweets a

happy game summary so flush with emoticons, you may need a decoder

ring:

Kinkaid was recently gifted with a locker full of plush emojis from the

Devils mascot. Fittingly, his thank-you tweet included more than just text:

9. The Coyotes have a good room of talkers, which is all a reporter can

hope for. I was blown away by and appreciative of Ekman-Larsson’s

candor Monday. He didn’t back away from discussing sensitive and

personal subjects in the midst of a loud, crowded game-day visitors’

room.

With the Argonauts having just advanced to the Grey Cup hours earlier,

Max Domi got chatting about father Tie’s cameo as an Argos placekicker.

10. Following Monday’s skate and ahead of his team’s 4-1 upset of the

Maple Leafs, Domi made a Clayton Keller prediction: “You guys are in for

a treat watching him tonight.”

Bang on.

Of all the young, stud forwards in that game, Keller was easily the one

who drew your gaze. He drew two penalties — and should’ve drawn a

third when his summer golf partner, Matthews, got away with a trip. He

set up two goals while running the point on the top power-play unit, and

was generally creating every shift.

“He’s got the puck a lot, right? He wants the puck. He doesn’t throw it

away. That’s what I love about the kid — he doesn’t throw pucks away,”

said Tocchet, explaining Keller’s knack for drawing minors. “He’s in the

corner, he comes out with it, and then someone will get a stick on you

and you get tripped up.”

Keller is listed at 5-foot-10 and 168 pounds, measurements likely taken

when he was soaking wet on stilts, but he plays a huge game.

“Spectacular. I mean, what he can do with the puck and the confidence

he has as a young player is remarkable,” Domi said. “He wants to make

a difference. Whether we’re down a goal or we’re going into the third

period and it’s a power play, he wants to be the guys hopping over the

bench. It’s rare to see a guy like that. We’re really happy to have him.”

Ekman-Larsson all but stopped short of anointing Keller A New Hope.

“He’s already a top player in the league, and he’s going to get even

better. That’s the best thing about it,” Ekman-Larsson said. “When you

struggle as a team, you look around this room and you feel you have

enough players to turn this thing around.”

The question is, considering his size and penchant for offence, can Keller

develop into the No. 1 NHL centre so sorely needed on this team (real

talk: Derek Stepan is a No. 2 on a contender) or will he always be an

excellent winger?

11. One of the main reasons I believe the Maple Leafs will try to add a

defender before the trade deadline passes is because Ron Hainsey and

Nikita Zaitsev are being relied on too heavily to kill all the penalties. The

duo has logged 210:55 of combined short-handed ice time, which

projects them to finish the season at 719:52.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Curious where that would rank historically, the kind folks at SN Stats did

the math for me.

In the past decade, no duo has put in that kind of kill time. Look back 15

years, and only two PK duos spent more time on ice than the Hainsey-

Zaitsev pace.

Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios logged 851:05 on the PK in

2002-03 and 863:39 on the Babcock-coached 2005-06 team. The two

Hall of Famers bolstered a top-six PK unit in both those seasons.

The Islanders’ Brendan Witt and Tom Poti logged 748:13 in 2006-07.

That PK finished 18th overall. The Leafs’ PK ranks 14th at 80.8 per cent.

12. As much as the Coyotes bungled their goodbye to franchise icon

Shane Doan — there is still no jersey retirement ceremony on the

calendar — the club was wise to keep healthy its relationship with career

grinder Paul Bissonnette.

In his first season as Arizona’s local colour analyst, BizNasty still travels

on the team plane and lives the NHL life, minus the bag skates. He’s also

started a fun, personality-driven series of videos to help showcase the

current Yotes. Check out Road Trippin’ with Biz….


1085122 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Canadiens excited to have Carey Price back, but need him

at his best

Eric Engels

November 24, 2017, 3:46 PM

BROSSARD, Que.—The guessing game is over.

Carey Price is coming off a three-week absence, caused by a lower-body

injury, and he’s stepping in front of the Montreal Canadiens’ net for a

game against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Now the question is, which Price are we going to see? Will it be the one

who built up a reputation over the past five seasons as the consensus

best goaltender in the world, or will it be the one who put up the worst

numbers of any starter with at least 10 games under their belt this

season?

The 8-12-3 Canadiens need the Price they expect to see—the guy who

they signed to an eight-year, $84 million contract extension this past

summer—and can’t settle for anything in between. If he at all resembles

the man who collected just three wins in 11 starts and posted a ghastly

save percentage of .877 and a nightmarish 3.77 goals-against average,

they’re in even bigger trouble than they already appear to be.

The team has lost five consecutive games and could be as many as six

points out of a playoff spot by the time they wake up on Saturday

morning. They’re getting set to play seven of their next eight games at

home and four of their next five against divisional rivals. It’s fair to say

they need a major boost.

“Just having his calming presence back there will make a difference” said

Canadiens defenceman Jordie Benn after Friday’s practice. “He’s as

good as any of us at moving the puck. He saves us from having to go

back and get it half the time.”

Price’s ability to do that is critical, but him stopping and smothering pucks

is what’s of utmost importance. All the better if he can do it without sliding

around his crease with as little control as he displayed through the first

few weeks of the season.

“Over the time he was injured, Carey did not stop working,” said

Canadiens coach Claude Julien. “When I say that, [I mean] he had

treatment, he watched video with [goaltending coach] Stephane [Waite],

and he kept working to improve his game for when he came back.”

Price also discarded the pads he was using up until the moment of his

injury and has been wearing a new pair in practice over the past week.

He went back to an old pair of skates, too.

“It’s just something you’re familiar with,” Price said of the change.

“Technically, I think it gives me more of an advantage.”

Whatever works, right?

One of the other things that might help Price regain form is having a bit of

a different look to what’s been a beleaguered defence unit since the

season started.

David Schlemko, who suffered a hand injury on the first day of training

camp, is finally ready to start playing games again. He’ll dress for the

AHL’s Laval Rocket on Friday, as part of a brief conditioning stint, and

he’ll probably be ready to go for Monday’s Canadiens game against the

Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jakub Jerabek came up from Laval to play his first NHL game in

Nashville this past Wednesday and performed admirably. He’s a sound

decision-maker and a capable puck mover who can chip in with some

offence, and his addition brings a new element to the team’s back end.

And Shea Weber, who missed the past two games with a lower-body

injury, is nearing a return. Julien said he could play Saturday after

receiving treatment on Friday.

Antti Niemi will back Price up for the time being, with Charlie Lindgren

going back down to Laval after posting a 3-4-1 record, a .924 save

percentage and a 2.43 goals-against average.

“(Lindgren) played great,” said Price. “It’s not an easy position. It was

good to see his enthusiasm, he was having a lot of fun.”

Julien said one of the reasons Lindgren went down was because Niemi

could be lost on waivers. We suspect the concern over losing Niemi to

that process has more to do with making sure Price doesn’t suffer a

setback over the next coming days than it does with anything else.

The nature of Price’s injury—coupled with his recent injury history—

requires Montreal to proceed with as much caution as possible.

“We can recall Charlie at any point,” said Julien.

He just might want to do that as soon as Price needs rest for a game.

With backup Al Montoya sidelined by a concussion for an indeterminate

amount of time, Lindgren unquestionably gives them a better chance to

win than Niemi.

It can be argued Lindgren does that regardless of Montoya’s health,

considering he’s put up better numbers than any other Canadiens

goaltender this season.

Price getting up to Lindgren’s level—and exceeding it—gives this team

the best chance of getting back into the thick of the playoff race.

“We know what he’s done in the past,” said Julien. “We’re excited to see

him come back.”

The Canadiens will be even more thrilled if Price can immediately offer

his best.


CAROLINA HURRICANES


1085123 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Acknowledging and analyzing the NHL’s top five goalies

this season

Andrew Berkshire

November 24, 2017, 1:11 PM

After breaking down the top forward lines and defence pairings so far this

season, the natural next step is to look at which goaltenders have been

the biggest difference makers for their teams.

Unfortunately with goalies there just isn’t the same variety of statistics to

evaluate their play that exist for skaters, so it’s a lot tougher to come to a

conclusion about total value, especially in small sample sizes.

In the end I decided that sticking to 5-on-5 play made sense once again,

because save percentage on special teams is highly unreliable in small

samples. In order to qualify, goaltenders had to start at least 10 games

this season and I wanted to look at not just overall performance, but

signs that the performance is sustainable, and how much the goaltenders

themselves are contributing to the shot quality they face.

With that in mind, here’s what I came up with as the top goaltenders

through one quarter of the NHL season.

Be aware that in order to increase the contrast in these big numbers I

started the y-axis (vertical) at 30 per cent.

Over the past several years of NHL hockey, we know that future overall

save percentage is normally best predicted by how well goalies are

stopping pucks in the high danger area, or inner slot. So far this season,

Mike Smith is leading everyone there by a wide margin, turning away

90.7 per cent of the high danger chances he faces, which is more than

13 percentage points better than league average.

An interesting note on Smith’s high danger save percentage being the

highest of this group: his outer slot save percentage is the lowest for him

personally and below league average. That’s an odd outlier. Smith gives

up rebounds on 62 per cent of the shots he faces, but those rebounds

are recovered by his teammates or himself 87.5 per cent of the time.

Smith has a relatively high percentage of his rebounds that wind up in the

inner slot area, but 98.6 per cent of those rebounds are either recovered

by his teammates or smothered by Smith before opponents get a chance

to get on the puck, so it hasn’t burned him yet.

Sergei Bobrovsky, last season’s Vezina winner, leads the NHL in even

strength save percentage again, and is third in high danger save

percentage while posting stronger save rates in the high slot than Smith.

Bobrovsky has been a bit of a mess with rebounds though.

A whopping 71 per cent of the shots Bobrovsky faces result in rebounds,

and 39 per cent of those end up in the inner slot. The Blue Jackets also

recover fewer of Bob’s rebounds than league average teams do, making

things tougher on him as he faces more second chances than other

goalies.

That hasn’t burned him yet, but the question for Bobrovsky is whether

you credit him for the extra saves or punish him for being the creator of

his own increased difficulty? In a small sample size, it’s tough to say

which is more important. If by the end of the season Bobrovsky still leads

the NHL in even strength save percentage, you just have to tip your hat

to him.

Braden Holtby puts up strong numbers across the board, and he doesn’t

give up many rebounds either, with only 59 per cent of the shots he faces

ending up out of his immediate control. The Capitals also recover among

the highest percentage of rebounds in the NHL at 90.7 per cent – and

they recover 97.5 per cent of Holtby’s rebounds into the high danger

area.

Holtby has the easiest workload of this elite group, but you have to give

him credit for helping to ease that by keeping second chances to a

minimum.

Corey Crawford remains one of the most consistent even strength

goaltenders in the NHL, posting strong save percentages and allowing

the lowest percentage of rebounds to the inner slot of anyone.

The Blackhawks don’t recover Crawford’s rebounds at as high a rate as

other teams, but Crawford’s own work in the high danger area leads to

97.8 per cent of those high danger rebounds being recovered.

Arguably the most surprising goaltender on this list is Jacob Markstrom,

who used to be the ‘Next Great Goalie’ prospect for years, only to

flounder in the NHL until this season when he’s been brilliant at even

strength for an equally surprising Vancouver Canucks team.

Markstrom boasts the second-best high danger save percentage in the

NHL, strong numbers in the high slot, and has the lowest percentage of

shots faced that turn into rebounds at just 57 per cent.

Of those rebounds, Markstrom is tied with Crawford for the lowest

percentage of them ending up in the high danger area at just 31.7 per

cent. Markstrom’s teammates have done a great job recovering the very

few rebounds he actually allows, too.

I think you could make a legitimately strong argument for any of Smith,

Bobrovsky, and Markstrom as the top-three goalies this season. Whether

those will be the same names up for the Vezina at the end of the year,

though, is anyone’s guess.


1085124 Websites

TSN.CA / Leafs hang on for road win, snap 2-game skid

By Kristen Shilton

Columnist image

The Toronto Maple Leafs nearly let one slip away in Carolina on Friday

night, but the visitors held off a late surge from their hosts to top the

Hurricanes 5-4. The victory snapped the Leafs’ two-game losing streak

and moved them to 15-8-1 on the season.

Too slow for comfort

The Leafs have emphasized the importance of improving their starts. So

far, they’ve struggled to realize those ambitions. In each of their last three

games, Toronto has been outshot and outplayed for most or all of the

first period and relied on Frederik Andersen to keep them afloat; the

same held true in Carolina. Not only were they being hemmed into their

own zone and getting outshot 11-1 in the first 11 minutes of the game,

but they also took two penalties in the first 13 minutes. By the end of the

frame, the Leafs were trailing 14-4 on the shot counter (and 31-7 in shot

attempts), and have now given up a league-worst 281 shots in the

opening frame this season. The Leafs’ prospects would have been dire if

not for a couple of terrific saves by Andersen in the first 20 minutes – one

with the stub of his stick against Teuvo Teravainen and an even tougher

glove stop on Victor Rask. Toronto found their legs early in the second

period and dominated that frame, but why it’s taking them until then to

start working is an issue head coach Mike Babcock is eager to uproot. As

the game wore on, the Leafs held a three-goal lead twice and saw it

CAROLINA HURRICANES


evaporate into a one-goal win, thanks to the same lapses (turnovers,

poor zone exits and clears) that put them on their heels in the first period.

Andersen finished the night with 43 saves and a .915 save percentage to

help hold the Hurricanes at bay. The Leafs netminder hasn’t just been

their best player this month, but also the best around the league, holding

a .938 save percentage in November to pace all starters and is tied for

the lead in wins (seven).

The Hurricanes entered Friday’s game giving up the sixth-fewest goals in

the NHL (57), but once the Leafs found their footing in the middle frame,

the scores came in bunches. Scoreless after the first, Toronto held a 3-0

lead after 11:37 – and it wasn’t their usual suspects lighting the lamp.

Zach Hyman opened the floodgates with his fifth goal of the year, a play

started by capitalizing on a Hurricanes’ miscue along the boards. Nazem

Kadri had the second assist on Hyman’s goal, extending his career-high

point streak to nine games. Then Josh Leivo tallied his first of the season

with a top-shelf snipe over Cam Ward. Four minutes later, it was Ron

Hainsey, making his return to Carolina for the first time since the team

traded him to Pittsburgh last February, extending the lead for Toronto

with his second of the season. Both of Hainsey’s goals as a Leaf have

come against his former teams (the first was in Montreal). The trio of

unanswered goals came on just six shots by Toronto. Friday was only the

second time in five games the Leafs had scored more than one goal in a

game, further highlighting the importance of this secondary scoring.

While the Leafs want their stars like Auston Matthews (one assist), Mitch

Marner (zero points) and William Nylander (one assist) in on the action,

being able to get it done without them from time to time is a boost in its

own right.

Cause for concern?

The Leafs have given up a lot of goals this season (68, tied for ninth-

most in the NHL), so it’s not exactly surprising they’ve also given up a lot

of shots (32.4 per game, also tied for ninth-most in the league). On

Friday they’d ceded more than 40 shots on goal with over eight minutes

left in the third period, marking the third time this year they’ve allowed at

least that many shots. The Leafs were outshot 47-25 on the night. The

last time Toronto held an opponent to less than 30 shots on net was

against the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 6; in 24 games this season,

only four teams have had 30 or fewer shots against Toronto. However,

despite the figures, the Leafs have the most wins this season (11) when

they’re being outshot. That could speak to how Toronto often jumps out

to leads and opponents are chasing the game, or to how well Andersen

has played, especially down this last stretch. But as they saw on Friday,

a busy goaltender can also become prone to mistakes. Noah Hanifin’s

goal, a soft one facilitated by a Matthews turnover in the defensive zone,

brought Carolina to within one with 4:11 left in the third and was

Carolina’s 46th shot on net. The Leafs did a better job in the second

period of limiting the Hurricanes’ chances by winning more one-on-one

battles and taking away the time and space Carolina had to establish

their speed game in the first. But the Leafs didn’t do it consistently

through the final 40 minutes; when they do, it makes a big difference in

how busy their goaltender’s night is.

In their first meeting of the season, the Leafs felt that their poor night in

the faceoff dot (47 per cent) gave the Hurricanes too many good scoring

opportunities off the draw which they used to advantage in the 6-3

victory. On Friday, their faceoff numbers were actually worse by the end

(45 per cent), with three of the Leafs’ four centres operating at 50 per

cent or less. But Toronto did a better job after the first period of not letting

the Hurricanes get set up off the draw and pushing pucks out of the zone

or to the outside. Still, Carolina bested Toronto handily in puck

possession, dominating every period in that category and finishing at 70

per cent. The Leafs’ best frame was the second, when they approached

50 per cent and scored four of their five goals on the night. It was in that

period the Leafs recorded their only four high-danger scoring chances of

the game, while the Hurricanes had 18 over 60 minutes.

TSN.CA LOADED: 11.25.2017

1085125 Websites

TSN.CA / Nylander seeks confidence boost

By Mark Masters

Columnist image

TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes

from Maple Leafs practices and game-day skates. The Maple Leafs had

an optional skate at PNC Arena in Raleigh on Friday morning.

William Nylander is usually cool, calm and collected on the ice, but last

week against the Devils the 21-year-old showed a lot of frustration after

failing to convert an opportunity. TSN analyst Ray Ferraro was between

the benches for the broadcast on Nov. 16 and told Nylander not to sweat

it because, “You’re going to score.” And, sure enough, Nylander got the

overtime winner snapping an 11-game drought.

“It was nice of him to say that," Nylander recalled with a wide grin. "I was

pretty rattled there after I missed that one backhand shot so he cheered

me up a little bit.”

Nylander hasn't scored since then meaning he now has just that one goal

in the last 15 games. Is it a good sign that Ferraro will be in the building

tonight as the Hurricanes host the Leafs on TSN4?

“Hopefully," Nylander said, still smiling. "We’ll see.”

The Swede insists he's not superstitious, but is feeling a bit unlucky these

days.

“Of course, you want to score and stuff, but as long as you’re creating

chances, I mean, playing at such a high level [in the NHL] you can’t

expect to score all the time," he said.

Leafs Ice Chips: Nylander on verge of breaking 'slump'

William Nylander has just one goal in his last 15 games, but the young

Maple Leafs forward feels like he is getting the chances and just hasn't

been able to convert. Mark Masters has more on Nylander looking to

break out of his slump tonight in Carolina.

Head coach Mike Babcock is doing his part to try and get Nylander, who

has four goals on the year, going again. He's given him new linemates in

Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk and is working on getting him

easier matchups. And Babcock believes Wednesday's game against the

Panthers was one of Nylander's best efforts of the season.

“I liked that he went and got the puck and won some battles and shot it

like he can," Babcock noted. "It’s hard to believe that confidence is so

fleeting in the National Hockey League, but it is. And we need Willie to

get his confidence back and get feeling good. You saw it with Mitch

[Marner], you see it all the time with different players, you need to feel

good about yourself. So, we just decided that this is a different situation,

give him a different look to feel better and ideally that’s going to show

here again tonight. I really thought it showed in the third period the other

night.”

“I think it’s getting better," Nylander said. "I think I’ve been in a little slump

so I want to stay at that pace and keep playing like that ... it’s the way

hockey is, I mean, sometimes the bounces aren’t going to go your way

and it may be that way for a little bit so you have to work even harder to

get them to go your way.”

What's going through Nylander's mind during drought?

CAROLINA HURRICANES


TSN Hockey analyst Ray Ferraro explains what is going through William

Nylander's mind during his current drought and grades Nylander's play

through the first quarter of the NHL season.

---

For the ninth game this season, Patrick Marleau will shift over to centre

for the Leafs.

"I can't get mismatches in any situation with him at centre," Babcock

explained. "He can play against anybody. Then I have more balance and

I don't have to spend my whole life sitting guys on the bench, 'Oh, did I

miss that guy?' When their [coach] is waiting to hunt your guys – they

always pick someone to play against, right? When they're waiting for that

guy and they keep getting you, you never get out of your zone and it

starts wearing you out. You get tired of watching that so this way I don't

have to watch it."

Marleau insists he's not worried about moving over to play down the

middle.

"I'm good either way. I have no preference," the 38-year-old said.

"Wherever they want me is fine."

Marleau, who started his career at centre, is quick to remind reporters

that he did see some time at the position as recently as last season in

San Jose.

"I've always been moved around," he noted. "It has always been that

way."

Babcock and Marleau had some brief discussions about the switch, but

the coach didn't have to sell the player on the move.

"I just said, 'What do you think?' I don't sell him on nothing, he just likes

hockey," Babcock said.

"He said, 'I got you in the middle, if you have any trouble with that let me

know,' but it's been going good," Marleau said. "You want everyone

going at the same time. That makes it so much harder to defend for the

other team."

The move seems to have had the desired effect as Hurricanes coach Bill

Peters said he won't really try to match lines tonight.

“We’re just going to play,” Peters said. “It’s going to be too fast, I think, to

get matchups. It’s only a matchup game when the game is slow and

there is lots of whistles and your matching lines off whistles. I don’t

anticipate that happening a whole bunch tonight. I got to get my guys out

in good situations where they can use their skill-set properly so that's

what I'm going to concentrate on and they can do what they need to do

and then, at the end, we'll see who wins."

"It's going to be quick for sure," Babcock agreed, "and we're balanced on

the road with four lines anyway. I can't tell you which is best and which

isn't, so we're going to roll them out the door and then go."

But Babcock made it clear he'll be focused on ensuring the right

personnel is on the ice against the line of Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal

and Teuvo Teravainen.

"Obviously, for us, Staal's line is absolutely dominating. I think [Aho] and

[Teravainen] have 10 and 11 points apiece with Staal with six in their last

five games. They're on fire so we had better know who's out there."

Patrick Marleau will be back playing centre on Friday night against the

Hurricanes. The Maple Leafs forward insists he's happy to play wherever

Mike Babcock needs him.

---

For the fourth time in their NHL careers, James van Riemsdyk and

younger brother Trevor van Riemsdyk will face-off. The timing couldn't

have been better for the family, which has seen relatives flock to Raleigh.

Toronto flew into town after Wednesday's loss and the Hurricanes were

already home this week. That means the van Riemsdyk clan got a rare

Thanksgiving together.

"It's a million-in-one type shot," James said. "It seems like the stars

aligned. We had some family drive in from Atlanta to spend some time

with us, which was nice, because we don't see them too often."

Thanksgiving was always the big holiday for the van Riemsdyk family

growing up.

"That always seemed to be when we got a lot of family together," James

noted, "We're kind of a little spread out over the East Coast so that's the

one time when you got to see some people more than you usually did.

With our schedules over the years you don't get a chance to do that as

often anymore so for it to work out like this was pretty cool."

"It was an awesome holiday," Trevor said. "We would host it at our house

usually growing up and have a lot of relatives over and play a lot of

hockey, basketball, whatever it may be, in the driveway, work up an

appetite and then go inside and eat as much turkey as we could."

Basketball? How'd that go?

"I'd like to think I was the better of the basketball players," Trevor said

with some pride. "Worked a couple basketball camps back in the day so

my jump shot was there."

"He was probably the best athlete in the family growing up at all our

sports," James admitted. "He was a pretty good golfer, basketball, stuff

like that, he has a natural touch."

Trevor's teams have won two of the three showdowns with James' Leafs

including a 6-3 triumph at the Air Canada Centre in October when Trevor

picked up an assist.


1085126 Websites

TSN.CA / TSN Hockey's Top 10 Storylines of the Week

By Scott Cullen

Teams are scoring more, Boeser, MacKinnon, Schenn, Vegas, Oilers,

Habs and more in TSN Hockey’s Top 10 Storylines of the Week.

INCREASED SCORING

One of the most notable statistics through the first quarter of the NHL

season is that goal-scoring is up, currently at 6.02 goals per game, after

finishing last season at 5.53 goals per game and hovering around 5.5 for

the past seven years, so this current goal-scoring rate stands out.

What’s the reason? Overall save percentages are down from .910 to

.907, so that’s part of it, but shots per game are also up a bit, from 30.2

per team per game to 31.9.

Is this as simple as the crackdown on slashing having a positive effect?

That’s possible, if it means that players with the puck are able to get

through the offensive zone a little bit easier and possibly create better

quality shots.

BOESER

One of the reasons that the league has lots of goals is that there is an

influx of young talent that can put the puck in the net, perhaps most

notably among the rookies is Vancouver right winger Brock Boeser.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Boeser was the 23rd pick in the 2015 Draft and played two seasons at

the University of North Dakota before joining the Canucks late last

season, scoring four goals and five points in nine games, an encouraging

start to his pro career.

After he was scratched for the first two games of this season, though,

he’s become a game-breaker for the Canucks, and he has scored six

goals in the past four games to take the lead in both the rookie and team

scoring races.

The 20-year-old winger can still round out his game, as the Canucks

don’t drive play with him on the ice, but his ability to fire the puck is going

to make him an integral part of Vancouver’s rebuilding effort.

MACKINNON

The first overall pick in the 2013 Draft, Colorado Avalanche centre

Nathan MacKinnon won the Calder Trophy in 2013-2014 after scoring 63

points in 82 games. It looked like he was well on his way to stardom.

But a funny thing happened on the way to becoming a scoring star, and

MacKinnon shot 7.4% over the next three seasons, numbers not really

fitting for a big-time scorer, and he managed 143 points over 218 games.

The thing is, that with his combination of speed, strength and skill, that

felt wholly underwhelming, like he hadn’t even scratched the surface on

what he might be able to produce in the league.

It looks like he might be hitting his stride this season, however, as the 22-

year-old has scored 10 points in the past four games, giving him 25

points in 20 games. He has the percentages going in his favour this year,

so the numbers are there, even while MacKinnon generates a career-low

2.7 shots on goal per game.

This is a big deal for the Avalanche because, after trading Matt Duchene,

MacKinnon is the clear No. 1 centre on the team, expected to lead this

young team back from a disastrous 2016-2017 campaign.

VEGAS, BABY

Coming into the season, there weren’t any expectations placed on the

expansion Vegas Golden Knights. Their roster looked okay, like they

could be competitive, but it also looked like they didn’t quite maximize the

current value that they might have been able to extract from other clubs

in the expansion draft.

Nevertheless, the Golden Knights got off to a great start and then their

goaltenders started getting hurt. By the time the franchise had played 10

games, they were already on their fourth goaltender, and while they did

start to drop some games, it was understandable given the

circumstances.

But, they currently sit atop the Pacific Division with 27 points in 20

games, have won three in a row, are getting goaltenders back from injury

– Malcolm Subban was first to get activated from injured reserve – and,

perhaps most encouraging is that they are starting to control play. In

November, Vegas ranks sixth in the league with 53.0% score-adjusted

Corsi, and if that trend continues, they won’t merely be a competitive

expansion team, but they’re going to make a legitimate run at the

playoffs.

SCHENN

There is one player in the Top 40 in league scoring this season that

changed teams in the offseason, and it’s Brayden Schenn, who is tied for

fourth with 30 points in 22 games since joining the St. Louis Blues in a

trade from Philadelphia.

Skating on one of the premier lines in the league. with Jaden Schwartz

and Vladimir Tarasenko, Schenn is driving play and generating shots in

a way that he never did in Philadelphia, so even though his percentages

are lofty right now, his improved production is not fueled solely by those

percentages.

Getting the opportunity to play with Schwartz and Tarasenko is a great

spot to be, but Schenn has earned his keep and the 26-year-old is

already more than half way to his career-high of 59 points.

OILERS WOES

It’s been a brutal start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, a team that

harboured Stanley Cup hopes entering the year but, before Wednesday’s

win at Detroit, the Oilers had one regulation win in their previous nine

games and had been outscored 18-7 in three straight losses.

While the Oilers do have solid underlying numbers, including 53.2%

score-adjusted Corsi, that suggest a turnaround is possible, that

turnaround also depends on goaltender Cam Talbot recovering from a

rough start to the season. He had a .922 save percentage in 186 games

over the past four seasons, but is sitting at .901 through 20 starts this

year, and the Oilers, who aren’t getting enough complementary scoring,

haven’t been able to overcome those numbers.

If the Oilers didn’t have Connor McDavid, it would be tempting to write

their season off now, because they are already five points out of a playoff

spot having played more games than the teams immediately above them,

but they do have Connor McDavid and that leaves open the possibility

that he can drag this group back into the playoff picture.

HABS TROUBLES

The Montreal Canadiens didn’t necessarily have the same kind of

expectations as the Oilers coming into the year, but they surely thought

they could be a playoff team, but they’ve gone seven straight without a

regulation win and that’s left them four points out of a playoff spot, which

might not sound like much, but they’ve played three more games than

Boston and Ottawa, the two teams directly above them in the Atlantic

Division, so that four-point deficit has room to grow.

In any case, the Habs have had trouble scoring, which isn’t a great

surprise, but star goaltender Carey Price tried to play through an injury,

was ineffective, and now he’s set to return to action Saturday, with the

Canadiens desperately needing Price to play like he’s played in recent

seasons. The Canadiens know, as well as any team, that their

performance would look dramatically different with a goaltender stopping

93% of the shots that he faces, as Price has over the past four seasons.

Like the Oilers, it would be tempting to write off the Habs at this point, but

if Price is able to play to his customary level when he returns, there is still

time for Montreal to get back into the playoff hunt.

SABRES SINKING

Winless in seven, the Buffalo Sabres look like they are headed for the

bottom of the standings, again, and frustration is starting to boil over.

Jack Eichel, the second pick in the 2015 Draft, has taken heat for a lack

of production, and has been dropped in the lineup, but it’s worth noting

that Eichel had 24 power play points among his 57 points in 61 games

last season, but this year has just one power-play point among his 18

points in 22 games. Fix the Sabres power play and Eichel’s production

will follow. Maybe getting defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen back from

injury will help.

That won’t be enough to save the Sabres, though. They’re getting

outshot on a nightly basis and don’t have good enough goaltending (or a

potent power play) to overcome that deficit.

TOUGH TIMES FOR RASKS

There are two Rasks playing in the NHL and both are going through

tough stretches.

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask had been dominant from 2011-2012

through 2014-2015, posting a .927 save percentage in 187 games, but

has fallen to a .915 save percentage, much closer to league average,

over the past two seasons.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Well, he’s down to .897 through a dozen starts this year and is losing

playing time to Anton Khudobin, who started his fourth straight game on

Friday afternoon.

Hurricanes centre Victor Rask, who missed four games total in his first

three seasons, and ranked fourth on the Hurricanes in ice time last

season at 17:18 per game, has been a healthy scratch in the past couple

of games. He had no points and 10 shots on goal in the previous seven

games.

Q1 AWARDS

With the first quarter of the season in the books, I checked in with NHL

award picks.


1085127 Websites

TSN.CA / Hot Button Issues: Catching up with Canadian teams' 2017

first-round picks

By Craig Button

Columnist image

Across the country we go, looking at Canadian teams’ first-round picks

from 2017 and how they are faring so far this season.

Fans will get a great look at most of these players at the World Juniors in

Buffalo, as it certainly appears that at least six of them have every

opportunity to be participants.

Vancouver

Elias Pettersson, (C/RW/L) Växjö SHL 20 GP 11-16-27

The second leading scorer in the SHL is on a tear and looking every bit

the creative, offence- producing player the Canucks coveted with the fifth

pick. While projecting as a centre, he has played on the wing. But the key

takeaway for Pettersson is that it doesn’t matter where he plays, the puck

follows him around and inevitably finds its way into the opponent’s net.

Calgary

Juuso Valimaki, (D/L) Tri-City Americans, WHL, 16 GP 5-12-17

The workhorse defenceman, selected 16th overall by the Flames, is

expected to captain a very talented Finnish squad in Buffalo. While there

is no one area that stands out for Valimaki, his whole is greater than the

sum of the parts and it adds up to a player that can play any situation in

the game with a very high degree of competence.

Edmonton

Kailer Yamamoto, (RW/R) Spokane Chiefs, WHL, 5 GP 1-5-6

Yamamoto, drafted 22nd overall, began the season in the NHL with the

Oilers after a stellar training camp. He had four points in his first game

after being returned to Spokane but Oilers’ fans know they have a very

good young player on the horizon. His return to Spokane is good news

for the U.S. junior team as he’s expected to form part of what could be a

very strong line with Buffalo first-round pick, Casey Mittelstadt, and

Ottawa’s first-round pick in 2016, Logan Brown.

Winnipeg

Kristian Vesalainen, (LW/L) HPK Hämeenlinna, SM Liiga 21GP 5-8-13

The best news for Vesalainen is that he has found a permanent spot in

the lineup. One of the challenges for young players when they are

playing in European professional leagues is finding a sense of belonging.

Vesalainen has done exactly that and is the second leading scorer on his

team. He looks like the well-rounded player who can play a skill game or

a power game the Jets liked when they drafted him with the 24th pick.

Vesalainen thinks he will be a point producer in NHL

Jets 24th overall selection Kristian Vesalainen talks about how this day is

a dream come true and explains how he believes his game will translate

to the NHL.

Toronto

Timothy Liljegren, (D/R) Toronto Marlies, AHL 10 GP 1-5-6

Liljegren, taken 17th overall, has made the step to pro hockey in the AHL

and is acquitting himself quite nicely. He’s a terrific skater who is learning

how to be more patient and use that skating for greater benefit in all

areas. He missed a few games with a minor injury but he has looked very

steady, confident and assured in his play without feeling a need to do

everything and be everywhere.

Despite injury, Leafs prospect Liljegren making progress in AHL

Currently sidelined with an upper-body injury, defenceman Timothy

Liljegren is earning positive reviews for his performance so far with the

Marlies. It's rare for an 18-year-old to play at this level and there have

been some challenges, but Toronto's first round pick in the last draft is

showing off a competitive nature and generating chemistry with Travis

Dermott.

Ottawa

Shane Bowers, (C/L) Boston University, NCAA 14 GP 6-3-9

Bowers, the 28th pick, was traded to Colorado as part of the Matt

Duchene trade. While he’ll never be a prolific scorer, he will produce

some adequate offence and be a solid player in different areas of the

game. He became a necessary part of the trade and it reflects on his

potential that he was coveted by the Avalanche. He’s the one player who

won’t be a participant at the World Juniors this year but should be a solid

candidate for the 2019 event.

Montreal

Ryan Poehling, (C/L) St. Cloud State University, NCAA, 11GP, 3-10-13

As a 17-year-old freshman in college hockey, Ryan was able to hold his

own and progress nicely over the course of the year. He capped off his

freshman season by joining the U.S. under-18 team that captured gold at

the IIHF tourney in Slovakia. He was an instrumental player for the U.S.

during the event and will be counted upon to be an important member for

the U.S. at the World Juniors. The 25th overall pick has a game similar in

style to Jordan Staal.

Halifax Mooseheads at Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Sunday, Nov. 26. It’s

where I’ll be and I’m excited to watch four players I feel will be first-round

picks in the 2018 NHL draft. The Mooseheads boast three in Filip Zadina,

who will play for the Czechs at the World Juniors, Jared McIsaac and

Benoit-Olivier Groulx. The Titan have Noah Dobson, a very good

defenceman.


1085128 Websites

TSN.CA / Dreger Report: How Schenn is thriving in St. Louis

CAROLINA HURRICANES


By Darren Dreger

Columnist image

Teammates Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are 1-2 in the NHL

scoring race. With Vladislav Namestnikov rounding out the trio, Tampa

Bay's top line is the primary reason the Lightning are perched at the top

of the league standings.

Just below the Lightning sit the St. Louis Blues, a Western Conference

powerhouse with a similar story of three men seemingly born to play

together.

Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko occupy three

of the top 10 spots in NHL scoring, Schwartz and Schenn enter the

weekend ranked fourth and fifth with 30 points each, while Tarasenko is

eighth with 26 points. As deep as the Blues appear to be, this line is

driving St. Louis in its quest to win the Stanley Cup.

Schenn arrived late to the party, acquired through trade during the NHL

draft last June in Chicago. Blues GM Doug Armstrong says he didn't start

talking to Flyers general manager Ron Hextall until a few days before the

deal was made. Schenn fit what St. Louis needed: a gritty, strong, two-

way forward with underrated offensive ability.

"I played maybe 15 games a season at centre in Philly and here, just

staying in one position and getting into a groove and rhythm and playing,

I guess my natural position, has made it easier,” Schenn told the Dreger

Report. “Obviously I have to be responsible in both ends of the ice and I

think as a young guy in Philly it takes time to learn that. I just tried to

keep growing as a player and I think just being in the middle of the ice

and playing with really good players has helped me a lot. It just kind of

feels natural."

Just prior to training camp, Blues head coach Mike Yeo informed Schenn

he would play centre full-time and wanted to see how he looked between

highly skilled wingers Schwartz and Tarasenko on the top line. Schenn

knew this was a tremendous opportunity and felt comfortable with the

challenge based on a long-standing relationship with Schwartz.

"I've known him for a long time, but you don't realize how good he

actually is until you see first-hand. He's hard on pucks, good at both

ends of the ice, has great vision...very underrated player. Then you add

Tarasenko, who's a shooter and is able to find open areas, and he has

one of the best releases in the game."

Schenn's scouting report on Tarasenko comes from recent experience

and getting to know the talented Russian star on and off the ice. But

there was no mystery to Schwartz's game or background as he and

Schenn crossed paths many times while growing up in Saskatchewan.

"His older brother, Rylan, was born in 1990, I'm a ‘91 and Schwartz is a

‘92, so I was always caught in the middle,” Schenn said. “At the under-17

camp as a young guy I was with his brother and then the next year I

would be the older guy and play with Jaden, so we were childhood

friends and would see each other around the rinks since we were like 10

years old and played a lot against him. I think it was when I was with the

Brandon Wheat Kings, we actually tried to trade for Rylan during the

Memorial Cup year.

"I've known the family for a long time, so it's nice to finally play with him

on a line."

As easy as the transition from Philadelphia to St. Louis appears to have

been, Schenn says he was shocked when he got the call he had been

traded. His name was often thrown around in trade speculation, so the

trade itself wasn't surprising as the destination. With depth up front,

Schenn knew the Flyers would have to do something. He had seen and

heard the chatter and knew he was vulnerable.

"You guys always had me on the TSN Trade Bait board...pretty much

every year, but I think I was more shocked I was going to St. Louis,”

Schenn said. “Did I have a feeling I was going to get traded? Maybe a

little bit, but once they got Nolan Patrick with the second pick overall,

another forward on a team with a lot of forwards, I thought since they had

missed the playoffs last year they would be looking to make a change or

two. I just happened to be the guy. So shocked to get traded out of

Philly? Probably not. But more surprised to end up coming here."

Adjusting to the move wasn't an issue, Schwartz was there to help ease

the transition and help Schenn settle in. Plus, the experience of having

been traded before gave him an understanding of the process. He was a

key piece of an NHL blockbuster in 2011 that moved Schenn and Wayne

Simmonds from the Los Angeles Kings to the Flyers as part of a package

for Mike Richards.

Still, the 26-year-old admits there were times it was difficult to be a

constant target on the TSN Trade Bait list.

"Early on, you see your name on that board and up in Canada people

pay attention to it and it’s a big thing,” he said. “For me personally, early

in my career maybe I looked at it and thought, ‘Oh maybe I will get

traded.’ But after four or five or six years of being targeted, I stopped

letting it bug me and just focused on going out there, doing my thing and

thought, ‘It is what it is.’"

There will be no Brayden Schenn trade rumours this season and the only

board we will be watching with his name on it shows the list of the NHL

scoring leaders. He knows he's in a great spot and intends on making the

most of his opportunity, while staying grounded and well aware of where

a good portion of his individual success comes from.

"Just playing with those guys helps big time, but coming here, they play a

team game...I don't consider it a flashy game, but guys come to rink

everyday ready to work hard, play a team game and get the job done."

For the St Louis Blues, the job won't be complete before winning the

Stanley Cup.


1085129 Websites

USA TODAY / 'American Thanksgiving' a key stop in journey to NHL

playoffs

Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports Published 3:27 p.m. ET Nov. 24, 2017

In the NHL, Thanksgiving means turkey, pumpkin pie and knowing where

you stand in terms of playoff expectations.

Although the season is only about a quarter complete, players and

coaches understand that if you are not in playoff position by what Detroit

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland calls “American Thanksgiving,”

it is an uphill fight to get there by April.

Since the introduction of the salary cap in 2005, 78% of teams that have

been in playoff position at Thanksgiving were still there when the regular

season was completed. That means three or four teams in the playoffs

today will not be there in April.

Here’s our look at teams that can still get there and those in danger of

falling out of a playoff spot:

New York Rangers: After looking disorganized in the early going, the

Rangers have sharpened their game. With eight wins in their past 10

games, they are performing like a playoff team. The defense is tighter,

and Henrik Lundqvist looks like his old self.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Ottawa Senators: Just remember how impressively this team performed

during last spring’s playoffs. That confident group is still in there

somewhere. Newly-acquired Matt Duchene finding his comfort zone is

crucial to the Senators grabbing and holding a playoff spot.

Anaheim Ducks: Despite numerous injuries, the Ducks have kept their

heads above water. When this team gets healthy, it can play like one of

the league’s best. It's hard to see the playoffs starting with the Ducks on

the sidelines.

Chicago Blackhawks: While the perception of the Blackhawks is that they

are on the decline, this knows what it takes to be a playoff team. Goalie

Corey Crawford’s .932 save percentage might carry them into the

playoffs.

Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings’ defense has been better than

expected and Jimmy Howard has been strong in net. However, their hold

on a playoff spot is fragile. They are trying to rebuild on the fly and need

everything to go right to make the playoffs.

New Jersey Devils: While the Devils’ improvement is noteworthy, they

have won three of their past 10 games. It will be no easy task holding off

the likes of the Rangers and Hurricanes.

Vancouver Canucks: Their 11-8-3 start has been one of the Western

Conference’s biggest surprises. But they haven't been sharp at home,

and it’s fair to wonder whether they can maintain this level of play. The

Canucks have only been the playoffs once in the past four seasons.

San Jose Sharks: The Sharks have played OK, but there are five other

Western teams tied with them in points. Doesn’t it feel as there will be

five playoffs teams from the Central Division? If that happens, the Sharks

won't make it.

USA TODAY LOADED: 11.25.2017

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