With the NHL season suspended since March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s unclear whether we’ve already seen the end of the regular season, or whether it gets restarted in some shape or form during the summer. The league still contends that its goal is to complete the season in full; although with each […]
Continue readingRecency bias is very much a thing, considering that the ballots aren’t sent out until near the end of the season and the votes are sent in right up until the first game of the playoffs. This is especially true of the Hart Trophy race, for which players such as Taylor Hall, Corey Perry and […]
Continue readingSince coach John Tortorella’s volcanic eruption at the expense of the officials (and his bank account), which happened to coincide with the loss of their starting goalie, the Jackets have had a 13-3-2 stretch. If you extend it to include their most recent 25 games, they’re a remarkable 18-3-4. Just how have they managed to […]
Continue readingEvery season, there are teams that sacrifice the future through picks or prospects in an attempt to contend for a championship. Every season, there are teams that ship out players because of financial considerations, hoping to make the most of that monetary bind with some future assets. And then, in a few seasons, these moves […]
Continue readingPart of the process is to try not to be too reactionary to short-term success. These rankings are for the rest of the season, so a recent hot streak technically doesn’t play into them other than to help develop the go-forward prognosis for a player. St. Louis Blues winger Zach Sanford moved into our rankings […]
Continue readingNow that the 2020 NHL All-Star Weekend is in the rearview mirror, the league’s trade season is underway in earnest. The next several games for each team will be pivotal, as general managers decide whether their teams should be buyers, improving their chances for the Stanley Cup playoffs, or sellers, perhaps accelerating rebuilds. Get caught […]
Continue readingBut all that winning will catch up to any franchise. The Penguins might be third in the Metropolitan — riding an 12-3-1 run — but can they hang on all season in an increasingly tough division in the East? Leading scorer Jake Guentzel is out four-to-six months due to a shoulder injury. Crosby has been […]
Continue readingPITTSBURGH — Jake Guentzel‘s playmaking helped the Pittsburgh Penguins withstand the loss of captain Sidney Crosby and earned him his first All-Star nod in the process. The joy over Guentzel’s selection proved short-lived. The talented forward will miss at least four months after injuring his right shoulder late in a win over Ottawa on Monday […]
Continue reading“We were struggling for a time there, in November,” forward Colton Sissons said. “We were struggling with consistency early on in the season, and sometimes it takes teams some time — especially when you have some new faces, like we do. But I think we’re coming along.” GM David Poile spent the summer shaking up […]
Continue readingThe comments went viral. “That blew up more than I thought it would,” MacKinnon told me last week in Chicago. “I forgot I was in Toronto speaking. I’m used to being in Denver. If I said that in Denver it would have just been brushed aside.” Nonetheless, I wanted to know if MacKinnon stood by […]
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