Ice-Capades 11: Week 10 Overreactions

I bring to you more overreactions in the interlude between quarters one and two of library school. The Eastern Conference is still wide open, and the Western Conference is Colorado’s to lose. Speaking of the Eastern Conference…

The Philadelphia Flyers are now third in the Metropolitan Division. Not bad for a team that many people thought would be near the bottom of the standings. Trevor Zegras should get whatever contract extension he desires, as he has brought an infusion of offensive talent the Flyers desperately need. Cam York and Jamie Drysdale have become solid defensemen for the Flyers, in particular because they aren’t forced to be offensive defensemen under Tocchet’s system, and Dan Vladar is becoming a brick wall for the Flyers. He also has one of the best save percentages in high-danger chances (.910 save percentage in all locations, whereas the NHL average is .899), giving the Flyers consistent goaltending for the first time since some guy named Ron Hextall played for the team. Even Errsson isn’t as error-prone as he was last year and is solid in the shootout, the game he played against Carolina¹ notwithstanding.

It’s unfortunate to lose Tyson Foerster for the rest of the season, but that opens the door for prospects like Denver Barkey and Alex Bump to get playing time after they adjust to the Phantoms. Also, Nikita Grebenkin, but Tocchet likes stapling him to the fourth line. Placing Michkov on the same line as Cates and Brink will help for now, and it doesn’t hurt that Michkov looked comfortable with his new linemates. Now the power play has reverted back to being near the bottom of the league, but they at least get consistent offensive zone time during those power plays, so I won’t be complaining as much. At least I don’t feel the need to fast-forward when the Flyers get a man advantage.

I watched the Pittsburgh Penguins blow a 5-1 lead to the Sharks. Not because I wanted to see a hated rival blow it, but because I wanted something to fill the void before I watched my Flyers play. But the moment the Sharks scored the tying goal, this was me on my couch, well, me and every Flyers fan.

You want to know what makes that even funnier? They blew YET ANOTHER multi-goal lead against the middling Mammoth!! And both of these games were AT HOME! How Pittsburgh fans didn’t take a page from Philadelphia fans and boo the team off the ice is beyond me (unless it did happen, in which case I said they at least learned something from playing the Flyers). Having a top 3 power play can only do so much when you can’t hold the lead that said power play gives you. They are tanking, yes, but tanking in the sense of flaming out rather than securing a top draft pick. Pittsburgh’s loss will be Philly’s gain, that is, until Sidney Crosby plays them and gets even more career highs in goals and assists.

Injuries rocked the Carolina Hurricanes. But they did get some of their injured players back, including Jaccob Slavin and Pyotr Kochetkov. They really missed Slavin, as their defense dramatically improved with him on the ice. One of the best shutdown defensemen in the league, and it’s not even close. The Canes also got consistent goaltending from an unlikely source—27-year-old Brandon Bussi, who is 11-1 in his 12 starts. The Canes were also reminded during their alumni game that Rod Brind’Amour could be a great second-line center option if Gary Bettman ever wants to make him a player-coach, but doesn’t because he hates fun (I say this in a lighthearted manner). Let’s see how the Canes do in the playoffs, as they have more Conference Finals demons to exorcise.

The Florida Panthers rounded into form just as everyone left them for dead. Good news for them is that Bobrovsky has had some vintage performances, including a shutout against the rising Stars and some stellar play against the Mammoth and Lightning. Carter Verhaege has also tapped into his postseason form and has 7 goals, 4 assists, and 11 points. Now, if their defense could limit turnovers, and Paul Maurice could please healthy scratch Jeff Petry, then they can make up the gap that injuries and sloppy play have given them in the Eastern Conference.

Can you believe the New York Rangers notched their first regulation win in their Centennial uniforms a few days ago? I can! Something about those centennial uniforms reverts them to their 1970s low. They are still doing well on the road (except when they wore their centennial uniforms against the Blackhawks on the road and got shut out), but are still horrible at home. The Rangers are 4-10 with six shutouts at MSG. That is all. What’s even worse is that they have some great prospects in their farm system, including Canes legend Scott Morrow and Gabe Perrault. But they’re giving veteran Connor Sheary top 6 minutes, and he has one goal, 8 assists, and 9 points in the 32 games he’s played. I get it, he has a relationship with Coach Mike Sullivan’s niece, but even that shouldn’t save him from getting some AHL time! The Flyers would be calling up Phantoms players when they reached that nadir; what’s stopping the Rangers? It’s not like you can’t waste King Henrik Lundqvis-I mean, Igor Shesterkin’s career any more than you already have.

The Buffalo Sabres’ bad man is gone! Kevyn Adams got fired so he could spend quality time with the palm trees in Florida. His replacement is Jarmo Kekkalinen, who was the GM for the Columbus Blue Jackets. I asked my friend Anna Hudak, sports writer of renown and Blue Jackets fan, about the Kekklainen hiring. She is forever thankful for hiring Torts and creating the Blue Jackets team that got their first playoff series win, which she stated will forever immortalize him as a Blue Jacket. However, Hudak also said that “[In] his final few years, his brain was completely cooked and probably destroyed any chance of this current [Blue Jackets] core being Cup-competitive”. Sabres fans heard this and hoped that they could at least get to the playoffs. She does agree that Kekklainen is an improvement over Adams, so there’s at least that.

While we’re talking about personnel changes, the Sabres also need to get rid of Ruff—not because he’s necessarily a bad coach, but seeing him interact with the sports media brings pain to my eyes. Could Tortorella invite Ruff to his ranch or something? Ruff looks like he needs it. Anything to get out of coaching a team whose play can best be described as spinning tires in the mud (or cellar of the Eastern Conference, whichever comes first), but never getting out of it. All I’ll say is that Tage Thompson would look pretty good as a Flyer.

The nicest thing I can say about the Toronto Maple Leafs is that they are a team that plays in the NHL. They jettisoned one of their most skilled players in Mitch Marner (one of the few reasons they were even relevant in the hockey world), to replace him with middling third liners. Matthews still looks like he’s declining; it’ll be a miracle if he reaches 30 goals. They seem to have checked out of Craig Berube’s coaching, which is a bad sign. Scott Laughton, Dakota Joshua, and Nicholas Roy are the only players who want to look good, and they aren’t a part of the core! The Maple Leafs have placed themselves in the mushy middle alongside the Rangers—too good to fully tank but too bad to be in playoff contention. Even with many of the teams in the Atlantic at .500, the Leafs have continued to fall. Good.

I regret to inform you that the New Jersey Devils did try to bubble wrap Luke and Jack Hughes. Jack, like me when my parents swaddled me as a kid, placed his hand out of containment and is now sidelined for six weeks. As a Devils hater because of what Scott Stevens did to Eric Lindros, I’m delighted by their losing record. Still, Devils fans ought to question GM Tom Fitzgerald’s priorities for maximizing Jack and Luke Hughes’ prime. Having depth scoring not named Jack Hughes (5.3 x goals share before he got hurt, thanks to moneypuck.com), Timo Meier (7.85 x goals share), and Jesper Bratt (5.89 x goals share) would have helped if one of them got injured or started to struggle. Guess who got injured? That’s right, the guy with the 5.3 x goals share! Although Artemy Gritsyuk is stepping up with a 5.11 x goals share, the depth scoring GM Tom Fitzgerald signed in the offseason—Connor Brown and Yevgeny Dadonov— have not. After the Hughes injury, his Devils have spiraled, losing 7 of their last 10. Fitzgerald is in the hot seat to pull them out of the hole to qualify for the playoffs. Maybe they won’t have a first-round exit this time?

Hey, Edmonton Oilers, we need to talk. When you got Connor McDavid at a discount for the next two seasons, it didn’t mean you had to sign one of the worst contracts of this free agency cycle (Trent Frederic). It also didn’t mean you had to trade your whipping boy in Stuart Skinner for a worse (and older) Tristan Jarry. You know he was on waivers earlier this year, right? When you make these boneheaded moves, it makes me feel like you’re about to waste Connor McDavid’s prime. Sure, celebrate Draisaitl’s 1,000th point, but you have deeper problems.

Bouchard is still a defensive liability, no matter how much he contributes on defense, and the same goes for Mangiapane. Just waive him, or better yet, waive Stan Bowman for wasting McDavid and Draisaitl’s prime. He’s inherited two ideal situations—Dale Tallon’s drafting in Chicago, which he benefited from, and having two generational players in McDavid and Draisaitl in Edmonton. Blackhawks fans can tell you about his subpar drafting record as well as his disastrous trades, such as trading Panarin to the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he played a pivotal role in securing the Blue Jackets’ first playoff series win. Yet you wanted to give him a second chance after his role in covering up the Brad Aldrich and John Doe sexual assault scandal. You were wrong. Karma is a menace to those who do not heed the lessons it tries to teach you.

The San Jose Sharks are showing that the rebuild is bearing serious fruit. I watched their comeback win, which I mentioned when talking about Pittsburgh, and what I have to say is Macklin Celebrini is an amazing talent. He nearly single-handedly willed his team to come back from 5-1 down after his buddy Will Smith got injured. It also doesn’t hurt that Yaroslav Askarov is playing well. Rebuilding teams not only need power forwards, but also goalies who can give their team chances to keep it close or even win games. Celebrini, Smith, and Eklund can only do so much if their goaltenders are sieves.

And now, a live look at the Central Division:

The Central Division trench war makes any game featuring them a must-watch. Except Nashville and St. Louis—sorry, try again next year!! They can still play the role of spoiler (or sniper, if we’re keeping to the World War One theme), but they aren’t achieving more than that.

The Colorado Avalanche are a wagon. No, seriously. They have the best goals for (95) and give up the fewest goals against (51), both being league leaders. Nathan Mackinnon is tearing up the league, leading in goals (28) and points (58) in the NHL, and they get a full season of captain Gabe Landeskog for the first time since 2022. The only blemish is their power play, which sits at 27th in the league. The Flyers are ahead of them in 26th, and they perennially exhibit one of the worst power plays. They may very well break Boston’s record of 135 points in the 2022-2023 season. Just please don’t blow a 3-1 series lead to an #8 seed in the first round of the playoffs. Pretty please with an Avalanche of sprinkles on top?

Just when you thought the Colorado Avalanche wagon was going to run away with the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild chose to sabotage it. They traded players Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, and the first-round pick for this upcoming draft to get Canucks captain Quinn Hughes. The only Norris Trophy-winning defenseman the Canucks have had now joins an already loaded Central. The Wild want to make it out of first-round playoff exit purgatory, and I respect Bill Guerin for putting his chips on the table. Defensemen like him don’t go on the free market that often, and any GM who can afford the price he garners ought to take advantage of the opportunity. Minnesota will be a threat to Colorado and Dallas, not only in the regular season but also in the playoffs.

A sad day for Vancouver fans as they traded their captain. But good news Canucks fans, you can pay attention to the real Vancouver hockey team, the Vancouver Goldeneyes!!! They won against the Walter Cup finalist Ottawa Charge by 4-1, and have the potential to make the playoffs in their first season. You can still boo Minnesota as well, which I hope is adequate compensation for getting stuck in a never-ending rebuild.

Underneath the Wild and Avalanche are the Dallas Stars, whose 49 points would put them in first in the Eastern Conference. Since they play in the Central Division, the point total is good for third in the division. They are keeping pace with the other two teams, thanks to Mikko Rantanen, Wyatt Johnston leading the Stars in keeping up with the Avalanche and Wild. Also, it doesn’t hurt that both Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith have save percentages over .900 (.923 and .907, respectively). While DeSmith has carried the load as Oettinger went on paternity leave, we know Oettinger will return to form. All they have to do now is weather Tyler Seguin’s wrist injury (which has sidelined him for the rest of the season) and hope for Hintz, Bischel, and Harley to return from the injured list as soon as possible.

The Utah Mammoth is just here to have fun (and to relish in having a stable location for the first time in at least six years). I’m not sure if they’ll be able to keep up in the Central, especially with the loss of Clayton Keller and goaltending being as iffy as it’s been (both Vejmelka and Vanachek have save percentages under .900, which marks them as bad goalies), but they are a spoiler team. Beware of underestimating them, for they will run you over with Tusky as their witness.

The Winnipeg Jets miss Ehlers, as he consistently sped to gain the zone, which allowed for players like Gabe Vilardi, Logan Stanley, and Kyle Connor to become the playmakers they’re known to be. Without him, they’re stuck with Connor, Stanley, and Vilardi entering the zone AND scoring, which they are not accustomed to doing. And even though Hellebuyck came back from a lower-body injury in Monday’s game, his team blew a 2-0 lead to the Senators, only to lose in overtime. They may also be a bottom-feeder in the league if they can’t solve that depth issue before the trade deadline. And Toews has not dazzled in his return to the NHL, but that might be because of the adjustment period from not playing for two years, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. What a way to commemorate their 15th season in Winnipeg—being mired in mediocrity.—

While the Chicago Blackhawks have lost five of their last six, there are bright spots to look forward to. Spencer Knight is doing yeoman’s work as the number one goalie, although we do not talk about Arvid Soderblom. The Blackhawks will have to deal with Bedard out for an extended period of time, thanks to a shoulder injury he acquired in the Blues game. Players like Frank Nazar, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ryan Donato need to step up their scoring in Bedard’s absence; Nazar has had 0 goals and one assist in his last 10 games. He and the rest of the Hawks must step up in a competitive Central Division, or risk becoming a Tank Bowl contender before the beginning of the new year. The good news is that defensemen Louis Crevier and Artyom Levshunov look great, which bodes well for a rebuild focusing on reviving the inpenetrability defensemen like Duncan Keith brought to the Blackhawks dynasty.

It’s been five weeks, let’s see if the leaders in the quest for the NHL Masters (explanation here) have changed. Shoutout to Hockey Reference (again) for their extensive collection of excellent and terrible statistics.

Despite the passage of five weeks since my last Ice-Capades, Mackenzie Weegar still leads the NHL Masters with a -21. Predators center Jonathan Marschassault trails by three points with a -18. Below him are other assorted players from Nashville, Edmonton (Andrew Mangipane, the same player as in Week 5), and Jake Evans. The one change is Albert Johansson from the Detroit Red Wings cracking the top 10. While you can make the excuse that it is his second season in the NHL, he is projected to give up more goals against (23.08) than score (21.08). Here’s to hoping Red Wings coach Todd McClellan consults with his defensive coach to help Johansson improve.