D-Money

The Carolina Hurricanes release the following players to free agency: Derek Stepan Trevor Lewis Jon Merrill Carl Hagelin Nick Bonino Mitchell Chaffee Collin Adams Joe Snively Markus Nurmi Max Veronneau Daniil Zhuravlyov Ole Bjorgvik Holm (unsigned prospect)

Pavelski should be back for game 1. He almost made it back for game 6 against Minny.

Going to go against the grain here and say Dallas in 5. I have no faith in Seattle’s goaltending, whereas Oettinger is phenomenal. And Colorado took Seattle within a goal in game 7, despite getting almost nothing from their depth guys. Losing Nichushkin was the final straw for them. The Stars are deeper and are healthy.

It was a friggin landslide. Huberdeau is nothing more than a $10.5M anchor now.

Love Springsteen, and have my tickets to see him in Calgary in November. But when it comes to storytelling, my favourite is Tom Waits…

Jets still have Morrissey and Connor locked up. I doubt they go full ‘scorched-earth’. They’ll probably trade Dubois at the draft - possibly to Montreal, with Dvorak coming back as part of the return to plug the hole. Scheifele will be more likely to move at the deadline. They’ll have a lot of money coming off the books after next season too. Hopefully they spend it better than Calgary did.

I have an extended family member who won 3 consecutive Stanley Cups with the Maple Leafs back in the 60’s. …But even I hope they blow this.

Not even remotely true. Players finish checks on guys who no longer have the puck all the time. In most cases they have no idea where the puck went, their focus is fully on initiating contact - as it should be (it’s more dangerous if they don’t watch where they’re going). As long as it’s in that brief 1-second window after the puck is no longer in their possession, it’s acceptable. (Whether or not this should be the case is a whole other argument.) The problem with the Makar hit was that it was late, and it resulted in an injury. If either of those weren’t the case, it’s probably not even a minor penalty.

If you can’t see the difference, there’s no point.

Not even in the same stratosphere.

Ryan O'Reilly has been huge for Toronto. The Blues didn’t get enough for him and Acciari.

Tampa trading all of those picks for Jeannot looked questionable then, and looks downright stupid now. He hasn't been much of a factor at all. Meanwhile, they could really use another quality defenseman. Perbix is in over his head playing that many minutes, and has been a minus player each game.

The only positive of that will be Bettman's heart attack.

Even after being weaker on D and losing Cernak, I'd give Tampa the edge in the last 2 games. Tonight Toronto was just very lucky in connecting with deflections. But a big difference has been Vasilevskiy. He's simply not as sharp as he has been in the past. Not that I'm blaming him, but he usually goes beyond the call of duty to save a couple of those difficult ones. One more save in each of the last 2 games, and Toronto would be down 3-1 instead. It's going to be tough for Tampa to come back of course. But if they can win game 5, they have a decent shot to get through. You just know that Toronto is going to start getting worried the longer this goes on.

Last year their top centre was out, and they still found a way. This is tougher, but if Hedman comes back it's definitely a series.

One thing I've noticed about Tampa is that in a game like this, early in a series when they're down a few goals, they don't really try too hard for the rest of the game. Some teams continue to go all-out to try to make a statement and hope to get back into a game they're trailing. Tampa just seems to go through the motions, and save their energy for next game. Vasi NEVER goes out in these games either. And he often seems to not do as well for the rest of the game. It's almost like he's just psyching himself up for the next one. Examples: Game 1 vs. Toronto last year, they lost 5-0, and only had 24 shots on goal...51 PIMs though Game 1 vs. NYR last year, lost 6-2, was a bad game for Vasi Game 2 vs. Colorado last year, lost 7-0, only had 16 shots, most dominant loss they had in ages They followed each of these games with a convincing win - except the Rangers one. They lost that game 3-2, but then they were REALLY mad and won the next 4 straight. Tampa's team is weaker this year than previously, especially with Hedman being out. But in no way should anyone think because Toronto smoked them in this 1 game that they are done.

I wouldn't trust anything from Rachel Doerrie says (without corroborating evidence). She seems like someone who wants to stir up trouble. I've worked with people like that. If a co-worker for mad at one of them and told them off, I would not only understand it, but quietly support it.

...But yes, I agree. Considering the cost of his new contract, Canucks are better without him. Especially if Hronek pans out.

So he gets a nice $95K signing bonus to help him live comfortably for the year and focus on hockey?

Since Vancouver actually CAN'T re-sign the other Pettersson until July 1st, it's not really that misleading.

Haha...I would have traded for one! I'm just jealous, that's all.

Luke Hughes and Sharangovich still haven't. Considering they need to get some offense going, I suspect they'll put both in next game.

It sounded like Brad wanted a fresh start elsewhere, and that was before they flamed out and missed the playoffs. Hard to blame him. That Huberdeau contact might just end up the worst in the league. I'd want to run away from that one as well.

This is the worst case of starting goalie manipulation since... ...well, me dressing Vasilevskiy & Kuemper last year.

My wife loves Picard, especially season 3. But I tried watching a few episodes and I didn't care for it at all. Started watching Severence on Apple TV+, and it's fantastic. There's good stuff to be found.