Ottawa on my mind

If you are paying attention to the NHL Offseason at all, you are aware that the Ottawa Senators have been busy. Their most notable move was sending Brady Tkachuk to Florida, because that is where Tkachuks naturally end up. The second move, big, though with fewer draft picks involved, saw the Senators acquire William Eklund from San Jose. That's nice. 

It is also the transaction that caught my attention the most. Eklund rejoins former teammate Fabian Zetterlund, not only a former Shark teammate, but long time friend of Eklund, to the point that they are even sauna buddies. As Scandinavians, there is no greater symbol of friendship.

Also, Eklund has played with former Senator Mikael Zibanejad in Sweden. That's Christian Eklund, though, William's father. That's right, just like the Tkachuks, the Eklunds are hockey dynasties! William even has a brother that was recently drafted (by the Islanders). 

Hockey is one big family, and increasingly, that is a very literal meaning. 

Is this just a French/English thing?

 In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm an American. I have a great love for Canada for a lot of different reasons, and i like to keep tabs on the country - not in a creepy way, I swear - and I follow Canadian news and opinion and whatnot. But I'm not Canadian, despite how much we all think Minnesota should be Canada. So I can't access a bit of knowledge that I think I might understand if I was born a little further north. 

How was the rise of the Montreal Canadiens so quiet? We've been waiting on the Oilers to win the Cup, for the Maple Leafs to get anywhere in the postseason, but the Habs rose and fell and rose again soff the radar. 

The Leafs certainly take up a lot of the oxygen in coverage, but why do I know that the Jets were a disappointment this year and the Senators were a pleasant surprise? And yet the Canadiens made the Cup Final in the pandemic year, then plummeted to the bottom of the East and are now back in the Conference Final. They are going to lose, but the trajectory is strong!

Montreal seems like the type of place even Canadians would make fun of. Out of envy, in a lot of cases. It has an air about it, given it's close ties with continental Europe. Every time I see a picture of central Montreal, I can forget it's closer to me than New York City. Quebec is so much more French than, say, Louisiana, which is French-ish, by comparison. And people tease what is different. And yet, I just don't hear the jibes about the Habs like I do about other Canadian teams. 

I've heard all about Winnipeg coming back around, and then falling on their face this year, but maybe that is because the Jets are in the same division as the Wild. Similar as to why the Canucks are on my radar - they made a huge trade with Minnesota this year, so I knew all about how bad they have foundered. But why am I so in tune with the Flames and Senators? It's not just a broad Canadian bias from the American side of it. And the best NHL Media is Canadian anyway. And the Canadiens are an Original Six team. That should be sacrosanct, top of the page coverage, right?

Montreal made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in the weird Covid season of 20-21, and then were out of the playoffs until last year. Now, they made it to the Eastern Conference Final on the backs of a group of players not getting the attention they deserve. Has Nick Suzuki always been this good? I still know more about Juraj Slafkovsky because of the 2022 Olympics than his time in the NHL.

It looks like their road is almost over this year, but I will pay closer attention to the Habs next year. I should have been paying attention this whole time. 

During the writing of this post, we learned of the passing of former Canadiens great Claude Lemieux. Condolences to those who knew and loved him.

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

The Blue Jackets have this image in my brain of this young expansion team still trying to figure it out. In truth, the Blue Jackets have existed longer than the Minnesota North Stars did. And the history is tortured, not only on the ice, but especially off the ice. Not enough compassion is given to our friends in central Ohio. RIP to Bill Davidge, somehow the "long time" broadcaster of the Blue Jackets. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

  

It all comes down to this. One game for an entire, hockey rich land to hang on and keep their hope alive. Hope to etch their names on the Cup, just like so many that waved their flag before. Or just like that, it could be over. After the the Lightning and Habs finish game 7 in Tampa tonight, a place that everyone associates with hockey success could be done in the first round, with no more representation until next October.

Yes, it sure is strange to think that we might not have a team from Florida in the Playoffs after tonight. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

One thing I can tell you for sure is that team web sites aren't unbiased news sources. The main headline is the preview for their homestand opener against the Wild. Sure, I guess that is fine. Until you realize this game was already played, and it ended as a heartbreaker for Detroit. 

Maybe everyone is off for Easter. 

The Canucks are probably going to be all right, right?

 

I would argue that despite the records, and the Blues victory over Vancouver, they are the team on a worse trajectory than the Canucks, given that Vancouver had assets that they moved for very good talent, play in a thriving NHL market and aren't obviously cursed. 

But man, it's hard to look at that picture of Elias Petterson hunched over his awkwardly angled stick, with the puck starting to get get away from him already and think "yeah, everything is going to be all right there."

Conferences done right

 I was watching college basketball today, and my son and I were chatting. I noted that we are getting to the end of the season, so now teams are playing a lot of tournaments. Next week, they are starting the national championship tournament. This week, they are playing conference tournaments. My son asked a fantastic question.

"What's a conference?"

In college basketball, that's pretty fuzzy these days. but something the NHL still seems to care about, perhaps to a fault. No more has that been evident than this season, particularly when looking at the Utah Mammoth and Minnesota Wild.

Before we dig into those, let's first talk about what is good about conferences. Familiarity breeds contempt. The rivalry factor makes the regular season a little bit spicier, rather than rote. Cross conference games are interesting, playing teams you don't get to see regularly. Of course there is also the cost containment of having the conferences geographically centered.  And then, the post season enflames all those things, emphasizing rivalry, allowing for fresher teams with reduced travel in the first couple of rounds.

This season, it looks like the playoff structure will cause results that appear unfaCir. I'm a Wild fan, the team most feel is getting slighted, but I don't feel that way. The Stanley Cup, one way or another, is likely to involve a path through Colorado or Dallas, maybe both. After that, allegedly, it should be a piece of cake. But really, if winning the Cup necessarily would involve beating those teams, why does it matter WHEN you play them?

This year is a one year fluke. Anything can happen when you reach the Playoff. Utah might have a clearer path to run deeper towards the Championship. but they haven't improved their odds of winning the Cup. I'm looking forward to an intense series with the Stars, maybe more than one with a team like the Ducks. Bring it on. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

All of those kids are going to be up there in their white polos and khaki pants, thinking they are going to Nationwide to get a literal blue jacket. I'm not trying to make too many generalities, but I have to believe there isn't a huge "spelling prodigy/hockey fan from central Ohio" crossover demographic. A blue jacket would be a nice touch though.

Oh, and for whatever it's worth, Isac Lundestrom would be the toughest name to spell. A lot of strong phonetics on the roster, but the one A Isac would be a real curveball. 

A tame trade deadline

Lately, trade deadlines have been wild, with flurries of major deals that make analysts from TSN to TNT lose their minds. Nowhere has that been more evident than Raleigh, where in previous years trades for Mikko Rantanen (to and from Carolina) and Jake Guentzel. This year, just like the rest of the league, the action was more muted. In response, the trade deadline has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

(This is a meteorology deep cut. My apologies if you are now thinking about Quiznos)

Everybody freeze!

The Olympics are rolling around again, and for the second Games in a row, Russia is non grata, and will not be competing in Milan for the hockey medals. Check back in 4 years, and Canada and Scandinavia might be the only teams still allowed in!

One group that might be particularly excited about the Olympics? TSN gets to have another special ahead of a trade deadline. It isn't a formal deadline, of course, but there is a roster freeze ahead of the Olympic break, and many teams will be interested in altering their roster ever so slightly to gear up for the final postseason push. There will be a sprint after the Games before the real deadline is on March 6th.

While there is an emphasis on the roster freeze, I'm not sure why. A player won't be with the team, practicing with the team for the full stretch of the Games. Why not wait until after the Games to make a more considered move? The only real concern is another team getting your guy before you are ready to move, but how is that different from the rest of the lead up to the real deadline?

I do know that one team is not looking forward to the freeze, and particularly the break afterwards. The Colorado Avalanche are one of the best teams in NHL history, having dropped only 5 games all season, which is crazy. One has to think there will be some disruption when all of their players are playing for another team, and apart for the better part of February when they are in the midst of the campaign. They gotta wish the season kept going.

Oh, and the Avs are the best team in the league, but they are being chased the next two best teams out West, the Wild and the Stars. The Wild would have enough points to lead two of the other three divisions in the League, and is only a point behind the Hurricanes for 2nd in the NHL. 

Yeah, the Avs might not be interested in the roster freeze for making a trade, and might wish the break wasn't happening, not just because of the broken rhythm for their organization. The Wild, for one, has already traded for Quinn Hughes in one of the biggest in season trades the League has seen. The Stars aren't shy about making moves in season either. The Avs might not make moves, but the Wild and Stars are going to take every advantage of the roster shuffling that is incoming.

And now St. Louis is cursed

 

The St. Louis Blues have long been one of the most under achieving franchises in the NHL. Their playoff ineptitude was the stuff of legend for many years, until in 2019, they had a breakthrough. They beat the Boston Bruins for a cathartic championship for a city that has been loyal for so long, even in the face of relentless heartbreak.

But now, the Blues are back to where they had always been. A franchise where shit like this happens. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

We see athletes chomping on mouth guards all the time. They are kind of uncomfortable, so flipping them off your teeth and gnawing on them, but I am concerned that Mark Scheifele hasn't gotten out enough in Winnipeg. Despite being precariously close to North Dakota, the city has both a thriving indigenous AND immigrant community, suggesting that there are options for really good food around town (I've never been). If he were a little bit further south, though, I would say yes, absolutely, your mouthguard is probably more flavorful than anything you might eat in town. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

Oooh, commemorative ticket! The next best thing to actual tickets! 

Zdeno Chara gets his Hall of Fame jacket

 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

It was a big deal when the Predators picked up Stamkos, but when did Sidney Crosby go to Nashville?

A Mammoth overreaction

 The season is still under a month old, and we are seeing some interesting things in he standings. If you are ESPN or TSN only, you might know that the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins are off to hot starts. This is a bit unexpected, certainly, but even when bad, the Canadiens and Penguins aren't going to fall out of the limelight. Their return to relevance, at least to start the year, is known by all.

We start to get a little funky out west. It is strange to see the Kraken in the top three of the Pacific, but not altogether bothersome. After all, they sit below Golden Knights, who are the benchmark of teams that forned and were shot out of a cannon. It's still stranger, I would say, than seeing the Canadiens on top out east. 

The big winner for strangely strong starts in the traditional sense belongs to the Utah Mammoth. Yes, this is the first year of the Mammoth, but I just noted that it isn't strange any longer for new teams to ascend to the top of the heap right out of the gate. But this isn't just any new team. This is the rebrand of the Arizona Coyotes. 

The Mammoth aren't exactly full of ne players to the organization, either. The leading scorer of that last team in Arizona, Clayton Keller, is no the captain for the Mammoth. Karel Vejmelka, the goalie, was the back up at Mullet Arena. Now, he is between the pipes most nights in Salt Lake City. 

The team has reaped what was sowed in Arizona. They are young, and years of high draft picks are finally paying off for fans in a new market. This is the lesson in patience that has paid off for the Florida Panthers, who were terrible for so long , learned and embraced. Maybe the Utah Mammoth have always been on the long term plan.

Or maybe playing in the Phoenix suburbs is just that depressing, that even a move to play in Salt Lake City is an inspiration. If that's the case, it's a strategy that will be pretty hard to replicate. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

The Jets are hosting the Kraken tonight in Winnipeg! Come see Mark Scheifele at his most milquetoast! Based on the photo choice of a player that the Jets have had on their payroll, it had to have been a choice to pick a photo to promote this game in which he looked, I don't know, anxious? Maybe he isn't worried about the Kraken (and who would be?) but rather about tomorrow's game against the Flames, which has been branded 90's night. 

The 90s, famously, weren't great for the Jets. 

My hockey nap is over, but hockey's nap is not.

 Oh, wow, hey guys, *yawn*, The offseason? Yeah, I assume my nap didn't fully encapsulate almost all of it, right? It did? Oh boy. Let's catch up then, shall we? What kinds of shifts should we expect this season in the NHL? After two consecutive Panthers - Oilers finals, surely things were shaken up a bit, ready to take advantage of Florida and Edmonton's fatigue?

Looks like not. I noted in my last post, verging on three months ago, that the NHL's increased salary cap had made it easier for teams to re-sign their own players, which, for at least this and maybe the next season, rendered the offseason a little on the slow side. There were trades, of course, with K'Andre Miller and Chris Kreider leaving New York, and Mitch Marner leaving Toronto. The balances of power in the NHL, however, remain unaltered. 

Of course, a couple big names didn't re-up with his old team, at least not yet. Kirill Kaprizov and Connor McDavid are still without extensions, though I have to believe they are reluctant to lock in their prices when they know the salary cap is likely to go up again next year. No slight to Minnesota and Edmonton, but those two are just looking to maximize their next contract. (ed. note: Kaprizov was extended mid writing! Life happens fast)

I listened to an interview with Paul Maurice, where he stated that he wasn't worried about the Panthers being tired, because everyone is tired by January. With rosters remaining as static as they are, the greatest turnover is through retirement or the draft, and the Panthers are young enough that their core isn't going to be retiring soon. Florida is probably a favorite again to hoist the Cup in 2026.

I'm back on Blogger after Barry Melrose Rocks was swallowed by a conglomerate that didn't care for my writing about how tough being a Russian in the NHL would be, and wondering about the safety of guys like Kaprizov returning to their homeland, and if they would be allowed back. There was a memorandum to stop talking about politics. Quibbles with painting player concern as "politics" aside, there is more news. Well, the same news. Russia is still at war. 

And now, like the end of last season, even the US and Canada are at odds, adding quite a bit of spice to the NHL season. How can one not talk about politics when talking about the NHL any longer? If any sport requires it, it's this one. Without any tangible impact from the current American administration on the League, we can at least say that cross border games will be extra spicy, in a way that certainly transcends typical hockey rivalries. 

We have a week to get ready for the NHL season. There aren't a many fresh storylines as we see, and the undertones to the season are the same undertones to our daily life in North America for the last several months. Enjoy the game, enjoy the season even if it isn't as much of a distraction as it usually is. I'm sure as hell going to try. 

Not a particularly (W)ild free agency

 The trade deadline and July 1st offer hockey fans an incredible burst of transaction activity that you don't particularly see anywhere else in sports. Hockey rosters are ever in flux, and at this point, a certain subset of fans are braced and excited for that chaos every year. 

But this year, what happened? You can look at a couple of the biggest names as of late June and get a pretty good idea of the situation. Mitch Marner was traded on the 30th of June before signing an extension with his new team, the Golden Knights. Brock Boeser just signed himself a 7 year deal with his current and former team, the Vancouver Canucks. 

This is a perfect example of a good problem, though. Teams have more room, so they are able to spend more money to keep their own. Boeser didn't mind Vancouver, so he stayed. Marner didn't care to spend more time in Toronto, and the Leafs made sure to get something in return. Neither needed to hit the open market because everyone has the ability to add players. There wasn't a particularly great need for Marner because nobody was looking to replace their top players.

This was a real let down for a team like the Wild (my team of choice) who has been in cap hell for years since jettisoning Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They were supposed to be in a great position to start adding to a young and developing roster, but now, there just wasn't that much out there to attract them, nothing that was going to substantially improve the roster immediately or in the near future. 

This is a blip, though, and not a symptom of the way things will always be. It is great news for players, because with a larger cap, teams will start paying them more. Eventually, the contracts in effect right now will expire, and expectations for those players is that they should make more money as well. Teams will spend nearer to their cap again, and more players will be forced into free agency to seek the best deal they can get.

But this year, I give you permission to stop refreshing SportsNet's free agency tracker. Stop refreshing the SportsNet tracker and enjoy your weekend. 

You two again?

 

As I noted earlier, we are seeing a lot of familiarity late in the playoffs this year, including a rematch of last year's finals. The Panthers avoided an inauspicious place in history, after watching the Oilers nearly win the Cup after Florida was initially up 3-0, and now we know the 2025 series probably won't ever hold a candle to last year. 

It will still be good, however.

These are two evenly matched teams, as proven by last year's Final, and are clearly familiar with each other as well. There will be no feeling each other out, no surprises and no punches pulled. Game one went to overtime this time around. No 8-1 games here, not in 2025. Both teams know the stakes. 

And I can't reiterate this enough. These teams really know each other. Since the beginning of the 2024 Finals, the Oilers have played the Panthers more than three times than they have played the Calgary Flames. By the end of the month, they will probably be at 4 times, but probably 5 times as many.

If you've ever wondered if there was any reason, beyond the obvious trophy hunt, these playoff series seem to have an edge. That's why. Familiarity breeds contempt. The Oilers play the Panthers more than the Flames. The Panthers play the Oilers more than the Lightning. 

This is the NHL's most active rivalry in 2025.