Brotherly Love

 A fun fact about me is that I got into hockey because my brother got into hockey, and he got into hockey after his neighborhood friends got into hockey. I grew up in that awful window when the state of Minnesota was a state without an NHL team. My initial hockey fandom was of my brother's peewee team.

NHL 94 was a big hit in our neighborhood, and I finally got a Sega Genesis myself about 4 years later, but before that, my brother and I would crash neighborhood friends houses to play (I was always the Hartford Whalers). Our friend was always the Penguins, and we would get destroyed. It was a bonding experience. 

My brother played goalie through a couple years of high school. He liked being a goalie, even though he admitted it was the right role mostly because he was a slow skater. Better than me, though because I can't even skate. Nevertheless, family friends saw how much he liked playing, and how much I liked watching, and we started getting tickets to watch the Minnesota Gophers college team, and we went to a few games a year. 

The NHL finally came back to Minnesota at about the time I was leaving for college. Still and all, our hockey fandom established, we rarely run into each other when neither of us is wearing a bit of Minnesota Wild merch. Often, it's both of us. And then we hold court about the team for a bit, and then realize we don't know where our kids ran off to. 

My brother and I have a pretty good relationship, and hockey has been a tie that has bound us through the years. With all that pretext, I can't imagine making a point of ensuring that we were on the same team if we had made it to the NHL. I don't think we are any less close than the Tkachuks or Folignos or Staals. 

And I am fairly sure it wouldn't be such a point that I would be making the entire league hold it's breath on free agency through this season and next year, like some families.

Obviously, there are some biased anxieties at play here, and I am sure the unbelievable isolation of elite hockey prospects can make time spent with family all the more important when you get older, but I just can't identify with that impulse.

Heck, my brother and I currently work in the same industry, and I am fairly sure neither of us wants to go work at the others' company. That is essentially the same thing, right?

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

There are actually direct flights between Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh. In this economy! Anyways, penguins are Southern Hemisphere creatures, and mammoths were found in the Arctic. In more ways than one, this is just an absurd match up.

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

What an opening night for Evan Bouchard, scoring a hat trick and gathering a pair of assists. Bouchard is a defenseman, it should be noted, who also was on a team that lost that game to the Vancouver Canucks, who feature Marco Rossi, Pavel Bure's granddaughter and a harp seal on their first forward line. Defenseman in name only, it appears. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

The season starts on TUESDAY! That's just two days away! I'm posting this now so we all remember that this score was from a preseason game. IF you see this post remaining on the Blue Jackets site a couple weeks into the October, then, well, things aren't going great for Columbus.

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

We are just skipping hurricane season in Florida, and instead going from Hurricane to Hurricane visits. This makes sense in my head.

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

Most players are back in camp, the Blackhawks named Connor Bedard a captain today, so that is exciting. Preseason games start in 10 days, which is why the fan fest is coming up in Vancouver. What I want to tell you though, is that most of the United States, and even the parts of Canada where people live is still very pleasant outside. Just wait a little while until you start setting fantasy rosters and go outside, is what I'm saying. 

RIP Barry Melrose

 

For those that may not have followed the entire journey of my hockey writing career, I started by working with Kevin Schultz, and eventually Kim Ware and Dave McBrayer at a site called Barry Melrose Rocks, back when blogs were a thing, and the NHL left ESPN, but Melrose didn't (until he went to coach in Tampa). He was an affable character and a good ambassador for the game, and has sort of been one of the patron saints of my writing career. 

News has broken tonight that he passed away at 70. He will be missed, and I send out my thoughts to those who will miss him most deeply.

Barry Melrose rocks. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

You know, back in the day when blogs were a real force on the internet, I made some waves on Barry Melrose Rocks with the OLN drinking game of the week. OLN was the old name of a network that no longer exists, if that helps you understand how long ago this was. Now, many teams are going to Amazon Prime. Streaming was not an option in the 2000s, and is not a good format for drinking games, as there is not the shared commercial experience, and frankly, as a Minnesota Wild fan, I would have to pay extra for Blue Jackets games. Who can do that AND buy some decent booze? 

A win for Ottawa tourism guides

It's been chaotic in Ottawa, to say the least. The Senators finally returned to the postseason this summer after a long, uneven rebuild, and subsequently traded away one of the best Tkachuks to ever play the game, immediately turning around and bringing William Eklund into the fold. The Senators got younger, again, but did they get better?

The more important question is, are they better set up for the future now than they were before? It seems as though one person thinks so: Drake Batherson. He's one of, if not the best forward the Sens have right now, and he is going to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. The Sens want t sign him to an extension, but as usually happens, the sides are at an impasse. 

This isn't exactly what you may think. Rather than this being strictly about the dollar value year over year, Batherson is hoping to get an eighth year on his new contract, which is longer than what the Senators wanted to offer. Drake Batherson, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, wants to finish his career in Ottawa. What a great advertisement for the city of Ottawa! 

That is, of course, not the full story. Batherson wants 8 years because he is 28 years old, and this is probably his last and best chance to cash in on a long term, lucrative deal. The Senators, for their part, may not be interested in having a 36 year old earning top dollar at the end of his term. As an added curiosity, there are new contract rules effective on September 15th, capping the length of contracts at 7 years. 

Drake Batherson wants to sign what might potentially be the last ever 8 year contract in NHL history in Ottawa! Regardless of what other business interests might underlie this desire, it's still a pretty flattering sentiment. Ottawa would also have some good NHL history associated with it. 

Ottawa: Long term home of Drake Batherson (and some other stuff)

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

Adam Valenti is an undersized forward from the University of Michigan lately, and Toronto originally. He was picked with the 96th overall selection in the draft, and the Mammoth wanted their fans to learn more about the young prospect. You might think that this was a photo shoot at the draft, but now, those aren't generic NHL jerseys. Those are prototypes for Utah's coming third jersey.

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.