Tweet of the Moment

Slow starts have been an issue for the Stars to begin the season, and last night, Toronto took advantage of it.

📄 READ Heika's Take: https://t.co/VhEwAsZafF@MikeHeika | @PNCBank | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/4CJuqg3bLm

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) October 27, 2023

Are we just skating by with Tweets of the Moment, particularly when I am not actively on Twitter anymore? Absolutely yes. That said, I wanted to post for posterity, that the Toronto Maple Leafs, at least for one night, didn't fall flat on their face when a golden opportunity presented itself, and the Dallas Stars even admitted it.

Tweet of the Moment

The third's a go.

📺@NESN
📻@985TheSportsHub #NHLBruins | @ESC_ElecSupCtr pic.twitter.com/LgADoHk5iO

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 23, 2023

DON'T WORRY PEOPLE! Even if you don't want to pay the dollar for the site, you are still going to be able to read updates like this one. Does it happen often that you follow a team's socials, it is the the third week of the season, getting to the third period of the game, and you are just now getting the information on who is broadcasting the game? And for what it's worth, the Bruins have been on NESEN for almost 40 years. Thanks for the Tweet!

Tweet of the Moment

 Before we go anywhere, I want to make sure we pay tribute to the man who inspired the original iteration of this site.  Barry Melrose announced his retirement as the season began, owing to a Parkinson's Disease diagnosis. We wish Barry and those who know and love him well during this tough moment, and thank him for the memories, the inspiration, and all the mullet jokes.

Now, the Tweet, or X or whatever. 

Canucks Captains Henrik Sedin, Trevor Linden, Stan Smyl, and Orland Kurtenbach pass the torch to the newest leader, Quinn Hughes. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/dLmESeYerh

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 13, 2023

Another former stalwart of the site were the Sedin Twins. Twins. the Sedin Twins. Where is Daniel? Is Daniel OK? 

We have to be ready for hockey season.

 In most years, I get amped for hockey season because I've neem tracking the offseason so hard. As a Wild fan, that hasn't been nearly as invigorating. Te primary stories about the home team has been the cap hell they find themselves in thanks to the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts. The only player they added in the offseason was Patrick Maroon, thought Jujhar Khaira may make the roster and Michael Johanneson was added at the deadline last season. The hope is for internal growth.

That is nerve wracking, not necessarily exciting. It's not really revving my engines as someone who is a big enough fan of hockey that I intermittently write about the game. 

No, it isn't the front office machinations and the desire to see new guys for my team that has me excited. This is going to be a weird one, but all summer, especially in the last few weeks, I've just been in a lot of ice arenas I've learned much more about ice sheets than I thought I needed to know. My real life work now takes me to various construction sites, and for a variety of reasons, that has recently involved ice arenas.

I've literally been watching hockey being build from the ground up. I walked through locker rooms that had just had their plumbing studded in, and probably smelled better than they ever will in the future. I saw nets and scoreboards sitting on the ground, because they were there, and the building wasn't ready, and there wasn't anywhere to store it.

I got to visit some refrigeration rooms, where I learned about indirect ammonia refrigeration systems. This is one of the reasons for arena expansions. The ammonia units are powerful and efficient enough that you can freeze two sheets from the one unit. And they are more environmentally friendly.

One thing that the contractors on site repeated is that they "had to be ready for hockey season". Those words are true for all of us now, what with training camp and preseason underway. We all just have to be ready for hockey season.

They sold the Senators!

 As a reminder, South of Edmonton is a hockey blog, you don't need to get all political about bribery or whatever your theories are on why this senator did this, or this senator did that. This is the Ottawa Senators, the hockey team, which has been kind of a backwards organization since their inception, save for a hot period in the 2000s. Regardless of how good they are or anything like that, they are one of 7 NHL teams in Canada, at least while the Coyotes are still in Arizona, and are a precious commodity. Thus, they were purchased by a billionaire, who hired some former personnel to try to right the ship, even if it's been listing forever. 

The Senators owned by someone who cares and wants to keep them in Ottawa is a good thing though. I want to make that totally clear. 

Hooray, billionaires!

Matt Dumba shouldn't be in Arizona

Free agency is almost at it's end this NHL offseason, with the most recent big name to get a new address being Matt Dumba, who will now be a Arizona Coyote. That's a bummer, not only for me, a Wild fan, but I think also for a lot of the teams in the NHL.

During the bubble, during a time of great civil discord in the Twin Cities and the nation at large, Dumba proved himself to be a leader not only for the hockey team, but for the sport. He was given a voice and didn't shrink from the spotlight. At the time, he represented what we all wanted hockey to be.

In  that time, and really ever since, Dumba was clearly on his way out in Minnesota, the victim of a tight cap situation, thanks to the presence of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter's albatross contracts, and a need to preserve some of the offensive talent the team had. 

It's not surprising that he left the Wild, as his talent and veteran status meant he was no longer a fit in Minnesota. It is disappointing that he ended up in Arizona. Dumba is a voice from within the game that needed to be heard by players and fans. In Arizona, he'll just be another player that nobody really cares about. Dumba ending up anywhere else was a better outcome. He will be muffled in Arizona

I watch the convoluted cap system of the NBA, or the designated player system in soccer, and wish there was a way to work around the NHL cap like there was in those leagues. If teams could keep their own players for lesser values against the cap that might help. So might not having a team in Glendale any longer.

Dumba, I hope, will be a great veteran peace in an Arizona team that will struggle a lot, before he turns into a trade deadline chip at the end of the year. I also hope that next year, he gets the multi year deal he deserves. For now though, it stinks.

Won't anyone think of Chuck Fletcher?

 For many NHL roles, the best way to get a new job is to have held that job in the past. Look at the front office executives and head coaches that are recycled after previous stints with other teams ended in disaster. 

There seems to be a little bit of new blood every once in a while, and when it happens, it's noteworthy. When general manager Chuck Fletcher was let go by the Flyers, he was replaced by Danny Briere. I remember Briere as a player, which means he is young, or I am getting old. I assume the former. 

Don't worry about Chuck, though. He's through his second NHL GM gig, after some stops as an assistant along the way. He's practically guaranteed himself another opportunity, perhaps with the next role that opens up this summer. Chuck Fletcher will be fine.

One of the jobs that opened up was in Pittsburgh, where Fletcher served as an assistant GM before he moved on to Minnesota. Kyle Dubas, president of the Penguins decided to take on the mantle of General Manager as well. He did that n Toronto, so even though it wasn't a traditional path, at least Chuck Fletcher, and his FletchFans (tm) can rest easy knowing that the job was kept in the "former GM" family. 

That left Edmonton, who is always good for a retread. No matter the situation, the Oilers are going to hire someone who had middling success somewhere else. It's hard to get people to move to Edmonton in the winter, so one might generously think that getting Ken Holland to town, now as the team president, was a coup. Former Wild and Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher seemed right in the Oilers' hiring wheelhouse.

Well, the Oilers hired Jeff Jackson, former agent for Connor McDavid to be their new GM. We're living in a new era, readers. You can't just assume that you will hop to another job when you are dismissed from your previous upper management role. You might just have to take on the role as part of expanded responsibilities, or *gasp* you might just be new blood. 

Sorry, Chuck. The world is changing. It can't last, though. Enjoy running the local arena in New Jersey this winter and come back ready for 2024. The Sabres are probably going to need you before too much longer.