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Archives for January 2017

Saturday Night Game Notes: Raanta Hurt, Shaw Ejected

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In yet another injury to a key player, Rangers backup goalie Antti Raanta left tonight’s game with a lower body injury. Henrik Lundqvist came in for relief, but it leaves the Blueshirts without a backup goaltender for the remainder of the contest. Lunqvist was rudely welcomed with a goal on his first shot faced,  Joey Alfieri speculates that it was either a wrist shot or a collision with Andrew Shaw that triggered the injury.

But that wasn’t the one that got him ejected.

Shaw was given a game misconduct for his hit on Jesper Fast and received 22 minutes in penalties, with only 5:06 played. TSN’s Amanda Stein tweets that Shaw received five for interference, fighting, and the game misconduct. Shaw just returned from a concussion that sidelined him for just over a month.

Kris Letang Suffers Left Knee Injury

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8:00CST: Letang has not returned, playing only 2:06 tonight.

Kris Letang scored a goal just 27 seconds in for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And just as quickly, he was helped off the ice with an apparent knee injury.

The Detroit News’ Ted Kulfan reports that Letang got tangled up with the Detroit Red Wings’ Thomas Vanek in the corner and fell to the ice in obvious pain. He was helped off the ice, favoring his left knee. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Jonathan Bombulie confirms it was Letang’s left knee. Additionally, Bombulie tweets that Letang did return, tested the knee out during a stoppage, but then returned down the tunnel near the end of the first period. Bombulie reports that he played just one shift upon his return for 17 seconds.

This is tough news for the Pens should it be a significant injury. Letang has 23 points (4-19) this season for the Pens and is a staple on the blue line.

Johnny Boychuk Day-To-Day With Upper Body Injury

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Add Johnny Boychuk to the injury merry-go-round that is claiming important players from teams across the league. Boychuk was a late scratch tonight, as reported by Shannon Hogan, with an upper body injury. Cat Silverman of Fan Rag goes further, indicating that the injury could be “huge” should it be a long term injury. Silverman adds that Boychuk was not out during warmups.

More From Silverman:

The 32-year-old blue liner has been one of the team’s most consistent players since getting dealt from the Boston Bruins in the summer of 2014 – and if the team looks to deal away anyone on the blue line ahead of the impending expansion draft, they’ll need their corps as healthy as possible.

The Islanders have struggled this season and are currently tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the least amount of points in the Eastern Conference, though they have two games in hand.

Boychuk has 14 points (5-9) this season.

Central Moves: Nemeth, Schmaltz

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With Jamie Oleksiak expected to miss 3-6 weeks after suffering a hand injury on Tuesday, the Dallas Stars have recalled Patrik Nemeth from his conditioning stint. The defenseman played four games for the Texas Stars, scoring three points.

Nemeth was recently listed as the most likely Stars player to be traded by Mike Heika’s mailbag. The 24-year old has somehow only played 84 games in the NHL in his career, despite being with the team for long stretches. Remember he was the player who lost almost an entire season to a deep laceration in 2014.

It’s still not clear if he will be inserted into the lineup on a regular basis, as Stephen Johns took Oleksiak’s place immediately. The 24-year old Johns may be more valuable in the spot since he is one of two right handed defensemen on the roster (John Klingberg being the other).

In Chicago, the team has decided to call up Nick Schmaltz as insurance for Artem Anisimov’s illness. The team is carrying only 12 forwards, and if Anisimov couldn’t go would have had to dress seven blueliners.

Schmaltz was signed out of the University of North Dakota this spring after two very successful seasons. The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Schmaltz has played 26 games for the NHL club this season. Just 20-years old, Schmaltz has shown he may be a little raw for the league but has a huge ceiling.

Washington Capitals Recall Chandler Stephenson

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After their 6-0 shellacking of the Chicago Blackhawks last night, the Washington Capitals have recalled Chandler Stephenson from the AHL. He’ll serve as the 13th forward and insurance against any last minute injuries on their upcoming road trip. After tomorrow’s game against Philadelphia in the afternoon, the Caps will head to Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Dallas.

The former third-round pick is having another successful season in the AHL with 23 points in 36 games. Last season, Stephenson played nine games with the Capitals but was held scoreless. While he did have a lot of scoring success late in his junior career – 89 points in 2013-14 – he’s known as more of a two-way center capable of playing on the penalty kill.

The team remains in second place in the Metropolitan division, unable to quite catch the dominant Columbus Blue Jackets. The Capitals are on an eight game winning streak and are showing why they won the President’s Trophy last season.

Number Crunching: Shootouts

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The shootout is a subject of much debate in the hockey world. For some, a short skills competition at the end of the game is a fine way to decide who earns the extra point. For others, another few minutes of the new 3-on-3 would be a dream. For other still, ties were never an issue, and they’d be fine with their inclusion once again.

Whichever side of the argument you find yourself, the simple fact is that they are in the NHL right now. Every team has to compete in them throughout the season for those all important extra points.  This season only Dallas has yet to be involved in a shootout, while Philadelphia leads the way with nine games ending in one.

The old adage of “it all evens out in the end” almost proves true, as if you were to remove the shootout and just award both teams with a single point if the game was tied after overtime, not a single team would leapfrog another in the standings. It would, however, bring some teams into a tie (points-wise).

The Maple Leafs, with their awful 1-5 record would be tied with their rival Ottawa Senators, instead of chasing them by two points. They would also pull ahead of the Panthers, a team they’re tied with who have played in eight shootouts so far (second most in the league).

Suddenly the Metropolitan would be even tighter, with Washington and Columbus pulling even at the top. Philadelphia would fall into a tie with the Maple Leafs, Senators and Hurricanes for that last wildcard spot however, making things much more interesting.

In the west, where there haven’t been nearly as many shootouts would mostly see the bottom falling out of the standings. Vancouver would drop further back despite their recent run, and Arizona would be in a dog fight with Colorado for the worst team in the NHL; their 4-1 record in shootouts is the best thing about their season thus far.

For individual performances, Thomas Vanek ranks among the best in the league. He’s scored on all three of his attempts this season. Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov and Jakub Voracek all lead with four goals, though it’s taken each of them at least seven attempts. The worst is Nick Cousins, who has failed to score on each of his six attempts, though Kyle Okposo doesn’t fall far behind going 0-5. Despite leading the league in goals, Sidney Crosby is 0-2 this season in the shootout.

For goaltenders, Steve Mason has faced the most shots. He’s stopped 23 of 30 shooters, registering a pretty solid 76.7 save percentage. Braden Holtby has allowed the most, getting scored on an unbelievable 9 out of 14 times. There are six goaltenders who have stopped every shot they’ve faced, though they’ve all faced seven or fewer.  Tuukka Rask is the man to beat having stopped 16 of 19 attempts. Robin Lehner is on the other side, allowing all six shooters he’s faced to score.

It’s an interesting thing, the shootout. Even players who have incredible success during the game find it difficult to score, while others who aren’t expected to be offensive forces find the back of the net with ease. For now, the shootout is a part of the game – winning there may be the difference between making or missing the playoffs.

Hawks Notes: Kruger, Roster Spots, Cap Space

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The Chicago Blackhawks took to the ice today to practice before their game against the Minnesota Wild tomorrow night. Among the missing skaters was Marcus Kruger, the injured forward who has been out since December 30th. While the original timetable had him set to return in the next week, head coach Joel Quenneville now says it will likely be longer than that.

Kruger suffered an upper-body injury just before the new year, dealing a big blow to the defensive ability of the Hawks forward group. Kruger was an integral part of their penalty kill, and his departure will weaken it even further – it’s currently ranked 28th in the NHL.

  • While Kruger remains out due to injury, Artem Anisimov looks like he may miss tomorrow’s game because of an illness. He was absent from practice today and is questionable going forward. The team is currently only carrying 12 healthy forwards at the moment including Anisimov, meaning that if he can’t go the team may dress seven defensemen. The team currently has just 21 of 23 roster spots filled, since putting Kruger on injured reserve at the beginning of the year.
  • One of the reasons for this may be the idea that the Blackhawks are “banking” cap space.  Brian Hedger of NHL.com says that’s exactly why they haven’t filled the last two spots. When he asked Quenneville, he told him “business reasons”, which does sound line up with Hedger’s thoughts. If he were to hazard a guess as to when the space would be used, it would be right at the trade deadline. The Hawks do have a little bit of room to make a move for another potential Stanley Cup run, and they currently sit in first place in the Central division.
  • When Hedger talked to Corey Crawford, who was shelled last night by the Washington Capitals, he told him that he doesn’t “feel the best” after missing time due to an appendectomy. While Crawford points out it might not be because of the layoff, he’s determined to battle through it. The netminder is having another fine season and will be one of four players representing the Blackhawks at the all-star game this year.

Buffalo Sabres Send Bailey, Ullmark To AHL

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The Buffalo Sabres announced today that forward Justin Bailey and goaltender Linus Ullmark are headed back to Rochester. The demotions come with rumors of Tyler Ennis’ return on Monday afternoon, and the improving health of Robin Lehner.

Bailey is having a strong season in the AHL, with 13 goals and 22 points in 33 games, but has not found much with the Sabres. The former second-round pick has found the back of the net just once in his nine games, though they’ve come with very little ice time. The big winger provides a solid physical game to go along with a nose for the net. He’ll likely make his way back up at some point this season.

Ullmark is the Sabres top goalie prospect and has found some middling success in the AHL this season. In 28 games, the former sixth-round pick has a .906 save percentage and a 3.06 goals against average. Those marks are actually both improvements over his minor league numbers from a year ago, though he did fare slightly better in the NHL.

Blue Jackets Add Anton Forsberg On Emergency Conditions

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Despite having sent him down just Thursday, the Columbus Blue Jackets have executed an emergency recall of goaltender Anton Forsberg from the AHL. He’ll back up Joonas Korpisalo against the Florida Panthers tonight.

With Sergei Bobrovsky still fighting an illness, the team is without two NHL goaltenders. Curtis McElhinney was lost on waivers this week to the Toronto Maple Leafs, when it seemed that Forsberg had taken over the backup role. In the meantime, Forsberg was sent down to start last night’s game for the Cleveland Monsters (one in which he stopped 24 of 26 saves for a win) but has now returned.

Forsberg and Korpisalo both represent solid goaltending prospects, but with Korpisalo’s younger age and higher draft pedigree it was assumed he would stay in the AHL to start as many games as possbile to continue his development. With Bobrovsky out though, those starts are happening at the NHL level. Last night, he allowed just a single goal 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, continuing the strong play he’s shown in his short NHL stints.  Last year, the 22-year old Korpisalo was forced to play in 31 games for the Blue Jackets, putting up an excellent .920 save percentage.

Forsberg on the other hand has gotten into just 10 NHL games in his career, faring rather poorly. While he is still just 24-years old himself and has shown elite ability at the AHL level, is seems he’s rightly fixed behind Korpisalo on the depth chart. He may however stay up when Bobrovsky returns as the team’s full-time backup. Aaron Portzline reports that the team has sent Bobrovsky back to Columbus, where he will likely practice with the team on Monday.

Lineup Notes: Neal, Gostisbehere, Predators

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News and notes from around the NHL this afternoon:

  • The Nashville Predators have activated  forward James Neal from the injured reserve, reports the Tennesean’s Adam Vingan. Neal has been out since January 3rd with an upper body injury. So far this season Neal has 14G and 6A in 33 games for Nashville, but went pointless in his last five games before his injury. Neal’s return is good news for the Predators as they continue to battle injuries elsewhere. P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, and Colin Wilson are all out right now as the Predators struggle to stay afloat in the NHL’s Central Division
  • Philadelphia Flyers scratched defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere once again this season, as first reported by the Courier-Post’s Dave Isaac. This is the sophomore’s second healthy scratch this season, but it comes off of a decent performance against the Vancouver Canucks. Points-wise Gostisbehere performs fine—4G and 15A in 42 games—but his defensive play leaves coach Dave Hakstol wanting more.
  • The Nashville Predators announced that they called up defenseman Petter Granberg and reassigned forward Pontus Aberg to the AHL Milwaukee Admirals. The move makes room for the returning James Neal, and also shores up Nashville’s bleeding blue line. Nashville plays the Colorado Avalanche tonight riding a two game winning streak.
  • The San Jose Sharks have recalled Ryan Carpenter prior to their game tonight against the St. Louis Blues. Carpenter has 18 points in 28 AHL games this season. Kevin Kurz of CSN thinks that it’s a sign that Joonas Donskoi, who missed yesterday’s practice, will be out for tonight.

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