Hockey Rambling

The general opinion of people that I talk hockey with (not necessarily from a fantasy perspective) seems to be that the Oilers need to move on from Mike Smith. Although Smith can look like a world beater at times, it’s those gaffs resulting from his tendency to take risks that stand out. During the first [...]

Game 5 between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning was a bit more of a goaltending duel that we had been expecting for this series. A couple screened shots by defencemen Ryan Lindgren and Mikhail Sergachev gave us a 1-1 game heading into the third period as both Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin [...]

We got a brief update on the statuses of Filip Chytil and Ryan Strome from Rangers coach Gerard Gallant. Strome missed Game 4, being a scratch, while Chytil left the game two-thirds of the way through after taking a hard hit in the corner. This was said update: https://twitter.com/ColinSNewsday/status/1534532101881610244 Now, in the playoffs, we rarely [...]

The Lightning evened the series at two games apiece, after an early goal from Patrick Maroon who is looking for his fourth-straight Stanley Cup, and then two more from the big guns in Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. Ondrej Palat (more on him later) notched the empty netter, for his third point of the night [...]

Aside from some injuries, the big news from early on Monday, relating to the NHL playoffs, was that Dylan Holloway would be making his debut with the Oilers. The team’s top prospect forward was inserted for a couple reasons, namely being down 3-0 in the series and without the suspended Evander Kane. He started the [...]

Hard at work on the Fantasy Prospects Report, which will come out the afternoon of June 14. It is the 16th edition and has been an invaluable resource for keeper and dynasty leaguers. You can pre-order it here. * The Blue Jackets signed free agent Joona Luoto to a two-way contract last week. I found [...]

Oilers fans might remember Game 3 of the Western Conference Final as the one that got away after J.T. Compher’s third-period goal trickled through the legs of Mike Smith as the eventual game winner. Smith has to make this save as Compher takes his shot straight after skating out of the penalty box. https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1533276182925279237 The [...]

The Tampa Bay Lightning have finally lost two playoff games in a row, the first time that has happened for them since being swept by the Blue Jackets in 2019. That’s 18 times since then that the Bolts have lost a playoff game, only to win the following game. The underdog Rangers, though, are staying [...]

If there were any doubts about Darcy Kuemper not being available for Game 2, Pavel Francouz erased them with a 24-save shutout to give the Avalanche a 2-0 series lead. Francouz was playing in his fourth game of the playoffs but making just his second start. He probably didn’t face the Oilers at their best, [...]

The Montreal Canadiens made it official on Wednesday by signing interim head coach Martin St. Louis to a three-year contract. He took over in February from Dominique Ducharme and seemed to revitalize the team offensively. The Canadiens released a statement in the morning to that effect: https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1531968868272553988 I saw a good break down from Jack [...]