Hockey Rambling

It’s official: Keith Yandle’s ironman streak has finished at 989 games. The Flyers opted to scratch Yandle for Saturday’s game against the Leafs. Flyers coach Mike Yeo cited the need to build for the future by giving younger defensemen more minutes. Given the Flyers’ position in the standings, this is no doubt an unpopular decision, [...]

I mentioned this on Twitter earlier, but you’ll want to subscribe to the new DFS tools on Frozen Tools if you haven’t already. Order now and get $20 off! I used the Featured Optimized Lineups tool to give me a start in constructing a DFS lineup for Thursday. That lineup was good enough to turn [...]

It’s time to turn the calendar to April, which means that we are now in the final month of the regular season (not to mention being on the lookout for April Fool’s jokes). That might mean you are in a do-or-die head-to-head playoff matchup. Or the opposite, where you are already eliminated or you are [...]

The readers who’ve read my Ramblings for at least a few years now, or followed me on social media, know that one thing I constantly harp on is cross-checking. The simple explanation is like this: there are hundreds of cross-checks every night in the NHL of varying levels of force, and only a handful will [...]

The Ottawa Senators honoured Eugene Melnyk prior to last night’s game after Melnyk passed away on Monday. It was a nice tribute to their long-time owner, and his time in Ottawa will certainly never be forgotten. Ian Mendes put a lot of feeling and insight together to look back on Melnyk’s complicated legacy. You can [...]

The Ottawa Senators are an interesting team here down the stretch. They just got Drake Batherson back over the weekend, but Thomas Chabot looks to be out for the balance of the season. They may be getting some rookie reinforcements – more on that in a minute – but still have a bevy of depth [...]

With the Trade Deadline a week past, I’ve been paying attention to how the new players have been used on their new teams, and of course how that impacted the players already on those teams. You’ll see a few of those observations here. Let’s dig in… * First, my Islanders rant. I didn’t plan it, [...]

Brock Nelson has been hot for so long that he’s managed to reach 30 goals for the first time in his career. Nelson has 11 goals in his last 12 games, including a goal on Saturday. Not surprisingly, his 30 goals lead the Isles. Not to be outdone, Anders Lee has 11 goals in his [...]

Could the awkwardness of Evgenii Dadonov returning to the team that tried to trade him provide some motivation? The saga of the missing no-trade list turned out to be the top story of the trade deadline, with Dadonov returning to the Golden Knights’ lineup on Thursday night after a brief stay as property of the [...]

It has been a very rough season in net for Joonas Korpisalo, posting just an .877 save percentage in 22 games (17 starts) on the year. That kind of play would be acceptable on the penalty kill, not as an overall average. There seems to be a reason for that, as the Columbus Blue Jackets [...]