Hockey Rambling

Thatcher Demko spoiled the fun for the 50 percent (or more) of the Vancouver crowd that was cheering for the Leafs on Saturday. Demko made a career-high 51 saves in stealing a 3-2 Canucks win over Toronto. Since Bruce Boudreau took over, Demko has a sparkling .936 SV% to go with an 11-4-1 record and [...]

I’ve had no shortage of topics to write about when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers this season. Whether it be the scoring exploits of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the volatile goaltending situation, the controversial Evander Kane signing, and now the recent coaching change, there’s been plenty of storylines to unpack from a fantasy [...]

The Oilers went ahead and fired Dave Tippett on Thursday, relieving him of his duties following their home loss to Chicago on Wednesday night. Not that it was a big surprise, but the Oilers are now on their fourth coach in four seasons, with Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, Tippett, and now Jay Woodcroft all having [...]

Tuukka Rask has retired from hockey. The hope for the Boston Bruins had been to have Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark handle NHL duties while Rask healed from his hip surgery. Then, Rask would return, Swayman would be sent down, and the Bruins would have a heck of a one-two punch with Swayman as insurance. [...]

The Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey kicks off this morning, and to get all you insatiable fantasy geeks your cheat sheet on who you should be keeping an eye on, Peter Harling has you covered. He dives into a whole bunch of NHL relevant prospects that are going to be covered in the games. Just like [...]

The stretch run of the NHL season is here. We should be a lot further along in the actual season than we are but with all the postponements earlier in the season, these next few weeks are going to be packed with games. That will bring us to March and the final push of the [...]

A couple of years ago, I posted this article and was asked to provide updated thoughts by a reader. Checking that article again, I found it interesting. Seeing the value of players then versus now. I thought I nailed it, though Fox is obviously no longer a “long shot”. Hey – at least I mentioned [...]

The Metropolitan Division is this season’s All-Star Game winner, defeating the Central Division 5-3. Claude Giroux was the game’s MVP, scoring two goals in the final and another goal and assist in the first win against the Pacific Division. Giroux showed some razzle dazzle in his first goal. https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1490059059453640711 One second-half question on the minds [...]

The NHL’s Skills Competition took place in Las Vegas on Friday evening. Here are the names (minus sponsors) and winners of each competition: Fastest Skater: Jordan Kyrou Save Streak: Jack Campbell / Andrei Vasilevskiy Fountain Face-Off: Zach Werenski Breakaway Challenge: Alex Pietrangelo 21 in ’22: Joe Pavelski Hardest Shot: Victor Hedman Accuracy Shooting: Sebastian Aho [...]

The Anaheim Ducks have named Pat Verbeek as their new general manager. He will need to quickly decide whether the Ducks (currently occupying the #3 seed in the Pacific Division) should continue their playoff push or attempt to sell off UFAs-to-be Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, and maybe even longtime Duck Ryan Getzlaf. It’s [...]