Hockey Rambling

Good news for Blackhawks fans, as Corey Crawford returned to practice on Saturday. Crawford revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and had been in quarantine. The Blackhawks will need a healthy Crawford in order to have a chance against McDavid, Draisaitl, and the high-flying Oilers. More on Crawford and the Hawks in a [...]

I shared a few thoughts (and even some lame jokes) regarding the Seattle team name on my Twitter account. Complete thoughts don’t always appear on Twitter, so I’ll expand on what I think. I’ll admit that I thought the Kraken name was a gimmicky joke at first. All I knew about kraken was from the [...]

The big news on Thursday was the announcement of the Seattle franchise’s new name and logo. There had been hope they’d be released earlier, but, you know, *gestures broadly*. Anyway, that announcement came and the team has settled on the Seattle Kraken. It was a name that got a lot of traction on social media, [...]

In what is very good news for Penguins fans and very bad news for Habs fans, Sidney Crosby returned to practice on Wednesday. He had missed the last few practices with an unknown injury, but it appears it wasn’t severe at all. A welcome sight, for some. * Something I missed and noticed yesterday: Ross [...]

Today, I’ll keep to my niche and focus on a few youngsters for those in the keeper/dynasty setup. This week lets talk blueliners.  First up,  Jamie Drysdale.  In recent weeks and months, the notion that Drysdale was far and away the top defender in a lite defenseman crop has slowly dissipated. USNTDP standout, Jake Sanderson [...]

The NHL announced the finalists for the Norris Trophy (top defenceman) and Selke Trophy (best defensive forward). The Norris finalists are John Carlson, Victor Hedman, and Roman Josi. My personal ballot was Carlson, Josi, and Alex Pietrangelo. I have no problem with Hedman; Pietrangelo will probably finish in the top-5. When writing about this a [...]

The Interactive Playoff Draft List is now up and ready for download. If you bought the Ultimate Fantasy Pack last year, this is included in that package (i.e. not the more popular Keeper League Pack, so make sure you have the Ultimate Pack before trying to download it). This year’s Ultimate Pack, however, does not [...]

It’s always news if Sidney Crosby leaves practice early. That’s what happened on Saturday, when the Penguins captain left in the second period of the team’s scrimmage for undisclosed reasons. For what it’s worth, Conor Sheary (remember he got traded back to the Penguins?) thought it was just a maintenance issue, but coach Mike Sullivan [...]

The Vezina Trophy finalists were announced on Friday: Connor Hellebuyck, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tuukka Rask. Here is the basic stats comparison of the three goalies using the Compare Goalies feature from Frozen Tools. NameScoreGPWLOTLSOGASASVGAASV%CONNOR HELLEBUYCK458312156140179616562.570.922TUUKKA RASK4412686585118911042.120.929ANDREI VASILEVSKIY252351433133160514722.560.917 And a partial extended stats comparison. I removed the last several columns on special teams save percentage, distance save [...]

The Lady Byng Trophy finalists were announced on Thursday: Auston Matthews, Ryan O’Reilly, and Nathan MacKinnon. To fantasy owners, being nominated for this award should mean “move these guys down a notch in your rankings if your league counts penalty minutes.” If you believe the league will use a points-to-penalty minutes ratio to pick a [...]