Hockey Rambling

Thatcher Demko made his long-awaited return from his "unique" lower body injury. It's great to see him back and I hope he has a long career moving forward, but I don't think that injury is something I am going to take my chances with, so I doubt he ends up on any of my fantasy [...]

The Vancouver Canucks have been on a nice little run of late, going 5-3-1 in their last nine games and that has been good enough to push them into third place in the Pacific. All those games have been without centre JT Miller as he’s been on a leave of absence from the team. The [...]

Sincerest sympathies to anyone who trusted the usually reliable Jonathan Quick for a spot start on Sunday. After allowing just four goals across his first five outings, Quick has allowed 15 in his last three. Igor Shesterkin didn’t dress for the game because his wife was in labour, but I imagine he’ll be available for [...]

Michael Kesselring was a player that you probably didn’t know much about before the season, but he seems to be doing all right for himself. On Saturday, Kesselring registered the first-ever Gordie Howe hat trick in Utah Hockey Club history. He is now up to 14 points in 26 games, trailing only Mikhail Sergachev in [...]

As has been rumored since the summer, Jacob Trouba was finally moved out of New York. Trouba was traded to Anaheim for Urho Vaakanainen and a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick. Read the Fantasy Take here. That wasn’t it for Rangers transactions on Friday, as they signed Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year extension worth $11.5 million [...]

The Chicago Blackhawks fired head coach Luke Richardson on Thursday, replacing him with Anders Sorensen as interim coach for the remainder of the season. Expected to improve at least slightly this season, the Blackhawks currently hold both the league’s lowest point total (18) and the league’s lowest winning percentage (.346) with an 8-16-2 record. The [...]

The Dallas Stars went into Wednesday night with a 16-8 record, so it has been a great start. However, it seems as if they need another top-6 winger to round out their top-9 forwards, and now may need two such wingers. The team announced on Wednesday that forward Tyler Seguin will likely miss the rest [...]

The Flames and Blue Jackets warmed up all wearing Johnny Gaudreau #13 jerseys. It was an excellent send off gesture between his two former teams.  https://twitter.com/NHLFlames/status/1864131579414561215?t=18Mf3fnMJI_4-zx0th9fPA&s=19 * Patrik Laine made his long awaited Habs debut last night, skating on the second line and lining up with the top power play unit. He played alongside Kirby [...]

Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot was injured on Sunday, and he had been having an excellent season for the Red Wings. This may have implications for the Four Nations Cup – more on that later – but it clearly has implications for Detroit. As a result of the injury, and the one to Alex Lyon, the [...]

Jake DeBrusk had a sensational Sunday, scoring the overtime winner against Detroit to complete the second hat trick of his career.  The 28-year-old winger started heating up after J.T. Miller took a leave of absence on November 19th, racking up nine points in six games since then. Notably, four of those points came with the [...]