This is being written with Happy Hour looming on the seventh Friday afternoon of the NHL season — and with a keen interest on the evening’s hockey schedule that wasn’t postponed by COVID-protocols.
The two late games are from the “Honda West” division, which has about as much wiggle room as the Golden Knights first power play unit would have in an Accord.
As we speak, the top six teams are separated by four points. More surprising than Vegas and St. Louis being first and second is Los Angeles, Arizona and Minnesota sitting third, fourth and fifth — each ahead of Colorado, which was almost everybody’s choice to win the Cup.
The Kings are the NHL’s hottest team with six straight wins. You didn’t see this coming when you looked at last season’s final standings and saw them 28th — ahead of only San Jose, Ottawa and Detroit — unless you looked very closely, and noticed they finished the season with seven straight wins.
They are trying to match that streak against a Wild team that has won four straight, a run that has been led by the line of Mats Zuccarello-Victor Rask-Kirill Kaprizov, which has combined for 17 points, and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who has stopped 102 of 108 shots.
As much as the Avalanche remains one of the NHL’s most exciting teams to watch, the Colorado-Arizona game is the least appealing of the night’s slate.
Of more personal interest is how the East-leading Bruins would bounce back from a 7-2 shellacking at the hands of the Islanders 24 hours earlier.
And Alexis Lafreniere.
The No. 1 pick of the 2020 entry draft is tied for 41st in rookie scoring. In his first 17 games he has two goals, zero assists, 23 shots and a minus-8.
And now, with Artemi Panarin on a leave of absence, he is being promoted from the Rangers second line to the first, alongside Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich.
He’s also playing the middle on the second power play unit.
“I think he’s playing well,” Rangers coach David Quinn told reporters early Friday. “I think there’s certainly progress in his game. He had some real good shifts (in Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Flyers) and he’s practicing harder.
“Obviously, everybody points to the first pick overall and there’s a ton of pressure on these guys, but it’s a hard league at 18 or 19 years old, it really is. He’s learning the game, he wants to learn and he’s always coachable, looking for ways to improve.
“I just like the direction his game is going.”
Positive messages from his coach aside, there’s only one way for it to go: Up.
It’ll be interesting to see if it’s pointing that way against the Bruins. If so, it will be because I cut Lafreniere in my pool Thursday.
STARTS AND STOPS: All you need to know about the sorry state of the North Division: TSN1200’s daily poll question Friday asked “Can (Ottawa) make the playoffs?” when Ottawa was tied for last in the overall standings. Even as bad as Calgary and Vancouver look, Ottawa can’t catch Montreal for the last spot … So much for the absurd suggestion Carey Price was playing poorly because he was trying to get Claude Julien fired. Unless he’s trying to get Dominique Ducharme fired too …
BETWEEN PERIODS: While former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler has the record for most points in one game (10, on Feb. 7, 1976) and nobody has ever had a nine-point night, there have been 13, eight-point games. Only one of the players who has put up a snowman is still active. His name, and how it became topical this week, is down below in PARTING SHOTS …. Help is on the way for the slumping Blues, who expect to get Vladimir Taraskenko back in the lineup during a six-game road trip that starts Saturday. Tarasenko’s run of consecutive 30-goal seasons was stopped at five on Oct. 24, 2019 by a shoulder injury, and he hasn’t played since. The Blues have lost three games in a row and have scored just once in their last two.
BACK TO THE POINT: The all-time Ironman among NHL defenceman, Florida’s Keith Yandle, broke a deadline with former Blackhawks winger Steve Larmer when he played his 885th consecutive game Thursday. Only two former centres, Doug Jarvis (964) and Garry Unger (914), are left for him to leapfrog … While it would be a great accomplishment, Yandle already wears one unofficial crown – he’s generally acknowledged as the funniest guy in the NHL. “It’s palpable,” former teammate Shane Doan told The Athletic of Yandle’s influence in the dressing room. “The young guys all want to be like him and the old guys just want to hang around him. It’s an uncommon characteristic.”
ON THIS DATE: Exactly 25 years ago Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Kings to the Blues for Craig Johnson, Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat, a first round pick (Matt Zultek) and a fifth (Peter Hogan). Over the rest of his career, with the Blues and the Rangers, Gretzky had 65 goals and 270 points in 252 regular season games, plus 12 goals and 36 points in 28 playoff games. The combined totals for the players the Kings received, from that point through the rest of their careers: 69 goals and 169 points in 366 games, plus three goals and five points in 15 playoff games … Exactly 41 years ago Bobby Hull, 40 at the time, was traded from the Winnipeg Jets to the Hartford Whalers for future considerations. Hull only played nine games for Hartford (2G, 7A) before retiring to care for his wife, who had been in a car crash .. Exactly 21 years ago, Pat Verbeek had two assists for the Red Wings in a 3-1 win over the Lightning to join Dale Hunter as the only players in NHL history to have 1,000 points and 2,000 PIMs. Their exclusive group has since turned into a foursome with the additions of Brendan Shanahan and Keith Tkachuk … Among the hockey people celebrating birthdays are Ab DeMarco Jr. (72), Jerry Butler (70), John Davidson (68), Mike Kaszycki (65), Robert Kron (54), Dallas Eakins (54), Mike Sullivan (53), Jaroslav Modry (50), Braydon Coburn (36), Casey Cizikas (30) and Mike Matheson (27)
PARTING SHOTS: Fourth line winger Sam Gagner scored three times in Detroit’s 5-2 victory over the Predators on Thursday. It was the third hat trick of his career and first in nine years, since he had (four goals, four assists) an eight-point night to lead the Oilers to a 8-4 victory over the Blackhawks … Like a fine wine, Joe Pavelski scored his team-leading 10th goal in the Stars 15th game. Only seven players his age (36) or older have reached double digits in fewer games … Equally disgusting is the cliche “it’s a copy-cat league” and the drop pass on a power play breakout. Both should be out-lawed and their users forced to become more creative.
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