If not, why not kick it off with the coaches on both my teams - Philly and Van - splitting the scene, like, on the same freaking day?
Not sure when that will happen again - hopefully not soon.
Bruce Boudreau will be an interim coach for the 'nucks while assistant coach Mike Yeo will take over with the Flyers.
Not sure if they’ll be the answers, but sometimes it’s just a matter of fresh eyes on fresh problems. The Canucks, though - they’ll take a while.
(And Vancouver GM Jim Benning also got the boot, which I’m ok with, on that one)
And the eye-hand it took for Milano to actually score, too. Almost just as wild - Milano actually called for the pass. Nuts. They had to have been dinking around with that at practice.
ETA: I disgaree with the officiating, though - I thought the blade of his stick was a gollum’s hair above the crossbar.
Hm, something’s getting repetitive about this thread. If only I could put my finger on it…
The lowly Canucks set a team record with best start with a new coach, Bruce Boudreau. (5-0) Good interview I heard with their new President Jim Rutherford. Great to see the three-time Cup winner on board (heh - thanks, Guin!). When Boudreau played, his first goal was against Rutherford, who said that they were friends then, and let him score.
72 now, JR coulda retired with all the accolades, but nope - wants to see if he can turn around a cellar team like the Canucks.
Good on’im!
(cool in getting their fifth straight win last night by coming down from a three-goal deficit - a feat they haven’t done in 12 years!)
Anyhoo, what a mess…
The Flames went from 0 to 28 players with covid.
In four days.
Strong speculation that they might not play again until after Christmas, and as I type this, the Canucks are contemplating following suit.
Huh - only eight seasons - I thought he was there, like, waaaaaaay longer. Too bad - never had qualms with him. Other than in extra-currricular ignominy, like Joel Quenneville, I can’t recall the last time an NHL coach actually resigned - takes quite some resolve to do that, I’d imagine.
Plus 35 staffers on protocol. Obviously these numbers are going to climb over the h-days, and in turn this makes me wonder if the season will even continue next year, which might sound a little cynical and defeatist but manoman this is sucking. No clue how badly the other leagues are faring.
For the Olympics, I’m guessing (wildly - who knows what’ll eventually happen) that Canada will eventually hobble together a rabble of Spengler Cup-level players with altered Oly uni:
It seems like week to week everything’s so totally up in the air - it wouldn’t phase me if at ‘the last minute’ we won’t be able to send any kind of hockey team over there.
Actually screw the Olympics now, as far as top-flight competitive international hockey is concerned.
For good, I say.
I get it that the Olympic ideal of featuring the top athletes in a sport has always been a noble pursuit and whatnot, but IRT to the pinnacles of Lake Placid, Salt Lake City, and Vancouver, the glamour of all of that is done like dinner now - that ship has sailed. I am so ready to move on. Screw feeding the greasy coffers of the IOC anymore - I wanna see best-on-best now, which was abundantly served up in the Canada Cups, which featured the two greatest-ever line-ups, in '76 and '87.
This hockey-starved fool got my fix last night with the Canucks somehow continuing their winning streak (now to seven games) under new couch “Gabby” Bruce Boudreau. Great - three games in four nights on the road - nice way to hit the ground running again. Too bad Boeser’s on protocol but at least he’s the only one, thankfully.
Opposite reaction here -
Last time the NHL decided they were more important than the Olympics, i dropped them for a year. Spouse continued to watch the local team and i suckered back in. I hope to make it at least 2 years of noNHL this time, if not a lifetime. I value the Olympics more than the NHL and they probably shouldn’t/won’t notice.
BIG college hockey fan and very sad that Jrs was cancelled.
Heh, just thinking of the first NHL outdoor one - the 2003 Heritage classic, with Edmonton and Montreal, in Edmonchuk, where it got to -18 C, with wind chill bringing it closer to -30. Apparently beers had to great drinken quickly before freezing. This was inspired by the “Cold War”, an outdoor game (74,544 in attendance) between Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota on October 6, 2001. (huh - must have been one of the first major post-911 events?)
Next Heritage game is Leafs/Sabres Mar. 22 at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton. (first time an American team has played this.)
