He was spectacular, it was just briefly and not with Seattle. His 20-21 season with the Avs he went 30-9, 1.95 GAA, .922 SV%, 7 SOs. Those were pretty spectacular numbers and why he was a Vezina finalist and why the Kraken signed him.
I never watched him before he was with the Kraken so that’s very possible.
He was also very good in that 1st round playoff victory against the Avs in 2023, if not quite up to his 2020-21 numbers.
Since then, no, not so much.
Yeah, I was going to point to that, too, but decided to just focus on the spectacular season.
He also was pretty spectacular for the Capitals in 2018 after the All-Star break, taking over when Brayden Holtby started to nosedive. He was something like 11-4, GAA under 2, SV% .93-something. It was kind of surprising that there was even a debate if he would start the playoffs with numbers like those. But then, 2 games in, he played himself right out of being the starter, Holtby returned to solidify his Holtbeast nickname, and the Caps would win the Cup.
So, yeah, briefly spectacular in his final season in Washington, one spectacular season in Colorado, and a very good playoff series in Seattle.
Tonight will be interesting. The Avs and Hurricanes both will be wearing retro jerseys for this game.
Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers, right?
Hockey? Is there such a game? How is it played?
Just kidding. I know hockey well. But I imagine most Canadian sports fans will be following the Blue Jays for the next week. If no Canadians are interested in hockey at this time, well, I’d suggest that it’s understandable.
Rookie Matthew Schaefer’s point streak ended last night on a night that the Isles got 7 goals. You’d think he would have had at least a secondary assist on one of them, but nothing. If he had gotten a point, he would have had the record for longest point streak at the start of a defenseman’s career (on a Thursday, during a half-moon, etc.).
Avco Cup finals? Whalers and the Nordiques each have one. This is the rubber match!!!
The Jets won a bunch of Avco Cups. Or, rather the Utah Mammoth won a bunch of Avco Cups, I think. I don’t know where the team history ended up…
The Mammoth are officially an expansion team with a clean slate beginning in 2024, so the Coyotes didn’t technically relocate, meaning Utah did not take Coyotes, Jets 1.0 (WHA), or Jets 2.0 (NHL 79-96) with them.
So I’m pretty sure the Winnipeg Jets WHA stuff is still part of the Coyotes and the Coyotes are “inactive” for now at least.
Wow, still early in the season, but it’s much tighter in the Eastern conference. Positions 5-16 are separated by one point. 1-4 are all just five points ahead of #16. No one below .500. So, tight.
The West still seems pretty bumpy, with lots of outliers. They’re all over the place. I know I didn’t expect Anaheim to lead the Pacific with around 13% of the games gone.
Wow, didn’t know about the rule that if a player gets two game misconducts for a physical penalty within 41 games of the regular season, they get a one game suspension. Rantanen deserved that being handed to him, though.
Patrick Roy had this to say about the boarding call on Tuesday:
Romanov is out for months after surgery from that hit.
So, Roy is saying that Rantanen is going to get let up when he comes to NY? Sorry if I’m being dense.
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like to me. Rantanen has a target on his back the next time we play the Islanders.
(checks schedule)
Hmm, doesn’t look like that is until Mar 26th. Maybe things will calm down by then, I dunno.
Still tight in the Eastern Conference 11 points between #1 and #16, only 7 between #1 and #15. Only team below .500 are the Sabres. I don’t think the standings in the East right now are likely to predict the end of the season.
By comparison, the Western Conference has a 24 point gap between #1 and last place. Seven more points would get #16 (Nashville) in to the wild card race, but just barely.
And damn, it seems like there’s just a ton of injuries all across the league this year. There always are quite a few injuries, but the high profile off-ice injuries seem to be up.
The East is crazy. Three or four Metro teams would be number 1 in the Atlantic. Win a couple in a row and you’re in first place, lose a few and you’re no longer in the wild card spot.
Wow, a couple of huge trades yesterday.
The Oilers trade one scapegoat for a potential new scapegoat. Is Jarry an upgrade from Skinner? My personal thought is no - it’s a lateral move for a goalie with less playoff experience.
Quinn Hughes gets traded to Minnesota, not New Jersey. This means 3 of the top defencemen in the game are in the Central division. It gets interesting after next season when Hughes’ contract expires. He wants to play with his brothers, however the Wild will be able to offer him the longest term, I think. And I wonder if the Wild can afford both Hughes and Kaprizov?
The cap is going up a huge amount. This season it’s about $95 million, for 27-28 it’s going to be about $113 million. I don’t know Minnesota’s particular situation with their personnel, but I’m thinking they will be able to afford both Kaprizov and Hughes.
But right now it seems very unlikely Hughes will remain a Wild for long. Even if they go deep in the playoffs, playing with his brothers seems to be the most important thing to him which basically makes him a year-and-a-half rental. An extra year of term to stay in Minnesota probably means less than being able to enjoy the prime of his career with his brothers.
Has anyone else noticed all the ‘nontraditional’ numbers that the Sharks use? Four guys have numbers in the 70s and one of them is not 77.