The Vegas Golden Knights rallied from a storm surge first period to beat the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1, and the game-winner was a beaut. We did the least controversial Pittsburgh Penguins report card of the offseason, but it also intersected with some of the UFA decisions. Elsewhere in the Daily, several NHL trade whispers connect to Montreal, but also the New York Islanders listening on Mathew Barzal. Colorado Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland didn\u2019t take long to bolt Colorado after their season ended and got a promotion with the Nashville Predators. <\/p>\n
Oh, and there will be a new All-Star Game format in February. <\/p>\n
Game 1 was a dandy, eh? I\u2019m sure Carolina will try to control Game 2 and squeeze Vegas, but Vegas can score without much buildup. <\/p>\n
And Thursday morning, I\u2019m going to do a No Pucks Given podcast. The tentative plan is for one of the WBS Penguins to chat with us for a few minutes from Toronto (unless things go poorly in Game 4). Who do you want me to chat with?<\/p>\n
I suspect I\u2019ll reject your first reaction. I don\u2019t want to talk with Sergei Murashov\u2013don\u2019t mess with the goalies on a playoff run. And he\u2019s learned the media shortcut of keeping his answers very \u2026 very simple. For example, \u201cI\u2019m just trying to stop the puck.\u201d So, let\u2019s pick someone else. <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Penguins<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: So\u2026 two teams are left standing this season. In a copycat world, and one in which other teams always try to learn from each other, what can Vegas and Carolina\u2019s construction teach the Penguins<\/a>?<\/p>\n And our latest report card dug into the surprising A+ grades for this season. There were plenty of good grades, and there are a handful that far exceeded expectations, but it also includes some UFAs and apparent decisions. Here\u2019s the latest Penguins analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHL Trade Chatter, News, & National Hockey Now<\/p>\n Carolina Hockey Now: A Game 1 defeat for the Hurricanes. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Jordan Staal was in beast mode, but Vegas chipped away. Rachel Barkey laws down some postgame chill. Carolina lost, but it wasn\u2019t all bad news for the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sportsnet Video: A pretty good four minute synopsis and highlights from the crew at Sportsnet. That game winner was a brilliant pass and perfect finish. Elliotte Friedman also noted an important turning point was John Tortorella\u2019s first-period speech<\/a>. <\/p>\n Colorado Hockey Now: Three big stories. GM Chris MacFarland bolts for Nashville. The team announced president of hockey ops Joe Sakic will take over for the foreseeable future, which means into next season, and the team has decided that coach Jared Bednar is safe. Got all that? Here are more details on the already tumultuous Colorado Avalanche offseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n Boston Hockey Now: One of the out-of-favor defensemen that this writer circled was Boston Bruins D-man Mason Lohrei. Colleague Jack Studley did his latest report card, and he wasn\u2019t very kind to Lohrei\u2019s performance, but dished some A grades to others. Get some inside dish on the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n NHL.com: The league\u2019s press release and story don\u2019t specifically mention it, but they will make space for Russian players at the All-Star game, but not call it Team Russia. The league is going to hold an international tournament, 3v3, and have a 25-and-under skills competition. All in all, not bad for an All-Star game setup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Not bad at all, except it will be at UBS Arena on Long Island. Yep, I\u2019m out. There are undoubtedly 12 bureaucrats preventing more hotels and nightlife around UBS, so I don\u2019t blame the Islanders, but that arena remains the single most difficult and irritating travel spot in the league. <\/p>\n Ottawa Sun: Bruce Garrioch reports that a league source told him the Montreal Canadiens were hot after Vincent Trocheck at the NHL trade deadline but couldn\u2019t get the deal done. Garrioch has NHL trade chatter for both Ottawa and Montreal, but there\u2019s plenty more on the Canadiens side. Of all the stuff that comes out up there, this one seems legit<\/a>.<\/p>\n TVA: Remember the mystery trade that Montreal was working on but ran out of time? It\u2019s still alive. Maybe. The folks up north are on the case, but no, it\u2019s not Connor McDavid. Seriously, there are those rumors. No, but there is a big trade out there<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hey, at least the Sidney Crosby to Montreal stuff has died. <\/p>\n NHLtraderumors.me: Are the Dallas Stars leaving for a suburb? There\u2019s lots of anger and fighting with the Mavericks and the city and now, the Stars have signed a non-binding letter to investigate building new in Plano<\/a>.<\/p>\n As long as I can get there from the airport without an hour-long bus or metro ride or a $100 Uber, I\u2019m fine. <\/p>\n AP: And lastly, the NHL has raised concerns over a new NCAA rule to allow athletes five years of eligibility. Hockey\u2019s junior leagues have also raised concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n Five years. The NCAA should just declare itself a minor league system with pro players, sign some deals with pro teams in the NFL, NHL, and NBA, make the schools not part of the Top 20 a club sport, and get on with it. Over the last 30 years, what \u201cacademics\u201d have done to tuition, education quality, and sports is truly unbelievable. These morons could screw up a cannonball. <\/p>\n Have fun. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: nhl trade<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> Stanley Cup Final<\/a> Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> <\/p>\n Categorized:Links<\/a> NHL Trade Rumors<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights rallied from a storm surge first period to beat the Carolina Hurricanes in Game…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":841795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,10218,1334,62,5514,67,132,68,3116],"class_list":["post-841794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-trade","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup-final","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116687001815215271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}