Daily reminder that Brendan Smith is a piece of ****

What did he do? Is it worth putting on the list of players more hated than Corey Perry?

broke bedards jaw.

Bratt had 10 SOGs tonight

no goals

I don’t feel he’s hated by enough big fan bases to put above Perry

I'm late on this but my take is that Perry is going to make the Oilers harder to play against in the playoffs and down the stretch and having him and Kane and even Nurse is gonna and already making other fanbases so angry. And I'm sure Perry got the help he needed with whatever he was dealing with and reportedly the Oilers did do their due diligence before signing and Holland said in the press today he talked to Kyle Davidson.

random question but what happened to the prospects thread?

Probably a Blackhawk next year

Pitt vs. Ari had the funniest own goal I have seen since the Sedin era

Also get ready LA about to fire their HC I can feel it

Next year? Pete Chiarelli at least waited three years before trading for the guy that broke McDavid's collarbone.

That would be unwell of the Hawks organization to do.

I guess when Elliott Friedman says it I believe it and it seems STL was in on Patrick Roy.

Seems then that stl won’t be sellers, perhaps will be buyers.

Hiring Roy, or trying to, is the opposite of selling mindset. You don’t bring (try to) in an emotional, experimental, risky (he rage quit his last coaching role) nhl goat if you’re going to settle with 2-3 years of retool.

I wonder if we see a stl buy transaction soon. The mindset may exist.

Laine has about 2 weeks of recovery from clavicle injury.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the target. It fits the depth chart need (somebody who can slot where Perron, Tarasenko, Neal, Hoffman did, especially on the power play which is currently last or near last in league), and age fits the teams forward group - is near Thomas.

I wonder if stl would part with snuggerrud - that’s a good fit for fantilli, and would be my guess at the most premium of the assets going to Columbus. Snuggerud, somebody on stls roster who moves the needle, and some future for Laine. Maybe perunovich is involved and the transaction is complex.

I think a shift in age is inevitable for stl. They will near certainly be involved in a transaction that pulls age forward - add to their top 6 with somebody above 24 by offering somebody 21 or under. They’re stuck with their defensive group and it isn’t awful. It isn’t great but it’s good enough for .500 hockey. Due to that, they cannot “stop competing”. They’re stuck like they are now for years. They have to try to make it work, because there isn’t another choice (unless buyout but seems so extreme). And they aren’t going to have any success if half their top 6 is 22 or under, all of it under 27, which is the path they’re currently on. If nobody is shifted, when next season ends, Kyrou and Thomas will be the oldest top 6 skaters. The shift of age from orielly and Tarasenko, barbashev into straight picks was too big a gap. Think about how many nhl minutes that is which is currently skating in juniors/AHL.

The story I heard was that McDavid healed himself between periods with a touch...but then went on a six-week bender in Kananaskis

Flyers put out a statement:

"Carter Hart has requested and been granted an indefinite leave of absence citing personal reasons. The club will have no further comment at this time."

(that was it)

Really hope it's not the conclusion people are likely jumping too, in December it came out he's been having a recurring sickness due to an undisclosed illness, so I'm led to believe it could be that. He looks really skinny right now too, and sorta sickly which could also be because he's a goalie an they burn a lot of fat, but it would make sense if it was because he was sick too.Whatever it is I hope it's not serious.

Whatever it is, hope he is well.

If you're referring to the WJ investigation I don't think there's any tip-toeing around it. It's pretty coincidental to have 2 members take an unexplained leave within days of each other.
That doesn't necessarily mean the worst, it may be something tangential like stress from the process, or even a completely unrelated coincidence, but the speculation is out there.

..

Why do I get some weird feeling VGK gonna trade for Lindholm now that Eichel probs gonna be on LTIR till playoffs

WSH @ COL tomorrow. So I'll make sure to have a lot of booze to numb the pain.

Vegas trading for Lindholm would actually be such a Vegas kinda move

Chicago resigning Mrazek, another dumb move for a rebuilding team.

I mean, who does Chicago even have at goalie other than Mrazek, they need someone to play goalie, depending on the AAV, that could be a smart move

You trade him and find another guy. Hell, play Soderblom if you must.

What else do we have in net? I’ve long given up on Soderblom being good and everyone else is a rookie and starting rookies in net is a recipe of disaster