Hockey Thread 2021 Season

FU Putin

from Mollie Walker of the New York Post,

New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team in wake of a politically motivated article from Russia, in which his former Vityaz head coach alleges that the ex-forward of the Moscow Region club beat an 18-year-old girl in Riga, Latvia in 2011, The Post’s Larry Brooks reported Monday morning.

Andrei Nazarov, who is currently the head coach of the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, has repeatedly criticized Panarin for the forward’s outspoken beliefs regarding Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime. Nazarov is a known Putin supporter.

The Rangers are expected to release a statement on the situation.


NEW YORK, February 22, 2021 – The New York Rangers today released the following statement regarding Artemi Panarin:

“Artemi vehemently and unequivocally denies any and all allegations in this fabricated story. This is clearly an intimidation tactic being used against him for being outspoken on recent political events. Artemi is obviously shaken and concerned and will take some time away from the team. The Rangers fully support Artemi and will work with him to identify the source of these unfounded allegations.”

Good plan by Boughner and Wilson   Make Karlsson’s first game back from his “injury” a game against notorious thugs with a history of making him crumble and disintegrate like wet Price Club toilet paper. Definitely trying to drive him out of the league. 

After a brutal start to the 2021 campaign, Jeff Skinner is a healthy scratch for the Buffalo Sabres' Monday night contest against the New York Islanders.

Forward Casey Mittelstadt will replace Skinner in the Sabres' lineup.

Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger informed the media of his roster shuffling just a couple of hours ahead of puck drop, confirming his decision to follow through on threats of benching their $72-million forward after Skinner's dismal start to the season.

"I just think it's good for Jeff to take a look once from the outside and we've got coaches active with him, working together to have him come back an even stronger player," Krueger told a gaggle of media members on Zoom late Monday afternoon.

The Sabres have been nothing short of a disaster this season and Skinner has been right along for the ride.

After leading the Sabres during the 2018-19 season, posting personal career highs of 40 goals and 63 points, Skinners production has dipped mightily since inking an eight-year, $72-million deal with the club. In 59 games last season, Skinner posted just 14 goals and 23 points.



This year, Skinner has only managed to wrangle up a single assist through 14 contests while seeing his TOI dip to under 14 minutes — nearly five fewer minutes per game than did two seasons ago.



The Sabres, in full-blown scramble mode, are trying just about anything right now as they currently toil in the basement of the NHL's East division, well back of a playoff spot yet again. Compounding their place at the bottom of the standings is a resurgence in rumors of Jack Eichel wanting out of Buffalo. Given everything else, could you blame him?

Dallas lost 3–1 in Florida on Monday night, a sixth straight defeat. Losing games, however, pales in comparison to all the other challenges the Stars have faced. They were the last team to begin the 2020º–21 season due to a COVID outbreak, and Monday’s game was their first in nine days because of the Texas power outages. They were ready to host Nashville on Feb. 15 when Mayor Eric Johnson asked the team to cancel.

“When you are preparing for a game, you don’t always realize what is going on around you,” GM Jim Nill said. “The mayor explained to us that our power grid was attached to other essential services like hospitals. He was right to tell us we couldn’t play. It was an unprecedented storm. Once we left the arena and became aware of the magnitude, we changed gears: ‘Let’s get a hold of the families. Who has power? Who needs power? Who needs to stay where?’ We have great leadership among our players, coaches and staff. You just deal with what’s given to you.”



Jamie Benn, Anton Khudobin, Esa Lindell and Tyler Seguin (at home in Canada rehabbing his injury) opened their homes to whoever needed them. (Andrew Cogliano and Taylor Fedun, who have young children, were among those who accepted.) Nill hosted a team vice president with two youngsters of their own. A member of the Stars sales force had a house fire (a GoFundMe organized by the team to help with the family’s expenses raised $20,000 more than its goal).



“It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself, but there are a lot of other people going through worse than us,” Nill said. “To see people with no heat, no water, no food for a week — in today’s world you don’t think this could happen, but it did. There was a hotel parking lot — it was full. The hotel didn’t have power, people were in their cars. It was hard to fathom.”



In our conversation, Nill said a couple of times that it was difficult to explain the situation to someone who didn’t see it firsthand. There was some talk about moving games to Tampa Bay, but scheduling conflicts made that difficult “and the NHL did the right thing, telling our players to worry about getting through this,” he said. “Our players are outstanding. Some of them have burst pipes in their houses. But we will get through it. We’re fortunate — we get to play. Hopefully, we can bring people some enjoyment.”

It may be a few more days before injured San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson is able to skate again.





The Sharks first hoped that Karlsson would be able practice sometime this week and potentially play Saturday when they host the St. Louis Blues. But coach Bob Boughner said Tuesday that Karlsson, who is dealing with a groin issue, may not skate again until next week, pushing back the timeline for his return.



“From what I’m hearing now, this week is still a week where he may not hit the ice and he might start next week,” Boughner said of Karlsson. “So we were anticipating hopefully that he would be getting on the ice and seeing how he feels, but it’s going to be a slower process than I originally thought.”

The Sharks and Karlsson have both said this groin injury is different from the one that sidelined him for several weeks in the second half of the 2018-19 season. Karlsson missed a combined 29 games that season but returned to play 19 of 20 playoff games. He had groin surgery shortly after the postseason ended.



Karlsson was able to come back the following year and play 56 games before a broken thumb in mid-February ended his season. Since he came to San Jose in a blockbuster trade with the Ottawa Senators in Sept. 2018, Karlsson has played in 122 of 169 Sharks regular season games.



“The plan is be careful, take it slow and be meticulous in how we want to rehab him and get him back 100 percent,” Boughner said.





The Sharks have also been without Radim Simek since that Feb. 13 game. San Jose has a 2-1-1 record in their absence. After Monday’s 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Sharks (7-8-2) are seventh in the West Division with 16 points.



OTHER INJURIES: Simek practiced Tuesday and continues to progress from an upper body injury he sustained in the Feb. 13 game with Vegas thanks to a pair of run-ins with Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault.



Simek’s potential return against the team that put him on the shelf for the last week-plus adds another layer of intrigue to the usually intense games between the Sharks and Golden Knights. If Simek plays Thursday, Boughner would likely have to decide whether to keep Nicolas Meloche or Fredrik Claesson in the lineup.





Dylan Gambrell, who sat out Monday’s game, practiced Tuesday morning and could also be on track to play Thursday if he continues to progress. Gambrell had to enter the NHL’s concussion protocol Saturday after he was hit into the boards by St. Louis forward Kyle Clifford.





ON-ICE LESSONS: Nikolai Knyzhov got some pointers after practice Tuesday from Jake Middleton and Kurtis Gabriel on how to better protect himself during a fight. Knyzhov dropped the gloves with Marcus Foligno of the Minnesota Wild in the first period Monday but absorbed several right hands before the two linesmen stepped in at Foligno’s behest.



“I got beat up the first 10, 11, 12 fights I ever had, so it takes takes time to learn,” said Gabriel, a veteran of over 60 fights between the AHL and NHL. “Just showing him how to protect himself and what to kind of watch out for when you’re fighting someone who maybe knows what they’re doing.”



Gabriel was impressed that Knyzhov was willing to take on Foligno. Although both players are roughly 6-foot-3, Foligno outweighs him by 10-15 pounds, and is a veteran of 45 fights over his 10-year NHL career. That was Knyzhov’s first fight in the AHL or NHL.


“Even in St. Louis, watching from up top, I was impressed with his battle level and just getting pissed off, honestly,” Gabriel said of Knyzhov. “We need to get pissed off as a team. That’s usually when a team rallied behind each other, when somebody says enough’s enough and stands up for himself or somebody else.



“We just got to get some more hate in our game. That’s what hockey is at the end of the day. It’s a physical sport.”

Holy cow

Okay I like this.  But do it for crying out loud.  They say the same thing every time but it never translates.

What a punk

He's broken goods. Very expensive broken goods