-
Let me be the first to observe that there has never been a week like this in NHL history. The teams that finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th in the overall standings are in the Stanley Cup playoffs ,and a team that finished in the top 10 is alive in the lottery for the first-overall draft …
-
It would have been heartbreaking in any context to know the pain through which K’Andre Miller has lived, but somehow even more so when remembering how ebullient he was after being selected 22nd overall by the Rangers in the 2018 draft and how at the time the then 18-year-old spoke with pride and about his …
-
We’re not suggesting that an MLB-type public squabble is going to break out during the NHL’s negotiations with the NHLPA as the parties attempt to craft a safe, sane and equitable way to put hockey’s 24-team tournament on the ice this summer, but no one should expect the players to simply roll over and accept …
-
So what now of the Stigmatized Seven, those clubs who couldn’t play up to an NHL .500 level before the league entered its pause phase on March 12 and have thus been deemed unworthy of an invite to the league’s imagined 24-team Stanley Cup tournament? What about the fate, primarily as applies to the draft …
-
Not much draws a belly laugh these days, which is why I am so thankful to hear from the folks who are flipping out over a hypothetical 24-team Stanley Cup playoff because such a tournament might be lacking in the integrity department. Remind me where these fine, upstanding, guardians of the hockey galaxy were in …
-
Who doesn’t love rankings? Rankings exist to spark debate. Rankings are subjective, determined by opinions, educated or otherwise. Opinions can’t be wrong, Except, of course, when they are. Which brings us to the fun exercises in which the good folks at NHL.com have been intermittently engaged throughout this coronavirus-induced stoppage of play. A panel of …
-
The NHL and NHLPA are intensifying communications as the league moves forward crafting plans to reopen the season if it is safe to do so. Slap Shots has learned a Return to Play Committee established by the league and the union has conducted a pair of conference calls over the past three days with regularly …
-
So you tell me. In this hypothetical, the NHL is given the all-clear by the proper state health authorities and local governing bodies to resume the season at some point this summer at neutral-site, remote locations with games that would be played without spectators. For the purposes of this discussion, it does not matter whether …
Let me be the first to observe that there has never been a week like this in NHL history. The teams that finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th in the overall standings are in the Stanley Cup playoffs ,and a team that finished in the top 10 is alive in the lottery for the first-overall draft …
