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Plot twist: Vancouver Canucks bench Top 6 forward, go with Swede Line in Game 5 vs Edmonton Oilers
This in from Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play announcer of Vancouver Canucks radio, news that Vancouver is benching Top 6 winger Ilya Mikheyev and grinder Sam Lafferty and going with an all Swede line led by struggling Elias Pettersson. Höglander. Lindholm. Pettersson. Suter. Miller. Boeser. Joshua. Blueger. Garland. Di Guiseppe. Åman. Podkolzin. Extras: Mikheyev, Lafferty, Karlsson Hughes. Hronek. Soucy. Myers. Zadorov. Cole. Friedman. Juulsen. Said Sportsnet’s Irfaan Gaffar “All 🇸🇪 (Swedish) line reunited. Pettersson on wing. Hopefully they’ll be able to scoot around and get some more offence going for Vancouver tonight.” Sportsnet’s Dan Riccio noted: “Höglander-Lindholm-Pettersson played 57 minutes together at 5v5 during the regular season. They scored 5 goals and gave up 2 while carrying a 48.9xGF%. (as per moneypuck).” And Mike Kelly, analyst for the NHL network: “Elias ‘The Fixer’ Lindholm will have Elias Pettersson on his wing tonight. Great opportunity for Pettersson to increase his impact in the playoffs as he’s been stuck on the perimeter in the offensive zone far too often. Pettersson scored 40% of his goals from the inner slot this season – he has 0 shots from there in 10 playoff games.” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said that he felt he had to give Pettersson better linemates, reported Noah Strang of The Daily Hive. Said Tocchet: “We watched video together, he’s energized… That’s my job. I’ve got to help the kid out too.” My take 1. Star forward Pettersson has been in a scoring funk in the playoffs, just one goal and three assists in four points. Changing up his linemates is a way to get things going, and that includes the benching of his former linemate forward Ilya Mikheyev. Mikheyev is the second year of a four-year deal that pays him $4.75 million per. He’s been a Top 6 forward for the Canucks much of the season. 2. Mikheyev has no goals and no points in 10 playoffs games. He’s playing just 12 minutes a game. In the regular season, he played 14 minutes per game and had 31 points in 78 games. Clearly Mikheyev was one of the 5-to-7 passengers that Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet lashed out at after the Game Four loss. There’s been no shortage of criticism of Mikheyev in Vancouver, with blogger Daniel Wagner saying, “I can’t speak for Elias Pettersson, but if I was an elite hockey player who had to watch my primary linemate repeatedly lob pucks into the crests of opposing goaltenders, I would also sink into an existential malaise.” There’s also heat on Pettersson, with radio announcer Brook Ward of Sportsnet saying: “Maybe Pettersson simply can’t handle the tough going of the playoffs. He looks like he’s about 14O pounds. Looks like a kid playing against men. Maybe playoffs are simply not a good fit for him.” Related Rest by day, thunder by night for Kane, Draisaitl and Ekholm Happy trend started for Calvin Pickard 3 years ago and now look! Starting again 3. Vancouver has got to change up something. They’re in this series mainly because of goaltending, the Canucks getting great goaltending from Arturs Silovs and the Oilers not getting it from Stuart Skinner. The Grade A shots in the series are 70 for the Oilers, just 38 for Vancouver. The Oilers are dominating the flow of play. For Vancouver to win, they must reverse that trend somewhat. 4. Tocchet included Pettersson on his list of playoff passengers, a heavy insult for a top forward, but the coach also mentioned that having better linemates for Pettersson might work. Vancouver has now made that attempt, forming a Swede Line, with Pettersson, Nils Hoglander and Elias Lindholm. Hoglander has just one assist in eight games, but Lindholm has been one of the best Canucks in the playoffs with eight points in 10 games. 5. As you will recall, Tocchet questioned the effort and performance of a third of his team after the Game 4 loss, saying, “We need five or six guys to get going here. I mean, it’s the Stanley Cup playoffs. With some guys I don’t know if they thought it was playoffs. We can’t play with 12 guys. We got to figure it out quick.” And: “You can’t win if you have five or six passengers, or seven. I don’t know how many, but there was at least half a dozen just passengers tonight.” Asked about star forward Elias Pettersson not getting it done, he said, “Like I said there’s five or six guys. He’s got to get going. I don’t know what else to say.” It will be interesting to see what this public scolding brings out in the Canucks but it’s hard to imagine one team will be more desperate than the other. This Oilers team has crashed out of the playoffs repeatedly in the playoffs. It’s won some series, but has yet to get out of the Western Conference. The clock is ticking on the Oilers, so plenty of reason for them to play with ferocity and urgency as well. 6. Optimism is now rising in Vancouver, it seems, with Canucks radio host Satiar Shah saying, “Old enough to remember people putting a fork in JT Miller and Brock Boeser last year to watch them have a resurgence this season. The same lesson will apply to Pettersson who has clearly been underwhelming but he’s far from the finished product.” P.S. Here is how I remember Darren Dutchyshen, the TSN anchor who worked at ITV in the 1990s, endearing himself to sports fans with his wit and humour. At the Cult of Hockey McCURDY: Rest by day, thunder by night the recipe for Kane, Ekholm and Draisaitl STAPLES: Risky bet from Vancouver Canucks’ Rick Tocchet in high-stakes game with Kris Knoblauch of Edmonton Oilers
Knoblauch picks Picks: hopeful trend for Edmonton Oilers goalie began 3 years ago -- and now look
Playoffs Game Day 10: Oilers vs Canucks This in from Mark Spector of Sportsnet, news that goalie Calvin Pickard will start for the Edmonton Oilers in Game Five against the Vancouver Canucks. Said Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch: “Same lineup. Picks will be our starter.” And from TSN’s Ryan Rishaug: “Pickard in starters net. Lines that are skating are the same. No Draisaitl or Kane. Henrique is out here but not taking line rushes.” My take He’s not that big, he’s not that fast, he’s got a style of play straight out of the 1980s, but there’s no denying Edmonton Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard has turned around his career. When we take a look at the career of Pickard, now 33, the Game Four hero and Game Five starter, we notice three distinct trends, one of them devastating, two of them promising. Promising Trend #1 Pickard came into the NHL as a promising prospect, a four-year starter out of the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds, with enough heft to his game that Colorado spent a second round pick on him in 2010, the same year Edmonton drafted Taylor Hall first overall. In his first four pro seasons, Pickard looked every inch the future NHLer, at once grabbing the starting job at Colorado’s top farm team in Lake Erie and excelling there with save percentages of .918, .906, .917, and .917. In those same seasons, he got two lengthy auditions with Colorado in the NHL, posting a .932 save percentage in 16 games 2014-15 and a .922 save percentage in 20 games in 2015-16. The future belonged to Pickard in Colorado, right? No so fast. Devastating Trend Picard crashed as a starter in 2016-17, posting an uninspiring .904 save percentage in 50 games. He got beat out by the far more sturdy Semyon Varlamov and moved to Toronto in October 2017 for a no-name prospect and a 6th round pick. That trade kicked off a Sequence of Pain in Pickard’s career that was to last four seasons. It saw him kicked around from Toronto, where he had the lowest save percentage on the team, to Philadelphia (fifth lowest out of eight goalies), to Arizona, (lowest) to Detroit (lowest) and back to the minor leagues. All that time his play was poor-to-atrocious. He struggled even in the AHL where he had the lowest save percentage in Tuscon in 2018-19, the fourth lowest save percentage out of five goalies in Grand Rapids n 2019-20, and the lowest for Grand Rapids in 2020-21. In those four seasons, 2017-21, his NHL and AHL save percentages were, consecutively, .857, .863, .892, .889, .903, .797, .874, .882, 875. How he hung on in pro hockey at that point is a mystery. But Detroit GM Steve Yzerman saw something and offered Pickard a new contract. Promising Trend #2 And then something wonderful happened. Pickard turned around his game. He won the starting job in 2021-22 in Grand Rapids, beating out two no-name prospects in the Detroit organization. In 43 games in 2012-22 he posted a .918 save percentages, reaching the same solid level he’d regularly posted earlier in his career when he was a shinny prospect, not a tarnished vet. On the strength of that season, the Oilers signed Pickard to two-year deal at the NHL minimum, with an AHL salary of $300,000. In 2022-23, he was the top goalie in Bakersfield, with a .912 save percentage in 38 games. This year he posted a .938 save percentage in four early AHL games, just as Jack Campbell’s game went sideways in Edmonton. Pickard got the call and got the job done in the NHL, going from emergency measure to reliable back-up, so reliable that few fans made a peep of complaint when Oilers GM Ken Holland made it clear ar the 2024 trading deadline that he was not looking for a goalie. Evidently, a decision had been made that Pickard was good enough that if Stuart Skinner’s game went off-track in the playoffs for one reason or another, Pickard could be counted on to step in and play. That plan was enacted before Game Four and it turned out well for the Oilers. Pickard did not get a lot of action as the Oilers played one of their best defensive games of the year, allowing just nine Grade A shots. Now Pickard gets the start in Game Five. Related Plot twist: Vancouver Canucks bench Top 6 forward, go with Swede Line in Game 5 Steady as he goes Pickard has an interesting style in net. He kicks out big rebounds. He’s all over the place. He challenges shooters. There’s a bit of the 1980s in this style, back when goalies were far more active in net. Whatever the look of his game, Pickard has defied the trend of Edmonton goalies going on long (5 or more game) hot and cold streaks this year. He’s tended to have two or three good games, then one or two weaker games. P.S. Here is how I remember Darren Dutchyshen, the TSN anchor who worked at ITV in the 1990s, endearing himself to sports fans with his wit and humour. At the Cult of Hockey McCURDY: Rest by day, thunder by night the recipe for Kane, Ekholm and Draisaitl STAPLES Risky bet from Vancouver Canucks’ Rick Tocchet in high-stakes game with Kris Knoblauch of Edmonton Oilers
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Ekholm, Draisaitl, Kane: maintenance men by day, difference makers by night
After two hours of continuous uproar, a comparative pall had descended upon Rogers Place. Through two periods Edmonton Oilers had played a strong game, done the right things, built a 2-0 lead. But those dastardly Vancouver Canucks amped up the pressure in the third, gotten a bounce to halve the deficit. Then they got another with under 2 minutes to play, their heroic netminder Arturs Silovs on the bench. From the Oilers’ perspective, a lost faceoff, a moment of indecision, a shot into heavy traffic, and bang, it was 2-2 and the whole building was in shock. In a heartbeat, anticipation morphed to apprehension. It was the key moment of the game. Of the entire series, it seemed like in that moment. So who best to right the Good Ship Oiler? The Maintenance Men, that’s who. I speak specifically of a trio of veterans who had missed the Game Day skate as a “maintenance day”, namely forwards Evander Kane, Leon Draisaitl and defender Mattias Ekholm. Their absence added to the fog of uncertainty that hung over Edmonton’s lines and pairings that were being heavily reworked by coach Kris Knoblauch. Truth is that Kane and Draisaitl in particular have been taking a lot of maintenance days throughout the playoffs, with Ekholm a relatively recent addition with what was reported in some quarters as an illness. All have been dealing with physical issues of some sort, though nothing that would stop any of them from playing that night, mind. Tony Brar of Oilers TV confirmed as much right after the skate: They weren’t just in, they were all in. And in Game 4’s biggest moment, all 3 men were on the ice and contributing to the build-up that resulted in Evan Bouchard’s game-winner with just 38 seconds left in regulation. Here’s the full sequence, courtesy our friends at Canucks Army. The accompanying commentary has a Vancouver viewpoint that can be ignored or enjoyed at the reader’s choice. The main thing here is the video itself. Kane starts the sequence by pursuing the shoot-in hot on the heels of Vancouver’s Filip Hronek, crunching the d-man with a hard bodycheck that served the double purpose of enlivening Rogers Place while also messing up the breakout. Linemate Dylan Holloway — playing in the 60th minute, mind — is next on the pursuit, creating chaos in the other corner. Under pressure, Canucks winger Brock Boeser tries an aerial pass out of the zone to teammate J.T.Miller. The puck never reaches him, because Draisaitl first knocks the pass down in mid-air, then Ekholm cleverly uses the outside edge of his skate blade to keep the disc in the zone and back towards Draisaitl. Possession finally established, the German takes the space available, carrying the puck across the top of the zone before feeding Kane along the side wall. Kane tries one centring pass to Holloway which doesn’t get through, recovers the disc and sends it back to Draisaitl who has taken position behind the Vancouver goal. Surveying the scene calmly, Leon picks out Bouchard moving into position in the high slot, backs up a smidge to open the passing lane, then beats both Nikita Zadorov and Miller with a perfect pass that finds Bouchard’s tape. The d-man then shuffles his own feet to open up a narrow shooting lane, then hits it with a wrist shot that whizzes through Boeser’s and Zadorov’s double screen and finds a hole in a screened Silovs. A lot of small subtle plays and decisions, ones that worked out well for the Oilers. From the visitors’ perspective, a series of small mistakes that proved costly indeed. Game: untied. Series: tied. While Kane’s booming hit was the sequence’s trigger, the highest skill moments — Draisaitl’s knockdown, Ekholm’s kick pass — facilitated the keep-in at the blueline, enabling the second phase of the cycle, this time with the Oilers in possession of the puck. This ice level view gives a better look, confirming (at least to this observer’s satisfaction) that despite claims to the contrary Draisaitl’s knockdown of the puck was legal; a call that in the final minute of play would be automatically reviewed by the league in any event. It also shows how the quick-thinking Ekholm made the best play available to him with the cheeky sidefoot back to Leon. A great reaction with a great result. While the biggest play of the entire game, the game winner represented the culmination of a full night’s work for the Maintenance Men who among them delivered 61 minutes of solid work despite the aches and pains. Draisaitl had scored the game’s first goal on the powerplay, after first drawing the penalty (by Miller). His was a complete performance in which he led the forwards in shots, shot attempts, hits, faceoffs taken and won. His late assist completed a two-point night, his eighth multi-point effort in 9 playoff games. (In the ninth, he had the primary assist on the game’s only goal in a 1-0 win at Los Angeles.) Ekholm had set up the second tally with a quick rush in the neutral zone and a clever pass he slipped through to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins while absorbing a heavy hit from Vancouver’s Noah Juulsen. Ek took one for the team there, with the result that RNH and Connor McDavid broke in 2-on-1 with an excellent outcome. The Swede led the team outright in shot attempts, 4 of them on goal, with 3 blocks at the other end and a couple of hits for good measure. His best moment might have been in the defensive crease, that time he outmuscled Vancouver’s Conor Garland and prevented the opportunistic forward from popping home a loose puck. Related Player grades: Evan Bouchard sprinkles his magic over Edmonton Oilers' 3-2 win over Vancouver Canucks Risky bet from Vancouver Canucks' Rick Tocchet in high-stakes game with Kris Knoblauch of Edmonton Oilers Kane was Kane, creating mayhem in various ways, not all of them good. He took a 4-minute penalty for high sticking in the first period to put his mates in a tough spot, even as they bailed him out brilliantly with an expert kill. He rang a shot off the post for the second straight game. He set up a great Darnell Nurse chance with a strong forecheck. He too landed 4 hits, a couple of them on big Zadorov and the key one on Hronek to begin the decisive sequence. Grading the game, colleague David Staples saw all three players in a favourable light, rewarding each with a grade of 8, Cult of Hockey code for a “great” game. Staples’ extensive comments on each flesh out a full night’s work for the trio. An impactful one, at that. So it is at playoff time in the NHL. Players might be banged up a little or they might be banged up a lot, but it’s a rare few who aren’t banged up at all. Some are too battered to go through the normal daily regimen, and instead take “maintenance” days to preserve their energy for the biggest games of the season. Somehow, when game time arrives, the best of them fight through whatever it is that ails them to deliver the goods. Follow me on X-Twitter @BruceMcCurdy
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SIMMONS: Brilliant GM work by Bill Zito in Florida trumps everything Kyle Dubas did with Leafs
When Kyle Dubas was named general manager of the Maple Leafs some six years ago, he began his hockey journey fortunately with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly already on a star-laden roster. You couldn’t ask for a better launching point for a young GM on the rise. When Bill Zito was hired as general manager of the Florida Panthers, without much applause, he being 21 years older than Dubas, he inherited a roster that included Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad and what seemed to be an overpaid goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky. The Panthers had missed the playoffs the year before Zito arrived. They were undoubtedly a work in progress for the former player agent to solve. The first big move Dubas made in Toronto was the free-agent signing of John Tavares, so exciting at the time, and so strangling and numbing after COVID-19 hit and the salary cap froze, hampering his ability to be bold in his Maple Leafs manoeuvring. Zito, who arrived on the job one year after Dubas and inherited less, wasn’t considered the next great anything. He began with a Panthers team in 19th place in the league and all he’s done since is had a near-sensational run with Florida, winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2022 even after losing his coach, Joel Quenneville, to unofficial suspension. Dubas had five seasons to make the Maple Leafs better. Zito, in five seasons, has put on a managerial clinic that has everyone in hockey taking notice. He has moved the Panthers from average to great, with bold creative deals, and built a team that already has played for one Stanley Cup and likely will play for more under his supervision. The Panthers are on their way to a second Eastern Conference final in two years after winning a Presidents’ Trophy the year before with a different kind of team and a different coach. Zito was like one of those TV show renovators — he took an axe to a lot of the Panthers roster. Most GMs fall in love with first-place teams. Zito let coach Andrew Brunette walk, hired Paul Maurice and began the further dismantling of the roster. This after a 122-point season. In all, Zito has changed five of his six defencemen. He has changed 10 of his 12 starting forwards. He has altered backup goaltenders behind Bobrovsky, many of them playing a large role in the success of the Panthers. But the work done — in particular the trades and free-agent signings (none of which got the splash of a Tavares signing) — has not won him a Jim Gregory Award for GM of the year, but if there was an award for GM of the past five years, he’d be the runaway winner. Over a three-month period in 2021, Zito showed his moxie as a manager by making deals for right-shot defenceman Brandon Montour, game-changing centre Sam Bennett and scoring winger Sam Reinhart. He took advantage of the inexperienced GM in Buffalo, Kevyn Adams, getting Reinhart for goaltender Devon Levi and a first-round draft pick just after he plucked Montour for a third-round choice from Buffalo. What’s happened since then? Montour, the pending free agent, has been so good on the Florida blueline that he gets Team Canada mentions for the 2026 Olympic team. So does Reinhart, who was second behind Matthews in goal-scoring this year in Florida and also has his contract up at the end of the season. All the whirling dervish Bennett has done is take Brad Marchand out of the second round of the playoffs, all but physically overwhelm the Maple Leafs last year and, in between, has provided the Panthers with a different kind of look as an unconventional second-line centre. That was 2021 for Zito. By comparison, that summer, Dubas signed David Kampf, Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase as free agents. Almost all of the Panthers’ big moves came after Zito signed a relatively inexpensive free agent in one-time Leafs draft pick Carter Verhaeghe. All he has done is score at a 31-goal pace over his four seasons in Florida. But the big move — the franchise-changing move — would come in the summer of 2022. The Panthers had finished first in the league with Brunette as interim coach and led by the explosive winger, Jonathan Huberdeau. There was something about the team — even with a record 122 points — that Zito didn’t buy. On July 22, 2022, he made a blockbuster deal with Brad Treliving, then GM of the Calgary Flames, to bring Matthew Tkachuk to South Florida. In the trade, which seemed relatively even at the time, he gave up Huberdeau and one of his top defencemen, MacKenzie Weegar. It hasn’t turned out to be even at all. Treliving was fired in Calgary. The Flames are now in rebuild mode. And Tkachuk has become one of the NHL’s premier leaders in his two seasons in Florida. The deals for Bennett and Tkachuk do not look impressive on Treliving’s resume at a time he has been given the reins to run the Leafs. Whether intentional or not, the moves Zito has made, one by one, have taken the Panthers to a new level. He picked up Gustav Forsling on waivers at the delayed start of the 2021 season. All Forsling did this season was lead the NHL in plus-minus at a rather startling plus-56. He will get some Norris Trophy votes. Makar scores 2 goals, Avs win Game 5 to stay alive in NHL playoffs Maple Leafs' prospect Easton Cowan caps OHL playoff ride with MVP honours Zito had to beef up his defence of Ekblad and not much else and added near all-stars in Montour and Forsling and later signed veterans Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dmitri Kulikov at rather inexpensive prices. Dubas’ best signing on the blueline was bringing in the now-extinct TJ Brodie. Since his large moves, Zito has done some roster finishing. He brought in Steven Lorentz, Eetu Luostarinen and Kevin Stenlund — all inexpensive depth forwards — before he swung big for rentals Vladimir Tarasenko and Kyle Okposo at the trade deadline. And now, a possible shot at the Stanley Cup, brought to you by Bill Zito. The general manager whose name everyone should know. ssimmons@postmedia.com x.com/simmonssteve
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Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram named Masterson Memorial Trophy winner
NEW YORK — Arizona Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram has been named the winner of the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy. The award recognizes the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” It was presented by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) to honour the late Bill Masterton. Calgary Flames defenceman Oliver Kylington and Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen were the other two finalists. Ingram posted a 23-21-3 record, 2.91 goals-against average, .907 save percentage and tied for a league-best six shutouts in 50 appearances for Arizona in 2023-24. Ingram almost retired due to an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and lingering depression before he sought help through the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program in 2021. Claimed off waivers by Arizona in October 2022, Ingram appeared in 27 games for the club in 2022-23 before establishing himself as the Coyotes’ starting netminder this season.
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