32 Thoughts: NHL re-opening review into Arthur Kaliyev’s gambling

• What was up with Minnesota’s weird game-winning goal?
• Is Logan Thompson on Team Canada’s radar this time?
• How Dan Muse is getting more out of the Penguins

Quick note before we officially begin the blog: November is Hockey Fights Cancer month, one of the best things the NHL does. 

The timing is coincidental, but I just went for a colonoscopy. (A friend asked if I scheduled it after the Vikings game because I expected the Lions to win 40-0.) I’m probably like most guys when it comes to health. I ignore almost all ache or pain, and abhor even taking one aspirin. 

That said, as much as I despise Dulcolax and Peglyte, I don’t fool around with this.

I’m 55, and this is my third since 40. Got the thumbs up, don’t need another for 10 years. Don’t be an idiot. Take the time, get it done. It’s not just for you, but especially for a partner/children depending on you. 

According to several sources, the NHL re-opened its look into Arthur Kaliyev’s gambling following Monday’s Mollie Walker New York Post story. 

I’m going to stick to what I can confirm at this time — as the NHL, the NHLPA and Kaliyev’s representatives aren’t commenting.

Before the story was published, the league was aware of social media posts accusing him of running up gambling debts. Kaliyev was questioned about it. I’m not sure who did the questioning, but he was asked. Generally, in these situations, the league is worried about two things: a) did you bet on hockey? and b) did you bet illegally?

At that time, the answers were “no and no,” and there was no evidence to prove otherwise. When the NHL suspended Shane Pinto, they had hard evidence that someone had access to his account and was doing things they shouldn’t be doing. This wasn’t the case with Kaliyev, who, again, has maintained he didn’t violate any rules. 

Those same sources indicated that, as of Wednesday afternoon, nothing new had been discovered linking Kaliyev to anything that would get him penalized.

Walker’s story brought new eyeballs and attention. No idea where this is going to go — if it goes anywhere at all — but it is notable they are looking to see if they missed anything. 

32 THOUGHTS

1. Let’s start with the ending of Nashville/Minnesota. My general rule is: How would I feel if the Stanley Cup Final was decided this way? Answer: about as good as I felt after four litres of Peglyte. Two things can be true: A) If I was Nashville, I’d be super pissed and B) If this makes defenders/goalies think twice about pushing the net…I’ll take it.

In live action, I didn’t think it would count. In its official statement, the NHL quoted rule 63.7: “In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”

What had the Predators angry — and the reason I thought it would be disallowed — was that Marcus Johansson hit the side of the net. That violates the rule, as the puck wouldn’t have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts. Gord Stellick had an interesting counter on his NHL Radio show Wednesday: that if he was lining up a putt and someone did something to the hole, no one would accept the interference. (Gord also wanted to make sure everyone knew he got a hole-in-one at Cabot last summer.)

If this is our baseline, stick with it. The worst thing is when you say, “Okay, this is how it’s going to be,” and three weeks later, you get a directly opposite interpretation. That’s terrible. When I vote, I vote for goals. Offence. Give me an excellent reason not to count them. It was bonkers watching this in real time, but the best possible outcome is every team in the NHL showing this to their players, saying, “This is the risk you take.” 

2. Despite the loss, what a huge goal at 19:59 of the third period for Steven Stamkos. It got the Predators a point and gave him something to feel good about. Earlier in the third, he’d misfired a prime Jonathan Marchessault setup, and I was thinking, “That’s when you know it’s bad.”

The biggest indicator of concern about the Nashville/Stamkos match is his shot rates. The last three years in Tampa, he had 241, 240 and 262. Last year in Tennessee was 174 (he shot 15.5 per cent, a 40-goal pace with 262 shots.) This season, he’s on-pace for 175. He’s just not getting attempts as often as he used to. That said, it’s never a one-way street. Barring a trade for a distributor, he’s got to do everything he can to make an impact, whether that means changing his game or impacting it in other ways. He even played net-front on one of the power plays last night. But Stamkos is in the NHL to score, first and foremost. I do not believe any kind of bold trade request is the plan, but I think if there’s a situation that made sense everyone involved would have to look at it. 

3. Extension I’m starting to wonder about: Trevor Zegras, Philadelphia. Eligible now. Yes, it’s only been 13 games, but it looks like a good fit and I can see the Flyers gauging interest in lengthening the relationship. 

4. I don’t know that there’s anything going on trade-wise with Mason Lohrei. But I do know that when a talented, young player like him sits four games in a row, others call and ask what’s up. 

5. Minnesota and St. Louis were among the most active teams last week — probably to make sure they weren’t missing any possibilities. The Wild won two straight to temporarily calm the waters, but the Blues’ performance Wednesday in Washington won’t make them any happier. 

6. I’m not expecting anything in the near term, but here’s an under-the-radar team to watch on the market: 6-2-4 Seattle. These Kraken resemble the 2022-23 version, hard-working, greater than the sum of their parts, a team that upset Colorado in the playoffs. Their issue, as usual, is scoring (24th in goals per game).

The trade they made last year with Tampa Bay, where Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde went to the Lightning for a return including two first-round picks (top 10 protected) gives them five first-rounders (and four seconds) in the next three drafts. They don’t have to rush into anything, but those are the kinds of assets that can add an impactful offensive player. Other teams have noticed what they could, in theory, move.

7. Lane Lambert on what he learned in Toronto: delegate. He said Craig Berube is very good at empowering his assistant coaches to get critical work/strategy done so he can focus on the players. 

8. Nothing major, but a few other locations to keep an eye on: Edmonton’s roster. The Oilers could send players to the minors and through waivers to ease the upcoming roster crunch as injured players return. But they are trying to get Troy Stecher a new opportunity. 

9. Carolina’s goalies. Brandon Bussi played his way into the rotation, and waivers is a risk. They’ll carry three, they’ve done it before, but can’t use waivers as an avoidance option since Pyotr Kochetkov can’t escape them either. They were looking for defence, but injured blueliners are getting closer to returns. 

10. Buffalo’s goalies. Devon Levi split the net in AHL Rochester early on, but it looks like he’s getting the lion’s share of the work now. They are trying to find a new home for Alexandar Georgiev. The Sabres have made it clear Colten Ellis is staying. Someone asked me if Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen could be moved, but I’d be surprised. He’s still their most-experienced and best option, assuming he is healthy. 

11. David Kampf. I’ve heard there is pushback to terminating his contract. We’ll see how things play out. But he remains on leave from AHL Toronto, and it was clear his heart wasn’t in it. 

12. An undrafted free agent picking up steam is soon-to-be 24-year-old Belorussian Vitali Pinchuk. Point-per-game player in the KHL, big, left-shot centre. There are several teams looking at him.

13. When Jonathan Huberdeau missed the start of the season, the Flames couldn’t wait to get him back because he’s their most creative offensive player. Scoring is a challenge for them, and even harder when he’s not there. It’s been overshadowed by their tough start, but he’s been very good, via both the eye test and the underlying numbers. He’s got to keep going in a positive direction, but I can’t help but wonder if the rising cap takes the focus off his contract and more to his play. 

14. Logan Thompson’s off to a dynamite start for Washington. He wasn’t selected to the 4 Nations because Canada wasn’t certain he’d handle being the backup. I’d heard the snub motivated him to prove that wouldn’t be case, that he wanted to be in the conversation and was prepared to talk to the selectors about it. (No confirmation, but I’ve heard there was communication.) Jordan Binnington is a lock, and deserves to be unless he completely craters off the the face of the earth. After that, there are questions, especially since word is Adin Hill is out a few months. I think Thompson is a contender, on merit. 

15. Binnington trying to steal Alexander Ovechkin’s 900th goal puck reminded of a similar situation in the 2006 playoffs. Ray Emery’s first postseason win that year against Tampa Bay. Tim Taylor grabbed the puck at the end of the game before any of the Senators could. The next day, he told media he “threw it in the garbage.” Ottawa eliminated the Lightning in five games. During the handshake line, Taylor — who kept the souvenir the entire time — presented it to Emery, saying he hoped the goalie understood the gamesmanship. Emery laughed it off. 

16. Best early-season trend of 2025-26 is there are fresh, new, exciting teams to watch. Anaheim, obviously. Montreal and Detroit. Utah and Chicago. I find a season more exciting when different teams and players demand your attention. My biggest question about the Ducks is staying power. It’s hard to make the playoffs in this league, a true grind. It’s not that they aren’t capable, it’s just that so many of their best players have never done it.

There’s isn’t another good team right now where so many of their top guys are so bereft of playoff experience. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, however. At the European media tour in 2024 that was held in Czechia, the Czech players went out of their way to praise Lukas Dostal. They said we were sleeping on him. He’s the backbone. Everyone’s awake now. 

17. When Dostal signed his extension last summer, he filmed a video for the Ducks social media pages. The location was Urho Vaakanainen’s apartment, where he was visiting at the time. Vaakanainen said it took Dostal “50 or 60 tries” to get it right. Dostal couldn’t believe this slander. “He’s a liar, it’s not true,” he gasped, claiming the number was actually closer to 15-20. Doesn’t that seem like a lot of attempts? “No, no, 15 or 20?” he laughed. “I think that’s good.”

18. One of the things that’s really struck me about watching Matthew Schaefer is how seamlessly he’s fit in and how much he’s being embraced on a veteran Islander team. We’ve seen situations before where number one picks have trouble gaining the respect of peers and teammates. There can be pecking orders and jealousies. That’s not happening here. Not at all. They have a pack mentality in protecting him, and it’s not fake. Says a lot about who they are.

19. Something I’d laugh at if it happened to me: When the Islanders visited Washington last week, someone with the Capitals who is friendly with Mathew Barzal jokingly had an alarm clock placed in his dressing room stall. The talented forward missed the previous night’s game in Carolina because he was late for the morning skate. We learn our lessons, take our lumps and move on. 

20. Speaking of the Islanders, I would not be surprised if Bo Horvat is a less-discussed name on the Team Canada radar. Nine goals, and the brain trust looked hard at him when the Olympics were a possibility for 2022. 

21. When Dan Muse was hired to coach Pittsburgh, one person who knew him said he wondered if Muse was “too nice” to be a successful head coach. Everyone knew his work ethic, his love and knowledge of hockey, but would he be able to command respect and bring the hammer down on a treading-water Penguins team with such dominant personalities?

Despite what happened Tuesday in Toronto, the early returns are strong. There’s a long way to go, and injuries are piling up, but Pittsburgh is better than expected and the kids look good. I posed the “too-nice” question to 19-year-veteran Kris Letang, who had a great answer.

“Sid, Geno and I have been around 20 years,” he replied. “We’ve seen all kinds. You know what matters? Can you make us believe in what you’re trying to do?” Letang called Muse’s training camp “the hardest I’ve ever had,” saying that the coach made every drill a competition with the losers getting bag skated. (Letang added that, due to the influence of fitness coach extraordinaire Andy O’Brien, those hard skates involved more crossovers as opposed to stopping-and-starting to avoid early-camp groin injuries.)

He also said Muse made sure to inform players of the drills before on-ice sessions began so there was no standing around and placed the onus on them not to forget what to do. Wins matter. It’s hard to sell your vision when you are losing. But Muse certainly got his veterans’ attention. 

22. Letang’s best quote was this one: “I said to Sid, ‘It’s tough out there. All that extra skating when you lose.’” Crosby replied to him: “My team didn’t lose.”

More from Sportsnet

How are NHL’s nine new coaches faring so far?

What’s behind Pittsburgh’s surprising start, and is it sustainable?

23. Erik Karlsson is killing penalties again. It’s early, but he’s averaging 1:48 per game shorthanded, fourth-highest of his career — on the league’s 10th-best unit entering Wednesday’s games. He did it sporadically the last few seasons, but this is, so far, a bigger commitment. Karlsson said Muse is trying to challenge players with more responsibility, or different responsibilities than they were used to.

“I see him say, ‘Maybe you can’t help us the way X player can, but you can help us in another way.” One example was of a player who wasn’t physically dominant, but had a great stick. He encouraged that player by saying, “If you get the same results with your stick that the other player gets with his body, that helps us.” 

24. Karlsson’s off to a strong start, and we’ll see where this goes. His dollars are now very manageable, and may be even more enticing with the cap’s rise. He’s got control of his future, but the better he goes, the more options there could be — including finishing his term in Pennsylvania. 

25. Deeper down their organization, there is an unusual story involving one of Pittsburgh’s prospects: Emil Pieniniemi. A defenceman drafted 91st in 2023, he had 60 points in 60 games last season for OHL Kingston. Pieniniemi did not make the big club in training camp (as expected) but where this went sideways is he objected to going to ECHL Wheeling as opposed to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He’s gone back to Finland, and is suspended by the Penguins. At issue is the belief that his skillset would be better served developmentally in the AHL than the ECHL, that the latter league isn’t the right place for him at this time. The Penguins are holding firm.

26. The only thing that annoys me about Dallas’s outdoor game is that it’s on a Saturday, so I won’t be able to go. Initially, I thought Colorado was the obvious opponent, but doesn’t Edmonton make a lot of sense, too? Wouldn’t Connor McDavid at JerryWorld be an obvious sell? Whatever the case, the calendar is filling in. All-Star Game on Long Island, outdoor game in Dallas and a Heritage Classic brewing in Winnipeg. Let’s see what else arrives.

27. Not every team cares about the 10-game mark for rookies. What they all do care about is 40 on the roster. That’s where you accrue a season towards unrestricted free agency, and decisions will be made about who really gets to stick around. 

28. I don’t have an answer for this, but there is a lot of concern about all of the injuries. Maybe next year is different when the season starts earlier and the schedule isn’t so compressed. But everyone mentions the amount of injuries. 

29. I really liked Tampa Bay recalling Scott Sabourin to make sure his four-game NHL suspension was served. They did right by him. Letting it linger would have doomed any chance of a future call-up.

30. My Nov. 1 stat: 82-game seasons, during the cap era, 72 teams were at least four points out of the playoffs after games on that date. Only 10 made the postseason. That’s it. Last year, it was 0-2. This year’s challengers — Calgary, St. Louis and San Jose. No one in the East, way too tight.

31. A couple of shoutouts: Nobody loves sports more than Peter Loubardias, inducted last weekend into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame. Extremely deserving, and even more impressed that Sam Cosentino, a former Blue Jays employee, made the trip even though it was the night of Game 7. Lesser friends would have bailed. Also wanted to mention Vanessa Kezwer, one of our teammates at Sportsnet who left for a role in the PWHL. We are dumber without her. 

32. Next Tuesday in the 40th anniversary of Pelle Lindbergh’s death, a day remembered for all of the wrong reasons. Lindbergh died in a car accident after a team get-together at a bar. Alcohol was involved. Later this week, filmmaker Charlie Minn is debuting “The Swede of Philadelphia,” a personal project about that day and the lives affected by the crash. Link to the trailer: https://swedeofphiladelphia.com/trailer.html.

I don’t know what I’ll feel after watching, but I do remember how sad and unnecessary his loss felt.