x – A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. We’ve been through some s— here.
1. If Brock Boeser’s final days as a Canuck didn’t already feel numbered after Vancouver tried to deal the sniper at deadline, the player essentially confirmed his walk-for-nothing status this week to colleague Iain MacIntyre.
We can’t see Patrik Allvin offering Boeser more than the reported $8 million times five years. And now that Boeser has come this far without an extension, why not peek behind the curtain and see what else is out there?
With the influx of cap space and scarcity of legitimate UFA scorers in their 20s, we can see a desperate team shelling out for a 25-goal man who ripped 40 just one season ago.
Boston and Calgary want to rebuild on the fly.
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Anaheim, Utah, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and Buffalo are all under pressure to take a step — and have the pockets to (over?)pay new talent.
The Islanders were conservative last summer, but the way things spiraled this winter, they need a shakeup — and more offensive punch.
Some of those teams might swing big for Mitch Marner, if he makes it to market. But once he’s gone, the Boesers and Nikolaj Ehlerses of the world will get courted.
This isn’t the way Boeser wanted to go out, but he finds himself in a great off-season to cash in and start over.
2. The Colorado Avalanche sat Nathan MacKinnon Thursday in the name of maintenance, eight-game point streak be damned, and are considering shutting down the superstar for the remainder of the regular season so he can be fully healthy for playoffs.
MacKinnon has been thrust in an unenviable spot.
He and Nikita Kucherov are knotted at 116 points in a two-horse race for the Art Ross Trophy.
Kucherov is gunning for back-to-back scoring titles. Outduelling MacKinnon means moving past countryman and two-time Art Ross winner Evgeni Malkin to become Russia’s only three-time scoring champ.
MacKinnon has never won an Art Ross. Points also factor into Hart Trophy voting, and that race is tight as well.
How tempted is he to play?
How much would MacKinnon’s sitting this week serve his team next week?
3. If they’re Olympic dreaming, Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard should represent Team Canada at the world championships this May.
The teenage Celebrini was named to the original roster for the 2024 squad but didn’t end up going; Bedard did, scoring five goals and eight points during Canada’s disappointing fourth-place finish.
Celebrini has said he is keen to participate. We’d love to see Bedard return to the tournament. After such a trying season in Chicago, he needs a win.
4. Quote of the Week.
“It’s probably worse than having kids. You might have two or three kids, but (coaches) gotta worry about 23.” —Craig Berube, tongue in cheek, on the all-consuming responsibility of being an NHL coach.
5. The first playoff series to be etched in stone — Carolina Hurricanes versus New Jersey Devils — features two head coaches who have never missed the dance.
Sheldon Keefe’s playoff record (16-21) pales next to Rod Brind’Amour’s (38-36), however. Under Brind’Amour, the Canes have always won their opening postseason series.
Yes, Brind’Amour won’t have either Martin Necas or Mikko Rantanen, but Keefe is missing Jack Hughes. Key defencemen Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler are hopeful to participate but not guaranteed. And how rusty will they be after their weeks-long layoffs?
Carolina has the edge in offence, but Jersey’s defence and goaltending have been stingier.
Give the special-teams edge to the Devils, the only NHL team to rank in the top three in both power-play and penalty-kill success. That said, Carolina does own the league’s top PK.
Heads up, the sides split the season series 2-2, and neither is heating up down the stretch. They’re both 4-5-1 in their past 10.
We’ll give the edge to Brind’Amour’s squad based on health and home ice. Carolina is the only Eastern Conference team with 30 wins in their own barn.
Hurricanes in five.
6. The Pittsburgh faithful chanted “M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!” after Sidney Crosby spiraled a $1 million football toss smack on target during Pat McAfee’s Big Night AHT variety show at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.
Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang joined Steelers quarterback legend Ben Roethlisberger and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes on stage. A player from the three sports chucked a football through a target at the end of the stage, and each successful target added $1 million to a jackpot that some lucky audience member would take home.
“You stand at centre ice, you don’t expect to be holding the football, throwing for a million dollars. That’s the last thing you expect when you’re at centre ice,” Crosby told reporters.
“It’s a little different being out there with no ice, no gear. But just an awesome experience.”
Sid can do it all.
7. That fateful night in Arizona 19 years ago, when Alex Ovechkin scored the wildest, back-spinningest of his 895 career goals, former record-holder Wayne Gretzky was on the Coyotes bench.
And the only active player who should even dream of one day surpassing Ovechkin’s total was in the barn too.
“For him to be on his back and somehow manage to get it through a four-foot area and into the net was pretty unbelievable,” Auston Matthews, just a kid in the stands, said. “To see it in person was pretty special… one of the best goals ever.”
Piling 398 goals through 625 career games, Matthews has the highest goals-per-game average (0.64) since he entered the league. (Ovechkin’s career rate is 0.60.)
But even though Matthews is outpacing a legend, it’s hard to fathom any sniper matching Ovechkin’s durability and longevity.
“That’s such a long ways away, or a long way to go,” Matthews says. “I don’t think I should even be in that conversation. This guy just broke the record. I’m so far away from that, and it shouldn’t really be a focus on myself. It, rightfully so, should be on Ovi and what he’s been able to accomplish in his career, this record being one of them.”
That back-9 Ovechkin (42 goals at age 39) actually increased his lead over prime Matthews (30 goals at age 27) this season is crazy.
Unless Matthews, who missed 15 games to injury, scores a goal per game to wrap the season, he will finish with a new career low in goals (current low: 34 as a sophomore in 2017-18).
On the flip side, Matthews has become more of a playmaker. He has 44 assists and is only two helpers away from setting a career high in that category.
That the gap has widened in one of Matthews’ prime-age seasons, though, adds perspective to Ovechkin’s 895.
“I can’t even count that high. That’s pretty astonishing,” Matthew Knies says. “Maybe we’ll see (someone break it) down the line. Thirty-four could do it.”
8. Russia — the NHL’s fifth nation, booted from the Face-Off — is having a moment.
The week began with Ovechkin’s historic snipe — past fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin, no less — and continued with the hotly anticipated arrival of Montreal’s imported hype machine Ivan Demidov, who might make his debut Monday and has already toured Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame.
Ovechkin’s feat was celebrated in D.C. by 895 schoolchildren who turned out to chant his name at the Capitals’ first practice since the record, and former teammates Alex Semin and Ilya Kovalchuk showed up to keep the festivities rolling at Capital One Arena.
Then the Hurricanes finally inked Alexander Nikishin, the top KHL defence prospect they drafted back in 2020. The 6-foot-4, 216-pound Nikishin has put up 55, 56, and 46 points in his past three seasons overseas and, like Demidov, could be an X-factor this postseason.
Toss in the newly healthy Kirill Kaprizov’s OT heroics, and the aforementioned Kucherov’s Art Ross bid, and the Russians are dominating headlines.
9. Mitch Marner has been knocking on the Century Club’s door for years now but has been left hanging outside the gate.
He finished with 97 points in 2021-22 and 99 in 2022-23.
Following a three-point show at Amalie Arena, the winger needs only three points in Toronto’s final four games to reach his magic number of 100.
“It’s like a guy scoring 50 goals,” Berube says of the chase. “It means a lot to the player, individual, and to our team and to the organization. He’s just gotta make sure he stays in the moment with things and plays the right way and the points will come.”
Marner downplays the milestone: “I really don’t care, in a way. I mean, we just want to win games and try to get the first in our division. So, if it happens, it happens. That’s great, but I’m just trying to go out there and win hockey games.”
Knies does not: “It’s incredible to go to 100 points. That’s really cool. It’d be awesome to be part of it, you know? I’m going to try my best to get him there.”
For all the productive seasons of the Core Four, Matthews is the only member of the Century Club, racking up 106 points in 2021-22 and 107 in 2023-24.
John Tavares — 67th in all-time NHL scoring — peaked at 88 points (2018-19), and William Nylander went cold last April and got stuck at 98.
Matthews commends Marner’s seemingly inevitable achievement, particularly under the stress of a contract year.
“It’s not easy going through all the chaos that can be around him and the season and everything. But I think he’s handled everything amazing,” Matthews says. “His focus is on hockey. It’s on the team. And he’s a guy that goes out there and gives a great effort every night.
“He’s just going to continue to elevate his game here as we go along this final stretch.”
10. Hours prior to Wednesday’s thrilling overtime loss at home to the Maple Leafs, Lightning coach Jon Cooper was asked about his concern heading into the season series finale without a win against Toronto.
“When you drive your car, do you look in the rearview mirror the whole time or do you look out the windshield?” Cooper asked in return. “I’m more a windshield guy.”
Better call Auto Glass.
Matthew Knies and the Leafs promptly crashed right through that windshield, sweeping the Bolts 4-0 in 2024-25.
Cooper had tried downplaying the result’s importance before puck drop, saying the winning team would frame it as a big two points (they did) and the losing side wouldn’t read much into one of 82.
But the coach was perturbed by his team’s lack of preparation, using the word embarrassing multiple times to describe how they dug themselves an 0-2 hole by the 3:33 mark.
Toronto’s 48 hours in the Sunshine State this week taught us that mental edge and matchups matter in the Atlantic.
The Panthers have zero fear of the Leafs, who sit four points clear of them in the standings. Physically and psychologically, the Cats are straight-up a bad matchup for Toronto, beating the Leafs in all three games that Aleksander Barkov dressed this season.
Conversely, the Leafs are long past looking for respect in the handshake line from Cooper & Co. Momentum from 2023’s Round 1 victory has continued.
One member of Toronto’s staff said Amalie Arena looked “like the Autobahn” this week, and the Leafs have enough high-end gamebreakers — plus a newfound commitment to shot-blocking — that trading a few chances works in their favour.
More crucial: The Leafs have Andrei Vasilevskiy’s number.
The Vezina winner may have the second-best save percentage this season (.922), but in three outings versus Toronto, he has allowed 12 goals, been pulled once, and never posted a save percentage better than .871.
Staring out the windshield, Toronto must dodge Florida, and Tampa must swerve away from the Leafs.
11. Life in the National Hockey League comes at you fast.
With the out-of-nowhere Canadiens on the brink of clinching a playoff berth, both the 2024 Presidents’ Trophy winners (Rangers) and 2023 Presidents’ Trophy winners (Bruins) have failed to make the playoffs — in a season where it didn’t even require a positive goal differential to do so.
Four of the past seven regular-season champions won’t be competing for the Stanley Cup. A stark reminder how swiftly the landscape changes and why competitive windows must be seized.
Sidenote: When we see teams that allow more goals than they can score, like Montreal (minus-20) and Minnesota (minus-13) or Calgary (minus-21) making the dance, the idea of expanding the postseason feels like charity, not parity.
12. In my limited interactions with Greg Millen, the seasoned analyst and long-serving goalie was always gracious and conversational and quick with a keen observation about the game.
But I didn’t know the man nearly as well as some of the other folks at Sportsnet. Which is why Chris Cuthbert’s ruminations on how Millen prepped for broadcasts and his various other interests and talents is so fascinating.
Great stuff here from C.C. Please give it a listen:
