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Puck to the back of the head forces Garnet Hathaway out of the game.

The Boston Bruins may have lost one of their forwards at an inopportune point in the season.

On Sunday night, during a game between the Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, Bruins forward Garnet Hathaway was knocked out of the game when he was struck in the back of the head by a shot courtesy of teammate Connor Carrick.

It is unclear if the shot from Carrick deflected off of a Flyers stick or not before it struck Hathaway, but the force of the blow to the back of Hathaway’s helmet was enough to send him racing back to the locker room. What is clear is that Carrick did not intend to hit his teammate, and this has been an unfortunate accident in what is a relatively meaningless game for the Bruins at this point in the season as far as the standings are concerned.

Hopefully the injury to Hathaway won’t prove to be serious, we will keep you posted as updates on his status become available.

Update: Hathaway has made his way back to the bench and even took a shift before the end of the second period. It would seem the National Hockey League’s concussion spotters have cleared him, a great sign for the Bruins.

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Trouble brewing between Tony DeAngelo and the Flyers.

Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports

As far as being a competitive team is concerned, for all intents and purposes the 2022-23 National Hockey League season is already over for the Philadelphia Flyers. The team has been well out of playoff contention for quite some time now, but in spite of that the disaster that has been this current season for the Flyers appears to be ongoing.

Over the course of the last few games the Flyers have made the curious decision of making veteran defenseman Tony DeAngelo a healthy scratch, in fact they have now done so for 3 consecutive games. For a healthy and a competitive player like DeAngelo that has to feel like a bit of a slap in the face, especially considering these kind of moves are usually reserved for when a coach is trying to send a message.

If there is a message being sent here though the Flyers don’t appear to be interested in communicating it to DeAngelo, with John Tortorella confirming on Sunday that he hasn’t even so much as talked to the player as of late.

DeAngelo of course has a history of being somewhat of a problem child with some of his previous teams so it isn’t exactly shocking to see him disciplined in this fashion. What is surprising though is the apparent lack of communication towards a player that the Flyers will still have under contract come next season. Former Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher signed DeAngelo to a 2 year deal in the summer of 2022, meaning that he will still be on the books for the Flyers come next season at a cap hit of $5 million.

Alienating one of your regular defenseman so late in the season seems like a questionable move given that context, especially when talking about a player as volatile as DeAngelo.

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Big development regarding Matthew Knies.

Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff

There have been a series of major developments regarding Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect Matthew Knies, all of which point to the fact that he is set to join the team ahead of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

News first broke when ESPN’s John Buccigross reported that Knies was on his way to Florida, a move that coincided with a road trip from the Maple Leafs who are set to play the Florida Panthers this week. Many suspected that Knies would join the Leafs following the conclusion of the NCAA’s Frozen Four, and the report from Buccigross certainly lent credibility to those rumors.

Those are rumors no more however given that National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman has now confirmed that Knies will in fact be signing his deal with the Maple Leafs, a deal believed to be valued at $925,000 per season in terms of his average annual value and salary cap hit.

Acquiring a player at such a low cap hit is always going to be a boon for any team in the National Hockey League, but it is especially valuable for a team like the Maple Leafs that has constantly been dealing with salary cap issues since the cap has stagnated thanks in large part to hockey revenues lost to the pandemic.

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Logan Couture praises the Oilers… but dunks on the Coyotes.

Robert Edwards/USA TODAY Sports

The Edmonton Oilers and their staff earned high praise from the captain of an opposing team in the National Hockey League over the weekend, but that praise came at the expense of another NHL franchise.

The Oilers played the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and during the game, Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft pulled off a move that surprised many. Woodcraft made the decision to inject veteran defenseman Jason Demers into the lineup, this in spite of the fact that Demers had not played an NHL game all season.

The move was designed to give Demers his 700th career game in the National Hockey League, and Woodcroft made it happen against one of his former teams in the San Jose Sharks no less so he could celebrate with some former teammates.

Following the game, Sharks captain Logan Couture was asked about the classy gesture from Woodcraft and he sang the praises of the Oilers coach for caring about his players. Couture though also took the opportunity to rip into the team that had put Demers in a position where he could have potentially never had the chance to play his 700th game at all, the Arizona Coyotes.

“Just the name brings a smile to a few guys here that were fortunate to play with JD,” said Couture on Saturday. “Character. Just a great glue guy in the locker room. Great sense of humor. He was a big part of a lot of those teams that we had.”

“Happy to see him get a chance to play 700 games. I talked to him after he was done in Arizona, and he has a little upset about the way that ended. I think they scratched him a few times near the end of the season at 699 when they were out of the playoffs. As a fellow player, that didn’t sit too well with a lot of guys.”

“But good on Edmonton and [Jay Woodcroft] to bring him up and play in this building for 700. I think that speaks about the type of person that Woody is over there behind the bench.”

It seems likely that Couture is far from the only player that took issue with how the Coyotes handled that situation behind the scenes, and that will be just one more knock against the Coyotes when it comes to potentially recruiting from the pool of free agent players in the future.

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Red Wings announce emergency roster move

Detroit Jock City

The Detroit Red Wings will be suiting up for the final time this season tonight at Little Caesars Arena, taking on the visiting and playoff bound Dallas Stars in what will be fan appreciation night at the venue. But ahead of the matchup, they’ve announced a roster move. 

The Red Wings have brought up forward Taro Hirose from the American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins in an “emergency” roster move: 

According to Detroit Free Press beat writer Helene St. James, gritty forward Adam Erne is absent from practice this morning, necessitating the call up of Hirose. 

Hirose has appeared in 69 games with the Griffins this season, scoring 15 goals with 41 assists for a total of 56 points to lead all skaters. He’s also skated in a total of 58 NHL games, all with Detroit and scoring four goals with 16 assists. 

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Jeremy Swayman tears up and reveals why he pointed to the sky last night.

Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Bruins picked up a historic win on Sunday night when they toppled a Philadelphia Flyers team that made it interesting throughout the game, becoming the winningest team in National Hockey League regular season history with their 63rd win of the season.

All of the focus was on the monumental win for the Bruins, and rightfully so, but for one of the players in the Bruins locker room the win had an even more specifical significance. That player was Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who following the victory was seen pointing to the sky as if to honor those who had passed on.

Following the game Swayman was asked about the gesture and he revealed that he was paying tribute to his former coach Dennis Gendron, better known to many as “Red.” Swayman spoke of one of his mentors during the post game interview but was overcome with emotion when he spoke of Gendron’s passing.

“Tonight was a really special one, two years ago today my all time mentor Red Gendron passed away,” revealed Swayman.

If it happened two years ago, why was Swayman thinking of Gendron last night? Well when Gendron passed away Swayman was in Philadelphia, and the young Bruins goaltender felt like his mentor was looking down on him on the anniversary of his passing.

“I was actually in Philly when it happened, and I think it was pretty scripted today how it worked out,” said Swayman, choking through tears. “It was pretty special for that.”

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Bench clearing brawl at Women’s Hockey World Championship leads to 554 penalty minutes!

A very one sided women’s hockey game this weekend devolved into total chaos.

A chippy game contested between Bulgaria and Romania turned into a full on bench clearing brawl after the host team, Romania, had what can only be described as an offensive explosion of 7 goals in the game’s third period.

The game was a 4th place decider, so there wasn’t even a medal on the line, but it would result in a whopping total of 554 penalty minutes between both teams, including a pair of misconducts for the Bulgarian women prior to the brawl.

In total 19 players on the ice were awarded 25 minute penalties each, Romania was awarded a 20 minute penalty for abuse of officials, and we will have to wait and see if the International Ice Hockey Federation feels further discipline is warranted for this incident.

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Bruins set a single-season NHL record on Sunday night.

Eric Canha/CSM/Zuma

The 2022-23 Boston Bruins can legitimately make a case that they are the greatest regular season team in the history of the National Hockey League.

On Sunday night, the Bruins entered a game against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-way tie for the most wins in regular season history with 62. That record was shared with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, but with a win over the Flyers on Sunday the Bruins earned their 63rd win of the season and claimed the record for themselves.

The Bruins now stand alone atop the mountain having achieved a feat that no other team in the history of the NHL has managed to do and doing so while playing in the Atlantic Division, considered by many to be among the toughest divisions in the league.

Perhaps even more impressive than the record itself though is the fact that the Bruins still have room to extend it. With two more games this week, Tuesday against the Washington Capitals and Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins could eclipse the record previously established by the Red Wings and Lightning.

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Auston Matthews has words for Matthew Knies

The Leafs Nation

The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping that they’ve once again struck Arizona gold, as prospect Matthew Knies was selected in the second round, 57th overall, in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. How ironic that the Leafs could soon have two top players hailing from the hockey hotbed of the southwest desert, given the fact that Phoenix native Auston Matthews is the reigning two-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goal scorer. 

And now, Knies is officially on the roster. Over the weekend, the Leafs announced that they’ve signed Knies to a three year entry level contract after he registered 42 points in 40 games played with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers this season. 

“In two seasons playing for Coach Motzko and his program at the University of Minnesota, Matthew has participated in two Big Ten championship games, Two NCAA Frozen Four Championships, two World Junior Championship tournaments and one Winter Olympic Games,” Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas said. “The impact of that experience in addition to the massive steps the program at University of Minnesota has helped him take on and off the ice are something that we are forever grateful for.” 

And now, Matthews is sounding off on Knies joining the team: 

“Been a pretty big prospect for us for a couple years now so it will be fun to see what he’s all about,” Matthews said. “It’s going to be fun to get to know him a little bit better and see him in this atmosphere.”

“He’s a mature kid. Obviously he’s a big boy and I’m sure he can handle his own,” he continued. “I’m sure he’s excited even though it was a tough loss the other night.”

The Maple Leafs are back in action tonight against the Florida Panthers, who can clinch their postseason ticket with two points.

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Red Wings confirm plans for Simon Edvinsson

The Detroit News

With the Detroit Red Wings wrapping up the home portion of their 2022-23 regular season that will once again see them finish on the outside looking in of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, fans in attendance tonight at Little Caesars Arena will get one more glimpse of rookie defenseman Simon Edvinsson.

Head coach Derek Lalonde confirmed following this morning’s skate that the Swedish blue liner will be skating in his final game of the year tonight against the Dallas Stars. In doing so, he’ll have appeared in nine games as so to avoid shaving a year off his three year entry level contract. 

Edvinsson has shown flashes in the eight games that he’s appeared in since being called up to the big club of having all of the tools the team envisioned when they drafted him with the 6th overall selection in 2021; he’s averaged 16:49 of ice time while having tallied two goals. 

“I think huge, vastly beneficial learning experience,” Lalonde said. “Even a game like (Saturday) — even off those first couple games when he had some urgency to his game and he played really well — sometimes it’s easier to teach off some mistakes, situational stuff that found him the other day against a really good team and him playing in a top-four role (in a 5-1 loss to Pittsburgh). I think the whole experience, one more game to go, very valuable for him.”

Per Lalonde, Edvinsson will likely return to the American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins following tonight’s game.