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Washington Capitals part ways with Peter Laviolette

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In a day that’s already seen massive turnover with National Hockey League coaches and executives, we’ve got yet another name to add to the list of figures who will not be back with their respective teams next season.

Minutes ago, it was announced by the Washington Capitals that they and head coach Peter Laviolette have mutually agreed to part ways, bringing an end to his tenure in the American capital city that began in September of 2020.  

The Capitals missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 this season, racking up a record of 35-37-10. He had been paid handsomely by the Capitals, agreeing to a three year contract upon his hiring worth over $4 million per season. In his three seasons behind the Washington bench, the team went 115-78-27.

“We are grateful for Peter’s leadership and dedication to our organization for the last three seasons,” said Capitals senior vice president and general manager Brian MacLellan. “Peter is a first-class individual who has represented our club with integrity and guided our team through many difficult circumstances in his tenure as our head coach. We wish him all the best moving forward.” 

Laviolette, who is the winningest American-born NHL head coach of all time, has served as head coach of the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, and Nashville Predators prior to his time in Washington. He led the Hurricanes to the 2006 Stanley Cup championship while brining the Flyers to within two wins of the Cup in 2010. 

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Two more NHL coaches fired on Saturday.

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The National Hockey League’s regular season has come to an end and teams from around the league that failed to blossom into a playoff contender this season are now doing some major spring cleaning.

On Friday, we saw a number of high profile firings that ranged from executives to coaching staff and it would appear that the trend is set to continue over the course of the weekend.

The latest comes to us courtesy of Columbus Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline, who reported on Saturday morning that 2 members of the Blue Jackets coaching staff had been given their walking papers. According to Portzline’s report, both head coach Brad Larsen and goaltending coach Manny Legace were informed that they would no longer be with the team moving forward. Legace, a former NHL goaltender in his own right, simply did not have his contract renewed whereas Larsen was fired from his role.

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Western Conference playoff matchups officially set

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First, the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference postseason matchups were set in stone. And thanks to the victory tonight by the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, we now know the Western Conference postseason matchups. 

Colorado’s victory officially crowned them as the winners of the Central Division, and they’ll be taking on the second year Seattle Kraken in what will be their first ever playoff appearance. Colorado will be facing a few familiar faces, as former Avalanche players Philipp Grubauer and Andre Burakovsky, the latter of whom was part of last year’s Cup winning team, now play for Seattle. 

For the second consecrative season, it will be the Edmonton Oilers facing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. The Oilers became the first NHL team since 1996 to feature three different players who eclipsed the 100-point mark in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while this will be the first postseason for Los Angeles without goaltender Jonathan Quick between the pipes since 2002. 

Speaking of Quick, he and his new Vegas Golden Knights teammates are taking on the Winnipeg Jets, who grabbed the last remaining playoff spot in the Western Conference. This will be their first playoff matchup since the 2018 Western Conference Finals that saw Vegas advance in their inaugural season to within three wins of the Stanley Cup. It also marks the postseason debut of former 2015 No. 2 overall pick Jack Eichel. 

And for the first time since 2016, it will be the Dallas Stars taking on the Minnesota Wild. The Stars took down the Wild in their opening round postseason series that year, the first time that the two had faced one another beyond the regular season. It was especially ironic, given that the original Minnesota North Stars left the State of Hockey to become the Dallas Stars in 1993, while Minnesota regained an NHL expansion franchise in the Wild in 2000. 

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MacKenzie Weegar says what everyone else is thinking!

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It wasn’t long ago that an agreement between the Calgary Flames and the city of Calgary to build a new $634 million arena to replace the aging Scotiabank Saddledome was terminated. For now, the Flames remain in only the second building they’ve ever played in (formerly played at the Stampede Corral from 1980-1983), but it’s beyond obvious that the venue is extremely out of date and is even literally starting to crumble. 

Next season will be Calgary’s 40th year playing in the Saddledome, which is the second oldest venue in the National Hockey League behind New York’s Madison Square Garden (which recently underwent a $1 billion renovation). NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman even got stuck in an elevator during last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, causing him to quip, “You need a new arena.”

And first year Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar stated the obvious during his end of season remarks earlier today. Weegar, who was acquired by the Flames last summer along with Jonathan Huberdeau in the blockbuster deal that sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, said that it was time for the Flames to play in a new building.

“I think we need a new rink,” he said. “Maybe that’ll help. The Saddledome obviously’s got some caracter. Maybe a couple updates could make it look a little bit better.”

It absolutely is way past time for the aging Saddledome to be put out to pasture in favor of an updated venue with every possible amenity that Calgary’s bitter Alberta rival in the Edmonton Oilers recently opened in 2016.

Whether or not the Flames get a new rink, Weegar is with the Flames for the long haul, having signed an eight year contract exertion prior to this recently completed season.

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Penguins ownership group explain next steps for franchise

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The Pittsburgh Penguins made a trio of major moves earlier today on the cusp of the franchise having missed the postseason for the first time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie year of 2005-06. 

Maligned general manager Ron Hextall, assistant general manager Chris Pryor, and president of hockey operations Brian Burke were all let go this morning, signaling a dramatic turn in the direction of the team.

Earlier today, Fenway Sports Group Dave Beeston and Penguins director of business operations Kevin Acklin held a brief press conference in which they explained the next steps they’ll be taking in looking to fill those recently vacated positions, while also touching on the future of head coach Mike Sullivan. 

“There’s no parameters or set format for what we’re going to hire. I think we’ve learned in all of our sports endeavors that these jobs are not one-person, two-person jobs,” said Beeston. “They are entire department-wide. And so we’re focused on building a hockey operations machine.”

“I think that the way we’ve thought about our hockey operations, generally, is we want to be forward and proactive,” Beeston said. “Ron, Brian, and Chris were great and served a great role. We are all disappointed with how the season ended, but we’re focused on the future and moving forward.”

How about the status of Sullivan, who helped guide the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017? The answer wasn’t quite as clear as to his future with the team. 

“I think the answer to that is we think Mike Sullivan is one of the best coaches in the NHL. He was extended last season, and then once we bring in a new hockey operations leader, he or she will be responsible for evaluating the coaching staff,” said Beeston. “And we think Mike is terrific.”

In the meantime, the Penguins ownership group is hoping that franchise legend Mario Lemieux, who was the team’s principal owner until 2021, will be more involved in the future. 

“I talked to Mario this morning after the news broke. He talked to ownership as well, to Tom directly. He was at a game a couple of weeks ago … So, to today’s point, he earned some time on the golf course when he sold most of his interests. But, you know, he still cares about the team. And obviously, we’d love to see more of him at the arena. And that’s something we’ll keep engaging with all the time.” 

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Truth of Jonathan Toews’ departure from Blackhawks comes out

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It’s officially the end of an era in the Windy City that saw a franchise resurrected from the dead, the return of home games actually being broadcast on television, and a trio of unforgettable Stanley Cup runs. 

Jonathan Toews, the longtime captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, played his final game with the franchise on Thursday night at a packed United Center against the Philadelphia Flyers. Toews scored a goal for good measure, and got a proper sendoff from the crowd afterward. 

While Toews’ health has cast doubt upon his future playing in the NHL, it doesn’t sound as though he’s quite ready to call it a career on hockey’s biggest stage. And apparently, it wasn’t his decision that Thursday night was the last time he plays for the Blackhawks. In fact, it sounds as though that was purely a move made by team management, led by general manager Kyle Davidson. 

Per Mark Lazerus of The Athletic: 

“MacKenzie Entwistle said Jonathan Toews told the guys in Seattle that the Blackhawks wouldn’t be re-signing him. Nothing formal, just casual talks with teammates in the meal room.”

And according to comments made by Davidson himself, it certainly sounds as though the franchise was ready to move in a new direction without Toews, whether he wanted to or not. 

“I don’t know if resting on sentimentality or the past does us any good in the future,” Davidson said.

Professional sports certainly are a business, and there will be uncomfortable partings that can result in bitterness and hurt feelings. But to Toews’ credit, it doesn’t sound as though he’s sore over the decision – at least not publicly. 

“There’s absolutely no hard feelings,” he said. “I have nothing but love and gratitude for the Blackhawks and Rocky Wirtz and the Blackhawks family — everyone over the years who’s been a part of that. … It’s a business.”

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Milan Lucic reveals just how bad things got for him in Calgary.

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The Milan Lucic saga in Calgary may finally be over, and quite frankly it may even put an end to the Milan Lucic saga in Edmonton considering the Edmonton Oilers originally signed him to his much-maligned contract and were still paying him $750,000 this season due to the salary retained in the trade that sent him to the Calgary Flames.

It brings to an end a period in the career of Lucic that drastically altered the reputation he had as a player in the National Hockey League. Lucic would go from having the reputation of a dominant physical forward with the Boston Bruins, perhaps even among the most feared men in the entire league, to that of a largely overpaid and ineffective forward with the Oilers and Flames.

While it might be easy to suggest that Lucic can brush it off with the millions he has earned in the process, there’s no doubt that all of the controversy surrounding his play and his contract had to have taken a toll on the man, and following the conclusion of the 2022-23 NHL regular season, Lucic admitted as much.

“You want to live up to the expectations of what you’re getting paid and all that type of stuff… and I’m a proud person,” admitted Lucic.

Speaking to the media following the conclusion of the season, a “glassy-eyed” Milan Lucic admitted that it had been a struggle for him during the low points of his tenure with the Flames, and he thanked the fans for keeping his love of the game alive with their chants of “Looch” every time he touched the pucked.

“I gotta say [the fans] made it fun for me again, and I thank the people here for that,” said Lucic.

In fact, things would get so bad for Lucic at some points during his tenure in Calgary that the bruising forward admitted he contemplated stepping away from the game altogether at times.

“It wasn’t fun… and it got to a point for me when it wasn’t fun coming to the rink anymore and all that type of stuff,” admitted Lucic. “It was tough at one point… but that’s why I’m thankful and grateful to have the people around me that I’ve had here in Calgary.”

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Full schedule announced for Oilers vs. Kings in Round 1.

The Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers are about to get very familiar with one another, with the two teams set to clash in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

As is always the case when it comes to the playoffs, fans are eagerly anticipating this meeting between the two squads and on Saturday we received more details regarding when the teams can be expected to play.

The series will kick off this coming Monday when the Kings travel to Edmonton to face the Oilers who have earned home-ice advantage in this series. The Kings will play in Edmonton again on Wednesday before the Oilers travel out to Los Angeles for the third game of the series on Friday. That will then lead into the second game in Los Angeles on the following Sunday, and following that we get into the theoretical games.

Should the game move beyond the 4 mandatory games, we will see a Game 5 on the following Tuesday, Game 6 on the following Saturday for quite a wide gap between 5 and 6, and a Game 7 on the following Monday should it be needed.

Here is a full breakdown:

Monday, April 1710:00pm EST@ Edmonton 

Wednesday, April 1910:00pm EST@ Edmonton

Friday, April 2110:00pm EST@ LA

Sunday, April 239:00pm EST@ LA

Tuesday, April 25TBD@ Edmonton

Saturday, April 29TBD@ LA

Monday, May 1TBD@ Edmonton

The NHL has listed the start times for these games in ET, so do keep that in mind before tuning in to any of these games.

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Crosby on his future in Pittsburgh, Malkin and Letang.

The 2022-23 National Hockey League regular season will go down as a disappointing one for fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise, with the team missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2005-06 regular season.

This has led to the belief that there will be major changes forthcoming for the Penguins ahead of next season and we’ve already seen evidence of that with both president of hockey operations Brian Burke and general manager Ron Hextall being fired this week as a direct result of the team’s poor performance on the ice.

The big questions now though surround the group’s core players with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, star forward Evgeni Malkin and star forward Kris Letang being the most frequently discussed members of that core group. There has been some concern that a player of Crosby’s calibur might not be interested in sticking around for a rebuild, but on Saturday the Penguins captain squashed those rumors when he reiterated that he hopes to be a lifelong Penguin.

“I’d love to. That’s been the case since Day 1,” admitted Crosby when asked if he wants to remain a Penguin. “I feel really fortunate to have been drafted here. I have great memories.”

Crosby also appeared to address any such speculation regarding his top two teammates, indicating that a big part of why he has enjoyed playing in Pittsburgh so much has been due to the quality of teammates he has had along the way. Although he didn’t mention them by name, it was clear that Letang and Malkin were the men being discussed in this scenario.

“I’ve got to play with two teammates specifically for a really long time – so, I’d love that to be the case,” said Crosby.

It sounds like if the captain has any say in the matter, Crosby, Malkin and Letang won’t be going anywhere soon.

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Panthers D Radko Gudas isn’t scared of the Bruins!

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The Florida Panthers won their very first President’s Trophy last season as the National Hockey League’s best team, and even won their first postseason series since their magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996. It wasn’t long afterward that their season would end with a whimper with a sweep loss against their Sunshine State rival Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Their regular season this year was anything but dominating, but they still managed to clinch a postseason berth for the 4th straight year. And their reward this year is facing the President’s Trophy winners of this season in the Boston Bruins, who re-wrote the NHL record books with an astound 65 victory campaign. 

Needless to say, the oddsmakers aren’t exactly being kind right now to the Panthers. But don’t tell that to hard-nosed Panthers defenseman Radko Gudas, who knows that once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen. 

”This is the moment that we have been fighting for the whole year,” Gudas said. “It does not matter what happened in the first 82. This is a whole new season. Anything can happen.”

Fans may remember the 62 victory Tampa Bay Lightning being stunned in four games in Round 1 in 2019 by the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets, the four game sweep the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings suffered at the hands of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 20 years ago in 2003, and other similar 1st round upsets proving that a lower seed taking down the top dog isn’t a once in a generation fluke.

“Hey man, we’re in the playoffs,” Gudas continued. “Let’s F-ing go.”

The Panthers were one of the few teams this year to deal Boston a rare regulation loss, and Gudas knows that based on how his team matched up against the Bruins in their season series, it isn’t impossible. 

“I think we are a confident group who believes we can play with anyone,” Gudas added. “The way we played Boston all season, it gave us confidence. They are the team they are for a reason, but we are in the playoffs for a reason as well. I am excited for the challenge. If you want to win it all, you have to get through the biggest hurdle and that’s right from the start for us.”