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Matthew Barnaby chimes in on the coaching situations in Vancouver and Ottawa.

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Over the last several days we have seen a number of coaches around the National Hockey League get their walking papers after their respective teams failed to make the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

At this time of year the question is always who will be the next domino to fall, and although we don’t know the answer to that, it sounds like there are at least 2 coaches who should be feeling pretty safe. On Sunday, former NHL enforcer Matthew Barnaby took to social media and, unprompted, shared his thoughts on the coaching situation currently in Vancouver.

The Canucks of course famously made a mid-season coaching change when they brought in Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet and relieved Bruce Boudreau of his head coaching duties, and Barnaby believes that Tocchet will turn that team around in short order.

“Coaches can make a team or break a team at any level,” said Barnaby on Sunday. “Trust me there are some bad ones. A great one is Rick Tocchet. He is going to change the culture and turn the Canucks into a winner”

Barnaby was asked about a number of other coaches around the league but thus far has only chosen to respond to one of those, a question about DJ Smith’s future in Ottawa. When it comes to Smith, Barnaby wasn’t as confident as he was with Tocchet, but he did suggest that the Sens head coach deserves another season behind the bench.

“I would keep status quo one more year,” admitted Barnaby.

As a former NHL player that played for several teams and under several coaches, and as a former assistant coach in the Ontario Hockey League, Barnaby likely has a pretty good idea of what he is talking about here.

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Bo Horvat apologizes for inflammatory Vancouver comments.

New York Islanders forward Bo Horvat got himself into a little hot water over the weekend when he made some public comments about his former team that were pretty inflammatory in their nature.

After the Islanders picked up a much needed win in their hunt for a playoff spot on Saturday night, Horvat participated in a post-game interview in front of the fans at UBS Arena and it was then that he made the comments. Horvat took what seemed like an entirely unprompted shot at his former team and their fans after he was asked what came off as a relatively run of the mill question during a post game interview.

Question: How does this rank for you in playoff pushes, the excitement of this building and the fans’ involvement over the last couple of games?

“It’s been unbelievable,” answered Horvat before then taking an unprompted shot at the Canucks and their fans. “It’s a lot better than Vancouver I’ll tell you that for free.”

Horvat’s comments drew widespread attention and likely cost him more than a few fans in the city of Vancouver, and on Monday morning he addressed the issue when speaking with the media. Horvat claimed that he got a little caught up in the excitement of the moment and stressed that the comments came off worse than he intended, before apologizing for the comments altogether.

“I wasn’t obviously expecting that,” said Horvat when asked about the reaction to his comments this weekend. “It was kind of a heat of the moment thing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the fans of Vancouver or my teammates or city of Vancouver at all. It wasn’t directed at them at all. The (Islanders) fans were all excited, and I was excited to be in a playoff push. It was just kind of one of those things where my emotions got the best of me. I was just really happy to be there to be honest with you. It might have come out the wrong way to a lot of people so I apologize for that. I’m just excited to be in the position right now, to be in a playoff push, to be right there. I really enjoyed my time in Vancouver, I’m not trying to disrespect them at all. I’m sorry if it offended anybody but l’m really happy to be in this position right now. I’m really happy to be here, and I just wanted to express that. It maybe, like I said, came out the wrong way to a lot of people.”

There’s no telling if Horvat’s apology will undo any of the damage those comments made to how he is perceived in the Vancouver market.

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Bo Horvat takes a brutal shot at the Vancouver Canucks and their fans.

The fans of the Vancouver Canucks may not be looking at their Bo Horvat jerseys with the same fondness that they once did after these comments from their former captain.

On Saturday night, Horvat took a shot at his former team and their fans after he was asked what was a relatively run of the mill question during a post game interview.

Question: How does this rank for you in playoff pushes, the excitement of this building and the fans’ involvement over the last couple of games?

“It’s been unbelievable,” answered Horvat before then taking an unprompted shot at the Canucks and their fans. “It’s a lot better than Vancouver I’ll tell you that for free.”

The fact that the comments about Vancouver came without any provocation made them seem somewhat mean-spirited on the part of Horvat, but perhaps, if you’re looking to give him the benefit of the doubt, with how poorly the season went for the Canucks he is just very happy to be in a new organization.

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Rick Tocchet, Elias Pettersson call out the NHL’s officiating.

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The Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoff picture and have been out of it for quite a while now but, since the mid-season addition of head coach Rick Tocchet, the team has done a relatively good job of playing out the National Hockey League’s 2022-23 regular season as though the games are still meaningful.

On Friday night, in spite of the fact that many of their fans would like to see the team lose for a better chance at winning the NHL draft lottery and selecting Connor Bedard, the Canucks lost a hard fought game to the Calgary Flames, one that many Canucks felt they should have won.

Following the game both head coach Rick Tocchet and Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson were noticeably frustrated with the officiating surrounding a penalty call that had gone against Pettersson, a penalty that led to a game-tying goal for the Flames.

“Yeah very frustrating,” admitted Pettersson after the game. “I don’t know what to say, I’m just pissed off.”

“I don’t wanna comment because I’ll probably get fined, they did their best and they made a call I didn’t agree with. They’re stubborn and they said it was right, so I just gotta accept it.”

According to Thomas Drance, both Pettersson and Tocchet cited a rule from the NHL’s own rulebook that appears to indicate the officials on the ice did in fact make an error, but unfortunately that will do little to remedy the actual impact of the call itself.