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Jim Montgomery comments on the NHL’s favoritism towards Sidney Crosby.

The topic of favoritism is always a hot button issue in the world of sports and on Saturday, Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery may have hit that button.

After his Boston Bruins took a hard fought win over the Pittsburgh Penguin, Montgomery shared his thoughts on some of the officiating that took place during the game. Specifically, Montgomery called out what he calls “Sid Rules,” special treatment shown to the face of the National Hockey League, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

Montgomery admitted that the favoritism shown to the NHL’s top star made him hesitant to challenge a goal during the course of the game, although Montgomery didn’t seem to mind too much.

“OK, we thought it was goalie interference because Swayman was hit in the head,” said Montgomery of a failed coach’s challenge during today’s game. “Now, you know how there used to be the Jordan Rules (in the NBA)? I’ve been here (in Pittsburgh) now five times, and something I’m almost sure that’s going to happen – didn’t happen tonight: They’re going to get a 2 on 1 in the first minute, because we’re going to make a mistake; they’re going to get a 5 on 3, and you’re going to be killing a lot of penalties. This is the third time l’ve been here where we challenge – you get it wrong sometimes. I call it the Sid Rules. He’s a great player. He’s a great player. And you know what, the league should take care of their superstars. That’s why I was kind of hesitant about challenging it.”

Montgomery has superstars of his own on the Bruins roster in the form of players like Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, so a world in which officials give superstars some leniency benefits him in the long run. When asked if he felt his team had gotten the short end of the stick in terms of the officiating on Saturday, Montgomery again indicated that he didn’t have an issue with how things were called.

“No. No, I don’t think we were on the wrong end of anything,” admitted the Bruins head coach. “But I do think the hockey gods rewarded us in the end.”

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NHL rookie demoted to the AHL for missing team meeting.

Adam Lacy/Getty Images

A rookie in the National Hockey League is having the worst kind of April Fools day, and unfortunately there won’t come a point when he realizes it was all just a joke.

According to a report from Columbus Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline, Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen has given rookie forward Trey Fix-Wolansky a harsh lesson today by sending the 23 year old back down to the American Hockey League for violating the team’s rules.

According to Portzline, Fix-Wolansky overslept on Saturday and as a result ended up missing a team meeting. While this may not sound like a big deal, it is universally frowned upon across all teams in the National Hockey League. For example, we recently saw former NHL star turned head coach of the Montreal Canadiens Martin St. Louis publicly humiliated one of his players for a similar infraction.

Unfortunately for Fix-Wolansky this means that he will return to the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League and reports indicate that he will be suiting up for that team this evening. For a player that has only appeared in a total of 13 NHL games since being drafted in 2018, this has to feel like a monumental mistake.

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P.K. Subban issues a warning regarding the Pride Night controversies.

The National Hockey League has been mired in controversies this season related to Pride Night events across the league, so much so that the league is now seriously considering scrapping the events alltogether.

The controversies have all stemmed from players refusing to participate in Pride Night events for a variety of reasons, including religious, political, and even safety concerns in some cases. As the season wore on and more and more teams put on their own version of the event, more and more players opted out of the events, every time creating another controversy for the NHL to have to deal with.

Some have argued that more pressure should be placed on the players who are opting out of the events, but this week former NHL defenseman P.K. Subban made it clear that he feels that would be a mistake. The comments were surprising given that Subban himself has been a prominent activist athlete during his time in the NHL, most notably for the Montreal Children’s Hospital (an organization that he has raised millions of dollars for), but he clearly feels that it is not a role that everyone should be forced to take on.

“We cannot push everyone to be an activist, we need to be very careful,” said Subban this week as per Reuters. “I feel people pick and choose what they want to talk about and I don’t like it when we put the onus on athletes to be activists.”

Subban warned that forcing players into those roles could have unforeseen circumstances, regardless of how you may feel about the issue.

“They don’t need to be activists,” said Subban.

“I’m not saying it is right or wrong to wear the (Pride) jersey, we have just got to be very careful how we push players to do things.”

He also pointed out that there are many forms of support, a particularly relevant point when considering the players who have opted out of public displays of such support over safety concerns.

“You can support the LGBTQ community without having to wear a hat, a t-shirt or a jersey,” said Subban.

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More bad news regarding Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron.

Anthony Nesmith/CSM/Zuma

The Boston Bruins have been without the services of their captain Patrice Bergeron in the latter stages of the 2022-23 regular season and, although there is reason to believe he would still be playing if the Bruins were playing more meaningful games, that has been something of a cause of concern among the Bruins fan base.

On Saturday, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery provided an update on his injured captain and once again the news wasn’t particularly positive. Montgomery indicated that Bergeron would continue to sit out throughout the weekend, missing both today’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins as well as Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Blues.

Montgomery also revealed that Bergeron was actually dealing with not just one injury, but at least a pair of injuries as the Bruins close in on the Stanley Cup playoffs. Montgomery revealed that Bergeron was suffering from both upper body and lower body injuries, making it all the more reasonable to give him time to recover now while they can before the start of the playoffs.

That means the earliest that Bruins fans can expect to see their captain back on the ice will be this coming Thursday when the Bruins take on a division rival in the Toronto Maple Leafs. That game is likely to have a playoff-like atmosphere given the recent run of playoff dominance from the Bruins over the Leafs.

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Mason Shaw suffers a gruesome looking injury on Saturday night.

It’s impossible not to feel bad for young Masow Shaw here.

On Saturday night, the 24 year old Minnesota Wild centerman suffered what at first glance appears to be a nasty looking knee injury in the first period of a game between the Wild and the Las Vegas Golden Knights. There was no real contact on the play and instead it was Shaw himself who, via his own forward momentum, propelled himself awkwardly into the boards.

Shaw appeared to catch an edge and lose his balance as he was backchecking on a play, resulting in his knee twisting awkwardly as he went into the boards. Considering the fact that Shaw has already dealt with 3 serious ACL injuries throughout his young career, the concern regarding his knee was immediate.

Shaw was unable to put any weight down on his injured leg, and was practically carried off the ice by his teammates.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of this incident was an angle from the Vegas feed that appears to indicate that Shaw is very aware of how bad things are. Shaw immediately hangs his head in resignation following the injury, already a bad sign, but if you watch closely he also nods towards the Wild bench at the end of this clip, as if to signal that he knows the situation is quite bad.

According to Wild insider Mike Russo, Shaw was unable to so much as walk down the runway, another bad sign.

Given Shaw’s injury history and the relatively close proximity of the Stanley Cup playoffs, you have to wonder if the Wild may have lost an important part of their bottom 6, perhaps even for the remainder of the season, at a very inopportune time.

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Montreal Canadiens confirm the worst for David Savard.

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The Montreal Canadiens have confirmed a bit of bad news on Saturday night, much to the disappointment of their fans.

According to an official announcement from the Canadiens, defenseman David Savard has been shut down for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury. That injury was suffered this past Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers, and with the Canadiens having no possibility of making the playoffs it seems they have opted to play it safe with Savard moving forward.

The Canadiens were already decimated by injuries with Carey Price, Sean Monahan, Paul Byron, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield and Arber Xhekaj all on either injured reserve or long-term injured reserve, and the loss of Savard will only compile their problems on the injury front.

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Mario Lemieux sends Kris Letang a special message before his 1000th game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are no doubt fully focused on their fight for a spot in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs at the moment, but in spite of that the team will be recognizing a major milestone for one of their players tonight when they take on intrastate rivals the Philadelphia Flyers.

That milestone will of course be Kris Letang’s 1000th game in the National Hockey League and subsequently his 1000th game as a member of the Penguins franchise. Letang was of course drafted in the third round (62nd overall) of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Penguins and has spent his entire career with the franchise up until this point.

Not only will Letang be recognized for his incredible achievement, but the defenseman from Montreal, Quebec also received a very special message ahead of the big game from one of his home province’s greatest icons, NHL legend Mario Lemieux.

“It’s hard to believe you are celebrating your 1,000th game in the National Hockey League. you have solidified yourself as one of the greatest defensemen in Penguins history, as well as the history of the NHL,” wrote Lemieux in a statement on Sunday. “Your strength, determination, and resilience are a testament to your success. it has been a pleasure watching each and every game – especially the three cup runs.

“I wish you many more games, my friend. merci pour les souvenirs!”

“Merci pour les souvenirs” translate to “thanks for the memories” which is pretty fitting given that Lemieux has played a prominent role with the Penguins during Letang’s tenure on the team and has likely witnessed all of his exploits over those many seasons.

A kid from Quebec probably couldn’t have asked for a better endorsement ahead of his 1000th NHL game.

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Jeremy Roenick reveals a completely insane story from his NHL rookie season.

Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI/Getty

Former National Hockey League player turned NHL analyst Jeremy Roenick has gotten himself into some hot water as of late for comments he has made publicly, and while you may have expected him to learn from those mistakes he may have just done so once again.

In a recent clip for the Clearing the Crease podcast, released by Bodog Canada, Roenick describes a completely insane story from his National Hockey League rookie season, one in which several people may have been hurt.

According to Roenick, he once t-boned a car after running a red light on his way to an airport in Canada, sending the car hurtling into the living room of a nearby home. While you would expect that this would have led to serious consequences for Roenick at the time, it sounds like he managed to escape scott-free.

“Trying to get to the airport I t-boned a car cause I ran a red light running to the airport,” revealed Roenick on the podcast. “Absolutely t-boned the car and she went off the road into the living room of a house. The cops told me ‘Just get out of here JR, you’ve got a game tomorrow get to the airport.’ That’s Canada for you, t-bone a car, never hear about it again.”

It’s hard to believe that Roenick could have caused so much damage and so much chaos and not have been reprimanded in any fashion for his actions, but that is how he tells it. Certainly the victims of this incident might feel aggrieved if they catch wind of Roenick’s retelling, that is assuming of course that the story Roenick is telling here is true.

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Mantha’s future in Washington in doubt after shaky season.

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To say that Anthony Mantha’s time as a member of the Washington Capitals has been disappointing would be quite the understatement. Since being trade by the Detroit Red Wings back in April of 2021 Mantha has appeared in just 117 games for the Capitals over the course of 3 seasons.

Part of that has been due to the injuries that Mantha has suffered since joining the Capitals, but the veteran National Hockey League forward was also made a healthy scratch at times this season by head coach Peter Laviolette and he has never come close to the level of production he saw as a Red Wing.

This season has been Mantha’s most productive with the Capitals so far with him producing 11 goals and 16 assists for a total of 27 points over 66 games played. That however is a far cry from his most productive season in the NHL, one that saw Mantha produce 25 goals and 23 assists for a total of 48 points in just 67 games back during the 2018-19 season.

All this has led to speculation that a change of scenery could be in store for Mantha if the Capitals fail to make the playoffs this season, something that is looking more and more likely each day. In a recent article for The Hockey News, Sammi Silber questioned Mantha’s future on the team.

From Silber:

Regarding Mantha: things haven’t worked out, and he hasn’t capitalized on a fully-healthy season. He has been a healthy scratch on numerous occasions and has been inconsistent and snakebitten, unable to finish on his chances and struggling offensively and defensively. However, it’s unclear whether or not he’s still in the mix going forward, let alone what his trade value would be.

Although the Capitals may prefer to be done with Mantha, moving him won’t be so easy. His decline in production combined with his cap hit of $5.7 million for next season will make him a difficult piece to move, especially considering he is owed $6.5 million in actual cash in the final year of his deal.

Mantha, who was selected in the first round (20th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings has not looked like the dominant physical player many expected him to develop into since his time in Washington, and perhaps a change of scenery would be best for everyone involved come next season.

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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.