The closing moments of the FDNY vs NYPD game on Saturday night turned out to be barn burner, with multiple fights breaking out with less than a minute left on the game clock.
As we reported last night the fight between Thomas Esposito of the FDNY and Ryan Dermody of the NYPD would end in a devastating TKO courtesy of a huge bomb from Esposito, but the finish to the fight that would follow just 10 seconds later was even more brutal than the one that preceded it.
This time the two combatants would be John Perretta of the FDNY and James “Jimmy” Hall of the NYPD, and unfortunately for Hall it would become evident that he bit off more than could chew.
At no point did Hall mount any meaningful offense, instead acting like a punching bag for Perretta who showed his fellow first responder no mercy. Perretta would land a series of punishing lefts and rights, switching hands with ease, before eventually putting Hall down with a monsterous right hand and flexing for the crowd that roared with appreciation.
I have some very sad news to share with you on this Sunday morning.
In a heartbreaking post, the Metro Jets of the United States Hockey League have confirmed that young defenseman Braydin Lewis has tragically passed away at the age of just 19 years old. Lewis had been fighting a battle with cancer for some time now and according to the Jets he was surrounded by family when he passed away late on Saturday night.
Lewis spent 3 seasons with the Jets and was developing into a very promising defenseman with 9 goals and 36 assists for a total of 45 points in just 37 games during the 2021-22 regular season. His battle with cancer limited him to just 6 games this season, but in spite of that Lewis still managed to record 3 goals and an assist for a total of 4 points while fighting a terrible disease and undergoing treatment.
“After his diagnosis last summer, he was determined to return for his third season,” wrote the Jets on Sunday. “Not only did he return, but played while undergoing treatment. Lewey’s strength and willingness was an inspiration to the team and he showed up to support his teammates at every opportunity.”
There’s no question that Braydin Lewis was an incredible young man, and an incredibly brave young man at that, and the world is a darker place today with him no longer with us.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
The Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers are set to clash in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and now we have a better idea of how the series will play out.
On Saturday, the National Hockey League released the full schedule for the upcoming series with the notable exception of the exact start time for games 5, 6, and 7 likely due to the fact that they might not be needed should one team or the other dominate the series.
The Bruins and their impressive record this season have earned home ice advantage and that means that the first two games will take place in Boston on Monday and Wednesday. Following the conclusion of Game 2 on Wednesday, the Bruins will then travel to Florida for a pair of games, the first of which will be on Friday and the second of which will be on Sunday.
Should the series require more than 4 games, the series will head back to Boston the following Wednesday for Game 5, back to Florida on the following Friday for Game 6, and finally back to Boston on the following Sunday should Game 7 be required.
Here’s a full look at the schedule, including the start times for the first four matchups:
Monday, April 17 – 7:30pm EST – TD Garden Wednesday, April 19 – 7:30pm EST – TD Garden Friday, April 21 – 7:30pm EST – FLA Live Arena Sunday, April 23 – 3:30pm EST – FLA Live Arena Wednesday, April 26 – TBD – TD Garden Friday, April 28 – TBD – FLA Live Arena Sunday, April 30 – TBD – TD Garden
The Boston Bruins are playing what would normally be a relatively meaningless game with their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs already secured, but this is turning into a memorable night for the Bruins nonetheless.
Bruins forward David Pastrnak has hit a major milestone with his 60th goal of the regular season and has done so in epic fashion, recording a hat trick against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.
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.
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.
