“Three (News) Stars of the Week” will run every Friday. It’s our way of acknowledging the week’s big NHL stories that gave us lots of page views, thereby increasing PHT’s attractiveness to advertisers.
Third star: Hitch is back and bluer than ever
The NHL’s first coaching casualty brought the return of Ken Hitchcock. But not to Columbus, where it was rumored he’d replace Scott Arniel. Rather, Hitch took Davis Payne’s job in St. Louis. The Blues started the season as a young team with playoff potential. Now they’re a young team with playoff potential and a coach that doesn’t mess around. Some think this is a good thing. Others disagree. The Ottawa Senators demoted Nikita Filatov to the AHL on Monday. There was some irony there. Hitchcock says he’s been studying new ways to relate to young athletes. Just don’t expect him to start playing video games with TJ Oshie.
Second star: Goalie conundrum in T.O.
Toronto goalie James Reimer hasn’t played since getting clipped in the head by Brian Gionta on Oct. 22. Reimer has been suffering concussion-like symptoms; however, the Leafs are adamant it’s not a concussion. It’s all very confusing. Even his mom isn’t sure what’s going on. Reimer’s agent says it shouldn’t be long before his client is healthy again. The Leafs sure hope so, because Jonas Gustavsson is lost and Ben Scrivens is a wildcard.
First star: Two teams just standing there looking at each other
The Flyers and Lightning engaged in a curious affair Wednesday in Tampa Bay. It all started in the first period when the Flyers had the puck in their own end looking to break out. The Lightning players responded by dropping into their coach’s infamous 1-3-1 zone, to which the Flyers responded by doing…nothing. They just stood there holding the puck, daring the Lightning players to come after it. But the Lightning players held their positions. The referee eventually blew the whistle because the Flyers failed to advance the puck. But the Flyers had an answer for that, too. They just skated in circles in their own end. No rule against that. Meanwhile, the crowd booed, everyone on Twitter went nuts, and the future of hockey came into doubt. The next day people debated who was to blame for the debacle. Was it Lightning coach Guy Boucher for employing a tactic that was bad for the game? Or was it Flyers coach Peter Laviolette for being a bit of a jerk about it? All sorts of solutions were brought forth. Maybe the NHL should penalize the trap. Maybe it needed a shot clock. The general managers will discuss the issue next week. Nothing’s going to happen though.