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PHT Morning Skate: ECHL jersey retirement ceremony goes embarrassingly wrong

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Two big goals in the third period by Thomas Vanek and Tomas Tatar helped boost the Red Wings to a huge road win over the Penguins.

--Coming into this season, not many people thought of Sidney Crosby as a goal scorer. But if you look at the numbers closely, you’ll see that he can fill the net with the best of them. How does he do it? His wrist and snap shots are deadly. He scores 47.4 percent of his goals on those two shots. (Sports Illustrated)

--Blackhawks prospect Alex DeBrincat dropped to the second round because of size (he’s 5-foot-9), but that hasn’t stopped him from putting up incredible OHL numbers. Even though he’s small by NHL standards, his former junior teammate, Connor McDavid, has no doubt that he can succeed at the next level. “He knows where the net is. He finds a way to score basically every night. He’s got a great shot. He’s one of the feistiest guys I’ve ever played with. It’s really remarkable about what he’s been able to do.” (CSN Chicago)

--Charlie Coyle’s 88-year-old grandma got to watch him play Xcel Energy Center for the first time and she was thrilled about it. She joined the Wild broadcast to talk about her grandson. FYI, this sweet lady went skydiving for her 80th birthday! (NHL.com)

--The beauty of the NHL is that anybody can beat anybody on any given night and the Detroit Red Wings proved that on Sunday with their big 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. You can watch the highlights of that game by clicking the video at the top of the page.

--Retired pilot Ron Daley is 80 years old, but he still manages to play ice hockey. The “veteran” goalie plays in a suburb of Montreal every Monday afternoon and he’s having a blast. “Everybody I know who plays hockey loves the game, just like me, and would love to play as long as they can. If they let them play on crutches, they’d probably still be playing.” (Montreal Gazette)

--Gare Joyce of the New York Times wrote a great piece about the challenges of being a scout in the NHL. They log a lot of miles, watch a lot of games, but they can quickly get lost in the shuffle over the years. Joyce writes about a scout named Fred, who worked hard, won a Stanley Cup, but couldn’t find work after he was let go by his team. (New York Times)

--Be careful what you predict in a newspaper. One KHL reporter learned that the hard way after he predicted that Dinamo Minsk wouldn’t qualify for the playoffs. Once they secured a spot in the postseason, the reporter sat down and ate the article he wrote. Seriously. (Yahoo)

--The ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets retired Colin Chaulk’s number prior to their game on Saturday night. That’s a very special honor for any player at any level, but this jersey retirement ceremony went terribly wrong. The banner was unveiled upside down, but the team decided to go ahead with the ceremony anyway. General manager David Franke referred to it as “the most embarrassing thing I’ve been part of in 27 years with the club.” (BarDown)