With the 2011 Stanley Cup Final riots behind us, we’re seeing the fallout starting to filter through media outlets. We’ve seen plenty of pictures of good-willed Vancouverites taking back their city with messages of goodwill (to both business owners and law enforcement). We’ve learned the identity and story behind a soon-to-be iconic photograph of peace amongst violence. On the other end of the spectrum, law enforcement has found the man child behind one of the most disheartening photographs to come out of the embarrassing event.
Plenty of pictures have made the rounds over the last few days. There’s the aforementioned picture of the couple kissing in the middle of the street between a mob and riot police. There’s the photo of the Vancouver skyline with separate fires billowing from the streets below. But nothing captured the sheer ignorance and stupidity of the rioters more than the kid in a Christian Ehrhoff shersey holding a hockey stick and celebrating after destroying the windows to a Bank of Montreal branch. It was exactly the type of individual that embarrassed Vancouver residents and disgusted outsiders tuning into the night’s festivities.
Thanks to the wonders of social media and peer pressure, the individual was arrested—in front of his classmates no less. Here’s the story as told by Deadspin:
“…and today the publicity caught up with this high school student who took part in smashing the windows at the Bank of Montreal branch at Homer and Georgia. We don’t have to name him, since it’s all over the internet. And scuttlebutt from classmates says he was arrested at school yesterday, on the last day of classes.”
It’s good to hear that the citizens of Vancouver are taking a hold of their city by identifying and reporting as many of these thugs as possible. Who says social media can’t be productive?
The old New York Islanders regime seemed to be beyond the point of no return with fledgling prospect Josh Ho-Sang, and it doesn’t sound like things are a whole lot better now that Lou Lamoriello is in charge.
In what’s becoming a stomach-churning tradition, Ho-Sang sounded off on his situation (in the AHL, and in his opinion, not even used all that much by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers) in a candid interview with Brett Cyrgalis of The New York Post.
Ho-Sang, 22, believes that management already had their minds made up about him, and also believes that he’s receiving mixed messages.
“They tell me they want me to be a top-six forward up there, but I’m not a top-six forward down here, so it’s confusing,” Ho-Sang said. “Sometimes, it’s like you’re sprinting with a rubber band on. You constantly have tension. You run until you’re exhausted and then the band is going to pull you back. If I was going to say anything, it would be just watch. I’m just pointing it out.”
Unfortunately, the AHL doesn’t share ice-time information, so you need to rely on firsthand accounts of whether Ho-Sang is really receiving proper opportunities or not. Isles Blog’s Rob Traub captured the dueling takes on his work in the AHL, noting that: on one hand, there are opportunities for Ho-Sang, yet:
Here's another thing about Ho-Sang's comments being double-sided:
Steve Bernier is playing on the first line and has no future with the organization. How Ho-Sang isn't in that spot — even with defensive deficiency — is mind-boggling. #Isles
Indeed, it’s puzzling that the Islanders organization wouldn’t have issues with 33-year-old Steve Bernier seemingly getting equal or better opportunities than a player 11 years younger.
To clarify, NHL teams face competing motivations when it comes to nursing prospects at lower levels, including the AHL.
While you want merit to be important and that team to be competitive, it’s also imperative that younger players receive opportunities to sink or swim, and to learn from mistakes. At minimum, teams need to optimize their assets, and “burying” Ho-Sang only tanks his already-declining trade value.
And let’s be honest. At this point, Ho-Sang’s aired his grievances is brutally honest ways a few times now. It’s true that such a strategy won’t really make friends in the front office – especially in the almost comically secretive world of hockey – it’s also plausible that Ho-Sang feels like he doesn’t have a lot of other choices.
It sure feels like bridges have already been burned, and neither side is doing a whole lot to rebuild. That’s unfortunate because, as incomplete as his game may be, Ho-Sang’s already shown plenty of flashes of brilliant skill, including at the NHL level.
Honestly, from the outside looking in, it would probably be wise for both sides to move on via trade, even if the Islanders likely would have received a much better return if they moved Ho-Sang … a few impasses ago.
For one thing, a trade would improve Ho-Sang’s morale, while opening up space for a player who has more of a clean slate with the franchise. There might be a temptation to roll your eyes at Ho-Sang’s predicament, but an unhappy player can be a catalyst for an unhappy locker room.
That eloquent rubber band metaphor was a not-so-subtle clue that Ho-Sang is truly languishing in the AHL, a notion backed up by mediocre numbers (zero goals, four assists in nine games, -8 rating) and tweets like these:
Breathe and think do not panic and sink #havefaith
(His Twitter banner also reads: “Your love makes me strong; your hate makes me unstoppable.”)
While the Islanders have scored at a more respectable rate than many expected (a decent 30 goals in 10 games, a rate that ties them for 16th in the NHL), it’s easy to picture scenarios where Ho-Sang could give them a boost, even if his gambling style would drive Barry Trotz up the wall. A stronger team would likely aim to have Ho-Sang as its third-line winger instead ofLeo Komarov, as much as Trotz and Lamoriello seem enamored with hits.
Again, we’ve likely passed the best-case scenario.
Yet, like Eric Duhatschek discussed in The Athletic (sub required), sometimes you don’t have to “win” a trade to improve chemistry and morale. Duhatschek discussed as much in remembering former GM Cliff Fletcher’s philosophies.
Mostly he made the trade to shake up his own team, which he felt needed a reminder that, in professional sport, change eventually follows if things start to sputter. In short, Fletcher wasn’t necessarily trying to “win” the trade, the way so many GMs nowadays feel they have to do.
He believed that change for the sake of change sometimes had a positive impact on the whole, because it stirred up the chemistry of a team that was running flat.
Have we reached that point where the Islanders should simply trade Ho-Sang for, well, another organization’s version of Ho-Sang?
His prodigious skill might make that a tough gamble to stomach, yet I’d say yes.
At worst, the Islanders just get a new coat of paint for an old problem. Ideally, though, Ho-Sang would receive a fresh start while the Isles might receive a player more likely to help them in the future.
A trade wouldn’t just be an act of mercy for Ho-Sang. Chances are, it would also be the best thing for both the team and the player.
In the meantime, we’ll reach for our popcorn, waiting for the next wave of drama from this combustible situation.
NBC’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Tuesday night’s matchup between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Nashville Predators at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports App by clicking here.
After practicing for the second time with his teammates since going on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury, Pekka Rinne “feels good” and could be back between the pipes for the Nashville Predators soon. For now, it remain Juuse Saros’ net.
The 23-year-old Saros has helped the Predators to three wins in five games since Rinne went out, including the relief effort he put in — stopping all nine shots he faced — when the injury occurred in Calgary.
It’s going to be fascinating how the goaltending situation develops in Nashville. You have Rinne, who turns 36 on Saturday, coming off a Vezina Trophy winning season and off to a strong start in 2018-19 (.949 even strength save percentage), in the final year of his contract. Meanwhile, general manager David Poile recognized the value in what Saros brings, plus the 12-year age difference between his goaltenders, and handed Saros a three-year extension in July.
The Predators’ cap situation is a tight one, so it’ll be interesting to see the decision they make in the summer.
An up-and-down start has been turned around swifty by the Golden Knights, who have gone 4-1-1 in their last six games. Now with six of their next seven are away from T-Mobile Arena, it’s a chance to continue to pick up points and march back up the Pacific Division standings.
William Karlsson is off to a slow start with three goals, but go back to last season and he had the same stat line through 11 games before taking off in November with 10 and finishing with a career high 43.
One Golden Knights player that doesn’t seem to slump often is Jonathan Marchessault, who leads the team with six goals and 11 points. He clinched the extra point on Sunday against Ottawa with an overtime penalty shot goal and is looking to continue building off a career season in 2017-18 when he tallied 27 goals and 75 points.
“As he goes, we go,” said Vegas defenseman Jon Merrill. “We look to him in big situations to score big goals like he did (against Ottawa), and when he’s scoring and playing his game, the team follows.”
AIRDRIE, Alberta (AP) — Michelle Straschnitzki had a moment of panic when her 16-year-old son, Jett, was preparing to board a team bus for a recent hockey game.
”I didn’t watch him go get on the bus, but the part that choked me up was when I gave him a hug and said, ‘Good luck. Have a great game.’ Then I had a moment of panic,” she said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. ”My heart stopped. He was actually leaving and going on the bus.”
It was just six months since her older son was seriously injured in a deadly crash involving the Humboldt Broncos. Ryan Straschnitzki, 19, was paralyzed from the chest down in the collision between his Saskatchewan junior hockey team’s bus and a semi-trailer in April at a highway crossing in rural Saskatchewan. Sixteen people died and 13 others were injured.
Straschnitzki and her husband have added their voices to those of other Broncos parents who want buses equipped with seat and shoulder belts.
Tom Straschnitzki contacted the Airdrie Minor Hockey Association when he discovered buses carrying players, including his younger son, didn’t have seatbelts because it isn’t yet mandatory. He said the association immediately made changes to ensure buses with seatbelts are used.
He said watching another child head off to a hockey game was harder on him and his wife than it was on their son, who did not want to be taken by his parents.
”Jett goes, ‘Well, the accident was six months ago, Dad,”’ said Straschnitzki. ”As soon as he got on there, he took a picture of his seatbelt and sent it to us. He said he wasn’t taking it off until the bus stopped.”
Ryan Straschnitzki has continued his rehabilitation. After a two-hour workout, he said having his younger brother board a team bus for hockey brought back memories of the crash.
”I think it should be enforced that you wear your seatbelts,” he said. ”If a bus doesn’t have one, then I’m not sure it should be on the road.”
The injured player said he isn’t sure seatbelts on the Humboldt bus would have made a difference, but it’s worth having them.
”If there’s a one-in-a-million chance of this ever happening, just to be safe, I’d wear it,” he said. ”If a tragedy like this doesn’t sink in, then we’re not doing anything good.”
Transport Canada announced in June that the department will require all newly built highway buses to have seatbelts by September 2020. Some charter bus companies say many new vehicles already have seatbelts, although there is no way to ensure passengers are wearing them.
Russell Herold’s son, Adam, was the youngest Humboldt player killed in the crash, less than a week before his 17th birthday. He told CBC earlier this year he never considered wearing a seatbelt on a team bus until the day he lost his son.
”You can still have fun, you can still be a group, you can still have that atmosphere, but you can have a seatbelt on,” he said.
PHT Morning Skate: Business trip for Panthers; Notre Dame, Michigan going outdoors
Welcome to the PHT Morning Skate, a collection of links from around the hockey world. Have a link you want to submit? Email us at phtblog@nbcsports.com.
• It might be a trip to Finland, but it’s all business for the Florida Panthers. [NHL.com]
• Dallas Stars netminder Ben Bishop is no fan of goalie analytics. “When it’s some old hockey fan that doesn’t even get the shots right on the game, how are they going to get that right? You go to every different building, and sometimes they count the dump-ins as shots on goals. Well, half the buildings don’t count those, because they don’t know the rules. When you go to some buildings, and they don’t count it, and there are four or five shots that don’t count. … That’s what’s frustrating. That’s what you get paid on. That’s your job.” [ESPN]
• The Notre Dame and Michigan men’s teams will play outdoors at Notre Dame Stadium on Jan. 5 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. [USCHO]
• An upper-body injury will keep Vancouver Canucks forward Brandon Sutter out “weeks.” [Sportsnet]
• When it rains, it pours for the Vancouver Canucks when it comes to injuries. [The Canuck Way]
• The Erik Karlsson-Marc Edouard Vlasic pairing isn’t breaking up anytime soon for the San Jose Sharks. [Mercury News]
• The Pittsburgh Penguins had a great road trip in Western Canada. What can they take away from it? [Pensburgh]
• A look at how puck luck in the NHL affects the standings. [TSN]
• It looks like Ryan Murray is finally starting to put it together for the Columbus Blue Jackets. [1st Ohio Battery]
• “We’re finding our way, we’re finding our identity as a team.” The San Jose Sharks are coming around after a slow start. [NBC Bay Area]
• Depth scoring is needed for the Tampa Bay Lightning. [Raw Charge]
• A look at the Chicago Blackhawks as the calendar is about to turn to November. [Faxes From Uncle Dale]
• Michael Rasmussen will see his development continue at the NHL level with the Detroit Red Wings. [MLive]
