On paper, this game probably shouldn’t have been very close. And it wasn’t.
Only thing was, it was the underdog Calgary Flames that came out on the winning end of a lopsided rout over the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. The Flames jumped out to a surprising 4-0 lead after the first and then hung on for the 7-2 victory to move 34 points back of the Ducks in the Pacific Division.
“We played like [crap]. I think every guy in the room should be completely embarrassed with how they played tonight,” said Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano, as per Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.
Cogliano added: “Every single person … It’s ridiculous how we played tonight.”
More Cogliano: "No offense to them but they haven't been scoring that many goals. … To give up seven is just stupid."
It would have been silly for Nashville Predators fans to boo P.K. Subban during his return to “Smashville.”
Subban didn’t choose to be traded from Montreal to Nashville, and he didn’t elect to be sent from Nashville to the New Jersey Devils, either.
Sports fans aren’t always so rational, though. Really, it makes sense: spending so much money, time, and emotional energy on a game isn’t exactly the most rational thing to do. So there was some concern about how Subban would be received, especially since he’s already booed in an honestly uncomfortably large number of NHL arenas already.
Subban and others can breathe a sigh of relief, though, as while not everyone greeted Subban with open arms in as literal a way as Roman Josi did with their hug on Saturday, the team gave Subban a fantastic welcome back tribute video:
Not only does that video include some of Subban’s great moments during his three seasons with the Predators (that Stanley Cup Final appearance, a Norris Trophy win), it also captures some of the off-the-ice qualities that make Subban so fun and entertaining (and make people sometimes get perplexingly, maybe troublingly mad about him). He got up and decided to sing some Johnny Cash upon arriving in Nashville, was a fantastic charitable presence, and was a lot of fun.
(No Listerine was spilled in the making of the ad, but you can’t have it all.)
Anyway, good on the Predators and their fans for welcoming P.K. back.
As a reminder, Montreal Canadiens fans greeted him with love upon his return, too:
The Colorado Avalanche have done a masterful job, for the most part, when it comes to rolling with injury-related punches to key players such as Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. They have to hope that Saturday didn’t send another such haymaker their way.
Rising star defenseman Cale Makar (who just fell under a point per game on Saturday with 28 in 29 contests) was clearly shaken up by a hard hit by Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand.
Either way, Makar’s reaction is troubling. You can see him shake his head multiple times following the hit, which gives the impression that he could have suffered a concussion. That doesn’t guarantee that Makar did, but it’s a situation to watch — and one the Avalanche should absolutely be careful about.
The Avalanche ended up beating the Bruins 4-1 on Saturday.
If it got a “little dusty” at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Saturday, that’s understandable, because the continued story of Laila Anderson meeting Kenton Felmlee, her bone marrow donor, is sure to make most get a case of heightened allergies.
(Is that a leak from the ceiling? /Sobs)
Anyway, Felmlee was Anderson’s guest during Saturday’s Toronto Maple Leafs – St. Louis Blues game, giving the two another chance to bond, and beyond that, for Anderson to thank Felmlee for helping her in her battle with the rare immune disease HLH.
It’s great stuff, even if the actual Blues game isn’t going so great for St. Louis.
Over time, you can become jaded as a sports (and specifically hockey) fan.
Stories about abusive coaches, lockouts, fans booing players for simply no longer being on their teams — it can sap some of the joy of the game.
Thankfully, we have highlights, and I can’t think of many simpler joys than someone scoring a goal and absolutely obliterating the goalie’s water bottle in the process. (As long as no one gets too dehydrated in the making of such films.)
Vancouver Canucks winger J.T. Miller did it one better on Saturday: he scored an important goal that way. Miller presented the ultra-rare OTBBGWG (overtime bottle-breaking game-winning goal) as the Canucks beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in OT.
Bask in the glory of that goal in the video above this post’s headline. Here’s a fun alternate angle:
By the way, Miller continues to be a deadly offensive weapon for the Canucks. This one-goal, one-assist output extended his current point streak to an impressive eight games (5G, 6A for 11 points). Overall, Miller has 31 points in 30 games during his first season in Vancouver.
