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Pre-game reading: Remembering Rick Rypien on #BellLetsTalk day

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The Mad Men actor reflects on why he loves hockey and the St. Louis Blues.

-- Up top, actor Jon Hamm will host the NHL100 Friday in Los Angeles, part of the All-Star Game festivities. Hamm is from St. Louis and is a long-suffering fan of the Blues, a franchise that’s come “tantalizingly close” a few times but has yet to win a Stanley Cup.

-- It’s “Bell Let’s Talk” day today, an effort to raise awareness about mental health. It’s a hard day in many ways, because we remember people like Rick Rypien, the former Vancouver Canuck who took his own life due to depression. The Winnipeg Free Press told Rypien’s story in 2011, shortly after his death, and it’s worth a read. (Winnipeg Free Press)

-- Former NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk has been open about his battles with mental illness. He even released a book in 2014 called The Crazy Game: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond. But as forthcoming as he is now, he still remembers when he used to keep everything to himself. “I’ve had so many former players reach out to me and say, ‘Clint, I had no idea. What could I have done?’ They felt terrible because I was their teammate and they weren’t there to help me, but they didn’t know. I hid it. I hid it from everybody. I lived in silence.” (Regina Leader-Post)

-- The Boston Bruins have the highest score-adjusted Corsi in the NHL. Usually, that goes hand-in-hand with winning. So why don’t the Bruins have a great record? In large part, because of this: “The Bruins currently rank dead last in shooting percentage, scoring on an anemic 7.1 percent of the shots they take.” (FiveThirtyEight)

-- Elliotte Friedman published his latest “30 Thoughts” yesterday, and it included this thought: “Calgary’s Brad Treliving is the only NHL GM without a contract into next season. He won’t discuss it, and neither will the organization. One exec (from elsewhere) noted that the Flames are comfortable with the way they approach this and don’t consider it to be “ominous.” I suspect it’s because they’ve decided to fire coaches and don’t want too many extra salaries on the books. That’s fine, but in the NHL world, it’s weird. Before the season, Columbus gave two-year extensions to its management team, not wanting them going into this season on the ends of their deals. In Vancouver, it’s led to constant job speculation with Willie Desjardins. In St. Louis, there’s some question how it’s affected the Blues’ struggles because players know Ken Hitchcock is to be replaced by Mike Yeo.” (Sportsnet)

-- On Rangers rookie Pavel Buchnevich, who’s still learning the language after half a season in North America. Said teammate Jimmy Vesey: “He’s a funny kid, and his broken English makes him even funnier. But he’s done really well. I couldn’t imagine being in his position with not much English, and he’s settled in nice.” (New York Times)

Enjoy the games!