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Reilly Smith burns Florida Panthers coronavirus scares empty arenas
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Reilly Smith zings Panthers while pondering playing in front of empty arenas

By James O'BrienMar 11, 2020, 3:05 PM EDT

Reilly Smith landed a pretty spicy zinger on his former team, the Florida Panthers, while pondering the prospect of playing in front of empty arenas as coronavirus fears spread.

“I played in an empty building for a couple years in Florida so I’m used to it,” Smith said, according to reporters including The Athletic’s Jesse Granger and The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen.

Simple, sharp, and stinging. That’s how I’d describe that one-liner from Smith.

It also felt inevitable. As teams like the San Jose Sharks come to grips with possibly playing empty arena games, and the Blue Jackets among others try to hold out against doing so, the “well that will be no change for [criticized team]” jokes were going to come. It is, however, refreshingly saucy for a player like Smith to join in on the barbs.

Pondering Reilly Smith dropping that one-liner on the Panthers

This comment makes you wonder if “living well is the best revenge” just wasn’t convincing enough for Smith.

The Panthers were seemingly so eager to get rid of Smith at the expansion draft that they gave up Jonathan Marchessault as well. That decision hasn’t exactly worked out well for Florida, while Smith and Marchessault comprised two-thirds of a line that propelled Vegas to heights that … frankly soared above anything the Panthers have really accomplished.

(Sorry, John Vanbiesbrouck, Ed Jovanovski, and pile of rubber rats.)

Seeing a team give up on you can cause bitterness even if you’re better off elsewhere. One wonders if Smith experienced the jilted feelings of bitterly observing an ex, all while being in a healthier relationship.

Or … you know, Smith just blurted out the one-liner without really thinking about it. That could be it, too.

Either way, it’s honestly pretty fun. We might need that comic relief in this otherwise grim coronavirus situation, too.

MORE ON THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF THE CORONAVIRUS FOR HOCKEY EVENTS

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

Trying to make sense of Panthers’ plan after Trocheck trade

Panthers trade
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By Adam GretzFeb 25, 2020, 5:22 PM EST
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It was only about a month ago that things were really starting to look up for the Florida Panthers.

They were in the middle of a six-game winning streak, had the highest scoring offense in the league, and at least looked like a solid bet to make the playoffs for just the sixth time in franchise history. Given the moves they made over the summer the playoffs should have been a very realistic goal, if not an expectation.

They can still get there, but they are probably only a 50-50 shot (at best) entering the stretch run as they compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.

On Monday they made one of the most curious decisions at the NHL trade deadline when they dealt forward Vincent Trocheck to the Carolina Hurricanes for Erik Haula, Lucas Wallmark, and two prospects.

It is a strange trade for the Panthers on pretty much every level.

For one, Trocheck is the best player changing teams here and is still signed for a couple of more years at a reasonable salary cap hit.

There’s nothing wrong with Haula and Wallmark as players. They’re legit NHLers and have a place on a good team. But neither one is an upgrade over Trocheck or has the upside that he does when he’s at his best. Haula is also an unrestricted free agent after this season. If he doesn’t re-sign, the trade comes down to Wallmark and the development of two solid-but-not-great prospects.

Even more curious was general manager Dale Tallon’s explanation for the trade. Basically, he just wanted to shake something up for a team that has struggled since the All-Star break.

Via The Athletic’s George Richards:

“Since the All-Star break, our team has really struggled and we wanted to find a way to shake things up and see what would work,” Tallon said on Monday afternoon, an hour after the NHL’s trade deadline for the 2019-20 season had passed.

“The more we got into discussions over the past 10 days or so, teams starting making offers. Some of them were pretty fair, some better than others. We just decided this was the right path to add more depth throughout the organization, for the big club and the minor-league team, and it was conscious from all of us that this was a fair deal and something we should do not only for the present but for the future.”

Something about this just seems flawed. Do you really weigh a couple of weeks so highly that you trade a player that, as recently as the beginning of this season, was considered one of your core players to “add more depth throughout the organization?” Especially when that player’s trade value is probably at a low-point, and without even addressing the team’s biggest current need? And in the middle of a push to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a year where you’ve invested millions of dollars and a ton of assets?

If anything the justification at the time could have been that it created enough salary cap space to add a defenseman in another move before the trade deadline, but that did not even happen.

It just seems like less than ideal asset management, something that has been a reoccurring — and significant — problem for the Tallon-led Panthers.

The expansion draft fiasco that saw them give away Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights three years ago has been well documented. Last year they dealt Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann for a collection of spare parts and mid-round draft picks to help clear salary for a free agency splurge. They ultimately landed their prized free agent — goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky — on a massive contract, and then followed that up by putting him behind a porous defensive team that can not stop anyone. Now this trade happens.

In the end it is probably not a trade that is going to ruin the season, and they very well could still end up making the playoffs even after sending Trocheck away. But it is not necessarily the result that is concerning here. It is the process that seemingly went into the decision that is most concerning (panic move when things are going bad, selling key player at low value, questionable asset management). It is the sort of process that has repeatedly burned the Panthers in recent years.

Related: NHL Power Rankings: Teams that improved the most at NHL Trade Deadline

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

The Buzzer: Kane’s hat trick; Staal’s milestone night

Patrick Kane #88 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates with Jonathan Toews
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By Scott CharlesDec 16, 2019, 12:17 AM EST
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Three Stars

1) Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

Kane surpassed Sidney Crosby for the scoring lead this decade with 16 days left in the 2010s. Since Jan. 1, 2010, Kane has 791 points (311G, 480A), while Crosby has 788 points (296G, 492A). No. 88 recorded his sixth NHL hat trick in Chicago’s 5-3 victory over Minnesota. The Blackhawks have a long way to go if they want to have a realistic shot at the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but a victory against a surging division rival is a good place to start.

2) Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets

On a football Sunday, the Jets scored a touchdown in their 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Scheifele played a huge part with his three-point performance featuring a goal and two assists as he extended his individual point streak to six games. Neal Pionk added three assists, including two power-play helpers. The top four teams in the Western Conference (Blues, Avalanche, Jets, Stars) currently reside in the Central Division and playoff positioning will be crucial as each team eyes a lengthy postseason run.

3) Eric Staal, Minnesota Wild

Staal became the 89th player in NHL history to have 1,000 career points when he tallied a power-play goal against Chicago Sunday. After a dreadful 4-9 start to the season, the Wild have climbed up the standings with a 12-4-5 record in their past 21 games. The alternate captain leads Minnesota with 26 points, including four goals in the previous three games.

Other notable performances from Sunday:

  • Anze Kopitar’s two-goal performance in the Kings’ 4-2 victory against the Red Wings helped him surpass the iconic Wayne Gretzky for fourth place on the franchise’s all-time scoring list. Kopitar picked up his 918th and 919th point in his 1038th game.
  • Blake Wheeler finished with three points, including a goal and an assist during a four-goal barrage spanning 4:17.

Highlights of the Night

Staal etched his name in the NHL record books with this one-time blast

William Karlsson won an important foot race before Reilly Smith slid a cross-ice pass over to Jonathan Marchessault

Factoids

  • A total of 33 goals were scored across four contests Sunday for an average of 8.25 per game [NHL PR].
  • The Jets scored four goals in a span of five minutes or less for the fourth time in franchise history [NHL PR].
  • The Jets’ four goals in a span of 4:17 are their second-fastest scored in a game in franchise history, behind the mark of 3:50 set on Nov. 18, 2017 [NHL PR].
  • Canucks’ Bo Horvat has won an NHL-high 414 faceoffs this season [Sportsnet Stats].

NHL Scores

Winnipeg Jets 7, Philadelphia Flyers 3

Chicago Blackhawks 5, Minnesota Wild 3

Los Angeles Kings 4, Detroit Red Wings 2

Vegas Golden Knights 6, Vancouver Canucks 3

The Buzzer: Bruins, Flyers stay hot; Habs finally win

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By James O'BrienDec 4, 2019, 2:22 AM EST
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Three Stars

1. Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas Golden Knights

It’s felt like the Golden Knights haven’t had the greatest luck at times so far this season, and Marchessault fits into that argument, carrying what would be a career-high 5.3 shooting percentage into Wednesday’s game. It’s now at 7.7 percent after Tuesday.

That’s the least dramatic way of saying that Marchessault generated the third hat trick of his career. He turned that game on its head, spoiling the Devils’ first game after firing John Hynes with a natural hat trick.

Alex Tuck presents an alternate option, collecting three assists during this win. Marchessault now has five points in his past three games, while Tuck is at six.

2. John Carlson, Washington Capitals

While Marchessault crept into Tuesday a little cold, Carlson has been ghost pepper-hot for basically all of 2019-20. Carlson scored one goal and two assists during Washington’s win against San Jose, pushing the defenseman to a whopping 40 points in just 29 games. No other defenseman has reached 30 points yet (Dougie Hamilton is second with 28).

Carlson isn’t quite hanging with the absolute top scorers in the NHL any longer, but he’s still holding up pretty well, standing at sixth right now.

For more context on just how special Carlson’s start has been, check the factoids. To help his cause for a strong Tuesday, both of Carlson’s assists were primary assists, and his goal was the game-winner.

3. Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets

Connor Hellebuyck has easily been the most important part of the Jets surviving (and thriving) despite massive talent losses on defense. Key forwards are coming through too, though.

Patrik Laine has been dicing up Dallas for some time, but Connor was a standout on Tuesday, collecting a goal and two assists as the Jets beat the Stars.

Connor now has 24 points in 28 games this season. He’s been heating up lately, in particular, with three goals and three assists for six points during his last four games.

Highlights of the Night

Two examples of serious burst stand out tonight. First, there’s Jason Zucker for the Wild:

Then, Miro Heiskanen finds another gear for the Stars:

Factoids

  • NHL PR has some impressive John Carlson stats. Carlson is the first defenseman to reach 40 points in 29 games or less since Al MacInnis did so in 1990-91. Also, only three other defensemen beyond Carlson and MacInnis managed to generate at least 40 points in 29 games or less: Bobby Orr (who absurdly did so six times), Denis Potvin (twice), and Paul Coffey once. Yeah, pretty solid, Carlson.
  • The Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Islanders on Tuesday, ending an eight-game winless streak. The Boston Bruins were the last team to beat the Habs, and after blanking the Hurricanes, the Bruins are now on an eight-game winning streak. The Flyers are on a smaller-but-still-impressive five-game winning streak, which is notable also because of how sore the Maple Leafs were about it.
  • Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen almost earned a three stars nod with 44 saves on Tuesday, the most saves in a game for any rookie goalie in the franchise’s history.
  • The Canucks inducted Alexandre Burrows into their Ring of Hono(u)r on Tuesday.

Scores

BOS 2 – CAR 0
MTL 4 – NYI 2
MIN 4 – FLA 2
VGK 4 – NJD 3
PHI 6 – TOR 1
ARI 4 – CBJ 2
TBL 3 – NSH 2 (OT)
WPG 5 – DAL 1
VAN 5 – OTT 2
WSH 5 – SJS 2

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

Devils fall short in first game after Hynes firing

By James O'BrienDec 3, 2019, 10:28 PM EST
1 Comment

Sometimes, a team gets a burst of energy — and, ideally, a bump up the standings — after a coach has been fired. If the New Jersey Devils are going to soak up more W’s after firing John Hynes, that gratification will be delayed.

The Devils managed leads of 1-0 and 2-1 during their first game with Alain Nasreddine as interim head coach, but they couldn’t hold onto a win. Jonathan Marchessault managed a natural hat trick during the third period, and that burst served as enough of a cushion for the Vegas Golden Knights to beat the Devils 4-3 on Tuesday.

You have to think Mackenzie Blackwood would like at least one of those goals back, as early on, goaltending is dooming the Devils once again:

It’s not all bad.

For one thing, if you were engineering a game to get the good PR bump of winning after firing a coach, you’d probably not want to target the Golden Knights as an opponent. They’ve had their issues, yet can be a behemoth with the puck, and this marks Vegas’ fourth win in a row.

And you can at least point to a pretty solid overall game for the Devils. This Natural Stat Trick Corsi chart shows a decent broader night of effort from New Jersey, even if the result was all-too-familiar:

Ultimately, the Devils fell short of even getting a “charity point,” and some wonder if the 2019-20 season is more or less lost already. The same might be said of Taylor Hall, considering his uncertain contract status, and the shaky situation the Devils find themselves in.

But, hey, you can only do so much in one game, and you could argue that the Devils at least made some baby steps.

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.