Former NHL tough guy Andre Deveaux has reportedly been suspended until February 2016 for his vicious slash on Vasteras IK’s Per Helmersson prior to a game last month in Sweden.
The 31-year-old, who played 31 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers, has already had his contract terminated.
Deveaux says he went after Helmersson because of an incident in a previous game.
A fixture in the Rangers lineup since being recalled from the AHL, New York center Sean Avery will be a healthy scratch tonight against Florida. Erik Christensen, who hasn’t played since Nov. 23, will draw back in.
“I don’t think Sean’s been dead-on,” head coach John Tortorella told ESPN New York. “Having said that, he hasn’t got a bunch of ice time. I’m just having problems finding ice for him. I have other guys that are filling areas and doing what I need done and I’m a little concerned about shootouts.”
This is obviously a nod to Christensen’s shootout prowess. One of the most successful takers since the shootout was implemented, he’s gone 24-for-46 over his career — the ninth-most goals in NHL history.
It’s also a nod to Avery’s declining role on the team. He’s only seen 10-plus minutes of action twice this year and played 29:38 over the last five games, with the enforcer/agitator minutes being eaten up by Brandon Prust and Andre Deveaux.
Christensen will center New York’s fourth line between Prust and Brandon Dubinsky, but his offensive abilities will see him get some second-unit powerplay time as well.
“You can see he shows signs of his talent, his skill, but again it’s a shift here a shift there,” Tortorella said. “We’re hoping he can become more consistent”
This is the Weekend Watch. It’s a guide of what to watch this weekend.
Saturday: Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, 7pm ET
This one has all the makings of…
/puts on sunglasses
A trap game.
YEEAAAAHHHHHH!
Saturday: Anaheim at Nashville, 8pm ET
Lingering beef alert! These two have mad history, yo.
There was that time Jarkko Ruutu KOed Martin Erat. Then that time when Bobby Ryan stomped on Jonathan Blum. And we can’t forget about Corey Perry spearing Pekka Rinne, or when Ducks GM Bob Murray said the Preds were “diving left and right” during the playoffs.
Remember the time Ryan Getzlaf fought Mike Fisher? Or when Francois Beauchemin KOed Fisher? That was also that fight between Brian McGrattan and George Parros. Shortly after that, Getzlaf called Jordin Tootoo an embarrassment and then Barry Trotz told Getzlaf to take care of business on the ice, not complain through the newspapers.
Best part? This will be Tootoo’s first game back after getting suspended for running Ryan Miller. Hoo boy.
Saturday: Vancouver at Ottawa, 7pm ET
Lingering beef alert (again)! The last time these two met, Canucks forward Alex Burrows either intentionally or unintentionally opened the bench door as Maxim Lapierre was hitting Jesse Winchester, resulting in this:
Winchester didn’t like it, the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch didn’t like it and Burrows pleaded innocence (on the pretense he wouldn’t hurt a fellow Quebec guy, even though Winchester’s from Ontario.)
Saturday: San Jose at St. Louis, 8pm ET
Lingering beef alert (yes, again)! This will mark the first time that David Perron will square off against Joe Thornton since the infamous hit that cost Perron 97 games with a concussion:
The two appeared to have buried the hatchet when Thornton texted Perron prior to the Blues LW making his season debut against Chicago on Dec. 3, but maybe another St. Louis player takes a run at Thornton. Maybe that guy is the diminutive Scott Nichol, who gamely fought Thornton back in 2008.
Sunday: Florida at New York Rangers, 7pm ET
Yeah yeah, lingering beef alert. The last time these two played, Rangers forward Andre Deveaux received a 10-minute match penalty for deliberate injury after elbowing Tomas Fleischmann in the head:
Deveaux received a three-game suspension for the hit, one that drew the ire of Panthers head coach Kevin Dineen.
“The refs certainly got the right call calling a match penalty,” Dineed said. “That’s the kind of thing, again at the end of the year, you put together tapes of what’s really wrong with the game, that hit would be one of them.”
Enjoy the weekend, everyone.
When the Detroit Red Wings face the Colorado Avalanche tonight at the Pepsi Center, it will be Ty Conklin that gets the start in goal — not Jimmy Howard. That’s newsworthy, because Howard’s streak of 17 consecutive starts will be broken.
Yeah, seventeen straight starts.
To put that in perspective, Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom and Philadelphia’s Ilya Bryzgalov each have 17 starts total. Boston’s Tim Thomas and San Jose’s Antti Niemi have 16. The last time Howard didn’t start for the Wings was on Oct. 25 in Columbus, which he missed following the birth of his son (Detroit lost 4-1, by the way.) Since then, a few things occurred:
— Halloween.
— Joe Frazier died.
— The Muppets Movie was released.
— Brendan Shanahan suspended four players (Patrick Kaleta, Chris Stewart, Andre Deveaux, Max Pacioretty) for a total of 13 games.
— The Boston Bruins moved from worst to first in the Northeast Division.
“When you’re playing a lot, it’s good to get a little mental break here and there, but I enjoy being out there every single night,” Howard told Mlive.com. “Me being the competitor, I like to be out there for the guys, but at the same time Ty needs to play. It’s important to our team he gets on the ice and does a great job.”
Conklin hasn’t appeared in a game since Nov. 17, when he relieved Howard in the third period of a 5-2 loss to San Jose. He said he’s been treating practices like games as a way of staying sharp.
“That’s as much as you can do,” Conklin said. “Physically, you’re always skating. I think it’s just the mental stuff, getting prepared and staying focused for 60 minutes and getting into the flow of the game because things are going to be faster than they are in practice.”
“I’m very excited. It’ll be nice to get in there and get some action.”
If you’re curious as to why Andre Deveaux got hit with a three-game suspension by the NHL for his elbow to the face of Tomas Fleischmann, Brendan Shanahan is there to help us out.
Watch as Shanahan tells us about why Deveaux gets an unplanned vacation.