More from PHT PHT POWER RANKINGS | THE BUZZER

NHL

Oilers’ Lucic ejected after dangerous cross-check to Blues’ Sundqvist

By Scott BilleckMar 19, 2019, 10:59 PM EDT
9 Comments

Milan Lucic is paid a lot of money for a lot of nothing these days, but he may have some of his $6 million per season salary taken away from him after a nasty cross-check on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues.

With the Blues holding a 6-2 lead with just over five minutes left in the third period — garbage time, as they say — Lucic made his presence felt as he drilled Oskar Sundvist from behind long after he had shot the puck on Anthony Stolarz.

The needless hit sent Sundqvist flying into the boards, who needed some assistance from the trainers before leaving the game. He did not return after favoring his right arm as he skated off hunched over.

Lucic was assessed a five-minute major for cross-checking and given a game misconduct on the play. The senselessness of the hit is likely to land him in hot water with the NHL, too.

The Oilers still have four more years of this to endure, too.

Meanwhile, it’s not the first time this season (if you count preseason games) that Sundqvist has been on the receiving end of a bone-headed and dirty hit.

Tom Wilson got the book thrown at him for this awful shot.

Earlier in the game, Zack Kassian and Patrick Maroon — good friends — went toe-to-toe in a friendship-testing heavyweight tilt.

There were some haymakers thrown in this one.

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Skate blade grazes Milan Lucic’s neck in scary incident

Twitter
By Scott BilleckJan 14, 2018, 11:16 AM EDT
5 Comments

It was a tough night for gruesome injuries on Saturday.

If Phillip Danault‘s puck to the head of a slap shot from Zdeno Chara wasn’t enough, Edmonton Oilers forward Milan Lucic came within millimeters of his life being in severe jeopardy.

Lucic appeared to fall in the neutral zone and when he did, he took Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomas Nosek with him.

In the video below — and in a very serious event that wasn’t all that noticeable during the broadcast — Nosek’s skate grazed Lucic’s neck.

Lucic tweeted a picture of the cut following the Oilers 3-2 overtime win over the Golden Knights. As you can see, s some stitches were required to repair the wound.

In the tweet, he said, “Close call… but ok,” along with the hashtag. “#skategrazedjugular.”

Close call, indeed.

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Lucic jokes about running through Rask ‘like I did (to) another goalie’

By Ryan DadounAug 31, 2015, 10:22 PM EDT
43 Comments

Milan Lucic won’t get a chance to play against his former teammates in Boston until Feb. 9, but when that game finally happens, it should be a fun one to watch. If Lucic ends up delivering a big hit in that game, it will get plenty of attention.

The question is who would be the player unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of such a blow? In reality, it will be dictated by circumstances, if it happens at all. While the Boston Bruins decided to part ways with Lucic this summer by shipping him to the Los Angeles Kings, he certainly has no ill will towards the Bruins players. In fact, when pressed on TSN 1040 in Vancouver to pick someone he would want to target, he was reluctant to do so.

Finally he offered up his friend, goaltender Tuukka Rask by jokingly saying that he would “maybe run through him like I did (to) another goalie that I ran into before.”

It seems fair to assume that he was referencing his hit on Ryan Miller back in 2011:

Of course, Miller now plays for the Canucks, giving the fact that he brought it up on a Vancouver radio station another dimension. Lucic, who is from Vancouver, is used to being part of the rivalry between the Bruins and Canucks. Now that he’s no longer part of that, his games against his hometown team might have a different feel to them.

You can listen to the full interview here.

PHT Morning Skate: Daniel is (barely) still ‘The Shooting Sedin’

By James O'BrienAug 18, 2015, 9:00 AM EDT
10 Comments

PHT’s Morning Skate takes a look around the world of hockey to see what’s happening and what we’ll be talking about around the NHL world and beyond.

Looking back at Daniel Briere’s legacy as a trailblazer. (The Hockey News)

Let’s check back in on the best UFAs still available, shall we? (NHL.com)

Speaking of the latest on a common theme, let’s take another look at perceived winners, losers and tweeners from the off-season. (NHL Numbers)

Want to kill time on a taxing Tuesday? Try to match these hockey nicknames with their “owners.” (Greatest Hockey Legends)

This one’s a month old, but still relevant: what can the Los Angeles Kings expect from Milan Lucic? (Jewels from the Crown)

Watching the Sedin twins play a game of “H-O-R-S-E” was a little rough at times. In fact, for a while there, it seemed like the moniker of “The Shooting Sedin” might just transfer from Daniel to Henrik Sedin:

Beleskey wants to get started: ‘I could end the summer right now’

By James O'BrienAug 17, 2015, 8:30 PM EDT
12 Comments

Hockey fans aren’t the only ones counting down the days until training camp and the start of the regular season.

That moment of anxiety is striking more than a few NHL players in mid-August, and new Boston Bruins forward Matt Beleskey is really feeling it, as he told the team website.

“I could end the summer right now and start camp tomorrow,” Beleskey said. “I’m ready to go. This is always the hardest part of the summer, when you’ve been training and you’re kind of sick of that. I just want to get out there and start playing.”

The five-year, $19 million contract he signed this summer certainly represents an upgrade for the 27-year-old, but it’s not quite on the absurd level that many players have received following hot contract years in the past.

It’s still the kind of deal that will leave many people pleading with him to “prove it,” however, so that must make a summer full of golf and fishing feel a little more restless than usual.

Beleskey also must be a little intrigued about where he’ll end up in the Bruins’ lineup. Do you put him with David Krejci to try to be something of a Milan Lucic fill-in or do you add scoring depth by using Beleskey on the third line?

That’s interesting stuff to ponder, but as we fidget the next two months away, maybe Beleskey can do us a solid and share some more dog photos.

Now that is regular-season form.

(H/T to Rotoworld)