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Skate blade grazes Milan Lucic’s neck in scary incident

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)

Los Angeles Kings ’15-16 Outlook

By James O'BrienAug 17, 2015, 5:35 PM EDT
16 Comments

It’s probably safe to say this about the rest of the NHL’s perception of the Los Angeles Kings: they don’t know exactly what to expect, but they’re scared.

After all, this is a two-time Stanley Cup champion team that hasn’t won a division title; opponents know not to disregard them at this point. The Kings have made a strange (and unintentional) habit of following underwhelming regular seasons with blistering playoff runs.

Of course, in 2014-15, they didn’t do enough to even limp into the postseason.

The Kings finished the regular season with 95 standings points, four short of the Winnipeg Jets at the final wild card spot.

That’s not a huge margin, yet it was still a shocking plummet for the defending champs.

GM Dean Lomabrdi seemed to hint that the Kings failed to find that extra gear, but getting a longer-than-expected rest might just have its perks.

“Well, this time there’s no excuse,” Lombardi said to NHL.com. “It’s a marvelous opportunity for our top players to take over that room, and they start by doing that, becoming the best they can be, and I think they will. There’s no doubt in my mind what guys like [Anze] Kopitar and [Jonathan] Quick and [Drew] Doughty stand for, and hopefully this is an awakening. It’s no fun watching the playoffs. In the long run, we could benefit from this.”

Greed could be good

If extra rest isn’t enough, one other thing shouldn’t be overlooked: important players are fighting for more than just pride.

At least a part of Anze Kopitar must see dollar signs when he notes the sort of money Jonathan Toews will pull in starting next season with his own deal just a year from expiring. Kopitar’s $6.8 million cap hit may very well look like a bargain compared to what he’ll start to make in 2016-17.

Milan Lucic is also fighting for a new contract, but he also hopes to restore his reputation as a top power forward in the NHL.

He struggled to score with David Krejci injured, and even if there are plenty of factors at play, it’s difficult to ignore that the Bruins are retaining $2.75 million of his cap hit this season.

Lucic – Kopitar – Marian Gaborik is a frightening combination of size and skill in any scenario, yet it’s downright terrifying with two-thirds of that group in contract years.

***

Few would be brave enough to dismiss the Kings chances of making the playoffs in 2015-16. Could the same be said about anyone doubting their championship hopes, too?

(You can further discuss their window of contention here.)