Kraken Fall Short
You can’t win ’em all, and despite their diligent efforts, the Seattle Kraken couldn’t solve the Minnesota Wild and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury on Friday night. The 1-0 loss snapped a five-game win streak.
“It’s that kind of night, you got to find a dirty one, a greasy one somewhere,” Kraken Head Coach Dave Hakstol said postgame. “We weren’t able to do that tonight.”
“We gotta find second (shots), we’ve gotta find rebounds, net front,” Kraken forward Yanni Gourde (above) said, “when that goalie sees the puck he’s most likely going to make the save, we’ve gotta do a better job of making his game a little bit harder.”
Next up for the Kraken, the surprising Winnipeg Jets, on top of a Central Division with a record of 8-3-and-1. It will be the tail end of a back-to-back for the Jets after they visit the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
Let’s Skate !
The already struggling Columbus Blue Jackets lost their top minute munching defenseman Zach Werenski to a separated shoulder and a torn labrum on Thursday night and he appears to be out for the season. More bad news for a team that’s come out of the blocks with a record of 4-and-9. The Jackets are sitting deep in the basement of the Metro Division with their 8 points.
Werenski hurt himself on his awkward check attempt that tumbled him into the right wing boards in the offensive zone against the Philadelphia Flyers. After crashing hard, he fell to the ice, and stayed down for a bit in discomfort,
The Blue Jackets actually went on to win the game 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. They’re already missing three other regulars to injury.
Scrolling past all of the Ohio State football stories, we found these deets in the Columbus Dispatch.
No World Cup
NHL.com reports that the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) have decided it’s not feasible to hold a World Cup of Hockey in 2024. Part of the problem is the league’s and the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) relationship, or lack thereof, with Russia and Belarus following the former’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Russia is banned from IIHF events and the NHL has supported that mandate, suspending business operations with the country and its national federation. Russia still has dozens of players playing in the NHL which presents a bit of a quandary.
The World Cup, the successor to the Canada Cup, was last held in Toronto in 2016 and won by Team Canada. It was also held in 1996 and 2004.
The league is talking about holding the event in February of 2025, which would be exactly one year prior to the Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
Enjoy the Hockey Action !!
