A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey last week, serious and satirical, and rolling four lines deep.
1. How ’bout them new Leafs? GM Dave Nonis is looking all kinds of brilliant. If only voting for GM of the Year was held three games into the season…
Not only did he lock up Phil “I Don’t Negotiate Midseason” Kessel before puck drop, but new additions Jonathan Bernier (stellar in his debut victory over the Flyers and pitching perfect relief on Saturday), Dave Bolland (point per game so far) and Mason Raymond (two goals, two assists, one shootout spin-o-rama) are off and running. Helps fans forget about the suspension to Nonis’ big off-season signee, David Clarkson.
2. Why fire Peter Laviolette just three games (and three losses) in? Probably because GM Paul Holmgren is rightfully fretting about his own job. Just as goaltender Jonathan Bernier left L.A. because we was never supplanting Jonathan Quick, Ron Hextall left the Kings because he wasn’t going to get GM Dean Lombardi’s job. The Flyers keep losing, and Hextall moves swiftly from assistant GM to full-fledged GM. (Fun fact: Laviolette isn’t the fastest coaching casualty the NHL has seen. Paul Thompson was axed as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks after just one game in 1944-45.)
3. An expensive, outrageous hockey player, Ilya Bryzgalov, joins an expensive, outrageous city in Las Vegas. For as much as the Bryz’s personality might not mesh with an NHL dressing room, this guy is still an NHL-level goaltender and should be back in the league. We’ll be rooting for him to earn his way back into the big leagues, and not just because we enjoy his wacky quotes. But partly because we enjoy his wacky quotes.
4. My goodness George McPhee looks smart for signing Mikhail Grabovski to a one-year deal worth $3 million. Grabo was on pace for a 246-goal season after Opening Night. If the centre produces all year — five points already in his first three games — it’s not inconceivable to see him jump back up into the $5.5 million range when he hits the open market.
5. Love seeing refs not delivering the penalty announcement like robots:
6. Patrick Roy, you get one. The first time you spazz out at the opposition, it shows your fire, your passion to defend your players and your willingness to spontaneously contribute to the NHL Foundation. But if it becomes a regular occurrence, it’ll get old fast. (And if I’m running the Pepsi Center, first thing I do the next morning is instruct staff to not repair the between-benches stanchion. Keep it loose for effect, like furniture in a Matt Foley sketch. When was the last time the hockey world buzzed about a regular season Avalanche game?)
7. In advance of their season opener versus Jaromir Jagr’s New Jersey Devils, the Pittsburgh Penguins removed Jagr’s image from a ring of Penguins greats that orbits the wall of the home-team dressing room at Consol Energy Centrer. The Pens replaced Jagr with Mark Recchi. But they forgot to redecorate the wall outside of the Penguins dressing room. Whose house? Jags’ house.
8. No one does not have an opinion on fighting in hockey. (Offsetting negatives, I know.)
9. Few things are cooler than awarding the game’s first star to a guy that doesn’t deserve it that night but deserves it for his general body of work. The Ducks’ Teemu Selanne was a minus-1 and kept off the scoreboard in his return to Winnipeg but was honoured nicely.
10. Alex Ovechkin is less easily recognized with his jersey un-tucked. If he stops scoring goals at will, we’ll have a Where’s Waldo? situation on our hands.
11. Theory: The reason the Sabres named two captains, Steve Ott and Thomas Vanek, is not to encourage Vanek to stay in Buffalo as he enters his walk year but rather to soften the move to Ott as the club’s sole captain.
12. Let’s give Commissioner Bettman some credit. Maybe he wasn’t so bored watching Mikhail Grabovski’s hat trick or Chicago’s thrilling come-from-behind victory on Opening Night that he fell asleep. Maybe he was just exhausted from killing it in the summer, finding new buyers for the Coyotes, Devils and Panthers. Or maybe the camera caught Gary mid-blink… and mid-chin rest:
(via Deadspin)