Off The Ice- Injuries, wacky goals, and…babies???

There’s kind of a lot going on but also not a lot happening. It’s that weird twilight part of the seasons this week on Off The Ice will be interesting. Most teams have had their COVID infestation and are back in action. Conor McDavid has been added to my list of athletes that simply aren’t human. Cale Makar is injured…again. Hunter Miska is great. Ilya Sorokin is great. No one has heard from Jonathan Toews. Patrick Kane scored his 400th goal. And Sidney Crosby played his 1,000th NHL game. 

Burgundy, Blue, & Where the fuck is Cale? 

Cale Makar missed the Avs series in San Jose. After playing in Arizona, the team went off to California but Cale got on a plane and headed back to the Mile High City. Avalanche Twitter said it was for treatment for an upper-body injury but there hasn’t been any more information. 

Bowen Byram has also missed the last three games. He got into…an entanglement (a fistfight) with Coyotes player Drake Caggiula and hasn’t played since. He’s listed as UBI and day-to-day. I can’t wait for the NHL to figure out what day-to-day actually means. 

Give the boy the Calder

New York’s outstanding rookie is not who we all thought it would be. Oliver Wahlstrom is playing his first season in the National Hockey League with the New York Islanders after being drafted in 2018. He’s racked up eight points in his 25 games. All four of his goals were power-play goals and he didn’t forget to show off his deadly shooting skills and wide defensive dynamic. It is too early to make Calder predictions but the subheading sounded nice. 

…Tom Wilson

On Friday, the Washington Capitals played the Boston Bruins in Boston. Early in the first period, Wilson was called for boarding Brandon Carlo. The play was initially ruled a legal hit but anyone with eyes can see that Wilson drove his shoulder straight into Carlo’s head against the glass. After several minutes, Carlo was helped off the ice and was eventually taken to the hospital. Tom Wilson will have a face (to-screen)-to-face hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety on Saturday night. 

Brandon was released from the hospital on Saturday morning and obviously wasn’t at the rink. But don’t worry. Boston won 5-1. 

5-hole…?

It was a boring start to the Islanders/Sabres game on Saturday morning. Buffalo scored once in the first period and… well… I don’t know what Barry said but the Isles really showed up in the second and third periods. The word ‘goal’ isn’t extravagant enough to describe the beautiful job done by Mat Barzal early in the second period. He grabbed a pass from Jordan Eberle, knocked Buffalo defensemen Ristolanien flat on his blue & yellow ass, and shoots it between his legs. No, not the goalie’s legs. His own.  This kickstarted the momentum on the bench and they brought home a 5-2 win. 

Flyers 3, Penguins 4 (FFR3, Gm 21) – Where The Rubber Meets The Road

Rapid-fire 

We also don’t know where Nathan MacKinnon is. Gabe Landeskog and his wife had another baby and Gabe casually dropped in for a game against the Anaheim Ducks the same night. Calgary fired their coach after Montreal fired theirs. I really hope that doesn’t become a trend. Brent Seabrook retired and I cried. Jack Eichel hasn’t requested a trade out of Buffalo even after six straight losses. Travis Konecny and his girlfriend are pregnant. Dylan Cozens got into his first fight in the league and so did fellow former World Juniors Team Canada Captain, Bo Byram. 

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