Fridays, a good day for an NHL wrap around, a look across the league at the big storylines of the week. Let’s get you caught up, bonus musings on this sick puppies favorite NFL day of the year, black Monday. Who’s getting fired? From the sports desk…
NHL Wrap Around
The West’s Stanley Cup Contenders reside in the Central division.
After furious comeback wins for the Wild, Avs and Stars the path in the west is as murky as it gets because it appears all three of those teams plus the wagon that is the Winnipeg Jets will be participants in the race for lord Stanley’s Cup. The Wild are powered by incredible depth scoring, an MVP in Kirill Kaprizov and goalie Filip Gustavsson having one of the best years of his young career. The Stars are the Stars, a four-line deep team with superstars up and down the lineup, Roope Hintz and Matt Duchene were the stars for the Stars last night in a comeback win against the Senators. Bonus love for Jason Robertson’s patience on a beautiful feed to Hintz for the game-tying goal. The Stars possess the best goalie in the conference when he’s on in Jake Oettinger. Then you have the Avs, ah the Avs. Defeating fierce rival Buffalo Sabres in a game that contained the vitriol and drama of a cup final. Stemming from a goal allowed after poor Scott Wedgewood’s ankle/knee region was fallen on by a Buffalo Sabre, while he was down, no whistle blew and a goal was scored. This left Jared Bednar furious, watch this, and rightfully so. It sparked a furious comeback from the Avs including a last second buzzer beater from newly returned Jonathan Drouin. Solid goaltending, and the fact that no lead is safe with them have the Avs cemented themselves last night as true cup contenders.
Apologies to Connor McDavid, but the other Western Conference Power lays in the Death Star in the Desert.
The Vegas Golden Knights are scary. They are fast, they are tough, they are deep and they have the most underrated NHL superstar in the league right now in Jack Eichel. Eichel Sits with 50 points and 40 assists in 38 games. If he was finding the back of the net more he would be the NHL’s super star. Vegas has proven goaltending, good coaching and a solid D core. While the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes might have something to say about this, it’s hard not to look at the West and say ‘Yep, the Cup winner is coming out of that conference.’
NHL Wrap Around: Alex Ovechkin is back, and guess what, he’s still scoring.
The Caps are an interesting case. A team of solid hockey players with no clear star that just keep winning hockey games. Are they a Cup contender? I don’t know if I would classify them in that way just yet, they need to beat teams like Minnesota, Florida, Carolina and Tampa for me to truly believe in them as an Eastern Conference force. Color me skeptical still. It’s undeniably a fun story though, keep scoring Ovi.
Utah Gets A Crucial Win.
We weren’t getting out of the NHL wrap around without a shout out to the Club.A trip to the Saddle Dome, a hot goalie and a tough team in Calgary, a must win to stay in the playoff race. Utah pulled it off. They did so with goals from the young core of Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller, who now have 10-plus goals at nearly the mid-way mark. Utah lacks a true horse, a number one Center, someone who can unlock a talented young top sixes potential. The problem is those are impossible to come by in the NHL unless you, a. trade for them or b. gamble on Elias Pettersson. Utah has a long way to go but getting this win to hang on in the playoff race for another week is a solid step forward, just try and be alive come deadline time, that’s the goal for this season.
Who’s Getting Fired
Jets: Open job.
Bears: Open job.
Patriots: Jerod Mayo’s defense has gotten worse as the year progresses, go find a young fun offensive gun to pair with Drake Maye.
Colts: Directionless, Chris Ballard surviving would be a minor miracle, you would imagine a new GM wants a new coach.
Browns: Maybe, feels like Jimmy Haslam could get pissed about how much he’s paying for this roster and how terrible the record is. It’s his own fault though.
Jags: Dead man walking.
Titans: Brian Callahan: Offensive coach who consistently had the worst offense all year long. I don’t care who your QB is, there’s no creativity and his big sell was brining in his dad as O line coach to fix a bad offensive line. Guess what, the line still sucks. The Titans are maybe the most depressing franchise in the NFL right now.
Raiders: They should, will they? Probably not. All good by me, remain a laughing stock forever.
Giants: Dead man walking pt. 2, Big Apple edition.
Saints: The Rizz has run out. Darren Rizzi was a nice story but it’s time for a house cleaning down in NOLA.
Cardinals: It’s that or chose mediocrity forever.