After a nice little winning streak, the Syracuse Crunch have hit a bit of a rough patch. Wednesday night they dropped their third game in a row as they fell to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-1. It’s also the third game in a row where they’ve only been able to muster one goal on offense. On Wednesday it was Shawn Element who found the back of the net, with assists from Daniel Walker (welcome back!) and Tristan Allard. Matt Tomkins stopped 22 of 26 in net. The Crunch will look to get back to their winning ways as they head to Utica on Saturday.
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Bolts Beginnings: Brandon Hagel [Tampa Bay Lightning]
Season 2 gets under way with a trip to Alberta with Brandon Hagel.
Brad Richards heads to St. Louis [Elliotte Friedman Twitter]
Part of the reason St. Louis head coach Craig Berube is no longer their head coach is because their power play is at 8.4%, which is 31 out of 32 teams (only Washington is worse at 8.2%). To help out with that less than stellar stat they’re bringing in old friend Brad Richards as a consultant to help with their special teams. Not a bad idea considering that 95 of his 298 career goals came on the power play as were 282 of his 634 career assists.
Wild part ways with assistant GM Chris O’Hearn [Minneapolis StarTribune]
It’s been an awkward year for the Wild as they haven’t quite lived up their expectations. Still, it was a bit of a surprise to hear that they had parted ways with O’Hearn, who was a key part of their front office, especially in regards to contracts and salary cap issues.
How rookie coaches look to buck NHL hiring trends [For Hockey Fans]
The recycling of the same coaches over and over seems to be a dying trend in the NHL as teams have started to inject new blood into the coaching ranks with their recent hires. Is it working?
When did Jakub Voracek ‘p*ss himself’? [Broad Street Hockey]
The hardest of hard-hitting journalism took place from our friends at BSH as they try and figure out exactly what game Jakub Voracek was in such distress that he had a bit of an accident.
Canada announces 2024 Men’s World Junior team [NHL.com]
Team Canada announced the 22 players that will make up their roster at this year’s World Junior Championships. They are holding back one spot in case a NHL team releases one of their young players to play in the tournament (Matthew Poitras is a name that has popped up a lot).
The NHL is caught between two generations of physicality [Sportsnet]
An interesting article from Justin Bourne that looks at a league comprised of young players who grew up in a more open game playing alongside older players who were taught how to take out the body with force.
Jonas Brothers to perform at NHL Stadium Series in New Jersey [Sportsnet]
Good for them!
