Did you know “the doldrums” were an actual physical location? According to NOAA, the official name is the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone and is “a belt around the Earth extending approximately five degrees north and south of the equator.” Basically the trade winds from the north smack into the trade winds from the south. Pair that with some other atmospheric conditions and it leads to minimal surface winds which would really bum you out if you were in a sailing vessel.
While hockey may not be played on the high seas, the NHL has entered into it’s doldrums as there isn’t much happening on or off of the ice. Players are training and general managers are…general managing, but most of the heavy lifting for the upcoming season is done. Until rookie camps fire up in September there really isn’t much on the official schedule, and honestly, the remaining big news centers around restricted free agents like Jeremy Swayman and the kids up in Detroit. Some of those contract squabbles may even linger into the start of training camp.
Still, we were able to piece together a few bit of hockey news from the last few days for your reading pleasure.
Other Hockey News
The Lightning confirmed some sweater numbers for the new guys:
Macklin Celebrini has been getting most of the press as the face of the San Jose Sharks rebuild, but it could be his fellow rookie teammate, Will Smith, who leads them out of the basement of the wild, wild west. The former Boston College is the subject of this quick piece from NHL.com. Our friends over at Fear the Fin have him loosely penciled into a spot on the second line.
Speaking of rookies, the early odds-on favorite to win the Calder, Matvei Michkov, is projected to make the Flyers roster. The folks over at Flyers Nitty Gritty talk about which players may join him on his line in Philadelphia. Knowing John Tortorella, the Russian phenom will likely end up playing with just about everyone on the roster.
Auston Matthews is poised to become the next captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs according to Sportsnet. The 26-year-old will become the first US-born captain of the Leafs, and join Mats Sundin as the only non-Canadian to wear the “C”. John Tavares has worn the letter since he joined the team in 2019, but is entering the final year of his contract and likely won’t re-sign with the team after this season. The official announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday.
There are some teams that are facing some serious salary cap decisions over the next couple of months. For a change, the Lightning aren’t one of them. On the other hand, the Edmonton Oilers are already over the cap and still need to sign RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. Their job got a little easier as it was announced that Evander Kane will likely start the season on LTIR and he may require surgery for the sports hernia issue he’s been dealing with. As Oilers Nation points out, Kane’s full no-move clause switches to a 16-team no-trade list on March 1st of next year, which just happens to be right before the trade deadline. Surgery, rehab, LTIR, conditioning stint, and then trade?
The other day at The Athletic they released their front-office confidence rankings. The Lightning graded out with an A- and were ranked third behind the Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars. We’ll have some more thoughts on this later this week, but it’s always good to see the fan base confident in the team’s leaders. The public might not have been so high, but it’s still a solid report card.
The Action Network released their rankings for NHL arenas in terms of affordability and “family-friendly” policies. Most affordable – Mullet Arena (RIP). Least affordable – Scotiabank Arena. Amalie Arena came in as the 14th most expensive (my, how times have changed) with a cost of $435.24 for a family of four.
Sure it happened a few days ago, but how about a Nick Perbix goal in Da Beauty League?
