Canucks Homestand
How fortuitous for the Vancouver Canucks; an opportunity to take advantage of some home cooking with a two-game winning streak underway. The club’s newfound confidence was on display during the 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
Now it’s up to the Canucks to take advantage of three games at home this week against the New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators, the Devils being the hottest club of those three at the moment.
The match-up will feature the return from injury for Canucks puck moving defenceman Quinn Hughes, taking on his high flying forward brother Jack, who is third on the Devils in scoring with eight points in nine games.
Quinn’s Canucks have beaten Jack’s Devils only once head-to-head, that being the last time they faced each other by the score of 6-3 at Rogers Arena back on March 15th.
The match should also feature new Canucks Ethan Bear on defence and Jack Studnicka up front. More on that in a bit. In the meantime, let’s for for an NHL twirl …
Let’s Skate !
In wrapping up their stumble bumble visit around the Pacific Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs extended their losing streak to four games while the Ducks snapped theirs at seven. The 4-3 victory came with a Trevor Zegras goal at one end, following a great John Gibson save at the other. Read about the Leafs woes with Sportsnet.
Tough news for the Chicago Blackhawks as big defenseman Seth Jones will miss three to four weeks with a right thumb injury. Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said the 28-year-old defenseman suffered the injury when he blocked a shot in the second period of the 4-3 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. The Chicago SunTimes with deets.
Gotham Honorees
It’s been media ceremony season in and around NYC the last few days for a couple of pals of the Seattle Hockey Insider. Stan Fischler, an old sidekick of mine on TV and radio in New York years ago was toasted by the New York Islanders on Saturday night for his decades of Emmy Award winning media work with MSG Network.
Old? “The Maven” is 90-years-young and is always good for a racy joke. I honestly believe he’s memorized about a thousand of them. Stan was riding around Manhattan on his bike well into his eighties before he moved overseas.
I’m always able to do the math on his age because I’ll always remember him telling me at a Rangers game that he was nine-years-old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
Another one of our favorites is Kenny Daneyko, the Stanley Cup winning defenseman during the New Jersey Devils mini-dynasty turned broadcaster. Dude’s enthusiasm for the game and the people around it never wanes. Simpy a great guy. He was honored on Sunday at the Prudential Center for spending forty years associated with the franchise.
All of us spent quite a bit of time working on the old radio/TV version of “NHL Live”. Congratulations gentlemen.
Have a fantastic week folks!
