Vancouver Canucks, Andrei Kuzmenko

Canucks NHL Daily: Koozy Factor, Miller Out in Boston

Canucks Koozy

When the Vancouver Canucks signed Andrei Kuzmenko on July 13th the club celebrated, having beaten out a handful of other NHL teams for the Russian forward’s services. They did so for good reason.

“Koozy” has been a gem thus far, almost a point-a-game player with seven of his eleven points in twelve games being goals. Three of them came in a wild 8-5 Canucks win at Rogers Arena over the Anaheim Ducks this past Thursday for his first career NHL hat trick. He tacked on an assist in the game.

He’s proven to be the top-six forward the Canucks presumed and hoped he would be. One can’t teach hockey sense, it’s inherent in a lot of ways and it doesn’t matter if you’re from Kelowna, Prague or Moscow. Or even better, how about Yakutsk, in Russia’s far flung eastern frontier and not far from the Arctic Circle. Some might remember seeing Kuzmenko’s home town/region on the old board game “Risk”.

Thus far Koozy is the real deal, one of the bright spots of a very uneven early season for the Vancouver Canucks. His analytics are off the chart and interestingly enough, he hasn’t registered a hit yet nor taken a penalty.

He and his Canucks mates hit the road for five games starting Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators. In the meantime …

Let’s Skate !

The Boston Bruins came to a decision on Sunday as to the future of 20-year-old defenseman Mitchell Miller who the club signed to an entry-level contract last week. They’re cutting him loose. At age-14 Miller was convicted in juvenile court of bullying and abusing a developmentally disabled, African American classmate.

This is a portion of the statement issued by Bruins team president Cam Neely:

“Today the Boston Bruins have decided to part ways with Mitchell Miller, effective immediately. 

The decision to sign this young man was made after careful consideration of the facts as we were aware of them: that at 14-years-old he made a poor decision that led to a juvenile conviction. We understood this to be an isolated incident and that he had taken meaningful action to reform and was committed to ongoing personal development. Based on that understanding we offered him a contract.

Based on new information, we believe it is the best decision at this time to rescind the opportunity for Mitchell Miller to represent the Boston Bruins. We hope that he continues to work with professionals and programs to further his education and personal growth.”

Suspensions

The National Hockey League handed out two suspensions over the weekend. Both Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Josh Anderson of the Montreal Canadiens will be sitting out two games.

Tkachuk is experiencing secondary discipline for his high sticking infraction against LA Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on Saturday while Anderson will miss action for his boarding penalty against Alex Pietrangelo of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Here’s the official videos from the NHL Department of Player Safety if you want to check them out.

Matthew Tkachuk.

Josh Anderson.

Otherwise, Enjoy the Hockey Action !

Rob Simpson

Rob Simpson has covered the NHL in five different decades. He’s authored 4 books on hockey and is a veteran TV and radio play-by-play man and reporter.