Daily Cupcakes: September 19th, 2017
Colorado Avalanche
Competition for Avalanche defensemen begins in earnest. [BSN Denver]
Joffrey Lupul accuses Maple Leafs of injury cheating. [The Globe and Mail]
Avalanche reverts to #WhyNotUs theme from 2013-14. [The Denver Post]
Dreger and LeBrun scan Duchene trade landscape. At what point do you take the best deal on the table and just walk away from a bad situation? [Fan Rag Sports]
The Rest of the Game
Coyotes cancel pre-season game due to bad ice. [CBC]
Tyler Wong: Just who is this star of Golden Knights’ first game? [Sporting News]
Can we take the Coyotes seriously? Yes, you can probably take the Arizona Coyotes seriously now. [NBC Sports]
L.A. Kings introduced to NHL’s new slashing rules in preseason opener. [Daily News]
Here are a number of players to watch in 2017-18 NHL season. [The Star]
This is by far the worst thing ever…but damn was that a fun season. Shame the negative impact that came from that success.
Did they check with Ray Bourque before invoking this again? Technically it’s his phrase.
I kind of liked it. Weird and awkward, but I liked the attitude.
I always loved this. But I love the song. Damn, I miss Ginner.
Images of a sweaty faced, singing Dutchy once again seared into my brain 😐
In one of the previous training camp posts, Earl derived from Bednar’s lack of mentioning Lindholm as one of the defensemen ‘in the mix’ to mean that Lindholm is a lock for the roster.
This quote from Sakic on BSN’s most recent article seems to enforce that idea.
“We’re still looking to improve that position. But our young guys are starting to push. (Chris) Bigras is going to push, (Andrei) Mironov is going to push. (Anton) Lindholm, we expect him to be one of our guys. (Duncan) Siemens is going to push.”
http://bsndenver.com/bsn-exclusive-joe-sakic-on-a-painful-lesson-learned-and-the-path-to-redemption/
I’m personally rooting for Siemens and I think that Mironov has the inside track. I don’t view it as a bad thing if Bigras is the odd man out as he missed significant time last season due to injury and he can go down to SAR to play top pairing/all situations minutes and be the first call up on defense.
That said, I think that I read the yesterday was Barberio’s first day on the ice. If he’s not able to go, maybe we see Bigras or a dark horse like Meloche start the season with the big club. Bigras is waivers exempt while Meloche can play a 9 game cup of coffee with the Avs as a junior player before his contract kicks in.
Of course the landscape on defense could change at any moment if Duchene is traded since they’re still looking to improve the defense as Sakic said.
I’m rooting for Duncan too and now that he has someone on his side in the org maybe some extended NHL time finally happens. He’s been missing that since day 1 I think and if it happens and he handles it fine then some serious questions need to be pointed at those responsible for talent evaluation and development.
Btw, Meloche is a pro now. No contract slides and no more QMJHL for him.
If they decide to go with 7 D I think it makes more sense for Duncan to have that spot. Bigras could still benefit from playing Top D minutes and in different situations in the AHL. Duncan has nothing left to learn that he can feasibly get better at. He either is an NHL D man or not. No sense jacking the guys hopes around.
Ahhh, woops. Thanks for the correction on Meloche.
I would like to see Meloche in the AHL fo a year.
Question: Are we calling the new slashing crackdown the “Sidney Crosby rules”?
Seeing as he took someone’s finger off last year without a whistle.
Yes.
I just changed by language for the blog into Russian and it looks like everything is being read to me by Bryzgalov.