CarterHud

 On November 5th, 2016, the Vancouver Canucks went east to Toronto for hockey night in Canada against the Maple Leafs. The Leafs won 6-3 but nobody is talking about that… well some people are but the third period was just… Physical to say the least.
 Here\’s my quick recap.
 First, Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly laid a crushing hit on winger Jannik Hansen, who was able to pass it to winger Daniel Sedin. Sedin on a 2 on 3, shoots and scores! But, Center Nazem Kadri laid a dirty check to the head on Sedin while he scores. Hansen, who was okay from the Rielly hit, jumps in and fights Kadri while Sedin is in pain on the ice. Kadri got a 5 minute major and a game misconduct on the hit. Both Kadri and Hansen got 5 for fighting. Later, with the Canucks still on the power play, wingers Derek Dorsett of Vancouver and Leo Komorav of Toronto dropped the gloves. This pissed off Leafs enforcer Matt Martin, who  was trying to fight Dorsett but he wouldn\’t budge, so Martin was chirping at Dorsett as the ref skated him off the ice. Dorsett attempted to break free but gave up eventually. When Rielly laid that crushing hit on Hansen, Hansen was clearly fine but anyway, Vancouver winger Alexandre Burrows speared Rielly in an injury attempt. The next time the two were on the ice at the same time, before a faceoff, the 2 were yelling at each other and then when the puck dropped, Burrows went after Rielly and they fought. The biggest brawl was the last one. Martin and defenseman Troy Stecher were playing the puck in the corner but then Martin kept throwing Stecher at the ground and THEY fought. But then, Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller jumped on Martin so now Martin was dealing with Miller and Stecher. Then, in that corner, there was a line brawl. All the skaters were in the corner and then, Toronto goalie Fredrik Andersen comes charging in and jumps on all of them!
 To recap: there was a total of 171 penalty minutes in the game (96 for Vancouver and 75 for Toronto). In that period alone, Kadri, Hansen, Komorav, Dorsett, Burrows, Rielly, Erik Gudbranson, Martin, Stecher, Miller, Andersen, Connor Carrick and Brendan Gaunce all got penalties in a hectic third period. The only other time they meet again this regular season is in Vancouver on December 3rd.

 The first trade during the 2016-17 NHL season was pretty minor but it doesn\’t matter. The trade was between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Ottawa Senators on November 2nd, 2016. Goalie Mike Condon went north to Ottawa with Pittsburgh getting a 5th round pick at the upcoming draft. The Penguins had a goalie issue when their starter for the last decade, Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion last playoffs and rookie Matt Murray won the team the cup. During the World Cup, Murray broke his hand to settle who would start at the beginning of the year. But the question was who would be the backup for the little while when Murray is sidelined? Prospect Tristian Jarry didn\’t look NHL ready yet, so when Montreal placed Condon on waivers, Pittsburgh pounced. Murray has recovered a lot but a call up might happen, maybe Jarry makes the team. Pittsburgh just wanted to get some value out of Condon so they dealt him for a 5th rounder.
  Now on the other side. After goalie Craig Anderson came back from missing a game when he found out his wife Nicholle was diagnosed with cancer, Anderson recorded a shutout and another solid game. But backup Andrew \”Hamburgular\” Hammond went down with an injury, Ottawa decided to trade Condon for a pick, rather than rolling with Chris Dreidger as their backup. This seems like a very short term thing but time will tell what will happen.
 Stats: Condon only played 1 game with Pittsburgh: it was when he stopped all 7 shots in relief of Fleury in a 5-1 loss to Nashville. When Carey Price went down with a big injury last year, Condon\’s old team called him up from St. Johns (AHL) and Condon become the starter. That year, Condon appeared in 55 games, starting in 51, having a record of 21-25-6 with a 2.71 GAA and a .903 Sv%.
 So there you have it, G Mike Condon from Pittsburgh to Ottawa for a 2017 5th rounder.
 

  Every player has a rookie season. Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and John Tavares were all once rookies. Today, I will list the rookie class of 2016-17. Some will play all their teams games. Some will be sent down to the AHL/Juniors. Also, some players are qualified as rookies but have played in the NHL shortly in the past. To make this list, you need to have your NHL debut so far this year. So, let\’s get into it.

 Anaheim Ducks- Joseph Cramorossa
 Arizona Coyotes- Dylan Strome, Lawson Crouse, Christian Dvorak and Jakub Chychrun
 Boston Bruins- Austin Czarnik, Danton Heinen, Zane McIntyre and Brandon Carlo
 Buffalo Sabres- None
 Calgary Flames- Matthew Tkachuk
 Carolina Hurricanes- Sebastian Aho and Martin Frk
 Chicago Blackhawks- Tyler Motte, Nick Schmaltz, Gustav Forsling and Michal Kempny
 Colorado Avalanche- None
 Columbus Blue Jackets- Lukas Sedlak, Markus Nutivaara, Zach Werenski
 Dallas Stars- Justin Dowling, Gemel Smith
 Detroit Red Wings- None
 Edmonton Oilers- Jesse Puljujarvi, Matt Benning
 Florida Panthers- Denis Malgin, Kyle Rau and Shane Harper
 Los Angeles Kings- None
 Minnesota Wild- Joel Eriksson Ek
 Montreal Canadiens- Artturi Lehkonen and Mikhail Sergachev
 Nashville Predators- None
 New Jersey Devils- Yohann Auvitu
 New York Islanders- Matthew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier
 New York Rangers- Pavel Buchnevich and Jimmy Vesey
 Ottawa Senators- Thomas Chabot
 Philadelphia Flyers- Roman Lyubimov, Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov
 Pittsburgh Penguins- None
 San Jose Sharks- Aaron Dell
 St. Louis Blues- None
 Tampa Bay Lightning- Brayden Point
 Toronto Maple Leafs- Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Nikita Zaitsev
 Vancouver Canucks- Mike Zalewski and Troy Stetcher
 Washington Capitals- Zach Sanford
 Winnipeg Jets- Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine.

 Those are all the rookies, who have made their NHL debut so far this season. Auston Matthews leads all those rookies in points with 10, but both Matthews and Patrik Laine are part of a 4 way tie for most goals in the NHL so far. (Richard Panik and Alex Killorn are the other 2). If I missed out on anyone else, leave a comment below. But for now, so long.

 

 When it comes to professional sports, surprises happen often so you might not even call them surprises. It is so early in the year that the top team only has 11 points but yet, all 30 teams have some surprises. So, surprise! The point of this post is the surprises, and here are the top 10 so far, so lets get into it.

   10. Montreal Canadians. If you lead the NHL in goals for per game and goals against per game, you know you\’re doing something right. That\’s the case in Montreal as they have a 3.83 goals scored per game and a 1.50 goals against per game. That\’s why they are 1st in the NHL with 11 points (5-0-1).

  9. Thomas Vanek, Gustav Nyquist and Mike Green. the 2 wingers and defenseman for Detroit are all having surprisingly good starts. they all have 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points.

 8. Andrew Ladd. The Islanders\’ winger signed a big deal in the off-season but he hasn\’t had a great start. He\’s had some chances but he has just 1 point, being an empty net assist.

 7. Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine. The first 2 overall picks in the draft have both had a solid start to their career. Matthews has 5 goals and 3 assists for 8 points while Laine has 4 goals and an assist for 5 points.

 6. Brandon Carlo. The 6.5 defenseman has been Boston\’s best so far with 2 points and a +7 rating in just 5 games.

  5. Jimmy Howard and Cam Talbot. Both these goalies aren\’t really supposed to be doing amazing. Howard has only played 2 games but leads qualifying goalies in GAA (0.50) and Sv% (.984). Talbot leads the league in wins (5) and got his only shutout in the Heritage Classic.

 4. Shea Weber. There\’s no question that Weber is a top defenseman. but after being traded for a fan favorite in P.K. Subban, there was a lot of pressure on Weber. So far, Weber has been amazing, scoring 2 goals and 5 assists for 7 points and leading the NHL in +/- , being a +10.

  3. Jonathan Marchessault. The main reason the Panthers signed Marchessault was for offensive depth. Marchessault has been way more then depth, leading the team in points with 7 (3 goals and 4 assists).

 2. Artem Anisimov and Richard Panik. the 2 Chicago linemates have been amazing with Anisimov leading the league in points with 9 and Panik leading the league in goals with 6.

  

1. Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. 2 of the 3 Canadian teams in the Pacific division, both the Canucks and Oilers were projected by many to not be a good team. That hasn\’t been the case at all with the Oilers being second in the league with 10 points and the Canucks tied for 3rd with 9 points.

 So, there are my top 10 surprises of the season so far. This was posted on 10/25 so it might not be the same date yoy are reading this. If you disagree, or have another surprise that wasn\’t on this list, write it in the comments below. So, for now, that\’s the end of the biggest surprises so far.

     

 In the 8th edition of a day in hockey, there was 12 NHL games. Here were the scores:
Maple Leafs 4 – Blackhawks 5; Rangers 4 –  Capitals 2; Canadians 4 – Bruins 2; Hurricanes 3 – Flyers 6; Lightning 4 – Senators 1; Avalanche 2 – Panthers 5;
Sharks 0 – Red Wings 3; Wild 1 – Devils 2; Penguins 1 – Predators 5;
Blue Jackets 3 – Stars 0; Canucks 3 – Kings 4; Blues 6 – Flames 4.
 Those were the scores.

 The 3 stars of the day were:

 3. Shane Harper. In just his 5th NHL game, Harper didn\’t just score his first NHL goal, Harper scored his first 2 goals to lead the Panthers to a 5-2 victory over the Avs.

2. Sergei Bobrovsky. The goalie of the Blue Jackets was able to find away to beat both Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn plus other weapons on the Stars team by recording a 32 save shutout.

1. David Perron. Perron was looking to impress the St. Louis management after signing with them in the off-season. Perron scored his first 3 goals as a Blue to lead them to a 6-4 win over Calgary.
 And those were your 3 stars of the day.
 There was quite a lot of news on Saturday mostly because of the Heritage Classic .(which the Oilers and Jets alumni game was Saturday and the real game is Sunday) Here are the other top headlines: Blackhawks defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk expected to miss a month. Coyotes goalie Mike Smith out week to week. Scott Stevens tears up watching Devils tribute (he\’s the assistant coach of the Wild after being a former captain for New Jersey). Martin Brodeur statue unveiled by Devils.
  And that will conclude the 8th edition of a day in hockey.