Author: Tim Runn

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports83-1.Posted last September in The Hockey News Annual, those were the odds given Anaheim’s illustrious Ducks to embrace Stanley next spring.Then again, perhaps the oddsmakers were being too generous. A few months after the arithmetical 83-1 putdown was put up, Anaheim’s GM Bob Murray exited Stage Left. That certainly didn’t seem to help matters.Meanwhile, those deft media “Insiders” still were wondering whether a couple of American kids – Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras – were for real or a figment of coach Dallas Eakins’ imagination.Yet, somewhere just across the street from Disneyland, these genuine, 100 percent Ducks…

photo.khl.ruWhen you watch David Jiricek work the blueline for Plzen of the Czech Extraliga, you’d never know he was the youngest player on the team. Yet the 18-year-old plays with such confidence and makes so many moves with the puck on his stick that it’s no surprise he has been one of the team’s top-scoring blueliners. “I feel very good so far,” Jiricek said. “The team is awesome, good teammates and staff, so it’s very good for us. We’ve played very well so far.” This is Jiricek’s second season playing with Plzen’s Extraliga squad, and with nine points in 20…

“I wasn’t really shocked, but it was more just stunned,” Tom Fitzgerald told The Buffalo News by phone this week while driving home to Boston for the holiday. “You’re thinking, ‘This is the day. Oh my God. That day, here it is.’ It’s what every player waits for. He was all excited because they had just played a game in Rochester and then the next day he told us they said he was playing in Pitt. My wife and I made arrangements to get there and we were so fortunate to watch him play. It was awesome.”It was a busy…

photo.khl.ruMatvei Michkov just turned 17 years old.You’ll be reminded of that often over the next two weeks as he pulverizes teams night in and night out in Red Deer. It’s easy to overlook it because the way he plays, the way he acts and the way he dominates a game, he looks like someone with years of pro experience under his belt.He can’t drive himself to the rink, but he can pull off the Michigan without difficulty on what feels like a monthly basis. And he makes it look easy, just like he does with nearly every other aspect of…

Merry Christmas Eve.The Stars don’t play another game until Wednesday in Colorado, with the league’s holiday break adjusted because of a rise in COVID-19 cases around the league. Dallas sits at the break on pace for 90 points, and four points behind Edmonton for the second wild card in the Western Conference.After a seven-game winning streak and a five-game losing streak, the Stars have won their last two games entering the break. Let’s answer some fan questions.At what point do we start to consider Roope and Robo to be bonafide NHL superstars? They’re certainly the future and face of the…

| December 24, 2021, 5:11 PMDecember 24, 2021, 5:11 PMManitoba’s top doctor is hinting strongly that changes to capacity rules are coming before the Winnipeg Jets’ next scheduled home game. Manitoba chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin was asked on Friday about current COVID-19 rules allowing the Jets to play in front of 50 per cent capacity during the current COVID-19 surge. “Manitobans need to prepare that next week we probably won’t have large gatherings,” Roussin said on a day Manitoba set a record with 742 Covid cases reported. The Jets are scheduled to host the Chicago Blackhawks…

The NHL will resume play Tuesday to allow the League to analyze COVID-19 test results and assess readiness to play.Teams will return from the holiday break to practice Sunday. The season was expected to start back with 14 games Monday, but those games have been postponed.The League began the holiday break Dec. 22.The NHL now has postponed 64 games this season. That led to the decision to not participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The NHL was planning to pause the season from Feb. 6-22 to allow players to participate, but that block now will be used to reschedule some…

Two years ago, Ron Cruickshank walked into a second hand sporting goods store in Whitehorse and walked out with an unexpectedly valuable jersey – and he got it for a bargain. It was Christmas 2019 and Cruickshank was flipping through a rack of hockey jerseys at ChangingGear. That’s when one jersey in particular caught his eye. He held it up and saw “All Star” on it.”I thought originally it was from like a Western Hockey or – like just for maybe 30 seconds – I thought it was someplace other than the NHL,” Cruickshank said. “Then I looked at the NHL logo ……

Shane Wright of the Canada National Junior Team will be one of several draft-eligible players looking to play a key role for his country at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship.”What makes Shane stand out is the way he approaches the game to compete with his exceptional skating, skills, and smarts,” NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr said. “Perhaps the best compliment to come his way is the fact that he plays in a manner in which he makes other players around him better.”Wright (6-foot, 185 pounds), a right-shot center who turns 18 on Jan. 5, is an A-rated skater…

The Vancouver Canucks will no longer face off against the Seattle Kraken on Monday, as the NHL pushes back its season restart by an additional day. In a social media post on Friday, the NHL confirmed that its regular-season schedule will not resume prior to Dec. 28 as previously planned. “The League had planned to resume its schedule on Dec. 27, but in order to allow the League an adequate opportunity to analyze League-wide testing results and to assess Clubs’ readiness to play, the target date for resumption of game play will be pushed back an additional…