The NHL Evening Skate for Dec. 12
Heading into this evening’s action, here are the day’s top NHL storylines:
It’s still important to be realistic about playoff chances
The thing with making the playoffs is that it’s simultaneously hard and easy to do. More than half the teams in the league make it, and even over an 82-game schedule, at least one or two bad teams luck their way into it every year. But it’s hard to make the playoffs if you’re bad. If you’re not making the playoffs, you’re probably a pretty bad team as a baseline, but more specifically teams that end up missing are usually just kinda spinning their tires if they’re not actively tanking as part of a rebuild, or “rebuilding on the fly.” [Detroit, Vancouver, Ottawa]
Sorry, Seattle: NHL GMs learned from Vegas expansion draft
NHL teams face another expansion draft in 2021, when Seattle enters the league. And the Seattle GM, whoever that turns out to be, probably won’t receive the same kind of windfall George McPhee picked up in 2017 to help the Golden Knights make a run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final because some important lessons have been learned. [‘It’s not an exact science’]
Rangers’ Shattenkirk out 2-4 weeks
The New York Rangers say defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will be sidelined two to four weeks with a shoulder injury. [Left in the second period of Monday night’s game in Tampa]
Hurricanes place Staal on IR
The Carolina Hurricanes have placed forward Jordan Staal on injured reserve for a concussion. General manager Don Waddell also announced Wednesday that the team recalled forward Janne Kuokkanen from its AHL affiliate in Charlotte. [More]
Lamp-lighters
Ken Hitchcock has Oilers rolling, but other coaching changes falling flat
When the struggling Edmonton Oilers dropped the axe on head coach Todd McLellan and replaced him with the briefly-retired Ken Hitchcock last month, part of Peter Chiarelli’s reasoning for the move came from a belief his team’s roster was good enough to make the playoffs. It’s only been 11 games, but it appears the embattled general manager was onto something. [Oilers 8-2-1 under Hitchcock]
The Blues scored off a ref’s groin, but it was disallowed
St. Louis defenseman Robert Bortuzzo (who was involved in a donnybrook during Blues practice on Monday) routinely dumped the puck in to the right corner of Florida’s defensive zone on Tuesday night. As the puck sailed towards referee Tim Peel, he realized he wouldn’t be able to get out of the way. [That’s when things got strange]
Game of the night
Dallas Stars at Anaheim Ducks
On a relatively slow night in the NHL, a clash of two playoff teams in the Western Conference should provide some fireworks. The Dallas Stars (16-11-3) travel to the Honda Center to take on the Anaheim Ducks (16-11-5). The home squad is coming off a thrill 6-5 shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday while the visitors look to get back to their winning ways after a 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on the same day. The Stars won the two previous meetings back in October by a combined score of 10-5. [Follow on Yahoo Sports]
More from Yahoo Sports:
• The best and worst college football bowl gifts of 2018
• Reliever Adam Ottavino says he would ‘strike Babe Ruth out every time’
• Rudy Gobert is going to ‘do justice’ himself if refs keep missing calls, says ‘it’s gonna get ugly’
• As of now, the Raiders do not have a home for 2019
