OTTAWA, ONT- The Ottawa Senators announced today that the team has acquired forward Ryan Dzingel from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for forwards Alex Galchenyuk and Cedric Paquette.
A native of Wheaton, Ill., Dzingel returns to the Senators in the midst of a campaign in which he has registered four points (two goals, two assists) and two penalty minutes over 11 games in his second season with the Hurricanes.
WINNIPEG, MB – As high-level hockey tries to trudge through the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s players have been forced to adapt—an accept isolation as a lifestyle.
One player that knows this well is Winnipeg Jets prospect, Cole Perfetti. The 19 year-old has spent 34 days quarantining over the last three months, and since November 15, he has been living out of a hotel for all but three days. Not exactly an ideal scenario entering his first season in professional hockey.
TAMPA BAY, FL – Cal Foote scored his first NHL goal, one of four second-period goals for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves for the Lightning (4-1-1).
Pekka Rinne made 29 saves for the Predators (4-4-0), who lost to the Lightning in regulation for the first time (9-1-2). Filip Forsberg had two assists.
ANAHEIM, CA – Ducks goalie John Gibson was named the NHL’s Third Star for the week ending Jan. 24, going 2-0-1 with a 1.33 goals-against average, .960 save percentage and one shutout to help the Ducks (2-2-2, 6 points) collect points in three of their four outings (2-1-1).
He earned his 20th career shutout with 34 saves in a 1-0 win over the Minnesota Wild Jan. 18. Gibson then started each of Anaheim’s two games against the Colorado Avalanche, making 29 saves in a 3-2 overtime loss Jan. 22 and 32 stops in a 3-1 triumph Jan. 24. The 27-year-old Pittsburgh native has appeared in 292 career NHL games, compiling a 141-104-35 record (2.52 GAA, .919 SV%).
ST. PAUL, MN – Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has acquired defenseman Ian Cole from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for defenseman Greg Patryn.
Cole, 31, owns two shots, four hits and two blocked shots in two games this season. The 6-foot-1, 225-pound native of Ann Arbor, Mich., collected 26 points (4-22=26), 83 hits and 122 blocked shots in 65 contests during the 2019-20 season with the Avalanche and set a career high in assists and tied his career best in points. The left-shot blueliner ranked second on the team in blocked shots and third in plus/minus rating (+21). He tallied his 100th career assist on Nov. 30, 2019 at Chicago and scored the game winning goal in his 500th career game on Dec. 7, 2019 at Boston. The defenseman tallied two assists, 21 shots, 27 hits and 29 blocked shots in 15 games during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
DETROIT, MI – The Red Wings have had just three captains over the last 34 years: Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg.
WINNIPEG, MB – When Cole Perfetti steps on the ice in Winnipeg in six days, he’ll be a rookie among a Jets roster full of veterans. Until then, he’s in quarantine for the third time since Nov. 23, so perhaps that makes him somewhat of a veteran.
“The days aren’t too bad. I’m able to cook my own food in here. I’ve got a nice little kitchenette, so that kills a couple hours in a day. That’s been keeping me sane,” said Perfetti on Tuesday.
“A lot of it is FaceTime, whether it’s friends or family, just keeping in touch with everyone. I have my PlayStation so I’ve been able to play video games with the guys back home.”
Perfetti, Winnipeg’s first round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, arrived in Winnipeg on Sunday after the team granted him some time to see his family after the 2021 World Junior Championship.
The visit was certainly well earned. On Nov. 16, the then 18-year-old Perfetti began Hockey Canada’s Selection Camp in Red Deer, AB. Following two positive cases, he and the rest of his Canadian teammates went into a two-week quarantine that had them isolating in hotel rooms.
Following that, he quarantined again prior to entering the World Junior bubble in Edmonton, then played seven games – scoring twice and adding four assists – as Canada took home the silver medal.
“To be part of Team Canada at the World Juniors is a dream come true and an honour. Words can’t really describe how it is to play for your country,” said Perfetti. “We put 55 days total together as a team in a hotel between Red Deer and Edmonton. Twenty of those days were quarantine days and we spent a lot of time in the summer on Zoom.”
BOSTON, MA- When Craig Smith talks about the act of shooting, he doesn’t always say “shoot.”
He likes to “rip” pucks. He “hammers” them. He “wires” them.
Even his word choices are energetic.
“Boston will love him,” said former Bruins defenseman Hal Gill, who watched Smith nightly in his role as a Predators radio analyst. “His interviews are always electric. Usually he’s got his shirt off, he’s high energy, he’s got a big smile. One of my favorite quotes of his is, ‘Pedal through the floor, play with your hair on fire.’ That’s the energy he brings.”
On Oct. 10 the Bruins added Smith, the 31-year-old right winger, for his buzzy brand of 5-on-5 attacking. The signing, $9.3 million over the next three years, was widely hailed as one of the offseason’s smartest: a bargain for a five-time 20-goal scorer. Since debuting at practice on Jan. 3, Smith has ripped, hammered, and wired pucks next to third-line center Charlie Coyle and left wing Nick Ritchie. The Bruins believe they’ll get consistent production from the burly Ritchie, puck-possessing Coyle, and Smith, who scored 18 goals last year and was on pace for 21 when the season ended early.
CALGARY, AB – As a youngster, Connor Mackey received some advice from one of the original leaders of the Calgary Flames.
Connor’s father, Dave, reached the big leagues as a tough-as-nails forward and is a proud member of the Chicago Blackhawks alumni. When the old-timers in the Windy City would congregate for family-friendly holiday scrimmages, Dave would often bring his twin boys along.
“Here’s a story for you … Do you remember Phil Russell, the old captain of the Flames? I think he was No. 5,” Dave said over the phone from Tower Lakes, Ill. “I remember one time our alumni was skating, and he and Connor were D partners. I think Connor was, like, eight years old at the time. They came off and Phil gave him heck. He was like, ‘Hey, you’ve gotta move that puck to me a little quicker.’ ”
Dave chuckles.
“I always tell Phil, ‘I actually think he was looking you off,’ ” he continued. “But Connor goes, ‘Jeez Dad, I guess I have to move the puck a little quicker.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, you might want to listen to that guy.’ ”
Indeed, Russell was a pretty good resource for an up-and-coming rearguard. He belongs to the NHL’s silver-stick club and played a five-season chunk of his 1,000-plus games with the Atlanta/Calgary Flames, serving as alternate captain when the franchise moved north and then having the ‘C’ stitched on his jersey from 1981-83.
Now 24, freshly signed out of the collegiate ranks and hoping to be tapped for his own NHL debut sometime soon, Connor is these days trying to learn as much he can from the current leader of the Flames. In a nice bit of symmetry, Mark Giordano wears No. 5, too.
Giordano, apparently, has been impressed. At the outset of training camp, based on what he’d witnessed in small-group skates, he singled out the rookie pro as a guy who “looks like he’s pretty close to being ready to play.”
When a not-long-ago Norris Trophy winner makes a comment like that, it gets back to the newcomer pretty quick.
“That was cool to hear, for sure,” Connor said.
The Flames’ coaching staff must be impressed, too, with what their prized college free-agent signing has shown since the team opened camp last weekend.
They’ve now rearranged their groups, with all of the everyday NHLers lumped together in the morning wave. Mackey is the only guy in those star-studded sessions who has yet to log action at the highest level. It is, he admitted, “definitely a confidence-booster” to be keeping that sort of company.
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