LW3H

Hearing both sides on the Hutson negotiation are going to take a breather for a while, turn the temperature down, keep things quiet, let’s see where this goes, 8x$8.85m official now, been talking throughout came together on Sunday, wanted to get it done quickly

I’ve resisted becoming a degenerate gambler all this time but seeing whatever the hell that Gordon Ramsay ad is every twenty seconds has converted me

MSG were pointing out how well Rempe was skating last night too, so gotta wonder if there’s a trade fit there

You can only keep a Laba-Cuylle-Sheary-Rempe-Schneider PP unit quiet for so long

Dan Muse and Nick Bonino check for a possible goalie interference call

Classy move by Sully starting Sheary against his former team and Miller in his boyhood town

Somehow that’s the first Rangers shutout against the Sabres since the final game of Mackenzie Skapski’s dominant career over ten years ago

The Samuelssons and - especially - the Doans mentioned by Kenny but not even a hint of a “tremendous family”.

Truly a new era in the booth.

Have they got Leonard Draisaitl and Tagine Thompson yet?

Please tell me the Penguins are already keeping up the traditional Boston/Pittsburgh pretence of earnestly describing bright yellow as gold

WHENEVER BRADEN SCHNEIDER'S NOT ON THE PP ALL THE OTHER PLAYERS SHOULD BE ASKING "WHERE'S BRADEN SCHNEIDER?"

25 must-watch people in NHL in 2025-26: McDavid pushing boundaries, Crosby's future and more

To tide you over until Our Trade Candidate Big Board and Our UFA Big Board are updated tomorrow and our Canadian Olympic Roster Projection is updated in five minutes, here’s Our Arbitrary People To Watch With McDavid At #1 And Crosby At #2 Big Board

With 14 NHL games tonight, will everyone who complains about there not being staggered start times finally agree to stagger the complaint times?

Now doing a live ranking of these (in descending order of ridiculousness):

Flan
Iron
Longitude
Chasm
Puma
Detroit

Feels like a great time to publish Our Updated UFA Big Board for 2026 and trumpet how there are Several New Additions! (for reasons we won’t go into)

4. Fun bet: No player making more than $10M per season has won the Stanley Cup. Who will be first?

I bet on Sergei Bobrovsky

The Rangers assuredly do not rush players back from injury and/or let them not miss any time at all regardless of any detrimental impact on performance

Giordano also famously hadn’t been a first pair D for nine years already with three top-10 Norris finishes and a 21-goal season before he became better than “good”

I envision Carlo having a season akin to Mark Giordano's in 2018-19, when the veteran just found his groove and went from good to great in plain sight. Carlo probably doesn't have the 74 points Giordano's had that season in him, but Norris Trophy voters understand more and more that the award should not always just go to the defenceman with the most points.

I also just about err on the side of the player with a career best 19 points achieved six years ago falling a tick short of getting 74 in this Norris candidacy season

Hearing the terms of the contract were important to the player, so he signed the contract when it included terms he wanted

Hearing I expect team to take the radical step of announcing the signing of contract by star player that has just signed contract

Dan Muse and Nick Bonino checking the tablet for a replay of that contentious penalty call

Lafreniwhere you going?

Bissonnette’s nowhere to be seen, so I’ll take it

Tough choice from a long list but I think my favourite single thing about the home opener being on ESPN rather than MSG is the prospect of missing the player intros to watch P.K. Subban shout and wave a stick at a giant screen covered in tweets about chicken parm

It was over, of course. And since then, the Penguins have had a decline in play, attendance and, more than anything, hope. Slowly but surely, that hope is returning.

Like clockwork, the Penguins hope-o-meter and/or hopercoaster cranks up for another season

Please join me in praying for that poor fan base’s hopeless agony to finally, finally end soon

Further update: DAZN decided (possibly intentionally) to cancel my subscription on the day it was due to renew without consent or explanation, which conveniently means I would have to re-subscribe at a higher price. Customer service then lies to me about it. About par for a trusted NHL partner.

[Pittsburgh beat writer voice]

That’s still 44% more than Sid by the way

Hearing this proves McDavid “wants to win” so anyone signed or signing for more than $12.5m and/or isn’t a good Canadian boy “doesn’t want to win”

Hearing my sense is that the door is trending towards being gradually nudged open on a McDavid extension in the next ten minutes