Hockey Notes In Mid-September

3 years ago  /  Kuklas Korner  /  Read Time: 1 minute 18 seconds

via Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,


- For every goal Auston Matthews scores and every goal Mitch Marner sets up during the upcoming season, there will be a slight shrug and a question: What does it matter if it isn’t April? This will be a long NHL season of anticipation, waiting to see who and what the Maple Leafs turn out to be.

Matthews led the NHL in goal scoring and Marner became the first Leafs forward to gain a first-team all-star spot since Frank Mahovlich in 1963 and it’s hard to celebrate any of that after losing the way they did to Montreal in seven game.

- Mike Milbury was let go by NBC more than a year ago for the kind of things Shaq O’Neal says regularly on television without notice of any kind.

- Marc Bergevin has taken all kinds of heat, as usual, for the drafting of Logan Mailloux and the handling of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the free agent now gone. But lost in all the noise was a rather smart summer of asset-building. He has added Christian Dvorak, Mike Hoffman, Matthieu Perreault, David Savard, Cedric Paquette and, assuming he gets Jonathan Drouin back, that’s six players of some kind of substance to add to a Canadiens team without Shea Weber. Under terrible circumstances, some of his own doing, Bergevin has managed up with the Habs.

- If ESPN does hockey anything like the way it does tennis or the NFL, the NHL is going to be thrilled with its new broadcast partner in the U.S..

- The best free-agent signing of the summer: One of the Toronto Star companies has hired Chris Johnston away from Sportsnet. Don’t be surprised if Johnston winds up doing some work for TSN, as well … And don’t be surprised if former TSN insider Frank Seravalli winds up at Hockey Night In Canada....

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