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Good morning to everyone except whoever decided the Tampa Bay Lightning are apparently just going to have four games in hand over the Detroit Red Wings all season long.
We had 10 games last night, to go with a surprise GM change (kind of). But many of us are still buzzing over what we saw on Sunday night, so let’s start there …
Here’s a peek behind the curtain: When I was putting together this week’s Weekend Rankings, I had a line in there about Sunday’s outdoor game between the Bruins and Lightning. The joke was that none of us outside Tampa had even realized the game was happening, because at this point there’s so many of these outdoor games that the novelty has completely worn off. So, I took a little dig at the whole thing and how all of these games just bleed together these days. Trust me, it was a funny bit.
Then the game happened. And I had to delete my little joke.
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Yeah, that game ruled. It was in Florida, but it was 41.8 degrees at puck drop, but there were pirates, and also the Lightning coaches dressed up like bad guys from Miami Vice. The atmosphere at Raymond James Stadium worked. The crowd, including plenty of traveling Bruins fans, was lively. The visuals were cool. The uniforms looked great.
And then the game itself started, and everything got even better.
You’ve seen the highlights by now. Or at least, you’ve seen the highlight:
Yes, we had an outdoor goalie fight, the first in the NHL’s 45 total outdoor games. We also had a four-goal comeback, an OT controversy and Nikita Kucherov flexing all over the ice to remind us who won the last two scoring titles.
And then it ended in a shootout, because nothing in life is allowed to be perfect.
Still, even two days later, it’s hard to get your head around just how cool that game was. And at the risk of turning into the NHL’s hype man, I really think it’s fair to ask: Was this the best outdoor game ever?
I feel like we’ve realistically got a 10-spot of contenders here. In no particular order:
🗳️ I think we can probably narrow our final list of options down to a half-dozen. Now it’s your turn: Vote for your pick for the NHL’s best outdoor game on our survey page.
As good as all those games were, you might note that we left out the one that provided arguably the most memorable outdoor moment ever: Corey Perry’s walk of shame from the 2020 Winter Classic.
That was the game that saw Perry ejected just a few minutes in, followed by him having to make the long walk from the rink to the dressing room at the Cotton Bowl, spawning a million memes in the process.
But do you remember what Perry did to get ejected, and who he did it to?
Answer below.
💔 Three junior hockey players from the Southern Alberta Mustangs were killed in a motor vehicle crash while traveling to practice yesterday. “There are no words that can adequately express the depth of our grief,” the team said in a statement.
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🫣 Scared of heights? Look away. Julian McKenzie details what it’s like to make the harrowing walk over the Saddledome’s ceiling-high catwalk in Calgary.
🥇 Ready for the Olympics? On the men’s side, Dom Luszczyszyn has a look at the history of five of the sport’s superpowers, and how those storylines will come together in the next few weeks. Our staff also made plenty of bold predictions. And keep an eye on our Olympics page — we’ll be previewing the women’s side soon, as that tournament begins in just a couple of days.
🚨 Aaron Portzline goes deep on the history of the Blue Jackets cannon, which is evil and should be banned beloved in Columbus.
🐱 Jesse Granger spoke to Andrei Vasilevskiy, and it turns out the whole “Big Cat” thing is not just a nickname. And speaking of goalies, Julian McKenzie has the inside story on Linus Ullmark’s return to the lineup.
🔥 Other Sean might just get you off the couch with his list of the NHL’s best in-arena traditions. Yeet the fish, indeed.
🎙️ On the Monday episode of “The Athletic Hockey Show,” Max Bultman and Mark Lazerus decide whether teams such as the Panthers, Leafs, Jets and Caps are cooked or not. Listen here.
Yesterday was a weird one in Nashville.
We had breaking news in the morning, with the insiders reporting Barry Trotz was stepping down as the Predators’ GM. That was a stunner — while the 63-year-old Trotz hadn’t exactly been racking up Jim Gregory votes based on his front-office work so far, he was such a local legend based on his 15 years as head coach that you figured he’d hold the job as long as he wanted. Mix in that GMs don’t typically walk away from their jobs in the middle of the season, and it felt like something was up.
That led to some immediate speculation that Trotz could be battling health problems, which thankfully were shot down. The next thought was that he could be eyeing a return to coaching, but apparently that wasn’t it, either.
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Instead, we eventually got some clarity: Trotz is retiring, but not quite yet. He’ll keep the GM’s job until the Predators can find a replacement, and it doesn’t sound like they’re necessarily in much of a hurry to do that, with owner Bill Haslam indicating that a new hire might wait until the offseason.
All of this raises two obvious questions. The first: What does this do to the prediction contest, and the question about teams switching GMs? Nothing yet, because Trotz still has the job. But if he does leave before July 1, it will cost only 44 of you. I thought that would be higher. You all might be smarter than you look.
And the slightly bigger question: Who’ll ultimately get the job? It can be tough to hire a GM in the middle of a season because teams typically wouldn’t have access to any options from other organizations. Promoting from within is an option; it’s what the Sabres did with Jarmo Kekäläinen in December, and that’s worked out OK. But if the Predators were going to go that route, why not just announce the succession plan today?
It sure looks like the Predators may have their eye on somebody who’s currently busy with a job somewhere else. And because we can all agree that it would be irresponsible to speculate beyond that, let’s change the subject. Hey, anyone remember who the very first captain in Predators history was?
📺 Senators @ Hurricanes
7 p.m. ET on ESPN+ / TSN5 / RDS
The Senators looked like they were cooked just a few weeks ago, but they’ve been giant-slayers lately, with impressive wins over the Golden Knights, Avalanche and Penguins. They get another shot at a contender tonight.
📺 Sabres @ Lightning
7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ / Hulu
The two hottest teams in the Atlantic square off in what could be a first-round playoff preview. This is the first of four matchups between the two teams in the second half of the season, which should offer plenty of opportunity to get sick of each other before the postseason rolls around.
📺 Maple Leafs @ Oilers
8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ / Sportsnet / TVA
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An Auston Matthews versus Connor McDavid matchup right before the Olympics probably looked better on paper last summer than it does right now, with the Oilers spinning their wheels and the Leafs skidding into a ditch. Still, these Leafs-Oilers matchups are almost always fun, and the Edmonton crowd should be hot.
Full NHL schedule here. Try streaming games like these for free on Fubo.
Perry was ejected just 2:44 into the game for an elbow to the head of Nashville’s Ryan Ellis.
The play was reviewed to confirm the ejection, and rightly so. It was a nasty hit, one that resulted in Ellis taking a walk of his own — to a medical cart that took him back to the room for further evaluation.
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Sean McIndoe has been a senior NHL writer with The Athletic since 2018. He launched Down Goes Brown in 2008 and has been writing about hockey ever since, with stops including Grantland, Sportsnet and Vice Sports. His book, “The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL,” is available in book stores now. Follow Sean on Twitter @DownGoesBrown
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