THW Daily - Bouchard's Rough Start for Oilers & Hurricanes' Power Play Struggles
Also, the Blues' 2024 Hall of Fame class, Blue Jackets reshaped culture & more
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In today’s edition, we have more on Evan Bouchard’s tough start for the Oilers, power play struggles in Carolina, how accountability matters in Columbus, and much more.
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Yesterday’s NHL Scores…
Blues Hall of Fame Honors Demitra, Liut, and Tkachuk
October 22, 2023 by Stephen Ground
When the St. Louis Blues created their franchise Hall of Fame in early 2023, they did it with one mission: to “pay homage to the franchise’s great history and honor special individuals who have made significant contributions to the Blues, on and off the ice.”
The names in that group are pillars of the Blues’ franchise: their first owners, their inaugural head coach and goalie, the vaunted Plager brothers, their Hockey Hall of Fame legends, and their retired numbers. With their 2024 class, announced this week, the Blues Hall of Fame Selection Committee had some hard work to do. Which of the many luminaries to have played a role for the franchise through its fifty-plus year history would join the Hall of Fame next? Let’s take a look at who they chose, and why these three men are deserving.
Oilers Insider Labels Evan Bouchard a “Tire Fire”
October 22, 2023 by Jesse Courville-Lynch
The Edmonton Oilers have not started the 2023-24 season the way they had hoped. Having been clearly outplayed in their first two matchups against the Vancouver Canucks and then following up their first win with a really rough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, they would love to try and turn their season around immediately and luckily, there’s plenty of time to improve. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are contributing as well as they can and are dominating offensively just like they have since entering the league.
One player who has stood out to many fans and insiders as having a bad start is defenseman Evan Bouchard. As someone who was expected to explode offensively on the top man-advantage unit, as well as improve his defensive play from the dumpster fire last season, he has only done one of those things.
Blue Jackets Use Accountability to Reshape Their Team & Culture
October 22, 2023 by Mark Scheig
Just five games into the 2023-24 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets look dramatically different than they did all of last season. While it’s still early, it’s easy to see why. The Blue Jackets did earn their third win of the season Saturday night against the Minnesota Wild 5-4 in overtime. It marked the first time that the Blue Jackets had more wins than losses in their record since March 2022 when they were 32-28-3 at that point of their season.
On the second night of back-to-back, the Blue Jackets registered over 50 shots on goal and dominated possession against a team they’ve traditionally had a tough time with in the Wild. They looked fast all night. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch. But it was one in which the team deserved to win and found a way to do so.
Canadiens Injuries Provide Barron Opportunity to Develop
October 22, 2023 by Blain Potvin
The Montreal Canadiens are facing significant, long-term injuries to their top players already this season. Kirby Dach is out for the entire season, and now Kaiden Guhle is out day-to-day, however, his defensive partner Jonathan Kovacevic says he hopes he is back in a couple weeks.
With Guhle’s injury, the door opens for his 2021 World Junior Championship defence partner to get into the Canadiens lineup. Now, Justin Barron will make his regular-season debut in Montreal’s fourth game of the season as they face off against the Washington Capitals.
Hurricanes’ Special Teams Could Not Survive Avalanche
October 22, 2023 by Zach Martin
On Oct. 21, the Carolina Hurricanes were looking to bounce back from their 7-4 defeat versus the Seattle Kraken. The team flew into Colorado the day before to practice before facing the Avalanche on Saturday. It would be their fifth game in seven days that saw them go to California and Washington before touching down in the Mile High City. Before the game, the team had an unfortunate setback with defenseman Brett Pesce being out of the lineup due to a lower-body injury.
The Hurricanes were already down players with Sebastian Aho being out due to an upper-body injury since the Anaheim Ducks game on Oct. 15. Also, they have been without goaltender Frederik Andersen since getting hurt in the San Jose Sharks game on Oct. 17.
Red Wings’ Larkin Proving He Was Worth Big Extension
October 22, 2023 by Jordan Orth
Between being a homegrown kid from Michigan and playing his college hockey at the University of Michigan, the expectations and hopes have been high for Dylan Larkin ever since being drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the 2014 Draft.
Throughout his time with the Red Wings, Larkin has shown growth in numerous areas of his game and earned himself an eight-year extension in March that will likely see him spend his entire career in a Red Wings jersey. The $69.6 million that general manager (GM) Steve Yzerman gave Larkin could end up looking like a steal for the team with the way he is leading the team to start this season.
More stuff from THW and around the NHL:
Buffalo Sabres - Sabres News & Rumors: Comrie, Skinner & Mittelstadt
Toronto Maple Leafs - Maple Leafs Weekly: Matthews’ Hat Tricks, Woll’s Play & More
NHL News & Rumors - Oilers, Flames, Capitals
From TSN - Senators set to honour netminder Anderson with a proper sendoff Tuesday
From Sportsnet - Report: Kraken's Burakovsky out 6-8 weeks with upper-body injury
From ESPN - Connor McDavid injured in Edmonton Oilers' 3-2 overtime loss
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