Brock Boeser is one of a long list of Minnesotans (and players from other states) playing pickup hockey in "Da Beauty League" back home in Edina, MN this summer.
At development camp, Boeser mentioned that he trains with NHL players in the offseason.
Click here for the team rosters for the league, which feature plenty of familiar names.
Boeser is the only Canucks player involved. He's skating on the Walser team, under captain Dustin Byfuglien. Zach Bogosian, Chris Stewart and both van Riemsdyk brothers are some of his other teammates.
League games started last week and run every Wednesday in July, then amp up to Mondays and Wednesdays in August.
The league's Twitter feed is amazing, with video of almost every goal from last night's games. Here's a Boeser beauty—his second of the night in what turned out to be a 6-5 loss to Jordan Schroeder and Team Tradition.
Boeser's also scheduled to join players like T.J. Oshie and Brock Nelson at the Hockeytown USA Golf Tournament this weekend in Minnesota.
Alex Burrows is no longer a member of the Vancouver Canucks, but he was when he came within a point of winning Dominic Moore's Smashfest table tennis tournament one year ago in Toronto.
After losing to Patrick Eaves in the final in 2015, "Burrows had Eaves on the ropes (in 2016), leading 2-0 in games with match point before Eaves stormed back to take the title," according to
Ken Campbell of
The Hockey News.
"He lost the match in an incredible comeback by Eaves and he was in a cab within minutes of the final," added Moore. "He was not a happy camper and that’s great. What do you expect? These guys want to win. It’s a charity event, but it’s not just a charity event, and that’s part of the fun of it."
This year's edition of Smashfest goes tonight in Toronto, and has become one of the highlights of the offseason calendar. It's the sixth season for the charity event in support of research into rare cancers—started by Moore after he lost his wife to the disease. The well-travelled soon-to-be 37-year-old Toronto native will be back with the Leafs for his second tour of duty this fall, so it's a now a hometown event on one more level.
Sounds like Burrows will be back to challenge again this year. It has been a couple of months since both he and Eaves saw their playoff runs end early due to injury—I wonder if this leaves them vulnerable to other challengers?
I'm looking forward to seeing the video and hearing how the players fare tonight!
Elsewhere—if you're looking for a 'best of' list to break down as you wile away the summer months, Russia's Sports-Express has ranked the 50 greatest Russian players of all time—based only on their achievements in the NHL.
Click here for Greg Wyshynski's breakdown at Puck Daddy, which includes the link to the original Russian article and an easy-read chart of the list.
Relevant to Canucks fans: Pavel Bure clocks in at No. 4, behind Malkin, Fedorov and Ovechkin. Alexander Mogilny takes the eighth spot and Igor Larionov lands at No. 16.
It was bold of them to rank Malkin first overall. Obviously, those two recent Stanley Cups have a whole lot to do with that. It would have seemed unfathomable even a few years ago, but will Malkin end up being remembered as better than Alex Ovechkin when their careers are over?
Bure, of course, also never won a Cup. But he beats out Pavel Datsyuk, presumably, thanks to his two Rocket Richard trophies and a whole lot of razzle dazzle.
Sports-Express also caused a ripple earlier this week with the suggestion that the NHL has an 'alternate schedule' ready just in case there's a last-minute decision to send players to the Olympics after all.
Once again, Wyshynski gives a
solid rundown here of what's fuelling the gossip.
He sounds skeptical. The only thing I'll add that fuels the fire a little bit is that I was listening to a podcast called "Spittin' Chiclets" out of Boston the other day, which had Kevin Hayes and Johnny Gaudreau as guests (fresh hockey content is getting pretty sparse). When the host lamented that both players wouldn't have a chance to suit up for Team USA in PyeongChang this year, Hayes suggested that there was still a chance. That surprised me, but then just a few days later, these new rumours popped up.
When I was at the World Championships in May, IIHF president Rene Fasel said at his press conference that he thought the window to make a final decision was open until mid-July. I guess we're just moving past that date—but I wonder if there are still some negotiations going on behind the scenes?
One detail was clarified on Wednesday:
At this point, only AHL players on AHL-only contracts—like Utica's Darren Archibald, for instance—would be eligible under these terms. Stephen Whyno reports that a final decision has not yet been made regarding the status of players with one of two-way NHL contracts who are playing in the minors.
So, still lots of moving parts in the Olympic puzzle!
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