He had a rough night against the Blues’ arch-rival LA Kings. His teammates had a rough night, too. The Kings brought their "A" game, while the Blues brought their "B" game.
The grudge match was not even three minutes old when Hald misplayed a a harmess wrister from downtown by Jake Muzzin.
Then, Dwight King drove Halak’s blue ice and was rewarded
With 15:39 remaining in regulation, his team trailing 2-1, with all the chips in the middle of the table, Halak gambled, and lost big time when Kings PKerTrevor Lewis beat the Blues PPers to a 50/50 puck and for some unknown reason, sprinted out the wall to recover it. Halak fumbled the puck, which allowed Lewis to recover it and resourcefully wrap it into Halak’s yawning net.
After the game, Halak faced the music. Look at his body language. Not the type of response you’d like to see after a heart-breaking loss.
“Unfortunately for me the puck stayed on the boards and I just couldn’t pick it off the board,” Halak said. “You know, the trapezoid, I didn’t want to play the puck. I think I should have, I guess. I made a mistake at the worst possible time, when the game was on the line for us. I’ll take the blame for this one. It’s unacceptable to make a mistake like that, especially in the third period.
“We lost because of me.”
Thanks, Blues.nhl.com
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Buckle your seat belts, boys and girls. The next six weeks are going to be a ton of fun. The Ryan O'Reilly market is forming now, and according to Pierre LeBrun, there are a dozen (or more teams) who will be making a play for O'Reilly on February 28th. Makes perfect sense. Whats not to love about a fully committed rink rat who plays D in the same manner as Jonathon Toews and Patrice Bergeron? The kid has angora mittens (look it up "super soft"). O'Reilly is a 200 foot monster who can play on any of the four forward lines.
That's exacty why is is and has been in hot demand.
Circle Feb. 28 on your calendar. It’s as of that date that the trade freeze lifts on Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche can move the star player if it wishes to do so. They weren’t allowed to trade him for 12 months after matching Calgary’s offer sheet last Feb. 28.
There are several teams we’ve spoken to over the past week that are eagerly anticipating Colorado’s decision on O’Reilly. Do they move him or keep him?
If the Avs do put O’Reilly on the trade market (and again, we don’t’ know if they ever will), there would be at least a dozen teams interested. One of them would likely be the Vancouver Canucks, who are said to covet O’Reilly and have depth at defense, which is what the Avs would be looking for. Food for thought…
Count the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks and others as interested parties for O'Reilly's services.
Earlier this week, ROR told Adrain Dater of the Denver Post that he'd like to stay in Colorado.
“I like it here. I want to play here. I want to stay here,” O’Reilly said, per the Denver Post. “But it’s just stuff you can’t control right now. It’s easier when you don’t have to worry about that stuff and just play the game, but I don’t control it. I just stay out of the business side ’til the season is over.”
ROR and the Avalanche have agreed to leave the contract negotiating for the summer. Right now, he's content to focus 100% n his hockey and his role on the Avs as co-leader in goals (16, tied with Matt Duchene).
Updated: O'Reilly scored his team-leading 17th goal against Cory Schneider and the Devils on Thursday night. He also potted the shootout winner.
Sick mitts!
O’Reilly is an RFA and is presently in the final year of his two-year, $10 million deal. O'Reilly will earn $6.5 million in salary this season, therefore the Avs must qualify at $6.5 million him this summer. The NHL salary cap ceiling will expand over the next 3-5 seasons which will make it possible for the Avs to re-sign him. Does O'Reilly want to spend the next 5-6 seasons in Denver or would he like to move to another organization?
O'Reilly, a natural born killer at center position, has compromised with Patrick Roy and is playing wing this season. He's done so with no hiccups or interruptions in his game. In fact, he's playing at an all-star caliber right now.
“I feel comfortable on the wing now,” O’Reilly explained. “Within our system, Patrick [Roy] does a good job of letting everyone know what they’re supposed to do.
“It’s been great playing for him this year, for sure.”
Perhaps his deep down desire is to move back in the middle so that he can roam and dominate the entire 200 by 85 rather than playing one-third of the ice surface. If ROR opts to stay in Denver, he will have to stay at wing. Duchene, O’Reilly, MacKinnon and Stastny all play center. There are four center jobs in Denver. If O'Reilly wishes to stay there, he'll have to do so as a winger because Roy would never move Duchen, MacKinnon, or Stastny to the wing for an extended amount of time. The Avs may decide to trade UFA-to-be Stastny at or before the NHL trade deadline on March 5.Tough call as Stastny has scored 34 points in 48 games and is going to be representing Team USA at the Sochi Olympics. Were Stastny struggling this season, it would be easy to brand him as the man on the move to make room for O'Reilly. Stastny is really making it difficult on Roy and Sakic right now with his superior play and leadership in the room.
Can the Avs afford to keep both O'Reilly and Stastny and re-sign them to $7+ million annual contracts over 6-7 years apiece? Think Phil Kessel's 8 year, $8 million per season gargantuan deal. Do the Avs want to commit between $14M-$16M next season to ROR and Stastny? How then will they able able to afford the stud D men that they will be targeting via free agensy and tardes?
Or, do Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic bid adieu to O'Reilly? Stastny?
Next six weeks will be very interesting in Denver.
St. Louis Blues head coach has the best of both worlds right now. A big reason why his team is winning right now is that he has created a healthy, compelling competition between his two net minders. Hitchcock to the St. Louis Dispatch that he’s in favor of not having a clear-cut #1 goalie right now.
“Brian has played well, Jaro has played really well, both guys deserve to keep playing, so we’re going to keep playing both guys.
“With so many hockey games — this is six in 10 nights — we know each guy is probably going to have to play three games. So we just felt like Jaro played very well, let’s keep that one going.”
The Halak-Elliott combo platter is has a combined .916 save %.
Though Halak has more wins, Elliott is No. 3 in the NHL with a 1.86 goals-against average, and his .925 save percentage is 10th.
“Brian has been great all season ... his numbers tell the whole story,” Halak said. “I said it before the season, we’ll need two goalies for the whole year. When one of us is not feeling well or not playing good, the other one has to step up.”
Halak is 19-6-3 with a .913 save % and a 2.27 GAA.
Elliott is 13-2-2 with a.925 save % and 1.86 GAA.
Each goalie will become UFA in July.
You don’t suppose that Halak and Elliott have heard the Ryan Miller to St. Louis trade rumors, do you?
**
Hitchcock is getting favorable results from his peer pressure project between Halak and Elliott. He will continue to rotate both until further notice. Elliott sounds like he’s up for the challenge.
“Obviously when you have two guys kind of fighting for opportunities and wanting to be out there with the guys, I think it definitely makes everyone better,” Elliott said. “You have to be on your edge. As soon as you get complacent, that’s when things go wrong.
“Sometimes you see one guy gets a big contract and gets to sit in the high seat ... sometimes they struggle a little bit because they don’t have that competition or that drive to win it over. So when you’ve got two guys fighting for space, it makes everybody better.”
How long will this goaltending prosperity last? Which goalie will blink first?
**
Friendly competition between battery mates has kept both St. Louis goalies on their skate toes and has been constructive.
“I don’t think you play against the other guy in the net,” Hitchcock said. “You just realize when it’s your turn, you’ve got to perform. I’ve never seen it where one guy plays well, and the other guy doesn’t play well when you’ve got a shared responsibility.
“I think that both guys get excited about not letting the team down because they see the other guy playing well, the team is winning and they just want to keep going. I don’t think they compete against each other at all — they get along.”
**
Blues D Kevin Shattenkirk told the St. Louis Dispatch that he thinks its good that Elliott is pushing Halak to be better right now.
“We know that Jaro is our No. 1, but the fact that Brian keeps champing at his heels is good for (Halak),” defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “I think it’s good for any player to have that kind of pressure, because it’s good pressure. We’re lucky we have two guys that compete and want it so badly, because that only brings good goaltending.”
****
Take a good hard look at the expression on the face of Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates.
On three separate occasions Wednesday night, the Washington Capitals leveraged the lead away from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins would push back three times to tie the score. Pens rookie D Olli Maatta would put the Caps out of their misery with his first career NHL goal, a game winner, at 1:54 left in the game. Maatta and the Penguins refused to lose while the Caps were content to give them the game.
Its understandable that Oates was not in a complimentary mood of his team after the epic meltdown in Pittsburgh.
Thanks, Capitals.nhl.com
Coincidence that Caps GM George McPhee was watching Ryan Miller and the Sabres in Toronto at gge very moment that Michal Neuvirth and the Caps D was abandoning ship?
The Caps were playing their fifth game in seven nights and the Pens exploited them on Wednesday night.
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