Islanders lose way with Patrick Roy; Sex assault charges rock WJC; Why is Corey Perry with the Oilers?

The hammer may be coming down on members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team faster than we thought. Over the past couple of days, two players — Carter Hart of the Flyers and Dillon Dube of the Flames — had taken indefinite leaves of absence from their teams. - Sam Fels Read More

The silver lining, we suppose, is that at least the Islanders are noticeable for a few minutes. The other one, possibly if you’re really stretching for them, is that if the Isles are going to have a dinosaur GM that the game has passed by, they might as well have (another) coach who is also a dinosaur that the game has passed by. - Sam Fels Read More

The Edmonton Oilers have been the NHL’s hottest team for a good long while now. They’ve won 13 in a row, and since that woeful 2-9-1 start, they’ve gone 24-6-0, which over a full season would be a 131-point pace. They’ve vaulted themselves out of the Motel For Men where the Sharks live, that they spent October residing in, to tied for one of the automatic playoff spots in the Pacific in just about 10 weeks. As of right now, they kind of feel like the Western Conference favorite, as they have the best player on the planet, perhaps the best second-line in the game, a power play to take on Galactus, and on top of that, the past two months goalie Stuart Skinner has a .931 save-percentage. It’s all clicking. - Sam Fels Read More

Rarely is it a good sign when, A) the head coach is being asked if his job is in jeopardy, and B) the coach doesn’t have much of a problem with that being asked. That’s where the Los Angeles Kings, along with coach Todd McClellan, find themselves after either losing or tying their 12th of 14 games last night to the Buffalo Sabres (2-7-5 in that stretch). - Sam Fels Read More