O’Ree wrote Derek’s arrival was proof Joslin could do whatever he wanted, and could handle any obstacle that came his way. Joslin, from a biracial family (father Jeff is Black, mother Darlene is White), still has the note, keeping it at his Ontario home.

3, 2009 for San Jose, he received a special surprise - a handwritten letter from O’Ree himself, welcoming him to the big time. Days after Derek Joslin played his first NHL game on Jan. Willie O’Ree’s number 22 is to be retired two weeks today in Boston, the 64th anniversary of his NHL debut. Fans or no fans, there’s no more time to wait.ġ.

17, that goes for the Canadian teams as a group. If you can get that many skaters, you’re probably going to play.Īnd come Jan. They played as hard as they could, giving the Lightning and Panthers as much as they could handle.Īnother thing we’re learning about the NHL the magic number looks like 16. Montreal had thin rosters in Tampa Bay, Carolina and Florida - but those players deserve credit. Sometimes it’s more kindergarten finger-painting than Picasso, but if you’re an NBA fan (Cavaliers 144, Raptors 99 on Boxing Day) or NFL watcher (last Monday’s ugly Dolphins/Saints game), you recognize leagues’ number one priority is getting these games played. Hopefully as few as possible as Omicron blasts through North America, but taxi squads are in-place to alleviate some of that. Who knows what we’re going to get in terms of COVID-related absences. It’s going to damage revenue and affect long-term salary-cap determinations, but you reach a point where you can no longer wait. There simply isn’t enough runway to keep postponing beyond then. What it also means is that come the third week of January, Canadian teams are going to have to play regardless of what attendance restrictions are in place. There's a possibility of flipping some January home games in Canada with road games later on, as the league did with Islanders-Leafs matchups on Jan. (Although I’m not expecting 100 per cent agreement on this issue.) It’s going to ruin vacations - a definite annoyance - but teams and players generally seem to recognize they’ve already had enough time off. Assuming All-Star Weekend goes as scheduled (that’s still the plan), don’t be surprised if the schedule resumes two or three days after the Saturday-afternoon affair. The hope was to give everyone approximately a week off, but that won’t be possible in several situations - particularly in Canada. Some teams will have to play through it, with varying degrees of schedule intensity.

The league does not want to push the regular season past its current end date of April 29. The Canadiens were so infested by COVID, the organization was shut down upon returning to Canada from its post-Christmas road trip. Winnipeg went 13 days without a game and Montreal isn’t playing at home. Meanwhile, recovering Calgary is preparing for its third game in 24 days Ottawa’s on a stretch of one in 20 Toronto two in 22 Vancouver three in 22. Edmonton’s only missed four games, but have just one scheduled over the 12 days after Wednesday. Thanks to attendance restrictions, Canadian teams are grinding to a halt - taking a chance they’ll be able to make up in front of larger crowds. League leaders Anaheim and Vegas are at 35 games played, while Boston, Colorado, Dallas, the Islanders and Ottawa are below 30. That’s gotta be a record.Īs we woke up Tuesday, the NHL’s postponed 92 dates for corona-related reasons.

Why Andrei Kuzmenko is a player to watch at the Olympicsįour days into 2022, already breaking my New Year’s Resolution - leading the blog with something COVID-related.

Malkin, Letang contract situations get interesting.

Will the Oilers consider rental players?.

31 thoughts elliott friedman