The Washington-New York Drama, Sens Player Notes, and How Hockey Culture is Perceived
Thursday’s edition of Links, News, and Notes
- The biggest story around the league today is the Rangers-Capitals drama. If you’ve missed it, it started on Monday night with a fight that resulted in a $5000 fine for Washington’s Tom Wilson, and New York’s Artemi Panarin being done for the season
- A fine for Wilson instead of a suspension did not sit well with a lot of people, including the Rangers who issued a rare direct commentary on a league decision, blasting their choice to not suspend Wilson and calling for the firing of Department of Player Safety head George Parros
- Related or not? The Rangers also fired president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton yesterday. The official line is that it didn’t have anything to do with the Wilson-related drama, but the timing is suspect.
- Of course with this season’s schedule setup, it was an instant rematch last night. With Tom Wilson still in the game, the results were predictable. Six fights (three off the opening faceoff), six misconducts, and a very dangerous cross check to the face that will likely result in a $5000 fine suspension
- The Sens signed Anton Forsberg to a 1-year extension yesterday, after he was brought in to be the backup to the backup to the backup to the backup due to injuries. The Senators currently have seven goalies under their control for next season (and no ECHL affiliate). Though as Brandon mentioned this feels like it means the end of pending RFA Marcus Hogberg’s time in Ottawa, and the team is expected to most likely lose a goalie to Seattle as well
- Ottawa is, of course, mathematically eliminated from the playoffs as of last weekend, but who’s the hottest team in the North division right now?/
- It was mentioned in yesterday’s game preview, but Thomas Chabot and Josh Brown are both expected to be done for the short remainder of the season
- In international hockey, Canada continues to steamroll the competition at the Men’s U18 with an 8-1 win over Sweden, and will face Russia for the gold tonight at 9 EST
- A recent survey has taken a look at hockey culture in Canada and how it is perceived. The results show a strong belief in the benefits, such as a sense of community (92% agree) and encouraging hard work and discipline (87%), but also smaller majorities agreeing that there are toxic elements such as misogyny (56% of those who have played or coached youth hockey agree), racism (54%), abusive behaviour by coaches (67%) and bullying by players outside of the rink (64%). I encourage everyone to take a look, and especially pay attention to some of the demographic splits - women on the misogyny topic and visible minorities on the racism, but also how people who’s involvement was as a parent who were consistently less likely to agree that something was a problem (except cost), and more likely to agree with the benefits./