Links, News, and Notes: Kyrou's Redemption, Raanta Clears, Tatar Traded, and more
Links, news, and notes about Jordan Kyrou mending fences with Blues fans, Antti Raanta clearing waivers, Tomas Tatar being traded to Seattle, and more!
- Craig Berube was fired as coach of the St. Louis Blues last week, and when asked to comment on him, Jordan Kyrou said "I've got no comment. He's not my coach anymore." Fans did not appreciate that and even booed him during the next game, which made him very emotional after the fact. Then on Saturday, Kyrou scored a big goal and everything seemed to be fixed between him and the fans. You love to see it—the players are just people, after all.
- Antti Raanta cleared waivers on Sunday and was assigned to the AHL by the Carolina Hurricanes. He has an .854 SV% in 14 games this season, clearly nowhere near good enough. However, the 34-year-old was at .910% last season and .912% the year before, so there is still some hope that he can regain his form. He sure seems like a player that cares about his fans.
- Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerinwas investigated for alleged verbal abuse, although it is unclear what was said. In the meantime, Wild AGM Chris O'Hearn and the team "mutually agreed to part ways," but they maintain that has nothing to do with this incident. The investigation has been completed, and it was determined that it was not a fireable offense. However, who knows if there may be other things to come from that.
- Tomas Tatar was dealt from the Colorado Avalanche to the Seattle Kraken for a 5th-round pick. Tatar had just 9 points in 27 games for the Avalanche and suited up for the Kraken for the first time on Saturday.
- For the Winnipeg Jets' South Asian Heritage Night, they had a group of people perform "O' Canada" in English and Punjabi for the first time. It was a cool site, although it was incredibly disappointing seeing some of the reactions (hint: blue checkmarks) on Twitter. No matter what, this was neat to see.
- If we've learned anything about the Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift relationship, it's that getting new fans invested in your team/sport could be huge. The Calgary Flames taking advantage of pop star Tate McRae being a local is probably a good idea.
- The World Junior Championships schedule has been released. Canada will play Finland on Boxing Day at 8:30 am EST, Latvia on December 27th at 1:30 pm EST, Sweden on December 29th at 1:30 pm EST, and Germany on December 31st at 1:30 pm EST. The championship game will be held on Friday, January 5th at 1:30 pm EST.
- After losing the first three games of a best-of-7, the Canadian women's team defeated the United States 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday. The series is at 3-1 for USA, with game five not happening until February 7th. Games six and seven (if necessary) are on February 9th and 11th.
- Los Angeles Kings goalie Pheonix Copley was placed on LTIR on Sunday due to a lower-body injury, with no timetable shared. Copley has just an .870 SV% in 8 games this season.
- Nobody thought the Philadelphia Flyers would be even close to a playoff spot this season, but they're off to a 17-10-3 start, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Kurz of The Athletic details how they've gotten there. Sigh...oh to be over-performing...
