Links, News, and Notes: Toronto Six Champs, Burke the Ally, Kings on Fire

The Ottawa Senators return to action at home against the Florida Panthers tonight, but let’s begin the week with some links, news, and notes:

• The Toronto Six took home the PHF’s Isobel Cup last night, their first championship in franchise history. They beat the Minnesota Whitecaps in a dramatic 4-3 overtime win, with Tereza Vanisova being the hero:

• It was great seeing Brian Burke be such a vocal ally for the LGBTQ+ community on Hockey Night in Canada. He has always been a huge supporter in that regard, and I appreciate that he called out players sitting out for religious purposes because he himself is Catholic and doesn’t see why that would change anything:

• Trigger warning (assault): Arizona Coyotes minority owner Andrew Barroway has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL after he was arrested on a felony strangulation charge and a misdemeanour third-degree assault charge against his wife. It’s an extremely serious situation, and I hope justice is served. The details in the story are quite scary to read, and I hope his wife gets the help and safety she needs.
• The Los Angeles Kings are the hottest team in the league, with points in 12 straight games, going 10-0-2 in that stretch. That’s a franchise record for them, and they now sit second in the Pacific Division, just two points behind the Vegas Golden Knights (98 to 96).
• Scott Powers at The Athletic ($) reported this quote from Bill Daly, which goes against many people rationalizing players not wearing Pride jerseys:

“We take all risks seriously, and this one is no different,” Daly wrote in an email to The Athletic. “Having said that, we have no information that would suggest there is any material threat that would exist (in Russia or otherwise) related to a Russian player participating in a club’s Pride activities.”

Seems pretty cut and dry to me, especially due to the fact that many Russian players have participated this season. It’s just sad that we even have to be talking about these things because it’s tiring.

• With the Boston Bruins' win on Saturday, they clinched the Atlantic Division. It had effectively been clinched for months, but now it is official. They have a whopping 57 wins in 73 games, and they need to win 6/9 in order to have the record of 63 wins. There’d be a big asterisk on that though because previous generations had ties and no shootouts, so it’s not totally a fair fight. Either way, what the Bruins are doing is incredible.
• The University of Michigan defeated Penn State in overtime last night, sending them to the Frozen Four. Michigan will play Quinnipiac, and the University of Minnesota will play Boston University in the semi-finals. It doesn’t start until Thursday, April 6th, and it runs for three days—if you love watching hockey with some crazy atmospheres, this is just for you. Some standouts to look out for include Matthew Knies, Logan Cooley, Brock Faber, and Jimmy Snuggerud from Minnesota, Drew Commesso, Lane Hutson, and Luke Tuch from Boston, Adam Fantilli, Luke Hughes, Rutger McGroarty, Frank Nazar, and Mackie Sameskovich from Michigan, and Collin Graf and Samuel Lipkin from Quinnipiac.