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World Champion Sens, COVID Accommodations, Tootoo Speaks

It’s the Monday Edition of Links, News, and Notes

Let’s take a spin through some of the news that made headlines in the hockey world this weekend:

(Some members of) The Ottawa Senators are World Hockey Champions! Nick Paul scored the gold-medal winning goal in overtime yesterday, assisted by none other than Connor Brown, and Canada defeated Finland in the final. Brown’s torrid 2021 continued with a tournament-leading 16 points. The Canadians even making it this far was not a given after the team started the tournament 0-3 and only qualified for the play-offs when Germany prevailed over the host Latvians on the last day of round-robin games.
Over at the Athletic ($), Ian Mendes shares his thoughts on who the Sens might be considering taking with their 10th overall selection — including possibly a goalie? Mendes asks what a few experts what they think and I tend to agree with Scott Wheeler’s assessment that the Sens are still most in need of game-breaking skill up front, but there’s a range of opinions presented in the piece.
Speaking of the NHL draft, over at ESPN Emily Kaplan has an early look at just who might be going in the the top 10. Sens fans should expect to hear the name Mason McTavish a lot in the coming weeks.
In OHL draft news, Taya Currie became the first female player ever to be selected when she was chosen by the Sarnia Sting on Saturday. Currie last played with the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs Triple-A boys’ under-16 team.
The subject of how the NHL might deal with the restrictions on cross-border travel has been rendered a moot point after a deal was struck with the federal government to grant a travel exemption. The plan mandates pre and post-departure testing whenever a team crosses the border.
One team that will not have to worry about cross-border travel is the Toronto Maple Leafs, who as we all know lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round after leading the series 3-1. In the aftermath of a couple of years where the Leafs bowed out in no small part because of a lack of depth, particularly on the blueline, their non-stars finally showed up but this time their stars blew it as Travis Yost explains over at TSN. Are the Leafs cursed? I’d like to think so!
And lastly, on Friday night, former NHLer Jordin Tootoo shared a lengthy Twitter post about the recent discovery of the remains of 215 children at a Kamloops residential school. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing:/