By Matt Blittner, The New York Extra/TheNYExtra.com
So much for that Turkey Hangover. Anybody who stuffed themselves with extra helpings on Thanksgiving and again with leftovers on Friday and Saturday, likely lost part of their meal over the weekend due to a pair of NHL news items.
First was the announcement that an eighth Islander had tested positive for COVID-19 and because of that the Isles’ next two games — Sunday at the Rangers and Tuesday at Philadelphia — were postponed. The fact the games were pushed to a later, unannounced date is no surprise. It was 100% the right call by the NHL. The real question is why did the league wait so long to make that decision?
Heading into the Isles’ Home Opener on November 20th the team had six confirmed positive cases. There were calls then to postpone the game against Calgary. The calls grew louder as more players entered the league’s COVID protocols but still no decision to delay the games was made.
What changed the league’s mind to finally do the right thing? Like the age old commercial about what’s in the center of a tootsie pop, we may never know. At least now a couple of players have the opportunity to return prior to the team’s next scheduled game against San Jose on Thursday December 2nd. As of this moment, that game is still in line to be played.
MONTREAL CLEANS HOUSE
The next piece of news that caused a stir, was Sunday’s announcement by the Canadiens that GM Marc Bergevin, Assistant GM Trevor Timmins and VP of Public Affairs Paul Wilson were all relieved of their duties.
That was preceded by the news on Saturday that Assistant GM Scott Mellanby resigned his post after feeling he was no longer in the team’s long-term plans. That’s three top-level Hockey Ops executives and one high-level communications executive all gone in a span of roughly 24-hours.
Calling that a house cleaning may be an understatement. But upon further analysis, it really should have been expected.
The Canadiens are off to their worst start in franchise history at 6-16-2; just a few months removed from an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. Although, it’s hardly anyone’s fault that Shea Weber’s career is essentially over due to injury and that Carey Price chose to do the right thing and checked himself into a residential treatment facility for substance use.
Canadiens’ Owner/President Geoff Molson addressed the media on Monday and said he felt it was time for the club to go in a different direction in regards to the leadership of its Hockey Operations. Molson also admitted he has learned quite a bit over the past several years and that had he known back then what he knows now, he would have had more than just Bergevin in charge of Hockey Ops.
To that end, Molson announced former Rangers GM, Jeff Gorton had been signed to a long-term deal to be the team’s new Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and the search for a new GM would begin immediately.
Molson told the media, “a process to recruit, as soon as possible, the team’s next General Manager is under way. While the next General Manager will bring significant hockey expertise to the organization, an additional criterion of that person’s role will be to communicate with fans in both French and English.”
Sources around the league also feel the traditional Front Office set-up will not be what the Canadiens look to have as they will want their new GM and Gorton to collaborate together on any and all Hockey Ops decisions.
It should be noted the Montreal Gazette has speculated who some of the GM candidates might be and they came up with: Mathieu Darche; Patrick Roy; Martin Madden and Roberto Luongo. All four bring significant hockey experience to the table. But my guess is Luongo, who has been heavily involved with the Panthers, as well as with Team Canada during the 2021 IIHF World Championship, has the early advantage.
WWE at UBS Arena
And speaking of advantages, yours truly attended the first WWE Raw event at UBS Arena Monday night and I came away with two impressions. One, once the Islanders get healthy and get on a roll, the arena is going to be a huge home-ice advantage for the team and hell on earth for the opposition. The acoustics are absolutely phenomenal and one can only imagine how that will play during a big-game. Think The Coliseum on steroids.
During WWE Raw the pyrotechnics and special entrance themes made the building feel like it was shaking. Oh and by the way, the building wasn’t anywhere close to full. Just think what the building will be like when there’s 17,250 rabid Islanders fans willing their team to victory in a playoff type atmosphere.
My second impression was the sight lines. There literally is not a bad seat in the arena. Anywhere you sit you have a completely unobstructed, straightline view of the action. Considering what fans went through at Barclays Center, that’s a major win.
One other thought occurred to me while I was at UBS Arena and that’s just how hard the arena staff and braintrust have worked to make it an enjoyable venue and not just for hockey games.
One fan who I polled — Walt from Brooklyn Heights — took note of several things when he told me, “UBS ultimately put on a great show. (As well) Shaq’s big chicken (sandwich, which is served at the Blue Line Deli concession stand near section 209) and appearances from old and new wrestlers, made it worth it.”
Walt also pointed out one minor drawback, that the jumbotron may need to have some kinks worked out as it seemed to have a couple issues during the course of the three-hour show.
Wrestlers such as Edge, Finn Balor and Liv Morgan all drew loud pops from the live crowd. And Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch got a loud response from the crowd when she insulted the Islanders. During those moments, it almost made you giddy to think what type of noise levels the Islanders can generate once they’re healthy and back to playing the way we know them to be capable of.
Now it’s just a waiting game. Oh and speaking of waiting, only 41 days remain before the NHL and NHLPA’s Olympic opt-out deadline (January 10th).
And last but certainly not least, the Fenway Sports Group officially put pen to paper on Monday in regards to purchasing the Penguins. The sale is pending league approval but for now the first part is out of the way.