This Week In The NHL Bubble: Corey Perry Is Still Good
“This Week In The NHL Bubble” is a weekly post dedicated to highlighting the week’s most interesting stories, stats, highlights, and much more.
Corey Perry Is Still Good
Our podcast began in the 2017-18 season, just when a significant portion of Ducks’ fans seem to turn on Perry as his game began to decline. Naturally, when Perry would have a productive outing or a solid performance, we would make sure to remind listeners of what he could still bring to the table. The “Perry is still good” bit was thus born.
The 35-year old turned back the clock in Game 2 of the Dallas Stars-Calgary Flames opening-round series, threading the needle and hitting Jamie Oleksiak with a perfect tape-to-tape pass to give Dallas the victory late Thursday night. That was after having already potted a goal to double the Stars’ lead. Not a bad night of work for someone whose former club is paying him not to play for them.
The club in question, the Anaheim Ducks, bought out Perry in the summer of 2019 in an effort to clear up roster space for younger players while also shedding the former Rocket Richard Trophy winner’s onerous cap hit. At the time, the rationale was certainly defensible. However, general manager Bob Murray hasn’t put that additional cap space to much use (you could argue acquiring David Backes’ contract was a form of that), and now he’s saddled with Perry’s buyout cap hit for two more years, whereas the original deal would have expired next summer. It’s becoming a tough sell as fans watch the former Duck have a moment like last night.
Kase and Ritchie Getting A Taste of Beantown
Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie arrived to Anaheim from the polar opposite ends of the draft spectrum. Kase was the very last selection in the 2014 Draft, while Ritchie was the glamorous tenth overall that same year, which the Ducks had acquired in the Bobby Ryan trade. Both players’ Anaheim tenures came to an unceremonious end at this year’s trade deadline, dispatched to Boston for a slew of assets. Kase had his fair share of injury troubles as a member of the Ducks, while Ritchie never lived up to the billing of a top-ten draft pick. Even so, both became reliable play-drivers at five-on-five, using their respective physical tools to push play into the opposition’s zone. In theory, they could become valuable depth pieces on a Bruins’ team that sorely needed help.
Just like on draft day, both players are experiencing both ends of their new spectrum. Kase got off to a rocky start, held out for most of training camp after being spotted out on the town in Boston. Welcome to New England, where let’s just say the microscope is a little more zoomed in on the local hockey team as opposed to Anaheim. Kase has settled in nicely since then though, mostly skating on a line with fellow Czech and long-time Bruin David Krejci. The big question I have: do they communicate in Czech on the ice? Kase’s interviews in Anaheim were always entertaining, but let’s just say they weren’t the most informative. I’m sure he appreciates having a countryman on his line.
As for Nick Ritchie, things have not gone quite as smoothly. After a lackadaisical performance in Game 2, where he posted a pitiful 26.57 xGF%, he received his own “Welcome to New England” moment when the veteran Bruins’ writer Joe Haggerty annihilated his effort in a piece for NBC Sports Boston. Who knows if Ritchie will actually read it, or if he should care to, but he’ll surely need to pick his game up for the Bruins to pull ahead in their series against the Hurricanes. Given his play-driving track record, the bet here is that he finds that groove sooner rather than later.
Quintuple Overtime Steals The Show, Literally
Game 1 of the Tampa Bay-Columbus series etched its place into the record books as the fourth-longest game in NHL history. Which, naturally, feels perfectly par for the course in the year of our lord 2020. Wackiness is to be expected, but there was nothing silly about how both the Lightning and Blue Jackets waged a battle for a total of 90 minutes and 27 seconds. Both sides looked surprisingly fresh, perhaps thanks to the long layoff beforehand, and the Lightning got a huge emotional boost by getting out of it with the W. As Columbus showed with their win in Game 2 though, Tampa Bay isn’t out of the woods yet and still has quite a bit of work to do before the demons of last year’s sweep are fully exorcised.
Hockey Twitter was ablaze as the overtime periods piled up, and I couldn’t resist tweeting out “This is why we need shootouts”. Of course, I love these crazy, record-setting games as much as the next person. Given that they are so rare, the league really doesn’t need to change much. However, I wouldn’t totally be against starting the first overtime (or two) at five-on-five, and then working down to four-on-four. Three-on-three is out of the question, but some resolution has to be reached when you consider that the Boston-Carolina game had to be re-scheduled as a result. No one wants that to happen on a regular basis. Or, maybe I just hate fun.
Thoughts Are With Claude Julien
Montreal Canadiens’ head coach Claude Julien was hospitalized early Thursday morning with chest pains, and will not be coaching for the remainder of the first round. First and foremost, the most important thing is that general manager Marc Bergevin has stressed that Julien is okay. It’s a scary moment no matter what, but to hear that he’s receiving proper care and doing well is certainly a relief.
For the Canadiens, they’ll have to make do without their bench boss who seemed to be hitting all the right notes so far. Associate coach Kirk Muller will be leading the bench, but perhaps Dominique Ducharme, who is principally tasked with in-game adjustments, will have his voice amplified as well. In any case, Julien’s health is what matters here, and the hockey community’s thoughts are with him for a speedy recovery.
Let us know in a comment below what your takeaways from the past week were!