RALEIGH, N.C. - Bryan Bickell says he doesn't want to let multiple sclerosis end his hockey career.
The Carolina Hurricanes forward said during the first intermission of Friday night's game against the Chicago Blackhawks that ''my mindset is to get back on the ice, and I think I can do that.''
The Hurricanes announced Bickell's diagnosis last month, and he's been on injured reserve since Nov. 11.
He says his treatment includes a round of medication once a month, which he began taking ''a couple of weeks ago.''
The matchup held special significance for Bickell, who helped the Blackhawks win three Stanley Cups before he was traded to Carolina over the summer. The 30-year-old had one goal in seven games with the Hurricanes but hasn't played since Oct. 30.
Coach Dave Hakstol told Carchidi that his benching is meant to be a "learning experience," and that Konecny must clean up the details in his game.
Overall, the tenacious winger's been a positive influence, and has left onlookers wondering how he fell to Philadelphia late in the first round.
Konecny picked up his 13th and 14th assists in Wednesday's loss to St. Louis, moving him into a tie for seventh in rookie scoring with 18 points, but hasn't scored in 22 games.
The Flyers sat young defender Shayne Gostisbehere, citing a similar rationale, earlier on this season.
At long last, the Dallas Stars are where everyone expected them to be - holding down a playoff spot.
Winners of four of their last five (4-0-1), the Stars have collected nine points through that stretch, boosting the club back into playoff contention. Through 37 games this season, Dallas has now reached 39 points, good for the second wild-card slot in the West.
So what's finally clicked to have the Stars playing as the highly-flying and offensively exciting team we've come to expect?
For one, it appears that some of Dallas' scoring stars, namely Tyler Seguin and captain Jamie Benn, circled the season's beginning as mid-December:
Date Range
Player
GP
G
A
Pts
Pts/GP
Since Dec. 13
Seguin
7
3
5
8
1.14
Before Dec. 13
Seguin
30
10
19
29
0.97
Since Dec. 13
Benn
7
2
7
9
1.29
Before Dec. 13
Benn
30
8
16
24
0.80
But the forward ranks aren't the only part finding their game. Point to the crease as a big reason for the Stars' turnaround, as goaltenders Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi have solidified in recent weeks:
Date Range
Goalie
Starts
Record
GAA
SV%
Since Dec. 13
Lehtonen
3
3-0-0
1.81
.939
Before Dec. 13
Lehtonen
18
6-9-3
2.92
.894
Since Dec. 13
Niemi
4
2-1-1
1.76
.941
Before Dec. 13
Niemi
12
5-4-3
3.22
.901
Still, the Stars have their work cut out for them, as Dallas sits four points shy of the St. Louis Blues, who hold down the third playoff slot in the Central, despite playing one less game than the Stars.
As well, four other teams - namely Calgary, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, and Nashville - are all within four points of this playoff battle, with only two wild-card positions up for grabs.
In the end, the play of the Stars' top players will determine if last year's Central Division winners will make a return trip to the postseason.
The San Jose Sharks defender was put to work in Montreal, scaring the bejesus out of Subway patrons who were simply going about their lives, pouring a fountain drink.
What do two sports legends talk about when they run into each other?
Golf, of course.
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer, and arguably one of the best defensive shortstops of all time, Ozzie Smith, ran into "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky on Friday, where the pair caught up on old times, made jokes at each other's expenses, and chatted about some recent golf scores.
Gretzky is in town to take part in the Alumni game on Jan. 31, playing for the Blues side of things alongside Brett Hull, Adam Oates, and many others.
Smith also caught up with Nail Yakupov, and continued his golf chatter with Martin Brodeur.
The St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks will battle it out on the ice at the Winter Classic on Jan. 2 at Busch Stadium, which normally houses the Cardinals.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will host the Detroit Red Wings outdoors on Sunday afternoon, New Year's Day, in the seminal event of their centennial season year-long celebration. So there's no better time than to look back, and look forward.
Legacy of defeat
By now, you know: 13 Stanley Cups. None since 1967. The facts are the facts - the Maple Leafs have only ever known victory in a six-team NHL.
There will be 31 in 2017.
So there's no point in looking back on the first 50 years. They were good. Hell, grand. But it was a different NHL, a different hockey world. It's the last 50 years that have come to define Toronto's hockey team.
Darkness
You can break down the Maple Leafs by players by era, and one who approaches life with a glass-half full approach would say, post-1967, the blue and white belonged to Darryl Sittler (drafted in 1970) and Borje Salming (debuted in 1973). A more pessimistic, defeatist person would go with Harold Ballard, who owned the team from 1972 until his death in 1990.
Either way, the legacy of those years is the same: losing.
The longest playoff runs of Sittler's and Salming's careers as Maple Leafs were 13 games.
From 1967-68 through 1991-92, the Maple Leafs won 40 games in a season only once. They won just eight of 24 playoff series, getting swept in the spring seven times. And even those numbers are deceiving: seven of those 24 postseason appearances came with losing regular-season records. In 1985-86, Toronto went 25-48-7, but won its first-round series. They made it to the second round in 1986-87 after a 32-42-6 season.
A lost generation.
Eye of the storm
It hasn't been all bad. Mostly bad, but there were some good years. Great, even. The Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour, and Mats Sundin years. Let's call them respites. Short and sweet.
These years were defined by key people and key moments.
Clark's arrival, Cliff Fletcher's, Pat Burns', Gilmour's 127-point 1992-93 season. The Conference Finals runs in '93 - Wayne Gretzky's high stick in Game 6, and his otherworldly Game 7 - and 1994. Clark for Sundin, another trade that shook Toronto.
Ken Dryden's arrival, Pat Quinn's, Curtis Joseph's, Alexander Mogilny's. In Sundin's prime, from 1998 through 2004, Toronto won 40 or more games in five of six seasons, 45 in three of them. Four straight playoff wins against the Ottawa Senators - for many Leafs supporters, their Stanley Cup. More deep playoff runs.
But in the end, Sittler, Salming, Clark, Gilmour, and Sundin - the greatest Leaf of all time - all made it to the same place and no further. Forget about winning a Stanley Cup, Toronto hasn't played for one since '67. In the end, Leafs fandom remains one that ends in heartbreak.
Hell
The years after the 2004-05 lockout are ones Maple Leafs supporters try only to forget. No goaltending. No penalty kill. After Sundin, no one down the middle.
Enter Dion Phaneuf, arguably the worst captain in Maple Leafs history. He tried. And Brian Burke, the most impatient GM in Maple Leafs history.
Don't forget Phil Kessel, acquired for two first-round picks, he tried, too, but it was never good enough.
Only one playoff series to show for it all, one that ended in the most Maple Leafs way possible, Game 7 in Boston. Yes, it was indeed 4-1. It's a badge of disturbing honor.
The plan
Brendan Shanahan was hired in 2014. He brought with him, finally, a plan. A tear down in every meaningful sense of the word, the organization stripped and put back together. A true rebuild. And, already, it's working.
Toronto, with Mike Babcock behind the bench, bottomed out - and this time it had its first-round pick. For the first time since 1985, when Wendel Clark's name was announced first overall, the Maple Leafs would draft No. 1.
The ping-pong balls, literal and figurative, never bounced Toronto's way. Until now.
The Maple Leafs are building something. The system has never been so full of young talent. The organization has never been so competent. That it's coming together so quickly, far quicker than anyone anticipated, in the club's centennial season, makes one wonder if this - a committed rebuild, a plan - is all it took.
Could it have been so simple, all along?
No, probably not. And there likely will be more bumps along the way. But that's the point - the Maple Leafs are on their way, traveling somewhere, as opposed to spinning their wheels, trying anything, desperately, to get out of the ditch.
So much of life comes down to timing, and after 50 years, it appears a broken clock is ticking once again.
As Toronto prepares to host its first outdoor NHL game, this incarnation of Maple Leafs is playing its best hockey, so you can forgive the club's supporters for thinking big, for dreaming.
That's what celebrations are for, after all.
Playoffs? Sure, why not.
Consider it practice. There are even bigger things in store.
As the Maple Leafs turn 100, it's more a rebirth than a 100th birthday. Years from now, perhaps the Centennial Classic will be looked upon as the beginning.
Shanahan, Babcock, and Matthews came along when one of hockey's most iconic franchises needed them most. The timing, for once, seems good.
Here's to the next 100 years - but especially the next 10.
After Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Scott Darling revealed he would be wearing a Chicago Cubs-themed mask at the upcoming Winter Classic on Jan. 2, his counterpart is following suit.
Along with the patented logos of both the Blues and Cardinals on the front, Hutton's mask will honor some of the greatest baseball players in St. Louis' franchise history: Stan Musial, Yadier Molina, Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean, Red Schoendienst, and a back-flipping Ozzie Smith.
"I thought I would do something that's a tribute to the Cardinals," Hutton told the Blues website, "especially since we're playing at Busch Stadium and having an outdoor game there, it makes sense.
"I've always been a big baseball fan; seeing Cardinal Nation from the outside, now being part of it and being around it is awesome, it's quite an honor to even get to play at Busch Stadium, so this is a great way for me to pay tribute to such a legendary team and such an iconic ballpark. I think this helmet does a great job of showing the connection between the Blues and Cardinals, and I think Cardinal Nation will really appreciate it."
This week on "On the Fly," theScore's NHL roundtable series, we're reflecting on the year that was. Here are four memorable moments from 2016 that have stayed with us.
June 29
Sean O'Leary: Where were you when P.K. Subban was swapped for Shea Weber? Or when Taylor Hall was unthinkably dealt one-for-one for Adam Larsson? Do you remember what you were doing when Steven Stamkos announced he was staying in Tampa Bay?
Well, chances are you were staring at your Twitter feed with your jaw on the floor. Either that, or you missed everything, because over the span of an hour, the hockey world was flipped upside down.
The entire landscape of the NHL's offseason was shifted June 29, all in a rapid fire of breaking news.
Is Edmonton getting anything else for Hall? Nope. Montreal actually traded Subban? You betcha. Oh, and after a full year of speculation, the biggest name in unrestricted free-agent history isn't going anywhere? Perfect.
All the shock, the reactions, and the hot takes made for unprecedented chaos in the hockey world. It was awesome.
Marchand wins hearts and minds
Ian McLaren: Brad Marchand was put in a prime spot to excel at the World Cup of Hockey, and he stepped up when Canada needed him most.
Named to the roster on the heels of a career season and a strong showing at the World Championship in June, Marchand was handed a dream line assignment alongside Sidney Crosby and Patrice Bergeron to begin the best-on-best tournament.
Marchand responded with five goals and three assists in six games, including a shorthanded game-winning goal against Europe with 43 seconds remaining in Game 2 of the best-of-three final to seal the title for Canada.
Marchand proved he belongs on the big stage, and earned the love of an entire nation - including those who root against him at the NHL level - in the process.
Maple Leafs hit the jackpot
Craig Hagerman: Mission accomplished.
After lots of talk of tearing the whole thing down, the Toronto Maple Leafs did exactly that last season. Players were shipped out and questionable replacements were brought in to help aid the team as it tanked, and it worked. Toronto finished last in the league, giving it the best chance at the first overall pick in the NHL draft lottery.
The culmination of all that planning - and all that pain Mike Babcock talked about when he was hired - paid off in April when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly announced that Toronto had indeed won the first overall selection in the 2016 draft - in other words, the right to draft Auston Matthews - on live television.
It was official: For the first time since drafting Wendel Clark No. 1 in 1985, the Maple Leafs would hit the podium first.
Toronto indeed drafted Matthews, and after only three months it appears there is light rather than more heartache at the end of the tunnel. The Maple Leafs look to finally be turning a corner.
OT in September
Justin Cuthbert: It was exhilarating and deflating, colossal, and trivial, and absolutely everything, though it would amount to nothing.
It was Nathan MacKinnon's electrifying and endorphin-pumping overtime winner at the World Cup of Hockey. And it was the last we would see of the team that no one ever wanted to see disband. Beginning with themselves.
This was the paradox that faced a tournament that struggled with legitimacy. What we'll remember most - that wide, audacious toe drag around Henrik Lundqvist's attempted poke check, the cool backhand flip, and the ecstasy when it hit mesh - carries with it no significance.
They had two wins to one loss, but Team North America was eliminated the next day when Russia defeated Finland. For that reason, we're left forever wondering what would have happened if the game's future had their shot at challenging the present.
But we'll always have that moment, and we'll always treasure just how much those kids treasured being teammates.
While speaking with Devils All-Access on Thursday, Woods' father, Randy, told a story about his son sending a hockey card and an autograph request to Ovechkin as a kid.
Woods warned Ovechkin, "If you don't sign this and send it back to me, when I make it to the NHL, I'm going to give you a big body check."
Ovechkin never returned the card, but with his Washington Capitals hosting the Devils on Thursday night, he made good on the request.
