Jacob Waddell, the fan who threw a catfish on the ice during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night in Pittsburgh, has been charged for his actions, according to 1020 KDKA Morning News anchor Paul Rasmussen.
Waddell is charged with possession of an instrument of a crime, disorderly conduct, and disrupting a meeting, according to Rasmussen.
Furthermore, Rasmussen notes that police say Waddell bought the catfish in Tennessee, vacuumed sealed it, put it in his compression shorts, and then took it out inside a bathroom in the arena before chucking it onto the ice. Shortly after that Waddell was escorted out of PPG Paints Arena by security.
Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne had by far his worst game of the postseason in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, allowing four goals on just 11 shots. His team played well in front of him, but he didn't make the big saves when they needed him to. Don't expect that to happen again in Game 2.
The Preds have now lost five games in the playoffs. After each of the previous four losses, Rinne bounced back with a sensational performance.
Game
Result
SV/SA
SV%
Game 2 @ STL
L
17/20
.850
Game 3 vs. STL
W
22/23
.957
Game 5 @. STL
L
30/32
.938
Game 6 vs. STL
W
23/24
.958
Game 2 @ ANA
L
22/26
.846
Game 3 vs. ANA
W
19/20
.950
Game 4 vs. ANA
OTL
34/37
.919
Game 5 @ ANA
W
32/33
.970
Every time fans begin to doubt Rinne, he responds with a spectacular outing. Overall, he has stopped 96-of-100 shots after a loss this postseason for a save percentage of .960.
Unsurprisingly, head coach Peter Laviolette didn't express any sort of doubt in his veteran netminder after his shaky performance.
An ESPN "E:60" profile on the Nashville Predators defenseman that ran over the weekend included an interview with Scott in which he said Subban was "a piece of garbage" on the ice.
The fallout from the comment pushed Scott to go on Montreal radio Monday to clear the air. He said the comments weren't personal, were at least a year-and-a-half old, and came prior to Scott ever meeting Subban.
Subban responded to Scott's comments on Twitter on Tuesday, putting an end to the perceived animosity.
@johnscott_32 I liked meeting U too bud! hope the kids are doing well! ignore the tweets! I never took it personal, neither should anyone!👍🏿
They might not be everyone's cup of tea - cough, cough Brian Burke - but offer sheets, though rare, are always intriguing.
Whether it's because the potential price is too high, the crop of players isn't great, or the timing is just not right, offer sheets have become an unusual sight. However, this offseason might allow for something special.
Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli is about to become a very busy man - he's probably already in the midst of some heavy lifting.
Connor McDavid will be eligible to sign a contract extension July 1, and Chiarelli has already indicated he hopes to get that hammered out quickly. Then there's Leon Draisaitl, who could be an even bigger priority because he becomes a restricted free agent July 1 - and sending an offer sheet his way might not be a terrible idea.
What should Draisaitl cost you?
Before getting into why that move makes sense, it's important to hammer out just what kind of contract offer Draisaitl should get.
Based on the current offer-sheet compensation model - which can be viewed in Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman's latest 30 Thoughts column - a deal with an average annual value in the $7,851,948 million-$9,814,935 million tier could work nicely. To be more precise, an offer with an annual average of $9 million makes sense.
That means the compensation would be two first-round picks, a second, and a third.
Right away it sounds like a lot for a player that has fewer than 200 regular season games under his belt, but that's not a bad trade-off for getting Draisaitl, who appears well on his way to becoming an elite center. He amassed 29 goals and 77 points in just his second full season in the league, and led the Oilers in scoring in the playoffs with 16 points in 13 games.
Weaker draft class
This draft class isn't nearly as strong as it has been in previous years, especially the last two. Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier project to be solid NHL forwards, but not on the same scale as, say, McDavid or Auston Matthews. After Patrick and Hischier, the draft appears to be a bit of a crapshoot, with no one really knowing who will slot where.
That means the prospect of signing an offer sheet that would force you to give up two first-round draft picks, including one this year, doesn't appear to be a big loss, especially if it lands Draisaitl.
As far as the UFAs go, it seems likely that at least Desharnais, Hendricks, and Gryba won't return. Factoring in the RFAs and any other signings the Oilers may need to make to fill out their roster, Edmonton doesn't have a ton of wiggle room.
A projected offer sheet of $9 million would eat up nearly half of the Oilers' money - money they need to at least sign one more forward and one more defenseman.
Looking past next season, things get even worse as more of the team's contracts come off the books and more RFAs and UFAs enter the equation.
In fact, here are the only Oilers currently signed through the 2018-19 season:
Player
Position
'18-19 Cap Hit
Jordan Eberle
F
$6M
Milan Lucic
F
$6M
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
F
$6M
Benoit Pouliot
F
$4M
Andrej Sekera
D
$5.5M
Oscar Klefbom
D
$4.167M
Adam Larsson
D
$4.167M
Cam Talbot
G
$4.167M
These eight players will make a total of $40 million, leaving roughly $33 million in cap space. Factoring in McDavid's $10 million and Draisaitl at $9 million, that would leave $14 million to fill out six more forward positions, three more defense spots, and find a backup goalie. That's without any replacements. It appears near impossible.
Off the hop, the Carolina Hurricanes and even the Montreal Canadiens stand out as clubs who could have some interest in an offer sheet. Both lack a true No. 1 center, and each team has among the most cap room available of all 31 franchises.
Offer sheets may be rare, but sometimes, the right player does come around at the right time. This year, that player is Draisaitl.
With his late-game heroics in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel took one more step toward writing his name in the record books.
The 22-year-old scored on the Penguins' first shot in 37 minutes late in the third period, and in doing so picked up his playoff-leading 10th goal.
With the tally, Guentzel is just one goal back of Jeremy Roenick for the most postseason goals by an American-born rookie in NHL history.
That's not all.
His 17 points are also just one shy of both Roenick and Joe Mullen for the American rookie record. Meanwhile, his four game-winning goals during the playoffs already have him in a tie for the NHL rookie record with former Colorado Avalanche forward Chris Drury and Montreal Canadiens forward Claude Lemieux.
With four more goals and four more points, Guentzel can also tie the all-time rookie playoff record of 14 goals and 21 points set by Dino Ciccarelli back in 1980-81 with the Minnesota North Stars.
Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette slipped an F-bomb past NBC's censors while addressing his players ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.
NBC play-by-play man Mike Emrick later apologized, saying he didn't notice the F-bomb when the locker room speech aired.
Doc Emrick apologizes for the F-bomb which was dropped before the game, as the camera squarely focuses on F-bomb-dropper Peter Laviolette. pic.twitter.com/BMtDv84Rn0
Let's be honest, how many hockey fans had heard of Colton Sissons before the playoffs?
The 2012 second-round pick recorded only eight goals and two assists in 58 games for the Nashville Predators this regular season, but he's become a household name during his team's unlikely postseason run.
In 17 playoff games, Sissons has surpassed his regular season point total with an impressive 11 points (six goals, five assists), highlighted by a hat trick in Nashville's series-clinching win over the Ducks in the Western Conference Final.
The center will need to continue to play at a high level with Ryan Johansen out in order for the Predators to win the Stanley Cup.
The Pittsburgh Penguins finished with the NHL's second-best record, so common sense would have you believe they'd be rewarded with weaker playoff opponents given their strong regular season.
However, with the NHL's strange divisional playoff seeding, Pittsburgh had to face the NHL's fourth-best team (Columbus) in the first round, and the NHL's top-seeded team (Washington) in the second round in order to advance to the conference finals.
On the other hand, Ottawa, who finished 12th in league standings, faced the 13th-seeded Bruins in Round 1 and the ninth-seeded Rangers in Round 2, where they still somehow had home-ice advantage.
This left many people in the hockey universe hoping the NHL would revert back to it's previous format, where the conference's top seed would face the eighth seed, the second seed would face the seventh seed, and so on. It doesn't appear this will be happening, though.
"Obviously this was a unique year with a lot of strong teams in one division," said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, according to Chris Johnston from Sportsnet. "That doesn't happen every year and I think to pick kind of one unique year and to scrap a whole system based on that is probably a little bit short-sighted. Let's see what the future brings."
Daly was referring is the Metro Division which finished with the first-, second-, fourth-, and ninth-ranked teams in league standings.
One of those teams, the fourth-ranked Blue Jackets, got pretty shafted by facing the defending champs on the road in Round 1. It was the best season in franchise history, but they were ousted in just five games.
"I don't think it was designed for this," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in March. "I don't think it was intended for this to happen."
Even players have chimed in about their opinions on the format.
"It's stupid. It's the stupidest thing ever," Capitals forward Daniel Winnik said. "It doesn't work. It doesn't make any sense."
Daly and the NHL appear to be content with their playoff seeding format, so it would likely take multiple debacles like this season in order for them to revert to the previous system.
Getting last-minute tickets to Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final in Nashville is going to set you back a bit.
The first-ever Cup Final game at Bridgestone Arena is sold out through the Predators' official website, but secondary ticket service StubHub is selling a select number of seats for over $10,000 each after fees. However, the cheapest tickets - up in the 300 level of the arena - are selling for $1,032 each.
As for Game 2 in Pittsburgh, resale tickets can be purchased on the Penguins' official site for as low as $240.
Of course, you could always take in the game from the comfort of your own home as well.
With the offseason underway for a number of teams and the remainder set to join them in a few weeks, we're looking at what's in store for each club in the coming months.
2016-17 grade: A+
The Edmonton Oilers took a huge step forward this season. The club reached the postseason for the first time in 11 years, and came within a single win of advancing to the Western Conference Final.
There are a couple of notable names here, but Draisaitl and, to a lesser extent, Kris Russell are the priorities.
Player (Position)
2017-18 Status
Age
2016-17 Cap Hit
'16-17 Points
David Desharnais
UFA
30
$2.8M
14
Matt Hendricks
UFA
35
$1.85M
7
Zack Kassian
RFA
26
$1.5M
24
Leon Draisaitl
RFA
21
$925K
77
Jujhar Khaira
RFA
22
$875K
1
Iiro Pakarinen
RFA
25
$725K
4
Tyler Pitlick
UFA
25
$725K
11
Kris Russell
UFA
30
$3.1M
13
Eric Gryba
UFA
29
$950K
6
Griffin Reinhart
RFA
23
$863 333
0
Andrew Ference
UFA
38
$3.25M
0
Anton Lander
RFA
26
$987K
4
2017 draft picks
Round
Picks
1
1
2
0
3
2 (Own+Blues)
4
1
5
2 (Own+Canucks)
6
1
7
1
Summer priorities
Sign Draisaitl to a long-term deal
Draisaitl just had his coming out party. He was a force all season, but especially in the playoffs, leading the team in scoring with 16 points. It would be wise for Peter Chiarelli to lock up the restricted free agent long term before his value goes up.
The market for his services has quietly been set, with the likes of Johnny Gaudreau, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mark Scheifele all inking deals recently in the ballpark of six-to-eight years at an annual salary of $6 million to $7 million.
Draisaitl could be better than each of those players, so getting him inked to a deal like that could end up being a bargain down the road.
Ink McDavid to long-term extension (duh)
Unlike the Draisaitl contract, this one will likely include very little negotiation. McDavid is already one of the best players in the league. You're going to have to pay a near-max dollar amount for him, but he's proven through less than two full seasons in the league that he's totally worth it.
McDavid is eligible for an extension July 1. Lock him up and reap the benefits - there's not much else to it.
Get Puljujarvi NHL ready
The Oilers appeared to get a steal in last year's draft after the Columbus Blue Jackets surprised some by selecting Pierre-Luc Dubois third overall. It had been widely projected that pick would be used to select Jesse Puljujarvi.
The Oilers jumped on the chance to take the skilled winger, and the move appeared to be an instant win when the 18-year-old scored in his first career NHL game.
However, inconsistency followed, and he shortly landed in the AHL. There, he showed more promise, tallying 12 goals and 28 points in 39 games. There's no doubt Puljujarvi has the skill and potential to be great, and if he can take a step forward next season, the Oilers will have another tool and more willingness to trade one of their other forwards, such as Eberle or Nugent-Hopkins.
2017-18 Outlook
The Oilers made a dramatic jump this season. They finished with 33 more points than the previous season and were one win back of the Pacific-leading Anaheim Ducks.
McDavid won the scoring title and Talbot proved he can handle the responsibilities of a No. 1 netminder. Then there's Draisaitl, and the improved defense core.
The Oilers finally played like the team many envisioned for so long. Their days of missing the playoffs appear to be in the rear-view mirror for now, and they should be expected to challenge for a division title and perhaps the Cup next season.
A few minor tweaks could go a long way, but even without that, Edmonton should be in a good position to compete with the league's best for years to come.
