Wilson crushed Vegas center Jonathan Marchessault with a late hit in the open ice, drawing the ire of Perron, who hopped the boards to seemingly confront the Capitals' winger. Both Wilson and Perron were assessed two-minute minors for their role in the confrontation but received no further infractions.
"(I was) just testing out my edge," Perron told reporters Tuesday. "I was going to see the ref, to be honest with you. I heard the whistle, so I went on to go see the ref to find out what was going to happen.
"Obviously, it was a bad hit. We were expecting a power play there. I don't know. (Alex Ovechkin) ran into me. At the same time, I gotta be careful. I know what the rule is and all that. I gotta be careful. Obviously, there was no intention for me to do anything or start anything. After he ran me, I kind of pushed him a little bit."
Many lobbied for Perron to be suspended but he did not join an ongoing fracas, nor did he start an altercation upon hopping the boards, and thus skirted any supplementary discipline on a technicality.
Perron, who notched an assist during Vegas' Game 1 victory, will likely be considered on thin ice for the rest of the series, which is slated to resume Wednesday.
Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby was nowhere near his best during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, but he's moving forward quickly.
Holtby took accountability for his team's performance in Monday's 6-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, where he surrendered five goals on 33 shots. Tomas Nosek added an empty-netter with three seconds remaining to preserve the win for Vegas.
"For us, we just can't give up five goals and expect to have success," Holtby said via Lisa Dillman of NHL.com. "There's some areas where myself and our group, we can be more working on the same page and find ways to limit those and let our offense take over."
The Golden Knights present a unique complication for other teams, as they don't have an established precedent to base their play off of.
Holtby is well aware of the challenges the Golden Knights pose, but he's confident he will adapt to them as the series wears on.
"You can watch all the video of how to play other teams but you don't know how they're going to play you until they actually do it," Holtby said. "Every building is going to be loud. It's also another area, getting used to their team a little bit is going to help us."
It's clear that Holtby will need to be better if the Capitals are to split the series heading back to Washington, and the 2016 Vezina winner will surely be sharing his analysis with his defensemen as they prepare for Game 2.
D.C.'s Union Pub came up with a surefire way to get Washington Capitals fans through the door for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
For every goal scored by the Capitals on Monday night, the bar offered shots of alcohol for pennies based on the player's jersey number. For example, when Brett Connolly's deflection tied the game at 1-1 in the first period, shots were only 10 cents each.
The bar sold a total of 157 shots by the end of the night, according to David Fucillo of SB Nation. There's no word yet on whether they plan to run the special again for Game 2.
Jonathan Toews would have liked to see his hometown team vie for a chance at the Stanley Cup.
The Chicago Blackhawks captain's own club missed the playoffs for just the second time in his career and the first time since his rookie season in 2008. He admitted that though it pains him to see any other team lift the trophy, if he had to pick, he would have preferred the Winnipeg Jets to go the distance.
"I definitely don't want to see any team win the Cup," Toews told TSN's Kara Wagland. "I won't be happy to see someone else hoist it at the end of it all. But I was asked this question numerous times and being from Winnipeg, I think it would have been great for the city, and just knowing how passionate those fans are and how much they love the game. To see their team do well, I was secretly kind of rooting for them if I had to pick somebody."
The Jets came up short, losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final.
Meanwhile, Toews remains confident that the Blackhawks will return to the playoffs next season.
"Absolutely," Toews said. "I think we all were disappointed and kind of shocked as to how the second half of our season went this year and we're all kind of feeling that sting pretty good. So I think everyone's going to be excited to bring their best hockey forward next year. We know that's the goal."
Marchessault briefly exited the game and went through concussion protocol, but avoided injury.
While apparently free of supplemental discipline for the time being, Wilson yet again finds himself in the middle of controversy this postseason. In Round 2, he was suspended for three games for a hit to the head of Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese, one game after he escaped a hearing from the Department of Player Safety for a high blow on Brian Dumoulin.
It’s touted as a one-stop shop for NHL general managers and scouting staffs to get a last look at prospects before the draft. In reality, the NHL combine can seem like a meat market, with top prospects on display and results dissected on social media (especially if they’re not positive).
Sixty forwards, 37 defensemen, and seven goalies will attend this week's annual combine hosted at KeyBank Center and HarborCenter in Buffalo, giving teams a chance to evaluate these prospects in an off-ice setting. Notable names attending include Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov, Filip Zadina, Adam Boqvist, Quinn Hughes, and recent Memorial Cup Champion Noah Dobson.
Why should you care?
Teams don’t make their draft lists based on the scouting combine, it's more of a tool. It gives teams information that can help refine those lists. In scouting, the idea is to gather as much information as possible in order to make the best pick. The combine provides teams with a different kind of knowledge than the kind they gain while watching these kids play every day.
Throughout the week, all 31 teams get the chance to interview around 10 prospects they want to learn more about. During the interviews, which last between 20 and 30 minutes, teams have the opportunity to see how players handle themselves in a one-on-one situation. This is considered the most stressful part of the weekend - and with good reason. Teams are looking at a player’s character, demeanor, and are considering how he’ll fit into their organizational culture. That’s not easy to do in half an hour.
Moreover, players have to clear a medical screening before they undergo physical testing. The screening can reveal any lingering injuries, as well as potential health problems that may have been missed. Once they’re through the screening, players have their conditioning put under the microscope through various tests: the standing long jump, pro agility test, bench press, pull-ups, VO2 max bike test (which looks at endurance), and the Wingate Cycle Ergometer Test (which measures peak anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity).
The VO2 max and the Wingate are the tests where players are most often reintroduced to their last meal. In fact, according to a now-deleted tweet from Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk from his time at the 2012 combine, the hurling happens even if you don’t eat before. (The tweet lives on in infamy on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ blog.)
Players to watch
One intriguing attendee is Liam Kirk, who is ranked 65th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Kirk, who spent this season with the Sheffield Steelers of the EIHL, is hoping to become the first NHL player to be born and trained in the United Kingdom. (Brendan Perlini, an Arizona Coyotes prospect, was born in the UK but grew up playing hockey in Canada and spent four years in the OHL.)
Another participant worth monitoring is over-ager Sean Durzi of the Owen Sound Attack. Ranked 37th by NHL Central Scouting among North American skaters, Durzi is an offensive defenseman who attended Florida Panthers development camp last summer.
Other players to watch include:
– K'Andre Miller: An NTDP defenseman who just made the switch to defense from forward in the 2015-16 season, and is ranked 23rd among North American skaters by Central Scouting. The positional switch is pretty late to make, but is perhaps interesting commentary on where the defensive side of the game should or could be going.
– Ryan Merkley: A contentious defensive prospect who is pretty much the definition of high-risk, high-reward. He could be a top-10 pick based purely on offensive talent; Central Scouting has him at 45th among North American skaters due to his tendency to make mistakes as big as his highlight-reel moments. Interested teams will probably be picking him apart in the interview portion of the combine to get an idea of whether he's worth it.
Memorable moments
For an event that’s geared more toward scouting staffs than to the media, the combine can still produce plenty of interesting stories.
Here are some notable events from previous years:
– In 2005, consensus first overall prospect and current Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby skipped part of the physical testing due to both a lower-body injury and a chest cold that briefly sent him to the hospital.
– At the 2008 combine, new Denver University Pioneers head coach David Carle’s physical detected an abnormality that turned out to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. While the condition derailed his hockey playing career, he found another path in the sport. As an assistant coach with the Pioneers, Carle has worked with players such as Will Butcher (NJD), Troy Terry (ANA), and Henrik Borgstrom (FLA).
– In 2014, top prospect and current Calgary Flames forward Sam Bennett did exactly zero pull-ups at the combine. Performance on one combine test obviously isn’t going to sink a prospect, nor is it a predictor of NHL success or failure, but the fuss made about it on social media was hilarious.
– The scouting combine moved to Buffalo from its previous location in Toronto in 2015. KeyBank Center and the HarborCenter provided an “all-encompassing” venue for the event, including better sight lines and the ability to video the fitness testing. The KeyBank Center and HarborCenter currently have a contract to host the combine through 2019.
– 2017 saw #BikeGuy go viral. Bike Guy, a.k.a. Jordan Marwin, has a special method of motivating prospects to do their best on the Wingate bike test.
It’s touted as a one-stop shop for NHL general managers and scouting staffs to get a last look at prospects before the draft. In reality, the NHL combine can seem like a meat market, with top prospects on display and results dissected on social media (especially if they’re not positive).
Sixty forwards, 37 defensemen, and seven goalies will attend this week's annual combine hosted at KeyBank Center and HarborCenter in Buffalo, giving teams a chance to evaluate these prospects in an off-ice setting. Notable names attending include Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov, Filip Zadina, Adam Boqvist, Quinn Hughes, and recent Memorial Cup Champion Noah Dobson.
Why should you care?
Teams don’t make their draft lists based on the scouting combine, it's more of a tool. It gives teams information that can help refine those lists. In scouting, the idea is to gather as much information as possible in order to make the best pick. The combine provides teams with a different kind of knowledge than the kind they gain while watching these kids play every day.
Throughout the week, all 31 teams get the chance to interview around 10 prospects they want to learn more about. During the interviews, which last between 20 and 30 minutes, teams have the opportunity to see how players handle themselves in a one-on-one situation. This is considered the most stressful part of the weekend - and with good reason. Teams are looking at a player’s character, demeanor, and are considering how he’ll fit into their organizational culture. That’s not easy to do in half an hour.
Moreover, players have to clear a medical screening before they undergo physical testing. The screening can reveal any lingering injuries, as well as potential health problems that may have been missed. Once they’re through the screening, players have their conditioning put under the microscope through various tests: the standing long jump, pro agility test, bench press, pull-ups, VO2 max bike test (which looks at endurance), and the Wingate Cycle Ergometer Test (which measures peak anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity).
The VO2 max and the Wingate are the tests where players are most often reintroduced to their last meal. In fact, according to a now-deleted tweet from Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk from his time at the 2012 combine, the hurling happens even if you don’t eat before. (The tweet lives on in infamy on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ blog.)
Players to watch
One intriguing attendee is Liam Kirk, who is ranked 65th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Kirk, who spent this season with the Sheffield Steelers of the EIHL, is hoping to become the first NHL player to be born and trained in the United Kingdom. (Brendan Perlini, an Arizona Coyotes prospect, was born in the UK but grew up playing hockey in Canada and spent four years in the OHL.)
Another participant worth monitoring is over-ager Sean Durzi of the Owen Sound Attack. Ranked 37th by NHL Central Scouting among North American skaters, Durzi is an offensive defenseman who attended Florida Panthers development camp last summer.
Other players to watch include:
– K'Andre Miller: An NTDP defenseman who just made the switch to defense from forward in the 2015-16 season, and is ranked 23rd among North American skaters by Central Scouting. The positional switch is pretty late to make, but is perhaps interesting commentary on where the defensive side of the game should or could be going.
– Ryan Merkley: A contentious defensive prospect who is pretty much the definition of high-risk, high-reward. He could be a top-10 pick based purely on offensive talent; Central Scouting has him at 45th among North American skaters due to his tendency to make mistakes as big as his highlight-reel moments. Interested teams will probably be picking him apart in the interview portion of the combine to get an idea of whether he's worth it.
Memorable moments
For an event that’s geared more toward scouting staffs than to the media, the combine can still produce plenty of interesting stories.
Here are some notable events from previous years:
– In 2005, consensus first overall prospect and current Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby skipped part of the physical testing due to both a lower-body injury and a chest cold that briefly sent him to the hospital.
– At the 2008 combine, new Denver University Pioneers head coach David Carle’s physical detected an abnormality that turned out to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. While the condition derailed his hockey playing career, he found another path in the sport. As an assistant coach with the Pioneers, Carle has worked with players such as Will Butcher (NJD), Troy Terry (ANA), and Henrik Borgstrom (FLA).
– In 2014, top prospect and current Calgary Flames forward Sam Bennett did exactly zero pull-ups at the combine. Performance on one combine test obviously isn’t going to sink a prospect, nor is it a predictor of NHL success or failure, but the fuss made about it on social media was hilarious.
– The scouting combine moved to Buffalo from its previous location in Toronto in 2015. KeyBank Center and the HarborCenter provided an “all-encompassing” venue for the event, including better sight lines and the ability to video the fitness testing. The KeyBank Center and HarborCenter currently have a contract to host the combine through 2019.
– 2017 saw #BikeGuy go viral. Bike Guy, a.k.a. Jordan Marwin, has a special method of motivating prospects to do their best on the Wingate bike test.
The teams combined for 10 goals, Tom Wilson threw another controversial hit, and before the puck even dropped, the Golden Knights' game ops crew took pregame intros to a previously unseen level.
Once the dust settled, each team produced a litany of prime scoring chances and traded goal after goal, which likely drove both coaching staffs crazy. However, there was some beauty in all the madness, particularly on John Carlson's second-period tally, which we'll break down below.
With Vegas ahead 3-2 nearly halfway through the middle frame, Washington rookie Jakub Vrana broke into the attacking zone one-on-three - a harmless looking play.
Vrana attempted a shot on goal, but it was deflected behind the net. He pursued the loose puck and beat both Reilly Smith (No. 19 in grey) and Shea Theodore (No. 27).
After getting to the puck, Vrana noticed he had the support of his linemates, and promptly dished a pass to T.J. Oshie (top right).
Oshie one-timed the pass, forcing a quality save from Marc-Andre Fleury that led to a scrum outside the blue paint, where the Caps were outnumbered three to two. But, with Oshie tying up his man, Nicklas Backstrom swooped in to aid his winger and regained possession.
Backstrom (left) then glided up the boards, briefly slowing things down as he drew attention to himself. The gifted setup man spotted Carlson (top) coming off the bench and waited until the blue-liner was onside before making a quick pass.
With Smith playing tight on the point, Carlson riskily attempted to pull it around him, but managed to make a safe play and chip the puck to open ice, where Oshie (bottom) pounced.
Upon realizing Oshie would be first to the puck, Carlson shed his defender and headed right to the slot, where a truly incredible one-touch, no-look pass around Theodore ended up right on his stick.
Yeah, he's not gonna miss from there.
What started as an ordinary rush quickly turned into a dominant shift for the Capitals, and thanks to some strong puck support on the forecheck, plus a few splashes of showstopping skill, Washington was able to manufacture a key goal in a big moment.
The 38-year-old hasn't played since Oct. 10, 2015 - the second game of an attempted comeback from a concussion suffered in January 2015.
His wife, Cissi Franzen, recently wrote a blog post about the struggles Johan and the family have endured as he continues to struggle with post-concussion syndrome.
He's been going thru an intensive treatment program at Marcus Brain Health Institute, and this last week was a family week where I joined in for a lot of sessions. He's still dealing with post-concussion syndrome, and the last months have been really bad. Something needed to happen and I'm so thankful we found this new amazing place. It opened up in March and they treat veterans and athletes with brain traumas. Johan was actually their very first athlete.
Cissi further detailed the hardships she and her husband faced during his time in treatment.
Living with a husband with a brain injury is not easy, it's like a rollercoaster. But I am doing my best to get us to a better place, not only for us and but also for our amazing boys that deserve the best.
While a return to the NHL for Johan seems improbable, he still has two years left on his 11-year, $43.5-million contract with the Red Wings. During his 602-game career, the Swedish forward has 187 goals and 370 points.
