The clock is ticking for the Ottawa Senators to move forward on their plan for a new downtown arena.
The Senators and Trinity Group - the team's partner in the prospective redevelopment of downtown neighborhood LeBreton Flats - told the National Capital Commission earlier this month that they've "not been able to resolve their internal partnership issues," NCC board members heard during a public meeting Thursday, according to CBC.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, a non-voting member of the NCC board, called the development "disappointing" and said the Senators and Trinity Group must "get their acts together."
Senators owner Eugene Melnyk implied Thursday that his goal hasn't changed.
"We've championed a downtown sports and entertainment arena and this important civic project since initiating our proposal in 2014. We continue to be committed to making our vision a reality," he said in a statement, according to The Athletic's Chris Stevenson.
The NCC announced on Jan. 25 that it signed an agreement in principle with RendezVous LeBreton - whose main partners are Melnyk and Trinity executive chairman John Ruddy - for the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, where the hockey team wants to build a new arena.
On Thursday, the NCC said it will give the Senators and Trinity Group until their next meeting in January to resolve their problems. Otherwise, the board will begin looking for other groups to take over the project.
"We have given the partners one last time to come together," Watson said, adding that the relationship between Melnyk and Ruddy is "challenging."
The NCC also said it knew in the planning stage that having one side work alone on the redevelopment would not be possible.
The Senators currently play at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario, which is located about 25 minutes west of downtown Ottawa. However, that travel time can extend to 45 minutes during rush hour, and the location's hurt the team's attendance over the years.
"His recovery rate, cardio-wise, is astounding," Hitchcock told TSN's Frank Seravalli. "He's able to get back up to speed quickly. That's something we've got to take advantage of. He can come out every second shift if it stays five-on-five."
McDavid is averaging the third-most minutes among NHL forwards at 22:18 per game, and on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks in Hitchcock's debut, he logged 23:57.
However, additional ice time isn't the only way the veteran coach plans to get his best player more involved.
"He needs to have the puck more," Hitchcock said. "As do all of our centers, because that's the strength of the team. I think we need to find ways to get them the puck more deeper (in the defensive zone). That's going to be the focus starting at practice."
Despite McDavid leading the NHL in controlled zone entries each of the past two seasons, Hitchcock also plans to "double" his touches.
"That's what we want to do, get way more touches for our whole center ice," Hitchcock said.
The Oilers have a shortage of mobile puck-movers on the back end, so using McDavid and second-line center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as focal points on breakouts may be the remedy to that issue.
Rinne accomplished the feat in 43 fewer games than Kiprusoff, who retired following the 2012-13 season.
Here's the leaderboard as far as netminders from Finland are concerned:
Goaltender
W
GP
Rinne
320
580
Kiprusoff
319
623
Kari Lehtonen
301
649
Tuukka Rask
242
458
Antti Niemi
238
453
Niklas Backstrom
196
413
Vesa Toskala
129
266
Antero Niittymaki
95
234
Antti Raanta
73
150
Karri Ramo
60
159
Rinne reminisced about Kiprusoff when asked about the achievement postgame.
"He was kind of the first Finnish superstar goalie," Rinne told reporters including The Athletic's John Glennon. "It was nice to play against him, especially when I was younger. I especially tried to watch him play and things like that. So for sure, it's cool.”
Last week, with the contest scoreless and a teammate in the penalty box, Grabner flung the puck at the Nashville Predators' net from just a few feet inside the offensive zone. The shot looked harmless - until it one-hopped at the hash marks. Beat clean, Pekka Rinne became the latest goalie to be victimized by the NHL's best offensive (and defensive) penalty kill.
Arizona's PK has already produced 10 goals (the next highest total is four) while humming along at a 91.7 percent clip defensively,allowing opponents to score just five times.Those numbers have resulted in an eye-catching shorthanded goal differential of plus-5 for the otherwise-middling 9-9-1 Coyotes. And considering the team bagged only two shorties in 2017-18, the recent binge may be the wackiest development of the young NHL season.
"I've played on some teams where the penalty kill is really good and you’ve had some dangerous guys who have scored off the penalty kill, but not to this pace," Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet, an NHL forward from 1994 to 2002, told theScore.
"It's given us some juice in the fact that we're hanging our hats on something," he added. "Some teams have identities. Right now, teams are playing us and they're going, 'Hey, this PK is No. 1, and if you’re not careful they can score.'"
Norm Hall / National Hockey League / Getty
If the Coyotes maintain their current shorthanded scoring pace - an extremely unlikely scenario given a third of their shots have gone in - they'd finish with 43 goals for the season. The all-time record of 36 is held by the Wayne Gretzky-led 1983-84 Oilers (no other team's scored more than 28), and it's safe to say the current Coyotes roster is nowhere near that Stanley Cup-winning level of talent, which only underlines the absurdity of its brilliant run.
And outside of the penalty kill, it's not all sunshine and lollipops for the .500 Coyotes. Marred by injuries to key contributors, struggling to score at five-on-five, and fifth worst with the man advantage, Tocchet's club has failed to seize the moment in the Pacific Division, which, beyond the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks, features nothing but underwhelming clubs.
"After a bad game, we've bounced back pretty well," Tocchet said, preferring to assess the opening stretch from a glass-half-full perspective. "Last year, especially in the first half, we'd have a couple of duds in a row, where now it's like, 'Hey, we had a bad game, let’s bounce back.' That’s the sign of a team that's coming to."
After a 70-point season in '17-18, Arizona's on pace for 82 this time around, while the typical playoff cutoff is approximately 95 points. Solid goaltending and some offense from spark plug Clayton Keller have certainly helped, but again, it's the PK keeping this team afloat heading into Wednesday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Grabner, who ranks second to Boston's Brad Marchand in shorthanded goals (19) since entering the league in 2009-10, is leading the charge this season with four. His partner in crime, Brad Richardson, has three, while second-unit regulars Derek Stepan (two) and Lawson Crouse (one) have chipped in as well.
"We have a lot of pride in killing penalties and we’re getting our chances early here and taking advantage of them," Grabner said. "Really, it’s all about not being careless with the puck."
PK Category
Coyotes
NHL Rank
Goals for per 60 minutes
5.6
1st
Goals against per 60
2.8
1st
Shot attempts for per 60
21.4
2nd
Shot attempts against per 60
82.8
4th
Scoring chances for per 60
12.4
3rd
Scoring chances against per 60
39.4
2nd
Last season, Tocchet's first behind the Coyotes' bench, the team finished with mediocre PK numbers - 19th in kill percentage, and somewhere between 17th and 24th in each relevant advanced-stats category. Then, a few things happened: Grabner signed as a free agent, Hjalmarsson returned to full health, and Connauton slotted in for the departed Luke Schenn.
Now, the Coyotes' PK system - with those improvements in place - is working better than anyone could have imagined.
"We've been making really good reads," Tocchet said of his penalty-killing group.
"When we're applying pressure, the other guy - the weak-side guy - has been making really good reads. Sometimes you have to guess on these reads and we've been guessing right more often. Are we lucky on some of them? Maybe. But the guys have done a nice job reading it and coming out on the right side of that read."
The clip below illustrates the Coyotes' pounce mentality pretty well:
Richardson (No. 15 in red) steals the puck and quickly turns a broken possession by Vancouver's power play into an odd-man rush. Connauton (No. 44) and Grabner (No. 40) are with him, and the group scores off a rebound after a lackluster effort from the backchecking Canucks.
You'll notice that Grabner doesn't think twice about bolting north. The flying Austrian's lightning-fast anticipation makes him a constant breakaway threat, and he's made a career out of fast-break offense.
On the PK specifically, Tocchet's told Grabner to simply trust those instincts.
"I'm not going to put the shackles on him. I'd be crazy to make him robotic," Tocchet said. "I think he's a feel type of guy - knowing where the puck is, who has the puck, where the puck is going to go. I think that's a hockey IQ thing, and you have to let him do what he does.”
So, when a defenseman makes a good read on the penalty kill, Grabner's the logical first option for a breakout target. This is evident often, including in the sequence below, which involves some quick thinking from Connauton:
After picking off a pass below his own goal line, Connauton notices Philadelphia's Jordan Weal (No. 40 in orange) deep near the faceoff circle and Grabner gunning for the neutral zone. Hitting a teammate is the ideal choice here, but few possess Grabner's skating ability, so the 50-50 puck pursuit - which he wins before scoring - becomes more advantageous.
Overall, the Coyotes have shown flashes in the early going and the positivity is starting to snowball. For one, the Grabner signing (three years, $3.35 million per season) appears to be a nice piece of work by general manager John Chayka. Top center Alex Galchenyuk, injured to start the campaign, is coming along offensively. All-situations defender Jakob Chychrun is working his way back into the rotation after a long battle with his own injury. Raanta, also hurt, is close to returning ... the list is long.
But for a franchise that's starved for playoff hockey after missing out for six straight years, much more than a tremendous (potentially historic) penalty kill will be required on a game-to-game basis. And those other areas - at five-on-five and with the man advantage - must improve sooner rather than later.
"That’s been our Holy Grail," Tocchet said, pausing before finishing his thought.
"Trying to find that consistency."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
Kelly Sowatsky, the Pittsburgh Penguins fan whose public plea for a kidney went viral earlier this year, found a match.
In March, the Penguins tweeted a photo of the 31-year-old holding a sign that read, "Calling All Hockey Fans! I Need A Kidney! Kidney! Kidney! Gratefully Yours, Kelly."
Jeff Lynd, a Penguins fan living in Delaware, saw the tweet and reached out to Sowatsky offering to donate his kidney.
"I knew my blood type matched and I had this feeling it was just something that I had to do," Lynd told Good Morning America.
Eight months later, on Nov. 6, Sowatsky and Lynd underwent kidney transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, according to Sam Kasan of the Penguins' official website.
Sowatsky and Lynd are both recovering well.
"There's no words to really express the gratitude and the way I feel about what (Lynd) did for me because he literally saved my life," Sowatsky said. "And the doctors, too. If you trickle it down, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the reason my life is being saved, too. If it weren't for (Penguins director of new media Andi Perelman) and for me loving the Penguins ... "
The Penguins went 0-2-1 without Crosby in the lineup and have just one win in their last 10 games.
The team sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings but Crosby has looked like his typical self to begin the season, collecting eight goals and 19 points in 16 games.
General manager Dale Tallon believes Trocheck will return to the Panthers' lineup at some point this season.
"Vinny is a tremendous competitor and leader for our club," Tallon said. "It's never easy to see a player and person like him suffer an injury like this, but we are confident that he will make a full recovery and be back on the ice with our team this season."
Trocheck was injured on an awkward fall during Monday's tilt with the Ottawa Senators. He left the game on a stretcher.
Warning: Video containsgraphiccontent
Vinny Trocheck being stretchered off the ice after this... Very tough to watch. pic.twitter.com/fVku3XaxxA
