Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau tore into his players after a disappointing 4-1 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
"There's some guys there that just are a shell of the players that I've known for two-and-a-half years," Boudreau told reporters.
Boudreau then expressed his frustration at Mikael Granlund specifically, as the star forward has now scored just two goals in his past 37 games.
"I can't go out there and hang on his back and follow him like a close-talker and say, 'Hey, shoot the puck," Boudreau said. "He's a smart enough player. The last two years he was one of the, I thought, top 10 players in the league. And now he's got two goals in (37) games."
Minnesota has now dropped four straight and sits in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, just two points up on the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.
"This was sort of the last straw," Boudreau said. "Everybody now has caught us or within a point, so it's either find your sense of urgency and do what you have to do to win or bad things are going to happen."
The Wild will now embark on a mini two-game road trip, starting in New Jersey on Saturday, where they will look to get back into the win column.
The Buffalo Sabres went off for five goals in Thursday's clash with the Carolina Hurricanes, but it wasn't enough to secure a victory.
Buffalo dropped a 6-5 decision in overtime, marking the eighth time over the past 10 games that the team has given up at least four goals. Following another frustrating performance, forward Sam Reinhart voiced his displeasure with the club's goaltending of late.
"We can't expect to win hockey games 6-5, 7-6," Reinhart said, according to The Athletic's John Vogl. "We need more from our goalies and we need it from the start of hockey games. It's frustrating."
The Sabres have averaged 4.5 goals against per game over their last 10 contests, the highest mark in the league during that stretch. As to be expected, Linus Ullmark's and Carter Hutton's numbers in that time aren't pretty:
Goalie
Games Played
Goals-Against Average
SV%
Linus Ullmark
8
3.86
.870
Carter Hutton
4
5.59
.832
With Thursday night's loss, the Sabres now sit four points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
"Coach was no good. Players were no good. Food was no good. I just hope the plane works," Maurice continued.
After Mark Scheifele opened the scoring for the Jets less than five minutes in, the Canadiens scored five unanswered goals, including a pair by Jonathan Drouin. Brendan Lemieux tallied in the final minute for Winnipeg with the game out of reach.
"We were a red robin from about five minutes into that game," Maurice said. "We had a goalie that was standing on his head and found a way to make a 5-2 score flattering."
The Canadiens outshot the Jets 53-34 in the contest.
John Gibson was hurt late in the second period of the Ducks' 4-0 defeat when Anaheim defenseman Jaycob Megna collided with him on a goal by Senators forward Matt Duchene.
The star netminder remained in the game for the rest of the period but didn't emerge for the third.
Ottawa handed the Ducks their sixth consecutive loss.
Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic is not going to compromise his team's future, but that doesn't mean he won't try to make the Avs better in the short term.
"We're looking at the big picture here. We love what's coming," Sakic said, according to Mike Chambers of The Denver Post. "It's a process, and we're not going to deviate from that plan. If there's a player that can help us that isn't going to include one of those (first-round) picks and top prospects, then we'll look at that."
Colorado currently holds its own 2019 first-round selection, as well as the Ottawa Senators' first-rounder, courtesy of the Matt Duchene trade. The Senators sit near the bottom of the standings, which means that pick will likely become one of the top selections at the draft this June.
"We've been talking with teams the better part of three, four weeks now. But what we're not doing is moving our high picks and prospects," Sakic said. "There are things we'll continue to look at - hockey trades - and see how we can get better."
The Avalanche got off to a red-hot start this season, boasting a conference-best record of 15-6-5 on Dec. 1. But they've won just seven games since and sit two points outside of a wild-card spot heading into Thursday's action.
With 74 points in 52 games, Mikko Rantanen has established himself as a premier player, and linemates Nathan MacKinnon - a nominee for last season's Hart Trophy - and Gabriel Landeskog help round out one of the NHL's most productive lines. The team's offense falls off after the top line, however, as the trio is currently responsible for 45 percent of Colorado's point production this season.
"We like our back end. We like our goaltending - we just got to get them playing with more confidence," Sakic said. "If we can add some scoring, some depth scoring, that would be our priority."
Calgary Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk will be a member of the NHL's stacked restricted free-agent class of 2019, so he paid special attention to Auston Matthews' new five-year deal on Tuesday worth $11.634 million per season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"I feel like every year there's a couple guys, a couple big names every year who kind of change the way a little bit," Tkachuk told Daniel Austin of the Calgary Sun. "I think Auston changed it, too, going with the approach (of) a five-year deal, too. Maybe people haven't seen that in a couple years, but it's not like, uncommon. Guys used to do that all the time. He definitely set the bar."
However, unlike Matthews, Tkachuk said he prefers to play out the rest of the season and worry about his new contract in the summer.
Tkachuk was selected five spots after Matthews (sixth overall) in the 2016 draft, and the two were teammates at the world juniors and with the U.S. National Development Program.
The winger has taken his game to a new level this season, as he's recorded a career-high 57 points through 53 games for the first-place Flames. The 21-year-old is one of several key young players up for a new contract after this season, along with Mitch Marner, Sebastian Aho, Patrik Laine, and Mikko Rantanen, among others.
With a stacked 2019 free-agent class and several teams well out of the playoff hunt, it appears to be a buyers' market leading up to the NHL's trade deadline. It's possible Artemi Panarin, Wayne Simmonds, Matt Duchene, Mark Stone, and other big names could be moved before Feb. 25, setting up one of the most anticipated deadlines in recent years.
Here are three teams that should be in pursuit of an impact player over the next few weeks:
Nashville Predators
John Russell / National Hockey League / Getty
The Predators are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders due to stellar goaltending and arguably the league's best defensive core. However, the Preds rank outside the top 10 in the league in goals per game and own the NHL's 30th-ranked power play. To put themselves over the top, they need some extra offensive punch.
Outside of Filip Forsberg, Nashville doesn't have a game-breaking talent up front. Adding an impact forward such as Duchene, Stone, or Panarin - who the club has reportedly inquired about - would change that.
The Predators dealt a second-round pick to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday for Brian Boyle, but Nashville still has its first-rounder to dangle in trade talks.
Boston Bruins
Patrick McDermott / National Hockey League / Getty
The Bruins' trio of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak form arguably the league's best line, but the rest of Boston's roster doesn't pose as much of an offensive threat. David Krejci is having a nice year, but the Bruins severely lack scoring depth in their bottom-nine forward group.
Inserting one of the available wingers, such as Panarin, Stone, or Simmonds - who Boston has reportedly shown interest in - would give the Bruins two formidable lines, making them a nightmare for opponents to match up against in the postseason.
Atlantic Division rivals like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs have an embarrassment of riches up front, meaning the Bruins should be in heavy pursuit of an impact player if they have Stanley Cup aspirations.
New York Islanders
Mike Stobe / National Hockey League / Getty
Preseason pundits predicted the Islanders would be sellers at the 2019 trade deadline. However, despite losing franchise player John Tavares in the offseason, the Isles find themselves atop the Metropolitan Division.
New York has both the cap room and enough draft picks and young prospects to be serious players ahead of the deadline. Moreover, with several contracts coming off the books after this season, the team could acquire one of the aforementioned pending unrestricted free agents and sign them to a long-term extension before they hit the open market.
The Isles have been the stingiest defensive team in the league this season, but adding a dynamic forward up front could make the club a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.
