Stephen Whyno of the Canadian Press has some advice for the Winnipeg Jets as they strive to make the playoffs.
“Don’t let up and the first playoff game in Winnipeg for this version of the Jets awaits,” Whyno wrote last week. “This team ‘turned a corner,’ according to defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, and a 7-2-1 stretch going into the [all-star] break gave it a nice cushion.”
Whyno gives Winnipeg a 92.4 per cent chance of making the playoffs.
As for the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs, he is not so optimistic, giving the club just a 4.5 per cent chance of sneaking into the post-season.
Make a move
Brett Slawson of The Hockey Writers website is calling on the struggling Edmonton Oilers to pull the trigger on some trades.
Slawson urges the Oilers to ship Jordan Eberle and Victor Fasth to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Andrei Vasilevskiy and Radko Gudas.
“In this trade, the Edmonton Oilers could address what is likely their greatest weakness: the lack of an NHL caliber starting goaltender,” writes Slawson, referring to Vasilevskiy, a promising netminder with only a handful of big-league match-ups to his credit.
Alfie’s honour
Ottawa Senators great Daniel Alfredsson will receive the key to the city of Ottawa on March 5, Mayor Jim Watson has announced.
The man they call Alfie officially retired in December after 18 NHL seasons, all but one of them with the Sens. He was captain of Ottawa from 1999 to 2013 and holds the franchise record for most goals, assists and points.
What happened?
How on earth did LA’s Mike Richards, once one of the league’s most durable and dynamic players, end up on waivers at the not-so-ripe age of 29?
“The reasons pointed to for Richards’s slide are numerous,” opines Stephen Burtch of Sportsnet.ca, “ranging from body type to poor off-season training to a physical playing style to lingering injury effects to long-term fatigue due to one of the heaviest game loads of any young player around the league through his 20s. Any or all of could be the case. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt his decline has been precipitous, even while seeing progressively easier usage year over year.”
