If I have the time (I don’t), I’ll work up some profiles and report cards and haikus and other stuff so we don’t have to spend every day of the next seven weeks rehashing GM candidates and 1st-overall pick debates.
But for now we’re still on pins and needles about who will be in the GM seat to make the decision about the defenseman vs. the forward vs. (for some it’s no contest, for others it’s very much a consideration) the hometown kid.
Meanwhile, the playoffs carry on, and I admit I do not believe in the Capitals and I’m surely missing something about the Capitals but all season long they have struck me as very 2023-24 Rangers: a fortunate regular season team that will be stopped by a superior playoff team.
I’m also biased because when I see Tom Wilson’s face I want to punch it with a rust-bedazzled metal glove, when I see their uniforms I’m reminded of how they took a Clip Art ‘70s logo and “updated” it to the Windows 95 version, and how they still use the cringe-worthy RBK Edge template long after every other team except Columbus has moved on with something far better.
Pundits also act like their coach is a Jack Norris shoe-in, as if Winnipeg did not also defy preseason expectations, with an actual best-in-league trophy to show for it.
Islanders News
In case you missed this in comments later in the day yesterday, heh:
#Isles GM search, daily update (subject to change within minutes, of course):
— Nothing new on Holland/Gorton/Bergevin
— Possibility that Lou Lamoriello stays on as an advisor to new GM
— Could open door to a first-time GM with Lou still around to guide
— Stay tuned…— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) May 8, 2025
A brief case for a non-old-boys guy:
Heard today from a friend,
unsolicited, who has worked very closely with Mathieu Darche for years in the Lightning organization. He said #Isles should hire Darche. So I asked him to tell me why and I have his OK to share it without using my friend’s name. pic.twitter.com/IdkGRS4GSv— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) May 8, 2025
So we wait…
Elsewhere
- The Capitals evened their series with a 3-1 win. Tom Dale Wilson was praised, despite massive and ever-present character flaws.
- Vegas erased a two-goal third-period deficit and very nearly won it at the end of regulation. Incredibly, they had a five-minute major and game misconduct in OT from a shocking brainfart Nicolas Roy crosscheck to the face, which they killed off…only to give up a TWO-ON-ONE TO McDAVID AND DRAISAITL. You don’t wanna do that. Vegas is down 2-0 heading to Edmonton.
- Justin Bourne on some of the small ways the Leafs are a different team this year under Craig Berube. [Sportsnet]
- NHL Rules Court: Some fun ideas, but not really workable…maybe the game is in pretty good shape as it is? (Except for infinitesimal offside challenges, of course). [Athletic]
- Big aspirations: Mike Sullivan hopes to make the Rangers the “most competitive team.” [NHL]
- Reinstated by the NHL a couple of years ago, Joel Quenneville is back, hired by the Ducks. He discussed generally what he’s done since the bombshell exposure of the Blackhawks regime that in 2010 ignored and then gave a job rec to a sex assault predator. [AP | NHL]
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