The New York Rangers' highest-paid defenseman is expected to take in Thursday's game against the San Jose Sharks from the press box.
After watching his team start the season with three straight losses, rookie head coach David Quinn will shake up his lineup, and it's expected defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will be a healthy scratch, according to Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post.
The 29-year-old, who's making $8 million this season, said he understands the decision even if he isn't happy about it.
"You have to learn from it, obviously. I'm not a guy that would take that the wrong way and mope about it," Shattenkirk said. "It's the NHL; if you're not playing well, there are guys that are playing well. Tony DeAngelo played a phenomenal game the (Sunday) night (in Carolina). He's earned a spot on the roster. I think all the 'D' have earned a spot on the roster, and I'm probably the guy that needs to fight a little bit harder to get my spot back. It's on me, for sure.
"I know that it's a process, but this is probably a good little kick to get me going and get me out of this - I don't want to say slump - but just get my confidence back and start playing the game I know I have."
After playing 20:41 in the club's season opener against the Nashville Predators and then 22:23 against the Buffalo Sabres, Shattenkirk had his minutes slashed in Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, playing just 7:29. Through the first three games, Shattenkirk has gone pointless and is a minus-4.
Last season, Shattenkirk suffered a torn meniscus in training camp and was subsequently limited to just 46 games in his first year with the Rangers. It's an injury Quinn feels Shattenkirk is still dealing with.
"He and I have talked about playing with more urgency, and I think he's still a little bit hesitant because of what happened last year. He's got to get his confidence back. He's going to have every chance to get his confidence back. This is a process. This isn't a punishment."
The Rangers are one of three teams yet to record a single point on the season.
"I just think we played like shit tonight," the Flyers forward told reporters postgame, according to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "The score shows it. We just left our goalie to dry and (Brian Elliott) played a good game, he didn’t deserve that and it’s on us."
Elliott allowed all eight Sharks goals on 48 shots.
The Flyers were outshot by 15 and committed twice as many giveaways (14-7). San Jose also held a 59.57 to 40.43 edge in five-on-five Corsi For percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The San Jose Sharks blew out Philadelphia 8-2 on Tuesday night, and Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott was left in for all eight of the markers.
The last time San Jose scored eight goals in a game was Oct. 8, 2013, in a 9-2 victory over the New York Rangers.
Elliott faced 48 shots in the loss.
He has started all three of the Flyers' games so far in 2018-19, allowing two goals in a 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night, and four more in a 5-2 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins reportedly won't seek goaltending assistance from outside the organization in the wake of Matt Murray's latest concussion diagnosis.
"(The) Pens are optimistic that it may not be too long (for Murray to return), but in the meantime, the Pens will not be looking externally for any help," TSN's Bob McKenzie said on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading."
"Casey DeSmith is scheduled to be the starter against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. Tristan Jarry is coming back off (an) injury, DeSmith is ready to play, but for the foreseeable future, as long as Murray is out of the lineup, it's expected to be DeSmith and Jarry."
Rick Nash remains undecided about whether he will play in the NHL again.
The 34-year-old elected to forgo the July 1 signing period and remains an unrestricted free agent due to concussion symptoms that hampered his 2017-18 campaign.
"I miss it; I love the game," Nash said, according to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline. "The game has been my whole life, so it's been a hard adjustment to not show up for training camp, for fitness testing ... it's been really tough.
"But my family is what's most important to me, and I have to get my health in the right spot before I figure out what my plans are, and I don't know when that will be.
"There's a chance I could get healthy, come back, and be great. But there's definitely a chance that I don't."
On Tuesday, rumors surfaced that Nash was going to submit his paperwork to retire. However, Nash's agent, Joe Resnick, gave a statement to TSN's Darren Dreger refuting the claim.
Statement from Joe Resnick, Rick Nash’s agent, addressing speculation: “There is no truth to the tweet that Rick Nash is retiring today. Our position has not changed since July 1.”
Nash has a history of concussions and suffered his latest one as a member of the Boston Bruins on March 17 against the Tampa Bay Lightning after taking a hit from forward Cedric Paquette. Nash subsequently missed the final 12 games of the regular season before returning for the playoffs.
While Nash's career remains up in the air, he admits he's happy he currently has more time to spend with his family.
"I'm in a good place," Nash said. "I'm in the city that I love. I have my kids, they're healthy, and that's No. 1 in my life. Sure I miss it, but I'm more worried about my health and getting back to 100 percent. You can't put a price on that."
Oh, to get inside the head of an Arizona Coyotes player right now.
After losing 105 of 164 games over the last two seasons, the club has failed to score a goal through two contests this year despite peppering the opposition with 133 shot attempts.
"We've got to chill out here," head coach Rick Tocchet told reporters over the weekend following a 1-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. "We played two pretty good games and we can't score right now. It is what it is."
Ronald Martinez / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Tocchet, who is days into his second year behind Arizona's bench, has a point. There are 80 games remaining in the 2018-19 season. Truthfully, as he notes, it is what it is. Early October is a no-panic zone (especially when you're rocking the NHL's finest alternates).
That being said, we're all human, and there's little chance this Coyotes squad isn't at least a bit scarred from what transpired last season. They lost their first 11 games and didn't earn a regulation win until Nov. 16. Ravaged by injury, inexperienced, and skating for an unfamiliar coach, their playoff hopes dissipated within the opening two months.
And now, with the team not only failing to execute but also dealing with injuries to key players and potentially feeling the crush of deja vu, a deep breath is needed. What is really going on in the desert? Are the Coyotes capable of ending their six-year postseason drought? Is this team perpetually doomed or is it actually set up for long-term success?
"I think we're on the right path," president of hockey operations and general manager John Chayka said in a recent interview with theScore. "I like our current team, I like our future team. I like our staff in terms of our scouts, our development team, our medical team, our coaching staff at the AHL and NHL level. Our management group's done a nice job. We have a really robust organization in place and I think we've got a lot of people who bring a lot of innovative, new ideas to the team."
That's the thing about the "growing pains" (Chayka's phrase) the Coyotes have endured of late - the team is taking its lumps amid a substantial rebuild, a time when expectations are tempered and its business-minded boss' top-to-bottom construction job is ongoing.
"We must continue to evolve, continue to go through this process, and day to day get better," said Chayka, who turned 29 in June. "The playoffs is the end result that everyone's after, and that's certainly the goal, but we've got to continue to focus on being better every day. If we can, we're excited about where this group is headed."
The franchise has been gutted and reassembled since Chayka was hired as assistant GM prior to the 2015-16 season. On top of bringing in fresh front-office faces, such as assistant GM and director of scouting Lindsay Hofford and director of hockey ops Jake Goldberg, Chayka has gained a reputation as the NHL's most active GM.
This past offseason alone, he acquired 14 players - including Alex Galchenyuk, Michael Grabner, and Vinnie Hinostroza - while saying goodbye to 12 members of the 2017-18 roster. Chayka, who is peerless in terms of making minor transactions and is also unafraid of the big move, says he's satisfied with the Coyotes' organizational depth.
If you count Chayka's season under ex-GM Don Maloney, the NHL roster looks completely different. As pointed out by Richard Morin of the Arizona Republic, captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson is the lone leftover from the previous regime.
"We're just trying to maximize asset value," Chayka said of his trading habits. "And look, there's a lot of instances where, for whatever reason, it's not working out (for a player) in a certain situation and maybe we have an asset that's not working out in our situation. That's the crux of making a trade."
Norm Hall / National Hockey League / Getty
Chayka, who has an honors degree in business administration from Western University and is the co-founder of Stathletes, a hockey analytics firm, can often sound more like a CEO than a hockey manager. He is a card-carrying member of a new wave of NHL execs driven by curiosity, collaboration, data, and a detail-rich decision-making process.
A prime example of his growth mindset: To widen his knowledge base, Chayka will regularly interact with other heavy hitters from the Phoenix pro sports scene, periodically sitting down with executives from the NBA's Suns, the NFL's Cardinals, and MLB's Diamondbacks.
"A lot of the things we talk about are (based around) logic. If you can understand how it applies to a certain sport, then you can apply that logic to other sports," Chayka explained. "It's nice because we're in different leagues, we're not too worried about (overlapping) competitive advantages."
"You've got to be able to work with those guys and talk with them and bounce ideas off them," he added. "There's different situations - whether it's free agency or dealing with trades or building relationships with players - and we talk a lot about a lot of different things. You try to take those best practices and apply them to your organization."
Sports science is an area in which Chayka, a health nut himself, seems particularly invested. Just last week, the Coyotes announced Mayo Clinic, the powerhouse health care company, has become the team's "official orthopedic provider."
Rest, aging, injury prevention - these are the types of things Mayo has been hired to monitor on a daily basis. Much like his incremental gains approach to swapping player after player, Chayka is searching for any way to maximize player output.
"No matter what we do, every decision is in the mind frame of, 'How do we find a competitive advantage and how do we best utilize our resources to get there?'" Chayka said. "Mayo is a world-class name, best in class in terms of what they do. To be able to partner with them and leverage their resources and the type of people that they have - again, we're trying to find those advantages as best we can. We think they add up to wins."
The timing of the announcement is ironic, with Galchenyuk, the former 30-goal scorer penciled into a top-six center spot; promising blueliner Jakob Chychrun; and Christian Dvorak, who signed a six-year deal in August, all starting the season on injured reserve.
On paper, Arizona's mix-and-match roster is hitting the right notes and, if all goes according to plan over the next 80 games, this collection of talent has an outside chance at contending for a playoff spot. Then again, for all the promise, one can't forget last year's Coyotes finished 30th in goals, 21st in goals against, and had the 26th-ranked power play and 19th-ranked penalty kill despite a strong late-season push. And anything can happen in the wildly unpredictable Pacific Division.
In the short term, the next six games will be a test. Opponents range from decent (Blackhawks, Sabres), to good (Ducks, Wild), to very good (Blue Jackets), to great (Jets). And five of those games are on the road.
That stretch of the schedule won't put anybody's mind at ease, especially given the scoreless start. However, Chayka's optimism and emphasis on the process - on the long-term health of the organization - just might.
"We've got to keep moving down this path," Chayka said. "We've got the ship straightened out and we've got to hit the gas. Hopefully this year we can do it."
John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
