A video was posted to the internet Monday that shows seven members of the Ottawa Senators (Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Alex Formenton, Thomas Chabot, Dylan DeMelo, Colin White, and Chris Tierney) riding in an Uber while in Arizona for a recent road trip. During their ride, they can be heard mocking members of the team's coaching staff, including assistant coach Martin Raymond, while criticizing their off-ice video sessions and poor penalty kill.
Oh boy. This video of @Senators players (Wideman, Duchene, Tierney, Chabot, DeMelo, Formenton) talking trash about their coaching staff and roster is definitely not pretty. #GoSensGopic.twitter.com/nyO0ZtupJE
"Marty Raymond, the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power play and the worst PK within a calendar year," forward Matt Duchene says in the video, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
From there, defenseman Chris Wideman adds: "Do you notice that when (Raymond) runs the video, if you actually do pay attention, he doesn't ever teach you anything. He just commentates what's happening."
Duchene responds: "Here's the other thing, too. We don't change anything, ever. So why do we even have a meeting? I haven't paid attention in three weeks."
The original video, which was posted on Youtube and Twitter but has since been taken down, looks to have been recorded with a dash camera without the players' knowledge.
General manager of Uber Canada Rob Khazzam tweeted Monday night that the released video was in violation of the terms of service and that the company worked to have the video taken down.
Filming or recording passengers without their consent is totally unacceptable and if reported / detected we will investigate + take action to preserve our communities privacy and integrity. In this specific case, we made efforts to have the video taken down.
The Senators' three-game road trip from Oct. 26-30 saw the club drop all three games to the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, and Arizona Coyotes. The team has gone 5-6-3 in 14 games this season, leaving it three points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Lemieux was given a match penalty after he caught Trocheck up high in the second period of Friday's game in Finland.
Trocheck appeared shaken up but remained in the game.
In the video explanation of the decision, the league emphasized that Trocheck's head was the main point of contact, and "the head contact on this hit was avoidable."
Lemieux had no history of supplemental discipline before this ruling.
The Flyers also placed backup goalie Michal Neuvirth on injured reserve Monday in a move retroactive to Oct. 30. He can't play Monday but could return as soon as Thursday, when Philadelphia is scheduled to play Arizona again, this time at home.
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said on Monday that he thinks Neuvirth is about four days away from returning, according to the Courier-Post's Dave Isaac.
Philadelphia recalled Alex Lyon from its AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, in a corresponding move.
Calvin Pickard is expected to start Monday night. He gave up four goals on 35 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and has an .851 save percentage across four appearances this season.
The Flyers have the worst save percentage in the NHL so far during the 2018-19 season, according to Hockey Reference.
The left winger told reporters, including NHL.com's Mike Zeisberger, on Monday that he holds "no hard feelings" toward Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin or the club. Pacioretty was dealt to Vegas in September in exchange for forward Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki, and a 2019 second-round pick.
"Hey, P.K. (Subban) was traded so anything can happen," Pacioretty added, referring to the blockbuster Subban-for-Shea Weber swap that the Canadiens and Nashville Predators swung in summer 2016.
Pacioretty, the Canadiens' former captain, practiced at full contact on Monday for the first time since suffering an injury that's forced him to miss the Golden Knights' last four games.
Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said he isn't sure if Pacioretty will play on Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun. After that game, the Golden Knights face the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, and then the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday.
I asked Max Pacioretty after practice here in Toronto how many ticket requests he’s had already for Saturday in Montreal and he joked he’s keeping his phone off so his credit card won’t get maxed out.
Bryson DeChambeau isn't a hockey player, but he apparently has no problem playing through an injury to win a title.
The PGA golfer fired a final-round 66 on Sunday to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open by one stroke. However, he did that after hurting his hand while being the Vegas Golden Knights' guest on Saturday night during their win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Following his victory on Sunday, DeChambeau told reporters he injured his right hand while winding up the air horn at T-Mobile Arena during the second intermission.
"I ripped part of my hand off, which is nice,” he told reporters, via Golf Channel's Ryan Lavner. DeChambeau added that his blister was “a little bigger than dime size.”
DeChambeau said he was "freaking out" Sunday morning before the final round and tried applying a skincare product, but the wound dried up and cracked.
“I’m like, Wow, I’m really in some doo-doo; not in a good place,” he said.
He eventually tried using moisturizer and received further medical attention from the on-site trainers at the course, allowing him to swing mostly without discomfort.
“I gave that thing a whirl and got the crowd pumped up for the third (period) and (the Golden Knights) went on to win, so, more power to them, and more power to me, I guess.”
Every Monday, theScore will offer a weekly fantasy hockey column detailing five moves you should make. Ownership percentages (as of Nov. 4) and position eligibility are courtesy of Yahoo.
Trade for a Ducks player
The most frustrating part about setting your weekly fantasy hockey lineup is having too many players in action on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but nearly vacant lineups the other four days. Trading for an Anaheim Ducks player can help mitigate this.
The Ducks have 44 games left on non-busy days, which is six more than any other team in the league. If you can acquire a Ducks player for someone evenly matched on, say, the Blue Jackets, Kings, Canadiens, or Lightning (all of which have a league-low 20 games remaining on non-busy days), it could go a long way to helping you win your weekly matchups.
Up until Saturday, drafting Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros in your keeper league looked like a shrewd move. With Pekka Rinne's contract set to expire after the season, it seemed as though Saros would take over starting duties in the Music City next year. However, Rinne inked a two-year extension on Saturday, stripping Saros of all of his fantasy value.
Believe in the Islanders goalie tandem
Lehner: 45 percent Greiss: 28 percent
The New York Islanders were a historically bad defensive team a year ago, and their goaltending tandem of Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss had virtually no fantasy value. However, both Greiss and offseason acquisition Robin Lehner have been sensational this year, and it doesn't appear to be a fluke.
Head coach Barry Trotz, a noted defensive guru, has brought some much-needed structure to the Islanders, and his goaltenders are reaping the benefits. Keep in mind, Trotz has made goalies such as Dan Ellis and Chris Mason fantasy relevant in the past, so it's not too far-fetched to believe Greiss and Lehner can maintain their strong play.
If both are available and you only have room to add one, Lehner is likely the safer bet. If you own Greiss and Lehner, hang on to both until one of them establishes himself as the No. 1 guy.
Vrana has found himself on the Capitals top line next to Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, so it's safe to say the speedster is in a great position to put up points. But more importantly, the Caps play four games this week, and all four contests come on non-busy game days, so you'll be able to get him in your starting lineup each night he plays.
Pick up Josh Anderson
Team: Blue Jackets Position: RW Ownership: 29 percent
Anderson has seven goals this season, and five points in his last six games. The hulking winger may not be a household name, but there's reason to believe that his production is no fluke.
He ranks fourth in the NHL in individual scoring chances per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. This has been a consistent theme throughout his career, as he's generated chances at a high rate in each of the past two seasons. After all, he scored at a 25-goal pace last season, but was limited to 63 games.
The only concern is that Anderson's ice time is down roughly three minutes per game compared to a year ago, but if he continues to fill the net, head coach John Tortorella will have no choice but to reward him with more playing time.
If it wasn’t already, the clock is officially ticking on this iteration of the Los Angeles Kings.
Head coach John Stevens, fired Sunday morning by general manager Rob Blake, has taken the fall for a 4-8-1 squad sitting last in offense and 23rd in defense a month into the 2018-19 NHL season. (Don Nachbaur, one of Stevens' handpicked assistants, was also fired.)
Promoted to his post in April 2017 following the dismissal of longtime bench boss Darryl Sutter, Stevens made it through only 13 games of his second season. For perspective, it took until the end of the 2017-18 regular season before a coach (the Rangers' Alain Vigneault) lost his job. November firings just don't happen often.
So, why now? On a conference call, Blake emphasized the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup champions have struggled with emotional investment since training camp, and the sluggish attitude had to be addressed "immediately." As is tradition, the coach is the first one out the door.
Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images
Willie Desjardins, who led Team Canada at the Pyeongchang Olympics following three years behind the Canucks bench, has been tabbed as the interim head coach. According to Blake, the "interim" period for Desjardins spans the rest of the regular season and, if successful, possibly longer.
"You know, right from the start of camp, we’ve been keeping an eye on the team and it hasn’t gone the way expected it to and we haven’t played the way we expected to," Blake said Sunday afternoon, 15 days after the club held a closed-door meeting withoutStevens.
"Fast forward here today, I think what Willie will bring, what we want to bring back is we’ve got to get the compete level up on our players and we’ve got to get the passion back in our game and we expect fully that he can right that and take us in that direction."
Desjardins, 61, will be joined by new assistant Marco Sturm next week, once the ex-NHL forward finishes up his duties with the German national team. The Kings will continue to employ assistant Dave Lowry and goalie coach Bill Ranford.
The players, meanwhile, are not off the hook. If anything, the pair of firings amid a seven-game homestand serve as a warning of sorts. "The evaluation going forward continues," Blake said.
Icon Sportswire / Getty
This is where the situation gets tricky for L.A.’s brain trust, because relieving Stevens of his duties does not solve the recent Western Conference titan’s primary issues.
It doesn’t make the second-oldest roster in the NHL any younger. Nor does it rid the Kings of their continued struggle to play even remotely fast, a matter which is on display seemingly every time they take the ice and was underlined this past spring over the course of their first-round playoff loss to the speed-happy Golden Knights.
After inking 35-year-old sniper Ilya Kovalchuk to a three-year deal but doing little else to beef up, the hockey world seemed hot and cold on the Kings heading into camp. Kovalchuk would help their scoring woes, the typical line of thinking went, but, man, that lineup screams average. Split the difference and L.A. was a projected fringe playoff team in a top-heavy Pacific Division.
So far, the Kings have been a mess at even strength - with and without the puck - and mediocre on special teams. Goalie Jonathan Quick is out indefinitely to recover from knee surgery. And losses to three rebuilding clubs (the Islanders, Sabres, and Senators) could really sting down the stretch.
Making matters worse, the attack, led by premier center Anze Kopitar and all-world blue-liner Drew Doughty, is having a hell of a time penetrating the middle of the ice. It turns out that not only are the Kings old and slow, they’re also easy to tame.
Below are two heat maps illustrating 5-on-5 shot volume and location. The Pittsburgh Penguins, tied with the Washington Capitals for first in goals per game heading into Sunday's slate of NHL games, are shown first. The Kings, 31st in goals per game, are second. Red is good, blue is bad.
Basically nothing but blue in front of the goalmouth and in the slot area for the Kings. It’s no wonder L.A. ranks 29th in all-situations shooting percentage, converting on just 7.5 percent of their 371 shots on goal.
Perhaps, like Blake said, this team has a serious compete problem. Not just in regards to penetrating the middle of the ice; a general compete problem. However, it is surely not the lone factor sending the Kings down a path of irrelevance. Now on their third coach since winning the 2014 Cup, they are in danger of missing the playoffs for the third time in five years.
The roster, first and foremost, is in need of major reconstruction. While Doughty and Kopitar are locked up for nine and six years, respectively, a healthy Jeff Carter is still a force, and the prospect pool is solid, the list of long-term positives is a short one.
Eleven players remain from the 2014 team, with nine over the age of 27. It may be time to finally pull the plug on this group and press the refresh button, signaling a semi-rebuild. It's up to Blake to determine if that's the prudent play.
Some of the work will be done organically, thanks to a few expiring contracts. As for the rest, if he's truly motivated to move on from the old guard, Blake will be forced to get creative (see: term and money still owed to Dion Phaneuf, Dustin Brown, others).
The Desjardins era begins Tuesday when the Kings host the Anaheim Ducks. How different will the coaching staff and lineup look next Nov. 6?
Tick. Tock.
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
The news came at a tough time for the Ducks as the team had dropped seven straight games, but they did prevail in overtime against the Blue Jackets on Sunday night.
Anaheim has found it difficult to find the back of the net, ranking 29th in goals per game. Getzlaf has been the team's most constant producer, putting up 10 points in just nine contests this season.
