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Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Apparently, all we needed to do to wake up the sleeping Panther kitties was to reunite the Tkachuk brothers in the Sunshine state (even if one was only visiting) and to tell Linus Ullmark that he was back with the 2020 Buffalo Sabres. Our favorite Swedish goalie, whose name rhymes with a giggle-worthy body part, had one of the roughest starts of his career in Florida on Tuesday night.  Florida struck with pointed claws just 63 seconds into the game, and Mr. Ullmark was yanked after allowing 5 goals on just 16 shots. Oh, Linus.  It was a kick in the stomach for a surging Sens squad, who found themselves out of a wild-card spot by just two points when they started the day. By the end of the night, Ullmark and the rest of his Senators brethren were on the wrong side of a 6-3 loss to the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Matthew Knies (2 G, +1, 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 2 H) is one of the only bright spots shining on the sinking ship that is the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season. His second-period shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty. Knies intercepted a weak Bruins pass, pushed aside Mason Lohrei, who looked a lot less powerful than his 6’5” frame would suggest, like an empty paper plate, and threw a nifty head fake on Jeremy Swayman before roofing a nice lickety-split wrister over the netminder’s glove. As much as this was a nice opportunity for the Bruins to pad their lead over Columbus, Montreal, and Detroit in the extremely tight playoff race, this tiny snapshot in time was an equally important reminder for Leaf fans that the team needs to do a lot of other “retooling or rebuilding” that DOES NOT involve trading their 23-year-old sniper.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! I can say that I’m glad I didn’t take a sick day last Friday to watch the “excitement-challenged” trade deadline unfold the way that it did. I suppose for something to unfold, it would have needed to be packaged up neatly to begin with. All that means is the asking prices were far too high on the “sellers” pieces, and the buyers were not willing to pay them. Nicolas Roy for a conditional first-round pick? No thanks. Corey Perry for a second-rounder? Wow.  Is there ANY Perry worth that kind of premium?
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Well, fantasy baseball drafts are in full swing (pun relatively unintended), and I’m knee deep in preparations and writing for those. And I’ve been sick for three days. But…HOCKEY IS BACK! And I’m pretty excited to have an 11-game schedule of matchups to run down for y’all on the last Tuesday night of games before the Friday afternoon trade deadline. As for more names on the trade block? Well, I can guarantee this guy isn't going anywhere.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! The Olympics are finally done. And I guess nothing too exciting happened, so let’s not waste any time digging into that stuff… Oops. Wrong image. Ok. I didn’t think we’d be able to get around that one. Before we get into names to consider for the final 25 games and the race to the playoffs, a quick recap of Olympic play is in order. First, congratulations to Team Canada for their clean sweep of SILVER in Italy!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! We’re smack-dab in the middle of Olympic chaos, and Wednesday’s playoff round looks like a doozy. I’m not even sure which game I’m looking forward to watching more: David Pastrnak vs Team Canada or the Swedish berries/fish/meatballs vs Team USA. Luckily, we don’t have to look into too much of that for right now, because it’s time to pair up last week’s trade deadline preview with the other side of the league. If you missed it last week, you can click the link here…
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It’s your favorite Hockey Dad back for a special edition during our Olympic hockey break! I told Viz that I was up for putting together a bit of a trade deadline piece for each conference while the NHL was on its hiatus, and he was up for it, so here we are. Today, I’ll go over all that there is to consider for the Eastern Conference Trade Deadline rumor mill. Next week, we’ll head West to do the same thing for our Pacific pals. Are there teams that have cap space to add to their roster? Which teams have holes to fill due to injuries or ineffectiveness?  Who could use a boost to the power play, penalty kill, or defense corps? Which clubs are looking to add depth players, a top 6 scoring threat, or a bottom 6 grinder to eat up some minutes? I broke the Eastern Conference into three groups:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! With just 7 games on tap, it was a shorter schedule than usual for our final Tuesday night before the Olympic break.  But that didn’t stop a certain Carolina Hurricanes goalie from saying "neato," checking his libido, and heading to the rink in a new tuxedo. Brandon Bussi - 22 saves on 25 shots and the 4-3 win vs OTT - did his best 1989 pop-rap impression and Busted a serious Move at home against the Ottawa Senators. Hopefully, you listened to Viz and me when we said to add Bussi anywhere and everywhere you could, when it looked like he was playing himself into extra time in the Canes’ crease.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It was a night to remember for the Sabres and their franchise defenseman on Tuesday night. Rasmus Dahlin scored one in the first, one in the second, and then finished off the hat trick with an empty-netter in the third. The 3 goals and 2 assists were a career high single-game output for the 25-year-old Swede, and brought his point total up to a robust 42 PTS in 48 GP.  It wasn’t all Dahlin, though, as the rest of the Sabres brought their scoring sticks with them on their trip North of the border. Tage Thompson (1G, 1 A), Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn, and newly extended Josh Doan all tickled the twine for the Sabres, and helped to extend their newest win streak to 4 games. 
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It was an 8-game schedule, so a bit lighter than usual, to peek in on Tuesday night. But that didn’t stop Wyatt Johnston (1 G [26], 3 SOG, his league-leading 16th PPG) and the rest of the Stars from feasting on a steady diet of bear paws on home ice. Jeremy Swayman (19-12-1-1) faced 32 shots on goal…before the third period started. Oh boy. The B’s defense corps looked like they were late to the opening faceoff in this one, then spent the rest of the game spinning in circles trying to figure out which way was up. The 6-2 Dallas win snapped a 3-game losing streak for the Stars and pushed Dallas’ record to 3-5-2 in its last 10 games. 
It was another 10-game schedule on tap for Tuesday night’s NHL action!  And no one had a better night than the Boston Bruins’ netminder, Jeremy Swayman - 24 saves on 24 shots and the 3-0 shutout vs Detroit.  Swayman’s GAA (2.38) and save percentage (.919) over his last 5 games are as solid as it comes, and were good enough to give him a 4-1 record since New Year’s Eve. With an 18-11-1-1 season line, Swayman is sitting third overall in wins (behind Karel Vejmelka, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Andrei Vasilevskiy). The shutout was his first of the year, but second in two games for the B’s.