Seattle’s Surge, Gold for Canada, Voting for Stützle, and more!

Links, news, and notes to start off your Monday morning!

• The Seattle Kraken are the hottest team in the league right now, winning eight straight games, with the last seven of them being on the road. They’re up to a record of 26-12-4, putting them 1st in the Pacific and 7th in the NHL in points percentage. What’s insane is that they’re doing this without any players at a point-per-game and Martin Jones sits at an .895 SV% while Philipp Grubauer is even worse at .885%. I don’t think that can last very long, but they’ve been a fun story.
• Team Canada won gold once again at the U18 Women’s World Championships, as they routed Sweden 10-0 in the final. Caitlin Kramer led the way, and her 10 goals in the tournament broke the previous record set by Marie-Philip Poulin. Here’s one of her highlight reel goals:/

🇨🇦FIRST GOAL OF THE GAME🇨🇦

Caitlin Kraemer puts @HockeyCanada in the lead!#U18WomensWorlds pic.twitter.com/PGq1ZwZRe2

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) January 15, 2023

• When the NHL is essentially being called “too woke”, maybe you’re on the wrong side of things...Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is reportedly upset at the NHL hosting a job fair in Fort Lauderdale where minorities were encouraged to apply. As we all know, there aren’t nearly enough white men in the NHL:/

It appears the NHL has gotten into a conflict with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The NHL was scheduled to host a job fair in Florida calling for diverse candidates from underrepresented groups to apply, which DeSantis called "discriminatory prohibitions."

— Ian Kennedy (@IanKennedyCK) January 15, 2023

It’s incredibly sickening to see someone abuse his power like that, because how dare minorities get positions that have historically never been available to them.

• The NHL fan vote’s Twitter portion ended at 11:59pm Saturday night, with tons of Ottawa Senators fans trying to get Tim Stützle into the game. Fans can still vote on the NHL website  until 11:59 on Tuesday night. Stützle had a ton of votes on Twitter, so there’s actually a chance that he ends up going to the All-Star game, which would be fantastic to see.
• Speaking of Stützle, Ian Mendes had a great profile ($) on his rise to becoming a “superstar” in the minds of players on the Senators.
• Former Vancouver Canucks fan favourite Gino Odjick has passed away at the age of 52. Odjick was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis in 2014, which has always been terminal. He was an enforcer who was beloved by fans and teammates, as he played 605 games and amassed a whopping 2567 PIMs while sticking up for stars on his team. He was raised in the Kitigan Zibi First Nation, and was an inspiration for many Indigenous hockey players. Although he is gone, his legacy certainly lives on.
• The Boston Bruins extended centre Pavel Zacha with a 4-year contract and a $4.75M AAV. He was traded from the New Jersey Devils in the off-season and has found a good home in Boston while putting up 25 points in 42 games plus providing elite defense. The AAV stands out for someone who has a career-high of 35 points, but he’s thriving under Jim Montgomery’s system.
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th goal of the season already on Saturday, which gives him 17 seasons with at least 30. That ties him with Mike Gartner for the most 30-goal seasons all-time. Considering the lack of aging we’re seeing with Ovi, it’ll be hard to see how he doesn’t break that record next season. Also I’m not sure if I ever would’ve guessed for hours that Gartner was the one who had this record.
• And last, but certainly not least, our own Beata has started a new podcast called Elite Sens Brain. Check out the debut episode here!/