Canada Wins Gold, and Some Other Less Important Stuff too!

Welcome to the Golden Edition of Links, News, and Notes! Canada got to celebrate a great victory on Wednesday night, and a few other things happened around the NHL, I suppose.

• Team Canada prevailed 3-2 over the USA in the gold medal final for women’s hockey last night. It was a heck of a game in which Canada never trailed, racing out to a 3-0 lead in the second period, but was nonetheless thrilling until the last second. You may not be surprised to learn that Marie-Philip Poulin scored two goals, including the game winner. She now has three (!) game-winning goals in gold medal games, and seven across her four appearances.
• Speaking of Poulin, Ryan Dixon and Kristina Rutherford put together a great oral history of the one they call “Pou”. Lots of fun anecdotes in there, but the part that probably stuck with me the most were all the glowing reviews of her leadership style; particularly how inclusive and kind she is to every player. When your captain, and best player, carries themselves in such a way as to really make everyone feel like they are important and valued, you’re going to get the best out of your players.
• Meanwhile, Sarah Nurse set a new Olympic record with 18 points — breaking the mark set by Hayley Wickenheiser in 2006. Not bad for someone who started the tournament on the fourth line.
• Jack Eichel made his long-awaited debut for the Vegas Golden Knights, but they were shut out 2-0 by the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. I’m desperately for those two teams to go at it for a full seven game series this spring.
• In other Vegas-adjacent news, it appears likely that Chicago will attempted to trade Marc-Andre Fleury before the deadline. They’ve been a pretty big disappointment this year, and with Fleury set to be a UFA at season’s end, it seems reasonable to presume they’ll look to move him. There had been rumours that the Golden Knights might be interested in a potential reunion, but Kelly McCrimmon shot that down:/

GM Kelly McCrimmon on a potential Marc-Andre Fleury reunion: “There is absolutely no credence to that rumor at all. I wouldn’t normally speak (officially) on such things, but there will be so much racket about this, it’s important to let people know that’s not going to happen.”

— David Schoen 🗞🏒 (@DavidSchoenLVRJ) February 15, 2022

• In other trade deadline news, it would appear that the Habs are indeed in a full firesale mode. Everything must go! Great deals to be had! Our team stinks!
• As you may have heard, Sidney Crosby notched his 500th goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
• Former Ottawa Senator, and all-around good guy, Mark Borowiecki inked a 1 year extension with the Nashville Predators on Tuesdays.
• Lastly with Jaromir Jagr turning fifty this week (boy does that make me feel old), Josh Yohe has a fun, if sometimes jarring, retrospective of his career over at the Athletic. /