Thursday LNN: PWHL Ottawa Breaks Record, Fleury Chasing History, Canada Eliminated and More
Thursday's Edition of the Links, News and Notes
- Fans have been waiting for the PWHL season to start for a very long time and the Ottawa crowd in particular did not disappoint. As the PWHL Ottawa team began their season against Montreal; crowds rushed to buy tickets as soon as they were released. TD Arena welcomed over 8,000 fans last night in what was officially a record for attendance for professional women's hockey. While Montreal won the game in OT, fans left feeling excited and proud after a fantastic display of skill and hope for the future of women's hockey.
- Last Sunday, Marc-Andre Fleury reached the elusive milestone of 1,000 games in the Wild's loss against the Winnipeg Jets. Now, he is seeking a more prestigious record and that is tying Patrick Roy in second most winning goalie in NHL history. While he was hoping to get it against the Flames on Tuesday, the three-time Cup winner will have to wait to hit that mark.
- Speaking of record, Connor McDavid is a 900-point player and only 4 players have ever done it faster than he has (Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Peter Stastny). It doesn't seem like we'll be waiting for long to see him grab that 1000 point.
- Team Canada vs Team Czechia; a battle that seems to haunt Canadians on ever international level of hockey. This year, it hit the Canadian World Juniors team as they were eliminated in the quarter finals. As always, the analysis of what went wrong and who is to blame probably went too far considering the age and experience of these players. This is a great tournament to watch, it bring fans together, it gives the young players a taste of the high pressure games and it gives us all an outlook of prospects from around the world. However, Canada isn't always going to win and placing an unreasonable amount of pressure on teenagers will not do anyone any good at this point.
- If you have not had the chance to hear it yet, I recommend you give this interview with Jacques Martin on TSN1200 a listen. The newly minted Head Coach was very honest with his frustration with the team.
