Illegal check to the head.  

Watching the Wings this season has been nothing short of exhausting, so, I'm sure the team as well as the 19 are looking forward to a few days off. No guessing who's in the lineup. No lame excuses for playing badly. Oh, and all the losing. This short break will a nice breather for us all. It's a Live Blog!

Ten saves in total.  

NEW YORK/TORONTO (March 4, 2021) – The NHL, MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL and WNBA today issued the following joint statement: The study published today by JAMA Cardiology is an illustration of the collaboration among medical experts at MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, NFL and WNBA and our respective Players’ Associations over the past year. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have worked more closely together than ever to share lessons learned to ensure the best possible care for players.

NEW YORK (March 4, 2021) – Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for spearing Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic during NHL Game No. 359 in Boston on Wednesday, March 3, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today. The incident occurred at 14:30 of the third period. Ovechkin was assessed a minor penalty for slashing. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. Watch the incident in an earlier KK post.

from Max Bultman and Sara Civian of The Athletic, Early in the 2019-20 season, mere days before the brothers seemed destined to square off for the first time, Evgeny answered a set of 11 questions about his brother for The Athletic. This week, Andrei answered the same 11 about Evgeny. Their responses are a window into their two personalities, their childhood and why the chance to face each other in the NHL would mean so much to them both. What’s his best hockey skill? Evgeny: I would say that his separating with other players is probably skating, but I think also hockey IQ, he’s really smart and he knows how to play in give-and-go and little areas, and cycle the puck, and skill game, but also he has a weapon as a shot and his speed … he takes pucks to the net with his ability to skate, and just … cut to the net. It’s unreal. But also huge competitor, wants to win every single day, wants to be better every day. Crazy, crazy work (ethic). I can go on, but skating can separate him with other players. Andrei: I think he’s got a really good shot, and he can control the puck all game. He can play physical. I feel like we’re kind of similar players, actually. What’s his best quality as a person? Evgeny: Humble. Humble, shyness, respectful. There’s not just one word. But one thing (that) comes in my head, humble and respect(ful), of anything: parents, people around, polite. Just a good kid, man. He’s just a good kid. Andrei: I feel like he’s just a kind person — he’s always going to care about you, he’s always going to ask you if something’s wrong. He’s a culture guy. But obviously he gets a little emotional sometimes (laughter) … He’s gotta work on that a little bit, probably. more Q & A (paid subscription)

via a tweet from Mike Chambers, "I saw him coming off the ice. He was in the hallway. He seems to be doing good. I think that we get lucky on it. Hopefully, he's feeling good and everything tomorrow but as of right now he seems to be fine" -- Jared Bednar on Nathan MacKinnon  

The puck is 30 feet in th air when crossing the blue line.     Alex Ovechkin says hello to Trent Frederic

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet, It was supposed to be a measuring stick, this first-place clash with the division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs. The measuring stick, it seems, may now have to be surgically removed. How badly did it get for the Edmonton Oilers, losers by scores of 4-0, 3-0, and in Wednesday’s finale, 6-1? “They embarrassed us three games in a row. That’s a tough one to swallow,” said defenceman Tyson Barrie, pointless in all three games, like so many others. There isn’t a single element of the sport of hockey that Edmonton can claim to have executed better than Toronto through nine periods of hockey, so thorough was the defeat. Whether it’s a tangible, like winning battles or scoring goals, or intangibles — like heart — the Leafs had more and did it better. As such, everything about this Oilers team is open for question. “It’s very concerning,” said a grave head coach Dave Tippett. “Very concerning that we don’t want to grab the competitive level in a series like this.” continued Game highlights are below.

THREE HARD LAPS * The Capitals earned a shootout win at TD Garden over the Bruins, who welcomed back their former captain.  * The League-leading Maple Leafs earned another win over the Oilers at Rogers Place, extending their road point streak to double digits.   * Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy can extend his lengthy shutout streak in one of 10 games scheduled for tonight.

from Michael Traikos of the National Post, - A year ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning were in a similar position to where Toronto is now. They were cruising along as one of the best teams in the league. But they still went big at the deadline, giving up a pair of first-round draft picks for Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow, then beefed up their blue line with the additions of Zach Bogosian and Luke Schenn. None of those players was among Tampa’s top five in playoff scoring or in its top 10 in ice time. But at some point, each provided the necessary grit that was essential in helping a skilled Lightning team advance past the Blue Jackets, Bruins, Islanders and Stars. If I was Dubas, I’d be looking for something along those lines. The team doesn’t need a winger like Taylor Hall. It doesn’t need more skill or scoring. It needs more blue-collar players like Bogosian and Simmonds. Guys like Nashville defenceman Mattias Ekholm and Calgary forward Sam Bennett. It needs guys that can push back against Boston and Tampa and Vegas. Guys that can help the Leafs go the distance.... - If you’re the Flames, would you trade Johnny Gaudreau and Bennett for Jack Eichel? Better yet, if the Jets would have been willing to wait, could they have traded Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic for Eichel rather than Pierre-Luc Dubois? - In any other year, I’d praise Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen for standing by his coach during a tough stretch for the team. But this isn’t any other year. With John Tortorella on the final year of his contract and with Claude Julien, Gerard Gallant and so many other top coaches available, this is a perfect opportunity to make a change. - After all, if Jeff Skinner could go from scoring 40 goals alongside Eichel to securing an eight-year extension worth $72 million, imagine what the possibilities for a Hart Trophy winner who had never played with a No. 1 centre? It seemed as safe a bet as any. But two months into the season, no one could have wagered this would be happening. The Sabres, who are en route to missing the playoffs for a 10th straight year, are not being led by Hall and Eichel. Instead, Sam Reinhart leads the team with eight goals and Victor Olofsson is tops with 16 points. Hall has one goal and 12 points in 20 games. Eichel has two goals and 15 points. A duo that was supposed to dominate the nightly score sheets and get Buffalo back in the playoffs has been a disaster. more

Both benches stand with stick taps along the boards.  

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News, They came close last season, but Evgeny was sent down to Grand Rapids the day before. Then, in the season opener in January, Evgeny was injured and again headed to the Griffins. “I was hoping both of those times,” Evgeny Svechnikov said after Wednesday’s practice of facing his brother. “It was disappointing for sure. But you can’t control it, and it’s in the past. But it’s very exciting right now and it’ll happen one day. “Tomorrow (Thursday), hopefully.”... “When we got here, to North America, we started realizing it could be reality,” said Evgeny, who talks to his brother after every game, and basically every day. “I came here because I was getting (potentially getting) drafted by the NHL and obviously my brother was following in my footsteps. “We started realizing one day it was going to come.”... The Svechnikovs' parents are back in Russia, and Evgeny talked with his father earlier in the week. “They’re pretty excited, it’s going to be a special day,” Evgeny said. “I told my dad, ‘Can you imagine, it’s been almost 20 years since we have been counting to this day’. “I’m just very proud of my parents, and how much they put it in for us to be in this position, to be trained. I’m very happy for them and how much they’re going to be happy. "They're in Russia (currently) and they watch every game. They'll watch this one for sure."... “I’m human, but I also have a job to do and my job is to put out the 20 guys who give us the best chance to win,” Blashill said. “Evgeny is an awesome person, one of the very best I’ve been around. He’s a great person, and I’m certainly aware of how much that would mean to him (playing against his brother). “But I have to put the 20 best out there.” more

#RedWings Blashill declined to say if Evgeny Svechnikov will play against brother Andrei of Carolina for first time tomorrow, but signs pointing that way. Svechnikov said he skated with Glendening and Helm in practice today. Parents will watch from Russia, 8 hours ahead. — Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) March 3, 2021  

Evason on Parise: "You hope you go forward when something like this happens and hope you can turn it into a positive." — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 3, 2021

Jimmy Howard also joined the show, scroll to the 22 minute mark.  

from Frank Seravalli of TSN, It’s fair to say the NHL is closely monitoring the vaccine distribution in both countries. An especially slow rollout in Canada may mean that Canadian arenas will be empty or operating in limited capacities come October, when the entire league was supposed to ramp up again. “The progression of the vaccine rollout both in the United States and in Canada is going to an important factor in what next season looks like, both competitively and economically,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to TSN on Wednesday. Daly wrote that it was too soon to make any sort of accurate revenue projection for next season, though the NHL has models for different scenarios. But as Daly hinted, Canada’s delayed vaccine rollout could impact everything from revenue to competition, which could include division alignment, travel and trades. “As much as we would like to know more, the fact remains that the landscape continues to evolve and it’s still premature to be making any meaningful predictions for what next season will look like,” Daly wrote. “Certainly, we remain optimistic that our current trajectory toward a more normal business environment will continue and its pace will increase.” more

from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, - It’s a buyer’s market out there. With five weeks until the trade deadline, how many teams are really willing to take on money? Never mind “can” take on money under the cap, but would be willing to do so? The list is not long, and there are many more sellers than buyers. Boston and Philadelphia are eyeing defencemen, although both teams must monitor expansion-draft issues. You don’t want to make that situation worse, unless of course you are trading something that nullifies the problem. Toronto is checking out forwards. Colorado is looking at some options, but I don’t know how high-salaried they would be. One interesting possibility: Minnesota. Unafraid GM and challenging for top spot in the West. - A week ago, the message to the Flames was, “We’ve got to solve our problems ourselves.” GM Brad Treliving is not afraid to look around, but there hasn’t been anything that made sense. Following Monday’s 5–1 defeat in Ottawa, Milan Lucic was spitting fire in defence of head coach Geoff Ward on the Sportsnet 960 post-game radio show with Pat Steinberg. “You hear a lot of outside noise talking about coaching, style of play and all this bullshit,” he said. “But that has nothing to do with the coaches. That has everything to do with the guys that are playing…. We just want it easy on a night-to-night basis. We don’t want to work hard like we did when this coaching staff took over last year.” The simple solution in these situations is to fire the coach — but Ward was given the full-time job on Sept. 14. That’s less than six months ago, and it would be such a rough look. - nother KHL player to keep an eye on: Magnitogorsk defenceman Grigori Dronov. Just turned 23 and may need some AHL time, but there are NHL clubs watching him. much more

Dominik Simon (Cgy), Valterri Filppula (Det) and Mason Geertsen (NYR) on waivers today. Derek Ryan (Cgy) cleared waivers from yesterday — Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 3, 2021

10 of them in 5:19.  

With the help of CapFriendly, it is time for you to list the top 7 defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings at the start of next season. If you choose not to list a player who will still be under contract for the Wings next year, you need to include why he won't be back with the Wings. I'll do the forwards in the coming days.

from Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, 1. Owen Power — LHD, University of Michigan, 6-foot-5 Power’s merits as the No. 1 pick are real. I understand some of the reservations some have with him in this slot. There are worthwhile questions to be asked of the role his size and age (November 2002 in a mostly 2003 age group) have played in his career, from his minor hockey dominance in the GTHL through his two years in the USHL, and to a lesser extent his strong play as a college freshman. There are worthwhile questions to be asked of his decision-making at times and of the work that still needs to be done on his pivots so that he can maximize his length to funnel opposing carriers to the outside a little better. But there’s also so much about Powers’ game that excites that I continue to settle on him as my slight favorite for first in this draft class. In a top group filled with question marks, Power is a towering, mobile, gifted-with-the-puck-laterally, excellent east-west passer with legitimate all-situations upside. Everyone who has worked with him, whether that be skills coaches or staff with the Steel and Wolverines, believes firmly in his first-pairing upside as a tough-matchups defender with real offensive skill. And while his age is noteworthy, he has also played above his age group for each of the last three seasons (his play last year with the Steel would have warranted a top-15 selection). I see a player who is further along today than, say, Moritz Seider was at the same age. Though where a player is going to be picked has no bearing on my evaluations, it’s worth noting that Power is also the most likely of the top draft picks in this class to be picked inside the top three. 2. Kent Johnson — C, University of Michigan, 6-foot-1 more (paid)

from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe, TD Garden will be mostly empty on Wednesday night when Chara returns to Causeway Street for the first time in his post-Bruins career. He will not be greeted by canorous cheers, a packed house welcoming home a franchise legend. No matter what kind of video is played for the television audience, it will not be a proper tribute. It won’t be quite right. That’s fine by Chara. Even though a trip to Boston will never be strictly business, he is here to play two hockey games, his Capitals against the Bruins on Wednesday and Friday. “It’s going to be exciting to be back,” Chara said Tuesday on a Zoom call, before stepping on the practice ice at Warrior Ice Arena. “Obviously, we all wish to have fans at some point — hopefully sooner — at our arenas. They always make the games more exciting. But this time we’re going to have to obviously wait and respect that safety and health is the priority.” On Monday, Chara reunited with his family, which remains at their home in the North End: wife Tatiana; daughter Elliz, who turns 12 next month; and twin boys Ben and Zack, who turn 5 on Saturday. “It was really nice to see them after a long time and be a dad for one day again,” said Chara, who had been with the Capitals since signing for one year and $795,000 on Dec. 30. read on

from Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun, Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question. What’s wrong with the Calgary Flames? Pffft. Let’s start with this one instead … What are the Calgary Flames? After their latest lacklustre loss, after a rollercoaster six-game road-trip with more catapults than climbs, the Flames returned home with an identity crisis. Again. Or maybe still. What are they? The short-term answers are simple. They’re frustrated, as you should be when you’ve been on the wrong end of too many blowouts and just dropped two of three to the basement-dwelling Ottawa Senators, a rebuilding bunch that is suddenly surging but has mostly been a punching bag for the top troupes in the NHL’s North Division. They’re snakebitten, scoring a grand total of one goal in each of their past eight setbacks. They’re so inconsistent that it’s actually become oh-so-predictable. And they’re mediocre. According to their record, that’s actually a smidge generous. continued

The Leafs sit comfortably atop the North Division, so is there anything that they would like to add before the trade deadline? What is Alex Goligoski's status in Arizona? Is John Tortorella's future stable in Columbus? Darren Dreger, Pierre LeBrun and Frank Seravalli discuss this and more. Watch at TSN

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Here is the thing. Given cap constraints, it is essentially an impossibility for the Rangers to accommodate both Eichel, the shiny new apple for which they are at least semi-lusting, and Zibanejad. It will be either/or … or, maybe neither in the not so distant future if the first 20 games are an accurate depiction of what the Swede has become. If Kevyn Adams, Buffalo’s first-year general manager, looks to move his team captain before the April 12 deadline rather than waiting until the offseason, it would be well nigh impossible for the Blueshirts to get in on the action unless they could somehow deal Zibanejad, who owns a full no-move clause. The 24-year-old Eichel, whose season has hardly been a smashing success while surrounded by dysfunction that has been a permanent companion since the Sabres last qualified for the postseason in 2011, has five years left on a contract with a fixed cost of $10 million per. It’s a pricey one, all right, but at least the Rangers — or any acquiring team — won’t have to deal with arbitration or potential free agency for the next half-decade. more

from Ansar Khan of Mlive, Jeff Blashill said something Tuesday that he has not had an opportunity to express after many of his team’s 25 games this season. “I was real happy with Anthony’s game tonight,” Blashill said. By his coach’s estimation, Mantha was one of the few bright spots for the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. continued from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News, Go ahead and blame Tuesday's Red Wings' loss on the retro alternate jerseys. Might as well find something to blame for the 4-1 loss in Columbus. The white jersey, which looked too much like a bland practice jersey to many on social media (and did not go over well), still looked better than the Wings did during long stretches in this game.... "We lost too many individual battles, our puck management was very poor and we got beat up the ice way too much," coach Jeff Blashill said. "As the momentum shifted away from us, we allowed it to let shift away. We didn't have any pushback shifts, and that happens when you turn pucks over and you end up defending. "We were defending the whole time in the second (period) and chasing them and that's no way to play hockey." read on from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

HREE HARD LAPS * Zdeno Chara, already with a goal against his former club this season, is ready to return to Boston for the first time as a member of the Capitals. * Andrei Vasilevskiy became the first goaltender in franchise history to post three straight shutouts and helped the Lightning extend the League’s longest active win streak to five games.   * With fans in their stands for the first time this season, the Blue Jackets and Penguins gave them something to cheer for after skating to wins. 

If you thought Detroit's Reverse Retro Jersey was going to take the team back to the glory years, well you were wrong. Although the Wings had a so-so first period, the score was tied at 1-1. A whole different story in the middle 20.  The Blue Jackets added 3 goals while the Wings only had 4 shots compared to 17 by Columbus. At the start of the third period, Thomas Greiss replaced Jonathan Bernier and did not allow a goal but Detroit failed to score too. Final- Columbus Blue Jackets 4 Detroit Red Wings 1 Detroit goal is below.

Luke Glendening up first and the game highlights are below.  added 10:03pm, below find Mickey Redmond (not game related) and Jeff Blashill.  added 10:13pm, below in one video are Glendening and Blashill.   We hear from Luke Glendening after a rough night for his Red Wings against the Blue Jackets. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/alze7FrFgx — FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) March 3, 2021

MONTREAL - General manager Marc Bergevin announced on Tuesday the appointment of Sean Burke as the director of goaltending for the Canadiens, replacing Stéphane Waite, who held the position since 2013 and was relieved of his duties today. 

For a cross-check.  

I'll keep it simple. The Wings really blew it against the Cawks the other night. To give up five goals in the third period is as bad as it gets. Don't expect much to change, because it's been happening for three plus years now. I know that this isn't exactly the best way to convince 19 stalwart, die hard fans to hangout and watch another game together, but, I cannot tell a lie. I guess we're just a bunch of Wingaholics. No known cure... It's a Live Blog!

Injury updates, Larkin hopefuly back next week, Fabbri a game time decision and more.  

Joe Veleno has shown a lot of skill with his play in the SHL this season. Take a look - pic.twitter.com/BDy73pPKFi — IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) March 2, 2021