News Clips Dec. 1-3, 2018

Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: John Tortorella eager to see renovated Nassau Coliseum PAGE 04: Columbus Dispatch: Defenseman Ryan Murray tempers expectations as veteran PAGE 06: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets 4, Wild 2: Five Takeaways PAGE 09: The Athletic: Oliver Bjorkstrand vs. — Blue Jackets will let high- potential youngsters fight it out for playing time PAGE 11: Columbus Dispatch: Islanders 3, Blue Jackets 2: Second-period lead erased as Islanders rally PAGE 13: Columbus Dispatch: Islanders 3, Blue Jackets 2: Second-period lead erased as Islanders rally PAGE 14: The Athletic: Blue Jackets await word on foot injury to valuable defenseman Ryan Murray PAGE 17: Columbus Dispatch: Islanders 3, Blue Jackets 2: Five takeaways

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects PAGE 20: The News-Herald: 'Try Hockey for Free' with the Dec. 15 or Feb. 10 PAGE 21: The Athletic: On the Blue Jackets farm: professional Mark Letestu, progressing and pondering Paul Bittner

NHL/Websites PAGE 25: AP: To 32 and beyond: may not be end of NHL expansion PAGE 27: AP: NHL Board of Governors to vote on Seattle expansion PAGE 29: Seattle Times: More than the Metropolitans: Ahead of NHL vote, a comprehensive Seattle hockey history

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John Tortorella eager to see renovated Nassau Coliseum

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – November 30, 2018

John Tortorella has a lot of memories of coaching in Nassau Veterans War Memorial Coliseum, which after its long-overdue renovation is now called NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum.

The Blue Jackets will play the New York Islanders on Saturday night in the first NHL regular-season game there since the building closed for its makeover in 2015.

Tortorella is eager to see the visiting coaches’ office.

“I’m anxious to see the renovations,” he said Friday. “I hope they put … in the coaches room, instead of a 40-watt bulb (I hope) they maybe put in a 75-watt bulb, because you can’t see in there. You couldn’t see. So, I’m hoping to see that. That’s all I’m looking forward to, is what type of wattage is in there.”

He said it with a chuckle, because those who have played or coached in the Coliseum have a similar story, or two. Tortorella coached there a lot when he was with the from 2008 to ’13, experiencing one of hockey’s fiercest rivalries.

“When you coach with the Rangers and you go to the Coliseum, it’s like nothing else,” he said. “No other team can experience that. … I was very fortunate to spend the years I did in New York, to be involved in some great games there. So, I’m thrilled with going there to play.”

It beats playing the Islanders at the Barclay Center, which was built in Brooklyn to house the Nets of the NBA.

Islanders fans never took to it, and there’s an entire end-zone section where the seats don’t offer a view of the net below. The renovated Coliseum is quaint, shrunk down to just under 14,000 seats, but it probably will be loud and festive nonetheless.

“Hopefully, it’ll be a great atmosphere,” Tortorella said. “I believe it will be. To me, there’s much more atmosphere there than the Barclay Center.”

Cam Atkinson, who grew up a Rangers fan in Connecticut, is also eager to get back into the Coliseum.

“I’m curious to see how it is,” he said. “Hopefully, they renovated the locker rooms and the showers, because those were terrible, but it’s going to be cool to get back in there. Just the history alone will be cool.”

Duclair back on the ice

Anthony Duclair practiced Friday after missing Wednesday while “nicked up,” and then sitting out the Jackets’ 4-2 win Thursday against Minnesota.

Tortorella said Duclair’s position at right wing on the third line is up for grabs between him and Oliver Bjorkstrand, who skated there against the Wild.

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“I’m 100 percent now, so I’m good,” said Duclair, who has eight goals and 12 points. “I’m not competing against anyone. I’m just going to practice, working hard, doing the best I can and once I get the opportunity to get back in, I’ve got to make sure I do everything possible to stay in there.”

He acknowledged that sitting out could add extra motivation.

“You never want to sit out, not only myself but anybody else here,” Duclair said. “It sucks sitting out, so that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Fourth-line dogs howling

The fourth line of Lukas Sedlak, and Markus Hannikainen has grown into a unit Tortorella trusts to send over the boards more often.

Last season, that was an issue. He stuck with the top three lines the majority of the time and didn’t feel comfortable enough to roll all four of his forward lines. Recently, he has played the fourth line about 10 minutes a game and they’ve responded, including goals by Hannikainen and Nash against the Wild.

(Nash) is very well positioned for a couple of guys, with Sedzy and Hanni,” Tortorella said. “They understand positioning, but they’re a dog on a bone. They’re chasing things around and sometimes Nasher has to read, so I think he’s done that from the get-go here. Now, they score two goals (Thursday) night. That’s huge.”

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Defenseman Ryan Murray tempers expectations as veteran

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – November 30, 2018

Ryan Murray has an outlook on professional hockey that hasn’t always been his take.

Not long ago, the Blue Jackets defenseman was a 20-year old NHL rookie, selected second overall in 2012 with the typical expectations that came along with it. Others expected him to become a star and franchise pillar. In turn, he expected to just get a regular role sooner rather than later.

To put it simply, he was just a kid like any of the young guys flying around NHL rinks. Still only 25, Murray has grown into somewhat of a grizzled veteran by the NHL’s new standards. He doesn’t expect anything anymore, because he plans to earn it.

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“I don’t think you ever get anywhere in this league,” said Murray, who has carved out a key role as one of the Jackets’ most stable defensemen. “I think it’s all rented time. It’s all borrowed time. And I always think of it as, you know, they invite you to play and the is to keep getting invited back.”

Murray got invited back last summer by the Blue Jackets, who signed the restricted free agent to a one- year contract extension that, barring a long-term extension agreed to this season, will again make him a restricted free agent in July.

That might be a little surprising, given where he was drafted and what he has done in the stretches where he has remained healthy. It becomes more understandable, though, when you take into account his injury history — which by no fault of his own is more extensive than he would probably care to recall.

He has had broken bones, a knee injury and, last season, a back issue that kept him out most of the season. Murray and the Blue Jackets, though, have reached a point where they’re sizing up each other — determining whether to continue their relationship long-term.

Murray isn’t getting caught up in it. His new outlook on life as a hockey player is the reason.

“If they ask you to play or they put you on the ice, whatever it is, you make sure that it’s you out there, you know?” he said. “It’s not about going out there and trying to impress anybody or trying to do too much or too little. It’s about staying clear and focused, and just playing hockey the way you know how. I think that’s the most important thing.”

It was around this time last season that Murray injured his back in Montreal, a lingering issue that drove him and coach John Tortorella nuts. That’s probably why he is keeping a narrow focus now, despite being off to another strong start with 13 points on a goal and 12 assists in the first 25 games.

“It’s easy when you’re given opportunities and people want you to just go out and play,” Murray said Thursday before a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild at Nationwide Arena. “If the reins are put on you or you’re not getting the ice time you want, or things just aren’t going the way you want, the worst thing

4 that you can ever do is overcompensate or hesitate because you’re worried something is going to happen or you’re trying to force something to happen. It’s just the worst way to go about it.”

That is something he has learned as an NHL player, so he is taking the opposite approach, even amid a season when things are going pretty well for him, as his 13 points on a goal and 12 assists in the first 25 games would attest.

“No matter what happens, it’s just going to be me out there whether I’m successful or unsuccessful.” Murray said. “It’s not going to be me trying to do too much or too little. You just do what you believe in and you act however you feel is right. Some nights you’re right and some nights you’re wrong, so you just fix the wrong and enjoy the good. And that’s it.”

Simple as that?

The short answer is yes. He is focused on being himself and how that can help the Blue Jackets. Maybe that’s a coping mechanism, but it might just be who he is — as a person and player.

“There’s just so much surrounding it,” Murray said of the NHL lifestyle. “You have the media, you have contracts, you have all this stuff that’s just surrounding the game, and it’s crazy. But the main fabric is that it’s still the same game. You can’t forget that. Everything else, you have to let your agent do his job, you have to let the coaches do their jobs and you have to let the GMs do their jobs. When you do that, what you’re left with is, ‘What am I going to do?’ because a lot of it is out of your control.”

What he’s doing is just playing good, solid hockey. He no is longer looking to leave a good impression on anybody. He just wants another invitation.

“The more you try to control things you can’t, I think you get into that hesitating and compensating mindset, where you’re trying to control outcomes you can’t control,” Murray said. “It’s just not worth your time.”

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Blue Jackets 4, Wild 2 | Five Takeaways

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – November 30, 2018

They’re staying above the puck, checking, scoring goals in bunches and, by far, the Blue Jackets are playing their best hockey.

Their 4-2 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at Nationwide Arena was one of their best overall performances, for a number of reasons, but we’re saying that more often.

They keep improving and it showed against a team from the touted Central Division that had the same, exact record as Columbus. The Blue Jackets (15-8-2) are one-up in wins now on the Wild (14-9-2) and the reasons are multiple.

Sergei Bobrovsky has transformed back into his best regular-season self. Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Cam Atkinson are unstoppable on certain nights – and it’s happening more often, including Thursday.

The Jackets are also getting strong offensive presence from their defensemen and goal-scoring from all forward lines.

“We’ve had a lot of depth scoring,” said defenseman Zach Werenski, who tacked another assist onto his season ledger of 15 points (four goals). “Look at tonight, we had two goals by our fourth line. Our scoring’s been spread throughout the whole lineup. Whenever that happens, you’re a hard team to beat.”

They proved it by defeating another hard team to beat, handily. Here are five takeaways from the Jackets’ impressive win:

1) What a relief

Riley Nash had reached the point where he was cracking jokes at his own expense. What else was there to do in the middle of a 24-game dry spell in his first season with a new team?

“I was joking that after I had my first scrap, I’d turned into a fighter instead of a player,” he said Wednesday, referring to his first career fight in the NHL on Nov. 10 against New York Rangers. “Maybe I should start fighting more, I don’t know. It’ll come, though, and if it’s five (goals), if it’s 10, if it’s 15, whatever it is ... hopefully they’re important goals and they come in big situations.”

How about a game-winner? That counts as a big situation, right?

That’s exactly how Nash finally broke through the invisible seal seemingly covering the net only when he’s shot the puck. Nash has sent pucks off crossbars, posts, goalie skates, goalie paddles, goalie stick knobs ... you name it.

The hex ended Thursday, though, at 4:34 of the second period. Nash cut quickly between the circles, redirected a pass from Werenski past Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk and gave the Blue Jackets a 3-1 lead.

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“I thought it was coming 20-something games ago,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to keep plugging away and it’s going to happen sooner or later, you hope – sooner hopefully than later. You can’t get frustrated by it, though.”

2) Another game, another goal

The other side of the spectrum is where Cam Atkinson is at right now. He’s just on fire right now, scoring at will and leading the Jackets with a blistering 16 goals in 24 games.

Atkinson’s goal against the Wild, capping a power play in the second period and snapping a 1-1 tie, extended his point streak to nine straight games. That ties his NHL career high set last season (Mar. 9 to April 5) and was also the eighth game in the past nine he’s scored.

Since returning from a broken foot last season, Jan. 25 in Arizona, Atkinson has put up more than a point a game. He has 34 goals, 25 assists and 59 points in 57 games since then, which is tied for fourth among all players in goals with Boston’s David Pastrnak and tied for 19th in points with Boston’s Brad Marchand and Florida’s Evgenii Dadonov.

3) Position competition

Anthony Duclair missed practice Wednesday because he was “nicked up,” but coach John Tortorella said he was probably healthy enough to play Thursday.

The reason he didn’t was more about getting Oliver Bjorkstrand back in the lineup. Bjorkstrand had been a healthy scratch in the previous four games and has been the odd man out five times already. He skated Duclair’s spot at right wing on the third line, with center Alexander Wennberg and , and nearly put in a couple goals.

Bjorkstrand finished with no goals, no points and a minus-2 rating but Tortorella liked what he saw in his 10:03 of ice time. In fact, Tortorella said there’s now an internal competition for playing time between Bjorkstrand and Duclair.

“I was not going to sit Oliver out for weeks,” Tortorella said. “He doesn’t deserve that and I’ve got to develop the guy. We have to develop the guy. He’s not in the dog house or anything like that. It’s just ‘Duke’ was doing some things, was listening and doing some things, scored some goals ... so you know, we’re going to juggle that and see where it goes.”

4) Bread legs

Artemi Panarin is one of the best conditioned athletes on the team. That much is evident in how much he’s on the ice and how little it seems to affect him.

There must be limits, though, which Tortorella acknowledged after watching Panarin log 11 shifts of one minute or longer his 15, including one that lasted a whopping 2:10 early in the third.

“He has an uncanny knack of putting himself in that type of position, to where I can’t ... I mean he doesn’t come by the bench,” Tortorella said. “He’s over on the other side, but he ends up being dangerous. I’ve just got to be really careful with that, because another guy’s ready to go. We’ve got some good players coming in behind him, so it’s a constant conversation that we have.”

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Panarin finished with a goal, his second in as many games, and has two goals, seven assists and nine points in his last six.

5) Power up

Since Nov. 6 in Dallas, the Blue Jackets’ power play has clipped along at a healthy 30.7 percent. They’re 8 for 26 in that span after Atkinson’s power-play goal against the Wild, which was his fifth man-advantage goal to lead the team.

Columbus is still lingering at 23rd in the NHL rankings (17.1 percent), but that’s eight places higher than Nov. 4 in Anaheim – when the Jackets were ranked 31st and went 0 for 6 in a 3-2 overtime loss.

There is also a nice mix of talent on each of the units, including Atkinson on the right wing of what’s considered the second group. Columbus is ranked third in the NHL in goals per game (3.52) and has scored 88 overall.

Only 14 have capped power plays. Imagine what the Jackets could do offensively if the power play stays hot.

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Oliver Bjorkstrand vs. Anthony Duclair — Blue Jackets will let high-potential youngsters fight it out for playing time

By Aaron Portzline, The Athletic – November 30, 2018

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Internal competition is part of any healthy team, but rarely has a coach pitted two players directly against each other for playing time as coach John Tortorella is doing with the Blue Jackets.

Right winger Oliver Bjorkstrand made his return to the lineup Thursday after four healthy scratches, replacing Anthony Duclair on the third line in a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild in Nationwide Arena.

It seems likely Bjorkstrand will remain in the lineup Saturday when the Blue Jackets play the New York Islanders in Nassau Coliseum after a strong showing Thursday.

But how long he sticks in the lineup is up to Bjorkstrand, Tortorella said. And it’s also up to Duclair, whose practice habits and body language will be watched closely in the coming days as he tries to wrest the lineup spot away from Bjorkstrand.

“I was not going to sit Oliver out for weeks,” Tortorella said. “He doesn’t deserve that. We have to develop the guy, and sitting out and watching the games can be part of development.

“Oliver was not in the doghouse. (Duclair) was doing some things. He was listening, scoring some goals. I’m going to juggle that and see where it goes. I don’t think they’re crazy about it, but it’s very healthy to the team to have those type of situations.”

Tortorella has grown fond of the Blue Jackets’ top two lines: center Pierre-Luc Dubois, flanked by Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson, and center Boone Jenner, flanked by Nick Foligno and Josh Anderson. He’s not messing with the chemistry there.

The fourth line — center Riley Nash, flanked by Markus Hannikainen and Lukas Sedlak — has been scrappy and effective for a couple of weeks now. It scored two goals in Thursday’s win.

That leaves the third line. Tortorella isn’t taking Brandon Dubinsky out of the lineup because he’s the club’s best faceoff player, and he isn’t sitting center Alexander Wennberg, who has started to play better recently.

So that leaves one spot.

“It’s Duke and Oliver,” Tortorella said. “I have to make a decision. They’re going to have to battle it out as far as who plays.”

Tortorella has been frustrated by both players’ tendencies to rest on their laurels. He saw it coming with Duclair, who signed with the Blue Jackets as a free agent in July, and he’s seen it before from Bjorkstrand, whose NHL career has had a choppy start.

Duclair has 8-4-12 and a minus-5 rating in 24 games. Bjorkstrand has 2-2-4 and is minus-6 in 20 games.

Notebook

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• Blue Jackets assistant general manager Bill Zito will interview Saturday for the vacant general manager’s job with the Philadelphia Flyers. Zito is on a short list of candidates to replace Ron Hextall, who was fired by the Flyers on Monday. Zito, who joined the Blue Jackets in 2013, has interviewed for GM jobs in Minnesota, Buffalo and Carolina, previously.

• The Blue Jackets were the Islanders’ opponent in the “last” NHL game played at Nassau Coliseum, a 5- 4 shootout win over the Isles on April 11, 2015. Now, four seasons later, the Blue Jackets are playing the “first” game back in the renovated Coliseum, where New York is playing roughly 20 regular-season games per season while they wait for a new building to be built in Belmont Park. They’re still playing roughly half their home schedule in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, but both Blue Jackets games will be at the Coliseum this season.

• Here’s Tortorella on the renovations: “I hope they put, in the coaches room, instead of a 40-watt bulb, they put in maybe a 75-watt bulb. You can’t see in there.”

• But, seriously, folks. Tortorella, who coached the archrival New York Rangers for five seasons, is excited to be back in the glorious old barn in Hempstead. “When you coach with the Rangers and you go to the Coliseum … it’s like nothing else,” Tortorella said. “No other team can experience that. I’ve coached with Buffalo and a few other teams going in there. It’s a fantastic building, a lot of history there, a lot of great players player there. … I’m thrilled we’re going to play there. Hopefully it will be a great atmosphere. I believe it will be. To me there’s much more atmosphere there than in Barclays Center.”

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Islanders 3, Blue Jackets 2 | Second-period lead erased as Islanders rally

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – December 1, 2018

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — It looked as if the Blue Jackets were in complete control, on their way to spoiling the New York Islanders’ return to their former full-time home, NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum.

Once the Jackets scored the game’s first two goals to start the second period, Islanders fans didn’t have much more than nostalgia keeping them into it — and then it happened.

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The game changed when New York scored its first of three goals with a fortunate bounce off the shoulder of forward Anders Lee, whose goal at 11:59 of the second ignited the home crowd and a 3-2 comeback win for the Islanders.

“Maybe they just got some momentum,” said forward Josh Anderson, who had five hits in one of the most physical games the Jackets had played this season. “Their crowd was great for them tonight. As soon as they got that first one, you knew they were going to be coming hard. You could just feel it in the building.”

Lee’s goal was initially waved off by referee Jean Hebert, after Jordan Eberle shoveled a backhanded shot that skipped off Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and hit Lee in the shoulder — flipping the puck in the air, end-over-end, above the crease.

Nobody saw it until it dropped into the net behind Bobrovsky. The crowd erupted and the Islanders’ goal horn blared. Hebert’s initial ruling to disallow the goal incensed the home crowd.

A video review showed it was a goal, which lit the fuse for the rest of the game. Less than a minute later, New York’s Anthony Beauvillier tied it 2-2 with a second-effort shot between the pads off a 2-on-1 rush — which was sparked by Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno and defenseman Zach Werenski colliding in the offensive zone.

It remained 2-2 until Casey Cizikas broke the tie by scoring the winner at 7:09 of the third during 4-on-4 play, which followed another key turning point. Four seconds after a faceoff to begin a Blue Jackets power play, Foligno was called for interfering with Cizikas and headed to the penalty box to offset Thomas Hickey’s boarding minor.

Cizikas scored 42 seconds later, banging home a pass from Ryan Pulock in front of the net, and the Blue Jackets couldn’t recover.

“We had some really good minutes, it’s 2-2 going into the third and we just talked about cleaning the slate,” coach John Tortorella said. “We take a penalty on the power play faceoff, when just can’t even think about taking a penalty there and then we absolutely blow a simple coverage in 4-on-4. It’s man- on-man, and those little mistakes cost us.”

Before those mistakes, things went smoothly for the Blue Jackets.

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They took a 1-0 lead at 6:46 of the second on Markus Hannikainen’s second goal in as many games and fourth of the season. Columbus made it 2-0 less than two minutes later on Pierre-Luc Dubois’ 13th goal of the season.

“We’ve got to find a way to simplify our game even more,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “It should’ve been the opposite. We should’ve kept getting the puck deep, kept simplifying it, making them come 200 feet and earn every chance they got, which we didn’t do in the second.”

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Confidence fuels surging power play

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – December 1, 2018

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — It has gone from a source of consternation to a strength for the Blue Jackets, who are using their power-play time more effectively.

Since going 0 of 6 at the on Nov. 4, a game preceded by small-group meetings that addressed their sluggish special teams, the Jackets have dramatically improved on the man-advantage.

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Entering a game Saturday night at the New York Islanders, the Blue Jackets had eight goals on 26 power- play opportunities starting with a Nov. 6 game against the — a 30.8 percent success rate that ranked third in the NHL during that span.

“We’re just playing confident,” said defenseman Seth Jones, who quarterbacks one of the Jackets’ units. “The Anaheim game was a breaking point there. We had some meetings on both sides of special teams, really, so I think we’re just playing together and playing with confidence.”

The most recent setup provides two balanced units, with Jones and defensive partner Zach Werenski split up to run the point on each. Artemi Panarin, Josh Anderson, Boone Jenner and Oliver Bjorkstrand skate with Werenski’s group, and Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alexander Wennberg are with Jones.

“We’re moving the puck well and we’re trusting it, which is really the most important thing,” said Jones, who has two power-play assists among his 10 points. “We’re just trusting the process. We’re listening, our meetings before every game are informative and we know what we’re doing when we go out there. We have a plan and we just have to execute it.”

The new old place

The Blue Jackets didn’t hold a full morning skate on Saturday, but they did have game-day meetings at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum.

It gave the Jackets a chance to check out the former home of the Islanders, which underwent a two-year renovation completed in 2017 and will now be used to host part of their schedule. This was the first regular-season game back in the building, which meant the Blue Jackets bookended the arena’s makeover.

They won the final game at the Coliseum before renovations, 5-4 in a shootout on April 11, 2015.

“I was kidding (Friday) about some things, but this building has seen some tremendous games and some tremendous players have played in here,” said coach John Tortorella, who also coached some intense games in the arena when he was with the New York Rangers. “I’m glad we’re the first team doing ... because I do think when they’re charged up, the crowd’s charged up, I think it helps the visiting team, too.”

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Blue Jackets await word on foot injury to valuable defenseman Ryan Murray

By Tom Reed, The Athletic – December 1, 2018

UNIONDALE, New York— The Blue Jackets squandered a two-goal lead on the road for the second time in two weeks and again surrendered a third-period, game-winning goal on a coverage breakdown in front of their net.

But seeing a repeat performance from the Nov. 19 loss in Toronto was not nearly as concerning as the sight of Ryan Murray walking out of the visitors’ locker room Saturday night with a protective boot on his left foot. The defenseman blocked a Johnny Boychuk shot with 11:53 remaining in a 3-2 setback to the Islanders and did not skate another shift on Nassau Coliseum ice.

Coach John Tortorella didn’t provide an immediate update on Murray’s condition. The oft-injured veteran is enjoying one of the best starts to his career and losing him for significant time would be a big blow to the Blue Jackets.

The hope is that it’s just a bone bruise and Murray would miss little or no time. The sight of a player in a protective boot can sometimes make the situation appear worse than it is. Murray was spotted after the game limping through the locker-room area, but able to put weight on the foot.

The Blue Jackets, who aren’t scheduled to practice Sunday, should have a good idea of the injury’s severity by day’s end.

Murray blocked the shot about a minute after the Islanders took a 3-2 lead on a Casey Cizikas goal with the teams skating 4-on-4. Zack Werenski, who lost his check on Cizikas, and Seth Jones played heavy minutes down the stretch with the Blue Jackets trailing and Murray back in the locker room.

“It’s tough losing Murr, another playmaker, another great skater who’s important for us,” Jones said.

“He’s playing great. When I was playing with him for five to 10 games we played great together . . . It will be tough if we have him out, but we have other guys who could step in and do a job as well.”

Murray has a goal and 12 assists in the first 26 games. His vision, decision making and ability to transition the club quickly from defense to offense have been keys to the Blue Jackets’ strong start. He leads Columbus defensemen in shot share percentage (51.98), and the team in scoring chance percentage (56.48) and high-danger attempts percentage (58.93).

If Murray were to miss time, it’s unclear how John Tortorella would set his top two pairings. He just reunited Werenski and Jones this week. The coach could couple Markus Nutivaara and David Savard again, but that would leave a third pair of Scott Harrington and the inexperienced Dean Kukan.

The Blue Jackets survived the loss of Jones to a knee injury at the start of the season, posting a 4-3-0 record in his absence. To say he’s been making up for lost time understates the responsibility being placed on his shoulders.

Jones is averaging a career-high 26:21 of ice time, ranking him second in the NHL only behind Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (26:45). Would his minutes increase even more without Murray?

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And, what impact would Murray being sidelined have on Nutivaara? The Finnish defenseman loves playing with Murray, and just got back with his normal partner on Monday in Detroit.

After missing 60 games over the past two years with various health issues, Murray easily has been among the team’s best players to open this season. This stretch has been a reminder of the 25-year- old’s value.

The Blue Jackets hope that value is not put on hold yet again.

Notebook

• Tortorella was upset with a breakdown on the winning goal and the penalty captain Nick Foligno took that nullified a third-period power play. The Blue Jackets won an offensive-zone draw, but Foligno was whistled for interfering with Cizikas just four seconds after Columbus started its power play.

“We had some really good minutes, it’s 2-2 going into the third and we just talked about cleaning the slate,” Tortorella said. “We take a penalty on the power-play faceoff, when we just can’t even think about taking a penalty there, and then we absolutely blow a simple coverage in 4-on-4. It’s man-on- man, and those little mistakes cost us.

Islanders defenseman Ryan Puloch got a step Cam Atkinson inside the offensive zone. Instead of staying on Cizikas in front of the net, Werenski slid to his left and dropped down to one knee as to take away a passing lane or block a shot. But Puloch maintained possession of the puck and wrapped around the net. Werenski’s decision to help on Atkinson’s man took the defenseman out of position and left Cizikas wide open for the goal.

Two weeks ago, Toronto’s winning goal came off a blown assignment by Lukas Sedlak after the Blue Jackets lost a defensive-zone draw.

• The Blue Jackets built a 2-0 lead on early second-period goals from Markus Hannikainen and Pierre-Luc Dubois. The big crowd, happy to have the Islanders playing in this building for the first time since April, 11, 2015, had gone quiet.

But Anders Lee’s fluky goal that bounced off his shoulder and into the net at 11:59 ignited the fans and the Isles, who dominated the the rest of the period.

“We did not give ourselves enough chances to forecheck in the second period,” Tortorella said. “We got stubborn and turned into individuals trying to beat people through the neutral zone.”

• The Isles’ trying goal from Anthony Beauvillier came off a 2-on-1 created by an offensive-zone collision between Foligno and Werenski.

• Atkinson registered his 300th NHL point with the second-period assist on Dubois’ goal.

Analytically speaking

The Athletic’s hockey data dynamo Alison Lukan provided these insights into the Blue Jackets’ loss:

• After the game, Josh Anderson said, “we started the game off right, like we wanted to, but then we let it get away from us.” He couldn’t be more right. According to Naturalstattrick.com, in all situations, the Jackets controlled the first period in shot share (61.54%) and scoring chances (66.67%) and then began

15 the second period by going up 2-0. But after that, Columbus acquiesced the middle frame to their opponent getting out-attempted 22-12, and giving the advantage to the Islanders in both scoring chances (17-5) and high-danger attempts (8-2). By the time the third was over, the Jackets ended the game with 54% of all attempts but their offensive rebound came late, and thus the 3-2 loss. Has to be frustrating for a team that had ever so slight an edge with a shot-based expected goal total of 2.74 compared to the Isles’ 2.72.

• Sergei Bobrovsky was solid and performed up to expectations besting what he should have put up in save percentage by .7-percent. It’s worth mentioning that, according to Moneypuck.com, the first two Islanders goals had a 33.9-percent and 35.2-percent chance of becoming goals, those are some incredibly high probabilities in today’s NHL.

• Jones was solid tonight. He earned the highest game score of any Jacket (1.8), and in five-on-five play, was plus-11 in shot attempts and plus-6 in scoring chances, the highest of any Columbus defenseman.

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Islanders 3, Blue Jackets 2: Five takeaways

By Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch – December 2, 2018

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — You knew what kind of night it would be the second the house lights dimmed Saturday at NYCB Live Nassau Coliseum.

As the sound of rapper Ohana Bam’s “All Roads Lead Home,” filled the cozy, renovated arena, the New York Islanders skated onto the ice to a booming, delirious welcome from their passionate fans. The place was packed with folks clad in a sea of blue, orange and white, who’d been deprived of NHL hockey on Long Island the past three seasons - while the Coliseum got its facelift and the Islanders played in Brooklyn.

It was impossible not to feel the energy of the Islanders’ return home to a rink with a new car smell and tons of hockey history confined within its walls.

Players and coaches from both teams felt it, from the ice to the benches in New York’s hard-hitting 3-2 victory. Fans felt it in every section. Even the media felt it up in the pressbox, along with a blustery current of frigid air pouring out of a giant air-conditioning vent above the heads of reporters, broadcasters, scouts, public relations reps, coaches and scratched hockey players.

“As soon as we saw the warmups and the crowd in their first game back in this building, we knew they were going to be a physical team – especially their fourth-line,” said Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson, who co-led Columbus with five hits along with Seth Jones. “We knew it was coming. Both sides were pretty physical. It was really a hard-played game out there.”

It took all of six seconds for the first salvo to be launched, when New York’s Casey Cizikas began a great night for him by dumping Booner Jenner behind the Islanders’ net. He later dumped the Blue Jackets by scoring the game-winning goal in the third period, but more on that later.

Jenner returned the favor on the same shift, finishing a hit on Cizikas in the neutral zone, and then it was Pierre-Luc Dubois’ turn. The Jackets’ big, powerful 20-year old center saw a chance to light up Islanders forward Tom Kuhnhackl in the neutral zone and took it, spilling him to the ice with a hit that was ruled a trip and sent Dubois to the penalty box.

He became Public Enemy No. 1 for the Islanders and their fans, who booed Dubois off and on all game while New York players went after him – looking for a scrap that never materialized.

That’s what kind of night it was inside the new version of the old barn in Uniondale, which ended with the Islanders sending their fans home happy.

Here are five takeaways from the Blue Jackets’ narrow loss to the Islanders:

1) Murray leaves early

The Blue Jackets played the final 11:53 with only five defensemen after Ryan Murray was struck on the left skate by the puck off a hard shot by Islanders’ defenseman Johnny Boychuk.

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No update was given about Murray, who didn’t need assistance getting off the ice but was spotted limping into the training room after the game. The injury happened almost one year to the day after Murray sustained a back injury last season Nov. 27, 2017 in Montreal.

That one caused him to miss 35 games. There’s no telling how long Murray might be out this time, because we just don’t know the severity yet. Stay tuned.

“He’s been through a lot,” said defenseman Seth Jones, who missed the first seven games of this season with an MCL sprain. “He’s just got to keep plugging away. We know he’s mentally strong, mentally tough. We don’t know what it is. It could be a bruise. We’re not sure, but we know he’s tough.”

2) Tough night

This wasn’t the best game for Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno and defenseman Zach Werenski, who were involved in the Islanders’ tying and winning goals.

On the tying goal in the second period, scored by Anthony Beauvillier, Foligno accidentally plowed over Werenski in the offensive zone to spring a 2-on-1 odd-man rush the other direction. Foligno tried cutting around Beauvillier to chase down the puck, but didn’t see Werenski gliding backward.

Beauvillier beat goalie Sergei Bobrovsky between the pads on a quick rebound attempt off his own shot and tied the game, 2-2.

Foligno was also involved in Cizikas’ game-winner in the third, negating a Blue Jackets power play just four seconds into it after a face-off against Cizikas in the offensive zone.

Foligno got tangled up with Cizikas after the draw, impeding his path to the puck, and the Islanders took a 3-2 lead during 4-on-4 that followed. On the goal, Werenski had coverage mishap that left Cizikas open in front of the net. His snap shot off a feed from Ryan Pulock beat Bobrovsky.

“It’s just so frustrating in the two mistakes that cause that third goal,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “Putting us into a 4-on-4 instead of a power play and just an absolute blown coverage.”

3) The streak continues

The Jackets’ first line produced another goal, scored by Dubois. The primary assist went to Cam Atkinson for a nifty set-up feed from behind the net to give Columbus a 2-0 lead in the second period.

It was Atkinson’s 10th straight game with a point, which is a new NHL career-high streak that tops two previous nine-game streaks (Dec. 5-23, 2016 and Mar. 17 to April 5, 2018). He’s now tied for the second- longest point streak in franchise history with former Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen (Oct. 9-31, 2014) and former forward R.J. Umberger (Nov. 10 to Dec. 1, 2010).

During the streak, Atkinson has 10 goals, six assists and 16 points. He also has 27 points overall, on 16 goals and 11 assists, and is tied with Artemi Panarin (seven goals, 20 assists) for the team scoring lead.

4) More fourth-line magic

The trio of Lukas Sedlak, Riley Nash and Markus Hannikainen continued to log productive minutes for the Blue Jackets. Even though Sedlak wasn’t on the ice for it, Hannikainen scored his second goal in as many games, fourth of the season and third in the past five games.

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Hannikainen played 8:52 spread over 12 shifts, Sedlak finished with 9:32 on 11 shifts and Nash skated 10:11 on 12 shifts and recorded a plus-1 plus/minus rating. They didn’t quit after the game, either, spotted on stationary bikes working hard to get in their remaining postgame cardio work.

5) Memories of the old barn

Many of the Blue Jackets have at least some recollections of what the Nassau Coliseum used to be like before its renovation, which was completed in 2017.

Columbus, in fact, defeated the Islanders 5-4 in a shootout in 2015 in the last regular-season game at the Coliseum prior to its makeover. Brandon Dubinsky remembers that game, because it’s the game he had six teeth knocked out on his bottom row by his own teammate at the time, former Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson.

Dubinsky also remembers games he played against the Islanders as a member of the rival New York Rangers, which were always heated on the ice and usually in the stands too. Tortorella has those memories too, since he coached Dubinsky with the Rangers and in that game with Columbus.

Saturday morning, each got their first looks at the Coliseum post renovation, which jogged their memories – along with some prodding by reporters.

Here’s Dubinsky:

“It was a good building to play in. Obviously, it was older and stuff, but it had a lot of character and great fans and stuff like that. It was certainly a much different atmosphere than it was at the Barclays the last few years.”

“Yeah, it looks great. It’s different. It’s funny because, you know, everyone likes new (stuff) but, I mean, I enjoyed playing in the old Coliseum the way it was. It’s interesting. It feels like a brand new (rink). It’s nice. It looks like a brand-new rink, feels like a brand-new rink. It feels like kind of a foreign place, where there was a comfort level walking into this place (before). I’ve had some success in this place with the teams and individually, so it feels like a new building.”

“I played my first game here, my first NHL game was played here. There’s a lot of things. I witnessed the assault on Ryan Hollweg here (two-handed slash by Chris Simon, Mar. 8, 2007). Even my last game here … with the Blue Jackets, you know, we beat the Isles and knocked them out of home-ice advantage (in the playoffs). I happened to get six of my teeth knocked out in that game by my own teammate. Jack Johnson swung his stick backward and knocked six of my bottom teeth out. Most of the memories are Rangers-Islanders. You can just feel the mayhem in the stands and it’s really carried over on the ice, so I’ve had a lot of fun nights here on the island.”

Here’s Tortorella:

“I was with the Rangers for five or six years and we had some, I mean, the things that were going on in the stands were better than the game sometimes. And when other teams come in here, they don’t experience that - that Ranger-Islander (rivalry). The stuff going on in the stands was just incredible. There are passionate fans here. Hard cities, both New York and here, if you’re not playing well, but they’re behind you and they’re emotional about their team.”

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'Try Hockey for Free' with the Cleveland Monsters Dec. 15 or Feb. 10

By Jeff Schudel, The News-Herald – December 1, 2018

The Cleveland Monsters are offering a “Try hockey for free” program on Dec. 15 and Feb. 10 at Quicken Loans Arena for boys and girls ages 4 through 8.

The Mentor Ice Breakers conducted a similar event at Mentor Civic Ice Arena last month and it was a huge success. The youngsters had fun and so did the parents watching them.

The program on Dec. 15 runs from 2:30 to 4 p.m. There is no cost. All equipment will be provided, but those who have their own skates are encouraged to bring them.

Parents interested in having their children be part of the Dec. 15 program should go to ClevelandMonsters.com/TryHockey to register. Registration for the Feb. 10 program has not begun.

Instruction will be led by former Lumberjacks legend Jock Callander, now the Monsters’ Senior Director of Hockey Affairs, and former Monsters player Russ Sinkewich. A 30-minute equipment introduction will be provided to both participants and parents on each date prior to a one-hour on-ice session.

The Monsters host the Rochester Americans at 7 p.m. Dec. 15.

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On the Blue Jackets farm: professional Mark Letestu, progressing Kole Sherwood and pondering Paul Bittner

By Aaron Portzline, The Athletic – December 3, 2018

CLEVELAND — A collection of updates gathered over the weekend from the Blue Jackets’ minor-league affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters …

Mark Letestu: An “organizational jewel,” but still with NHL dreams

For NHL players in their 30s, July can be equal parts humidity and humility. Mark Letestu, who turns 34 in February, waited all summer for an NHL contract offer before agreeing in September to go to camp with the Florida Panthers on a tryout agreement.

When the Panthers released Letestu with one week to go before the start of the regular season, he accepted a two-way deal with the Blue Jackets and began getting familiar with I-71, knowing he’d at least start the season with AHL Cleveland.

Letestu’s family has settled in Powell, a suburb on the north side of Columbus. From there, it’s a two- hour drive to Cleveland, allowing him to juggle his family in central Ohio and his career in northern Ohio.

“I haven’t missed anything up here and I’ve missed only a couple of my kids’ practices back in Columbus,” Letestu said. “The drive … I turn on MLB Network for a little while, see where everybody’s going. I’ll switch over to NHL Network to see what’s going on there. You make a couple of phone calls and it goes by pretty fast.

“Listen, the organization has been great with me. Absolutely great. For a guy in my situation, it’s been a really good set-up. I’m in a good place in a lot of different ways.”

One of the best parts of any game is perusing the rosters, which are composed of players on their way up, players on their way down, and players who are parked at the level just below the NHL.

Letestu, 33, had more NHL games on his resume (558) than any player on the ice when the Monsters hosted Syracuse (Tampa Bay) in two games over the weekend.

In 17 games this season, he has 8-5-13, two penalty minutes and a minus-2 rating. He’s a steadying force at center on a line with two young wingers, Sonny Milano and Ryan MacInnis.

“Testy knows how to be calm, where to be, how to play the game the right way,” Cleveland coach John Madden said. “There’s so much you can take away (from him). Seeing a guy do that is easier teaching that showing video or practicing.

“To have a great example like that, of a guy who made a career out of being a smart hockey player … it’s awesome.”

Blue Jackets assistant GM Bill Zito said Letestu’s place in the Cleveland dressing room reminds him of one filled by captain Ryan Craig when the Monsters won the 2016 Calder Cup.

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“To have a guy like that around this team … ” Zito said. “I don’t want to compare the two because Ryan was Ryan and Mark is Mark. But they’re both organizational jewels.”

Letestu hasn’t given up the NHL dream yet, however.

“You’re trying to help as much as you can (in the AHL), but it’s not strictly doing the organization a favor,” he said. “I’m here for myself, still trying to get to play in the NHL. You’re wanting to get called up, but the team (Columbus) is playing really well and has been really healthy.

“It’s given me a chance to really work on my game down here, which has been nice — playing a lot on the power play, the penalty kill. It’s a lot of the situations I’m used to playing (in the NHL), but it’s been nice to shoulder some of the offensive responsibility again. It’s been a nice change. But I still want to play in the NHL.”

The Blue Jackets have recalled only one forward from Cleveland so far this season. Zac Dalpe, who is having a career year (13-12-25 in 20 games), was recalled last month when a wave of illness struck the dressing room.

Otherwise, there have been no significant injuries among Blue Jackets’ forwards.

Letestu has played for Edmonton, Pittsburgh and Columbus in the NHL, and he’s forged a reputation as one of the good guys, the type of player who usually has multiple opportunities to stay in the game when their playing days are finished.

Will he coach? Scout? Join the broadcast media?

“Of course you think about it,” he said. “I’ve got little ones at home for us to take care of, but I’m trying not to set my eyes too far beyond today, because I think I owe this opportunity my focus.

“I’ve met a lot of great people, and I’ve always been good at networking, so hopefully the end of my playing days aren’t the end of my days in hockey. I’d love to stay in the game in some capacity.”

Kole Sherwood: An early wake-up call in first professional season

For most of Friday’s win over Syracuse, Kole Sherwood’s game was just as easily heard as seen. He landed two thunderous checks that a few years ago would have led to fisticuffs.

But it was his last shift of the night — the game’s last shift — when Sherwood’s explosive all-around game was evident.

During three-on-three overtime, he outworked Syracuse’s Michael Bournival for the puck in his own end, sending Bournival sprawling and Sherwood racing up the left side of the ice with numbers. He pulled up and passed to Zac Dalpe for a shot off the rush, then gathered the rebound and scored his first professional game-winner.

It was the shining moment, so far, in his young pro career.

“Today was kind of his coming-out day, for me,” Madden said. “Using him three-on-three. I mixed and matched him with Sonny (Milano) a few times because he was playing well and doing the right things, in the right areas, getting dirty and throwing big hits.

22

“If he keeps doing that, I have a place for (him) in the lineup.”

Sherwood, a New Albany native, was one of the odd men out earlier this season. The Monsters have too many players on the roster and the Blue Jackets have had almost no injuries, allowing Madden and his staff to create intense competition for a spot in the lineup, not just ice time.

On Friday, forward Vitaly Abramov and defenseman Ryan Collins were healthy scratches.

Earlier this season, Sherwood was a frequent healthy scratch. He was so hard-up for ice time that the Blue Jackets convinced Sherwood and center Sam Vigneault to accept a weekend trip to the East Coast Hockey League (Jacksonville) to play.

“I paid my dues a little bit going down there,” Sherwood said. “I thought it was good for my development. You can’t just develop in practice, you need to play some games.

“So I went there, played 20-25 minutes a night, and really gained some confidence. It wasn’t a kick in the balls, but it was a wake-up call. I went though similar situations in junior (with OHL London). Something like this can make you stronger.”

Sherwood has 2-2-4 and a minus-1 rating in 10 games. He’s still trying to define himself as a player and still trying to master the finer points of the pro game. That, in essence, is what the first year of pro hockey is like for most players.

“We’re working on it,” Madden said. “He’s been bouncing things off (assistant coach Trent) Vogelhuber. He asks the right questions and he’s been working hard in practice.

“Kole can skate and shoot, but just like everybody down here in the AHL we’re working on something they don’t have. On the defensive side of the puck, if we can get him making the right reads, I think we’ll really have something.”

Sherwood said he’s been trying to focus intently on the task at hand, trying to minimize off-ice distractions. His parents, Roger and Yuko, were in the crowd on Friday, but he didn’t know where they were seated. A few friends from Columbus have asked for tickets, and he’s asked them to wait.

“It’s a crucial time for my development,” he said. “I’m here to play hockey, not to please people. I’m trying to keep it really closed and just focus.”

During the early-season struggles he relied on two veterans in the Monsters’ dressing room — Letestu and Cleveland captain Nathan Gerbe — as well as the close network of high-end players from Columbus, including his brother, Anaheim Ducks forward .

“I talked to my brother every day,” Kole said. “I’ve been leaning on him and some of my friends — (Winnipeg’s Jack) Roslovic, (’s Connor) Murphy — they’re really helping. It’s a close circle and they’ve been there for me.”

Paul Bittner: Lost and found in make or break season

In his first two pro seasons, Bittner endured prolonged scouring droughts, suffered lengthy injuries and took a leave of absence to handle personal matters.

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Only three years after he was drafted in the second round (No. 38 overall) in 2015, his name was rarely mentioned as a prospect, even within the Blue Jackets’ organization.

Neither Bittner nor the Blue Jackets will say exactly what Bittner has battled off the ice, but it appears his career is back on track. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward has 4-11-15 and a plus-11 rating in 20 games.

He’s skating on the Monsters’ top forward line with center Zac Dalpe and right winger Eric Robinson.

“I still have a lot more to give,” Bittner said. “I feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg for me.

“I”m still working with the coaching staff on coming to the rink the next night, coming to the rink the next day, being prepared. It’s been an eye-opener, like, ‘Yeah, this is me!’ It’s really nice to see for myself.”

Bittner had hip surgery a few years ago, which is never a minor procedure for a hockey player. He said he worked intensely on his skating over the summer, and the results have been noticeable.

Madden can play him in all situations, including three-on-three overtime, which might have been unthinkable previously.

“It’s pretty fun,” Bittner said. “We’re all scoring goals. It’s a little bit different being on that line, being on a top line, being a guy that’s expected to score every night. That’s a change from the last few years.

“It’s been a long time coming (for me) to have this much fun playing hockey. My mom will text me, ‘You look like you had so much fun out there tonight, just smiling and things on the bench.’ And it has, it’s been a lot more fun.”

Bittner had a long way to climb up the Blue Jackets’ depth chart after his first two professional seasons. But he has a natural ability to climb quickly, Zito said.

“His skating. His shot. His hockey sense,” Zito said. “When you watch him now, it’s all the little things. The starting and stopping. Taking the body. He doesn’t have to kill guys, just take the guy out of the play.

“Buying time and space. Being positionally sound. Being on the right side of the puck. He’s been so good that if we’re up a goal and there’s under a minute to go, he’s on the ice.”

In case you can’t tell, Zito is bullish on Bittner. The Blue Jackets have been in his corner through difficult times early in his career, but it appears the payoff might be coming.

“This is him saying: ‘I want in,’ ” Zito said. “All the other stuff, the skating and the shot … he’s got that. That’s easy for him. That’s a 6-foot-11 guy dunking a basketball. It’s the other stuff that’s the work, that’s the discipline, that’s the thinking. This is him saying ‘I want to win. I want to help the team win.’ He’s doing that.

“We helped him, and we helped him all along, but he turned it around. He reached the point where he had to do the work and give the focus and he did it. He should be so proud. He’s not there yet. But I have a lot of admiration for that guy for what he’s done.”

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To 32 and beyond: Seattle may not be end of NHL expansion

BY STEPHEN WHYNO, AP – NOVEMBER 30, 2018

The NHL will soon have 32 teams if Seattle is approved as expected next week. An even balance between conferences. A cross-border rival for the Vancouver Canucks in the Pacific Northwest.

Surely the league is done growing for a while?

Maybe not. Two and a half years after voting to add a team in Las Vegas in what has been a rousing success, the NHL has plenty of options when it comes to what's next. No North American professional sports league has stretched past the number of 32, but no one is ruling it out for the NHL to get there on this continent or beyond.

"The leagues adapt, they look around and they make judgments: Are there markets we would like to go into? Can they support the teams at the revenue levels that we need? If we expand too much too fast, do we dilute the talent such that the product suffers? And those are all judgment calls in the end," NHL Players' Association executive director Don Fehr said. "Some leagues and owners are more cautious than others. But sooner or later I would like to believe that in the kind of economy we have, all potential avenues will be explored."

Considering the success of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, Seattle has seemed a no-brainer from the beginning and no one expects anything but approval from the Board of Governors on Tuesday. Seattle would begin play in either 2020 or 2021.

"Hockey needs to be and wants to be in those really fast-paced cities that are growing and setting the mark," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said. "Because if we do well here, it'll raise all the boats for all the teams."

Vegas already raised the bar for Seattle, which will pay an expansion fee of $650 million — a 30 percent increase over the $500 million that cleared the way for Vegas to begin play last season and far beyond the $45 million the paid to enter the league in 1991 to begin a new era of expansion.

As soon as the NHL went to 31, getting to 32 was inevitable. As balanced as it might seem, it's not the end.

"Not sure there is any magic about 32," deputy NHL Commissioner Bill Daly said. "Expansion is appropriate when a convincing case can be made that it will be beneficial and add value to the league as a whole."

While Daly was reluctant to address what might be next with the Seattle vote pending, Houston, Quebec City and Toronto have all been touted as possible new homes for an NHL team. Communications company Quebecor applied for an expansion team for Quebec City at the same time as Las Vegas. Billionaire businessman and new Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has already met with Commissioner Gary Bettman.

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"Houston's a big city," Fehr said. "It's got a long history with professional sports in North America. You would like to think that sooner or later the NHL will have a team there. When and under what circumstances I'm not going to try and predict."

Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economic professor who has written extensively on sports and business, said professional leagues operate much differently from other entities when demand increases. Instead of making more of a product, like a sneaker or beer company might, leagues and teams raise ticket prices or seek new arenas.

Expansion, of course, is another way to feed the beast and Zimbalist said a league could get to 40 teams if it is popular enough and the revenue is spread around correctly.

Any dream of a 40-team NHL would almost certainly involve European expansion, which Bettman said no one has come up with a viable plan for yet. Amid speculation about basing a single NFL team in London, the NHL would likely need to put a full division in Europe to make any sense. And even that has its obstacles, with New Jersey Devils captain Andy Greene pointing to the drastic time changes and coach John Hynes unsure about the long-distance travel as part of an 82-game season.

"When you look at the NHL schedule without going to Europe, it's a monster," said Hynes, whose team ended training camp in Switzerland, played an exhibition game there and opened the season in Sweden. "Then you add in European travel and time changes and NHLPA days off for recovery time and it takes its toll."

For now, the NHL will continue to play games in Europe, explore China and increase its regular season to 1,312 games — once Seattle joins the fray.

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NHL Board of Governors to vote on Seattle expansion

BY STEPHEN WHYNO, AP – DECEMBER 2, 2018

Seattle is one step away from landing an NHL franchise.

Team and city executives have already secured more than 30,000 season-ticket deposits, got an arena plan passed through local government and wowed the executive committee of owners. It all pays off Tuesday when the NHL Board of Governors is expected to approve Seattle as the home of the league's 32nd franchise.

"Seattle's one of the fastest-growing cities in the country," Commissioner Gary Bettman said recently. "It gives us a geographic balance. It creates a nice geographic rivalry with Vancouver. I know Vancouver's particularly excited about the possibility. The ownership group, the plans for the arena — it's all of the above. It's never one factor. If you're going to have a successful expansion application, all of the bases need to be touched and all of them need to be checked off as being appropriate and right."

Timing is the only question.

Renovations to the downtown arena that will be the team's home are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2020. The uncertainty could lead the NHL to leave the door open to a 2020 or 2021 start or push it back just to be safe.

"Right now everything we've done is kind of geared toward 2020," Seattle Hockey Partners senior adviser Dave Tippett said. "If we can do it in 2020 (we will), but the other thing is you don't want to start it being a month on the road or something, either."

It's more about when than if, given the success of the Vegas Golden Knights' expansion and the $650 million the new owners will pay to join. Seattle is the largest U.S. city without a major winter sports team since the NBA's SuperSonics left in 2008 and it gives the NHL another big TV market.

"It's a big city now. It's a relatively wealthy place. There's an awful lot going on between Boeing and the whole computer industry and all the rest of that stuff," NHL Players' Association executive director Don Fehr said. "It nests very nicely with the teams that are already in the Pacific Northwest. And it gives us 32, which gives us the balance that you would want. In addition to that, when you're looking at markets, if you really want to be a North American league, you want to be in the markets that matter when you can figure out a way to do it, and Seattle is certainly one of those."

Tippett could feel the excitement building when he was back in Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday, noting that people told him on the golf course they hoped Seattle would get a team.

The board's executive committee voted unanimously in October to push the expansion bid forward and Bettman said he anticipated the full board doing the same. Approval requires a three-quarters vote.

"This can work long term," Seattle Hockey President and CEO Tod Leiweke said. "We have the right building plan, we have the support from the city, the fans are there."

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Fans will be watching Tuesday morning at a Seattle tavern when the board is expected to give final approval. Next steps will include moving forward on arena and practice facility plans and piecing together a hockey operations department that Tippett will likely be in charge of.

Before considering expansion, the board opens its annual two-day December meeting Monday with updates on the state of the league's business and hockey operations. The board is also expected to be briefed on collective bargaining talks and the tentative settlement of a concussion lawsuit involving retired players.

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More than the Metropolitans: Ahead of NHL vote, a comprehensive Seattle hockey history

By Geoff Baker, Seattle Times – December 2, 2018

The only shots taken by Guyle Fielder these days are on a pool table in the Arizona retirement community where his neighbors get together for regular tournaments.

But back when the were a 1960s minor professional hockey force, nobody could take or set up a scoring shot quite like Fielder. By the time his 22-year career was done, “Golden Guyle” was a six-time Western Hockey League MVP, eight-time first team all-star and nine-time scoring champion in a circuit that was then a pro feeder system to the NHL.

Fielder captained the Totems to three WHL championships and his 2,037 combined goals and assists remain fourth all-time on pro hockey’s point list, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Jaromir Jagr. Now, at age 88, Fielder, the top minor-league point-getter of all-time, is thrilled to see Seattle finally acquiring the NHL franchise he’d assumed was coming decades ago.

INDEX

A century of hockey in Seattle

1915–24: The forgotten champions

1933–41: The original ‘Sea Hawks’ craze

1948–61: Guyle Fielder puts Seattle on the map

1964–2018: Totems’ demise, and hockey’s return

“It was a great place to play all those years,’’ Fielder said. “I would have thought they’d have had a team up there much sooner given a lot of the successes we had.’’

The Totems owned the Seattle pro sports scene, with only Huskies college football and Thoroughbred racing rivaling them in prominence. It had been the same a half-century earlier, when the under coach became the first U.S.-based team to capture a Stanley Cup, went to two more finals and had stars like Frank Foyston, and that stuck around Seattle years after that team folded.

In many ways, Seattle was always a pro hockey town – albeit one that existed largely before television and the internet could preserve the history. What the Totems accomplished through their final season in 1975 wound up largely forgotten by future generations of sports fans, much like the Metropolitans after their 1924 demise and everything else in between.

“I didn’t know much about the Metropolitans or their players,’’ said Fielder, an Idaho-born, Saskatchewan-raised center who arrived here 26 years after the Stanley Cup winning franchise disbanded. “All I knew is that I wanted to play hockey. And this is where they let me do it.’’

1915 – 1924

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The forgotten Stanley Cup champions

The Metropolitans, a Pacific Coast Hockey Association team founded by future Hall of Famers Frank and , were named after the Metropolitan Building Company and comprised mostly of players raided from the Toronto Blueshirts.

Over their nine-year existence, they featured five future Hall of Famers, including Lester Patrick — who played here in 1917-18 — and Foyston, Harry (Hap) Holmes, Walker and Gordon (Doc) Roberts.

On March 26, 1917, playing at the Seattle Ice Arena, the Metropolitans defeated the National Hockey Association’s 3-games-to-1 to win the Cup. The final game was a 9-1 wipeout behind six goals by PCHA scoring-champ Morris at the Seattle Ice Arena at Fifth Avenue and University Street, which officially held 2,500 fans but had more than 3,500 attend that day.

“The lexicon of sport does not contain language adequate to describe the fervor of the fans who saw Seattle triumph last night,’’ The Seattle Times wrote. “The largest crowd that ever saw an ice game in The Arena stood on its feet and cheered until the iron girders of The Arena roof rattled as the Seattle team left the ice with the world’s title safely won.”

The Metropolitans and Montreal met here again for the 1919 Cup, but the series was canceled after five games following a Spanish influenza outbreak that killed Canadiens player . Seattle played for the Cup again in 1920, losing to the NHL’s Ottawa Senators 3-games-to-2.

“These guys, they were larger than life in Seattle,’’ said Kevin Ticen, a Seattle Sports Commission director and author of “Immortality: The Forgotten Story of 1916-17 and America’s first Stanley Cup Champions,” the upcoming Metropolitans book. “They were Seahawk-esque before there was such a thing. They were constantly on the front of the newspaper. Everywhere they went, people knew who they were.’’

And those big names kept pro hockey alive in Seattle well after the Metropolitans folded and their arena became a parking garage.

Former Metropolitans coach Muldoon helped the Patrick brothers form a new minor-league circuit, the Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL), buying an ownership stake in the Seattle Eskimos in 1928-29 to play at the new $1.1 million Civic Ice Arena — later known as Mercer Arena. The Eskimos defeated the Portland Buckaroos 4-2 in their opener, with ex-Metropolitans player Walker scoring the franchise’s first goal.

A total of 15 former and future NHL players played for the Eskimos over four seasons, but Muldoon didn’t see the finish. He died of a heart attack in 1929 late in his first season as the team’s coach.

“Hockey has lost a great organizer and a great manager,’’ Leo Lassen wrote in The Seattle Times. “But, more important, athletics in Seattle has lost a man who put loyalty to his associates far above whatever financial gain he might have ahead.”

The league ceased operations in 1931.

1933 – 1941

The original ‘Sea Hawks’ craze

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Two years later, the five-team North West Hockey League was founded with a Seattle Sea Hawks franchise coached by former Metropolitans star Foyston, who got the team to the finals in 1934-35, then won the title over Vancouver the next year. It was the first championship for a Seattle hockey team since the Metropolitans won the PCHA crown 16 years earlier before losing the Stanley Cup to Ottawa.

Foyston’s daughter, Barbara Daniels, now 88 and living on the Kitsap Peninsula, remembers how the community treated her family. She’d started accompanying her father to the arena at age 6.

“We’d go down to the rink and there was a man in the skate shop named Andy Johnson that we’d visit with,’’ she said. “Then, when our family cabin burned down, he came out and helped my father to build it back up again. He was a very handy guy.’’

Their cabin was on a ranch in Long Lake, near Port Orchard, adjacent a property owned by former Metropolitans star Morris. Daniels said Morris knew her dad liked the area and had alerted him when the neighboring property became available.

She remembers Sea Hawks hockey players continuously visiting their home after games. Her father also began a successful turkey-farming business while still coaching and continued it long after his hockey retirement.

The Sea Hawks routinely played before home crowds exceeding 4,000, outdrawing what the Metropolitans had gotten. The Seattle, Vancouver and Portland franchises left the league, which subsequently folded, following the Sea Hawks’ 1936 title to play in a revived minor-league PCHL.

Foyston lasted another season and then was replaced by player-coach Danny Cox, who got the team to the finals the next two years – losing to Vancouver and then Portland. Despite four finals appearances in six seasons, the franchise secured just the one championship under Foyston, who remained in Long Lake until his death in 1966.

His daughter has no opinion on why the team, like other Seattle pro hockey squads, is rarely remembered, but added: “Part of me hopes they name the new team the Sea Hawks even though I know that can’t happen because of the football team.’’

By 1940-41, the Sea Hawks were sold and renamed the Seattle “Olympics” but folded along with the PCHL a year later.

1948 – 1961

Guyle Fielder puts Seattle on the map

A seven-year gap ensued in which the city had only amateur hockey. Then, the revived amateur PCHL tried a third pro incarnation starting in 1948-49 with the Seattle Ironmen as one of its teams.

By 1951, the league had morphed into the WHL. The Ironmen that year, already boasting future Totems great Rudy Filion, took on a defenseman named Fred Shero, who later became a Hall of Fame coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

But the Ironmen, subsequently renamed Bombers, Americans and finally, Totems, saw their future truly arrive in 1953. That’s when WHL president and longtime Seattle amateur hockey fixture Al Leader

31 helped lure prized rookie and Detroit Red Wings prospect Fielder from the rival American Hockey League to the Emerald City.

Fielder had made his NHL debut for three games with the 1950-51 , then four playoff contests with the Red Wings in 1953. But there was little room to crack rosters in a six-team league and Detroit was stacked with future Hall of Famers like Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio and Red Kelly.

“I just wanted to play hockey,’’ Fielder said. “I didn’t care what part of the country it was, or how the team was. I just wanted to go someplace that would give me a chance.’’

And Seattle was the place.

Fielder joined what was then the “Bombers” and immediately produced 24 goals and 64 assists in 68 games. By 1956-57, the team had been renamed the “Americans’’ and Fielder registered 33 goals and 89 assists for a career-high 122 points.

Keith Allen had come over as player-coach that year and took over as full-time bench boss the next season. Then, in 1958-59 – with the franchise renamed “Totems” at the suggestion of Seattle Times sports writer Hy Zimmerman – Allen guided them to their first WHL title.

Fielder logged 119 points as the Totems finished with the league’s second-best mark behind the Calgary Stampeders. A rookie winger named Tom McVie, who later became coach of the NHL Washington Capitals and GM of the New Jersey Devils, joined a line with Fielder and Val Fonteyne and scored a league record nine game-winning goals.

The Seattle Totems play against Portland Buckaroos, at the Seattle Coliseum, in Seattle, WA, January 24, 1969. (Peter Liddell / The Seattle Times)

“I told everybody it was because I had the good fortune of playing next to Fielder,’’ said McVie, now 83 and living in Camas. “Even I couldn’t mess that one up.’’

With 30-goal-scorers Fonteyne, Marc Boileau and Filion also on-hand, the Totems swept Calgary in the final.

“They had a really good team and they were picked to win the championship going away,’’ McVie said. “But wouldn’t you know, we beat them four straight.’’

In a true Seattle hockey moment, WHL commissioner Leader – the city’s former amateur hockey guru – presented captain Fielder with the President’s Cup championship trophy. The following year, it was renamed the Lester Patrick Cup following the death of the former Metropolitans co-founder.

“That was just a great time,’’ McVie said, adding he’d walk to games from his home in Upper Queen Anne. “They didn’t have the money to throw us any parades back then, but we threw a good party. Our winner’s share was $1,450 each and my salary for the entire year was only $3,000. So, that bonus got put to use.’’

Fielder recalled feeling the entire city had rallied around the team.

“It was a pretty small arena in those days, but it was usually full,’’ he said.

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On April 2, 1961, the Totems held a “Guyle Fielder Night’’ at the arena, lavishing him with gifts.

“I’d have to say that was probably the highlight of my career when I look back,’’ Fielder said. “They’d had a Rudy Filion Night before that and then they gave me a night as well. It was very special.’’

1964 – Present

Totems’ demise, and hockey’s return

The Totems moved into the Coliseum – now KeyArena – in 1964-65, routinely drawing 10,000 fans per game. Allen coached them through that season, later becoming coach and eventual GM of the NHL’s Flyers and building their consecutive Stanley Cup winners in the mid-1970s.

Two years after Allen’s departure, Totems star center Bill MacFarland, who’d played on their 1959 championship team, became coach and won the first of consecutive titles in 1966-67. Fielder again led the offense with 91 points, helped by Boileau, Larry Lund, future NHL coach Bill Dineen and Howie Hughes.

The Totems had acquired Hughes from the WHL Vancouver Canucks before that season. When the teams met in the finals, Hughes scored the tying and go-ahead goals late in the game that decided the championship. Hughes, now 79 and living upstate, went on to coach local Seattle amateur teams after his hockey retirement.

That Totems team boasted a defense that included longtime Seattle fixture Don Ward and future NHL stalwarts Noel Picard and Pat Quinn. The popular Ward remained a longtime Magnolia resident until his death in 2014 at age 78, though his wife still resides there.

Quinn became an NHL coach and general manager for multiple teams, including the Vancouver Canucks. He advocated within the league for Seattle to acquire an NHL franchise.

Totems owner Vince Abbey had been awarded a Seattle NHL expansion franchise in 1974, to launch in 1976, but failed to make a required payment on the $6 million expansion fee. The Totems, struggling financially after several down seasons, folded in 1975 and the NHL soon after pulled its expansion offer — ending this city’s pro hockey run for decades.

Seattle took another NHL shot 15 years later when ex-Totems coach MacFarland teamed with Microsoft executive and future Mariners owner Chris Larson on a bid. They joined forces with another group headed by Bill Ackerley, son of Seattle SuperSonics NBA owner Barry Ackerley, and headed to Florida for a December 1990 presentation to the NHL’s board of governors.

But in a move never fully explained, Ackerley asked if he could first privately address the governors without his partners. While in the room, he withdrew the group’s offer and headed out a back door.

There’s a theory he purposely torpedoed the bid so his father’s Sonics wouldn’t face NHL competition. Bolstering that theory, a mid-1990s KeyArena renovation undertaken by Barry Ackerley reduced the venue’s seating capacity for hockey and made it impossible to lure the NHL.

That is, until the current $700 million renovation undertaken by Tim Leiweke’s Oak View Group. If completed by its October 2020 target, the new Seattle franchise could start play there that month.

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For longtime Totems captain Fielder, it’s the culmination of a Seattle hockey voyage he and so many others started long ago. Fielder retired from playing 45 years ago, had to give up golf several years back and now limits physical activity to his nightly pool games.

He will be almost 90 by the earliest a puck drops for the new Seattle team. And though Fielder no longer attends hockey games, he would make an exception to come watch that new team in an arena where he and stars of yesteryear once dazzled local hockey fans.

“If I’m still around,’’ he said, “I’d love to see it.’’

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