NEWSLETTER
Hope everyone had themselves a great weekend. We get back to the work week even closer to the end of tumbleweed season in the NHL and closer to the start of rookie camps or tournaments and closer to training camps beginning in less than a month. Just 52 days until the start of the regular season for the Blackhawks on October 13th!
• While we are still just over seven weeks until the beginning of the regular season, it appears that Marc-André Fleury is already in mid-season form. He was seen at a recent training session clowning on a group of skaters, trying and failing, to score on the 2021 Vezina winner…
🌸 #Blackhawks
(🎥 @InGoalMedia) pic.twitter.com/FbZ0c3zL9v— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) August 23, 2021
• That glove save at the end…unreal.
• We need to get Fleury his Blackhawks gear soon. Seen here in the video, Fleury is still wearing his Vegas Golden Knights pads and helmet, and an inside-out Pittsburgh Penguins sweater. Yeah, bout time for a gear update for “Flower.” At least he is living his best life, schooling these guys in net.
• Also living his best life, David Pastrnak…
My jsme jiní…. pic.twitter.com/YNSKdiQAKR
— Václav Svěrkoš (@VSverkos) August 22, 2021
• Seen here, shirtless and leading the crowd at a FC Banik Ostrava game in the Czech Republic, Pastrnak is just enjoying his offseason as best as he knows how. Feels like a personality like Pastrnak could be used to market the league, especially on an international scale. Maybe like putting him on the cover of NHL22? Ope, too late for that. Oh well, back to listening to the Barbie Girl song…
• Continuing the theme of living our best lives this weekend, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s summer with the Stanley Cup continues and the one-upmanship of the meals being eaten out of the Cup this summer also continues. This time with goaltending coach Frantz Jean having a lobster-fest in the Cup…
Of course a #stanleycup party in the Maritimes cant be without Lobster. @NHL @TBLightning @HockeyHallFame pic.twitter.com/HHLU2ynL9Y
— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) August 22, 2021
• Never been a big fan of lobster myself. But out of the Stanley Cup…I’d give it a try.
• At the IIHF Women’s World Championships this weekend, we saw the North American powerhouses of the U.S. and Canada handle business. First with the Canadians drubbing the R.O.C. (Russia) with a 5-1 win. But not only was it a dominant win for Canada in the final score, but they out-shot the Russian side almost ten-to-one…
Canada was firing on all cylinders in Sunday night’s win over ROC 🔥 #WomensWorlds pic.twitter.com/GiEguVsXVl
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 23, 2021
• Canada and the Czech Republic lead the tournament with ten goals scored, each through two games in the preliminary round.
• As for the U.S., they handled Finland in a 3-0 win, their second 3-0 win in as many games in the preliminary round. With the 3-0 goal, Hilary Knight scored her historic 44th goal in her IIHF World Championships career…
With her goal tonight, @HilaryKnight ties the legendary Cammi Granato for the most #WomensWorlds goals in tournament history, with 44.
UNREAL. 🇺🇸🐐 pic.twitter.com/0ow4phVtM9
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) August 23, 2021
• The goal sealed the win for Team USA and tied Knight with USA Women’s Hockey legend Cammi Granato for the most goals in World Championships competition for the Women’s USA team. It’s pretty likely that Knight will overtake Granato’s record shortly, and with 76 career points in World Championships competition, Knight is 10 points behind the all-time record held by Canada’s Hayley Wickenheiser.
• And finally, keeping with international hockey, another hurdle was cleared for the NHL’s potential participation in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics…
Updating from a week ago: IIHF has agreed to purchase insurance—including COVID coverage—for NHL players participating in Olympic qualifiers, per PA.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) August 21, 2021
• One of the major hang-ups in getting an agreement for the NHL to fully participate in the upcoming Winter Games was getting insurance coverage for the players and personnel heading over. Now it appears that has been achieved, and then some with the COVID coverage being included from the IIHF. Good news all around.
• That will do it for today. Have yourselves a good Monday!
• Don’t forget, send your Blackhawks questions to me on Twitter for our Monday Mailbag post later today! Use the hashtag #BNHawksMailbag and I will get them answered.
