The most hockey disarray in the Northwest isn’t coming from the Kraken.
Even after losing six games in a row, the Kraken are leagues ahead of where the Vancouver Canucks seemingly are at. Things came to a head earlier this week after the Canucks lost to Colorado, and before that, Chicago.
“Fire Benning” chants radiated through Rogers Place, in reference to general manager Jim Benning, and owner Francesco Aquilini had a meeting with the former where he gave a vote of confidence.
In a presser after, Benning’s plan was all over the place. There’s little confidence in Vancouver these days, and that’s reasonable.
“It’s really upsetting because I think as a management team this last seven-plus years we’ve worked really hard to draft well and develop our players properly,” Benning told reporters during that presser. “It’s wearing on all of us from ownership to the management team, to the coaches.”
It’s Benning’s eighth season running the Canucks. He said in his presser they didn’t expect to have just five wins through the first 17 games, especially with the talent they brought in — Conor Garland, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tucker Poolman — retaining Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson, and what looked to be a breakout year out of goalie Thatcher Demko.
Much like for the Kraken, it’s early enough in the season for the Canucks to turn things around. The difference comes in years; it’s the Kraken’s first season, there’s still time for that goodwill to dissipate. For the Canucks that’s been happening for some time.
A Tufte situation
Minnesota native Riley Tufte used the entirety of his callup money to buy tickets for his family to see him when his Dallas Stars visited the Wild earlier this week. Then, he was a healthy scratch.
Dallas lost the game 7-2. It probably wasn’t because Tufte didn’t play, but there’s no way that’s a good way for coach Rick Bowness to win and maintain that locker room. The team let Tufte speak about playing in Minnesota for the first time on multiple occassions.
He didn’t know he was going to sit until an hour before the game. There’s no way around it, that sucks.
“It’s a big ask for him to go into a big game like today,” Bowness said of Tufte. “Kivi sat a couple games. We wanted to get some speed and some energy from him. Riley hasn’t played very much, he’s only played four minutes one night, and seven minutes the last. That’s a tough ask to put him in those situations.
There’s been plenty of fallouts in reactions in Dallas and around the league. All around it’s just a pretty bad look from Bowness and the Stars.
COVID in Canada
Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin entered NHL COVID-19 protocol after testing positive Friday. That came a few days after the Ottawa Senators had to postpone three games after dealing with 10 players on their protocol list.
It’s not as bad as it was a year ago, but the NHL is going to have to adjust to life playing in a pandemic still. The Kraken have gotten lucky, only two players and a coach were in protocol an extended period of time, but the Senators are an example of how it can still affect an entire season.
That’s why a comment from Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter a day before the Senators announced they’d postpone some games was especially baffling, if not telling about the NHL mentality around COVID still.
Jost on what almost was
Avalanche forward Tyson Jost never actually played for Dave Hakstol in North Dakota, but the current Kraken coach is who sold him on the idea. He recruited the Avalanche star, but left to coach the Flyers before Jost had a chance to play for him.
“North Dakota is a pretty nice spot to play,” said the Avalanche forward. “So I liked that but also (Hakstol)’s morals and as a person, all that stuff played a part in it. North Dakota is a good spot, and if you want to be in the NHL, that’s a place you want to go.”
Jost was also a pick of the Everett Silvertips in the WHL before committing to then-Hakstol’s North Dakota.
Quebec bound?
The Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights are the two most recent teams to enter the NHL in expansion in the past five years, becoming the 31st and 32nd franchises in the league.
That seems like it’s probably enough for now; no league has more than 32 clubs, and just the NFL has as many as the NHL. But the league still has one market on its radar — Quebec.
Quebec Prime Minister François Legault said on the RDS radio station on Thursday evening he’d had conversations with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about a team in Quebec. That doesn’t have to be expansion; after all, the Arizona Coyotes need somewhere to go after this season.
“You have to look at who is ready to invest. We have an amphitheater in Quebec that has already been built. We are in the process of making contacts with Mr. Bettman. We are looking at what we need to bring back the Nordiques. I think we are capable of having a second team in Quebec.”
Maybe it’s nothing, but Quebec has been pining for a team since the Nordiques left to become the Colorado Avalanche in the 1990s. At one point during the New York Islanders arena renovations and drama, it seemed like they would make a push for them. They were vying for one of the recent expansion franchises as well.
The presence of the Montreal Canadiens doesn’t make it easy to add another team in Quebec, either. But the league has revisited past markets before; the Winnipeg Jets are on their second version, and Atlanta had two cracks at it.
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