Eight months ago the Montreal Canadiens and the Nashville Predators swapped All-Star defensemen. The Canadiens received Shea Weber and in return they sent P.K. Subban to Nashville. On Thursday Subban made his first return to the city of Montreal. Subban spent the first 6 seasons wearing a Canadiens sweater and the team played a tribute video for him that brought him to tears. Subban made two All-Star teams (2013 and 2015) and won the Norris trophy with Montreal in 2013 and the video was a nice touch. The Canadiens did go on to win the game 2-1 in Subban’s return visit. Also something with this trade that doesn’t seem to happen to often is that it’s benefitted both teams.
It’s the home stretch in the NHL regular season as most teams have 20 games or less left to play. With teams looking to find there way into the playoffs it’s a tough time of the season for a team to suffer an injury. The Buffalo Sabres who are trying to make a playoff push and find themselves 4 points out of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference just suffered a big loss due to injury. Kyle Okposo who is the Sabres leader in points this season suffered an injury to his ribs and is expected to miss both of the Sabres games this weekend and possibly more. Being that it’s an NHL injury there isn’t a lot of information out there about Okposo’s injury. Okposo had 2 assists in Buffalo’s 6-3 win Thursday night over the Arizona Coyotes before being injured. Okposo was the team’s top free agent addition last summer and leads Buffalo with 43 points. Okposo has scored 19 goals and has 24 assists in 63 games this season for the Sabres.
The Sabres first game without Okposo is Saturday night when they’ll host the 29-26-8 Tampa Bay Lighting before they head to Pittsburgh for a Sunday match up against the 39-16-8 Penguins. It would be a long shot for the Sabres to make the playoffs as they’d have to jump five teams for that final wild card spot, but Tampa Bay is one of those teams ahead of them in the standings; so a win tonight would at least keep there playoff hopes alive. There’s no actual timetable for Okposo’s return, but the Sabres are hopefully he’ll return for Tuesday nights home game against the 30-26-7 Philadelphia Flyers.
The Chicago Blackhawks also had an injury loss as they placed defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson on injured reserve with an “Upper Body Injury”. Hjalmarsson was on the ice for just 3 minutes in the Blackhawks 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on February 23rd. Hjalmarsson has missed the Blackhawks last three games and is expected to miss Chicago’s game tonight against the 32-23-9 Nashville Predators in Nashville. There is a chance that Hjalmarsson will return for the Blackhawks next set of back to back games. Chicago host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday March 9th before they head to Detroit to face the Red Wings on Friday March 10th.
While Hjalmarsson isn’t a scoring defenseman having 14 points on the season. Scoring 5 goals on 9 assists, but he averages over 21 minutes of ice time per game for the Blackhawks. That’s the 3rd highest average on the team. Hjalmarsson has played in 60 games for the Blackhawks and is 2nd in the NHL in shot blocks. Hjalmarsson has blocked 156 shots this season and is second to Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators who has 168 shot blocks this season.
Another loss for the Blackhawks was back up goalie Scott Darling who was hurt in practice before last nights game and is expected to miss three weeks. Darling had to fill in for Blackhawks #1 goalie Corey Crawford who was out with an illness last week and won both of his starts, Darling has actual won his last 4 starts in a row and is 16-5-2 as a starter this season. While Darling is out injured the Blackhawks have called up goaltender Jeff Glass from Rockford of the AHL to serve as Crawford’s back up.
Week two of the NASCAR season takes the teams to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 on Sunday. Kevin Harvick took the pole for Sunday’s race with a qualifying speed of 190.398 m.p.h. Ryan Newman will start 2nd while Kyle Busch starts 3rd, Rickey Stenhouse 4th and Brad Keslowski will start 5th to round out the Top 5. Last week’s winner Kurt Busch will start 13th in Atlanta.
There where some qualifying issues as five teams didn’t clear inspection. Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Derrike Cope and Cody Ware were the five drivers who failed to post an official lap when the 20 minute clock expired; ending the first of three qualifying rounds. Their position in the starting field was determined based on 2016 championship owner points. There where also a couple of teams that just made it out with enough time to get onto the track for qualifying. Team Penske’s (#22) Joey Logano and Stewart-Haas racings (#14) Clint Bowyer just made it. Logano will start 6th while Bowyer will start 25th on Sunday.
In last nights 135-130 win by the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Atlanta Hawks the Cavaliers set a record for the most made 3-pointers in a game with 25. The Cavaliers hit on 25 of the 46 (54.3%) 3-point shots they took against Atlanta. LeBron James led the way with six made 3’s. Kyrie Irving had five made 3’s as part of his game high 43 point night. Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson and Derrick Williams all had three 3’s. While Iman Shumpert hit two 3’s.
The Cavaliers broke the record that was just set by the Houston Rockets on December 16th 2016 against the New Orleans Pelicans. It was Korver who hit the 25th and final 3-pointer for the Cavaliers against his former team. Korver spent five seasons with Atlanta before being traded earlier this season to Cleveland.
How long do you think this record will stand? I’m not even sure if it will make it to the end of the regular season which is April 12th. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Rockets regain the record and of course the Golden State Warriors would be a front runner to break this record. Of course with this style of play in the NBA just about any team in the association could break this record on any given night. What team do you think will break this record? and when?
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