“Our focus is on our room, on Montreal tonight and starting off a hard road trip.That'll work itself out. My job is to help the team on the ice.” “Out of my control, out of our control in the dressing room,” added captain Logan Couture. “I'm not in a position to say if there is or isn't. We haven’t even brought that up.” Would Kane be welcomed back by the players? “We'll see once the suspension is over,” said Marc-Edouard Vlasic. “I think this is going to be a decision that is first made by management and ownership. “We’ve got a while to deal with this,” head coach Bob Boughner said. As the Sharks prepared to play Montreal on Tuesday, everyone chose their words very, very carefully. One of the challenges is that, as players were upset last season, the organization pointed out Kane was undergoing counselling and tried to balance between acceptance and discipline. The Sharks’ organization has been both supportive of him and disappointed in him, as is clearly indicated in its statement. 30, but now we enter the next phase of this story. I don’t believe the league sought it to any legitimate level and the NHLPA would have fought it. There is no further punishment - eliminate the rumours or idea there could be a contract termination. Evander Kane’s 21-game suspension for using a fake vaccination card will be his sole penalty. Teams shouldn’t be penalized for doing the right things, taking all possible precautions to contain it.ġ. Something can be figured out.Įven the most careful human doesn’t control the virus. The next argument is going to be about “money outside the system.” As far as that goes, if you don’t want to give teams a freebie, treat the one-game salary as a bonus overage to be applied this year or next. Instead of forcing teams to play a man short, eliminate that penalty in COVID-related cases for those who have complied. Putting them on long-term injured reserve makes no sense. Without necessary protocols, Johnson, Holl and MacKinnon might not have missed any games. Shouldn’t we be rewarding everyone for that? At season’s start there were just four unvaccinated players. The league and players deserve credit for such a high rate. It doesn’t mean you can’t catch COVID simply safer to yourself and the people around you. But this weekend convinced me there should be.Ĭolorado and Toronto are fully vaccinated. “They’re not a surprise.”Īs I write this (Monday night), there are no plans to create exceptions. “You know the rules,” one executive said. And, to be honest, there are some with zero sympathy for teams who get into trouble - especially those who flirted with 21-man rosters. I can’t stand the salary cap, but it’s not going anywhere. Yeah, the latter’s turned us into dopamine-addicted zombies, but it’s not disappearing, so you better learn to navigate it. With the cap flat this year - and looking at a $1M increase next season - it’s not insignificant, decreasing bottom-of-the-roster flexibility.Ĭomplaining about the salary cap is like complaining about social media. In 2023-24, it will go to $775,000 for the final three years of the current CBA. One moderately bright GM pointed out that not everyone realized the impact of the minimum-salary increase. (Varsity Blues’ assistant coach Mike Zigomanis said the two have joked that it could have been “Alex Bishop Night" instead of “David Ayres Night” had it been his turn that fateful February Saturday.) Last year, the NHL created a taxi squad to eradicate this problem. Toronto could have sent Timothy Liljegren to the AHL Marlies, but with Justin Holl out and Jake Muzzin not 100 per cent - this was as unattractive as early-morning Highway 401 roadkill.īishop is a regular on the emergency goalie circuit, so the Leafs know him well. Pandemic shutdowns in Canadian intercollegiate sports mean that, last Wednesday, he played his first competitive game in 20 months. The Maple Leafs needed the University of Toronto’s Alex Bishop as an emergency backup when Petr Mrazek was hurt two nights earlier in Ottawa. That number dropped to 16 as Stefan Matteau went down with an injury. Thanks to two COVID-related absences (Jack Johnson, Nathan MacKinnon), an injury (Valeri Nichushkin) and a suspension (Gabriel Landeskog), the Avalanche could only fit 17 skaters - one under the maximum - in their 5-3 loss to St. Toronto snares so much of the spotlight that few realized Colorado had an even more legitimate gripe. What could Jack Campbell's AAV be on an extension?īeaucoup de complaints about salary-cap strangleholds last weekend.Where do Evander Kane and the Sharks go from here?.
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