Could the Salary Cap rise sooner than expected?
Pierre LeBrun: “Gary Bettman after a 4-hour Board of Governors meeting tells assembled media here in NYC that the escrow balance likely will be paid off at end of season by players. And if so, the salary cap will jump this summer by around $4M. But if not fully paid, cap goes up just $1M.
On waivers and clearing waivers
Cap Friendly: The Colorado Avalanche have placed Lukas Sedlak on waivers.
Buffalo Sabres Anders Bjork has cleared waivers.
Alex Ovechkin is second All-Time in multi-goal games
Greg Harvey: “Alex Ovechkin had his 159th multi-goal game in his career, passing Brett Hull for 2nd All-Time. He is only behind Wayne Gretzky (189).
He now has at least 20 career points against every single NHL team besides the Golden Knights (6) & Kraken (4).”
A creative nickname for Arber Xhekaj
Eric Engels: “Me to Xhekaj: You need to come up with a more creative nickname for ‘Slaf.’
Xhekaj: Working on it.
Me: What’s yours? ‘X?’
Xhekaj: Yeah, and some guys call me ‘Wifi’
Me: Oh?
Xhekaj: You know how a wifi password usually looks something like my last name?
Me: Now that’s creative!”
- Eric Engels: “Should note, Xhekaj said Chris Wideman was the first to start doing this and the one who calls him “Wifi” the most.”
Evgeny Kuznetsov suspended
NHL Player Safety: Washington Capitals forward Evgeni Kuznetsov has been suspended for one for high-sticking Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs.
Samantha Pell: Capitals coach Peter Laviolette on Kuznetsov’s high-stick: “Often times when you are in the battle like that, sometimes things are reactionary. I think it was accidental.”
Larry Brooks: “Slash to the face equals one game. Parros and his crew just don’t get it. But if the players are ok with this, and obviously they are, why would anyone else care?”
Tarik El-Bashir: Kuznetsov’s supplementary discipline.
“Kuznetsov has been suspended once (three games for off-ice conduct in 2019) and fined twice for on-ice transgressions…in 2017 for diving ($2,000) and last season for high-sticking Noel Acciari ($5,000).”
