NHL Notebook: Dylan Holloway skates with Edmonton Oilers, will the Vancouver Canucks trade Bo Horvat and more
By Zach Laing
1 year agoDylan Holloway is working his way back from an injury suffered against the Buffalo Sabres last week.
Holloway got blown up by a big centre ice hit by Ilya Lybushkin and hasn’t drawn in for any of the Oilers’ last two games.
Word is that he will travel with the team on an upcoming three-game road trip, but not play tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Despite that, Holloway was seen twirling around Rogers Place for Monday’s morning skate. It’s a good sign to see him back on the ice and hopefully, he’ll be able to draw back into the lineup soon.
Tough times in Vancouver…
The Vancouver Canucks continue to roll, but uh… not in a good way. They’re still the league’s only winless team and were dealt another blow by losing to Buffalo on the weekend.
They got boo’d out of Rogers Arena in their home opener and jerseys even hit the ice.
President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford hinted over the weekend the team could be looking at a rebuild.
And now, trading Bo Horvat might be a potential option, pens CanuckArmy’s Bill Huan:
Bo Horvat was the first piece of the puzzle; the first piece of the Canucks’ now almost decade-long rebuild retool.Unfortunately for him, Horvat might never reap the benefits of his patience and loyalty (assuming the team ever finds its footing again) since the Canucks can’t afford to award him with a long-term contract.That’s to no fault of his own, but rather the way in which the roster is currently constructed. Horvat is undoubtedly looking for a max eight-year extension that will take him to his age 35 season, and with centres valued at a premium, there’s no scenario in which he’ll sign for anything less than $7 million a year.Such a deal might be feasible if the team had a better cap sheet, but who are we kidding? This is the Canucks we’re talking about — the same team that traded for Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s albatross of a contract before locking up another aging player in J.T. Miller instead of selling high at last year’s trade deadline.
Kessel’s ironman streak
Phil Kessel is set to tie Keith Yandle’s ironman streak and will get the record soon after.
On Monday’s Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna talked a bit about it.
Mike McKenna: “It’s iron man fatigue.”
Frank Seravalli: “How is that possible?”
Mike McKenna: “Well, because Yandle just grabbed it. We spent all this time building up Yandle, and then it’s anti-climactic when less than a calendar year later, here comes somebody else along to pick it up. We should have been celebrating Phil Kessel as much as we have been Keith Yandle. This is unbelievable. The things that Kessel’s played through to get to this point, and that’s just sheer will.
I had my share of bumps and bruises, I played with pulled groins, I played with a lot of injuries because first off I wasn’t very good, and I knew I was going to lose the net, so I had real motivation because I needed to keep getting contracts. Phil Kessel was going to keep getting contracts, he just wanted to be in the lineup, like he wouldn’t leave the lineup.
I think it’s a testament to him, but it’s a great point, why are we not speaking about this more, because this is a record that I can’t see ever being broken. I really can’t. In today’s day and age, kids miss games for a hangnail or precautionary reasons, and I think this is one that’s going to go down in the record books forever.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, and check out some of these stats that the Vegas Golden Knights threw out there as well. It just gives you some perspective on to what Phil Kessel’s looking at. He’s played 988 consecutive NHL games, his next closest teammate William Karlsson is at 65.
When you think back to Phil Kessel last year in Arizona, skating one shift and then hopping on a private jet to go be there for the birth of his child, to me while it was cheesy in the way that he kept his streak going, it’s a reminder of all the different things that can pop up that could derail a streak, it’s not just injury. Yes you need some luck with that, you need to have that warrior mentality, but it’s also illness, it’s COVID-19, it’s family-related stuff that’s going on.
All those different things factor into it and I think if he exceeds a thousand games, he’s pretty close that he’s going to, I don’t think that record’s ever going to be broken. The next closest guy in the NHL is only in the 500s. No one’s even close, and those guys, it’s nice to even have a 1,000 game career, let alone to play 1,000 games consecutively.”
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.
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