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Morning Skate: Battle of Florida kicks off a week of rivalry games
Well. Sort of.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Lace ‘em up. Time for the Morning Skate.
BATTLES
The Battle of Florida resumes tonight! I’ve been thinking about rivalries lately. The division switch-up of a few years ago erased some classic late-aughts rivalries (Stars-Sharks just doesn’t feel the same anymore), but a few are popping up in their place. Or, in the case of the Lightning and Panthers, some longtime division rivals are starting to bubble up as both teams become contenders.
So! Here’s a short list of the ones to watch out for this week.
Monday: Battle of Florida (Lightning at Panthers)
No Jaromir Jagr, but that just gives more playing time to exciting young cats like Denis Malgin, Vincent Trocheck, and Aleksander Barkov. The Panthers are deeper than they have been in some time; this is a must-watch game tonight.
Tuesday: Battle of Teams with Red Jerseys (Hurricanes at Devils)
Also known as the Battle of Surprising Playoff Contenders. Led by Taylor Hall and youth, the Devils can suddenly score. Jeff Skinner is back to his elite form, and surely hungry to avenge a blowout loss to the Devils this weekend.
Wednesday: Battle of Robin Lehner’s Former Teams (Senators at Sabres)
Thursday: Nah
This is becoming a flimsy idea.
Friday: Battle of Teams That Are in the Central Division (Jets at Avalanche)
Both clubs have demonstrated their vast potential in spurts this season; here’s hoping they’ll bring out the best in each other.
Saturday: Battle of Me Trying to Continue This Dumb Idea
waves white flag
NEWS NEWS NEWS
- Former NHLer Marek Svatos passed away this weekend. Our condolences.
- Niklas Kronwall is back with the Red Wings, and nobody’s sure if that’s a good thing.
- Jon Bon Jovi himself approves!
- The biggest problem for the Islanders right now? They’re still the Islanders.
- Here’s a hard truth: The San Jose Sharks aren’t getting enough from Martin Jones.
- Mike Cammalleri: still kinda good!
- Following the melee in Toronto this weekend, Canucks fans think the NHL doesn’t care about player safety.
- The Rangers just keep surging. Incidentally, so is the team they square off with tonight.
- Hope is usually hard to come by for Minnesota sports fans, but the Wild are giving it so far.
- CHL rules are stupid. Dylan Strome is awesome. Something has to give.
- Meet the Australian Women’s Hockey League!
- Calgary would like a do-over on last week.
- The beat-up Stars are treading water.
- Sam Reinhart turned 21 and immediately got pranked by teammates. As you will.
- The Blues will be without one of their better defensemen for awhile.
- Carolina hit a season low last night.
- The pretty boys in D.C. did some dirty work this weekend.
- Finally, our Sharks blog is hiring writers!
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