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The weirdest moments from the past year in the NHL
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The weirdest moments from the past year in the NHL

The 2018-19 NHL season is upon us, with teams starting training camp this week.

It is sure to be an exciting season, as the Washington Capitals look to defend the Stanley Cup, we see what the Vegas Golden Knights have for an encore in Year 2 and we anticipate whatever else the league has in store for us.

If the past year is any indication of what we should expect, there might be some weirdness.

With that in mind, let us take a look at some of the weirdest and most bizarre stories from the NHL over the past year.

1. The Vegas experience

Literally everything about the NHL's newest franchise was an adventure. Its biggest signing in its first offseason -— Vadim Shipachyov, who was signed for $9 million over two years — played in a grand total of three games before going through a quick and bizarre divorce with the team and returning to Russia. William Karlsson came out of nowhere to score 43 goals after scoring 18 in his entire career before joining Vegas. The team itself was one of the best in the league and went on an unprecedented run to the Stanley Cup Final during a postseason that was highlighted by increasingly elaborate on-ice pregame shows. Then the team went out in the offseason and signed Paul Stastny in free agency and traded for Max Pacioretty. There is absolutely nothing boring, or normal, about this expansion team. 

2. Brad Marchand kept licking people

He did it to Leo Komarov twice during the season, including once in the playoffs, and then did the same thing to Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan in the second round. The NHL actually had to warn him to stop doing it and threatened disciplinary action if he didn't. Marchand called the entire situation "pretty stupid." Indeed it was, Brad. Indeed it was. It was also one of the most bizarre playoff moments in Stanley Cup playoff history. 

3. The Ottawa Senators 

In a lot of ways, the Senators were pretty much the anti-Golden Knights in that everything they touched turned into a failure. After coming within a game of the Stanley Cup Final in 2017, they started the 2017-18 season by giving up a king's ransom to get Matt Duchene (including what will almost certainly be a lottery pick in 2019) and then completely fell off the map. They finished with one of the worst records in the league, the owner threatened to move the team the day before the team's outdoor game and one of the leading scorers had to be traded in the offseason because his fiance was accused of harassing Melinda Karlsson, wife of the team's best player, Erik Karlsson, following the death of their newborn son. Not enough? Karlsson has since been traded for a collection of magic beans, and the owner, just two days before training camp, released an astonishingly awkward and absurd video where he attempted to outline the team's plan to rebuild by stripping the team down to a roster that within two years will be made up primarily of rookies.

4. Barry Trotz leaves the Capitals

After years of playoff disappointment, the Washington Capitals finally broke through the glass ceiling and won the Stanley Cup. Alex Ovechkin was amazing, they exorcized all of their previous postseason demons by actually coming back from deficits instead of losing them, they finally beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they partied for a solid week straight in a way that we have never really seen from an NHL team.

And then their head coach left.

What makes all of this even weirder is everyone just assumed that Trotz was a free agent after the season, but that turned out to not be the case. Trotz's contract with the Capitals contained a clause that if they won the Stanley Cup at any time with him behind the bench, an automatic two-year extension would kick in. That extension featured a raise of $300,000, which would have pushed his salary to $1.8 million...significantly below the market value for a coach with his resume. 

Unable to come to financial terms on a new salary that would pay Trotz a market salary for a Stanley Cup winning head coach, he resigned from the Capitals and took over behind the bench of the New York Islanders just as they were about to lose John Tavares in free agency. It is quite a turn of events and marks just the third time since 1994 that a coach has left the defending Stanley Cup champions (Mike Keenan leaving the New York Rangers in 1994 and Scotty Bowman leaving the Detroit Red Wings in 2002). 

5. Scott Foster plays for the Chicago Blackhawks

Goaltending was a constant problem for the Chicago Blackhawks during the season, with Corey Crawford sidelined for most of it due to a still mysterious "upper-body injury." Things got even worse for them in late March when their backup, Anton Forsberg, was unable to dress for a game. That forced Scott Foster, their "emergency goalie," to dress for a game against the Winnipeg Jets. 

Emergency goalies dressing for games isn't exactly common, but it does happen at least once or twice per season around the league. 

They almost never have to play. 

That changed when the Blackhawks starter that night, Collin Delia, who was making his NHL debut, had to exit the game in the third period with an injury, forcing Foster into the net. He not only played, but he played exceptionally well and stopped all seven shots he faced against one of the NHL's best offenses. 

It was by far the highlight of the Blackhawks' disappointing 2017-18 season. 

6. NHL teams might be afraid of Fortnite

In what might be the most "old man yells at clouds" storyline of the past year, there was a report from TSN's Rick Westhead over the summer that some Ontario Hockey League prospects were urged to scrub any Fortnite references on their social media feeds because NHL teams might view the game as a distraction. This came after a report surfaced that one prominent NHL team was worried that a top prospect was going to be written off because of an apparent video game addiction. A strange story, for sure. A more logical conclusion is that some team was disappointed with the development of a prospect, and instead of looking in the mirror at its own scouting and player development systems, the team decided to blame it on something else. 

7. Andrew Cogliano's ironman streak ends with a suspension

Entering the 2017-18 season, Anaheim Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano had never missed a game in his 10-year NHL career, having appeared in the regular season and the postseason. It was an ironman streak that reached 830 consecutive games, but it came to an end in the middle of January when he was handed a two-game suspension by the NHL's Department of Player Safety for delivering a late hit to Adrian Kempe of the Los Angeles Kings. Those were the only two games he missed all season and to this point are still the only two games he has missed as an NHL player. Cogliano was extremely emotional when talking about his streak ending in such a manner and had to fight back tears during his first media availability following the suspension. It is understandable. Being able to play in that many games is an incredible accomplishment, and having it end in that way had to be frustrating. On the other hand, it was definitely a play that deserved a suspension. Still an odd way for it to end. 

8. The Penguins and Jack Johnson make John Tortorella lose it

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Jack Johnson to a five-year, $18 million contract on the first day of free agency, a decision that caused quite a reaction given the term of the contract, Johnson's recent play and the fact he is probably only going to be (or only should be) a third-pairing defender. For Johnson, though, it is a great opportunity to play for a Stanley Cup contender alongside his longtime friend, Sidney Crosby. Naturally, he was very excited and talked about how thrilled he was to join a winning organization. Meanwhile, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford vaguely hinted that he knew why the Columbus Blue Jackets had made Johnson a healthy scratch down the stretch and that it had nothing to do with how he was playing.

You know who did not find any of this amusing?

Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who responded by going on a profanity-laced outburst to Blue Jackets beat writer Aaron Portzline. It was just the latest chapter in Tortorella's long-standing feud with the Penguins. He loathes them.

9. Ryan Kesler and Ryan Johansen "beef" on Twitter

As far as individual feuds in the NHL go, one of the more intense ones right now involves Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen and Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler. It reached a boiling point during the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs when they had numerous verbal and physical encounters on the ice, including microphones catching Johansen telling Kesler that nobody likes him. 

This offseason Kesler attempted to keep things going on Twitter with a tweet directed toward Johansen asking if he wanted to meet "in the streets" before they got on the ice. 

Johansen seemed to indirectly respond a few hours later by saying he would pay for Kesler's parking. 

As far as pro athlete Twitter beefs go, this one was pretty lame, which is kind of what makes it so weird. 

10. Jalen Ramsey made a lot of NHL players mad

Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey is one of the best at what he does — covering the NFL's wide receivers and talking trash. He somehow managed to draw the ire of a bunch of NHL players when he boasted in an interview that he could probably make the NHL in six months. Instead of taking the comment for what it was (kind of funny, kind of silly, nothing to be seriously angry about it), a bunch of NHL players showed how...let's say... humorless they could be by talking to ESPN's Emily Kaplan about how it de-classed the sport and was "ignorant." 

There were some good responses though, specifically from Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov who said, "I would like to see that, for sure. He can come; we can help him. It's cool if an athlete wants to try something new."

That is the spirit, Evgeny!

11. The Anaheim Ducks perfectly sum up Connor McDavid's early career in Edmonton 

Connor McDavid is the best offensive player in the NHL, and for the second year in a row, he topped the 100-point mark and finished as the league's leading scorer. The only thing that prevented him from winning a second consecutive MVP award is the fact the team around him completely stunk and missed the playoffs by more than 20 points, which is really an incredible, spectacular failure on the part of the Oilers front office.

Nothing summed up the Oilers' incompetence without McDavid on the ice than a game against the Anaheim Ducks where Anaheim literally just held on to the puck for nearly a minute, waited for McDavid to get tired and go for a line change and then immediately went up the ice and scored the game-winning goal.








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