Another week is upon us, folks! The August days slowly tick away as we get closer to back-to-school (in Massachusetts, at least, as I know other parts of the country may already be back).
If that has you feeling down, you can take solace in the fact that the return to school means we’re at least getting closer to hockey season resuming and you having more interesting things to read than my morning ramblings.
Legends abound
In a recent Morning Skate, I shared the roster for Zdeno Chara’s testimonial/farewell game in Slovakia, which will be played on Friday.
It looks like the rosters have been tweaked just a bit, but this is still quite a group, via Complete Hockey News on Facebook:
The removal of former Bruin Brad Marchand was due to what he called “last minute” surgery to repair a lingering issue, so he may not be ready for the start of the season.
Still, these are some impressive lineups, ones worth having an Internet argument over: which group, in their players’ respective primes, comes out on top?
I would probably go with Team Svet due to the offensive firepower, but you could make arguments either way.
I do like how Team Svet’s defense group reads Chara, Kaberle, Sekera, Hamr, and…Aaron Ward, who is apparently an honorary Slovak/Czech. Not a bad honor to have!
Never forget Aaron Ward’s one-time breakaway goal. Legend.
Let’s argue about goalies!
Awwwww yeah, you know what time it is: another NHL Network list to argue about!
Today’s argument involves the league’s best goalies, with Jeremy Swayman featuring at #5.
Goalies ranked ahead of Swayman, counting down from 4 to 1: Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, Connor Hellebuyck, and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Swayman and Sorokin could probably swap places depending on the day, and you could argue that if you’re basing this solely on recent NHL performance, Swayman should be above Hellebuyck.
However, Hellebuyck is entitled to a down year and still should have plenty left in the tank, so…maybe don’t write him off yet.
Anyways, at least we can argue some more.
Hopefully you had yourself a decent weekend and are ready for the week to begin.
What else is on tap for today?