Evan's Daily

Evan’s NHL Daily: Back To Winnipeg, Ritchie Keeps Rolling

Published

2 weeks ago

April 30, 2024

Evan Rawal

The Avalanche will look to make it out of round one of the NHL playoffs on Tuesday night, and Colorado Hockey Now will be there to cover it. The journey from Denver to Fargo to Winnipeg was completed again on Monday in preparation of Game Five, and we’re ready to go.

In the Ontario Hockey League, Calum Ritchie led his Oshawa Generals to a win, and they’re now one win away from making it to the OHL finals.

In the NHL, the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights will continue to beat each other up, as Dallas tied the series up at two.

All that and more in this Tuesday edition of Evan’s Daily.

Colorado Hockey Now

It’s hard enough to stop Nathan MacKinnon and company, but the Winnipeg Jets haven’t been able to stop Casey Mittelstadt, and that’s not good news for them.

CHN

Back To Winnipeg

A handful of us made the journey back to Winnipeg yesterday, but with a quick stop in Fargo. I drove with Meghan and Nick from DNVR, but we stopped and met Corey and Andy from the Denver Post, as well as Kyle from the Denver Gazette at Rhombus Pizza in Fargo. Not bad.

Another long journey, but the drive isn’t that bad overall. I’ll be recording a podcast with Meghan today at the rink before Game Five, and we’ll see if this series continues tonight or not. I really have no feeling on what will happen here, and the Jets will almost certainly make some changes to their lineup. Will Colorado? They called up a bunch of Eagles players to the NHL, including Chris Wagner. It wouldn’t surprise me if he found his way into the lineup over Kovalenko on the road, but we shall see.

I’ll have all the news for everyone from morning skate.

Ritchie Rolling

Calum Ritchie’s season looks like it will keep going, as the Oshawa Generals took a commanding 3-0 series lead over the North Bay Battalion on Monday night. One more win, and they’re headed to the finals.

Ritchie led the way, being named first star of the night with two goals and an assist.

That Sennecke & Ritchie connection 🤑#OHLPlayoffs | #GoAvsGo | #NHLDraft | @Oshawa_Generals pic.twitter.com/gXniIHedju

— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) April 30, 2024

His season total, regular season and playoffs, comes to a combined 100 points in 63 games.

Stars Make It Interesting

The Stars and Golden Knights will continue to beat each other up for a little while longer, as Dallas tied the series up at two Monday. The game started with a few massive hits on the opening shift of the game, and it didn’t really calm down from there. Neither team has won a game at home in this series, and given how every other series hasn’t been all that close, it’s nice to have at least one series go six games.

Some massive hits from tonights Stars @ Golden Knights game. Jamie Benn gave quite the response for McNabb’s hit on Logan Stankoven #TexasHockey #VegasBorn

pic.twitter.com/myT7kS79Q8

— Top Shelf Dusters Podcast (@TopShelfDusters) April 30, 2024

Lightning Crashes

Is this the end of the Tampa Bay Lightning era in the NHL?

The Lightning went out with a whimper on Monday, losing Game Five to the Florida Panthers by a score of 6-1. Jon Cooper was upset about some goalie interference calls, and I think he might have a case on the second one, but I don’t think those would have saved his team. Florida is a wagon and clearly the better team.

When you take run after run for the Stanley Cup, giving up draft picks in the process, eventually you’ll hit a wall, and that’s what happening. Their stars are getting older, and they might even lose one.

Did Steven Stamkos play his last game in Tampa? Could he sign with another NHL team? I have my doubts that will happen, but he’s getting up there in age, and committing that much money to another aging star might just continue to slow decline of the Lightning. Of course, losing him would almost guarantee changes will be made.