Dater’s Daily: Matt Duchene Reflects On Trade From Avs

A good Saturday to all. After a couple of days on the DL, I look to be back at the Avalanche morning skate and game today, against Nashville. Speaking of Nashville, Matt Duchene gave an interview on a podcast called “Empty Netters” recently, and talked some about the night he was traded by the Avalanche to the Ottawa Senators, back in those crazy early-season days of the 2017-18 season. That leads off our daily look at stories from around the NHL:

• Duchene talked about the moment he and Joe Sakic met in the bowels of the Barclay’s Center, when Sakic told him where he was going. Duchene said things got a little emotional (Empty Netters, at about the 20-minute mark)
• I was there that night, covering the game for BSN. I still have some of the videos I shot from that night, including right there in the elevator with Dutchy as he was leaving the building, on his way to Ottawa:

• I think Matt Duchene is a quality person and excellent player, and I have always said that. He’s a very smart guy, a super successful guy.
• But, yeah, everything started to go a lot better for the Colorado Avalanche after that trade by Joe Sakic.
• I’m not sure anyone is actually covering the Predators anymore, in the mainstream media. I can barely navigate the god-awful, ad-cluttered Tennessean website, and I know that outlets like The Athletic long ago gave up covering the team. But I was able to scrape this story off the Tennessean website for a player transaction yesterday (Tennessean)
• A reminder about “ad cluttered” sites: When you subscribe to Colorado Hockey Now, you get a totally ad-free existence. And did I mention, until Christmas, I’m offering 33% off for a full-year subscription to CHN? Just use the promo code word prince in the checkout box here, to get the price dropped from $29.99 to $19.99. (easy checkout box)
• Actually, this is the most informative story I’ve read on the Predators, and their current situation, in quite a while (Hockey News)
• The Boston Bruins are hot after Patrick Kane (Boston Hockey Now)
• Matthew Tkachuk is hurt (Florida Hockey Now)
• Milan Lucic was pissed at being a healthy scratch with the Flames and vows it won’t happen again (Calgary Hockey Now)
• Is anyone interested in Erik Karlsson? (San Jose Hockey Now)