Storm Advisory 2/18/19: NHL News, Rumors, Links, and Daily Roundup

Reading Assignments

• Might as well not bury the lede. Here it is, you bunch of jerks.

Tee shirts sold out quickly online but are being replenished and they will make an appearance at The Eye later this week.

• Here’s a great story with a [seemingly] happy ending. In a conversation between Sara Civian (Athletic Carolina) and Patrick Burke (son of Brian Burke and founder of You Can Play), Burke agreed to hand deliver a “Bunch of Jerks” t-shirt to his father if Canes fans would donate $1000 to his Boston Marathon fundraiser benefitting YCP. It took about 10 minutes to surpass that goal. Read all about it in this twitter thread and stay tuned for more information about how you can help a good cause and send a message about Canes support for the Storm Surge all at the same time - win win!
• Here’s a follow-up from Sara Civian on the back story of her relationship with the Burkes and the contributions to You Can Play, along with a whole lot of kudos for the Canes fan base. [The Athletic $]
• Well the Canes are getting attention, and Don Cherry is getting attention, so I guess everybody got what they wanted, right? Here’s a small sampling of who’s talking about the Canes and the Storm Surge reaction if you want to catch up on the latest. [SI.com] [ESPN] [Forbes] [WaPo] [RMNB] [NBC Sports] [CBS Sports] [WRAL] [SB Nation] oh and [Eddie Lack] and this clever fellow

• Yesterday’s News Today: A Brick Wall Stymies The Stars
• If you missed it during Saturday’s intermission, Mike Maniscalco caught up with Jordan Staal about his recovery progress. Worth a watch, and here’s hoping for more good news from Canes practice today.

• Word on the street is the Ottawa Senators are most likely trading Matt Duchene. Not surprisingly, a lot of teams are interested [Sporting News].
• Thank you Aleksander Barkov for your Habs-defeating hat trick Sunday night [Yahoo]. This is just one of the three and it might be the goal of the year, holy cow.

Stalking The Standings

Well, the trip into the rarified air lasted less than 24 hours. Yesterday:

• The Penguins held off the Rangers Sunday in a 6-5 win, bumping the Canes back under the playoff cut line.
• The Pens also jumped over the Canadiens into the first Wild Card spot, thanks to the aforementioned Barkov and the Panthers defeating the Habs 6-3.
• Thank you Devils for the 4-1 win over the Sabres, opening up a small buffer for the Canes.
• But watch out for the Flyers, who are now closing the gap with a 3-1 win over the Red Wings and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
• Oh and in the late game, the Capitals lost to the Ducks.

Because of the disparity in games played, it helps to look at points percentages to normalize where teams sit in the standings as of today:

• Metro 2 Capitals: 59 GP, 71 pts, .602 pt%, 99 points projected
• Metro 3 Blue Jackets: 57 GP, 69 pts, .605 pt%, 99 points projected
• WC1 Penguins: 59 GP, 69 pts, .585 pt%, 96 points projected (30 ROW tiebreaker)
• WC2 Canadiens: 59 GP, 69 pts, .585 pt%, 96 points projected (29 ROW)
• 9th Hurricanes: 59 GP, 68 pts, .576 pt%, 94 points projected
• 10th Sabres: 58 GP, 63 pts, .543 pt%, 89 points projected
• 11th Flyers: 59 GP, 63 pts, .540 pt%, 88 points projected

For the Canes to reach 96 points, they would need to play out the remainder of the regular season winning at a .609 points percentage pace, which seems like a climb, but they’ve been accruing points at an amazing .738 percentage in the 21 games since Jan. 1.

Tonight’s rooting guide:

• Lightning over Blue Jackets
• Sharks over Bruins
• LA Kings over Capitals