Armstrong Named 2026 Canadian Olympic GM, Sabres Playoff Hopes, March 15th Preview

Armstrong Named 2026 Canadian Olympic GM, Sabres Playoff Hopes, March 15th Preview

Morning all all right so we’ve only got two games tonight in the National Hockey League so the previews at the bottom of the board and uh we’ve got some news of the day at the top so let’s go ahead and jump in talking about the 2026 Olympics

Don’t you dare say it’s too early uh Doug Armstrong has been named the general manager for Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics he of course is currently the general manager of the St Louis Blues Blues are having a down year though who knows how much longer Doug

Doug Armstrong is going to be there uh either way uh Armstrong name Team Canada’s GM uh we’ll see what kind of team they throw together there uh there hasn’t been a general manager named yet for Team Canada for the four nations tournament that the NHL’s running next

Year uh that is apparently expected uh this spring so stay tuned because spring is only a couple weeks away uh that being said though all the best to Doug Armstrong uh it it must it must be a fun job going through all those really good Canadian hockey players and picking up

The best it will be interesting to see if with Armstrong as the guy who’s in charge does that give Bennington then the lead on becoming Team Canada’s goenda and goenda uh it may end up being bennington’s job even if Armstrong wasn’t going to be the general manager

Can’t hurt having him there though in the the the general manager’s chair all right so Buffalo there’s some optimism around Buffalo I really don’t want want to jump on any bandwagons I I will say that because for Buffalo Sabers fans last year I I was very much bullish on

The sabes maybe making the playoffs with that late run I’m I’m not going to do that this year nope I’m just going to watch I’m just going to be very quiet about it uh one thing to keep in mind is that they’re three points out of the playoffs with last night’s results they

Do have three teams to jump over so they got to jump over Washington Detroit and the Islanders uh they also were in the Atlantic so the whole oh they could catch the Flyers they don’t have that benefit that the Metro division teams have uh and they’ve also played more

Games than the teams they’re chasing so it’s not really in their control but the way Detroit’s been playing uh Washington’s been very up and down as well so those two look like they’re passable montre or Montreal I was thinking of Patrick W and Montreal came

To mind no idea why uh the New York Islanders I I don’t know if they’re going to be easy to pass at all they they’ve had a really strong run under Patrick W but that’s the team that to me might be the tough off to pass and and

Might ultimately uh seal the fate of the teams that are chasing them but I I do think it’s been great watching Lucan uh have the the best run he’s had in his career and it it’s been a lot of fun seeing them uh winning games like last night like beating the Islanders for

Nothing like that that’s that’s really really impressive but again the fact that the other teams have more games left to play might just make it more difficult uh for the Sabers uh and again I don’t want to jump on any bandwagons speaking of which uh the New Jersey

Devils with some strong goal tending last night they win a game uh they won against Dallas uh after Jake Allen was a bit shaky early on he looked quite good the rest of the way uh ends up being the game’s first star and it begs the

Question of so if they’d made the Jake Allen move I don’t know a month before the trade deadline who knows where New Jersey would be instead they’re four points back and obviously they have Buffalo and everybody in front of Buffalo to jump past get into the

Playoffs uh but again the one thing New Jersey has in their favor Buffalo doesn’t is they can also um catch Philadelphia and potentially end up third in the division if the Wild Card ends up being too difficult to Chase or you know maybe the Islanders end up

Third and then that opens up that wild card spot for for the uh the Devils uh but again uh the Devils have had a hard time putting together a string of really solid games last night’s a starting point we’ll see what they do for an encore uh Toronto news Mitch MERS is

Dealing with a high ankle sprain so the fact that this is leaked out means he’s probably not going to be back relatively quickly uh that being said the last time he had a high ankle sprain it kept him out three weeks he’s been out for a week

So far he hasn’t been skating so he could play as soon as Saturday I would think that it’s probably a little bit optimistic um high ankle sprain they’re saying it’s not a a major one it’s it’s you know not too bad um if that’s the case fine uh we’ll see what happens but

Yeah Marner being out of the lineup didn’t seem to hurt the Leafs last night they did pretty well so yeah maybe the Leafs I’ll use this uh as a way of proving that they can overcome adversity and they’re not just their core four players uh Gabe valard has been out for

A while I believe it’s been written up as illness well nope uh it’s turned out he has an enlarged spleen so he’s having treatment for that his return date is completely unknown uh sounds like it’s an indefinite you know leave for him at this point in time and hopefully he gets

The treatment he needs in order to get that under control um cuz you need a spleen to live is what I believe anyways uh yeah so valard is going to be out for likely a while uh we’ll see how the Jets navigate that the the good news is the

Jets have been navigating through injuries all season so this is really nothing new for them uh you just you want valard to be back when he’s 100% ready to go uh the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday reached a settlement in the Cory Perry contractor termination settlement meaning he probably got the

Rest of his money I would think he got either the rest or most of the rest uh but either way he’s probably quite happy with how things turned out probably didn’t like the uh the the contract termination but I think he probably enjoys his time in Edmonton uh and the

Fact that he’s going to be in the playoffs this year so and of course Cory Perry has has been in the Stanley Cup Final a lot hasn’t won the Stanley Cup a lot but maybe he can help the Oilers get to a Stanley Cup Final this year uh so yeah the whole contract

Termination thing Perry’s kept it kept himself kept his nose pretty clean in Evington thus far um so who knows maybe Cory Perry’s story is going to be one of redemption uh at season’s end and and maybe he ends up holding up a Stanley Cup in Edmonton that couldn’t have

Happened without him pulling some boneheaded stunt when he was in Chicago so there you go all right uh Dylan lurin is it practice for the Detroit Red Wings he would not be the first person to pull something stupid in one location and then win in another anyways Dylan lurin

Is a practice for the Detroit Red Wings today which is great news he’s not a full participant which I read as non- contct Jersey but Lin being on the ice for practice is really important the Detroit Red Wings completely look like a rudderless ship without Lin I don’t know

If it’s if it’s just the timing just works out that way or if Lin’s that important to the team on the ice but either way getting him back into practice is really really a good sign that maybe he won’t be out that much longer uh but yeah they they definitely

Seem to miss him uh last night’s game the latest in the long line of embarrassments that the Detroit Red Wings have put together over the last couple of weeks that have just it’s flx me anyways uh so hopefully by the time Lin comes back they’re not completely

Out of the hunt cuz it does feel like that could be a turning point for them back in the right direction so we have two games tonight in the NHL as I stated at the start of this video there’s one starting at 5:00 p.m. Pacific 8:00 Eastern another one starting at 8:30

Eastern 5:30 Pacific so the Anaheim Ducks are in against the Winnipeg Jets Winnipeg’s won the first two meetings on December 10th by a score 4-2 uh January 5th by a score 3 to1 for Anaheim they’re 2340 and three overall they’re 3 six and one over their last 10 coming off of an

Embarrassing loss against Chicago uh Frank vatrano 29 goals 21 assists 50 points so he’s right on the verge of his first career 30 goal season on the Winnipeg side there 41 19 and five they’re 6 and four over their last 10 they are two points back of Colorado and

Dallas so third place is not where you want to be in this division you’re going to be starting on the road either in Dallas or in Denver not good not good odds there I thought I could hold up that sneeze but nope so yeah um if you

Can have home ice in the first round I think that’s key in the Central and yeah uh could be a very very interesting first round indeed that being said the team that finishes first could end up playing Nashville so is that really easier probably not but you’d be at home

All right Kyle Connor for a Winnipeg 27 goals 18 assists 45 points uh despite the time he’s missed with injury uh he still has a very good chance at a 30-goal season he is one of the better goal scorers in the west uh 8:30 p.m. Eastern 5:30 p.m. Pacific we got the LA

Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks um these teams haven’t met yet this is odd to me we’re so late in the season this is the first of three meetings uh they’ll meet again March 19th as well as April 18th so for the Kings uh this is a really good chance to to help separate

Themselves from that playoff line they’re currently tied with the Vegas gold NS they’re six points back of Edmonton so the kings are 33 21 and 11 overall they’re 54 and one over their last 10 games uh Trevor Moore goal scorings picked up again lately 25 goals

20 assists 45 points he still has a real shot at 30 this year uh Chicago 18 43 and five is our overall record they’re three five and two over their last 10 Bard’s really got it together lately he’s coming off his first five-point game 20 goals 31 assists 51 points in 52

Games so he’s right around that point per game Mark and uh yeah there’s got to be some optimism around the Blackhawks right now uh that being said if the Kings can beat Chicago all three of those meetings that’s six points you’re putting in the bank and that’s exactly

What you want at this time of year so the schedule maker maybe favors the Kings a little bit by giving them Chicago three times at the end of the year or does Chicago surprise them and knock them off let me know your thoughts in the comment section below as always

Including your winners for tonight’s games don’t forget to hit like And subscribe if you’ve not done so already thank you guys so much for all your support I will talk to you again soon

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