Tag: Vancouver Canucks

Former Notre Dame players on NHL rosters to begin 2023-24 season

Know where to check out the former Irish who have made it to the highest level.

We understand that most of you come here for football, but Notre Dame has a devoted fan base for its hockey program. A lot of NHL players have come through the program, and many of them even have found great success at hockey’s highest level. And it’s unlikely any of them forget that they once donned the Gold and Blue.

For the 2023-24 NHL season, there are seven former Irish on rosters at the start. That’s three fewer than the start of each of the past two seasons. But be on the lookout for the 24 players with Notre Dame connections currently in the AHL or even the four in the ECHL. For now, here’s who you can watch in NHL uniforms:

Q&A: Former NHL goalie Corey Hirsch on OCD advocacy: ‘It gets better’

We talked to former NHL goalie Corey Hirsch about his recent book and being a mental health advocate in hockey.

Retired NHL goalie Corey Hirsch knows a thing or two about fending off unwanted pucks.

During his decade-plus professional hockey career, Hirsch manned the net for NHL teams like the Vancouver Canucks, the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals and the Dallas Stars. He also played for Canada’s Olympic ice hockey team and has coached in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues.

These days, instead of guarding the goal, he’s helping people fend off unwanted thoughts as a pillar of support for the obsessive-compulsive disorder community and beyond.

In his 2022 book, The Save of My Life: My Journey Out of the Dark, Hirsch (co-authoring with Sean Patrick Conboy) expands on his groundbreaking 2017 Players Tribune article that detailed the horrors of living with OCD and how he found recovery.

Hirsch shared how OCD hit him hardest while he was in his prime playing professional hockey and how he nearly ended his life amid a career that saw him drink from a Stanley Cup as the Rangers’ third goalie.

Ultimately, Hirsch wrote that he found help through being open about his struggles with a Vancouver Canucks trainer and later the team’s psychologist, who diagnosed him with OCD. Choosing to be vocal about his health led to his diagnosis and treatment. Since then, he’s become a leading advocate for mental health in the NHL world.

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, For The Win spoke with Hirsch about his journey with OCD, his advocacy work and how he’s seen mental health efforts play out in hockey.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

WATCH: Former Ohio State player Cole McWard scores in just second NHL game

Well, that didn’t take long! #GoBucks

The NHL does things a little differently than some of the other major sports we’ve been accustomed to watching. There is typically a very defined college season, and then a separate, turn-the-page, professional season after it’s all done during the next season.

However, in the NHL, players can finish their college season and jump right into action if they’ve been signed after waiting their turn to finish out their college careers.

Such was the case with Ohio State defenseman Cole McWard. He was signed by the Vancouver Canucks after the Buckeyes were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament and is already on the ice at the game’s highest level.

And wouldn’t you know it, just two games into his NHL career, McWard lit the lamp for his first-ever NHL goal over the weekend on a sharp wrister that found its way through traffic and into the back of the net.

Way to make an early mark Cole and make Buckeye Nation proud. Here’s to hoping this is just one of many goals and other highlights over a long NHL career.

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Bruins’ Linus Ullmark netted the NHL’s first goalie goal since 2020

GOALIE GOAL!

Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark pulled off a rare feat during the waning seconds of his team’s Saturday game against the Vancouver Canucks.

With Vancouver pulling its own goalie down 2-1 to Boston, Ullmark cleared the puck out of Boston’s side of the ice with enough force and focus to net it in the Canucks’ goal.

It’s the first goalie goal to happen in the NHL since former Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne netted one sometime before his retirement.

Naturally, Ullmark’s Bruins teammates were eager to celebrate their goalie on his special accomplishment. It’s been a heck of a year for Boston, and Ullmark’s goal should be a definite highlight.

The Bruins sit atop the competitive Athletic Division with 95 points going into the last stretch of the regular season.

As the team continues to push for its first Stanley Cup since the 2010-11 season, they’ll need more magic like this from Ullmark to make it happen.

Bo Horvat trade: Who won the Canucks and Islanders deal?

The Islanders made quite the playoff push by trading for Bo Horvat.

The 2023 NHL trade deadline is still over a month away, but the New York Islanders have made quite the splash.

On Monday, the Vancouver Canucks traded forward Bo Horvat to the Islanders in a pretty surprising afternoon deal. The move comes just over a week after the Canucks fired Bruce Boudreau and brought in Rick Tocchet as their new head coach. This teardown of the Canucks has been coming for some time, as Horvat was one of the major pieces on the trade block in Vancouver as the trade deadline approaches.

Let’s break down the NHL’s biggest trade of the 2022-23 season thus far, shall we?

Top-Shelf Takes: Bruce Boudreau deserved better than the hand the Canucks dealt him

Bruce there it is.

Welcome to Top-Shelf Takes, a weekly series from staff writer Mary Clarke all about the NHL. Lace up your skates as we dive deep into the epic highs and lows of this little sport called hockey.

It’s never easy being let go from your job. Take it from someone who has gone through the process multiple times: frankly, it sucks a lot!

Bruce Boudreau, unfortunately, was dealt the worst hand imaginable in his final few weeks with the Vancouver Canucks. His eventual firing — and the subsequent hiring of Rick Tocchet — was public knowledge for weeks in hockey circles. So much so that Boudreau was gracefully answering media questions about the topic just a few days before his firing.

It’s safe to say the Canucks handled this business in the most unprofessional way imaginable. If you’re going to fire someone, be quick about it. Don’t let the person twist in the wind for weeks waiting for the sword to fall. And yet, that’s exactly what they did to Boudreau, who had to endure public speculation on his job status for weeks because the Canucks front office didn’t want to name an interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Let’s be clear, Boudreau is not at fault at all for what happened with the Canucks this season. Boudreau ended his Vancouver tenure with a 50-40-13 record. He singlehandedly turned the Canucks around last season and despite not making it to the playoffs, Boudreau earned the respect of Vancouver fans for the work he put in that made the team better even for just a short period of time.

Vancouver fans weren’t the only people to hold Boudreau in high regard either, as according to an interview with the former coach in The Athletic, Canucks players were quite emotional after his final game, a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Boudreau said. “All of us, almost all the players and me, were crying in the room. It was crazy. Like, I mean, you’d have to see it to believe it because it’s hard to believe it just saying it.”

It’s hard to say if Boudreau will coach again in the NHL. Since 2007-08, Boudreau has coached 1,087 games, with a 617-342-128 record. Apparently, according to The Athletic‘s Michael Russo, hockey fans will likely see Boudreau on their televisions sooner rather than later, as the former coach is already lining up TV appearances.

All the respect in the world to Boudreau for publicly handling this terrible situation with class. It’s a real shame the Canucks organization couldn’t extend the same to Boudreau on his way out.

A tearful Bruce Boudreau responded to Canucks coaching change rumors

Bruce Boudreau is handling this situation with class.

The writing is on the wall for Bruce Boudreau with the Vancouver Canucks.

Despite going 50-38-13 overall in his time in Vancouver over the last two seasons, Boudreau is likely on his way out as head coach of the Canucks. Possibly as soon as this weekend, according to some NHL insiders.

The Canucks have been a dumpster fire in recent seasons, with the team currently sitting sixth in the Pacific Division with a 18-23-3 record that’s well out of the playoffs. However, Boudreau is not to blame for the Canucks current woes, which all stem from poor roster construction and misevaluated talent. That blame lays on the feet of previous general manager Jim Benning, current general manager Patrik Allvin, and current president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford.

With the Canucks underperforming this season, something has to change, and unfortunately for Boudreau, he’s likely set to be replaced by Rick Tocchet within the coming days. At a media availability on Friday, after missing morning skate earlier in the day, Boudreau got quite misty eyed when talking about what coaching in the NHL means for him. So much so that he ended the press conference early.

Talk about a classy response to an awful situation. NHL fans rallied around Boudreau in support of the Canucks head coach as rumors of his departure continue to swirl.

Eagle-eyed NHL fan saves a Canucks’ staffer from cancer by spotting a mole on his neck

Brian Hamilton, a staffer with the Vancouver Canucks, had his life saved by a fan, when Nadia Popovici, warned him of a cancerous mole on his neck.

Brian Hamilton, a staffer with the Vancouver Canucks, had his life saved by a fan, when Nadia Popovici, warned him of a cancerous mole on his neck.

Canucks are trying to find the fan who spotted a team staffer’s cancerous mole from the stands

Amazing story.

Vancouver Canucks assistant equipment manager Brian “Red” Hamilton is looking for help from Hockey Twitter after a fan seated behind the team bench very well may have saved his life.

The Canucks posted an open letter from Hamilton — the team’s longtime equipment staffer who worked his 1,000 game with the team last season — which explained what happened during the Canucks’ Oct. 23 game against the Kraken in Seattle.

According to the letter, a fan seated behind the bench caught Hamilton’s attention and showed him a message on her phone that advised him to get a mole on his neck checked out. She was concerned it could be melanoma.

Hamilton took that advice to heart and visited a doctor who confirmed that the mole was malignant melanoma. The mole has since been removed, and Hamilton — along with the Canucks — wanted to find this fan to thank her.

The Seattle Kraken are also helping with the search.

It’s still unclear who the fan was, but in the moments after the team’s tweet, Hockey Twitter was able to find a Getty photo of the Canucks’ bench on Oct. 23. Hamilton could be seen with the red hair, black mask and blue Canucks jacket.

Just an awesome story, and great on this fan for making the effort to get Hamilton’s attention. It clearly made a huge difference.

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NHL actually listens to reason, delays Canucks return to play after J.T. Miller calls out league

The Canucks have not played since March 24 due to a COVID outbreak.

J.T. Miller spoke out against the NHL, and the league listened. On Thursday, the NHL announced that the Vancouver Canucks return to play from a COVID-19 outbreak would be delayed from April 16 to allow the club “additional time for recovery and preparation.”

Since March 30, the Canucks have been dealing with a COVID outbreak — of the Brazilian strain variety — after forward Adam Gaudette tested positive. Over 25 players and coaches have tested positive, and while the numbers are lessening, the team overall does not feel ready to return to play, with their last game played on March 24.

The Canucks were set to return to play against the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, but intense backlash — which included current Vancouver forward Miller — have since caused the delay of the team’s return.

Miller’s comments surfaced late Wednesday after the team spoke to the media ahead of Thursday’s practice — the team’s first since the outbreak — despite seven players remaining on the COVID protocol list. The forward did not hold back his thoughts on the team’s current situation, stating that the return was “dangerous to a lot of our players.”

The comments prompted immense scrutiny from fans at the league, calling for the NHL to push back the Canucks return to play, or even suspend the team’s season entirely.

While Miller’s comments weren’t the only reason the NHL delayed the Canucks return to play, they likely played a major part in getting the league to listen to the concerns the players, coaches, and fans had.

Thankfully, the NHL listened to reason here, as delaying the Canucks restart was the least the league could do. However, it’s hard to give the NHL praise for doing so, especially when they claim to have the players and coaches best interests and safety at heart.

The Canucks should not have been pushed back to play this early. It’s clear that the team — mentally, emotionally, and physically — are not ready to step out onto the ice at this time. Vancouver’s COVID situation was very much the scariest outbreak the NHL has had this season, given the severity of the symptoms reported by outlets like ESPN, where at least one player required an IV drip while others struggled to breathe going up and down stairs.

It’s a ghoulish and callous move for the NHL to throw aside the Canucks health and safety in an attempt to get all 56 of the team’s games played. The North Division already has delayed the end of its season — from May 11 to May 16 — due to the Canucks COVID situation, a move that will likely push back the start of the playoffs, at least for the Canadian teams.

And yet, scheduling is still not a good enough reason to force a team back to play before its ready. It shouldn’t have taken Miller’s comments for the NHL to push back the Canucks restart date, the league should have been on top of this situation from the start by treating its players and coaches like human beings first and foremost, not assets to be managed.

This isn’t the first time the NHL has gotten in hot water over its shameful decision making. Less than a week ago, the league’s best player in Connor McDavid called out the NHL for forcing the Edmonton Oilers to play a game after the memorial service of Colby Cave, the hockey player who passed away suddenly at 25-years-old from a brain bleed.

All that, just because the NHL’s all-important schedule demanded it.

We’ll see how the NHL proceeds with the Canucks from here on out, as it seems the delay is likely only a small reprieve as Vancouver might still play its scheduled games against Toronto on Sunday and Monday. However, the Canucks should have never gotten to this point in the first place, and it’s clear once again where the NHL’s priorities lie.

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