You Are The Worse Coach I Ever Met” Star Player Disparaging The Colorado Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar
The Philadelphia Flyers were able to get a first-round pick for Sean Walker at the NHL trade deadline but that also required taking back center Ryan Johansen and his $4 million cap hit from the Avalanche. That came less than nine months after the Nashville Predators shipped the veteran to Colorado while retaining 50% of his $8 million cap hit.
The 31-year-old center reportedly had issues within the Avalanche locker room and also butted heads with John Tortorella in Columbus before being traded during the 2015-16 season. He’s now on his third team in less than a calendar year, and may not even be healthy enough to play.
General manager Danny Briere was a bit cryptic when speaking about Johansen after acquiring him and said that the team tried to find a landing spot for him prior to Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline. That didn’t come to fruition, however, and Johansen was expected to report to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Well, on Wednesday afternoon, we got our first report on what exactly might be keeping Johansen off the ice from The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.
Kurz later reported that the Flyers “were unaware of any sort of injury when they acquired Johansen” from the Avalanche.
The disgruntled centerman is also being kept away from the Flyers locker room as the team continues to grow its developing culture as a hard-working group. While trying to resurrect Johansen’s career could turn the center into an asset via trade down the road, his health and attitude may thwart that.
Hopefully, Johansen is healthy and motivated to find his game here in Philadelphia, whether that be in the AHL or with the big club next season. We’ve recently seen the likes of Sean Monahan be treated as a cap dump — in fact, the Flames gave the Canadiens a first-round pick to take him off their hands — then traded for a first-round pick less than two years later.
Johansen is a buyout candidate for the Flyers this summer. That would save the Flyers just over $1.5 million next season while costing them $1.3 million in the following year. Of course, the Flyers could also pull a Predators and treat Johansen as a cap dump this summer. If he’s healthy enough to play, that is.
Fresh off their 6-2 win in Calgary on Tuesday, the Colorado Avalanche are back in action on Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.
A few notes on tonight’s matchup.
Zach Parise and Artturi Lehkonen will not play on Wednesday. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar indicated that both could be options for Saturday’s game in Edmonton. It’s encouraging to hear that neither’s injury appears to be serious.
Alexandar Georgiev is the logical starter tonight. The 28-year-old is 3-3-0 with a 0.930 SV% and 2.20 GAA in six career appearances against Vancouver. Two of those wins came earlier this year, including a 24 of 25 performance on Feb. 20.
The Avalanche have not had a back-to-back since that awful six-game road trip to begin the second half. If you recall, Colorado dropped the first game in overtime against the Rangers before falling 5-3 to the Devils the following night. The Avalanche will have just one more back-to-back in April against Minnesota and Edmonton.
All. Hail. Cale. Cale Makar is expected to skate in his 300th career game tonight. The 25-year-old’s 317 points are the second-most by a defenseman through their first 300 games, trailing only Bobby Orr (341).
Tonight’s opponent, the Canucks are tied for second overall in the NHL standings. Vancouver has the most wins (34) when leading after two periods. They have opened the scoring a league-leading 43 times and have the most wins (31) when scoring first.
With Thatcher Demko out week-to-week per Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, Casey DeSmith is the expected starter for Vancouver tonight. The 32-year-old is 2-0 with a 0.954 SV% and 1.94 GAA in two previous appearances against the Avalanche.
DeSmith has not faced Colorado since February of last year, when he was still with the Penguins. In that game, he stopped 41 of 42 shots on net.
The Canucks are 23-11-3 versus Western Conference opponents this season. Meanwhile, the Avs are 27-9-3.
