Thursday FTB: chicken crossing

Welcome to the FTB. We start with the short, but excruciating story of John Klingberg, and the Maple Leafs. He's done for the season, his $4.15 million cap hit is on LTIR, and the Leafs now have clarity on how much they can spend on defensive help.

It doesn't appear the help will be coming in the form of a Klingberg replacement, as the rumours are Chris Tanev and others like him. To me, that says Liljegren has reclaimed the job of PP2 quarterback and second offensive defender behind Rielly – all while still being on IR.

Brad Treliving spoke to the media yesterday. You can see the full interview starting at 11:47 in the video. Maybe worth sticking around to watch Tavares' presser because of a story later in the FTB. Also maybe stick around for Keefe because of what he said during practice.

On Treliving, I don't really know what he's going to do to overhaul this roster. Starting with someone to play with McCabe (ideally who's better, but I doubt that's possible). Then finding someone who can actually drive a third line's possession that's not Järnkrok.

Keefe wasn't happy with the effort at practice. His first outburst since the first few weeks of the season.

Sheldon Keefe not happy with the pace of practice so far. “F***ing Horses***”.
— David Alter (@dalter) December 6, 2023

Tavares once crashed Doug Weight's Range Rover. And, John, no way Doug Weight was driving a 15+ year old car, you can't say it was on its way out anyways.

"That car was on its way out anyways."

John Tavares jokingly responds to former Islanders teammate Doug Weight's story about the then-NHL rookie crashing Weight's Range Rover. ⤵️https://t.co/iCJtKXlJGc https://t.co/iCJtKXlJGc
— Nick Barden (@nickbarden) December 6, 2023

This is a very good, detailed, summary of the very messy path it's taken for Women's Hockey to reach the PWHL. Sports are messy, people (especially people with money) are messy. The sport doesn't have the fairy tale history, it's been a slog to get to one league with stable ownership, and resources and rights for players. People have picked sides, gone into their corners. There's a lot in here about the cheapness of the PHF that got swept under the rug. Lake Placid? Wow.

How will the PWHL succeed where other attempts at women’s pro hockey have not?

They’ll need to learn from the lessons of the past.

“The fact that women’s hockey was viewed as a hot mess before discouraged partners from getting involved.” https://t.co/57mEo3z3wi
— Hailey Salvian (@hailey_salvian) December 6, 2023

Why did the chicken cross the blueline? (John Klingberg let him in)
What position does a chicken play? (Wing)
What does a chicken and Ryan Reaves have in common? (both their legs are fried)

Mark my words, Ovechkin is going to take Bleacher Report calling his race to get Gretzky a loser personally. He's still going to hit 40 this year despite only five so far.