Author: Patrick Hoffman
Patrick covers the NHL for Inside The Rink. He has previously covered the league for The Ultimate Hockey Fan Cave, WTP Sports, Sportsnet.ca, Kukla’s Korner, Spector’s Hockey, NHL Network Radio blog, TheHockeyNews.com, The Fourth Period, Stan Fischler’s “The Fischler Report”, as well as a slew of others.
Varlamov Continues to Be Reliable on Long Island
Decades ago, teams in the NHL played their starting goaltender anywhere between 60-70 games. Back in those times, it was pretty much a given that it was the starter’s net for almost the whole season unless he faltered for long stretches. The backup’s job was to play anywhere between 10-15 games in the regular season. […]
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Sabres Must Improve Defensively to Make Postseason
When it comes to making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a team needs to be able to put the puck in the net, have players that can score goals on a consistent basis, play well defensively, be good on special teams, and get good goaltending. One team that really wants to make the postseason this year […]
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Giroux Having a Strong Season in Ottawa
It has been an up-and-down season for the Ottawa Senators this year. They have dealt with injuries, stretches of great play, periods of poor play, and games where fans did not know what to think about the team. That has been this franchise’s theme for the last several seasons. With that said, the team managed […]
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Halak’s Strong Play Shows He Deserves More Playing Time
When it comes to the New York Rangers and their goaltending, it will always start and end with Igor Shesterkin. Shesterkin, 27, is currently (Monday, January 30) 21-8-0-7 with a 2.45 goals-against average, a .918 save percentage, and one shutout. He was named to his first All-Star game and won the Vezina Trophy last season […]
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What is Going on With Vegas?
Last season was one to forget for the Vegas Golden Knights. They missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, fired their head coach, dealt with many injuries, and were just a disappointing hockey team to watch. When you put all those things together, you have a team that deserved to miss the […]
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Fleury Starting to Turn His Game Around for the Wild
There is no doubt that Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is a future Hockey Hall of Famer. As of this writing (Monday, January 30), Fleury, 38, has 536 career victories, three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, and 2017), a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender (2021), 72 career shutouts, and five All-Star Game appearances. He […]
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Georgiev Strong in First Season as a Starter
No one really knew what to expect when goaltender Alexandar Georgiev arrived on the NHL scene with the New York Rangers as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. Yes, fans knew that he would not play a lot behind a legend like Lundqvist, but no one was sure what kind of goaltending he would provide. For the most part, […]
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Putting Trust in the Penguins
Things have not been easy for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. They have had to deal with a bunch of injuries, have played a lot of inconsistent hockey, and at times, they have looked like a team that does not deserve to be in a playoff spot. With that said, however, the Penguins currently (Friday, […]
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Hurricanes Need A Healthy Andersen for the Playoffs
While the Carolina Hurricanes were able to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, poor goaltending did them in their second-round seven-game loss to the New York Rangers. The Hurricanes are having another strong season this year. The team is currently (Friday, January 27) first in the Metropolitan Division and […]
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Nothing But Love for Mats Zuccarello
As someone who is a New York Rangers fan (I will always be a hockey fan first), I still have a lot of love for Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello. I was lucky enough to see Zuccarello, 35, up close on Broadway for nine and a half seasons. He was fun and exciting to watch, had a great personality, […]
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