Dan’s Daily: Flames Walk Back Trade Talk, Crosby Gets Big Push in Canada

MONTREAL — Two cities shape the hockey opinion of millions. Montreal and Toronto media have an extraordinary pull and take that seriously. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby willed his team to victory Wednesday and, in the process, earned the first national push for Hart Trophy talk. Pittsburgh Hockey Now had a similar headline an hour earlier, and there can’t be enough of them. No player is doing more for his team. Full stop. Elsewhere in the Daily, the Calgary Flames are pulling back from the NHL trade market. There are several scalding hot seats in Columbus, including GM Jarmo Kekalainen. The NHL is changing the skills competition, and to make it spicy, the league is going to drop a hefty cash prize on the winner.

So, life has trade-offs, eh? I’m in this lovely upgraded suite in downtown Montreal (because I’m an Expedia platinum member), but have spent only a few hours in it. I got to watch Sidney Crosby have one of those games that people will remember. He’s a player that people will talk about for the next 50 years, and I get to see this up close. And the Penguins game was a collage of brilliance and mediocrity. This team is never dull.

The price is less than eight hours of sleep over the last three days. But … worth it.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Penguins rallied from an ugly 2-0 deficit to the Montreal Canadiens and hung on for extra time. Somehow, they won in a shootout. Sidney Crosby had three points, and the team played in the longest shootout in franchise history. Get the Penguins recap.

The Penguins tried something in the third period that has worked all season but fell flat Wednesday. Get the breakdown, the player grades, and the headline analysis — Sidney Crosby deserves Hart Trophy talk. ‘

For time constraints, I combined the 5-minute Penguins postgame video with the locker room story. Erik Karlsson said a couple of things that pinged me as interesting. Crosby described how he fooled the Canadiens defenseman to take the puck for the first goal and I broke it all down. Check out the Penguins postgame.

Eric Engels wrote a solid piece — Here’s the national headline in Canada today on Sportsnet: Making History and case for Hart Trophy, Crosby comes up big vs. Canadiens.

Montreal Hockey Now: The boys at MHN were similarly wowed. Crosby reminds the Montreal Canadiens he’s not done yet.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now

TSN Insiders: Pierre LeBrun reports the Calgary Flames are getting cold feet and have pulled back on making Chris Tanev and others available on the trade block.

Ottawa Sun: Bruce Garrioch put the Columbus Blue Jackets front office, from president John Davidson to GM Jarmo Kekalainen, on the hot seat if things don’t improve quickly for the Blue Jackets.

Columbus has a trio of defensemen, all right-handed, who could help a lot of teams. Just spitballing.

Sportsnet: Penguins fans may also want to stay current on the hot prospects for the 2024 NHL Draft. A top-10 pick is definitely possible. Here are the new top 20 NHL draft prospects.

NHL.com: There is a new twist to the NHL Skills Competition at the All-Star game. The winner will get $1 million.

I guess that means no more Ovechkin drinking hat games?

Boston Hockey Now: On the day that Jakub Vrana cleared waivers, the Boston Bruins waived Jakub Zboril.

I’ve checked into him. When I hear the phrase, “must improve his compete level,” I immediately write him off as a potential Penguins grab.

And I didn’t get to do a Daily on Wednesday–here’s the big news. The Blues fired coach Craig Berube, and GM Doug Armstrong did not spare the feelings of his organization.

AP News: Armstrong’s comments will fill the NHL trade rumors soon. He indicated no player was safe, and the Blues were “not a successful franchise.” The GM went to town on everything, including himself.