NHL Weekly Recap: Jan. 22

Story posted January 22, 2022 in

Another chaotic week in the NHL saw some teams surging up the standings, some going on absurd losing streaks and for some reason a tweet about why the players still have to pay escrow.

Starting with teams on losing streaks, after going on a 10 game skid quite recently, the Philadelphia Flyers are at it again. The team extended its new losing streak to 11 games Saturday with an embarrassing loss to Buffalo.

Needless to say, the Flyers’ only relevance around the league for the rest of this season will be around the trade deadline where longtime captain Claude Giroux could be traded to a contending team.

Continuing to roll on the disappointment train is the Edmonton Oilers. The team led by top talent Connor McDavid has been under siege from their fans after not winning a game since Dec. 18.

Supporters are beginning to lose patience with Edmonton in the Draisaitl and McDavid era, going as far as tossing jerseys on the ice in their displeasure. Despite the star duo being two of the league’s top three-point getters, the Oilers are four points out of a playoff spot.

The Oilers finally broke their losing streak, which was at seven games, Saturday night with a relieving win over Calgary, 5-3.

On the winning side of things, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been undefeated this week and are on a four-game winning streak. They recently had a successful west coast road trip knocking off the top two teams in the Pacific division in the Ducks and Golden Knights.

Despite aging stars and a handful of injuries, Mike Sullivan’s team has continued to find ways to win and stay near the top of the Metropolitan division.

Another squad that went undefeated this week and is contending for the Stanley Cup is Colorado. The Avalanche have won six in a row and have earned at least a point in 12 straight contests.

First place Colorado is four points ahead of the second place team in the Central and holds games at hand over most teams behind them having played just 39 matchups thus far.

Finally, it would not be a week in the NHL with the “bunch of jerks” not stirring the pot over on twitter.

This week the famed social media account of the Carolina Hurricanes came after Bruins star Brad Marchand tweeting, “L stands for Lamborghini,” after defeating the B’s 7-1. This was in response to a comment Marchand had made towards Carolina’s Vincent Trocheck earlier in the season.

Marchand hilariously responded on twitter saying, “You’re still the reason we pay 20% in escrow.”

Ultimately, Carolina got the last laugh winning 7-1, but the feud was quite entertaining for fans all around the league.

At this point in the season, it feels like the contenders, pretenders and tankers are starting to significantly separate themselves.

From this point on, it will be interesting to see if any team can emerge from the shadows into a playoff push, especially with the number of games needed to be made up at this time.

Maclain Young is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email macyoung21@gmail.com.