Looks like he got in a day early!
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/3...mpic-decision/
Flames notes:
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8. That team’s blue line could really be poached. Another defender, 24-year-old Viktor Antipin (also a lefty), is expected to join Buffalo. If that is the case, the Sabres won a bit of a recruiting battle, with Calgary, Chicago, Columbus and Pittsburgh all poking around.
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Interesting note. Always good to add depth, although a moot point seeing as the Sabres seem to be the winner here.
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9. Right after lunch, every game day, Calgary’s Brian Elliott does some shootout preparation. He’ll look at some video, make a few notes. “I like to have it on my mind before I take my nap,” he said Monday night, minutes after the Flames extended their win streak to 10 games.
Elliott stopped three of the world’s best to preserve the win. Evgeni Malkin went low blocker, Sidney Crosby high glove and Phil Kessel five-hole. Kessel’s shot did squeeze through, but Elliott got enough to direct it wide.
Does he review his notes in the moments before the shootout begins? “I go change my headband, maybe look at the notes a little, but by the time I get back to the net, I don’t remember anything anyway,” he laughed. “You look a little at what they did in their last attempts, but they obviously have a bunch of different approaches. You’re looking where (an opponent is) holding his stick or where the puck is.” Did any of them surprise you? “Crosby likes to go five-hole. I was looking for that. But he’s probably thinking the same thing, trying to bait me. There’s a lot of cat and mouse.”
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Very fresh still, and amazing sequence to stop those 3. It's fun to see what was going through Elliot's head
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10. Elliott is on a tremendous tear after a rough start, and those three shootout stops were extremely impressive. He did a massive fist-pump as Kessel’s attempt trickled wide.
“As a goalie, you don’t get as many opportunities to celebrate like a player does when he scores. I figured I’d take the opportunity while it was there.”
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Bautista bat flip.
League Notes
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1. Initially, the plan was to give Las Vegas 48 hours with the protected list before the expansion draft. That is being increased to 72. At the GM meetings, the Golden Knights’ George McPhee let everyone know that once the lists are handed to him, it’s an auction for any unprotected player another team might want. This has outstanding potential.
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Absolutely fascinating. This expansion draft is going to be great drama. I hope they do a TV day on the network channels with this.
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21. Darin Stephens, who uses the Twitter handle @SharksStats, had a good one the other day. Marc-Edouard Vlasic just played his 800th game. He’s won 473 of them since his 2006-07 debut, most by any NHL defenceman during that time.
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A few notes about him. I've always loved Vlasic. This guy is a stud.