Pacific Notes: Boeser, Demko, Kraken
26/04/2024 02:34
Harman Dayal of The Athletic tweeted that Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet downplayed Brock Boeser's early exit from practice today. Boeser had left the ice after taking a shot up high on the wrist during a powerplay drill. Tocchet said that Boeser was fine as far as he knew and added that Boeser hadn't said anything about a potential ailment.
The Canucks are already dealing with a significant injury with goaltender Thatcher Demko out of the lineup and can ill afford to lose more key pieces from their team. Boeser has just one assist through the first two games of round 1 but is coming off a career year having posted 40 goals and 33 assists in 81 regular season games.
In other Pacific Division notes:
- Speaking of Demko, the netminder travelled with the Canucks to Nashville (according to SportsNet's Dan Murphy). Although he made the trip, there doesn't appear to be any change to his status as he remains week-to-week. Patrick Johnston of Postmedia writes that his sources tell him that Demko wouldn't be able to return from injury until the Conference Finals, while Donnie & Dhali of CHEK TV believe he could return late in round 2 if the Canucks can survive until then.
- The Seattle Kraken announced a new partnership today that will see their local broadcasts shift from ROOT Sports over to TEGNA-owned stations KONG as well as KING 5. KONG will broadcast all non-nationally televised Kraken games while KING 5 will simulcast 15 games as well. The deal effectively ends the Kraken’s relationship with ROOT Sports, who had broadcast Seattle games for their first three seasons. In addition to the new local television deal, the Kraken will also see all non-nationally televised games broadcast on Amazon Prime Video for people in Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska at no extra cost. Seattle becomes the first NHL team to strike a deal with Prime and could become a model for other franchises going forward.
