The Columbus Blue Jackets make some coaching changes
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: The Columbus Blue Jackets declined the assistant coaching options for both Scott Ford and Mike Haviland. Video coach Aron Augustitus also won’t be back. Assistant coach Jared Boll and goalie coach Niklas Backstrom will be back.
GM Don Waddell in a statement:
“Following our end-of-season meetings, Rick (Bowness) and I determined that changes to our coaching staff would be in the best interest of our club moving forward.”
One candidate who could get promoted is AHL coach Trent Vogelhuber.
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Next Year’s Winter Classic will be held in Utah
Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com: The NHL announced that the Utah Mammoth will host the Colorado Avalanche on New Year’s Eve at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City in the 2027 Winter Classic.
“It’ll be late afternoon, early evening, prime time in the East,” Bettman said. “Some of it will be under the lights, and we think it’ll be very cool.”
Mammoth owner Ryan Smith said they’re planning to turn it into a weekend event.
“We have a lot planned,” Smith said. “Given the time of the game, we’re going to parlay that into a pretty special concert, obviously in the Delta Center that night, so people can come celebrate New Year’s with us with a ball drop and everything else, which I think that’s going to be exciting. …
Our hope is that this is a whole weekend, that this is a version of like an All-Star Game where we come in and we can program and activate our state and show our state off, so people come in, they ski, they do it all, all weekend.”
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NHL Injury Notes
Evan Rawal: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson left Thursday’s game, and there was no update yesterday. The Avs practice today, so there may be an update later.
Mark Spector: Edmonton Oilers forward Jason Dickinson wasn’t on the ice, but was at the arena for their morning skate.
Joe Smith: Minnesota Wild forward Mats Zuccarello skated on his own before practice. Forward Yakov Trenin wasn’t on the ice.
- Dan Rosen: Zuccarrello missed Games 2 and 3 with an upper-body injury. He took an elbow to the head from Stars defenseman Tyler Myers. Coach Jon Hynes said that he’s questionable for Game 4.
Dan Rosen: Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian didn’t practice yesterday but is expected to play.
Bruce Garrioch: Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson isn’t doing well, according to coach Travis Green. He’s out today with a concussion.
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Adam Kimelman: Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar will be a game-time decision tonight.
Coach Rick Tocchet on Vladar: “It’s another maintenance day for him. Two days off is going to help him. That’s basically it for him. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
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