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Page 6ix Wednesday, September 23rd – And Then There Was DRAMA

By Mer

Sep 23, 2020, 12:57 EDTUpdated: Jun 29, 2021, 11:33 EDT

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Me, on Monday morning: What on earth am I going to put in this week’s Page 6ix column???

Me, this morning: How on earth am I going to fit everything into this week’s Page 6ix column???

Gossip/drama fans, it has been a week. (Okay, it’s been like, two days of a ton of drama but it all fits into this week so let’s take a look, shall we?)

Leafs-Land

Let’s start with the Toronto, and Toronto-adjacent, boys (and girls). First up, we wished both @Auston Matthews and captain @John Tavares happy birthdays this past week. Hooray for another year!

Because next season hasn’t started yet, I still consider @Kasperi Kapanen Leafs-adjacent, and the drama continues with him and (we assume?) ex-girlfriend Paige. Take a peek at Paige’s Twitter likes from this week:

Looks like things didn’t end so amicably for these two.

In other Leafs-adjacent news, speculation continues to mount as to whether Toronto is a realistic destination for pending UFA and current St. Louis Blues captain @Alex Pietrangelo. Lots of chatter about things like contract structure and signing bonuses. But then, this morning, Leafs Twitter was abuzz because of this fascinating tidbit from Cam Janssen:

Sergei

@berezin_goal

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Cam Janssen on Pietrangelo: "You go to Toronto for your career to die. When you're 30 and you sign a big ticket in Toronto, it doesn't usually go very well for you. You really think you're going to go up there and really make a difference with that team? Go ahead."

Sergei

@berezin_goal

Cam Janssen says the St. Louis Blues have offered Alex Pietrangelo an 8 year contract worth $64,000,000 without a no-trade clause and no signing bonuses. He says the Blues are not budging on signing bonuses. Janssen is a former player for the Blues and a native of St. Louis.

12:18 PM · Sep 23, 2020

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I suppose Cam Janssen would know a thing or two about dead hockey careers…

Elsewhere Around the League

The Hart Trophy winner was announced (@Leon Draisaitl, in case you somehow missed it), and the PWHA ballots were released. There were a lot, and I mean a lot, of opinions.

BarDown

@BarDown

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Draisaitl received WAY more first-place votes than second-place MacKinnon for the Hart Trophy 😯. MORE: bardown.com/draisaitl-rece…

12:24 PM · Sep 22, 2020

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dom 📈

@domluszczyszyn

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It was a very tough decision that came down to the wire, but in a stacked field of options I opted not to include Draisaitl (Hart), Carlson (Norris), or Couturier (Selke) on my awards ballot. Here’s why: it comes down to defence. theathletic.com/2083566/2020/0…

1:18 PM · Sep 22, 2020

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Nick Richard

@_NickRichard

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Jonathan Willis covers the Edmonton Oilers for the Athletic and didn’t have Nathan MacKinnon on his Hart Trophy ballot. I’ll listen to arguments that Draisaitl wasn’t top 5, but anyone who left MacKinnon off entirely is clueless or petty. Not sure which is worse.

11:57 AM · Sep 22, 2020

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A lot.

Meanwhile, ESPN released an article about the inner workings of the Hockey Bubbles, enticingly captioned “Sex, drugs, and the ‘prison yard'” by Greg Wyshynksi. Unfortunately for our entertainment, there was a lot less drugs and sex than the caption implied. But what there was, was controversy about food. Yep. Food. For more information, contact clearwater florida addiction center

You see, it is unclear how much food was actually provided for the players, and how much they had to pay for themselves. This sparked discussion, and quite a bit of it, on hockey Twitter.

(There are some fun tidbits in the article, though, so give it a read.)

Moving on. Yesterday, TSN aired Rick Westhead’s important documentary about the use/abuse of painkillers in the NHL.

TSN

@TSN_Sports

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TSN Original: The Problem of Pain. Hockey players are praised for their courage and willingness to withstand pain, and doing whatever it takes to win no matter the cost. @rwesthead has more: tsn.ca/tsn-originals/…

11:41 PM · Sep 22, 2020

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Coincidentally, the official NHL Twitter account posted this yesterday:

Interesting timing, there.

And to finish us off for this week – this is a thing that happened:

That’s all for us this week. Make sure you’re following our Twitter account for all the little happenings that pop up between columns. Happy Wednesday!