The Daily: Mark-Andre Fleury Among Three Wooden Goalie Sticks Holdouts

When Marc-Andre Fleury clears the puck away from his crease, he always gets good wood on it. Literally.

The veteran Chicago Blackhawks player is one of only three NHL goalies still using a wooden stick. Five years ago, half of the NHL goalies were using the wood stick with foam injected in the blade. They are called “foam core” sticks. Today, the NHL is down to Fleury, Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Brian Elliot and Buffalo Sabres goalie Dustin Tokarski. The remainder of the goalies have switched to modern composite.

Scott Woodley wrote a well-researched story for NHL.com detailing why the three guys are holding out. Tokarski is still using an older wooden stick from Warrior. When Warrior announced it was shutting down the Finnish factory where the wooden sticks are made,  some goalies bought 200 of them. “I don’t think I’d ever switch,” Elliot said. ”

Meanwhile, COVID dominates the other news around the NHL as teams try to figure out how to keep the virus out of their dressing rooms. But there was major news in Winnipeg as Paul Maurice stepped down as head coach. That means that five NHL teams (Vancouver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Florida and Winnipeg) have a coach who didn’t start the season with them.

Stay tuned because we may not be done with coaching changes. And make sure you check out Moritz Seider’s puck juggling below.

New record? #LGRW pic.twitter.com/GQUo0Pd3zg

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 11, 2021

Around the NHL

Detroit:  With Paul Maurice stepping down in Winnipeg, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill is now second in seniority among active NHL coaches with their current teams.  It’s an amazing feat, considering that Blashill has only made the playoffs once in six seasons behind the bench.

Florida: COVID has overrun the Panthers. George Richards provides details of the Panthers’ shutdown.

Montreal: Habs’ game with the Boston Bruins has been cancelled.

Pittsburgh: Hockey Now Editor-in-chief Dan Kingerski offers a report card for the Penguins’ triumph against the Sabres.

San Jose: Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng provides the lowdown on why Bob Boughner changed up the Sharks’ defense pairings.

Toronto: If the Canucks can defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday, then the Canucks will be at .500 for the first time since October. 

Winnipeg: The Jets start the post-Paul Maurice era with a loss to the Washington Capitals.