Here are all the links from around the hockey world, and what I’m reading about while wishing a Happy Greek Easter to everybody out there.
*I know Steve Simmons, and I also know Marc Savard. Simmons has always seemed to me like a perfectly fine person and a pro when it comes to covering the NHL, but he’s dead wrong going after Marc Savard, who I know a bit better from covering him over his five years playing for the Bruins. Savard was always available to the media when he played and ready to cooperate, and I don’t know of anyone that wasn’t able to get in touch with him in trying to write about him after he effectively retired following his concussion issues. I always gave him his space because I’d heard for a while that he was having a tough time afterward his playing days were done in Boston, but you’d see stories or interviews pop up every now and then. If I had reached out to him and he didn’t want to talk, I would have totally understood and wouldn’t have held it against him. In general I try not to do that unless the sense is that it’s a player shirking accountability in a postgame situation, or it’s Tim Thomas suddenly getting microphone shy after making personal political statements with a White House visit. Simmons was flat wrong here to call out Savard and actively try and convince people in the media to shun him. It’s just not cool, and it’s a lousy, petty and vindictive way to treat somebody that’s had a rough go of it for a while. That’s no way to treat people in the hockey community, so good for No. 91 for speaking up about it.
*Could it be true? Could there be a chance that 46-year-old Jaromir Jagr could return for another go-round at the NHL after things didn’t work out in Calgary this season? I’d imagine there might be a team or two willing to take a chance on a legend.
*A long read-ish look at Taylor Hall’s massive season with the New Jersey Devils that has him in the Hart Trophy conversation.
Boston Bruins
*Pro Hockey Talk has a look at some of the notable NHL players retiring at the end of this season, including the Sedin Twins, Radim Vrbata and Patrick Sharp.
*Continued prayers and thoughts to all those impacted by the Humboldt Broncos bus crash tragedy as the details behind it sound so horrific, and hit home to so many hockey players that have spent long hours on bus rides in treacherous hockey weather during their careers.
*No NHL coach was fired during the regular season of their respective 31 teams during the 2017-18 NHL campaign, but Alain Vigneault was canned by the New York Rangers immediately afterward in a move that must have been a long time coming given the timing.
*For something completely different: Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi asks if we can be saved from Facebook at this point? Doubtful, it is.