Colleague Nick Groke was at the morning skate Tuesday and his report is . The Avalanche (1-4-1) hosts the Florida Panthers (1-2-2) in a battle between two of the lowest-scoring teams in the league thus far. Colorado is averaging 1.50 goals (28th) and Florida is at 1.00 (30th, last).
The NHL suspension to Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov is unfortunately bringing the Semyon Varlamov domestic violence accusations from a year ago back into the headlines. Let’s not beat a dead horse here — charges against Varlamov, the Avs’ record-setting goalie, were dropped — but it is interesting how the NHL acted swiftly and suspended Voynov for alleged domestic violence nearly a year after taking no action against Varlamov. Voynov and Varlamov are Russian.
Varlamov, en route to his NHL-most and franchise-best 41-win season of 2013-14, went 9-7-1 from when domestic violence charges were made (Oct. 31) and dropped (Dec. 20). The 18 points the Avs amassed with Varlamov in net during that time obviously had much to do with the team winning the Central Division with 112 points.
The best information about the Voynov case and comparisons to Varlamov .
Elliott writes: Why would the NHL suspend Voynov after it did not suspend Varlamov? “Significantly different facts,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Monday in an email to The Times. He declined to elaborate, saying he didn’t feel comfortable getting into specifics.
My take: the NHL is following the NFL’s lead in crackdowns for domestic violence. But the NHL does not have nearly as many incidents — it’s seemingly unfair to even compare — so the crackdown, in my opinion, is unnecessary.
