Panthers beat Bruins for 7-0-0 start
The Florida Panthers became the 14th team in NHL history to start 7-0-0 by beating the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Wednesday night — with coach Joel Quenneville on the bench a day after he was named in a report about the Chicago Blackhawks improperly handling sexual assault claims.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves for the host Panthers, and Eetu Luostarinen scored the goahead goal. Anthony Duclair and Mason Marchment also scored, and Owen Tippett added an empty-net goal. Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling each had two assists.
Charlie Coyle scored for the Bruins, and Linus Ullmark made 23 saves in his third consecutive start.
Quenneville travels to New York today for a meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that will likely determine if he can keep his job.
Meanwhile, the player who said he was sexually assaulted by a member of Quenneville’s Chicago coaching staff in May 2010 went public with his identity — he’s former firstround pick Kyle Beach — and said he’s certain Quenneville knew about the allegations when they were made during the Blackhawks’ run to the Stanley Cup that season.
“There’s absolutely no way that he can deny knowing it,” Beach told TSN.
An investigation, the results of which were released Tuesday, found that the allegations Beach made against then-assistant Brad Aldrich were largely ignored by the team for three weeks after a May 23, 2010, meeting
discussing them took place.
That was the same day Chicago finished off a four-game sweep of San Jose to reach the Stanley Cup final, and Beach told TSN that based on what others involved have said he believes that Quenneville thought “trying to win a Stanley Cup was more important than sexual assault.”
Beach said a meeting about his claims — it was not clear which one he was referring to — took place in Quenneville’s office.
“I hope through and through that Gary Bettman takes this seriously and that he does his due diligence ... before he makes his decision,” Beach told TSN.
RED WINGS 3, CAPITALS 2, OT>> Robby Fabbri tied it early in the third period, captain Dylan Larkin scored in overtime and Detroit came back to win at Washington.
Larkin beat Vitek Vanecek 1:37 into OT. Adam Erne started the comeback with a goal in the second, and Thomas Greiss made 26 saves for the Red Wings.
Alex Ovechkin scored his eighth goal of the season
and Evgeny Kuznetsov his fifth to stake Washington to a 2-0 lead. Ovechkin’s goal was the 738th of his career, putting him three back of Brett Hull for fourth on the NHL career list.
Aside from those two power-play goals, the Capitals looked out of sorts against a less talented opponent and paid the price for a few defensive zone blunders and bad rebounds.
MAPLE LEAFS 3, BLACKHAWKS 2 >> William Nylander scored in overtime to lift Toronto to a victory at Chicago. The Leafs snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory, and extended the Blackhawks’ record to 0-6-1.