In Red Wings Land

Body language is part of why Detroit Red Wings are winless. Here’s why | Helene St. James

First off, I can’t get over that Helene is going to write about the team’s body language after asking questions like “how does that pride not kick in after Boston?”

Secondly, it’s good to see Mantha taking ownership for his slow start.

“I don’t think I’ve played my game that I wanted to bring for the team,” Mantha said. “I need to step up here. I think I played two or three good games and then two or three bad games. I just need to be more consistent — be more physical. The game in LA, I threw a few hits and got in the game quick. That’s what I need to do — just one or two big hits at the start of the game can get me going.”

Around the NHL

NHL trainer intrigued by potential of marijuana helping players - Sportsnet.ca

There’s been a lot of interesting talk about how the legalization of marijuana in Canada could affect the NHL. The latest 31 Thoughts podcast had a good section on the subject. This is a great read from an interesting perspective

Matt Nichol is “a nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach who works with numerous elite-level NHLers.”

“I’m of the mindset that [things with] so much potential positive benefit never come without some baggage; there’s got to be some downside,” said Nichol, adding there’s bound to be some treatment trial and error along the way. “You went from no one should ever use it [or even] talk about it to everybody should use it all the time for everything. Eventually we’ll settle into a nice phase where people understand exactly what it does and how to use it.”