Florida's William Lockwood Takes Out Wild Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, Lockwood has a hearing with the Department of Players Safety

Last night the Minnesota Wild took on the Florida Panthers in a non-conference game in South Florida. The game started out with a bang, literally. 

At the 2:15 mark of the first period, Wild goalie Mark Andre Fleury went behind the net to play a puck, at the same time, Panters forward William Lockwood interfered with Fleury knocking him to the ice. If you watch the video, you will see that Fleury absorbed a vicious hit. 

For those that are wondering, Lockwood isn't a skilled player and was probably on the ice to cause havoic. Look at his stats, he's not known for his skill, in 51 NHL games, he's scored (0g-2-a--2pts). What was his purpose for being on the ice? Yes, he's in the NHL, but I don't see a lot of teams trying to pick him up in free agency. 

Midway through the game Fleury would leave the game and no return. The Panthers are notorious for being a dirty team.

Wild start to this game 👀 pic.twitter.com/GvUoz4GLe3

— Bally Sports Florida: Panthers (@BallyPanthers) January 20, 2024

Lockwood will have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety. I won't even try to predict how they will rule, George Parros has natoriously been soft on offending players.

Florida’s William Lockwood will have a hearing today for goalie interference on Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury.

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) January 20, 2024

At the 5:58 mark of the first period, Lockwood fought Minnesota Wild forward Brandon Duhaime. The proper response for attempting to decapitate the Wild's goalie Fleury.

Penguins Keep Finding Ways Without Crosby Scoring Goals

#488214377 / gettyimages.com

Tonight was the eighth game of the playoffs for the Pittsburgh Penguins and they notched victory five of the 16 needed to win the Stanley Cup tonight. Nothing too strange about this right? Wrong. Sidney Crosby has yet to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and it's driving Pittsburgh fans nuts.

I am seeing all over social media of Pittsburgh fans ripping on their captain, saying he isn't playing well because he is not scoring goals for the black and gold. What they fail to realize is that Crosby has been almost a point per game clip in assists for the Penguins in the playoffs thus far.

Tonight's game was a prime example of that. Crosby was creating scoring chances whenever he was on the ice and the only thing keeping him off the score sheet was Henrik Lundqvist. So for all you Crosby "haters," have faith in your captain. He is the best offensive player in the entire world. Even Wayne Gretzky had a streak of 12 playoff games where he would not net a goal. So even the best have slumps.

Switching to the defensive side of the puck, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has also been getting a lot of grief from the Penguins faithful as of late. Yes he isn't the Flower of the Stanley Cup 2009 team, but he still is a very solid goaltender. Tonight was a prime example of that.

Personally I am a Marc-Andre fleury fan. He plays a real solid butterfly and generally is not out of position. He had a real solid season this year, but wasn't spectacular by NHL fans standards.

None the less, the Penguins are finding ways to win games in the playoffs and keep pushing for Stanley Cup number four. Fans just need to keep being fans and support your team. No player is perfect and will go through "slumps," and let in bad goals every now and then.