Morning Flurries: East Coast Drama

Radio personalities exist, in a sense, to stir the pot.

If there wasn’t a controversial devil’s advocate in sports talk radio, what would be the point of listening in - or, for that matter, calling into the shows? In a floundering medium, sports media still thrives healthily on radio drama.

With the gift of incensing the public, though, comes a certain level of responsibility. It’s supposed to be understood that professional athletes are still human beings, and deserve an amount of privacy in their personal lives.

In the Eastern Conference, that doesn’t seem to be holding up well - particularly in Montreal.

Earlier in the season, the hockey community had to go to bat for center/wing Alex Galchenyuk after his off-ice life was put on blast by a radio host.

Now, they’re after 2015 Vezina winner Carey Price.

A radio hit in Montreal suggested that a veteran reporter was privy to some personal information regarding Price, and had confided in fellow reporter Rejean Tremblay. Tremblay ‘revealed’ that Price had been having an affair, and now his wife was demanding he find a way to move cities or face a divorce.

Price’s wife Angela quickly took to Instagram to shut the story down - but as the second slanderous radio hit about the team in the first two months of the season, it’s hard to wonder if the negative press won’t eventually take a toll on the team’s attraction for incoming free agents. [Instagram]

That isn’t the only bit of drama rocking the Eastern Conference, though.

On Sunday evening, the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Arizona Coyotes in the third and final leg of the team’s road trip through the Atlantic Division - and with a 4-1 loss to the desert team, found themselves the shocking third victim in a sweep by the league’s last-place team.

It’s been night and day for the Coyotes, who went 11 straight games without a win to start their 2017-18 campaign. Since then, though, they’ve gone 5-5-2; if they’d started their season on October 30th, they’d be on pace for an 82-point season and be in the thick of the wild card race.

Part of that, of course, has been the excellence of rookie Clayton Keller. Could he be a legitimate league-wide star? [The Athletic]

Speaking of Arizona... goaltender interference, or no? You decide:

Although there was no Colorado Avalanche hockey tonight, there’s still a question to answer: why can’t the team win on the road this year? [Mile High Hockey]

Finally, this mask deserves brownie points for being pretty cute. Anders Nilsson made sure his family’s newest addition made an appearance on his mask by putting his pregnant fiancee’s silhouette on the lid, among other personal touches. [InGoal Magazine]