Morning Flurries: Holly Jolly Holidays

The Colorado Avalanche did a whole lot of nothing yesterday, which makes my life very hard.

Every day, I scour the interwebz to find you top Avalanche content, plus some fun stuff on other teams around the league (so you, our dear readers, remain well-rounded and #InTheKnow on what’s happening across the NHL).

Today, there really wasn’t a lot of anything from Colorado. They were just kinda there.

They didn’t make any transactions, didn’t give any new information. They just went about their merry way, with little of note other than this very weird video of Tyson Barrie awkwardly receiving compliments, which has been pinned to the top of their Twitter feed:

The rest of the league did some stuff, though, so let’s talk a bit about them.

The Toronto Maple Leafs absolutely trounced the Carolina Hurricanes at their weekday afternoon 100th anniversary game on Tuesday, defeating the Metropolitan Division team 8-1 while wearing some very cool Toronto St. Pat’s jerseys.

Auston Matthews had a great day, but this is really the most important thing that happened:

We may laugh, but let’s be real. If Patrick and Christina Marleau offered to adopt us, we’d take them up on that real fast, too.

The New York Islanders now have a more permanent home in their future, which is awesome - since Barclay’s Arena is awful for viewing hockey, and Long Islanders get titchy about having to enter the five boroughs to watch their sports. [Lighthouse Hockey]

In other Metropolitan Division news, the Pittsburgh Penguins made two minor trades on Tuesday:

From the Dallas Stars, they picked up Olympic gold medal swimmer Penny Oleksiak’s older brother, who should add depth for them on the blue line. [Defending Big D]

From the Arizona Coyotes, they picked up goaltender Michael Leighton, who may or may not be a mole planted by the Philadelphia Flyers. Leighton was included in the trade that sent former Coyotes backup Louis Domingue to the Tampa Bay Lightning - and while he hasn’t played a single game in over a month, the assumption is that he’s moving to Pittsburgh to provide security in the minor-league absence of Tristan Jarry (who has played his way into a full-time NHL gig).

In women’s hockey news, it’s time to look ahead to the Winter Olympics.

Since your favorite national team is most likely going to ice lukewarm oatmeal on skates at the Pyeongchang games on the men’s side, it’s time to develop a vested interest in the women’s team for your country. It’s surprisingly satisfying, as American soccer fans can tell you all too well. [The Ice Garden]

Finally, Dmitry Orlov just reminded all of us that he’s #ActuallyGood:

We think Caps defender John Carlson summed it up nicely for us, when the Capitals PR team announced the goal with a tweet saying “Dmitry Orlov ties the game at two apiece”:

Preach it.