Morning Flurries: Skating through the Sunshine State

The league’s travel schedule follows a predictable pattern for teams making their way through the opposing conference on road trips.

Obviously there are exceptions, but most teams will make a few near-guaranteed road trips. They’ll make the Vegas-Phoenix back-to-back trip, they’ll pass through Southern California, and they’ll do the tour of Florida.

Colorado is right in the middle of that Florida trip, having faced off against the Panthers on Thursday and preparing to take on Tampa Bay later this evening.

They’re riding high on the back of a 5-2 victory for now, which is exactly what they needed. [Mile High Hockey]

The Lightning are no easy opponent, though. The Florida sweep isn’t an easy one — so they can’t take game two of the series for granted.

Heading into the game, here’s a cool read on Mathieu Joseph, the Lightning low-end prospect who’s managed to cling to a roster spot with some pretty surprising play this year. [Tampa Bay Times]

Speaking of the south, these are the best jerseys ever:

Atlanta likely will never be an NHL town, and many have all but accepted that fact by now. With college football reigning over everything that happens there, it’s hard for pro sports in general to grab a piece of the fandom pie — and hockey certainly wasn’t going to be the one to really do it.

The hockey fans there are a fierce and loyal group, though, and this is a cool tribute to the teams that they’ve seen come and go.

Speaking of things we’ve seen, keep an eye on the news for all the chatter about Nathan MacKinnon. Word has it he’s a favorite for the award he fell just shy of winning last year. [ESPN]

If you need some holiday cheer, this is the video you’ve been waiting for:

Finally, this week is bananas and I don’t have much time to dig up more to offer you guys. But if you’re already a subscriber to The Athletic, you can read what’s been taking up so much of my time (yes, I’m self-promoting. No, I don’t have the energy left to care how hard you’re all judging for it).

For the Future of Hockey series the site’s doing, I took a look at a problem near and dear to my heart: the cost of goalie gear for low-income families and the kids that want to give it a shot. There’s a future program the Coyotes hope to implement to get kids in the net no matter how much their parents make, and gear companies like Bauer and CCM are doing their best to lower the costs, too. [The Athletic NHL]

Obviously, if you don’t already subscribe, sorry for taking up time in the Flurries. But I will leave you with the humor my story’s research managed to produce: