Ice-Cold Takes: Ovi’s milestone, Laine’s beard and the next big arena song

“Ice-Cold Takes” is a weekly column where we visit what is trending around the NHL. To those under 25 who are seeing this, a column is a podcast that you have to read. This week we touch on great goal scorers, great hair and why you’ll get nothing done this weekend.

Happy Wednesday, friends. We’re officially halfway through the week, which is the perfect time to give yourself a little break from work and catch up on what is going on in the world of hockey. We have a full slate of important topics today, so without further ado, let’s get into it.

Trending Up:

1. Alex Ovechkin

The 32-year-old Washington Capitals superstar scored his 600th goal on Monday, becoming the eighth player to reach this milestone. FanSided’s own Derek Grochowski covered the historic goal, as well as counted down Ovi’s top five career goals, here.

At 32 and playing as well as ever, it’s basically a lock that Ovechkin will reach the top 10 all time for goals scored before he turns 35. He only needs 91 more goals to move into sole possession of 10th place. Wayne Gretzky holds the overall record at 894 goals. It won’t be easy, but this number is definitely not untouchable for Ovechkin.

On a more present-day note, Ovechkin and the Capitals are becoming a trendy Stanley Cup pick. Many are saying there is less pressure on the Caps now that they aren’t going in to the playoffs as the East’s top point-getters this season. As if that means they won’t implode in typical horrific Capitals fashion. Not buying it.

2. Salad/lettuce

One of the better nonsensical nicknames in hockey has to be any leafy vegetable used to describe hair. Minnesota loves hockey flow so much that they make an annual “all-hair” team along with a mini-documentary about it (of course you do, Minnesota). You can see the video here.

This year’s No. 1 salad belonged to “Rapuckzel” (aka Carly Beniek), who also owns my new favorite hockey nickname. Let’s give props to any nickname that isn’t just a player’s last name with “y” added to the end of it. Hockey has a creativity problem when it comes to names and Rapuckzel is here to save us. Romaine calm, but Carly has some sick cabbage:

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/973175566143774722

3. Carolina Hurricanes goalie prospect Alex Nedeljkovic

On Saturday night, Alex Nedeljkovic scored his second goal in as many seasons for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.

I’m pretty sure Nedeljkovic just passed Scott Gomez in career goals. What a shot. Imagine having a goal scorer like this in net. Every powerplay instantly becomes a two-man advantage. I reached out to Alex about his game-changing ability:

He did not answer.

On a related note, the Charlotte Checkers have become my new favorite AHL team. If you are in the greater Charlotte area tonight, head down to Bojangles’ Coliseum (actual name). It’s dollar beer night at the Checkers game.

https://twitter.com/CheckersHockey/status/973276026892685313

Trending Down:

1. Patrik Laine’s beard

I mean…thank god this kid can play hockey, right?

2. Productivity for the this week

PSA to all sports fans: Starting Thursday, we have four full days of college basketball coinciding with four more days of Tiger Woods, who is playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (a course on which he’s won eight times).

We’re also looking at another packed week in the NHL, spearheaded by some heavyweight games over the weekend (Wild at Golden Knights on Friday, Bruins at Lightning on Saturday). Any team in a wild card race right now is already playing playoff hockey, so you can tune into just about any game this week, except for Rangers vs. Blues, and see great hockey with playoff implications.

As if all of this action was not enough reason to drink for four days straight, it’s also St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday.

3. Arena/locker room music

Tired of hearing the same old songs at hockey games? When we think of songs that play at hockey games, we think of the usual bangers like “Come on Feel the Noise,” “Raise a Little Hell” and “Thunderstruck.” Move those down the playlist, because the song of the year has arrived:

Disclaimer: There is no coming back from this. If you thought Rebecca Black’s “Friday” was bad, this is on a different level. Last chance to skip over this clip.

Betting locks of the night (0-0) (107-0 before publication):

Vegas (-230) over New Jersey: The Golden Knights beat the Devils in New Jersey earlier this month. This is also the first time the Devils travel to Los Vegas this season, so look for that pesky “Vegas flu” to play a part in this one.

Dallas (+110) over Toronto: The Stars have never lost to the Maple Leafs on Mar. 14 in the year 2018.

Next: 30 best NHL jerseys of all-time

That wraps up this week’s “Ice-Cold Takes.” If you see or hear something that you think deserves to be in next week’s column, let me know on twitter @TheRealBruin.

Keep your head up.

Odds according to OddsShark