FTS - 10/18/08

TOP STORY

Michael Peca Suspended 5 Games
NHL.com Story - http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=387186

If there’s one thing that transcends all sports, it’s that you don’t mess with the refs or umpires. There’s no quicker way for an athlete to get in a world of trouble than by touching a referee or demeaning him or her in front of the arena. Michael Peca did a little bit of both.

This is a little out of character for a guy who has the ‘A’ on his sweater and has been known as a team leader throughout his career. Emotions can get the better of players from time to time, but you have to keep yourself in check. Maybe you’d expect something like this out of a Sean Avery or someone like that, but when you’re an alternate captain on a team full of young players, you need to set the example.

I’m sure the suspension isn’t as bad as what Ken Hitchcock will have in store for him. Peca was lucky that the appeal worked and the penalty was downgraded from a Category II to a Category III. The difference there is that he went from a 10-game minimum suspension to a 3-game minimum.

RUMOR MILL

More Mats Sundin Buzz
-The teams in play for Sundin really haven’t changed much. It’s still Montreal, the Rangers, Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Philly and Colorado. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m getting sick of the midseason returns of players/inability to decide whether to retire or not (when it’s not due to an injury obviously). This is a trend Roger Clemens started and Brett Favre added his own twist to. If you want to play, play. If you want to retire, retire. The only difference with a guy like Sundin is that he’s a warrior and a fan favorite. While I’ll always root for a guy like Sundin and he deserves his name on the Cup, he needs to be more decisive about his future. Captains don’t become captains by being wishy-washy.

Mike Comrie on the move?
Because the Blackhawks haven’t been in the news enough this week, they are the rumored partner for an Islanders deal on Comrie. No word yet on who the Isles would get back. Wouldn’t it be funny if Khabibulin was somehow part of this deal with DiPietro signed for 15 years with hip problems? The biggest loss to the Isles here would be Hillary Duff’s presence at Nassau Coliseum (for those who don’t know, Duff and Comrie are a couple).

LAST NIGHT’S RECAP

Ottawa Senators over the Phoenix Coyotes 6-3
-The big story here is Daniel Alfredsson’s return to the lineup. Alfie joined the team again after only being out 1 week from having a bone chip removed from his right knee. He assisted on 2 of the 3 first period goals for the Sens.

NY Rangers over the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 (SO)
-A penalty filled game that was dominated between the pipes by both Vesa Toskala and Stephen Valiquette. Valley earned his 3rd career shutout and is quickly proving himself a valuable backup on Broadway (and also a Flyer-killer and a Leafs-killer). Toskala turned in more than his share of quality saves for the Leafs.

Columbus Blue Jackets over the Nashville Predators 5-3
-Rick Nash pots 2 for Columbus (1 on the PP) as Columbus holds on after nearly blowing a 4-0 lead in their home opener. The victory ends a 16 game streak in which the Blue Jackets failed to get a point against the Preds (0-15-1).

Buffalo Sabres over the Vancouver Canucks 5-2
-This one was over early as the Sabres jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first period. Thomas Vanek scored his NHL leading sixth goal and added two assists in the win for the undefeated Sabres.

Edmonton Oilers over the Calgary Flames 4-3
-Special teams were the difference in this edition of the Battle of Alberta. Edmonton notched 3 PP goals in the 2nd period (Erik Cole, Lubomir Visnovsky and Robert Nillson) to go to 3-0-0. Rookie goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers turned away 26 of 29 shots for his first career victory.

San Jose Sharks vs. Anaheim Ducks
-The Ducks got their first win of the year, but it took a 38 save shut-out performance from Jean-Sebastian Giguere to do it. In the process, the Sharks take their first loss of the year. San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov allowed all four goals in the first 20 shots after giving up four total goals in his first three starts. Defenseman Dan Boyle was a -3.

LA Kings defeat Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in OT
-Michal Handzus scored the first goal of the game and he scored the most important one in the game. The OT goal was created by a nice defensive play by Handzus in his own end and ended with him choosing to shoot instead of passing to Alexander Frolov on an OT 2 on 1. A very exciting game to watch.


AROUND THE BOARDS

-Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire stopped a hard shot with the palm side of his blocker in the 3rd period against Nashville. He left the ice in pain while holding out his bare right hand. The club said there was no damage except for a bruised thumb. He will sit out the Saturday night game against Nashville and Frederik Norrena will start in his place.

-Defenseman Matt Greene has signed a five-year extension with the Los Angeles Kings through the 2013-14 season. The deal comes almost a week after the Kings signed center Anze Kopitar to a seven-year extension through 2015-16. The 25-year-old Greene is in his first season with the Kings after spending three years with Edmonton and was named one of the Kings' assistant captains earlier this month.

-Phoenix Coyotes' LW Daniel Carcillo has been suspended for two games, without pay. At 17:00 of the second period on Wednesday night, Carcillo, who was on the players' bench, became involved with Blackhawks' player Ben Eager, who was on the ice. Carcillo missed tonight's game at Ottawa and will be out of the lineup for Saturday’s game against Montreal.

-The Vancouver Canucks have placed center Kyle Wellwood on waivers

-St. Louis Blues G Chris Mason underwent emergency appendectomy surgery

-Team Canada has named former Red Wing Steve Yzerman as Executive Director for the 2010 Olympic team. It would have been really tough for Canada to do better than Stevie Y.

GAME OF THE NIGHT

NY Rangers @ Detroit Red Wings - 7PM
-Anytime Original 6 team's get a chance to meet, there's always a little mystique behind it. The team with the most points in the NHL travels to Jou Louis Arena to play the defending champions. This will be the Rangers first test against a really tough team this year (Buffalo beat them on Wednesday, but the Rangers played extremely sloppy in that game). Historically, the Rangers struggle with Detroit. The Blueshirts are coming off a 1-0 shootout win on Friday night against the Maple Leafs. On the other bench, the Red Wings are coming off a tough OT loss against the Canucks in which Detroit turned over the puck 13 times. If you like good ol' fashioned hockey, this should serve your fix.

Other Action:
Colorado @ Dallas - 2PM
Phoenix @ Montreal - 7PM
Boston @ Ottawa - 7PM
Toronto @ Pittsburgh - 7PM
New Jersey @ Washington - 7PM
Buffalo @ Atlanta - 7PM
NY Islanders @ Florida - 7PM
Minnesota @ Tampa Bay - 7:30PM
Columbus @ Nashville - 8PM
Chicago @ St. Louis - 8:30PM (Joel Quenneville's Blackhawks coaching debut)
Calgary @ Edmonton - 10PM
Philadelphia @ San Jose - 10:30PM

**My weekly power rankings, “Plus/Minus” comes out every Wednesday evening.

FEEL FREE TO POST COMMENTS OR EMAIL ME DIRECTLY AT FROMTHESLOT@GMAIL.COM

FTS - 10/17/08

TOP STORY

Blackhawks Fire Denis Savard
AP Story - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gIPpeZP1YLirB0TNdVs3LXrz9alAD93RT3IG0

This is one of the classic firings that shock you at first, but when you dig a little, you start the see the reasoning behind it (whether you agree or not).

Savard’s record had improved each of the years he’s been there (granted, it was only two years). But for a guy who hasn’t really coached before, he was doing well for himself. He had a young team with some key veterans and the Blackhawks were starting to put something together for the first time in a long time. They could have easily snuck in the playoffs this year and been a team that would improve even more over the next few years. Instead, the carpet was yanked from Savard after only four games (and after the team’s first win of the season) and they’ve decided to go another route. I don’t think it’s crazy to say that the Blackhawks, a team that was so distant from the minds of Chicago sports fans, fires a fan favorite like Savard, the move better work otherwise they could be back to square one.

In steps Joel Qunneville. Joel has been one of the more consistent coaches over the past decade or so. Savard wasn’t replaced by a slouch. Quenneville has gotten his teams to the playoffs over 9 of the last 10 seasons and has over 400 wins to his credit. I’ve said he’s been consistent, but sometimes consistency isn’t always good. With the exception of one season in St. Louis, he’s never gotten his teams past the 2nd round of the playoffs. You can argue that his teams were always one player short in a tough West (which I agree with), but one Stanley Cup appearance on the resume would be nice if you’re going to make a move like this.

I said earlier that you could see the reasoning behind this. There are two facts that jumped out at me:

1) Quenneville was hired by the Blackhawks as a scout before this season – He may have not gotten deep in the playoffs often, but a guy with his resume doesn’t just go back to being a scout. Maybe Denis Savard was a bit of a lame duck going in to this season (no contact extension offered to him in this past off-season)
2) In the press conference today, most of the answers by GM Dale Tallon were typical front office answers when a coach is let go. When Scotty Bowman (a special advisor to the Blackhawks) was asked why he felt the need to put a guy like Quenneville behind the bench, he started rattling off the names of other coaches in the Central Division (Mike Babcock in Detroit, Ken Hitchcock in Columbus, Barry Trotz in Nashville, Andy Murray in St. Louis), you could get the sense that putting Quenneville behind the bench was almost a case of keeping up with the Joneses. While Murray is only in his 2nd full season as the Blues bench boss, the other 3 have been household names in the league for the past decade. If other teams coaching statuses factored in to this decision, the Blackhawks are foolish. Savard was building something. He may not have been the best X’s and O’s guy, but he was developing young talent, whether the players got along with him or not

Don’t get me wrong, Joel Quenneville will do some good for this team and will probably have them back in the playoffs either this year or next year, but I feel this hiring was a bit shortsighted. Quenneville will eventually be liked in Chicago, but he won’t be close to Savard’s popularity. When a franchise is climbing back from as far down as it was in the minds of fans, you need to keep a fan favorite who was also improving the franchise.

RUMOR MILL

Marian Gaborik to Montreal, Ottawa??
-Gaborik on the Canadians would make the best team in the East even better. Their already lethal power play would become a nightmares for PK’s across the league. If Higgins is one of the main chips going back to Minnesota, he would thrive under Jacques Lemaire and be a pseudo-replacement for Brian Rolston.

-If Gaborik went to the Senators, he would provide speed to a team who can already score in bunches. Could this be a sign that Daniel Alfredsson’s knee injury is worse than we are led to believe? Keeping Gaborik out of Montreal is an added bonus.

LAST NIGHT’S RECAPS

Minnesota Wild over the Florida Panthers 6-2
-The Wild dominate in Florida without Marian Gaborik in the lineup due to a lower-body injury and remain undefeated.

Washington Capitals over the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3
-The Caps rally with 3 goals in the 3rd period and get a win against a team they’ve had trouble beating over the past few seasons.

New Jersey Devils over the Atlanta Thrashers 1-0
-Marty Brodeur gets his 97th career shutout and is just seven shy of Terry Sawchuk’s career record. Brodeur also only trails Patrick Roy by 10 wins on the all-time goalie wins list.

New York Islanders over the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in OT
-The Isles rebound after an embarrassing loss to the Sabres at home while things remain rough for Barry Melrose.

Vancouver Canucks over the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in OT
-The Red Wings drop a tough one at home while the Canucks rebound after a tough loss in DC.

Philadelphia Flyers @ Colorado Avalanche
-In a battle of winless teams, Colorado dents the win column first thanks to a strong 1st period. Philadelphia couldn’t get much offense going being outshot 34-18.

St. Louis Blues over the Dallas Stars 6-1
-Six different Blues score in the victory. St. Louis has outscored their opponents 9-2 in the 2nd period this season.


AROUND THE BOARDS

-Brian Rolston had to be helped off the ice after a tough collision with the boards in Atlanta last night. No word on how severe the injury is or if he will miss any time.

-The Phoenix Coyotes recalled D Ryan Lannon from San Antonio (AHL) yesterday after D Derek Morris injured his hand in Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss in Chicago

-Still waiting on word from the Senators if RW Daniel Alfredsson will return against Phoenix tonight or Boston tomorrow

-Russia's Kontinental Hockey League said it would investigate the death of Alexei Cherepanov. KHL managing director Vladimor Shalaev will lead a special commission to conduct "an exhaustive investigation into all aspects of the situation," the league said in a statement. The group is expected to cooperate with state and local authorities.


GAME OF THE NIGHT

Vancouver Canucks @ Buffalo Sabres – 7:30PM
-The 3-1 Canucks head in to Buffalo for Game 4 of their 6 game road trip out east. The Sabres are looking to go to 4-0 on the season after an impressive performance @ MSG against the Rangers on Thursday. Buffalo has only allowed 1 goal in each of it’s 3 games this year, but the Canucks have Roberto Luongo between the pipes. With their respective styles of play, this could either be a 2-1 goalie duel or a 6-5 barnburner.

Other Action:
-Phoenix Coyotes @ Ottawa Senators – 7PM

-Toronto Maple Leafs @ NY Rangers – 7PM

-Nashville Predators @ Columbus Blue Jackets – 7PM

-Edmonton Oilers @ Calgary Flames – 9PM

-San Jose Sharks @ Anaheim Ducks – 10PM

-Carolina Hurricanes @ LA Kings – 10:30PM

^All times Eastern


**My weekly power rankings, “Plus/Minus” come out every Wednesday evening.