A Happy Reunion
Olli Jokinen gets to play for his old bench boss Mike Keenan, this time in Calgary
Olli Jokinen gets to play for his old bench boss Mike Keenan, this time in Calgary
(Photo Credits: AP/Canadian Press)
Trade Deadline Day 2009 finished with a flurry with a number of moves concluded after the 3pm Eastern deadline. There was no fire sale in Toronto, and Jay Bouwmeester and Marian Gaborik stayed put, but there is still much to discuss as we begin the final push towards the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Calgary adding Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold grabbed the headlines Wednesday, but we’re not putting the Flames on the same level as the Sharks and Red Wings in the Western Conference just yet. Let’s remember that Jokinen has played zero playoff games, mostly because he’s been on bad teams; however, the Coyotes have been playing pseudo-playoff games since the All-Star break, and Jokinen went 15 games without a goal while Phoenix fell out of contention.
The Blackhawks needed a center behind Jonathon Toews and Dave Bolland, and since Ottawa wasn’t going to move Jason Spezza, Anaheim’s Samuel Pahlsson is a nice player to settle for. There is a Stanley Cup on his résumé and he’ll come in handy against Pavel Datsyuk, Joe Thornton and Jokinen over a seven-game series.
General Manager Bob Murray jettisoned another key cog from the Ducks’ title team in Travis Moen. San Jose needed him, unable to stay healthy on its third and fourth lines.
The Blue Jackets will make the playoffs for the first time ever, but they needed more than Antoine Vermette at the deadline. The Columbus roster still lacks the right center to play with Rick Nash. As for the other half of the deal, Ottawa now thinks it has its starting goaltender in Pascal Leclaire – Brian Elliott must be super excited to hear that.
Boston was the only team among the Eastern Conference elite to pull the trigger on a trade Wednesday, acquiring veteran winger Mark Recchi and tough defenseman Steve Montador in separate deals. Recchi provides a solid dose of playoff experience to a rather young forward corps, while Montador strengthens the third pair on the Bruin blueline. But the Devils, who made a smart pickup in Nicolas Havelid, are still the best team in the East.
Surprisingly, Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina are still in Toronto, but Brian Burke’s rebuilding project picked up a pair of second round picks by dumping Nik Antropov and Dominic Moore to the Rangers and Sabres, respectively. Antropov’s time with the Leafs was done and Moore wanted too much money, so getting relatively high choices for them was a nice day’s work for Burke.
Ranger fans shouldn’t miss Petr Prucha or Nigel Dawes too much, but that second-rounder on its way to Toronto for Antropov could’ve been useful for a team that lacks high-scoring forward prospects. Size was needed on Broadway, which Antropov addresses. Morris, however, was more useful a few years ago. With just one power-play point this season, he isn’t the remedy for an inexplicably poor PP unit.
Bill Guerin-to-Pittsburgh has us conflicted. We can see him firing in one-timers on the power-play and we can see him struggling to keep pace with Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz on the rush. And since Guerin has just 16 goals in 61 games, the latter may be closer to reality in the end.
How about that three-team swap between Los Angeles, Carolina and Edmonton? Patrick O’Sullivan and Ales Hemsky should be fun together in Alberta, while the Hurricanes gamble on a homecoming for Erik Cole. Hopefully, they’re prepared to lose. The 30-year-old Cole has just 16 goals and 27 points over 63 games – Eric Staal can’t restart that engine.
We are very excited to see Dan Carcillo in a Flyer uniform running around in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Kudos to Wild GM Doug Risebrough for signing goaltender Niklas Backstrom to a 4-year, $24-million-dollar extension Tuesday. The 31-year-old Finn is worth every penny – 89 wins, 2.19 GAA and a .924 save percentage over the last three seasons.
No kudos, though, for Sabres GM Darcy Regier’s 2-year, $9-million-dollar extension with center Tim Connolly. His talent isn’t the question – it’s the fact that he hasn’t played a full season since 2002-03. You cannot pay anyone $4.5 mill annually to maybe play on one of your top two lines. Regier balanced things out, though, with the acquisition of Moore for a second round pick. The journeyman center has finally established himself in this league. He is a Top 6 forward that will play on the power-play and the penalty-kill.
Finally, did anyone else notice how angry Pierre Maguire was during TSN’s coverage? Was someone making bald jokes in his ear throughout the broadcast?
* * *
The Shootout…With Sean Avery back in the NHL, let’s update Gary Bettman’s punishment scale: 6 games for “sloppy seconds” – 3 games for an on-ice racial slur – 2 games for biting an opponent’s finger – 1 game for eye-gouging an opponent during a fight. Still out of whack, right?
And Congrats to Jarome Iginla, who became the Flames all-time leading scorer (831 points) Sunday night, notching the 400th goal of his career in the process. Whether or not the NHL has done enough to market Iginla is something we should tackle in this space in the future.
As always, questions, comments, complaints, go to boguschhockey@gmail.com
Later on today, Andrew and I will post a chat with full recap and analysis from all the deadline deals.
ACTION FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE...
Buffalo Sabres (32-25-7) over the Montreal Canadiens (34-23-7) 5-1
Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy each scored twice (both had a PPG) and Patrick Lalime stoped 38 shots (perhaps in response to the Sabres acquiring Mikael Tellqvist from Phoenix) to give Buffalo a key win in the division over the struggling Canadiens. Carey Price remained winless on the road in the 2009 calendar year (0-7-1 in 10 games in 2009).
Detroit Red Wings (43-14-8) over the Colorado Avalanche (28-36-1) 3-2
Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen (26th of season), and Kris Draper all score for Detroit as the Red Wings take down their rivals from the late 90's. The Red Wings were without goal leader Marian Hossa on Wednesday night. He sat out with a sore neck and knee after he was injured the night before in St. Louis when he slammed into the end boards and had to be carried off the ice on a gurney. Although the 30-year-old Hossa was hospitalized for observation, he accompanied the team to Colorado and is listed as day to day.
OTHER HEADLINES
-The Pittsburgh Penguins assigned veteran forward Miroslav Satan to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. Signed as a free agent from the New York Islanders in the offseason, Satan posted a modest 17 goals and 39 points in 65 games for the Penguins. The Slovakian native struggled in recent weeks, scoring just five goals with 11 points over 28 games in the last two months. The move comes just hours after the Penguins acquired another veteran forward, Bill Guerin, from the Islanders.
-The Leafs have shut down starting goaltender Vesa Toskala for the remainder of the season. Toskala will undergo surgery on his ailing groin and will need at least four months of rehabillitation. He made 49 saves during an overtime loss to New Jersey on Tuesday night. Toskala was resigned to his fate. "We've been knowing what's going on for a while," Toskala told reporters. "That's it, we made the decision together. We need to start healing as soon as possible because recovery might take quite a long time. "This is best for me," said Toskala. "I'm going to get my surgery done next week. Obviously, I haven't been 100 percent."
-The Ottawa Senators have signed veteran defenseman Filip Kuba to a three-year contract extension worth $3.7 million per season. Kuba's new contract contains a no trade clause in the first year. The 32-year-old Czech blueliner was set to become an unrestricted free-agent this summer and had reportedly waived the no trade clause in his contract earlier in the week in anticipation that an extension could not be negotiated. Kuba is a power play specialist who was acquired by the Senators in the off-season, along with Alexandre Picard and a first round draft pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Andrej Meszaros. He has two goals and 27 assists in 54 games for Ottawa this season.
RUMOR MILL
-Amongst all the trades that happened, Blues winger Keith Tkachuk was not someone who had to book a flight yesterday. For a guy who was rumored to be on the move, St. Louis stood pat. "Apparently Tkachuk was hugging teammates and left the rink, was then told to come back, waited around and then told that a deal was not able to have been made. So, Keith is still a Blue." according to Andy Strickland of HockeyBuzz.com.
Trade Deadline Day 2009 finished with a flurry with a number of moves concluded after the 3pm Eastern deadline. There was no fire sale in Toronto, and Jay Bouwmeester and Marian Gaborik stayed put, but there is still much to discuss as we begin the final push towards the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Calgary adding Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold grabbed the headlines Wednesday, but we’re not putting the Flames on the same level as the Sharks and Red Wings in the Western Conference just yet. Let’s remember that Jokinen has played zero playoff games, mostly because he’s been on bad teams; however, the Coyotes have been playing pseudo-playoff games since the All-Star break, and Jokinen went 15 games without a goal while Phoenix fell out of contention.
The Blackhawks needed a center behind Jonathon Toews and Dave Bolland, and since Ottawa wasn’t going to move Jason Spezza, Anaheim’s Samuel Pahlsson is a nice player to settle for. There is a Stanley Cup on his résumé and he’ll come in handy against Pavel Datsyuk, Joe Thornton and Jokinen over a seven-game series.
General Manager Bob Murray jettisoned another key cog from the Ducks’ title team in Travis Moen. San Jose needed him, unable to stay healthy on its third and fourth lines.
The Blue Jackets will make the playoffs for the first time ever, but they needed more than Antoine Vermette at the deadline. The Columbus roster still lacks the right center to play with Rick Nash. As for the other half of the deal, Ottawa now thinks it has its starting goaltender in Pascal Leclaire – Brian Elliott must be super excited to hear that.
Boston was the only team among the Eastern Conference elite to pull the trigger on a trade Wednesday, acquiring veteran winger Mark Recchi and tough defenseman Steve Montador in separate deals. Recchi provides a solid dose of playoff experience to a rather young forward corps, while Montador strengthens the third pair on the Bruin blueline. But the Devils, who made a smart pickup in Nicolas Havelid, are still the best team in the East.
Surprisingly, Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina are still in Toronto, but Brian Burke’s rebuilding project picked up a pair of second round picks by dumping Nik Antropov and Dominic Moore to the Rangers and Sabres, respectively. Antropov’s time with the Leafs was done and Moore wanted too much money, so getting relatively high choices for them was a nice day’s work for Burke.
Ranger fans shouldn’t miss Petr Prucha or Nigel Dawes too much, but that second-rounder on its way to Toronto for Antropov could’ve been useful for a team that lacks high-scoring forward prospects. Size was needed on Broadway, which Antropov addresses. Morris, however, was more useful a few years ago. With just one power-play point this season, he isn’t the remedy for an inexplicably poor PP unit.
Bill Guerin-to-Pittsburgh has us conflicted. We can see him firing in one-timers on the power-play and we can see him struggling to keep pace with Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz on the rush. And since Guerin has just 16 goals in 61 games, the latter may be closer to reality in the end.
How about that three-team swap between Los Angeles, Carolina and Edmonton? Patrick O’Sullivan and Ales Hemsky should be fun together in Alberta, while the Hurricanes gamble on a homecoming for Erik Cole. Hopefully, they’re prepared to lose. The 30-year-old Cole has just 16 goals and 27 points over 63 games – Eric Staal can’t restart that engine.
We are very excited to see Dan Carcillo in a Flyer uniform running around in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Kudos to Wild GM Doug Risebrough for signing goaltender Niklas Backstrom to a 4-year, $24-million-dollar extension Tuesday. The 31-year-old Finn is worth every penny – 89 wins, 2.19 GAA and a .924 save percentage over the last three seasons.
No kudos, though, for Sabres GM Darcy Regier’s 2-year, $9-million-dollar extension with center Tim Connolly. His talent isn’t the question – it’s the fact that he hasn’t played a full season since 2002-03. You cannot pay anyone $4.5 mill annually to maybe play on one of your top two lines. Regier balanced things out, though, with the acquisition of Moore for a second round pick. The journeyman center has finally established himself in this league. He is a Top 6 forward that will play on the power-play and the penalty-kill.
Finally, did anyone else notice how angry Pierre Maguire was during TSN’s coverage? Was someone making bald jokes in his ear throughout the broadcast?
* * *
The Shootout…With Sean Avery back in the NHL, let’s update Gary Bettman’s punishment scale: 6 games for “sloppy seconds” – 3 games for an on-ice racial slur – 2 games for biting an opponent’s finger – 1 game for eye-gouging an opponent during a fight. Still out of whack, right?
And Congrats to Jarome Iginla, who became the Flames all-time leading scorer (831 points) Sunday night, notching the 400th goal of his career in the process. Whether or not the NHL has done enough to market Iginla is something we should tackle in this space in the future.
As always, questions, comments, complaints, go to boguschhockey@gmail.com
Later on today, Andrew and I will post a chat with full recap and analysis from all the deadline deals.
ACTION FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE...
Buffalo Sabres (32-25-7) over the Montreal Canadiens (34-23-7) 5-1
Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy each scored twice (both had a PPG) and Patrick Lalime stoped 38 shots (perhaps in response to the Sabres acquiring Mikael Tellqvist from Phoenix) to give Buffalo a key win in the division over the struggling Canadiens. Carey Price remained winless on the road in the 2009 calendar year (0-7-1 in 10 games in 2009).
Detroit Red Wings (43-14-8) over the Colorado Avalanche (28-36-1) 3-2
Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen (26th of season), and Kris Draper all score for Detroit as the Red Wings take down their rivals from the late 90's. The Red Wings were without goal leader Marian Hossa on Wednesday night. He sat out with a sore neck and knee after he was injured the night before in St. Louis when he slammed into the end boards and had to be carried off the ice on a gurney. Although the 30-year-old Hossa was hospitalized for observation, he accompanied the team to Colorado and is listed as day to day.
OTHER HEADLINES
-The Pittsburgh Penguins assigned veteran forward Miroslav Satan to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. Signed as a free agent from the New York Islanders in the offseason, Satan posted a modest 17 goals and 39 points in 65 games for the Penguins. The Slovakian native struggled in recent weeks, scoring just five goals with 11 points over 28 games in the last two months. The move comes just hours after the Penguins acquired another veteran forward, Bill Guerin, from the Islanders.
-The Leafs have shut down starting goaltender Vesa Toskala for the remainder of the season. Toskala will undergo surgery on his ailing groin and will need at least four months of rehabillitation. He made 49 saves during an overtime loss to New Jersey on Tuesday night. Toskala was resigned to his fate. "We've been knowing what's going on for a while," Toskala told reporters. "That's it, we made the decision together. We need to start healing as soon as possible because recovery might take quite a long time. "This is best for me," said Toskala. "I'm going to get my surgery done next week. Obviously, I haven't been 100 percent."
-The Ottawa Senators have signed veteran defenseman Filip Kuba to a three-year contract extension worth $3.7 million per season. Kuba's new contract contains a no trade clause in the first year. The 32-year-old Czech blueliner was set to become an unrestricted free-agent this summer and had reportedly waived the no trade clause in his contract earlier in the week in anticipation that an extension could not be negotiated. Kuba is a power play specialist who was acquired by the Senators in the off-season, along with Alexandre Picard and a first round draft pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Andrej Meszaros. He has two goals and 27 assists in 54 games for Ottawa this season.
RUMOR MILL
-Amongst all the trades that happened, Blues winger Keith Tkachuk was not someone who had to book a flight yesterday. For a guy who was rumored to be on the move, St. Louis stood pat. "Apparently Tkachuk was hugging teammates and left the rink, was then told to come back, waited around and then told that a deal was not able to have been made. So, Keith is still a Blue." according to Andy Strickland of HockeyBuzz.com.
TONIGHTS ACTION:
Phoenix @ Boston - 7PM
NY Rangers @ NY Islanders - 7PM
Calgary @ Philadelphia - 7PM
Toronto @ Washington - 7PM
Edmonton @ Ottawa - 7:30PM
%Pittsburgh @ Florida - 7:30PM
Columbus @ Nashville - 8PM
Dallas @ Los Angeles - 10:30PM
Minnesota @ San Jose - 10:30PM
% = Game of the Night
^All Times are Eastern
*My weekly power rankings comes out Mondays or Tuesdays
~Dropping the Gloves with Andrew Bogusch comes out on Thursdays
TO EMAIL FTS, write fromtheslot@gmail.com
Phoenix @ Boston - 7PM
NY Rangers @ NY Islanders - 7PM
Calgary @ Philadelphia - 7PM
Toronto @ Washington - 7PM
Edmonton @ Ottawa - 7:30PM
%Pittsburgh @ Florida - 7:30PM
Columbus @ Nashville - 8PM
Dallas @ Los Angeles - 10:30PM
Minnesota @ San Jose - 10:30PM
% = Game of the Night
^All Times are Eastern
*My weekly power rankings comes out Mondays or Tuesdays
~Dropping the Gloves with Andrew Bogusch comes out on Thursdays
TO EMAIL FTS, write fromtheslot@gmail.com
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