The Thrashers acquired forward Evgeny Artyukhin from Anaheim on Monday night for minor-league defenseman Nathan Oystrick and a conditional draft pick in 2011.

Lalime to start against Crosby and the Pens tonight (Miller will get a well-deserve night off). And I want to punch ESPN for not understanding hockey (outside of Melrose) and how you can't play your starting goalie every game. When your goalie just played 6 games in 13 days under the global microscope, in addition to playing a lot of games pre-break, and traveled across 3 time zones directly to Pittsburgh yesterday, I think giving him a night to decompress and get his mindset back in the NHL season is a smart move. Plus Miller for whatever reason has a tough time against the Pens. Lalime actually does well against them.

Save your blood pressure and never look to ESPN for anything hockey related as of now. Mike and Mike were trying to talk about it yesterday and sounded even dumber than they normally do.

NYI have traded defenceman Andy Sutton to Ottawa for a second round pick that previously belonged to the San Jose Sharks

The funny part is the Caps at Sabres game tomorrow, which will be Miller's first start, is on Versus. National TV vs. local broadcasts in tonight's game.

Maybe another change of scenery will finally make things click for him. He's definitely an enigma, big, fast, very skilled and completely crap 98% of the time. But he will give you a couple of highlight reel goals a season.

Evgeny Artyukin? Andy Sutton? 46 year old Chris Chelios?

Whatever happened to good players being involved in deadline deals/moves?

Chelios isnt even going to play in the NHL unless they trade or lose a couple of guys to injury. Hell probably just keep playing in Chicago until he retires

Two words: Salary. Cap.

Still, it's early yet and we did have some action prior to the Olympics with Toronto's various deals. Phaneuf and Giguere aren't small potatoes.

And Kovalchuk was the biggest piece of all.

I can't stand people who are clueless or "bandwagon" fans.

A) Ray Whitney cannot be traded unless he waives his no-trade clause. He wants a 3-year extension. Not worth more than 1.

B) Stop comparing the Olympics to the "inferior" NHL product. http://community.post-gazette.com/bl....aspx#comments

You're comparing apples to oranges.

C) The NHL cannot force a team to play a certain player. I don't care if the Sabres are playing Crosby and Pittsburgh tonight. Reasons above. It is NOT A BIG GAME. If that is true, then all 82 games would be big games. The only big games start are going into the last 10 games or so of the regular season and where you're battling teams for the division lead in that game.

D) The Sabres are in 3rd place and leading the NE division with games in hand. Sure, they fell apart going into the break (while Ottawa got hot). But stop acting like the world is ending. Every team has a slide; it's just when you have it that is important.

This stuff drives me nuts. It's so incredibly stupid. People are constantly fumbling around to explain why the Olympics are better than the NHL. Most favorite reasons are: "bigger ice" surface (a myth), different rules (no, not really), no fighting (yes, there's no fighting, but that's not why the product is better), less stoppages (again, not really), etc.

The reasons are so plain and simple:

1. It's 12 teams. About seven or so teams are comprised of the best players in the world. They are essentially all-star teams, loaded with speed, size, skill and talent. You have better players, you have a better product. How many people were raving about some Norway versus Germany game.

2. It's short tournament where almost every game counts. After the preliminary round, each game is essentially a "Game 7", one and done. That kind of tension is impossible to manufacture during a regular season or during anything other than an elimination game.

3. National pride. This factor is often overlooked and it shouldn't be. These guys are highly motivated to play for their country, something that most of these guys only get to do a few times throughout their careers. The NHL tried to tap into this a few years back when the All-Star game was North America vs. The World (doesn't the AHL still do this?) The problem is, of course, is that it's a meaningless All-Star game, so there is no passion, no tension, nothing. Does anyone really care about Team North America?

Other than other high profile national tournaments, it is impossible to manufacture Olympic hockey outside of the Olympics. Playoff hockey certainly comes the closest and a Game 7 closer still. Of course, all these people will have long ago abandonded the sport (hell, the abandonded the sport as Sunday afternoon) simply tittering to themselves "Oh, I'd watch more hockey if NHL games were all like that gold medal game."

As for the comparisons between the World Baseball Calssic and Olympic Basketball mentioned in the article linked. No, no one does ever come away from those gushing about the quality of play. It's not because their respective major leagues are so great, but rather because those tournaments are so weak. No one cares about the World Baseball Classic and Olympic Basketball isn't nearly competitive enough at this time.

If you take the first 70+ games a lot more seriously then those final 10 games should be a walk in the park. That's what drives me nuts about the "it's a long season" kind of cliches...a loss is a loss no matter when it occurs.

Emery is out for the year and his career could be in jeopardy, as he has the same issue with his hip that cause Bo Jackson's career to end.

That's true. I'm just expecting more "name" players, even role players, to move before the deadline.

I know. I guess it comes down "What is a big game?" Miller playing Crosby doesn't make it a big game.

We need to add a power-play guy. However, afraid-to-take-a-risk Darcy Regier won't do it.

TSN reporting:

Ponikarovsky to Pittsburgh for Martin Skoula for cap purposes and the next great name in hockey, Luca Caputi.

If tonight was the last ride for the Hurricanes as they're currently made up, it was a heckuva way to go out, plowing the Leafs in Toronto, 5-1. It was pretty clear that the Leafs slapped a nice large stamp on this one from the start as LaRose pickpocketed JSG behind the net to score a shorty and Carolina generally controlled play from there. There was an absurd stretch with about 4 minutes to go in the second where the Hurricanes kept it in the attacking zone for two minutes straight. It didn't result in a goal, but elicited a loud sarcastic cheer from the meager crowd in attendance when Corvo finally bobbled the puck and let it escape over the blue line.

Continuing the too-little-far-too-late push, that's six in a row for Carolina and a ridiculous 11 of 14. There's actually a feasible chance of matching the franchise win streak record of nine as they draw Ottawa at home and then get two road games against a packing-it-in Florida team and the now-Kovy-less Thrashers. Doubt they'd get it to ten, though since Washington's the next game after that.

Not sure I'm a huge fan of trading Caputi. Is Ponikarovsky that big of an upgrade?

We also need to get rid of MacArthur, Stafford and Mair and send Kennedy back to Portland (although he looked better tonight) and call up Tyler Ennis.

The first three though...damn. Buffalo doesn't have a chance to get out of the first round with them in the lineup.

I could write ten paragraphs on how bad MacArthur is. Stafford is wasted talent - he would rather jam with his band and play guitar than work on his game. He's played one (ONE!) good game all year and it was the game after (ironically enough against the Pens) he sat in the press box. Mair has no hockey sense whatsoever. Zilch.

Why can't Regier see these things?

According to Regier, we are good because we have our top-six fowards sign through next year. What good does that do us if they aren't producing? Also, he doesn't want to trade away the future for now. I heard on the post-game show tonight that they aren't close to anything and are looking for something beyond this year. (http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/...Sabres+Edge%29)

Agree on Stafford and MacArthur. I would rather have Ellis in over Mair.

Kennedy needs another year in Portland I think. He has his moments and seems like he plays most nights, but I just don't think he has it yet.

Derek Morris back to Phoenix (where, let's face it, he always belonged) and Boston gets a 4th round pick in 2011 in return.

Bruins need more defensemen so I doubt they're done dealing.

And so ends the Martin Skoula Era in Toronto...

He is traded to the Devils for a 5th round pick.

You mean we did'nt get Colin White??

Damn:mad: :mad:

:p

I was surprised by that as well. He would seem to fit in well in Toronto.

Boston acquires Seidenberg and Bartowski from Fla for Craig Weller, Byron Bitz and a 2nd round pick.

Where are you guys going for the most up to date stuff? TSN?

Yeah they have a trade tracker.

Dola if you can watch online...

NHL VideoCenter

Aaron Ward to Anaheim for fourth-rounder and goalie Justin Pogge.

Yup, just saw this. Haven't seen Ward all year. He's getting up there. Can he still eb an effective stay at home? If so, that's a decent get for the Ducks, as sound defensmen in their own end is an area of issue. Surprised they ere able to move Pogge for more than a gallon of Zamboni gas and a spit bucket.

Pogge not so good in Anaheim?

Phoenix trades Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter to Colorado for Wolski.

Scott Walker to the Caps for a 7th round pick.

Nice pick up for the Capitals. I know Walker isn't the player he once was, but I always liked him.

Sad to see Bitz go. He really made a name for himself with his strong physical play in the playoffs last year.

The Wings have made a trade!

They send Kris Newbury to the New York Rangers for forward Jordan Owens.

Between this trade and that St. Louis/Chicago Hannu Toivonen deal, the landscape of the Central Division has really changed.

Wouldn't know. I don't think he ever once hit the ice, although he dressed as the backup a time or two when Jiggy or Hiller were sidelined.

My opinion of him is more based on the feedback I got from you guys here, and the general impressions tossed out in articles about him or by Ducks fans on the MBs at the team site. The consensus seems to be Pogge is a player with seemingly unrealized talent.

Curtis McElhinney for Vesa Toskala

Does anyone want Toskala anymore? He used to be good.

I want him! Dernit...

Sorry, saw the news and had a flash of "Hiller hurt; McElhinney in goal for playoffs" and kinda freaked out. WTH...

I can only hope this is a cap move for another move today. We had the space for Ward, IIRC, so we shouldn't have needed to move Toskala for that. Toskala's deal is done at the end of the season. So no real reason to do this deal, cap-wise, unless they're creating room (I hope). Team-wise, made more sense to keep Toskala.

Buffalo just got Raffi Torres for Nate Paetsch and a 2nd

pretty boring dealing day so far

think pho-col was the biggest deal yet

Well, luckily for you, you can forget this excercise as he's been traded to Atlanta for a 3rd and 4th round pick. Though, maybe JiMGA would like to hear about how bad he is.

Yeah this makes no sense to me. They had better do something with the space created otherwise they just dealt one of the better backups in the league for nothing. Is McElhinney expiring after this season also?

Agreed. Like was mentioned above, I think the Olympic break sort of broke things up. It looks like most of the big names, Phanuef, Giguere, Kovalchuk, Joikenen, were traded before the break, leaving the smaller moves for today.

Yawner so far...but i guess we should have expected that with the trades that happened before the olympics.

Milan Jurcina goes from Columbus to Washington

anyone know what edmonton is waiting for?

Didn't see if he was expiring, but not sure it matters. He's only making $500K. And I can't see the Ducks having him as the backup longterm, unless their scouts see something in him that no one else does.

What do you mean, what is Edmonton waiting for?

They picked up Ryan Jones off waivers and traded for Matt Marquardt.

Helllloooo???

The draft?

double zingers!

There are a few more trades that are going to come in after the deadline...Toronto and Phoenix are two teams I am hearing.

And they traded with each other.

Stempniak for draft picks

Prolly a 4 n 5?

How good is Torres? Seems like a big upgrade over MacArthur and gives the big kick in the arse to the top six forwards. I love Sabres' fans are still complaining. What exactly where they hoping to get in terms of a scoring threat?

I hope we could pick up a power play quarterback.

Corvo to the Caps for Pothier and Osala

Modin to the Kings for futures

Anaheim picks up another goalie...Joey McDonald

Andrew Alberts to Vancouver

Woohoo! We're cornering the market on cheap, crappy backups. We shoulda kept Pogge and put an all goalie shift on the ice.

Ryan Whitney for Visnovsky

I heard a rumor of Staios and Cogliano to Boston for a package including Michael Ryder but obviously that didn't happen.

Nice to see the Bruins are mailing it in the rest of the season. Chiarelli & company know this team isn't going anywhere in the playoffs if they even make it that far. What a disappointing year.

:) BEST TRADE EVER!

According to a couple of the guys I'm following on twitter, they're still expecting another Edmonton (Moreau) trade to be announced.

I can only hope they're right. I went into today hoping mostly to see Moreau and Staios moved. Figured they could get some other deals done (Visnovsky/Comrie/Pisani/O'Sullivan) that would bring them back more in the way of picks to make up for basically giving Moreau and Staios away and so far the day has been quite a disappointment.

I love this deal - Torres is a very physical forward, great hitter and can score a bit. I think he'll fit in very well alongside Roy and Vanek by doing all the dirty work in the corners.

Getting him for Paetsch (their 8th defenseman) and a late 2nd rounder is great value, especially if they can get him resigned.

The MacArthur deal is truly addition by subtraction. I'm thrilled he's gone and apologize in advance to JiMGa. Let me know if you want a scouting report on him :) {rubs hands together in glee}

Like the Sabres' moves?

Prepare to be very frustrated ;) Hopefully not, but Torres (at least in his time with Edmonton) was the player you described above for 2-3 games in a row, then a ghost for 10-15 games at a stretch. When he was into the game he was a terror, but just too many times where he didn't look like he knew there was a puck on the ice.

Haven't seen/read much on him since he went to Columbus so he may have developed more consistency, but just be prepared to be wishing for Good Torres instead of actually seeing him.

Edmonton trades Steve Staois to Calgary for Aaron Johnson and a 3rd round pick.

I think that may be the first time Edmonton and Calgary have directly traded with one and other.

I'm thrilled the Oilers got a 3rd for Staios, but now confused how they essentially got only a 2nd and a 6th for Lubo (if you consider they got a 2nd for Grebeshkov who I'm reading would be very comparable to Whitney age/skill/style wise).

That's where the Toskala cap space went then. Not a bad deal for the Ducks, Whitney is another incredibly frustrating player and a lot of people will be very glad to see him go. At least Vishnovsky knows he is an offensive defenseman and plays like it. As long as he doesn't fall off too much next year in the last year of a big deal he'll do a job for us.

visnovsky is signed for 3 more years for $14m

So he does. The article I was reading got that one pretty wrong then :D

Only owed $14 million for those 3 years, but he'll be a $5.6 cap hit each season. Still, I think a nice move for the Ducks if Niedermayer does indeed retire. Maybe not quite the player Neidermayer was a season or two ago, but at this point the difference isn't all that huge and Lubo's cap hit is $1.15 per season cheaper. May not look as nice by the last year of the deal, but he does seem to be holding up pretty well to this point.

No kidding, only thing to look forward to is a likely first round exit, and HOPEFULLY a top 2 pick.

Here's the really scary part for Atlanta: the remaining fans on the message boards are generally thrilled with the deal since he
a) at least occasionally puts a puck in the net and
b) the draft picks would have been wasted by DW anyway so they were pretty worthless

Me? I get the downside of acquiring a guy who was 17th in icetime but still managed to be at/near the bottom of the team in +/-

The fact that bringing him in being generally considered a plus (I've seen the words "steal" and "robbery" used a few times) should tell fans in Buffalo just how bad things are in the ATL.

Sabres and Caps are on VS tonight at 7.

The Bruins really screwed up not picking up Pronger (or a similar impact player) at the deadline last year. I think they could have won a championship with the way Thomas was playing and the career years some other guys were having. Now it seems their window is already closing?

Caps should've gotten a goalie or just let Varly start over Theodore (which is what I prefer.)

Caputi was never more than a 2nd liner...but he would have been a solid, cheap 2nd liner for a few more years. The Pens can't rely on picking up 2nd/3rd tier vets every year. Being able to have a guy, or maybe 2 with Tangradi, who would cost under $1M for a couple seasons, would help alot.

Poni instantly becomes the best goal scoring winger, and is good defensively, and can control the puck on the wall. Goal scoring hasn't really been an issue, but not a bad thing to have some more scoring depth.

My biggest gripe is this team is built on speed, and that doesn't seem to be Poni's strongest asset.

But, I guess when you are trying to defend a title, and think you can repeat, you make the move for this season, and worry about next year in the summer.

I really didn't understand the Caps moves.

They overpaid for Corvo, who really isn't what they needed.

I know not many vet defensive D were moved (just Staios?) but that made more sense for them, IMO.

Yeah, I've gotta say that Torres is one of the strangest players I've ever seen in Columbus. Last night, he makes an incredible pass on a 2 on 1 which resulted in Dorsett scoring in an empty net. He'll score from tough angles and make elite plays.

However, sometimes he'll act like he's never played hockey before. He'll make idiotic passes that get intercepted, he'll get lost in his own end playing defense, or he'll just stand there and do nothing.

As long as he's surrounded by consistent players, Torres is an excellent player that can change games via goals, passes or hits. However, to steal a line from Forrest Gump, he's like a box of chocolates, you just never know what you're gonna get.

I think the Jackets have one that tops that.

Grant Clitsome.

Clitsome, a defensemen, made his debut for the Jackets last night and had 2 assists and a penalty in the first period. I joked to my wife that the arena PA guy gave the assists to Clitsome because the PA guy just wanted to say Clitsome's name.

He ended the game with another assist, but it was a gift for the Canucks which tied the game at 3.

Just what we need.

Hm. So, Carolina goes into the deadline with supposedly the highest-profile target in Ray Whitney. They come out of it trading just about everybody but Whitney. Instead, they pretty much gut the defense by trading away four players who initially were among the starting six (Corvo, Alberts, and A Ward, along with Wallin before the Olympics). That leaves Pitkanen and Gleason, along with the recently acquired Picard and Pothier, plus whoever can make the grade from Albany to fill in on defense for the rest of the year.

Also subtracted Yelle, Walker, and Cullen from the forwards, so basically of the 20-man main roster that started the year, seven were traded out. Coming back: a bushel of picks (all 2nd round or later) and a few prospects. I suspect the acquisition of Pogge is in anticipation of Justin Peters moving to the full-time backup job next year behind Cam Ward and therefore we needed someone to be the second goalie in Charlotte next year. However, all those picks aren't particularly valuable since anything after the first round becomes a crap shoot anyway and the Canes didn't exactly load up on prospects in these trades.

With regard to Whitney, JR mentioned in his press conference that there were no good deals brought to him since the LA deal got nixed by Whitney before the break, so there apparently wasn't much of a chance he'd get moved anyway. I'm guessing the combination of Whitney's and JR's demands pretty much killed the market for him.

They might have slightly overpaid, but they didn't give up anything they'll miss. I wish they could have gotten a better dman and I have no idea why they wanted Jurcina back. IMO they might have gotten marginally better, but it was largely trading around assets of similar value.

I think the fact that one of the two picks belongs to Toronto virtually guarantees that the Bruins will pick in the top 3 in the draft.

I agree with you that not getting Pronger killed the team's chances last season. Thomas had his career year but Rask will be the starter the rest of the way and next year, too. I fully expect Boston to move Thomas in the off-season if they can find a club willing to take on his contract.

David Krejci and Milan Lucic have been invisible for long stretches this season (although Krejci looked better during the Olympics) and Michael Ryder has been inconsistent for much of the year as well. Dennis Wideman has been a disaster on the back end all year too. In short the Bruins have seemingly regressed across the board and watching this team fail to compete hard on a nightly basis has been maddening. In my opinion the Bruins need another scoring winger to play with Savard (which many thought they might acquire earlier this year) and another puck moving defenseman.

Hey, guys...the season's over. We traded half the team away yesterday. You can stop winning now.... Guys?

So did detroit and chicago both trade away their goalies or something?

MacArthur was overpaid as well IMO. He got more than he should have when the Sabres went thru their overpaying phase following the Drury/Briere debacle...

Matt Cooke just ended Mark Savard's year

I'm a Capitals, and Ovechkin fan, but that's hilarious.

He's getting 5 games for that.

But that hit was no different than Richards on Booth. No elbow, but a headshot. Not a penalty the way the rules are written currently, but that needs to change.

But that is 2nd headshot this year (Anisimov earlier), and his name is Matt Cooke.

5 games.

Cheap shot. I hope he gets suspended.

For a team that made moves like it was trying to get into the playoffs, the Ducks players sure aren't backing up the faith they were provided by their GM on deadline day. Three games, three losses, two at home, two against key conference rivals, only one point out of the whole shebang.

And tonight against Montreal, they blew a three goal lead. That blows. This team is pissing me off.