Dunham is terrible.

With the acquisition of Kovalev and the presence of Theodore, the Habs are now officially a "scary team". Meaning every single playoff team in the East is now scary, except for the Islanders.

I think Dunham on a good team would be scary.

Come on. The leafs aren't that scary either :D

Bastard.

The Leafs are a very scary team, but only with several "ifs". If Belfour is healthy, and if the veterans can stay in the lineup, and if the defense can be at least average, then they can beat any team in the league in a seven game series.

Right now, if I was handicapping the East I'd put the Leafs as the #4 seed.

they should have never booted Hartley, but it's too late to fix that. Firing Granato would send the wrong message to the players - THEY aren't performing, not Granato, and they need to get their act together rather than have Lacroix bail them out with yet another coaching change.

the biggest thing the Avs need is a healthy Peter Forsberg. For all the talent on that team, he is by far the key ingredient. When you have him in the lineup, he puts a tremendous amount of 5-on-5 pressure on the other teams - they have to focus so much energy on him that it creates a domino effect of freeing up the rest of the guys to score. he makes everyone else better on that team. when he's out...production from everyone else goes down.

I'm pretty sure they will get a goalie for insurance. I still say Kolzig, but Dunham makes sense too. What's the story on Khabibulin? Are the Bolts keeping him?

The Avs do not need Sergei Gonchar.

I don't think the Bolts have any plans to trade Khabibulin. I know there was a lot of talk about that during the off-season and earlier in the year, but I think those have cooled. Most of it arose when Bhulin was benched in the play-offs for Grahame. Bulin has established himself firmly as the team's #1 goalie. THey have been playing well and are likely to be buyers rather than sellers as the deadline approaches, especially after the Sydor deal.

The FoD do need Forsberg. If Roy was the Emperor, Forsberg is Vader (though I usually like to think of Roy as Vader, but I couldn't come up with any other really cool guy, tough individual from the Empire. Boba Fett, maybe, but he was a bounty hunter, not an official Imperial. The rest of them were bumbling idiots for the most part. Anyway, where was I?). Forsberg is awesome. Arguably the best player in the NHL for the last few years. The FoD just aren't the same team without him.

I agree, they should have never booted Hartley. Maybe a coaching change is needed though, a little kick in the ass or something...

Gonchar to Boston is a done deal.

Interesting... The Bruins have needed a puck-moving defenseman since they traded that one guy who was pretty good at it.

:) This why you've got to love this board. All the info any sports/computer geek would ever want, up-to-the-minute.

ha ha ha ha.

I'm sorry - I thought you just said that Boston made a deadline trade. I'm laughing so hard my sides hurt.

Ah, found the story. Is there anything TSN.ca doesn't know about hockey? They always seem to break stories first when I'm looking for info.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?id=74738
"Sources told TSN the deal is likely to be defenceman Shaone Morrisonn and two draft picks."

SI

From the "That couldn't possibly happen... could it?" file: rumors keep circulating that the Blues will move Chris Pronger to the Leafs.

Reports are Gonchar is gone to the Bruins....it is either a 2 pick 1 player trade....or a 2 player 1 pick trade...I did'nt see them in this at all.

Roberts and green fought???

How did i miss that???

Who won?

Gonchar, Heinze, and Thorton on the powerplay...yikes.

Green turtled. It wasn't much of a fight, actually. Green dropped his gloves and then quickly realized that he was Travis Green.

Heinze?

Murray perhaps?

that couldn't possibly happen...could it?

When is the trading deadline?

Todd

Murray is right.

Next Tuesday, March 9.

NEDVED TO THE OILERS! NEDVED TO THE OILERS!

Sorry, apparently we're supposed to be overwhelmed by our 'rent-a-player' trade that'll put us over the hump and help us climb those last 6 points to the 8th and final playoff spot.

But hey, we'll still play Oates as our top center, don't you worry.

Leafs get Leetch

Wow, nice move for the Leafs.

For Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen, a first-round pick 2004 and a second-round pick 2005? A nice move, but a bit expensive...

Interesting move. A little bit more than I'd like to have seen them give up, but definetely a move that makes them better.

The two prospects are both well regarded and expected to be good NHL players, but neither is a blue chipper who I'd get especially excited about. Basically the sort of guys that every team has five or six of at all times.

Damn, I may show up in DC or NY to suit up. Who's left?

why couldnt the rangers have sent leetch out west? why oh why?

these trades would be such a bigger deal if anyone thought these players would be playing for these random teams next season....

There is no next season.

exactly my point.

Guerin pots his 3rd hat trick of the season...all at home.

Hrm...I like Leetch,he still has another season on his deal too..which is good....if there is a season.Kondratiev has gone back to Russia...so who knows if he will ever return...i dunno much about Immonen.1st rounder and 2nd rounder are crap shoots.

I would say this favours the Leafs now....but this deal has a LOT futures for the Rangers,which,if we know the Rangers,they will blow to pick up expensive veteran burnouts near the trade deadline next season:)

Dola-I thought perhaps Lindross would have been included in this deal.

Triple Dola Datsyuk goes to hospital for x-rays...Draper is out a month after running into Joseph at practice.....And Maltby breaks his hand during tonights game.

How ya feeling H_B? :)

Datsyuk is the ONLY player in the NHL i would pay to watch play shinny on a pond.This guy has got moves that are made for shinny:)

I agree, although what strikes me is that this is pretty similar to the Gonchar deal, except that Gonchar is cheaper, younger and better. :)

Just so we can lose in the 1st round anyway.

anyone get the chance to see the Avs/Canucks tonight? Great, great hockey game.
the Avs played their usual game - get a lead, blow the lead, repeat a few times, and then hang on until OT. still, a fun, exciting game to watch - probably the best I've seen all year.

5 points for gomez tonight. devils fans shake their heads...

DD, Gonchar is arbitration eligable after this season,that is the biggest difference.And as we've seen from Boston and Sinden before,they will walk away from a salary arbitration deal.Remermber Kristich?The Bruins won that arbitration case and still walked away from the deal.

Leetch still has another full season on his deal....but if there is a strike it will be a moot point.

Hasn't Pittsburgh been running a "Show up in the stands and play for us" promotion all year?

SI

Hey now, at least with all that extra revenue from the 2 or 3 home games in that first round, we can afford to keep all our rising stars, you know, like when we kept.......uh.......and..........well..............

NEDVED RULES!

Wow, it just keeps getting harder and harder to be a hockey fan in Edmonton.

Piss off, you hoser! ;)

Wow. A fella is without internet access for a night and all hell breaks loose. Players traded, half of the Wings down with injury... Sacre Bleu! I will need more time to take this all in before I fully comprehend everything.

For the injuries, I can only say one thing. Let's just hope they all get back and are healthy for the play-offs. I'd be much more concerned about this if it were April 3 and not March 3. Though, it sucks. There is no guarantee they will be back healthy for the play-offs and even so, it will likely take a week or two to really get back into things. It sucks especially for Draper who was playing so well. This kind of thing can derail that. Fucking Joseph.

And they still haven't been able to fill a full team.

That's for sure. I might have to cheer for the Leafs this year. Ugh. Now I feel dirty.

Sounds like we might have to find a way for H_B to lose his internet connection, sometime around April. :)

You're an evil man, Klay! Not that I would expect anything else from a dirty Red Shite like yourself. ;)

But that's it, I'm getting internet access on my mobile phone now. I aint going 15 minutes without checking it. Ever.

Don't be so negative. So long as you don't play Dallas you may have a shot.

I think it's good move for the Oil. It means the team isn't giving up hope and adds Nedved adds some offensive punch, which the Oilers definitely need. Ryan Smyth is good and all, but he shouldn't be any teams best offensive player. He's a great winger to have play along side your best offensive player, but shouldn't be carrying the load. Nedved's been arguably the Rangers best player all year. He's been a real trooper. He's slightly more matured now than back in the past. Maybe after Nedved arrives the Oil will actually have a power-play. Rumor has it that they have started refusing the man advantage completely...

You obviously haven't seen Salo play lately...

dola

And paraphasing the great Shankly, there are 2 great teams on Merseyside. The Liverpool first team, and the Liverpool reserves. :p

No, I haven't. I've basically assumed his been shite since that Belarus game in the Olympics. I watched the Sweden/Finland game during the World Championships last summer. He was brutal.

Also, rumor has it, that Salo knocked-up his girlfriend. When his wife found out about this, she responded by telling Tomi that she had been hooking up with Comrie for months before he was traded. Poor guy has a lot on his mind right now...

Cheaper and younger, for sure. Probably better offensively at this point in his career. I'd take Leetch over Gonchar to protect a lead, though. Leetch has never been great defensively, of course, but at least he's got the veteran smarts that Gonchar has never really displayed, and Leetch can handle the physical game a little better.

So do you take "younger, cheaper, better, never won anything" or "older, smarter, almost as good and with a ring and a conn smythe"? Tough call, but I guess the Leafs (and Bruins) have made theirs.