I know how the announcers must feel. You get something shoved down your throat so much, it's really all you can remember. For example, last night, I called my wife Zach Parise.

Funny because last night I showed your wife my Colin White.

Aptly named, since I imagine a very lazy eye and an uncanny knack for being far away from the real action.

I'm glad you finally admit it.

I kept yelling that at the T.V.

He's helping Philly too. There is a little known clause that once you start your 8th goalie of the year, they no longer count against the cap.

My eyes deceive me as I watch the Wings tonight, but it sure looks like we're actually beating the Oilers.

Forget the standings, the Oil are the best team in the NHL.

Heh, I was watching the Detroit feed online in the second and with 5 minutes to go in that period, one of their broadcast crew proclaimed that Edmonton wouldn't sweep Detroit this season, then tried to amend his statement with, "if things continue on as they're going so far."

I had a chuckle when he said it as the odds of this happening were pretty slim, but if the Oil do win he's going to be hearing about that comment for a while.

Wings managed to pull it out somehow against the USSR.

BTW Trav I am going to be headed out to Plymouth Saturday for Game 2 of Seguin vs Hall, I'll make sure to get you a scouting report. ;)

I am glad to see the last of The Oil for the season. Sheesh.

Just something to ponder .. Wings worst season in 20 years and they are only 2 points behind 2nd in the East.

The more you know.

I know there was virtually no chance the Canes would have gotten in the playoffs anyway, but to f* it up themselves like they did tonight.... :banghead:

The gist of it: Canes had managed to grab a 3-2 lead on Ottawa through some timely, somewhat fluky goals and had the Sens in an EN situation. First foul-up: Cole gets a hold of the puck near the blue line with about 45 secs to go, but instead of calmly dumping it out, manages to completely screw himself up somehow and fumbles the puck away to the Senators who manage to keep the zone and press on for another 30 seconds, which leads to much more serious foul-up #2: Whitney, with delusions of grandeur in his mind actually cleared the zone, but for whatever reason launches a shot at the empty net from beyond the halfway line, resulting in an icing. This means a dog-tired Staal gets toasted on the face-off draw, which the Sens immediately capitalize on and score because Legace didn't stitch his glove well enough. Canes end up losing in a shootout.

:mad: :banghead:

Can't remember the last time I've been this pissed about a loss.

In other news...Flyers just signed Sebastien Caron aka goalie #7.

I was only kidding...I think.

man am i glad this didnt happen:

SUNRISE, Fla. -- It may sound like a fish story, but if so, then Glen Sather sure has come up with a whopper.

The Rangers' GM told Slap Shots on Thursday that he "shook hands" on a trade last year that would have brought Steven Stamkos from Tampa Bay to New York less than halfway through the brilliant 20-year-old center's rookie season.

We reported last year that the Lightning had dangled Stamkos through the early months of the season, during which the first-overall selection in the 2008 Entry Draft struggled badly, getting two goals (with five assists) in his first 21 games. There were questions in the organization about his readiness for the NHL.

The Rangers started working on the Tampa house-of-cards ownership during the teams' trip to Prague, where the clubs opened the 2008-09 regular season with a pair of games. Sather got the ear of co-owner Len Barrie, a former NHL player. Conversations continued after the clubs returned to North America.

By the time the Blueshirts visited Tampa on Thanksgiving of 2008, the talks had become serious. Barrie was asking to choose two or three from a wish list that featured Michael Del Zotto, Evgeny Grachev, Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky and Dan Girardi.

The deal, according to Sather, was struck. The Rangers would be getting Stamkos, who has scored 46 goals thus far this season, tied for second in the NHL with Alex Ovechkin and just one behind Sidney Crosby in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

Oh, no, they wouldn't.

"How close did we come?" Sather asked rhetorically, repeating the question we posed to him as the Rangers practiced in Tampa on Thursday. "We shook hands on it, that's how close.

"I'd been on it since Europe. I had an agreement with Len Barrie. I asked him if he had the authority to make the trade, and he assured me that he did, because he was an owner.

"But the next day, I found out that he didn't. He went to run the deal by [GM] Brian Lawton, who wanted no part of it. As I understood it, the way it was told to me, Barrie was still going to make the deal, but then he was told that he couldn't unless he got the approval of [co-owner] Oren Koules.
"Koules shot it down," said Sather. "That was the end of it."

Koules and Barrie further could not agree on a trade last June that would have sent Vincent Lecavalier and his massive contract to Montreal in exchange for a package featuring goaltender Carey Price. Dysfunction in that case benefited Sather, for it allowed him to then move Scott Gomez to the Canadiens.

That Lightning ownership is gone. So is the opportunity to trade for Stamkos.

"We had him," Sather said. "Well, I thought we did."


Read more: Rangers had done deal for Stamkos - NYPOST.com

Sounds like Sather pulled an April Fools joke on Brooks who ran with it.

Wow. Just ... wow.

Theo Fleury, Sheldon Kennedy outraged by pardon for Graham James, coach who allegedly abused them - ESPN

Y, Alberta -- Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy, two former NHL players who say they were sexually abused as teenagers by a junior hockey coach, are among those angered at the revelation the convicted sex offender was pardoned in 2007.

Graham James, 58, pleaded guilty to sexual assault after two of his former players, including Kennedy, told of the abuse they suffered at his hands from 1984 to 1995.

The Canadian Press reported that it learned James had been granted a pardon by the National Parole Board when a previously unknown accuser of James came forward and contacted Winnipeg police.

"I look at the time from when Graham was charged, convicted and sentenced and now it's written off his record," Kennedy said. "It was a matter of roughly 12 years and I see people struggling with this -- not just Graham James' victims, but victims of child abuse who struggle with this for years and years and years."

Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the government was "shocked" to learn of the pardon.

"The National Parole Board made this decision without our government's consent or knowledge," he said.

Parole board spokeswoman Caroline Douglas said the pardons process does not generally take into account the nature of the crime, even those the public finds particularly upsetting.

"We cannot discriminate based on the crime committed," Douglas said. "Very few people are ineligible for a pardon. Everyone else is eligible no matter their crime. We have to follow the law."

Fleury, who played with Kennedy for the Calgary Flames, has lodged a complaint about James with police. He went to Winnipeg authorities in January after publishing a memoir last autumn that detailed years of alleged abuse by his former coach.

"I'm shocked and mystified. Imagine somebody who commits that kind of crime being pardoned," Fleury said in a statement Sunday. "I thought we had an open justice system. It's just more proof our society has a lot to learn about protecting the victims."

"Obviously nobody was proud of the decision or it wouldn't have been a secret," Fleury said, according to The Canadian Press.

James was sentenced to 3½ years in prison in 1997 and his whereabouts are unknown. Records show he was one of 14,748 Canadians given a pardon in 2006-07, while 103 people were refused.

Former Calgary MP Art Hanger, a 22-year member of the Calgary Police Service and member of the Canadian Justice Foundation, called the latest development "reprehensible."

"I mean, this man used his authority as a coach and attacked youngsters -- vulnerable, vulnerable boys. For the most part, these kind of characters cannot be cured.

"There is no indication in anything that he has done to place himself into the good graces of the Canadian public. I don't understand the parole board's thinking."

Ron Jette of the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Network called the pardon "justice undone."

"You have to ask yourself," Jette wondered, "what were they thinking?"

The Canadian Society for the Investigation of Child Abuse, of which Kennedy is a board member, reacted with dismay.

"We think it's sad whenever a person who is alleged to have been abusive in a position of authority doesn't face all of the consequences," executive director Lynn Barry said. "It is very important that those people be held accountable."

Ya that is disgraceful. The fact that we don't even know where the guy is... just disgusting. I'm hopeful that the outcry from this is loud enough to get some changes made in the system. That dude should have a scarlet "P" burned into his forehead or something.

Sabres clinch the division, WOOT!

Thrashers officially eliminated from the playoff race.

The West is set now. Calgary is out. Poor Calgary. A bad team with a lot of bad contracts, no first round pick next year.

Or second round pick.

and a quitter for a coach

Ha ha, what a disaster!

Wait, what?

Another regular season banner for the Sharks! Yay!


*starts digging around for antacids for next week*

Flyers and Rangers have a home and home to end the year that will decide each teams' playoff fate.

2 pts by the Flyers clinches a spot for them since they have more wins. 4 points by the Rangers and 1 or less by the Flyers gets the Rangers in.

Congrats Ranger fans on making the playoffs.

Ha. Should be a fun finish. So my unintelligent mind computes that the worst we can do is win one in regulation and win one in OT/shootout?

Yea. If you guys win both in OT/Shootout the Flyers still have the tiebreaker with overall wins.

Good end to a bad season in Raleigh as the Hurricanes were picked to host the 2011 All-Star Game next January. The Canes then cap the day by winning the last home game of the year, 5-2, over Montreal and preventing them from clinching a playoff berth. It was hat-giveaway-night, so naturally the place erupted in a blizzard of hats when Staal scored his third on an empty-netter. Staal also assisted on the other two goals (both scored by Chad LaRose) for a five-point night.

One more to go at Boston, then the long offseason. *sigh*

It feels dirty...but I am pulling for the Flyers. If they can someone grab the 7th spot, that would be perfect. Then if the Pens can take 2nd, another intra-state matchup. If the Devils take 2nd, the Flyers will sweep them.

Win Win for me

The Canes start the season with a team-record-tying 14-game losing streak of ineptitude. They end the season with ineptitude, surrendering a league record 3(!!) shorthanded goals on one power play against Boston. Comically, Carolina had closed the gap to 3-2 and actually nearly tied the game, not of their own doing, but because the Bruins nearly suffered a mind-blowing own-goal after a delayed penalty was called on Carolina and Rask had been pulled for a sixth attacker. The puck actually reached the line before getting cleared away. (On an aside, who would get credit for that goal? Last Canes player to touch it before the penalty was awarded?)

At any rate, a microcosm of the year, dig a hole and quickly with staggering ineptitude, gamely fight back to make things interesting, but ultimately can't make it all the way back at the end.

Oh, well. Time to root for the other Sun Belt/non-traditional market teams in the playoffs to bring the Cup back from behind enemy lines. :D

Yes. Carolina looked horribly disorganized in their own zone all game. It looked like the Bruins were playing Albany out there. Jerome Sampson? Zach Boychuk? Drayson Bowman? Casey Borer? Bryan Rodney? If these guys are in Carolina, who's left in Albany?

At basically the very last minute*, I ended up getting to the Rangers-Flyers game last night when the guy who usually gives me his tickets had to head to the hospital to take care of his father. As good as the game was, the highlight for me came when the game got tied at 3 and two Flyer fans in our section finally started opening up their mouths. One guy was wearing a blue sweater and the other guy a green t-shirt. The guys behind them were giving them shit about how when they go to road games, they're man enough to wear their teams' colors. Sweater guy said nothing, but his friend turned around to all of us, pointed at his solid print t-shirt and said "Eagles green!"

It was one of the dumbest things I've ever heard anyone say.



* - technology is awesome. My friend is sitting in a hospital waiting room and can email his tickets to my phone, which I then use to forward the email to my other buddy who is in his office and cant print out the tickets.

3 SH goas on one pp?? R U kidding me?

To be fair, the Rats have pretty much made up a sizable portion of the roster of any given night for quite a while now (due to trades and injuries) and most fans think it was because of the Rats and not in spite of them that we even got a sniff of playoff contention after the opening month debacle. Heck, Brandon Sutter was sent to Albany to start the year. Of the ones you mentioned, Bowman, Borer, and Samson have had the fewest minutes. Boychuk and Rodney haven't been down except in brief stints for the last couple of months, e.g. the Olympic break. Also, it wasn't the Rats that lost those 14 games in a row at the start of the year, but the vets.

Remarkably, the Rats have actually made the AHL playoffs in spite of all the callups and most of the Rats that can go back are going back now that the season's over.

Will be interesting to see if JR will try to use his bushel of picks and someone with a pulse as bait to move up in the draft or whether he'll use those picks to restock the soon-to-be Charlotte Checkers for next year as most fans want current Rats like McBain, Boychuk, and Rodney to become permanent Canes players (and continue to whittle down the remainder of the older, players on the roster like Brind'Amour, Cole, and Samsonov).

I wish I was. I didn't witness it myself. I was out on errands and listening to the radio. I went into one store and the game was 0-0 and came out to find out that it was 3-0 and that they all came on shorties from the same power play. In seeing the highlights, Ward did get hung out to dry on a couple of them, but he should have had the save on two of them (the backhander that started it and the third one that he was able to get a piece of but not stop). Still blows my mind.

To be fair, it was more a complete breakdown in Carolina's end than the Bruins dominating the run of play. Ward should've stopped Paille's shot but he had no chance on Wheeler's since it was a one timer. Begin's was a long pass followed by a rush. I think he let the last one in because he was rattled. IMHO Maurice should've called timeout after the second goal.

PS- Brandon Sutter is nasty.

The guy does all the dirty work that Staal tends to avoid like the plague unless he's really on his game and not sulking too much. I'm still dumbfounded that he didn't start the year in Raleigh given how he pretty much owned the second line once he came up more or less permanently after the first couple of weeks of the season. It didn't hurt that injuries and Brind'Amour's continued plunge off a cliff skill-wise gave him the room to do so, of course. He's the clear #2 center going into next year and beyond. If he can figure out face-offs and breakaway situations, he's going to be a tremendous player. (This can be said of a lot of Hurricanes players because Brind'Amour is the only good face-off guy we've got and he's a fourth-liner now and everyone outside of Jokinen and maybe LaRose is utterly wretched in breakaway situations.)

HA! Matt Cooke .. you got knocked the fuck out.

Also, Stamkos with #49 and #50 tonight. Kid is a monster. He and Ovechkin are going to be doing some serious battling for the Maurice Richard the next 10 years.

Just...damn.... I wouldn't be chuckling so much if Cooke really got badly hurt there, but yeah, Kane scored a knockout that his namesake would've been proud of. :)

Glad you found something, I was looking for a good picture to post as well.

The background to that, naturally, is that Kane had dared to check Cindy in the first period. They spent the rest of the period & the start of the second going after Kane who responded with what is almost certainly the signature moment of an otherwise meh season in Atlanta & quite possibly cements him as the new face of the franchise (such as it is) far more than anything else that's happened all year.

Kane's dad was also an amateur boxer. Ya'd think Cooke would have figured out he was going after someone who *gasp* dare defend himself.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Hilarious.

Kane just shot up my list of favorite players from "just another guy" to "hoping he ends up on the Ducks one day". :)

FYI...for anyone who cares.

Tomorrow's game between the Ducks and Oilers might be one to catch if you have Center Ice. It's an altogether meaningless game, playoffs-wise, but two of the game's greats could be playing their last games.

Teemu and Niedermayer have been expected to call it quits this offseason.

Niedermayer's a true champ, although, IMO, he's obviously not the same as he once was (still good, though, for stretches).

Teemu's my personal favorite player. I have met him in person and shook his hand, and his contributions on the ice and his personality off the ice are almost without match. There has been a groundswell of support, it seems, for Teemu to come back one more year, given how well he has played this year, and he hasn't been 100% saying he will retire. That said, I still think tomorrow is the last NHL game for the Finnish Flash.

Sad to hear about Teemu and Niedermayer. If you get a chance check out the clips of Modano's last game in Dallas. Had the game tying and shoot out winning goal in the game against the Ducks.

Yup. No surprise, I am sure, but I was watching that one.

Wings end up finishing 5th in the West and will face Phoenix. I actually think, of all of the top 4 seeds in the West, the Coyotes are the toughest draw. Bryzgalov has been solid all year and has been lights out in the playoffs throughout his career and Phoenix has a balanced, grinding type team that excels in the playoffs. Given the Blackhawks' goalie situation, San Jose being San Jose, and Luongo's shaky play, Phoenix was last on my teams that I wanted to see the Wings face. Oh well.

The Flyers make it in and the Rangers are eliminated... in a shootout. 82 games comes down to a shooutout.

Going into a shootout with a playoff spot on the line...who would you rather have King Henrik...or Bobby err Brian Boucher? Boucher stops 2 of 3 and the Flyers make the playoffs.

Sorry Logan...this was a time I was glad to be wrong and I feel bad that you had to watch that DVRed game with this ending.

I hate it when the season comes down to a shoutout...

I couldn't agree more.

And why didn't Gaborik shoot in the shootout?

Maybe he was injured? It is Gaborik we're talking about.

Flyers got the Devils...the matchup Philly fans were hoping for.

While I understand where you're coming from, that's like saying the result of a football game is decided by a kicker missing or making a field goal at the end, or a bad pitch by a pitcher in a baseball game that some jacks for a three run homerun.

No, the whole season is reason for a team making (or missing) the playoffs. The bad losing streak in November. The poor cap management that left a team with depth issues when injuries hit. Some winger on another team nutting up and getting things down for his team at the right time. It all works into it. You see the shootout, and you say cause and effect. But it's everything that goes into it. Don't make the shootout to be the bad thing just because it is, time-wise, the last factor in a multitude of factors, most of which were probably far more impactful than a shootout, to determine whether a team makes it into the playoffs or not.

2 of 18 on the year.

Thanks Sak, it was tough to watch especially when I told my roommate in the middle of the second period that the only chance we had to win was if the game ended 1-0. And then as soon as the Flyers tied it up, I was...literally...praying for it to go to a shootout.

That second goal Lundqvist gave up five-hole was very uncharacteristic of him. And I'm glad Jokinen couldn't even get a shot off after circling around like a dbag trying to get more speed.

Whiffed Completely

Wings/Coyotes open Wednesday night.

And some non-Philly fans.

DOLA

Full round 1 schedules

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.ph...mes_announced/

lol...you're right, I did. Nice catch by both you and Dr. Sak.

I'll be there.

With my knowledge of the NHL these days 90% confined to the Rangers (the remaining amount scattered between the Atlantic Division and a few other Eastern Conference teams), I turn to you guys for this question: Let's say the Rangers felt like due to a lack of high end scoring talent outside of Gaborik and having tough contracts still remaining, they couldn't get to that next level before Lundqvist starts to go downhill. And they feel bad for him. Really bad that he's had to carry this team all these years, so much so that they are open to dealing him.

Realistically and hypothetically, what kind of package could they expect back? He just turned 28 and is signed for $7.75MM, $6.875MM, $6.875MM, and $5.125MM over the next 4 years. The team is basically set at defense and is in desperate need of a #1 center (which I imagine many would be).

I'll hang up and listen.

Top end goalies are a premium. His cap number isn't all that bad but the problem may be finding someone to take him without you getting a lot of dead cap weight back. But if Scott Gomez could get traded with some return...Henrik could get a nice package of prospects/picks and a serviceable player or 2 IMO.

I'll use Philly as an example, even though I don't see the Rangers making a deal with them:

I think Henrik could fetch you Jeff Carter and a 1st.

Something like that.

Goalies like Lundqvist are few and far between...if it's me, I'd keep him and roll the dice and try to find a piece or two to compliment the young d-men and Gaborik.

But...if you have your mind set on dealing him...well, target teams who need goaltending and who might be considered close to winning...PHI pops to mind. Do they have any pieces they'd be willing to part with? I'm sure they'd like to move Briere but I'm guessing if the Rangers are moving Lundqvist they want to get younger, not older. So, Carter or Gagner as they are both nearing free agency?

If I'm Sather, I think Carter has to be the centerpiece with a high pick or two as well...is that enough?

Oh, and Souray wants out of Edmonton...management didn't check on him as often as he would've liked while he was out of action after hurting himself in a fight...for the umpteenth time.

That's about what I thought the response would be...and it's probably not enough to get Sather to move him (unless Redden joins him in the deal). This team is pretty much stuck: Lundqvist will always have them in a position where they won't due poorly enough to get a high pick that would bring in the needed talent, and they need Hank to be Hank every minute of every game in order to make a playoff run, and unfortunately, he's human.

Also unfortunate is that I think the actual long term plan for this team is along the lines of johnny's "roll the dice to find some extra offense."

Oh and I might be crazy for thinking this, but I'd part with the picks and sign Backstrom to an offer sheet.

Not playoff related but I am beginning to think Yzerman will be the new GM of the Lightning.

We shall see but it makes sense.

Hmm...With Gretz as the coach?

That would be interesting.

May be enough to put asses back in the seats too.

Thrashers clean house ... sort of.

Entire coaching staff is fired, Waddell named team president, Rick Dudley promoted to GM.

Thrashers fire coaching staff | Atlanta Thrashers

Wow, I wonder what the Thrashers will do with former Oakland/Tampa Bay tight end Rickey Dudley as the GM.

Oh.

Would have rather the Bruins got the #1 and could make the choice, but I'm happy with either of the two guys who seem to be interchangeable at #1/#2. Both premium offensive talents who can both score and create (equal on pts this year in OHL right?). So that should provide some much-needed offensive spark.

I've got a ?? beside Seguins name.....just because if he is as good as people say,why was'nt he on the world jnr team?

worked out pretty well for Matt Duchene

Good question. Personally I guess Edmonton needs a center more than a winger so I assume they'll be taking Seguin, leaving us with Hall, which would be fine by me. Then again, B's taking Seguin would enable them to rejigger their pivots a bit, which would be nice. Since they dumped Joe we haven't had a true #1 center (Bergeron could have maybe been one before the missed time), so it'd be nice to get someone with that potential at least.

Win-win for the C's.

Couldn't be any worse than having Waddell in charge.

True,true.

I don't think there is a chance in hell that EDM take Seguin rather than Hall though.Even if EDM really needs a C.

Don't be so sure of that really. Penner took a step forward this year (significant because of Hemsky being hurt, so the hope is that the two of them give Edmonton a true first line next year) and they have a couple of top 6 type LW in the system (Linus Omark and Magnus Paajarvi Svensson). Omark is an outlier, but MPS (fingers crossed) should be a top 6 type.

In the middle they've got Sam Gagner and not much else. Personally I'm still not sold on Gagner ever being more than a second line player but he does have time on his side. I'd like to see Gilbert Brule get a prolonged look in the middle next year (played well in stints with Penner, but between a lot of usage on the wings and a couple bouts of illness, his time in the middle was abbreviated at best), but there's not a lot in the pipeline as far as centers go.

Hemsky and Eberle are likely the top 2 RW on the team going forward (whether Eberle arrives next season or the one following remains to be seen) and there is always a chance Gagner finds himself over here (if/when Hemsky is no longer with the team) if he can't continue to improve on the dot.

Long story short, the need for center's in Edmonton is pretty ridiculous. If the difference between Hall/Seguin is as small as the scouts seem to say it is, hard not to believe that the position won't factor in as a possible tie breaker.

like i said - i'd be happy with either here. probably more NEED for Hall in the system, but either would be welcome.

Wait...what's wrong with Savard? Granted, he may not be the same player for a while after the concussion, but why wouldn't he be considered a #1 center?