Let The Trades Begin! Bruins Add Depth

With only a week and half left until the NHL trade deadline, teams are starting to jockey for position in the tight playoff race by swapping players and adding depth. The Boston Bruins have been busy this week by adding Chris Kelly earlier this week.

And today they made two more deals to add acquiring Maple Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle and Thrashers center Rich Peverley in separate deals. The addition of Kaberle is important as the Bruins have been looking for the offensive defenseman for a couple of years now. They have tried to land him in the past but the deal has always fallen through.

To get the high scoring Kaberle the Boston’s gave up their first-round pick in 2011, plus prospect center Joe Colborne and a conditional pick.

Toronto already has a first-round pick from Philly for the Kris Versteeg trade and now has two first-round picks in June. The Bruins also clear up some cap room by moving center Blake Wheeler and defenseman Mark Stuart to the Atlanta Thrashers for Peverley and minor-league defenseman Boris Valabik.

In some other trade action, the Colorado Avalanche and Ottawa Senators traded goalies with Brian Elliott going to Colorado and Craig Anderson shipped to Ottawa. Anderson will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and Elliott will be a restricted free agent.

Canadians Wisniewski Stops Puck…With His Face!

As my old coach might say, “That’s one way to stop the puck.”

Montreal Canadians defenseman James Wisniewski was taken to a hospital Thursday night after this bloody play. Innocent enough, the Oilers Taylor Hall shoots at the Canadians goal and Wisniewski is there to block the puck. Wisniewski gets enough in the way, or at least his stick did, that the puck deflects into Wisniewski’s face.

Wisniewski goes down immediately and slides into the corner where he’s treated with blood pooling on the ice. The loss of Wisniewski hurts the Canadians who are already thin on defense. With James out the Canadians had to finish the game with only 5 defensemen.

Defenceman James Wisniewski was hit beneath an eye midway through the first period on a shot by Oilers’ Taylor Hall. Wisniewski crumpled to the ice and slid on his stomach into the corner, a pool of blood left when he was helped from the ice.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment and observation, escorted by team chief surgeon David Mulder. It was unclear whether he’d immediately accompany the club to Calgary. [via National Post]

There’s not much word on the Wisniewski injury other than that quip above.  Hopefully the injury was worse than it looked.  The video is not the best of quality to really tell but it looks like Wisniewski gets his stick on the puck and it either rides up or deflects up into his face.  The shot by Hall doesn’t look intentional to do anything than put the puck in the net.

Sens Fire Sale Continues

There are only a few more weeks left until the NHL Trade Deadline but the Ottawa Senators are not waiting until the last minute to make deals. The Sens have already pulled the trigger on two deals sending Mike Fisher to Nashville and Chris Kelly to Boston.

The Senators, in return, land some great draft picks. By trading Mike Fisher and Kelly, the Senators added a first-, second- and third-round pick. But, the third-round pick could become a second if Nashville wins two rounds. And me thinks that the Senators aren’t done dealing yet. If I were Alex Kovalev, Chris Phillips, Chris Neil, and Ales Hemsky I’d probably be keeping a real estate agent on speed dial.

Dealing Chris Kelly to the Boston Bruins brings up two gut reactions. The first is that Boston’s second round pick is probably fair value for Chris Kelly, who is 30 years of age and on pace for 33 points . The second is that even though fair value was received, I still don’t like the trade.

Chris Kelly has been a valuable member of the Ottawa Senators for the five and a half seasons he’s been a part of the club, and it’s a shame to see him leave to another team in the division while still under contract. Even a rebuild needs some veterans on the team for guidance (just look at how poorly the Oilers and Islanders continue to play despite great young players). Kelly would have been ideal for a rebuild — he’s not over the hill, and he could teach young players the things you want them to know — good two-way game, strong work ethic, smart decisions, and solid penalty killing. Not only could he teach that to the younger players, but he could also provide these skills with his trademark consistency on a team that has been anything but consistent this season. [via Silver Seven]

The Ottawa Senators lost their ninth consecutive home game and are now two away from the franchise record. With their postseason already ruled out, the Sens have signaled that their are starting to rebuild now. With the loss of Fisher and Kelly the team has dealt away their two best penalty killers, their two best defensive centremen, and two of their best leaders in the dressing room.

Not exactly good news for Sens fans who are frustrated with the losing ways of the team but with the departure of Kelly and Fisher (both are highly paid) hopefully the Senators can use the extra $ in salary and draft picks to get this team back on the winning track.

Drat! Devils place Brodeur on IR

The quiet rumbling out of New Jersey just confirmed a Devils fans worse fear. Following up on the news earlier, goalie Martin Brodeur will be going onto IR with an injured knee for an undisclosed amount of time. He sprained the MCL in his right knee in a game against Montreal back on Feb. 6th.

No one wants to end their career in a slump but Brodeur started off the year rough and the Devils, as a team, just were horrible for most of the year. Thanks to a recent winning streak, mostly without Martin, the Devils have won 12 of their last 15 games. The formality of putting Brodeur on IR this late makes him eligable to return to play next week. Of course, if the Devils keep winning they may not want to change things up.

In the meantime, backup Johan Hedberg continues to fill the spot to keep the Devils slim playoff hopes alive.

Hockey Coach Throws Garbage Can Onto Ice, Ref Stops Game Until Coach Cleans It Up

I love youth hockey games. You just never know what to expect! I’ve seen parents act up and I’ve seen coaches act up. I’ve seen junk tossed all over the ice. I never saw a ref make a coach clean up his own mess.

There had been two call that were made on the same play. One for boarding and one for cross-checking. The coach, whose team was already losing 4-1, threw a garbage can onto the ice. The refs refused to continue the game until he cleaned up the mess.

I think Mario Lemieux should look into this as a way to handle games he disagrees with in the future. If the NHL won’t discipline like he wants he could always start tossing junk on the ice.

Glamorous! Toronto Trade Versteeg To Flyers

One of the most exciting parts of the NHL season is coming around and that’s the trade deadline. I always love how the NHL spices things up with a flurry of trades around that time. So many leagues out there are afraid to trade much anymore and the complete balance of a division can be shifted with the right trade.

The strong Flyers, already holding onto the Atlantic Divison lead, took a bold step forward toward the Stanley Cup with a trade for winger Kris Versteeg from the Toronto Maple Syrups on Waffles. The trade from Toronto puts Versteeg back onto a playoff team after spending last year on the Stanley Cup Championship team in Chicago.

Blackhawk fans also know Versteeg as a great singer:

Versteeg had a relatively good year in lowly Toronto, but it was his strong playoff run last year that helped the Blackhawks win the Cup. The Flyers are looking to tap back into that streak for a solid run this year. Add in the fact that he’s only 24 and the Flyers may just have landed a solid player for many years to come.

The price of a first- and third-round picks in the draft this June is steep, but if Kris produces now it will be absolutely worth it and help end the Flyers’ 36-year championship drought, which is among the longest in the NHL.

Peter Forsberg Retires Again

Well,….that didn’t last long.

Peter Forsberg excited us all by returning to the NHL after a few years off for a couple of games. 2 games to be exact. Turns out that Pete is officially ready to call it quits.

Just two games into his recent comeback was enough for Forsberg to know the game had passed him by. During a press conference Monday, Peter Forsberg announced his comeback was over.

“The time has finally come that I’m going to retire from the game of ice hockey,” Forsberg said. “I won’t be able to second guess myself. I really tried and I tried and I tried. I’m really sure about my decision this time.

“After this past weekend I came to the sad conclusion that I was going to have to retire. It was not an easy decision. Believe me, the process I went through was even tougher. Throughout my career I had 25 surgeries and I promised my fiancée Nicole that I would not put my health at risk anymore.”

Forsberg, 37, was a minus-2 with one shot in 17:38 of ice time Friday against Columbus, and was a minus-2 with two shots and four penalty minutes in 17:32 of ice time Saturday against Nashville. [via NHL.com]

It’s sad to see Pete call it but I’m glad he gave it a shot. Sometimes it’s hard to let go but in the end you have to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories, Peter. Enjoy your retirement.

Pens – Isles Game Showing NHL Losing Control of the Game

There’s been a trend in the NHL over the last few months that many hockey fans are not wanting to admit. The brawling and fighting is getting out of control.

As much as I like hockey for it’s physical play and occasional fight, there seems to be a subtle trend toward a more violent league lately. Numerous games can be cited but I would like to point out that the goalie-on-goalie fights are at an all time high. Personally, I like that last point but it helps indicate the growing loss of control by the NHL on its sport.

Several games this year have gone overboard like the 4 fights in the first 3 seconds of the Bruins game.

It reminds me more of the 70s’ when fighting and brawling were common. So were long pants. Hopefully, things won’t get that bad again.

The Bruins and Canadians fought out a game in which the sin bin couldn’t hold all the players.  No discipline handed down.   The Penguins Matt Cooke has spent the last few months purposely trying to hurt players. It wasn’t until late last week he was suspended but not before leaving a line of injured players in his wake.

I personally don’t mind the fights and physical play but I worry that the league may have become desensitized to it.  A few nights back the NHL hit one of the lowest points in terms of out-of-control fighting.  During the Penguins and Islanders game there were almost 350 minutes in penalties including a cheap sucker punch, a goalie/goon fight, and a player leaving the bench to jump into a fight.

This was not an NHL game.  It was on the level of a low-level beer league where both teams are just drunk and pissed. The Islanders forward Trevor Gillies made himself to be the biggest jerk of the night as he left his feet to hit the Penguins Eric Tangradi and then, with Tangradi visibly hurt, goes after him and starts fighting him.

The Debacle in Long Island has set the standard that the NHL must enforce but only slapped a few players on the wrist. The game should have been watched more deeply by the league since it was just a few games back that the Pens and Isles met and we ended up with this goalie fight, instigated by Matt Cooke, in which Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro was knocked out for 4-6 weeks with a glass jaw.

No doubt a few Islanders had revenge in their mind going into the game and that should, if nothing else, add more to the suspension and discipline the league needed to give. Two Islanders were suspended for a total of 13 games and the team was fined $100,000 which did not go over well with the Penguins, who felt the Islanders were targeting their team and many players could have been seriously hurt. Trevor Gillies would be suspended for nine games and forward Matt Martin would be suspended for four games.

Here’s a 10-minute video of all the fights from that game.

Mario Lemiux, co-owner of the Penguins, came out and said this:

“Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

I agree with you, Mario. That last sentence shows just how much the league has sunk by letting the goons run the game.

The best way to solve it would be to show a little discipline to one of the biggest goons in the league, the Penguins Matt Cooke.  That’s a good place to start.

« Previous Page — Next Page »