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NHL more popular than NBA in U.S.? Not quite...
2008-02-22 02:01:00
  In terms of the "Big Four" in North American pro sports, the NHL has usually sat somewhere between fourth and, well, fourth.Has the time arrived at long last to move hockey up a notch?Poke checks over dribbling? Shootouts over three-pointers?According to the most recent Harris Poll earlier this month, the NHL has indeed topped the NBA in terms of popularity in the United States. But hold on. Not so fast. Gary Bettman and his think tank may want to keep the champagne on ice for now.This survey, like most, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. As the Wall Street Journal points out, those surveyed were given a choice between four versions of the hoops game: men's and women's pro as well as men's and women's college. Fact is, a fan could be an ardent supporter of each yet were permitted to choose just one, which was sure to bring the basketball numbers in general down.How far down? Well, the answer itself probably lies in the results.Of course, popularity doesn't...
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Brian Burke’s overtime plan is suspicious
2008-02-22 00:36:00
  Let's give credit where credit is due - Brian Burke is a clever man.Burke's unique idea, as presented at the GM meetings this week in Florida, is to dupe the NHL into changing the rules so that teams would be assessed one-minute penalties, instead of the traditional two, in overtime.His rationale is that 4-on-3 power plays take up 40 per cent of the five-minute overtime period and often ends the game early.Really, what he's saying is that two minutes for elbowing would be worth less in overtime than in regulation play. Just doesn't make sense to me, but then again I don't run an NHL team, so what the hell do I know?Ahh, but don't let Burke fool you with his plan.He is, after all, the general manager of the most penalized team in the league.Ironic, isn't it?Starting to make a little more sense now.If his lobbying gets the rule changed, his team benefits greatly.The wily old vet is creative, I'll give him that.I've got a different solution, provided you even subscribe ...
More About: Plan , Overtime

Fantasy Focus: Impact goalies down the stretch
2008-02-22 00:30:00
  So, you're now into the stretch drive of your weekly hockey pool and find yourself flirting with the lead. One point here or there could make the difference between watching the game on a big-screen plasma TV or another night of Kraft Dinner and wieners.To try and help you enhance both your viewing pleasure and eating habits, here are my best bets for your goaltending picks in the final weeks of the season.Remember, these aren't necessarily the best goaltenders in the league, rather they are stoppers that coaches are going to use as a crutch to either get them into the playoffs or improve their seeding once there. And these workhorses over the final quarter of the schedule could win, or lose, your fantasy pool.So here is my take on the goaltenders that may rack up the most fantasy points between now and April 6th:Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota WildThere could have been a few names put into this spot, most notably Chris Osgood in Motown. But I'm going with Backstrom, no questi...
More About: Fantasy , Focus , Fantasy Focus , Stretch

Goalie equipment changes least of NHL’s issues
2008-02-20 20:16:00
  Hey Roberto Luongo, you have those retirement papers filled out yet?If you're true to your word, you may have a lot of time on your hands in the coming months.OK, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, it's worth noting the NHL Board of Directors voted unanimously - and damnit, I hate the sound of that term - to once again look at reducing the size of goaltending equipment in an effort to increase scoring. According to Detroit general manager Ken Holland, increasing the size of the nets could be another, if less desirable, alternative.Like there aren't more pressing issues for this league.Oh, yes, back to the point at hand. Who knows if he was crying wolf, but Luongo didn't seem overly excited with the prospect of larger nets last fall, threatening to retire rather than accept the rule.Of course, seeing how Luongo is being singled out for his so-called pad flaps, it looks like he is going to be one unhappy camper whether the coin flip ends up equating to less equipment or wi...
More About: Issues , Equipment

Mickey Renaud death more than a hockey tragedy
2008-02-19 19:50:00
  When an email from OHL media relations director Aaron Bell arrived in my inbox Monday afternoon, only part of the subject line was visible.Curiously, I tried to make sense of it. "Windsor Spitfires Regretfully Announce The Passing Of Team Capt..."Surely, as much as it seemed like common sense at the time, that next word wasn't "Captain", was it? There's just no way.Sadly, I was wrong. Those were indeed the missing letters.In a story that transcends anything to do with the game, Windsor Spitfires' captain Mickey Renaud collapsed at his home and died Monday.At 19 years of age.For a moment, forget the hockey player, one who seemed destined to eventually make the jump to the Calgary Flames, the team that drafted him last summer.This tragedy is more than that, hockey be damned.Any time a kid collapses and drops dead before his 20th birthday, you try to make sense of it all. More often than not, you just can't.So it's too simple, on this day, to discuss how...
More About: Tragedy , Hockey , Death

Henrik Lundqvist deal good start for Rangers
2008-02-16 23:05:00
  For once, the New York Rangers may have got it right.Henrik Lundqvist signed a six-year, $41.25 million extension that will keep him on Broadway through the 2013-14 season, proving the Rangers don't always throw their money away.Not bad for a goaltender who has been a runner-up for the Vezina the past two seasons.It's almost surprising to see a deal good for both sides. At times, Glen Sather has a tendency to drastically overpay his stars.Most importantly, it gives Lundqvist clear direction that he is the goaltender of the future for the Rangers.Best of all, Lundqvist loves life in New York. He had every intention of staying and made sure agent Don Meehan got the deal done - a deal that had been in the works since early January.After all the dust settles, the Rangers still have some work to do. The rest of their goaltending picture is muddy at best and now the time has come for Sather to decide on who will be Lundqvist's wing man in Manhattan.Al Montoya, who has been a pos...
More About: Start , Deal , Good

European leagues no match for NHL at this point
2008-02-16 02:35:00
I'm sure you've heard about all the great plans for a super league that would challenge the NHL in Europe. Well, let me just say that the NHL already as several great challengers in Europe. There's the Swedish league, the Finnish league, the Russian league, the Swiss league, the German league ... you get the point. It all depends on how you define the challenge, I suppose. However, while thousands of Finns, Swedes, and Czechs begin their days by checking the NHL scores from the night before, the local leagues are also doing better than ever. But the dream of "NHL Europe" lives on. The International Ice Hockey Federation is launching its own cup tournament, the Champions Hockey League (CHL), next season, with the winner pocketing over a million euro and a place in the Victoria Cup, a challenge tournament with an NHL team. But a cup tournament with a dozen games is far cry from becoming NHL Europe. The Russian league is trying to expand to include teams in the neighboring...
More About: European , Match , Point , Leagues

Southeast “race” may force NHL to revamp playoffs
2008-02-15 00:57:00
Southeast division winner may use back door to sneak into NHL playoffs   Watching the gong show that is the race for the top of the Southeast Division, one is left to ponder if the time hasn't come for the NHL to blow up its playoff format.If the current trend continues, there may be little choice.With less than two months left in the regular season, it's not a stretch to believe the winner of the Southeast Division could make the playoffs and get the third seed although, in any other scenario outside of a division crown, they would miss the post-season altogether.Nor is it outside the realm of possibility that the division winner will struggle to hit the .500 barrier.Currently, three teams share the Southeast lead with 60 points, a total surpassed by eight other teams in the East.The Eastern Conference cellar-dwelling Lightning, meanwhile, are nine points back of eighth-place Boston for the final playoff spot in the East, but sit just six points off their...
More About: Force , Playoffs , Southeast

NHL Trade Deadline Live Blog set for Hockey.com
2008-02-15 00:46:00
Join our Hockey .com Trade Deadline Live Blog It's Christmas Day for NHL fans, when the playoff fortunes of several teams can take a dramatic turn for the better while others just wave the white flag on the season.On Tues., Feb. 26th join Hockey.com Editor Rick Couchman and Senior Editor Marty Henwood  for the Trade Deadline Live Blog, which will keep an up-to-the-minute account of who is going where as well as hot rumors from around the league all day long.We give you the stage to tell us who came out ahead on each and every deal, as they happen.  Tell us what teams greatly enhanced their Stanley Cup chances and who is throwing in the towel for 2008.The Hockey.com Trade Deadline Live Blog. Tues., Feb. 26th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.It's your game. It's your voice.

Fantasy Focus: Top Ten line combinations
2008-02-15 00:39:00
  Every team seems to have one. That one line that, on any given night, can dominate and steal a pair of points in the standings on their own.With the playoffs looming in the next couple of months, head coaches will be expecting their premier lines to produce and, with a little luck, help them go off on a deep run into the playoffs.Here is a look at my own best of the best when it comes to top trios in the NHL:10. Alex Tanguay-Craig Conroy/Daymond Langkow-Jarome Iginla, CalgarySlotting a line into the #10 spot is pretty much a coin flip. With Sidney Crosby on the limp, an argument can be made for the Malone-Malkin-Sykora unit in Pittsburgh. How about Kostitsyn-Plekanec-Kovalev, Radulov-Arnott-Dumont or Whitney-Staal-Cole?  And surely Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk have to make this list once Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic return to the Avalanche ranks.Points taken, but I'm going with whoever happens to be centering Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla.  They're the ones driving ...
More About: Fantasy , Focus , Line , Fantasy Focus

NHL drug policy may not be what it seems
2008-02-15 00:32:00
 Clemens testimony opens up argument of drug use in professional sports  Watching Roger Clemens stumble and bumble his way towards a possible perjury charge on Capitol Hill Wednesday, I was intrigued enough to give some serious thought to the apparent lack of a dilemma when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs in the NHL.Now, let it be said that only the court of public opinion is now out on Clemens.  Some believe he was hung out to dry by former trainer Brian McNamee. Others, and perhaps the majority of the sporting world, feel Clemens is covering up his own demons in an ill-fated effort to put the final stamp on an eternal spot in Cooperstown.Time will tell if that court of public opinion yields to federal charges.Baseball, the tainted pastime of America, is being pulled under by one of the largest scandals since the 1919 White-turned-Black Sox decided the World Series wasn't all it was made out to be.And as much as the issue is sure to be tip-toed around by the...
More About: Policy , Drug

Hockey goalies can be an odd bunch of characters
2008-02-15 00:28:00
  As if you needed further proof that goalies, as a whole, are just a weird lot.A popular video making the rounds on the Internet ascertains these guys march to their own drummer and most times they aren't hearing the beat, if you catch my drift.The recent one-of-a-kind blind-man celebration from Kladno goalie Miroslav Kopriva after stopping Petr Ton in a shootout during a game in the Czech Republic is ample proof, yet again, that goalies just aren't all there.Hey, I should know. I've spent most of my life taking a fair share of rubber missiles off my head, chest and various parts of my anatomy, all in the name of preventing that bloody red light from going on behind me.Now, come on, tell me you didn't get a chuckle watching Kopriva's brief routine. If not, you may want to invest in a sense of humor.Through the years, goalies have, if nothing else, proven to be loose cannons.If Ray Emery isn't getting into altercations with retired postal workers on the highway, he is smi...
More About: Hockey , Characters

Hockey hits video brings hard-hitting action
2008-02-14 23:32:00
Often the sound of a solid bodycheck does more justice than seeing the hit itself.Hear me out, if you'll excuse the pun.It's that unmistakable crunch of two bodies colliding with force, the groan as a player crumples to the ice and the roar of the crowd as someone gets sent into another time zone.And when you can hear that impact and see the end result, the blood starts pumping and you can almost feel the adrenaline as if you have laid someone out yourself.Need further proof?  Check out this YouTube video featuring the NHL's hardest hits. If that compilation doesn't get you jacked, you may want to check your pulse.There's a little bit of everything in the mix. Open ice collisions, body crunches along the boards and a few players splattered up against the glass, no doubt wishing they had chosen another line of work.No one wants to see a player get hurt, but a solid, clean hit gets not only throws a charge into the crowd but often lights a fire under a team.We can't promise...
More About: Video , Action , Hockey , Hard , Hits

NHLPA needs role in protecting players from injury
2008-02-12 19:35:00
  You just had to know that talk of mandatory throat guards was going to come up sooner rather than later.After watching Richard Zednik throw his gloved hand to his throat Sunday night in Buffalo and skate to the Panthers' bench in a race for his life, it was inevitable this debate would begin.Over the weekend, NHLPA union leader Paul Kelly announced the players would not endorse heated blades that seemed destined to take the hockey world by storm four months ago.Now Kelly may want to initiate a movement that would lead to mandatory use of throat guards for his charges. Like helmets, don't give players an option.Call the scary incident with Zednik what you want. A freak accident. Wrong place, wrong time. Bad luck.Whatever it was, it was damn frightening.Judging by the crowd's reaction to Zednik getting cut, I would assume most in Buffalo that night feel the same way.I've played this game, watched this game, all my life and, like most, have seen more than my fair share of br...
More About: Players , Injury , Role

Ottawa Senators trade puts Eastern teams on notice
2008-02-12 19:29:00
  Call it the Ottawa Senators firing a distinct warning shot across the bow of any Eastern conference ship that plans on getting in their way this spring.Oh, and while we're at it, Hurricanes' GM Jim Rutherford may want to check his back pocket. Odds are Bryan Murray made out with his wallet as well.Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore for Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves? OK, I'm waiting for the other player or picks going to Carolina.Someone. Anyone.  There has to be something else.A signed poster of Shania Twain? Ten cents off the Canadian dollar? The banning of all Celine Dion CDs? Now, to be fair to Rutherford, both Stillman and Commodore are unrestricted free agents at the end of the year, so maybe Rutherford felt he had better get something in return. And who knows, both may re-sign back in Carolina this summer. That, coupled with the fact that Corvo apparently had asked for a trade to an American team, makes the deal a little easier to comprehend.But if the Senators were...
More About: Teams , Trade , Notice

Richard Zednik injury should have ended game early
2008-02-11 19:58:00
  Richard Zednik could have died Sunday night in Buffalo.And still the game went on.In a horrific scene at HSBC Arena, Zednik was sliced open when the skate of teammate Olli Jokinen flew up and clipped his neck in the third period of the Panthers-Sabres tilt in Buffalo. You can see an edited, less graphic video of Zednik getting cut here.As Zednik was being transported to a Buffalo hospital and a crew cleaned up the blood on the ice, league VP Colin Campbell Colin Campbell, Sabres' GM Darcy Regier and Florida coach Jacques Martin huddled in a tunnel, presumably to decide on whether or not to call it a night, as players and fans sat in silence.And they made the wrong decision.The game should have been stopped. End of story."We shouldn't have finished the game," Jokinen said. "I saw the replay, that it was my skate that hit him in the throat. I think we were all in shock. I've never seen anything like that. There are bigger things than (finishing the game). It w...
More About: Injury , Game , Early , Richard Zednik

Richard Zednik badly cut by skate in Buffalo
2008-02-11 09:22:00
Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers was badly cut Sunday night when his neck was sliced by a skate blade during a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Midway through the third period, linemate Olli Jokinen was being checked and as he flew forward, his skate blade accidently slashed the neck of Zednik. Despite being badly cut, Zednik was able to skate to the Panthers' bench, where he was met by the team trainer.Zednik was helped to the team dressing room before being rushed to hospital in stable condition. He is currently in surgery as team officials make arrangements to fly his wife to Buffalo.The incident stirred memories of goaltender Clint Malarchuk, who had his jugular vein sliced open in a 1989 game against the St. Louis Blues, also played in Buffalo.
More About: Skate , Richard , Richard Zednik

NHL salary cap increase giving big spenders break
2008-02-09 00:27:00
Provision in CBA may hurt NHL small market teams with revenue sharing So, humor me again, if you will. What, exactly, was the NHL lockout for?Because, my friends, we are on the express route to another work stoppage.According to reports, the NHL salary cap will rise once again next season. Alarm bells, anyone?Now, math was never my strongest suit — probably because I spent most classes in the local bowling alley playing bubble hockey — but I did some research and crunched some numbers last night and came to a sobering conclusion.Count down the days.You can almost hear the chains rattling as the labor door slams shut once this much-lauded CBA runs its course.As much as the NHL's chief primate continues to thump his chest about record revenues and unparalleled league parity, a third cap increase in as many years is another death knell for a handful of small market teams.It's simple Economics 101.Pull up a seat, grab a beer and hear me out.Let' say, for the sake of ...
More About: Break , Giving , Salary

Pond Hockey movie takes game back to its roots
2008-02-07 23:04:00
Childhood memories sure to be rekindled with pond hockey documentaryIf you were blessed enough to grow up a hockey fan in a city, town or hamlet where the mercury routinely dipped below freezing during those harsh winter months, you probably know the feeling all too well.Trudging out to the frozen outdoor rink with a few of your closest buddies. Two pairs of gloves, three pairs of socks and one of those wool hats - or toques, depending on what side of the 49th you lived - designed to keep frostbite at bay.  A scarf wrapped around your face in a vain attempt to combat the wrath of Mother Nature. A pair of skates, a stick, a puck. The boots you arrived in would soon be shunned and used as goalposts.For hours on end, that is all you needed. Generations of children have chased shinny dreams playing pond hockey. For a morning, afternoon or night — and often all three — you were Richard or Howe. Bossy or Lafontaine. Gretzky or Lemieux. Crosby or Ovechkin.And when the time...
More About: Movie , Hockey , Game , Back , Pond

Fantasy Focus - Turning pretenders into contenders
2008-02-07 21:54:00
Some are home and cooled, with nothing but their playoff seed and opening round opponent to be determined.Others remain in a tenacious battle for the post-season, where every point over the final third of the season will determine if they climb on a plane for Game 1 of a series or step up to the first tee the day after the conclusion of the regular season.OK, so Sidney Crosby isn't on the list but, in my defense, there is sound reason. It goes without saying that Crosby is one of the impact players in the game, but he isn't going to put the Penguins in the post-season himself.  Once he returns, Evgeni Malkin should have them knocking on the door of the playoffs.If any of the following bubble teams are looking to punch their ticket to The Dance, here are the players that will have to step up, keep up and cowboy up:10. OLLI JOKINEN, PanthersWith trade rumors swirling around Jokinen, he may not even be in South Florida to help the Panthers make a charge. But with six points in h...
More About: Fantasy , Focus , Fantasy Focus , Pretenders

Brian Burke and the hex of the Edmonton Oilers
2008-02-07 21:42:00
Some might say there's black magic practiced in Anaheim.As the Edmonton Oilers continue to get hit by the injury bug, it almost seems someone is mysteriously putting a hex on the club.With apologies to Billy Bob and Angelina,  I'm sure that Brian Burke doesn't exactly wear a vial of Kevin Lowe's blood around his neck.But he could be practicing voodoo.Every time Burke is reminded of Lowe's signing of Dustin Penner last summer, another well-placed jab of a pin plunges into the doll.Hey, it's better than a kick to the groin.And with each hex comes another key injury to the Oilers. The further the Oilers fall, the wider the grin gets on Burke's face.The Oilers now risk a serious plunge in the standings on the heels of the season-ending setback to leading scorer Shawn Horcoff combined with injuries to Sheldon Souray and Raffi Torres.As the injuries mount, the potential of a last-place finish increases.Now this is about the time that Burke gets downright giddy.Considering...

Phoenix Coyotes won’t be calling Stamkos after all
2008-02-06 22:43:00
Oh, how wrong was I.Turns out Wayne Gretzky won't need to keep Steven Stamkos' phone number handy after all.Contrary to popular opinion - well, mine anyway -Stamkos won't be catching a flight to Phoenix after the NHL draft this summer.With apologies to fans of the Yotes, it almost seemed a foregone conclusion last October that the desert dogs were going to miss the playoffs altogether and were likely the early frontrunners in the Stamkos sweepstakes.At the time, I didn't think that was a bad thing, given the impressive array of young talent they were stockpiling out in Phoenix.Oops. My bad.Turns out the Coyotes are in a dogfight, if you'll pardon the pun, for a playoff spot in the west as the NHL gets set to turn for home.Who knew?Sure as hell not I.Picking up Ilja Bryzgalov is beginning to look like the deal of the year. Shane Doan is strapping the team on his back. Radim Vrbata is enjoying the best season of his career. Ed Jovanovski has gone back in time and Peter Mueller is...
More About: Phoenix Coyotes , Calling

Montreal Canadiens turn heads in Northeast charge
2008-02-06 22:37:00
Memo to the Ottawa Senators: that bleu, blanc et rouge object in your rearview mirror is a hell of a lot closer than it once appeared.Just as the prohibitive favorite Sens are slipping off the rails, the Montreal Canadiens are making an unforeseen, spirited charge for the Northeast division crown and more than likely the top seed in the Eastern Conference.As surprising as it seems, I for one like their chances.With the two locking horns last night in La Belle Province, the Habs answered the bell by edging Ottawa to creep within one point of the Northeast's top perch.All things considered, this is still Ottawa's division to lose. Top to bottom, they are the most dominant team in the conference, at least on paper.But you know the old adage. The game isn't played on paper.With the Sens hobbled by key losses to captain Daniel Alfredsson and sniper Dany Heatley, the Canadiens have quietly crept up and are now within arm's reach of the defending Eastern champions.A few weeks ago, any ...
More About: Charge , Turn

European hockey leagues have creative playoffs
2008-02-06 21:19:00
After five months, through the darkest winter - and it can be really dark up in northern Europe - three national team breaks and a hiatus for the holidays and the European Champions Cup, European leagues are turning that last bend towards the playoffs that are only a month away. The international transfer window closed on January 31 so rosters are set. If you're not ready now, you're toast. There are some creative playoff systems over here. In Finland, ten teams out of 14 make the playoffs, but the six best get a week's rest, as teams finishing 7-10 play the first round of playoffs, aka "pity playoffs." The team finishing seventh playing a best-of-three series against the tenth-placed team, and the 8th and 9th teams play a series of their own. After that, the team that finished first in the regular season plays the team that finished the worst, second takes on the other team making it to the "real" playoffs, 3 meets 6, and 4 meets 5.Confused? Wait, there's mo...
More About: Creative , Hockey , Playoffs , Leagues

NHL instigator rule allows too many cheap shots
2008-02-05 21:23:00
If you needed any further proof that the NHL instigator rule has to be abolished, Ryan Hollweg provided it Sunday afternoon.Hollweg's dirty, cowardly hit from behind on Montreal's Sergei Kostitsyn shows yet again it is time to get idiots like this out of the game or, at the very least, allow players to take care of a little business themselves.In this case, it is a double-edged sword.It is hard to fathom just how the officials missed a vicious elbow by Alex Kovalev on Hollweg that set the scene for Hollweg's brain cramp minutes later.Call that penalty on Kovalev, and odds are Hollweg doesn't take the matter into his own hands.Officials moved quickly in getting Hollweg off the ice, sparing him a potential beating, but when Francis Bouillon has to square off with Rangers' tough guy Colton Orr, you know the Canadiens aren't exactly blessed with an abundance of heavyweights.One has to wonder just when these cheap shots are going to be taken out of the game.When the first player be...
More About: Shots , Cheap , Rule

NHL in Europe shouldn’t be priority for league
2008-02-05 21:18:00
I'm guessing either Georges Laraque has no interest in adding to his air miles or just doesn't have much of an interest in Scandinavia. Apparently Laraque lives by the theory that if someone asks a question, you answer without biting your lip, no matter how much it may piss off the powers that be in the process.So, when someone stuck a microphone in his face and asked how he felt about his Pittsburgh Penguins travelling across the Atlantic to open the NHL season in Sweden against the Ottawa Senators next autumn, Laraque made the sportswriter's job pretty easy with a rather blunt answer."Spending money to go play in Europe is not doing anything for the NHL in the United States," Laraque said. "We're talking about wanting a bigger market for hockey in the U.S. What are we going to accomplish by going to Europe? What are we doing? The league needs to do better work to make the game popular in the U.S.""Is the NHL going to expand into Europe? No. We need to ...
More About: League , Priority

J.P. Dumont signs extension with Predators
2008-02-01 23:53:00
Scratch J.P Dumont 's name off the list of potential players to be dealt before the Feb. 26th trade deadline.Reports indicate that Dumont has agreed to a 4-year, $16-million contract that will keep him in a Nashville Predators uniform. The deal is expected to be announced later Friday.Dumont was slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.More to follow.
More About: Signs , Extension

Mats Sundin trade decision will be on his terms
2008-02-01 03:23:00
Maybe Mats Sundin just doesn't want to feel like a tramp.Maybe lifting the Stanley Cup after three months in another jersey would feel as cheap as sacking up with the entire offensive line of the school football team.So perhaps it's time for every hockey fan with internet access to calm down and just appreciate the decision, whatever it turns out to be.No one really knows what came out of the much-anticipated meeting between Cliff Fletcher and Sundin down in Carolina Wednesday and, by the sounds of it, things are going to stay that way.The drama, of course, is warranted.Fans of other teams are waiting for a potential addition that may give the trophy engraver a head start on the Stanley Cup. Leaf fans are hoping to get the inside track on the pending overhaul.If Sundin has waived his clause, it won't be long until 29 other general managers know it.If he hasn't, everyone else will know on the afternoon of Feb. 26th.The notion that Mats Sundin actually owes something to the Leafs ...
More About: Trade , Terms , Decision

Edmonton Oilers sale to ensure long-term stability
2008-02-01 00:32:00
If the Edmonton Oilers have any long-term plans of thriving in the Alberta capital, now is the time to sell to Daryl Katz.We've seen these two nuzzle up before, with the Edmonton Investors Group playing footsies with Katz under the dinner table before tossing him out the door without even a good-night smooch.The flirting has gone on long enough.In case the EIG hasn't caught on, Daryl Katz wants to own the Oilers. A deal is close - reports indicate it is virtually done - but nothing is over until money changes hands. Ask Jim Balsillie.And as dramatic as my view may seem, the long-term stability of the franchise may depend on it. Unless the sale is approved and handshakes offered, the Oilers, one day, may suffer the same fate as the Winnipeg Jets. There are more than a few people south of the border that have extremely deep pockets and are looking to lure a National Hockey League team to their city. Yes, the new CBA allows even small-market teams to compete. Revenues are up. With th...
More About: Sale , Long , Term

NHL All Star Game video proves game worth keeping
2008-01-31 00:08:00
Hockey.com's video of the week: 2008 NHL All-Star highlight reel.Yeah, I'm not a fan of the All Star game either.But really, it wasn't all that bad. It is what it is. Deal with it.Minimized down into a short video clip, even I admit there were some intriguing, even exciting, moments as long as long as you enjoy pond hockey.Unfortunately, for those who sat through the entire game, it may have been painful.Face it, the 2008 NHL All-Star game was, as usual, a dud.But that doesn't mean the little glorified scrimmage down in Dixie didn't have some quality moments.Luckily, the Hockey.com Video of the Week featuring 2008 All-Star game highlights dishes out the best goals, saves and bodychecks.Well, as Meat Loaf once proclaimed, two out of three ain't bad. So much for the hitting.The offense wasn't exactly dominant, but it did keep millions of remote controls from clicking to something else. Looking at the video evidence, a case can be made that Rick Nash, and not Eric Staal, was the...
More About: Game , Worth