Lemaire to coach Zajac and Parise?

In a way I almost feel sorry for the New Jersey Devils. While Lemaire will be a hall of fame coach some day his style of play is BORING.

Devils to name a head coach today. The Devils have scheduled a 1:30 p.m. conference all today to make "a major announcement."

It is expected that they name a head coach at that time.

All signs point to Jacques Lemaire [Fire and Ice]

Avs fan say good bye to Tyler Arnason.

Sounds like Avs fans are ecstatic to get rid of former SCSU Husky Tyler Arnason. The Comments on this subject are comical and worth the read. I first saw Tyler Arnason play for the Ice Sharks of the USHL in 1997-1998 and my first impression of Arnason was that he was lazy, a weak player that shied away from contact in the corners. The fact that he has made it this long in the NHL puzzles me.

Relief is finally here, Avs fans. No more startling, sweat-soaked leaps from the pillow at 3 a.m., following visions of Tyler Arnason playing for your team.
No longer will you have to pound the table after seeing Arnie get the puck taken off his stick, then watching him casually skate back to the bench with that “who cares?” look on his face.

No longer will you have to pull your hair after seeing Arnie misfire on another shot, or have it easily blocked and taken the other way, Arnie a full three strides behind in pursuit.

No longer will you have to look at an Avalanche payroll list and see Arnie making more money than guys like Lappy. No longer will you have to see Arnie shy away from making any contact with an opponent, which if he’d done so might have resulted in the Avalanche having the puck.

It’s all over. Arnie is, appropriately enough, a New York Ranger - the team that never saw an over-the-hill, overpaid Avs player they didn’t like.

Bon voyage, Arnie.

Or should it be: bon bon voyage? [All things Avs]

Free agents offered contracts from the Wild.

These are the free agents from the Minnesota Wild hockey team that have received offers from the Wild. Former Gopher Danny Irmen and Robbie Earl were given offers from the Minnesota Wild, it will be interesting to see if Irmen or Earl get to play with the big team if they accept their offers. I would imagine they will get two way deals. Interesting that Dan Fritsche was not offered a qualifying offer sheet.

Here’s the breakdown of the players who received qualifying offers from the Wild:

C Kyle Brodziak
LW Robbie Earl
G Josh Harding
RW Danny Irmen
LW Benoit Pouliot
D Clayton Stoner

And here’s the list of those who didn’t get offers and now become unrestricted free agents who can shop for a team starting July 1:

D Paul Albers
LW Riley Emmerson
LW Dan Fritsche
LW Peter Olvecky

This isn't a very good move.

TSN is reporting this little rumor, and I have seen it numerous times on twitter as well. I just hope my head doesn't blow up before the draft and July 1st free agent signing date come and go. Let's see you have a player that scores 36 goals the type of player your team has been craving probably since the days of Cam Neely and you reward him by trying to trade him for a defenseman that has been in the league for 10years and a first round draft pick that may or may not be able to play for your team this season. Did Doug Risebrough become the general manager of the Boston Bruins?

The Boston Bruins are in pursuit of Tomas Kaberle and a top 10 pick in today's draft.

Sources tell TSN the Bruins have offered restricted free agent forward Phil Kessel to Toronto in exchange for the Leaf defenceman and Toronto's No. 7 pick in the draft.

The Leafs are apparently canvassing the league to see if there are any better offers out there.

Kessel, taken fifth overall by the Bruins in 2006, scored 36 goals and 60 points last season, his third campaign in the NHL. With restricted free agent David Krejci signed to a long-term deal and the team pushed up against next year's salary cap, general manager Peter Chiarelli was rumoured to be shopping the young scorer.

Dany Heatley's list of teams.

Props to Puck Daddy; this is the list of teams that Dany Heatly wants to be traded to, notice that Minnesota Wild are not one of his teams that he wants to be traded to. Big whew! I don't think I want him on the Wild as well, as a matter of fact I am sick and tired of self center athletes and would like to see the Wild start out fresh. Also, the Boston Bruins do not have room under the cap to sign Heatley so he can take that team off of his list. The Bruins would have to give up the farm to get Heatley and I don't know if they would like to mess up the locker room chemistry with a distraction like Heatley.

• According to Sun Media, the wishlist Dany Heatley(notes) provided the Ottawa Senators: "Sources told Sun Media the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins were among the teams submitted to Murray by Heatley's agents J.P. Barry and Stacey McAlpine." It's good to want things. [Sun Media]

Dany Heatley fire storm.

When Wisconsin Badger Dany Heatley asked to be traded from the Senators started a shit fire storm. I found some interesting articles about this heat subject on line and it's not pretty folks. Personally, I have no idea what kind of guy Dany Heatly in my opinion he is one of the better hockey players to come out of division one college hockey. Mike Chen has this zinger on Dany Heatly. Check it out there are some interesting accusations from an unnamed source.

That little bit of snark made me recall a story an old acquaintance told me. In the summer of 2000, I took a little precursor from joining the corporate world by being a bartender at The Phoenix in London’s business district. The pub was part of a program where new and graduating students could work abroad with a temporary visa, so my coworkers were a motley crew of international 20somethings. One of the guys had just graduated from University of Wisconsin, the same school as Dany Heatley.

As Heatley had just been drafted second overall, I asked my coworker if he knew him. The fellow, who shall remain safely anonymous, laughed and shook his head. “That guy’s an idiot.”

A few further questions and I got a pretty good picture of what Heatley’s “education” was like: play hockey, smoke pot, copy homework from people my coworker knew, and repeat. A lot. Apparently, hearing the phrase, “Hey, bro, can I copy your homework?” wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary, nor was the stench of certain smoked herb from his clothes. I can’t totally remember if Heatley was bumming all his homework off my coworker’s roommate or his friend, but apparently my coworker saw quite a bit of him and he never really deviated from this caveman mentality.

This is all hearsay, of course, based on someone that I knew for only a few weeks. And of course, it’s not like pro athletes have a history of being extremely studious or brilliant in the fields of science, business, or engineering. But whenever people talk about Heatley’s supposed leadership skills or I hear him mumble through a post-game interview, all I can think of is, “Hey, bro, can I copy your homework?”

Don Brennan from Sun Media refers to Heatly as self centered, spoiled and spineless

Damien Cox from the Star pulls no punches with this article.

Mr. Me First ---- Talk to Dany Heatley once and you understand you're not talking to a MENSA candidate.

That's okay. As probably more a few coaches have told Heatley along the way: don't think, it just hurts the team.

But where Heatley really kept his synapses in reserve this time was his timing concerning a request to have his hockey contract traded to another NHL club.

I get the part where he doesn't want to live in Ottawa. Neither would I. I get the part where after being allowed to freelance continuously during his years as a heroic Senator he might chafe at the notion of being asked to play a larger team game.

Geez, if he'd known he'd have to play in three zones he'd have asked for more money.

No, the part where I don't get Heatley's timing is when it comes to the fact that just about every Canadian hockey player is trying to be on their best behaviour these days in hopes that Steve Yzerman might find them worthy of being part of the Olympic effort next winter.

Instead, Heatley is painting himself as a me-first individual to Yzerman, a guy who played through all the hard years in Detroit and never played for any other club even when it meant taking less money at the end of his career.

Bruins are on Versus

I am very happy that the Boston Bruins will be on Versus Sioux fans will be able to see Former Sioux Ryan Bayda play for the Hurricanes against the Boston Bruins.

May 1 - 7:30 Game 1: Hurricanes @ Bruins Versus JIP/TSN
May 3 - 7:30 Game 2: Hurricanes @ Bruins Versus
May 6 - 7:30 Game 3: Bruins @ Hurricanes Versus JIP/TSN
May 8 - 7:30 Game 4: Bruins @ Hurricanes Versus JIP/TSN
May 10 - 7:30* Game 5:Hurricanes @ Bruins Versus
May 12 - 7:00* Game 6: Bruins @ Hurricanes Versus
May 14 - TBD* Game 7: Hurricanes @ Bruins TSN

Keep Voting for T.J. Oshie.

Here are the latest numbers for Goal of the Season.

1.) T.J. Oshie (vs. VAN): 53.56 %
2.) Blake Wheeler (vs. STL): 19.33 %
3.) Alex Ovechkin (vs. MTL): 13.67 %
4.) Niklas Hagman (vs. FLA): 7.75 %
5.) Johan Franzen (vs. MTL): 5.69 %

Keep voting on line, as they say in Chicago vote early and vote often. Also, a nice honor for the WCHA, two of their former players are in the top two right now for goals of the season.