Key veteran offensive guys - like Marco Sturm, Michael Ryder and Mark Recchi - are posting below-average numbers. Youngsters like David Krejci and Blake Wheeler are not having the kind of years hoped for. The most important offensive player, Marc Savard, has missed almost half the season due to a foot injury and has yet to really get going.
Against the Flyers, Savard had no shots and was a minus-3.
“We’ve got to get better, I’ve got to be better,” Savard said. “I’ve got to start getting results. I’m not getting any of those.”
The obviously frustrated Savard was blaming no one other than himself, but the fact is he needs better wingers to center.
With all due respect to Byron Bitz, as hard-working and honest a player as you’ll find, his stint as a first-liner should be finished. Wheeler hasn’t been able to relocate the scoring touch that produced 21 goals last season.
“That line wasn’t very good for us,” coach Claude Julien said. “Savvy’s got to take some of that responsibility, but it’s not a one-man line. He needs his wingers, and his wingers weren’t there, either. That line was very average for us. It needed to be better.” [Boston Herald]
Gaborik plans to play for Wild on Wednesday
AP - Dec 16, 5:38 pm EST NHL Gallery ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)—Wild fans have grown so frustrated with Marian Gaborik’s contract status and 27-game absence that mentions of his name over the Xcel Energy Center speakers have brought boos a couple of times this season.
Minnesota’s star right wing should find out how the customers feel on Wednesday night. Gaborik declared himself “good to go” to face the Calgary Flames and, pending final consultation with coach Jacques Lemaire, will appear in a game for the first time since Oct. 14.
The next day, he hurt part of his lower body—presumably that long-problematic groin muscle, though the team won’t specify injuries anymore— which made his future with the Wild even more uncertain. Gaborik’s contract expires this summer, and negotiations on an extension broke off before he was hurt. Attempts by the team to trade him have predictably hit a wall.
With the Wild struggling to score, their 76 goals being the fewest in the Western Conference, Gaborik and his All-Star offensive skills have been missed.
Their losing streak is at five games, and they’ve scored five goals during that span
Manitoba- The Stars have a partial affiliation with the Manitoba Moose and currently have five Dallas players on their AHL roster; however the Moose have made it clear they are not interested in providing a place for Avery to play.
Moose owner Mark Chipman tells TSN, ''We wouldn't take him under any circumstance.''
Adjusting to the game at the professional level could be Schneider’s toughest task if he does get to play during this stint with the Canucks, as was the case when he jumped from the NCAA to the AHL.
After a stellar three-year career at Boston College, Schneider was with the Moose for the 2007-08 season and it took him a few games to find his footing. He was 5-7-0 after 12 starts with a 3.21 GAA and .882 save percentage before discovering his comfort zone in going 16-5-2 over his last 23 appearances.
“That’s kind of how the progression has worked for me, first college then the American League and hopefully now here,” said Schneider.
“It took a little while in the American League, obviously I had a rough start last year, but it’s part of the game and your mental makeup is how well you adjust to adversity so hopefully it won’t take too long until I’m up to speed here.”
Hitting and head shots two different things
There’s only one thing sadder in hockey than seeing a player such as Brandon Sutter lose consciousness and sustain a concussion after an on-ice hit. The change-the-game backlash and pleas to ban head shots are more harmful to the game.
It was a clean hit, plain and simple. There was no head-hunting involved, there was no penalty on the play and there’s no reason for revenge or game-altering rule changes demanded by some hockey critics.
Doug Weight of the New York Islanders was the last man back on the play Oct. 25. He and Carolina’s Sutter were rushing to the loose puck and a collision was inevitable. If Weight pulls up, he risks giving Sutter a breakaway and is certainly criticized by Islanders fans.
After dinner I settled back into my room and turned on the TV to double check if I'd missed any channels that may have been on commercial the first time. I came across a news show on Cherepanov and the tragedy that had just happened.
It was in Russian, but still rather easy to follow as they interviewed his mother. I felt so bad for her; you could see how much pain she was in and how difficult it must have been for her to lose her son at such a young age.
After the show, I walked down to Igor Ulanov's room to hangout for a bit and found out he had watched the same show. He told me how Alexei's favorite player was Jaromir Jagr and that when he heard Jagr was coming to Omsk, Cherepanov told the Rangers he was going to stay another year in Russia to play with his idol.
But the Stars are a different situation, because neither of those other teams publicly aired their frustration like the Stars are during their struggles (3-5-1 in their last nine games).
It's one thing to hear a grumble here or there; it's another thing for a conference finalist to have a veteran star like Mike Modano call out his teammates for "one of the most embarrassing things I've seen." Or for goaltender Marty Turco to both blame his teammates for his struggles while questioning their faith in him. Or for the team's two-headed general managers' office to threaten emphatic changes if the situation doesn't resolve itself on the ice and in the locker room.
Ten days ago while sitting with my girlfriend at a Durham Bulls game in Durham, North Carolina, I heard a peculiar announcement over the loudspeaker. I couldn’t quite make it out. I heard Carolina Hurricanes tickets and what I thought was the words free tickets. Figuring that I mis-heard I paid it little attention. On our way out, a table sat, unoccupied, and with a collection of pink papers on it. Obliging my contractually mandated inquisitive nature and my strong affinity for bright coloured pieces of paper, I sauntered over to find, unmanned and unmonitored I remind you, a table filled with “Buy one ticket, get one ticket free coupons” for Carolina Hurricanes hockey games. Cool, I thought. Offering free tickets for an exhibition game to build your market. Smart marketing strategy. So, I grabbed one, and boy am I glad I did, so I can share with you this, the final proof we needed that the U.S. Southern Expansion is an unmitigated disaster.
Let’s break this coupon down:
1) Buy one, get one free: OK, no biggie, buy one get one free.
What I figure: Limit one per person.
In actuality: Limit 8 tickets per person.
The kicker: No one monitoring the table where these are being distributed. An individual could have picked up hundreds of these coupons.
2) Receive a free ticket with the purchase of a ticket of equal or greater value.
What I figure: Restricted sections, hard to redeem, tickets sell out quick as a result.
In actuality: The majority of the arena applies to this promo. Only exceptions are the “Champion’s Club”, “V.I.P. Ledge”, and “Upper Goal Zone”.
The kicker: The Hurricane’s have a section called the V.I.P. Ledge. Shouldn’t all 45 people who attend Hurricanes games be V.I.P?
3) The following games apply to this promotion:
What I figure: Exhibition games. Games played at the same time as another event occurring, creating a conflict that would negatively impact ticket sales for the Hurricanes.
In actuality: Regular season games versus Washington, Montreal (TWICE!), Anaheim, Florida, New Jersey, and Tampa Bay
The kicker: These aren’t games against your Blue Jackets, Coyotes and Kings. These are games against the marquee franchises in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens. Not only are they THE team to see in the NHL, but these teams had a fierce playoff series not so long ago.
I’m not a good enough writer to accurately describe the emotions I felt when I saw these tickets being given away. I live in a market where people would gladly fist fight for free tickets if we only had the chance to see NHL games in our market. (The one exhibition game played per year in Winnipeg doesn’t count.) Here I am standing with my mouth agape watching these tickets be given away. Here’s the ultimate kicker:
No one. No one. No one was taking the coupons.
NHL Southern Expansion. Born 1995. Dead 2008. Never fully emerged from an amorphous state. Credibility of NHL “tall-foreheads” died alongside.
Source: Snow has narrowed his list to three
BY GREG LOGAN
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After a painstaking interview process in which he spoke with eight known candidates and contacted a few others, an NHL source indicated Snow has narrowed his list to three finalists. Former Atlanta coach Bob Hartley, former Toronto coach Paul Maurice and current AHL Providence coach Scott Gordon still are in the running, and Snow is expected to name one as the Isles' next coach early this week.
Although former Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella and former Colorado coach Joel Quenneville were regarded as the most high-profile candidates when Snow's search began because of their consistent winning records, any handicapper judging by the criteria set by the Isles' GM probably would have picked the same three finalists Snow settled on. When he parted ways with Nolan, Snow cited "philosophical differences" over the direction of the franchise as the reason.
Snow made a firm commitment last season to a patient, long-term approach to fashioning a championship contender by developing the top young prospects in the organization and building through the draft as opposed to relying on free agency to provide a quick fix. The coach he chooses must share the same, and he must be able to communicate equally well with management and players.
Tortorella out of Islanders coaching choices
BY GREG LOGAN August 9, 2008
Former Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella, who was viewed by many as the most high-profile and possibly most high-priced candidate for the Islanders' head-coaching vacancy, apparently is out of the mix. Money isn't a major issue for Isles owner Charles Wang, but there always was a question whether Tortorella and a team committed to long-term development plan were the right fit for each other.
Islanders general manager Garth Snow is expected to sharply narrow his long list of candidates over the weekend and reach a decision on a successor to Ted Nolan early next week, an NHL source said. When contacted by Newsday, Tortorella politely declined to comment on his role in the Isles' search process.
Although Tortorella was coming off a season in which the Lightning had the worst record in the NHL, he had a winning record in the previous four seasons, including the 2004 Stanley Cup title.
As a former Rangers assistant who also served as head coach for the final four games of the 1999-2000 season, the fiery Tortorella would have added spice to the local rivalry.
But there also would have been a question about whether his hard-charging style and impatience would have worked with a team planning to fill some major roles with developing prospects from the organization.
Tortorella certainly helped turn the Lightning from an also-ran into a power, but that success also means he can take his time waiting for an opening with a team closer to title contention than the Islanders while collecting the final year of his Tampa Bay contract, valued at a reported $1.3 million.
