Atlanta Thrashers Will Likely Be Sold For $110 Million

For 110.00 million you can be a proud owner of an NHL franchise…

blogs.forbes.com --- The group that owns the Atlanta Thrashers is looking for $110 million for the NHL club from investors that include former Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine.

We valued the money-losing Thrashers at $135 million in December. The Thrashers have made the playoffs only once in their 11 seasons and averaged just 13,403 at Philips Arena this past season, 27th in the league. The attraction for a buyer is that the NBA’s Hawks, who share Philips Arena with the Thrashers, are responsible for the arena’s bond payments. The hockey team is debt-free and under the terms currently being discussed would pay a flat rent that would net the team about $7 million in non-ticket revenue while the owners of the basketball team ran the arena.

New rule on head shots getting results?

Here is an article by C.C. Tigers beat writer Joe Pasley of the Colorado Spring Gazette that was in yeterday's Gatette; the newspaper article has some interesting tidbits that you might want to take a look at. Personally, I found some of the comments by Greg Shepherd and Bruce McLeod to be interesting as well. While there were only 27 five-minute majors for contact to the head were recorded, how many of them were missed?

Gazette.com --- Only 27 five-minute majors for contact to the head were recorded this past season, though it seemed like far more were called.

“The perception is there were a lot more,” said Greg Shepherd, the league’s head of officials. “We did a good job making sure the coaches and players were aware, especially during the first month.”

Tigers coach Scott Owens knew the problem had to be addressed and was happy with the new rule and how it was handled.

“It’s had a positive impact,” he said. “The officials spent time explaining it to (the coaches) and we passed it on to the players. They made a lot of calls early. It’s definitely a problem. When you look at the (NHL Channel news) ticker, at least a third of it deals with concussions.”

Here something else from the article that I found interesting.

The severity of the five-minute major, which included either a game misconduct or game suspension, proved an effective, immediate deterrent that also made things easier for the league office. Whether a player missed the rest of the game or the rest of that game and the next was up to the on-ice official, which is how the league wanted it.

Pekka Rinne's amazing save in O.T.

This is one of the reasons why Pekka Rinne's is a finalists for the Vezina Trophy this season. Check out this amazing game saving stop in overtime of last night's game with the Vancouver Canucks. The Predators won the game 2-1 in double overtime. The Vancouver Canucks' fan base is now in full meltdown mode.

Yahoo.com --- Roberto Luongo led the Canucks to the league’s best record and the lowest team goals-against average (2.20). Luongo was 38-15-7 in 60 appearances, and his goals against average was 2.11.

Pekka Rinne was 33-22-9 with a 2.12 goals-against average, .930 save percentage and six shutouts.

Tim Thomas rebounded from offseason hip surgery, and the ’09 Vezina winner was 35-11-9, with a .938 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average. He had nine shutouts.

Having a bad day?

Here is Carl Pavano's meltdown in case you have seen it. Pavano takes out his frustrations with a baseball bat on a garbage can. Pavano has been unimpressive this season going 2-2 and has a ERA of 5.12. Maybe Carl Pavano should concentrate on pitching better and getting the W's so he won't have to take out his frustrations on the garbage cans in the Twins dugout.

David Krejci scores for the Boston Bruins... Bruins win 7-3

David Krejci got the first goal and the Bruins never looked back winning the first game of the best of seven Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers 7-3. David Krejci was nothing short of amazing as he paced the Boston Bruins with 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points. Krejci was also a plus 3 as well. Also having big game for the Boston Bruins were Patrice Bergeron 3 assists and Nathan Horton with 1 goal, 1 assist for two points.

Flyers goaltending is brutal...

The Flyers got what I would classify as brutal goaltending from Brian Boucher 5 goals on 23 shots and rookie goalie Philadelphia Flyers Sergei Bobrovsky 2 goals on 10 shots. I just don't think there is any other way of saying this, the Flyers goaltenders were just horrible, on the shot clock this was a close game but the Bruins' goaltender Tim Thomas (2 goals against on 33 shots) was heads and tails above the Flyers two sieves goalies and if it wasn't for Thomas the game could have had a different outcome.

Chris Pronger slash

Watch this two handed slash from Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger as he hacks Boston Bruins forward Daniel Paille. In looking at the video I thought that warranted more than a two minute penalty.

Remaking the image of Matt Cooke...

Does anyone believe him? Color me cynical and forgive me if I don't believe him. What is with the media trying to remake the image of Mat Cooke, his image is what it is... Matt Cooke is one of the dirtiest and most despised players in the NHL. Does anyone think that Matt Cooke will no longer be a head hunter on the ice looking to take out another opponent with a dirty hit? I will be the first one to applaud him if he can change.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ---- Penguins general manager Ray Shero made it clear Friday that left wing Matt Cooke will remain with the team next season.

Cooke made it clear he is a new man and will become a new player.

A week away from the team — which Cooke requested when his 17-game suspension for elbowing New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh was announced — was apparently an eye-opening experience for the NHL`s reigning poster child for dirty play.

Although Cooke did not offer specifics regarding his time away from the team, he requested help of some nature.

"It`s something I did on my own," said Cooke, who talked publicly for the first time since March 21. "After it happened, I asked Ray and ownership if I could leave for a little while. They were OK with it. Everyone has times in their lives when you need help or you need to talk to somebody. I`ve had the chance to work with some people. I spent a week specifically dealing with those things."

Cooke, who has two years remaining on his contract, vows that his days of being suspended are over.

Tim Thomas is consistently inconsistent?

hockeyindependent.com

Check out this scouting report on Tim Thomas by Philly.com . I tell you one thing that the Boston Bruins have a huge edge on the Flyers in net, it's not even close. The Flyers have a stable of horrid goalies, the Boston Bruins have a Vezina Trophy winner in Tim Thomas and an awesome back up in Tuukka Rask as well. 

GOALTENDING

Flyers: When Peter Laviolette drew up his game plan for Buffalo back on April 14, do you think he really included starting three different goaltenders? Despite the circus, Brian Boucher did not have an awful series for the Flyers. He gave up 10 goals in more than 14 periods worth of work, including two brutal goals in a span of 3 minutes. Erase those goals - scored from the corner and behind the net - and his goals against-average is under 2.00 and his save percentage jumps to 94.7 percent. You can't argue with those numbers. Boucher, a New England native, is now Laviolette's guy unless he proves otherwise.

Bruins: Tim Thomas is consistently inconsistent. He is easily the NHL's most unorthodox goaltender, making saves in a variety of ways that make coaches and players scratch their heads. Thomas, who has again reinvented himself after a mediocre season last year following his 2008-09 Vezina Trophy-winning campaign, somehow finds a way for the puck to hit him. There is little technical work involved. The knock on him, though, is that teams can figure out a way to beat him when steadily facing his tendencies throughout a series.

EDGE: Bruins

Scott Hannan finishes his check on Simon Gagne

Hockey if a physical game and injuries will happen on the ice in the NHL, or any hockey league that has contact, sometimes injuries just happen. Let's hope that Simon Gagne is going to be OK and he doesn't have another concussion.

Update from the American Hockey Coaches Association meeting

H/T to ExileOnDaytonStreet for posting a link to this article on his blog.

NAPLES — While most of the convention attendees agreed that the popularity of the sport is on the upswing, some said one of the best ways to maintain the momentum is to keep the players healthy. Just like their professional counterparts, college hockey officials are trying to reduce the number of concussions and other serious injuries through rule changes and stiffer penalties for multiple offenders.

ECAC Director of Officials and former NHL player and referee Paul Stewart said the topic of hits to the head has been at the forefront of the convention.

“It’s the No. 1 topic for everyone at all levels of hockey,” Stewart said. “Player safety is a very important part of the game and through rules, coaching and punishment I think it’s something that can be improved.”

I would have guessed that this would be an hot button issue that will get a lot of discussion during the American Hockey Coaches Association meeting... I wonder if college hockey will come up with the rule where a player has to go to "quiet room" for 15 minutes if they receive a shot to the head?

Here we go with expansion again, maybe we should find a home for UAH before we start talking about adding more programs to the college hockey landscape. Seriously, what league would a team like Florida Gulf Coast play in? I would hope the topic of realignment is going to come up this spring. I think that College hockey in general needs to focus on the teams already in college hockey before we go tripping all over ourselves to add more college hockey teams... Do we really need another watered down college hockey conference taking yet another bid away from a team that is worthy of receiving an at large bid.

In addition to coaches from all levels of NCAA hockey, several club coaches are also in attendance at the event. One of the topics is how to turn popular club teams, like the one at Florida Gulf Coast University, into self-sustaining NCAA scholarship teams.

Joe Battista, the associate athletic director at Penn State, is currently overseeing the school’s transition from club to Division I. He said that when he’s asked about the transition, it always comes down to one topic — money.

“There are a lot of challenges when you try to start a program but it’s really hard to do if you don’t have the funding,” said Battista, whose school received an $88 million donation from Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula to revive the hockey program last year. “But it all starts with finding someone who is passionate enough to go out, knock on doors and do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

So is Tim Thomas off the mark when it comes to the Habs' P.K. Subban?

So after reading the quotes from Tim Thomas do you agree or disagree? Like I mentioned earlier that there was going to be some hurt feelings no matter who won this heated series. Looking back just a few days later this was an epic series and an instant classic in my opinion. That being said, there has been a lot of whining and complaining from the press and fans in Montreal (some of it was warrented) most of it has started when Zdeno Chara hit on the Canadiens' Max Pacioretty then it continued when the Boston Bruins brutalized the Canadians in a lopsided game on March 24th 2011 by a 7-0 score; during that game the Bruins beat the Canadians on the scoreboard but also beat the crap out of them on the ice as well.

On to P.K. Subban, like I have said before, P.K. Subban is an amazing talent and I believe he is an up and coming super star in the NHL but he is a bit of a “punk” or some might say a “show boat.” In my opinion someone needs to sit him down and have a serious heart to heart talk with him and remind him to act like you have been there before, not ever goal requires an over the top celebration. I personally don’t have a problem with Tim Thomas’ comments because Thomas is a class act.

Montreal Whine Feast --- In the moments after his team's 4-3 overtime win on Wednesday, and for part of a Boston sports-radio interview on Thursday, Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas did speak gracefully about Canadiens counterpart Carey Price:

"He battled hard from start to finish in that series," Thomas said. "I've got to give him a lot of credit. . He pushed me to be as good as I could be. I kept waiting for him to break and it just never happened. . My hat's off to the kid."

(Price had lauded Thomas the night before: "Timmy played great, he should win the Vézina Trophy in my opinion. . He's the best goalie in the NHL.")

Then the radio hosts got to chuckling as they asked Thomas about Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban, whom they said of a first-period scrum with Boston's Gregory Campbell "falls down like he's had a brick dropped on his chest and clearly he might have been flailing around there a little bit."

The way their question was posed to Thomas wasn't unlike the way Mark Recchi, M.D., was led by a different pair of Boston radio hosts to better diagnose the concussion of the Canadiens' Max Pacioretty.

Thomas, usually one of the more polished pieces of cutlery in the drawer, was all kinds of tarnished in his reply.

"I had respect for the Canadiens and the way they played that series and the way they battled," he began. "But to be completely honest, I don't have respect for actions like that.

"That's a travesty to the game. It's not the way the game is supposed to be played. . It can be infuriating, you know?

Zdeno Chara has a Coke and a smile on the Bruins Bench...

I have never seen anything like that before and I have to wonder if drinking Coke led to his dehydration? As a former athlete I have never seen anyone drink a pop on the bench that was actively in the contest. Chara missed game two against the Montreal Canadians because of a bout with Dehydration.

Why wouldn't a best of three series work in the first round of the NCAA tourney?

Huskier Mike's blog post got me thinking about this subject even more.

Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald threw his support to a switch in the NCAA hockey tournament, making the first round a best-of-three series on the home ice of the higher seed. (H/T: Goon) Looking at the attendance of the regionals, it's obvious the current format isn't working with neutral ice. Take a page from baseball and play it on home ice where the fans can watch. And a best-of-three series lessens the impact of a bogus call in overtime. (Yes, Weasel fan: no matter what you say, those replays were inconclusive.)

With the finality of the one and done NCAA hockey tourney it’s almost a travesty to watch a team that was a number one seed and probably a division winner during the regular season lose their first game of a one and done tourney.

Why not have the first round match up at the home arena of the higher seed? What is the harm, the teams would still be picked from the Pair Wise Rankings. This would alleviate number one seeds having to play a four seed in their home arena. I get the argument that Miami needed to get it done if they wanted to move forward, but maybe they deserved better than the fate they got. Maybe one questionable controversial goal wouldn't be as hard to swallow and said team would live to fight another day. Imagine the boat load of money this format would also make a boat load of money for the NC$$.

Of course you get these kinds of flawed arguments in respond to Brad's proposal.

I agree with the school sites for the higher seed for attendance but a best of three series will pretty much ruin the chance of any small school of winning but it does benefit UND and other super teams. The single game elimination gives any team a chance which may not sell as many tickets at the actual events, but makes it a lot more interesting than having UND, Michigan, one of the Boston teams and Denver every single year in the Frozen Four.

By having to win two out of three games in the first round, that would actually make the team that won in the first round more legit in my mind. I don’t buy this logic of the smaller teams would suffer. Last time I checked the University of Minnesota Duluth was a small school that is division one in college hockey only… Minnesota Duluth’s other sports (football, basketball, golf etc) play in the NSIC which is a division II conference. The fact that UMD won the title this season, proves that the small schools can still win the NCAA title and that they are still relevant, a swing and a miss on that point.

I also think that if Union have had to travel to Duluth to play in the first round of the NCAA tourney we probably still would have had the same results. I don’t by the logic that the NCAA tourney needs to stay in a empty neutral site for the small schools to remain relevant.

Also, in case anyone was keeping track, there was only "one" Big Ten School that made the NCAA playoffs this season. The Frozen Four included two teams that had never won an NCAA title (Notre Dame and UMD). I don’t buy that argument that the same four teams will be in the frozen four every year if we have the first round games in the higher seeds home arena.

Like I said earlier; "If this proposed format would do anything it would probably poke holes in the PWR/RPI rankings and prove that certain teams rankings were way over rated."

Herald; NCAA should consider altering hockey playoff format

Brad Schlossman has an awesome article in today's Grand Forks Herald title; the NCAA should consider altering hockey playoff format. I couldn't agree more with the premise and I hope the NCAA goes that route. One snag that could keep the Fighting Sioux from hosting a best two out of three series is the Fighting Sioux nickname if the NCAA doesn't change it's policy.

Grand Forks Herald --- This afternoon, Division I hockey coaches and administrators will meet in Naples, Fla., to discuss the NCAA tournament, and they should consider a new format that was proposed at last year’s meetings.

At that time, they discussed changing the first round of the tournament to a best-of-three series in the home building of the higher seed. Then, there would be two super regionals at neutral sites (two games at each site) to determine which teams make the Frozen Four.

This is better than the current format for several reasons: It rewards teams for having good regular seasons, the games will be played in better environments and it will be more profitable for the NCAA.

TV Schedule for the Bruins and Flyers...

Game 1, at Philadelphia, Sat. April 30, 3 p.m. (NBC)
Game 2, at Philadelphia, Mon., May 2, 7:30 p.m. (VERSUS)
Game 3, at Boston, Wed., May 4, 7 p.m. (VERSUS)
Game 4, at Boston, Fri., May 6, 8 p.m. (VERSUS -- joined in progress)
x-Game 5, at Philadelphia, Sun., May 8, 3 p.m. (NBC)
x-Game 6, at Boston, Tues., May 10, TBD (VERSUS)
x-Game 7, at Philadelphia, Thu., May 12, TBD (VERSUS)
x-if necessary

Andrew Ference will not be suspended by the NHL.

According to John Bishop aka BISH...

Chiarelli on Ference: "No suspension."^BISH

Looks like the matter is closed. The fans in Montreal wont be happy and they will claim their is a conspiracy because Colin Campbell's kid plays for the Boston Bruins. The fact remains that Mike Murphy, senior VP of hockey operations was the one that made the decision; Colin Campbell had to recuse himself from the ruling because of his son playing Boston. I know some fans are going to make comments about crickets chirping in the back ground.

This is what Peter Chiarelli had to say on matter at his morning press conference.

Boston Globe --- Andrew Ference was not suspended for his hit on Jeff Halpern. Ference had a disciplinary hearing this morning with Mike Murphy, senior VP of hockey operations. "I thought it was just incidental contact," Chiarelli said of his first reaction. "When I took a closer look, I saw where the league's concerns lie. When you look at the whole play, we turned the puck over at our blue. When that happens, the D is supposed to close off the rim around the wall. [Ference] was moving that way. What Andy said was that he just saw [Halpern] off his shoulder as he was moving. Looking up as he saw the turnover, his motion and the player's motion ran into each other."

They Said what? A couple of quotes...

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

I think this is a good explanation of how a lot of Bruins fans including me feel about show boat and the ever-so-cocky P.K. Subban. Let me be clear, the kid is an amazing talent that God has blessed with amazing athletic ability, however, it does appear that the good Lord given him a two cent brain... P.K. Subban yaps and runs his mouth all game long and then runs and hides behind the refs and turtles when called to the carpet. My advice to the young man is that not everyone is impressed with your antics, less theatrics and more hockey, lets see more highlight goals like the one above, but act like you been there before.

Montreal Gazette --- Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban, who may be the most disliked man in Boston, sent the game into overtime when he scored a power-play goal at 18:23 of the third period.

Subban, who was described by one Boston writer as “a puck, a whiner and a diver,” scored on a shot from the point after Patrice Bergeron went off for high-sticking James Wisniewski.

Damien Cox from the Star had an interesting perspective of how the Bruins "beat" the Montreal Canadian this season. I would say that his point of view is from a Canadian and not someone covering the Boston Bruins. Reading this you would have thought the Boston Bruins were a bunch of ruffians or goons.

Just a year ago, the Habs were money in seventh games, upsetting Washington and Pittsburgh. But in the same way the Blackhawks tied Game 7 against Vancouver late in regulation but lost in overtime, the Habs forced OT Wednesday on a late goal by P.K. Subban, but were then vanquished in the extra session by Nathan Horton’s slapshot goal that was redirected past Carey Price for a 4-3 Boston win.

This, after everything that happened between the Habs and Bruins in the past two months, will be a bitter pill for the Canadiens and their legions of fans to swallow. Not only were they eliminated by Boston, the Habs were brutalized by the Bruins all season.

It started with the controversial Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty, included one brawl-filled contest, continued into the sixth game of this series with Milan Lucic’s vicious hit on Jaroslav Spacek and in Game 7 included Andrew Ference’s dirty headshot on Jeff Halpern that went unpenalized.

The Bruins did this year what the Caps couldn’t last year, and that was use their superior size to bully the smallish Habs.

montreal canadiens tickets

Jack Edwards post game seven analysis...

I really like this one, I know that there are many people that don't like Jack Edwards but I really like this guy and what he brings to the table, Edwards also adds a lot of color to the Boston Bruins television broadcasts.

The Bruins are moving on. Ference to face spin of the Wheel of Justice

The Boston Bruins closed out the Montreal Canadians last night in overtime of game seven after being down 2-0 to start the series. I felt at times the Bruins were lucky to be in this series as the Speedy Habs were all over the Boston Bruins and beating the Bruins to the puck only to be stoned by the Boston Bruins all-world goalie Tim Thomas. At other times the Bruins looked like they were a much better team. I thought all around this was a sloppy series and the breaks for the most part went Boston's way as the Bruins won three games in overtime. The fact that the Bruins beat the Habs again in the Stanley Cup playoffs makes this win even more special.

Power Play outage

The thing that is hard to phantom is that he Boston Bruins didn’t score a power play goal the whole series against the Canadians and were able to win the series. Also the Bruins gave up a shorthanded goal tonight. The Bruins went 0-21 on the power play against the Canadians.

Andrew Ference to face the Wheel of Justice

Andrew Ference has a conference call with the NHL disciplinarian for this hit on the Habs forward Jeff Halpern during the third period of last night's game. Based on what some players have been allowed to get away with during the first round of the NHL playoffs, it's hard to imagine what kind of a punishment that Andrew Ference would get.

NESN.COM ---- Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference may not be with the Bruins on Saturday afternoon when they open up their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup in Philadelphia against the Flyers.

According to TSN's Bob McKenzie, Ference will have an 11 a.m. phone hearing with the NHL on Thursday to discuss his hit on Montreal's Jeff Halpern. The hit in question took place in the third period of the Bruins' 4-3 win over the Canadiens in Game 7 of their first-round series.

Halpern fell to the ice and eventually had to be helped off after apparently colliding with Ference's shoulder. The hearing will likely center around whether or not Ference leaned into Halpern to deliver the blow.

As McKenzie pointed out in a later tweet, it will be interesting to see what the league does for a guy like Ference who was critical of teammate Daniel Paille after Paille received a four-game suspension February for his hit on Dallas' Raymond Sawada.

Questionable Ference hit on Halpern (by REDWING77)

Viewing this hit, what is surely going to happen in the comments thread of this video is the proverbial splitting of hairs. Halpern and Ference collide. There is DEFINITELY contact to the head on this play.

The hair splitter is whether or not Ference raised his elbow/shoulder. His elbow clearly bends pre-hit, but his shoulder does not rise. Nevertheless, Halpern does something EXTREMELY stupid: Skate at a player with his head down.

I'm not quite certain what Halpern was trying to do here. The puck wasn't near Ference when Halpern swerved to maneuver into contact with Ference and Ference clobbered him... seemingly.

The issue with Ference is that he sees it coming and does nothing to avoid contact. In fact, he slows down before contacting Halpern. This could mean two things (hence another hair splitter):

1. Ference was trying to soften the blow, as skating produces a shifting of the shoulders that could produce an actual elbow or shoulder to the head in so much as seemingly intentional of manner, just as much as the momentum going in the opposite direction of the oncoming Halpern could further cause harm.

2. Ference slowed down to ensure contact with Halpern.

Both are plausible. Also the pretence that Halpern skated in on Ference to level Ference may have been the intent and Halpern just did it wrong.

Either way, no suspension. But Montreal will call for it.

Let the hair splitting commence.