April 28, 2004
Rink Notes
Rob Blake may be out for the remainder of the Sharks-Avalanche series, which looks to be somewhere around 60 minutes of hockey. Out in Denver, some are trying to draw inspiration from the 1975 New York Islanders:
Denis Potvin remembers the hopeless feeling he had taking to the ice for practice the day before Game 4 of his New York Islanders' second-round playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975.
The 1974-75 Penguins, a team that had nine players with 20 or more goals, led the series 3-0. Islanders fans thought it was over. The Penguins thought it was over. The media thought it was over. As much as he tried to have hope, Potvin thought the series was, well, over.
"It's hard to believe that you're going to be able to do it," Potvin said Tuesday from his Florida home. "It's hard to feel good about anything at that point. I mean, at that time, only one team had ever come back from 3-0 down and won a series."
Soon enough, that number would be two. If you root for the Avs (which almost were named the Rapids, more on that later), I wouldn't get your hopes up. Meanwhile in the San Jose locker room, head coach Ron Wilson was taking a look back at a piece of Washington Capitals history a local like me would rather forget:
"It happens more often than not that those trade-deadline deals make things worse instead of better," Wilson said. "I remember when I was in Washington, things were pretty well set up one year (2001) for us to play Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs, so we made what we thought was a really smart deal, Dainius Zubrus and Trevor Linden for Richard Zednik and Jan Bulis. It was a great deal on paper, at least that's what it seemed like to us.
"Then we lost the first five games after we made the deal, and we ended up playing Pittsburgh instead (losing in six games), and the chemistry was gone. I'd make the trade again tomorrow and be happy with it, but that's what happens sometimes."
This was the year of the infamous schedule change, where the Penguins asked the league to adjust the format because the Penguins wouldn't be able to use Mellon Arena for Game Three because of a conflict with a dance troupe called, "Burning The Floor". The result: a cock-eyed playoff series, where the Caps hosted Game One, while the Pens got Games Two and Three. As it turned out, "Burning The Floor" was cancelled, and the Caps were blown out on home ice in Game One, and were never really back in it.
And yes, we'd be happy to have Bulis and Zednik back too.
With the Leafs offense looking anemic, Pat Quinn is shaking things up -- moving Alexander Mogilny to the top line with Mats Sundin and Gary Roberts. And once again, Joe Nieuwendyk will not be in the lineup.
NHLPA head Bob Goodenow and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will take in tonight's Flyers-Leafs game in Toronto, and then meet again on Thursday to see if they can jumpstart the CBA negotiations.
Click here for the latest from ESPN's John Buccigross.
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Sorry Eric, but the year of the Zednik-Bulis/Linden-Zubrus trade was the year AFTER the schedule change. The Caps played back-to-back first round playoff series against the Penguins and it was the first of those that they shifted home ince to the Penguins, even thought the Caps had finished with a 100+point season.
And yes, I agree with Wilson on this one, and he would know: I would have made that trade as well, but it really messed up the team.
Posted by:
at April 30, 2004 01:26 PM
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01:28 PM