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December 03, 2003
NHL Roundup
In their last 14 trips to Long Island before last night, the Washington Capitals had more than made themselves at home, posting a 12-1-1 record against the Islanders in that span. On Tuesday, the Capitals continued their rude ways, scoring three goals in the first period on their way to a 4-1 victory. The loss was the sixth straight for the Islanders, a team that has simply stopped listening to its coach and general manager ever since news leaked that the team intended to waive veteran forward Jason Wiemer. Who's the author of this mess? Why, it's Isles GM Mike Milbury, who can't dodge responsibility any longer. Memo to GM Milbury: the Rangers arrive Thursday night. Win, or start wondering about your job. Jose Theodore got his 100th win in goal for the Canadiens, as Montreal defeated Tampa Bay 3-2. Theodore had 25 saves in the win, thanks to goals from Jan Bulis, Richard Zednik and Saku Koivu. After a hot start powered in part by a favorable schedule, Tampa Bay is now winless in it's last five games (0-3-2). The Phoenix Coyotes scored two third period goals -- one scored by and another assisted on by defenseman David Tanabe -- to beat the Devils 3-1. With the loss, the Devils are now winless in their last four. Sean Burke had 27 saves for the Coyotes, including 14 in the first period. 19 year old Nikolai Zherdev made his NHL debut in Columbus for the Blue Jackets, but it was the team's other teenager, second-year player Rick Nash, whose goal was the difference in a 2-1 victory over the Mighty Ducks. Marc Denis had 30 saves, but had his shutout bid spoiled by Vinny Prospal with 31 seconds left when the Ducks lifted goalie Martin Gerber for an extra attacker. Owen Nolan scored with 10 seconds left in the second period to give the Maple Leafs a lead they would never relinquish in a 5-4 win over the Rangers at the Air Canada Centre. With the win, the Leafs swept both ends of a home and home series with the Rangers, and have been victorious in six straight games. Anson Carter, recently the object of head coach/GM Glen Sather's ire in the New York papers, had a goal, but couldn't put the puck into an open net with less than a minute left to play. In Calgary, the Flames' Shean Donovan scored on a penalty shot en route to a 3-1 win over the Sharks, snapping San Jose's five-game win streak. In St. Louis, Dallas Drake had two goals in the Blues' 4-1 win over Los Angeles. Chris Osgood had 27 saves for St. Louis. Newly-acquired Martin Straka played 20 shifts for the Kings, but didn't score. 
Dallas Drake puts it past Roman Cechmanek
From the training room comes news that Blackhawks winger Eric Daze needs back surgery, and will be out of the lineup for 10 weeks. Heading in the other direction, Dominik Hasek says he's healed from his groin injury, and will be ready to play against Anaheim in Detroit tomorrow night. In Pittsburgh, they're still hemming and hawing over whether or not to send Marc-Andre Fleury back to his junior team in order to save the team some cash. Fleury has offered to forgo a portion of his performance bonuses if the team lets him stay -- something not heard of all that often. In a four-player deal, Tomas Kloucek was the biggest name moved in a trade between the Thrashers and the Predators, with the former Ranger going from Nashville to Atlanta in a deal involving a group of solid underachievers. In other Thrashers news, Ilya Kovalchuck is the early leader in balloting for the Eastern Conference All-Star Team. Finally, TSN is reporting that the Oilers may now be willing to package another veteran player along with holdout center Mike Comrie, if that's what it takes to get a deal done. No word if they're willing to throw in any furniture as of yet. UPDATE: Mariusz Czerkawski, who was a healthy scratch last night on Long Island, was actually held out of the game due to an irregular heartbeat. The winger, held without a goal in his last six games, complained after practice yesterday that he didn't feel well, which is when team doctors detected the irregularity. Meanwhile, Newsday is also reporting that Islanders fans have turned on team captain Michael Peca: That old familiar chant of "Mike Must Go!" echoed throughout Nassau Coliseum last night, as the tailspinning Islanders were en route to their sixth consecutive loss. But the target this time was somewhat uncertain. A number of Peca's teammates defended him in the dressing room after the game, including iron man defenseman Adiran Aucoin. As I said above, the problem in Long Island is in the front office, where after eight years, Mike Milbury has run out of plausible excuses.
Eric
12:43 AM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: Comments[[[ Tampa Bay has now dropped five in a row. ]]] This is a little misleading, in that "dropped" suggests "lost". They've actually gone 0-3-2, so it'd be more accurate to say they're winless in their last five games. On the news of Pittsburgh's Fleury foregoing bonus money: I'm wondering what the reports mean by "foregoing". Is he willing to just forget about that money forever, or just defer it (a much more common practice in pro sport salaries)? The idea of just passing completely on the salary, as is dictated in the contract both the player and the team agreed upon, is really unlikely, in my mind. Fleury will be pressured by the NHLPA and his agent to stick to the terms of the deal, lest he set a precedent. In fact, if you think about it, it's a bad precedent to set for both players and teams: If a player can decide to turn down money that was contractually owed him, what's to say another player can't cite that example as a reason to ask for more money regardless of what his contract says? Posted by: at December 3, 2003 10:23 AM Again regarding Fleury, I guess this news clears all that up; apparently the Collective Bargaining Agreement prohibits any idea of changing contract terms, including bonuses: http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=62881 Posted by: at December 3, 2003 11:00 AM Here's an article that talks about what the Isles could have been. My goodness, did Milbury ever drop the ball. Posted by: at December 3, 2003 02:00 PM Good link Nick. Milbury sucks but Duhatschek was a little too hard on the Isles. They have a pretty solid D with guys like Aucoin, Hamrlik, Niinimaa & Jonsson. Duhatschek made a mistake too. Redden went to Ottawa with Damian Rhodes for Don Beaupre, Martin Straka and Bryan Berard, not McCabe. McCabe was drafted by the Isles. Posted by: at December 3, 2003 05:38 PM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |