Battle Of Hudson

It was a crazy deadline this year. In all 24 trades were completed, second most in history. Here’s the chart, as per NHL.com.

	Team	Player/Compensation
	Marian Hossa, F Pascal Dupuis, F		Erik Christensen, F Colby Armstrong, F Angelo Esposito, C 2008 first-round pick
	David LeNeveu, G Fredrik Sjostrom, F Josh Gratton, F Conditional draft pick		Al Montoya, G Marcel Hossa, F
	Chad Kilger, LW		2008 third-round pick
	Alexandre Giroux, LW		Joe Motzko, RW
	Brandon Bochenski, F		Future considerations
	Jan Hlavac, F		2008 seventh-round pick
	Jean-Sebastien Aubin, G		2008 seventh-round pick
	Brad Stuart, D		2008 second-round pick 2009 fourth-round pick
	Jay Leach, D		Brandon Segal, RW 2008 seventh-round pick
	Marc-Andre Bergeron, D		2008 third-round pick
	Hal Gill, D		2008 second-round pick 2009 fifth-round pick
	Chris Simon, F		2008 sixth-round pick
	Christian Backman, D		2008 fourth-round pick
	Matt Cooke, LW		Matt Pettinger, LW
	Sergei Fedorov, C		Theo Ruth, D
	Adam Foote, D		2008 or 2009 conditional first-round pick 2009 conditional fourth-round pick
	Brad Richards, F Johan Holmqvist, G		Jeff Halpern, C Jussi Jokinen, F Mike Smith, G 2009 fourth-round pick
	Cristobal Huet, G		Second-round pick
	Ruslan Salei, D		Karlis Skrastins, D 2008 third-round pick
	Brian Campbell, D 2008 seventh-round pick		Steve Bernier, F 2008 first-round pick
	Cam Janssen, F		Bryce Salvador, D
	Andrew Ladd, F		Tuomo Ruutu, F
	Wade Belak, F		2008 fifth-round pick
	Martin Lapointe, F		2008 sixth-round pick
	Rob Davison, D		2008 seventh-round pick
Feb. 25
	Vaclav Prospal, F		Alexandre Picard, D 2009 conditional draft pick

Clear winners: Pittsburgh and San Jose. In my opinion, the Penguins are now the team to beat in the NHL. Their backline got more physical with Gill and their power play may now be unstoppable. If Ty Conklin and Marc-Andre Fleury can stay healthy and consistent, they’ll be tough to beat. Campbell to San Jose really helps that team on the blueline.

Clear losers: Islanders, Edmonton and Atlanta. The first two for the mere fact that they did nothing of note. Getting rid of Simon was a good move for the Islanders, but losing Bergeron is tough. Edmonton had chances to move several players, and didn’t. Atlanta got some good youth back, but they did nothing to be good this year. Armstrong and Christiansen might get lost in the bigger market up in Ottawa.

Other thoughts:

The Rangers made some weird moves. I understand the players they traded (Montoya and Hossa) as both were expendable. Hossa has been limited due to injury and Montoya’s stock was just falling in Hartford. The players they got are questionable though. Backman should help out the blueline, but is in no way the shutdown defenseman the Rangers were looking for. He’ll be physical and chip in a point or two every five games, but that’s if he stays healthy. Sjostrom needs to play on a 2nd or 3rd line on a mediocre team. He will play on the 4th line, if he plays at the NHL level at all for the Rangers. This pushes Ryan Hollweg out of the picture, who cannot be replaced in terms of sheer energy. Gratton is a strange pickup, as he goes straight to Hartford. He fights and, well that’s it. He doesn’t do much else. LeNeuvue has a lot of upside and has worked with Benoit Allaire, who is very high on the kid. Hopefully that pays off.

Would have rather had Bryce Salvador, who went to the Devils. Good pickup by them, especially since they only parted with Cam Janssen.

Washington got better as well with Federov and Huet. Ridding themselves of Pettinger isn’t a bad thing either. He was a bust so far this season.

Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Let’s hear some other thoughts. I’ll check in later on.

Marian Hossa is on his way to the Penguins for prospect Angelo Esposito and forwards Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen.

Analysis: Wow! What a deal that is for the Pens. They lost only two depth forwards and got one of the better scoring forwards in the league. Figure Crosby gets to center him when he returns leaving Malkin to play with Sykora and Malone as they’ve formed a great chemistry. The Thrashers did get Esposito in the deal and he was highly rated. So maybe it works out for them as well.

The Rangers acquired D Christian Backman from the Blues in exchange for a fourth round pick.

Analysis: A smart move by Glen Sather not overpaying like so many other teams did today. He got a serviceable defender instead who should fill in nicely for the injured Paul Mara.

There have been already 12 deals today including the biggest one seeing Tampa center Brad Richards shipped along with netminder Johan Holmqvist to the Stars for Mike Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern.

As I am at work, it’s very hard to update everything. But I did manage to find time during lunch break to list these deals and analyze them on my Hitting Back site.

So please feel free to check it out.

I’ll try to have more later as I’m extremely busy today including a big concert tonight!

See ya’ll later!

When the eastern time zone clocks strike 3 p.m. this afternoon, the hockey world will know what teams are contenders and what teams have conceded the season. Who will make the biggest splash? Montreal? Ottawa? A surprise team like the Blackhawks? I don’t know, but I know it will be fun.

What will the Rangers do? Paul Mara is out for two weeks, and they have some forward at depth. Do they bring in a defender or even two? Ron Gainsey? Nick Boyton? Brian Campbell?

How about the Islanders? With Mike Comrie signed to a new one-year, $4 million deal, he stays put. Ruslan Federtanko could be the next Fishstick signed. Do they move some other veterans for youth? Or do they feel they can still make a splash in the playoff picture?

The Devils keep on winning. What do they really need to be a better team? Honestly, any move that they do make will probably be really small. Maybe a little defense help, but even that isn’t a necessary move.

I regret that I will be unable to blog until well after 3 today, which is really unfortunate because I was looking forward to it. I’ll weigh in later on today when everything is done though.

Enjoy the craziness. Update your browsers frequently and I’ll catch everyone later.

If you’re an avid Back To The Future fan, then yesterday was your day when it came to the hockey scene as two former bitter Western rivals turned back the clock to a decade prior.





Back then, the best rivalry in the game was between the Red Wings and Avalanche featuring some epic playoff battles resulting in Cups for both franchises. Well, it’s been a while since these teams had that sort of magic going. Maybe with yesterday’s moves, they’re trying to rekindle it in hopes of a big Spring.





First, former Colorado star center Peter Forsberg decided after all that he wanted to comeback, reversing course to re-sign with the Avalanche where he had his most success. It was there where Peter The Great became one of the best players in the league helping lead the Avs to their first Cup in 1996 and also being part of that second championship five years later even though he missed the final two series.



For a decade, Forsberg lit up the highlight reel teaming up with captain Joe Sakic to form a dynamic duo. Following the lockout, the Swede left the thin air for the Flyers where he played the last two injury riddled seasons due to a bad right foot.

Not long ago, it looked like a Foppa return to the NHL wouldn’t occur because the 34 year-old pivot recently concluded that he wasn’t where he needed to be for that to happen. Well, I guess a lot can change in a week. Especially when the Avs are waving lots of cash at their former superstar in the hopes that a less than 100 percent Forsberg will be able to get them back to the postseason after falling short last year.

Currently, the Avalanche rank 10th in the ultracompetitive Western Conference trailing eighth place Nashville by four points and the upstart Coyotes by one. The Blue Jackets are only a point in back of the Avs and five out while the Blues are six behind the Preds.

With 19 games remaining, Colorado is paying Forsberg a pro-rated one million for basically a six week rental. If it were a full season, he’d make five million.

It’s certainly no guarantee that the Avs will make the cut but with Sakic finally healthy along with leading scorer Paul Stastny plus a motivated Forsberg, that should give them a leg up on the competition.

Colorado will visit Calgary later tonight and plays Vancouver twice in the next week. Plus the pesky Kings and defending champion Ducks. Certainly nothing easy about the upcoming schedule.

While the Avs are going Back To The Future, Doc Brown and Marty McFly also might want to make a visit to the Joe Louis Arena where the Wings will be welcoming back the comebacking Darren McCarty.

The 35 year-old former member of The Grind Line will get a second chance at the NHL after a battle with alcohol and drugs which left him bankrupt. The Wings gave him a tryout with the AHL’s Grand Rapids and IHL’s Flint Generals.

With the team struggling lately having dropped seven of eight due to a ton of injuries which has kept out Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek, Chris Chelios, Dan Cleary and Niklas Kronwall, Detroit GM Ken Holland decided his club needed to do something despite continuing to lead the league with 89 points (six more than red hot Dallas).

They’ll hope the gritty and physical McCarty still has something left to reenergize the Original Six club who he once helped win three Cups with in 1997-98 and 2002.

At the very least, it should be intriguing to see how he fares. Wishing him the best of luck and hoping he makes the most out of this opportunity.

Boyle re-ups with Lightning: With the 3 PM deadline approaching, Tampa Bay and much coveted defenseman Dan Boyle decided they wanted to remain together. The Bolts and Boyle agreed to a brand new six-year contract extension worth a reported $40 million.

The 31 year-old has three goals and eight assists for 11 points in 17 games this season. During his nine-year NHL career with Florida and Tampa, the Ottawa native has tallied 76 goals and 203 assists for 278 points in 503 games.

Most of that production has come with the Bolts. In 374 games since GM Jay Feaster acquired him six years prior, Boyle has totaled 239 points (65-174-239). That kind of reliable production was a big part of the franchise’s only championship in 2004.

He’ll be continuing to run the power play and log big minutes instead of being dealt elsewhere.

Prospal To Flyers: The same day, Feaster also unloaded forward Vaclav Prospal to the Flyers in exchange for defenseman Alexandre Picard and a conditional 2009 draft pick.

The recently turned 33 year-old Prospal returns to where he began his NHL career a decade ago. After stints with Ottawa, Florida, Tampa, Anaheim and again Tampa, he’s come full circle and will try to help the depleted Flyers make the playoffs.

After a disappointing 2006-07 in which he scored just 14 goals and 55 points with a dreadful minus-24 rating, the veteran Czech has bounced back with a strong season notching 29 goals, 28 helpers for 57 points in 62 contests with the Bolts.

With the Flyers’ best forward Mike Richards sidelined due to a torn hamstring, GM Paul Holmgren needed to do something to upgrade his roster. This is a solid addition.

Jackman re-signed: The St. Louis Blues also made some news yesterday re-signing defenseman Barret Jackman to a four-year extension. The 26 year-old injury prone physical defenseman was thought to be on the block but instead St. Louis Team President John Davidson opted to retain him.

Following a solid 2006-07 in which he attained career highs in assists (24) and points (27) as well as got into his most games (70) since his rookie season, the British Columbia native has struggled. In 58 contests, he’s 2-6-8 with 63 penalty minutes and a minus-12 rating.

One Blogger’s Reaction: With Boyle and Jackman staying put, the defensemen to look for who could get moved later today are Buffalo’s Brian Campbell, Toronto’s Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle along with LA’s Rob Blake.

We’ll have more on the deadline at some point today as I’ll be quite busy. Hope our other bloggers contribute to what should be a fun day!

It was a great afternoon for the Devils. In particular, All-Star netminder Marty Brodeur, whose 37 saves were the difference in a 2-1 overtime triumph over the Caps at Verizon Center.

With his team outshot 28-10 and outchanced by plenty through 40 minutes, the three-time Vezina and Cup winner stood on his head robbing Alexander Ovechkin and other Capitals including Alexander Semin and rookie Nicklas Backstrom point blank to keep the game scoreless.

The Devils finally came with a better effort in the third and were rewarded with the game’s first goal when team captain Jamie Langenbrunner converted on a 5-on-3 power play just 39 seconds in for his 11th. Paul Martin and Patrik Elias notched assists.

However, the Caps finally found a way to beat Brodeur when Semin took an Ovechkin feed and went to the backhand for his 19th just 1:53 later to tie it.

If the Capitals were the superior team in the first two stanzas, then the same couldn’t be said for the final 20 of regulation as the Devils got plenty of shots (18-10) and chances on Washington backup Brent Johnson. The former Blue was up to the task much like his counterpart earning his team a valuable point to get within five of the first place Hurricanes.

In OT, it would be mostly Washington as Ovechkin tried to stickhandle through every Devil. He also setup one quality opportunity for top defenseman Mike Green but a terrific pokecheck by Brodeur thwarted his backhand deke attempt keeping the extra session going.

Remarkably despite the Caps dictating the play, they got no total shots on Marty in the OT while the Devs finished with three including the winner.

Off a two-on-three, John Madden wouldn’t give up the puck forcing a sharp angle shot on Johnson which rebounded out to Elias. The crafty left wing patiently waited before firing a shot off the post. A hustling Madden then slipped Shaone Morrisonn’s check and backhanded one thru Johnson’s five-hole for the winner sending FSNY basketcase announcer Mike Emrick into a screech of epic proportions.

Doc’s a great play-by-play man but he sounded like an annoying child there. It was a great win for the Devils nonetheless and allowed them to grab the conference’s top spot by a point over the idle Sens. According to the FSNY production truck team of Roland Dratch and Larry Gaines, it’s the first time they’ve led the East at this point in seven years.

I’m not really sure what the significance is. Their team always wins the division and usually finishes at or near the top of the conference.

As a former researcher though, production teams love those kind of stats. So, it stands to reason why they used it.

Meanwhile, the Pens and Sharks needed a shootout to decide the winner. In it, all three San Jose shooters easily beat frustrated Pittsburgh netminder Ty Conklin. The best part had to be when Jarkko Ruutu slowly walked in before somehow going to the right hand to put the puck upstairs on Nabokov. For a guy who gets underneath the skin of opponents, he has some skill to go with it as I’ve never seen him miss in a shootout. No wonder Michel Therrien selected him over NHL leading scorer Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora.

It was all for naught as veteran pivot Jeremy Roenick made it three-for-three in the skills competition by easily picking the five-hole on Conklin to give the Sharks their second consecutive win of what’s been a very tough Eastern road trip.

For the Devs, it meant they now lead the Pens by two points with each team having 19 games to go.

If the video of Brodeur’s big game comes out, we’ll be sure to put it up.

The Rangers aim for their second straight win as they host the Panthers now. Lenny did a quick preview. To any normal puck fan who read my drunken post last night, I apologize.

To the loser who posted under Anonymous because they have something stuck up their ass and have never made a mistake in their pathetic life, go to Hell! Anyone who can’t put their name behind something is spineless and obviously doesn’t have a lot going for them.


Enjoy the games people! See ya later.

Unfortunately, due to extensive amounts of work, this post is a little on the rushed side. Sorry for that.

– Marcel Hossa has been recalled for tonight’s game and will skate on the fourth line along side Blair Betts and Ryan Hollweg. Colton Orr sustained an “upper body” injury last night, yet no one knows how or when it occurred. Hopefully he’s not out too long as he provides some much needed grit and grind to the game.

– Paul Mara is out tonight with a head injury. It may not be a concussion, but it may be broken facial bones. Neither is good news, so bringing in a defenseman over the next two days may be imminent. Jason Strudwick plays in his place tonight.

– Glen Sather said that Jaromir Jagr is going nowhere. He is focusing his efforts on resigning both Jagr and Sean Avery, which is good news for both of them. If Jagr sticks around, Marty Straka may hang around as well next year.

– Henrik Lundqvist will again get the start in net. Renney was happy with how he looked yesterday and hopes he can continue to be impressive tonight.

Enjoy the game. I’ll check in later or tomorrow.

With a lot of hockey taking place this weekend, I figured I’d bring back my total randomness and give you a little insight. So, here goes:

1.Some HNIC announcer pointed out that Detroit doesn’t have much offensive depth up front outside of Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Holmstrom. Well, you don’t say. It’s much easier to conclude that when Lidstrom, Rafalski, Chelios, Hasek, Cleary and Kronwall are out. How many teams can play good hockey when so many key contributors are out including Detroit’s best player? There’s no doubt that they could use a little more toughness up front. Maybe Darren McCarty’s comeback pans out. You sure hope so.

2.How bad is the Devils radio cast? It’s already sad enough that they have the worst announcers in the overmatched Matt Loughlin and Sherry Ross but they were just about to go to commercial and screwed up. God. How can a successful franchise that’s won three Cups and produced such great players like Brodeur, Parise, Elias, etc. have such an awful radio broadcast?

It was a much better listen when John Hennessy and Randy Velischek were calling games. Sure. Velischek accentuated the positives but he was a decent analyst and Hennessy was a real play-by-play man. Isn’t it about time the Devils scrap this failed experiment? Loughlin’s a solid studio host where he worked extremely well with Stan Fischler in the infamous Matt & The Maven segment which always were a blast. Ross is a much better hockey writer for the Daily News than color commentator.

3.For NBC to be airing golf today instead of hockey is a joke. The network’s done an admirable job in its third season covering the sport. The team of Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire is a big improvement. They’re really good and not afraid to pull punches. However, with the trade deadline looming, you’d think the NHL’s network TV station would have some games on. It’s disappointing.

4.Coach of the year candidate: Barry Trotz, Nashville. This guy is just a phenomenal coach. He loses his No.1 goalie along with arguably his best defenseman because of the franchise’s uncertainty and still has this team in the playoffs if the season ended today. Oh. He still has good players. J.P. Dumont has been terrific and Alexander Radulov is an emerging star. Jason Arnott has assumed the leadership role and played very well. His best hockey since he helped the Devils win their second Cup. Still, with Chris Mason and Dan Ellis sharing the No.1 goalie duties and an alright blueline which has seen Shea Weber miss a lot of time and no Steve Sullivan up front, this team is overachieving. Trotz really deserves a lot of credit. Especially if they get in in an extremely tough West.

5.Say this for the Kings. They might not be making the playoffs this year but they sure boast an exciting crop of young forwards which will make them an improved team for the future. If Jonathan Bernier develops into the top netminder the franchise expects, they’ll be much better. Patrick O’Sullivan has joined a talented roster which features Anze Kopitar, Alexander Frolov, Michael Cammalleri and Dustin Brown. Jack Johnson will get better on the blueline. He made a great hustle play yesterday to allow his team to rally from four down to force OT before falling on Patrick Sharp’s rebound goal.

6.Did anyone have Sharp leading the Hawks with 29 goals including an NHL best seven shorthanded?

7.Brodeur’s stoning the Caps here. He’s made at least four great saves including a big one on league leading finisher Alexander Ovechkin.

8.Do the Canucks have enough scoring to make the playoffs let alone go far? Mats Sundin sure would look good playing alongside countrymen Markus Naslund, the Sedins and Mattias Ohlund.

9.Where will Marian Hossa land?

10.He won’t get much recognition but Rick DiPietro has been extremely valuable to the Islanders. The stats say otherwise but anyone who watches that depleted team as they grind their way to stay in this race knows better. How about nominating him for the Vezina alongside Brodeur and Roberto Luongo? It won’t happen.

11.I’ve been pushing him for a while but Andrei Markov needs to be up for the Norris even if it’s going to Lidstrom.

12.Hidden superstar: Ryan Getzlaf. If you see any of the Ducks, then you know why. He just does it all. The definition of a power forward who makes teammates better and strikes fear into the opposition.

13.How are the Canes still winning without Rod Brind’Amour and Justin Williams? Plus they unloaded Cory Stillman and key cog Mike Commodore to the Sens. That’s a great coaching job by Peter Laviolette.

14.Paul Martin won’t be up for the Norris but he’s having his best season and really means so much to the Devils’ success. A very solid skater who’s extremely smart in his end. Now he’s finally jumping into the play and finding offense.

15.When Jaromir Jagr decides to play, he’s still pretty tough to stop. Too bad his confidence in his ability to score is shot.

16.Who would you rather have? Daniel Briere or Derek Roy? Looks like the Sabres made the right choice.

17.Underrated defenseman: Meet Mike Green. Don’t let him wind up or you could pay the price.

18.Jonathan Toews has really raised his level since returning to the Hawks.

19.How does Radim Vrbata have 27 goals in The Desert?!?!?!?!?!

20.Wayne Gretzky’s done an unbelievable job with the ‘Yotes. Remember when they were a laughingstock? Not anymore.

21.The Sharks still don’t look like they have enough scoring to win more than a round.