Off Wing Opinion

In Raleigh, the Bruins edged the Hurricanes, 3-2, breaking a first place tie in the Northeast Division with the Maple Leafs. The Bruins trail Tampa Bay by three points for the Eastern Conference lead,as Boston has three games remaining with one in hand. With a 5-0 victory at home over the woeful Rangers, the Devils pulled themselves into a first place tie with Philly in the Atlantic Division. Steve Ovadia thinks the Flyers are just out of gas.

In St. Louis, the Blues dealt a nasty blow to the plyoff hopes of the Edmonton Oilers, dispatching the heroic Oilers 1-0. Doug Weight scored the game's only goal for St. Louis in the first period. Meanwhile in Nashville, the Predators crushed the Blackhawks, 5-2.

With only two games remaining on the schedule, Edmonton is tied with Nashville at 87 points for the eighth and final playoff spot, though the Predators have a game in hand and own the tiebreaker based on wins. St. Louis, also with three games remaining, is in seventh with 89 points.

And in also-ran news, the Capitals helped the Penguins get that much closer to drafting Alexander Ovechkin by dealing Pittsburgh a 4-2 loss in the capital of the free world. Trent Whitfield scored twice for Washington, while minor league re-tread Matt Yeats got the first win of his NHL career, posting 27 saves.

It was first mentioned as an aside in the Los Angeles Times' TV-Radio column (registration required), and confirmed at the close of the latest ESPN.com column by John Buccigross: this season will be the last for ESPN 2's NHL2Night highlights show.

For hockey fans here in the States, NHL2Night was a lifeline -- the only indication that anyone in sports television cared about the NHL at all. For the most part banished to the hours well past Midnight, NHL2Night was where we first encountered the twisted humor of Kenny Mayne, the straight-ahead delivery of Bill Pidto, and finally, the appealing combination of alternative rock, pop culture, and passion for the game demonstrated by the aforementioned Buccigross.

A few days ago, Colby Cosh called Buccigross "the most entertaining hockey writer in English," but there's a whole lot more to it. On NHL2Night, Buccigross was not only the perfect foil to Barry Melrose, but also proved to be infinitely patient as he helped break in a number of new broadcast partners -- E.J. Hradek, Ray Ferraro, and Darren Pang (along with Harold Reynolds, an object lesson in how ESPN can turn an ex-jock into a superior broadcaster).

It's a shame Buccigross didn't connect with a larger audience. More often than not, he came off to me as somebody who could have lived down the hall from me in my dorm at college -- spinning alt-rock in the wee hours of the morning one second, and then completely absorbed in an argument about the future of North America's greatest game.

To be sure, ESPN will probably find something else for Buccigross to do -- he's simply too talented for it to be any other way. If you don't agree, then you probably won't understand why I'm crushed that Bruce Driver never wore #8 in his illustrious career either.

POSTSCRIPT: One last thought: if the NHL highlight show is disappearing from ESPN2, the news can't possibly be good for the rest of the NHL's relationship with ABC/ESPN. Looks like they won't be renewing that contract.

Ken Dryden had a long piece in Sunday's Toronto Globe and Mail concerning the state of the game. He covered a lot of familiar ground, especially for those of us who saw his interview a couple of week's back on Hockey Night In Canada's Satellite Hot Stove, but there is plenty more worth pointing out:

"Finishing your check" is so familiar a phrase it seems it must have been part of the original game. It wasn't. It means, as a checker, going after the puck carrier so that even if he makes a pass, you keep going and run into him, too late to stop the pass, but not too late to stop him from continuing up the ice with the play. This is allowed. Indeed, it's a strategy coaches insist upon. Yet if a player is hit before a pass gets to him, this is interference, and everyone agrees. Worse, "finishing your check" rewards the player who is too slow to reach the puck carrier in time, and penalizes the puck carrier who is quick enough to make the pass ahead of the checker...

We need to see hits from behind and hits to the head for what they really are. We need to see finishing a check for what it really is. These and other plays are not traditions of the game worthy of protection. They have brought danger to the game. They have hurt the game.

This is hockey. Until somebody changes it.

Dryden finishes the piece with another call to fundamentally alter the way the game is played -- much in the same way it was changed when it allowed the forward pass and cut the number of skaters on the ice from six to five.

I dropped a note to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban this morning to ask him what he thought of the NHL's labor woes, and he took the time to send me a response:

i actually think the NHL has a GREAT opportunity to fix their salary problems and use that as a catalyst to lower seat prices at arenas..

A whole lot of good can come of this

thanks,

M

Something to think about. Thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer my question.

In Tampa, the Lightning and the Senators played a wild third period where they combined to score six goals -- but in the end it was the Senators who prevailed, 5-4 in OT on a goal by defenseman Chris Phillips. Meanwhile, in Toronto*, the Maple Leafs beat the Thrashers, 4-2, pulling them into a tie for first place in the Northeast Division with idle Boston, with the Senators only one point behind Toronto. The Leafs got some bad news earlier in the day, when it was learned that they would lose winger Owen Nolan for three weeks after a knee injury he suffered over the weekend.

(Off the ice, the league has approved the sale of the Thrashers to a group of investors led by Steve Belkin.)

With three games to go, the Buffalo Sabres have three points to make up if they want to catch the New York Islanders for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Last night, the Sabres just did what they had to do, waxing Columbus 6-0, as Dmitri Kalinin scored twice.

Ask yourself this question: who would you rather be this morning, Sabres GM Darcy Reiger or Islanders GM Mike Milbury? Something tells me that Reiger, who recently had his contract renewed by Sabres owner Thomas Golisano, is sleeping much more soundly these days.

Heck, I grew up as an Islanders fan, and now I'm even rooting for the Sabres.

Out West, Detroit dispatched Minnesota, 5-4, but the real news came up in the booth courtesy of ESPN's Darren Pang. During the game, Pang reported that Wild goaltending coach Bob Mason, a former roommate of Pang's during their playing days with the Blackhawks, had analyzed the play of Wings goalie Manny Legace and found that the popular backup has trouble covering his five hole. The result -- two goals by Wild winger Alexander Daigle. If I were a Wings fan, I'd start hoping that Curtis Joseph starts healing up fast.

In Denver, the Avalanche beat Los Angeles 2-1 on Teemu Selanne's third period goal, his first in 20 games. The win broke a six-game winless skid for Colorado, the longest in franchise history. The loss also officially eliminated the Kings from the playoff race. The Kings are mired in their longest losing streak (0-7-0-1) since the 1983-84 season.

Steve Moore of the Avalanche made his first public appearance since he was attacked by Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi during a game in Vancouver on March 8th. Moore, who says he still doesn't know whether or not he'll ever play hockey again, was given a standing ovation when it was announced he was in attendance at last night's game.

Back in Vancouver, the Canucks beat Phoenix 6-1, to stay just one point behind Colorado for first place in the Northwest Division, and third place in the Western Conference. Markus Naslund scored his first goal in 11 games for the Canucks, and Dan Cloutier recorded his 30th victory of the season.

And in also-ran news, Florida defeated Carolina 3-1. Roberto Luongo had 28 saves for las Panteras.

In other off-ice news, doctors have cleared Dallas Stars defenseman Teppo Numminen to return to the ice after concerns about a heart condition led them to sideline him last week. With North Dakota knocked out of the NCAA hockey tourney, Zach Parise was free to sign a contract with the New Jersey Devils, forfeiting his final two years of college eligibility. Parise, who will join U.S. college hockey alumni like Brian Rolston*, Scott Gomez, and Brian Gionta, ought to fit easily into the lineup in New Jersey. The Devils also announced, that team captain Scott Stevens, who suffered a concussion that's kept him out of the lineup most of the second half of the season, is still not ready to return to the ice.

CORRECTION: Boy, this is definitely not my day.

Thanks to the Hockey Ninja for pointing out that Rolston no longer plays for the Devils. And thanks to John at Rutgers for reminding me that Gomez never played college hockey, but instead played two years with the Tri-City Americans in the WHL. Thanks for the heads up, but my larger point of the Devils and Lou Lamiariello making a point of drafting American college players still holds.

Oh, and the Leafs-Thrashers game was in Toronto, not Atlanta. I need to get more sleep.

Colby Cosh was feeling guilty about subjecting his regular readership to his hockey musings, so he decided to revive his playoff page. Of course, this means the Hockey Gods will exact their revenge by keeping Edmonton out of the playoffs in favor of Nashville.

Like most serious Rangers fans, Hockeybird has wanted Mark Messier off MSG ice since the start of the season. This past weekend, his dastardly plan of embarassing Messier into retirement was put into motion. All I can ask is this: can Webster be next? Meanwhile, the Rodent is focussed firmly on the future, wondering if and when the Blueshirts will ever sign R.J. Umberger.

Check out On The Wings for a delightfully maniacal pic of Detroit defenseman Jiri Fischer (be sure to page down to find it).

Meanwhile, out in Vancouver, Tom Benjamin is taking on Brett Hull, while Jeff and Allanah are confronting USA Today's Kevin Allen:

7. The majority of players in the NHL are still Canadian, and there is tremendous pride in their country's hockey heritage.

[Yes, and some Canadians are known to enjoy the occasional hockey game, too. What's up with that?]

Indeed, what is up with that? Back East in Rhode Island, Joe Tasca has just posted an interview with Tampa Bay Lightning play-by-play announcer, Rick Peckham:

JC over at Old Fishinghat has started a baseball only blog, Sabernomics. Be sure to check it out.

If the New York Islanders make the playoffs this year, they ought to send a check for a playoff share to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Why? Because with a chance to clinch the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with a two-won weekend over Carolina and New Jersey (admittedly not a simple task), the Islanders bonked again, dropping both games (3-1 to Carolina and 3-2 to Jersey).

Luckily for the Islanders, the recently revived Penguins stormed back at home from two goals down to tie Buffalo, 2-2. After settling for the tie, Buffalo sits five points in back of New York with four games to go and a game in hand.

In Newsday Islanders beat writer Alan Hahn lays the blame for the team's recent blahs on the poor performance of the team's power play. But in the same article, there was this report, which ought to give Isles GM Mike Milbury some pause:

Former Islanders coach Peter Laviolette earned a win in his first game back at the Coliseum since he was fired last June. Early in the game, the center-ice scoreboard showed him on the JumboTron with the message, "Thank You, Peter," which drew applause from the sellout crowd.

"That was really special," he said. "It was really nice to hear the fans like that."

Looks like the fans don't blame Laviolette for whatever ailed the team last season. Instead, Milbury ought to take that reaction as a signal that he's finally going to be held accountable for the team's performance after this season. And if their recent play is any indicator, the outcome won't be positive for Milbury.

Out West, what was a four-team scrum for the last two playoff spots is now down to three, as Los Angeles has faded from contention. Edmonton, by contrast, has played heroically, defeating the aforementioned Kings 3-1 at the Pharmacy on Friday night, and then downing the Coyotes 4-2 on Sunday.

St. Louis took advantage of a two-game series with woeful Chicago, posting back-to-back 4-3 and 3-1 victories on Saturday and Sunday. Combined with a 3-2 Nashville loss on Saturday to Columbus, St Louis and Edmonton are tied in seventh with 87 points, while Nashville sits alone in ninth with 85 points. St. Louis and Nashville have four games each remaining, while Edomonton has three.

In St. Louis, today marks the first anniversary of Chris Pronger's return to the ice after a wrist injury many thought might end his career. But when it comes to the Blues' near-term success, much of it is being attributed to the acquisition of winger Mike Sillinger:

After the trade on March 4, Sillinger swept into a Blues dressing room that was cranky and emotionally raw because of prolonged stretches of winless hockey. But the position the Blues were in exhilarated him. He hadn't sniffed the playoffs in years.

In the trade he went from Phoenix to pulling a phoenix.

He played 21 minutes, 43 seconds in his first game as a Blue - a season high - and had two assists, his first assists in 18 games. The Blues have continued to use him everywhere, to the tune of 20:10 in ice time a game.

He feels rejuvenated.

Edmonton plays St. Louis tomorrow night.

The latest from Pope John Paul II:

Pope John Paul on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.

"When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens," the pontiff said in a speech to Australian bishops.

Wonder if this means giving up my Ravens tickets?

At 1:00 p.m. today, the king of "Old Guy Radio," Tony Kornheiser, will step from behind the microphone at ESPN Radio for the last time. His departure has been the cause of much anguish, both on the part of sportswriters (after all, Kornheiser is one of their own), as well as a few of my buddies in the blogosphere, Steve MacLaughlin in particular. The sentiment seems pretty universal -- without Kornheiser, there simply isn't anyone worth listening to on the radio anymore:

Tony Kornheiser has my utmost respect for going out on top and on his own terms rather than be pushed around by "management" or dissed by laughable local programming. I'm sure he's questioned his decision to walk away for a while, but I know he won't be gone a moment longer than the lawyers say he has to be. When Mr. Tony returns to radio in about a year in the D.C. market there will be a whole band of loyal listeners clamoring to tune-in. We're going to have so many things to catch up on.

Then again, it isn't as if Kornheiser is going anywhere. You'll still find him in the pages of the Washington Post, as well as on Pardon The Interruption with his buddy Michael Wilbon. And there's that sitcom with Jason Alexander on CBS that we've heard so much about too. He's still a judge on ESPN's Dream Job, a show that will come back to haunt us again, and again, if the ratings are to be believed.

But I will miss the theme to "Tony's Mailbag." If anyone can find a link to an audio file, let me know.

The Tampa Bay Lightning went over 100 points for the first time in franchise history after defeating the New Jersey Devils, 2-1. The win completed a season sweep of the Stanley Cup Champions for Tampa Bay, who now have a three point lead on Philly atop the Eastern Conference.

Out in Denver, the Red Wings tightened their grip on first place in the Western Conference with a 3-1 win over Colorado. Manny Legace, who may just have to be the starting goalie in the playoffs for Detroit, had 34 saves, as the Red Wings pulled seven points ahead of Colorado. The Avalanche, still waiting on several players to return from injury, are winless in their last five games. In the race for the President's Trophy for best record in the regular season, Detroit and Tampa Bay are tied with 101 points.

With the Colorado loss, San Jose slipped into second place in the Western Conference after beating Calgary, 3-2. In St. Louis, the Blues downed Anaheim, 3-2, and moved into an tie for eighth in the West with Edmonton. By dint of the tiebreaker, if the season ended today, St. Louis would go to the playoffs. In New York, Nashville stayed ahead of St. Louis with a 4-2 win over the Rangers, and sit in seventh place with 84 points.

Back East, the race is staying interesting from top to bottom. In Boston, the Maple Leafs pulled to within one point of Boston after a 3-0 shutout of the Bruins. Ed Belfour got the shutout for Toronto, his eighth of the season, while the loss marked a team record eighth time Boston has been blanked this year. Hot on both their heels is Ottawa, who downed Montreal 4-0 at the Bell Centre.

And in the feel good story of the night, minor league goalie Wade Dublelewicz helped lead the Islanders to a relatively improbable 4-2 victory over the Flyers. Forced to play after starter Garth Snow left the game following a groin injury in the first period, Dublelewicz made 14 saves the rest of the way without yielding a goal. The win pulled the islanders eight points clear of Buffalo in ninth place, and suddenly trail seventh place Montreal by just four points.

In also-ran news, Carolina beat Florida, 3-2, while Minnesota thumped Chicago, 8-2. Alexandre Daigle, who is Minnesota's candidate for the Masterson Trophy, scored twice.

After a Florida vacation, John Buccigross is back, and funnier than ever:

Shjon Podein is back from Sweden. From his home in Minnesota he sent me two things: an autographed Swedish hockey card of Hakan Loob and a personalized autographed postcard of his Loobness. Shjon obviously told Loob what to sign on his message to me, but something got lost in the translation. It says, "To John! You had me and hello."

Read the rest, it's well worth your while. As an aside, I'll always remember Loob as an absolute killer in Strat-o-matic hockey.

A few days back, David Elfin of the Washington Times got to interview Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, and made sure he asked a question about my favorite topic -- namely, how does Caps GM George McPhee manage to keep his job?

TWT: You inherited George McPhee. He has fired two hand-picked coaches and hasn't won a playoff series in six years. Why isn't his job in jeopardy?

TL: The same people saying George should be fired said we should fire Ron Wilson two years ago. We did, and now his team [San Jose], which went through the same kind of rebuilding last year, is pushing Colorado out West.

During George's first two years after we bought the team, we had one of the top two or three ratios of wins per payroll. Then came the trade for Jagr. That was pivotal. We changed our style of play and our philosophy.

Peter wasn't happy, but we kept him with a new contract. We gave Olie a long-term contract. We brought in Lang [Jagr's former Penguins teammate was signed as a free agent in 2002] to make Jaromir feel more comfortable.

Mark Cuban just did an interview with Ron Higgins of the Memphis Appeal, and he liked his questions so much, he posted them on his own blog (something Higgins' editors at the Appeal must find puzzling). And once again, the topic turns to officiating:

> 4. Does the league need to be more publicly accoutable for its officiating, such as being available after games to the media or

The road to the Frozen Four begins this weekend, with the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. To start, all eyes are on Minnesota (the top seed in the Midwest), shooting to become just the first team to win three titles in a row since Michigan back in the 1950s.

Click here for the television schedule, but unless you live in one of America's college hockey hotbeds, you might have a hard time catching any of the action outside of the Final Four, which will air live on ESPN the weekend of April 8th.

Over at ESPN.com, their panel says North Dakota is the favorite. Also be sure to check in on Inside College Hockey for more in depth coverage. As for me, a one-time resident of Minnesota, go Golden Gophers!

Ever since the Todd Bertuzzi incident earlier this month, Colby Cosh has been on a roll ice hockey-wise, and the last two days have been no exception. Yesterday he posted on Edmonton's late-season drive for the playoffs -- something that's become an annual occurence. But he really hit his stride today, taking aim at Hall Of Famer and Canadian Citizen-At-Large, Ken Dryden, and his recent comments about violence in the game:

For myself, the issue is not that I prefer old-time hockey, but that people like [National Post columnist Mark] Spector don't like the game as it's played now pretend to be unaware (to give them the benefit of the doubt) that "old-time hockey" was a million times more brutal and bloody than the product we see now. Ken Dryden was playing for Team Canada behind Bobby Clarke when he destroyed Valeri Kharlamov, and had a front-row seat for the worst excesses of the Broad Street Bullies. And now he tells us that the game is in danger of becoming "an extreme sport"? And editors and writers take it seriously? Why?

Is it perhaps also appropriate to point out that Dryden is still Vice Chairman of the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that's become known as the "Maple Thugs" over the past several seasons? If anything, whenever I see Dryden interviewed on Canadian television, it almost seems as if he's morphed into a Northern version of PBS' Bill Moyers -- a figure that's been shown far too much deference for his, and our own good.

The Buffalo Sabres are not going down without a fight, as they pulled within six points of the New York Islanders for eighth place in the Eastern Conference after a 2-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Both Buffalo and New York have six games remaining.

Out in Phoenix, Jarome Iginla scored his 39th goal, tying him for the league lead with Rick Nash of Columbus, as Calgary beat Phoenix 4-0. The Flames have pretty much locked down sixth place, but couldn't make up any ground on the teams in front of them, as both Dallas and Vancouver both posted victories. In Edmonton, a Bill Guerin OT goal gave Dallas a 4-3 win, but it was Brendan Morrow who was the hero in regulation as he scored inside the final minute to tie the game at 3.

Meanwhile in LA, the Canucks ended a five-game winless skid with a 1-0 shutout of the Kings. It was only the second win for Vancouver since Todd Bertuzzi was suspended earlier this month for the attack on Colorado Avalanche forward Steven Moore. Matt Cooke scored the lone goal for Vancouver, while an ailing Dan Cloutier got the shutout.

And in also-ran news, Columbus beat Minnesota 2-0, and Atlanta beat Washington, 3-2. The loss officially knocked Washington out of the playoff race, but they were unofficially eliminated before the start of the season when the team neglected to spend the money to retain the services of Ken Klee and Calle Johansson, now both manning the blue line in Toronto.

Skip Sauer at The Sports Economist passed along a story about the NHL that's been forgotten simply because it wasn't capture on videotape. Then, the attacker was Wilf Paiement. The victim, a young Detroit Red Wings player named Dennis Polonich.

On Oct. 25, 1978, at Olympia, Polonich was killing a penalty when he cleared the puck with a high backhand that clipped Colorado Rockies star Wilf Paiement. Although the incident wasn't caught by TV cameras, witnesses said what happened next was brutal.

Ted Lindsay, then the Wings' general manager, had a seat in the balcony for the game.

"Paiement planted his feet, and with both hands at the bottom of his stick, took a full baseball batter's swing, striking Dennis in the face," Lindsay said. "If it had been a little bit higher, he could have been killed."

Polonich was taken to Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, where he was treated for several days with a shattered nose, facial fracture and cuts. Paiement was thrown out of the game and escorted out of Olympia. (He served a 15-game suspension and was fined $500.)

Polonich, who now lives with his wife in Calgary, would eventually win an $850,000 damage award from the Rockies and Paiement. Had something like this happened today, Paiement would undoubtedly have been exiled from the game permanently.

Has any player in the NHL snuck up on us quite the way Jonathan Cheechoo has the past couple of weeks? Cheechoo scored twice against the Red Wings last night in San Jose's 5-2 win over the Western Conference leaders (he now has 27 on the year), and even drew the attention of Don Cherry during the Coach's Corner segment of Hockey Night in Canada last Saturday.