This whole Kovalchuk thing is getting ugly. A few weeks ago I reported on here that Kovalchuk had signed with New Jersey only for that report that I had taken to be close to fact, to turn out to be nonsense. Kovalchuk was still pimping himself out to Los Angeles as well as New Jersey to see which city on either side of the country would give him the best deal. Either that or he was just taking his time to see whether the water was warmer in the Atlantic or over in the Pacific.

Read More»

So after live blogging throughout the 1 July on the NHL free agency in what turned out to be a very busy day but also in the hope of breaking live where one of the biggest names in NHL free-agency history, Ilya Kovalchuk ended up we had to wait five full days for the Russian to make up his mind. Lucky I wasn’t patient enough to live blog until then for I’d be out of a job by now if I did sit waiting. According to reports yesterday the Russian sniper second only to Alexander Ovechkin in goals since the lockout signed a seven-year, $60 million contract with the New Jersey Devils were he finished last season after a trade deadline deal from Atlanta on 4 February 2010.

Read More»

Disaster time for all Flyers fans. News broke tonight that both Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne are out for the rest of the season and therefore a huge hole is created in the Flyers lineup going forward. Leading New Jersey 3-1 in their best of seven series the Flyers should still have the ability to close this series out but with what is looking more and more likely a second round game against Washington coming up the Flyers could have done with a full compliment of players to even stood a chance. Somehow the team is going to have to dig deeper than ever before, rally around one another and hope for a bunch of luck if they are indeed to get past the Capitals in the second round. Of course, that is if they close out their series with the Devils. A 3-1 lead is usually a foot in the next round but Flyers fans with long memories will think back to the 2000 playoffs when the Flyers lead 3-1 against the Devils after four games only to blow their lead and then get eliminated in the seventh game. Those playoffs were also the beginning of the end of the Eric Lindros era at Philadelphia. Here is hoping there is no kind of repeat this time around even without Gagne and Carter.

Now I wasn’t expecting that one. New Jersey were not one of the teams a lot of the rumor mongering types were putting on their shortlist of team that would trade for Kovalchuk but last night good ‘ol Lou Lamarello came up with the goods to grab one of the games top snipers. The Devils are defensive first team and have been for years, but they once traded for Russian Alex Mogilny a number of years back and he won a cup with them so no reason this cannot work again by getting Kovalchuk.

To get Kovalchuk the Devils parted with John Oduya, Nic Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier (the kid suspended for the rest of the year in the QMJHL for a dirty elbow just a few weeks ago) and a 1st round draft pick.

While the Devils were already a contender, this really puts them in a good position to go all the way. Whether he stays on there past this season remains to be seen but I think this is worth the risk by NJ.

For what its worth, Kovalchuk never really meant what he said by saying he wanted to stay in Atlanta if the deal was right, he supposedly turned down a 12 year $101-million contract and if you turn that down either your incredibly greedy or you never wanted to stay at all … I think its the later because he may be greedy but he isn’t stupid and he’ll do well to better 12 years at $101-million anywhere in the summer. Kovalchuk clearly wanted to save face with the fans and didn’t want to come out and verbally say that he wanted to leave.

I think Atlanta were hoping for more but when a player this good is only potentially going to be a short term rental there is only so much a team will pay. If he’d been upfront with them earlier in the year they could have got more for him earlier in the season, perhaps even late last year when they’d have got a ton in return.

Teams need to learn that if you take your stars into the final year of their contracts without a renewal you run the serious risk of losing them for little return. I don’t know what some GM’s think but if it were me I’d be making sure to lock up my stars at least 15 months prior to their contract expiring and if I couldn’t then I’d look to deal early when I could get maximum return.

Well tonight was the night that everyone had their eyes on the Leafs/Devils game to see how Brian Burke’s big shakeup of the roster would begin to play out. And if you were to judge on one night only you’d have to score it 10 out of 10 though maybe that is a bad thing for the Leafs because now the fans will truly believe the corner has been turned and this is the start of many big wins. Could it be? Well the Leafs could well improve to a point but this won’t suddenly make them a top team in the NHL over night, there is still work to do and tonight they came up against a very sub par Devils teams. But I shouldn’t be all harsh, the Leafs did all they could and got service from all three new players straight away to shut out the Devils 3-0.

New boy Dion Phaneuf, the one everyone was looking at played a strong game. He had hits, he had shots and he even dropped the gloves in a decent scrap. Playing slightly under his shadow, which is rare when a Stanley Cup winning goalie comes to Toronto was JS Giguere but he was perhaps the best player of all on the ice turning away 29 shots to pick up his first shutout as a Leaf … the last man to pick up a shutout for the Leafs on his debut was Eddie Belfour. And last but not least was Ferdrick Sjostrom who grabbed an assist on the Leafs first goal and featured all night long on their penalty killing unit.

So there you have it, the deal after one game is a success story and everyone is content. How it’ll look in ten games time is anyone’s guess but while I don’t think it’ll make them a brilliant team just yet, it looks like it might be a step in the right direction. If anything Phaneuf looks like he’ll be fun to watch.

Yesterday evening Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils got a shutout. ‘No big deal … a good performance, but they happen,’ you say? This was no ordinary one. This was his 104th of his career meaning he now stands alone with the most shutouts of any goalie in the history of the NHL. And to put this in context, the record, previously held by Terry Sawchuk, was 39-years old. He also broke the record against the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brodeur now holds nearly ever major goaltending record in the NHL and must surely move to the top of all lists when he comes to asking who the greatest goalie of all time was. Some still maintain it was Patrick Roy and it is is a fair shout, but Brodeur has had quite the career and at 37-years of age he doesn’t seem intent on letting up anytime soon … and why would he, for he is currently enjoying one of the best season in his 16-year NHL career. He leads all goalies in victories (23), is tied for third in shutouts (three) and boasts a 2.10 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. He is also set to be named the starting goalie for Team Canada for the 2010 Olympic games team in Vancouver.

What a way to close the first round of playoff games. Last night was gripping hockey at its very best. Two Eastern Conference match-ups went into game seven and while neither required overtime they both went right down to the wire. The New York Rangers managed to keep Alex Ovechkin quiet but it was the veteran Sergei Federov who rolled back the years with a great goal in the third period to win the series.

In all the other six games one team would play exceptionally well the other quite poor, but last night both were on their game and after a slow first period from Washington but teams traded efforts as both goalies stood on their heads to keep their teams in the game.

Read More»