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Trade Sidney Crosby? History Says No

Posted: Feb 24th 2009 11:30AM by Adam Gretz (author feed)
Filed under: Penguins, NHL Media Watch

5 COMMENTS
A couple of weeks ago, TSN hockey analyst Gord Miller came to the conclusion that in order for the Pittsburgh Penguins to remain competitive in the NHL, they would have to deal the league's leading scorer, Evgeni Malkin, for a first-line winger, a No. 2 center, and "hopefully" a pick or a prospect. It was a laughable proposal.

On Sunday night, Rob Rossi, Penguins beat writer for the Tribune-Review, appeared on a weekly Pittsburgh talk show and suggested the team would be wise to put Sidney Crosby on the trade block this offseason. I guess this is what happens when you go from being two wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup to being the No. 10 team in the Eastern Conference in a matter of one season.
Continue Reading Trade Sidney Crosby? History Says No

Weekly Rebounds: Say Hello to Taylor Hall

Posted: Dec 3rd 2008 3:00PM by Adam Gretz (author feed)
Filed under: Lightning, Oilers, NHL General, NHL Draft, NHL Economics, NHL Fans

0 COMMENTS


Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

If there's a silver lining to rooting for a bad team in a given season, it's that you always have a solid shot of winning the draft lottery and getting the No. 1 overall pick to find that franchise-changing superstar. Penguins and Blackhawks fans, for example, were rewarded for watching quite a few years of really bad hockey (Dick Tarnstrom was the leading scorer for the Penguins at one point - enough said), by ending up with Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, among others.

The holy grails for bottom-dwellers this season are Canadian prodigy John Tavares, and Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman. If you're a Thrashers fan, for example, and they manage to hold their current spot as the worst team in the league, you're guaranteed one of those guys in the offseason. So, you've got that going for you.

But what if you're a team that's so bad, so hopeless, and so out of it that they're going to finish near the bottom of the league next season, as well? Well, in that case, you would probably looking ahead to Windsor Spitfires forward Taylor Hall.

Chris Pope over at The Good Point introduces us to Hall, and also calls attention to the fact Tavares, currently playing for the Oshawa Generals, could be joining Hall in Windsor via trade.
Continue Reading Weekly Rebounds: Say Hello to Taylor Hall

Did Kate Hudson Trade In Lance Armstrong for Eric Lindros?

Posted: Aug 1st 2008 10:50AM by Jes Golbez (author feed)
Filed under: NHL General, NHL Gossip

33 COMMENTS
Even though ex-New York Rangers star Eric Lindros has been retired from the NHL for some time, that doesn't mean the boy don't got some game left in his brittle bones!

According to sports gossip site "Sports By Brooks", Hollywood cutie Kate Hudson has recently been seen with The "Big E", not too long after she dumped cyclist Lance Armstrong and his stupid bracelet by the side of the road.
"Kate and Eric have been holed up at her parent's house (in) Muskoka, Canada. She went there immediately after she and Lance ended things. Eric's been a great support for her."


It would seem natural for Hudson to gravitate towards a hockey player, given how her parents, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, are known as big fans of the sport.

Still, I don't see how this could be considered "trading up", as the gossip site states. Is a retired has-been hockey player really that much better than a flaky actor (Owen Wilson) or Sheryl Crow's well-travelled rubbish (Armstrong)? Couldn't Hudson have found love with a current player on the LA Kings?

Another gossip site, Bitten and Bound, has a quote from one of Eric's friends who tries to poo-poo the love story, claiming that the Lindros clan and Hudson/Russell clan have been friends for 15-20 years. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if Lindros really did score one last big goal.


Kimmo Timonen's Risky Return

Posted: May 18th 2008 11:38AM by Jes Golbez (author feed)
Filed under: General NHL, Flyers, Penguins, NHL Injuries, Stanley Cup

4 COMMENTS
With the Philadelphia Flyers trying to do the near-impossible and come back from a 3-0 series deficit, they got some good news as defenseman Kimmo Timonen was OKed to return to the lineup for Game Five.

The problem? Timonen suffered a blood clot in his leg, and his return is not without some serious risk involved: Amputation.

Yes, Timonen won't just have to deal with numbness, pain, and swelling, but the risk that he could lose his ability to walk and skate properly.
The fear with Timonen is that the clot could break free if he were to take a shot off his foot. If that happened, he might need to have his toes amputated. But the clot has not moved and has not gotten bigger. Timonen talked the matter over with his family, assured by doctors that playing poses no further risk to his health.

"My leg could be better, but it could be worse, too," said Timonen. "But in this situation, you know, it can't get any better. So that's pretty much it."

As Dave Babych and Eric Lindros would tell you, the Flyers have a history of putting their players at serious risk, so this kind of thing is par for the course.

As for Timonen, why is he risking so much? If this was Game Seven, I could kind of understand, but this is Game Five, and the Flyers are serious long-shots to make this comeback complete. This isn't the Finals, either.

Sheesh.

Is It Back to St. Louis for Trent Green?

Posted: Mar 6th 2008 12:07PM by Tom Mantzouranis (author feed)
Filed under: Rams, NFC West, St. Louis

0 COMMENTS
I know that I've got about as much credibility in medicine as Dr. Nick, so maybe I should just acquiesce to the doctors who have cleared Trent Green to play football again, but it seems pretty obvious to me that he ... um ... shouldn't. Two brutal concussions have already left him Eric Lindros-ed, how long will it take before he gets Evander Holyfield-ed?

Yet Green has made two free agent visits -- New Orleans and St. Louis -- and he's all about returning to the Rams.
"I'm trying to be as impartial as I can," Green said. .. ."So I'm trying to take the emotion out of it, although it is very difficult. Because I do think fondly of the city and the fans here. And I have great memories of the organization. All those things weigh into it."
More than winning, I would think "best chance to keep remaining brain matter" would be high on the priority list for Green. In that sense, I don't think St. Louis is the best place to land, if Green is really deadset on being on a 2008 roster.

St. Louis is his hometown, where he was starter before Rodney Harrison (who else?) cheap-shotted Kurt Warner to stardom, and the new home of his former offensive coordinator Al Saunders; it's also got a terrible offensive line and a quarterback who himself is damaged. If last year is any indication, Green will have to step onto the field for the Rams at some point, and who knows what kind of damage a relatively minor sack could produce? New Orleans is a much more stable situation, but I still think it's in Green's best interest to retire.

Blow for Hurricanes, Victory for Physical Play

Posted: Dec 28th 2007 11:45AM by Greg Wyshynski (author feed)
Filed under: New York, General NHL, Rangers, Hurricanes, NHL Fights

3 COMMENTS
Perhaps the greatest measure of the utter lack of confidence hockey fans have in the NHL disciplinary system occurred after Colton Orr's open-ice hit on Matt Cullen of Carolina, as reviewed by EMac on an earlier FanHouse entry. The majority of fan reactions I came across just assumed the injurious play, which left Cullen with a broken nose, would result in a procedural short suspension from the League. Orr was a repeat offender, after all; and as clean as the hit was, it resulted in an injury -- always a clincher for suspensions.

But NHL goon czar Colin Campbell remains as unpredictable as ever, deeming the Orr check to be free and clear of any additional jail time from the League offices. (I'd give him a pat on the back, but I've seen how he reacts to hits from behind.) Orr, or any player who unleashes a similar hit, didn't deserve a suspension or even that game misconduct he received for the check. It was a hockey play, as Orr told the media in review: "I just cut through the middle of the ice and was just playing the man. We were both just cutting to the middle and I was just defending myself."

And yet we have Mark Pargas of the New York Times asking if, in the future, Orr could take a moment before delivering a high-speed hit to ask himself, "W.W.M.P.O.T.N.Y.T.D.?" ("What Would Mark Pargas of the New York Times Do?") Pargas argues for "a more responsible way to play a physical brand of hockey," that targets the lower body with body checks. He uses the infamous Scott Stevens/Eric Lindros collision as evidence, which would have been a fine example had his blog focused less on the checkers delivering hard hits and more on the checkees skating with their heads down in the middle of the ice.

For Carolina, watching Mike Commodore skate over to "enforce" Orr led Hockey in the South to issue a post-Christmas wish for a heavyweight goon. Bubba over on Canes Country doesn't see the need for an enforcer because he doesn't believe that players policing themselves is a better deterrent than the League suspending reckless offenders. And this is coming from someone who watched Brooks Orpik get just three games for a brutal act of chiropractory on Erik Cole.

Eric Lindros: Goodfella

Posted: Nov 23rd 2007 3:17PM by Jes Golbez (author feed)
Filed under: Toronto, General NHL, Flyers, Maple Leafs

0 COMMENTS
(In the spirit of Thanksgiving, it's time for a feel-good story)

Eric Lindros was always a man to marched the beat of his own drum (or the voices in his own head), and he was always heaped with loads of scorn for doing so. Instead of playing for the NHL team that drafted him, Lindros held his ground, and forced a trade from the Nordiques to the Philadelphia Flyers. He also pulled the same stunt during his junior career, which didn't earn him a lot of praise.

Hell, I even called him "The Big E-go" for the way he seemed to conduct himself off and on the ice. With meddling parents pulling his strings, Lindros seemed a lot more self-absorbed and whiny than most athletes.

It would appear, perhaps, that a Scott Stevens elbow to the head has softened Lindros, and changed Eric from a spoiled young boy into a real man. Besides helping the NHLPA heal its internal rifts, Lindros quietly made a MONSTER donation to a local hospital that helped him through his own recoveries.
It was a double announcement in London on Thursday (Nov. 8) as the man once known as the Big E officially announced his retirement from the National Hockey League, but at the same time, without even mentioning the amount of his donation, dropped a $5 million donation in the lap of the London Health Sciences Centre.

In making the donation Lindros said it was "with honour that I can make this donation in the presence of Dr. Peter Fowler. I know that Pete will make sure that the money will improve the lives of not only athletes, weekend warriors, but all patients."

I have to admit that Lindros was one of the last people I would ever expect to dish out such a generous gift, but the man really seems to have changed over the years. I don't see it as calculated PR move (ala Alexei Yashin and his 'scam' donation), but more of a genuine gesture by someone who knows what it is like to face a myriad of health problems.

Previously on FanHouse: The Big E Officially Calls it Quits.
Eric Lindros and the Hall of Fame Debate.

Eric Lindros and the Hall of Fame Debate: It's the Personal vs. Professional

Posted: Nov 8th 2007 4:18PM by Greg Wyshynski (author feed)
Filed under: General NHL, NHL Hall of Fame, NHL Media Watch

4 COMMENTS
If Eric Lindros is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, my preference for his etched glass plaque would be an image of his frozen face under a twisted helmet, resting on the slowly melting ice in Philadelphia during Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals. Somewhere in the corner would be a smaller etching of Scott Stevens, shaking the freight-train impact from his shoulder.

The above is written as a Devils fan who is unable, even as Lindros formally announced the end of his career, to shake the vision of No. 88 as a fragile Messiah; always one championship away from being declared a hockey deity, always one head-shot away from admission to the infirmary. The above is also written as a prime example of the crux in Lindros's Hall of Fame debate: The inability of hockey pundits and fans to separate reputation, hype and personal behavior from the case that can be made for his Hall of Fame credentials.

I think that debate was captured nicely this morning by Jes Golbez in The Ice Sheet, where he lamented Lindros as being "content to sit back and have his parents whine about his ice time" while at the same time praising Eric as "a player who could do everything well and force opponents to change their strategy just to deal with the guy." Jes believes Lindros's place in NHL history "will cause many bar and kitchen table debates for years." Actually, it hasn't taken years: The Lindros Debate has intensely raged in the MSM and the blogosphere in the hours following news of his pending retirement.

Continue Reading Eric Lindros and the Hall of Fame Debate: It's the Personal vs. Professional

The Ice Sheet: "Big E" Officially Retires

Posted: Nov 8th 2007 11:16AM by Jes Golbez (author feed)
Filed under: General NHL, Flyers, Blue Jackets, Stars

4 COMMENTS
To the surprise of very few, Eric Lindros, the "Big E", is officially announcing his retirement from the NHL.

Love him or hate him, you had to respect that Eric Lindros was a force to be reckoned with during most of his NHL career. Few players really ever change a game, but Lindros is certainly one of them. Remember how many Eastern Conference teams tried to acquire strong centermen just to deal with The Big E and the Legion of Doom? Remember how drafting tall "project" centerman, no matter how poorly skilled they were, was the fashion du jour? That was all due to the impact Lindros had on the game, for better or for worse.

As an an old Panthers fan, I can remember how then-GM Bryan Murray ruined the franchise with his hellbent lust to acquire the 'prized BIG CENTER'. Remember Chris Wells? Apparently, he was Murray's vision of the next BIG THING when Rob Niedermayer didn't quite work out (neither did Viktor Kozlov, or any other center Murray thought was going to work for him)

Continue Reading The Ice Sheet: "Big E" Officially Retires

The Ice Sheet: Satan Lives!

Posted: Nov 7th 2007 10:30AM by Greg Wyshynski (author feed)
Filed under: General NHL, Islanders, Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets, NHL Videos

6 COMMENTS
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Remember when every fan in the NHL wanted Miroslav Satan on his team, for his combination of aggressive play and deft offensive touch? I believe the experts call that time "1999." Last season, not even New York Islanders fans wanted him around, as Satan skated to his worst season statistically (27-32-59) since his fourth season in the NHL. That downward trend appeared even steeper at the start of this season, as Satan had as many points (1) in his first six games as noted offensive juggernaut Brendan Witt.

Well, here's the breaking news, Satan worshipers: Miro has 9 points in his last 6 games, including the game-winning goal in the Islanders' 3-2 victory over the Rangers last night at the Mausoleum. Not coincidentally, the Isles won five of those six games. This team has shown it drinks freely from three fountains of emotional inspiration: Coach Ted Nolan, goalie Rick DiPietro and its collection of seemingly mismatched veteran players (Satan, Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko, Mike Sillinger) who just keep making big plays and scoring key goals. They're all leaders, and Satan was speaking like one to Greg Logan of Newsday after the Rangers game:
"For us, it's great that we are able to turn the last two games being down after the second period," Satan said. "It's a good confidence-builder for the future, but hopefully, we can play better in the first two periods so we don't get into too many of these pressure-time situations."
That Al Arbour sideshow a few days ago obscured the fact that an Islanders team that needed a win on the last night of the season to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and then lost Ryan Smyth, is now on top of the Atlantic Division. I'll hold off on saying they're for real until I can see them bounce back from a prolonged slump; then again, what if they never have one? It's the work of Satan, I tell ya ... Satan!

(Coming Up Next: Last Night's Losers, a Blue Jacket the League Wants To Swat, Puck Headlines, Most Embarrassing Stat Line of the Night, Tonight's Games You Should Be Watching, Hockey Arena Etiquette and a Tribute to Eric Lindros.)

Continue Reading The Ice Sheet: Satan Lives!

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