FanHouse Mattias Ohlund

Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Brian Lawton could very well be smarter than Toronto head coach Ron Wilson.

After all, Lawton has been able to convince everyone that he and the agent for Mattias Ohlund, J.P. Berry, negotiated a complex player contract and finalized details in less than 20 minutes July 1. Wilson, meanwhile, couldn't resist making comments on the radio about Vancouver's Sedin twins before free agency began. Take a guess which team is potentially in hot water with the NHL.

Just mere minutes after the NHL free agency period started Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning jumped in the pool.

Looking for a veteran defenseman to help tutor rookie Victor Hedman, the second overall pick in the NHL Draft last weekend, the Lightning apparently found their target quite quickly. They had to head all the way to Vancouver to do it, but they have signed Mattias Ohlund away from the Canucks, according to multiple reports.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Northwest Division.

It appears we are setting up for an offseason of significant change in the Northwest Division. Only the Vancouver Canucks will have the same coach as last year, and there could be some real upheaval in terms of personnel. Not only that, but two teams (Minnesota and Colorado) have changed general managers.

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After watching Vancouver play stout defense in front of All-Star goalie Roberto Luongo during a sweep of St. Louis in the first round, more was expected. The Canucks looked like a team committed to playing strong in their zone, and they knew if they could keep lanes clear for Luongo and make the extra effort to get to rebounds, they could go far.

It all blew up on them in the second round. A younger, faster, exceptionally determined Chicago team took out the Canucks in six games, and they scored 21 goals to do it. It's got some in Vancouver wondering about Luongo's future, which is the last thing that should be up in the air now.

The NHL cranks up the conference semifinals Thursday night, as Chicago opens their series at Vancouver. With both teams off impressive opening-round victories, who has the advantage? And will we see any hair-pulling theatrics this time around?

It was a testy affair in Edmonton Wednesday night. The Vancouver Canucks showed off their new purchase, and while Mats Sundin was a non-factor in the scoring, his team did skate away with a 4-2 win.

I already mentioned Willie Mitchell's first-period hit on Tom Gilbert. That seemed to start the ball rolling in terms of the physicality and flaring tempers.

Another big hit, this one by Mattias Ohlund on Erik Cole in the second period, touched off a quick fight between Ohlund and Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray.

As you can see in the video, courtesy of hockeyfights.com, it didn't take long for Souray to take Ohlund down.



I applaud Ohlund for being willing to take that fight. The hit on Cole was one of those that you can debate until you're blue in the face, but it's probably got to be considered a clean hit in the end. That said, Souray took up for his skill player, as he should, and Ohlund immediately faced the music.

Pavel Datsyuk's goal (shown above) was perhaps the highlight of a great day of hockey in Chicago, and we have to give a well-deserved tip of the cap to Eric McErlain for giving us all a front row seat for the festivities and excitement around Wrigley Field.

Chicago jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the first period, looking like it was out to send a message after Tuesday night's loss in Detroit, only to have the Red Wings roar back with five consecutive goals -- including a pair from Jiri Hudler -- to take the Winter Classic, 6-4. The Wings are now 4-0 against their original six rivals this season, while improving their record to 25-7-5.

This year's version of the classic, I thought, was far better than last season's game in Buffalo, mainly because this game wasn't played in blizzard conditions. Sure, that was exciting and awesome to look at, but it definitely hurt the on-ice play, while the ice itself was in horrible condition, resulting in multiple stoppages in play to fix massive holes. No such problems this year, just exciting hockey in a historic stadium between two classic teams wearing some awesome, awesome uniforms. Not a huge fan of the rendition of take me out to the ballgame, however. The hockey song would have been a nice touch, but, really, if that's the only negative throughout the event, well, that's a great, great thing for the sport.

Ty Conklin, playing in his third outdoor game in the NHL, stopped 33 shots in the win, while Chicago's Cristobal Huet had to be lifted early in the third period after giving up six goals on 30 shots.

Friday's game between the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks was a very nasty affair. Sticks and elbows were flying like planes at JFK Airport, and both clubs are whining about and threatening the other team with retaliation.

The 'highlight' of the night was Mattias Ohlund's Spartan-like chop of Mikko Koivu's ankle, as seen in the video above. Koivu caught Ohlund with an elbow, and the otherwise mild-mannered defenseman went a bit nutso.

The NHL will be reviewing the incident, get an injury report from the Wild, and may hand out a suspension to the Swedish defenseman.

He [Ohlund] knows he made an awful mistake when he wheeled around late in Friday's game, held his stick like a baseball bat and then swung it like an axe, slashing Mikko Koivu on the back of his left leg, near his ankle.

"Obviously, I reacted in a bad way," Ohlund said. "It was a bad reaction."

The word from the Wild was that Koivu will be fine. But that shouldn't stop the league from giving Ohlund a suspension that could, be as high as five games.

The league simply cannot allow players to use sticks as weapons, and the swing Ohlund took was big enough, and hard enough to cause some serious damage.

Fully agreed. Sticks are potential deadly weapons, and such slashes should not be tolerated, injury or not. As much as Ohlund was 'provoked', the NHL could do well by setting an example and letting players know that sticks are never to be used as weapons.

That said, I don't think the NHL will do much of anything to Ohlund. I'm guessing 1-2 games at most.

With the Vancouver Canucks struggling to score more than two goals per game last season, GM Dave Nonis decides to go out and spend big bucks on ... defensemen?

Yes, Nonis was busy giving out contracts yesterday to veteran Aaron Miller (1 year/$1.5mil), and Kevin Bieksa (3-year extension for $11.25mil).

With the signings, the Canucks have an extremely strong and deep defensive corps.

Ohlund-Mitchell
 Bieksa-Salo
 Miller-Krajicek
 Edler-Bourdon

Now, with the Canucks left with only about $3-4mil to sign a couple of wingers, many folks have begun speculating that a trade is in the works. The Canucks are either going to go into next season with a team that is based solely on winning 2-1 games, or somebody is going to be dealt.

Sami Salo? He just signed an extension.
Kevin Bieksa? Ditto.
Lukas Krajicek? Extension, and he's cheap.
Willie Mitchell? He's got a no-trade clause.

This leaves, of course, 30-year old Mattias Ohlund, the veteran who makes $3.5mil a season.

Ohlund has seen a slight decline in play since the lockout, and his value will only continue to decrease. His lack of quickness is noticeable some nights, and he seems to be the best trade bait available for the Canucks to relieve salary pressure AND secure a good scoring winger.

Of course, I won't claim any insider knowledge. Nonis might very well be happy to stick Bourdon in the AHL and go into the season with the defense as it stands right now.

As an aside, don't pick Miller in your office pool. He hasn't scored a goal since BEFORE the lockout (138 games!).