FanHouse Mike Grier

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 Pacific Division.

San Jose saw its Presidents' Trophy campaign come to a surprising end in the first round of the NHL playoffs, Los Angeles is still the perfect spot for Dany Heatley, and is there any hope for success on the ice in Phoenix?

I don't know what the Thrashers give-a-crap level was at, but the Penguins certainly kicked their give-a-crap level up a few notches as they snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over Atlanta. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28-of-29 shots, while Petr Sykora scored a pair of goals in the win.

Not only did Pittsburgh ends its losing streak, it also ended an 0-for-32 power play drought by going 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

It was a costly win of sorts for the Penguins, as Ruslan Fedotenko and Pascal Dupuis left the game with injuries and did not return. Both players had been playing, perhaps, their best hockey of the season in recent weeks.

Fedotenko appeared to suffer a hand injury when he punched out Colby Armstrong in the first period. It was perhaps the shortest fight of the season, as it consisted of one Fedotenko punch to the jaw, and Armstrong attempting to throw one when both players were on the ice. Fedotenko could be seen shaking his hand as he went to the penalty box, and then headed directly to the locker room and did not return.

Alex Goligoski was again a healthy scratch, as head coach Michel Therrien used the same lineup he used in New York the night before, with much better results. Evgeni Malkin recorded three assists, while Sidney Crosby scored his 16th goal of the season.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored the lone goal for Atlanta late in the third period, ending Fleury's shutout bid.

Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season.

Ellis opened the scoring for the Sabres just three minutes into regulation, while Thomas Vanek added his 26th goal of the season just two minutes later.

After Phil Kessel cut the deficit in half with his 24th goal of the season, Ellis added his second goal of the game early in the second period to score what proved to be the game-winner. Paul Gaustad added his fourth goal of the year for the Sabres, while Ryan Miller turned aside 29 shots in net.

The win for Buffalo, combined with Pittsburgh's loss to Florida, moved the Sabres into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

On Wednesday night in Chicago, San Jose Sharks forward Mike Grier drilled Blackhawks defenseman Aaron Johnson from behind and into the boards. Johnson spent a couple of minutes on the ice writhing in pain before finally skating off the ice and onto the team's injured list. Grier got a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, and is certain to be waiting by the phone for a call from NHL disciplinary czar Colin Campbell to hear if any supplementary discipline is in store.

So what say you, dear readers? Is a suspension in order, or should Grier -- who first caught my eye with a devastating open ice hit while at Boston University -- skate away without any additional punishment?

While Vancouver suffered what could be a devastating injury to starting goalie Roberto Luongo, the Canucks did manage to walk out of Pittsburgh with a 3-1 win, so, they at least have that going for them. Still, the sight of Luongo being helped off the ice probably steals some of the thunder from what was a solid defensive performance and road victory.

Things were quite heated just 25 second into the game (see the video shown above) when Penguins forward -- and former Canuck -- Matt Cooke sent Alexander Edler flying through the air, igniting a line-brawl at center ice. When the chaos was finally sorted out, there were 50 minutes in penalties handed out, including two game misconducts -- one to Cooke, and another to Vancouver's Jannik Hansen.

Pavol Demitra scored a pair of goals for the Canucks, including the game's first goal at the 18-minute mark of the first period. He sealed the game with an empty-netter late in the third period. The line of Demitra and the Sedin's (Henrik and Daniel) accounted for all of Vancouver's scoring on the day, as Daniel registered a goal and two assists, while Henrik assisted on all three Canucks goals.

Mike Zigomanis scored the only goal for the Penguins, who were held to just 19 shots on goal for the game.

Still no official word on the severity of Luongo's injury.

A lot has been made about the perceived notion of the Buffalo Sabres lack of committment to winning in recent times. It was the focal point of Daniel Briere's comments after signing that historically moronic contract with the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday. He rebuffed superior money from Montreal, apparently, for a chance to play for a team that he felt was truly committed to winning, and maybe that's the song he'll sing to himself after the Sabres didn't want him back.

Mike Grier made similar comments on his way out the door last year, a fact brought up all the time by those who think the Sabres have continually made the wrong personnel decisions over the past two July 1sts. While the other captain and player the team prized, Chris Drury, decided that the Sabres weren't committed to winning because they weren't willing to bring back Daniel Briere. Briere said as much during his interview with WGR550 last night.

I wrote about this at length last night on Sabre Rattling, and while I can understand the growing sense among the players that the Sabres, as an organization, treat their players badly. I can also see the other side of things as well.

My problem in all of this is how you define being committed to winning. For Daniel Briere it was being active in acquiring players (along with throwing a vertiable ton of cash at him) that he thinks will create a great team. For Chris Drury, it meant playing with Daniel Briere. For the Buffalo Sabres it meant keeping Drury but not Briere.

From my article at SR:

Briere obviously feels slighted by the treatment he got from management. I'm sure, as well, that management feels a bit slighted by Briere's very spotty play during the post-season considering he got paid approximately $1 million more than they wanted to spend on him and that cost the team J.P. Dumont.

Do you see the problem here? There comes a point where the definitions of what is best for everyone are imcompatible with each other. Today in the Buffalo News, congenital idiot and irresponsible muckraker Bucky Gleason (no, I don't ever expect to be invited to press parties in Buffalo) is so arrogant to believe he can give economics lessons to men who run a multi-million (and in Golisano's case multi-billion) dollar business, while at the same time resting his argument by equating Daniel Briere to Joe Thornton and Jarome Iginla.

. The former Hart Trophy winner had one year remaining on his contract, but the Sharks didn't want to risk the possibility of losing their best player. It made such good sense that the Calgary Flames decided to follow suit. They're working on a long-term contract extension with winger Jarome Iginla, making sure a year in advance their best player doesn't skate freely into unrestricted free agency.

...It's between something, but certainly not the pipes.

So, I have to ask myself, with all that's gone wrong with the Sabres during these Conference Finals is Chris Drury trying to add to his already impressive resume on the eve of unrestricted free agency?

That, of course, is not true at all. Apparently Lindy Ruff took the cork out of his sphincter and tried to lighten things up at practice this morning by having different people tend goal while they worked on that thing that they call a power play. My mates over at HFBoards Sabres Forum found these pics from from the AP wire this morning and thoughtfully shared them and I'm just passing them on. I would ask you to ignore the imbecile who castigated them for being millionaires and that therefore they should not enjoy their jobs or each others company.

It's an interesting tactic for them to take at this point. It certainly can't hurt. Taking the whole "Cup or Bust" thing too seriously hasn't worked. So, if anything it's sincerely worked against them to the point where the scales are firmly tilted towards Bust and not Cup.

All of the talk around the Sabres has centered on whether this Cup was lost because of the decisions made last summer by allowing certain guys to walk, namely Jay McKee and J.P. Dumont. Mike Grier chose San Jose for the same money, so that decision, truly, was out of Darth Regier's hands. For my part, I remember he and Ruff both stating that for them to win the Cup all of the younglings would have to fill in the leadership void left by those no longer in Buffalo. By their performance this post-season, that has obviously not taken place to the point of being able to get by a team as seasoned and talented as the Ottawa Senators. Beyond Drury, Briere and Miller, who is there? From that perspective it may be that they need to keep both captains, otherwise this whole team and its story may come to a rather abrupt ending, even moreso than the impending sweep by Ottawa.

Ta,