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?
Typically in sports, coaches get way too much credit and way too much blame.
In the end, the good ones are going to have large egos. They're shown on camera a lot, they get tons of credit in the media, and fans eat that kind of stuff up. The coaches parlay the positive attention into lucrative contract extensions, often even before they've proven their long-term worth.
It's likely that Todd McLellan will someday be fired from a coaching job in the NHL. Coaches are, after all, hired to be fired. But having watched the Sharks a few times in the last couple weeks, I have a hard time believing it will happen anytime soon, with the Sharks setting a record last night for most points in a 30-game start (52).
After some up-and-down times in recent years under current Toronto boss Ron Wilson, the Sharks appear to be firing on all cylinders right now. From a distance, it's hard not to give a ton of credit for that to McLellan.
It's official: Sidney Crosby is on a roll. The Penguins captain netted his second career hat trick on Saturday night, helping lead Pittsburgh to a 4-1 win over New Jersey. Crosby now has 13 goals on the season, and six in his past three games.
Crosby opened the scoring just over a minute into the game, when he spun around and slipped a blind backhander behind New Jersey goalie Scott Clemmensen. He also added goals in the second and third periods, and picked up an assist on Petr Sykora's power play goal.
Crosby is now second in the NHL's scoring race with 34 points, just five behind teammate Evgeni Malkin, who picked up two assists in the win. The duo has been white-hot the past three games, combining for 17 points and dominating just about every time they've been on the ice. Right now, these two guys are from another planet.
Mike Rupp scored New Jersey's only goal of the game early in the third period, and nearly found himself in a fight with Crosby. Instead of actually dropping the gloves and taking a few swings on one another, the two just sort of wrestled along the boards and picked up coincidental minors for roughing.
There was a time when Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco was among the best in the National Hockey League. It appears as if those days are over, at least for this year, as the 33-year old netminder was lifted for the third time this season, after giving up five goals on just 19 shots Friday night. In the end, the Stars fell to the runaway locomotive that is the San Jose Sharks, 6-2.
Honestly, San Jose may never lose again, as it now has a league-best 39 points.
Turco's save percentage is just about ready to drop below the .870 mark, which is pretty hard to comprehend for an NHL goalie, and Stars head coach Dave Tippettsort of agrees, saying "our goaltender has to be better." Indeed he does. And while he wouldn't announce anything after the game, Tippett left open the possibility that Tobias Stephan could start Sunday's game against Edmonton. I guess the question is: could he really be any worse?
San Jose received a pair of goals from Dan Boyle, while Joe Pavelski, Milan Michalek and Rob Blake slipped shots behind the struggling Turco before he was lifted following the second period.
Evgeni Nabokov, making his second start since returning to the lineup, turned aside 25 of 27 shots in the win.
While Vancouver suffered what could bea 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.
Despite a mid-career pit-stop with the Colorado Avalanche, Rob Blake will always be associated as being one of the more popular and famous players in Los Angeles Kings' history.
That said, does any Kings fan want Rob Blake to put off retirement and come back for yet another season with the silver and black? Apparently, Rob is considering doing just that.
"I'll probably sit down with the Kings before (July 1) and hopefully get something worked out," Blake said in a telephone interview from his home in L.A. "I wanted to get trained a little earlier this year and make sure I still want to play. I've kind of come through that point where I'm excited and I want to play a couple more years for sure. It's just a matter of sitting down and hopefully working something out to stay here."
Rob Blake just finished his 19th season in the league, probably his worst ever, and is coming off of hip surgery and a serious ankle injury. For a guy that has shown a major decline in speed, this is a very bad sign.
During his two year second stint with the Kings, Blake has played horrible defense, which his -19 and -26 attest to. In order to keep up his offensive numbers, Blake seems more prone to jumping up into the play, and leaving himself open for a counterattack the other way. His penchant for trying to get the "BIG HIT" also leaves him grossly out of position all too often.
I don't begrudge guys like Blake for wanting to keep playing the game they love, but it would be better for the Kings if Robbie went to play in the local beer league. If he comes back, the Kings will only be worse for it.
As I grow older and more mature (stop snickering), I'm beginning to see the folly of a team, on Deadline Day, spending major assets for a playoff rental. Yes, D-Day is always hyped to the max, and gets fans drooling at the prospect of seeing their team get the likes of Marian Hossa, Peter Forsberg, or Mats Sundin to put their team over the top.
Think of building a house. A good house takes time to plan, and the foundation is laid early in the design choices one makes. You can't simply stick some Sears Aluminum siding on the outside of a stucco monstrosity and expect it to turn into a million-dollar mansion, can you?
Whatever valor Crawford was lauding, it was lost on many of the fans on the Let's Go Kings boards. I agree with him that it's a captain's duty -- depending on that captain's predisposition for physical play -- to make sure the opponent isn't taking liberties with any of his teammates. But Crawford is defending the indefensible when it comes to Blake's ejection; all that did was hand Phoenix a power play and limit the Kings to five D-men for 40 minutes as their captain was back in the players' lounge. But if we've learned anything about Marc Crawford this week, it's his warped sense of justice and retribution.
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.
There was a time when Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco was among the best in the National Hockey League. It appears as if those days are over, at least for this year, as the 33-year old netminder was lifted for the third time this season, after giving up five goals on just 19 shots Friday night. In the end, the Stars fell to the runaway locomotive that is the San Jose Sharks, 6-2. 
Despite a mid-career pit-stop with the Colorado Avalanche, Rob Blake will always be associated as being one of the more popular and famous players in Los Angeles Kings' history.
As I grow older and more mature (stop snickering), I'm beginning to see the folly of a team, on Deadline Day, spending major assets for a playoff rental. Yes, D-Day is always hyped to the max, and gets fans drooling at the prospect of seeing their team get the likes of Marian Hossa, Peter Forsberg, or Mats Sundin to put their team over the top.
Whatever Rob Blake said to referee Dan O'Halloran last night, the Los Angeles Times couldn't print it. (Maybe he was arguing in favor of conservative political ideology.) Whatever the Kings captain uttered, it was good enough to earn him 22 penalty minutes and a game misconduct, with Phoenix's Radim Vrbata scoring on an ensuing power play to break a 1-1 tie and help lead the Coyotes to a 4-2 win in Los Angeles. The Canadian Press considered the ejection of Blake to be a "huge break" for Phoenix, which means that the Canadian Press must believe it's still 2002.
