FanHouse Tim Connolly

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

Brian Burke begins his rebuild of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa and just what is Boston going to do with Phil Kessel and a limited amount of salary cap space?

Sharks 1, Stars 0: The only game on the schedule Monday night was a goaltending battle as San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov turned aside all 29 shots he faced to lead the Sharks to a 1-0 win in Dallas. Devin Setoguchi scored the game's only goal at the 7:55 mark of the third period, giving San Jose its fourth straight win.

Marty Turco was strong for Dallas, stopping 24-of-25 shots in what was his 30th consecutive start in goal. He's been outstanding the past three months.

Devils 5, Thrashers 1: The Devils jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and never really looked back on their way to a 5-1 dismantling of Atlanta. At one point, the Thrashers were being outshot by a 22-5 margin in the second period, while they went 0-for-7 with the man advantage. Travis Zajac, John Madden, Zach Parise, David Clarkson and Brian Gionta all scored goals for the Devils, who have now won nine of their past 10 games. Atlanta has lost five of six.

Stars 10, Rangers 2: Sean Avery's old team dismantles what could be his future team, as the Stars erupt for five third period goals on their way to a 10-2 win. Rough night for Rangers goalie Steve Valiquette who was in net for all 10 goals.

Here's one last look at Tuesday night's debacle in Edmonton, when the Sabres beat the Oilers 10-2. I know we ran the official NHL.com highlight clip on this already, but there was a moment that you won't find on that video that you will hear in the clip we've embedded in this post. I'm talking about a knot of Oilers fans at Rexall Place who started to derisively chant, "We want ten," with the Sabres ahead 9-2 as time ran down in the third period. They didn't have long to wait, as Buffalo's Tim Connolly was happy to finish off a two-on-one break to score the tenth goal.

As it turns out, it's not the first time the fans in Edmonton have broken out the chant this season. The first time came back on December 16, when the Blackhawks dumped the Oilers 9-2. In case you didn't already know, Tuesday night's game was the worst home loss in franchise history.

Brendan Shanahan made his season debut for the New Jersey Devils on Monday night, and it didn't take him long to make an impact. At the 1:38 mark of the second period, the 39-year-old forward beat Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne from right on top of the crease, giving the Devils a 1-0 lead on their way to a 3-1 win over the Predators.

Shanahan registered nearly 14-minutes of ice-time, while firing six shots on goal. His tally came on the power play, which is where he should make his biggest impact for a New Jersey team that entered play on Monday ranked 15th in the league with the man advantage.

Scott Clemmensen stopped 31 shots to pick up the win for the Devils, while Brian Rolston recorded a pair of assists.

Fantastic game in San Jose between the top two teams in the Western Conference, as the Sharks and Red Wings entered Saturday's tilt separated by just one point in the standings. In a game that featured 11 goals and 75 shots on goal, San Jose emerged with a 6-5 win, extending its lead to three points for the top spot in the conference.

Patrick Marleau's goal with 6:36 to play in regulation proved to the be the game-winner, while Detroit goalie Chris Osgood surrendered six goals on 42 shots. Ryane Clowe picked up four assists for the Sharks, while Milan Michalek registered a goal and an assist in the win.

It's a good question, honestly, as the Sabres prepare for their 3rd game of the season with 23 year-old Clarke MacArthur (CMac or the LIl' General to the faithful) filling in for "Broken" Jochen Hecht after Hecht underwent surgery today to repair a broken finger. This now marks the 3rd pivot that the Sabres have on the injured list to start this young season. Perennial question-mark Tim Connolly is out indefinitely with a fractured vertebrae while Paul Gaustad tore a ligament in his thumb beating up Marc-Andre Bergeron in the pre-season, which required surgery to repair and three to four weeks to heal. I'm not expecting Goose to return until the end of October.

MacArthur, a product of the WHL and on the bubble at the start of camp, will take over for Hecht between Jason Pominville and Daniel Paille on what is, nominally, Buffalo's 2nd line. CMac is a Left-Wing by trade and training but has been pressed into this centerman role in the past.

The part many have to be wondering about is why they didn't decide to bring up either Marek Zagrapan or Nathan Gerbe from Portland, as it would seem the obvious move. I have to think that with the game tomorrow night in New York and Friday's home at The Bank that there's no point since neither of them would see the ice against the 5-0-0 New York Rangers anyways. If the MacArthur experiment fails then Matt Ellis has more experience, if less skill, and neither Gerbe or Zags would help provide the disciplined positional/defensive game needed to play Top 6 minutes against the likes of Drury and/or Gomez.

The biggest issue is the loss of Hecht himself. He's such a smart and capable hockey player in all three zones of the ice that it's not possible to replace, espeically in the context of Connolly and Gaustad's absence. The challenges of the 82 game season start early for many teams. With two impressive wins to start the season it will be interesting to see how this unit handles this setback.

Ta,

Well, Sabres fans the questions about who will and who will not be in the lineup on opening night are pretty much answered. WGR550 has reported that the Buffalo Sabres sent eight players back to their AHL affiliate in Portalnd on Friday. They are as follows: Chris Butler, Nathan Gerbe, Tim Kennedy, Mark Mancari, Matheiu Darche, Dylan Hunter, Marek Zagrapan and Mike Funk. Mancari and Darche have both been effectively waived. Here's hoping Mancari doesn't pull a Pominville for someone else. Not likely, honestly.

With the injuries to Paul Gaustad and Tim Connolly this team is now officially short at center depth. It looks like recent waiver-bait Matt Ellis will be manning the third pivot until one of those guys is ready to play. I doubt Connolly's situation is serious at this point of one of Gerbe or Zagrapan would still be in Buffalo getting more experience for opening night. I'm sure there are a ton of people who would have liked to see Gerbe on the roster but, truthfully, the jump from college to the pros is a big leap and even a few months of living the grind of life in the 'A' is valuable preparation for the NHL. For the team it gives them time to sort out just who does and who does not what to be here come the deadline in February.

So, there will be just 2 scoring lines going out against the Wings on Sunday as a bottom 6 of MacArthur-Ellis-Kotalik / Peters-Mair-Kaleta is not going to scare any many goalies in this league. It also looks like they'll be keeping 8 defensemen as Mike Weber is still with the big club. I wouldn't be surprised if that changed by next Friday.

While getting re-acquainted with my favorite hockey blogs of yore in a vain attempt to catch up on the great work being done out there in the time I was away from the world I came across this recent post from D-Lee at RedBlackHockey about the rumors floating around Minnesota's Marian Gaborik. For you 'Canes fans in the audience give it a perusal. But in that post he linked to something even more ridiculous, an obvious fan article at BleacherReport trying to make the case for how the Sabres would be trading a premier player like Gaborik for spare parts like Maxim Afinogenov and Tim Connolly/Ales Kotalik. All protests to his making this stuff up out of thin air aside, Andrew Mason makes the following Eklund-esque pitch:

The Sabres, on the other hand, have plenty of cap space. They currently have nine million dollars free as of today which is a good chunk of change. They can easily sign Gaborik to a long-term deal for whatever he wants-especially if they trade Max plus either Kotalik or Connolly, which would free up an extra $5.23-6.23 million.

No way does Darth Regier trade $6 million in salary to add $7.5 million, which is what Gaborik's payout will be this year (No, this was not a front-loaded contract, as it should have been). And, while the Sabres may have a bit of cap space to work with this season they are, as of the Numminen signing, $2 million over their much-maligned personal cap of $50 million. Regier will try to get value for Max and if none is available he'll hope for a great contract season and bid him a fond farewell at the end of it.

Trading for Gaborik doesn't address the lack of center depth on this team, which wouldn't be an issue if Tim(may!) Connolly wasn't one hit away from mopping floors at a hospital... on the graveyard shift. Further stretching the feasibility of this idea is the need to extend of home-grown RW sniper Jason Pominville, who is going to cost them a pretty penny (north of $4 million for 5-6 years if they're lucky). Regier is going to be loyal to the kids he's helped groom from within. There's no way he pushes Pominville out the door to take on Gaborik, unless the Wild are paying part of the salary, which is not allowed under this CBA.

Lastly, I just don't see Regier trading one guy who can't perform in the playoffs for another at twice the price. So, in my mind this one gets a big E5 and a double helping of Mediterranean Sea Salt.

Ta,

Given that today is supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year, though with the financial and housing markets in the state they are in I would think that's not saying much, relatively speaking, I thought we at Fan House would take a moment to consider what the various and sundry GM's around the league would be looking for in the proverbial player mall that exists in the minds of amateur GM's, fans and, yes, even semi-professional pundits.

So, I posed the question to my colleagues, and for today's Ice Sheet, here's a transcript of that exchange (with the worst typing offenses committed by mostly yours truly edited for pride):

Tom Luongo: For Friday I was thinking that I should do a Shopping List NHL-style, seeing as the it's supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year. Anyone got any good ideas on what your favorite team should go shopping for ?

Eric McErlain: Washington: Right wing, physical defense-man and a new head coach. [The Ed: Ding! Christmas comes early for the denizens of Mordor D.C.]

Big Earl Sleek: Anaheim: some ready-to-sign un-retirement papers for Niedermayer and Selanne, a magical anti-concussion pill for Bertuzzi, and some sort of supplement that will keep Schneider in the lineup for longer than two weeks.

J.P.: [Washington] Mayflower vans?

Jes Golbez: Not even Scotty Bowman could win with the crappy roster the Caps have. Even OJ had a stronger defense.
For the Canucks: An ever-fresh supply of replacement defensemen, continued good health for Roberto Luongo, personalties for the SedinBots, a heart for Markus Naslund, courage for Brad Isbister, and a brain for Matt Cooke.