BOSTON -- The Washington Capitals do not have all the answers for getting around Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Zdeno Chara, so maybe they're trying to kill the 6-9 defenseman with compliments.
"Best defenseman in the league," said head coach Bruce Boudreau after Thursday morning's skate at TD Garden.
"Big, strong, longest stick in the NHL -- one of the best d-men in the game," said tonight's nemesis, Hart Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin.
"Probably the toughest player to go against in the league," said Ovechkin disher Nicklas Backstrom.
It still amazes me as to how a player this good and this dominant, and at a position of such importance, could be traded -- twice! -- for such awful returns.
When discussing Zdeno Chara and Jason Spezza in my top 50, I made mention of how then-Islanders general manager Mike Milbury traded the future Norris Trophy winning defenseman, and the pick that was used on Spezza for Alexei Yashin, and how infamously bad it ended up being. Not even that was bad enough to make up for the sting that was his June 24, 2000 deal that sent Luongo -- and Olli Jokinen -- to the Florida Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Luongo, of course, blossomed into an elite goaltender for the Panthers, while Jokinen eventually developed into a consistent 30-goal scorer.
At 39, I still have Lidstrom as the best defenseman in the NHL, and in my opinion, the debate shouldn't be where does he rank among the current defensemen, but where does he rank all-time? Everybody is fighting for second behind Bobby Orr, but who is next? Lidstrom? Ray Bourque? Somebody else?
Mike Milbury's tenure with the New York Islanders was so infamously bad that even when he managed to do something brilliant, like select Zdeno Chara in the second-round of one of the worst drafts in recent memory, he still managed to find a way to screw it all up.
Following the 2000-01 season, Milbury traded his fourth-year defenseman (Chara), along with Bill Muckalt and the No. 2 overall pick (Jason Spezza) to the Ottawa Senators for Alexei Yashin, and then signed him to a 10-year contract extension. The Islanders are currently paying Yashin to not play for them, while Chara is the reigning Norris Trophy winner as the top defenseman in the NHL. Amazingly, that may not even be the worst trade of the Milbury era (we'll get to that in the coming days, don't worry).
The recent SABR explosion in Major League Baseball has changed the way fans watch the game and evaluate the players taking part. Out are batting average and ERA; in are On-Base Percentage and WHIP. If you're a hockey fan looking for the same type of advancements, Behind The Net is a must-bookmark, as well as the folks at Puck Prospectus.
Hockey may be trailing baseball and the other major sports when it comes to advanced statistical analysis, but the gap is starting to close, and Gabriel Desjardins, lead man of Behind The Net and contributor to Puck Prospectus, is one of the people at the forefront.
While that's not terribly inaccurate, a subsequent signing by the Bruins shows that the deal wasn't about clearing cap space as much as it was about attempting to upgrade the position. Boston moved on from Ward quickly, signing Derek Morris to a one-year deal.
After losing three straight games for just the third time this season, the Boston Bruins were facing elimination on Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins, behind a 19-save shutout by Tim Thomas, managed to keep their season rolling with a commanding 4-0 win at TD Banknorth Garden.
Following Boston's 4-1 loss in Carolina on Friday, head coach Claude Julien made mention that his team picked a bad time to be playing its worst hockey of the season, getting outscored by a 10-3 margin during its three-game skid. For one night, all of that was forgotten as the Bruins played a relatively perfect game in every phase.
The Bruins and Hurricanes enter their Eastern Conference semifinal coming off completely different opening round wins.
On one hand, Boston absolutely dominated a hapless Canadiens squad with a clean four-game sweep. On the other hand, Carolina had to go seven games with the Devils, including a nail-biter in the deciding game that saw the Hurricanes tie it, and win it, in the final two minutes of regulation.
On paper, the Boston Bruins should be heavily favored against the Montreal Canadiens in their first round playoff series. The Bruins are the top seed in the Eastern Conference and finished only a point away from the Presidents' Trophy. On the other side, the Habs struggled through much of the second half of the regular season and fell to eighth place in the conference.
None of those facts were evident in the series opener between these two teams in Boston tonight.
BOSTON -- The Washington Capitals do not have all the answers for getting around Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Zdeno Chara, so maybe they're trying to kill the 6-9 defenseman with compliments.
FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his 
The recent SABR explosion in Major League Baseball has changed the way fans watch the game and evaluate the players taking part. Out are batting average and ERA; in are On-Base Percentage and WHIP. If you're a hockey fan looking for the same type of advancements, 
The Boston Bruins 
After losing three straight games for just the third time this season, the Boston Bruins were facing elimination on Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins, behind a 19-save shutout by 
On Thursday, the NHL 
On paper, the Boston Bruins should be heavily favored against the Montreal Canadiens in their first round playoff series. The Bruins are the top seed in the Eastern Conference and finished only a point away from the Presidents' Trophy. On the other side, the Habs struggled through much of the second half of the regular season and fell to eighth place in the conference. 
