Now to cover some of the foibles and league-wide news occuring outside of the Flames:
- Atlanta Thrashers sign Kovalchuk to a big hefty contract and immediately go in the toilet. Over the weekend, they were outscored 14-2 thanks to losses to the Maple Leafs (9-1) and the Rangers (5-1). While it's possible that these horrible performances occuring in concert with Kovalchuk's return is a coincidence...it's a very large coincidence. While Atlanta is currently playing a third string goaltender (Michael Garnett) due to injury woes, it is still significant that their offensive output has plummeted so mightily since they signed their "franchise" sniper. Is this the same team that hammered Washinton 8-2? Methinks Kovalchuk's hold-out antics may have disturbed locker-room chemistry a tad...
- Speaking of goaltender issues, the Buffalo Sabres are currently having the exact opposite problem that the Thrashers are facing - they have too many good goalies! Ryan Miller, Mika Noronen and Martin Biron are all highly touted talents. Consider, they range in age from 28 (Biron) to 25 (Miller). So none are too old or too young. Further, both Biron and Miller have won the Baz Bastien Memorial Trophy, which is the AHL's version of the Vezina. In addition, both Biron and Noronen won the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Trophy (fewest goals against) at the AHL level. Also, all three have been honored futher in their amateur careers: Biron was the CHL's goaltender of the year in '95, Noronen was the AHL's rookie of the year in 99-00 and Miller won the Hobey Baker award as top collegiate player in 01. Wow! The real question NOW is...why does Buffalo have all these potential #1 goalies? If I was Atlanta, I'd be courting Buffalo with candy, flowers, best-friendship, draft-picks - whatever - in order to get which ever one of those talented young goalies is currently going to waste. If you want more info you can go to
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/roster/?hubname=nhl-sabres
- Martin Havlat of the Ottawa Senators was recently suspended for 5 games for kicking Hal Gill of the Boston Bruins. Apparently the penalty is stiff because Havlat is a repeat offender (he kicked Eric Cairns in 03-04!).
Anyways, while Havlat is a speedy and skilled player, Ottawa has more than enough depth to compensate for the loss without suffering too greatly.
Official story here:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=140081&hubname
- Speaking of Atlanta AND suspensions, the league is apparently reviewing all of the fights and muggings that occured in the recent Atlanta-Toronto game. Of particular interest is the incident where Andy Sutton bashed Darcy Tucker's head into the glass, causing a considerable amount of blood to flow. The ugly incident and ensuing fights produced some verbal sparring between the players and coaches after the game, and should set the stage for an explosive rematch later in the year...
want to know more? Follow...
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?slug=TP-RECAP-NHL-5732&hubname
Anyways...that's it for now...Perhaps the Calgary/Phoenix contest tonight will render some interesting bits worthy of discussion for tomorrow.
