- I dont think anyone saw the Federov salary-dump coming. It does make sense, in this newly "capped" league, that the Ducks sought to rid themselves of Federov's onerus $4 million+ salary. It also makes sense that the drowning Columbus Blue Jackets would seek an offensive boost.
To add further spice to this story, TSN is reporting this morning that the Blue Jackets have placed Todd Marchant and his inflated $2 million+ contract on waivers. It will be interesting to see if anyone will take a chance and pick up Marchant, who is still a fleet-footed and servicable 3rd line center. His high price-tag is probably the reason Columbus couldn't trade him for anything...but with a quarter of the season gone (and therefore, a quarter of his salary), he might be worth a gamble to some teams who are looking for defensive specialists and veteran leadership (helloooooooo Washington).
As far as the Ducks are concerned, I wouldn't be surprised if Burke uses some of the freed-up cap space to broker a deal with the Devils in the near future. Patrik Elias is close to returning, meaning the Devils will have to shed some salary in order to get under the cap. Possible candidates include Langenbrunner, Gomez, Brylin and Mogilny (who was healthy scratch once this season).
- Some hot teams have been shut-down recently. Philly lost to Tampa Bay Monday night and Ottawa was beaten by Carolina last night. With the Kings also falling to defeat recently to the Predators, it looks like the Flames are the hottest team in the NHL right now. Of course, that can all come to a crashing halt tonight against the Red Wings. While it is impressive that Detroit is currently #1 in the league with 31 points, it should be mentioned that most of their points have been garnered from beating the worst teams in the NHL (over and over again). Thanks to the new, unbalanced schedule, Detroit benefits from residing within the weak Central division, which includes: themselves, Columbus, St. Louis, Chicago and Nashville. The middle three clubs, the BJ's, the Blues and the Blackhawks, are currently three of the worst teams in the league. The Blues, for instance, have lost 11 in a row and have only 7 points in 17 games. the Blue Jackets have collected all of 5 wins so far this year have been without their primary offensive weapon, Rick Nash, for all but 2 games. While Chicago has won 3 of their last 4 games, they still sit outside of the playoff picture with 7 wins and 14 points. As a result of sitting atop a division that's chocked full of "weak sisters" Detroit has a somewhat inflated point total. While Im not claiming that Detroit is a bad team, it should be considered that the Red Wings few losses have come against the likes of Vancouver and Edmonton, which are both teams Calgary has shown they can beat.
- Speaking of standings, take a look (link above) at Montreal's point totals AND their divisional competiton. Now that's impressive.
- Also impressive - the Hurricanes coming off of an embarassing 9-0 loss to the Thrashers, beat Ottawa last night (link above). It's kind of comforting to see that the Senators are human after all. Oh yeah, and Mike Commodore was the unlikely hero, scoring the game winner.
- Would you like some repitition with your repitition?...Take a look at two of TSN's headlines this morning--> click. Notice that McCabe and Ovechkin can both "do it all"?? How contemptible is it that a supposedly reputable outfit like TSN uses a bland cliche not once but twice! And one right after the other! For Shame....
