Dallas Ties The Can To GM Doug Armstrong

According to a release at NHL.com.

If any organization could use a shakeup, it's the Dallas Stars. They've been treading water for years now and are a truly boring team to watch under coach Dave Tippett (who's not long for his job).

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Does this open up an opportunity for Neil Smith?

Sean Avery To Sue Toronto Reporter Howard Berger

Over comments that Berger made, accusing Avery of making fun of Leaf Jason Blake and his battle with cancer. Avery is denying this and Berger claims he got his information from a Ranger player. Avery believes he was libeled by Berger and is preparing to take legal action.

The circus around this guy goes on and on. As Sheryl Crow once said, "Lay back, enjoy the show".

Question: Worst Team In The Last 10 Games?

Answer: The Pittsburgh Penguins at 2-7-1. Every other team in the league has at least one more victory in their last ten games.

Overall, only the Atlanta Thrashers, the Washington Capitals, the Vancouver Canucks and the Phoenix Coyotes have less wins at home than the Penguins measly 3-5-1 at the Igloo.

Coach Michel Therrien called goalie Marc Andre Fleury "fragile" over the weekend and has given the bulk of playing time lately to Dany Sabourin. The coach also split Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby up to spread out the offense because those are the only two players scoring consistently. Ryan Malone remains on the top line with Crosby where he's been for weeks now but has very little to show for it, with only 8 points on the season.

So what does GM Ray "Son of the Fog" Shero do? Be patient?

There have been whispers that the players don't see eye to eye with Therrien so that situation bears watching. It would be considered a disaster if the Penguins were to fall back and miss the post-season this year. Don't expect them to sit on their hands until after Christmas.

On another note:

Former Senator and current L.A. King Tom Preissing, who bolted town after claiming he was treated unfairly by being benched in the third period of game 5 of the Cup finals against the Ducks, was a healthy scratch against Dallas on Sunday. Preissing has 3 assists and is a minus 3 for the season so far.

Murray Hints That Foligno Could Be On His Way To Bingo

Once Jason Spezza returns from his groin injury, probably this Thursday against Buffalo, Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray indicated to the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin (what kind of a name for a paper is that anyways) that the big team would be cutting its roster to 21 players.

That guarantees that Nick Foligno will be hitting the buses. Some have speculated that Brian McGrattan could be the odd man out but McGrattan would have to clear waivers to go down to Bingo and Ottawa certainly can't afford to lose his muscle, especially against Buffalo who might still be fuming about last years Chris Neil hit on Chris Drury.

Truth be told, Foligno is a bit player on this team as it stands now and he'd be a better fit in Bingo playing big minutes and the power play.

Everyone Waiting For Keenan To Unleash Chaos

When will Iron Mike Keenan finally start breaking hockey sticks over trainers tables and skating his players until they're barfing in the corners?

The Flames have now lost 5 game in a row and capped it off with a 4-2 loss to the lowly Oilers on Saturday.

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I watched that game on Saturday night and I thought the Flames played well, as they have most times I've seen them. But something is just slightly off. Miikka Kiprusoff seems like he's letting in one back-breaking goal a game and currently sports a .884 save percentage and a 3.19 GAA.

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Scott Cruikshank tries to figure it out in the Herald.

Glen Healy Next Toronto GM?

If anyone caught Saturday's Hot Stove segment on Hockey Night In Canada, you would have heard Al Strachan comment that TSN colour-man Glen Healy would be a good candidate to replace the seemingly doomed and hapless John Ferguson Jr.

Howard Berger over at Hockey Buzz gives this notion some further credence with todays column.

It would be easy to imagine Healy as a GM. He's already got the attitude: surly, mean and holier than thou.

If there's anything more unpleasant than having to sit through Healy snarl his way through a telecast with the otherwise excellent Chris Cuthbert, then I haven't experienced it yet.

Leafs Belak Claims Someone Is Going To "Kill" Avery

Gotta hand it to Sean Avery of the New York Rangers. He is building himself up to be one of the most hated players in NHL history, right up there with Claude Lemieux, Esa Tikkanen, Ken "The Rat" Linseman and Darcy "Mother" Tucker.

Proof is in the headlines. The Toronto Sun's Mike Zeisberger quotes Leaf enforcer Wade Belak:

"He's pissing guys off," Belak said yesterday. "He'll bring harm to himself and not too many guys around the league are going to be sad to see it.

"If he keeps this up, someone is going to kill him. One day he's going to say something the wrong way and he'll be clubbed. "

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Clubbed? Hilarious.

Avery is the most entertaining player in the league on most nights. Scoring is going down again and the trap is back in vogue so sometimes we have to turn to guys like Avery to get any kind of excitement.

And for Belak to be complaining about Avery is a little strange considering that his own teammate, Darcy Tucker, is just as bad. Tucker consistently yaps and dives to the ice in mock agony anytime someone touches him. Avery is essentially just a more effective version of Tucker.

Streak Is Over... McAmmond Keeps The Bench Warm

The Sens finally lost tonight to a very determined Capitals team that rode the great play of Olaf Kolzig and Victor Kozlov to victory.

It probably didn't help Ottawa that Wade Redden played the worst game of his season, looking like someone waiting for the number #97 Kanata bus on two of the Caps goals.

Christoph Schubert filled in for a hurt Anton Volchenkov on the blueline and turned in an odorous game, looking lost on the powerplay and completely hamstrung in his own zone.

Ray Emery played a great game until Tomas Fleischmann beat him clean on the stick side and that was all she wrote. Coach John Paddock again went with a short bench with both Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley racking up over 25 minutes and Dean McAmmond a measly 8 minutes.

There's no way that Deano should be playing less than 10 minutes a game because his speed and versatility is too valuable. If things keep going the way they are, expect Alfie and Heatley to be completely wiped out by Christmas, just in time for the busy part of the schedule.

Oilers Dive Into Pool But Brian Burke Already Drained The Water

As Eric Duhatschek pointed out in his blog last night, the Oilers may further pay for their short-sighted idea to snag Dustin Penner from the Ducks with that ridiculous offer sheet.

Not many remember that the Oilers had to give up their first three picks in the upcoming draft as compensation to the Ducks for ripping Penner from them as a restricted free agent. Now that the Oilers are (as Pierre McGuire would say) sucking dirty pond water at the bottom of the league standings, the Ducks may now get the number one overall pick thanks to Kevin Lowe.

Projected to be number one overall (in a strong pool) at this years draft in Ottawa? Steve Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting.

Jason Blake Pines For The Isles And Admires The Sens. The Leafs? - No Comment

Steve Simmons has the article of the day when he talks about the awkward fit that Jason Blake has been on the Toronto Maple Leafs. With Blake and the team struggling, Simmons gets some interesting quotes out of the previous 40 goal-scorer.

On Ottawa:

"We are nowhere near where Ottawa is and I think everybody realizes that. In order to beat a team like that, you have to compete harder than them.

"They do everything so well. They move the puck. When you move the puck, fast, quick, that's what happens."

On the New York Islanders:

"No. 1, they have an unbelievable coach," Blake said. "Ted Nolan's the best. No. 2, we played like the Senators, that way. We weren't as talented, we weren't as big, we weren't as strong but we moved the puck. We tried to hit the open guy. No. 3, we had Brendan Witt, one of the most underrated defenceman in the league."

On his own team, the Leafs:

"It has nothing to with adjusting to a new team. I've adjusted ... It's certain things ... I'm not going to say what it is....Where would I start?... I can't say what ... I'm not going to ... It is what it is."

Wow.

Hall Gets A Hell Of A Leader In Messier.

Mark Messier, my favourite player of all time, is going into the Hall Of Fame this coming Monday. The Associated Press gets his thoughts, among them his memories of winning the Cup in 1990 for Edmonton without best friend Wayne Gretzky.

"I never felt vindicated that we won without Wayne," Messier said. "If anything, I felt sad he wasn't there to share it with us after what we went through winning the first four. "

Unfortunately his son Lyon Messier is having a tough go of it in the OHL.

Gerber Great, But Don't Forget Emery

The buzz here in the capital city is growing with every victory the seemingly dominant Senators rack up against their weaker Eastern Conference brethren (Carolina excluded) and much of it centers on the almost unconscious play of the once maligned rebound disher Martin Gerber.

It's hard to formulate any sane argument for taking him out of the blue paint but there are other things to consider.

Short Memories

We all seem to forget how Ray Emery put this team on his back last year when things were going south quicker than Jerry Fallwell's soul went to hell. He also happened to take the team to the Stanley Cup final, a feat no other goalie in franchise history can claim. Almost every person involved in hockey will tell you that Emery is a better goalie in form and athleticism. He also has a mean competitive streak which has served other elite goalies well, including Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek and Billy Smith.

While this hayride has been fun for every Senators fan, perhaps the team should be keeping an eye on the big prize down the road: the Stanley Cup.

Emery has already proven he can perform at an elite level in the playoffs. Gerber hasn't.

Everyone should be happy that Gerber finally turned his career around but the fans shouldn't jump to conclusions in the first week of November. Besides, when so many people mindlessly jump on a bandwagon, there's something to be said about being wary to jump on yourself.

Before the vocal majority get ready to run Emery out of town for the sin of being injured (in October!!!), they should remember who brought them to the dance in the first place.

It says here that Ray Emery should be given a few starts now to help him get back on track. Better now when they are miles ahead in the standings than waiting for Gerber to go cold when the standings tighten up a little.

In the long run, Emery is a much better goalie for this franchise for this season and the years ahead.

Bruins Bergeron Still In Really Bad Shape From Dangerous Hit

According to Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli, who went on a vicious tirade against the Canadian media last week, injured winger Patrice Bergeron is still battling the effects from being hit from behind by Flyer Randy Jones.

"He still hasn't been able to have his nose set," noted general manager Peter Chiarelli, "because they have to wait for his other injuries to settle and stabilize first. He's still really out of it. "

Ron Maclean - The Dinosaur

Remember when CBC Hockey Night In Canada host Ron Maclean seemed like the urban and intelligent antidote to partner Don Cherry's small town bombast? Anyone who has been watching the iconic program since the new rules against obstruction came into play after the lockout, already knows that Maclean is, if not the biggest, then the most vociferous opponent of the new standards.

Finally, finally.... someone takes him to task for this ridiculous attitude.

William Houston of the Globe does a good job picking apart Macleans foolish and ill-conceived notions that the game was better when players were allowed to hook and hold. Does Maclean even remember the game circa 1999? It was unwatchable for everyone except the hardcore. Even Cherry seems to be more progressive nowadays.

"MacLean's argument was this: Because the 1987 tournament was the best ever (according to Kelley), and because players were allowed to hook and hold, hooking and holding should stay in the game.

"Everybody loved this hockey," MacLean told Colin Campbell, the NHL's senior vice-president and director of hockey operations.

Needless to say, MacLean has consistently applied wonky logic to arguments that range from silly to hardly plausible. For example, he says that, because goal scoring has not increased, zero tolerance hasn't worked. But changing the game was not about goal scoring. It was about improving the quality of play."

Dustin Penner Is Fat And Brutal - National Post

Somewhere, Brian Burke is laughing his ass off. The National Post does a story on how Dustin Penner is way overweight and struggling with the pressures of the rabid Edmonton market. Who could have predicted?

I thought Kevin Lowe's offer sheet steal of Penner this summer was, even though perfectly legal, destructive in the long run to the league as a whole. The dude is a sophomore making 4 and a half bills a year on potential alone and is now a juicy comparable to other players looking for similar contracts. Add in the debacle of Ryan Smyth leaving the team because K Lowe couldn't figure out if he wanted the teams heart and soul or not and it's easy to see that Edmonton is witnessing the rise of another "Mad" Mike Milbury.

Hockey News Ken Campbell Officially Enters Nuthouse - Shares Room With Steve Simmons.

Ken Campbell just wrote an article saying that the Senators would be wise to trade for Mats Sundin.

And that they should trade Mike Fisher for him.

I'm not making this up.

"And the great thing about Fisher from a Leafs perspective is that he's just 27 years old and is under contract for the next five seasons at a cap hit of $4.2 million. He's a Selke Trophy candidate with the Senators, but with a lot of other teams, including the Leafs, he'd be good enough to be the first-line center."

Pavel Bure Should Be In Hall Of Fame

I hate getting into arguments about who should be in the hall but this one is cut and dried for me. Pavel Bure was one of the most dominant players of his generation, not to mention one of the most exciting players of all time. As for pure entertainment value, Bure is right up there with Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky. When he was in his prime in Vancouver, there were many nights when he was an ustoppable scoring force. He was also one of three Russians who made the biggest initial impact on the NHL along with Sergei Fedorov and Alex Mogilny. Bure may not be popular with the fans in Vancouver but that shouldn't play into his Hall worthy credentials.

If Cam Neely is in the Hall of Fame, why not Bure?

Here's the relevant stats:

Games Played

Bure: 702
Neely: 726

Goals

Bure: 437
Neely: 395

Points

Bure: 779
Neely: 694

Playoff Games

Bure: 64
Neely: 93

Playoff Points

Bure: 70
Neely: 89

Stanley Cups

Bure: 0
Neely: 0

In case you've forgotten how good Bure really was, here's a few videos to remind you.



And now, "The Mother Of All Elbows". Bure had a nasty streak that people tend to forget. If this happened nowadays, Bure would have gotten 20 games.

Spezza Re-Signs: 7 Years - 49 Bills

As per TSN.

Things are looking very solid long term in Ottawa.

Sweater-Gate Boils Over Big Time

All hell is breaking loose on the Reebok Edge front. As mentioned before, the individual Senators who requested them were the first team to receive the new "old" uniforms last night with the bead-away system taken away and replaced with the traditional mesh because players were complaining of water being trapped in the sweaters and dripping into their gloves and skates.

Now comes word that the entire Boston team has requested the change.

Then Edmonton Oilers president Cal Nichols complained to the media that the new Oilers jersey's are too "plain" and that the team will be changing their uniform design in 2009 -2010 when the league allows them to.

The great bloggers over at On Frozen Blog also tell us that Alexander Ovechkin has been going through two pairs of gloves a period! They also say that trainers are really concerned because wet gloves and skates means more infections for the players and some that could potentially be life-threatening.

This looks like a mind blowing crisis that only the NHL could concoct. As Frozen Blog already muses, imagine the next board meeting at Reebok where it's revealed that the company had to completely replace every sweater at their own cost and that the bead-away system is dead in the water. Heads will roll like a flotilla of barrels crashing over Niagara Falls.

Stay tuned folks. This could reach Nixonian levels.

The Game That Had Everything. Ottawa 6 Atlanta 4

Got to start off with Chris Neil fighting Eric Boulton. Neil got in a few good bombs and then seemed to ignore Boulton all together and tried to pump up the crowd by waving his hands – all the while taking three major shots to the back of the head!

I’ve never seen that before. If guys showboat during fights, it’s usually after the fight itself is done. Tie Domi used to do the “heavyweight belt” thing with his hands and other fighters routinely try to pump up the fans by waving their arms. But Neiler did it during a scrap.

Crazy.

Some are saying that was the moment when Atlanta finally galvanized themselves and made a hard run at Ottawa by pumping four straight goals past a struggling Ray Emery. Not so, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In between the second and third periods, assistant coach Brad McCrimmon, nicknamed "The Beast" by the players, tore a strip off the team and challenged them to show some pride. Many are saying that McCrimmon will be named Atlanta's new head coach after all and this is a clear sign that the players respect him. Plus he'll be cheap.

You have to think that Emery’s positioning may have been a factor more so than Neil’s showboating because Rayzer was beaten by four straight, unscreened, clean shots. Add in the fact that all teams up 5-0 in a game tend to start thinking about where they’re going to drink their beers that night and you get the proverbial “perfect storm”. It didn’t matter in the end because Daniel Alfredsson pumped his 300th career goal into an empty net to cap a four point night.

The fat lady sang. Elvis left the building. The eagle landed. The Thrashers kicked the bucket and bought the farm. However you add it up, it’s racked up as a Senators victory.

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Poor Randy Robitaille got smeared by Garnet Exelby after filling in for the groinally challenged Jason Spezza and scoring two goals. Robitaille had his head down when Exelby came across and bulldozed him. Face meet ice.

It reminded me of the time when I was young and saw my father fall flat on his face because he had his hands in his pockets and couldn’t get them out in time because his jeans were too tight. Seriously. Just like Robitaille, my old man lay there on his face for awhile and then headed up to the bedroom and didn’t return. My mother said he had “facial contusions”.

Robitaille will be back but with questions lingering over him that have haunted him his whole career: Can Robitaille withstand the physical punishment that it takes to play in the NHL on a regular basis? A lot of people have wondered that over the years. The way he went to the front of the net with his head down was like a play you could get away with in Russia (where he played earlier this year) but not against a vicious wolverine like Garnett Exelby. That dude eats pieces of shit like Robitaille for breakfast.

To paraphrase Happy Gilmour: Garnett Exelby eats pieces of shit for breakfast?

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Brian McGrattan was scratched again last night. I’m still not a fan of sitting your nuclear weapon. When the Sens got up 5-0, the game could have easily gotten out of hand. Luke Richardson and Chris Neil fought but really, McGrattan should have been the go to guy in that situation. In fact, the Sens look like they could blow a lot of teams out this year which will inevitably lead to some bad blood in those games. With McGrattan piling hot dogs into his hole in the press box, star players like Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza are going out there with a little less protection than they should. Guaranteed that all the players except the one McGrattan would replace would say that they preferred him in the lineup than out. Just a thought.

Time To Allow Kicking Motion

Here’s a question:

Why is kicking the puck in the net illegal anyways? For safety?

Here’s a proposal that may eliminate those extremely tiresome 5 minute goal reviews when a puck goes in off a skate:

Always allow goals that go in off a players skate regardless if there’s a kicking motion as long as the puck is on the ice. If a player kicks an airborne puck in the net, it’s disallowed. That will ensure that no one decides to drop kick a puck into the net endangering the goalie and the players around him with a flying skate. The game should be doing all it can to raise goal scoring and dismissing a goal just because it was kicked in seems regressive to me.

Players only kick a puck in the net by accident or out of desperation because their stick is tied up. The sheer difficulty of aiming and kicking a puck in the net with a skate will ensure that it’s only used as a last resort and won’t change the fabric of the game.

What do you think?

Sens First Team To Get New Sweaters

After withstanding the shit-storm of controversy about the negative effects of their new uniform system, Reebok has quietly begun to ship its more player friendly version and the Senators will wear theirs tonight against Atlanta.

The initial sweaters handed out this year didn't allow sweat to escape the jersey, resulting in soaked gloves and skates. It took Sidney Crosby, who is a spokesman for Reebok, to complain to the corporate masters for them to get off their wallets and fix the problem. Reebok claims that fans won't notice the difference but it says here that they already noticed at the cash register.

At the NHL's online clothing shop, the Senators authentic home jersey, featuring a large and intrusive Reebok logo, retails for $249.00. It still astounds me that people will pay companies money for the privilege of being a walking billboard.