SB Nation - Jamie Heward

Gameday Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Dallas Stars (7:00p CDT)

Brandon Worley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:26:22 -0000

Next Game

Toronto Maple Leafs (1-7-1)
@ Dallas Stars (5-2-4)

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009, 7:00 PM CDT
American Airlines Center

Local TV: FSSW (Not on DISH)
Radio: KTCK 1310 The Ticket

This is one I've had circled on my calendar. The Toronto Maple Leafs, the Dallas Cowboys of Canada, make a rare appearance at the AAC tonight in what should be an extremely entertaining game.

Niklas Hagman makes his return to the AAC for the first time since signing with Toronto as a free agent. Hagman was a key member of the Dallas Stars playoff team in 2008, having a breakout season with 27 goals and 41 points. He had a hat trick in Monday's big 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks, which came a week after Hagman was a healthy scratch for the first time since playing for the Florida Panthers.

To make this game even more interesting, Jonas Gustavsson will be in net for the Leafs. You may remember him; the Stars were in the running for his services this season, and watched free agent goaltenders get signed while Gustavsson stalled on his decision. In the end it all worked out; the Stars landed Alex Auld in a brillaint trade and Gustavsson seems poised to take over the starting goaltending job in Toronto.

After the jump, a Q & A with Pension Plan Puppets...

The Dallas Stars:

A little shake up today, as the Stars held their morning skate in Frisco in an effort to get better ready for a home game. So far this season Dallas is 1-2-1 at home and has looked halfway decent in only one game in front of their home crowd.

Matt Niskanen will play, but Mike Modano is sitting this one and is hopeful to play Friday.

Mike Heika takes a stab at the lines for tonight:

Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn
Petersen-Wandell-Brunnstrom
Wathier-Sutherby-Barch

Hmm. Looks a lot like what I predicted earlier today (actually, I just copied the line combos from the last game Wathier played in).

The Toronto Maple Leafs:

Here's a Q & A I did with Pension Plan Puppets. You can find my side of the interview here.

In the offseason, a lot Stars fans might have become jealous with the amount of moves Brian Burke was making for the Leafs, while Dallas stayed relatively quiet. What's gone wrong that the Leafs have struggled so mightily?

It's a situation that you guys might be familiar with: Crappy Goalieitis. Unfortunately, despite a couple of major off-season surgeries, a long recovery period, and the threat of competition Vesa Toskala came out and did nothing more than put an exclamation point on the belief that he is washed up. Couple that with Jonas Gustavsson's heart issues and tweaked groin and the Leafs' goaltending has been suspect.

The defence has three new members most nights and the lack of chemistry due to a compressed pre-season schedule hasn't helped. Of course, the nerves caused by wondering if every shot is going in has contributed as well.

But at the end of the day, it all starts in goal. Once that's settled down the team will as well.

Let's just say that Toronto's goaltending so far this season has been......a bit off. With Jonas Gustavsson returning to the ice, should fans expect this area to improve drastically or is it much to early to hope he can be their savior in net?

Even by being mediocre by league standards he would be a drastic improvement. If he's tending goal at .900 that's already a huge jump over Toskala's .812 or whatever low sv% Joey MacDonald had before the game against the Canucks.

It's hard to say what Gustavsson will do because even though he had great numbers before coming over from the SEL so did Mikael Tellqvist (ouch). From what we have seen though he definitely makes good use of his big body. He doesn't struggle with traffic, he challenges shooters, and he has made a couple of ridiculous pad saves. He has a habit of getting a bit out of position but that's what Francois Allaire is supposed to improve.

How jealous should Dallas fans be that Nik Hagman got away?

Very. We love him. He'll likely go into the books at Fletcher's best signing during his second go-around. For $3M/year and four years the Leafs have a player that is the definition of the 'model professional'. Last year he was on pace to put up about 50+ points before Brendan Witt scrambled his brains with an absolutely brutal elbow to the head. He has the skill to play on any team's top six forwards but combines that with the kind of effort that third and fourth liners would be well advised to replicate.

Also, he has a smoking hot wife so you'll miss seeing her at games.

Here's the projected line combos for tonight:

Forwards
Ponikarovsky Grabovski Blake
Stalberg Stajan Stempniak
Kulemin Mitchell Hagman
Primeau Wallin Orr

Defence
Kaberle Komisarek
Beauchemin White
Exelby Schenn

Goalie
Gustavsson

Injuries:

Dallas: D Matt Niskanen is probable. RW Jere Lehtinen (intercostal muscle) and C Mike Modano (ribs) are out.

Toronto: G Vesa Toskala (knee) is doubtful. RW Phil Kessel, D Mike Van Ryn (knee) and D Jamie Heward (concussion) are out.

The Lightning defense - the 09-10 edition

Cassie McClellan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:23:18 -0000

More photos » by John Dunn - AP

Browse more photos »

Defenseman Matt Smaby avoided arbitration and signed a two-year deal worth $1.05 million ($500,000 for the first season, $550,000 the second) with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For much of last season, Smaby helped anchor down a blue line that was decimated by injuries, waivers, and trades. And he wasn’t the only one. Last season’s defensive corps looked vastly different from the beginning of the season to the end. On opening night of the 2008-2009 season, the defense included:

Matt Carle, Jamie Heward, Andrej Meszaros, Vladimir Mihalik, Janne Niskala, Shane O’Brien, Paul Ranger.

For the last game of the season, the defense included:

Matt Lashoff, Josef Melichar, Vladimir Mihalik, Kevin Quick, Matt Smaby, Noah Welch.

By now, we all know the story of how that came to pass. And we have all painfully winced at the number of defensemen that were used last season – a grand total of 22. It might’ve been more, but Mike Lundin was stuck in the minors due to the fear of being taken by another team as he cleared waivers to come up to Tampa Bay.

At this time, the Lightning have on their official team roster nine defensemen:

Kurtis Foster, David Hale, Victor Hedman, Lukas Krajicek, Matt Lashoff, Andrej Meszaros, Mattias Ohlund, Paul Ranger, and Matt Walker.

Other defensemen not currently on their website roster are:

Mike Lundin, Vladimir Mihalik, Kevin Quick, Matt Smaby.

All but Hedman have played in the NHL. Some played because they deserved it, and others because their team was desperate due to a lack sufficient personnel, for whatever reason. Such is the way of team sports.

So the 64 million dollar question is, who will be playing with the Lightning on opening night of the 2009-2010 season? Some are obvious – such as Hedman, Meszaros, Ohlund, and Ranger – but others not as much. Who would you like to see fill in the last two starting positions on defense?

Poll

Which of these on-the-bubble D-men would you like to see make the team?

Matt Smaby

75 votes

David Hale

15 votes

Mike Lundin

42 votes

Vladmir Mihalik

15 votes

Matt Lashoff

50 votes

Kevin Quick

13 votes

Ty Wishart

22 votes

232 votes | Poll has closed

2009 NHL Free Agency / Teams by Cap Space / Unsigned UFA's and RFA's

Robert L — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:19:41 -0000

This is a listing of NHL teams by order of remaining cap space as of July 4. The Islanders top the list with approximately $23M left to spend. The Sharks have just under $2M remaining. The list is helpful in determining which team are closest to filling out their 2009-10 lineup. As one can see, there is much work to be done at both ends of the spectrum. The numbers figures are based on totals given by NHL Numbers.com.

1 - New York Islanders: $23.265 (18)

UFA: Andy Hilbert C 28, Dean McAmmond C 36, Mike Sillinger C 38, Thomas Pock D 27, Yann Danis G 28, Joey MacDonald G 29.

RFA: Nate Thompson C 24, Jeremy Colliton C 24, Jamie Fraser D 23, Jack Hillen D 23.

2 - Phoenix Coyotes: $21.972 (18)

UFA: Brian McGrattan R 27, Dmitri Kalinin D 29, Ken Klee D 38.

RFA: Nigel Dawes L 24, Joakim Lindstrom C 25, Enver Lisin R 23, Scottie Upshall R 25, Daniel Winnik C 24, Keith Yandle D 22.

3 - Atlanta Thrashers: $19.599 (15)

RFA: Eric Perrin C 33.

UFA: Kari Lehtonen G 25, Colby Armstrong R 26, Jim Slater C 26, Boris Valabik D 23.

4 - Nashville Predators: $17.913 (16)

UFA: Radek Bonk C 33, Scott Nichol C 34, Greg de Vries D 36.

RFA: Ryan Jones R 25, Antti Pihlstrom L 24,.

5 - New York Rangers: $16.436 (13)

UFA: Blair Betts C 29, Mark Bell L 28, Patrick Rissmiller C 30, Paul Mara D 29, Derek Morris D 30.

RFA: Christopher Higgins R 26, Ryan Callahan R 24, Brandon Dubinsky C 23, Lauri Korpikoski L 22, Nikolai Zherdev L 24, Corey Potter D 25.

6 - Anaheim Ducks: $14.295 (17)

UFA: Rob Niedermayer F 34, Todd Marchant C 33, Francois Beauchemin D 29, Bret Hedican D 38.

RFA: James Wisniewski D 25.

7 - Tampa Bay Lightning: $14.295 (17)

UFA: Matt Pettinger L 28, Wade Brookbank L 31, Jason Ward R 30, Marek Malik D 34, Josef Melichar D 30, Cory Murphy D 31, Noah Welch D 26.

RFA: Martins Karsums R 23, Radek Smolenak L 22, Matt Lashoff D 22, Matt Smaby D 24, Mike Lundin D 24, Karri Ramo G 22, Mike McKenna G 26.

8 - Columbus Blue Jackets: $13.313 (20)

UFA: Chris Gratton C 33, Manny Malhotra C 29, Michael Peca C 35, Jason Williams C 28, Christian Backman D 29.

RFA: Jiri Novotny C 25, Marc Methot D 24, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen D 25.

9 - Dallas Stars: $13.193 (19)

UFA: Sergei Zubov D 38, Brendan Morrison C 33, Joel Lundqvist C 27, Mark Parrish R 32, Landon Wilson R 34, Tobias Stephan G 25, Darryl Sydor D 37.

RFA: Mark Fistric D 23.

10 - St. Louis Blues: $12.295 (22)

UFA: Trent Whitfield C 32, Dan Hinote R 32, Jay McKee D 31, Manny Legace G 36.

RFA: Brandon Crombeen R 23, Chris Porter C 25, Steve Regier L 24, Roman Polak D 23, Jeff Woywitka D 25, Marek Schwarz G 23.

11 - New Jersey Devils: $12.129

UFA: Brendan Shanahan L 40, Kevin Weekes G 34, Niclas Havelid D NJ.

RFA: Travis Zajac C 24.

12 - Toronto Maple Leafs: $12.022 (20)

UFA: Brad May L 37, Bates Battaglia L 33, Andre Deveaux C 25, Boyd Devereaux C 31, Jeff Hamilton C 31, Kris Newbury C 27, Ben Ondrus R 27, Jay Harrison D 26, Jamie Heward D 38, Martin Gerber G 34, Olaf Kolzig G 39, Curtis Joseph G 42.

RFA: Jeremy Williams R 25, Justin Pogge G 23, Jaime Sifers D 26, Ryan Hollweg C 26.

13 - Chicago Blackhawks: $11.797

UFA: Aaron Johnson D 26.

RFA: Cam Barker D 23, Troy Brouwer R 23, Ben Eager L 25, Colin Fraser C 24, Kris Versteeg R 23.

14 - Colorado Avalanche: $11.654 (15)

UFA: Joe Sakic F 39, Ben Guite R 30, Brian Willsie R 31, Andrew Raycroft G 29.

RFA: Kyle Cumiskey D 22, David Jones R 24, Cody McCormick C 26.

15 - Montreal Canadiens: $10.454 (16)

UFA: Alexei Kovalev F 36, Saku Koivu C 34, Alex Tanguay L 29, Robert Lang C 38, Mathieu Schneider D 40, Tom Kostopoulos R 30, Mathieu Dandenault D 33, Patrice Brisebois D 38, Francis Bouillon D 33, Marc Denis G 31.

RFA: Tomas Plekanec C 26, Matt D'Agostini R 22, Guillaume Latendresse R 22, Kyle Chipchura C 23, Gregory Stewart L 23.

16 - Los Angeles Kings: $10.285 (21)

UFA: Derek Armstrong F 36, Denis Gauthier D 32, Kyle Calder L 30.

RFA: Jack Johnson D 22, Teddy Purcell R 23.

17 - Washington Capitals: $9.720 (15)

UFA: Viktor Kozlov C 34, Alexandre Giroux C 28, Bryan Helmer D 26, Brent Johnson G 32.

RFA: Jeff Schultz D 23, Shaone Morrisonn D 26, Milan Jurcina D 26, Eric Fehr R 23, Boyd Gordon R 25.

18 - Buffalo Sabres: $8.976 (16)

UFA: Matt Ellis L 24, Dominic Moore C 28, Andrew Peters L 29, Teppo Numminen D 40, Maxim Afinogeno F 29,

RFA: Andrej Sekera D 23, Drew Stafford R 23, Clarke MacArthur L 24, Patrick Kaleta R 23.

19 - Florida Panthers: $8.405 (18)

UFA: Ville Peltonen L 36, Richard Zednik L 33, Jassen Cullimore D 36, Nick Boynton D 30.

RFA: Anthony Stewart C 24, Steve Eminger D 25, Tanner Glass L 25.

20 - Carolina Hurricanes: $8.083 (18)

UFA: Ryan Bayda L 28, Dennis Seidenberg D 27.

RFA: Tuomo Ruutu C 26, Anton Babchuk D 25.

21 - Vancouver Canucks: $7.282 (18)

UFA: Mats Sundin C 38, Jason Krog C 33, Rob Davison D 29, Ossi Vaananen D 28, Curtis Sanford G 29, Michel Ouellet R 27.

RFA: Shane O' Brien D 25. Kyle Wellwood C 26, Jannik Hansen R 23.

22 - Minnesota Wild: $6.296 (20)

UFA: Stephane Veilleux L 27, Krys Kolanos C 27, Marc-Andre Bergeron D 28, Kurtis Foster D 27, Martin Skoula D 29.

RFA: Dan Fritsche C 23, Benoit Pouliot L 22, Kyle Brodziak C 25, Josh Harding G 25.

23 - Edmonton Oilers: $6.404 (20)

UFA: Ales Kotalik R 30, Dany Sabourin G 28.

RFA: Liam Reddox L 23, Gilbert Brule C 22, Ryan Potulny C 24, Rob Schremp C 22, Denis Grebeshkov D 25, Ladislav Smid D 23.

24 - Detroit Red Wings: $5.554 (16)

UFA: Darren McCarty R 37, Aaron Downey R 34, Chris Chelios D 47.

RFA: Jiri Hudler C 25, Ville Leino L 25.

25 - Boston Bruins: $5.340 (18)

UFA: Stephane Yelle F 35, P.J. Axelsson L 34, Manny Fernandez G 34.

RFA: Phil Kessel F 21, Matt Hunwick D 24.

26 - Ottawa Senators: $4.649 (22)

UFA: Mike Comrie C 28.

RFA: Brendan Bell D 26, Brian Elliott G 24.

27 - Pittsburgh Penguins: $3.137 (19)

UFA: Mike Zigomanis C 28, James Connor L 26, Miroslav Satan L 34, Petr Sykora R 32, Janne Pesonen L 27, Philippe Boucher D 36.

RFA: Paul Bissonnette R 24, Tim Wallace R 24, Ben Lovejoy D 25, John Curry G 25.

28 - Calgary Flames: $3.053 (19)

UFA: Todd Bertuzzi R 34, Andre Roy R 34, Rhett Warrener D 33.

RFA: Dustin Boyd C 22.

29 - Philadelphia Flyers: $2.125 (20)

UFA: Josh Gratton L 26, Boyd Kane L 31, Andrew Alberts D 28, Lasse Kukkonen D 27, Martin Biron G 31, Antero Niittymaki G 29.

RFA: Jared Ross C 26, Danny Syvret D 24.

30 - San Jose Sharks: $1.774 (16)

UFA: Claude Lemieux R 43, Jeremy Roenick C 39, Tom Cavanagh R 27, Alexei Semenov D 28, Mike Grier R 34, Marcel Goc C 25, Tomas Plihal L 26, Lukas Kaspar L 23.

RFA: Torrey Mitchell C 24, Thomas Greiss G 23, Brad Staubitz R 24.

2009 NHL Free Agency: What The Toronto Maple Leafs Might Do

PPP — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:45:08 -0000

More photos » by Jeff McIntosh - AP

Mike Cammalleri turns his back on the Flames for the last time. Will he walk all of the way to Toronto?

Browse more photos »

Someday I'll have to shake the hand of the guy that decided that it made sense to schedule the draft three days before the start of free agency. It's not like this day is so important that it's a national holiday in Canada. As a conversation starter because I still have a tonne of draft stuff to come I have a short cheat sheet to help us with a starting point.

Pending UFAs: Martin Gerber, Brad May, Bates Battaglia, Andre Deveaux, Boyd Devereaux, Jeff Hamilton, Kris Newbury, Ben Ondrus, Jay Harrison, Erik Reitz, Jamie Heward, Curtis Joseph, Olaf Kolzig, Jaime Sifers (Thanks Mirtle!)

Calling this a list of notable free agents would have been insulting to players like Eric Christensen. From that list I could see Boyd "SchennBlocker" Devereaux, Brad May, and one of Kris Newbury or Ben Ondrus getting re-signed. The first two would be great veteran influences on the younger players and the latter two could fill up roster space while kids learn on the farm.

Pending RFAs: Mikhail Grabovski, ~~Jaime Sifers~~ ~~(NHL Numbers has him as an RFA and Hockey Buzz as a UFA. I am looking into this)~~, Phil Oreskovic, Tim Stapleton, Jeremy Williams, Ryan Hollweg

Justin Poggegot qualified today so he's not on this list. I am actually pretty surprised that guys like Sifers and Oreskovic have not been qualified. Hollweg is gone and we'll never know what that fifth rounder could have brought. Other than knowing it wasn't going to be a European. Williams seems to not be a Wilson favourite, he's not good enough to play on the top two lines when the team is good again and he's past the stage where he should have established himself. We'll always have the 82 goals/season projections!

Based on my inability to find any news thus far I don't think any of the other guys have been qualified. Grabovski is likely going to arbitration which I think will mark the end of his time in Toronto. I get the sense that Burke will move him if he goes that route.

Salary cap space (courtesy NHL Numbers): $13-million

Now, if you look at NHL Numbers the Leafs have some ridiculous cap relief coming online after next season. They only have $18M committed. On the flip side, they only have five guys signed but one of them is Luke Schenn so I think that means that only need to sign a goalie. Either way, there are a couple of ways that Burke can approach this free agency period.

Scenario One

He can fill out the roster with the myriad of RFAs that are getting axed left and right or the lower end of the free agency pool. Burke would then keep any of the kids that cannot play in their proper role on the team with the Marlies. This would be akin to the Red Wings' policy of developing kids in Grand Rapids but with our NHL team stocked with scrubs and waiver-tied prospects instead of Hall of Famers. This one is tough because the idea would be to have UFAs on one year deals so that the cap space is still available next year.

Scenario Two

This is the one Burke has said that he wants to pursue but he also wanted to trade for more first rounders at the deadline and for Tavares and Schenn at the draft. So far he's 0-for-2 (and I'll have a post about why that's not entirely his fault) so even then there's no guarantee that this will work. This strategy can work long-term if he makes the right decisions. Mike Komisarek at $4m-$5M is a bad move. The Sedins at $5.25M is a great move. We'll see how much he has to overpay to get players to come to Toronto.

Projected budget: $56.8-million less $1. Whether he spends to it will be a function of the UFAs' receptiveness to his deal.

Key needs: Everything is the short answer. The longer one is that the Leafs' most pressing need is their goaltending situation. James Reimer and Justin Pogge will hold down the fort with the Marlies but Vesa Toskala is coming off of three major surgeries. If Burke really thinks that this team can make the playoffs he needs a competent backup.

In terms of defence, the Leafs have two years of Kaberle, one of Kubina and Van Ryn, and then 20 of Luke Schenn. After that, they'll need to look at how to replace Kubina and Kaberle. If they can do it this summer then they can cash in those assets. If all of the king's men and all of the king's horses put Van Ryn together again properly over the weekend even he might get something for the Leafs. Or he could be part of the team going forward. Burke, however, is really loathe to let Kaberle go. I am hoping that by the deadline Burke gets his doors blown off by a deal.

Looking at the forwards, there is obviously a dearth of skill forwards that are NHL-calibre. There are guys that have the potential to fill that role at some point but no one is a sure bet. I hear that there are a couple of interesting ginger twins available...

Potential targets: It might be easier to list who isn't a target. Take one part cap space, add a dollop (actually, more like a cup) of Burkian hubris, a pound of media speculation, mix well, and you get every big-ticket player being linked to the Leafs. Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin are getting their retirement plan from the Leafs. Francois Beauchemin, Travis Meon, and Samuel Pahlssonare being re-united with their former GM. Jonas Gustavsson is coming over to be the next Henrink Lundqvist while Mike Cammalleri is going to live up to the expectations that come with a 40% raise. I look forward to watching him score 60 goals a year for five years.

As I noted above, there are two scenarios and it sure looks like Burke is going through door number two. I think that the Sedins are going to be his main target. I've heard The Monster is ready to be unveiled July 1 and I would imagine that Burke looks at Beauchemin. The rumours of Komisarek and Chris Neil sicken me so I will pretend that I've never heard of them.

What our rivals want:

Colorado Avalanche: A real starting goalie and defence that can keep the puck out of the net. Also, a new medical staff to keep their players in one piece.
LA Kings: A sniper to play with their young forwards and a defensive defenceman.
Atlanta Thrashers: Defence and goaltending. The only year they made the playoffs was the one year that they weren't in the bottom 4 or 5 of the league in goals against.
NY Islanders: I'll tell you what they don't need: a franchise scorer (sigh). Other than that, they could use a goalie on a 15 year contract that actually plays hockey, and defencemen.
Phoenix Coyotes: A new owner. Zing! Actually, as Godd Till noted in a private e-mail, they need to get a new coach in order to escape from the mad clutches of the Friends of Gretzky. Did you know that the best man from his wedding, Eddie Mio, is the Director of Player Development and his brother Keith is the Head Scout. Failing that they could use some veteran leadership since the average age of that team is about 12.

SBN has once again put together a massive hub to coordinate the writing from 30ish blogs. You can find it by clicking on this button.

a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/freeagency">

The offending defense and the off-season

John Fontana — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:02:10 -0000

Browsing through news pieces on the local media web sites recently, it'd been easy to find a lot of banal stuff regarding the Bolts... News about off-season plans, the losing, and plans for the immediate future and thoughts regarding the season that was have dominated headlines.

One earnest column that I came across was from Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune on Friday. Erlendsson proposed the top five decisions that cost the Lightning dearly in 2008-09. It's easy to nit pick singular items but there is one dominant failure by OK (Not Really) Hockey made in separate moves that handcuffed and strangled the Lightning season to death:

Dismantling the defense By the first week of October,Tampa Bay had moved almost its entire defensive core from last season, trading away Boyle, Brad Lukowich, Filip Kuba, Alex Picard and Shane O'Brien and receiving only Lukas Krajicek, Andrej Meszaros and Matt Carle in return. Carle was later traded for Steve Eminger, who was later traded for Noah Welch. While the team spent millions of free-agent dollars on forwards over the summer, turnover and injuries resulted in 22 different players manning the blue line.

And in all of the hoopla, in all of the anarchy, and in all of the volatility of the season, the question "Why?" has never been adequately answered. Of course, it's their team -- but a method to the madness being explained to the fans would have been nice instead of cliché management responses to these transactions.

But let's move on from this grievance for a moment and look at the Lightning as it is today -- Geoff Kinrade served as the team's 22nd ~~warm body~~ defenseman of the season on April 9th. 22 different players served on the Lightning. Some are stuck in the minors now, some are on other rosters and some of them are recuperating from injuries.

That's not to say that Boyle, O'Brien, Picard, Lukowich and/or Kuba wouldn't have fallen to the wayside because of injury (~~O'Brien missed much playing time due to injury for Vancouver this season~~ -- see correction in comments)... But that's five NHL defensemen who were turned over in a short timespan for the likes of Janne Niskala, Jamie Heward, Matt Carle, Lukas Krajicek and Andrej Meszaros.

And that was for starters.

Janne Niskala ran home to Europe, Cory Murphy was an emergency pick up. Steve Eminger came over after the Lightning gave up on Carle, oh and of course Eminger was later dealt for Noah Welch... Matt Lashoff and Richard Petiot were other trade acquisitions at the deadline; Matt Smaby, Kevin Quick, Ty Wishart and Geoff Kinrade were part of the minor-league-musical chairs on D.

It's easy to go on forever about this but there was a self-made disaster on defense by Lightning management. We'll just say that.

And with the close of the season, the mess gets even muddier.

Cory Murphy, Marek Malik and Josef Melichar -- three veterans lost to injury -- are all Unrestricted Free Agents after the season. I won't color them as huge loses if they are signed by other teams... But they much more tried, tested and experienced than the AHL calibre crew that manned the blue line to close the season.

In the end, it's a question of who stays and who goes on D and all signs are pointing to another volatile off-season of change. Oh sure, Paul Ranger and Meszaros will be back next season... But after that, everything comes into quesiton.

Everything.

Lukas Krajicek, Matt Lashoff, Mike Lundin and Matt Smaby are all restricted free agents after the season. With Lundin having been trapped and exiled to Norfolk for more than half a season, I would guess that having him re-signed is a priority -- the Bolts hadn't wanted to lose him to waivers.

But are all of the above considered a young nucleus to build around, or simply depth to be shuffled between Norfolk and Tampa?

And while General Manager Brian Lawton has said he will be active shopping for defensive help (and also expressed willingness to shop the Lightning's first round draft pick), it's uncertain which of these unrestricted free agents he will target... Or what will ultimately be guiding his decisionmaking while hunting for help.

Stability would be nice. Revamping the defense again in haste with a makeshift lineup may only cause problems in the end. Though it's also difficult to say "build up around what you have" -- that applied before last summer, and right now? What we have is an offending defensive mess where up-is-out and down-is-in.

The $450,000 fourth-round pick

James Mirtle — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:27:39 -0000

All of the "winners and losers" articles are coming out in full force, but I can't help but still think about that doozy of a deal Brian Burke made with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tyler Dellow smells something fishy as well.

As it turns out, the league took a look at the legitimacy of what has to be one of the strangest deadline trades ever made:

As for the final deal, that was the most interesting as Tampa Bay sent goaltender Olie Kolzig, defenseman Jamie Heward and minor-league defenseman Andy Rogers and a 2009 fourth-round pick to the Maple Leafs for rugged minor-league defenseman Richard Petiot, who was assigned to AHL Norfolk. The NHL actually got involved in this transaction. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league gave it a look because all the Lightning players involved are injured. The NHL, Daly said, wanted to ensure the deal included "legitimate hockey assets." The deal was approved. Apparently, Toronto so badly wanted the pick, it was willing to take what was left of those salaries.

I guess so.

Not including Rogers's deal, which is likely to be negligible given he's playing in the minors, my best guesstimate is that the Leafs are taking on close to $450,000 in salary — the equivalent of 21.5 per cent of the combination of the Kolzig and Heward contracts — and getting back a fourth-round pick.

Neither side was saying that much about the deal initially.

"You're not allowed to just buy and sell picks, let's be clear on that," Lightning GM Brian Lawton told The Fan 590. "For us, it's just we had a chance to reduce in some areas, we traded a fourth-round pick, Toronto had a chance to get a player in Jamie Heward who should be ready to play in a week to 10 days.

"What their situation is, I don't know ... For me, I put that [trade] under cap management."

No kidding.

Burke was asked about the deal on television soon after it was made and didn't offer much of an answer, but Toronto radio host Bob McCown got a little more out of him later in the night.

"If you're smelling a skunk here, Bob, you're right — there is a component here which involves the salary cap," Burke said in an interview with The Fan 590. "You cannot make a deal to acquire cap room unless there a hockey component to it that passes muster with the NHL. I think they should allow this but they do now allow trade deals that purchase or sell cap space. So you've got to put bodies in there where the league feels it adds up to a legitimate deal or they will not condone it, they will not do the trade call.

"So this is a case of us trying to experiment with Tampa, trying to come up with names — they liked the Petiot kid that we put in the deal a little bit, we liked the kid that we got back ... there is obviously more salary moved to us from Tampa, but we cleared this with the league in advance.

"The league said it passed the smell test."

Now, I know a lot of the response to this deal has been a muted "Who cares?" but you wonder what this opens the door to. In the future, could we see several low salaried teams looking to boost their revenue-sharing payout by chucking a bunch of salary cap flotsam along with a first-rounder off to a team with cash and cap space?

And if that's not considered buying and selling picks, what is?

It's a slipperly slope, and it's one that creates a strange divide between teams with cap space and those without, teams that are eligible for revenue sharing and those that aren't. I've mentioned this before, but we're looking at situations where retired players — or even deceased ones — are potentially going to be punted around for draft picks willy nilly.

And don't think Burke's not on board with that idea.

"In my mind, cap space and cap room and cash are assets, just like draft picks, and they should be freely tradable," Burke said. "I don't know why we couldn't say 'okay, we're going to take $1-million back — no players involved — for a first-round pick.' I have no idea why that wouldn't be allowed, but it's not.

"So you've got to build a hockey deal up to where the league says it meets approval and in this case we did."

Ah, so there it is. This "trading cap space" business has been Burke's hobby horse for a few years now, pre-dating his time with the Leafs, and it continues to make an appearance at all of the GM meetings before being shot down by league officials.

Why did Burke spend $450,000 on a fourth-round pick?

To prove he could.

Maple Leafs Acquire Olaf Kolzig

PPP — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:22:55 -0000

Wow. The Maple Leafs just acquired Olaf Kolzig, Jamie Heward, Andy Rogers and a 4th round pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Richard Petiot.

Olaf Kolzig

#37 / Goalie / Tampa Bay Lightning

Height: 6-3

Weight: 225

Born: Apr 06, 1970

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Olaf Kolzig	8	410	2	4	1	0	25	3.66	245	220	.898	0

Kolzig is on the Injured Reserve and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. No worries for Martin Gerber then as he will continue to be the Toronto Maple Leafs' number one goalie. Did anyone else feel like gouging out their eyes after reading that? Well how do you think I feel after cutting my hands off after writing it.

Jamie Heward

#23 / Defenseman / Tampa Bay Lightning

Height: 6-2

Weight: 215

Born: Mar 30, 1971

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Jamie Heward	13	0	2	2	-1	4	0	0	0	0	11	0.0

That picture accurately reflects Heward's mental state right now. He is concussed and will join Olaf in free agency this summer. He will likely never dress for the Leafs.

Andy Rogers does not get a nice picture or stats because he is a 22 year old 6'5" defensive prospect. He is a stay at home defender and here is his Hockey's Future profile:

Many scouts will agree with Rogers. His combination of defensive play, physical presence, and sheer skating ability make him an intriguing prospect to say the least. Many teams may look over his offensive shortcomings, simply because of his smooth stride and physical stature.

Future

Finding the combined size and skating ability that Rogers possesses is rare, especially in a defensemen. But because of his limited offensive upside, may find himself further down a club's depth chart.

With his defensive presence, Rogers could play an important role on any hockey club, but he does not appear to have superstar potential.

Richard Petiot

#43 / Defenseman / Toronto Maple Leafs

Height: 6-2

Weight: 190

Born: Aug 20, 1982

That tells you all that you need to know about the player that the Leafs are sending to Tampa Bay. They must have a complete set of minor league defencemen by now. Anyway, in a year in which the Leafs' defence was riddled with injuries and the club dressed nine rookies for over 300 man games (eventually) Petiot did not get a sniff.

So it looks like Burke just bought a fourth round pick and a prospect and the Lightning must be in serious financial trouble if this deal makes sense for them.

Update:

Mirtle has more details on the cap/revenue sharing implications of the deal.

Bruins in Tampa to take on Lightning

Stanley Cup of Chowder — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:00:11 -0000

The Bruins will finish up their 5 game road trip with a late afternoon (5:00) matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins will took to end their road trip on a high note, while the Lightning will try to snap a 4 game losing streak (0-3-1).

Just who are these (is that?) Lightning you speak of?
Tampa Bay Lightning 19-28-12; 50 pts (4th in Southeast, 13th in East)

Leading Scorers

G A P +/- PIM

2008 - Vincent Lecavalier 25 29 54 0 46

G A P +/- PIM

2008 - Ryan Malone 21 12 33 3 75

G A P +/- PIM

2008 - Martin St. Louis 20 35 55 6 10

Goaltending

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Mike McKenna	7	352	2	3	1	1	17	2.90	175	158	.903	1

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Karri Ramo	7	341	1	3	1	0	24	4.22	216	192	.889	0

GP MIN W L T EGA GA GAA SA SV SV% SO

2008 - Mike McKenna 7 352 2 3 1 1 17 2.90 175 158 .903 1

GP MIN W L T EGA GA GAA SA SV SV% SO

2008 - Karri Ramo 7 341 1 3 1 0 24 4.22 216 192 .889 0

Guys That Like to Drop the Gloves
Ryan Malone: 5 Fighting Majors
Ryan Craig: 4 Fighting Majors

'08-'09 Season Series
Bruins Record vs. Tampa Bay: 2-0-0
12/4 @ TB 3-1 W
12/8 vs. TB 5-3 W

Injury Report

Boston
LW Marco Sturm: IR (Knee)
RW Michael Ryder: IR (Face)
F Petteri Nokelainen: Doubtful (Eye)

Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Marek Malik	other-excused	02/21/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Mike Smith	concussion	01/30/2009
Olaf Kolzig	biceps	01/27/2009
Andrej Meszaros	shoulder	02/05/2009
Jamie Heward	concussion	01/02/2009
Paul Ranger	shoulder	02/08/2009

Notes:

- I wrote this yesterday afternoon, so I don't know who will get the start in goal for the Bruins. I would expect to see Manny Fernandez get the start since Tim Thomas got the start last night.

- The Lightning's #1 and #2 goaltenders are both hurt.

- Jeremy Jacobs can't like this: You can get 2 tickets, 2 beers, 2 hot dogs, and a parking pass to a Tampa Bay Lightning game for $39.

- The Lightning are 14-21-8 under Rick Tocchet who took over for the fired Barry Melrose (5-7-4).

- Game starts at 5:00, open thread starts at 4:00

On Ovechkin's Hit On Heward

J.P. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:04:27 -0000

There's an inherent bias in being a fan of a team or a player - a Caps fan likely doesn't view Alex Ovechkin's hit on Jamie Heward the same way a Bolts fan does, and had the hit been Evgeny Artyukhin on Mike Green, we'd probably be calling for the former's head right now.

Not surprisingly, then, I don't think the hit is worthy of a suspension - I thought it was a hockey play.

Watch it again. Heward was skating along the boards, Ovi had him lined up, and then Heward turns back and towards the boards with his head lowered because (presumably) the puck wasn't coming around as hard as he had thought. A crisper pass along the boards and Ovi just finishes Heward a bit as they skate out of the zone, as he does a dozen times a game. But that's not what happened.

Hockey doesn't happen frame-by-frame, and Alex Ovechkin isn't a dirty player (he's been credited with more than 700 hits in his career and has a grand total of four boarding and three charging penalties). Lightning coach Rick Tocchet didn't think the play was dirty or that AO was attempting to injure Heward. So let's not make it into more than it was - an unfortunate, awkward hockey play.

Friday Roundup - Caps 7, Bolts 4

J.P. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:52:46 -0000

[AP Recap - Game Summary - Event Summary - WashingtonCaps.com Postgame]

For the first twenty minutes of last night's 7-4 win over Tampa, the Caps were thoroughly engaged and, not surprisingly, thoroughly dominant, out-shooting their guests 15-8 and out-scoring them 3-0. Thereafter, however, the interest level dropped significantly and the overall skill and system differentials between the two teams allowed the Caps to hold on to an easy win. On most nights - especially the important ones - that won't be enough.

Some thoughts on the game:

First and foremost, get well soon, Jamie Heward. You never like to see an opponent injured, especially one who is as good a guy as Heward is.
Matt Bradley was rewarded for a great game with the first star on the night. Brads had a goal, an assist, a plus-three rating and two hits. His goal eleven seconds after Ryan Malone cut the Caps' lead to 3-2 was a huge momentum shifter, and if Evgeny Artyukhin had dropped the gloves with him in the game's dying moments, he'd have had himself a Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
Bradley's linemate, Boyd Gordon, also had a nice night, with a goal (the game-winner), an assist, and 58% of his draws won. He was twice the beneficiary of Mike Smith misplays and converted on 'em (once on his own and once setting up the Bradley tally).
Bad news for Bolts bench boss Rick Tocchet - he bet the under.
David Steckel now has five goals in nine career games against Tampa and five goals in 106 games against the rest of the League. Of course, Peter Bondra once had five goals in a single game against the 'Ning.
Brent Johnson wasn't great, though he did make a couple of big saves (and flashed some attitude as well). He also didn't look 100% healthy at times.
Chris Clark had his best game of the year and potted his first goal since November of 2007, meaning he went through all of 2008 without a tally. Yes, he only played 24 games in '08, but still...
Three points for Alex Ovechkin, two for Nicklas Backstrom, two for Mike Green (whose goal was a beauty)... like clockwork, these guys, but those three power plays absolutely stunk out loud.
That was about as poorly officiated a game as you'll see. There were missed calls (a slash that snapped AO's stick in half), phantom calls (Green's "trip" that resulted in the penalty shot, Gordon's "hook"), missed goals (they really needed to go upstairs on the Recchi goal?) and poor judgement (Michael Nylander deserved a dive when he drew the Prospal hook). Crappy.
Congrats to Sean Collins on his first NHL goal, joining Tyler Sloan, Karl Alzner and Chris Bourque as other Caps to get their firsts this season.

So the Caps open the new year with a win and two points, but they had best make a resolution to quit the bad habits they've developed when playing the League's weaker teams, or they'll find themselves in trouble when playing the stronger ones. With the Rangers coming to town on Saturday night, they'll be tested and should pass... if they can focus for sixty minutes.

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Kevin Allen thinks AO hits the 60-goal mark again this season. Anyone disagree?... Happy 40th Birthday to today's Cap of the Day.... Braden Holtby notched his third shutout of the season last night.... Finally, on this day in Caps history back in 1982 Mike Gartner scored his 100th goal as a Cap, and in 1999 Brian Bellows had a goal and an assist to hit the 1,000 point mark.