Kovie Upstages Ovie

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Written on 2/05/2010 by Jim Cerny

Usually when Alex Ovechkin comes to town---any hockey town really, but in particular New York City, where he just loves to play and torment the Rangers and their fans---he seizes all of the attention and focus.

But not yesterday, however.

Oh, Ovechkin was on Broadway alright last night, but the spotlight instead was on his fellow countryman, Ilya Kovalchuk, who was nowhere near Madison Square Garden.

Let's just say it's the night Kovie upstaged Ovie.

Even before the game between the Rangers and Capitals started, members of the media---and there were more than the norm at last night's game what with Ovechkin and the Caps looking for a 12th straight win and Olli Jokinen set to make his home-ice debut for the Rangers---huddled in groups to discuss rumors that Kovalchuk was soon to be traded.

Just 24 hours prior Thrashers GM Don Waddell had released information that Kovie rejected a pair of mega-deals---$101 million over 12 years, $70 mill over seven years---and was opting to head to UFA status this summer. As a result, Waddell announced that Kovie would be traded.

But to whom? And how soon?

Speculation flew around the press room at The Garden as reporters checked in with sources, shared what they had heard, and probably made up a few rumors, as well. I made a note to myself that it just seemed funny there was little to no chatter about the upcoming game at MSG, and Kovie's name was mentioned a heckuva' lot more than Ovie's.

What followed was one wild night, just a great fun night to be a hockey reporter. The Rangers and Caps played an exciting seesaw contest where goals and the power play ruled the day in a 6-5 Washington victory.

Ovechkin's brilliance was on full display as he notched two goals---including the hugely important one with 8.5 seconds to go in the second period that cut the Caps' deficit to one---and an assist. Nicklas Backstrom put forth a five-point effort. Vinny Prospal tied a career high with four points. Jokinen scored his first goal as a Ranger in a two-point effort. Four power play goals for the Rangers, three for Washington. Great stuff.

But as Ovechkin was throwing himself into a wild celebration over his team's third-period comeback and 12th consecutive victory, reporters were busy verifying web reports and rumors that Kovalchuk had been traded to the New Jersey Devils.

Ovie on the grand New York stage---even scoring his 500th career point (in only his 373rd game, I might add) turning in another virtuoso performance, and upstaged by Kovie.

"I wish him good luck," Ovechkin said to nhl.com's Dan Rosen after the game. "He's a good friend of mine and a great player. It was a big trade."

OK, Ovechkin lost the spotlight last night. And as far as big trades go, this one is the biggest of the season, certainly trumping the recent ones that saw the Rangers land Jokinen and the Maple Leafs acquire Dion Phaneuf and J-S Giguere.

It is the biggest deal of the season because it involves a mega-superstar player going to a legit Stanley Cup contender. Plus it may also be a fatal blow to the Thrashers franchise in Atlanta, where Waddell noted yesterday, "we're struggling with attendence as it is."

I understand Waddell had to trade Kovalchuk. Waddell tried his damndest to ink Kovie with UFA status looming over the contract talks. When Kovie rejected Atlanta's latest offers, he had to be dealt. The Thrashers had to receive something for him as opposed to just letting him walk on July 1.

But did Waddell have to rush into making this trade as he did yesterday? I understand, as Bob McKenzie says over at TSN, that Waddell has studied the market and knows it much better than I. But what did he have to lose by seeing teams react to the news from Wednesday that Kovie indeed was going to be traded?

So the Thrashers get Johnny Oduya---a solid defenseman, but no star, who will be tested as to how good he really is now that he is out of New Jersey's defensemen-friendly system. And they get winger Niclas Bergfors, perhaps a top-six forward, a player who started very strong in this, his rookie, season, but who fell out of favor with Jacques Lemaire. And they get prospect Patrice Cormier, suspended the rest of the year by the QMJHL, but considered a future third liner in the NHL one day. And the Thrashers land New Jersey's late first round pick, while also swapping second rounders and sending Anssi Salmela to the Devils, as well.

That is not an overwhelming package. I know Waddell was not going to win this trade no matter whom he acquired. You never do when you are forced to deal a superstar, especially one whom the receiving team does not know if they can sign to a long-term deal. But there was not a better offer out there, or wouldn't have been in the coming days?

As for the Devils, solid smart move by the master, Lou Lamoriello. I personally do not believe that Kovalchuk will sign with New Jersey after July 1---that is just speculative on my part---but for the here and now Lamoriello did not give up assets he can not replace from within anyway, and he received a superstar player to jolt his team's offense for the stretch run and post-season. Not too dissimilar to his acquisition of Alexander Mogilny in 2000, a move that helped spark another Stanley Cup run in New Jersey.

"What he brings, he can do things a lot of people can’t do," Lamoriello said of Kovalchuk in typical understated manner.

Kovie is sitting at 31 goals and 58 points in 49 games this season. He has 328 career goals already, and has strung together seven straight seasons of 30 or more goals. Twice he has scored 52 goals.

For a team that is in the bottom third of scoring in the league, this is an insane offensive boost for the Devils. How about a power play in a tight playoff game that can feature both Kovalchuk and fellow sniper Zach Parise? And if Patrick Elias can get healthy, add him to the mix, too. Not too shabby.

“We felt Kovalchuk was a player who could come and fill the need that we felt we had for an explosive scorer and someone who could add a different dimension to our power play with the type of shot,” Lamoriello said. “Then it was just the case of trying to make it work somehow where we could not sacrifice tomorrow.”

Will Kovalchuk chafe under Lemaire's preferred style of play as Marian Gaborik often did in Minnesota under Lemaire's watch? Will Lemaire allow Kovalchuk the freedom he so craves in the offensive end? Will we find out how badly Kovalchuk really wants to win now that he finally is on a team with legit aspirations to do so?

"[New Jersey] is a good team and it's a great chance to play in the playoffs and go far in the playoffs," Kovalchuk told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It's sad at the same time because now -- I can say it -- I've been a Thrasher for eight years. I'm appreciative of everything, the organization and the fans."

Sad day for the Thrashers and their fans. Exhilerating deal for the Devils and theirs. And just plain fun from an NHL reporter's---or fan's---perspective.

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Hockey Day Helps Change Course of Several Teams

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Written on 2/01/2010 by Jim Cerny

Canada's Hockey Day on Saturday was its usual great spectacle, and made for great viewing on The NHL Network for this particular US scribe.

But intriguingly each NHL contest played in Canada that day set forth a chain of events that rocked individual teams and the entire league the folllowing day.

First Ottawa continued its impressive climb up the Eastern Conference standings with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory against the Canadiens. Things are going so well for the Sens, whose win was their ninth in a row, that even Alex Kovalev dented the back of the net against his old club.

The bigger news, though, was Montreal losing its top goal scorer, Mike Cammalleri, to a knee injury. For a team that can be hot-and-cold offensively, seeing their 26-goal scorer go down was a huge blow for the Habs. On Sunday the other shoe dropped, as the Canadiens found out Cammalleri will miss 6-8 weeks of action, a devestating blow for a team battling for a playoff spot.

Next up was Vancouver and Toronto at Air Canada Centre, and Brian Burke's boys must have thought they were dreaming, racing out to a 3-0 lead and chasing Roberto Luongo to the bench in the first period. Dream turned into nightmare, however, as the Canucks scored once in the second and then erupted for four goals in the third to defeat the Leafs 5-3, with Alex Burrows and the Sedin twins taking starring turns.

That collapse was the final straw for Burke who went out and engineered two major trades less than 24 hours later, picking up Dion Phaneuf from Calgary and J-S Giguere from Anaheim in a pair of deals that saw ten players switch jerseys.

Of course Calgary GM Darryl Sutter (above photo) was front and center alongside Burke because it was he---mere hours after his club thrashed Edmonton 6-1 to stem their recent losing ways in the finale of Hockey Day in Canada---who took the leap and traded away the 24 year-old Phaneuf, a First Team NHL All-Star just two years ago.

That pleasing victory over the Oilers did not slow down Sutter's plan to shake up his club. Not only did he ship Phaneuf and two others to Toronto for Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Ian White, and Jamal Mayers, Sutter was right on the verge of casting Olli Jokinen away to New York for Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins, but something---rumored to be either Sutter's asking for Ryan Callahan instead of Higgins or Kotalik's refusal to waive his partial no-trade clause---upended the deal.

As of today the Flames and Rangers still have been unable to pull off the trade, or some variation thereof, leaving Sutter with an underperforming star who now quite likely will be a pouting, underperforming star when Jokinen is forced to dress for Calagary at home against the Flyers tonight.

What a mess.

And speaking of blown trades, how about the Oilers, Calgary's victim in the last game Saturday night? They've been looking to move defenseman Sheldon Souray now that he is healthy again. Then Souray goes out and seeks to exact revenge against Jarome Iginla on Saturday for the Calgary captain's injury-inducing hit on the Edmonton defenseman earlier in the season. Souray and Iginla drop the gloves, settle their score in a fairly impressive bout, and in the process Souray breaks his hand.

Cancel those trade discussions!

The Oilers can't catch a break, though in this case, I guess they did, only literally.

One very memorable day on Saturday that bled over into Sunday, with ramifications running for the remainder of the season.

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Burke Wheels and Deals for Phaneuf and Jiggy

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Written on 1/31/2010 by Jim Cerny

As the losses mounted and his team sunk further into the basement of the Eastern Conference you just knew that Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was itching to pull the trigger on something that would shake up his team. Not just something, something big. A headline grabber that would befit his DNA makeup.

On the last day of January consider it Mission Accomplished. Actually make that Mission Accomplished Times Two.

Burke announced this morning that the Leafs had acquired defenseman Dion Phaneuf (photo) from the Calgary Flames as the headliner in a seven-player trade. Shortly after that announcement Burke was back to confirm that he had picked up goaltender J-S Giguere from Anaheim in a three-player swap.

Phaneuf and Giguere. A couple of years ago Burke would have been heralded as a genius for landing this pair. Then again a couple of years ago there is no way Calgary would have traded Phaneuf or Anaheim would have dealt Giguere, two All Stars playing at the top of their game.

But the last two years have tarnished the on-ice images of both Phaneuf and Giguere as each player has seen a rather steep decline in his play. Burke is banking on both to return to form, and if that happens, he will indeed be heralded as a gutsy genius.

Of course both players will have to resurrect their careers in the crucible that is hockey-mad Toronto, while also trying to lift a marquee Original-Six franchise back to respectability. No easy task for Phaneuf and Giguere. This isn't exactly going to Nashville or Atlanta or Long Island to quietly go about getting your game back on track.

At his best Phaneuf is a monster on the blueline, a vicious hitter with a booming shot. He can be a force in both ends of the ice, a minute-muncher who is deployed in all critical game situations. Two years ago he played in all 82 games, notched 17 goals and 60 points, and racked up 182 penalty minutes while being selected to the NHL's First All-Star Team.

The last year-and-a-half Phaneuf has seen his offensive numbers decline along with his steady play in his own end. He was a minus-11 last year, and often seemed disinterested and not engaged. Did anyone say "Security of long-term contract"?

Though better this season, Phaneuf's play has not quite returned to form. Hence today's deal as the Flames gave up on the 6'3", 214 pounder who is still only 24 years old.

"[Phaneuf] is a warrior. He's got a cannon for a shot," Burke said after the deal was announced. "He plays the game hard and I want players who play the game hard because they're hard to play against."

To get Phaneuf, useful 3rd/4th line winger Fredric Sjostrom, and six-foot-six defense prospect Keith Aulie from Calgary, Burke traded away four players, losing quite a bit of his limited scoring depth along the way. Toronto sent winger Niklas Hagman (a three-time 20-goal scorer who has exactly 20 this year), center Matt Stajan (41 points in 55 games this season), rugged Jamal Mayers, and solid defenseman Ian White (a career-high tying 26 points, plus a respectable plus-1 rating) to Calgary.

From Calgary's point of view they are clearly trying to shake up the mix. The Flames have been struggling, and clearly the Sutter Brothers felt Phaneuf was expendable what with their deep backline. White will fit in quite nicely along with Jay Bouwmeester, Robyn Regehr, et. al in Calgary, though he is due a big raise at the end of the season. Calgary's inconsistent offense gets a boost with Hagman and Stajan.

Good deal from the Flames point of view, UNLESS Phaneuf regains form. Then this trade will haunt them for years to come.

As for Giguere, his future has been in doubt ever since Jonas Hiller challenged his reign as the No. 1 goalie in Anaheim a year ago. Hiller took over the mantle this season, and his inking a four-year $18 million extension on Saturday was the final nail in the coffin for Jiggy.

So Giguere takes his Stanley Cup ring and Conn Smythe Trophy and heads to Toronto to try and resurrect his sagging career. He is only 32 years old, and is just two years removed from a season that saw him post a 2.12 goals against average, four shutouts and 35 wins for a Ducks team that was run at the time, not so coincidentally, by Burke.

It will be interesting to see how Jiggy responds to this challenge. Jonas Gustavvson essentially plays the role of Hiller in Toronto, so his situation has not changed a whole heckuva' lot. Except for the fact that he is now playing for a worse team than he did in Anaheim, where his goals against rose to 3.10 last season and 3.14 in 20 games this year.

Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake were shipped to the Ducks in order for Giguere to be reunited with Burke and goaltending guru Francois Allaire in Toronto. Toskala, an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, replaces Giguere as Hiller's back-up. And Blake is the classic case of addition by subtraction for the Leafs. His play has diminished greatly since signing as a free agent in the summer of 2007 following his breakout 40-goal season with the Islanders. Plus he wore out his welcome with his grating personality rather quickly in TO.

Time will tell if Burke mined some gold today, or if it really is Fool's Gold. But he swung for the fences in a city that demands so much if its hockey team.

Good for Brian Burke. Good day for hockey.

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Phaneuf Hit on Okposo Legal or No?

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Written on 9/18/2009 by Jim Cerny

Scary scene in Calgary last night during a pre-season tilt between the Flames and New York Islanders. Rugged Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf absolutely crushed Isles winger Kyle Okposo (photo right) with a thunderous open-ice hit, and the 21 year-old was down on the ice for several minutes before being wheeled off on a stretcher.

According to the team, Okposo suffered a mild concussion, and there is no long-term prognosis on the injury just yet.

Debate is already raging as to whether or not it was a clean hit. Needless to say, you can check out the blogosphere and see that Isles backers thought it was a dirty hit by Phaneuf, while Flames fans see it is a perfectly legal blow.

If you have not done so already, check out the hit here.

I have watched the clip over and over again this morning, and, to me, the most troubling aspect of it is that Phaneuf seems to leave his feet when he delivers the check on Okposo. With that being the case, it is not a clean hit, and thus Phaneuf should have been penalized---he was not, by the way---and should be suspended.

The other part of the hit that is very difficult to determine from the camera angles I have seen is whether or not Phaneuf leads with his elbow. It appears to me that he is leading with his shoulder, but the elbow might fly out right before contact with Okposo's head. Again, that's a penalty and a suspendable offense if the elbow is thrown towards the head. I wish I could say definitively whether or not that is the case. Just can't tell for sure from the videos I have seen.

A couple of other things come into play here, as well. One is that Okposo is hunched over a bit reaching for the puck, so his head is lower than it normally would be if he was standing up straight. Two, Phaneuf is five inches taller than Okposo, so the combination of him being taller and Okposo being hunched over clearly puts the youngster's head in harm's way, even on a clean open-ice check

As for intent, it's impossible to get inside someone else's head and know for sure what their plan of action is/was. Phaneuf, who has a history of bone-rattling hits, as well as some borderline ones, is coming off a poor year last season. He is playing for a new coach in Brent Sutter, trying to impress the new boss and reestablish himself as one of the better defenseman in the league.

It is very likely that Phaneuf saw the opportunity to make a huge splash and first impression on Sutter, and perhaps went over the line with his aggressiveness.

Bottom line from me is that I think a game or two suspension is worthy. To me, he is leaving his feet on the hit. Otherwsie, I would not have had any problems with it, other than the very unfortunate fact that Okposo got hurt on the play.

In reading Katie Strang's story in Newsday today it seems that the Islanders players were more upset with the fact that Phaneuf did not want to fight after the hit as opposed to the hit itself, though goaltender Martin Biron did note that he---like I---thought the Calgary defenseman left his feet to deliever the check.

Not a shocker that Phaneuf said the check was a clean one. "I thought it was a clean hit. I stepped up and used my shoulder." Sutter backed his player 100 percent after the game, as well.

Flames and Isles hook up again Saturday night in Saskatoon, though I can't imagine that Phaneuf will be in the lineup for Calgary. From a common-sense point of view, Sutter needs to scratch Phaneuf in this otherwise meaningless pre-season game so as not to inflame an already volatile situation between the two clubs.

Chris Botta over at Fanhouse disagrees with my take. He argues that Phaneuf, whether the hit was legal or not, should "face the music" as part of hockey's code, especially because he refused to drop the gloves on Thursday night.

I just don't see the sense in knowingly taking to the ice with the knowledge that someone on the other bench is seeking retribution---and could be hell-bent on trying to make a name for themselves with the Islanders in the process---in an exhibition game.

And really, do we need a full-fledged brawl, another black eye for this league? I say, No.

But I do believe that Colin Campbell has to serve justice on Phaneuf for leaving his feet when he delivered the damaging blow to Okposo.

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