For the second time in a month, the Anaheim Ducks have opened up their pocket book and re-signed a top gun. This time it was former Hart Trophy and Rocket Richard Trophy winner Corey Perry.
Perry, who is currently second on the Anaheim Ducks in scoring with nine goals and fifteen assists for 24 points, signed an eight year contract worth $69 million.
The move comes ten days after the Ducks signed Ryan Getzlaf to an eight year deal worth $66 million. Getzlaf currently leads the Ducks with 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points.
Getzlaf and Perry were both unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
The Ducks have had a great 2013. They currently have the second best record in the NHL with 46 points, five points back of the Chicago Blackhawks.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame – lots of overtime and lots of fighting to kick off the NHL playoffs, the Oilers win the draft lottery & discuss the future of their coach, the Maple Leafs apologize and a number of top players head to the World Championships. Also – the head of the MLB players union talks steroids and the Hall of Fame.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Thierry Henry, the NFL, Lamar Odom, Lingerie Football and Dwyane Wade. The Punchline this week involves Augusta and an attempted cup of sand!
The Edmonton Oilers lost their first game on the road since February 8 on Monday night in Anaheim.
Corey Perry scored twice and Bobby Ryan added a goal and an assist as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-2.
The Oilers lost despite outshooting Anaheim 22-8 in the second period alone.
A major turning point came early in the third period. With the score tied 1-1, the Ducks received a spectacular save from Jonas Hiller on a breakaway from Jordan Eberle. Then moments later, the Oilers allowed Bobby Ryan to be all alone in their zone, and he made no mistake in scoring past Nikolai Khabibulin.
I really think the major weakness on the Oilers continues to be goaltending, and not defense. (Even though Ryan Whitney did give the puck away right to Perry late in the game). I admit that I overpraised Yann Danis earlier in the season. After watching him play one period in their loss to St. Louis, I am convinced he is simply not big enough to be the Oilers’ long term number one goaltender. That means General Manager Steve Tambellini needs to go after a legitimate starting goaltender once the season ends.
It was a new low for the Edmonton Oilers Friday night.
They lost to a team that is below them in the standings at home in a complete blowout.
Every way you look at it, there is serious work to be done in Edmonton. They are a long ways away from even making the playoffs– forget about the talk of Stanley Cup.
Sure they have a lot of young great talent, but there should be serious questions if it is the right young talent. Taylor Hall is clearly being outplayed this season by Tyler Seguin.
On Friday night, Jason Blake scored early followed by another one by Teemu Selanne. It appeared that Anton Lander scored, but the referee lost sight of the puck. The bad break led to three more Duck goals by Bobby Ryan and two from Corey Perry.
The Oilers, who have now lost five in a row, next play against Los Angeles on Sunday night.
As we enter the third month of the NHL season, the beauty goals just keep on coming!
This week’s Goals of the Week list features some slick passing plays, a couple of beauty dekes, an unreal second effort and a long distance give-and-go.
Let’s get right to it!
5. Steven Stamkos
The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t get off to a great start this season, but Steven Stamkos sure did! Check out this killer give-and-go with Matt Gilroy late in the second period of a loss to the Red Wings. What a snipe!
(CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE TOP FIVE AFTER THE JUMP!) (more…)
The Washington Capitals have fired Bruce Boudreau and named Dale Hunter head coach.
After a strong start to the season, where they won seven straight, the Capitals cooled off with a 2-1 loss in Edmonton and a 7-4 loss in Vancouver at the end of October. In November, the Capitals have only gone 5-7, and have dropped to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Even though Boudreau to an excellent overall regular season record since 2007 of 201-88-40 over the last four plus seasons, he has failed to take the Capitals to the Eastern Conference Finals, despite all of the talent his team has.
Hunter meanwhile, was one of the NHL’s fiercest agitators. He had 3565 penalty minutes in 1407 games from 1980-1999 with the Washington Capitals, Quebec Nordiques and Colorado Avalanche. Over the last 11 years, he has been coaching the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, winning a Memorial Cup in 2005 on a star studded team led by Corey Perry.
One of the greatest Finnish born players in hockey history will return to the National Hockey League for another season.
According to the Associated Press, Teemu Selanne has signed a one year deal worth $4 million to stay with the Anaheim Ducks.
At 41 years old, there were some significant questions if he would retire because he recently underwent knee surgery.
Last season, Selanne proved to hockey fans he still had the capabilities of being a difference maker on the ice. He scored 31 goals and 49 assists in 73 games with 34 power play points and 213 shots on goal.
He will once again be part of a nucleus of strong offensive talent in Anaheim that includes Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Saku Koivu.
Last season the Ducks finished 2nd in the Pacific Division, and then lost in six games to the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
While with the Winnipeg Jets in 1992-93, Selanne set the NHL record for most goals (76) and points (132) by a rookie in one season. Selanne also holds the record for most points in an Olympic career with 37.
He was the hottest restricted free agent on the market, but now Steven Stamkos will be a major part of the Tampa Bay Lightning offense for the next half a decade.
On Tuesday, the Lightning signed Stamkos to a five year deal worth $37.5 million. Since the start of the 2009-10 National Hockey League regular season, Stamkos has the most goals with 96.
After being tied with Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the most goals during the 2009-10 regular season with 51, Stamkos was second to only Hart Trophy Winner Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks in 2010-11 with 45 goals.
Stamkos was also fifth in 2010-11 in points with 91.
A centerman from Markham, Ontario, Stamkos was the first overall pick in the 2008 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
It looks like once again, he will share a significant amount of the Lightning’s offensive duties with Vincent LeCavalier and Martin St. Louis this season.
It will be interesting to see however how much the Lightning offense suffers with the loss of Simon Gagne to the Los Angeles Kings and Sean Bergenheim to the Florida Panthers.
Not a bad evening for me in predicting the NHL Awards.
I got five of the seven right, with the only two incorrect, the Hart Trophy and Norris Trophy.
I still completely disagree with awarding Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings with the Norris Trophy for best defenceman of the year. It should be a non-starter to award a Norris Trophy to a minus-player, regardless of your outstanding hockey resume. Lidstrom has now won his seventh Norris Trophy. Only Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins has more with eight. I feel Lidstrom won the award based more on his reputation for his outstanding performances over the last decade rather than this season, which should have come into the equation significantly more.
Regarding the Hart, the voters went with Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks over Daniel Sedin (my choice) of the Vancouver Canucks. They decided to focus more on the word “valuable” in deciding the winner this year than the word “best”. I have no problem with that, because if it wasn’t for Perry’s outstanding last two months in the regular season, the Ducks don’t even make the playoffs.
But, I was right with Jeff Skinner (Calder), Tim Thomas (Vezina), Dan Bylsma (Art Ross), Martin St. Louis (Lady Byng) and Ryan Kesler (Selke).
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
Two more players were suspended by the National Hockey League this afternoon.
Steve Downie of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chris Kunitz of the Pittsburgh Penguins were suspended for separate incidents last night.
Downie was suspended for leaping at Penguin Ben Lovejoy at the end boards. Kunitz was suspended for elbowing Lightning forward Simon Gagne. Pittsburgh won 3-2 to take a 2-1 series lead.
One of the more interesting storylines so far in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been the strategy of the Washington Capitals. The players have bought into head coach Bruce Boudreau’s defensive mindset and limited the quality of scoring opportunities by the New York Rangers considerably. One Capital defenceman that is receiving considerably high praise is defenceman Scott Hannan who was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for Tomas Fleischmann on November 30. Hannan had four blocked shots and two hits in 28:39 in Game One Wednesday and was a +1 with a blocked shot in 21:34 last night. Offensively, two former Oilers have been producing for the Capitals. Jason Arnott and Jason Chimera found the puck past Henrik Lundqvist last night. Game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal is set for Sunday at 1pm (NBC) at New York’s Madison Square Garden with the Capitals leading the series 2-0.
The Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings are in an excellent position to breeze through the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
I’m projecting both teams to win in five games.
Over the last twenty games, the Ducks were sizzling. Since February 27, the Ducks went 15-4-1. Three major reasons were because of the play of Corey Perry, Teemu Selanne and Ray Emery. Perry won the Rocket Richard Trophy this season as he was the only player in the National Hockey League to record 50 goals. Selanne, at age 40, found youth in his legs and notched 80 points. Emery, meanwhile, came in for Jonas Hiller late in the season and posted a 7-2 record. A lower body injury Emery suffered late in the year however against San Jose means that Dan Ellis is likely to start against Nashville in Game One.
The Predators have the edge over the Ducks in goaltending with Pekka Rinne, but I just can’t see Rinne stealing many games for Nashville over the next ten days.
For a second straight year the Edmonton Oilers will finish dead last in the NHL, but they didn’t go down without a fight in their final home game on Friday night.
The first period of a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild featured two game misconducts, four 10-minute misconducts, six major penalties and an even 100 penalty minutes! For you math whizzes out there, that equals out to five penalty minutes for each minute played in that opening frame! While the Oilers ended up losing the game, they certainly won the three fights we were treated to early on…(AFTER THE JUMP: Mac wails on ‘Bitz, Carcillo Trash Talk Fail, Super Selanne) (more…)
As we enter the third month of the NHL season, the beauty goals just keep on coming!
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