It appears the Dallas Stars have decided this may not be their year. On Tuesday, the day before the National Hockey League trade deadline day, the Stars shipped Jaromir Jagr off to Boston and Derek Roy off to Vancouver.
The Bruins were in need of improving their offense after controversially losing out on the Jarome Iginla sweepstakes a week ago, while the Canucks were in search of improving their center ice depth after Ryan Kesler broke his foot and Manny Malhotra was declared out for the season with an eye injury.
Jagr and Roy are also unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
Jagr was leading the Stars in scoring with 14 goals and 26 points, while Roy was fourth on the team with 22 points.
The 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts starts today from Kingston, Ontario. For the first time since 1999 Team Canada is from Alberta.
Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin will be wearing the Canadian colours this week and will be participating field. Her first opponent this weekend is New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford (formerly Kelly), a six-time provincial champion, an impressive statistic when you realize Crawford is only 27. The opening draw is on TSN Saturday at noon mountain time.
Jaromir Jagr may be 40 years of age, but his slapshot continues to be one of hockey’s best.
Wednesday night in Edmonton, Jagr scored the overtime winner as the Dallas Stars defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2.
Jagr, who started his National Hockey League career by winning a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991, now has 668 career goals (tied for 10th place all-time with Luc Robitaille) and 1661 career points (eighth all-time). He also leads the Stars in scoring this season with eight points in ten games.
The Stars were able to feast on an unhealthy Oilers team that had significant injuries at the center position. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Shawn Horcoff and Eric Belanger were all out with various ailments, leaving Sam Gagner as the only player who began the season at center in the lineup last night.
The biggest free agent signing of the day was also the one of the oldest free agents left on the market.
On Tuesday it was announced that the Dallas Stars have signed Jaromir Jagr to a one year del worth $4.55 million.
Jagr had a very solid year last season recording 54 points in 73 games and showed the hockey world he still has something left in the tank after playing in the Kontinental Hockey League for three years.
Jagr now joins Ray Whitney as the two top six forwards the Stars signed in free agency. The Stars two prolific offensive acquisitions are a combined 80 years of age.
Dallas did pick up Derek Roy from Buffalo via a trade earlier in the week and acquired Cody Eakin and a second round pick for Mike Ribeiro in a trade with Washington, but it just seems a little strange that the Stars feel they have to win now, rather than going through a bit of a transitional youth movement. Don’t forget. Dallas has not made the playoffs now since 2008.
The Calgary Flames were expected to sign a Czech free agent in the offseason, just most expected them to acquire future hall of famer Jaromir Jagr from Philadelphia, to help out with the transition of rookie Czech centre Roman Cervenka coming to Calgary.
Flames General Manager Jay Feaster seemed to have different ideas and plucked unrestricted free agent Jiri Hudler away from Detroit today and signed him to a four year deal worth $16 million.
Last season Hudler had 25 goals and 25 assists in 81 games.
Hudler put up decent numbers, but most people do in Detroit with all of their star talent. In fact, other than 2009, Hudler’s numbers have actually been very unimpressive. He only scored ten goals the year before.
The knock on Hudler is he takes too many nights off. At times Hudler has struggled with his overall consistency, especially two seasons ago after he spent an entire year playing for Dynamo Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League.
It continues to get very interesting each and every night in the Western Conference. That is what happens when you have five teams separated by just one point.
On Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Matt Stajan scored the game winning goal just forty seconds left in the overtime period as the Calgary Flames defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-2. With the win, the Flames move into a four way tie for eighth place, but have the edge over the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche because they have the most combined regulation and overtime wins, and are one point back of the Phoenix Coyotes for seventh place.
It was also an historic night for captain Jarome Iginla, who scored his 30th of the season for the eleventh straight year. The only others to achieve the mark have been Mike Gartner, Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Gretzky, Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull and Marcel Dionne. Gartner and Jagr have the record of 15 years.
The Flames must also be pleased with the progress of rookie Sven Baertschi. The Flames’ first round pick in 2011 now has two goals in his first three games. The Flames next play the Phoenix Coyotes Thursday night.
In other hockey news, Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning became the first player to score 50 goals this season as the Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 6-1.
The 2012 Winter Classic might have happened on Monday, but the news resulting from the 2012 Winter Classic might just be as intriguing as the game itself.
Flashback to Monday first, where the New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park, or home of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Rangers won 3-2 where Michael Rupp scored twice and Brad Richards scored the game winning goal.
With under a minute left, Daniel Briere of the Flyers was awarded a penalty shot after it appeared Ryan McDonagh closed his hand on the puck. Problem is that the video evidence didn’t seem very conclusive that McDonagh closed his hand. Briere missed scoring on Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers won.
Fast forward to today and John Tortorella apologized for calling the refereeing “disgusting”. If Tortorella apologized every time he criticized the NHL officials, he literally would have a sore throat.
In other post Winter Classic news, for the second straight year, an NHL superstar got hurt in the game. Last year it was Sidney Crosby, and this year it was Jaromir Jagr, who will be out seven to ten days with a leg injury.
The NHL is finally back, and what an opening week it was!
Sure, it’s too early in the season to get a good read on how your team is going to do and who is going to run away with all of the individual awards, but at least we can now sit back and watch the multitude of early season dangles!
Throughout the year, I’ll be counting down the top five goals each week ending each Sunday. I’ll also be trying to track down the “What the Puck” moment of each and every week of the NHL season, which you’ll find after the number one gino.
Here we go!
5. Jiri Hudler
Detroit Red Wings forward Jiri Hudler gets us started this week, taking a nice feed from Pavel Datsyuk before making a deposit into the bank of shelf with a sick backhander! If I had to caption Craig Anderson’s post-goal response, it would probably read: C’mon Man! VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP! (more…)
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we welcome back the NHL with a series of predictions for the upcoming season (top teams, biggest surprises and more!), plus we take a look at how the Edmonton Oilers look (very) early on, and we analyze the NY Rangers decision to waive Sean Avery.
In the GABBYs: the NHL, Jaromir Jagr, MFC champ Ryan Jimmo, Tiger Woods, Jussi Jokinen and the NCAA. This week’s Punchline is Hank Williams Jr. and ESPN!
Due to some technical difficulties, this week’s episode of 15 Minutes of Fame is coming at you a day later than usual, but it’s better late than never right?
This week, we’re breaking down some of the biggest moves of the NHL Free Agent season, including the handful made by the Oilers and Panthers, and we look at the NBA lockout. In the GABBYs: The LA Dodgers, NY Mets Grand Slams, Cliff Lee shutouts, Major League steroids, and more!
Christian Ehroff (Orland Kurtenbach, Wikimedia Commons)
Two defencemen on Canadian-based teams have signed long term deals south of the border.
On Friday, it was confirmed that the Buffalo Sabres have signed defenceman Christian Ehrhoff from the Vancouver Canucks to a ten year deal worth $40 million and the Columbus Blue Jackets have signed defenceman James Wisniewski from the Montreal Canadiens to a six year deal worth $33 million.
Ehrhoff had 14 goals and 36 assists last season and was a +19. Wisniewski had ten goals and 41 assists.
Wisniewski, however is going into a similar situation in Columbus as when he started the 2010-11 NHL season with the New York Islanders. There, Wisniewski was only a -18, compared to being a +4 with Montreal.
In other moves Friday morning, the Philadelphia Flyers have signed Jaromir Jagr to a one year deal worth $3.3 million. Jagr, who played last year in the Kontinental Hockey League, and was instrumental for Team Russia at the World Hockey Championships, still has a great offensive upside at 39 years of age.
The Sabres also improved their offense, signing Ville Leino to a six year deal worth $27 million. In 2009-10, Leino had career highs of 19 goals and 34 assists with the Flyers last season.
The Flyers also traded Kris Versteeg to the Florida Panthers for a pair of draft picks. The Lethbridge native had 46 points with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Flyers in 2010-11.
The Montreal Canadiens signed former Oiler Erik Cole to a four year worth $18 million from the Carolina Hurricanes and goaltender Peter Budaj to a two year deal worth $2.3 million from the Colorado Avalanche.
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 of Alberta’s most recognizable Gold medal winning athletes reached significant milestones on the weekend.
Edmonton’s Kevin Martin won his 100th game in Brier History yesterday when Alberta defeated British Columbia 8-2. He joins curling legend Russ Howard (113 wins) as the only two skips to win 100 or more curling games at the Canadian National Curling Championship.
Martin, actually was born in Killam, Alberta, outside of Camrose, but has lived in the Edmonton area for many years.
Then last night, Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames made history when he scored on a penalty shot in a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators. Iginla became only the tenth player in NHL history to score 30 or more goals in ten straight seasons. Other players on the list are Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Darryl Sittler, Mike Gartner, Jaromir Jagr, Bobby Hull, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito.
If the Pittsburgh Steelers win Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will join elite company in the National Football League.
Roethlisberger will join the likes of Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to win three Super Bowls. He has 22502 passing yards in his career, the 2004 Rookie of the Year and has the fourth highest winning percentage (.704) among quarterbacks with a minimum of 90 starts in NFL history.
So where does he rank among the best athletes in Pittsburgh history? I don’t think he should rank very high on the list. Why? Well, even though Roethlisberger has won two Super Bowls, he’s never been the Super Bowl MVP, has never been the NFL MVP, and doesn’t hold any real significant NFL records.
Here are athletes that have made their mark on the Pittsburgh sports scene that have more impressive resumes than Big Ben.
The NHL is finally back, and what an opening week it was!
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