So far there have been 15 NHL trades on trade deadline day, but none more were bigger than the trade between the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers.
On Wednesday, the Jackets acquired Marian Gaborik from the Rangers for forwards Derek Dorsett (an enforcer with offensive upside who is hurt right now but might be ready in time for the playoffs), Derrick Brassard, defenceman John Moore and a sixth round pick.
This trade is interesting primarily because the Blue Jackets and Rangers made a blockbuster deal that involved Rick Nash in the summer of 2012.
In other moves, the Penguins acquired shootout specialist Jussi Jokinen from the Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks reacquired defenceman Scott Hannan from the Nashville Predators and Raffi Torres from the Phoenix Coyotes, the Minnesota Wild acquired Jason Pominville from the Mnnesota Wild, the Phoenix Coyotes also sent forward Steve Sullivan to the New Jersey Devils and Matthew Lombardi to the Anaheim Ducks, the St. Louis Blues sent Wade Redden to the Boston Bruins, and the Colorado Avalanche sent Ryan O’Byrne to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After a bit of a summer break, we’re back with another episode of 15 Minutes of Fame – this week on the show we’re talking Shea Weber, Rick Nash & the NHL, along with our expectations for the London Olympics.
In the GABBYs: Oscar Pistorius, the McLaren Racing Team, Ernie Els, the Brazilian soccer team, Dillon Donnelly & Chad Ochocino. The Punchline this week is the Olympic organizers!
This week on a special NHL Trade Deadline edition of 15 Minutes of Fame, we try to pick out the winners and the losers of the big day and do our best to analyze the one trade pulled off by the Edmonton Oilers. We also look at the biggest pre-deadline trade and non-trade, which was Jeff Carter to the LA Kings and Ales Hemsky re-upping with the Oil.
In the GABBYs: Chicago Cubs fans, CC Sabathia, Jeremy Lin, Greg Oden, Rajon Rondo & Tommi Virtanen. The Punchline this week is MMA fighter Dan Lariviere!
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame we’re discussing some potential trades from around the NHL, Alex Ovechkin’s work ethic and news that former Oiler Mike Comrie is calling it a career. As well, we look at what the Edmonton Eskimos did in the opening days of CFL free agency, what LeBron James said about returning to Cleveland and the circus that surrounded the recent fight between Vitali Klitschko and Dereck Chisora.
In the GABBYs: Teemu Selanne, the Detroit Red Wings, Brad Marchand, the Rochester Knighthawks, Roburt Sallie and Brazilian soccer club XV de Jau. The Punchline this week is the “Piggyback Bandit,” Sherwin Shayegan.
The All-Star break didn’t leave us with many games around the NHL last week, but there was no shortage of highlight reel action before the players parted ways for a few days!
Since it would be a shame to put a goal from the no-defence All-Star game, as nice as it may have been, ahead of a beauty goal that happened with real points on the line, this edition of the GOTW won’t feature anything from this weekend. Here’s what I’ve got for you though: a penalty shot snipe, an incredible fake on a great goalie, a couple of unreal backhanders and a solid individual effort!
Let’s go!
5. Trevor Lewis
I’m not normally a fan of putting penalty shot goals on the list, but this dangle from LA’s Trevor Lewis is definitely worth another look. Sens fans might argue it shouldn’t count, because it shouldn’t have been a penalty shot, but there’s no doubt that Lewis made Craig Anderson look a bit silly with a couple of sweet fakes.
If the Calgary Flames miss the playoffs by a slim margin, they will look back on Thursday night as a woulda shoulda coulda evening.
On Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Flames had a commanding 3-1 lead with 4:05 left in the third period, only to see their lead evaporate as Nikita Nikitin and Rick Nash each scored with less than five minutes left to tie the game at 3. Columbus then won the game in a shootout as Rick Nash scored past Miikka Kiprusoff, and then Blue Jackets’ goaltender Curtis Sanford made a stop on Rene Bourque.
I was very impressed with the play of Nikitin, who was recently traded to Columbus from St. Louis for Kris Russell. Nikitin displayed a fantastic shot, added two assists, and led Columbus with five shots on goal.
With the loss, the Flames fell to 10-13-2 and remain seven points back of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Flames loss Thursday was the second straight night an Alberta based team lost in a shootout. Edmonton lost 3-2 to Minnesota on Wednesday on a shootout winner by ex-Oiler Kyle Brodziak.
On Friday, the Oilers host the Blue Jackets, and then on Saturday, the Oilers host the Flames.
I know you go out to try and win every game. It’s the nature of sport.
But sometimes on rare occasions, it is sometimes better to lose than win.
Yesterday at the World Hockey Championships in Slovakia, Canada was in the precarious position that a loss against Sweden might help them more than a win. A win, and Canada would face the mighty Russians in the quarterfinals, a loss and Canada would face Germany.
The major reason why Germany was ahead of Russia in the standings is because Germany upset Russia 2-0 on day one of the tournament. But the Russians have Alexander Ovechkin now and, despite a loss to the Czech Republic, are expected to be much stronger as the tournament progresses.
As for Canada yesterday, they defeated Sweden 3-2 on a third period winner by Rick Nash. The Swedes clearly had no interest in winning the game. They started their backup goalie in Anders Nilsson, who lost to Norway earlier in the tournament, instead of Viktor Fasth, who has recorded three shutouts so far. It will be interesting to see what nation between Canada and Sweden goes deeper in the tournament.
Canada may not have played its best game at the World Hockey Championships, but at the end of the day, got the job done.
Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators, John Tavares of the New York Islanders and James Neal of the Pittsburgh Penguins scored for Canada Saturday morning in a 3-2 win over Norway at Kosice, Slovakia.
It was Canada’s fifth win of the tournament (third regulation win compared to two overtime wins).
A major reason for the Canadian success Saturday was that they were able to shut down Norway’s electrifying power play, which was number one in the tournament at 33.3%. Norway was zero for six with the man advantage.
Neal, Spezza and Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets all had multi-point games for Canada. Neal and Spezza each had a goal and an assist, while Nash had two assists.
Jonathan Bernier of the Los Angeles Kings made 25 saves on 27 shots.
Canada next plays Monday against Sweden at 12pm MT (TSN).
Canada had a scare this morning, but for the second consecutive game at the World Hockey Championships, won the game in extra time.
Friday morning Jordan Eberle of the Edmonton Oilers and Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets scored in a shootout for Canada in a 4-3 win over the United States, as they improved to 1-2-0-0 in the tournament.
That’s one regulation win and two overtime wins now for Canada. A regulation win counts for three points in the standings versus only one point for an overtime win. The Canadian win against Belarus no longer counts because the Belarussians failed to advance to the second round.
Canada improved to a perfect 2-0 this morning at the World Hockey Championships in Kosice, Slovakia.
Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes, the favourite for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, scored two goals and one assist as Canada defeated France 9-1.
Skinner, an 18 year-old native of Markham, Ontario, scored his second goal for Canada on a penalty shot.
Other Canadian players with multi-point games included Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators (one goal, one assist), Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets (one goal, one assist), Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues (one goal, one assist), John Tavares of the New York Islanders (two assists) and Dion Phaneuf of the Toronto Maple Leafs (two assists).
James Reimer of the Toronto Maple Leafs was in net for the majority of the game, but left the game for Devan Dubnyk of the Edmonton Oilers when the score reached 7-1.
French goalie Cristobal Huet struggled between the pipes, and was pulled after the first period when the score was 3-0 Canada. The scouting report on Huet is that he is great down low, but struggles when shooters go high. That’s where Skinner and Buffalo’s Marc-Andre Gargnani scored on Huet in the opening twenty minutes.
Jordan Eberle of the Edmonton Oilers scored twice Friday afternoon as Team Canada defeated Team Belarus 4-1 at the World Hockey Championships in Kosice, Slovakia.
Eberle opened the scoring for Canada and then put the puck past Belarussian goaltender Andrei Mezin again in the third period.
Eberle was electric on the ice throughout the game. There was one shift where he delivered a remarkable pass to team captain Rick Nash, another shift where he drew a penalty which put Canada on the power play and another shift where he had a takeaway on a Belarussian offensive play involving Mikhail Grabovski of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The All-Star break didn’t leave us with many games around the NHL last week, but there was no shortage of highlight reel action before the players parted ways for a few days!
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