While much of the focus leading up to the NHL’s Feb. 27 trade deadline continues to be on where Rick Nash will be dealt, another interesting rumor is beginning to take shape involving another current member of the Columbus Blue Jackets: Jeff Carter.
It’s been no secret that Carter has been unhappy since he set foot in Columbus. It’s also been made public knowledge recently that the Jackets have been trying trade the forward and the remainder of his 11-year, $58 million contract he originally signed with the Flyers.
As if the Nashville Predators didn’t already possess one of the most dominant defensive corps in the NHL with Shea Weber and Ryan Suter at the helm, the club now looks that much more dominant after just recently adding veteran Hal Gill.
In a trade with the Montreal Canadiens, the Preds picked up Gill and a conditional 2013 draft pick in exchange for forwards Blake Geoffrion and Robert Slaney, plus a 2012 second-round pick.
“Hal Gill brings our team a number of elements—size, penalty-killing ability, depth on defense and playoff experience,” said Predators General Manager David Poile. “He has won a Stanley Cup and played a combined 69 playoff games over the last four years, experience that significantly benefits our team.”
The Chicago Blackhawks are fortunate that they started off the 2011-12 season so strong, otherwise they would be in a lot worse shape than 65 points and the sixth spot in the Western Conference standings.
The Hawks are winless in nine straight (0-8-1), including seven in a row on the road. Things won’t get any easier for the club as they head into Thursday’s showdown at the Garden against the No. 1 team in the league, the New York Rangers.
However, despite the Hawks’ recent woes, the team is trying to remain positive.
There were some who thought that when Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard—who has arguably been their best all-around player thus far—was put on the shelf after suffering a broken finger in a shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 2 that the Wings would start to slide in the standings.
Much to the chagrin of the rest of the league, the opposite has happened.
The NHL’s Winter Classic is a hockey spectacle that has grown bigger each season of its five-year existence.
It won’t get much bigger than 2013.
The NHL announced Thursday that the next stop for the Jan. 1 outdoor game will be at Michigan Stadium, home of the Michigan Wolverines, with an incredible 115,000 tickets that will be available for fans.
Adding to the mystique of the New Year’s Day game at “The Big House” will be the two Original Six franchises participating in the game—the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings.
At first, the broken finger that Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard suffered on his right hand during Thursday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks didn’t seem like a big deal.
However, the Wings are 0-2 in his absence, and he will still be out for at least another week.
Conklin was supposed to be the starter for both games, but after Saturday’s game in Edmonton—where Conklin gave up two goals in the first six minutes and three in the first 20 before getting pulled in favor of MacDonald, who held on as Detroit eventually lost 5-4 in a shootout—head coach Mike Babcock decided to give rookie Joey MacDonald the start in Phoenix.
With the NHL trade deadline now just three weeks away, the trade rumors are out in full force. Here are the latest:
Smyth Broadway Bound?
When Ryan Smyth returned to Edmonton this offseason, it was an emotional experience. The 35-year-old veteran was back home with the team that drafted him first overall back in the 1994 entry draft.
However, Smyth has yet to have his name engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup, and with the Oilers sitting 13th in the Western Conference, 11 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot, he’ll have to be traded to complete the dream.
If you didn’t catch the Kings-Blue Jackets game last night at Staples Center, Los Angeles won 3-2 thanks to a goal from Drew Doughty in the final second of the third period.
Actually, as it turns out, he didn’t.
On-ice officials reviewed the goal and found that the puck crossed the goal line with four-tenths of a second on the clock. However, upon further review by the War Room in Toronto after the game was already decided, it was spotted that at the 1.8 second mark, the clock inexplicably stopped. Therefore, Doughty’s wrister technically should not have counted.
With the majority of the hockey world captivated by the All-Star festivities that took place in Ottawa over the weekend, some may be surprised to know that there were still a few GMs hard at work. One of those general managers was Stan Bowman of the Chicago Blackhawks.
On Friday, Bowman, who previously said he was in the market for a center, was able to pick one up in Brendan Morrison.
The Blackhawks traded defenseman Brian Connelly, who was having a stellar season with the Rockford IceHogs, to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Morrison.
Professional sports leagues, with the exception of the NFL the Pro Bowl, typically frown upon the idea of having their star players miss their respective All-Star games.
The NHL is no different.
Back in 2009, Detroit Red Wings stars Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk were given a one-game “suspension” for skipping out on the All-Star Game in Montreal because of a League mandate that excused injury only if a player missed the game immediately preceding the All-Star break. While the punishment may seem a bit extreme, you can’t blame the league for wanting to promote its star players.
While much of the focus leading up to the NHL’s Feb. 27 trade deadline continues to be on where Rick Nash will be dealt, another interesting rumor is beginning to take shape involving another current member of the Columbus Blue Jackets: Jeff Carter.
