If it Quacks Like a Duck…
November 21, 2005
Last week we finally had the first big trade of the season. Anaheim traded underperforming star Sergei Federov to Columbus for forward Tyler Wright and defenseman Francois Beauchemin. Early trade rumors had Todd Marchant being part of the trade, but Marchant refused to waive his no trade clause.
In order to clear salary to fit Federov under the cap, the Blue Jackets wasted no time putting Marchant on waivers. No one picked him up so they put him on waivers again…and guess who claimed him? The Ducks.
It seems quite clear that placing Marchant on waivers was the unwritten part of the original trade. Why did Anaheim wait to claim him? Maybe they were hoping someone would take his contract or maybe they wanted to look a little more innocent to the NHL and NHLPA offices.
I have a feeling that waiver deals like this will be a common practice in the “new NHL”. Don’t look now, but Alexander Karpotsev was just placed on waivers by the Panthers.
If, as expected, Karpovtsev clears waivers at noon on Tuesday, sources say he’s likely to be assigned to the Panthers’ minor-league affiliate and then quickly recalled and put on re-entry waivers.
According to the new CBA, any team claiming a player on re-entry waivers is only responsible for half his salary, with the player’s original team picking up the other half, with it counting against that team’s salary cap figure.
So what we are seeing are teams yo-yoing players as bait in the hopes that some other teams snatches them. Sure, they have to eat half the salary, but they also will have the other half to work with when some other team does the same stunt.
Weekly Crosscheck Vol.1, #5
November 21, 2005
“Two minutes by yourself … and you feel shame … and then you get free”
OK, everyone deserves an off week. When I left for NYC on Wednesday, the Ice Bats and Phlamers had a close week going. When I got back, I discovered that my assistant coach Juliet had spent the week watching the squirrels through the window, and not taking care of our players! She was supposed to pay attention to the injury list and the goalie rotations…. not nap in a sunny spot all week. Anyway, the Ice Bats weren’t totally shut out. We took the PIMs by one minute. I apologize to the other franchises in the league for letting the Phlamers get so far ahead in my absence.
No new records were broken this week, however there has been a major position shift. Contrary to my predictions, the Pucknuts have move up to third place, behind the always surprising Oochamkunutk. While the Pucknuts almost blanked the Badabings, Ooch lost a close one to the Monks. The Monks owe the win entirely to Lundqvist in a Sunday night dandy. Meanwhile the Sublimators and Moonshimers split the week with four points each. I hate to say it, but it was in fact DiPietro that kept the Moonshimers in the game. I’d take back what I said about DiPietro last week, but uhhhh….. I can’t bring myself to do that. I saw him lose too many with Bridgeport, so I know what he is fully capable of. (Believe me… the Sound Tigers fans are GLAD he’s with the Islanders now.)
This week in The Hockey Blog All Stars:
Game of the week:
Pucknuts vs Ice Bats
This is a matchup of two teams that are constantly being fine tuned by their GM’s. In fact, there has just been a major turn-over for the Ice Bats following last weeks near shut-out. Ice Bats GM, Winnipeg Johnny, would also like to rant about the Can’t Cut List. As if it wasn’t already bad enough, what do you do when you have a Can’t Cut player who is on the IR???? Monks GM, Ranger Billy, declared this week that one IR spot is not enough this season. I completely agree. I have to give this matchup to the Pucknuts. The Bats have no chance in net, and are out-gunned by the Pucknuts forwards. You’ll notice that I did finally pick up ‘Grats. Last week’s PIM win was too close for me.
Willsboro Division matchup of the week:
Oochamkunutk vs Sublimators.
This matchup is completely the opposite of the Pucknuts/IceBats. Here are two teams of computer picks with only minimal player manipulation. (How do they do it????) This one is going to be too close to call. I give the goalie stats and +/- to the Sublmitors, Goals, Assists, PPP and SOG to Ooch. It’s a toss up for PIM and shorties.
Also:
Phlamers vs Monks.
Uh…. good luck Billy. Lets just hope that the young Rangers and Alfredsson can have another great week. I hate to give the goalie stats to the Phlamers, but as long as the Rangers keep starting Weekes, I have to do it. You just can’t count on Belfour to be consistent.
Moonshimers vs Badabings
As much as Potvin sucks, he doesn’t suck enough for the Badabings to win this one. (Or even come close!) The Moonshimers will be picking up mega points this week and getting back into the race.
I would now like to draw your attention to the New York Rangers website, and the advertisements therein. (Assist to Ranger Billy for showing me this last weekend.) I just can’t get enough of the Bobby Granger’s Guide to the Rangers. (This is especially for you Binghamton guys who get blacked out of the MSG games). I recommend “Abuse” and “Master Class”.
OK, I’m ready to shake off a bad week and get back in the game. Drop the puck!
That is all.
1 Down, 893 to Go
November 19, 2005
Congratulations to Brian McGrattan on scoring his first NHL goal!
Blackout Blues
November 18, 2005
What the is up with blacking out Ranger away games on MSG when Buffalo is home? I live near Binghamton NY, pretty much in the middle between Buffalo and New York City and whenever the Sabres are home and the Isles or Rangers are away they get blacked out. I have NHL Center Ice so I can still see the Ranger games, but I want the NY coverage.
Several people have heard a reason that…I won’t say it makes sense, but I suppose there is some bizarre logic to it. The rule is each team is alotted 2 million people near their arena who will have other teams blacked out when ‘their team’ is home. Because Buffalo has a low population and they can’t cover north of the border into Leafs territory, they cover Western and Central NY.
I don’t care where you live, blacking out hockey games does not help the sport especially when you are punishing fans that live over 3 hours from the nearest team! But what do you expect from a league that thought signing a contract with OLN for two years was a good idea.
Hugh Jessiman Update
November 17, 2005
I wrote earlier about Jessiman’s demotion to ECHL Charlotte and how it was a positive move for the Rangers young prospect. Well it seems Hugh is making the most of it by netting his first career hat trick in a 7-2 win! He know has 4 goals and 1 assist in three games. Hopefully he’ll continue to find his scoring touch with the Checkers and he’ll be back with Hartford later in the season.
In other Charlotte Checkers news, I discovered that Jake Ortmeyer, Jed’s younger brother, is playing for the team! He might be his younger brother, but he’s not his little brother. Jake is 6′3″ and 210 pounds. If he has the work ethic and toughness of his brother I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s playing in Hartford before the end of the season.
Fight Club
November 17, 2005
The Ottawa Sun has a good article on the state of fighting in the NHL (with lots of quotes from Brian McGrattan). They point out what hockey fans already know, fighting is way down:
Through 264 NHL games this year, the league says there have been 227 major penalties. In 2003-04, there had been 393.
To which Gary Bettman, in his infinite wisdom, declared that the drop in fights is a sign that the game has opened up and become more exciting.
This is just another example of how little Bettman understands hockey. To me, fighting is like the inside pitch in baseball. The players need a way to police themselves and to protect their team. Both combatants are willing participants and the fans love it, so why not allow it? I’ve seen more people severely injured chasing an iced puck than from fighting in the NHL so I’m not sure what the issue is. Some people consider it a distraction from a game, but I find it the opposite. A fight brings the crowd to their feet, gets them cheering, and both benches wake up.
I’m glad to see guys like Brian McGrattan and Eric Godard continuing the tradition and keeping fighting alive in the NHL. One of my few complaints about my Rangers this year is that they lack a tough guy. Earlier this season during at the end of the first game of a home and home with Montreal, Craig Rivet ran Martin Rucinsky and knocked him out of the Rangers lineup for 4 weeks with a sprained knee. None of the Rangers stepped up then and instead of challenging Rivet or any of the Canadiens in the second game, they let Rivet score the first goal and the Habs walk all over them for a win in what coach Tom Renney called a “no hitter”. The Rangers have stepped up their team toughness a bit to compensate, but I’m not sure how far that will take them without a legitimate enforcer.
What does everyone else think? Am I dinosaur like these fighters doomed for extinction? Or do fighters have an important role in our sport that Bettman is trying to take away from us.
Problem with the new CBA
November 16, 2005
One aspect of the new CBA that is causing problems is the $75k rule in the AHL. If a player makes more than $75 for an AHL then he must clear waivers when he is sent down from his NHL team. Many veteran players took paycuts so their team would be willing to call them up to the NHL. Others, like Denis Hamel, might be stuck in the AHL for the year because Ottawa does not want to risk losing him on waivers. The new waiver rule led to many “on the bubble” AHL vets to seek more money in European or Russian leagues. To fill their roster spots many AHL teams have taken on a youth movement.
Another problem with the CBA is the affect of the NHL salary cap. The salary cap is based on the average team salary during the year. If the team is $1 million under the cap for the first half of the year, they can then go $1 million over the cap for the second half. Teams planning to stock up for a playoff push are penny pinching early in the season to have some cap breathing room and make money available for later in the season. Some teams are taking this to an extreme and are “yo-yo”ing players between the NHL and AHL clubs to save cap money during off days. The worst offender this season has been the Vancouver Canucks with Josh Green.
The Canucks have recalled Green on three occasions this season for very short periods and then quickly returned the big winger to the Moose. The result has been lots of travel and missed practices, and while Green has been able to excel at the AHL level, he’s struggled up top.
Green was recalled by the Canucks on Saturday, flew from Rochester, N.Y., to Vancouver, played just under nine minutes for the Canucks on Sunday night, then flew back to Grand Rapids on Monday, arriving just after dinner and in time to be in the lineup against the Griffins yesterday.
The Canucks find themselves so close to the salary cap in the NHL that they can’t afford to keep Green around on non-game days. By returning him to Manitoba, they save on the cap and hopefully build a cash cushion for a late-season addition should they think it’s needed.
It seems obvious that this is not beneficial to Green or to either of his clubs, but the Canucks are probably thinking of him as an expendable player to fill the roster early in the season and they might make a move for a better veteran during a playoff push with the money they’ve saved. Heck, Green might be the guy they trade for the veteran or they’ll just leave him in the AHL once they get their playoff roster set. I’m surprised their haven’t been any grievances filed yet with the NHLPA, but the season is still young.
McGrattan vs Orr
November 15, 2005
Brian McGrattan takes on Colton Orr. I have to give Orr the win on a split decision. He landed some nice rights, but Grats had some great jabs with the left. You’ve gotta love the coverage of this fight. Good play by play and I love how they had the graphic with their height and weight popup for the “heavy weight bout”. I also got a kick out of how Grats gets ready for the fight with a casual toss of his gloves. Like I’ve said before…drop the shootout, decide games with a fight!
Brashear vs Godard
November 15, 2005
Here’s another great fight, Donald Brashear vs Eric Godard. I gave Godard the win by decision, but upon further review I think it was the helmet flailing wildly while Godard was pounded in his melon that caused the cut over Brashear’s eye.
Brian McGrattan vs Eric Godard
November 15, 2005
McGrattan and Godard renew their friendship.
Here is the full fight.
