Anticipation: Philly Style

After easing my summertime hockey withdraw at rookie camp this morning, I felt it was about time my Philadelphia season preview was written. We have been called the most improved team in the NHL by Sports Illustrated, and unless you've been hiding under a rock this off-season, you know why. We weren't the team that got arguably the top 2 free agent centres (NY Rangers - Drury, Gomez) to bolster our offense, but we were the team that reconstructed it's roster, from top to bottom.

For those of you who haven't beeen enlightened, I'll give a brief synopsis.

Before season's end, the Flyers newly appointed GM, Paul Holmgren started the re-vamping of the roster. As the trade deadline approached, Holmgren decided it was in the best interest of the club to part ways with captain Peter Forsberg. Foppa was sent to Nashville in return for highly regarded defensive prospect Ryan Parent, a 1st round pick in the upcoming Entry Draft, and quick fan favorite Scottie Upshall. If that wasn't enough, he kept going. He acquired Buffalo goaltender Martin Biron for a 2nd round pick (T.J. Brennan), Atlanta defenseman Braydon Coburn, and Chicago defenseman Lasse Kukkonen. Not bad for only a few weeks of work.

Prior to one of the most anticipated free agency periods in recent memory, Holmgren showed the hockey world that he was here to stay by sending the Pred's 1st round pick (Jonathan Blum) back to them and acquiring offensive-defeseman Kimmo Timonen and budding power forward Scott Hartnell. Soon after shocking the hockey community with his bold move, he prepared for a free agency period that would truly change the face of the franchise, as if it wasn't different enough. Just hours into free agency, Holmgren signed star centre Daniel Briere to an 8 year, $52 million, front-loaded contract. Later in the day he continued to reassure fans by trading away frustrating defenseman Joni Pitkanen and talented, but over-the-hill forward Geoff Sanderson to Edmonton. In return the Flyers acquired locker room favorite Jason Smith and potential-driven winger Joffrey Lupul.

Whew...not-so-brief. Thanks for sticking with me. Almost done.

Many analysts are writing the Flyers off as not making the playoffs this upcoming season. What one needs to remember is that the Flyers, prior to last season, were riding a streak of 11 straight seasons making the playoffs. Another thing that people are seeming to forget is that the year prior to last season, the Flyers still had a lot of their leaders from previous years in the lineup, notably Keith Primeau (even injured, his presence was more than enough), Eric Desjardins, and Chris Therien, all of whom retired the following off-season. Point being, last year is not what people should be going by when they think of the Flyers. Even towards the end of last season, we were a competing opponent. Here is a fact that may be making you re-think our team at the end of last year: of our 19 games after the trade deadline, 13 of them were either losses by 1 goal or wins. That's 68%. That same stat before the trade deadline is 33 games out of 63, being 52%. You can't tell me that this year's team should be judged by last years overall measures after that fact.

The keys to success this season lie in chemistry, special teams, and depth. There is no doubt that the Flyers might be the best team on paper going into this season, but if there is no chemistry on the ice, the paper doesn't mean anything. Our powerplay last season was hard to watch. In fact, it felt like we had more scoring chances on our penalty kill - I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers are close. Now that we have powerplay specialist Timonen and penalty kill specialist Smith, we should have improved both areas significantly. Regarding depth, the Flyers need to prove that they can stay healthy, and if not, still succeed. 05-06 was a good year for the Flyers in that area; we set a season high for man days lost to injuries yet still made the playoffs. We had a lot of help from the minors, to say the least. What needs to happen this year is that youngsters like Ryan Potulny (a personal favorite), Steve Downie, Ryan Parent, Lars Jonsson, Stefan Ruzicka, and Ben Eager have to show that if their time comes, they are up to the task.

There aren't too many roster spots open going into training camp as of right now (0 centers, 1 wing, 0 defensemen), so look for the roster to look like it does now going into the regular season. It should be a good one Philadelphia fans. Let's just forget about last year and be excited about this one!

There were a few other points I wanted to touch on (division challenges, possible captainship, etc.), but for the sake of brevity, I'll hold off.

Otherwise, let's go Flyers!!

Penner's new deal with Oilers an ominous sign for NHL...

Various media sources are reporting the Edmonton Oilers have officially signed former Ducks forward Dustin Penner to a 5-year/$21.5 million contract.

The young sniper played in all 82 games for the Stanley Cup champions Ducks last season, scoring 29 goals and adding 16 assists for a total of 45 points and 202 shots on goal.

The signing occurs a few weeks after Lowe made a bold move in signing the Sabres' Tomas Vanek to a $7 million per season offer sheet, only to see Buffalo GM Darcy Regier match within 19 minutes.

The 6'4'', 245-pound Winkler, Manitoba native just scored big time in the bank, and the NHL should be worried.

A few years down the road, maybe, just maybe he'd be worth the money he just got from a desperate Kevin Lowe...but at this point in his career? A 24-year old sophomore with a season and a quarter under his belt making a little over $4 million per season seems too much like the old NHL, where GM's paid wildly for any hint of talent available to them.

Scott Hartnell, who recently signed a similar pact with the Philadelphia Flyers, belongs in that pool of "paying for potential, not production" players. Both Penner and Hartnell will earn $4.2 million annually for the next 5 and 6 seasons respectively.

So what does this mean for the future RFA market?

For starters, teams may be tempted to sign future restricted free-agent Jason Spezza to an offer sheet next summer, and with the Senators trying to hold on to potential unrestricted 50-goal man Dany Heatley as well, someone may very well succeed in prying him from Sens GM Bryan Murray's hands.

But not so fast, this signing of Penner is also an ominous sign.
A sign that the NHL is heading back to its old days of overpriced free-agents and overrated players...I'm starting to wonder why we lost a complete season of hockey and why Gary Bettman and the NHL are so STUBBORN not to realize what's going on.

It was a mistake to make the cap rise again to $50.3 million, if the NHL knows what's good for their league finances and fans, they'll lower that number to $45 million next year and leaves GM's little room to spend the $7 million Chris Drury got, and the $10 million Dany Heatley will likely get if this continues next year.
They won't lower the cap, so scratch that.

If they actually used their brains, they'd finally figure out that the more the cap raises, the more salaries for elite players will go up, and the more we'll be drifting back to the pre-lockout era and a potential lockout/labour dispute again.

This signing not only makes the RFA market a whole new attractive destination for GM's, and a headache for the NHL, but it also marks the end of the Brian Burke-Kevin Lowe friendship, at least according to Burke's recent harsh words to the media.

-BBeR

Caught in His Own Duck Trap, Will Burke Lowe-r “The Finger”?

They say “it’s lonely at the top”. This certainly appears to be the case for general manager, Brian Burke, of the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, who appears to have gotten tangled up in a Duck trap of his own making. Not knowing the status of returning/retiring stars Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer, combined with tight salary cap numbers, the Ducks inadvertently left duckling, Dustin Penner, ripe for poachers. Enter Edmonton general manager, Kevin Lowe, whose final bazooka shot in this year’s RFA hunting season, is a bulls-eye aimed right at the beak of Penner.

Burke has publicly ripped into Lowe for what he calls “an act of desperation by a general manager who is fighting to keep his job". Burke’s beef seems to be more about the amount of the Oilers offer sheet to Penner (reportedly 5 years for $21.25 million), as opposed to the act of trying to snatch the young Duck from his Anaheim nest. Burke complained that “this is the second time this year in my opinion Edmonton have offered a grossly inflated salary for a player, and it impacts on all 30 teams”.

It’s amazing to me how times have changed, when in the past, it was always the big market teams – led by the fiscally irresponsible Rangers – who were accused by small market teams, like Edmonton, of inflating player salaries by overpaying for talent. Now, the new salary cap system creates the opportunity for a small market team - whose obscure northern location is as inviting to free agents as a bad case of Pneumonic Plague - to turn the system upside-down (or at least sideways) and grossly overpay for a player who has scored all of 45 points in his fledgling 82 game regular season career.

Regardless of which frozen pond (Edmonton’s or Anaheim’s) Penner ends up skating on for the next 5 years, there are two certainties: 1) he will be earning an average of over $4 million per year, and 2) his contract, inked in unchartered waters, will have a rippling effect on future RFA contract negotiations between NHL teams and their young, potential stars.

Burke isn’t tipping his hand on which way is leaning on this issue – other than to indicate that he must confer with ownership before making the call. No matter the outcome, this should certainly be an amusing week for all of us as the Thursday deadline approaches for the Ducks final decision. Something tells me that, regardless of when Burke and the Ducks make up their minds, this one is going to go down to the final minutes - partially because this ordeal has gotten so personal between Burke and Lowe that Burke has even ripped Lowe for the timing of his attempted heist. Burke said "I thought Kevin would have called me and told me it was coming. I thought that was gutless…I think it's a classless move timing-wise”.

Brian, maybe it’s just me, but I never knew that there was a polite way to forcefully clip a Duck’s feathers. But it’s another thought that I have that really has me eagerly anticipating the Thursday Duck-Oiler shootout. Given the bad blood that has developed between Burke and Lowe, I keeping wondering whether the “Dustin Duel” will end up like the infamous “Sakic Skirmish” of 1997, when Rangers general manager, Neil Smith, unsuccessfully attempted to pillage the cash-strapped Avalanche with a front-loaded RFA offer to Joe Sakic.

That week-long event climaxed with Colorado general manager, Pierre Lacroix, sending a last minute fax to the Rangers (just to stick it to Smith), indicating that they had matched the offer sheet to Sakic. As an appreciative gesture to Smith and the Rangers for further f__king up their financial affairs, Lacroix’s fax included the legendary 1976 picture of vice-president, Nelson Rockefeller, “Giving the Finger” to a group of political hecklers in New York.

As D-Day approaches, we can only wonder whether Burke will handle his hardship with humility and class, or whether he will strike Kevin with a Lowe blow. Let’s all keep “The Fingers” crossed.

Courtesy of The Hockey Humorist - http://hockeyhumorist.blogspot.com/

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Souray Sweepstakes: We All Missed the Obvious

For the past two weeks the Sheldon Souray Sweepstakes has intrigued everyone. Speculation has centered mostly around the Kings, Sharks, Ducks, Devils, Rangers, etc. But this stallion (offensively at least) went to a "dark horse" candidate - the Oilers.

One could argue that Souray being an Alberta native, combined with Kevin's Lowe's ability and need to spend big bucks to land a thoroughbred UFA, would have made the Oilers one of the favourites all along. Those issues were probably a factor, but the most important element and main reason why Souray will be doing his skating (and shooting) in Edmonton this year is because he is not living with his wife. Since Angelica Bridges is a Los Angeles based actress, there is currently no Mrs. Souray accompanying him - telling him to choose between her and the City of Edmonton. Where Kevin Lowe failed with Mrs. Pronger and Mrs. Nylander, he never had to worry about with Souray. Although we all should have known this, we never saw it coming.

In fact as an offshoot of the Souray situation, Kevin Lowe may have brilliantly hatched an effective new strategy: target the most talented, maritally non-attached free agents in the NHL. He could further enhance this strategy by turning Edmonton into a singles haven. Don't be surprised if the next contracts he signs are with Hooters or Playboy Enterprises, before resuming his pursuit of elite hockey talent. Let's not underestimate Kevin Lowe again. He's a great competitor, who may have just learned how to turn a liability into an asset.

Souray Signs with Oilers!

BBeR 5:07 PM update: [Sorry for butting in by the way, just wanted to add one thing]
Souray's deal will pay him a total of $27 million over the course of 5 seasons, according to nos amis over at RDS.

According to TSN.ca:

Sheldon Souray is on his way to Edmonton as the Oilers and the free agent blueliner agreed on a contract.

The Elk Point, Alberta native appeared in 81 games with the Montreal Canadiens in 2006-07 and had a career year with 26 goals and 64 points. Nineteen of his 26 goals came on the power play, which set an NHL record for defencemen.

The six-foot-four, 220-pound blueliner was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the 1994 entry draft. He has played in 506 regular-season games with New Jersey and Montreal, recording 66 goals and 120 assists while posting 812 penalty minutes.

The two-time All-Star played three seasons with the Devils before being traded to the Canadiens in 2000 in a deal for Vladimir Malakhov.

(Details to follow)

Looks like Kevin Lowe finally succeeded in landing a big-name free agent. It will be interesting to see how much Souray got.

Chris Pronger blasts Canadian media...

"The league should make its own calls, not be pressured into anything by the media, and more to the point, the Canadian media."

"I think inconsistency in the refereeing has been there all season, let alone in the playoffs. All you've got to do is look at our games against Detroit. You could bring in other series. The referees have been very inconsistent from series to series, from game to game and from team to team. As you witnessed, (Thursday) night was an absolute joke. But that's neither here nor there. It's over with. I just hope going forward we're going to be on a level playing field."

-TSN

Actually Chris, the refereeing (apart from a few Sabres-related calls and non-calls) has been pretty strong this postseason.

On a side note, Kevin Pollock has really been the best of this crop.

But come on man, really, you're CHRIS PRONGER, you put yourself in this situation when:

a) You were born in CANADA
b) You played for a CANADIAN team
c) You were surrounded by CANADIAN media
d) You played for Team CANADA at the Olympics last year
e) You're damn CANADIAN
f) Hockey is CANADA'S Sport
e) You play HOCKEY.

Well, well, and how can you not want the NHL to base its decision through the media, where do you think they get the majority of their ideas from anyway?

Oh and besides, the second you requested a trade out of Edmonton, was the same second that you signed up for the "Canadian media hounding 4 life" feature.

Cut with the crap, and be lucky you didn't get more than one game, ya pansy.

And if you don't remember, Pronger was suspended for Game 5 of the Ducks-Wings series, after delivering a violent head-on hit on Tomas Holmstrom in Game 4 of this series.

I have more on this, if you missed it, a few posts below.

"It's a nothing play if Robbie doesn't hit him," he told the Times on Friday.

The only reason you say that is because the ref called the penalty on "Robbie" because that was who he saw hit Holmstrom from his angle, you were the real culprit there.

--BBR

How the Edmonton Oilers went from the Stanley Cup finals to a sad, sad season...

Chris Pronger (left) and Ryan Smyth (right) stand next to Oilers GM Kevin Lowe (centre). The pair proved to be invaluable to the Oilers, and after their departures, the once respectable franchise became a sad mockery.

The Edmonton Oilers were a bad team in 2006-2007.

Face it, it's not pretty, but it's the truth.

This team went from making the playoffs on the last day of the season and coming oh-so-close to winning the Stanley Cup to a sad bunch who seem like they've lost all interest in playing hockey.

Let us evaluate what the players brought to the table.

Petr Sykora, signed to a 1-year deal late in the free agency period, has proved to be this team's top scorer after a previously miserable season with the Ducks and Rangers.
He finished with 53 points, and had the inversed stats of the departed Ryan Smyth, who equally had 53 points but he put that up in 53 contests while battling injuries and then eventually being dealt to the New York Islanders on Trade Deadline Day.
Sykora had 22 goals and 31 assists while Smyth put up those numbers...but inversed, 31 goals and 22 assists.

The young Ales Hemsky is set for a great career and is taking it one step at a time, he finished with 53 points as well and put up 40 assists in 64 games, he could've scored more, he has a great shot, but nevertheless, he would've beat out Sykora had it not been for injuries too.
The pair were argurably the only Oilers to have a strong season, if you want to call a measly 53 points as your team lead "strong", go ahead, but that's not good enough for most GM's and Kevin Lowe acknowledged that.

Lowe told the media yesterday, that they should expect 6 to 8 new faces this offseason in Edmonton.
When asked which positions, Lowe said practically all of them, and it's true.

The Oilers struggled on defence; Ladislav Smid, Matt Greene and Jan Hejda were not enough to compensate for the losses of Chris Pronger, Jaroslav Spacek and even the belated Dick Tarnstrom.

Injuries to Jan Hejda (shoulder), Daniel Tjarnqvist (inflamed pubic bone) and Steve Staios (kneecap) thrust many unproven minor-league players and prospects into the Oilers lineup.

Marc-Andre Bergeron was let go by the Oilers, he traded to the New York Islanders, and went off to have a superb second half which saw the young defenceman score 6 goals and add 15 assists for a total of 21 points in just 23 contests with the Islanders. The Oilers got a lost prospect back in Denis Grebeshkov, who hopefully, will return and play for Edmonton next season.
With Edmonton, however, he was not the Bergeron that the organisation saw last season, he struggled on defence and his offensive side was inconsistent.
He eventually was stuck in Craig McTavish's doghouse and then sent to the New York Islanders.

Bergeron was a steal for Snow, Pronger's flourishing in Anaheim, Spacek is a secondary powerplay quarterback for the Sabres and Dick Tarnstrom's putting up 29 points in 44 games so far with Lugano of the Swiss League.

The Oilers' defence was non-existant on offense, Steve Staios managed to get 17 points in 58 games after going down with surgery.

Other than that, only Daniel Tjarnqvist hit the 15 point plateau, the rest were stuck in mediocrity.

Tjarnqvist was also amazingly the only Oilers point man with a +/- rating above 0 (3), and he only played in 37 games, you could argue he's their best blueliner now.
Other than that, the Oilers combined for a horrific -83 +/- rating and managed to score a mere 15 goals and Tjarnqvist was the only one with a powerplay goal (he had 2).
And ironically, he missed more than half the season with multiple injuries.

Geez, this is already giving me a headache, and worse, the Oilers used 6 rookies on their blue-line throughout the course of the season, more importantly in their second half.

And to top it all off, the Oilers finished last in the league with a miniscule 2.34 GF per game, this stat was hugely affected after the Oilers lost Ryan Smyth on Trade Deadline Day.

They had already lost Ethan Moreau to shoulder surgery for the season, forward Jarett Stoll possibly forever with a devastating concussion, and they just didn't get anything from Fernando Pisani after a magical playoff run last year, Shawn Horcoff was invisible after Smyth was traded and after scoring 27 times last season, Raffi Torres dissapeared into the wind along with the non-existant Joffrey Lupul.

Yup, and here's the stat that mattered most: 2-18.
What's this? It's just the record the Oilers put up without Ryan Smyth after he was dealt, which ultimately cost them a chance to make the playoffs but gave them the oppertunity to go golfing in the month of March.

Jean-Francois Jacques, a promising player in Hamilton, was thrust between Wilkes/Barre and Edmonton 12 times throughout the season and he put up nothing on the scoresheet; he was pointless in 37 games.
Danny Syvret, one of the many rookie defencemen used by Craig McTavish and a promising point man, showed limited talent with only one assists and a -10 rating in 16 contests.
Zach Stortini scored 1 goal in 27 games and showed scouts why he will be destined for fourth line duty at best.
Tom Gilbert had a decent year, and averaged half a point per game (better than Sergei Samsonov) for the Oilers...in 12 contests.
Bryan Young, a defenceman, was equally a no-show in his rookie campaign and didn't put up a point in 15 games with the Oilers and managed only 2 shots on goal.

I know I'm not an Oilers insider, but it doesn't take a genius to see why the Oilers struggled last season, especially when they lacked talent and offensive production from their forwards, and stability on the back-end.

Dwayne Roloson had an OK season, and he was the reason the Oilers weren't worse than their 32-47-7 record.

I hope Lowe's right when he says there will be changes, as this team is desperate for some.

Another bar/strip club pic...

Joffrey Lupul (far centre) out with the flu.

...This time it's the "struggling Joffrey Lupul" in the spotlight.
Wow, 2 pictures in 2 days, yesterday it was Kipper and Phaneuf smoking in a strip club, today it's Joffrey Lupul making out in a club/bar.

I wonder how many beers he had?

He's apparently suffering from "the flu" and was scratched yesterday night and it looks like he may have infected this poor girl although the original poster does not know when it was taken.

I like the fact there's a finger right in the middle of the picture with Joffrey holding the gal with his right hand and the beer (Budweiser?) with his left.

Joffrey Lupul has been wasting ice time all year long and they finally scratched
him Saturday, allegedly with the flu. If he was truly sick, he shouldn’t have
been breathing on his teammates in the press box, lest they catch whatever it is
that has affected his play this season.

Let's wait for tomorrow when Mike Ribeiro gets caught with a man...

A next year for Stoll?

Wait 'till next year.

As frustrating as that might be to fans of the Edmonton Oilers, it has an entirely different eaning for forward Jarret Stoll.
Out of action since Feb. 1 with a concussion, Stoll has no guarantee there will be a next year.
While Stoll is hopeful he'll be back this season, he understands that his first concussion with the Oilers could be his last.

-Edmonton/Canadian Press

This is very, very sad news indeed for Stoll. Out since February 1st, Stoll's career is now endangered of coming to an end. Stoll claims Samuel Pahlsson of the Anaheim Ducks began his concussion problems in early February in game when he threw Stoll against the boards from behind.
He recovered but his return was short lived as just 2 days later, a vicious hit from the Canucks' Kevin Bieksa put him out of action for good.

Stoll has 13 goals and 26 assists for a total of 39 points and is +2 in 51 games this season. This is a huge decline compared to last year's 68 point campaign.

He's looked brilliant in his first few years as an NHL'er despite flashes of wild inconsistency.
The Oilers have already lost many pieces to their puzzle this season thru injuries and a certain trade which has devastated their win-loss record since and they now find themselves in a race for the bottom. Patrick Kane? Here we come!

They've lost production out of Fernando Pisani, he looks like he's up in the stars when he plays.
Shawn Horcoff has not lived up to the expectations after a career year last season. Goaltender Dwayne Roloson has had to fight many difficult moments in the Oilers' net with a shoddy defence in front of him, the loss of Chris Pronger took a harder hit than expected as the Oilers' troubles have begun on defence.
Joffrey Lupul has been a total bust this season and has not put up respectable numbers.
They have a couple of AHL-calibre defencemen playing every game, namely Jan Hejda...and inexperienced rookies getting full-time playing time (Brad Winchester, J.F. Jacques...).
Here's the best one: their leading point-getter among defenceman is...wait for it...JASON SMITH, yep, the hearty captain with only SEVEN.

You see, and now you wonder why the Oilers are losing big...all these items just can't co-exist on the same team, at least for now.
Covered In Oil had an interesting post a few days ago and compared the current Oilers lineup to the Stanley Cup finals' lineup. You can see a huge difference.

I'm not the Oil expert, but it doesn't take a genius to see that the city of Edmonton is now in mourning...I feel for you Oilers fans, I've said it before and I'll say it again...

Josh Harding looking like real deal for Wild as Minny wins over slumping Edmonton.

With Nicklas Backstrom and Manny Fernandez out, the Minnesota Wild are hoping young Josh Harding can finally realize his potential, and lead the team to the playoffs.

So far so good.

In only his second start and third appearance, Harding stopped 30 shots over the mourning Edmonton Oilers, who have now dropped to 0-2 after the Ryan Smyth mega-deal.
Harding, a 2nd round pick in 2002, received a pat on the back by Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire for his strong play.

"The chances that they got, he was just great on them," Lemaire said. "They had the opportunities to score goals and get going, but he was there to make the big saves. It's a good thing because we don't have nobody else."

Harding, now 1-0-1 with a miniscule 0.49 GAA and .982 SPCT is happy to have made the most of his oppertunity in goal.

"It's an unbelievable feeling right now," he said. "When I get home tonight it will hit a lot harder. I'm just enjoying the moment right now."

With Manny Fernandez and Nicklas Bacstrom out indefinitely, the Wild hope Josh Harding can continue his heroics and carry the team into the playoffs.

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

Captain Canada cries for the money...

Ryan Smyth was all tears as he stood on the podium in front of a swarm of journalists and mourning Oilers fans who are blinded by the truth.

Captain Canada was traded because he did not want the $5.4 million USD Kevin Lowe offered him, Smyth reportedly rejected the contract because he wanted 100 K more.

"100 K more."

And what, you couldn't settle for $5.4 million? That's not enough, as to quote the famous money excuses, "to feed your family"?

I'm sorry, but Ryan Smyth has lost all respect from me, if he really wanted to stay in Edmonton, he would have accepted and already generous offer. But for some reason, he wanted just a hundred thousand more?

But why?

Most duds like you and I don't even make a hundred thousand a year!

Don't get me wrong, Ryan Smyth is a great guy. But...he proved me wrong.
He proved to the world that , the great "Captain Canada" is just like every other greedy hockey player out there, and plays for the money...

Cry Ryan, it's alright, but next time you do, cry for a justified reason.

Oh, maybe Kevin Lowe is at fault here too... He dealt Pronger before the season began...you have to wonder why he couldn't give Ryan Smyth 100 K more with all the cap space he had cleared.

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

The Cherry on the Puck Bag...

I hope you all enjoyed my 6 hour live online coverage, I sure had fun and I hope you enjoyed reading.

Now here's what I have to say about certain things:

Ryan Smyth an Islander: This hit me from Planet Mars, wow, boy was I surprised; Smyth is a great guy and in this situation, I disagree with Pierre McGuire, Lowe should have pushed harder to sign Smyth. They dealt Pronger at the beginning of the season and you'd think with the cap space they freed up that they'd be able to re-sign their key player. Guess not!
The Oilers got some nice young talent back in Nilsson and O'Marra to go along with a first-round pick, but none of that compensates for this costly loss of "the Oiler".
This is huge, it seemed like there would be no surprises this year and we got one 32 minutes after the 3 PM Trade Deadline.
It remains however to be seen if the Islanders can re-sign him and if this move is the end of Jason Blake in Garth Snow's camp?

Sharks look meaner with Guerin:
Bill Guerin's name was officially off the trade market
around noon today with the San Jose Sharks winning out on the jewel of this trade deadline, Bill Guerin.

He came cheaper to San Jose than Tkachuk to Atlanta, the Blues got a 1st round pick, checker Ville Niemienen and a minor-league prospect.

That's all! And Guerin has more points than Tkachuk. Tkachuk went for a 1st, 3rd, 2nd and a much better player in Glen Metropolit than Ville Niemienen.

The Sharks seem set for the playoffs now, they got Craig Rivet from the Canadiens, he should be a great pickup;

Billy Guerin will probably play with Patrick Marleau and with Vesa Toskala nursing a groing injury, the Sharks still have an excellent goalie in Evgeni Nabokov.

Bertuzzi looks to make impact in Detroit...for Panthers' sake:
Todd Bertuzzi played only 7 games as a Panther and was traded today to the Detroit Red Wings who beat out the Nashville Predators and the Anaheim Ducks for his services.
Holland acquires the controversial winger in hope he excels on a Cup hungry Red Wing team.
Bertuzzi says his back is not yet at 100 % but nonetheless, he should still end up playing for them.
It may take some time for him to adgust but, all and all, he'll probably make an impact down the stretch and during the playoffs.
Now, the Red Wings sent a conditional pick to Jacques Martins' Panthers; if Bertuzzi excels with his new team, the Panthers could get a second round pick; if he takes them to the Cup Final, Florida gets a 1st round pick.
Ingenious move by Kenny Holland, who structured this move perfectly, so his team doesn't suffer if Bertuzzi stumbles. And if he does, the Panthers, at best, will get a 4th or 3rd round pick.
And this is,

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge

TSN/Team 990: Berard requests trade!

Denis Casavant, on the local sports radio station in Montreal, the Team 990, just reported Brian Berard requested a trade out of Columbus.

He mentioned it as they were ending the show.

New Jersey is rumoured to have interest in him. The Ducks, Canucks and Oilers are all possible suitors.

Stay tuned...

EDIT: I overlooked TSN's article

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

Oilers meet with Smyth's agent again...

FIRST UPDATE: TSN is reporting talks are still going on with Smyth and that Raffi Torres, Joffrey Lupul and Petr Sykora are available.
They also note that Lowe is shopping Brad Winchester.
--------------
Per TSN.ca

Kevin Lowe might go into panic-mode soon if Smyth is not re-signed.
Smyth is having a career year and he might be the jewel of this offseason's free-agent crop.

Come on, we know it, Ryan Smyth loves Edmonton, the Oilers are nothing without him.
If they lose him, they lose a born-leader, a scorer and a great guy.

You know what, give him the money he wants, give it to him, the 5 or 6 million he'll get, every penny will be worth it...if he can continue to help the Oil in the long run.

If only it were that easy to give a guy that kind of money and still have cap space leftover, unfortunately for Kevin Lowe, life is very complicated now as the Oilers are still questionable.
The word that perfectly qualifies them "questionable"...they are currently slumping and they earned only 6 out of a possible 14 points on their road-trip.

It'll be interesting to see how Kevin Lowe will manage his team, from today until tomorrow...can he bring in another Roloson that will save them?

Honestly, I don't know who can save this team...without giving up a truckload of youngsters.
I feel for you Oilers fans, I really do.

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.