Flyers sign Hartnell and Timmonen...already?!

The title should really be: "Flyers acquire Hartnell and Timmonen for Flyers"

Our buddy and faithful hockey insider over at TSN, Bob McKenzie, is reporting that the Flyers have signed defenceman Kimmo Timmonen and forward Scott Hartnell to multi-year contracts.
That is, of course, after the Flyers dealt the first round pick Nashville gave to them for Peter Forsberg, in exchange for two unisigned UFA's, Kimmo Timmonen and Scott Hartnell.

Both were expected to be hot commodities on the open market.

The terms of the deals?

Hartnell, who was scheduled to become a free agent on July 1, signed with Flyers on a 6-year, $25.2 million deal for a cap hit of $4.2 million per year.

The Flyers also agreed to terms with Timonen on a 6-year, $37.8 million contract for an annual cap hit of $6.3 million.

Someone bring me some painkillers...did I just read right?
Scott Hartnell and $4.2 million in the same sentence, in this universe?

Oh God, that is huge overpayement for a guy that ammassed 39 points last year, 22 of them being goals. I understand the hype around him, but $4.2 million, at this point in this career is really overdoing it.

Now, back to the main topic: FLYERS SIGN HARTNELL AND TIMMONEN, ALREADY?!

The Philadelphia Flyers have dipped into the free agent market a little early, thanks to the Nashville Predators.
Because of Nashville's uncertain ownership future and an expected tight budget in the coming year, sources tell TSN the Predators arranged with the Flyers to give them exclusive negotiating rights to two coveted free agents — defenceman Kimmo Timonen and forward Scott Hartnell.
Sources tell TSN the Flyers have now signed both Hartnell and Timonen to long-term contracts.

Wow, wow, wow, totally unreal.

At first, I thought this wasn't allowed, that you couldn't do this, but then I just realized that you can.

Not trying to say that this is bad, but it goes against everything that free-agency means, and how it works.

I just don't get how the NHL, really, can allow a team to do this, to trade for an impending UFA and sign him, that's just trying to get to the UFA pool early...hmmm, come to think of it, if the Habs can't sign Sheldon Souray, they should trade him to a team that really wants him right away, since this kind of activity is apparently allowed!

Still, legal or not, top talent shouldn't be allowed to be taken away by any other team before July 1st, and as a result, this is going to make more than a few GM's lose their tops.

--BBR

Predators played some real hockey last night...

Wow, just wow, if you tuned into TSN to watch the Preds and Sharks like I suggested, you'll have found that it was a great suggestion.

From the opening faceoff, you could feel the tension between Barry Trotz and Ron Wilson, both standing on opposite sides of their team's benches.

This is playoff hockey.

Bonecrushing hits, penalties, power plays and just great team chemistry.

From the start, Dan Marouelli and Kelly Sutherland went to warn Barry Trotz and Ron Wilson about the crap that was going on after the whistle was blown, shoving, basically the Sharks wanted to get the Predators off their game.

And he showed the coaches he wasn't bluffing, and sent off Bill Guerin and Vern Fiddler for "jousting" as Gord Miller called it at the faceoff circle.

Barry Trotz believed the Sharks were looking for payback after the Hartnell-Cheechoo collision.

"You could see from the opening whistle that was their intent," he said.

The San Jose Sharks had a 5 minute powerplay after Alexander Radulov went elbow-first into Steve Bernier along the boards.
Radulov, the young sensation who had scored yet another goal for the Predators earlier in the game and in Game 1(twice), was ejected and awarded a 5 minute major.

At that point, the score was 2-1 Nashville, and the Sharks had a golden opportunity to tie the game, I was almost certain that Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, Scott Hannan, Ryane Clowe, Craig Rivet, the one-legged Jonathan Cheechoo and Bill Guerin would put up something with this huge man advantage.

It turns out they didn't.

Amazingly, the Sharks failed to capitalize on a 5 minute powerplay, although, they spent a lot of time in Nashville's zone but it seemed like they just couldn't complete any play, you have Barry Trotz's great coaching and the Preds' defencemen to thank for that.
They didn't leave Ron Wilson's squad any room to maneuver in the high slot and there were no good scoring chances or scrambles around Tomas Vokoun, who, after allowing Craig Rivet to score on his on rebound in the first period, rebounded and made a few fine saves.

And to add insult to injury, Ryan Suter (one of those many defensively-sound Nashvillians) went off for roughing, and the Sharks would have a 2-man advantage for a little under a minute, still enough to cause serious damage to an indisciplined Predators team.
Ron Wilson, realizing that his team wasn't producing anything on the powerplay, called a time out in hope of getting his guys back in the game and setting them up for a goal.
You could read the exasperated coache's lips: "MOVE THE PUCK." is exactly what he shouted to his team, and he was right, the Sharks weren't getting many great chances because they didn't have good control of the puck or where it was going, their passes were often intercepted and their plays seemed pathetic.

As it turns out, the timeout was wasted and the Sharks had just missed out on 6 consecutive minutes of powerplay.

Streaking out of the box was Jordin Tootoo, serving Radulov's penalty, he chipped the puck ahead to JP Dumont, who rushed in along the right wings boards with Tootoo placed perfectly in front of the net.
Craig Rivet did his best to block the pass but it was all for none, as the veteran defenceman fell for Dumont's fake and sniped the puck low glove side on a surprised Evgeni Nabokov, who didn't look like a happy camper after he allowed that 3rd marker.

What really pissed me off was the officials' plain stupidity, late in the second, Bill Guerin comes up behind Peter Forsberg in the neutral zone and pulls him down, Guerin goes off for interference and to Trotz' anger, Forsberg goes off for diving.

He didn't stop yelling for two full minutes, Marouelli told him to stop or he would end up with a penalty too, Forsberg couldn't believe the call and he grudgingly went to the penalty box.

I didn't like the Bill Guerin played, he played dirtily like most of the Sharks players played late last night, he limited his offensive production to zero and he ended up with a whole new rash of penalty minutes, giving the Preds powerplays that they converted once on eight chances.

JP Dumont made it 4-1 when he scored on a pretty passing play on the powerplay.

In the 3rd, especially near the end, things got dirty.

Ryane Clowe scored to make it 4-2 with about 8 minutes remaining and gave the Sharks a little hope of coming back.

And from there on out, the "street brawl" began.

Mike Grier, Ryane Clowe and Scott Hannan each received fighting majors and misconducts near the end of the game, while Smithson, Tootoo and Hartnell received the same.

Ryane Clowe said he wanted to fight Hartnell to "avenge" the hit on Cheechoo.

"I'm sure he knows what he did, obviously, just common sense that somebody is going to stand up for your teammate, and that's what I did," Clowe said. "We stuck together, and that's the main thing."

Barry Trotz thought otherwise and said he Clowe instigated Hartnell to fight.

Ron Wilson said he had no comment after the game, and I don't blame him, Barry Trotz had one nice comment to add.

"We came here to play hockey tonight," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We knew it was an important game, and they turn it into a street brawl."

The series is tied 1-1 and who knows how much better this is going to get!

"I think Colin Campbell has a job, and his job is to review these plays," Joe Thornton said. "I'm sure if he wants us to play this way, we can play this way. It's in his hands, and we'll see what happens."