Coaching Carousel

 Two big name head coaches were relieved of their duties today.  The Washington Capitals fired four-year bench boss Bruce Boudreau, and the Carolina Hurricanes let go of their coach for the past three seasons, Paul Maurice.  Both teams have been underachieving throughout November, and both clubs' administrations respectively felt it was time for a change.

Forget Crosby, forget Ovechkin, Boudreau was the
 true break-out star of HBO's 24/7 series!!!

 The Capitals, after getting off to a league leading 10-2-0 start through the first 12 games of the 2011-12 season, have stumbled tremendously during the course of the past month.  Washington has gone 3-7-1 in the 11 games since their start, and have also had to deal with a struggling captain in Alexander Ovechkin, an overpaid misfit growing more distant from "team" mentality in Alexander Semin, a goalie who seems to believe nonchalantly shuffling from post-to-post is an effective goaltending strategy in Tomas Vokoun, as well as an entire roster of players that just have been plagued by fundamental errors recently.  Last year, the Capitals went through a long stretch of futility chronicled by HBO's 24/7 series, but Boudreau and his team were able to collect the pieces of their season and put it back together to earn the best record in the Eastern Conference.  Caps' GM George McPhee clearly did not think Boudreau could do so again this year, so he's out, and Capitals legend and fan-favorite Dale Hunter is in.
 McPhee sent Boudreau a text message, that he received at 6:30 am, informing him that he had lost his job as "as result of the performance over the past 10 games."  Regarding rumors that the move was prompted by the poor play of the team's superstar, Alex Ovechkin, or a growing rift between him and his coach, McPhee was quoted as saying, "I don't think this has anything to do with Ovechkin. I think it's got everything to do with this team not playing well."  He also noted that Ovi will remain the team's captain.
 After practice today, Ovechkin was predictably interviewed and was asked for his thoughts on the subject, to which he responded, "Everybody was in shock."  Mike Knuble was also asked several questions, and had glowing things to say of his now former coach, but is also ready to move on with Dale Hunter at the helm.


This is actually the 2nd time Maurice has
been fired by Carolina.  He served as
head coach for the franchise from
1996-2004 and, most recently, 2008-11.

  Coming into this season, the Hurricanes, with offseason additions of Tomas Kaberle, Anthony Stewart, Alexei Ponikarovsky, and Tim Brent, were expected to not only make the playoffs, but possibly make a deep push towards the Stanley Cup.  These expectations would prove to be Paul Maurice's downfall.  An inconsistent club, and underperforming captain and superstar in Eric Staal, and pitiful 3rd period performances during the year have made Caniacs feeling like an 8th seed in the playoffs would be a blessing at this point.  The 'Canes sit last in the Southeast Division and searching for answers as to why they cannot string together more wins than they already have.  Whether it is the correct answer or not is yet to be seen, but the first answer we've been presented with is the firing of Maurice, and hiring of the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals' coach, Kirk Muller.
 Muller, who was only in his first year of AHL coaching, had gone 10-6-0-1 with Milwaukee before being scooped up
                                                           by Carolina's staff.

 With these two moves being made today, many are wondering how long it is going to take now for similar actions to be taken in other cities, the most notable being Anaheim.  The Ducks, who have a roster loaded with talent that includes the league's reigning MVP, Corey Perry, have been terrible so far this season.  They're dead last in the Pacific Division, have a 6-13-4 record, goalie Jonas Hiller has not been able to regain his All-Star form since his episodes with vertigo that ended his season last year, Jason Blake had his forearm lacerated in a game back in October and hasn't played since, basically nothing is going right for Anaheim, and head coach Randy Carlyle doesn't have much longer to turn things around.  It is unsure whether or not Anaheim will choose to make a trade or fire their skipper to shake things up in an attempt to move their season in a more positive direction, but Carlyle should approach every day in the near future like his Ducks career is in jeopardy, not one of his player's.  I give Carlyle no later than December 14th to turn things around in Anaheim before he is no longer behind the bench.

Exciting Night In Hockey

 The word is out, and it's no secret that Sidney Crosby, arguably the greatest player in the game today, will be reinstituted into the Penguins' line-up tonight against the New York Islanders after a 10 month absence from the game recovering from a nasty concussion.  The media has been abuzz with Crosby-related stories and rumors even during the summer when his return was far from near, so they did not disappoint anyone by immediately jumping on the story after the team announced his return yesterday.  Number 87's story has captivated the NHL's headlines for the day, rightfully so, but this evening contains many other storylines worth mentioning that make tonight the most interesting night of regular season hockey in November the NHL has ever seen.

 Not only will Sidney Crosby be back in a Penguins uniform tonight, but the club will also be gaining the services of golden, shot-blocking, defensive defenseman Zbynek Michalek.  The Penguins have been plagued by injuries throughout 2011, but with the additions of Crosby and Michalek, who missed 10 games with a broken finger, back into their roster, Pittsburgh will have their first completely healthy roster since January 5, 2011.  You may recognize that date as the same day Crosby suffered the concussion that caused all of this madness to begin with.

Montréal leads this series all-time,
345-259-103-6 in 713 games.

 Elsewhere outside of Pittsburgh, one of the oldest and most intense rivalries in the game hook-up tonight as the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins take on the Montréal Canadiens in the Bell Centre.  Both teams surprisingly struggled early in the year, but have turned their fortunes around as of late.  The Bruins are the hottest team in hockey, currently on an eight-game winning streak and undefeated in the month of November.  During this streak, Boston has put up a staggering 42 goals for in eight games.  Montréal began the year with a very disappointing start, but have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 games.  The Canadiens still sit at the bottom of the Northeast Division as a result of their lackluster start, but look to continue turning their season around at home tonight as they meet up with their bitter rivals.

 Dallas Stars' defenseman Sheldon Souray will have the opportunity to sweeten some of his sour grapes tonight in Big D, as he takes on his estranged, former employer.  The Edmonton Oilers gave Souray a much inflated contract when they signed him in the summer of 2007, and Souray never really lived up to it.  After only playing 26 games in 2007-08 due to injury and 37 games in 2009-10 between injury and the Oilers scratching him on various night, Edmonton buried him and his contract in the minors for the entire 2010-11 season.  Much to Souray and the Oilers' relief, his contract ran out over the summer.  Still believing he could still be effective in the NHL, Souray signed a one-year, $1,650,000 contract with the Dallas Stars, and he has exceeded expectations.  Souray is 15th in the league among defensemen in points, and tied for 3rd among defesemen in goals.  Souray will duke it out with his former team as the Stars (who led the NHL in points a little over a week ago) look to snap a five-game losing streak.

 When Peter DeBoer was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Florida Panthers late last season, the was more speculation over whether or not Theo Fleury would attempt a second comeback with the Phoenix Coyotes than where DeBoer would be hired next, (in case you couldn't detect the sarcasm, Theo Fleury was never going to attempt a second comeback.)  But low and behold, Pete DeBoer was hired as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, a team with a pedigree of winning.  Despite New Jersey's struggles last season and DeBoer's career sub-.500 record as an NHL coach, analysts praised the decision calling it, "the perfect fit for what [The Devils] need right now," even though many of those same analysts also admitted they didn't see it coming.  The Devils have gotten off to a decent start this season, posting a 10-7-1 record and going 6-4-0 in their last 10 games, but Florida has been off to an unexpected start with 23 points, a total good enough to have them currently in first place of the Southwest Division.  Tonight, DeBoer will return back to the sunshine state to duke it out with the team that gave him his chance as a head coach in the NHL, but never delivered them a playoff berth.

Other note-worthy games to be played this evening:

• The Washington Capitals are in desperate need of a win, going 3-6-1 in their last 10.  They hope to end their recent skid at home against the Phoenix Coyotes, a team who is 6-2-1 on the road so far this season.  The Caps' sniper and notorious lack-of-work horse, Alexander Semin, is a healthy scratch for tonight's game.
• The Carolina Hurricanes are fresh off of a big win against Toronto yesterday, but now have to travel to the conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers' barn for a game tonight.  Carolina has been off to a surprisingly slow start, and have lost many games where they have arguably outplayed their opponent.  Can the Hurricanes take the momentum they earned yesterday to continue to turn their season around early, or will the Broadstreet Bullies set them back a step on the road to recovery?
• The Columbus Blue Jackets, the league's lowliest team at this point with only 10 points, just won their fourth game of the season in their most recent contest, a game in which Jeff Carter finally scored his first goal as a Jacket.  Tonight they host the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena.  This may not be a high marquee game that you'd flip to on the remote, but it is definitely a game you will want to keep track of the score at the bottom of your TV screen or on your laptop to see if Columbus can string together two wins in a row... or at least an OT loss.  They need all the points they can get.

The End Is Near

Mark Letestu has been falling
out of favor under coach
Dan Bylsma for months, now

 The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded young centerman Mark Letestu to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 4^th round draft pick.  Letestu, a player who has been plummeting out of favor in the ‘Burgh since last spring, was given a 2-year, $1,250,000 contract extension by Penguins’ GM Ray Shero back in January.  In addition to the Pens shipping out Letestu, the team also distributed a press release earlier today stating that Dustin Jeffrey and enforcer Steve MacIntyre had been sent to the Penguins’ AHL farm team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a “conditioning” stint.  No players were recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

 So the question must be asked, what’s the cause for a successful team’s sudden creation of roster openings in Pittsburgh?  Allow me to jump to the fairly obvious conclusion.  Sidney Crosby is (almost) ready to play hockey again.

 Crosby, who has not played a game since January 5^th, 2011, sent the hockey world into a frenzy when he didn’t rule out this Friday’s game against Dallas as his possible return date.  After all, 11/11 was the day many people predicted he would see NHL ice again, but to the same token, we cannot take his quote regarding the specific game in which he’d play again, “Anyone’s guess is as good as mine,” as insincere.

 Tyler Kennedy, who has been suffering from concussion symptoms since mid-October, started skating again last week.  So these roster moves could foreshadow his return just as much as they may hint at Crosby’s.  The one word that best describes #87’s concussion is “unpredictable”.  These moves do not point to the immediate reemergence of Sidney Crosby into Pittsburgh’s daily line-up.  No one should get discouraged all of a sudden if 11/11 rolls around and Sid isn’t on the ice in a game.  No one should get discouraged if 11/15 is Crosby-less, either.  These moves only point to three things that we can say for certain: Letestu had underperformed to the point where the Penguins had to deal him, Pittsburgh’s injured players in general have been improving, and even if 11/11, 11/12, 11/15, or whenever comes and doesn’t have Sidney Crosby with a game played, rest assured we will see him before 12/1.

 And you can run and tell that, homeboy.

The Pens' sudden roster moves point to Sidney Crosby, Tyler Kennedy, and most of their injured players' improving health.

Celebration in Smashville (Part I)

 Superstar goalie Pekka Rinne has signed a 7-year contract extension with the Nashville Predators.
 Rinne, one of the elite goaltanders in the National Hockey League, was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st after this season.  He would have certainly seen top-dollar offers from teams interested in his services, but instead Peks decided to make a long-term commitment to the Nashville organization.  Not only should the Predators be excited now that they can expect to see this spectacular netminder in a golden Nashville uniform for years to come, but they inked him at a bargain price, too.  There is still no official word on the monetary details of the 7-year deal, but word on the street is it will equal somewhere around $49 million.

 Predators' mastermind GM David Poile has very little time to celebrate this accomplishment, however.  Rinne, along with star defensemen Ryan Suter and Shea Weber were going to become UFAs on July 1st, but just because we can scratch Rinne off of that list doesn't mean Poile's job is even close to being done.  Suter and Weber have been key to the Preds' success over the past few seasons, and both players continue to imprive year after year.

Photo by John Russel / Getty Images

 It has been reported that Poile and his staff will resume negotiations with Suter's party on November 14th.  No one expects those negotiations to move along as quickly as Rinne's, but hopefully they go well.  If Ryan Suter re-ups with the Peks and the Preds, rhen you can expect a swift Part II be made to the "Celebration in Smashville" post.  Heck, I already plan on it.  As you can see, this post is titled Part I, because I expect more celebrations to come out of Poile's office.
 Everyone loves the feel-good story.  What's more feel good than the small market team locking up their stars long term?  If the "Celebration in Smashville" posts can become a trilogy, meaning the Predators were able to resign Rinne, Suter, and Shea Weber, it would certainly be one of the greatest stories in NHL free agency history as well as one of the most well-crafted GM jobs anyone has ever seen, too.  But until then, Predator fans can get excited about the fact that they have Pekka Rinne to look forward to in net for a long, long time.

Capital Trouble in the Cage Again?

 When the Capitals acquired goaltender Tomas Vokoun in the offseason via unrestricted free agency, the Caps instantly became my favorites to walk away with the 1^st overall seed in the East and finally make a significant playoff push.  Not to mention, after seeing the absurdly discounted price at which Washington was able to sign him for, it looked like both parties (especially Vokoun) were dedicated to one thing: winning.  It seemed as if the Ovechkin-era Capitals’ goaltending woes were finally in the past… or so I thought.

 Washington may be 8-2-0 and be boasting the highest winning percentage in the league coming into November, but some red flags have already gone up in our nation’s capital, particularly between the pipes.  Can somebody please tell me what in the world Tomas Vokoun is trying to do here???

10/13/11 James Neal Goal

10/13/11 James Neal 2nd Goal

11/1/11 Teemu Selanne Goal 

 Hey, Gilles Meloche called.  He wants his goaltending style back.

 Actually, at least Gilles looked like he was giving some kind of effort or like he knew what he was doing when he’d shuffle side to side to make saves like that.

 Vokoun may have seven wins right now, and it will come to no surprise to anyone if he amasses many more during the course of the year, but the fact of the matter is, stats lie.  The tape doesn’t.  The playoffs are a time where teams thrive on capitalizing on the mistakes of their opponents, and Washington, a team with a reputation for porous defense in the playoffs, can’t afford to have their players’ mistakes and then the mistakes of their goalie be taken advantage of, too.  They need Vokoun to be the guy between the pipes to bail them out if he has to.

 It doesn’t matter is the Caps locked-up Vokoun for a discounted price or not, if he continues to play like he is right now, you can expect another glorious regular season accompanied by postseason disappointment this year from the Washington Capitals.

 I really wish I could have found the video of another play from yesterday night with Selanne, too.  It was Vokoun's worst effort yet (looked like Selanne's goal vid from above,) and he's lucky the Finnish Flash missed the net.  Seriously though, what is he trying to do there?

A Day Of Little Stories

 Sorry for the lack of a witty or cheesy post title, but I think it appropriately describes a day like today. We have a few little stories, but as small as they may seem, they are certainly worth mentioning.

Lookin' fresh as always, Mr. Avery

 The National Hockey League's most-wanted man and the poster boy for agitators everywhere, Sean Avery, cleared re-entry waivers at noon earlier today.  Some are reporting we may see him on the ice in a Rangers uniform as early as their next game on Thursday against Anaheim.  Avery's stint so far this season with the AHL's Connecticut Whale was a very short one, so why call him back up so soon?  Did the Rangers succumb to mounting fan pressure, after disgruntled fans loudly chanted, "WE WANT AVERY!" during the 3rd period of New York's home opener?  Probably not.  Tortorella does things his way, not the fans' way.  If he didn't want Avery here to begin with, no number of nacho-popping, New Yorker season ticket holders are going to change his mind.  Avery's return is probably the result of the criticisms coming from across the league that the Rangers have been lacking a sense of grit down the roster.


  Almost simultaneously with the news breaking of Avery clearing re-entry waivers, it was reported that the Rangers offer to Swedish defenseman Anton Stralman, a 1-year, one-way contract, made earlier is still on the table.  Stralman, who is still in Sweden, would provide a minor boost to the New York blue line, but would definitely give their roster more depth upon the return of All-Star defender Marc Staal.  Don't look for Stralman, a Jekyll & Hyde-esque player during his last season as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, to make any significant impact to the Rangers if he were to decide to accept the deal in front of him, but that still wouldn't necessarily make it a "useless pick-up" by New York.  He could help if they needed him to, not to mention it's a better situation for Anton Stralman himself, instead of just sitting on his couch in Sweden.

 The other story of the day isn't about someone's return to the NHL from overseas or the AHL, but rather if they will stay in the NHL at all.  Anaheim's 19 year-old 4th liner, Devante Smith-Pelly, may not have impressive numbers on the scoresheet, but he has been very effective grinding it out on the Ducks' bottom two lines through the first nine games of the season.  Smith-Pelly, an Anaheim 2nd round draft pick in 2010 who no one seemed to be talking about coming into this season, has outlasted talk-of-the-town youngsters Mark Scheifele, Ryan Strome, Brandon Saad, and Mika Zibanejad... but still has received no owrd on whether he's staying with the squad or not.  Smith-Pelly skated on the 4th line during the Ducks' morning skate today, and with reporters swarming to find out if he knew whether or not he'd be staying on the team or not, he didn't really know what to tell them.  Tonight's game against the Washington Capitals (a nationally broadcasted Versus game, mind you) would be his 10th game of the year.  If I were a betting man, I would say Smith-Pelly gets to stay with the Anaheim Ducks' for the rest of the year and hopefully continue to add some sandpaper and strong forechecking to the team.   But I'm not a betting man.  I'm a blogger.  So what do I know?