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He played for 12 different teams in his career but he scored the most points for his final team, the New York Islanders. Enjoy your retirement Mike.
New York Islanders center Mike Sillinger decided two hip operations were enough.
The center who played for a record 12 teams during 17 seasons in the NHL is retiring because of an injured left hip.
“The decision was clear to me after dealing with hip surgery the last two seasons, Sillinger said during a conference call Wednesday. “If I was to come back and be a hero I’d be getting a hip replacement before I’m 40.”
The 38-year-old forward played in only seven games last season and had season-ending hip resurfacing surgery in January. In February 2008, he had a microfracture procedure on the hip that forced him to sit out the final 29 games of that season.
Sillinger spent three years with the Islanders and his 42 goals and 87 points were his most with any NHL team.
“It’s a big hole to fill,” Islanders general manager Garth Snow said. “Mike was good at many different things, whether it was putting the puck in the net or taking a faceoff.”
Sillinger was chosen No. 11 in the 1989 draft by Detroit. For his career, he had 240 goals and 308 assists in 1,049 games.
Sillinger said he’d like to stay in hockey but downplayed the notion that he might go into coaching right away.
“I’m just going to enjoy the kids for now and see what the future brings,” he said.
Besides the Islanders and Red Wings, Sillinger also suited up for Anaheim, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Florida, Ottawa, Columbus, Phoenix, St. Louis and Nashville.
He only appeared in five Columbus Blue Jacket games last year. From AP-
The Minnesota Wild have signed veteran goaltender Wade Dubielewicz to add depth behind All-Star Niklas Backstrom.
The move gives the Wild a third goaltender on the roster and more stability should they decide to trade backup Josh Harding, who had a 2.21 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage last season. The Wild signed Backstrom to an extension that will make him the No. 1 goaltender for the next four years.
The 30-year-old Dubielewicz has a career record of 17-15-1 with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in 40 career appearances with the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Now the Wild have a good #1 goalies, and two backups who haven’t played all that much but have shown good ability. The Florida Panthers have Tomas Vokoun and the recently acquired Scott Clemmensen. In addition to that, they have Mike Brodeur who played well at Rochester of the ACL and the recently acquired Alexander Salak. Some teams are awash in Goalie options.
Then you have the Washington Capitals. This team has the overpriced underperforming Jose Theodore and the inexperienced Simeon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. Admittedly Varlamov did a good job during the last NHL playoffs but the Russian goalie has exactly six games of regular season experience. It is far too early to say if Varlamov is a quality NHL goalie. Harding and Dubilewicz don’t have much experience, but they aren’t trying to backup a #1 goalie who isn’t up to the job. Why Washington didn’t try to replace Theodore is beyond me. Throwing good money at a bad goalie makes economic sense, but won’t improve your chances of winning a Stanley Cup.
The upcoming schedule was released yesterday. Right away I noticed something interesting. Florida has a home and home series with Nashville.
Nov 28 and Mar 29 are when the Panthers and Predators play next season.
What I find interesting is- Florida is playing Nashville home and home for the second straight season. In 2008-09, the Panthers and Predators played on November 1st and December 23rd.
In light of the way the NHL season is set up, namely that any Eastern or Western conference team plays only play 3 home and homes in any season, Florida and Nashville shouldn’t meet home and home more than once every five years 15 western conference teams divided by 3 home and home series equals five.
Here’s a link to the 2009-10 schedule. Anyone have theories as to what happened here or am I off base?
That’s the trophy given to the best goalie in hockey for an individual season. From AP-
Niklas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild, Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins are the finalists for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender.
The league announced the finalists Monday. The winner, voted by general managers around the league, will be revealed June 18 at the NHL awards show in Las Vegas.
Mason, a rookie, posted a franchise-record three straight shutouts in December and helped the Blue Jackets reach the playoffs for the first time. Thomas led the NHL with a 2.10 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage for the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins.
Backstrom appeared in 71 games for Minnesota and ranked among the top five goaltenders in goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts. His 37 wins were a franchise record, and after playing in his first All-Star game he received a four-year, $24 million contract extension that will begin next season.
Here are the regular season stat lines for each goalie. Note only Thomas is still playing in the ongoing NHL playoffs for 2008-09.
Thomas- Games Played 54 Wins 36 Losses 11 Overtime Loses 7 Goals allowed 114
Shutouts 5 Goals against average 2.10 Save Pct .933
Backstrom- 71 37 24 8 159 8 2.33 .923
Mason- 61 33 20 7 140 10 2.29 .916
Sentimentally I’d vote for the rookie Mason, but Thomas clearly has the best stats of the three nominees.
Left Winger Rick Nash scored an unusual hat trick. From AP-
The Columbus Blue Jackets gave their playoff hopes a boost — and set a couple of team records, too.
Rick Nash had his fourth career hat trick — his second against Detroit this season and third overall against the Red Wings — in Columbus’ 8-2 victory Saturday night.
R.J. Umberger also scored two goals, Jason Williams had a goal and an assist, Raffi Torres and Andrew Murray also scored, and Steve Mason made 44 saves for Columbus, fighting to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Rookie Goalie Steve Mason and Rick Nash are the stars in Columbus these days. Nash, who’s been a top scorer in the NHL since 2003-04, finally looks like he has a worthy supporting cast.
What was unusual about the hat trick?
Nash completed his hat trick with 7:44 left for his 31st goal. All three goals were unassisted.
I can’t ever recall watching a game where the same player scored three unassisted goals. It would have been nice if Associated Press would have reported the last time this happened.
The NHL trading deadline is four hours away. From CBC Sports-
The Ottawa Senators traded forward Antoine Vermette to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
In exchange, Ottawa receives goaltender Pascal LeClaire and a second-round pick in the 2009 NHL draft.
Vermette, 26, has nine goals and 19 assists in 62 games this season for the Senators.
He is signed through next season, when he will make $3 million, before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2010.
Leclaire, 26, has played in 12 games for the Jackets this season, posting a 4-6-1 record with a 3.83 goals against average
Ottawa is essentially out of the playoff hunt for 2008-09. I’m doubtful Leclaire will help fill the goaltending void in Ottawa. He’s just another second stringer, and the Senators have two already in Alex Auld and Martin Gerber. Admittedly Gerber has been sent to the minors and may be destined for Europe. So he could be reasonably considered out of the picture. Still the move puzzles me.
Last night’s game marks the seventh shutout for the NHL rookie.
It seemed like a while since Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason had recorded a shutout. In reality it was only seven starts, but when you burst onto the scene with six in your first 24 NHL games, including back-to-back-to-back blankings during one stretch, expectations quickly become elevated.
Have no fear — Mason was back at his stingiest best Friday night, and he needed to be. The Blue Jackets got him a Jakub Voracek goal early in the second period and nothing more, but Mason made that hold up with 18 saves in a 1-0 win over the Ottawa Senators at Nationwide Arena.
“Steve Mason had an outstanding game,” said Voracek, who redirected a shot by Michael Peca past Alex Auld for his eighth of the season. “He made a couple of big saves in the third period. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0 or 5-4; it’s still two points for us.”
Mason now leads the League with seven shutouts, and the Blue Jackets moved into a four-way tie for fifth in the Western Conference with 53 points. Three other teams sit just two points out of a playoff spot in an ever-tightening race.
I’m surprised by the rise of Columbus this year. It was easy to write them off after Derick Brassard went out for the season.
Columbus will have to play excellent hockey to make the playoffs, for I feel the Western is the tougher of the two NHL conferences.
It’s because of Mason that the Blue Jackets find themselves in contention for their first ever playoff appearance. From NHL.com-
Steve Mason already led the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage. The rookie goaltending sensation for the Columbus Blue Jackets now has sole possession of the lead in shutouts as well, despite having spent the first month of the season in the minor leagues.
Mason stopped all 45 shots by the Washington Capitals, and the injury-plagued Jackets got a goal and assist each from Jared Boll and Fedor Tyutin in a 3-0 win Friday night at Verizon Center, finishing with an impressive 4-2 record on a six-game road trip.
“It’s huge for us,” Mason said. “Obviously, with a lot of guys out of the lineup it was a big opportunity for other guys to step up. They did that. We had a down first period, but the guys bounced back in the second and the third.”
Mason’s sixth shutout broke a tie with Niklas Backstrom of Minnesota and Roberto Luongo of Vancouver, who achieved all of his prior to Nov. 8 and has been out since late November after hurting his groin.
Mason, whose goals against fell to 1.74 while his save percentage improved to .939, didn’t make his NHL debut until Nov. 5, but he took advantage of an injury to Pascal Leclaire and has since taken the starting job.
Mason is having a great year and should be given serious consideration for rookie of the year.
He was tied for the rookie scoring lead before his injury happened. From ESPN-
The rookie disclocated his right shoulder during a fight last Thursday night.
“He’s going to have surgery in early January and he’s done for the year,” Jackets general manager Scott Howson told ESPN.com Monday.
“He’s four to six months out in terms of return to play — closer to six months. So he’s not going to return this year.”
Brassard was tied for the NHL rookie scoring lead with 25 points (10-15) in 31 games and was among the candidates for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
It’s a huge blow to a Jackets team that wasn’t that deep at center to begin with.
Brassard was the sixth overall pick in the 2006 draft and was the NHL’s rookie of the month for October. He has earned points in 20 games this season.
Columbus hockey fans had high hopes for the Blue Jackets to make their first ever post season appearance. This looks rather doubtful now.
Pierre LeBrun at ESPN writes-
Talk about a punch in the gut. The Jackets were three points out of a playoff spot Monday and can ill afford to lose their No. 2 scorer. So now what? Other GMs around the league can expect their cell phones to ring in the near future.
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The Washington Capitals have been shopping veteran center Michael Nylander all season, but we’re told the Jackets aren’t interested. Too much contract left on that baby. Nylander, 36, has two-and-a-half seasons left on his current deal, which pays him $5.5 million this season, $5.5 million next season and $3 million in 2010-11.
They wouldn’t want Florida’s Brett McLean would they? He just scored his first goal of the season last Sunday!
There’s always former Blue Jacket Center Gilbert Brule. Oh never mind about that.
Either way, Brassard’s injury is a huge blow for a team that needed its core players to stay healthy all year to remain in the playoff race. Ken Hitchcock rates among the best coaches in the NHL, but barring a trade, this might be too much to overcome.
The Western is the tougher of the NHL’s two conferences. I don’t think we’ll be seeing Columbus in the post season for at least one more year.
The incident happened in a game Friday night. From AP-
Columbus Blue Jackets center Michael Peca has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL for making contact with an on-ice official.
The team and league announced the suspension on Saturday. Peca was automatically suspended per Rule 41, Physical Abuse of Officials, Category 2.
He was assessed a game misconduct penalty at 5:21 of the second period of the Blue Jackets’ season opener on Friday night at Dallas, which they went on to win 5-4 on Rick Nash’s goal in overtime.
*****
Peca, an alternate captain, has appealed but will remain suspended pending a hearing to be scheduled next week.
If Peca bumped the ref, he deserves some kind of suspension. That behavior should never be condoned.
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