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Are the NHL’s two worst teams now residing in the Sunshine State? From AP-
Milan Michalek made Ottawa Senators fans forget about high-scoring Dany Heatley — at least for one night.
Acquired at the start of training camp in the deal that sent Heatley to San Jose, Michalek had his first three-goal game in the NHL, scoring twice short-handed and once on a power play in Ottawa’s 7-1 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
“To see all the people standing and clapping for me was an awesome feeling,” said Michalek said. “Hopefully, there’s many goals to come.”
Michalek shoveled a rebound past goalie Mike Smith with Tampa Bay on the power play in the first period. The big Czech winger then beat Smith again on a short-handed breakaway early in the second, helping the Senators to their fourth win in five games.
“Two short-handed goals, it’s embarrassing,” Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. “We gave one up against Florida [in a win Monday night]. I know it’s only Game 6, but when you give up three short-handed goals in two games, there’s going to be some video, there’s going to be some talking and there might be some changes.”
Tampa was outshot 35-17, making it appear they are still inadequate at the position of defenseman. That was the team’s biggest weakness during the 2008-09 NHL season.
Tampa is 2-2-2 so far this year. The Florida Panthers are 1-4. Most hockey prognosticators, plus myself, would have had these teams reversed in their predictions for this far into the season. I’m not giving up on the Panthers yet. After a 4-3 start last year they went through a dozen game stretch where little went right. The Panthers then rallied to almost make the playoffs. Hopefully tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers will spark a turnaround for my favorite NHL team.
He is the 24th NHL Goalie to reach that mark. From AP-
Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin came up big in the shootout to earn a milestone victory.
A game after his goaltending gaffe led to a loss in Edmonton’s home opener, Khabibulin became just the 24th goaltender in NHL history to hit the 300 career win mark.
He stopped all three shots in the shootout as Edmonton beat the Dallas Stars 5-4 on Tuesday night. Khabibulin had a far better night than Saturday, when he lost the handle on the puck with less than a minute, a miscue that led to a Calgary goal and 4-3 loss to the rival Flames.
“That was a hard way to lose that first game so it was good to see the team rewarded tonight,” said the 36-year-old free-agent acquisition. “It’s nice to hit that milestone but right now I am just happy that we won the game. I’ll try to build on it and make sure I don’t stop at 300, I guess.”
Alan Hemsky scored the only shootout goal.
Khabibulin, who played for Chicago, Tampa, and Winnipeg/Phoenix before coming to Edmonton, may be showing his age. IMHO I think he will be a backup goalie within 2 years, as long as a NHL team doesn’t let salary dictate who should be the starting goaltender. Like what is happening in Washington.
The South African born 14-year veteran played all but the last year of his career with the Washington Capitals. He was a quiet, low key player. Enjoy your retirement Olie.
Veteran goaltender Olaf Kolzig is retiring after 14 seasons in the NHL.
The 39-year-old former Vezina Trophy winner — known as “Olie the Goalie” — spent most of his career with the Washington Capitals.
He says he plans to spend time with his family but wants to remain involved in hockey.
His 303 career wins rank 21st in the NHL. He finishes his career with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. He posted 35 shutouts in 719 games.
He last played in the NHL for the Florida Panthers. From AP-
The Anaheim Ducks have signed defenseman Steve Eminger to a two-year contract.
The Ducks also acquired left wing Shawn Weller from Ottawa on Friday in a trade for right wing Jason Bailey.
Eminger played for Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Florida last season, compiling a career-high 26 points.
The former first-round draft pick by Washington played parts of five seasons with the Capitals before being traded three times in less than nine months, culminating in his move to the Panthers last March.
The Panthers acquired Eminger just before last March’s trade deadline. He did very little during his stint with the cats. Anaheim is hoping Eminger will finally show some of the skills that led Washington to spend a first round draft pick on him. Honestly, I see no reason for such optimism.
He still has to take a physical before the deal is finalized. From ESPN-
Alex Tanguay is off the market.
The sought-after free-agent forward has agreed to a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning worth $2.5 million, a source told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun.
“We’re pretty happy he is with the Lightning and he’s looking forward to giving his best,” Tanguay’s agent David Ettedgui told the St. Petersburg Times
Though a separated shoulder sidelined him for most of last season, Tanguay finished with 16 goals and 25 assists in 50 games.
Lightning GM Brian Lawton told the Times that Tanguay was “the guy we wanted.”
“It’s a chance for him to play with some really high-end, high-skill players, which we think he is,” Lawton told the newspaper. “And we think together, it should be a nice combination.”
Nice combination, but does it really improve Tampa? The Lightning had a horrible 2008-09 season. They were weak at defensemen, average at best at goalie, and other than their front line, mediocre when it came to scoring. Tampa needs a whole lot more than Alex Tanguay to make it back to the playoffs and I don’t see that happening at the end of the 2009-10. Tanguay on the other hand is free to move on to his next sucker team.
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.
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?
Two former Florida Panthers have moved on. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution-
Adding depth in their roster, the Thrashers signed unrestricted free agents Anthony Stewart and Noah Welch on Monday. Contract terms were not disclosed.
Stewart, a forward, had seven points (two goals, five assists) in 59 NHL games with Florida last season. He has appeared in 105 career NHL games. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Stewart, 24, was a first-round pick by the Panthers in 2003. He has a career total of 66 points (29 goals, 37 assists) in 130 AHL games with Rochester and San Antonio.
Welch, a defenseman, had two points (one goal, one assist) in 40 NHL games with Florida and Tampa Bay last season. He has appeared in 73 NHL games with Pittsburgh, Florida and Tampa Bay. The 6-4, 220-pound Welch, 26, was a second-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2001. He has a career total of 59 points (16 goals, 43 assists) in 122 AHL games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Rochester.
At this point in his career, you have to label Stewart a draft bust and a very big one. He was selected 25th overall and in over 100 Florida Panther games, he scored 4 goals and 8 assists. Not the type of numbers you want from a 1st rounder or a forward. I’ve seldom missed a Panther game for the last two years. Stewart never impressed me, and I doubt he will turn around his career in Atlanta.
Welch is a whole other story. His biggest problem in Florida was staying healthy. He may be of use to Atlanta.
Gary Roberts is retiring from the NHL after 21 seasons.
The Tampa Bay Lightning left winger made the announcement Tuesday. He had already said he would retire at the end of the season.
Roberts retired in 1996 because of a chronic neck injury but returned the following season. A Stanley Cup winner with the Calgary in 1989, he has 438 goals, 471 assists and 2,560 penalty minutes in 1,224 career games with the Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Lightning. He has three goals and four assists in 30 games this season.
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In return Florida sent D Noah Welch and a 3rd round pick. From Sports Network-
The Florida Panthers did make a trade involving a defenseman on Wednesday, however, it didn’t involve Jay Bouwmeester. Instead, they acquired defenseman Steve Eminger from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for defenseman Noah Welch and a third-round pick in the 2009 draft.
This marks the third time Eminger has been traded since the end of last season. He was dealt to Philadelphia from Washington in a 2008 draft-day deal and posted two assists in 12 games with the Flyers before being traded to Tampa Bay along with Steve Downie for Matt Carle in early November.
The 25-year-old recorded four goals and 19 assists in 50 games with the Lightning. In 274 career games with Washington, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, Eminger has notched 10 goals, 58 assists and 265 penalty minutes.
Eminger has a career -48 rating. That’s terrible but could be a result of his not playing for very good teams and being rushed to the NHL after being selected 12th in the 2002 draft by the Washington Capitals.
John McGourty fills us in on the maybe the most important aspect of this trade.
The trade reunites Eminger with Panthers coach Peter DeBoer, with whom Eminger won the 2003 Memorial Cup as a member of the OHL Kitchener Rangers. Eminger has since struggled in his six-year NHL career.
*****
The difference between Eminger in juniors and the NHL has been astounding. In Kitchener, he controlled play, offensively and defensively. He was well positioned and strong on defense, and crafty with the puck on offense, quarterbacking the power play.
Until he joined the Lightning, Eminger showed little of those skills and even less confidence. Reuniting with DeBoer could be exactly what he needs.
In light of that and how Welch didn’t fit in Florida’s scheme of things, I think the gamble on Eminger is worth it.
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