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LA Kings name Terry Murray as their new head coach

I agree with AP, Murray will need all the luck in the world when it comes to his new job.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Good luck, Terry Murray. You’ve just been hired for the toughest job in the National Hockey League.

That’s what Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said Thursday when he introduced Murray as the 22nd head coach in franchise history at the team’s training facility.

Murray, who turns 58 Sunday, signed a three-year, $2.65 million contract to succeed Marc Crawford, who was fired June 10 after two unsuccessful seasons.

Unsuccessful has been the byword for the Kings in recent years since they haven’t qualified for the playoffs since 2002. They had 71 points last season — tied with Tampa Bay for the fewest in the NHL.

“When you’re in a rebuilding process, you have to keep your eyes on two things: What’s in front of you, and where you want to go,” Lombardi said. “If you have a very good team in place, it’s easy to focus on the next game. When you’re dealing with young players, it changes day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month. That’s what I mean about the difficulty of the job.

“I think what I mean when I say the toughest job is it’s more multitasking. We want to put together a nucleus that can stick together. Sometimes there’s no good or bad coaches, it’s right fit. The No. 1 thing is that getting young is a process. He’s been through the process.”

*****

Murray guided the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals 11 years ago, and has coached 737 regular-season NHL games.

Murray, whose last head coaching job was with the Florida Panthers, will need a miracle or two to get the Kings turned around. The team’s ownership has shown little patience in recent memory with both coaches and players. Murray’s tenure in LA is therefore likely to be a short one. Just as it was with his predecessor, Marc Crawford. As it stands, the Kings are probably the worst team in the NHL.

 

Ron Wilson becomes new Toronto Maple Leafs coach

He was fired by San Jose less than a month ago. From AP-

TORONTO — Ron Wilson was introduced Tuesday as the new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, less than a month after he was fired by the San Jose Sharks.

The 53-year-old Wilson appeared at a Tuesday news conference at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre after signing a four-year deal.

Wilson was fired May 12 by San Jose after the Sharks lost to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the playoffs. He succeeds Paul Maurice, who was fired by Toronto last month after missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.

“I’m the happiest person in the National Hockey League today,” Wilson said. “I’m fulfilling a dream.

Wilson played for Toronto back in the 70′s. In addition he coached at Anaheim and Washington before his stint in San Jose.

Can Wilson succeed in Toronto? The Maple Leafs have been mired mostly in mediocrity for a time span that predates Ron Wilson’s time as player with the team. The Leafs have Mats Sundin, but not a whole lot else that stands out. This dream job stands a good chance of ending up as a nightmare.

 

Capitals Alex Ovechkin scores 60th goal of the season

At the same time Washington drew closer to a Eastern conference playoff berth. From AP-

ATLANTA – Alex Ovechkin became the NHL’s first 60-goal scorer in 12 years by netting two Friday night in the Washington Capitals’ comeback 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.

Ovechkin beat goalie Kari Lehtonen in the first period and then brought the Capitals within 3-2 at 11:30 of the third period with his 60th.

No one in the NHL had hit the mark since the 1995-96 season when Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr both did it. Ovechkin’s previous best was 52 goals, accomplished in his rookie season of 2005-06.

*****

The Capitals, who are trying to get into a playoff position in the Eastern Conference, outshot the Thrashers 23-2 in the third period and 45-18 overall. Washington trails eighth-place Boston and the postseason cutoff by one point with six games remaining.

Ovechkin’s 60th goal also tied the Capitals’ club mark set by Dennis Maruk in the 1981-82 season.

Alex will pass Maruk for sure. There are just 7 games left in the Capitals regular season. Carolina’s 2-1 shootout win on Thursday night over Florida the other night has probably sown up the Southeast Division for the Hurricanes. The Capitals and Florida Panthers could still make the playoffs.

 

Washington Capitals get goalie Huet from Montreal

This trade is a real head scratcher.

WASHINGTON – The Washington Capitals have acquired goalie Cristobal Huet from the Montreal Canadiens for a 2009 second-round draft pick. The deal Tuesday comes a few hours before the deadline for making trades in the NHL.

Huet has been Montreal’s No. 1 goalie this season. The 2007 All-Star is 21-12-6 with a 2.55 goals-against average.

The Capitals’ top goalie has been Olie Kolzig, who is 21-19-6 with a 3.03 GAA.

Washington has climbed from the bottom of the NHL to within striking distance of a playoff berth.

The draft pick Montreal gets was previously acquired by Washington from Anaheim for Brian Sutherby.

This trade works out well for Washington. On the other hand I don’t get it for Montreal. The Canadiens have two very unexperienced goaltenders now, Jaroslav Halák and Carey Price. I haven’t seen Halák play but Price looked very green in the one game I saw him play against Florida. Montreal is 5th in the Eastern conference playoffs race, and only 1 pt out of the division lead. The East is pretty wide open, Montreal could win the conference though I was predicting them not to. Now I wouldn’t pick the Canadiens at all. This deal doesn’t make sense to me at present.

 

Vancouver trades Cooke to Washington for Pettinger

Both team’s coaches won’t have a hard time learning their new player’s name. From the Canadian Press-

VANCOUVER – Matt Pettinger is heading back to British Columbia.

The Vancouver Canucks acquired him from the Washington Capitals on Tuesday for winger Matt Cooke. Both players are leaving the only NHL team they have ever played for.

I watched NBC’s Today show this morning. So far as I know, Matt Lauer has no comment.

 

Post NHL All-Star game playoff assessment- Eastern Conference

From top to bottom, the standings

Ottawa Senators 51 32-15-4-68
Montréal Canadiens 50-27-15-8-62
Philadelphia Flyers 49-28-16-5-61
Pittsburgh Penguins 50 28-18-4-60
New Jersey Devils 50-28-19-3-59
Boston Bruins 50-26-19-5-57
New York Islanders 51-24-21-6-54
New York Rangers 52-24-22-6- 54
Carolina Hurricanes 53-25-24-4-54
Washington Capitals 51-23-23-5-51
Atlanta Thrashers 52-23-25-4-50

Buffalo Sabres 49-22-21-6-50
Florida Panthers 51-22-24-5-49
Toronto Maple Leafs 52-20-24-8-48
Tampa Bay Lightning 51-20-26-5-45

Note- The numbers above from left to right are- Games played, wins, losses, Overtime losses, total points

Teams in Bold are Southeast Division teams

First of all barring a complete collapse by these teams, you have to think Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Montreal are locks to make the playoffs. You can probably also toss Boston in.

The rest of the conference is pretty wide open. The only teams that appear to have little chance are Tampa and Toronto.

The Southeast Division is wide open. It is also a division likely to send only one team to the playoffs. First to fourth place is separated by a measly 5 pts, and the 4th place team Florida has played two less games than division leader Carolina. That would point to Florida having a good chance to make the playoffs for the first time in 8 years. On the other hand, there is the team’s listless play of late, only 4 wins in 14 games and this from today’s Palm Beach Post.

The Panthers, who return to action tonight against Buffalo following the All-Star break, say they are determined to end their agonizing playoff drought.

But some observers think the Panthers haven’t exhibited enough determination to reach the post-season for the first time since April 2000.

To put it more bluntly, some critics think they are soft.

“This team plays too much on the perimeter; I haven’t seen the willingness to get their noses dirty and do the dirty work,” said NHL broadcaster John Vanbiesbrouck, who starred in the nets for the Panthers when they reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.

“Winning isn’t easy. You’ve got to make up your mind you’re going to do whatever it takes to get there and play like that every night.”

I’m not totally sure if Vanbiesbrouck is right in what he says. Florida has blown at least five games this year in the last minute of play. They’ve also played games where they either quit or showed little effort. I’ve missed only a handful of games on television this year, Florida has the talent to win the division and even make a run in the playoffs. The only teams I worry about in the conference are Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Carolina and Toronto (The Maple Leaf oversized defensemen seem to intimidate the Panthers) when Florida faces them.

I question if the Panthers has the desire, and perhaps the coaching. Why the hell did the team send Shawn Matthias back to the minors? He scored two goals in four NHL games, two of which Jacques Martin barely played him in, and 21 in 32 games of OHL play before his callup. I rather have Matthias on the roster than the overrated Brett McLean or Kamil Kreps. After all, Kreps has just 4 goals in 45 games played!

Boy am I getting gloomy about this Panthers team.

 

Alex Ovechkin signs 13-year contract with the Washington Capitals

It is Hockey’s first 9 digit contract.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alexander the Great has a contract worthy of his nickname — the first $100 million deal in NHL history.

Alex Ovechkin signed a $124 million, 13-year contract extension Thursday with the Washington Capitals, a handsome reward for the charismatic Russian who has been a nonstop goal-scorer since coming to the NHL in 2005.

*****

It’s not the longest deal in NHL history — Rick DiPietro signed for 15 years with the New York Islanders — and it doesn’t set the record for largest average salary, but it is the league’s first contract to guarantee nine digits of income.

Long-term contracts like this if guaranteed are highly risky. One injury and a team can be paying through the nose for someone unable to play again. Ovechkin is a great player, but if I was a GM, I wouldn’t like the gamble.

 

Are the 2007-08 Florida Panthers over the hump?

They won last night, marking for the fist time this season that the team has a winning record.

Thursday night’s Panthers-Hurricanes game might as well have been played on a roller coaster, it had so many ups and downs.

In the end, the final up went to Florida, which registered a 5-4 victory at the BankAtlantic Center, taking the lead for good on Brett McLean’s goal midway through the third period.

Back home after winning three of four games on the road and facing the Southeast Division leaders, the Panthers had nothing but opportunity in front of them. A win would cut into their five-point division deficit and set an energizing tone for a year-end schedule that features four of five games at the BankAtlantic Center.

It looked bleak when Carolina took a 3-1 lead after the first period, but the Panthers rallied for their third consecutive victory. They now trail the Hurricanes by just three points.

I have felt from Opening Night, that this Panther team is capable of taking the Southeast Division. That the team is right on Carolina’s back at the moment says something(Other than the SE division being mediocre) about how Florida has come this far. They’ve been plagued by injuries this year, particularly to defensemen(Three are out at this time, and its not known when any will be back) but all through this the team has pulled themselves over .500. Yes I still worry about the lack of punch the team has, their tendency to sit on a lead, and whether they give up when they fall behind. As to the last, maybe we’ve seen the end of it. For Florida was down 3-1 a little over 16 minutes into the game. The Panthers then stormed back.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture stands like this. Teams in italics are Southeast division teams

1- Ottawa 22-8-3 47 pts
2- Boston 18-12-4 40
T3- Montreal 17-12-5 39
T3- Carolina 18-15-3
T3- New Jersey 18-13-3 39
6 NY Rangers 17-14-3 37
T7 Florida 17-16-2 36
T7 Pittsburgh 17-15-2
T9 with 35 pts Buffalo and Philadelphia(32 games played each) and Toronto(35 games)
T12 with 33 pts Atlanta and Tampa Bay in 34 and 35 games respectively.

You can look at it one of two ways. Florida is four pts out of 2nd place in the conference or that the cats are just a game or two from being in 10th place because of the fewer games played by Buffalo and Philadelphia. As I see the conference, Florida can play as well as anyone with the exception of Ottawa, and arguably Carolina and New Jersey. The cats, who are notoriously bad as a road team, are 8-9-1. When you factor in injuries and the Panthers road record, this team could finish as high as 2nd in the conference, but more likely 4th or 5th. I think my preseason prediction of Florida making the playoffs for the first time since 2000, is looking better and better.

 

NHL owners approve scheduling changes

All NHL teams will meet again once every season. From AP-

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The NHL’s board of governors approved the sale of the Nashville Predators and changed the league’s scheduling format Thursday night to allow every team to face each other at least once every season.

Paul Kelly, the new executive director of the NHL Players Association, also addressed the league’s owners during a late-afternoon session to open the board’s two-day meeting at an elite resort on the Northern California coast.

After a three-year experiment in developing rivalries in hockey’s far-flung outposts, the NHL voted to go back to the scheduling format used before the 2004-05 lockout, most notably decreasing the current eight games against every team’s divisional opponents to six.

Starting next season, teams will play just 24 total games against their four divisional foes, 40 against the rest of the conference and 18 against the other conference — one game against all 15 foes, and three home-and-home series against wild-card opponents.

First let me state, my interest in hockey was only rekindled in the last year. Otherwise I had watched little of the sport since the end of the NY Islanders Dynasty in the early to mid eighties.

The arrangement where teams didn’t all meet seemed dumb to me. Fans in the west miss out on seeing players like Sidney Crosby and fans in the east miss getting to see……. well see what problem I have. LOL, make that former Florida Panther and ace goaltender Roberto Luongo. Now I can learn about the LA Kings, San Jose Sharks etc. To be honest I’m sick of Atlanta. You would be too if you had to see the Thrashers and Panthers cross sticks eight times a year.

 

Washington Capitals fire coach Glen Hanlon

Hanlon is the second Southeast division coach to be fired this season. Atlanta Thrashers coach Bob Hartley was the first.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Glen Hanlon was fired as coach of the NHL-worst Washington Capitals on Thursday, with the team off to its slowest start in 26 years.

Hanlon, in his fourth season at the helm, was told of the decision a day after loud boos and chants of “Fire Hanlon!” echoed through the arena during a 5-1 home loss to the Atlanta Thrashers, Washington’s fifth consecutive defeat.

He will be replaced on an interim basis by Bruce Boudreau, the coach of the Hershey Bears, Washington’s American Hockey League affiliate.

Boudreau was to run the Capitals’ practice Thursday morning, then make his NHL coaching debut Friday at Philadelphia.

Boudreau, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, is familiar with several of the Capitals’ players, having coached seven current members of the roster at Hershey, which he led to the 2006 Calder Cup title.

He takes over a club that is 6-14-1 for 13 points, four fewer than any other team in the league through Wednesday. After beginning the season 3-0, the Capitals have lost nine of 10 games, and 15 of 18, leaving them with their lowest 21-game point total since having 12 in the 1981-82 season.

Expectations among the Capitals — from team owner Ted Leonsis right down to star forward Alex Ovechkin and other players — were high entering the season, because of the addition of a few free agents and the team’s top pick in the 2006 draft.

But other than Ovechkin, the team has had plenty of trouble scoring, and the problems have spread to other areas in recent games. Washington keeps falling behind and failing to recover, going 1-10-1 when opponents score first, and turnovers and poor line changes have been increasing.

Hanlon leaves his first NHL head coaching job with a 78-123-9-29 record.

I think Hanlon is partly the victim of unrealistic expectations. Coming into the season, I thought the Capitals were the weakest team in the Southeast Division.

There’s talk in the South Florida media of Jacques Martin’s job with the Florida Panthers being in danger. Looking around the NHL, coaches don’t have much job security. I still think the Panthers will get on the right track this year.

 
 


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