Predators Lose, Accuse Canucks of Head Shots The Vancouver Canucks may have defeated the Nashville Predators today, but it may end up that the Preds get the last laugh. After losing 1-3 to Vancouver, the Predators accused the Canucks of cheap shots to the head. According to Predators Coach Barry Trotz, “the league will handle it”. (The Full Story on Yahoo!)
NHL BOG’s Meeting; Cap could drop in 2010-11 Even though the league’s board of governors meetings wrapped up Tuesday with confirmation that next year’s salary cap won’t move very much, it’s the potential for a major drop in 2010-’11 that has some teams prepared to alter their course. (The Full Story on TSN)
Barry Melrose sounds off on the Tampa Bay Lightning
Almost a month after being fired by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Barry Melrose sounded off on his former club and the people who run it. Melrose was a guest on Toronto’s Fan 590 radio station and didn’t hold back his feelings about why his stint as head coach of the Lightning only lasted 16 games. (The Full Story on TSN)
Sabre’s G Miller accuses ref of profanity
Sabres goalie Ryan Miller on Tuesday accused an NHL referee of using a profanity in response to a question the player asked during Buffalo’s 4-3 win at Pittsburgh a night earlier. (The Full Story on TSN)
Suspensions:
None
Trades & Transactions:
Radim Vrbata (RW – Tampa Bay) Assigned to European Team BK Mlada Boleslav-Czech Extraliga
The Vancouver Canucks acquired a conditional 2009 draft pick from the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday for defenceman James Sharrow. (The Full Story on TSN)
Injuries:
Mathieu Dandenault (D – Montreal) Out indefinitely with a broken left arm.
Christopher Higgins (LW – Montreal) Shoulder Injury.
Hal Gill (D – Pittsburgh) Out 2-4 weeks with a shoulder injury.
Roberto Luongo (G – Vancouver) Improving but not ready to return yet.
Jere Lehtinen: Groin injury Lehtinen sat out the final preseason game today due to a groin injury. (Yahoo! Sports)
Tim Connolly ready for season opener Connolly (back) says that he feels fine and will play in Friday’s season opener, according to The Buffalo News. (Yahoo! Sports)
Gaborik back at full speed Wild’s Marian Gaborik is back at full speed, and scored a goal in today’s preseason game against Montreal (Yahoo! Sports)
Jimmy Howard: Broken finger Howard suffered a broken fingertip prior to Saturday’s game against the
Leafs and he’ll likely be out one week as a result, the Detroit News
reports. (ESPN)
Datsyuk: returning to action Datsyuk (groin) returned to action for the preseason finale on Sunday, the Detroit News reports. (ESPN)
Marian Hossa missed third period Hossa sat out the third period of Sunday’s preseason finale against
Buffalo due to a minor groin injury, the Detroit News reports. (ESPN)
Karlis Skrastins: Upper body injury Skrastins did not practice Saturday because of an upper-body injury, according to the Miami Herald. (ESPN)
Stephen Weiss: Groin injury Weiss (groin) participated in Saturday’s practice, his first in over a week, according to the Miami Herald. (ESPN)
Nick Tarnasky continues to practice Tarnasky (broken thumb) continues to practice, but it remains to be
seen whether he’ll be ready for the season opener, the Nashville
Tennessean reports. (ESPN)
Team News:
Melrose not liking what he sees with Lightning Perhaps Barry Melrose should have known better. After spending more than a decade as a television analyst, the 52-year-old Melrose opted to return to the bench as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who finished the 2007-08 season with an NHL-worst 31 wins. And after the Lightning dropped a pair of 2-1 decisions to the New York Rangers this weekend – and were outshot, 80-40, in the process – the normally relaxed coach was rather vocal with his displeasure.(Yahoo! Sports)
Luongo wearing the “C” on mask Roberto Luongo is sporting a C
after all. The Vancouver captain, forbidden by NHL rules from wearing
the letter on his jersey because he is a goaltender, sported a new C on
his mask Sunday night as the Canucks hosted Anaheim in the final
2008-09 pre-season game for both clubs. “It can stand for whatever he
wants it to stand for,” said Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis,
when asked if the C stood for Canucks or captain. (Yahoo! Sports)
Signings & Acquisitions:
Canucks sign 1st round Hodgson The Vancouver Canucks signed top 2008 draft choice Cody Hodgson to an NHL entry-level contract Sunday. “Cody has done what we expected him to do,” said Canucks general manager Mike Gillis. “He came in really well prepared.” (Yahoo! Sports)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Chris Kuc reported Blackhawks goalie Nikolai Khabiblin remains in limbo while Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon “explores opportunities” to benefit the netminder and the Blackhawks.
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Len Ziehm reports Khabibulin could end up playing in Russia.”Tallon hasn’t been able to move Khabibulin to another NHL team.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Jim Matheson reports on some trade possibilities for the Minnesota Wild if forced to deal Marian Gaborik, who’ll be a UFA next summer. One suggestion was to peddle him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Evgeni Malkin as the Pens are “very weak on the wing”.
Matheson also reports that if the Chicago Blackhawks fail to land Washington’s Michael Nylander they might pursue Boston’s Marc Savard, suggesting the Bruins might do it if they got defenseman Brent Seabrook and young winger Jack Skille in return.
BOSTON HERALD: Stephen Harris reports Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has said there’s a good chance he’ll make a trade in the coming days and there’s no doubt he’s been trying to move veteran forward Peter Schaefer to free up cap space for promising youngster Blake Wheeler. If Schaefer isn’t traded Harris suggests he could be waived and demoted.
CALGARY SUN: Randy Sportak reports Flames GM Darryl Sutter needs to pare three players and more than $1 million from his payroll prior to the start of the season.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Dave Molinari reports the Penguins could find some extra cap room to bring in more depth by placing injured defenseman Sergei Gonchar on the long-term injury status, noting that the club would be allowed to go over the cap to the amount of Gonchar’s salary for this season to bring in a replacement for as long as he remains on the long term injury list.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: reports the Flyers have released defenseman Bryan Berard and center Jim Dowd.
It comes as not surprise to those who have been watching the Tampa Bay Lightning over the last few weeks. Now, it’s officially confirmed. Tortorella has been fired as head coach of the Lightning, opening up yet another head coach position around the NHL.
It is rumored that former LA Kings coach Barry Melrose is interested in the job.
The Dallas Stars tried again to eliminate the San Jose Sharks today, but failed to achieve the task as the Sharks rallied to win in overtime, 3-2.
Jere Lehtinen opened the scoring for the Stars. Brenden Morrow put the Stars up 2-0 going into the third period. The 2nd period saw not one, but two waved off goals by Brenden Morrow. In the third Milan Michalek and Brian Campbell evened the score, taking the game to overtime, where Joe Pavelski netted the game winner in the 2nd minute of OT.
“Every game we lose, we give them more life, but I like our position better than theirs,” Morrow said. “The third period was our downfall. We have to move on, earn our breaks. We earned this 3-2 lead.”
- Yahoo! Sport
