Around the NHL - Tuesday 30 Sept

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Injury (formerly player) Updates:

• Penguins’ Gonchar out 4 to 6 months
  Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar will have arthroscopic surgery on his dislocated left shoulder Thursday and miss four to six months of the upcoming season. (sports.yahoo.com)

• Sabres’ Gaustad to miss up to 3 weeks after surgery
  Sabres center Paul Gaustad will miss up to the first three weeks of the regular season after he had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb Tuesday. (sports.yahoo.com)

NHL Updates:

• Important season looms for Kelly & NHLPA
  One of Paul Kelly’s first tasks in his first full season at the helm of the NHL Players’ Association might be his most important yet.  During visits with all 30 teams this fall, the NHLPA’s executive director will give players a thorough analysis of the collective bargaining agreement before they vote on whether they want to see that deal terminated two years early. (sports.yahoo.com)

Signings & Acquisitions:

• O’Neill ends comeback attempt
  Jeff O’Neill has ended his NHL comeback bid with the Carolina Hurricanes.  He notified the team of his decision after Sunday’s exhibition win over Philadelphia. Hurricanes president and general manager Jim Rutherford said it’s difficult for a player who sat out for a season to return to the league, but that O’Neill looked fine in training camp. (sports.yahoo.com)

• Khabibulin clears waivers
  Khabibulin cleared waivers on Tuesday, the Daily Herald reports. (sports.yahoo.com)

• Ducks trade D O’Donnell to Kings
  The Anaheim Ducks traded away a veteran defenseman for the second time in a week, dealing 36-year-old Sean O’Donnell to Los Angeles on Tuesday for a conditional draft pick.  O’Donnell played in all 82 of Anaheim’s games in 2007-08, scoring twice and adding seven assists for nine points with a plus-9 rating. He was 1-1-2 and plus-3 in the Ducks’ six-game playoff loss to Dallas. (nhl.com)
  

Trades & Rumours:

From Spectorshockey.net:

• Steve Buffery reports the NY Rangers have reportedly issued “an ultimatum of sorts” to former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin to make up his mind if he’ll play for them. The club is attempting to re-sign former Rangers winger Brendan Shanahan.

• Chris Stevenson reports further on Daniel Alfredsson’s contract status. “(I)f Alfredsson plays 70 games and gets at least 70 points this season, he has the option to accept $3.8 million (all terms US) for next season or declare himself an unrestricted free agent”, writes Stevenson, adding that if Alfredsson doesn’t hit that “70-70″ mark, the Senators keep him for next season at $3.8 million, but the Sens don’t want to take a chance that he could be come a UFA next summer. Talks between Senators GM Bryan Murray and agent JP Barry are in the preliminary stage.
• Erik Erlendsson reports the Lightning likely aren’t done cutting payroll after trading Nick Tarnasky and waiving Michel Ouellet, suggesting David Koci, Jason Ward and Ryan Craig are the bubble players. Erlendsson guesses Koci could be the odd man out unless a trade develops over the next 72 hours.

Game Results:

Detroit vs Montreal
Detroit	1	Final SO
Montreal	2	Box Score
Chicago vs Minnesota
Chicago	2	Final OT
Minnesota	3	Box Score
Calgary vs Edmonton
Calgary	4	Final
Edmonton	0	Box Score
Anaheim vs Los Angeles
Anaheim	2	Final SO
Los Angeles	1	Box Score
Phoenix vs San Jose
Phoenix	3	Final OT
San Jose	4	Box Score

(Results data courtesy of yahoo! sports)

Source: Yahoo! Sports | TSN.ca | ESPN | NHL.com

Technorati Tags: nhl, ice hockey, game results, trade rumours, trade rumors, nhl contracts

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Tags: anaheim ducks, arthroscopic surgery, buffalo sabres, carolina hurricanes, collective bargaining agreement, Daniel Alfredsson, David Koci, game results, hockey, injury updates, jason ward, jeff oneill, kings, Mats Sundin, michel ouellet, nhl players, nhlpa, NICK TARNASKY, nikolai khabibulin, ny rangers, ottawa senators, paul gaustad, paul kelly, pittsburgh penguins, preseason highlights, ryan craig, Sean O'Donnell, Sergei Gonchar, surgery, trade rumors, waivers

Penguins Whitney out 3-5 months

News came down the wire earlier today that Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney will be out between 3 to 5 months after having surgery to correct a chronic issue with his left foot.

Whitney, who dropped in production last year after a breakout 2006-2007 that secured him a 6-year, $24 million deal tried everything he could to avoid surgery that he knew would put him off the ice long-term.

“We’ve tried everything to avoid surgery because we knew it would mean missing a chunk of the season, but nothing worked.”
-Whitney to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Whitney, a 6 foot 4, 219lb defenseman is said to be the eventual replacement for Sergei Gonchar. Like Gonchar, Whitney is a strong offensive upside to his game. The loss for the Penguins on the blue line should not be too bad, however players like Kris Letang will need to step up their game to fill the gap.

Technorati Tags: ice hockey, nhl, pittsburgh penguins, ryan whitney, kris letang, sergei gonchar

Tags: deal, foot, hockey, ice hockey, Kris Letang, NHL, pittsburgh penguins, Ryan Whitney, Sergei Gonchar, surgery

Contenders Not Pretenders

After 3 disappointing first round playoff exits, the Stars have finally found their game.

For the first time in two years, the Dallas Stars won a game in which Marty Turco did not shut out the opposition.  In doing so they served notice to the league that they are indisputable contenders, not pretenders.
- Bleacher Report

Contenders, not pretenders.  That’s exactly the message the Dallas Stars are sending to the rest of the league right now.

The Stars are leading the Anaheim Ducks 2-0 in their first round series.  2 straight wins against the Ducks is impressive, no doubt.  What makes this extra special is the Stars did it on the road, without their top playmaking defenseman Sergei Zubov, who is out due to Hernia surgery.

The key to Dallas success so far has been team-play.  The entire team has played well, and the chemistry issues that plagued the team going down the last stretch toward the playoffs appears to be a thing of the past.  Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow are dominating plays.  Mike Modano is showing he still has what it takes to be a top player in this league and newcomer Brad Richards is shining whenever his skates touch.  Richards appears to have gelled with young winger Loui Eriksson, who has a goal in each of the 2 games played in this series.  Jere Lehtinen and Steve Ott have also played a role in the scoring.

The Ducks travel to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX this Tuesday for game 3.

Image source: Yahoo Images 

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