NHL Back in Action
By Bodog
It’s good to be a hockey fan. We were just witness to some of the best action anyone has ever seen from the sport; Canada won the gold medal Sunday afternoon in a mesmerizing 3-2 overtime victory, after Team USA had tied the game with 25 seconds remaining. Now it’s time for the NHL to get back to its regularly scheduled program. There are about 20 games left to go until the NHL playoffs and two more days until the trade deadline. Let’s get caught up.
Your New Home
Dozens of players are expected to be on the move by the 3:00 p.m. ET deadline. This is when the best teams get better and the rest shed payroll in exchange for prospects and draft picks, so watch for the NHL odds to shorten on the elite clubs after they load up. The Boston Bruins are one of those clubs, although they don’t look like it right now sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference at 27-22-11 (-0.07 units). Among the names rumoured to be on their shopping list: Anaheim Ducks RW Teemu Selanne (18 goals in 37 games), St. Louis Blues LW Paul Kariya (12 goals in 56 games) and Nashville Predators D Dan Hamhuis (16 points in 57 games).
Hamhuis reportedly has a number of suitors, with Nashville almost ready to promote 2009 first-round draft pick Ryan Ellis from juniors. But the Predators are in much the same boat as Boston: seventh place in the West at 33-23-5 (16.98 units). It might take a lot to pry Hamhuis from their hands. The Atlanta Thrashers, on the other hand, probably can’t wait to get rid of Slava Kozlov (eight goals in 52 games). The veteran LW could be reunited with the Detroit Red Wings by Wednesday. Boston is 40-1 on the Stanley Cup futures market; Detroit is 18-1.
Pleased Demitra
The Vancouver Canucks have already added some scoring punch without having to give up anything. Pavol Demitra (20 goals in 69 games last year) made his season debut for Vancouver on January 16, and the Canucks are 8-3 since then to improve to 37-22-2 (0.31 units), good enough for first place in the Northwest Division. Demitra played a very strong Olympics for Slovakia and appears very healthy indeed after missing the first 50 games of the NHL season following offseason surgery on his shoulder.
The Canucks are an intriguing Stanley Cup pick at 11-1 with Demitra on board, not to mention fellow Olympians Roberto Luongo (Canada’s gold-medal goaltender), Ryan Kesler (who scored for Team USA on Sunday) and Sami Salo (one goal in Finland’s bronze-medal victory over the Slovaks). But first, the Canucks have to play another six games on the road before finally returning to GM Place on March 13. Vancouver is 14-15-1 (-8.61 units) away from home this year.
Same Auld Story
Alex “Suitcase” Auld (.894 SV%) is on the move again, and it didn’t even take a trade to make it happen. The New York Rangers plucked Auld from the Dallas Stars on Sunday via the waiver wire, making it considerably less likely that the Stars would deal incumbent No. 1 goalie Marty Turco (.915 SV%). Both the Rangers (28-27-7, 12.31 units) and the Stars (28-21-12, -10.39 units) are one point out of a playoff spot in their respective conferences. The NHL has squeezed the remaining 20-odd games of the season into a span of about 40 days, so Auld will likely get his chances in relief of Henrik Lundqvist (.920 SV%), who has started 53 of New York’s 62 games and also suited up for Sweden at the Olympics. This will be Auld’s seventh NHL team in five years.
The Stars are taking a calculated risk here. Kari Lehtonen (.911 SV%) was picked up from the Thrashers in February and represents an upgrade over Auld, at least on paper. The question is whether Lehtonen is healthy after undergoing two surgeries on his back during the offseason. Lehtonen has yet to play a game this year, but appears to be ready to step in between the pipes at any time. The Stars are 65-1 long shots to win the Stanley Cup; the Rangers are 60-1.