MacK_Attack

At least Forsberg's reason for waiting until the season is almost over is health-related.

I doubt that the Canucks that got involved were all that innoncent, either.

Obviously it seems he'll only play for Colorado, but he'd better hurry it up because they're gonna fade out of the playoff picture soon.

It'll come down to him and Steve Sullivan.

Just a heads up that Pat Verbeek is scouting the Leafs/Hurricanes game tonight.

The Leafs would trade him in a heartbeat. He's been pretty useless on the ice this year. Burke has made it clear that everybody except Luke Schenn is available for the right price.

The Isles had to go out and bring Wade Dubielewicz back from Russia to stop-gap their long-list of goaltender injuries. Because of that, he had to clear waivers to be put on the Isles roster. Columbus claimed Dubie off waivers this afternoon.

Bill Daly was on the radio a couple months ago and said the league would not lock the players out if they chose to re-open the CBA, and Paul Kelly has always said that the players won't strike.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2009/01/17/..._hockey_return/ Also, I believe the CBA ends (assuming that the 'PA does not re-open negotiations this spring) on Sept. 15, 2011....so the timing once again is pretty convenient.

Even if the the 'PA for some reason decided to re-open negotiations, there's a "gentlemen's agreement" between the two sides that they would continue to play under the terms of the old CBA until a new one is agreed upon. Besides, any new CBA would merely be a tinkered version of the current one. Nothing drastic like last time.

Don't think that C-bus won't make a few more rental additions before the deadline. I think the Jackets and the Coyotes are going to load up in an attempt to get some playoff gates.

Sticking a goalie on the bench isn't the best way to help him find a rhythm.

They're voting to decide whether or not to re-open CBA negotiations before next season. The players won't be able get rid of the cap, it's here to stay. It's a moot point, though. They're definitely not going to re-open negotiations.

Conklin propped them up during the annual M.A. Fleury injury.

Milbury would've already sent Josh Bailey to Columbus to get Dubie back.

Yeah, but the Isles seem to have that level of comfort with Dubie, and he only would've cost them $250,000 or something like that.

I can't think of the player, but something similar happened with a player signing from Europe a few years ago. Anyways, the Isles will likely have to turn to Gerber, Sanford or Sabourin now.

They lost Hossa, Malone, Roberts, Conklin, Laraque & Ruutu. Not to mention Whitney missing nearly half the season and Gonchar still not back. Hard to recoup that kind of depth when you have cap issues.

Conklin's agent has got to be loving the stats he's putting up. A negotiating dream.

Bill McCreary is the best referee in the world and has been for a long time.

The problem is they need to move the salary as soon as possible and a team legitimately desiring Kalinin would want to wait until March when his cap figure is much lower. Buying teams who are in the playoffs aren't going to make those kinds of deals for at least another month and capped out teams need to move salary now in order to have sufficient cap space on March 4th to add a player or two.

The latest is that Burke is looking to help teams clear cap space by acquiring an expiring contract from those capped-out teams. The type of deal would be say, Dimitri Kalinin and the Rangers 1st round pick to Toronto for a marginal prospect like a Phil Oreskovic or Brent Aubin. (Strictly an example, not saying this will happen). The Leafs would then turn around and deal Kalinin to another team for a draft pick/prospect. Anyways, that's the type of deal the Leafs are likely to do before heading into the deadline.

Also on the goaltender front, Martin Gerber to be waived by Ottawa in the next 48 hours or so.....that is unless Gerber agrees to go to the AHL for 2 weeks on a conditioning stint.

He did win a round, it wasn't like he flamed out in the 1st round.

Is it lonely up there on your pedestal?