MacK_Attack

There won't be another one until the NHL needs another cash-grab.

What they should do is not have the World Junior tournament during Olympic years and just have the Under-20 players play at the Olympics, instead.

It appears as if the firing of Leafs general manager John Ferguson could happen within days or even hours. As the Leafs sleepwalked through another embarrassing defeat on Saturday, word began to float around that the powers that be at MLSE have been looking for an immediate replacement for Ferguson. It is believed that Ferguson is merely a symbolic presence at this point, having been forbidden by the MLSE board to make any significant moves. This piece of information was bolstered by Ferguson's late Saturday announcement that no changes would be made on the ice in the near future. As for the replacement, MLSE is said to be seeking a big name in the hockey world, Names such as John Muckler, Colin Campbell, Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Neil Smith and Dave Taylor. It isn't a well kept secret that Ferguson hasn't been confident in his own job security for a number of years now. In an effort to combat that insecurity, Ferguson surrounded himself with inexperienced hockey people whom he knew would not be capable of taking over his job on an interim basis should he be let go. This is why Ferguson has not be fired yet. MLSE has assured all those involved that if they were to hire an inexperienced person as GM again (i.e. Messier or Francis), they would surround that GM with experienced hockey people and not the types that Ferguson brought in. It stands to be an interesting period of time in Toronto. The winds of change are blowing.

Probably because the Lightning are in no danger of moving.

Kind of funny how apparently the Leafs don't want to win (or don't care), yet they seem to be hell-bent on hiring Scotty Bowman to revamp the hockey operations. He seems like the last guy you'd go after if you didn't care about winning. They technically don't need permission to talk to Bowman (as he doesn't have a contract), they just asked the first time, anyways.

This is step 1 in the cleansing process. Peddie admitted the same thing with the Raptors shortly before hiring Bryan Colangelo. It's safe to say the next GM of the Leafs will probably one of Bowman, Muckler, Smith, Taylor or Armstrong.

Washington will match any offer sheet that Ovechkin may sign.

Now comes more indications that Ferguson has been stripped of his power. A Toronto Sun report indicates that he tried to fire coach Paul Maurice last week but was prevented from doing so. Ferguson naturally denied the report today.

I wrote it. It's a compilation of all the stuff that's been out there today and some other stuff that I've heard.

The Minnesota Wild have claimed enforcer Todd Fedoruk off re-entry waivers from the Dallas Stars. The two clubs will split his $875,000 salary on their respective caps.

But at approx. $328,125 (approx cap hit of $437,500 with 1/4 of season gone), he's worth a gamble, at least in the eys of Risebrough and Lemaire.

I doubt the blueline would look exactly the same as it is today, minus Kaberle, if that trade went through. At the time, Kaberle was a 3rd pairing defenceman who ran the powerplay. He was simply too small to play a lot in the old NHL.

I cry myself to sleep over that one.

Forwards Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh - 94,118 Daniel Alfredsson - Ottawa - 41,198 Daniel Briere - Philadelphia - 32,751 Alex Ovechkin - Washington - 30,686 Vincent Lecavalier - Tampa Bay - 28,615 Dany Heatley - Ottawa - 27,121 Ilya Kovalchuk - Atlanta - 26,628 Defensemen Andrei Markov - Montreal - 48,134 Zdeno Chara - Boston - 45,949 Tomas Kaberle - Toronto - 36,125 Brian Campbell - Buffalo - 33,857 Kimmo Timonen - Philadelphia - 30,951 Goaltenders Henrik Lundqvist - NY Rangers - 30,324 Martin Brodeur - New Jersey - 29,631 Martin Biron - Philadelphia - 27,849 Cristobal Huet - Montreal - 24,515 Rest of voting

They usually release the West numbers a day or two after the East numbers.

I'm pretty sure he was hurt for the last month or so of the season. I seem to think that the game against the Leafs was his first back from injury. I could be wrong.

You must be forgetting the game that he folded up like a cheap lawn chair against the Leafs that caused the Habs to miss the playoffs.

He's waaay down the list with just over 7,000 votes.

The NHLPA (Lindros, Paul Kelly and the rest of the executive) have been visiting teams this fall and Lindros commented that the one issue that every team has brought up is scrapping the instigator rule. With that in mind, look for the NHLPA to push to have the instigator rule abolished this spring/summer.

By the time he retires, Sundin will be top-15 in NHL all-time scoring. He's in.

Fundamental lack of talent.

Shanahan strikes me more as a guy who would be more comfortable in a Colin Campbell-type role.

I heard he got a concussion while being placed on waivers.

Which is why it would be foolish to have that kind of discipline implemented. It's not right to kick a player out of hockey on an accidental play like that, especially a guy with no priors like Randy Jones. If guys are playing like the next hit they throw or the next time they go into the corner could get them kicked out of hockey, the physical play (what's left of it) in the game will disappear.

Well, in this case, Koivu is out a week-to-10 days. So I'd say that is exactly what has happened in this case, ironically.