It can’t be a coincidence that the final number was $102 million. That makes it more–by $1 million–than the offer Kovalchuk turned down from Atlanta before the Thrashers traded him to New Jersey in February. He wanted Alexander Ovechkin-like numbers and no one thought he’d get $100 million in this league and with this economic climate. He not only got his numbers, he got more than the most lucrative previous offer.
Here’s the contract structure, as first reported by Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and later verified by capgeek.com:
Kovalchuk, in his prime at 27, will earn $6 million in each of the first two seasons. But then he will earn $11.5 million each of the next FIVE seasons. Then his salary goes to $10.5 million for one year, followed by seasons of $8.5 million, $6.5 million, $3.5 million and $750,000. The last five seasons he’s scheduled to be paid $550,000 each. He will be 40 then.
The Chicago Gay Hockey Association invited the Blackhawks to join Sunday’s Gay Pride Parade — and the team said yes. So did the Chicago Cubs, who will have their own float for the first time.
Blackhawks defenseman Brent Sopel and his wife, Kelly, will accompany the Cup on a float. Sopel, traded to Atlanta this week, is a father of three and said he’s not trying to make a statement.
“But everybody is a person, and we all have feelings,” he said.
The 2010 NHL Draft kicked things off on Friday night and there were several shocking picks, most notably the New York Rangers selecting Dylan “The Undertaker’ McIlrath with the 10th pick.
The New York Rangers used the 10th pick of the 2010 NHL draft on Dylan "The Undertaker" McIlrath (katchop)
McIlrath, who is 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, was selected Moose Jaw’s most improved player for the second consecutive season after establishing career highs in games played, goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, and a plus-20 rating <emdash /> a plus-42 improvement from the previous season.
He said his game is patterned after the one played by Nashville Predators star defenseman Shea Weber.
“I’m a big, physical ‘D’ man,” McIlrath said in Los Angeles, where the draft was held. “I try to be hard to play against and strike fear in the opposition. Also my game is improving. I think I can be a two-way guy, or develop into a two-way guy in the near future.”
“John was the prime candidate from Day 1,” GM Lou Lamoriello said, despite taking nearly seven weeks to make the decision. “There’s no question in my mind that he’s ready to take the full reins.”
MacLean, who scored 347 goals for New Jersey, spent eight seasons prepping for yesterday’s anointing, seven years as a Devils’ assistant coach, before fulfilling Lamoriello’s final prerequisite last season as head coach at Lowell, guiding the Devils’ top farm team to the playoffs for the first time in years.
“It’s a little bit surreal. I’m very excited, almost like [1983] draft day,” MacLean said.
Thousands of fans surged out onto the streets of Chicago on Wednesday night to celebrate after the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. They wore team jerseys, waved banners, and carried memories <emdash /> long memories, in many cases.
“We’re a hockey family, been down for generations and I honestly could not be more thrilled. This is a night I’ll always remember,” said Jeremy Holleb of suburban Highland Park, after the Hawks won the National Hockey League championship on the road with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Flyers at Philadelphia night.
Holleb was among the fans who gathered at Harry Carry’s Tavern on Navy Pier near downtown, where Bobby Hull, a star of the Blackhawks’ last Stanley Cup-winning team in 1961, was watching the game and signing autographs.
“Reason I’m here is because of my dad,” Holleb said. “He’s been dreaming for a while to see the cup come back. And what really got to me is the fact that he sent a picture of himself on the couch with a brick from the old stadium and a signed stick from Bobby Hull from the 1961 Stanley Cup finals.”
The Philadelphia Flyers probably feel as if they are leading in confidence after posting a little-bit-scary 5-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks to even the best-of-seven series 2-2 before heading back to Chicago for Game 5 on Sunday.
“This is just two good teams that have played well at home,” said Flyers winger Simon Gagne. “They are tough to beat at home and we are tough to beat at home. The team that wins on the road will win the series.”
Even though his Philadelphia Flyers are down 2 games to none against Chicago in the Stanley Cup Final, Chris Pronger has the Blackhawks angry.
People in Chicago feel that Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers acted like a big baby after the first two games of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final against the Blackhawks (katchop)
It seems like if you’re going to debate whether or not Chris Pronger is a jerk, then you’re in for a very short debate, filled primarily with examples, or vague impressions, of exactly why he is a jerk. If the conversation occurs in Edmonton, it will be longer, if only because the examples will be more salacious. But it’s awfully difficult to find anybody who disagrees.
The latest addition to the canon of Pronger’s unlikability is the case of the missing pucks, or rather, the pucks that he quite deliberately picked up as the Chicago Blackhawks celebrated defeating Pronger’s Philadelphia Flyers in both Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup final.
After the Hall of Fame-bound defenceman skated after and pocketed the second puck, he was confronted by Chicago’s Ben Eager at centre ice, who says he told Pronger, “You can keep it.”
This sparked the sort of minor and interesting war of words which really looks good when one team is down 2-0. Was Pronger playing mind games? Did he really throw the pucks into the garbage, as he claimed? And in at least some quarters, a debate: Was Pronger being a jerk at all?
“What added incentive do they have now?” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette told the media Tuesday. “They’re mad? They’re angry? It’s the playoffs … I don’t know what else they’re going to do, because we stole their puck.”
The Czech Republic defeated Russia in the Gold Medal game of the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
Members of the Czech Republic hockey team celebrate their upset win over Russia in the IIHF Hockey World Championship by interacting with Russian fans (katchop)
“There’s no way we should compete on an even level with the team we played tonight when you look at the players they have,” said Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun, who made 35 saves. “In one game, anything can happen. I highly doubt that we would beat them in a playoff series four times to knock them out.”
No one could have seen this coming for a Czech hockey program that had suffered quarter-final losses in four straight major international tournaments, including the Vancouver Olympics.
In fact, defenceman Petr Caslava said he didn’t start believing the team could win the title until Jakub Klepis converted a pass from Jagr just 20 seconds into the gold-medal game. The rest of the game felt like a dream.
“We weren’t a team with many stars but we play with heart,” said Caslava.
The Philadelphia Flyers will face the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.
The Philadelphia Flyers advanced to the Finals by defeating the Montreal Canadiens and goalie Jaroslav Halak, who seemed confused for most of the series (katchop)
The Flyers, sparked by a had-to-see-it-to-believe-it shorthanded goal by Mike Richards, won the Eastern Conference title tonight by defeating the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2, before a roaring, ole-ole-ole-singing crowd at the Wachovia Center.
The hard-earned triumph enabled the Flyers to win the conference finals, four games to one, and advance into the Cup Finals for the first time since 1987. They will face the Chicago Blackhawks starting Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Windy City.
One team is going to end a long drought. The Flyers have not won the Cup since 1975; the Blackhawks last won the title in 1961.
“I think today was one of those games where everything was kind of going against us,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We give up a shorthanded goal [and] get hit in the face with the puck. I think we were in a little bit of a disarray for a few minutes.
“Seabs [Brent Seabrook] makes a real nice play on the first goal with good patience, good vision and awareness. And [Dave] Bolland scores a big one at the end of the second period. And all of a sudden it’s anyone’s game.”
At that point, was it really anyone’s game? Once it was tied, the Hawks were not going to be denied. A magnificent third period ensured that, but it was that first goal — reviewed and declared good — that jumpstarted the Hawks and the United Center crowd.
“Sometimes all you need is to see one go in,” Jonathan Toews said. “We had a lot of great opportunities early in the second. Giving up that goal on the power play wasn’t a good one. When you come back and get a break like that, it was great for our energy. It just showed us that if we work hard we’re going to get the results we’re looking for.”
The Montreal Canadiens have figured out how to score.
Michael Leighton inspects his smoldering goalie glove for damage after the Philadelphia Flyers netminder was burned for 5 goals against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (katchop)
The Canadiens also made a statement regarding Flyers goalie Michael Leighton, whois never to be confused as the second coming of Bernie Parent. They needed to quickly bring him back to his journeyman history. They did it, in part, by pressuring the Flyers’ defense the way they did the Caps and Pens and they shut down Philadelphia’s best playmakers as they had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The Canadiens forced the Flyers to dump the puck and got it out of harm’s way quickly. Instead of crashing Leighton’s crease, however, they used their speed to get behind the Flyers’ defense and confront the goalie one-on-one, and they beat him.
“This is like a storybook,” said Ed Snider, the man who brought hockey to Philadelphia. “How can you go down, 3-0, in their barn and come back and beat them, 4-3? How can you come back from 0-3 in games and beat them 4-3? These guys are unbelievable. They just won’t quit. They’re incredible.”
It happened because Simon Gagnechose team over caution, returning for Game 4 despite a surgically repaired toe. All Gagne did was score the overtime game-winner to avert a sweep in Game 4, net a pair of goals in Game 5, and then fire the series-winner past Boston’sTuukka Raskin Game 7.
Robert Luongo has been facing criticism since the Vancouver Canucks were eliminated from the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo retrieves a Frisbee from his net after a fan threw it from the stands and Luongo, mistaking it for a puck, was unable to stop it. (katchop)
The $7 million netminder with the fail whale on his chest offered a stink-in-rink performance.
Yet he begins to collect a $3 million raise next fall from a franchise that has failed to deliver its fans a Stanley Cup after 39 seasons.
Luongo had the tenacity to say “improvement was made” because he allowed two fewer goals in the Canucks’ 2010 elimination game compared with exactly a year earlier.
Such an insult to the thousands of fans who spend millions of dollars on Canucks’ tickets and trinkets or watch on TV because they can afford neither!
Luongo has the rest of spring, all of summer and some of fall to think about it before he gets a chance for redemption. Until then, he remains another name in the long list of Canucks’ goaltenders who failed to backstop the team into the conference finals, including Felix Potvin, Kevin Weekes and Dan Cloutier.
The Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were eliminated from the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs by Cinderella, fueling rumors that they will use an alternate logo featuring a choking penguin next year (katchop)
The Canadiens defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 in Game 7 of their NHL Eastern Conference semifinal on Wednesday night — moving the Canadiens into the conference final for the first time since 1993, last time the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.
The Canadiens will meet the winner of the semifinal between Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins. The Bruins lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, with Game 6 on Wednesday night.
The Canadiens ran up a 4-0 lead and then relied on goaltender Jaroslav Halak to weather a furious comeback by the Penguins.
The Canadiens shocked the standing-room-only crowd of 17,132 at Mellon Arena by taking a 1-0 lead after only 32 seconds. Canadiens forward Brian Gionta scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on a power play when he deflected a backhand shot by rookie defenceman P.K. Subban. Gionta added an insurance goal on a power play in the third period.
The San Jose Sharks have made it back to the NHL’s Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004.
Please excuse the San Jose Sharks for their goofy display after advancing to the Western Conference Finals, because they really have not had much experience with playoff celebrations (katchop)
Maybe now star forwards Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau can go about their business in relative peace without hearing or reading about their inability to come up big when the games are the most important.
Maybe.
“Who knows, who knows,” Thornton said. “We want to win the next series – we will win the next series, hopefully — and then I think everybody will be kind of quiet. But for now it’s a nice feeling.”
Thornton and Marleau, who took some heat even after the Sharks defeated the Colorado Avalanche in the opening round of this year’s playoffs, came through in the clutch and played instrumental roles in San Jose’s five-game triumph over the Detroit Red Wings in the second round to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since facing the Calgary Flames in 2004.
Said DeBoer: “Everyone is disappointed and no one is shirking responsibility or hiding or pointing fingers. I think the collective message is we can all do more so we’re not in this spot again.”
In February, team management announced that major changes were coming to the roster. The future for Sexton, who is working on a one-year deal, is up in the air. The team’s owners say there will be discussions on his future. On Monday, Sexton said he was moving forward and expects to be a part of the team’s rebuilding.
Sexton and DeBoer will meet soon to talk about Florida’s coaching staff — DeBoer is under contract for next season, but his assistants have expiring contracts — as well as to talk about players they want back.
On Friday, the Caps circled the wagons and wisely chose to defend their core players and their coaches against the slightest hint of lost confidence, interpreting the defeat in a way that allows them, and their fans, to go forward with the least damage.
“Everybody has to take their full share of responsibility. But I can’t allow five or six days to skew how I see the whole team,” General Manager George McPhee said. “We have good coaches. They are going to be here a long time. That is not part of the evaluation.
“We really liked our team and still do,” McPhee added. “These young star players got us to where we are.” So, don’t expect many, if any, of the biggest names to go anywhere.
The Washington Capitals were eliminated from the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens.
Immediately after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens, the Washington Capitals announced plans to use a new logo for next season (katchop)
The Habs made history, becoming the first eighth-seed to climb out of a 3-1 hole to upset the top-ranked team since this format started in 1994.
It is just the second time in the Habs century-long history they have climbed out of a 3-1 series hole, the first time in 2004 against the Boston Bruins.
Now the Canadiens will take on Sidney Crosby and the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins, their series starting Friday night in the Steel City at 7 p.m. Game 2 would be Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. with Game 3 in Montreal Tuesday and Game 4 Thursday.
For the Caps, it marked the third time in four-straight tries they have lost a Game 7 and now they will face serious questions about the makeup and direction of their team.
David Epstein of Sports Illustrated is questioning the NHL’s ‘thorough investigation’ of the recent Washington Capitals steroid accusations.
The Washington Capitals and the NHL both say that no players on the Caps have any connection to steroids, but Sports Illustrated isn't buying it (katchop)
On the day of Nagel’s arrest NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly issued a statement: “Based on the investigation we have done and the information we have, there is no evidence that Dr. Nagel ever supplied (or even offered to supply) performance enhancing drugs to any current or past member of the Washington Capitals.” The Capitals issued a statement as well: “This has been a thorough investigation, and we are satisfied that law enforcement, the NHL and our own internal investigation have not led to any link of steroid use by Capitals players.”
However, according to an April 7 e-mail from Ian Floyd of the Polk County Sheriff’s Tactical Drug Unit to Judd (his boss), there are serious questions about the investigations conducted by the NHL and the Capitals. “I called and spoke with [NHL executive vice president of security] Dennis Cunningham today in reference to the official statements made by the Washington Capitals and NHL regarding the ‘thorough investigation,’” reads the e-mail, which Judd allowed SI to review. “Mr. Cunningham admitted that contrary to the below issued statements, no investigation was ever conducted into Dr. Nagel and his ties to steroids and Capitals players by anyone with the NHL.”
In his season-ending analysis of 2009-10, Burke didn’t waste too much time looking back. Rather, it’s eyes front on what figures to be a busy summer.
“I’m not interested … in a five-year rebuild like some of these teams have done,” Burke said. “Maybe because of my age, maybe just because I know it doesn’t have to be five years because it wasn’t in Anaheim.
“I like the group that finished the year, I think just on internal improvement we will be better. I think we will be good enough with this group and a couple additions to say in training camp that the playoffs are a reasonable goal.”
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals looked invisible during game 1 of the Caps' playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens (katchop)
I don’t know why, but last game, I don’t feel that power or something,” Ovechkin said to the throng of media. “I talked to Bruce, and how I said, I didn’t play my game at all last night. It’s not about Montreal. It’s all about me.”
That may be true. But the Canadiens also deserve credit. In fact, they’ve held Ovechkin without a goal four times in five games this season and without a point on three occasions.
Ovechkin saw all three Canadiens defensive pairs early and was matched up a lot against Jaroslav Spacek in the third period. It wasn’t just Spacek, though. It was the combination of Montreal’s veteran defensemen getting in Ovechkin’s face and the Habs’ forwards diligently applying pressure from back side. The end result? Ovechkin had nowhere to go with the puck.
The Edmonton Oilers have the 1st pick in the 2010 NHL Draft and are hoping to use it to change their losing ways (katchop)
He’s had it with prima donnas who don’t want to come here, or prima donnas who don’t want to stay. He wants to flash back to the days when Oilers left Edmonton with tears in their eyes, not springs in their step.
In his end of the season address, Tambellini said the Oilers, from now on, will shift their focus to drafting and developing their own talent, creating a generation of players who want to be Oilers.
“My job is to get rid of those other guys,” he said, adding he’ll try and move Sheldon Souray at or before the NHL entry draft in June. “That culture has got to go. I’m sick and tired of having to hear people complain about the city, the organization, I don’t like the coach, I don’t like the manager, I don’t like the city, too cold. This is the risk you run sometimes when someone has success in another market (and comes here).
“If you can’t develop your own core of expectations of what an Oiler truly is, and build respect for the logo and the city, then you’re always going to be spinning your wheels.”
The Eastern Conference of the NHL is a mess, with 5 teams fighting for the last 3 playoff spots.
Sean Avery of the New York Rangers discusses poetry and wine tasting with Josh Georges of the Montreal Canadiens (katchop)
The Rangers return to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday against the last-place Toronto Maple Leafs, then finish up home and away against Philadelphia, which is only 4 points ahead of them in the standings.
Atlanta’s final five games are against the Washington Capitals, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Devils. Given such a difficult schedule, it will be difficult for the Thrashers to move up.
Boston’s final six games include two against the league-leading Capitals.
The Rangers also have two other teams in their sights, Philadelphia and Montreal, both of which had the same number of points as the Bruins.
But both Philadelphia and Montreal are hobbled by injuries. The Flyers have lost three goalies and are reluctantly down to the inconsistent veteran Brian Boucher.
Injured Boston Bruins center Marc Savard says the hit that Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins gave him was dirty.
Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins has a history of questionable hits, such as this ugly incident in which Cooke injured a Dallas Stars Ice Girl with an elbow to the head, just so he could be the one to collect the hats for Sidney Crosby after a hat trick (katchop)
To me, it was a shoulder and I watched the (Mike) Richards on (David) Booth hit,” Savard said before the Bruins faced the Calgary Flames. “I think that was a shoulder. … I think mine was more of an elbow, so I think there was an attempt to injure there.”
The hit was not penalized on the ice or upon review by the league. NHL vice president Colin Campbell decided Cooke used his shoulder, not his elbow.
“I was, obviously, very unhappy with what happened and I think it could have been avoided very easily,” Savard said.
Several members of the Washington Capitals were interviewed by authorities after their chiropractor was arrested for receiving shipments of steroids (katchop)
Douglas O. Nagel, 50, of Reston, was arrested Tuesday morning in Virginia and charged by Florida authorities with seven counts of soliciting to deliver a controlled substance, specifically steroids.
The Polk County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office alleges that Nagel received regular shipments of steroids, including testosterone and nandrolone, from Richard Andrew Thomas of Lakeland, Fla. Thomas has since pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing steroids with intent to sell. He awaits sentencing.
According to an affidavit, Thomas told police that Nagel boasted about supplying steroids to members of the Capitals and Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals.
Brandon Dubinski of the New York Rangers attempts to regain control of his rocking horse and avoid a collision with Montreal Canadians' goalie Jaroslav Halak (katchop)
Their 3-1 Garden loss to the Montreal Canadiens pushes them three points back of Boston at the playoff cut line, following the Bruins’ victory Tuesday night in Raleigh.
And it all had their mild-mannered captain thoroughly steamed afterward and telling his team it had better “grow up” or go home.
“It’s immaturity,” Chris Drury told the Daily News, speaking of why his Rangers tend to lose ground almost as soon as they’ve gained it. “That’s what it’s been all year. Simple answer.”
The remedy? “Grow up fast or you’re gonna be watching a lot of playoff hockey in 12 or 13 games, or whatever the hell we have left.”
Some people think that Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is Satan (katchop)
With the league still reverberating from Matt Cooke’s completely unpunished cheap shot on Marc Savard, you now have a plainly illegal yet clearly less dastardly hockey crime dealt a game misconduct and two-game ban.
Another Cooke-like rat, Tampa’s Steve Downie, tried to put a figure-four leglock on Sidney Crosby on the same day Ovechkin hit Campbell, and walked away scot-free. In another game, Islander tough guy Matt Martin drilled Dion Phaneuf face-first into the ledge along the boards from behind with no puck in sight after he and his teammates had vowed to get even with Phaneuf for an incident earlier in the season. Martin’s punishment? A two-minute penalty.
But they got Ovechkin, a guy who stands up for himself and requires no goon for backup.
Chris Chelios became the second oldest player in NHL history when the Atlanta Thrashers recalled the 48 year old defenseman (katchop)
I don’t know,” Chelios said when asked why he keeps playing. “Our teams, Detroit especially the last 10 years, we had a lot of success. Not being able to crack that lineup, there were a lot of other teams I thought I could help. And then things have gone very well in [AHL] Chicago with the Wolves.
“I’m just lucky to have an opportunity and I want to make the best of it. Obviously the goal here is to make the playoffs and hopefully I can help them.”
Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins is helped off the ice after an accident in which he repeatedly ran into the fists of the Maple Leafs' Colton Orr. (katchop)
The Bruins are showing they’ve got fight left in them. Milan Lucic dropped ‘em in a prolonged bout with Toronto enforcer Colton Orr and there was a second fight on the ensuing faceoff between Shawn Thornton and Wayne Primeau. Looch got a few shots in, but wanted no part of Orr by the end of his particular brawl. That’s a good sign for Boston’s fortunes against a not-ready-for-prime-time Leafs team tonight.
Lucic looked stunned in the middle of that fight with Orr, and was backing away from him by the end of the brawl. You have to wonder if he might have hurt himself when he skated straight to the dressing room after the fight. It could be something, or it could be nothing. We’ll have to see in the second period, but he looked like he was waiting for the refs to break it up by the end of the brawl.
The New York Rangers may have been without Marian Gaborik lately, but to the surprise of many they’ve actually been able to win.
The New York Rangers are surprising everyone, including themselves, by being able to win some games without Marian Gaborik (katchop)
The Rangers, tied with Boston for eighth place in the Eastern Conference, may not have Gaborik as they seek a fourth consecutive win.
The right wing, who leads the team with 35 goals and 69 points, has missed three of four games due to a cut on his right knee suffered in a collision with teammate Henrik Lundqvist last month.
Gaborik, however, played through the injury during the Olympics and had four goals and one assist in seven games for Slovakia.
New York was able to overcome his absence Tuesday, getting two goals from Ryan Callahan in a 4-1 win over Ottawa. The right wing credited his third multi-goal game of the season to having played for the United States in the Olympics.
Places not as good as Katchop that you still might go to anyway:
