By Alexander Monaghan
President

Photo Credit: Cheryl Lemanski

Every year the formula changes.

After last season, general managers around the League believed they could cut costs with their netminder since rookie Antti Niemi and journeyman Michael Leighton backstopped their respective teams into the Finals. The season before that, we thought every championship team needed two elite centers (still valid) and the year before that the League emphasized skill and puck possession.

The winning formula changes every season whether it be a high-tempo offense with a blue line full of puck movers (Carolina Hurricanes) or a gritty team from the back end out full of high-end skill (Anaheim Ducks).

Once again, the formula will change.

Take this year’s combatants — the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks.  Both teams have strong depth up front and on D. Each team also has an elite-level goaltender in Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas. However, the Canucks and Bruins play a completely different style as Head Coach Alain Vigneault features highly skilled offensive players who are defensively responsible and Claude Julien is more comfortable keeping the games tight and relying on his Vezina Trophy winner and a couple of All-Star defensemen and elite two-way forwards.

Of the two, only the Canucks really compare to the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks when you consider their sheer top-to-bottom depth. Considering after their salary cap purge the current Blackhawks team almost defeated the heavily favored Canucks, they could be the most dominant team to win a Cup in the post-lockout era.

But how do the two compare?

How they got there:

The Canucks almost blew a 3-0 series lead, allowing the Blackhawks to force a Game 7, and then force an overtime within the game. Less dramatically, they would defeat the Nashville Predators in six games (but could have clinched in five) and made short work of the San Jose Sharks in five. Now, against the Bruins they hold a 1-0 lead in the series with hopes of going back to Boston with a two-game lead.

By comparison, the Blackhawks took the Predators in six, Canucks in six, swept the Sharks and then took the Cup in six games against the Philadelphia Flyers. While the Predators and Canucks both proved to be worthy adversaries, they never pushed the team to the brink of elimination — something the ‘Nucks came face-to-face with in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. They seemed to be the most dominant team in the playoffs, which is something both this year’s tournament lacked as the Bruins faced Game 7 twice as well.

In terms of ease, the Blackhawks take this round.

Photo Credit: Matt Boulton from Vancouver, Canada

Head Coach:

Prior to last season, Joel Quenneville never won a Stanley Cup. After successful campaigns with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, the grizzled Head Coach made his way to Chicago in order to push them over the top. His success in the postseason gave him appeal to a young, up-and-coming team as he captured the game’s greatest trophy after only two seasons with the Blackhawks organization. His lowest winning percentage for any full season he coached was over 53 percent, making him a highly regarded bench boss.

Vigneault now enters his fifth season in charge of the Canucks and has won the Northwest Division four out of those five years. Unlike Quenneville, four of his nine years he missed the playoffs and he came to Vancouver after four relatively poor seasons in Montreal (missed playoffs three of four seasons). He was nominated for the Jack Adams Trophy while with the Canadiens but was fired the season after since the team once again missed the tournament.

Considering both coaches never won the Cup prior to their current teams, neither typically has an advantage. However, Quenneville held more past success which gives him the slight nod here again.

Photo Credit: Iwona Erskine-Kellie from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Forwards:

Depth, depth and more depth. Not the kind traded for at the deadline like stopgaps Maxim Lapierre or Christopher Higgins.  This Blackhawks team had the high-end talent in Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews and the complementary players in Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien, Troy Brouwer, Dave Bolland and Andrew Ladd. Couple them with gritty defensive forwards like John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, Adam Burish and Ben Eager and we can determine that this could be one of the strongest groups of forwards assembled in the post-lockout era. Even with an implosion which severed ties with Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd, Madden, Burish and Eager the Blackhawks still clawed their way back into the playoffs which emphasizes just how good this team was last year.

Similarly, the Canucks have elite talent in The Sedin Twins and Ryan Kesler. Alex Burrows might even be able to force his way into that equation considering just how affective he has been in this year’s show. They also boast some tough defensive forwards like Jannik Hansen, Raffi Torres, Tanner Glass and Lapierre. Their calvary has been adequate in Higgins, the now-injured Mikael Samuelsson and regular season whipping boy Mason Raymond but the bottom end is one of uncertainty and inconsistency. Vigneault has rotated Victor Oreskovich, Jeff Tambellini, Alex Bolduc and Cody Hodgson in an attempt to find a perfect medium. Perhaps the return of Manny Malhotra could alleviate this issue.

Regardless, the Blackhawks take this by a mile as the top-end talent is there but the depth is simply not comparable.

Defensemen:

Photo Credit: CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith set the tempo as a perfect combination of ying and yang last season. Both mobile defenders, Seabrook’s intelligence allowed Keith to pick his spots in the offensive zone. Their stability allowed the second pairing of Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brian Campbell to flourish and make up for the third pairing of Nick Boynton, Brent Sopel and Jordan Hendry. When all of these guys were on their game, they had Keith at over 28 minutes, Seabrook 24 and Hjalmarsson 21 with no other blue liner surpassing 20 minutes.

This may be where the Canucks first hold an advantage as they boast six quality defenders and three others capable of playing decent minutes. Their top pairing of Christian Ehrhoff and Alexander Edler fits very well with the Sedins while Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa have formed a formidable shutdown pairing. The bottom set features some combination of Sami Salo and either Keith Ballard or Aaron Rome with mean d-man Andrew Alberts waiting to get into games. If Vigneault opts for a more mobile substitute, rookie Chris Tanev seemed up for the challenge in his limited playing time.

While the Blackhawks arguably have a higher end, the Canucks feature a more well rounded attack with the option of choosing mobility or snarl. Nobody has a more established top six in the League at this moment which gives the Canucks their first edge in the comparison.

Starting Goalies:

Niemi won the backup job from now-current starter Corey Crawford and then overtook Cristobal Huet for the starting gig in late March. As a veritable unknown, the Finnish rookie managed to get the job done despite what was considered a sub-par performance in the Finals. His success was questioned after winning as his arbitration reward earned him a ticket out of Chicago and into San Jose, where he would once again flourish. Due to his rookie status, the Blackhawks were able to win with a very tight budget which spawned the “don’t pay for goalies theory.” With two Vezina Trophy finalists vying for a championship, that theory has been debunked.

Luongo happens to be one of those finalists as he attempts to prove he can be the best goalie in the world. After toiling on the awful New York Islanders and Florida Panthers, Luongo was expected to win quickly and often in Vancouver. So far he somewhat disappointed fans after losing consistently to the Blackhawks in the playoffs but his ability to step up in big games like Game 7 of this year’s first round and in the Olympics last year has given him the confidence to try and take Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Elite netminder vs. raw rookie? Luongo and the Canucks take this one.

Photo Credit: Matt Boulton from Vancouver, Canada

Special Teams:

The Blackhawks got the job done with a 22.5 percent success rate on the powerplay and a 83.3 percent penalty kill. Their PP ranked fifth in the League but only second in the Western Conference while the PK ranked fourth but first amongst their Conference peers. While not necessarily dominating, the special teams was not a problem on either end which allowed them to continue their winning ways.

On the other hand, the Canucks PP has been a strength as they rank third in the League with a 25.8 percent success rate. The powerplay has been able to adapt from the hard-working Predators to the shot-blocking Sharks with ease making it a force to be reckoned with. Their penalty kill, however, has been a bit worse, succeeding at a 82.3 rate. Considering they lack actual shutdown forwards, players like Kesler and Burrows are forced to take on even more minutes.

The Canucks hold a better PP but the Blackhawks could shut them down better. Push.

The Bottom Line:

As both Jeff Quirin and Dave Strehle predicted, the Canucks should wrap up this series. Of course, we likely counted the Bruins out of the playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens, the Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning so anything can happen. As far as comparability to last year’s formula, the ‘Nucks are the closest thing to last year’s Blackhawks but the latter takes the small edge due to depth up front, more experience behind the bench and ease in getting to where they need to go.

Feel free to post in the comments your thoughts on the matter as this article is merely the tip of the iceberg, not a definitive conclusion.

By Brandon Macdonald

After two less than stellar performance at the TD Garden, the Boston Bruins effort in game three has got to improve. The intensity is not at the level it needs to be, a playoff team bound to go deep must amp up their performance level and so far the Bruins don’t look like they are playing with a sense of urgency.

Despite having put up 66 shots in the first two games of the series the team only managed to beat Carey Price once. However, the location of the shots has indeed helped Price make them look easy. The Habs defence has clogged the middle lanes so well that the Bruins have been forced to take low percent age shots from the outside. The quality scoring chances that allowed the Bruins to rank eighth in the NHL with 264 has not been there and the team is bleeding because of it.

The defensive effort took a blow losing captain Zdeno Chara during game two due to dehydration, but that’s not an excuse for playing the way they did. Despite finishing more body checks the Bruins did not do a good job supporting Tim Thomas. The likely Vezina trophy winner is not getting off scot-free though, Thomas allowed some juicy rebounds that the Canadiens made no mistake on, netting two of their three game two goals on rebounds.

The were ramblings from fans and media that Tuukka Rask should get the call for game three in Montreal, but the right move would turn back to Thomas. If the Bruins plan on getting back in the series, it’s Thomas that will get them there. Despite not having the best history against the division rivals, he was the horse that Boston rode during the season and he will continue to be just that if they want to make a run this post season.

If the Bs can get on the Price early, as shown in the past, he has a tendency to get rattled, allowing the team to pounce on the given opportunities. For this to happen Boston is going to need a stronger effort from their top players. Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton have virtually been invisible in the first two games and are going to need to make good on their chances.

Although he did not have a great first season, expect rookie Tyler Seguin to be in the lineup for game three. The second overall pick in last year’s draft can add speed and scoring to the lineup. Michael Ryder has been a ghost this series and would be the best option to get scratched. Seguin could give the Bruins the shot in the leg they desperately need and with his speed could get behind the Montreal defence for high quality chances.

Defence has been key for the Canadians thus far. A lot of praise is going to Price for his play, but the Habs blueline has been the real rock for the team. Brent Sopel, Hal Gill and P.K. Subban have stuck out as playing a very solid game in front of their net. Look for them to continue this play heading in to tonight’s game.

Coming back in the series is not out of the question, ask any Bruins fan that. But the Bruins have a lot of work to do, mainly working on getting shots off from the middle of the zone. Allowing Price to get comfortable early is a recipe for a loss. Capitalizing on early chances and continuing the physical play is what the Bruins need to do. Staying out of the penalty box and making smart defensive plays will allow them to get back in to the series.

The Habs took both games in Boston, no reason the Bruins can’t do the same to them.

Brandon Macdonald
NHLHS Editor-in-chief
bmacdonald@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter @bMacdonald8

By Jared Book
NHLHS Montreal Canadiens correspondent

I’m at two schools of thought after this game. First thought is that the Canadiens cannot play a period like the second period and expect to win many playoff games. The second thought is that, well, they did that to win two rounds last year.

Good goaltending can bring you a long way in the playoffs. Montreal got it today. Boston did not. The Bruins out chanced, out shot and out possessed Montreal but Carey Price out dueled Tim Thomas and that was the game. For Bruins fans, it must have been frustration brewing at Dunkin’ Donuts. For Canadiens fans, it looked an awful lot like last year.

The thing that led Montreal last year, besides outstanding goaltending was timely goal scoring. That was apparent again tonight. Brian Gionta scored twice. Once in the first three minutes. Once in the last three minutes. Both goals from great plays and passes from Scott Gomez. He made a lot of Canadiens fans forget about this game.

- How great was P.K. Subban tonight? He led all Habs in ice time (almost five minutes more than Hal Gill who was second.), led some great breakouts and played outstanding in his own end.

- Tomas Plekanec was also superb. He played great in his own end and missed two open nets in the second period. If he keeps it up, it will free up the Gomez line to score although Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn looked awfully good too.

- I could point out things about almost every Canadiens player, but that will take a while but every Hab played well tonight. I will give out a mention to Ryan White, Brent Sopel and Travis Moen. Those three were unbelievable every time they stepped on the ice. I also thought David Desharnais played well in his NHL Playoff debut.

- I think every Canadiens fan was laughing when they saw Zdeno Chara giving Plekanec the business. Frustration setting in after just one game. Should be a fun series.

The Canadiens played their game to perfection and came back from a lackluster second period with a great road third period. They outshot Boston 6-5 in the final frame and outscored them 1-0. They had a bad second period but Price kept them in it and if they can keep chipping at Thomas’s armor, there is no reason they can’t keep momentum going.

Montreal has taken home-ice advantage from the Bruins. Saturday night they will have to bring the same type of game.

Twitter: @jaredbook

Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens

By Jared Book

Ask any Canadiens fan, and they saw no first round opponent they wanted more than the Boston Bruins. Thursday the 33rd round of the storied rivalry will start and while Boston is the favourite, the only thing that happens when these two teams play is the unexpected.

Why Montreal can win: If the Canadiens can win the goaltending battle, they have a good chance of pulling this series out. Carey Price has the chance to play the role of Jaroslav Halak and a lot of the same group is back from their playoff run last year and the Canadiens can boast an even better lineup top to bottom then they had a year ago. P.K Subban is a rookie but was there for a lot of last season’s playoff run. He has some experience a lot of rookies don’t have. Brent Sopel brings another Stanley Cup ring to the locker room. They have a penalty kill unit and a power play unit that was in the top-10 this season and in the playoffs they can bring you a long way. Mike Cammalleri and Andrei Kostitsyn have stepped it up in the team’s final games and could look poised for another great playoff run.

Why Montreal can lose: The Boston Bruins are more the Philadelphia Flyers than the Washington Capitals or Pittsburgh Penguins, which speaks for itself. The blueline is thin, especially should there be any more injuries. The Canadiens have had trouble scoring five on five, and that could be trouble come playoff time. Obviously, there is that whole toughness and intimidation factor and if the Canadiens struggle with that, they will be dispatched quickly. Ryan White and Travis Moen will have a hard time battling Boston’s tough guys.

Jared Book
Montreal Canadiens NHLHS Correspondent
www.twitter.com/jaredbook

By Brandon Macdonald

Every time the storied rivals have a crash course in the playoffs the series is labelled as the most highly anticipated in the history of the two clubs. Now this year could in fact be the most anticipated on and off the ice. Both teams have publicly voiced their displeasure with one another with some personal jabs. Not to mention the injury to Max Pacioretty brought on by a Zdeno Chara check into the stanchion — old news, I know.

The Bruins are going to come out hungry, while having to deal with the storm cloud that will inevitably be on their back. The Canadiens will want to show that the club that was run over 7-0 in the final meeting of the season is ready for the rigors of the playoff run.

Why Boston can win: The sheer size of the Bruins compared to the Canadiens is an advantage, however in the previous meeting the Bruins beat the Habs with their skill and speed. Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell both had two goal games and the other three goals came from blue liners. The Habs biggest advantage is their speed, but with trade deadline acquisitions Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly, the team can roll four lines that are capable of keeping up with the Canadiens.

As previous stated, size will come in to play. The Canadiens will not want to be bullied, but if they find themselves playing a physical game, chances are the Bruins will come out on top.

Why Boston can lose: It’s no secret that the Bruins have a Dark Passenger brought on by last years debacle. The team is going to, right out of the gate, want to show that all is forgotten and this is indeed a new year. For a team that prides themselves on a smart defensive system, they have been known to lose focus and run around. This is something the Canadiens will try and lull the Bruins into, therefore being able to use their speed and scoring to drive past the Bruins.

The x-factor the the Habs is their goaltender, Price. If allowed to get into a groove the Bruins will have a difficult time solving Price, as shown by his eight shutouts and 38 wins this season.  If Price can find his game early the Habs will be in good shape, but if he gets rattled look Montreal to open up their game and utilize their speed with hopes of creating scoring chances.

Brandon Macdonald
NHLHS Editor-in-chief
bmacdonald@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter @bMacdonald8

Pierre Gauthier is known around hockey circles as a quiet operator. He isn’t outspoken and he isn’t one to volunteer himself to the media. But something about his silence the last 24 hours says more than I think even he would want to let out.

According to Francois Gagnon of La Presse, the team said that he will only address the media on Monday. That means one thing. He’s still working. It could have been very easy for him to say “We’re done for all intents and purposes,” but he didn’t. A lot of GMs say that they don’t think another move would get done before the deadline. And it’s obvious that the team still has holes to fill so put two and two together and I would expect another move from him before the end of the deadline.

Even with Brent Sopel‘s arrival, there are options for Gauthier with the salary cap. If Jaroslav Spacek is indeed out for the season, which has been reported several places, and placed on the LTIR, the team would have a little over $5 million in full-season cap space to play with which is enough to go after another player and Chris Phillips from Ottawa has been mentioned, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a forward added, perhaps a bigger move with roster players going the other way.

Gauthier has made five trades that have come out of nowhere (Halak, Wisniewski, Lapierre, Mara and Sopel).  With the trade deadline approaching, don’t be surprised if another deal is struck without a bunch of rumours circulating beforehand.

The Sopel deal is not something that has Canadiens fans ecstatic, but it isn’t supposed to be. Sopel will play a role similar to Hal Gill in the fact that he will be solid in his own end, help kill penalties and block shots. Those are three things the Canadiens need right now especially as ice time starts to pile up for Gill and Roman Hamrlik. It also doesn’t force Jacques Martin to play Paul Mara, who while just acquired, is clearly there for depth and not to play a big role.

You also have to think that while the Canadiens are adding defenceman after defenceman, they still don’t have any more under contract for next season as James Wisniewski, Mara and Sopel are all unrestricted free agents at season’s end.

Jared Book
Twitter: @jaredbook

The Atlanta Thrashers might’ve already made a few moves before the trade deadline, but don’t expect the team to sit back at watch as February 28th rolls on. Currently four points outside of a playoff position, the Thrashers have won just three times in regulation since January 1st, and six times overall. Currently stuck in a 1-7-2 stretch out of their last ten games, Atlanta needs help. Serious help. The question is, can they get it?

General manager Rick Dudley traded Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik in exchange for Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart on Friday, shocking Thrashers fans. It had been long known that the Bruins needed to dump some salary to make room for acquiring Tomas Kaberle from the Toronto Maple Leafs; that the Thrashers would be the team that they would choose for that salary dump was unexpected.

Dudley traded away Peverley, a waiver wire acquisition in January of 2009, who was a player that had become beloved by the fan base as the feel-good story of the franchise. Unfortunately, that feel good story was having an atrocious defensive year, sitting at a -16 on the day of the trade despite having 14 goals and 20 assists to his name. It was frustrating, and Dudley felt that he wasn’t a big enough body at forward. Peverley was, however, the Thrashers’ face-off man, taking 1020 faceoffs and winning 55.5% of those.

With the acquisition of Wheeler for Peverley, and with forward Jim Slater still out with a concussion, that leaves a huge hole for the Thrashers as far as face-offs are concerned. Factor in the fact that Slater was part of the once-successful, now dreadful, penalty kill, and you’re looking at the Thrashers needing a defensive minded forward who is a great penalty killer. It’s never any fun when your team trades for someone like that, but you have to look at necessities, and that is a big one.

Someone like that isn’t going to come cheap to a team, considering that the team doing the trading probably considers that guy a necessity. Bringing in Stuart makes a defenseman expendable. As it stands, the Thrashers could ice either Stuart, Johnny Oduya, or Brent Sopel on their third pairing, and that’s not taking into consideration Freddy Meyer, who is out with an upper body injury. Sopel would make a fine rental for a team in need of some grit and blocking of shots, though losing his shot blocking ability is something the Thrashers cannot afford at the moment.

Scoring up front would be fantastic, as the team’s “balanced scoring” has gone to the wayside with mounting injuries. Realistically, when your penalty kill drops from top ten caliber to last in the league, you need to do something about that first. The Thrashers should acquire a solid penalty killing center, a la former Thrasher Marty Reasoner, and they might benefit from a more defensively minded defenseman who is a great PK man – like Reasoner’s current teammate, Mike Weaver.

There’s no denying that the addition of some former members of the Chicago Blackhawks to the Atlanta Thrashers this off-season was one of the big moves in hockey.

The acquisition of playoff star Dustin Byfuglien overshadowed that of Brent Sopel and Ben Eager, and that makes sense. Big Buff was explosive for Chicago in the playoffs, scoring 11 goals and five assists after a season where he scored 17 goals. He scored six fewer goals in 22 games in the postseason than he did during all 82 regular season games. So far for the Thrashers, he’s the team’s impact player and go-to guy, scoring six game winning goals (three in overtime) and with his move back to defense is now leading the league’s defensemen with 16 goals and 41 points.

It’s justifiable that Byfuglien is hogging the attention, and there’s a good chance that Atlanta’s turn around this season has a great deal to do with him, but there’s someone else who is just as deserving of attention: the Thrashers’ newest captain, Andrew Ladd.

Ladd came from Chicago as well, though later than the rest, on July 1st. He was expected to be a solid role player, a locker room leader, and to add a bit of a scoring depth – probably at a higher rate than he did in Chicago. What he wasn’t expected to do was come in and give the team motivational spark like they hadn’t had for quite some time, but that’s exactly what he did.

The Thrashers needed a captain to replace Ilya Kovalchuk, who played his last game with the Thrashers on February 2nd, 2010. The team had gone captainless since then, and Ron Hainsey, Nik Antropov, and even Rich Peverley’s names were suggested as replacements since practically the end of that season.Kovalchuk was thought to be an irreplaceable player, but though the team was viewed by some as “Kovy’s team,” he wasn’t necessarily an irreplaceable captain.

Ladd being named as the replacement was surprising, but looking at the two captains, there might be some similarities. There might even be a bit of improvement in motivating factors for the team.

Kovalchuk, while he was with Atlanta, was the identity of the team. The team’s hardship was obviously  reflected in his own frustrations and he worked to carry the team through it. Nowhere is that more obvious than the spark that the team felt after he was named captain at Casino Night on January 12, 2009. For whatever reason, making his leadership official helped the Thrashers to a second-half turnaround, helping them go 21-17-1 and finishing with a winning record in the second half (though not on the season – the first half of the year was an unsalvageable train wreck).

Keep in mind that the team’s 21-17-1 record took three months to amass. Andrew Ladd’s captaincy (he was named team captain on November 18th) has already seen a record of 14-6-3 in a third of a time as Kovalchuk’s. Also, during Kovalchuk’s time as captain in 2009-2010, the team put together a losing record of 24-26-7 in what was very nearly a playoff season for the team. Total as captain, Kovy’s record was 45-33-8, which is a respectable total for about a season’s worth. It’s a playoff record, good for 98 points at the very least. While I’m not going to predict that this year’s Thrashers team hits 98 points – the team’s broken me of trying to predict anything after last season  - it is still a very strong possibility. They’re already nearly halfway to that total already, and it’s the mid-point of the season.

I can’t comment on leadership styles – neither individual is particularly vocal in the press, and their locker room persona is all speculation and hearsay, which is something that I don’t encourage. Kovalchuk took an arguably less talented team than the one that the Thrashers are now and rallied it around his offensive skill even as just an initial motivator; Ladd seems to be able to do the same thing in a shorter period of time with a more talented team. Yes, the team’s talent is going to factor in to both captains’ records, so it’s unfair to compare them in a way. But looking at the two players’ styles, Kovalchuk’s motivating factor to the team was his output. As it shrank through December while the contract talks were getting hammered out, the team’s shrank too. Ladd is on pace for a career season no doubt, but that doesn’t seem to be why the team woke up and went for a solid stretch of play after his captaincy was announced. It has to be more than offense with Ladd, which is a good thing. As we’ve seen with Kovalchuk this season, scoring comes and goes.

It is not everyday that a player with as much offensive talent as Ilya Kovalchuk hits the open market, free to be pursued by 30 NHL teams for a shot to have him play in their city.

Unfortunately, it is slowly becoming Mats Sundin v2.0.

Let’s take a walk through time:

The trade deadline was looming and the Atlanta Thrashers had a very difficult decision to make.  Throw the farm at face of the franchise Ilya Kovalchuk in hopes of him agreeing to sign a life long deal to stay with the team, or acquire the best possible package to help the team in moving forward.

Then GM Don Waddell attempted the former and settled for the latter.

Ilya Kovalchuk, after turning down an absurd amount of money thrown at him by the organization who drafted him, was shipped to New Jersey to help them in their quest for another Stanley Cup.

Unfortunately for the Devils, that quest was over before it started.  However, what they did not expect was further drama from the acquisition. Feeling as though they were an organization strong enough to capture another Cup within the time window known as Martin Brodeur, Lou Lamiorello figured it would be easy to keep the superstar in Newark, NJ.

But wait.

At that time, wasn’t it all but confirmed that once the season came to an end Kovalchuk would be packing his bags and taking his family to the lovely left coast of this fine continent known as North America?  No, not Calgary, Colorado or Vancouver, not San Jose or Anaheim, but Los Angeles?

It was assumed that Dean Lombardi did not want to throw away pieces to his future for a quick fix and that it would be easier to instead, throw a boat load of money in said players direction.

As of today, Kovalchuk remains unsigned to any team, whether that be within the NHL, KHL, or some unthinkable league on a different planet.

For Don Waddell, who has since been replaced as the GM in Atlanta by Rick Dudley, the return was glorious for in theory, Ilya Kovalchuk helped the Thrashers acquire Johnny Oduya, Niclas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier, Akim Aliu, Andrew Laad, Ben Eager and Brent Sopel.

And since we are in the free agent frenzy part of the season, the Thrashers have seen two contributors from last season depart in Maxim Afinogenov and Pavel Kubina.

To be quite honest, this writer would take the entire package of players over the two that have walked; leaving Kovalchuk out of this altogether.

So where do we stand?

It’s been a seesaw week within the NHL as reporters, agents, players and fans have all been engulfed in the Kovalchuk drama.  Many GMs who have potential trades or other free agent signings in mind are waiting for the dominoes to fall prior to finalizing anything that is currently pending.

Now, what has been a reason of displeasure is that fact that Kovalchuk stated when the time arrived he would want to play for a potential Stanley Cup contending organization.

Well, if that was the truth why have we been left in the dark?  Why is it taking so long for Kovalchuk to put pen to paper and officially announce his future plans.

So now that we have played catch-up, let’s move into the beginning of this week.

Rumors have circulated like wild fire on destinations that include the Atlanta Thrashers, the New Jersey Devils, the Los Angeles Kings, the New York Islanders and even the New York Rangers as well as Russia’s KHL.

The best was the “report” of Islanders GM offering a 10 year $10 million deal to Kovalchuk, which has since been deemed false. Unfortunately for the Islanders, for a player of this caliber would have truly turned the franchise in a different direction, likely erasing most of the turmoil surrounding them.

Do you feel as if your eyes are playing tricks on you?

On Monday, Kovalchuk’s agent, Jay Grossman, tweeted that a decision could be made by the end of the day. As of today, after the Kings had supposedly backed out, there has been no decision and Dean Lombardi has gone public to state that the Kings were back in the thick of it.

This has turned into the saga of a superstar that is not needed with all the other turmoil surrounding the NHL.

Here is hoping that, no matter where he winds up, there is pen to paper before this week is up. And for what it’s worth, I truly hope Mr. Grossman has been able to sleep properly because with all that has gone on, his phone has to be ringing off the hook day and night.

Anthony Curatolo
NHLHS New York Islanders Correspondent/NHL Writer
acuratolo@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @HockeyGuy_AC

Chicago Blackhawks receive:

• Marty Reasoner
• Jeremy Morin
• Joey Crabb
• 2010 first round draft pick (via New Jersey)
• 2010 second round draft pick (also via New Jersey)

Atlanta Thrashers receive:

• Akim Aliu
• Ben Eager
• Brent Sopel
• Dustin Byfuglien

Welcome to Chicago South, ladies and gentlemen.  The Chicago Blackhawks absolutely needed to dump salary, and wanted picks, prospects, and cheap but useful players.  The Thrashers, well, we had a couple of extra picks left over from the Kovalchuk trade, we have a bunch of prospects, and God knows we have cheap and useful players.  Match made in heaven, huh?

The Atlanta Thrashers shipped Marty Reasoner and Jeremy Morin, as well as New Jersey’s 1st and 2nd round picks to the Chicago Blackhawks for Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, and Akim Aliu.  Chicago was up against a wall and well over this year’s cap, and apparently someone read Falconer’s blog post on it and thought “Hey, these Atlanta guys seem like they have their stuff together, let’s dump our salary on them!  They have Dudley, too, so the guys’ll feel at home.

Atlanta this year will have no problem meeting the cap floor, as Big Buff will be making $3,000,000 next year, Ben Eager is an RFA due for a pay raise to probably a million and a quarter, and Sopel will be making $2,000,000.  They also will have plenty of space to fill a void if the team does go ahead and let Maxim Afinogenov walk.

Blackhawks fans and hockey pundits are decrying this trade as a bad one for Atlanta, and saying that the Thrashers got hosed.  Gaining three solid role players for Marty Reasoner, 2 picks that weren’t ours to start off with, and Jeremy Morin is not a loss.  The Thrashers do not need prospects.  We need solid locker room leaders who can play good hockey on the ice.  We just got three guys who won the Stanley Cup, one of whom played a HUGE part in said win.  Alou and Morin is a great flip because Alou is closer to the league than Morin is, and he’s also a good prospect.

If you look at it this way, the Thrashers have traded Kovalchuk, Salmela, Reasoner and Morin for Bergfors, Cormier, Oduya, Byfuglien, Eager, Sopel, and Aliu.  They finally have size, some sort of toughness, and even a few guys who can score.  There isn’t a big scoring 1st or 2nd line guy, but I’m sure that that’s on Dudley’s to-do list.  This probably just happened to present itself, and if we’re going to make a splash and actually re-build CORRECTLY, then this was a good start.  The team still needs to sign another goaltender, a 1st or 2nd line forward, and with these three added, that means that a couple of our current roster players are gone for sure – Armstrong and possibly Afinogenov.

This is a good step forward for Atlanta, and it probably bodes well for the Thrashers signing Torchetti as coach.  People might’ve been excited about last season’s potential.  Next year, well… maybe it’ll be a little better.

Laura Astorian
NHLHS Atlanta Thrashers Correspondent
lastorian@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @hildymac