Trying to Find the Right Mix

Just a little something extra.

That's what we'll hear from now until the NHL trading deadline passes at 3 pm Eastern on Feb. 27. There is that one little bit of something that a team will need to get them ready to claim the Stanley Cup. (We'll ignore for the moment that the chances of any one player who moves around the trade deadline will indeed be someone who really made the difference in getting his teammates etched in silver over the summer)

The Kings need to score. The Rangers need to score more. The Blackhawks need to find a way to keep the other team from turning Duncan Keith around in circles on their way to the net. And perhaps Chicago, once the opposing side reaches the front of the net, might also find another person who can keep the puck from striking twine. I'm just saying what you all have seen. Hawks can look like world beaters and then turn into pylons when they head on the road, particularly to Western Canada.



Maybe the Oilers, Flames and Canucks should petition the NHL Board of Governors and the NHLPA leadership to approve a realignment plan where the Blackhawks come to town early and often as division members.

Just a little something in my cup, please.

Easy Picks for a Wednesday

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in New Jersey. The Devils, who once were my Colorado Rockies before they were rudely stolen from the West and dropped in the swamp, will recall those early, murky days when they wear the throwback -- I'll throw them back -- red and green uniforms tonight in Newark.

The Lounge will be watching that game tonight at 7 pm Eastern on the big screen. Calgary at Colorado, 9 pm, will get Internet radio play, that is, unless the Penguins/Devils game gets ugly. Internet radio play, you say? Gotta rest the eyes a bit.

At at 10 pm Eastern, it's time to see if the Chicago Blackhawks recover from losses to Philadelphia and Washington. The opponent is Anaheim. The big screen gets the Center Ice feed.

And now, before I closed these eyes early Wednesday morning, I was able to witness John Tavares playing, in the words of a former colleague, a man's game against the Vancouver Canucks. Matt Moulson, Tavares and Co. tore up the Canucks. Vancouver's BobbyLoo did not look so good in net. Down on his knees a lot, scrambling, looking like a kid trying to round up his marbles on a crowded sidewalk. Missed that one. Lost that one. Can't reach that one.

That won't play in late April, let alone May or June. Now excuse me while I rest my eyes.

More Trade Reports After Four

The Calgary Flames have added defenseman Steve Staios, sending defenseman Aaron Johnson and a third-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers.

The Colorado Avalanche have forward Stephane Yelle back in the fold, along with forward Harrison Reed. Headed to Carolina is forward Cedric-Lalonde-McNicoll along with a sixth-round pick.

Phoenix now has forward Alexandre Picard, having sent forward Chad Kolarik to Columbus.

Almost time for my break here in the Lounge. Jackson Browne is singing for all 30 NHL general managers right now.

Ducks Add McElhinney to Roster

The Anaheim Ducks have traded for goaltender Curtis McElhinney. The return package owed to the Calgary Flames has yet to be determined. Have you seen McElhinney play?

Many have not, as Miikka Kiprusoff is the man usually in the net for the Flames. TSN now confirms that goaltender Vesa Toskala is the player headed to Calgary.

Things We Know So Far

Some things we learned after the first game in the Olympics for each competing nation:

Flames can burn brighter. Some players from the Calgary Flames look pretty good when they can get out from under the restrictive defensive system the team employs. Nik Hagman scored twice for Finland, both off his backhand, in the Finns’ 5-1 victory over Belarus. Hagman’s Calgary linemate, Jarome Iginla, had a hat trick for Canada in its 8-0 victory over Norway. Iginla did not ignite until he was put on a line with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash, a group that was initially formed during Canada’s orientation camp in the summer. Expect them to stay together for the balance of the tournament.

The specter of the stopper. A hot goalie(s) will emerge during this tournament but we were reminded of just how much damage a netminder can do to Olympic hopes by the play of Vitali Koval of Belarus, who held his team in longer against Finland than it deserved to be, making 40 saves. Of course, a hot goalie can also cool like yesterday’s fish. In that same Finland-Belarus game, Antero Nittymaki of Finland, who was named the most valuable player of the 2006 Olympic hockey tournament, did not even suit up.

There is speed and then there is crazy speed. Russia has the latter. There seems to be a calculated frenzy to what the Russians do on the ice, always skating, sticks alert, flooding the zone, bearing down on the net. It’s nearly as wild as those skates of Alexander Ovechkin. Such a style is guaranteed to spawn defensive lapses but it sure is fun to watch. Additionally intriguing will be how long the Russians stick with this freewheeling nature as they move the deeper into the tournament. It is one thing to dangle against Latvia, quite another to dipsy doodle in the medal round.

Didn’t you used to be . . . ? Jaromir Jagr and Peter Forsberg both looked good in their openers, Jagr scoring once in the Czech Republic’s 3-1 victory over Slovakia. Forsberg played nearly 13 minutes in Sweden’s 2-0 win over Germany. He had no shots but still retains his eye for a nice set-up, dishing off to Nicklas Backstrom for a good scoring chance. Neither player will ever be as dominating as they once were but both looked inspired. Granted, it’s early, but nothing they did yesterday will tamp down talk about either of them returning to the NHL.

A big country. Brian Burke, the general manager of the United States, promised his team would be big. It is and it used its size effectively against Switzerland. That will please Burke to no end but, more important, it may also allow a young U.S. team to assert itself much quicker than one would expect. Oh, and the line of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Patrick Kane is definitely worth watching.

Quack, quack. How can the Anaheim Ducks have eight players in the Olympics – a goalie, two defensemen and five forwards representing four countries -- and be sitting on the outside of the Western Conference playoffs? Just askin’.

At the Intermission . . .

Some random thoughts before Canada decides between Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter. Here at Vic’s, we keep the debate simple. Guacamole or more guacamole?

• Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau is resolutely cheerful about his goaltending situation but imagine how happy he would be if one of Washington’s troika of netminders – Semyon Varlamov, Jose Theodore and Michal Neuvirth – seized the job in a dominating fashion. Varlamov only returned from injury last week so this may be a story that has yet to be written. Beltway hockey fans are sick of hearing muttering about their goaltending as their recent three-game road trip showed, Washington’s high-octane offense can only lift the team out of so many holes. The Caps give up an average of 31 shots a game; they’re going to need someone to stop a few of them this spring.

• Speaking of teams that allow a lot of shots – Hello there, Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks allow 33.2 shots a game, 28^th in the league, the byproduct of a flowing style that leaves large tracts of ice available for opposition forwards to revive their best pond hockey moves. Scott Niedermayer can’t be everywhere at once and that usually leaves Jonas Hiller to deal with the mess. He’ll be worn out by April. The Ducks are still in the Western Conference playoff race so it doesn’t seem likely they will be sellers at the trade deadline. That may change in the summer, though, regardless of where they land. This is a team that falls off markedly once you get past its first line and it could use another quality defenseman.

• The Calgary Flames don’t have an easy path ahead of them if they want to hold on to a playoff spot in the West. The Flames have 20 games remaining after the Olympic break, 11 of them on the road, where they are playing better (15-9-6) than at home (15-14-3). But there are few pushovers in their finish, which includes an Eastern road trip that concludes in Washington. The Flames still have two games left against San Jose (at home), two with Detroit (home and away), two with Vancouver (both away) and two with Colorado (both away), a team that has beaten the Flames in four previous games this season. The one wild card: four games (two in each building) against the Minnesota Wild.

• The Columbus Blue Jackets are 3-1-1 since they replaced Ken Hitchcock as coach with Claude Noel on Feb. 3. Has Noel made that much of a difference in such a short span? Maybe, but look at the play of goalie Steve Mason, who played four of the five games, posting two shutouts. Show me a good goalie and I’ll show you a coach you got really smart overnight.

• The NHL has not committed to making its players available for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and it will be mighty interesting to see how that plays out when the new collective agreement between the league and its players comes up in a couple of years. Expect the league to wield this bargaining chip with a flourish in an attempt to rein in costs. Expect the players to cave on it, too, because most of them are really, really in love with the idea of playing in the Olympics. Even the guys who don’t go must enjoy the opportunity to unwind in the midst of the season. Only the owners are against the idea and we all know they can be swayed if the deal is right.

Let's Make a Deal

The Calgary Flames appear to be in sleep mode, the New York Rangers are moving their problems for those of another team, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team to have won nothing since 1967.

And the pressure is on each of those organizations today. You have to like getting out of bed and going to the Web (no dead tree editions in the Lounge) to read up on who is making a run for the Cup ... in February.

OK, so there will be a long break after next week that leaves the season as a sprint through March and the first few weeks of April. But I see the standings in each conference as a work in progress. There's going to be some bumping and some teams are just going to find out that the tap is dry.

But it is fun to open the morning with this set-up line: A Sutter, a Sather and a Burke walk into the bar.... You can supply your own punchline, and there are many.

I've never been a fan of Darryl Sutter as a coach or a general manager. His "they have to work harder" line after every Sharks loss grew old pretty quick. And he is quick to put the "they" in every sentence. They, as in, not me, you understand. I do.

He is dumping parts, the latest being Olli Jokinen, who is leaving Flames to join the Rangers. The Blueshirts are in Los Angeles tonight to face the Kings. And to those folks in Calgary, I'll tell you this: Happiness is seeing the door quickly slam shut as OJ goes out of the room.

A former King, Islander, Panther, Coyote, Flame. Perhaps you can tell where this is going. Go, OJ, Go.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post looks at the deal as one where two people on the same block are holding garage sales. A trade is made. Your discards for mine. And someday, we'll share the cost of a ride to the dump. Lots of questions are raised. Few are answered.

Glen Sather's Rangers have hit February with little momentum going into the Olympic break, save for a victory Sunday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Should the Rangers win tonight in Los Angeles, then the fans who drink blue Kool-Aid will say all is well, we are back in the race.

Stan Fischler is one who thinks Go, OJ, Go will thrive this season in Manhattan and decide to stay at MSG 4.0 for another season. (I see that Stan has discovered the new mix of Kool-Aid being served as Orange Drink at the Nedick's stand at Penn Station.)

Maybe so, but OJ is not answer to winning the Cup. Darryl Sutter tried that move in Calgary. Didn't work. And after watching his Flames go down meekly at home last night against the Philadelphia Flyers, he may see a few more moves that need to be made.

And now for a team that will truly not be printing Stanley Cup finals tickets. Yes, that's you, Toronto. But Brian Burke is smiling today. He is living off the glow of the trade for Dion Phaneuf, and Puck Daddy reports that if all goes well, the Maple Leafs will be printing money as we speak.

Somethings never change in Toronto.

Losing at the rink. Winning at the bank. So you cannot turn the thumb down on Burke today in Toronto. But someone has to feel some heat. That mean's you, Ron Wilson.

Folks in the Lounge, we introduce you to Damien Cox of the Toronto Star. He sets the bar high for Wilson, who has not been able to win so far with what could be described as the best and the brightest from the Island of Misfit Toys.

Cox, you see, says Wilson is in trouble and needs to win in Vancouver during the Olympics. Yes, you heard Cox right. Wilson needs the United States, they of the smallish forwards, banged up defense and Tim Thomas or Ryan Miller as your starter in net, to produce a medal.

OK, have you seen the Bruins' Thomas lately? Strike 1.



Did you see Sidney Crosby have his way with the Sabres' Miller last night? Strike 2.

Now I think the world of Jonathan Quick, who is the third goaltender on Team USA, but if the Rangers -- with Go, OJ, Go -- torch the Kings goalie tonight, then it's time to prepare Wilson for the worst that the Toronto news media has to offer.

Cox has set the bar pretty high. For a hanging, perhaps?

Burke Adjusts the Storyline in Toronto

You have to admit that the royal suit worn by Don Cherry in the Coach's Corner segment last night was his most tasteful ensemble yet. Scary, but true.

Too bad there was so much time spent discussing life in Stratford, Ontario, during the Hotstove portion of the show, because it would have been nice to hear more about the moves that were being made by Brian Burke in Toronto.

Dion Phaneuf is coming from the Calgary Flames to the Maple Leafs. J.S. Giguere is leaving the Anaheim Ducks to help the Monster in Toronto. The Toronto Globe and Mail doesn't publish a paper on Sundays, but that doesn't stop them from putting out a full report when news happens.

Burke told David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail that the moves were made to break up the country club feeling of privilege that exists in Toronto.

Well, I don't know about Mr. Burke, but perhaps his team would feel less like the entitled class if the team wasn't granted the royal status on "Hockey Night in Canada," which usually schedules the Maple Leafs in the regal 7 pm Eastern time slot.

On Saturday, a very hot Ottawa team played host to Montreal in the afternoon slot. Sometimes, neither Ottawa nor Montreal merit a national audience on CBC, that is, unless they are playing the Leafs. (Francophones can catch the Habs nationally on RDS; Radio-Canada, the French television branch of the CBC, surrendered "La Soirée du Hockey" in 2002.)



Toronto is the center of the hockey universe, at least that is what we hear out of Toronto. Other teams that move from the end of the line to the middle are just that, middling teams. But when the Leafs move from the rear to a seat somewhere between the last row and the front row, they become contenders. That is what Burke is working against.

In Eric Duhatschek's thumbs up review of the Burke moves, he looks back at the 1992 Calgary-Toronto swap that included Doug Gilmour.

Gilmour’s presence turned the Leafs from a laughingstock into a contender.

He made them better, but a Cup contender? Well, they did lose to the Los Angeles Kings in the Campbell Conference finals in 1993. But contender should mean more than that. It should mean a contender to win the Cup from the start of the season through to the playoffs, not just in years when the really good teams are upset early and only the middling teams remain to win the Cup.

The good thing to come out of Burke's moves is that the Maple Leafs are now a more interesting team to watch the rest of the season.

Trouble in Calgary, Boston and the QMJHL

Some quick thoughts after a late night in the Lounge.

***San Jose has some of the best restaurants in the nation, that is, if you are only counting those with drive-through lanes and value menus. And Sharks fans were treated to the opening of another drive-through, this one involving the Calgary Flames, who had no answer in a 9-1 loss to the Sharks on Monday night. Eight different scorers.Two goals for Dany Heatley. A full order of heartburn, to go, for Flames Coach Brent Sutter. Click on that link and you will see a picture of a man who doesn't need any late night chili or two-for-99-cent tacos to feel upset after last night's performance by the Flames.

***Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley doesn't get out much, or at least out to the West Coast much, and it sounds like he wants to give the Bruins a pass for their weak effort Monday afternoon at home against the Ottawa Senators. The trail of tears for the Bruins can be traced to their oh-so-tough three-game visit to California. Oh, did he mention that the Bruins never have to leave the Eastern time zone the rest of the regular season? Checking, checking, looking, searching. Nope. The big, bad, drowsy Bruins will never face the challenges that, say, Vancouver does. The Canucks are in a division with three teams in the Mountain time zone and one in the Central. The Western Conference has teams in the Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern time zones. The Eastern Conference? All in the Eastern time zone. Weak. Lame. Lazy. That's for the column angle, the Bruins' performance and the schedule that tucks the Eastern Conference teams in bed at a reasonable hour for all but a handful of games.

***Patrick King of Sportsnet asks whether the star power of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League player Patrice Cormier will allow him to avoid the type of punishment Michael Liambas drew from the Ontario Hockey League for a hit from behind earlier this season. Cormier, who was the captain of Canada's silver-medal team in the 2010 World Junior Championship tournament, is a top prospect for the New Jersey Devils. Liambas, a role player in the OHL, did not have an NHL team waiting for him. After being banned from the OHL, Liambas fell to the International Hockey League, were he was recently punished for an illegal hit from behind. Cormier, who delivered questionable hits in tune-ups for the WJC, has the support of Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello, who told the Bergen Record he believed that neither criminal charges nor a season-long suspension was warranted for the elbow. The QMJHL gave an indefinite suspension to Cormier on Monday, pending a full review of the incident involving his hit on Quebec's Mikael Tam, who has been released from the hospital. In the meantime, Puck Daddy gives a full review of the situation and what others are saying around junior hockey and the National Hockey League.

THE SCOREBOARD
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Ottawa 5, at Boston 1
At N.Y. Islanders 4, New Jersey 0
Tampa Bay 3, at Carolina 2
At Columbus 4, St. Louis 2
Buffalo 7, at Phoenix 2
At Florida 1, Atlanta 0
Toronto 4, at Nashville 3
At Dallas 4, Minnesota 3
At Colorado 6, Edmonton 0
At San Jose 9, Calgary 1
The standings are here.
Recap by Sportsnet.
Three stars by Puck Daddy.

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
All-Star Skills Competition
Canada 18, Planet USA 12
The recap is here.

EAST COAST HOCKEY LEAGUE
Charlotte 6, at Gwinnett 4
At Reading 4, Trenton 3
The standings are here.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Plymouth 7, Windsor 4
Kitchener 6, at Erie 1
The standings are here.
The Kitchener/Erie recap is here, and the Windsor/Plymouth recap is here.

UNITED STATES HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Youngstown 7, Team USA 3
The standings are here.