Category Archives: That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog is That Damn Double C’s official blog for BHF.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Tough Transition First Round Draft Picks

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Who said it was going to be tough for first round draft picks this year? Because whomever said that.. well you were right with third overall pick Jonathan Drouin of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who was sent back to juniors, but in the case of the top 2 overall picks, Nathan MacKinnon and Alexsander Barkov? Well you are foolish! Foolish I tells ya.

MacKinnon, drafted first by the Colorado Avalanche, provided two assists for Jamie McGinn’s pair of goals, in their 6-1 victory of the Anaheim Ducks. MacKinnon had 15 shifts for 15:31 ice time. There was also a bit of a ruckus between new Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy, and several Anaheim Ducks, including head coach Bruce Boudreau and star player Corey Perry.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2OOc6WTrg[/youtube]

Aleksander Barkov, drafted second by the Florida Panthers, scored the Game-Tying Goal in their 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars. Assisted by Tom Gilbert and Jonathan Huberdeau, Barkov had more shifts than MacKinnon with 21, but only played three more seconds (15:34) of ice time.

Other notables include fourth overall pick Seth Jones had a +2 in Nashville’s 4-2 defeat by St. Louis, eighth overall Rasmus Ristolainen ended with a -1 in Buffalo’s 2-1 defeat by the Detroit Red Wings, and tenth overall Valeri Nichuskin played on Dallas’ third-line with Shawn Horcoff and Vernon Fiddler, also ended with a -1 in their 4-2 loss by the Florida Panthers.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Panthers Have More Control Than The U.S. Government

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Florida has a new goalie! Many expected the Jacob Markstrom era to begin in Florida this season, but that will be put on hold for one year, as long-time Boston Bruin, and guy who took last year off, Tim Thomas, has signed a 1-year, $2.5 million deal, with a $3.75 million cap hit with the franchise.

After making the playoffs in the 2011-12 season, being knocked out by the New Jersey Devils in the first round in seven games, the Panthers ended up with the worst record in the National Hockey League last season, on the back of Markstrom, Scott Clemmensen and Jose Theodore.

All smiles now Timmy T

What does Tim Thomas bring to Florida? He joins Kris Versteeg (one) Brian Campbell (one) and Tomas Kopecky (two), as holders of Stanley Cup rings. However, Thomas is the only one with a Conn Smythe as playoff MVP. A two-time Vezina winner, one-time William M. Jennings trophy, and the first player since Bernie Parent to win the Stanley Cup, Vezina and Conn Smythe in the same season.

The resume is plentiful, but Thomas is 39 years old. He didn’t play anywhere last season, so whether or not he’ll even make it out the year is a gamble for the Panthers, especially considering they seem to be outside playoff contenders at best. Perhaps he’s bought in to provide tutelage for Markstrom, but the latter will more than likely end up in the AHL when Clemmensen returns from injury.

For those wondering, Florida play Thomas’ former team, the Boston Bruins (I don’t count the Islanders, even though he was on their roster, he never played a game for them, not even as backup) five times next season. Mark these dates on your hockey calendar!
October 17, 2013, November 7, 2013, January 28, 2014, March 4, 2014 and March 9, 2014

The media will be all over it, especially for the first game I feel. Even Bruins starter, and Thomas’ backup in Boston, Tuukka Rask, joked that it’s going to be a “media debacle”. Fun times to be had in Florida for the year ahead.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Captains, Brawls and Blues! Oh My!

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Jamie Benn and Mark Giordano have been named Captains of the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames respectively. They replace Brenden Morrow and Jarome Iginla, who were both traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins toward trade deadline last season.

Giordano, 29, becomes the 19th Captain in Calgary Flames franchise history, and will have Mike Cammalleri and Curtis Glencross as his Assistants, whereas Benn, 24, will be the sixth Captain since the Stars moved to Dallas in 1993, where Ray Whitney and Stephane Robidas will be the Assistant Captains.

How do you make pre-season exciting? Have a line brawl.
How do you welcome your brand new 5.5 million dollar contract with your new team? Get yourself suspended for ten games.

The Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs decided that pre-season games were boring, and decided that an all-in brawl was the best way. It started when John Scott of the Sabres decided that he needed to stand up for his team-mate, Corey Tropp, was mis-matched in a fight with Leaf Jamie Devane and was going to fight the first person he saw after the faceoff. The Maple Leafs countered this, by trying to move the game on, by sending out their big guns, leaving franchise forward Phil Kessel to fight Scott. This started the brawl, which ended with Kessel showing off his wedge skills on Scott’s shin, Goalies Ryan Miller (Sabres) and Jonathan Bernier (Leafs) having a fight of their own, and David Clarkson, who signed from New Jersey in the off-season, came off the bench to get involved. This is a no-no, and coming off the bench in that nature, leads to an automatic 10-game suspension. Way to go Clarkson, way to gooooooo.

Oh, here’s the fight in question..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frrFsXdhKZ8[/youtube]

Brenden Morrow has signed a 1-year, 1.5 million dollar deal with Dallas Stars 2.0, the St. Louis Blues. Morrow joins former head coach Ken Hitchcock, former GM Doug Armstrong, VP of Business Operations Brett Hull, who scored the cup winning goal for the Stars’ 1999 Stanley Cup victory, and fellow off-season Free Agent signing Derek Roy, as former Dallas Stars applying their trade in St. Louis. Morrow looks like being a third-fourth liner for his new franchise.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Does This Mean Hockey’s Back?

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It feels a little weird to be honest. This time last year, every hockey fan knew that there wasn’t going to be any hockey, because we knew that there was going to be a lockout, and we knew it was going to last awhile, so a proper season start seems like heaven. I know there’s an Olympic break in the middle and that’ll make things interesting in terms of how one plays in an attempt to make the Olympic rosters, and with a proper pre-season, the start of the season will see the best players at full stride, as opposed to taking the first month of last season to find their rhythm.

So enjoy pre-season action, cheer your team on. Hockey’s back, and that’s always a good thing.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Why Not Sign Me Errrr?

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Free Agency. That period of your career, where if you are good enough, or find a GM dumb enough, you could score yourself a pretty sweet contract. But this comes with a warning, you may not even get a contract at all. In fact, there are players out there right now, who most people thought would have received day one, and yet, still sit un-signed without a team.

Continue reading →

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Ryan Miller and the Seattle Metropolitans

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyLBXYqt3nM[/youtube]

Ah, Ryan Miller. Hero of Team USA at the 2010 Olympics. Nowadays though, it’s a completely different story. The Sabres want him gone for some reason because they believe Jhonas Enroth is this king goalie or something I dunno. Anyway, if the Sabres were to trade Ryan Miller this season, where would they possibly trade him? Let’s go through the other 29 other teams and see if anyone would want a 33 year old Goaltender.

Continue reading →

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.2

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Alexei Yashin was a stud for the Ottawa Senators on the ice. Off the ice, he would complain about contracts until the cows came home. He refused to play in the 95-96 season until he was made the highest paid player on the team. In 1998, he was to donate a million dollars to the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, however the NAC learned that a condition of the donation would be to pay Yashin’s parents $425,000, they balked at the idea, and Yashin cancelled the donation.

There would be more contract disputes to come, with Yashin refusing to honor the last year of his contract before the 1999-00 season due to demanding a raise and the Senators declining, he then demanded a trade. Ottawa responded by suspending him for the 99-00 season instead. Yashin, who was meant to be a free agent after the season, was refused free agent status by an NHL Arbitrator, and instead had to play out the final year of his contract in the 2000-01 season. Which lead the Ottawa Senators to trade Yashin at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, to the New York Islanders. Which brought about one of hockey’s great debates. Which was worse? The contract the Islanders gave Yashin, or the players they traded in order to get Yashin.

New York traded forward Bill Muckalt, defenseman Zdeno Chara, and the second overall pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, which just happened to be Jason Spezza. The Islanders hoped that Yashin would provide the spark they needed, after picking up 94 and 88 points respectively, in the last two years he played.
Muckalt only spent one season in Ottawa, and didnt really come to much. Chara has become one of the most feared defensemen, not just for the Boston Bruins, but in the National Hockey League, and Spezza has become the forward centerpiece in Ottawa and looks to be a future captain.

But what about Yashin? He is the focal point of this blog after all. Well, the Islanders had so much faith in the Russian, that they signed him to a 10 year, 87.5 million dollar contract. Most found that an untradeable contract, but it was clear that in their eyes, Yashin was an Islander for the rest of his career. In his first year, Yashin helped the Islanders make the playoffs, but they never got past the first round during his tenure there, and after the first year, his production declined.

Even after they retooled the roster around Yashin for the 2005-06 season, it didnt help, as the Islanders bought out his contract at the end of the 2006-07 season, leaving them with a cap hit of just over $2.2mil until 2015. Yashin is currently the eighth highest cap hit for forwards on the Islanders roster, even though he reitred from hockey in 2012. Yashin is a prime example of gambling gone horribly, horribly wrong. If the Islanders hadn’t of made the deal, then chances are they would still have Zdeno Chara and Jason Spezza in their lineup, and who knows where they’d be now. Maybe where they expected to be with Yashin.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: I Want A Contract With The Islanders pt.1

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Ah, the Islanders. They currently have the most room in the salary cap, according to CapGeek.com, which is surprising, considering the Islanders have probably the two worst contracts in the history of hockey. One of which ended only recently because of a compliance buyout, and the other is for someone who hasn’t played since 2007. They are, of course, Rick DiPietro and Alexei Yashin.

DiPietro was drafted first overall by the New York Islanders in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, three years after the Islanders drafted Roberto Luongo. Considered to be the real future of the franchise, Luongo was traded to the Florida Panthers the same day DiPietro was drafted, so the pressure was on even before he hit the ice. After just 3 wins out of 20 in his first season, he never played again in the NHL until the 2002-03 season (which was only 11 games, one of which was a playoff shutout), before gaining the starting role the following season.

After four season of not the greatest goaltending, and 2 wins from 9 in playoffs, DiPietro was signed to a 15-year, $67.5 million contract. A week before his 26th birthday, the Islanders actually wanted to make the signing a year earlier, but the NHL discouraged the idea. The NHL knew that giving him a 15 year contract would be absolutely stupid, given the contract they gave Alexei Yashin in 2001 (I’ll get to it, don’t worry), but the Islanders gave him the contract anyway.

After one win from four in the first year of his 15-year deal, his last playoff appearance, 2007 also saw the decline of DiPietro, as injuries began to take their toll, and since 2008, has only played in 50 games for the Islanders, for just 14 wins. The misery finally ended, when his contract was bought out on July 1, 2013. However, even though it doesn’t affect the salary cap, DiPietro will still be paid $1.5 million until 2029. He will be 48.

If you think that the Islanders screwed that one up, the next part will prove that they didn’t learn from their mistakes.

For those who want to follow yours truly on Twitter for some unknown reason, it’s @ThatDamnDoubleC. Also, go visit BoredWrestlingFan.com, as we’re like brothers or something. You like the little icon in the top corner where the title of this blog is? I found that here.

That Damn Hockey Blog

That Damn Hockey Blog: Free Aaaaaaaaaaagent Frenzy

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How does one describe Daniel Alfredsson’s move to Detroit? Most people call him a traitor for leaving Ottawa after being the Captain and spending his entire career there. Others, like new Boston Bruin Jarome Iginla (I’ll get to that in a minute), say the move is a good thing, stating that the elder statesmen like himself and Alfredsson, want to win Stanley Cups, and that their time is fast running out. However, is Detroit more of a Stanley Cup contender than the Senators? Especially after the Sens traded with the Ducks for Bobby Ryan. Detroit did also sign C Stephen Weiss from Florida, to replace Valtteri Flippula, who signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and possibly lost Damien Brunner and Daniel Cleary. Ottawa also traded away the rights to Sergei Gonchar to the Dallas Stars during the playoffs, meaning they have now lost two very skilled and experienced players from their roster, only adding Clarke MacArthur from Toronto, that isn’t a prospect.

The plan for Ottawa, was to pick up Ryan, and keep Alfredsson. Ryan was never meant to be the replacement. But now Jason Spezza has a new younger right wing beside him, and maybe, just maybe, and surprisingly, losing their captain may be the best thing that could happen to the Ottawa Senators.

Speaking of marquee iconic players at a franchise, Vincent Lecavalier’s contract was bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Vinnie had so much of an impact in Tampa, that there is a children’s hospital that exists, because of the contribution that Lecavalier provided. The veteran will now line up with Claude Giroux for the Flyers.

Boston on the other hand, finally claimed the guy they thought they had at the trade deadline last season. Jarome Iginla. After switching to Pittsburgh at the eleventh hour, and missing out on a Stanley Cup ring, Iginla joins the Eastern Conference Champions, hoping to lead the Bruins to the final step, to which they were beaten to last season by the Chicago Blackhawks. However, they will have to make that step, missing several pieces that got them there. Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin were traded to the Dallas Stars, Nathan Horton signed with Columbus, backup Goaltender Anton Khudobin, now becomes the backup to Cam Ward in Carolina, Andrew Ference signed with the Edmonton Oilers, and they don’t look like re-signing Jaromir Jagr either. They may have gained Loui Eriksson in the  Seguin/Peverley trade, but is he enough to cover the losses?

In other Free Agency news of significance, St. Louis added substantial depth at center, signing Maxim Lapierre and Derek Roy. Ray Emery became the replacement for Ilva Bryzgalov in Philadelphia, contesting the goaltending with Steve Mason. Dallas traded for Seguin and Peverley as mentioned earlier, but they also traded for more experienced middle ice depth in Shawn Horcoff from the Oilers, and signing solid backup Dan Ellis from Nashville.

Minnesota signed Matt Cooke and Keith Ballard, but lost Pierre-Marc Bouchard to the Islanders, and traded away Devin Setoguchi. Michael Ryder and Ryane Clowe will apply their trades in New Jersey, after the Devils traded in Cory Schneider from the Canucks during the draft. Toronto added David Clarkson, but bought out Mikhail Grabovski, and Phoenix added Mike Ribeiro, and Goaltender Thomas Greiss, who was the backup to Antti Niemi at San Jose.

Don’t think Free Agency is over yet, many good names are still on the board, with Goaltenders Ilya Bryzgalov, the returning Tim Thomas from hiatus, and Forwards Brenden Morrow, Jaromir Jagr and Mikhail Grabovski, leading the list of players still available. Many teams still have plenty of cap available, so you would think it wouldn’t be too long, before theses names find new homes.