The Skin of Our Teeth

Tiny update as I'm procrastinating school work.

WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

You know, hockey even right now feels weird. Give me two more weeks at the least. Putting Finland v the Czech Republic out first was a mistake, though I guess they had no idea that the Czech Republic would lay such an egg on the ice. Tomas Vokoun played out of his mind but the Czechs were lack luster, sluggish and lost 4-0. So much for the lack of offensive power in the Finnish line-up there. I was impressed by the Finns and I probably keep more of an eye on Finnish hockey than most people. I'd love to say they'd win the Gold (if the USA doesn't) but it might be too far to say there. Let's just say - anyone but Canada I'm rooting for. If Canada wins, we'll never hear the end of it. Good job, winning an eight-team tourny where you have home-ice every game. Hell the thing use to be CALLED the Canada Cup. 

 

The Phoenix Coyotes continue to make splashes during an off-season where most teams haven't touched a single big-name free agent with a 100 foot pole. Today adding Petr Nedved to the mix allowing the Yotes to deal off top-line center Daymond Langkow to the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenseman Denis Gauthier and winger Oleg Saprykin.

Off the bat, a lot of people look at this deal and think Sutter is out of his mind. Two useful pieces for Langkow? Well let's face it, the Flames aren't very deep at center now that Craig Conroy has sailed for Los Angeles. When injuries struck last year, their weakness at center just showed more and more. Much like Derek Morris was when they dealt him to Colorado, Gauthier was the odd man out in a great defensive corp so like any good general manage it's always about trading from a source of strength to acquire a player to fill in a weakness. But was throwing in Saprykin a bad move? Possibly but remember Langkow is no chump and is in the prime years of his career. He has now become a consistent 50 point threat while playing equal enough defense to post a positive rating. He's also been very durable over the past couple seasons and has developed into a quiet 20 goal scorer. Setting up one of the game's best forwards in Jarome Iginla may make Langkow one attractive option for fantasy players this season - both Conroy and Dean McAmmond showed off career years lining up with Iginla. What most people don't realize is how defensively sound and minded Langkow is - he'll easily replace Conroy in that aspect while adding more fire power. While Langkow gained the reputation of having an attitude during his time in Philadelphia, he became a leader in Phoenix and while he'll never be expected to fill Conroy's shoes as a leader, he's not the cancer everyone remembers him as before his "exile" to Phoenix. Langkow is becoming a complete player - just too bad he's below six feet tall.

The loss of Saprykin hurts as the former first rounder has shown many times flashes of brillence and seems to be just about ready to turn the corner in his career. He'll get a shot at the Coyotes second  line but he'll most likely line-up astride of Mike Ricci on the third line. He'll add to something the team has desperately lacked at times - speed on the wings. His defense needs polish but he hasn't been brought in to play defense (plus that's why you play him with Ricci). They need for him to develop as a goal scorer - anything else is just benefits. And it's not like Saprykin is inreplacable in Calgary - with Langkow entrenched now as the team's top line center, Steven Reinprecht can move over to left wing quickly filling up the hole on the flank.

It's not like Phoenix didn't get anything out of this deal. They lose Langkow and gain an up-and-coming winger but they also gain a top-four dman, something this club lacked a lot of last year. As I said when I previewed the Flames, Gauthier's a bit injury proned and I never expect him to play a full NHL season ever but he hits so hard he'll knock the shit off the walls of your colon and he keeps smaller forwards shaking in their skates. He also works well in the dressing room and could be a leader for this Phoenix club in the future. By adding Gauthier and free agent pick-up Sean O'Donnell, the blue line has got a lot more gritty and physical and now Cale Hulse will not be expected to handle all of the team's physical work. The Phoenix blueline has gone from one really good dman and a bunch of 5/6 dmen to a pretty darn solid seven: Paul Mara (emerging as one of the top PP QBs in the league), Morris (back on track after too many expectations in Colorado), Gauthier, Hulse (seemed to have to do it all for the Yotes for most of the season), O'Donnell, David Tanabe (offensive threat but let's hope his knee is 100%) and Brad Ference (all muscle, no brains).

Allowing them to send such a good player like Langkow out the door was the free agent signing of Petr Nedved. Nedved, traded before the deadline to Edmonton, wanted to re-up in Edmonton but the money was slightly apart and Nedved's actress-model wife wanted to be closer to Hollywood for her career. It'll be interesting to see what Phoenix gave Nedved compared to the supposed 3-year, $10 million package that Edmonton was offering but at least his wife will be happy as Phoenix really is only a skip away from LA. Nedved is extremely talented but he also infuriates you at times because you know he has so much talent and he's not always using it, nor has he quite (up to this point) grasped the concept that he's 6-3 and he needs to use his reach and his size to his advantage more often. It's been three seasons since his last top-line campaign (78 points in 2000-01) and really he has put up sad numbers for a guy that has enough talent to hit 100 points every season - something he's only come close to doing with 99 points in 1995-96 with Pittsburgh. But it's not like he doesn't put up positive numbers (46, 58, 46 in the past three seasons) and his points might take a rise in value playing along side possibly two budding super-stars in Ladislav Nagy and Shane Doan or maybe even legend Brett Hull. I hope we can see him in the 60 point range.

Sadly the Yotes (at this moment) will enter the season with two unproven goalies (David LeNeveu and Jean-Marc Pelletier) and two goalies that are trying to resurrect their once promising careers (Brent Johnson and Brian Boucher). The job is up for grabs and might be this Phoenix team's only weak-link but what an amazing off-season so far for GM Mike Barnett and figurehead Wayne Gretzky. Now if they could only rid themsleves of Brian Savage's "savage" contract.

 

With the Olympics now in full swing for over a week, there are so many stories to talk about but how much more championing of Michael Phelps and the other US swimmers - both male and female - can I do? Every one seems to be in agreement that Paul Hamm's gold medal was not his fault or anything he should have to apologize - at least everyone beyond a certain writer at the offices of USA Today. Drugs have been a scandle but I'm glad that they haven't been made the cover story. The Olympics and the world itself didn't need steroids and blood doping to be the way these games go down in memory.  The memories should come in not only our champions but in our firsts. These Olympic games are the first step and leap for a lot of young nations expierencing freedoms for the first time in a very long time. These Olympic games are the first step and leap for the rights of women in countries that less than five years ago were almost a century or two behind in the women's rights movement. There has been a light turned on in these countries and it will hopefully be the foundation of something new and great in a sense of national pride for these nations. THAT needs to be the face of these games, not steroids.

On an Olympic side note, turn your head if you haven't heard about the US basketball team against Spain...I will not rescind my comments of earlier towards our men's Olympic basketball team - they still are far from the Dream Team of 1992 and nor are they a great team in any real aspect of the team game but they showed a lot in their win against Espana. I suspect the American public's perception of whether this team can come away with a medal or not will start to swing back towards a positive side althought not with a great amount of force. But they've finally showed the one thing they needed all along and that was heart. If they've found that, things look up.

So many stories. Do I want to talk about Todd (or if you ask Football Pro Weekly and Kyle Turley, Steve) Bertuzzi pleading not guilty to assult? No, I've said my peace as has everyone else. Why state the same things over again? Nothing has changed. What about Alexander Perezhogin now charged with assult in his case? Really, nothing has changed the situation. My perception has yet to changed as I have changed since then. I have nothing new or different to say on Perezhogin. Quincy Carter signing with the Jets? I applaud Herman Edwards for giving Carter a second chance, we all deserve them but I think Carter needs to get healthy first if it is in fact a drug problem.  Football isn't the most important thing right now - his health is. And as you give him a second chance, is it neccessarily fair to both Brooks Bollinger and Ricky Ray? Ray giving up fame in the CFL to take over a third string job for the Jets, now will find himself without a job and no paycheck (which that line can spark a whole debate on the NFL's rape of their players but that has become tiresome and fruitless as shown as Julien Peterson finally has returned to 49ers camp but with only a one year deal. Fruitless as shown by the lack of support on the side of Keenan McCardell down in Tampa Bay.) Where can Ray turn to?

Off on a little side track question - who is your sport hero (or heroes) and why. They can be from any sport (even the lesser known Olympic sports) and any era provided that you saw them participate in their sport. What makes them your hero and at what moment did you realize this is a guy you wish to look up to. 

I know I haven't been around a lot lately - at least not in my Blogs but things have been hectic. And not even with classes starting up again. Sure that adds a bit of stress along with everyone moving and adjusting to a new building on campus but last week the day before classes were scheduled to start, the Univeristy of Illinois-Springfield lost one of their dearest faculty members. Professor Razak passed away suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 53. It wasn't only the English department that lost Prof D. It wasn't only the Univeristy that lost him. The world lost a good man and a bright man. I only got to know him one semester and now entering in my second semester here, I'm glad I got to know him if only a little. I was planning on taking his Modern British Literature course sometime in the future and I was looking forward to it even with the ungodly reading list of around eleven books. I'm sad that while I knew him in a certain sense as a professor (one who has turned me on to the wonderful mind of D.H. Lawrence, if nothing else) that I didn't get a chance to get to talk to him more but I'll never forget him because he was a one-of-a-kind character.  As Nabokov once wrote in a short story (and I'm paraphasing), Life is the master writer and her stories are unmatched. Life made a character that was unmatched.  The man was a bit aloof, technologically challenged (good luck sending him an email) and strangely "unorganized" (it's only unorganized to everyone else I may assume.) He had strange quirks but he was one of the brightest literary minds I ever had the pleasure of being in the same room with. The vast amounts of knowledge he had stored up within his brain on English literature was amazing and I never got to scartch the surface of that mind in my Victorian Lit class. And you know, I wish I had used him mind more often instead of just sitting quietly in class sometimes wishing I was back in bed or somewhere else at times. So if I'm trying to say anything its if you have a really good teacher - and I mean an amazing teacher that makes you think and enjoy the material you're studying - don't be afraid to pick his brain. In fact, do it as much as you can. Learn as much as you can from them. Use them to the best of their abilities. That's what they're there for and that's what teaching is. It's not sitting up in front of a class giving a lecture on Hardy or the Brontes. It's getting students to think and question. If you're lucky enough to have a great mind in front of you, seize the opportunity to use that mind because you never know when that mind is not going to be there any longer.  The world lost a great mind a week ago and I didn't use it as well as I should have.

It's not as crushing as the death of my grandfather but it's something that has affected me and been on my mind. Every mention of Lawrence or the Brontes from here on out in the rest of my life will always bring a smile to my face and I thank him for that.

On another note, some of you may want to know how my situation with my girlfriend is going. It's taken a couple turns for better and for worse. I'd like to thank those people (they know who they are) who have helped take it for the positive turns. Her deamnor is getting better but it's far from healed - if it ever will be. And while I won't mention all of the negative turns, I'll mention we had a huge fight on Tuesday that almost tore everything apart. But it was a tension that had been creeping up and growing for the past four to seven months and it finally just exploded into a fury. I was just ignorant of it being there (hey, I'm a guy) and it was nasty and I thought I had lost the best thing going in my life. But that night I also realized something, I had lost sight of the real fact - I love this woman. With all that has been going on I became so focused on protecting her that I lost track of what she really needs - someone to love her and be there for her. She's been fighting this 'battle' for so long that while I will deliever her from it soon, it wasn't the most important thing for me to do. She needed love - something to fill the void left by her father and her family. That's why she approached me in the first place. She was never looking for me to protect her in that way. I was her knight in shining armour because I gave her something few other people had in the past. Once I realized this, every thing in my life that had been clouded in the past couple months began to ring through in stunning clarity. The clouds dissapated and it felt like I was in love again for the first time. And that's an amazing feeling - I'm sure as most of you know. It's amazing that your entire focus ca n change and you never realize it. I feel much better about everything and I know now how to handle anything that comes down this path. I truly messed up and made a critical mistake. I was blinded by I don't know what - rage, hate, anger, passion, revenge - no matter how hard we try, there are always seams between words and actual definition and sometimes it's impossible to convey an idea or an object with words no matter how hard you try. Whatever it may have been, I had fallen prey to it. And now that I'm out of its trap, I feel once again the same way I had felt about her - even when she's not around and it's plutonic. Not the kind that pines away young men but the kind that makes you comfrotable with who you are and who you want to be.  Their presence is always with you and you know that you're always with them. The clouds are gone.

 

VINNY IN DENVER

Two seasons ago when the San Jose Sharks were having their "fire sale" Pierre Lacroix tried acquiring four-time all-star (and 1990-91 All-star MVP) VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE from the Sharks. It may be a little over a year later but Lacroix finally gets his man. Is Vinny insurance in case Peter Forsberg decides to jump ship over to Sweden? Maybe but I wouldn't exactly count on it. If Forsberg was so commited to going back to MoDo Hockey with Tommy Salo and Mattias Timander (who's deal with the Sweden club fell through resulting in Timander re-signing with the Flyers) then why hasn't he already? People saw it as a fore gone conclusion that Forsberg would be in Sweden regardless of a lock-out or strike. Really? He's sure bidding his time - almost seems as though he's waiting to see how this plays out. I think it's as simple as this - if there's NHL hockey, Forsberg will be in a Colorado Avalanche uniform next season. If all things go wrong and the owners don't wisen up, then Forsberg's in those ugly MoDo uniforms next year and Damphousse will be holding down Colorado's second scoring unit with Marek Svatos and Steve Konowalchuk on his flanks.

But if all goes well, Lacroix should be hoping that Damphousse can strengthen the club's left side. Damphousse has played a little bit of left wing as he's started to slow down and at 38, it might be time to premantly put him there. He can always go back to center to make a third scoring unit or for when Forsberg missing his mandatory injury time (ok two seasons ago he played in 75 games and netted himself the Hart Trophy so you can't rule out him being healthy). As much as I love the player that Konowalchuk is, I just wouldn't feel comfortable with him as my second line left winger. Vinny may not be the player he once was (80-90 point seasons were the norm) but he hasn't missed an NHL contest since the 2000-2001 campaign and he has rarely missed games in his career (2000-01 being the worst when he played only 45 games but still managed over a point per game). He's a guy that you can count on and can bring more leadership to the table (not that the Lanche really even need that) and he can move in to win face-offs when needed - giving the Lanche a pretty good set of draw-men. He's also not selfish with the puck and should be able to hit Svatos or whomever he plays with with the puck every time. Last year he had 41 points (12+29) I wouldn't be surprised to see him jump back up to the 50s with the right linemates. And on an odd note, he'll be aiming for his third straight year with 66 PIMs - just in case you wanted to know.

I think it can be a great signing but the team may still want to grab another player to add depth up front.

WEEKES TO NEW YORK?

Do I hate Kevin Weekes? I wouldn't say hate but I certainly don't like him. I might have been harsh when I called him utter garbage and while I'm still steadfest that Martin Gerber is a better goalie, Weekes has a lot of good qualities to him, he's just had the unfortunate fortune to play on some rather crappy teams in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Vancouver, Long Island and Carolina. For the teams he's played for, you can't expect too much out of him and a 78-136-33 record sure goes a long way in saying that. He's extremely athletic and bad goals don't shake him but he does still give up more than his fair share of questionable goals. He's heading for yet another horrible team and defense in New York if he signs there as reported.

He's also headed for yet another goal tending contraversy, nothing foreign to him. Current starter Mike Dunham has caught a lot of flak since he was traded by Nashville to the Big Apple. Dunham's back-up, Tomas Vokoun has blossomed into a fine goaltender and could be on the verge of adding his name to the small list of "money goalies" if Nashville builds upon their first ever playoff run. He's a far cry from the potential we saw from him at Maine when the Devils selected him in the 1990 Entry Draft (even before they had Martin Brodeur) but he has been unfairly criticized for the defensive lapses made by the entire New York Ranger team. He's a completely different goalie than Weekes, using his huge body to cut down angles and letting the puck just hit him instead of making the spectacular save. When he's on and confident, he can be one of the better netminders out there - too bad its hard to be confident when you're a New York Ranger. So the Rangers feel "hard-to-rattle and flashy" may work better. Personally, I say you should fix up your defense instead of adding another goalie. Thomas Pock probably isn't the answer there either.

The two netminders will probably split time in net for Tom Renney until Glen Sather can find someone who will take Dunham's $3 million salary. The magic eight ball says they may have to eat some of that salary. And what do you sign Weekes for? If Dunham's making 3 million dollars and you expect Weekes to start, would he seriously keep his agent if the agent got him less? If Daniel Blackburn isn't 100% again by camp (though I seriously doubt he'll ever be 100% again) can you really afford to move Dunham without getting a back-up goalie in return in the trade? Yes, Jason Labarbera is coming off a tremendous year in the AHL (Baz Bastien Trophy winner for best netminder) but at the higher level will his poor lateral movement be exploited by more talented forwards? How does Weekes feel only being a stop gap until either Henrik Lundqvist or Alvaro Montoya takes over? He may just be warming the seat for one of these guys in the next couple years.

With the Maple Leafs desperate enough to express (supposed) interest in Byron Dafoe as an insurance policy for Ed Belfour's wonky back, could Dunham find his way North of the Border?

CLOSING

Sorry for so few updates lately. Currently we're repainting the house and with classes starting back up, I've been busy. So once things settle down (if they ever really do) I should be back to normal length.

Points to Dave for pointing out that it is Dmitri Khristich who holds the distinction of being the first player to have his arbitration ruling walked away from by a team. Originally I calimed it was Bryan Berard, he was the second. In the back of my mind, I always thought the Bruins were able to reach a trade agreement with the Toronto Maple Leafs BEFORE Khristich's hearing. However, the Maple Leafs and the Bruins couldn't strike a deal before the case and Khristich sat out until after the season had opened. The Bruins walked away and Khristich was forced to sit out training camp, finally being dealt to the Maple Leafs in October of 1999 for a second round pick, used to take Ivan Huml. Khristich would struggle for the Leafs before they would deal him off less than a half year later to the Washington Capitals for a draft choice that was used to select Brendan Bell. Failing again to play up to standards, he left the Capitals and the Ukrainian forward returned to play in the Russian Super League, where he still plays today.

I apologize for the error and tomorrow I'll take a look at the Aves signing Vinny Damphousse and the Rangers possibly adding Kevin Weekes to their crease

NHL TRADE BREAK DOWN

As most of you know by now, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks have dealt forward Vaclav Prospal back to the Tampa Bay Lightning after one year in southern California. The Lightning send a 2nd round draft choice to the Ducks in exchange for a player they let go via free agency a year ago. The re-acquisititon of Prospal marks the end of the run in Tampa for 20+ goal sniper Cory Stillman. Stillman's arbitration case awarded him a contract of $3.9 million, a price way too steep for the defending champions. Can you blame them though? Prospal is set to make $2.5 million next year (including a $4 million bonus that the Ducks supposedly have to absorb) and while his inconsistency in the past has made him quite a risky player, he had his best season in Tampa and he fits nicely into the team's system. While I don't expect Prospal to match Stillman's unusually high 80 point season of last year, it might not be too much to see Prospal return to the 70 point plateau.

What does this mean for the Ducks? GM Al Coates is intent on cutting at least four million from the payroll and this goes a long way towards that. Ruslan Salei could still be dealt to get the payroll down even more but the team has options now. They also turn nothing into something, by grabbing a second round pick out of a free agent signing - though in the long run, they do lose quite a bit of money because of the signing bonuses attached to Prospal's contract. It also means Ryan Getzlaf pretty much has a roster spot in hand - his to lose. It would also be a big help if Stanislav Chistov rebounded from a horrible season last year filling in one of the left wing positions. Prospal never fit in with the Ducks and defensively, he was never suited for the Western Conference - and people continue to believe Bryan Murray can do no wrong as a GM.

What does it mean for Tampa Bay? A team stacked with youth can afford a second round pick to save a bit of cash. Stillman is usually good for 20+ goals (he has yet to strike higher than 27, something he did only in back-to-back years) but the amazing jumps in assists he's seen over the past two years are more a product of the offenses. When you play with players like Martin St.Louis, Vinny Lecavalier and Brad Richards, you're probably going to coat tail your way to 55 assists (like wise, two years ago in St. Louis with Demitra, Thachuk and Mellanby). Even if this is a career revelation at the age of 30, Stillman still takes too many nights off - leading him to be pulled from the line-up in the middle of the Stanley Cup finals. Will Prospal match Stillman's 80 points? As I said above, I'm doubting it but anything is possible now that he'll be back on Lecavalier's left flank, allowing Richards and St.Louis to be teamed-up on the second line once again, giving Tampa Bay one of the best offensive punches from the forward lines. If Lecavalier continues to build upon the momentum he gained in the playoffs, he could be headed to a career year with Prospal right behind him.

Truth be told, Stillman is a good 20 goal, 45-50 point guy but if you're going to pay almost $4 million for that, wouldn't you walk away too? And with Tampa Bay having the right to match any contract offers made to Stillman up to 80% of the arbitration case, or $3.12 million, expect Stillman to be waiting a while for anyone to pick him up a la Bryan Berard last year, who became the first player ever to have a team walk away from his arbitration ruling - Stillman becoming the second. If Stillman is smart, he'll envoke his right to accept Tampa Bay's original offer of $2.75 million (the same salary he made last year) forcing the Lightning to have to shop him around. He has now six days to accept the offer or hope someone is out of their mind and signs him for more.

It's been a rough past two seasons for the Detroit Red Wings, an annual favorite to win the Stanley Cup. In 2003 they ran into a very confident Anaheim Mighty Ducks team in the first round and got swept and in 2004, they fared much better getting into the second round but ran into another 'team of destiny' in the Calgary Flames. It wasn't the Dallas Stars nor the Colorado Avalanche that saw the Red Wings fall and it still stings in Hockey Town. 2004 was supposed to be the 'last shot' for some of these future Hall-of-Famers but anyone expecting a complete destruction of the team pretty much was off. Most of the team will find its way back for the 2004-05 season, and the parts that didn't can be replaced fairly easily by the Red Wings. Goalie Dominik Hasek leaves for Ottawa with just about the same cloud over his head as when he left Buffalo and Brett Hull will seek his 800th career goal in Phoenix. Hull will be joined by checker Boyd Devereaux in the desert. Marc Lamothe also departs to Russia. Troubled Ryan Barnes and old-time fringe players Michal Picard, Derek King, Kevin Miller and Steve Thomas will most likely not be back. Defensemen Mathieu Schneider and Steve Yzerman are without contracts but are expected back. Anders Myrvold is also without a contract.

On defense, Chris Chelios returns at 42 years-old and is a sure-fire Hall-of-famer who could still have a year or two left as a top-four dman. If he's on a full 82 game schedule, expect mid-30 in points and a plus-rating. Nicklas Lidstrom is still one of the top dmen in the league and the elite guy here. It's amazing what this guy does while keeping his PIMs to a low. Darian Hatcher suffered through his hardest season to date, only seeing 15 games in the regular season and looked to be laboring through the playoffs. He'll see the suspension list for the first three games of the 2004-05 season. He fit in well with Dallas because they realized how to use him, here's to hoping Dave Lewis figures out that he's not going to be a mobile defenseman. Should return to form and blast 20-30 points from the blueline while working one of the power-play units. Jiri Fischer continues to mature into a pretty solid dman, entering his sixth season. After last year, there should be no more doubts about his knee injury but at 6-5 and 225, he can still be beat by faster forwards going outside on him. Expect him to continue growing as a player and for him to improve on his 19 point production. Under Lewis, Mathieu Dandenault has finally settled in as a full-time dman. It's almost weird that he's entering his 10th NHL season already at the age of 28 - spending only four games ever in the minors. He has three Stanley Cups and over 600 games. He's far from a core leader on this squad but once he becomes a free agent, I suggest any young club needing a 5th or 6th dman to go out and grab him because his expierence will be a great help. He's a speedster that can cover up his mistakes and should get better now that he's a full-time dman. Jason Woolley should be back as a sixth or seventh dman and a second unit power-play guy. While Woolley has great vision, a good shot and rarely makes a bad decision with the puck, he could lose out to a returning Schiender or up-and-coming Niklas Kronwall. Kronwall saw 20 games last year and would have seen more if he hadn't broken his right leg causing him to sit out the final 33 games and the entire playoffs. He has enough talent to be a 4th dman but at 23 he's walking a fine line between being a power-play specialist or a top dman. At 5-11, 165 he cannot stop many of the bigger forwards in the league despite his sound and mature positioning. Journeymen Jamie Rivers and Bryan Helmer will add depth to the position.

In net, Curtis Joseph has found himself under heavy scurtiny since coming to Detroit - as only high expectations coming off a Stanley Cup victory will do. "CuJo" to me was once the most overrated player in recent memory, now you can't help but feel slightly sorry for him as he catches crap for things he couldn't control. He has this little habit of staying too far back in his net and honestly, it doesn't work for him so I can't understand why he does it but when he's coming out of his net and confident, he can look like one of the best and few goalies suck up rebounds better. Too bad with fan favourite Manny Legace behind him, Joseph probably will never see the pressure in Detroit off his back. Legace has preformed well as a back-up when Detroit has had to call upon him, leading a lot of people to feel he could do well as a starter. He saw the most minutes of his NHL career last year and did put up great numbers but at his size (5-9) he's not my ideal top line goalie. He does have teriffic lateral movement that can win a couple games by itself but I don't see him handling 50-60 games. Joey MacDonald, who has a perchant for giving up bad goals, will be the third line goalie but the depth in net comes in Stefan Liv and James Howard, who will be in Detroit a couple years from now.

With Hull's departure, the right side of the offense might need some creative patching to fix with some one moving over from left wing. Of your natural wingers, Tomas Holmstrom is probably the top one but he's at best, a third line talent. Remember how far out Dino use to score his goals - Holmstrom does the same thing and has an amazing ability to take punishment but he'll never be able to stay healthy for a full 82 games other than the 1998-99 season. While he'll pot in 10-15 goals every year, making his production not suited for a scoring line, his defense isn't good enough for him to sit on a checking line, making him a hard player to rely on. Darren McCarty missed 39 games with a back injury and through 11 seasons, he's yet to play a full schedule - 73 being his career high. He's sound enough defensively to take a checking spot and sticks up for his team mates at the drop of a hat. Sadly because of his injuries, it's hard to predict what kind of production he'll have other than expect him to rack up PIMs. Jason Williams might get his chance to stick this year but his potential is limited to about the third line - he's shown production in the minors but his foot speed might make him a liability in the NHL but he has put up 32 points in 95 NHL games with a +7 rating. I wouldn't expect much more. Darryl Bootland saw 22 games last year with 74 PIMs and he could be an option but an option I don't think the Red Wings want to use too often in their hunt for another championship. Top prospect Igor Grigorenko was expected to help the right side a lot by now but he hasn't played in over a year due to injuries sustained in a car accident - for now Grigorenko plans to stay in Russia for the year to get back into shape so cross him off your list.

Brendan Shanahan could find himself moving back to the right flank. He had a tough season last year and still managed 25 goals and 52 points in 82 games with a +15 and 177 PIMs. He might be on the decline but I'm hard press to see him falling out of the 50 point, 100 PIM range just yet. He could hit a hot streak and get back up to 70 points just as easily so don't count him down or out. With two seasons under his belt, it's time for the playmaking Henrik Zetterberg to step up. 44 points his rookie season while playing in 79 games, and now 43 points in only 61 games, he needs to step up into the 50 point range. His sense is unbelievable and he has first line talent, I just want first line points from him now. And 6-0 is pretty generous for him, he's probably smaller so he needs to bulk up now that he's more known by defenders. Ray Whitney 's first year with Detroit saw him put up 43 points but a lot of people were expecting him to hit the 20 goals, 50 point mark at least. He'd be fun to watch in a rec league because he can get around practically anyone but he's about Zetterberg's size so he's going to get hit by bigger forwards all the time. He'll probably line-up on the second line. Kirk Maltby is the team's best checking winger and works about as hard as anyone. He should continue his role as a penalty killer and slight aggitator. Hopefully he can continue his streak of two straight 30+ point seasons with a third one because any offense from him is an added bonus.

Up the middle, everyone knows Steve Yzerman, the heart and soul of this franchise and future hall-of-famer wants to return at 39 but the contract hasn't been worked out yet. The 75 games and 51 points last year were over what I guessed for the guy but he's been a battler for 21 years now. If the knees hold up, Yzerman brings a great two-way game and some of the best leadership to this Red Wings locker room. He'll probably move to the wing again to save his knees (and strengthen up the right side). But no need to worry about the center depth, the team is more than covered there. Pavel Datsyuk had a fine season with 30 goals and 68 points and he arrived into the public hockey eye with his first All-star game appearance. He's the team's top center right now but he's extremely poor on the face-offs. You'd hope he's ready for the 70 point mark but teams will be watching him. Robert Lang almost toppled his career high in points with 79 (80 was his high but that was in 82 games compared to 79 in only 69) and he'll take over as the second line pivot. He really surprised a lot of people when he was leading the league in points for most of the year seeing his first all-star game. Seeing him come up with Los Angeles and seeing him now, you'd never be able to tell it was the same player. He still plays slightly too soft for his size but his lower and upper body strength is tremendous now and his defensive game is adequete now. Kris Draper is coming off a career offensive year and his first Selke Trophy. The Red Wigns had to open up the pocket book to keep him around but in defense of that move, would the team be better or worse without him up the middle? He will probably never see this sort of offensive streak again but I expect him to fall back into the 30s and hopefully he'll play all 82 games (after he tore his rotar cuff, ending his season).

Also aiming for a spot on the team is Detroit's first pick in the 2004 draft, over-ager Johan Franzen. The 24 year old Franzen still needs a contract and more than likely will find himself in Sweden for next year. He could paly in the NHL right now but some question is there much more ceiling for him or is this what you're going to get? If the CBA thing is resolved in time before the Swedish Elite season starts, I wouldn't be surprised to see Franzen centering the third line in Detroit. Don't expect him to be a goal scorer but he's sound defensively, can set-up his wingers and may even see power-play time. He's also pretty much physically ready and capable of handling NHL forwards and defensemen down low. Could be a nice steal for Detroit. Mark Mowers saw some time with all the injuries in Detroit and played well enough in a fourth line role to be retained with a one-year deal. He has done very well in the minors but don't expect that to translate up in the NHL - at 30, his NHL role still hasn't been defined. Same thing can be said about Eric Manlow, 29. Expect Manlow to be a big part of the AHL's Grand Rapids but he won't hurt the Wings if he has to play a limited role in a call-up - he's an aggitator with a sound two-way game. 20 year old Jiri Hudler started the year off in Detroit but after 12 games, it was obvious he needed a lot more time. He posted 49 points in 57 AHL games and will take a shot at maybe the third line but I'd rather see him stay another year in Grand Rapids working on his defense. Nate Robinson might be one of the AHL's fastest players but at 5-9, he's got a red flag on him. He has versatility on his side but I don't expect him in an NHL line-up full-time soon. Tomas Kopecky continues to slightly drop in the organization and took a step back last year, no thanks to injuries. He'll be a part of the Red Wings when and if they decide to ever rebuild but I don't expect him to see NHL time next year. Eric Himelfarb and Matt Ellis also will fight in camp for look-sees but both are heading to Grand Rapids.

The team really didn't change all that much and there's a couple guys on the Wings that could have even better seasons. They were the league's top team despite a nice rash of injuries so watch out if they're ever healthy - though at some of their ages, that might be too much to ask for. They're still slightly slow up front and weak on the right side, so while they maybe still will finish at the top of the NHL standings again in 2004-05, a quick, speedy team with no fear like Calgary, will have little trouble picking this team apart. And no thanks to Yzerman's facial injury last year knocking him out of the playoffs - that completely deflated the Red Wings. I suspect they'll challenge once again for the President's Trophy but the playoffs might be yet another dissapointment in the Motor City.

1st LINERS - Datsyuk, Shanahan

2nd LINERS - Lang, Zetterberg, Yzerman, Whitney

3rd LINERS - Draper, Holmstrom, McCarty, Williams, Franzen

4th LINERS - Maltby, Mowers, Manlow, Hudler, Bootland, Ellis, Robinson, Kopecky, Himelfarb

1/2 - Lidstrom, Hatcher

3/4 - Fischer, Chelios

5/6 - Kronwall, Dandenault, Woolley

7s - Rivers, Helmer, Lebda

THINGS THE RED WINGS NEED TO DO

1. Increase team speed. They have some jet-burners up front but they're tiny. The overall team speed can make them sitting ducks against some clubs in the playoffs.

2. Stay healthy. Might be too much to ask with some of the ages and some of the styles of play on this club but when healthy, this team looks good

3. If Yzerman decides finally not to come back, get some help for the right side. It really just doesn't look good over there.

4. Bring back Schiender. At this time, they haven't talked too much but he would help the powerplay. Who knows how many games Woolley or Kronwall can play next year.

5. Gear up for the criticism. It's no different than any other year but after two early exits, the media will come down hard on any thing that goes wrong with this team. And they'll come down hard.

So far it's a slow past two days in sports and in life so if there's any major topics or discussions any one wants to bring up, throw them out there. Sports, movies, comics, anything. Just go ahead now. Check out last entry for a couple polls and today's on a final say for Quincy Carter and Ken Griffey Jr being injured....again.

MORE ON QUINCY CARTER

Well it's been a couple days and no one has rushed out to sign Quincy Carter after being cut from the Dallas Cowboys. Not much of a surprise with rosters already full at the moment, but it doesn't seem like anyone even wants to entertain the possibility of him as a back-up. And while the cocaine rumours have yet to be proven, the more and more the signs point to a problem with drugs. However, knowing the leninacy Bill Parcelles has shown in the past to players such as Lawerence Taylor, two things are for sure - Carter has repeatedly done something or some things to irk Parcelles and that Parcelles was waiting for any reason to dispatch the average Carter. He obviously had to be trouble in the past and not someone Parcelles thought could lead the team better than 41 year-old Vinny Testaverde, rookie Drew Henson and relatively unknown Tony Romo.

While Parcelles may have been looking for a reason to dispatch Carter, the player's union and Carter really can have a beef with Parcelles or the Dallas Cowboys. Your contract was terminated on the grounds of you doing illegal substances, maybe more than once. If the allegations are in fact true, I have next to no sympathy for Carter on this case. The CFL's Edmonton Eskimos have taken a move that might allow them rights to Carter but I think if Carter does have a drug problem, he needs to step away from the game for a little bit and get his head on straight. Get clean, get healthy and prove that you're worth the risk picking up for maybe a third string or a back-up job because right now, no one cares if you ever play again or not so its up to you if you want to play football in the future.

GRIFFEY JUNIOR TEARS HAMSTRING

They need to start pinning this story up with the annual "Mario Lemieux is in the best shape of his career" stories that come out around this time (I'm sure you can still find this year's version of the story about him being ready for the World Cup of Hockey.) Ken Griffey Jr. has once again hurt that hamstring of his - is there something different about the air in Cincinnati that makes Junior weaker? Kind of like Superman's affinity with the lemon yellow sun and then kryptonite that takes it away? Wouldn't it be funny if there's someone out there in the crowd with Griffey-nite or a voodoo doll poking around at his hamstring? Who ever it is, point him somewhere different - make his head swell up or a finger bend backwards. Switch it up a bit.

This latest injury will keep Griff on the shelf until next season and it's quite sad. Anyone remember the 'glory days' when it was to be Griffey Jr that was supposed to break Hank Aaron 's record? The kid with the prefect swing who reached 400 in a snap but just now saw himself passing 500 at the age of 34. Oh what could have been. Griffey's still a very good player that's fun to watch so let's hope the surgery helps and he can finally get back to feeling good. You can bet Adam Dunn is pretty much swinging for the fences every at bat - hello homeruns and strikeouts.

 

 

Amazingly, no hockey on today's clipboard. Primiarly it's a football day as we get started towards the season. Todays topics include, Carl Eller's induction speech - was it wrong of him to use that stage for his social commentary?; Is Edgar Martinez a Hall-of-Fame player - he has the numbers, he was dominate but there's the stigma that the DH isn't a real position; Is AJ Smith a moron - tried to avoid a fiasco with Eli but you wind up with one any way with Philip; and finally, today, would you rather draft Joe, John, Dan or Brett coming out of college all things equal?

CARL ELLER AND MORE HALL THOUGHTS

Yesterday I escaped mention of Carl Eller 's indcution speech. To me, it was no big deal and I had no idea his speech caused contraversy until I turned on the radio this morning at 9 am. For all of those who missed it, Carl Eller, the great defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings in the 70s (and the Seatle Seahawks in '79), used his Hall of Fame induction speech to address a social issue - the young black athlete. Use this opportunity that sports have afforded you to get your full education, because there are thousands of young african-american athletes who either don't get to the 'big show' in their respective sport or if they do, they don't stay long enough and are left with little. It kind of goes along two-fold with what I said yesterday - 1. It's just a game and in the end, it doesn't matter. Other things like a good education do. 2. If someone tries to step outside of our little fantasy construct and denies us our viacarious glory, a lot of us will resort to name-calling and fury.

Eller finally made the Hall after five tries on the ballot and there was no way he was going to upstage two sports gods in John Elway and Barry Sanders. In fact, probably most current NFL watchers wouldn't even know who Carl Eller is. It's not like he can get an audience to listen to him at a drop of a hat. If Elway had something to say on a social condition, he could set up an interview with ESPN, CBS, NBC, you name it and he could get on that station to talk about it. This was Eller's one true chance at garnering an audience he could make an impact on. It was a selfless act when he made the speech not about himself but a group of people he is trying to help. It was something he felt strongly about and something he probably went through. He was a lucky one, having a Hall-of-Fame career but so many players don't even get a chance to play one down in the NFL. This speech will always stand out because it wasn't like the other speeches - the cookie-cutter ones you hear all the time. And hey, if he got through to one young athlete out there - then hey, he did his job, he did what he was trying to accomplish and it was all worth-while. It's an amazing thing being able to change or have an impact on another person's life for the better. For any one who thought his selfless speech was inapporiate for the induction, then I don't know what to tell you other than lighten up.

EDGAR MARTINEZ TO RETIRE

Edgar Martinez has decided to hang them up after this season at the age of 41. Can't blame him, he's been bothered by leg injuries and lord knows, it can't be fun playing for an ownership like the Seattle Mariners. Yes, for ownership groups, sports IS a business but you don't come right out and tell your fans and your players that "we're not about winning, we're about making money."  We saw it in the handling of John Olreud, the exodus of many star players (for better or for worse, looking at where Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez wound up)  and the steady decline in "hard-core" Mariner fans over the years. But the big debate is 'should Edgar Martinez be in the Hall-of-Fame?' Well he was probably the league's best hitter for practically all of the 90s and up until the past couple seasons. But on the other hand, around 5,000 of his 7,000-some-odd at-bats have come at designated hitter, and not at a position.

Is Edgar "half" of a player? You can make a good case for it but lest we forget, DH is a recognized position in the American League. You want to use the rule, then you've got to recognize it as a position. He's won two batting titles, once in 1995, the first year he took over exclusively as a DH and one in 1992, when he was playing primarily thrid base, so it's not like he hasn't produced at a high level only when he's not on the field. He's still the best pure DH (if there is such a thing) to ever hit. The only two DHs to come close - Harold Baines and Paul Moliter - both played the field most of their careers before moving to DH leaving Martinez in a class all by himself. It's not like we took away the number Moliter put up as a DH, saying that he can only go into the Hall based on his numbers in the field only. Edgar is one of the greatest hitters I've seen in my days - not every 'good hitter' can hit the ball to all fields like Martinez, nor can they all hit to every field with power. It's an amazing skill and I'll be a proud supporter of Edgar towards the Hall. Will he get it? Probably not on his first try in 2011 and probably never. There's just too much restentment around the media community and the fan community towards the DH. Though I'm sure if you polled the actual players - his peers - the results would be different.

.312. 305 HRs, 1244 RBI, 2205 hits, 510 doubles (and all counting for the last couple of games) and all from a right-handed hitter.

IS AJ SMITH JUST DUMB?

I'm thinking of starting up an 'idiot of the week' feature and AJ Smith, the GM of the San Diego Chargers just might win the first award. Not only has this team really been mostly a joke under Smith's reigns as GM. Once again the Chargers look to be headed towards a deadlast finish in the AFC Westwith the Chiefs as a lock, Denver looking in my mind, capable of grabbing the final playoff spot and the Raiders capable of winning anywhere from 5 to 9 games if all goes well. The Chargers have won 8, 1, 5, 8 and 4 in their last five-seasons and haven't seen the playoffs since 1995. LaDainian Tomlinson just might be the best back in football but it won't be long before the Chargers run him to death now. The receiver corps look crappy (and the vets are coming off injuries) and the offensive line only features one name I'm frimilar with. The defense isn't that bad but it isn't that good either.

It's sad that coming off a 4-12 season, Smith had to 'rebuild' the team by jettisoning away the high placed players but when you haven't seen the playoffs in almost a decade - what exactly are you re-building? It's no wonder before draft day, Eli Manning and his father, Archie Manning, came out and publicly announced they would never play for the Chargers, who held the first overall pick in the draft. Smith, instead of taking monster tackle Robert Gallery or one of the amazing wide-outs in the draft, chose Eli any way. Say what you will about the Mannings' tactics, personally, it was a childish move but that's another story. Later in the day, the Chargers traded Manning to the New York Giants for the fourth overall pick, QB Philip Rivers. Eli got what he wanted and the Chargers avoided a potentially sticky public relations fiasco. Or did they?

Fast-forward to training camp, Eli Manning is in Giants camp going toe-to-toe with "former Super Bowl" QB Kurt Warrner but in sunny California, Rivers is no where to be seen. Now even Rivers doesn't look like he wants to play in San Diego. And let's face it, Rivers can play. He's equiped to be an NFL QB and has the leadership and presence to boot. Sure, he throws the ball rather uhm strange but he can sling it and we forget the most important thing - he wins. But reports out of Chargers camp today said Rivers left the SoCal area on a plane back to his home in Carolina fed up with the Chargers in their contract talks. Smith and agent Jimmy Sexton have failed to reach an agreement for now but Smith had to open his big mouth, calling this the team's final offer. After Sexton and Rivers didn't except the offer, it's completely off the table and that's that. Smith also said that the Chargers offered him a worthy deal on lines of the same deal that Manning recieved as well as the deals that 2nd pick Gallery and 3rd pick Larry Fitzgerald received. Sexton and other sources say otherwise. Smith says, "We believe it is a great offer." Well no shit. When's the last time a GM said it was a crappy offer and we hope they're stupid enough to take it.

Smith went on to say that Rivers is no longer in the team's plans for the season and the offer will only go down from here on out. While you can't just throw money around, you also can't go this public with contract negotiations like he did - grabbing Rivers was a move to avoid bad PR and yet Smith manages to make this situation into yet another fiasco. Thumbs up for AJ Smith on this one. So basically you're going to take a loss of a first round pick this year. The team wound up with a decent draft but without a first round pick in the fold, it looks incredibly weak. And once again LT will be the only weapon in San Diego. Drew Brees is 4-16 in his has 20 starts and while no one can question Brees's head, you have to quince at his horrible arm strength and his overall tools. Brees will have a hard time hitting Kevin Dyson, Tim Dwight and Kassim Osgood down the field and Doug Flutie, don't get me started there. Brees might have the chance of a life-time to ressurect his failing NFL career unless things dramatically change with Rivers. Too bad he just might have only back-up skills.

POLL QUESTION

They were doing this on ESPN Radio this afternoon and I figured it'd be a great place to get some 'reader' feedback and maybe start off the 'buy or sell' type feel I want to bring to some of the column. Anyway, the question is - John Elway, Joe Montana, Brett Farve or Dan Marino - knowing what you know about their careers now, if they were all coming out of college this year to play for a good team but not one with Pro Bowl offensive talent (say the Carolina Panthers) - which do you take and why. There is no wrong answer on his one because they're all amazing QBs but which one would you want right now in the NFL. You can throw in Steve or Fran into the discussion but I'd rather stick to those first four. Leave that in the comments area.

DAVE RITCHIE OUT IN WINNIPEG

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers today fired head coach Dave Ritchie and collectively the people of the world asked - "who cares?" Sadly, the same retort came mid afternoon when the Toronto Blue Jays ousted manager Carlos Tosca. Come on, how can you call the Blue Jays a dissapointment this year? Hello - Boston Red Soxs, New York Yankees and a revamping Baltimore Orioles - where the hell did you expect your club to finish? Ok, you at least expected them to finish ahead of Tampa Bay but it's about time that franchise started to get on some sort of track. The Jays start out of the gates really killed them but was this team going to compete? Any one that saw this team hitting the Wild Card was probably kidding themselves. But let's put my kidding aside, if you  look at this team they really should be up around the Wild Card standings, not holding on to the cellar with 47 wins. Maybe not winning the Wild Card but at least ahead of the Devil Rays. The team does have question marks (Chris Woodward? Gregg Zaun is still around?) but there's a nice core of Carlos Delgado, Eric Hinske and Vernon Wells. Sadly Hinske is hitting just .256 and Delgado is at .227 though he has missed games. Wells also has seen his time time on the DL, only 86 games with 353 at-bats as of right now (hitting .292) and one could only imagine if he had stayed healthy. Or if Roy Halladay hadn't come back down to earth slightly and also landed himself on the DL. Or if they hadn't waited until May 27th to call-up outfielder Alexis Rios, who will garner Rookie of the year votes and may even win. Things went bad quickly for this team out of the gate and it's a shame it cost Tosca his job because of it but some one had to go. Someone had to take the blame for the injuries and the dissapointments. But if the amount of 'press' this story has gotten today is any indication, probably very few people even realized the Jays were in last place.

NFL INDUCTS CLASS OF 2004

I love Hall-of-Fames and HoF inductions. Most people see them as boring speeches and snooze material. To me, its a chance to relive some of the greatest memories these men gave me and everyone else who watched them play or watched the players they influenced play. Because what are sports? It's just a game for christ sakes - in the end, it doesn't matter. Yet us as fans have made a fantasy construct that revovles around sports. Its our release from our sometimes dreary or boring lives. Things may be complicated in our lives but when we tune into a game, or attend a game or even talk about a game, these things matter and everything else is drowned out. Remember in Fight Club, "After fighting, it's like the volume gets turned down on everything." For a lot of us, its our escape or our release from the real world. Honest to God, if the Boston Red Soxs or the Chicago Cubs never win a World Series ever again, how much does it affect the world in the long run? If Ricky Williams quits at the peak of his career, does it matter? "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." The idea of sports in general is somewhat meaningless but it's a multi-billion dollar industry and we have channels solely doveted to sports. Yet it's just a game and if Ricky wants to quit that game, why shouldn't he be able to? We just trash him because he rejected what we've built up as our dream life. It's the life we think we'd like to be living and Ricky just spat it back in our faces so we feel like we should lash out at him but honestly - his quitting football is not our choice and the world will move on. Though in our fantasy world, we have the last say on Ricky's choice because these puppets parade around for us in our minds, we criticize them like our words mean something. Ricky just left before he could hear "our" final say on the subject matter.

But for those who stay in the league and cater to our fancy, live in our fantasy world, they create memories and some we enshrine as gods. We remember "The Drive." We remember John Elway winning his first two Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998 to go out on top as the greatest QB of all-time - or at least that's "our" final say on the subject and that's how we want to remember it as. We remember the moves, the jukes and the beauty of Barry Sanders. He never won the accolades such as a Super Bowl but some of us remember him as the greatest running back of all-time while others say it was Jim Brown or Gale Sayers or Walter Payton. In the end, would it matter who is truly annointed the "greatest running back of all-time" or if Elway had finished his career with only 3 Super Bowl losses, no victories and in a lot of people's memories, a complete joke. But when we see these stars going into the Hall-of-Fame, we remember it the way we want to remember it. All of their great moments are our great moments. Everyone remembers where they were when Joe Carter hit his Game Seven Home-Run for the Blue Jays. Everyone remembers where they were when Mark McGwire hit number 62 and got his giant hug from Sammy Sosa. Edgar Renteria smacking the game seven RBI to win it for the Fish. The Imaculate Reception (for some). The Ice Bowl (for less). The Houston Oilers colaspesing in the playoffs on TV. Steve Smith 's own goal. Wayne Gretzky passing Gordie Howe. "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!" Mark Messier lifting the Cup in 1994. Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk. Michael Jordan - six times over (and we remember each one specifically). The Dream Team (the REAL one, not this year's phony one). Mark Spitz and maybe soon, Michael Phelps. Rulon Gardner upseting Karelin, who hadn't given up a point in 10 years, hadn't lost in 13. Billy Mills (ok I wasn't born yet but we've all seen it.) Greg Louganis - for all he did in sports and for all he did away from sports. Nadia Comaneci.

There's so many more of them but see that there - the memories each of those names conjures up in each one of you. Honestly, there are few better moments for a sports fan than remembering what use to be - all the glory, all the triumph. Sure, there's a lot pain and agony to conjure up - the Broncos did lose three Superbowls with John. The Soxs and Cubs haven't won in anyone's life time but it's the stunning moments that stick with us the best. And that's what makes these Hall of Fame inductions so great. For a couple hours, I got to sit back and remember why I was a huge Bronco fan in the middle to late ninties. I got to remember some of the greatest Sanders runs I saw against the Bears and the Packers. It made me forget all my troubles for a little bit and smile. Did the world stop turning allowing me to go back in time to relive those moments in my mind? Literally? No it didn't but in my fantasy world it did. It's alright to use sports as an escape because we all do it - a whole nation did it (See "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES" above) and hopefully a couple nations will get a long deserved break from reality when the Olympics rolls around here in a couple days. But as long as we know in the end, the sports in our lives and the fantasy world we put around it is just that, then it's alright. Never lose sight of that truth and give Ricky a break, he's happy now and the world hasn't stopped turning from what I can tell - except for those couple of hours this afternoon.

And by the way, congrats to Bobby "Boomer" Brown and Carl Eller for their inductions into the Hall as well. I never got to see you play but I'm sure you were both treats to watch and gave many Eagles and Vikings fans (and to a lesser extent, Rams, Raiders and Seahawk fans - as well as fans all around the league) many memories to live over again.

SALARY CAP BLUES

And I go from pointing out the escapism in sports to dwelling again in the escapism like nothing's wrong. Too bad this won't go down as a fond memory but all-in-all, if the NHL closes down for any period of time - life will go on so let's pretend for a moment like the labour crisis is the Ragnarok and let the horror begin.

First off, let me say - in my optomism I see both sides of the NHLPA and owners debate striking an 11th Hour deal on September 15th to allow the new season to go forth with little hang up. We were all talking about impending doom a couple of years ago when baseball's labour agreement was coming to an end. They made an 11th Hour deal and guess what, it was a shocker and no one in the media knew the two sides were meeting that day to put a stop to the potential danger. I think the same thing could happen here with the NHL. I'm handling things as if there will be a season unhindered in October and I won't be changing my plans until the first week of October.

The whole cheap jokes about there being no next season or the unparalleled pestimism is starting to irk me. But none of this irks me as much as the ignorance that a salary cap will save everything. Don't get me wrong - a salary cap would go a long way in helping the league and to some extent it might be a good thing but to believe that all the league needs is a salary cap and everything will magically be better is like believing if you put a band-aid on a decapitation, everything is going to be alright there.

"But the NBA and NFL have salary caps and they're sucessful." They aren't sucessful because they have a damn salary cap - the NBA and the NFL are sucessful because THEY ARE POPULAR WITH THE MAINSTREAM AMERICAN VIEWING AUDIENCE AND SPORTS FANS. Sorry, I love hockey - "love everything about it" but isn't it time the league officals tend to the league's garden and stop trying to act like it's a major sport in the US. Just because I pretend that the sky is purple doesn't make everyone else believe it. The problem for this league stems from the fact that it's not a major player in the States and instead of trying to actually fix that, the league has tried to tell everyone that it is instead of trying to actually make it one.

"But the NBA and NFL are sucessful! God forbid the NHL mimic anything that's sucessful." I admit the NHL needs to market itself more like the NBA or NASCAR but as for the salary cap - ever hear of the phrase, "what's good for one person, is not always good for another." It may not be an exact quote from any one but something similar has been said before I'm sure and if it hasn't, I'm saying it now. What has a salary cap gotten the NBA? A bunch of inflexible contracts - how the hell does Adonal Foyle grab a five-year deal of $41.6 million that starts at $6.5 for year one with a $10 million sixth year option? Othella Harrington's contact is an eye-sore that will gladly come to an end after this season. NBA teams throw around those maximim contracts like they were nothing. In the NFL, it's gotten players that can be cut on a whim. Job security is next to nothing and its rare to see any loyality to players. It was always something to watch a club build a core, lock up that core and then turn into a dynasty before residing after a couple years to start the cycle over again. Good luck in the NFL keeping a group of guys together for two years, let alone four. It becomes all about cap management and nothing about building for the future.

Granted, because of the economic situation in the NHL, keeping a core together has become increasingly difficult. The Edmonton Oilers would have been winning another set of Stanley Cups if the big-market teams weren't stealing away their talent each time they reach the end of their contract. Teams like St Louis, Colorado, Detroit, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York and Toronto care nothing of building a future and throw their weight around in the free agency pool to achieve their goals. And that's where the problem is. And you're saying "yes, we know" but say we do impose a salary cap and that's all we do for next season. Congratulations - you've made the salary of the Dallas Stars equal to that of the Florida Panthers. Have you solved anything? Are more people in the seats? Are the tickets any more affordable? See, even though you've added a salary cap, all you have done to equal the teams is equal one number - the payroll.

Everyone's going to be sitting right at the same payroll number but there's still a problem - last year NHL clubs saw over 75% of their revenues come from gate reciepts. Ticket sales are everything to NHL clubs. The TV contract with ESPN/ABC last year saw each one of the teams roughly recieve $4 million - good luck, paying your team on that. And with the new TV deal in place being even worse than the previous deal, expect NHL dependency on gates to rise into the 90s. Both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Atlanta Thrashers have a payroll of (say) $41 million but I'm sorry, the Maple Leafs will still (and probably always) be making more money on the precious gate reciepts. The Stars and the Rangers and the Red Wings will still have more money than the other clubs and they can then just focus that money into other areas - like coaching, their facilities, contract bonuses, among other things.

You far from equal the playing field and isn't this what this is all about? Reaching that NFL-type parity? While the shift of power will swing slightly towards the small-market teams, the power will still be resting firmly in the grasp of the big market teams. Now the small markets will be able to steal away a free agent or two that they wouldn't be able to under the current system but the big markets will still get the bigger share of the bigger names - they have more revenue to throw around in bonuses and such. In the end, it doesn't solve the NHL's problems at all. Look at how much of an NFL club's revenue comes from their huge TV contract - it's almost 85% for christ sakes. I don't know how any owner could really be losing money in the NFL. It'd be very hard. But the NHL is never going to get that TV contract unless it markets itself better. True, football is almost like it was invented for TV consumption for everyone from the hardcore fan to the casual fan and hockey fails a lot of times on TV but again, I don't think the league has taken the right avenues to promote itself up there. And it may never get an NFL TV contract but at least it could maybe get one that allows its small-market teams some breathing room on their payrolls - like cutting that gate reciept dependency down past 50%.

A salary cap would do some good as it would to some degree curb the rising salaries and maybe increase the flow of free agnecy going towards the smaller markets but I'm just sick of people saying the league needs to place a salary cap on the teams and everything will be magically better. It's not going to get the ticket prices to go down all that much - if any. It's not going to help the NHL at the gates and the shift of power won't dramatically swing in the favor of small markets. The owners may clamour for a cap for cost certainity but as I mentioned yesterday, isn't self-control self-practiced? You don't have the money in your piggy bank to make the deal, don't make it. Of course, GMs feel the pressure of 'win-now' from the fans and the owners causing them to spend money on established free agents but that's for another column. Right now, just know that no matter how much a salary cap would help, it's far from the final solution that every one makes it out to be. The two sides in this labour disagreement have other issues that need to be ironed out as well and if they don't address those issues, no sort of salary cap is going to save this league from finanical crisis in the future.

HAROLD AND KUMAR

"You all don't know what its like, being male, middle-class and white" from Rockin the Suburbs. I don't know what the hell presecution is honestly but make a movie about a pair of stoner Asian kids and well, by God I've got to see that. It's been on my "List" of movies for a couple months now. Let me tell you when I say my "List" of movies, that means all the movies I have my self hyped up about more than four months in advance - and if you know anything about hype, it usually works out in no one's favor. And it doesn't help when all the reviews that going full-tilt on how much comic genius is in it and the whole "it works against cliches by using the cliches" or whatever crap. It wasn't Tony Mandrich hype. It wasn't Ryan Leaf hype. Hell it wasn't even hype worthy enough of THE BOZ but I had this one hyped and it was cute. Funny cute but still not funny enough that I don't mind paying a full $7.50 for - make that $15 for two. Though I didn't feel so bad - went to the matinee show. And now that I took my girlfriend to that, there is like a full list of movies I still owe her - at this rate, I doubt I'll get around to the Bourne Supremcy until about the time the third Bourne movie comes around. And Collataral - furgitabowit. I could tolerate 13 Going on 30 because it dealt with something I was a bit firimilar with - at one point in my life, I wanted to be older and cooler and now that I am that and I see sometimes the way I've treated people or the mistakes I've made, I want to go back to being a kid. Too bad the movie has been done before but next on her list is Little Black Book. Maybe I'm just not hip but I've never had a Black Book of any sort. Then again, neither have I wanted to bone Ron Livingston and gone through his black book to find out why his ex-s dumped him. So I doubt I'll be connecting with that movie - then again, I've never been pushed around because I was an Asian stoner just trying to get some of the good stuff...and White Castle is the good stuff. Hey, Assholes - I don't want another fucking Applebees or Outback Steakhouse - I want a Goddamn White Castle within two hours of this town.

POLITICKING

As many of you know, I don't talk politics. Never. I always get this shameful feeling like I should be informed of this stuff and that I should know what's going on and I'll study up here and there but that's as far as I bring it out of the closet. I don't talk it but I sure as hell don't want some fat fuck like Michael Moore telling me how to think. If I want a fat fuck selling me a movie ticket, make mine Kevin Smith (but keep him away from a monthly comic.) What's my stance on abortion? I don't know - I'll let you know when I have one. Gun control? Phft, you ain't getting rid of them all. I don't own one and I really don't plan on owning one unless I move to the North side of town or friggin Newark or something. I live in the mid-west version of the suburbs. Steroids and athletes? Why the hell is this on our congress floor?

So honestly, this is about as political as I'm going to get on this thing but there's a couple things in the Op-Ed this week that have been really irking me. I read the Op-Ed a lot just for kicks and just because our newspaper took out Ziggy so I don't have as much to read as before. The city is going to be shutting down the teen hangout Club 10 because the area isn't properly zoned to be a teen hangout. Some of the neighbors complained about beer cans thrown over the fence - oh my GOD - it must mean underage drinking. Once they're out the doors, I didn't realize the owner was supposed to follow them all the way home. Plus, the place houses a local wrestling fed every month that sponsers BYOB - ever thought we of legal age were the ones dumping the cans? And what neighbors? The thing is in the middle of a corn field with some sort of warehouse looking thing and then another empty lot. And if the kids were drinking, so what? Let them ruin their lives - not all kids are bad. Some of them do want to go and have fun, dance and listen to music on the weekends. Their lives aren't "really" hectic from our standpoint but man, to them, their lives during the week with school and sports and extra activities is full to the gills with stress. They just want to get rid of it by going dancing for two or three hours to some local punk band. The majority of kids can and do have fun without alcohol - and I'm sure Mike's going "WHAT?!" I only had one drink before I was 21 and that was over in Europe when it was legal so yeah, you can.

There will always be a couple bad eggs in every group. But instead of dealing with a problem that in all reality, you can't deal with, the city is going to blame zoning and take away yet another teen hangout from this city. There have been so many teen hangouts that have come and gone in my 21 years living in this town, it always seems like the city doesn't want kids to have a place to go and blow off steam and enjoy BEING a kid. Hmm, might that be why some of them are trying to get their kicks by drinking? The city of Springfield needs to give the kids of this town a place to go and hangout - we're the friggin capitol of the state for christ sakes - the fifth largest city in the state - yet we're as backwater and boring as oh Springfield, Missouri out in the middle of bum-fuck-no-where in that state. Boring as the middle of Siberia. Shit, when we were growing up, the only thing we could do was uhm - that's right nothing. Then we turned 18 and we could go play pool for a couple hours and then go play frisbee or something in the Meijer parking lot or go run around Super Wal-Mart until we got bored and left - never had money to buy shit. We always bitched that if you weren't 21, there was nothing to do in this town. Hell, now that I'm 21 - there's still nothing to do in this town if you don't like to drink and well other than Smirnoff and a couple select things, I don't. Nor do I find drinking so hot now that I know my girlfriend's father is a alkie piece of shit. He gets the fucking shakes if he doesn't drink - remember Nic Cage in Leaving Los Vegas - think that.

Here's a solution - give them the zoning permit to keep open the karate club, the teen hangout, the wrestling events and everything else that goes on at that place. But the city won't do that because some kids are going to drink a beer or two. You're just forcing more kids to hangout at the Ace Hardware parking lot or the abandoned Chi-Chi's parking lot "thumping" their pathetic systems while they drink whatever they took out of their parent's stash. Remember that 'skatepark' and sports complex we were supposed to have built over by Knights (non)Action Park? What the hell ever happened to that? They were planning that before I was in High School and that would have gone a long way in solving the problem but guess that will never get off the ground. Sorry kids of Springfield but there's never going to be anything to do in this town while the leaders around here suck.

Funny thing is, all three 'issues' revolve around booze. The second one has something to do with a big 'fight' that occured downtown at 3 am once the bars closed down. A few people got hurt because they were disorderly so the paper suggested taking away all of the 3 am licenses. They've really stepped up the amount of the 3 am licenses they've handed out over the past couple of years. I really had no idea the night life in the town had actually started to get pretty good but gee, if you get rid of 3am bars, you're just going to see your fights start at 1 am. Don't punish the bar owners from their extra two hours of business or the bartenders from their extra two hours of tips. I hate the bartenders around here because if you don't have boobs, good luck getting your drink within an hour but regardless, I don't see why we should punish them for some unruly morons. The fight didn't happen in a bar and I'm sure each owner of each bar is very responsible and if the slight bit of trouble pops up, they handle it very effiecently. A fight like that can happen anywhere - it doesn't have to be a bar's fault. As someone else said, if this had happened in a 24 hour grocery store, would the city leaders be rabbling to revoke all 24 hour privileges from grocery stores? It's legal to consume alcohol and you sure as hell don't have to do it in a bar - hell, I'd prefer not to go anywhere near a bar (again, I don't have boobs so good luck getting service). Much like the situation above, there will always be bad eggs in every group but no one sees that - they just see an easy scape goat in a teen hangout or a bar and they go straight at it and forget about any details.

Third issue - people are pissed at our mayor because he and a state senator want to do away with the licqour laws on the Sabbath day. In all logic, what is the point of stopping beer sales from 11:45 pm Saturday until noon Sunday really do? But everyone is pissed at mayor Tom Davilin for saying its an inconvience - trying to make the guy out as a raging alcohol who wants to tear that little gate (the same kind of gate that keeps your toddlers from crawling into the kitchen) that goes up around the booze on Saturday night. Whatever. I've met our mayor a couple times, I like the guy - sure it's probably just all a show because it's public but I like the guy, so it first irks me that people do attack him like that. But honestly, not all of us practice the sabbath. Some of us want to run down to the friggin store before kickoff and buy something to watch the game with I'm sure - hell, once football season starts, I think that's going to be my plan. But how dare I tear at the sabbath and self-control? Fuck you guys. Isn't self-control supposed to be self-practiced? You don't want to buy beer on the Sabbath - then YOU don't buy beer on the Sabbath. I believe in God - I don't have to believe in the crap you people spew out of your mouths. And there's a lot of people out there that really don't give a crap what you spew either.

And that's the last time I EVER deal with anything to do with government at any level - I apologize for the sudden veer.

HULL SIGNS WITH THE DESERT DAWGS

So much for believing Brett Hull would wait until late into the off-season before signing that deal. Looks like neither Pittsburgh, St Louis or Dallas were willing to spring for that second year on the contract. And after all, for Hull, that second thing was all that mattered on the contract. Stanley Cup? Phft, this guy went from the "guy you couldn't win one with" to three finals appearances in four years, coming away with two titles. Hart Trophy for league MVP? Been there. All-star galas? Done that. Hall-of-fame? Already there once he quits. Olympic Silver Medal? Ok,  he doesn't have Gold but big deal. It was never about the chance for one more championship or a team who had a great shot at the finals and it wasn't about the cash - he did those trips when he went to Dallas and Detroit.

No, Hull - who will be 40 on Monday, went with the Phoenix Coyotes because they were the only team to give him a second year on the deal. Why does Hull want it? 800 career goals. He's within striking distance of joing Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky as the only men to reach that plateau. 741 and counting. If he reaches the mark, expect Phoenix to party and expect St Louis and Pittsburgh to be kicking themselves for not being in on the marketing plan. Will he help the Coyotes? Yes, he is one of those few players that can completely change the direction of game in a single second with that lasering shot. He's a top-line player even at this peak of age and he's still capable of hitting the 30 goal mark. He's always overlooked every year in fantasy hockey - oh Brett Hull, he's too old. 25 goals and 68 points - put that in your pipe and smoke it (sorry, I just felt like saying that, Lord I apologize.) He doesn't produce PIMs but I garuentee you, every year at the fantasy draft table, people will forget about him and you can get him dirt cheap and you know what he's good for.

Though the Tony Amonte deal was supposed to help this franchise over the next hump and that worked out so well - sarcasm. Even that trade turned into nothing for the Coyotes. It'll hopefully work out better with Hull because there's no pressure this time around. He's a marketing tool for the Coyotes and in turn, he's using the Coyotes to acheive his place in history - though some would call it padding his stats. I can't believe there were actual Stanley Cup dreams when that team brought in Amonte. But this team is a lot better and wiser than the team that 'stole' Amonte from the free agency market so anything can happen - but probably not with that goaltending. As long as Phoenix is pushing out money (as they are close to coaxing back Teppo Numminen despite his unceramoanist exit last off-season) how about giving Chris Osgood a chance?

MADDUX GRABS 300 WINS

Congrats to Greg Maddux for winning game number 300. I've been critical of the Nomar Garciaparra move but so far the Cubs have been winning and winning and people have told me to shut my "fucking" mouth. Look, I love both the Cubs and the Cards, I toe the line every day of my life. I'm right in the middle of both Cubs and Cards country. Hell, I-55 runs only a couple miles from my house - both teams are religions around here - geographically smack dab in the middle almost. The criticism of Nomar weren't to be a dig against the Cubs, I just was questioning his full impact. And it's lifting them now and hopefully they can channel that into the wild card spot but at the time of the trade, I didn't really think it was all they needed. And still, it might not be - as I said - there's a reason we play the games. But man, the hate. Not only do I try to support both religions around here, I've been a closet Padre fan for years. Well that's out of the closet because I've mentioned it before. So I guess I'm a "traitor" twice over. I wish all three could be in the playoffs but I don't think that's going to happen.

Still 300 for Maddux, a great feat. It still amazes me how many years you have to preform at top peak all-star level just to reach 300 wins or 3000 hits. Larry Walker has been around for what seems ever and he just past 2000 hits. Granted he's been hurt a lot in his career but man, to pass 3000 hits, not only do you have to preform at an all-star level many years, you also have to preform at that level and not get hurt - at all. 3000 has always been a nice feat that I've respected. I saw (on TV at least) Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. (I'm sure I've seen others, I just can't recall them at the moment) all get their 3000 hits but when I saw Walker just now getting to 2000 hits, it really bonked me on the head on how hard it is to get to that number. And then you look at how many hits Pete Rose collected in his career and it's just that more mind-boggling. Look at how many wins Cy Young has - go ahead and look it up - there is a reason he has an award named after him. With today's game, no one's ever going to touch that if it took this long for Maddux and Roger Clemens to get up there. Love them or hate them, give it to Maddux and Clemens because they deserve the praise.

WTA FINALS IN MONTREAL

Anastasia Myskina fell to unseeded Elan Likhovtseva (who I always thought was strictly a doubles player) in Montreal. Likhovtseva will meet 2002 Rogrs Cup champ Amelie Mauresmo in the final as she smacked around Vera Zvonareva. Now this is one of the reason why the WTA is better than the Men's ATP - you really do have a lot of stars like Myskina and Mauresmo (note that they aren't Maria Sharapova or one of the Williams sisters) and then you have unknown vets like Likhovtseva who can battle it out with the best of them for the titles. Seems like every time you turn around on the ATP, it's either Andy Roddick or Roger Federer winning. At least Andre Agassi gave us a surprise in Cincinatti by dispatching Roddick and will now meet my whiping boy Lleyton Hewitt in the Finals. And as we all know, Federer was upset in the first round by his former doubles partner. I guess Roddick and Federer don't win everything but it seems that way. 27 Aces by Roddick over Agassi - and Agassi still won. I can't wait until Roddick's full-game comes around to go with that serve because its going to be scary. Hewitt reaches his first Masters final since 2003 at Indian Wells and he crushed Tommy Robredo in striaght sets 6-3, 6-2 in a match that only lasted 54 minutes. I caught a little bit of it on TV and I was impressed. I give Hewitt a hard time a lot but he's got a nice record and a win here over Agassi would do him wonders in hopefully qualifing for the Masters Cup, a feat he failed to do last year after winning back to back Cups in 2001 and 2002. Maybe I expect too much out of Hewitt (see the Harold and Kumar semi-review for my problems with hype) - I've always expected too much out of Hewitt and I hope he wins the Masters Cup this year, maybe then I'll shut up.

Also another reason WTA beats the men - well Myskina, Sharapova, Likhovtseva, Mauresmo, ect all are better to look at than Agassi's bald head. Mmmm Alicia Molik.

MORE LAST COMIC

Wow, I wound up with only one of the final three right. Tammy Pescatelli and Jay London both were bounced in favor of Gary Gulman and John Heffron and they'll be joined by Alonzo Bodden. Kathleen Madigan had a very strong set tonight, too bad it didn't count towards anything. If anything, the two heavy hitters in Alonzo and Jay had the more medicore sets. Right now I'd say Alonzo has the edge and I know Amanda's going for John - so watch for Gary Gulman to walk away with it all.

CALGARY FLAMES ADD WIEMER

Jason Wiemer is rejoining the Calgary Flames after spending 1998-2001 with the club before stops in Florida, Long Island and then Minnesota. Wiemer cites the playoff attitude of the city as his reason for coming back and he'll be welcomed back with open arms. Bryon Ritchie was signed for the Flames as a stop-gap on the fourth line and now it looks like the slow-footed but hard working Ritchie will find himself centering a checking line in Lowell next season as Wiemer will move in prefectly into a checking role on the third or fourth line in Calgary taking away from Ritchie's chances of making the squad. Too bad Wiemer is never going to do what he did for the Portland Winterhawks - 45 goals, 51 assists for 96 points in 72 games to go along with 236 PIMs. Just count on him for 6-10 goals, about 20+ points and 100+ PIMs while providing fire, drive and leadership.

Matt Cullen decided to sign a one-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. Cullen was one of the first cuts made by new Florida GM Mike Keenan and it came as no surprise, Keenan is far from a supporter of Cullen. What bugs me is Cullen showed up to camp probably in the best shape of his life with 15-20 pounds of extra muscle. He looked like he worked hard over the off-season and yet you know there's no 'second chance' once you get firmly entrenched in Keenan's dog house. He suffered through confidence problems and a groin strain that kept him on the IR for 23 games and finished up with only 19 points. Cullen's point totals were on the rise every season since his sophomore year and then BAM - Keenan. Granted he only saw 56 games but Cullen only misses a small amount of games each year. This was his first season where he ran into a 'major' injury problem and I'm going to say playing in Florida probably wasn't fun for him. Here's to getting back on the right track for Cullen and a more 'player-friendly' coach such as Peter Laviolette should help. He's a creative guy but not a flair goal scorer so expect for him to be teamed up with a winger with some decent hands but maybe not top line material - say Radim Vrbata. He doesn't fit my needs outlined in my Carolina preview but he might be able to allow Jozef Vasicek to move to the left wing. It would be good if he came back with a 50 point season (it was the next step up before being deal to Florida for Sandis Ozolinsh) and established himself as Carolina's second line pivot but I'm not sure he has the goal scoring potential to do so - a boune back to the 40 point range will be good enough for now.  

Craig Johnson signed with Hamburg of the DEL for next season.

USA SURVIVES GERMANY

I can't take credit for it but it needs to be said - "Allen Iverson and the USA team calling being embarassed by the Italians "preperation" for winning the Gold is like your son coming home with an F on his report card in math, "preperation" for the Nobel Prize in mathmatics."  If you still buy the prep theory, you're die-hard. I know Germany didn't even qualify for Athens and this is exhibition - then why was it such a challenge. This team still refuses to play like a team. The defense was improved but isn't it kind of pathetic to see our young squad of just-out-of-high- school millionaries celebrating their slim survival over the Germans like they just won the Gold? I'm thinking in four years, who ever puts together that team might want to put together a team that's going to play well together and is use to playing with each other rather than taking big-name star who will accept an invite. Again it proves that the Europeans have has trounced when it comes with learning the fundamentals. We got so obessed with the flash and the dash, we forget the stuff that actually wins games. We can't win games by intimidation like we could back when the first Dream Team suited up to go to Spain. But at least that team had players that knew how to win - Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Cylde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin - and well you can't be prefect - Christian Laettner fresh out of Duke. The bench on that team is friggin amazing and while no collection of today's NBA talent will come close to that team ever again, there's little excuse in not putting together a team capable of winning and buying into Larry Brown 's style of play. Lord knows Iverson won't - he's had to before and we know how that worked out. And he's the co-captain and obviously "leading by example" for youngsters LeBron James and Amare Stoudamire. If you're not just going to run the floor with talent like the 1992 Team did (and you're not with seven players turning down invites) then again - why did you not build a team capable of winning this thing with a little elbow grease, bump and grind style? And pick your captains better - Iverson calls the Italy game a wake up call on how hard it will be to win the Gold this year and he called it a lesson - shouldn't you be learning these lessons in practice and save us the headache of watching you play sluggish basketball - wait, I forgot - Iverson is too good for practice. Maybe the Sixers would be better off without Iverson.

And on a un-related NBA note, Good going Isiah Thomas - all you've done is completely confused the hell out of everyone out there. I thought you were going to make the Knicks better, not worse?

QUINCY CARTER OUT

Let's just say - I like Quincy Carter. I don't like Jerry Jones and sometimes Bill Parcelles is hard to live with but they know their football and for them just pull a 180 on Carter like that, he must have given them good reason. Just a couple days ago they had annointed Carter the starter again and he did a fair job last season and will only get better, he's got ceiling but the floor just fell out. I'm not going to buy into the whole 'cocaine' rumour until there's proof but then again, one of my bosses was on crack for a couple months doing it right in the store and I had no clue. But shame on fox sports for springing such allegations on him without any solid proof - what do you expect from a second rate news source? If they can prove it, I'll digress but so far it doesn't look so.

The Dallas Stars season just didn't finish quite the way anyone in Big D had planned. They may have lost the Pacific Division crown to the San Jose Sharks but the Stars looked to be alright heading into the playoffs and their first round opponents, the Colorado Avalanche were almost limping into the playoffs. Goaltender Marty Turco, who found himself suspended four games down the stretch, didn't look all that great but no thanks to the defense in front of him as the Stars fell in the first round to the Avalanche. Don't be surprised if the doubters come out on Turco next season because even I'm starting to wonder. He played in 73 games last season and I just believe he got tuckered out late. The suspension gave him a bit of rest (instead of playing 77 games) but maybe just not enough of one. But can you blame coach Dave Tippet - Turco posted a 1.98 GAA in those 73 games - but only 37 wins to go along with 13 ties? The Stars just didn't score enough if their goalie is holding teams to around two goals for the whole season. 37 wins is still impressive for a goalie though and Turco does have all the physical tools to be a top line goalie. But don't expect for him to get a rest any time soon - the Stars are going to lack an NHL-calibre back-up unless they make a move. Back-up Ron Tugnutt will most likely be handing in his retirement papers and Jason Bacashihua started camp as the team's number three guy, in less than a year he fell to number five and was dealt to the St Louis Blues. The back-up job will most likely be between former Nebraska-Omaha stand-out Dan Ellis or the younger Mike Smith. It will be up for grabs but Ellis probably has the inside track at the moment, Ellis is after all older and has college expierence but he did play behind a horrible Nebraska-Omaha defense (who would have though NO was a college power house, raise your hand so I can hit you) and he does have some left over bad habits from his college days. He still keeps the puck in front of him and tries to let it him instead of trying to make an amazing save, so he should be alright. Smith might never be a starter but he could surprise - he's nice and big (just needs more weight) and he rarely lets in a weak goal, which can save his team a lot of trouble. He's not very flexible though so some of the more pesky NHL talents might be able to pick him apart. He'll gain a lot just by starting most of the games in the AHL, where ever Dallas assigns him (Houston or Hamilton).

Even if they find a way to preserve Turco for the playoffs, will it even matter on defense? The Stars were obviously hurt by missing the presence of Darian Hatcher, who left to go to the Red Wings in a big money deal last off-season. While the move really didn't work out for Detroit, Dallas knew how to utilize Hatcher and he wasn't expected to do more than he could - the expectations give to Hatcher in Detroit were unreal althought they did fit the contract. For the second straight year the Stars lose their top defensive dman, this time in Richard Matvichuk going to New Jersey. Throw in the fact that Darryl Sydor was dealt for Teppo Numminen, who might not even be back next season and the defense has taken a couple huge hits. Numminen missed the playoffs with a heart condition and at the time of this article, it looked like he was going to be alright and rumours had him talking about a return to Phoenix. Funny because when he was traded, it seemed like most people in Phoenix and the orginazation basically told Teppo to not let the door hit him on the ass on the way out. The Stars were also interested in bringing back deadline acquistion Chris Therien but for a discounted price. Other hits to the blue line include: Lubomir Sekeras (Nurnberg DEL), Mark Wotton (St Petersburg RSL) and Jeff MacMillan (New York Rangers). Minor leaguer Andy Berenzweig is also not expected to return.

But at least Sergei Zubov is returning, although for a cool $6 million at the age of 34. He's still a top pairing guy and one of the better point men as the 35 assists in 77 games attests but can he pull top minutes by himself now? Maybe it might be a good idea to bring back Numminen because Zubov playing a lot of minutes is just going to give Turco a headache. Philippe Boucher is the number two man by default right now. I've always loved Boucher but at 31, he still battles with himself and consistency problems. His shot from the point has always been his main feature but he's built a defensive game around the shot too. Jon Klemm is still a good second pairing guy but you've got to wonder, same as Zubov, if at 34 it's time he starts dropping off a bit. He's one of the hardest workers in the NHL and he'll do anything to win - no shock that he was part of two Cup winning teams in Colorado. I felt Don Sweeney was going to retire instead of playing another year as a 6th or 7th dman in Dallas but he's re-signed for another run looking for his first Stanley Cup after all those years in Boston. He may be the grandpa on this already senior defense but he rarely is going to be beaten. He's fallen off a bit but still will be useful for the Stars as a spare. John Erskine, like most of the "kids" on the Dallas blueline hasn't quite panned out the way the Stars wanted to but he'll be back and should finally win a spot full-time. He's a physical guy and he likes to keep it simple but like a lot of big guys on the blueline, he's just not a very good skater and will find himself being beat wide if he has to move too much.

The sixth defensive spot could go to 20 year old pip-squeak Trevor Daley. The Stars love him and believe he could be a top four defenseman for them this year. He saw 27 games for them last year so technically, he's not a rookie but he's still very young and at 5-9 will have to play pretty darn smart to hold down minutes as the number four dman. You'll never meet a nicer guy I'm told from a friend who watched him four years in Sault Ste. Marie and he could be a 30 point guy in the NHL. He's very atheletic and offensively gifted. And while Daley won't be joined by him for another couple of seasons, the Stars do have 19 year old Shawn Belle waiting in the wings. Acquired from St Louis in the Bacashihua trade, some of the St Louis scouts called Belle "the most athleticly gifted prospect they have ever seen." Yet for some reason Larry Pleau trades away Belle for something the Blues didn't need, stating that he thought the Blues prospects on defense were adequet. Chaulk one up for Doug Armstrong because he just flat out fleeced the Blues.

If the Stars lure Numminen or Theiren back to the fold, Sweeney would be the seventh dman most likely. But if the Stars stay put, three year AHL vet Dan Jancevski is the most likely canididate for the job. Actually he's the only canididate as most of the Stars orginazational depth from the blue line currently sits in the US Collegiete level. I'd expect them to sign one or two minor leaguers for depth if they don't add another NHL name.

Overall, the team should look primarily the same as it did last year up front. Late-season addition Valeri Bure wasn't qualified as expected and the team has cut ties to the very dissapointing Barret Heisten. Fringe goal scorer David Oliver, gritty Shayne Corson and the overpaid lump Scott Young all aren't expected to return. Jarrod Skalde (Tampa Bay) and Gavin Morgan (Montreal) also depart and minor league depth like Justin Cox, Brett Draney (famous because of the Guerin incident) and Blake Sloan also won't be returning. The Stars also decided to cut my main man Michael Sgroi from their roster. Sgroi's best hope is that that 'Hockey Fights' PPV actually happens.

The Stars still boast top liners Mike Modano and Bill Guerin. Modano caught a lot of flack for having an 'off-year' last season and making the all-star team on votes. 14 goals, 30 assists and a -21 was a painful season after scoring pretty much over 77 every year since the lock-out season. Plus he's only posted two minus seasons since moving to Dallas and this one was worse than those two combined. For one of the more defensively responsible franchise pivots in the NHL, that is a bit unacceptable. I'm not goign to strip him of his captaincy yet but he does have more things on his mind now because of it. Let's see how he handles the start of this season. Guerin was rumoured to be headed out earlier this offseason but the 45 day window closed and he isn't moving - not that we ever felt that he was going to. He's such a great player and 34 goals, 35 assists, 109 PIMs and +14 is what I call a pretty good year. A single assist in the first round exit wasn't anything to write home about though.

Jere Lehtinen only played in 58 games last year and I don't have the numbers but I assume the Stars play worse with out this guy in the line-up. Ever notice that if someone's struggling, Tippet will almost always put them with Lehtinen and usually it works. Pretty much every year you'll see his name on the Selke Trophy voting ballot and seeing as he can play either wing effectively, he can go with practically anyone on the team on any line. Joining Lehtinen as second line forwars are centers Jason Arnott, Pierre Turgeon and power forward Brenden Morrow. The expectations on Arnott have always been slightly too high but he did put up a 57 point season last year and usually averages around the high 40s in points. The lock-out year he posted 37 points (his sophomore season after scoring his career high 68) and in 97-98 he put up only 33 in an atrious season that saw him dealt to New Jersey. I hate to see him called a bust - ok he wasn't a top line center like we thought when Edmonton took him with the seventh overall selection but being a second line center in this league is far from being a bust. He's also a lot better defensively than he use to be (thanks to his time in New Jersey) and he does help his teamates out. Just leaves Arnott alone. Turgeon might be considered a free agent bust, the fomer first overall pick of 1987 just hasn't been worth the big money deal ($7.5 million a year) the Stars signed to get him away from St Louis. 47, 42, 40 have been his point totals after an 82 point contract year in St Louis. Granted the Stars have pretty much given him nothing but third line minutes since he came here and its their fault for giving him that contract (along with former Blue and linemate Scott Young) but he hasn't produced when they've given him the chance to. He's still a pretty good playmaker with decent goal scoring ability and I think he's a bit underrated when it comes to deflecting the puck but he just needs to get out of Dallas. Morrow is never really mentioned but he already has three 20 goal seasons in five years and three forty point seasons. I called that he'd have a 50 and he was dropped short at 49 in 81 games but he did add in 121 PIMs. He's only 25 until a little after the new year and should have enough ceiling to break over 50 or maybe more. 20-25 goals is probably what to expect from him year in and year out but a 30 goal season isn't out of the question as he has no problem paying to get the the goal. I know at least one of my readers dislikes Morrow but I think he's going up.

Niko Kapanen certainly has the talent to be a second line forward, he's small but still goes to the corners and has above average play making ability. Put him on the second line and sure he can put up low level second line numbers but his defensive abilities allow the Stars to use him in a checking role or on the fourth line - not too good for his numbers. His play making is good but his goal scoring could use some polish but at 26, he'll most likely continue with the lower line defensive roles for the Stars. Stu Barnes has settled into a role player model for the Stars, able to play practically any where and on any line, center, left wing, right wing. He's always had one of the better work ethics in the league and Tippet doesn't have to worry about him making a mistake or being told what to do. His offense isn't what it use to be - mostly because of his size but he should be good for 30 points. The 65 point season he had in 97-98 for Pittsburgh is more the exception than the rule. Speaking of role players, they don't get much more 'role' than Rob DiMaio, who has been one of the most important Stars the past three years since they signed him away from Carolina. You know those little dogs that don't know they're little and are always trying to fight the bigger dogs - that's DiMaio, he pisses people off just the same. But this dog can also work the penalty kill and play a defensive role. But he might not even be the most agitating player on the team - that goes to Steve Ott - Dallas's "play-off" hero that kept them from getting swept. He's a mucker through and through but his style of play will probably shorten his career a lot. Aaron Downey will try to hold down the enforcer role, however, his skills are so poor, the Stars can't even dress him in most games. He was also bothered by a hip flexor last season so the Stars may look to replace him. Jaroslav Svoboda, acquired draft day from the Hurricanes, will attempt to try and plug himself on one of the scoring lines. He can play either wing but at 24, he's still a largely unknown quantity. He's a decent play maker from the flanks but we're looking at a 14 point career high and he's really yet to stay healthy or show us anything at the NHL level. He won't neccesarily hurt the Stars defensively and he may have to start modeling his career as a defensive shutdown forward because his offensive tools aren't going to be enough it looks like.

With a couple forward spots left available, Antti Miettinen and Mathias Tjarnqvist will attempt to make the Stars again as they did out of camp last year. Miettinen's only 24 but may be the next Lehtinen - just smaller and more a pansy. He's a very cereberal defensive forward and should sit on Dallas's third line very soon. Tjarnqvist is another two-way forward in the Stars system but might be slightly worse than Miettinen talent wise.

If the Stars feel they need more offense (and yeah, I think they do) 19 year old Marius Holtet will be over from Norway this year. He needs a couple years in the AHL but he's one of the few Stars propsects with offensive upside and goal scoring ability. Hobey Baker award winner Junior Lessard might push to make the right side but he might need another year to make the squad. Jussi Jokinen has goal scoring ability but he's still a few years off, working his trade in Finland. Basically, the Stars right now don't have much depth to look towards for their goal scoring and without that goal scoring, I can't see this team as a Stanley Cup favorite anymore - not without that strong defense they once had. Turco will again be pushed way too hard with no viable back-up. He'll most likely have another stellar season even with an average defense in front of him but he's going to break down towards the end of the year again. Could he be the first goalie to play in all 82 games? I really thought it was going to happen last year. We'll wait and see. They'll probably make the playoffs easily but I don't see them being a home seed at this moment. Phoenix has gotten better, Anaheim could rebound easily, they've made no ground on San Jose and Los Angeles is retooling. It won't be easy.

1st LINE - Modano, Guerin

2nd LINE - Lehtinen, Arnott, Morrow, Turgeon

3rd LINE - Barnes, Kapanen, Miettinen, DiMaio, Ott, Svoboda

4th LINE - Tjarnqvist, Lessard, Downey, Holtet, Siklenka

1/2 - Zubov

3/4 - Boucher, Klemm

5/6 - Sweeney, Daley, Erskine

7s - Belle, Jancevski

Morrow-Modano-Guerin

Arnott-Turgeon-Lehtinen

Miettinen-Kapanen-Barnes

Ott-DiMaio-Svoboda

Zubov-Boucher

Daley-Klemm

Erskine-Sweeney

Turco-Ellis

THINGS THE STARS NEED TO DO IN THE OFFSEASON

1. Add more scoring wingers. You've been drafting role players with your late first round picks for so long, you're lacking goal scoring now

2. Marty Turco needs a rest every now and then - get him a back-up.

3. Add an NHL calibre defenseman. Please? A second pairing guy would be good and two defensemen would be great.

4. Add a real enforcer. Ott and DiMaio can't do all the fighting and Downey can't cut it in the NHL.

5. Don't spend money on stupid shit you don't need. Like 7.5 million for a center for your third line or 8 million on a third line winger who had a couple flukey years. 

 

First, I'd like to thank everyone that helped me out or commented either on AIM or on the message boards or through email - trying to help me through my 'crisis' - I really don't know what else to call it. If you missed it, then you can read up about it here. It's nothing that has an easy answer but I'm still searching for someone else who's gone through the same thing. I can't be alone on this one.

Second, I guess I'm going to stop doing the season previews right now. They're long and most people don't really read them or even comment. I'll give my opinions on any team you want - just ask. I'm always happy to talk the sport - as you may be able to tell seeing as I can ramble off an entire post on the Columbus Bluejackets that is longer than most people's entire BLOG career all together. I may pick up again once I'm bored but with less material.

Thirdly, I've been thinking about doing a little 'over/under' or "fact or fiction" type thing on here. I just want to know if people are in fact reading and try and get some people involved. If you're not a sports fan (then I don't know why you'd even know this blog exists) - 'over/under' is really just a little sports related question throw up that I've got to answer whether I agree with it or not and explain why. Then other people can sound off in the comments section or toss up other questions. I explained that like crap but who cares.

Well let's get on with it now.

ITALY TEAM SHOCKS TEAM USA

I don't know crap about the Italian league but something tells me that a team loaded up with NBAers and soon-to-be-NBAer Emeka Okafer should never be blown out by a team filled of players entirely from the Italian league. 95-78 is an embarassment and I think our guys (well if you're American) know it. To the Italians credit, they shot the ball very well and weren't intemidating like teams use to be of the "Dream Team." Sorry but this is far from a Dream Team. Tim Duncan may care but I'm not so sure that players such as Allen Iverson, LeBron James and Amare Stoudimere care. That's right - I said something bad about LeBron James - I didn't think that was possible but hey, he may rule the world himself right now but basketball is a team game and you've got to be on time to your team's meetings because if you can't show up for a simple little meeting, how can your teammates trust that you'll show up during the game?

And again fire whoever put this team together. I hate to rehash the same things Larry Brown is worried about and mentions but the team really isn't a very good shooting team and the depth really doesn't feel right. I know this team is ungodly young, they've barely played together before and defense isn't cool to play unless you're in Detroit but cripes - you're playing for your country - what ever happened to the passion in that? A lot of these players say they want to be here but they don't even show up for meetings, they don't play with heart - it wasn't even close in the fourth quarter! It's a wake-up call? No shit, Allen. I might have taken that comment with a little less salt if you didn't already have one strike against you. Hopefully you're going to take your own advice and prove me wrong but it was a stinging defeat.

LAST COMIC STANDING FINALS

Yeah yeah. This is the only 'finals' I know of that lasts like forever. Jay London - his most solid set to date though no real big jokes. Crowd loves this guy and eats him up, it'll get him votes and it wouldn't surprise me to see him back for the Triple Threat. Gary Gulman - Sorry bud but you're going home. People don't really catch on with Gary too well and I think it's because some of his jokes are subtlely mean. Pointing out too much of the obvious - sure all comics do it but he's far from George Carlin. John Heffron - You should have stuck to jokes more people can relate with. I'm proud of him but I don't think he got over with everyone. My girlfriend voted for him - though she voted once for three different people - doesn't that defeat the perpose? You give three people one vote, that's the same as giving them all no votes. Go figure. Kathleen Madigan - She almost had my vote. It was a cute set but the end fizzled and the Heinze joke was a complete bomb. Then again I'm one of the few people in the world that really couldn't care less about ketchup. I don't think it was strong enough to land her in the final finals. Tammy Pescatelli - strong set and she should be back next week and could even come away as the winner. Both her and Kathleen are here at the top ahead of all other women comics for a reason - they're smart and they're the opposite of all other women comics. If she doesn't win, she has nothing to be ashamed of because her career is going somewhere after this regardless. Alonzo Bodden - Could be the guy to beat and should be in there on Tuesday. Two very strong preformances so far by Alonzo. It'll be a test to see if he has enough material for another two sets or not. He's very smart and funny and should go a long way.

My picks - Alonzo, Tammy and Jay London.

NHL ARBITRATION STARTS

So far so good with arbitration cases. Sergei Gonchar of the Boston Bruins winds up with a one-year $5.5 million contract and Pavel Kubina of the Tampa Bay Lightning cashes in with a two year deal that will see him earn $3.1 million next year and $3.4 million in the second year. The Lightning had offered their blueliner a three-year pact worth a total of $9 million total but the blueliner was seeking $3.7 on the average year. So we meet in the middle on that. I have a hard time saying Kubina is worth $3.7 but the $3 million is easier to swallow and I thought fair. Gonchar's contract was less than I thought he would rack in and probably less than he was asking for. I'm going to say the Bruins don't walk away from this one because I really don't think they want to have Ian Moran playing big minutes - Gonchar may only be slightly above-average defensively but he can carry a lot of minutes game in and game out.

NOMAR IN CHICAGOLAND

I'm going to piss off my friends here but Nomar Garciaparra does not equate World Series win for the Cubs. If he did, the Boston Red Soxs would have won one in his previous years. He is certainly an upgrade over Alex Gonzalez, who is far and away one of the worst starting short stops in the league today. It was just amazing to hear almost everyone I talked to about the deal after it went down, automatically declare the Cubs 2004 World Series champions and wondering why we were still even playing the games. Why are we playing the games? I mean afterall, Houston and Chicago were supposed to run away at the top of the central division and possibly both win 100-plus games each. The Atlanta Braves were supposed to fall to the cellar and not win their gajillizonth NL East title. The Padres weren't even supposed to be competing mathmatically this late in the year. Oakland's entire pitching staff was supposed to be up for the AL Cy Young and Texas was supposed to be the doormat of the AL. Sure I was far from right in anything I predicted at the beginning of the season but that's why we play the games. Oh and Boston was supposed to finally beat the Yankees - never bet on the Pinstripes folks.

Cubs are still 9.5 back of the Cardinals and Houston could always get hot even though they're back 13.5 and those pesky Padres still hold the Wild Card - ok, if it ended right now, we'd go to a playoff for it. Point is, the Cubs were supposed to walk away with this thing and they didn't do that and winning the Wild Card will be no easy task so why claim you have the World Series in hand? I like Nomar and what Boston did to him was wrong. Did he force a trade? I don't know and I don't care but Chicago is his stop between now and free agency - what if he looks at this as that? And since when did Nomar pitch the 8th and 9th innings of baseball games? And not that I don't mind Cory Patterson - he's got a bright future in this game - but are you sure you want him as your leadoff hitter in the playoffs? I hope Nomar's a really good rehab doctor because Mark Prior has looked real good since coming back, let me tell you. Are the Cubs going to generate more runs that don't come off of homeruns? Chicks did the long ball but scoring all your runs off of it, isn't the way to win a championships.

Personally, I think Boston did great in picking up Orlando Caberara, who behind Edgar Renteria is porbably the best short stop in the National league. It's a shame more people don't know about this guy and Jose Vidro. Speaking of Vidro, when is he leaving? I'm happy for Nomar getting out of Boston but I think they did good for themselves. Could have added another arm but everyone else was looking to do the same and only the Mets really accomplished what they wanted but for quite a price. If the Cubs win the World Series, I'm prepared to hear the whole 'I Told You So' routine - hell I was going to hear it even if I said this or not - everyone in Chicagoland is always prediciting the Chicago Championship and there's going to be a lot of 'smart' people out there when they do finally win won. Every team looking for the title at the moment has their glaring weaknesses so the Cubs could still win, let's just play the games first.

FEDERER STUNED IN CINCY

He dismantled Andy Roddick so easily in Canada that it almost was embarassing to watch but Roger Federer 's winning streak has finally come to a close and he lost to his former doubles partner - guess the scouting worked. Federer lost a second-set tiebreaker to Dominik Hrbaty and ultimately fell 1-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 at the Tennis Masters. 23 matches ago Federer lost in the 3rd round of the 2003 French Open. I'm sure if a friend of mine actually followed tennis (same guy who's probably pissed I just digged on the Cubs) he'd point out that that 2003 lost came to Gustavo Kuerten. It was the longest winning streak since Pete Sampras rolled off a cool 24 in 1999. I unfortunately can't remember who Pete lost to and I think I even watched the match. I however, didn't watch Federer's loss tonight. People need to watch out for Hrbaty, he'll never be a major tournament winner but this is the sixth time he's knocked off a number one player. Giant-killer anyone?

Roddick almost lost in his first round match today but pulled it together althought I'm a bit sad. I would have loved to seen a Roddick-Federer match here at the Masters to see if A-Rod could bounce back and grab a long awaited win against the top-ranked Federer. He's only lost once in his last 20 matches on the hard court. Also, Juan-Carlos Ferrero looks to be fully fit, he won his first round match today.

NO MOVIE SUPERHERO MOVIES FOR HALLE?

Halle Berry claims that she's done with the Superhero genre unless there's a Catwoman 2. I'm not shocked that most comic fans are elated over this news. She's probably the most hated woman in the genre right now after her protrayal of Storm in the X-Men movies and the 'rumours' that she's quite a bitch. Honestly, I say good riddance too. I really don't think she's that great of an actress and call me crazy but I don't find her all that attractive either. Will there be a Catwoman 2? First movie has only grossed in about $31 million and while I'm against the current thinking that if a movie isn't a blockbuster, it's a failure, the hopes for Catwoman were set a little bit higher than that.

HELLBOY ON DVD

Go pick this one up for rental. I was actually pretty darn happy with this film. Then again I had never followed Hellboy prior to the movie. Now I'll pick up an issue from time to time. I haven't really gotten into the comics too well but the movie was a lot of fun and if you're not a stickler on Hellboy source material, then you should be able to enjoy this one just fine. Supposedly France and Japan are going to get the Director's Cut. Don't ask me why not here but director del Torro says it'll have sceenes he felt were bogging the movie down but added more weight to the bad guys. It'd be interesting to see but I felt like the theatrical cut was very tightly done and prefect for a movie that was meant to hit more as a rollar coaster ride than a deep picture. It's one of the few Director's Cuts that I'm in no hurry to see but I am interested. Hellboy 2 is being written but they don't want to put a date on its release - unlike Spider-man where we already know when 3 and 4 are suppose to hit.

It's late and it's taken me a while to write less than I usually do so I'll check back in later when I'm thinking better. There's a couple short Batman indie films that have hit that I'm sorta interested in sharing with you guys and more on the movie business in general.

 

As NHL hockey reachs Year Five in Columbus, an expectation to start moving towards the playoffs should soon be sweeping over the franchise. Moves to land [b]Todd Marchant [/b]and [b]Trevor Letowski[/b] were meant to help accelerate that process but the Bluejackets only finished slightly above division rival Chicago in the West. The Blue Jackets look to make a move towards a playoff spot with Chicago still a weak team and possibly both Detroit and St Louis slightly weaker than in the past. Still it's going to be a lot of work to move up from 14th to just 8th - they aren't the only team to improve in the conference. [b]Gerrard Gallant [/b]is finally in the position he should have been in at the beginning of last season - as head coach. I like Gallant and they've surrounded him with a pretty good staff with [b]Gord Murphy[/b] and [b]Doug Blais[/b] - probably the most surprising coaching hire in all of sports this offseason.

Up front the Bluejackets are pretty set but they need to look to cut back on the 238 goals given up last year. [b]Anders Eriksson[/b] sees himself dismissed and [b]Radoslav Suchy[/b] has been brought in from Phoenix in a trade but the defense, up to this point, remains largely the same as it was last season. Leader Luke Richardson remains as the club's top dman despite his below-average skating. He works well as a Blue Jacket and has fallen into quite a niche with the team. Though the club wishes this is the year where the club's first ever draft pick, [b]Rostislav Klesla[/b] will take over as the club's top defenseman. His development last year was hindered by multiple injuries but all Klesla needs is to just keep working hard and in time, the polish will come. At 22, he's right on track and may have even been pushed too fast. Sooner or later he's going to break-out but don't expect a bang - I feel he's going to be one of those guys you look at and suddenly underneath your nose he'll steadly get better. Step one - stay healthy next year.

Until then, Group II free agent [b]Jaroslav Spacek[/b] will be a welcome part of the Jackets. He's not going to hit people like Richardson or Klesla but the former over-aged draft pick is smart and very strong in his positions and he's the best passer on the blue line bar none. Staying healty has never been his strong point though but in the seasons that he's been healthy, he's shown he can put up 30-40 points from the blueline. After a -23 and a -20 season, you wonder if [b]Scott Lachance[/b] regrets his decision coming to Columbus. Hard to argue with a $2 million salary when you're a fifth dman. I've never been impressed by Lachance who just hasn't been as good as he should have been as the fourth overall pick in 1991. Though he does play a simple game and he can play on either side of the ice, giving Gallant some options on his pairings. Hopefully he's teaching his positioning to Klesla. Suchy most likely will join the third pairing in Columbus but he may be able to hold on to fourth dman minutes with his mobility and he'll get a chance on the powerplay. But he also got that shot in Phoenix and it never translated into much - last year's 21 points was his career high.

The sixth spot might as well go to AHL all-star [b]Aaron Johnson[/b] - he saw action in 29 games last year and with an 8 point performance and only a -2, he deserves more of a stay on the blueline. He's a bit small but his game isnt' to punish players - leave that to Richardson - Johnson most likely will make the roster for his powerplay work. He's getting better on defense and should benefit from working with Lachance. [b]Duvie Westcott[/b] will pull down the seventh slot and will see time because of his mobility but like Johnson, he's a bit on the small side. He does benefit by being the only right-handed shot from the blueline in the organization right now.

Lack of size hurt the Columbus blueline last year and the inability for most of the defensemen to handle the bigger forwards down in the trenches led to quite a few goals. Thus the signing of 6-6, 230 [b]Andre Lakos [/b]really comes as little suprrise, however the 25 year-old Lakos has had a difficult time moving through the lower ranks and has bounced around organizations already. 6-3, 215 [b]Darrel Scoville[/b] saw action in 8 games and decided to use his contract option to stay with the organization but he's too slow for the NHL. He'll be a decent AHL dman but he's just a pylon out there against quicker teams like Edmonton. [b]Prestin Ryan[/b] could be a long-shot but he did share Hockey East's best defenseman award with [b]Andrew Alberts[/b] and made the NCAA all-Tournament team. [b]Zenith Komarniski[/b] could move back to defense but that's a sign of desperation.

What is it with the Colorado Avalanche? Yesterday I noted [b]David Aebischer[/b], [b]Peter Budaj[/b] and [b]Phillipe Sauve[/b] all had potential as number one puck stoppers. They once had [b]Jocelyn Thibault [/b](moved to bring in [b]Patrick Roy[/b]) and don't forget that [b]Marc Denis[/b] was once Roy's back-up. He's far and away one of the best unknown goalies in the league. People look at his numbers and dismiss him - just watch him play. He does everything possible to pull out wins in Columbus - just look above at the defense. It's scary what he could do on a better team. But at 26, he's going to get better and he'll be there for Columbus's good years. Much like Sauve, there's few goalies more technically sound at this age. But Denis has had to be worked the past two seasons starting 77 and 66 games respectively. Rediculous numbers but the Jackets have failed to find a decent back-up since the departure of [b]Ron Tugnutt[/b]. [b]Fred Brathwaite[/b] looked utterly awful last year and finds himself now in the Russian League. In comes former "stud" [b]Arturs Irbe[/b]. The contract may be rediculous but its better than having Denis start close to another 70 games. He'll be fine and if the new rule changes occur, we won't have to worry about him handling the puck - always an adventure in the past.

[b]Pascal Lecalire[/b] still sits in the wings. I still believe he'll be better than [b]Daniel Blackburn[/b] but then again, Blackburn's career has recently stalled. Leclaire still needs AHL time but he's only entering his third pro season - he's still looking like a franchise netminder. [b]Karl Goehring[/b] and [b]Shane Bendera[/b] still sits in the minors but that's not a bad place for either one of them.

Up front for the Jackets, [b]Rick Nash[/b] completely exploded as a sophomore. Gallant still needs to get on him for his work away from the puck but this kid has had an NHL wrist shot from the moment he stepped into Juniors. He can pop in 40+ goals every year but he needs to change the only 16 assists (he got better in dishing the puck late in the year) and he needs to be responsible on defense for this team to have a chance at the playoffs. [b]Andrew Cassels[/b] may be one of the smartest and smoothest passers in the entire league but Cassels only saw action in 58 games and only put up 20 assists. Could Nash have buried more if Cassels had played a full 82 games? At 35, Cassels is starting to slow down and he's never been the goal scorer to be a top line center but all he needs to do is get Nash the puck and hide Nash's defensive mistakes.

Also up the middle, the Jackets have burner [b]Todd Marchant[/b]. A lot of people disagreed with the big money deal the Jackets gave this third liner last off-season but he's an invaulable penalty-killer and has become a leader in the locker room. While it might be too much to ask him to repeat his career-high 20 goal, 60 point season of two years ago - you still hope for more than 9 goals at that price. Behind Marchant is former first rounder [b]Alexander Svitov[/b], who might find his NHL bread as a two-way agitator but for the third overall pick in 2001, you'd at least want him to be a second line center. Though let's not give up on him too soon - there's offensive potential somewhere in that big, dumb frame of his and he's only 21. Centering the fourth line is [b]Manny Malhotra[/b] - another black eye on the Rangers draft track record. The Rangers pretty much ruined him by bringing him into the NHL as an 18 year old but he may be on his way to regaining his confidence - 12 goals and 13 assists in 59 games after goign scoreless for Dallas in 9. Most people don't know Malhotra as one of the better defensive players in the league but he is and he can win a couple face-offs too - if he can keep up the increased scoring, he may find himself as a third line center. One of the better pick-ups last season that no one took note of.

If you think Nash is the only offensive threat on the team, you weren't paying attention after [b]Nikolai Zherdev[/b] came aboard. Zherdev would have made a run for the Calder Trophy if he played the full year but he was a very surprise addition to the Columbus line-up. He can play either as the second line's left wing or on the top line's right side next year and best of all - he doesn't 20 until November. He needs more defensive work than Nash but show me one 19 year old better with the puck than him - it's like he has it on the cliche string. If you didn't see Zherdev last year, I suggest going to a Blue Jacket game when they come to your town - because he's fun to watch. He still takes shifts off from time to time but Gallant is working on that.

Making it easier to move Zherdev to the right side is the re-acquisition of [b]Geoff Sanderson[/b], who the Blue Jackets traded to Vancouver at the deadline. Hopefully he has another 30 goal season in him because the goals this team could put up are frightening. His career seasons have come while taking passes from Cassels. Sadly, moving Zherdev to the right side puts the team a little weak on the third line as enforcer [b]Jody Shelley[/b] is just behind Sanderson on the depth chart. Shelley can fight but he can always find himself suspended at a moment's notice for some of the stupid shit he pulls. Nor could I ever give him more than 4 or 5 shifts a game.

On the right side, [b]David Vyborny[/b] has put together back-to-back respectable seasons. His points went up from 46 to 53 but he dropped from a flashy +12 to a horrid -26 last year. With more offensive weapons to go around in Columbus, expect more of a combination of both. He might not be a top line winger at 5-10 but he's a good option for Columbus right now. [b]Trevor Letowski [/b]is another versatile guy for coach Gallant. Letowski never slows down and is a decent checker but he just isn't blessed with enough size or talent. [b]Tyler Wright [/b]has been with the team since day one and has become one of their leaders. Much like Letowski - he's a bit small and nothing more than a third line player but he never stops. He's probably better defensively than Letowski too (ignore that -40 season, he was going up against every team's top line every night) and his scoring numbers have increased in Columbus.

[b]Tim Jackman[/b] may have the inside track at the last forward position. He had 3 points in his 19 game trial last year and could be a power forward some day. Get this stick (6-3 but only 190) into the weight room. His lack of speed might limit him severely however. [b]Dan Fritsche[/b] made the club last year as an 18 year-old because of his keen defense but they returned him to his junior club after the World Junior Championships - plus the acquisition of Malhotra gave them some room to send Fristche back to grow at Sarina. He could make the club again with a great camp and his future down the road will most likely be as part of the second line and local boy hero. I've been watching Fritsche from his NAHL Cleveland days and I wish him the best of luck - he should have been a first rounder in 2003 if it wasn't for the worry over his nagging shoulder injury.

Other hopefuls for the forward lines - [b]Kent McDonnell [/b](minor league tough guy), [b]Joe Motzko[/b] (fourth line play maker with a bit of grit, too small), [b]Mark Hartigan[/b] (former college stand-out couldn't stick with the Thrashers, still a bit immature even after four years of college), [b]Jeremy Reich[/b] (mucker and as tough as they come, just no real talent level), [b]Mike Pandolfo [/b](fourth line defensive winger), [b]Greg Mauldin[/b] (fringe player coming out a decent college career) and [b]Matthias Trattnig[/b] (played both in US college and European men leagues). [b]Brandon Sugden[/b] could find himself as an added muscle to the fourth line with 283 PIMs last year in the AHL after missing the entire previous season.

I can see this team scoring a good chunk of goals and while they do have some defensively responsible forwards, they don't have enough of them and the defense itself is a bit iffy and weak. Even if Denis or Irbe stand on their heads, this club is just going to give up too many goals to come close to the playoffs. It's another learning year for Klesla, Nash, Zherdev and crew. With the 2005 draft, I can only hope the team adds more defensive depth because the frame for a decent club is already there.

[b]1st LINE [/b]- Nash
[b]2nd LINE [/b]- Zherdev, Vyborny, Cassels, Sanderson
[b]3rd LINE[/b] - Marchant, Letowski, Svitov, Wright
[b]4th LINE[/b] - Malhotra, Fritsche, Jackman, Shelley, Reich, Mauldin, Hartigan, Pandolfo, Trattnig, McDonnell, Motzko, Sugden, Knopp

[b]1/2 [/b]-
[b]3/4[/b] - Richardson, Spacek, Klesla
[b]5/6[/b] - Lanchance, Suchy
[b]7s [/b]- Johnson, Westcott, Lakos, Scoville

Nash-Cassels-Vyborny
Sanderson-Svitov-Zherdev
Letowski-Marchant-Wright
Shelley-Malhotra-Jackman

Richardson-Spacek
Klesla-Lachance
Suchy-Westcott

Denis-Irbe

[b]THINGS COLUMBUS NEEDS TO ACCOMPLISH[/b]
1. A nice top defenseman would do wonders
2. Continue developing Klesla, Nash, Zherdev and co.
3. Add another checker to the line-up
4. Are Suchy and Spacek the answers on the PP? I didn't think so - a power-play specialist would be nice if Johnson winds up in Syracuse
5. Gallant and Murphy need to teach their boys some defense

The Avalanche/Nordiques franchise almost went a decade without losing a division title and a tenth straight was practically locked up last offseason when GM [b]Pierre Lacroix[/b] landed the coup de grais of free agency when he lured the one time Mighty Ducks Dynamic Duo to the Rocky Mountains - [b]Paul Kariya[/b] and [b]Teemu Selanne [/b]landed to form with long-time franchise cornerstone [b]Joe Sakic[/b] the Avalanche's feared second line. Most people blame it on karma but Kariya missed a total of 31 games and the first 10 playoff games and only netted a meager 11 goals. Selanne didn't fare much bettter in his 76 games - 15 goals and poor all-around play led to constant fights with then head coach [b]Tony Granato[/b]. What could have been never came to pass and the Vancouver Canucks collected the Pacific Division title despite the rocky end of their season.

Both Kariya and Selanne now depart via free agency - hopefully a bit wiser and ready for next season. The coach that Selanne pouted at also sees the door somewhat as Granato has since been demoted to 'assistant coach' while former assistant coach [b]Joel Quenneville[/b] returns to Colorado, this time as head coach. Granato can learn a bit from Quenneville's defensive system but he's certainly not going to learn how to deal with superstars - Quenneville ran a few of those out of town in his time in St Louis. Remember it wasn't the tyrant [b]Mike Keenan[/b] that finally ran the Gateway's Golden child [b]Brett Hull[/b] out of town - it was the highly lauded Quenneville we need to thank for that. Maybe I'm being personally vindictive here but be careful what you wish for Denver. Quenneville's post season record is nothing that should give him that much pull.

Joining the not-so-Dynamic Duo and Granato out the door are third liners [b]Matthew Barnaby[/b], a late season addition and [b]Andrei Nikolishin[/b], acquired at the 2003 draft. Barnaby heads to Chicago while Nikolishin takes his underrated skills back to Moscow. But Lacroix wasted little time in replacing them by adding [b]Antti Laakasonen[/b], from the rival Wild and [b]Ian Laperriere[/b], from Los Angeles and a guy most teams would secretly kill to have. Lacroix also went a long way in retaining fourth line center [b]Darby Hendrikson[/b], penalty killer [b]Steve Konowalchuk[/b], checking line center [b]Chris Gratton[/b], and defenseman [b]Bob Boughner[/b]. Also returning from the group II section is goalie [b]David Aebischer[/b], grinder [b]Dan Hinote[/b], all-star [b]Alex Tanguay[/b], enforcer [b]Peter Worrell[/b], invaluable dman [b]Karlis Skrastins[/b] as well as minor-leaguers [b]DJ Smith[/b], [b]Chris Bala[/b] and [b]Brett Clark[/b]. Unfortunately the jetisoned list includes back-up goalie [b]Tommy Salo [/b](to MoDo Hockey), failed prospect [b]Mikhail Kuleshov[/b], soon-to-retire enforcer [b]Jim Cummins[/b], minor-leaguer [b]Travis Brigley[/b] and the now infamous [b]Steve Moore[/b] to go along with Kariya, Selanne and the others gone.

But the major story of Colorado's off-season won't be who they add or who they lose to other NHL teams but rather if [b]Peter Forsberg[/b] will be back in the NHL at all next season. Lacroix wisely qualified Frosberg's massive 8 figure contract but the all-star center is still weighing his options on returning next season to the franchise he's spent a decade with. Forsberg has done everything he could possibly want to do in hockey - he has a Gold Medal, he has the Calder Trophy, he's played in all-star games, he's won his Stanley Cups and his Hart Trophy. He just wants to play for his father once again and have fun once again. The NHL isn't much fun with all the clutching and grabbing. And strangely enough, Frosberg's father - [b]Kent Forsberg[/b] - was earlier named the head coach of MoDo Hockey, the hockey program Peter once put on the map. If anyone in the NHL could turn down the millions to play at home on the SEL's maximum salary of $300k (US) then it's Forsberg. If there is a lock-out, there is no question that Colorado and the NHL will lose the 31 year-old mega-star. I still think there's a good possibility that if there's NHL hockey in October, he could be in Denver's line-up but the pieces are pretty well set - the next move is Forsberg and Lacroix must start planning for life without Frosberg. This is just speculation but if [b]Jason Allison[/b] is 100% and the deal with Carolina falls through - could we see him in Colorado?

While youngster [b]Riku Hahl[/b] and minor league goalie [b]Tom Lawson[/b] should be rather easy re-signs, Lacroix might have headaches with all-star sniper [b]Milan Hedjuk[/b] and Hedjuk's decision to go to arbitration. Hedjuk has established himself as a major top line sniper since his first season in 98-99. It's almost scary how good he is and if you forget about him, he's going to make you pay. He'll see a pretty raise on his $3.2 million salary and Lacroix might not have much choice other than to shell it out.

Behind Hedjuk, the depth on the right side is a bit iffy. The aforementioned Laperreire is a penalty kill expert who could find himself on either the third or fourth line but he has yet to play a full season because of his style of play. He's come close before (one 81 game season) but never 82. And much like Barnaby, who he's replacing, his antics on the ice can do more harm than good at times. If he can stay away from trouble and injury, he's a great pick-up for the Lanche. Behind him is Hinote (also aforementioned) and like Laperreire, Hinote has also been far away from a full NHL season - 76 games in 2000-01, his first full season in the league. In the past three years, he's hovered around 60 games played - last year playing 59, missing time to a concussion and a dislocated shoulder. Hinote's a valuable forechecker and penalty killer when in the line-up and also will give Quenneville a couple options on his third and fourth lines. He's not going to score but he's not going to hurt the team either.

So what about the second line? [b]Marek Svatos [/b]right now is penciled into the slot. The pint-sized Svatos dazzled a couple people late but missed 78 games with a shoulder injury. He played in the first two games and didn't play again until the last two games of the season. In the playoffs, he put up a goal and five assists in 11 games. If he weren't 5-9 and if the other Colorado right wingers behind him didn't have a history of missing games, then I probably wouldn't worry about Svatos - he is a slick forward and he is a worl-class goal scorer but this is a game all about size and Svatos lacks a lot of it. He would have been a top five pick with those hands if he was 6-2 or 6-4 but instead Colorado picked up this gem in the seventh round in 2001. Let's hope he can make it through an entire NHL calender year. The minor league alternatives aren't very good - small-time enforcer [b]Dennis Bonvie[/b] and defensive specialist [b]Jeff Ulmer[/b] are about the best of the bunch. The equally pint-sized Ulmer does have 3 goals in 21 NHL games for the Rangers - maybe we're wrong about the defensive specialist tag.

The left side looks a bit stronger in numbers but Colorado may lack a strong second line winger on that side. First line left winger is no problem as Alex Tanguay has since emerged as a force - 79 points in only 69 games and could have competed for the scoring title if he hadn't suffered a knee injury late. He's a great talent of offensive moves and the consistency issues may finally be behind him now. He's been greatly helped by playing with such great players and leaders like Sakic and Forsberg for his entire career - it will rub off on him and show later.

Konowalchuk is a great left winger and since he caught my eye back in 1995, I always wished the Blues would have found a way to get a hold of him. He had a fine season that's pretty much on par with his average - around 40 points while playing in 82 games between Washington and Colorado. Sadly, Konowalchuk is a checking line guy - not a second line guy. He's a hard-worker (like most of the Colorado club) and he can chip in on the penalty-kill - in fact, one of the weak spots in the Colorado roster last year was their penalty kills - the one reason why Konowalchuk was acquired and it's no wonder that Lapierrere and Laaksonen were high on the wish-list. Laaksonen will definately help the penalty kill with his speed and positioning. I don't see him as a shadowing type of forward but penalties shouldn't be a problem. He'll chip in a couple goals in bunches every now and then but don't count on him carrying a team offensively - he's limited to 10-16 goals. 20 might be in him if he's teamed with the right center but don't count on him for that many.

The returning Bala is another hard worker who could find himself on the fourth line if another winger is not found, either in the system or in free agency/trade. He'll work the boards but doesn't play very big, nor does he score very big either. He's a fringe player that the Avalanche would best off if he doesn't get into too many games. Instead the fourth line will probably be patroled by returning enforcer, Worrell. Worrell had a poor season last year but did have 179 PIMs in 49 games. He should rebound slightly and if the knee holds up, he should be a regular in the line-up. Florida always believed he could be an offensive force but with his skating, I'll believe it only when I see it - 4 is his career high in goals. [b]Mathieu Darche[/b] is a hard-nosed winger who has shown he can put up decent numbers in the AHL but he's on his third orginazation now and not particularly good enough at any one thing to warrent a look-see in the NHL. 2 points in 26 NHL games with Columbus and Nashville. Fresh out of Boston Univeristy, [b]Frantisek Skladany[/b] could be fairly close to the NHL but more likely will spend the whole year with Hershey.

The middle is once again the strength of this club. Even if Forsberg doesn't return, the Avalanche still have an all-star center in long-time captain Sakic. He is and probably always will be this Franchise. For the longest time he was the quietest super-star for some rather crappy Quebec teams. The numbers say it all 1155 games, 542 goals, 860 assists, 1402 points and a plus-28 rating. Not to mention 157 points in 142 playoff games and a Conn Symth to go with two Stanley Cups. Oh and did I forget an Olympic Gold medal and tournament MVP award? Hart Trophy? 11 All-star apperances and last year's All-star MVP? Yeah, he's money.

But if Forsberg doesn't return, Chris Gratton becomes the number two and the last time that happened, the results weren't that great. Gratton, once very highly touted over a decade ago, has settled in nicely as a third line guy, who can win face-offs and chip in an occasional goal every now and then. He's big, he's finally mean and he has hands, but for some reason, the package never fully came together and we've always been looking for more out of him - though who can blame us when the guy had a $7 milllion contract. And really, I have to say it - he's just not smart enough. Even after 11 years of NHL coaching, he's still doesn't play with enough intellegence and sometimes without a lot of heart either. He does have a handfull of nice 40 point seasons and even back-to-back 62 point season and one 30 goal performance but for a guy that once scored 109 points in 58 games for Kingston - we've always wanted more out of Gratton. In 851 career games - 470 points and a minus 142 rating.

Hendrickson was a smart pick-up late last season and he returns to center the fourth line and kill off the occasional penalty. Face-offs will be where he earns his keep. Behind him on the depth chart is Hahl, who could take over his job this season. The 23 year-old could have had the spot last year but missed 53 games with a shoulder injury. He's not going to score many goals but a running theme - he'll be a great penalty killer. Hershey will provide Colorado with a couple stop-gaps at center. [b]Brett McLean[/b] played well early for Chicago but faded down the stretch. 11 goals and 20 assists in 76 games though - he's smart and can hold his own defensively. [b]Andre Savage [/b]is a career minor-leaguer but does have 10 goals and 14 helpers in 66 NHL games. Could be used in a couple games here and there but if he finds himself a regular in Denver, then there's a problem. Most of you know, I'm a huge [b]Cody McCormick[/b] fan and he saw 44 games last year as a 20 year old but the Lanche felt safer with Hendrickson centering the fourth line. McCormick will be centering that line some day but for now he'll be a checker for Hershey, where he should have been last year. Defensively solid, he's a meat and potatoes guy with some versatility to where you put him. I think he's going to be a good one but he's got to work extra hard to make the big show over more talented centers.

Up front the team has quite a few stars but don't forget their stars on the blueline - [b]Rob Blake[/b] and [b]Adam Foote[/b]. Blake will miss the World Cup due to a leg injury but should be ready in time for the season. He's one of the highest paid blueliners (though I believe [b]Chris Pronger[/b] just passed him with his $10 million contract) for a reason. He can hit, he can shoot, he can eat up minutes, he can score and he can pass. He's everything you want in a defenseman. Sadly, he only has one Norris Trophy in his display case but he'll still go down as one of the best ever. Foote may not get the same noterity that Blake gets but Foote "is the best at what (he does.)" Game in and game out, there are few defensemen that can bring the same level of phsyical play and rock solid consistancy that Foote brings. His type of style means he probably will never see a full season without an injury - 1992-93 he played in 81 games and he played the full lock-out year. But if I'm going to war, I want Foote on my team.

Hopefully Foote's style of play will wear off on [b]Ossi Vaananen[/b], a similarly phsyically imposing dman acquired late in the year from Phoenix to add another crease clearing dman. In Phoenix, he was a top pairing guy by default but up in the mountains, he's pretty much regulated to the third pairing and maybe logging less minutes will do him some good. He's only 23 but is sound defensively and can move the puck about a hundred times better than Foote (though that's not saying much.) Vaananen can hit and doesn't shy away from it, now under the wings of Foote, I'm just waiting to see how good he will turn out. He can be beaten laterally but so could Foote, he's just learned to minimize that. Again, Vannanen's a player I'm looking out for.

Denver faithful will tell you, Karlis Skrastins is underrated but that won't be for much longer. Why Nashville gave him up for only future considerations, I'll never understand why. Sure he was an over-aged draft pick taking time away from your more important prospects that will be the core of the Predator team in the future long after Skrastins retires but to give him up for next to nothing is nuts. Skrastins isn't really going to handle the powerplay and he can be beaten by speed but he'll block shots, work hard and he's a guy you like having in the locker room. Plus he'll give you a full 82 games pretty much every season. Watch, now I've jinxed him to an injury plagued season. [b]John-Michael Liles[/b] pretty much came from off the radar to win a job out of camp last year and made the All-Rookie team. We knew he was a great college player with Michigan State but I didn't think the translation to the NHL was going to be so quick and so fluid. He spent five games in Hershey after completing his senior season in 2003. He'll suck up second pairing minutes and handle the second powerplay unit but you've got to worry about a sophomore slump and his 5-10 frame.

Bob Boughner was a prefect addition to this club last year though he didn't see much time in a Colorado uniform after hurting his knee only a couple days after the Avalanche acquired him from Carolina. $2.3 million might be a bit pricy for a 5th dman but he's a safe and solid rearguard. And on a team that really doesn't need any more - he's a great leader. His aggressive style also leads to injuries at times. [b]Kurt Sauer[/b] will again take over the seventh dman spot in Colorado after coming over from Anaheim where he was a nice part of the Stanley Cup runner-up squad. Again, maybe too pricy at $1.1 million but how many other 23 year old dmen have Stanley Cup finals expierence? Or have played top pairing minutes in a Stanley Cup Finals Game 7? Much like Vaananen, Sauer, who has pretty good size, could stand to learn a lot from Foote. Unlike Vaananen, Sauer already has great mobility, he just needs to learn that at 6-4, 225 - you should be punishing people. Too bad he missed most of the playoffs with a groin injury. I expect him to be in the line-up more often than not for a seventh guy. Minor league call-ups will probably come from DJ Smith and Brett Clark. Clark's another guy you've always wanted more out of. He's not of horrible size (6-1, 195) and he's got a decent set of skills on him but it has yet to translate into much success and he does occasionaly go brain dead and cough up the puck at the wrong moments. If the Lanche need another mean and nasty dman - Smith's the guy, too bad a blind, one-legged dog can skate and pass better than him. Can you say beer league?

In net, the Avalanche can only hope Aebixcher puts up the same amazing season he did this season, his first in taking over for Hall of Famer [b]Patrick Roy[/b]. You could not ask for more out of him last year. He can be beaten down low so he needs to work on that and needs to show he can handle 62 starts year in and year out.

Much like over in Buffalo, the Avalanche are stack in net with guys that could be number one goalies. Aebischer has the spot for now but his back-up this upcoming season could easily be stealing his job in the future. The Slovak [b]Peter Budaj[/b] can be a big play goalie but still needs work on the fundamentals. Much like Dominik Hasek (in his prime) Budaj can recover from almost any thing but it's the fact that he lets himself into some of those impossible situations that worries Colorado brass. While Aebischer was lauded all season long, [b]Philippe Sauve[/b] was crapped on all season despite posting a respectable 7-7-3 record in 17 games in his first NHL action. He won the Young Guns game MVP at the all-star break but Colorado fans rode him most of the year - expecting what out of him, I still don't know. There are few more technically sound goalies this young and you can't beat the fact that his father is [b]Bob Sauve[/b]. He could use a bit more weight but get off his back, for him to be this sound, this young - he's got some talent.

Even if Forsberg leaves, the Avalanche still have enough talent to compete for another division title if Aebischer holds up. The team went a long way into shoring up its two weaknesses last year - penalty killing and clearing the crease. They might struggle from the point on the powerplay but they have enough offensive weapons up front for that to be likely. If Forsberg leaves, they'll have quite a hole to fill and the second line won't look very pretty but Lacroix has always been good about acquiring patches to keep his team at the top of the standings - he almost made it a decade of division titles. He'll pull something out of his sleeve either before the season starts or at the trade deadline. If they lose out again to the Canucks for the Pacific crown, don't expect them to be too far behind.

[b]1st LINE[/b] - Forsberg, Sakic, Hedjuk, Tanguay
[b]2nd LINE[/b] - Svatos
[b]3rd LINE[/b] - Konowalchuk, Gratton, Laaksonen, Hinote
[b]4th LINE[/b] - Laperriere, Hendrickson, Hahl, McLean, Worrell, Bala, Ulmer, Savage, Bonvie, McCormick, Darche, Skladeny

[b]1/2[/b] - Blake, Foote
[b]3/4[/b] - Skrastins, Liles, Vaananen
[b]5/6 [/b]- Boughner, Sauer
[b]7s[/b] - Clark, Smith, Slovak

Tanguay-Sakic-Hedjuk
Konowalchuk-Forsberg-Svat os
Laaksonen-Gratton-Hinote
Worrell-Hendrickson-Laper riere

Skrastins-Blake
Liles-Foote
Vaananen-Boughner

Aebischer-Sauve

[b]THINGS COLORADO NEEDS TO ACCOMPLISH[/b]
1. Figure out if Forsberg is staying or going
2. Sign a second line center if he leaves
3. A second line left winger wouldn't hurt
4. A veteran back-up could give Sauve more AHL time (but could hurt Budaj's development)
5. Acquire a cheap power-play dman for insurance to Liles and a possible sophomore slump