Flyers Try Again To Find Elite Goaltender Trading For Rights To Bryzgalov

The Philadelphia Flyers had all the pieces of a championship team in 2010-11 except a goalie to get them to the promise land.  According to Bob Mckenzie the Flyers made a move in hopes of changing that fact by acquiring the rights to goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov in exchange for Matt Clackson, a 2012 3rd round pick and future considerations.  Bryzgalov would fill a long standing need within the Flyers organization giving them a legitimate frontline goalie for the first time since Ron Hextall was in net.

Bryzgalov might did not get the attention he deserved league wide because he was in Phoenix, but his numbers and game are among the elite in the league.  This past season he went 36-20-10 with a 2.48 goals against average and .921 save percentage.  If the Flyers can lock him up, which is an if given their current cap situation they will be a leading contender in the division and for the championship next season.  That will also partially depend on what the Flyers have to trade away to make room under the cap.

Video: Mark Messier Talks Leadership

Yesterday, Mark Messier visited with the "NHL on the Fly" the 2011 Mark Messier Leadership Award.  During the discussion they announced that the finalists for the award are Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins, Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings.  All three are quite deserving of being nominated and are great leaders.

The discussion went far beyond the award itself and into what makes a great leader.  Having Doug Weight and Kevin Weekes there made it even more interesting as they shared stories of having Messier as their captain.  Good stuff. 

Aaron Rome Suspended Four Game For Late Hit On Nathan Horton

Early in the first period of Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, Aaron Rome of the Vancouver Canucks delivered a late hit to Nathan Horton of the Boston Bruins.  Horton was on the ice for several minutes before being taken out on a stretcher and transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was held overnight and released today.  He was diagnosed with a severe concussion and his season was over.  All that was left to find out is what, if any, action the National Hockey League would take against Aaron Rome for his hit.  Now we know.

The NHL suspended Rome four games, thus ending the 2010-11 season for the defender.  If the series does not go the full 7 games, then the suspension will carry over into next year.  The NHL has been widely criticized this year for their failure to get many of the suspension cases right and the inconsistency with which they ruled.  This is one of the cases where they made the right call.  An illegal hit ended the season of Nathan Horton and now Aaron Rome’s season is done as well.  

The NHL cited both the lateness of the hit and severity of the outcome in the decision.

"Two factors were considered in reaching this decision," said NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy. "The hit by Rome was clearly beyond what is acceptable in terms of how late it was delivered after Horton had released the puck and it caused a significant injury."

Some will question whether factoring in the severity of the injury is the right move for the NHL to make.

Free Agent Preview: Is Ville Leino A Solution For Rangers Secondary Scoring Issues?

Al Bello/Getty Images

With less than a month left until the frenzy that is free agency begins and the New York Rangers will certainly be looking for offense when the market opens on July 1.  In looking ahead to the free agent market there have already been looks at Brad Richards for the first line center role, James Wisniewski as a puck-moving defender that could also aid the power play, Brooks Laich as a top-six forward and Simon Gagne as another potential cheap gamble and Anton Babchuk to be a bomber from the point.

With the Rangers need for offense being a priority the focus shifts back to the available forwards on the market this year with Ville Leino.  After struggling to consistently crack the Detroit Red Wings lineup Leino was moved to Philadelphia during the 2009-10 season where he found his legs at the NHL level.  During the Flyers run to the cup, Leino had seven goals and 14 assists in 19 games. 

The 27-year old Finnish forward built on his strong playoff run from the season before en route to a career year in which he posted 21 goals and 53 points in 81 games.  Not bad for a guy who had 11 goals and nine assists in 68 career regular season games coming into the 2010-11 season.  There is no question that Leino is due for a substantial raise from his current salary (825K), but there can be questions about whether Leino’s production is a sign that he has truly figured it out or if he has been very lucking playing with Daniel Briere since joining the Flyers.  Making that determination is the key to deciding if Leino could work here in New York.  If his production was a product of playing with Briere, then he is not a fit because he will be paid based on that production and unable to duplicate it as the Rangers do not have a player with Briere’s skill-set here.  If Leino’s stick-handling and playmaking abilities are deemed to have been the real cause along with greater opportunity to consistently play, then you are looking at a player growing into the NHL at the prime of his career.

With the Rangers likely having a void on left wing next year in their top six forwards a player like Leino who could potentially fit in on a second line is an intriguing option.  If the market has him closer to $3 rather than $4 million it is someone the Rangers should consider signing to create depth in the forward core.

Video: Lucic Mocks Burrows Over Finger Biting

During Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks bit the finger of Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins.  After not being suspended for the bite, Burrows went on two score twice, including the OT game-winner in Game 2.  During Game 2, Burrows teammate, Max Lapierre mocked Bergeron for complaining about being bit by Burrows.

Tonight in Game 3, it was the Bruins turn to get in on the mocking of the biting fiasco from Game 1.  Milan Lucic, following an Alex Burrows dive, punched Burrows in the head multiple times and towards the end of the scrum, with his gloves off put his finger towards the face of Burrows as if telling him to bite his finger this time.

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Video: Tim Thomas Throws Hit On Henrik Sedin

The NHL does a lot to protect goaltenders from getting hit by opposing players.  Tim Thomas decided not only did he not need to be protected, but that he was going to take the contact to Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks.  Sedin would have had a great chance to score on the play, but Thomas took the body to stop him.

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That is certainly one way to keep the puck out of the net.  One has to wonder if Thomas could have been called for an interference penalty because there was clearly no intent to play the puck.  If that is ruled legal, then one has to wonder if more goaltenders will start being more proactive in defending their crease as Thomas did.

Video: Brad Marchand Scores Spectacular Shorthanded Goal

With the Boston Bruins already up 2-0 midway through the second period of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Brad Marchand worked some magic while the team was shorthanded.  Marchand picked up the puck at center ice, played a pass to himself off the side boards which allowed him to get by Alex Edler and then he overpowered Ryan Kesler in the offensive zone and showed tremendous patience at the end to get Roberto Luongo down on his stomach before putting home a critical third goal with a shot upstairs.

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Video: Nathan Horton Stretchered Off Following Late Hit By Aaron Rome

Hockey is a violent and sometimes brutal sport, but the sight of Nathan Horton laying prone on the ice was a scary one early in the first period of Game 3 tonight. Mike Murphy will have another decision to make in this series concerning supplemental discipline, but this one should result in a suspension.

At 5:07 of the first period Bruins' forward Nathan Horton was laid out by a late hit to the head by Canucks' defender Aaron Rome.  The NHL installed Rule 48 last offseason to protect players from blindside hits to the head when they are defenseless. 

A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted.

Tonight was a prime example of what the rule was looking to remove from the game.  After moving the puck just outside the Vancouver Canucks’ blueline Horton was leveled by Rome who left his feet, made first contact to the head of Horton while he was defenseless.  

For those who want to claim that Horton was at fault for watching his pass there is the issue of just how late the hit was.  The standard for a late hit is .5 seconds, while this one was nearly 1 full second late. 

TSNRyanRishaug: According to TSN newsroom aces, release of puck to hit was 28 frames, 30 is a full second, so substantially late as NHL standard half second

Aaron Rome was assessed a five minute major for interference and a game misconduct for the hit.  I would expect the combination of the hit itself and the lateness of it will result in a significant suspension for Rome that could last into next season.

Horton laid prone on the ice for several minutes before eventually being taken off on a stretcher.

Update from Bruins: Update on Nathan Horton: he has been transported to Mass Gen Hosp and is moving all his extremities. No further update at this time ^BB 

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Sean Avery, the Horse, Wins Longfellow Stakes at Monmouth

The Rangers season might be over, but that does not mean that Sean Avery is not winning things.  Well, Sean Avery the horse that is.  Yesterday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Sean Avery improved his career record to 5-0-2 with his victory in the $75,900 Longfellow Stakes.  The 5-year old gelding is owned by John DeStefano of Black Swan Stables.  DeStefano is friends with the New York Rangers Sean Avery.

2011 NHL Draft Prospects: Matt Puempel

The 2011 draft now less than one month away, and the Rangers scouting and front office staff is looking through many prospects to see who they want to select with the 15th overall selection.  With the current state of the Rangers defense both at the NHL and prospect level one would expect that New York will look for offense in the first round of the draft hoping to find an impact scorer.  There are a number of offensive prospects that could be available at 15.  We have already looked at Mark Scheifele, Mark McNeill, Zack Phillips, Joel Armia Sven Bartschi and Ty Rattie for their potential fits for the Rangers.

Today we will look at a player who performed admirably given how bad his team was, but suffered a season ending him injury.  That player is Matt Puempel of the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey League.  Puempel put up 34 goals and 35 assists in just 55 games for the Petes despite being keyed on every night and having little other talent to work with. This was following his OHL rookie of the year winning 33 goal 31 assist effort in 59 games during the 2009-10 season.

Kirk Luedeke of Bruins Draft Watch’s:

The 2010 CHL Rookie of the Year followed up his 33-goal first OHL season with 34 goals and 69 points in 55 games (to finish with the team scoring lead even though he missed 13 games) before suffering a hip injury that ended his season. His production was laudable because he didn't get a lot of help on his Petes team, but still managed to remain a threat to score even with a lot of checking attention on him. He has just average size at 6-0, 190 pounds, but compensates for that with his skating, hands and heavy shot that has pinpoint accuracy. Smooth stride and can gain separation; will go into traffic and the places on the ice where he must in order to score. He reads and anticipates the play extremely well, and is one of those guys who just seems to find ways to get himself into scoring situations. When all is said and done, he's probably one of the more underrated players in the OHL class, because given what he's accomplished in two seasons offensively, he's not on the tips of many tongues when talking about the top-10 guys in the 2011 draft. Puempel has a slender frame and needs to get stronger, but there are no issues with his high-end skills. He's been dinged for going through streaky periods where he isn't involved as much as he should be, but the reality is- he played hurt in the Ivan Hlinka (back) and still managed to be productive. He's probably got more skill and talent than several of the players ranked ahead of him and could be another one of those steals who, people will look back on and wonder how he lasted where he did in the draft.

Stock watch: Steady- no playoffs for Puempel, which means NHL teams who draft him will have to be confident that he'll come back from his hip injury as good as he was before. Given the advances in medical science that allow full recoveries and other injured players who have still been taken high in the NHL draft with injury concerns, Puempel shouldn't drop very far because of that.

The Scouting Report (Ranked 5, midseason):

Puempel has been a faller in many people’s eyes this season, but we’ve been impressed by his ability to be a dominant offensive player on one of the weakest offensive teams in the OHL. He’s got an elite release on his shot and exceptional offensive hockey sense, but he’s also showed more of an ability to create on his own this season. Still guilty of disappearing for periods of a game, but his innate offensive ability would look good on the top line of an NHL team.

OHL Prospects:

Puempel's an interesting player available for this draft. I think the fact that he hasn't slid further in most rankings, is a testament to his talent level and potential. The Petes had a dreadful season and Puempel has to shoulder some of that blame (a large reason CSS has him lower on their list). Puempel also had to have season ending hip surgery, causing him to miss the Under 18's. But the good news is that the surgery on his hip isn't for a debilitating condition and he will recover. If Brett Connolly can still go high in the lottery with his injury trouble, Puempel has a chance too. Puempel is definitely one of the better goal scoring forwards available in this draft. Some guys were just born to be goal scorers. He's got a great shot and he can unleash it anywhere on the ice. He's also a very intelligent player and seems to find his way to loose pucks in front of the net. The next step for him will be improving his ability to take the puck to the net and create offense from that...like any good goal scorer does. He'll also need to refine the rest of his game (play along the boards, backchecking, intensity). But you can't teach the skills he has. I think whoever takes Puempel will need to be patient with him (much like the Coyotes have been with a guy like Brett MacLean), but he definitely has top 6 NHL ability.

The best thing you can say about Puempel is that he is a pure scorer, which is something that the Rangers definitely need.  You cannot discount a player who has back-to-back 30 goal seasons, which might make him come off the board earlier than currently projected.  As of now he is seen as someone that you could trade down to the early 20's, obtain more assets and still have on the board.