A little hockey hodgepodge
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 | 12:16 PM ET
Some random hockey thoughts on a Wednesday afternoon ...
Unhappy Penguin
And so the finger pointing has started in the Mark Recchi situation in Pittsburgh (the team placed the veteran winger on waivers yesterday) with Recchi’s agent, Rick Curran, blaming Pens coach Michel Therrien for his client’s poor play, saying he has left him out of the team’s plans.
Should be interesting to see if any team puts in a claim for the winger and his $1.75 million US contract (Dallas, San Jose, Columbus and perhaps Calgary are said to be interested) or if they roll the dice and hope the Pens put him on recallable waivers and pick up Recchi for half price. And unlike John Leclair last year, word is Recchi would report to Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins if he does clear.
A gold star for Bettman
If anyone thinks last week’s announcement by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about players not participating in the 2014 Olympics has anything to do with the NHLers complaining about fatigue after the Torino Games then I have a hockey team in Nashville I’d like to sell ya.
Bettman missed out on a power play last spring at the 2007 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Moscow and won’t let that opportunity slip by again. The Russian Ice Hockey Federation had not signed (and still hasn’t) the standard IIHF player transfer agreement, but the NHL was under the impression that they were close to doing so. And in good faith Bettman allowed NHLers, once again, to take part in the tournament. Keep in mind he could have disallowed NHLers from taking part since contracts last until the last day of June. The tournament came and went, NHL’ers played in Moscow but the Russian Ice Hockey Federation refused to put ink to paper on the transfer deal, holding out for, you guessed it, more money.
Fool me once, right?
So now that the 2014 games are set in Russia and the transfer agreement is not signed Bettman is rightly using the tactic he should have used last spring: withhold NHLers from playing. Don’t want to sign the transfer agreement? No problem. We just won’t send NHLers to the games. Why should the NHL stop its season to help the Russian Ice Hockey Federation who have done nothing to make life easier for the NHL? Good move by Bettman.
More on Niedermayer
As we talked about a week or so ago on this blog it looks like Scott Niedermayer’s indecision is leaving his team in a bind. As Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail reported yesterday now it seems the defenceman is leaning towards returning to the defending Stanley Cup champions, which will force GM Brian Burke’s hand and probably force him to move a player and perhaps a draft pick as well. Burke signed Mathieu Schneider last summer to a big ticket deal (two years, $11 million) to fill Niedermayer’s spot when he was leaning towards not coming back. If he does decide to return Burke will have to ship out a player to create cap space and the two likely candiates are Todd Marchant and/or Francois Beauchemin.
World junior news
Talking to people in St Louis last night I’m getting a strong indication that the Blues will allow David Perron to play for Team Canada at the world junior tournament this Christmas in Czech Republic. Perron has been a healthy scratch four games in a row for St. Louis and would be a welcome addition to Team Canada as they open evaluation camp Dec. 10 at Father David Bauer Arena in Calgary.
USA Hockey named their 22-player roster for the junior tournament last night. Notable names include last year’s second-overall draft pick James van Riemsdyk (Flyers), Kyle Okposo (Islanders), Blake Geoffrion (Nashville), Bill Sweatt (Blackhawks) and Bobby Sanguinetti (Rangers).
Hope you can join me for today’s edition of Hockey Night in Canada Radio (Sirius ch 122 4pm eastern) as Kelly Hrudey co-hosts once again. We’ll talk about Sidney Crosby’s trip west, Recchi being placed on waivers, the Flyers calling up Steve Downie, the Senators dropping their seventh game in a row and the possible return of Scott Niedermayer to the Ducks lineup.
Flyers GM Paul Holmgren will be one of our guests and Toronto’s Wade Belak - fresh off his first goal in 143 games - will also drop by.
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About the Author
Jeff Marek, one of sports talk radio's brightest stars, is the host of the all-new HNIC Radio on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. A twelve-year sports-talk radio veteran, the Toronto native provides intelligent hockey talk, insight and debate during the two-hour national daily drive-time hockey program.
Well known for his previous work on Leafs Lunch on AM 640 Toronto Radio, Marek is one of sports talk radio's most respected personalities. He joined AM 640 in 2000, hosting The Jeff Marek Show, a nightly open-line talk show, while working as the stations' morning news anchor. He quickly became the director of sports news and joined host Bill Watters on Leafs Lunch.
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