Jordan Staal is a hometown favorite, and expected to become an all-star caliber player.  Would the Pens trade Staal. 

Many fans last year did not expect Colby Armstrong to be dealt, he was also a fan favorite and he was close to Sidney Crosby.  I don’t think Staal is untouchable, however I cannot see a deal the Pens can make that will imporve their slim chances at making another Stanly Cup Finals Run. 

Ray Shero so far has looked like a savior.  The Hossa Deal last year proved he can make the tough decisions.  The Chris Kunitz deal this year showed he can make trades that give immediate returns.  I am not sure if he wants to press his luck and deal away Staal and his potential for just a small chance of getting to the big show again this year.

Kunitz has been tagged a “top six forward” by Penguins GM Ray Shero and he seems pretty pleased about the deal.  He did not specifically say that the deal was  to get someone to team up with Sid.

The deal net the Pens a solid Winger and Tangradi, a Philadelphia native, who is a highly touted prospect who has 87 points (38 goals, 49 assists) in 52 games with the Ontario Hockey League’s Belleville Bulls this season. Anaheim drafted him 42nd overall in 2007.

The Penguins have a great deal of depth currently at the blue line with the return of Sergi Gonchar.  Whitney has not played up to expectations this year.  With the emergence of Kris Letang and withand Alex Goligoski and his development this year, it gave The Pens one extra defense man to try to get a top forward like Chris Kunitz.  Kunitz, 29, scored 16 goals and recorded 19 assists to go with 55 penalty minutes in 62 games this season with the Ducks. He was part of their 2007 Stanley Cup winning team and this season was their leader with 148 hits.

Kunitz is expected to play tonight at Chicago.

The game was scattered with missed opportunities for both teams.  The Pens played well and looked sharp, but for the longest time could not find the net to save their lives.  The Netminders were very impressive, Yann Danis stopped 27 shots for the Islanders and Marc-Andre Fleury had 21 saves in his shutout performance.  It was Petr Sykora who snapped the scoreless tie with 2:28 remaining in the third period, lifting the Penguins to the 1-0 triumph over the Islanders.

The goal may have been Pittsburgh’s biggest score of the season because it keeps them right in the hunt. A loss or overtime loss to the Islanders would have been a crushing defeat.  To a team struggeling to find its identity this late in the season. 

The Penguins did climb a little higher in the standings with the win but there is no time to stop and rest. Now the Penguins will embark on an 11-day road trip through Chicago, Dallas, Tampay Bay, Florida and Washington. This will be a critical week in the Penguins season and the playoffs are on the line.

A Roadtrip like this is what will make or break the Pens this season.  Even though only 5 points seperate them from the 5th place Monreal Canadiens, they seem far removed from the Easten Conference Champions of last year.

With the recent losing streak the Pittsburgh Penguins have been on, it is no surprise that everyone is looking to GM Ray Shero to make some moves to help the team get out of the midseason slump they are in.

I believe that prior to the trade deadline, Shero will be under a bit of pressure to make all the necessary changes to get the team back on track, similar to what he did by bringing Marian Hossa on board last season.

Although I believe that the team has a wealth of talent to work with, a few changes need to be made for them to become the Stanley Cup contending team they once were that led them to within two games of winning the Cup last season.

With all the new players the Penguins acquired during the offseason, they failed to pick up a replacement to fill the skates of Ryan Malone. I believe this is definitely one area where the Penguins are lacking and it has had a big impact on their success as a whole.

Malone was a huge presence in front of the net which was one of the keys to the team’s achievements last season. They initially were looking to Jordan Staal to move into this role, however, he still needs time to develop such skills.

Another important role they neglected to fill was that of a veteran leader which was eliminated with the departure of Gary Roberts and more recently Daryll Sydor. The majority of this team is made up of younger players who obviously still need the experience of a veteran to guide them through the normal highs and lows of a season.

The coaching staff may be another area that the organization will be forced to look at. The media and a lot of the fans have been quick to point the finger at head coach Michel Therrien and special teams coach Mike Yeo. However, I believe if they choose to go this route it will be Yeo who takes the brunt of the blame.

After all, it is the Penguins’ power play that currently seems to be one of the biggest problems for this team.

Regardless of what changes are made, it is abundantly clear that they are necessary for the Penguins to climb their way back up the Eastern Conference standings in order to even make it to the playoffs.

Games:

10/27/08- Islanders 2, New York Rangers 4

10/30/08- Islanders 3, Philadelphia Flyers 4

11/01/08- Islanders 4, Montreal Canadiens 5

New and Notes:

- The Islanders suffered one of the worst meltdowns in franchise history against the Canadiens, allowing Montreal to score four goals in the third period in a comeback victory.

- Starting goalie Rick Dipietro underwent knee surgery to repair a meniscus tear and will be lost for an undetermined period of time.  In his stead, Joey MacDonald and Yann Danis will attempt to hold down the fort.

- C Frans Nielsen has shown signs of improvement as of late.  He has four points in ten games this season.

- D Mark Streit continue to be one of the few bright spots on the Island.  He has recorded points in each of the last five games.

- Hulking LW Mitch Fritz had an impressive scrap against one of the league’s most feared enforcers, Georges Laraque, Saturday night.  He may see more ice time as the Islanders attempt to infuse more toughness in their lineup. 

This Week’s Games:

11/3/08- vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

11/4/08- vs. New York Rangers

11/6/08- vs. Atlanta Thrashers

11/8/08 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

I can’t see the NHL doing something like this, at least not anytime soon. Talks of expansion are big around the league right now, not just in this context. There are talks of teams heading to Europe and teams moving, but nothing about two teams in Toronto has really been publicized until recently. The anonymous governor was not just suggesting that a team would be moved to Toronto but would be created in Toronto. Jim Balsillie had put a bid on the Pittsburgh Penguins two years ago. There were talks that he was going to try to move them to Hamilton. Something like this will be done before a new team is created in an existing hockey market, even one as big as Toronto.

There is a hockey market that already has two teams-New York. The New York Rangers and The New York Islanders are almost opposite teams though. The Rangers have been making the playoffs consistently since they came into the NHL as one of the original six. The Islanders joined the league almost fifty years later and are still looked at as the lesser of the two teams. Over the last ten years their record hasn’t been consistent and they are still trying to figure out their identity. There are already enough basement franchises, including the team already in Toronto, the Maple Leafs, that I just can’t see them adding another team to this city.

Calgary Flames co-owner Harley Hotchkiss told the Globe and Mail, “Our priority is having the current franchises solid (TSN.ca).” I think fans would like to see more equality among the skill of the teams as well, which they will see with so many young, uprising players in the league right now.

This could be good news for Leafs fans though if this were to happen because maybe they would have a team they are proud to cheer for. A question was recently asked to Health Canada.

Q. The Stanley Cup was recently in my town, and I kissed it. Do I have to worry about being infected by listeria?

A. You are safe. The Stanley Cup has not been in contact with any Maple Leaf products in over 40 years.

Hey all, my name is Tony Ferrante. Those of you who peruse the various Penguins blogs probably know me from MVN’s The Confluence of the Three Rivers. Thanks to Alin for asking me to guest blog several times throughout the year.

Lots of turnover results in lots of speculation in Penguins-land this season.

Penguins’ GM Ray Shero was one busy man this offseason, replacing several key members of the Eastern Conference champs, such as Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Ty Conklin and Jarkko Ruutu. Shero did an admirable job during free agency to fill the holes, not only in signing free agents Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Matt Cooke and Eric Godard, but also in resigning veterans Brooks Orpik and Pascal Dupuis.

The key, as it has been for about three seasons now, is finding the right winger(s) to be on Sidney Crosby’s wing. They surely had it after the trade deadline last year when Shero traded for Hossa, but when Hossa bolted for Detroit, Shero had to go back to square one. For at least the first part of the season, as all Penguins fans know all too well how quick of a trigger finger head coach Michel Therrien has in terms of line changes, it’s going to be Fedotenko and Satan on Crosby’s wings. Satan is this year’s “Petr Sykora signing” for Shero. He’s been a natural sniper all his career. He’s not going to get a better opportunity to improve from a very disappointing season last year with the Islanders, especially in a contract year. Fedotenko will be the one who can dig the puck from the boards and get it to his linemates, as well as get a big body in front of the net. If that doesn’t work, all bets are off. Therrien has several options available to throw on the top line if need be, including Jordan Staal, Sykora, or even sparkplugs such as Max Talbot or Tyler Kennedy.

The Penguins’ second line is arguably the most potent in the NHL with Staal and Sykora on the wings for center Evgeni Malkin. Staal has been bumped up from the third line center, partly in an attempt to boost his goal scoring back up to the 29 goals he had in his rookie year two seasons ago. Sykora and Malkin had some great chemistry between them last year, which actually goes back to the lockout year playing in Russia. Unless Therrien breaks them up, this second line could result in a deadly 1-2 line punch.

The Penguins are surely looking for more secondary scoring from their third and fourth lines this season. Shero’s moves have allowed Therrien to bump Dupuis down to the third line (where he really belongs) along with Talbot and Cooke, making for a serious fast checking line. The fourth line will be a mix of rookie mucker Paul Bissonnette, Godard, Pittsburgh native Bill Thomas, and newly acquired Mike Zigomanis.

The defensive corps, which before the season was thought to have had a glutton of NHL-ready D-men, is now without their two best offensive defensemen. Quarterback Sergei Gonchar suffered a dislocated shoulder in the Pens’ first preseason game, after which he underwent surgery and will miss between four and six months. Ryan Whitney also underwent surgery for a malformed foot injury which he initially suffered in the 2007 playoff series versus Ottawa. He is scheduled to out until approximately December. That makes the performance of young offensive defensemen Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski that much more important. Letang played in Pittsburgh for the majority of the year last season, while Goligoski only played a few games. In addition, Shero resigned underrated defenseman Mark Eaton, as well as Orpik. Include steady defensive D-men Rob Scuderi and Daryl Sydor, who was thought to be on the trading block before the injuries to Gonchar and Whitney, and that allowed Shero to not have to go outside of the organization to fill the voids created by the loss of those two.

Marc-Andre Fleury, after suffering the high ankle sprain in December, came back in the springtime and put up numbers that ranked among the best in the NHL. He continued the superb play through the playoffs, while coming back down to Earth a little in the Finals against Detroit. If Fleury continues with that high caliber play, he will rise among the NHL’s elite goaltenders. It seems that Fleury’s been around for about 10 years, but the fact remains that he’s still only 23 years old. The Penguins are hoping that the loss of Ty Conklin, therefore making Dany Sabourin the backup goaltender, doesn’t come back to haunt them. Although Sabourin had 10 wins for the Penguins last season, the feeling is that most fans don’t believe that Sabouring can match the steller goaltending play that Conklin had to do when Fleury went down with his injury in December. Hopefully, Fleury will remain healthy throughout the year, and Sabourin will only have to play about 10-15 games.

It’s going to be a very interesting Atlantic Division. Philly and the Rangers look to be strong again this year, and the Devils can never be overlooked with Marty Brodeur. If the Penguins can keep their head above water while their top defensemen recover from their injuries, they’ll be right up there when they return and make another run towards the Stanley Cup.

The only remaining player on the team that has yet to be sent to the Hamilton Bulldogs formation is Kyle Chipchura. The chipper is being kept s a precaution as the Habs still have some light groin injuries to a couple of their players, but Chipchura should be sent down soon enough.

With all the young talent that has impressed not only the Montreal Canadiens orgainzation, but many other teams as well as both French and English media, it’s a wonder that they were all sent down to Hamilton.

Names like Max Pacioretti, Ben Maxwell, Matt D’agostini,  and soon Kyle Chipchura are all Bulldogs for now. But all these players impressed hard in the pre-season and look to be 90% NHL ready. Are the Habs saying that Mathieu Dandenault is better than all of those players? Dandenault was riding the bench for much of the season last year.

Carey Price having lost 21 pounds this off-season looks NHL ready this year. He played really well and made some spectacular saves during all of his games.

Jaroslav Halak has a tweaked hip but with the demotion of Marc Denis to Hamilton, the Habs believe that Halak will be ready to back up Price for the start of the season. Halak also played well during his pre-season games.

The only acquisition that the Habs made in the off-season that didn’t play one pre-season game is Georges Laraque who is still nursing a groin pull. Scott Livingston ( Canadiens strength and conditioning coach) believes that big Georges should be ready be day one of the regular season.

This year is seemingly the year for the Habs as most of the team is either a restricted or un-restricted free agent at the end of the 2008-09 season.

Christopher Higgins, Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Alex Kovalev, Tomas Plekanec, Sergei Kostitsyn, Robert Lang, Steve Begin, Tom Kostopoulos, Mike Komisarek, Francis Bouillon, Patrice Brisebois, and so on are all RFA’s or UFA’s at seasons end.

So it would seem that it’s now or never for the Habs. Or is it?

There has been some speculation as to the 4.5 million of Saku Koivu and where it will end up. Most seem to beleive that Koivu will either be traded or leave at the end of his contract. Would that mean that Plekanec would then become the number 1 centre of the team and the money would go to re-signing him along with someone else?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in need of some defence-men, could the Habs trade some to them along with Higgins and a prospect for Jordan Staal?

Trades or no trades, speculation or not, Sundin or no Sundin. The Montreal Canadiens have far too many players that will play for their next contracts to be an average team this year. No matter what team individual players play for, when their contract are up at the end of the current season, the players always up their play in the hopes of securing that big money contract they all want. With that notion alone not counting the fact that the Habs won the Eastern Conference last year, should bring them back into the play-offs.

The addition of Laraque should help the Habs not only in the regular season, but in the play-offs as well, as the Habs were a little too small and being pushed around in the post season last year.

Carey Price with his weight loss should be even quicker than last year, and his conditioning will help him not to be tired in the post season.

Not to mention the fact that there are many young players nipping at the heels of some veteran players. Gregory Stewart could replace Begin next year. Pacioretti could replace Guillaume Latendresse. Maxwell could replace Maxim Lapierre, as could Kyle Chipchura. D’agostini could replace Kostopoulos. P.K. Subban, or Pavel Valentenko could replace Bouillon.

Basically, there are many players that could be replaced within the organization, which Habs fans haven’t seen in at least 18 years.

So is it now or never, or is it now or possibly soon? We will all see.

The Habs start the season Friday October 10, 2008 against the Buffalo Sabres, then Saturday October 11, 2008 against the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.

Lets all hope that the players playing for a contract next season coupled with the talent waiting to come up will push the Habs to at least the Conference finals, and possibly the Stanley Cup.

Good luck boys. May the Price be with you.

In the first part of our sit-down, we discussed the Pittsburgh Penguins’ off-season moves and the club’s upcoming campaign. The second part of the interview Shapiro shared his thoughts about the business side of the NHL.

In, this, the last part of our interview, Shapiro and I discuss his upcoming book “Hockey Player For Life.”

Alin Mateescu: Tells us a bit about how you begun writing children’s stories. Is this something you’ve always wanted to do?

Howard Shapiro: I always did a lot of writing, I tried poetry and songwriting and then I moved onto short story writing. I only started to write children’s stories after I had to read to my kids and I just got so fed up with reading some of the awful childrens books that they’d bring home that I said “I can do better.” Or at least try to do better and that’s how I began doing Children’s stories.

AM: You write on your site that you want to “create stories that say something.” So, what message are you trying to convey with your upcoming book “Hockey Player For Life?”

HS: I guess the message is that 1 in a million actually make it to the NHL but that doesn’t mean that the dream has to die. You can be involved with hockey on some many levels, coaching, organizing a team, playing in adult or pick up games/leagues, even supporting a local team… there’s so many ways to be involved in and with the game. That along with taking lessons that the game of hockey teaches us like working hard, being a good teammate, being respectful to one another… taking those life lessons and applying them off the ice and if you do you’ll be successful in all that you do.

AM: Where did you draw inspiration from for “Hockey Player For Life”?

HS: There were a lot of things that inspired me. At the time I wrote it I was listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townshend music and their songs and lyrics really inspired me. I was watching a dvd of the making of the “Born To Run” album and that was also a huge inspiration in that Bruce was trying to capture and they were all striving for greatness during those recording sessions and that was inspiring. I attended my High School teams 30th reunion game and that helped in parts of the story and the one other thing was watching the J-Mac video (the autistic high school kid who scored 20 points in about 4 minutes) and watching that video and the crowd reaction really helped me with the writing of “Hockey Player For Life.”

AM: How did the idea for “Hockey Player For Life” come together? What is the book about? When can we get our hands on it?

HS: Well, I sort of knew where I wanted the story to go and end up but getting there was a little tricky. I only spent about 2 ½ months writing the story and then 6 months rewriting it. I kind of sketched out how it was going to go but then I had an idea for a bit of a twist in it and so I worked that in and then still kept the way I wanted it to end. In a nutshell, the story is about a 13 [year old] kid who is his local teams best player and he gets invited to play on a all star/traveling team in Canada but he has to leave his local team as both teams play on weekends. He goes up to Canada thinking this is his first step toward the NHL and he ends up getting cut and at that point he becomes sick of hockey and wants to give it up even though he’s loved the game since he was a young child. He becomes friends with his local team’s worst player and that kid shows him what it means to be a hockey player for life.

AM: Speaking of “Hockey Player For Life,” you’ve managed to get former NHL forward Keith Primeau to write the Foreword and John Buccigross (ESPN) and Brian Kennedy (author, “Growing up Hockey”) to contribute to the back cover of the book. That’s pretty impressive. Any specific reason you chose that trio to contribute to you book?

HS: Well, I am good friends with a guy who works for Crocs out in Colorado and he knew Keith because Crocs had bought Keith’s Fury Hockey Equipment company. So, my friend made the connection and I sent Keith the e-version of the story and he liked it enough to do the Foreword. I was a big fan of Brian Kennedy’s book “Growing Up Hockey” (and I’d highly recommend it to everyone reading this!) and so I contacted him and asked him if he’d be interested in participating in my book and he was kind enough to do so. Anyone who watches Sportscenter (or who used to watch him and Barry Melrose on NHL2night knows that John Buccigross is a huge hockey fan (maybe the only one still at ESPN) and I read his blog there and simply emailed him one day saying I have this book I’m doing would you contribute a quote to the back cover. A few weeks later he did so it was a great to have all 3 of those guys be part of the book and they are each really, really nice guys and I couldn’t thank them enough for all that they did for me.

AM: Thanks for taking the time, Howard. We appreciate it.

HS: Thank you! It was my pleasure.

Shapiro will be signings autographs and chatting up fans in Toronto October 3rd at the Indigospirit location at the Royal Bank Plaza 200 Bay Street from 12:30 – 2:00 PM and October 4th at the Chapters-Runnymede at 2225 Bloor Street West from 11:30 – 1:30PM.

In the first part of our sit-down, we discussed the Pittsburgh Penguins’ off-season moves and the club’s upcoming campaign.

In, this, the second part of our interview, Shapiro shares his thoughts on the business side of the NHL.

Alin Mateescu: In one of your articles on RumorMeThis you stated that “[hockey and the NHL] will never reach certain segment/demographics in the US.”

Do you think that it’s the game of hockey that doesn’t attract large portions of the American population? If so, what makes hockey unappealing to certain regions of the United States?

Howard Shapiro: Because the game isn’t made for TV and you don’t really get a sense of how fast the game is moving and because it doesn’t translate well on TV you lose a significant portion of the public. The game gets no coverage on Sportscenter as well and that is a huge loss. It’s hysterical to me when I go to Canada and flip on TSN and the first 20 minutes of worth of highlights are from NHL games. It’s just always going to be a tough sell down here in the states,

AM: Is it the league’s fault for not doing a better job of marketing itself? Aside from promoting fighting, as you have suggested in the same article, is there anything more the NHL can do to increase their fan base in the US?

HS: I think the league has tried via commercials and other marketing means to increase the profile of the league but the number factor that they’ve messed up is the TV contract with Versus. Versus does a great job with the games and the post game show and things like that, but most people don’t even know what channel Versus is and if the league powers to be were smart, they’d crawl on their hands and knees and beg ESPN to take them back. To me, that’s the best thing they could do to increase the fan base.

AM: Has the labor dispute which caused the cancellation of the 2004-05 season had a negative affect on the league, in the US? How has it affected your view of the owners, players, and the league as whole?

HS: Actually, I think the strike has been the best thing to happen for the league…it’s probably Bettman’s single greatest (and some may say only) contribution to hockey. Instituting the cap was the only way to save hockey and it took a year to get it done, but it did and now the league is better off for the lost year.

AM: Can the salary cap continue to rise in the NHL despite falling revenue and flagging interest in the American market? Are the salaries that recent free agents have received out of line with the current economic state of the league?

HS: I don’t believe the salaries are out of line. The way things should work is that the top players should be paid the most and receive the high salaries. It’s when the Bobby Holik’s and Martin Lapointe’s of the world get top money, that’s when you have problems.

Check back for the third, and last, part of our interview with Shapiro as he talks about his latest effort set to hit stores October 7, “Hockey Player For Life.”

Shapiro will be signings autographs and chatting up fans in Toronto October 3rd at the Indigospirit location at the Royal Bank Plaza 200 Bay Street from 12:30 – 2:00 PM and October 4th at the Chapters-Runnymede at 2225 Bloor Street West from 11:30 – 1:30PM.

Shapiro will be signings autographs and chatting up fans in Toronto October 3rd at the Indigospirit location at the Royal Bank Plaza 200 Bay Street from 12:30 – 2:00 PM and October 4th at the Chapters-Runnymede at 2225 Bloor Street West from 11:30 – 1:30PM.

In the meantime, here is the first part of our three-part interview, where Shapiro shares his take on the Penguins’ off-season moves and the club’s upcoming campaign.

Alin Mateescu: You are a Pittsburgh native; obviously you are a Penguins fan, right? How did you become one?

Howard Shapiro: I’ve been a Pens fan since I was around 6 years old. The company my Dad worked for had season tickets to the Pens games and no one ever wanted the tickets (unlike today) and so my Dad would be given the tickets and he’d take me to the games. My favorite moment was when the Pens would score a goal and the red light would go on and the crowd would rise as one.

AM: Must be pretty happy with the Penguins’ current roster, especially with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney, and Marc-Andre Fleury. But with a salary cap in place, how long do you think management will be able to keep them all together?

HS: Good question and one that comes up a lot around here, especially on sports talk radio. I think for the next five or so years that Ray Shero will be able to keep the core together. The team may lose a player or two from that core group but the five players you mention in the question, I think they’ll be here for the next five to seven years at least. Malkin actually took less to stay here so and obviously Sid could make more elsewhere but those guys have said that like what is going on here with the team, they like the city and they want to be here. So, from a fans perspective, that is great and you know that you’ll be seeing the same players year in and year out.

AM: How do you see the Penguins fairing this upcoming season: Stanley Cup finalists hangover, or Stanley Cup winners? What do you think is the key for them to become the latter?

HS: Well, as a fan I hope they’ll win it at all but it’s such a long grind and injuries can happen (Crosby going out last year w/a high ankle sprain is a good example). As the roster stands now, I’d have to say that I don’t think they’ll win the Cup, I think they’ll win the Eastern Conference again but not the Cup. Detroit not only got stronger, but the one need the Pens have is a sniper to play on Sid’s line and when they lost Hossa, they basically went back to square one as far as wingers to play with Sid. They picked up M. Satan but I don’t think he’ll be the answer and comes March 3rd next year at the deadline they’ll have to pull off another blockbuster deal to pick up a Top 6 goal scoring winger and I don’t think Ray Shero will be able to strike gold two years in a row. We’ll see…

AM: What is your perspective on the Penguins’ off-seasons moves? Can the additions of forwards Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Matt Cooke offset the loss of Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts?

HS: If I was to rate their off season I’d give it a 6. You had to know that some team would overspend to pick Ryan Malone and he would have had to take a huge hometown discount to stay here but they lost more then they picked up. I thought losing Jaarko Ruutu will hurt in the long run and to some extent Georges Laraque. Those guys all got replaced, I just don’t think the replacements will do as good a job as the guys they are replacing.

AM: Some reports indicate that Whitney could be out of the lineup until mid-January due to a left foot injury. Should the Penguins go shopping for a defenseman to fill the void until his return?

HS: No, I don’t think so. Hopefully, during camp someone will step up and you’ hate to make a big trade when you have to figure Whitney will be ready by the end of or beginning of the year.

AM: Aside for Whitney’s spot on the blueline, do the Penguins need to make any moves to bolster their roster at any specific position? I think they need to find a sniper like a Cheechoo to play alongside Sid.

HS: They’ll probably plug in Pascal Dupuis on one wing but they need a finisher, a 40 – 50 goal a year guy to go back to the Finals and they simply do not have that right now unless they move Malkin to Sid’s line and then that weakens the second line.

Check back for part two and three as Shapiro talks about the business side of the NHL as well as his latest effort, “Hockey Player For Life.”

Now some of you may say; the last four years have been horrendous for Leaf fans.   They have had to endure a half-decade long playoff drought; so, the Leafs must make the playoffs.  Others would say; rebuilding a team is a process, this method takes time.  This recent trend of black and white thinking has become an eternal struggle, it is an argument I have had with many followers of the Maple Leafs.  Though I do not have a dogmatic, narrow-minded view of the current Maple Leaf situation, I am inclined to agree with the latter.  Simply because while the Maple Leafs do have a myriad of future assets including but not limited to; Jiri Tlusty, Nikolai Kulemin, Justin Pogge and the newly-acquired Mikhail Grabovski, to name a few. None of these potential stars really stands out to attain the status of super-star.  Now that they have finally obtained one of these superstars in Luke Schenn, it is time to acquire someone equally as high in status and talent to launch the Maple Leafs into triumph.

Take a second to look around the league, while the most extreme example being the Pittsburgh Penguins (Crosby, Malkin, Fleury) there are many others around the league who have had high draft picks over the last few years and will surely be successful in the near future.  Perhaps the most talked about turn-around in hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks, have a dynamic duo in Jonathan Toews (3^rd overall in 06) and Patrick Kane (1^st overall in 08) to go along with their abundance of other career NHLers such as Cam Barker, Dave Bolland and Jack Skille.  The Los Angeles Kings who have been quietly stock-piling future talent for years, made there biggest splash this year with 2^nd overall pick Drew Doughty to accompany future stalwart Jack Johnson (3^rd overall in 05).  Another standout of course is Wayne Gretzky’s new and improved Phoenix Coyotes who acquired Danish prospect Mikkel Boedker (8^th overall in 08) to complement Kyle Turris (3^rd overall in 07) and Peter Mueller (8^th overall in 06). FYI: I firmly believe these aforementioned teams will be a top the NHL standings in no later than two years.

These are just mere examples of what the Leafs are now facing. But one thing is abundantly obvious; most dominant teams are built on at least two or three standout prospects.   It has been 41 years since the great city of Toronto has seen the Leafs hoist the Stanley Cup.  Is it really too much to ask to endure one more season of failure?  Personally, I do not wish for a top 10 pick, I believe it’s imperative to obtain a top 3 pick.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have the choice between mega-prospects John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Luke Schenn’s brother; Brayden, among others. The Maple Leafs have been mired in mediocrity for so many years, it has certainly become an exercise in futility.  Many Leaf followers wish for the return of Mats Sundin and for some strange reason, Maple Leaf brass is seemingly leaving the door open for his return.  The team Cliff Fletcher has fielded for the 08-09 season has hockey pundits everywhere saying that not only is this team not good enough to make the playoffs, they will be lucky to escape with the 13^th spot in the Eastern Conference.  It is almost set in stone that the Leafs are a shoe-in for another playoff mishap for the fifth consecutive year. With presumably the only bottom-feeders below them being the Garth Snow inflicted; New York Islanders and the one-pony show; Atlanta Thrashers.  So if Sundin loyalties get their wish, it is my belief that it may only move them up a mere one, maybe two spots in the standings.  Is that really what we want?  You really have to ask yourselves Leaf-fans, do you want another Nik Antropov in the 09 draft, or someone who can vault this team to Stanley Cup success? So I implore you Leaf fans, as a life-long fan myself, we must lose, really lose, to win.

To be honest with you I never ever thought Hossa would have signed with Detroit.

In 72 regular season games with Atlanta and Pittsburgh Hossa scored 66 points, in 20 playoff games with Pittsburgh he scored 12 goals and 14 helpers for 26 points.

Stuart played in 9 regular season games, after being dealt at the deadline by the Los Angeles Kings, with Detroit recording 2 points and a plus 6. In playoffs Stuart played 21 games recording 7 points and a plus15

Lilja played 79 regular season games all with Detroit recording 12 points and a minus 2. in Playoffs Lilja recorded 1 assist and a plus 3 in 12 games.

Conklin’s signing was a big surprise (at least for me) that July 1st had. Conklin started in 33 regular season games with 18 wins and a .923 save percentage. He didn’t start any playoff games.

To be honest I thought the Detroit Red Wings would stick to a Chris Osgood/Jimmy Howard goaltending tandem.

To be honest with you I consider Ryan Malone a good forward, while he may not enter in the elite category of the NHL he can still raise some eyebrows.

But don’t you think 7 million dollars a season is just too much for a guy that has not yet produced over 70 points?

In my opinion I believe Tampa bay will either sink or swim during the next season.

Either way it should be fun for everyone to see Steven Stamkos play along with Vinny Lecavalier, Ryan Malone, Dan Boyle and Martin St. Louis.

The emergence of the young Penguins has been a godsend to Gary Bettman. He couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario for a Stanley Cup Final. The NHL’s most dominant team of the decade versus Bettman’s most marketable player, Sidney Crosby. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as the National Hockey League is still trying to promote a more lucrative turnout in American cities and certainly create more of a hockey market in the United States.

Unfortunately for the little General, he didn’t get his storybook ending. His golden boy struggled mightily for the majority of the series. To Crosby’s credit he did manage to play ‘Johnny-on-the-Spot’ in game three of the Cup Finals, long enough to score two key goals. But other then that, he failed to generate more then a a bout of consistent whining to the referees. Some may say that he was a key contributor in game five, as he was credited with two assists, but anyone who watched that game, knows that he was so invisible that it made it possible for our first Evgeny Malkin siting of the series. Thankfully for Pittsburgh guys like Marian Hossa, Jordan Staal, Ryan Malone, Gary Roberts, Maxime Talbot and especially Marc-Andre Fleury put in yeomans service to help steal a super important game five. That game will go down as one of the more exciting Cup Finals games in recent memory.

It wasn’t necessarily a case of Pittsburgh playing terribly, as much as it was that Detroit was absolutely dominant throughout the series. They ruled the roost of the NHL from start to finish. I don’t think I remember such a dominant performance. Sure Pittsburgh stole two games in the series, but they were outmatched by a well coached team that was stacked with puck possession skilled players, and loads of chemistry.

For once the best team finally won it all! But take nothing away from the achievements of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Barring future player movement due to contract extensions, this team has just scratched the surface of what accomplishments it can achieve. That fact has led many to compare this team to the Oilers of the 80’s. Knowing how much of a competitor that Sidney Crosby is, one thing is for certain: next season he will be more hungry and dangerous than ever! Considering he is already the most talented player in the National Hockey League, this provides a scary proposition for the rest of the league.

• Pavel Datsyuk: Definitely a hard working player for the wings. Does his best every time he steps on the ice. Never stops excelling offensively and defensively.Simply Pavel, as always. Unfortunately for Datsyuk, this year won’t be his.
• Johan Franzen: Franzen has been the surprise of the playoff for the wings, maybe even bigger than Osgood. Johan was extremely productive through out the whole playoff run. Will he win it? I don’t think this year’s the one, he hasn’t proved enough yet, besides the fact he’s getting better with the puck. Is he the MVP? No, since the team kept winning even when he wasn’t in the line-up.
• Nicklas Lidstrom: Lidstrom has been the same year after year. He is by far one of the Wings best players, but sometimes the best player doesn’t necessarily happen to be the MVP, especially in a team like the Red Wings that has so much in-depth talent and the possibility to play better and compensate when Lidstrom isn’t on the ice. They can do so in the playoffs due to the importance of every game, but if the Conn Smythe was awarded for the season’s MVP, I’d go with Lidstrom all the way since the Wings, the best team in the NHL, went through their worst period of the season when Lidstrom was out.
• Chris Osgood: Chris has been outstanding for the Red Wings ever since Mike Babcock pulled Dominik Hasek to throw him in and make him the starting goaltender for every game ever since. Some say he doesn’t deserve much recognition since he’s only shot at 20-25 times a game, but with a team like the Pittsburgh Penguins, any shot counts and any shot could go in. Is he going to win it? One thing’s for sure, he deserves it as much as the one I picked to win it. But unfortunately for Osgood, there is still doubt about his talent.
• Henrik Zetterberg: Who stands right next to Lidstrom in the best player category? Henrik Zetterberg. This guy may not be qualified as the next one, has not been drafted in the first round, doesn’t get as much attention as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but I truly believe that if the Red Wings are to win the cup, Zetterberg is the perfect pick to win the Conn Smythe. I’ve been thinking about him for a while, but only after game 4 did I really know he was the one. This guy is constantly giving his best and it shows by his plays on the ice how devoted he is to give his team the win. In game four, with his team up by one and less than a minute left in regulation, Henrik was all over the net blocking shot after shot helping his team maintain the lead and win the game. Let’s not forget the over a minute 5-on-3 the Penguins had with a little over 5 minutes left. To me, that was a defining moment in that series. Zetterberg, who was on the ice during the 5-on-3, did a great job by blocking shots, playing extremely well defensively, almost getting a breakaway, going on a 1-on-1 and spending almost half a minutes carrying the puck in the Penguins’ zone. A defining moment for a defining player.

So yeah. I picked Henrik Zetterberg to win the Conn Smythe. If the Wings win the cup but a player from the Penguins is to win the Conn Smythe, you guessed it: I’d give it to Sidney Crosby. Crosby has been the Penguins best offensive player, or even best player overall. If the Pens happen to come back and win the cup, well I’d still give it to Sidney Crosby. During the season, Evgeni Malkin was the Pens player in Crosby absence, but in the final, Malkin is nearly visible on the ice and to win the cup, the Penguins are going to need Crosby to be their most dominant player on the ice every night. Whatever happens, we can all agree that both teams are giving us a nice Stanley Cup final, although it’s as if the Penguins only started playing in game three.

Having swept the Ottawa Senators in four games then taking care of the New York Rangers in five games, it was only fitting that the Pens took care of the Flyers in five games as well. So far in the 2008 play-offs the Pens record is 12-2. Pretty good if you consider the fact that the Pens were not a great defensive team in the regular season.

Pittsburgh’s defence in the post season is, well, great. Pittsburgh with players like Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa, Sidney Crosby, Ryan Malone, Jordan Stall, Petr Sykora, and Sergei Gonchar have the offence to compete with any team in the NHL. The elite scoring players of the Pens are not only scoring goals, coach Michel Therrien also has them playing defense.

Pittsburgh goalie Marc Andre Fleury who was sent down to the minors this season for some conditioning has played outstanding this post season. Ty Conklin who took over for Fleury when he was sent to the minors has yet to see a post season game for the Pens. For the past couple of seasons Fleury had not been consistent in his play. Fleury has chosen the right time to play well it would seem.

This new Pens team seems like the old team in 1991-92 when they had such players as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Alex Kovalev, Mark Recchi, and  Alexei Morosov. WIll this current team have what it take to bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup?

Pittsburgh now awaits the winner of the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars. The WIngs lead the series 3-2. The Stars will try to tie the series at three games a piece tonight.

Whichever team joins the Pens in the final will meet a rested team ready to prove to the NHL that youth is a good thing.

The NHL is most probably excited that one of the teams that they wanted in the final has already made it. The NHL will never admit that it favors one team or the other, but it must be happy that their t.v. revenues will be high as the Pens are a high t.v. rated team with all their stars. Stars or Wings, doesn’t really matter to the NHL as all three of the remaining teams have marketable players.

Pittsburgh has been waiting for a long time to reach the finals again, question is will they profit from the situation? 

When Marian Hossa played for the Ottawa Senators his performance was undoubtedly marginal for a player with his talent. Hossa’s numbers for the Sens in the post season were 51 games played, 13 goals, 21 assists for 34 points. Hossa only played four games in the post season for the Atlanta Thrashers– a team which he was traded to with Gregg de Vries for Dany Heatley– and his totals were 1 assist for one point.

While in Ottawa Hossa played with Martin Havlat, and Daniel Alfedsson, which is why people were wondering why his totals weren’t higher. When Hossa was playing for the Sens, they really didn’t have more scoring than that line, so it was easy for a team to shut down the Sens.

While in Atlanta, Hossa played with Marc Savard, and Ilya Kovalchuk. To Hossa’s defence he only played in 4 games for the Thrashers in the post season, but he only managed to total 1 assist, which some fans were saying that if Hossa would have scored more, perhaps the Thrashers would have gone further.

Now that Hossa is in Pittsburgh, he seems to be on a tear, with 8 goals, and 7 assists for 15 points in 12 games, I don’t hear anyone criticizing him this year in the post season. Sure Hossa is playing with Sidney Crosby, and the while fact that Evgeni Malkin is on the team doesn’t hurt either, Hossa is having a great play-off run.

Hossa has played with arguably some of the best players in hockey over the last few years. Kovalchuk, Crosby, Alfredsson, Havlat, and Malkin have all called Hossa a team-mate. All three teams that Hossa has played for, have had the luxury of being able to put talent on his line, why is it that in Pittsburgh Hossa is thriving?  Are Crosby and Malkin more talented than Havlat and Alfredsson? Perhaps more talented than Kovalchuk and Savard. Well Savard is the one with the least amount of talent amongst those other names, but having Alfredsson and Havlat as line-mates isn’t bad at all, and having Kovalchuk as your other winger isn’t bad either, so why is Hossa playing better in Pittsburgh?

Perhaps there are better leaders in Pittsburgh. Maybe the coaching suits Hossa’s style more. But possibly, the fact that Hossa’s line– which includes Crosby– isn’t the only line scoring, so teams aren’t only watching, and defending against Hossa. Let’s face it, in Ottawa Hossa’s line was doing almost all of the scoring, in Atlanta, same thing.

Marian Hossa is making some spectacular passes, and scoring some nice goals in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately given the fact Hossa becomes an unrestricted free agent this July 1, it will be hard for the Pens to keep him. Pittsburgh has to deal with Ryan Malone–if they choose to keep him– and Sidney Crosby starts earning the 8.5 million next season, not to mention the fact that Malkin’s entry contract is up after next season.

Hossa has always been a star in the NHL, now he is trying to be a post season star as well. Hossa who almost ended up playing for the Montreal Canadiens in late February, has been rumoured going everywhere, most notably Boston, or Montreal next season. With these play-offs being great for the Slovak, his asking price just went up from 7-8 million to 8-10 million for his next contract. Someone will give him that amount of money, especially if he keeps producing in the post season.

For now Hossa is silencing all of his critics. It’s good to see someone with all that talent not being criticized be everyone for once. Let’s hope that he keeps producing for the Pens.

VERSUS will kick-off the Conference Finals with a special 30-minute “Hockey Central” on May 8 at 7 p.m. ET, prior to Game 1 of the Western Conference Final between Dallas and Detroit. VERSUS’ Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage will culminate with exclusive coverage of the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final. All VERSUS-produced games are produced in hi-definition.

The network’s studio show, “Hockey Central,” is hosted by Bill Patrick with Brian Engblom and Keith Jones and provides extensive insight and commentary of the games and what’s happening around the Stanley Cup Playoffs each night. VERSUS will, on occasion, bring players and coaches into the studio to serve as celebrity guest analysts. In the Quarterfinal round, Manny Legace, goaltender for the St. Louis Blues and Rick DiPietro, goaltender for the New York Islanders joined the VERSUS studio crew. Additions in the Conference Final round will be announced as information becomes available.

Among the regular segments of the studio show are the following:

• Keith Jones’ Odd Man Rush, Keith’s unique look at the plays and players who have put themselves in the spotlight, whether for good or bad
• Brian Engblom’s Reality Check, Brian’s personal opinion on NHL issues
• Highlights from games not airing on VERSUS, as well as Plays of the Week
• Parting Shots; where Engblom and Jones debate bullet point debate topics in rapid fire fashion
• Live-Look-Ins wherever possible, bringing viewers live action from games being played concurrently during VERSUS’ telecast
• Features on NHL players away from the ice
• Historical recaps which spotlight the defining and greatest moments in NHL Stanley Cup history

Total viewership for “Hockey Central” during the first two rounds of this postseason has increased 65 percent compared to the first two playoff rounds last year.