Leclaire in play?

There have been suggestions that Pascal Leclaire's negotiations with the Blue Jackets have been not running smoothly. Given the small number of UFA goalies available this spring, it is conceivable that a team tries to sign Leclaire to an offer sheet. They have short term insurance in Frederik Norrena, who has played well for the Jackets over the years and filled in for them in Leclaire's absence during the last few weeks of the 2007-08 season and a long-term possibility in the form of World Junior gold medal keeper Steve Mason. Both sides believe they are negotiating from a position of strength and Jackets GM Scott Howson might think that Ken Hitchcock's defense-first scheme might suit a lesser goalie. I suspect this negotiation might drag on a bit and could be still on during the draft or even after July 1, allowing teams to make an RFA offer.

Another goalie who could end up in play would be Kari Lehtonen. He has fared well but has not brought the Thrashers to the next level. Given the injuries he's had and the emergence Ondrej Pavelec for the Thrashers, Lehtonen might be on the goalie carousel looking for a chance to reset himself as a first stringer or find himself bouncing around as a back up. Watch him go somewhere looking for goaltending depth during the draft. If he stays in Atlanta he will see a much lighter load next year.

Granato In

The Avs go back to Tony Granato. It seems like a decent, though uninspired, move on the Avs part. Granato had a solid record during his first turn behind the bench at 72-33-28 over a season and change and stepped aside when Quenneville became available. He is familiar with the younger players on the team and likely spent quite a bit of time with them as assistant. He knows the dressing room and will get the most out of whoever he has on hand come September. I suspect that he'll do better work this time around, but won't have the high powered names to result in a better record.

Osgood Vs Fleury

Excuse the absence. Let me explain in two words: Stag weekend. Besides, last week was a little slow.

I must say that I am impressed with the accomplishments of the cup final goaltenders. Osgood has gone 5 weeks of brilliant relief of Dominik Hasek since and has reminded people that he did indeed backstop the Wings to a Stanley Cup in the past rather than leave people questioning whether or not he had the mental toughness to go all the way. Much has been said of his efforts to reinvent himself and prove himself and to do it at this point of his career has been tremendous. He can stand proud of what he has done and ought to erase any doubts about his ability to be a first-string keeper (but will he really?).

Fleury has matured significantly since his return from ankle injury and has left everybody forgetting that there was a potential goaltending controversy brewing in Pittsburgh around the trade deadline. Who is his back-up again? Fleury has turned me into a believer with his play of late and it looks like he is in the right headspace to steal games when they count.

So who will win it? The early money would likely be on the Red Wings, but given the struggle they had closing the series with Dallas, there is reason to question their determination and ability to finish. They big thing they've had in their favour has been experience, but it's Datsyuk's and Zetterberg's first final. They've got experience in guys like Lidstrom, Chelios, Draper, Holmstrom and Osgood but there is quite a bit of youth there as well.

The main question about the Penguins is experience. They have managed to come through the first three rounds relatively untested which means that either they have the talent to overcome that lack of experience or the Sens, Rangers and Flyers did not bring what would have truly tested them. They are healthier than the Red Wings and showed with their 6-0 win over the Flyers that they have the killer instinct required. They also have the foot soldiers who can go in and do what has to be done to win a series as well. I'd give the Penguins the edge on offence and in net and give the Wings the edge behind the bench, on defence and the slightest, ever so slightest edge on special teams on the strength on their penalty killing. Prediction: a long series with the Penguins and Wings each winning one high score affair each, and four tight games that will go down to the last two minutes. Wings in 6 or Pens in 7.

Wilson out

The San Jose Sharks needed to let Ron Wilson go. If the old adage is the goalie or the coach, well Evgeni Nabakov proved he would be harder to replace.

Ron Wilson has the credentials to land a coaching job fast for next season and he was a good fit when the Sharks first hired him, but this is a team that has stalled and simply needs something to shake them up. The Sharks will fill the vacancy in a relatively brief period of time.

Quenneville out

Joel Quenneville clearly knows there are greener pastures out there. Given his success in Colorado and prior to that, the Avs had little reason to give him the heave-ho. Will they give Tony Granato another shot at the position or look for fresh blood. I have a feeling that the Avs are anticipating a transition to a younger team with the question marks hovering over Sakic, Forsberg, Foote and the crease. If the veterans stick around, Giguere might be comfortable bringing in a rookie coach which would definitely generate a new enthusiasm for the team. A more tried a true coach with a young lineup might actually struggle a bit. With all of the changes and uncertainty in the Northwest, don't be surprised if the usual NW suspects give up a playoff spot or two to the bridesmaids in the Central.

Perhaps the Stars have aligned once again

During the predraft fuss over Brian Lawton in 1983, someone suggested that his hype was was based on nobody seeing him in enough games to see the rough spots in his game. Brunnstrom racked up a whopping 9 goals in the Swedish Elite League this year.

At least the Stars won't be burning a draft pick that could have been used for Steve Yzerman or Pat Lafontaine this time around. Just a top-six spot and cap room. The first big mistake for the Hull-Jackson combo.

Fletch needs to give his head a shake

When Cliff Fletcher says that the TML coaching is a plum I can't help but ask how. If the roster was as stocked with the grinding nastiness and passionate, bloods-aboiling competitiveness as their beat writers, maybe, just maybe it would be a job worth having. Instead, all the Leafs have to offer is a line-up that is 3 top-six forwards and a 3-4 defensive pairing away from contending. There isn't a lot of soon-too-blossom youth in the system like the LA Kings or Columbus Blue Jackets have to get excited about either.

Fletch has nothing more to make that assumption on than the Leafs' history and status as a business entity that is trying to trade on the last remnants of the cache given it by Foster Hewitt, Conn Smythe and Darryl Sitter's 10 point night. The corporate level chaos at MLSE makes Leaf fans look fondly back on the Harold Ballard days and puts the Leafs in a situation where a marquee calibre GM will be the only one to steer clear of the T-boned egos of Larry Tanenbaum and Richard Peddie. The attitude toward filling the GM position is part of the same culture that has insisted that the Leafs have to make a big splash because they are the Leafs. If you want a big splash, just look back on the cannonball that the past season turned into. Before too long the Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft deal will be an even more vivid reminder of the Leafs' refusal to bite the bullet and rebuild from within.

Rather than trying to make a big splash and falling for the brain-addling allure of Leafcentric thinking, it is time for Fletcher and the higher-ups at MLSE to go with a solid hockey guy who has a clear vision of what is the best way to build the Leafs franchise and stick to it. The past dreams of getting Scotty Bowman, or the current obsession with Brian Burke are pipedreams and the Nonis-will-beget-Burke dream is evidence of how badly hung up people are on the big name. The Leafs have to get over themselves and their star f***ing and get on with the fundamentals of presenting a competitive team.

Reality check!

If the egos at MLSE were aligned... If... If... the leafs might be well served by someone like Vancouver's Steve Tambellini or Detroit's Jim Nill or someone else who has served a similar apprenticeship and is ready to take the next step. Won't happen though.

Maurice fired! (Lucky Bugger)

Paul Maurice has finally been relieved of his duties as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He probably will not get a fair assessment for his efforts in TO but he did quite well despite the limited supporting cast. He has a great deal to offer a team and I'm certain that he will land on his feet. He will certainly end up in a better place. I'm not sure if he will get a seat on the NHL coaching carousel this summer and end up in Florida or Atlanta for instance for the start of the 2008-09 season - there are too many Dale Hunters and Randy Cunneyworths out there at the moment - but perhaps he'll do the same as he did post Carolina. A bit of TV work, and eventually an AHL seat while he waits for his next shot.

If you see him, buy him a beer for me.

(Hmmm, I wonder if this was meant to coincide with the slow hockey news day for TSN and G&M.)

Semi Final Preview

I would have to say that the finals will be a lot closer than some might imagine. The smart money would likely be on a Wings-Penguins finals but there are reasons to give the underdogs their day. Question marks surround all four goalies as none of them has that sparkling playoff resume that adds that mystique that gets into an opponents heads.

Martin Biron might have the fewest questions because of his shorter resume. At the other end of the rink, Marc-Andre Fleury will be under closer scrutiny. He has fared well so far in the playoffs but the pressure will be up a little higher this time around. Having failed to close the deal in the World Junior Championships in 2005, the QMJHL title or a Memorial Cup, there will be questions in his own head about whether or not he can carry the Pens all the way this time around. His game has improved and he is far more solid than he was before his ankle injury but his focus and his ability to handle the pressure remains untested.

In the west, Chris Osgood has made great strides this year in overtaking the reality show that is Dominik Hasek. While he had a regular season good enough to warrant an appearance in the All Star Game and a contract extension with the Wings (at a bargain, I might add) there are still questions if only because he has been considered a back-up for so long or because he has had his share of playoff failures. Marty Turco is all too familiar with that but has done a great deal in this post-season to match his elite regular season performance.

Both the Flyers and Stars head into the series with the hotter goalies and the reputation to play a more physical game. I have a funny feeling that one of them will actually make it to the finals but I can't say which one.

In the saw it coming category: Mike Richards will likely be captain of the Flyers next year. His play through this year's post-season has solidified his leadership credentials on the team.

Sharks Stew

During the epic Game 6 of the Dallas-San Jose series there was a moment when the camera lingered on Ron Wilson for a while and then switched to Dave Tippett. The thought crossed my mind that whoever lost the game would be in lined for the Atlanta Thrashers position. As coaches of perennially fragile playoff teams there would be a lot of pressure on both men to "get somewhere" during the playoffs and whoever did was certain to face the axe. Granted, Tippett was probably in a bit less trouble going in than Wilson was. He had managed to get the Stars into the second round for once and Marty Turco finally had a playoff performance worthy of his regular seasons. He did that in 2007 against the Canucks but just didn't stand on his head long enough to get a 4th shutout against Luongo. But I digress.

Even with a quadruple OT loss, the Sharks were a disaster and for some reason have a hard time finding their adrenal gland during the playoffs. They occasionally brushed up against it during the first round against Calgary and let themselves be pushed to 7 games by a team far too inconsistent for its own good. The struggles in the second round might be underplayed by commenting on how many games went to OT but that kind of talk is reserved for also-rans who pretend to be satisfied with moral victories. Leadership was dearly lacking in San Jose and through 13 games of playoff hockey it seemed that the Sharks were intent to proceed on their Stanley Cup run as they did through their regular season - they thought they would just turn it on when they had to. Up until February, there were questions about when the real Sharks were going to show up and dominate the way everyone anticipated. After seeing the performance in the playoffs it might be reasonable to argue that it was the real Sharks that we saw from October to February.

There is, by no means, a shortage of talent on the Sharks roster, but there is a feeling that some of the players who made such splashy arrivals in the NHL had taken a step backward. Christian Ehrhoff, and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic for starters did not seem to be playing at the level that they did a year earlier. Joe Pavelski had a great playoff but maybe he was one of the few who got the memo that the regular season was behind them.

A lot of pressure will fall on Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau for how things went and there will be questions about the chemistry of the team with the two of them leading the team and centring the top two lines. Marleau might just be trade bait and this is a team that might need more than a bit of tinkering and trade deadline bolstering to shake them out of their doldrums. Ron Wilson is likely the safest experiment with the chemistry of the team, but I'd recommend that Doug Wilson be confident enough with his pipeline of talent to make bolder moves. Marleau is the likely candidate as he is in as many trade rumours and Ron Wilson firing rumours and a bold move along the lines of the Sundin for Clark trade might be just what the Sharks need. Let Marleau clearly establish himself as a first line centre somewhere else and bring in a grittier sparkplug in the mold of a younger Mike Ricci. The Sharks as they hang together right now will be far too fragile come next April and Doug Wilson's going to be the next one on the hot seat.

However, I suspect Doug Wilson will tread gingerly and not make such a bold move. He'll even pass on adding UFA wonderpest Sean Avery, who has just the edge the Sharks need.