The Calgary Flames are in the midst of a wholesale change on the fly. The guard is changing from old to new in Calgary. Its been that way since last march when long time Flames captain Jarome Iginla left town to live out his lifelong quest to win the Stanley Cup. Not surprisingly, Mikka Kiprusoff announced his retirement from the NHL earlier this week. Veteran Cory Sarich left to pursue a Cup in Denver with the Avs.
The winds of change have been blowing through Calgary for some time now.Out with the old, in with the new.
The show must go on. New leaders must emerge and direct the Flames through their rebuilding process. The front office underwent an extreme makeover two weeks ago when former Leafs and Canucks GM Brian Burke joined the front office of the Flames. Hirin symbolizes Flames ownership's impatience with the slow turnaround that the Flames have been plodding through the past four seasons under GM Jay Feaster. The owners wanted change. They got a huge agent of change in Burke.
The leadership group of the Flames has some new faces in it now. be naming a new captain in the next couple of weeks. There are a few noteworthy, deserving players who can lead the group through this transitional period. They'll get their leadership through committee, however, they'll need one man to wear the "C". I'm anointing 29 year old D Mark Giordano to be the next captain of the Calgary Flames.
Giordano is entering his 7th season in Calgary. He's been there through the good times and the bad. He's a blue collar guy who works hard. He doesn't make excuses. He's all about accountability. He learned from his long time teammate Iginla that the best leaders are not not cheerleaders in the room. The best NHL leaders are the ones that let their on ice performances do their speaking for them. in Giordano's case, its blocking shots, clearing the crease, making one tape to tape pass to breakout of the zone, getting point shots through to the enemy net, and being hard on the back check.
Giordano does it all, and he does it with consistency, game after game. Win or lose, Giordano is playing the same brand of intensely smart hockey. Thats contagious on the bench and in the room. The Flames have a bunch of new kids and prospects who are looking to make the team this season. They have young vets too who need guidance and a positive role model to pattern their games after. Thats why I am a big supporter and believer in Mark Giordano for Flames captain.
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I recently spoke with former Sabres D Robyn Regehr when he was back in Buffalo packing up his home to prepare it to be listed and sold. His departure from Buffalo was rather abrupt last March. He and his family flew to the other side of the country and began the new chapter in their lives. He knew that his Buffalo residence needed to be packed and processed. Duty called.
In mid-Augyst, Regehr walked into the rink in Buffalo with his black leather LA Kings equipment bag. He told me about how much he and his wife love living near the beach in Southern California. He gushed about his teammates and how easily he was able to assimilate and adapt to his new hockey home. He also talked about the time that he spent this summer at his home in Saskatchewan. I asked him how his off season workouts were going. He paused and said that he'd just begun the real heavy lifting. That was mid-August. Understandable. Regehr was a holy terror on the ice for his Kings in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He crushed the bones of every enemy forward who entered his d zone.
I complimented Regehr on his aggressive and heroic play in the Kings' playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. By far, that was the most physically demanding and brutally competitive series that I watched in the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. Regehr smiled. He was born to play that bone crushing brand of hockey.
According to
LA Kings Insider, Regehr went under the knife earlier this summer to remove the bursa sac in his elbow. Such a nagging injury had caused him chronic discomfort. Its hard for a banger like Regehr to play the physical brand of hockey with an injured wing. Regehr played through the nagging pain and discomfort, however, an infection set in.
The injury occurred when Regehr suffered a cut that gradually became infected during the Kings' playoff run. Once the troublesome bursa was removed from his elbow, Regehr was forced to take intravenous fluids that kept him in Los Angeles for an additional two weeks under the care of a nurse.
Regehr talked about his elbow issue at Day 2 of Kings training camp on Friday.
“It wasn’t really an issue in the first two rounds. By the third round it was getting pretty bad, and having to get it aspirated a lot and deal with it. That way it was getting pretty serious because of how bad the infection had gotten, so it was pretty uncomfortable by then,” Regehr said. “I was very glad when it was able to be taken care of, and like the trainer Chris Kingsley said to me, ‘I hope we never have to deal with that again.’”
His head coach Sutter shed light on just how Regehr injured himself.
“He had his nose broken in the St. Louis series, and then he got cut in warmup (in Game 2 of the Chicago series), and through that he was playing with the elbow, and then it was just getting worse,” Sutter said. “Both him and Greener, when you think about it, after their surgeries, they had two weeks carrying a friggin bottle around with them. You know, they had the nurse there every day for two weeks after the surgery.”
“Once I was cleared and able to do things, it was just game-on and go as hard as you can,” Regehr said.
His preparation now continues into the first week of training camp.
“The things that we’re working on are really just a very big refresher course on all the things that we want to do as a team,” he said. “So we’re going through everything from defensive zone coverage to neutral zone, and tomorrow we’re going to be going over the forecheck and things like that. Special teams, we’re watching video, we’re trying to execute in the drills out on the ice to just get those things ingrained so we don’t have to think about it. You just go out there and do them. That’s the way you want to be. You want to have those so they’re just natural, and you really don’t have to go out there and say, ‘What do I have to do? Where do I have to be?’ – anything like that. You just know. I think that the team that is the best at doing that will have a good start, and a good start is very important.”
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e are twenty something NHL top tier players who are due to become unrestricted free agents next July including: Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Steve Ott, Henrik Lundqvist, Phil Kessel, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, The Sedins, Dion Phaneuf .
Colorado Avalanche veteran Paul Stastny is in the 2014 UFA to be group. He's in the final year of his five year, $33 million contract. His $6.6 million cap hit makes him the object of trade speculation on a daily basis. The Avs locked up young studs Landeskog and Duchene with long term extensions this summer. Stastny has not spoken with the Avs about an extension.
Stastny is entering his eight season with the Avs. He'll be 28 on December 27. Injuries and inconsistent play have plagued Stastny is recent years. he burst on the scene in 2006-07 and recorded 78 points. He followed that up with seasons of 71 points, 36 points, 79 points, 57 points, 53 points, and 24 points.
The onus rests squarely on Stastny's broad shoulders to find his scoring ways, otherwise, he may be looking for a new NHL team to play for.
Stastny spoke with Adrian Dater of the Denver Post about a recent meeting that he had with his head coach / VP of Hockey Operations, Patrick Roy.
"It was good. It was a lot better than I thought it would be, to be honest," said Stastny, whose salary is $6.5 million. "I thought it might just be kind of formal, just basic, but we went into details about a lot of things, about things he wants from me and from our team. After I got to see what he wants, it's like a small picture inside a big picture. There's a lot of things we haven't done in the past that he sees, that some other guys would have seen as well, that he wants to do and kind of emphasize on certain things, which to me is pretty important. Things that play to our strength, what we do best."
Asked what those things are, Stastny said: "Our puck possession, our forwards. We've got three lines that can play with anybody and our fourth line's actually good too. Possession-wise, you've got dynamic guys on each line ... and with that you'll have two good power-play units as well. With that, you'll kind of want everyone to do well. Everyone's sick of losing."
Stastny has taken his share of criticism for the Avs' failure to make the playoffs three of the past four years. His point production has declined in each of those years, despite plenty of ice time as a top-six forward.
But Stastny believes the statistics haven't told the whole story.
"I think I'm way better than I was my first couple years," Stastny said. "Whether I've played with different guys or different systems, the numbers don't show it, but I feel better, that's the most important thing, and sometimes you've just got to get back to believing in yourself. I expect to be a point-a-game player when I'm playing with confidence.
"
Roy has outlined his expectations of Stastny. Now its time for the center to produce to the levels that his head coach is holding him accountable for.
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Whoever said there's no violence at NHL training camps anymore was dead wrong.
Check out veteran D Mike Komisarek hammering young buck Blanchard at Carolina Hurricanes training camp on Friday. Click the link (below) and fast forward to the 1:21 mark of the video. Komisarek takes exception to Blanchard's stick work , then tossed the mitts with the youngster. I think that Blanchard get the better of the elder Komisarek.
Fights are rare in today's training camps. Coaches tell their soldiers to save their anger and to take it out on enemies in other colored sweaters during exhibition games. Back in the day, training camp fights were the order of the day. guys would literally fight to retain their jobs and to prove their worth to their coaches and GM.
The cranky Canes visit Buffalo on September 19. Maybe the Sabres will want to get an explanation from Reggie Sekera for his "everything is better than Buffalo" smack that he laid down earlier this week.
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Former Sabres goalie Marty Biron has had better weeks in his esteemed NHL career.
First and foremost, Biron was forced to miss the first two days of training camp while he was home with his family in suburban Buffalo dealing with a undisclosed "personal matter".
Then, he was given the news that his new head coach Alain Vigneault and GM Glen Sather had signed veteran UFA backup tender "Moose" Hedberg to a training camp tryout contract.
Biron has been Hank Lundqvist's under study on Broadway for the past two seasons.
On Friday, Marty skated with his Rangers teammates for the first time. Biron spoke with the media after the practice.
“The organization has to do what it thinks is best,” said Biron.
“Moose (Hedberg) is a great guy, we talked this morning, but I’m here.
“Whatever I need to do, I’m going to do. I’m 100 percent ready to compete.”
Is there a backup goalie controversy in Gotham?
Alain Vigneault confirmed as much when he met with the NY media on Friday.
“I would say yes in the sense that we invited Hedberg at the last minute, and if we brought him in, obviously we’re going to give him a chance.....Marty is aware of it. We had a discussion.”
Vigneault added that due to the fact that Henrik Lundqvist is going to be starting for Team Sweden at the Sochi Olympics in February, his backup is going to have to be able to win games.
“In an Olympic year, with the number of four-games-in-six nights and three-games-in-four-nights on the schedule, you need a backup to play, whether it’s 15 or 20 games, and win us some games,” Vigneault said. “That’s part of the equation to get into the playoffs and to be able to have a (number one) goaltender come playoff time that has some energy and jump in his legs.”
The 36 year old Biron was 2-2-1 last season. He posted a 12-6-2 record in 2011-12, when he posted respectable numbers with a 2.45 GAA and .903 save%.
The 40 year old Hedberg served as Marty Brodeur's backup in New Jersey the past three seasons. He struggled to a 6-10-3 record with an .883 save % and a 2.76 GAA in 2013. He was 17-7-3 with a 2.22 GAA and .917 save % in 2011-12. "Moose" became expendable to the Devils when GM Lou Lamoriello traded from Corey Shcneider at the NHL Entry draft in Newark on June 30th.
I like Marty's chances to fight off the "Moose" and to retain his job.
Thanks, Rangers.com 
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