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The Minnesota Wild will have to find ways to win games without their star forward Zach Parise, who will miss his third straight game tonight while he nurses his nasty foot injury. The Wild have placed Parise on injured reserve and he will not be back on the ice for some time. He tried to gut it out and play with pain and discomfort, however, its hard to skate like a game-breaker when an injured foot takes away one's mobility .
Michael Russo from the Star Tribune offers this update on the seriousness of Parise's injury:
Zach Parise continues to work hard off the ice but is not allowed to be on it. I don’t think we’re going to see him for awhile. I don’t know what awhile means, but I hear the latest MRI he had showed a fracture in his foot that didn’t show up the first time around.Typically stress fractures take four to six weeks. Knowing Parise, it won’t take that long and this shouldn’t affect his Olympic status, but coach Mike Yeo has changed his tune the past few days and stopped calling it day-to-day.
“We’ve got to keep him off the ice until it starts to feel better and then we might have to keep him off a little bit longer,… Yeo said this morning. “We just have make sure he gets a full opportunity to heal. It’s a long season and we need him to have the opportunity to go out and perform and compete at the level that he’s capable of.
“He’s been really grinding it out there. He’s such a competitor, he wants to be in the lineup and it’s been extremely difficult for him. We have to give him a lot of credit for that, but at the same time, we’ve got to make sure he gets better.…
Keep an eye on Thomas Vanek. The Islanders are playing the Wild today.
The Wild might want to trade for Vanek now, rather than wait to sign him as a UFA on July 4. The Wild have $3.5 million in cap space available to make a deal today.
Vanek has approximately $3.5 million remaining on his 2013-14 contract. He'll be UFA on July 4.
Parise is a left winger. Vanek is a left winger.
Imagine a scenario where a Minnesota top line of Vanek-Koivu-Pominville kept the Wild afloat while Parise sits out for 4-6 weeks.
The Wild enter tonight's game with the Islanders in 9th place in the ultra-competitive Western Conference standings, one point ahead of 10th place Dallas and only 6 points ahead of 11th place Winnipeg.
The Wild can ill afford to have a 5-6 game winless streak right now. Their season hangs in the balance. If I'm Fletcher, I call Garth Snow and I make him an offer that he can't refuse for Vanek. The Wild are 1-8-1 in their past 10 road games. They can't sit idly by and wait for Parise to pull his Superman cape back on and save the day. What if he truly is out for 6 weeks?
The Islanders are going nowhere fast. They sit in 14th place in the East (29 points), just five points better than last place Buffalo.
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I applaud the Team Canada coaching and management staff. The Jake Paterson goaltending experiment appears to be over. Zach Fucale will start
Paterson was the starter in Canada's previous two games. They trounced Germany, then were embarrassed in the shootout on Saturday by the Czech Republic.
Paterson has been sub-par with his 3.36 GAA and less than acceptable .867 save %.
Fucale, who won the 2013 Memorial Cup for the Halifax Mooseheads ( Drouin and MacKinnon helped, too) will be making his first appearance for Team Canada at the WJC in Malmo, Sweden. Fucale (2013 2nd rounder Montreal) is 19-7-1 with a 2.51 GAA and .902 save % for the Halifax Mooseheads. Fucale is a clone of his Canadiens teammate Carey Price: big, fast, and athletic.
Team Canada head coach Brent Sutter told Canadian Press that Fucale may have a chance to earn additional starts with a strong game against Slovakia.
"We'll see how he plays and we'll determine that after the game," said Sutter. "I'm taking it game to game. I haven't said who's going to be our number one. We have a plan in place and we'll see how it unfolds."
My money is on Sutter riding Fucale straight on through to the end of this high-pressure WJC tourney. If Paterson blinked first vs. the Czechs, what will he do against USA? Russia? Sweden?
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By far, my favorite moment in this week's HBO "24/7" series is this exchange between NY Islanders tough guy Matt Martin and Ryan Miller's bro, Drew.
Drew, like Ryan and father Dean, has premature grey hair.
My second favorite moment from this week's "24/7"? Todd Bertuzzi smoking Jonathon Bernier's water bottle, prompting David Clarkson to lose his mind. The grizzled vet "Big Bert" got the exact reaction that he was looking for. Clarkson couldn't resist eating the cheese out of Bert's mousetrap.
My third and final favorite moment from this week's "24/7" is is gem.
Dan Cleary asks Siri who "Magic Man" is. She nailed it. Pavel Freakin Datsyuk!
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The Pittsburgh Penguins have been a remarkable story this season.
Sidney Crosby has been their savior. Thankfully he and Chris Kunitz are still healthy.
Crosby's Crew enters today's action sitting high atop the Eastern Conference standings with 57 points. They have accumulated 23 wins in their first 40 games played (11 losses, 1 OT loss). Their +34 goal differential is among the top three in the NHL.
Crosby has scored 21 goals and has chipped In 34 assists in 40 games played.
Chris Kunitz has upped his game tremendously, to the point where he is considered by many observers to be a lock to represent Canada at the Sochi Olympics. Kunitz has scored 19 goals and has 20 assists in 40 games played.
Despite being ravaged by injuries to several key players like Geno Malkin, James Neal, Kris Letang, Paul Martin, Rob Scuderi and Brooks Orpik, the Pens have persevered and have overcome long odds to remain competitive. On most nights in the past month, the Penguins roster resembles the Scranton-Wilkes Barre AHL affiiliate.
Take a look at the Pens' lines and D from their Saturday practice in CBUS:
Kunitz-Crosby-Vitale Conner-Jokinen-Neal Gibbons-Sutter-Kobasew Glass-Sill-Adams
Orpik-Engelland Niskanen-Maatta Despres-Bortuzzo Scuderi-Dumoulin
Things can only get better for the Pens. They need injured bodies to return to infuse experience and jam to their beat-up blue line.
Malkin and Scuderi are not ready to resume play, however, they may make their return in the next week.
On Friday, the Pens were dealt a crushing blow when Pascal Dupuis was placed on LTIR. He will have season ending knee surgery. Dupuis has been an unsung hero for the Pens. He does all of the little things correctly. He plays well five on five, plays the PK and PP. He's a puck possession guy who can light the lamp and play against the other team's top six. He's a glue guy. Now, he's been lost for the season and playoff.
Ray Shero will likely look at a rental LW to help his team to stay competitive in this most competitive juncture of the compressed NHL schedule.
Shero has $4.5 million in cap space, which means that he has more than enough money at his dospisal to rent Thomas Vanek or Matt Moulson for the rest of this season. Nearly 50% of Vanek's $7.14 million salary has been paid to him by Buffalo and the Islanders. Same of Moulson's $3.13 million contract.
Moulson has 13 goals and 13 assists this season. Vanek has 13 goals and 13 assists, too. Each are on their way to 30 goal seasons. Both are UFAs-to-be.
So, lets say Shero wants to rent one, or both of these prolific LWs. What will it cost him?
Compensation will be similar to that of the Jason Pominville trade:
A 1st and a 2nd rounder, plus two prospects.
Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher set the market for 30+ goal scorers when he traded to Buffalo the Wild's 1st and 2nd rounders, plus Matt Hackett and Johan Larsson in 2012 in exchange for 30 goal scorer Pominville.
That's the price of poker these days for 30+ goal scoring forwards.
Shero may have no other choice than to trade a ton of assets for a goal scorer.
If he doesn't, St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong might. The Blues lost their #1 LW Alex Steen to a concussion on Saturday. He's their leading scorer. He's out indefinitely.
Interesting days ahead.