Brother Buffalo
Big news for the Canucks' expansion brothers on Wednesday—Buffalo Sabres fans have finally gotten their wish. Darcy is fired, along with coach Ron Rolston.
In their place, Pat Lafontaine has been named as president of hockey operations, with Ted Nolan returning as interim head coach. Lafontaine will be leading the search for a new GM.
Nolan coached the Sabres for two tumultuous years in the late '90s and spent two years with the New York Islanders from 2006-08. Darcy Regier was initially hired as Buffalo's general manager in the summer of 1997, after Nolan's second season with the team. He offered the coach a one-year contract extension to return which Nolan rejected, ending his time with the Sabres.
Lafontaine was a star in Buffalo in the early 90s and has a great reputation as a person—but limited hockey management experience. I feel like the team is trying to build from the model that's working successfully in Colorado, though Joe Sakic spent two years with the Avalanche in a lesser role before being appointed to his current position.
The Sabres didn't get the jolt they wanted last year when they fired Lindy Ruff and replaced him with Ron Rolston. Will these changes be the first step back towards respectability?
Checking the Standings
With the Canucks sitting on the playoff bubble and a busy night around the NHL on Tuesday, here's a look at the mixed bag of Western Conference results that impact our team:
Los Angeles loses 3-2 in a shootout to Buffalo. Kings get a point to remain one back of Vancouver with two games in hand.
Colorado loses 2-1 to Carolina, just their third loss of the year. Anything can still happen on any given night...
Anaheim loses 3-2 to Florida, in regulation. See above.
Phoenix beats St. Louis in overtime. Bad result for the Canucks—Coyotes get two points to move four ahead of the Canucks with a game still in hand, while a single for the Blues moves them one point up on Vancouver, with four less games played.
San Jose beats Calgary in overtime. Another bad result for Vancouver—not so much because of the point for Calgary as because the Sharks' win moves them three ahead of the Canucks, with two games in hand, heading into Thursday's head-to-head matchup. It also snaps the San Jose losing streak.
After Tuesday's games, the Canucks remain fourth in the Pacific and cling to eighth in the conference.
Central Are No Slouches
The Pacific Division has received a great deal of attention for the strength of its teams, but the Central is right there as well. Colorado continues to play well but has now been caught at the top of the division by Chicago. The Hawks' 12-2-4 record isn't as lofty as their record-breaking start last year but it's not exactly a Stanley Cup hangover, either.
At the next rung, St. Louis and Minnesota are hanging at about the same level as the Canucks and Kings, with games in hand.
There will likely be some movement in the standings as the season wears on—the Wild seem to tank after Christmas almost every year once the injury bug hits. For now, we have nine worthy teams competing for eight Western Conference playoff spots.
Vancouver has only played one Central Division team so far this year, beating St. Louis in overtime at the end of their eastern road trip. The Canucks will see the Dallas Stars for the first time on Sunday, then host the 'Hawks at Rogers Arena on Saturday November 25. Vancouver plays four straight games against Central Division teams right before Christmas—another important stretch of the schedule.
Tradewinds
I posted a story on Bleacher Report yesterday ranking the 10 worst NHL teams of the past 10 years. Looking back, it was amazing to remember some of the game-changing trades from a decade ago, like when the 2003-04 Washington Capitals unloaded their top four players, including Jaromir Jagr and his $11 million salary, over the course of just a few months.
Teams are working under much tighter constraints within the salary cap, especially this year when most franchises are close to the ceiling.
Jason Botchford of The Province suggests that, in keeping with John Tortorella's "win now" philosophy, Vancouver should be looking to make a deal as soon as possible.
With an eye towards shoring up the forward ranks, Botch offers three suggestions: Steve Ott of Buffalo, Wayne Simmonds of Philadelphia and Marcel Goc of Florida.
All three play for struggling Eastern Conference teams that need to make changes, so their teams could be willing to play ball—though it's hard to know who'd sign off on a deal in Buffalo without a general manager in place.
More importantly, cap space makes it virtually impossible for the Canucks to deal. Capgeek.com estimates that Vancouver has just $600,000 in wiggle-room, so the Canucks would have to give up at least one real roster player to bring in any of these guys. The only guy on the team without a no-trade who makes more than $1.5 million is the un-tradable David Booth.
Alex Edler is a popular trade target here on the comment boards, but the guy is averaging 24:29 of ice time a game—the most of any Canucks' defenseman. Do you really want to give those minutes to Yannick Weber or Andrew Alberts?
I like Torts' urgency a lot—Vancouver doesn't have games to waste this season. But I can't see how Mike Gillis is going to find help up front, unless divine intervention finally struck David Booth during his conditioning stint in Utica.
What do you think? Is there a way to work a trade for one of these guys and if so, who would you like to see come Vancouver's way?
The Canucks practice today, then will be back in action at Rogers Arena on Thursday for their last meeting of the year against the Sharks. I'll be back then with a game preview.
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