Welcome to The Lowdown’s live blog of the 2009 NHL Trade Deadline. While most other leagues see their trade deadline come and go with relatively little fanfare, in Canada, the NHL deadline day is almost like a national holiday. All three Canadian sports networks will cancel their regularly scheduled programming and have live coverage of the deadline from 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning through to at least 5:00. Now I know that nothing much happens until about 10:00 when it seems that the West Coast GMs wake up and then it’s game on.
Keep refreshing this page throughout the day to keep up with all the breaking news and rumours. Continue reading →
Breaking news: The Pittsburgh Penguins trade Ryan Whitney to the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi.
Whitney is considered one of the best young defensemen in the game today and has the potential to be a first-pair defenseman in the future. The fact that he was traded is not surprising because the return of Sergei Gonchar to the Pens’ lineup left Pittsburgh with a surplus of blueliners. With the Pens looking (again) for a winger for Crosby, Whitney was seen as likely to get the best return in a trade. With Scott Niedermayer expected to spend at most one more season in the NHL, this is Anaheim’s long-term solution.
Kunitz isn’t the biggest name in the league and probably not the biggest name that the Pens could have received if they pushed the issue. In his favour, Kunitz is a decent goal scorer with a career high of 25 goals in a season. Playing with Crosby or Malkin, that number should go up but Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko (who came to Pittsburgh this season) haven’t thrived playing with those superstars (both are on pace to score less than 40 points each). As for Tangradi, he’s been rated as the second best prospect in the Ducks’ farm system.
My early pick for trade winner: The Ducks
This past off-season, defensemen were paid a huge premium with even second pair defensemen getting contracts in the $4 million per season range. Being able to get a top player through 2013 for $4 million per year is a great spot for the perpetually salary cap challenged Ducks to be in.
NY Rangers 1 @ Toronto 2 (SO) – It wasn’t the prettiest game ever and neither team really deserved to win but Nikolai Kulemin’s shootout goal was all the Make Believes needed for two points. New Rangers coach John Tortorella was already calling out his team after one game saying that they needed better conditioning. Well, that’s one way to get them on your side.
NY Islanders 0 @ Pittsburgh 1 – Petr Sykora scored with less than 3 minutes left in the game to prove that the Pens don’t need Sidney Crosby to compete. They just need him to have any jump. Without Sid the Kid, the Pens played down to the level of the cellar-dwelling Islanders and were lucky to escape with a win.
Los Angeles 0 @ Philadelphia 2 – In another exhibition of an offensive master class, Jeff Carter scored in a scramble in front and Simon Gagne scored an empty netter to pickup two points for the Flyers. Martin Biron made 34 saves for his 25th career shutout.
San Jose 1 @ Detroit 4 – Henrik Zetterberg scored a highlight real goal while short handed to put the dagger to the Sharks. In a game that was being hyped for the return of super villain Claude Lemieux’s return to Detroit, there were no major incidents involving the cheap-shotting one. The win moves the Wings within 3 points of the Sharks for top spot in the West but the Sharks still have two games in hand. As a bonus, here’s that Zetterberg goal.
I’m trying the day-long blogging thing again. If you have any tips, send them in to thelowdown@live.ca.
The Sens traded for secondary scoring but Mike Comrie’s tougher half is in the stands. (Us Magazine) Carrie Underwood mocks Duff’s attempts to make a spectacle of herself at a hockey game. (YouTube)
Carlos Delgado wants your bank account information. (Sports Rubbish)
While most teams are freezing ticket prices, the Make Believes continue to gouge their fans. (CNBC)
The prosecutor changes the charges in The Pirate Bay trial. It’s still the most important trial in the history of the interweb. (The Guardian)
Bud Selig is being paid $17 million to run baseball into the ground while Roger Goodell is getting paid less and willing to take a 20% pay cut. (Reuters)
ESPN may contribute most of Disney’s total revenue but costs are expected to go up. (Wall Street Journal)
As a door slowly closes on Williams, a window opens for the F1 team formerly known as Honda. (Daily Telegraph)
You may not have heard but Tiger played a round of golf yesterday. (Sky Sports)
Spiderman is going to Broadway with Bono and The Edge. (CBC)
In tribute of Steven Page leaving the Barenaked Ladies (Toronto Star), here’s BNL butchering The Hockey Theme.
Well, it might have been passable without the lyrics. Sorry for ruining your morning with that.
Not the greatest name ever but it’ll do for now. Remember, that’s what the comment form is for.
Montreal 3 @ Washington 4 (SO) — Alex Ovechkin decided he was getting bored of the same old, same old goals. Last night, he stole the puck from Roman Hamrlik, backhand passed it to himself off the boards, broke in, got tripped, and proceeded to score from his back in what is the goal of the year. Meanwhile, the Habs are struggling to keep pace in the Eastern Conference. And as a bonus, here’s that Ovi goal.
NY Islanders 1 @ NY Rangers 3 — I don’t know how to summarize a straight-forward game like this one. Does “The win moves the Rangers one point ahead of the Habs in the standings” work? How about “Chris Drury had three assists”?
Nashville 2 @ Detroit 6 — A lesson for the Preds and the rest of the NHL: Don’t take penalties against the Red Wings. The Wings went 5/6 with the man advantage to decimate Nashville. Nic Lidstrom and Johan Franzen (free agent in the summer) both had a pair of goals.
St. Louis 3 @ Columbus 4 — The Blue Jackets’ win puts them six games above .500 in franchise history and they currently sit 6th in the West. They nearly coughed it up by giving up 2 goals late in the third but managed to hold on. The Jackets are the only team in the NHL not to have made the playoffs in franchise history. Prepare to hear that endlessly for the next two months.
Los Angeles 4 @ Anaheim 3 — Yeah, they’re free… Free fallin’! The Ducks have gone from contenders to pretenders over the last month and cemented that status with a loss to last year’s cellar-dwelling Kings. Jonathan Quick had 28 saves for the win. Look for him to suit up in the red, white, and blue in Van-city next February.
The Lowdown 