5+Game with Danny Boome 08 /12/09
5+ Game with Danny Boome is the new Article and Blog for Powerplay magazine. The article will cover the 5 main events of the week – games, trades, players, coaches – and anything else that affects the NHL community.
5+Game 16th Edition
Danny Boome 08/12/09
After weeks of speculation Philly fire coach Stevens, Montreal gets bought out, The Blackhawk’s sign young guns to big extensions, OV is suspended for 2 games and LA gets the draft, all in this weeks 5+Game!!
Stevens gets the chop as Philly looks for a new direction: The Philadelphia Flyers replaced coach John Stevens with Peter Laviolette on Friday after the team was shut out in consecutive games. Laviolette led the Carolina Hurricanes to their only Stanley Cup title in 2006. He was fired in December 2008 and was still under contract.
Laviolette, who also coached the New York Islanders for two seasons, was 167-130-30 in his four-plus seasons with Carolina. Stevens, who had come under scrutiny the past week, realized the Flyers were in serious trouble.”Yeah, there’s big-time concerns, of course there is,” Stevens said Thursday. “I mean, we’re losing hockey games.”
Philadelphia’s GM Paul Holmgren knew after the latest loss he needed to make a change and he told Stevens after Friday’s practice.
“It’s fair to say I probably caught him off guard a little bit,” Holmgren said.
Les Canadiens are sold to an old friend: With their 100th anniversary only days away, the Montreal Canadiens are under new ownership, led by a familiar name with city roots more than twice the team’s age. The Molson family won approval of their purchase of the storied franchise from the NHL board of governors Tuesday, becoming the fourth group of Molson’s to own the club since the 1950s.
Geoff Molson and brothers Andrew and Justin are the lead investors in a partnership group that reportedly paid $575 million for the Canadiens, the Bell Centre — the team’s 21,273-seat downtown arena — and the Gillett Entertainment Group, a concert promotion company. “We’re really proud to be here today as the new owners,” said Geoff Molson, who will be the chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re part of the seventh generation of the Molson family that has been in this city for 223 years. We’re young and we’re ambitious and we’re really looking forward to being part of this.”
Towes Kane and Keith all sign new deals: In the end it was Jonathan Towes, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith who wanted to share this experience with each other. Signing long-term deals on the same day not only ensures the Chicago Blackhawks will have a talented core for years, but also sends a message.
Keith signed for 13 years, $72 million — longer than any player in Blackhawks history. Toews and Kane re-signed for five years, at more than $6 million a season. General manager Stan Bowman finished the deals on the recent road trip, seeing the players respective agents, Final details were hammered out with the agents and at the same time the league was keeping a close eye on things to make sure everything fit under Collective Bargaining Agreement rules. The Hawks did not need to move a salary in order to announce these extensions, but that won’t be the case this off-season.
Contract Renewal Press Conference
OV Suspended! The league’s two-time reigning MVP was not in the best of moods Wednesday as he discussed his first NHL suspension, levied because of his knee-to-knee hit on Tim Gleason in Washington’s win over Carolina two days earlier.
Ovechkin was ejected for kneeing Gleason, the second time in less than a week he had been thrown out of a game because of a dangerous hit. Even Ovechkin was thankful that he skated away with only a sore right knee. He’ll be docked $98,844.16 in salary for the suspension and is again the center of a debate over whether the best player in the world could wreck his career by playing such a physical game. “I’m not going to change anything,” Ovechkin said.
The hit< It kinds of reminds me of Gazza really bad tackle>
The Interview After the suspension
LA is first pick for the draft: The 2010 NHL draft will be held in Los Angeles June 25-26, marking the first time in its 46-year history that the event will be held in California. The NHL announced Friday that the Los Angeles Kings will host the draft at Staples Center. NHL Central Scouting reported Plymouth Whalers center Tyler Seguin the top OHL prospect in preliminary rankings released by last month.
Game
Game On: Montreal Canadiens finally finished their 100th Anniversary celebrations with a fantastic legends warm up, the crowed was surprised as the top 20 players of the last 40yrs came out for a skate!
Legends one and all!
Who’s got game? Mike Cammalleri’s second-period hat trick powered Montreal to a 5-1 victory over the rival Boston Bruins in front of a sellout crowd. Eric Cole notched his sixth career hat trick as Carolina defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-3. Sometimes goaltenders need to win games for their teams and that’s exactly what Kiprusoff did tonight for the Flames as they beat San Jose 2-1.
Cammalleri’s Hat-trick
Who’s not got game? The NHL has suspended Flyers forward Dan Carcillo four games for his role in a fight that earned him a whopping 19 penalty minutes and a game misconduct. Carcillo was tagged with 2 minutes for crosschecking, 2 minutes for instigation, 5 minutes for fighting, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct in Philadelphia’s 8-2 loss.
Ouch!! One punch and soooo long sucker!
Game of the week: Hate to go on, but what a way to celebrate being 100 years old by beating your arch nemeses! Montreal 5- Boston 1!
What game are you playing @? NHL Commissionaire Gary Bettman is smoke screening the leagues problems by teasing folks about expansion plans in Canada, “What?” Only 3 months ago he said it wasn’t at all possible
