NHL Headlines 3/18/08

Pretty sad that I'm about 99% Irish and couldn't celebrate my heritage yesterday because I had to work.

Oh well, that's how it goes I suppose being in the "real world" and out making it on my own.

Let's get into what's going on in the world of pucks.

Hatcher, Umberger Out For Stretch Run

Should the Flyers hold on and make the playoffs as the 8-seed they will be without the slow-footed Derian Hatcher. It was announced that Hatcher is out for the season with a broken right tibia.

Also as another blow to the Flyers is being without R.J. Umberger who will miss at least the next two weeks with a strained MCL.

At this point I think the bubble has burst on the Flyers. They've had too many injuries this season and shown that the guys they have in their farm system are not quite ready to play in the NHL. I give them a lot of credit for turning the franchise around after finishing last in the entire league last year though.

The loss of Umberger is going to be felt mainly in their last two games of the season. They play a home and home with the Penguins. Any of you Flyer or Penguins fans know that Umberger was a big reason why the Flyers were 4-0 to start the series against Pittsburgh this season.

Canucks Win 3-1 Over Coyotes

I'm not one to comment much on individual games every day, but this was a huge win for the Canucks.

Heading into last night's game the Canucks were the 8-seed and had a five-point lead on the Coyotes who are trying to make the playoffs for the first time under Wayne Gretzky.

Henrik Sedin scored a pair of goals, which got my fantasy team off to a great start against Cheech this week. What also helped in terms of my match-up was that Cheech has Ilya Bryzgalov who took the loss and gave up three goals. Hooray for me.

As a result of the win last night, the Canucks are now the 7-seed in the Western Conference. They are tied with the Colorado Avalanche, but hold the the tie-breaker over them.

Enjoy these highlights from our good friends at NHL.com.



Halak Looking To Take Over No. 1 Role

You have got to be kidding me! I'm going a little off topic here and explaining why this might annoy me over the next couple weeks.

As I said yesterday, it's playoff time in my fantasy league. All year long I've had Ray Emery waiting patiently (by this I mean cursing him out at least twice a week) to return to form. It hasn't happened and now Martin Gerber is the clear No. 1 heading into the playoffs.

This gave me the excuse I needed to drop him and somehow Carey Price was available on the free agent list. I don't know how, but I took it as a sign from the fantasy gods.

Flash forward to this past Saturday in what was supposed to be Price's glorious debut for me. Wrong. Three hours before the game TSN.ca informs me that Halak is getting the nod.

Fine, Price can't start them all. I get that. Of course Halak goes on to pitch a shutout and now I'm reading this junk that he may contend for the starting role. He'll be in net tonight again so if you yourself have Price and have other options in net tonight, put them in.

Okposo To Make NHL Debut Tonight

Get used to the name Kyle Okposo especially if you're an Islanders fan.

I'm sure this isn't the scenario he wanted to make his debut in, but he's going to play up with the big boys for the rest of the season to get a taste of the NHL.

This move is the equivalent o waving the white flag on the season. I was actually surprised that the Islanders were as competitive as they were for most of the season and looked as if they would make the playoffs after ripping off six straight wins in February. What killed that was going 2-9 over the next 11 games. Better luck next year boys, but until then enjoy watching Okposo.

The kid is only 19-years-old, but is the best prospect the Islanders have right now.

He will make his debut tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

That's going to do it for the headlines today. It's a pretty quiet day s far. If anything comes up, you know I'll be commenting on it so keep checking back.

Until next time, thanks for reading!