Thoughts On Kovalchuk, Koivu & Eklund

I felt inspired by what I've been seeing around over the last couple days and felt compelled to comment on some things.

First, the Ilya Kovalchuk madness needs to stop. The speculation of where he'd sign has been going on since well before the UFA period opened on July 1.

As a Pens supporter, I would clearly like to see him leave the division and preferably the conference. His shot and quick release are lethal and seeing him six times a year is something I'd rather not experience.

That being said, his coming to the New Jersey Devils was NEVER the right move. For a guy who is known for his offense, why would a mind-numbingly, boring and defensive-minded team trade a king's ransom for a guy that turned down $100 million from his then-current team?

It's a huge risk and had they won the Stanley Cup this season, no one would have questioned it. However, the Devils got dominated in the first round and were hitting the golf course by the end of April.

Based on everything I've seen from the insiders and even Eklund, who thinks he's an insider, it's rather apparent he wants to go play in Los Angeles.

Can you blame the guy? Jack Johnson, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar etc. Hell, I'd even consider coming out of a self-induced retirement from playing hockey to have a go with those three guys.

On top of that, the Kings clearly want Kovalchuk, so what the hell is taking so long in hammering out a contract?

This is bordering on middle school dance behavior where you tell your friend to go ask the cute girl if she'd dance with you because you're too afraid of rejection in front of the entire school and the pressure is too high with high school just around the corner and if she says no, the next four years of your life could be worse than Alexandre Daigle's career, but if she says yes, the whole student body will respect you and you'll be a Greek god for all of high school.

(Gotta love Google image search)

Wow....that got a little out of hand, but anyway.

The Kings and the Kovalchuk camp want to get a deal done. Plain and simple. So get the damn thing done so the rest of the league can get back to retooling their rosters and infuriating their fan bases by making awful moves.

Which brings me to my next point.

The Minnesota Wild signed Mikko Koivu to a seven-year $47.25 million contract extension that will keep him in Minny through the 2017-18 season.

I'd have a joke about that, but the contract is worth a hearty laugh if you're not a Wild fan.

If you are a Wild fan, it probably provokes a lovely stroll through traffic while wearing dark clothing at night.

How is Koivu worth that much money? Am I missing something?



That much money for a guy who has only barely eclipsed the 70-point plateau once in his career? Is he going to be playing against kids that size? If so, then it's a brilliant move.

UPDATE:

During a conversation via Twitter with OneSmugPug, he suggested one of my Tweets be added to this.

CaseySheaPens: @OneSmugPug and I know Koivu was having fun with those kids but I was hoping for Bob Probert to go Kool-Aid man through the boards and end it.

OneSmugPug has a blog of his own you should check out after you've read every word of every post for the last 3 years on this blog. Seriously, the time and effort will be worth it both here and with his work. It'll change your life.

You can also find him and Brian Metzer at From The Point, which might just be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Seriously, it's good stuff and made doubly better for Pens fans.

Now back to the ramblings:

Sure Koivu's a good player, but for that kind of money you could either sign another stud free agent or bring in a couple other guys to help round out the roster. I'd come up with names, but my head hurts trying to justify that kind of contract for a guy like him.

Finally, everybody's favorite rumor guy is publicly defending himself against the trolls of the Internet.

It's been rather apparent and proven by many people, that his site is something you read when you're having a bad day and you need a laugh.

I'm sure he knows some people on the inside and whatnot, but the guy is never right.

Ok sorry, my bad. According to HockeyBuzzHogwash.com, Eklund was right 3.1 percent of the time over a span of 17 months. During that time he was correct on 15 rumors and wrong on 457.

Here's the thing, people still flock to his site only to be led off the edge like a group of lemmings.

Most of these people are probably not hockey fans to begin with and don't know the more reliable sources like Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie and Spector to name a few.

Either way, no one's stopping you from going to it.

The problem persists when those uninformed individuals then post on their blogs, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts what this guy is saying as if it's truth. Sorry not truth, more like an e5. Yeah, that's more accurate.

Regardless of what you think of the guy, he showed a different side on his latest post this afternoon.

He posted what may be the longest (and by default the post with the largest amount of typos ever) entry in the history of the site.

However, he spends little time updating the status of Kovalchuk and the overwhelming majority of the post defending what he does and why he does it.

We all know why he does it, so I won't even go into it.

However, I was more perturbed that he was criticizing the people who criticize him, which will only add fuel to the fire I'm sorry to say.

When you boil it down, his site is a blog, just as this is a blog.

The sole purpose of a blog is for the author to express an opinion. Sure, some use blogs to report on factual things and such, but the majority of blogs are opinionated ramblings.

The best part about blogs is that people can comment on them and say whatever they want.

Why?

BECAUSE IT'S THEIR OPINION!

Not everyone is going to agree with your opinion on things. People are going to call you out. Someone living in their parent's basement with nothing better to do with their time, is going to call you out all the time!

Why?

BECAUSE THEY CAN!

As the author of a blog and other published works on various websites, you can't take the comments seriously. Reading them is fine, maybe you might pick up something you could improve upon or engage your audience a bit more through the comments, but to sit there and drive yourself to the point of making a public defense of your work?

Come on, that's a bit much.

Anyway, this is getting a bit longer than intended and if you've made it this far, I applaud your effort and anxiously await your scathing comments that will cause me to show up all bleary-eyed and exhausted to work tomorrow.

Bruins Need Spark Plug

I'm sure in countless hockey rinks, football fields, and baseball diamonds across the country, parents tell their children that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's whether or not you put in the effort and have fun. Play your best, your hardest, but it's okay if you don't win. Because you did your best, your threw it all out there.

For the past three games of this road trip, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has seemingly practiced this methodology. Unfortunately for Claude and his Bruins, this method need not apply to the National Hockey League. Yes, there was the December to Remember. However, it is now late February, heading closer and closer to the playoffs and nobody remembers December. They remember a 1-3-1 road trip on the back of back-to-back home losses. 1-4-2 in their last seven.

Play hard boys, but it's okay if you don't win.

The 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay certainly wasn't for lack of effort. The Bruins relentlessly peppered Karri Ramo with shot after shot, 43 (paired with 41 aganst Florida) of them in all and were rewarded with three goals for those efforts. However, some untimely turnovers, poor defending and Manny Fernandez-quality goaltending, he gave up the 4 goals on just 18 shots, ouch.

Yes, the Bruins showed passion and intensity along with terrific energy. Shawn Thornton and Mark Stuart were both involved in fisticuffs with a pair of thrilling duels that energized the team. When PhiKessel netted his early goal things looked great, but then Tampa scored two in fifteen seconds and the energy changed. The Bruins fought back from behind twice, but still fell.

Now, 43 shots on goal are fantastic, but how many of those were bonafide chances? Along with the shots, the intensity of play seemed to wane until after Tampa had gone ahead with 1:33 to play.

Where has Boston's complacency come from? Jumping out to a huge lead in the Eastern Conference? Taking bottom of the conference teams like Tampa for granted?

Maybe it's the coach settling for effort and not results.

Patrice Bergeron still finds himself on the point on the top power play line. He looks timid and uncomfortable along the blue line and rightly so. He's a winger. Put him there already, please. Chara and Ward at the point on the top line did well, they were rewarded with it. Bergeron excelled on the second unit playing along the wall and putting his body in front of the net. Patrice's confidence wasn't raised as highly as Julien may have thought with that erm... empty net goal.

How badly do the B's need a sniper? I brought up the fact that the B's won't be where they need to be unless they find a sniper, and a friend responded; "Our sniper is injured." I laughed. Michael Ryder, as nice a goal scoring option as he is, does not a sniper make. The Bruins need someone who can score 35-40 goals in a season. Kessel is nice, Ryder is nice, having five guys who can net 20+ goals and a dozen who can net 10+ is nice, but you need someone that strikes fear into opposition goalies. Chara can do that, sure, but where's that full time offensive presence? The Sykora, Kovalchuk, Kovalev winger who can score from anywhere inside the zone?

No, the Bruins probably aren't able to get a player of their calibre. Especially with names like Keith Tkachuk and Erik Cole being bandied about. To think I know a couple of people excited about the prospect of Cole being a Bruin, but he's a fraud of a goalscorer. Not nearly the player he was in Carolina and not likely to ever be. Tkachuk? While it'd be nice to see the Massachusetts native play for the B's, he's basically washed up and wouldn't add enough to the team. In the end the fact is that they need a proven out and out scorer. The Bruins have players who can score goals, but they're very, very streaky. Consistency would do wonders for this team.

With the Caps inching ever closer to the B's, they could lose grip on the East's top spot. The Bruins are in a precarious position right now, despite what many may think.

It's already been proven that effort alone isn't enough to do the job.

Eklund Inserts Foot In Mouth...Again

Just an update on yesterday's post about Evgeni Malkin being traded to the Thrashers for Ilya Kovalchuk and other considerations.

Eklund, who seemed to be about 99% sure this deal was happening yesterday, has backed off this one ever so slightly today saying:

The Penguins and Thrashers are still chatting according to sources, and as said yesterday it is uncertain how Malkin and Kovalchuk play into this, but it is fairly certain that they could be discussed. The Pens are also talking to Nashville and Edmonton about a deal that is a "good plan B or 1A."

I wonder if his sudden change of heart had anything to do with what was posted here yesterday. Or, could it be that the Penguins writer on his site essentially flipped him the bird in his latest post addressing the rumor?

I read that article last night and had a very long and hard laugh over it. Eklund called out on his own site. Fantastic.

As for the second part of that update involving Edmonton and Nashville, he may be onto something there.

I've read on more reliable sites and heard rumors during broadcasts of games, that the Pens were interested in Erik Cole and could be interested in the likes of J.P. Dumont and Ville Koistinen.

Is Cole the dream winger for Sidney Crosby? No. Is he an improvement over Miroslav Satan or anyone else not named Malkin or Petr Sykora? Absolutely.

I'm still not opposed to having Dumont and Koistinen, but I question why we'd be bringing in another offensive defenseman when we've already got four others on the roster.

I'm still compiling a list of players I've seen that may be available at the deadline to see who I'd like to come to Pittsburgh. The trade deadline is March 4, and with each passing second the frenzy gets closer and closer.

I have a feeling this deadline is going to be insane and leaving Eklund in tears over how wrong he continues to be.

Eklund Owes Me New Pants

This will be short and sweet, but I felt compelled to comment on Eklund's latest "trade rumor" about the Penguins.

We've already discussed how it would make no sense for the Pens to trade Jordan Staal and others to Atlanta for Ilya Kovalchuk from a financial standpoint. I think Eklund read that post and realized how utterly wrong that sounded and then decided to tweak it today.

According to his latest post, the Penguins are talking about trading Evgeni Malkin to the Thrashers for Kovalchuk and something else.

You read that correctly. Malkin for Kovalchuk and a doggy bag of players or picks.

Umm....

Do I really need to go into why this will not happen and why this would be the worst move the Penguins have made in recent history?

It's pretty self -explanatory I would think. I literally laughed so hard when I saw this that tears were coming down my face.

The only logical big name players that could/will be moved at the deadline are Staal and Ryan Whitney. I'm not counting Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko as big names, but they could also be on their way out.

If I'm Ray Shero, I blow up the roster and start over. Get rid of everyone except for Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Brooks Orpik and Max Talbot.

Everyone else can go and I wouldn't be upset over it for very long. I'll pull together a wish list of players I'd like, but if you saw yesterday's post, you'll see that Milan Hejduk is at the top of the list.

Stay tuned for more.

"The Hal Gill Quotient "And "Rumors"

Initially I was only going to detail out the formula for which I will be keeping track of how many goals are caused by each player on the roster. I then awoke and poked around on HockeyBuzz.com and now I'm compelled to do a little more.

Let's start with the new stat first because that will be the easiest to get through and least offensive unless you're Hal Gill. Allow me to explain. Thanks to Josh we will be naming this new stat "The Hal Gill Quotient," due to the general feeling around Back To The Point that Gill is responsible for a majority of goals against. I decided to test this hypothesis and reserve the right to change the name at a later date.

Here's how it will work:

I will examine each goal the Penguins give up for the remainder of the regular season and assign a full point in the standings to the player responsible.

In the event of multiple players being at fault, fractional points will be awarded to the players involved.

I will keep a running total at the end of each game recap and the player with the highest total at the end of the season wins, or loses, whichever way you prefer to look at it.

Here's the current standings since I started keeping track after the Detroit game on Sunday:

Hal Gill - 1.34
Ryan Whitney - 1.0
Jordan Staal - .5
Kris Letang - .5
Bill Thomas - .33
Marc-Andre Fleury - .33

Now who's ready for some "rumors?!"

Here's three that have popped up on HockeyBuzz.com and further elaborated about on HockeyBuzzHogwash.com

#1 -Ryan Whitney To The Rangers For Petr Prucha And A Pick

Here's Eklunds take on this: "In Pittsburgh and NY I continue to hear rumors involving a deal the would send Whitney for Prucha and a pick. I like it for both sides."

Really? You like it for both sides?

Here's what's wrong with this from the Penguins side of things as this really would only benefit the Rangers.

Do we have a surplus of defensemen right now? Yes, and even moreso with Sergei Gonchar coming back. However, Whitney isn't the guy you trade though I would understand the logic in doing so to help ease the cap pressure.

The guy who can go is Mark Eaton if the Rangers want someone from us who can actually play defense. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that he's among the league leaders in blocked shots, but he hasn't been the most reliable guy as a result. He gets injured frequently as a result of blocking all those shots, but you can't tell me Henrik Lundqvist wouldn't mind having someone actually play defense in front of him for once.

The other major flaw in this plan is that the Penguins and Rangers are both fighting to get into the playoffs. Do you really think these teams (who are in the same division mind you) are going to execute a trade when they could very well be fighting for the same playoff spot? I don't think so either.

Now as for Prucha, he's not the answer to any of the problems the Penguins are having. While he's a good energy guy, Max Talbot serves the same purpose. Prucha may have more of a scoring touch, but we need someone to play with Sidney Crosby in the worst way.

Eklund's solution?

"Rumor" #2 Mike Cammalleri To The Pens For Unknown

I would gladly take Mike Cammalleri, but there's no way this deal gets beyond the "hey what about Cammalleri?" phase.

He'd be a good fit with Crosby, but don't buy into this rumor at all. Anyone with half a brain in their head can see this. If it does happen, I'd me more shocked than I was when we landed Judas at the deadline last year.

Rumor #3 - Ilya Kovalchuk To The Pens For Staal And Others

First off, I would just like to say that I would not be surprised to see us move Staal at the deadline to clear some cap space for next season. I came to terms with him leaving town a long time ago as long as we kept Evgeni Malkin, Fleury and Crosby.

With that said, I don't want Ilya Kovalchuk. Would he score some goals? Yes. Is this the type of guy who should be on a line with Crosby? Yes. So why don't I want him?

Cap space. At $6.4 million for only another season on top of Crosby and Malkin at the current max of $8.7 million, we cannot afford to put a competitive team on the ice. We'd be in the same situation as the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The other problem with this is that I would have to become an Atlanta Thrashers by default. How could I not when we sent Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and Angelo Esposito last year for Judas. In order to get Kovalchuk we'd have to give up Staal and who knows what else, meaning half of the Thrashers' roster would be former Penguins.

It's that simple.

It's not going to happen anyway because Eklund just appears to be throwing up "rumors" to get people to click on his site. It's fine by me because it gives all of us here at BTTP things to write about on a daily basis.

Nylander On The Move?

Caps Blog


With the trade deadline looming, it seems likely that Center Michael Nylander is on his out. In late November, there were rumors that he would be sent to Chicago, however, nothing materialized. Even as late as August of last year, removing Nylander from the caps was a top priority, according to NHL Fanhouse. In that same article, Nylander reportedly put his Maryland home on the market.

Caps coach Bruce Boudreau runs a North-South style of NHL play, which is in contrast to Nylander's East-West approach to the game. The difference has caused a rapture between the two this season. Earlier in the season, Nylander was mainly a healthy scratch in many games, but as of late Nylander has been a scoring machine. Last week, Nylander posted two goals against the Devils that helped end the Devils nine-game winning streak.

If the Caps decide to trade Nylander, where will he land? The best case scenario would involve the Atlanta Thrashers. It is no secret the Thrashers need to move cap in order to revamp the team, as they did last year moving Marian Hossa to the Penguins. The player I am talking about is Ilya Kovalchuk. There have been many trade rumors involving Kovalchuk for most of the season, and according to bleacher report, Kovalchuk has asked for a trade. This is not as far fetched as some may think. The Caps have a lot of young talent in Hershey (AHL team) and could move Nylander in the process. There is no doubt the Caps would have to give up a lot for Kovalchuk, but the rewards would far out weigh the price.

Imagine the first three lines of the Caps. First line you have Alexander Ovechkin, second line Kovalchuk, and third line Alexander Semin. The Caps would be a scoring machine would be able to beat the Sharks, Red Wings, and Bruins.

The worst case scenario is him being traded to Vancouver. Nylander's former agent, Mike Gillis, is the general manager in Vancouver. This makes a trade there likely. Trading Nylander to such a team would mean the most the Caps would get is a low rated prospect.


James Herring