Posts from the General Nhl Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

There may be a lot of you who are surprised there is hockey this weekend.

I'll freely admit to being one of them. I'm even more surprised that there are two games this weekend.

Both the Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers were left for dead after falling behind 3-0 in their respective series. Even though they were playing on home ice, they were heavy underdogs in Game Four.

They both got the job done. Their prize? They're being left for dead entering road games this weekend.

While I think it would be outright lunacy to predict one of these series will be extended, you can't rule it out. After all, most of you ruled out these series even going five games, and here we are.

Dallas tries first, as they face Detroit Saturday in "Hockeytown". We'll be live-blogging the game here at FanHouse, so join us for the action starting at 1pm Eastern.

Can this added confidence carry the Stars to a Game Five upset?

(Still to come: The conference finals indeed continue, NBC prays for a regulation end to Saturday's game, and a YouTube to remember from the incomparable Tie Domi)

When Mike Keenan resigned his GM position as a member of the Florida Panthers' organization, it was rumored that Jacques Martin, his so-called 'friend', cozied up to the owner and had Iron Mike shoved out the door.

Given Martin's close relationship with Panthers' owner Alan Cohen, it isn't too surprising that the Panthers decided to give Jacques a lucrative extension through 2012.

Martin, who also was the team's coach the past three seasons, was asked by Cohen last week to vacate the post after Florida missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive campaign. Cohen did, however, offer Martin the opportunity to keep his job as GM.

"I put considerable thought into (the decision to stay)," Martin told the Sun-Sentinel. "I did really enjoy coaching, but I did feel this year, with all the different issues, it made it difficult. It was clear (the dual role) was too much for one person.

I could never understand why owners would allow anyone to have both the roles of GM and coach, given how much time and dedication is needed to do just one of the jobs at a satisfactory level. It's just silly, and reeks of egotism.

It's not as far-fetched as you may think.

Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying the broadcast is biased towards the Flyers -- it's not, despite what Pittsburgh may say. Versus is actually doing a pretty good job of covering the playoffs, in my opinion. They haven't really had any major snags, although their studio team is lacking any names recognizable to the casual fan. But that's neither here nor there.

Let's get back to what we were here for in the first place. A business lesson. So, we have the Flyers and Versus, two seemingly separate organizations. Let's do about .01 seconds of research. Who are each of them owned by?

From the Versus website:

VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

And from the Flyers website:

Copyright © 1999-2008 Comcast Spectacor, L.P. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.

See any similarities?

Now it's clear that there haven't been any serious conflicts of interest here. I really don't think that the coverage on Versus has been biased towards the Flyers in any way. It's just interesting what happens -- or what could happen -- in this country when we have so many large conglomerates.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Two nights ago, the Dallas Stars turned the tables on their opponents, and last night the Philadelphia Flyers did the same. Maybe it was the magic of throwing jerseys all over every statue in Pittsburgh (I doubt it) or maybe it was an emphasis on crashing the net and their physical style of play (I think so). Either way, we're headed back to Pittsburgh for a Game Five on Sunday.

Probably just as happy as the Stars and Flyers right now are the folks over at NBC. Had both of these series been sweeps, they would have had no games to televise this weekend. Instead, the Wings and Stars play Saturday and the Pens and Flyers square off on Sunday. Now should Sunday's game go into a lengthy overtime, we might have a situation like we did last year during the Preakness Stakes (horse race). If you remember, NBC cut away from Game Five of the Sabres and Sens Eastern Conference Final to air pre-race coverage for a bunch of horses. As you might have guessed, hockey fans didn't like this a whole lot. Sunday, the pre-race coverage is set to air on NBC at 4:30 PM EST, with race time at 6:15. Personally, I'm hoping that the game does go into overtime so that we can see if NBC has learned anything from last year.

But yes, there was a hockey game last night so let's talk about that! The Flyers entered the game, at home, in a 3-0 series hole. They came out of the gates flying, not literally, and took a 3-0 lead after one period thanks to goals from Joffrey Lupul, Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter. The latter two were on the powerplay, as the Flyers went 2-for-4 with the man advantage on the night upping their playoff conversion rate to 23.4%. Now let's skip ahead to the third, but before we do, a little insight from Lupul.

''It's pretty simple, win or go home,'' said Lupul. ''We didn't have to do that much thinking before the game.''

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for that, Mr. Lupul.

And so we've come to this. What was supposed to be a knock-down drag-out series is looking very dangerously like a Pittsburgh sweep. Except for about ten minutes during the first period in game one and brief stretch in the second period of game two, this series has been almost all Penguins these first three games. Marian Hossa, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin have stepped things up big for the Pens while everyone not named Mike Richards has faded into the woodwork for the short-handed Flyers.

Braydon Coburn won't be coming back tonight thanks to his ugly eye injury, but playing to avoid a sweep in front of the home crowd is always a huge incentive (just ask Dallas or New York). Gary Roberts won't be playing for the Penguins thanks to what's being called "mild pneumonia," which I had no idea existed. The Flyers are really going to have to raise their level of play from where it was in Game 3 if they want to make another trip to the western part of Pennsylvania. Can they pull it off? Follow along with our liveblog after the jump.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs canned Paul Maurice as their head coach, they proclaimed to the world that everyone and their mother would die for the chance to coach the Leafs, and that it was a 'plum gig'.

Now, given that there are only 30 NHL head coaching jobs in the world, I guess it is quite special, to a degree. It's not like you can go to university, train to be an NHL Head Coach and expect to get that job.

Yet, I can't understand why any coach would ever want the job. You have to face the most intense media and fan pressure in the league, every single move you make or don't make gets dissected like a Biology 11 frog, and you know management and ownership won't give you quality players to work with.

Sean McCormick of Sportsnet.ca rightly called out the Leafs for their BS.

If it's so plum, then why is it that only three of the last 17 coaches in Toronto have ever coached another game in the NHL? That's not "plum," Dick, that's career suicide. And the statement was pure arrogance.

Is the job in Toronto "plummer" than being the head coach of the New York Rangers, an original six team, in what's commonly referred to as the greatest city in the world? How about the one in Montreal, where the head coach is charged with guiding one of the most successful franchises in North American sports history? Detroit anyone? Who on earth would want to work for one of the most respected and consistently successful NHL franchises over the past decade and a half?

The Leafs have yet to find a real GM, too, and it's not as if people have been beating down the doors to be a puppet of MLSE.

I know that I was a coaching candidate, I'd stay the hell away from Toronto. I don't care if there are only 30 such positions, it's just not worth the pressure and hassle, and it's pretty much guaranteed to end badly.

Every Thursday, Earl Sleek will conspire with his pen and scanner to bring you another installment of PuckToons. Hopefully you will find these amusing, relevant, well-drawn, or you're a person who is tolerant towards mediocrity.

Well, I had better do some explaining on this cartoon, which laughs at the legal issues surrounding various members of the Anaheim Ducks organization. Yesterday, team owner Henry Samueli was named in a civil fraud complaint against Broadcom Corporation, though the Ducks have stated that the complaint will not affect team operations. Of course the Ducks players have other legal issues of their own:

• Todd Bertuzzi is still involved in the civil suit with Steve Moore's career-ending injury, back from his days in a Vancouver Canucks uniform. I've actually never written about this (and don't intend to start today), so instead I'll direct you to the capable blogging hands of Tom Benjamin for this story.
• Ryan Getzlaf has found his way into a bit of scandal with the California Highway Patrol. A CHP captain has been placed on leave while authorities investigate allegations he "fixed" a ticket for the Ducks' all-star center.
• Brad May, so far as I know, isn't involved in any official lawsuit, but if you believe the comment left at Battle of California (featured at the bottom of this post), at least one Phoenix lawyer is trying to collect on a judgment.
• Chris Pronger is probably clean on the legal front, but he's so widely despised by non-Duck fans for his on-ice elbowing and stomping suspensions that I had to throw him in the penalty box with the other guys.

Quite the collection of legal issues facing these Ducks (did I miss any?). I sure hope Wild Wing has brushed up on his courtroom etiquette.

The Associated Press reports that Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen will miss his fourth consecutive game as the Wings take on the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals Saturday afternoon.

Franzen's time on the sidelines began after the forward complained of headaches following Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Evidently, he began experiencing persistent pain early in the Semifinal series between Detroit and Colorado, but kept that to himself until Friday morning. No single incident has been pinpointed as the cause of the headaches.

The team labeled his condition "concussion-like symptoms and he was kept from physical activity until being cleared for off-ice exercises yesterday. Detroit General Manager Ken Holland told the Macomb Daily's Bruce MacLeod that Franzen will not hit the ice until tomorrow at the earliest.

The leading contender to host the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day 2009 may have come up lame, and we're barely past the quarter pole. In an interview with USA Today, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, the league has run into some unspecified snags when it comes to using Yankee Stadium next year:

"There is some construction going on, which may impact us," he said. "There are some winterization issues because it's an older stadium. As I sit here today, I don't know whether or not they can be resolved."

Fair enough. And if Yankee Stadium won't be available, what other options does the league have?

We already know that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has contacted the league and offered to have Penn State's Beaver Stadium host the game -- as long as its between cross-state rivals Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Given how that series has proven to be something of a ratings winner for Versus during this playoff, it might not be a bad idea. As far as Bettman is concerned, he says that an announcement could come as early as next month.

But that's not the only option. There have already been reports concerning a possible game at Soldier Field in Chicago or even Fenway Park in Boston.