Leafs take aim a Stanley Cup, and a hit off the crack pipe

The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs are two teams going in different directions, but which direction is the question.

Edmonton today traded the face of their franchise, Ryan Smyth for two former first round picks and a first round pick in next years draft. Coupled with the trade earlier this month of defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron to the Islanders it seems clear that the Edmonton Oilers are waiving the white flag on this years season.

Toronto today announced signing Darcy Tucker, arguably the face of the franchise and undoubtedly one of the Leaf's most popular players, to a 4 year, $12 million contract. Oh, and they inked a trade to bring back center Yanic Perreault for his third stint as a Maple Leaf. The message in Toronto is clear, they are gearing up for a run at the Stanley Cup this year.

So, if we assume that an NHL team can only go in two directions, up or down, which team is going in which direction?

As far as I am concerned the Toronto Maple Leafs have just taken a huge step backwards in improving their team. Sure, Tucker has had a great season and Perreault is a valuable role player with offensive upside and a dominating presence in the face off circle. But, do they help us build a team for the future? And more importantly, is there enough crack cocaine in the world to make anyone believe that the Leafs can make a serious bid for the Stanley Cup this year? The Toronto Maple Leafs now have committed about $28 million of their available cap space to 6 players, there is not much room to add significant players to the team there and even a combination of crack and heroin isn't enough to make anyone believe that this Leafs team will be better 2-3 years from now with this same roster.

On the other hand, the Edmonton Oilers may have traded the face of the franchise and their highest scoring defenseman but they definitely improved their team for the future. With these two moves the Oilers have picked up 4 first round picks that include a highly prized defensive prospect (Denis Grebeskhov) and a top 6 forward prospect (Robert Nilsson). Oh, and did I forget to mention that the Oilers retain the possibility of resigning Smyth during the offseason? This is a team that has grasped the present and used it to ensure a prosperous future.

Being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan I spent the last few weeks leading up to the trade deadline praying to Crosby that MLSE would have the wisdom and vision to make some trades for the future. Instead they once again threw good money after bad to make yet another vain attempt at a Stanley Cup win.

This leaves me with one more question... how many more years does Toronto need to go without ownership of the Stanley Cup before it learns the lesson that the Oilers seem to have grasped. You can't rebuild an organization without making some sacrifices.

NHL Weekly Wrapup - Who's Hot and Who's Not

Interesting week in the NHL. Let's see if I can get through the weekly wrapup without mentioning the brouhaha between Buffalo and Ottawa... DOH! Oh well, if you can't beat them, join them.

Centers: Don't look now but Brad Richards has put up 16 points in his last 8 games with 4 multi point games in that stretch. Only 1 game winner and 2 penalty minutes but 7 power play points in those 8 games.

Brad Richards: 2 goals, 7 assists
Marc Savard: 2 goals, 7 assists
Paul Stastny: 2 goals, 6 assists
Saku Koivu: 7 assists
Jason Spezza: 3 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG and one great turtle impression

Who's not: Pavol Demitra only managed 1 point in the past week after his 9 game point streak. I hope you didn't pick him up like I did.

Wingers: Dany Heatley showed off his speed this week, both in running from Andrew Peters and on the score sheet. The Ottawa winger produced 4 goals, 3 assists in the last week and is currently on a 7 game point streak. Aside from showcasing his avoidance skills during the Ottawa vs Buffalo home and home series he also managed 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) over the two games.

Dany Heatley: 4 goals, 3 assists and some impressive rabbiting skills
Andrew Brunette: 7 assists
Martin St. Louis: 3 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Brad Boyes: 3 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG
Jarome Iginla: 2 goals, 3 assists, 1 GWG

Who's not: Patrick Elias, after a modest 4 game point streak Elias and the rest of the Devil's had a slow week. Elias only put up 1 point in three games after putting up 7 points in the 4 games before this current slump.

Defensemen: Jamie Heward? Really? Yep, the Capital's dman put up 1 goal and 4 assists in 4 games this week. He also took 10 shots in those 4 games as opposed to the 8 shots in the 8 games earlier this month.

Jamie Heward: 1 goal, 4 assists
Mathieu Schneider: 5 assists
Dan Boyle: 1 goal, 3 assists
Wade Redden: 4 assists
Kimmo Timonen: 4 assists

Who's not: Tomas Kaberle only managed 1 assist in 3 games last week. The Leaf's only managed 1 win in that same span. The same game that Kaberle managed his 1 point. Coincidence? I think not.

Goaltenders: Tim Thomas is back and the Bruins are enjoying there role as spoiler. 3 wins and 1 shutout makes Thomas the hottest goalie of the week.

Tim Thomas: 3 wins, 1 shutout
Niklas Backstrom: 3 wins
Rick DiPietro: 3 wins
Dwayne Roloson: 2 wins, 1 shutout
Evgeni Nabokov: 2 wins, 1 shutout

Who's not: It's a tie between Kari Lehtonen and Cam Ward, both goalies have ridden the pine for two out of three games this week and watched their supposed backups (Johan Hedberg and John Grahame) put up solid games in their place. Grahame won both starts and Hedberg won 1.

NHL Trade Deadline Approaching, Floodgates opening?

Tkachuk moved to Atlanta yesterday for 3 draft picks and a roster player. Steep price for a rental player.

Craig Rivet leaves the Canadiens for San Jose for 1 pick and defenseman Josh Georges. So does this mean the Montreal Canadiens have thrown in the towel this season?

In both cases the Fantasy Hockey value of the player is increased by the move. Tkachuk could end up on a line with Kovalchuk or Hossa, either way an increase in points is probably around the corner. In Rivet's case, just moving to a team that scores goals on a regular basis should be a help to his fantasy value.

Montreal and Edmonton are both in the same position at this year's trade deadline, a few points out of a playoff position and trading away free agents. In prior years this was a clear sign that teams were writing off the remainder of the season. In the post-lockout era I'm not exactly sure what it means?

I'll be back later today with a wrap up of last weeks hot players and some sleeper picks.

NHL Blows... the call on Ottawa vs Buffalo

I'm still following the fallout from Thursday's brawl between Buffalo and Ottawa and a couple of things have jumped out at me.

First off, Lindy Ruff was fined by the NHL for the incident. The only plausible reason here is that Ruff is being fined for putting the line of Kaleta, Mair and Peters on the ice.

Ok, fair enough, fine away. The intent of that line change is quite clear.

So, let's skip forward to Saturday night. Ottawa pulls Brian McGratton (thanks James for pointing out my error on my post about Sat's game. ) out of the press box for the first time in 10 games.

My question is, why isn't the NHL fining Bryan Murray for putting McGratton into the lineup? How is that any different from Ruff putting his goons out on the ice after the Drury injury. In fact it is worse, Ruff could have at least plead heat of the moment, Murray slotted McGratton into the lineup with cold blooded premeditation.

I was browsing around the net and caught site of a post on the Checking Line that I found amusing. In short, Chris DeGroat is suggesting that Martin Biron should have checked out this video of Emery pounding the snot out of Josh Gratton in an AHL game a few years back.

Why is that amusing? If you watch the video the first guy to congratulate Emery after the fight is none other than Anton Volchenkov. The Ottawa Defenseman was on the ice at the time of the Sens/Sabres tilt and my original post about this fight mistakenly identified him as the guy who went for Emery after he pummeled Biron.

So, not only did I mistakenly identify the player, from the wrong team no less... but he is probably the one guy on the ice who knew better than to throw down with Emery from personal experience.

That would be why Blind Sight is 20/20.

Parity in the NHL, 'Canes and Oilers making the point

Last year the Stanley Cup playoff's featured the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers appearance in the final marked the first time an eight seed made it all the way through. So much for the good news.

With the Oilers recent trade of Marc-Andre Bergeron to the NY Islanders one has to wonder if the Oilers have thrown in the towel this season. If that is the case, and Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Kevin Lowe is insisting that the Oilers are still contending, it marks one heck of a drop in the Oilers fortunes. From cock of the walk to just a bunch of .... well, you get the point.

Even more surprising is that the Carolina Hurricanes are in 7th spot in the East by only 1 point. More worrisome there are 5 teams in the East separated by only 3 points fighting for the last 3 playoff spots. Atlanta, Carolina, NYI, Montreal and Toronto are all in the hunt.

So, let's look forward about 20 games, what happens if both Edmonton and Carolina miss the playoff's? In my memory this would be the first time that the two teams that played in the Stanley Cup final have missed the playoff's in the following year. I can remember individual teams, can anyone say Tampa Bay? But as far as I can determine this is the first time that BOTH teams go from top to bottom in the NHL.

It looks like parity has truly come to the NHL. Somehow I doubt that the Oilers and Hurricanes are very fond of it.

In BlindSight: The Emery vs Biron fight on Thursday has brought about some serious interest in Goalie fights. Tyler over at the 'NHL Digest' asked the question about the best goalie fight ever and mentioned my personal favorite Potvin vs Hextall. Today he put up another good contender, Byron Dafoe vs Patrick Lalime. Good fight, check it out.