SADOWSKI: Hits, misses – and the Avs

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 27, 2008 at 9:45 p.m.

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press

Sharks coach Todd McLellan has guided San Jose to first place in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference and the best record in the league at 17-3. The Sharks also have scored the most goals and are among the best defensive teams.

Avalanche quick links

Drew on the NHL

Scores and statistics

• Avalanche statistics
• Avalanche schedule
• Avalanche roster
• NHL schedule
• NHL scoreboard
• West standings
• East standings

Now that we've reached the quarter pole in the NHL season, it's time to look at some of the league's hits and misses:

* The San Jose Sharks appear to have hit a home run with first-year coach Todd McLellan, the former Detroit Red Wings assistant. The Sharks have the best record in the league, have scored the most goals and are among its stingiest defensive teams. But the true test won't come until the playoffs. The Sharks amassed between 99 and 108 points in each of the past four seasons and managed to advance as far as the Western Conference finals just once.

* We'll find out soon enough if the Vancouver Canucks can continue to win without goalie Roberto Luongo, who is on injured reserve with a groin injury. No problem, so far. The Canucks are scoring at a much better clip than was expected, and backup goalie Curtis Sanford has been fine in Luongo's absence.

* How about those big, bad Boston Bruins? Claude Julien is an early candidate for Coach of the Year and his goalie, Tim Thomas, has emerged as a Vezina Trophy contender.

* Mike Babcock doesn't get enough credit for the job he does as Red Wings coach. Sure, Detroit is loaded with talent, but Babcock - along with captain Nicklas Lidstrom - makes sure that complacency never sets in. It's too easy to take a coach for granted when his team manages to stay on top year after year.

* Chicago is a happenin' hockey town again, with sellouts in every game at the United Center. It was more like a mausoleum in recent seasons until Rocky Wirtz took over the reins from his late father. He put games back on the tube and gave fans a reason to watch in person by putting some talented players in those classy Blackhawks sweaters.

* Things aren't looking quite as good in Colorado, where the Avalanche could miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. The Avalanche is on pace to score a measly 207 goals, which would be the lowest total since the team has been in Denver and the second-lowest number in Colorado/Quebec history.

* The Ottawa Senators haven't been the same since losing to the Anaheim Ducks in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. Alex Auld has replaced Martin Gerber as the No. 1 goalie - Ray Emery must be snickering in Russia - a once-dominant attack has dried up and the Senators are holding down last place in the Northeast Division.

* Marty Turco can't stop a beach ball, captain Brenden Morrow tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, and the penalty killing is a disaster. Is it any wonder the Dallas Stars are struggling?

* Martin Brodeur was expected to break Patrick Roy's record for career regular-season wins this season, and maybe he still will. But the New Jersey Devils goalie is recovering from biceps surgery and won't play in 70 games for the first time since 1996-97. Barring a trade for a goalie, the Devils will bank on Kevin Weekes and Scott Clemmensen to keep them in the Eastern Conference playoff race until Brodeur returns.

* The new Tampa Bay Lightning owners brought in a bunch of high-priced free agents and lured Barry Melrose from ESPN to coach them into a cohesive unit, even though he hadn't been behind an NHL bench since 1994-95. He was given 16 games to accomplish this feat. Patience? What's that?

Lemieux back for more

Is there another Stanley Cup in Claude Lemieux's future? That's the plan for the former Avalanche forward, who retired following the 2002-03 season.

Now 43, Lemieux has hooked up with the Worcester (Mass.) Sharks in the American Hockey League in what he hopes will be the first step to a return to the NHL. Lemieux passed his physical and signed a minor-league contract and will be eligible to begin playing tonight, assuming he clears waivers.

That last hurdle is necessary because he played two games with the China Sharks in the Asian League.

"When people heard what I wanted to do, their reaction was, 'Are you kidding? You're going back to play Triple-A hockey?' " Lemieux told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. "But I know that this is like when I first started playing, that I'm going to have to prove myself again, and I'm willing to do that.

"I'm very confident that I can, or I wouldn't be here. I'm willing to give myself time, and I expect it to be a process."

Lemieux won Stanley Cups with Montreal, New Jersey and the Avalanche during a 20-season NHL career in which he had 379 goals, 785 points and 1,756 penalty minutes in 1,197 games. One of hockey's best clutch performers in the postseason, Lemieux ranks ninth with 80 goals and 23rd with 158 points.

"You miss the competition, that's No. 1, and you miss the whole environment," he said.

Sundin eyes return

The Mats Sundin era isn't necessarily over in Toronto.

The Maple Leafs play Monday in Los Angeles, where the 37-year-old center has been working out with the intention of resuming his NHL career, and the team is hoping to make contact with its former captain.

Sundin is an unrestricted free agent and his agent, J.P. Barry, has said his client is targeting a mid-December return. A number of teams are interested in signing Sundin, who has scored 555 goals in 17 seasons. The Vancouver Canucks have a standing two-year, $20 million offer.

Former Anaheim general manager Brian Burke will be named as Toronto's new GM and president as early as today according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, and that could work in the Leafs' favor when it comes to the Sundin sweepstakes.

WILL HE STAY OR WILL HE GO?

Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom will be a hot commodity on the free-agent market next season if the Wild chooses not to re-sign him.

Backstrom is in the final year of a two-year extension worth $3.1 million this season, but Wild general manager Doug Risebrough won't say if he's interested in bringing back the 30-year-old Finn.

"I'm not commenting," Risebrough told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Backstrom's agent, Don Baizley, said he hasn't heard from the Wild.

Backstrom is in his third season with the defense- oriented Wild and has a 12-6-1 record with two shutouts, a 2.16 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.

Own worst enemy

Is there a more embarrassing gaffe than scoring a goal into your own net?

It happened to Montreal's Ryan O'Byrne this week late in the third period during a delayed penalty against the New York Islanders. O'Byrne intended to play the puck back to goalie Carey Price, not realizing Price had vacated the crease and was making his way to the bench for a sixth skater.

Oops. The puck wound up in the open net. Forward Bill Guerin, the last Islanders forward to touch the puck, was credited with the tying goal and New York went on to win in a shootout.

The most infamous own goal came in Game 7 of the 1986 Smythe Division finals between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, when Oilers defenseman Steve Smith inadvertently shot the puck into the net off the skate of goalie Grant Fuhr. The goal gave the Flames a 3-2 lead and they won the series.

Then there was Colorado Rockies defenseman Rob Ramage, whose play in a Nov. 28, 1979, game against the Islanders enabled New York's Billy Smith to become the first NHL goalie to receive credit for a goal.

Rockies goalie Bill McKenzie was on the bench for an extra attacker during a delayed penalty when Ramage took a shot that Smith stopped. The puck bounced into the corner, Ramage regained possession and tried to pass it back to the point. Instead, it slid the length of the ice into the empty net.

Smith, the last Islanders player to touch the puck, was credited with the goal.

Featured

• DNC in Denver

  

  Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

• The Crevasse

  

  A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.

• Deadly denial

  

  Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.

• Final Salute

  

  The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.

• 'Colorado's burning'

  

  Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.

• Columbine shootings

  

  Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.

• The Crossing

  

  Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.

• Osveli's journey

  

  Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.

• Wake for an Indian warrior

  

  Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.