NHL-National Hockey League roundup
(Mon, 13 May 2013 16:07:17 PDT)
May 13 (The Sports Xchange) - Former NHL coach Mike Keenan signed a contract to coach in Russia. Keenan, currently an analyst for the MSG Network, announced via Twitter from the Ural Mountains on Monday morning that he will coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. Keenan coached the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames from 1984-2009. He won a Stanley Cup during his one season with the Rangers in 1994. ...

NHL roundup: Keenan to coach in Russia (The SportsXchange)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:31 PDT)
Former NHL coach Mike Keenan signed a contract to coach in Russia.

EA Sports NHL 14 cover vote down to 8; Pavel Datsyuk, Martin Brodeur alive (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 11:38:34 PDT)
One of these eight players will be the cover model for EA Sports’ NHL 14: From EA Sports: The Round of 16 featured some extraordinarily close matchups and included some notable upsets: The Battle of Pennsylvania: For the second year in a row, Evgeni Malkin has been defeated by a Philadelphia Flyers player. Last year, Malkin lost to NHL 13 Cover Athlete Claude Giroux in the semifinals. This year, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds unseeded Malkin. As Close as they Come: At final tally, less than 100 votes separated winner Taylor Hall and his opponent Matt Duchene in this round. Two Maple Leafs Advance: against Original SixTM Rivals: A strong Game Six performance may have helped Joffrey Lupul and James van Riemsdyk overcome their opponents, P.K. Subban and Tyler Seguin, respectively. Voting for this round is now live and fans can vote an unlimited number of times at NHL.com/CoverVote . The round closes on May 19 at 11:59pm ET.

"Iron Mike" Keenan to coach Russia's Metallurg
(Mon, 13 May 2013 08:46:51 PDT)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mike Keenan, who coached the New York Rangers to Stanley Cup glory in 1994, will take charge of Metallurg Magnitogorsk after signing a two-year contract with the Russian club on Monday. "On May 13 an agreement was signed between Metallurg Magnitogorsk and the Canadian specialist Mike Keenan," the Continental Hockey League (KHL) team said on their website (www.metallurg.ru). Keenan, 63, replaces fellow Canadian Paul Maurice who quit last month following one season in charge after the team were knocked out of the KHL playoffs in the first round. ...

Mike Keenan hired as coach of Russian hockey club (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 08:27:47 PDT)
MAGNITOGORSK, Russia (AP) -- Veteran NHL coach Mike Keenan has signed a two-year contract to coach the Russian club Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

Ice hockey-"Iron Mike" Keenan to coach Russia's Metallurg
(Mon, 13 May 2013 08:21:49 PDT)
MOSCOW, May 13 (Reuters) - Mike Keenan, who coached the New York Rangers to Stanley Cup glory in 1994, will take charge of Metallurg Magnitogorsk after signing a two-year contract with the Russian club on Monday. "On May 13 an agreement was signed between Metallurg Magnitogorsk and the Canadian specialist Mike Keenan," the Continental Hockey League (KHL) team said on their website (www.metallurg.ru). Keenan, 63, replaces fellow Canadian Paul Maurice who quit last month following one season in charge after the team were knocked out of the KHL playoffs in the first round. ...

Keenan to coach Russian team (The SportsXchange)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 07:30:32 PDT)
Former NHL coach Mike Keenan signed a contract to coach in Russia.

Mike Keenan will coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk, according to hilariously intense KHL video (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 07:30:26 PDT)
Legendary NHL coach Mike Keenan has signed a 2-year contract to coach Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. We’ll just go ahead and assume it’s to launch a thousand “Iron Curtain Mike” jokes. From Metallurg’s press release, about the “Canadian Specialist”: May 13 an agreement was signed between Magnitogorsk "Metallurg" and the Canadian specialist Mike Keenan. The agreement is for two years. Mike Keenan was born in October 21, 1949 in Baumanvill, Ontario, Canada. A professional hockey player. From season 1979/80 years starting coaching. Since the season 1984/85 started working as a head coach in the National Hockey League, coached eight teams: Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames. In 1987 and 1991, the position of head coach national team Canada wins Canada Cup. With the club New York Rangers Mike Keenan won the Stanley Cup in 1993/94, in addition, three went to the finals of the NHL playoffs. The team announced Keenan’s hiring with the single greatest introduction video we’ve ever seen: OK, second-greatest, behind this one . Keenan isn’t the first North American coach to take over Metallurg. Dave King coached them from 2005-06, and Paul Maurice was the team’s coach last season. Now comes the most difficult part for the KHL team: Hiring a translator that can capture Keenan’s unique brand of whimsy, and meeting Jeremy Roenick’s asking price when he comes out of retirement to play for Keenan again (we assume).

What We Learned: Pittsburgh Penguins have to get rid of Marc-Andre Fleury (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 13 May 2013 06:54:51 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. One of the things people said constantly throughout the Pittsburgh Penguins' six-game series victory over the New York Islanders was that their play was well below the expected level of quality. In fact, the most common refrain was that this particular brand of awful play -- rife with defensive irresponsibility and baffling lack of execution for a team that was pretty much incredible from start to finish this year -- was probably only good enough to get them past a try-hard pretender like the Islanders. Against a real team, it was generally agreed, this kind of play would result in them losing the series in short order, probably pretty badly. But that kind of talk ignores two things. First, we were told repeatedly by just about everyone that if there was any team the Penguins, not exactly fleet-of-foot, didn't want to take on in the playoffs, it was these New York Islanders. And yeah, they had their hands full throughout, but still never really looked to be in all that much trouble; the scores were close, yes, but they still only needed six games to put these guys out of their misery. Second, and more important, is that — lo and behold — the second they took Marc-Andre Fleury out of the crease, they won both games. That's not to say that Tomas Vokoun really won them either game, because he didn't. He posted a shutout in Game 5 because almost any goaltender in the world (with at least one notable exception) would have, but he was also victimized on occasion by the bad defensive work that didn't help Fleury much either. But the fact of the matter is that if you have pretensions of winning a Stanley Cup, your goaltender has to at least be league-average. The Penguins, with their galaxy of stars and excellent coach and top-quality GM, have that goal. They do not have that goaltender. People will argue that Fleury is a winner, insofar as he won a Stanley Cup. Four years ago. Since that postseason, when he posted just a .908 save percentage and a not-good 2.61 GAA, his save percentage has crept above .899 precisely zero times. This year, when he gave up 14 goals on 128 shots in four games before Bylsma dead-bolted the door to the doghouse from the outside. Or at least, he should; there's only so many times an entire team can roll its eyes and think, "Oh no, not again," like a pot of petunias, before it's the only reasonable course of action. I don't know how much longer we need to suffer through the narrative that Fleury is any good at all before it crumbles to sand and is scattered by the wind. That is, if it hasn't done so already behind save attempts like this and this and most notably this . I mean, look, the fact of the matter is that apart from one good playoff run five years ago in which he fell a game short of winning the Stanley Cup for that not-quite-ready Penguins team, he has always been sub-average, and now things are getting markedly worse .

Norris Trophy Finalists: Letang vs. Subban vs. Suter (Puck Daddy)
(Tue, 07 May 2013 07:38:16 PDT)
The 2012-13 Norris Trophy finalists were announced on Tuesday, as Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins, P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens and Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild are up for the award given “to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position,” as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The coolness: All three are first-time nominees , which is only fitting in the first post-Nicklas-Lidstrom-Norris-Trophy-Stranglehold season. No Zdeno Chara among the finalists. No Shea Weber either, which obviously makes the Suter nomination one of the most delicious plotlines of the awards season. All three are worthy candidates, although our hearts go out to the defensive defensemen who will never have a sniff of this award because they aren’t among the League’s top scorers. Alas, the Norris is for “greatest all-around ability”; where’s our Rod Langway Award already? So who wins the Norris this season?

Letang, Subban, Suter named Norris finalists (The SportsXchange)
(Tue, 07 May 2013 07:30:28 PDT)
Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins, P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens and Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild

Bruins crash party at Maple Leafs' first home playoff game since 2004
(Mon, 06 May 2013 21:10:29 PDT)
The Boston Bruins broke it open in the second period of Game 3, spoiling the party for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their legions of fans who had waited so long to see NHL playoff hockey.

Penguins-Islanders Preview (The Associated Press)
(Mon, 06 May 2013 16:41:25 PDT)
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -- Jarome Iginla spent parts of 17 seasons as the go-to guy for the Calgary Flames, on and off the ice.

What We Learned: Why ‘letting them play’ is nonsense in the NHL (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 06 May 2013 06:43:26 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. No one is going to sit here and disagree that wide-open hockey is preferable to the brand displayed by teams trying to grind out wins. No one likes board play. No one likes a thousand guys standing in the neutral zone during breakouts. No one — as we learned when the Rangers did it last year — likes the focus to be on blocking shots. No one likes obstruction. For this reason, we are told so very often that the most important things officials can do in the playoffs is "let the boys play." It's a fun concept. When the whistles are away, teams are allowed to play at 5-on-5 hockey which is obviously the best way to determine which is better. Ideally, all 60 minutes of every playoff game would be played at even strength. But the problem with this insistence on letting guys play is that when you do so, they tend to start committing penalties, and that, in turn, necessitates that, at some point, some of the infractions actually have to be called. So while it's all well and good to say that for the sanctity of any individual game to be upheld, the referees should certainly not start blowing the whistle and sending guys to the box, the fact of the matter is that it's their jobs to do so. Guys break the rules, guys go to the box. This, for some reason, doesn't make sense to people at all times. Take, for example, Brian Strait's penalty on Sidney Crosby in overtime yesterday afternoon, a call which resulted in the Penguins' power play overtime game-winner. That it was called in overtime was somehow this egregious thing, according to Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick and a thousand thousand Internet commenters, a decision made by a referee overstepping his bounds. Had this call — which was the right one because Strait got beat on the inside, took his hand off his stick and pulled Crosby down from behind, easy-ish fall or not — been made in the first period, the number of eyebrows it raised around the hockey universe would have been precisely zero. This is the kind of thing that typically happens when a coach puts a decent enough defenseman like Brian Strait on the ice in a high-leverage situation against a generational talent like Sidney Crosby, after all. But that it happened in overtime was somehow outrageous.

David Volek reflects on OT goal that sunk mighty Penguins 20 years ago (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 03 May 2013 11:37:02 PDT)
The night of May 14, 1993 is one that Pittsburgh Penguins fans would love to forget. David Volek’s goal at 5:16 of overtime gave the New York Islanders a monumental upset over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions in the second round of the Wales Conference Playoffs. Many consider that 1992-93 Penguins team to be a better team than their Cup-winning sides. They won the Presidents' Trophy with 119 points. Mario Lemieux earned his fourth Art Ross Trophy with 160 points despite missing 24 games while receiving treatment for Hodgkin's Disease. Four players, Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Rick Tocchet and Ron Francis, all finished with more than 100 points during the regular season. They were a juggernaut with a third straight Cup in sight. But its place in history was forever altered by a winger who played 396 games in the NHL. But what if he never had a chance to score that goal? What if David Volek wasn’t an Islander and on the Civic Arena ice accepting that pass from Ray Ferraro? It almost happened.

Kings skate into NHL playoffs with lofty goal of repeating as Stanley Cup champs
(Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:55:07 PDT)
The Los Angeles Kings seek to become the first NHL team to defend its Stanley Cup championship since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and '98.

EA Sports NHL 14 cover: Vote for Sergei Bobrovsky because he’s awesome and stuff (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:05:20 PDT)
In honor of the valorous and heartbreaking way, the Columbus Blue Jackets closed the season, we only want good things for the franchise. Winning the Draft Lottery after losing it last year would be a nice start. Maybe an All-Star Game at some point. A little postseason awards love for Sergei Bobrovsky would be welcomed, too. But there’s another accolade that could come Bob’s way, and we all can control whether or not it happens: Bobrovsky is one of 32 NHL players in contention for the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 14 , the latest title in the World’s Greatest Hockey Video Game series. Bobrovsky is one of three goalies still in the tournament, trying to become the first netminder since John Vanbiesbrouck in 1997 to make the cover. Coming up, the field of 32 for the NHL 14 cover voting.

NHL Draft Lottery: Panthers, Avalanche hold top percentages of selecting No. 1 overall (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:57:24 PDT)
The results of #SuckForSeth and #NotWinningForMacKinnon will be revealed on Monday night as the NHL holds its draft lottery at 8 p.m. ET. Broadcast on TSN in Canada and NBC Sports Network in the U.S., this year's lottery will be the first time all 14 non-playoff teams will have a shot to select No. 1 overall. In year's past, winning the lottery meant a team would move down four spots, which didn't always mean choosing the top pick (Hello, 2011 New Jersey Devils). Thanks to this new change, the Edmonton Oilers have a shot to pick first overall for the fourth consecutive draft. With representatives from each team in the house for Monday night's lottery, here are the percentage chances for the 14 clubs involved: Florida Panthers 25.0% Colorado Avalanche 18.8% Tampa Bay Lightning 14.2% Nashville Predators 10.7% Carolina Hurricanes 8.1% Calgary Flames 6.2% Edmonton Oilers 4.7% Buffalo Sabres 3.6% New Jersey Devils 2.7% Dallas Stars 2.1% Philadelphia Flyers 1.5% Phoenix Coyotes 1.1% Winnipeg Jets 0.8% Columbus Blue Jackets 0.5% While the number of ping pong balls is greatest for the Panthers, remember that those 2011 Devils had just a 3.6 percent chance of winning that lottery. Join us at 8 p.m. ET for a Puck Daddy live chat as we find out who has the right to draft Seth Jones, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

What We Learned: Want fun hockey? Play favorites in Stanley Cup Playoffs (Puck Daddy)
(Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:35:35 PDT)
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. The thing that's great about the Stanley Cup Playoffs is that any team can knock off any other one, regardless of seeding or apparent quality. A seven-game series is short, obviously, but it seems as though the NHL produces more postseason upsets on a regular basis than baseball, basketball or football. But this year, I don't care about any of that. I want the favorites to lay waste to the competition with displays of power both horrible and impressive, so that they can meet for what could be the most entertaining Cup Final in years. The Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins are the runaway best teams in the League this year and with good reason: They're deep everywhere and very, very good at everything. Playing each other for the best trophy in sports would produce by far the most attractive hockey in these playoffs. Just think about it: Both teams' first two lines might be the best top-six groups in the sport, with the Penguins having bolstered theirs at the deadline, and the Blackhawks having entered the season with theirs. They're just so deep up front. Pittsburgh has 11 players with 20 or more points this season; Chicago nine. Their D corps are likewise both very deep, though you'd probably prefer to have Joel Quenneville's guys than Dan Bylsma's. In net, Corey Crawford's numbers obviously stand out this season, but it wasn't so long ago that his save percentage was below league average, and that leads one to suspect he's more or less at Marc-Andre Fleury's level overall, which is to say slightly above average. I understand that it's not fun to root for the clear No. 1 seeds who were the only teams to break 70 points in the standings, but they're the heavy favorites for a reason. Pummeling eight- and five-seeds and four-seeds isn't the most exciting path to the Final, and all the romanticizing of the underdog story from the Kings last season shows exactly why. But when you don't have a rooting interest, fans should want to see the most interesting hockey possible, and Blackhawks/Penguins is most certainly that. I'm willing to sit through a mediocre, unsurprising first three rounds if the Final is a classic. A fully operational Penguins team taking on the Presidents' Trophy-winning Blackhawks are all anyone should ever want or need out of these playoffs, because it would be absolutely gorgeous.

Nieuwendyk sacked as general manager of the Stars
(Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:19:20 PDT)
(Reuters) - The Dallas Stars fired general manager Joe Nieuwendyk on Sunday after the team failed to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fifth consecutive season. The struggling Stars were beaten 3-0 at home by the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, ending their campaign 11th in the 15-team Western Conference with a 22-22-4 record. Nieuwendyk, an elegant forward who hoisted the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames, Stars and New Jersey Devils, was appointed as general manager of the Stars in May 2009. ...

NHL-Nieuwendyk sacked as general manager of the Stars
(Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:10:47 PDT)
April 28 (Reuters) - The Dallas Stars fired general manager Joe Nieuwendyk on Sunday after the team failed to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fifth consecutive season. The struggling Stars were beaten 3-0 at home by the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, ending their campaign 11th in the 15-team Western Conference with a 22-22-4 record. Nieuwendyk, an elegant forward who hoisted the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames, Stars and New Jersey Devils, was appointed as general manager of the Stars in May 2009. ...

NHL Power Rankings: Penguins flying high to end season; Flames, Avs, Panthers stay comfy in the basement
(Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:31:10 PDT)
The Penguins end the season by edging out the Blackhawks for top position while the lowly Flames, Avalanche and Panthers look to next season to climb their way out of the basement.

Blackhawks-Blues Preview (The Associated Press)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:27:22 PDT)
The St. Louis Blues' dominance this month sent them back to the playoffs, but their seeding is still undecided ahead of the regular-season finale.

Blackhawks tune up for playoffs with win over Flames (The SportsXchange)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:50:42 PDT)
CHICAGO -- You can sense the feeling and anticipation with the Chicago Blackhawks. They're ready and primed for the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs.

NHL 3 Stars: Eberle, Oilers spoil Wild’s first chance to clinch; Jochen Hecht retires (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:48:04 PDT)
"Don't touch me, man." No. 1 Star: Jordan Eberle, Edmonton Oilers Eberle was the first star with 1 goal and 2 assists in an unexpected rout for the Oilers over the Minnesota Wild. With the Wild needing just one win to clinch the playoffs, they instead dropped this one by a stunning score of 6-1 . Taylor Hall added a three-point night, and Corey Potter, of all people, scored twice. No. 2 Star: Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres In his 500th start for the Sabres -- and potentially his last -- Miller was fantastic, making 30 saves on 31 shots and backstopping his club to a 2-1 shootout win over the New York Islanders. Thomas Vanek scored the lone shootout goal.

Kane, Toews lift Blackhawks to 3-1 win over Flames (The Associated Press)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:31:40 PDT)
CHICAGO (AP) -- Even with the Presidents' Trophy already in their possession, the Chicago Blackhawks are surging into the Western Conference playoffs.

Blackhawks 3, Flames 1 (The SportsXchange)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:50:22 PDT)
CHICAGO -- Marcus Kruger's fourth goal of the season put the icing on a 3-1 win for Chicago over the Calgary Flames on Friday, sending the Blackhawks into their final regular-season game Saturday at St. Louis, while Calgary's season came to an end.

Wild looking to clinch; Atkinson re-signs with Blue Jackets (Puck Previews) (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:22:36 PDT)
Back by popular demand, here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished. • He may look callow and boyish in this photo, but Cam Atkinson has proven himself in Columbus. The diminutive forward has re-signed for two years at $2.3 million. [ Blue Jackets ] Preview : New York Islanders at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. ET The Islanders are in and the Sabres are not, but there's still plenty to play for. Ryan Miller will be starting his 500th game for the Sabres, and possibly his last. As for the Islanders, a win sees them leapfrog up to 6th place for the time being. A loss and they're be flying to Pittsburgh for Round 1. Preview: Edmonton Oilers at Minnesota Wild, 8 p.m. ET The Wild can still move all the way up to sixth place in the Western Conference, but first they just need to clinch. A win versus the Oilers will do that for them, and they couldn't have picked a better time to face Edmonton: the Oilers have dropped 3 straight, 9 of their last 10, and 29 of their last 46.

Here are the Masterton Trophy nominees for all 30 NHL teams (Puck Daddy)
(Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:22:50 PDT)
The Masterton Trophy is an interesting award. With its somewhat open-ended criteria -- it's presented annually to the player "who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey" -- there are a lot of ways to justify a nomination. Some go with the perseverance angle, nominating a player who's been through a lot. Others take the opportunity to pay tribute to a leader in the room. Others still salute an NHL veteran on a lengthy career. Either way, the result is an interesting assortment of submissions. This year, the front-runner has to be Josh Harding, whose perseverance after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis has been an inspiration all year long. From his bio: Harding selflessly divulged his illness because he didn’t want a distraction to affect the team during a potential shortened season. He made clear his career wasn’t over. “It would make me happy to overcome this. Not just overcome this, but to really succeed with it,” Harding said. “I want this to be a story where when we look back, it was a happy story.” In his first start this season, Harding made 24 saves to shut out Dallas. He did have complications with a new medication that caused him to miss two months, but Harding persevered through and after a two-game conditioning stint including a win to help Houston clinch a playoff spot, Harding was recalled to Minnesota April 22. It's tough to beat that. Several players this year have been nominated for their work with the NHLPA during the NHL lockout, which should garner them some consideration. And Pekka Rinne is bound to get a second look, simply because his bio includes this section: In the summer of 2006, after Rinne’s first year in North America with the Milwaukee Admirals, he was at a bachelor party in Finland when he was a victim of an assault by a pizzeria owner. The assailant fired pepper spray into Rinne’s eyes and tackled him. Rinne had to undergo shoulder surgery, which kept him out four months. "I was still young and right away you’re thinking ‘this is it,’” Rinne said in a 2011 article about the incident. “It’s a scary feeling.” Rinne battled back from the injury and the mental scarring of the incident to become an NHL regular in 2008-09. Having never been attacked by a pizzeria owner, I can only imagine the mental scarring. You don't ever expect pizzeria owner to nearly end your hockey career. You expect him to serve you a fresh pizza pie. Coming up, each team's nominee for the Masterton trophy.