77 Million Reasons

In the world of the bizarre and unexplainable, this happened.   Homesickness or not, what was he thinking?

First the crazy contract issues in 2010, the financial penalties as a result, the lost draft picks as punishment...then Parise leaves for Minnesota...now this?  New Jersey could be in for some long seasons if old Lou can't muster up some of his magic.  

They have $6 million to play with now but a hefty recouped salary penalty to pay off over 12 years.  Kovalchuk isn't a guy you can just replace either.  That's like trying to replace a Malkin, Crosby, or Stamkos (or even a Gretzky or Lemieux).  Not impossible, but highly unlikely. 

If you were Lou Lamoriello, what would you do??  

Me personally?? I'd stop signing Russians.  I'm just saying.

I Wish You No Ilya Will

Here comes part two of the Kovalchuk drama.  Well in most people's minds it might be part eight or nine but it's my second post so we are going with part two.

According to the NHLPA.com website...

 “The NHLPA has filed a grievance disputing the NHL's rejection of the Standard Player Contract between the New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk. Under the terms of the CBA, the NHLPA and Mr. Kovalchuk are entitled to an expedited resolution of this matter. The NHLPA will have no further comment until this matter has been resolved by an Arbitrator.”

So now what happens?  Are we to expect an ongoing saga that lasts up to the beginning of September?  In a perfect world, the answer is no.  But we all know that the perfect world doesn't exist, otherwise the Red Wings and Penguins would play each other every year for the cup until both franchises cease to exist.

The next step is that the NHL and NHLPA must agree to hire a "system" arbitrator to rule on the case.  But wait a minute, you say.  Didn't the original wording of the CBA call for an arbitrator to be hired when it went into effect with any changes being made annually on September 1?  Why yes.  Yes it did...Only they never hired said person.  So now they must choose someone that is long overdue to be in that position.  This process should be done quickly, as the CBA calls for a ruling within 48 hours.  However, I don't see the league or players association playing nice in this situation.  So at this point, we wait to see where Kovy will be next season.

If the arbitrator upholds the NHL’s rejection, Kovalchuk will become an unrestricted free agent again. He can then either restructure his contract with the Devils or sign with another team.  Of course, the biggest speculation here is whether the 15 year $80 Million contract is still on the table with the Kings.  I would imagine it would be considering it is a much smaller offer in terms of money compared to the deal with the Devils, no pun intended (or maybe it was).

On the other hand, if the arbitrator rules that the deal does not violate the collective bargaining agreement and the NHL was in the wrong to have stopped it, the league must approve and register the contract immediately.  Thus, Kovalchuk stays a Devil until he dies on his skates.  Someone will wonder what the smell is in the locker room one day and find his old, decaying body frozen with rigormortis in front of his locker.

The kicker here is that the Devils have no right to appeal and have to wait for the NHLPA to do everything.  Their only recourse is to fix the contract now before it gets to the arbitrator (whoever that may be).  Otherwise, they are at the mercy of the system, which is unfortunate for the team and the fans.  Again, I go back to my original post on this, and my conspiracy theory about big Lou and his shadiness.
To summarize, the Devils signed Kovalchuk to this 17 year contract last Monday but the league informed them that same evening the contract was going to be rejected.  The Devils plowed ahead with their Tuesday Press Circus, announcing the signing anyway, attempting to force a feeding frenzy in their ticket sales department. 

Neither outcome is going to bode well for either the league, the players, or the fans.  I think it would be the best scenario for Kovalchuk to take the deal he originally got from Medvedev in the KHL for 4 years, $40 Million.  Then, he'd be back home in St. Petersburg playing for SKA, his pockets would be lined with the wealth he always wanted, he would be public enemy #1 with Devil fans, the league and NHLPA could continue to ignore the CBA rule structure, and all will be well with the world again.

A Little Commentary on Kovy

(Eye of the Tiger, boys. Eye of the Tiger.)

By now I think most hockey fans (and non-hockey fans since it is being covered by TMZ) know about the whole Kovalchuk fiasco in New Jersey.  For those of you in the dark, let me do my best at grossly overexaggerating the facts and list the events leading up till now.

Free Agency opens with Ilya Kovalchuk as the highest sought after forward on the list.  There are numerous teams that are interested in his services, many of them a bit gun shy for his contract.  The front runner in all this turns into the LA Kings.  Kovy even goes out there to meet with team owners/management, who wine and dine him and give him the "full LA treatment".  Excited about his prospects, he may or may not have run his mouth about certain things, thus creating a frenzy of "will he or won't he".  Meanwhile, back in Gotham, the Devils sit quiet and do nothing.  No comments, no offer sheets, the virtual appearance of a defeatist attitude of a team on the edge of a decade of rebuilding. 

Fast forward a month.  The Kings have been an on-again, off-again contender for the last 30+ days and no one really knows more than sheer speculation and conjecture.  Then comes the bombshell.  Out of nowhere, reports fly that Kovy is staying put and will basically retire in Green and Red.  Where did this all come from?  No one discussed the possibilities of him actually staying in New Jersey.  I was all but convinced the Pens would finally be able to put being swept last season by the Devils behind us.  But here we are.  He is back...or is he?

The deal was probably the most ridiculous I have ever seen.  Essentially, it was a 17 year, $102 Million contract.  And you thought Hossa made out in his deal...  Not so much the money aspect, but the time involved is what blew me away.  He rejected a 12 year, $101 Million contract from Atlanta just to give himself an opportunity to go to a contender.  They traded him to New Jersey in February and he did what he was paid to do.  I can't help but think that this was his motivation to rub it in the face of the Great Ape and his 13 year $124 Million he is getting in Washington.  Both hailing from Russia, Kovalchuk will now earn more money than Ovie over the next six seasons with an annual cap hit of $6 Million.

Now obviously, there is no way on Earth Kovy will be playing at the ripe old age of 44 (Who does he think he is, Chris Chelios?).  He isn't going to play for 17 years and I highly doubt his annual average salary will be as low as $6 Million.  But what can anyone do about it?  The collective bargaining agreement and salary cap requirements hardly give the NHL any recourse to do...STOP THE PRESS, THERE'S MORE!!

The NHL has, today (or yesterday, I don't know), REJECTED the deal saying that it is a circumvention of the CBA.  "Under the CBA, the contract rejection triggers a number of possible next steps that may be elected by any or each of the NHLPA, the Player and/or the Club.  In the interim, the player is not entitled to play under the contract, nor is he entitled to any of the rights and benefits that are provided for thereunder.  The League will have no further comment on this matter pending further developments."  All that from the mouth of NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. 

So in layman's terms, this is a retirement contract.  The Devils aren't the first to offer it, probably won't be the last either, but this kind of thing is done all the time for franchise type players so that they can retire on their teams but not let thier waning years affect the team cap.  In this example, Kovy would get $95 million over the first 10 years and $7 million over the remaining 7.  You do the math.  You can see why I said earlier that I doubt he would only make the $6 million New Jersey would be on the hook for based on cap space.  For you legalfiles, here is a link to the CBA and you can read it yourself.

The league felt that this deal was way too overloaded in the first decade and the only way they were allowing it is if it were restructured.  We are most certainly going to see the NHLPA filing a grievance with the league on behalf of Kovy because, I'm pretty sure he liked that contract.  But until that happens, the contract is dead until an arbitrator makes a decision.

This ultimately raises some questions.  The NHL has thus far, done nothing to stop these types of contracts up to this point.  We have all seen players like Hossa in Chicago or Franzen and Zetterberg in Detroit sign these deals with little fanfare and no peep from the league.  Now with a high profile player like Ilya, they finally decide to step in and act.  Seems a little fishy to me, doesn't it?  What can the NHL and NHLPA do to correct the salary cap issues and fix the CBA?  More importantly, is this going to be the catalyst for another labor dispute and the dreaded "L" word (not the Showtime show)?  With the momentum the NHL has been gaining in popularity, I sure as hell hope not.

Had A Bad Day #3

3. 1992-93 Patrick Division Finals Game 7 - Islanders shock the Pens in OT - What does 56 wins, 119 points, the President's Trophy, 4 players with 100 points, 5 players with 30 goals, and a 17 game winning streak (which by the way, has never been bested) get you?

NOTHING!!!

This was the year that Super Mario was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and he missed a ton of games (24 to be exact). If he played all year at the pace he set, he would have easily broke The Great One's scoring records for both points and goals. Not that it mattered that much, but it was also the year they traded one of my all time favorite Pens, Bob Errey to the Sabres for Mike Ramsey (third from the left in the top row of the picture.  He had 6 assists in the playoffs, but contributed little else to the team beyond that).  I'm not bitter about it though.  He is back with the team now, as a color commentator and analyst.

The Pens easily handed the Devils a 4-1 loss in their best of 7 series to open the playoffs and things looked great for Pittsburgh's chance to 3-Peat. The Islanders were the 3 seed in the Patrick going into the playoffs and in round one they took it to Washington, winning the series 4 games to 1.  The pending matchup looked to be a good one for the Pens against the Isles.  The Penguins had the regular season record over NY 4-3.  But as we all know, this is the playoffs and regular season records mean nothing.  The stars apparently aligned in a backwards, out of sync test pattern, pigs took flight, Satan (the real one, not Miro) strapped on his skates and the Isles took this to 7 games.

The game was a hard fought, back and forth battle that saw the Pens, as usual, outshoot the Islanders 45-20.  I still remember watching Kevin Stevens collide full speed with Rich Pilon, only to fall face first in a heap on the ice.  I thought he was dead.  So did half his Pens teammates on the ice, including Mario who quickly motioned for the trainers to get out there.  There was blood everywhere.  He was taken to the hospital right after that with a broken face.



Down 3-2, the Penguins pulled Tom Barrasso with about 1:00 left in the 3rd period.  In a frantic press in the Islanders zone, Larry Murphy stretched out to save the puck from going out of the zone.  He shot it toward the net and the mass of humanity in front.  It went through Rick Tocchet and was deflected off of Ron Francis' stick and went into the net behind Glen Healey.  3-3 with almost no time left on the clock.  These were the Cardiac Pens I had come to know and love.

But it all quickly came to an end.  With 5 minutes ticked off the clock in OT, David Volek took a shot from the corner and became the unlikely hero, stunning arguably one of the greatest teams in hockey history to not win a cup.  I think this was actually the last time the Isles won a playoff series that I can remember. Forgive me if I'm wrong.  Or don't.  This also ruined the "dream" matchup in the finals of Lemieux vs. Gretzky.  The Pens would have knocked of the Kings for sure but we will never know.  Montreal beat L.A. instead and won their 23rd Stanley Cup.

Mario Lemieux went on to win the Art Ross (Points Leader), Bill Masterson (Sportsmanship), Lester Pearson (NHLPA Outstanding Player), and the Hart (League MVP) trophies that year.  He also won the Sportsman of the Year Award at the ESPY's but I don't think anyone cares about those.  He would never hoist the cup again as a player which is why it made it that much sweeter when he was able to hold the cup (and have it at the bottom of his pool [rumor and innuendo, not really]) again in 2009 as an owner.

Well wasn't that just a kick in the nuts

Not much to talk about here.  I thought the Pens played a pretty uninspired game of hockey and really went out there with indifference and a general malaise that made me think they all had the flu.  Fleury got pulled after allowing 3 goals, 2 of which should have been stopped.  Johnson wasn't much better, giving up 2 more. 

Ovechkin gets two goals and is inching closer to another Rocket Richard Trophy.  Crosby scored one and had assists on the other two Pens goals.  Leopold got his second and third as a Penguin.  He gets my star of the game, the rest of you can go to your rooms and think about what you did.

The Devils won their game against Atlanta (surprise, surprise...) and Fatty, I mean Marty Brodeur got his 600th career win.  In all seriousness, that is a feat that no other goaltender in NHL history has achieved so congratulations to you Mr. Brodeur.

Other than that, I am pretty disappointed.  After having that game hyped up beyond belief, it was a let down.  Nothing else describes how I feel at this moment other than...

The Rangers lost and Philly won, making it a bit rough on NY's chances of getting that 8th spot.  With the loss to New Jersey, Atlanta is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.  The Sabres also won putting them into a solid #3 spot.  The Pens still need another game in the books to get at least home ice in the first round.  I hope there is a chance we can meet the Caps again very soon.

Season Ending Team Awards

The Penguins honored their players over the weekend with their annual season ending Team Awards.  Now before everyone goes chastizing the team for giving out their own awards, let me remind you that every team that I know of does this so it isn't some conceited Pittsburgh tradition. 

Team MVP - (self-explanatory) Sidney Crosby
Ed DeBartolo Community Service Award - (again, self-explanatory)  Sidney Crosby
*A.T. Caggiano Booster Club Award (the most 3-star games voted by the Pens Booster Club) - Sidney Crosby
*Baz Bastien Good Guy Award - (from the Professional Hockey Writers Association for cooperation with the media) TIE - Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury
Masterson Trophy Nominee - (NHL award for perserverance, dedication, and sportsmanship in the game) Bill Guerin
Players Player - (nominated by their teammates as the best player on and off the ice) - Jordan Staal
Defensive Player of the Year - Brooks Orpik

*Baz Bastien was the Pens GM from 1976-1983 who died unexpectedly from injuries (and a heart attack) suffered from a car-motorcycle crash in 1983.  He was on his way home from a PHWA dinner event at the time.
*Caggiano was a Pens locker room attendant for many years and also a member of the Booster Club.

Oh did I mention there was a game on Saturday?  Well the Pens won in overtime over the Thrashers 4-3.  The Thrashers pretty much had the 2 points wrapped up with the third period winding down.  Jim Slater got called for a boneheaded holding penalty with time ticking off the clock.  Sergei Gonchar scored on the power play, taking it into overtime. 

Jordan Leopold was able to get that extra OT point by scoring 2:50 into the period.  That was his long awaited first goal as a member of the Penguins. 

"To tell you the truth, it was just a shot that I put on net in the hope that someone was driving there." - Jordan Leopold on his overtime goal.

The win put Pittsburgh back in front temporarily until the Devils blanked the Hurricanes, knocking Carolina out of playoff contention and moving back ahead for the lead in the Atlantic.  The Devils hold the tie breaker against Pittsburgh since the Pens couldn't muster even 1 win vs. New Jersey this year. 

The magic number for home ice in round 1 is 1 game because of Ottawa's loss on Saturday.  We got the Caps on Tuesday, the Islanders on Thursday (last regular season game at Mellon Arena, EVER!!), the Thrashers again on Saturday in Atlanta, and the final game in NY against the Islanders for the second time in a week.

Another Great Day For Hockey

For the second straight night, the Pens chalked up another win. With a 1-1 tie going into the third period, the Pens came storming back with 3 goals in the third to win 4-2.


Chris Connor was called up last night and tallied 2 goals, with Crosby recording assists on both. Crosby is now, I believe, 1 assist shy of 300 for his career. Connor played like a madman. He was all over the ice. Prior to tonight's game, he spent the last three years in and out of the lineup for the Dallas Stars. He was brought up from Wilkes-Barre for his 7th game and the first time since November. He definitely made the difference in this one.


Since this is a card site, I checked all my Pens and realized I didn't have a Connor. Upon further review, it would appear that currently, his only card is an AHL 2005-06 Iowa Stars Team Issued card. Something tells me that even if I wanted to, I wouldn't find this one anywhere.


The Rangers lost their 7th in a row against the Pens, the 4th time this year. Is it just me or do the Rangers look extremely slow (other than Gaborik)? With the exception of the last 10 minutes of the game, the seemed flat and lethargic.

The Pens are now just 2 points behind the Devils for the lead in the Atlantic. Here's hoping for an epic New Jersey collapse.

Sidenote: Did anyone see Ray Whitney absolutely make Zdeno Chara look 2 feet tall the other day? The Canes smoked Boston in that game but that was a sweet set up. My vote for play of the week.