February 28th Column

It's hard not to talk about what we witnessed in New Jersey and New York and Ontario this week. It is hockey in its element. Not a forced exposition of two team's skating until someone hooks the opposing player, goes to the box and watches a puck deflect in the net because no one can cover the slot. What they did this week, as author/3-time Oscar Nominee Greg Wyshynski said, was "Let hockey be hockey."

Puckheads, we can no longer pretend that what Larry Brooks calls the "6th Avenue League" is working after seeing this. This was hard-working hockey, regardless of the score, be it 6-5 or 3-2. I think that kind of action is something we can absolutely support going forward.

Looking at one set of games in particular, the Battle of the Hudson River, it's easy to see why the Rangers are struggling. It's just another episode of Jaromir being Jaromir. It's bad enough that he phones it in eight times a season whenever No. 20 in red and black lurks in the shadows. Now he has a shot to redeem himself. Go win the skills competition for us. My captain, my captain! Win us a freakin' game!

Fans in DC, is this kind of play beginning to look familiar?

Jagr is simply giving up. He sees the writing on the wall. He knows he can't lead the Rangers. Tom Renney made a huge mistake in declaring a moody, free-skating scorer his captain. It'll be Renney who likely pays the price if the Rangers fall any further this season, but can JJ be that far behind outta' town?

Best Trade: How can it not be Montreal, getting young Josh Georges and a 1st-rounder for Craig Rivet and a 5th-rounder? Bob Gainey has now completed what Dane Cook calls every gentleman's dream: Being part of a heist. Now, San Jose made the necessary upgrade to its blueline, but when Georges and Souray are combining for 110 points a year on the backline, Rivet will be long forgotten in the Bay Area.

Worst Trade: The Rangers deciding that Aaron Ward was the problem and not, as previously mentioned, Jagr. You need character players like Ward if you're going to do what New York should be doing: rebuilding. Getting only Paul Mara in return for him is inefficient.

Is the Isles trading Robert Nilsson and Ryan O'Marra and a 1st-rounder for Ryan Smyth really that risky of a deal? O'Marra's rumored to be quite the hot head and supposedly, according to many NHL experts, will be a journeyman at best. Nilsson's been in Nolan's doghouse, barely able to crack the Islander lineup, when about 20 guys in the same first round of his draft have made big strides. A 1st-round pick, if Smyth gets the Isles over the hump, will not be that big a parting gift in the end.

More importantly on the dealing of Captain Canada, where is the new NHL logic in this? The Oilers can't afford to keep Smyth because of monetary constraints? The purposes for Gary Bettman's lockout just keep dropping like flies. This economic stability is sure working out.

Speaking of economic stability, 11 of the 24 American NHL teams received revenue sharing last season. None of the Canadian teams did. This according to Edmonton Oilers president Patrick LaForge during an interview with Canada's Sportsnet. Apparently, many Canadian teams paid into revenue sharing. According to the Toronto Globe & Mail, this ranged anywhere from $3 Million-$12 Million U.S. This compounded by TSN analyst Darren Dreger claiming the Canadian teams, all six of them, made up for 33% of the NHL's revenues last year. All of a sudden, Gary Bettman's happy American dream doesn't look so great, does it?

Watching TSN in Canada's coverage of the trade deadline simply shows us how much Versus just fails to get it. Fine, you don't want to devote the 8 hours to the deadline that TSN did on their airwaves, that's OK. But, c'mon, coverage from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., or even 3 p.m. 'till 5 p.m., would be serviceable. Even if you don't want to do that, how about 30 minutes before your game that night to talk about the deals that went down? No sir. Jack squat. NHL.com, almost admitting that they were getting the shaft, simulcast TSN's TradeCentre07 on the website. The NHL continues to lose out when its American fans want it the most.

-SFM-