Massive NHl News Update - June 11, 2010

Kulemin wants to stay in Toronto

Phil Sheridan: Decision time for Flyers

Hawks' Ladd played with fractured shoulder

Pierre-Marc Bouchard has considered retirement

Flyers have to address goaltending

Kulemin wants to stay in Toronto

Maple Leafs free agent Nikolai Kulemin wants to remain in Toronto, says his agent, with the two sides being about $1 million apart on a new contract.

And now the Leafs front office is musing about signing defenceman Tomas Kaberle to a long-term extension just as at least four teams are showing interest in the perennial all-star.

Yes, the Stanley Cup playoffs are over and it promises to be a busy June heading into the draft and free-agent signing period as the league’s 30 teams get back to the business of selling hope to fans. Nowhere is hope needed more than Toronto, now the owner of the league’s longest Stanley Cup drought at 43 years and counting.

Assistant GM Dave Nonis said the success of the Blackhawks and to a lesser extent the Flyers shows the Leafs are going down the right path in trying to build a team that can compete with the best in the league.

“Both those teams have the ability to play various styles,” said Nonis. “Both Chicago and Philadelphia had some high-octane offence, they had some puck movement. Both those teams — if they wanted to get dirty and gritty — they could both do that.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/mapleleafs/article/822021--kulemin-wants-to-stay-in-toronto

Phil Sheridan: Decision time for Flyers

If it's true the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports - and it is - then it must also be the toughest trophy to lose.

The proof was in the red eyes and scarred faces of the Flyers after Patrick Kane' s stealth overtime goal brought sudden death to their remarkable postseason. For the players and for the fans, there was immediate pain that will be followed by a deeper, longer-lasting gratification for two unforgettable and exhilarating months of hockey.

The one person who can't afford the sentimental view is Paul Holmgren, the general manager whose moves did so much to make this trip to the Finals possible. Holmgren can take pride that the team he assembled, playing for the coach he hired, played so well in April, May, and June. But he has to be merciless and clear-eyed if the Flyers still hope to end their 35-year (going on 36) championship drought.

Holmgren should take a quick look at Ruben Amaro Jr.'s handling of the Phillies after their consecutive trips to the World Series. After winning it all in 2008, especially, Amaro easily could have sat back and let 3 million fans roll through the turnstiles to watch the very same team in 2009. Heck, that team might have gone back to the playoffs as it was.

But Amaro didn't do that. He made the quick and difficult decision to part with Pat Burrell, the team's longest-tenured player and a hero of the title-clinching win. Amaro replaced Burrell with Raul Ibanez, a move that paid immediate dividends in the early part of the 2009 season.

And then, with the team in first place at the trade deadline last summer, Amaro went all-in to upgrade his starting pitching. After trying and failing to land Roy Halladay, Amaro made the trade that delivered Cliff Lee to his postseason destiny.

After the Phillies repeated as National League champions, Amaro flipped Lee to help acquire Halladay, rebuilt the bullpen, tweaked the bench, and brought in Placido Polanco to replace the steady Pedro Feliz at third base.

We don't know yet how it will turn out. We do know that the Phillies have remained the NL team to beat by staying aggressive, being bold, and continuing to make moves during the season as weaknesses reveal themselves.

Holmgren has an extra challenge. Does he evaluate these players based on their postseason odyssey or their regular-season oddities? Are they the Eastern Conference champions or the seventh seed that was one shoot-out goal from missing the entire Stanley Cup tournament?

Are they a young team with Claude Giroux , Mike Richards , Ville Leino , and poised for a long run together? Or are they a one-and-done ensemble with an aging core of James van Riemsdyk Chris Pronger , Kimmo Timonen , Danny Briere , Simon Gagne , and Ian Laperriere ?

It is a great achievement to reach the Cup Finals from a conference that features superstars Sidney Crosby , Evgeni Malkin , Alex Ovechkin , and Ryan Miller . But it must be acknowledged that chance and cir*****stance kept the Flyers from having to face any of them in the playoffs. Holmgren has to keep chasing the Penguins and Capitals, especially, if he hopes to establish the Flyers as annual threats to win the Cup.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/phil_sheridan/20100611_Phil_Sheridan__Decision_time_for_Flyers.html#axzz0qXxQMGyy

Hawks' Ladd played with fractured shoulder

Andrew Ladd already knew what it was like to win the Stanley Cup, but he was not going to miss his chance to hoist the trophy a second time.

The winger revealed after the Blackhawks won the title with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Flyers on Wednesday night that the injury that kept him out of the first three games of the finals was a fractured shoulder and torn ligaments.

"It was tough, especially sitting out the first three and not being out there helping," Ladd told TSN after the game. "I was determined to come back and be a part of it."

He was more than a bystander at the Wachovia Center. Ladd redirected a slap shot from the circle by Niklas Hjalmarsson with 2 minutes, 17 seconds left in the second period for a 3-2 lead.

The goal nearly stood as the winner before the Flyers' Scott Hartnell scored to force overtime.

Ladd won the Cup in 2006 with the Hurricanes, but he said this one felt different.

"It's indescribable to do this with this group of guys," Ladd said.

Interview time: One byproduct of success is losing key pieces. Hawks assistant coaches Mike Haviland and John Torchetti are rumored as potential candidates for head coaching vacancies.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/ct-spt-0611-bits-blackhawks-chicago--20100610,0,3375245.story

Pierre-Marc Bouchard has considered retirement

Injured Wild forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard said he's gotten the green light from a Boston-based neurologist to begin lightly working out and hopes to be ready to return to the ice by training camp Sept. 17.

Bouchard , 26, says he still feels "little symptoms" and puts himself about 85 percent back from the concussion that sidelined him last season, but concussion specialist Robert Cantu told him he can begin exercising.

"He now wants me to start slowly working out, slowly everyday do a little bit more, but nothing that's going to create more headaches or aggravate the symptoms," Bouchard said. "So I'm going to go really slowly for the next few weeks."

Bouchard will begin going for walks and riding the exercise bike.

"He wants me to start to live my life back to where it was before, but at a slow pace," Bouchard said. "It's great news. I was pretty happy about that meeting. I know I have the green light to start doing a little bit more exercise than I'm used to.

"He told me even if I wake up and feel a little pressure in my head, I can still go ride the bike. I just have to listen to my body. I just needed a little game plan."

Bouchard hasn't scheduled another appointment with Cantu, but they will speak on the phone this summer.

There's been speculation that the Wild playmaker may simply retire, but Bouchard said, "Of course not. I haven't thought about quitting playing hockey, no. Not once."

In fact, Bouchard sounded as optimistic as he ever has during this frustrating injury.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/96081529.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Flyers have to address goaltending

THIS IS a lousy time for any sports team to make big decisions, in the hours after the kind of exhausting, emotional run like the Flyers just made. They are feeling what you are feeling right now, as the adrenaline of the last 2 months ebbs and then disappears completely. People on teams like these sometimes do little but sleep for days.

At a certain point, though, general manager Paul Holmgren will have to begin the final assessment.

With that, three points:

First, that Holmgren should be applauded for doing what he said he was going to do - that is, build a roster for the postseason. The Chris Pronger deal was worth it, period, and this playoff run demonstrated why. The hiring of Peter Laviolette as coach was the right move, obviously. This is a good group and a group that grew up a lot in the last 6 months. That is Holmgren's doing.

Second, that the danger Holmgren faces is the temptation to stand pat. It would be the biggest mistake he could make. The truth is that the Flyers are not going to be able to avoid both Pittsburgh and Washington in the playoffs very often, as they did this season. It was their great good fortune, and they took advantage of it, and the manner in which they did it will be to their everlasting credit. But it was good fortune and no one should ever forget it.

Third, that the goaltending needs to be addressed. Again.

I am not here to bury Michael Leighton , but everybody saw what happened. He was pulled in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, deservedly. He was pulled in Game 5, deservedly. In Game 6, he let in one goal on a wrist shot from the dot - the kind of puck that just needs to be stopped in the final - and he let in an impossible goal in overtime that decided the game.

It is true that the Flyers appeared exhausted in many ways. It is true, too, that the Blackhawks were the better team. To pin this exclusively on the goaltending would be an unfair reading of what happened.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20100611_As_they_assess_season__Flyers_have_to_address_goaltending.html?text=lg&c=y#axzz0qXhPCDI1