Walt Poddubny dies at 49

Maybe it’s just the morbidity that goes with it, but in years of watching the wire, there is something that happens when you see ^AP-XXX—Obit-- come across.

Generally, it’s calling out to Altruda, “So-and-so died.”

“Saw that,” the usual response.

On Saturday night, it was Walt Poddubny. And he was just 49.

Who was he? Poddubny was one of those players who toiled for several years in the NHL, was dealt and flourished for a few seasons before moving back into relative obscurity as his career flamed out.

One of those guys that you forget about until you see a story like this and then say, “Yeah, he was pretty good for a while…”

From 1981-86, Poddubny had 59 goals with the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs, and played more than 38 games just once in that time. Not a particularly special player, in fact the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Web site said “once he was established, criticisms began to surface that Poddubny was a floater, guilty of inconsistent play before the injury bug struck, forcing him to miss many games during the seasons that followed.”

Traded to the New York Rangers, he had a career-high 40 goals and led the Blueshirts with 87 points while missing only five games. The next season, he had 38 goals and a team-best 88 points in 77 games.

In 1988-89, he landed with Quebec, and continued to thrive. He led the Nordqiues with 38 goals and was second with 75 points in 72 contests. Over the next three seasons, though, he would play just 54 games with the New Jersey Devils, totaling nine goals.

Out of the game at 31, Poddubny later coached in Anchorage, Alaska of the West Coast Hockey League.

The AP story said he died after collapsing in Thunder Bay, Ontario at his sisters’ home, where he had been living. Sad end and too soon.

Congratulations, Martin Brodeur

¶ NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Martin Brodeur has set the NHL record for career victories by a goalie.

More of the same from Barry Zito

The 2009 baseball season doesn’t get under way for another three weeks, but it’s already threatening to be another long one for the San Francisco Giants’ Barry Zito.

Add this to his last name – owner of the most onerous contract in the game today.

In 2007, the former Oakland Athletics left-hander crossed the bay, signing a seven-year deal with the Giants for $126 million. With the New York Yankees having completed their deal with oft-injured Carl Pavano (four years, $39.95 million … and 26 starts in pinstripes), Zito - a former Cy Young Award winner - now gives you the least bang for the buck.

In two seasons and with a minimum of 300 innings pitched, Zito is tied for the major league-lead with teammate Matt Cain for the most losses with 30. Zito’s 185 walks allowed in that span lead the National League and is second to Daniel Cabrera, now with the Washington Nationals.

Only 12 pitchers have had an ERA higher than Zito’s 4.83.

If the Giants could pawn Zito off, I’m sure they would jump at the chance. But which club in their right mind would take in a 30-year-old, regardless of his being a southpaw, who’s still owed $90 million and getting worse each season?

So far this spring for Zito? It’s been more of the same, and all bad. On Sunday, he gave up six runs and 10 hits in five innings of a loss to the Kansas City Royals.

"Honestly, you want to produce results and you want to come out and make a statement, and that's something that didn't go on today," Zito said. "I learned last year to not put too much stock into what else goes on outside the clubhouse and just to stay with my routine."

In four spring starts, Zito has allowed 11 earned runs in 13 2-3 innings – an ERA of 7.24 for those keeping score at home.

Guess he’s staying with the routine.

551 down, 1 to go for Marty

Is there any doubt that when Martin Brodeur next takes the ice, he’s going to become the all-time winningest goaltender in NHL history?

The stats seem to say no doubt whatsoever.

Brodeur’s first crack to pass Patrick Roy with career win No. 552 comes Tuesday night at the Prudential Center where the New Jersey Devils will meet the Chicago Blackhawks – a team the four-time Vezina Trophy winner has handled with ease for nearly a decade.

In eight career games versus the Blackhawks stretching back to December 1999, Brodeur is 7-0-0 with a tie, a shutout and 1.46 goals-against average.

That’s a stark turnaround from the start of his career when he couldn’t buy a ‘W’. In his first six games against the ‘Hawks, Brodeur was 0-2-0 with three ties and a 2.58 GAA.

He probably not yet looking ahead, instead being content with tying the wins mark in his hometown and against the team Roy broke in with and was a star for more than a decade.

"Feels pretty good," Brodeur said after a 22-save effort Saturday night in a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. "When the puck dropped it was fine. Maybe I got butterflies late in the game, but when we scored the third goal I thought, 'OK, maybe this could be it.'

"The game was so tight for so long that I didn't start thinking outside the box. I really wanted to make sure I was on my game."

Roy helped Montreal to Stanley Cup wins in 1986 and 1993, when he won 10 straight overtime games en route to the second of his three Conn Smythe Trophies. Less than two years later, Roy would be dealt to the Colorado Avalanche within days of telling team president Ronald Corey that he was through with the Habs after being torched for nine goals in a 11-1 loss to Detroit.

Now a co-owner and coach of a junior team in Quebec City, Roy watched Brodeur match the record.

"I’m happy to be here tonight and see it happen," Roy said. "Nothing against Montreal—I know Montreal is in the middle of a big race—but I think it’s a great moment in the game and I’m sure Marty is very excited to see it happen in his hometown in front of his family."

And a very classy move by the Canadiens’ fans giving Brodeur, a three-time Stanley Cup winner, a standing ovation.

He can expect at least one more early next week.

Mount Tortorella blows off steam

When the New York Rangers hired John Tortorella to replace the fired Tom Renney last month, two questions immediately crossed my mind.

1. Which European would be the first to be blistered by the notoriously hot-headed coach?

2. When would said blistering occur?

The answers: Nikolai Zherdev and Thursday night.

As a Rangers fan – yeah, I live in Chicago, and yeah, I’ve adopted the Blackhawks – I have been waiting for years for there to be some consequence for laziness and poor play.

General manager Glen Sather, when he’s not bailing his former boss out of jail, certainly wasn’t going to do it. Neither would Renney, who was like the kid trying to show his big brother that he was all grown up and could handle himself.

Except that the players seemed to tune him out, a time-tested way to get a coach axed.

A 5-0-0 start notwithstanding, the Rangers needed a kick in the ass. Well, they got one now. And if I’m one who fails to play hard, smart and with an edge, I surely don’t want to the skating back to the bench seeing that set line of his mouth and the steely glare of a man that commands – make that, demands – accountability.

For the first time since joining New York, Mount Tortorella blew in Music City.

With his team trailing 2-1 after one period in Nashville, Tortorella lit into his team causing at least one overpriced and undersized veteran to sit up and take notice.

“He wasn’t happy after the first period,” Scott Gomez said. “It has been a while since I’ve heard a speech like that. We were playing too timid. Nashville had the 2-1 lead and we thought it was over.

“He let us know what it is going to be like from now on. He lit into all of us. We were feeling sorry for ourselves and he spotted that right away. He called us out. I thought we responded well.”

New York went on to a 4-2 win without the services of Zherdev, who was benched for the remainder of the game after a turnover led to a Predators goal.

Zherdev, tied with Gomez for the team lead with 51 points, is soft. Part of the reason he was dealt from the Columbus Blue Jackets was his inability to get along with Ken Hitchcock, who like Tortorella holds players accountable.

Picked fourth overall in 2003, Zherdev has never lived up to that billing, averaging fewer than 20 goals in his first four seasons. After scoring five goals in first month of the season, he has just 19 so far and it will bear watching how he responds to this latest round of crticism.

I’m thinking turtle.

Definitely not the Tortorella way.

What goes on in Vegas ...

See, this is just another reason why I hate Gary Bettman. This story crossed on the wire at work earlier tonight:

¶ NEW YORK (AP) - The NHL is moving its annual awards show from Toronto to Las Vegas.
¶ Part of a three-year deal with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced Friday, this year's show will be held June 18 at the Palms Hotel.
¶ “Las Vegas specializes in shining the spotlight on outstanding performers,'' NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. ``It's innate energy offers an exciting setting for our celebration of excellence.”

Two words. Bull. Shit.

So, again, you take this out of a traditional NHL market to a non-traditional one.

Like moving the Jets here. Or putting expansion teams here, here, and also here.

Nice going.

My condolences - again - to the people of Canada for taking another piece of what's precious to them.

Brodeur on the cusp of hockey immortality

It’s almost too perfect. Kinda Hollywood, in fact.

What looked like a lost season for Martin Brodeur can still have a storybook ending.

The resume already is impressive: Four Vezina Trophies, three Stanley Cups, Olympic gold, World championships. And now he’s approaching the cusp of one of hockey’s most hallowed records for goaltenders, the first of two he will eventually own.

On Saturday night, Brodeur will try to tie Patrick Roy’s all-time record of 551 regular-season wins as the New Jersey Devils take on the Montreal Canadiens.

Oh, and Brodeur gets his first crack at that record in his hometown. And against the team Roy starred for over the first 11-plus seasons of his illustrious career.

“It just adds to the story. You can’t ask for a better script,” Brodeur said Thursday after making 26 saves in an easy 5-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. “Everything happens for a reason. I just want to be able to put this all behind me. It feels good to be back playing and to get a chance like this.”

Just that he’s reached this point is remarkable. On Nov. 1, the seven-time 40-game winner played fewer then 27 minutes in a victory over the Atlanta Thrashers before leaving with what looked like a harmless injury.

Of course it was harmless. From 1997 through 2008, Brodeur was a workhorse, averaging 73 games a season. Sure, there was the one game missed in 2000 due to a groin injury, and the six games he was sidelined in 2005 to a sprained right knee. But the closest thing to Superman was the guy with the red jersey and the No. 30 on his back.

So when it was revealed he had a torn biceps tendon – an injury requiring surgery and one that would keep him out 50 games – it was not only thought the Devils’ season was shot, Brodeur’s chase of Roy’s record would have to wait until early next season.

Perhaps Superman thought … or knew … better.

He returned on Feb. 26, and stopped all 24 shots to blank the Colorado Avalanche. After an easy win over the Florida Panthers, Brodeur made 27 saves for his 100th shutout, a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

“My expectations weren't that big. I just wanted to go out and feel good and be second nature again playing hockey,” the 36-year-old Brodeur said. “It's been for so long that I haven't played games, I was a little worried how I was going to feel in there.

“After the first game, that was pretty tough. Second and third game, I just felt natural in there. I felt that I belonged, you know, in the games and stuff.”

In seven starts since coming back, Brodeur is 6-1-0 with a 2.08 goals-against average, a figure inflated because he permitted six goals in a loss to the league-worst New York Islanders on Saturday.

Eclipsing the wins record will happen, but don’t put it past Brodeur to break a longer-standing record this season. With four more shutouts, Terry Sawchuk’s career record of 103 will fall by the wayside as well.

Roy and Sawchuk, whose career spanned four decades, are Hall of Famers. Brodeur isn’t quite ready to have his name uttered in the same breath yet.

“It's never comfortable to hear that. When people tell you stuff like that, you don't like to believe it,” Brodeur said. “I think I'm going to go and try to accomplish some pretty big milestones or establish some records. I mean, it's normal that people will talk about it.

“But I don't think as an athlete you can see yourself like that. I think if you do, it's not the right way to approach who you are, where you want to be. I think you really have to stay humble when these things are approaching.”

Brodeur is 34-15-0 with five ties, eight shutouts and a 1.80 GAA in his career against his hometown team. He’s also permitted 10 goals while dropping three straight against the Habs.

"It's definitely going to be a different atmosphere, but I expect that there," Brodeur said. "I'll try to be the same.”

'Canes and Wings ... oh, my

Some observations from Saturday night …

If Eric Staal is starting to heat up, the Carolina Hurricanes could be hard to stop in the Eastern Confernce.

Staal tied franchise records with four goals and six points in the ‘Canes’ 9-3 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning. That pushed the Hurricanes from 10th to seventh in the East.

Linemate Tuomo Ruutu had two goals and three assists for a career-high five points, and Erik Cole - back with Carolina after being acquired from the Edmonton Oilers last week in a three-team swap - had four assists.

With the win, Carolina put quite an exclamation point on the franchise’s first season series-sweep of Tampa Bay since the Hartford Whalers turned the trick 12 seasons ago.

Don’t look now, but things are turning sour for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

For the second straight Saturday, Detroit was lit up for eight goals. This week, they lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 8-2 as Rick Nash posted his second hat trick of the season against the Red Wings.

From the ‘you might wanna get a body on him’ department: All three of Nash’s goals were unassisted.

On Feb. 28, the Red Wings were crushed 8-0 by the Nashville Predators as Jason Arnott had a three-goal game.

The goaltending in the Motor City has been a question all season in spite the Wings’ 43-15-8 record.

Yes, they’re going to win the Central Division for the eighth straight season. Yes, they’ll eclipse 100 points for the ninth consecutive campaign – though all that means is your team can dominate a regular-season slate.

Ty Conklin and Chris Osgood to get those last 16 wins before lifting another Cup? Don’t think so.

Haymaker, haymaker

I don't normally advocate fighting in the NHL. To me, it's a by-product of the game.

This was one of the best in years ...

Wheeling and dealing

The trade deadline for 2009 has gone, and there were some surprises – Florida keeping Jay Bouwmeester. Montreal and Vancouver standing pat – and some that weren’t, such as graybeards Bill Guerin and Mark Recchi being moved to teams making a playoff push.

I won’t analyze every deal, but here are some highlights:

CALGARY ACQUIRES OLLI JOKINEN AND A THIRD-ROUND PICK FROM PHOENIX FOR MATTHEW LOMBARDI, BRANDON PRUST AND A CONDITIONAL FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK

WHAT THE FLAMES GET: Unknown … kind of. Though he’s appeared in 780 career games, Jokinen – who played for Mike Keenan in Florida – has never been to the postseason. The Flames will continue rely on Jarome Iginla and Michael Cammalleri for much of the offense, and Jokinen is a nice complementary piece with Todd Bertuzzi and Rene Bourque. Make no mistake, though, the Flames’ playoff hopes will rest squarely on the shoulders of goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

WHAT THE COYOTES GET: Cheaper and smaller. The Coyotes were in full salary dump mode. Lombardi doesn’t score a lot. Prust provides pestiness (79 penalty minutes in 25 games), but not much beyond that.

PHILADELPHIA ACQUIRES DANIEL CARCILLO FROM PHOENIX FOR SCOTTIE UPSHALL AND A SECOND-ROUND DRAFT PICK

WHAT THE FLYERS GET: Tougher. Carcillo leads the league with 174 penalty minutes this season, and also is the NHL’s leader in that category since breaking into the league in 2006 with 572. Had 13 goals in 57 games last season, but down to only three in '08-'09. Scoring will not be his primary focus.

WHAT THE COYOTES GET: Underachiever. Picked sixth overall in 2002, Upshall flamed out in Nashville and again in Philadelphia, who acquired him in a deal for Peter Forsberg. Upshall 38 goals and 55 assists in 211 games over six seasons, but is just 25, so perhaps he can find hope in Arizona.

OTTAWA ACQUIRES PASCAL LECLAIRE FROM COLUMBUS FOR ANTOINE VERMETTE

WHAT THE SENATORS GET: Some stability. Martin Gerber is gone (finally), Brian Elliott is young, and Alex Auld – while considered one of the nicer guys in the league – just plain sucks. Leclaire was Wally Pipp-ed out of Columbus due to injuries and the emergence of likely Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason, and currently is out after undergoing ankle surgery in January. Broke out with 24 wins, a 2.25 goals-against average and nine shutouts last season with the Blue Jackets. Possibly a No. 1 in Canada’s capital? For now, as this will give Elliott more time to develop.

WHAT THE BLUE JACKETS GET: Playmaker. His production has fallen off this season, as Ottawa has just been awful. Vermetter but could benefit from playing with scorers Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius. Signed through next season, Vermette has speed and can kill penalties.

NEW YORK RANGERS ACQUIRE NIK ANTROPOV FROM TORONTO FOR A SECOND-ROUND PICK

WHAT THE RANGERS GET: Offense? With 21 goals, Antropov now becomes the Rangers’ leading scorer. He needs 11 more points to eclipse his career
high of 56 set last season, but at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, it seems like he should be more of a force on offense. Read: soft, like Nikolai Zherdev. Antropov will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, so this could be more of a tryout.

NEW YORK RANGERS ACQUIRE DEREK MORRIS FROM PHOENIX FOR PETR PRUCHA, NIGEL DAWES AND DMITRI KALININ

WHAT THE RANGERS GET: Rid of Kalinin, for one, who was a misfit in New York like overpaid defensemen Stephane Quintal and Sylvain Lefebvre before him. Morris, like Antropov, is a UFA on July 1, so if he can show some scoring touch and rock-solid defense, he'll be a welcome addition to the blue line.

WHAT THE COYOTES GET: More pieces for the future. Prucha had 30 goals as a rookie in 2005-06, but has totaled 33 in two-plus seasons since then. Dawes is 5-foot-8, and that’s a stretch, but has 10 goals. Kalinin is big (6-foot-3), injury-prone (averaged 60 games over the past three seasons) and little else.

As for the smaller deals, there were some interesting ones as well. With Ryan Miller (ankle) out for know, Buffalo shored up its goaltending situation by getting Mikael Tellqvist from Phoenix.

Though they’re going to miss the postseason for the fourth straight year, the Maple Leafs also addressed instability in net. With Vesa Toskala likely out for the season (hip and groin surgery), Curtis Joseph being ancient and Justin Pogge not yet ready, the Leafs picked up Gerber off waivers from Ottawa.

I can already hear Altruda calling out ‘Swiss Miss.’

In a separate deal with Tampa Bay, the Leafs picked up Olaf Kolzig, who’s also done for the season.

With all the trades the Coyotes made, and their finances in questions, they’ve quickly become a shell of a team that up until recently was a legitimate playoff contender.

Perhaps it’s time to for the NHL to step in, admit Desert Storm was a failure and look at moving this franchise to Kansas City.

Or, dare I say, back to the ‘Peg where they belong.