Prime Time Sports Summary - April 5, 2007

Here are the NHL Stories from Prime Time Sports last night (National Hour):

Host: Bob McCown
Guests: Jim Kelley from Rogers Sportsnet, Paul Coffey former NHL player

Main NHL Story: Limited hockey discussion on Thursday night. For the first 20 minutes or so, Paul Coffey was live in studio and the panel discussed some of the hot topics around the NHL. Paul mainly talked about the NHLPA issue and his involvement (which was limited), however from his view he was very thankful for what the PA did for him and his career. Kelley talked about the situation in Edmonton and how the city is so focussed on hockey that it becomes difficult for the star players (Pronger, Smyth, etc.) to keep the town happy. Coffey was very impressed with the work Oiler's GM Kevin Lowe has been doing since his was given the job. McCown brought up the fact that the Edmonton of the 80's and 90's is a totally different from the Edmonton of today - simply put, if your winning, it's a place you want to be, if the team is not winning, then the city seems to take a dip. Going along with that difference, is the difference between the game today and the game back when Coffey played. Coffey agrees with a majority of the rule changes, however he feels more power should be given to the defencemen. Coffey says that today's defencemen have trouble expanding their game. He feels that a more "robotic" motion is in place - when in the defensive zone, the defencemen can't lay a hand on any attacks and when they flip to offense, they simply fire the puck up to the forwards. The days of the rushing defenceman is slowly slipping away.

Finally, Coffey talked about his Baycrest Hockey Tournament for Alzheimer's. The tournament runs from April 26 to 28, 2007. Click the link for more info.