Here are the NHL Stories from Prime Time Sports last night (National Hour):Host: Bob McCown
Guests: David Shoalts and Stephen Brunt from the Globe & Mail
The Leafs
The discussion started by going over Shoalts' article he has written in Monday's Globe & Mail. Shoalts outlined in his article (at the bottom) why the Leafs ended up like they did and also gave each Leaf player a "do he add value." Both McCown and Brunt questioned a few of his decisions, but Shoalts was able to deflect a majority of the queries. One point that he did bring up was his ranking of Andrew Raycroft. He gave Raycroft a "sometimes" worth his value and justified it by saying that on the list of NHL goalie salaries Raycroft is ranked 23rd with his $2 million contract - justifiable given that it must mean the NHL has 22 better goaltenders in the league. McCown and Shoalts then brought up the Leafs mistakes; signing Raycroft and signing McCabe. Shoalts discussed the age old argument of why did JFJ give Raycroft a new contract when he entered Toronto with still one year left? Now, given his 2006-2007 performance, the Leafs will be unable to trade for him and will be forced to spend about $700k - $1 million on getting a decent back-up tender. The McCabe contract was, like everyone thinks, just a bad move on JFJ's part. The guy is untradable - the only deal that could get done (McCown said jokingly) is Yashin for McCabe, but who wants that? Given that the roundtable was on a roll about bad decisions, they then focussed their efforts on the one who made these decisions, John Ferguson Jr. McCown suggests the Leafs go out and hire NHL Executive Colin Campbell, while Shoalts suggests it won't help, as Campbell himself will be a new GM and he will have his hands tied by MLSE management. Final thought - who would you resign? who would you trade for?
The Canadiens
The Habs discussion was a little less in depth as neither reporter spent much time around the team this season, however they were quick to point out the rough season Montreal had. The season started well for the Habs and then went sour around Christmas time. So many negative events occurred at once that the Habs had the life sucked out of them. The personal loss of Bob Gainey, the Koivu injury and the fact that their was a new coach behind the bench all played into the sourness. Shoalts also brought up the problems the team had with Kovalev and Samsonov plagued their season. The future for the Habs still looks bright, with players like Ryder and Higgins just gaining their NHL senses, however there is a slim chance that Souray will resign in the off-season - Shoalts points out that Souray wants to move out to LA. The coaching situation will be a hot topic for the Montreal media as well, because it is pretty much certain Gainey is not going anywhere. However, the roundtable agrees that a majority of the problems Carbonneau faced were simply out of his hands and Gainey will give him another season to prove himself.
Bullets:
The Ed Belfour fight - what is news about this?
