WHAT'S MAKING THE NEWS IN THE GRETZKY CONFERENCE (PART 3)
By Kevin Wu
Montreal
Last year’s GM of the Year shook the city of Montreal with some controversial deals and big-time moves after bowing out in the 2nd round of last season’s playoffs to their Canadian rivals the Ottawa Senators.
With a gutsy move to say the least, Troy Cook shipped out local boy Jose Theodore to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Nikolai Khabibulin. For a team, which prides itself in making a point to acquire French-Canadian hockey players, it’s with no surprise that the local media and fans of the historic Montreal Canadiens called for Cook’s head on a platter.
Management stuck with Cook though, and watched as Cook proceeded to deal away every single player from that roster that got outworked, and outplayed in the playoffs last May. The only player left from the overhaul is Matt Davidson, who has only played in 11 games, being a healthy scratch most of the time.
It’s early but the Montreal Canadiens are in the midst of a four-game losing skid which has them sitting on the outside looking up at a playoff spot. Montreal has always been one of the tougher cities to please in the hockey world. Troy Cook maybe finding this out right now the hard way.
Ottawa
Tim Drysdale acquired Chris Pronger earlier in the season from the Pittsburgh Penguins expecting the bruising defenceman to do exactly what he’s been doing.
Pronger leads the team with an amazing +20 rating, all while leading the team with over 746 minutes played in 30 games this season. He’s 5th among CPHL defenceman with 28 points and one of only three defencemen to crack the top 10 in assists in the entire league with 25.
Pronger has led the team to 3rd in the league in team defence allowing a paltry 78 goals against. He’s double, sometimes triple-shifted in games, and plays on the top units on both the powerplay and penalty kill. The All Star defenceman is once again earning the $9.6 Million he’s getting paid.
Florida
Less than a year ago, opposition teams would roll into Sunrise, Florida, skip their optional team practices for a day on the sunny beaches of Florida instead, and leave with two points anyways. A little note to teams who may not know any better: Don’t try that this year.
With a plethora of talent among their group of forwards, the Florida Panthers have transformed themselves from, well, an absolutely horrible team to a legitimate contender.
Perhaps it is their GM’s propensity to send a player deemed to be underachieving packing on a whim that keeps his players in line, or maybe it’s the old hockey adage in full effect among a closely-knit-Panther team, which claims that teams perform better when they’re having fun. Whatever it is, Dave Penney has put together a strong team that believe it or not, has surpassed the Florida Marlins in popularity according to a recent survey distributed to over 15 million Sunshine State residents.
With the departure of Carlos Delgado from the Florida Marlins last week, don’t be surprised if the world’s trend-setters --- the youth --- begin ditching their passé Delgado jerseys for a more hip Hejduk jersey.
Gretzky Conference News and Notes (Part 3)
