caucasianheat

Tomorrow is gonna be so boring.

Aaaaaand Jagr goes to Boston for two prospects and a pick.

Roy goes for a 2nd round pick and Kevin Connauton, which is a pretty light load for the impact I think he can bring to Vancouver.

Jagr will be on the move according to reports - had a laugh when I read that Philly was motivated to get him. Mark Streit will not re-sign with the Islanders, so he'll either be traded or go UFA.

Teams appear really excited to wreck deadline day coverage by getting it all in now.

Reimer has gotten kid gloves compared to Price because one is a fifth overall pick and the other isn't. Reimer has never been scrutinized like this. If Montreal's not winning, Price has been the one to hang it on.

(just watch the first minute or so)

I love that aspect of the shortened season. Games matter. In a regular 82 gamer, you can have periods of comfortable sliding and the players undeniably find nights to mail it in.

Chicago gets depth at center from SJ, swapping a 4th round pick for Michal Handzus.

http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2013/03/28/bruins-gm-peter-chiarelli-is-not-happy-with-losing-out-on-iginla/

Pete Chiarelli: bitter back-up date that gets ditched just before the prom.

It sounds like Boston did have the deal beat, but Iginla had to waive to finalize the trade and I'm guessing he dug in his heels to get to Pittsburgh because nothing else makes sense.

Great cap management in Pittsburgh. They add 14 million dollars in talent and don't even have to trade a roster player to shift salary.

Iginla is scratched tonight and Khokhlachev has been pulled out last-minute in Providence, so that picture is becoming a bit clearer.

One of the picks going back for Murray is conditional on him signing with Pittsburgh in the offseason.

Good grab. Even if SJ fans had soured on him (psst! it's your whole team, guys), Murray brings tools that Pittsburgh doesn't have and will need for a deep playoff run. He loves to block shots, was eating up lots of time on one the NHL's best penalty kills, and is freakishly strong in clearing the front of the net.

Tampa is just awful lately.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=418994

Tampa is just awful lately. Getting run out of the rink by Ottawa this afternoon.

Pitchfork needed a paragraph and a half to make a Thriller comparison, so I think I'll just relent now and say that I don't fully 'get' the 20/20 Experience.

Holmgren really is the boldest GM - it's almost expected he's going to do something here. He should be after whatever has to go in the too-many-goalies conundrum in StLouis. A Brian Elliot / Bryzgalov timeshare tandem is a little less scary than what they're going with now.

Ultimately, the Flyers are in good shape. Giroux, Simmonds, Voracek, Couturier, both Schenns, Read, Coburn, and Grossman are all guys with bright futures. Some are slumping now but will come along. Philly's biggest jobs are firming up their goaltending and getting Giroux some more scoring help - he's been exposed a bit without a Richards, Carter or Jagr there to supplement scoring and set him up all the time.

No chance I'd do that deal as Shero. For Pittsburgh, trading Letang for any other defenseman is like fixing a one-legged chair by swapping the leg.

Depending on Ottawa's position and Spezza's health, the capital could be a good place for an Iginla rental. Bryan Murray's been basically showcasing his wares all season long - lots of prospects and young guys to throw in your cart.

edit: I have to append this by saying I don't think Calgary will ever trade Iginla even though they probably should. It's sort of like Dallas never wanting to let Modano and Lethinen and Turco go even though it would have made that team better faster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ6YI9PVGag

The barbecue sauce analogy doesn't work so well because, depending on your commitment to barbecue sauce, you could absolutely be that guy chuckling to himself at an inferior brand.

Music isn't nearly as esoteric. Pop culture is basically a human denominator. Almost everyone consumes it and almost everyone is passionate enough to have a firm convicted opinion about it.

I think adjusting the metaphor properly puts the lie to it. The beer business is a better corollary than condiments. Many people enjoy beer and there's lots of brands out there to sample. Some consumers enjoy a cold Whatever Lite, but once you break the surface, there's a whole nother thriving culture there. And lots of people with shrill, discerning opinions about what's shit and what isn't and why.

Toronto had to make a room for a body, as it looks like Frattin will return tonight and their only waiver-exempt players (Kadri, Holzer, Komarov) are all worthy of staying up. A high fourth round pick is a pretty good return and it's a good move for Edmonton since they lack effective role players.

I misspoke on the O'Reilly deal a few days ago assuming he was going UFA after next season, but I just read that he'll be restricted. I still doubt he stays, but it complicates things.

Read a report from a fan at the Toronto-NYI game that someone got tossed from Nassau for throwing their hat on the ice after Kadri's third goal.

Even their security doesn't know shit about hockey.

I think maybe the picks were the better deal in this case because they're the surest thing. O'Reilly will be gone next July and would gladly have been gone today or three months ago. To me, draft picks are a better value than one-and-a-quarter seasons from a player, but maybe they've got something lined up. That's basically the ideal rental player contract.

Also lol Feaster.

When they aren't literally the worst team in the league, Columbus pulls pretty strong TV ratings locally. They have a rather lucrative longterm deal that airs almost every single game, home and away. It's not a matter of no hockey fans in Columbus.

The ticket quandary is probably more about a lack of corporate packages being passed around than anything else. Lots of cities have this same problem (like Nashville and St. Louis), but CBJ getting sold in part to Nationwide almost definitely means that there will be lots more seats filled with comps in years to come.

"Yeah, we'll probably do a Mac version or something"

Fuuuuuuuuu--

edit: Actually, I can't tell if that just means a Mac version of beta or of the game altogether. Eager to try this out.

The picture becomes clearer when Phoenix is settled one way or the other. Lots of cities want teams and some would be ready to deploy tomorrow, but it seems the league won't move on anything until every last option in Phoenix is exhausted.

There are struggling teams in the east, too, that could conceivably move to Quebec City or elsewhere. One of Florida or Tampa could comfortably relocate to the northeast under the new alignment. NJ has an unstable ownership situation and the Islanders moving to Barclays is probably too many teams in too small an area.

edit: Whoa trades. Montreal acquires Michael Ryder and sends Erik Cole to Dallas. Philly brings back Simon Gagne from LA for a conditional fourth.

Read yesterday that he wouldn't talk to USADA. I guess he thought talking with Oprah probably had a better chance of affecting change in sports?

DiPietro's contract is worth over 3 million in the minors, so the Isles have close to 9 million committed this year to goalies that won't be playing for them. Is there a Charles Wang meme of some kind that we can just use as shorthand here?

Will be interested to see what the supplemental discipline looks like for a first overall pick - Hall dumped Clutterbuck last night with a pretty vicious knee-on-knee hit in open ice.