ED SNIDER, going on 32 years of ownership since the Flyers’ last Stanley Cup, should have been more careful what he wished for in giving his unyielding support to Gary Bettman’s hard-cap plan to emasculate the NHL’s marquee big-market clubs.
He should have realized that his franchise required the ability to spend an unlimited amount in order to correct Bob Clarke’s mistakes, or perhaps Snider had short-term memory loss that wiped out recollection of follies such as the Chris Gratton fiasco.
Snider should have realized that imposition of the cap would make it all but impossible to acquire a big-time goaltender – not, of course, that his GM ever had an affinity for upper-echelon netminders – or perhaps Comcast getting the cable contract from the NHL trumped all other considerations.
Increasingly shrill after every embarrassment – 8-2 and 7-1 losses to Buffalo in last year’s first-round elimination, a 9-1 loss in Buffalo on Tuesday, for example – Snider now has no idea whether he’s coming or going. After the playoff loss, he vowed to catch up to the new NHL. Somehow, that did not include buying out Derian Hatcher over the summer. After Tuesday, Snider vowed a return to old-time Flyers pride. Somehow, that meant sending Petr Nedved to the minor leagues.
Snider meddled last spring, implied dissatisfaction with Ken Hitchcock, then extended the coach’s contract for two years through 2008-09. Snider joined the whining during what was, by all accounts, a poor training camp. Now he’s cut off at the knees by the cap and the new-age environment that has destroyed the fear factor of playing the Flyers.
Too bad Dave Taylor isn’t still around to take Jeremy Roenick off Snider’s hands.
But Snider has his additional profits. He can yell and scream all he wants, but we bet he isn’t screaming at the stockholders’ meetings, or when the Board of Governors convenes.
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John Tortorella, the odds-on choice to become the first coaching casualty of the season, had the Lightning doing pushups on the ice Tuesday, the day after the team’s 5-1 loss to Carolina.
With both Brad Richards (trying to do way too much to justify his unjustifiable $7.8 million per deal) and Martin St. Louis (earning $5.25 million per through 2009-10 and not even close to the player he was before the canceled season) untradeable, it’s only a matter of time before GM Jay Feaster is forced to get out from under the cap by putting Vincent Lecavalier on the market.
Lecavalier carries a $6.875 million cap hit through 2008-09, but any team with payroll space and organizational depth will be in the hunt once reality hits – and that most certainly includes the one on Broadway lacking a big-time center.
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There’s trouble in the Phoenix room, we’re told by an unpaid informant, which of course comes as a shock after a summer in which the Coyotes added the well-done Roenick to the mix.
The Kings are shopping Craig Conroy, who had one assist and was minus-3 through the first eight games of the season. The Thrashers are believed to have some interest in the 35-year-old center, but it’s hard to imagine the team has the ability to absorb the $2.394 million cap hit Conroy carries through next season. LA GM Dean Lombardi is seeking prospects for Conroy as he attempts an organizational reconstruction.
The Penguins, seeking depth up front as well as a backup goaltender, will move defenseman Brooks Orpik. John LeClair also is readily attainable.
The ban of Alexander Ovechkin‘s smoke-tinted visor was not imposed by league marketing people, as has been suggested in other reports. Indeed, the issue originated at a meeting of the league’s competition committee, PA executive director Ted Saskin told Slap Shots.
“The competition committee discussed tinting of visors and agreed tinting would be OK as long as the player’s eyes were visible through the visor,” Saskin said. “I discussed this with Alex, and he agreed to reduce the tinting on his visor to comply with the standard.”
There may be a 24/7 NHL Network in the United States by the turn of the new year. That at least is the report to Slap Shots from NHL VP of broadcasting John Shannon.
Meanwhile, salary arbitration is on the agenda of the NHL GMs meetings next month, deputy commissioner Bill Daly has told Slap Shots. The league and union have agreed to discuss changes in the arbitration system, with the NHLPA awaiting a proposal from the NHL following input from the GMs
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This just in. The Sabres are ordering snow tires for the vehicles they’ll ride in the Stanley Cup parade they’re already planning.