Daily News: NHL and EPL

 

NHL News:

Torres suspended for four games – Raffi Torres has been handed a four game suspension for his hit on Jordan Eberle.

New stadium for Edmonton Oilers? Alberta Premier expects funding pitch – Exciting news for the Oilers. However, things are at a very, very early stage.

Race for final playoff spots rages on – The last games of the regular season should be fantastic.

Sens' GM Murray signs up for three more years – Fairly self-explanatory headline.

Interesting article discussing the 2010/11 NHL season in numbers – Go read, it's fun.

EPL News:

Chelsea players backing Torres and Ancelotti – John Terry has stated that the Chelsea squad are all behind their manager and star striker.

Park Ji-Sung is ready to get back to his best form for United – The hard-working winger is hoping he can play a big part in the Red Devil's remaining games.

Dalglish talks ongoing – Neither the FSG group nor King Kenny are rushing into a decision at Liverpool

Season for over for Liverpool skipper – Liverpool will be without their best player for the rest of the season.

Wenger putting his faith in youth – Wenger is pleading with the Arsenal fans to put their faith in his youthful squad. I think the fans are pleading with Wenger to buy in some experience and grit.

More news next week!

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Weekly Poll: NHL and EPL

Can Man Utd find a decent replacement for Van Der Sar?

Which Oiler rookie had the best year?

Daily News: NHL and EPL

 NHL NEWS:

Ovechkin ready and Arnott close to return – Alexander Ovechkin feels that he is ready to return to action for the Caps, while Jason Arnott should be back very soon. Good news for the Caps.

Selanne proving age doesn't matter – At 40 years old, Teemu Selanne is proving to the NHL world that he still has the ability to be a top player. He scored 5 points in last night's win over the Avalanche and has 75 points on the season.

Bertuzzi ejected from game, could face suspension – Todd Bertuzzi's reckless hit on Ryan Johnson last night earned him a 5 minute penalty and a game misconduct call. With the NHL clamping down on bad hits, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bertuzzi get a suspension.

Alfredsson practices for the first time since February - Sens' forward, Daniel Alfredsson has finally returned to practice. He has been out with an injured back since February the 9^th.

Penner returns to Oil City, Kings lose Kopitar til next season - Dustin Penner is returning to Edmonton for the first time since he was traded from the Oilers to the Kings. News has also come out that Anze Kopitar will not return this season. 

EPL NEWS:

Ibrahimovic to City? - AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is cooling any rumours that he will be moving to Manchester City in the summer. I don't see the point in City buying another striker, especially one who is nearing the end of his career.

Neymar dreaming of Blues – 19-year-old Brazilian sensation Neymar has revealed he would love to play for Chelsea. I think this guy could be a player Chelsea really need. They have an ageing squad and could do with some youthful talent.

Gallas staying at Spurs – William Gallas has signed a new deal at Spurs and with that, will probably end his long career at White Hart Lane.

Bale in race to be fit to play Real – Gareth Bale is desperate to be fit for Tottenham's Champion's League clash with Real Madrid. He suffered a minor hamstring injury training with the Welsh squad last week.

Pardew is confident of summer spending – Alan Pardew is hoping that he will have some money to spend this summer. Newcastle received 35 million pounds for the sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool and Pardew is confident he will be able to use it all to strengthen the Toon squad. 

More news tomorrow!

NHL Trade Deadline Day Round-up

I'll start this one off by saying that I was mightily disappointed by the lack of action in the last 24 hours of the trade deadline. We didn't really see any massive trades which I believe is partly due to how tight the race for the playoffs in the Western Conference is. There are so many teams that can still make the playoffs that only a couple of teams were selling. It would also seem that those that were selling were asking for a lot in return for their players.

The biggest trades were the ones listed below, many of which occurred in the last couple of weeks.

• Colorado trades Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and a second-round pick in 2011 or 2012 to St. Louis for Erik Johnson, Jay McClement and a first-round pick in 2011 or 2012
• Boston trades Joe Colborne, a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional second-round choice in 2012 to Toronto for Tomas Kaberle
• Los Angeles trades Colton Teubert, a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional pick in 2012 to Edmonton for Dustin Penner.
• Nashville trades a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional pick in 2012 to Ottawa for Mike Fisher
• Pittsburgh trades Alex Goligoski to Dallas for James Neal and Matt Niskanen
• Washington trades David Steckel and a second-round pick in 2012 to New Jersey for Jason Arnott

Looking at those trades above you have to say that Edmonton did well to get what they did for Dustin Penner. He is a 30+ goals a year man but he is surplus to requirements in Oil City because of his age (28) and what Edmonton are trying to achieve there.

Toronto did very well as they enter a rebuilding phase by selling off the likes of Kaberle, Versteeg and Beauchemin. In fact, here is exactly what they got:

• Joffrey Lupul  
• Aaron 
• Joe Colborne
• Jake Gardiner    
• No. 1 pick in 2011           
• No. 1 pick in 2011      
• No. 3 pick in 2011        
• No. 2 pick in 2012 (conditional) 
• No. 7 pick in 2012    
• No. 4 pick in 2013 (conditional)

What a haul for the Maple Leafs! GM Brian Burke certainly has grabbed himself plenty of pieces with which he can rebuild his fallen franchise.

It wasn't just Toronto and Edmonton who did well out of selling. The Sens managed to collect a hoard of picks too.

• Craig Anderson    
• Ryan Potulny       
• No.1 pick in 2011 
• No. 2 pick in 2011
• No. 2 pick in 2011 (conditional)       
• No. 6 pick in 2011
• No. 6 or 7 pick in 2011
• No. 2 or 3 in 2012 (conditional)

Not only did they get those picks and great potential in net with Anderson, but they also managed to clear a ton of cap space too. Ottawa are primed to rebuild in a massive way this summer.

The same goes for the Florida Panthers who mimicked the Sens' activity.

I guess after looking at what the Sens, Leafs, Panthers and Oilers managed to do over the last couple of weeks, you would have to say they biggest winners after the deadline were the sellers.

Boston were fairly active over the last couple of weeks and I think they were the team that got the strongest out of the trades. They acquired Kaberle (a target of theirs for the past couple of years) and added more depth to their forward lines. They are obviously hoping this will be their year as they gear up for a big Cup run.

I guess Washington also did well in finally acquiring a good second-line centre in Jason Arnott. With that move some of the pressure is taken off the top line of Ovechkin, Semin and Backstrom.

Here is a link showing the activity of all 30 teams leading up to the deadline.

I don't know how I manged to make this blog post a big one.

Anyways, enjoy!

Bright Future in Oil City

By taking a quick glance at the NHL standings it becomes obvious that the Edmonton Oilers are not having a great season in regards to winning games and qualifying for the playoffs. However, if you take a look behind the scenes you can see that, in fact, the Oilers are having an excellent season. No-one expected this team to do any better than it did last year in the standings, why should they? They only added a couple of rookies to a team that performed so abysmally last season. This is the start of a rebuilding process for the Oilers and it is a rebuild that is going very well so far.

Take, for example, the fact that the Oilers have time on their side and field a very youthful roster of hockey players. Hall is 19, Paajarvi is 19, Eberle is 20, Omark is 23, Cogliano is 23, Smid is 25, Peckham is 23, Dubnyk is 24 and Gagner is 21. That makes at least nine players who are 25 or under (there are a few more). The Oilers also have several players who are coming into the prime of their careers in Ales Hemsky (27), Ryan Whitney (27), Tom Gilbert (28), Dustin Penner (28) and Ryan Jones (26). Only Horcoff, MacIntyre, Khabibulin, Vandermeer and Strudwick are in their 30s.

Some teams might bemoan the lack of experience but in Edmonton it isn't really an issue considering their situation. They have a bunch of guys who will hopefully be playing together for many years and will gel as a team, fostering chemistry on the ice. They might lose one or two bodies to trades (Hemsky and Penner may be gone by next week) and a couple might leave because they aren't good enough, but the majority of those players should still be around in a season or two.

Hall is having an outstanding season.

It seems that being young has not stopped a few of the Oiler's roster from having excellent rookie seasons. Theo Peckham has looked tough and uncompromising as a shut-down defenseman on the Edmonton blueline and Jordan Eberle has managed to reach 31 points for the season so far. However, what most Oilers fans will be happy about is that Taylor Hall, their number one draft pick, is in second place for points (38) and leads the Oilers, along with Dustin Penner, for goals (20). Sam Gagner, who has more experience than Hall and Eberle (despite only being 21), is also contributing and has 36 points so far.

I am excited to see what this team will be capable of in two or three year's time if their young players progress like they should. This Edmonton team has the potential to be a highly skilled, fast team with plenty of goal-scoring ability. They have all the right ingredients and the right head coach for the job in Tom Renney. However, as is sometimes the case with potential, the Oilers have to be careful not to let it all go to waste or there could be a few more years of obscurity ahead.

It has been a long time since Gretzky and the glorious 80s. Will this franchise reclaim a place as one of the elite teams of the NHL?

Opinions?

Thursday Poll: NHL and EPL

Who is the best young player in the Premiership?

Which NHL team has the most potential over the next 2 years?