Being past over in the NHL draft sucks. Being passed over for the NHL draft two years in a row really blows chunks.
Now you know why Blackhawks man on a mission, Andrew Shaw, is always amped-up and ready to drill opponents into the glass. The dude is your classic rags to riches story.
Shaw's junior career was a rather eventful one. He wasn't a star by any means, however, he was a classic over achiever. In two season with the Niagara Ice Dogs, he hit, scored, skated and pissed off as many opponents as he possibly could. He was then traded to Owen Sound where he would take his ball busting ways to new heights. In 2010-11, he was named to the CHL Memorial Cup All-Star Team. He also earned the CHL Memorial Cup Most Points "Ed Chynoweth Award" (7) for the OHL Champion Owen Sound Attack
Fast track to the NHL, right?
When it came time for the NHL draft, Shaw's phone never rang. Nobody was looking for him. The Belleville native deserved a shot at the NHL, but none of the 30 teams were interested in him. In 2011, the Hawks selected Shaw in the 5th round (139th overall pick) of the NHL Entry Draft. He reported immediately to AHL Rockford where he piled up 99 PIMs in 38 games played. He scored 12 goals and added 1 assists in his rookie season in Rockford.
The very next season, he was called up to the Blackhawks, He signed his entry level deal in January 2012, and the rest is history.
His locker room neighbor, Pat Kane said Thursday that there are times that he has to tell the chirping Shaw to "shut up". Brent Seabrook said that Shaw's high energy vibe is a uniue element in the Hawks' room.
Thanks, Blackhawks TV
Shaw's a vocal, emotional, high energy guy. He's 5'10" and 190 lbs. yet he stalked Zdeno Chara (6'9" 270 lbs.) and plastered him into the walls in Game 1. Though his teammates grind his gears, and bust his chops, they don't want Shaw to change his Tasmanian Devil ways. Down deep, they love him just the way he is: twitchy, loud, disruptive and physical.
When the music finally stops, will Lindy Ruff have a seat to sit down on?
Two days ago, the Sabres granted the Rangers permission to interview Ruff. Still, no interview. Will Ruff get his opportunity to pitch the job, or will the Rangers opt to hire another coach?
The NY Rangers brass have been holed up on La Quinta, California all week. The team is conducting job interviews to replace the recently canned John Tortarella. The Rangers meetings will end on Friday. Now, it appears as though its a race against the clock for Ruff to be interviewed by the Rangers.
Former Canucks head coach, Alain Vigneault, has already been interviewed by Sather (GM), Schoenfield (AGM), and Gorton (AGM).
Former Rangers captain and Blueshirts icon Mark Messier has direct access to sather, as he has served as an assistant to his former head coach and mentor since 2009. The NY Post reported earlier today that Messier will recruit fellow Rangers legend Brian Leetch as an assistant coach.
Messier appears to be going all-in on this hand. He doesn't like to lose at anything.
Begs the question, will the sun set on Ruff's Rangers opportunity? Will Sather even interview Ruff? He must conduct the interview, right? Why else would he have asked for an been granted permission to speak with Ruff?
If/when the Rangers position closes, then Ruff would still be considered a candidate for the Vancouver and Dallas jobs. many other opportunities have already came and went.
The Penguins took Dan Bylsma out of the coaching change chatter on Wednesday when they extended his contract for two more seasons.
The San Jose Sharks have also extended their incumbent head man Todd McClellan.
UFA to be Dave Tippett will likely be re-signing in Phoenix.
Edmonton replaced Ralph Kruger with Dallas Eakins earlier this week.
Lets review Lindy's options:
NY Rangers- They are interested in Ruff, however, haven't interviewed him yet. Vigneault, Messier also in contention.
Dallas Stars- Ruff spoke with Stars GM Jim Nill at NHL Combine two weeks ago. He's supposed to meet with Nill again. Stars said to be interested in Tortarella, Vigneault, and Willie Desjardins.
Vancouver Canucks- Said to be interested in speaking with Ruff, however, no formal interview yet. CBC's Elliotte Friedman reported that Ruff may have interviewed with Cover GM Mike Gillis on Wednesday. Former Sabres assistant and current Canucks AHL affiliate head coach Scott Arniel will be interviewed, as will John Tortarella.
These teams want to have their next head coach in place before the June 30th NHL Entry Draft in Newark.
I hope for Lindy's sake that he gets a job before all of the good ones are taken.
My take:
I think Ruff gets by passed for the Rangers job. Vigneault should get the job. The Sedins talk to Lundqvist and I'm certain that they are pumping AVs tires. The Rags are a vetran team, much like the Canucks, and Vigneault had an impressive run out West in Couver.
I see Ruff landing in Vancouver. My gut tells me that he will re-hire his former assistant coach Scott Arniel, who presently is head coach of the AHL Chicago Wolves (soon to be Utica, NY Whatevers). Arniel would add immediate value to Ruff's staff as he is familiar with the Canucks culture and their organizational prospects. Mike Foligno is Arniels right hand man in Chicago, and would easily fill a role on the Canucks bench. Ruff is very familiar with both Arniel and Foligno. All three are former Sabres teammates.
Arniel was an assistant coach in Buffalo for three seasons (2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05).
Arniel's special teams teaching paid off in Buffalo and the success of their PP units were contributing factors as to how Buffalo transformed from went from a door mat to a playoff team that won 50+ games.
When Arniel was in Buffalo, the Sabres bragged of a strong incubator program in Rochester. Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, Thomas Vanek, Al Kotalik and Hank Tallinder were the building blocks of the Buffalo foundation. Arniel coached them up to NHL PP and PK standards.
Arniel's DNA and fingerprints were all over the the 2006 Buffalo squad that lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes.
On Thursday, Arniel to The Province:
“We were trying to get it going in Buffalo and these guys came in and were part of the future,” recalled Arniel. “Teams over the years that have success start with having a strong AHL team.”
Mike Gillis would be wise to reunite Ruff with Arniel and Foligno.
The trio can pick up where it left off in Buffalo.
The Colorado Avalanche will be concluding their pre-draft organizational meeting on Friday. Sabres Director of Amateur Scouting, Kevin Devine, mentioned on Wednesday that the Sabres and Avs have been speaking about personnel matters and player trade options. Devine said that he expects the Avs to reach back to the Sabres this week. If Patrick Roy doesn't call Darcy Regier, I'm certain that Regier will give Roy a call.
The Sabres presntly hold in their sweaty mitts picks #8 and #16 the June 30th entry draft.
Regier and Devine are boldly making a play for the first overall pick in the draft.
Devine:
“We have had conversations with Colorado… I think it’s how far they want to move back. And you take the situation in Colorado and where there’s a new regime in there with Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy. I don’t think Patrick came in there with the idea of a long rebuild. So I think they might be willing to listen to a few things.”
What will it take for Buffalo to get the rookie front office guys Roy and Sakic to say yes?
Miller or Vanek? Grigorenko? McNabb? 8th overall pick on the draft?
Based on Devine's comments to WGR's Howard Simon Show, its believed that the two teams are in serious discussions regarding Colorado's first overall pick in this month's entry draft.
Nice of the Penguins to kill the buzz of the Blackhawks triple OT win by announcing the mammoth contract extension for Evgeni Malkin, who was due to become a UFA after the 2013-14 season.
The good news for the Pens and their fans is that they get to keep Malkin in their fine city for eight more seasons.
NEWS ALERT: #Pens have agreed to terms with forward Evgeni Malkin on an eight-year $76 million contract extension: http://t.co/WrXTRpDpDS
The Pens are going to have to say goodbye to many, if not all of their UFAs-to-be in order to re-size their salary cap, which will shrink from $70.2 million to $64.3 million come this September.
Malkin's annual cap hit will be $9.5 million. Yikes.
Cap shrinks to $64.3M in Sept. Pens have $7.8 in cap space available. PIT can kiss goodbye UFAs Iginla, Morrow Dupuis, Cooke, Adams, Murray.
There have been reports out of Russia that a KHL club was prepared to pay Malkin $15 million per season, tax free to lure the power forward home to play in his mother Russia. The Pens will pay Malkin a $10 million signing bonus. The new deal includes a no movement clause.
There isn't enough money in the Pittsburgh budget to pay all of their UFAs. I can see Shero locking up Dupuis and Adams, while the others will be sent free to the open market where they will attract a lot of attention, and long term deals. Trade Marc Andre Fleury, you say? Forget that. Shero said Wednesday that Fleury is his starting goalie and he ain't goin' anywhere. Another key point to consider: Next July, Letang and Oprpik become UFA. Letang will make $3.5 million this season, and Orpik will make $3.75 million in 2013-14. Each D will be looking for a heavy pay raise and a long term extension.
Where will Shero find the money to sign his core UFAs?
If I'm Buffalo, I make a play for Steve Ott's former Dallas Stars running buddy, Brenden Morrow.
The Nielsen overnight ratings are in. Once again, the hockey-addicted region of Buffalo/Niagara have made it known that they are Hockey Heaven.
It goes without saying that the two cities with horses in the race would have the highest TV ratings. Boston, Chicago, and Providence are no-brainers to pin the needle on household TV ratings.
Then, there's little ole Buffalo.
Top 5 markets for Gm 1: Boston (28.1), Chicago (25.1), Providence (18.5), Buffalo (8.5), Milwaukee (6.1)
If you were to use Nielsen Plus rating to quantify the viewership in the combined Buffalo-Toronto metro, you'd see ratings in the top two, perhaps #1. Buffalo's NBC affiliate, WGRZ, beams its signal into the Greater Toronto Area by way of Rogers cable. There are 7+ million people in the Golden Horseshoe.
Imagine the support and the record-breaking TV ratings once the Sabres finally make it to a Stanley Cup Finals and they win the damn thing!
Andrew Shaw will never have to buy another beer in the Windy City ever again. Nor a cup of coffee, either. The Belleville native scored one of the most memorable and dramatic goals in NHL Stanley Cup history in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
Shaw ended the triple overtime classic with the flick of his wrists. It was nearly 1:30am in the east when Shaw had the presence of mind to re-direct a Dave Bolland tip-shot off of a Michal Roszival point shot.
Greasy goals are the ones that usually end such hotly contested games as this one was. Shaw's 3OTGWG was scored on the 107th shot on goal of the game.
Thanks, Blackhawks TV
I love it when the grinders and muckers become improbable heroes. The Hawks are an all star team of offensive over-achievers with the likes of Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp, Seabrook, and Keith. To see Shaw, and his blue collar buds Bickell and Bolland find success in these playoffs does this observer's heart good.
Shaw was a menace to the Bruins in Game 1, delivering 9 body checks in his 6 periods of play. He hammered Chara so hard and to the point that the Bruins captain lost his cool and took a stupid roughing penalty in the second period of the Marathon On Madison.
Shaw was a physical force for nearly five and a half hours in Game 1. He skated 24:03 TOI. He scored the biggest goal of his life and added an assist. He was +2. Shaw proves that it ain't the size of the dog in the fight. Its the size of the fight in the dog. At 5'10 and a shade under 200 lbs., Shaw plays like her 7 feet tall. He's an inspiration to players everywhere.
I don't know what I love more. Shaw's dagger to the heart of the ferocious Bears, or, his F-bomb that he sprayed at Pierre McGuire in his post game interview.
What a beauty!
At Tuesday's media day, the Niagara Ice Dog alum told a story of his encounter with the Stanley Cup last summer. Brad Richardson of the LA Kings, a fellow Belleville boy, brought the Stanley Cup home to share it with his friends, family and fans. Shaw attended Richardson's party. The pest was bit by the Stanley Cup bug. Now, he and his Blackhawks teammates are three wins away from him hosting a party of his own in Belleville. Ron MacLean coined the phrase "Shaw Festival" after Shaw's Game 1 heroics. I like it.
****
Watching the Game 1 heroics of Shaw and his Hawks mates, I was reminded of two Buffalo Sabres classic playoff marathon games.
The 1993 4 OT epic game won by Dave Hannan when he scored on then rookie Marty Brodeur.
Show of hands if you remember Brett Hull and the Stars stealing the Stanley Cup in triple OT in Buffalo in Game 6.
Foot in the crease. No goal. Screw the Dallas Stars and their hollow, cubic zirconia Stanley Cup rings.
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