While we nap...

So, I woke up this morning to leaking, puffy eyes and a snot-faucet for a nose (stuck in the ON position). Alavert didn't touch it, so I hit the Benedryl. By 9:30, I passed out cold and woke up an hour and 45 minutes later.

As often happens when I turn my back to my laptop for a few minutes, all hell broke lose. Well, kinda good hell, actually, for some guys. Not so much for others.

The big bomb is that the Wild FINALLY got Backstrom re-signed! Four years, 6 mil-ish per. This is excellent news and you could hear the collective sigh of relief in Minnesota all the way from down here in Texas. Or maybe that was all me. But it seems most folks are awfully happy about not only the signing, but also eliminating the prospect of losing ANOTHER guy to free agency for absolutely no return.

As contradictory as this might seem given the brutal netminding I provide my novice team each Sunday night, I'm positively compulsive about my pro teams having good goaltending. After Daum's final season in Houston, with Miro and Swiss as our only goaltending options, I'm scarred for life. Give me good goalies or give me death. Contrast that with be spoiled by our goaltending in Houston last season... well, my expectations are sky high, and it seems Backstrom can come as close as anybody to meeting those.

I guess we'll see tonight how this affects his play. None at all, I would hope. Or he's elated, because it was clear he wanted to be here pretty badly, and will be even better. Nice interview with Backy here.

What is it with these Finnish goalies? I need to find a nice Finnish name to put on the back of my goalie jersey. Maybe I'll suck less?

In addition to this news was a waiver wire that runneth over, including some familiar names like Peter Olvecky. I suspect he'll just clear and return to Houston. There are too many big names on the wire today for him to get much attention. It will be really nice to get him back, especially with this experience under his belt.

Other familiar names... Aaron Voros and Erik Reitz. Doh! I wonder if Sather's still talking to Riser these days. Seems he didn't ultimately find what he was looking for in the Wild's sloppy seconds (really, he could have just asked the fans and saved himself some trouble). And speaking of which, the Rangers DID pick Avery up off the wire. I guess losing AV and Reitz and sending one guy back to the minors was enough to clear cap space for the Mouth.

And now that Avery is back... and Brodeur is back in New Jersey and playing like a MFing beast... how many of you have the only remaining Rangers v. Devils game circled in red on your calendars? March 30. Be there or be square, kids.

Finally, on a totally unrelated note, Justin Bourne, the minor league player/THN blogger gives another divine slice of life. It is a must read, especially if you play or have played hockey for fun. All I'll say is that I'm a little irritated that the boys know they look that good in those suits. Dammit!

Read more...

Farm Team Shuffle

Do you think Pouliot's snickering to himself a little today, knowing that hot shot Krys Kolanos, who took his job just a couple of weeks ago up in Minnesota, is headed back to the minors with him?

But maybe not so much, knowing on the flip side that Peter Olvecky got the call to replace Kolanos.

All in all, it's a shifting of minor leaguers that I can't argue with. Olvecky has had a good season and really found his niche as a gritty playmaker supporting Locke, Rosa, Schultz, and Kolanos. He's hustled his buns off and done what was asked of him and didn't home to Europe in a snit when he was sent down after camp, unlike SOME people. He's earned this cuppa and I couldn't be more delighted for him.

And I couldn't be more delighted to get Krys back. The ice seems little bigger when he's on it and it will be VERY interesting to see if he and Pouliot could possibly get some chemistry. I know... I'm reaching, but if you've seen them both play in person, in the AHL, you understand what I'm talking about. What AHL defensemen pairing is going to shut BOTH of those guys down if they're out together? And it's not like doing that would put all our scorers on one line. There's still Locke, Schultz, and Rosa.

It will be interesting to see if those guys miss Olvecky though.

Some folks have said, "Why not Locke?" Russo sheds some light on that:

Speaking of unlocked, Corey Locke isn’t. He’s having a great offensive season down in Houston and just starred in the All-Star Game, yet he’s not getting a sniff yet. From what I’ve heard from people inside the organization at times, Locke, who once starred in junior with a fella named Matt Foy, is super-skilled but has a tendency to score goals at both ends of the rink if you catch my drift. His size is also a bit of an issue.

I actually haven't had an issue with Locker's defensive play, considering his skill set and size. I'd love for him to get a shot, just to yay or nay the questions about whether he's got the skill to overcome his size limitations. He's clearly got a special nose for the net.

But he is a whispy little thing, for sure. Still, he can take abuse and keep going without a flinch, and he's adapted pretty well to find ways to deal with his size and even make it an asset. He can carve through defensemen pretty handily and is so quick, they don't have a chance. But those are AHL d-men... and quality of defense is the biggest difference between the NHL and AHL.

Anyway, always good to have a little mid-week excitement and pot stirring to make sure everyone is awake.

Of course, the thing I didn't mention is that Kolanos is actually having to go through waivers to get sent to Houston. Someone COULD pick him up. If I'm a GM with an offensively challenged team that plays with less emphasis on the center being a third d-man, maybe I look at that. He really is instant offense... just add ice.

Read more...

Prospect Watch 2008: Peter "The Librarian" Olvecky

NHL.com sez:

Peter Olvecky -- In his third full season in Houston, the Wild's third-round selection from 2004 set a career high with 17 goals in 61 games. Regarded as a solid two-way player, Thompson believes Olvecky's late development is partly because the franchise didn't know where he was best suited.

"He's a guy that turned things around," Thompson said. "We didn't know what he was. We didn't know if he was a center or a winger or offensive or defensive. We never really knew. The second half of the year, he played a lot better. Hopefully he'll give some people a run for their money in camp."

Ms. Conduct sez:

Again, a frustratingly vague analysis from TT. He poses all these questions and never answers them. How'd he turn things around? Is he a center, winger, offense, defensive? I sure don't know based on watching Peter play last season (and apparently the prior TWO season, which I don't remember him at all).

And frankly, I can't fill in those blanks. The most I can say for sure about Peter is that he's a solid, even-keeled hockey player who will get you 30 points a year regardless of the system. The thing is, he apparently missed 29 games this season, but I had no idea. That's only 5 more games than Stoner played, but his absence I was keenly aware of.

In fact, if someone took the stats away from me and asked me how many games each guy played, I would have said Stoner played 50 and Olvecky played 70 (and wow, isn't he durable?). I'd be wrong all the way around on that guess, but it just demonstrates that whatever impact Peter has, it's a very, very quiet one. Shhhh!

Also, he had by far the worst plus/minus of the top 5 scorers for the Aeros. Ten below Reitz, who was +5 in 49 games.

I don't dislike Peter, but he's got "warm body" status in my mind. I haven't seen him make any big improvements (though his goals were up a bit this season) in his 3 years here, where some of the previous low key guys made fairly large strides. TT seems to think he has found his mojo, but I until I see evidence, it seems to me he's really just meeting the basic requirements:

Read more...