There's a press conference scheduled for 4:30 eastern time where Colorado Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg will officially announce his retirement from hockey...
Sounds rather Favre-ian...
But, hey, the HQ bites... Here's some of his best efforts when he could be really ridiculous... ((HT: NHL/youtube))
Your goalie stops 50 shots and your team has no offense against the top-seeded San Jose Sharks. The question is: How do you get the puck past Evgeny Nabokov...?
Let your defenseman do it 51 seconds into overtime...
Here's the highlights and the game winner on a weird night in Denver... ((HT: NHL/CSNBA))
Legal counsel for the Vancouver Canucks, Bertuzzi, Moore and others will be in a Toronto courtroom today to file pretrial motions.
Moore and his legal representative are seeking a court order to question former Canucks head coach Marc Crawford within the next three months, according to court documents.
Here's the suckerpunch in question... ((HT: NHL/FSN))
It was in response to this hit Moore administered to the Canucks Markus Naslund three weeks earlier...Crawford, at the time of the incident, was understandably hot. ((HT: NHL/FSN))
Moore was left with three fractured vertebrae in his neck, facial cuts and a concussion. He is suing the Canucks, Bertuzzi and Crawford for upward of $38-million.
Earlier this year, Bertuzzi filed court papers claiming Crawford’s negligence contributed to the attack on Moore.
Those papers allege Crawford urged his players to make Moore “pay the price” for the hit on Naslund and that as coach, he “failed to exercise control over and caution his players against physical aggression toward Moore.”
Crawford replied Bertuzzi acted in “direct disobedience” when he refused to come off the ice as ordered by the coaches prior to the attack on Moore.
Court documents show Crawford was given a list of questions from Moore’s legal counsel earlier this year. Today’s request to query Crawford is an attempt to have many of those questions answered under oath prior to Christmas.
That could help set a trial date for the case.
Those of us at OSG HQ thought the Bertuzzi retalliation was just as bad as this shot Marty McSorley levelled onto Donald Brashear's face from behind. ((HT: NHL/Rogers Sportsnet))
Whether or not Bert did it on orders from Marc Crawford, probably, will never be proven in court. And we all know no one will have the stones to come forward and admit a screw-up. Especially after Bertuzzi plead guilty to assault in 2004 and got a year's probation and a conditional discharge.
The Burnaby, B.C. native would leave the game as one of the most decorated athletes to ever take to the ice. Sakic hoisted two Stanley Cups, participated in 13 NHL All-Star games, and was named tournament MVP for Canada's gold medal winning team in the 2002 Olympics.
Sakic played his entire career for the Quebec/Colorado franchise, and served as their captain since 1992, after being drafted 15th overall by the Nordiques in the 1987 NHL Entry draft.
Heading into last off-season the Avalanche were unsure if Sakic was going to continue his career or opt to retire. In late August 2008, it was announced that he had signed a one-year contract with the club. Sakic played in only 15 games during the 2008-2009 season, due to injury, recording two goals and 10 assists.
As the year came to a close, he remained non-committal about retirement talk other than to say the decision would be made much quicker this year. Sakic kept his word, but retirement was not something that came easy to on-ice leader.
"This is what you've done you're whole life. Since I was six years old I've played hockey," Sakic explained at the end of the regular season. "I think when you get to that point, you have to decide first and foremost if you can do it at the level you want to play at, and secondly if you're willing to do what it takes off the ice to get that accomplished."
With the 2010 Olympics taking place in his Vancouver, some believed the veteran would lace up his skates for one more year in order to respresnt his country at the international level in his hometown.
"Obviously there are not too many people who get a chance to play in the Olympics in their hometown," he said. "That would be something special, but going into the summer you have to be realistic with yourself and health-wise and motivation-wise you have to be willing to do what it takes."
In 1,378 games, Sakic posted 625 goals and 1,016 assists for a total of 1,641 points, leaving him eighth on the NHL's all-time point leaders list.
Well, this certainly didn't take very long. The Colorado Avalanche, on the heels of firing Coach Tony Granato, have already found a replacement. He is former NHL'er Joe Sacco. Sacco was the Coach for Colorado's AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters, for the past couple of seasons.
Joining Sacco in Denver will be his top assistant, former Avalanche defenseman, Sylvain Lefevbre. Both coaches should be very familiar with the younger guys on the squad since most of them played for these guys.
OSG has learned the the Colorado Avalanche have fired head coach Tony Granato and 5 others in the organization. Those 5 are assistant coaches Jacques Cloutier and Dave Barr, goaltending coach Jeff Hackett, assistant to the general manager Michel Goulet and video coordinator P.J. DeLuca.
"I was preparing all summer, trying to get ready to do the things we needed to do for next season," Granato told the Denver Post Wednesday morning. "You never want to get a call like you got today, but you also understand it's the nature of the business"
"I enjoyed my seven years in the organization, very thankful for the opportunity (team president) Pierre Lacroix gave me. Obviously, I'm disappointed it didn't go better in the last year."
Granato must have saw this coming weeks ago since the Avs were courting legendary goaltender Patrick Roy to be their coach, for which Roy turned down.
The Avs have promoted Greg Sherman to general manager who for the past seven years has been the team's assistant general manager.
In a bit of a surprise, Patrick Roy, former all-world goaltender has said "No" to coaching and being the General Manager for the Colorado Avalanche. The rumors of Roy being offered the job(s) have been circulating for the past week or so, though nobody had actually confirmed that there was a job offered, at least the coaching one...until today.
((Patrick Roy/Courtesy: Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)) The story was broken this morning by the Denver Post here .
The ironic part of this is that the Avalanche haven't fired coach Tony Granato, yet...though they did fire the GM Francois Giguere last month. Roy, a goalie during the glory years for the 'lanche spoke of family reasons as to why he decided to say no. A press conference was scheduled for later
However, the Calgary Herald speculates here that Roy may actually be holding out for a job with his "other" former team, the Montreal Canadiens. That job, which is kind of like managing the New York Yankees wouldn't be easy for a newbie to Professional Coaching, but the Herald speculates that Roy, wanting to not have to rebuild a team...would have a ready made contender should he end up in Montreal. Stay Tuned...this should be interesting.
((Patrick Roy with Canadiens//Courtesy: Camwest News Services File))
Patrick Roy ((pictured, thanks Brian Bahr/Getty)) could be head coach and general manager of the Colorado Avalanche if he accepts the posts from his former club.
According to Ruefrontenac.com - a Montreal-based news website - Avs president Pierre Lacroix has offered Roy both jobs and that Roy wants to hire former teammate Sylvain Lefebvre and Drummondville head coach Guy Boucher as his assistants.
The GM posting became vacant after Lacroix fired Francois Giguere last month and Tony Granato is still the team's head coach.
The Montreal report added that Craig Billington - the Avs' vice president of hockey operations and Roy's former backup, could serve as a co-general manager.
The Denver Post reported last week that the Avalanche offered Roy the coaching job, and added there was a possibility he might get the vacant general manager's job as well.
Ruefrontenac.com also reports that Lacroix is offering Roy almost full control over the club's hockey operations as a way of trumping any potential offer from his other former team - the Montreal Canadiens.
Since retiring in 2003, Roy has been part owner and head coach of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, winning a Memorial Cup title in 2006.
All the above story does is give us an excuse to show this again...
