Somewhere on Route 1 in Delaware, south of the bridge but north of the interchange with US 13, 3 p.m. passed silently, the way it always does: a momentous moment that feels, from this distance, like any other second in a semi-ordinary Thursday.
By that time, Lukowich had been out there awhile; Kvasha was done but hadn’t filtered through. Word kept spritzing in about other deals. There’s a couple that just haven’t registered in my mind because I haven’t seen them enough.
But some thoughts on the deadline and the East, in which the parent clubs of all four probable playoff teams were sellers:
BPT: Parrish and Sopel for Tambellini and Grebeshkov is close to a no-brainer. Parrish can re-sign if he and the new GM want. Sopel was a $2.4M luxury. Both kids have some upside. The Lukowich and Kvasha deals make sense at the NHL level but might, if word down here is right, hurt Bridgeport by keeping Smith and/or Bouchard up top. Still, a good deadline organizationally. It could have been better if someone had taken Alexei Yashin’s contract off their hands, but if that had worked, Mike Milbury should have been given his job back.
By the by, there was some talk about sending Petteri Nokelainen here, but rules and regs related to his tendonitis wouldn’t allow it to work.
HER: The Caps picked up (re-picked up) Kris Beech in the Brendan Witt trade (a low 1st and a strong AHL player for Witt? Not bad, McPhee). Haven’t seen anything official about his going to Hershey — he has better than a point a game in Milwaukee — but the Bears made the story the lead to their Web site, so maybe they know something we don’t. Morning update: Washington played a little coy on Beech, but Tim Leone reports in the Patriot-News that Brooks Laich, Jakub Klepis and Mike Green were assigned to Hershey Thursday.
WBS: Jonathan says Petr Taticek and Krys Kolanos are on their way to WBS after coming over from Florida and Carolina. But maybe most interesting is that Marc-Andre Fleury can return for the playoffs, along with Ryan Whitney. Sounds like Niklas Nordgren stays up, though. Taticek, for me, is one of those “rumor players.” Y’know, one of those players who spends all his time in the Western Conference, and when you remember he’s a third-year pro, you’re like, “no way! I still haven’t seen the guy!” There’s talk of some more scheduling balance coming to the league as early as next year. I for one would welcome it, even if it means one or two fewer road trips I can make.
NOR: The Admirals linked to the Brandon Bochenski acquisition, so maybe he’s coming down to make that team even deeper up front, although Milan Bartovic and Mark Cullen were called up Thursday.
A more active deadline than I thought it would be, though I’d be interested to sort out all the deals for draft picks and compare it to past years.
Elsewhere, as noted by my self-proclaimed assistant, history repeated itself with Montreal sending a past all-star to Colorado for a younger goalie. Now, is Jose Theodore anything like Patrick Roy? Welllll…
So if nothing else changes (through reassignments, injuries this weekend, etc.), what does the Clear Day roster look like? Including the four callups and the three walking injured, there are by my reckoning 15 forward candidates, nine defense candidates and three goaltending candidates:
F: Bergenheim, Collins, Colliton, Hamilton, Koalska, Lee, Marjamaki, Masse, Nilsson, Papineau, Regier, Tallari, Tambellini, Thompson, Tunik.
D: Caldwell, Flache, Gervais, Grebeshkov, Jarrett, Pettinen, Pratt, Robinson, Rourke.
G: Cloutier, Dubielewicz, Madden.
I would guess the three injured players would be included; at least until the Islanders Four return, Bridgeport would pretty much have lineup flexibility immediately. Looks like Rob Collins might be playing some center, particularly in the playoffs (remember, an 18th skater can dress in the postseason). And some of those decisions, particularly on defense, I don’t wish on Baseggio.
Should be an interesting night here as the Ads try to Pack the House. I’ve heard stories about a sold-out Scope in the Coast League. Like to see how it sounds.
Folkie segment: Thanks to Debbie for the Richie Havens scouting report, BTW. He, and Janis Ian, I know (probably embarrassingly) little of their catalogs outside the obvious hits. On the off chance anyone does go to that show tonight, please pass on a report.
Posted by mike on March 9, 2006 11:29 PM
Comments
Have seen both Richie and Janis before and they both are great in concert. I will be there tonight.
Posted by: DaveBrz at March 10, 2006 04:37 PM