| |
Wednesday's Stanley Cup playoffs summary
Associated Press
April 17, 2008 2:23 AM ET
OTTAWA (AP) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals by completing a 4-game sweep of Ottawa, beating the Senators 3-1.
Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu (YAHR'-koh ROO'-too) scored second-period goals before Sidney Crosby's empty-netter clinched the victory.
Cory Stillman knotted the score midway through the middle period before Ruutu put the Penguins ahead to stay with 4:32 remaining in the stanza.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 shots for the Penguins, who got their first playoff sweep in 16 years and their first playoff series victory since 2001.
Rangers 5 Devils 3 (Rangers lead series 3-1)
NEW YORK (AP) - Marc Staal snapped a 3-3 tie with 3:13 remaining before the New York Rangers completed a 5-3 victory. That gives them a 3-1 lead over the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
The Devils erased three one-goal deficits before Martin Straka set up Staal's first playoff goal. Former Devil Scott Gomez iced the victory with his second goal of the night, pushing a shot into an empty net.
Straka also scored for the Rangers, who can close out the series Friday at New Jersey.
Patrik Elias (EH'-lee-ahsh) scored a pair of game-tying goals in the first seven minutes of the second period. Mike Mottau added a third-period goal for the Devils, who have lost 10 of their 12 meetings with the Rangers this season.
Predators 3 Red Wings 2 (Series tied 2-2)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Dan Hamhuis (HAM'-hyoos) and Shea Weber scored 32 seconds apart in the first period as the Nashville Predators topped the Detroit Red Wings 3-2, tying the first-round series at two games apiece.
Hamhuis notched a power-play goal before Weber gave the Predators a two-goal cushion just six minutes into the game. Greg de Vries (deh-VREEZ') provided the eventual game-winner 6:35 into the second period, chasing Dominik Hasek (HAH'-shehk) from the nets.
Martin Erat (EE'-rat) had two assists and Dan Ellis handled 39 shots to help the Predators sweep the two games in Nashville. Ellis was perfect after Pavel Datsyuk (DAHT'-sook) scored his second goal of the game with 16:37 remaining.
Game five is Friday in Detroit.
Sports Ticket Depot - NHL Stanley Cup,
News Archive Index: 2010, 2009, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Owners had little confidence in Nonis's ability to deliver Cup
MATTHEW SEKERES
April 15, 2008
VANCOUVER — Until this week, Dave Nonis was the Vancouver Canucks' man with the plan.
For three seasons, two of them ending before the playoffs, he was the face of the NHL team's competitive fortunes and it would have continued that way for a make-or-break 2008-09 campaign.
Yesterday, however, the course shifted.
Nonis, fired Monday by the club's ownership group, was deemed inadequate, and the man stepping up with the answers was Canucks chairman Francesco Aquilini.
During a 20-minute news conference, Aquilini explained why this bold decision was necessary, punctuated with this phrase: “Our fans deserved better.”
Most cuttingly, he delivered an indictment of Nonis's chief mission: making the team annually competitive. It became clear that Aquilini, the managing partner of three brothers who own the club, did not accept Nonis's results, and had little confidence in his ability to deliver a Stanley Cup.
“After three years, reviewing it, we didn't see that sustainable competitive team in the long term,” Aquilini said.
He also sent a mixed message.
In prepared remarks, Aquilini said it was unacceptable to miss the playoffs in any year, but when asked if he would fire the new GM should the team miss the playoffs again next season, he said he would not.
So, it is unclear whether the Canucks new GM will be forced to build on Nonis's work and get the team to the finish line, or whether he will have licence to tear it down and rebuild it in his own image.
Either way, it better include a playoff berth next season.
Aquilini said the dangling futures of head coach Alain Vigneault and assistant GM Steve Tambellini will be left to the new general manager.
“We certainly understand the demands of getting somebody in place quickly, during an off-season that is critical to the future of the team,” team president Chris Zimmerman said.
For the moment, Tambellini is running the show, which has immediately turned to Swedish free-agent forward Fabian Brunnstrom, 23, who is said to be waffling on the Canucks.
“Right now, Steve Tambellini is our senior hockey operations person and he is managing that situation,” Zimmerman said. “We still hope [Brunnstrom] is a player who can wind up coming here.”
Last weekend, CBC reported that the winger in the Swedish Elite League was close to signing with the Canucks. Yesterday, reports surfaced that Nonis's firing changed the climate.
“We've heard he is reconsidering,” Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told the Detroit Free Press.
For Canucks fans, Nonis's termination is just the beginning of the angst.
The Aquilinis, majority owners for just two years (and only after a lengthy court battle), will head the search for a new GM alongside Zimmerman. No one in the group is a tried-and-true hockey person, and no one has made an NHL hiring of this magnitude.
Aquilini suggested he may turn to “advisers” and sources say he has a friendship with former Canucks enforcer Gino Odjick, and an open line of communication to player agent Mike Gillis, who may be a candidate himself.
“We've spoken to a few people,” Aquilini said of potential candidates.
Aquilini rejected the theory that the team's low-scoring, defence-first style led to Nonis's dismissal. He said the style of play he preferred was winning by any formula.
He deferred questions about exhausting the league's salary cap to Zimmerman, who said the new GM will be given the ability to spend to the limit and will manage the available dollars.
Aquilini said the new GM would have to come with “extensive experience” and “really understand the game.” And, in a veiled shot at Nonis, said the person would be expected to finish the job of winning a championship.
“That's what it comes down to, not giving excuses,” Aquilini said.
During a year-end news conference, Nonis and Vigneault cited a battered defence corps, which lost 164 man-games to injury, as a reason why the team lost seven of its last eight games to miss the postseason.
Today, Nonis gets to tell his side of the story at yet another news conference.
You can bet some of Aquilini's statements were difficult on his ears, such as the lack of confidence expressed, and the dig about excuses. But there was also this line, one that suggested Aquilini was on board with Nonis until very recently: “Whatever Dave recommended, I usually went along with.”
Sports Ticket Depot - NHL Stanley Cup,
News Archive Index: 2010, 2009, 2008
|
