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Blackburn on the back burner With Richter out of the picture, Rangers deal for DunhamPosted: Friday December 13, 2002 12:41 PM
But the realization that Dan Blackburn can't hold down the No. 1 job is even more distressing to the Broadway Blues. Enter Mike Dunham, the original cornerstone in Nashville and former backup to Richter in the 2002 Olympics. He came with a price, however. Rangers general manager Glen Sather had to trade away versatile checking forward Rem Murray, talented 22-year-old Czech defensive prospect Tomas Kloucek and 24-year-old Czech-born Finnish league defenseman Marek Zidlicky to stop the bleeding in the crease. Blackburn is undoubtably the goalie of the future in Manhattan. He just couldn't handle being the goalie of the present. And at age 19, can you blame the guy for not being up to the task? What were you doing at 19? I know what I was doing at 19, and it closely resembled a Beavis and Butthead episode. After giving up seven goals to the Thrashers in a 7-4 loss in Atlanta on Thanksgiving night, Blackburn looked stunned in the locker room. To his credit, he answered the tough questions fired at him by the notoriously tough New York writers. He said his confidence wasn't shaken. His gaze said otherwise. He said he wanted to get back out there the next night. His body language said otherwise. Did I mention he looked shocked? But with unproven Swedish youngster Johan Holmqvist backing up Blackburn, there really wasn't much of a choice to be made. Bryan Trottier put Blackburn back in the nets the next night, and he responded with 20 saves in 3-3 tie at Dallas. It was a move made in an attempt to repair the kid's confidence. And it worked. Temporarily. Since fighting hard for the draw in Big D, Blackburn has slowly broken down. The bad goals that were the lowlights of his rookie season became a more regular occurrance. He allowed 16 goals in the next five games, then gave up two goals on eight shots Wednesday against the Blackhawks and got pulled after the first period of the Rangers' 4-3 loss. Theo Fleury admitted that his first-period slap shot to the far post was aided by the fact that he struck a rolling puck, which caused it to dip on Blackburn. But Fleury admitted that his shot isn't exactly the toughest in the world, inferring the out-of-position Blackburn probably should've stopped the 45-footer. Blackburn started 17 straight games. He proved his durability, and we all know he will be the guy for the Rangers eventually. He could even be great. But Dunham is a better option right now. Dunham's ordinary 94-116-28 career record is easily explained by the expansion team in front of him. Before being selected in the expansion draft, Dunham was 13-12-4 with a 2.42 goals-against average as Martin Brodeur's backup in New Jersey. Dunham is used to seeing a lot of shots, which will come in handy with the Rangers while Brian Leetch and Sylvain Lefebvre are out. And having played in the New York area before -- and grown up near Binghamton, not to mention playing parts of four AHL seasons in Albany -- Dunham is coming home. His familiarity with the situation will make for an easy transition to the spotlight of being the Rangers' top dog, something the teenage Blackburn is still struggling to cope with. Don't buy Sather's song and dance about being unsure of who the starter will be. That's just an attempt on his part not to further damage the confidence of a kid who he just had to tell wasn't getting the job done. Dunham is scheduled to make $2.8 million this season and is signed through the 2004-05 season. If Richter can't come back from his post-concussion syndrome, Dunham and Blackburn would be a nice tandem for the next few seasons before handing the reins over to Blackburn on a full-time basis in 2005, when he'd still be just 22. From the Music City persepctive, Murray is a bargain for Nashville at $1.225 million this season. The Preds had great luck signing Andreas Johansson away from the Rangers this summer, and Murray will only add to their forward depth. Kloucek couldn't crack the Rangers' top seven and was playing in the AHL with Hartford, but Nashville would be wise to give him a chance and let him build for the future. Which is quite bright on the blue line, when one imagines him back there with Kimmo Timonen and Dam Hamhuis for years to come. Overall, it's a good move for the Predators when you consider they will be refunding their season ticket holders some cash as part of their playoff guarantee. They also wanted to give Tomas Vokoun a shot at handling their starters role, plus they have promising youngster Jan Lasak playing for Milwaukee of the AHL. And by bringing Lasak to Nashville, the Preds can move 21-year-old Brian Finley to Milwaukee from Toledo of the ECHL to continue his development. Flipping through games on the satellite dish on Thursday night, there was little indication from the first two periods of the Maple Leafs-Flyers game that there was anything exciting around the corner. The game was scoreless and the teams had combined for just 30 shots through 40 minutes. About the only thing of interest was the one-punch fight in the first period between Darcy Tucker and Jeremy Roenick. J.R. used to be able to mix it up, but one bop on the nose from Tucker brought it to a quick resolution. Pretty much, this game was a yawner. But then, a playoff game broke out in the City of Brotherly Love. The calendar belied the truth, as the third period would've been more fitting to decide a Game 7. Indeed, the final period of the game may have been the best 20 minutes of the season. The Flyers shook out of their offensive coma and fired 14 shots on Ed Belfour, with Simon Gagne's tally at 7:10 ending Belfour's shutout streak at 167:10. Eric Desjardins followed that up 1:02 later to give Philly a 2-0 lead, which was trimmed back to one less than two minutes later when Mikael Renberg scored on the power play with a bounce off Desjardins' skate past Roman Cechmanek. With about 2 1/2 minutes left, Tie Domi and Todd Fedoruk threw down in what may have been the fight of the year. The taller, bulkier Fedoruk got the best of the action early in the scrap, but the sage pugilist Domi came back with some big punches late to open a cut above Fedoruk's eye. Domi gave the raucous First Union Center crowd a wry smile, knowing his years of experience served him well against an up-and-coming tough guy. Cechmanek secured the victory with a lightning-quick glove save on Mats Sundin with 2:15 left, as Sundin tried to use a screen to fire a slap shot to the far post. The Flyers' defense gave Cechmanek a quiet night, with only the redirected puck getting past him. While it was a scintillating 20 minutes of hockey, it also had one negative effect. It just made me long for April 9, the first date of the postseason.
Brent Johnson didn't need much time to find his midseason form. After playing two rehab games with Worcester in the AHL, Johnson made 35 saves in the Blues' 2-2 tie with the Predators on Thursday. The fact that he saw 35 shots is no doubt worrisome to head coach Joel Quenneville, who would rather have eased his starting goalie back into the lineup a bit more. But Johnson's 10-week absence could actually help St. Louis in the long run. Getting Chris Pronger back healthy in the second half of the season is, of course, the key to any hopes in the Gateway City. But a rested Johnson won't hurt matters, either. And now Fred Brathwaite has been given some valuable starting time and gained the confidence of his teammates. General manager Larry Pleau would be crazy to dump Brathwaite and keep inconsistent (though Hall of Fame-bound) veteran Tom Barrasso, who is clearly near the end.
The Shark Tank became a feeding frenzy near the end of Thursday's game, and Penguin was on the menu. San Jose scored three goals in 2:32 to break open a 2-2 game against Pittsburgh, improving to 2-1 under new head coach Ron Wilson with the 5-2 victory. Mike Ricci's eighth goal of the season with four minutes left ended up being the game-winner, but Owen Nolan's spectacular end-to-end rush was the highlight-reel exclamation point, not to mention one of the goals of the year to this point. The Sharks' spurt is exactly the kind of momentum-building, statement game needed to usher in a new coaching regime and get a team back on track. Beware, Western Conference. The waters are again Shark-infested. Capitals owner Ted Leonsis hinted at a major shakeup by expressing his disappointment this week. Jaromir Jagr could be available, but who is going to take on his $10.7 million salary? Peter Bondra's $4.75 million take is much more palatable to most clubs. ... The Lightning are trying to get Kyle McLaren from the Bruins, but Boston may want more than just Fredrik Modin in return. ... The Ottawa Sun reports Tampa Bay could swing a deal with Ottawa for either Shane Hnidy or Joel Kwiatkowski. Once Jassen Cullimore went down with a torn rotator cuff, Lightning general manager Jay Feaster starter making calls for available blueliners. ... The Thrashers continue to get calls about wingers Shawn McEachern and Slava Kozlov, but the two have been Atlanta's most consistent forwards. They could still go in deadline deals, but general manager Don Waddell seems reluctant to part with them since the team is a respectable 7-8-0-2 since its opening 10-game winless streak. In a return to the tradition of the Original Six days, NHL teams will wear their dark jerseys at home next season and their white jerseys on the road. The teams claim darker sweaters sell better, and since the third jerseys are all dark, teams will be able to wear them at home more often and sell more merchandise. Presently, 16 of the 30 teams have a third sweater, but you can expect that number to jump significantly next season. ... Joe Sakic reached 500 goals in 1,044 games, the 16th-fastest of the 31 players to do so. He made it to that milestone in one fewer game than Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe. ... Brendan Shanahan scored a power-play goal in the third period of Thursday's 3-2 loss to Minnesota for his 512th career goal, tying him with Gilbert Perreault for 26th on the NHL's career list. ... Mario Lemieux averages 3.5 points per game against the Sharks, his highest average against any opponent. That also makes his two-goal game in Thursday's 5-2 loss an off night for him against San Jose. ... Lemieux's games on Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles and Anaheim will be his first appearances in Southern California in six years. He played at L.A. on Dec. 10, 1996 and at Anaheim on Dec. 11, 1996. ... A 7-1 drubbing in Beantown on Nov. 9 obviously woke the Senators up. Since then, Ottawa is 11-1-3 and has outscored its opponents 54-29. ... After downing Toronto 2-1 on Thursday, Philadelphia is the only unbeaten team when scoring first (11-0-5). ... With Wednesday's 3-0 win over the Capitals, Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere posted upped his scoreless streak to 140:15. He has twice posted back-to-back shutouts in his career, both times against Nashville and Washington. ... Sean Hill's third-period goal at 10:41 on Wednesday ended Edmonton's combined shutout streak by Tommy Salo and Jussi Markkanen at 173:41. Salo holds the Oilers' record with 192:53 over four games in 2000-01. Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com. Got a comment, question or scoop for Jon? Click here. |
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