New York Rangers use final compliance buyout on veteran centre Brad Richards

source : faceoff.com

The New York Rangers have used a compliance buyout on centre Brad Richards, his agent told The Canadian Press on Friday.

Richards had six years and US$25 million left on his deal with New York, which saves itself a salary-cap hit of $6.67 million by buying him out.

The 34-year-old centre had 51 points in 82 regular-season games in 2013-’14 and 12 points in 25 playoff games.

Richards originally signed a $60-million, nine-year contract with the Rangers in the summer of 2011 after being a point-a-game player for the Dallas Stars.

This was the second and final compliance buyout the Rangers had to use after spending the first on defenceman Wade Redden just after the lockout ended.

Richards, who did not go on buyout waivers because his contract included a no-movement clause, becomes an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with another team July 1.

The Murray Harbour, P.E.I., native and 2006 Canadian Olympian will receive payments from the Rangers for the next 12 years.

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Rangers boss Glen Sather breaks his silence and entertains #rangers #nhl #hockey #playoffs

Glen Sather, President and General Manager of the New York Rangers, speaks during Media Day for the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Staples Center on June 3, 2014 in Los Angeles.

source : faceoff.com

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the members of the dynasty-to-be Edmonton Oilers used to say that Glen Sather was as much like a father as a coach.

A good cop/bad cop father, sure, but also a kind of cool father, who didn’t act old and had nice suits and could direct them to a friendly (if pricey) tailor. He knew about restaurants. He could give them advice on how to be a pro. Whether they listened or not, that was up to them.

Tuesday, on the eve of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, New York Rangers forward Brad Richards was asked what it was like to have Sather as a general manager.

“To be honest, it’s the most different type of GM I’ve had,” said the 34-year-old veteran.
“He’s kind of like the grandfather of the group. Nothing really fazes him. He’s been through so many things and accomplished so much, so if you need anything, or want to talk about anything — hockey or non-hockey, stories he has — it’s kind of like the grandfather at the top who keeps everybody together and happy and going in the right direction.

“And one thing I’ve learned, is he’s got his players’ back, no matter what. He’s always behind us and that’s great to know from the top.”

Grandfather, eh? Well, Glen Cameron Sather of High River, Alta., is 70 years old now, and the Rangers experience has put a lot of white in that hair.

But some things never change.

“I don’t have a lot of meetings with him,” Richards said, “but the thing about Glen, you can talk about shoes, wine, golf, fishing, hunting — you can talk about a lot of things with Glen.”

Just not hockey. Not if you’re in the media, anyway. Rules are rules. Sather was once more or less a free spirit as an interviewee, apt to come out with something outrageous just for effect — or some arrogant dagger, or some dollop of pure applesauce that everyone in the room knew was nonsense.

But Madison Square Garden put an end to that, and these days he is only occasionally off the leash. Tuesday was one of those days, if you count 15 minutes in front of a microphone, alongside his coach, Alain Vigneault, as freedom.

But as the senior manager of a Stanley Cup finalist, it is the custom to entertain questions, and Sather did so … entertainingly.

For this moment in time, anyway, the Sather Era in New York could be called a triumph. Even the harshest of his critics could relax just the tiniest notch and admit, albeit mockingly, that his 14-Year Plan to rebuild the Blueshirts had worked to near perfection.

The seemingly haphazard construction of the roster, the ill-fitting pieces that somehow fit? Today, it all makes sense.

All those rocky times — the Scott Gomez/Wade Redden/Chris Drury disasters, the millions up in smoke as he went from relative penny-pincher in Edmonton to sudden spendthrift in New York — who would be so churlish as to bring those up on a day like this?

“I don’t think it’s been rocky,” Sather said. “Every year there’s only two teams that fight for the Stanley Cup and there’s one that wins. It takes time to get in this position.”

Quite a lot of time, in some cases.

“Anyone that’s been in the hockey business knows what it can be like, and it’s complicated. I don’t see any great personal satisfaction. I’m satisfied that the team is here. I think the job is partly done. We know that we’re up against great forwards, great defence and great goaltending, so it’s going to be tough.”

Some might say the smartest thing he ever did was not interrupt when his scouts suggested spending the 205th overall pick on a Swedish goalie named Henrik Lundqvist in the 2000 entry draft, a month or so after he left the Oilers to join the Rangers as GM.

The second smartest might have been hiring Alain Vigneault after the Vancouver Canucks, ostensibly in need of a fresh voice in the room, fired him a year ago,

Why did it work for A.V., where in the end it had failed with John Tortorella (and then failed abysmally in Vancouver when the two franchises essentially “traded” coaches last summer)?
“I can’t make a comment why it didn’t work. It did work with Torts for a while,” Sather said. “I’m glad the opportunity was there to make a deal. We’ve had nothing but fun with each other. We continue to do it. It’s been a good relationship. Coaches sometimes run out of time wherever they are.”

“I don’t agree with that,” Vigneault interjected, grinning, “but that’s all right.”

“It’s like you start trying to train your kids,” Sather said. “They get tired of listening to you after a while. I went through it myself for 10 years. But it was easy. I could fire myself.”

Maybe the list of smart things Sather has done has to begin with being on the good side of Madison Square Garden’s unpredictable chairman James Dolan, because it’s frankly difficult to imagine someone the big boss didn’t like lasting as long, with as average a set of results, as Sather has.

“Well, I had another complicated owner that I worked for for a long time, as well,” Sather said, a nod to his old Edmonton boss and friend, Peter Pocklington.

“I enjoy (Dolan). I think he’s an interesting, complex, caring human being that is probably a little bit apprehensive at letting himself be known by the media. Most people like that are. You have your own private life, your own world that you live in.

“I get along with him fine. Somebody wrote that I manage him well. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly good manager. I like to be friends with the people that I work with. I like to be friends with the coaches, the players.

“At the same time you have to be respectful. I do respect him.”

There was a time when Sather didn’t mind being front and centre, even revelled in it. Now he downplays his role, and perhaps that is as it should be. He is so low-profile, some wonder whether he is more GM emeritus than hands-on boss.

A GM’s job at the Stanley Cup Final?

“It’s really complicated,” said Sather. “Today it took us about three hours to figure out which golf course we were going to play this afternoon, then later on this evening we have the question about dinner, and what are you going to watch on TV tonight. Is Game of Thrones on?”

No, that’s on Wednesday. The Kings look to be on it. The Rangers’ task is to figure out how to knock them off.

Sather hasn’t been this close for 24 years.

“I think it’s fun,” he said. “I hope our team thinks it’s fun. I hope the fans like it. It’s a very intense time of the year for everyone.

“If you can get through that intensity and enjoy it, it’s great.”

Kings stun Hawks in OT, advance to Stanley Cup final #hawks #kings #hockey #icehockey #playoffs

source : faceoff.com

The Cockroaches live.

They looked dead enough, down 2-0 early to a Chicago team riding a wave of United Center emotion, but the Los Angeles Kings --- the toughest out in hockey --- rallied from behind three times, and became the first team in NHL history to win three Games 7 on the road in the same playoff year Sunday night, beating the Blackhawks 5-4 in overtime.

It was a shocking end to a series that the Kings once controlled then seemed to have lost, giving up all momentum to the Hawks in Games 5 and 6.

But they simply refused to go away.

Someone calculated that the players in L.A.'s lineup entered Sunday's series finale with a combined Game 7 record of 64-2. They needed every ounce of that savvy and grit, and a little bit of luck, to get past the defending champions.

In the end, it was an innocent-looking wrist shot from the point by Alec Martinez that hit two players --- almost certainly teammate Tyler Toffoli, then Chicago defenceman Nick Leddy's --- before eluding goalie Corey Crawford at 5:47 of overtime.

It was the first Game 7 overtime in a conference final since 1994, when Stephane Matteau was the hero for the New York Rangers.

Martinez was still being credited with the goal long after the game, but whoever got it, it was fittingly a pinballing puck that produced the winner, after an evening of wild, weird bounces accounted for almost every one of the goals.

"It's part of the game," said Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. "The puck was bouncing both ways. We got a few, they got a few."

"We had an opportunity in Game 5 in overtime. That would have been a little easier. But we knew they weren't going down easily. We were fortunate to get out of it. Now we have to get our legs under us."

After three seven-game marathons, it might be tough to do.

"We just have to reset again," said Kings coach Darryl Sutter. "We did it during the regular season. We did it before the Olympics. We did it after the Olympics. We did it before the playoffs started. We did it after Game 7 of the first round, second round. We just have to do it again. Certainly it's a challenge. You play a fresh team."

The Kings return home to face the Rangers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday at Staples Centre.

"Great goaltender, great defence, great forwards, great special teams," Sutter said, asked what he knew about the Rangers.

"So, basically you have no chance?" said a reporter.

"Yup. We're up against it again," he said, with the smallest of smiles.

The track meet the Kings said they could not afford to get into with Chicago commenced almost as soon as the puck dropped.

It began the way Game 6 ended, with the highly flammable Patrick Kane dangling and the Kings chasing. Kane set up Brandon Saad from behind the net with a pass out the far side that Saad hammered home before Jonathan Quick could get across.

Then, as these things go, Kane was hit in the back of the legs by Brent Seabrook's shot and the puck caromed right to Jonathan Toews for an open-net tap-in and a 2-0 lead on the power play. It was Kane's ninth point in three games.

But these were, after all, the Kings, and they began to get their licks in from about the time Toffoli hit the goalpost in the 16th minute. In a 51-second stretch, Crawford failed to handle a Dustin Brown shot from the wing and Jeff Carter batted the high rebound out of the air to bring L.A. within one, and Justin Williams --- Mr. Game 7 himself --- had a blocked shot land right on his stick in the slot and scored his seventh Game 7 goal to tie it.

A mere 12 seconds later, a wide-angle shot by Chicago's Patrick Sharp hit Drew Doughty's stick and took a bizarre high bounce over Quick's pad to restore the Hawks' lead.

Quick stopped four shots, and three got past him.

And that was just the first period.

The Kings had just about nothing going on in the second - they were outshot 16-4 --- but put away one of their few chances when Michal Handzus's attempted block of Matt Greene's point shot bounced straight onto Toffoli's stick for another tap-in, and another tie.

Sharp again gave Chicago the lead, scoring through a screen from the point after Quick lost his stick with two minutes left.

But if the series was too good not to have a Game 7, then Game 7 was just too wild and unpredictable not to have overtime. So of course, it did.

Crawford couldn't capture another fairly harmless wrist shot by Brown, and all the Hawks ignored the playoffs' leading goal scorer, Marian Gaborik, who cruised through the crease and deposited the puck into the net with 7:17 left to make it 4-4.

And somehow, thanks mostly to a couple of ninja-like saves by Quick, one of them on Andrew Shaw with 5.3 seconds left in regulation, the Kings got it into extra time.

There were 51 goals scored in the series, and the Kings gave up 23. They surrendered only 30 in their entire 20-game Stanley Cup run in 2012.

But they're at 21 games and still kicking.

"This was probably the most emotional seven games I've ever played, because of how games were won and lost and series leads back and forth," said Brown, the Kings' captain .

"I mean you have the last two Stanley cup champions and a great result for the NHL because the hockey was good. I mean it was sloppy but it was exciting.

"I think last year they smacked us around. Five games but it could have been four. I think we are a better team this year and evenly matched. I don't think it was revenge. It's weird in the sense that we played them back to back years but I think the respect on each side is very high."

"I don't know if that game shows that it's tough to repeat as a champion," said Sharp. "I think everybody knows it's tough to win a Stanley Cup, whether you won it the previous year or not. Tonight was two good teams with a lot of guys who've gone the distance and won Stanley Cups before. Both sides had that experience and it was a pretty entertaining game."

"That was an amazing series, it really was," said Doughty, the best player in the series. "It's even better that we won it, obviously, but that was just a hard fought battle out there. Both teams played pretty honest, there wasn't any diving, there wasn't guys cheating. It was just an honest series, battles in the corners, a lot of goals. There was everything in this series. It was a lot of fun. I hope the next series can feel the same way."

Montreal vs Rangers : Rangers oust Habs, advance to Stanley Cup final for first time since 1994 #habs #rangers #hockey #playoffs

source : faceoff.com

Max Pacioretty was sitting with his hands on his thighs in a quiet corner of a quiet dressing room. Discarded balls of hockey tape were on both sides of where he sat, a used white towel was crumpled on a seat nearby, speckled with someone’s blood.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You want to do so much, but there’s only so much you can do.”

The Montreal Canadiens had done more than many expected just by making the playoffs — the only Canadian NHL team to do so — then by sweeping through the first round, by emerging from a grudge match with their hated rivals and by threatening to climb from a 3-1 series deficit in the Eastern Conference final. On Thursday night, though, they could do no more.

They seemed disjointed and oddly flat in a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, eliminated from the conference final in six games. The Rangers advanced to their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years on the 20th anniversary of their last NHL title.

Meanwhile, the streets in every Canadian NHL city will endure their 21st consecutive summer without a Stanley Cup parade. Several have come close, tiptoeing to within a few games, but none have won it since the Canadiens won their last, in 1993.

“It hurts,” said Canadiens coach Michel Therrien. “And it hurts more when you’re close.”
Montreal passes were off by feet and not inches in the first period, during the rare trips to the offensive zone. Brendan Gallagher, the 22-year-old winger who helped the team to get to Game 6, was sending passes into empty space. Even by the middle of the second period of a still-scoreless game, it felt like the team was hanging off the edge of a cliff.

The Canadiens opened the playoffs with an unexpectedly easy romp past the Tampa Bay Lightning, aided by the fact the Bolts had lost starting goaltender Ben Bishop to an injury. Montreal then battled the Boston Bruins for seven games, escaping elimination twice and winning Game 7 in enemy territory.

Their fortunes changed in the conference final. Montreal lost starting goaltender Carey Price to injury in the opener. And from his stall late Friday night, Pacioretty suggested beating the Bruins had an effect that lingered: “Maybe you feel a little bit too good about yourself.”

Montreal lost the first two at home to New York. And it never caught up.

The Rangers were in command from the opening shift on Friday. Derek Stepan hit a post behind Dustin Tokarski near the end of a power play. Tokarski was the last fingernail hanging onto the cliff, the last reason the Canadiens still had hope.

They came close with five minutes to play in the second period. Michael Bournival and Thomas Vanek had a two-on-one, with Rangers defenceman Dan Girardi desperately in pursuit. Girardi dove and he appeared to tip the puck toward the net.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist had been pulled two nights earlier. He allowed four goals in a 7-4 loss in Game 5 and his mental status was a talking point before the game. With the game still in doubt in Game 6, though, Lundqvist whipped his blocker around like a flyswatter to knock the puck away. It took multiple replay viewings to appreciate what he had just done.

“We played so well the entire game,” Lundqvist said, “for me it was more about just being focused on the few shots they had and in the second period.”

And what he did was allow the Rangers to take a 1-0 lead into the third period. The dam finally broke with two minutes to play before intermission. The Rangers were working on the boards and working quickly. A pass from Ryan McDonagh whipped around the end boards to Brian Boyle, who fired quickly to Dominic Moore, in the slot.

Moore scored.

The Canadiens sputtered in response. They were still being out-shot two-to-one near the end of the third period. Brandon Prust, in his first game back from a two-game suspension for a dangerous hit, took a late slashing minor. The time melted away quickly.
“
We didn’t put forth a great defensive effort the game before,” McDonagh said. “It’s tough to win when you give them a lot of looks like that.”

As the arena emptied into midtown Manhattan, the Canadiens were left in the familiar silence of the losing room.

“I say this every year and it’s becoming too much, but sometimes you’ve got to learn what it’s like to lose and how bad this feels to know how hard you’ve got to push to win,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges. “When you get older and you’ve been through it enough times, it gets harder and harder because the window gets smaller and smaller.”

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Habs : Final impressions

Source : canadiens.nhl.com

Prospects and invitees closed out the Canadiens’ annual development camp on Sunday with a fast-paced scrimmage that saw Team Red register a 6-3 victory over Team White at the Bell Sports Complex.

Ben Duffy, who signed a tryout contract with the Habs in late June after leading the QMJHL in scoring during the 2012-13 season with the Prince Edward Island Rocket, scored three goals for Team Red in the win.

“It was a good team effort. Playing with [Sebastian] Collberg and [Erik] Nystrom, they made it pretty easy for me to play my game,” praised the Lower Sackville, NS native, who capped his Junior career with 39 goals and 110 points in 68 games. “I’m here to be a skill player. That’s what I do. Just being on a tryout basis, I knew I had to step up a little more and I think I’ve done that. I think I’ve stepped up offensively and showed what I can do.”

The all-time leading scorer in Rocket history, Duffy believes he made significant progress over the course of his first professional camp experience, and he was looking to close it out on a high note.

“I started off a bit slow. It was my first camp, just trying to adjust and get used to everything. As I got comfortable in my game, I started to hit my stride and I played well,” explained the 21-year-old centerman, who went undrafted and has committed to play for the University of New Brunswick come September to further his development. “I thought I might get a few opportunities [to be drafted], but I think it shows a lot about my character to kind of bounce back from stuff like that and take advantage of the opportunities that I do get.”

Like Duffy, goaltender Zachary Fucale is adamant that he leaves the Canadiens' development camp with a wealth of new information that will prove useful going forward.

“I could name a lot of things [that I’ll take way]. Just the way it works around here is a big thing. The philosophy of the Montreal Canadiens, and playing with guys who are much older, 22 and 23-year-old pro guys. So, it’s different and it’s fun. I think everyone enjoyed this whole week for sure,” mentioned the No. 36 overall selection in 2013, who turned aside 17 of the 20 shots he faced for Team Red. “We’re going to get back to fundamentals and work on little things and make sure we arrive ready in all aspects of the game for September’s [rookie] camp.”

That sentiment was echoed by Michael McCarron, the Canadiens’ first-round selection, 25th overall at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

“It’s given me a lot of work that needs to be done to get up and play here,” admitted McCarron, who played alongside Sven Andrighetto and Jeremy Gregoire for Team White. “I had a pretty good weekend here. I just need to work on a few things, like my consistency and my quickness and I feel like I’m right there. So, just a little more work needs to be done and I feel like I’ll get here.”
Nystrom, Zach Hall and Louis Leblanc also tallied for Team Red, who outshot their opponents 38-28. Maxime Gravel, Patrick Holland and Darren Dietz scored for Team White.

Habs : Gallagher won’t be cheering for Bruins in Cup final

Source : hockeyinsideout.com

Who will the Canadiens’ Brendan Gallagher be cheering for in the Stanley Cup final?

“I don’t want to see Boston win,” Gallagher told Elliott Pap of Postmedia News.

Gallagher, who works out with the Bruins’ Milan Lucic during the offseason, added that the reason
he’d rather see the Chicago Blackhawks win the Cup has to do with the bitter Boston-Montreal rivalry.

“I mean, I’m happy for Lootch and I’m glad he’s doing well,” Gallagher said. “But I just don’t want to see Boston win.”

Gallagher said he wishes Lucic all the best in everything except winning another Cup.

Game 1 of the Cup final is Wednesday night in Chicago (8 p.m., CBC, NBC, RDS).

La fin d'un long conflit

À 5 h 11 ce matin, notre informateur LNH Renaud Lavoie confirmait qu'une entente de principe avait été conclue pour un nouveau contrat de travail d'une durée possible de dix ans entre la Ligue nationale de hockey et l'Association des joueurs. Le lock-out qui paralysait les activités du circuit depuis 113 jours est terminé.

Le soleil écoulait ses dernières heures de sommeil à Montréal lorsque les deux parties ont conclu un long blitz de pourparlers qui s’était amorcé en après-midi samedi. C’est le médiateur fédéral américain Scot L. Beckenbaugh qui a réussi le tour de force de ramener tout le monde à la table de négociations.

À 4 h, alors que les informations sur ce qui se tramait derrière les portes closes étaient filtrées au compte-goutte, Renaud Lavoie écrivait sur son compte Twitter que « visiblement, les négociateurs ont pris leur deuxième souffle et veulent s'entendre. À minuit, les progrès étaient faibles. Maintenant, ça avance. »

Un peu plus d’une heure plus tard, le conflit était réglé. On ignore toujours la date du début de la saison et le nombre de matchs dont sera composé le calendrier. Selon Pierre Lebrun, d'ESPN.com, une saison de 50 matchs débuterait le 15 janvier tandis qu'une saison de 48 parties prendrait son envol le 19 janvier.

La convention collective est d'une durée ferme de huit ans - avec des options qui pourraient la prolonger de deux années supplémentaires - et elle limite la durée des contrats à sept ans.

Le pl
afond salarial a été établi à 64,3 M$ et le plancher à 44 M$ pour la saison 2013-2014. Il sera possible d’effectuer deux rachats de contrats (amnistie) par équipe avant cette campagne. Les montants qui y seront rattachés ne se retrouveront pas sur le plafond salarial de l'équipe, mais plutôt sur la partie des revenus reliés au hockey des joueurs.

« Now let’s get back on the ice! Enfin!!! », a écrit Mathieu Darche, l’un des joueurs les plus impliqués au sein du syndicat, à ses quelque 50 000 abonnées sur Twitter.

La reprise des négociations avait provoqué un vent d'optimisme - surtout que les échos laissaient entendre que les deux parties avaient accepté de faire des concessions - mais il n'y avait aucun indice qui portait à croire qu'une entente était enfin à portée de la main.

Le commissaire adjoint de la LNH, Bill Daly, avait indiqué en soirée par le biais d'un courriel qu'il y avait eu un peu de progrès et que les deux parties continuaient de travailler fort afin de conclure une entente.

Pendant ce temps, on croyait que les joueurs avaient à nouveau donné le pouvoir au comité exécutif de déposer une motion de déni d'intérêt. Les joueurs avaient voté en grande majorité en faveur d'accorder ce pouvoir le mois dernier et on s'attendait à un résultat semblable cette fois-ci, même si l'AJLNH a refusé de dévoiler les résultats.

Les deux parties s'étaient rapprochées à la suite d'une série d'échanges de propositions à partir du 27 décembre, mais certains enjeux clés demeuraient au centre du conflit, soit le montant du plafond salarial la saison prochaine, la durée maximale des contrats des joueurs, la variation du montant des salaires d'une année à l'autre, la durée de la convention collective et le plan de pension des joueurs, entre autres choses.

La LNH et l'AJLNH espéraient conclure une entente rapidement afin que les camps d'entraînement débutent le 12 janvier et qu'elles puissent organiser une saison de 48 rencontres. C'était le 112e jour du lock-out samedi, ce qui en fait le deuxième plus long conflit de travail dans l'histoire de la LNH.

Source : Rds.ca