Toronto fined for Wilson's comments, but cleared for tampering

Toronto got a slap on the wrist today. In a media release today, Bill Daly issued a statement that said that said that Ron Wilson's comments during the summer about the Leafs' interest in the Sedins prior to their contract being up, violated provisions of NHL by-law 15. The Leafs organization is being fined for his actions.

Though, the NHL has cleared Burke of statements that he made while on Leafs TV. Gillis pursued the NHL to look in to the matter for possible violation of the NHL's tampering rules.

An excerpt from the statement:

"That while unfortunate and inappropriate, the inclusion of a brief reference to the names of a pair of current Vancouver Canucks players in a television segment that aired once on Leafs TV last week did not constitute a tampering offense under League rules, and that no League action will be taken, or League sanction imposed on the Maple Leafs' organization as a result.

The Maple Leafs have been advised that the League likely would impose discipline for any future inappropriate conduct on their part that may cause, or may reasonably be perceived to cause, damage to the Canucks' franchise, or its relationship with its existing players and/or employees."

So the Leafs got away with a warning from the NHL about future conduct. If we know what Brian Burke is like, this issue will come up again. But since the Leafs have deep pockets, if all the team will endure is a fine, will this really stop Burke at a future press conference or media interview?

The Night Before Hockey

Happy hockey eve everyone!

Clearly we all know that the Canucks are playing the Flames tomorrow night. Late game for Calgary, with a 7pm PT start. The summer felt so long, but finally hockey is back.

Enemy blog: Check out Kent, who I've met through the CLS re-draft at his blog over at Five Hole Fanatics

Some Canucks stuff:

• Lukowich cleared waivers, and since the Moose have a plethora of defencemen (apparently), the Canucks are trying to find him a spot to play for the Texas Stars who are lacking defensemen
• Lawrence Nycholat and Michael Funk also cleared through waivers and are assigned to the Moose.
• Hodgson got sent back down to Brampton.
  
• Henrik gets an A, and as usual, Daniel got a G. But seriously, how did Daniel feel about that? "[Daniel] cried a little bit the first night but it’s alright now,” joked brother Henrik. “It’s a great honor. We’ve got a lot of really great leaders on this team, so a letter doesn’t mean too much.” Sure sure Daniel, don't forget he's also taller and older than you.
  
• The Canucks roster is set. Sergei Shirokov, Aaron Rome and Tanner Glass make the team.
• Bieksa has tweaked his groin, and Rypien has the flu (hopefully not the "flu" he had until March of last year), but they are both expected to play tomorrow night.
• Sundin finally made it official that he retired.
• Brian Burke tells Leafs TV that Gillis shopped Burrows, Bieksa and their 1st pick at this years draft for Victor Hedman. Response? “There is absolutely no truth to it whatsoever,” Gillis Wednesday from Calgary. “It’s an absolutely preposterous idea."
• Puck Daddy's staff predict Division winners, and have the NW down to the Canucks or the Flames. ESPN, with the exception of the Mullet, thinks it's going to the Flames, but they think the Vezina is coming down to Luongo or Nabby

Check out DGB's NW Division season preview. He has some great Wellwood and Raycroft bashing in a way that only a Leaf fan could.

Oh, and today the hockey world found out today that that the past few months of the Phoenix Coyotes court case was a complete waste of time.

But to cheer you up and get you excited about tomorrow, watch Rypien destroy Prust:

Are you disapointed?

From Day 1 of the free agent frenzy:

• I hear people are disappointed in Vancouver about Gillis' day 1 of free agency. I'm not. Maybe because it was expected that the Sedins would re-signed, so it didn't seem like a big deal, but it was. Gillis was able to convince the Sedins to work on much shorter term than they requested and still managed to re-sign them. The deals come with a no movement clause.
• Mattias Ohlund is now a Tampa Bay Lightning, he signed a 7 year contract for 26.25 million dollars. Congratulations to him.
  
• The Canucks have signed Aaron Rome. Who? Um he's just some defenceman that has been added for depth. Not much to talk about here.

I think we'll see more from Gillis tomorrow while he tries to fill in the holes for the Canucks. We still need a defenceman, a couple forwards (depending on how big of a role he is expecting Hodgson and Grabner to play next year) and a backup goalie.

Canucks Media Address

GM Mike Gillis and Coach AV had their media address today. They went over the normal stuff, the dissapointment of not being in the playoffs anymore and such. Top of Gillis' list is to resign the Sedins before July 1st, before Burke sends them a fruit basket to wish them Happy Canada Day. After July 1st he will begin to speak with Luongo and Kesler about their contracts that are entering the final year.

A number of players are heading into surgery:
-Pavol Demitra needs shoulder sugery
-Taylo Pyatt need knee surgery
-Alex Burrows will have bone chips removed from his wrist
-Ryan Johnson will have another surgery on his finger that he broker earlier this year

And a happy 48th birthday to Vigneault!

Does Luongo Stay or Go?

Is that even a question? Seriously?

Right after the loss on Monday night, the Team 1040's phone lines were burning up with fury. Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun first wrote a story making a case that Luongo should be traded. He went through the past winners of the Stanley Cup and suggested that the end for the "franchise" goalie had come. He asks, with regards to paying Luongo 7.5 million/year: at what point does cost exceed benefit?

Then Ed Willies today went on today about how maybe Gillis might make a move to trade Luongo to free up some cap room. He looked at the remaining teams, their goalies that they have on the roster and concluded that the teams didn't build themselves around their goalie like Vancouver has.

I understand this is part of your job Mr. Cole and Mr. Willies, that you have to write the stories even if they are written just to rile up the readers. But let me delve into how I think this is a BAD idea.

First of all, do you remember: Cloutier? Potvin? Irbe? Whitmore? Vancouver has had some crappy goalies. Do you remember when Cloutier either just sucked or was injured and you longed to have a superstar goalie? I do. I wished we could have a great goalie.

Cole suggests that perhaps we would want to trade Luongo for Jeff Carter and one of their goalies. Hold on. Think about that. I believe that going into this year's playoffs, the biggest question with regard to their team was their goaltending. They have lost, because their goaltending didn't step it up. In fact, Biron and Nittymaki are both becoming free agents on July 1st, and who are the Flyers looking into to bring in as their goalie? RAY EMERY!

With all the fire power that the Flyers had, their goalie situation, in which they have two mediocre goalies, it still wasn't enough to get them the win over the Penguins.

With regard to the teams currently in the playoffs.
1. Marc-Andrew Fleury - is a FRANCHISE goalie. Picked 1st overall in the 2003 draft (before Eric Staal). He signed a seven year 35 million dollar contract.
2. Nikolai Khabibulin - Is on a four year 27 million dollar contract.
3. Jonas Hillier - OK so he's not a superstar, but who's on the bench of the Ducks? Jean-Sebastien Giguere. So where he's playing or not, Giggy's getting paid to be on their roster.

If you watched Game 6, you know Luongo let in some goals that he should have saved, you really just can't win letting in 7 goals. But the defense wasn't playing their best game either. And I think that the Canucks should have really wrapped up this series earlier. In Game 4, on the road, they should have applied more pressure and won that game. They would have been up 3-1 in the series, but where was the offense? I wrote a post that said "you can't with 15 shots", where was the blame on the forwards for not stepping up their game that night?

I don't think it is the right move to trade away Luongo. Clearly I'm not Mike Gillis, and he's has some tough decisions to make, which depends on if Luongo would want to keep playing here. Obviously if the answer is no, Gillis will be much more likely to pull the trigger sooner rather than later. But if he is willing to resign here, and Gillis is thinking about trading him, the offer better blow his mind.