InsideEdge

The San Jose Sharks recent injury bug has left the team with a forward group that resembles a third of what their Worcester Sharks team should look like. Players have been called up from the team’s AHL affiliate in order to buy time for the regulars to get healthy. While that would seem to be a problem for most teams, this may in fact benefit the Sharks and in multiple ways. Firstly, the Sharks have never had to deal with this rash of injuries during the last decade of success. Star forward Logan Couture is out for another month or so after having surgery on his hand. Rookie phenom Tomas Hertl has begun his rehabilitation from right knee surgery. Martin Havlat (lower body) and Scott Hannan recently went on injured reserve. Raffi Torres (knee surgery) and Adam Burish (back surgery) have yet to play in a game this season. Dan Boyle also missed a significant chunk of action early in the season as have Tyler Kennedy and Tommy Wingels more recently. All but Hertl is expected to be back by the time the Olympics in Sochi finish up. Which means the Sharks will have some players aching to get back on the ice, in addition to being fresh for the condensed schedule down the stretch and the playoffs. The Shark’s aren’t an organization known for their minor league depth. They aren’t able to bring up blue-chip prospects like many other teams and oftentimes the players who are called up show a significant drop in play from the player they’re replacing. Years of finishing towards the top of the league, trading away draft picks and some poor selections have led to this problem. The players in the current lineup merely need to keep the ship afloat until reinforcements arrive and thus far they’ve done a surprisingly good job. A few weeks ago the Sharks dressed a lineup that was missing seven of the 12 forwards anticipated to be in the starting lineup at the beginning of the season. This is a new hurdle for the team and it’s individual players that they aren’t accustomed to. As a result, players like Matt Nieto, Bracken Kearns, John McCarthy, Eriah Hayes, and Freddie Hamilton have been brought up from Worcester; some prematurely. When players go down, good teams can fill the voids and stay competitive. To this point, that’s exactly what they Sharks have done. Each of those players have found limited success in their past call-ups but because of more consistent minutes they have embraced the roles they were given and stepped up their games. Nieto and Kearns have taken on top nine roles and added scoring punch to the lineup. McCarthy and Hamilton quickly gained the coaching staff’s trust with their defensive play and have been able to eat up decent penalty kill minutes to keep the star players from exerting themselves in those situations. The experience and confidence these players are gaining will also be invaluable once they do become permanent lineup fixtures within the next few years. Last season many people felt the Sharks could have won their seven-game playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings had Raffi Torres not gotten suspended and Martin Havlat not been hurt. As it turns out no one was able to replace the production. This is a scenario that the Sharks may very well face in the playoffs again and the teams that make long runs frequently do and are able to overcome them. If the Sharks want to sustain a long playoff run this season and make it to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup finals then more of these individual efforts will be needed. Written by Inside Edge Hockey News writer: Tejus Govindjie Sharks Injuries: A Blessing? Check Out: INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

With just three wins in their last eight games, the Bruins are officially in a mid-season slump. After managing to take two points out of their very difficult three-game west coast road trip with a 1-0 shutout of the San Jose Sharks Saturday night, the Bruins failed to build from that momentum as they dropped a 4-3 contest to the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night. Tuesday’s win over the Bruins was just Toronto’s third regulation win in their previous 27 games. In other words, Tuesday’s Atlantic Division contest was one the Bruins should have won. Thanks to their mid-season slump, the Bruins now find themselves tied atop the Atlantic Division with the surprising Tampa Bay Lightning with 60 points. The Bruins do have a game in hand. “No, again, every year we go through this, guys. Every year, [in the] middle of the season, we seem to go through a struggle, and we work our way out of it” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien after the loss to the Maple Leafs. “Nothing is different, every team in this league. I mean we’re sitting here, and we’re talking about our team, but there’s not a single team in this league that doesn’t go through this. I’m trying not to be overly critical versus trying to fight our way out of it, and that’s what I’m trying to do here. That’s why I’m kind of avoiding some of these questions here about this and that. It’s not about being negative here; it’s about working our way out of it.” The way they have worked themselves out of their mid-season slump in the past has been a pretty good indication of how well the postseason would go for the Black and Gold. During their 2010-11 season the Bruins lost four out of five in early February to knock them down to the bottom of the Stanley Cup playoff race. The Bruins quickly turned that slump around as they went on to notch wins in their next seven games. Six of those seven came on the road and helped build the character of what would eventually be a Stanley Cup Winning team. The season after that, the Bruins failed to build off of 9-3 month of December as they flirted with .500 for the rest of the season. The playoffs couldn’t bring much more consistency to their game as they were ousted by the Washington Capitals in seven games. With 11 games left until the league shuts down for nearly three weeks during the Olympics, the Bruins are trying to find their game once again. If you ask anyone on the Bruins roster what it is that is hurting the team the most, the answer is the same; special teams. Since losing Dennis Seidenberg for the season thanks to a torn ACL/MCL, the Bruins penalty kill has struggled. “Struggled” may be an understatement. In the eight games the Bruins have played without Seidenberg, the Bruins have allowed at least one power play goal in four of those contests. In total, the Bruins have allowed 11 power play goals in 29 attempts since Seidenberg went down. For a guy like Gregory Campbell—who leads all Bruins forwards in average shorthanded time on ice per game with 1:59—struggling on the penalty kill is something he takes personally. “That’s a part of the game I take a lot of pride in” said Campbell following the loss to Toronto where the Leafs scored twice with the man advantage. “It’s obviously a big part of my game and it’s just not good enough. It’s not the system, the system that is in place has worked for years and it’s been able to put us at the top of the League. It’s something collectively as a group that we have to look at. Like I said, it’s not the system it’s us as players. The ones that are given that responsibility have to do the job.” Not only has the penalty kill been brutal of late, but the Bruins power play hasn’t done much to turn things around. After spending most of the season as one of league’s best power play teams, the Bruins now find themselves 10th in league, converting on 19.2% of their power plays. The Bruins have failed to find the back of the net on their last 17 power play tries. January hasn’t been too kind to Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask. Despite his 26-save shutout in San Jose Saturday, Rask has struggled since the calendar turned to 2014. Rask has gone 2-3 with a 3.00 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage. Rask knows that no matter how bad things are for him and his team they have to turn things around, and turn things around rather quickly. “Yeah, you don’t play bad, you don’t play great and you get these deflections and plays the back door where you have no chance. It’s frustrating, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves and same with me. I just have to battle through it and hope for the better. We showed in San Jose when we were stingy defensively it helps everybody out and then today [Tuesday] was another example of when we make terrible mistakes it ends up costing us big time. It’s frustrating but like I said we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have to battle through it.” Written by Inside Edge Hockey News Writer - Anthony Travalgia Bruins Looking To Break-Out Check Out! - INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

NHL Trade Talk: January 16, 2014 Miller to St. Louis for a Cup Run? - St. Louis has two good goalies in Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott. Both of their play has been slightly up and down this year for the Blues, and that has left many people wondering if its time to call in a solid starter. The Blues have had amazing season thus far, and with the fact that the salary cap will be jumping up to possibly 100 million in the next few years the Blues may be running out of time. They will not be able to spend up to the cap whan that happens. So is it time to shore up the goaltending, and make a strong run at the Stanley Cup. YES! Well it is time to call on Ryan Miller? This would be good for both team. Miller would flourish in St. Louis with their tight defense. It would also probably be his best chance for him to win a cup. As for the Sabers, this would be good for them also. It is almost a certainty that they could have their pick of Jake Allen, Jaroslav Halak or Brian Elliott. Any one of these may be very enticing as a goalie for the future. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Winnipeg’s Solution in Net may Lie in Anaheim - It is not a secret that the Jets organization is not happy with the play of Ondrej Pavelec. The Jets are under pressure to make playoffs in the very near future. Last week they fired coach Claude Noel and hired Paul Maurice. Now it is time to address the goaltender situation. Talk around the league is that the Jets are interested in acquiring Anaheim netminder Viktor Fasth. They probably would want Jonas Hiller, but Anaheim has made it very clear that he will not be moved. In return the Ducks could add even more depth. Scary to think of that. If they added in a few draft picks, or another player the possibility could be that Evander Kane, Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien or Andrew Ladd may be available. Briere Wants Out! - Daniel Briere has made it very clear that he wants out of Montreal. Briere has always been very vocal about staying close to his sons. There are rumblings that he will be traded to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Anton Volchenkov. Caps Eyeing Byfuglien - Would Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien be an asset in Washington. CBC hockey insider Elliott Friedman reported that Byfuglien would be a guy that Caps coach Adam Oates would be interested in. I have heard numerous talk that Winnipeg is open to moving him for the right price. This is actually a deal that I could see happening before the Olympic break. Evander Kane on the Move? - I hear talk everyday that Winnipeg is shopping Kane heavily. There has been numerous stories in which Kane has come under heat in Winnipeg. Although he is a great player, he just does not seem to be a solid team player fit in Winnipeg. So who are the interested teams? The front-runners look to be Montreal and Buffalo. Goalie Available? - The Carolina Hurricanes may be interested in moving long time goaltender Cam Ward. He has two years remaining on a 6.3 million dollar a year contract. So who would be interested? The list would actually be pretty long. Washington, Ottawa, Florida, New York Islanders, Calgary, and Edmonton (even though they just picked up Ben Scrivens from Los Angeles). This one will be interesting. The Guarantees! - Looks like the most likely guys to be on the move before trade deadline is Mike Cammalleri of Calgary, Ales Hemsky of Edmonton, and Ryan Miller of Buffalo. - Talks are that there will kind of be two trade deadlines this season. One right before the Olympic break and one on the actual deadline day. Many teams will not want to pay the contracts of players during the Olympics if they know they will be moving them on deadline day. Just a thought. * Until next week, enjoy the games and remember its always fun to think what if? NHL: Trade Talk - January 16, 2014 CHECK OUT! INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

The lone bright spot on a under achieving New York Rangers roster has been Norwegian Mats Zuccarello known as “the hobbit”. Virtually unknown within the NHL realm, Zuccarello has quietly risen to stardom in New York. Zuccarello has been the most consistent player on the Rangers providing skill, confidence and clutch plays all season long. The hobbit is becoming a wizard on broadway. Zuccarello spent time in NHL and AHL the previous two seasons with New York and Hartford. He was able to produce in a secondary role during his 3 previous stints with the Rangers however then coach John Tortorella wanted him to improve his overall game as he was considered to be a one trick pony. In 2012-2013, Zuccarello bolted to the KHL during the lockout after being jerked around and spent most of the season there putting up 28 points in 44 games. Glen Sather showed that the Rangers had interest in him by bringing him for the last 15 games of the season to add some offense down the stretch. In limited ice time, Zuccarello displayed his savy passing during the regular season and playoffs. Zuccarello was noticed especially during the playoffs by adding 7 points in 12 games. During the off-season Zuccarello he was rewarded for his playoff efforts. He avoided arbitration and took a one year 1.15 million dollar deal that would ensure he would remain a Ranger. He wants to play in New York, the team who brought him into the league. He made that clear when he accepted the deal that Sather gave him. He`s a loyal guy who comes at an extremely reasonable price. This season Zuccarello started off in new coach Alain Vigneault’s dog house, winding up in the press box a healthy scratch 7 games into the season. This proved to be a valuable move by Vigneault as Zuccarello has done nothing but produce for the Rangers since. He is tied for the team lead in goals, assists, and points with Brad Richards with 11, 20, and 31 respectively. He has had almost a hand in half of the team’s power play points with 14. Moreover, he has helped the Rangers become one of the most productive teams with man advantage (6th in the league converting 21.1% of the time). He is able to create space on the ice using his slick stick handling skills and his ability to pass through the seams. His passing alone is something to marvel. He has the ability to thread the nettle only a handful of players in the league can do. By the time he dishes the puck its too late and in the back of the net. He is currently on pace to score 20 goals and finish with 57 points. Zuccarello has not only found a way to convert his European style game onto the North American surface, he has brought an edge to his game. He has been able to get under opponents skin all season long drawing penalties. This role as a pest has allowed his team to go on the man advantage and score important goals. With the addition of this facet to his game he has been able to become of the most important players on the club. He is going to earn a big raise this summer not only for his production but for his loyalty to the Rangers. He should be a large part of the team moving forward and a staple in the top 6 forwards. Safe to say Zuccarello has been the biggest surprise in a Rangers uniform this season. He gives hope to young player`s that size doesn`t matter. If he can continue this production this might be the year that someone other than Lundqvist wins the team MVP in NYC. Keep your eye on him because by season’s end he won’t be underrated. Written by Inside Edge Hockey News Writer - Michael Fenton Follow me on twitter @mfents Underrated on the Biggest Stage: Mats Zuccarello Check out INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

The Eastern Conference is a little more up for grabs than the Western Conference. There have been four teams that have proved to all that they will be in the playoffs. Boston (58) and Pittsburgh (63) have clearing proven that they are the class of the conference. Not far behind is Montreal (55) and Tampa Bay (54). These teams are a little bit of a surprise, but have been consistent in the first half of the season, and have basically solidified themselves as playoff teams. The next category is the teams that look like they are in, but cannot afford any let downs. These teams look like they have a seventy five percent chance of making the playoffs. Toronto (47), Detroit (48), Washington (46), and Philadelphia (46) have all proved that they are moving in the right direction. Toronto and Detroit have had there ups and downs. Toronto bolted out of the start, and has recently fallen back to reality. Detroit has been decimated with injuries, and look to improve their point total as they become healthy. Washington has been a weird team this year. They have been mediocre most of the year, and time will tell what direction they will go. I do think that they will remain consistent and make the playoffs. Philadelphia was a train wreck to start the year, but recently remembered how to score. I look for them to continue surging upward into the playoffs. Now the log-jam of teams on the outside looking in. The following two teams are looking to steal a playoff spot in the second half. Carolina (45) is on the way up, and New York Rangers (45) look to be trending down. Both will have a difficult time working their way in, but there is about a fifty percent chance that they will be able to pull this off. The long shots will really have to pull one out of the hat, but it is still a possibility. The following four teams must put together a long winning streak to find themselves playing in the post season. Ottawa (45), New Jersey (42), Columbus (42), and Florida (38) are all on the outside looking at the mountain that they must climb. Surprisingly Columbus, and Florida are in a minor winning trend lately and playing the best hockey they have played this season. It is a long shot, but one of these teams may find a way to sneak in. The New York Islanders (37), and Buffalo (28) are out, I mean out, dead gone and no chance. Now some may say, well the Islanders could pull it off? I will believe it when I see it. They have no scoring, consistency, or goaltending. I have a hard time believeing that this will change. It is time to prepare for the future for these two teams. The Eastern Conference is not as strong as the Western Conference, but the race down the stretch in this conference looks to be amazing. There is a few more question marks and it will be a wild second half of the season in the east. Eastern Conference: Mid-Season Report Please Check out: INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

NHL Trade Talk: January 5, 2014 Goalie Shuffle - Goalie trade talk is everywhere. Where do we start. Here is a short breakdown of who needs a goalie and who would fill their void. - New Jersey- There is talk that Martin Brodeur will be on the move this year. Talk that Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Washington all have interest. I call this crazy. I don’t see him going anywhere, and I have no idea why Chicago or Washington would have any interest. - Washington- Now as for Washington, talk is that Michal Neuvirth is on his way out, and he wants out. The Capitals are happy with Phillipp Grubauer as the starter and Braden Holtby backing him up. - Nashville- Another team that may need goalie help is Nashville. Pekka Rinne still is not back from injury, and I am a little worried about the time frame of his return. This is a scary infection that he is dealing with, and I have heard that it his not going all that well. Maybe Nashville would be interested in Martin Broduer as a loaner, but it looks like Nashville has all but played them out of a playoff spot. So they will just probably ride it out. - Philadelphia- Talk out of Philadelphia is that negotiations with Steve Mason on a contract have not really started at all. Both sides seem pretty laid back about the topic, and I don’t know if this means they are going their separate ways or that a deal will be done. I just do not feel that Philadelphia is comfortable with Mason, and now the Flyers have found themselves back in the playoff hunt. Maybe Brayden Schenn going to Buffalo for Ryan Miller would solve all of Philadelphia’s goalie problem. It totally makes sense, but time will tell if it falls into place. I would not be surprised at all if Philadelphia makes a strong push for him. - Calgary- Everybody keeps talking that Calgary is in the market for a goalie. I actually think that Calgary is in the market for about everything but a goalie. I think the Flames will continue to run with Reto Berra and Karri Ramo for at least another year. It is not the fault of their play that times are tough in Calgary. The Flames will probably resign Berra and give it some time to sort out. - Edmonton- The fact is, Edmonton has given up on Devan Dubnyk just like the Edmonton fan who threw his jersey on the ice has given up on the Oilers team. Well who would solve the problem in net for Edmonton? I think Ryan Miller would be their first choice, but there is no way in the world that Miller will go to Edmonton. Talk is that Edmonton has interest in Steve Mason in Philadelphia, but another option may be James Reimer in Toronto. Honestly have not heard any talk of this, but a deal sending Nail Yakupov or Sam Gagner and others to Toronto for Reimer and defenseman Mark Fraser. I am not sure where Edmonton will turn, but I do believe solidifying the defense and goaltending position is high on their rebuild priority list. Briere Unhappy in Montreal - Talk out of Montreal is that Danny Briere is not happy with how things are playing out for him in Montreal. He has been a healthy scratch twice lately and is not happy. It just seems like he has not been a good fit from the get go. I look for him to be dealt at the deadline. A good home for him may be Pittsburgh. Rumors are flying that he may be part of a deal that would send him to Winnipeg in a deal that would sent Evander Kane to Montreal. I think Winnipeg wants to move Kane but would sure need more than Briere. Ott on the move, and no Heatley talk - I look for Steve Ott to be a deadline guy that will be moved. Talk is that Pittsburgh and Montreal are interested. No one has been talking about the fate of pending UFA Dany Heatley of Minnesota. What are the Wild going to do.? Resign him, doubt it! I look for Minnesota to start shopping him as their playoff hopes start to slide. He may be a big fish come deadline day, but I don’t look for Minnesota to get a big return on him. Trade Talk is heating up as we move into the New Year. It is lots of fun to talk about player moves and to speculate. PLEASE CHECK OUT - INSIDE EDGE HOCKEY NEWS

http://insideedgehoc...alry-rekindled/

Inside Edge Hockey News – Writer – Matt Linsky Twitter @MLinskyHockey