Monday morning talk

Talk from The Spin, some good points, some not so good points in my opinion but this is what I always expect from Damien Cox. Continue reading for his wok.

-At some point, don’t coaches have something to say about those broken composite sticks? Just look at Saturday night. Eric Fehr goes in on the first shootout attempt on Vesa Toskala and his stick snaps. Down in Manhattan, the Rangers work a last minute faceoff play in the dying seconds while down a goal and set up Ales Kotalik for a one-timer.

At the moment of impact, Kotalik’s stick breaks in two. Panthers win. Would hockey be destroyed if tomorrow Gary Bettman declared the NHL to be an wood-only league?

–You watch the Capitals on Saturday night and see Mike Green commit a horrific giveaway in the final seconds of OT and you think there’s no chance the talented blueliner can be part of the Olympic. He’s super-skilled, but oh-so-casual and a little too-cool-for-school.

–Dany Heatley got his way out of Ottawa and the Sharks got themselves a sniper who already has 18 goals. But quietly, Milan Michalek, the main piece the Sens got in return for Heatley, has 10 goals himself. And he’s four years younger and a lot cheaper.

–Everyone’s focussed on the Phil Kessel trade. But a far more costly transaction for the Leafs in the short term was that which sent Pavel Kubina to Atlanta for Garnet Exelby.

Full talk here

I think someone should tell him the Exelby/Kubina trade was clearly a salary dump so the Leafs could trade for Kessel and sign Beauchemin.