NHL Capsules: Versteeg gives Blackhawks shootout win over Stars
CHICAGO — Kris Versteeg’s strategy in the fifth round of a shootout Tuesday night was not to have one.
"It was just going in and shooting and hoping it went in," Versteeg said after he beat Dallas goalie Marty Turco and gave the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 victory over the Stars.
"Turco, he’s a heck of a goaltender," Versteeg said. "You don’t want to do too much in the shootout. Go down and keep it simple."
The Blackhawks got their second straight win following a season-high three-game losing streak. Patrick Kane had a pair for first-period goals, his team-best 23rd and 24th of the season. And backup goaltender Antti Niemi got the call for a second straight game and responded.
Niemi, who had stops on Mike Modano and Brad Richards on the power play in overtime to preserve the tie, finished with 24 saves. He’s now 15-4-1.
"In overtime, it’s easier to play because you’ve already gained one point," Niemi said.
And he pitched a shutout in the shootout.
"I don’t like thinking before. I just react to what the player does," Niemi added.
Dallas’ Loui Eriksson tied it at 3 with 3:50 left in regulation, scoring from just outside the crease following a turnover by Chicago.
Chicago had taken a 3-2 lead early in the final period on a goal by Troy Brouwer, who scored from the right circle after Marian Hossa fired the puck off the boards behind the net.
Mike Ribeiro and James Neal also scored in regulation for the Stars.
Turco had 37 saves for the Stars, who made a trade during the game in which they acquired goaltender Kari Lehtonen from Atlanta and sent defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth-round pick in the 2010 draft to the Thrashers.
"It was game where you knew it probably was going to come down near the end of the 60 minutes, and it did," Dallas coach Marc Crawford said.
"We’re not disappointed with getting a point, but sure would have liked to get two. In the overtime, both team hit posts, so the margin of converting and not converting is pretty small."
Returning after missing 15 games with a throat injury, Ribeiro scored on a power play in the first. Fabian Brunnstrom dug the puck out from the boards, slid it to Neal in the right circle and he made a diagonal pass to a wide-open Ribeiro for the score.
"I felt cardio-wise I was good-to-go and it got better and better. I wasn’t expecting that much ice time," said Ribeiro, who played over 17 minutes after returning from a scary injury last month. "I got lot of ice time. I played a lot more than I though I was going to play. I felt good. I got hit and I tried to hit to."
Chicago tied it when Kane skated into the left circle and wristed a shot right past Turco. Dallas got the lead back with just under two minutes to go in the opening period when Neal scored his team-high 24th goal on a rebound.
But Kane answered quickly, circling from behind the net and ripping another shot from the right circle that eluded Turco to make it 2-2.
Turco preserved the tie in the second with a sprawling save of an attempt by Dustin Byfuglien on a breakaway with just over two minutes to go in the period.
NOTES: Ribeiro was accidentally struck in the throat by the stick of New York’s Christopher Higgins in the Rangers’ 5-2 victory on Jan. 6. He spent several days in a New York hospital after undergoing a tracheotomy. He was activated from injured reserve Monday ... Stars forward Steve Ott was scratched after an emergency appendectomy Monday. ... On a snowy night in Chicago, the crowd was announced at 21,446 — the Blackhawks 80th consecutive sellout at the United Center.
Thrashers send goalie Kari Lehtonen to Stars
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Thrashers traded a former franchise cornerstone for the second time in less than a week on Tuesday night, sending goaltender Kari Lehtonen to the Dallas Stars.
The Thrashers received defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth-round pick in the 2010 draft. Atlanta said Vishnevskiy, 21, is expected to report to AHL Chicago.
Atlanta traded leading scorer and team captain Ilya Kovalchuk to New Jersey on Thursday for three players and a first-round pick.
Lehtonen, a native of Finland, posted a 94-83-17 record in 204 games with Atlanta, setting franchise records for wins and games played by a goaltender. He has not played in the NHL this season following two back surgeries.
Lehtonen was recalled from a conditioning stint with AHL Chicago on Feb. 7. He posted a 1-1-2 record with a 2.67 goals-against average in four games with Chicago.
"We get a goaltender. That gives us three now, so that’s a situation that we’ll have to deal with," Dallas coach Marc Crawford said after the Stars lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night.
The Stars also have Marty Turco and Alex Auld as goalies.
"We’ve got to make considerations because our other two guys are both free agents at the end of the year," Crawford sid.
"Obviously I think they feel pretty good about Kari Lehtonen. He’s come back and I’ve heard that he’s played well at the American League level, so we’ll see what happens from there on our side."
Lehtonen’s last NHL action came on April 11, 2009, when he made 33 saves in a win against Tampa Bay. He was Atlanta’s first-round pick in the 2002 draft.
The Thrashers have relied on the combination of veteran Johan Hedberg and 22-year-old Ondrej Pavelec in goal this season.
Vishnevskiy, a native of Russia, was a first-round pick in the 2006 draft. He has two assists in five career NHL games with the Stars but was scoreless in two games with Dallas this season.
He had eight goals and 16 assists in 51 games with AHL Texas, and had two assists in the AHL All-Star Classic on Jan. 19.
Funeral Mass held for son of Maple Leafs GM
CANTON, Mass. — Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke and an advocate for gay rights, was remembered Tuesday for his compassion and courage four days after his death in a car crash on a snowy Indiana road.
"From birth, he had an unshakable faith in the genuine good that resides in all people," his brother Patrick said at a funeral Mass. "Along with that faith is hope, hope that he could bring that good out from inside of people and into the world by being open, caring and kind to everyone he met."
Brendan Burke played goalie at Xaverian Brothers High School in nearby Westwood but decided not to play as a senior because the locker room atmosphere was becoming harder to deal with, according to an article on ESPN.com in December.
That article related how he told his father on Dec. 30, 2007, that he was gay.
"I had a million good reasons to love and admire Brendan," Brian Burke said in the story. "This news didn’t alter any of them."
Brendan, 21, was in the second semester of his senior year at Miami University in Ohio, where he was student manager of the hockey team. He died Friday when his car slid sideways into the path of another vehicle. His friend, Mark Reedy, 18, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., also died in the accident.
Many mourners stood for the Mass inside the packed St. John The Evangelist Church. Among those who attended were staff and players from Miami, wearing their red jerseys with white letters and numbers, and staff and players from the Maple Leafs. Also there were NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, New Jersey Devils president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, Edmonton Oilers coach Pat Quinn and Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein.
Brendan "was strong and unyielding in his convictions but soft, sweet and gentle in their application," Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, told those in attendance. "He was the face of a movement and will always be the soul of a family. To many of us, Brendan’s world was a dream world. Brendan had the courage to transcend cynicism and fear and live for 21 glorious years in that dream."
After the Mass, Brian Burke stood outside on a sunny, chilly day and shook hands with those leaving the church.
Brian Burke also is general manager of this year’s U.S. Olympic hockey team. He played four seasons through 1977 at Providence College when Lamoriello coached there, graduated in 1981 from Harvard Law School and went on to become NHL vice president and director of hockey operations and general manager of the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks, before joining Toronto as president and general manager on Nov. 29, 2008.
"I don’t think there are any words or expressions that can really say what everybody feels today," Lamoriello said. "It’s just tremendous to see the outpouring of care and the way everybody just comes together, but it’s a sad day."
Mike Milbury, former coach of the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders, has known Brian Burke for nearly 40 years.
"It’s just so numbing," Milbury said. "I know that he’s a tough guy, Brian, but I know this has buckled his knees. ... Brendan had a lot of friends. Brian’s got plenty, as is well documented here today. Life marches on."
Several of Brendan’s friends from elementary school in Canton attended the Mass. Some of them spent time with Brendan last month during the winter break from college.
"He was a very good friend to all of us, always trying to make us laugh, always put us first and he was always there for us when we needed it," said Steve Ivanoski, 20, who praised Brendan’s gay advocacy. "He was getting e-mails. He was helping anyone out who had any problem with it. He was always outspoken. He always wanted to get his point across and he always did get his point across."
Brendan spent last summer as an intern for U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat.
For Patrick Burke, the lessons of his brother’s life live on.
"His vision of the world was a spark that lit a fire of hope in so many people," he said. "That fire has not been extinguished by his passing. His memory will fan the flame of courage in all of us, inspiring all of us to be a little kinder, a little stronger, a little better, a little more like Brendan.
"Through all of us, his hope still lives and his dream will never die."
-- Howard Ulman
N.J. Devils slumping heading into Olympic break
NEWARK, N.J. — Jacques Lemaire didn’t want to describe his 20-minute, on-ice discussion with the New Jersey Devils as a pep talk.
It was just a coach stating the obvious at practice on Wednesday to a team that has lost four of its last five games and 10 of 14.
There was no shouting. No wild arm gestures. Maybe a couple of taps on the ice with his stick.
"Most of it was about winning battles, competing for pucks, being harder on pucks, working on the power play," forward Zach Parise said. "Just things when you are going on stretches like this, what’s causing it. There are just areas of our games to sharpen up."
If you’ve watched the Devils in the past week or so, there are inexplicable periods where the team makes a couple of costly mistakes.
In a 3-2 loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday night, the Devils squandered a 2-0 lead in the final two minutes of the second period.
Against the Rangers in New York on Saturday night, New Jersey gave up three goals in a three-minute span in the second period in a 3-1 loss.
The string of four losses in five games started with the Kings scoring twice in the final 1:46 in a 3-2 win a little more than a week ago.
"It’s just like being brain dead for a little bit, and we are paying the price for it," goaltender Martin Brodeur said.
With three games left before the Olympic break, the Devils have seen their lead in the Atlantic Division dwindle to two points over the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have played one more game than New Jersey.
The Devils have led the division since Dec. 18.
"We are looking for wins, definitely,’ Lemaire said. "It’s obvious that we’re not playing our best hockey. We are not consistent. We’re having very good periods, and average periods, and we just have to be more consistent."
Lemaire spent a lot of time on Wednesday having his team work on the power play. New Jersey was 1 of 7 with the extra man on Monday night and they will be facing the Flyers again on Wednesday at the Prudential Center.
Patrik Elias, who returned to the Devils lineup two games ago after sitting out 10 games with a concussion, said no one was panicking. He felt the team had plenty of chances to score on Monday and just didn’t find the net.
"We talked about it," Elias said. "We have to tighten up in certain areas and be a little more desperate out there. When you go through a stretch like this, he (Lemaire) wants to make sure we go back to basics and tweak a couple of things. Sometimes when you go through a stretch like this, you try to do a little too much and you get out of position."
The one thing that has changed in the recent run is the Devils have lost a little confidence. When bad things happen, their play gets tentative and opponents have taken advantage.
"We’re a good group of players and we know we can get out of this," defenseman Andy Greene said. "Everyone goes through these ups and downs during the year and maybe ours is a little longer now. We just have to be prepared."
Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner felt Lemaire’s approach was positive.
"When you’re involved in it, sometimes you lose sight of it a little bit," Langenbrunner said. "You’re so wrapped up in it. You’re trying to work your way out of it. You’re maybe sometimes trying to do too much. That definitely can be a little bit of the case right now."
The Devils will be without defenseman Anssi Salmela for Wednesday’s game. He suffered an apparent concussion when hit in the second period by Flyers forward Jeff Carter a split second after scoring a goal to put New Jersey ahead 2-0.
Salmela did not practice Tuesday and Lemaire said there was no way he would play Wednesday.
Lemaire didn’t get the feeling that Carter was trying to hurt Salmela.
"The league looks at every incident and if there’s anything they’ll take care of," Lemaire said.
-- Tom Canavan
First Noel: Jackets interim coach embraces the joy
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Since becoming the interim head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets a week ago, Claude Noel has received more than 1,000 calls, texts and e-mails offering congratulations.
Some are from folks back home in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, or from players and coaches dating back to his long career beating the bushes of the AHL, ECHL and practically every other HL.
Others? He’s not so sure.
"You know what’s wild? People send me texts with the number but no name — and I don’t know who it is!" Noel said, laughing at himself. "There might be 20 percent that are just numbers."
It’s a vintage Claude (rhymes with "ode") moment. As an assistant under Ken Hitchcock, who was fired after the Blue Jackets got off to a miserable 22-27-9 start this season, the players really liked Noel. He joked with them, acted up, played around and also worked hard with them.
He has his own way of saying things. He refers to players as "stallions." He is constantly talking about letting go and "freeing the mind." Offensive players aren’t forwards, wings or centers, they’re "shooters."
But in the Noel dictionary, the most important word is among the shortest.
"That’s his big word — joy. He’s been saying it all year long," goalie Steve Mason said.
Now he’s saying it as the head man, at least for the remaining 22 games this season. He’s off to a 2-0 start heading into Wednesday night’s game against San Jose, the top team in the Western Conference.
"He’s kind of serious with us," captain Rick Nash said. "When he was an assistant coach he was a bit more fun. Now he’s more serious, and he has to be. In here, he’s all business."
Noel, 54, said he hasn’t changed personalities. Perhaps his new position means he’s not the players’ best buddy anymore, but that doesn’t mean he’s not the same person.
"I can still be that way, but not to the level they saw me as an assistant," he said, sipping a bottle of water in his office after Tuesday’s workout. "They’ll see that again. They might not see that level again in this hockey arena. Maybe at the end of the season."
His boss didn’t hire him because he was popular with the players. Noel, a veteran coach in the minors, also knows what he’s doing behind the bench and in the dressing room.
"I didn’t know about ‘joy’ and ‘free the mind’ and all the other phrases he’s grown fond of using," general manager Scott Howson said on the day he promoted Noel. "I just knew that he was a good coach who has had tremendous success at the AHL level. It was more his track record and the people I know who knew him well along the way."
At the end of the season, Howson will evaluate Noel’s performance and will consider whether to knock the "interim" off his job title. If the Blue Jackets keep playing the way they have the last two games, winning by a combined 6-1 over Dallas and Buffalo, Noel will make Howson’s decision a difficult one.
Noel grew up in a small Ontario town, the son of a miner and a housewife who raised Claude, a brother and two sisters. He still gets emotional when he thinks back to the day in 1981 when he was playing for the AHL Hershey Bears and his then-coach Bryan Murray (now GM of the Ottawa Senators) broke the news that Noel’s father had died.
"The flight home was gut-wrenching," Noel said, his voice cracking almost three decades later.
As a player, he toiled for remote outposts before finally getting a taste of the NHL, playing seven games with the Washington Capitals in 1980. He never made it back, spending most of the next 10 years plying his trade before eventually starting as a coach on the bottom rungs of the pro ladder.
Noel, who came to Columbus as an assistant under Hitchcock in 2007, laughed when asked if he thought he could maintain his unbeaten record.
"The fact that we’ve only played two games, I would remember that," he said. "But if you ask me in game 12, I probably won’t know what our record is. I don’t deal in records."
What he’s looking for in the 24 games he’s been given as interim coach is something more than wins.
"My coaching philosophy is really simple: I’m governed by getting better every day," he said.
Despite the catchwords and jokes, he isn’t all fun and games as a head coach. The players say he’s more of a taskmaster than Hitchcock, a kind and intelligent man who didn’t add a whole lot of levity.
"He’s a lot stricter than Hitch ever was," forward R.J. Umberger said. "There’s more rules."
So far, even the veterans are buying into what he’s selling — an oil-and-water mix of discipline, having fun, taking your job seriously and playing loose.
"Everybody looks at Claude as a new face," forward Raffi Torres said. "You just kind of forget the fact that he was an assistant coach for a while and let him do it. He’s won at other levels. He knows what he’s talking about."
Call it a Claude to joy.
-- Rusty Miller
Edmonton’s AHL affiliate to be located in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY — Pro hockey will return to Oklahoma City starting next season — and at a higher level.
Representatives of Prodigal Hockey LLC and the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers said Tuesday that Oklahoma City will be the home of the Oilers’ American Hockey League franchise, which has been dormant since 2005. The Oilers will let their affiliation agreement with an AHL team in Springfield, Mass., expire at the end of this season.
The AHL unanimously approved the Oilers’ plan on Monday.
The announcement culminated more than a year and a half of negotiations between Prodigal Hockey and the Oilers. The new team, which will play at the downtown Cox Convention Center, does not yet have a nickname. Prodigal Hockey President Bob Funk Jr. said the team’s fans will have input in that area.
"We want to maintain our ties to Oklahoma City in terms of the hockey history," Funk said. "This has been a great hockey town since the 1960s and we want to maintain that connection, but at the same time, we want to separate ourselves as a new brand of hockey."
Edmonton General Manager Steve Tambellini said the Oilers wanted their top minor-league affiliate to be located closer than the East Coast "for the operational part of it" and that they’ve always thought Oklahoma City might be a good location.
"We were looking for a place with rich hockey history and success," Tambellini said.
The 29-team AHL is considered a Triple-A-level league. Oklahoma City hasn’t had an upper-level minor league hockey franchise since the Oklahoma City Stars folded in 1982. The Oklahoma City Blazers brought pro hockey back to the state’s largest city in 1992, playing in the Central Hockey League.
The Blazers consistently ranked in the top 10 in attendance among North American minor league hockey franchises, leading the CHL in that category every year. Last season, the Blazers averaged 6,508 fans for 32 home games, but they folded last summer, citing "substantial losses" during the recession.
Funk is also president of Express Sports, which operated the Blazers.
"People have always recognized that we had great attendance and a had a great hockey following," Funk said.
Funk said it’s up to the Oilers what role, if any, popular Blazers coach Doug Sauter might have with the AHL team. Tambellini praised Sauter as "a great hockey man" and said he’s looking forward to speaking with Sauter about his interest in working with the new team.
The lease agreement at the convention center includes a five-year lease and two, three-year renewal terms at the option of Prodigal Hockey. The team would play 40 regular-season home games.
As part of the lease agreement, the city will pay for about $4.5 million in improvements to the convention center, which opened in 1972. That money will pay for an ice plant and mechanical room, and other upgrades.
-- Murray Evans
Gaborik’s knee cut by skate in Rangers practice
GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Marian Gaborik limped off the ice during practice Tuesday after the New York Rangers’ leading scorer was cut on the right knee by the skate of goalie Henrik Lundqvist in a collision.
Gaborik skated in on Lundqvist during a breakaway drill and tried to jump over his teammate’s outstretched leg when contact was made. The right wing, who has a team-high 35 goals and 69 points, fell to the ice and stayed down for a few moments.
"I thought he was joking," Lundqvist said. "My skate caught his knee. Hopefully he’ll be OK."
Gaborik skated off slowly with assistance and didn’t put weight on his right leg. He received stitches at the team’s practice facility, but didn’t require X-rays. He wasn’t available to speak to reporters.
Gaborik’s status for Wednesday night’s home game against Nashville wasn’t immediately clear. He also is slated to play for Slovakia at the Vancouver Olympics.
"Right now, that’s all we think it is," assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "It’s not like it’s a twist to the groin or the knee. It’s just a laceration."
Gaborik, who will turn 28 on Sunday, is in the first season of a five-year, $37.5 million deal with the Rangers. After scoring a career-high 42 goals in the 2007-08 season with Minnesota, Gaborik was limited to 17 games last season because of hip surgery.
He has missed two games this season, but Gaborik played more than 65 only one time in his final five seasons with Minnesota. Gaborik has scored at least 30 goals in six of his nine NHL seasons.
The Rangers have three games this week before the NHL takes a two-week Olympic break. New York (26-26-7) will resume play March 2 at Ottawa.
Phoenix recalls Boedker, Hoggan; Perrault on IR
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Phoenix has recalled forwards Mikkel Boedker and Jeff Hoggan from its San Antonio affiliate and placed forward Joel Perrault on injured reserve after one game with the Coyotes.
The 20-year-old Boedker has 12 previous appearances with the Coyotes, with a goal and two assists. He appeared in 78 games as a rookie for Phoenix last season.
Hoggan has four appearances for the Coyotes this season. He had eight goals and four assists in 43 games with San Antonio.
Perrault had just been called up from San Antonio when he suffered an upper body injury in Phoenix’s 6-1 victory over Edmonton on Monday night.
Forwards Shane Doan and Vernon Fiddler also had upper body injuries in the game and their playing status was being evaluated on a day-to-day basis.
Hurricanes activate F Ruutu from injured reserve
RALEIGH, N.C — The Carolina Hurricanes have activated forward Tuomo Ruutu from injured reserve.
The team announced the move on Tuesday.
Ruutu had been out for the last 15 games since he sustained an upper-body injury in a fight against Colorado’s Darcy Tucker on Jan. 8. Ruutu will play for Finland at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver beginning next week.
