November 21

Bad Blood Brewing

The Vancouver Canucks will make their first trip to St. Paul tonight and look for the gloves to drop once again. Back on Friday Vancouver's Matthias Ohlund put a vicious two-handed slash on the back left leg of Minnesota center Mikko Koivu resulting in a cracked bone that will keep the Wild center on the shelf for at least a handful of more games. The "Tonya Tap" from Ohlund was in retaliation for a elbow thrown by Koivu earlier in the game. Minnesota enforcer Derek Boogaard said "he wasn't going to stand for it" and looked forward to a rematch.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out, but for those of you who may have forgotten, lets take a look at some of the other incidents that have taken place with Shamu the past few years.

12/22/01: Vancouver's Matt Cooke breaks Wild defenseman Jason Marshall's nose during a fight, prompting several brawls.

3/2/02: In the rematch, Marshall twice challenges Cooke to fight, but he declines. Wild enforcer Matt Johnson is ejected for punching Mattias Ohlund in the back of the head, drawing a five-game suspension.

12/7/02: Marian Gaborik nets a hat trick and is leveled by Cooke as he celebrates his third goal. Marshall viciously elbows Canuck Ed Jovanovski into the glass. Jovanovski later checks Marshall face first into the boards, which results in a concussion that sidelines Marshall for a month.

4/27/03: At the end of Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, a 3-2 Wild victory, Cooke tomahawks Johnson's ankle. Minnesota defenseman Brad Brown and Vancouver pain in the rear Todd Bertuzzi trade punches in front of the benches. Willie Mitchell then charges out of the Wild dressing room to fight Jovanovski, and the NHL fines Minnesota $25,000 for the incident.

11/8/03: The Wild are infuriated when Canuck Jarkko Ruutu picks a fight with Sergei Zholtok, the mild-mannered Minnesota forward drops his gloves for only the second time in nine years.

2/19/04: Johnson is suspended five games for slashing Cooke, who is banished two games for a retaliatory spear.

Last Friday: Koivu elbows Ohlund who retaliates by slashing his in the back of his left leg and cracking a bone.

With Ohlund suspended for tonight's game, you can count on at least one or two altercations, but my guess is that on Dec 2 when Johnny Canuck comes back is when the main event will begin.


Fedoruk to AHL

Dallas Stars forward Todd Fedoruk cleared waivers Tuesday and was demoted to the Iowa Stars of the AHL. The 28 year-old had two assists and 33 penalty minutes in 11 games this season and is guaranteed his NHL salary of $875,000. A seventh round pick of Philadelphia in the 1997 draft (164th overall), Fedoruk has registered 17 goals and 50 assists for 67 points with 818 penalty minutes in 365 games over eight NHL seasons for the Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, and Stars.


Ducks Extend Getzlaf

The Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks (of Los Angeles) signed centre Ryan Getzlaf to a five-year contract extension worth $26.625 million that will run through the 2012-13 season. Ducks GM Brian Burke back in July declined to match the Edmonton Oilers five-year $21.25 million offer sheet to 25 year-old Ducks restricted free-agent forward Dustin Penner, saying at the time that such a big-money offer to a young player like Penner was "highly inflationary in that age group". Getzlaf, 22, would have become a restricted free agent on July 1 and will earn $5.325 million per season under his new deal, and has seven goals and 21 points in 19 games this season.


Crosby Leads East

With one week of voting underway Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby leads all Eastern Conference vote-getters in all-star balloting. Crosby has garnered 94,118 votes, more then double the amount of Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators who's in second among forwards with 41,198 votes. Daniel Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers is third with 32,751.

Montreal Canadiens defenceman Andri Markov leads Eastern blue-liners with 48,134 voates, ahead of the Boston Bruins Zdeno Chara (45,949), Tomas Kaberle of the Toronto Maple Leafs (36,125) and Brian Campbell of the Buffalo Sabres (33,857).

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist led all netminders with 30,324 votes, followed by Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils (29,631), Martin Biron of the Flyers (27,849) and Cristobal Huet of the Canadiens (24,515).

The Western Conference balloting results will be announced Wednesday afternoon.


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