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Home / Archive: 04. March 2009
By Mark Ritter…
With the trade deadline come and gone, there were very few moves of significance to talk about. Probably the best deal was the one which saw RW Power forward and tough guy Daniel Carcillo go to the Philadelphia Flyers from the Phoenix Coyotes for LW Checker/pest Scottie Upshall and a second round pick. In Carcillo the Flyers get a player who is capable of netting 20 goals some day and a guy who can straight up fight and hit, very valuable in the tough eastern Conference. In Upshall the Coyotes get themsleves a younger player who is a pest to play against, he should fit in well with the Coyotes other youngsters. Good trade for both clubs really.
The tw
o additions by the New York Rangers also caught my eye. Rangers GM Glen Sather picked up Forward Nik Antropov from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a second rounder and a “Conditional pick”- God knows what that means! I guess Leafs GM Brian Burke overvalued this mule having been asking for a first rounder in return for Antropov. The second deal was for Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Derek Morris, Morris should fit in nicely for the Rangers, but the price was steep as the Rangers gave up defenseman Dmitri kalinin, Forward Nigel Dawes and Forward Petr Prucha, on the surface it may seem like the Coyotes got a lot for Morris, but in the end, when you look at the stats, Kalinin, Dawes and Prucha amounted to spare parts. Prucha netted a total of 52 Goals from 2005-2006 through 2006-2007, but he has struggled in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, netting just 11 goals in 90 games, shoulder, knee and wrist injuries plague this player, he is kinda like the Forward version of Carlo Colaiacovo.
The biggest deal of the day belonged to the Calgary Flames. The Flames acquired Center Olli Jokinen from the Phoenix Coyotes for Forward Matt Lombardi, Forward/prospect Brandon Prust and a conditional first round draft pick. The Flames get a legit first line center, the Coyotes get spare parts and hope. Jokinen has one year left on his deal, if he gels with his new team one can assume the Flames will step up and try to sign him long term.
When everything was said and done the deadline didn’t disappoint, but it certainly could have been busier. My advice? The NHL needs to find a way to allow teams to trade money/ Cap space for prospects/players and draft picks, it is the only way we can ever dream of seeing the “Big Deal” again, otherwise it will be status quo, lot’s of names, very few of substance.
The steal of the day? After watching the Minnesota Wild sign goalie Nik Backstrom to a long term deal I thought the Ottawa Senators were pooched, turns out they had another option in mind and were able to get Columbus Blue jackets goaltender Pascal LeClaire, not bad, a big improvement for the Sens for sure. LeClaire looked to be a money golatender last season, injuries and the arrival of rookie phenom goalie Steve Mason made him expendable. Sure, the Sens gave up a decent talent in Antoine Vermette, but players like him are a dime a dozen, he is what he is, a third liner. This will be a great deal for Ottawa, they addressed exactly what they had been missing, hopefully this goalie works out.
Leafs Gm Brian Burke also mangaed to send Domenic Moore packing to the Buffalo Sabres for, wait for it….a second round draft pick! In Moore, Buffalo gets a gritty player who will go all out for 60 minutes. It’s too bad the Leafs were unable to sign this guy, he’s a energy guy, the kinda player’s love.
by Jameson Fleming… The top seed in each region still will be handed out to Connecticut, North Carolina, Pitt and Oklahoma in that order. There is still time for those teams to slip as Louisville (if the Cardinals win the Big East Tournament) and Michigan State (if the Spartans beat Purdue and win the Big Ten Tournament) will be waiting to scoop up a top seed.
Memphis has been playing great down the stretch, but doesn’t have the profile to be a top seed at this point.
LSU has the most to gain at this point. If the Tigers win out and win the SEC Tournament, with just four losses overall and only one SEC loss, it will be hard to seed the Tigers anything lower than a three. If things fall the right way, Trent Johnson’s team could actually still pick up a two seed. For now though, LSU still sits as a four because of a very weak non-conference schedule.
I made the bracket using the same S-Curve the selection committee does, seeding the teams in groups of eight.
During the seeding process, it ended up being inevitable that Xavier plays Virginia Tech during the first round. That rematch technically goes against NCAA standards, but choosing to pair those two teams prevented Virginia Tech from being in the same half of a region with another ACC team.
Due to seeding restrictions and rules, Butler, Illinois, Providence and Georgetown moved up one seed line while Arizona State, Clemson, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech dropped one seed line.
Pittsburgh isn’t the top overall seed, but the Dayton region is the only region that hosts a No. 1 seed and plays on Friday; therefore, the Panthers automatically get the play-in game.
Bracket and bubble breakdown after the page jump.
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