Slam! sports blog

RALEIGH, N.C. – Whenever the Maple Leafs travel to western Canada, a electric buzz immediately ripples through the host city.

Whether it be Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver, a visit by the Leafs becomes an event throughout the community; partially because they play in those rinks just once per season; partially because of the number of Toronto fans who live in those places.

Keeping that in mind, the environment surrounding Toronto’s game in Winnipeg on Saturday night will be crazier than usual.

Forget, for a moment, that it will be New Years’ Eve. No, the bigger story is that the Leafs will be playing in Winnipeg for the first time in almost 16 years.

Indeed, the Leafs have not competed in a regular season game in Winnipeg since Feb. 28, 1996 when they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Jets at the old WInnipeg Arena.

Former Leaf Ed Olczyk led the way for the Jets in that victory, scoring twice and adding an assist. Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhamnov added singles for Winnipeg while Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 37 of 40 Toronto shots.

Mats Sundin, Dave Andreychuk and Todd Warriner replied for the Leafs while Felix Potvin was saddled with the loss.

Come Saturday, more than 1-1/2 decades later, the Leafs once again will step onto Winnipeg ice.

Whichever team wins, this much is certain: It will be some kind of party.

It’ll be a much different looking lineup against the Colorado Avalanche Sunday in Denver, with the Calgary Flames sitting defenceman Cory Sarich in favour of Derek Smith and Anton Babchuk, and inserting wingers Niklas Hagman and Pierre-Luc Leblond over centre Brendan Morrison and winger David Moss.
Moss took a shot in the ankle Friday night in Buffalo and Morrison didn’t see the ice in the third period because of his play — his second major knee surgery seems to have slowed the veteran down this season. He has yet to register a point.

Olli Jokinen was first brought to the Flames as a top centre the team hoped with mesh with captain Jarome Iginla.
It never worked out.
But after a brutal outing against the Canucks this week, the duo will be reunited a couple of seasons after that first experiment officially ended.
Jokinen will centre Curtis Glencross and Iginla against the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night.
“I think it’s just kind of a jolt thing after last game,” said Iginla. “For myself, getting paired with them, they’re playing really well. They’re quick players, they’re fast, and I’ll work to get my feet going and keep up to them.”
That may be the biggest motivating factor for head coach Brent Sutter, who hasn’t seen much from his captain early this season. Iginla has two goals and four points through 10 games and hasn’t been moving too quickly on the ice.
“Jarome will have to adjust somewhat to his new linmates and the way they play. That’s what we expect,” said Sutter, who also suggests the evolution of Jokinen from a selfish offensive player to a two-way centre will mean different results for the duo this time around.
“Olli’s a different player than he was two years ago when Jarome and him played together,” Sutter said. “His role has changed. He’s playing a different brand of hockey for us than he has, and he’s being rewarded for changing his game.
“He’s playing well.”

Here are the lines and pairings for the match against the Red Wings.

Glencross-Jokinen-Iginla
Tanguay-Morrison-Stempniak
Bourque-Horak-Moss
Kostopoulos-Stajan-Jackman

Bouwmeester-Butler
Giordano-Sarich
Hannan-Babchuk

Miikka Kiprusoff starts in net.

It looks like Calgary Flames head coach Brent Sutter will go with seven defencemen and 11 forwards again.

Matt Stajan and Niklas Hagman appear to be the healthy scratches, and despite their positive words over the past few days, they can’t be happy about it. It would mean a combined $7.5 million of actual salary in the press box, with Stajan making $4.5 million this season and Niklas Hagman earning $3M.

The Flames rolled with the 7/11 roster Wednesday in a 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche, inserting Anton Babchuk into the rotation and mixing up his forward lines at different times during the game.

“It worked well. Tonight, there’s a good chance it could happen again,” said Sutter after Friday’s morning skate. “We’re goin’ with it.

“It’s been good for the forwards in the sense it keeps them on their toes.”

Projected lines …

Alex Tanguay-Brendan Morrison-Jarome Iginla

Curtis Glencross-Olli Jokinen-David Moss

Rene Bourque-Roman Horak-Lee Stempniak

Tom Kostopoulos-Tim Jackman

Hours before game time and the Calgary Flames are excited to hit the ice for the first time in more than a week when the puck drops on their season opener against the Penguins Saturday night at the Saddledome.
“More anxious than anything to get the game going,” said defenceman Mark Giordano.
“There’s going to be a lot of intensity, a lot of emotion in the game. The main thing is to try to keep that in check and play the right way.”

The Flames will ice a lineup that looks like this …

Tanguay-Moss-Iginla
Hagman-Horak-Bourque
Glencross-Jokinen-Stempniak
Kostopoulos-Stajan-Jackman

Bouwmeester/Butler
Giordano/Hannan
Babchuk/Sarich

Kiprusoff gets the start in net of course.

While Cory Sarich and Raitis Ivanans both shed their yellow no-contact jerseys for Tuesday’s morning skate at the Saddledome, plenty of veterans were absent.
Mikael Backlund (undisclosed) is “resting” according to Flames head coach Brent Sutter.
Rene Bourque (undisclosed) is dealing with some “nagging” issues.
Tim Jackman (groin) is inching closer to practice.
Brett Carson (back) is the least likely to return for the start of the regular season.
And captain Jarome Iginla (back) could skate as early as Wednesday, although you likely won’t see him in game action until the opener Oct. 8 against the Penguins at the Dome.

Lines for Wednesday night look like this …

Tanguay/Horak/Stempniak
Glencross/Jokinen/Moss
Hagman/Byron/Kostopoulos
Bouma/Stajan/Desbiens

The first ‘cuts’ of Calgary Flames training camp came Saturday, with a handful of prospects going back to their junior teams and another outright released.
Goaltender Laurent Brossoit went back to the Edmonton Oil Kings, with defencemen Dallas Ehrhardt heading to the Moose Jaw Warriors, Reid Jackson joining the Lethbridge Hurricanes , Tyler Wotherspoon back with the Portland WinterHawks and Calgary Hitmen blueliner Peter Kosterman just moving to another dressing room at the Saddledome.
Netminder Andrew Engelage was released.

It may be a prospects tournament, but the Calgary Flames crew for Wednesday night’s tilt against the Edmonton Oilers hopefull will have plenty of experience.

Up front, Greg Nemisz, Carter Bancks, Mitch Wahl, Lance Bouma and Logan MacMillan will be in the lineup. On defence, John Negrin and T.J. Brodi will skate for the third game in as many tilts at this event.

Abbotsford Heat head coach Troy Ward, who’s running the Flames youngsters, said he wants to see those players – most are second-year pros – play with more emotion than they did previously. Most of those players played Sunday’s opener, a 6-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks prospects, but not Monday night against the Vancouver Canucks.

“I didn’t like the fact that they assumed they were going to go where they left off,” he said. “They didn’t prepare well enough mentally. For me, it wasn’t a physical thing on Sunday. We obviously got close to 40 shots and pretty much dominated the first two periods. But I didn’t think we were mentally engaged.”

Goalie Joni Ortio will see the nets for the third game, as will junior-aged players Patrick Holland, Max Reinhart and Sven Baertschi — who were quite good in the first two games.

The Oilers will not have 2011 first-overall draft choice Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the lineup.

Penticton — One night after surrendering six goals on 23 shots in a forgettable opener at the Young Stars Tournament, Joni Ortio will be between the pipes for the Flames this evening against the Vancouver Canucks.
“Sometimes the best thing you can do as a coach and an organization is put him back in the fire. And he wants to respond,” said Abbotsford Heat head coach Troy Ward, who’s running the bench for the Flames hopefuls. “The good news is he’s excited about the challenge again.
“Joni’s a guy in the organization that needs get himself ready for training camp and needs to get himself ready for Abbotsford. He’s gonna have to carry the weight.”

Calgary product and WHL Hitmen defenceman Peter Kosterman will also suit up.

“Even watching the game yesterday and seeing the guys go out in jerseys was like ‘Holy smokes.’ To be able to play in the game jerseys and everything, it’s really exciting,” he said.

Not expected to play are: Carter Bancks, Greg Nemisz, Roman Horak, Mitch Wahl, Lance Bouma, Ryan Howse, Joey Leach and Dallas Ehrhardt.

Here are the projected lines to start

Michael Ferland – Dustin Sylvester – Bryan Cameron

Patrick Holland – Max Reinhart – Sven Baertschi

Logan MacMillan – Gaelan Patterson – BlakeGal

CJ Severyn – Justin Dowling – Turner Elson

Peter Kosterman – Chris Breen

John Negrin – James Martin

Reid Jackson – TJ Brodie

It’s still surprising – though I guess it shouldn’t be – to look at the world golf rankings and see Mike Weir at 539th world.
He spent 110 weeks in the top 10 between 2001 and 2005.
It didn’t seem that long ago I was following him around Royal Montreal on a pristine fall afternoon watching him rally to beat Tiger Woods in a singles match at the Presidents Cup.
But a search for a new swing and recurrent problems with his right elbow have seen the 2003 Masters champ figuratively fall off the golf map.
Now comes word this morning Weir will be out for 3-6 months after having surgery performed on the extensor tendon of his right elbow by Dr. James Andrews in Florida.
He has tried to play with the bad elbow for at least a year – talking to him at the PGA last year, he was extremely frustrated with everything going on in his golf life – but rehab appeared to have only mixed results. He re-injured it at the RBC Canadian Open last month.
“My elbow has caused me problems over the past year and during the RBC Canadian Open it essentially became unplayable,” said Weir. “Dr. Andrews is the best in the business, and it’s my hope with patience, and diligent post-surgery rehab, I will be able to put my elbow problems behind me and look forward.”
Weir also needs time to get his swing straightened out. For sure, the elbow injury led to compensations. But he’s also been bouncing back and forth with coaches, going without a coach, back to old coaches.
Taking a forced prolonged break might be what Weir needs right now to get his golf life back in order and see if he can make a late-career rally.