Penguins Fire Hlinka

Head Coach Ivan Hlinka was fired today (Monday) by the Penguins after a winless start of the season, 0-4-0-0. Rick Kehoe will replace Hlinka’s position as head coach. Will this change the Penguins? Or should they seek another trade?

Miscellaneous Rumors

Ray Slover of The Sporting News speculates on the future homes of the following players;

Jason Allison – Washington Capitals

Tony Amonte – Detroit, Dallas, Colorado, or Boston

Bill Guerin – St. Louis, if the Bruins fall out of playoff contention

Darius Kasparaitis – Colorado

He also states that the Devils will not part with Bobby Holik unless he becomes a locker room distraction.

He gives no basis on his speculations so take this as you will. I have heard the mention of Allison landing with the Capitals but have not seen much on the others.

Allison to Blues for young players.

Jason Allison is soon to be traded to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Daniel Corso and Sergei Varlamov and two players from the Blues minor league team the Ice Cats: defenseman Mike Van Ryn and forward Justin Papineau. There is also talk to adding Blues forward Scott Mellanby to the deal while he recovers from his broken lower jaw. Boston Bruins general manager Mike O’Connell was at the Blues home opener scouting the young players (Corso is a promising center who O’Connell is looking at as a possible replacement for Allison) and will be back in St. Louis when the Blues host the Dallas Stars. St. Louis GM Larry Pleu was in Worcester for at least the past two games making sure he wants to deal the young players which he feels are some of the Blues future stars for Allison. Pleu wants a number 2 center that he can pair with Pavol Demitra.

Jason Allison, and other restricted free agents

ESPN the magazines E.J Hradek is reporting a deal for the four biggest free agents could happen with in the next couple of weeks. Rumors has the Toronto Maple Leafs will trade Tomas Kaberle to the San Jose Sharks for Mike Rathje. This would be a decent trade, not a great one. Kaberle is more of a goal-scoring type defenseman, and Rathje is more of an enforcer. Jason Allison has been rumored in a 3-way deal with the Oilers and the Kings. The Oilers would get Steve Heinze, Glen Murray and a prospect defenseman, the Bruins would get Anson Carter(again) or Ryan Smyth and Tom Poti, and the Kings would get Jason Allison. I think this would be the biggest trade to be made all year, and a fair. I also find this believable, becuase the Bruins and Oilers are “trading buddies” after last years Bill Guerin for Anson Carter and a prospect deal.

Pen's Igloo Melting & Number of Game Suspension Gone Out of Hand

When in the world is Lemieux going to play a game, and is Colin Campbell doing a good job? How should the NHL regulate the suspensions?

Allison Trade Rumor Confirmation

Hey Guys,

Thought I’d come on again and give your the latest from the Boston Globe and FoxSportsNet…………..

Foolish Penalties Turned Off Blackburning Rangers

Who is that goalie in net? Not Richter. His mask looks very fancy though. Is it Skudra? Playing against the Washington Capitals? No? Who the heck is that goalie!?

The Media & ESPN vs. Sather, the Rangers, and Lindros

Unfortunately, ESPN does not hire people who have brains of hockey. It is a shame, because all the articles and comments the media has done in general, especially ESPN, made them look foolish. Jeff Bradley is a writer for ESPN MAG. He wrote an article on Lindros and the Rangers. If a hockey analyst who writes articles wants to comment on a subject (i.e. trade, player, or team), he or she has to support both the positive side and the negative side. Bradley has zero knowledge on this Lindros trade, which made him write a useless article pointing out his opinion only, an incorrect opinion. Plus, find out what really happened between Sather and Patrick, along with what the circumstances would have been with any of Sather’s decisions. I know this subject has been written so many times, but if you really want to look smart in front of other hockey fans, then it is worthwhile reading this.

Rangers Knees Stay Strong

Richter came back way before he was scheduled to play, and has put a great performance in the pre-season and his first two games. Unfortunately, a total of 3 goals already have passed Richter, deflected off the legs/skates of Malakhov, Karpa, and Malakhov again.

Kloucek is also way ahead of schedule. He is scheduled to play in mid-November, yet he could be just as ready to play on the 19th or 20th of October. Will he make a great comeback from his injury? Most likely since there is a high possibility for him to be one of the toughest defensemen in the league.

Micki Peroni

Dopita Injury Update

In case anyone saw the report that ESPN put out stating that Jiri Dopita would be out for the entire season, that news is incorrect. He has a strained MCL and a hairline fracture in his knee and is estimated to be out from 4-6 weeks. This time is still very questionable, but he will not be out all season. He is already riding a stationary bike with no pain. What a break for the guy though, changes his whole lifestyle to come to the US while they are at war plays 2 periods and tears up his knee from a cheapshot, that’s gotta be frustrating.

Rangers line notes

Rangers notes for tonight against Buffalo, including lines and news.

Lemieux to sit tonight 10/6/01

Mario Lemieux who has been bothered by a hip flexor the past two weeks or so, will sit out tonight against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The lines will remain the same except for the fact that Kevin Stevens will move from the 4th line to the 1st line to replace Lemieux, and Krzysztof Oliwa will replace Stevens on line 4.

New Rule

Now that the season has begun, HTR will expect many submitted articles during this season, probably too many. HTR will only post SIX articles a day as the maximum. Follow this short guideline:

1)-Avoid writing articles on a game.

2)-Avoid writing articles based on your predictions, ie. standings, trophy winners…etc.

3)-If an important and interesting event occured in a game, then you are free to write an article about it.

4)-Injury updates are acceptable, (someone say something about Dopita).

5)-Analysis of your team is acceptable.

Try to not overload the sent submitted articles.

Thank you,

TradeMan & HTR Staff