Jason Reed
Hockeytalk.biz

JANUARY 15, 2008 -- It was nice to see Sidney Crosby take time out from his modeling career to play some hockey last night, as VS was decent enough to bring me the Penguins and the Rangers on a “NFL-less” Monday night.

Of course, while I prefer seeing Sid the Kid on the ice, my 15-year-old daughter would much rather see him on the cover of Men’s Health. So would the NHL, for good reason. I mean no disrespect to Crosby because after all, he’s the reigning MVP and as long as his production stays up, who am I to say how he spends his off-ice time?

Let’s get back to last night where the star of the show was Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin notched his second hat trick 11 days after he dropped a trey on the Toronto Maple Leafs. I know I’ve said it before, but Pittsburgh is a damn fine young hockey team! If Mario can keep this nucleus together then these boys can raise a couple more Cups in the near future. I would, however, like to make one correction to something that I have written in the past and that is that I have included goalie Marc Andre Fleury on the list of young Penguins studs. Go ahead and remove Marc Andre and replace him with Ty Conklin. (10-0-1 since arriving in the Steel City). I know that Fleury is injured and it’s cold to rip on a guy when he’s down, but it needs to be said. For the record, Crosby did have a pair of helpers on Monday.

A 15-Year Contract AND An All Star Appearance? Sweet!

New York Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro, he of the 15-year contract, was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team last week and I personally believe that it if you’re good enough to get a 15-year gig that you darn well better be an All-Star!

After struggling through a few average seasons—note that I said “average”, not “bad”, --the 26-year old is finally having a breakout season. His record of 18-14-5 doesn’t sound overly impressive, but when you consider that he has, well, the New York Islanders, skating in front of him, should you really expect much more? DiPietro has thrown up some nice numbers, hanging a couple of donuts on the board (two shutouts) along with a 2.52 GAA and a .913 save percentage. DiPietro joins All-Star regular Martin Brodeur of New Jersey and Florida’s Tomas Vokoun as the Eastern netminders.

Cujo Continues In Calgary

Veteran goaltender Curtis Joseph has not suited up for anyone this season, but Iron Mike Keenan nabbed him to be insurance for top dog Miikka Kiprusoff. Joseph can also give Kiprusoff some much-needed rest the last couple months of the season.

I like Joseph well enough, but lets be realistic. Dude is 40 and his last stint in the NHL was last season when he went 18-31-2 with a 3.19 GAA and a save percentage of only .893. Granted, he was playing for the Phoenix Coyotes, but as Ilya Bryzgalov is showing, a good goalie can do well on an otherwise average team.

This is not the first time that Keenan and Joseph have shared the same bench. The two were paired up in St. Louis after Keenan won the Cup with the Rangers and was subsequently fired. There was much speculation that Keenan was looking to dump Cujo from the day he set foot in St. Louis, so it will be interesting to see how the relationship works out this time around.

Can Cliff Fletcher Stop Toronto's Bleeding?

But where Fletcher gets off the plane is still up in the air. It’s like this…Fletcher has his tickets in hand for a vacation down in Mexico, but the word in Toronto is and has been that current GM John Ferguson, Jr. is getting the ax anytime. Fletcher is a front-runner for the job as Interim-GM and if the Leafs don’t act before he walks through the metal detector it would seem that they are going in another direction. The trade deadline is just around the corner and Toronto needs to get someone in the chair and do it quickly so that they can get working on bolstering this flailing team.

Fletcher is in the driver’s seat here because he is still under contract with the Phoenix Coyotes for the rest of this season and next season and Fletcher would have to be stupid to give up that guaranteed paycheck next season for a job in Toronto that is only assured until July 1.

Shockingly, the Leafs spurned Scotty Bowman, who was interested in running the club’s hockey operations and interviewed with Leafs brass, including Richard Peddie.

The Leafs are a total mess right now, which is sad considering that they used to be one of the most respected franchises of the NHL. I don’t see the Leafs getting anyone with any street cred unless they’re willing to basically submit to whatever the candidate wants. On the flip side, unless they’re willing to do that, they may as well stay with what they’ve got because the next one won’t fare any better.

If you have a guy like Cliff Fletcher willing to help pull your team out of the quicksand that it is mired in, then you better give him a big stick and a wide berth, because there needs to be some attitude adjustment time in Toronto.

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