What you missed last night while you were debating whether this past trade deadline was the worst or worstest

There's no point in analyzing any of the deals. None were game-changers, only game adjusters.

Canucks beat the Red Wings, 6-3: I don;t think you can really consider Burrows and Kesler "grind guys," but on Vancouver, they kind of are. And when they get going, the Canucks are hard to beat. Kesler scored a sweet goal, splitting the D and stuffing the puck in 5-hole. Burrows scored by going to the net and tipping a great feed from one of the Sedins. Also, Kyle Wellwood sniped a high glove breakaway goal and didnt celebrate. The Wings first goal of the night was a great example of winning the puck along the boards, then Zetterberg perfectly used body positioning to wheel away from the D-man and fed a perfect pass to Jason Williams who blasted a one-timer home.


Blackhawks beat the Oilers, 5-2: Its officially "tank" season for the Oilers. Chicago's good and did score some pretty pretty goals. Jonny Toews walked the Oilers D, Hossa fed a sweet pass over the Kane. Its all there in Chi-town.

Wild shut-out the Flames, 4-0: The Wild scored a beauty of a goal in this game. A great passing play from Miettinen to Koivu to Brunette. Kipper never even had his car.

Avalanche beat the Ducks, 4-3: Peter Mueller scored in his debut. That's nice.

Panthers beat the Flyers, 7-4: David Booth got a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. He fought Richards. At first I was disappointed that Booth didn't remove his bucket, because he wears a visor. But then I remembered the whole concussion thing.

Capitals beat the Sabres, 3-1: Green's game winner was the result of a him picking his cut to the net perfectly and great selling of the "shot" by Tomas Fleishman.

what you missed last night while you were flipping over taxis

Canucks beat the Hawks, 3-2: The Hawks had this game and then Willie Mitchell stepped out of the box and lit up John Toews. Clean hit, but unfortunate for the Hawks. It rattled the team and I guess goalie Anti Niemmi. The game-tyer and game winner were low stick side saveable shots (alliteration!). Cheesy line of the night from Ray Ferraro, after the play-by-play guy talked about the crowd cheering for Niemmi, "They're not anti Niemmi, they're pro-Niemmi." Meh.

Islanders beat the Hurricanes in the shoot-out, 4-3: I predicted a shoot-out loss for the Isles after the 2nd period when they were up by 2 goals. I guess I'm happy I was wrong. I really like Eric Staal's goal - making sure he put that puck in the open net. All three Isle's shoot-out goals were sweet and different: The Truth's snipe, the danish prince went top cheese on the back hand, and the future (patent pending) had a nice move, bar and in on the forehand.

Stars beat the Ducks, 4-2: Are the cameras at the Honda Center the farthest away in the league? I hate watching games on TV from there. It's like I'm pretty much overhead. Anyway, both goalies gave up goals by misplaying the puck.

Bruins beat the Predators, 3-2: This is the kind of game the Bruins are going to have to play with Savaard and Lucic out. All the goals were dirty, garbage goals. I loved it.

Sabres run over the Panthers, 5-2: Surprisingly, Bryan McCabe was NOT a minus 5 in this game.

Wild beat the Avalanche 3-2 in the shoot-out: How sweet are those Minny third jerseys? It was fun watching Boogard beat up Koci in one. It made the fight a bit more classy. Koivu's game tyer was a great tip, but I think the shot-pass was intended for the far post.

Leonard and his hunt for value down the home stretch

Feeling a bit betwixt and confused after his sizeable loss in natural gas futures, Leonard found himself one morning on a dirty lenoleum floor with zero recollection of his indulgences the night before. As usual after accepting defeat in his investments, Leonard would often grab a Stone Temple Pilots album and head south to the heartland to imbibe unhealthy amounts of spirits with his comrade Camille.
Forgetting about a saddlebags investment in a commodity, they engaged in heated discussions about value down the stretch. Many names were thrown around. It was here, in these discussions about the game of hockey that Leonard would find himself. They came up with the following certainties, that seemed rational at the time, however we will look at them a bit closer now in a more sober light.

Obviously hilarity ensued when Bill Nertin was brought up because, well because Leonard found it funny to say Bill Nertin. They agreed that Owen Nolan was playing well leading the Gabby-less Wild down the stretch. With Gaborik back, they concluded that Andrew Brunette's value along with Owen would receive a boost. When Koivu returns, this team gets into the playoffs.

Weak and powerless Nemy. Buy the dips people!

Camille made mention of recent volume up in Toronto. Mikhail Grabovski and his recent stretch of 5 goals, 6 assists in the last 7 games. More room now for this guy up front with no Dominic Moore. Even CUJO was tossed around with Gerber attacking referees, you could squeeze some CuJo juice out over the next few if you need a keeper for the head to head playoffs or something. Poopy but you know!

Leonard made mention of Sam Gagner with 15 points in his last 11 games and Camille threw up all over Leonard's cousin Allan Marcus who happens to be a British Op in town for a convention. He wasn't amused yet Leonard wet himself over what had happened.

Leonard's cousin Allan on a "supposed" secret assasination mission in the Falkan Islands in December of '05.

They got a good laugh over Brad Richards and his return to the IR after a brief stint of action. Sometimes you have to just hang it up. Camille explained to Leonard that had he cut his losses in Natural Gas, he might still have the Porsche along with a higher end bottle of liquor but Leonard did not believe in an 8% sell rule and bet the farm at the wrong time.

Jason Williams, came up and his peppering gamelog over the last 15 games could be a hell of a lot worse. Probably available in every league and may provide hairline value down the stretch.
Don't you find it funny that Billy featured here from the movie Predator, along with Jesse the body and Arnold Sioux City Schwartz are all politically elevated individuals now. Yes this man is like a Senator or something now. Crazy!

Tomas Holmstrom is fully back now and they are playing the Islanders tomorrow night. That might be free points if you pick him up for the night and drop maybe Rich Peverley or something because people, stop with Rich Peverley.

The meeting down south with Camille brought comfort, solace, reassurance and one of the nastiest hang-overs ever for Leonard. Those hang-overs, when you get up and get a meatball sub from Subway and feel sooo much worse after. Than you hit the pipe and pass out from inability to exercise even the slightest hinting of a coherent thought.

In closing, Leonard met up with Bridget Moynahan on his private jet back to Heathrow and they discussed international intrigue and hairline encounters. That led them to some chilled Chardonnay which pointed them toward the bottle of Patrone in the Captain's lockbox which well, we all know how the remaining 2 hours of the flight were spent.

- Narzell ( A fly on the wall in Leonard's travels)