After posting back-to-back shut-out losses, Sens fire head coach John Paddock. General Manager Bryan Murray fills in.

Well, you something had to give. And in this case it was NHL head coach John Paddock. Considering the Ottawa Senators got off to such a great start (15-2), they’ve been slip sliding away ever since, winning just 21 or their last 47 games. The last two were particularly brutal — a 5-0 loss against Toronto and a 4-0 loss against Boston. Also turfed was assistant coach Ron Low. Double ouch.

“It’s always a surprise when a coach gets let go,” center Jason Spezza told reporters. “We’ve been struggling, but as a team I don’t think we thought it would come to the coach getting fired.”

“It just shows the high standard we have in our dressing room, the city of Ottawa, and that our owner has. It shows how competitive a team they think we have.”

General Manager Bryan Murray will resume coaching duties until a new head coach has been hired. Even with Paddock gone, the Sens are 6/1 odds to win the 2008 Stanley Cup.

Mats Sundin may be staying in Toronto for a while longer, but Tuesday’s frenzy at the NHL trade deadline made up for that disappointing non-event.

The Pittsburgh Penguins were 12-1 to win the Stanley Cup at press time; they might be the new best team in the East after shipping Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, Angelo Esposito and a 2008 first-rounder to Atlanta for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis. It’s an excellent trade down the road for the Thrashers, but it’s go time right now in Pittsburgh.

Tuesday’s other blockbuster saw the Tampa Bay Lightning finally move one of their many scorers for a reliable goaltender. Tampa Bay dealt Brad Richards and Johan Holmqvist to Dallas for Mike Smith, Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern, and a fourth-round pick. The Stars may have been better off trading Marty Turco, but getting Richards on board makes Dallas a strong Stanley Cup value pick at 15-1.

The use of performance enhancing drugs or any drugs for that matter have always been an issue in professional sports. Especially now with the Clemens/McNamee case dominating the sports pages, its hard to wonder what sport has the upper hand when it comes to staying squeaky clean.

Hockey has always had the rough image of being a sport that my possibly be too violent at times. Recently there has been some pondering in the industry if increasing the NHL’s drug testing policies might help feed the publics appetite for morality.

Currently, players in the NHL are subject to at least one and as many as three, “no notice” drug tests during the course of the season. As proof that there might not even be a drug problem in this sport, only one player, Sean Hill, now of Minnesota, has produced a positive test.

However, some people argue that as long as there is no out-of-season testing, the whole process lacks teeth and the results are considered meaningless. During the off season is when players do their most intensive training and that’s when a performance-enhancer or growth hormone would provide the most benefit.

Regardless of what people are wanting the fact is, that nobody really knows how pervasive steroid use is in the NHL, if at all. To date there is only a small handful of dabblers who have been nabbed. If the league’s desire is to be clean, the NHL would really have nothing to loose and so much to gain.

Drug Testing

Brent Seabrook, Chicago Blackhawks defenceman, has just signed a US$10.5 million, three year contract extension. He will earn $3.5 million each of the next 3 seasons.

GM Dalte Tallon made the announcement Monday saying “Brent Seabrook is one of our core players and we feel he has a brilliant future. Seabrook is a big part of our team and leaders.”

Seabrook is currently in the final year of a three-year, entry-level contract that is paying him $942,400 this season. During this third season he has had 7 goals, 12 assists and a plus-12 rating in 58 games with the Blackhawks.

“I’m excited about continuing my career with the Blackhawks,” he said. “I love the city of Chicago and really enjoy playing for our great fans.”

Chicago Blackhawks

The 2000 Oscar-winning film Gladiator may have had its shaky moments, but it did capture the love-hate relationship the Romans had with their fighters. The gladiators were social outcasts; intellectuals hated them, and women loved them. Some became famous, but most had brutally short careers.

Welcome to the NHL, where two millennia later, nothing has changed. The ongoing debate over fighting in hockey is between two sides who cannot possibly agree: the rational people (Ken Dryden, for example) who condemn the violence for what it is, and the emotional people (Don Cherry, for example) who see the violence as part of the game they love. Better a fistfight than a stick-swinging incident, the second camp insists.

It all boils down to how civilized you like your hockey. Of course it’s possible to legislate fighting almost completely out of the game; it’s about putting the puck in the net, not your fist in someone’s face. But would fewer people watch?

If you’ve got CBC on your HDTV then be sure to catch the following games this Saturday as Hockey Night In Canada presents a full afternoon of nail-biting, hard-hitting, rival-bashing matchups. At this time of the year points are hard to get, just ask the Edmonton Oilers or the Vancouver Canucks. Both of these teams are battling it out for a playoff spot.

Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs: The Leafs are in last place in their division and are in desperate need of a few wins. Can they string a few together? Not if the Bruins have anything to say about it. A classic matchup.

New Jersey Devils at Ottawa Senators: We’ve seen this one before. Fans of the Senators want another win to keep their team in first place in the Northeast Division.

Philadelphia Flyers at Montreal Canadians: The Canadians are at home and their fans are LOUD. Need I say more?

Edmonton Oilers at Vancouver Canucks: The Oilers are coming off a big win against the Sharks and the Canucks are coming off a shootout loss to the Wild. This one will come down to “who wants it more”. If the Canucks can continue to be physical and if Luongo can find his “A” game, the home fans may finally have something to cheer about. If not, the Oil may lay a few slick moves to take this one on the road.

Here’s the schedule for the remainder of February. Bodog Sportsbook’s got some pretty good NHL betting lines up. Check ‘em out.

Early this morning at about 3 a.m. outside a Tampa night club, Montreal Canadians’ rookie defenceman Ryan O’Byrne and veteran winger Tom Kostopoulos were arrested.

Police reported that O’Byrne, 23, stole a woman’s purse while Kostopoulos resisted an officer. O’Byrne insisted that the purse was his girlfriends, but police said that it had belonged to another woman.

“Several associates, who were identified as NHL players/members, crowded around the officers and police car,” stated the police report. “They were told numerous times to get away from the police car and to not interfere.”

Charges were laid against Kostopoulos, 29, for resisting an officer without violence and O’Byrne was charged with grand theft. Both players were released on bail.

I wonder how this will affect The Canadians game against the Tampa Bay Lighting tomorrow night.

Hockey News

We’re going to have to rethink this whole Sidney Crosby thing. The Pittsburgh Penguins are 6-2-2 since Crosby went on the shelf with a sprained ankle. The Pens are still on top of the Atlantic Division and in the thick of the Stanley Cup hunt at what could prove to be a bargain price on the NHL futures market.

The Dallas Stars, however, are the hottest team in the league at 9-2 and are already established as one of the second tier of Cup favorites. They have the fourth-best goal differential at plus-0.41, and they’re doing it through yet another pedestrian post-lockout season by Marty Turco (.910 save percentage).

On the flip side, the New York Islanders are plummeting down the Cup odds list after seven straight losses, six in regulation. The Isles were outscored 27-11 and dropped 7.29 units during that span, and that blockbuster Matt Keith-Darryl Bootland trade with Anaheim doesn’t seem destined to change things.

Long-term injuries are the least of their problems. For these NHL Western Conference teams it’s going to take a lot of hard work and a healthy attitude from now on if they want a shot at the playoffs:

9 Vancouver Canucks
10 Phoenix Coyotes
11 Columbus Blue Jackets
12 St. Louis Blues
13 Edmonton Oilers
14 Chicago Blackhawks
15 Los Angeles Kings

The Eastern Conference features a few teams that were once Stanley Cup contenders. A lot can happen in a year:

9 Buffalo Sabres
10 Atlanta Thrashers
11 Washington Capitals
12 Florida Panthers
13 New York Islanders
14 Toronto Maple Leafs
15 Tampa Bay Lightning

With 25 games left in the regular season there’s still hope for teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres, for example, who can still turn their game around and make a strong showing in the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs. But if the playoffs started tomorrow, well…let’s just say they’d better brush up on their golf swing.

Looking for the best NHL betting odds? Try these reputable online sportsbooks: Bodog, Sportsbook.com and 5Dimes.

The Canucks’ woes continue. Just a few short weeks ago the Vancouver Canucks were considered a strong playoff contender. Now they’ll be lucky to make the playoffs.

Riddled with injuries and having players take time off for personal issues, coupled with the continued lack lustre play of it’s once star captain, Markus Naslund, the Canucks seem to be on a free-fall similar to last season’s Edmonton Oilers.

In it’s latest road trip Vancouver has eeked out a measly two points of a possible six aginst Tampa, Florida and Dallas and find themselves in 10th place over-all in the Western Conference. If they are to have any hope of making it into the first round they’d better heal up quick and consider unloading the likes of the under-performing Matt Cooke plus some young prospects. Perhaps a Sundin, Forsberg, Naslund line would spark some forward momentum?

Hockey Odds, Vancouver Canucks