Hockey News

The San Jose Sharks are among the winners so far this off-season and that was a must for a team that was a second-round loser for a third consecutive spring.

For most NHL clubs, averaging more than 100 points in the regular season and reaching the second round every year would be gravy. But the Sharks have loftier standards and were not impressed with how their season ended at the hands of the Dallas Stars.

“We played five good playoff games out of 13,” Sharks GM Doug Wilson told The Canadian Press on Thursday. “That’s not acceptable. We decided to make some changes.”

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Before the NHL entry draft two weeks ago, Scott Howson was telling anyone who would listen that he was poised to make some major changes to his team.

He wasn’t lying.

The Columbus Blue Jackets GM can take a bit of a breather now, having accomplished what he set out to do.

In are forwards Kristian Huselius, R.J. Umberger and Raffi Torres as well as defencemen Mike Commodore, Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman.

Out are forwards Gilbert Brule, Nikolai Zherdev and Dan Fritsche as well as blue-liner Ron Hainsey.

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PITTSBURGH - Henrik Zetterberg was a little sheepish when asked about some extended shifts he worked in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final.

“Sometimes if you’ve been out there 30 seconds and you have a chance to go for another rush, it’s hard to go to the bench,” the Detroit Red Wings star said Thursday. “Sometimes you want to create some more offence.

“And sometimes, you get caught out there and you pay for it in the end.”

Detroit coach Mike Babcock blamed himself for over-using Zetterberg and linemates Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom in a 3-2 loss Wednesday that put the Pittsburgh Penguins back into a series the Red Wings had been dominating.

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DALLAS - Dominant in the regular season, superb again in the post-season, the Detroit Red Wings are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals.

Just when the Red Wings lost consecutive games and were starting to look vulnerable, they bounced back strong in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, getting first-period goals from Kris Draper, Pavel Datsyuk and Dallas Drake on their way to knocking out the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Monday night.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -Although the San Jose Sharks ended another disappointing playoff run last week, coach Ron Wilson was optimistic about his future. After all, his Sharks had done just about everything a good team can do, except win a Stanley Cup.

Wilson’s only glaring failure still cost him his job Monday.

General manager Doug Wilson fired his coach after the Sharks followed another outstanding regular season with yet another early playoff exit.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -While the NHL’s top four teams began preparations for the conference finals Monday, the San Jose Sharks had the day off to get ready for one more summer they’ll spend feeling like hockey’s fifth wheel.

The Sharks lost a second-round playoff series in six games for the third straight season Sunday night, falling to the Dallas Stars in a four-overtime thriller. To many frustrated fans and league observers, the loss cemented San Jose’s place as the NHL’s most talented mediocrity, a regular-season powerhouse that consistently makes postseason noise but just can’t manufacture the luck or the will necessary for a serious pursuit of the Stanley Cup.

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PHILADELPHIA - It has been a challenging year for Montreal Canadiens forward Michael Ryder.

The 28-year-old from Bonavista, N.L., struggled with just 14 goals in the regular season and was a healthy scratch for a fifth straight playoff game Monday.

Habs coach Guy Carbonneau decided to sit fourth-liner Mathieu Dandenault for Game 3 of Montreal’s second-round series against Philadelphia, but rather than call on Ryder, he went with 20-year-old Guillaume Latendresse.

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VOORHEES, N.J. - Patrick Thoresen gingerly walks through the Flyers’ locker room, still needs ice to ease swelling in his groin and is unlikely to play in Game 3 of Philadelphia’s playoff series against Washington.

While blocking a shot Friday in Game 1, the Flyers’ forward took a puck to the groin and nearly lost one of his testicles. He said Monday, when he wasn’t joking about his scary injury to reporters, he would slide in front of a whizzing puck again if he had to block a shot this post-season.

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MONTREAL - After missing the playoffs for a third season in a row for the first time in 80 years, winger Mark Bell perfectly summed up the sentiment of uncertainty in the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room heading into a summer where there is sure to be sweeping changes.

“We can’t do anything about that, those are changes management is going to make over the summer,” said Bell, who scored his fourth goal of the season in Toronto’s season-ending 3-1 loss at Montreal. “We can’t worry about that, we just have to do our thing and come ready to play in September, whatever team we play on.”

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PROVIDENCE, RI - Byron Bitz scored two goals and added an assist to lead Providence to their league high 50th win of the season as the Bruins extended the Sharks winless skid to five games with a 5-3 Loss in Providence on Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, the Sharks (27-34-5-6) fall 14 points behind the Manchester Monarchs for the fourth and final Atlantic Division playoff spot.

The Sharks trailed early as Byron Bitz scored his first of two goals of the afternoon after he connected on the first power play of the game to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Tom Walsh would tie the score at 1-1 after a 60-foot bomb from the blue line beat Bruins netminder Jordan Sigalet top shelf at 11:37 of the first period. The Bruins would come right back after T.J Trevelyan was set up in front of the Sharks net by Matt Hendricks on the power play to give the Bruins a 2-1 edge after twenty minutes of play.

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