Coaching Exits

If John Tortorella's going down, he's going down in flames.

The nice thing for the Tampa Bay coach, who looks virtually certain to be canned at the conclusion of these playoffs, is that two more experienced ex-coaches gave him some useful blueprints for post-firing conduct on Thursday.

There was the Marc Crawford example. Show up at the arena you used to call home, hang around for 40 minutes or so, answer a few media questions and ride off into the sunset.

Oh yes, and make it very, very clear that part of the problem wasn't your inability to get along with the club's star player.

Pat Quinn, meanwhile, didn't quite have the courage to do a Crawford, instead literally mailing in his farewell address. Quinn, despite all his bluster and Hamilton bully antics, never had the stomach for confrontation with those in the media who irked him., so it was no surprise he lacked the desire to show his face one last time.

His key point, meanwhile, was to make it clear he got along with just about everybody with whom he ever shook hands at the ACC. He even thanked ex-Leaf president and would-be federal Liberal leader Ken Dryden, who tried to replace him with Bob Gainey two or three times.

The message? Don't be afraid of hiring me just because I have this rep of not being able to get along with my bosses.

Both Crawford and Quinn, you see, were really submitting their coaching applications to the hockey industry more than waving au revoir.

Crawford wants any future employer to know he can get along with star players, and Quinn was making sure he could submit the fable of how much he loved each and every suit at MLSE without being questioned on the total and utter nonsense of it all.

Tortorella, meanwhile, was busy carving his own goalie, John Grahame, after the Bolts lost 5-2 to the Senators on Thursday to move to within one game of elimination.

You have to admire Tortorella's honesty, particularly here in Toronto after a season of listening to Quinn repeatedly argue it was never Ed Belfour's fault when the veteran netminder was having difficulty blocking beachballs and sofas from entering the Leaf net.

But by delivering blunt verbal force to what was left of Grahame's confidence, the Tampa coach essentially ruled out Grahame as usuable body for the remainder of the series and pointed the finger at GM Jay Feaster for failing to upgrade the club in goal at the trade deadline when the entire league understood it was the Achilles heel of the defending Stanley Cup champs.

So Tortorella has ripped the goalie and undermined the GM, all while showing himself to be unable to adequately prepare a defensive game plan for the Lightning to take on a Senators team that started the series a little unsteady without Dominik Hasek but are now firing on all cylinders.

Sounds like a coach eying the exits already.

The Spring of Goals?

Lord knows, I wasn't sure these eyes would ever see a 6-5 game in the Stanley Cup playoffs again.

Happily, I was wrong.

Monday night's wild 6-5 double OT victory by the Montreal Canadiens over the Carolina Hurricanes was a thoroughly entertaining and thrilling contest. While it was the extreme, however, it wasn't the exception in a playoff year that is starting out very, very differently from the way the 2004 playoffs ended.

That year's final between Tampa Bay and Calgary included only 27 goals in seven games, an average of 3.8 goals per game in what was a mutual exhibition of holding and hooking.

In Monday's four playoff games alone, there were 35 goals. Tuesday, there were another 31.

The worst part of the '04 final was that over the course of the series, the team that scored first won every game. There wasn't one, single comeback.

In terms of entertainment, fans in those two cities might have loved it, but it was the lowest the NHL had sunk to in terms of a fun and entertaining product.

This spring, happily, has been very different.

So far, 20 games over four nights have included:

Ten successful comebacks, not including Philadelphia's return from a 2-0 deficit in Game 1 against Buffalo before losing in OT or Detroit's effort to fight back from being down 3-1 in the third Tuesday night to Edmonton before losing in double OT.

135 goals for an average of 6.7 per game, a slight increase from the regular season after years in which scoring went down in the playoffs.

An average of 13.9 power plays per game and 2.8 power play goals per game. Both figures might be higher than some would like, but its hardly a power play competition in each game. Overall, of the 135 goals scored, 56 (41 per cent) have been via the power play.

Scoring in bunches is back. Colorado has twice scored three goals in less than six minutes, and Dallas scored three in 4:17 Monday night. Nashville has scored three in 9:59, Ottawa managed three in 4:31, Buffalo potted three in 7:20 and Montreal produced a three-spot in 9:58. On Tuesday, the Sens came up with four goals in 13:18, while three teams - the Red Wings, Sharks and Flames - all scored twice in less than 70 seconds.

Clearly, the speed and intensity of competition is up and the hitting has been ferocious, yet the determination of the league to stand by its new rules standard is helping to create a more open, interesting game.

The incredible part is that some teams and some players are still under the impression that the rules are going to change. Players are still reaching out to hook a player on the arms from behind, and then throwing up their arms in disbelief when the whistle is blown.

But it's the referees who should be the disbelieving ones. After all, they've been making the same call all year long.

Those who would have the league return to the days of 2-1, 3-2, 2-0 results in virtually every playoff game might not like what they're seeing. They'd love to go back to the rodeo where the checkers, under the stupid "let the players play" credo were the heroes every night.

But those who would take the game back to that are in the minority.

Actually, they always were.

Lament for the Shootout

It's a little early in these playoffs to get all misty.

But I must confess. I miss the shootout.

Not that the OT games thus far in the post-season - Game 1 of Buffalo-Philly, Game 1 of Anaheim-Calgary, Game 1 of Edmonton-Detroit - haven't been entertaining and fun.

Daniel Briere, Darren McCarty and Kirk Maltby all got to play hero for one night, and the goals by Briere and McCarty were actually nice scores. Maltby's was the kind that too often decides important OT matches, a lucky carom off an unsuspecting opponent's stick.

The fact that the NHL is thus far doing a very, very good job of calling penalties just as they were called during the regular season is producing terrific hockey, and that's certainly the case in OT where in previous years action was reduced to a crawl when referees literally refused to blow the whistle on any type of foul.

Still, I miss the shootout.

It's funny how the debate over this new wrinkle went all but silent over the course of the season as even the loudest opponents had to relent in the face of widespread acceptance. People are still arguing over the rule about players flipping the puck over the glass, the trapezoid behind the nets for goalies and the very dicey goalie-interference calls that are appearing nightly.

But the shootout? Nobody says it's a bad thing anymore, just as you never hear anybody - even Ron MacLean! - argue for the return of the red line for two-line passes.

Remember the great red line debate? How teams would only trap and it would turn the game into ping-pong, a series of unsuccessful long bomb passes?

Funny, you don't hear that anymore.

But back to the shootout. If it was appropriate to play such a significant role in determining regular season standings, it's not clear to me why it would be impossible to use it in the playoffs.

Goodness, it has now become an article of faith among die-hard Leaf supporters that their club would have been in the playoffs if not for the shootout.

Surely a mechanism that causes a team to miss the playoffs altogether isn't too gimmicky for determining the winner of a playoff game.

I'm not saying use the same regular season format for the playoffs, five minutes of four-on-four OT and then a shootout.

How about 20 minutes of regular OT followed by 20 minutes of four-on-four combat, with a shootout then used if the game is still tied.

Five shooters each, not like the regular season.

That would be no more unfair that it was for Edmonton in their opener against Detroit when Maltby's shot deflected off Rem Murray's stick past Dwayne Roloson.

Plus, every once in a while, we'd get to see the shootout in the post-season.

If the atmosphere was electric in NHL rinks all season whenever a shootout was required, imagine what it would be like in the playoffs. Moroever, for TV purposes, you'd have a lot more people sticking around to watch long OT sessions if they knew, for certain, that they would be able to see a winner emerge before they went to bed.

End of the Quinn Era

Weep not for Pat Quinn.

John Ferguson, now there's another story.

In canning Quinn as head coach Thursday morning, Ferguson put himself squarely in the line of fire if next season duplicates the results of the one that just ended.

But for Quinn, it was one heck of a run.

You have to look at this from a historic perspective. In lasting from 1998 right through to the end of the 2005-06 season, with a lockout wiping out one season, Quinn had a longer run than any head coach of the Leafs since Punch Imlach during the glorious, four-Stanley Cup 1960s.

None of the 14 other men who guided the Leafs between Imlach and Quinn lasted nearly as long, and that tells you something about Quinn's ability as a coach and his tenacity as a hockey politician to have outlasted so many personnel and ownership changes within the Leafs organization.

Quinn did it by creating a mix a strong regular season results and moderate playoff success, and by being able to out-muscle Ken Dryden in a drawn out executive tug-of-war that saw Dryden eventually pack it in and head off for federal politics.

As well, he won big with the 2002 Canadian Olympic team and the '04 World Cup squad, and that gave him currency in a city in which he was otherwise unable to end a Stanley Cup drought that stretches back to 1967.

Moreover, he made a great deal of money while doing the job, and even more when he held the GM post, as well.

In the end, Quinn simply ran out of wiggle room and time.

When he lost the GM post to Ferguson in 2003, he was on the clock, and that became even more apparent as he and JFJ failed to negotiate a comfortable working relationship.

Beyond that, every coach is hired to be fired, and Quinn's inability to produce a Cup winner or even a Cup finalist meant that, eventually, the team would have to turn to another coach. Mounting public criticism of team chairman Larry Tanenbaum and president Richard Peddie put added pressure on the team to make a substantial move this season after a promising campaign deteriorated after January.

In essence, Quinn lasted as long as a coach could last without winning. Indeed, Pat Burns only made it from 1992 to 1996, and he had as much success during his time with the Leafs as Quinn had over the past eight years.

Quinn had his shot, and undoubtedly, he'll now get another somewhere else.

Truth and the Cap

What do the following NHL teams have in common?

Detroit. Colorado. Dallas.

Philadelphia. New Jersey. Tampa Bay. Anaheim.

Well, for starters, it's not hard to see they are all teams headed to the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs.

For the most part, they are also teams who were among the NHL big spenders before the lockout.

And they are all clubs that have had to deal with significant to very serious salary cap issues this season. The Devils, for goodness sakes, were in 10th place and $4 million over the cap in December, and they ended up winning 11 straight to close the season and capturing their division title. At one point this season the Lightning couldn't recall the minor league goalie they wanted because they were too close to the $39 million cap limit.

So for Pat Quinn to claim, as he does in the Globe and Mail today, that the imposition of the salary cap is what did the Leafs in this season, he is doing one of three things:

1. Trying to curry public favor with Leaf fans who will simply buy any garbage or rationale the team cares to spit out.

2. Proving he is a complete dinosaur who doesn't understand the league's new economics.

3. Trying to obliquely point the finger of blame away from himself and at GM John Ferguson, the person responsible for guiding the Leafs through the new salary cap environment.

But for the Leafs, who had salary cap choices to make and made all the wrong ones, to now claim that the cap system is the primary reason for their failure this season, well, that's nothing short of outrageous.

And a total distortion of the facts.

Yep, the annual process of covering-your-own-butt has begun at the ACC.

Living in the Right Neighborhood

For the fifth time in 11 seasons, the Detroit Red Wings will finish first overall in the NHL and capture the Presidents' Trophy.

That's as opposed to the President's Trophy. Given that the league doesn't have a president, let alone more than one, it might be time to have a look at renaming that particular award, wouldn't you say?

But we digress.

The Wings have indeed been terrific this season, piling up 122 points in 80 games going into their final two matches before the playoffs.

But are they as good as their record suggests?

More than a few hockey people these days are pointing to the Red Wings' home in the very weak Central Division as the primary reason they've been able to pile up so many points in the standings this season and assure themselves of home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup final, should they get that far.

To these onlookers, this is one of the problems with the NHL's unbalanced schedule. A team, like Detroit, playing in a division with Columbus, St. Louis and Chicago, has an unequal access to easy points.

And what do the numbers say?

Well, against the Jackets, Blues and Blackhawks, the Wings compiled a record of 21 wins, one regulation loss, one overtime loss and one shootout defeat.

So in 24 games against these three Central powderpuffs, the Wings didn't pick up at least a point in only one contest.

Overall, of a possible 48 points available, the Wings acquired 44.

Against the other member of that division, Nashville, the Wings were also successful, winning four, losing one in regulation, one in overtime and two in shootouts.

In sum, of a possible 64 points in Central Division play, the Wings picked up 55 points.

No wonder as of yesterday they had an 11 point lead atop the Western Conference over Dallas while Carolina and Ottawa were locked in a death grip for the Eastern Conference championship.

By way of comparison, the Stars had to play Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix and Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. The Coyotes were the the worst team, finishing with 38 wins, more than Columbus, St. Louis or Chicago.

Against its own division, Dallas compiled a record of 17 wins, 11 regulation defeats, three OT losses and a shootout loss. They actually had a losing record against L.A., winning only twice.

So of a possible 64 points against divisional opponents, the Stars registered 38.

Which is 17 fewer points than Detroit picked up against its division.

This doesn't make the Wings a bad team, but perhaps an opportunistic one.

In the playoffs, of course, nobody can hide inside their own division as once was the case. Detroit gets Edmonton in the first round, while Columbus, St. Louis and Chicago are all going home with participating in the Stanley Cup tourney.

So how good are the Wings? If their record is a mirage, we'll start to find out later this week.

Shock on the Left Coast

Joyous pandemonium in Edmonton.

Shock and despair in Vancouver.

Another reason to believe in an impossible dream in Toronto.

Hockey fans in those three Canadian burgs experienced the peaks and the valleys of NHL competition Thursday night.

But while the Oilers can now plan for the Stanley Cup playoffs next week and the Maple Leafs bought at least one more day of hope, the Canucks concluded their late season collapse in Silicon Valley by losing to the San Jose Sharks and eliminating themselves from post-season play.

Coming out of the lockout, no one would have imagined this premature end for the Vancouverites. They were viewed as a Stanley Cup contender as late as December, right there with Ottawa and Detroit, but instead couldn't even make the playoffs.

They were done in officially by a winning shot off the stick of Hobey Baker Award winner Matt Carle in the second half of the third period last night, blowing a 3-2 lead in the final frame to drop a 5-3 decision.

But it was Vancouver's lack of commitment to detail, discipline and defence that did them in. Too many penalties and not enough determination to shut down San Jose pivot Joe Thornton were the secondary story lines, as Thornton ran wild in back-to-back games against the Canucks, setting up seven of 10 goals.

Thornton played like a man possessed in both games, refuting, at least for the time being, the criticism of him in Boston before he was traded to the Sharks that he was a limp leader who didn't come through in the crunch.

His three assists, combined with Jaromir Jagr's one-goal evening against Pittsburgh, left the two men tied atop the NHL scoring race with 122 points. Jagr is technically the leader, however, because of his 54 goals.

Still, the Czech star might lose the Art Ross Trophy to Thornton, and he's also being pressed hard in the Rocket Richard Trophy race by Jonathan Cheechoo of the Sharks, who scored his 52nd and 53rd goals last night. Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 52nd last night, while Alexander Ovechkin became the fourth 50-goal man this season in Washington's loss to the Thrashers.

It's hard to believe, meanwhile, that the stunning end to Vancouver's playoff hopes won't mark the end of Marc Crawford's coaching rein in Vancouver and the conclusion to Todd Bertuzzi's career as a Canuck. If that's the case, it will be fitting, for the inability of those two men to control themselves led to the horrible Steve Moore incident of two years ago, and the Canucks have failed to be a team of substance ever since.

GM Dave Nonis will be heavily scrutinized as well, for none of the players he acquired at the trade deadline - goalie Mika Norenen and defencemen Eric Weinrich, Sean Brown and Keith Carney - made a decisive difference to a team that couldn't keep the puck out of its net when it mattered.

The Oilers, on Ales Hemsky's last second seeing eye goal night through the legs of Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, became the 14th NHL team to clinch a playoff berth, leaving four eastern teams - Montreal, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and the Leafs - to fight for the final two positions.

The Leafs stayed alive when Matt Stajan continued his revitalization in the post-Jason Allison era by scoring a second-effort OT winner on Long Island, and now have a possible chance for redemption for two of the club's biggest failures this season.

Having lost to the Senators seven straight times this season, including defeats of 8-0, 8-2 and 7-0, the Leafs will be out at the very least to salvage a shred of pride against their provincial rivals.

They may be catching the Sens at the right time. Ottawa lost 5-4 in overtime to Florida last night with Mike Morrison in net, and have now dropped five of the last six games.

As long as the Lightning get no more than two points in their home-and-home series with Carolina tonight and Saturday, the Leafs can also go into Sunday afternoon's game in Buffalo still alive in the playoff race if they first defeat Ottawa on Saturday night.

Should that scenario emerge, the Leafs will at least have had the chance against the Sens and Sabres to atone for their disastrous three-day stay in Montreal three weeks ago in which consecutive one-sided losses to the Habs made it appear the club simply couldn't cope with the pressure of seriously vying for a post-season position.

No matter what happens between the Bolts and Canes in Raleigh, N.C. tonight, the Leafs will start Saturday night's game scoreboard watching, silently cheering on the Hurricanes against the Lightning far away in the Sunshine State.

It's not much. But it's better than being in the shoes of the Canucks, for whom out-of-town scores no longer matter.

The Greater Good

It won't ease the pain of Ottawa football fans who are mourning the loss of their CFL team.

But let it be said the Renegades did not die in vain.

The CFL is a better league today, partly because the 'Gades would have only dragged the rest of the league down this season without proper ownership and management, and partly because the weakest teams in the league benefitted the most from Wednesday's intriguing dispersal draft.

There will be controversy surrounding the proceedings because of the way in which the contracts of some veteran CFLers were essentially erased through the suspension of the Renegades and the decision of the other eight teams not to draft them. Screwing classy, talented veterans isn't good for business.

But when the dispersal draft was done yesterday, it was abundantly clear that Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, the three clubs most in need of assistance, enhanced their rosters.

Hamilton, having added quarterback Jason Maas after the most obvious insider trading in the history of the league, traded the first pick in the draft to Saskatchewan so the Green Riders could select quarterback Kerry Joseph.

That means seven of the eight CFL clubs now have a bona fide starter, a pre-condition to any kind of success. Only Winnipeg lacks a proven No. 1 signal caller, and the Bombers still have high hopes for Kevin Glenn.

In exchange for allowing Saskatchewan to get Joseph, the Tabbies profitted handsomely by getting running back/returner Corey Holmes and Canadian safety Scott Gordon. Hamilton's awful return game was a one of the major reasons the club struggled so badly last season, and Holmes will certainly address that problem in a meaningful way.

As well as Gordon, meanwhile, the Cats added other Canadian talent in the draft in punter Pat Fleming, fullback Gilles Lezi and linebacker Greg Bearman. Add in receiver Brock Ralph, acquired in a pre-deal for Maas last fall, and it's clear the Cats have bolstered their Can-con over the winter.

The Riders, meanwhile, also added Jason Armstead in the dispersal process, and as well as being a talented receiver Armstead will help replace Holmes in the return department.

So the Cats and Riders were able to combine forces to make each other better.

Winnipeg, finally, added offensive linemen Ibrahim Khan and Val St. Germain. The Bombers had a terrible time protecting the quarterback last season, and these are therefore not small additions.

So the weakest got stronger through the death of the Renegades. It won't sooth the simmering pigskin anger in the nation's capital, but it'll make the upcoming CFL season even more interesting and entertaining.

Still Breathing

It’s not quite real, not enough to base the future on.

But neither, it now seems clearly evident, is this rush to the finish line by the Maple Leafs entirely a mirage, or a last-minute, pointless impulse.

It’s a bit of both.

Even when the defensive dam sprung leaks as was the case last night against Florida in the most exciting game of the season played at the ACC, there was a special quality about the Leaf performance in a thrilling 6-5 OT win over the Panthers.

And it wasn’t just Mats Sundin’s four goals.

It was the eerie sense all along that somehow the Leafs were going to pull it out even as they took terrible penalties late in regulation and in OT, and even as the moment seemed to grow larger with reports from Tampa that the fading Lightning had fallen badly to Atlanta.

It was also the ongoing, increasingly persuasive sense that had GM John Ferguson discovered the roster potential that was apparently under his nose all season long, just sitting there waiting in the players already owned by the organization, this season might have gone very differently.

So, it seems, the Leafs remain alive at least until Friday.

And therein lies the most painful scenario for blue-and-white patriots.

Imagine, if by the time the Leafs sign off on the regular season at home against Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby next Tuesday, they’ve managed to pass the Bolts, the team they’ve been eye-balling for more than a week.

But then still don’t find themselves in a playoff berth.

Ouch.

See, as warm as the glow is on the Leafs today, and deservedly so, it appears they not only still have an uphill battle left to catch Tampa, but it’s the Thrashers who still have the best chance to knock the defending champs out of the post-season.

The Thrashers have the same number of games left as Toronto – four - but their opponents are Boston, Florida and
Washington twice.

That’s four non-playoff teams and a chance to max out at 93 points.

The Leafs, by contrast, get the Islanders tomorrow and the Penguins on Tuesday, sure, but in between there’s a home game against the conference-leading Senators and a road trip to Buffalo the next day, with that game starting just 19 1/2 hours after the Ottawa game ends.

The Leafs, in their ideal world, can garner as many as 92 points.

And what about the Lightning?

In two games, they’ve surrendered 12 goals to Florida and Atlanta, one of them an empty netter. Their goalies, Sean Burke and John Grahame, have combined for a lowly .845 save percentage in those games, with the two taking turns stopping only 18 of 24
Atlanta shots last night in a 6-2 home ice debacle.

Star forward Vinny Lecavalier is minus-6 in those two games, including an ugly minus-4 performance last night. The club’s ace defender, Dan Boyle, is close on Lecavalier’s heels at minus-5 in the two games.

The Bolts are seemingly stuck at 89 points, and now can only accumulate a maximum of 95 points.

Meanwhile, the more you watch Tampa, the more you have a sense this is a team that lost its mojo along the way. The Lightning don’t play with the same sense of shake-and-bake they did en route to the ’04 Stanley Cup, perhaps because of the unnerving sense of inadequate goaltending behind them.

Still, two wins in their final three games definitely gets them in, and a win and a tie might be enough.

They get Carolina on the road Friday and at home Saturday, and they’ve won four and lost two against the Canes this season.

A split there, in theory, might leave them with a must win or tie against Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals at home on Tuesday.

Tampa is 4-1-2 versus the Caps, including a perfect 3-0 in the Sunshine State.

Combined, Tampa has a .690 winning percentage against Carolina and Washington this season.

So the champs are still in the driver’s seat.

But it’s anything but comfy.

The Bigger They Are. . .

Next week could be very, very interesting in two of Canada's largest hockey cities.

Or very, very ugly.

The Maple Leafs, barring a turnaround that would make the Miracle Mets look like mere poseurs by comparison, won't be in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Surprisingly, the Vancouver Canucks may not be either.

The Leafs have been in their current predicament for more than two weeks and at least can rest slightly easier with the knowledge they couldn't have done much more since their choke job in Montreal last month to end their season on a positive note.

But the Canucks? That's a whole different story.

The Edmonton Oilers, winners of three of their past seven, appear to be trying desperately to give the eighth and final Western Conference playoff berth to the Canucks. Sunday in St. Louis, the Oil coughed up a furball, losing 2-1 to a Blues team that hadn't won in 13. The visiting Albertans were even a little churlish in their demeanor, refusing to participate in a pre-game ceremony honoring Al MacInnis because they felt it was inappropriate before an important late season game.

That left the Canucks with a game in hand and a chance to catch the Oilers last night with a win over Anaheim.

Instead, Marc Crawford's team fell flat on its face, losing 4-2. Markus Naslund stretched his goal-less streak to nine games, while Mr. Olympian himself, Todd Bertuzzi, couldn't put the puck in the net again and has now contributed to his team's desperate drive for a playoff berth with three goals in his last 22 games.

So much for rehabilitation.

He stunk it up in Turin, and is now failing the team that backed his indefensible actions, having managed just 23 goals while being a huge minus all season.

If this were theatre, it might be entitled The Curse of Steve Moore.

Bertuzzi has three final games to redeem himself, to do something that would be equivalent to value for his $5.3 million salary. The Canucks end the season with a home-and-home series with San Jose tomorrow and Thursday, then finish up their season at GM Place against, fittingly, the Colorado Avalanche, on Saturday night.

Edmonton, which made all the big moves last summer by bringing in Chris Pronger and Mike Peca, finishes with a game tonight in Detroit and then two home game, Thursday against the sizzling Ducks and Monday versus the Avalanche.

If the 'Nucks can't catch the wobbling Oilers and do indeed miss the big dance, you can expect Bertuzzi to be shipped out of town, and for Crawford to lose his job, as well. That might supersede the carnage in Toronto, where it's unclear what will happen to GM John Ferguson and head coach Pat Quinn, although MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum recently declared both will be working for the team next season.

Maybe the two sides should trade problems. Crawford and Bertuzzi for Quinn, Richard Peddie and the right to buy out Ed Belfour for $1.5 million in June.

After all, not much else has made sense in either city this season.