Over at The Star, Damien Cox in his The Spin blog reports that Team Canada is expected to name it’s Olympic coach (probably Detroit’s Mike Babcock) before the June 26 NHL Entry Draft and that invitations to the Team Canada orientation camp scheduled for late August in Calgary should be finalized before July 1.

Cox writes:

It’s expected that somewhere between 40-45 players will be invited, perhaps 25 forwards, 15 defensemen and five goaltenders. While the camp itself isn’t a tryout per se, the players invited will certainly take the opportunity to size up the competition at different positions.

In my mind, Boston Bruins centers Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron should both get invited, with Savard having a better shot to make the Olympic squad for Vancouver in February.

Boston Bruins Vice President Cam Neely will be one of a number of current and former NHL stars who will compete in the first ever NHL Charity Shootout presented by PokerStars.net June 17 in Las Vegas on the eve of the NHL Awards Show.

Neely, Pat LaFontaine and Luc Robitaille will be among the NHL legends in the tournament, while current NHL stars Alexander Ovechkin, Roberto Luongo and Mike Richards will be also be competing in addition to some of the biggest names in professional poker.

Play will begin with a round of No Limit Texas Hold’em in a shootout format in which each table plays down to a single winner. The surviving players will move on to play for incredible prizes adding up to more than $150,000 for charity. A portion of the proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House of Las Vegas as well as the NHLPA Goals & Dreams Fund. Each participating NHL player will receive $2,000 for a designated charity of his choice.

In their effort to close the gap on the Boston Bruins in the Northeast Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs are hot in pursuit of a couple highly regarded prospects leading up to the NHL Entry Draft later this month.

It’s been reported that Swedish goaltending sensation Jonas Gustavsson has included the Leafs on a short list of teams he’d be willing to join in the NHL. Reportedly, the other two teams are Colorado and Dallas.

Adding the 24-year-old netminder, considered by many to be the best non-NHL goaltender on the planet, would obviously moved the Leafs closer to contender status. (more…)

Gonchar

That’s more like it.

The Pittsburgh Penguins finally looked worthy of being on the same sheet of ice with the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup final last night, as they rode two goals by Max Talbot and a bounce-back netminding performance by Marc-Andre Fleury to a 4-2 Game 3 win that sliced the Wings’ series lead to 2-1.

On a night that the Pens’ stars outshone the Wings’ big names, defenseman Sergei Gonchar – a former Boston Bruins blueliner — might’ve been the biggest hero. (more…)

There’s such a clamoring to trade Phil Kessel, you’d think the guy had an A-Rod tattoo across his back.

But flat out, Kessel should not be traded. And now that Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli has locked up center David Krejci for a reasonable cap hit over the next three years, his next mission should be to retain Kessel’s services at similar compensation and watch the offensive magic that should ensue over the next three years. It’s as simple as planting a seed, watering it and watching it grow. (more…)

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com reports that Boston Bruins center David Krejci’s new deal is for three years and worth a total of $11.25 million. According to LeBrun, Krejci will receive $3.5 million the first year, $3.75 million the second and $4 million the final season of the deal. That’s a cap hit of $3.75 per season — how’s that for some Peter Chiarelli economic magic? Now if he can get Phil Kessel to agree to a similar deal, he’ll be in business.

It can’t be all lollipops and rainbows. So before I look back at the Boston Bruins’ top 10 games of the 2008-09 season, I’m going to recap their five worst performances of the regular season.

Before I dig into the recaps, here’s your chance to decide which game was the Bruins’ absolute worst.

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The Boston Bruins today announced that they have re-signed center David Krejci to a multi-year deal.

The 23-year-old Krejci was scheduled to be a restricted free agent July 1. In 2008-09 he set career highs in every major category with 22-51-73 totals in 82 regular-season games. He was second on the Bruins in scoring.

Krejci is scheduled to undergo surgery this week to repair a hip injury he battled through all season.

The Bruins do not disclose terms of their deals, but I’ll have more details as they become available (nhlnumbers.com has a way of breaking every teams’ cone of silence). And there will be comments from Krejci and Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli after a conference call tomorrow.

Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, already a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL, today was announced as one of three finalists for the Mark Messier Leadership Award, which will also be presented June 18 in Las Vegas.

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Calgary Flames winger Jarome Iginla are the other finalists. The award honors an individual who leads by positive example through on-ice performance, motivation of team members and a dedication to community activities and charitable causes.

In his third season with the Bruins, all as the club’s captain, Chara led the Bruins to the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference with a 53-19-10 mark while scoring a career-high 19 goals. His ’08-09 season was also highlighted by his win at the NHL Hardest Shot competition in January, which raised $24,000 for the Right to Play organization.

Zetterberg

While watching the Detroit Red Wings dismantle (that’s right, I said dismantle) the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two games of the 2009 Stanley Cup final, it’s difficult to remember that the injured Pavel Datsyuk, and not center Henrik Zetterberg, is the Wings’ Selke Trophy finalist and last year’s winner of the award for best defensive forward in the NHL.

Throughout this series, and the playoffs as a whole, Zetterberg has been a shutdown force. And although he hasn’t put up as many points against the Pens (one assist in the two games) as he did in the previous three series (18 points), he’s a plus-2 and he’s kept the cuffs on star center Sidney Crosby. Should this series continue down its current path — with Game 3 scheduled for tonight at Mellon Arena — astute voters might grant Zetterberg a second straight Conn Smythe Trophy despite his recent drop in offensive numbers. (more…)

Martin

For the first time in a few years, the Montreal Canadiens might’ve gotten something right. It’s too early for the Boston Bruins, the defending Northeast Division champions, to start quaking in their boots. But at least there are signs that the Habs intend on staying competitive and keeping the Boston-Montreal hatred going strong into the next decade.

Today the Habs hired Jacques Martin as their new head coach after Martin resigned as general manager of the Florida Panthers. In landing Martin — who was a successful bench boss in Ottawa sandwiched between average stints in in St. Louis and as Florida’s coach — the Habs didn’t have to give up any compensation. And Montreal general manager Bob Gainey proved that, unlike his Calgary counterpart Darryl Sutter, he knows that handling GM and head coach duties is just too much to ask. (more…)

Krejci

For those wondering how Boston Bruins center David Krejci, who just celebrated his 23rd birthday in late April, could already need to have his hip repaired, Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times has an interesting story today talking about the epidemic of hip injuries throughout all sports.

While the focus of the story is mostly on baseball players like Chase Utley, Carlos Delgado and Alex Rodriguez, it also digs into the hip injuries suffered by hockey (namely Rick DiPietro) and soccer players. (more…)

Ericsson

I guess all that complaining by Detroit about how the back-to-back games to open the 2009 Stanley Cup final was a distinct advantage for the younger, healthier Pittsburgh Penguins was all a smoke screen.

Because playing two games in two nights did nothing to slow down the defending Cup champion Red Wings, who prevailed 3-1 in last night’s Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead heading to Pittsburgh for Game 3 and 4.

If the Red Wings are hurting at all, then they possess a ridiculously keen ability to hide their ailments. Star defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom still looks like he has a puck magnet on the end of his stick and fellow blueliner Jonathan Ericsson proved that you don’t need an appendix to score a game-tying goal. (more…)