FUNHL News and Notes

Ottawa in 6

Why? Because Spezza is the equal of Selanne, and there is no other forward in the class of Alfreddson or Heatley on the Ducks (Bob agrees - and Bob will be live-blogging this FUNHL News and notes as I create it).

Because goaltender Ray Emery is the toughest guy on the Senators, and that includes rumble worthy behemonths Chris Neil and Brian McGratten.

Because given the circumstances of his departure from the Oilers after signing a franchise defenseman deal. Chris Pronger is either evil or somewhere in a galaxy beyond pussywhipped. He's a loser, and losers lose. Like the Oilers.

Bob ranks the top ROY candidates as:

1. Backstrom: it's his to lose. Centres 50+ sniper Ovechkin or 40+ goal gunner Semin. Or both.

2. Erik Johnson: weak team, will munch minutes, won't win because Backstrom will be much more dominant.

3. Jack Johnson: Will be tutored by Rob Blake. Downside is he might lose ice-time if Sheldon Souray arrives.

4. Jonathon Toewes: Coming off a great World Championships playing against men, and will be centering high speed talents Ruutu and Havlat in Chicago.

5. Bobby Ryan-R Anaheim.

6. James Van Riemsdyk : Safe player, low expectations, but his size and speed make him a better fit to succeed early in the NHL.

Cameron ranks the top 5 ROY

1. Niklas Backstrom-Wsh. Peter Forsberg your clone has arrived. Will have the line-mates from God.

2. Jonathon Toewes-Chi. Could be handed the top line duties early on, and the team desperately needs him to be a star.

3. Nikolai Kulemin-Tor. He's an under the radar Russian winger. Alexander Steen with a better gun-sight.

4. Bobby Ryan-R Anaheim.

5. If I'm the GM of the Hawks, Jonathon Toewes would be grafted to 1st overall winger Jakub Voracek and groomed together as 2-3rds of a kid line.

6. My dark, dark horse candidate is Cherepanov as an LA King. Anze Kopitar gets a playmate.


From the 'Things that make you go 'WTF'?' here are the Top 5 World Hockey Championship Scorers:

R	Name	Team	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM	+/-
1	DAVIDSSON Johan	SWE	F	9	7	7	14	2	+3
2	MOROZOV Alexei	RUS	F	7	8	5	13	6	+9
3	ZINOVIEV Sergei	RUS	F	9	3	10	13	12	+10
4	LOMBARDI Matthew	CAN	F	9	6	6	12	4	+4
5 .	ZARIPOV Danis .	RUS .	F .	9 .	3 .	9 .	12 .	6 .	+10

Where did Johan Davidsson come from?

Here is the next 3 guys;

6	NASH Rick	CAN	F	9	6	5	11	4	+8
7	FROLOV Alexander	RUS	F	9	5	6	11	0	+4
7	GABORIK Marian	SVK	F	6	5	6	11	14	+6

A group that makes a lot more sense, but then we have things like;

- Oleg Antonenko has the tournament of his life; 5goals, 3 assists, and 8 points in just 6 games for Belarus. He's 35.

- Lee Stempniak is the best American forward (10pts, good for 10th overall). Paul Stastny (8pts in 7 games) is next (18th overall) A generation of American stars is passing before our eyes (Mullen, Lafontaine, Hull, Modano, Roenick), and the top guy for the US is Lee Stempniak. Theirs your Gretzky generation for ya; Gionta, Gomez, Statsny, and Stempniak.

- 'Ask and ye shall recieve'. Morten Ask leads Norway with 3g, 6A, 7 pts in 6 games. 10PIM on top of that. Better stats than...

-Phil Kessel (30th overall), 7 pts in 7 games. Or exactly Half of Swedish softee Johan Davidsson. And with this jibe I've fulfilled my mocking of Phil Kessel quotient for the FUNHL news and notes - which means we are almost home.

Bob and I also spoke about the Balsillie purchase of the Predators.

- The guys a billionaire and can buy any toy he wants. I'm sure he would prefer to buy the Leafs, but he can't - they are not for sale. So he does the next best thing, he buys an NHL hockey team. And when he gets his chance, he'll move it to just outside of the Toronto 50 mile radius where compensation will be a factor and instead of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Balsillie will have the Kitchener Predators.

- Of the teams/cities that will be hurt the most by this;

Buffalo (Sabres)
Toronto (Raptors)
Kansas City (missed opportunity)
Ottawa (Senators)
Toronto (Leafs)
Nashville

Allright you've been a marvelous audience - we're out