Trade deadline finishes with a flurry
If the NHL wanted to cut down deadline dealing, it didn’t work.
With goaltenders and defensemen drawing the most attention, 25 trades involving 40 players were completed Thursday before the league cutoff.
It didn’t matter that clubs faced their first deadline in the salary cap era or that the end of trading was moved up two weeks to keep teams from giving up hope on the playoffs.
Some like the New York Islanders did, but with 23 of the 30 teams within seven points of a postseason spot at the start of the day, the dealing hit a frenzied pace before the whistle blew.
The Vancouver Canucks made the biggest splash on the busiest deadline day in NHL history, acquiring backup goalie Mika Noronen and defensemen Sean Brown, Keith Carney, Juha Alen and Eric Weinrich in four separate deals. And they needed the help on the back line to make up for the loss of injured defensemen Ed Jovanovski (abdominal surgery), Mattias Ohlund (ribs) and Sami Salo (shoulder).
Carolina wasn’t content to sit back even though the Hurricanes have the most points in the NHL. Less than a week after losing Erik Cole for at least the rest of the regular season, the Hurricanes convinced high-scoring forward Mark Recchi to waive his no-trade clause and leave Pittsburgh.
The Edmonton Oilers acquired left winger Sergei Samsonov from the Boston Bruins for centers Marty Reasoner and Yan Stastny, and a second-round draft pick this year.
On the ice
Canadiens 3, Bruins 0: At Boston, Cristobal Huet made 28 saves for his second consecutive shutout over Boston and his fourth of the season. … Blue Jackets 5, Coyotes 4: At Columbus, Ohio, Rick Nash had a goal and an assist. … Sabres 8, Lightning 5: At Buffalo, N.Y., Derek Roy recorded his second-career hat trick as Buffalo beat Tampa Bay. … Red Wings 7, Kings 3: At Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg scored his 30th and 31st goals less than a minute apart in the second period for Detroit. … Avalanche 2, Blackhawks 1: At Chicago, Peter Budaj made 26 saves as Colorado downed Chicago. … Flames 1, Stars 0: At Calgary, Alberta, Miikka Kiprusoff made 39 saves for his league-leading eighth shutout for Calgary. … Predators 3, Canucks 2 (OT): At Vancouver, British Columbia, Steve Sullivan tied the game twice in the third period and David Legwand scored 6 seconds into OT for Nashville. … Sharks 5, Oilers 2: At San Jose, Calif., Joe Thornton scored the tiebreaker for San Jose.