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Just Waiting For an Announcement

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It would appear the Phoenix Coyotes are now, officially, on life support. Not on the ice, but off it.

The deal in the desert is as troubled as it was six months ago and once again, the NHL has called upon Winnipeg to pick up a franchise that never should have left the city in the first place. Unless there is some sort of miracle — and it appears at this stage that it would indeed be a miracle — the NHL is probably going to try and find a new home for a franchise that has been a financial failure for more than 15 years. That home is, more than likely, Winnipeg.

The ownership in the ‘Peg is ready to negotiate  and the league probably has no choice. The optics are dreadful (frankly, Bettman should resign if he has to re-locate this team to its original home) and by moving back to a city that it left a decade and a half ago, the NHL is admitting that expansion into those non-traditional U.S. markets was an abject failure.

Be sure, Phoenix isn’t the only failure. Atlanta, Florida, Columbus and Nashville are all struggling. Dallas’s ownership situation is a mess. St. Louis is looking for a new ownership arrangement. Colorado doesn’t sell enough tickets anymore. Tampa has a great owner, but a lot of empty seats. And the Islanders are just a money pit. From a competitive standpoint, the NHL has the best hockey league on the planet. From a business perspective, the NHL is a mess.

Barring a miracle, it seems pretty clear that despite its own wishes, the NHL has only two alternatives — continue to own the team in Phoenix, a team that will lose about $30 million this season, or sell it to a very rich man representing Winnipeg.

Both options are not ideal from the league’s point of view. If the move to Winnipeg seemed like a good idea, it would have been done last year. Now, however, it might be the only idea.

Here in Winnipeg, we’ll just sit back and wait for the announcement. It’s an announcement that some well-connected folks in Toronto believe is inevitable.

And wouldn’t it be fun if Phoenix’s last game was a 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 6 of the opening round of the playoffs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Devellano Not Convinced the Coyotes are Headed to Winnipeg

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

TAMPA, Fla. — While most Winnipeggers would now agree that the NHL’s return to Winnipeg is only days away, not everyone inside the game would concur.

Recently enshrined Hockey Hall of Famer, Jim Devellano, is one of those people who isn’t so sure. In fact, the Detroit Red Wings executive who makes his home near the St. Pete Times Forum here in the Tampa Bay region, figures if the Phoenix Coyotes end up in Winnipeg, it will happen when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has exhausted every possible financial method known to man to keep the team in Phoenix.

On Wednesday night, before the Lightning met the Chicago Blackhawks in front of a pretty nice crowd in downtown Tampa, a group of old hockey personalities, both great and not-so-great sat around the media lounge and discussed the Phoenix mess. While none denied that Winnipeg may very well, most agreed that Bettman would have to be the very end of his rope to allow it to happen.

“I believe the Coyotes will stay in Phoenix,” said Devallano, who also said the same thing to TSN and the Globe and Mail last week. “Here’s why: 1) the American owners don’t want that franchise in Winnipeg. Not because Winnipeg can’t afford it or because it won’t be a good franchise, but because it’s a ticket killer. Chicago’s in here tonight and the place is nearly sold out. How many people do you think would be here if Winnipeg was in town? Half as many? Maybe. American fans don’t want to pay money to see Canadian-based teams. There is no rivalry. It just doesn’t mean anything. 2) The league has a TV contract negotiation coming up. Do you think it would be good business to say to the president of NBC Sports, ‘Oh, by the way, we want hundreds of millions of dollars from you, but we’re going to move a team from the 12th largest TV market in the United States and put it in Winnipeg.’ The TV exec would say , ‘What’s a Winnipeg?’ It wouldn’t fly. And 3) Deep in his heart, I don’t believe Gary wants to move Phoenix back to Winnipeg. I think it would make him look very bad.

“However, if he has no alternative, if he’s down to no other option, then I guess he’d have to go to a city that has a guy with a pocket full of money who wants to throw that money around. But until he reaches the point of absolutely no return, I believe he’s going to do everything he can to keep the Coyotes franchise in Phoenix.”

One of the great things about hanging out at Lightning hockey games is just sitting and talking hockey — every issue in the game — with both Hall of Famers and folks who are just interested in the sport.

Phil Esposito does radio here and his brother Tony made a brief appearance at our little group think tank Wednesday night. Scotty Bowman, Les Binkley, Devallano and Tampa sports writers Ira Kaufman and Roy Cummings had lots to say on the Winnipeg issue. It was pretty much agreed that if Winnipeg gets a team, it won’t be because it’s what the current owners want or don’t want.  It won’t be because Winnipeg provides the league with a large base of corporate giants interested in hockey or because the fans are desperate for the NHL to return or because we have a “great” arena.

It will be because Commissioner Gary Bettman has no American city in which to put a team and because somebody in Canada wants to be an owner — in Canada.

From the day the team left, the return of the Jets was based on the presence of an acceptable arena and legitimate ownership. If both are there and the mess in Phoenix becomes a completely untenable situation, Winnipeg could get a team. But make no mistake, Gary Bettman won’t be giving up on Phoenix without a fight.

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Atlanta to Winnipeg? Sounds Like February 2010.

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Bill Daly, the vice-president of the National Hockey League, is an interesting guy. Whip-smart and with a sound handle on the business side of hockey, Daly was always at the forefront of the “Save or Don’t Save the Phoenix Coyotes” argument. And for him, there was never any doubt. If you listened closely, there was never even a waver in his voice. He said from Day 1, the league was going to do everything humanly possible to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix, and it did.

That’s why his comments this week regarding the future of the Atlanta Thrashers were somewhat stunning. He made it clear that he hoped all would go well in the Thrashers’ efforts to find a new investor in order to maintain a franchise in Georgia, but he didn’t say it with quite the same conviction he did when he said the league would do everything possible to save the Coyotes.

This time, Daly essentially alluded to a clear fact of capital, saying that in the United States, the market will determine the future. Whether it’s a business or a hockey franchise, Daly made it known that if the market couldn’t carry the Thrashers, the Thrashers might have to be carried to another market.

We wrote on the 92-CITI-FM website in February of 2010 that a team was on the verge of heading to Winnipeg and that the team would be the Atlanta Thrashers, not the Phoenix Coyotes.

It’s not going to happen for the start of the 2011-12 season, not a chance, but as Daly suggested this week, the Thrashers future in Atlanta isn’t quite as guaranteed as the Coyotes future was in Phoenix/Glendale.

Those with their hands on the pulse of the NHL still believe that the Atlanta Thrashers will end up in Winnipeg for the 2013-14 season — or sooner and it will be the Thrashers for a handful of reasons:

1) The Thrashers are 28th on the NHL’s list of announced attendance (don’t believe a word of announced attendances), behind the Islanders and Coyotes. The league knows they play in a college football town and the league also knows the attendance isn’t going to get any better.

2) The team’s owner has worked very hard for more than two years to find a business partner and he has not enticed one person who was interested in buying a chunk of the franchise and keeping it in Atlanta.

3) The Thrashers play in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has two problems with his East-West split — the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both teams are located in the Eastern time zone and yet they play in the West. Detroit, being an Original 6 team, has first dibs on a spot in the Eastern Conference, and Bettman would be happy moving an existing, yet struggling Eastern team to the West so he can move the Wings to the East. Atlanta to Winnipeg (just like the Islanders or maybe Florida to Kansas City) works.

4) An NHL franchise in Atlanta has failed before. The Flames crashed in the late 70s and were eventually moved to Calgary. Moving a second failed franchise in the same market is not as horrible an optic as moving Winnipeg to Phoenix and then Phoenix back to Winnipeg.

5) Bettman wants to appease the new, suddenly militant NHLPA which now has former MLBPA boss Donald Fehr as its executive director. Fehr hates salary caps and will quite happily take his players out on strike if there is one tiny, little thing he doesn’t like. Fehr loves labour strife and he’ll create strife were it doesn’t really exist. So in order to try and save his “cap-based-on-revenue” concept, Bettman needs to keep revenues high and the cap moving up every year. That means he must get out of struggling markets soon and while he did everything he could to save Phoenix because of his legacy, his ego, the optics of the situation and the promises he made to the community, he won’t be quite as enthused about saving a franchise that has none of those concerns.

We will know this year if (first) and when Winnipeg will get a new NHL franchise.

I wrote in February of 2010 that it would be the Atlanta Thrashers. I still believe that today.

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Vuvuzelas Give Me a Headache and Other Thoughts from the Whine Cellar

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Those who think the vuvuzela is cute and cultural simply refuse to believe that plastic really isn’t part of any nation’s culture.

1) The plastic horns that are “played” (how about “just blown into?”) from start to finish of every match at the 2010 World Cup in  South Africa have reached the point of stupid and annoying and while I love the British announcers who call the matches with both a rich vocabulary and soothing voices, the fact they’ve been drowned out by the incessant hum of the vuvuzela has made the mute button on the TV my most precious of possessions.

Monday, we got word that FIFA is considering banning the horns. According to yahoo.com sports, a precedent has already been set. Vuvuzelas were banned – confiscated from ticket holders upon entry to the stadium – from the World Cup Kickoff Concert in Soweto last Thursday.

I, frankly, don’t care what FIFA does at this stage. The mute button has done its job.

2) This Thursday is the sixth anniversary of the Mike Richards Show at Calgary’s The FAN 960. I’m proud to say I’ve been a part of it almost the entire six years. Richards is the best young broadcaster in the country and nothing on the radio dial is funnier than the fabulous Mike Richards Show.

3) No matter where I go in Winnipeg, I get asked the same question: “Are the Jets coming back?” I believe they are and the team coming to Winnipeg will likely be the Phoenix Coyotes.

However, I’m not convinced yet that it won’t be the Atlanta Thrashers. Friends inside the NHL office in New York tell me that if a team must move, and commissioner Gary Bettman does NOT want any team to move, Bettman would accept the move of a team from the Eastern Conference to the West. That means he can move the Detroit Red Wings to the East (Bettman believes teams in the Eastern time zone, like Detroit, should probably play in the Eastern Confernce).

Sure, all signs would point to the Coyotes leaving the desert and moving back to the prairie, however there appears to be enough resolve to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix now and if Ice Edge can get its financing in order, they’ll likely buy the team and keep them there.

But there are more non-traditional markets out there and committed fan bases are small in many of hockey’s Sun Belt communities. Before this whole issue is resolved, the next Winnipeg franchise could very well come from the Eastern Conference.

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Ready to Call a Vancouver-Pittsburgh Stanley Cup Final

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs told us three things: (1) Henrik Sedin IS the most valuable player in the National Hockey League this season, (2) the Pittsburgh Penguins appear ready to defend their Stanley Cup crown and (3) nothing beats a great goaltender.

How ’bout that Jaroslav Halak? He made 53 saves in Game 6 and 41 saves in Game 7 as he led the Montreal Canadiens to the biggest upset of this playoff year. The Habs were down 3-1 in the series when Halak decided to win it himself, stopping 131 of the final 134 shots he faced to give the Canadiens a 4-3 series win over President’s Trophy champion Washington Capitals. So much for Alex Ovechkin in this year’s post-season.

It was the fourth time in eight years, the No. 8-seed had beaten the No. 1-seed in a first-round series, and it means we went 6-2 with our picks in the opening round.

Let’s take a look at the second round:

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Detroit Red Wings (5)

The Sharks looked good in round one against Colorado and appeared to get rid of the playoff jitters. The aging Wings, who just don’t play very well at home these days, looked great on the road against Phoenix. This will be a great series, but I think it’s the Sharks in a close one.

San Jose Sharks in seven

Chicago Blackhawks (2) vs. Vancouver Canucks (3)

The Canucks finished strong against L.A., scoring 17 goals in the final three games. The Hawks were lucky to get past Nashville. The Canucks gain some revenge from last year.

Vancouver Canucks in six

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) versus Montreal Canadiens (8)

In a year of upsets, I don’t see one here. Sidney Crosby is on a mission and the tiny Canadiens will tire, Jaroslav Halak or not.

Pittsburgh Penguins in six

Boston Bruins (6) versus Philadelphia Flyers (7)

Tuukka Rask is a better goaltender than we think and Boston gets Marc Savard back. This one is still a toss up. The Flyers will win if Brian Boucher matches his first round heroics.

Boston Bruins is seven

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Big Week for Pennsylvania Hockey. Canucks Look Like Real Contenders.

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Sunday night, the Vancouver Canucks eliminated the Los Angeles Kings in six games in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

That’s not a surprise by any stretch, but the way in which the Canucks eventually woke up and drilled the Kings was quite telling. The Kings took a 2-1 lead in the series after winning 5-3 in Los Angeles in Game 3 and then, it would appear, Vancouver got pissed.

The Canucks went on to win 6-4, 7-2 and 4-2 as Henrik Sedin, who really should be the NHL’s most valuable player this season, had a goal and four assists in the final three games of the series. When a team puts up 17 goals in three games in a Stanley Cup playoff series, that team is really on its game.

Now look, we picked the Canucks to win in six and so did a lot of other generally misguided pundits, but I think we all believed Roberto Luongo’s goaltending would be the difference. That wasn’t the case. In this series, it was the Canucks offence that made the difference and quite frankly, if that keeps up, it will make the Canucks a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile, it was a big week for the two Pennsylvania teams. The Philadelphia Flyers, who were 5-1 against the New Jersey Devils during the regular season, continued to take it to the Devils and ousted favoured New Jersey in five games. We picked Jersey in seven, but we did not believe that Philly would put a blanket on the Devils the way they did. We also didn’t expect goaltender Brian Boucher to be as good he was (1.59 goals against average and a .940 save percentage) and yet he was clearly the pleasant surprise of the series.

It was a little tougher for the Pittsburgh Penguins who needed six games to take out the Ottawa Senators. The Sens were feisty in this one and despite a serious stomach problem, Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson did everything he could to keep the Sens alive. Unfortunately for Ottawa fans, it wasn’t enough against a Sidney Crosby-led Pens team that really looked like the defending Stanley Cup champions when it counted. Crosby finished the six game series with 14 points and appears to be on the way to a Conn Smythe Trophy.

The San Jose Sharks took out Colorado in six games and I’m surprised it went six. The San Jose players finally got rid of the knots in their collective stomach and won a playoff round with ease. It’s about time.

Before the week ends, Boston, Washington, Chicago and, yes I still believe Detroit, should wrap up the remaining four series. That will leave us at 7-1 in the opening round and ready to predict a Vancouver-Pittsburgh Stanley Cup final.

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Our Picks for the Opening Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

You have to love the way the 2010 National Hockey League season turned out. The New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers went to the shootout on the final day to determine the last playoff spot in the East, the Phoenix Coyotes proved that Wayne Gretzky couldn’t coach a dog in from a snowstorm with a pork chop and Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos and Alexander Ovechkin went down to the wire to determine a Rocket Richard Trophy winner (or two).

If the playoffs are half as good as the season that just ended (and you know they will be), they’ll be as good as hockey gets.

Let’s take a look at the first round:

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Colorado Avalanche (8)

The Sharks never play well in the post-season, but this is a different Sharks team. Colorado was lucky to make the playoffs.

San Jose Sharks in four

Chicago Blackhawks (2) vs. Nashville  Predators (7)

The Hawks are the better team but Barry Trotz is the best coach in hockey. This will be closer than people think because the Hawks goaltending is horrible.

Chicago Blackhawks in seven

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs. Los Angeles Kings (6)

If Roberto Luongo is better than he was last year (remember when he got bombed in Chicago in Game 6?), Vancouver will romp.

The Kings had a great year, but Vancouver is a Cp contender.

Vancouver Canucks in six

Phoenix Coyotes (4) vs. Detroit Red Wings (5)

The Wings are healthy again. Enough said.

Detroit Red Wings in five

Eastern Conference

Washington Capitals (1) versus Montreal Canadiens (8)

The Capitals are simply better. Jaroslav Halak could steal one or two in Montreal.

Washington Capitals in six

New Jersey Devils (2) verus Philadelphia Flyers (7)

Philadelphia owns the Devils. The Flyers were 5-1 in six games against New Jersey. The Devils are a better team with better goaltending, but Philly matches up well against these guys.

New Jersey Devils in seven

Buffalo Sabres (3) versus Boston Bruins (6)

Our first round upset. Neither team has enough scoring, but Ryan Miller won’t be as good in April as he was in February.

Boston Bruins in seven

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) versus Ottawa Senators (5)

Should be a good series, but the Penguins are Stanley Cup champions until the day they aren’t. Pittsburgh has too much offence and a good goaltender.

Pittsburgh Penguins in five

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Things to Consider With Three Weeks to Go.

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. — While the general managers and the league’s other tall foreheads try to come to terms with illegal checks to the head (sorry, boys, but the rulebook is full of rules that would get headshots out of the game), the rest of the NHL is just playing hockey.

So with about three weeks to play before the Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us, let’s take a look at the league from a Winnipeg perspective:

1) Although he says he has not completely made up his mind, it appears that after 18 seasons, former Winnipeg Jets captain Keith Tkachuk is nearing the end of his brilliant career.

Saying his future in St. Louis is now, Tkachuk wouldn’t admit whether or not he was retiring at the end of the season, but he did say, “I often think about this being the end.” No doubt, the Hall of Fame awaits.

2) Remember when the San Jose Sharks had a very comfortable 12-point lead in the Pacific Division? Well, not anymore. That’s because the Phoenix Coyotes have won seven straight and have moved to within three points (at the beginning of the weekend) of the heavily favored and quite talented division leaders.

The 44-22-5 Coyotes have all but assured themselves of a spot in the post-season for the first time since 2002. Now, however, they are closing in on home ice advantage in the West. This should be a great finish.

3) By now, it has to be official. There is no better coach in the NHL than Dauphin’s Barry Trotz (OK, maybe Dave Tippett in Phoenix, but nobody else). Trotz, the only coach the Nashville Predators have ever had, has the no-name, star-less Predators in seventh place five points ahead up on eight-place Detroit (at the start of the weekend).

That shouldn’t happen. The Preds just don’t have the personnel. But Trotz has made them a playoff contender – they beat L.A. on the road this week and have won four straight — and that says more about his brilliance than anything else.

4) Calling it “a retaliatory hit to the head,” the National Hockey League suspended Anaheim Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski for eight games without pay for that terrible hit to the face and head of Brent Seabrook on Wednesday night.

Wisniewski definitely gave Seabrook a cheap shot, but an eight-game suspension after giving Alexander Ovechkin only two? The NHL justice department is completely nonsensical.

5) The Montreal Canadiens have looked very good at times this season. They’ve had two four-game winning streaks. But not until the Olympic break, have the Habs put together so many outstanding games in succession. In fact, with six straight wins heading into the weekend, Montreal has moved into the playoff driver’s seat in the East.

After Tuesday night’s game, a 3-1 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Habs moved past Philly and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference (later in the week they fell back into seventh). The Bruins are eighth with 74 points, four points back, while ninth-place Atlanta and the Rangers are seven points back. With only 12 to play, the red-hot Habs are in control of their own playoff destiny.

6) Perhaps no one has noticed, but Winnipeg’s Travis Zajac is having a season to remember. Zajac, the 24-year-old rightwinger out of the University of North Dakota has moved into the Top 35 in NHL scoring with 21 goals and 38 assists.

Perhaps more importantly, the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder, is a terrific plus-14. By the time the next Olympics roll around, he’ll be one of the best players in the game, if he isn’t already.

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More Hockey Talk As The NHL GMs Meet in Florida

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There were nine NHL games on Tuesday night in the NHL, five more on Wednesday and 10 more on Thursday night. After 14 days at the Olympics, the NHL has a lot of catching up to do. It will be difficult to keep up.

In the meantime, from new rules regarding hits to the head, possible new shootout rules and a lawsuit against the former owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, this is just about the busiest March of the decade.

Let’s look a little deeper inside the NHL…

1) On Sunday, the 92-CITI-Sports Machine was in St. Paul, Minn., to watch the suddenly strong Calgary Flames drill the Minnesota Wild 5-2. So what suddenly changed in Calgary?

Simple, as we told you on Sunday, Flames head coach Brent Sutter put Jarome Iginla on a line with Rene Bourque And Matt Stajan and on Sunday, the line combined for 10 points as Iginla had his 10th career hat-trick.

Not bad, for only the second game together and they were pretty darn good on Tuesday night in their third game together. Bourque and Iginla each scored once and added an assist and the Flames won (4-2)  a rare one in Detroit.

2) If there was one team that would frighten me if I were the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks, it would be the Detroit Red Wings.

The Wings have been banged up all season long. For months, they had at least three of their best players out of the lineup. They were half a hockey team for much of the season. But now they’re healthy, the playoffs are beckoning and if Jimmy Howard gets the job done, the Wings could be the sleeper of the playoffs.

But first, they have to play better than they did against Calgary on Tuesday night.

3) This weekend while I was in St. Paul, a number of hockey experts watched the newly formed Iginla-Stajan-Bourque line and wondered aloud which line was the best in the game today.

A couple suggested Alexander Ovechkin-Alexander Semin and anyone on the other side, but the consensus seemed to be that the best line in the NHL was New Jersey’s No. 1 line of Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner and Winnipeg’s own Travis Zajac.

If nothing else, it’s one of the few lines in the NHL that has been together for most of the season and it provide salmost all of New Jersey’s scoring.

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It’s Run-To-The-Playoffs Time in the NHL.

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. – As the Calgary Flames whipped the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Sunday afternoon, the NHL started its run to the playoffs.

Most NHL teams now have 16-18 games left this season. We’re solidly past the three-quarter-pole and there are just five weeks left in this rather odd season.

After a 14-day break for the Olympics, the NHL is loading up on games and there will be some tired superstars once the playoffs roll around. Until then, let’s take a quick look around The League.

1) Monday night (actually Tuesday morning at 12:10 a.m.), I’m Eric Nelson’s guest on the Eric Nelson Show on 8-3-0 WCCO radio in Minneapolis and we taped the segment on Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center.

Eric asked me to set the NHL’s final four. I told him, Chicago and San Jose in the West and Pittsburgh and Washington in the East. He then asked, “Which teams are the darkhorses?” I told him that question was more fun.

In the West, Detroit is finally healthy and they could be scary when it counts if Jimmy Howard can get the job done in goal. I like Vancouver, too, if Roberto Luongo doesn’t choke like a dog as he did last year.

In the East, I like Buffalo and New Jersey because they both have great goaltenders (Ryan Miller and Martin Brodeur). As Brian Burke always said, “We call it the Stanley Cup playoffs because we can’t call it goalie.” He may not have been right about Ian White, Alexei Ponikarovsky or Matt Stajan, but he’s right about that.

2) There was a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s when a Canadian player in the NHL’s Top 10 in scoring was a rarity. A decade ago, the stats were dominated by Europeans.

However, while Euros such as Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Sedin are at the top of the NHL’s scoring stats today, there are now five Canadians and one American in the Top 10. What is even more interesting is that Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby took over the goal-scoring lead on Saturday with his 43rd and 44th and young Steven Stamkos scored his 40th of the year on Saturday. Youth is also being served.

Maybe that Canada-U.S. Olympic final will be a trend, not a fluke.

3) Metis star Rene Bourque hadn’t scored a goal in 15 games until Calgary Flames head coach Brent Sutter put him on a line with Jarome Iginla and Matt Stajan. You’d think it was the return of the Hot Line.

Sunday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., the Bourque-Stajan-Iginla line combined for 10 points as the Flames drilled the Wild 5-2. Iginla had three goals and an assist, Stajan had two assists and Bourque, suddenly playing the best hockey in more than a month, had a goal and three assists.

The Flames have been struggling, but since Sutter created this line, Calgary has won two straight solidified their hold on ninth and are now only one point out of eighth and two points out of seventh.

At this stage of the season, a simple move like a line change can positively alter a team’s fortune. Sutter’s decision to create the Bourque-Stajan-Iginla line might have been the move that gets Calgary into the playoffs.

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