New Looks, New Excitement as NHL Camps Open

TORONTO/NEW YORK (September 17, 2010) – Antti Niemi, who backstopped the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup just 101 days ago, will be one of many players joining a new team — in Niemi’s case, the San Jose Sharks. Seven other players who dressed for Chicago that triumphant June evening are beginning careers elsewhere – four of them in Atlanta, where the Thrashers have retooled extensively.  As National Hockey League training camps open, several team rosters feature dramatically new looks; five teams have new coaches and the Pittsburgh Penguins are preparing for the official NHL opening of their brand new home – CONSOL Energy Center.

In addition to new teammates, the skaters face a new formula for breaking ties in the standings — an added ingredient in the playoff races that begin virtually on the opening night of the season. There are new captains in Toronto (Dion Phaneuf) and Nashville (Shea Weber), new General Managers in Atlanta (Rick Dudley), Florida (Dale Tallon), St. Louis (Doug Armstrong) and Tampa Bay (Steve Yzerman).

The spectacular 2009-10 season, one that set records for revenues and TV ratings, was followed by an action-packed off-season. Here is a summary of those developments as the players return to the rinks to confront the questions that will become answers in 2010-11.

2010-11 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

Observances
Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild – 10th Anniversary season
Colorado Avalanche – 15th Anniversary season in Denver

San Jose Sharks – 20th Anniversary season
Calgary Flames – 30th Anniversary season in Calgary
Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks – 40th Anniversary season

New York Rangers – 85th Anniversary season

Special Nights
Oct. 7 – CONSOL Energy Center opens in Pittsburgh
Oct. 9 – Blackhawks raise Stanley Cup Banner
Oct. 9 – Blues unveil statue of Brett Hull
Dec. 11 – Vancouver retires Markus Naslund’s number
Feb. 18 – Carolina retires Rod Brind’Amour’s number

2010-11 SEASON MILESTONES

PLAYERS APPROACHING 1,000 GAMES

Dean McAmmond, free agent        996
Wade Redden, NY Rangers        994
Sergei Gonchar, Ottawa        991
Stephane Yelle, free agent        991
Craig Conroy, Calgary        991
Robert Lang, free agent        989
Ryan Smyth, Los Angeles        987
Mike Grier, Buffalo        987
Ed Jovanovski, Phoenix        969
Jamie Langenbrunner, New Jersey        965
Cory Stillman, Florida        960
Patrick Marleau, San Jose        953
Shean Donovan, free agent        951
Andrew Brunette, Minnesota        950
Vaclav Prospal, NY Rangers        949
Darcy Tucker, free agent        947
Todd Bertuzzi, Detroit        941
Petr Sykora, free agent        935
Adrian Aucoin, Phoenix        933

PLAYERS APPROACHING 400 GOALS

Jason Arnott, New Jersey        383
Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa        375
Marian Hossa, Chicago        363
Miroslav Satan, free agent        363

PLAYERS APPROACHING 1,000 POINTS

Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa        992
Alex Kovalev, Ottawa        990
Joe Thornton, San Jose        931
Jarome Iginla, Calgary        920

PLAYERS APPROACHING 1,500 POINTS

Mark Recchi, Boston        1485

COACHING MILESTONES

·        Lindy Ruff (Buf) is coaching in his 13th consecutive season behind the bench of one club, tying Toe Blake (Montreal), Al Arbour (NY Islanders) and Lester Patrick (NY Rangers) for fourth all-time. Ruff also needs 17 wins to become the 16th coach in NHL history to reach 500 and 16 games to reach 1,000.
·        Ron Wilson (Tor) needs 18 wins to become the seventh coach in NHL history to reach 600.
·        Joel Quenneville (Chi) needs one game to reach 1,000.
·        Paul Maurice (Car) needs 23 games to reach 1,000. At 43, Maurice would become the youngest coach to reach the milestone, surpassing the 47-year-old Brian Sutter with Chicago in 2003-04.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — GAMES

·        Mark Recchi (Bos) needs 41 games to tie Ray Bourque (1,612) for eighth place all-time and 44 games to tie Larry Murphy (1,615) for seventh place.
·        Mike Modano (Det) needs 15 games to tie Doug Gilmour (1,474) for 17th place all-time.
·        Nicklas Lidstrom (Det) needs four games to tie Al MacInnis (1,416) for 26th place all-time and five games to tie Luke Richardson (1,417) for 25th place.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — GOALS

·        Teemu Selanne (Ana) needs two goals to tie Dino Ciccarelli (608) for 16th place all-time.
·        Mark Recchi (Bos) needs one goal to tie Mats Sundin and Joe Nieuwendyk (564) for 20th place all-time.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — ASSISTS

·        Mark Recchi (Bos) needs four assists to tie Stan Mikita (926) for 16th place all-time and seven assists to tie Larry Murphy (929) for 15th place.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — POINTS

·        Mark Recchi (Bos) needs 46 points to tie Paul Coffey (1,531) for 12th place all-time.
·        Mike Modano (Det) needs 10 points to tie John Bucyk (1,369) for 22nd place all-time.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — GAMES BY A GOALTENDER

·        Chris Osgood (Det) needs two games to tie Dominik Hasek (735) for 18th place all-time.

MOVING UP TOP 25 ALL-TIME — WINS

·        Chris Osgood (Det) needs seven wins to tie Grant Fuhr (403) for ninth place all-time and 11 wins to tie Glenn Hall (407) for eighth place.

NEARING FRANCHISE RECORDS

·        Shane Doan (Phx) needs 51 games to tie Teppo Numminen (1,098) for first place in franchise history.
·        Patrik Elias (NJ) needs 33 goals to tie John MacLean (347) for first place in franchise history.
·        Radek Dvorak (Fla) needs 13 games to tie Robert Svehla (573) for first place in franchise history.
·        Rick Nash (CBJ) needs 26 games to tie David Vyborny (543) for first place in franchise history.
·        Miikka Kiprusoff (Cgy) needs 37 wins to tie Mike Vernon (262) for first place in franchise history.

LOOKING TO EXTEND STREAKS

Longest current streaks of 20+ goal seasons
11 Jarome Iginla
10 Daniel Alfredsson
10 Milan Hejduk
10 Marian Hossa
10 Vincent Lecavalier
10 Joe Thornton
8 Ilya Kovalchuk
7 Mike Knuble
7 Martin St. Louis

Longest current streaks of 30+ goal seasons
9 Jarome Iginla
7 Ilya Kovalchuk
5 Dany Heatley
5 Alex Ovechkin
4 Zach Parise
3 Rick Nash

Longest current streaks of 40+ goal seasons (2 or more)
6 Ilya Kovalchuk
5 Alex Ovechkin

Approaching Regular-Season Team Milestones
Calgary Flames need 60 goals for 10,000; need 40 games for 3,000 regular season (Atlanta & Calgary, inclusive)
Montreal Canadiens need 44 games for 6,000 regular season (Jan. 12 @ Pittsburgh)
New York Islanders need 50 games for 3,000 regular season (Feb. 1 @ Atlanta)
St. Louis Blues need 43 wins for 1,500.
Toronto Maple Leafs need 44 games for 6,000 regular season (Jan. 15 vs. Calgary)
Vancouver Canucks need 133 goals for 10,000.

New Arena/Arena Name
Pittsburgh — CONSOL Energy Center
Nashville — Bridgestone Arena
Philadelphia — Wells Fargo Center
Vancouver — Rogers Arena

A New Crop of Management

General Manager: Rick Dudley (ATL); Dale Tallon (FLA); Doug Armstrong (STL); Steve Yzerman (TB).

Assistant GM:  Jay Feaster (CGY); Mike Santos (FLA); Larry Carriere (MTL); Julien BriseBois (TB); Claude Loiselle (TOR).

Director of Player Personnel: Dave Taylor (STL).

New captains: Shea Weber (NSH); Dion Phaneuf (TOR).

New Head Coaches: Craig Ramsay (ATL); Scott Arniel (CBJ); Tom Renney (EDM); John MacLean (NJ); Guy Boucher (TB).

New Assistant/Associate Coaches: Mike Foligno (ANA); John Torchetti (ATL), Mike Stothers (ATL); Doug Jarvis (BOS); Mike Kitchen (CHI); Brad Berry (CBJ), Bob Boughner (CBJ), Dan Hinote (CBJ); Willie Desjardins (DAL); Ralph Krueger (EDM), Steve Smith (EDM); Gord Murphy (FLA); John Stevens (LA); Darby Hendrickson (MIN); Rick Wilson (MIN); Adam Oates (NJ), Larry Robinson (NJ), Chris Terreri (NJ); Todd Reirden (PIT); Scott Mellanby (STL); Daniel Lacroix (TB), Martin Raymond (TB), Wayne Fleming (TB); Newell Brown (VAN).

Hockey Hall of Fame Class (Nov. : Dino Ciccarelli, Jim Devellano, Cammi Granato, Angela James, Daryl ‘Doc’ Seeman, Marc DeFoy, Ron Weber

NEW RULE – RULE 48 – Illegal Check to the Head

The Board of Governors, General Managers and the Competition Committee have unanimously agreed that “a lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted.” On March 25, the League implemented the rule for the remainder of the 2009-10 season. The rule only provided for supplemental discipline.

Following is the language for Rule 48:

48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted.

48.2 Minor Penalty- There is no provision for a minor penalty for this rule.

48.3 Major Penalty- For a violation of this rule, a major penalty shall be assessed (see 48.4).

48.4 Game Misconduct- An automatic game misconduct penalty shall be assessed whenever a major penalty is assessed under this rule.

48.5 Match Penalty- The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent with an illegal check to the head.

48.6 Fines and Suspensions- Any player who incurs a total of two (2) game misconducts under this rule, in either regular League or playoff games, shall be suspended automatically for the next game his team plays. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game.

If deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion (refer to Rule 28).

NEW RULE – 11.8 – Goaltender Pads Specific Sizing

Background – Last season, the League instituted size specific goalie equipment that resulted in proper sizing of the upper body and pants. Beginning in 2010-11, the League will institute size specific goalie pads.  Prior to this season, the rule provided only for a maximum pad length of 38 inches.

New Rule – Under the new rule for size of goalie pads (Rule 11.8), the League has determined a maximum “Limiting Distance Size” for each goalie. All goalie pads have been manufactured during the off-season to comply with this value, which will be verified by a standard method of measurement on a standardized calibrated device approved and certified by the League.

How the sizing is determined – Two measurements were taken as follows to determine each goalie’s pad height: from the floor to the center of the knee (part A) and from the knee to the pelvis (part B). After adding the part A measurement to 55% of the part B measurement, a four-inch allowance was made for the goal skate to determine the specific height of each goaltender’s pad.

BY-LAW REVISION

On September 14, the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors approved a By-Law revision that will use a team’s total of victories in regulation time and overtime to break ties among teams with the same number of points at the conclusion of a season. The number of shootout victories will not be included for the purposes of breaking ties in the standings, according to the new wording of By-Law 27.3(c).

NHL By-Law 27.3 now reads as follows (with the approved revision in underlined italics):

At the conclusion of the regular Schedule of Championship Games the standing of the teams in each Conference shall be determined in accordance with the following priorities in the order listed:

a)        First place in each of the three divisions seeded 1, 2 and 3.
b)        The higher number of points earned by the Club.
c)         The greater number of games won by the Club (excluding games won in the Shootout).
d)         The higher number of points earned in games against each other among two or
more Clubs having equal standing under priorities (b) and (c).
e)        The greater differential between goals scored for and against by clubs having
equal standing under priority (d).

LONG-TERM CONTRACTS

On September 4, the National Hockey League Players’ Association and National Hockey League announced an agreement that will implement new rules governing the parameters of long-term contracts and how they are valued within the NHL Salary Cap System.

Under the terms of the agreement, the new rules will apply only to long-term contracts, defined as those with terms of five years or longer, and only to contracts executed after September 4, 2010. The new rules apply to contracts signed between now and the end of the CBA, as well as all contracts signed that begin in the 2012-13 season. The parties have agreed that the new rules do not automatically carry over into a new CBA.

For the purpose of Salary Cap calculations, any long-term contract that extends past a player’s 41st birthday will be valued and accounted for in two ways: The compensation for all seasons that do not include or succeed the player’s 41st birthday will be totaled and divided by the number of those seasons to determine the annual average value (AAV) charged against the team’s Cap for those seasons. In all subsequent seasons, the team’s Cap charge will be the actual compensation paid to the player in that season (or seasons, as appropriate).

Additionally, in any long-term contract that averages more than $5.75 million for the three
highest-compensation seasons, the following rule shall apply: Solely to determine its value for
purposes of the Salary Cap, a player’s compensation for any season in which he is age 36, 37, 38, 39 and/or 40 shall be valued at a minimum of $1 million.