The second coaching victim of the season happened, but this one wasn't a big surprise. The Columbus Blue Jackets fired Gerard Gallant and are expected to name assistant coach Gary Agnew the interim head coach. Gallant coached 142 games for Columbus, but went 56-76-10 in his tenure.
Gallant's name has always been around when it comes to coaching changes, but many thought it would be much, much earlier than this. The Blue Jackets have plenty of talent. All that is missing is a coach who can be a motivator and mentor for the youngsters, something that Gallant couldn't do.
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Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks made three deals today and freed up $800k in cap space. Whether or not it brings more trades is to be determined. The Ducks traded off Stanislav Chistov to the Boston Bruins for a third-round pick in '07 ot '08; dealt Todd Fedoruk to the Philadelphia Flyers for a fourth-round pick in '07; and acquired George Parros from the Colorado Avalanche for a second-round pick in '07.
Like I said, many believe that this is a start to moving Ilya Bryzgalov. I don't know if that would be the best wise move. J-S Giguere has been playing great; but you never know when he could get injured or start to fade. We'll keep tabs on this, but knowing Brian Burke...anything can and usually does happen.
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The NHL announced that they would be giving out a new weekly award to the player that displays leadership on and off the ice. The award will be named after Mark Messier.
Props to Mark Messier for getting this named after him, but come on-- don't we have enough trophies and awards?? I don't even know how you can give this out on a weekly basis, especially since it's really arbitrary on who gets it. Make it a monthly or yearly thing, but not weekly. And enough with the trophies. Unless there's going to be a Wayne Gretzky trophy for most assists in the season; just stop. I don't want to talk about who could win the Alexandre Daigle Award for biggest flop.
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The Hall of Fame Inductions of Patrick Roy, Dick Duff, Herb Brooks, and Harley Hotchkiss is tonight. Of course, with this sparks debate on who is next to go into the Hall and who could be first ballots and who won't.
As much as I would love to go into it, our buddy Lyle Richardson has one of the best takes on the whole situation.
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That's it for now, but as always, check out Face Off Hockey Show, the FOHS Podcast, and the FOHS Message Boards.
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