Lucky's TARDIS

I know it's a little late to be talking about All-Decade Teams. But screw it! It peaked my interest, and hope it'll do yours. By the way, these picks were determined by the people who voted on NHL.com. So if you want to check out the full monty, including what the website's panelists thought, go here: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=513762

First Team

Goalie- Martin Brodeur (New Jersey): Anyone want to argue against Brodeur and the 2 Stanley Cups, 4 Vezina Trophies, and 3 All-Star Game appearances. Or the all-time career saves and career wins records he snatched this decade...be my guest!

Defensemen- Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit): Good God has this guy given me migraines as an Avalanche fan! He was the first European captain during this decade to lift Lord Stanley's Cup, and the first European born defensemen to reach 1,000 points. As Red Wings broadcaster Larry Murphy put it, "He's done it all. The guy that makes the game look so easy, but it's not. Count on him, game in, and game out."
Scott Niedermayer (New Jersey/Anaheim): Nice to see Scotty got some recognition as a First-Team All Decade member. Underrated, efficient, was a key component on some great Stanley Cup winning teams in New Jersey and Anaheim.

Center- Joe Sakic (Colorado): Most people probably look at this and would be a bit surprised to find "Super Joe" on here. Especially with Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh cementing his status for next decade's edition. 625 careers, a little over 1/3 of them in this decade. Not to mention a career +30, which is quite good for a Forward.

Wing- Jaromir Jagr (Pittsburgh/Washington/N.Y. Rangers): This one kind of surprised me a bit to tell you the truth. Jagr's a fantastic hockey player. At his peak, I would've absolutely supported the move. But he's never really been a reliable franchise caliber star. He works best when he has someone by his side (like he did with Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh).
Alexander Ovechkin (Washington): The guy helped turn a barren hockey market in D.C. into the NHL's equivalent of Chicago during the Michael Jordan era. He was also the first to break the 60 goal plateau 2 years ago, and will probably do it this year as well (or get damn close).

Second Team

Goalie- Dominik Hasek (Buffalo/Detroit): I'm not a fan of this choice either. Not for the Dominator's body of work, which is definitely worthy of consideration. But the fact he played 3 seasons in this decade. I would've went with NHL.com's panel and picked Chris Osgood in this position or Roberto Luongo.

Defensemen- Scott Stevens (New Jersey): I didn't complain over Scott Neidermayer's choice for the First-Team blueline. Why the hell would I complain about his fellow Scott.
Sergei Gonchar (Washington/Boston/Pittsburgh): Great blue line Defenseman, career +88, and a great point guard on the ice for Power Plays. But would I choose him over Chris Pronger or Zdeno Chara, the guys he beat out for this spot? Pronger, yes. Chara...I don't think I would.

Center- Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh): One Stanley Cup the last decade. Likely 2 or 3 more of them in this decade.

Wing- Jarome Iginla (Calgary): He has all the stats of being a First-Team kind of guy. 30+ goals every year in the decade (2 of them of the 50-goal variety), 2-time All Star, 2-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner, won the Art Ross Trophy. If he actually more offensive weapons next to him 6 years ago, he probably would've won the Stanley Cup that year. And that fact alone is why he's here.
Marian Gaborik (Minnesota/N.Y. Rangers): I like Marian Gaborik. I think he's been one of the more underrated forwards in the NHL this past decade. How he was able to jump over Ilya Kovalchuk, who's had over 40 goals and over 80 points for 6 straight seasons to decade's end, is quite amazing to me.

A nice morning look at both the Western and Eastern conference standings going into today's 2 games on the docket (Toronoto @ Washington, and Nashville @ Calgary). Let's start with the conference with the defending Stanley Cup Champions:

Eastern Conference
1. New Jersey Devils (65 Points; 32-12-1): A tough loss for the East's top dog last night in Phoenix losing 4-3. A rare blot for the Devils on the road (they're 16-5-1 so far this year, tops in the Conference) As long as they have Brodeur in net and the underrated tandem of Zach Parise and Patrick Elias, they'll be fine in the long run. Next up is the Avalanche tomorrow afternoon at Pepsi Center.
2. Buffalo Sabres (63 Points; 29-11-5): Owners of the 2nd comfiest division lead in the Eastern Conference (10 points ahead of Boston in the Northeast), the Sabres are doing something they were never widely known for doing the last time Buffalo was this high- play defense. Although they're middle of the pack league wise in goals per game, they're 3rd in the league in goals against behind the aforementioned Devils and the big wig out West Chicago. They're also 6th in the league on the Penalty Kill, which should be helpful tomorrow night against the Islanders' 26th ranked Power Play.
3. Washington Capitals (62 Points; 28-12-6): There was a minor controversy on Wednesday night when Jose Theodore had to come in on what he thought was an off night after Michael Neuvrith put them in a 4-0 hole to lead Washington to a 5-4 shootout win against the Panthers. But they have a 15 point lead in the Southeast over Atlanta. They have one of the deadliest offensive attacks in Hockey thanks to Ovi and Nick Backstrom (1st in Goals per game, 2nd on the Power Play). Their only weakness is Penalty Kill and goaltending, which is going to keep them from the promised land unless they can right that ship.
4. Pittsburgh Penguins (61 Points; 30-18-1): The defending Champs have played some solid hockey as they've gone through the Canadian leg of the Northwest division with wins in Calgary and Edmonton. It's hard for me to count out this team, although with Chris Kunitz gone it makes that job much much more difficult.
5. Boston Bruins (53 Points; 23-16-7): Impressive shootout win last night against the Sharks. But it's hard for me to get overly excited about a team that's next to dead last in the NHL in goals per game. All you need is good goaltending though. And if Tim Thomas gets hot in the postseason...I may be singing a different tune.
6. New York Rangers (51 Points; 22-18-7): Another team led by a damn good goaltender that doesn't really excite me right now. They should be good enough to fend off any of the myriad of teams in the East to get to the playoffs. But that's probably all.
7. Ottawa Senators (50 Points; 23-21-4): Dead last on the Power Play, yet they're 13th in the league on the Penalty Kill...now that's a head scratcher. Speaking of those, where is Jonathan Cheechoo when this team needs them (4 goals, 8 assists, and the 3rd worst +/- on the team at -10). Then again, where's the rest of the offense (all but 3 players [Mike Fisher, Alexei Kovalev, and Milan Michalek] have less than 10 goals this season)?
8. Montreal Canadiens (50 Points; 23-21-4): It takes some real talent to be tops in the league on the Power Play and tied for 27th in goals per game. With Huet in net though, they should be able to beat Ottawa tomorrow night and have a quasi decent hold on a playoff slot. But like the Rangers, that'll probably be all they get.

Western Conference
1. Chicago Blackhawks (68 Points; 32-11-4): Easily the best team in the NHL in my opinion. Great young talent in Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews anchored by the steady mitts of future Hall of Famer Nikolai Khabibulin.
2. San Jose Sharks (68 Points; 30-10-8): Probably the only team with the slightest of shots to keep Chicago out of the Stanley Cup Finals, thanks to the deadly line of Marleau, Heatley, and Joe Thornton.
3. Colorado Avalanche (58 Points; 26-15-6): A fairly balanced, young hockey team that has proven it's coming back on the road to becoming a force in the Western Conference once again. They beat New Jersey at home tomorrow afternoon, it may widen to the whole league.
4. Nashville Predators (59 Points; 28-16-3): It's hard to get sold on a team that doesn't defend exceptionally well (27th in the NHL on PK) or score on a high clip (10th in Goals per Game). But they have two goalies with essentially the same stats, which should keep them around here the rest of the year.
5. Phoenix Coyotes (59 Points; 27-16-5): A potential dark horse out West due in most part to Ilya Bryzgalov (24-12-4, 2.23 GAA). With Minnesota, Buffalo, Nashville, and Washington on the docket over the next week and change, we'll see if it's just potential.
6. Calgary Flames (58 Points; 26-15-6): This is pretty much like any other Flames team for the past 5-6 years. Great defensive club (5th in the league in goals against per game, tied for 7th in PK), yet not much to see on offense (19th in goals per game, 24th on the Power Play). It helped when Mikka Kiprusoff was lights out night in and night out. Now, he's been shaky some nights.
7. Vancouver Canucks (56 Points; 27-18-2): They should be the team that can match up toe to toe with the Avalanche for the Northwest Division. With an offense highlighted by the Sedin Twins and Mikael Sammuelson and a defense that features 6 guys with a double digit +/- (half of them being Forwards), not to mention Roberto Luongo, they have the tools on paper to be an exceptional hockey team. The keyword being "on paper."
8. Los Angeles Kings (55 Points; 26-18-3): Playoff hockey in Los Angeles- a noble concept if ever I've heard one. And to pull that off, they'll have to fend off the former Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings (1 point back of L.A.), perennial playoff contender Minnesota Wild (4 points back), and two former Cup champions of the early portion of the last 2 decades in the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks (6 points back). Should be a good lesson for this young team, and a mighty accomplishment if they pull it off.

As most of the eyes of the sporting world have been focused, for good reason, on Lane Kiffin and him splitting Tennessee for the glittering shores of Southern California or to Gilbert Arenas and his growing legal issues for gun possession in D.C., I've had my eyes focused on the tug of war between the University of South Florida and its first ever football coach Jim Leavitt. Here's a timeline from the good people at tampabay.com showing how it became that bad, that quick:

Nov. 21: Leavitt emerges from the locker room after halftime of a game against Louisville with a bloody nose, later explaining he headbutted a player who had his helmet on. The school later concluded he also struck walk-on Joel Miller in the face during the same halftime session.

Dec. 14: AOL sports Web site Fanhouse.com reports Leavitt struck Miller at halftime of the Louisville game.

Dec. 15: Leavitt denies he hit Miller.

Dec. 16: Miller tells ESPN.com Leavitt did not hit him and should not be punished. The school assigns Sandy Lovins, USF associate vice president for human resources, and Thomas M. Gonzalez, an attorney brought in as an outside consultant, to investigate.

Jan. 2: USF beats Northern Illinois in the International Bowl in Toronto.

Jan. 6: Senior player Colby Erskin tells Fanhouse.com and WDAE-AM 620 that Miller told him what happened a few days after the locker room incident. Erskin is the first player to reveal publicly what he told school investigators.

Friday: USF presents Leavitt a letter of termination and announces the results of its investigation, which concludes he struck Miller.

Judging by the article and examining the timeline, everything was followed to an appropriate T by the university. The report that USF released after its month or so long investigation into the incident with Mr. Miller put Coach Leavitt in the wrong and concluded he "was consistently uncorroborated by credible witnesses, and in fact contradicted."

It looked like an open and shut case to me. Leavitt could have chosen to go peacefully, take his one month's base salary ($66,667...amazing that is), and try to go after another job at another school. He has a resume that's good enough for some school to give him at least a look. 94-57 in 12 years at the helm, 5 straight bowl games (3 wins, including the International Bowl), bringing a team from the ground floor to a #2 ranking in the AP polls 2 years ago.

But he acted like an absolute putz every step of the way. Hell, he even had the stones to lobby the school for his job back hours before East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, son of legendary Notre Dame coach and semi annoying ESPN commentator Lou Holtz, accepted the job. According to a report in the Tampa Tribune, he met with the school's president Jody Genshaft before he was fired and essentially was given the opportunity to come clean, show contrition, and try to play nice. Instead, he told her: "I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it."

I can only hope that this hiring, on top of the admission from Mr. Miller in a press conference today that he changed his story after the initial report of his allegation to try and protect Leavitt and that he had grabbed him "by the neck" and hit him twice, will put this whole thing to rest. But given the fact Miller, through his attorney, wanted an apology from Leavitt or he'll counter sue and coach Leavitt, through his attorney, told him he won't apologize, it probably won't. Unless the thing happens to be Jim Leavitt's future coaching career

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