Panaccio: Emery Deal Means Biron's Likely to Leave

Sunday, June 14, 2009
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPHILLY.com

DETROIT -- Now that the dust has settled after another sandstorm in Flyerdom, it would appear that Marty Biron’s short career as a Flyer goalie is over.

And that’s tough news for center Danny Briere, his closest friend and ally.

“Definitely,” Briere told a team spokesman on Friday at Skate Zone. “He is a good friend of mine, but it is the business of hockey. You can’t really control that. It’s not that the organization wanted to get rid of Marty.

“With the situation that we are in, I think everybody expected something to happen. Obviously with salary cap era now, we needed to find a goalie somewhere. Some decisions have to be made.

“It is just a business decision. Like I stated earlier, with salary cap issues, decisions have to be made and this seems to be an obvious one. I think everybody will be sad to see Marty, if he goes. He is a great guy and we all wish him well wherever he is going to be playing next year.”

Briere said Emery will get a clean slate with his Flyer teammates. Anything that happened in Ottawa will remain in the past.

“I think we just signed a really good goalie who took his team to the Stanley Cup Final before,” Briere said. “He is a young, good goalie. Everybody makes mistakes. I think we should judge Ray on how he reacts to this new opportunity. We need to give him a chance before we judge him.

“I have played against him and I know he is a good goalie. He is big, athletic and very competitive. I got the chance to meet him yesterday and he seemed really nice. We will get to know him more later on.

“He is a great signing for the team, especially if he reacts the way he said during his press conference in that he was happy with the chance that the Flyers are giving him. I think we are getting a great deal. I am excited about it and hopefully this helps us going all the way next year.”

Emery might be a guy who lights a spark for this team given his fiery disposition.

“He is definitely going to bring an edge,” Briere said. “Sometimes it could be that sparkplug that we need. It’s too early to tell. But just the fact that he is very competitive, it is going to bring in another element to our team. I think everybody is excited of the signing. You can tell that he just wants to win. It is going to be a fun year.”

Briere moving?
Briere has a no-movement clause. But several sources at the Cup Final say the Flyers have been shopping him without interest. Phoenix, Los Angeles and Montreal, to be specific. Because of his no-movement clause, Briere has control over the situation unless the Flyers want to waive him to the minors to get his $6.5 million cap hit off the books. His contract runs another five years. The Flyers have to lose salary this summer if they want to sign a major free agent defenseman or trade for a top defenseman at the draft. The only other large salaries that might generate trade interest are Simon Gagne (no trade/$5.25 million) and either Joffrey Lupul ($4.25 million) or Scott Hartnell (no trade/$4.2 million)

Sid the Kid
Had to be painful and terribly ironic that on the biggest stage of the ice world and the most important final minute of his young life, Sidney Crosby could not be on the ice Friday night against Detroit because his left knee was so badly sprained.

“It was so painful,” Crosby said. “I mean, being a captain and seeing what the guys are doing out there blocking shots. Seeing how intense it was, it was even more painful to see it go like that. But you get to a point where you've got to ask yourself whether you're going to be, you know, hurting your team by being out there. And I knew I had everything I could to numb it or try to play through it. But at the same time I'm playing against [Pavel] Datsyuk and [Henrik] Zetterberg. One misstep and I could cost the guys a lot of hard work. I didn't want to be the guy who did that. So kind of had to sit and wait and watch. But we don't get to this point without everyone contributing, and I knew that guys were going to find a way to pull it off.” Now that’s an unselfish act that should be commended.

Kinder, gentler Babcock?
Has Mike Babcock’s personality changed over the past three years with the Red Wings?

“Let's start with the first one, kinder, gentler,” Babcock said this week. “I think there's two parts. I think they're more used to me. My kids would tell you that there's two guys. There's the guy at the rink and the guy at home. Yet I'm a big believer in you've got to make them do it right. Sometimes that's not what… they want to hear... But also, you cross the line sometimes as a coach. Flat-out, you cross the line. You say something in a way that the message sent ended up being hurtful or wasn't about getting better. I think I've done a better job as I've gotten older of going to the guy and saying to him, ‘I crossed the line.’ To me, I love the players, I really do. I want to make them better and I want us to win. In order to do that we've all got to be on the same page. Now, sometimes, as you can imagine, everything isn't warm and fuzzy. Especially at times during the regular season. At this time of the year they're more tolerant of you, and you're more tolerant of them. And they know you're trying to win, and they're trying to win. So you're doing everything you can. So, I think understanding what a player is going through, being around more mature guys for a longer period of time. Understanding you don't have to be all over them every second.”

Dynasty
Win or lose, NBC’s Darren Pang thinks the Red Wings belong right up there with the Montreal Canadiens, who won six Stanley Cups between 1953-60 and four straight between 1976-79. Pang said the two organizations drafted and developed players, leaving them in the minors for longer periods of time to mature.

“[The Wings] are a dynasty whether they win this or not,” Pang said between Games 6 and 7.

Calgary next?
Now that Brent Sutter has left New Jersey, will he end up in Calgary coaching under his brother and GM Darryl? Darryl fired Mike Keenan in late May. Brent Sutter told the New York Post he had not “even thought” about the Flames’ job.

“That had no bearing at all on my decision process [to leave the Devils],” Sutter said. “If that occurred, like anything else, you’d always look at it.” Of course, Devils’ GM Lou Lamoriello would have to give Calgary permission to negotiate with Brent Sutter.

Community service
Part of David Krejci new three-year, $11.25 million deal with the Boston Bruins mandates that he make nine personal appearances every season on behalf of the franchise, according to the Boston Globe. You don’t see or hear about clauses like that in contracts very often.

A real jerk
That’s how the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram described incoming Dallas Stars coach Mark Crawford in it’s headline, and then went on to give reasons why he’s a hockey jerk, who angers both media and players, but has won a Stanley Cup.

“We were, maybe, as an organization, people were just a little too comfortable,” Stars owner Tom Hicks told the paper. “I think there was a recognition from some of the players that ‘We need to have our butts kicked sometimes.’”

One thing is certain. Joe Nieuwendyk, less than two weeks on the job as GM, wasn’t afraid to get rid of a good hockey coach in Dave Tippett, who figures to land on his feet somewhere.

Quotable
Sidney Crosby was asked on the podium after the game whether he ever felt he was pre-ordained to win the Cup as a kid:

“It means so much,” he said. “It's even way beyond that. It's all the sacrifices that people make so you can get to this point, and my parents. It's the coaches you have along the way. It's the people that influence you. These things are all things that, you think about. You go through today, for example, you're preparing for a Game 7 Stanley Cup Final, and that's the only thing I could think about is all these people who are watching, and all these people I wanted to do it for personally...

You see a guy like Billy Guerin, he won it, but it was 14 years ago. It's scary to think that we've got another chance, another crack at it; and we did the most we could with that opportunity. So it was just about seizing the opportunity, and doing what we could with it.”

Loose pucks
• The best goaltending coach in hockey, Francois Allaire, is now employed in Toronto. Which is interesting, because it poses a challenge for Allaire to raise the game of Vesa Toskala and whoever becomes the back-up.

• As we mentioned weeks ago, three Molson brothers have formally made a bid to repurchase the Montreal Canadiens. Don’t think anyone on the NHL Board of Governors is going to object to the Molsons coming back into the game.

• When was the last time an NHL owner was being spotted by paparazzi hanging around with a famous female? Well, the New York Post says Buffalo Sabres owner Thomas Golisano, 67, has been dating tennis legend Monica Seles, who is 35. “Monica and I see each other,” Golisano told the newspaper. Must be the envy of every other NHL owner, eh?

• Not that “Mad” Mike Milbury would ever hold back commentary on anyone, but here’s what he suggested Detroit coach Mike Babcock should have been saying to Marian Hossa, who did not have a good Final series, during Tuesday’s telecast: “You wanted a Stanley Cup? Why don’t you prove it to your teammates? Don’t let everybody else carry the mail.”

• Jacques Lemaire turned down a consulting job with Tampa Bay, leading to more speculation that perhaps he is headed back to the New Jersey behind the bench as Brent Sutter’s successor.

• If we’re New Jersey Devils’ GM Lou Lamoriello, we tap longtime former Devil and assistant coach John MacLean on the shoulder as the next coach. MacLean has paid his dues and has been passed over twice now. His time is now, Lou.

• Finally, congrats to Ray Shero, “Son of Fred,” and the Penguins for winning the Stanley Cup. As we said earlier this month, sameness is bad for hockey and bad for the sport. Detroit has had its moment. It was time for someone else to lift the Cup. It’s better for the game in the long run.