Friday, April 29, 2011

NFL Stay, Kirk Muller, Scott Gomez, Andrew Ference & Joey Lawrence

There is a chance we will know today or early next week whether the Court of Appeal will grant the NFL a stay (or temporary postponement) of Judge Nelson's order that the NFL must lift the lockout. Right now the NFL is open for business. Expect a stay to be granted.

According to Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette, Habs assistant coach, Kirk Muller, is the next head coach of the Dallas Stars.

Hickey wrote, "Gauthier ducked a question about assistant coach Kirk Muller, but he'll be moving to the Dallas Stars. His appointment as head coach is on hold while the team awaits a new group of owners."

Joey Lawrence from the NBC hit show Blossom has thrown his support behind Donald Trump's presidential bid. The Donald must be pleased. Next up is David Cassidy. I give up.

Scott Gomez only scored 7 goals this year, or $1.14 million per goal. He admitted he didn't have a great season, although fans didn't need the centre to confirm the obvious.

Can Gomez be moved to another team? For next season, the answer is likely no. He will be paid $7,500,000 next season with a cap hit of $7,357,143.

However, it may be possible to move Gomez the season after that. He'll have 2 years left on his contract that will pay him $5.5 million and $4.5. million. The cap hit, which is key, will remain $7.357 million. That means that a team that needs to get to the salary cap floor and needs to artificially push its payroll up, could find Gomez attractive as they would be paying him less than his cap hit.

Alternatively, the Canadiens could bury Gomez in the minors, although that seems unlikely. Gomez is still a good player. The issue is not that of course - the issue is that he's not worth the $7 plus million he's getting and the very valuable cap space he's eating up.

Andrew Ference of the Bruins didn't get suspended for his hit on Jeff Halpern. The puck, however, was nowhere near Ference at the time of the hit, and as a result, arguably he may have intentionally tried to hit Halpern. It also looks like he saw him coming and turned into him. Not conclusive though. Still, on this basis, it would not be unreasonable to consider whether the hit constitutes a crime in the form of assault causing bodily harm. For that you need an intent to injure and contact that is not incidental to the game. Here's a more detailed review of the crime of assault in the context of hockey.

Here's a still of the hit - seems a bit late. Yes I know, Ference isn't that kind of player - he said it himself recently:


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