Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 25

WHO'S HOT, WHO'S NOT I Whos Hot Pave) Datsyuk has sjx points, in the Detroit Red Wings fi'si two playoff games and won 73 per cent of his draws in the faceoff ci'cie on Saturday. I Whos Not Phoenix Coyotes goalie Itya Bryzgalov has allowed tight on 67 shots in the first two games, four each game. MARQUEE MATCHUPS Sjneay Can the Hew York Rangers' popgun attack get to Michal Neuvirth? The Capitals goalie has stopped 46 of 47 shots in 140 minutes. I SurxJay: Tne Nashville Predators couiant handte Corey Perry. Ran and R.an Getzlaf in Game 2 ater wrapping the Ducks' top line in a collective sUaitjacket in Game 1.

EDMONTON JOURNAL edmontohjournai.com SUNDAY. APRIL 17. 2011 C3 CI1EY WORL Jim Matheson THIS WEEK IN THE IIHL Nugent-Hopkins' lack of size no big thing for Hitchcock Team Canada coach believes top prospect skill trumps his stature WESTERN CONFERENCE Lander out of worlds Magnus Paajarvi's buddy, centre Anton Lander, just got cut from the Swedish world championship team after starring in six exhibition games, even though the Edmonton Oilers' 2009 second-round draft pick wore the C. "It was really controversial because Anton won the scoring of all those players, had the best plus-minus and had a faceoff percentage above 50 per cent," said Lander's agent Claes Elefalk. "I think the only reason they cut him was inexperience at the world championship level and they want to bring some NHL Swedes over.

i EASTERN CONFERENCE Pronger not so hand' The problem with having a broken hand and everybody knowing which one it is, is it's difficult to play until it's healed lest somebody accidentally, or on purpose, puts some lumber to it. That's as good a reason as any why Chris Pronger wasn't on the Philadelphia Flyers' blue-line Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres. Pronger can stickhandle but can't shoot with those pins in his busted right paw. He hasn't taken a shot (cortisone still optional) in a practice in two weeks. Seguin sits out again Tyler Seguin, who didn't get a point in his last 1 1 games, was predictably a healthy scratch in the Boston Bruins' first two games against the Montreal Canadiens.

Coach Claude Julien preferred grinder Daniel Paille, who has likely never had his name circled in an opposing dressing room pre-game scouting report, but plays hard. "I'm not blind. I know what I have to work on, on and off the ice," said Seguin. It's his play away from the puck, and strength. BcDevillcd at draft It's rare for a club outside the bottom five teams to win the draft lottery.

New Jersey's move from eighth to fourth was the first time it's happened in 12 years, going back to 1999, when the eighth-place Chicago Blackhawks did the same, giving up the pick to k. mKf C4SSESE. REUTtfiS. FILE Team Orr forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, right, is checked by Team Cherry forward Rickard Rakell during the CHL top prospects game on Jan. 19.

Edmonton Oilers heavyweight Steve Maclntyre could bench press Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 20 times without breathing hard, but Canadian world championship coach Ken Hitchcock, who's watched the Red Deer Rebels prospect seven times this winter, says scouts are making wray too much about the kid's 164-pound chassis. "I wouldn't pay two seconds attention to diat if I was a coach," said Hitchcock, who's still employed by the Columbus Blue Jackets in an advisory capacity but had a busman's holiday this winter, watching junior games in Western Canada. "Remember what they said about (Vane) Gretzky? He was the toughest player in the league because he always had the puck. Weight in a player isn't relevant to me. Look at Pat Kane in Chicago.

He plays at 1 65 pounds and nobody gets a piece of him and he's always got the puck." The possible first orall pick the Oilers are deciding between Nugent-Hopkins and Swedish defenceman Adam Larsson could probably put on another 20 pounds because he's six-foot-one but, if teams are leery because he's only 164 pounds now, they shouldn't be. Skill trumps size in Hitchcock's mind. Anybody seen Martin St. Louis lately? Tyler Ennis? Nathan Gerbe? Or Brian Gionta? "My opinion on Nugent-Hopkins has changed List summer I thought he reminded me of Joe Sakic, but it's Pavel Datsyuk now," said Hitchcock. "He strips people of the puck, he's crafty in high-traffic areas, he dishes well, he's got great patience with the puck.

But, if you're close to either one of those two guys (in ability), that's a pretty good thing." Hitchcock's got a pretty good thing coaching Canada's team at the world championship, too. He still wants to get back behind an NHL bench, but the worlds gig is exactly what Hitchcock needed. He'll have re-cendy fired Florida Panthers coach Peter DeBoer and Scott Arniel, now the Blue Jackets head man, as his assistants. If that seems a tad juicy, having Arniel working alongside the former Columbus head coach, it is fodder for talk. But Hitchcock has absolutely no problem with it.

"We were laughing about that, but I really had never met him before. We haven't spent 30 seconds talking about the Blue Jackets, other than the three guys (Rick Nash, Marc Methot and AntoineVermette) coming to the world team," said Hitchcock. "For both of us, Tm sure it was a frustrating experience (Columbus finished out of the playoffs). But this is good for both us to get engaged in other things. I love the exchange of t' 1 1 Short-handed goal for Mattias Ohlund against the Pittsburgh Penguins was his first goal of any kind in two ears.

I le last scored on April 19, 2009. 1 Goal for Chicago Blackhawks sniper Patrick Sharp since the calendar turned to March. "Otherwise, he would have been just like Paajarvi at last year's championship." Lander, who rums 20 on April 24, turned down an Oilers' contract offer last year and went back for a fourth season with Timra. He may have run his course there. The Oilers certainly want to see Lander in North America, either in the NHL or their American Hockey League team at Oklahoma City.

The sLx-foot, 194-pound Timra assistant captain talked to Steve Tambellini a couple of weeks ago when the Oilers general manager was in Europe scouting Adam Larsson. The Oilers likely see Lander as a third-line Nl IL centre. Not Wild about losing Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold won't be texting his Edmonton Oilers counterpart, Daryl Katz, to ask about a major renovation to make his team better. Leipold is in a big hockey market, as well, and the fans are getting restless being out of the playoffs for three straight years, but he refuses to consider a big rebuild. "That's not a model I can live through.

I hate losing. If I knew for sure we can lose, then as a result we get Sidney Crosby, I might rethink that. But that's not how our world works," Leipold told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "I don't think it would work for our market." Leipold should poll his fan-base and see. There's nothing worse than just falling short of the playoffs year after year.

Don't Bum your fans It seems crazy that the Wild would move defenceman Brent Burns, but they likely don't want to pay him $5 million in a new deal when his contract runs out after next season, so they will toss his name out there at the draft. The Wild need a forward with some offensive juice. They'll have no trouble moving him, although they have to be careful the draft is in Minnesota and Burns is hugely popular with their fan base. No spurring Jared Rookie Jared Spurgeon, a revelation on the WOd blue-line because of his IQ on the ice, only had one penalty in his 53 games. He's one of only three defencemen (Bill Quackenbush and Tomas Kaberle are the others) in history who've played at least 50 games in a season to do that.

How do you not get, say, sue hooking penalties in a season? Mason mum on worlds Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Steve Mason either has a tender groin or he said no thanks to an invitation to be in the net for Canada at the world championship. He's not talking to reporters these days to get his innermost thoughts. Let's hope Mason, who turns 23 next month, doesn't turn into Jim Carey, the Vezina Trophy winner 15 years ago who was here today, gone tomorrow. After Mason's rookie of the j'ear award, he's had two less than stellar seasons with goals-against averages over 3.0. He was 3.03 with a .901 save percentage this season.

AST it i the New York Rangers, who took forward Pavel Brendl. It was a bad pick. I le had no drive. Another Comrie? Tri-City Americans general manager Bob Tory has gone out on a limb and says Bill Comrie's goalie son Eric "has potential to be as good or better than Carey Price. He'll be a starting goaltender in the NHL." Tory, who hopes to have the 16-year-old Comrie as the No.

1 netminder on the Western Hockey League team next season, had Price on the Americans. Time to grab Vokoun Any team wanting to sign unrestricted free-agent goalie Tomas Vokoun for three or four years better do it on July 1. He turns 35 on July 2, which means a team can't buy him out. He'll have to stay on a team's salary-cap books for the whole term. The Colorado Avalanche seem like the best bet to go after Vokoun.

Should he get a cent more than Nikolai Khabibulin's $3.75 million a year? No. Khabby won a Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay. Vokoun never has. In fact, Vokoun has played only 11 career playoff games. Omsk, where Jaromir Jagr plays in the Kontinental Hockey League, has also expressed interest in the Czech goalie.

This n' that I If the Tampa Bay Ughtning go out in Round 1, expect Hockey Canada to call up Dwayne Roloson. Former Oilers defenceman Ilya Byakin just got a head coaching job in the KHL, in Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia. I Montreal Canadiens winger Mike Cammalleri gave the Bruins a little shot when asked about Zdeno Chara's dehydration issues and how he might be doing. 'Tm not an MD. I'm not going to be like Mark Recchi and diagnose the other team," said Cammalleri, a dig at the likely Hall of Famer Recchi, who regretfully said on a radio show awhile back that Max Pacioretty wasn't as badly hurt as the Habs were saying.

edmontoniournal.com For more tidbits from hockey writer Jim Matheson. go to edmontonjournal.comhockeyworld ideas. Scott and Pete have different ideas than I do." Hitchcock's name has come up repeatedly with the five coaching vacancies in die NHL New Jersey Devils (Jacques Lemaire quit), Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Florida and Ottawa Senators but that's down the road. General managers looking for coaches usually don't get around to hiring until May, later during the Stanley Cup playoff trail. Hitchcock gave the Hockey Canada offer to coach at the worlds in Slovakia about five seconds before saving, "You bet." "I'm not going to sit around and wait for the phone to ring.

This is a new experience. I've never been to Europe to coach. When they approached me, I said, 'What the heck, I may as well dip my toes in the water and get my feet said Hitchcock, who thoroughly enjoyed the past winter watching junior games and also helping compatriots at the minor level run practices. "What started as a bit of anxiety through September and October, not having a training camp to go to, ended up being a very rewarding offseason. I was able to do things I won't ever do again, met a lot of interesting I Reading between the lines, unrestricted free-agent centre Brad Richards likes solid ownership he didn't have it at the end in Tampa Bay and got traded, and the Stars are now being 'J run by the league, It 1111 11 llllk.

knight in sight ilas sign i i so he's out of Dallas on July 1. He'll sign with former Light ning coach John Tortorella's New York Rangers. If it's Richards for $6.5 million a year, it could be a six- or seven-year deal. The Rangers have to also sign their Group 2 guys Brandon Dubin-sky, Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov and Brian Boie. That's likely another $10 million I If I were to hazard a guess, the two players the Edmonton Oilers like most OR impdel rvs rs.

Re nrorvartiH for anvThmo -'J hockey and sports people, and from a physical standpoint, was able to engage with the CrossFit community. I found some real value in doing other things for a full calendar year." Hitchcock, who has coached in Dallas, Philadelphia and Columbus, is 59 years old. He knows his next coaching job might be his last. "Sure, I want to get back to working for a team (as head coach) again, but I know exactly what management's going through right now. This is a time when you're going through your whole (past season).

You're not getting ready for next year yet," said I litchcock. A rebuilding team doesn't seem a good fit, but who knows? Minnesota is probably where he wants to go, but MacTavish's son, Sean, went to school at Shattuck St. Mary's, outside Minneapolis, last year, so if Sean is back there this season, the Wild would obviously interest MacTavish. For Hitchcock, all he cares about today are the 19 players on his Canadian world team (Jordan Eberie and Devan Dubnyk from the Oilers), with another group coming after the first round of playoffs are over. He's back to doing what he loves.

Coaching. in Round 1 of the entry draft after the top three of Adam Larsson, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gabriel Landeskog, I'd come up with Saskatoon Blades defenceman Duncan Siemens and Prince Albert Raiders centre Mark McNeill, with blue-liner Dougie Hamilton also in there. Siemens, some scouts say, has a lot of Shea Weber in him. Not the shot, though. McNeill is supposed to be a better Tyler Pitlick, at least offensively.

Oilers genera manager Steve Tambellini is in Germany watching the world under-18 championship, presumably taking a gander at McNeill. I Sidney Crosby wears a headset well in the press box. He looks like he knows whathe's doing. But where the Pittsburgh Penguins sorely need him is on the power play. They're 0-for-13 in the first two games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and six-for-79 recendy.

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