Roping in some Habs reflections and predictions

Just tightening up the noose on a few links and stories that I’ve come across on the Habs over the past few days.

Carey Price: He’s on a horse. No, not like the Old Spice guy! Price took part in a rodeo event over the weekend. The following is the excerpt on his performance from the Chilliwack Times.

“Team roping, in which one rider attempts to lasso a calf's horns and another goes for a hind leg, doesn't normally get as much attention as the wild-animal riding contests. But Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price's attempt to snare a couple of calves shone a light on the sport.

Price learned the ropes, so to speak, on Friday and Saturday, before giving the event a go for real on Sunday. He should stick to hockey; he recorded two no-time scores as he was unable to snare the calf's hind leg with his lasso. But despite his lack of team-roping talent, Price was a hit with locals, according to organizer Helen Larson.

"The kids loved it; he posed for lots of pictures . . . and answered all the kids' questions," said Larson, who had Price sign her own Canadiens jersey, bought specially for the rodeo.

For those wondering, team roping was the only event the NHL would let Price participate in.”

It was the third event for Price in the B.C. Rodeo Association. He ranks 6th in the BCRA rookie of the year standings, earning $934.52 in prize money.

Clearly the Montreal Canadiens would rather that Price stick to his day job, once he signs a contract with them that is..Don’t worry kids, it will happen shortly.

Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau: “The horror! The horror!”

Boudreau was recently at an autograph signing in Toronto. I really should have gone and got him to sign a pic of that dumbfounded look he had after Game Seven. My first idea was to wear my Habs jersey under my jacket and go, “BOO!” would have been much more fun though.

A look at “old-time hockey: Dennis Kane profiles Habs Hall of Famer Sprague Cleghorn, arguably one of the baddest and dirtiest players in the game during his era.

All eyes on the blueline: The Checking Line’s George Prax looks at the Montreal Canadiens rear guards as training camp looms closer.

The Subban Network: P.K. Subban talked to TSN about his high expectations for the upcoming season.

Subban has been spending this past week, along with Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and other NHL stars at the BioSteel Sports Pro Hockey Week in Toronto. The Fourth Period brings exclusive photos, as well as video interviews with the participating players on their main page.

Gomez and Cammalleri on Price: While at the training session, Scott Gomez and Mike Cammaleri talked to Rogers Sportsnet on Carey Price.

Fantasy Forecasts: Crash the Crease looks at the Canadiens Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri and former Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak as fans start putting their fantasy rosters together.

Moving on to more predictions and prognostications: Alexandre Harvey, from the Canadiens’ website, looks at predictions on the team’s upcoming season and individual performances from Pro Pool, the Hockey News and Hockey le Magazine.

NHL.com looks at the Habs upcoming season in their “30-in-30” series.

The things Stevie-Y should really take from Montreal: A nice list, put together by The Active Stick, on some items that the Tampa Bay Lightning can just plain have, without argument.

Pierre Gauthier: Committed to his team, or needs to be committed?

Well if anything has been made clear for the Montreal Canadiens, it’s that GM Pierre Gauthier doesn’t use the same manual Bob Gainey did.

While the former GM was often labeled as “sitting on his hands” or standing pat in the off-season (last summer excluded), Gauthier has far exceeded that moniker.

We have yet to reach the NHL Entry Draft and already he has put two major roster issues to rest.

First he answered the goaltending concerns, and surprised everyone, by trading Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues.

Many felt Gauthier got too little and could be risking the franchises future. That debate won’t be officially decided until we see how Carey Price responds. As mentioned in a previous post, this move alone could gauge Gauthier’s legacy in Montreal.

The upswing to the trade meant sufficient cap room to negotiate with pending UFA center Tomas Plekanec. Gauthier wasted no time on that either.

In what turned into an extremely busy Tuesday of off ice activity across the NHL, that also saw Montreal sign a one-year deal with Mathieu Darche, news of a deal with Plekanec broke just minutes before the 2010 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees were to be announced at 3:30pm.

The deal is a six-year, $30 million signing that guarantees Plekanec’s services long term in Montreal.

The 27-year-old is coming off a career season (25 goals, 45 assists) and has become a good two-way forward, since being drafted 71st overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, but is that worth $5 million a season?

It will be argued throughout the term as possibly too steep a deal for a six year signing. Montreal now has six players signed at $5 million or more for 2010-11 totaling over $33.5 million (over half the team’s projected cap of $59 million).

Plekanec’s offensive numbers tapered off during the playoffs, which may have influenced his choice to continue negotiations with Montreal. Slightly better numbers may have secured him another million per year, and a better opportunity in the UFA market.

Then again maybe he learned from his former teammate Alex Kovalev’s failed negotiations with the Canadiens last summer, and jumped at the offer.

With the deal also comes with the often dreaded no movement clause. It is uncertain how far in this will take effect, but it could be a concern down the road for Canadiens fans if Plekanec’s performance declines.

In any event, Gauthier is showing that he is committing himself to getting his roster put together for the upcoming season, but at what cost?

Gauthier now sits with approximately $9 million left in salary to play with and a few more roster spots to secure. After being given the foundation and building blocks by Gainey, it’s now up to him to build the future from there.

Signing Carey Price will obviously be the next piece of the puzzle, but we could also see a trade to free up some more spending money, between now and training camp, to fill the final gaps.

Things might get even tougher after next season with five defencemen entering the last year of their contracts.

It will be interesting to look back on Gauthier’s activities of the past week, once the long term effects wear off. Down the road fans could be praising the deal as giving the Canadiens a long-term No. 1 center, or an overpaid and unmovable third liner. The performance/results factor will obviously fall on Plekanec’s shoulders, but ultimately the finger pointing will go further up.

Great strategist and negotiator, or nutty professor? Only time will tell with the Gauthier era.

Capitals/Canadiens Game 1: “Jagr” Wins it in overtime for Habs

Tomas Plekanec is swarmed by his Montreal Canadiens teammates after his overtime goal in Game One vs. Washington Capitals – Chuck Myers (MCT)

Tomas Plekanec put his money where his mouth was, in the media-fuelled war of words against Jose Theodore, in Game One as the Montreal Canadiens shocked the Verizon Center crowd with a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals.

Plekanec beat out Capitals defenceman  Shoane Morrisonn, inside the Washington blue line, and fired a wrist shot past Theodore at 13:19 of the extra period.

The two adversaries had been in a war of words after Plekanec said Theodore was not the same level of goalie as a Martin Brodeur or Ryan Miller. Theodore responded sarcastically, referring to Plekanec as “Jagr”.

The game began looking just like it has been predicted, with a Washington offence swarming the Montreal end. The Capitals outshot their opponents 19-7 in the first period and dominated in the faceoff circle.

It could easily have been a three or four-goal lead if not for the goaltending brilliance of Jaroslav Halak. The underdogs would not get their first shot until the 7:24 mark.

The Canadiens knew they would be in tough against the top five-on-five team in the regular season (213 goals) and would need special teams to help their effort.

They got just that at 12:26 when Mike Cammalleri scored on the power play to give the Canadiens a one-goal lead.

Washington continued to mount the pressure and Joe Corvo lobbed in a shot from the blueline, over the shoulder of a screened Halak, at 15:33.

In the second period, coach Jacques Martin made some adjustments and the Canadiens turned things around. The visitors dominated the Capitals in the second half of the period. Martin double shifted Cammalleri on a line with Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche to put some strain on the larger, but slower Capitals defence.

With the majority considered slow and, in some cases old, themselves, the Canadiens corps of blueliners were able to shutdown the league’s most explosive player, Alexander Ovechkin. The Russian sniper had no shots on goal and five attempts blocked for the entire game.

Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau put more of the blame on his captain. “They gapped up on him (Ovechkin), but I don’t think he played very well,” he said, indicating that the rest of the Capitals had 47 shots on goal.

"Our best players weren't our best players tonight. I just didn't think he was very good tonight"

The Canadiens hoped to carry the momentum in the third period, but a poor clearing effort and a bad bounce off the skates of Hal Gill led to a Niklas Backstrom goal.

Washington Capitals Jose Theodore makes one of his 35 saves in Game One – Molly Riley (Reuters)

Montreal refused to give up and fired everything they had at Thoedore , who made 35 saves on the night. They finally broke through when Scott Gomez beat out defenceman Mike Green to the front of the net, defecting a feed from Brian Gionta past the Washington netminder to tie the game at two.

Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin skates away in disgust as the Canadiens celebrate Scott Gomez’s tying goal. – Greg Fiume (Getty Images)

The Habs defence and Halak continued to hold back the Capitals through the rest of the period and into overtime. Jaroslav Spacek logged just under 20 minutes and thwarted Ovechkin and co. at every window of opportunity. Gill was equally effective in his 25 plus minutes, blocking nine shots.

“We gave him (Ovechkin) no space or time to shoot,” Halak said. “He’s a great one-on-one player. We probably pissed off everybody, so they will try to come out stronger on Saturday.”

Martin praised his team for the group effort to shut down the league’s top offence shut down all four Capitals power play chances.

“When you face an elite player, like Ovechkin, it’s not one individual’s responsibility, it’s a team effort,” he said. “Our support players gave us some good help tonight. I thought it was some excellent teamwork.”

Overtime began with and unsuccessful Canadiens power play and was followed by some exciting end-to-end play, cumulating in Plekanec’s winner.

Plekanec explained post-game that his comments, from earlier in the week, were taken out of context. “I didn’t take it personally. It wasn’t completely right in the newspapers,” he said. “I would never say anything wrong about Theo, and I respect him.”

Game Two goes Saturday night in Washington, with Games Three and Four in Montreal on Monday and Wednesday.

Three Stars: 1. Tomas Plekanec 2. Jaroslav Halak 3. Jose Theodore

Called out Sens Clearly Didn’t Listen to Their Boss

Hal Gill takes out Alex Kovalev during Montreal’s 4-1 win over Ottawa - Reuters

The Ottawa Senators fired 46 shots at Jaroslav Halak on Tuesday night, one went in during the Canadiens 4-1 victory.

On Sunday, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk called out his superstars, though not naming names.

"It's obvious what we need," Melnyk said Sunday. "The elite players have to start to play their best. Once they do that, I think we can be as competitive as ever. Hopefully that happens fairly quickly and we're back to where we were at the start of the season."

Jason Spezza and Alex Kovalev are clearly two of the elite players that he is referring to.

It's the whole group," Melnyk continued. "Some show up some nights and some don't. It's the elite players, that's basically it, but I'm really pleased to see guys like [Mike] Fisher step up to the plate as well as he has."

Well Mike Fisher continued to impress, scoring the Senators lone goal Tuesday and registering seven shots to earn second star honours.

Kovalev and Spezza on the other hand managed just two shots each in the game.

Mike Boone of HabsInsideOut.com made this notable comparison, “Marc André Bergeron will earn $750,000 this season. He has seven goals. Alex Kovalev makes $5 million. He has four.”

And Kovalev wonders why Russian Olympic GM Vladislav Tretiak didn’t pay him a visit two weeks ago. Sorry Alex, it wasn’t the travel schedule. Mr. Tretiak wants the best Russian players now, not from two or more years ago. Enjoy your two-week break in February.

As for Spezza, this quote after Tuesday’s loss makes you wonder if he even read Melnyk’s comments, “We got a lot of pucks at the net, but just didn't do a good enough job of getting pucks in the net.” We?

Cammalleri, Plekanec, Bergeron and Hamrlik celebrate Kostitsyn’s goal - Reuters

Meanwhile, Kovalev’s former line mates in Montreal, Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn, have certainly found a groove with their new winger Mike Cammalleri.

Plekanec had three assists on Tuesday, while Kostitsyn scored on the power play and set up another. Cammalleri had his fifth goal in three games.

The trio combined for six points and now has seven goals and eight assists in wins over the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and the Senators.

"Plecks is playing really well. He's creating a lot and we're getting a lot of production as a result," Cammalleri said.

Canadiens Halloween Birthday Greetings

October 31 is not just a night for trick-or-treaters, but also a birthday for a few Habs player both past and present.

A Happy 50th Birthday to former Canadiens great Mats Naslund.

The cup-winning winger, dubbed “The Little Viking”, ranks 11th in career points with 612 in 617 regular season games.

Naslund was also a member of the Canadiens 1985-86 Stanley Cup winning team and won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1987-88.

Already as star player in Sweden, before joining the Canadiens, he is in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Hall of Fame.

 

 Former center Phil Goyette turns 76 years old.

Goyette played in seven seasons with Montreal (1956-63), playing on the last four of the Canadiens five straight Stanley Cup teams.

He played nine more seasons in the NHL, amassing 674 points in 941 games.

 

Current Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec turns 27.

Plekanec is having a great start to the 2009-10 season with 10 points in his first thirteen games.

Hopefully Pleky can celebrate tonight by lighting up the Maple Leafs!

 

and most importantly…

Though no longer with us, one of the Montreal Canadiens first superstars was born on this day in 1887.

Edouard “Newsy” Lalonde  was a member of the Canadiens in their first season (1909-10) and scored 16 goals in just six games.

He would be a member of Montreal’s first Stanley Cup winning team (1915-16), and was captain on three occasions.

He was a player-coach for seven seasons (1915-22).

After retiring as a player in 1928, he returned to Montreal four years later as the team’s bench boss for two full seasons and part of a third.

Lalonde was elected to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1950.

Czech it out! Canadiens on four game winning streak

Roman Hamrlik celebrates his overtime goal against the Islanders

Travis Moen had a goal and an assist and Roman Hamrlik scored the overtime winner, as the Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Islanders 3-2.

It was Montreal’s second win over the Islanders in just four days. The two teams remaining two regular season meetings will take place on Long Island.

Montreal opened the scoring when Glen Metropolit found Jaroslav Spacek, for his first goal of the season, beating Martin Biron at 13:38 of the first period.

Metropolit had missed the Canadiens morning skate, and had been a game time decision. He would finish the night with two assists.

The Canadiens were caught with two many men on the ice, in the second period, and the Islanders capitalized as Jeff Tambellini beat Jaroslav Halak to tie the game at one apiece.

In the third period, Montreal took a lead, just under eight minutes into the third period, when Travis Moen scored one of those “right place at the right time” goals.

“We didn’t play our best in the second period  but we found a way to win,” said Moen. “It’s nice to chip in (with a goal) once in a while.”

The Islanders battled back as Tambellini scored his second power play goal of the night.

In overtime, Tomas Plekanec freed the puck from the Islanders defense,made a little soccer kick and fed a saucer pass to fellow Czech Roman Hamrlik for the win.

“They were changing out there so I took the puck,” Plekanec said. “I kicked the puck out a little bit and it went well.”

Plekanec has 10 points in 11 games this season.

“So far I feel very good,” he said “I’m playing  with strong details and play a good defensive game this year. I feel good. I feel confident.”

“I knew Tomas was going to pass it to me,” said Hamrlik. “I had the empty net so it was easy for me to finish.”

Halak made 29 saves for the win and has been in goal for each of game of the Canadiens current four-game winning streak.

“I probably could have stopped the first one, but the guys rebounded back,” Halak said. “We kept playing at it paid off at the end of the game.”

“We’re going to take one game at a time,” said Canadiens coach Jaques Martin, who danced around any kind of goaltending controversy.

“I’m happy for how he (Halak) is performing, but we’re going to need two goalies to do the job.”

While the shot total was almost even throughout the game, the Canadiens showed they had better puck possession as 26 of their shots were blocked and 18 missed the net. The Islanders had 16 shots blocked and 6 misses.

The Canadiens improved their record to 6-5-0 and are 5-0 in overtime or shootout games so far this season.

They will embark on a two-game road trip to Pittsburgh, on Wednesday, and Chicago, on Friday, before returning home to face the Maple Leafs on Saturday.

Game Photos: HabsInsideOut/Montreal Gazette

Three Stars: 1. Travis Moen 2. Jeff Tambellini 3. Roman Hamrlik

Je suis….découragé. Avs bounce past Habs 3-2

Tomas Plekanec beats Craig Anderson Thursday night – Montreal Gazette photo

In a game that saw some bad bounces for both teams, the Colorado Avalanche came out with a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night, to crash their home-opener.

Instead of a more traditional introduction by Bell Centre announcer Michel LaCroix, the Canadiens players introduced themselves, in French, to the applause of the crowd. Injured Andrei Markov received the warmest reception.

Montreal played a strong first period, outshooting Colorado 11-6, and scored first,on the power play,when Roman Hamrlik moved in off the point and fired a Tomas Plekanec pass into the low corner past Craig Anderson.

The second period was not as effective for Montreal and goaltender Carey Price.

Playing four-on four, Milan Hejduk took a shot that bounced off of two Canadiens players and slipped through the five-hole on Price.

As the period wound down the Avalanche caught the Canadiens off guard. Kyle Cumiskey made a centering pass off the left boards that managed to hit the skate of Canadiens defender Shawn Belle and bounce up and over Price’s shoulder.

The Canadiens tied it up, in the third, when Andrei Kostitsyn fed a one-timer to Plekanec.

Anderson and the Avalanche protested, to no avail ,that an earlier pass behind the net went into the protective netting above the glass and should have been whistled down. The TV replays showed the Avalanche were right, but the goal counted.

Minutes later, a questionable missed penalty call, on a hit to Scott Gomez, and ensuing weak defensive coverage by the Canadiens enabled Ryan O’Reilly to find his own rebound and score his first career NHL goal.

Despite pulling their goaltender, and some good opportunities in the dying seconds by Montreal, Anderson shut the door to preserve the Avalanche win.

Craig Anderson stood tall vs. Canadiens. - Montreal Gazette photo

The Canadiens have now lost their last four straight games, since winning their first two of the season.

Anderson’s 29-save performance moved the Avalanche to a 5-1-1 record to start the season.

If anything positive came out of the loss, it was the play of Canadiens’ winger Andrei Kostitsyn.

After being benched for the third period of Saturday’s loss to Edmonton and messing up the “Je suis” in his intro on Thursday, Kostitsyn played a solid game with two assists two hits, two shots and three missed shots.

In light of his misleading minus two showing, Shaun Belle also played a solid defensive game, his first as a Montreal Canadien.

The Canadiens next game is Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. It will mark the return of former Canadiens All-Star Alex Kovalev to the Bell Centre.

The Senators are coming off a 7-1 pasting of the Tampa Bay Lightning and would like noting more than to make their new teammate’s first visit to his former club a memorable one.

Canadiens beat Senators 2-1

 Ben Maxwell battles Pascal LeClaire Friday night – Montreal Gazette photo

It certainly wasn’t a playoff game, and you didn’t miss much if you missed the first two periods, unless you like a good fight or tow, otr three.

Nonetheless, the Montreal Canadiens came alive, in the third period of this pre-season tilt, to beat their division rival Ottawa Senators tonight at the Bell Centre 2-1.

Montreal only mustered four shots in the  first period, and the Senators scored the lone goal of the period, when Milan Michalek fired a Jason Spezza pass by goaltender Jaroslav Halak.

Michalek was making his first appearance for Ottawa since being traded from San Jose in the Dany Heatley deal.

The Canadiens showed signs of life in the second, inspired by hopeful Ben Maxwell who tied the game at one on the powerplay at 5:15.

Another hopeful, Eric Neilson, showed the Bell Centre crowd his pugilist skills.

After laying out the Senators’ Jeremy Yablonski with a solid hook early in the period, he later took on Ottawa tough guy Chris Neil to a draw.

Eric Neilson goes at it with Chris Neil – Montreal Gazette photo

The New Brunswick native wasn’t finished as he and teammate Andrew Conboy would have a mini scrap with Ottawa’s Matt Carkner and Cody Bass respectively halfway into the third period.

“Neilson did an outstanding job,” said Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin. “He’s a smart individual who doesn’t put his team in trouble.”

Neilson’s 37 penalty minutes on the night is not surprising. 

He racked up 207 PIM in 53 games with the Peoria Rivermen (AHL) last year and used to be Sidney Crosby’s body guard when the two played Junior in Rimouski.

Brian Gionta, one of the  newcomers with high expectations this season, took a Tomas Plekanec pass to beat Robin Lehner with the game-winning goal at 15:56.

Plekanec and Gionta showed improvement, with linemate Max Pacioretty, as the game progressed, despite Pacioretty leaving the game briefly midway into the game.

The two teams meet again tomorrow, in Kanata, where former Hab Alex Kovalev is expected to play.

Free agency will be less of an issue in 2010

Criticized by many for not making the big off-season signing for the past several off-seasons, Bob Gainey may have silenced his critics this summer.

Going into the July 1 free agent deadline, Canadiens’ GM Bob Gainey had ten unrestricted free agents to deal with.

What did he do?

He blew up the team, essentially cleaning house of the supposed “cliques” and locker room problems that burdened the 2008-09 edition of the Canadiens.

Although he did offer contracts to notables such as Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev and Mike Komisarek, those players elected to seek other pastures.

Gainey had been scrutinized in the past for allowing key free agents to walk away (Sheldon Souray in 2007 and Mark Streit in 2008), but this off season he made sure the gaps were filled.

And what a job he did, landing Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez with contracts that will keep them, barring trades, in  the bleu-blanc et rouge until the 2013-14 season is over.

Jaroslav Spacek, Travis Moen, Hal Gill and Paul Mara were then picked up on the cheap for three,three, two and one-year deals respectively.

He then re-signed restricted free agents Kyle Chipchura, Tomas Plekanec and Guillaume Latendresse for one-year terms.

Curtis Sanford was grabbed to be the bridge goaltender between Hamilton and Montreal.

Based on data from  nhlnumbers.com that leaves $3.2 million and change left over that will likely go to resigning Matt D’Agostini and Gregory Stewart.

Prospect P.K. Subban is signed to a 3-year entry level deal, but it has yet to reflect on the cap.

So what was a panic situation by many, on June 30 at 11:59 pm, now appears to be a well balanced group of players with a new head coach in Jacques Martin and a revamped coaching staff (with the exception of assistant coach Kirk Muller) at both the NHL and AHL level.

What’s good for Gainey is that at the end of the 2009-10 season, he will have 16 signed players in the organization, seven restricted free agents (all of whom are making less that $1 million this season) and five unrestricted free agents.

The principle free agent next season will be goaltender Carey Price.

Pending his performance, we can expect “The Franchise” to sign to a long term extension sometime this season.

In all likelihood, Jaroslav Halak could be moved at the trade deadline. The kid is too talented to remain a backup, unless he and Price go the Hayward/Roy route for another two or three seasons.

With long term signings in place, and a good crop of young players signed and in place, it’s safe to say that come June 30 2010, Canadiens fans will be chewing their nails a lot less than this year .

Not to mention that we won’t be worrying about a #1 or #2 d-man walking away next summer.

Habs ink Tomas Plekanec to a one year deal. Trade bait?

The Montreal Canadiens avoided their lone salary arbitration case today, signing center Tomas Plekanec to a one-year deal.

The Canadiens’ official release can be found here.

Terms, as per the team policy, were undisclosed, but are estimated around $2.75 million. He will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2009-10 season.

The 26-year-old came off his third straight 20+ goal season.

His 39 points, however, were his worst point total in those three years.

With the signing, many are speculating that the signing is part of a trade deal with the San Jose Sharks for center Patrick Marleau.

It’s a trade rumor that has been passed around more that a copy of Led Zeppelin IV for three off-seasons now.

With Marleau an unrestricted free agent himself next season, it’s unlikely that Habs’ GM Bob Gainey will want to overload his team with too many UFAs seeking high dollars for a second year.

Now, if Gainey sweetened the pot enough to get Joe Thornton…..hmmmmmmm

NHL Arbitration period begins Monday

 

Restricted free agents and their respective NHL clubs will begin salary arbitration this week in Toronto.

Arbitration meetings conclude on July 31.

A decision in the case must be made by the arbitrator within 48 hours of the meeting’s conclusion.

The arbitrator has the option to hand out one or two-year awards.

Teams will then have 48 hours (or 48 hours after the team's last hearing is concluded if they have multiple players) to accept the contract or walk away, immediately making the player an unrestricted free agent.

Note: A team that requests arbitration does not have walk-away rights.

Below is the current list of arbitration meetings:

Player	Team	Hearing Date
Clarke MacArthur	Buffalo	July 20
Daniel Winnik	Phoenix	July 21
Nigel Dawes	Calgary	July 22
Marc Methot	Columbus	July 23
Matt Hunwick	Boston	July 24
Travis Zajac	New Jersey	July 24
Nate Thompson	NY Islanders	July 27
Kyle Wellwood	Vancouver	July 28
Milan Jurcina	Washington	July 28
Matt Smaby	Tampa Bay	July 28
Denis Grebeshkov	Edmonton	July 29
Josh Harding	Minnesota	July 29
Tomas Plekanec	Montreal	July 30
Tuomo Ruutu	Carolina	July 30
Jiri Hudler	Detroit	July 30
Nikolai Zherdev	NY Rangers	July 31
Kyle Brodziak	Minnesota	July 31