Penguins/NHL
*The Bruins are playing the spin game after trading Phil Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs for two first round picks and a 2nd rounder.
There’s talk coming out of the Bruins organization that Kessel didn’t play hard enough, didn’t see eye-to-eye with Claude Julien and his teammates.
Whether there’s some truth to that is up for debate but there are some players in the Bruins locker room who are not happy about the team trading away a 21 yard forward who netted 36 goals last season and has 40+ goal potential.
What it comes down to is that the Bruins didn’t see Kessel as a “Bruins type of player”
Even after the trade, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has the Bruins in position to be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference but he can be at fault for not making a young core player in Kessel a priority.
Chiarelli has found some young gems in Milan Lucic, Blake Wheeler and David Krejci but he’s also over-paid for some veterans including Michael Ryder, Marco Sturm and Tim Thomas which is why his hand was forced to part ways with Kessel.
Emery showing up late to meetings?
*The Flyers are trying to keep things very quiet but there is word that goaltender Ray Emery has showed up late for two off-ice meetings in the past two weeks. He has not been fined but it’s something to keep an eye on.
Lightning making bold move?
Right winger Carter Ashton, 18, the 29th overall pick this year, for the Tampa Bay Lightning is under strong consideration to make the team.
Ashton has been skating on a line with Vincent Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay for the past couple days in practice and will see some time with Lecavalier and Tanguay in the Lightning’s remaining pre-season games.
Adding Ashton to their 23 man roster would be a bold move for Tampa Bay but is Pittsburgh considering a similar move? A few league insiders have been getting word
that Eric Tangradi is under serious consideration to join the Penguins out of training camp. But, this kind of talk seems to only be coming from people on the outside.
Sources involved with the team keep telling me the Penguins doesn’t want to rush him at all and will stick to their plan of letting him play most of the season in Wilkes Barre.
Tangradi has been drawing rave reviews from scouts around the league who saw him play on Tuesday night against Columbus.
