Friday Wrap Up: Mike Milbury is Probably Calling the Bruins Right Now

• The NHL coaching carousel is running slow these days: Around these parts, coaches are usually fired by the half way point of the season, or after the final game. NHL front offices are typically very quick to pull the rug out from under their coaches. In stark contrast to that notion, Calgary took about a month after their last game to announce that they had replaced Jim Playfair. Today the Boston Bruins, who haven’t played a game in a much longer amount of time, got rid of Dave Lewis. What a shocker… By the way, Mike Milbury is available for a return to Boston. I’m just saying. Let’s hope for the sake of Bruins fans, that little sentence is all we ever hear about that… Sorry, just had to throw it out there.
• On the Playfair/Keenan situation: There’s a very interesting statistic relating to Playfair’s time as Calgary’s head coach; he will leave his position with the highest winning percentage of any coach in Flames history (including their time in Atlanta). Granted, he only coached Calgary for one season, but for all the flak he took from the fans up there, it’s something worth noting. Maybe just a little punch in the stomach, if nothing else.
• The Hamilton Predators: Well, it’s finally official. The Preds have activated the clause in their lease that allows them to skip town if average attendance does not surpass 14,000 next season… If you’re wondering just how many butts they could put in the seats when if they bolt for Hamilton, James Mirtle is reporting that they sold at least 10,000 season ticket deposits in about 48 hours. Somewhere, Jam Balsillie is counting his money.
• It’s like déjà vu all over again: I’m pretty sick and tired of talking about the NHL’s television problems, so I’ll let DeadSpin, the FanHouse and Off Wing tell you about the problems Versus had in showing the awards show last night. I can’t wait for all the vultures to repeat what they always say when something like this happens; “Blah, blah, blah, no one watches the NHL anyway, blah, blah, blah.”
• It’s twice as fun if we pretend to be twins: Montreal has signed Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins (Suffolk County represent!) to identical contracts. They will both earn $1.5 mil this year followed by $1.9 in 08-09, for a grand total of $3.4 mil over two years.
• Jan Hlavac’s domination of the NHL will be swift and thorough: After a three year absence, Hlavac will return to the NHL. He has signed a one year deal with Tampa Bay.

This ends a ridiculously slow news day. Is it October yet? _uacct = “UA-1868762-1”;
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