Hype for April 11, 2010

Boston College went into the 2009-10 season with more questions than answers.

Would No. 1 goaltender John Muse be able to regain the form he had before offseason hip surgery? Would the young defensive corps be able to make the adjustment to the college game early enough to benefit the Eagles significantly or would there be too steep a learning curve? Would the sophomore class, which missed the NCAA Tournament as freshmen, be able to step up to enable the Eagles to deliver a memorable campaign? Would the outstanding leaders — such as senior captain Matt Price — be able to steer BC into a position to earn its second national title in three years?

The answers all turned out to be yes.

Last night at Ford Field, the Eagles took the lead on a power-play goal at 12:57 of the first period and added four tallies in the third on the way to a 5-0 victory over Wisconsin in front of 37,592 fans. It marked the fourth title in BC history and third since 2001. It also avenged BC’s loss to the Badgers in the championship game in 2006.

Calgary Flames president Ken King is toiling behind the scenes in hopes the National Hockey League club will host an outdoor game at McMahon Stadium.

“Working on it,” King said Saturday night via e-mail. “Hopeful.”

According to a report by Hockey Night in Canada panellist Pierre LeBrun, the deal is complete, and the Flames will host either the Vancouver Canucks or Montreal Canadiens next winter at McMahon, home to the Canadian Football League’s Stampeders.

CBC-TV is heavily involved in the organizing behind the scenes.

All things considered, Mike Comrie has been productive for the Edmonton Oilers when he’s actually been on the ice.

The local product scored his 11th and 12th goals of the year on Saturday in a 4-3 shootout win over the Los Angeles Kings.

At this pace, had he been healthy for the entire year, Comrie could have broken the 20-goal barrier.

“You always wonder a little bit what could have been,” Comrie said. “But that’s part being in the NHL. If you’re able to stay healthy, obviously your numbers are going to be a little better. At the beginning of the season, I thought I could be on pace to score 20 or 30 goals this year. Unfortunately that didn’t happen."

With arms in the air, stick raised far above his head, Steven Stamkos bumped into glass along the near boards.

Within seconds he was surrounded by blue jerseys as teammates offered their congratulations moments after Stamkos, 20, became the third-youngest player in NHL history to record 50 goals in a season in Tampa Bay's 4-3 shootout victory over Florida in the Lightning's home finale.

With 25 goals in his past 32 games, the sophomore center who was the top pick in the 2008 draft streaked his way to a monumental milestone. He accomplished the feat with his father, Chris, sitting in the stands.

However terribly this year has unfolded for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s been immeasurably worse for Brian Burke.

The club has lost 38 games in regulation and another 14 in extra time, shut out of the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

Burke has lost a son.

That puts hockey in stark perspective.

“I wouldn’t have wished this on my worst enemy,” the Leaf president and GM said on Saturday afternoon, reviewing a calendar year that has veered crazily from high hopes to the lowest depths of hell.

Now that a winter of disappointment is over, the Flames and their fans are heading into a spring — and summer — of discontent.

Ever since the Flames returned to the playoffs in 2004 and made it within a goal of the Stanley Cup title, hopes have been high in the Stampede City they would challenge for the second crown in club history.

Those dreams have crashed and burned each year since, but none ended worse than the now completed 2009-10 campaign.

Of all the names Henrik Sedin has been called, Art Ross is the most unexpected.

But here it is, the last day of the regular season and Henrik is poised to win the NHL's scoring title, the Art Ross Trophy. He held off a raging bull, Alex Ovechkin, by saving his most special night of his season for his last.

Henrik didn't get the seven points he thought he needed to lock up the scoring title Saturday. But he got enough in a 7-3 win over the Calgary Flames. With four points, Henrik took a three-point lead in the scoring race and essentially said:

Your serve, Ovie.

All season long, even through his extended scoring droughts and his general laissez-faire attitude toward the regular season, Alexei Kovalev provided glimpses of hope for Ottawa Senators fans that he may have been saving something special for the playoffs.

Forget about that now.

Kovalev's season -- and possibly his career -- is over after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Thursday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kovalev was helped off the ice after what appeared to be a clean hit along the side boards by Tampa's Todd Fedoruk.

Kovalev is expected to have surgery in two weeks, followed by four months of rehabilation. At 37, with a lot of miles already on his body, there's no guarantee Kovalev will be willing to put in the necessary time to be ready for training camp in September, if ever again.

The Flyers will undoubtedly dust off Kate Smith's "God Bless America" recording for Sunday's season finale against the New York Rangers at the Wachovia Center, but it will take more than their good-luck song to propel them into the playoffs.

It will take 60 sustained minutes - something they didn't get in Friday's 4-3 loss to the Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

It will take a stronger forecheck, improved special-teams play, fewer defensive breakdowns, and, perhaps most important, better discipline (read: no dumb penalties) than Dan Carcillo and Scott Hartnell displayed in Friday's defeat.

The eighth-place Flyers and ninth-place Rangers both have 86 points, but Philadelphia  is ahead of New York because it has more wins. The points tie will be broken Sunday.

The Ottawa Senators floored Drew Stafford. Thomas Vanek flattened the Senators.

It will be up to Stafford's recovery timetable to determine if it's a fair tradeoff.

The Sabres celebrated the return of their most accomplished scorer Saturday, using a career- high four goals from Vanek for a 5-2 victory over their nemesis. The rare win was marred early when the Sabres lost another key player.

Stafford was lambasted by Ottawa defenseman Andy Sutton just 2:35 into the game and didn't return.

"Drew's not doing so well," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "He's got a little bit of a concussion, and it looks like he'll miss some time."