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Mike Milbury’s Hat Trick

Mike Milbury

Each week here at ProHockeyTalk, NHL on NBC’s Mike Milbury gives us his take on three hot topics of discussion around the league. We’re happy to have Mike join us and give us his unique and fiery opinions on what’s going on in the NHL.

Who comes out ahead in the Wojtek Wolski-Michal Rozsival trade between New York and Phoenix?

I think both teams got things that they needed. Obviously it’s a positional trade, a winger for a defenseman. Phoenix has needs and a lack of depth at the position they opted for Rozsival despite his age and despite the fact that he’s got a contract that goes for another year. Because of the injuries that have occurred to the Rangers they opt for a one-time goal scorer who’s not playing great hockey right now but he’s young and he’s fitting a pattern the Rangers follow right now. He fills a need and serves their purposes for that and youth.

Skill players like Wolski seem to get a few more passes than then average Joe. A guy that can put the puck in the back of the net is a valuable resource. There are many people that will take a shot at a guy that might need to mature a little bit. It might be his last chance to prove himself but it would surprise me if it is. That all depends on Wolski and how he performs. The Rangers and John Tortorella are hoping that he can get hot once again and do it consistently.

With the teams being announced for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, what are your thoughts on the game itself?

Image (1) allstargamelogo-thumb-350x191-16697-thumb-250x136-16698.jpg for post 15105

James O’Brien

I hate the All-Star Game. It sucks. I wish they’d just throw it away. I hate the Pro Bowl, I don’t like the NBA All-Star Game, I don’t even like what Major League Baseball does, although I will tune in for the home run hitting contest.

We’ve got a spectacular for the sport in the Winter Classic. I don’t like the All-Star Game and I wish we’d be the first sport to get rid of it. I know it’s a chance to shmooze some sponsors. It’s a business decision to show promote the identity of the players and sell it to big sponsors. There’s got to be a better way to do that though. Maybe a golf tournament in the middle of the summer when the guys are relaxed.

But to pull out a four-day weekend in the middle of an 82-game schedule to is nonsensical for me and from the players standpoint. You ask players and they’re honored to be selected whether it’s their first or their 50th time. But it becomes more of a burden than a pleasure to go to these things.

I’ve coached in an All-Star Game and you barely see these guys. Their itinerary is chock full of activities and social events and they barely get time for themselves. They do all this and then they’re back on a plane and back to join their teams for the re-start of the regular season. It doesn’t serve them well and it doesn’t serve the game well in that it tires players out. It adds something to the business side of things, I get that part of it, I just wish they’d find a better way to expose the players to the major sponsors and make them more sociable at that point.

There’s a handful of teams facing struggles right now. What’s out there for Ottawa and Los Angeles to do to change things up?

Ottawa’s missing some key offensive players despite Kovalev’s lack of production and they still believe he’s a bonafide offensive producer and they’re still without Jason Spezza. You take out two ice time eaters and major producers you’re going to suffer. It’s gone way past that.

Brian Elliott looked tough in goal, their defense was shoddy last night, Sergei Gonchar is not the Gonchar that we’ve come to expect, and Daniel Alfredsson is not having a banner year. They look like a team that’s lacking in focus and discipline and in desperate need of a change of some type or another. I’m not close enough to them to say the coach should go or the manager must go, but all in all last night (a 6-0 loss to Boston) was a real rough performance. This is a team that now trails Toronto in points in the Eastern Conference, that’s not a slam on Toronto just showing where they’re at and it’s not good.

Terry Murray, Jack Johnson

Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray, left, looks at defenseman Jack Johnson during the first period of the Kings’ NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

AP

As for Los Angeles, Terry Murray has been a good coach for a long time and maybe he’s changed his ways in recent years but he used to be a real stern taskmaster. I’m not there to watch his practices but you wonder if that’s the approach the Kings need at this point.

I don’t think that’s going to happen during the course of this season, but maybe he’s developed, the way Michel Therrien did in Pittsburgh, a work ethic and an identity and a defensive scheme and then that style may not be the right fit now. I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon though. I’m not saying Terry Murry is a bad coach, he’s a very good coach. It’s just that sometimes the fit is off and you take a team as far as you can take them and then you hand them off. It might be coming to that time in L.A.
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Got a question you’d like for us to ask Mike? Leave one for us in the comments or e-mail us at prohockeytalk@gmail.com to pass it along and share it with you in the future.