O’Reilly stands by end-of-season comments about losing love of game

Ryan O’Reilly has no regrets about how his end-of-season locker room clean out interview went.

After another losing season with the Buffalo Sabres, O’Reilly said the following when asked if the team was mentally strong enough, according to The Athletic’s Joe Yerdon.

Yeah, I think our mindset is … we’re stuck in this mindset of just being okay with losing. I feel too I think it’s really crept in with myself and over the course of the year, I lost myself a lot and where you just kind of get through and being the guy and being okay with making a mistake and that’s just not winning hockey at all and it’s crept into all of our games. It’s disappointing, it’s sad. I feel throughout the year I’ve lost the love of the game multiple times. I need to get back to it; it’s eaten myself up and you can see other guys, too. It’s eaten myself up. It’s tough.

O’Reilly, who was traded to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday, stood by those candid comments during a conference call Monday.

“My comments, I stand by them,” he said to John Wawrow of The Associated Press, according to colleague Stephen Whyno. “I wanted to make a change. I wanted to personally do things different and be more honest.”

Those comments may have come from the heart at the time they were said, but now, O’Reilly seems energized to be heading to the Gateway to the West.

“I couldn’t be happier going to St. Louis. I’m absolutely thrilled,” he said. “I feel like I have a spark in me now. It’s something different.”

This shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise, as the Sabres finished dead-last in the NHL a season ago. While the Blues also missed the playoffs, they could very well return next year, and O’Reilly may get a chance to play alongside star winger Vladimir Tarasenko.

Regardless, O’Reilly had nothing but good things to say about the Sabres and the city of Buffalo.

“I love that city and love those guys on that team,” he told Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News. “I think they’re a team that’s very close too. It will be interesting to see what will happen with them … they’re in good hands and there’s great things to come there.

“They’ve been monumental in my life.”

Lundqvist: It was tough knowing teammates could be traded at deadline

The last few weeks have not been easy for the New York Rangers.

On Feb. 8. general manager Jeff Gorton and president Glen Sather penned a letter to fans regarding the retooling of the team’s roster, with the reality being that fan favorites would be traded for picks and prospects.

The team stuck to its word, dealing captain Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, J.T. Miller, Michael Grabner, and Nick Holden ahead of the deadline. For goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, all that movement hit him hard on Tuesday.

“I woke up today and it’s almost like you can’t believe it,” Lundqvist said on Tuesday, according to NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley. “It’s been so many years playing together, going through so many things, and it’s just a different team.”

Knowing that teammates could be traded anytime between when the club released its statement and the deadline was certainly taxing on the players.

“It’s been a really tough stretch here for a few weeks knowing this might happen,” said Lundqvist. “A big part of our team, good friends, they are gone. … I’ve never experienced anything like this. It was new, but I totally understand where we are and what needs to be done.”

On the flip side, the Rangers were able to kick-start their rebuild with the moves they made, acquiring two first-round picks, a conditional first, a second, a third, a seventh, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Ryan Spooner, along with some prospects and younger players, setting themselves up nicely to quickly turn things around.

LeBron: Cavs GM ‘did a heck of a job’ revamping roster

LeBron James gave props to Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman for his roster rehaul.

“I think Koby did a heck of a job of understanding what our team needed. It just wasn’t working out for us,” James told reporters following Tuesday’s 120-112 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“He made the changes he felt that best fits our team,” the four-time MVP added. “Then it’s on me to make sure the new guys that come in, I make sure they fit in and make it as seamless as possible.”

Altman, who was promoted to GM in the offseason after David Griffin left, was the league’s busiest executive ahead of last week’s trade deadline. Determined to give his struggling team a boost in terms of youth, athleticism, and defensive acumen, Altman swung three trades that shipped out seven players and brought back four new faces.

James has the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and it appears the team tried to give him a reason to stay in Cleveland. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Altman met with the superstar last week to discuss the transactions he was in the process of facilitating and assured him he’d try his best to fix what was a dysfunctional group both on and off the court.

The early returns are encouraging, with Cleveland picking up quality wins over the Boston Celtics and Thunder.

James is averaging 26.5 points, 8.9 assists, 8.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and a block over 56 games for the third-place Cavs. He’s expected to decline his $35.6-million player option at season’s end.

Tallon showing he wants his team back, no matter what it takes

Dale Tallon appears determined to undo the work of Tom Rowe, and he doesn’t seem to care too much about what’s required to do so.

By jettisoning defenseman Jason Demers to the Arizona Coyotes for grinding forward Jamie McGinn on Sunday, the Florida Panthers general manager made his second obvious reversal of a Rowe transaction since re-assuming the GM position in April.

Tallon also traded Reilly Smith and his five-year, $25-million contract to the Vegas Golden Knights on the day of the expansion draft in June, getting back a fourth-round pick.

Rowe, who originally replaced Tallon as Panthers GM in the spring of 2016, signed both Demers and Smith to long-term deals, inking Demers to a five-year, $22.5-million contract on July 2, 2016, a day before finalizing the Smith pact.

That Tallon was only able to get a physical, but largely unproductive winger in McGinn for Demers, and a fourth rounder in return Smith, isn’t too surprising, given the difficulty many GMs have trading players signed to long-terms deals.

What’s telling, though, is that he was so willing to part with them, that he was perfectly content dumping their salaries for minimal returns, and that he was reportedly willing to retain 12.5 percent of Demers’ salary in Sunday’s trade to ensure the blue-liner’s departure.

Tallon’s attempt to redo Rowe’s roster restructuring runs deeper than that, too.

Demers revealed Sunday that he had to use his modified no-trade clause to veto a trade that would have sent him to the Vancouver Canucks for Erik Gudbranson, the defenseman Rowe dealt away for Jared McCann in a move that also involved a few picks in May 2016.

In other words, Tallon unsuccessfully tried to get a player back that his predecessor (and successor) sent packing.

There’s been no public indication that Tallon was upset about being promoted out of the GM role when Rowe was appointed to replace him, but now that Tallon is back in his old job, his latest moves are providing a window into how he may have felt about the roster.

While Demers and Smith are both solid players, signing them to five-year contracts was ill-advised, even if the moves came following a season in which Florida won its first-ever Atlantic Division crown.

The Panthers lost in the first round of the playoffs that spring, but Tallon built the team that notched that historic regular-season achievement, and he put together much of the core that gave South Florida newfound hope on the hockey front.

But under Rowe’s leadership, the Panthers struggled out of the gate, and the GM exercised a quick trigger finger, firing head coach Gerard Gallant and jumping behind the bench himself, with disappointing results.

Tallon’s back in the saddle now, though, and the longtime executive appears willing to do whatever it takes to restore the lineup to the way it was during his previous run.

Given the Panthers’ recent track record, it’s hard to argue with that strategy.

McDavid: ‘It sucks’ losing Hall, Eberle to trades, but it’s a business

Connor McDavid was disappointed to see two teammates and friends get traded, but he understands that’s just part of the game.

The reigning Hart Trophy winner is still processing the departures of Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall, who were traded away in separate deals about a year apart.

“It never gets easier,” McDavid told Postmedia’s Mike Zeisberger. “Jordan’s a great friend. We’re really close. He did a lot for me coming in as a young guy, taking me around Edmonton and kind of taking care of me.

“It’s never easy to lose a friend like Jordan or Taylor. It sucks.”

Eberle was sent to the New York Islanders for Ryan Strome on June 22, and Hall was traded to the New Jersey Devils on June 29, 2016 in a controversial deal for defenseman Adam Larsson.

McDavid said he was first struck by the frequency of player movement back in his junior days.

“Two months into my second season my roommate got traded. And for me, it was like: ‘This is insane … You can’t get close to anyone.’ It was so hard for me.

“And then a week later, my other buddy got traded. So, it was like two of my best buddies in the whole world on the team got traded in a week. So for me, it was kind of a rude awakening.”

The 20-year-old superstar knows it’s a reality of the sports world, but the departures haven’t stopped him from keeping in touch with his former teammates.

“Now, in the past two seasons, losing (Hall) and (Eberle) and all these different guys, it just goes to show you that it is a business,” McDavid said. “But friendships do last. I talk to Taylor all the time, I was at (Jordan’s) wedding … so, like I said, friendships last. Those are the types of bonds you get when you are on a team.”

McDavid and Eberle played together for the last two seasons, and Hall played with McDavid during the 2015-16 campaign. Hall and Eberle were teammates for six seasons beginning in 2010-11.

All three players were first-round picks, with McDavid and Hall going first overall in 2015 and 2010, respectively. Eberle was Edmonton’s 22nd overall selection in 2008.

Thomas sees double standard with departing FAs, teams trading players

 

 

When a beloved, high-profile NBA talent elects to take his talents elsewhere in free agency, they’re mostly met with a barrage of negativity from their former fan base and media for a business decision they had every right to make.

But when management moves a player who had every intention to stay around for the long haul, there’s not nearly as much outrage, if any.

All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas feels as such about his move to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Thomas said he hopes his trade from the Boston Celtics will open up eyes about the double standard, while using Kevin Durant signing with the Golden State Warriors as a prime example to support the other side.

“I actually think this was a good lesson,” Thomas wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “Not only for me, but for the league as a whole. And for the fans and the media, too, you know, just in terms of how they talk about guys changing teams.

“I was thinking about that last year with KD and his free agency – about how people gave him such a hard time for doing what he felt was best for him and his future. How they turned him into a villain, just for doing what was his right to do as a free agent in this league. Suddenly, it was, ‘Oh, he’s selfish,’ or, ‘Oh, he’s a coward.’ Suddenly, just for doing business on his end, and doing right by himself, he was portrayed as this bad guy.”

Thomas added that the pain of being shipped off by the Celtics still lingers to this day, and that loyalty is really “just a word” if players who displayed his level of commitment can be sent packing.

“I want them to see how my getting traded – just like that, without any warning – by the franchise that I scratched and clawed for, and bled for, and put my everything on the line for? That’s why people need to fix their perspective,” Thomas wrote.

“It’s like, man – with a few exceptions, unless we’re free agents, 99 times out of 100, it’s the owners with the power. So when players are getting moved left and right, and having their lives changed without any say-so, and it’s no big deal … but then the handful of times it flips, and the player has control … then it’s some scandal? Just being honest, but – to me, that says a lot about where we are as a league, and even as a society. And it says a lot about how far we still have to go.”

Nonetheless, Thomas says there’s “no hard feelings” with Boston, although he’s still hopeful the basketball world will look at what happened to him and perhaps think twice the next time it wants to pile on a departing free agent.

Bishop was frustrated by sharing net in Tampa Bay

Of all the names to find themselves listed on new rosters after the trade deadline, Ben Bishop‘s was arguably the most intriguing.

The former Tampa Bay Lightning netminder’s change of address wasn’t the surprise – he was involved in trade talks dating back to last summer – but rather the fact that the Los Angeles Kings dealt for his services. And one day after longtime starter Jonathan Quick returned from injury, no less.

Now, as the Kings fight to claim a playoff spot, the potential of a timeshare in net looms, with Quick and Bishop both ranking among the top starters in the game.

That might not be a very welcome development for Bishop given his thoughts on splitting time in the past.

In an interview with ESPN’s Scott Burnside this week, Bishop said the Lightning’s setup in net this year wasn’t exactly ideal.

“I was a little frustrated at the beginning of the season,” Bishop said. “Coming off of probably my best season of my career and not getting to play as much as I wanted to in Tampa. I wanted to kind of keep it the same as the last three years, because it had been working.

“We started switching goalies back and forth in Tampa, and it wasn’t working. We were falling in the standings and it was making me a little bit upset. Why fix what’s not broken?”

Bishop posted an impressive .921 save percentage over his three-and-a-half seasons with the Lightning, alongside 17 shutouts. He finished second in Vezina Trophy voting last season, losing out to Washington Capitals starter Braden Holtby.

Following the deal that sent Bishop to California, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said the trade wasn’t simply a backup plan in case Quick was unable to find his form.

But he also stopped short of naming either man as the club’s No. 1 option.

“Best-case scenario, assuming Jon is at the top of his game, what’s the best number of games to play him?” Lombardi said to Jon Rosen at the time. “We had sketched that out, and said, ‘You know what? It makes a lot of sense for him, but we better get essentially another No. 1.'”

In the four games since Los Angeles acquired Bishop, he and Quick have each started twice. Quick earned the Kings’ only win during that stretch – a shootout victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Divac feels Kings are better off after Cousins trade: ‘If I’m wrong, I’ll step down’

There was a great deal of risk that came with trading one of the Association’s premier big men in DeMarcus Cousins, and considering the lackluster haul the Sacramento Kings received in their dealings with the New Orleans Pelicans, it’s easy to see why there are so many question marks surrounding the direction the franchise is currently heading in.

Through all of the negativity and uncertainty, though, general manager Vlade Divac remains confident in his decision to ship Boogie off, and if that ends up leading to his demise in his current role somewhere down the road, then so be it.

“That’s my job, and I take responsibility. And I totally understand why some fans would be upset. They supported DeMarcus, and I like DeMarcus a lot. But I believe we are going to be in a better position in two years,” Divac told the Sacramento Bee’s Ailene Voisin. “I want to hear again from these same people in two years.

“If I’m right, great. If I’m wrong, I’ll step down. But if I go down, I’m going down my way.”

The move to the Big Easy came as a total surprise to Cousins, as he had been told by Divac and owner Vivek Ranadive that he wasn’t going anywhere, with the two even consulting him over potential personnel moves to improve the roster ahead of time.

Ultimately, management felt that a fresh start was long overdue for both parties, despite seemingly telling Cousins and his agents that wasn’t the case.

“It was a lot of things, but basically, I thought it was time to start over,” Divac added. “There was a lot of bad stuff happening here the last five years, a lot of bad habits. There were always issues, many you don’t even know about. Now I believe strongly this was the right thing to do for our future. Now I have a clear vision. This city deserves better, and I want to create that. With DeMarcus’ situation, I basically was stuck.

“Maybe we’re going to win a few more games than last year but probably not make the playoffs. Then where are we? Same old place. And we have that contract to deal with. If we keep DeMarcus this summer, we have to extend him, or otherwise he would be on an expiring contract that everyone would be afraid of. Teams don’t trade a lot for a player they aren’t sure will re-sign with you. And if he extended, we couldn’t sign him for an entire year anyway.”

In Cousins’ stead is a 24-year-old scoring guard in Buddy Hield, the expiring contract of once-former King and Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans, a backup in Langston Galloway, and two draft picks. Sacramento emerged victorious in its first outing following the blockbuster trade on Thursday against the Denver Nuggets, but fell short on Saturday in a 14-point loss to the visiting Charlotte Hornets.

Yzerman: Decision to trade Bishop ‘based on the salary cap’

The writing was on the wall when Andrei Vasilevskiy was signed to a three-year contract extension last summer.

That decision was made with the knowledge that Ben Bishop was set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2017, and that the Tampa Bay Lightning would likely be unable to re-sign the goalie who’s been key to their success in recent years.

Thus, Bishop was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, with veteran Peter Budaj coming back in return as a cheaper but still very effective option in net.

“(Bishop’s) been a major part of the success we’ve had in the last three years and helping us go on long playoff runs, as important to our team as any other player,” Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman said, according to the team’s website.

“In the business now in hockey, you have to make some decisions based on the salary cap.”

Budaj posted a record of 27-20-3 with a .917 save percentage while filling in for Jonathan Quick this season. The 34-year-old is playing on a one-year deal, but could be retained on the cheap if all goes well.

“In moving Ben, we needed a good backup – somebody to help out Vasilevskiy. (Budaj’s) done a great job filling in for Quick,” Yzerman said. “We want somebody experienced playing with Vasilevskiy, but we also wanted to bring in somebody that can help us win games and get us into the playoffs.”

Tampa Bay was also able to add defensive prospect Erik Cernak in the deal, as well as a seventh-round pick and a conditional pick (both in the 2017 draft).

Altogether, not a bad haul for a player who would have left via free agency or the expansion draft at season’s end.

Yzerman can now focus on helping the team get back to the playoffs while also having to contend with soon-to-be restricted free-agent forwards Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat.

Bishop, meanwhile, will try to keep his stock high while splitting time with Quick, keeping a view on winning a Stanley Cup in Los Angeles and signing a lucrative contract in the offseason.

Cousins trade makes Pelicans contenders, says owner

Boogie’s arrival has brought a sense of excitement to the Big Easy, and at least one person is dreaming of an NBA title.

A day after New Orleans announced it landed DeMarcus Cousins in a trade with the Sacramento Kings, Pelicans owner Tom Benson raved that adding one of the best players in the league makes his club an instant contender.

“We are only a few games behind in the playoff hunt and I want to bring an NBA Championship to this city,” he said in a statement released Tuesday. “I think this trade puts us in a position where we are now more improved and can make a run.”

Indeed, the Pels are just 2.5 games back of the eighth spot in the West with 25 regular-season games remaining and are in a win-now mode with the additions of Cousins and Omri Casspi. They’re apparently not done their roster shake-up, either, as they’re reportedly looking to add a perimeter player.

An adjustment period is expected, but if New Orleans can make the playoffs, they could make some noise behind the incredibly talented All-Star duo of Anthony Davis and Cousins.

Benson also said he was “110 percent” behind the decision to acquire the All-NBA center. He even lent his plane to general manager Dell Demps and coach Alvin Gentry to pick up the two players in Sacramento.

Cousins and Casspi are set to make their Pelicans debuts in Thursday’s game versus the Houston Rockets.