Staying true to form, the final dealing day of the season was super busy. Coming on the heels of the most active deadline day last year, when 25 trades were completed, at least 20 went down in the final hours on Tuesday.
The New York Islanders' general manager Garth Snow pulled off a trade that could propel New York into the playoffs. He mulled offers for Jason Blake, an impending unrestricted free agent this summer, and then pounced for Edmonton's Ryan Smyth became available when contract talks with the Oilers broke down.
New York sent first-round picks Robert Nilsson (2003) and Ryan O'Marra (2005), along with the Islanders' first-round choice in this year's draft to Edmonton for Smyth, who has 31 goals and 53 points in 53 games this season.
While that one came as a surprise, Bill Guerin's departure from St. Louis didn't. The rugged forward's days were clearly short because of his upcoming unrestricted free agent status, and it became more clear that he wouldn't be staying once the Blues dealt Keith Tkachuk to Atlanta a few days before the deadline.
Two days earlier, the Sharks acquired veteran defenseman Craig Rivet from the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Josh Gorges and their own first-round pick.
The Sharks sent Finnish left wing Ville Nieminen to the rebuilding Blues.
Bertuzzi, best known for his blindside hit to the head of former Colorado player Steve Moore that drew the rugged forward a 17-month suspension, was traded by the Florida Panthers after playing only seven games with them in an injury-plagued season.
The Panthers acquired forward Shawn Matthias and up to two conditional draft picks in the deal.
Bertuzzi, acquired by Florida from Vancouver for top goalie Roberto Luongo on draft day last year, hasn't played since he had lower back surgery in November.
The Buffalo Sabres took a big step toward replenishing their injury-ravaged lineup by making four deadline-day deals. The biggest brought Lithuanian forward Dainius Zubrus to town from Washington.
The Sabres also dealt backup goalie Martin Biron to the Philadelphia Flyers for a second-round pick and then acquired Columbus Blue Jackets' backup goalie Ty Conklin for a fifth-round pick in this year's draft.
Along with Zubrus, a consistent offensive forward, Buffalo also landed prospect and Swiss defenseman Timo Helbling. The Sabres dealt rookie Czech forward Jiri Novotny, who's ready to return from a high ankle sprain, and a first-round pick to the Capitals.
The Sabres then traded a fourth-round draft pick to Nashville for minor league Finnish defenseman Mikko Lehtonen.
Sweden's Norstrom, the Kings captain since 2002, was sent with Kazakh right wing Konstantin Pushkarev and two draft picks to the Dallas Stars for Czech star Jaroslav Modry and three draft choices.
Norstrom is the team's career leader in games played among defensemen with 780. He has two goals, seven assists and 40 penalty minutes in 62 games this season.
The New York Rangers sent Aaron Ward to the Boston Bruins for fellow defenseman Paul Mara, and traded newly acquired forward Pascal Dupuis to the Atlanta Thrashers for a third-round draft pick and prospect Alex Bourret.
Ward, a member of the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes last season, was in the first year of a two-year deal with New York that pays him US$2.75 million each season.
The Pittsburgh Penguins took steps to win now, adding veteran leadership and muscle to their young forward lineup.
Joining blossoming stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, are 40-year-old Gary Roberts and noted fighter Georges Laraque.
To land Roberts, who waived a no-trade clause, Pittsburgh sent defenseman Noah Welch to Florida. Forward prospect Daniel Carcillo and a 2008 third-round pick were shipped to Phoenix for Laraque. The Penguins then dealt Dominic Moore to Minnesota for a third-round pick and acquired defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski from Florida for a fourth-round choice.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier