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Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

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“First-place battle”. “Cross-town rivals”. “Hottest team in the league”. Ah, those familiar phrases that grab your attention, and they were all rolled into the same game yesterday.

I’m not sure just how important first-place in the Pacific Division is, but the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings certainly acted as if it mattered. They showed that their rivalry does. And the Ducks, so cold at the start of the season. made you wonder how it’s possible to go from that to this.

A franchise-record 11th straight win for Anaheim came with mayhem (four majors, two game misconducts, two 10-minute misconducts) in the first period, and produced a two-point division lead and the satisfaction of a “road” victory.

So many games seem like they’re all the same. They all count the same, it’s true, but the NHL could do with more games that prove they really aren’t the same.

In the same vein, but only slightly, the Buffalo Sabres will visit Toronto tomorrow night. According to geography, they are each other’s closest rival, but they aren’t playing for first place, just the first draft pick, where the Leafs are concerned, and neither team is anything close to hot.

If a Buffalo at Toronto game had any chance to be interesting this season, it probably should have occurred before now. “Thumbs down” to a schedule that made the Sabres wait this long to travel the Queen Elizabeth Way, Jack Eichel is hardly a rookie anymore. Many of the Leafs have left town. Early in the season, Toronto’s media would have had fun with a game between the two teams that vied for Mike Babcock’s services. As it happens, Dan Bylsma is being openly questioned in Buffalo about his coaching tactics. Could have been fun in October or November. It’s March, and it’s not even one of those games that seem like they’re all the same. It’s worse.

It doesn’t always happen that a team responds positively to a new coach, but when it does, the effect can be felt in other places.

With the Minnesota Wild earning “thumbs up” and sporting an 8-3 record since Mike Yeo was fired and replaced by John Torchetti, Minnesota fans are naturally wondering why it took general manager Chuck Fletcher so long to make the move. He would rather not answer that, and if the Wild can make the playoffs, he won’t have to. He’ll be able to claim he acted just in time.

Around the league, the Wild’s recent success is not lost on fans of other struggling teams. It so happens there are seven of them based in Canada. It is reasonable, though not very delicate, to ask if a coast-to-coast playoff shutout of those teams might bring any coaching casualties.

For what it’s worth, management expresses satisfaction with Willie Desjardins’ work in Vancouver. Others, such as fans and owners, might differ. Calgary’s Bob Hartley is the most recent winner of the coach of the year award, and that’s enough reason to worry, right there.

Todd McLellan has just begun in Edmonton. So has Mike Babcock in Toronto, and he’s as secure as any coach who ever finished last. Paul Maurice’s popularity in Winnipeg can’t be what it was, but he should be safe. Dave Cameron is okay in Ottawa, and that leaves Michel Therrien in Montreal. His, and the Canadiens’ number-one excuse, is Carey Price’s injury, and there are those who believe that a healthy Price would have meant another good season for the Habs, and no talk of Therrien’s future. Others think it will be very hard to overlook the worst of what the Canadiens have presented in Price’s absence, and harder still to stay with the coach.

Let’s sum up the coaches’ report by saying that if all seven in Canada survive, it will be as surprising as all seven of their teams missing the playoffs.