This week Jean-Sebastien Giguere tells the LA Daily news that he would rather retire than be a back up goaltender. With Giguere back in the line up, the Ducks have some decisions to make. Jonas Hiller has held the fort down and played well as he started the last 6 games for the Ducks while Giguere was patting his groin and has proved once again he is a number one goaltender, an under paid one at that making a mere 1.3 million this season. This is the second time in two years Hiller has taken the #1 spot from Giguere at least for now.

Yesterday, Giguere tries to cover up his comment by saying he was only being sarcastic with his comments. Give me a break, if he thinks he will waltz back into the #1 spot with out earning it…he is nuts. Giguere needs to stop being stubborn, release his “no trade” clause and get out of Anaheim. Rumors have already been flying ( no pun there) about a move to Toronto and there are other teams that could use Giguere on their squad like Detroit or Carolina who just put Ward on the IR and is relying on Manny Legace for the interm. The problem is his huge contract that only a few teams may be able to take on.

What ever the outcome is stop your bitching, I wish I could make 6 million for sitting on my ass. Retiring will not give you that kind of money.

It’ no secret that Vesa Toskala is having and off season but you need to look at the cast of characters that was in front of him for his 0-2-2 start. Don’t get me wrong, Jonas Gustausson was very solid as he  made 35 saves in his first real challenge of the season when the Leafs beat Wings over the weekend. But  2 of his 3 wins came when Phil Kessel returned. For the time being Gustausson has earned  #1 spot  in Toronto which brings me to my point.

The Orange County is reporting that Toronto wants to bring in Giguere as a mentor for rookie Gustausson and also re-unite him with goaltender coach Francois Allaire. Assuming that is true, why would you finish paying a 6 million dollar contract for this season and a 7 million dollar nut next season for a mentor and back up goaltender? Giguere also has a no movement clause in his contract that would have to be addressed.

For Anaheim this would be a great deal. Jonas Hiller has already proved he is a #1 goaltender since he already earned that spot last season from Giguere. Hiller made 40 saves in his first career shut out Thursday night against the Predators. The Ducks would free up salary cap revenue since Toskala is 2 million cheaper than Giguere this season and becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.

Boo-Hoo, the ref’s hate me

One of my favorite stories of the week has to be from the City of Anaheim where according to Duck fans, the officials gave Toronto their first win with phantom calls. I wrote a whole piece on that earlier this week and you can read the article here. The irony is the day after I posted that article, I had one less follower on Twitter…coincidence? Nah….poor sport. Just for the record, I think the site is cute, the Rally was stupid.

Win one, Lose a bunch more

Toronto finally got their first win and like I said earlier in the week, Toronto’s wins will be far and few this year. Although goaltender Vesa Toskala looked solid in his first start since being sidelined, the Leafs still managed to lose Saturday night to the Habs in a shootout. And yes Toronto is once again on another losing streak at 3 games. The good news is that Phil Kessel is rumored to be returning Tuesday night when they host the Lightning. The Leafs best chance of winning a game this week will be on Friday when they visit the lowly Hurricanes (2-8-3) who have their worse start since the franchised moved from Hartford.

Bay-”B” I got your number

Henrik Lundqvist certainly has the Bruins number which is zero. Lundqvist earned his 150th NHL win Sunday by shutting out the Bruins for the 4th time and his 21st  career shut out. The Bruins are still on the lose one, win one pattern since the opening face off on October 1st.

The Goalie Shuffle

Being a back up goalie in the NHL is a tough on a young player who is just itching to get into the action and be your teams #1. What better way to prove your point than to make 50 saves against the Ottawa Senators. That’s what Atlanta Thrashers goalie, Ondrej Pavelec did on Saturday night. With starter Kari Lehtonen recovering from back surgery, Pavelec has filled in and done the job for the Thrashers.

Speaking of goalies,  once Avalanche backup, Andrew Raycroft shut out his old team last night 3-0 . Raycroft has been the Canucks net minder since Roberto Luongo has been injured. Don’t read into that one too much, Raycroft wasn’t challenged only facing 18 shots.

Key Match-ups this week ahead

The defending champs and best in the East, Pittsburgh Penguins hit the road this week as the start of a 4 game road trip. Saturday night you will see the Crosby vs Thorton showdown as the Pens visit the 2nd in the west San Jose Sharks. Pittsburgh is still undefeated on the road this season with a 6-0-0 record.

The other top 3 teams in the west will be playing what looks to be round robin tourney as #4 Phoenix draws #1 Avalanche on Wednesday night and then has the #3 Blackhawks on Thursday night. Friday night the Blackhawks visit Colorado to face the Avalanche.

It is no secret that The Detroit Red Wings are just short of desperate for an NHL goalie. Veteran Chris Osgood sporting a 3-2-2 record and Jimmy Howard 1-2-1 are less than par this season Howard gave up 6 goals the other night in the Wings loss to the Oilers. Both goalies have a save percentages in the high 80′s and GAA around 3.5, the Wings need some new blood between the pipes. Toskala’s name has been thrown around for a possible solution.

Speaking of Toskala, Toronto is less than thrilled with his dismal start not to mention  his 4 million dollar salary and GM Brain Burke is looking to deal him out of Toronto. Add the Ducks to the short list of candidates for Toskala as there has been reports that Burke has shown interest in Giguere.

Marc Savard and the Boston Bruins have been trying to work out a contract extension to keep Savard as a Bruin. Savard is reportedly looking for 6.5 million a year in his next contract. Savard is currently making 5 million. This is typical for Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and I hope he doesn’t let another star get away from the Bruins organization. What scares me is, Marc will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season if the Bruins can’t strike a deal with him. Savard’s family resides not too far from Toronto and I am sure the Maple Leafs will make the attempt to lure Savard to old teammate Phil Kessel.

Nathan Horton of the Florida Panthers has said that he would rather play in a more traditional hockey environment and he may get his wish. Depending on what you read and who you ask, Horton may be on the trading block. The Panthers deny the rumors but the Ottawa Sun has reported that he is available for a deal. With only a couple of goals this season, my question would be what are they going to get since he carries a 4 million dollar contract.

Apparently this “group” was unhappy with the job that the referees in Monday nights Toronto/Anaheim game. Ducks fans were bitching that the referees were giving the win-less Toronto Maple Leafs “favorable” calls which lead to 5 power play goals and the Leafs first victory of the season.

Before tonight’s game in Anaheim the makers of anti-ref gear, Ref You Suck will be sponsoring an anti-referee rally to voice their unhappiness with Mondays game. They will be out there with signs and shirts in front of the Honda Center acting like fools.

Referees and officials in general have been under fire since the whole MLB playoff  issue when the umpires clearly missed some big calls in a few of those games. But protesting and rallies? What is this the 60′s? Give me a break, this is a disaster waiting to happen and I wish I could be there to see it.

Instead of blaming the officials in Monday nights game why can’t Duck fans accept the fact that they lost. Were the penalties uneven? Yes they were as the the Leafs had 10 pp to the Ducks 3 , so what. I don’t know of any official that has called a game according to the score or standings, it is what it is. We see 2 colored jerseys out there, not teams or players nor did I ever read a rule about teams should have equal power play attempts in a game.

I was looking at the score sheet and with the exception of 2 hooking calls, every thing else on the Ducks was roughing, slashing or a misconduct. Those are not marginal calls. The Leafs were the ones with and abuse of an official call.

The bottom line is that The Ducks penalty kill was horrendous to say the least. I don’t care how many fictitious calls you think the officials had, your team still went 5/10 on the penalty kill. 50%! Jonas Hiller played a great game making 33 saves in Giguere’s absence with a groin injury. That brings me to another point, your Ducks got out shot 39-28. Just accept the fact that the Ducks had a bad game and their emotions were their own worse enemies.

Even in the unlikely event that they succeed and get thousands of fans, what did you prove? It will not change the way the officials will call the game tonight or any other night.

Instead of protesting officials, bring that enthusiasm to the White House and fight for health care.

A busy schedule over the weekend leads to a few story lines to go with it. Here’s my weekly version of the NHL Roundup.

The Washington Capitals won their fourth straight against the lowly Islanders with in come from behind fashion. The Islanders were up 2-0 halfway through the third period before eventually blowing the game in overtime to the Caps 3-2.

The L.A Kings have also won 4 straight snapping  Phoenix’s four game winning streak. Anze Kopitar had 3 assists as he lead the Kings to a 5-3 Victory. Kopitar is currently leading the league in goals (10) and points (21). Jarret Stoll also tallied his first two goals of the season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins 7 game win streak came to an end on Saturday when the streaking New Jersey Devils went into the Igloo and beat the Pens 4-1. Martin Brodeur was just over ten minutes from tying Terry Sawchuks NHL record for career shutouts.

Speaking of shutouts, Roberto Luongo set a franchise record for the Vancouver Canucks Saturday with his 21st shutout in a Canucks jersey, leading them to their 3 straight victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs who are still win less for the season. Toronto may catch a break tonight when they head to the Pond to face the Ducks as Giguire is likely going to be out of the line up.

The Hurricanes suffered their 6th loss in row in Minnesota from a bizzare overtime goal by Cal Clutterbuck. Mikko Koivu’s shot from the slot hit the post and went off the falling Clutterbuck’s face. Clutterbuck then swiped at the puck from his knees and scored the game winner.

As mentioned above, Jean-Sebastien Giguiere left the game late in the third period Saturday night against the Blue Jackets. Giguire tweaked an ailing groin and is listed day to day.

Atlanta Thrashers’ Ilya Kovalchuk is expected to miss four weeks with a broken bone in his right foot. Kovalchuk was injured when he was struck by a puck during the first period of Saturday’s game against the San Jose Sharks. He is tied for second in the league with nine goals.

Penguins defenseman, Sergi Gonchar will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken left wrist from collision with a St.Louis Blues player Tuesday night.

David Booth was released from the hospital after suffering a concussion the resulted from what looked to be a cheap hit from the Flyer’s Mike Richards.

Darcy Tucker is out indefinitely with a concussion and 40 stitches from the result of Ruuto’s violent hit on Friday night.