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THE ANAHEIM DUCKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP

Anaheim 6, Ottawa 2

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Anaheim Ducks aren’t called mighty anymore. Now they can simply answer to Stanley Cup champions.

The 14-year-old Ducks captured their first NHL title with a 6-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night, ending the series in five games in front of the home folks again.

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Blue Jackets’ general manager fired

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus Blue Jackets fired president and general manager Doug MacLean, whose teams did not come within 19 points of the playoffs in the franchise’s six seasons.

Team spokesman Todd Sharrock confirmed the firing on Thursday morning after several media reports said MacLean had been let go Wednesday night.

Principal owner John H. McConnell, minority owners and team officials met Wednesday and agreed to dismiss MacLean, the architect of a team that had gone 172-258-62 since joining the league in 2000 and 33-42-7 this past season.

Led by coach Ken Hitchcock, and with players such as Rick Nash and Sergei Fedorov, the Blue Jackets finished 23 points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Their record this season is 24th among the league’s 30 teams.

Sharrock said team officials would hold a news conference later Thursday.

Jody Shelley, with the team from its first year, said he was stunned by the dismissal despite the lack of success by the team.

“As a player, I’m really surprised,” he said. “You hear the rumors but you just figure it comes with not meeting expectations. Then when the other shoe drops, you’re still shocked.”

MacLean did not return messages seeking comment left on his cell phone.

He had two years remaining on a contract that paid him around $1 million per season with incentives.

“I’m unbelievably disappointed about where we are but I think we’ve got an unbelievable foundation in place,” MacLean said after the season. “I’m telling you, I look around the league and how many teams would I trade ours for? Not many.”

MacLean was McConnell’s first hire when Columbus secured the franchise. He supervised all the drafts and trades, some that were overwhelming successes and others that were abysmal failures.

MacLean even dumped the team’s first head coach, Dave King, and took over behind the bench. But the Blue Jackets did not respond under MacLean, going just 9-21-4-3 at the start of the 2003-2004 season before he stepped aside and elevated assistant coach Gerard Gallant.

Gallant was fired and replaced by Hitchcock early this past season after Columbus won just six of its first 24 games.

MacLean, who turned 53 a week ago, coached the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup finals in 1996. After a 41-31-10 record during the regular season, the Panthers were a fourth seed in the playoffs but pulled off a succession of upsets to advance to play the Colorado Avalanche in the finals, where they were swept in four games.

Through trades and the expansion draft before Columbus’ first NHL season in 2000-2001, MacLean acquired club mainstays such as goaltender Ron Tugnutt and forwards Geoff Sanderson, Espen Knutsen, Tyler Wright and David Vyborny. They led the club to a surprising 28-39-9-6 record under King and became only the third expansion team to exceed 71 points, raising expectations.

MacLean traded up with Florida to grab Nash with the overall No. 1 pick in the 2002 draft. Nash scored 17 goals and had 22 assists as a rookie, then exploded in 2003-2004 to tie for the league lead in goals with 41. In the two years since the lockout, however, he has scored just 31 goals and 27 goals.

Nikolai Zherdev, taken with the No. 4 pick in 2003, has shown flashes of offensive brilliance while making frequent mistakes and failing to make strides as a two-way player.

Perhaps the biggest move of MacLean’s tenure was the Nov. 15, 2005, trade with Anaheim that brought Fedorov and a draft pick from Anaheim for defenseman Francois Beauchemin and Wright. Fedorov, 35 at the time, was supposed to help Zherdev develop while lending a steadying hand to the offense.

Instead, he fought nagging injuries and his production waned while taking up a large chunk of the team’s salary cap space with a salary of more than $6 million per year. At the same time, Beauchemin has developed into a budding star on the blue line for the Ducks.

MacLean also signed defensemen Adam Foote and Bryan Berard to expensive free-agent contracts, receiving only sporadic production on the ice in return.

The fans came out regardless of how the team played, with an average attendance of more than 16,000 at Nationwide Arena since the Blue Jackets arrived. Still, discontent had been growing, and the team was frequently booed this past season for its anemic offense.

“It’s a business, but at the same time there’s a human side,” Shelley said. “A guy lost his job today, a guy who was passionate and did some great things for this organization.”

Brodeur’s Shut Out

February 28, 2007

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The 13th season of Martin Brodeur’s remarkable career just might turn out to be his best.

Brodeur set a career high with his 12th shutout of the season, stopping 31 shots in the New Jersey Devils’ 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.

Jaromir Jagr sets record

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jaromir Jagr set a new National Hockey League record for goals by a European player, scoring twice as the New York Rangers blanked the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

Jagr became the 16th player in NHL history to score 600 career goals on Sunday and his two goals moved him to 602 for his career, one more than former Edmonton Oilers great Jari Kurri.

The Czech star connected in the second and third periods to complete the scoring for the Rangers, who snapped the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes’ three-game winning streak.

While being the European with the most goals in NHL history is more of a distinction than it is an official record, Jagr told reporters after the game that he was very aware of his new status.

“It’s huge,” Jagr said. “Jari Kurri was a guy everybody looked up to from Europe. He was our idol.”

Brendan Shanahan, who earlier this season joined the 600-goal club, also scored for New York. It was his 17th goal of the season and 615th of his career.

Marcel Hossa opened the scoring for the Rangers with his first goal of the season just 3:39 into the first period, beating Carolina goalie Cam Ward to put the Rangers in front.

That would be the only goal New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist would need, as he made 34 saves for his first shutout of the season and third of his career.

Michael Nylander added a pair of assists for the Rangers, who improved to 12-9-1 while moving into a first place tie with the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Atlantic Division with the win.

Carolina (12-8-3) remained in a first place tie with Atlanta in the Southeast Division despite the loss.

*Petr Sykora scored a pair of goals as the Edmonton Oilers won their fourth straight game, cooling off the Calgary Flames 2-1.

Dwayne Roloson made 23 saves in goal as the Oilers ended Calgary’s six-game winning streak.