The Fifth Liners

The Toronto Blue Jay s off season activity just got another major shot in the arm last night when it was announced that third baseman Brett Lawrie along with Kendall Graveman , Sean Nolin and Franklin Barreto have been traded to the Oakland A's in exchange for Josh Donaldson ! One of the best in the game at third base, this trade marks both an offensive and defensive rise for the Blue Jays! Impressively, the Jays didn't have to trade away a great depth of quality to acquire their man. Donaldson is coming an All Star season where he hit a. 301 average and an .883 OPS. He also slugged his way to 29 home runs and 98 RBI's to push Oakland to a post season appearance! The trade caught the A's man off guard, but he has insisted that he holds no grudge against his old side. This man could play an important role in the rebuilding of Toronto and along with the Free Agency capture of Russell Martin, runs maybe more frequent at the Rogers Centre this season. Lawrie struggl...

Among the numerous surprises in the Nashville Predators brilliant start to this season, has been the unexpected form of 20 year old Swedish winger, Filip Forsberg . This young gun is no stranger in the NHL, but so far this season he is sure making an impression with 9 goals and 22 points already! Baring no relation at all to Avalanche legend Peter Forsberg, Filip has shown his true qualities this year and this is marking him as a possible candidate for the Calder Trophy. Originally drafted 11th overall by the Washington Capitals back in 2012, Forsberg spent the majority of his first season playing back in Sweden for his old side Leksands IF. But a blow came when he was unexpected traded to the Predators in 2013. His progress there to start with was slow and last season he notched up only 5 points from a mere 13 NHL games (4 of which were assists). For development he was assigned to the team's AHL affiliate the Milwaukee Admirals where he fared better scoring 34 points in 47 gam...

A few weeks ago it was well noted in the media that Sean Avery had quit the off-Broadway production, 'Positive is Negative' in a typically fiery fashion after an argument involving pizza! No stranger to controversy, Avery forever made headlines during his 11 year NHL career for all the wrong reasons, but this meltdown was something else entirely. Many of us after picking ourselves off the floor from the laughing fit that ensued suddenly realized this was actually serious! So if Mr Avery is intending treading the NYC boards, here some ideas to produce his own Broadway shows. Screening Brodeur  A two man play which involves a young yet troublesome hockey player attempting to screen a rival goalie during a key playoff game and using all manner of tricks in which to achieve it! Whether Martin Brodeur will agree to star will depend on some good negotiations. Sloppy Seconds: Or How I Spent My 6 Game Suspension Angered that his former flame is dating another hockey player, o...

Today's question comes from a reader in Canada.  Jakub Voracek is currently top of the points scoring table- is he really valuable to the Flyers? Or is he just having a lucky season? - Tortorella4eva. Thanks for the question Tortorella4eva, the Philadelphia Flyers might be languishing at the lower end of the Metro division, but that's certainly not through lack of effort. Despite conceding 60 goals, the team from the city of brotherly love has scored 57, only the Penguins and Islanders have scored more in the same division.  Questions need to be asked about the Flyers' defensive performances but there's definitely no issues with the forward lines. Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux have 29 and 24 points respectively. Enough to see them both in the NHL's top five point scorers. To be up with Stamkos, Seguin and Crosby is always something to be proud of. Is Voracek valuable to the flyers? Definitely. There's not a team in the league that wouldn't h...

In the Boston Bruins 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, it included a rare but ultimately hilarious error from Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky . On 1.28 of the 3rd period played, the Jackets goalie allowed Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg to score on him from centre ice! This season you will not see many goals like this scored in the NHL this year- Bobrovsky should avoid errors like this if the Blue Jackets have any play off aspirations!

Last night, it was announced that Miami Marlins star right fielder, Giancarlo Stanton had been signed to a 13 year $325 million dollar contract! This deal is the largest that baseball has ever seen and will no doubt settle the fears of Marlins fans. But is Stanton really deserving of being the richest man in the game? So far his career stats read well with .271 batting average along with 619 hits, 154 home runs and 399 runs batted in. Since his first at bat in the Sunshine State back in 2010, Stanton has been a bona-fide star for a flagging Miami franchise which last saw success with World Series wins in 1997 and 2003 while still branded the Florida Marlins. His current deal goes above the $277 million deal for Dodgers pitcher, Clayton Kershaw . But while Kershaw is now a three time Cy Young winner and last seasons NL MVP, Stanton has little show to command such an enormous deal. Last season he won both the Silver Slugger and was the leagues Home Run Champion- but one good season...

Seems like the Toronto Blue Jays have a massive stride forward in the free agency market today as according to Sports Net, they have netted Pittsburgh catcher Russell Martin on a five year deal worth $82 Million! This deal if completed would become the second largest in club history, as well as being the largest ever handed out by GM Alex Anthopoulos . Melky Cabrera recently turned down a qualifying offer from the Blue Jays which along with the perhaps unwise trade of Adam Lind seemed to limit Toronto's hitting options. Martin could prove to be an excellent signing for the Blue Jays due to his great power hitting skills and his superb handling of pitchers. He also boasts a good record on playing on winning teams and  has been to the post season over seven times in nine years! As well, Martin provides a similar offensive threat to that of Cabrera! But with Dioner Navarro already a skilled catcher, could this prove problematic in the club house? In April last season Martin rec...

As rumors continue to circulate about a new possible expansion team for the NHL, Las Vegas seems intent on throwing its hat into the ring. For years now there has been talk about Hockey coming to the Nevada desert and ever since 1997, the city has hosted the annual pre-season game 'Frozen Fury which has proven popular with fans. But although Vegas makes for a very glamorous backdrop, should Gary Bettman bring this great game here? Positives Would Make Fine Main Event: Promotion in Las Vegas is second to none and if an NHL franchise came to town, the advertising possibilities are endless. Bringing this kind of game to Nevada would make it the hottest ticket in town along and the kind of spin it could gain may make an ultimate Vegas experience.  Land for development: The big open space of the desert could open up some big opportunities for Arena's, according to Emily Sadler's fine SN article a new 18,000 seat arena is in the pipeline which will cater for a multitude of...

Last night after suffering a 6-0 to the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum, it appears that the Colorado Avalanche 's season is already turning into the thing of nightmares. There were signs of life last season as Patrick Roy 's Jack Adams winning debut season propelled them to new heights not seen since the days of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Roy himself keeping net. Currently the Avalanche lies stranded in 13th place in the Western Conference with a record of 3–5–5 and the problem seems to be that no one really understands what is causing this slide? Calder Trophy Winner Nathan MacKinnon 's slow sophomore season has been making headlines for the wrong reasons but currently he is still joint top offensively with Matt Duchene on 9 points. But Jarome Iginla has so far received the most flack as his age has appeared to have crept up with him. 2 goals and 8 points are not reflecting the $16 million that Colorado were willing to invest in the 37 year old! The p...

This week Vancouver Canucks winger Alex Burrows received a three game ban for this hit on Montreal Canadiens winger Alexei Emelin  But it appears that after the Canucks 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place last night (thanks Derek Dorrsett!) it seems that Oilers captain Andrew Ference will be hearing the phone ringing from the League quite soon in the coming days after his frankly awful hit on Canucks player Zack Kassian ! See below... Now when you consider that Burrows got a three game ban for his offense, should the league be tougher on Ference who is a previous offender? Burrows' hit was admittedly a careless one as he went in late and this type of extremely hard contact could have resulted in some serious damage to Emelin. Receiving a three game suspension though seemed slightly rash by league standards as we have seen more serious hits only receiving a one game ban. But Ference however, had been scrapping with Kassian all through the match and his inte...