A busy Gainey and the return of Milbury?

The hockey world has been very busy and very productive this weekend. First, Bob Gainey managed to pull off another coup ( a la Jose Theodore) and dump Sergei Samsonov. Samsonov has been dealt to the Blackhawks, who I guess are desperate enough for some help that they are willing to take a whiny and under-achieving winger.

"We feel he has a lot left in the tank and playing under Denis Savard will bring out the offensive creativity that he has shown in the past," Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon said Saturday.

Translation: Our owner sucks and wont let us spend any money on bringing in talent while he has simultaneously ruined a once awesome hockey town. Nobody will sign with us because of aforementioned owner. We are desperate.

On paper, Gainey might not have gotten a whole lot in return but peace in the locker room is not to be under-rated. Do svidaniya Sergei.

Bob Gainey concluded his weekend by re-signing two players who have been an important part of the foundation in Habs-land, F Christopher Higgins and D Mike Komisarek. These guys are solid players who show up every night. And its pretty cool that both are American players.

Higgins, a former Yale star from Smithtown, N.Y., recently completed his second NHL season. He had 22 goals and 38 points in 61 games, missing significant time with an ankle injury.
Komisarek, who is from Islip Terrace, N.Y., is coming off his fourth year in the league. He had personal bests in games (82), goals (four), assists (15) and points (19).

Their signing is also an early test of what players will be commanding on the market come July 1st. Both were signed to 3.4 million dollar deals -- 1.5 mil the first season and 1.9 the next. So the question is this: what will free agents (Gomez, Drury, Briere, Giguere) be asking for? Enough to buy Long Island, most likely.

Its safe to say Dave Lewis had a craptastic weekend. After just one season as bench boss for the Bruins, he was sacked on Friday. I didnt follow the Bruins enough to comment on Lewis, but Heather does. Lewis is getting "reassigned" to another post in the organization. Lewis sounds just a wee bit pissed:

"As a coach, you go into a new organization not really sure what you have and not sure what you need. By the end of the year, I knew what we had and I knew what we needed and then you just don't get a chance to start on with the next season," Lewis said Friday in an interview with Boston's WHDH-TV.

But Boston has got bigger problems -- Mike Milbury is apparently being considered for the coaching job.