It's ESPN's Heatley story, and Buccigross is sticking to it

As a sportswriter, your heart goes out to ESPN's John Buccigross this morning. He stuck his neck out on a major story yesterday, reporting that the Ottawa Senators had finally traded Dany Heatley(notes) to the San Jose Sharks in a deal that allegedly sent Patrick Marleau(notes) to the Los Angeles Kings and Alexander Frolov(notes) and Jarret Stoll(notes) to the Senators. It was the very deal earlier described in an Ottawa Sun rumors report on Heatley, and ESPN's confirmation spread like herpes around the hockey world last night. Ottawa GM Bryan Murray was the first to deny it, and Sharks GM Doug Wilson soon followed within the body of the ESPN report, strongly labeling the scoop as "an absolute fabrication." Rich Hammond of the LA Daily News was told by Kings GM Dean Lombardi that the report was "complete bull." Then the dominos began to fall: TSN's Bob McKenzie debunked it and TSN's Darren Dreger refuted it. The San Jose Mercury News and Los Angel...