tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42825931543060086802024-03-14T01:41:58.713-07:00Game MisconductUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-57148390643626930742011-06-27T11:30:00.000-07:002011-06-27T11:30:00.307-07:00The More Things Change, The More They Stay The SameWhat the hell was the point? When the NHLPA and the owners went to war over labour issues in 2004 which ended up wiping out the entire 2004-05 season we were promised a different NHL. We were promised an NHL where it wouldn't be just the big market teams that could compete financially and that all 30 teams would have a chance to be a Stanley Cup contender. Here we are, 6 years later, and absolutely nothing has changed. The big markets are still the winners and the small markets are still the losers.<br /><br />After the 2005-06 season where everyone was scrambling to figure out the new NHL and two small markets in Carolina and Edmonton made it too the cup final, things began to balance out. The Stanley Cup winners from then on where Anaheim, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and now Boston. All five of them are high payroll/cap teams that (at least when they're playing well) tend to earn money (not as much as the Canadian teams except Ottawa) except for Detroit who can't sell out anymore because no one in that city can afford tickets. To make up for that though they are owned by Mike Ilitch (owner of Little Caesers) who doesn't mind losing some money to put a winner on the ice. <br /><br />When you look at the teams that have been at the top of the NHL during that time period and at the bottom during that period the picture of the leagues landscape begins to take shape and it's drawn with dollars and cents (except for Toronto who are the kings of revenue and still totally suck). <br /><br />Florida is rumoured to lose around 25 million dollars a year and they haven't made the playoffs in 10 years. Columbus is in the same range in terms of losing money as Florida and they've only made the playoffs once in 10 years, same with Atlanta (now Winnipeg). They were both swept in the first round. Phoenix went through an 11 year cap between playoff appearances and they were swept by Detroit this past year. Carolina has made it three times in the last 10 years (although one included a Stanley Cup victory). The New York Islanders have been awful for 15 years. The Dallas Stars are starting to fall now that former billionaire and owner Tom Hicks is desperately trying to sell off all of his assets and Buffalo was bad for a long line until new billionaire owner Terry Pegula took over this season. The only relative success story in this regard is Nashville where GM David Poile and head coach Barry Trotz would be Stanley Cup champions right now if they had bigger budgets, they're that good. <br /><br />If we look at the consistent winners post lockout, they strikingly resemble the winners pre-lockout. The Philadelphia Flyers have only missed the playoffs once in a fluke awful season and continue to be at the top of the league standings, same with New Jersey. Detroit is still the model of consistency that they've been since the mid 90's, The Rangers big spending ways are starting to pay off in the form of regular playoff appearances. Montreal has once again become a league financial powerhouse and have only once. The Vancouver Canucks have only missed twice and are fast becoming a major financial power, same with the team they just lost too in the Stanley Cup final the Boston Bruins. <br /><br />Now, with the salary cap going up to 64 million, this gap is going to be as bad as it ever was. Only 4 teams payrolls were higher then next years cap ceiling before the lockout (Detroit and the Rangers at 77 million, the Flyers around 68 million and the Leafs at 66 million). So it begs the question, what was the point? What the hell was the point of the owners and the players union going to war? The players are making more money then they ever did as a whole (the big stars made more before. Anyone else remember Bill Guerin getting a 9 million a year deal from Dallas?) then they ever had. And the poor owners and teams are still unable to compete with the big boys. With the CBA expiring after next season, are we heading towards another lockout or is the NHL going to become like Major League Baseball with only 6-8 teams who can compete year after year?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-48888051291935742712011-06-18T21:30:00.000-07:002011-06-18T21:32:36.112-07:00Backtalk BacklashRoberto Luongo has always been your typical Canadian hockey player who always says the right thing with a smile on his face no matter what. Swedish players tend to be the same as Canadians in terms on steady personalities and always saying the right things. The Sedin twins are no exception to this stereotype as they have always taken the, at times, ridiculous criticisms they receive in good stride. All of that changed however in this year's Stanley Cup finals and if game 6 is any indication then they may live to regret it.<br /><br />Roberto Luongo verbally toasted Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas twice in a 24 hour span after his game 5 shutout of the Bruins. He questioned Thomas' goaltending style and said that he would have stopped the shot that Maxim Lapierre took to give Vancouver the one nothing lead and then basically accused Thomas of not being a good sport and not complimenting him after he'd been “pumping [Thomas'] tires” from the beginning of the series. Roberto Luongo has never been much of a talker when it comes to another teams players so this was very out of character for him and karma may have caught up to Luongo for opening his mouth a little too early. He was lit up for 3 weak goals in a 3 minute span before being pulled in favour of Corey Schneider. Luongo was obviously feeling good about himself and wanted to deliver an “in your face” message to the world after hearing nothing but negative things coming his way from the media and fans and nothing more then gushing over Tom Thomas. He was sick of it and if he wasn't feeling the love from other people so he was going to give it to himself. Game 6 served as a slap upside the head that the job isn't over and that Thomas has clearly outplayed him in these Stanley Cup finals. Luongo needs to have the game of his life to offset Thomas if the Canucks are going to take game 7 and the Stanley Cup.<br /><br />The Sedin Twins, Henrik in particular, barking back at Mike Milbury through the media for calling them “Thelma and Louise” was also quite interesting. Daniel basically called Milbury a child for name calling and Henrik made light (not that there wasn't already a pretty big light) on Mad Mike's tenure as GM of the New York Islanders and how that franchise still hasn't recovered from it. While I found the comments to be highly amusing, it's also an indication that the Sedin's have been totally knocked off of their regular game and that they're way out of their comfort zone in these finals. The Bruins have bullied, bruised, and battered the Sedins during their 3 home games in this series and if they manage to do it again in Vancouver during game 7, then it wouldn't be a surprise if we see the Bruins hoisting the Stanley Cup on Wednesday. <br /><br />Update:<br /><br />Well, I think that we saw how this all worked out! It'll be interesting to see what happens with Luongo longterm in VancouverUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-62705789925147490882011-06-09T15:10:00.001-07:002011-06-09T15:10:56.165-07:00NHL continues hypocritical waysAaron Rome. A plugger on the blueline for the Vancouver Canucks and the recipient of a four game suspension from the NHL for his late hit that knocked Bruins winger Nathan Horton right out of the playoffs. Interim head of NHL discipline Mike Murphy decided to come down hard on the Canucks number 6 defenceman instead of the usual slap on the wrist that they've been giving out all year long. There is no question what so ever that the hit deserved a suspension as it was a dirty, late hit delivered by Rome but it's the severity of the suspension that's strange. Now the question becomes if this is going to become the norm for the NHL or if Rome got such a hefty suspension because he's a plug on the backend and not a star?<br /><br />Playoff suspensions have always been less severe then those handed out during the regular season because the league never really wants to handicap teams during the dance. This was never more evident then during the 2007 run to the cup for the Anaheim Ducks. In the Western Conference final Chris Pronger was given a 1 game suspension for driving Tomas Holmstrom's head through the boards from behind. In the Stanley Cup finals against Ottawa he was given another 1 game suspension for decapitating Dean McAmmond with his elbow. In the 2009 Stanley Cup finals, Colin Campbell rescinded a mandatory one game suspension for instigating a fight delivered to Evgeni Malkin and even just this year Alex Burrows got away with biting the finger of Patrice Bergeron (although if Bergeron is going to stick his finger in Burrows' mouth then he risked it). If we go back a little ways this modern culture may have been instilled during the 1996 Western Conference finals when Claude Lemieux ran Kris Draper into the boards from behind which resulted in serious injuries and Lemieux received a measly 2 game suspension. Ron Hextall and Dale Hunter received long suspensions due to actions during the playoffs but didn't miss any playoff games as their teams were eliminated in those games which they were eliminated. <br /><br />Whether it's been Brian Burke, Colin Campbell, or Mike Murphy the NHL's head office has shown that, especially during the playoffs, that they're more then willing to get tough with 3rd and 4th liners in terms of suspensions but the stars get a free pass. This, unfortunately, will never change. Why? Because the TV executives at NBC will not like it if a centrepiece for the product they're trying to sell is healthy but not on the ice. Along with them Bettman probably doesn't like getting on the bad side of some of the owners that employ him who The league has shown that it couldn't care less what CBC or it's paying fans think so that leaves these two groups as those who the head office is trying to please. This Aaron Rome is just more of the same and now he's lost the chance to be on the ice if the Vancouver Canucks win the cup because of a head office trying to make an example out of a depth player to excuse their lack of action the rest of the year.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-74886075411873474232011-06-07T10:12:00.000-07:002011-06-07T10:13:26.386-07:00Quebec City: Don't Get Your Hopes UpUnless you've been living under a rock recently, then you know that the Atlanta Thrashers long anticipated move the Winnipeg has finally happened. The Winnipeg Jets/Falcons/Moose have made it seven NHL franchises in Canada and one of the sunbelt franchises that has been hemorrhaging money has finally moved North of the 49th parallel. As soon as that happened, the topic of Quebec City immediately was brought up during the Winnipeg press conference and gave Gary Bettman another reason to not want to be in that room.<br /><br />A lot of people are assuming that if the Phoenix issue continues to disintegrate that they will instantly move to Quebec City. Unfortunately of the people in the provincial capital of Quebec, it's really not going to be that easy. The NHL will be loathe to move yet another franchise from the deep south up north, especially one that they've fought so hard to keep where it is and a team that is one of a very few in a major Western market. They already have Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, and Columbus in the Western Conference even though they're all on the eastern side of the continent. Also Phoenix is one of the largest markets in the league and NBC (who basically treats the NHL like it's toy because they're willing to fork over some dollars) will not be pleased with losing such a large audience. <br /><br />A difference between Quebec City and Winnipeg is that Winnipeg has an arena while Quebec City does not. Le Colisee is an absolute dump and was a big reason why the Nordiques skipped town back in 1996 so there's no way an NHL will play in there. There is a plan to build a 400 million dollar arena in the city with Quebec City covering 200 million of the costs and the rest split between the provincial government and probable team owner Pierre-Karl Peladeau. These groups are so bound and determined to get this done that they're trying to pass a bill through the Quebec legislature (or National Assembly as it's called there) ensuring that there can be no challenge to Quebecor's deal to manage this proposed arena. Quebec City mayor Regis Lebeaume was re-elected on a platform based on bringing the NHL back to Quebec City and has chosen to work with Peladeau to get that done. However even with all of this, the arena is supposedly on schedule to open it's doors in 2015 and one has to wonder if that will be too late. Right now the iron is red hot in terms of the possibility to move NHL franchises up North but with the lack of an arena until 2015 this gives Bettman another 4-5 years to fix up Phoenix and Florida. One thing that isn't smart is underestimating the resourcefulness and determination of Gary Bettman so I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see these franchises somehow skating by to the point where they can keep them in their current markets.<br /><br />Another potential option for the NHL that has had rumblings recently is the possibility of Seattle as an NHL market. They to do not have an NHL quality arena and lost the NBA's SuperSonics to Oklahoma for this reason but they are a large American market. So if Seattle decides to build a new arena around the same time as Quebec City and a rich man like Paul Allen (owner of the Seahawks, Mariners, and Portland Trailblazers) get's convinced by the league that it's a good investment, where do you think they'd rather have a team? An American market that has a metro area population of 3.4 million on the Westcoast where they're desperate to have teams (especially if it's Phoenix that's moving) or a small Canadian market with a metro area population of 716,000? Doesn't take a lot to see which way the numbers swing and in who's favour.<br /><br />Now, one could also argue that 4 years from now the NHL would be more willing to move Phoenix or Florida because the blow would be softer then if they moved two franchises to Canada in rapid succession. However, I believe that the reasons above outway this and that I will be very surprised if there are 8 Canadian NHL franchises in the near future.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-47165322933803270622010-08-09T17:42:00.000-07:002010-08-09T18:12:19.885-07:00Thoughts on recent events-Chris Chelios has finally decided to hang up his skates at the age of 48 and so the NHL has finally lost one of the greatest of his generation and, much like his countryman Jeremy Roenick, someone who had no qualms about telling you what he thought. While some sports are critisized for having too many loudmouth athletes, the NHL quite frankly could use a few more loud mouths.<br /><br />-An arbitrator has ruled that the NHL was within it's rights to reject the 17 year Ilya Kovalchuk contract today. Not only does this make Kovalchuk a free agent again but it now set's a precedent for contracts in the NHL. Now Bettman and his boys will be able to more aggresively attack lengthy contacts that they deem ridiculous and the NHLPA has lost an important battle to the NHL with labour negociations looming in the next couple of years.<br /><br />-Teemu Selanne will be returning to the Anaheim Ducks for another season this year which will be his twelth with the franchise. Likely influenced by his good friend Saku Koivu resigning for two years, the forty year old winger has decided to give it at least one more season. This has sturred up rumours that friend and former Ducks captain Paul Kariya may return to Anaheim with Selanne for a farewell season. The Ducks seem to be a budget team so we'll see if that happens and if it does then Kariya will have taken a pay cut to do so.<br /><br />-While Edmonton's arena drama between Darryl Katz and Edmonton city council has been well documented, another Canadian team's fight is getting very ugly, very fast. Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young has reportedly told the mayor of the city that he is withdrawing from negociations for a new building that would house his team and the Pan Am games and said that he would move the iconic CFL franchise if his demands are not met. This situation is getting very ugly and now Hamilton may seriously consider getting into bed with the aformentioned Katz if he truly does want to buy the Tie Cats as has been rumoured. <br /><br />-Tiger Woods had his worst finish as a professional this past weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational. He finished +18 for the tournament and had it been a major he probably wouldn't have made the cut after the first day. Tiger is clearly mentally shot and badly needs time off after the beating he has taken both emotionally and physically over the last year and a half. Tiger may never be the golfer he was just a few years ago but he wouldn't be this bad if he took some time off to recouperate.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-86685991216095027922010-07-24T19:05:00.001-07:002010-07-24T19:57:16.211-07:00NHL late to the contract partyWhen the New Jersey Devils signed Ilya Kovalchuck to a seventeen year contract last week I couldn't help but shake my head at the ridiculousness of the term of the contract. Seventeen years? Are you kidding me? Not even the NFL, the most economically sound sports league in North America, has contracts that are that long. Ten year contracts are viewed as huge. Gary Bettman and the powerful owners of the league obviously agreed with me since the NHL rejected the Kovalchuck contract one day after it was signed. The NHLPA though has decided to take the NHL in front of an arbitrator to argue that the Kovalchuck contract doesn't break any rules and therefore the NHL overstepped their boundaries by rejecting it. And you know what, the NHLPA may very well have a pretty good point. The Kovalchuck contract technically doesn't break any rules in the CBA it just bends a few of them, but bending a few rules does not give the NHL the without a doubt right to reject it. This is the league's head office trying to send a message to the owners that these long term contracts are not good for them and that they can become an anchor on their ability to compete at a high level (ie. The New York Islanders with the Alexei Yashin and Rick DiPietro contracts), unfortunately the NHL is too late to this party.<br /><br />When the New York Islanders signed Rick DiPietro to a fifteen year contract back in 2006, the NHL should have stepped in and slapped the wrist of a team and an owner (Charles Wang) who had a well earned reputation of making extremely stupid, rash decisions that have sewered the once proud franchise. Four years into the contract and the Islanders have completed their decent into the cellar of the NHL and DiPietro has spent the same amount of time trying to stay healthy. Over the last two seasons DiPietro has undergone countless surgeries and has shown a total inability to stay healthy and his contract has become a Titanic sized anchor to the Islanders. There are other mega-sized contracts in the NHL that haven't yet blown up in their teams faces (ie. Alex Ovechkin getting thirteen years, Mike Richards getting twelve, Duncan Keith getting twelve years, and Johan Franzen getting eleven years) but when you sign a player for that long all it takes is one hard luck injury to change that. The NHL is just too late to change the culture of contracts that has begun when it comes to young star players as the CBA (not Kevin Lowe, as much as Brian Burke would prefer you believe that) has killed the slow upgrading of salaries for players. It's what the salary cap did in the NFL and now the NHL, the league's head office should have seen this coming but now it's too late to change where the league is going in this regard and another lockout would kill the league so that is not an option.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-48684737976333290422010-06-22T21:43:00.000-07:002010-06-24T09:53:33.421-07:00The Calm Before the StormAt least that's what this time is supposed to be. However the dominos have already begun to fall days before things kick off on the floor of the Staples Centre on Friday. Jaroslav Halak was by far the biggest chip to drop so far when he was traded last week to St.Louis for two prospects, Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. That trade has been, for the most part, universally paned by fans and bloggers however many hockey people have said that Montreal got some good pieces in the two young forwards with Eller being a big talented centre who plays with edge and Schultz was the captain of the Calgary Hitmen where he was a big, tough winger who can chuck em'. Many people in hockey believe that the new regulations on goalie equipment coming in this year will drastically reduce the effectiveness of Halak (I call BS on that one. Halak as usual will work his way through that) and that Price just has too much potential to give up on and his work ethic and attitude improved by leaps and bounds after the midway point of the season. However his still can have immature moments (ie. getting two 10 minute misconducts in the Washington series) and the jury is still out on whether or not he can reach his full potential. No matter which way you slice it this was a very gutsy trade that will either end up looking great for GM Pierre Gauthier or this will go down with the Patrick Roy trade, Chris Chelios trade and LeClair and Desjardins trade as one of the worst trades in franchise history.<br /><br />The second chip to fall was the Nathan Horton trade from Florida to the Boston Bruins after requesting a change of scenery. Horton, the centrepiece to the deal, is a former 3rd overall pick in the 2003 draft and has yet to live up to his lofty promise like many young players in Florida. Horton is a big power forward who can skate and has soft hands. His best season came a couple of seasons ago when he had 31goals and just over 60 points. Since then however his play has dropped off and not only have his work ethic and desire to win been universally paned, but people have questioned whether he truly enjoys playing hockey. If the change and the pressure of playing in Boston can change him around however Boston may very well take the next step towards the Stanley Cup next season. Gregory Campbell is an extra forward who will provide depth and energy but not much else. In return Florida received Dennis Wideman, the 15th overall pick in this years draft and a 3rd round pick in next year's draft. Wideman is a good puck moving defenseman who became Boston fans wipping boy last season after getting off to a rough start and didn't recover until near the end of the season and performed quite well in the playoffs with 12 points in 13 games. If Wideman can keep his play on track from were it was at the end of the season then the Panthers have the makings of a potentially great backend with Dimitri Kulikov, Keaton Ellerby as a shut down guy and one of either Erik Gudbranson, Cam Fowler, and Brandon Gormley that they'll take with the 3rd pick (my guess in Gudbranson). The 15th overall pick hasn't delivered alot of success in recent years however this year's draft is supposed to be very deep so the Panthers may be able to snag a quality prospect in that spot such as Alex Burmistrov, Emerson Etem, Mark Pysyk or Dylan McIlrath. The 3rd round pick next year in a reportedly horrendous draft is a crap shoot.<br /><br />Then today the Chicago Blackhawks did what most felt they had to do in order to shed salary by agreeing to trade playoff hero Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, and prospect Akim Aliu to the Altanta Thrashers in exchange for the 24th overall pick, a second round pick, Marty"Joe Sakic"Reasoner, and prospect Jeremy Morin. This was a straight up salary dump as the 'Hawks try to get themselves under the salary cap as the huge extensions for Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews kick in. Byfuglien is a pick powerful forward who can also play defence but has yet to show the consistency to be called a top end power forward. After an impressive playoff Big Buff has reached a crossroads in his career. He'll either go the John LeClair route and will explode after having a big playoff like LeClair did after winning the cup with Montreal in 1993 or he'll be the next Fernando Pisani and will just be a depth player for the rest of his career. It'll be interesting to see how he turns out. Sopel is a guy that the Blackhawks were trying to get rid of last season but he had no trade value until he had a highly impressive playoff for the Cup champs. He's solid in his own end and can put up numbers if called upon but he's a better player if you don't ask to much of him. Ben Eager is a modern day tough guy, he'll take on all comers and he can actually skate and play the game. A very underrated pick up in this trade. Aliu is a high end prospect who's always had some kind of controversy or off ice problem following him so perhaps a market where no one is paying attention will be better for him. Plus with Jack Skille and Kyle Beach ready to make the jump soon he was expendable. The 24th pick could very well land a good player for Chicago in a deep draft year as well as the second rounder. Morin is a forward prospect and a great shooter but apparently his skating needs major work. All in all this was about one team that needed to shed salary and another that needed to take salary on a show immediate improvement next season. <br /><br />**Update** The Edmonton Oilers have acquired forward Colin Fraser from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a 6th round pick. This was a great pickup for the Oilers. A big centreman who can provide success in the faceoff circle, grit, and leadership. If the vultures weren't circling the Blackhawks they probably could have gotten more then a 6th round pick. <br /><br />The San Jose Sharks have re-signed Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau to 4 year contracts. In Pavelski's case, the Sharks have re-upped their best young player and the guy who was their playoff MVP this year. He can do just about everything on the ice and the Sharks also managed to buck the trend of handing out massively long contracts to young players as well. With Marleau re-signing it means not only that Marleau will be a life long Shark but also with Tomas Plekanec re-signing in Montreal this week as well an already weak UFA market is down to only one top flight free agent in Ilya Kovalchuk. Let the bidding for Matthew Lombardi begin!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-51792813898826639162010-06-15T21:14:00.001-07:002010-06-16T10:37:01.115-07:00Buyout Season!Now that the Stanley Cup is over most people's attention has turned to the 2010 entry draft in Los Angeles or free agency which kicks off on July 1st. However between June 15 and 30th a very underrated and suddenly becoming important event is occurring: buyout season! This is the time of year when GM's have a chance to buy their way out of the stupid contracts that they've given out over the years. The most notable was Alexei Yashin who was bought out a few years ago by the New York Islanders with five years left on his deal. However the bad part that comes along with this process that punishes teams for doing this is that they have to pay off a percentage of the contract over 2 times the remaining years which means that for a total of 10 years the Islanders still have somewhere north of 1.5 million on their cap dedicated to Alexei Yashin. The Montreal Canadiens bought out Georges Laraque today and this will leave 500,000 on their cap for the next two seasons. These contracts were examples of GM's getting overzealous in handing out their owner's money trying to improve their teams but paying way too much to do so. This period is a bitter reminder of those times.<br /><br />There are plenty of candidates for buyouts on Canadian teams and around the league. The Oilers have 3 potential candidates for buyout: Patrick O'Sullivan, Robert Nilsson, and Ethan Moreau. All three of these players had horrendous seasons and probably should be part of the Oilers next season for themselves and for the team. Moreau, the vet who is not aging gracefully, might be able to fetch a bag of pucks while O'Sullivan, whom basically became Joeffery Lupul 2.0 this year, might be able to fetch a low round draft pick. Nilsson will probably be bought out and is destined for Europe. His talent level isn't intriguing enough to make up for his lack of desire and interest. Buying him out will result in a 1 million dollar cap hit for the next two seasons. Jonathan Cheechoo will likely be bought out by Ottawa. Cheechoo looked like he might become one of the top goal scorers in the NHL after a couple of thirty goal seasons and then exploding for 56 while playing with Joe Thornton however injuries have effectively derailed his career. A 1.75 million cap hit for the next two years will count against Ottawa's cap. Jeff Finger in Toronto might be a candidate for a buyout there after Cliff Fletcher signed him to a ludicrously inflated contract two years ago, Andrei Kostitsyn might be cut in Montreal, The Flames swapped Olli Jokinen's brutal contract for Ales Kotalik's even worse contract and is a buyout candidate. Chicago's Cristobal Huet is perhaps the most discussed buyout candidate, as he never seemed to leave the bench in Chicago post-Olympic break, and is making 5.75 million. That is way too much money and cap space for a backup goaltender. There are likely others that will be bought out over the next two weeks.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-53139304742390911162010-06-06T21:04:00.001-07:002010-06-07T09:24:53.132-07:00Coaching retreads starting to fade out of the gameThe Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the Columbus Blue Jackets have offered their head coaching position to AHL coach of the year, Guy Boucher, who just finished up his first season as a head coach in Hamilton. The Blue Jackets are in need of a new head coach after firing NHL veteran coach and Stanley Cup winner Ken Hitchcock this past season. Hitchcock was fired in large part due to his inability to relate to and work with younger players such as Derrick Brassard, Kris Russell, Steve Mason, Jake Voracek, and especially Nikita Filatov who went back to Russia because his relationship with Hitchcock had become unbearably toxic. This has become a theme in the last 2 to 3 years in the NHL when it comes to coaches and whether or not they can hold onto their jobs. In the salary cap world of the NHL you need to have young cheap assests on your team that can be a big part of your team and coaches need to be able to work with those young players. You need to be able to let them make mistakes and learn from them and be able to balance using tough love but also positive reinforcement and coddling as today's hockey players earn close to and sometimes more then a million dollars their first year in the league and the mentality of today's player is different. There is not only a sense of entitlement from a yound age (ie. Sergei Kostitsyn) but also many seem to be fragile mentally as compared to the old day players don't seem to react as well or willingly to iron-fist tactics of coaches like they used to if the coach's name isn't Scotty Bowman.<br /><br />Hitchcock was not able to do that with the guys in Columbus and he isn't the only pre-lockout NHL head coach who's ways have become obsolete when it comes to running a bench. Mike Keenan was run out of Calgary after two years because his tactics simply did not connect with his players (interestingly enough his replacement Brent Sutter has suffered the same problem not only during his stop in New Jersey but also this past year in Calgary), Marc Crawford has worn out his welcome in Vancouver and Los Angeles since the lockout ended so how long before his strong arm tactics start to fall on deaf ears in Dallas? Craig MacTavish's inability to work with the young players in Edmonton (ie. Dustin Penner, Joeffrey Lupul, Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, etc.) eventually he lost his job and was replaced by the even more old school Pat Quinn who lost the young Oilers players before even a full season was up because he refused to allow them to make mistakes and become better because of them as he ripped them in the media constantly. John Tortorella and Ron Wilson have long had reputations as brutal taskmasters who's first choice as a motivation tactic is to publically and privately rip individual players which works in the short term but will cost them their jobs in the long term (except for Wilson because his buddy Burkie would rather change the players then the coach) and Michel Therrien would also fall into this catagory and Al Murray lasted about two years before getting the ax in St.Louis. While he has saved his job for at least one year with a Cinderella run to the Conference Finals, Jaques Martin once again reinforced his reputation that he started in Ottawa with his handling of Jason Spezza of being unable to work with young players. His handling of Ryan O'Byrne with constantly jerking him in and out of the lineup in favor of the human turnover machine, aka. Marc-Andre Bergeron, and stapling him to the bench after one mistake in games in not condusive to allowing him to grow as a player and it was the same thing with Max Paciorrety whom the Habs eventually had to send back down to Hamilton to try and find him game again under Boucher.<br /><br />Because of this changing of the guard teams have begun to go in search of new blood for the head coaching ranks of the league either from the CHL or the AHL. Bruce Boudreau, a long time AHL coach, replaced the defensive minded task master Glen Hanlon in Washington three years ago now and the Capitals exploded under his leadership. Peter DeBoer, former coach of the Kitchener Rangers, has done an admirable job with the talent given to him by the aformentioned Jaques Martin during his time as GM in Florida. Cory Clouston, Joe Sacco, Sean Gordon, and of course Dan Bylsma in Pittsburgh represent the new wave of head coach's in the NHL who understand and are able to work with the young players in the league today. The smart teams are hiring these guys to work and grow with the young, rebuilding, progressive teams in the league and it's only a matter of time before everyone jumps on the bandwagon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-15023559298716759992010-05-29T19:02:00.000-07:002010-05-31T09:28:00.900-07:00Philly and Chicago prove that depth top bright lightsSidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Deatsyuk, Nik Lidstrom, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Roberto, the Sedin twins, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Nik Backstrom, Alex Semin, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Martin Brodeur, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Zach Parise are all sitting at home right now because the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks (with some help from the Montreal Canadiens) have proven that bright lights can be turned out by a swarm of depth.<br /><br />In rounds 1 and 2, the Habs managed to slow down Ovechkin and Backstrom along with Semin and Green (although one could argue that those two took themselves out) of their first round matchup. No such thoughts could exist after the Canadiens used the blanket of Josh Georges and Hal Gill to completely shut down the NHL's golden boy Sidney Crosby and help continue Evgeni Malkin's season long fog. Jordan Staal was by far the Pens most effective player when he played in the series. However once they reached they reached the Eastern Final, not only were they out of gas but they were simply overmatched by the Philadelphia Flyers. While the Habs had two players who were absolutely rolling (is. Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta) none of their teammates up front were contributing all that much offensively except for the occasional goal from the third line. The Flyers on the other hand had three lines that seemed to be able to score on any shift: Richards-Carter-Gagne, Leino-Briere-Hartnell, Giroux-Van Riemsdyk-Aasham. All three of these lines have talent and the testicular fortitude to head to the net hard. On defence the Flyers possess the All-World jackass Chris Pronger (whom also just happens to be an all-world talent) along along with calm and cool Kimmo Timonen and two up and comers in Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle form a very solid/at times spectacular top four that has made career journeyman Michael Leighton look like the second coming of Bernie Parent. Ryan Parent is also a promising up and comer as their current #6 guy. No team in the East could possibly match their depth. (Blair Betts is one of the top PK guys in the league whom along with blood and guts warrior Ian Laperriere and Darryl Powe form a very good fourth line).<br /><br />The bad news for Philly is that their opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, are even deeper then they are. 22 year old captain Jonathen Toews-Patrick Kane-Dustin Byfuglien form the first line, Patrick Sharp-Marian Hossa-Troy Brouwer, Dave Bolland (who has become one of the best checking centers in the NHL this season)-Kris Versteeg-Andrew Ladd/Tomas Kopecky form the top three lines that are even better then Philly's because a) they have more balanced speed and b) Ladd or Kopecky aren't an anchor on their line like Aaron Asham can be. As good as the Flyers fourth line can be, John Madden-Colin Fraser/Adam Burish-Ben Eager line is a little more physical, a little more annoying to play against, and Madden bring cup winning experience to the lineup. Much like Philly, the top four on D borders on phenomenal with the top pairing in the league with Canadian Olympians Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook and Brian Campbell with the very underrated Nik Hjalmarsson following them. One more place that the 'Hawks have a slight advantage is in the 5-6 pairing as Brent Sopel and Jordan Hendry bring the physicality and shot blocking ability that you want out of your bottom two. Finally in net Antti Niemi has shown (after that blooper reel goal in game on of the Nashville series) that he is solid and will not give up that bad big goal. You can bet that other teams have taken notice and the copycatting will take place starting this summer as the league will now think about trying to build through depth rather then a few big stars. The next lesson however that the league will learn from these two is in a year or two that in a cap era, depth is nearly impossible to hang onto as Philly and Chicago will have to make some very tought choices on which players to keep.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-22081259637145907292010-05-09T18:32:00.000-07:002010-05-09T20:18:54.139-07:00D-Fence, D-Fence! First round analysisIf there has been one lesson that this year's edition of the playoffs has taught us it's that, no matter how well your goaltender is playing or how good your forward corps is, if you don't have a calm puck moving defence you can't win. The first round of the playoffs had clear examples of this in each series victory in both the East and the West.<br /><br />In the San Jose (1) vs. Colorado (8) series, the tentative Sharks were tied up at 2-2 in the series when Dan Boyle, who had scored the game winner on his own net in game 3, stepped up his game in a big way along with Douglas Murray and Marc-Edward Vlasic. With these three elevating there game's the Colorado Avalanche were never able to get on prolonged offence going in San Jose's end while Colorado's defence simply isn't that good (John-Michel Liles, Adam Foote, Kyle Cumiskey, Scott Hannan, Tom Preissing, Kyle Quincey, Brett Clark and Ruslan Salei? Blech). In the Chicago (2) vs. Nashville (7) series the Predators were able to take the Blackhawks to 6 games (and might have beaten them if not for some suspect officitating on Marian Hossa's mugging of Dan Hamhuis and their porous power play) even with no real legitimate goal scoring threat with Patrik Hornqvist on the shelf and Alexander Radulov abandoning the team for the KHL is because they probably have the best defence in the NHL. Shea Weber and Ryan Suter are both legitimate #1 dmen with Dan Hamhuis, Kevin Klein, Cody Franson, and Denis Grebeshkov they formed what is an enviable defence and with Jonathan Blum and Mike Green clone (albeit I think he's overrated and that his play in this past year's World Juniors showed that PK Subban made him look good the previous year) Ryan Ellis coming this isn't going to change. Chicago's much publised D with Olympic duo Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith along with Brian Campbell, Nik Hjalmarsson, and Brent Sopel is just a step below Nashville's. In the Vancouver (3) vs. Los Angeles (6) series, beyond Drew Doughty, LA's defence did not play well. Jack Johnson has been a dissapointment so far in his NHL career, Matt Greene wasn't effective, Sean O'Donnell showed his age and Rob Scuderi wasn't nearly as good as he was in Pittsburgh last year. Vancouver's D, while unspectacular, was very steady and didn't make mistakes which made a huge difference. In the Phoenix (4) vs. Detroit (5) series, Phoenix's defence was the better of the two for the first 6 games which allowed the Coyotes to take the more talented Red Wings to 7 games before getting pummeled in game 7.<br /><br />In the Eastern Conference it was the same story. The Pittsburgh Penguins (4) were able to defeat the Ottawa Senators (5) not just because of Sidney Crosby (although don't tell the Canadian media that) but also because their D is alot better. With Philip Kuba on the DL the Senators simply couldn't move the puck out of their own zone while Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, and Alex Goligoski did to great effect. Lou Lamirello's insistence on not spending any money on his defence once again blew up in his face this spring. With the heavily favoured New Jersey Devils (2) going down shockingly easily to the Brian Boucher goaltended Philadelphia Flyers (7), defence was once again at the forefront. The Devils once upon a time had a defence that included the likes of Scott Niedermayer, Bryan Rafalski (whom the Devils refused to pay), Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko has become one of the worst in the league and was weakened even further when the traded Johnny Oduya to the Atlanta Thrashers as part of the package for Ilya Kovakchuk who did not work in "The Swamp". Beyond the undersized Andy Greene they couldn't move the puck to save their life while the Flyers, with the likes of Matt Carle, Kimmo Tiomenen, Braydon Coburn, Ryan Parent, and of course the all-world Chris Pronger, didn't give the Devils many second chances or the oppurtunity to cycle down low because they moved the puck out too quickly. The Boston Bruins (6) were able to defeat the Buffalo Sabres (3) for two reasons: Buffalo's power play couldn't manage a single goal and their defence was far superior to Buffalo's. Zdeno Chara was his usual self, Dennis Wideman steadied himself after a poor year, Matt Hunwick quietly does a good job moving the puck out of his own end and Johnny Boychuk (whom Chara has made look good because he's his partner) has had the time to move the puck. Beyond Tyler Myers, Buffalo's defence simply doesn't have enough talent to win. Finally, in the biggest upset of the playoffs in years, the Montreal Canadiens (8) managed to come back to defeat the President's Trophy winning Washington Capitals (1) in 7 games because of Jaroslav Halak and because their defence was better then Washington's. While Joe Corvo played well, Mike Green has solidified his reputation as the Joe Thornton of defensemen as for the 3rd straight playoff year he was brutal. Shaone Morrison, Milan Jurcina, John Erskine and Jeff Shultz aren't great at moving the puck and Tom Poti, who had been their best dman (that's right Oiler fans) through the first 5 games was knocked out of the series with a broken orbital bone and was not replaced. John Carlson, who was also great through the first 5 games, really started to fall off in the effort department after that and so his effectiveness plummeted. Andrei Markov, while unspectacular, managed to badly outplay his counterpart in Mike Green while Josh Georges and Hal Gill became the top shutdown pair in the NHL playoffs as they shut down Alex Ovechkin and Nik Backstrom. Roman Hamrlik was brutal through the first 5 games until his buddy Jaro Spacek (who had been very steady) went down with an illness and next seasons Calder Trophy winner (you heard it hear first!) PK Subban was called up. Subban got increasing ice time and controlled the play when he has been on the ice. The Capitals never got any second chances because the Habs D cleared the puck after Halak made the first save while the Caps D couldn't do the same.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-61931239702804715502010-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:002010-01-16T18:37:05.031-08:00The Calvalry Isn't Coming Over the Nearest Hill For AwhileThe Edmonton Oilers have fulfilled the prophecy I made 3 years ago of a steady decent into the basement of the league. The lack of talent on their roster is so horrendous that even their AHL and ECHL teams are in the basements of their respective leagues. The starting six on defense (making a combined 22 million this season) is one of the worst unit's collectively in the league and their most steady performer, Ladislav Smid, is reviled by local fans due to his forever connection to the fleecing that was the Chris Pronger trade. Up front Ales Hemsky, while overrated, is the team's best playmaker and is out for the season with a shoulder injury so the team relies almost exclusively on Dustin Penner for consistent offense. The developement of the young players such as Sam Gagner, Robert Nilsson, and Andrew Cogliano has completely stalled or has regressed unbelievably. Shawn Horcoff and his contract has become a running joke, akin to Tiger Woods, around the league and Patrick O'Sullivan is performing a dissapearing act in Edmonton that would put Joeffry Lupul to shame. But maybe no position is in worse shape then the goaltenders. Nikolai Khabibulin has serious back issues that limited him to only 18 games this season and now require surgery. At 36 years of age not only is their no guarrantee how he'll be when he comes back but his contract with 3 years left on it at 3.75 millon wouldn't come off the cap if he retires now because he signed the contract after the age of 35. Jeff Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk are two young, inexperienced goaltenders who's intro to the league has basically become like being Christians handed to the lions in the Roman Coliseum. However the thing that has given Oiler fans hope is that the management team can no longer live in the dark about how bad the team is. That along with prospects who starred in the World Juniors (Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paarvi-Svensson, and Anton Lander) and a probable top 3 draft pick, maybe even Taylor Hall at first over all, must mean that a full blow up of the roster is imminent right? Not really.<br /><br />Beyond those three mentioned prospects there's nothing of note beyond maybe Jeff Petry coming up the pipe first of all. Secondly the contract situations of almost the entire roster. They are a last place team with a first place payroll. Out of all the players featured frequently in the trade rumor mill (i.e. Steve Staios, Ethan Moreau, Sheldon Souray, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert, and Patrick O'Sullivan) only Cogliano will probably draw serious interest at the trade deadline. If coached properly Cogliano could probably be an elite checking forward in the league with his speed. He doesn't have the hockey sense or hands to be a consistent goal scorer. The other players all have at least one season left after this one their contracts for money that they are not worth. Moreau and Staios are making 2 million and 2.7 next year respectively. Souray is a 5.5 million and a NTC next year. O'Sullivan is making around 3 million next year while Tom Gilbert has four years remaining at 4 million per season. No one is going to even think about trading for those contracts until the draft in June. So don't expect a major housecleaning until June.<br /><br />And of course there's the draft. The Oilers have succesfully continued to plummit down to the basement and are now only 2 points up on the Carolina Hurricans and with the 'Canes playing some halfway decent hockey right now the Oilers will probably take a stranglehold on the 30th place position soon. This would give them a 50% chance of winning the draft lottery and getting the first overall pick in this years upcoming draft. The last place team doesn't always get that pick though. In 2004 the Washington Capitals moved up from #3 and got the right to take the current best player in the NHL, Alex Ovechkin, while in 2006 the Chicago Blackhawks moved up from #5 to #1 to be able to take Patrick Kane (as a side note the Edmonton Oilers were in that slot until their last game of the season where the defeated the Calgary Flames). The furthest the Oilers could fall would be the #2 slot and if indeed this comes to pass then taking Windsor Spitfires defenseman Cam Fowler ahead of Plymouth Walers centre Tyler Seguin. While both look like great picks, a star #1 defenseman is more important then a #1 centreman so Fowler should be the pick. Naturally if they get the first pick then Taylor Hall is a forgone conclusion.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-11550823716616729072010-01-10T17:55:00.000-08:002010-01-10T18:53:23.175-08:00World Junior Dissapointment and ReflectionAnother country actually winning the World Junior Hockey Championships? On Canadian soil no less? There must be some mistake? That couldn't possibly happen could it? Is the American hockey program catching up to ours which is essentially our worst nightmare!? There answer is: no. Yes the Americans and, I think, the Swedes had better teams in this tournament then Canada did; Team Canada was held back by two circustances:<br /><br /> 1) As Don Cherry and every Canadian hockey fan under the sun has been pointing out since John Carlson scored the winning goal for the US in overtime, there are many young Canadian players who are already staring in the NHL (i.e. Tyler Myers, Steven Stamkos, Michael Del Zotto, John Tavares, Matt Duchane, Ryan O'Reilly, Drew Doughty who was good enough to be the 7th defensman on the Canadian Olympic team for Christ's sake, Luke Schenn, Josh Bailey, Evander Kane) and injured (last year's reigning CHL player of the year Cody Hodgson).<br /><br />2) Hockey Canada's arrogance and head coach Willie Desjardins' brutally flawed selection process of the Team. Hockey Canada believes that they can throw any collection of players out on the ice and would be succesful. Desjardins put together a team that was built to win in the WHL where he coach's (Medicine Hat): Big, strong, and tough. However a side effect of those attributes happens to be the one that screwed Team Canada at the end: speed. When the gold medal game went to overtime I knew that Canada had no chance of winning unless they could hold out until the shootout. At 4 on 4 with all that extra open ice, speed kills. And the Americans had way more of that then the Canadians. Their forwards were way faster then the Canadian defense who played like their feet were encased in frozen carbonyte. It got so bad that Desjardins lost so much faith in two of his handpicked defenseman, Calvin de Haan and Jared Cowan in particular, that he didn't play them basically at all over the last 3 games and had to play forward Brandon MacMillan on defense quite a bit. And MacMillan had been a very effective forward.<br /><br />So with a revamping of the Canadian coaching staff next year who takes speed (a key attribute in international tournaments particularly on the backend as this years World Junior Silver Medalists and Team Canada's seventh place finishers at the Turin Olympics would attest) we will probably be back on top in Buffalo next year.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-62236085799155830022009-10-25T19:42:00.000-07:002009-10-25T20:10:33.138-07:00Sick and Tired of the Double Standard<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SuUTEpJfvVI/AAAAAAAAADs/1MyxK2Ox0qE/s1600-h/20080328__PRV030804_NHL_03~p1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396740698959494482" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 136px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SuUTEpJfvVI/AAAAAAAAADs/1MyxK2Ox0qE/s200/20080328__PRV030804_NHL_03~p1.jpg" border="0" /></a> I've never been one who's shy when it comes to critisizing Gary Bettman and his NHL administration for many things. Things such as not putting US franchises on life support back in Canada and his adversion to continuing Olympic participation after the 2010 Olympic games but now I have a new bone to pick: The Double Standard. What I'm talking about is the obvious double standard when it comes to supplementary discipline handed down to players for major infractions. This problem has once again reared it's ugly head this week on two seperate occasions, with two Russians in Evgeni Artyukhin and Alex Ovechkin and then Tuomo Ruutu and Mike Richards.<br /><div></div><br /><div>Artyukhin was suspended three games by the NHL earlier this week for slew footing Dallas Stars dman Matt Niskanen yet the next night Alex Ovechkin did the same thing to Atlanta's Rich Peverly and he merely got a 2,500$ fine. It was the exact same infraction and the looked the exact same yet here we are, Alex Ovechkin got away with it because he is the NHL's best player and a guy who sells tickets.</div><br /><div></div><div>Even worse was the later example of Ruutu and Richards. Both hits delivered serious injuries and were clear attempts to injure the opposing player yet the NHL chose to only suspend Ruutu. Ruutu's hit was one that was delivered from behind that knocked Darcy Tucker out of the game and out of conciousness last week and indeed clearly deserved a suspension. Richards hit was a late blindside hit where he caught Florida's David Booth coming across the middle watching the puck long after he'd dished to his line mate, Richards lowered his shoulder and then drove it into Booth's jaw knocking him unconscious. If had been any other player then the Captain of the Philadelphia Flyers and the face of hockey of one of the NHL's flagship franchises he definitely would have been suspended but since he put's butt's in the seats in Philly the NHL doesn't have the ball's to suspende him. This problem will only get worse until Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and Colin Campbell are relieved of their duties. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-36057693954965701202009-10-12T19:46:00.000-07:002009-10-12T20:41:48.276-07:00Best Commentary Teams<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/StP2w8KO52I/AAAAAAAAADk/FIxmE-2jsKs/s1600-h/pierreonboards.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391924499535816546" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 198px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/StP2w8KO52I/AAAAAAAAADk/FIxmE-2jsKs/s200/pierreonboards.jpg" border="0" /></a> A little dibated subject is the quality of commentary teams for NHL broacasts in Canada. Everyone has their favorite team, teams that they don't mind listening to and the teams that make you cringe when you turn on your tv and your hear their voice. Let's start off with the good teams and those that need improvement, aka the one's in the middle:<br /><div></div><br /><div><em>Decent:</em></div><br /><div><em></em></div><div><strong>Jim Hughson & Craig Simpson: </strong>HNIC's top commentary as they usually cover the Leafs games on saturday nights. These two are a decent combination as Hughson is probably one of the top 2 play-by-play guys in the business. Craig Simpson does a decent job at colour commentary although he's definitely got some room to improve. The one downside to the team is that they have to buy into the CBC mandated Leafs bias that makes you want to barf.</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Mark Lee & Kevin Weekes:</strong> A definite CBC theme here. Mark Lee does a better job then most give him credit for and Kevin Weekes has actually provided good insight into the games he's done so far but he's still very raw.</div><br /><div></div><div><em>Needs Improvement: </em></div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Bob Cole & Greg Millen: </strong>When Harry Neale retired that spelled the end for Bob Cole's run at the top as those two went together like peanut butter and jam. While it pains me as a Habs fan, due to Bob Cole's constent Maple Leaf mindset, I have to admit he's one of the best play-by-play commentater's ever. This team would be alot better if Greg Millen wasn't involved in any way however as he's got to be the third worst colour guy in the game(after Leafs suck Glenn Healy who just joined their team and one who will be mentioned later).</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>All Sportsnet teams: </strong>The Sportsnet teams are all basically rejects who couldn't cut it at TSN and CBC or weren't wanted. All of them or passable but really not that great.</div><br /><div></div><div><em>The Best: </em></div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Chris Cuthbert & Ray Ferraro: </strong>This is by far my favorite announce team on tv. Letting Cuthbert go was one of the many major blunders commited by CBC sports during the time period where that network lost almost every important sports program that they had except for HNIC. He's fantastic at his job. And Ferraro is by far and away the best colour guy in the game today as he provides maybe the best insight into the game and he's probably the most unbiased commentator. </div><br /><div></div><div><em>The Worst:</em></div><br /><div><em></em></div><div><strong>Gord Miller & Pierre McGuire: </strong>This almost has nothing to do with Gord Miller as he'd probably fall in the good category on his own as he's a decent play-by-play guy. Unfortunately for him his partner drags him down. Pierre McGuire is by far the worst colour commentator on canadian hockey broadcasts. Not only is he wholly and completely biased against certain organizations(i.e. Oilers, Islanders, Canadiens) but he's followed the media masses in kissing Brian Burke's ass and claiming that everything he touches turns to gold and laches on to certain players, pumps them up beyond and ignores their completely obvious faults *cough*Dion Phaneuf*cough*. Just retire already Pierre.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-36015700046012597892009-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:002009-10-04T19:21:42.086-07:00First Impressions of Opening Weekend-The Central division is the power division of the NHL. Chicago, Columbus, and St.Louis all look like they're ready to join the discussion as legitemate contenders in the Western Conference. Chicago's elite level offence including names like Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hossa, Byufglien and maybe the best all around blueline corps in the league with Keith, Seabrook, Campbell and Barker manning the top 4, however how far will their goaltending (Huet) take them? The Columbus Blue Jackets have an offence that is becoming one of the league's best with Nash, Huselius, Umberger, Filatov, Modin, Voracek and Brassard, a goaltender that won the Calder Trophy last year (Steve Mason) however can Ken Hitchcock's system mask their underwhelming D corps? Finally the St.Louis Blues served notice with two straight wins over the Wings this weekend that they have arrived with a elite forward corps consisting of names like Tkachuk, Kariya, T.J. Oshie, Patrick Berglund, Andy McDonald, David Perron and budding power forward David Backes. However beyond Erik Johnson the D corps is lacking playmakers and how long can career backup Chris Mason keep up his hot play?<br /><br />-Alex Ovechkin is on a mission this year. He didn't like watching the Penguins win the cup especially after defeating his Caps in the second round. He is coming out on fire and his team is following suit. Playing the Capitals isn't going to be fun this year.<br /><br />-The Vancouver Canucks have come out of the gate very flat, especially Roberto Luongo. Yes he is a notorious slow starter but he's supposed to be the leader of his team and right now his team is following him in the wrong direction.<br /><br />-As shown in their game against Carolina, and probably motivated by their second round ouster at the hands of the Canes, the Bruins are once again going to use physical intimidation as their main tool to rule the East once again.<br /><br />-The Philadelphia Flyers and Ray Emery have come out and played to expectations so far with Emery leading the way with two very good goaltending performances.<br /><br />-Carey Price has stolen 4 points for the Habs to start the season. And with Andrei Markov out for 4 months and and a suprisingly good Ryan O'Byrne out for the next 6 weeks, Price is going to have to keep standing on his head to keep the Habs in it till those two come back.<br /><br />-John Tavares had a very impressive debut with a goal and an assist.<br /><br />-The Ottawa Senators look just as bad as they did last year. Their defence still sucks and Dany Heatley's goals are going to be much harder to replace then the canadian media are letting on.<br /><br />-Brian Burke's much ballyhoode new defence has been less then impressive to say the least. Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin were awful against Montreal and then the whole team collapsed against Washington. Unless they tighten up it's going to be a long year for Vesa Toskala and "The Monster".<br /><br />-Calgary, with Bouwmeester taking a lot of pressure off of Dion Phaneuf which has lead to far more confident play, is looking like they will challenge to be the class of the west.<br /><br />-I was very impressed with the Oilers and the way they played against Calgary, particularly Sam Gagner, and if it wasn't for Khabibulin's puck handling skills they had a good chance to beat Calgary.<br /><br />-It's going to be a long, drawn out battle for the Pacific between San Jose and Anaheim. I'll take Anaheim, more depth and their goaltending has proved to be far more clutch then anything San Jose has.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-46503900595382045492009-09-26T11:27:00.001-07:002009-09-26T11:28:13.861-07:00The ReturnThe Blog will be returning to active duty over the next couple of weeksUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-57717150059641090442009-06-30T20:06:00.000-07:002009-07-01T06:57:20.569-07:00Thoughts on the Draft and the trades leading up to the UFA season<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SkrdICErCFI/AAAAAAAAADc/wdGnZlceC84/s1600-h/Gomez.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353334237148416082" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 163px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SkrdICErCFI/AAAAAAAAADc/wdGnZlceC84/s200/Gomez.jpg" border="0" /></a> -The top 3 picks went as expected with John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene went 1,2,3 respectively.<br /><div></div><br /><div>-5 out of the 6 Canadian teams (with Calgary being the exception) made very good picks.</div><br /><div></div><div>Now the juicy stuff,</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Chris Pronger was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa and two first round picks: </strong>Well I wouldn't want to be a team in the eastern conference next year, especially one in their division. The battles between the Flyers and the Penguins next year are going to be epic. The Flyers now arguably have to be considered to power in the east if Ray Emery can get back to his 2007 form. With a defensive top 3 of Pronger, Tiominen, and Coburn to go along with Richards, Carter, Briere, Gagne, Giroux and Hartnell. But on the other side the Flyers gave up an absolute kings ransom for Pronger. In Lupul they lose potentially 30 goals, Sbisa was their top defensive prospect and two first round picks make it a very steep price to pay so Pronger better damn well pay off.</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Jay Bouwmeester's negociating rights were traded to the Calgary Flames and then he signed a 5 year, 33 million dollar contract: </strong>What a blue line the Calgary Flames are going to have next season! With JBo, Phaneuf, Regher and Cory Sarich as their top 4 it's going to be hell trying to get anything done in Calgary's end and the former 2 have 60 point potential. Jay is only 25 years old and is just heading into his prime so Calgary now has the potential to have 2 of the top blueliner's in the league on their roster for a very long time. However don't expect this team to have any depth considering all the money they have sunk into star players. Not only that but this team's window could be closing with Olli Jokinen slated to become a UFA next year, the expected plunge in the salary cap and Daymond Langkow and Jarome Iginla are starting to gain some tread on their tires so this is a win now trade as well.</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Scott Gomez and two minor leaguers were traded to Montreal for Chris Higgins and prospects Ryan McDonaugh and Pavel Valentenko: </strong>The Montreal Canadiens get a potential #1 centre who comes with some issues however and give up a chronic underachiever who thinks he's better then he is along with one top end defensive prospect in Ryan McDonaugh and one who abandoned the Habs AHL team to go back to Russia in mid-season for more money in the KHL. Scott Gomez is a player who could very well put up massive numbers but he'd need someone else to play with which is an oppurtunity he had in New Jersey but never in New York. So he could turn back into a really good centre or he could be the 7 million dollar a season bust he was in NY. Chris Higgins is a player better suited for being a defensive forward but he thinks he's a natural goal scorer who can pot 40 (not a chance in hell). I won't really miss him and his probable future hellacious contract negociations or Pavel Valentenko and his bolting to Russia but Ryan McDonaugh could turn out to be a very solid top 4 defenseman. This deal could go either way for both teams.</div><br /><div></div><div><strong>Dany Heatley has been traded to the Edmonton Oilers for Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid</strong>: The Edmonton Oilers have finally gotten their first pure scoring winger since Jari Kurri left for Los Angeles all those years ago. He has the potential to score 50 goals every year and hopefully he's paired with Sam Gagner to speed along his developement instead of Shawn"The Anchor"Horcoff. However Heatley does come with the baggage of demanding a trade off his team for the second time now and apparently their were dressing room issues with Heatley in Ottawa so we'll see how Pat Quinn handles him. The Oilers actually managed to rid themselves of Dustin Penner and his outrageously brutal contract but they do lose ultra-fast goal scorer Andrew Cogliano and tough as nails defender Ladisalv Smid. Ottawa gains those two along with expensive reclamation project Penner who Brian Murray believes he can save.<strong>(Update: Heatley has decided to sleep on waving his NTC till tonight because it appears he wants GM Bryan Murray to work on trading him to San Jose or New York)</strong></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-40376919299214280022009-06-18T19:12:00.000-07:002009-06-18T19:58:05.894-07:00Offseason Story lines<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sjr-m1aVqKI/AAAAAAAAADU/rFvvpv6EF_A/s1600-h/heatley_dany_vert_ap_260.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348867450581919906" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 130px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sjr-m1aVqKI/AAAAAAAAADU/rFvvpv6EF_A/s200/heatley_dany_vert_ap_260.jpg" border="0" /></a> Here are some interesting story lines and possible endings for them this offseason:<br /><div></div><div> </div><div>-Firstly the Dany Heatley saga has become the major story of the upcoming draft much the same way that Chris Pronger was a few years ago. By demanding a trade out of Ottawa Heatley has forced GM Bryan Murray into dealing him and odds are he will be heading out West somewhere and there's no way that Ottawa will get back equal value for him either. As you'd expect the western canadian teams have figured prominently into rumors and while Vancouver and Edmonton are two viable options (Calgary won't have near enough cap room) they'd have to give up healthy packages for him and Vancouver simply doesn't have the depth. Personally I think it would take a package of Tom Gilbert (whom Ottawa is reportedly smitten with) Andrew Cogliano (whom apparently Oilers management doesn't want to trade) and the 10th overall pick. However if I had to pick a current frontrunner for Heatley I'd say it would be San Jose who has Patrick Marleau, Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski to chose from to trade along with prospect Logan Couture so they have much more to offer up to trade.</div><br /><div></div><div>-The Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke has promised to go out and spend boatloads of money this offseason and with the Sedin twins looking more and more like they aren't going to re-sign in Vancouver and with the history between the two sides it would not be suprising to see the Sedins in Leaf blue next year along with a couple of other high priced free agents.</div><br /><div></div><div>-Will the Montreal Canadiens, with the most cap room in the league, so spending crazy or will they do something that is long overdue and rebuild. Also the free agent class next year (Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Ilya Kovalchuck, Rick Nash) will be far superior and with the cap going down, some smart GM's will be hoarding cap space like it's gold for next season and I hope/a part of me believes that the Habs will be very quiet and do this.</div><br /><div></div><div>-With a lot of important UFA's and it seems that they're going to let alot of them walk away and without a whole lot of prospects outside of Cody Hodgson the Vancouver Canucks could very well be in a tough spot especially because with the noises that Roberto Luongo is making about only wanting to play for a contender, Mike Gillis is going to be in tough to deliver one for Roberto next season.</div><br /><div></div><div>-There will be over 7 new head coach's in the NHL next season, how will they fare?</div><br /><div></div><div>-Will the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins be able to stock up to get back to the cup finals for the third year in a row?</div><br /><div></div><div>-Will the Islanders take Tavares or Hedman? My money is on Tavares, natural goal scorers don't come along every day.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-83343737202470614042009-06-09T20:05:00.000-07:002009-06-09T22:04:40.178-07:00The Russian Bear is comingTeam Canada, the home team for the Olympic hockey tournament next year, at least in my opinion is in very deep trouble when the Russians come knocking next year. In the three units of a team as it stands right now, the Russians are better in 2 out of the 3 areas:<br /><br /><strong>1) Forwards:</strong><br />When it comes to scoring forwards there is no team with more talent in the coming tournament then the Russians. They have 3 of the top 5 forwards in the league with Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk and behind them Kovalchuk, Semin, Kovalev, Frolov, Slava Kozlov, Nikita Filatov along with Alexei Morozov and Alexander Radulov who are playing in the KHL. Canada has 2 of the top 5 with Crosby and Iginla but the support staff, while good and with more depth, isn't as good as the Russians. Rick Nash, Vinny Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Eric Staal, Jeff Carter, Marc Savard and Jonathan Toews. However the Russians don`t have a semblance of a checking line while the Canadians will have a superb one with Brendan Morrow, Mike Richards and Shane Doan.<br /><br /><strong>2) Defenseman:</strong><br />Well Canada has a definite advantage in this department because beyond Andrei Markov the Russians have a bunch of no names and old broken down past their prime guys like Sergei Zubov. Canada is obviously hoping that Scott Niedermayer is going to be there as he is still our country`s best defenseman. However they also have Chris Pronger, Dion Pheneuf, Brent Burns, Jay Bouwmeester, Robyn Regher, Dan Boyle, Shea Weber, Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook and Mike Green are there to be chosen from.<br /><br /><strong>3) Goaltending</strong><br />Before this season I would`ve said Canada without a doubt, but after Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo choked hard in the playoffs I`m going to give the edge to Russia. Ilya Bryzgalov, Nik Khabibulan and Evgeni Nabakov are a better threesome of goalies then Canada can come up with. After the former two, Cam Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury, Steve Mason, Marty Turco and possibly Carey Price if he has a bounce back season will all vie for the #3 position.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-45464335639708507922009-05-25T19:04:00.000-07:002009-05-25T19:06:22.618-07:00The Future<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/ShtOkN9UtCI/AAAAAAAAADM/pc5Hwh6h_8o/s1600-h/nhl-draft-floor-062207.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339948167306982434" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/ShtOkN9UtCI/AAAAAAAAADM/pc5Hwh6h_8o/s200/nhl-draft-floor-062207.jpg" border="0" /></a> For over a decade two of the greatest franchises in the history of the NHL, The Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens, have been mismanaged, poorly coached and combined with very poor drafting and other bad managerial decisions these things have lead to their downfalls into mediocrity. The Oilers finished out of the playoffs for the third straight year and a year after finishing first overall in the east the Montreal Canadiens absolutely flamed out this year and were obliterated in a first round sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins. They both have very similar current problems to go along with the long standing ones: lack of size, competitive drive, underachieving young players, no head coach, they’re not exactly the most desirable places for UFA’s to head to and they both hold mediocre draft positions. Here’s what they both need to do to build their teams into annual contenders.<br /><br /><strong>Edmonton Oilers:</strong> New GM Steve Tambellini is stuck somewhere between a quick fix and a long term rebuilding project. Kevin Lowe has left him a mixture of young talent still to be groomed with the potential to be a great corps (Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson, Tom Gilbert, checking centre Kyle Brodziak, Ladislav Smid, Patrick O’Sullivan,) and some prospects (Taylor Chorney, Theo Peckham, Riley Nash, Jordan Eberle, Jeff Drouin-Delauriers, Rob Shremp and Devin Dubnyk). However he’s also left him a group of high priced veterans who are either just overpaid for who they are (Pisani, Moreau, Staios) and a few who are grossly underachieving but who are earning top dollar (Horcoff, Penner, Vishnovsky, Hemsky). First thing to take care of is the impending UFA’s (Denis Grebeshkov, Ales Kotalik, Dewayne Roloson) and if I were Tambo my first priority would be re-signing Grebeshkov as I feel that he greatly improved himself this season, is arguably their most dependable puck moving defenseman and he’s still relatively young. Kotalik is dispensable but if he’ll come back for a relatively low contract number why not re-sign him. Dewayne Roloson is tricky. I’d bring him back but only on a one year contract and the Oilers two younger goalies have got to get way more playing time then they did last season because Oiler brass really does need to know what they have in their younger goalies as Roloson is now 40 years old and you don’t know when his performance will absolutely plummet. Next up is the draft and the Oilers, by my estimation will have to decide whether or not they’re willing to reach for that size and toughness they desperately want up front or take one of the two potential elite offensive defensemen that will probably be available at #10 overall in the first round. So right now I’d say it’s between Zach Kassian, Ryan Ellis and Dmitry Kulikov with an outside chance at Nazem Kadri. Free agency is a little thin on quality this year, and with the cap supposedly going down after this coming season I’d sit tight in that area if I were Tambellini and hope that the young players and Ales Hemsky steps up even more next season. And let’s not forget the head coach! If you want an experienced available coach I’d suggest either Peter Laviolette or Tom Renney. Little known coaches that I’d suggest might be the Manitoba Moose’s Scott Arniel or the Hamilton Bulldogs’s Don Lever. Tambo is playing his coaching choice very close to the vest so it’ll be very interesting to see who he indeed does pick.<br /><br /><strong>Montreal Canadiens:</strong> Well, this past season was a disaster. We were bombarded with 100th season publicity and talk that the Habs were the favourite to represent the east in the Stanley Cup final and then the team folded under all the expectations. The veterans were either injured or would go through long confidence sucking slumps; Kovalev went through his usual every 2nd year drought and Saku Koivu plain and simple is done as a good player. About half the Habs roster is going to be UFA/RFA after this season including basically the whole corps of the team. The Habs three notable RFA’s are Guillaume Latendresse, Tomas Plekanec, and Christopher Higgins. Latendresse has developed along with Maxim Lapierre into a very efferective 3rd line combo and has consistent 20 goal potential so he is a definite re-sign. Higgins is also developing into a consistent 20 goal potential shut down forward in the mold of a Bob Gainey. Plekanec on the other hand is a player that at most I would give a one year contract and then would trade him at the first sign of a good deal or that the team is ready to make the next step to becoming a cup contender because in his 3 trips to the playoffs he has disappeared every time and he consistently shies away from physical contact. UFA players that I believe should not be brought back for sure (mainly for cap, health and age considerations) are Francis Boullion, Patrice Brisebois(who will retire) and Tom Kostopoulos as Gregory Stewart will be doing his job and is younger and cheaper. After that Bob Gainey basically has to consider the price and length of contract that his other UFA’s want. Mathieu Schneider is someone that I believe could be brought back to man the point on the PP as he is still very effective their but there’s no way he should be getting as much playing time or money(5.75 million) that he did last year and I’d give him just a one year deal at around 2 million as any contract given to a player over 35 counts against the cap for the duration even if the player retires. I do not believe that Mike Komisarek will be back as he will get mega-bucks in free agency that he is not worth and I believe that he is done with the organization after his atrocious play at the end of the season so if the rumors are true that Francois Beauchemin wants to come back to MTL I’d sign him in a heartbeat to replace Komi. The development of Ryan O’Byrne as a potential big physical shutdown defenseman is something to keep an eye on and it looks as if top prospect Alexei Yemelin will sign this summer and he is a nasty piece of work ala Darius Kasparitis. Alex Tanguay, Alex Kovalev and Robert Lang have all said that they’d like to come back and that money isn’t the issue but the term. Tanguay I’d bring back for 4-5 years but at about 4 million at most, Kovalev warrants a 2 year deal at most at around 2-3 million but Lang get’s a one year deal. Even though he played very well last year he’s 39, was already not a great skater and suffered a severed Achilles tendon. Tanguay has already said that he won’t sign until a new head coach is named and with most players probably won’t sign until one is named Gainey should probably get a move on. Team President Pierre Boivin has already screwed management by telling people that the team will hire an experienced french speaking coach so names such as Bob Hartley and Marc Crawford are sure to be mentioned and interviewed. Don Lever, given his very good work with young players in Hamilton should get very long consideration although he’s not a francophone so the French media would cry bloody murder. And of course the wild card who apparently Tanguay has said that he’d love to play for is his ex-teammate, a man who’s arrogance would make him so self assured that he would be able to withstand all attacks from the media and he’s so crazy that he just might work, of course I’m talking about Patrick Roy. All his ex-teammates say he will make a great coach and all his junior players love him, plus he may be one of the few people to be able to instil the competitive drive in Carey Price that he so desperately needs but the Colorado Avalanche have offered him the position of coach and GM so we’ll see how that turns out. Finally the Habs are drafting in the #18 hole in the draft and a big forward is just what this doctor prescribes for what ails the Habs. If Zach Kassian inexplicably drops that far the Habs should snap him up in a second. Others include Brandon forward Scott Glennie (6.01/174 lbs), Guelph centre Peter Holland (6.01/178 lbs), Carter Ashton of Lethbridge (6.02/190 lbs) and wildcards Chris Kreider from Andover Maryland and local centre Jordan Caron (6.02/196 lbs). I’d take any of the Canadian players myself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-82219985864483364352009-05-10T12:41:00.000-07:002009-05-10T13:35:54.603-07:00Ovie vs. Crosby<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sgc6m3idxhI/AAAAAAAAADE/KBQtkMns2LU/s1600-h/oc582.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334296723061589522" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 130px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sgc6m3idxhI/AAAAAAAAADE/KBQtkMns2LU/s200/oc582.jpg" border="0" /></a> The dream playoff matchup that the NHL head office has dreamed of since 2005 finally happened this spring and indeed so far it has lived up to the hype. The game of one ups manship between the game's two biggest stars has been phenomenal to watch, especially game 2 when both of them recorded hat-tricks. If Gary Bettman wasn't so busy trying to defend his disastrous sun-belt market franchises from Jim Balsillie he'd probably be wetting himself with glee at how well this series has gone. It's been a fantastic marketing tool for the NHL almost like (although not quite the same as they aren't meeting for the Stanley Cup) Magic vs. Bird during the 80's for the NBA. This series has also done something very important, it has shown just how different their styles of play are and that they can't deffiate from those styles if they want to be effective. When Crosby was trying to go goal for goal with Ovechkin during the first two games his team was losing because if Crosby is trying to score goals the play of his linemates plummits. Crosby is a passer, not a goal scorer. His passing and playmaking are what make his team and linemates better then they would be on their own and as he was trying to match goal total's with Ovechkin his team was suffering. However in the last three games he's gone back to his playmaking self and to no suprise the Penguins are faring much better. As we all no Ovechkin is the premier sniper in the NHL and he has 7 goals in 5 games in this series. He's a decent passer but his forté is definitely shooting the puck and this opens up room for his teammates as the opposition is constently focused on shutting down Ovechkin.<br /><div></div><br /><div>This series has also proved that right now anyway, the Pittsburgh Penguins are a better team then the Washington Capitals especially on the defensive side of the puck. Offensively the teams are pretty much even but on the back end the Penguins are definitely superior as well as their overall play in their own end. Capitals all-star defenseman Mike Green has completely disappeared this spring in both of the Caps playoff series and this has significantly weakened the Capitals backend play as there really isn't much beyond him on their blueline and at this point in time Marc-Andre Fleury is outplaying Simeone Varlamov. The Penguins will likely win game six and go on to the Eastern final as the Capitals have much to improve on in the own end but whether they can do it in time for a series victory or if it's something that they'll have to do in time for next season to go further into to post-season is another question.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-16388433971474047032009-04-29T13:18:00.000-07:002009-04-29T13:21:24.340-07:00First round analysis(by order of series finishing)<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sfi2rS_zj3I/AAAAAAAAAC8/yiPTWkeJ97w/s1600-h/feb22-vs-capitals-vs-ovechkin.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330211013943070578" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 152px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/Sfi2rS_zj3I/AAAAAAAAAC8/yiPTWkeJ97w/s200/feb22-vs-capitals-vs-ovechkin.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>Vancouver defeats St.Louis in 4 games:<br /></strong>Contrary to the fact that it was a four game sweep, the St.Louis Blues came out and played hard in this series, they just got beat by a far more veteran team. The Canucks power play was effective when they needed it and the completely shut down a previously potent Blues power play. Roberto Luongo stole game one and came up large right when they needed him and while Chris Mason played well he didn't play well enough obviously. The Canucks are a team that was built to win this year with the Swedish core (the Sedins, Sundin and Ohlund) are all up for UFA status and All World goaltender Roberto Luongo will be a free agent after next season while the Blues are a team that is deep with young talent that is building towards possibly something special. Right now I'm looking for the Canucks to at the very least make it to the Western Final because I believe they'll beat the Chicago Blackhawks in round #2<br /><br /><strong>Detorit defeats Columbus in 4 games:<br /></strong>Much like the Vancouver/St.Louis series this was men against boys. The Detroit Red Wings machine claimed another victim in the Blue Jackets in this round. Chris Osgood's stats went from below zero temperatures to boiling hot once the puck dropped for the playoffs after a brutal regular season and once again their high powered, all-star laden roster (Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Hossa, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, etc.) rolled through an inferior opponent. Naturally the Red Wings aren't leaving the spotlight any time soon even with Hossa probably leaving as a UFA . The Blue Jackets, much like the Blues, are a very young team that is building towards the future into a potential power team and now it appears that they finally have a goaltender in Steve Mason, although the Wings taught him a thing or two. One source of concern for the Jackets is that their star player and the face of the franchise/captain Rick Nash will be eligible to become a free agent after next season so you can bet they will be putting all their efforts into re-signing him.<br /><br /><strong>Boston defeats Montreal in 4 games:<br /></strong>This series was a shitkicking and a half. For a Habs fan this was outragously painful to watch. The Bruins were better in every facet of the game. They were bigger, meaner, more skilled and far more determined. Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, Micheal Ryder, Phil Kessel and Marc Savard ran the Habs show in this series. They have a nice blend of veteran and youth players but much like a few teams they are going to be in cap trouble over the next couple of years with major RFA's (Kessel, Krejci, Lucic and Wideman) and UFA's (Chara, Axelsson, Ward, Fernandez) and the cap will be flatlining and then going down. The centenial version of the Montreal Canadiens are a disaster and I have a feeling that they aren't going to be good for a few years now. They have 10 UFA players and 5 RFA's and you can bet that a large number of them won't be back, including Mike Komisarek and Saku Koivu who I'm betting won't be back. The young players on the team have a reputation of loving a night out on the town rather then taking their jobs seriously and the man who was supposed to be the future of the franchise, Carey Price, has major maturity and work ethic issues. This is going to be a very important offseason for the direction of the Habs.<br /><br /><strong>Pittsburgh defeats Philadelphia in 6 games:<br /></strong>Plain and simple, Malkin and Crosby showed up and the Flyers defense beyond Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn on a good day is a big bunch of nothing. Matt Carle has regressed beyond belief since he entered the league with a bang in San Jose, Luca Sbisa and Ryan Parent are rookies who are a little ways away from becoming impact players and the rest of them are pluggers. The Flyers are set up front with young stars Mike Richards and Jeff Carter while Scottie Hartnell, Dany Briere when healthy, Claude Giroux, and at times Joffrey Lupul but with a porous defence, Mike Knuble as a UFA and no goaltenders signed the Flyers are in serious cap hell. The Penguins are good and will be for awhile for obvious reasons of Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Gonchar.<br /><br /><strong>Chicago defeats Calgary in 6 games:<br /></strong>Simply put the Flames top two defensemen (Regher and the overrated Phaneuf) were either injured or ineffective in this series and there's nothing on the backend beyond them and the forwards (even with Langkow, Iginla, Cammalleri, Bertuzzi, Jokinen, and Bourque) couldn't score if their lives depended on it most of the time. The Flames are in deep cap trouble and obviously have other problems as per the fact they haven't made it out of the first round since their 2004 cup run. The Hawks young stars came through in this series, Nik Khabibulin stood on his head and their defence was solid. The Blackhawks are going to be good for a very long time with young stars Toews, Kane, Sharp, Bolland, Versteeg, Keith, Barker and Seabrook.<br /><br /><strong>Anaheim defeats San Jose in 6 games:<br /></strong>The Sharks are officially the Indianapolis Colts pre-super bowl, the biggest chokers maybe their respective sport has ever seen. The Sharks finished the season with a franchise record 117 points and a President’s trophy award. A loaded offense (Thornton, Marleau, Setoguchi, Michalek, Clowe), a Stanley Cup defence (Boyle, Blake, Lukowich, Vlasic) and an All-Star goaltender in Evgeni Nabakov were supposed to finally pull through in the playoffs this year and as usual they folded. Once again the Sharks big guns up front, especially Thornton, did nothing and when the going got tough they got to gliding but the biggest problem with the Sharks is Nabakov. Besides Roman Turek I’ve never seen a goalie who’s performance so drastically diminishes come playoff time. Whenever his team needs a save he never gives it to them. The Anaheim Ducks just keep rolling. They dump some unneeded veterans at the trade deadline and the young players step up. The Getzlaf/Perry/Ryan line is going to be dominant for years to come, they still have that All-Universe defence and a suddenly out of nowhere great goaltender Jonas Hiller.<br /><br /><strong>Carolina defeats New Jersey in 7 games:<br /></strong>One half of my Stanley Cup prediction went up in smoke in this series including who I thought was going to win the whole shebang but I won’t be making that mistake for one reason: Martin Brodeur has proven to me once and fore all that he cannot carry a team by himself to a Stanley Cup championship. Without Stevens, Neidermayer and Rafalski he simply cannot get the job done. The ‘Canes did a nice job shutting down the Parise/Zajac/Elias line after the first couple of games and the secondary scoring for the Devils dried up as well. The Hurricanes are going to give the Bruins a nasty shock if they think that this series is going to be as easy as their last one. They have the hottest goaltender in the league right now in Cam Ward, a very effective puck moving defence and the best line in the playoffs with Whitney/Staal/Cole and the Brind’Amour/Ruutu line has been providing excellent secondary scoring. The Bruins/Hurricanes series is going to be a doozy.<br /><br /><strong>Washington defeats NYR in 7 games<br /></strong>Their were two pivotal events in this series: 1) The Washington Capitals replace Jose Theodore with Simeon Varlamov and 2) John Tortorella benches Sean Avery in game 5 for a lack of discipline and then goes and get’s himself suspended for throwing a water bottle into the crowd in Washington. These two things helped the Washington Capitals come back from a 3-1 series deficit to score their first playoff round win in 11 years. Basically the only reason the Rangers were even in this series was Henrik Lundqvist. “The King” was dominant at the start of the series and stole the 3 games that the Rangers did win as once again Slats’s high price talent failed to produce as it’s looking more and more like I was right to think that Wade Redden, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Markus Naslund were going to be busts relative to the money they were going to make. With nothing coming up the pipe in the minors any time soon Ranger fans should get used to teams that win only when Lundqvist and of all people Sean Avery play well. Alex Ovechkin still looks like he’s trying to figure out the playoffs because he still plays like he would in the regular season which is why he hasn’t been as effective. It’s not that he’s not trying but he’s still trying to do everything himself and doesn’t use his teammates to great effect which is something he’ll have to learn to do. They have great secondary scoring with Nik Backstrom, Alex Semin and Mike Green, a solid defence and a hot goaltender. The NHL has it’s dream playoff matchup with Ovechkin vs. Crosby and it should be good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-75463648987576999412009-04-19T20:26:00.000-07:002009-04-19T21:03:44.349-07:00Random thoughts and observationsDue to final exams I haven't really had the time to come up with an article but here are some thoughts on the end of the seasons and beginning of the playoffs:<br /><br />-The Northwest division is in for some changes for next season with the Oilers and Wild needing new coach's, the Wild and Avalanche needing new GM's and if Calgary goes out in the first round then I think they along with Colorado will also be looking for new coach's.<br /><br />-Brian Burke is back to opening his big mouth saying that he's going to try and trade up to #1 overall in the draft, but he really doesn't have what it would take to do so. This is basically just trying to drum up excitement and make it seem like he's trying.<br /><br />-With 9 UFA's, constant benchings of young players and a potential franchise goalie with work ethic and maturity issues and an ass kicking in the first round at the hands of the Boston Bruins, the Montreal Canadiens are in need of a serious rebuild and I'm not sure that Gainey will stick around as GM to do it. I have a feeling that he may well step away from the GM's position and take up a presidential position. If I'm the Habs I'm making a package to trade way up into the top 10 in the draft (which is being held in Montreal) and get the rebuild started now.<br /><br />-The Islanders and Coyotes are in serious financial peril and Gary Bettman may only be able to hold out for one more year before seriously looking into moving those franchises. NYI owner Charles Wang has already stated that he will be moving his team to Kansas City if the Long Island government does not approve the 2 Billion dollar Lighthouse project which would give him a massive new arena (the current arena is a dump). If it is indeed approved the Islanders stand a good chance at becoming relevant in their market again like the Penguins with John Tavares taken first overall (which will give them a couple of pieces up front along with Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo) but they still need Rick DiPietro to finally be healthy and some major prospect infusion on the back end. The Coyotes are in deep shit financially and I don't see them is Phoenix in 5 years.<br /><br />-With the salary cap flatlining this offseason after years of constent growth and rumored to be plummeting after next season, teams such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Edmonton, Boston, NYR, Washington and Chicago are going to be in major cap hell and may ver well need to move some good players just to get under the cap after next season and none of them will be improving via Free Agency for next year.<br /><br />-The Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings (at least in the 1st series) look like the two teams that'll be meeting up in the West final and that should be a great series.<br /><br />-The NHL seems very keen on cutting down on incidents during the last few minutes of games by suspending players who commit major penalties or who look like they're trying to send a message.<br /><br />-The Central Division with the Red Wings, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Blues and on the outside the Predators who always seem to be there at the end, is going to be a warzone next year with the 'Hawks, Blue Jackets and Blues all with up and coming young powerful teams looking to lay claim to the Red Wings throne.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4282593154306008680.post-11533885209402529712009-04-05T16:12:00.000-07:002009-04-05T21:32:38.162-07:00Stanley Cup Final Combatents aka. The Crapshoot<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SdljGoWZeII/AAAAAAAAAC0/6J1P8GlkpKo/s1600-h/Martin-Brodeur---NJ-03-St-Cup---Photofile-Photograph-C11841287.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321393400276678786" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 158px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UVfnTscYvSU/SdljGoWZeII/AAAAAAAAAC0/6J1P8GlkpKo/s200/Martin-Brodeur---NJ-03-St-Cup---Photofile-Photograph-C11841287.jpg" border="0" /></a> The calender changed from March to April and the smell of spring has entered the air and along with that comes the smell of another season: The Post Season. There are a few things that come with this season: if you're a fan of a team that didn't make it to the dance then you either pick a new one to cheer for or go hit the links at the same time as your team, if your team does make it to the playoffs then it has a 1 in 16 chance of actually winning the cup and so the odds are quite good that they won't make it that far but your blind devotion forces you to believe otherwise. UFA players know that other teams will be watching so if they want to get as much money as possible then they better step up with a strong playoff. New heroes and villians are born seemingly with every play and with the Olympics coming up next year you can bet that spots may be opened or closed to borderline players who need to make an impression. And then of course there's one of my favorite parts, which is trying to accurately predict just who is going to walk away with Lord Stanley's mug. So here I'm going to give you my two favorite's, one in each conference, to win that coveted trophy that is handed to the winning team's captain every June.<br /><div></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Western Conference winner is: t<strong>he Vancouver Canucks</strong></div><div>Probably the hottest team heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs. They've got 2 great scoring lines that are currently doing what they're supposed to do, a quality checking line that does a decent job shutting down the other teams top guys and an energetic, big and bruising fourth line that can dole out some punishment along with handling themselves with their fists. As long as the Sundin/Demitra/Kesler line continues to score it will help take the attention off of the Sedins/Burrows line. However if they hit a cold streak and teams can then focus in on the Sedins, they've proved that they will dissapear if you are able to put a full court press on them. The Canucks defense is very solid from 1 through 6 and they've got a couple of guys in Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo and to a lesser extent Alex Edler and Mattias Ohlund can all put up points if need be so their powerplay should be solid throughout. And of course nothing helps more in the playoffs then goaltending and the Vancouver Canucks have one of the best three goaltenders in the game today. Roberto Luongo, while at times inconsistent during the regular season, always steps up for important games (ie. World Cup in 2004 and Canucks series win vs. Dallas two years ago) and this year will be no different. The Western Conference playoffs will be an absolute grind and any team that comes out of their deserves to be commended. But the San Jose Sharks will have to prove to me that they won't choke again, the Red Wings have severe goaltending issues, the Flames are folding like a cheap suit right now, the Blackhawks like the Penguins two years are just to young and inexperienced right now and will probably be bounced in the first round, ditto for the Blue Jackets although I have more faith in their goaltending then Chicago's, my darkhorse in the Anaheim Ducks cause they seem to be putting it together at the right time and with their phenomenal first line and two first rate defensemen on the back end they could be the Cinderella story, and finally the Blues or Predators will just be happy to be a young team that made it. But right now my choice to represent the West in the Stanley Cup final are the <strong>Vancouver Canucks.</strong></div><br /><div><strong></strong></div><div>Eastern Conference winners: <strong>the New Jersey Devils</strong></div><div>Much like the Red Wings they are the franchise that just keeps winning and winning and winning. As long as Martin Brodeur is manning the crease in New Jersey this will not change. The Devils have arguably one of the top lines in the league with Parise/Zajac/Langenbrunner putting up massive numbers this season and I don't expect that to change in the playoffs. They are deadly 5 on 5 and almost unstoppably in the PP. Elias/Zubrus/Gionta as a second line is a great combo for a second line, a big two way centre with two highly skilled wingers flanking him and Elias has had arguably the second best season of his career. Shanahan/Madden/Rolston is an absolute lexury as a third line as not only can they put up big points on any given night but they're phenomenal in their own end and Shanny along with Rolston are particularly effective PP players and their fourth line is chalk full of experience. All of their forward lines have Stanley Cup rings on them and that could prove to be huge. The one place where the Devils may be exposed is on their back end where they have a host of nobody's as it's not a very impressive group but they get bailed out of their most glaring mistakes by the best goaltender in the game today in Marty Brodeur. Brodeur's resume is lengthy and unmatched among active goalies and given the fact that he's missed most of the season with an elbow injury will mean that unlike the past few years he won't be as tired as he was. The Bruins historically choke in the playoffs much like San Jose, Washington has no goaltending, Philadelphia's goaltending is also very questionable and their defence leaves something to be desired, Pittsburgh's defence is not that impressive and while th<img class="gl_bold" alt="Bold" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" border="0" />ey arguably are the hottest team and offence heading into the playoffs I don't expect Marc-Andre Fleury to continue his hot play but if he does they are my dark horse team in the east, The Carolina Hurricanes are just to soft and their goaltending is too streaky, The Montreal Canadiens might win a round but a lack of secondary scoring, a suddenly porous defence and inconsistent goaltending will do them in, and either the Rangers or the Panthers will probably either get killed in the first round or upset Boston and then get killed in the second round. So right now my eastern favorites are the <strong>New Jersey Devils.</strong></div><br /><div><strong></strong></div><div>Stanley Cup winner: <strong>the New Jersey Devils.</strong></div><div>Martin Brodeur will prove prevailent over the younger goaltending star in seven games, much like Patrick Roy did to him 8 years ago. This is my crapshoot, my choice for the Stanley Cup final. Are the odds on my side? No, but I sure hope that I am cause I think it would be a great series.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0