a hockey guy

2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

2011-04-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Lots of interesting stuff in the playoffs thus far...

Western Conference

Detroit def. Phoenix 4-0 - Goodness gracious, the Wings looked solid.

San Jose def. Los Angeles 4-2 - As a Sharks fan, I'm of course glad they won, but didn't see much to inspire confidence going into the later rounds. Very interesting piece Sharks-Kings piece on shooting at a goalie's pads from Puck Daddy at Yahoo Sports.

Nashville def. Anaheim 4-2 - Always happy to see Anaheim lose, but I have a hard time being sold on the Preds chances.

Chicago & Vancouver 3-3 - What a series... great players, panicked coaches (well, Vancouver coach), potential monster comeback from 3-0. It's been fantastic viewing.

Eastern Conference

Washington def. New York Rangers 4-1 - Heck of a team those Capitals are.

Boston leading Montreal 3-2 - I think the Canadiens cooked, but not overly impressed with the Bruins.

Pittsburgh & Tampa Bay 3-3 - Really good series... regardless of who wins, I think it would be tough sledding if a matchup with Washington awaits. Now, either Boston or Montreal... could be a different story.

Philadelphia & Buffalo 3-3 - Another good series, but not sure that it would be if the Flyers were able to get decent goaltending. To that point, amazed that Sergey Bobrovsky didn't even warrant a backup goalie spot for games 3-6 of the series.

NHL Playoff Predictions

2011-02-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

My thoughts on the teams I expect to be in the conference finals come playoff time... along with those that I could see making it:

Western Conference

Elite teams
Vancouver Canucks - serious Stanley Cup contender. Have all the pieces needed.
Detroit Red Wings - see Canucks, Vancouver. A very good team.

Next level
San Jose Sharks - playing well now, but at this point any deep playoff run would surprise me. As a Sharks fan, it would be great to be surprised.
Dallas Stars - I just have a hard time being convinced.
Anaheim Ducks - sort of like the Stars... I don't see them being elite right now without both Pronger and Neidermayer.
Colorado Avalanche - not sold on the goaltending.

Eastern Conference

Elite Team
Philadelphia Flyers - excellent hockey team.

Next level
Boston Bruins - I can't shake the memory of them losing a playoff series last year after being up three games to none.
Pittsburgh Penguins - good team with current healthy parts, but not a great one.
Washington Capitals - think there's a reason they just never break through.
Montreal Canadiens - not a great team, but seems to do the best they can with the skill they've got.
Tampa Bay - looking at next year, me thinks.

Right now, I'd say things point towards a Vancouver - Philadelphia Cup Finals... with the experience from last season pushing the Flyers just over the top.

Steve Rushin on Hockey for Sports Illustrated

2010-12-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

Been quite a while since I've posted to this blog (as online writing efforts have been directed here), but recently came across an excellent piece of hockey writing.

From the Sports Illustrated website (maybe just even the mobile version of SI based on the link), was "Hooked on Hockey Again" by Steve Rushin. He's a solid writer and while short, the piece captures some of the elements of tradition I find endearing as well around the game.

2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs - On To Round Two

2010-04-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Interesting stuff out of the first round of the playoffs. To whit...

Western Conference

#1 San Jose Sharks def. #8 Colorado Avalanche 4 games to 2
Very compelling series for me as a Sharks fan. Best way to describe it is I'm pleased as punch with how San Jose dealt with adversity (in the form of unlucky bounces and great Colorado goaltending) and kept plugging away. I am a bit nervous at how bad the team's presumed best player in Joe Thornton looked, but was thrilled to see Joe Pavelski play so well. To the end, I also think about the absolute monster goal he scored in OT of game 4 to knot up the series at 2. If Colorado takes that game, there's a lot of ways for them to win the series with a 3-1 lead. However, they didn't, he did, and the better team moved on.

#2 Chicago Blackhawks def. #7 Nashville Predators 4 games to 2
Not much to say... I think the better team won and while it's true that Nashville came within 20 seconds of taking a 3-2 series lead, I suspect Chicago would have still found a way to win in 7 games.

#3 Vancouver Canucks def. #6 Los Angeles Kings 4 games to 2
The Kings have a good young team and played pretty well, but similar to the Chicago series, the better of the two teams moved on.

#5 Detroit Red Wings def. #4 Phoenix Coyotes 4 games to 3
Differered from the other three Western Conference series in that it went the full 7 games, but similiar in that the more skilled and playoff tested team just proved too much for their opponent.

Eastern Conference

#8 Montreal Canadiens def. #1 Washington Capitals 4 games to 3
Wow, an 8 seed being down 3 games to 1 and coming back to win the series. Amazing stuff that gets perhaps less amazing when you consider they did it through crazy good goaltending from Jaroslav Halak. An average of 45 shots a game in these three with... 3 goals allowed, that's pretty good.

# 7 Philadelphia Flyers def. #2 New Jersey Devils 4 games to 1
The only one of the 8 series to end in less than 6 games... and pretty much everyone would have thought the winner of a short series here would be the Devils. Happy it wasn't though as I'm much more interested in watching the Flyers in round two than I would be New Jersey.

#6 Boston Bruins def. #3 Buffalo Sabres 4 games to 2
Great goaltending beats... great goaltending. Not much more to say as I didn't watch a lot of this one (and none of the Flyers-Devils series which didn't have any coverage on Versus), but I do like the idea of the Canadiens, Flyers and Bruins as steep in history teams advancing.

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins def. #5 Ottawa Senators 4 games to 2
Very much like each of the 4 series in the West, the better team just proved too much for a pretty game opponent. Actually, the only Eastern series in which the higher seed (and presumably better team) wound up winning. Also, that Sidney Crosby... he's good.

Vancouver Olympics Men's Hockey - All Done

2010-03-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

Just for posterity's sake (because I liked writing and want to keep track of it)... linking here to a post I wrote after Canada won in OT against the U.S. in the Gold Medal hockey game...

Chip Kelly Oregon Ducks Piece from CNNSI

2010-03-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

This of course isn't hockey-related, but I've posted football stuff on this blog previously so when I think about linking here to a story about my beloved Oregon Ducks football, I say "why the heck not?"

The Ducks have been very much in the news lately with multiple players arrested for various legal transgressions (and at least one already booted off the team)... and now there's news about the two most acclaimed current Duck players, Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James. James suspending for a game and (Heisman hopeful QB) Masoli for the entire season.

The extent of my knowledge about each case has been (and for the most part still is) limited to knowing that Masoli plead guilty to a charge of felony (reduced to a misdemeanor with his plea) burglary with the theft of a laptop and James plead guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge after an incident with an ex-girlfriend.

This being said, I had no huge opinion about each case except for how they both relate to my twin views I have about (1) athletes on the teams I follow and (2) what I want from said teams followed.

The first is that I recognize that because someone plays for "my team", it does not make them a good guy... some people are just plain bad guys (see: Phillips, Lawrence who played for the 49ers among other teams). Because they're on my team, I don't have to have any illusions that they're somehow a cut above any "riff-raff types who play on teams I don't root for".

The second view is in a way contradictory, but... not really. When I think about my fandom for a given team, it's great for me to think that "my guys" might win a Stanley Cup/World Series/BCS Title, but the more important thing to me is that I be entertained and happy when I'm paying attention.

Yes, part of being entertained is certainly having a good team that's headed towards a championship goal, but part is also my not feeling embarrassed about the guys who are on the field. It's one thing entirely to know that everyone I want to succeed isn't someone I personally admire, but would be another to think that someones skill level gives them a completely different set of rules than apply to the rest of the team (see: Phillips, Lawrence and his Nebraska Cornhusker playing time after a bevy of domestic violence episodes). Basically, all I ask of the players on teams I support is that they try hard, live up to (or exceed) abilities and don't embarrass me to cheer for them... basically, entertain me.

Back to the issue at hand with said Oregon Ducks... I'm certainly not saying Masoli and James are bad dudes, in fact they may be great upstanding guys, but am saying that they have to be held to the same standards that would apply to less skilled players... with those standards hopefully being ones that would cause the University or fans that cheer for it's teams to not be embarrassed. It's not that I cheer the suspension of either (with Masoli's of course having more impact), but I am happy that Athletic Director Mike Bellotti and Head Coach Chip Kelly (with I imagine the input of University President Richard Lariviere) made decisions that don't seem to simply pander to the talent and potential for success on the field.

All of this said... I agree completely with (and enjoyed reading) Andy Staples from his tongue in cheek titled "Coach's decision a head-turner" on CNNSI. Solid.

Vancouver Olympics Men's Hockey - U.S. & Canada Advance

2010-02-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Not to take anything away from Finland's defeat of the Czech Republic or the Sweden-Slovakia game going on now, but man... those victories by first the U.S. and then Canada were interesting today.

The U.S. game stood out to me not because of the high number of American shots on goal (44) or yet another great game from Ryan Miller (this a 2-0 shutout), but because of the reckless abandon with with the U.S. players blocked shots. It seemed to be a "no, I want to get in front of this one" contest with every member of the team sacrificing their body to help get the win. Impressive stuff.

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Speaking of impressive stuff... that Team Canada offensive really hit it's (fully anticipated) stride against Russia. Six goals against Evgeni Nabokov (who didn't have a good game) and one more against Ilya Bryzgalov should be enough to get the win, and it was to the tune of 7-3. While he may not get a lot of accolades from the game, Roberto Luongo deserves notice for his keeping Canada off the board during an early first period power play with probably five to six shots against him. If Russia scores early, perhaps their offense really starts rolling.

So... on to the Semifinals for both teams. The U.S. will face a Finland team led by goalie Mikka Kiprusoff and Canada either Slovakia or Sweden (a Gold Medal pick of more than a few people). Hopefully the Americans and Canadians both advance to what would be a highly anticipated (and hopefully shown live on NBC) Olympic Final.

The odds of the U.S. beating Canada twice in the same tournament wouldn't be good, but then... they don't have to be in order for it to still happen.

NBC U.S. Olympic Hockey West Coast Coverage

2010-02-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

U.S. vs Switzerland today in the Men's Hockey Olympic quarterfinals... on NBC... TAPE DELAYED ON THE WEST COAST.

I learned from this story on Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports and then went out to the NBC website for this information (noted below):

Time (PT)

3:00p - 5:00p
NBC Bay Area
Daytime After posting a stunning 5-3 upset of Canada on Sunday, Ryan Miller and Team USA return to the ice to take on Switzerland for a spot in Hockey's semifinals.

4:00p - 7:00p
CNBC
Men's Hockey After losing to Team USA, 5-3, on Sunday, Sidney Crosby and Canada bounced back with an 8-2 win over Germany on Tuesday. Now Crosby and the home-ice favorites take on Alexander Ovechkin and Russsia for a spot in the semifinal round.

7:00p - 9:30p
CNBC
Men's Hockey In the day's third elimination game, Jaromir Jagr and the Czech Republic square off against Finland for a spot in the semifinal round.

9:30p - 11:30p
CNBC
Men's Hockey The fourth and final semifinal spot is on the line in the day's last win-or-go-home contest. Sweden and Slovakia square off live as Olympic Hockey continues.

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US game being aired at 3:00PST after it's already completed and then the Canada game at 4:00PST. Yea, I'm sure for those hockey fans without DVRs, they wouldn't want to see both the US and Canada game... right.

Projected Olympic Hockey Tournament Matchups

2010-02-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Wondering about potential quarterfinal matchups for the Men's Olympic Hockey, I went out onto my good friend the Internet and found this detailed bracket at On the Forecheck... which I came across at From the Rink.

Here's the upshot as of right now with Sweden having a (presumably) commanding 3-0 lead in their game against Finland (assuming everything is correct on the aforementioned sites and I have no reason to think it's not)...

Big assumption: nothing shocking (you know, shocking to the level of say... the US beating Canada today) happens in the Playoff Qualifier games that will happen Tuesday and precede the Wednesday quarterfinal games.

NoonPST - U.S. vs Switzerland: the U.S. would certainly be favored, but as the San Jose Sharks found out last year... Jonas Hiller can play well in net, and in this case, it would be for Switzerland rather than the Anaheim Ducks.

4:30PST - Russia vs Canada: Uhhh... that sounds like a good game, and in a quarterfinal! Here's to not expecting to see Martin Brodeur back in net.

7:00 or 9:00PST - Sweden vs Slovokia

7:00 or 9:00PST - Czech Republic vs Finland

Winners of these games would then meet in the Friday semifinals... which might look like this:

NoonPST - U.S. vs Czech/Finland winner

6:30PST - Sweden vs Canada/Russia winner

Wow, that one game today make a world of difference for both the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. with a very advantageous draw going forward and Canada with... the exactly opposite.

Video of Building a Backyard Rink

2010-02-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

Came across this video a few days ago linked from a post on Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports and while I found the time-lapse photographs to be a bit difficult on the eyes to watch, I sure did love the result at the latter part of the video...

The Myth of Money in the Bank Goaltenders

2010-01-30T21:27:00.001-08:00

As we're at around the 2/3 mark of the regular season, it's about that time to hone in on the favorite reason that fans think their respective teams won't win the Stanley Cup this year... goaltending.

Unless someone is a fan of the New Jersey Devils (with Martin Brodeur in net), Vancouver Canucks (Roberto Luongo tending goal) or Buffalo Sabres (where Ryan Miller is having an MVP caliber year), people should be afraid of their goaltending... but there's not much to be done about it.

Reality is goaltending is a crapshoot... you can have an excellent goalie, but you really don't know how anyone is going to perform in the playoffs until they're upon us. Additionally, there's that whole thing about how you've got to win four series to take the Cup... a long time for any goalie to play at a top level.

One interesting thing I've seen lately is criticism of the Blackhawks goaltending going into the playoffs... with statements of late from Jeremy Roenick and now a Ross McKeon piece for Yahoo! Sports. Reality, though, is the Blackhawks have the 2nd lowest goals against average in the league.

Someone can say that's it's not guarenteed that either Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi are going to be able to perform at the level needed throughout the playoffs, but how can fans of any team (including even the Devils, Canucks or Sabres) feel that elite level playoff goaltending is guaranteed?

NHL on NBC - Expanding the Game... Or Not

2010-01-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting question to ponder... what exactly is the point of NBC broadcasting NHL games (as the first post-Winter Classic game of the year was shown today between Detroit and Chicago)?

Is it to cater to dedicated hockey fans? Well, me thinks these folk get their fix of the game through either their local team coverage (unless of course they live in Phoenix or some other city where many local team games aren't televised) NHL Center Ice, NHL Network or Versus (unless of course, they have Direct TV).

So... that would say that this zero rights fee paying arrangement between NBC and the NHL is for the purpose of reaching out to the casual fan. What's the best time to broadcast to that casual sports loving and male demographic skewing fan base? Why, during the exact same time that the NFL Conference Semifinals are on! I guess the league and NBC figured that the casual hockey fan would have no interest in the NFL playoffs... similar to the way coverage of puppies playing is broadcast on Animal Planet opposite the Super Bowl.

And for those few casual fans who happen across the hockey game, here's a great way to draw them in... show highlights of the game as the play is going on live, have the announcer say that a goal was scored and... keep showing the original highlight for a while longer prior to coverage of the not-shown live goal.

Nice. Reminds me of how a few years ago NBC cut away from overtime of a Stanley Cup Playoff game to start in on Preakness pre-race coverage.

Really a great way to grow the sport... or not.

Good Goal - Terrible D - Hilarious Commentary

2010-01-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, such a great highlight... on multiple levels.

Saw this from the blog post "Video: Defense is hard to come by in the ECHL" on Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports.

As the title indicates, the defense is laughable, but frankly, so is the commentary on the second go-round (that being the "Goal of the Night from Cialis"... which provides additional mirth) of the highlight below. Love when announcers chat with one another as if they forgot they're on camera.

U.S. Wins 2010 World Junior Championship

2010-01-09T13:57:00.001-08:00

Man, what a game that was a few days ago between the U.S. and Canada for the World Junior Championships Gold Medal.

As happened during their New Year's Eve opening round game, Canada came back from a two goal 3rd period deficit to reach overtime. This time it was different result...

From his CNNSI piece "Character is golden for Team USA in World Junior Championship", Alan Muir wrote of both the magnitude of the win for the U.S. (their first... and Canada's first non-gold in the tournament since 2004) and how the game played itself out tactically.

Keeping in mind that it's the players on the ice who win or loss, two coaches decisions factored heavily into the outcome. The first was from US Coach Dean Blais who replaced Mike Lee with Jack Campbell in goal for U.S. once Canada scored to make the score 3-3. The second was from Canada Coach Willie Desjardins who replaced starting goalie Jake Allen with Martin Jones once the U.S. pulled out to a 5-3 lead.

The U.S. certainly deserved the win, but it earlier action from Desjardins may well have made the difference. This is conjecture, though, as it played out as it did and the U.S. was victorious. Reminds me in a way of how people don't talk a lot about the decision by Soviet Union Coach Viktor Tikhonov to pull Vladislav Tretiak in their 1980 Olympic Gold Medal game vs the U.S. He did... and the Miracle on Ice then followed.

Lots of lots of additional World Junior Championship coverage included a large video library can be found on the TSN World Juniors microsite.

Next year the tournament is in Buffalo and hopefully the U.S. fans can provide the same support for the home team that the Canadians showed. Course, Toronto is pretty close to Buffalo...

Gilbert Arenas Indefinite Suspension

2010-01-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Obviously this isn't a hockey related post, but I'm just saying... if I was Gilbert Arenas and had apparently broken Washington DC laws and NBA rules by bring guns (unloaded) into the locker room, I wouldn't then do this...

Apparently league commissioner David Stern is of my mind on this... quote below from the Yahoo! Sports story "Breaking news: Gilbert Arenas suspended indefinitely."

"Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game. Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA."

Also, very interesting quote then put out by the Wizards organization (from the same Yahoo! story)...

"We fully endorse the decision of the NBA to indefinitely suspend Gilbert Arenas. Strictly legal issues aside, Gilbert's recent behavior and statements, including his actions and statements last night in Philadelphia, are unacceptable. Some of our other players appeared to find Gilbert's behavior in Philadelphia amusing. This is also unacceptable. Under Abe Pollin's leadership, our organization never tolerated such behavior, and we have no intention of ever doing so."

Pond Hockey Movie

2010-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Watched the documentary movie Pond Hockey on NHL Network the other day and found it to be well done and interesting.

It was split roughly 50/50 between interviews with hockey people and coverage of the US Pond Hockey Championships held annually in Minnesota.

The hockey folk included Wayne Gretzky, Neal Broten and Jack Falla (the late hockey writer that I previously posted about)... and I posted here about the aforementioned pond hockey tournament.

This said, Pond Hockey the movie was a cool look at this side of the game and below is a trailer from the movie website...

Drew Doughty Named to Candian Olympic Team

2009-12-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not an L.A. Kings fan nor do I know much about Drew Doughty, but man... it's so cool to me that he was yesterday named to the Canadian Olympic team at the ripe old age of 20 (having just left his teens a few weeks ago).

Below is video of Doughty (against the Sharks) that I found at this link.

2009-2010 World Junior Championship TV Schedule

2009-12-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

Really like me some World Junior Hockey... last year in Ottawa was great TV and looking forward to this year's tournament in Saskatoon.

16 games will be broadcast (hopefully all in HD) on NHL Network in the US with the schedule here and the quarterfinals starting at 2:00PST on Sat Jan 2. Also of note on the schedule is the US-Canada game New Years Eve at 5:00PST.

Good times.

Amazing Dwayne Roloson Saves

2009-12-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, it may be excessive to have two posts in a row with content taken entirely from a different blog, but man... this is a great save.

Below is video taken this Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports post.

Minnesota Wild Equipment Fire

2009-12-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, never seen anything like this story from the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo! Sports.

Below is an image from the Yahoo! post... crazy.

Ovechkin "Goal of the Decade"

2009-12-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

This is a goal seen I'm sure many times over the last four years by hockey fans, but Michael Farber's inclusion of it in his "NHL: Highlights and lowlights of the Decade" piece on CNNSI illustrates that it's worth a second, third, fourth or fifth look.

Alexander Ovechkin of the Capitals scores from his back against the Coyotes Jan 16, 2006. As Farber writes, the video is made even better by listening to Darren Pang's audio commentary from this clip.

"Sports Jobs with Junior Seau" on Versus

2009-12-10T10:20:00.001-08:00

It's not a hockey-centric show, but for those that haven't seen it, I recommend checking out "Sports Jobs with Junior Seau" on Versus (keeping in mind of course how many people don't get the channel).

The concept has Seau spending each half hour episode working behind the scenes in various jobs within sports. Episodes I've seen thus far had him working construction on the new Meadowlands NFL stadium, being an LA Dodgers ballboy and most recently a Washington Capitals equipment manager.

Here's the URL to the Versus microsite on "Sports Jobs" and video clips can be viewed by going to the page for each episode.

Seau himself may not be the most polished show host, but his history as an NFL all-pro probably also gives him a level of respect and access that someone else wouldn't have in doing this show.

Pretty entertaining stuff for any sports fan who likes this type of behind the scenes view.

Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy "10 Biggest NHL Goon Moments of the Decade"

2009-12-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

Interesting piece from the Puck Daddy NHL Blog on Yahoo! Sports today.

Titled The 10 biggest NHL goon moments of the last decade it has... that ... and with videos!

I suppose this isn't surprising, but of the ten, nine were cheap shots, with the remaining one being the Sabres goons going out to fight the Senators (great video linked and below, especially the coaches yelling naughty words at each other) after Chris Drury was hit late with a head shot.

Also linked from this story (and also from the Puck Daddy on Yahoo!) was The 10 biggest NHL stories of the last decade. Maybe I'm just an NHL cynic (though not a hockey cynic), but it seems to me that a number of these "stories of the decade" are of the not so great variety and can be tied to how the league is run.

As to the cheap shots, players out to injury others deserve the most blame, but the league itself isn't in the clear given that it's the NHL dictating punishment for transgressions. The severity of said punishment is usually determined by... well, see one blogger's most excellent mock suspension flow chart...

Those Wild & Wooly Flyers Fans

2009-12-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Loved watching the Capitals-Flyers game the other game. Only in Philadelphia does the team welcome a new coach with an 8-2 loss and the fans act like... well, like Philly fans.

Two things from the game that spoke volumes about the fans known for booing Santa Claus. First was them cheering Daniel Carcillo for winning his "fight" (usually you challenge, wait and then throw rather than challenge, see a twitch of gloves dropping and then throw) against Matt Bradley below...

Granted, Carcillo got thrown out of the game and Washington a 9 minute power play during which they scored twice, but me thinks Philly fan was probably happy with the trade since you know... they got to see a good punch thrown by a Flyer.

Then later in the game, Philly fan had another cause for cheering... a referee injury. Yea, someone getting hit in the ear with a shot... there's something to get excited about. Nice.

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Silly me publishing this post before I went and saw this story from Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports referencing the four game suspension just received by Carcillo.

Today's NHL: What Does Happen

2009-12-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Remember the first season post-lockout when game announcers seemed to feel they weren't doing their job if they didn't say at least three times that "in today's NHL, no lead is safe"?

Those sure were times and now I feel like we've got a new "today's NHL", but it's about something entirely different than big comebacks. Here's what I see in the game today...

Players

- The ridiculous defending with fists of teammates who are hit with a clean check.

- Teams starting games with repeated cheap shots to "test the toughness" of the other guys. Just seems like silly posturing most of the time.

- The apparent disregard for the safety of fellow players. I'm not the first to say it, but the danger is someone eventually getting killed on the ice due to either a head shot or head hitting the ice. Scary stuff and there doesn't seem to be any efforts being taken to reduce the danger.

Management

- The dumbness of the league not going to 3 points for a regulation win. Even though I think shootouts are a gimmick of a way to decide games, I'm fine with them for regular season games. So silly, though, to have some games count for 2 points total and some for 3.

- The abject dislike of the Canadian market by league headquarters. Recently Commissioner Bettman talked about how no US teams would move to Canada, but perhaps an expansion team might go there? Taking a page from former New Orleans Saints coach Jim Mora... "expansion???, you want to talk expansion???!!!"

- Too high of a % of scoring coming during man advantage situations. This one could be argued as to what management could or should do about it, but I do find it frustrating that games are so frequently decided based primarily on special teams play.

Ok, all that said, I love hockey and will continue to do so. Just some stuff definitely bugs me about the NHL right now.

Rendition of Herb Brooks' Speech by 4 Year Old

2009-10-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

Apparently this has been quite the viral web hit lately, but I just came across this video on this post by Greg Wyshynski in the Yahoo! Sports hosted Puck Daddy blog.

The video itself is brilliant and the post itself is well worth reading (probably even reading first) as it provides background.

Short description is it's a 4 year old kid doing the Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks "tonight we beat the Russians" speech from the movie "Miracle". Great stuff.

Original Six Piece from Sports Illustrated

2009-10-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

So glad hockey's back. Along with that and detailed in the Michael Farber piece "It's All About The Six" are the cornerstone franchises: the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

Such good times.

Rookie Throwdown: Ducks at Sharks

2009-09-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I'll likely be unavailable for each of these three games (middle one is possible), but would be fun to catch one of the Ducks-Sharks rookie games coming up.

From the link... 7:00PM on Mon Sept 7, Tues Sept 8 and Wed Sept 9 on the North Rink at Sharks Ice at San Jose (formerly known as Logitech Ice as well as the Ice Centre).

Tickets go on sale at 5:00PM each day, cost $10 for adults ($5 for kids 12 and under) and are limited to the first 850 people per.

Sounds fun.

"New England Hockey: A Life at the Rink" on DVD

2009-07-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't send a non-hockey fan to watch it, but for hockey fans who have Netflix, I highly recommend watching "New England Hockey: A Life at the Rink" on DVD (with Netflix page hyperlinked).

It's an hour or so documentary on hockey in the Boston area with various vignettes about the game in the community. Those topics that stood out to me the most are listed below:

- High School Hockey: storyline about Catholic Memorial and it's rivalry with Boston College High as played out in the Super 8 State Championship Tournament.

- Beanpot Tournament: the annual Boston-area college mini-tournament featuring Boston University, Boston College and Northeastern.

- The Bruins during the season of the Joe Thornton trade. Funny to see what I imagine are smart hockey fans who think Joe should have become like Cam Neely in Boston. Simply not that type of player, people!

- Jack Falla and his backyard rink, the Bacon Street Omni. I wrote this blog post about Falla's book "Open Ice" earlier this month and it was interesting to see footage of the guy and rink... and a shame to know he has since passed away.

All in all, definitely worth watching for all hockey fan types.

"Open Ice" by Jack Falla

2009-07-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

I also posted this review on my writing blog, but figured that a review of a hockey book should also be on a hockey blog. So...

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Recently finished "Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer" by Jack Falla (also the author of the novel "Saved" that I reviewed here).

I enjoyed it quite a bit and what really struck me about the book is the coincidence of Falla's passing from a heart attack just prior to it's release. This is even more profound as the book deals quite a bit with Falla's view of mortality in this highly personal account of his life in hockey.

Some of the chapters I found to be of note are below:

"A Death in Montreal": About Falla's trip on his own dime to be at the memorial service for Maurice "Rocket" Richard. A fascinating account of how Richard impacted French Canada... which compels me to recommend the movie "The Rocket" (sometimes known as "Maurice Richard". Available on Netflix, it features some excellent hockey action from this era and shows the circumstances of Richard's career and why he mattered so much.

"Skating the Rideau Canal": One of the chapters that struck me in light of Falla's passing as his stated goal was to skate the canal through Ottawa while 80. Sadly, he didn't make it.

"Requiem for the Cucumber": About another Falla hockey field trip of sorts... this time to the small town of Chicoutimi, Quebec to learn about local legend Georges Vezina and view his grave. Just an interesting look back in hockey history.

"Searching for Hobey Baker": Chronicles a Falla trip to the New Hampshire school attended by perhaps the most famous American hockey player. The namesake for the college hockey player of the year, Baker was one of those larger than characters who died extremely young... actually, the last person to die in WWI. Similar to that on Vezina, a very cool history lesson of sorts provided in this chapter.

"Goodbye to the Backyard Rink": Details Falla's experience with his backyard rink and how it has influenced the lives of he and those close to him. Another poignant section of the book as Falla wrestles with the question of whether to stop putting the rink up of his volition, or whether to wait until he's no longer healthy enough to put it up.

Apart from the book, I found to be of interest a memorial Facebook group page that I found through a google search for Falla. Just seems like he was a really good guy and definitely an excellent hockey writer.

NHL Franchise Empire Building

2009-06-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

After just posting about the Penguins remarkable Cup Finals win over Detroit, I think it also makes sense to highlight and link to a couple of excellent articles about how the two team got there (and may well remain at this elite level for years to come).

First came a terribly interesting Sports Illustrated piece by Michael Farber (yep, he does do most of the SI hockey writing) titled "Spirit of '89". Written about the draft in which Detroit took the fairly unheralded Nicklas Lidstrom along with an additional cadre of players who would start the Red Wings resurgence, it's a great look at how the organization operates... and drafts really really well.

After this came not necessarily a companion Pittsburgh piece by Farber, but rather one which showed how the Penguins have perhaps as good of a chance as Detroit to remain at the top level of the NHL year over year. Titled "Same Time Next Year?", it's... a very descriptive title.

Solid stuff and lots of things can change in the NHL (perhaps even more so than with some of the other major sports), but one thing that likely won't soon is these two teams being the ones to beat in their respective conference.

Pittsburgh Penguins - 2009 Stanley Cup Champions

2009-06-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Wild. Absolutely a wild and incredibly entertaining Stanley Cup finals.

Here's a look told through the lens of Michael Farber and his Sports Illustrated articles as well as SI covers (not of course actually sent to all mailboxes in America covers, but covers that you can see on the magazine's website nonetheless).

Started up something like this (and with accompanying story):

Then the Penguins showed amazing resolve... leading up to this (copied from Getty Images):

Finally, it was all over (and written about here by Farber in SI):

Penguins Gameplan vs Red Wings

2009-06-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think I figured out the most likely way for the Pens to win the series... put everything out there tonight, get great performances from the stars in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury and hope that the Red Wings stars don't match them.

Then with their victory in hand, try to figure out how to have the Detroit team get food poisoning before a Friday night game 7 back at Joe Louis Arena.

Seriously... the Wings are good.

Mickey Mouse NHL

2009-05-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

I suppose it doesn't make me a writing genius to simply link to a story, but "Potential Stanley Cup break could be long, very long" from Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports tells the story well enough.

Yea, no hockey for 10 days before the Cup Finals... that will be great for bringing in the casual fan. Guess it's important that the NHL do what NBC wants given $0 in right fees paid by the network (it's just an ad revenue-sharing deal).

Here's to hoping the Penguins do sweep, the Red Wings win in 5 and then league looks stupid enough that the owners sack Bettman and bring in as commissioner someone with a hockey background to run the league.

2009 NHL Playoffs: Almost Down to Two

2009-05-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted much since the Sharkies got eliminated so now is as good a time as any to look at how the second round series wound up and where we're at with the third round.

Western Conference Round Two

Detroit over Anaheim in 7 games: Now, that was a great series. It doesn't really give San Jose any consolation to know they got beaten by a good team, but the Ducks certainly gave Detroit all they could handle. At the end of the day, the series was a virtual pick-em affair with the Red Wings just happening to get and convert on a good scoring chance with 3 minutes to go in regulation. A great series that could have gone either way.

Chicago over Vancouver in 6 games: Very entertaining hockey... Chicago just a more talented team. Big credit also due to the Hawks for matching every bit of physical play put their way by a tough (and chippy) Canucks team.

Eastern Conference Round Two

Pittsburgh over Washington in 7 games. Another great series in the Detroit vs Anaheim vein. Washington was extremely entertaining to watch and gave the Pens a good run. At the end of the day, Pittsburgh having both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin simply gave them a 2-1 superstar advantage over the Caps and Alexander Ovechkin.

Carolina over Boston in 7 games. Can't say I watched a lot of this series, but from what I did, it made me view the Bruins season much as I did the Sharks... a really good regular season that got made moot due to playoff disappointment.

Western Conference Finals: Detroit is about to go up three games to one on the Blackhawks. I suppose it's possible for Chicago to mount a comeback starting with game 5, but... I doubt it.

Eastern Conference Finals: Pittsburgh vs Carolina reminds me of Vancouver vs St. Louis in round one. A good team playing fairly well again one that's simply better.

Stanley Cup Finals: Me thinks Detroit would be favored against a Penguins team that replaced their coach during the regular season, but if they can continue getting great goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury along with Crosby and Malkin-like efforts from Crosby and Malkin... could be a great series.

NHL League Management

2009-05-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

It's a shame to be doing a post like this during the midst of such great second round series (Caps-Pens Game 7, anyone?), but... this is lame. I really wish the league could be better run.

Exhibit A: non-suspension of Carolina Hurricanes forward Scott Walker.

The video of the incident that in the mind of the officials earned an automatic one game is below and a really good commentary piece from Jim Kelly at CNNSI can be found here.

Exhibit B: Game 5 of the Ducks-Red Wings series NOT ON NATIONAL TV.

Very bizarre and for a description of why (well, not really as there is no good reason why, but for the facts), look about halfway down this post from Greg Wyshynski as Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports.

I suppose exhibit C could easily be the Coyotes move/no move, NHL running/not running soap opera, but since the facts are yet to come out in court, I'll simply say that they... never should have left Winnipeg.

Hockey... a great sport. The NHL... it's top professional league. Oh well.

2009 San Jose Sharks Season: Game Over

2009-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Man, the Sharks just plain got beat.

I don't usually find myself agreeing with the musings of Sharks radio analyst Jamie Baker, but I'm completely with on the comments he made for post-game television last season.

To attempt to summarize his words...

"The Ducks played better than the Sharks this series and did so in each aspect of the game. They had better goaltending, a better powerplay, better penalty killing, better top line play, better second line play, better 3rd and 4th line play and better defense."

That may sound severe, but I think it's true. I watched much of the Vancouver-St. Louis series and saw the same concept at work with St. Louis being a very solid team, but one that was slightly outplayed in every aspect of the game.

In that series, the end result turned out to be a series sweep and this one resulted in a 4-2 series win, but... the result is the same, the team that played better in the series is moving on.

Historical Results for Teams Down 2-0 in a Series

2009-04-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

As the question in the above title was asked of me last night, I found the answer at this post from James Mirtle's "From the Rink" blog (which takes the data from elsewhere, but makes it easy to read)...

From Mirtle:

"According to www.whowins.com, when the 'home' teams have had a 2-0 series lead in previous NHL series, they have a 202-21 series record (good for a .906 win percentage).

When the 'visiting' teams have had a 2-0 series lead in previous NHL series, they have a 52-16 series record (.765 win percentage)."

Now... should the Sharks (or any of the teams down two games to zero) lose game three, forget about it.

2009 NHL Playoff Goaltending

2009-04-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Note from self: This post was written prior to this morning's Rangers-Capitals game so if there's no mention below of any 90 save or 15 goals against performances, that's why...

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Goaltenders are weird. Similar to a box of chocolates as described by Forrest Gump, you never know what you're going to get (as exhibit A, I give you former Caps goalie Jim Carey).

This being the case, fans of this season's playoff teams have to simply hope their guy gets hot (or in the case of the Hurricanes a few years ago... hope their guy gets pulled and his replacement gets hot). The question that then arises is who is most likely to get hot and carry their team to the promised land (that being the Cup Championship for those not digging the metaphor).

Let's take a look see (on a 1-3 scale with 3 being most likely to reach "hotness" status):

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks: Evgeni Nabokov - 2. Good goalie, has never proved it at crunch time.

Detroit Red Wings: Chris Osgood - 2. Has been good enough to win a Cup before.

Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo - 3. Me thinks he one of only two truly elite goalies.

Chicago Blackhawks: Nikolai Khabibulin - 2. Similar to Osgood, he's done it before.

Calgary Flames: Mikka Kiprusoff -2. Has been elite in the past, not so much the last two years.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Steve Mason - 2. I love his performance this season, but it's just one regular season.

St. Louis Blues: Chris Mason - 2. Would be tempted to give him a 1, but has played well the first two games.

Anaheim Ducks: Jonas Hiller - 2. Parallels to Steve Mason... excellent season, but relatively new on the scene.

Eastern Conference

Boston Bruins: Tim Thomas - 2. A great story and super fun to watch. Still new to the top tier, though.

Washington Capitals: Jose Theodore - 1. Yes, he previously won a Hart Trophy as league MVP, but certainly doesn't look like that guy this season (or this postseason as I wrote about the other day).

New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur - 3. Yep, he and Luongo are the only guys I see at this top level of potential greatness.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury - 2. Very solid. Should help him that he made it all the way to the Finals last season.

Philadelphia Flyers: Martin Biron - 1.5. He gets a fair amount of flak, but did get the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. That said, I stand by my writing that he should have had Bill Guerin's OT goal in game two.

Carolina Hurricanes: Cam Ward - 2.5. Has taken his team all the way to the Stanley Cup before.

New York Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist - 2.5. Great potential. Has carried his team at times.

Montreal Canadiens: Carey Price - 1.5. I keep hearing about how great he should be... haven't seen it much this season.

2009 NHL Playoffs: Day Three

2009-04-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, a couple of games in and a bit more is being worked out. Here's what was played today...

Pittsburgh-Philadelphia

Game two seemed quite a bit less one-sided with the Flyers and Pens pretty tightly matched. Same result, though... a Pittsburgh victory which now puts them up two games to none. Two thoughts I had watching this game:

1. I wish Bill Guerin was as good for the Sharks as he seems to be with the Pens. Two goals (including the OT game winner) and an assist in a 3-2 victory is pretty solid.

2. I thought Pittsburgh would be way chagrined after going offside entering the offensive zone during their OT 5-3 given how gassed (and injured) the Flyers were. Guerin then scoring on the next play I'm sure took the sting of that chagrin... just a touch.

3. Martin Biron played a good game in net with some 45 saves, but I suspect he would have liked to have back the OT goal. Not that every goalie doesn't want to have back every OT goal, but it went right through Biron... that whole stick on the ice thing.

Philadelphia is certainly still in the series, but I think back to the Sharks-Stars series last postseason. A team can be playing well towards the end of the series, but if they start deep in the hole, sometimes it's too deep to climb back out. The Flyers being down 2-0 are getting close to that point.

New Jersey-Carolina

Oh yeah... they did play. Wasn't televised on Versus so I didn't see it, but in the matchup of what to me are the two least interesting teams in the playoffs, Carolina won in OT to tie the series at 1-1. There ya' go...

Vancouver-St. Louis

Now that Philadelphia has shown themselves to be a solid adversary (as in being close to winning against) for Pittsburgh, that series reminds me of Vancouver-St. Louis. The Blues are a pretty good team that's sound in a lot of areas of the game, but Vancouver just seems a bit more sound in each and every area.

After a 3-0 victory today, the Canucks go up two games to zero. St. Louis will probably not back down all series, but in the end they appear to be a bit short of Vancouver.

San Jose-Anaheim Game 1... 2-0 Ducks

2009-04-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, that was a game. Having attended it, I had a few impressions of the Sharks... none of them of the "it's over, we're done" variety, but all of them I felt adding up to a game one defeat.

1. I don't see any reason why to dress Jody Shelley. I discussed this in a prior post, but not even counting Torrey Mitchell (and I don't see how you can count him until the time he actually plays a game), I see five other options I'd rather have out there. Heck, make that six if you want to throw Claude Lemieux out there for the same (very low) number of shifts as Shelley receives. Now, to rebut the argument that you need Shelley to counteract the pugilistic stylings of George Parros, I say both why? and... if you need someone to lose a fight to George Parros, why not use Brad Staubitz?

2. The Sharks breakout of their defensive zone was abysmal compared to the breakout by Anaheim. Especially at the start of the game, the Ducks were using what I'll call a home-run breakout straight up the middle of the ice to great success. The Sharks on the other hand seemed to only be effective exiting their defensive zone when they just gave the puck to Dan Boyle and had him skate with it.

3. The Sharks entry into the offensive zone was probably even worse than their defensive zone breakout. Closely related to San Jose's 0 for 6 powerplay effort, they just never seemed to be able to get set up in the Ducks end of the ice. I suppose I could make a separate point about this, but if you don't set up and then convert when you have the man advantage, there's no reason for your (less disciplined) opponent to not take liberties (and have a few calls go against them).

It's odd. I was the "happiest baby on the block" when Ron Wilson was let go... and subsequently replaced with Todd McClellan, but now the three things that bothered me from game one are all coaching related. I do think, though, that the advantage this regime has over that of Wilson's is a much greater flexibility and willingness to change things up when needed.

We'll see how it all plays, and if for a few breaks here and there the Sharks could have won game one anyways, but I really hope to see some tweaks to the lineup and on-ice tactics for game two.

Long series and I still believe San Jose to be the better team, they just have to you know... play better than their opponent.

2009 NHL Playoffs: Day One Impressions

2009-04-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, after watching pretty much all of Pittsburgh-Philadelphia and Vancouver-St. Louis... I'd say some pretty interesting stuff going on thus far.

Penguins 4 - Flyers 1: Wow, Pittsburgh looked dominant in this game. They really appeared to be a study in how good a team can and should be when they've got two of the top five players in the game. The Flyers attempted to "play their game" and get chippy in the final minute, but it actually seemed more sad than what I'll call "send a messageish". The announcers were right when making the comment that there wasn't really a point anymore to the antagonism.

Canucks 2 - Blues 1: Interesting game. The two teams played very similar games with grinding forwards, stout D, excellent goaltending, lots of driving the net and action after the whistle. After seeing them match up for 60 minutes, it appears that St. Louis will likely remain game for as long as they're alive in the series, but Vancouver just does each thing a little bit better.

Other (not watched) action...

Well, given the whole "not watched" thing for the other two games, I'll link to some interesting analysis from Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports (not sure if I worded that correctly, but it'll do).

The long and short of it... New Jersey is good and Jose Theodore in the Caps net... maybe not so good.

Yea, I understand that Theodore won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP back in 2002, but me thinks goalie years are kinda like dog years... meaning stellar play 7 years ago does not necessarily equate to the same performance today. Maybe they looked around and found the asking prices too steep, but I just don't know how Washington didn't go get some solid backup insurance at the trade deadline. Hello... Scott Clemmensen, anyone? Now the Caps coaching staff has to decide between rolling Jose back out there for game 2 or going with Simeon Varlamov and his 6 career NHL games played. Fun choice...

The Sharkies X Factor: D (as in Depth)

2009-04-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yea, I like lines... really I do. A Center, a left wing, a right wing, they're great to have. What's also great is a bunch of parts that can be plugged into line combinations. Whether the reasons for said plugging be injuries, lack of production, or those magical "hunches", it's really nice to have options.

Thus... options are what I like about this iteration of the Sharks. To whit...

Forwards

1. Thornton-Marleau-Setoguchi
2. Pavelski-Clowe-Michalek
3. Moen-Goc-Cheechoo
4. Grier-Roenick-Plihal (or with someone switching betwixt lines 3 and 4)

Here's where it gets good. Need a replacement on the top two lines, easy... move Cheechoo or Roenick (probably for a shorter period of time than Cheech) or even Moen up.

Now, you ask, who would take the spot of the "replacer"? Here's the choices:

Jody Shelley - Would prefer to see him in the press box. This series should be won in part by Anaheim getting stupid, not the Sharks.
Claude Lemieux - I don't see it... and don't want it.
Alexei Semenov - Not as bad an option as I would have felt him at the start of the year.
Brad Staubitz -Sure, I'd be good with that.
Torrey Mitchell - Would love to see it, but I doubt it.
Jamie McGinn - See Staubitz, Brad comment.

The long and short of it is that I really like the Sharks top line players and depth at forward. Furthermore, given what I think is Anaheim's complete and utter inability to not take dumb aggression penalties, I think this series "should" be won on San Jose's power play. Thus... the need for the top line players to come through.

Defense (not thinking about pairings here)

Boyle-Vlasic
Blake-Murray
Ehrhoff-Lukowich

Other options: Semenov, Huskins, McLaren... Yep, that Kyle McLaren.

On D, I'm most concerned above Lukowich as he hasn't seemed to be as good since coming back from mid-season injury. I'd love for Huskins to be healthy and be an option... no idea how good of an option until I see him play, though.

I think the D is plenty good enough to win.

Goaltending

Nabokov-Boucher

Nabby scares me. I'm happy enough having him as I think he a top 5 or 10 goalie, but I don't see him as a "playoff rock". That said, the only people that I do see that way are named Brodeur and Luongo. Everyone else (Nabby included) will have to prove themselves this postseason.

I like Sharks.

Dream Playoff Matchups

2009-04-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about the matchups as I described them in a post yesterday and... while these are good, they're not my "dream matchups".

Now, dream matchups are rare because of the confluence of events (ranging from who my personal favorites are to the standings) required, but let's imagine for a moment they did come together.

Here's what things might look like (using this season's playoff teams... not like we can wait forever on the Maple Leafs):

Western Conference

First Round

Detroit vs St. Louis - Norris Division rivalry reprisal. What's not to love?
San Jose vs Anaheim - Ok, I'll give. While it scare me as a Sharks fan, it's good story.
Vancouver vs Calgary - Sure, why not have the Northies play each other?
Chicago vs Columbus - True, they're the left over teams, but playoff newbies who are geographically close... not bad.

Second Round

Detroit vs Chicago - Original Six.
San Jose vs Vancouver - This one was tougher, but I'll take Vancouver over a repeat matchup from last season.

Third Round

San Jose vs Detroit - The two best teams. Good stuff.

Eastern Conference

First Round

Boston vs Montreal - Check, then check again after the whistle. Another Original Six.
Pittsburgh vs Washington - Crosby / Malkin vs Ovechkin can't be passed up.
New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils - Avery... Brodeur. Greater New York area.
Philadelphia vs Carolina - What's left. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this, but the Hurricanes are boring (stupid Maple Leafs).

Second Round

Boston vs New York Rangers - The whole New York - New England thing. Again, Original Six.
Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia - Crosby vs Richards. In-state rivalry. Nice.

Third Round

Boston vs Philadelphia - Was tough to eliminate Crosby and the Pens, but I like the mayhem (one the ice and in the stands) that this series would bring.

Stanley Cup Finals

San Jose vs Boston - Thornton past vs Thornton present.

The Witching Hour is Upon Us

2009-04-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

NHL playoffs start in two days... I love this time of year. Without further adieu, here's the first round matchups:

Western Conference

(1) San Jose Sharks vs (8) Anaheim Ducks

To quote from an e-mail I recently sent... "as a Sharks fan I was cursing J.S. Giguere when he allowed that shootout goal Saturday night... taking the Ducks down from a 6 to possible 8 (which of course came to pass) seed. I do fall back, though, on something I was told be a fellow Sharks fan... 'the goal isn't to win one round... the goal is to win the Cup, and to do that you have to beat everyone'. That said, I would have preferred either Anaheim or Detroit to knock the other out in a 2-7 matchup. The way the universe does things, though, San Jose would probably have lost to St Louis as the 8 seed."

So, it should be a highly entertaining series to watch and I'm viewing it as an enormous litmus test to see just how good this Sharks team is. Whereas last season's first round win over Calgary in 7 games was cause for concern (justifiably so it turned out), me thinks a win over Anaheim in 7 would be just fine.

(2) Detroit Red Wings vs (7) Columbus Blue Jackets

An interesting series. I will be very curious to watch to see just how good this Steve Mason fellow does against the Wings.

(3) Vancouver Canucks vs (6) St. Louis Blues

Roberto Luongo vs Chris Mason... I wonder if anyone will score.

(4) Chicago Blackhawks vs (5) Calgary Flames

Not sure what to expect. Me thinks Calgary will be the better team, though.

Eastern Conference

(1) Boston Bruins vs (8) Montreal Canadiens

I think the Bruins will roll. Actually, I think first they'll beat up Montreal, then roll.

(2) Washington Capitals vs (7) New York Rangers

Intriguing, but I think Washington will be too good for the Rangers.

(3) New Jersey Devils vs (6) Carolina Hurricanes

I know there are people really interested in this series, I'm just not one of them.

(4) Pittsburgh vs (5) Philadelphia

Should be great hockey, can't wait to watch.

2009 NHL Playoffs: Last Four Spots

2009-04-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

So... very... close. Almost every team is down to their final two games of the season and here's the race for the final four playoff spots (two left in each conference):

Eastern Conference

#7 - Montreal Canadiens - 92 points. Games Thurs at Boston & Sat vs Pittsburgh
#8 - New York Rangers - 91 points. Games Thurs vs Philadelphia & Sun at Philadelphia
#9 - Florida Panthers - 89 points. Games Thurs at Atlanta & Sat vs Washington
#10 - Buffalo Sabres - 87 points. Doesn't matter... too far back

Prediction...
Rangers win one and lose one for 7th
Canadiens lose both and back into the playoffs at 8th
Florida wins one... not enough

Western Conference

#7 - Anaheim Ducks - 88 points. Games Fri vs Dallas & Sat at Phoenix
#8 - St Louis Blues - 88 points. Games Fri vs Columbus & Sun at Colorado
#9 - Nashville Predators - 86 points. Games Thur at Detroit & Fri at Minnesota
#10 - Minnesota Wild - 85 points. Too far back

Prediction...
Anaheim wins both... 7th place
St Louis wins at least one... 8th place
Nashville... not gonna win both

No, I Don't Want It... You Go Ahead

2009-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Well... there were four "close to must win" games played by on the bubble teams tonight. At the end of the day, two wins and two losses.

Eastern Conference

Buffalo... defeats Washington 5-4 in OT. This puts the Sabres four points back of the 8th place New York Rangers, but with Buffalo having a game in hand on New York. On the negative side, there's also the Florida Panthers to deal with in 9th place two between Buffalo and New York. Not likely the Sabres will be able to find there way in, but they certainly needed these two points to remain in the conversation.

Florida... loses to Atlanta 3-1. C'mon... Atlanta? I know they've won four in a row, but the Panthers would have pulled even with idle New York at 8th in the standings.

Western Conference

Minnesota... defeats Calgary 4-0. Similar to Buffalo, Minnesota needed this win to entertain their notion of making the playoffs. With the win, they pulled to two points behind 8th place St Louis... with 9th place Nashville between them.

Nashville... loses to Chicago 2-1. Whoops... a win over the Blackhawks would have jumped the Preds into 8th place and a playoff slot (for now). Not meant to be, though.

End result of the action was 4 games that mattered... two that were won by teams that desperately needed them and two that were lost by teams that could have put themselves in good spots with a win.

I guess desperation really does help.

Final Two Weeks - Storylines to Watch

2009-03-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Two weeks left in the regular season and there's some really interesting things to watch for...

1. Teams "sending a message" to potential playoff opponents. As evidenced by the recent pugilism in the March 29 Vancouver-Calgary game and March 26 Calgary-Columbus matchup.

2. The race for the #1 seed in the West. Detroit is certainly trying help San Jose with them having two straight losses, but the Sharks are still going through a world of injury hurt (which won't be getting any better should Captain Patrick Marleau miss any time).

3. Battle for the final playoff spots in the East. Looks to be three teams for two spots remaining...

- 7th spot: New York Rangers - 87 points. 6 games left.
- 8th spot: Montreal Canadiens - 86 points. 7 games left.
- 9th spot: Florida Panthers - 85 points. 6 games left.

Prognosticating this race, I gotta think that the Rangers and Canadiens hold their playoff spots (Montreal's game in hand should help a lot). Anything's possible, though... and in that category, Buffalo is only 3 points back of Florida).

4. Battle for the final playoff spots in the West. Assuming that Columbus is safely in, that leaves five teams for two spots...

- 7th spot: Nashville Predators - 84 points. 6 games left.
- 8th spot: St Louis Blues- 83 points. 6 games left.
- 9th spot: Anaheim Ducks - 82 points. 6 games left.
- 10th spot: Edmonton Oilers - 81 points. 6 games left.
- 11th spot: Minnesota Wild - 80 points. 6 games left.

Lots of interesting things going on here. Out of this quagmire, I'd love to see St Louis make it as they've fought hard to reach a level this season people wouldn't have expected and would love to see Anaheim not make it. Just don't like them... and they're a scary opponent.

With where things stand right now, the playoff matchups would look like this. Under the "teams in the hunt" category, note the Anaheim at Edmonton game this Tuesday night... a pretty big one.

Power Rankings Revisted

2009-03-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

It's been almost two weeks since I posted last so I might as well jump back in easy with links to the newly posted power rankings from Ross McKeon at Yahoo! Sports and those from Allan Muir at CNNSI.

My thoughts on some of the teams (with first their Yahoo! and then CNNSI ranking)...

New Jersey Devils (1/1) - Looking really good right now. Should be nice having a rested Martin Brodeur in net come playoff time.

Detroit Red Wings (2/2) - Great playoff team last year, probably going to be great again this season.

San Jose Sharks (3/3) - Scuffling a bit in the last month, but still has the horses needed. Just gotta get them back running in tandem.

Pittsburgh Penguins (5/7) - Don't have the talent they did after the trade deadline last season, but opponents should be very afraid of any team with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Calgary Flames (4/10) - Good team, got better at the trade deadline, but seem a bit dysfunctional with Coach Mike Keenan playing Captain Hook with all-star goalie Mikka Kiprusoff.

Washington Capitals (9/4) - Not surprising to see a disparity in the two sets of rankings. Hard to know what to make of a team with such offensive talent (see: Ovechkin, Alex) and inconsistency in net (see: Theodore, Jose).

Philadelphia Flyers (7/8) - Good team, entertaining to watch what with the short-handed stylings of Mike Richards and frequent mayhem contributed from Daniel Carcillo.

Columbus Blue Jackets (12/9) - Anyone want to play this team (including Steve Mason in net) in the postseason?

Vancouver Canucks (8/6) - Not sure what it is, but I just don't like this team much.

Boston Bruins (6/5) - Haven't heard much about them lately, but should be an intriguing team to watch come playoff time.

Now We Poke Through the Rubble

2009-03-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

With the NHL trade deadline come and gone, it's time to take stock of what's left... and who made the best moves. Really, you have to group the teams into buckets based on spot in the standings to see who made out well on their big trades (I don't bother listing some smaller moves like Kyle McLaren from the Sharks minor league system to Philadelphia)...

First bucket: elite teams (who also happen to be the division leaders)

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks - Acquired Travis Moen and Kent Huskins from Anaheim. I like it a lot. Helps in the depth and enormously in the grit department. To that point... I think Claude Lemieux played his way out of any postseason role with his non-response to Joe Thornton being checked from behind in the last Red Wings game.

Detroit Red Wings - Didn't do anything, but didn't seem to need anything (yeah... always nice to have more, but not at any price).

Calgary Flames - Big step forward with the acquisition of Jordan Leopold and Olli Jokinen. Wouldn't have thought so at the start of the season, but this is a dangerous team.

Eastern Conference

Boston Bruins - Got a bit tougher and more battle-tested with the addition of Mark Recci and Steve Montador. Looking good going into the playoffs.

New Jersey Devils - Good team, a bit better with the addition of Niclas Havelid.

Washington Capitals - Nothing doing, but still a high-level team. Might have benefited from investing a bit (not a lot, just a bit) in a solid backup goalie should Theodore have a rough go of it.

Second bucket: good teams that could do some playoff damage

Western Conference

Chicago Blackhawks - I certainly like the pickup of Sammy Pahlsson, but question whether the Hawks will be good enough this season to come out of the West. Best seasons are likely in front of this team.

Columbus Blue Jackets - I don't see the Jackets being able to get far in the playoffs, but it is the proverbial "time" for this club to make the postseason. Getting Antoine Vermette from Ottawa for a big-contract backup goalie doesn't give them the top-line center needed, but does help.

Eastern Conference

Philadelphia Flyers - Always a fun team to watch for the mayhem they bring to the ice.... so, no surprise that they would bring in a personal favorite in Daniel Carcillo from Phoenix. Kyle McLaren won't hurt to have as depth at D... and good for him making it back to the NHL this season.

Pittsburgh Penguins - They certainly aren't messing around. Fire the coach, ship out the hot young defensemen, put the superstar on the shelf to heal. All of it seems to have worked thus far and the addition of Bill Guerin shouldn't hurt (may not help a lot, though, as the Sharks found with Guerin two years ago).

Third bucket: everyone else

Well, the Rangers, Hurricanes, Sabres and Oilers among other teams gunning for the playoffs did a bunch of stuff. Will it matter (even if they do make the postseason)? Me don't think so at this point, but ya' never know.

T Minus One Day to Trade Deadline

2009-03-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

One day left till the deadline and... it's still all pending. Let's take a look at what's happened thus far...

- Mathieu Schneider to Montreal for... someone: An important deal by Les Canadiens as they were floundering badly and needed to do something (course, that something also involved switching seemingly indifferent goaltender Carey Price out for Jaroslav Halak).

- Chris Kunitz & top prospect to Pittsburgh for Ryan Whitney: Similar to the Canadiens situation... a move made by the Pens who desperately needed something, in this case to get a wing to play with (now injured) Sidney Crosby. Also a good deal by Anaheim as it both gives them a good young defensemen and lets them seriously consider trading Chris Pronger if the right package gets offered.

- Niclas Havelid to New Jersey for... someone: Not a huge trade, but solidifies the Devil blueline. A good team just got better.

Is that going to be it for trades this year? Not even close... there's an interesting story from Allan Muir at CNNSI titled "Playing Trade Deadline Matchmaker" with his suggestions / predictions. Props to him for already nailing the Havelid deal.

So... with the benefit of having already seen Muir's piece and knowledge of Nicklas Backstrom having signed an extension with Minnesota, here's my thoughts of what teams might look for:

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks - Would benefit tremendously if Muir's idea of Chris Neil from Ottawa came to pass... and would also effectively end the Claude Lemieux experiment (Ian Laperriere would also be very welcome here). Another interesting move would be recently out of favor in Florida and Joe Thornton buddy Nick Boynton coming over from the Panthers to shore up the D. Final thing about the Sharks is there's a new rumor I just heard which would have Ryan Smyth coming from Colorado... likely with Jonothan Cheechoo going the other direction. Personally, I would rather not take on Smyth and his huge long-term deal at the cost of Cheech... much rather get our grit more cheaply.

Chicago Black Hawks - Not sure if it would be at the front or backline, but could use some veteran presence.

Detroit Red Wings - Nah... they're good. Goaltending could be better, but probably no move now would accomplish that.

Calgary Flames - Could benefit greatly from someone else who could put the puck in the net. Maybe it is the Jordan Leopold idea put out by Muir.

Columbus Blue Jackets - This really does seem to be the year for them to make the playoffs. Big need is a top center to play with Nash. Again, will steal Muir's idea... Tim Connolly from Buffalo.

Anaheim Ducks - Sort of in the driver's seat. If either Boston, New Jersey (less likely) or St Louis (really, St Louis) knock their socks off they could trade Chris Pronger, but don't have to.

Eastern Conference

Boston Bruins - Would of course love Chris Pronger, but if that doesn't work out... perhaps Tomas Kaberle could be had. Tough, though, because it would come down to asking price... don't think that it would be a good move for Boston to move Phil Kessel (as rumored) even to get a Pronger.

Florida Panthers - They hold a big card in soon to be unrestricted free agent Jay Bouwmeester. However, like Columbus they're close to the playoffs and should probably do everything possible to get there. I would expect to see Bouwmeester traded only if they got excellent able to play now talent back. Heard a rumor yesterday of Braydon Coburn coming from Philly, but if I'm the Flyers I don't give up such good young talent for a rental player.

Pittsburgh Penguins - Seems like they gotta be able to find to pull Crosby's buddy Colby Armstrong back from the Panthers.

Washington Capitals - Same as Detroit, would like to have better goaltending, but I don't think a trade is the way it would get done. Better to continue with a combination of hoping either Jose Theodore plays better or a young kid takes the role from him.

There's also some good spare parts out there like Oli Jokkinen and Keith Tkachuk.

Will be fun to watch the whole thing shake out.

San Jose at Montreal - Sat Feb 28: "He Shoots... He Almost Scores"

2009-02-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

Well, the Sharks went into "this city is hockey" (written about on this blog last month) and did everything except for win Sat night. After a fast start, they then yet again figured out how to allow the first goal on the road (power play goal no less) and proceeded to allow two more 1st period goals for good measure.

They woke up in the 2nd with two fast goals and a ringing post shot just after. Beyond this... lots of chances with no more goals.

Shouldn't feel bad about the effort and I like the start of Boucher just to remind Nabokov that he's got to earn his #1 spot. One thing I do wonder is whether Claude Lemieux is really accomplishing anything that any number of rookies couldn't bring to the same roster spot. Me thinks once Torrey Mitchell is back, it might be tough to keep Messer Lemieux with the big club.

We'll see, though and it's likely to be entertaining.

The NHL "Code"

2009-02-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

Fighting in the NHL is such an interesting thing. It's exciting to be sure, but also... well, I don't know how to describe it other than to say it's got odd circumstances around it.

What I mean by that is you hear long-time hockey people talk about it's important role in the game, but also decry the style in which it's executed today. The short jab whilst holding the jersey, the takedown, the non-removal of the helmet and visor... so many things for player/pugilists to remember as taboo, it's a wonder they even have time to fight.

I don't have an enormous opinion of fighting or the video below, but it does I think raise questions to consider...

- Should Lucic have stopped?
- Should the Ducks not have gotten all huffy with him just because they were losing big?
- Should the league do anything at all about fighting and "how it's done"?

Welcome to the Top Spot, San Jose

2009-02-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

Guess it shouldn't be surprising... after being placed at the top of heap in the both the Yahoo! Sports NHL Power Rankings from Ross McKeon and the rankings from Allan Muir at CNNSI, San Jose goes and gets beaten 4-1 in Detroit by the Red Wings.

Well, it is only the regular season and San Jose is still an excellent team (along with those pesky Red Wings), but as a Sharks fan, I'd be quite happy to see them return to the form they showed early in the season.

However, they've got time and the ingredients to win the Cup are still there. Not the least of which is Captain Patrick Marleau. To this point, there's an excellent article from Darren Eliot at CNNSI titled "Marleau and Sharks all business" that details the reemergence from a tough start to last season.

Good stuff, hope it translates in the playoffs.

2010 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team Preview/Prediction from CNNSI

2009-02-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

I previously posted about the U.S. team roster options with a link to the CNNSI predictions. While this is interesting to myself and other hockey fans in the U.S., the roster that's much more anticipated (to say nothing of the anticipation for how that roster does) is that of the Olympic host Canadian men's hockey team.

Also from CNNSI is Allan Muir's predicted Canadian roster along with detailed analysis of each spot. To give the names without the analysis, here's his picks...

Goaltenders:
1. Martin Brodeur
2. Roberto Luongo
3. Steve Mason

Defensemen:
Robyn Regehr & Duncan Keith
Chris Pronger & Shea Weber
Jay Bouwmeester & Mike Green
Brent Burns (extra guy) & Drew Doughty (taxi squad guy)

Forwards:
Jeff Carter, Sidney Crosby & Jarome Iginla
Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf & Rick Nash
Simon Gagne, Joe Thornton & Patrick Marleau
Benden Morrow, Mike Richards & Shane Doan
Marc Savard (extra guy), Jonathan Toews & Corey Perry (taxi squad guys)

A formidable lineup to be sure, but where things get interesting is in looking at the people that Muir currently is leaving off the roster (keeping in mind that this is a writer's take and not necessarily that of GM Steve Yzerman. Here's some of the guys mentioned in the Fan Nation story linked from Muir's CNNSI piece:

Defensemen: Dion Phaneuf, Brian Campbell, Dan Boyle, Braydon Coburn
Forwards: Eric Staal, Vincent Lecavalier, Joe Sakic

My opinion after watching Dan Boyle for a season is you have to find a place for him on the team and Vincent Lecavalier certainly belongs as well.

Regardless of how the details shake out... it's gonna be fun to watch.

Blog Moved to http://mvn.com/ahockeyguy/

2009-02-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

I've now officially moved this hockey blog from Blogger to the Most Valuable Network collection of blogs and writing.

Blogger has been an excellent platform and I'll continue to use it for my writing blog at http://liketowritestuff.blogspot.com/, but I'm drawn to MVN to see how many additional readers I can bring to my hockey writing.

The new URL is below and please visit there for my additional hockey writing in the foreseeable future.

http://mvn.com/ahockeyguy/

2010 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Preview/Prediction from CNNSI

2009-02-12T20:44:00.001-08:00

Only a year away till Vancouver. What may well be the last time that NHL players participate in the Olympics (if the league office gets their way) is highly anticipated and the subject of much debate.

To that end... CNNSI just published Michael Farber's take on the U.S. roster as well as Allan Muir's predictions for the Canadian roster. In addition to these posts, CNNSI also links to a comments page from the site Fan Nation.

From these, I want to first look at Farber's predictions for the U.S. team along with players he may have left off. Subsequently, I'll look at Muir's view of Team Canada. The links above to each story are very much worth viewing as there's analysis of each player.

2010 U.S. Olympic Team - by Michael Farber

Goaltenders
1. Tim Thomas
2. Ryan Miller
3. Jonathan Quick

Defensemen
Ryan Suter & Brian Rafalski
Ryan Whitney & Mike Komisarek
Paul Martin & Jack Johnson
extra guys: John-Michael Liles & Matt Niskanen

Forwards
Zach Parise, Paul Stasny & Phil Kessel
Dustin Brown, Scott Gomez & Patrick Kane
David Booth, Chris Drury & Brian Gionta
Jason Blake, Ryan Kesler & Jamie Langenbrunner
extra guys: Blake Wheeler & Jason Pominville

Here's the guys brought up on the Fan Nation comment page as others that may get the nod...

Defensemen
Brooks Orpik, Keith Ballard

Forwards
Tim Connolly, Erik Johnson, Peter Mueller, Brian Gionta, Lee Stempniak, Erik Cole, Patrick O'Sullivan, Ryan Malone and Keith Tkachuk

Finally, there's an interesting story from The Sporting News linked on Yahoo! Sports about the choices facing U.S. GM Brian Burke as he and the other team leadership decide what to do with longtime stalwarts such as Mike Modano, Doug Weight, Bill Guerin and... Keith Tkachuk.

Sharks-5 Bruins-2: What it Meant

2009-02-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

Quite the preamble to the San Jose Sharks game at the Boston Bruins earlier today... Joe Thornton's 2nd return to Boston since his trade by the Bruins, the Sharks needing a win to avoid a four-game losing streak and... oh yeah, a matchup between a couple of pretty good teams.

Earlier in the day, San Jose was ranked #3 in Ross McKeon's Yahoo! Sports Power Rankings and Boston #1. In the CNNSI Power Rankings from Allan Muir, yep... the same #1 for the Bruins and #3 for the Sharks. Take this and throw in the fact that each team has the best record in their respective conference and the ingredients were there for quite a barnburner.

And for the game itself...

The Bruins were the dominant team in period one with Evgeni Nabokov playing well enough in net to keep San Jose in the game. The second period was filled with back and forth hockey... lots of chances and excellent action. Third period, that was Sharks time. Four goals including an empty net goal resulted in the win.

What it meant... well, it meant that these were in fact a couple of good teams that played in other. Huge props to the Sharks for weathering the 1st period storm (with help in goal), getting their legs in the 2nd and then pouring it on in the 3rd. Nice recipe for a victory. The Bruins, though, also looked like an excellent team with a combination of grit (see: Lucic, Milan), playmaking (see: Savard, Marc), dominating D (see: Chara, Zdeno) and really really entertaining goaltending (see: Thomas, Tim). They will want to do a better job of protecting 3rd period leads, but... can't do it each and every regular season game. Now, the playoffs... that's when you really want to.

All in all, fun game to watch between two of the best teams in the league. Man, like that good hockey.

Bobby Ryan Story from Sports Illustrated

2009-02-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

Really interesting story in the February 9 issue of Sports Illustrated on Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks.

To this point in his career Ryan has been best known for being the second pick in the 2005 NHL draft behind Sidney Crosby. However, the piece by Michael Farber titled "No Looking Back" (linked from the SI Vault) shows just how many different layers of interest there are to Ryan's story (which is totally different than "Brian's Song", but any chance to drop in an "I love Brian Piccolo" reference can't be passed up).

His current status as an NHL Rookie of the Year candidate (11 goals scored in the month of January) combined with his time spent in the minors this year due to Anaheim salary cap reasons (odd, but true) is a good story in and of itself, but Ryan was a story even before the Crosby draft year. As Farber does an excellent job summarizing (a book could I'm sure be written about it), Ryan spent from 1998 to 2000 living under a false identity given to him by his father that had jumped bail and taken the family with him. Yep... an interesting story to be sure.

Prognosticating Playoff Participants II - NHL Eastern Conference

2009-02-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

After laying out my predictions and associated reasons why for the Western Conference playoff hopefuls in a prior post, it's time to look at the East. First, the current picture...

Eastern Conference Standings

1. Boston - 82 points
2. Washington - 70 points
3. New Jersey - 67 points
4. Montreal - 64 points
5. NY Rangers - 63 points
6. Philadelphia - 61 points
7. Buffalo - 59 points
8. Florida - 56 points
9. Carolina - 55 points
10. Pittsburgh - 55 points
11. Toronto - 47 points
12. Tampa Bay - 45 points
13. Ottawa - 41 points
14. Atlanta - 41 points
15. NY Islanders - 37 points

My various and sundry thoughts...

- #1 (Boston) at 82 points and #2 (Washington) at 70 points. Wow... quite a delta.

- New Jersey is 3rd in the conference without all-world goalie (and some would say all in the family guy) Martin Brodeur. Impressive... and makes one wonder how good they'll be with a healthy and rested Marty.

- It wouldn't have been a stretch the predict the Islanders would be so bad, but Ottawa... who would have thought that? Well, actually... I would have in my Eastern Conference season preview.

- To the question of who will make it... I think the top six teams above are all good enough to hold those spots, or at least hold a spot in the top eight. Additionally, I think Toronto and below are both too far back and not good enough to fight their way into the top eight. This creates an "an then there were four (with only two spots)" scenario featuring: Buffalo, Florida, Carolina and Pittsburgh.

- Carolina I'm going to discount and say I don't think they'll make it... just not good enough. Now, if they would just move back to Hartford and put a snazzy green whale on their chests, I would certainly want them to be good enough, but... I digress.

- Florida is the surprise of the bunch (well, the good surprise if you're like me and are surprised to see Pittsburgh currently out of the playoffs). One thing I think will hurt them down the stretch is the likely trade of #1 defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. This probably wouldn't be a bad move as it would prevent him from leaving for nothing as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, but would weaken the Panthers' chances this year.

- With these two teams out, that would mean that I think Buffalo and Pittsburgh both are in. True, it's my prediction, but it's not just by elimination... the Sabres and Penguins both have going something I think helps a lot, superstar players. Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek on one side and Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the other are exceptional enough to win a few games almost by themselves and make me think both Buffalo and Pittsburgh are playoff teams.

But, that's why they play the games...

Prognosticating Playoff Participants - NHL Western Conference

2009-02-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

Living by the credo of "it's never too early", let's take a look at the current NHL standings and see how that would translate to the 8 playoff teams in each conference (starting off with the West in this post).

Actually, granted... it is just the first week of Feb, but an interesting fact I heard on Hockey Night in Canada Radio the other day (love that Sirius) was that last season the only two teams to be out of the top 8 in their conference at the end of January and still make the playoffs were Washington and Nashville. So, in this case... past performance really does indicate future results, but I digress.

Western Conference Standings

1. San Jose - 77 points
2. Detroit - 71 points
3. Calgary - 64 points
4. Chicago - 62 points
5. Anaheim - 55 points
6. Dallas - 53 points
7. Minnesota - 53 points
8. Edmonton - 53 points
9. Columbus - 53 points
10. Phoenix - 53 points
11. Vancouver - 52 points
12. Los Angeles - 47 points
13. Nashville- 47 points
14. Colorado - 47 points
15. St. Louis - 45 points

Well, there's a bunch of numbers and teams... what to take from it? Here's some observations...

- Draw a line below Chicago at #4 because there's your clear delineation point between the elite and other. One interesting thing is that you'll likely not have the situation this season with a weak division champion taking the 3rd spot. Going with the assumption that Calgary isn't as good as San Jose, Detroit (or even Chicago)... I still would fear them in a playoff matchup.

- Seeds 5-11 separated by three points... yowzer.

- Anaheim has had an on and off season, but they're likely just too good, experienced and nasty to not make the playoffs.

- Dallas being in the situation they are (a playoff team as of right now) is amazing given the dire (i.e. Sean Avery still on the active roster) straights they were two months ago. I have to believe if they've pulled themselves out of the abyss, they'll likely not fall back in it. Count them in as a playoff team.

- LA and below in the standings are a combination of just too young and not quite good enough this season. Count these four teams out.

- Vancouver is in free fall mode right now (even with Roberto Luongo back and Mats Sundin getting a bunch of money from them). I think current status combined with the memory of falling flat the final week of last season will cause them to... do the same this season.

- This leaves four teams for two spots... Minnesota, Edmonton, Columbus and Phoenix.

- I think Phoenix has the toughest road of the four to the playoffs. They have a difficult division top to bottom and uncertainty about the viability of the franchise in Arizona (back to Winnipeg, anyone?). Definitely a good young team and I'd like to see them make the postseason, but I wouldn't predict it happening this season.

- Columbus benefits from having both Nashville and St. Louis in their division (even though the top of the division is pretty darn "top" with Detroit and Chicago). I think this combined with the magic of a hot rookie goaltender in Steve Mason will put them into the dance for the first time in franchise history.

- Final spot (but, not necessarily only the #8 seed)... Minnesota-Edmonton, Oilers-Wild... I gotta go with the better goaltender in Nicklas Backstrom and nicer arena in the Excel Energy Center. Minnesota makes the playoffs.

Kyrgyz Hockey Championships

2009-01-29T20:42:00.001-08:00

Hockey in the country of Kyrgyzstan is not something I've given a tremendous amount of thought to, but the same day that I finished Dave Bidini's book about the game in faraway lands "Tropic of Hockey" (which I wrote about on this blog), I came across a picture in Sports Illustrated of the 2009 Kyrgyz Hockey Championships.

If that's not reason enough to go searching on the world wide interweb superhighway information place, I don't know what would be.

So... I first landed on a "The Azamat Report" blog post which featured images from the 2008 Krygyz Hockey Championships and linked to a LiveJournal blog from "Morrire" that was the source of said images.

A few of those are shown below and to view the rest, simply click on the above link to Morrire's LiveJournal blog entry.

Pregame Ceremony:

Going out for warmups. Note the goalie pads... and especially the mask.

Game on.

Well, of course they have rink signage. It's the National Championships.

Awesome stuff. Guess this relates closely to what Bidini wrote about with hockey being hockey wherever played, but the images don't look that different than those I posted from the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.

"Tropic of Hockey" by Dave Bidini

2009-01-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

Note from me: This isn't a common occurrence, but in addition to this blog, I'm putting the post below on my writing blog at http://liketowritestuff.blogspot.com/. The reason for the dual-location post is simple... I'm writing about a book that I just finished... and it's about... hockey!

"Tropic of Hockey" is from Canadian musician/author guy Dave Bidini (his website here) and it's a chronicle of his experiences with the game in such hockey hotspots (maybe literally, but not figuratively) as Dubai, remote (and not so remote) China and Transylvania.

As I touched on in my hockey blog post about the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, the impetus for Bidini to write "Tropic of Hockey" was a growing sense of disillusionment he felt with the NHL version of the game and a desire to reconnect with it by playing and seeing it from different parts of the globe. While I do love the NHL, I could understand his romantic notions of the game and this desire to experience it in a new way. Not entirely the same, but it makes me think of my appreciation for the "Original Six" teams of the NHL and the fans in hockey markets that care deeply about their local team (see: hockey blog post about Montreal).

This said, there's a lot of stuff that struck me from the Bidini book, so I'll run through some of it here and try to explain why...

Chapter 4 - "Wendel and the Bells": Bidini's story about how he became a hockey fan again as an adult. A very cool description of how it came about and how one player (the aforementioned Wendel Clark of the Leafs) became his favorite.

Chapter 9 - "Bobby Clarke's Teeth": Mention of Bidini communicating with people in China entirely through the language of Russian hockey players they all know of. I like how the words "Fetisov", "Tretiak" and "Kasatonov" can tie people together.

Chapter 14 - "Journey to the Temple of the Dog": Includes anecdotes about Bidini and his friend masquerading as members of the press to secure interviews with favorite players and entry to parts of one of my most vividly remembered hockey events... Rendez-vous '87 in Quebec City between the Soviet National Team and NHL All-Stars.

Chapter 17 - "A Busload of Espo": Primarily about Phil Esposito the '72 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. The description of the eight-game set makes me wish I had been a fan then (difficult since I wasn't born until a year later).

Chapter 23 - "The Last Canadian Game": Interesting to me for two reasons... one is how much I appreciated the description of Bidini's attendance at the final game in Maple Leaf Gardens (which I wish I had been able to watch Toronto play in). The second (and very different) reason is Bidini's mention of "The Whiskey Robber" during this section of the book on Transylvania. As I was reading this portion, much sounded familiar to me and it was because of my reading of "Ballad of the Whiskey Robber" by Julian Rubinstein. I had completely forgotten this it was a true (or at least mostly true) story about a Robin Hood-esque Hungarian hockey player. So cool... I love when stuff comes together.

So, all this said about the Bidini book... I liked it a lot and think that most hockey fans would as well... particularly those of us that love the history of the game and it's impact.

U.S. Pond Hockey Championships

2009-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Granted, I don't know much about it other than what I've come across online, but I'm fascinated by the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.

Played last weekend in Minnesota it sounds like an amazing event that gets at the sentimental hockey fan side of me... and makes me think of Dave Bidini's book "Tropic of Hockey" that I recently finished. Written in large part due to Bidini's disillusionment with the NHL, it seeks out hockey in different venues around the globe. But, I digress (and there will more more to come on this blog about the Bidini book)...

Back to the tournament. The 30 second video below is a television ad for the 2007 U.S. Pond Hockey Championships and gives a pretty good flavor of the event.

Very cool stuff.

Additional details can be found on the tournament webpage at http://www.uspondhockey.com/ , with the images below taken from the site.

For those whose interest has been piqued by all this, there's the 3 minute segment below about the 2008 tournament from The Today Show.

Yet again... very cool, and cold.

"Montreal: This City is Hockey"

2009-01-23T20:25:00.001-08:00

Really compelling story from http://www.cnnsi.com/ titled "Montreal: This City is Hockey". By Sports Illustrated writer (and current Montreal resident) Michael Farber, the piece examines the site of this year's NHL all-star game on this, the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens franchise. Especially interesting is the look at the close personal connections to the NHL shared by the residents of the city.

Stories (and associated lore) such as this are why I love cities that care so passionately (and have the history to match) about the game.

Accompanying the Farber piece is this photo gallery of the 15 Canadiens whose numbers have been retired. Some of the gallery highlights are below...

With his #1 retired, Candadiens goalie Jaques Plante has had impact on the game far beyond his playing achievements. In 1959 he became the first goalie to wear a mask in an NHL game.

#9, Maurice Richard is perhaps the most famous member of "Les Habitants" and previously written about here on this blog as the subject of the film "Maurice Richard" (alternately known as "The Rocket").

Additionally, Richard (and a season-ending suspension to him handed down by the NHL) was the cause of the famous "Richard Riot on St Catherine Street" immortalized in the movie.

#10, Guy Lafleur. As his wikipedia page notes, he was known among English-speaking fans by his nickname "The Flower". So cool...

#33, Patrick Roy. Even given some highly questionable parenting skills (details in the last two paragraphs of the "post retirement" section on wikipedia)... 10 straight overtime wins en route to a Cup victory in the 1992-1993 season. Amazing.

Bruins / Sharks Story from Sports Illustrated

2009-01-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Interesting (and almost haiku-named) story "Two Strong [Boston: 33-8-4 / San Jose: 33-6-5]" from the Jan 26 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Written by Michael Farber, the piece looks at the top two teams by record in the NHL (each leading their conference) and draws some fascinating parallels between them. Most hockey fans know of the Joe Thornton connection... he being traded in Nov 2005 for Marco Strum, Keith Primeau and Brad Stuart.

However, this Farber story brings out something else the top players for each team have in common... a reputation to overcome. From the the story itself, Sharks players looking to shed past labels are "Joe Thornton-'uninspiring' & Patrick Marleau-'undependable'" and Bruins players in the same boat are "Phil Kessel-'soft' & Marc Savard-'selfish'".

Intriguing stuff and while there's a lot of good teams out there, it would be great to see the two match up in the playoffs. Oh yeah... that would be in the Stanley Cup Finals if they meet!

College Football Recruiting by Location from CNNSI

2009-01-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

True, it's not hockey related, but Andy Staples' "State of Recruiting" article from www.CNNSI.com is interesting enough to warrant mention here.

The piece looks at college football recruiting trends over the last four years by the "BCS Conferences School"... specifically where the athletes grew up. What's revealed is that some schools (University of Texas) are good enough and come from a fertile enough recruiting ground to stay in-state and some schools (Nebraska) have to recruit out of state to be successful. At the same time you have USC and Florida who are good enough to both get some of the best in-state athletes as well as poach from elsewhere.

The article itself has some really interesting conclusions made from it, but the most fascinating thing is the Google Maps application featured in it. Clicking on the map gives you the ability to see where players over the last four seasons where recruited from either (A) by position, (B) by conference, (C) by state or (D) by school. Yep... by school is I'd say the most interesting view.

Kontinental Hockey League's All-Star Game

2009-01-16T21:57:00.000-08:00

I became interested in the Kontinental Hockey League's All-Star Game after seeing a photo from Sports Illustrated of the game being played in Russia's Red Square. Sadly (at first), my search of SI's excellent (and extremely thorough) archives at http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ did not yield a hit for the picture in question.

A little digging on the worldly wide interweb, though, can yield quite the treasure chest...

From the NBC Universal-owned website http://www.universalsports.com/ comes the following images (which can be found along with several others on this gallery page).

Love them outdoor games.

As if it wasn't cold enough during the day.

Not so great from the image department, but very interesting from the "where are they now?" department... that's Oleg Soprykin facing Ray Emery.

NHL Regular Season Games: Often More Than They Appear

2009-01-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

It's interesting both how the outcome of games can both be impacted by things external and how individual games can then impact things down the line.

Geezie peezie... that sentence sounds mysterious (or maybe just confusing) as I read it now.

Anyhoo, to Wit...

Oct 30: Detroit at San Jose
Outcome - Sharks take a fairly convincing 4-2 victory.
Immediate ramification (for Sharks fans) - Whoo-hoo... best team in the league! Never gonna lose again. Detroit Can't touch us.
External influence - Detroit played a bruising overtime game the night before in Anaheim.

Dec 18: San Jose at Detroit
Outcome - Detroit scores 6, San Jose 0. Yea, pretty convincing.
Immediate ramification (for Wings fans) - Whoo-hoo... best team in the league! Never gonna lose again. San Jose Can't touch us.
External influence - San Jose played a hard-fought overtime game the night before in Columbus.

So... two good teams, both were good going into a game they clunked, both were good coming out. While it will be interesting to see what happens when the teams match up again Jan 17 after each has had a night off, both the Sharks and Wings will likely roll into the playoffs each being solid and knowing it.

-----

This matchup is illustrated to show how external factors can influence a game, but let's look at a different matchup, though, to see how the outcome of a game can impact things beyond...

Nov 13: Calgary at San Jose
Outcome - Sharks 6, Calgary 1.... and the game wasn't that close.
Immediate ramification (for Sharks fans) - We rule. Guess we can disregard that Flames team.
Immediate ramification (for Flames coaches & players) - Time to man up.
Long-term outcome (for the Flames) - Taken from this week's NHL Power Rankings by Alan Muir of CNNSI, Calgary has been dominate since this shellacking and are #4 to San Jose's #3 league ranking.

Jan 6: San Jose at Calgary
Outcome - Calgary 5, San Jose 2.

Which... takes us to tonight. Calgary at San Jose. What will it mean? Not sure... but, it's always fun to watch and see.

Brett Hull's Free Pass

2009-01-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

The current Jan 12 issue of Sports Illustrated has an article by frequent hockey writer Michael Farber titled "The Trouble with Sean Avery" and the thing I keep wondering isn't how Avery created such problems in Dallas, but who's responsible.

I suppose the easy answer with be that it's Avery, but as the Farber piece illustrates, trouble has gone along with Avery to each stop of his career. Now, after getting the big payday with the Dallas Stars, he seemed to decide to really cut loose.

So, this begs the question of who in the Star brain-trust was the driving force behind the Avery signing. The answer to this is pretty unanimously co-GM Brett Hull. Les Jackson is the other half of this two-headed tandem (with the arrangement the only of it's kind in pro sports), but Hull was the guy brought in to bring "pizazz" and the guy who pushed for the Avery deal.

The result is that now Avery burned out his welcome with the Stars, was suspended for a few games by the league and most importantly... told by team management (wonder if it was Hull or Jackson who told him?) that he's done playing for them. Interestingly, the team has stated that they will not pursue any sort of breach of conduct clause in the contract to recoup some of the money that Avery is still owed on the deal.

This stance by Dallas is interesting in that it seems to indicate that either there wasn't much language of the sort in the contract (which would be silly given Avery's past) or the Stars hope the whole thing (including Avery himself) just goes away quietly. The translation of this would likely be him getting paid full salary to not play hockey the rest of the year and then having the remaining three years of his deal bought out in the coming off-season.

Now, to the question of accountability. Hull appear to be the guy, but a separate SI piece titled "No Remorse over Avery Deal" shows his stance. Incredibly, he states that he "doesn't have remorse because he was trying to make the team better." If that's all it takes to absolve his poor decision, then apparently Hull plays by different rules than the rest of us in the working world. This doesn't mean Hull is a bad guy or should be blacklisted by the NHL for this move, but should at least call into question whether he's fully qualified to be an NHL General Manager... or co-GM as the arrangement in Dallas has it.

Ross McKeon Yahoo! Sports Outdoor Game Locations

2009-01-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

It is Tuesday, which would normally call for a simple review of the Yahoo! Sports and CNNSI NHL Power Rankings, but this week brings something special.

In his rankings for this week, Ross McKeon gives the standard rankings (predictable stuff with the Red Wings, Sharks and then Bruins 1-2-3), but also hypothesizes locations and opponents of an outdoor game for each NHL team. The ideas range from extremely likely (the Rangers hosting a game at the new Yankee Stadium) to the extremely entertaining (the Senators hosting a game on the canal through town).

Definitely worth a read.

Claude Lemieaux signs NHL deal with the Sharks

2008-12-29T12:21:00.000-08:00

Interesting. The idea has been written about before... in Michael Farber's Sports Illustrated piece "Claude Lemieux Comes to Worcester" and now Lemieux has signed a two-way NHL contract with the Sharks, as reported in this Yahoo! Sports article.

This doesn't mean that he'll be skating on the ice Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild, but it's still very interesting.

World Junior Hockey Tournament in Ottawa

2008-12-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

The annual World Juniors kicked off Dec 26 in Ottawa and features most of the best under-20 hockey players in the world... the exception being those teens already in the NHL whose teams won't release them to play.

Team Canada has won the championship four years in a row and as would be expected, is one of the favorites this year... with the U.S., Sweden and Russia also being viewed as contenders.

There's fairly significant televison coverage in the U.S. provided by the NHL Network with the broadcast schedule posted here (Sunday 12/28 linked). In terms of web coverage, TSN out of Canada has tons of information available online at their opening page on the tournament and then linked pages such as the schedule and video on demand.

Another page off the TSN site, though, illustrates what makes this such a compelling event... the chance to watch some of the future stars of the NHL. Linked here is a listing of the year by year tournament all-star selections. It's quite a list and features from just the last four years current NHL stars like Drew Doughty of the Kings (2008), Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks (2007), Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins (2006) and oh yeah... Alexander Ovechkin of the Capitals (2005).

Pretty good company for the players who will emerge as the best from Ottawa over the next week and a half.

Projected (Well, Hoped For) 2009 NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs

2008-12-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, I made reference to it in my prior post, but wanted to devote more space and an entire blog entry about how fantastically fantastical the Eastern Conference playoffs could be this year.

I still think the best two teams in the league are San Jose and Detroit (in some order thereof) from the West, but the greater top level depth and much greater tradition and storylines lie in the East.

Thinking about what we could (keep in mind this is a Christmas list) have in the Eastern Conference playoffs this year, let's start with where the standing are at as of today, Dec 23.

1. Boston Bruins *
2. New York Rangers *
3. Washington Capitals *
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. Montreal Canadiens
6. New Jersey Devils
7. Pittsburgh Penguins
8. Buffalo Sabres

Good and compelling teams all, but let's imagine for a moment that the current 11th place Toronto Maple Leafs goes on a hot streak and displaces the Sabres (who currently are 3 points up on Toronto). Then, let's imagine the standing shuffling up a bit and giving us the following playoff matchups...

First Round
1 vs 8: Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs - I know it's a pipe dream for the Leafs to make it, but how cool of a matchup would this be?
2 vs 7: Philadelphia Flyers vs New York Rangers - Rough much?
3 vs 6: Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins - Alexander Ovechkin v Sidney Crosby. Fun.
4 vs 5: Boston Bruins vs New Jersey Devils - With Martin Brodeur benched in favor of Scott Clemmensen. Brodeur then starts affair with hot arena usher.

Second Round
Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins - Battle of Pennsylvania reprised.
Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens - Just a battle.

Third Round
Boston Bruins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Bs vs the Bullies. Put on the foil.

Dec 23 Power Rankings

2008-12-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well... we don't have the weekly rankings from Allan Muir at CNNSI yet, but Ross McKeon at Yahoo! Sports has given us his top 30 list as of Tuesday Dec 30.

A review of McKeon's rankings:
1. Boston Bruins
2. Detroit Red Wings
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. New York Rangers

Well, hard to argue with any of this. The Sharks are still an extremely formidable team, but did get handed a 6-0 blanking at the hands of the Red Wings last week. My thoughts (not counting that I'm ok with San Jose being pushed to 3rd on the list)...

(1) At various points the rest of the reason you'll see the Bruins, Red Wings, Sharks, Flyers and Penguins in the top spot.

(2) Things appear to be setting up for a San Jose-Detroit battle royale in the West (and wouldn't that be fun if Claude Lemieux currently of the Worcester Sharks skated in it?).

(3) That the Eastern Conference playoffs are going to be must-see tv throughout. In this vein, I think a follow-up post is called for...

2008-2009 San Jose Sharks: 50 Ways to Win a Game

2008-12-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

With yet another victory last night (this one a 3-2 shootout win over the up and coming LA Kings), the San Jose Sharks move to a league best 25-3-2 record.

While this record nets the Sharks the # spot (and justifiably so) in both the Ross McKeon Yahoo! Sports NHL Power Rankings and that from Allan Muir at CNNSI, what's encouraging to me isn't the win-loss record or how experts stack the Sharks up against the rest of the league, but the way the Sharks have gone about winning games.

You gotta keep in mind that wins at this point of the season get lost forever if there's a playoff flameout, but that wins now can also turn out to be very important come playoff time. The two things that can cause these wins to matter are (1) overall team confidence and (2) team confidence in a variety of situations.

Overall team confidence: The last few seasons have shown that whatever team ultimately wins the Stanley Cup for a given season usually started fast. Early season wins can help a team establish a baseline level of confidence so they can weather a tough midseason run (as the Detroit Red Wings had last Jan/Feb), and come out of it still believing in themselves.

Team confidence in a variety of situations: This gets at the part of the Sharks early season success that makes me most excited... they seem to win in all types of situations. This month alone, they've had...

A. Wins in which their skating was matched (12/4 vs the Columbus Blue Jackets)
B. Wins in which their hard work was matched (12/13 vs the St Louis Blues) and
C. Wins in which they had to muck and grind (12/11 vs the Anaheim Ducks)

Throw in a game in which they took an early lead and cruised to victory (12/2 vs the Toronto Maple Leafs), one in which they were down 2-0 and still won (12/15 vs the LA Kings) and one in which they dominated the shot count and lost in OT (12/6 vs the Edmonton Oilers) and you've got a 5-0-1 record month to date.

Not bad results at all, but again... the great thing to me is that they're getting the wins a variety of different ways, which is what the best teams do in the playoffs. Proof will of course be in the pudding, but me thinks it's a good precursor of things to come. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Brett Leonhardt: Caps Web Producer & Backup Goalie Extraordinaire

2008-12-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

Man, such a great story out of Washington last week. While it sure would be fun for me if the Sharks won the Stanley Cup or I got free season tickets for life, I'd have to say that would pale in comparison to the experience Washington Capitals web producer Brett Leonhardt had last week.

Leonhardt played goal in college and has since been working in the Caps organization and occasionally filling in at practice when the teams wants to let one of it's two goalies rest.

So... while it wasn't COMPLETELY out of the blue, it must have been a huge shock to him when Leonhardt was told that he would be dressing as backup goalie for a home game against the Ottawa Senators. The details behind this are that Jose Theodore got hurt and minor league goalie Simeon Varlamov wouldn't arrive by the start of the game to serve as backup to Brent Johnson. As a result, Leonhardt took warmup and sat on the bench until Varlamov showed up halfway through the first to take his spot as backup.

Such great stuff. Additional info on this can be found in the ESPN website story (from which the picture of Leonhardt is taken), Caps message board writeup, or USA Today interview with Leonhardt.

NHL Teams: Who I Like

2008-12-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

Given that there's no judgements quite like snap ones, here's my haiku-formatted quick thoughts on each NHL team:

Western Conference
* in no particular order within each category

Teams I like:
- San Jose Sharks: Local team. Fun to watch. Good guys. Need to win in playoffs.

Teams I kinda like:
- Detroit Red Wings: Very good team. Respect them.
- LA Kings: Up and coming team.
- Phoenix Coyotes: Up and coming team.
- Chicago Blackhawks: Great logo and jerseys. Very up and coming.

Teams I don't like:
- Calgary Flames: Dirty team.
- Anaheim Ducks: Good team. Dirty team.
- Dallas Stars: Should be good, but aren't. Like Modano. Don't like Turco. Don't like Ott.

The rest:
- Minnesota Wild: Good, not good enough.
- Colorado Avalanche: Ok, not good enough.
- Vancouver Canucks: Cool secondary logo with the stick. Dirty against Nashville Predators.
- Nashville Predators: Ok, not good enough. Should move to Canada.
- Edmonton Oilers: Ok, not good enough.
- St Louis: Ok, not good enough.
- Columbus: Good, not good enough.

Eastern Conference

Teams I like:
- Boston Bruins: Great jerseys. Great player in Lucic, Immensely fun goalie to watch in Thomas.
- New York Rangers: History. Great jerseys. Cool goalie.
- Montreal Canadiens: Huge history. Fast. Good goalie.
- Philadelphia Flyers: Goons, but way fun to watch.
- Washington Capitals: Ovechkin. Fast. Fun.
- Toronto Maple Leafs: The fans care.
- Pittsburgh Penguins: Great players.

The rest:
- New Jersey Devils: Strike me as boring.
- Atlanta Thrashers: Should move to a better market... or fold.
- Tampa Bay Lightning: Crazy ownership.
- Florida Panthers: See Thrashers, Atlanta.
- New York Islanders: Ok, not good enough.
- Carolina Hurricanes: See Panthers, Florida.
- Buffalo Sabres: Could like. They need to keep their players.
- Ottawa Senators: Downward slope team.

So THAT'S Where McLaren Is

2008-12-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

I had known about Kyle McLaren's demotion to the minor leagues for salary cap reasons, but found it really interesting to read this Yahoo! Sports article on his time with the Worcester Sharks.

Not to overstate things, but it's nice to read about the professional approach that McLaren has taken to things and his efforts to make the best of the situation. Can't expect that every other NHL player would go down the same path...

NHL 3rd Jerseys: Ranked 1-19 by CNNSI

2008-12-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

From last week, http://www.cnnsi.com/ has put together a photo gallery of all 19 NHL 3rd jerseys. Granted, the jerseys are put out there for the purpose of selling more merchandise, but there certainly are some cool ones.

My favorites (with CNNSI ranking) below:

Pittsburgh Penguins (CNNSI ranking: 1) - Has the elements I love in any jersey... the shoulder pads, the arm bars, the lace in front. Classic look with visually arresting colors in the power blue combined with the Pens (mostly dark) logo.

St Louis Blues (CNNSI ranking: 2) - Solid. None of those vertical stripes that I hate on so many jerseys (home, away and 3rd) out there now.

Edmonton Oilers (CNNSI ranking: 6) - Returning to that from the glory years... I like it.

San Jose Sharks (CNNSI ranking: 9) - Solid. Nothing amazing, but I think a huge step up from the current home and away jerseys.

Philadelphia Flyers (CNNSI ranking: 3) - Strange, but retro cool. Maybe there's a parallel to how I view the Bullies... thuggish, but deliciously fun to watch.

After the Sharks 3rd jersey (again, which came in at #9 in the CNNSI rankings)... I gotta say, there's some pretty boring (Dallas) and lame ones (Ottawa, LA, Tampa Bay).

San Jose Home Ice Advantage

2008-12-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

Not that I make it a practice to complain about any advantage the Sharks receive, but there's an odd thing I've noticed with the travel schedules of some of the teams who have visited San Jose so far this season.

To wit... there seems to be a disproportionate number of games against teams that have to play one night in Southern California (often against the physical... i.e. dirty Anaheim Ducks), then fly into Oakland (love those airport curfews) and bus down to San Jose.

So... it's 3:00 in the morning, boys! Welcome to your hotel in the beautiful South Bay. Try to get your rest... you've got a game to play tonight against the first place Sharks!

Detroit Red Wings
Wed Oct 29 - at Anaheim
Thurs Oct 30 - at San Jose

St Louis Blues
Wed Nov 5 - at Anaheim
Thurs Nov 6- at San Jose

Dallas Stars
Fri Nov 7 - at Anaheim
Sat Nov 8 - at San Jose

Toronto Maple Leafs
Mon Dec 1 - at LA
Mon Dec 2 - at San Jose

Perhaps four of of thirteen home games doesn't signify an huge trend, but it's still interesting to me that the league would schedule in this fashion.

I didn't say surprising as this is the same league that thinks that the game benefits with Versus rather than ESPN and Nashville rather than anywhere in Canada. I also don't think there a grand conspiracy, but rather just assume the league office isn't thinking about this at all.

NFL Writing by Peter King

2008-11-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

I know it's a definite departure from the hockey subject matter I've written about on this blog, but the recent Sports Illustrated article "What The 'backer Sees" is good enough for me to deviate from the past and include here.

Written by Peter King (he of the "Monday Morning Quarterback" columns on www.cnnsi.com), it's an extremely interesting look at how Tampa Bay Buccaneers all-pro linebacker Derrick Brooks approaches his matchups in each game and the amount of study he puts in. As a professional hobby of sorts, Brooks actually scouts college players who he would likely be going up against several years down the line.

Fascinating topic and features very detailed and insightful writing by King.

Sharks Shot Differentials with >1 Goal Lead

2008-11-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

Interesting question raised below about how a >1 goal lead impacts shots on goal...

-----

Alan Mello has left a new comment on your post "San Jose Sharks Team: Nov 14 Point in Time":

Thinking about your post and reflecting on my experiences with the Sharks, something came to mind. I remember many Sharks games where the Sharks were badly beaten (think Penguins in the 90's), yet the Sharks outshot their opponent.

I wonder if the "New NHL" has changed this. In the old days of clutching and grabbing, when you had a lead, you could just clamp down, not worry about scoring again, and just limit the opponent to long shots.

But in the "New NHL" where "no lead is safe", the strategy may be different. Since, in most of the old games that I was refering to, the Sharks were behind by more than a goal in the first period, I wonder what the stats would look like in today's world. When a team is more than a goal ahead after the first period, do they tend to outshoot their opponent?

-----

My initial reaction would be that the Sharks have done well this year precisely because they continue to at least hold their own in shot differential once they have the lead, but it's always good to examine the #s. Here's what they say...

16-3-1 record.

2 games (both wins) with a lead of >1 goal after the first period.
Average -.8 shots for the second and third periods of these two games.
Average +.5 goals for the second and third periods of these two games.
Conclusion... took a big lead early and then held their own for the wins.

6 games (both wins) with a lead of >1 goal after the second period.
Average -3.5 shots for the third period of these six games.
Average +.2 goals for the third period of these six games.
Conclusion... big lead after two and then held their own for the wins, but the comment about the trailing team having more shots does seem to hold true.

Interesting... not statistically "the whole story", but interesting.

Dallas Stars Hockey: Yikes

2008-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

Team Captain Brenden Morrow out for the season. Stick a fork in and turn them over... they're done.

Or, will Sean Avery assume the leadership mantle? Yea... about that. I don't think Mike Modano will be nominating him to wear the C in Morrow's absence.

San Jose Sharks Team: Nov 14 Point in Time

2008-11-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

Sakes alive. I knew that the Sharks looked good thus far this season and wrote in my post a few days ago the team shots and goals stats, but they've gone and outdone themselves the last two games.

This team that as of the aforementioned two games ago was leading the league in both most shots for and fewest shots against put up the following #s against Nashville and then Calgary.

Shots For/Against: 57-29
Shots For/Against: 46-24

Even more interesting was how the Sharks started the game. The following is just the aggregate first and second periods from each game:

Shots For/Against: 43-18
Shots For/Against: 35-13

That the Nashville game wound up as an OTL loss (with the Calgary game a 6-1 victory) seems secondary to the shot totals and the way the Sharks are playing right now... keeping in mind of course that when the playoffs start, shot totals are NOT secondary to wins and losses.

With two lines scoring in bunches and the defense firing the puck at the net, the offense appears to be tuned up well and as for the D... the player who seems to have done the worst as a regular skater is Douglas Murray, and I'd say he's played pretty well.

Again, this is all preparation for the playoffs, but at this point I don't think there could be a realistic wish for the team to be playing much better.

Sharks Shot & Goal Differentials

2008-11-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

Shots on goal... what they tell you about a game is an interesting question.

I've been told by a fellow Sharks fan that they don't really tell you a lot... the logic behind this would be that if a team in losing in the 3rd, they'll likely have a lot of shots, but... still wind up with the loss.

While this made sense to me for 3rd period shot differential, I became interested in digging into the #s to see what they would say... and here it is (through 16 games):

13-3 W-L record
37-25 average shots for and against
3.2-2.4 average goals for and against

Impressive #s all, but here's the detail behind them.

1st Period
12-8 average shots for and against
0.8-1.0 average goals for and against

2nd Period
14-8 average shots for and against
1.3-0.5 average goals for and against

3rd Period
11-9 average shots for and against
1.1-0.9 average goals for and against

* The #s below do not include OT shots/goals, just those from the first 3 periods

If you look at these to try to tell how the Sharks are playing thus far this season, the breakdown by period seems to be as follows:

1st Period: Starting fairly well with a slight shot advantage and slight goal disadvantage.
2nd Period: Pouring it on with fairly significant advantages in both shots and goals.
3rd Period: Finishing with slight advantages in both shots and goals. This becomes impressive, though, when you consider that the #s tend to show the Sharks leading entering the 3rd... (with said consideration taking a page from said fellow Sharks fan).

So... this shows how the Sharks have played thus far. As to the question of shots as an indicator... I think they do matter quite a bit in both the 1st and 2nd periods (can't score if you don't shoot). In the 3rd period, I think good teams (i.e. those who have the lead after 2) prove themselves good by holding their own in the shot differential department.

As an aside... if someone would like the Excel file containing the raw data which went into these calculations, just let me know.

Final aside... shots for tonight's game #17 of the season were 57 for SJ and 29 for Nashville... with a final score in OT of 4-3 in favor of the Predators. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes and I feel comfortable saying that on average the Sharks will win most games they're leading in shots 43-18 after 2 periods.

"Saved" by Jack Falla

2008-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've ever published the same post to both this and my writing blog (http://liketowritestuff.blogspot.com/), but it's also the first book I've read on hockey in years...

"Saved" by acclaimed hockey writer Jack Falla is a fictional look at a goalie in the NHL and blends in stories of family, commitment and life around a hockey tale.

While I would say that the book probably is a bit longer than need be, it did make me interested to learn about and read more from the author...

Jack Falla passed away in September 2008 at the age of 64. His career included stints writing for Sports Illustrated and more recently teaching communications at Boston University.

Some of his most well known writing was about his backyard rink in Massachusetts and can be found in his book "Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds" or in a condensed version at this link to the story "How and Why to Build a Backyard Rink". Early in 2008, Falla also came out with the book "Open Ice: Reflections & Confessions of a Hockey Lifer" discussing his life spent around the sport he loved.

Power Rankings... Once More

2008-11-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well, whadda ya' know... Nov 4 came and provided us with a new President (can learn all about it here on my writing blog) AS WELL AS new team atop the NHL Power Rankings from both Scott Wraight at CNNSI and Ross McKeon at Yahoo! Sports.

Prior to going to Wraight or McKeon's listings to see who's ranked #1 (for now), here's a clue... the team name rhymes with Sparks, you know... as in America Idol winner Jordin (daughter of Phillippi) Sparks.

Let's Get it Started in Here...

2008-11-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

Written here a few days ago was "Power Rankings Revisited"... a look how the teams I arbitrarily perceived to have the best shot at the Cup have fared in month one.

While I felt that it mattered to have a good start (or in the odd case of Anaheim, a terrible first five games followed by excellent second five), I'm now inclined to think it matters even more after reading "Down and Out: The numbers show that a weak October haunts teams that have Stanley Cup ambitions" from the Nov 3 issue of Sports Illustrated. One point made in the the article is that a fast start to the season establishes a team's confidence so that they can emerge fairly unscathed from any low ebbs that the season may provide (as happened with Detroit last spring).

Tieing this idea to the current (as of last Tuesday) Power Rankings from Scott Wraight at CNNSI and Ross McKeon at Yahoo! Sports, teams that aren't towards the top of the the rankings now may well have a tough go at getting there come next June.

Preason Rankings Revisted

2008-10-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Harkening back to my "Great 8: Preseason Rankings" posted just prior to the season, it's now time to revisit since we're almost a month in...

At the time of that post, I felt there were 4 Western and 4 Eastern Conference teams with legitimate shots at the Cup. Let's take a look at how these 8 teams are doing now with their current records and prospects:

Western Conference

Preseason # 1: Detroit Red Wings - 7-1-1... all is well.

Preseason # 2: San Jose Sharks - 8-2-0... need to limit the # of goal allowed, but no need to fear. The pieces are all there.

Preseaon # 2A: Dallas Stars - 3-4-2... most goals allowed in the league (15 more than the Sharks), not good.

Preason # 6: Anaheim Ducks - 5-5-0... a horrific start, but have been much better of late. On the right track.

Eastern Conference

Preason # 4: Pittsburgh Penguins - 5-3-2... not looking too hot. Have injury problems to overcome on D, but also not getting the offensive production (11 shots against the Sharks Tuesday). Scary times in Steel City.

Preason # 5: Philadelphia Flyers - 3-3-3... pretty muddling start for the Bullies. Would like for Martin Biron to revert back to the form he showed in last year's playoffs, but goalies not named Martin Brodeur can be quite the enigma.

Preason # 7: Washington Capitals - 5-3-1... Not bad, could use some more scoring from Alex Ovechkin, but should feel going knowing that he's a superstar and will come around.

Preason # 8: Montreal Canadiens - 6-1-1... Looking good. Much of their success will hinge on the continued maturation of goaltender Carey Price who looks to have a much better playoff than he did in his rookie season.

Off these 8 teams, I'd say the ones facing the steepest climb to maintain/get back to the elite Cup contender level are Dallas in the West and Philadelphia in the East. For the time being, Pittsburgh gets a bit of a pass because even though they definitely need to fix some things, they've got Sidney Crosby and Evegeni Malkin.... they're good.

New Kids on the Block

This has all been about the teams that I thought in preseason had a legitimate shot at the Cup, but there's a been a few squads that look to join the group of contenders. The three with the best records are below:

New York Rangers - 9-2-1... very good hockey team. Scott Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky are playing like stars and if Wade Reddon can play D like he did a few years back, they appear to have a definite shot of coming out of the East.

Buffalo - 6-1-2... Buffalo? Really? I didn't see this one coming... won't be convinced until they can do it over a longer period of time.

Minnesota - 6-0-1... You have to respect the record achieved thus far (and without star player and trade bait Marian Gaborik), but I'm also still not convinced (though, it could be that I just find them to play kind of boring hockey and don't want to see that in the Cup Finals).

Goalie Mask Photos from CNNSI

2008-10-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

Super cool NHL goalie mask photo feature on http://www.cnnsi.com/...

There are 52 different images (which are all worth viewing at the slide show) so I won't describe each, but I have (painstakingly) put my favorites into some (extremely arbitrary) categories and awarded winners in each:

Creature Mouth Division

Winner: Curtis Joseph

Skulls Division

Winner: Evgeni Nabokov (extra consideration given for the accompanying skeleton)

Mythical Creatures (Not Including Skull Based Dudes) Division

Winner: Marty Turco (huge extra consideration given for different home and away masks)

Pop Culture Division

Tie: Martin Gerber (Darth Vader mask discussed on Mike Chen's blog) & Peter Budaj (note Ned Flanders on the back)

Team Props Division

Tie: Tim Thomas (for having not just a unique paint job, but unique mask itself) & Mikael Tellqvist (for paying homage to the old Winnipeg Jets days before they moved to Phoenix)

Full of Himself Division

Winner: Martin Brodeur (I mean... his initials and # being that large right in front? C'mon...)

Milan Lucic Check on Mike Van Ryn

2008-10-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious... Milan Lucic of the Bruins makes quite the highlight reel hit on Mike Van Ryn. A check like this (for which he did seem to leave his feet) illustrates why Boston fans love Lucic so much. He hits, he scores, he fights... hey, he's like Cam Neely.

Bless their Bruin hearts for being smitten with someone so easy to love, but it does get at a problem that Boston seems to have... they want their players to be like someone else. It's great that Lucic has these similarities and can grow towards the level of Neely's greatness, but it's a lot of pressure to put on someone who hasn't even reached legal drinking age in the US (turned 20 on June 7).

Also, this reminds me of how Bruin fans never seemed to fully appreciate Joe Thornton when he was there. Jumbo Joe is a big guy and very talented just like Cam, but plays a completely different style of game. I think this difference, and the fact that the fans never grasped it, is part of the reason why the San Jose Sharks were fortunate enough to pluck Joe away from the B's.

Ok, all that said... Lucic is a good player now, could be a great one, and throws a very impressive hit below...

Hockey Movies: "Slapshot" & "The Rocket"

2008-10-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

Having recently watched "Slapshot" (from 1977), I felt compelled to both post a classic scene with the Hanson brothers and bring up another great movie hockey movie... one that not many people have seen.

First Hanson brothers icetime in "Slapshot"

This fun duly noted... on to a hockey movie not as well known, "The Rocket" (also know as "Maurice Richard") from 2005. It probably wouldn't be that interesting to someone who is not a hockey fan, but for someone who is... it's worth it to watch just for the reenactments of games from that era.

Additionally, that was a fascinating period of hockey featuring some interesting subplots such as the influx of French-Canadian players into the NHL.

Trailer for "The Rocket" about Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens

Jiri Fischer Injury: Scary Stuff

2008-10-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ross McKeon's Yahoo! Sports column on Jiri Fischer and what he's doing now compelled me to go out to YouTube for coverage of the game in which he had a seizure. I've seen it before, but still get choked up a bit watching it...

About a minute into the first video is when Fishcher collapses on the bench.

"Why Good Teams Fight" from SI: & How Bad Players Fight... Riley Cote vs Eric Godard

2008-10-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

During the time I've been a Sports Illustrated reader, they've never been known for their love of hockey and I guess them having "Why Good Teams Fight" as their lead article for the NHL preview shows their feeling for the subtleties of the game.

That having been said, it is actually an interesting read with some fascinating contrasting done between the last two teams to win the Cup... Detroit who rarely fights and Anaheim who fights pretty much every game.

Also, of great entertainment value from the article is the quote (by an unnamed opponent) about Philadelphia Flyers winger/fighter Riley Cote... "(He) doesn't even realize there's a puck on the ice."

That's good stuff and below is quite the donnybrook from Tuesday with Eric Godard of the Penguins up against the aforementioned pugilist.

Sports Towns: Home & Away

2008-10-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

Given my recent football tourism to Nebraska (see: trip recap) and then Oregon (see: trip recap), I've been thinking about the notion of sports towns... both those that people are from and those that I would like to visit.

Sports Towns: Home

Let's think first about hometowns in relation to sports. In the most recent Sports Illustrated, there's a profile on Boston Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay written by Lee Jenkins. In the piece, Bay's hometown of Trail, B.C. is described as an 8,000 factory town (or at least when Bay was growing up) with more than it's fair share of athletic (see: hockey) prodigies... "at least 10 current and former NHL players" to date.

This is all conjecture of course, but I would imagine that Trail is the type of town where almost all the local kids play sports (again, likely hockey first and foremost) and then the town pays a great deal of attention as kids reach into their teens and the best players start to emerge. This type of town wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, of course, but as a dedicated hockey fan, I think it would be a lot of fun to raise a family there (keeping in mind of course the need for a touch of levity around the fact that it's still just a game).

Sports Towns: Away (Tourism)

Pretty much everything written above is about the idea of growing up in a town like Trail, but as I think of my aforementioned college football road trips, I think about the idea of a hockey road trip... one that would visit arenas in these outposts of the game.

Having visited Quebec City during Winter Carnival (but, sadly... after the Nordiques left town), I've seen the passion that people in Canada have for hockey and would love to experience it firsthand.

Might have to look at planning such a trip...

Oregon football trip

2008-10-12T20:04:00.001-07:00

No, not a hockey trip, but a pretty darn good time at the Oregon-UCLA game.

Approaching the spaceship...

Settling in post-tailgate and pre-game (well, tailgate time actually stretched into game time)...

View from the seats...

Replenishing ourselves at halftime (and a little beyond)...

The final result of our efforts... a 31-24 win over UCLA.

Undefeated San Jose Sharks

2008-10-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious, that Rob Blake is an excellent player.

Pretty solid effort by the Sharks in their season-opening win over the Anaheim Ducks. San Jose outshot them 21-3 in the 2nd period... and that tells the story of how that stanza went.

What was particularly impressive (and good to see) was new free agent pickup Rob Blake firing away from the point. Head Coach Todd McLellan repeated preached the virtues of shots from the blueline and Blake put seven on the net in the second period alone.

Very good stuff... even if (sad to say) it was all done without the just not-signed (can't say he was released as he never had a contract) Jeff Friesen.

Anaheim is a good team and every game won't go like this for the Sharks, but it was sure fun to watch.

Sharks Roster Revisited: Friesen Status

2008-10-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

I wrote yesterday on this blog of my confusion about the Sharks final roster, specifically whether Jeff Friesen is on it or not. The question to me was if the roster features the below players, wouldn't that mean that he is?

Forwards (12)
Thornton-Marleau-Setoguchi
Michalek-Cheechoo-Pavelski
Grier-Clowe-Goc
Roenick-Shelly-Plihal

Defensemen (7)
Blake-Boyle
Vlassic-Murray
Lukowich-Erhoff
... Semenov

Goalies (2)
Nabokov-Boucher

In the mix (2)
Lukas Kaspar
Jeff Friesen

Injured Reserve (doesn't count against the 23-man limit): Torrey Mitchell

My view was contradicted by a story from the Sharks website making reference to Friesen having to beat out either Kaspar or Plihal. At the time, I couldn't figure out what the competion was exactly for given the numbers.

Now, I really don't know how Friesen would NOT be on the team as in his blog, Dan Rusanowsky writes in the second section down exactly the same roster I envision above... and refers to it as being 23 guys plus one on IR.

I suppose maybe it's just as simple as Friesen is on the team (for now), but is in competition for a spot dressing for the games (given that you can't actually dress 23 players). If it's not that, than I have no idea what's going on... ;)

Sharks Roster Trimmed

2008-10-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

The much-anticipated Sharks roster move of the offseason has now taken place... Kyle McLaren has been waived.

The overriding cause behind this is his $2.5M salary cap hit and the Sharks need to get under the $56.7M league max by Wednesday afternoon. McLaren will now almost certainly move to another team, whether it be through a trade, outright waiver claim or him first getting sent down, then brought back up and claimed by another team for only half his salary (with the Sharks picking up the other half.

McLaren wasn't an elite-level defenseman with the Sharks, but he was fairly solid and his departure is a bit of a shame... but, necessary to do given the salary cap considerations. Strange how that happens in the salary cap era... you can be good enough to be on a team, if only they hadn't promised to pay you so darn much money.

With the shedding of McLaren, the Sharks not only get under the salary cap, but also get closer to the required 23-man roster limit. Still in the mix, but not yet a lock is former Shark Jeff Friesen who is with the team on a tryout.

That said, let's take a look at the current roster (without great regard for line combinations):

Forwards (12)
Thornton-Marleau-Setoguchi
Michalek-Cheechoo-Pavelski
Grier-Clowe-Goc
Roenick-Shelly-Plihal

Defensemen (7)
Blake-Boyle
Vlassic-Murray
Lukowich-Erhoff
... Semenov

Goalies (2)
Nabokov-Boucher

In the mix (2)
Lukas Kasper
Jeff Friesen

Injured Reserve (doesn't count against the 23-man limit): Torrey Mitchell

The only problem with this list is that the same article on McLaren getting waived refers to Friesen as currently being the 24th (one over the limit) guy... and on this list he's the 23rd.

So... either Mitchell and his broken leg do count against the roster limit, or I'm missing someone. Hmmm... who could it be?