The Myth of Money in the Bank Goaltenders

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?

Power Rankings Revisted

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.

Welcome to the Top Spot, San Jose

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.

Sharks-5 Bruins-2: What it Meant

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.

Ross McKeon Yahoo! Sports Outdoor Game Locations

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.

Dec 23 Power Rankings

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...

Power Rankings... Once More

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...

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.

Jiri Fischer Injury: Scary Stuff

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.