“8th Seeds, Who Wants Some 8th Seeds?”

 
White rabbits!

Anyone else say that at the start of every month for luck?  I’m gonna say my family’s been doing it for like, 15 years – the earlier you say it on the 1st, the better the luck that month.

Also, throwing perfectly good money into a well is good luck.  Mutated clovers are too.  Totally makes sense.

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Speaking of luck – with a little of it, could you see Calgary or St. Louis sneaking ahead of Colorado for eighth in the Western Conference?

Yeesssssss you could.

Colorado’s remaining six games see them play the Flames head-to-head once (tomorrow!  Ooo), the Sharks, the Blackhawks, the Kings, the Canucks and a freebie against the Oilers (or is it?!).

They’re up two points on the Flamers (with a game-in-hand… at-hand?), so for conversation sake, lets say Calgary beats them tomorrow.  They’d both have 89 points, and I could see Colorado being below .500 in those last five games, since, y’know, four of the five teams are ahead of them in the standings.

Calgary, admittedly, doesn’t have a much easier schedule – Blackhawks, Sharks, Wild, Canucks – but all they’d have to do down the stretch is win three to catch the Avs.  Exciting stuff.

I’ve included the Blues in the hunt too – six points out with six games to go, largely because they seem to be turning it around, and you never know.  After winning three straight, they’re schedule includes games versus the Predators, the Stars, Blue Jackets, Ducks and Blackhawks.  Five wins isn’t completely impossible, and might be enough to get it done, if the two teams ahead of them act like it’s the Eastern Conference.

So here’s to a great finish out West!

As for the East….

All I’m wondering is, “the Isles are three points up on the Maple Laffs, and play Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Pittsburgh to end the season.  Could they fall far enough to steal the increased lottery odds?”

I think they can, only cause the Laffs can’t do ANYTHING right this year.

On a more relevant note, Boston, Montreal and Philadelphia all have 82 points while the Thrashers have 80 and the Rangers have 78.  What a mess (congrats to Tampa for being 3-7 in its last ten, taking the title of “biggest blown opportunity” away from the Rangers at the last second).

Montreal has one less game left, but a joke of a schedule coming home (After the Flyers they have the Islanders, Hurricanes, Maple Leafs and an SPHL team, I think).

So wait… Boston/Montreal won’t be a 1-8 or 2-7 matchup this year?  But it’s always like that….

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The NHL’s biggest “I can’t believe that guy doesn’t wear a visor” has to be Ruslan Fedetenko, right?  Baby face, happy guy, plays a skill game, seems afraid, gets hurt (but not injured) a lot….  Everytime I see him I’m surprised.  Who else is on this list?

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The NHL’s biggest “numbers-inflating roster spot” has to be A) Alex Burrows spot with the Sedins  B) Steve Downie’s spot with St. Louis/Stamkos line  or C)  ???  Whatchu got?  (Getting to wear a Capitals jersey?)

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The guy pumping it out in the picture below (Nick Lowe) is here for a golf weekend, then a few days at my place.  You may remember his picture from a previous blog.  In this pic, he just tied the game up with minutes left – I score on the next shift to beat North Dakota (that years version of the Sioux had Toews, Stafford, Smaby, Zajac, Oshie, Brian Lee, and was goaltended by Lamoureux or Jordan Parise), the weekend my Dad was in Alaska.  Special times.

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The Flames: Quantity and Quality Moves?

 

Weeeeee, trades are fun! 

Burkes an idiot!  No, a genius!  The Flames are in chaos!  The Chames are in flaos!  LETS BLLLOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Let me start the day by saying thanks to Craig B for the donation – I tried to write you personally, but I got “NoSoupForYou’ed” by your email address.  It means a lot to me, and every little bit helps buy me time before having to go real job hunting.  So yeah, thanks again, dog.

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Also, before hockey trade talk – I had an Anquan Boldin sighting here in Phoenix a few days ago.  Just a casual dinner with his wife and kid out at an Irish Pub - he was wearing the preferred outfit of football/basketball players everywhere: huge basketball shorts, huge white t-shirt, hat with the 50/50 sticker on it and a diamond earring.  Super low key, but also super “g”.  What a win-win. 

….Jokes aside, that man has my respect – had his sinuses collapsed with a helmet to the face, then played two weeks later after not taking any pain medication.  That’s some tough-stuff right there.

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Hahaha…. um…. I don’t even know.  Maybe the caption for these pics should be “Today, on Ellen…”

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So the trades.  The Flames just overturned about 40% of their forwards and 30% of their total team, going from:

 Oli Jokinen
Brandon Prust
Dion Phaneuf
Fredrik Sjostrom

TO

Matt Stajan
Nicklas Hagman
Jamal Myers
Alex Kotalik
Chris Higgins
Ian White

Mmmm, tastes like quantity over quality…. but really, they might be onto something.  During my assessment of the Western Conference, I discussed how a few teams are overachieving – which is, by being quick, young and deep with good goaltending (Buffalo, Phoenix, Colorado).  I usually push for stars over a bunch of “pretty good” players, but I think in picking up Stajan/Hagman/Kotalik/Higgins, they got players that have potential to be above “pretty good” status, especially together.  Not stars, but guys that, in the right situation, could be very valuable.

I’m a little worried for my boy Eric Nystom.  Not good when your team picks up a Costco-sized pack of forwards and your a guy who spends a fair chunk of time on the shelf.

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Dear major hockey networks: please stop showing Cammalerri’s buckling leg.  The boards won.  We KNOW.  Ugh.

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Kurt Dusterberg has written a book called Journeymen: Bittersweet Tales of Short Major League Sports Careers, and sent me a copy to review.  I have not yet done so (though it looks like it’s got some really neat stories to tell), because I’m a busy dude, but if the premise interests you, you can buy a copy here.  Six of the 24 stories are hockey guys: Dallas Eakins, Scott Gruhl, Darren Jensen, Fred Knipsheer, Peter LeBoutilllier, and David Littman.  I’ll tell you more once I get to it!

Also, the Moshansky boys sent me “A to Z Guide To Hockey Terms” for review.  This great little book strikes me as something they should sell in the US, in the southern markets.  Actually, the teams that live in those markets should buy them in bulk and have a night where everybody gets a copy.  It’s a pretty handy compilation of the most common (and some not-so-common) terms, nicknames, penalties, etc. Great to help a new fan understand and enjoy the game all the more.

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Hey look: someone finally invented a formula PROVING Crosby is more valuable than Ovechkin.  I mean, right?  There doesn’t seem to be any flaws in a formula that finds an assist half as valuable as a goal (just ask the Sedins).  Also (as the creator points out), we can finally prove that Mike Fisher is having a better year than Joe Thornton.  Good-ness.

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Lets have your prediction:  Do the Flames make the playoffs?

Canadian Shake-ups, NHL Observations

 

Whether you love or hate Brian Burke, you have to, at the very least, admire how seriously he takes winning.  The man wants to win.  Like, right now.

There are simply too many players involved in the Toronto/Calgary deals to congratulate a winner.  But Burke knows one thing – players that are good-but-not-great are easy to come by.  You need the difference-makers to win, and Phaneuf is definitely one of those.

Toronto had nothing to build around when Burke got there, and the guy seems to be aware that nobody has ever won anything “by commitee” (the current codeword for “trying to win without talent”).  The Penguins win around Crosby/Malkin, the Red Wings win around Datsyuk/Zetterberg, so Burke is building around guys like Kessel/Phaneuf/Komisarek.  Not quite on the same level, but better than the cores of a few other teams (Havlat/….Kobasew?).

At least Toronto fans will have a few A- players (okay, B+) to cheer for while finishing out the year — for them, it’s been far too many winter months of cheering for a team of C+ guys without a Mats Sundin, Doug Gilmour or Wendell Clark.  (By the way, how insufferable will Toronto fans be if Burke manages to transform them into good…. which I suspect he will.  It’ll be like mixing crappy Flames fans with obnoxious Yankee fans.  Plus, about 55,000 people already have one foot on a bandwagon that would immediately collapse under the weight all the new “diehards”.)

By the way, worth mentioning – I think Matt Stajan is a really talented guy.  The Flames did well by themselves in picking up a quality depth scorer.  In fact, I think both teams made a smart move.

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I think DiPietro looks too bad on too many plays, too often right now.  I know he’s got rust to shake off; the guy hasn’t played goal in forever, but it looks worse than that.

I’m just really nervous about that big contract.  His numbers are fine, that’s not what stresses me.  I’m saying he just isn’t technically sound these days.  He doesn’t look balanced, his angles are suspect, he isn’t getting his pads flat post-to-post in the butterfly, and just doesn’t look like the old Ricky. 

Here’s to hopin’.

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Is Matt Duchene gonna be last years Steven Stamkos?  Just kill it the second half of the year and be a legit NHL stud by next year?  I say yes.

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If you’re the GM for Washington, don’t you go Brian Burke trying get a goalie for your team?  You can’t expect your guys to put up football numbers every night in playoffs, and those stupid, weak goals are just so disheartening.

Of all the stacked teams, San Jose really has the best total package right now (even though I like Chicago and Washington’s forwards better.  San Jose might have the best line in the NHL, but aren’t the best one through 12).  Nabokov is legit.

Happy February – it’s Superbowl week!  Your reward is an insider report on how TV news reports get made.

 

Western Conference Playoff Spots

 

The battle for playoff spots in the West is always a little more intriguing when some unexpected teams blow up and have good seasons, and this is one of those years.  Phoenix, Nashville and LA are all better than I expected, and I think better than the rest of the West had hoped.

So without really any ado, here’s how I see the bubble teams finishing up:

4th, Vancouver Canucks, 52 games played, 66 points

The only reason the Canucks get a blurb in the “bubble teams” section at all is their upcoming road trip.  They set an NHL record by being gone for something like six weeks, and playing 14 straight road games (Olympic preparation in Vancouver).  They’re 22-7-1 at home, but below .500 at 10-11-1 on the road this year.  If they survive the trip at .500, they’ll be in great shape.

{Only Washington, Pittsburgh and San Jose have scored more goals than the Canucks this year, and only New Jersey, Buffalo and Chicago have given up less.  Not bad, VanCity.  Not bad.}

5th, Phoenix Coyotes, 52 games played, 63 points

The ‘Yotes have played the majority of their games to date at home in the friendly confines of Jobing.com Arena (29), where they’re a dominant 19-8-2.  On the road, the Coyotes are an even 10-10-3 (23 games), sort of how your record is supposed to look.  With a third of the season left to play, they’re in position to push for a quality playoff spot.

Have you noticed a trend in the teams that are “overachieving”?  The Coyotes, Sabres, and Avalanche all have similar team builds, to some extent.  They’re fast over big, mostly young over mostly old, they’ve got great goaltending and most importantly, their top six forwards are almost all interchangeable as ”first line” guys.  Instead of the NBA method – pay one player to be your star and build around him – they all seem to be deeper teams without “that guy” to watch out for (the top two scorers from the teams I just listed are Tim Connolly and Paul Stastny, both below a point a game at 48 points in 51 games).

The Coyotes are going to make playoffs this year, but to have any hope of moving beyond a quick round one exit, they need to finish in 5th or 6th – 7th or 8th (versus San Jose or Chicago) would be hopeless.

6th, Los Angeles Kings, 51 games played, 61 points

The Kings seem fragile, don’t they?  Points are always easier to come by before Christmas, just like wins.  When Anze Kopitar has Ryan Smyth to help him out, he’s useful, but his production has seriously slowed down.  He just doesn’t seem like a guy who can get it done when his opponents key on him, they way the real elite stars can.  That says to me he’s not ready to be “the guy” on a team that needs one.  They’re good enough to win even with him struggling, so they’ll hang on to playoffs, but you certainly get the impression they aren’t headed the right direction.

7th, Nashville Predators, 51 games played, 61 points

I almost included the Preds in the group of “overachieving teams with the same build” from the Coyotes paragraph, but in the end, I didn’t think their Dan Ellis or Pekka Rinne deserved to be in the same class as Bryzgalov, Miller and Anderson.  Nashville could be the best team to miss playoffs this year… and I see it happening.

8th, Detroit Red Wings, 51 games played, 58 points

The depressing part for the teams on the wrong side of the playoff cutoff line looking in right now is, you’re not trying to catch Detroit’s 58 points, you’re looking at Nashvilles 61.  Detroit has played with half a team all year.  They’re the best coached team in the league, with some of the best names in the entire NHL in their dressing room (even with all they lost from last year).  The Canucks and Avalanche can start stressing now about which one of them is going to get unfortunately stuck in a (4) vs. (5) battle with Detroit.

9th, Calgary Flames, 52 games played, 58 points

What the hell happened to the Flames?  I feel like I fell asleep for an hour and they dropped a half-dozen spots.  Hmm.  1-8-1 in their last ten, with six straight losses.  By all logic, the Flames should be okay:  great goaltender, maybe the best defensive trio in the league, and a couple of guys up front who can score.  For me, the major difference between their offensive firepower and the teams “overacheiving” this year, is that their goal scorers aren’t young and energetic.  They don’t have that legs churning, relentless effort type threat right now – they’re scary in the “HolyCrapDon’tLetHimShootFromThereAWww.  They scored.” type of way.

10th, Anaheim Ducks, 52 games played, 55 points

This is the difference between the Eastern and Western conference.  The 10th and 11th place teams in the West are still really good (so are the Isles, but um, I just…. crap).  The problem is, they can’t all make playoffs, and Anaheim didn’t get off to a great start.  I don’t think they’re good enough to have a huge second half and make up for it.

11th, Dallas Stars, 52 games played, 55 points

I was waiting for them to end up in this spot in the conference, and here they are.  Dallas is a good team, but when teams like Phoenix and LA are good too, it toughens up their usually soft division.

12th, Minnesota Wild, 52 games played, 54 points

I don’t know a lot about Minnesota this year, and that’s not a good sign.  I do know when you’ve pinned a chunk of your offensive hopes on Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ebbett, you’re in a whole heap of trouble (both are good enough players, but very shutdownable.  Yep, I can make up words on my blog.)  I guess their go-to guy is Havlat, I’m just not sure what else they’ve got.  I’m sure my oddly heavy Wild readership can fill me in on them, but from what I can tell, they don’t have a hockey teams chance in Phoenix snowballs chance in an oven.

13th, St. Louis Blues, 52 games played, 54 points

I’m sticking to my guns on the Blues, especially with the addition of Davis Payne.  They’ve got good top six forwards, good goaltending, and hopefully enough D to get into contention during the last few weeks.  I still think they’ll make a push.

 

NHL Playoffs – April 16th

 

(4) Chicago vs. (5) Calgary

Game one between these teams was more pivotal than any other series, easily (honorable mention to Canucks/Blues).  I mean pivotal like Peter’s decision to go to the hypnotherapist in Office Space.

The Flames, a team on the decline, badly needed that to right the ship.  Nothing like being up 2-1 with five minutes left and choking to blow a major hole in the hull.

The Hawks, a young team, needed that too.  As a player, when you get off to a good start, it’s just so much easier to keep the ball rolling than it is to start it up.  Dangly guys like Havlat and Toews don’t have to second guess themselves now; if they fall down a few games in this series, they start thinking “boy, I guess I need to change the way I ____”.  This little bit of confidence was huge for them.

And by the way, does Olli Jokinen drink like, 80 cups of coffee prior to everything he’s ever done ever?  He looks shocked every time I’ve ever seen him.  Maybe he’s still in awe that an NHL team committed over 20 million to an 11 year NHL vet with zero games playoff experience.

(2) Detroit vs. Columbus

Hey, I can’t watch ‘em all.

Despite my fellow contributors article on The Hockey News site about Columbus being perfectly tooled for an upset, let me respectfully say this:  The foregone conclusion that is this series started as planned, 4-1 Wings.  Babcock is the best coach in the NHL.

(1) San Jose vs. (8) Anaheim

Interesting… very interesting.

I’m wondering, if the Sharks were to manage to puke in another three games like they did tonight (and they did puke… 137 goals at home this year, and not one on a goalie who’s name I’d literally have to google to print here), is it possible for an organization to get a complex?

I mean really, with the point totals they’ve had in past years (90+ five straight years, 100+ in four of those) and their struggles in playoffs, wouldn’t it be impossible to enjoy next season as a fan of theirs?  Every game they won, their entire fan base and every sports pundit would be going, “well sure, but… ”

(1) Bruins vs. (8) Montreal

Since this game went exactly how it would have played out had we let a Playstation run a “what-to-expect” simulation, let me use it as a forum to discuss this:

How. Goddamn. Hard.  Are guys shooting the puck now?  Kovalev shot a puck that Al MacInnis watched from home and went “whoa”.  Then Chara decided to swing his stick that was probably ordered triple-stiff but flexes like an intermediate shaft because it’s eight feet long, and shot a puck so hard a modern day goalie thought “I’m not sure if I’m wearing enough gear to justify standing in front of that”.

Even Getzlaf in the Anaheim game drove the nail in the Sharks coffin with a snapshot from the top of the circles that came out of the net quicker than a roadrunner on blow.  Goalies must love that we keep making their gear smaller, which, by the way, I’m in favour of.  But I’ll save that rant for another soapbox.  Guess I’ll need something to write about in the off-season.

All The Kings Men

 

My brother Jeff and I were young, but old enough to know something cool was happening.  We were at Dad’s game, in the dressing room, in Los Angeles.  We had on our ridiculously over-sized Kings jerseys, and were waiting for the start of the Kings – Flames game.  The Flames at the time were badass (1988).  As most kids would, Jeff and I wanted to meet some of the guys on the other team. So, Dad arranged what needed arranging and sent us down the hall.

With our escort, we walked into the Calgary Flames road dressing room fully adorned in Kings gear.  Questionable decision maybe, but Dad seemed to think it was funny.  I remember meeting Lanny Macdonald and Mike Vernon, silently standing in front of them in the way young kids do, answering yes and no to polite questions.  It was around this point that someone on the Flames voiced their displeasure at our choice of clothing, and ideas of what to do with us started getting passed around the room. 

The solution, apparently, was to make us the ’80′s version of a chat-room message board.  Someone pulled out a Sharpie-type pen and wrote a message to the Kings on my jersey, then ushered us back to the Los Angeles room.  I have no idea what it said, but I don’t suspect it contained a lot of “doth’s” or “thy’s”. 

I took the message like a good delivery boy to my Dad, who read it, chuckled, then directed me to the appropriate respondee.  Prior to a professional hockey game in 1988, my brother and I became life-size notes in a class,  undoubtedly complete with all the subtlety and wit that the likes of Thereon Fleury were capable of.  But who knows what they wrote, because to this day, I have no idea where those jersey’s are or what was written on them.  In hindsight, Dad probably burned them both, along with all the colourful language that was permanently stained on that awful yellow and purple.

Jeff and I had some fun experiences around then that other kids didn’t get to have.  Largely those experiences consisted of being an anger shield.  By this, I mean they made us play practical jokes on people so they couldn’t be mad.  I don’t think it was by “free will” that I loaded Luc Robitaille’s hair-dryer with baby powder.  And yes, Luc used a blow-dryer everyday.

These are things I was able to remember and appreciate as I got older.  In the years immediately following Dad’s retirement, we were still around the rink.  I remember going to see a Canuck game when the Kings were in town and Dad took us down to the dressing rooms after.  Gretzky gave us his stick from that night, the classic silver aluminum complete with pre-made foam grip handle.  He signed it to “To Justin and Jeff, all my best, Wayne Gretzky”.  After we used it for indoor hockey occasionally, it reads “To   s in and J    al  my b   , scribble”.

I wish I had been older when Dad played so I could remember more of this stuff.  Somehow I have a house full of random autographed sticks and memorabilia that I don’t remember getting or who signed them.  And that sucks, because really, who cares about a signed anything by anyone?  The fun part is interacting with people, and getting to know a little piece of them.  The signature is supposed to say “this proves I had a conversation with Wayne Gretzky” for those who idolize the greats and want to prove to their buddies that they met them.  

I remember Tom Laidlaw throwing me miles high into our pool in L.A. while Mom cringed/cried/hated Tom Laidlaw.  I have all these stupid little memories from the latter years of Dad’s hockey, so I can only imagine the neat ones I can’t remember from the dynasty years.  The cool part is, I kinda went on to do a lot of it myself.  I ended up experiencing professional dressing rooms as a player, and because of that I think I showed up equipped to deal with other people’s kids in the locker room.  I just have to find the present-day equivalent for some of the old jokes.  If only players still used blow-dryers….