Comments on: Western Conference Playoff Spots

By: The Flames: Quantity and Quality Moves? | Bourne's Blog

The Flames: Quantity and Quality Moves? | Bourne's Blog — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:05:39 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Bomski17

Bomski17 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:02:32 +0000

Hey Bourny.

Totally, totally off topic, but in reading about Kovalev it made me think about how crazy it is that Jonathan Cheechoo was once a top tier goal scorer. I know that he is probably one of the worse skaters in the last 10 years to make the Show, but do you have any insight into how a guy goes from scoring 56 to 37 to 23 to 12 to 5 goals in successive years??

By: Christianson10

Christianson10 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:39:48 +0000

Kopitar has had two solid back to back 3 point games…don’t trade him just yet justin…they’re trying him out on a new line when I watched in Detroit…yes I was at that gamew here the dude was on the rafters with binoculars and that guy had a rope around his neck ready to do a flying neck hanger…but back to kopitar…possible new line…he’s back on the rise I think

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:34:37 +0000

It’s weird to be a Canucks fan that actually likes the Flames too (their fans, meh), but at the beginning of this season I couldn’t believe that people were picking them to win the cup this year (the Hockey News had them right up there). Bouwmeester was being given Chris Pronger credit without ever pulling a team into the playoffs or playing in a serious division, and for some reason people thought a team that didn’t have enough offense when Cammalleri wore the red was going to have more than enough when he took his 40 goals and left and nobody replaced him. The Flames’s secondary scoring got way too much credit early on and now the truth is too obvious to ignore. Bouwmeester in my opinion is looking HUGELY overrated and half of their top 6 are arguably third line guys (Langkow went 0-14 in the circle the other night, Conroy is getting scoring line shifts, you gotta be kidding me). When Nigel Dawes is being pulled off the PP for Jamie Lundmark, you have a problem with your forward depth that sandpaper isn’t going to help. It will be interesting watching them try to trade some huge contracts on underperforming players before the deadline (Phaneuf long term at 6.5 cap hit?).

Great point about Detroit, Kane had a great quote, something like “until we see otherwise, Detroit is still the team to beat in the playoffs this year”, love it.

The Wild could definitely make a push here, lots of guys coming back, Havlat playing well, they could startle some people.

Lots of question marks in the West, some really good teams playing poorly and it’s gonna be damn hard catching the top 8. Nice post, good analysis.

By: jtbourne

jtbourne — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:31:34 +0000

I’ll give you that he’s making the adjustment to a more well-rounded player if that’s true. I can always respect that – in fact, part of my concern with him was that he was looking like an Alexi Kovalev great, not a guy you can win with.

Still, I disagree with “it’s just a fact” – Chris Conner gets called up from the AHL with the Pens last night, plays on a line with Crosby and scores two goals. Doesn’t matter who they put Crosby with – he still gets his two assists. Its a matter of figuring out if he’s a guy who makes other players better, or if other players make him better. Also, I have Kopitar on my fantasy hockey team, so it was high time I call him out for slowing down after head-faking me with leading the league in points!

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:24:47 +0000

Have to disagree on Kopitar. Every great player needs other great players to win and Kopitar’s game is at both ends of the ice. If anything he’s not figuring out how to be elite but figuring out how to play both defense and offense for Terry Murray. He scored a ton when he didn’t have to worry about defense and has been adjusting to a completely new style over the last two years. Plus he’s 22. He’s going to score his 100th NHL goal before he’s 23. I’d say he’s moving along just fine. And that Red Wing game on Saturday points to the ability. Jumbo Joe had Murray and Knuble to play with in Boston when he dominated. Kopitar had Williams and Smyth and dominated an elite conference against Getzlaf and Thornton. Having the need for good players on the wings of center isn’t something new or a knock on a player. Its just a fact.

By: ms.conduct

ms.conduct — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:34:10 +0000

Three words: Guillaume Latendresse, bitches!

Okay, maybe not, but the story for the Wild this season is more about purging the old regime than it is anything else. Chuck Fletcher has put together some really lovely pick-ups and trades, made some tough decisions (Sykora), and whatnot, that Doug Risebrough would never have had the dynamic decision making ability to pull off.

They’re not going to make the playoffs, but they’re still in far better shape than they were last season.

By: Blake

Blake — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:17:11 +0000

The thing about the Wild is that they’re incredibly streaky.

They’ll make you think that they’re a team that can play with anybody in the NHL for a few games in a row, then look like they can’t even compete with Minnetonka High School the next. They get it done by committee, though, which is good and bad news. Good news because they don’t count on one player to get it done and bad news because their committee doesn’t necessarily have a lot of talent past their top four or five forwards.

If they get hot, though, they could be dangerous — especially if Backstrom gets hot.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:56:11 +0000

Has anyone fingered precisely what’s wrong with the Flames? Really, this team is a lot better — on paper — than its record. Deal Phaneuf.

Maven this morning, I agree. Phaneuf can’t even make my fantasy team.

By: Buddha

Buddha — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:52:31 +0000

Havlat is supposed to be “that guy,” but has yet to show it. That guy is still Mikko Koivu. The other big offensive weapon is turning out to be Latendresse. He is on fire since coming over to the Wild, and is the main reason why Sykora ended up on waivers. If Lats is not taken around the fifth round of fantasy drafts next year, people are not paying attention. The system is built perfectly for him.

Beyond that, they are pretty weak for offense. Kobasew is out with a injured ACL. Ebbett is the fourth line center, so they are offensive non-factors by definition. Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette help with the dirty work, but should not be counted on to be the leaders in scoring, despite fact that Bruno is second on the team in points. He is on the top line with Koivu, which makes everything easier.

I don’t see the team being much of a factor for the playoff race. As has already been mentioned, they are so inconsistent tit would be difficult to make it. Even if they do they will fall in the first round, as the team just does not play team defense well enough to skate with high caliber playoff teams for that long.