Olympics End but Great Hockey Continues

A week ago today the world saw one of the best hockey games in quite some time and certainly the best game of the Olympic tournament. Despite tremendous tenacity expressed by the Americans it was hockey king Canada led by Sidney Crosby who left the Vancouver games with the Gold Medal. Crosby’s overtime goal marked the end of a fantastic two weeks of hockey that produced a plethora of unpredictable moments. While it was the Canadians who climbed to the top of the mountain, in the end the real winners were hockey fans the world over. So I take this time to congratulate the Canadians on their victory, to salute the game of hockey generally, and to bid farewell to what was an awesome two weeks of hockey.

With the Olympics now behind us we transition from one set of great hockey to another as the NHL stretch run goes into full swing. As it stands today spots 6 through 11 in the Eastern Conference are separated by a total of four points while the battle for the 7^th and 8^th spots in the West is an even tighter race. Over the next few weeks we’ll find out who made the right moves at the trade deadline and who should have done more. We’ll see if upstart Phoenix can Colorado (back to glory days depicted above?) can keep their level of play high enough to maintain playoff positions as it is a new concept for both of these teams as assembled today. Can the Detroit Red Wings manage to solidify a playoff spot or will they be left out for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the earth? Did the Pittsburgh Penguins add enough new faces to their lineup to sure up any deficiencies they may have had to put them into the team to beat in the East? Have the Washington Capitals finally addressed their defensive woes enough to catapult themselves into the category of serious cup contenders? Why didn’t Boston—who was top seed in the East last year—not do more to address their inability to score? All the while who will score more goals before season’s end Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby? Each of these questions will be answered over the next month  and that means hockey fans are going to be spoiled from now until the end of the Stanley Cup Finals in June. So gear up puckheads because this is going to be awesome!

Stevens Out, Ovie is Dirty, Sabres Quietly Making Hay

A lot to cover so let’s get going.

1. The Philadelphia Flyers fired John Stevens after four seasons in which he had experienced quite a bit of success. In the 2006-2007 season the Flyers were awful and Stevens followed up that season by leading the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals where they were eliminated by the Penguins. Then of course last season Stevens had the Flyers in the playoffs again only to see their cross-state rivals once again eliminate them from the playoffs.  Granted, there is nothing good about losing but there is really no shame in getting eliminated from the playoffs by one of the best and eventually the best team in the league. Thus far this season the Flyers have been mediocre but are hardly out of playoff contention currently sitting in 13^th in the East but it games in hand on every team in front of it so if it wins those games in hand a playoff spot would belong to the Flyers. It remains to be seen what will happen with this early season coaching change—and I was forced to eat my words about midseason coaching changes last year by Pittsburgh who made a coaching change then went on to win the Stanley Cup—but I do not think it will make one bit of difference for Philadelphia. There is a fair amount of talent on the team and Ray Emery has been pretty good in goal but the Flyers problems focus more on trying to win a fight on skates rather than a hockey game. Physical play is in fact important and it’s a significant piece toward becoming a championship team but being undisciplined is a dagger in the heart of victory. They also have to play much better defense in front of whoever is in net because in their last nine games they have given up at least three goals on seven different occasions. No offense to new coach Peter Laviolette but the Flyers are who they are and so I don’t think the season will go any differently with him than it would have with Stevens. (please see the following link for my preseason thoughts on the Flyers http://sportsroids.com/2009/09/27/eastern-conference-outlook/)

2. As much as I enjoy watching Alex Ovechkin play he is really making a name for himself as a dirty player. All of North America saw his knee-on-knee hit on Sergei Gonchar is last year’s second round playoff series, and now Ovechkin has served a suspension for doing the same thing to Hurricane defensemen Tim Gleason (Ovechkin also sustained an injury on that same play). There are some other questionable plays on Ovechkin’s record and if they continue to build up it will taint his image. No other player in the league can impact the game any more than Ovechkin can with his incredible offensive presence but hockey is a game of honor and if Ovechkin continues his dirty play he will have to answer to some pretty tough guys who will not go quietly. So if I’m Caps coach Bruce Boudreau I am making it clear to Ovechkin that has to keep better control of himself and stop with the dirty play for otherwise the Caps championship aspirations will be in serious jeopardy.

3. The Carolina Hurricanes got their first road win of the season in 14 tries by defeating the defending champion Penguins. Why the Hurricanes are so bad is a headscratcher but a sarcastic congratulations from me to them on their first road victory of the year. Here’s to many more road wins… or at least one more anyway.

4. Despite having recently lost two-in-a-row the Buffalo Sabres are quietly having a very successful season led by the incredible play of Ryan Miller. Anytime your netminder is posting an incredible 1.90 GAA you’re more than likely going to win a lot of games. But despite such great numbers Miller cannot go it alone and thus far he certainly is not. Tim Connolly and Derek Roy are leading the way with 21 points (6 goals 15 assists for each) with wingers Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek not far behind with 19 and 18 points respectively. Buffalo is not a flashy team but they are very consistent and find themselves ahead on the scoreboard come the end of the game and that’s all that matters. Their power play is less than stellar putting them 21st “best” in the league but they counter it with a penalty kill that is 3^rd best in the league and that is very important/impressive—it also helps that the Sabres stay out of the penalty box. The Sabres were very good last year before being crushed by injuries in the stretch run but so far this team is better than last year’s and if they keep this up the East needs to be on notice because fore you know it you’ll be shaking the hands of the Sabres and wishing them good luck in the next round.

There’s much more to talk about but it will have to wait for next time…

P.S. To everyone making comments, thank you so much and please continue to do so. Many of them have not been posted to the site (as you may have noticed) but I do not have control when those are posted so please keep the comments coming for they will be posted shortly. Thanks everyone.

Newsflash: There’s a Hockey Team in Atlanta

Through six games the Atlanta Thrashers have nine points that puts them second in the Southeast Division. That’s right folks the Atlanta Thrashers are only one point behind the Washington Capitals for first place in the Southeast Division. It might not seem like much because it is so early in the season but last year through six games the Thrashers had only two wins and five points which marked the beginning of a season that did not yield a lot of success for the Thrashers until they were eliminated from playoff contention. So the big question is can Atlanta keep this going the entire season? The Thrasher roster is not loaded with big names other than Ilya Kovalchu—who is off to a great start—but it does not take a team full of superstars to win you just need a team of players who believe in each other and work well together. For the moment things look pretty good, they are getting solid goaltending, lead the league in power play percentage and are in the top ten in penalty killing. Everyone will get a better sense of where Atlanta stands over the course of the next few games since two of their next three contests are against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Not only do the Thrashers need to at least be competitive in those games but they need to steal two points even if they do not win either contest. The Capitals are the cream of the crop in the Southeast Division and chances are only one team will be coming out of that division and into the playoffs. If Atlanta wants to prove to the league but more importantly to themselves and their fans that they are a legit team they must show up for both games against Washington.

Thomas Made of Swiss Cheese?

As Tim Thomas goes so go the Boston Bruins and at the moment that direction is south… in the standings that is. Thomas has started five of the Bruins games so far posting a 2-3 record with a sub .900 save percentage including a game in which he gave up six goals on only 30 shots against the Anaheim Ducks. There is no doubt that Boston misses Phil Kessel  (who has yet to play a game yet for Toronto) but if they don’t get decent goaltending it won’t matter how many goals they score.  Thomas has had his doubters over the years but has silenced them a bit in recent history; however now all of those same questions will come up again if things continue they way they have been going. There is plenty of time to go of course but there might not be a whole lot of patience in Boston for the Bruins have very high expectations. In the meantime if things don’t turn around for Boston you may see a return of the famous neutral zone trap that just to take some pressure off of Thomas until he can get himself back on track. Personally I do not think Thomas is going to get his act together because he’s always been very erratic so when it works it’s great but when it doesn’t he has no real base to return to in order to simply his game until he regains his confidence. We’ll see what happens of course but I haven’t been a fan of Thomas in the past and still am not. Nevertheless, despite Thomas’ shortcomings the Bruins are good enough to recover and still be a very good team without him playing well (or without him at all) so people in Boston need not panic.

In other news:

Alex Ovechkin is having an incredible start to his year and is well on pace to be the first to score 70 goals in a long time. No matter what you think about Ovechkin and the Caps he’s one of the best players in the world and certainly there is no one more exciting to watch in any sport. Will he break Gretzky’s record of 92 in a season? Of course not; but he is still the best goal scorer in the NHL in quite some time.

Hey Toronto, how about winning a game eh? They haven’t even been competitive in most of their games managing one point in an overtime loss to a Montreal team that is in the midst of a five game losing streak. Toskala is definitely a big problem but scoring only seven goals in the last five games is not a good way to win games either; Phil Kessel will help but no one player can save this team.

Ovechkin Nets Hart Trophy at NHL Awards

The NHL Awards concluded Thursday night and Alexander Ovechkin was the big winner on the night taking the Pearson Award (MVP as voted on by the players) and his second Hart Trophy as league MVP. Arguably the most exciting player in the league the only thing missing now for him is a Stanley Cup Championship. There were plenty of other high moments for a number of people including Zdeno Chara (Norris Trophy), Tim Thomas (Veznia Trophy), and Steve Mason (Calder Trophy)—[sportsroids.com went 4-0 in picking the four major awards as a result so it was a pretty good night for us too!] On the whole it was a good night for the awards making its first appearance in Las Vegas and it seemed to go off without a hitch. Hopefully the tradition can continue there and perhaps draw more attention to the event and therefore the NHL and sport of hockey. It’s not only a night for celebrating but also to get a bit of a glimpse of the players in an element a bit different from how they are over the course of the season. You also get a chance to hear the players pay tribute to all those who have paved a way for them throughout their careers from influential coaches to parents, significant others, and other family friends. Many also honor we the fans who cheer them on from game to game and spend our hard earn dollars to passionately support them as they give their all to bring home championships. So congratulations to all those who took home awards as we look forward to the next big NHL event which is the entry draft.

Hurricanes Spoil Captials’ Visit

The Washington Capitals had a chance to really separate themselves from the bulk of the Southeast Division Sunday as the Carolina Hurricanes welcomed Alex Ovechkin and company to town. Going into the game the Hurricanes had not exactly been world beaters riding a three game losing streak and were losers of 6 of their last 7 earning only three points with a coaching change thrown in their to boot. The Capitals were better en route to Raleigh winning 4 of 6 before Sunday but had only won four of the last nine. Despite their struggles the Capitals had a chance to take an 8 point lead on second place Carolina and although it is early they would have established themselves as the solid Southeast Division frontrunners. Then the puck dropped and save for Ovechkin the Capitals more-or-less did not show up. The Canes outclassed the Caps and if it was the first time watching both teams one might think the Canes were the division leaders. Michael Leighton was outstanding in goal stopping 38 or 39 shots including 10 of 11 from Ovechkin alone who was also turned away on a penalty shot. Despite having only 25 shots themselves the Canes were more efficient putting three pucks behind Jose Theodore two from leading scorer Ray Whitney and one from a struggling Eric Staal. Carolina showed they are not going anywhere and are not conceding the division to Washington but if they want to win Eric Staal has to score more. It is great that Ray Whitney is scoring goals, if Staal does not get going the Canes will find themselves watching the playoffs from home yet again.