…and the League’s Humanitarian Award goes to…

The Red Wings seem to be just the nicest team in the NHL these days.  In two straight games, they’ve to put their own aspirations in the drawer.  They stepped aside and allowed Washington to be the lone undefeated team.  Last night they also decided that enough is enough, and Columbus should have a victory too.  Remember your dinner table manners and that nobody can have seconds unless everybody has had some.

Of course I don’t mean to knock on the Wings like that, but it just looks that way given how they played last night against the Jackets.  They were outshot, out-hustled, out-hit, and generally outplayed by the home team.  I know Columbus fans will probably point to the return of James Wisniewski, and I will grant that to some extent, but it wasn’t all there.  They didn’t play against the same team they played last Friday for sure. 

High marks really go to the penalty killing units, keeping the Jackets to 1 for 7 that night.  And for the most part, they managed to keep the Jackets from creating any sustained pressure with the man-advantage.  The flip-side to that is, of course, why they had to kill 7 penalties in the first place.  It’s pretty tough to gain traction in the offensive zone when you’re constantly getting dinged for holding, tripping, or hooking.

For his part, Ty Conklin didn’t do “as bad” as he did in Washington.  So, despite the loss to the League’s last place team, it can be seen as a bit of improvement for him.  The rest of his team hung him out to dry, so you can’t blame him completely.   

It may be a little premature, but maybe this calls for one of Mike Babcock’s famous exhausting skating sessions.  He did this a couple times last year where the next day’s practice was constant, never-ending skating.  It’s hard on the players, but it works.  They’ll need it when the Sharks come to town on Friday. 

On another note…is it just me or are their some serious extremes going on the league right now.  Again, it’s way early in the season but it’s just a little bit extraordinary that some interesting streaks are going…

·         (Before Saturday) the Red Wings got off to the best start in 40 years.

      ·         Washington is undefeated after 7 games, their best in franchise history
      ·         Montreal is off to the worst start since the 1940’s
      ·         Columbus is off to the worst start in franchise history
      ·         Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick is currently in the midst of a three-game shutout streak, the best in franchise history

Just sayin’…..

A Look at the Eastern Conference

I admit, the season’s already started, and I should have already entered this little discussion beforehand, but hey, life gets in the way…

As I have done with my Western Conference preview, I won’t discuss all the teams, just a few highlights, and then follow it up with a guess at the standings come season’s end.  So away we go…

New York Rangers

The Blueshirts did a little dancing this past summer, letting some guys go and picking up others.  Obviously the big deal was the acquisition of Brad Richards from the Stars.   I believe that Richards should bring the positive injection of goals and points that the Rangers have needed in the past few years to help solidify their position as a playoff team.  The loss of Chris Drury will have to be counted in as well, but as long as the rest of the Rangers’ forwards perform well, Gaborik, Fedotenko, Dubinsky Wolski, the Rangers should be able to win that many more games.  The X-Factor is going to be getting Marc Staal back from injury and as long as Lundqvist stays solid in net.  The Rangers shouldn’t have anything to worry about come playoff time.  In my opinion, one of their best moves was getting rid of Sean Avery, and his mountain of penalty minutes.  There’s always a place for a pest to try and score a few more power plays by aggravating opponents, but lately, Avery’s purpose has been backfiring.  With him out of the way, they can bring up another cleaner goal scorer. 

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins are still in limbo from last season as to whether or not Sydney Crosby will be back.  He missed half of last season and is only now just practicing with supervised contact.  Concussions are sneaky injuries, and no matter what the reports and predictions are saying, these injuries are going to heal in their own timeline.  Obviously the Pens would be a lot better off with their Golden Child, but at least they’ve been able to bring back Evgeni Malkin, who had one hell of a pre-season.  I was a little surprised when Pittsburgh traded Max Talbot, but not so surprised later when I learned that he went to the Flyers.  Perhaps after last season’s brawls with the New York Islanders, the Penguins are looking to clean up their image a bit by moving one of their biggest instigators.  Pittsburgh should continue to have a strong season with the development of their depth.  And if they get Crosby back in any kind of short timeframe, they’ll be dangerous.  Names like Letang, Kennedy, and Kunitz are going to be thrown around a lot this season.  Crosby’s absence is a bit of a blessing, allowing these guys to step up…and they have.

Philadelphia Flyers

They Flyers had a fire sale this summer and moved pretty much half of their goal scorers.  The situation in Philly of late has been the lack of a dependable goaltender.  So this summer, they spent the money and picked up Ilya Bryzgalov from Phoenix.  I suppose this is a small step in the right direction, but I’m not so sure that Bryz is the answer to the Flyers woes.  He’s a better goaltender than they’ve had in previous seasons, but not better enough to move so goal scorers just to afford him.  Moving the likes of Brad Richards, Jeff Carter, and Ville Leino, and replacing them with Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr, to me, sounds like a rather large step back.  I don’t think this will end well for them.  Their saving grace will have to come from guys like Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk, but that’s an awful large hill to climb, and they’ll need Hartnell and Briere to stay strong too.  There’s not a whole lot of room for error here. 

Buffalo Sabres

This is the team to watch out for, right here.  A huge splash was made picking up Christina Ehrhoff from Vancouver and a nice surprise signing Ville Leino from the Flyers.  With these, the Sabres have made tremendous improvements in both scoring and defense, neither of which have been “terrible” but always room for improvement.  Not to mention getting rearguard Robyn Regehr from the Flames.  Ryan Miller is, well Ryan Miller.  Let’s just leave it at that.  Let’s pretend for a minute that Tyler Ennis has a breakout season, and Jason Pominville and Derek Roy top their personal bests in points this year…you’re looking at a very deep playoff run.

So after all that, here’s my guess at how the conference will pan out.

Washington Capitals

Pittsburgh Penguins (assuming Crosby comes back sooner than later)
Boston Bruins
Philadelphia Flyers
Tampa Bay Lightning
Buffalo Sabres
New York Rangers
Toronto Maple Leafs
Montreal Canadiens
Carolina Hurricanes
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
Winnipeg Jets
Ottawa Senators
Florida Panthers

As with the Western Conference, I’ll revisit come the All-Star game.  Thanks for reading…the floor is now open for comments, but let’s keep the lynching to a minimum. J

A Look at the Western Conference

I spoke about the Red Wings in the last entry, but now it’s time to take a ppek at the rest of the Western Conference.  For the most part, the teams seem to be improving.  There are a few teams to note though.

Lots of folks have been hanging on San Jose to be the all-out favorite this year, having brought in defenseman Brent Burns and forward Martin Havlat from Minnesota.  I’m not exactly convinced that Burns will be the missing piece.  After dealing Ian White to Detroit, Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley to Minnesota, the Sharks have lost several prominent players.  I think it would have been better if Todd McLellan had reorganized the lines completely, which may have produced some better chemistry rather than jumping to trades.  Havlat’s a decent forward, but he’s not the sniper that Setoguchi is.  There will most definitely be a period of adjustment as these new faces figure into the patterns, but I find it tough to agree with the predictions that the Sharks will finally hoist the Cup after 20 years with this new crop.

The team to watch out for in the Western Conference is the Los Angeles Kings.  They have been consistently improving since finishing last in 2007-2008.  They gave the Sharks a run for their money before being knocked out in the quarterfinals.  A solid corps of forwards returns in Dustin Brown, Simon Gagne, Anze Kopitar, and Jarret Stoll.  Add to that Flyers center Mike Richards and all of a sudden, the Kings are rolling three solid scoring lines.  Jonathan Quick returns in net as well, quickly becoming the face of this team.  Thankfully they were able to come to terms with blueliner Drew Doughty to keep the defense core strong.  As long Quick stays on top, and the Kings forwards can meld together for plenty of goals, I predict the Kings will advance even further in the playoffs this season, much to the surprise of the rest of the Conference.  They certainly have the cap space to make some additions, too  $9.4 million dollars is a LOT of money, and with several players entering contract years, the Kings upper management has a lot of options ahead of them. 

I still like Vancouver too.  Let’s not forget the Runner-Ups from last season.  Not a whole lot of big moves for the Canucks this summer, with the exception of shuffling Christian Ehrhoff to Buffalo.  However, recall last season’s playoffs where the Canucks saw half their defense sidelined with injuries.  While they still had Ehrhoff, Vancouver was still able to come within one game of the winning it all.  The Sedins, Samuelsson, Higgins, Burrows, Edler, Bieksa, Luongo…they’re all back.  And once Ryan Kesler joins up again after hip surgery and his antics in the world of burlesque, he’ll have just as much grit and determination as ever.  And with 2 million dollars in the bank, they can certainly grab someone else at the trade deadline to fill any holes

Chicago’s worth mentioning too.  Last year they had a string of injuries at varying points in the season which hampered their chances.  A couple notable additions for the Hawks this season, like Dan Carcillo and Sami Lepisto.  Lepisto was a good pick for Chicago, and will see a lot of action on the blue line.  I liked the way he played in Phoenix and hopefully those skills will translate.  I’m not so sure about Carcillo though.  Granted, the Hawks needed to add some more grit to protect their boat load of elite scorers, but they could have done better than Carcillo.  Joel Quenneville should run a few extra drills with the penalty killing units to prepare for the “splash” Carcillo will make.  It’s not the Broad Street Bullies anymore, where he was in good company, so there will be a period of adjustment.  I doubt he’ll last much longer than the one season he’s signed on for.   The Hawks need to stay healthy, Corey Crawford needs to improve a bit more, and the special teams need to step up if the Hawks want to advance again.  They’ll probably dip into their $3.4 million cap space sooner rather than later.

So at the beginning of the 2011-2012 Season, here’s how I predict things will shape up in the West.

Vancouver Canucks
Los Angeles Kings
Detroit Red Wings
San Jose Sharks
Chicago Blackhawks
Nashville Predators
Phoenix Coyotes
Calgary Flames
Dallas Stars
Anaheim Ducks
Columbus Blue Jackets
Minnesota Wild
St. Louis Blues
Edmonton Oilers
Colorado Avalanche
 

I’ll revisit these predictions at the All-Star break as I see how things develop. 

Red Wings Preseason Review

The Red Wings have closed out the regular season with a record of 4-3-1, which of course doesn’t mean much, but it’s the best way I could think of to start this blog. 

The Wings roster was rounded out this past week with the signing of Fabian Brunnstrom and Cory Emmerton to their respective posts, filling the holes that were left from Kris Draper and Mike Modano.  I watched these two play and I’m quite excited about Brunnstrom’s potential.  Particularly in the 4-3 loss to the Blackhawks on September 28.  This guy looks real capable of reading the play offensively, and getting to the open zone.  He’s got a real grasp of my favorite rules for young players (courtesy of Eddie Olczyk), “Head up, stick down, go to the net…and good things will happen.”  It’s certainly true in the Swede’s case. 

While not quite as outstanding in his peformances, Cory Emmerton proved a solid center and definitely someone the wings can “invest” in and grow into a franchise player.  The young Canadian had decent performance in the face-off circle and is showing good speed playing on the fourth line with Drew Miller.   

Another hot button issue is the suspension to Brendan Smith for the head shot he gave to Ben Smith (also in the 9/28 Hawks game).  Smith was suspended for the remainder of the preseason and 5 NHL games.  The fun part is that Smith has been sent down to Grand Rapids…in the AHL.  His suspension will take effect whenever it is that he gets called up to the Big Leagues, which is kind of interesting.  Especially if it takes 2 years for that.  The sticking point for lot of people is not so much the suspension itself (it was clearly a head shot, and Brendan Shanahan is clearly getting out in front of this early by cracking down) but Brendan Smith’s new tag of “repeat offender.”   This kid’s barely coming out of the AHL and already he’s got a rap sheet with the NHL cops.  Let’s say in two years’ time, Smith is signed onto the NHL roster (and serves his five games) and somewhere down the line, lays another head shot.  By Shanny’s rules, he’ll serve an extra harsh sentence simply because he’s a repeat offender, despite the potential for a completely clean slate in the interim. 

Personally, I like the idea of punishing repeat offender’s with a bit more than others, but I think that tag should be removed after a certain period of time.  Accidents do happen, and they happen to good guys as well as the goons, and head hits can certainly be accidental.  I think the League should institute some kind of amnesty policy whereupon, some predetermined period without incident is rewarded with a return to good standing.

So after all that, where do the Wings stand?  I think the Wings still have as much power and ability as they ever did.  While Brian Rafalski is irreplaceable (common knowledge) Kenny Holland has made an admirable choice in bringing in Ian White.  White’s a young, hard hitting defenseman with a great shot from the point.  He’ll definitely be an asset to the Wings’ power play.  Mike Commodore too, has shown that he can throw his weight around, and keep the puck moving. 

The swing point is going to be the European forwards.  Johan Franzen, Valteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler.  These guys all had sub-par performances last year.  By some accounts, had these guys been on their projected games last year, would have added another 40 goals and 60 assists.  Hudler’s heading into a contract year and he’ll have to pull out all the stops if he wants to prove that he can continue to play for the Red and White.  Holland will have no problem letting him and his $2.875 million dollar contract go, and bringing in another young scorer.  Franzen and Filppula are a bit more established within the organization, which means mush is expected of them.  There’s been talk of Filppula being on the trade block as well, so he will have to pick up his game as well.  I believe Filppula should stay.  He’s very familiar with the style of play and I think the Wings would be sore to see him go.  I’m not sure you can replace him that easily.  The numbers may be better, but the Finn naturally “meshes” with the club.

How about the situation in net?  Every Detroiter’s favorite goat.  I’ve got nothing bad to say about Jimmy Howard.  I do agree with everyone that he’s not a superstar-all-the-way-Hall-of-Fame-next-year goalie.  But he’s good…real good.  And remember, the successful goalie lets in fewer shots than the other team’s goalie.  That’s it…the lowest common denominator.  Howard excels at that, and he’s also proved that when the forwards are having an off night, he steps up his game.  The addition of Ty Conklin in the backup position will pay dividends as well.  Conklin is a career backup goalie, but will have no problem starting in at least 20-25 games this season, giving Howard some much needed rest.  Having served in the Winged Wheel before, he’s very familiar with the style of play and can read the puck well.  In hindsight, the mutterings late last season about the addition of Evgeni Nabokov would probably been detrimental to the goaltending situation.  Nabokov is a great goalie, and would definitely challenge Howard for the top spot, a spot that Jimmy has just settled in to.  The two of them battling for what each of them thinks is rightfully theirs would probably blow up in their faces.  With Conklin, there’s a definite hierarchy, and everyone knows it.   

 The Red Wings have all the chance in the world to bring the Stanley Cup back to Hockeytown.  They have the ingredients in all areas to excel.  Will they?  Probably not.  As good as they are and as skilled as they are, bringing in younger, quicker talent, other teams out there are just as hungry.  It’s almost a question or probability…coin tosses, really.     The Red Wings are just not the clear front-runner.   They’ll need to stay healthy and they’ll need contributions from everyone.  Several of the Wings sort of “took the year off” last season.  Vacation’s over…back to work.