Tag Archives: Colorado Avalanche

Sitting In the Middle of a Full House in St. Paul is A Lot Different than Sitting in Florida, Tampa or Phoenix — Or Even Denver.

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s a gorgeous night in the Twin Towns and the “Team of 18,000″ is getting ready to sing State of Hockey here at the Xcel Energy Centre. It’s the Minnesota Wild, a day before Shane Hnidy’s 34th birthday, against the Dallas Stars, with Minnesota’s beloved Mike Modano, not only in the lineup but starting the game and playing on the No. 1 line, at age 39.

It’s been a shaky start to the 2009-2010 season for the Wild. Minnesota’s team heads into tonight’s game at 5-10-0 (1-7-0 on the road) and while the record hasn’t negatively affected the team’s attendance this season, it has been a grind on the staff.

“It’s tough,” said the Wild’s VP of communications Bill Robertson earlier tonight. “It’s a tough economy, it’s tough to sell tickets. We still sell every seat, but we’re not overflowing with standing room like we usually are and it’s tougher to sell corporate suites than it used to be.

“On the upside, merchandise sales are way up because of fans have really taken to our third jersey.”

It’s hard to listen to a guy — even a great guy like Billy Rob — worry about the fans in Minnesota after you’ve already seen games in Florida, Tampa and Nashville this season and have interviewed Doug Moss, the president of the Phoenix Coyotes (check out www.hotdoghockey.com for that interview). Those are markets with big trouble. There is no trouble at all in St. Paul.

However, no one ever would have believed that there could be trouble in Denver, the home of the Colorado Avalanche, and it appears now that there is.

Wednesday night, for a game against Phoenix, the Avalanche drew a franchise-low 11,012 (remember, that’s the announced crowd) ticket buyers. This season, the Avs have averaged just 14,759 through its first five home games and that once again means, “Who cares if MTS Centre has only 15,001 seats?” Not even the red-hot Colorado Avalanche average 15,000 per game these days.

(Oops, Cal Clutterbuck just scored a shorthanded goal from our pal Shane Hnidy.)

With an average of 14,759 per game, the Avalanche stand 25th in the NHL in per-game attendance ahead of only Florida, Tampa Bay, Nashville, the New York Islanders and Phoenix.

Meanwhile, after watching the Atlanta Thrashers play on TV this week,  in front of a crowd that appeared to include the players’ parents and no one else, it’s hard to imagine the Thrashers have the nerve to say they average more per game than the Avs or even the Winnipeg South Blues.

Meanwhile, there will soon be an ownership change in South Florida. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Alan Cohen’s days as majority owner of the Panthers are coming to an end, as two partners in his ownership group are expected to take control of the team.

Two Boca Raton businessmen, Panthers Vice-Chairman Cliff Viner and Managing Director Stu Siegel, will buy most of Cohen’s 43 per cent of the team and become co-managing partners.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, “Panthers fans are desperate for change. The team has not made the playoffs since 2000, the longest playoff drought in the NHL, and has undergone numerous coaching and general manager changes and traded away some of its best players, including Roberto Luongo, Olli Jokinen and Jay Bouwmeester.”

But here’s the kicker, the paper added: “The ownership change is not expected to resolve the team’s financial struggles. The team’s parent company, Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, is seeking Broward County’s help to restructure its debt on the county-owned BankAtlantic Center.”

It’s a mess on Long Island, Phoenix is a disaster (only 5,585 this past Monday at jobing.com Arena), Tampa Bay and Nashville are hurting, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce has conceded that the Blue Jackets don’t have much life left and now Florida needs government help from a government that isn’t flush.

We all know Gary Bettman doesn’t want to admit it, but the NHL is in big, big trouble.

* * *

KELLY SAYS “BULL-CACA.” THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DOESN’T RESPOND IN ANGER. WONDER WHY?

Friday morning, during an interview with Tom McGouran, Kathy Kennedy and The Coach, on 92-CITI-FM, Blue Bombers coach Mike Kelly poked the local mainstream media with a stick. Again.

Kelly, laughing all the way, said, “You guys have the only media outlet that isn’t bull-caca.”

He then added, “I don’t think I can be fined $2,000 by the league for saying ‘bull-caca.” Can I? ”

He was assured by McGouran that it was unlikely he’d be fined. In fact, McGouran agreed with him.

“Can’t be fined for telling the truth,” McGouran laughed.

That’s true to an extent. Kelly could still be fined because he told the truth the first time and was fined.

Then again, he had no bone to pick with CITI, a spot on the dial where the interviewers ask good, solid questions without being rude and obnoxious.

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NHL free agency 2008: Perhaps this will end all the talk about Winnipeg and Quebec City. Of course, it might also ring the death knell for South Florida, Atlanta, Nashville and Phoenix.

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s free agent time in the NHL and the money spent this week bordered on the obscene. On Day 1, Tuesday  — Canada Day in Canada — the NHL spent about $400 million. On Day 2, it was closer to $150 million, but then, some of the signings were downright crazy.  If anybody continues to believe that Winnipeg or even Quebec City can play in this game, I would think they’re delusional. Even marginal players are getting gigantic contracts now that teams have a $56.7 million salary cap (and a $40.1 million floor).

Let’s look at some highlights: 

Marian Hossa signed with the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. One year $7.4 million. And apparently, he turned down larger offers from other teams.

 

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Evgeni Malkin to a five-year contract extension worth $43.5 million. The Pens also signed Brooks Orpik (Brooks freakin’ Orpik) to a six-year deal worth $22.5 million.

 

Dallas signed forward Sean Avery to a four-year, $15.5 million deal. Was that for the hockey skill or the comic relief.

 

Atlanta signed free agent defenceman Ron Hainsey — who!? — to a five year $22.5 million deal.

 

The Columbus Blue Jackets signed Kristian Huselius away from Calgary. Four years, $19 million.

 

Defenceman Brian Campbell signed an eight-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks which will pay him $7.1 million per season.

 

Anaheim signed restricted free agent Corey Perry to a five-year, $26.625 million deal and the Brian Burke blamed Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe for making the Ducks pay Perry that much money.

 

Washington re-signed star defenceman Mike Green, four years, $21 million.

 

Colorado signed unrestricted free agent forward Darcy Tucker to a two-year $4.2 million contract;

 

The Leafs signed Colorado free-agent defenceman Jeff Finger, four years $14 million and Dallas Stars’ free-agent defenecman Niklas Hagman, four-years $12 million. 

 

The Boston Bruins signed Michael Ryder and his 12 goals to a three year, $12 million contract.

 

New Jersey got Brian Rolston, four-years, $20.25 million.

 

The New York Islanders paid Montreal Canadiens unrestricted free agent Mark Streit, $20.5 million for five years. Huh???

 

And the New York Rangers signed defenceman Wade Redden away from Ottawa, six years, $39 million.

 

It was also reported that the Vancouver Canucks have free agent, ex-Leafs captain, Mats Sundin, a two-year contract worth $20 million. He turned it down. If he did, he’s completely insane so that offer probably wasn’t really on the table.

 

Some of these guys deserve big money. Ron Hainsey? Jeff Finger? Michael Ryder? My goodness gracious.

 

Hockey’s true financial armageddon is right around the corner. We should start a pool as to when the next team slips into bankruptcy. It hasn’t been that long since Pittsburgh was in court in 1998. 

 

This week’s spending spree made the lockout season look like one giant lie. You have to hope that after the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the rising food and gas prices, the War in Iraq and the slow, ugly death — read: outsourcing — of the U.S. industrial and manufacturing sectors, there will be money left to buy hockey tickets.

 

Funny, but I wouldn’t necessarily count on it.  

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Is this the end result of the lockout? There could be more than 200 unrestricted free agents by next Tuesday.

Posted on June 25, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

By next Tuesday, July 1, the National Hockey League could very well have more than 200 unrestricted free agents. 

Included on the list are Buffalo defenceman Teppo Numminen, Anaheim forward Teemu Selanne, Calgary forwards Kristian Huselius, Craig Conroy, Owen Nolan, Daymond Langkow and Stephane Yelle, Calgary goalie Curtis Joseph, Colorado veterans Peter Forsberg, John-Michael Liles, Jose Theodore, Andrew Brunette, Adam Foote and Joe Sakic, Detroit defencemen Andreas Lilja and Brad Stuart, L.A. Kings defenceman Rob Blake, Rangers veterans Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr, Ottawa defenceman Wade Redden, Pittbsurgh’s Marian Hossa and Gary Roberts and two Manitobans from the New Jersey Devils, Arron Asham and Bryce Salvador.

Roberts and Hossa have already made it clear they won’t be re-signing with the Penguins, a team that must get long-term deals done in the next couple of years with Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin.

Sakic won’t make a decision — and neither will the Avs — until Sakic becomes a free agent.

Jagr will probably sign with the Rangers, but Avery is headed to free-agency.

Calgary could be a completely different team season. 

This coming season, the salary cap will rise to $57 million. That’s quite a significant number and proves that having salaries tied to league revenue is a concept that makes incredible sense (too bad that dummy Bob Goodenow didn’t understand it and we lost an entire NHL season). In fact, when the NHL gassed a season to get a collective bargaining agreement, the league paid out $1.2 billion in player salaries. In 2008-09, it will, potentially, pay out $1.71 billion in salaries. And Goodenow didn’t like this idea? One gets the sense that if Goodenow wasn’t a lawyer, he’d qualify for Special Olympics.

Still, with $57 million to work with (and, granted, not all teams will use all $57 million in available salary cap money), many teams are watching closely how they spend their cash. Some teams want to get younger. They’ll let high-priced veterans go elsewhere. Some teams feel they are on the verge of a Cup run, they might chase a Selanne, Sakic or Hossa.

Regardless, there are more than 200 free agents because teams are counting their dollars before they make offers and those 29 teams that didn’t win the Cup are figuring that the players they had weren’t good enough so it might be time to look at somebody else.

This week, the Toronto Maple Leafs allowed Mats Sundin to negotiate with Montreal, released goalie Andrew Raycroft and forward Kyle Wellwood and bought out veteran winger Darcy Tucker. The Leafs are breaking down before they re-build and the one thing Cliff Fletcher said he would do, is find the money necessary to take a serious look at what’s available on hockey’s version of e-Bay.

This year, there will be plenty of free-agent action. In fact, it will be more fun than the draft. But the reason so many players have come free is that so many teams want to make sure they have the cap money available to get better.

On Tuesday, we start the NHL’s second season and it might be more interesting the the first. We’ve come to this point because the league now has a salary cap and the salary cap, at least one tied to revenues, is good, not only for competitive hockey, but for the players wallets.

Now all the league needs to do is get some of those financially weak U.S. teams to re-locate to Canada and then everybody will be better off. 

 

 

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According to form. Game 1: Detroit 4, Dallas 1; Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2.

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz was a guest of the Tom & Joe Show on 92-CITI-FM on Thursday morning. One of the best interviews in all of professional hockey, Trotz told Tom McGouran and The Coach that while he loved Dallas and thought the Stars had a great team, he felt Detroit had way too much firepower.

 

Like many of us, Trotz expects an extremely short series in the Western Conference final.

 

As for the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Eastern Conference final, Trotz believes that if the Flyers bang and crash, they might have a chance against a Pittsburgh team that Trotz also says has “far too much firepower.”

 

“If Philadelphia plays the same type of intimidating game they did against Montreal, they could make the series a long one,” Trotz said. “But that Pittsburgh team has a lot of talent and toughness. When you can throw Malkin, Crosby, Hossa and Staal out there, when you have two tremendously talented offensive-type lines, and they won’t back down, you can be a pretty formidable team.

 

“Philadelphia works very hard, but Pittsburgh keeps coming at you all the time. I won’t say Philadelphia can’t win the series, it’s just going to be very difficult.”

 

After the opening games of the two series, it was pretty obvious that Trotz’s assessment was dead on.

 

On Thursday night, the Red Wings just dominated Dallas. The Wings scored three power-play goals, built a 4-0 lead and coasted (as they often do) to a 4-1 victory. Big Tomas Holmstrom, who found himself a nice comfortable spot in front of Dallas goalie Marty Turco, led the way for the Wings with a goal and an assist. It was Detroit’s seventh straight playoff victory and set up a do-or-die situation for Dallas on Saturday.

 

That’s right, do-or-die.

 

Already down 1-0, if Dallas loses on Saturday, they’ll fall behind 2-0 and no matter how well they play the rest of the way, they will NOT win four out of five against the Red Wings. 

 

Trouble is, what can Dallas possibly do to beat Detroit if Chris Osgood plays well in goal? Osgood is, after all, the only weak link on this Red Wings team, and if he shuts you down (Detroit outshot Dallas 31-21 in Game 1), it’s pretty much hopeless. Dallas isn’t big enough, Dallas isn’t fast enough, Dallas can’t match up and Dallas can’t shut down the Wings power-play. 

 

Game 1 was not only a statement by Detroit, it was a sign of things to come.

 

Over in the East, Philadelphia got a couple of quick goals by Kenora’s Mike Richards and took a 2-1 lead on the Pens, but before the second period ended, Pittsburgh was up 4-2 and in the third, Malkin and Co. just shut down the Flyers.

 

What we found out in Game 1 of this series, is that Pittsburgh is just as tough and maybe tougher than the Flyers and if the bangin’ and crashin’ doesn’t work, Philly could go down quickly.

 

We still figure the Flyers will have some jam at home, but after Malkin got drilled a couple of times and still got up to score two goals and dish out an assist, the writing was on the wall. Unlike Montreal, Pittsburgh isn’t going to back down and that will spell doom for Philadelphia.

 

We selected Pittsburgh in seven. The Pens are now 9-1 in the playoffs and we might have underestimated their toughness. 

 

* * *

 

A couple of coaches were fired this week.

 

On Wednesday, to no one’s surprise, the dysfunctional Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice, the only good thing the Leafs had going for them the last two years. That franchise is in worse shape than we thought.

 

Two days later, ex-Maple Leaf Joel Quenneville was let go by the Colorado Avalanche. Quenneville was 131-92-23 in three seasons with Colorado, coaching a team that was old and on the slide after a decade near the top of the NHL. It was probably a blessing that Quenneville was given a chance to look for work elsewhere. The Avs are going nowhere but downhill.

 

The Leafs, meanwhile, are a mess. Currently being run by an old coot named Cliff Fletcher who destroyed the club with some dreadful trades in the late 90s (and the Leafs haven’t recovered) then went on to collect a million dollar paycheque to screw up the Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto is now without a head coach, a real general manager and probably a captain. Maurice, who had one year left on his contract, compiled a 76-66-22 record in two seasons as Toronto’s coach but failed to make the playoffs in both years.

 

Maurice and Quenneville are both class acts and relatively young and will find work. Both franchises, however, are in big, big trouble. Colorado is getting older by the minute while Toronto is just bad news.

 

In fact, the next coach in either city had better not buy a house. 

  

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“Big European” Red Wings look like early Cup favourites.

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

At the Manitoba Writers Guild book awards at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Saturday night — where my book, “The Winnipeg Jets: A Celebration of Professional Hockey in Winnipeg” lost Winnipeg book of the year to a communist rant by lefty Godfather Roland Penner — a handful of people in Tweed jackets who said haughtily “I’m not a hockey fan but…” asked me who’d win the Stanley Cup.

 

I said, without hesitation, the Detroit Red Wings. I either got a surprised look or a really surprised look. One woman, who appeared as if she’d been caught in the headlights said, “Oh, I didn’t know Detroit still had a team.” Tells you how little our literary crowd knows about, ahhh, umm, anything at all, I guess.

 

Anyway, I wasn’t kidding. After what I watched on Saturday afternoon, this Red Wings outfit is clearly the best team remaining in the post-season.

 

After all, the Wings didn’t just beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 on Saturday, they eviscerated them 5-1. Outshot them 40-20 (and Colorado blocked 15 more shots to Detroit’s four), outhit them and completely outplayed them. That was as solid a performance by one team as we’ve seen in the playoffs this season, simply because the Wings beat a good team in the process. 

 

No, this wasn’t the Nashville Predators, a marginal collection of has-beens and might-bes who were coaxed into the playoffs by Barry Trotz, the best coach in the game. This was the Colorado Avalanche, a team made up of great and near-great players such as John-Michael Liles, Joe Sakic (who can still play), Milan Hejduk, Paul Stastny, Jordan Leopold, Adam Foote and Ryan Smyth.

 

Yeah, they’d be better with Peter Forsberg, but not that much better.

 

In Game 1 of the series, the Wings built a 4-1 lead and then took their collective foot off the gas. It was a game the Wings completely controlled. They built the 4-1 lead and they let Colorado back in the game when they, the Wings themselves,  started coasting late in the second period. 

 

Saturday, the Wings didn’t let up. They outshot Colorado 10-4 and 22-6 in the first two periods and while Colorado had more shots in the third (10-8), the Avs didn’t have but one good scoring chance and they converted on that one good scoring chance — but the score was already 4-0.

 

The big star was Johan Franzen, one of the Wings’ “big Europeans.” At 6-foot-3, 220-pounds they call him “the Mule,” but he plays like a thoroughbred.

 

Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Kronvall, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Pavel Datsyuk, Nick Lidstrom and Valterri Flippula were damn good, too.

 

Remember, these Wings play “big, European hockey,” and this year it could be unbeatable. They are large, fast, skilled and tough and if they stay awake for 10 more wins, they’ll win the Stanley Cup in a romp.

 

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Habs and Wings win shaky. Game 1: Montreal 4, Philadelphia 3 (OT); Detroit 4, Colorado 3.

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Is there anything better than watching two playoff hockey games at once?

 

That’s what we did Thursday night and not only did we have two TVs going at once, but we watched two terrifically close games and two losing teams that deserved better.  

 

Montreal won because the officials (and they again will go unnamed), called a pretty marginal penalty against Mike Richards in the final minute.

 

Montreal scored on the power-play (with their net empty) with 29 seconds left in regulation and then won it at the 48 second mark of overtime  when Tom Kostopoulas cashed in his own rebound.

 

For most of the night, Philly was the better team, but a lousy break and a defensive breakdown cost them a road win they probably should have stolen. 

 

Meanwhile, in Detroit, the Wings took a 4-1 lead on a pair of goals by Johan Franzen, but then, as Detroit often does, they got complacent and nearly fell asleep long enough for Colorado to catch up. 

 

The Avs even had a chance to score in the dying seconds, but Chris Osgood did what Dominik Hasek forgot how to do — make a big, important save. 

 

Detroit outshot Colorado 36-21 and probably should have won by a bunch, considering Peter Forsberg and Wojtek Wolski didn’t play and Jose Theodore played despite the flu (he was pulled after giving up four goals and went back to the hotel). Still, the Avs sucked it up and made a game of it.

 

For openers, they were both fun to watch (although the Montreal fan who doused Richards with beer in the penalty box was rather bush). We even got a penalty shot in the Montreal-Philly game, plus a couple of goal reviews and a huge dive and a big shot from Kovalev. Remember the Gordie Howe hat trick? A goal, an assist and a fight? I guess an Alexei Kovalev hat trick is two goals and a dive.  

 

Friday night, we get the Rangers at Pittsburgh at 6 on CBC while Dallas plays at San Jose at 9 on TSN. In June I’ll get a life.

 

If you missed the Top-10 highlights from Round 1, you can see them in the video below.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qBXXL-REE]

 

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NHL Playoffs Round 2 Predictions: The Habs could not have written a better script.

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Carey Price NHL Playoffs Round 2 Predictions: The Habs could not have written a better script.It was Minnesota Wild assistant general manager Tom Thompson who said, "The first round of the playoffs is the most intense two weeks of any hockey season. 

 

"This is the time when seventh- and eighth-place teams can ambush first- and second-place teams because they have nothing to lose. No pressure, no worries and then bam, they can take out a team that might have finished with 30 more points because the better teams are looking too far down the road.

 

"This is the greatest time of year to be a hockey fan and the toughest to be a hockey coach."

 

Or, to be fair, Tom, the toughest time of the year to be a hockey prognosticator.

 

We were very fortunate (or unlucky if you consider that overtime penalty call in Game 7 between Washington and Philadelphia that resulted in the Flyers winning goal), to select five of eight series correctly in the first round.

 

We had Montreal, Pittsburgh, the Rangers, Detroit and San Jose to advance to the second round and we were correct. We also had Washington, Minnesota and Anaheim and we were dead wrong.

 

However, we did believe that if you selected lots of Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens in your playoff hockey pool, you’d make a lot of money. And that holds true through the second round. 

 

Of course, the second round is a little bit odd. Montreal won four of four against Philly this year and have now faced two teams in the first two rounds of the playoffs that were 0-12 combined against the Habs. Guy Carbonneau could not have written a better playoff script for his club.

 

The same can said for Detroit who went 4-0 against Colorado this year. 

 

Meanwhile, the Rangers were 5-3 against Pittsburgh and Dallas was  4-2-2 against San Jose and, yet, we like the teams that lost the season series.

 

It’s been a great two weeks already and the next two weeks could be even better. Let’s take a closer look…

 

THE EAST

 

No. 1 MONTREAL CANADIENS  (Eliminated Boston in seven games vs. No. 6 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (Eliminated Washington in seven games)

 

The Habs were a very interesting team this season. They led the NHL with a 24.1 percent success rate on the power play during the regular season and then went three-for-33 (9.1 per cent) against the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. If the Habs get the power play going, look out.

 

Not only did the Habs take all four games from Philly this year, they’ve won six straight from the Flyers going back to 2006. This year, Montreal outscored Philadelphia 15-6.

 

Rookie goaltender Carey Price had two shutouts in the opening round against Boston including one in Game 7 and appears to have passed his first test as the heir to the rookie goaltending throne shared by Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy in Montreal.  

The Flyers will look to the likes of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Joffrey Lupul and Daniel Briere to carry them against Montreal. Not only did Briere have six goals and 11 points in the opening round series against Washington, but he anchors the No. 2 power play in the league, right behind Montreal.

And then there is Vinny Prospal. After having a tremendous series against Washington, Prospal should enjoy playing against Montreal. He had four goals in four games against the Habs this season.

The Flyers will also hope that goalie Martin Biron is just as good in Round 2 as he was in Round 1 against the Caps.

History has very little to do with this series. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs, Habs head coach Guy Carbonneau and GM Bob Gainey were actually in uniform for the Canadiens.

Montreal in six games.

 

No. 2 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (Eliminated Ottawa in four straight games) vs. No. 5 NEW YORK RANGERS (Eliminated New Jersey in five games)

 

The Rangers had plenty of success against these high-scoring Penguins this season and Scott Gomez led the way with three goals and four assists in eight games.

 

The reason for New York’s success against Pittsburgh was not the play of Gomez, Chris Drury, Brendan Shanahan or Jaromir Jagr, but the presence of Madison Square Garden where the Blueshirts won all four games in 2007-08.

 

Perhaps the biggest difference in this series is the goaltending. It will be the talented but inconsistent Marc-Andre Fleury for Pittsburgh against Vezina Trophy candidate Henrik Lundqvist for the Rangers. And you have to give the edge to Lundqvist who held the Penguins to three goals or fewer on seven occasions in 2007-08 and is 12-6-3 in his career against Pittsburgh.

 

It will also be interesting to watch againg superstar Jaromir Jagr against Sid the Kid. Is this Jagr’s last hurrah or the Kid’s next step toward his first Cup? 

 

This will also be a brother vs,. brother series. Pittsburgh centre Jordan Staal will be up against Rangers defenceman Marc Staal.

Pittsburgh in six games. 

 

THE WEST

 

No. 1 DETROIT RED WINGS (Eliminated Nashville in six games) vs.  No. 6 COLORADO AVALANCHE (Eliminated Minnesota in six games)

 

Pretty hard not to like Detroit in this series. The Wings are big, fast, skilled and strong with plenty of experience. And now that Chris Osgood is the starter, they have legitimate playoff goaltending, too.

 

Osgood went 2-0 with a 0.39 goals against average in two games in Round 1. He had a shutout and stopped 53 of 54 shots against Nashville.

 

However, the Avalanche is a team that really wasn’t itself during the season. Joe Sakic played only 44 games. Peter Forsberg signed late in the season. Ryan Smyth played only 55 games and Milan Hejduk missed 16 games with various bumps and bruises. It was because of all these injuries (and absences) that Detroit shut out Colorado in the last three meetings of the season.

 

Right now, Detroit’s shutout streak of Colorado stands at 214 minutes and four seconds. In fact, Detroit hasn’t lost to Colorado in regulation time in three seasons. 

 

This season, only rookie Cody McLeod of Binscarth, Man., and sophomore Marek Svatos scored for Colorado against Detroit this season as the Wings outscored the Avs 11-2.

 

I think the Red Wings will win this series and can win the Cup.

 

Detroit in six games.

 

No. 2 SAN JOSE SHARKS (49-22-10) vs. No. 5 DALLAS STARS (Eliminated Anaheim in six games)

 

Dallas had the best of San Jose during the regular season and the Stars looked particularly good in their opening round against defending champion Anaheim.

 

However, San Jose netminder Evgeni Nabokov, a Vezina Trophy candidate, has been playing pretty well in the post-season after going 2-3-2 against the Stars with a 2.56 goals against average during the season. 

 

Dallas outscored the Stars 24-21 in eight regular season games so this series is closer than Dallas’s 4-2-2 season record might indicate. However, Stars netminder Marty Turco has never played better. He allowed only 12 goals in six games against Anaheim and played in all eight regular season games against San Jose.

 

With Brad Richards playing well and with Stephane Robidas running the show, the Stars are playing as well as they have all year. However, something tells me Joe Thornton is going to step up in the second round.

 

San Jose in seven games.

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Welcome to the State of Hockey

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

ST. PAUL, MN – Welcome to the Xcel Energy Centre, one of the great hockey buildings anywhere in the world.Tonight, we’ll blog periodically from Game 5 of the Minnesota Wild-Colorado Avalanche Western Conference opening round series.

After getting drilled 5-1 in Game 4 — and trying desperately to appear tough in the third period — the Wild have to lick their wounds, buck up and play legitimately tough hockey, not stupid, penalty-filled, dumb-ass hockey. 

The Avalanche, meanwhile, just need to do exactly what they did in Game 4 — skate, skate, skate and take advantage of mistakes made by a tiring Wild defence. With Kim Johnsson, Brent Burns and Martin Skoula playing nearly 28 minutes a night for Minnesota, the Avalanche can certainly use their speed to wear down a Wild defensive unit that is undermanned and overworked.

The lights have dimmed — gone right freakin’ out actually — the show is starting, they’re playing The State of Hockey and 18,000 people, all decked in Wild jerseys are going nuts. Makes me think of White Outs at the Old Barn. 

If the Wild don’t respond to this welcome, they’re done.   

FIRST PERIOD — Minnesota comes out banging and the Avs don’t like it. Paul Stastny takes a dumb tripping penalty, but the stone-handed Wild can’t convert. Marian Gaborik still doesn’t have a point in the series. 

Oh, oh. Todd Fedoruk takes a penalty and at 12:24, Andrew Brunette — a former Wild star — picks up some garbage in front and roofs it. It’s an easy goal and the Wild now have some stress. They’ve carried the play but haven’t been rewarded and Colorado has just too much skill.

About 30 seconds later, David Jones takes a penalty and in the first few seconds of the power play, the Wild get a scoring chance, but Jose Theodore is too quick. The Wild have territorial advantage and plenty of chances, but somebody needs to convert. 

With four minutes left, the Wild have outshot the Avs 13-5, but Colorado still leads. The Wild need to score because it’s hard to imagine they can keep up this pace. The Avs are starting to get to more loose pucks and winning the little battles.

With 2 1/2 minutes left, Peter Forsberg takes a penalty and right away Brent Burns has a chance and Brian Rolston gets a big rebound, but Theodore stones them both. Shots are 16-6 and Theodore is getting better. 

On the 17th shot with 39.3 seconds left in the period, the Wild get on the board. Pierre-Marc Bouchard takes a great pass from Brent Burns (second of the playoffs) and drifts a one-timer past Theodore. It’s about time and it seems only fair.

Minnesota owned the first period and the Avs scored on their one real chance. That’s hockey.

End of the first: Colorado 1 Minnesota 1.

SECOND PERIOD — Ran into Larry Fitzgerald Sr. between periods. The father of the spectacular Arizona Cardinals receiver, Larry Jr., is a columnist with the Minneapolis Statesman-Recorder, the highly-regarded African-American paper in the Twin Cities and he’s a bigger hockey fan than people give him credit for. He’s also, evidently, a big Derek Boogaard fan. Go figure.  

So what happens at the start of the second period? Boogaard gets one of his rare shifts and on a seemingly innocuous play, almost tips in a goal.The Wild have now outshot Colorado 21-9 but just can’t beat Theodore.  

Stephane Veilleux, the young man the Denver media believes should be jailed for his behaviour in this series, picks up a penalty and the Avs take control. But despite owning the Minnesota zone and despite making a couple of great passes, Minnesota goalie Nicklas Backstrom has to face only one shot. 

Moments after the penalty ends, Gaborik has another glorious chance but can’t get a backhander up over the leg of Theodore.

The building has exploded. Aging Ian Laperriere has big Boogaard lined up and he drills him at the Avalanche blueline (it’s an interference penalty in any other league) and the big guy goes down with a thump. Trouble is, the big guy gets right up and Laperriere doesn’t move. Boogaard went down because he doesn’t skate very well. Laperriere went down because he bodychecked a truck (Boogaard is 6-foot-7, 260 pounds).

This little incident fires up the Wild who take control of the game. Minnesota gets three great chances, but they fire three booming shots right at the A on Theodore’s jersey. The shots are now 30-12 and Colorado isn’t anywhere to be found.

The Wild own this game. It’s like one long, protracted power play. Colorado can’t even clear the puck. First it’s Gaborik, then it’s Burns, then it’s Mikko Koivu. Chance after chance after chance and yet they can’t beat Theodore.

And it’s not like Theodore is unbeatable. The Wild either shoot it right at the goalie’s pads or they miss the net altogether. Burns, the best player on the ice, should have five goals, but officially, he doesn’t have that many shots.

In the final 12 seconds, Colorado gets its first solid chance of the period, but Backstrom has not fallen asleep and makes the save.

Shots at the end of the second: Colorado 14, Minnesota 32.

Score at the end of the second: Colorado 1 Minnesota 1   

THIRD PERIOD — Early in the third, Minnesota’s Sean Hill takes a penalty and for a minute and 55 seconds, the Avs do nothing. Then, with five seconds left in the power play, John-Michael Liles sets up Wojtek Wolski who one-times it past a startled Backstrom.

The shots are 34-16 and Colorado leads 2-1.

Colorado’s superior playmaking pretty much puts this one away. At the 6:25 mark, Paul Stastny takes a pass from Milan Hejduk (who took a beautiful pass from Peter Forsberg) and roofs a backhand to make it 3-1.

Minnesota has toughness and heart, but Colorado has speed and skill and that combination looks like a winner.

There are 19,364 rabid Wild fans in this building tonight and probably half of them think they have better hands than the boys on the ice who happen to be wearing Wild uniforms. 

This is a truly wonderful place to watch hockey. The Wild are down 3-1 with less than two minutes to go and not one person has left the building. These aren’t fair weather fans who try to beat the traffic. They’ll go down with their team.

The final shots on goal are 40-17 in favour of the Wild, but Colorado’s pure hockey talent was just too much for a big, strong feisty team with plenty of moxy, but not a whole lot of skill.

The place erupts as Brian Rolston finally scores (he had a million chances) to make it close. But it’s 19:57 and the dream is dead.

This series should be over on Saturday in Denver.

FINAL SCORE: Colorado 3 Minnesota 2  – Video highlights below

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjglWRaQr9I]

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Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things we’ve learned

Posted on April 16, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

nhlplayoffticketsNO Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things weve learnedNo. 1: I’d make a lousy owner.

If I owned the Ottawa Senators, I’d have fired Bryan Murray right when the buzzer went to end Game 2. Then I’d have re-hired John Paddock before Game 3.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have made the Senators (a very good team on paper) look weak. Granted, Ottawa is banged-up and that isn’t Murray’s fault, but this team is playing with no heart and Murray has to take absolute responsibility for that.

Midway through the third period of Game 3, the fans in Ottawa were booing the Senators. My sense is, they were booing the coach and GM, not the players. Owner Eugene Melnyk should get rid of that guy before he does any more damage to the franchise.

 No. 2: If the Minnesota Wild intend to beat the Colorado Avalanche, they’d better start gooning it up.

OK, so they don’t need to unleash Derek Boogaard on Joe Sakic, but they’d better get tougher, ’cause it’s pretty obvious they can’t skate with the Avs.

When they bang and crash Colorado’s old men — Andrew Brunette,  Peter Forsberg and Ian Laperriere are all 34, Ryan Smyth is 33, Adam Foote is 36 and Sakic is 102 — the Wild are competitive. When they try to skate around like Nancy Kerrigan (see Tuesday night’s Game 4), they get killed.

As old as the Avs are, and this team is freakin’ old, they are still fast and skilled and if the Wild’s goons don’t wear them down, Colorado will blow Minnesota out of the  building.

 

No. 3: Before the Boston-Montreal series started, the only real concern in Montreal was the rookie goalie, Carey Price (it seemed to be the only real concern among Habs fans, too.) 

CareyPriceMontrealCanadiens Midway through the opening round of the NHL playoffs: Here are five things weve learnedAlmost everyone seemed to be worried about the kid. Was he good enough? Could he handle the pressure? Don’t forget, the NHL is a lot tougher than the American Hockey League.

Well, on Tuesday night, the guy who singlehandedly led the Hamilton Bulldogs to the AHL’s Calder Cup title last year probably silenced the doubters. With a 27-save shutout, Price gave the Habs a 3-1 series lead over the Bruins, heading home.

The kid can play. Period.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=akqU6nX3wvw]

 

No. 4: The only way Detroit loses to Nashville is because their goaltending isn’t good enough.

The Red Wings are the much superior hockey team, but Dominik Hasek is now the OLD Dominik Hasek, not the old Buffalo Dominik Hasek.

Those two goals he gave up in the third period of Game 3 were embarrassing. If "the Dominator" (and I use the term mockingly) doesn’t pick it up, his fast, skilled and, yes, big, teammates will be eliminated by a club that shouldn’t be allowed on the same ice surface. 

No. 5: Washington is more hype than substance.

I love Alexander Ovechkin. If he continues along the same path he’s going along today, he will be remembered as one of the greatest players who ever lived.

Trouble is, the rest of his team isn’t that good and a very smart, tough and talented Philadelphia club — a club that went through a two-month slump this season, a slump that I’m still having trouble trying to understand — is on the verge of blowing the Caps out of the post-season in five.

The Flyers are proving that in the playoffs, at least, a team with the likes of Mike Richards, Scotty Upshall and Scott Hartnell will take apart a team with Alexander Semin, Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov any day.

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I took my time to write this: Referees drive me nuts – Game 2: Minnesota 3 Colorado 2 (OT)

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments

As a broken-down old newspaper columnist, I must admit that I find myself worshipping at the altar of the blog.

In the newspaper dodge, if you’re covering an event, you often find yourself on deadline, rushing to get the news out the other end of your laptop so the editor can butcher it and get it into print eight hours later.

Everyone has read copy from an otherwise terrific reporter that appears senseless and garbled because it arrived on deadline and the copy editors were either too stressed, too stupid or too lazy to make sense of it. That’s when reporters get their e-mail inboxes clogged with missives from readers that say, "Were you even at that game, you f*$*%#&g moron?!?"

It’s embarrassing and avoidable, but those of us who have been in the business understand that editors are like sports referees: they have authority and power, but sometimes you just can’t understand how they got their jobs.

And that’s why I waited 10 hours to write this post. I wanted to tap into the luxury of the blog. Nobody said I had to file it right after the game so as I watched the conclusion of Game 2 of the Minnesota-Colorado series on Friday night, I wanted to watch all the replays, listen to all the commentary and then, do it all over again in the morning.

My concern centered around two plays. A late penalty to Minnesota’s  Kim Johnsson with less two minutes remaining and the winning goal by Keith Carney – or allegedly, the winning goal by Keith Carney.

The Wild were leading 2-1, when the official (who shall remain nameless), called a hooking penalty on Johnsson. It was obviously not hooking by any definition, and thankfully, eagle-eyed commentator Darren Pang, on the TSN desk, made it clear that the offended, Ryan Smyth of the Avs, actually fell over the goal stick of Minnesota netminder Niklas Backstrom. It was, in fact, a dreadful call, left the Wild with four skaters to Colorado’s six and eventually resulted in Milan Hejduk’s tying goal.

The most annoying thing about any sporting event is when a bad call has an affect on the outcome. It makes the game look scripted. It’s an embarrassment.

In this case, it appeared to happen a second time, only on this occasion, to the benefit of the Wild.

In every replay I saw, Keith Carney’s slapshot that went past Jose Theodore, deflected off the skate of Brian Rolston, not off the skate of Colorado defenceman Ruslan Salei. In fact, commentator Pierre McGuire believed it might have been re-directed by Rolston and shouldn’t have counted. It looked pretty shaky, but in this case, the official went upstairs, got the green light from the video booth and the goal stood.

Perhaps it was the hockey gods. Perhaps they knew the penalty to Johnsson was just a horrible call at a very bad time in what was otherwise, a great hockey game. Perhaps someone or something divine just decided to even things up.

Whatever. On this night, the better team won – although that’s not to say the Wild are the "best" team in the series – and every one in St. Paul went home happy.

But sadly, a bad call at an odd time, made a great game look phoney. We all make mistakes, but sometimes you just have to wonder.

By the way, in four years at the National Post, I’ve had one angry e-mail — from a St. Mary’s University football fan who didn’t think the Vanier Cup champion University of Manitoba Bisons were as good as I’d suggested. Those are "good" angry e-mails.

I guess, to no one’s surprise, I’m now working with the best referees in the newspaper game.

And, to be fair, by the time we get to the Conference finals, we’ll be watching the best referees in hockey.

Frankly, I just feel better this morning. I feel better that I didn’t sit down at my computer last night, seconds after that awful call on Johnsson, and started to rant like a lunatic. It’s the beauty of the blog. You have time to sit back and take a measured look.

Although I’ve been noticing that a lot of us don’t.

Minnesota vs Colorado Game 2 highlights below – including that goal.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj36zqGTIdM]

 

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