Tag Archives: Henrik Lundqvist

It’s The Best Time of the Year. Here Are Our First Round Picks.

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I love Christmas, but this is, without question, the greatest time of the year.

Baseball has started, the NBA post-season starts on the weekend and tomorrow night, the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs begin.

As we do every year, let’s take a look at the first-round matchups and take a long, blurry look into our crystal ball.

2011 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS OPENING ROUND

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Series A: No. 8 New York Rangers (44-33-5) at No. 1 Washington Capitals (48-23-11).

Season Series: Rangers 3-1-0

The Rangers were the best over the regular season in terms of the head-to-head matchup, but the Capitals clearly have more talent and are the better team. Rangers goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist, however, could be the wild card in this one. If Lundqvist does what he’s certainly capable of doing, the Rangers could surprise simply because Lundqvist was the reason the Rangers won the season series.

Key player: Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers

Our pick: Washington in six.

Series B: No. 7 Buffalo Sabres (43-29-10) at No. 2 Philadelphia Flyers (47-23-12).

Season Series: Flyers 2-1-1

It’s the same thing every year. If the Flyers get the goaltending they require, they will win and advance. If they don’t, well… Philly won the series, has more firepower and a better defensive unit. However, Brian Boucher is 21st in save percentage at .916 and 13th in goals against average at 2.42 while Sergei Bobrovsky was 23rd in save percentage at .915 and 25th in goals against average at 2.59. If the Flyers get decent goaltending, they’ll win.

Our pick: Flyers in six.

Key player: Ryan Miller, Sabres

Series C: No. 6 Montreal Canadiens (44-30-8) at No. 3 Boston Bruins (46-25-11).

Season Series: Canadiens 4-2-0

The Habs won the season series, but were blasted 7-0 in Boston on March 24. That was the statement game. Tim Thomas is best goalie in hockey and Boston is bigger and tougher than the Habs. If Carey Price stands on his head, the Canadiens could win a game or two, but Boston is just too deep and too tough.

Key player: Tim Thomas, Bruins

Our pick: Bruins in five

Series D: No. 5 Tampa Bay Lightning (46-25-11) at No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins (49-25-8).

Season Series: Teams split 2-2-0

If there is to be an upset in the opening round, it’s here. The Penguins are still without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and as well as they played down the stretch, which was inspiring, they still aren’t the team that contends for the Cup every year. If the Lightning get any goaltending at all, they can win this series. Vinny Lecavalier has six points in his last four games and is starting to dominate again.

Key Player: Marty St. Louis, Lightning

Our pick: Lightning in six.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Series E: No. 8 Chicago Blackhawks (44-29-9) at No. 1 Vancouver Canucks (54-19-9)

Season Series: Canucks 2-1-1

The Blackhawks were very fortunate to make the playoffs while the Canucks are the best team in the NHL. With Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider, the Canucks have plenty of goaltending and with two Sedins, Kesler and a great supporting cast, the Canucks should have an easy time. Jonathan Toews is great but he couldn’t will a home victory over Detroit in a must-win game to finish the season, he won’t do it against Vancouver.

Key player(s): The Sedin Twins

Our pick: Vancouver in five.

Series F: No. 7 Los Angeles Kings (46-30-6) at No. 2 San Jose Sharks (48-25-9).

Season Series: Sharks 3-1-2

Without Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams, the Kings aren’t the same team that raced to fourth in the West at one point in the season and then went 6-4-0 in their last 10 and lost their last two. If Jonathan Quick stands on his head, the Kings will compete, but they simply don’t have the firepower to beat the talented Sharks.

Key player: Jonathan Quick, Kings

Our pick: Sharks in five.

Series G: No. 6 Phoenix Coyotes (43-26-13) at No. 3 Detroit Red Wings (47-25-10).

Season Series: Coyotes 2-0-2

The Coyotes had a great season against Detroit and they are very well coached. This could be an upset in the making. However, the Red Wings are a team that tends to get bored during the regular season and go on listless stretches. They won’t be listless in the playoffs. Ilya Bryzgalov is the key for Phoenix, although we all must remember, the Coyotes have never advanced past the first round.

Key player: Ilya Bryzgalov, Coyotes

Our pick: Red Wings in five.

Series H: No. 5 Nashville Predators (44-27-11) at No. 4 Anaheim Ducks (47-30-5).

Season Series: Nashville 3-1-0

This will be the best series of the bunch. Both these teams are evenly matched and while Nashville won the season series, you have to give head coach Randy Carlyle and the Ducks credit. They played very well down the stretch and look good heading into the playoffs. The Ducks have a great No. 1 line and they’ve received quite a performance from Teemu Selanne this season. Nashville, meanwhile, has a load of no-names, but is very well coached. The potential here is for a long, tight series.

Key player: Teemu Selanne, Ducks

Our pick: Ducks in seven.

(Check out more at http://www4.fantrax.com)

 

 

 

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Nobody playing better than Red Wings, and for all the right reasons

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I have a dear friend, Scott O’Neil, who is the production manager at 92-CITI-FM. He’s the guy who makes all my NHL, NASCAR and NFL Reports sound so good.

 

O’Neil is like most sports fans. When it comes to anything other than his two favourite teams, he’s a smart, sophisticated fan who can look at objectively at any issue — either on-field or off.

 

However, when it comes to his two passions — the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Red Wings — he can get downright apoplectic. Nervous, cranky, bitter. When his teams don’t win, he’ll be happy to whine about it for hours on end.

 

In fact, before the playoffs started last week, he was giving it the old “woe-is-me” routine about his beloved Wings and how they were going to get ambushed and upset by the Columbus Blue Jackets, a decent club, but a club that shouldn’t be in the same league as the Red Wings, let alone the same opening-round series.

 

So while Scotty was going off about how “Ozzie had to be at his best,” and how “Kronwall can’t take any stupid penalties,” and about how “this team will get frustrated by (Columbus goalie) Steve Mason and start taking too many offensive chances,” I couldn’t help but wonder what it’s like to love a team so much that you actually become irrational when talking about them.

 

Anyway, after the Wings disposed of Columbus 4-1 and 4-0 in the first two games on the Western quarterfinal, I tried to figure out exactly why the Red Wings are so successful.

 

Here’s a five-point conclusion:

 

1) Chris Osgood is a much better goaltender than the so-called experts think. Nobody wants to give Ozzie any credit, but he’s been superb for a number of post-seasons and looked unbeatable in Game 2 this past weekend.

 

2) The Wings play just as well in their own end as they do in the opposing end and they’re frightening in the offensive zone.

 

3) The Red Wings special teams are better than any other special teams in the game today — when they want to be. The Wings scored three power-play goals in Game 2 and allowed none. In Game 1, they scored one power play goal and allowed none. This Wings team, right now, is just about perfect. 

 

4) They aren’t bored anymore. The 82-game regular season appears to bore the Wings to tears. They have not shown either cockiness nor boredom in the first two games of the post-season. 

 

5) The Wings move the puck better than any team in hockey. Some teams can’t complete one pass in a row. Watching the Wings breakout, you’ll often see them complete five, six, seven passes in a row. No team handles the puck better and no team breaks out of its own end quicker (OK, maybe Boston’s break out is just as good, but they don’t handle the puck as well).

 

The Wings are a great team that should win their second straight Stanley Cup title. However, saying that that suggests that another team’s goalie won’t steal a series from the Wings and we’re already watching Nikolai Khabibulin, Henrik Lundqvist and Roberto Luongo steal series right now.

 

What is it that one very smart general manager once said? “We call it the Stanley Cup playoffs because we can’t call it goalie.”

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Hossa scores winner as Pittsburgh advances to All-Pennsylvania Eastern final. Game 5: Pittsburgh 3, NY Rangers 2 (OT).

Posted on May 4, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Marian Hossa, the trade-deadline acquisition who made good, fired the winning goal at the 7:10 mark of the first overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins put the New York Rangers out of their collective misery on Sunday afternoon.

 

The Pens won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, 3-2, but the score was not indicative of the play. Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 40-22 and outhit them 41-22 as the Rangers carried a game to overtime that should have been all over by the end of the second period.

 

OK, at this point we’ll give the Rangers a little credit. They did score two unanswered in the third period as Lauri Korpikoski and Winnipeg’s Nigel Dawes tallied for the Rangers to send the game into overtime, but if it hadn’t ben for the brilliance of Rangers’ goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, this game might have been 6-0 before the Rangers woke up.

 

Pittsburgh was clearly the better team in this series. When you win a series in five games, you’ve pretty much made a statement. But in this case, the Rangers foubnd a way to comeback and then abandoned the strategy in Game 5.

 

In order to win Game 4, 3-0, Rangers head coach Tom Renney dressed Colton Orr and, essentially, gooned it up. OK, he didn’t send his guys out to fight, but he did send them out to hit and face-wash and bodycheck and elbow and stab and just wreak general havoc.

 

The strategy worked as the Rangers outhit Pittsburgh 40-35, outshot Pittsburgh 34-29 and kept the Pens on their heels for 60 minutes.

 

Yesterday, however, for reasons known only to Renney, Orr didn’t dress (Renney dressed Korpikoski “on a hunch”) and so the Rangers coach left himself with a lineup that failed to include it’s toughest fighter (Orr) and its nastiest pest (the injured Sean Avery). The Rangers can’t skate with the Pens, but they can play tougher. Yesterday, in Pittsburgh they did neither.

 

As a result, they’re calling the country club for starting times this morning.

 

Renney had a good chance to come back in this series, even without Avery, but he decided he’d go out a wimp instead of trying to stay in as a goon. Reggie Dunlop would be mighty pissed off today.

 

In the meantime, how about Penguins GM Ray Shero? He’s the guy who went and got Hossa at the trade deadline and yesterday, that decision paid big dividends. Hossa was terrific yesterday and not only scored the game’s opening goal, but added the winner in OT. He now has five goals in the playoffs and is responsible for eliminating the Rangers in five games.

 

Well, OK, he and Renney are responsible. 

 

Now, the only question remaining is: Which Pennsylvania team will face the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final?

 

Pittsburgh is certainly favoured, but if the Flyers goon it up, they can win it.

 

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Rangers won’t go down without a fight. Literally. Game 4: NY Rangers 3, Pittsburgh 0.

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

The New York Rangers refused to lose Thursday night. And now they’ll head back to Pittsburgh down 3-1, but still very much alive in the Eastern Conference semifinal. Although, to be fair, the Rangers beat the Penguins for the fifth time in six games this season at Madison Square Garden. Things are a tad different at the old barn in downtown Pittsburgh.

You could easily have left the Rangers for dead after Game 3, but New York played with toughness and heart Thursday night and shut out a very good Pittsburgh team that didn’t back down from the Rangers sometimes ugly aggressiveness.

I still think Pittsburgh wins this series, but give the Rangers credit, they aren’t going to go down without a fight. Literally.

New York was sandpaper tough Thursday night and because of that, they won a hockey game that many people didn’t expect them to win. Pittsburgh, after all, was 7-0 in the playoffs heading into Thursday night’s Game 4 and they’d just manhandled the Rangers, 5-3, in Game 3.

Last night, however, Rangers coach Tom Renney found his good sense and dressed goonish Colton Orr. Orr played only three minutes and change, but his presence always makes the Rangers tougher. And Thursday night, one of the toughest players on the ice was Jaromir Jagr.

Jagr, who hinted on Tuesday night that Thursday night’s soiree could very well have been his last, scored two goals and dished out an assist, and played as gritty as he has at any time in his career. Don’t believe for one second that Jagr is going to retire. That snippet at Tuesday’s post-game news conference was nothing more or less than gamesmanship. Jagr has never played a better all-around game than he’s playing now and besides, he needs the gambling money.

With Jagr at the top of his game, with Orr smiling mischievously on the bench and with Henrik Lundqvist kicking out everything shot at him (29 saves), the Rangers were clearly the better team on Thursday. But the Penguins showed some jam, as well. Especially Sidney Crosby.

Everybody in a blue shirt took a run at Crosby and yet the Penguins captain kept playing hard. He was the toughest hombre in a white jersey and he proved to the Rangers that he won’t be intimidated.

Crosby will be especially tough on Sunday afternoon back in Pittsburgh. And that’s why I still think the Penguins win this series. 

 

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The 2008 NHL award nominees are in, here are my picks.

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

The nominees for all of the NHL’s major awards are now in and while we agree wholeheartedly with most of them, there were a couple we thought were a little weak.

 

Here are the nominees with my picks and why. The awards will be handed out in Toronto on June 12…

 

The Vezina Trophy (Top Goaltender): The nominees are San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov, New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist.

 

Our pick is Brodeur. He played  in all but five games this season and was brilliant in almost all 77 appearances. Brodeur’s 44 wins were second in the League behind only Nabokov’s 46. His 2.17 goals-against average was fifth best and his .920 save percentage tied him for fourth (among goalies who played in at least 41 games). He was clearly the best goaltender simply because he got a marginal team into the playoffs.

 

The Norris Trophy (Best Defenceman): The nominees are Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom, Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf and Boston’s Zdeno Chara.

 

Our pick is Lidstrom in a landslide. Phaneuf was fine and Chara had his moments, but the second-best defenceman in the league this year was Brian Campbell (Buffalo and San Jose). Lidstrom has won five of the last six Norris Trophies and he  should win easily again this year.

 

The Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year): The nominees are Chicago’s Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom. 

 

Three outstanding nominees, but our pick is Jonathan Toews. He missed 16 games and still led all NHL rookies in goals. He was the Blackhawks alternate captain and emerged as a team leader. He was third overall in rookie scoring and despite his injury, he didn’t tire down the stretch like Backstrom. I love Kane, and he’ll likely win the voting, but Toews was the best rookie in the NHL this season.

 

The Lady Byng Trophy (Skill and sportsmanship): The nominees are Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk, Buffalo’s Jason Pominville and Tampa’s Martin St. Louis.

 

No question, Pavel Datsyuk. In fact, Datsyuk isn’t far from being the league’s MVP. He had 96 points, was a plus-41 and played all 82 games. He was the best player on a great Red Wings’ team and although he was a magnificent defensive checker, he picked up only 10 minor penalties all year.

 

The Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward): Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and New Jersey’s John Madden.

 

Zetterberg was tremendous but my pick is Datsyuk (see above).

 

The Hart Trophy (MVP): The nominees are Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla.

 

Three more outstanding nominees. My vote would go to Ovechkin at the end of the season, but if they counted the playoffs, it would be Malkin. The Pens’ star has been magnificent in the post season and really stepped up during the regular season whenever  Sidney Crosby was hurt (which seemed like a lot), but Ovechkin had 65 goals and 47 assists in all 82 games and that’s impossible to ignore.

 

The Adams Trophy (Coach of the Year): The nominees are Detroit’s Mike Babcock, Washington’s Bruce Boudreau and Montreal’s Guy Carbonneau.

 

Carbonneau will likely win but Nashville’s Barry Trotz was coach of the year.

 

Here’s why… this is my column from the National Post which ran April 7, 2008.

 

Scott Taylor in Winnipeg

 

At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, the Nashville Predators were left for dead.

 

Even if one ignored the off-ice fact that the franchise could be re-located on any given day without notice, one couldn’t ignore the on-ice fact that, at least on paper, the Preds were a bad hockey team.

 

Gone in an off-season housecleaning that made the books look better and the product look dreadful, were No. 1 goalie Tomas Vokoun, No. 1 defenceman Kimmo Timonen, leading scorer Paul Kariya and gifted rent-a-player Peter Forsberg. Two of the team’s most reliable forwards, Scott Hartnell and Scottie Upshall had moved on and No. 2 scorer Steve Sullivan was hurt. And he’s been gone all season. 

 

When they went to training camp in September, head coach Barry Trotz’s best player was 33-year-old Jason Arnott, a guy who hadn‘t been a top line centre since his days in New Jersey a decade ago. J.P. Dumont, a talented underachiever wasn’t bad and Alexander Radulov, a gifted 21-year-old Russian who has been a victim of unrealized potential, was about due. Dan Ellis, Martin Erat, David Legwand, Vernon Fiddler, Dan Hamhuis and Jordin Tootoo were all good players, but they were no-names who could have been up-and-coming country singers for all anybody knew.

 

“Yeah, like who is Dan Ellis?” asked Vancouver Canucks forward Jason Jaffray on Friday. “I’d never heard of him before and I looked in the paper and he had some of the best goalie stats in the league. I had no idea who he was.”

 

Dan Ellis is a 27-year-old from Saskatoon who played at Nebraska-Omaha and was with AHL Iowa last year, but yeah, who knew?

 

Naturally, the anonymous Preds started the season as if they were going to be so bad, they’d be sold to an owner who wanted to re-locate them to Minsk. Or Winnipeg.

 

They won their first two games, then lost six straight. They were 14th in the West (14-16-2), after a five-game losing streak ended on Dec. 22. But Trotz had faith. He had faith that his team wouldn’t quit and he believed, in his heart, that this collection of would-bes, never-weres and has-beens were resilient enough to overcome all the off-ice distractions and play like professionals.

 

“Resilient. That’s our identity,” said Trotz, an old University of Manitoba assistant coach who came out of Dauphin, Man., to become the only head coach the Predators have ever had. “We’re kind of a hockey version of Major League, the old baseball movie with all the misfits and cast-offs. We sat down in December, when we were almost last, and just decided to play as hard as we could and try to fight back into the playoff race.

 

“We didn’t say ‘Let’s go out and win 10 straight,’ we just tried to win two-of-three, pick up a point whenever we could and just tried to chip away. When you lose the guys we had lost and somehow you stay in the playoff hunt, I think resilient is the only way to describe us.”

 

This week, the surprising, No. 8 Nashville Predators will open the 2008 Stanley Cup Western Conference playoffs against the President’s Trophy-winning, No. 1 Detroit Red Wings in what should be a mismatch.

 

But it might not be. In eight meetings this season, the Wings and Preds went 3-3-2 against each other.

 

“It’s just another example of how close the league is today,” Trotz said. “We struggled against St. Louis and I really thought that Chicago was the most talented team in our conference. But Detroit, as outstanding as they were, weren’t that intimidating for us. We matched up well against them.

 

“Of course, we weren’t intimidated by anybody, all year. We’re a lot better than people think.”

 

This season, a veteran coach took a mediocre team in a lousy situation, convinced them to focus on the job at hand and found a way to keep them from thinking about moving locations or missing assignments. Now they’re in the playoffs. 

 

Certainly, Montreal’s Guy Carbonneau and Washington’s Bruce Boudreau have each done a wonderful job this season, but Barry Trotz would also make a pretty deserving coach of the year.

 

National Post

 

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