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Our NHL All-Star Break Award Winners

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Alex Ovechkin

It could be argued that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are the two most talented players in all of hockey.

But of course, Crosby has been out for almost an entire year with a concussion and Ovechkin, although he’s trying to change his game, hasn’t quite come to grips with his coaches’ demand for a more defensive approach to the sport.

As a result, for different reasons, hockey’s two greatest talents have been missing.

For fans and fantasy players, that’s not great news. For other players, however, it’s an opportunity to step up, score some goals, become leaders and make a name. One man’s disappointment is always another man’s opportunity.

As a result, a whole collection of new, young stars has risen to the top in the National Hockey League this season. Names that might not have been well known a year or two ago are now getting the respect that their coaches, teammates and a whole lot of scouts believed they always deserved or, at least, would earn.

nhlasg2012logo Our NHL All Star Break Award WinnersWe’re now just a week away from the NHL’s Mid-Winter Classic, the All-Star Game in Ottawa. At that game, you will no doubt be introduced to a number of young players who could, one day, take up the mantle that has been left virtually untouched since Crosby’s injury.

You will no doubt also recall some old names that have been stars in this league and are clearly stars once again. The one thing that this year’s all-star game will bring clearly to mind is the names of the players who should be honored at the end of the 2011-12 season.

In order to set you up for the big game in Ottawa, here’s a look at the players who should be honored at the mythical midway point of the campaign. These are our seven major award winners for the opening half.

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Evgeni Malkin

The Hart Trophy, Most Valuable Player: Our winner is Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and our runners up are Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. nhl.com gave us a pretty clear outline of what Malkin has done in order to almost single-handedly keep the banged-up Penguins in the heart of the Stanley Cup playoff race:

“Since Crosby exited the lineup on Dec. 5, the Penguins have limped to a 9-9-0 record in his absence. If not for the heroics of Malkin things could be a whole lot worse. In those 18 games without Crosby — and not to mention Kris Letang one of the NHL’s best offensive defenseman who returned to the lineup after a two-month absence on Thursday — Malkin has 15 goals and 15 assists. He has factored in 30 of the Penguins’ 53 goals during that time (56.6 percent) and has been on the ice for a whopping 34 (69.8 percent) goals during that stretch.”

Malkin has also taken over as the NHL’s scoring leader (54 points) and he’s kept the Penguins within the Top 6 in the Eastern Conference.

Our runners-up are Giroux who is more responsible than anyone in that Flyers lineup for keeping Philly in the Top 5 in the East and Lundqvist, because the Rangers have 62 points and are first in the East for only one reason: goaltending. 

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Henrik Lundqvist

The Vezina Trophy, the Best Goaltender: Well, if he’s almost the MVP, Henrik Lundqvist is certainly the best goalie. The runners-up are Jonathan Quick and Jimmy Howard.

Lundqvist has played 34 games and has a 1.93 goals against average to go with his .936 save percentage. He’s 20-10-4 and has saved the first-place Rangers on more than one occasion.

Howard has played 39 games and is 28-10-1 with a 1.98 goals against average and .926 save percentage while Quick is 20-11-9 with a 1.92 GAA and a save percentage of .934. Frankly, if the Rangers aren’t first in the East and Lundqvist doesn’t make so many game-saving stops, I’d look at Quick as the best goalie in the game this year.

Of course, there is also that two-headed monster in Boston. Tuukka Rask is 11-4-1 in 16 games with a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage while Tim Thomas is 19-9-0 in 30 games with a 2.02 GAA and a .936 save percentage. Turn those two guys into one and you have the best goalie in the world.

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Adam Larsson

The Calder Trophy, Rookie of the Year: There are three players I love for this award at the midway point of the year. Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leads all rookie scorers with 13 goals and 22 assists. Adam Henrique in New Jersey is next with 13 goals and 21 assists. And then there is New Jersey’s Adam Larsson, a big, powerful defenseman who is logging 22-25 minutes a game.

If I had to vote today, Larsson would get my vote. It’s tough enough to learn to become a regular defenseman in the NHL. Larsson, the No. 4 pick overall last spring, has not only learned, he’s instantly become one of the best rearguards on a defensive minded team. In fact, he’s the No. 1 defenseman in the Devils lineup right now.

At 6-foot-3, 210-pounds he has all the tools to play the position but the fact he can skate, hit and clear the front of his own net, makes him, potentially, one of the great players of the future in the NHL today.

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Zdeno Chara

The Norris Trophy, Best Defenseman: We still love Nick Lidstrom and always will, but this year, Zdeno Chara, all-star captain and leader of the Boston Bruins, has been remarkable. He won his first Norris Trophy in 2008-09, and has been the Bruins rock ever since. He is currently on a pace to set career highs in assists, total points, and plus/minus, all while being the most imposing force on defense in the game – anywhere on the planet.

Our runners up are Nick Lidstrom (of course) of the Detroit Red Wings, and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators for reasons that are obvious.

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David Backes

The Selke Trophy, Best Defensive Player: There is only one choice for the Selke this year and while Ryan Kesler, Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron will get a load of support from the media voters, there is only one guy who passes the best defensive forward test at every level.

Centre David Backes of the St. Louis Blues covers the opposition’s best line on every shift. He starts most shifts as the centre in his own end and wins most of his faceoffs – and almost all the important ones. In fact, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock sends Backes out on to the ice 63 per cent of the time when his team has to start with a faceoff in its own end.

Backes also leads his team in scoring with 14 goals and 19 assists, is a plus-13 and is the leader on the power-play AND the penalty-kill. He’s also a leader on a team that is a remarkable 28-12-6 this season. He was snubbed by those selecting the players to attend this year’s all-star game and he’s been snubbed by the media mob that wants to give Toews an award, but won’t give him the Hart Trophy. Still, quite clearly David Backes is the best defensive forward in the game.

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Teemu

The Lady Byng Trophy, Most Gentlemanly Player: I don’t even have a runner-up for the Lady Byng. There is only one player who is even in the mix: Teemu Selanne.

The fact that he plays the game with passion, is the 15th leading scorer at age 41, seldom gets a dirty penalty, is beloved throughout the league and is such a class act at every possible level that there is no greater gentleman in all of hockey, makes this award a no-brainer. In fact, he should get it as a lifetime achievement award for being both a great player and a great human being.

I frankly, don’t care about anyone else. As one of my colleagues, Jonathan Willis, recently wrote: “This award really should go to a guy like Selanne, who has shown over a long career that he’s a superb player and someone who has exhibited exceptional sportsmanship throughout his career.”

Can I get an Amen?

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Paul MacLean

The Jack Adams Trophy, Coach of the Year: Absolutely no doubt about it, Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators is the coach of the year. Our runners-up would include Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues and Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings.

MacLean, the former Winnipeg Jets rightwinger has the Senators in fourth place in the East with a record of 27-16-6. A man who learned his coaching philosophy as a player and as an assistant to the very accomplished Babcock in Detroit, MacLean has taken an Ottawa team that was 32-40-10 (13th in the East) last season and nearly equaled that win mark by the all-star break.

There is no doubt that MacLean’s efforts have taken a team that was expected to miss the playoff this year and turned it into a team that is now three points out of first place in the entire NHL.

Babcock has Detroit in first overall with 63 points and what makes him great is his ability to handle some huge egos and make the gifted Red Wings play as a team. Meanwhile, Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne early in the season and in a very short time coaxed the Blues into fourth in the West.

By the way, I have no problem with those people who promote the efforts of Alain Vigneault in Vancouver, Barry Trotz in Nashville and John Tortorella with the Rangers. They’ve all done great work.

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The 10 Biggest Stories of the Opening Half

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

sport 257 The 10 Biggest Stories of the Opening HalfIt’s halftime. Most of the National Hockey League’s 30 teams have played 41 of 82 games and for some of the teams, it’s been quite a ride. For a load of others, of course, it’s been a nightmare.

The Anaheim Ducks were fourth in the West last spring with 99 points. At the midway mark of 2011-12, the Ducks have only 11 wins and 28 points. Last year, the Atlanta Thrashers were in the midst of a downward spiral, set to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. This year, the Thrashers are now the Winnipeg Jets and after a win in their 41st game of the season on Saturday night, they sit in ninth place in the East, just a point below the post-season line.

Still, there was a lot more to the first half of this season’s NHL campaign than just the woes of the Ducks and the euphoria in Winnipeg. In fact, finding the 10 most important issues of the first half was so easy, we had to exclude a few for the first time in four seasons of making this list.

So without further adieu, here’s our First Half Top 10 NHL Issues for 2011-12:

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Teemu

10. The Collapse of the Anaheim Ducks: Last season, with 99 points, the Ducks made the playoffs easily. With stars such as Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Cam Fowler, the Ducks were expected to challenge for the Stanley Cup. Uh, oh. The Ducks have 12 wins in their first 40 games and general manager Bob Murray told the Los Angeles Times last week that he’s just about ready to blow it up. Murray said Selanne and Koivu were “untouchable,” but everybody else was available. This is a very good team with very good players but something is wrong. Murray fired head coach Randy Carlyle and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau and nothing changed. One suspects that the Ducks will be a completely different team by the trade deadline. Oh yeah, and Teemu won’t be an untouchable by the Feb. 27 trade deadline. He’d look great in a Jets uniform.

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Claude Giroux

9. The Emergence of Claude Giroux: In 2006, Claude Giroux was the No. 1 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, 22nd overall. This guy had enjoyed two straight 100-point-plus seasons with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec League, had wonderful speed, great moves and soft hands and yet it took 21 selections before the Flyers could grab him because so many teams thought that at 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, he was a tad undersized. Before Giroux was taken, Florida took Michael Frolik, Tampa selected Riku Helenius, Anaheim took Mark Mitera and Montreal took David Fischer. Huh? Giroux was playing at the Habs doorstep and that organization didn’t even notice. Last year, Giroux had 25 goals and 51 assists. This year, at the midway point, he has 18 goals and 30 assists, is second in scoring in the NHL and has missed four games with a head injury. Right now, 23-year-old Claude Giroux might be the best young player in the NHL.

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Scott Arniel - gone.

8. Coach Firings: It started when the St. Louis Blues fired Davis Payne on Nov. 5 and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock. Now, nearly one-sixth of the entire league has fired its coach. Washington fired Bruce Boudreau and replaced him with Dale Hunter; Carolina fired Paul Maurice and replaced him with Kirk Muller; Anaheim fired Randy Carlyle and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau; Los Angeles fired Terry Murray and replaced him with Darryl Sutter; Montreal fired Jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth and on Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired Scott Arniel and replaced him with Todd Richards. St. Louis, Washington and L.A. have benefited from the changes. Not so much for Anaheim, Carolina and Montreal. We’ll wait on Columbus, but that’s an American Hockey League team. I wouldn’t expect a change in fortunes.

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Adam Larsson

7. The Game’s Great Teenagers: On Jan. 31, Tyler Seguin turns 20. Until then he is one of the league’s many outstanding teenaged stars. Seguin has 37 points in 37 games this season and is a plus-32, that’s the best in the entire NHL. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Jeff Skinner (down with a concussion), 18-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (35 points in 38 games) of the Oilers, 19-year-old Adam Larsson (24 minutes a game as a defenseman) of the Devils, 19-year-old Gabriel Landeskog (plus-10 on a minus team) of the Avalanche and 19-year-old Sean Couturier of the Flyers, are all playing regularly – and well – in the best league in the world.

6. Realignment: The league voted 26-4 to realign the league in 2012-13 from a two-conference, six-division operation in which 16 teams made it to the playoffs, to a four-conference league, separated by time zones. It was brilliant, but it didn’t even get off the ground.

5. The Rejection of Realignment: This was a bigger deal than realignment itself. In an effort to fire a salvo at the owners, the players rejected the league’s new realignment. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said it had something to do with travel and fairness (since when did the Agents Association give a crap about fairness?). Seems the players couldn’t get a clear feel about the travel issues, days off, etc. etc and they didn’t like the fact that there were seven teams in two conferences and eight teams in two others and the players thought it would be harder to make the playoffs in the West. Most people involved with the NHL believed that this was simply Fehr’s first shot at the owners in what everyone believes will be a long, ugly battle for a new collective bargaining agreement (the old one expires on Sept. 15, 2012). In fact, many people are convinced there will not be a hockey season in 2012-13.

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Randy Cunneyworth, not the bad guy.

4. The Mess in Montreal: Here is the biggest problem facing the Montreal Canadiens: They don’t win enough games. At the midway point of the season, the Habs are 16-18-7 and in 12th place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. However, many Quebeckers are not angry at the fact the Habs are a lousy team, but they’re incensed by the less-important fact (at least to a rational individual) that the Canadiens fired Jacques Martin and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth, a coach from Etobicoke, Ont., who does not speak French. On Saturday night, Quebec Nationalists protested that the Canadiens, “aren’t French enough.”  What really pissed them off was the fact they found out the language of the locker room is English and that the team is made up of eight players from English Canada, five Americans, 10 Europeans (none from France) and only two Quebecois. In a roundabout way, the protesters have a right to be upset. How good and French would Montreal be today if they’d drafted PA Parenteau in 2001; Patrice Bergeron in 2003; Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Marc-Andre Gragnani in 2005; Claude Giroux, Brad Marchand and Mathieu Perrault in 2006; and hadn’t traded away Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse and their first-round pick in 2008? Of course, have you noticed that after Giroux and maybe Vincent Lecavalier, there aren’t that many great French-Canadian players anymore? Maybe the problem in Quebec is at the minor hockey level, not the NHL level.

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Opening Night in Winnipeg

3. The Return of the Winnipeg Jets: It was one of the biggest stories in Canadian sport in 2011. On May 31, Mark Chipman and David Thompson announced that they had acquired the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL and they were going to move the team to Winnipeg. They sold out the season tickets at the MTS Centre – for five years! – in just 17 minutes. Since then they have won 19 of their first 41 games (19-16-5) and remain a legitimate playoff threat. After 16 years without an NHL team, Winnipeg had its beloveds back again and Canada had a seventh franchise. The crowd at MTS Centre is so loud, enthusiastic, fun and intelligent that it has become an international story unto itself. Happy days are here again.

2. Concussions and The Shanahan Justice: This season, Brendan Shanahan took over from Colin Campbell as the NHL’s director of discipline and it’s clear he’s been told to do everything possible to lower the number of concussions being suffered by NHL players. The concussion “epidemic,” is indeed and epidemic, but there is one big problem: Many of the concussions suffered by the game’s top players came as a result of (a) contact with teammates, (b) inadvertent contact based on the speed and size of the players and (c) injuries that were a result of hard plastic equipment that is a dangerous weapon when it’s placed on large, fast hockey players. So far this season, Shanahan has suspended 30 players while another 14 players have been fined. Trouble is, in the big picture, none of this is making a dent in the problem.

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Will We See Him Again?

1. The Loss of Sidney Crosby: So far this year Chris Pronger (who signed a seven-year contract with Philadelphia in 2009) has been lost for the season with a concussion, young superstars Claude Giroux and Jeff Skinner missed time with concussions or concussion-like symptoms and even Ottawa forward Milan Michalek (20 goals already) has missed games due to head trauma. However, the loss of Sidney Crosby — the game’s best player – since last January because of a concussion is what makes this epidemic so tragic. When the face of the game is also the face of the game’s biggest problem, the NHL has trouble.

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Helpless

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment
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Sidney Crosby

It could have been called “Black Tuesday.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 20, two New York Islanders, goalie Al Montoya and forward David Ullstrom, were taken from the ice with suspected concussions. In Ottawa, Jesse Winchester left the game with head trauma. In Pittsburgh, the home of Sidney Crosby and his fragile cranium, Chicago’s Marcus Kruger left the game with a concussion after a vicious hit from Deryk Engelland.

One night, three games, four concussions.

If there was one story that has consumed the National Hockey League this season, it is the concussion story. Yes, the return of the Jets was wonderful and the death of three players in the off-season was tragic, but the one story that wouldn’t fade away –primarily because of the injury suffered by Sidney Crosby – was the concussion story.

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Shea Weber in happier times

And, not surprisingly, it became as big an issue as ever at the end of 2011. Especially after John-Michael Liles went down on Dec. 22 and Shea Weber suffered a concussion on Dec. 23.

Sadly, there is very little that can be done about it.

Now, naturally, the NHL was concerned the night Montoya, Ullstrom, Winchester and Kruger went down. Already, some of its biggest stars were on the sidelines nursing head injuries – Crosby, Jeff Skinner, Chris Pronger — so of course the league was worried.

Trouble was, there was absolutely nothing the NHL could have done. Engelland was suspended for his hit on Kruger, but Montoya was blasted by Winnipeg’s Evander Kane, who was pushed into the goalie, so it wasn’t Kane’s fault. Kane didn’t even have a discussion with the NHL’s vice-president of discipline, Brendan Shanahan.

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Brendan Shanahan: A Man With an Impossible Job

Fact is, in the vast majority of major head trauma incidents this season, there was absolutely nothing the NHL could have done. Milan Michalek ran into his own teammate. Claude Giroux ran into his own teammate. The list goes on.

Tim Wharnsby, who writes for CBCsports.ca has kept count of this season’s concussions and resulting suspensions. According to Wharnsby, the NHL has lost 457 man-games due to head injuries while players have been suspended a total of 77 games for alleged illegal hits.

And still, players are suffering concussions at an alarming rate.

Here are the problems:

1. The equipment. The players don’t wear padding anymore, they wear body armour. Their equipment is a weapon, or a series of weapons.

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The End of Marc Savard's Career

2. The athletes are too big and too fast. Fifty years ago, players averaged 5-foot-10, 175 pounds. Today, it’s 6-foot-2, 220-pounds. The ice surface is no bigger than t was then. Accidents will happen and the presence of these very big men will make those accidents more devastating.

3. The skates. Today’s hockey skates are a technological masterpiece. They are lighter, the blades are sharper and as a result, these giant players skate faster than ever. When the players run into each other, somebody gets hurt.

4. No red line. Players are flying through the neutral zone at a pace that has never been more frightening. If a player gets hit in the neutral zone now, there is always a chance a stretcher will be required.

5. The ice surface. With larger, faster players, the 200-foot X 85-foot enclosure might be too small. But there is one problem. If you watch a hockey game today, most of the fierce play occurs in a space from 10-feet to 30-feet in front of the net, between the circles. Even if there was a larger ice surface, it’s unlikely players would use the extra space.

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Will he get up this time?

The NHL can continue to pass new rules designed to avoid the inevitable. It can fine and suspend players and pay a full-time disciplinarian to try and “clean-up” the game. But I’m afraid none of it will work.

It’s the nature of the game – a fast, brutal dangerous game. And as long as large, tough, fearless, fast-skating, highly-paid entertainers are asked to do what’s necessary to play in the NHL, there will be serious head injuries.

And there is nothing – nothing – that the league can do about it.

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For the Jets, It’s Time to Run the Month.

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Goalie Ondrej Pavelec

The Winnipeg Jets began the homestand on Nov. 29. They had 13 of 15 games at home and they needed to grab at least 20 of 26 possible points.

It was a simple assignment, but it come without a certain degree of difficulty.

This team needed to make some noise. After all, come January, the Jets will play 12 of 16 away from MTS Centre and if they don’t make some hay in December, they could end up a long way from the playoffs come the middle of February. In fact, from Jan. 4 until Feb. 14, the Jets play 15 of 21 on the road. It’s win now and then try to keep the ship together.

So far, so good. The Jets have played 10 games this month and the team is 7-2-1 (7-3-1 since Nov. 29), 7-1-1 at home. The only loss at MTS Centre was that 1-0 mystery against Washington.

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Captain Andrew Ladd

Otherwise, the Jets have played tremendously and now they have a chance to guarantee 20 points this month. They already have 15 of a possible 18 in December and tonight they get the Sidney-Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins at home.

So how did the Jets go from 9-11-4 to 16-13-5 so quickly? Five reasons:

1. Ondrej Pavelec: The Jets goaltender has had three tremendous games and two pretty good ones during the stretch. In a 3-2 shootout loss to the Islanders, Pavelec stole the point. Other than the ugly 7-1 loss in Detroit, which was nothing more than a blip on the screen, Pavelec has made the Jets a better team. It was Brian Burke who said, “We call it the Stanley Cup playoffs because we can’t call it goalie.” You could paraphrase that and say. “We call it the Winnipeg Jets 2011-12 season because we can’t call it goalie.” The Jets have moved from 12th to ninth because their goaltender has stolen at least three games and at least seven points.

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Evander Kans scores one of his 15

2. All hands on deck. The Jets leading scorer, Evander Kane, has 15 goals and 10 assists and is 54th in scoring in the NHL. However, it doesn’t matter. Regardless of the game, it seems that somebody always steps up. If it’s not Bryan Little, it’s Andrew Ladd or it’s Blake Wheeler. The Jets have a potential superstar in Kane, but he’s not there yet. Right now this team is scoring by committee and for the time being, at least, it’s working.

3. The Jets survived the loss of Tobias Enstrom. When he was injured, Enstrom was playing 25-32 minutes a game. He was not only a workhorse, he was the steadiest influence on the team. When he went down, the Jets were a 12th place team. When he came back they were 11th, but had gained three points on the teams in the Top 8. It could have been a lot worse and with him back, the Jets have a full compliment of NHL-level defensemen.

4. Claude Noel. He is a journalist’s dream, an eccentric, insightful, talkative head coach who is NOT afraid to say what’s on his mind. His post-game stream-of-conscious news conferences are becoming the highlight of every game. He has

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Claude Noel

made, what appear to be some strange moves at times, but it’s impossible to criticize any of them. The Jets started the season as a 12th place team heading directly toward 12th place. Today they are a ninth place team on the verge of getting into a position to make the playoffs — provided they survive January. Noel has had a great deal to do with that.

5. The crowd at MTS Centre. No wonder these Jets don’t play as well on the road. The home crowd in Winnipeg is a phenomenon. The 15,004 who show up inside the tiny boutique arena in downtown Winnipeg (and make no mistake, every seat is taken) start screaming before the game and don’t stop until their beloved Jets salute from centre ice after the final buzzer. Long-time Alberta journalist Bruce Penton compared it to a British soccer crowd. “They don’t get tired,” he said. “It’s just relentless.” And despite that lousy little excuse after a 5-1 season–opening loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the Jets have warmed to the crowd. They love it. They live for it. If there can actually be a “seventh man” he/she lives in Winnipeg.

These Jets are by no means a playoff-bound team. But so far, they have grabbed a hold of this December homestand and skated with it. A win over the Penguins on Friday night and they could be locked into a playoff spot with two more home games next week.

Then, in January, we’ll really get to see what they have in the tank.

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From 0-82 to 79-3. That’s What a Win Will Do.

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
129498463 slide 248x300 From 0 82 to 79 3. Thats What a Win Will Do.

Isn't Winning Great?

Funny how all the gnashing of teeth stops when a hockey team wins a game. Especially a game that’s as well-played as the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.

Perhaps even more important than the win itself is the fact that the Jets will NOT go 0-82 this season. That victory over Pittsburgh, as early in the year as it was , was a huge win for a team that just didn’t play particularly well through its first three games.

Just to re-cap:  The Jets Kyle Wellwood tied an Atlanta Thrashers franchise record with a goal eight seconds after the opening faceoff and then Tanner Glass made it 2-0 before the end of the first period as the Jets held on to beat the Penguins 2-1 at MTS Centre on Monday night.

It was the Jets first win of the season in front of another inspirational crowd and, in the end, the key to the victory was goalie Ondrej Pavelec. He made 28 saves and many of them were outstanding. Clearly the first star of the game and the hero of the night.

Now, the Jets are 1-3 early in their inaugural season and there is less gloom in River City today than there was on Sunday morning — that, of course, was the proverbial cold light of dawn after the Jets were drilled 4-1 in Phoenix on Saturday night.

So here are 10 observations from the first Jets win:

1. The crowd is remarkable and I’m still not buying into “the Jets were nervous,” argument that was made after their 5-1 loss to Montreal in the season opener. That’s hooey. If you can’t play well in front of that crowd, you can’t play well. Those people will love you no matter what and if guys making millions try to use the nervous excuse — I mean really, c’mon man! — they should all find another line of work. These are guys who didn’t like playing in Atlanta because there wasn’t anyone there. Nerves cannot be used as an excuse at any level of hockey and especially at an event that is now known as “The Love-In at the MTS Centre.”

2. Just to keep Monday’s win in perspective, the Penguins played without Sidney Crosby, Tyler Kennedy, Brooks Orpik and Evgeni Malkin. Around the Jets net and even in the Jets zone, you noticed the absence of Crosby and Malkin.

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Ondrej Pavelec

3. Goalies are interesting people. Pavelec was so marginal against Montreal and Chicago and yet so wonderful on Monday night against Pittsburgh. I don’t even think full-time goalie coaches can really figure out goalies.

4. Mark Scheifele played a little more than seven minutes. Send him to junior. If he’ not a Top 6 forward he’s just wasting his time in the NHL. He won’t get better. He needs a year of 20 minutes a game in junior with 150 points, a spot on the World Junior Team and a trip to the OHL playoffs. He’s NOT a fourth-line player and won’t improve by watching.

5. The Jets defence was much better on Monday. It was, perhaps, their best group performance of the season. They still have a tendency to take chances and turn the puck over in the neutral zone too often, but Monday night’s effort was better.

6. Claude Noel looks like a deer caught in the headlights. That’s not to say he can’t coach. He just looks like that.

7. Kris Letang’s hit on Alexander Burmistrov was a cheap shot and should result in a meeting with Brendan Shanahan, Czar of the NHL’s Discipline Division (This just in: Letang is having a hearing Tuesday).

8. By the way, in the pre-season a lot of folks around the MTS Centre said they weren’t impressed with Burmistrov or Nik Antropov. Now that the season has started, Burmistrov and Antropov have been two of the Jets top three or four players. Perhaps they were the only ones who actually knew that pre-season is freakin’ practice!

9.  When the Jets attack the net, they get plenty of really solid scoring chances. That goes without saying. So why did they refuse to do that in Phoenix on Saturday? Were they nervous? If this team remembers to avoid playing perimeter hockey, it will score a lot of goals and win a lot of games.

10. The Jets generate a great deal of offence from the point. Zach Bogosian played 22 minutes and 59 seconds and led the team with six shots. Dustin Byfuglien played more than any other Jet except Tobias Entsrom — 24:14 to 26:33 — and yet Byfuglien had five shots. I don’t know if that means anything, but when you have 34 shots on goals and two defensemen generate 11 of them, it’s certainly a topic of conversation.

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The NHL’s New Breed

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s September and amazingly, that means a brand new NHL  season is right around the corner. In fact, the Winnipeg Jets will officially open their first “new” training camp in the ‘Peg on Sept. 17.

The new-look Jets will be a very young team, at least at its core. On the current Jets’ NHL/AHL roster, the Jets have 23 players born after Jan. 1, 1986. That means the Jets will be young at both the NHL and AHL levels.

The team’s young star is probably Evander Kane, a 20-year-old who had a nice year in 2010-11 and is expected to have a huge year in 2011-12. In fact, the NHL is loaded with young stars who are simply going to get better.

As examples, Matt Duchene was outstanding in 2010-11; Brandon Dubinsky was hard-nosed and solid around the net throughout the season; and Claude Giroux was about as steady as a player could be.

The reason I mention Duchene, E. Kane, Dubinsky and Giroux (I could also mention Nicklas Backstrom, James Neal and Logan Couture), is because no one spent the past NHL season mentioning them much at all.

Let’s be brutally honest, hockey pundits (at least, the ones who aren’t going on relentlessly about the Toronto Maple Leafs), fans and fantasy players, spend most of their time focused on the game’s big names: Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Brad Richards, Jonathan Toews, Alex Ovechkin, Marty St. Louis, the Sedin Twins, Jarome Iginla, Dany Heatley etc., etc.

And while Crosby, 23, Stamkos, 20, Patrick Kane, 22, and Toews, 22, are among hockey’s great young players, they are simply the leaders of a new group poised to take over the game.

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Rookie of the Year Jeff Skinner

These are the young guns, the players, born in 1986 or later, who play tough, gritty hockey every night, score some goals, make plays and generally show up on the scoresheet without getting a whole lot of recognition outside of their own markets. In fact, until he won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year this past spring, even Carolina’s Jeff Skinner was not a household name in most of his relatives’ households. Now, he’s as big a star as there is in the game and a player expected to do great things for many years to come.

With the start of training camp a little more than two weeks away, let’s take a minute to honor those players, the members of hockey’s new breed and the guys that fantasy players don’t spend a lot of time talking about, but couldn’t win a pool without.

And here’s a guarantee: By the start of the 2012-13 season, these will be the players that fantasy winners will all be selecting, every season, with their top draft picks.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll leave Crosby, Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Toews and Skinner to the masses. They already know about those guys anyway. However, for those hockey mavens who are playing in keeper pools this season, here’s a look at the next batch of big stars about to take their rightful places on the NHL marquee.

The NHL’s 10 “Next Great Stars.”

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Anaheim's Bobby Ryan

Bobby Ryan, Anaheim Ducks: He may have a spot on the marquee already. A 2010 U.S. Olympian, the 24-year-old Ryan was Anaheim’s first pick, second overall, in the 2005 NHL entry draft. This past year he had 34 goals and 37 assists (21st in points in the NHL) playing on a line with two great Canadian Olympians, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and he’s emerged as one of the best players in the game. Last year, he had 35 goals and 29 assists and in 2008-09, he had 31 goals in only 64 games. At 6-foot-2, 210-pounds, he’s strong, skilled and not afraid to scrap. He’s another big time power forward who will be a major goal-scorer for another decade. And if he stays healthy, he will soon be considered one of hockey’s great players.

Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals: At 23, he’s one of those guys who has already arrived, but because he plays in the rather substantial shadow of Alex Ovechkin, he’s not as well known as he should be. From Gavle, Sweden, he was the fourth overall pick in 2006 and is clearly one of the game’s great players. This season, he had 18 goals and 47 assists and is 35th in scoring right behind Rick Nash, Mike Richards and Sidnet Crosby (albeit in 41 games). He plays on Ovie’s line most nights and occasionally he plays better than his more well-known colleague. Fast and with great hands, Backstrom had 101 points in 2009-10 and should finish with 80-90 this coming season.

Matt Duchene, Colorado Rockies: Duchene is only “obscure” because he plays in Denver and doesn’t get a lot of TV exposure in Canada. After all: Who was the No. 29 scorer in the National Hockey League last year? Yep, Matt Duchene. The third overall pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft has arrived on the scene and announced his presence with authority. As a rookie in 2009-10, Duchene had 24 goals and 31 assists. This past year, the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder from Haliburton, Ont., had 27 goals and 40 assists. Assuming that the NHL participates, when the 2014 Winter Olympics roll around, you have to figure 20-year-old Matt Duchene – who has played on Canada’s under-18 and World Junior Championship teams – will be a major player for Team Canada.

Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers: What a nice 23-year-old player. He finished the 2010-11 season as the No. 13 scorer in the NHL and helped make Jeff carter and Mike Richards expendable in Philly. Just like Duchene, he’s a former World Junior Championship player for Canada (2007-08) and a former first round draft pick (22nd overall in 2006). In 2009-10, he had 16 goals and 31 assists in all 82 games. This past year, the durable Giroux scored 25 goals and had 51 assists and played in all 82 games.

Anze Kopitar 1 270x300 The NHLs New Breed

L.A.'s Anze Kopitar

Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings: He’s only 24, but he’s been in the NHL since 2006-07. The greatest player in the history of Slovenian hockey, Kopitar was the Kings’ first draft pick (11th overall) in 2005. This past year, he had 25 goals and 48 assists after finishing the 2009-10 season with 34 goals and 47 assists. He’s already had a solid career, but this 6-foot-3, 230-pound power-forward-with-skill is slowly, but surely becoming one of the game’s great players. He was 20th in scoring this past season (in only 75 games) when he tore up his ankle and had surgery. However, with plenty of time to heal and with the off-season improvement of the Kings, he should put up even bigger numbers next year.

Logan Couture, San Jose Sharks: Another former first-round pick (ninth overall in 2007), Couture is 22 and is also another former under-18 Team Canada member. This past season he scored 32 goals (14th overall) and dished out 24 assists The 6-foot-1, 195 pounder from Guelph is going to be one of the game’s next great players. He was a finalist for the 2011 Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year and he just signed a $5.75 million deal that will keep him out of the restricted free agent market next July.

Brandon Dubinsky, New York Rangers: Dubinsky, who has played in two World Championships for the United States, is a 25-year-old from Alaska who was a second-round pick in 2004. He is a fearless player who has never been a big scorer, but this past year he started to pit up some impressive numbers. He finished 73rd in scoring with 24 goals and 30 assists in 77 games. In 2008-09, he had 13 goals, 41 points and 112 penalty minutes and proved he is not afraid to scrap. As an example, last December against the Caps, Dubinsky had a goal and an assist and dropped Alex Ovechkin in a fight early in the game to complete his Gordie Howe hat trick. For a guy who had never scored more than 20 goals in a season (2009-10), he had a tremendous 2010-11 and was rewarded with a big new contract.

Evander Kane 266x300 The NHLs New Breed

Winnipeg's Evander Kane

Evander Kane, Winnipeg Jets: The “other” Kane. Another former first round pick, Kane matched his 2009-10 offensive numbers in just 37 games this past season. This is a kid who has already played in the World Junior and the World Senior Championships for Team Canada and at 20, he’s starting to put up some impressive numbers. He had 19 goals and 24 assists last year in Atlanta and at 6-foot-2, 200-pounds, this youngster from Vancouver will soon be a high pick in every fantasy league. In fact, there are some pundits who think Kane is capable of reaching 30 goals and 60 points this season.

James Neal, Pittsburgh Penguins: A guy who played five games for the Manitoba Moose in 2008-09, Neal has exploded into one of the top power forwards in the game. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound leftwinger from Whitby, Ont., had 22 goals and 23 assists in 2010-11. A 24-year-old who was Dallas’s second pick (33rd overall) in 2005 – Matt Niskanen was the Stars’ first pick – Neal had 27 goals and 28 assists in 2010-11 and it obviously wasn’t a fluke.

Milan Lucic, Boston Bruins: The classic power-forward at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, the big 23-year-old from Vancouver first earned a full-time job with the Bruins in 2006-07, but had never played what could be called a full season in the NHL until 2010-11. This past year he had 30 goals and 32 assists and led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup. He’s also a guy who will put up 80-100 minutes in penalties. He’s going to be a big-time player for a long time to come and if the Bruins expect to challenge for back-to-back Cups, it will be Milan Lucic leading the way.

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Our Picks for the NHL Awards

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Tonight in Las Vegas the National Hockey League will holds its annual awards show.

Here’s a look at the nominees and our choices as the most deserving winners:

Hart Trophy (Most Valuable Player)

Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).

Who we think should win: Daniel Sedin.

Vezina Trophy (outstanding goaltender)

Nominees: Roberto Luongo (Vancouver), Pekka Rinne (Nashville) and Tim Thomas (Boston).

Who should win: Tim Thomas.

Norris Trophy (outstanding all-around defenceman)

Nominees: Zdeno Chara (Boston), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Shea Weber (Nashville).

Who should win: Zdeno Chara.

Calder Trophy (outstanding rookie)

Nominees: Logan Couture (San Jose), Michael Grabner (N.Y. Islanders) and Jeff Skinner (Carolina).

Who should win: Jeff Skinner.

Jack Adams (outstanding coach)

Nominees: Dan Bylsma (Pittsburgh), Barry Trotz (Nashville) and Alain Vigneault (Vancouver).

Who should win: Barry Trotz.

Selke Trophy (top defensive forward)

Nominees: Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Ryan Kesler (Vancouver) and Jonathan Toews (Chicago).

Who should win: Jonathan Toews.

Lady Byng (most gentlemanly player)

Nominees: Loui Eriksson (Dallas), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).

Who should win: Nicklas Lidstrom.

Ted Lindsay Award (outstanding player as voted by his peers)

Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay).

Who should win: Sedin.

 

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Cooke’s Suspension Not As Long As It’s Perceived.

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Pittsburgh Penguins bad boy Matt Cooke was sent a message by the NHL’s vice-president of discipline, Colin Campbell, on Monday. Cooke was suspended for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs for elbowing New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh in the head.

You’ve probably seen the elbow. The folks at TSN seem to run it in a loop with the rest of Cooke’s Cheapest Hits. The guy is a danger to his fellow NHL players, as well as the game. He almost destroyed Marc Savard’s life while in the process of destroying his career. Cooke’s head-shots have also caused his owner, the great Mario Lemieux to become a laughing stock.

In case you’ve forgotten, back on February 15 we wrote: “So Pittsburgh Penguins owner and president, Mario Lemieux, didn’t like the discipline handed out by the NHL to the New York Islanders this past weekend?

“Not surprising. Mario has a lot on his plate right now. He has a concussed Sidney Crosby who is likely out of the lineup until mid-March at best and he has Evgeni Malkin out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. With his two best players on the sidelines, Mario has noticed his Pens aren’t very good.  Between the injuries and the circus on Long Island last week, ol’ Mario is angry.

“Trouble is, he lives in a glass house … Mario’s problem is that he’s part of the whole mess. His Penguins have a headhunter named Matt Cooke. This is the guy who has, evidently, ended Marc Savard’s career. He’s a 32-year-old enforcer with a reasonable amount of skill who can pass for a legitimate player. However, if the Penguins need someone to end an opponent’s career, Matt Cooke is ready and willing to do whatever it takes. Most recently, Cooke was handed a four-game suspension (on Feb. 9), for hitting Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin from behind. It was a vicious, stupid hit delivered by a vicious, stupid man. However, it’s Mario’s man and as a result, when Lemieux talks about “sideshows,” he forgets that Cooke is one of the biggest clowns of the bunch.”

Cooke is the worst kind of goon. The type of player who isn’t a fighter, just a cheap-shot, head hunter.

Still, based on everything that went on this week, Cooke got off with a pretty light sentence. Sure, the penalty sounded amazing. “The remainder of the season and the first round of the playoffs,” but it’s also a minimum of 14 games. In other words, it’s very likely the penalty will be 14 games. Should have been 40.

There are only nine games left in the season and the first round will be over before the end of April. It wasn’t a serious penalty, it was just perceived to be a serious penalty. No wonder the Penguins weren’t going to appeal it. On sober second thought, it wasn’t a big deal at all.

Matt Cooke is considered one of the NHL’s dirtiest players and at the last NHL GM’s meeting the league claimed it  was going to clean up head shots. That penalty isn’t going to do it.

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Lemieux’s Anger Directed Right Back at His Glass House

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

So Pittsburgh Penguins owner and president, Mario Lemieux, didn’t like the discipline handed out by the NHL to the New York Islanders this past weekend?

Not surprising. Mario has a lot on his plate right now. He has a concussed Sidney Crosby who is likely out of the lineup until mid-March at best and he has Evgeni Malkin out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. With his two best players on the sidelines, Mario has noticed his Pens aren’t very good.  Between the injuries and the circus on Long Island last week, ol’ Mario is angry.

Trouble is, he lives in a glass house.

Now let’s not point the finger solely at Lemieux for his little outburst this week. National Hockey League organizations have been releasing written statements that disagree with a suspension handed out by the NHL’s vice-president of discipline, Colin Campbell, for a lot of years now. However, the statement released Sunday afternoon by Super Mario was nothing, if not blunt.

Responding to the $100,000 fine to the Islanders, the four-game ban to Matt Martin for drilling the Pens Maxime Talbot with a sucker punch that would have made Todd Bertuzzi and Marc Crawford proud, and the nine-game suspension dished out to Trevor Gillies after his hit to the head of Eric Tangradi, Lemieux expressed his “disappointment” with the NHL’s decision.

WE QUOTE: “Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.
The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.”

Hmmm. Mario should probably be fined, but he won’t be and give him a little credit, he got his anger off his chest.

Mario’s problem is that the NHL has no desire to clean up the “sideshow.” After the lockout ended in 2005, the league said there would be a “new NHL,” one where the star players could be star players, where they could score goals and where the referees would call hooking, holding and interference exactly as those rules were outlined in the NHL rulebook.

Unfortunately, the stricter officiating lasted about 3/4 of a season and while the NHL maintained that the players had become accustomed to the “new” of interpretations of the rules, the fact was, the officials just went back to the way it was before the lockout. With that, NHL general managers started loading up on goons and now every team has at least one player in its organization who can step in, beat the crap out of its opponents and not worry aboiut missing any ice time because he couldn’t really skate anyway. Today, “the new NHL” is loaded up with the likes of Zenon Konopka, Colton Orr, Derek Boogaard, George Parros, Jared Boll, and on and on and on, guys who can kick the living shit out of another person without so much as a hint of conscience.

Because the NHL wouldn’t call the infractions on the ice, teams had to take the law back into their own hands. And they did so. Now, everybody has a goon and when everybody has a goon, the occasional circus will come to town. As long as the officials refuse to call the rules as they are described in the rulebook, coaches and GMs will make sure they can control the ice themselves.

Which brings us back to Mario. Mario’s problem is that he’s part of the whole mess. His Penguins have a headhunter named Matt Cooke. This is the guy who has, evidently, ended Marc Savard’s career. He’s a 32-year-old enforcer with a reasonable amount of skill who can pass for a legitimate player. However, if the Penguins need someone to end an opponent’s career, Matt Cooke is ready and willing to do whatever it takes. Most recently, Cooke was handed a four-game suspension (on Feb. 9), for hitting Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin from behind. It was a vicious, stupid hit delivered by a vicious, stupid man.

However, it’s Mario’s man and as a result, when Lemieux talks about “sideshows,” he forgets that Cooke is one of the biggest clowns of the bunch.

What Matt Martin did to Max Talbot last Friday is exactly what got Todd Bertuzzi a year-long suspension. Martin should have had the book thrown at him. No doubt about it. Trouble is, what Matt Cooke did to Fedor Tyutin could have left Tyutin attached to tubes for the rest of his life. Too bad Mario forgot about that one in his little rant.

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Vancouver and Pittsburgh Are Both Gone. It’s on to Plan B

Posted on May 16, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

FARGO, N.D. — When we predicted, confidently, that the Vancouver Canucks would meet the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup final we forgot to consider a handful of very bad things:

1) We did not believe Jaroslav Halak would do to the Penguins almost exactly what he did to the Washington Capitals.

2) We did not believe Sidney Crosby would fail to score in the final four games of a series… any series.

3) We did not believe Roberto Luongo would be as weak as he was against Chicago — again.

4) We did not believe the Sedin Twins would completely disappear.

5) We did not believe Montreal could be as good as they were against Washington and Pittsburgh and we did not believe Vancouver could be as bad as they were against Chicago.

So it’s on to the NHL’s Stanley Cup Conference finals. No Pittsburgh. No Vancouver. But we are armed with a Plan B. After going 1-3 in the semi-finals, we’re now 7-5 this spring.

Here’s our look at the Conference championship series…

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (2)

The Hawks proved against Vancouver that they simply skate too well. The Hawks are fast, skilled and gritty. They have everything a Stanley Cup champion needs, especially leadership. If Antti Niemi gives them any goaltending at all, they should win a game in San Jose and cruise at  home and that’s all they’ll need. The Sharks are shedding the “choke” label, but losing to a No. 2 seed is not choking. The Hawks are the best No. 2 seed we’ve seen in a long, long time. If Chicago does win, they won because they were, as we suspect, the better team.

Chicago Blackhawks in six

Eastern Conference

Philadelphia Flyers (7) versus Montreal Canadiens (8)

It just seems as if the Habs are this year’s team of destiny. With great goaltending from Jaroslav Halak and a load of scoring from their little guys, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri, who leads all scorers in the playoffs with 12 goals, the Habs have ousted first-place Washington and No. 4 Pittsburgh. No small feat. However, while the Flyers look like a pushover for a team that has been so emotional and so dedicated, they deserve a lot of credit themselves. The Flyers checking lines have tied the opposition in knots and Mike Richards and Simon Gagne always seem to be around when they’re needed most. I like the Flyers, but I’m taking…

Montreal Canadiens in six


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