Tag Archives: Tampa Bay Lightning

Big Win Tuesday. Now, Will the Jets Make a Move?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Ondrej Pavelec makes another huge save.

TAMPA — Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the Winnipeg Jets won a huge hockey game.

In fact, when Bryan Little scored the shootout winner, it was more than just a win in the 51st game of a long season. It might have been the most important win of 2012.

For 65 minutes on Tuesday, the Winnipeg Jets went toe-to-toe one more time with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Centre and for the third time this season the Winnipegs emerged victorious. Chris Thorburn scored his first goal of the year in regulation time (and it was a goal scorer’s goal); Little fired the only goal of the shootout; Blake Wheeler played 23 minutes, had five shots on goal and was an absolute beast; and Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves as the Jets beat the Flyers for the third consecutive time.

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Blake Wheeler playing like a beast.

“That was a big two points for us,” Jets head coach Claude Noel said after the game. “We were wearing down in the third period, but we found a way to win the game.”

It’s true. A Jets team without Dustin Byfuglien, Alexander Burmistov and Evander Kane did wear down in the third period, but they played well enough defensively to hang in long enough and get the bonus point in a shootout. For the first two periods, however, the Jets actually outplayed the Flyers in Philly and they definitely deserved that extra point.

However, they still can’t score. The Jets have scored only 21 goals in 13-plus (counting overtime) games in 2012, but if they continue to check as well as they did against the Flyers on Tuesday, they’ll win a lot more games than they lose.

So here’s the deal with the trade deadline just three weeks away: as they head into Tampa tonight, the Jets are 23rd overall in goals scored at 2.47 per game. The team’s leading scorer, Blake Wheeler, has nine goals and 33 points. He is 87th in scoring in the NHL. The team’s leading goal scorer, Evander Kane, has 18 and is tied for 29th in the NHL but was in the midst of a 10-game goal scoring drought when he suffered a concussion and was lost indefinitely.

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Evander Kane's return will help.

The Jets have scored 126 goals in 51 games this season. Within the Eastern Conference, only the Islanders (120 in 49) and Sabres (120 in 51) have scored fewer. Of course, while the Jets have 126 total, they scored nine in one game against Philadelphia. The Jets are actually one game away from being the lowest-scoring team in the Eastern Conference. As a group the Jets are also a minus-18.

In the month of January, the Jets went 4-8-1. To date, the Jets are 23-22-6 on the season. Last season, as the Atlanta Thrashers, they were 23-19-9 after 51 games. In 13-plus games (counting two overtimes) this month, the Jets have scored a meagre 21 goals.

Now, to be fair, they played part of the month without Kane, Zach Bogosian and Alex Burmistrov and they played the entire month without their all-star, Dustin Byfuglien. At the start of the season, everyone knew this team was thin, but January has proven that little nugget beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now it’s February and it starts tonight here in Tampa. It has become quite clear that the Jets need scoring help. This is not a team that takes nights off. It’s work ethic is pretty much beyond reproach. Still, the people who run this team know it can’t score. And it becomes especially weak up front when certain players — like Byfuglien, Kane and Burmistrov — go down with injuries.

So as the 2012 trade deadline looms (Feb. 27), what should Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and his brain trust do? Does he move his veteran grinders and build for the future? Or does he deal prospects and draft picks, try to find a scorer and take a run at the playoffs?

Right now, the Jets could use three things:

1. A scorer, obviously, but that’s not an easy thing to acquire. For example, if Ryan Getzlaff or Bobby Ryan are actually available in Anaheim, who could the Jets trade to get them? Who would interest a team like the Ducks? Making trades are an art AND a science and big ones don’t just happen over a glass of cognac at the all-star break. We are not naive enough to believe these trades are made easily. You have to give to get and the asking price just might be too much.

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Designated Fighter Chris Thorburn.

2. A tough guy. The Jets don’t always open up enough space for the guys who can put the puck in the net. They’re also at a point where they need Chris Thorburn and Mark Stuart to fight for them. Yes, yes, we all want fighting eliminated from hockey, blah, blah, blah, but the fact is, fighting has not been eliminated and the Jets don’t have a guy who can stop a player like Shawn Thornton of the Bruins from running their goalies and pounding the crap out of defensemen they need in the lineup. They also need a guy who can drop the gloves on the road, win a fight without getting hurt, not hurt the team’s skill level by being in the box for five minutes and give the club a pick-me-up.

3. Depth. Two injuries and this team can’t recover. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the personnel to stay in the hunt without Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang. The Jets lose Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian and it’s downhill all the way.

When the team arrived in Winnipeg at the start of the 2011-12 season, Cheveldayoff and company made it clear that the new organization would be patient. They would not do anything rash and would build with youth and draft picks. After all, they have 3-5 years of sold-out buildings and they know their fans will also be patient and wait for them to build a legitimate contender.

Trouble is, they’ve talked all year about making the playoffs. The two aren’t necessarily exclusive, but…

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The NHL at the Quarter Pole

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
sidney crosby 238x300 The NHL at the Quarter Pole

The Kid is Back

Sidney Crosby is back, Alexander Ovechkin is struggling, the Calgary Flames are fighting amongst themselves, Ken Hitchcock is now coaching in St. Louis while everyone is wondering how long Scott Arniel will last in Columbus and Phil Kessel is the leading scorer in the National Hockey League.

We’re one quarter of the way through the 2011-12 NHL season and these are among the key stories as the league speeds head-on into the holiday season.

Things are crazy this season. The Winnipeg Jets are back but they’re still playing like the old Atlanta Thrashers. The Minnesota Wild, with 29 points, is the No. 1 team in the league. And after 20-plus games for most teams, there are two teams in the Top 8 in the East that didn’t make the playoffs last year and three in the West.

It’s the NHL at the quarter-pole. Let’s look at the 10 biggest stories:

1. Sidney Crosby is Back: The Kid returned on Monday, Nov. 20 and wowed national audiences on both sides of the border with two goals and two assists in his return. After missing almost a year with post-concussion syndrome, his return to the game was just as important to the NHL as it was Sidney himself. The fact that he went scoreless in his second game against St. Louis went without notice. Crosby is back and that’s good for hockey.

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Phil Kessel

2. Phil Kessel is the NHL’s Leading Scorer: He was drafted fifth overall in 2005 and since that day, the NHL has been waiting for Kessel to reach a level of play that no one with a walnut for a brain ever truly believed he could reach. Drafted by Boston, he scored 36 goals in 2008-09 but the Bruins expected more. Dealt to Toronto, he’s had a 30-goal season in 2009-10 and a 32-goal season last year and he’s a damned good player. Trouble is, Toronto fans – like Boston fans – have expected more. This year, he has 16 goals and 14 assists in the first 22 games and leads the NHL in goals and points. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the year Kessel gets the respect he deserves.

3. Ken Hitchcock Hired to Coach the Blues, Not Jackets: Everyone – and that means absolutely everyone – thought Hitchcock would return to the NHL this year as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. After all, the Blue Jackets were still paying him, Scott Arniel was said to be on the verge of a sacking and the Blue Jackets had allegedly spoken to Hitchcock. Then, out of the blue (pun intended), Payne Davis was fired in St. Louis and Hitchcock was behind the bench of the Blues. He started out 4-0-1, the best start of any coach in Blues franchise history and suddenly the Blues found themselves fifth overall in the West. Quite a move.

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Alex Ovechkin

4. Alex Ovechkin is Not the Same: Sure, it’s early yet, but something seems to be terribly wrong with Alex the Great. He has seven goals and nine assists in the Capitals first 20 games and is 58th in scoring. He is on pace for a 65-point season. In 2007-08, he had 65 goals. After he had 50 goals and 59 assists in just 72 games in 2009-10, he hasn’t been the same. He had only 32 goals and 53 points last year and this year, while he plays exciting hockey in spurts, he is not consistently great – or exciting. Insiders say Caps coach Bruce Boudreau has sucked the life out of Ovechkin with his defense-first philosophy and perhaps that’s true. If it is, it’s time for a change. Man, Ovie would look really good in L.A., but then again, the Kings probably couldn’t handle the cap hit.

5. The Leafs Look Like a Playoff Team: Even with goalie-of-the-present-and-future James Reimer out with a concussion, the Leafs have played steady hockey and through 22 games, they are 12-8-2, fifth in the East. They have the leading scorer in the NHL in Phil Kessel and they often appear to be a team that could stay in the hunt all season long. In fairness, the next 20 games will probably show us whether or not the Leafs are for real.

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Andrew Ladd

6. Winnipeg’s Return to the NHL: Wow! The building is sold out, the team is 8-9-4 through their first 21 games and fans are madly in love with this group of orphans who were once known as the Atlanta Thrashers. It’s the fans, however, that have sent a message to the NHL. That message is clear, too. Get teams out of Florida, Phoenix, Nashville, Dallas, Columbus and all those minor-league southern markets and send the game back to Canada and the northern United States. This is where players are revered and the game is loved. The NHL would be better off with three teams in Toronto, two in Vancouver and one each in Halifax, Quebec City and Saskatchewan than it is with teams in the U.S. Sun Belt.

7. The Minnesota Wild Is No. 1: Last year, the Wild went 39-35-8 and finished 12th in the West. Today, the Wild are 13-5-3 during the first 21 games and No. 1 overall in the NHL. Yes, that’s the whole NHL. Yeah, really. The Wild acquired Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi from San Jose in the off-season and have made themselves one of the better clubs in the NHL. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Nicklas Backstrom and Josh Harding as your goaltenders and the heart and soul of Cal Clutterbuck, Guillaume Latendresse, Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu and Kyle Brodziak, but the acquisition of Heatley and Setoguchi have made the Wild a legitimate playoff contender. The key now, is to avoid last season’s late collapse.

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Marty St. Louis

8. Tampa/Washington Fighting with Coaches: There is a real sense out there that the Washington Capitals are having trouble relating to the defense-first philosophy of head coach Bruce Boudreau and that the Tampa Bay Lightning have simply stopped listening at all to Guy Boucher. The Caps won the East last year and are now sixth. The Lightning was fifth in the East last year and is now 12th. Whatever the reason, something is definitely wrong with both teams.

9. Phoenix is Still an Ownership Wasteland: See: “Winnipeg’s Return to the NHL.”

10: Brendan Shanahan Hands Out Discipline (Or Not): If you can figure out the reasons for why players receive or don’t receive secondary discipline from Shanahan’s office, you’re smarter than, well, just about everybody. Why some players get three-game suspensions and others avoid any secondary discipline at all seems like a pure guessing game. At least, from afar. It’s amazing that while few people understood Colin Campbell’s disciplinary policy, even fewer seem to understand Shanahan’s. Maybe the players get it.

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An Invitation to Jets Fans

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

My 28-year-old daughter, Betsy, who lives in Orlando, posted this on her Facebook page early Friday evening:

“So Winnipeggers, tickets to the Jets vs. Lightning game in Tampa start at $4.95. Who’s coming with me, Oct, 29th???!!!”

Actually, since Betsy posted her invitation, cheaper seats have appeared on Stub Hub. As of Saturday morning, there was a pair available to the Jets-Lightning game for $4 each. Another pair for $4.50 each. There was even an instant download for a group of eight for $7 each. In other words, you’d have eight tickets downloaded in your hands for $56. That’s nuts.

Here are some of the ladies who have committed:

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Magic fans off to see the Jets.

Just as an aside, I’d go anywhere with them and in this case, I’ve even been given permission.

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Betsy and Becky getting ready to watch the Jets -- for, like, free.

Later in the evening, Betsy added this to her post: “I’ll be buying tickets on Sunday. So I’ll buy as many as we need, I’ll probably go a little more expensive and closer to the action….. Might be $9 lol.”

LOL is right. If you bought a scalper’s ticket to the Jets opener in Winnipeg last Sunday, you probably paid considerably more than it would cost to buy a plane ticket to Orlando, spend a few days at Disney World, rent a car, drive the hour to the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, watch the Jets there for $4 and then fly home.

In fact, on Thursday, Oct. 20, the Lightning play the New York Islanders in Tampa. Tickets on Stub Hub start at $3 lol. Think about that. You can watch two of the greatest young players in the game — John Tavares and Steven Stamkos — play against each other for $3. What? Is it 1970?

The NHL can say what it likes about the Sun Belt experiment, but Stub Hub doesn’t lie. People in the southern markets don’t care about hockey and when you can get a regular season ticket on the secondary market for $4.95 (and it doesn’t matter who the opponent is), it’s time to start moving these teams to Halifax, Quebec City, Kitchener, Regina and even the Kootenays. Or hell, even Kansas City where they have a great new rink, or Omaha where they have a solid college team a good junior club.

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Betsy and her RCS Jets hoodie.

If you’re in a position to watch a great team like the Tampa Bay Lightning — Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis, Victor Hedman — for $4.95, then you live in a city that hates hockey, will never like hockey and won’t miss it when it’s gone. Because if you don’t like this Tampa Bay Lightning team right now, you obviously hate the game.

Meanwhile, Betsy will look great at the game in her Winnipeg Jets hoodie, purchased right here in Winnipeg from our friends at River City Sports.

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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.

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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.

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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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10 Things I Loved This Week

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

It was a very interesting week in the Wonderful World of Sports. Some funny things happened, some great things happened and some people decided to say the things that needed to be said.

Here’s the Top 10 of things I loved this week:

1) The City Council of Glendale did exactly what the government of Manitoba did in the 1990s and decided to pick up the losses of its National Hockey League franchise for another year. Of course, everyone around the game — especially Winnipeggers — called them idiots, but I don’t remember anyone calling Gary Filmon an idiot in 1991. That’s right, the Government of Manitoba paid the Jets losses for four years.

2) The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 in the first game of the Eastern Conference final in Boston. Sean Bergenheim scored again. He has eight goals in the playoffs. Dwayne Roloson, at age 41, stopped 31 of 33 shots. I wouldn’t have believed it after watching them all season, but these Lightning might be the best team in the game right now. And head coach Guy Boucher might just be the smartest man in hockey.

3) Last week, Detroit Tigers righthander Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter at the Toronto Blue Jays. This past week, in his next start, he threw five no-hit innings at the Kansas City Royals. That’s 14 innings without giving up a hit. After a slow start, Verlander is now 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA and the Tigers have won seven straight games. Pitching is everything and in Detroit it all starts with a 28-year-old righthander who can get it into the 100s.

4) The Winnipeg Goldeyes scored two runs in their final at bat to beat the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 3-2. That never happens. Fargo never gives up a game in the bottom of the final inning (in this case, the seventh, as the second game of a doubleheader) with the quality of closer(s) Doug Simunic brings in eery year. For the first time in a decade, the RedHawks look vulnerable.

5) Comedian Sarah Silverman  was invited into the FOX TV booth on Saturday and was, essentially, beamed in from another planet. For 5  1/2 minutes she nattered on about, well, nothing but jibber-jabber. It was truly awful. But it proved once again, something that my producer Jim McGregor and I have learned over the years in our own Shaw TV booth here in Winnipeg. If your guest knows nothing about baseball, don’t have them as a guest.

Or, a corollary to that would be: Don’t think you’re funny when you’re not. Joe Buck is a fine broadcaster but he’s not funny. Trying to be funny with Sarah Silverman’s brand of humour when you aren’t funny to begin with is an invitation to disaster. What we saw Saturday was an embarrassing 5 1/2 minutes of lousy TV.

6) Jose Bautista hit his 13th home run of the season during a six-run 11th inning that results in a 9-3 Blue Jays win over Minnesota. Bautista is now on a pace to hit 54 home runs again. This is weird. Here’s a guy who never hit more than 16 home runs in almost five years of big league baseball. He was a Pittsburgh Pirates castoff for goodness sake and now he’s going to hit 54 homers two years in a row. No wonder some members of the Toronto media thought he was on the juice last year. In a world where Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez don’t get close to 50, a 195-pound, 30-year-old is on pace to hit 54. You gotta love it, but you also have to wonder.

7) If Nick Lidstrom decides to retire, it’s safe to say he’s the second best defenceman ever to play in the NHL. Sorry, kids, there will never be another Bobby  Orr.

icon cool 10 Things I Loved This Week Here is the trouble with major league sports these days: On Thursday, player agent Scott Boras told Yahoo Sports that the Kansas City Royals had absolutely no chance of signing the next Baseball Jesus (Joe Mauer was the last), Eric Hosmer, to a long-term contract.

“There will be massive increases in television revenues over the next three years and that will change the landscape of baseball salaries,” Boras said.

Which should mean Kansas City will see some of that money. Trouble is, Boras was suggesting there will massive increases in New York, Boston and Chicago and not likely anywhere else.

Buy the way, remember the name Eric Hosmer. He will not reach his 22nd birthday until October and yet this 6-foot-4, 230-pound first baseman has two homers (both in new Yankee Stadium)  in seven games with the Royals  and has a career OPS of .987 (Fifth overall in MLB) . He also has two doubles, five RBI and a stolen base.

He will get a gigantic long-term contract one day. And it will be from the Yankees or Red Sox, not the Royals.

9) Saturday was a big day in Manchester, England.

Manchester United won its 19th English title by playing Blackburn to a 1-1 draw. United won the English Premier Division. Then Manchester City beat Stoke 1-nil to win the FA Cup.

10) And this announcement came out of Ottawa on Saturday:

“Football Canada is proud to announce the addition of defensive linemen Brian Guebert (Editor’s note: A former Blue Bomber) and Michaël Jean-Louis to the Senior Men’s National Team roster competing in Austria this summer at the 2011 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Senior Men’s World Championship.”

We have a Senior Men’s National Team? Who knew?

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Great First Round of the Playoffs. Now it’s on to Round 2

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There is only one Canadian team left in the Stanley Cup playoffs and let’s be honest, the Vancouver Canucks were lucky to move on.

Meanwhile, we had a pretty darn good record in Round 1, finishing 7-1 (our only miss was Nashville over the Ducks). With a game on Thursday night, it’s time to take a close look at Round 2:

2011 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ROUND 2

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Series I: No. 5 Tampa Bay Lightning (Defeated Pittsburgh in Seven Games) at No. 1 Washington Capitals (Defeated NY Rangers in Five Games).

Season Series: Washington won 4-1-1

The Capitals looked awesome in taking out the Rangers in five games. Ovechkin is back, Semin scored a couple of big goals and the checking lines were great. Tampa can score, no doubt about it, but in their win over Pittsburgh, the Lightning had some very bright spots defensively. In fact, that 1-0 win on the road in Game 7 against the Pens was a tribute to both goaltender Dwayne Roloson and the defensive unit in front of him. I loved the way Tampa battled back and I’ve developed a great deal of respect for coach Guy Boucher, but I just think Washington is the best team in the East.

Key player; Dwayne Roloson, Tampa Bay Lightning.

Our pick: Washington in six.

Series J: No. 3 Boston Bruins (Defeated Montreal in Seven Games) at No. 2 Philadelphia Flyers (Defeated Buffalo in Seven Games).

Season Series: Boston won 3-0-1

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… Boston won the season series quite handily and beat a much better team to get to the second round. Boston has significantly better goaltending and Philly will go down for the same reason it goes down every year. If your goaltender isn’t your best player, you can always lose. Once again, Philadelphia is likely to lose.

Key player: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins

Our pick: Boston in six.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Series K: No. 5 Nashville Predators (Defeated Anaheim in Six Games) at No. 1 Vancouver Canucks (Defeated Chicago in Seven Games)

Season Series: A split 2-2.

If you are a regular reader of fantrax.com, you know I’m a huge fan of Predators head coach Barry Trotz. On Monday I wrote that he should be the NHL’s coach of the year. However, I also think his hard-working Preds might need some divine help to get past the Canucks who just got a real scare from the Chicago Blackhawks – proving that defending champions do not go down easily. The Preds don’t score a lot, they don’t have a of bog name stars and they seldom look like a playoff worthy team at the start of the season, but this year’s Predators are as good a team as there is in the West. Trouble is, they get to face the best team in the NHL and one suspects the Sedin Twins will wake up this time.

Key player:  Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks

Our pick: Vancouver in five.

Series L: No. 3 Detroit Red Wings (Defeated Phoenix in Four Games) at No. 2 San Jose Sharks (Defeated Los Angeles in Six Games).

Season Series: Sharks won 3-1-0

This is a great matchup because in recent years both of these teams have been very good and yet both have choked in the playoffs. Detroit looked like a buzz saw, taking out a pretty good Coyotes team in four straight games. If Pavel Datsyuk is a as good as he was in Round 1 and the checking lines continue to dominate, the Wings could have an easy time. Henrik Zetterberg is also expected back for Round 2. The Sharks finally got past the first round and looked good doing it, although they did take out a banged-up Kings team that just wasn’t up to snuff offensively without leading scorer, Anze Kopitar. However, Joe Thornton looked good in Round 1 and that might bode well for the Sharks.

Key player: Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings.

Our pick: Red Wings in six.

 

 

 

 

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Just Waiting For an Announcement

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It would appear the Phoenix Coyotes are now, officially, on life support. Not on the ice, but off it.

The deal in the desert is as troubled as it was six months ago and once again, the NHL has called upon Winnipeg to pick up a franchise that never should have left the city in the first place. Unless there is some sort of miracle — and it appears at this stage that it would indeed be a miracle — the NHL is probably going to try and find a new home for a franchise that has been a financial failure for more than 15 years. That home is, more than likely, Winnipeg.

The ownership in the ‘Peg is ready to negotiate  and the league probably has no choice. The optics are dreadful (frankly, Bettman should resign if he has to re-locate this team to its original home) and by moving back to a city that it left a decade and a half ago, the NHL is admitting that expansion into those non-traditional U.S. markets was an abject failure.

Be sure, Phoenix isn’t the only failure. Atlanta, Florida, Columbus and Nashville are all struggling. Dallas’s ownership situation is a mess. St. Louis is looking for a new ownership arrangement. Colorado doesn’t sell enough tickets anymore. Tampa has a great owner, but a lot of empty seats. And the Islanders are just a money pit. From a competitive standpoint, the NHL has the best hockey league on the planet. From a business perspective, the NHL is a mess.

Barring a miracle, it seems pretty clear that despite its own wishes, the NHL has only two alternatives — continue to own the team in Phoenix, a team that will lose about $30 million this season, or sell it to a very rich man representing Winnipeg.

Both options are not ideal from the league’s point of view. If the move to Winnipeg seemed like a good idea, it would have been done last year. Now, however, it might be the only idea.

Here in Winnipeg, we’ll just sit back and wait for the announcement. It’s an announcement that some well-connected folks in Toronto believe is inevitable.

And wouldn’t it be fun if Phoenix’s last game was a 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 6 of the opening round of the playoffs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Devellano Not Convinced the Coyotes are Headed to Winnipeg

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

TAMPA, Fla. — While most Winnipeggers would now agree that the NHL’s return to Winnipeg is only days away, not everyone inside the game would concur.

Recently enshrined Hockey Hall of Famer, Jim Devellano, is one of those people who isn’t so sure. In fact, the Detroit Red Wings executive who makes his home near the St. Pete Times Forum here in the Tampa Bay region, figures if the Phoenix Coyotes end up in Winnipeg, it will happen when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has exhausted every possible financial method known to man to keep the team in Phoenix.

On Wednesday night, before the Lightning met the Chicago Blackhawks in front of a pretty nice crowd in downtown Tampa, a group of old hockey personalities, both great and not-so-great sat around the media lounge and discussed the Phoenix mess. While none denied that Winnipeg may very well, most agreed that Bettman would have to be the very end of his rope to allow it to happen.

“I believe the Coyotes will stay in Phoenix,” said Devallano, who also said the same thing to TSN and the Globe and Mail last week. “Here’s why: 1) the American owners don’t want that franchise in Winnipeg. Not because Winnipeg can’t afford it or because it won’t be a good franchise, but because it’s a ticket killer. Chicago’s in here tonight and the place is nearly sold out. How many people do you think would be here if Winnipeg was in town? Half as many? Maybe. American fans don’t want to pay money to see Canadian-based teams. There is no rivalry. It just doesn’t mean anything. 2) The league has a TV contract negotiation coming up. Do you think it would be good business to say to the president of NBC Sports, ‘Oh, by the way, we want hundreds of millions of dollars from you, but we’re going to move a team from the 12th largest TV market in the United States and put it in Winnipeg.’ The TV exec would say , ‘What’s a Winnipeg?’ It wouldn’t fly. And 3) Deep in his heart, I don’t believe Gary wants to move Phoenix back to Winnipeg. I think it would make him look very bad.

“However, if he has no alternative, if he’s down to no other option, then I guess he’d have to go to a city that has a guy with a pocket full of money who wants to throw that money around. But until he reaches the point of absolutely no return, I believe he’s going to do everything he can to keep the Coyotes franchise in Phoenix.”

One of the great things about hanging out at Lightning hockey games is just sitting and talking hockey — every issue in the game — with both Hall of Famers and folks who are just interested in the sport.

Phil Esposito does radio here and his brother Tony made a brief appearance at our little group think tank Wednesday night. Scotty Bowman, Les Binkley, Devallano and Tampa sports writers Ira Kaufman and Roy Cummings had lots to say on the Winnipeg issue. It was pretty much agreed that if Winnipeg gets a team, it won’t be because it’s what the current owners want or don’t want.  It won’t be because Winnipeg provides the league with a large base of corporate giants interested in hockey or because the fans are desperate for the NHL to return or because we have a “great” arena.

It will be because Commissioner Gary Bettman has no American city in which to put a team and because somebody in Canada wants to be an owner — in Canada.

From the day the team left, the return of the Jets was based on the presence of an acceptable arena and legitimate ownership. If both are there and the mess in Phoenix becomes a completely untenable situation, Winnipeg could get a team. But make no mistake, Gary Bettman won’t be giving up on Phoenix without a fight.

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Hockey Night in Tampa

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

TAMPA, Fla. — Once the national media gets its teeth into the Big Story, nothing will shake it loose.

TSN, the Globe, even Rogers SportsNet (sort of), has picked up on the struggles of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his deep desire to save his beloved Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes, of course, is the NHL franchise he ripped out of Winnipeg and took to Phoenix, even though the rink in Phoenix was considerably worse than the one in Winnipeg (an entire end of the rink, which was actually a basketball building, had an obstructed view) and no one in Phoenix gave a crap about hockey.

By changing owners (and nearly destroying the original owners financially), Bettman eventually got the good burghers of Glendale, Ariz., to build him an arena. It was beauty, too. Trouble was, nobody wanted to go and watch this hockey product in the desert. They didn’t care about in a lousy rink and they didn’t care in a good one, but he kept saying, “Just wait until there is a good team, here. Then they’ll start going to the games.”

Well, the Coyotes have a pretty good team right now (they’re sixth in the West with 78 points), and people still aren’t flocking to jobing.com Arena. So now Bettman struggles with the Coyotes ownership situation and does more to save the Coyotes than he ever did to save Winnipeg.

If he doesn’t save this franchise, he owes Richard Burke, Steven Gluckstern and poor old Jerry Moyes (who lost about $300 million on that dog) an apology. In fact, if he has to move this team to Winnipeg after screwing over Moyes and Jim Balsillie and their plan to move the team to Central Ontario, somebody should sue Gary’s sorry ass.

Tonight, we’re in the press box in Tampa. Lots of talk about the Coyotes, Thrashers, Jets and Nordiques as the Capitals and Lightning battle for first place…

1) Winkler’s Eric Fehr says his shoulder has healed and he’ll be back in the Capitals lineup on Wednesday night in Edmonton.

He also wondered if anyone heard the jawing that went on here in Tampa before tonight’s Lightning-Caps game. Eric, my friend, how could you miss it?

“If I’m a ref, I would never make a call on (Lightning agitator Steve) Downie. He dives every two seconds,” Boudreau said after the pre-game skate on Monday morning. “(Leading scorer Steven) Stamkos, he dives every two seconds.”

When told of the comments, Lightning head coach Guy Boucher laughed. He also defended his players and the officials.

“We all know he’s trying to influence the refs for tonight’s game,” said Boucher. “I have too much respect for the players’ dedication, mine and his, to even think that is possible. Referees are smart and more competent than people realize. Besides, Downie and Stamkos have the most minor penalties on our team, it’s not like they’re getting a lot of calls going their way. I think (Boudreau saying Stamkos and Downie are diving) is ridiculous.”

Diving? Right now I’d like to see a couple of dives.

(Note: Four minutes into the third period, referee Tom Kowal waved off a Lightning goal after Marty St. Louis was tripped into the crease. Should have been a penalty or a goal, but not no goal and no penalty. Boudreau’s comments worked. He baited the officials and they bit.)

The first two periods of tonight’s game were so dull, two of the scouts in the press box went down to ice level to watch hoping it might “look faster” down there. “Have you ever seen Ovechkin so disengaged?” asked one scout.

No. He looks downright bored.

(Note: After doing nothing all night — he got an assist on Alexander Semin’s tying goal that he didn’t deserve — Ovechkin scored a magnificent goal in the shootout that won the Caps the game.)

2) Scotty Bowman just told a great story about the day in 1977 when Winnipeg Jets owner Michael Gobuty flew to Montreal and tried to convince Scotty to leave the Canadiens and take over as head coach of the Jets. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Scotty. “He flew in on his private jet with this gorgeous blonde and tried to get me to leave the Canadiens. Needless to say…” That year, Bowman won his second of four straight Stanley Cup championships with the Habs.

3) Bowman also talked about how close the Canadiens were to signing Lars-Eric Sjoberg, before the Jets got him in 1974. Those were the days.

4) Is there a better player in the NHL right now than Jonathan Toews? Toews has at least a point a game in each of his last nine. Over that stretch, he has eight goals and seven assists and has moved into the Top 10 in scoring in the NHL. He has 27 goals and 65 points in 64 games and is 10th overall, just four points out of fifth spot. He has 27 points in his last 17 games and he’ll be here in Tampa on Wednesday night.

5) Lots of talk about Edmonton Oilers rookie sensation Taylor Hall and the fact he’s out for the rest of the season with a high ankle sprain that will take eight weeks to heal. The injury occurred during a fight with Derek Dorsett of Columbus on Thursday night.

Hall leads the Oilers with 22 goals and has 42 points in 65 games. He’s third among rookies in goals and points.

While it’s disappointing for the Oilers to lose their rookie leader, Oilers coach Tom Renney told The Canadian Press that was glad to see Hall stick up for himself. Great, but if I were Renney, I’d have GM Steve Tambellini go out and get me a goon and then I’d tell Hall to never let it happen again.

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