Ponds and Pucks

Time for my weekly look and the wonderful and wacky world of NHL standings.

Standings fun:

• Ottawa continues to own the east with nine wins. Detroit has the same in the west.
• At the other end of the spectrum, Atlanta has surged to win three games, tying them with follow bottom feeder Phoenix. And it only took Atlanta 11 games to do it!
• Every team in the Northeast Division is .500 or better, with only the Sabres sitting right on the .500 mark.
• Islanders, Lightning, Coyotes and Blues have all played only 9 games, while Anaheim leads the league at 13 games played.
• Washington and Florida are ahead of New Jersey and the NY Rangers. Who says parity is dead? There’s no such phenomenon in the west… everyone is well ahead of Phoenix and Nashville, surprising no one.

Elsewhere in the NHL:

• To most it’s just a Sunday night matchup between two struggling teams, but to the Ducks and the Oilers it’s another chapter in the feud between their respective GMs. Give this round to the Oilers. Of course, the focus was on Dustin Penner. His comments and attitude in the story are actually pretty classy. The bonus was that GM Brian Burke presented Penner with his Stanley Cup ring in the GM’s office after the game. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall for that little scene?



• Bruins fans are a hardy folk, how else could they get through so many seasons of misery with barely a whimper? The latest in their string of misfortunes, the injury of Patrice Bergeron — one of the few bright lights in the Bruins organization — might be less serious than previously thought as Bergeron was released from the hospital Sunday. Tests showed no injury to Bergeron’s head and neck.

Plus a big congrats to the Boston Red Sox on their World Series win!

Dustin Penner, Brian Burke, Patrice Bergeron

Buffalo Sabres

Notable moves and changes:‹crickets›
Starting goalie: Ryan Miller
Summary of last year:Ah Buffalo, so much hope tied into one team. So many highs in one season (record setting road wins, numerous club records, full season of home sell outs), and it all died so quickly (beaten in 5 games in the Eastern Conference final). Normally this would just set a team up to win it all the following year, but…
Prediction for this year:… too much has changed in Buffalo. Daniel Briere, Chris Drury and Dainius Zubrus have all left the team, and it appears as though the Sabres didn’t even try to replace them (though their spending might have been curbed by having to match the Oilers offer sheet for Thomas Vanek). If a Cup could be won on enthusiasm and heart the Sabres would be shoo-ins. Here’s hoping it’s enough to push them deep into the playoffs.

Buffalo Sabres, Ryan Miller, Daniel Briere, Chris Drury, Dainius Zubrus, Thomas Vanek

Notable moves and changes: Signed free agent Daniel Briere (was with the Buffalo Sabres), picked up F Joffrey Lupul[/tags] and D [tag]Jason Smith from the Edmonton Oilers for D Joni Pitkanen and F Geoff Sanderson, and acquired F Scott Hartnell and D Kimmo Timonen from the Nashville Predators.

Starting goalies: Martin Biron, though Antero Niittymaki could challenge with a great camp.

Summary of last year: The Flyers were last in the league with a sobering 22-48-12 record, and were out of playoff contention well before the All-Star break. This team has nowhere to go but up.

Prediction for this year: If the off-season signings and trades are any indication, Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren is serious about righting the ship and doing it quickly. Even at the trade deadline, the Flyers were making moves to strengthen the team, picking up most notably Martin Biron. There isn’t a position on the team that hasn’t been improved, defense shored up with Smith and Timonen, the signing of Briere and the acquisition of Biron. Will they go from last in the league to making the playoffs? There’s a good chance.

Daniel Briere, Buffalo Sabres, Joffrey Lupul[/tags] and D [tag]Jason Smith, Edmonton Oilers, Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, Nashville Predators, Antero Niittymaki, Paul Holmgren

The Sabres really looked like they were the team to beat.  They had won the President’s Trophy, they had waltzed through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and Ryan Miller looked like he could stop a Mack Truck just by shooting it a dirty look.  So why aren’t they playing for the Stanley Cup?

I could cheat and say that the Senators are just better.  That’s true (the season series demonstrated that as well), but it doesn’t paint the whole picture.  Buffalo could have beat Ottawa if they had made a few corrections.

• The Power Play — At no point did the Sabres fix their ailing power play.  To say that they had trouble converting is to suggest that a 500 degree oven is a little warm.  They were dreadful, absolutely dreadful.  There are no other words to really describe it
• Defense — The Sabres were slower and less prepared on defense.  They were unable to stop the top scoring line of Heatley/Spezza/Alfreddson and more often than not, they had Ottawa rushing on them.
• Intel — The never adjusted their play to incorporate combating Ottawa’s strengths.  Never.  It is what prevented Buffalo from moving on.  They couldn’t adjust.  End of story.

What do you think?

[tags]NHL, hockey[/tag]

Sabres, playoffs, Stanley Cup, Senators, Buffalo, Ottawa

I don’t think I saw the hockey game last night.  My TV must have been broken, and I must have been watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Who were these Buffalo Sabres who took the ice last night because they didn’t look like anything that we had seen thus far this series.

What did they do right?  They kept Alfreddson off of the scoreboard.  In fact, they kept the entire line out of the boxscore.  That’s important.  Spezza, Alfreddson and Heatley are the scorers for the Senators and by preventing them from putting the puck in the net, Buffalo guaranteed that they would win the game.  Finally scoring a power play goal is also critical.

Of course, when Ottawa scored 2 quick goals, that was when my TV was fixed.  That was when Buffalo tried to give back the win.  Tried but did not succeed.  They got lucky.  You cannot allow a team like Ottawa to score like that, and Buffalo knows it.  I am glad to see that they corrected themselves in the 3rd period.  Since I picked the Senators in 6, I am rooting for Buffalo to win a couple of games.

Here’s something to consider though: as good as the Senators have been, in their 15 year history, they have never made the Cup finals.  Can they break through this time or will they choke again as has been their milieu since 1992?

hockey, Buffalo Sabres, Senators, Ottawa, NHL, playoffs, Stanley Cup

After watching last night’s Sabres debacle against the Senators, you can only ask what has caused the total collapse of Buffalo?  The top team in the NHL and (as I have been reminded) winners of the President’s Trophy look like a Class A team from Podunk against Ottawa.

Is it their special teams?
Last night, the Sabres gave up an almost-goal (luck was their goaltender) when the Senators had a 2 on 0 fast break.  That’s all well and good except Buffalo was on the power play at the time.  And if you look at the tape, you don’t see any Sabres getting back fast enough to even help Miller out with a quick rebound.  The Sabres have not yet scored a single PPG and have given up 1 short-handed goal.  If you don’t think that’s significant, then consider this: in game 1, the Sabres had 5 power plays and got exactly 1 shot on goal.

Is it their offense?
In three games, Buffalo has had the following shot counts: 20, 37 and 15.  That’s right, last night they had 15 shots on goal.  Ottawa more than doubled their number.  Point blank — if you don’t shoot the puck at the net, the puck won’t go in.  Ottawa has been stifling Buffalo and preventing them from putting the puck on net.

Is it their defense?
In the first two games, Ottawa ran up the score (5 goals in game 1 and 3 in regulation in game 2).  Buffalo can’t seem to stop them.  See above with regards to their 2 on 0 fast break; Ottawa is faster than Buffalo and makes the turnarounds quicker.

Is it their goalie?
No.  Next question.

Is it the men behind the bench?
Coaches in the NHL have a certain shelf life — moreso really than any other sport.  You reach a point after a few years where you’re selling something but nobody’s buying.  One has to wonder if Lindey Ruff’s magic has expired.  He won’t be out of a job involuntarily this offseason, but maybe he needs to look at whether he’s the cause of the problems.
Or maybe it’s the scouts.
Daniel Alfreddson has scored in his last 5 games (including all 3 against the Sabres).  So maybe someone should pay attention to him.  Now he’s not the only goal scorer on the team, but if it were me, I would make a point out of shutting him down and moving on.

—

I’m staying with my parents for a couple of days and here are the two things that I missed about home:

1. Hi-Def: My parents have a great TV with HDMI and all sorts of bells and whistles.  But their cable package doesn’t have Versus in HD.
2. The ability to rewind: I watch most hockey games on a TV with a DVR … but the big tv doesn’t have one here so no ability to go back and rewatch the last play unless the kind people on Versus decide to show it to me again.

Sabres, Senators, Buffalo, NHL, Ottawa, hockey, Stanley Cup

Sabres vs Senators

Season Series: Senators win 5-3 (Buffalo won 1 game in a shootout)
I’ve struggled with this one for a little while.  Both teams have played great hockey thus far in the playoffs and both of them were great in the regular season.  So who has what it takes to go to the Cup finals?  The reality is that both of them do.

The history here is intense.  Both teams play in the Northeast division, so they played 8 games against each other this year.  They also met in the Conference Semis in last year’s playoff, a matchup which was won by the underdog Sabres in 5 games.

Ryan Miller will be facing one of his toughest challenges thus far against the Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson line.  They had 23 points total against the Devils (out of 35 racked up by the entire Ottawa offense).  As a team, Ottawa scored 288 goals in the regular season, which is second only to Buffalo’s 308 in the NHL.  So Miller’s 2.07 GAA will be tested by this potent offense.  And here’s something else to consider.  Miller, this season against the Senators, is only 1-4.  Buffalo has given up a lot of goals (total in the series is 33 for Ottawa and 24 for Buffalo according to my rough math) and will have a hard time putting out the fire that is the Senator’s top line offense.

On the flip-side, however, Buffalo has a few big game stars as well.  Chris Drury has a total of 14 game winning goals in his career and 7 goals thus far in 11 playoff games.  Ray Emery, the Ottawa goalie, has 2 shutouts thus far in the playoffs and is having a hell of a season.  He was 7th among all goalies in Save %, which might be the key to everything (Miller was 16th, by way of comparison).  Can he put a stop to a red-hot Buffalo team?

Yes.

My pick: Senators in 6

Trophies:
Lady Bing
Finalists

1. Pavel Datsyuk (Det)
2. Joe Sakic (Col)
3. Martin St. Louis (Tby)

The good conduct trophy, as it’s called, is a toss-up.  Paul Kariya is usually in the running so I’m not sure who to pick.  I think St. Louis got shafted by not getting any other nominations so I’ll pick him here.
Who should win: Martin St. Louis
Who will win: Joe Sakic

Sabres, Senators, the Devils, Ottawa, Buffalo, NHL, hockey, stanley cup, playoffs

Wow.
I am not sure that there is a whole lot more to say besides wow.
It’s just wow.
The Buffalo Sabres proved that they are a better hockey team, hands down.  They out-played the Rangers and won the series 4-2, winning both game 5 and game 6 to take the series 4-2.  But there is no question that the Rangers played as best they could and made sure that Buffalo had to work hard to get the win.
For those who missed Game 5, the Rangers had a 1-0 lead until the last 7 seconds of the game.  The Rangers iced the puck and had to take the faceoff in their own zone.  The Sabres scored to tie the game and then won it in OT.  Game 6 had a much different feel.  The Rangers took an early lead into the locker room after the first intermission but then came out for a disastrous middle frame.  After 2, Buffalo led 4-2.  They would eventually win 5-4.
(more…)

Buffalo Sabres, Rangers

I would never believe that the Rangers were going to make a real series out of their match-up with Buffalo, but their win last night tied the series.  These past two games, they have been absolutely electric and played amazingly well.  They need to win game 5 if they want to win the series, but they have fought and earned an absolutely amazing end to their season if it ends this week.  The Sabres were 28-10-3 at home this year in the regular season and they won the first two games of the series at home as well.  But what they need to do is take a breather and get their act back together. They have not looked nearly as good these past 2 games as they did the first 2 of the series.  Can they win?  Yes.  But they need to win tomorrow night or they’re going to be in a lot of trouble.  If the Rangers go back to Madison Square Garden ready to clinch the series, and if Lundqvist continues to play like the Goalie Gods have endowed him with magical powers, then we could see Jagr, Shannahan and Co. in the Eastern finals against the Senators instead of a “Battle of the Border.”

The Ducks overtook the Canucks in overtime to take a 3-1 series lead.  Vancouver has not played as well as they had been in the first series and the question is whether or not they are just out-classed.  They need to start kicking their game up a bit, and even though this game went into OT, they need to find a way to get the puck into the Anaheim net or they’ll be on the golf course by Monday.

The NHL released its list of finalists for the various trophies yesterday.  Tomorrow and Friday, I will break down the finalists and give you my picks for who will win each trophy.

Devils/Senators and Red Wings/Sharks tonight.  Both the Devils and the Red Wings need to win tonight in order to even things up, but the Red Wings need to win if they have a chance at moving on to the next round.

Happy Wednesday.

Rangers, Buffalo, Sabres, Ducks, Canucks, Vancouver, Anaheim, NHL

Good Morning.

It was a great weekend for hockey, and there were some outstanding games on this weekend.  Friday night started off with a second Buffalo win, and a Vancouver win in the second OT period (there was 1 final OT period in the first round that I never added, so let’s add 3 right now…but there were more this weekend).  New Jersey won on Saturday in 2 OT periods (total 5), and Detroit overtook San Jose.  Anaheim beat the Canucks on Sunday and the Rangers/tag] took out the [tag]Sabres in 2 OT (total 7).  So that’s the overall picture.]

Now here’s what you need to know:
Ryan Miller was amazing on Sunday.  Don’t let the loss fool you, he played amazingly.  He kept the Sabres in the game and was pushed beyond anything that you can imagine.  The Rangers had 46 shots on goal and with the exception of the second period, was at least even with or outshot the Sabres in EVERY period.  Buffalo was not on their game — they did not play as well as they had in the first two.  Now they can give up all 3 games at Madison Square Garden and still win the series if they want.  But if they do that, if they can’t win one game on the road in this series, then they will be facing serious problems in the next round.

Detroit is in trouble.  The series is tied 1-1 and game three is tonight at the Shark Pond.  But when you watch them play, it is clear that the dominance from the first series is somewhat lost.  I might have to rethink my pick for this round.  If the Red Wings want to get past the Sharks, they will need to perform much better than they have thus far.

Ottawa is one of the best teams in the league and they may have figured Martin Brodeur out.  If this is true, this series will be done soon.  If not, then I suspect that it’s only a matter of time.

The Anaheim/Vancouver series looks like it will be the best series of this round.

hockey, Buffalo, Vancouver, New Jersey, Detroit, San Jose, Anaheim, Canucks, Rangers/tag] took out the [tag]Sabres, Red Wings, Ottawa, NHL, Stanley Cup

The NHL Stanley Cup playoffs started with a bang, but only for one team in each game. The New York Rangers just couldn’t put anything together as the Sabres dominated the game from start to finish. Lundqvist gave up 3 goals in the second period, all within 4:30. Buffalo, of course, won the game 5-2.

The Rangers were only one goal better than Vancouver, who lost to Anaheim 5-1. The Canucks started the game off with their only goal, but then Anaheim took over. Andy McDonald got a hat trick in the effort, along with an assist to give him 4 points for the game.  There was no question that the Ducks pretty well dominated the game.  They owned the Canucks and at the end of the day, they shut down the team which had gotten only 1 day off.  Versus showed a little stat comparing the first rounds of these two teams and if Anaheim continues to dominate, it will be interesting to see if anyone points to the differences in their first rounds as a reason.  For me, the interesting stat was that Anaheim had only trailed for about a half hour in their first round series.  Last night, they trailed for just over 2 minutes.  If they can keep this up, they’ll waltz their way into the Cup finals.

Detroit/San Jose & Senators/Devils tonight; both games are on at the same time.

NHL, Stanley Cup, playoffs, New York Rangers, Sabres, Buffalo, Vancouver, Anaheim, Canucks, Ducks

I will start by giving credit where credit is due.  Versus did a great job this weekend, showing so many games.  Call it bonus coverage all you want, I think they deserve a pat on the back.  I hope they continue the trend.

There is only one game on tonight, and it’s game 7.  Vancouver will skate at home against Dallas for all the marbles.  Puck drops at 9 ET.  This is the final game of the first round and we go to the next round, which I will break down tomorrow.

This weekend we saw New Jersey, San Jose, Detroit and Buffalo move on to the second round.  New Jersey put Tampa Bay away for the season which was not unexpected and San Jose was dominant in their series.  Neither series generated much news.  However, The Isles and the Flames went out with news clips:

• The Isles had a defenseman suspended under the league’s drug policy.
  Now, I don’t think that the loss of Sean Hill led to the defeat of the Isles in the series — the reality is that they were just completely outplayed.  But how stupid do you have to be to do anything that jeopardizes your team during the playoffs?  Hill had a 1 year contract, so he is now a free agent.  We won’t see him back in Isles Blue.
• The Flames Goalie got the gate
  We’ll start with See Above and move on from there.  Now granted, it’s Jamie McLennan who is the backup goalie, but you still need to make sure that you aren’t doing anything stupid.  The game got out of control, and everyone go frustrated.  I get that, it happens.  The game was lost 5-1.  But in the playoffs you need to play smarter.  It’s the playoffs.  It’s a disappointment.

Technorati Tags: Sean Hill, Jamie McLennan, NHL, Stanley Cup, Hockey, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings

With a little Moody Blues to get us going, we start with 2 more teams advancing to the second round.

Ottawa 3, Pittsburgh 0
Ottawa wins the series 4-1. I will have more to say on this next week, but what it comes down to is the reality that you can’t deny — Ottawa is a great team and they will continue to be a great team. Pittsburgh is good and young, so this won’t be their last playoff run, but they met a team that is just better this year.

Anaheim 4, Minnesota 1
Anaheim takes the series 4-1. The Ducks are a powerful team and they pretty well bulldozed the Wild. Look for them to be a scary force for their next round.

We can also add 1 more OT period to our count from the Dallas-Vancouver game. The Stars won the game 1-0 in the first overtime.

What does this weekend hold?
Buffalo will try to finish the Islanders off tonight. If they lose tonight, they’ll get another chance on Sunday. Unfortunately for my Isles, Buffalo will win tonight at home. The series that I want to see is Buffalo-Ottawa right now.

Tampa Bay skates in New Jersey tonight and at home on Sunday. The series is tied 2-2 so the winner of tonight’s game has a huge advantage.

San Jose is in Nashville tonight and will try to finish off their series. The Sharks have been pretty dominant in this series and they should wrap it up tonight.

The Rangers won their series last night, thus making them the first team to move to the second round.  Because of the re-seed, they will wait until a couple of other series end before learning their second round opponent.  My fiance is a Rangers fan (mainly so she can annoy me) and she was having a little fun with this.  It ruined my mood though.
Where did the Thrashers go wrong?  They were out-played in every aspect of the series.  Look back at Game 3, where they lost 7-0.  There are two things to see here — the first is that the Rangers scored 7 goals.  It’s not a goalie problem when the score is that high, it’s a total team problem.  The Rangers had 35 shots and outshot the Thrashers in every period — including a 9-3 final period.  The Rangers were clearly the better team, as much as it pains me to say it.

Add 1 to our overtime count as the Devils beat the Lightning 4-3.  Tampa Bay is holding their own much better than Atlanta did, against a tougher opponent as well.  The Thrashers and the Lightning were fighting for the top spot in the Southeast Division and we have to question if the right team won at the end of the day.  Tampa Bay had goals from both St. Louis and LeCavalier, and if they want to win the series, they will need some more production from them.

Buffalo beat the Islanders 4-2.  The Sabres still have to win 1 more game but they’ve won the series, having won both of the first 2 games in Uniondale.  The series will move back to Buffalo for game 5, and I predict the Sabres will win it.  The Sabres are looking amazing this year and have what it takes to go to the Conference finals if they play right.  Meanwhile, the Isles cannot seem to get past the first round of the playoffs.  It would appear that they are still missing one element, one piece, to get them to the next level.

San Jose beat Nashville 3-2.  The Sharks are one win away from moving on to the next round and I don’t think they’ll have much problem getting there.  The score was close but the game wasn’t really — San Jose has been outplaying the Predators in pretty much every way.

By the end of the weekend, we should see a few series wrapped up.

A note: I am on the West Coast tomorrow, so my post may go up a bit late.

Technorati Tags: NHL, Stanley Cup, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devis, Tampa Bay Lightning, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators

Eastern Conference:
Buffalo leads the Islanders 2-1
Tampa Bay leads New Jersey 2-1
Rangers lead Atlanta 2-0
Ottawa leads Pittsburgh 2-1

Western Conference
Detroit leads Calgary 2-0
Anaheim leads Minnesota 3-0
Vancouver leads Dallas 2-1
San Jose leads Nashville 2-1

Anaheim could sweep the series tonight, but I doubt it.

So here is my newest feature, the Overtime Count.
To date, there have been 7 overtime periods, and all have been in the Western Conference.

As we start looking at the end of the North American hockey seasons; last night, the AIHL started up their 2007 season with Melbourne dominating Adelaide 6-1. Canberra was also victorious, taking the win from the Brisbane Blue Toungues 5-2.

Finally, a mea culpa. Many thanks to Lyndsey who pointed out that it was Buffalo, not Detroit who won the President’s Cup, despite what I wrote in my previous posting. I have no good excuse except that I had a very long day including hitting two Napa Valley vineyards for wine tastings and a 2 hour drive. I will be more studious in the future and make sure to error-check myself.