Ponds and Pucks

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

The Senators beat the Devils last night, by 1 goal yet again.  This series has been pretty much decided by one goal over each game thus far.  But the Devils have not been able to get past the Senators at all.  New Jersey just cannot put together a game that will get past Ottawa because they are too weak a team.  Brodeur puts them in the driver’s seat but when he is up against the same quality day after day he starts to get into trouble.  Ottawa is stacked with goal scorers and they will put the puck in the net.  The Devils really cannot counter that.

Detroit insists on making things interesting.  Now, I will admit that I didn’t see all of this game because it started too late and I have to be up too early but I’m wishing that I had.  The Red Wings scored a goal with 5 seconds left in the second and then with 33 seconds left in the third to tie the game at 2.  They finally put the game away with 4 minutes left in the first OT period, beating the San Jose Sharks to tie the series at 2 games each.  Nabokov stopped 46 shots and that’s the main problem that he’s facing — his defense needs to keep Detroit from pounding the net.  If they can’t do that, then Detroit will eventually just overpower the Sharks and take the series.

Breaking down the Trophies
I will take these 1 per day, instead of as originally planned.  So today we look at the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year.
Finalists:

• Evgeni Malkin (Pit)
• Jordan Staal (Pit)
• Paul Stastny (Col)

Jordan Staal led the Penguins with a +16, and also led the three finalists.  However, he is also 3rd in points (under 50, for a center is troubling).  His teammate Evgeni Malkin leads the three, and all rookies with 85 points.  Stastny is safe as the middle for most categories.  He also has the advantage to not being on the same team as Sidney Crosby, who causes everyone to be overshadowed.
Who should win: Malkin
Who will Win: Stastny

Senators, Devils, New Jersey, Ottawa, Detroit, Red Wings, San Jose Sharks

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

On Sunday, NBC had some interesting coverage in between periods and the OT of the Rangers-Sabres game.  They talked about what food was brought in for the teams.  So all of you who want to be catering director for a hockey team, you got a bit of information on what to bring in when a hockey game goes into extra periods (bananas and sandwhiches in case you missed it).

New Jersey lost to the Senators last night with Brodeur playing well in goal.  Only him though; as the Devils played a sloppy and uncoordinated game.  If not for the amazing play of their goalie, they’d have been taken out of the game much earlier and would have lost by a lot more than 2 goals given up in the third.  The Devils cannot play another game like that if they want to survive.

One of the big questions that has been floating around since the series was announced was: how would Detroit perform in the Shark Tank?  Last night we got the answer.  They didn’t do too poorly.  Even though the Red Wings lost, they held a lead for almost 20 minutes.  They survived as they needed to do.  San Jose will make this a series and this may be an instant classic, but home ice will not be as potent here as some people thought.  However, as an aside, what is going on with the glass at the Tank?  It needed to be replaced all too often (more than 1x per game is too often).  That situation needs to be looked at.  It would also be nice if the games were a little earlier — not too much but maybe a half hour.  As it is, it’s hard for us on the east coast make it all the way through.

Rangers-Sabres & Anaheim-Vancouver tonight.  Enjoy.

Rangers, Sabres, New Jersey, Senators, Devils, Detroit, Red Wings, San Jose, hockey, NHL, Stanley Cup, playoffs

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

I have been raving and raving about Detroit since the playoffs started, talking about how great they’ve been.  Well last night they were pretty weak.  Their 2-0 loss to the Sharks was more than just an opening game loss.  The crisp, disciplined, well-structured play that they had demonstrated in the opening round was lacking last night.  The Red Wings couldn’t stop the early onslaught that was the Sharks and they couldn’t break the conservative possession game that San Jose played late.  Detroit looked amazing in the first round but they lost some of their magic last night.

San Jose was the 5-seed in the playoffs, but don’t let that fool you.  They were only 5 points below Detroit, AND they had more wins (51-50) in the regular season.  They also had more regular season losses (26-19) but fewer overtime losses (13-5).  The Sharks have a real chance, and I’ll admit it right now, I might have missed it.

Ottawa and the Devils played an interesting little game, with Brodeur’s magic fading. 
Giving up 4 goals in the first period — that’s very un-Marty-like.  But I’ll be honest, let’s call this game an anomaly and see what happens in game 2.  I would be very surprised if they don’t rebound.  Ottawa may have led 4-1 after the first 20 minutes (and at no point did they trail), but they won’t be able to keep it up.  New Jersey (whom I have called a one-dimensional team in the past) will manage to put together a few more wins and the Marty Magic will come back.  This will be a series to watch though.

The Rangers skate against Buffalo again tonight, and the Ducks face off against Vancouver for game two.

And finally, my quote of the day comes from this past weekend.  I was in Tucson with my fiance and we were watching the Travel Channel (her favorite).  The program was about how goldfish were made and someone from the factory gave us this gem: “The best part is trying the finished product at the end.”  My only question is can you try the finished product at any other time?  If it were finished in the middle, why keep going?

Detroit, Sharks, Red Wings, San Jose, playoffs, Ottawa, Devils, New Jersey, NHL, Stanley Cup, Hockey

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.

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Buffalo vs New York Rangers
Season Series: Buffalo won 4-0
It’s very easy to look at the season series and say that the Sabres will dominate the upcoming playoff series. But as has been discussed here, Lundqvist only played in one game (which was lost 3-2 in OT). Kevin Weekes was the goalie in the other 3 games (as an aside, a new backup goalie needs to be something that the Rangers need to look for in the offseason). Weekes has shown that he can be dominated by a team of mites, so the fact that Buffalo owned him is not as impressive as one would think.
Here’s the reality of the series though — Henrik Lundqvist is the backbone of the Rangers and Buffalo is Just That Good. Lundqvist will keep his team in the series but Buffalo will win it.
My pick: Buffalo in 6

New Jersey vs Ottawa
Season Series: New Jersey won 3-1
In the Eastern Conference, no playoff team had fewer goals in the regular season. And no team had fewer goals against. In fact, at 216 goals, there are only 5 teams in the entire NHL that have fewer goals scored. Of course, with 201 goals allowed, they are the top team in the Eastern Conference in that category. Ottawa, on the other hand is #2 in the league in goals scored with 288. So it becomes a question of who gets to play their game — Ottawa or New Jersey. New Jersey needs to light the lamp if they want to be successful in this series. In all three of their victories, the Devils won by a single goal. In their only loss, they lost by 7. Does NJ have a chance here? Yes. Will they pull it off? No. Ottawa is just too good.
My Pick: Ottawa in 7

Detroit vs. San Jose
Season Series: San Jose won 3-1
Evgeni Nabokov vs. Dominik Hasek. What’s not to like about this series? This has the potential to be an amazing defensive series with two of the league’s best netminders facing off. Both teams are going to be looking for big defensive efforts and both teams will be looking to their offense to produce big numbers. In the first round, San Jose played will, but Detroit had a clinic going against the Flames. They are just too hot to be stopped.
My Pick: Detroit in 5

Anaheim vs. Vancouver
Season Series: Anaheim won 3-1 (1 OT Loss)
The Canucks just finished an intense 7 game series against Dallas which included 6 OT sessions, and the Ducks are nicely rested. They have a deep bench and some of the biggest names in hockey today suiting up in their locker room. The X-Factor here is how tired Vancouver is — will they be wired and riding momentum or will they be tired and ready to lay down. This one could go 7, but won’t.
My Pick: Anaheim in 6

I complained a bit yesterday about the times of today’s games. Well the NHL has corrected the error and now the games are on at 7PM & 10PM ET. I love these hockey double-headers.

Technorati Tags: San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, Detroit Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks, Hockey, Stanley Cup, Playoffs, NHL

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.