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

Colorado Avalanche at Edmonton Oilers - Colorado is 4-4-0, Edmonton is 3-5-0, but the real story is Ryan Smyth’s return to Edmonton. Sentiments are expressed much better at Covered In Oil, and the news side is covered much better at KuklasKorner. Battle Of Alberta also chimes in. Don’t underestimate what Smyth meant to Oiler fans.

Nashville Predators at Los Angeles Kings - Nashville is 2-5-0 and LA is 3-6-0. Both teams have gotten to a slow start this season, especially former contender Nashville, now stuck in a 5 game losing streak. LA is turning it around slowly, stopping their own five game skid with a convincing win against Vancouver. No word on if the game will be affected by the fires in the area. Even though they’re likely not close to the arena, there are enough roads closed and confusion in the area. Prayers to anyone in So. Cal right now.

***

Here we go again: The Peter Forsberg rumor mill is alive and well. We’re back to Ottawa, since Petey will only play for a contender. Oh, and he wants a 3-year deal worth $5 million a season.

Disclaimer: I’ve never been much of a Forsberg fan, but that might a result of having to play the Avs 8 times a season when they seemed to own all the talent in the division. Or maybe it was the way he would crumple to the ice if someone looked at him wrong and the refs would buy it every time…. but I digress. Ottawa seems to be churning along fine without Peter The Great, and may not have the cap room to make a 3 year commitment. Colorado (Forsberg’s other choice), may not want him enough to give in either. So then what?

***

The Leafs woes continue as they’ve now lost Darcy Tucker to a knee injury. Tucker will be wearing a brace, and will be out indefinitely.

That really sucks for Toronto. Tucker is annoying as all get-out, but he’s clearly a key member of the Toronto club. Losing him indefinitely isn’t going to help the Leafs ship right itself.

Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Smyth, Peter Forsberg, Darcy Tucker

Alfredsson doesn’t care which Leafs’ goalie he scores on.

It was somewhat surprising to see Raycroft between the pipes when the puck dropped last night for the Senators/Leafs game. It was almost as surprising to see Toskala in net for the Leafs tonight in their second tilt against Ottawa.

What’s not surprising is that it didn’t seem to make one iota of difference.

I don’t blame the Leafs for not starting Toskala at home — the pressure there is ridiculous. I know players don’t go to Toronto to remain anonymous, but how much attention and pressure would Toskala be under if the Leafs hadn’t been forced to take the problem child Mark Bell as well?

If you’re the Leafs, who do you start in net next?

***

I haven’t checked yet, but I believe the Steve Downie suspension expires right before the Flyers play Ottawa again. Excellent. If you’re keeping track, tonight’s game against Calgary is Game #1 of the suspension.

Philly looked good tonight against Calgary. It’s only one game, but I swear the countdown on Mike Keenan’s first eruption is already well underway. A tale of two teams: Flyer’s star player Daniel Briere steps up and scores a goal in the latter half of the 3rd period, bringing the team to a 3-2 lead. Calgary star Jarome Iginla responds by stepping up and taking a hooking penalty. It was a lousy call, but still….

***

Up the highway, the Oilers eked out a strong win against the Sharks. Still processing that one… that and Nashville beating the crap out of Colorado. All this is telling me is that I’ll need to wait a few more weeks before buying SportsSelect tickets…

***

Shutout count: Backstrom - 1, Mason - 1.

***

Regular, less stream-of-consciousness content will return tomorrow. I promise. (Guilty confession: The NHL is my first love. Always has been. But after this weekend, part of me is still caught up in the NFL and ex-CFLer Jeff Garcia’s performance in Tampa).

Nashville Predators

Notable moves and changes: Signed F Radek Bonk (was with Montreal) and D Greg de Vries (was with Atlanta). Signed F Martin Gelinas (was with Florida) .
Starting goalie: Chris Mason
Summary of last year: Hard to believe now the Preds finished third overall and had their best season yet. Many point to the acquisition of Peter Forsberg (which cost the Preds Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent) as the turning point. Forsberg struggled, the team struggled, and their playoff run was cut to a mere 5 games. The off-season sale drama has done little to improve the team’s fortunes.
Prediction for this year:In a word — ouch. The list of players missing from this year’s roster is intimidating — Scott Hartnell, Paul Kariya, Tomas Vokoun, Kimmo Timonen all stand out. The players brought in don’t come close to replacing that talent, and the Preds have an extremely tough road ahead of them if they plan to equal last year’s performance. David Legwand, JP Dumont and Steve Sullivan (when he gets healthy) all need to practically double their output just to keep the Predators in the playoffs.

Nashville Predators, Radek Bonk, Greg de Vries, Martin Gelinas, Chris Mason, Peter Forsberg, Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, Scott Hartnell, Paul Kariya, Tomas Vokoun, Kimmo Timonen, David Legwand, JP Dumont, Steve Sullivan

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

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.

Last night, the first games of the first round were played — and that makes for my favorite time of the year.  Playoff hockey is special, as shown by the Canucks-Stars game.  Henrick Sedin scored the game-winner with less than 2 minutes remaining in the 4th overtime period.  For those keeping time, that means that the game lasted almost 140 minutes; but it’s still only the 6th longest game in NHL history.  Roberto Luongo made his first playoff start one he’ll never forget and what I saw of the game (I will admit, I didn’t make it through the whole game) he was amazing (although giving up 4 goals is a point of concern.  He will need to get more consistent in the rest of this series or Dallas will own him).

In other OT games, San Jose overcame Nashville 5-4 in the second OT.  This is another series that looks like it will have a lot of offense, but also looks like it will be entertaining.

Ottawa routed Pittsburgh 6-3.  Don’t let this score fool you, it was never close, with Ottawa up 4-1 when I turned it off.  I also heard a most disturbing fact yesterday — the Penguins have 2 players under 20.  Which means they are making a whole lot more than I am.

Final game of the night was Minnesota at Anaheim, with Minnesota losing by 1 (2-1).  I saw none of this game, I will admit (and by the by, Versus, can you shift around a bit more to show highlights and live snippets from the other game).  This one remained pretty much tied until the 5 minute mark when Penner put the final goal of the game in the net.

Looking at all of these games, it seems clear that the West will be an exciting bracket this year.  Tonight, 3 Eastern Conference series kick off, and let’s see what kind of excitement they bring us.

One final note about tonight, Devils, Isles and Rangers all kick off series tonight.  This year is the first year that all three of those teams have been in the playoffs and had three different opening round opponents.

Technorati Tags: NHL, Hockey, Stanley Cup, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks

Yesterday I broke down the Eastern playoffs, so today is time for the West.  This is the more competitive division, so look for more upsets here.

1) Red Wings vs 8) Flames
Season Series: Tied 2-2
Detroit is the top seed in the west and has won the Central division … so what else is new? 
Can they capitalize on this to move on to the second round?  They might be in trouble because Calgary is one of the better teams out there.  With Jarome Iginla running their offense, they might be able to take anything that the Wings can dish out.  But at the end of the day, the Wings will move on.
My pick: Red Wings in 6

2) Ducks vs 7) Wild
Season Series: Tied 2-2 (1 Shootout)
The Wild are good, there’s no question about it.  But this is the Ducks’ series to win.  At the end of the day, their lines are put together better than just about any other team.  Forget that the season series was tied, this one ends in 5.
My pick: Ducks in 5

3) Canucks vs 6) Stars
Season Series: Tied 2-2 (1 Shootout)
Are you seeing a trend with these season series?  You should.
Here’s an interesting side note for this one.  The final score for all 4 games was 2-1, and the home team won them all.  That’s where the Canucks will get their advantage.  But I don’t think it will be enough. Dallas will win one in Vancouver and take the series.
My pick: Dallas in 7

4) Predators vs 5) Sharks
Season Series: Nashville 3-1 (1 Shootout)
This was the only season series that wasn’t tied.  But the two teams have almost identical records (Nashville  51-23-8, San Jose 51-26-5)  In my mind, this series comes down to a battle of two players: Paul Kariya and Joe Thornton.  Kariya will win it.
My pick: Nashville in 6

As an aside, I watched the first two episodes of “Thank God You’re Here” the other day.  Episode 1 — David Allen Grier is very gray
Episode 2 — His hair is black
I understand wanting him to look younger, but they could have spaced it a bit better.

Technorati Tags: NHL, Hockey, Playoffs, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings, Calgary Flames