Ponds and Pucks

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who did a double-take when I saw Brett Hull had been named co-interm GM of the Dallas Stars (or maybe I was — sometimes the most obvious moves pass me right by). Allan Muir of SI.com has a good write-up of the situation and why this could backfire dramatically for the Stars.

I hadn’t released how poorly the drafting had turned out for Dallas, but now I can’t think of a single rookie who has stuck. As Muir outlines some of the deals that dismantled the 1999 Stanley Cup winning team over the years, it’s a sobering look at more than 5 years of mis-management. One by one, the deals don’t add up to much, but put together, one releases how much the Stars have let go and how little they’ve gotten in return. And how little they’ve done about it.

Brett Hull, Dallas Stars, Allan Muir

Dallas Stars

Notable moves and changes: Signed F Todd Fedoruk (was with Anaheim/Philadelphia).
Starting goalie: Marty Turco
Summary of last year: Considering the Stars finished 6th overall last season, it’s astonishing to see how poorly their offense fared. True, injuries plagued the team, but when Mike Ribeiro is your team’s scoring leader at 18 goals and 41 assists… well, we’ll just say it’s a real testament to how well the defense held up all season long.
Prediction for this year:So considering all that, what’s changed? Uh, nothing. They must be super confident in their defense, as Darryl Sydor has not been replaced. Up front, the team must be expecting Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow to have injury-free seasons (don’t like the odds on that one) and Ribeiro, Jussi Jokinen and Jere Lehtinen to all have career seasons, because the Stars made virtually no moves to fill in their offence.

Dallas Stars, Todd Fedoruk, Marty Turco, Mike Ribeiro, Darryl Sydor, Mike Modano, Brenden Morrow, Jussi Jokinen

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.

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