Ponds and Pucks

Los Angeles

Notable moves and changes: Signed F Kyle Calder (was with Philly and Detroit last season), C Michal Handzus (was with Chicago), F Ladislav Nagy (was with Phoenix), and D Tom Preissing (was with Ottawa). Signed D Brad Stuart (was with Calgary). Signed D Jon Klemm (was with Dallas).
Starting goalie: Dan Cloutier
Summary of last year: Quick, name 3 LA King players from the 2006-2007 season without including Rob Blake, Michael Cammalleri or Alexander Frolov. Some of the more astute might remember a young rookie named Ante Kopitar who had an impressive season. Some might even remember Mathieu Garon, or Sean Avery, but there’s truly not much else to mark the Kings’ 4th straight year without making the post-season dance.
Prediction for this year: The Kings are lucky to have Phoenix in their division — it’ll at least keep them out of the basement. The Kings are consistent in that they always seem to have decent (if not spectacular) teams on paper, then quietly finish in the bottom third of the conference. In the off-season the Kings have nicely upgraded their blueline, brought in some steady forwards (Nagy is a huge question mark) and hung onto the key players of their team (Cammalleri’s signing came down to arbitration) (though some would argue the departed Sean Avery was key). If Cloutier can hold them in, the Kings could make a strong case this year, but they’ve been deceptive before….

Los Angeles, Kyle Calder, Philly, Detroit, Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Tom Preissing, Brad Stuart, Jon Klemm, Dan Cloutier, LA King, Rob Blake, Michael Cammalleri, Alexander Frolov, Ante Kopitar, Mathieu Garon, Sean Avery

Phoenix Coyotes

Notable moves and changes: Signed G Alex Auld (had been with the Florida Panthers), acquired C Kevyn Adams from the Chicago Blackhawks for F Radim Vrbata, signed G David Aebischer (had been with the Montreal Canadiens).
Starting goalie: Likely Aebischer, barring a stunning performance by Auld.
Summary of last year: The Coyotes had the dubious honor of having the worst record in the league for the second half of the season (yes, even worse than the Flyers). The Coyotes haven’t seen a hint of the playoffs in 4 years.
Prediction for this year: Do you call for the head of your head coach if he’s part owner of the team? How about if he’s Wayne Gretzky? The woes of this team are not entirely Gretzky’s fault, but this team is in a death spiral and help does not appear to be on the way. Both goalies signed in the off-season have a lot to prove, and on most teams wouldn’t be considered starters. New additions Mike York and Kevyn Adams need to step up their games considerably to make a difference, the young guys like Bill Thomas and Tomas Surovy need to continue to grow and contribute while veterans like Shane Doan and Steven Reinprecht need to return to form. The Coyotes didn’t even address their defensive woes — top d-man Ed Jovanovski played only 54 games last season and Nick Boyton and Derek Morris did not step up to fill in the gap. Not only are the playoffs unlikely, the Coyotes will struggle to fight their way out of the basement of the Pacific Division.

Phoenix Coyotes, Alex Auld, Florida Panthers, Kevyn Adams, Chicago Blackhawks, Radim Vrbata, David Aebischer, Montreal Canadiens, Wayne Gretzky, Mike York, Bill Thomas, Tomas Surovy, Shane Doan, Steven Reinprecht, Ed Jovanovski, Nick Boyton, Derek Morris, Pacific Division

Mark Bell has plead guilty to charges of drunk driving causing injury and hit and run.

The charges are from an incident in San Jose last September. Bell will be sentenced to 6 months in October, and will serve the sentence at the end of the season.

Hold on….he’s going to be sentenced to 6 months but not served until April at the earliest? Going to jail is never a good thing, but what a sweet deal to say “Yeah, I’m not really available until this spring….”

This man has plead guilty to a crime. He has admitted to driving while drunk, hurting another person and fleeing. This is not his first or even second offense. He told Leafs’ GM John Ferguson he hoped it would “take care of itself”. This man should not be allowed to continue to make his millions on the ice as long as his confessed crime has gone unpunished.

Celebrities and other well-known figures get special treatment — there’s no denying that. And it could be argued that Bell’s jail time could have a negative impact on the team itself (Bell was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs over the summer), but that’s something the team needs to address and deal with.

Tell me this… you think Bell is going to a focused player come the end of the season? Do you think his mind is going to be on making the playoffs or winning the Stanley Cup?

Or is he going to be focusing too hard on what he’s got lined up when his season ends? How much distraction could his pending jail time cause the team?

What if the Leafs (God forbid) win the Cup? Does he show up for jail the next day?

Players have missed seasons or parts of seasons for a lot less serious matters than this. Bell should serve his time now, like anyone else would have to, and then be ready to focus on his team when they need him the most.

Mark Bell, San Jose, Toronto Maple Leafs

Mike Ricci announced his retirement at a charity golf tournament yesterday, capping a 16 year career.

I have a lot of respect for the guy to know when it’s too crazy to continue. I’m sure he did everything in his power to get back into the ice, but when you’re talking neck injuries, and have a family to consider, you have to know when to say enough. I’m not sure enough players know that line.

Alex Auld has signed with the Phoenix Coyotes, where he will compete for the starting goalie spot. You know, if I’m a Coyotes fan, I’m not sure knowing Alex Auld is in contention to be the starting goalie is going to make me feel that much better about the upcoming season. But that might be unfair — Auld actually has a winning record (46-44-13) over 5 seasons, and that includes a recent stint with the Florida Panthers, so that’s pretty amazing.

My big memory of Auld is that he saved my ass in my hockey pool a couple of years ago when Cloutier went down with a 4 month injury and I picked up Auld in desperation. I guess that says something.

Mike Ricci, Alex Auld, Phoenix Coyotes, Florida Panthers

• Cost to buy the Tampa Bay Lightning: $206 million. Listening to John Tortorella slam the team’s previous owner? Priceless. (Fan590 audio link is here).
• Edmonton Oilers resign Brodziak and Roy. Craig Simpson’s out, Brodziak and Roy are in. Somehow I think they’re going to need a little more to get back into the playoffs.
• By the way, Simpson is now saying he’s leaving coaching because he realized he’d never be the next Scotty Bowman. There’s so many snarky comments I can make there I’m not even sure where to start…
• Staal brothers offered deal. And why not? Young men busted for drinking too much at a campground during a stag…. I know a lot of guys who call that “Saturday”.
• Hawks extend Savard’s stay. Good on ‘em. One of the best things to happen to the Hawks in years.
• Bruins sign their first round draft pick, Zach Hamill. The Bruins need this kid, both for their team and to keep their fans’ hopes alive.
• Hawks sign James Wisniewski. The Hawks on the other hand destroyed their fans’ hopes years ago…
• Coyotes ink Joel Perrault. Coyotes continue to be a mystery team… how will they do this year?
• CHL Schedule released. Colorado Eagles will begin their defense of the CHL championship title.
• Karel Pilar signs with Thrashers. Pilar’s been out of the NHL for nearly two years battling a heart condition.
• Chris Chelios testifies in murder trial. Nothing funny here. A former Cheli’s restaurant employee murdered two of his former co-workers, one right after Chelios spoke with her.
• Ducks’ Joe DiPenta thrills sick kids with Stanley Cup. Feel-good Cup story of the week.

Tampa Bay Lightning, John Tortorella, Edmonton Oilers, Zach Hamill, James Wisniewski, Coyotes, Joel Perrault, Colorado Eagles, Karel Pilar, Thrashers, Chris Chelios

Tonight’s Game 5 could be the end of the NHL season, the last hockey game for the season. All of us who want a longer season need to root quite hard for the Senators. But I don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off. They have been outplayed at every level by the Ducks.

If they want to win, then Ottawa needs to execute on defense and maintain some level of consistency on offense. They’ve yet to do either. ESPN2 has a stat on their bottom line about how outscored the Senators are in the 3rd period. They need to win every period. It needs to be a blowout. Otherwise it’s just a delay of the inevitable — a loss in the final frame of what will be the last game of the season.

NHL, hockey, Senators, Ducks, Ottawa, Stanley Cup, Anaheim

So there it is. The Senators had a chance to win, but let this one go. Part of the blame has to go to Ray Emery, whom I love, and who got caught off-guard leaving the net wide open for the game-winner. Ray, I love you, but you need to not let that happen.

The Ducks played well, of course. They were crisp and they seemed to be putting the puck where it needed to be, where the defense wasn’t. Contrast that with Ottawa who played better last night but still not good enough. They seemed more chaotic, less structured. They put the puck on the net but didn’t seem to know what to do after that. They were not in any way as efficient as they should have been.

The Senators need to spend their offseason fixing their major weakness. They are too reliant on a few players and not set up to capitalize. They need to work on some set plays. Right now they look like a midget team just running down the ice as quickly as possible without looking.

Senators, Ducks, Ottawa, Anaheim, NHL, hockey, Stanley Cup

If the Senators had lost on Saturday night, I would be writing now about how the Ducks were going to sweep. If the Senators had lost on Saturday night, I would be writing right now about what went wrong and how can they fix everything. I would be writing right now about what they need to do in the off-season to correct a total meltdown.

But they won on Saturday night.

Don’t get me wrong. Ottawa is going to be in for a really tough time and if they think that they are going to make a comeback. Down 2-1, they still need to win 3 out of the next 4 games. And they only have 2 more at home. They need to protect their barn and win one at the pond. Is it doable? Yes. Is it likely? No.

The main criticism from the first game was that Ray Emery looked nervous. He shook off some of those nerves for game two and again on Saturday. But on Saturday, he gave up 3 goals. That’s 7 goals for the series. It’s a dangerous thing to be that loose. His team needs to have his back and Emery needs to calm down.

And he will. Watch him at the next game and he’ll be back to Game 2 form. Emery will be the star of the series. But it won’t be enough. Ottawa made its move too late and is just not good enough. Anaheim has figured out how to shut them down.

Senators, Ducks, Ottawa, Anaheim, NHL, hockey, Stanley Cup

Watching last night’s hockey game, we can only come to one conclusion.  Ray Emery is grossly underpaid.  For 60 minutes, he kept his team in a game that they seemed to have no interest in playing.  The much vaunted Heatley/Spezza/Alfreddson line has produced bupkis.  That may be a function of the Anaheim defense, or it could be indicative that Ottawa has problems.  You be the judge.  The stat of the game though, speaks volumes.  JS Giguerre saw 16 shots.  Emery saw 31.  In the final minutes of play, the Senators couldn’t maintain the pressure in the offensive zone to let Emery get back to the bench.  Emery should have won this game, the offense in front of him lost it.

I was supposed to pick the series and I never did.  For the record, I thought Ottawa would handle business in 6.  I suspect that I will be wrong.

hockey, Anaheim, Ottawa, Senators, Ducks, NHL, Stanley Cup

My bad, I didn’t break down the cup finals yet and give my prediction.  So even though it’s probably cheating a bit, I will do that tomorrow.  Today, let’s look at one aspect of the game that was played last night.

This was a good game, with very few mistakes.  But the stars of the game need to be Ray Emery and J.S. Guiguerre.  What you got if you watched the game was a highlight reel of amazing saves.  Don’t be fooled by the goals that they let up, look at the overall body of work.  For both goalies this was a star performance.  And this is what they will need to continue if they want to drink from Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Both Ottawa and Anaheim have some major offensive forces.  But if the goaltenders can keep the pucks in front of them — by any means necessary — they’ll remain the story.

Ottawa, Anaheim, Senators, Ducks, NHL, Hockey

I had them losing in 7, but they lost in 6.  Pretty close.  Not very surprising.

Detroit never looked as good in this series as they had in the previous two. Anaheim, on the other hand, looked and played tight.  They skated well and they put the puck on net as needed.  They played a higher level of hockey, there’s really no debating it.

Now I’ll admit that I missed the third period last night.  After watching the first 2, I didn’t think that the Red Wings had a chance.  It turns out that I was right, but I’ll put it out there.

The Ducks showed that they were the far superior team.  At the end of this, there’s not a lot of breakdown to be done, it’s really just something to accept.

That and I’m really tired today.

Detroit, Anaheim, hockey, Red Wings, Ducks

I was not happy on Friday when there was no hockey, with the NHL electing instead to have a game on each Saturday and Sunday.  I was annoyed.  I was wrong.

The NHL got two great games on TV in front of national audiences this weekend.  Had the Sabres lost their series on Friday then Sunday would not have had a game on for people to watch.  The Senators would have been victorious before the weekend started and it would be a quieter weekend.  On the whole, I think the league did a great job and the games were great — which I suspect only raises the prestige of the league.

I do, however, have a gripe with NBC about Saturday’s coverage.

I was in Rochester over the weekend, so I watched the game in the Buffalo area.  For me, the game stayed on NBC.  For most of the country, however, when the Ottawa/Buffalo game went into overtime, they switched over to Versus because they wanted to cover the Preakness Stakes.  I’m all for that, since I am a huge horse racing fan.  But the Preakness wasn’t to be run for another hour.  What they wanted to do was offer the human interest stories about horses, jockeys, trainers and other assorted crap.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love horse racing and I wanted nothing more than to watch the race.  But I don’t need to hear from the jockey who lost a beloved second cousin to cancer and is dedicating the first quarter mile of the race to her.  Show me the race.  Before it starts, show me other races.  NBC chose to switch the overtime of a series-ending game to Versus instead of sticking with it.  That hurt because a lot of viewers don’t have Versus.  NBC made a big mistake here.

I am going to hold off on breaking down the Buffalo game until tomorrow, when I break down the series.  However, I will go through the Ducks/Red Wings game.  On Saturday, one of the NBC analysts asked “if Anaheim was favored to win without Chris Pronger, shouldn’t they be favored to win with him?”  This was an excellent point, but was he a deciding factor?  He had an assist in the game-tying goal but not in the game-winner.  So I’ll make this my first poll: Is Chris Pronger a key to Anaheim winning the series?  Vote below.

The Ducks managed to score in the final minute of the 3rd period to tie the game.  I was surprised by the goal, and my reasoning is simple: they were anything but crisp.  The Ducks were flailing about but managed in the end to put the puck in the net.  They got lucky.  If they want a chance to finish off this series, they need to work on pressing their advantage on man-up situations.

5-0
That’s it.  5-0
There’s really not much more that can be said about the game.  It was nothing short of complete and total domination.
Anaheim knew they lost and started getting punchy, which I guess I can understand.  But I don’t know how you let yourself lose that badly.  They were undisciplined and lethargic.  They gave up too many penalties and at the end of the day deserved to lose.
I really have no good commentary.  It wasn’t a game worth watching and it certainly didn’t match what I had expected for a playoff game.
Hopefully, tonight will be better.

Anaheim, NHL, Stanley Cup, Hockey, Detroit, Red Wings, Ducks, Playoffs

Red Wings/Ducks
Season Series Tied 2-2

This is another difficult one to pick.  Anaheim has coasted thus far, dominating their opponents.  Detroit, coming off of a first round that ran more like a clinic at times, ran into some problems in the second round.  Can they come back against a team that has been tight thus far?

Dominik Hasek is the key to this series.  If he plays as well as he has thus far, then Detroit will win the series.  If Pronger can get the puck past him, Anaheim will win it.  This series will test their endurance, as they will have to go 7 games to put it away.  But the Duck have the talent and I think they’ll be able to finish the Wings off in the end.

My pick: Anaheim in 7

No trophy update today, I will pick it up tomorrow.

Red Wings, Ducks, Anaheim, Detroit, hockey, NHL, Stanley Cup

So I came into the Conference Semis at 3-3-2.  How did I leave?  My picks are here, and let’s look at how I did.
Sabres/Rangers (Sabres in 6) — Right
Devils/Senators (Senators in 7) — Right team, wrong # of games
Red Wings/Sharks (Red Wings in 5) — Right team, wrong # of games
Ducks/Canucks[/tag] (Anaheim in 6) — Right team, wrong # of games
I walk out 4-3-5.  Not dreadful.

Detroit beat San Jose last night 2-0 to win their series in 6.  The big lesson that kids can take from it is in watching Dominik Hasek.  Except for one play, he knew where the puck was at all times and made sure to keep his body between the puck and the goal.  He flailed about like a beached whale at times and was far from pretty, but he shut the Sharks out.  We’d all rather an ugly win than a pretty loss.

Three stars of the second round:

1. Dany Heatley (Ott)
2. Dominik Hasek (Det)
3. Ryan Miller (Buf)

News Update
NHL & IIHF Agree on New Transfer Deal
Sidney Crosby voted top sports figure in Time.com Survey
Pharmacist makes bid for Edmonton Oilers

Trophy Update
Norris Trophy (Outstanding Defenseman)
The Finalists:

1. Nicklas Lidstrom (Det)
2. Scott Niedermayer (Ana)
3. Chris Pronger (Ana)

Three superb players got the nod here, and this may very well be the toughest category to decide on a winner for.  In their playoff series, all three have shown why they were nominated on a national stage.  And all three made amazing cases for themselves.
Who Should Win:  I think all three are deserving.  I will say that Lidstrom should win but it’s a real tossup.
Who Will Win: Lidstrom.  Niedermayer and Pronger will split the vote and eliminate each other.

Coming Attractions
This Friday, I will be starting a new feature, the weekly blog update.  Looking at hockey blogs across the web, I will give links to the top posts/stories of the week.
Conference Finals to be broken down tomorrow and Thursday.

Sabres, Rangers, Devils, Senators, Red Wings, Sharks, Ducks, Detroit, San Jose