final playoff push

The NHL playoffs are right around the corner, and there are currently plenty of close races that are certain to end in a photo finish.

With their loss last night, the Calgary Flames all but ended their playoff hopes.  All the teams ahead of them have games in hand, and the Flames have the fewest regulation wins amongst them which is the first tiebreaker.  The team has cooled off after a post-christmas surge, and it seems they dug too big of a hole for themselves at the start of the season.

4 thru 9 in the Western Conference looks like this: Phoenix, Chicago, LA, Nashville, Anahiem, Dallas.  Any of these teams could swap places over the next couple of weeks, and teams like Vancouver, Detroit and SJ will likely have to wait until the last day of the season until they know their first round matchup.

In the East, the Capitals have been absolutely on fire of late and find themselves only 1 point behind the Flyers for the conference lead.  If they can get the goaltending, this team will be very tough to beat in the playoffs.

Big game tonight in Boston as with a win the Habs can move within one point of the division lead.  This is the final meeting between the two teams and Boston has only beat Montreal once this season.  Don't expect any retribution for the Chara hit, as that is not Montreal's game.  The Habs have dominated the Bruins this season with their speed and skill, and Boston will have to come up with a better game plan other than trying to physically run their opponents out of the building.

Without their two superstars, the Penguins have kept themselves in the thick of things in the Eastern conference and are still within striking distance of the Flyers for their division title.  With Crosby back on skates and Fleury at the top of his game, no one wants to face this team in the playoffs either.

This is the best time of the year to be a hockey fan.  With so much more on the line, games are much more intense and the quality of hockey is rapidly increasing.  Teams are now resting banged up players in hopes they will be fresh for a long playoff run.  So grab some beers, sit back, and enjoy.

no suspension for chara

The Chara hit on Pacioretty has been a big topic for the last couple of days, and so it should be.  Max Pacioretty is still in a Montreal hospital suffering with a severe concussion and a fractured vertebrae.  Chara received a 5 minute major for interference and a game misconduct for the hit, but was given no supplemental discipline from the league.  A report out of Quebec today stated that the Montreal police are investigating the incident, but to me this is a waste of time.  Yes it was a brutal hit, which probably deserved a suspension, but in no way can anyone prove this was intentional.  Only Zdeno Chara knows what was running through his mind at the time.  In my mind there are a few flaws in the NHL's discipline system.  Firstly, they base way too much of it on reputation.  If that was Steve Downie making the hit, he would have received a minimum of 5 games.  Also, the league stated that they didn't think there was malicious intent from Chara during the hit, the key word there being intent.  How do you define intent?  No one will ever know if Chara meant to do it or not, as there was a bit of a history between the two players as I have mentioned in a previous post, but for someone in the front office in the league to look at the play and  write it off as an accident is just wrong.  The bottom line is that Chara made a careless play at a very dangerous part of the ice, which resulted in a player being severely injured.  How is this any different from the countless headshots and hits from behind we have seen this season?  An open ice headshot is usually not the intended result of the player making the hit, but the game moves so fast now and a split second can turn a big hit into a devastating one.  The league has made a point of it this year to make players accountable for their actions, and I think they really dropped the ball on the Chara incident.  Enough of this intent garbage, if you make a careless play like that you should pay the price.  Pacioretty could have been killed from that hit.  Chara is an 11 year veteran of the league, has played countless games at the Bell Center playing with both Ottawa and Boston, so don't try to tell me he didn't know where he was on the ice.  The league really needs to get some ground rules on hits like this, as the suspensions we have seen handed out this season have been all over the map.  I mean honestly, if a little Trevor Gillies forearm to the head of Clutterbuck warrants a 10 game suspension and this gets nothing, shouldn't the league reconsider their discipline policy?

deadline day

The NHL's trading deadline passed today, and with all the hype TSN puts up it turned out to be pretty boring and uneventful.  For anyone who was brave enough to watch it, they saw Bob Mckenzie playing brickbreaker on his Blackberry more than he was talking to his sources.

The biggest deal of the day was Dustin Penner going to the Kings, who gave up quite a bit in Teubert a first and a third.  Edmonton keeps getting younger, but the playoffs may be a few more years away.

The Florida Panthers held their annual yard sale making four separate trades.  It seems every year this team is trading away all their players without getting any better in return.  Maybe this is why Florida is such a shitty team: the players know if they start to play well their stock will rise and they will be dealt out of sunny Miami to a place like Calgary where it is currently -30.  Trust me it sucks.

The Canucks added some depth up front without losing any current roster players, and if Chris Higgins can figure it out maybe he'll pressure Mason Raymond for his spot on the second line.  Lapierre adds a bit of grit and playoff experience as well.

All in all, the trade deadline is not as big of a deal as its made up to be.  Teams often ask way too much for rental players, and sometimes its just best to add depth rather than overhaul your roster.  A big trade can mess with a team's chemistry.  I think we are seeing the decline of deadline day, and now more moves will be made at the draft and on free agency day July 1.

MVP

Over the past 30 years, the NHL MVP award has followed somewhat of a similar pattern.  The Wayne Gretzky era started in 1980 and he pretty much owned the award until the 1990's.  From there you have a mixture of Lemieux, Messier, Hull, Lindros, Jagr, etc.  From 2000 and on we have guys like Forsberg, St Louis, Thornton, Crosby, Ovechkin x2, and Henrik Sedin.  The trend here is that all of these guys had huge offensive seasons, either winning the scoring race or coming very close to doing so.  But every now and then the NHL goes off the map such as Jose Theodore in 2002, Chris Pronger in 2000, or Dominik Hasek back to back in '97 and '98.  I feel like this is going to be one of those years.  Crosby would have run away with this trophy had he not been injured.  Stamkos has had a big year and should definitely be considered.  Daniel Sedin leads in points right now with his brother right behind him, but dont expect the league to split the trophy in half and hand it to the twins.  Tim Thomas could draw some votes, but my nomination is Ryan Kesler.  Before you Flames fans start calling me biased and a homer, just hear me out.  At the moment he sits 12th in the league in points with 57, and 2nd in goals with 33.  His +23 rating is currently 5th in the league.  The Canucks power play is ranked first in the league, and much of this can be credited to having Kesler on the first unit.  There is no one better in the league at screening the goaltender, and this is something that doesn't show up on the stat sheet.  He worked on his wrist shot in the offseason, and it has paid off big time.  I have never seen someone cover as much ice as Kesler, as he is aggressive on the attack but is still always the first guy back on the backcheck.  But don't let Kesler's offensive numbers fool you; he made a name for himself in this league as a checker and the defensive aspect of his game is perhaps the best part.  He is without question Vancouver's best penalty killer, and is very dangerous shorthanded.  He was nominated for the Selke award for the past 2 seasons, and is certainly playing at the same level defensively this year.  Although he is not the captain, he is the emotional leader of the Canucks who are currently at the top of the Western Conference.  He really does it all, and is truly a complete player.  Right now I cannot think of anyone who is more valuable to his team than Ryan Kesler, which is what the MVP award is supposed to be all about.

blockbusters

Two massive deals in the NHL over the weekend.  Firstly, the Colorado Avalanche sent Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and a second rounder to the St Louis Blues for Erik Johnson, Jay Mclement and a first rounder.  This was a huge trade for both teams, as each traded away what seemed to be key pieces to their future.  Erik Johnson is no doubt a solid defenseman, but if the Blues could go back in time to the 2006 draft they most certainly would select Jonathan Toews.  That being said, he is quite young and is still developing while playing at a high level.  In Chris Stewart the Blues are getting a 23 year old power forward who racks up points and PIMs, and is coming off a breakout season in which he scored 28 goals.  Shattenkirk is a promising young defenceman and I am very surprised Colorado gave him up this easily.  Im my mind, the Blues win this trade in a landslide.  Peter Stastny, hall of fame father of Colorado's Paul Stastny, also thought so and ripped the team saying the trade impeded their progress by 3-4 years.  In another blockbuster deal, the Dallas Stars shipped James Neal and Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski.  It has been no secret for the past 2 years Sidney Crosby has been urging the Pittsburgh front office to go out and get him a scoring winger, and now he finally has his wish.  You can bet his headache felt a bit better after hearing about this deal, as in Neal Pittsbugh gets a 23 year old winger with a heavy shot, and a lot of potential.  Playing on a line with Sid this guy could easily score 40 goals next year.  You can bet each of these players were scouted heavily by the organizations they now play for, and with the amount of youth involved it will take 3-4 years for us to figure out which of these teams benefit the most from the trades.

trading day

Big day for trades in the NHL today, and with 10 days until the trade deadline we have already seen a ton of action.  After hearing speculation about a Tomas Kaberle trade to Boston almost daily for the past year, the deal is finally done and Kaberle is finally a Bruin.  Kaberle will provide some depth for Boston's blue line, but deals like this can be risky.  If Boston makes a deep playoff run and resigns Kaberle in the offseason, it is a big success for the Bruins.  But if Boston coasts into the playoffs, get upset in the first round and watch Kaberle bolt off to another team the prospect and a first rounder they gave up for him is pretty expensive for 2 months of work.  In another deal Boston sent Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart to Atlanta, which I thought was a pretty steep price to pay.  Tampa Bay traded for Eric Brewer today, which gave them some much needed depth on the blueline.  If they can get consistent goaltending, they look like a team that can make a deep playoff run.  Kris Versteeg never really worked out in Toronto, and now Philly hopes he can repeat his playoff performance from a year ago.  There have been a bunch of minor deals that I won't get into, but this year it seems like the action is starting a lot earlier than usual.  But the NHL trading season really does have a domino effect, as with each trade teams start to get more desperate and GM's are much quicker to pull the trigger on a deal.

grabner

Islanders forward Michael Grabner has been absolutely on fire of late, and thrown his name into the mix for rookie of the year.  With his OT winner last night he capped off his second career hat trick, giving him 24 goals on the season which ties him with Logan Couture for the rookie lead.  What makes this even more surprising is how the Islanders picked up Grabner for absolutely nothing after he was cut by the Florida Panthers in the preseason.  Florida acquired Grabner from Vancouver along with salary dump Steve Bernier and a 1st round pick in exchange for Keith Ballard.  A lot of Canucks fans were upset to get rid of Grabner, as she showed flashes of brilliance in some of the few games he played for them last year.  The Canucks also have a lot of depth up front and at the time needed help on the blue line, so he was an asset they could afford to lose.  But is he an asset Florida can afford to lose?  What were they thinking?  If you can put up 24 goals playing for the Islanders you can pretty much do it anywhere.  Grabner showcased his speed at the NHL allstar game beating Taylor Hall twice to win the fastest skater.  But speed was never the question with him, it was more about his hands and his play with the puck.  He is now starting to show he can finish around the net, and he certainly creates a lot of chances with his speed.  This year's rookie class has been one of the best in recent memory, with Grabner, PK Subban, Jeff Skinner, and Logan Couture all playing big roles for their respective teams, and it will be interesting to see which of these guys takes the ROY award at the end of the season.