Archive for NHL Playoffs
And Then There Were Four: NHL Conference Finals
Posted by: | CommentsMontreal, Philadelphia, San Jose and Chicago. These are your final four teams competing for the Stanley Cup. Raise your hands if you had these four in your bracket when you filled it out at the start of the playoffs…now put your hand down you liar, no one saw this coming. No one.
Taking a quick look back at the first round in the Western Conference saw next to no surprises in terms of higher seeds advancing. Only the Detroit Red Wings were able to upset the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round, and safe to say that didn’t surprise many. Full marks to a Phoenix team for filling their barn each game and getting that young team experience to build upon for the upcoming years. That team appears to be in good hands.
The Playoffs spelled another bitter end for Alexander Ovechkin and company.
The first round saw the three division leaders’ advance along with the Red Wings to the conference semi-finals where Chicago was able to bounce the Vancouver Canucks from the playoffs for the second straight year. They were able to rough up an inconsistent gold-medal-winning Roberto Luongo on a fairly regular basis. Luongo seems to have problems dealing with what the Black Hawks bring in their game. Very disappointing end to the season for the Canucks as they had aspirations of the Stanley Cup, and this appeared to be their year to make a push for it. This playoff season appears to be the coming out party for Dustin “Buff Daddy” Byfuglien. The 6’ 3” nearly 250-pounder was a point a game man for the Hawks against the Canucks, and able to both fill the net as well as play the back end where needed.
In the other conference semi-final, San Jose helped to erase some recent playoff failures by ousting the Red Wings rather quickly. They were able to take advantage of the Red Wings fantastic rookie goaltender Jimmy Howard and get to him and seemingly get into his head and provide doubt in his game. Detroit has played so many hockey games over the past few seasons, it appeared as though they simply ran out of gas. Going to the finals two years running, as well as having as many players go to the Olympics as they did, it is no wonder. Johan Franzen put together a game for the playoff ages in Game 4, putting up four goals and adding a couple of assists as well, to account for the bright spot for the Wings in the second round. Just coming off of a major injury, he should be able to get a good off-season in and come back as the “Mule” again for the 2010-11 season. Joe Thornton, long been dubbed a playoff wilting rose, was able to rise up and be the big-time player in the playoffs that people have been calling for years to appear. Jumbo Joe put up eight points including three goals over the fiv- game series to help quiet some critics.
Chicago vs. San Jose
The top two seeds going at it. Both play very strong team games and have been getting the necessary components to win games. Undrafted rookie goalie Antti Niemi has been good, giving up under two-and-a-half goals a game, captain Jonathan Toews has had some brilliant games, and is one of the playoff’s leading scorers. Chicago is also getting solid play out of former first overall pick Patrick Kane as well as Patrick Sharp. On the back end, Duncan Keith is playing over 27 minutes a game and Brent Seabrook is hitting anything that comes near him. This young team seems to have learned lessons well from last year and is poised to make a run for their first Stanley Cup appearance since 1992 and their first Stanley Cup since 1961.
Antti Niemi's glove work has Chicago fans remembering Tony Esposito.
San Jose is looking for their first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and after their recent past of seemingly choking in the playoffs, most didn’t expect them to get to this point. If the likes of Thornton, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau can jump to the forefront, coupled with this year’s playoff performer Joe Pavelski who has nine goals so far, and led by back-end talent Dan Boyle and playoff veteran Rob Blake, things look good.
Philadelphia vs. Montreal
Over in the Eastern Conference, it has been mayhem since the get go. All three division leaders were upset in the first round with only No. 4-seeded Pittsburgh (defending champs) making it through as a top seed. The Cinderella Smurfs….oops, I mean Montreal Canadiens, were able to knock off the President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals after being down three games to one, and cause league superstar Alexander Ovechkin another year of playoff humiliation. The Boston Bruins dispatched Ryan Miller and the division-winning Buffalo Sabres and all-time wins leader Martin Brodeur and his New Jersey Devils were ousted by divisional foes, the Philadelphia Flyers, who have seemingly had their number all year behind backup-goalie-turned-starter Brian Boucher.
The second round, like the first, brought more of the same, with Montreal riding the hot goaltending of Jaroslav Halak. Halak is reminding Canadiens’ fans of past young stars Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden with his ability to steal games. Montreal has had their injury issues on the back end as well, but with that has emerged former second-rounder P.K. Subban. Since being recalled against Washington, he has filled in admirably. He is playing over 20 minutes a night, has been even, and has chipped in four points offensively as well. Off-season pickups Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri have been key players on the offensive end. Gionta looks like the future captain, and Cammalleri has shown his mettle.
In what will go down as one of the more memorable series of all time, the Philadelphia Flyers were able to oust the Boston Bruins after being down in the series three games to zero. In the deciding seventh game, with an ironic twist, the Bruins jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, only to squander it and go on to lose the game and the series, 4-3. Simone Gagne returned in Game 4 from a broken foot to score the overtime winner, and set the comeback in motion. After returning, Gagne put up four goals, five points in his four games. Danny Brier has also shown flashes of his offensive game returning to form, netting nine goals so far this postseason. The Flyers will need more of the same to continue their improbable run to the finals.
Philadelphia's miracle comeback against Boston has Philly fans believing.
In one conference we have the two top teams battling for a spot in the finals; in the other; we have the two bottom teams, teams that waited until the last possible moment to qualify for the party. At this point, we will start to see the makings of hobby heroes. Guys like Cammalleri, Subban (when his first licensed cards go live) and Halak in Montreal, Richards, Briere, van Riemsdyk among others in Philadelphia all have the chance to step up and make a difference in their collectability over the next week or so from the Eastern Conference.
Over in the west, expect guys like Thornton, Heatley, Pavelski to look to up their games, and in all likelihood their values on the secondary market from San Jose. Chicago has some hobby heroes in Kane and Toews right now, but a trip to the finals could see another spike in their items. Teams always seem to have the one guy who steps up his game in the playoffs to become a hobby hero, and you will here it here first; Byfuglien in Chicago, Clowe in San Jose, Giroux in Philadelphia and Gionta in Montreal all have the capabilities to put them on the market if they can help their teams to a Stanley Cup Final.
Count me in as a person who hopes we can see an Original Six final. Chicago and Montreal matching up for the Stanley Cup would certainly bring a lot of older fans back into the game and, because of it, they would be watching with their younger family members, telling stories of years gone by and matchups from when they were growing up. With all due respect to San Jose and Philadelphia, the intrigue as well as the simplicity of seeing two of the most iconic jerseys playing in a minimum of four games would most certainly be a treat for us all.
Good luck to all four teams and their fans for making it this far. Let’s keep a close eye on this, the way this year’s playoffs have played out so far, you don’t want to miss what happens next.
Don’t forget to register your 2009-2010 NHL Rookie cards. Click here to register them at Upper Deck’s Rookie Card tracker. By registering your codes from the back of your rookie cards, you will have a chance to win a box of cards from Upper Deck!
Christopher Carmichael has been hockey fan of over 20 years. He has been an active member on various hobby related sites, most notably www.hobbyinsider.net, and www.cloutsnchara.com. Christopher is also a long time collector, with a focus on a few select player collections, and the occasional set projects.
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The NHL: Not as Easy as it Looks!
Posted by: | CommentsTalk about parity. The NHL is one of the most generous sports leagues going, as it always accommodates a total of 16 teams in the playoffs. Just like the NBA, the NHL likes to see just about everybody get a chance to dive into the deep end and fend for themselves. Well, this year’s postseason is shaping up to a be a great representation of not only superb play out on the ice, but equally matched teams that like to stretch games into OT more often than not.
But before I make my predictions for this year’s playoffs, I’d like to share some personal background on why I’m starting to like the NHL more and more. First off, I’m a former collegiate wrestler, so I never really laced ‘em up with guys like Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin or Zdeno Chara. I liked to tie up with my opponent, shrug him a couple of times and then shoot in for a single-leg takedown. It seemed to work more often than not. I never took shots on goal or body-checked anybody into the boards. I liked to grapple. But having graduated from Oswego State University in New York, I did get to see plenty of good NCAA Division III hockey action during my time at O-State. And now I have newfound respect for all of these guys, from college hockey players to the pros. And it’s all because I took my four-year-old daughter, Dylan, skating over Christmas. It had been years since I put on skates, but I figured I’d at least be able to make some turns and enjoy the overall atmosphere. Boy was I wrong.
Not only did I have trouble just maintaining my balance, but I was pretty much useless in assisting my daughter during her first exposure to a skating rink. Sure I was able to hold her up and help her down the straight-aways, but we routinely crashed into the boards at either end since I seemingly forgot how to stop gracefully, or at least slow down upon arriving at the wall. After about 20 minutes of inflicting this personal punishment, Dylan was soaked and my ankles were screaming. I discovered muscles in my feet that I never knew existed based on the excruciating pain I suddenly felt. I couldn’t wait to put my shoes back on.
Dilly and Daddy trying not to crash into the boards (again)!
But enough about me, and Dylan. Although, truth be told, she’s a quick study and would have been happy to stay out on the ice for an hour or so. Now it’s time to recap where we are at with the NHL playoffs. In the Eastern Conference, we see the Penguins, Flyers, Bruins and Capitals – surprise, surprise – are all leading their best-of-seven opening round series, 2-1. Likewise, in the Western Conference, the Kings, Avalanche and Coyotes (the Coyotes?) are all one game ahead in their respective series, while the Blackhawks and Predators are playing their rubber match tonight. And even though Chicago finished with three more wins than Nashville during the regular season, I’m predicting an upset by the Predators in this particular opening-round battle. You see, a kid by the name of Colin Wilson is playing for Nashville and he’s somebody I got to meet last August at the NHL Rookie Photo Shoot in Toronto. He was a good kid who seemed destined to do great things in the NHL. And while he’s just getting warmed up (two shots on goal, no scores, through two games), he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. His taping ability, however, left something to be desired. Check out this YouTube video Upper Deck produced earlier this season starring none other than Mr. Wilson.
As for my Stanley Cup winner, you ask? That’s easy: the Boston Bruins, of course. It’s been way too long since guys like Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and Derek Sanderson hoisted the Cup for Beantown back in 1972. Now it’s time for that monster, Chara, along with the likes of Mark Recchi, Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask to bring Lord Stanley home. Besides, the Pats, Celtics and Red Sox have already won it all this decade!
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Game 7: For All the Marbles. Do or Die. No Tomorrow
Posted by: | CommentsIt seems only fitting that we’d squeeze one more game of awesomeness from this year’s Stanley Cup Finals.
If you’ve been watching this postseason slate of hockey closely, it’s hard not to appreciate the exceptional ride it’s been — more so than in most years. There have been so many signature moments, so many unique story lines:
•The epic first installment of Ovechkin vs. Crosby/Malkin, a seven-game cliffhanger that saw all but two games decided by one goal.
• The coming-out party for Blackhawks prodigies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane during Chicago’s run to the Western Conference Finals.
• The memorable aforementioned second round, with three of the four series going the seven-game distance.
• San Jose making yet another way-too-early playoff exit, likely their most spectacular flameout in team history, as the President’s Trophy winners bowed in six games in the opening round.
• And, of course, the hockey marvel that is the Detroit Red Wings, who just find ways to keep winning, no matter what.
I am by no means a Red Wings fan, inclined to dislike all the old Norris Division rivals of the Minnesota North Stars team I grew up rooting for. Those old prejudices have faded considerably over time (It still irks me that Gary Bettman and the NHL placed the Wild in a division with such obvious geographic foes in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Colorado … makes total sense, right?). At this point in my life I find myself simply appreciating teams and players for what they are, or at least I try to, and what the Red Wings are is the best team in North American professional sports, period.
The Red Wings have only three players on their roster who were first-round draft picks, and only one that they selected themselves (Dan Cleary, No. 13 overall in 1997). The other two, Brad Stuart and Marian Hossa, were drafted by other teams and acquired through trades. The other three teams that advanced to the conference finals had several more first-rounders on their rosters: Carolina had nine, Pittsburgh has eight and Chicago had seven.
Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom are arguably two of the 10 most valuable hockey players to their team as there are in the NHL, and neither of them has played a healthy game in this series. Datsyuk has been outstanding the past two games, with two assists and a plus-2 mark in a 5-0 Game 5 shutout at home, and made some spectacular plays to set up scoring chances in both. But the Wings had to do without him in the first four games of the series, as well as the final three games with Chicago in the Western Conference Finals.
Lidstrom, on the other hand, has found a way to stay on the ice, missing only two games with his “lower-body injury” in the series with Chicago. The six-time Norris Trophy winner has two assists and is plus-3 in this series, but he’s looked pretty wobbly, and while defensively he’s been pretty solid, offensively he isn’t as spry as he usually would be.
Despite that, the Wings have hardly missed a beat. They have proven themselves to be the deepest team in hockey, that’s for sure, and even with a banged-up Datsyuk and Lidstrom, Detroit is the consensus favorite on their home ice tonight for Game 7, and for good reason.
Justin Abdelkader dressed in place of Datsyuk early in the series, and all he did was score a goal each in Games 1 and 2 — the first two goals of his NHL career. Darren Helm has been a revelation in these playoffs, scoring four goals and playing solid at both ends of the ice in all situations, including one of the greatest penalty-killing shifts I’ve ever seen in the Game 5 clincher against Chicago before eventually notching the winning score in overtime. Dan Cleary has stepped up with nine goals (three game-winners), and is fourth on the squad with 15 points. Valtteri Filppula is third on the team with 16 points in the playoffs (three goals, 13 helpers), and Lidstrom’s countryman, bruising defenseman Niklas Kronwall, has helped pick up the slack on the back line.
Prediction time
As the cliché goes, you throw out all the stats for a Game 7. So with that in mind, I’m picking the Penguins to win tonight, despite an avalanche of numbers that don’t support their candidacy. The key is Marc-Andre Fleury, who was absolutely brilliant in Game 6, not so much in Game 5 and several other contests this spring.
As I said a few weeks ago, I don’t fully trust Fleury, and he was awful in getting pulled from Game 5 last Saturday. Some people wondered if he’d be haunted by that performance in Game 6, but he wasn’t. To his credit he’s been at his best when the Penguins were in their most dire straits in these playoffs, and in 2008. The signature game of his career so far was his 55-save performance in Game 5 in Detroit last year, when he was the main reason the Pens were able to force a sixth game. He wasn’t able to reproduce that effort in Game 6, and actually knocked Henrik Zetterberg’s eventual game-winning goal into his own net, sitting on top of a relatively innocuous rebound in the crease after losing sight of it.
In the second round this season, Pittsburgh beat Washington 6-2 in an anticlimactic Game 7 on the road, but a nearly forgotten moment in that game came early when Fleury denied Alex Ovechkin on a stone-cold breakaway when the game was scoreless, flashing his glove hand and doing the full splits to rob the world’s most dangerous goal scorer.
Sometimes a lot is made of a team scoring the first goal, but I think the key for the Penguins will be if Fleury is sharp early and can make that first big save, because you have to think the Wings will come out flying, energized by what I’m sure will be an insane Joe Louis Arena crowd.
The thing with Fleury is he’s either feast or famine. He’s a former No. 1 overall pick — the first goaltender ever to be selected with the top pick — so the talent has always been there. If I were drafting an NHL team today, there’d be a lot of goaltenders I’d take before “The Flower.” But when he’s good, he’s really good, it’s just that he’s not always good. It’s simple: If Fleury can tame the bouncy “Flubber Boards” at The Joe (and you’d think he’d have adjusted by now, after three games this year and three last year), and is on his game, I think the Pens steal the first road win of this series and skate with the Cup. If he goes MIA again, they’ll be partying in the Motor City tonight.
• If the Penguins win tonight, Evgeni Malkin will be an easy choice as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He leads all players with 21 assists and 35 points, and trails only Sidney Crosby, by just one goal, for the top spot with 14. He’s got seven power-play scores and three game-winners.
If Detroit holds serve and wins their fifth Cup in 13 seasons, I think Chris Osgood wins his first Conn Smythe to go with his fourth Stanley Cup ring — third as a Wings starter. Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press thinks this is a huge game for Osgood beyond the obvious reason, and as I said a few weeks back, I agree.
“[I]t’s not a stretch to think that a victory tonight, with a good performance by Osgood, secures him: 1) a fourth Stanley Cup, 2) a Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs, 3) a historic footnote as the goalie who stymied Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and 4) the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And if the Wings lose, he might not get any of that.”
Now lets take a closer look at some of those “meaningless” stats and facts that will have little or no impact on tonight’s game.
• The Red Wings are 11-1 at Joe Louis Arena this postseason, and it took the Anaheim Ducks three overtimes to pin that renegade loss on them in Game 2 of the second round.
• Road teams playing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals and World Series have not fared well in recent years, and in fact it has been 30 years since a road team won a Game 7 in a final series. It was, however, a Pittsburgh team that pulled it off, when the 1979 Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles.
• The Penguins have three players who have participated in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals before: Craig Adams (Carolina, 2006), Ruslan Fedotenko (Tampa Bay, ’04) and Petr Sykora (Anaheim ’03). Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma also played for the Mighty Ducks when they lost to the Devils in ’03, and the coach of that Ducks team? Current Red Wings skipper Mike Babcock.
Brian Rafalski, a Dearborn, Michigan native and already the owner of three Stanley Cup rings, played for that Devils team and also the one that lost the finals in seven games to the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. He is the only Red Wings player to appear in a Game 7 championship tilt.
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Blame for Blackhawks’ Game 4 Fiasco Falls on Coach
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s rare that I’ve ever seen a player lose control of his emotions during a playoff game as badly as Kris Versteeg did in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday afternoon. With his team already trailing 4-1 in the second period, teammate Matt Walker was spotted for an interference penalty, and the referee’s arm went up for a delayed penalty. Before Mr. Walker could be escorted to the box though, Versteeg decided to join him for his 2-minute breather, and cross-checked a Detroit player after the whistle about five feet in front of a referee, giving Detroit a full 2 minutes of a five-on-three power play, on which they scored, of course, to make it 5-1.
Walker returned to the ice following that score, but Versteeg served the rest of his 2 minutes, then returned to the ice and immediately took an interference penalty of his own about five strides out of the box to give the deadly Wings power-play unit yet another man advantage. He ended up with 12:41 of ice time for the game to go with 14 penalty minutes, 10 coming on a misconduct call in the third period.
Coach Joel Quenneville should have benched his talented young scorer to teach him a lesson — don’t do that kind of stuff, don’t lose your head. Alas, that might have been an awkward conversation, coming so soon after Quenneville himself was seen launching a profanity-laced tirade at the officials as cameras scanned the player benches to start the second period. I’d link to it, but even without a microphone to capture the sound you can clearly see a rapid-fire succession of F-bombs tumbling from his mouth. Good stuff.
Everybody knew the Blackhawks had their work cut out for them entering the series against the defending Stanley Cup champs. It would have taken the best they had to knock off Detroit — from goaltending to team defense to the continued stellar play of young forwards Versteeg, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. But I don’t think anybody counted on their coach letting them down like he has. Sunday was not the first time in this series Quenneville could be seen screaming at the officials.
To quickly set the scene, there was a minor scrum after the horn sounded to end the first period, a pretty ordinary nothing-to-see-here sort of dust-up that is very common this time of year. To the astonishment of many — obviously including Quenneville — Walker was the only player assessed a penalty, 2 minutes for roughing. Quenneville, clearly, did not agree with the call. Detroit predictably scored on the ensuing power play, making it 3-0. To be fair, it was a pretty bad call from looking at it on TV, and Quenneville certainly had a point.
As if his shouting and swearing and carrying on during the game — when theoretically his team still had the power to affect the outcome of the game — wasn’t bad enough, he elaborated on his reasoning for the temper tantrum after the game by calling the penalty “the worst call in the history of sports”, a comment for which he was fined $10,000. It was a pretty bad call, it certainly came at a critical point in the game, and the results were devastating for the Blackhawks. You could probably view the fact Quenneville didn’t receive a bench minor for the tirade as acknowledgement from the refs they shouldn’t have given the initial penalty. Whatever the case, the coach set the tone for his team for the rest of the game, and Chicago took 48 minutes of penalties in the final two periods — not recommended when you need multiple goals against the best team in hockey to avoid staring into the abyss as the ’Hawks now do.
I think Detroit wins Game 5 tonight on home ice, even with Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom — two of the 10 best hockey players on the planet — missing from its lineup. That certainly levels the playing field a little bit, though it obviously didn’t seem to bother the Wings much in the 6-1, Game 4 pasting of Chicago on their own home ice. Incidentally, the Blackhawks will be without Nikolai Khabibulin in goal, and Martin Havlat will sit out with post-concussion symptoms.
• Speaking of Havlat, Brian Campbell was one of the most outspoken players on the Blackhawks roster in calling Niklas Kronwall’s goodnight kiss of Havlat in Game 3 a “gutless” act. Let’s pretend for a moment that Kronwall’s hit was a cheap one, though it certainly was not. Havlat had his head down, and Kronwall was given a 5-minute major for interference — not roughing or high-sticking — but interference, despite the fact that you can see on the replay that the puck is in Havlat’s skates when Kronwall delivers the blow. Campbell’s claim it’s a dirty hit because the big Swede “jumped” to hit Havlat is off the mark because if he had left his feet, the call would have been for roughing, which it was not. It’s ridiculous to think that a defenseman at any level is going to pass on that hit and wait an extra split second until Havlat actually touches the puck, because if he were to do so, the winger would probably have skated past him and created an odd-man rush. It’s counterintuitive for a defenseman, and Kronwall actually made a great read in noticing Havlat wasn’t paying attention to him, and he stepped up and eliminated him from the play. It was a smart, clean hockey play.
But just for fun, let’s pretend it wasn’t. Of all people, Brian Campbell is going to be the moral compass on this issue? Yeah that’s right, the same Brian Campbell who, while playing for the Buffalo Sabres in the 2006 playoffs, lowered his shoulder and knocked poor R.J. Umberger into la-la land on a strikingly similar play in the first game of the first round against the Flyers. If you say so Brian … hypocrite.
Around the hockey world
The Windsor Spitfires may have been the favorites coming into the 2009 Memorial Cup, but the rout they took to capture their first-ever Memorial championship was not an advisable one. The Spits lost their first two games at the tourney in Rimouski, Quebec, needing to rattle off a four-game win streak where if they’d lost any one of the contests they’d have been eliminated. But they pulled it off.
Greg Wyshynski over at Yahoo! did a great job of chronicling the many different and fascinating storylines that surrounded the Spits’ triumph, including winning for a fallen teammate and providing an uplifting distraction for a town ravaged by the slumping auto industry.
• The Phoenix Coyotes’ battle to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, sell then move the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario, has some pretty far-reaching implications, explains the Wall Street Journal. There are only losers in this mess, no winners. First off, how would you like to be part of the Coyotes’ season-ticket sales team these days? If the ’Yotes were hugely successful selling tickets to their games in the first place, the team probably wouldn’t be in the predicament it is, but now these poor folks have to entice fans to buy tickets to games that may or may not even take place in their community several months in advance.
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Fleury, Pens Grab Early Advantage
Posted by: | CommentsCam Ward was pretty good in Game 1 Monday, but Marc-Andre Fleury was better. The former No. 1 overall pick made 23 saves and was named the third star of the game, while Ward made a few spectacular saves but allowed at least one goal that should not have gone in — even if that goal came courtesy of a man, Evgeni Malkin, who knows how to bury a scoring chance with the puck on his stick. Ward is now 4-0 in Game 7s after beating the Capitals last Wednesday, but Fleury is 5-0 in Game 1s at home after Monday night’s 3-2 Penguins victory.
• With the ’Canes already trailing 2-0 Monday night, Ward made a sensational point-blank stop on Bill Guerin coming straight up the gut, off a nice feed from behind the goalline from Sidney Crosby. It was a huge save to keep Carolina in the game, and it saved Joni Pitkanen from being on the wrong end of the highlight reel again. The Finnish defender looked either slow or lazy trying to catch up to Miroslav Satan streaking out of the penalty box for a breakaway goal in the first period that made it 1-0, and he made an absent-minded, behind-the-back pass in his own corner, right to Crosby that set up Guerin’s scoring chance. Only Ward’s good read of the play and sure glove hand prevented it from being 3-0 and essentially game over 5 minutes into the second period.
• The Rose scores on the Flower: That would be Chad LaRose scoring on Fleury, to make it 2-1 with about 7 minutes left in the second. This was a great team goal for Carolina, as all five players on the ice touched the puck immediately before the goal, starting with Matt Cullen poking the puck loose from Matt Cooke in the Hurricanes’ corner. It ended with Erik Cole gaining the offensive zone and cutting to his left at a 90-degree angle, then dropping a pass right to LaRose going by him the other way. Bet that looked good in the X’s and O’s video critique this morning.
• Scary moment seeing Cole drop to the ice and need help, initially, getting off the ice after a knee-on-knee hit by Cooke not quite halfway through the third. He made his way off the ice on his own eventually, but he did not return. That is a devastating loss if he can’t go for the ’Canes, who are not saying much about the nature of the injury or when/if Cole will return. Carolina also lost winger Tuomo Ruutu to a “lower-body injury” and both players are questionable for Game 2.
• Speaking of knee-on-knee hits, Sergei Gonchar is playing gamely after what looked to be a debilitating injury in Game 4 of the Penguins’ conference semifinals series with Washington, courtesy of an Alex Ovechkin hit. At times he’s looked a little “wobbly,” as Versus commentator Brian Engblom called him Monday night, but nonetheless the Russian blueliner led Pittsburgh with 21:42 of ice time in Game 1.
The lefthander had an assist on Crosby’s rebound goal that made it 1-0 in the first period of Game 7 against the Caps, taking the initial shot from the point, perched on his left leg like a pelican — obviously favoring the injured right knee.
• Incidentally, it was the Penguins’ seventh defenseman, Phillipe Boucher — in the lineup as an insurance policy for Gonchar — who scored the game-winning goal Monday.
• A bit of news that sheds more light on the Scott Walker saga from the Bruins series, when he punched Aaron Ward in the mug and gave the defenseman a black eye: Apparently the veteran right winger learned during the Eastern Conference semifinal series with Boston that his wife, Julie, had cervical cancer, a fact that was not revealed until this past weekend. The Raleigh News-Observer reports that Julie Walker had a special request for her husband before Game 7 against the Bruins, and he came through — notching the first playoff goal of his 14-year career in overtime to lift the Hurricanes into the conference finals. Julie, the story says, is expected to make a full recovery.
• Three out of the four starting goaltenders left in the playoffs have started for a Cup winner in their careers: Ward (Hurricanes 2006); Khabibulin (Lightning ’04); and Osgood (Red Wings ’98 and ’08). Only Fleury remains ringless.
Blackhawks look to draw even tonight
Patrick Kane had six goals and eight points in Chicago’s conference semifinal series with Vancouver, and Jonathan Toews had a big Game 6 in the clincher (two goals, an assist and a plus-2 mark). But both players finished Game 1 against the Red Wings with a minus-3, and that can’t happen if the Blackhawks hope to advance to their first Stanley Cup Finals series since 1992.
• Lucky for Adam Burish that he’s 6-foot-1 and not an inch shorter, or Ben Eager’s errant skate blade could have been a much more serious problem.
• You’ll notice a few Red Wings players clean shaven for the Western Conference Finals, which seems to be a movement led by Chris Chelios. Teammate Nicklas Lidstrom claims the 47-year old shaves only because his beard would likely grow in gray.
• The Detroit News has a pretty cool-looking interactive series preview up on their website.
• Brian Campbell is the Blackhawks’ big-name defenseman after signing an eight-year, $56.8-million contract last summer, but the heart and soul of the Chicago defense is the pairing of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, says the Chicago Tribune’s Shannon Ryan.
• The Blackhawks went over a million in attendance with their Game 6 victory over the Canucks to clinch their second-round series, with a crowd of 22,687 for that contest. That’s a single-season record for the ’Hawks. With 40 regular-season games at the United Center (as well as the New Year’s Day Winter Classic at Wrigley Field that technically counts as a “neutral-site” affair), and three each in Chicago’s first two playoff series, that averages out to nearly 22,000 a game, the top mark in the NHL in 2008-09. Hockey is indeed back in the Windy City, and that’s good to see for an old Norris Division guy like myself. Incidentally, the Blackhawks are 5-1 on home ice in the playoffs so far.
Around the hockey world
• Apparently Gary Bettman would prefer to see the Coyotes return to Winnipeg than relocate to Hamilton, Ontario — if they had to leave Phoenix. The good folks of Winnipeg are trying not to get too giddy too soon. On Tuesday, the other three major North American pro sports leagues filed court papers in support of Bettman and the NHL’s right to decide the team’s future, claiming it would set a bad precedent to allow Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes to simply sell his team to the highest bidder and allow it to move wherever that new owner wishes. The pivotal bankruptcy hearing to decide the team’s future will be held today.
I would love to see this come to fruition, and I’d see it as a victory for the North Stars, Whalers and Nordiques fans of the world — fans who didn’t deserve to have their teams stripped away from them and have always held out (an admittedly futile) hope their teams would someday return. I loved the North Stars, and while I’m glad the NHL finally made right and returned an expansion team to the Twin Cities, my home, it was never quite the same. For one thing, I hated the name Wild from the day they announced it — can’t stand singular nicknames. The team made up for that horrible moniker by creating quite possibly the coolest logo in pro sports, but I still yearn for the bygone era.
• I’m still trying to decide how I feel about the prospect of my childhood idol, Patrick Roy, taking up the coaching reigns of an NHL team, but for now I’m leaning toward being in favor of it. Not that the Avalanche are asking my opinion. Montreal’s La Gazette reports that Roy is denying he has been offered the Colorado job, and may be holding out for an offer from the Canadiens. OK, nevermind. I’m in, let’s do it.
• At the Memorial Cup, Canada’s four-team national championship tournament hosted by the Rimouski Oceanic this year, the upstart Kelowna Rockets of the WHL are 2-0 with one game to play in the round-robin first round, earning them a spot in Sunday’s championship game. Dallas Stars prospect Jamie Benn had four goals in a win over QMJHL champ Drummondville, one score short of tying a tournament record held by current Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau.
Meanwhile the favorites, the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, are winless and need to beat the Rockets and then win two more games to reach the final after that just for a rematch with Kelowna in the title game. The top team from the round robin advances directly to the championship tilt, while the second- and third-place teams play a semifinal. Currently the two Quebec teams — Rimouski and Drummondville — are both 1-1, and play each other Wednesday. If there is a tie for third place, which will happen if Windsor prevails against the Rockets today, those two teams will play a tie-breaker Friday for the right to play in the semifinal. Here are the standings and remaining schedule.
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