Monday, June 30, 2008

 

Draft day to free agent frenzy. How to improve your team in two weeks

MCN Sports had a ring side seat for the Steve Stamkos draft in Ottawa two weekends ago. As most predicted, although you never really know until the name is called, Stamkos went as projected, first overall and it was a sight to behold in the stands with what looked like as many as forty family and friends present to congratulate him on becoming an instant millionaire. Not to suggest he didn’t work for it because despite raw talent which you must have clearly this is a young man with a tremendous work ethic. If that alone did not improve the Lightning’s lot on life their transactions since certainly have. Bagging Ryan Malone is the coup de gras at the moment but no less of an impact was the signing of Gary Roberts and yesterday, (June 29) the announcement that Brian Rolston has joined the fold after three seasons in Minnesota where along with being a veteran presence he has worn the C. Tremendous acquisitions for Tampa Bay. They are far and away the most improved team since Lidstrom hoisted the Cup in Pittsburgh after game six.
Other notes from the draft; appearing soon on our site mcnsports.com will be interviews with Dave Brown from the Flyers, Eddie Mio, with Phoenix, Phil Myre with the Florida Panthers and a couple of beauties to finish off – Steve Yzerman with Detroit and Cam Neely with the Bruins. Neely has been brought into the Bruin fold and has made his presence felt big time. Interesting to note various connections in the hockey world as to a large extent it remains an old boys club but in addition, contacts made in some cases as young men end up being a mainstay reason that the same two parties will hook up years later. Case in point with the Boston Bruins super scout in the making, Wayne Smith who jumped over to the Bruins from Columbus two years ago under the Peter Chiarelli regime, is a long time friend of Chiarelli’s. Also on their mast head as Director of Player Personnel, long time Bruin Don Sweeney who played in Harvard with Chiarelli. In hockey the long time adage, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,’ does not hold. You see this all the time and frankly the cases of it leading to success far outweigh the stories where it doesn’t as in Tampa with the Esposito brothers or the other high profile example, in Phoenix with Wayne Gretzky. The Bruins are another team headed in the right direction only problem is the whole NHL is so competitive right now there are no guarantee’s of anybody making it back to the final let alone winning a second Cup in a row. As much as many fans think this Detroit team is the cock of the walk, let’s see how they do next year. My view is they are not as good as the ’02 team and I put that right to Yzerman in the interview where of course he downplayed the notion but again, just my opinion, I think the ’02 team which was the most experienced team to ever win the Cup would have handled this version of Detroit for sure. Then again, you’ve got eight players on both of those rosters so hard to compare. 14 players on that ’02 roster were 30+ in age. That’s an all time high in Cup history.

Aside from being present for a record thirteen transactions in the first round the other eventual sight on first round night was the ovation given to Wayne Gretzky by the Ottawa fans. Remember that Ottawa was the city where he played his last game in Canada and I’m quite certain that was not lost on the crowd, a full house by the way, 18,500 and the ovation gave me goose bumps. It was great to see. Captain Daniel Alfredsson also received a huge roar of support but he cut the salutation short by taking the microphone while the crowd was still verbally ringing his name. Still a great moment.

So now it’s on to the free agent feeding frenzy. GM’s have been very careful to avoid any tampering charges or so it seems. The rumour mills are all flourishing right now and all that’s left are for the cards to fall on the table. I said it on my show today, master the obvious but I just can’t see Sundin signing with Montreal. As much as I’m sure Bob Gainey attempted to broker a tremendous deal for the big Swede at the end of the day I think they’ll refocus on Marian Hossa and we’ll see how that plays out because frankly, if they offer him any more than 7m a year to me that will be a colossal mistake. Time will tell. It’s officially Canada Day tomorrow but for some players it’s going to be Christmas in July in a big way.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

 

Detroit too much for young Penguins

At the end of the day or more appropriately, the end of the game, Detroit was just too much for Pittsburgh. Too much Zetterberg, too much Lidstrom, too much the whole experienced package. But what a final 1:27 of action. I felt so bad for Marc-Andre Fleury who put on a performance of the ages in game five, now ranked as the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup final history, only to allow a couple of weak goals get by him in the deciding game six. When Hossa deflected Gonchar’s point shot in at the 18:33 mark who else sat bolt upright and hung on for that final minute and a half? Literally another split second and who knows, maybe Hossa gets that puck in right at the end of the game. You could see it in the body language of the Detroit players on the ice, there was a moment of stunned disbelief that they had hung on. I believe when or if the Penguins watch any of that last game video they’ll see some of the same ailments that plagued them throughout the series. Couldn’t get the puck deep, couldn’t generate a fore check, and couldn’t generate enough shots on net. Even in the dying seconds, two or three times, pucks were shot into Detroit’s end only to be easily grabbed by the D and fired back out. I mean literally grabbed by the hand – Pittsburgh's shoot in was just not high enough or off the boards hard enough to get the puck deep. Sometimes when you have as talented a team as these young Pens are the tendency is to hang onto the puck. That’s all well and good down low, when you get it and are cycling or attempting to keep possession but sometimes the most successful game plan is the simplest one but there’s no question, against this particular Detroit defence at this time it was a very, very tough task.

Nice of Malkin to return from his vacation in game six. What a learning experience for him. He need look no further than across the hall at countryman Pavel Datsyuk who will turn thirty this July. Datsyuk scored three goals in his first thirty-seven playoff games as a Red Wing. Look at him now. Or Zetterberg, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, same thing, at twenty-two and twenty-three years of age he was a spare part for the Wings. Malkin is twenty and a superstar in the making. My only thought is that when it was apparent he had hit the wall and it was painfully apparent – I would have sat him down for at least a game. His giveaways’ and complacency added up to extreme ineffectiveness that should have been addressed in a dramatic fashion in my view. Sydney Crosby will lead Canada to a gold medal in Vancouver in 2010. His vision is Gretzky like, he’s a bull down low with the puck, he’s excellent on the draws and I believe he’s a great team guy. Why is he hated by so many fans? I don’t get it. I guess either I’m showing my age because I remember Gretzky’s first few years in the league or I’m more open minded. Crosby could have dove a dozen times and probably drew an additional 4-5 minors on Detroit but he did not. He tied for the points lead in playoff scoring in his second time ever in the playoffs. If he has a relatively healthy season in 2008-09 he will win the Art Ross again by 10-15 points for fun.


For the record – Nick Lidstrom becomes the fourth Cup winning captain born overseas. He is the first born and bred European captain but not the first to have been born across the ocean. Dunc Munroe with the 1926 Montreal Maroons, Charlie Gardiner with the 1934 Chicago Blackhawks were both born in Scotland. Johnny Gottselig with the 1938 Chicago Blackhawks was born in Russia. Speaking of Lidstrom and the rest of team Sweden, AKA Detroit, it’s been funny to listen or read so many people who are acting like this is the first time a Cup winner has had Europeans on it. Granted it is the least amount of Canadians on a Cup winner ever – nine. The previous mark of ten was held by the 1995 New Jersey Devils, thirteen years ago. On that squad were eleven Americans. The 1997 and 1998 Cup winning Red Wings each had five Russians on those respective teams. Numerous Europeans dotted the Cup winners o f Colorado in 1996 also. The trend deviated back to a very strong Canadian base of players with Dallas in 1999 and then again on the five Cup winners prior to this Red Wing team led by Anaheim’s nineteen Canadians who played at least one playoff game in their Cup run of 2007. So which trend goes forward you ask? Easy. The cycle continues. There has not been a team to win the Cup with all Canadian born content since the 1975 Philadelphia Flyers. Conversely no team has ever won it without some Canadian content nor will they in our life time. The bigger question is can the Red Wings repeat and duplicate what they themselves accomplished last in 1997 and ’98? You look at their cap room and their team makeup and you’d be hard pressed to not pick them next season. Only thing going against that is history at the moment. All of the Cup winning teams since 1998 have looked pretty good in winning their respective years. Yet nobody can repeat. Very, very tough physically to turn right around ten weeks later, report to camp and get right into it for the next nine months. We’ll see how it goes. For now, congratulations to them, they certainly deserved the Cup and Zetterberg the Conn Smythe.

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