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Engels' Angles: Rogers NHL Deal, Subban, the Miserable Metro and More |
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Eric Engels covers the Montreal Canadiens for HockeyBuzz and is substituting today for Eklund.
Here are 10 assorted thoughts and angles on happening around the NHL:
1) Hard to fathom not seeing TSN broadcast an NHL hockey game for the next 12 years, but it was announced this morning that the league has come to terms on a new agreement that makes Rogers Sportsnet the exclusive provider in Canada, with CBC retaining rights to Saturday night games, and TVA taking a share of the French broadcast of Canadiens games. The deal will net the NHL $5.2 Billion over that time.
TSN Regional is expected to continue covering teams in respective Canadian markets with highlights and stories, but the games are in Rogers' hands.
Darren Dreger was on the morning show in Montreal on TSN 690, stating his deal with TSN continues for at least another six years. He sounded as though the news flashing across his Blackberry last night was in fact news to him.
It couldn't have been a complete surprise to two NHL veteran broadcasters, Louis Jean (previously of Sportsnet) and Renaud Lavoie (previously of RDS) who made the move to TVA over the last two seasons.
When Shawn McKenzie (son of Bob McKenzie) started covering the Ottawa Senators on Sportsnet, I assumed that might have been a family decision to give Shawn the opportunity to make his own name, and had he joined TSN, it may have come across as nepotism. Perhaps Bob had an idea of where this was all going, but I'll leave that to the conspiracy theorists.
2) In case you didn't know, 10 players have officially filed a class action lawsuit against the NHL that alleges the league "behaved negligently and fraudulently in regards to the player-sustained head trauma over the past decades".
Legal precedent is there for this to become a nightmare for the NHL, with the NFL having settled out of court with more than 4000 players that sued them for the same reason--to the tune of $765 million. This lawsuit began with some 475 players on its initial claim. The NHL list is certain to grow...
3) Alexander Ovechkin's lit the league on fire this season, becoming the first player to score 20 goals. The Russian thoroughbred has 43 goals in his last 45 games.
More surprising: Alex Steen, 19 goals, 28 points. We knew he was good, but no one knew he was this good.
Staying with the theme of surprise, a lot of people said Jaromir Jagr was finished after he only managed 11 assists (no goals) in 22 playoff games with the Bruins. This after a season in which he recorded 35 points in 45 games, and netted Dallas two second round picks and a conditional first rounder in the trade to Boston.
Jagr leads the New Jersey Devils in scoring with 9 goals, 9 assists in 24 games, and he's +7. Not bad for two million dollars.
Amazingly, Jagr, who wanted to come to Montreal for the last three years straight, was not appealing to then GM Pierre Gauthier and current GM Marc Bergevin. As if the guy who gets a key to the facilities and works out around the clock wouldn't be a good mentor for say, Alex Galchenyuk.
4) There are four teams that lead the league in wins, they are:
Chicago
St. Louis
Anaheim
Colorado
And they said Patrick Roy was a controversial decision to coach the Avalanche.
My opinion: His coaches said he was the best player they ever coached, his teammates said he was the best teammate they ever had, and all the guy ever did was win. I'd say he was far from being a controversial choice after honing his experience in the QMJHL as Owner, General Manager, and Coach of the Quebec Ramparts.
Not even I could've predicted he'd succeed to this level this early.
Canadiens fans rejoiced the day that Roy signed in Colorado as coach. It meant that for once, a guy would gain his experience somewhere else before eventually coming to Montreal. In the past, the Habs trained Claude Julien, Alain Vigneault and Michel Therrien before all three brought their teams to Stanley Cups (Julien winning with the Bruins). Therrien's back, and if Roy keeps it up, it'll be a very long time before he gets to Montreal.
5) Was speaking with one of the great fans of the game yesterday that said Dallas Eakins ascension to Edmonton was a lot like Mike Babcock going to Anaheim.
Eakins should be so lucky, if that proves true over time.
6) Alright, maybe I saw it coming. I knew I'd take a lot of flack for saying it, but this summer I said the Ottawa Senators were the most overrated team in hockey.
That statement had less to do with Alfredsson leaving, and more to do with the fact that their defense doesn't exactly overwhelm you. Add that to the fact that sustaining the success level that Craig Anderson's had over the last couple of seasons seemed somewhat impossible, not that Robin Lehner isn't a suitable backup.
In any case, it's not really a case of personnel. A lot of guys are underachieving in Ottawa right now, and the way they're losing games--dropping third period leads, and losing tight games is disconcerting for their fans. Hard not to imagine major changes happening there if things don't right themselves quickly. They're losing big-time in a very tight race at the top of the Atlantic Division.
7) What are the chances more than three teams from the Metropolitan (worst. name. ever.) make the playoffs?
I'm going to say, no chance.
8) Going into this season, you couldn't find two players under more pressure than Roberto Luongo and Carey Price. Both had to deal with dramatically high expectations in their respective markets, and both are competing for the starting job in Canada's net for the Sochi Olympics.
So...
Who do you think has the beat on the position?
I've maintained that barring an implosion, this job has been Luongo's to lose. The Vancouver netminder has 10 wins in 22 games, owning a .912 save percentage and a 2.33 goals against. Not to be discounted, Luongo does have the experience of making it through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he did give Canada a goal medal in 2010.
Carey Price has 9 wins in 19 games, but is scorching with a .935 save percentage and a 2.05 goals against. As someone who watches him every night, those number are completely indicative of how good he's been--except for the win column, because the team in front of him went through a stretch where they couldn't buy a goal that was given to them (18 goals in 11 games).
It may be Luongo's job to lose, but I believe it's Price's job to win...
9) Staying on the Olympic theme, I'm not sure you heard, but some people around Montreal have been suggesting it would be a crime if P.K. Subban were left off.
Count me among those that believe it would be crazy not to take him (I think Pierre McGuire used those exact words on my favorite radio show, Melnick in the Afternoon on TSN690).
Okay, you have Weber, Doughty and Keith. No arguments there.
Then there's an obsession with having Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester skate as a pair. It's understandable, as they're formidable with the Blues.
That leaves one spot for a left-handed defenseman since we know Team Canada cares about that balance. My money's on Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
Here's where the Subban no-brainer comes in:
You can dress seven defensemen per game. Even if you prescribe to theory that Subban's a risk in his own end (total nonsense, he's Montreal's best defensive defensemen--but that'll require a blog post on its own), you can put him on your bench and use him exclusively on the powerplay. If you do that, I'm confident Subban will play his way into more minutes.
There's only 100 other reasons to take Subban, the least of them being that he won the Norris Trophy last season. His skill level in every area of the game is through the roof, and the thought of him using that skating ability on International ice is extremely enticing.
10) Mea culpa time for me. I said the Tampa Bay Lightning would finish last in the Eastern Conference. I'm inclined to say that Steve Yzerman didn't have high hopes for his team, in deciding to keep Jonathan Drouin in Halifax and Brent Connolly in Syracuse for the beginning of the season.
They've been excellent so far.
And did you see the goals that Martin St. Louis scored last night after a touching ceremony to celebrate his 1000 games over a career that never should've happened, according to some?
Both goals were world class. Ironically, when Steven Stamkos went down with what we assumed was a long-term injury, no one mentioned St. Louis as a candidate to replace him on Team Canada.
If he doesn't make it, it would be hard to argue with. Yzerman doesn't need to send scouts to Lightning games...
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