What a time to be alive. Get paid in American dollars and see that the USD is in the tank comparatively to the CAD. I guess I should have paid more attention to the reasons WHY my friends were all going to Buffalo and other parts of the United States in the past few weeks. Oh well. It’s still money.
Hall For Larsson – I like Adam Larsson as a player. I really do. Watching him develop has been very interesting. When he was drafted he was the next “Lidstrom.… Though every Swedish defenseman seems to get that label. Or did…now they all get compared to Karlsson. Larsson has never developed the offensive side of his game that he had in Sweden and in International Tournaments. He has however, become one of the best true “defensive defensemen… in the NHL. There really aren’t a lot of those players left in the NHL that aren’t simply a sinkhole of only being in the NHL because they are “Tuff gud guys in da room and blocka shots.… Despite this and I hate to beat this dead horse, how did this happen? Unless he is truly the worst human being on the planet, how can you trade a top-line player for a top-4 defenseman? Especially as you are adding the most electric prospect in years. A lot of people claimed it was a great trade because the Devils sucked and the Oilers finally made the playoffs. That’s a garbage argument. I can’t even put into words how dumb that is…oh wait. The Capitals traded Top Prospect Filip Forsberg to the Predators for Martin Erat and prospect Michael Latta. The Capitals not only made the playoffs! They won the division! Where was Nashville? At the bottom. Easy win. One team is good, the other bad. It sells itself! Pay no attention to anything else.
Obviously this is a hindsight argument, but I think it’s going to be the same end result as everybody proclaiming victory one year in. I think my biggest problem with this is just the idea that a team doing better than another is the way to define who won a trade. It’s like when people do re-drafts in the NHL. They ignore everything and just say “Team X… should have picked “Player Y… at “Pick Z… because “Player Y… is NOW the best player. The only one I can think of that actually fits this argument is Vlad Tarasenko who was ranked in the top-5 by everybody, but fell due to being Russian. Most players aren’t picked out of the blue. People saying in a re-draft you don’t go Yakupov-Murray 1-2 is stupid. They were the best prospects at the time. Not picking them would be the dumb idea at the time. How does this relate to Hall and Larsson? Hall was the best player at the time and even in a re-do, it wouldn’t pass muster. It’s the double whammy. Making the playoffs and another team struggling does not a good trade make. This is one of those.
So Overrated He’s Underrated? – Corey Crawford is one of the weirdest players in the NHL in terms of reputation. Outside of Chicago, I don’t think he gets a lot of love. This all seems to stem from the fact that Chicago was such a force that even a mediocre goalie like Niemi could win them the Cup. I think this was true in the first Blackhawks Cup. I would argue there has been no better team top to bottom to win it since the Salary Cap was introduced. Crawford is not Niemi. He has been quietly one of the best goalies in the NHL. I think he’s a huge reason that the constant shedding of depth by the Blackhawks doesn’t seem to hurt them in the standings. The reason I’m writing about this is because I saw him absolutely stone a Flyers squad that have been very dangerous last night. Crawford has been quietly brilliant for years now. He’s at the very least a top-10 starting goalie and his reputation just hasn’t been given justice due to the past Blackhawks teams being so strong. This year he has been one of the lone bright spots on a spotty at best Blackhawks squad. I think the most votes he’s ever gotten for the Vezina has been 10 and probably deservedly so. He’s stable, but hasn’t had the absolute ups and downs that you need to win. Crawford has been amazing this season and for awhile.
Dynasty Warriors – I feel compelled to talk about an issue nobody should care about. On my drive in to work this extremely wet morning, the talking heads discussed how dynasties are dead across the big American sports. That only the NBA was capable of retaining the illusion of dynastic ability. That we need to change the definition of dynasty to include not only winners of various Championships, but also the teams that consistently go deep in the playoffs. The examples they gave were the Cubs, Blackhawks and Cavaliers. I’m really not familiar with any of the NBA, MLB or NFL. The main sports I watch are hockey and Chelsea FC. Or if I’m drunk on a Saturday at 10am, I might watch some other Premier League teams playing. The idea of teams going deep as dynasties is pretty lame in my opinion. I get the concept. I just don’t like the execution. Does that mean that the San Jose Sharks, the Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers are dynastic teams? Their fans would probably tell you “no.…
With regards to the NHL, I think I can quite comfortably say that we have a dynasty in the NHL. It’s three teams, but it’s a dynasty. Aside from the Bruins in 2011, only three teams have won the Cup in a span of 9 years. While it’s unlikely, one of those same four teams could win the thing again this year! It seems ridiculous to me to say that the NHL’s lack of a dynasty is “lame.… If anything, it’s even more “lame… that only the Kings, Blackhawks and Penguins seem to be able to win it! People complain about the NBA and how the Cavs and Warriors (and formerly Heat) basically circle the date of the NBA finals and wait for their chance at the ring. Yet we don’t complain that the Penguins and Blackhawks have three Cups each and the Kings two in a span of 9 years. That’s almost a full decade. I know it’s not really what a real “dynasty… is, but it’s almost the same issue the NBA has. In fact, it seems to be almost worse than the NBA who have the Mavericks and Spurs breaking up the monotony. The NHL has some of the most competitive parity of the Major League Sports. However competitiveness on an individual game basis hasn’t correlated into results when it comes to the ultimate prize. If four teams winning in 9 years isn’t some form of dynasty in today’s sporting world, I don’t know what is.
Thanks for reading.