A lot happens in the NHL every week. Some crazy things, some mundane. I’d like to try to gather some weekly thoughts on what has happened in the NHL on a semi-regular basis. Mostly short snippets, because I haven’t and can’t pay attention to every little thing. For the two readers following along with my prospect blogs, they’re coming back tomorrow and I have another weeks’ worth pre-written.
To all my fellow Canadians, I want to wish you and your families; scum and villains alike a Happy Turkey Comma Weekend. I had a lovely lunch with my girlfriend and her parents in our dilapidated apartment in this gentrified former crack den. We feasted on more turkey than man was meant to eat and drank more wine than was necessary for 12pm. My girlfriends father is a diehard Blackhawks fan; while in casual company I play the role of a Leafs fan, unless they stink that particular year in which I am a Chelsea FC fan…unless they stink as well. So we had a lot of high fiving to do.
Guy Boucher and the Youth of a Nation : Living in Ottawa, I listen and follow the Senators a lot. They’re the main show on the radio into work, slogging through that Westward crawl. They even have some good talent on the radio in Ian Mendes and the morning guys. The less said about Simpson, Leave The Sage and “Whitey… the better though. What has come up a lot is the younger players and Boucher’s levels of trust. Which are usually about nil. Though I will defend him a bit if I may.
Logan Brown forced his way onto the team after an extremely impressive pre-season. I was honestly shocked as Brown has never been any more than pedestrian when I’ve seen him play in junior. Even when the Spits won the Memorial Cup, he was more bit player than main driver. So to see him dominate large portions of the pre-season was really great for Sens fans (especially when Colin White went down). Brown played in the first game and was scratched the second. A lot of people are making a big issue of the fact that he “didn’t get his chance.… I say that’s nonsense. In an ideal world, Brown becomes a top-6 playmaker that excels on the Power Play. How did Boucher use him? He gave him over 4 minutes of Power Play minutes and sheltered him in the bottom-6. That’s exactly how he should be used at this early stage of his career. Everybody wants their rookies to come in and blow the doors down, but that is the exception and not the rule. Brown should get another few games and re-join the Spitfires.
Alex Formenton…this is the one where I don’t understand why he’s on the team. Formenton is a speedster and a hard worker. Something Boucher loves. I understand that. However he just became legal to buy a drink in Quebec a month ago. He still has to use Dozzer’s fake ID to get a beer in London. He was one of the youngest players in the draft and was a bottom-6 player on his stacked junior squad. The Knights are icing arguably their weakest forward core in a decade and Formenton can be given the reigns with a lot more offensive opportunities. Why make him languish with 4 minutes of ice-time, when he can be on London’s top line? Develop his scoring, not waste it and turn him into a 4th line grinder. This kid has the wheels to become a Hagelin type of player, I’m not sure why they’re doing this one. Though I honestly think it’s not Boucher’s idea.
Alexander The Gr7? : Of all the stories around the league, the most heartening for me is Ovechkin’s disgusting start to the season. I’ve never understood the levels of hatred he inspires. The guy has entertained the league for years and looks like he’ll hit 600 goals by the end of the year. It’s insane to think that if Ovechkin doesn’t score a goal for another 8 games, he would still be on pace for around 60 this season. He had an extremely pedestrian season last year, not only for his standards, but by league standards of first liners. Let’s hope this is the year another player breaks 60 goals.
Kangaroo Court : Keeping with the Caps, how cool is it that Nathan Walker became not only the first Aussie to play an NHL game, but to score a goal? I remember years ago when I wondered who the heck this Australian guy was that was in the AHL and performing well for his age. Looking at his career it’s hard to not root for this guy. Not only is he undersized at 5’8, but he had to move to the Czech Republic to play hockey. He’ll never be a star, but it would be nice if he could carve himself a niche as a 4th liner.
2005 Home of the Whistle : In 2005 after the Lockout; the league looked long and hard at the issues of scoring in the NHL. What transpired was a few years of ludicrous scoring. Especially on the Power Play. Sidney Crosby had 60 Power Play Points in 2006/07. 61. Think about that for a second. That’s first line production these days and he did it on the Power Play alone. Kovalchuk had 27 Power Play Goals after the lockout. In a league where 40 means you’re an elite goal scorer.
Aside from Ovechkin who I think is exempt from this kind of point. Only Steven Stamkos has come close in the years between the lockouts in terms of Power Play Goals. He had 24 2009/10. Other than him, you need to go down the list to Pavelski with 19 in 2014/15. Almost all of the PPG leaders since the lockout, came right after it.
You can do the exact same thing with Power Play Points. Everybody on the list of top seasons in those regards are all right after the lockout. You need to go down to 44 PPP’s by Backstrom in 2013/2014.
Why is this important? Watch any team play and you’ll see. The referees are calling anything and everything. Komarov got a visor violation call. He’s had that stupid way of wearing his visor since he came into the league and never heard so much as a whisper about it. Face-offs; a boring exercise at the best of times are PAINFUL. Everything is slowed down. Players kicked out of the circle. Slash violations. Foot violations. There are seemingly 20 penalties a game.
Why? Scoring had dried up. Let’s not mince words here, this is a clear move from the top to sell tickets. The Golden Knights are in and broadcasts need to be entertaining. What is “entertainment?… Goals it would seem is their answer. There are already 11 teams with over 10 Power Play Opportunities and we aren’t even at game 4 yet. A lot of people think things will calm down as the year goes on, I’m pessimistic however. I think this is the year of the PP much like 2005/2006. Get used to it and hope you aren’t playing the Flyers because if you didn’t grab Simmonds in your fantasy pool, you picked a terrible year not to!
Young Leafs : 15 goals in 2 games is rather ridiculous. I know that they were scored a lot on Jets goalies (current and ex), but it’s still impressive. More impressive is the diversity of scoring. 12 different Leafs have scored a goal. It took Nikita Zaitsev like 40 games to score his first goal last season, just two this year. Speaking of Zaitsev, he looks like an entirely different player. I know it’s two games, but he’s playing as the best two-way defender the Leafs have. I’ve been really impressed with his overall play. Gardiner-Zaitsev have been a dynamic pairing and Zaitsev seems to have finally grown enough to make up for Jake’s sporadic levels of attention.
On the sadder note of these wins…can we talk about the elephant in the room? A lot of people say that if they could re-do the 2012 Entry Draft they would pick Morgan Rielly First Overall. Or if not first, in the top-3. A commentator on the Leafs famously talked about how Rielly will enter the Norris discussions this year. Laughable. I’ve defended him for a long time regarding his pedestrian play. His partners have been horrendous and his minutes hard. But the time for excuses are over. Is there a more overrated player in the NHL in terms of perception versus reality? I can’t name one. Rielly can skate. Period. I don’t know what else he can do very well. All of the dynamism of his game has been shaved away. His defensive game isn’t very good. His transition game is fine, but unspectacular. He doesn’t score nearly enough to make up for his defensive game. I hope he can change my opinion. He’s young and he’s talented. He needs to improve though. The Leafs need him to be what he was in the Capitals series. Not just for 6 games, but for a whole damn year.
Plane Crash : A lot of people weren’t happy about my prediction that Paul Maurice would be the first coach fired this year as the Jets would be out of the playoffs by December. People did like that I predicted they would then have a Bruins-esque run and make the playoffs, but there you go. Mason has been terrible. No doubt. The defense from the forwards and defenders though? Also terrible. I’ve never seen such a paper tiger. They have on paper one of the best offenses in the game. Their defense on paper looks great. Why are these square pegs not fitting in these round holes? Maybe it isn’t Maurice. Maybe. Won’t know until you try something new though. The Jets need to be better. They are better. Make the move, bite the bullet and hope things work out.
The Hobbit and Ze : Mika Ziabananekejad has started off the year extremely well. The Rangers most glaring concern was their centre depth. With the move of Stepan, they really needed Zibanejad to step up and play like he did before his injury. He has started the year with 4 goals (3 on the PP) and looked pretty good. I liked his game against Montreal last night. Most important is to get his consistency up. I’d also like to give a shout out to one of my favourite underrated players, Mats Zuccarello the smurf from Norway. He has 5 points already this year and is always good for 50-60. He’s the definition of underrated in my opinion. I think the worry about true top-end scoring and needing to score by committee are valid with to the Rangers, but they have some interesting pieces if they decide to play them.
Blackhawk Not Down : Enough said.
Calderish : Charlie McAvoy is going to win it. Frk off with these other rookies. It’s two games in and it’s over. OVER. Though I’m still pissed at how little respect Jakub Vrana got going into the year. Look back at 2014 and it is a coup for the Elitserien. Nylander, Pastrnak, Fiala, Kempe and Vrana. Nasty first round.
Well those are my useless thoughts of 2 or 3 games on the season. Hope you enjoyed them. If you’re not working today have a great day off, if you are…sorry.