This season has been one of my favourite in a long time, mostly because a lot of quality posters on this site will get to see the playoffs again. It’s not a coincidence that most of those posters are Canadian, because it has been a good year for Canadian franchises. Unless you are a Jets fan, which if you are, I assume you are outside Paul Maurice’s house calling for his resignation and maybe a new goaltending coach. Vancouver fans might ask, “Well our year sucked! Why aren’t we mentioned?… I think it’s because this is the first step in the rebuild. I know that the last two years looked like it was “the first step,… but I would call those years the prelude. Mostly because they moved most of the players from that “rebuild… already (Shinkaruk and McCann) and are probably close to moving Virtanen as well. I think a strong draft and a bad year in 2018 could see a swift rise (Svechnikov anyone?).
But enough of the doom and gloom, we have to look at the positives. Calgary is in, Montreal won their division, Edmonton came out of the shadows on the back of an angel, Ottawa overcame some heartbreaking player drama and Toronto managed to scrape their arse in at the last second. That’s a pretty good haul and much more encouraging than last years’ disaster. Am I partisan in this issue? A little, but I’m Canadian and I like to see Canadian teams make the playoffs…and then subsequently lose so I can make fun of them online using an anonymous username because they aren’t from where I’m from.
This has been a season of rookies. A fantastic crop that managed to break records where records are harder and harder to break. I can’t remember a more exciting group as a whole in terms of depth and importance.
Auston Matthews – Matthews started the year scoring 4 goals, becoming the only player to do so in their NHL debut, an omen of things to come. Matthews set the record for most goals scored by an American rookie with 40, which also beat the Leafs rookie goal scoring record. He also took over the Leafs rookie point’s record with his 69 points. His 40 goals makes him the second highest goal scoring rookie since Ovechkin back in 2005. He also led the league in Even Strength Goals which…well it’s a bit nuts. He will likely win the Calder (I’d put money on it).
Patrick Laine – Laine managed to lead the league in Points per Game by a rookie. He also managed to set franchise records for rookies in the Jets organization. “But wait idiot! Laine plays for the Jets, you don’t even know about the Finnish Flash? What an idiot!… Sadly those records belong to the Quebec La seconde fois c'est le charme, what was known as the Arizona Coyotes and which was also known as the Phoenix Coyotes. Laine amassed 36 goals and 64 points, finishing second in both categories on the rookie scoring race. Laine’s 36 goals set a Thrashets record, passing Kovalchuk’s 29 goals. He did fail to take the scoring lead from Dany Heatley who had 69 points in his rookie season. Any other year, Laine wins the Calder. It’s that simple. An 18 year old winger scoring at this pace is elite. We can quibble about his linemates, shooting percentage and a two-way game, but he’s 18 and he had a year to remember. Barkov might have been the first of this Finnish Revival at forward, but Laine looks like he will be the best of it.
Mitch Marner – Marner had a great year, though he slowed down as the season ended after a minor injury and just plain rookie blues. He ended up with 19 goals and 61 points. His 42 assists set a Leafs rookie record and added to the trend of Leafs rookie records being broken. The funniest part about his year is that Marner playing the “Kessel… bit of the JVR-Bozak connection allowed both to have career-ish years. Not to say Marner is better than Kessel was during those years, but it’s clear that a playmaker with his speed and drive meshes better. I’m interested to see if he ever makes the move to centre.
William Nylander – Another Leaf! Yes another Leafs rookie getting praise, oh no. The blonde bombshell had a more inconsistent season than the previous three mentioned, but when he was on, he was on. Winning two rookies of the month awards, Nylander set two Leafs records with a 12 game point streak, the longest in franchise history by a rookie and 9 Power Play Goals. He led the league in points by a rookie on the Power Play and finished tied with Marner for third in rookie scoring.
So many Leafs records shattered, and while I’m happy, I can’t escape the feeling that it’s a reflection of just how poorly these “rebuilds… had gone before recently.
Zach Werenski – More Blue, less White. Werenski, similar to Laine would normally be the clear cut Calder favourite. While the maturation of the Jackets stellar blueline helped, including monumental growth by Seth Jones, Werenski’s offensive ability propelled the Jackets into being one of the highest scoring clubs in the league. Under Torts no less, a man who hates scoring almost as much as he hates the entirety of the human race. Werenski led rookie defensemen in goals and points with 11 and 47 while playing 20 minutes a night on a top team’s top-4. His 47 points makes him the third highest scoring rookie defenseman since the lockout (2004) behind only Phaneuf (49) and Myers (48). He managed to finish 13th in defenseman scoring amongst some very favourable established names. Like Phaneuf before him, he will likely have to settle with losing the Calder to a 1st overall superstar.
Matt Murray – Before the season started, I joked about not getting too hyped on Matt Murray because of Cam Ward. Murray seems to (at least this year) shown he probably isn’t a flash in the pan. With a sv% of .923 and 32 wins in 47 starts, it looks like the Penguins have their goalie of the future as well as the here and now. I’m beating a dead horse here, but ANY OTHER YEAR and Murray probably is looking like a legitimate winner. He sits in 8th overall in sv% and rises higher if you remove goalies that have played less than 40 games like Howard and Darling. He had 4 shutouts and backstopped one of the top teams in the NHL. Plus, even though it shouldn’t count, we all know that New Cup Smell is still in the air surrounding him. Goalies that received Calder consideration are as follows John Gibson .920sv% (40 GS), Michael Hutchinson 914sv% (30 GS), Frederick Andersen .923sv% (24 GS), Sergei Bobrovsky .915sv% (52 GS), Jimmy Howard .924sv% (60 GS), Tuukka Rask .931sv% (39 GS) and Steve Mason (who won) .916sv% (61 GS). I think he fits in the higher tier here.
The Leftovers – This is where this year of rookies really shines though. It’s obviously lovely to have huge standout performances, but it’s the depth of talent that counts to me.
Sebastian Aho scored 24 goals and recorded 49 points.
Matthew Tkachuk had the third best year from the 2016 draft with 13 goals and 48 points. Plus becoming Public Enemy Number One in the entire Western Conference at only 19.
Brayden Point finished the year with 18 goals and 40 points as the Lightning’s de facto top line centreman down the stretch due to injuries. What an impressive season and a nice show that rewards don’t always have to be earned, but have to be acted upon.
Brady Skjei out of nowhere became the Rangers second best defenseman, especially improving as the year went on. He finished the year with 39 points, 32 of which were at Even Strength. Tops for rookie defensemen.
Nikita Zaitsev came in from Russia and played essentially the number one role on the Maple Leafs. He has been great, good and sometimes insanely bad, but he has shown he is a top-4 defender in this league…at least this season. Hope he’s healthy for Game 1.
Jake Guentzel is one of the unsung rookies due to injury. In 40 games he scored 16 goals and added 33 points, which is a pace to fit in and around the Mattlainerlander territory. Playing with Sidney Crosby doesn’t hurt, but you can’t take away from what was a very impressive half season.
Then we have a whole host of players with promising debuts. Mikko Rantanen (20 goals), Connor Brown (20 goals), Anthony Mantha (.60PPG), Ivan Provorov (30 points and often used as their top pairing defender) and Jakub Chychrun (only 2016 defender to make the jump). There are many more, but I think my point is made.
Great year for rookies.
Favourite Things of the Season
Sergei Bobrovsky winning the Vezina. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will. Bobrovsky is one of my favourite underdogs. Name goalies with two Vezina Trophies to their names. Tim Thomas, Martin Brodeur, Dominick Hasek, Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour…Sergei Bobrovsky. That’s…so odd. I wonder in 10 years when people look back on this era of hockey, they will ask the question……Who the heck is Sergei Bobrovsky and how does he have more Vezina’s than Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist?… Obviously that speculative question is trite and can become irrelevant as early as next year, but it’s a possibility. Then you look at that defense in front of him and that he is naturally a very good goalie…hell he could win another one.
Connor McHundred willing the Oilers to their first playoff series in a decade was also very special. 100 points that was special. Just the fact that he did it on the last day is hilarious. Like he was teasing the hockey world with “will she, won’t she.… The Oilers in general are very impressive. Cam Talbot to me deserves some Vezina love himself after the year he has had. Klefbom despite some quibbles has emerged into a very good top-4 defender, insulate that with Larsson and Sekera and you have a very quality top-3. I think they are still missing that “number one,… but aside from the elite contenders, most are. Big year for the Oilers and I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if they beat the Sharks. Something I would never have said in October.
Jaroslav Halak sticking it to the Islanders in as classy a way as possible. He took his demotion, he took the stupidity of the three headed goalie monster and Halak persevered and almost got the Islanders into the playoffs. His numbers down the stretch were simply insane. I've always liked Halak and it's nice to see him come back and play his heart out. Wonder what team he will be on next year.
Disappointments
The Scoring Race – It’s nice to see Crosby pick up some more hardware, especially since he probably won’t get the Hart. However the way he did it was depressing. While it’s not very exciting to countdown the games until Ovechkin scores another 50 and wins another freaking Rocket, at least he usually does it in style. Crosby efficiently led the league in goal scoring with 44 goals. The second highest in his career. The depressing part is what comes next. Matthews and Kucherov were the only other players to hit 40 goals. Going back to maybe 2011 it just feels like the only thing hiding the lack of 40 goal scorers was Ovechkin or somebody hitting 50+. Today’s NHL just isn’t a goal scorer’s league and it makes those that do thrive in that endeavor all the more impressive.
The Colorado Avalanche. People laughed at me when I said Patrick Roy was not the problem. Analytics people, Avs fans, casual fans, everybody seemed to have determined that Patrick Roy was killing his team. Surprise! While I would never defend him as a “great… coach…or even a particularly good one, you can’t tell me a man of his insanity would ever allow this garishly terrible performance. MacKinnon looked like he could take on the world. Duchene was a Team Canada dreamboat. Landeskog the new model of the top-6 power forward. Barrie was the up and coming offensive defenseman. Everything went wrong and we’re all worse off for watching it. The worst part? They will probably have to make the controversial first overall selection which is not clear cut nor even that appealing. Bad year to be the worst team in the league, should have waited until next year when Andrei Svechnikov and his Auston Matthews/Jack Eichel levels of production in the USHL is available.
Morgan Rielly. A year or two ago if you asked people about the 2012 draft, you would probably stake a claim that Rielly was the best player from that draft. Along with Galchenyuk, Forsberg, Trouba and Lindholm who are all in that contention (and ahead if you were to ask me). This year…my goodness. Don’t just look at his +/- (which is brutal), don’t just look at his advanced stats (which are brutal), just watch one game. I watched about 60ish Leafs games this year, Rielly has looked good (not even GREAT, just good) maybe 10 games. Consistently he has been mediocre offensively, lacking the creativity we’ve seen in the past, slower than he has ever looked and just plain lost in his own end. He’s only 23 and his trajectory has been so promising that I’m not worried about him, but his season has been terrible. Here’s hoping he improves in the playoffs.
Worst Part of the Season
Listening to Pierre Maguire on TSN1200. If I hear ONE MORE TIME about Anders Bjork, Jacob Forsbacka-Karlsson or Charlie McAvoy I might just kill myself. It was fine when he talked about them once, it was even fine a second time, but every single morning he says the exact SAME THING. EVERY TIME. He has nothing new to say about these players, he just repeats his spreadsheet with non-committal double talk.
“If any of these young men get into the Bruins lineup, they don’t just change the entire structure of the Bruins…they change the entire dynamic of the playoffs! They really do JR, I believe that! I really do. I really do believe that if the Boston Bruins under Bruce Cassidy get Anders Bjork from Notre Dame, Jacob Forsbacka-Karlsson and Charlie McAvoy from BU, they’ll change the ENTIRE matchup.…
He’s said this exact phrase every single morning. Verbatim. I’ve heard it so much I’ve committed to memory. I’ve heard it so much it haunts my sleep. It’s awful and makes me want to cheer for the Sens. Yes...I am a masochist and a millennial, they go hand in hand with my CIS privilege.
I also don't like that he calls people over 6'4 "A huge specimen of a man." That entire phrase just freaks me the heck out.
Thanks for reading.