Month: April 2016

2016 NHL Playoffs Preview

The 2015-2016 regular season has come to a close. With over 1200 games played the field of 30 has been winnowed down to 16, none of which hail from Canada, something that hasn’t happened in 45 years. Despite its lack of Northern exposure, the 2016 playoffs look to be as exciting and unpredictable as ever. The number of wins during the regular season are irrelevant. The points totals are history. None of that matters. It’s all about who can win now. With that in mind let’s take a quick look at the matchups for this year’s first round.

Beginning in the Eastern conference we have this year’s President’s Trophy winners, the Washington Capitals, going up against wild card Philadelphia Flyers. While the Capitals are pretty much accepted as the best team in the league this year that in no way means they’ll glide past the Flyers who surged at season’s end to nab a playoff spot. Expect a bruising match-up with the Capitals coming out on top but perhaps a bit more shaken and tired than expected.

The Florida Panthers set a franchise record for points this year and hope for a deep run in the playoffs. They’re up against the wild card Islanders who have reached the playoffs for the third time in four years. With Nick Bjugstad surging at the end of the season the Panthers seemed poised for the win though Islander defenseman Travis Hamonic’s return from injury could provide a much-needed boost for the team from Brooklyn.

In what may be the most interesting and thrilling match-up of the Eastern Conference, the Pittsburgh Penguins face off against the New York Rangers. Sound familiar? It should because the Rangers have beaten the Penguins 7 out of their last 8 post-season meetings and ousted them each of the last two years. On the Pittsburgh side, expect big things from a resurgent Sidney Crosby who helped fuel the team’s winning streak at the end of the season. The Rangers, on the other hand, are stacked but how much can they expect out of 34 year-old Henrik Lundqvist?

Out of the Atlantic we have the Detroit Red Wings up against the Tampa Bay Lightning. With some injuries hampering their line-up at the end of the regular season, the Lightning seem a little banged up. While they may be favored it wouldn’t surprise anyone that the Red Wings are hard to beat in their 25th straight playoff appearance.

In the Western Conference we start with the Dallas Stars against the Minnesota Wild. The Stars won both the Central Division and the Western Conference for a reason. They can score. After leading the league with 267 goals in the regular season the Stars seem poised to push deep into the playoffs with their first top seed in 12 years. The Wild, on the other hand, have the worst record in the league for a playoff team plus they may have lost forwards Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek for the series. Expect a big win by Dallas.

The Anaheim Ducks face off against the Nashville Predators. The Ducks took the Pacific with a record of 46-25-11 while the Predators went 41-27-14 to clinch the first wild-card spot. The Ducks are expected to play well after leading the league in both power play and penalty kill but the Predators are reaching the playoffs for the 9th time in 12 years. Anaheim goalie, John Gibson, might be the determining factor in this series.

Long time division rivals, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, meet in the playoffs once again for what will surely be the most bombastic series in the Western Conference. While the Blues took 3 of their 5 regular season meetings that’s hardly enough to call for an easy win. The Blues enter the off-season with momentum and dazzling displays from their two goalies, Brian Elliot and Jake Allen, but will it be enough to stop the defending Stanley Cup champions? Look for Blackhawk netminder, Corey Crawford, to make a big difference in the outcome of this series.

Finally we come to the Pacific where second place finishers, the LA Kings, meet up with their third place rivals, the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks topped the Kings 3-1-1 in regular season play but the Kings are always better in the playoffs and look to nab that third Stanley Cup in 5 seasons.

No matter which conference or what division, the 2016 lineups look amazing. While who wins what is up in the air, one thing that can be counted on is another heart pounding post-season.

How to stop NHL teams from tanking

The Toronto Maple Leafs finally led the NHL in something for the first time since the 1966/67 season. Unfortunately, it was for tanking. If you’re not familiar with the term, tanking basically means losing games on purpose so a team can finish as low as possible in the standings. It’s not just confined to the NHL as it also happens on occasion in the NBA, but it’s starting to become a huge embarrassment to the world’s best hockey league. This is because several clubs were obviously trying to sink down the table this season in order to obtain better odds of acquiring the number-one draft pick.

It’s become so bad that fans have openly cheered when their teams have lost and the media in many cities has jumped on the losing bandwagon. It all seems ridiculous though when you consider the Edmonton Oilers have drafted first overall four times in the past six seasons and the franchise is still one of the worst in the league. If Maple Leafs’ supporters believe that picking Auston Matthews first overall this June will suddenly turn the franchise around they’re in for a big shock. One youngster isn’t going to make this club an on-ice winner, especially by playing about 18 minutes a night.

Also, considering the Leafs have perfected the art of losing over the past half century, there’s an 80-per cent chance they’re not going to win the lottery and pick first anyway. There’s no arguing that somebody has to finish last in the 30-team NHL, but something needs to be done to stop clubs from “competing” for the basement. There have been a few interesting suggestions to stop tanking from becoming an epidemic, but only a couple of them appear to be realistic.

Many fans feel the league should hold some sort of playoff contest between the team’s worst teams with the winner earning the top draft pick. However, it’s going to be hard to organize and players who are on expiring contracts aren’t going to be motivated, especially when they could be inured. Another suggestion is to count up the number of points a team earns during the regular season once they’ve been mathematically eliminated from reaching the playoffs.

This solution is also flawed though since teams don’t all miss the postseason at the same time. Some clubs are out of the race with as many as 20 games to go while others may not be eliminated until the last weekend. A team that is eliminated earlier in the season has a much better chance of earning points by putting in an effort once they’ve officially missed the postseason. In addition, a franchise which realizes it has no chance of making the playoffs at the beginning of the season can simply tank earlier. If the team is out of the playoffs before everybody else it has an unfair advantage and opportunity to earn more points over the remainder of the season.

The basic idea of playing for points could lead to an ideal anti-tanking solution though. The best method would be to add up the total points that all 14 non-playoff teams earn during the last 20 games of the season. This puts all teams on equal footing and instead of trying to lose games due to a lack of effort, the opposite would need to take place. If the Leafs happened to play the Oilers in game 82 this season it wouldn’t be a meaningless match with both teams and their fans hoping for a loss. It would lead to a contest in which both franchises desperately need a victory to receive a higher draft pick.  

This scenario makes the final 20 games of the season must-win outings for all of the league’s teams regardless of their position in the standings. Clubs in the playoff race would obviously need as many points as possible to keep their postseason positions while the bottom feeders would need the points to draft as high as possible. Tanking would then become obsolete. Of course, if all 30 NHL teams or the 14 that miss the playoffs had the same odds of winning the draft lottery it would also be a fair system, but this could also lead to meaningless games during the last quarter of the season. By counting points earned over the final 20 games it guarantees that all games will be meaningful.        

Calgary Flames 2016 Offseason Plans

            Following a surprising playoff series win in 2014-2015, the Calgary Flames struggled mightily this season. The team will likely drop more than 20 points from last year’s 97. Considering the team’s young stars and offseason acquisitions, it was assumed they would at least be competitive. However, poor goaltending and lower overall scoring will keep them out of the playoffs.

            Calgary’s goaltenders have combined to have the worst goals against average in the NHL. Jonas Hiller has been the most inept, posting a 3.51 GAA and .879 save percentage in 27 games. Youngster Joni Ortio has played relatively well in limited outings. The 24 year has a goals against average of 2.63, similar to fellow goalie Karri Ramo.

            Pending Free Agents: The Flames have many difficult decisions to make this offseason, most important of all to determine who will be their starting goalie next season. Hiller and Ramo will both be unrestricted free agents, with Hiller definitely to be gone. Ortio is a restricted free agent, so if the team sees him as a future contributor, they will need to work on an extension.

            The first priorities to get extensions though are forwards Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. Gaudreau is quickly becoming one of the league’s best young players, averaging a point per game this season. Monahan, a year younger than Gaudreau at 21, has 62 points in 78 games played this year. Both players are restricted free agents but the team will likely try to work out long term extensions with both.

            Draft Picks: It is highly unlikely the team will address their goalie issue with one of the first picks in the draft, but they will probably look for one in the middle rounds. Calgary may try to overcome their goaltending deficiencies by adding more scoring punch, so they may look to add the best forward available.

            Free Agent Additions: The free agent goaltender market is pretty thin, with old veterans Cam Ward and James Reimer topping the list. They could try to trade for a goalie like Jimmy Howard from the Detroit Red Wings or pry Matt Murray away from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Murray may be available because with the potential expansion draft on the horizon, teams with two quality goalies will only be able to protect one and would rather trade one than lose him with nothing in return. With the large contracts the team will have to give Gaudreau and Monahan, it will be interesting to see if they will have any more room to sign free agents and stay under the salary cap.

The Conn Smythe Trophy

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs right around the corner and almost all the playoff spots secure, save for the Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit saga, everyone wants to make predictions on how far their favorite team will go. While it is true that it takes an entire team effort to win the Stanley Cup there is always one (sometimes more) player that stands out over the course of two gruelling months of playoff hockey.
The Conn Smythe Trophy is given to the player who is judged to be most valuable to their team during the entire course of the playoffs. This is different from the other three major sports in North America (the MLB, NFL, and NBA) which give out their awards based on the performance of the player in the final series alone. While performing well in the last series to win it all is very important, the Conn Smythe Trophy recognizes not only the final 4 wins but also the other 12 that had to happen to get to the finals. Sometimes, most times, these previous wins are just as hard or harder to achieve because teams are playing their division or conference rivals; teams that they have played against many times in the regular season and teams that know how to strategize against your team. This article will examine some of the possible Conn Smythe Trophy candidates if their teams get all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Alex Ovechkin/Braden Holtby – Let’s start with the President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals and their stars. The Capitals are hoping for it all this year and they have every reason to believe they can do it. They are well clear of any other team in terms of regular season points, they have the top goal scorer in the league in Ovechkin with 47 goals so far, and the league leader in wins for a goaltender with Braden Holtby’s 47. If Ovechkin can keep up his torrid goal scoring pace into the playoffs there is no reason why he shouldn’t be the playoffs MVP. If the Capitals end up winning the Cup then it will probably have something to do with goaltender Braden Holtby stealing a few games but otherwise playing solid the way he has been all season. The Conn Smythe Trophy might be a coin flip if the Capitals win the Stanley Cup.
Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane – The Chicago Blackhawks seem to be in contention for a Cup every year now and it is in no small way due to their best forwards. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have lead this team (and the league in Kane’s case) in points for the last few years and especially in the playoffs. Defenceman Duncan Keith is the reigning Conn Smythe winner but his recent suspension might hinder the perception of being the most valuable. Jonathan Toews is arguably the best captain in the NHL right now and if the Blackhawks reach the Stanley Cup finals it will probably be on their captain’s back, scoring or not. Patrick Kane is the Western Conference’s answer to Ovechkin and if the two of them end up battling it out for the Conn Smythe Trophy it should be very fun to watch.

Of course anything can happen in the playoffs and there are any number of players and goaltenders that can get struck by lightning and have an amazing run to the Finals. There are also the superstars on every team that have the potential to win games all on their own. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Drew Doughty, Jamie Benn, Alexander Steen, Henrik Lundqvist, Jaromir Jagr, Corey Perry, and Ryan Getzlaf all have the skill and experience to lead their teams the Holy Grail of hockey and a chance to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Panther Set Record

On Monday April 4th the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 for their 45th victory of the season. The win further solidifies their position atop the Atlantic while continuing the slow, tortuous death of the Leaf’s 2015-16 season. But another win and another step closer to the playoffs weren’t the only reason for celebration in Panther country Monday night. Florida also racked up its 99thpoint for a new franchise record.

The Panther franchise officially began with the 1993-94 season and the team’s ability to win was established right away. With stars like John Vanbiesbrouck, Rob Niedermayer, and Scott Mellanby the Panthers had one of the most successful inaugural seasons of any expansion team ever. With a near .500 finish they barely missed a spot in the 1994 playoffs.  Then in the 1999-2000 season the franchise record was set at 98 points, an achievement that held for 15 years.

With goals by Bjugstad, Rocco Grimaldi, and Aleksander Barkov, not to mention 22 saves by netminder Al Montoya, the Panthers held on to win after jumping to a 3-0 lead in the second period. The team hopes that surpassing the previous team record sends a clear statement that this isn’t the same team who found themselves at the bottom of the league during the 2013 season. ”Those are some tough times,” Bjugstad said. ”Losing a lot of games and it’s not fun coming to the rink a lot of times because it’s a tough environment.”
With only four playoff appearances in franchise history nobody is feeling overconfident moving into the post season though. According to right-winger Jaromir Jagr, “It’s something new for a lot of guys to make the playoffs. We’ll see how we’re going to react. It can scare us away or the other way around.” The team’s last visit was during the 2011-2012 season where they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the Quarterfinals. ”We’re at step one,” said center Nick Bjugstad. ”We keep saying step one, keep moving on, we don’t want to be satisfied.”

The Florida team does have some reason to feel confident going into the post-season though. Monday’s victory clinches home-ice advantage in the first round, which should go a long way towards helping them find their way into the later rounds. “It’s good to get the home-ice clinched tonight and the next goal is to try and get first in the division,” Florida head coach Gerard Gallant said.

In the meantime the team continues to build momentum and prepare themselves for the post season. No matter what happens though, they can honestly say that this was their best year in franchise history.

NHL playoffs to faceoff without a single Canadian team

No Canadian club has hoisted the Stanley Cup around an NHL rink since the Montreal Canadiens won the silverware back in the 1992/93 season. That winless streak will now last for at least another year as all seven Canadian-based teams have officially been knocked out of the playoff race. This is the first time the postseason will face off without at least one Canadian side since the 1969-70 campaign and it means an American franchise will win the cup for the 22nd straight year.

The last Canadian team with any hope of reaching the postseason was the Ottawa Senators. But even though they managed to down the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on March 30th they were knocked out of contention when the Philadelphia Flyers erased a 1-0 deficit to Washington with five minutes to play to beat them 2-1 in a shootout. Five Canadian clubs skated in the playoffs last season with the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs being the only two that missed out. The 2013/14 campaign wasn’t one to write home about either though as Montreal was the only team to play more than 82 games. And let’s not forget, there were only two Canadian sides in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 postseasons. 

The NHL consisted of just 12 clubs back in 1969/70 when all playoff teams were from American cities, but there were just two Canadian teams, Montreal and Toronto. There are now seven Canadian squads in the 30-team league with 16 of those clubs making the playoffs. When Montreal failed to reach the postseason back then it was considered big news since it was the first time in 22 years they had fallen short. Also, they had won 10 Stanley Cups during that 22-year period.


The Habs still had a shot at the postseason when taking to the ice for their season finale though. The New York Rangers had already beaten the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 9-5 earlier that day with New York needing at last five goals to keep their chances alive. The final score infuriated Canadiens’ fans since Detroit had already made the playoffs and they felt the Wings had thrown the game. This meant Montreal could still reach the postseason with a win or tie in Chicago. In fact, they could even afford to lose as long as they scored five goals.

Needless to say, the Habs failed in their quest, but did give it a determined effort. Chicago had a 3-2 lead entering the third period, but extended it to 5-2 with just over nine minutes remaining in the game. Montreal coach Claude Ruel figured a win or tie were out of the question so decided to pull goalie Rogatien Vachon as often as he could for the remainder of the contest in order to score three more goals. That didn’t work either though as the Hawks skated away with a 10-2 victory courtesy of five empty-net goals. The Rangers advanced to the playoffs that season as they tied Montreal for fourth place on points, but scored more goals than the Habs.

There will still be plenty of Canadian players for hardcore fans north of the border to cheer for this postseason on the 16 American teams. The Canadian franchises will take a hit to the wallet though since they’ll be missing out on revenue such as ticket, merchandise, and concession-stand sales. Canadian television broadcasters will also be sweating especially Rogers Sportsnet, who have a multi-billion dollar deal in place to show the NHL playoffs. The postseason will go as usual, but it may be a bit difficult to pull in high ratings at least seven of Canada’s major cities this year.   

Vancouver Canucks 2016 Offseason Plans

            The 2015-16 season has been a colossal disappointment for the Vancouver Canucks. After scoring more than 100 points in five out of the last seven years, this squad will likely not even reach 80 and will miss the playoffs. The frustrating season is due to a combination of poor performances, age and injuries.

            The Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, are still the only real offensive weapons on the team. As of March 29th, the pair of 35 year olds each has over 50 points, but only two other players have reached the 30 point plateau. Vancouver has struggled to score all year, netting just 2.23 goals per game. That is almost tied with the New Jersey Devils for the lowest in the NHL. With 35 year old Ryan Miller as the starting goalie, and only one year left on his deal, the team needs to decide if to stay competitive or send out their veterans and start rebuilding.

            Pending Free Agents: The Canucks have several noteworthy unrestricted free agents this summer. 34 year old Radim Vrbata was a 30 goal scorer last season, but hasn’t produced this year. He has just 27 points in 63 games, and is an embarrassingly low -30. Another veteran free agent is Dan Hamhuis. Many thought the defenseman would be traded before the deadline, but the team was not able to work out a deal. It is likely the team wants to re-sign him, but that will depend on if they will move into full rebuilding mode.

            After being signed as a free agent last offseason, the Canucks thought they had a potential top four defenseman in Matt Barkowski. That has not been the case, as he is currently a -23, worst among all Vancouver defenseman. It will be interesting to see what the team will do with him.
            Draft Picks: Odds are the team will try to select some offensive help with their top pick. While Auston Matthews is the top choice if they win the lottery, they may look for Jesse Puljujärvi if Matthews isn’t available. He is born in Sweden and plays right wing, so he could get a year or two with his countrymen, the Sedin twins.

            Free Agent Additions: The team has holes all over the place, and will likely not invest heavily in top tier free agents unless they make one last push to win in the next year or two. If they go that route, All-Star Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning would be the top target. He would likely choose a team able to offer a better supporting cast though.

Vancouver can also bring back Anton Rodin, a former second round pick that didn’t play well in his first go around with the team, but was just named the MVP of the Swedish Hockey League. Kyle Okposo and Eric Staal are two potential additions to increase the scoring punch, but they won’t come cheap.