Cycle like the Sedins

A fool-proof guide to make the All-Star Game slightly interesting

2012-01-29T16:09:00.005-06:00

Look, you're never going to make All-Star games matter the way they did back in their heydays.

Still, after noting the mute Ottawa crowd today, I thought there must be some way to add a little bit of sexiness to the event. I've made some of these points before - probably in more than one outlet - but this seems like a good time to bang that drum again. With that, here's my fool-proof guide to make the All-Star Game slightly interesting.

Striking while the iron is hot

Every league seems to schedule these events when the market is already saturated with their product. No one gives a damn about exhibitions like these in the middle of playoff races in the MLB, NHL and NBA. The NFL's Pro Bowl suffers from an almost laughable disparity in intensity from brutal postseason games to that exhibition. (Seriously, the Super Bowl has its work cut out for it following conference finals ... how can a bloodless event hope to compete?)

So, my question is: why not hold these events when people are dying for it?

If you held the NHL All-Star Game a week before the season starts, it would be a way to feed those who have been famished from hockey after a long summer. It would be a big welcome back for players and we could catch up on what they did over the break. Everyone would be tanner and flabbier and generally fresher. By scheduling it around training camp, people would already be around.

Oh yeah, it would also be a nice way to say, "Hey, the season's about to start!"

(Sure, there might be some players who skip the event because it's before the season, but I'd bet it would be a little bit less frequent than the in-season bumps and bruises.)

Yes, players might be rusty, but they shouldn't be exhausted. If you gave the NHL a "spring break" where everyone gets 2-4 days off when the All-Star Game would have happened, then you'd really be onto something.

Champs vs. All-Stars

One really cool wrinkle to the pre-season idea: you'd have the hindsight of a full season. That would be a more realistic representation of who the All-Stars would be, but better yet, we'd know who won the Stanley Cup.

And wouldn't it be cool to give those champions a "last hurrah" in a salary cap age when most teams not named the Boston Bruins or Detroit Red Wings lose significant guys after winning it all?

You could schedule the All-Star Game in the winning city and have that team unveil it's banner on national television. Imagine how cool it would be for the disassembled 2010 Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks to get one more game together before splitting up? There would be times when it could get downright emotional. Picture, for a second, Mark Recchi playing his final NHL contest in the All-Star Game after a tearful pre-game ceremony.

Even beyond the tugging-on-the-heart-strings stuff, a defending champion would have a chip on its shoulder and built-in chemistry. There would be plenty of guys who never imagined participating in an All-Star Game in their careers.

I'd say the only time the Ottawa crowd cared today was when Senators did something well, so you know what would keep an audience involved? The ups and downs of their own team trying to beat a group of All-Stars.

It would be as close to awesome as these things can get.

Alternate ideas

If you're not going to change the system, at least make logical tweaks. The No. 1 thing for me is to make sure that you spotlight the most interesting people - not the best players or nicest guys.

The 2012 Fantasy Draft was bland because they went with Zdeno Chara and Daniel Alfredsson as captains, who brought a rice cake flavor to the event. If you're going to do it, have wacky guys like Scott Hartnell, Patrick Kane (yes, again), Tim Thomas and so on pick the teams. This year's version was all about not offending friends and teammates, which is as boring as it gets.

***

Yes, it's not that big of a deal that the All-Star Game is milquetoast, but why not make it better if you can? What would you do to make it better?

Lambs to the Slaughter: Comparing the 2011-12 Isles to the 2000-01 Leafs

2011-11-21T19:08:00.005-06:00

(This bit is too obscure [I think] for PHT, so I thought I'd plop it here.)

I've already compared Sidney Crosby's comeback to the one Mario Lemieux made back from retirement, but there's no doubt that they aren't perfect parallels. Crosby is much, much younger than Lemieux was and aside from an in-his-prime Jaromir Jagr, Lemieux didn't have anywhere near the team around him.

But the biggest difference is that New York Islanders are way worse than the 2000-01 Toronto Maple Leafs were. Allow me to compare and contrast the situations just a little bit:

The Maple Leafs trotted out borderline Hall of Famer Curtis Joseph as their goalie. The Islanders have Anders Nilsson in net. Yeah, that's a pretty huge difference.

Toronto had a (woefully convoluted) 18-12-4-3 record going into their automatic loss; the Islanders are likely to drop to 5-10-3.

The Leafs had Pat Quinn as their coach while the Isles employ Jack Capuano, who might just make it through his first full NHL season. Maybe.

Marc-Andre Fleury is just a liiiitttttllllle better than Garth Snow, who probably isn't smiling now that he's on the wrong end of a famous Penguins center's comeback.

So, yes, Crosby already tied Lemieux's one-goal, two-assist performance, but it's probably fair to say that their efforts (and magic) are about equal.

Matt Cooke pie chart

2010-03-16T09:52:00.002-05:00

Click to enlarge it yo.

Rankin's (temporary spot while Joomla! gives me fits)

2010-01-12T23:15:00.005-06:00

So, Bloguin NHL is coming out with its Power Rankings ... which means that it's time for dumb stat-based fun! Hooray! (Throws confetti alone in a basement)*

* By the way, I've found that there are two groups of people who really get beat up by writers/tooshie-heads in general: "bloggers writing in their mother's basement" and "pimply faced teens." Any time a blogger or teen must be disparaged, they are disparaged in this exact way. It's like some form of cliche facism.

To mix things up, I decided to use a different "formula" to come up with the Power Rankings. Thankfully, for me, this formula still involved no critical thinking on my part. Unfortunately, I had to look at numbers and a spreadsheet. Blogging sucks, brah.

After the jump, CANDY and BOOBIES.

(OK, now imagine that you just clicked a Read More! link and were expecting Reese's peanut butter cups and D-cups ...)

John Candy ...

... and Boobie Miles!

HA! Suckers!

Anyway, here's the dopey formula for this edition of the Power Rankings.

Ingredient One: 5 on 5 scoring (For minus Against)

Sure, special teams are important, but great teams win in normal situations. At least that's what some fat guy who smells like cheese* once told me.

* - This has never happened.**

** - Also, fat guys who smell like cheese are much like bloggers living in basements and acne-addled kids. So we're all hypocrites, really.

Ingredient Two: Goals scored per game minus Goals against per game

Really, just to throw another number in there.

Ingredient Three: Road Wins minus Home Losses

I think a team that can break even or better on the road, yet protects their house like a dude wearing overpriced underwear is usually a team that will do well in the playoffs.

Add them all together and you have the totals for this edition of the Power Rankings.

***

I'm feeling kind of lazy, so I'm going to just throw up the spreadsheet tonight and then give you a nice, bold-faced list of the the ranked teams on Wednesday. Maybe.

(Not satisfied? What if I told you that there will be pithy comments? Ohhhh, now you're ripe!)

Anyway, here's what geography kids would call a "key."

The bold columns are the sums, so "5 on 5" is the result of a team's 5 on 5 goals for minus against. Diff/G refers to a team's goal differential, per game. Tough W is simply Road Wins minus Home Losses. Add 'em all up and you get the power rankings, or PR. PR is so important that it's in bold, it's highlighted AND FUCKING UNDERLINED! Holy shit!

I think this list shows which teams are imbalanced (home dependent or PP dependent), which teams are resilient (lots of road W's) and who might be built for a long playoff run.

Like I said, the following list will be translated into English tomorrow.

(But don't think I've forgotten about my other goober stats. I won't let you off that easily, already departed public. You WILL adopt special teams plus/minus, even if it kills your whole family.)

We've Moved!

2009-11-15T19:07:00.002-06:00

CLS is now a member of the Bloguin team.

Our permanent home is at http://www.cyclelikethesedins.com. Along with our new home, we also have a spiffy new logo. So please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds. If you want to be really nice, you could even leave a comment on the new blog!

Hope to see you there ...

http://www.cyclelikethesedins.com

The RSS feed

Link Surfing In The Pacific Division

2009-11-13T02:38:00.007-06:00

ARTHUR:
This is Arthur from Anaheim Calling. I never cleared a day or schedule with Gray from Couch Tarts (now at Bloguin), so you may be getting a double dose of the Pac today.

San Jose
First, I refer you to the Couch Tarts post on last night's game with the Stars. The letdown is emblematic of the Sharks season so far. The team is definitely on top of a competitive division, but they look far more mortal than the squad that came roaring out of the gates last year. (Also, I take credit for this win, as I benched Turco on my fantasy team, thus thoroughly jinxing San Jose's sticks for the final stanzas of the game).

Los Angeles
The Royal Half muses on a guaranteed win for the Kings, though there seem to be a lot more of those this season.

Dallas
Scott Glennie talked to Brandon of Defending Big D this week. He's the future of pure scoring in the Pacific Division.

Phoenix
I'm not ashamed to say that I don't know what's happening with the Coyotes, despite the fact that the Desert Dogs were the Ducks' opponents on each of the last two Saturdays, and despite the fact that James Wisniewski controversially Manny-Pacquiao'd Shane Doan in that first meeting. I know this is two weeks old, but I have no links, just this:

Every time I see the video above, I swear I hear Marv Albert saying Boom-shakalaka. I enjoy it only because I remember this video:

Anaheim
The Ducks are on fire sale watch right now, beset by rumors of players headed out the door for little more than a change of locker room scenery. And much of this week's smoke damage came from Giguere, who threw a few heavy quotes to diligent and diligently under-appreciated beat writer J.P. Hoornstra of the LA Daily News. Giguere clarified everything later, but damage has certainly been done.

Anaheim fans are doing a bit of trainspotting these days, but instead of cars, we're watching passengers. Who's coming? Chris Higgins? Vesa Toskala? Who's going? Jiggy? Hiller? Niedermayer? Coach Carlyle? And now that Ducks owner Henry Samueli is back, what are the chances he fires Bob Murray, the only guy who insists nobody's going anywhere?

CLS' #unpublishedNHLbooks entries

2009-11-13T00:30:00.005-06:00

Inspiration for "Fight Club" by Alex Semin

Originally I was planning on compiling a "Greatest Hits" of the entire Twitterverse, but that task quickly became overwhelming. Just scroll through the entries in the #unpublishedNHLbooks feed and you'll see that it's a pretty mind blowing compilation of brilliance (along with squabbles between Penguins, Red Wings, Maple Leafs and Senators fans, etc.).

By no means do I think that mine are the best, but there are a few borderline gems (in my opinion). Feel free to share your favorite(s) in the comments or even share a few of your own if you still think Twitter is just about sharing your grocery lists and news about bowel movements.

Anyway, here's a full stream of these fake book ideas. Don't hesitate to admonish/glorify any particularly great/terrible pieces of imaginary literature. (My Twitter Feed)

50 Easy Insect Recipes by Ray Emery #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 9 hours ago from web
- Delete
The Fax of Life by Dale Tallon #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 9 hours ago from web
"Fight Club" by Alex Semin about 9 hours ago from web
"Empty Net" by Patrik Stefan #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 9 hours ago from web
Modern ILLiterature by Jacques Demers #unpublishedNHLbooks
I assume someone's already done "Cents and Sensibility" by Patrick Kane, right? #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 9 hours ago from web
about 9 hours ago from web
(I ate) The Three Musketeers by Kyle Wellwood#unpublishedNHLbooks
"Les Miserables" by Vesa Toskala and the Carolina Hurricanes#unpublishedNHLbooksabout 10 hours ago from web
about 10 hours ago from web
"Crime and Punishment" by Colin Campbell #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 10 hours ago from web
"The Blindside" by Scott Stevens #unpublishedNHLbooksabout 10 hours ago from web
"Turn the Lights off, my head hurts" by Eric Lindros#unpublishedNHLbooksabout 10 hours ago from web
"Season on the Brink" by the Phoenix Coyotes#unpublishedNHLbooksabout 10 hours ago from web

NW Division Link Time

2009-11-12T08:15:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone, I'm back again for this week's links from the NW Division. Please enjoy as I continue to search out the best of the NW Division blog writers.

Low on Oil thinks that Penner may be earning himself a spot on the Team Canada Olympic roster...
-I would think that they are mistaken, but interesting read anyways.

One of the writer's for Hitting the Post, aptly named Wild Road Tripper is following the Wild on their roadtrip. They started in Toronto, will miss Tampa Bay, but be in DC for the Capitals game for Friday's nights game.
-Love the idea of hockey game roadtripping. The best part about the post is that when they hit Canada, because everyone up here clearly knows someone who knows someone who played with someone in the NHL:
The customs inspector played hockey with the brother of Cal Clutterbuck and still plays locally in and around Niagara Falls with his cousin, and also has met Owen Nolan, another Niagara region native. "You have tickets?" he asked. "Yes, sure do" was our reply. I thought for a minute that we were going to do a live version of 'Leafs Lunch'.

Hit the Post travels down to St. Louis and discovers that 'all you can eat snacks' really mean all you can eat popcorn, peanuts, ice cream, cheeseburger, turkey sandwich, dibs ice cream treats, pepsi, diet pepsi, sierra mist....

Mozy19 from Canucks Hockey Blog compares Forsberg vs Sundin and makes a case as to why it IS a good idea for the Canucks to try to sign him.

And for you stats heads out there (not me), Five Hole Fanatics explains how to calculate your own team's scoring chances yourself, which sounds to me as exciting as learning derivatives in Math 101...but hey, to each their own.

Do you think that you've written something worthy of next week's list? Are you a reader of a smaller blog and feel it deserves some attention? Drop me an e-mail at thevancitycanuck [at] gmail.com and maybe you'll end up in the next NW Links around the League.

Northeast Division Roundup

2009-11-11T09:50:00.002-06:00

Greetings, hockey fans. This is Meaghan from the illustrious (humour me) Ottawa Senators blog known as Sens at Land's End with the first of what should be many whirlwind tours of blogs covering the NHL's Northeast Division.

Without further ado:

Let's begin with one of the teams furthest from my heart, the Montreal Canadiens. Topham over at Habs blog Lions in Winter has thoughtfully taken on the now infamous Allan Walsh-Jaroslav Halak vs. Carey Price Twitter incident in a post puntastically titled "The Price of Being a Twit."

Over in the Barilkosphere, Down Goes Brown claims to have revealed the NHL's top secret flow chart for handing out suspensions. I'm not sure I believe the document posted is authentic, but it seems quite accurate. (This isn't strictly speaking a story about the Leafs, but I imagine a team that truculent will at some point encounter Colin Campbell and his magical wheel of justice.)

With the Sens being ~~the best~~ ~~the most interesting~~ my favourite team in the league, I was able to find a huge amount of fascinating, high quality material about them. It was hard for me to narrow it down to just one story to post here, but in the end I thought The 6th Sens' piece about the potential ripple effects of the Steve Yzerman to Ottawa trade that never happened was the most timely, with Yzerman's well-deserved induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame having taken place on Monday.

Most Bruins blogs appear to be focused on happy things this week. David Krejci has recovered from the dreaded swine flu, and everyone is generally feeling joyful because the Bruins have won their last two games and may finally be getting on track. However, According to Cameron Frye uncovers the darker side of Boston, making the disturbing discovery that Patrice Bergeron may have been replaced by his evil twin.

Finally, the entire Buffalo Sabres blogosphere is evidently too shocked over the fact that Adam Mair was placed on waivers this week to write about much else.

And that's what's what in the Northeast this week. If you have any suggestions for posts I might link to in next week's roundup, shoot me an email at sensatlandsend [at] gmail [dot] com and let me know. I'm sure there are tons of worthy blogs I'm not aware of, and I'd appreciate any tips pointing me in the direction of great material.

Central Division Schtuff.

2009-11-09T19:47:00.004-06:00

Wow, quiet week, apparently. Main stories? Hm.

Outstanding summary of Hull's career and what he means to both St. Louis and hockey. The complete speeches of the gentlemen inducted into the hall are available at NHL.com. Hull's was pure class, as was Yzerman's. Congrats to the two reps most associated with the Central Division.

As a Thrashers fan as well as a Blues fan, I'm pretty sensitive to rumors of teams moving and reports of impending doom. Apparently there're rumblings out of Columbus that the team is in financial trouble and could be looking at a move without a tax hike for the residents of the city. Well, Mike McLean over at The Cannon takes a look at the situation. Welcome to club of writers that has to defend their team constantly. Enjoy.

Apparently Jason Williams has broken his right fibula. Personally, I think it's karma for putting Beyonce on a locker room playlist. But that could just be me.

Links around the Web, since the league didn't do much for me this week

2009-11-07T07:47:00.000-06:00

I am not a baseball fan. Of all the "major" sports, America's ex-pastime is the one I have the most difficulty commenting on. Really, the most pointed analysis I provided in the Yankees' run to the World Series was "C. C. Sabathia reminds me of a brontosaurus when he extends his neck."

Maybe I'm just seeing things.

That being said, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about the Yankees' championship victory. It was as if the blond haired evil skiing high school quarterback steals the leggy blonde, but John Cusack is nowhere to be found.

Vance from Bangin Panger brought a great blog post by Joe Posnanski to my attention ... it accurately captures my feelings of unrest. Even Chicago Blackhawks fans should be glad the NHL went with a salary cap after reading a piece like that.

Although ESPN the Magazine is at best the ugly stepchild of Sports Illustrated, they had an offer for a $3/year subscription so I thought, "Why not?"

I'm not sure if you'll be able to read these because they're "Insider" stories (let me know in the comments), but the "Player X" columns have been some of the more interesting/odd pieces I've read in a while.

On a bittersweet note, it'll be pretty shocking if the magazine survives my 3 year, $9 commitment ...

By now you've already seen Ohlund's vicious (but perfectly legal) hit on Phil Kessel, but it's been a slow week in me caring about the hockey blogosphere so let's bask in its barbarism:

Daaaang.

It would be useless - and quite futile - to point out a specific post; instead, I will just implore you (if you're a blogger, a writer, a business person, if you have a pulse) to take a look at Seth Godin's blog. You might feel better about yourself, but you'll probably also feel the need to do a little soul searching.

I know I'm far from being done with that, myself.

***

Did you write something interesting this week? Or maybe you read something that simply should not be allowed to float off into the wild blue irrelevant? E-mail me your links at cyclelikesedins@gmail.com. Please?

Links! Links! Thursday NW Division Link Time

2009-11-05T07:50:00.002-06:00

Thanks to James for giving me the keys to CLS, I'm pretty sure he's gonna regret it. My name is Vancity Canuck, and you may know me from previous CLS writings or my other blog tHB. I'm gonna start off small here with a little tour around the Northwest division. I didn't realize that signing up to find some stories about the NW Division would actually require me to read about other teams besides the Canucks.

Let's start our tour, shall we?

The KB has compiled a list of Getting to Know Your Backup Goalies. If you haven't ever read the Kurtenblog before, well let me introduce the j-ckasses that are paid to write about sports and chat on messenger by the MSM. In this week's list they introduce the Swedish backup, who learns that "The biggest difference in the NHL is how all the players can skate forwards and backwards."

Jibblescribbits has also complied a list! Their is about Why the Flames received their Flu shots. As a Canadian, Albertans seem like they would be the type to do anything for Kevin Sorbo's Nerdy Little Brother, Jay Bouwmeester.

Hitting the Post did not have a list. Disappointing. But they did address the question: is their team the Least Intriguing team in the NHL? So what about this Wild team is interesting, right now? Their answer: nothing. Nada. Nathan. Nil. Bopkus. At least we're all on the same page.

Low on Oil looks at being an Oilers fan and compares it to Myth Busters, exes and Mac Ads.

And if you want to read the latest issue of Tigerbeat, or Teen Beat or whatever they have Lipgloss/Tswizzle's face all over, I put together a collection of underage, androgynous faces of popstars and teen actors attending recent hockey games, so I ask the question is the NHL celebrity trendy these days? Maybe I should have asked the question: why are these people famous?

Do you think that you've written something worthy of next week's list? Are you a reader of a smaller blog and feel it deserves some attention? Drop me an e-mail at thevancitycanuck [at] gmail.com and maybe you'll end up in the next NW Links around the League, I promise to be relatively nice.

CLS shares its "NHL BCS" (First Week of Nov.)

2009-11-05T07:46:00.000-06:00

I've been throwing some fun little statistics at you lately, but numbers are only fun when they lead to people writing angry comments. That (along with porn and pirating music/movies/ships) is what the Internet is for, right?

So to cause you a conniption or two, I took the composite average of each teams rankings in the four categories (Net Goals, True PP, True PK and Special Teams Plus/Minus). Granted, some stats are more important than others ... and it is still a small sample ... but let's see where each team stacks up.

The Excel Spreadsheet will be listed at the bottom of this post so you can see for yourself.

Please Note: these rankings are based on stats taken before Tuesday's games, just like the stats from yesterday's post.

Final Note: This is a COMPLETELY impartial list based strictly off the numbers. There may be Power Rankings based on projections and opinions in the future, but for now this is just rankings along with commentary.

(The commentary is delightfully biased, however.)

The Elite

1. San Jose Sharks

Average: 5

My fearful Stanley Cup pick is doing pretty well so far. They're the second ranked team in Net Goals and Special Teams Plus/Minus. Maybe they won't stay at #1 all season but they're likely to be an elite team in just about any numerical system barring catastrophes.

2. Philadelphia Flyers

Average: 5.25

Much like last year, the Flyers stand out once you consider True PP and True PK. They're also pretty damn solid at 5-on-5, to boot. So far people who chose a SCF run for Philly are looking fairly bright.

3. New York Rangers

Average: 5.5

Their True PP and Net Goals Scored could be altered quite a bit if Marian Gaborik cannot stay healthy and their young D slows down. Still, their strong showing is a sign that Torts knows what he's doing.

4. Colorado Avalanche

Average: 6.25

While only being solid on the PP, the Avs have been an elite team in the other three categories. Who knows how long they can keep this up, but so far the numbers say "top 10 team."

5. Atlanta Thrashers

Average: 7

An Ilya-free team could drop precipitously, but the chink in Atlanta's armor has been Net Goals instead of Penalty Kill. Can their out-of-nowhere strong goaltending continue? Who knows.

Strong Contenders

6. Pittsburgh Penguins

Average: 10.5

Injuries to Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and others will probably mean that the Penguins' numbers will fall a bit (or dramatically) across the board. It's still pretty impressive that the Penguins have managed a 7-0 road record, so far.

7. (tied) Phoenix Coyotes

Average: 11.25

The only below average unit appears to be their Penalty Kill (seventeenth best True PK%). Phoenix might not be playing a crowd-pleasing style, but winning is a good thing, too. Good luck 'Yotes.

7. (tied) Calgary Flames

Average: 11.25

A highly efficient (third best True PP) powerplay is what makes the Flames dangerous so far this season. I'd also like to say "not employing Mike Keenan" is another strength in their favor.

9. Columbus Blue Jackets

Average: 12.75

Oddly enough, the Blue Jackets are a little bit weak in Net Goals Scored (19th best) while having strong special teams. Don't be shocked if this club makes the playoffs again this year.

10. Chicago Blackhawks

Average: 13.75

A surprisingly tepid PP (ranked 20th in True PP) underscores just how scary this group will be whenever they get healthy returns from Captain Serious and Marian Hossa. The John Madden acquisition looks like a smart move.

11. (tied) Ottawa Senators

Average: 14

The Heatley-free Senators are pretty weak with a man advantage (25th in True PP) but sport the best True PK in the league. Hell, they've only allowed seven PP goals while scoring four shorthanded!

11. (tied) New York Islanders

Average: 14

Perhaps the biggest hole in this ranking system, the Islanders have at least shown a notable friskiness so far this season. They've managed to stay in a lot of games with efficient special teams but lack the talent level to do much 5-on-5. You cannot ask NYI to do much better than 5-5-5 in 15 GP.

13. (tied) Vancouver Canucks

Average: 15

The Canucks' numbers are all over the place, but ultimately they're fittingly middle-of-the-road. It's going to be tough for Vancouver to make the playoffs this year, let alone win their division, with the schedule and obstacles (Luongo injury) they are facing.

13. (tied) Minnesota Wild

Average: 15

The Wild make it this high because of their absolutely excellent PK and a respectable PP. The bottom line, though, is that they're 27th in the NHL in Net Goals Scored. Middle-of-the-road is probably their ceiling at this point.

15. Washington Capitals

Average: 16.75

There was a time when it seemed like Washington might compile the greatest PP unit ever. That unit slowed down considerably, but the Caps rank highly in Net Goals Scored (7th) and should be a top-1o team in these rankings by the end of the season. Even if Ovie misses a few weeks.

16. (tied) Buffalo Sabres

Average: 18

Buffalo is playing over their heads right now, with the sixth best ranking in Net Goals Scored despite mediocre special teams numbers. Let's hope Ryan Miller and friends can keep it together, though.

Ham and Eggers

16. (tied) Edmonton Oilers

Average: 18

Despite finishing with the same average as Buffalo, the Oilers are the quintessential mediocre NHL team. They rank middle of the road in all four categories. They average one point earned per game played (15). Yawn.

18. New Jersey Devils

Average: 18.25

Nothing surprising about these Devils, really. My guess is they make it to the playoffs and then find their thin defense unable to support anything more than a second round run at best. Still, with all the turnover in this decade it's amazing this team can keep up year after year.

19. (tied) Los Angeles Kings

Average: 18.5

The Kings ultimately are brought down by a fairly awful penalty kill (28th ranked True PK%) but are around the top third in the league in Net Goals Scored and True PP. The Kings really could be primed for a playoff run this season.

19. (tied) Dallas Stars

Average: 18.5

Dallas is in an odd spot this year. Yes, they do have some serious talent but this team is far from elite. It's ultimately unclear what direction the Stars want to take. Is simply making the playoffs the only goal year after year?

21. Detroit Red Wings

Average: 18.75

These stats were taken before Chris Osgood managed a nice shutout of the fledgling Boston Bruins, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the Red Wings have left a lot to be desired in their own end. Their PP is still pretty damn deadly, though. They'll be OK. Will they be great? That remains to be seen.

Government Cheese

22. Toronto Maple Leafs

Average: 21.5

Toronto is an odd duck in these stats: the best True PP% and the worst True PK% on one team. Let's face it, though, those special teams numbers won't really mean much if Toronto remains the fourth-worst team in Net Goals.

23. St. Louis Blues

Average: 21.75

Quietly one of the league's most disappointing teams.

24. Carolina Hurricanes

Average: 23.25

The worst team in the league in Net Goals and that's before the team was shutout. Yikes. Their plight shows that you shouldn't make team building decisions based off of nostalgia.

25. (tied) Boston Bruins

Average: 25

An absolutely abysmal special teams and a general lack of firepower (not to mention some crucial injuries) leave the Bruins among the dregs of society. The truth is that this team is somewhere between their current state and their euphoric year in '08-'09. My bet is that they make the playoffs, but it's going to be tough.

25. (tied) Nashville Predators

Average: 25

Is there a team more in need of a top draft pick than the Predators? All those years of barely making/missing the playoffs left them with a shallow pool of genuine NHL talent. Time to tank, I'd say.

Just Ugly

27. (tied) Montreal Canadiens

Average: 25.25

All that money spent for a team that will need to fight and claw desperately to secure a 7th or 8th seed. Without Andrei Markov, the Canadiens don't even have a particularly effective PP.

27. (tied) Anaheim Ducks

Average: 25.25

It's been an ugly season for the quackers so far. With the league's worst special teams plus/minus and some serious blueline issues, the Ducks will need even better work from their 14th-best powerplay. Anaheim managed a near-miraculous run to the playoffs last year, but can they really affordable to dig such a big hole with Los Angeles and Phoenix emerging and Dallas showing some life?

29. Tampa Bay Lightning

Average: 26.25

A real oddball team. Steve Stamkos looks like the real deal while I'm starting to wonder if Vincent Lecavalier is really overrated.

30. Florida Panthers

Average: 28.5

What happens to Florida if Vokoun walks? This team is grasping at straws as is, but without Vokoun's elite-ish goaltending they would be in some serious trouble. Then again, I guess they already are?

Here's the spreadsheet:

Return to Stat Nerdia: An Update on True PP, True PK, Net Goals and Special Teams Plus/Minus

2009-11-04T07:51:00.000-06:00

The sample size is still pretty small, but I thought it would be a good time to take another look at two of the stats I made up (True PP and True PK) as well as where each team ranks in Net Goals and Special Teams Plus/Minus. The original posts can be found here and here. Each screen capture will have an explanation of the stats that are included. Click on them to get a better look.

Net Goals (all stats taken before Tuesday's games)

Net Goals refers to a simple formula: a team's total goals for minus a team's total goals against.

Special Teams Plus/Minus (all stats taken before Tuesday's games)

(Powerplay Goals For subtracted by Shorthanded Goals Allowed) minus (Penalty Kill Goals Allowed subtracted by Shorthanded Goals For) is the formula for Special Teams Plus/Minus.

True PP%

To simplify things, True PP% is a lot like PP% except it factors in the Shorthanded Goals a team allows along with the PP goals it scores.

True PK%

Much like True PP%, except this considers the SHG a team scores along with the PP goals it allows.

A Tribute to Bridesmaids

2009-11-03T10:52:00.010-06:00

As newspaper pages yellow and hairs become gray, time tends to remember only the winners and people who break other people's necks. It takes a Super Bowl savant to even remember the losers, let alone the many teams that couldn't even get there.

This post could just be a one-shot deal, but the hope is to find out about missed dynasties and could've been champions from days of yore. So please let us know about some of the most interesting Hypothetical Champions from hockey's elder years too.

Recent Memorable Almost Champions from Hockey and Otherwise

The St. Louis Blues of the 90's

OK, so this squad never got especially close to a Cup but that's part of what makes their completely failed dynasty perplexing. Brett Hull - Al MacInnis - Chris Pronger - Adam Oates. They had all four of those HoF-caliber performers for big chunks of their primes but could never really put together even a deep playoff run. Perhaps those teams weren't constructed well or simply lacked goaltending, but it still is pretty stunning those guys didn't break through the Dallas/Detroit/Colorado gamut at least once.

The Drury-Briere Buffalo Sabres

Awww, now this one is still pretty sad. Sabres fans are frowning and muttering "Open Wounds, James. Open Wounds." Let's take you back, though: after teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and contraction the Sabres suddenly became hotter than Emma Stone. With a solid goaltender in Ryan Miller, a makeshift band of defensemen lead by "Tepid" Teppo Numminen and line after line of flighty forwards, it was pretty difficult to not love those Sabres. Even with their goofy old logo:

And their even more terrible new logo:

Still, despite those logos, it was pretty much impossible to root against the Sabres until they played against your favorite team.

Sadly, a big part of what made those Sabres team so difficult to play against (rolling line after line of quality forwards) is what made them so difficult to sustain in a small market, salary cap world. Their most important forwards went on to be grossly overpaid; with Briere and Drury going to other teams and Vanek staying in Buffalo for a crap ton of money.

Basketball Teams

The Barkley Era and Steve Nash Phoenix Suns

This one hits close to home. As a kid, I didn't choose sports teams based on geographical convenience but rather who captured my immature imagination. Naturally, the brash, bald and bold Charles Barkley captured my attention like no basketball player before him.

Those Barkley-Kevin Johnson-Thunder Dan Suns teams were outrageously fun to watch. If you want to find the key to my heart, make sure that you find a solid and charismatic coach, an explosive and quirky offense and a largely terrible defense. Is that a formula for a championship? Almost definitely not. But perfect defense and coaching usually kills fun (see: Devils, New Jersey and Spurs, San Antonio).

After Barkley was traded away, I thought that a basketball team would never captivate me in the same way again. Jason Kidd lobbing alley oops to Shawn Marion was entertaining but ... eh. Stephon Marbury nearly killed basketball for me.

Just as I thought I'd never care again, floppy haired banger of Elizabeth Hurley Steve Nash came along and captained the priceless "Seven Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns. And it was good.

You can conspiracy theorize all you want, but those teams ultimately fell short because they didn't want to pay to get to the top and because they couldn't play defense. So what? They were a joy to watch and I miss them terribly (since Steve Kerr murdered them with terrible decisions).

Seriously, though, fuck you Steve Kerr.

The Webber-Ugly Dude Sacramento Kings

Much like the Nash Suns, the Chris Webber-Mike Bibby-hairy European Sacramento Kings were a lot of fun to watch. Also a lot like those Suns teams, the Kings probably had as many flaws as strengths.

If nothing else, the Kings will always make me smile when I remember that Shaq referred to Vlade Divac as "a flopping bitch." Good times.

The Cuban-Nowitzki Mavericks

It's crazy how close that team came to a championship before getting absolutely screwed in the Finals. But let's face it, they're done.

Football Teams

The Jim Kelly Buffalo Bills

No sense kicking this dead horse anymore. No sense bringing up Scott Norwood's name. That would just be mean.

Late 80s Bengals/Browns

The state of Ohio actually came pretty close to winning a Super Bowl. For the Browns, it was their epic choking and John Elway that kept them from glory. For the Bengals, it was Joe Montana.

Tuesday's Tour Around the Central

2009-11-02T17:23:00.005-06:00

You know it's a slow news week when you do a Google News search for the Blue Jackets and every single thing that pops up has to do with Ovechkin and his wonky shoulder. And, as an afterthought, how they came from behind to win their game Sunday.

Anywho, let's see what's out there in America's Heartland - and Nashville.

Our friends (and by friends I mean fellow smartasses who also write a gameday newspaper - they're like Game Time's cousins or something) over at Second City Hockey have a recap of what you can tell about the Blackhawks after one month in. Kudos to them for not doing what a lot of other Hawks sites are doing - "Wooooo! We're in FIRST!" is not an in-depth analysis. Because, um, there are like 65 or so games left. Gimmie substance, please.

Hockey's Future has the top 10 organizational rankings out, and the Blue Jackets are 4th (Blues are 1st and the Preds are 2nd, so the Central should be tough for some time to come). Nikita Filatov is their number one prospect and apparently will be a contender for the Calder this year. Someone might want to mention that to Ken Hitchcock.

Mirtle wrote an excellent six part series on the viability of the Nashville Predators as a hockey market. Excellently researched - as a fan of the Thrashers, I appreciate someone taking the time to visit Nashville to see what's going on there first hand. I'm fairly tired of people writing stuff that usually sounds like:

"(Insert non-traditional market team here) doesn't have the fan base to succeed. Their attendance is awful. They need to win in the playoffs or else (insert big name star) is going to leave in free agency. Since they're located in the south, the team will automatically finish in the bottom of their Conference. Oh, and LOL @ rednecks!"

MLive.com is hoping that the Red Wings have turned a corner. That's odd - so do I. Into a wall.

And finally, continuing the injury bug that has been harassing the Blues for the past few seasons, Andy McDonald does his best impression of me in high heels and takes a header into the boards:

Thank God he appears to be ok so far, though he probably won't play Thursday as a precaution. No word yet on Sunday at Atlanta.

Links around the League (Nov. 1)

2009-11-01T13:18:00.008-06:00

Things look like they may pick up around CLS lately, so keep your eyes open and your RSS feeds refreshing.

I announced this fairly recently, but just to clarify CLS will begin collecting interesting stories from the league (and its divisions) with the hopes of eventually doing so on a daily basis. The goal isn't to match Kuklas Korner, Puck Daddy or any of the other blogs who provide links posts but rather to try to find a) things that fall through the cracks or b) things that are too weird/crucial/hilarious to ignore.

For the first week, however, I'm going to share links to posts from years past that made me more interested in hockey blogging or stuck with me for one reason or another. This will also hopefully provide a decent (though by no means rigid) guide for our other contributors.

Sacamano's Epic Beard Piece

On some level, the Oilogosphere's coverage of Edmonton's Cinderella run to the SCF may not ever be matched for its sheer hilarity and insane genius. One could devote many a post (and many links) to the great portions of comedy that resulted from that special time but it ultimately just makes me sad that most of those guys are long gone.

Why Sidney Crosby should embrace the role of villain

One of the reasons I run a general NHL blog instead of a Penguins-related blog is that Pensblog covers the bases I would attempt to as a Penguins fan: they write over the top, offensive and funny things about the Penguins and include professional wrestling references. This post is my favorite of theirs and is generally just full of genius. Bonus points for the hilarious Photoshop of a bloodied Mike Richards.

Rudy's Off-Season post about Dogs (and hockey)

I never actually watched a single episode of the show Rudy was talking about, yet I'll always go back to this post as a rebuttal for people who say that they can't write anything interesting during hockey's off time. This is one of the best posts to come out of BoC and it was during a dead time in the year. Rudy: "It's like someone put a camera inside my head and filmed my dreams."

Bird Watchers Anonymous with an in-depth look at drafting

Anyone who wants to contemplate how much of a crapshoot drafting can be needs to look no further than this exhaustive take on how each NHL team fares in the draft. It's also a great example of making deep stat analysis digestible for the unwashed masses.

Five Reasons Justin Bourne Loves Hockey

Puck Daddy often hits Internet-wide features out of the park and one of the best ones is their "Five Things I Love about Hockey" specials. What makes this piece especially interesting is that it takes a very humanistic approach to what makes hockey great and is written almost at a Ken Dryden's The Game-level. This shows that players can come up with some truly great stuff every now and then.

***

Do you think that you've written something worthy of next week's list? Are you a reader of a smaller blog and feel it deserves some attention? Drop me an e-mail at cyclelikesedins@gmail.com and maybe you'll end up in the next Links around the League.

Hits to the Head (and all the headaches that come with making rules about them)

2009-10-29T21:50:00.005-05:00

Part 1

You may not recall this, but the original concept of CLS focused on dissecting the NHL's biggest issues in a round table format. Instead, the blog morphed into something that is often much better.

Still, though, now that the blog features two brainy contributors in Joe and Chris Kontos, we'll occasionally take such an approach with various issues.

In this case, Joe e-mailed me after a weekend full off controversial hits. Here's the first part of our discussion.

JOE:

James, we're not even a whole month into the NHL regular season, and already it seems that we've hit our yearly quota for incidents in which someone made a outright dirty hit, or at least made one which was borderline dirty. I got into this discussion last spring with Art and Daniel(and hey, we're even hijacking their gimmick!) on the Brown/Hudler hit during the DET/ANA series, and then again with Art when Kronwall broke Marty Havlat in the DET/CHI series. The other day, Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski said his piece on reactions to the recent Mike Richards/David Booth hit, comparing it to this hit by Willie Mitchell on Jonathan Toews. I'm sure both of us agree on such blatant cheap shots as this Ruutu shot on Darcy Tucker, which resulted in a 3 game suspension, but that black and white turns to gray really quick when you start looking at some other more controversial hits. Obviously we want a contact sport, but at the same time, there is a definite problem in the league with regards to headshots, even those delivered legally by the letter of the law like Richards', though the clean/dirty aspect of it, despite its legality, is definitely up for debate. Where do you think that line should be drawn, and how should it be enforced? Is a full ban on hits to the head the answer?

I'm just going to slip these in here, for reference, examples, general viewing enjoyment, and probably to stir up some folks in the comments as well, in addition to the previously linked hits:Nik Kronwall/Marty Havlat, Nik Kronwall/Mike Ribiero, Dion Phaneuf/Kyle Okposo, Doug Weight/Brandon Sutter, Scott Stevens/Eric Lindros, Stevens/Slava Kozlov, Stevens/Ron Francis,Stevens/Shane Willis, Stevens/Paul Kariya.

James:

Oh boy is this ever a loaded issue. I guess the first point that needs to be made is that, unlike Joe, I don't have a frame of reference beyond street hockey. I am an anti-athlete. Watching me play sports is an exercise in unintentional comedy.

I can't even skate backwards without looking like an idiot.

So, from my personal perspective, it's difficult to be too hard on some of those gray area hits. Hockey is a ridiculously fast sport and to assume that they are ALL deliberate attempts to injure is probably misguided. In particular, hits against the boards (while often being the most dangerous from a neck injury/concussion standpoint) can go from painful to dirty while a player has already committed to the check.

That being said, these ARE world class athletes we're talking about. The Sports Guy Bill Simmons had an interesting take on Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs being accused of being a dirty player:

"Bruce Bowen is a cheap player. There's no debate. He's not some clumsy power forward who can't stay out of his own way (like Mark Madsen), or even some uncoordinated center who can't remember to keep his elbows near his body (like Shawn Bradley). He's a world-class athlete who has complete control over every inch of his body at all times.

As anyone who's ever played basketball knows, with the exception of clumsy people who probably shouldn't be playing in the first place, there are no accidents on a basketball court.Your feet just don't coincidentally land under someone else's feet as he's shooting a jump shot, and you don't just coincidentally kick someone in the calf as he's going up for a layup or dunk. These things don't just happen. They don't. The only room for error happens when someone's trying to block a fast-break layup or dunk, takes a roundhouse swipe and inadvertently ends up hitting his opponent's head instead of the ball (like we saw with Matt Barnes when he clocked Matt Harpring Tuesday night). When Jason Richardson nails Memo Okur at the end of Game 4 because he's pissed that Okur was driving at the tail end of a guaranteed win, or Baron Davis elbows Derek Fisher in the same game because he's ticked that the Warriors blew a winnable game ... those aren't accidents."

Before we get into defining what a dirty hit really is, I have to ask you Joe: does it matter whom the offender is? Should guys who seem to continually blur the line between legal and illegal ... who have a tendency to take advantage of other players ... should the Scott Stevens, Dion Phaneufs and Mike Richards of the world be under special consideration?
In other words, can we fairly judge the intention of a hit and should reputation be taken into account?
JOE:
I don't think reputation should be considered at all in the actual penalty. If Pavel Datsyuk, who may actually be Lady Byng, makes a dirty play, he ought to be called just the same as anyone else. Conversely, while Nik Kronwall may be universally reviled for having a tendency to leave his feet when hitting, you can't tell me he doesn't make a lot of legal, clean hits as well. The ice itself is not the place for refs to have to make even more subjective calls about reputations and intents. Reputation and prior incidents should only be an issue during the supplemental discipline process, for players who are refusing to learn from past issues.

Hand in hand with avoiding subjectivity on the ice, intent should also be tossed out the window by the refs, and only considered within the supplemental discipline process. Refs have a hard enough time doing their jobs, and adding more subjective considerations to their calls is only going to make things worse, both in terms of calls missed and phantom calls made. Besides that, I think intent is a pretty shady area in which to judge anyways. Rarely does anyone ever mean to break someone's neck or end someone's career or change someone's life. The intent is usually to make someone think twice, to be hesitant in going into the corners, to help wear someone down. I think we both agree that particular intent is legit, and a good part of the game, but its the execution that sometimes goes a little too far, right?

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk along the lines of eliminating hits to the head. In the OHL, all hits to the head are deemed illegal, and in the AHL, any hit to the head which is deemed to be intentional is an automatic match penalty. The thinking behind those rules was that the acceptable intent of hitting someone, as I just mentioned, can still be fulfilled without hitting the player in the head. Hits to the head are then thought to serve no constructive purpose in the game, outside of attempting to inflict an injury on your opponent. On the other side, many people contend that such crackdowns wouldn't work, because you'd have Zdeno Chara getting penalties all the time for hitting the likes of Marty St. Louis in the head, or that such restrictions go too far and remove too much physicality from the game. Where should that line be drawn?

James: What do you think, fair readers?

Stay tuned for Part 2!

On Visors

2009-10-28T02:10:00.004-05:00

If you haven't seen it already, you should definitely check out this fantastic piece posted by NHL FanHouse's Chris Botta. Pat Dapuzzo, a former NHL linesman of 24 years, shares what I'm sure is just a very small part of his experience after having his career ended and his life changed in a freak accident. If you're squeamish, the embedded video on the article may not be for you, but what happens in that video is that Philadelphia Flyer Steve Downie was being hipchecked along the boards by a New York Ranger. Dapuzzo was caught between the boards and the hipcheck, and as Downie pinwheeled over the hitter, his skate stabbed Dapuzzo across the face. The injuries are recounted in the article by Dapuzzo, the most startling of which being that his nose had to be reattached. It's a great piece, but one quote in particular cut to an issue whose answer seems so obvious that I've never been able to understand why it's even a question:

"This is a fact: all this happened to me because I wasn't wearing a face shield."

One of the things we all love about pro athletes (not you, Paul Pierce) is their toughness, and this is particularly true with hockey players. No sport emphasizes or lionizes sacrificing your body for the team like hockey does. The passion and commitment that it takes to drop in front of a Chara/Pronger/MacInnis type blast from the point is one of the greatest things in sports. A large part of the rationalization for making those sacrifices is that the pain is temporary: the bruise will heal, the teeth can be replaced, you can get a shot before the game, and that at worst, the bone can be set and put in a cast to heal. Really, most injuries a hockey player is going to take in their career are things that can be healed and fixed, and allow the player to live a normal life after their career. Perhaps the most glaring exception to this is a person's eyes.

I've been watching sports for years, and I've been on the internet for just as long. I've seen a lot of pretty gruesome injuries, but I can only remember one incident in a sports game that made me instantly gasp in horror, during the live play. In Game 5 of the Wings/Flames series in the 2004 playoffs, a point shot by Mathieu Schnieder deflected in front of the net, redirecting upwards into the left eye of Steve Yzerman. That was easily one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Yzerman was lucky - he was able to recover, and even come back for another year after the lockout. Seeing that video, its not hard to imagine how it could've been even worse.

Eye injuries cost Brian Berard his career. An eye injury forced Al MacInnis into an early retirement. Ducks prospect Jordan Smith lost his career to an eye injury, an incident that prompted the AHL to require visors for all players. There are plenty of examples out there, and even more close calls.

Considering that their bodies and abilities are their living, the fact that most NHL players don't wear visors is simply astounding to me. That the NHL BoG has not forced the issue in an attempt to protect their investments is even more surprising, given their sole motivation comes from dollars and cents. There seem to be 3 reasons, in my mind, why the NHL hasn't made the jump.

The first issue is obviously concern about impeded vision on the ice from the visor. Somehow, many of today's young stars see just fine with a visor, and besides that, there's always the tinted visors to reduce glare. Second, is that "the code", as given to us by the likes of Mike Milbury and Don Cherry and other assorted irrelevant people, demands that you not be a pansy and wear protection... except for shin pads, padded pants, a cup, shoulderpads, elbow pads, and a helmet. Just don't put on that visor, or you might as well go back to France.

Third, and less talked about, I think has to be a confidence and denial issue among players as well. With such skilled players, part of the problem has to also be an issue of overconfidence as well. Sure, an NHL player can deflect a puck or dodge or flinch away from a shot coming his way. It makes it easy to think you can avoid an injury in any situation. Unfortunately, it's never as cut and dry as a straight shot into your eye. On Yzerman's injury, the puck deflected significantly, less than 20 feet away from him. Bryan Berard and Al MacInnis were both injured by sticks, not pucks. Such freak accidents are fortunately uncommon, but the fact is that they still happen, and they are frequently the sort of incidents the victim couldn't dodge or avoid. Coupled with that, the attitude of "It will never happen to me" is definitely a part of the choice not to wear a visor. No one ever plans on suffering a catastophic injury. Of course, no matter how hard you look the other way, such things still happen.

Mandatory use of visors obviously wouldn't prevent every injury. Dany Heatley's left eye remains permanently dilated from an injury that occurred while wearing a visor. Pat Dapuzzo still would've had his face slashed by Downie's skate, but the injuries would certainly have been reduced significantly. But a $50 visor would likely mean Bryan Berard still pulled an NHL paycheck. Wearing a visor, Yzerman may still have been hurt, but at least most of the damage would probably be restricted to his mouth and cheekbones, as opposed to his cornea.

Even in the rec leagues I play in, I wear a visor. As we all know, shit happens. High sticks, deflected shots, or any of a million others things. Losing some teeth, I can deal with that. Even getting my nose broken again, or facial fractures, that can be dealt with. Not pleasant, but you can deal with it. Losing my vision? That's not something that I can deal with, its not something that can be fixed. That a 22 year old who has no material investment in his hockey ability can grasp that idea, while guys making a career out of the game continue to take avoidable career and life altering injuries is mind blowing.

Jersey purchasing advice from someone who never buys jerseys

2009-10-26T07:13:00.001-05:00

I saw some photo of a Packers fan wearing a Aaron Rodgers jersey and it made me think about how nice (but risky) of a gesture that is. That made me think further: what jersey(s) should fans of each NHL team consider?

Here is my criteria:

1. A solid crossroads of obscurity and talent

It's not very exciting to wear a Crosby jersey if you're a Penguins fan or an Ovechkin jersey if you're a Caps fan ... so you want to get a sweater that's a little more unique. That being said, you don't want to wear the number of a guy who can barely play 10 minutes a night. Finding a good compromise between the two is ideal.

2. Longevity

This is a big one in a sports atmosphere where players change colors so often. Trying to find a guy who either has a longterm deal or is unlikely to leave is a key component to finding the right jersey.

3. General Goodwill

More in line with your fellow fans, general goodwill is measured by how your peers would react to that jersey.

Optional Categories:

4. Sentimentality

To contrast #2, some players build up enough goodwill that you can permit people to wear a rosterly outdated jersey. This does not apply to guys who leave on bad terms (so just go ahead and burn that Heatley Senators jersey or that Pronger Oilers jersey).

5. Hilarity

Special bonus points go for players who were horrible. You get instant respect from me if you rock a Tommy Salo Team Sweden jersey, a Roman Cechmanek LA Kings jersey or something of that ilk.

***

Anaheim

Active

Teemu Selanne

Jonas Hiller

Departed

Guy Hebert

Steve Rucchin

Atlanta

Active

Bryan Little

Colby Armstrong

Boston

Active

Milan Lucic (even though it's pretty obvious)

Zdeno Chara (breaks the rules because he's super tall)

Departed

Bobby Orr (obvious ... but it's Bobby effin Orr)

P. J. Axelsson (judging from Cornelius's man crush)

Buffalo

Active

Thomas Vanek

Derek Roy

Departed

Chris Drury

Daniel Briere

Calgary

Active

Jarmoe (he's just too bad ass)

Robyn Regehr

Departed

Theo Fleury

Al MacInnis

Carolina

Active

Chad LaRose

Rod Brind'amour

Departed

Ron Francis - Hartford Whalers edition

Chicago

Active

Brent Seabrook

Kris Versteeg

Departed

Jeremy Roenick

Stan Mikita

Colorado

Active

Craig Anderson

Kyle Quincey

Departed

Pretty obvious, right?

Columbus

Active

Antoine Vermetteg

Jan Hejda

Dallas

Active

James Neal

Brenden Morrow (he's just too bad ass)

Departed

Neal Broten - North Stars

Mike Modano - in his prime (just kidding)

Sergei Zubov

Detroit

Active

Darren Helm

Johan Franzen

Departed

There's about a million

Edmonton

Active

Sam Gagner

Ales Hemsky

Departed

Again, lots. See: the 1980's

Florida

Active

David Booth

Tomas Vokoun

Departed

Bieser

Los Angeles

Active

Dustin Brown

Drew Doughty

Departed

Kelly Hrudey

Luc Robitaille

Minnesota

Active

Miikko Koivu

Brent Burns

Montreal

Active

Andrei Markov

Michael Cammalleri

Departed

C'mon

New Jersey

Active

Zach Parise

Departed

Scott Stevens

Scott Niedermayer

New York Islanders

Active

John Tavares (before fans come back out of the woodwork?)

Kyle Okposo

Departed

See: Edmonton

New York Rangers

Active

Ryan Callahan

Michael Del Zotto

Ottawa

Active

Anton Volchenkov

Mike Fisher

Departed

Alexandre Daigle :)

Philadelphia

Active

Mike Richards (because he's so bad ass)

Braydon Coburn

Departed

Someone who hurt a lot of people

Pittsburgh

Active

Max Talbot

Tyler Kennedy

Departed

Beyond the obvious ...

(to me anyway)

Straka, Kovalev, Wregget, Kasparitis, etc.

San Jose

Active

M.E. Vlasic

Joe Pavelski IF he re-signs

St. Louis

Active

T.J. Oshie

Erik Johnson

Departed

Adam Oates

Brett Hull

Al MacInnis

Tampa Bay

Active

Steve Stamkos

Victor Hedman

Toronto

Active

Luke Schenn

Phil Kessel

Departed

Mats Sundin

Wendel Clark

Vancouver

Active

Ryan Kesler

Alex Burrows

Departed

Trevor Linden

Pavel Bure

Washington

Active

Nicklas Backstrom

Howeverhespellshisfirstnamenow Varlamov

Departed

Olaf Kolzig

Petr Bondra

Addicted to Vampires? Take a look at Nashville pro sports ...

2009-10-24T16:18:00.010-05:00

We live in a sports culture of "what have you done for me lately?" Although the trend hasn't been consistent in the NHL lately, it's not uncommon for a coach to win an annual award one year and find themselves in the unemployment line merely two years later. In a salary cap age, it's more understandable for owners to expect coaches to catch lightning in a bottle.

That's what makes Nashville's NHL and NFL teams unique; both of their coaches have basically lead their teams since they came to Tennessee.* Forgive my horrific pun, but I feel the urge to re-define the region as Tennessee-vania.

* Apparently Barry Trotz was a scout for the Predators' first season, though.

Now, obviously if the Titans' current meltdown continues, Fisher might find a pink slip attached to a stake in his heart, but it really is stunning that the two made it this far in the same city. After all, Fisher is the longest tenured NFL coach and Trotz is the second longest tenured coach in the NHL.

First, here's Trotz' career stats via his Wiki page:

And now, Jeff Fisher's from his Wiki page:

Of the two coaches, Fisher's bulletproof tenure makes the most sense (instantly at least). He lead the Titans to a notably competitive Super Bowl match up against the St. Louis Rams, managed an unexpected 13-3 record last season and has only four seasons with a losing record in his 15 year reign. Only Andy Reid (who started in 1999) can reasonably compete with Fisher in two treasured categories: longevity and mustache dominance.

Trotz's run seems the most vampiric (and in general, the guy conjures up images of various D & D inspired creatures). On one hand, Trotz managed to squeeze points out of teams that were among the league's worst in star (and fire)power. You cannot fault him for failing to transform Nashville into a juggernaut.

Which form of the undead is more exhausted: vampires or zombies?

That being said, many franchises would get antsy with his results. While he managed to break them into the playoffs for four seasons, the team was knocked out in the first round each time and never even made it to a Game 7. They've never won their division and some might say the main reason they were No. 2 in the Central for those years was because their other division mates rarely managed to muster even the slightest competition. Over the years, the Predators ceiling has been "frisky."

Such middling results kept the Predators from getting many premium draft choices and you wonder how many elite players are on that roster ... who beyond Shea Weber will truly threaten greatness? Oddly enough, Trotz shares a lot in common with Lindy Ruff, the only guy who has been sitting behind a bench for a longer period of time. Buffalo is off to a great start - and like Nashville - has a nice array of competent players. However, you wonder if the team could benefit from tanking for a season or shaking things up.

My question is: is the city of Nashville that loyal? Is everyone just so preoccupied with fixing the Vols that they don't even care what happens with their pro coaches? Or could it be that Fisher and Trotz feast on human blood and sleep upside down every night?

I must know.

State your case: An Oilers Refinery's Edmonton Oilers

2009-10-21T22:55:00.004-05:00

In fake alternate universe hockey, you don't have to deal with messy divorces.

As they trickle in, we'll post "state your case" arguments for the fake GMs in the League Re-Draft. I'll also occasionally make awful pun names for the fake teams. You're welcome.

Previous "State Your Case" Posts

Joe (Sacrifice the Body)'s Detroit Red Wings

The CLS/Sports and the City Toronto Maple Leafs

(Make sure to check out An Oilers Refinery, which along with having great Oilers analysis, also has one of the coolest banners of any hockey blog. Ever.)

An Oilers Refinery's Edmonton Phoilers

Parise-Zajac-Ruutu
Bertuzzi-Horcoff-Kotalik
Moreau-Brind'amour-Chipchura
Reddox-Nichol-Lisin
Gillies

Rivet-Souray
Gilbert-Witt
Eminger-McKee
Delmore
Peckham

DiPietro-Emery

It's pretty hard if you're trying to reinvent the wheel and perfecting something that's already an art was quite a task. Trying to build a better NHL team than NHL GMs can is a lot easier in a video game that it is when you're up against other inquiring minds and pseudo-GMs in my follow CLS quasi-bloggers. But, nonetheless, one cannot go into a draft without a strategy of their own.

In my draft strategy, it was simple: I would take the best player available with the first pick.

After that, I picked according to ranking of importance.

I tried to take centers who could win faceoffs and defenseman that had great dollar worth, foot speed, and either great passing or great hitting ability. By loading up on these commodities, it was easy to trade from a position of strength to acquire the other things I needed, such as goaltending and wingers.

Also, it was important (in my opinion) to push hard for the players I thought would define the kind of hockey I wanted to see played. This would ensure that a certain leadership core was represented on this team and that a certain team culture could emanate from the players on the team. Exciting but responsible hockey.

For me, it was important to build a team that was not just about scoring goals, or being tough.

I needed a team that was a hybrid, something that could roll four lines and hound the other team.

Faceoffs, hitting and speed are key to this strategy.

I may not score a lot of goals with a team like the one I built, but I will be annoying to play against.

And that, in itself, is a joy of its own.

Like an internship, without the prestige but with gingers!

2009-10-19T21:28:00.003-05:00

OK, there might not be gingers but the blog is named after a pair of twin-gers. That must count for something ...

ANYWAY, that was a horrific start to the post. Let's re-group.

There may be some bloggers/bloggers-in-waiting/hockey fans out there who are looking for a venue to promote their blogs. Maybe you are passionate about the blogosphere but honestly don't think you can generate enough content to run a blog by yourself. Perhaps you've never tried it before but want to see what it's like - while getting (marginally) more eyeballs than you normally would if you simply started your own without much fanfare. Then again, you might be running a mid-level blog of great promise but little results; after all, the hockey blogosphere is a colorful jungle of exotic animals and talented writers. Sometimes it's difficult to stand out.

Better yet, you might just want to become a contributor to CLS.

Whatever your motivation might be, CLS is looking for people to contribute to an upcoming daily feature we're planning to begin next week. Our goal is to find two "editors" per division to provide a once-per-week "Around the [blank] Division" links collection. Unlike great blogs such as Puck Daddy and Kuklas Korner, we're not hoping to cover all of the major news events of the week but instead the kind of posts that make you laugh or slip through the cracks.

Currently, we're looking for:

2 contributors for the Atlantic division

a contributor for the Southeast division

a contributor for the Central division

a contributor for the Northwest division

a contributor for the Northeast division

Again, the emphasis will be to find feature-heavy/not quite so time sensitive/funny/number crunching posts that go beyond simple news headlines. It's also a great opportunity to talk about what's going on in your blog, if you have one.

The point of having two contributors will be to rotate (or split) the duty so it would only be a twice-per-month proposition.

For more information and/or to "apply" for a position, send me an e-mail at: cyclelikesedins@gmail.com. Don't be shy, but do tell me if you have writing/blogging/modeling experience.

Note: feel free to send "tips"/to beg for links in this feature too. If your stuff blows, you're still out of luck but it never hurts to try, right?

There are just some things you need to accept about the salary cap

2009-10-19T08:49:00.001-05:00

I've been a little bit obsessive about the salary cap the last year or so and it means that certain flippant statements will bug me at times.

One thing that kind of irks me is the way people look at the offensive depth of last year's Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings compared to the current models. People linger on the fact that the Red Wings were unable to retain the services of Hossa, Hudler and Co. while the Bruins won't be able to throw as many waves of offensive talent at their opponents as last season.

There's a reason for that: those teams were a mirage; the Red Wings in particular were an unsustainable collection of top-end talent. When commentators made jokes about them having four lines of talent, they weren't far off-base. The Hudlers of the world are going to get paid and it's Ken Holland's job to be smart enough to let him go.

Going forward, any team that has an embarrassment of riches is going to get to that level by a perfect storm of entry draft steals/high pick home runs, well-timed contract extensions and short-term veteran pickups. (Also, cheap goaltending is probably wise unless you really love your goalie)

Teams like Vancouver worry me because there aren't many major players gunning for contracts in the near future ... the Sedins, Luongo and even role players like Alex Burrows don't have a big green carrot dangling in front of them.

Thing I learned today: the Internet provides many great results for "dangling carrot"

The crazy decade-plus contract trend is understandable for reasons of artificially diluting annual cap hits but I prefer the direction the Penguins (conscious or not) went with giving their young guns more reasonable (read: shorter) contracts. If Alex Ovechkin ruins his knees, the Caps aren't just fucked this year but for the next 10. If something happens to Evgeni Malkin, it would still be a catastrophe but not of the same degree.

This rant is going in a few directions, but if I were a GM, these would be some of my principles:

No one over the age of 30 gets more than 4 years
Really, on some crazy level I wouldn't want to give anyone more than 3 years
Extend players before you expect them to breakout, if at all possible
Fear the contract year anomaly
Sometimes, you have to let people go even if it hurts

Yeah, those are pretty simple rules but I think more GMs could use balls of steel and hearts of coal.

The Boston Bruins in "How to Go From Cap Catastrophe to Potential Dynasty in Two Easy Trades"

2009-10-18T21:50:00.008-05:00

Brian Burke: architect of the cap-friendliest contending teams in the NHL (Anaheim and ... uh, Boston, indirectly)

At first, it seemed like the Bruins were as hapless as a 13-year old trying to unhook a bra in the dark. In my preview, I criticized the Bruins for basically giving up on Phil Kessel ... for Derek Morris. Even if that was a case of obvious oversimplification, my question was: what were the Boston Bruins doing?

Perhaps it came down to a simple decision of Marc Savard over Phil Kessel.

Either way, the Bruins have parlayed Kessel and now Chuck Kobasew into an intriguing bounty of draft picks and cap relief.

Boston Gives Up

Kessel (to Toronto)

Kobasew (to Minnesota)

Boston Gains

2 First Round Picks (Toronto in '10 and '11)

2 Second Round Picks (Toronto in '10 and Minnesota in '11)

Craig Weller

Alex Fallstrom

$2.3 million in cap space

As others pointed out, the Bruins probably moved Kobasew to make room for Savard, Blake Wheeler and other valuable free agents (restricted and otherwise).

What this really does is give the Bruins the opportunity to "re-load" with quality depth while most other playoff-caliber teams will begin to hemorrhage supporting cast members. Especially if the cap ceiling plummets for the 2010-11 season.

With Kobasew gone and deals like Morris' set to expire, the prospects of the Bruins re-signing Savard (above) and Wheeler are looking much brighter.

Some have said that the Maple Leafs' staggering ineptitude may not continue, but realistically what is the ceiling for Toronto this year (or even next)? The fact of the matter is that these aren't just draft picks, they might be top-10 or even top 5 draft picks. It's not every day that the top seed in the Eastern Conference could end up with two potential lottery picks that didn't result from a regular season free fall.

Just look at the situations of similarly talented - and cap challenged - teams going into next summer.

A major problem with the Blackhawks salary structure is that there's a glaring lack of cheap talent. While the Penguins have some extremely expensive stars, they also have cheap role players like Max Talbot and Tyler Kennedy.

Now obviously high draft picks take some time to translate to useful NHLers and some never pan out at all. But by adding a handful of top quality picks in years when the Bruins would normally be drafting in the bottom 10, Boston is sitting fairly pretty in a cap world full of uncertainty. They can stick with those draft picks and try to find roster talent for the future or trade picks for other quality parts.

The point is, they have options. That's something that Chicago, San Jose and many other cap conflicted teams will envy next summer.

In Case you love percentages: factoring in shorthanded goals to PP and PK%

2009-10-16T11:37:00.001-05:00

One more stats nerd post and I'll be this guy's wingman.

Note: like the last post, these are stats from the 2008-09 season although going forward I'll be using 2009-10 stats ...

Unless I come up with one more stat that I publicly deem dopey while ultimately find semi-clever, this should be the last stat introducing post for the foreseeable future.

The last flaw with simply listing PK and PP% is that shorthanded goals aren't factored in (or not seamlessly) to the equation. Even if SHG are rare, they can be gigantic for momentum. See: Jordan Staal in Game 6 of the SCF.

More than that, though, I think it's a subtle reflection of good coaching and/or heady players. For instance: the Philadelphia Flyers are known for having a scary-aggressive PK with Mike Richards but they're also amazingly efficient on their own PP. Unless I read incorrectly, they only allowed 1 SHG last season!

So I decided to see how much SHG negatively affect a PP and positively affect a PK. (The stat is the same as PP% except it's PPG scored - SHG allowed divided by PP opportunities.)

Let's take a look at True Powerplay Percentage (or should it be called "Net" PP% ... or the PP Efficiency Rating? I dunno, True PP% sounds pretty cool doesn't it?)

Click to enlarge TRUE PP%

What I like about these stats is that they create a more pronounced "upper class" or elite group of PP units.

The Red Wings' absurd PP is reflected better here: they are heads and shoulders above the rest of the league (as they should be). It also reflects just how bad the Blue Jackets' PP was; 12% is pretty bad as it is but the team let up a lot of SHG too. When you think about it, when the CBJ went on the PP something good would happen only nine percent of the time. (LOL)

I still think sheer quantity (ultimately PPG - SHG allowed) is the best way to judge a team's PP unit but this is pretty interesting, too.

True Penalty Kill %/PK Efficiency Rating/PK Success Level is the same as PK% except it's PPG allowed - SHG scored divided by Times Shorthanded.

Click to enlarge True PK%

The order of best PK teams doesn't change a ton here, but it again distinguishes the GREAT PK units. The Wild's special teams, again, were just amazing last year.

At some point I might try to come up with a "magic number" for special teams percentages combined. Is a great overall special teams a combined 110% or ... what?

Jeez, I'm a dork.

What do you think, though? Is this interesting or as fun as eating a lifetime supply of microwave re-heated pizza crusts?

Special Teams Plus Minus, Net Goals in 2008-09

2009-10-15T21:19:00.011-05:00

Photoshop by MacYapper (?)

Yesterday I posted some simple yet interesting stats for the early part of this season. It's uncertain if I'll be able to make that a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly special but I'll be tracking these things all season long.

But just to make sure I'm not crazy, I thought it would be smart to study the stats from last year to see how indicative they are of team success. It also is an interesting way to look at which teams were really deficient (or really strong) in special teams yet still managed to make (or miss) the playoffs.

First, here's the Standings for 2008-09 without sorting for the stats that tickle my fancy:

Now that you have a frame of reference, here's that list sorted by the simplest stat that we'll be tracking this season: Net Goals.

There aren't a ton of surprises there.

That being said, it's really interesting that the league's best team in Net Goals (Boston) scored 78 more goals than they allowed while the league's worst team in Net Goals (Islanders) allowed 78 more goals than they scored. Funny how things work out sometimes.

It's also interesting that only two playoff teams allowed more goals than they scored: Columbus (-4) and the Rangers (-8). This also shows that the Blue Jackets must have been one hell of an even strength team.

Perhaps the most intriguing set of stats comes in the form of the Special Teams plus-minus.

The number that sticks out the most to me here is the Columbus Blue Jackets being -29 special teams goals. 78 Special Teams Goals Allowed isn't astronomically bad ... what makes the Blue Jackets totals so bad is their anemic power play. Any CBJ pundits who are still sore that the BJ's lack a great PP point player could point to this stat and say, "How do you expect this team to make the playoffs (again) with numbers like that?"

Looking at special teams play, it must be especially heartbreaking for Minnesota Wild fans that their team narrowly missed the playoffs last season. They were second in Special Teams +/- with a +33 (12 more than the tied for 3rd place Bruins and Red Wings).

It also makes me think that maybe injuries and Sean Avery weren't the top reasons why the Dallas Stars missed the playoffs last season.

Just for your fun and to strengthen a point I made yesterday, here's some extended special teams stats:

This leads to a bit of discussion on a point I (sloppily) made yesterday: quantity of PP goals (and PP goals allowed) means a lot more to me than percentages, even though it's not a huge difference and it's easier for networks to use a %-based graphic.

There are, however, a few examples that illustrate my point. The Buffalo Sabres managed to be in the top 5 in PPG scored despite having a PP that scored about 2% less than the other top powerplays. Over 82 games, a couple percentage points can make a big difference (kind of like how a 2% save percentage difference can make a pretty huge difference in how a goalie will be perceived). Anaheim and Boston scored at 2.5% higher rate but the Sabres drew at least 40 more power plays (or about one more every other game) and therefore were able to generate more PPGs. (OK, it was only one more PPG ... but still.)

Conversely, the New Jersey Devils scored at at least a 2% higher rate on the PP than other bottom PPG scoring teams but they were only able to go on the PP 307 times (compared to Buffalo's 358) and therefore scored 17 less last season.

Does it make an enormous difference? Absolutely not. But even if it's only a slightly more accurate way of tracking the good PPs, that's good enough for me.

Simple stats that I don't see often: Special Teams Plus/Minus and Net Goals

2009-10-14T23:41:00.009-05:00

When it's midnight and you need a photo of a cranky journalist ...

There was a point when I was like those many curmudgeon old sports columnists who looked down on complex statistics. Thankfully, though, there have been enough great stat blogs to finally teach me my lesson: some stats just don't tell you as much as you might originally think.

Still, there is a part of me that always searches for the right cross-section between simple and deep. I'd imagine that these kind of stats have been around plenty of times before, but I've never seen them expressed before in official sites' standings sections (at least on ESPN or NHL.com).

So, with all the Power Rankings out there, I thought it would be fun to occasionally take a look at NHL teams through completely objective - and obnoxiously simple - statistics. Obviously, this first few weeks' worth of stats will be greatly altered by outliers but you know that already, right?

(A few more notes: these stats were taken from before tonight's games and I'm dumb and don't know a better way to put up an Excel spreadsheet on blogspot, so please tolerate my sloppy use of screenshots)

ANYWAY, first the NHL's leaders in Net Goals.

This takes a SUPER sophisticated formula of Goals For minus Goals Against (although the spreadsheet also provides even strength goals ... which I might incorporate into something more elegant and interesting in the future).

If you're a Maple Leafs fan, ~~well, at least you aren't running your car in your garage right now. Small victories.~~ feel free to avert your eyes.

(Click to enlarge)

So those of you who hate simple arithmetic, you're welcome. The real reason I thought to do this, though, was to take a look at special teams numbers.

It's always bothered me that such an emphasis has been made on Power Play and Penalty Kill percentages but who gives a rat's ass about that? To me, PP effectiveness has always been about a) sheer quantity of goals and b) timeliness. There's no doubt in my mind that I'd take a powerplay that scored 2 out of 10 than one that scored 1 out of 4.

I'm aware that is an overly-simplistic criticism, but work with me here.

To take a more "big picture" look at special teams, I think it is also important to compare teams' PP and PK together. If your team can eek out a substantial amount of PP goals while keeping PK goals under control, you'll have a major advantage while attempting to make the playoffs.

So, I've come up with (OK, I bet someone else has done this too since it's super-simple) "Special Teams Plus-Minus."

The formula's almost as simple as "Net Goals"

PP Goals Scored + SH Goals Scored - PP Goals Allowed + SH Goals Allowed* = Special Teams Plus-Minus.**

* Just realized I didn't include SHG allowed but I'll do it next time. Promise!

** - However, if I've come up with something stupidly original feel free to call it a Jimbo Score. :)

The Sore Thumb: Vancouver Canucks

2009-10-13T20:28:00.003-05:00

When you see the title of this blog, you'd think we'd be a source for Vancouver Canucks information (or at least snark). No, that is not the case. Instead, you should go to blogs like Vancity Canuck. Sha Sha's a longtime buddy of the blog and even runs a Tampa Bay Lightning blog (The Hockey Bay) to boot! What an overachiever...

All in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

The one thing that hasn't changed from last year, is that the Canucks still don't have secondary scoring. There was hopes that Cody Hodgson was the answer. And Cody Hodgson was not the answer, at least not right now with his ailing back. Then, there was hopes that Sergei Shirokov was the answer, and it turns out he was not the answer. So where is our secondary scoring when the Sedins and Burrows don't score? Hopefully Kesler and Samuelsson can find some chemistry with the newly promoted Raymond, or hopefully Berniers hands of stone finally turn into hands that can put pucks in the back of the net. Hopefully. And speaking of sore thumbs, or sore shoulders/knees/who knows what Salo/Demitra/Schneider has hurt now....Some components of the Canucks are like glass, you never know who's gonna be hurt from taking a hit/puck/throwing a hit/trippingoverelectricaltape...

State your case: The CLS/Sports and the City Fake Leafs

2009-10-13T00:22:00.001-05:00

In the event that you made an understandable hockey hibernation during the summer, we've been Re-Drafting the NHL for the last few months. Since rosters are (thankfully) just about to be finalized, it's time to start studying these bad boys like the Zapruder film.

Even though I'm a bad role model, I thought I'd start things off (well actually Joe started it off) by talking about my own team.

[Quick Note: this team was originally represented by EyeBLeaf from Sports and the City, but my dorkiness turned into a black hole and engulfed the team. So most of the blunders are my fault. His main picks were the first two: Marc Savard and Alex Semin.]

The CLS/Sports and the City Pseudo-Leafs:

Forward Lines

Alex Semin - Marc Savard - Bill Guerin

Jere Lehtinen - Patrice Bergeron - Teemu Selanne

John Madden - Manny Malhotra - Mike Grier

Sergei Kostitsyn - Kyle Turris - Chris Neil

Defensive pairings

Mike Komisarek - Sergei Gonchar

Matt Niskanen - Willie Mitchell

Kurtis Foster - Nicklas Grossman

Goalies

J-S Giguere

Alex Auld

Reserves:

Mark Fistric, Eric Godard, Ryan Carter

Reasons Why the Pseudo-Leafs are awesome

1. Greed is Good

One of my team building philosophies (and general sports views) is to lean heavily toward players who have an obvious carrot dangling in front of them (instead of a guy who's fat and happy with a huge new 12-year contract).

Instead of listing all the guys in contract years, here's the only players who aren't playing for a new deal this season: Giguere, Komisarek, Bergeron, Fistric, Godard, Turris, Neil, Carter.

In other words, fourteen starters are in a contract year.

2. Elites aplenty

Naturally, these things are subjective but my team has:

An elite passer (Savard)
An elite sniper (Semin ... and maybe Selanne)
A playoff proven goalie (Giguere)
One of the league's best offensive D (Gonchar)
One of the league's best shutdown D (Mitchell)
A great defensive forward and one of the best guys in the FO circle (Malhotra)
One of the league's most frequent hitting forwards (Neil) and D (Komisarek)

3. Strong special teams

Fake Toronto is designed to be good in 5-on-5 situations but great in special teams.

Along with high-scoring guys like Semin and Savard, the team also has one of the best PP goal scorers in Selanne. Gonchar is so proficient as a point man that he is often on the ice for 90 percent of the Penguins' PP time! Niskanen and Foster provide nice second and third options for PP point men.

PP units

Selanne - Savard - Guerin (for screens)

Semin (rover) - Gonchar

Kostitsyn - Bergeron - Lehtinen

Foster - Niskanen

I also focused heavily on having strong PK units.

Malhotra, Madden, Lehtinen, Bergeron and Grier are all excellent PK forwards while Mitchell, Grossman, Komisarek and Niskanen can provide solid support on D.

PK units

Malhotra-Grier

Komisarek-Mitchell

Madden-Lehtinen/Bergeron

Niskanen-Grossman

4. Big, mean defense

With a lot of finesse forwards on the top two lines and a steady but more offensively inclined top D in Gonchar, I decided to focus on big and hard hitting D guys.

Komisarek and Grossman were among the league leaders in hits in the 08-09 season. The smallest D guy on the roster is Niskanen - who's still 6 feet tall.

Hell, our backup goalie Alex Auld is 6'5" himself.

5. Good in reality, fantasy and video games

I think the team covers all the bases reasonably well.

Regrets?

Assuming Matt Cooke would be around just a little bit longer. Same with Taylor Pyatt, Ian Laperriere and Travis Moen. (The hope is that Mike Grier and Chris Neil will hurt people sufficiently)
Could have used a little more grit with the team's best scorers.
While I'm on record in saying that I think Giguere still "has it," it would have been nice to get an obvious starter.
If I would have known that Rob Niedermayer and Rob Lang would be in the NHL, I would have taken at least one of them. Especially since Kostitsyn and Turris were booted down.

Conclusions

It's a bummer that both Sergei K and K Turris were sent down to the minors, but Ryan Carter and Eric Godard are playing NHL minutes so they can pick up some of the slack.

Overall, I think my team is strong defensively, has above average goaltending and a mixture of high scoring forwards and gritty PK guys. There might be teams that can score more or be a little more gritty, but few if any can boast as much versatility.

The Sore Thumb: Anaheim Ducks

2009-10-12T20:02:00.003-05:00

It always warms our collective hearts to see our buddies prosper, so we're delighted to see Anaheim Calling move up to SBN as the Ducks' representative. At the moment, though, AC is still at Blogspot so it is not yet time to adjust your bookmarks. Here's Daniel's perspective on the Ducks ...

All in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

DANIEL: The one thing that could derail the Ducks season is puck support/team skating. The fact is, there isn't a single guy on the blue line who can strait clear the crease. With Pronger on the ice every other shift, it was possible to get hemmed up in the zone and then let your goalie face down a shot from outside, or the top of, the circles. Now the Ducks need to keep the puck moving. But, during the first two games of the season everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to make a play instead of working on quick outlets and strong support through the neutral zone. Puck support was also a problem in the offensive zone and the Ducks ended up outnumbered along the boards, leading to transition offense for opposing teams. If the Ducks keep losing battles along the boards because they don't support each other, they will be facing more rushes on defense, and no scoring chances on offense.

The Sore Thumb: Ottawa Senators

2009-10-12T00:33:00.002-05:00

If there's one thing the hockey blogosphere can teach you, it's that team success and blog quality aren't necessarily connected. A great example of that is Sens at Land's End. While the Senators could face some tough times, SaLE is one of our favorite Ottawa blogs, so make sure you follow it like a blind Jason Spezza drop pass.

All in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

Some might ask what isn’t an issue for the Sens this year, and those people might not be wrong. What worries me most, though, is the defense. Behind three usually reliable veterans – stay-at-homers Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov and puckmover Filip Kuba – play three young “mobile” defenders – Chris Campoli, rookie Erik Karlsson, and Alexandre Picard (who started the season in the pressbox). These guys may be great someday, but right now they’re prone to brain cramps that will definitely give Pascal Leclaire a workout. I would feel better if the defensive pairings were more balanced; however, the Senators have always shown an inexplicable unwillingness to split up the shutdown duo of Phillips and Volchenkov. This makes the second and third pairings a bit, well, scary. The more physical presence of Matt Carkner may help to an extent, but he’s been a career-AHLer until now and who knows how he’ll fare during a full season at the NHL level. To all these problems add the fact that Volchenkov and Kuba (already injured, by the way) both missed over 10 games last season and the picture becomes even less pretty.

The Sore Thumb: Atlanta Thrashers

2009-10-11T16:32:00.003-05:00

For Atlanta Thrashers (and often St. Louis Blues) thoughts, I often go to Laura from Wazzupwitchu and St. Louis Blues Game Time and that's exactly what happened this time around. On top of that blogging goodness, she also a very prolific person on Twitter to boot. Not too shabby.

All in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

The biggest flaw? Defense. Not the people playing defense (thankfully, I can finally say that), but the system. Coach Anderson's system relies on offense to a high degree, and he expects puck moving and playmaking (as well as scoring) from the defensemen. That is fantastic, but when you emphasize that too much, D starts to suffer. We're still probably going to allow at least 30 SOG each game, and that's concerning with Pavelec in net. I'll reiterate my opinion of him being a good goalie in a few years, but he's not 100% NHL ready. Of course, there's Hedberg, who is a damn fine backup and a great person, but not a starter... and there's that other dude... can't quite remember his name, but I heard he used to be a pretty good goalie until he realized he was made of glass... yeah. Name escapes me. Been too long since I've actually seen him to confirm that he exists.

Huh. Apparently that makes 2 flaws. But by God, we are going to score. A lot. Hopefully it'll be more than the other guys.

Struggling to figure out whom to start?

2009-10-10T18:06:00.005-05:00

Will it be Hiller or Giguere? That nightly question might be easier to answer (again) ...

In my Fantasy Hockey Guide, I mentioned how much I adored Goaliepost.com for their insanely accurate starting goalie updates ... but understandably they are asking for monetary return for (what one assumes) is a great deal of work. And you know what? You cannot blame them and I wish them the best.

However, if you're feeling like a cheapskate (like me), then you might want to look at other options.

Kent of Five Hole Fanatics pointed out the Daily Faceoff's Between the Pipes as a potential heir and one of his readers suggested Leftwing Lock. Are there any other reliable sources of starting goalie info out there? Feel free to leave recommendations in the comments.

The Sore Thumb: San Jose Sharks

2009-10-10T17:33:00.003-05:00

We asked our good buddies at the Couch Tarts:

All in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

Nabby's 5 hole.
Have you seen it? The thing is HUGE. You could drive a bus through there, I'm talking a double decker, not just your standard MUNI ride. Hell, it's so wide open I bet even Ehrhoff could find it with his wrist shot. Dude wouldn't even need a map. You know that tree they used to let people drive through? Yeah. It's like that.
Nabby is a tremendous goalie, but if he can't shut that 5 hole of his, we're in for a lot of ugly goals this season.

(Make sure to follow the Couch Tarts for their great San Jose Sharks coverage this season.)

The Sore Thumb: New York Islanders

2009-10-08T18:34:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Abel Prado for the logo

Instead of trying to keep with the Joneses with our season previews, we thought it would be a better idea to wait a week or two and then ask an insanely simple question to some of our favorite team bloggers.

That question is: all in-depth analysis aside, what flaw or weakness in your team sticks out like a sore thumb?

First up is Dominik from Lighthouse Hockey, SBN's excellent New York Islanders blog. Make sure to follow their great Isles coverage amid the excitement of John Tavares' rookie season.

Everyone says the Islanders are in for another tough season (true), but they never say why (because they don't have to check the roster to declare why last year's 30th-place team is bad? I don't know). The goaltending is obviously vastly improved. The forward lines and powerplay could actually be dangerous: John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and possibly Matt Moulson, an old friend friend of Tavares with chemistry that gives him the spot on his wing; plus Josh Bailey, a ready-to-emerge Sean Bergenheim and the unsung Frans Nielsen, not to mention Mark Streit and Doug Weight on the powerplay points.

The sore thumb? The blueline. Streit is a good number one. Everyone else is ... something else. Bruno Gervais plays great paired with Streit -- but who doesn't? After that, Brendan Witt may bounce back this year, but he's still practically their only physical defender. Freddy Meyer hits but is small and fragile. Andy Sutton is big but is allergic to hitting (relative to his size) and fragile. Radek Martinek is an above average two-way blueliner ... but fragile. As a group, when healthy they collapse too much and don't clear the net enough. As a group, when NOT healthy -- the more common state of affairs -- it looks like last season (which was really bad. I checked).

Kontos is Late to the Standing Party

2009-10-05T00:48:00.003-05:00

Since Joe and James have weighed in... now it's my turn. Here are my predictions for the 2009-2010 season.

WEST
1 ) San Jose (PRESIDENTS [ONLY TO LOSE IN FIRST ROUND])
2) Chicago
3) Calgary
4) Detroit
5) Vancouver
6) St. Louis
7) Los Angeles
8) Anaheim
9) Columbus
10) Minnesota
11) Edmonton
12) Dallas
13) Nashville
14) Colorado
15) Phoenix

This picks were made before the season started, so I'm not worried about Colorado winning the Northwest and yes, even after that awful performance against the Coyotes... I still think the Kings will make the playoffs.

STANLEY CUP FINALIST: Cal-gary. (In Barry Melrose voice)

EAST
1) Philadelphia
2) Washington
3) Boston
4) Pittsburgh
5) Montreal
6) New Jersey
7) New York Rangers
8) Carolina
9)Buffalo
10) Toronto
11) Tampa Bay
12) Ottawa
13) New York Islanders
14) Atlanta
15) Florida

The Flyers are going to be a force to reckon with this season and the first two games have shown that. Ovechkin is on pace to score 406 goals, so that means a top spot for the Capitals.

STANLEY CUP FINALIST: Philly.

THE WINNER: Philly.

2009-10 Standings Predictions

2009-10-03T14:10:00.004-05:00

The other day, O'Brien posted his own standings predictions for the year. At his invitation, I'm posting my own, so we can see just how wrong he is.

Western Conference:

1) Calgary Flames

2) San Jose Sharks

3) Detroit Red Wings

4) Chicago Blackhawks

5) Vancouver Canucks

6) St. Louis Blues

7) Anaheim Ducks

8) Los Angeles Kings

9) Columbus Blue Jackets

10) Dallas Stars

11) Minnesota Wild

12) Edmonton Oilers

13) Nashville Predators

14) Phoenix Coyotes

15) Colorado Avalanche

Coyotes' hiring Tippett gets them out of the basement, all the way up to... 14th. STL is going to have a strong resurgence with healthy Kariya and McDonald (I thought this before yesterday's game too, so there). The Central is too good to allow the division winner (narrowly DET over CHI) to get higher than 3rd. SJ is sliding a bit, but the Pacific is weak enough to let them finish #2. CGY feasts on EDM/MIN/COL to get #1 in the Northwest.

In the playoffs, if DET can avoid drawing CGY and VAN, they get back to the SCF. If they meet one of them, its CGY going to the SCF.

Eastern Conference:

1) Washington Capitals

2) Pittsburgh Penguins

3) Boston Bruins

4) Philadelphia Flyers

5) New Jersey Devils

6) Carolina Hurricanes

7) Buffalo Sabres

8) New York Rangers

9) Florida Panthers

10) Toronto Maple Leafs

11) Montreal Canadiens

12) Atlanta Thrashers

13) Tampa Bay Lightning

14) New York Islanders

15) Ottawa Senators

ATL chases off Kovy. PIT wins a very tight divisional race, and PHI might have more points than BOS. BUF finally gets some luck and makes it into the post season... to get ripped up by PIT. NYR barely gets another postseason spot that they really don't deserve. TOR is competitive, but not enough to get a high pick, and not enough to get a playoff spot. WSH rides a bad division to the #1 spot.

In the playoffs, it comes down to a PHI/PIT Eastern Conference Final. PHI should win, but PIT actually wins, because in the East the refs call the games a little different, and are less tolerant of the Western style that you need to beat Crosby/Malkin. PIT gets too many powerplays and makes it back to the SCF.

In the final, if its CGY vs PIT, CGY loses another 7 game SCF. If its DET vs PIT, DET wins because hopefully Pronger and Co actually punished Malkin and Crosby, instead of letting them breeze right through the playoffs. I hate the Eastern Conference.

Set It Up!

2009-10-02T22:06:00.009-05:00

The NHL is back... and not a moment too soon. And that means my favorite show in the world is back on tv... NHL on the FLY!

For those who don't know, NHL on the FLY is the nightly highlight show on the NHL Network. But it's highlights done right... they show each game with a 2 minute highlight package that doesn't just feature goals and fights... but also great saves, end to end rushes that don't necessarily end in goals, and impressive defensive plays. And there is no annoying host copy with ridiculous catchphrases. Basically, it's the anti-Sportscenter. (The ESPN version of Sportscenter for our Canadian readers)

What I'm saying is that you'd never see this on NHL on the FLY.

James has expressed his feelings about this great show before. So when I sat down to watch NHL on the FLY last night... I noticed their once "broom closet" set had a makeover.

And it happens to look vaguely familiar...

I mean... did they use the same set designer? Look at the pointed end table and even the 2 stripes across the front of the set. Or could it be that Hockey Central and NHL on the FLY are actually the exact same set... just with a color change? Is NHL on the FLY Bruce Wayne and Hockey Central Batman? Either way... I don't care. Hockey is back and I can spend my nights watching highlights over and over and over and over again.

Free Center Ice! Get your free Center Ice!

2009-10-02T12:05:00.002-05:00

You have may have seen Mike Chen's recent post at KK about getting free stuff out of DirectTV, in exchange for bitching to them about no longer having Versus, if you are a DTV customer (which I am). Mike Chen got himself free HBO/Starz/Showtime, plus a free HD receiver. He mentioned a friend who got a free NHL Center Ice subscription, and in the comments, you'll see a lot of "half price off Center Ice" and other such results, as well as a couple of "tough shit, you wimpy customer" type responses from DTV as well.

Well, I'm telling you, the free Center Ice is real. And it wasn't even hard to get.

Today (Oct 01) at about 5:30 Mountain Time, I called up DTV (1-800-347-3288). By 6, I had free CI for the entire season. I'm sure it depends a bit on luck, in terms of getting the right representatives, but considering the ease with which I got what I wanted, I'd think you could do it pretty easily too.

Just call the number (1-800-347-3288) to get to DTV customer service, and give your info, and ask to speak to a customer service rep. I called during what I imagine is peak time, or close to it, and had maybe a 5-10 minute wait for someone to pick up. When the representative answered, in a perfectly normal American accent (Chen said he got an accent) I politely explained (everything in this process must be done politely!) that I lived in the Denver area, that I was an Avalanche fan (blasphemy!), and that I was bummed out that I couldn't watch Joe Sakic's retirement ceremony because it was on Versus.

The representative explained to me that unfortunately Comcast has forced them to pull the channel until DTV relents to their "unreasonable" pricing demands for the channel. I told him about how I really only watch TV for hockey (truth), and that it was pretty disappointing to me to not be able to catch games on Versus when that's about all I want to watch. I especially stressed that Versus has exclusive rights to most of the games in the playoffs, and how that was the best part. He sympathized, explaining that he is a basketball fan and can definitely understand what I mean about wanting to see the playoffs more than anything. I then mentioned that I had been looking at the DISH Network package, and how I could actually save like 3 dollars a month, plus I'd get Versus, which I really wanted. He asked if I wanted to be handed over to Account Disconnect or something like that, and I was non-committal in explaining that I really liked my service with DTV (truth) and would like to keep it, but it was kind of hard to justify it when I couldn't get access to the content that I really wanted. He asked me to hold, while he spoke with his supervisor, and I went on hold for about 5 minutes.

When he came back, he offered to give me a 6 month discount of 10 dollars off each month on my bill, totaling $60 in savings. I told him that was a cool offer, but that ultimately, saving 60 dollars wasn't that great, when I could save a little money as it was, and get Versus besides, if I moved to DISH Network. He apologized and said that was what he could offer me, so I asked him to connect me to Account Disconnect or whatever they called it. If it actually came to it and they were going to let me cancel my account, I was just gonna hang up and try calling again to get a different customer service rep. But he didn't know that.

The other thing that happened here, after he got back from talking to his supervisor, was that the guy small talked with me, and I went right along with it. He asked whereabouts in Denver I was, and we started chatting, because apparently he was a musician, and last year he was playing in Denver for New Year's, and was talking about how his mind was blown because he could hang out in the middle of winter in Denver in a t-shirt. I commisserated, discussing how a lot of times in winter I leave a window open because its so nice out, and how I rub it in the faces of all my family back home in Michigan. This went on before the 6 month discount offer, and then again a bit after I asked for Disconnects. Before he gave me to them though, he asked if he could put me on hold and add some notes to my account, to which I agreed.

When he came back, he launched right back into some more small talk, and we chatted for a couple minutes, before he sent me over to Disconnects (he called it something else). Before sending me over though, he told me to be sure to mention to whoever I got on that side to take a look at his notes. When I got over to Disconnects, Customer Retention, whatever it was, I didn't even have to say a word before I was offered the Center Ice package. I got over there, and this girl immediately launched into apologies and explanations for why I couldn't get Versus. She went from that, right into discussing how they're trying to offer remedies for this situation, by offering the NHL Center Ice package free of charge.

I did some non-committal grumbling, and then asked her about the status of the negotiates with Versus, and let her kind of keep going along that spiel before saying that I guess Center Ice would be ok, but continued to stress that I really hoped DTV would work things out with Versus. A couple of minutes later, NHL Center Ice was added to my account.

I think a lot of it has to do with your interactions with the first representative. Especially given the way that representative told me to make sure that I had people look at the notes he took, I'm thinking that representative's notes are what got me so far, so quickly. Just be very polite (a very hard thing for me) and get into the small talk with them, and you'll be fine. If they actually attempt to start disconnecting your service, hang up real fast and then try calling again. But it is important to at least make the threat (politely).

(Last night I was watching the Maple Leafs/Canadiens game, and this polar bear mascot for the Maple Leafs is the best mascot ever! During the intermission before the OT, he was in the corner and you could see him putting some sort of curse on Carey Price. Then, during the entire overtime period, you could see him with his head peeking just over the boards on the far corner in the MTL zone, looking back and forth like a dog following a ball. Apparently his curse was all for naught, as the Leafs lost in OT, but it was still pretty awesome. Night 1, and I already love having NHL Center Ice.

Gut Reactions: Playoff Seeding and Stanley Cup Winner

2009-10-01T17:46:00.004-05:00

The guessing gets even ... guess...ier... *cough*

Eastern Conference

1. Washington Capitals

2. Philadelphia Flyers

3. Boston Bruins

4. Pittsburgh Penguins

5. New Jersey Devils

6. Montreal Canadiens

7. Carolina Hurricanes

8. Buffalo Sabres

Just missed: New York Rangers, Florida Panthers

Commentary: This is NOT necessarily how the playoffs would turn out. Generally, I think Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston all project to be better post-season teams but Washington will feast off of a weak division to take the #1 seed.

I feel a little uncomfortable picking Montreal and New Jersey to place that high, but after the top four I'm pretty stumped.

SCF Conference Rep: Boston Bruins

Western Conference

1. San Jose Sharks

2. Detroit Red Wings

3. Calgary Flames

4. Chicago Blackhawks

5. Vancouver Canucks

6. Anaheim Ducks

7. Columbus Blue Jackets

8. Los Angeles Kings

Just missed: St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars

Commentary: The criticism for San Jose has gotten a bit extreme. Why not throw a little vitriol to Calgary or Vancouver as they've disappointed over the years in their own way? It's fine to make some jokes about the Sharks, but you win the games you can win and worry about the playoffs when they come.

SCF Conference Rep: San Jose Sharks

STANLEY CUP WINNER: San Jose Sharks

Gut Reactions: The Northeast Division

2009-10-01T17:24:00.006-05:00

OK, kids here's the last divisional post. I'll have other predictions later.

1. Boston Bruins

Even though the Bruins received very nice long-term value for Phil Kessel, I'll always think of this off-season as the one in which Boston basically lost Kessel for Derek Morris. That's just terrible, in my opinion.

Still, the Bruins might just be the most versatile and impressive team in the Eastern Conference. Marc Savard has two scoops of raisin-flavored inspiration because he's in a contract year and he wasn't even invited to the Team Canada camp.

Combine his motivation with a team that can play with toughness, finesse and everything in between and you have a team that could very well fight for the President's Trophy once more.

(Editor's note: it's really a crapshoot after Boston)

2. Montreal Canadiens

[Insert Montreal midgets joke here]

3. Buffalo Sabres

Just about every team in the NE saw drastic sweeping changes and yet pundits consistently bag on the Sabres for doing nothing.

What's so wrong with stability? We know that the Sabres have a good coach, a good goalie and some spirited spritely little forwards with big offensive talent. Granted, the team lacks a standout on the blueline (Jay Bouwmeester would have been a fantastic fit) so their relative ceiling is limited.

With just a little more luck, the Sabres should make it back to the playoffs.

4. Toronto Maple Leafs

It's strange that Brian Burke mortgaged so much of the team's future for an injury prone player like Kessel. I like Kessel - and the Leafs need offense pretty badly - but he seems to be an odd fit for Toronto in my opinion.

The moves they made to add defense and toughness bode well for the medium term but their goaltending is suspect in the least. For every import like Jonas Hiller, there have been a ton of letdowns who weren't ready for the North American game.

This division seems to be rife with odd, expensive decisions.

5. Ottawa Senators

Blah.

If you're arguing from a chemistry/hustle/heart standpoint, the Ottawa Senators aren't exactly exploding with character guys in ~~Scott Gomez~~ (Oops OMG I meant the Senators OTHER non-character guys ... clearly this typo erases my credibility in one swift motion!) and Alex Kovalev.

If you're looking for amazing goaltending, the Senators are average - at best - with Pascal Leclaire as their supposed No. 1.

If you want shutdown defense, just look away.

It could be a dark year in Ottawa.

Gut Reactions: The Pacific

2009-10-01T16:57:00.001-05:00

My gut reactions post for the Pacific division is up on Battle of California. Check it out here.

Gut Reactions: Southeast Division

2009-09-30T19:35:00.004-05:00

1. Washington Capitals

Washington is by far the class of the Southeast, with or without above average goaltending. Having the league's best goal scorer (Alex O) and best goal scoring defenseman (Mike Green) makes the Caps scary ... accounting for two other elite forwards in contract years (Backstrom and Semin) is simply terrifying.

2. Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes are a tough team to figure out. While the team's hard charging style and solid array of forwards make them a fun team to watch when they're at their best ... it's pretty difficult to maintain any kind of consistency when your best defenseman is Joni Pitkanen.

It makes sense, then, that the team's fate rests so heavily upon Cam Ward's shoulders.

While I'm not a huge fan of the 'Canes defense and think they rely too heavily on Ward and Staal, this division is still the worst in the NHL so they'll probably place in second or third merely by not being terrible.

3. Tampa Bay Lightning

While the whirlwind of roster changes leaves the Lightning looking like a bigger mess than the script to another horrible Saw sequel, I must say that I actually found myself mildly impressed by some of the Lightning's additions.

Alex Tanguay is an absolute steal at $2.5 million and while Ohlund's contract seemed excessively long, he's still the best blue liner the Lightning currently employ. He's their best D guy, that is, until Victor Hedman justifies the Bunyan-sque hype that followed him to the NHL.

Naturally, the Lightning also boasts the still slightly underrated Martin St. Louis and the still slightly overrated Vincent Lecavalier but the team's offensive depth is as good as it's been for a while. Along with newly signed Tanguay, Tampa Bay could see the benefits of Steve Stamkos' sophomore season as well as support guys like Ryan Malone.

Are they going to be a powerhouse? Absolutely not, but Tampa Bay could pleasantly surprise some people.

4. Florida Panthers

Well, I'm a fan of Litter Box Cats, David Booth and Tomas Vokoun. That's about all, though.

5. Atlanta Thrashers

Apparently Atlanta thinks that adding a bunch of crappy Russians will appease Ilya Kovalchuk because adding hard working, talented players was not an option. I'm not a big fan of Pavel Kubina or Nik Antropov, to be honest. The Buffalo Sabres couldn't even get rid of Max Afinogenov.

When you consider all of these factors - as well as the team's dicey goaltending situation - it's pretty difficult to provide a sunny forecast for the Thrashers.

Gut Reactions: The Central Division

2009-09-29T18:00:00.005-05:00

Sooner or later I'm going to stop finding funny pictures ...

1. Detroit Red Wings

My biggest regret with slacking on these updates is that I didn't get to jump on the "You're Crazy for Counting Out the Red Wings" bandwagon before a ton of people already refuted the annual "this is the year Detroit won't make it" hoopla. Darn.

Naturally it's not good that the Wings replaced Marian Hossa and Jiri Hudler with the likes of Todd effin' Bertuzzi, but few teams can match the Red Wings defense (Lidstrom-Rafalski-Kronwall) and unstoppable winning tradition.

2. Chicago Blackhawks

I haven't been shy about criticizing Chicago's off-season moves, but those mistakes will hurt the team from a longterm perspective more than anything else. Chances are the 'Hawks will move some personnel before next summer, but as is, the team is loaded.

Brodeur is a Fraud has a way of consistently flipping the script on my goalie assumptions and the Contrarian Goaltender did just that with his "No Respect for Huet" piece. While tCG's powers of numerical persuasion cannot change me from anti-Huet to Cristobal-iever (hey-o!), the posts did at least make me hesitate in calling him a true problem.

With scoring depth, solid defense and their three best players entering contract years it is difficult to imagine Chicago having a total meltdown.

3. Columbus Blue Jackets

As a Faceoff dork, CBJ could have been a dream team in the circle if they kept Manny Malholtra. Still, the team is strong down the middle and has that Rick Nash guy people seem to really care about. When you combine an improving fleet of forwards and a good young goalie in Steve Mason with Ken Hitchock's top-notch defensive system, it's tempting to put Columbus above Chicago.

That would be hasty, though, since their ceiling falls considerably if Derick Brassard deals with more injury problems.

4. St. Louis Blues

The Central division is good enough to send four teams to the playoffs (not to say that will happen), so this isn't meant to be a slight to the Blue-notes. The team is jam packed with young forwards and could really see a nice jump with the (hopefully healthy) return of Erik Johnson. Factor in the remote possibility of a Paul Kariya renaissance and it's hard not to be excited about St. Louis.

In fact, the more I talk about this the less comfortable I feel with this prediction. Let's move on.

5. Nashville Predators

Barry Trotz must be an awesome coach, right? No one ever sees much in the Predators, yet they always seem to scrap their way to competitiveness.

Unfortunately, their division isn't "Detroit + awful + awful + awful + Nashville" any longer. You've gotta love Shea Weber, but it just doesn't look like they have the horses to grind out a playoff berth any more.

Gut Reactions: The Atlantic Division

2009-09-29T06:31:00.000-05:00

Sadly I only have time to post this edition with the text and this horrific gut. Contextual photo humor will have to wait. Sorry, hockey starved masses!

1. Philadelphia Flyers

While most of the Twitterverse mocked Philly for sending their farm system to Anaheim for Chris Pronger, I cringed for very different reasons. It was almost as if Paul Holmgren heard my claims that the Flyers were going from a bunch of meathead goons to a bunch of Downy soft forwards. Now, the Flyers are big and bad again and Pronger could not be a more fitting – almost archetypal - D guy for that team.

Pronger-Coburn-Timonen is the best defensive trio in the Eastern Conference. With Jeff Carter, Mike Richards and a handful of quality support players, the Flyers shouldn’t struggle to light up the scoreboard, either. As always, though, the Flyers had to build a beautiful house on a foundation of flimsy goaltending.

While I think Ray Emery was good enough to at least be on an NHL roster last year (and Brain Boucher is a solid backup), it is humorous that the team is once again rolling the dice in net.

They’ll get by gloriously in the regular season … but in the playoffs? I have my doubts.

2. Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins have a better chance to win the Cup than the Atlantic Division this season.

On its face, that’s a ridiculous statement but the Penguins have been slow starters since the beginning of the Crosby era and I expect that trend to continue. With Max Talbot sidelined for quite a while and a team that must be a little banged up from two straight deep playoff runs, the Penguins might sputter a bit with that big silver chalice-shaped target on their backs.

But don’t bet against them when the games start to matter.

3. New Jersey Devils

Speaking of never betting against someone, how can you doubt the Devils at this point? I’ve been stunned to read all of the Chicken Little talk about New Jersey after they lost not-so-essential players like John Madden and Brian Gionta. Look, they’re both nice players but why would those two land a death blow on a team that somehow remained contenders after losing Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski since the salary cap was instituted?

Like some Raid-proof roach infestation, the Devils will continue defy expectations and make it to the playoffs again. And much like their spiritual insect brethren, it won’t be pretty … especially with Jacques Lemaire in charge.

4. New York Rangers

“Boy, if Marian Gaborik could just stay healthy the Rangers would see a huge upgrade.”

“If only Lindsay Lohan could calm down on the crank for a bit, she could be the next great starlet.”

“If only Al Gore could emulate true human emotions, he’d be a hell of a candidate.”

“It’s too bad time machines aren’t real because then Britney Spears could un-ruin her life.”

“If US banks didn’t destroy America …”

Wow, the “if game” really IS fun!

5. New York Islanders

Take solace in John Tavares.

Gut Reactions: The Northwest Division

2009-09-28T19:16:00.008-05:00

Instead of going team-by-team, let's stick some gut reactions into tidy divisional formats. Then at the end I'll share wild guesses on playoff seeding and maybe a blindfolded dart throw at a Stanley Cup champion. You're WELCOME.

1. Calgary Flames

Appetizers: Getting rid of "Mad" Mike Keenan, having three top-2 defensemen, Jarome effin' Iginla, Olli Jokinen in a contract year, the fact that Kipper couldn't perform much worse than he did last year.

Reach for the TUMS: Not too much beyond Iggy, have you SEEN Olli Jokinen?, Kipper could simply be on a free fall.

Weigh-in: The Flames aren't a perfect hockey team, but they're in the right division. Though each team brings something to the table, none of Calgary's opponents will overload them with scoring talent.

2. Vancouver Canucks (the original gut reactions on Vancouver)

Chips and dip: They employ arguably the best goalie in the NHL, locked up the Cyborg Sedins for the mid-range future, chock full of ruggedness, still sports a splendid defense even without Ohlund.

Band-aid in the pasta: Andrew effin Raycroft, the Vancouver Olympics will make the Canucks have a crazy road schedule, the team has a general lack of monetary motivation, not a ton of high-end offense.

Verdict: As a pure team, I think Vancouver might be the best. However, the schedule is negative and their best players (Sedins + Luongo) are locked up which means they don't have that contract year carrot dangling in front of them.

3. Minnesota Wild

Bread and butter: A nice goaltending tandem, Mikko Koivu, no longer dealing with Jacques Lemaire comb over jokes ... uhhh ....

Bland, flavorless meat loaf: Do you really think they're going to open it up? They lose Gaborik but make sure to give their trainers ample company by signing Martin Havlat.

Check: The NW Division falls off noticeably after Vancouver and Calgary (although this division always seems to revel in scrappy play).

4. Edmonton Oilers

Maple Syrup: Ales Hemsky is a diamond in the rough, young players can make a nice jump, Sheldon Souray slap shots his anger away.

Poorly digested Pecans: The Bulin Wall tends to turn into a dilapidated fence in non-contract years, Edmonton is (apparently) a godforsaken hellhole.

So...: The Oilers could scrap their way into a playoff spot, but my gut feeling is that they'll tease for a few months and then putter their way to a golf course.

5. Colorado Avalanche

Calamari with a squeeze of lemon: Paul Stastny is quite good if arguably overpaid, they're finally sucking it up and rebuilding after settling for mediocrity and nostalgia since the lockout, they're not paying much for mediocre goaltending.

Rocky Mountain oysters: Their blue line is infested with crappy $3-4 million defensemen not named Kyle. The growing pains are going to hurt ... can fans who've been spoiled since Day 1 be counted on when the team isn't competing for a Cup for a few years?

Dessert: Keep your heads up, Avs fans. It's time to yank that band-aid off instead of watching your skin peel back slowly.

CLS Redraft: Thoughts and Reflections

2009-09-24T22:16:00.003-05:00

(Surprise! I'm back from family, work, and lots of general personal busy-ness, and I'm posting on CLS!)

Some of you may remember that last year, there was a really unfortunate incident that ended with a 14 year old who thought he could grow facial hair lifting the Stanley Cup. Scott Niedermayer's playoff beard must've been rolling in its grave to see that. For a variety of reasons, the Detroit Red Wings came up short in a 7-gamer against the Pittsburgh Penguins last year. Fortunately, this summer, James O'Brien gave me a chance to rebuild, retool, and prepare to redeem a team that completely blew it (for various reasons, most forgivably being Nick Lidstrom's testicle) and let a Stanley Cup slip through their fingers. I present to you, the team that will win back the Stanley Cup, the Cycle Like Sedins' redrafted Detroit Red Wings!

Forwards:

Brenden Morrow (A) (3-16, 76) / Brad Richards (8-15, 225) / Jarome Iginla (C) (1-16, 16)

T. J. Oshie (6-23, 173) / Antoine Vermette (9-29, 269) / Steve Bernier (12-23, 353)

Todd Marchant (12-24, 354) / Jarret Stoll (10-16, 286) / Torrey Mitchell (11-30, 330)

Marcel Goc (13-29, 389) / Darren Helm (9-16, 256) / Matt Cooke (13-7, 367)

Defense:

Aaron Ward (11-22, 322) / Duncan Keith (A) (2-15, 45)

Kent Huskins (14-2, 392) / Alexandre Edler (6-15, 165)

Colin White (14-15 405) / Jonathan Ericsson (6-22, 172)

Goalies:

Pekka Rinne (2-23, 53)

Jaroslav Halak (11-16, 316)

Yes, my entire 20 man starting roster came in the first 14 rounds, ending with Colin White at #405. Early in the draft, as a couple trades starting being made by PHI and EDM, the thought occurred to me that in the late rounds (15-20), all that anyone would have to pick from is the maybes, never-weres, and stupid video game favorites (Dimotrakos!!!) of the NHL. I started trading down in the 4th round, and was able to eventually parlay my picks into all being in the first 14 rounds. After making my 3rd round pick of Morrow, there wasn't too many guys that I didn't feel were significant upgrades over players who would be available 5 rounds later, so I traded down and skipped the draft for a couple rounds, stockpiling mid-round picks. At one point, I think I owned 4 or 5 11th rounders.

My original plan, as detailed at my own mostly inactive blog, was to draft strongly on defense, and build a team more in the mold of the Anaheim Ducks of recent seasons. If Zdeno Chara hadn't gone one pick before me to Columbus, I might've taken him instead of Iginla. In the end, I decided one of the best forwards in the league, a guy who exemplifies everything that is good and wonderful about hockey, certainly deserved to be the centerpiece of my team, and I had to adjust my strategy accordingly. I might have made a mistake in filling up my forwards quickly, and missing out on a couple of better defensemen (Huskins and White are my only significant weaknesses, I feel), but overall, I think it turned out pretty well.

I'm pretty confident that my first line can hang with anyone in the league. Brad Richards may be obscenely overpaid, but he's still a pretty good player, and with Iggy and Morrow on his wings, they're liable to kick your ass and then score on you for good measure. My 2nd line might be a bit weak, particularly Bernier on the right side, but against lower pairings and with solid partners, I think Bernier can do allright. I have a massive hardon for Antoine Vermette, both from video games and from his real life FOW%, and with his speed and two big bodies on either side of him, I think that line could work pretty decently.

What I might be most proud of is my third line. I have 3 C's, all with excellent FOW%, for a 3rd line, and I would have no problem shuffling any of those three into 2nd or 4th line duty as needed. Even my fourth line is pretty sweet, having my personal favorite player, Darren Helm, as well as a fantastic pest with a little bit of skill in Matt Cooke, and a super-cheap Marcel Goc on the left side. In lieu of having a standout defense, as originally planned, I decided it would work just as well to have a big, physical, and defensively responsible set of 12 forwards, and I think I did a pretty good job of filling that mold overall.

On defense, outside of White and Huskins, I think I'm fairly solid. The whole unit isn't elite, but I think its pretty solid, and more than that, that defensive corps can definitely knock you around, and can even score a few goals. One of the hardest things to play against is a team that lets you take the perimeter and the boards, but will flatten you if you take two steps away from them. such teams have been, until 2009, the only kind of team to beat the Red Wings in the playoffs since 2001. Ducks, Flames, Oilers, etc, they were all built on letting you take easy-to-stop perimeter shots, and attempting to decapitate you if you stepped off the boards. I think this defense should do a pretty good job of that.

If there is a significant weakness here, its probably in goal, which should be nothing new to the Detroit Red Wings. I'm not entirely sold on Rinne (if I'd had the original pick that EDM used to draft him, I'd have gone with Vokoun or Hiller), as I'd like to see a bigger sample size, but I don't think its unreasonable to think that at worst, he's about a league-average goalie. Because I don't entirely trust him, I decided it best to have a capable backup, and for that I chose Jaroslav Halak, because he's shown the ability to play like a #1 before, though he's lacked consistency. With help from a good defense, maybe he could gain that consistency. Again, at worst, he's probably league average, and behind this team, I think league average could definitely be pushed up a couple points, a la Nicklas Backstrom.

In building this team, one of the things that quickly became apparent was that some people were attempting to build unrealistic teams full of fragile snipers that could never get the puck for themselves, the kind of teams that work in a video game, but not so much in real life. To me, one of the most fun parts of this entire redraft was not just trying to draft the best player each pick from a "score as many goals as you can" standpoint, but from trying to build an honest-to-goodness functional NHL team. I might not win any of the competitive aspects of this redraft, but to me, that's ok, because I truly believe that this team, as constructed, could do very very well in the NHL. Hopefully, they do that well in the CLS-NHL as well.

Coming Soon ...

2009-09-23T00:28:00.003-05:00

... The 2009-10 season. Rut roh.

A look at the next couple weeks ahead (perhaps ... at least I hope so):

If things work out well, I should have a daily feature (but that might be a big if to get everyone coordinated) that will (hopefully) bring a fresh-ish take on "link dumps"/headline type posts. Hopefully.

I'm going to finish up my season previews ("Gut Reactions") although I'm going to change the format from team-by-team to division-by-division. This may be the only thing I can truly guarantee.

Finally, I hope to involve the team bloggers in a spirited but brief little feature to preview the NHL season in true CLS fashion.

Not sure if all three of the above plans will come to fruition, but it never hurts to try. Stay tuned kiddos.

CLS Re-Draft: Round 16

2009-09-20T12:49:00.005-05:00

SIXTEENTH ROUND

16-1 (451) - Florida Panthers - Toni Lydman
16-2 (452) - Colorado Avalanche - Dan Ellis
16-3 (453) - Chicago Blackhawks - Justin Abdelkader (Acquired from Montreal)
16-4 (454) - Anaheim Ducks - John Mitchell
16-5 (455) - Buffalo Sabres - Brent Johnson
16-6 (456) - Boston Bruins - Petteri Nokelainen
16-7 (457) - Ottawa Senators - Brian Boucher
16-8 (458) - San Jose Sharks - Jimmy Howard
16-9 (459) - Toronto Maple Leafs - John Madden
16-10 (460) - New Jersey Devils - Richard Park
16-11 (461) - Colorado Avalanche (Acquired from New York Rangers): Cody McLeod
16-12 (462) - Carolina Hurricanes - Derek Boogaard
16-13 (463) - Minnesota North Stars - Erik Ersberg
16-14 (464) - Boston Bruins (Acquired from Los Angeles, via Edmonton) - Stephane Yelle
16-15 (465) - Toronto Maple Leafs (Acquired from Detroit, via Edmonton): Sergei Kostitsyn

Symbolic of Radek Bonk being gobbled up by the KHL???

16-16 (466) - Philadelphia Flyers (Acquired from Columbus): Cory Murphy
16-17 (467) - Washington Capitals: Fredrik Modin
16-18 (468) - Pittsburgh Penguins: Jarkko Ruutu
16-19 (469) - Phoenix Coyotes: Radek Bonk
16-20 (470) - St. Louis Blues: Tom Kostopoulos
16-21 (471) - Atlanta Thrashers: Mike Comrie
16-22 (472) - Nashville Predators: Cal O'Reilly
16-23 (473) - New York Rangers (Acquired from Colorado Avalanche, via Edmonton): Karlis Skrastins
16-24 (474) - St. Louis Blues (Acquired from Philadelphia): Anssi Salmela
16-25 (475) - New York Islanders: Mathieu Schneider
16-26 (476) - Chicago Blackhawks: Matt Bradley
16-27 (477) - Dallas Stars: Bryce Salvador
16-28 (478) - Tampa Bay Lightning: Brad Lukowich
16-29 (479) - Vancouver Canucks: Travis Moen
16-30 (480) - Calgary Flames: Bruno Gervais

Aimless whining about NHL '10

2009-09-17T19:23:00.004-05:00

Look, there's plenty to like about NHL '10. EA Sports added some nice features and the game feels (generally) more authentic than ever. In fact, despite my misgivings I'll probably play a few games tonight.

Still, there are some serious issues that make me glad that I didn't end up spending a full $60 on the game (since I was able to trade in games at Gamestop). In some ways, the series takes one step forward and two step backwards. Here's a random collection of thoughts.

The post-whistle shtick is really obnoxious, especially online. It would be interesting if the rough stuff truly carried over during the game or wasn't something that happened after every whistle. Instead, all it does is needlessly slow the game down to a screeching halt.

(And when you consider the game's nearly constant slowdown aka frame rate drops, every slowdown is another tablespoon of salt in your wounds)

Besides, it was more fun just to mindlessly bash people after the whistle. Hopefully EA patches this in the update so online games stop feeling longer than a game of Madden.

Many people had issues with an unintentional penalty that often happened in NHL '09. Sometimes you would receive an interference call because the game assumed you were going for a hit when you were actually attempting a one-timer.

Yet, they replaced that unintentional penalty flaw with a different unintentional penalty flaw. Now, if you don't pin someone against the boards at the right time the game thinks you want to start a fight since both actions share the same button.

In that case, the other person may not choose to fight (giving them a powerplay) or you might get an instigator penalty (giving them a powerplay). Couldn't EA commit the "start a fight" motion to the select button to avoid confusion and unintended penalties? Bah.

The neutral zone passing in this game (and much of the quick passes "into space") can be downright horrific at times. I tried to make reasonable breakout passes and they would speed senselessly to an icing violation frequently.

Generally, EA's solution to people scoring a lot of one-timer goals was to force passes into the most inane spots. I've tried to pass diagonally down and right and the game would force the past off the boards ... which was diagonally up and to the left. The exact opposite of my input.

Few things bother me more than a game "fixing" design flaws by making controls less intuitive and reliable.

Is it too much to ask for icon passing or being able to switch to the exact player you want? Sometimes I feel most comfortable playing defense with a forward, but the game assumes that I want to go for checks constantly and therefore only allows me to use a defenseman at crucial times.

This forces me into situations of potential domestic violence, but thankfully there is no wife or dog around to feel the sting of my fits.

I can often realte to Sleek's duck when it comes to unintended penalties in NHL '10

The teammate AI could still use some work. If the game is going to hang you out to dry by curbing much of the passing accuracy, then it hurts that much more when a player skates far out of your zone when you're under durress. That can be VERY frustrating.

But, on the bright side:

Despite the unintended penalties, I think the board play is pretty fun. It allows you to stage a much more effective forecheck and also gives you a little more time to set up a cycle game. (Shocking that I'd find that appealing, right?)

It seems like EA's done a solid job of cutting down on some of the more insufferable glitches from '09. I stopped playing online a while with the last update, since the game devolved into an exploit war.

Overall:

Good game, but after two quantam leaps from 07 to 08 to 09, this year's game lacks a "wow" factor and has some serious drawbacks. Hopefully the game will get a serious repair, because right now I will probably not play it online very often (although I'm more likely to play the EASHL than standard team vs. team games).

If you have NHL '09 and a tight budget, I'd say wait a bit or just rent NHL '10. I'm sure EA will smooth over some of the rough edges, but right now I'm frustrated with the game as often as I am delighted.

Still, I'm glad I have it and probably will feel better about it once I get used to the tweaks and changes. What are your thoughts on the game so far? Do you share my frustrations? Are there some problems I haven't discovered or failed to mention? Or should I just rub some dirt on it and enjoy the game for what it is?

Feel free to share your thoughts on NHL '10 in the comments.

CLS Fantasy Guide Part 5: Questions to ask yourself, the universe

2009-09-15T22:31:00.007-05:00

I came here in peace, seeking gold and slaves. But you have treated me like an intruder. Maybe it is not me who is the intruder but you.

Now that most of the "heavy lifting" is done, let's finish the main posts (I'll probably put together an all-in-one post to make it easier to navigate the information) with a more philosophical, open-ended piece. The Things You Should Ask Yourself

1. Which positions are emphasized and deemphasized in this draft?

The answer to this question is not always the same.

But there are some general rules.

For instance, Centers are the "Joe Montanas" of hockey. They're the blond haired, blue eyed poster children whom everyone wishes they could be. As such, the pivot spot is pretty much constantly overloaded with top-notch talent.

In leagues where all forwards are classified as simply "F" (instead of positions like C, LW, RW) that won't matter. But in the Yahoo! leagues and many others, it pays off to draft equally talented wingers early in drafts because those ranks tend to dry up mighty quickly.

It gets really interesting when you throw in D and goalies, however...

2. Goalies: overrated or a precious resource?

Ideally, you can end up with an elite goalie without having to expend a highly valuable top 2-3 round pick.

But if you're not so lucky, you have to ask yourself: "Settle for rapidly declining goaltenders just to get someone or live dangerously?" My general rule with biting the bullet on goalies: if there isn't a great forward or D around and there's a goalie you really want is available then go ahead.*

3. How important are defensemen?

When you consider that a hockey team dresses 6 defensemen to two goalies, it's surprising that there might be even less elite defensive players from a fantays perspective.

Mike Green? The Drew Brees of fantasy hockey in that he could, conceivably, be a first round pick. Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov, Zdeno Chara, Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Dan Boyle, Dion Phaneuf and a handful of others can make a difference.

So it's all about how many D spots there are in your league. **

Ultimately, though, it's more important to make strong forward and goalie decisions.

4. Was that guy a fluke? Wasn't that guy a star just last year?

Obviously a full season cannot necessarily be a complete mirage, but when you're making crucial picks it's better to stick with guys who can keep producing big numbers. Am I saying that Steve Mason, Pekka Rinne and a host of other splashy young players will be busts next season? Not necessarily.

But it's probably wise to go with stable, un-sexy picks instead. Evgeni Nabokov is more likely to be worth a high pick, even if he's not going to blow you away or make you look brilliant for choosing him.

It's also important to remember how injuries can affect numbers. Brenden Morrow and Paul Stastny should have much better seasons, but you probably already knew that. However, what you might forget is that with their renewed playing time, another player has to suffer.

So don't be surprised if Loui Ericcson and James Neal fail to break through further than last season. It's because their captain is back.

5. Injuries matter

Marian Hossa could miss up to 30 games. Marian Gaborik is made of paper mache. Kari Lehtonen is affectionately known as "Splodey-Groin" (or took up the torch from Peter Forsberg).

In general, it doesn't pay to make big injury risks.

6. Finally, go with your gut

This is still your team and don't forget that even the best experts (and idiots like me) are human beings and have our own prejudices. If a ranking doesn't add up or you think Guy #30 could have a much bigger year than Guy #10, then so be it.

All this hogwash is just for fun. Might as well put your own stamp on it.

* Really though, keep in mind the fact that there really are only so many special goalies. As a general rule, always go for a guy who has a track record of success, a good team in front of him and - if possible -a crummy backup.

** For instance, I felt pressured to draft more D in the ESPN league because there were 5 D spots (to 9 forward and 2 goalies) and PPG, PIM and Average Time on Ice were categories that made a good offensive D more valuable.

Roll your eyes: It's my fantasy team(s)!

2009-09-14T17:18:00.004-05:00

No one cares about other people's fantasy hockey teams, but since I'm writing up these fantasy hockey guides I figure it makes sense to air my dirty drafting laundry.

For the record, I plan on having three fantasy hockey teams. To some that is excessive, but drafting is fun. So we'll see if I can limit myself to three. (Sad, I know.)

Team 1: ESPN league

Skater Categories: G, A, PPG, +/-, SOG, PIM, Average Time on Ice

Goalie Categories: W, SV% and GAA

Goalie importance: 30% of stat categories, so not excessive

Defense importance: 5 D spots, ATOI make defense slightly more important than usual

Winger vs. C importance: Not that much since it uses "F" instead of C,LW,RW ... unfortunately I didn't realize that was the case (d'oh!)

Scattered Thoughts: Being used to Yahoo!, the ESPN draft format felt a little clunky to me. I think it's easier to navigate Yahoo's system and set real-time lists of people you can keep an eye on (making it simpler to keep track of your sleepers). It also kind of bugged me that ESPN's stat categories seemed less flexible. (no FW, no extra points category, PPG instead of PPP? Hmph.)

That's not to say ESPN's format is terrible, I simply prefer Yahoo at this point.

ANYWAY, here's my team. I picked #6 in a 10-team draft, so that means I was in basically the same general middle area each round.

1. Zach Parise

2. Dany Heatley

3. Mike Richards (panic pick ... was devestated that Ilya Kovalchuk almost made it back to me in the third. Fuck!)

4. Henrik Lundqvist

5. Alex Semin

6. Mark Streit

7. Duncan "Yo Yo" Keith

8. Daniel Alfredsson

9. Teemu Selanne

10. Shane Doan

11. Niklas Kronwall

12. Daniel Briere

13. Marty Turco

14. Ales Hemsky

15. Brian Rolston

16. Steve Ott

17. Alex Frolov

18. J-S Giguere

19. Shane O'Brien

20. Brad Richards

21. Ilya Bryzgalov

22. M.E. Vlasic

Feelings about my team: For some reason, I always pick poorly in the first round. Maybe it's a panic situation or maybe I'm better at finding value later in a draft.

I don't think Parise's the fourth best player in the league, but he just seems to do a lot well. He takes a shit load of shots (3rd in the NHL last year), scores a lot of goals and should maintain a nice plus/minus. The real jewel, I'd say, is Dany Heatley. Although it was a toss-up between Heater and Kovalchuk and I wonder if the combination of negative public sentiment and low ESPN ranking might have allowed me to grab Heatley in the third round if I instead would have nabbed Kovie.

Meh, either way, I was pondering Heatley in the first round so it's still a nice move.

Vlasic was a great last pick in my opinion, since he might get some of the PP time vacating San Jose since Ehr-head is gone. There are certain situational picks (Briere, Frolov, Hemsky, Brad RICHards, Kronwall and Doan) where it almost appeared as if I had no choice but to select them.

Pretty happy with my goaltending overall, because Lundqvist is steady and I expect Marty Turco to have a respectable bounce back year. Giguere is the wild card both in fantasy hockey and ... the other fantasy hockey league so my hope is that Sleek's impressions are just of a guy having a bad day a few weeks before any of this matters, not clarification that there is a fork sticking out of Giggy's back.

While I was unable to get champion PIM man/general knucklehead Daniel Carcillo, it's my hope that Steve Ott and Shane "No Relation" O'Brien can make my fake team competitive in affecting their real-life teams negatively.*

* - I kind of like PIM as a fantasy hockey stat, but it IS fucked up to root for a guy to make a dumb mistake. Then again, someone has to root for Todd Bertuzzi, right?

Anyway, I feel like my team will win by quantity over quality. By goals, PPG, +/- perhaps, SOG and being reasonably competitive in the other categories from week-to-week.

Thoughts? Think I'm a fraud? (Don't worry, this won't be on the front page very long ...)

CLS Fantasy Guide Part 4: Contract Years

2009-09-14T07:59:00.007-05:00

Kovalchuk will be able to afford even better kilts once he gets another contract

Although it is not the #1 factor in selecting a player, my general rule is: when in doubt, draft a guy who will go into the season with the undeniable motivation of filthy, sweaty gobs of money. With that in mind, here is a list of THE MOST NOTABLE players whose contracts will expire after this season.

(For a full list go to CapGeek.com, click on free agents and the click on "Expiry Year: 2010" and "Free Agent Type: ALL".)

2010-11 UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS of note

Ilya Kovalchuk

Marc Savard

Nicklas Lidstrom

Evgeni Nabokov

Sergei Gonchar

Patrick Marleau

Marty Turco

Alex Frolov

Alex Tanguay

Paul Kariya

Vyacheslav Kozlov

Ray Whitney

Olli Jokinen

(and more)

2010-11 RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS of note

Nicklas Backstrom (Forward)

Patrick Kane

Jonathan Toews

Alex Semin

Bobby Ryan

Cam Ward

Carey Price

Ryan Kesler

Peter Mueller

Erik Johnson

Duncan Keith

Braydon Coburn

Devin Setoguchi

Kris Letang

Matt Niskanen

James Neal

Blake Wheeler

(and more)

San Jose joins Chicago in the "Now or Never Club"

2009-09-12T19:28:00.006-05:00

The bleak salary cap future for San Jose and Chicago ... without an anti-semite to save them

Should FTF go from "Fear the Fin" to "Fuck the Future"?

It's tough to avoid that question with San Jose's bold trade of Dany Heatley and a 5th rounder for Jonathan Cheechoo, Milan Michalek and a 2nd-rounder. Certainly, it's a smarter cap-based move than shipping Patrick Marleau to Ottawa because Patty M's cap hit will dissolve after next season. Yet it begs the question: why exactly do the Sharks feel like the doomsday clock is approaching zero already?

Ever since the San Jose Sharks reached The Next Level after the Joe Thornton trade, the team kept getting older and older. The team seems to keep producing young talent, only to ship them out in favor of guys who - while often superior - are getting a little longer in the tooth.

Steve Bernier, Matt Carle, Michalek and many others have been shuttled out to make room for Rob Blake, Dan Boyle and other expensive veterans. Again, it hasn't always been the wrong move but old over new is a trend that ultimately caught up with the Colorado Avalanche and might (evenutally? maybe?) catch up with Detroit.

Going forward, the Sharks have three extremely big contracts: Thornton ($7.2 million per year through 2010-11); Heatley ($7.5 million through 2013-14) and Dan Boyle (with his satanic $6.66 million through 2013-14). Now - don't get me wrong - I'd rather shell out about $21 million for Heatley-Thornton-Boyle instead of wasting almost $13 million on the Cristobal Huet-Brian Campbell shit sandwich.

After all, Heatley is absolutely the real deal. Anyone who thinks he will be a "bust" is allowing their (understandably negative) feelings get in the way of the fact that Heatley is absolutely one of the top five goal scorers in the league. He could genuinely flirt with joining Alex Ovechkin in the ultra-rare 60 Goal Club.

But what will become of San Jose's depth?

Devin Setoguchi could be in line for a really nice raise if he puts up another feisty, 30-plus goal season. Joe Pavelski faces one more season in which he'll be an underpaid gem, then he could see some really nice green. Even big contract guys like Evgeni Nabokov and Marleau will either need to be re-signed or replaced by comparable talent.

That being said, this trade makes Heatley an absolute top-10 fantasy hockey talent and re-establishes Jumbo Joe as a great guy to snag if you cannot get one of the Big Three.

It also will make San Jose one of the teams I'll watch the most closely once the season starts. (Ah, the glories of Center Ice)

More than anything else, it's going to be interesting as hell. Will the Sharks prosper from pushing all their chips to the middle of the table? Or will some bad metaphor gangsters break their knee caps after this Shaky Chemistry Gamble fails profoundly?

I can't wait to find out.

CLS Re-Draft: The 15th Round

2009-09-12T11:52:00.004-05:00

Fernandez waits patiently for a job ...

15-1 (421) - Calgary Flames - Patrick Eaves
15-2 (422) - Vancouver Canucks - Ladislav Smid
15-3 (423) - Tampa Bay Lightning - Blake Comeau
15-4 (424) - Dallas Stars - Andrew Ference
15-5 (425) - Chicago Blackhawks - Chris Butler
15-6 (426) - New York Islanders - Nick Boynton
15-7 (427) - St. Louis Blues - Sean Bergenheim (Acquired from Philadelphia)
15-8 (428) - Dallas Stars - Jason Chimera (Acquired from Edmonton)
15-9 (429) - Nashville Predators - Josh Bailey
15-10 (430) - Atlanta Thrashers - Daniel Carcillo
15-11 (431) - St. Louis Blues - Eric Belanger
15-12 (432) - Phoenix Coyotes - Manny Fernandez
15-13 (433) - Pittsburgh Penguins - Michael Leighton
15-14 (434) - Washington Capitals - Jeff Schultz
15-15 (435) - Columbus Blue Jackets - B. J. Crombeen

15-16 (436) - Dallas Stars - Jason LaBarbera (Acquired from Detroit, via Edmonton)
15-17 (437) - Los Angeles Kings - David Legwand
15-18 (438) - Toronto Maple Leafs - Nicklas Grossman (Acquired from Minnesota)
15-19 (439) - Carolina Hurricanes - Rafi Torres
15-20 (440) - New York Rangers - Artem Anisimov
15-21 (441) - New Jersey Devils - Steve Downie
15-22 (442) - Toronto Maple Leafs - Alex Auld
15-23 (443) - San Jose Sharks - Paul Gaustad
15-24 (444) - Ottawa Senators - Ryan Shannon
15-25 (445) - Boston Bruins - Boris Valabik
15-26 (446) - Philadelphia Flyers - Scott Gomez (Acquired from Buffalo)
15-27 (447) - Anaheim Ducks - Steve Staios
15-28 (448) - Chicago Blackhawks - Mathieu Garon (Acquired from Montreal)
15-29 (449) - Colorado Avalanche - Kurt Sauer
15-30 (450) - Florida Panthers - Mike Rupp

CapsChick of a View from the Cheap Seats shares her Earliest Hockey Memories

2009-09-10T23:29:00.009-05:00

Logo by Gray from Couch Tarts

(A View from the Cheap Seats is in the stunning brigade of great Washington Capitals blogs and is rapidly becoming one of our favorites. How can you fault anyone after reading all of her great questionnaires (even if she was gullible enough to invite me). Hopefully Caps Chick doesn't make a point to do TOO many of those great features or CLS might go out of business.

If ... this was a business, that is.)

My dad moved to the Washington, DC area in 1974, the same year the Capitals came into existence. A Boston Bruins fan from his days in New England, he went to the very first preseason game ever held in the nation's capital - and bought season tickets right then and there, beginning a love and a passion for the team that has spanned decades.

So you could say that being a Caps fan - or at least a hockey fan - wasn't so much a choice as it was a birthright. I was indoctrinated right from the womb, really. There's even a story that my mother would attend games while pregnant with me and I would proceed to kick to "Let's Go Caps!"...I only kind of believe it.

(Editor's Note: Somehow that's not the first female blogger who relayed this story/anecdote as Wrap Around Curl also seemed to make this reference. Is it wrong to feel a little jealous about these puck based childhoods?)

That baby's not just kicking, it's making a kick save!

So my upbringing was a rather unique one, entirely Caps-centric in a city of Redskins fans - but it was ingrained in me from such a young age that it becomes hard to pick out just one memory that defines hockey's place in my life. It's really more of a collage of sights and sounds and events that turned me into the obsessive nutjob I'm proud to be today.

I remember my sister and I getting little replica jersey t-shirts from the Junior Fan Club and proudly wearing them as often as I could, begging to wear them to school and to bed and then wondering why they weren't clean when I got to go to games. We had a pile of pom-poms in a basket in our basement, souvenirs of past playoff series that would occasionally make cameos in whatever make believe dress-up games we would be involved in on any given day; the number of times I pranced around with white plastic hair is too high to count. On the wall was a growth poster featuring a very young, very large Scott Stevens in full uniform and on skates. I remember gazing up at it and thinking he was a giant, an impression that was probably not helped by the fact that the poster was hung about a foot off the ground. Yet because of that poster Stevens was probably one of the first players I recognized just by looking at his face - and one of my earliest favorites for that exact reason.

Then there was the arena. Back then it was the Capital Centre, a place that often felt like a second home because of how much time we spent there and how comfortable it felt no matter how big and loud and potentially scary it could be (especially when Penguins fans were in town...ahem).

It had the strange, scooped-out roof that in my mind looked like it had been crushed by a giant rear end and the parking lots named after patriotic symbols like 'Stars and Stripes' and 'Eagle'. There was the huge video screen in the middle of the arena, the first of its kind, and smaller computerized screens in the corner with funny little cartoons that acted out penalties or implored the crowd to cheer. The concourse smelled like popcorn and cotton candy and cigarette smoke - of course this was back in the days when you were allowed to smoke in arenas. And the building was always filled with noise of some kind or another, whether it was the organ or the cheering of the crowd or the wandering trumpeter who appeared in different sections throughout the game.

Back then I didn't really understand the concept of "other teams" the way I do today. I knew I hated the Penguins, Flyers, Rangers, Devils and Islanders, but aside from a few select faces of evil (Lemieux, Hextall, Ulf Samuelsson, etc.) I couldn't have named players even on those teams - and outside of the Patrick Division, forget it. Hockey was very personal to me. I honestly believed that when I went to a game or watched it on TV the Caps couldn't possibly lose; if I cheered loud enough they would score. And when they got knocked out of the playoffs, as seemed to be their tradition, hockey ceased to exist until fall. I don't even remember actually watching the Stanley Cup being awarded until the Rangers won it in 1994.

But I knew my boys. I knew guys like Miller, Ridley, Johansson, Langway and Hunter, knew their numbers and their on-ice personalities. And really that's probably the strongest memory of them all - the players I grew up with, the ones who taught me to love the game and the Caps, and the ones I still idolize to this day.

Well...that or the hatred of the Penguins. It's a toss-up.

CLS Fantasy Guide, Part 3: Category Kings

2009-09-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

I get the feeling one of Burrows' or Backes' seasons was too good to be true.

Many leagues have specific, largely predictable categories that tend to be dominated by the same general group of players. In fact, some players are only useful IF those categories are included. The following list is meant to give you a quick guide to guys who can help you win certain categories.

Power Forwards (Great PIM with very good points) Note: Guys like Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry are elite power forwards. This is for the slightly less obvious set. [Slightly]

Brenden Morrow: almost too good for this list, but don't forget him.

David Backes

Alex Burrows

Scott Hartnell

Milan Lucic: Just don't get too sucked in by the Looch buzz. He's good but not Cam Neely just yet.

Steve Ott

Sean Avery

Chris Kunitz (a little lower on the PIM scale but Crosby potentially could give a really nice points boost)

Bill Guerin

Todd Bertuzzi: Not a fan of the guy, but he does tend to put up nice PIM and the occasional assist. Worth a look until they start charting defensive acumen.

Tuomo Ruutu

PIM only

Daniel Carcillo: Kind of a dope, but now is the PIM leader two years in a row.

Shane O'Brien

David Clarkson

Chris Neil

Jared Boll

Beasts in the faceoff circle (based on total wins, percentages, likeliness of continued success)

Rod Brind'Amour

Shawn Horcoff

Mikko Koivu

Manny Malholtra: would get even more if he took more faceoffs

Henrik Zetterberg: the thing that makes Henrik Z especially interesting is that you can get FW from a winger spot with him

Antoine Vermette

Joe Thornton

Hank Zetterberg gets points, SOG, FW, a good plus/minus AND typically is a LW/C. Awesome!

Guys who could be highly ranked next year with just a slight improvement in FO%

Jonathan Toews

Sidney Crosby

Jeff Carter

Mike Richards

Eric Staal

Jason Spezza

Highly probable SOG leaders

Alex Ovechkin (528 last season, 150 more than Eric Staal!!!): If SOG are a category in your league, Ovie's a no-brainer for No. 1 ... but that's another topic entirely.

Eric Staal (372 in 08-09; 310 in 07-08)

Zach Parise (364 in 08-09): experienced nearly 100 more SOG in the last year, could shoot even more next year.

Henrik Zetterberg: a perennial SOG source

[consult last year's top lists for some of the more obvious choices]

Unexpected SOG

Jason Blake: borderline useless with SOG

Dion Phaneuf: more than 250 SOG for the past two seasons

Patrick O'Sullivan: perhaps his meaty SOG totals might actually turn into points next year.

Mike Green: his offensive output is unmatched and he missed 14 GP.

Olli Jokinen: high SOG totals and he will play a full contract year with Jarome Iginla. Not bad.

Brian Rolston: Nearly 300 SOG in 2007-08. Could be poised for an improvement, even if it is only really in the SOG category.

CLS Re-Draft:Round 14

2009-09-08T21:40:00.005-05:00

Zherdev corners the market on the adjectives "enigmatic" and "mercurial"

FOURTEENTH ROUND

14-1 (391) - Florida Panthers - Nik Zherdev
14-2 (392) - Detroit Red Wings - Kent Huskins (Acquired from Colorado)
14-3 (393) - Montreal Canadiens - Christopher Higgins
14-4 (394) - Anaheim Ducks - Kris Draper
14-5 (395) - Philadelphia Flyers - Ryan Parent (Acquired from Buffalo)
14-6 (396) - Boston Bruins - Eric Fehr
14-7 (397) - Ottawa Senators - Kris Russell
14-8 (398) - San Jose Sharks - Pierre Marc Bouchard
14-9 (399) - Minnesota North Stars (Acquired from Toronto) - Josh Gorges
14-10 (400) - New Jersey Devils - Stephane Veilleux
14-11 (401) - New York Rangers - Freddie Sjostrom
14-12 (402) - Carolina Hurricanes - Andrew Alberts
14-13 (403) - Minnesota North Stars - Joel Ward
14-14 (404) - Los Angeles Kings - Wayne Simmonds

Jordin Tootoo's lady? Not fair.

14-15 (405) - Detroit Red Wings - Colin White
14-16 (406) - Columbus Blue Jackets - Daniel Paille
14-17 (407) - Montreal Canadiens (Acquired from Washington): Pascal LeClaire
14-18 (408) - Pittsburgh Penguins: Milan Jurcina
14-19 (409) - Phoenix Coyotes: Marty Reasoner
14-20 (410) - St. Louis Blues: Tomas Plekanec
14-21 (411) - Atlanta Thrashers: Jordin Tootoo
14-22 (412) - Nashville Predators: Petr Sykora
14-23 (413) - Toronto Maple Leafs (Acquired from Edmonton): Mike Grier
14-24 (414) - St. Louis Blues (Acquired from Philadelphia): Roman Hamrlik
14-25 (415) - New York Islanders: Brendan Shanahan
14-26 (416) - Montreal Canadiens (Acquired from Chicago): Rostislav Klesla
14-27 (417) - Dallas Stars: Jeff Halpern
14-28 (418) - Tampa Bay Lightning: Andrej Meszaros
14-29 (419) - Vancouver Canucks: Evgeny Artyukhin
14-30 (420) - Calgary Flames: Dustin Boyd

Gut Reactions: Vancouver Canucks

2009-09-08T07:56:00.001-05:00

Being that I'm still trying to come up with an interesting concept for our "real" season previews, I thought it would be important to start getting into game shape for the season. So on a semi-daily basis, I'll roll out these unsolicited opinions on various NHL teams.

Keep in mind that these are assessments made without painstaking research and are not meant to be "official" predictions. Whatever that means, anyway...

The Vancouver Canucks' hopes are hitched to three workhorses for the forseeable future. For at least the next 5 years, Vancouver goes as Roberto Luongo and the Sedins go. Whatever you may say about the crazy lifetime contracts being thrown around, there are worse players to have locked up for the remainder of their best days than Bobby Lou.

So, the good news is that the Canucks locked up their best players for fairly reasonable cap hits.

The bad news is that the 2010 Olympics are going to completely screw them over.

In last year's BoC bubble updates, my main theory was that the main thing non-elite teams was the difficulty of their remaining schedules. Well, by that train of thought, it's very difficult for me to justify the idea of the Canucks winning their division.

On the bright side, though, I find it hard to imagine Vancouver missing the playoffs entirely. This team is considerably stronger than Edmonton, Minnesota and Colorado even with the handicap of their fairly insane road schedule.

Photoshop by Katchop

The Canucks won't be blowing many teams out, as even their best forwards (Sedins, Kesler, Burrows) tend to get their points by grinding other teams to dust.

Even after losing heart-and-soul D Matt Ohlund to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Canucks have one of the deepest groups of blueliners in the NHL. It doesn't get much better than Kevin Bieska - Sami Salo - Wille Mitchell -Alex Edler - Mathieu Schneider - Christian Ehrhoff - Shane O'Brien. It wouldn't be surprising if one of those seven ended up in a salary dump, but either way that's a versatile bunch.

And, of course, the Canucks feature arguably the world's greatest goaltender in Luongo. To make him look even more world class, they brought in Andrew Raycroft, a guy who inexplicably remains in the NHL while guys likeManny Fernandez wait in UFA limbo. If Luongo is injured again next season, it's pretty hard to imagine the Canucks opting for Raycroft over their solid prospect Corey Schneider.

Overall, there's a lot to like about the Canucks but a rough schedule will derail Vancouver's division title hopes.

Lightly researched, impulsive prediction: #2 in the Northwest Division, #5 in the Western Conference