Three game 7's in one night. Hasn't happened in over 10 years. Why not take this special occasion to make some picks.
Coming into the first round I took New York, Colorado and San Jose to move on. Now they all face potential elimination but all on home ice.
As an overall team the Rangers are better. They use the shot blocking effectiveness of a strong defense combined with a stellar goalie to shut teams down. On the power play they have the personnel to move the puck quickly. The series has lacked the intensity some expected as well as the dramatics with no overtime games. The Flyers wanted it more last night. New York has never lost a game 7 at Madison Square Garden. Flyers win 3-2 in overtime. Game winning goal for Mark Streit.
Clearly my Colorado sweep didn't come to fruition. Let's give credit to Minnesota for playing a strong brand of hockey. The move to Kuemper has helped tremendously. We can't but do tend to forget about Parise and Suter since they both went to Minnesota. Plus they show a lot of promise with up and coming players. Hard to pick against Colorado with the next rookie of the year leading in scoring and a Vezina finalist between the pipes. This is a team that finished ahead of a division with Chicago and St. Louis in it. Give me Minnesota. Coyle with the game winner. Parise scores two.
San Jose has long been the pick of many over the last few seasons to win the Stanley Cup. These thoughts continued especially when they took a 3-0 lead in their series against Los Angeles. Now they are on the verge of being knocked out. A mid series goaltending switch seemed odd but a lot of the change in momentum can be attributed to Jonathan Quick. Not since the Flyers of 2010 has a team came back to win a series after losing the first three. I'll take LA in the reverse sweep 2-1. Why not let a King for the Kings score the winning goal.
If any of these things actually come true I might move to Vegas as none of what I said would be a standard answer. I have a good track record though.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Misconduct Season
Going to keep this one short. Thanks to the Flyers and Rangers playing the only game tonight I actually get a bit of a rest from all the action. I watched the full San Jose - Los Angeles game last night which ended sometime around or after one. Now there are three game 7's tomorrow to look forward to as well as the five or so hours of sleep.
One thing always ramps up in the playoffs. The misconduct. There is no easier way to get players off the ice when things begin to get testy then handing out misconducts. It happens every season. This one has been no different and we aren't even into the second round. Including the Flyers game tonight which had one fight and one misconduct here are the playoff numbers so far.
16 Fighting Majors (8 Fights)
35 Misconducts
Regular Season Numbers:
1866 Fighting Majors or 933 Fights
230 Misconducts
Anaheim, Los Angeles, Minnesota and San Jose all have as many or more misconducts in the playoffs then they did in the entire regular season. Anaheim is either going to be playing San Jose or Los Angeles. Can't imagine that is going to be a friendly series.
It's not the five minute overtime rule, but it's always a given. In my mind before the playoffs started amongst the group of professionals whether it is the NHL, AHL or ECHL, I figured the leader in points would be around 30 and penalty minutes around 60. The 60 might be a little low now.
One thing always ramps up in the playoffs. The misconduct. There is no easier way to get players off the ice when things begin to get testy then handing out misconducts. It happens every season. This one has been no different and we aren't even into the second round. Including the Flyers game tonight which had one fight and one misconduct here are the playoff numbers so far.
16 Fighting Majors (8 Fights)
35 Misconducts
Regular Season Numbers:
1866 Fighting Majors or 933 Fights
230 Misconducts
Anaheim, Los Angeles, Minnesota and San Jose all have as many or more misconducts in the playoffs then they did in the entire regular season. Anaheim is either going to be playing San Jose or Los Angeles. Can't imagine that is going to be a friendly series.
It's not the five minute overtime rule, but it's always a given. In my mind before the playoffs started amongst the group of professionals whether it is the NHL, AHL or ECHL, I figured the leader in points would be around 30 and penalty minutes around 60. The 60 might be a little low now.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Norris, Seabrook and other things
I'm allowed to have the weekend off. Especially after doing three different activities on Saturday that totaled over 21 miles. Off we go.
The Norris finalists were announced today for best NHL defenseman. The finalists are Chicago's Duncan Keith, Boston's Zdeno Chara and Nashville's Shea Weber. Each player excels on the defensive and offensive sides of the game. Keith finished 6th in the NHL in assists with 55. He also finished in the top 10 in plus minus for defensemen. One player who was ahead of him was Zdeno Chara, the massive now 37 year old Boston Bruin. He also ended the season with 17 goals which ties his second highest season total for his career. If you want to see a guy who can really fire go check out Shea Weber. He led all d-men with 23 goals. It's the second time he has hit the 23 mark. Plus at 28 he is the youngest of the group with many good years in front of him.
All of this is nice. You would expect the finalists to have great numbers. That's not why I included this in the post. None of these guys were drafted in the first round. All of these guys played in the AHL. Go watch your local AHL team. It's a smaller and more intimate setting. It's affordable. And you will be seeing future hall of fame players who will board a bus in the parking lot after the game who will be more than willing to talk to you and sign autographs. By the way, all three Vezina finalists also played in the AHL.
JUNIOR WATCH
I wanted to make note of this before, but I have the weekends off. The OHL finals are set. Both teams rolled through the conference finals. North Bay swept Oshawa. Guelph needed five games to beat a very good Erie team. Guelph ended the season with the 108 points, the most in the league. North Bay had 82. One player on North Bay has been drafted in the second round and another in the fourth by the NHL. Those are the highest draft picks the team has playing. Guelph has two former first round picks, three second round picks, one third round and two fourth round players. That's playoff hockey for you. It's easy to say Guelph should take this but when a team is rolling you never know.
UNDER 18 WC
As predicted by me in my last post Canada and Sweden did indeed meet in the World U18 Championships. It just so happened that it was in the bronze medal game. It was the U.S. who once again dominated the tournaments with a fairly easy win over Sweden and another easy win over the Czech Republic. Couple of names for the U.S. to watch for sure in the next few years. American born players tend to go the route of the university so it could be upwards of four years before they play professionally. That's why the Eichel story could be interesting if he is a top 3 pick. He probably still goes to college. Erik Johnson was the number one pick of the draft in 2006 and he still went to Minnesota even if it was only one season.
Quick note on Brent Seabrook. He and Chicago are moving on in the playoffs. He ended up playing just 3 games due to his suspension. He is in the top ten in scoring and second among defense. A tip of the hat to you and a shoulder to the face.
The Norris finalists were announced today for best NHL defenseman. The finalists are Chicago's Duncan Keith, Boston's Zdeno Chara and Nashville's Shea Weber. Each player excels on the defensive and offensive sides of the game. Keith finished 6th in the NHL in assists with 55. He also finished in the top 10 in plus minus for defensemen. One player who was ahead of him was Zdeno Chara, the massive now 37 year old Boston Bruin. He also ended the season with 17 goals which ties his second highest season total for his career. If you want to see a guy who can really fire go check out Shea Weber. He led all d-men with 23 goals. It's the second time he has hit the 23 mark. Plus at 28 he is the youngest of the group with many good years in front of him.
All of this is nice. You would expect the finalists to have great numbers. That's not why I included this in the post. None of these guys were drafted in the first round. All of these guys played in the AHL. Go watch your local AHL team. It's a smaller and more intimate setting. It's affordable. And you will be seeing future hall of fame players who will board a bus in the parking lot after the game who will be more than willing to talk to you and sign autographs. By the way, all three Vezina finalists also played in the AHL.
JUNIOR WATCH
I wanted to make note of this before, but I have the weekends off. The OHL finals are set. Both teams rolled through the conference finals. North Bay swept Oshawa. Guelph needed five games to beat a very good Erie team. Guelph ended the season with the 108 points, the most in the league. North Bay had 82. One player on North Bay has been drafted in the second round and another in the fourth by the NHL. Those are the highest draft picks the team has playing. Guelph has two former first round picks, three second round picks, one third round and two fourth round players. That's playoff hockey for you. It's easy to say Guelph should take this but when a team is rolling you never know.
UNDER 18 WC
As predicted by me in my last post Canada and Sweden did indeed meet in the World U18 Championships. It just so happened that it was in the bronze medal game. It was the U.S. who once again dominated the tournaments with a fairly easy win over Sweden and another easy win over the Czech Republic. Couple of names for the U.S. to watch for sure in the next few years. American born players tend to go the route of the university so it could be upwards of four years before they play professionally. That's why the Eichel story could be interesting if he is a top 3 pick. He probably still goes to college. Erik Johnson was the number one pick of the draft in 2006 and he still went to Minnesota even if it was only one season.
Quick note on Brent Seabrook. He and Chicago are moving on in the playoffs. He ended up playing just 3 games due to his suspension. He is in the top ten in scoring and second among defense. A tip of the hat to you and a shoulder to the face.
Friday, April 25, 2014
The Young Guns
Maybe the NHL playoff aren't doing it for you. Don't live in an area that has minor professional hockey? Your favorite junior team is out of the playoffs? I invite you to take in some under 18 action tomorrow. Perhaps I should rephrase or qualify that statement. It's the U18 World Hockey Championships in Finland. Remember with hockey there is no off-season.
One of the exciting things for fans to witness when watching this tournament is that these players were not old enough to be in the last NHL draft. Many will be this time around. The draft is only two months away and we are only in the first round of the NHL playoffs. It will be here before the parade route is cleaned up in the winning city. A good amount of future first round picks have been playing in this tournament. The ones who aren't are probably still playing in their various playoff leagues.
Four countries are left to battle to play to go to the gold medal game. Sweden will take on the United States in the first game tomorrow. Canada follows against the Czech Republic. Both Canada and the U.S. finished at the top of their divisions. No real surprise there. It doesn't mean much of anything.
Sweden led the tournament in goal scoring. That doesn't even include their quarterfinal game against Finland which they won 10-0. If that Swedish teams shows up the U.S. team will be in trouble. Sweden is led by William Nylander who will surely be one of the top picks of the draft. You might know his father Michael who had a fairly successful NHL career and is still playing in Europe. The U.S. relies on forward Jack Eichel to lead the offense. He too will certainly be a very high pick in the draft. The difference with Eichel is he will still be too young this season to get drafted.
If you had to pick a team with a slightly easier road I guess it would be Canada. The Czech Republic isn't exactly stacked but doesn't mean they aren't going to be tough. They knocked out Russia on the way to this match-up with Canada with a few top prospects of their own. One thing that hurts Canada is that most of their better players either were or still are playing in the playoffs for their junior teams. Somehow it never seems to bother them.
If I'm making picks look for Canada and Sweden to meet in the finals. The USA can't always dominate. They have won 4 of the last 5 tournaments. Watch this Nylander kid. Or go outside or watch the NHL or whatever else you do on weekends. There will be another tournament in a few more weeks. No, seriously. There will be.
One of the exciting things for fans to witness when watching this tournament is that these players were not old enough to be in the last NHL draft. Many will be this time around. The draft is only two months away and we are only in the first round of the NHL playoffs. It will be here before the parade route is cleaned up in the winning city. A good amount of future first round picks have been playing in this tournament. The ones who aren't are probably still playing in their various playoff leagues.
Four countries are left to battle to play to go to the gold medal game. Sweden will take on the United States in the first game tomorrow. Canada follows against the Czech Republic. Both Canada and the U.S. finished at the top of their divisions. No real surprise there. It doesn't mean much of anything.
Sweden led the tournament in goal scoring. That doesn't even include their quarterfinal game against Finland which they won 10-0. If that Swedish teams shows up the U.S. team will be in trouble. Sweden is led by William Nylander who will surely be one of the top picks of the draft. You might know his father Michael who had a fairly successful NHL career and is still playing in Europe. The U.S. relies on forward Jack Eichel to lead the offense. He too will certainly be a very high pick in the draft. The difference with Eichel is he will still be too young this season to get drafted.
If you had to pick a team with a slightly easier road I guess it would be Canada. The Czech Republic isn't exactly stacked but doesn't mean they aren't going to be tough. They knocked out Russia on the way to this match-up with Canada with a few top prospects of their own. One thing that hurts Canada is that most of their better players either were or still are playing in the playoffs for their junior teams. Somehow it never seems to bother them.
If I'm making picks look for Canada and Sweden to meet in the finals. The USA can't always dominate. They have won 4 of the last 5 tournaments. Watch this Nylander kid. Or go outside or watch the NHL or whatever else you do on weekends. There will be another tournament in a few more weeks. No, seriously. There will be.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
5 Minute Rule
I could write the same article at the same time every year. I had planned on opening this with a recap of the opening night playoffs in the AHL when I saw both games ended 3-2 in overtime I steered this into a different direction.
I have a rule. The majority of hockey playoff games that head to overtime will end in the first five minutes of a period. I have been saying this for years. Now here is where I hopefully insert some figures to back my assessment since I have not researched it this season aside from the two AHL games last night.
We can start with those since I already know what happened. Springfield defeated Providence just over two minutes into overtime. One for one. Texas defeated Oklahoma City at the 5:35 mark of overtime. 35 seconds after is still after so can't count it. AHL is one for two which I believe is 50%.
Onto the NHL. The numbers unfortunately are not supporting my theory. Yet. 3 of the 9 games that have gone to overtime this playoff season have ended in the first five minutes of the period. Two other ended before the six minute mark was hit. Again, we can't count those though I feel comfortable moving forward that the numbers will move in my favor.
The ECHL hasn't had nearly as many this season. Up until today 1 of the 3 games ended under the five minute mark. Maybe the numbers are trying to tell me something. Like maybe the actual number is closer to 33%. Or maybe it ends up closer to the 25% mark which would apparently make a lot of sense.
In any event I am sticking with this idea. A running tracker will now be up on the right side of the screen to follow the professional leagues for the rest of the playoffs. It will prove me right or wrong.
And now for your barbaric pleasure. Darnell Nurse finished out his OHL season and quickly reported to the Edmonton Oiler affiliate in Oklahoma City. Last night he played in his very first professional playoff game, earning an assist and his very first fight. Nurse was picked with the 7th overall pick by Edmonton in 2013 in hopes of shoring up the defense.
I have a rule. The majority of hockey playoff games that head to overtime will end in the first five minutes of a period. I have been saying this for years. Now here is where I hopefully insert some figures to back my assessment since I have not researched it this season aside from the two AHL games last night.
We can start with those since I already know what happened. Springfield defeated Providence just over two minutes into overtime. One for one. Texas defeated Oklahoma City at the 5:35 mark of overtime. 35 seconds after is still after so can't count it. AHL is one for two which I believe is 50%.
Onto the NHL. The numbers unfortunately are not supporting my theory. Yet. 3 of the 9 games that have gone to overtime this playoff season have ended in the first five minutes of the period. Two other ended before the six minute mark was hit. Again, we can't count those though I feel comfortable moving forward that the numbers will move in my favor.
The ECHL hasn't had nearly as many this season. Up until today 1 of the 3 games ended under the five minute mark. Maybe the numbers are trying to tell me something. Like maybe the actual number is closer to 33%. Or maybe it ends up closer to the 25% mark which would apparently make a lot of sense.
In any event I am sticking with this idea. A running tracker will now be up on the right side of the screen to follow the professional leagues for the rest of the playoffs. It will prove me right or wrong.
And now for your barbaric pleasure. Darnell Nurse finished out his OHL season and quickly reported to the Edmonton Oiler affiliate in Oklahoma City. Last night he played in his very first professional playoff game, earning an assist and his very first fight. Nurse was picked with the 7th overall pick by Edmonton in 2013 in hopes of shoring up the defense.
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