12 NHL Surprises

Ok so we are 10 or so games into the NHL season - big deal. Well, it is 1/8th of the season, worth just as much as games 72-82. Here are some quick surprises thus far that you may not have noticed yet... Enter exaggerated stats and extrapolations.

1 - Steve Stamkos has twice as many goals as Alex Ovechkin, but not as many as Patrick Sharp (Blackhawks plug #1).

2 - James Wisniewski is the NHL's leading scorer from defense and Mark Letestu the leading rookie scorer.

3 - Keeping on the rookie trend, Washington's Michal Neuvirth is quietly the only rookie starting goaltender and leading the league in wins. Semyon who?

4 - The only category that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin lead in is shots - and probably sponsorship dollars. This is what happens when 95% of your commercials budget went to paying the pro.

5 - New Jersey has 5 points through 10 games for last in the league, but Kovalchuk is worth 100 million?

6 - Leaf fans; Phil Kessel has 7 goals and Tyler Seguin has 1 - who needs 1st round picks?

7 - Tim Thomas, through 4 games is 4-0 and has a .978 SVP. Vezina winner that is long from done.

8 - Tyler Myers is on pace to be -74 at the end of the season and Michael Cammalleri for +90. Obviously, these trends will continue.

9 - Ottawa still doesn't have a goalie, but Brian Elliot earns points for wearing this Gongshow Hockey lid.

10 - Andrew Ladd has 10 points through 9 games, Niklas Hjalmarsson has 0 in 9 games.

11 - Brendan Morrison is Calgary's top scorer, and has more points than any Canuck not named Sedin.

12 - At age 40, Nicklas Lidstrom is on pace for 90 points and speaks with a perfect Michigan-Sweden hybrid accent.

Oh and here is Ovechkin's equally brutal commercial video rebuttal.

The summer that was

Summer recap: Kovalchuk, Turco, Yzerman and the Habs & Leafs

This summer hasn’t exactly been a typical summer for the NHL. Notably, the Kovalchuk fiasco, the lack of franchise relocation talk, and the explosion of the Stanley Cup Champions.

With 102 million over 17 years, I am just going to put the Kovalchuk situation in perspective for us. You’re going swimming, your parents expect you not to go deeper than your waist. You go in a bit deeper to your elbows, look at your parents and they aren’t paying attention, so you continue to go deeper and deeper until they say get out of the pool.

We can circle all of the past contracts that have established precedent and pushed the envelope, however, this contract goes too far. In my opinion, the contract was rightfully rejected but the NHL should have been paying attention to the implications of the previous contracts. This to me is odd as I am one of the few that believe in Bill Daley and Gary Bettman. It is good to see the Devils re-work this contract and I do hope they can work things out.

On to more friendly matters! How about the Blackhawks? Putting my now personal bias aside, I think Stan Bowman did an excellent job in remodelling this team. He hasn’t lost any of his, in my opinion, best 8 players (in order; Kane, Toews, Keith, Sharp, Hossa, Seabrook, Campbell and Hjalmarsson) and he has managed to upgrade his goaltending situation. Ok, some of you don’t consider Marty Turco and upgrade over Niemi but consider this; the 1.45 million they save is a huge upgrade for the overall scheme. I am willing to bet with anyone that Turco will have a better season than Niemi (in GAA and SVP)

For the record, I bought my first Blackhawks hat; I’m a sell out with a good explanation.

How about Steve Yzerman reshaping the Lightning! I was a little worried about his future starting off with such a disaster of a team model however he has definitely shown us all what he saw. The hiring of Guy Boucher, Tod Leiweke, Wayne Flemming and Pat Verbeek has really bolstered a weak administration. The on-ice performance will surely follow.

Ok so Montreal Canadiens fans; quel belle saison! It will be hard to reproduce last year’s playoff success but I think improving on the regular season should be an attainable goal. Jaroslav Halak is gone but in comes Lars Eller, a big body with excellent hands and good speed along with Ian Schultz (whom we won’t see for a while). Having P.K. around all season will be great for the team but expect bumps along the way.

Other than that, happy to see Sergei Kostitsyn gone and Louis Leblanc sign his entry level contract. For those that didn’t like the recent trade of Cedrick Desjardins, you should take some comfort in knowing that this laterall move was mainly because Guy Boucher really likes Desjardins and Ramo couldn’t find his place in Tampa.

As for the Leafs’ faithful, you have to be excited about these changes. Headlining the summer moves would be acquiring Kris Versteeg, this young forward has everything the Leafs need; talent, confidence and a stanley cup ring (only Giguere, Beauchemin and now Lebda have cups).

One thing that jumps off the page to me is that the Leafs have zero forwards over 28 and 5 defenseman over 27. I think this team should plan to be competitive over the next 3-8 years and I don’t think many of their defenseman will be hitting their stride at that age. However, I have to say the moves that occurred this summer seem to be beneficial, but I doubt they can finish any better than last in the Northeast.

With that let’s head into the season, here are a few predictions for fun…
The leafs will finish last in the Northeast (as mentioned above)
Dustin Byfuglien will have less than 10 goals this season
Henrik Sedin will be Vancouver’s captain
Dallas will have the 1st overall draft pick
Oli Jokinen will succeed in Calgary
Jaroslav Halak will not fair well in St-Louis
Marty Turco will lead the Western Conference in wins
Ottawa will still not have a goaltender and Spezza will be their best player

10 Telling Stats - NHL Playoffs

With the Stanley Cup being awarded in the next few days lets go over some quick, telling statistics from the past NHL playoff season.

1. 60 percent of the time, Jonathan Toews will win the faceoff.
2. 49 years since Chicago won the cup
3. -12 from Marc-Andre Bergeron (playoff worst)
4. 19 points from Ville Leino (20 career season points)
5. 13 goals from Michael Cammalleri
6. 29 minutes per game for Chris Pronger
7. 9, most wins by a goalie not named Antti Niemi
8. 146 mouth guards used by Patrick Kane
9. 37 too many men on the ice penalties
10. 3 times in history we have seen a team come back from 0-3
    

Personally, I have loved watching this season's playoffs. Of course, I am a Montreal Canadiens fan therefore the playoffs have been a welcome surprise. There have been many reasons for you to enjoy the playoffs so I encourage the readers to put up their best part of the playoffs, here are some of mine.

The Habs. The rise (and fall?) of Michael Leighton. The 0-3 flyers. The 3-0 bruins. The lack of goaltending. The ever-eroding consciousness of Bob Cole. The new NHL commercials. The 40 year Chicago cup drought. Hal Gill being Crosby's kryptonite. The mormon beard of Jonathan Toews.

Turco leaves Dallas

It's been no secret for those of you who know me, Marty Turco is and always will be my favorite hockey player. This year, Marty's tenure in Dallas has ended and to a certain extent my fanship for the team has as well. I've grown fond of many Stars players over the years - the tenacity of Brendan Morrow, the toughness of Stephan Robidas and the dynamic youth of James Neal and Jamie Benn. But, without 35 in net, I will always selfishly want the team to lose; especially when they play the Habs.

For a career that has span ten years in Dallas, Marty finishes as the franchise leader in 6 of the 9 goaltending categories. He doesn't have the record for losses, ties and should have the record for franchise G.A.A but he played so many seasons. He leaves the team with a career SVP of .911 and GAA of 2.31 and 40 shutouts.

For those that think of him as struggling in the playoffs, Marty finished with strong numbers: GAA 2.17 and SVP .914. Personally, I will most remember the 7 game series versus Vancouver in 2007 when Marty won 3 games, all by shutouts. From a wins point of view, the best performance was certainly the 2008 playoffs where the Stars shocked favorites Ducks and Sharks but lost in the Western Conference finals to the eventual champion Red Wings.

Ironically enough, in his last season as a Star, Marty recorded his best post-lockout save percentage with .913. I am trying to be optimistic about his change in teams, (although I can't yet picture him in any other jersey) in that I might get a chance to see more of his games on TV or better yet, in person!

As much as I will miss Marty being in Dallas, it probably won't be as much as the community of Dallas will. In 2006-07Marty won the NHL Foundation Player Award for his tireless charity work and Marty's wife, Kelly, has been a longtime champion for reading in the Dallas area.

Wherever Marty signs on July 1st, I will become an instant supporter of that team - as painfull as it may be. Possible destinations? Well, I expect Marty to earn at least 3.75 million per season, similar to Khabibulin last season.

The Flyers are a definite possibility, although their salary issues might be a stumbling block. The Blues are an option, with their main weakness being goaltending. The Lightning may be a possibility with a new general manager looking to make waves. This would also be a possible reunion with Mike Smith, who with Turco, played his best hockey.

The last possibility would be my favorite option, the Washington Capitals. Now, if Washington is hit by poor goaltending performances yet again this playoff season (upcoming UFA) their hand may be forced to go out and get a top flight goaltender. In my opinion this would be the best option since they are an easy team to cheer for and could lead to a Stanley Cup.

Wherever Marty ends up, the team will be receiving a true winner, on and off the ice.

The price of admission

Since every hockey blogger out there is putting something out on the Olympics I figured I would put  something together that maybe others haven't looked at as much - team salaries.


Team Canada is the Rolls Royce of the group, sitting at a payday of 123.600 million dollars over a 23 man roster. Averaging out for a whopping 5.3 per player, Hockey Canada sure is glad they are "on commission" (anyone who wins a gold medal receives $500,000, which after taxes is just south of $200,000). Not surprisingly, the lowest paid player is Drew Doughty, who is still on his entry level contract of $850,000. Most players are expected to donate their winnings to a charity or hockey Canada. Except for Doughty, who will be stuck with a near $200,000 bill if they go out for a team dinner.


As far as Canada's fiercest competition, team Russia, their NHL players combine for a total of 69.3 million over 14 players for an average salary of 4.95 million. Now, you should know that the 14 are of course their best players, and if their non-NHL players were contributing towards this average (best guess would be that the remaining 9 players could average a generous 3 million per year) for a total of 96.3 million. Meaning their average per player would then drop to 4.18.

By the numbers (cash money) the Russians should be (4.18/5.3=78%) 78% as good as the Canadians, right! haha


The next threat would probably be the defending champion, Sweden. The team comes together for a total of 75.5 million with 19 players; an average of 3.97 million. Which is just under the Russian's total. Accounting for the 4 other players, who are worth about 8 million combined (Forsberg) it brings them to 83.5 for 3.6 per player. Their calculation would be (3.6/5.3=67.9%). I think they have a real strong shot at upsetting one of the top two teams but those are the numbers.


Next is the Americans, they are quite the young team but do have some inflated contracts, which come to total 80 million for an average of 3.47 per player. Bringing their salaries quite close to the Swedes at 65% of Canada's salary.


I sort of hope that calculating these numbers can give you some perspective as to how heavily favored Canada would be should this tournament be played on paper. I guess that's why they actually play the games.

Leafs' Turning Point

January 31st 2010 is one of the biggest days in the new age Maple Leaf's history. The trades that were made today, quick recap below, will shape the franchise for the next 5 years.

Leafs acquire: Phaneuf, Aulie, Sjostrom

Flames acquire: Stajan, Mayers, Hagman, White

Leafs acquire: Giguere

Ducks acquire: Blake, Toskala

The trades are a significant change to the talent model of the franchise. In my opinion, talent models should resemble a pyramid; more role players and few top tier talent players. As seen is Detroit's model from their Stanley Cup winning year.

Sorry for the quality of the pyramids, the paint program leaves much to be desired.

As you can see, the Leafs' talent pyramid is seriously lacking in the upper echelons, when compared to a Stanley Cup winning team. Burke has gone out and found upper tier talent to fill these holes, since finding players of that talent level is quite difficult, he has done a good job. Looking at the players currently in the top three levels for the Leafs (after the trades) Kessel, Phaneuf, Komisarek, Beauchemin and Giguere are newly acquired.

Let's get it straight and understand that I am not crowning the Leafs to achieve much more than their current basement dweller state. I do believe that this is a step in the right direction, as opposed to the Kessel trade.

It would be a fair estimate to say the Leafs will be the lowest scoring team for the rest of the year.

In terms of salary issues, there isn't much worry as Phaneuf's high price tag (6.5 mil) can be handled easily enough and Giguere's 7 million next season can be looked at as a wash since Toskala and Blake combine for 8 million.

For those of you that have read a lot about this trade, I would just like to point out the benefits of having Keith Aulie. Sure he may have 6 points so far in this AHL season, but the 6'6'' defenseman brings a strong physical edge to the game and makes smart decisions. Imagine he was Hal Gill, but without the pylon-like mentality.

Overall, I think Leaf fans should be happy in general today with these moves. Calgary fans however should still be happier, since they still have a legitimate shot at the Division title.

World Junior Wrap

A strong USA team was tenacious and really impressive throughout the tournament to bring home the gold. I know Canadian fans would have loved to win but the Americans did it our way.

They had they training camp and cut players, they played gritty and they had just enough gumption to pull it off. It was an excellent game to watch and will be remembered for a long time. Yes, I agree Canada's Jake Allen wasn't strong in the games that really counted, but neither was his defense - Ryan Ellis in particular was culprit to many offensive zone turnovers. The bottom line is the American's held out for the win and deserved it.

Ok so you all know about Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Alex Pietrangelo and Jerry D'Amico but here are some players that stood out this year that you may not have seen.

Nino Niederreiter (SUI): The only Suiss player in the top 30 in scoring, Nino had an excellent tournament for the surprising Suiss team, posting 10 points in 7 games. As a 17 year old he plays for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, with 41 points through 37 games he stands to be a force on the wing for an NHL club in the near future.

Anton Rodin (SWE): The 2009 2nd round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks was also impressive notching 10 points in the tournament. His speed was on display quite a bit, playing on a line with Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson and keeping up quite well. He is currently playing for Byrnas of the SEL when not playing for the national team. He may not have a huge NHL impact down the line but could develop into a solid 2nd line playmaker.

Tomas Kubalik (CZE): With 9 points in 6 games Kubalik improved significantly over last year's 2 point tournament. He is currently playing in the QMJHL and has an impressive 44 points in 32 games before leaving for the tournament. The 5th round pick of the Blue Jackets may just prove to be a steal in the 5th round. If he continues to develop in North America he will have all the tools to succeed in the NHL.

Danny Kristo (USA): The Montreal Canadiens prospect was visually very impressive with his speed and multiple dismantling of the Canadian defenders. He accrued 7 points in 6 games but more importantly he showed a lot of character and tenacity in his back checking. The near point per game pace he has set thus far with North Dakota is indicative of his scoring ability. Habs fans will have to wait for Kristo though, much like Louis Leblanc, Kristo still has a few years left in the NCAA.

Benjamin Conz (SUI): The goaltender of the tournament faced 284 shots in 7 games (40 a night) managed to keep his save percentage reasonable with .089. He regularly plays for Langnau of the Swiss National League where he has kept a SVP consistent with the likes of former NHLers Tobias Stephan and Jussi Markkanen. Conz will most likely attract some attention from NHL teams this summer and may see consideration in the later rounds of the draft.

Looking towards next year for Canada, they have 5 eligible players: Hall, Ryan Ellis, Brayden Schenn, Jared Cowan and Calvin de Haan. Of those players, expect Hall to be playing in the NHL. They will however be bolstered by late training camp cuts Tyler Seguin, Brandon Gormley and Sudbury Wolves' John McFarland.