Gorilla Crouch

Ville Leino ended up being the free agent forward who signed with the Wings. While the word on the street was that Fabian Brunnstrom would have received a two-year deal, Leino signed a one-year contract that sounds like it is pretty similar to the deal Igor Grigorenko signed last offseason.

“If he can’t make the team, we’ll probably send him back to the Finnish League,'’ [Red Wings general manager Ken] Holland said. “I think if [he] has to go down (to Grand Rapids) for a couple weeks to get acclimated, he’ll do that. The plan is he’s coming to North America to try to play in the NHL.'’

He had a solid season in the Finnish SM-Liiga and was second in scoring for the entire league. He plays for the team Valtteri Fippula played for before he came over to North America but Fil was 20 during his final season for Jokerit Helsinki. Leino was 24 this season. Here were each players’ stats from when they were 20 years old.

Finnish Wings

Player	Team	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
Ville Leino	Ilves Tampere	54	9	15	24
Valtteri Filppula	Jokerit Helsinki	55	10	20	30

Leino had a solid plus/minus rating so that’s a good sign although Red Wings Central indicates he really needs to work on improving his defensive play. Leino broke the club record for points in a season and won the Lasse Oksanen trophy as the regular season MVP.

That trophy might not be as much of a predictor of future success as the Rookie of the Year award for the Elitserien in Sweden. However Tim Thomas won the award and has been doing pretty well for the B’s. Antti Mietinen with the Stars won the award also, as did Montreal captain Saku Koivu. So it sounds like he’s a pretty solid talent who fits Detroit’s style of play and has decent size [6′1″, 185 lbs].

Hopefully he reports to training camp in better shape than Igor Grigorenko did.

Red Wings ville leino

May 11th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

First, dandy Don’s comments:

Let’s see if I have this right: Mike Ribeiro takes a two-handed swing at Chris Osgood’s upper-body after the game is over and the Wings are supposed to respond by playing “rock ‘em sock ‘em”? Here is the footage:

Let’s take a look at the rulebook. Mike Ribeiro was charged with attempt to injure which is a match penalty. Here is the NHL rule on committing an intent to injure penalty.

In addition to the match penalty, the player shall be automatically suspended from further competition until the Commissioner has ruled on the issue.

So the Wings leave well enough alone and Ribeiro is suspended until the league says otherwise. I would guess there’s a 50/50 chance they say “hey, what’s the big deal? He didn’t whack him in the head like Chris Simon or Marty McSorely so we’re all good.” Now I’m sure Grapes would have liked to see the Wings take the matter into their own hands and have someone fight Ribeiro. Let’s put aside the question of whether Ribeiro would have actually fought anyone. If that would have happened there is a chance that Detroit player would receive an automatic suspension. Here is the link to the pertinent rule.

(NEW for 2005-06) A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at any time in overtime, shall be assessed an instigator minor penalty, a major for fighting, a ten minute misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. In addition, the player’s coach shall be fined $10,000 — a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

Ribeiro’s actions might have resulted in the Red Wings player not being deemed an instigator, but who really knows how the NHL would handle that situation? Guess wrong and one of your guys is definitely out of Game 3. The other problem is Aaron Downey wasn’t dressed and Darren McCarty was on the bench. The two-handed chop took place right after the game ended, so I’m sure no one expected Ribeiro to pull a stunt like that. St. Louis, yes; the Stars, not so much.

Given how dangerous this type of behavior is the league should have a zero-tolerance policy. We’ll see how they handle the situation.

With that being said, I agree with Cherry that fans love fights. The one thing worth pointing out is that they mostly take place during the regular season. The Wings had Aaron Downey in the lineup for much of the regular season and he was able deliver some frontier justice when called upon to do so. Darren McCarty is the type of fighter Detroit would prefer to have play as he has some solid hockey sense/talent and is a solid addition to the fourth line. Those are the kind of guys Detroit wants to put on the ice.

Christy over at Behind the Jersey works for the Red Wings and has mentioned that the team sold out many of their games towards the end of the season. What’s the big difference between then and now? Well, besides the fact Detroit is one of only four teams left competing to win the Stanley Cup, ticket prices are much more expensive right now.

It’s also interesting that Don Cherry called Detroit a “redneck” city but in the same segment said that ticket prices aren’t the reason for the empty seats. Again, I agree with Cherry on the larger issue that a large segment of the Red Wings fanbase are blue-collar workers, but the manufacturing industry in Michigan has just been completely gutted. The only explanation for why the Red Wings could sell out late season games but cannot sell out playoff games is due to the difference in ticket prices.

Oh, and Don: Joey Kocur hasn’t played in Detroit in nine seasons and Probie hasn’t played for the Wings for 14 years. The inability to sell out games became an issue last season. I’ll let you work on the logical gymnastics there to see how your conclusion is just a bit off.

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Red Wings

May 11th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Here is an update on the questions I posed at the beginning of the series.

5. Will Marty Turco alter the storyline of his career against the Red Wings?

Turco had a much better game stats-wise, but he seemed to take on the persona of Ed Belfour. He lost his composure and seemed to play on the edge where he could have been called for a couple penalties.

1. He took a couple shots at the back of Tomas Holmstrom’s head. In fact the Stars were so pre-occupied with Homer that Henrik Zetterberg had an open net when he scored what would turn out to be the game winning goal.

2. Turco also tripped Valtteri Filppula as he skated past the Stars’ netminder. No penalty was called on the play.

3. He also flopped once behind the net as he tried to draw an interference penalty on the Wings. No penalty was called either way.

4. Will the Wings be able to contain Brenden Morrow?

Brenden Morrow wasn’t a major factor in tonight’s game. He generated a secondary assist on the lone Dallas goal but had no shots on goal and only registered 3 hits.

3. Will Detroit be able to contain the Stars’ Power Play?

Tonight the Stars did get a power play goal but thus far in the series they have gone 1-9 with the man advantage. They had their best chance to take control of the game when they had several power play opportunities in the second period but couldn’t score the equalizer.

2. Will Detroit be able to put up 3 goals per game against Dallas?

The Wings did not put up three goals but they were able to shut down the Stars during even-strength play. So long as Detroit can limit Dallas to 1.00 goals per game they will obviously be in good shape in this series.

1. Will Dallas once again go on the road and claim the first two games in the series?

Dallas seemed to press a lot tonight and I have to imagine the prospect of going down 0-2 gave them a sense of urgency. The game went as well as they could have hoped but Detroit still pulled out the victory. Game 3 is obviously huge for Dallas. If the Wings can stay out of the penalty box they will really limit Dallas’ chances of getting back into this series.

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Red Wings

May 10th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 1 Comment

Mitch Albom was once the dominant voice in Detroit sports. Back before the internet was widely available, back before there were 24/7 sports radio stations [when Mitch had his “Sunday Sports Albom” program], before SportsCenter came and then went as mandatory viewing, there was Mitch Albom’s columns in the Detroit Free Press.

His ability to draw you in emotionally when covering sporting events, coaches and athletes was a sports club’s dream. People like Bo Schembechler [who was already larger than life], Steve Yzerman, Jacques Demers, Barry Sanders, Cecil Fielder and Joe Dumars all benefitted from having Albom cover their careers. Scotty Bowman, of course, was impossible to soften up to fit into Albom’s artistry. To paraphrase a classic In Living Color line, Scotty didn’t play that.

At some point the sports world moved on and Albom’s coverage seemed a bit…thin. He could still play some nice music with the reader’s heart-strings but with the explosion of sports information, tabloid coverage of athletes behaving badly, and fantasy sports, the sports masses were less inclined to want to hear nice stories. Instead they wanted to know a player’s stats in key situations; who was the latest athlete to “make it rain”, have his love interest burn his house down, or do a beer bong; or find out whether a guy should be in his fantasy lineup or be traded. Oh, and photoshop mashups that make fun of teams and players they despise. So stat wonkery, cynical snarking, and unbridled passion for your team and disdain for your opponents have become the main camps for sports coverage.

The point where Albom jumped the shark was when he wrote the book the Fab Five. It was typical Albom. There were funny anecdotes about how Steve Fisher eventually decided to get married and Mitch even dipped his toe into the dirty waters of college athletes being exploited for being really good at sports. The one minor thing he missed was that Chris Webber was at the center of the biggest scandal [dollar-wise] in the history of college athletics.

All of this is a long way of saying Mitch is what he is: a great writer when it comes to giving you one particular aspect of a story. He’ll never be mistaken for Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. But it’s served him well as his writing style is a very popular form of storytelling. When moving on from covering the Detroit sports scene it shouldn’t be a surprise that the writing style fits pretty closely with the way he’s covered sports. And he’s been hugely successful in those endeavors.

With that being said, Albom decided to call out Red Wings fans for not making it out to fill the arena for the Western Conference Finals.

Before I spend one more word on how good our hockey team played Thursday night, I have to say how bad it looked to see so many empty seats at Joe Louis Arena. Cheaper seats. Expensive seats. Empty clusters. Half-empty rows.
…
This is Detroit, Hockeytown, where every seat should be filled, because these are the conference finals, the bridge to the championship, against Dallas, a team that hasn’t been here for the playoffs in 10 years. That last time was a war that ultimately led to a Detroit Stanley Cup.

Remember the Cup? We loved that thing. We felt like we earned it — every step. So what’s the problem now? I know the economy is bad. I’m not telling people to hock the jewelry or find a job.

“I know the economy is bad.”

Could you be more condescending? Mitch has never been very good when it comes to the details, the facts as they were, so let’s give him a little help here.

The housing market in Detroit is in terrible shape and that’s in the midst of a sub-prime mortgage financial crisis. So alot of those loans or re-fi’s people got that had low or no payments when credit was cheap can no longer afford their mortgage payments. Heck, even people with prime loans are being affected. So a large number of homes are being foreclosed. The housing market has been described as being in it’s worst condition since the great depression. That’s not anecdotal, that’s the statistical reality. Is everyone affected? Of course not, but the city and surrounding area is clearly going through some turbulent times.

Just yesterday the labor report indicated that Michigan was once again one of the states with the highest number of job losses during the last week of April. Michigan was one of the top 5 states when it came to net job losses. Again, no anecdote Mitch, just using cold-hard facts to point out how average Michiganders are facing some difficult times in the current economic climate.

There is good news on both fronts. The Detroit housing market has been such crap that there are bargains out there to be had and people are starting to nibble. The big question when it comes to the smaller issue of supporting the hockey club is to gauge whether there is interest and support for the team. This should help to bring the issue into focus.

Well it just so happens that the Free Press ran this article this morning.

Playoff ticket sales are up by about 1,000 per game compared with last year. The Wings were the No. 1 page on freep.com in April and gathered twice as many page views as the Pistons. They even beat the Lions.

And for the first time in five years, Detroit’s FSN affiliate reported an upswing in the ratings. Last year, the station averaged a 3.6 rating during Wings games in the regular season, the lowest in the history of the station. This year, the number jumped 34% to 4.7.

Those stats clearly show that interest in the Red Wings is growing, not shrinking. Facts Mitch. Facts.

I suggested a couple days ago that I was developing the opinion that the team was going through a rebuild when Dave Lewis was coach and during Mike Babcock’s first year at the helm. Those ratings from FSN bear this out. Casual fans tuned out with Shanahan and Yzerman moving on before Hank Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk had become full-blown stars. They are tuning back in because this is an incredibly talented and successful team. And they are easy to like. Nik Kronwall hits like Vladdie used to and Johan Franzen is challenging records held by Mr. Hockey. That would be Gordie Howe, Mitch.

The Wings are to be commended for lowering ticket prices this season due to slackened demand last season. I think the combination of the renewed interest in the team combined with more affordable ticket prices has helped to get more fans to part with their hard-earned cash to buy tickets.

The big question right now is what it will take to fill up the rest of those empty seats.

Red Wings

May 10th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 1 Comment

The hockey world learned yesterday afternoon that free agent Fabian Brunnstrom decided to sign with the Dallas Stars. So that is one victory the Dallas organization can claim over the Red Wings. The decision makes sense as he’ll be going to a very solid hockey organization [Toronto’s biggest shortcoming], to a place where there won’t be a lot of pressure on him [probably the biggest shortcoming for both Toronto and Montreal], and he shouldn’t have a ton of competition to play winger on a scoring line [the biggest shortcoming for Detroit and Montreal]. Opting to play alongside Brad Richards is certainly understandable.

However it is being announced that Red Wings goaltending prospect Daniel Larsson is going to sign with Detroit and will move to North America to be the starting goalie in Grand Rapids next season.

Larsson is probably ranked a bit low on the RWC prospect list - the bible for keeping up on Red Wings prospects - as he’s had a breakout season during his rookie year in the Elitserien this season. He was named the rookie of the year which indicates he is a very high-level prospect. Here are some other rookie of the years from past seasons:

Michael Nylander
Henrik Zetterberg
Tobias Enstrom
Nicklas Backstrom

Michael Tellqvist was also a rookie of the year and hasn’t exactly taken the NHL by storm. But the Red Wings have a much better track record of developing prospects than the Coyotes. Larsson will likely compete with Jimmy Howard for the backup spot in Detroit behind Chris Osgood but the odds are good he ends up being the #1 netminder in Grand Rapids.

daniel larsson fabian brunnstrom Red Wings

May 9th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

To the questions I posed last night.

5. Will Marty Turco alter the storyline of his career against the Red Wings?

Turco has obviously struggled in Detroit. His career record prior to tonight’s game was 0-7-2. In those games he allowed 3.18 goals per game and had a .890 SV%.

Here were his stats tonight:
.871 SV%
4 goals against

It’s tough to blame all four goals on him. The first was scored by Brian Rafalksi on a 5-on-3 power play. The next two came on re-directs near the front of the net. Only Val Filppula’s goal could be considered a somewhat soft goal. So Turco wasn’t nearly as bad as the stats would suggest.

4. Will the Wings be able to contain Brenden Morrow?

For the most part the Wings did a decent job on Morrow. He did score a goal late in the second period. But he was held to one shot on goal. Morrow also led the Stars with 6 hits in the game.

3. Will Detroit be able to contain the Stars’ Power Play?

Tonight the Red Wings seemed to improve on the PK as the game grew older. During the first power play Dallas was dangerous. By the second one they had trouble generating any time in the offensive zone, much less good shots on goal. Overall the Stars went 0-4 with the man advantage.

2. Will Detroit be able to put up 3 goals per game against Dallas?

Uh, yeah. The Wings scored three goals in less than 27 minutes. All told there were four goals for Detroit, which was the highest goal total Marty Turco has allowed thus far in the playoffs. Three of the goals did come on the power play though. The thing to watch will be whether Detroit can carry play as much during Game 2. Perhaps the Stars were still worn out from their 4 OT marathon game against the Sharks.

1. Will Dallas once again go on the road and claim the first two games in the series?

The Wings got a really big win in Game 1. If the Stars won this game it would have given them all sorts of momentum. That would have really put the pressure on Detroit to win Game 2. Instead the Wings snapped Dallas’ win-streak as far as the opening two games on the road goes and have positioned themselves to keep home ice advantage in this series.

Congratulations are in order for Matt Saler over at On the Wings. He is joining NHL Fanhouse as a blogger. With Christy over at Behind the Jersey working for the Red Wings and Matt working for the Fanhouse, both Red Wings bloggers are making waves in the NHL.

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Red Wings

May 8th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

I did this for the first round and decided to do it once more for the third round.

5. Will Marty Turco alter the storyline of his career against the Red Wings? For the record I don’t put much stock into the fact Turco has struggled against the Wings. They play against each other so infrequently that I think it’s more of an aberration than anything. But if he struggles in the first two games after looking brilliant over the past three rounds [including the Vancouver series last year] then I think that storyline will become intractable.

4. Will the Wings be able to contain Brendan Morrow? As I pointed out last night, Morrow and Jere Lehtinen accounted for 40% of Dallas’ goals in their series against the Sharks. Mike Babcock appears to be making an adjustment even before the series starts by playing Brad Stuart alongside Nick Lidstrom. The pairing of Nick Lidstrom and Danny Markov did a solid job on Jarome Iginla in the first round last year against Calgary, so a matchup of Lids and Stuart against the Morrow-Mike Ribeiro-Lehtinen line might give the Wings their best shot at keeping Morrow locked down.

3. Will Detroit be able to contain the Stars’ Power Play? Dallas’ power play has been sensational. The best way to contain it obviously is to not take penalties. Barring that, will Detroit be able to keep Dallas off the scoreboard while playing short handed? San Jose had the top PK unit in the regular season but still allowed the Stars to score 22.7% of the time they had the man advantage.

2. Will Detroit be able to put up 3 goals per game against Dallas? When it comes to winning a playoff series the team that averages 3 goals per game tends to win the series. Detroit currently leads the NHL in playoff scoring average with 3.80 goals per game. The Stars have not faced as strong - or deep - of an offensive team as the Red Wings during the playoffs. San Jose ranked 19th during the regular season in goals for average, while the Ducks ranked a distant 28th. The Stars were able to shut them both down but will they be able to limit Detroit to less than three goals per game?

1. Will Dallas once again go on the road and claim the first two games in the series? Dallas has quickly seized control of their two series thus far by winning the opening two games on the road. I don’t know what the statistics are for a team rebounding from dropping their first two games at home in a playoff series but my guess is they end up getting booted much more often than not.

I’ll update these questions througout the series.

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Red Wings

May 7th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Q. Mike…You alluded to your first playoff year in Detroit a couple times. How are you different?

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, I think the first year, without any question, I had no idea when I got to playoff time how things were going to be different. What I mean by that is I’ve been in the playoffs in the NHL, but I didn’t know the expectations of the past were going to haunt us. And I couldn’t believe how we were paralyzed. I had no idea. I didn’t understand that.

A thing about our team, we weren’t, in our opinion, hard enough and we weren’t quick enough. We weren’t good enough. We had more points than any team I coached since, but we weren’t anywhere near as good as the next two years’ teams. I think it was a real eye-opener for all of us, maybe not for all of us but I think Ken Holland knew what was coming. I didn’t.

And so I thought through the next year and even this year we’ve made adjustments as a team. We’re much younger, we’re much quicker, we’re much harder. That gives us a chance to play at this time of year.

Matt over at On the Wings has the full transcript.

Red Wings

May 6th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Alright, I’m batting .750 thus far. Let’s see how I do with the conference finals.

Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins v. Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburgh is the favorite and they should be given the fact they finished the season in 2nd place in the entire Eastern Conference. Marc-Andre Fleury allows close to one fewer goal per game than Martin Biron and is tied with Dan Ellis for the highest save percentage in the playoffs. Biron, though, has faced an average of 33 shots per game while Fleury has averaged 28 shots against per game. The Flyers are probably going to have to outshoot the Pens by a handy margin to have any shot at winning this series.

The Flyers do have the firepower to accomplish this feat. They have 7 players who potted 20 or more goals this season, and RJ Umberger, who wasn’t a 20 goal scorer, is 2nd in the playoffs with 9 goals. In the one game they lost to Montreal they put up 33 shots and scored three goals before losing in overtime. The next game Carey Price started to struggle and the Habs likely played with less confidence at that point. The result was that Philly scored 17 goals on 98 shots for an impressive goal every 5.7 shots [put another way, the Habs netminders had a 0.827 save percentage over the final four games].

Both teams have power plays that are just about equally effective in the playoffs but the Pens have the much better PK unit. My sense is that the Flyers barely beat a Washington team that just snuck into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. That series went 7 games, and the Caps had a chance to win the game in regulation before Joffrey Lupul scored the series-clinching goal in OT. They also beat a vulnerable Montreal team that was breaking in a young netminder in Carey Price. I think the Pens have none of those shortcomings and will simply present too much of an obstacle for Philadelphia to overcome.

My Pick: Pens in 7

Western Conference

Detroit Red Wings v. Dallas Stars

The Stars have been very impressive in the playoffs, going on the road in the first two rounds and sweeping the first two games from the defending Stanley Cup champs and the favorite to win the Cup this season. If they can go into Joe Louis Arena and once again win the first two games on the road they will have put themselves in prime position to play for the Stanley Cup.

Dallas has played excellent team defense and Marty Turco has been sensational in net, allowing 1.73 goals against in the playoffs while stopping 92.9% of the shots he’s faced. However the Stars have the lowest goals for average amongst the teams still playing hockey, scoring an average of 2.92 goals per game. Their most dangerous line in the series against San Jose was the Brendan Morrow - Mike Ribiero - Jere Lehtinen line, as Morrow tallied four goals while Lehtinen scored two. Combined they accounted for 40% of Dallas’ goals in that series.

However the Stars have been deadly on the power play, so the Wings have to stay out of the penalty box. Giving the Stars a man-advantage is just inviting them to score a goal. For Detroit the key is likely to try and play Dallas at even-strength as much as possible. This should be a reasonable goal as Detroit averages 4 times shorthanded per game.

The big question is how Detroit will do trying to contain Brendan Morrow. I think you can use San Jose as a measuring stick and then compare Brendan Morrow’s production compared to Jarome Iginla’s. When San Jose played Calgary in the first round Iggy scored 4 goals and had 5 assists. In the second round they did a better job on Morrow, giving up 4 goals as well but he only had one assist in the series. When Detroit played Calgary in the playoffs last year they held Iginla to 2 goals and 2 assists, so just about half of his production this year against the Sharks. If they can do the same with Morrow - limit him to 2 goals and no assists - they will be in good shape.

I suspect this will be a low-scoring series. Both Detroit and Dallas have two of the better defensive teams in the league. If Dallas is going to win this series it will likely be due to special teams play and Marty Turco exorcising his demons and playing well against a team he has struggled against. The first two games will likely tell us how this series will play out: if Dallas sweeps then the script seems pretty evident given their first two playoff series. But if Detroit can limit the number of times they play short-handed, contain Brendan Morrow, and continue to score at a decent clip they will be in great shape to make a return trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in six years.

My Pick: Detroit in 6

dallas stars NHL Playoffs Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins Red Wings

May 6th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Some quick, random thoughts on the second round of the NHL playoffs.

Eastern Conference

Montreal Canadiens v. Philadelphia Flyers

Both teams were less than impressive coming out of the first round as they let their opponent back into the series. The two things that stood out to me were Carey Price started to look shakey against Boston and Philadelphia’s depth of scoring, which was why I went with the Flyers. Looking at the smaller picture Price obviously had an awful series, but in the larger picture his performance stacks up pretty well compared to other netminders who were thrust into such a prominent role so early in their careers.

On the one hand you could criticize Bob Gainey for trading away Cristobal Huet for a 2nd round draft pick. However by the time Guy Carbonneau decided to start Jaroslav Halak the Flyers had clearly seized control of the series. The commentary I recall reading at the time was that Gainey felt his team wasn’t quite a full-blown Cup contender, so he was willing to roll the dice with Price and use the draft pick to further bolster his hockey club. This would indicate that he thinks the window is just about to open up for the Habs to begin competing for Stanley Cup championships. As it stands right now Price gained very valuable experience and there is no reason to doubt his talent based on how he’s performed at every level of hockey prior to moving up to the NHL.

Philly has got to be the poster child for how you rebuild on the fly to go from basement dweller to final four contestant. Part of the rebuild was based on being able to trade away unnecessary talent [Peter Forsberg, Alexei Zhitnik], another part was making good hockey trades [acquiring Martin Biron last season, and Jason Smith and Joffery Lupul this offseason], and the final part was signing premier talent via free agency in the form of Daniel Briere. Both trades with Atlanta and Nashville were absolute fleecings on a par with the Roberto Luongo trade. Oh, and the Flyers got a 1st and 3rd for Forsberg.

I’m guessing the Leafs are kinda wishing they hadn’t signed so many of their players to no-movement clauses.

Pittsburgh Penguins v. New York Rangers

This summer the Rags decided to bolster their forwards but left their blueline pretty much as is. This is understandable given they were able to sign Scott Gomez and Chris Drury but the unwillingness to improve their defense played a large role in their demise. The Pens easily held New York’s group of gifted forwards below three goals per game while the blueshirts rearguards simply couldn’t contain Pittsburgh’s offensive weaponry. The Pens averaged three goals per game, which is typically the average offensive production you need to win a playoff series. With Jaromir Jagr’s contract likely coming off the books it would be in New York’s best interests to pass on trying to woo Marian Hossa and instead improve their defense.

The Pens made a smart calculated move to make the trade for Marian Hossa. There was no way they could afford the abundance of riches they had built up through the draft so they decided to trade some prospects for a guy who could help them immediately. By making the trade they correctly realized their window is right now and adding Hossa - who scored the series-clinching goal against the Rangers - has paid dividends as they have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Western Conference

San Jose Sharks v. Dallas Stars

Brian Campbell was the big trade deadline acquisition for the Sharks, and based on how they looked at the tail end of the season they looked like the clear favorite for the Stanley Cup. They are built a bit like the New York Rangers with plenty of gifted offensive forwards and one of the better netminders in the league. Campbell was a move in the right direction as the Sharks - like the Rangers - need to improve their defense. They have some good young talent on the blueline but it doesn’t look like it’s quite ready for the rigors of the NHL playoffs just yet.

The Stars also received an immediate boost from their deadline acquisition of Brad Richards. The bang from the Richards acquisition didn’t last quite as long as the one Campbell added to the Sharks, but the Stars still advanced. Reaching the conference finals is due largely to their defensive play. Dallas is in fact is the lone team still playing that has averaged fewer than 3 goals per game in the post-season. This is a testament to their unfailing attention to playing good defensive hockey. Their ability to shut down Anaheim was understandable given Cory Perry’s injury and the fact they were able to focus on Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf as the main sources of Anaheim’s offense. But shutting down the San Jose offense was quite impressive.

Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche

The Avs were in the same boat as the Rangers and Sharks: great group of forwards but seriously lacking in defensemen who would thrive in the playoffs. I thought the addition of Ruslan Salei and Adam Foote would help their cause, and they might have if not for a number of injuries to key forwards. Red Wings fans have seen Foote’s play quite a bit over the past couple years and he didn’t look like a dominant shutdown d-man while playing for the BJs. Salei is under contract but John-Michael Liles and Foote are both unrestricted free agents. Jose Theodore could work in net but the key area the Avs need to address is the dearth of talent along their blueline.

I’ve started to develop an opinion on the Red Wings that they went through their rebuild when Dave Lewis was the coach and through Mike Babcock’s first season. It says something about the organization - and perhaps the state of the Central Division at the time - that the team could compete for Presidents’ trophies and then get bounced in the first or second round while they were in the midst of rebuilding the team. Nicklas Lidstrom obviously remains as the core, the Red Wing who - if you had to point to one player in particular - is most responsible for the consistent high level of play over the past 15 years. Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Brendan Shanahan are obviously gone, but the team now has an influx of top-end talent coming into their prime, players like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall. It’s still too early to tell if Johan Franzen is in the midst of an unbelievable streak that is an outlier or whether he is developing into one of the better power forwards in the league.

I’ll have my predictions for the Conference Finals tomorrow.

Red Wings

May 5th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave . Comments: 1 Comment