NHL 2006-07 Season Preview

As noted, your friend and mine DefDude, who was supposed to be writing previews for the as-yet unpreviewed Pacific Division (as well as the Vancouver Canucks) has been AWOL for the past few weeks. But today, he makes his triumphant return with an absurdly comprehensive look at the whole of the upcoming NHL year.

Yes, yes, I am all too aware that my efforts to see the NHL preview series through to completion were somewhat lacking, but a combination of tests, athletic engagements, and the realization that, as a college student, I am supposed to be cutting corners and skipping assignments whenever possible, led to my not caring for a week or two there. The Canucks preview I owe can be summed up in a few simple words: Finally shored up the goaltending situation, but unfortunately there is no one to score the goals in Vancouver anymore, and JovoCop will be sorely missed, so the Canucks will find themselves most likely buried under their stiff divisional competition. There you go. But as I find myself sitting here on all-hockey’s eve, a cold shiver of anticipation suddenly begins to run down my spine: Hockey’s back, tonight at 7 on (Versus or OLN? YOU decide!), with a rematch of last season’s NHL Eastern conference finals, Buffalo and Carolina. 19 hours after I write this, the coolest game on earth begins again.

While October means reveling in yet another Yankees playoff failure for most Americans, there are still the select few among us for whom October is really the beginning. And what a beginning it shall be. From the fall of the old guard, to the return of a tortured franchise to the realm of respectability, this year promises to be one of the most epic in NHL history. Much of last year was spent on adjusting to the new salary structure and rules. Now, one year removed from that grace period, some of the biggest teams in hockey are poised for a precipitous fall. The Atlantic division, once the home of epic division battles between the Flyers and Devils, and residence of the resurgent Rangers, looks weaker than ever, with so many question marks surrounding all three teams as to make one wonder if only one will make the playoffs: Will Philadelphia have a competent, healthy goaltender for most of the early season? Will it matter who plays net behind that disaster of a defense? Will Jaromir Jagr remember that he is, in fact, a primadonna prick, and refuse to carry the team on his shoulders once again? Will it matter if he does, seeing as how the Devils showed last year that he can be completely depantsed when left alone? Can Lou Lamiorello cut yet another deal with his team’s sponsors to get out of his self-induced salary cap hole (Early warning signs are pointing to yes).

Out West, Colorado will have to face the dilemma of the fact that I trust a joe Sakic-led team to overcome most, if not all, odds to win as much as I trust a Jose Theodore-followed team to overcome most, if not all odds to lose, and the job of covering up the fact that Colorado’s goaltender not only isn’t a Patrick Roy, but isn’t even a Patrick Lalime (at least Lalime played well in the regular season), doesn’t get any easier when they lose their best defenseman to a conference opponent, and give a division opponent the forward they so desperately need in order to fix it. Elsewhere, hockeytown will have to cope with the loss of two elder statesmen, Stevie Y (Link to your post on him), and Brendan Shanahan, and will almost certainly be yet another playoff dissapointment, except this time they won’t do it as a top seed, because they will be fighting for a bottom seed this time.

Of course, with all these teams falling, someone else has to move up to take their place. Calgary, San Jose, Nashville, and Anaheim all appear poised to dominate their Western Conference brethren this season, while Buffalo and Ottawa appear to be the only dependable teams in the east. But of course, who moves into the elite spots isn’t interesting; it is the surprise middling- to good teams that make the stories. Take the Phoenix Coyotes: coached by none other than “The Great One,” the desert dogs managed a disappointing .500 finish last season, and so went out to revamp the defense, leading most journalists to label Phoenix as the sleeper team of 06-07 (meaning, of course, Phoenix will fall flat on its face out of the gate, show signs of life in December, and then ultimately fall short in their inspired playoff push after the All-Star break). This season’s real stories look to come from much more unexpected places: Atlanta, Minnesota, Washington, and Chicago. Atlanta barely missed the playoffs last season, and a healthy kari Lehtonen could propel them to the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference; Minnesota, the poor man’s Calgary Flames, needed to only score another goal every other game to jump from lottery loser to playoff player, and should certainly find what they need in the additions of Mark Parrish, Kenny Johnsson, and Pavol Demitra; Washington, home to the NHL’s most charismatic, dynamic scorer, suddenly has a depth of scoring potential, a strong crop of grinding forwards, and a deep defense with enough to potential to offset its inexperience (yes I’m a blatant homer, shut up); and Chicago, after yet another disappointment despite adding big names Adrian Aucoin and Nikolai Khabibulin last offseason, are poised to make a strong defensive stand with newly acquired center Michael Handzus, Aucoin, a healthy Khabibulin, and the young Ryan Suter.

But ultimately, the story of this NHL season will be the personalities, as young stars Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, with a full year of experience under their belts, will shock and awe both opponents and fans alike as they take the game to new heights, both on the ice and off it, while other charismatic stars such as Illya Kovalchuk, Joe Thornton, and Paul Kariya will be given the freedom to make their mark in their respective markets. The Evgeni Malking saga, and its unavoidable implication of Russian mob corruption, will continue to make for a compelling off-ice story to match any NBA or NFL styled misdemeanor, and Reebok’s vigorous efforts to make its investment in the NHL profitable will lead to much greater exposure for all these individuals.

AND HERE THEY ARE, DEFDUDE’S NHL 2006-2007 PREDICTIONS

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division
Buffalo
Ottawa
Montreal
Boston
Toronto

Atlantic Division
Philadelphia
New Jersey
NY Rangers
Pittsburgh
NY Islanders

Southeast Division
Atlanta
Carolina
Washington
Tampa Bay
Florida


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

Western Conference

Central Division
Nashville
Chicago
Detroit
Columbus
St. Louis

Northwestern Division
Calgary
Minnesota
Colorado
Edmonton
Vancouver

Pacific Division
Anaheim
San Jose
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Dallas

Final Western Conference Standings

1. Calgary*
2. Nashville*
3. Anaheim*
4. San Jose
5. Los Angeles
6. Minnesota
7. Chicago
8. Detroit
9. Colorado
10. Phoenix
11. Edmonton
12. Dallas
13. Vancouver
14. Columbus
15. St. Louis


Playoffs:

Eastern Conference First Round:

(1)Buffalo beats (8)Montreal

(7)Washington Beats (2)Atlanta

(3)Philadelphia beats (6)New Jersey

(5)Ottawa beats (4)Carolina

Western Conference First Round:

(1)Calgary beats (7)Detroit

(2)Nashville beats (7)Chicago

(6)Minnesota beats (3)Anaheim

(4)San Jose beats (5)Los Angeles

Eastern Conference semifinals:

(1)Buffalo beats (7)Washington

(3)Philadelphia beats (5)Ottawa

Western Conference semifinals:

(1)Calgary beats (6)Minnesota

(2)Nashville beats (4)San Jose

Eastern Conference Finals:

(1)Buffalo beats (3)Philadelphia

Western Conference Finals:

(1)Calgary beats (2)Nashville

Stanley Cup Final:

Calgary Flames beat Buffalo Sabres.

See you in June!

NHL Preview: Calgary Flames

Okay, now that we've got this weekend's shenanigans behind us, we're back on track with our thirty part series previewing the NHL's thirty teams. Today, we move into the Western Conference with the Calgary Flames. We also bring back DefDude, whose Atlantic division previews were the talk of the proverbial town.

Defense wins championships-a fundamental principle of sports, perhaps one of the most widely embraced tenets of team athletics in the United States. Just look at some of the greatest defenses from throughout history: The Pittsburg Steelers “Iron Curtain” of the 1970’s; The dominance of the Detroit Pistons the past few seasons in the NBA; The New Jersey Devils of the late 90’s and early 2000’s-all great defenses, all championship teams. Why then, one might ask, did the Calgary Flames and their league-best defense, led by Vezina-winning goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, not only fail to win a championship last season, but fail to even advance beyond the second round of last year’s playoffs?

Well, as the Flames and their anemic offense discovered, a defense doesn’t score the goals, and in hockey, goals must be scored in order to win. To that end, the Flames made every effort this summer to improve on their offense, which ranked 4th worst in the entire league last season. Calgary dealt a top blueliner, Jordan Leopold, to division rival Colorado in exchange for the gifted playmaker Alex Tanguay, who provides both the versatility to play either center or left wing, and finally gives perennial All-Star Jarome Iginla a talent of his own caliber to play with. Additionally, the Flames brought in solid left wing Jeff Friesen who, despite a dreadful year last season split between Washington and Anaheim, has a Stanley Cup ring, and is still a well-regarded depth forward who will help to increase scoring, and signed prospect Andrei Taratukhin, who is coming off of an impressive season in the Russian Superleague.

While the offense will hopefully improve, the focus of this team will certainly continue to be its rock-solid defense, led by second-year veteran Dion Phaneuf who, had he not been lumped into a rookie class involving such names as Crosby and Ovechkin, would have almost certainly won the Calder last season, along with veterans Robin Regehr and Roman Hamrlik. Standing behind these imposing presences will then be the league’s best goaltender, the aforementioned Kiprusoff, who has the uncanny ability to stop pretty much any shot, ever. With no drop-off on the defense in sight, and the offense having nowhere to go but up, expectations will be high in Calgary for this upcoming season. And they should be; they’re my preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup.

If you need more Calgary Flames blogging, never fear. Check out Red Mile, as well as Calgary Flames Blog. And don't forget one of the best hockey blogs around, The Battle of Alberta.

Anaheim @ Calgary. Game 7. Live!

10:10 PM EDT - Teemu Selanne opens the scoring at 5:12 of the second period. What an amazing shot.

10:12 PM EDT - The Flames fans' "Sea of Red" thing is really impressive. For a split second I thought all the seats were empty, then I realized it wasn't the seats that were red, but the people. I doubt any team in the US, in any sport, could pull off something like this.

10:16 PM EDT - Chris Simon is kind of a badass, and I really miss having him here in Washington.

10:25 PM EDT - The Flames get their first shot of the second period... At 12:42.

10:34 PM EDT - Directly over Flames' coach Darryl Sutter's shoulder? A Red Sox cap. They're everywhere.

10:36 PM EDT - Ruslan Salei scores to make it 2-0 at 19:01 of the period. Wow.

10:38 PM EDT - Huge save by Kiprusoff against Chris Kunitz on a breakaway to close out a dismal second period for Calgary.

11:08 PM EDT - Sorry folks. Got distracted. But I'm back now.

11:16 PM EDT - At the start of the game, I was impressed with the constant-ness and volume of the "Go, Flames! Go!" chant at the Saddledome. Now, with the Flames down 2-0, there are two horn guys trying to prompt a chant and no one is buying it.

11:19 PM EDT - Atrocious. Just atrocious. I have no dog in this hunt, but I have to say that the officiating has been questionable at best, and it seems to be favoring the Ducks moreso than the Flames.

11:34 PM EDT - Former Capital Jeff Friesen with the empty-netter at 19:40 of the third period to provide the final score of 3-0 Anaheim, as the Ducks move on to face Colorado in the second round.

11:37 PM EDT - I wanted to say something blasting the flat-footed, unemotional showing from the Calgary Flames, but the fact of the matter, I think, is that Anaheim just wanted it more. Every loose puck ended up on a Duck's stick, and Teemu Selanne came up big when it mattered. Its entirely possible that Calgary was flat and unemotional, but to make a complaint about it would be to take away from the excellent performance by the Mighty Ducks tonight.