Round 2 Round Up

Once again, I send you back to my playoff preview post (alliteration, heh) to help you understand what I'm talking about.

1) Enforcement: I feel like the officials have finally found a good balance. There have been an inordinate number of goaltender interference calls, but overall it seems like they are doing just enough to keep the flow of play at a new-NHL brisk pace, but without going overboard on the interference and obstruction calls. Some of this, I imagine, can be ascribed to the players' adapting to the way the refs have been calling it. Edmonton-San Jose was exactly the kind of playoff series I was afraid I might never see again in "myNHL".

2) OLN/NBC: Just keeps getting better. Hijacking the CBC feed for Edmonton games is the best thing to happen to ice hockey on TV in America since Fox stopped airing games.

3) Young guys: I had expressed some concern over the boom of young, inexperienced goaltenders coming into the playoffs. I even used goaltending experience as my criteria for picking the Finals, going with the two most battle-tested goalies in the bunch, Martin Brodeur and Mikka Kiprusoff. I am, apparently, not so good at the prognosticating. The four goalies still standing had a combined 16 playoff appearances between them. Which is a misleading stat, since all of those appearances belong to Dwayne Roloson of the Oilers (my new favorite to win it all, by the way).

4) Old guys: Are mostly gone at this point. The formula that is having alot of success is one or two older veteran guys (Rod Brind'amour in Carolina, Teemu Selanne in Anaheim) surrounded by younger, speedier guys. Teams centered around a large core of veteran stars, like the Avalanche, are already playing golf.

5) Shootout: Nevermind.

I think it interesting to note that if you went out on the street and asked a random person to name every active professional hockey player they could, you would be hard pressed to get someone to say the name of a player still alive in the playoffs. Even if you happened to stumble across a reasonably knowledgable hockey fan. The only player left with any sort of name recognition at all is Teemu Selanne. Unless you're any sort of hockey fan at all, then you've got Michael Peca and Chris Pronger in Edmonton and Brind'amour in Carolina, and even those guys wouldn't be anywhere near the top of my head if I was naming active players. Aside from that, it is all new faces, playing for teams from non-traditional markets and/or Canada, and I have to imagine the ratings for the next two rounds are going to suffer pretty heavily because of it. Not that I care about TV ratings.

Ahhhh, NHL98

One thing I couldn't help but notice during the Oilers' win over the San Jose Sharks tonight: Jim Hughson has to be easily the best play-by-play guy in all of sports. In all seriousness, I could listen to him say Fernando Pisani's last name over and over and not get bored. I genuinely believe he could call me pouring cereal in the morning and still make it the most exciting thing ever.

The Olympics? We're still talking about those?

HockeyDirt has an excellent post regarding the impact the Olympics had on this years NHL playoffs. Make sure to check out the first comment for an excellent rebuttal.

I think NHL GMs have a legitimate complaint when arguing against the NHL's participation in the Olympics. However, I enjoy watching the best players in th world all on the same ice too much to agree with them.

Goaltending. Goaltending. Goaltending.

The three teams to advance to the third round in the NHL Playoffs so far? Anaheim, Buffalo and Carolina. Their respective starting goaltenders? Ilya Bryzgalov, Ryan Miller and Cam Ward. If you've never heard of any of them, you're not alone. Between them they had, before the start of the postseason, a grand total of zero (0) playoff games under their belts. Zero. In the one series that is still undecided, Vesa Toskala is in the same boat, having been on the bench behing Evgeni Nabokov in 2004. Dwayne Roloson is the only remaining goaltender with any previous playoff experience (just fifteen appearances for a 6-7 record). So, should San Jose prevail in their series, it will leave us with four goalies who had never played a playoff game in their careers. This is a big deal. This means something. I'm just not sure what. It could just mean that the one year layoff resulted in an extra large group of extra talented young goalies. 2005-06 has already been dubbed "The Year of the Rookie" and this could perhaps be an extension of that. Or...

Or it could be an indication of how little impact the goaltender has on the game in the new NHL.With all the added focus on offense, all the new rules meant to reduce goalies' abilties to stop the puck (not to mention the Martin Brodeur rule) and the long overdue crackdown on obstruction, has the position of goaltender in the NHL been rendered obsolete? It used to be, there would always be at least one team that would grab the coattails of a hot goaltender ('98 Capitals and Olie Kolzig, '03 Mighty Ducks and J.S. Giguere, '04 Flames and Mikka Kiprusoff) and I just don't see it this year. Bryzgalov has certainly been excellent, but he has not really been the key to Anaheim's success. The starting goaltenders for the last five cup-winning teams? Nikolai Khabibulin in 2004, Martin Brodeur (twice: 2000 and 2003), Patrick Roy (2001) and Dominik Hasek (2002). You have to go back to 1998 when the Detroit Red Wings won it with Chris Osgood at the helm to find a situation similar to what we'll see a few weeks from now. And before that it was Mike Vernon, Brodeur, Roy twice and Mike Richter.

I'd like to think that this is a changing of the guard of sorts, as most of the goalies listed above are now retired (or in Hasek's case, a hobbled, crippled version of his former self). Looking at the league, there is really nobody left other than Brodeur that has any sort of history of success, so I suppose this may have been bound to happen. The only problem is that none of the goalies currently alive have been all that impressive, in my opinion. I view Bryzgalov's success as more of an abberation than an indicator of how he'll continue to play. Miller, Ward and Toskala have all benfited from prolific offenses, while Roloson has, in Edmonton, what I think is the best defensive team still playing.

Granted, one year is only a small sampling. It may be too early to draw any sort of conclusions. So far, though, it seems to me that in the new NHL, goalies just don't matter as much as they used to.

EDIT: Four goals in the first five minutes of the third period of Edmonton-San Jose. See?

My Predicament.

I must say, I'm really quite annoyed by the fact that San Jose-Edmonton is on at the same time as Grey's Anatomy. (Not as annoyed as I am by the fact that Anatomy's season finale is a two-part episode with the second half airing on Monday)

I'm having a hard time deciding who to root for in this series. On the one hand, how can you not get excited about an eighth seed making it all the way to the conference championship round? Especially these Oilers, who are especially fun to watch and have some exceptional fans in their building. On the other hand, the Sharks are coached by Ron Wilson, the man who led the Capitals to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998, and I've always had a soft spot for him. Not to mention the fact that Joe Thornton and Johnathan Cheechoo are the NHL's points and goal scoring leaders, respectively, and I love to see great players succeed.

Maybe I can just stay neutral. Can I do that? Or root for both teams. Is that allowed?

Pomin-who?

And, just like that, the Sabres and Senators are shaking hands at center ice. Beautiful shorthanded goal by Jason Pominville. Sucks to be Ray Emery right now.

Just put 'em out of their misery.

Once a playoff series goes to 3-0, I feel like they should just end it right there. As much as I like the New Jersey Devils (or, at least, respect them), I couldn't help but root against them today because I just wanted the series to be over so we could all focus on San Jose-Edmonton. The same is true of Ottawa-Buffalo. The fact is, these series are just not compelling. Barring some sort of miracle, neither New Jersey or Ottawa have any chance at this point.

I know, I know... "2004 Red Sox!" you say. "'75 Islanders! '42 Leafs!" you protest. Whatever. Because those series represent three of the over 200 times a team has fallen behind 3-0 in baseball, basketball or hockey. That's three out of over 200. Also known as roughly a 1% chance for the Devils or Senators.

Sure, the Devils and Senators have both won a game now, so there's always the chance that things could get interesting, but, ultimately, there's very little reason to expect anything from either of these teams, and I would much rather focus my energies on the intrigue on the West Coast. So, let's go Sabres. And (ugh) Hurricanes.

My bad.

I like making predictions about sporting events. It's pretty much the only time I ever get to enjoy being wrong.

Avs-Ducks Roundup

And with that, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks take a 2-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche. That's three straight shutouts for Ilya Bryzgalov. An incredible accomplishment by Bryzgalov, to be sure, but alot of credit has to go to the Anaheim defense. In game one, the Avs were completely unable to gain the zone, and they had very few really good scoring opportunites. Today, gaining the zone was no problem (at one point, they were skating the puck across the blue line at will), but the Ducks did an excellent job of forcing shots to the outside and clearing the zone.

Ultimately, I think this series will end up being closer than it would appear based on the first two games. It'll be interesting to see what happens once (if?) the Avs finally score a goal.

Round 2

Oh, right... Playoff predictions. Ummm... Devils, Hurricanes, Avalanche, Sharks.

#22 in your progaram, #4 or 5 in your heart

Why am I rooting so hard for the Colorado Avalanche, you ask?

Former Washington Capitals captain Steve Konowalchuk, who had been out since November with a broken wrist, has been cleared to play in Friday night's series opener against Anaheim.

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.

NHL Playoffs

So far the NHL playoffs have offered excitement (and minor penalties) at a level not recently seen in the sport's premier tournament.

At least, I'm assuming as much. For me to actually find time to watch the games would simply be to easy. Instead, I've managed to catch very little of anything, but that's not going to stop me from reviewing the now (nearly) completed first round, by taking a look at the points I raised back before it all started.

1) Enforcement - As near as I can tell, penalties seem to be way up. Perhaps too much. It seems, as I've noted before, like officials are almost eager to find an excuse to send a guy to the box. Sometimes, their reasoning is *ahem* suspect. (Not that Don Koharski would ever make a mistake.)

2) Coverage - Like I said, I haven't had many opportunities to catch these playoffs, but from what I've seen, OLN is a huge improvement over ESPN/ABC. If only for the fact that there has been a game on when I get home at 11:30 PM every single night. In the days of ESPN/ABC, virtually none of the first few rounds were nationally televised, and the fact that I could be watching Detroit-Edmonton (if I didn't need so badly to sleep) is very comforting.

3) Young guys - Henrik Lundqvist is out, but he played really well. San Jose and Carolina have both advanced on the strength of unproven commodities, while Anaheim has gotten remarkably strong play from Ilya Bryzgalov.

4) Old guys - The Red Wings are out. With them go Steve Yzerman and Chris Chelios.

5) Shootout - Dallas lost three games in OT against Colorado. Given their proficiency in the shootout during the regular season, one must assume that these are games they would have had a significantly better chance of winning if the shootout had been in place. Granted, the first two losses came via Avalanche goals in the first five minutes of OT, which would have been a loss during the regular season as well, but not having that safety net at the end of five has to have had an effect on Dallas' play.

Here's hoping that the last two periods of Anaheim-Calgary are as exciting as I hope they'll be. Potential Live-blogging to follow..

13 left.

Also, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And then there were 14

You can go ahead and file the New York Rangers and the Dallas Stars under the file heading "Stick a fork in them, because they are done."

The parade continues.

The Colorado Avalanche played the final 4:48 of regulation time shorthanded in the second game of their series against the Stars Monday, including nearly 30 seconds of 5-on-3 play. I get that the refs are supposed to be calling it close as they did during the regular season, but its starting to get rediculous. It's almost as though they are actively trying to find excuses to call more penalties. I thought the goaltender interference call on Dan Hinote seemed especially bogus as it appeared that he had been checked into Turco by a Stars defenseman. OLN didn't show any replays though, so I can't be sure.

Incredible accomplishment by the Avs though, to score a shorthanded goal during that span and then win the game in OT, after having blown a 3-0 lead. Great game.

Playoff Musings

I was in New York City this weekend, away from my cable television and, as a result, today was my first chance to take in any playoff action. All I got to see was the tail end of Edmonton-Detroit and the last 15 minutes of Anaheim-Calgary, but if those small samplings were any indication, this is going to be a heck of a month to be a hockey fan. The end of Ducks-Flames was absolutely wild, with Anaheim putting together a rather entertaining parade to the penalty bench in the last ten minutes and nearly having to go to OT because of it. It was rather encouraging to see the refs calling it just as close with five minutes left in a one goal game in the playoffs as they had been all year. Here's hoping they keep that up.