MGoBlue just put up a poll where you can vote for the members of the Michigan NHL All-Star Team.
You get to pick 3 forwards, 2 defensemen, a goalie, and for Rookie of the Year.
The Yost Built ballot was:
Michael Cammalleri
David Moss
Andrew Ebbett (edging out Mike Knuble)
Mike Komisarek
Matt Hunwick
Marty Turco
Hunwick edged out Andrew Ebbett for my Rookie of the Year vote.
So, fair readers, who you got?
Showing posts with label nhl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nhl. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Michigan: The NHL's Farm Team
Michigan is the best at putting guys into the NHL and it's really not close.
LetsPlayHockey.com compiled a list of every ex-NCAA player to play in the NHL this season. There are 279 former college hockey players who played at least one game in the NHL this season. Nearly 10% of those went to the University of Michigan.
The Wolverines led all schools with 25 guys in the NHL. The next highest? Boston College, North Dakota, and Wisconsin with 16 each. That's a rather sizable gap. FYS has 15 and Minnesota has 14. I don't see the list online, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Additionally, there are 197 guys who played college hockey this year whose rights are held by an NHL team. 13 of those are Wolverines. (That doesn't count Travis Turnbull who signed with the Sabres despite being undrafted.)
With Montoya up in the NHL now, you could officially make an entire team using former Wolverines:
Forward:
Andy Hilbert
Andrew Ebbett
Jed Ortmeyer
Mike Cammalleri
Mike Comrie
Andrew Cogliano
Mike Knuble
Brendan Morrison
Max Pacioretty
Kevin Porter
David Moss
Eric Nystrom
TJ Hensick
Jeff Tambellini
John Madden
Mike Brown
Dwight Helminen
Defense:
Mike Komisarek
Mike Van Ryn
Matt Hunwick
Jack Johnson
Aaron Ward
Kevin Quick
Goalie:
Marty Turco
Al Montoya
Not a bad roster.
So let that be a lesson to you young'uns out there. If you want to play in the NHL, come to Michigan :-)
LetsPlayHockey.com compiled a list of every ex-NCAA player to play in the NHL this season. There are 279 former college hockey players who played at least one game in the NHL this season. Nearly 10% of those went to the University of Michigan.
The Wolverines led all schools with 25 guys in the NHL. The next highest? Boston College, North Dakota, and Wisconsin with 16 each. That's a rather sizable gap. FYS has 15 and Minnesota has 14. I don't see the list online, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Additionally, there are 197 guys who played college hockey this year whose rights are held by an NHL team. 13 of those are Wolverines. (That doesn't count Travis Turnbull who signed with the Sabres despite being undrafted.)
With Montoya up in the NHL now, you could officially make an entire team using former Wolverines:
Forward:
Andy Hilbert
Andrew Ebbett
Jed Ortmeyer
Mike Cammalleri
Mike Comrie
Andrew Cogliano
Mike Knuble
Brendan Morrison
Max Pacioretty
Kevin Porter
David Moss
Eric Nystrom
TJ Hensick
Jeff Tambellini
John Madden
Mike Brown
Dwight Helminen
Defense:
Mike Komisarek
Mike Van Ryn
Matt Hunwick
Jack Johnson
Aaron Ward
Kevin Quick
Goalie:
Marty Turco
Al Montoya
Not a bad roster.
So let that be a lesson to you young'uns out there. If you want to play in the NHL, come to Michigan :-)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Porter Gets Goal #1
Congrats to Kevin Porter on his first NHL goal! He scored the 3rd Phoenix goal in their 4-1 win over Pittsburgh tonight. Cammalleri, Hilbert and Knuble also scored tonight. The NHL Wolverines have had a pretty good week.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Peter Forsberg vs. Jim Carty
This week has brought two hilarious instances of one person calling another out in the media.
The first involved Peter Forsberg, who postponed his regularly scheduled injury for a few minutes so that he could high-stick Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson lost a tooth in the incident and Forsberg was assessed a double-minor penalty.
When asked after the game if Samuelsson embellished the contact, Forsberg said, "Definitely. He's laying there on the ice and I barely touched him."
Gotcha. I bet Samuelsson also loosened that tooth before the game so that if someone happened to "barely touch him" in the mouth with a stick, he could quickly pop the tooth out and draw a crucial penalty.
Diving? Pssh. What an embarrassment to the game. Lord knows Forsberg would never do such a thing (the replay at the 41 second mark is kind of amazing):
Just a reminder, this is the guy whose Swedish nickname, Foppa, has been amended to Floppa by fans everywhere to better suit his diving prowess.
And if he's going to crack on someone for diving, at least crack on them for a legit dive. He knocked out Samuelsson's tooth with his stick. There's a reason Sammy was on the ice. If someone knocked out one of Forsberg's teeth, not only would he miss a week but he'd come back with a Dan Cleary-style mask on. The only way this could possibly be better is if Robbie Earl, Paul Kariya, or Sidney Crosby chimed in in support of Forsberg's comments.
Samuelsson also never punched a goalie in the balls, but that's another story.
The hilarity of Forsberg's comments, however, may have been topped by something that Jim Carty wrote earlier in the week. He was responding to Bill Simonson's "obsession" with him (don't flatter yourself there too much) by ripping on The Huge Show as well as a column that Simonson wrote, in which Simonson criticized a Lions' draftee who is allowed to play football (and be an Army recruiter) rather than fulfill his service commitment to the Army as has been the method of operation in the past.
In the column, Carty says that his refusal to go on Simonson's program any longer...
Because, you know, Carty would never take something that really wasn't a big deal, blow it up into a multi-day "jihad" and take a controversial stance in a pathetic attempt to get someone to notice a fourth-rate columnist at a third-rate local newspaper. He's above doing things like that.
He also threatened to publish Simonson's "whiny email, bad spelling and all". I guess once you've gone ahead and illegally published GPAs and information from transcripts it's not really a step forward to publish personal emails.
The first involved Peter Forsberg, who postponed his regularly scheduled injury for a few minutes so that he could high-stick Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson lost a tooth in the incident and Forsberg was assessed a double-minor penalty.
When asked after the game if Samuelsson embellished the contact, Forsberg said, "Definitely. He's laying there on the ice and I barely touched him."
Gotcha. I bet Samuelsson also loosened that tooth before the game so that if someone happened to "barely touch him" in the mouth with a stick, he could quickly pop the tooth out and draw a crucial penalty.
Diving? Pssh. What an embarrassment to the game. Lord knows Forsberg would never do such a thing (the replay at the 41 second mark is kind of amazing):
Just a reminder, this is the guy whose Swedish nickname, Foppa, has been amended to Floppa by fans everywhere to better suit his diving prowess.
And if he's going to crack on someone for diving, at least crack on them for a legit dive. He knocked out Samuelsson's tooth with his stick. There's a reason Sammy was on the ice. If someone knocked out one of Forsberg's teeth, not only would he miss a week but he'd come back with a Dan Cleary-style mask on. The only way this could possibly be better is if Robbie Earl, Paul Kariya, or Sidney Crosby chimed in in support of Forsberg's comments.
Samuelsson also never punched a goalie in the balls, but that's another story.
The hilarity of Forsberg's comments, however, may have been topped by something that Jim Carty wrote earlier in the week. He was responding to Bill Simonson's "obsession" with him (don't flatter yourself there too much) by ripping on The Huge Show as well as a column that Simonson wrote, in which Simonson criticized a Lions' draftee who is allowed to play football (and be an Army recruiter) rather than fulfill his service commitment to the Army as has been the method of operation in the past.
In the column, Carty says that his refusal to go on Simonson's program any longer...
"Didn't have to be a big deal, but Simonson - probably desperate for a topic - then blew the whole thing up into a two-day jihad, first claiming it was part of a conspiracy to get him off the air, then changing the story and claiming he banned me from the show."He then writes that the Lions' draft pick's commitment to the country shouldn't be questioned, "Not for a minute. Not by anyone, let alone a guy doing it just to get people to notice a third-rate local radio show."
Because, you know, Carty would never take something that really wasn't a big deal, blow it up into a multi-day "jihad" and take a controversial stance in a pathetic attempt to get someone to notice a fourth-rate columnist at a third-rate local newspaper. He's above doing things like that.
He also threatened to publish Simonson's "whiny email, bad spelling and all". I guess once you've gone ahead and illegally published GPAs and information from transcripts it's not really a step forward to publish personal emails.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Idea for the NHL All-Star Game
I've heard rumblings that the NHL might add a shootout skills competition to its All-Star Festivities. It would be judged, similar to the NBA's dunk contest.
I love the idea. I know the dunk contest has sucked lately, because everything has been done, and when guys try to push the envelope, the dunks are too hard and it takes them 15 tries to do it. But it used to be great. The league got a bunch of attention for it and it was a big thing for awhile.
This contest will never get to that level but I still think it could be really fun, and if nothing else, it gets the league a little more attention because crazy goals draw it. It might not be a long-term event, since, like the dunk contest, there's only so many things that you can do. But I think for a couple years it could be an entertaining competition.
For added fun, they could let Hasek be the goalie in the skills competition and allow him to randomly Gaborik someone. Might I suggest Paul Kariya.
But I have a better idea. One that would draw a ton of attention to this great game:
Play the All-Star Game outside.
Think about it. A Penguins/Sabres game--two teams that even the masses who like hockey don't care about beyond Crosby and Malkin--just drew the highest ratings of any NHL game in the last decade because it was outdoors. They packed 70,000+ into the stadium, and I bet they could've sold twice that many tickets if the facility would have accommodated it.
They've already got the date: The off weekend before the Super Bowl. Meaning no NFL Playoffs to deal with. The eyes of the world would be on that game. They drew a nice audience for a fairly meaningless regular season game that was up against a couple of bowl games. I've got to believe a lot of eyes would be on the All-Star Game in that situation. And what would they see? A game that caters to the masses, because it's usually high scoring. A game which showcases the best players the NHL has to offer--at least offensively. They'd see a huge crowd on hand. Presumably the camera angles would be designed to show the huge crowd on hand a little more than the game in Buffalo did. And the players would absolutely love it.
The other thing that would be great? Get mics down by the ice and mic a lot of the players. You'd have to have a small delay, but it would be outstanding to get to hear the players communicating. And there'd probably be a lot less profanity in a game like that.
Maybe you're not going to convert everyone in the country into a hockey fan. Maybe some would bail after watching a few more regular season games, seeing that not every game is wide-open like that. But some would likely stick. And I sure as heck guarantee that it would do more for the league than a weakly-publicized game that airs on Versus, as the ASG is currently.
The downer to this plan is that a weather cancellation would be an absolute disaster. But the only real threat is if it's too warm to play. And if you hold the game in late January in a Northern city (Montreal has it next year), if the weather is too warm to hold the game, then it's proof that God just doesn't want this league to succeed.
Tell me that wouldn't sell out the Big House in a heartbeat.
I love the idea. I know the dunk contest has sucked lately, because everything has been done, and when guys try to push the envelope, the dunks are too hard and it takes them 15 tries to do it. But it used to be great. The league got a bunch of attention for it and it was a big thing for awhile.
This contest will never get to that level but I still think it could be really fun, and if nothing else, it gets the league a little more attention because crazy goals draw it. It might not be a long-term event, since, like the dunk contest, there's only so many things that you can do. But I think for a couple years it could be an entertaining competition.
For added fun, they could let Hasek be the goalie in the skills competition and allow him to randomly Gaborik someone. Might I suggest Paul Kariya.
But I have a better idea. One that would draw a ton of attention to this great game:
Play the All-Star Game outside.
Think about it. A Penguins/Sabres game--two teams that even the masses who like hockey don't care about beyond Crosby and Malkin--just drew the highest ratings of any NHL game in the last decade because it was outdoors. They packed 70,000+ into the stadium, and I bet they could've sold twice that many tickets if the facility would have accommodated it.
They've already got the date: The off weekend before the Super Bowl. Meaning no NFL Playoffs to deal with. The eyes of the world would be on that game. They drew a nice audience for a fairly meaningless regular season game that was up against a couple of bowl games. I've got to believe a lot of eyes would be on the All-Star Game in that situation. And what would they see? A game that caters to the masses, because it's usually high scoring. A game which showcases the best players the NHL has to offer--at least offensively. They'd see a huge crowd on hand. Presumably the camera angles would be designed to show the huge crowd on hand a little more than the game in Buffalo did. And the players would absolutely love it.
The other thing that would be great? Get mics down by the ice and mic a lot of the players. You'd have to have a small delay, but it would be outstanding to get to hear the players communicating. And there'd probably be a lot less profanity in a game like that.
Maybe you're not going to convert everyone in the country into a hockey fan. Maybe some would bail after watching a few more regular season games, seeing that not every game is wide-open like that. But some would likely stick. And I sure as heck guarantee that it would do more for the league than a weakly-publicized game that airs on Versus, as the ASG is currently.
The downer to this plan is that a weather cancellation would be an absolute disaster. But the only real threat is if it's too warm to play. And if you hold the game in late January in a Northern city (Montreal has it next year), if the weather is too warm to hold the game, then it's proof that God just doesn't want this league to succeed.
Tell me that wouldn't sell out the Big House in a heartbeat.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Sports World Wrap-Around
With no real need to write a preview for an exhibition game tomorrow, I figured today might be a good time to post some random thoughts bouncing around in my brain.
-Maize n Brew Dave provides a case for rooting for OSU tonight. It ain't happening in these parts. I appreciate that it would make the conference as a whole look better, but I fail to see how the benefit Michigan might gain by some people being like "Hey, maybe the Big Ten isn't that bad" wouldn't be off-set by OSU being able to claim 2 national titles and 3 title game appearances in what? 6 years? People have their stereotypes about the Big Ten. Michigan keeps beating SEC teams in bowl games and every year we hear about how the SEC is better and how Michigan won't be able to match-up with the SEC speed. Would an OSU win over LSU really make people change their tune? Or would we just hear, "Yeah but in a playoff system, Georgia would've smoked them"?
Plus, no matter what you think of him as a coach, the way the job search went down, or even if you wanted him as our coach, I have to root for a guy like Les Miles, who loves U of M as much as he does.
-Next up, Mike Tomlin. Is he getting killed in media? He should be. I haven't read too much about the Steelers/Jaguars game, but based on what I read on ESPN and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the night of the game, I can't believe he's not getting skewered over that completely indefensible decision to go for 2 from the 12 yard line with a ton of time left and down by 5 points. I didn't agree with the decision to go for it from the 2 yard line, but it was at least understandable. But after you get called for holding, you have to kick the football.
What are the chances of making a 2 point conversion in the NFL? Probably 40%ish? What would the chances be at making it from the 12 yard line? It has to be under 10%. And the only benefit you gain is if there's no scoring (or you match scores) the rest of the game and you need a FG to tie. It was unnecessary and the odds were so far against them making it, the decision was asinine. If you kick the PAT, then on the next TD, you're also kicking the PAT, and then you're up 3 rather than 1. Then Jacksonville either has to take some shots at the endzone, or settle for OT.
It blows my mind how coaches still find a way to bungle when to go for two and when not to go for two. Quick rules of thumb: Don't do it before the fourth quarter (preferably deep into the fourth quarter). Don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. If it's a high scoring game, there are probably going to be more points, and take into account the ramifications if you miss. Realize that the odds are against you making it.
-Speaking of the Jaguars, I'm one of the people who was really pulling for a Pats/Jags matchup in the second round, because I like a lot of the things that the Jaguars bring to the table. I'm less excited now. I'd still give them a chance in that game, and I think the Pats giving 13 (Gotta plug BetUS right there) in that game is way too high, but I'm less excited about that matchup than I was when I saw the score at the start of the 4th quarter in the Steelers/Jags game.
-One of my childhood favorites is back! American Gladiators started up again last night, and I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I enjoyed myself.
No, it's not as good as the old one. I think they're trying to hard to make it all dramatic, and I almost had a seizure from the way they change camera angles but overall it's still pretty great.
That event, the Pyramid (or whatever it's called), is amazing. People getting rocked all over the place on that one. The skinny Asian dude got literally thrown off of it at least 3 times. I don't remember it being on the show before, but someone said that it was. Either way, it's sweet!
And the new Eliminator? Awesome. That's just mean to put the hand bike toward the end (when your hands are wet) followed by the reverse treadmill, when your shoes are wet. There aren't going to be too many people getting through that thing on the first try. I do wonder why the contenders even bother with the hand bike. There doesn't seem to be a "penalty pit" anymore and it's a lot quicker to just fall and go up the ladder.
I was really disappointed that neither of the contenders won in Assault last night. I wanted to see the Gladiator go flying into the water. That's a really nice touch.
I didn't like the new Hang Tough because the course just isn't long enough. One time the contender and gladiator went right at each other and they hit when they were both reaching for their second ring.
The gauntlet is always fun. And there's no better event for people getting rocked than Powerball.
I love that show...I don't think they ruined it at all. I just wish they had more "classic" camera angles--particularly on Powerball and Assault.
-In light of the fact that they just promoted the guy that headed up one of the worst offensive lines in the league, shouldn't the Lions have waited to see what would happen with Cam Cameron before bringing in a new Offensive Coordinator? It is the Lions....
-The Wings are a machine, and both of their goalies are playing great hockey. Osgood probably deserves to be an All-Star and Hasek has played every bit as well over the last month and a half. Check out these numbers over each of their last ten starts:
Hasek: 8-1-1, 1.47 GAA, .930 save percentage, 2 shutouts
Osgood: 9-1-0, 1.70 GAA, .934 save percentage, 1 shutout
That's not even fair. And the team as a whole is making good hockey teams look really bad. Look what we just did to Dallas in that home-and-home. The Stars are right up there with the (second) best in the West, and they didn't even belong on the same ice as Detroit in either game. It makes me wish the playoffs were starting now, because no one in the league is even close to the Wings at this point.
Rather than just winning another Norris (which is a foregone conclusion barring injury), isn't it high time Nick Lidstrom wins the Hart or Pearson? He leads the league in defense scoring, he's the best defensive defenseman in hockey, and he has been for years. He plays 30+ a night, and he's ::knock on wood:: out there every night. I'd have a hard time picking a more valuable player in the league, and I'm not so sure that he shouldn't have a couple of those trophies in his case by now.
-The NHL's outdoor game was a success--the highest rated game in a decade. I still have to wonder what kind of number it would've drawn had it not been on New Year's Day, and if it had included one team that people care about. These outdoor games are awesome. The sight of the snow coming down, the massive crowd around the rink, the hats over the goalie masks...it's all amazing. I'd be curious to know how much it costs to put one of these games on, and if the huge crowd offsets it enough to make it more profitable than a normal game. They need to put on more of these games and involve some bigger name teams. I don't know that I'd go as far as Mike Wilbon's suggestion to play an outdoor game every Sunday or Kornheiser's suggestion that every team play 5 of these a year, but I do think they need to have more outdoor games.
Since the new schedule will allow for every Original Six team to play the others at least one time a year (NOT ENOUGH) I'd like to see them schedule a yearly informal round-robin tournament between the teams (maybe I could expand this idea in a future post), and have a few of the games outside at least for the for the first year. Leafs/Canadiens at Skydome or Molson Stadium where the Alouettes play, Wings/Blackhawks at the Big House, Bruins/Rangers at Giants Stadium or Fenway...it'd be awesome.
-Maize n Brew Dave provides a case for rooting for OSU tonight. It ain't happening in these parts. I appreciate that it would make the conference as a whole look better, but I fail to see how the benefit Michigan might gain by some people being like "Hey, maybe the Big Ten isn't that bad" wouldn't be off-set by OSU being able to claim 2 national titles and 3 title game appearances in what? 6 years? People have their stereotypes about the Big Ten. Michigan keeps beating SEC teams in bowl games and every year we hear about how the SEC is better and how Michigan won't be able to match-up with the SEC speed. Would an OSU win over LSU really make people change their tune? Or would we just hear, "Yeah but in a playoff system, Georgia would've smoked them"?
Plus, no matter what you think of him as a coach, the way the job search went down, or even if you wanted him as our coach, I have to root for a guy like Les Miles, who loves U of M as much as he does.
-Next up, Mike Tomlin. Is he getting killed in media? He should be. I haven't read too much about the Steelers/Jaguars game, but based on what I read on ESPN and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the night of the game, I can't believe he's not getting skewered over that completely indefensible decision to go for 2 from the 12 yard line with a ton of time left and down by 5 points. I didn't agree with the decision to go for it from the 2 yard line, but it was at least understandable. But after you get called for holding, you have to kick the football.
What are the chances of making a 2 point conversion in the NFL? Probably 40%ish? What would the chances be at making it from the 12 yard line? It has to be under 10%. And the only benefit you gain is if there's no scoring (or you match scores) the rest of the game and you need a FG to tie. It was unnecessary and the odds were so far against them making it, the decision was asinine. If you kick the PAT, then on the next TD, you're also kicking the PAT, and then you're up 3 rather than 1. Then Jacksonville either has to take some shots at the endzone, or settle for OT.
It blows my mind how coaches still find a way to bungle when to go for two and when not to go for two. Quick rules of thumb: Don't do it before the fourth quarter (preferably deep into the fourth quarter). Don't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. If it's a high scoring game, there are probably going to be more points, and take into account the ramifications if you miss. Realize that the odds are against you making it.
-Speaking of the Jaguars, I'm one of the people who was really pulling for a Pats/Jags matchup in the second round, because I like a lot of the things that the Jaguars bring to the table. I'm less excited now. I'd still give them a chance in that game, and I think the Pats giving 13 (Gotta plug BetUS right there) in that game is way too high, but I'm less excited about that matchup than I was when I saw the score at the start of the 4th quarter in the Steelers/Jags game.
-One of my childhood favorites is back! American Gladiators started up again last night, and I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I enjoyed myself.
No, it's not as good as the old one. I think they're trying to hard to make it all dramatic, and I almost had a seizure from the way they change camera angles but overall it's still pretty great.
That event, the Pyramid (or whatever it's called), is amazing. People getting rocked all over the place on that one. The skinny Asian dude got literally thrown off of it at least 3 times. I don't remember it being on the show before, but someone said that it was. Either way, it's sweet!
And the new Eliminator? Awesome. That's just mean to put the hand bike toward the end (when your hands are wet) followed by the reverse treadmill, when your shoes are wet. There aren't going to be too many people getting through that thing on the first try. I do wonder why the contenders even bother with the hand bike. There doesn't seem to be a "penalty pit" anymore and it's a lot quicker to just fall and go up the ladder.
I was really disappointed that neither of the contenders won in Assault last night. I wanted to see the Gladiator go flying into the water. That's a really nice touch.
I didn't like the new Hang Tough because the course just isn't long enough. One time the contender and gladiator went right at each other and they hit when they were both reaching for their second ring.
The gauntlet is always fun. And there's no better event for people getting rocked than Powerball.
I love that show...I don't think they ruined it at all. I just wish they had more "classic" camera angles--particularly on Powerball and Assault.
-In light of the fact that they just promoted the guy that headed up one of the worst offensive lines in the league, shouldn't the Lions have waited to see what would happen with Cam Cameron before bringing in a new Offensive Coordinator? It is the Lions....
-The Wings are a machine, and both of their goalies are playing great hockey. Osgood probably deserves to be an All-Star and Hasek has played every bit as well over the last month and a half. Check out these numbers over each of their last ten starts:
Hasek: 8-1-1, 1.47 GAA, .930 save percentage, 2 shutouts
Osgood: 9-1-0, 1.70 GAA, .934 save percentage, 1 shutout
That's not even fair. And the team as a whole is making good hockey teams look really bad. Look what we just did to Dallas in that home-and-home. The Stars are right up there with the (second) best in the West, and they didn't even belong on the same ice as Detroit in either game. It makes me wish the playoffs were starting now, because no one in the league is even close to the Wings at this point.
Rather than just winning another Norris (which is a foregone conclusion barring injury), isn't it high time Nick Lidstrom wins the Hart or Pearson? He leads the league in defense scoring, he's the best defensive defenseman in hockey, and he has been for years. He plays 30+ a night, and he's ::knock on wood:: out there every night. I'd have a hard time picking a more valuable player in the league, and I'm not so sure that he shouldn't have a couple of those trophies in his case by now.
-The NHL's outdoor game was a success--the highest rated game in a decade. I still have to wonder what kind of number it would've drawn had it not been on New Year's Day, and if it had included one team that people care about. These outdoor games are awesome. The sight of the snow coming down, the massive crowd around the rink, the hats over the goalie masks...it's all amazing. I'd be curious to know how much it costs to put one of these games on, and if the huge crowd offsets it enough to make it more profitable than a normal game. They need to put on more of these games and involve some bigger name teams. I don't know that I'd go as far as Mike Wilbon's suggestion to play an outdoor game every Sunday or Kornheiser's suggestion that every team play 5 of these a year, but I do think they need to have more outdoor games.
Since the new schedule will allow for every Original Six team to play the others at least one time a year (NOT ENOUGH) I'd like to see them schedule a yearly informal round-robin tournament between the teams (maybe I could expand this idea in a future post), and have a few of the games outside at least for the for the first year. Leafs/Canadiens at Skydome or Molson Stadium where the Alouettes play, Wings/Blackhawks at the Big House, Bruins/Rangers at Giants Stadium or Fenway...it'd be awesome.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Breaking Down the 07-08 Wolverines: Eric Elmblad
Next on the list is another player who was added as a walkon last season, sophomore defenseman Eric Elmblad.
Last Season: Elmblad did not skate in a game. Previously, he played a couple of seasons in the North American Hockey League. In 2005-06, he was with the Traverse City North Stars and posted a 3-5--8 line in 36 games with 46 PIMs.
Expectations: He's the eighth defenseman. He'll help out in practice, and be there if they have injury problems or end up with a lot of defections for the GLI (though I don't see it hurting our defense that badly).
He's the tallest player on the team at 6'4" and the fourth oldest player on the team, despite being a sophomore.
While I don't expect him to see the ice, if the need arises for a big, physical (I assume) defenseman, you never know.
Level of Necessity: 1 out of 10.
Barring a rash of injuries to our defense corps, I don't see him getting on the ice for a game. Then again, as the 8th defenseman, he only needs two guys to go out before he's pushed into the lineup. Stranger things have happened.
Other Stuff: The Wolverine's defense/goalie preview ($ link) went up today.
Scooter Vaughan "Checked In" with MGoBlue.com. He says that he had USHL offers but turned them down, intending on playing another year for Honeybaked.
I forgot to mention this when I was writing about the Wings game Wednesday night, but the shootout camera on Vs. has to go. Short of pointing the camera in the wrong direction, they couldn't have picked a worse angle than ice level at the red line. You couldn't see anything. The rink cam works just fine, behind the net if you got 'em. But don't get cute with it. It was like that camera for the NBA Playoffs on ABC that everyone despised.
Last Season: Elmblad did not skate in a game. Previously, he played a couple of seasons in the North American Hockey League. In 2005-06, he was with the Traverse City North Stars and posted a 3-5--8 line in 36 games with 46 PIMs.
Expectations: He's the eighth defenseman. He'll help out in practice, and be there if they have injury problems or end up with a lot of defections for the GLI (though I don't see it hurting our defense that badly).
He's the tallest player on the team at 6'4" and the fourth oldest player on the team, despite being a sophomore.
While I don't expect him to see the ice, if the need arises for a big, physical (I assume) defenseman, you never know.
Level of Necessity: 1 out of 10.
Barring a rash of injuries to our defense corps, I don't see him getting on the ice for a game. Then again, as the 8th defenseman, he only needs two guys to go out before he's pushed into the lineup. Stranger things have happened.
Other Stuff: The Wolverine's defense/goalie preview ($ link) went up today.
Scooter Vaughan "Checked In" with MGoBlue.com. He says that he had USHL offers but turned them down, intending on playing another year for Honeybaked.
I forgot to mention this when I was writing about the Wings game Wednesday night, but the shootout camera on Vs. has to go. Short of pointing the camera in the wrong direction, they couldn't have picked a worse angle than ice level at the red line. You couldn't see anything. The rink cam works just fine, behind the net if you got 'em. But don't get cute with it. It was like that camera for the NBA Playoffs on ABC that everyone despised.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
A Much Longer NHL Preview Than I Intended
I wasn’t going to do an NHL Preview this year since I’ve been doing the team preview for the Michigan
11.Nashville
Top Acquisition: Jed Ortmeyer
Key Losses: Tomas Vokoun, Peter Forsberg, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, Paul Kariya
Fantasy Breakdown:6-3-1
14.Columbus
Top Acquisition: Mike Peca
Key Loss: Anders Eriksson (never thought that’d be something I would type!)
Fantasy Breakdown:4-1-1
Western Conference
Key Loss: Mathieu Schneider, Todd Bertuzzi
Fantasy Breakdown: 6 forwards, 3 defensemen, 1 goalie
2.
Top Acquisition: Experience for their young players
Key Loss: Vesa Toskala
Fantasy Breakdown:
I really thought
3.
Top Acquisition: Mathieu Schneider, Todd Bertuzzi
Key Loss: Teemu Selanne, Dustin Penner, Scott Niedermayer (?)
Fantasy Breakdown:
The defending Cup champs looked to be the favorite to get it done again this season until Scott Niedermayer started talking early retirement. At this time, all he’s said is that he won’t be there for the start of the season. The smart money is that he’ll come back late in the year for another run at it.
The Ducks prepared for his departure by snagging Schneider away from
The big loss is Selanne, who also hasn’t 100% committed to retirement. Between he and Niedermayer, that’s a lot of points for the Ducks to replace.
The other question mark is if the Stay-Puff Marshmellow Man, JS Giguere, can continue to be effective. He was really good in the playoffs for them, but he had hernia surgery in the offseason and he’s had lingering hip problems as well.
4.
Top Acquisition: Roberto Luongo last year (What? He’s the only thing they’ve really got going for them)
Key Loss: Rory Fitzpatrick (He just missed the All-Star team, right?)
Fantasy Breakdown:
It’s amazing how this team has completely flip-flopped from five years ago. In the 2002 playoffs—when the Bertuzzi-Morrison-Naslund line was at their peak—I marveled at how good that team would be, if they only had a goalie.
Now they have a goalie, possibly the best goalie, and they can’t score (only
5.
Top Acquisition: Eric Belanger
Key Loss: Manny Fernandez
Fantasy Breakdown: 6-0-2
Gaborik is absolutely ridiculous when he’s healthy. The problem is that he’s banged up quite a bit. In addition to the top three forwards I’ve listed above, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, and Mikko Koivu are good players. Belanger is one of those two-way centers that Jacques Lemaire loves.
The defense is solid, but unspectacular. They don’t get a lot of offense from the blueline (they were the only team that didn’t have a defenseman picked in our draft) but they’re a solid defensive team.
And then there’s the goalie. Niklas Backstrom was incredible last season as an older rookie. He had a 1.97 goals against average and a .923 save percentage, which led to Manny Fernandez becoming expendable. Josh Harding, with his Rascall Flats mask and his .960 save percentage in seven games, is the talented backup.
6.
Top Acquisition: Ryan Smyth
Key Loss: Patrice Brisebois
Fantasy Breakdown:
The bitch is back.
After a year outside the playoffs, the Avalanche should without question make their return this year. Francois Giguere has done an excellent job cleaning up the mess that Pierre Lacroix left, when Lacroix went from genius to not making a good trade in three years.
The Avs have a great group of forwards highlighted by Sakic, Hedjuk, Stastny, Brunette, Smyth, and Wolski. The Avs led the Western Conference in goals last year and there’s really no reason to expect that to change.
The defense is a little more shaky, and I’m still not sold on Peter Budaj in net, but there’s still no reason that this team shouldn’t be playing come late April.
7.
Top Acquisition: Owen Nolan
Key Loss: Roman Hamrlik, Brad Stuart
Fantasy Breakdown:
Last year’s eighth place team and perennial pest checks in at #7 this year. This is a team that lives and dies by their goalie. Kiprusoff is as good as it gets in the NHL and he alone should be enough to get this team to the playoffs.
Firing the ironically named Jim Playfair at the end of last season didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was that they replaced him with Mike Keenan, who I’m pretty sure is fighting with Mike Sillinger to be the first person to be an employee of every organization in the league. We’ll see how that one goes…
8.
Top Acquisition: Umm…errr…
Key Loss: Ladislav Nagy
Fantasy Breakdown:
People are writing off the Stars because, let’s face it, they’ve got no goal scoring. But what they do have is a very solid defense, and a goalie in Marty Turco who is coming off an outstanding playoff performance, even if he didn’t get that series win he needs.
The thing working against
9.
Top Acquisition: Paul Kariya, Erik Johnson
Key Loss: Captain,
Fantasy Breakdown:
After years of being a doormat team, the Blues are finally ready to make some noise in the playoff race again. They made a too little, too late run at the playoffs at the end of last season before finishing in the 10th slot.
I’m actually tempted to put them ahead of the Stars, but I’m not going to do it. I like what they’ve done with the team though. Manny Legace was very strong through the middle part of last year, before an injury ended his season.
They brought back Paul Kariya, who was very good in
On defense, they add Calder candidate Erik Johnson, who made the leap to the NHL to bolster an already fairly decent group.
It wouldn’t shock me a bit if they make the playoffs.
10.
Top Acquisition: Tom Priessing, Brad Stuart, Ladislav Nagy, Jack Johnson, Kyle Calder, Jonathan Bernier
Key Loss: Aaron Miller, I guess
Fantasy Breakdown:
The big piece to the puzzle though is Bernier. The Kings haven’t had a goalie in a long time. Last year’s move to trade for Dan Cloutier over signing Legace as a free agent is still a puzzler to me. But Bernier looks like the real deal. They’ve questioned if he’ll stick or if he’ll be shipped back to his junior team, but after the performance in the opener in
If they get solid goaltending, this is a playoff team. If not, they’re a year away, but they’re a budding powerhouse. There’s a lot of young talent on this team (Frolov, Cammalleri, Kopitar, Brown, Armstrong, O'Sullivan, Johnson) and they’ve still got a few solid vets in there as well.
11.
Top Acquisition: Jed Ortmeyer
Key Losses: Tomas Vokoun, Peter Forsberg, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, Paul Kariya
Fantasy Breakdown:
It really saddens me when a team has been built to be a contender, and then due to ownership issues they have to tear it apart. It was looking as if Wings/Predators was going to be a fun rivalry in the future. They pushed
Just look at that list of key losses. You can even include Steve Sullivan, who is out until at least December with a back injury. Who knows how he’ll respond (I picked him up anyway). You can’t replace guys like that.
That said, the cupboard isn’t completely bare. Alexander Radulov will be one of the breakout players this year. Martin Erat is one of the best that you’ve never heard of. J.P. Dumont is a solid player in his own right, and they’ve got a future Norris candidate in Shea Weber (another great sleeper). In goal is Chris Mason, who did a nice job splitting time with Vokoun, but I’m partial to the latter and I think it was a mistake to let him go.
If they could have kept last year’s core group together and then added the improvement of Radulov and Weber, this team could have contended. Now, they’ll be lucky to contend for a playoff spot. That’s not the formula for success if you’re looking to keep the team in
12.
Top Acquisition: A casket for Bill Wirtz, Pat Kane, Jonathan Toews, Sergei Samsonov, and (gulp) Robert Lang
Key Loss: Injuries to Ruutu and Havlat (let’s just get those out of the way right now)
Fantasy Breakdown:
Mean to say that about Bill Wirtz? Yes. He was supposedly a good guy—I know Chelios loved him—but hockey was not going to come back in
Anyway, there’s some young blood coming in. #1 pick Pat Kane may not be ready yet, but he’s a damn fine hockey player. Jonathan Toews should contend with the two Johnsonses for the Calder. Samsonov and Lang were actually pretty nice pickups to pair with Martin Havlat, until he gets hurt a month into the season.
I’m not sure I’d want Lang as my #1 center, but maybe a lot of ice time is all he needs to get back to being the guy that nearly led the league in scoring a couple years back. Or maybe he just really is that lazy.
13.
Top Acquisition: Dustin Penner, Sheldon Souray, Joni Pitkanen, Andrew Cogliano
Key Loss: Petr Sykora, Joffrey Lupul, Jason Smith, can I list Ryan Smyth again
Fantasy Breakdown:
I’m not sure they scored a goal after Ryan Smyth was traded.
Souray will help the offense from the back end, but he doesn’t exactly bring a lot of defensive savvy to the table.
If Ales Hemsky is going to realize his potential, now would be a good time to think about doing that. After putting up 77 points in his third year, he had a 24 point dropoff last season.
The big surprise could come in the form of ex-Wolverine Andrew Cogliano, who led the team in goals in training camp. He impressed the Oilers and he stuck with the team. He has the speed, the play making ability, and the shot to be a very good NHLer.
While they do have guys that could make jumps in points (Stoll, Hemsky, Torres), it’s still pretty hard to see this team in the playoffs at the end of the year. They won’t be as bad as they were at the end of last year though.
14.
Top Acquisition: Mike Peca
Key Loss: Anders Eriksson (never thought that’d be something I would type!)
Fantasy Breakdown:
They can’t get Nikolai Zherdev to play hard. They can’t make Rick Nash realize his potential. They can’t make Sergei Fedorov younger. Their goaltender of the future got beat out by a 32 year old rookie. The bright spot is David Vyborny. 64 points last year, and a solid guy to have on the top line. But there’s really not a whole lot else on this team. Part of me wonders if we won’t see Fedorov back in Detroit, either at the deadline or on the cheap next year.
15.
Top Acquisition: Mike York
Key Loss: Owen Nolan
Fantasy Breakdown:
Sweet Mother of Mercy this is a bad hockey team. Let me put this in perspective for you all. There were 12 teams in my fantasy draft. Shane Doan was drafted 135th overall and he was the first Coyote taken. The next one (Jovocop) was 168th and Keith Ballard went 239th. And that’s it. We had 252 players taken in the draft, and we felt the need to draft three players from
That’s the West. Here are my rankings for the East, which will be much less detailed, because quite frankly I suck at picking this conference. I did find that while it’s not as ripe with contenders as the West, the bottom of the conference is extremely hard to sort out from 6-15. There’s not one team in there that I would say can’t make the playoffs.
Eastern Conference:
Top Acquisition: Chris Drury, Scott Gomez
Key Loss: Jed Ortmeyer
Fantasy Breakdown:
Real good team. I’m still worried about the defense a little bit, and I’m not fully buying into the hype, even though I have them #1. But they’re going to be good.
Be afraid though. The teams that I pick to be #1 in the East tend to do things like miss the playoffs.
2.
Top Acquisition: None
Key Loss: Mike Comrie, Tom Priessing
Fantasy Breakdown:
They still have as good of a top line as any. Deep defense. Solid goaltending if Emery is healthy. The Wings would’ve rolled them.
3.
Top Acquisition: Petr Sykora
Key Loss: None
Fantasy Breakdown:
Fun, fun team to watch. Nice team to pluck fantasy players from. Can’t wait to catch em on Center Ice. Don’t think they’re a real contender for the Cup yet.
4.
Top Acquisition: None
Key Loss: Chris Drury, Daniel Briere
Fantasy Breakdown:
Still powerful offensively if guys like Connolly step up and stay healthy. Still have a very good goalie in Ryan Miller. Good thing they kept Vanek.
Top Acquisition: Matt Cullen
Key Loss: David Tanabe, Andrew Hutchinson
Fantasy Breakdown:
They missed the playoffs last year, they won’t this year. They’re the best in a pretty bad division. This team has rebound written all over them, especially if the top forwards can stay healthy. I don’t like the defense all that much, but they still should be in the top half of the East.
Top Acquisition: Dainius Zubrus
Key Loss: Brian Rafalski, Scott Gomez
Fantasy Breakdown:
They still have a good group of forwards, but Paul Martin needs to step up in Rafalski’s absence. Brodeur keeps this team in the playoffs.
7.
Top Acquisition: Daniel Briere, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, Jason Smith
Key Loss: Joni Pitkanen
Fantasy Breakdown:
Much improved over that disaster last year. If Biron can hold up being the starter, they should make the playoffs.
8.
Top Acquisition: Tomas Vokoun
Key Loss: Martin Gelinas
Fantasy Breakdown:
Vokoun was a great pickup. The Panthers weren’t that far out of the playoffs last year and with a great goalie in Vokoun, that might be the difference.
9.
Top Acquisition: Vesa Toskala, Jason Blake, Mark Bell
Key Loss: Yanic Perrault
Fantasy Breakdown:
Their big acquisition in goal is apparently not starting. Mark Bell is going to jail at some point. Good stuff, eh Leafs fans? Blake is a really good, underrated player though. Losing Wellwood to an injury doesn’t help.
10.
Top Acquisition: Todd White
Key Loss: Keith Tkachuk
Fantasy Breakdown:
Still a great top line. Still not much else.
11.
Top Acquisition: Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin
Key Loss: Ryan Smyth, Jason Blake, Viktor Kozlov, Tom Poti, Richard Zednik, Alexei Yashin
Fantasy Breakdown:
Surprising amount of forwards drafted, given the mass departures from
Top Acquisition: Jan Hlavec
Key Loss: Nolan Pratt
Fantasy Breakdown:
That whole “paying 3 guys a ton of money” thing doesn’t work so well when you don’t have a goalie.
13.
Top Acquisition: Roman Hamrlik, Patrice Brisebois
Key Loss: Sergei Samsonov, Sheldon Souray
Fantasy Breakdown:
It’s strange how good their PP was last year for the talent they had. Souray being gone hurts the PP big time and that’s how they scored their goals.
14.
Top Acquisition: Niklas Backstrom, Tom Poti, Michael Nylander
Key Loss: None
Fantasy Breakdown:
They’ll be better. Backstrom is going to be a great player. Nylander and Semin are nice supporting guys.
15.
Top Acquisition: Manny Fernandez
Key Loss: Glen Murray
Fantasy Breakdown:
Kessel not getting nut cancer will help this year. So will having an NHL goalie. Chara big. Big good. Honestly, I don’t like them at 15 but I don’t like the Caps there either and I can’t figure out who else to slide in.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Moving the Captain's Letter to the Other Side of the Jersey is Proof the Terrorists Have Won
From the Freep this morning comes the news that in order to work with the new Rbk Edge jerseys, the Wings have been forced to move all 3 of the "Captains' Letters" to the right side of the jersey, rather than the left side where they've customarily been.
It's not that big of a big deal. It only affects three players on the team. And at least Rbk didn't screw with the actual design of the jersey. But I think this looks really friggin' stupid:
I guess I don't see what's the big deal about having the letter overlap a seam. Would they not be able to sew it in? Would having a letter sewn on have an effect on the player's range of motion?
The other question is should the Red Wings make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, where would that patch go? Would they put it on the sleeve like the VK/SM one was in the Finals in 1998? Would it just be for those three players?
Overall I think the new jerseys are a mixed bag. Some of these might be rumored changes. I haven't been keeping up on what's legit and what isn't. I think all of these are real though.
I like the new look for Washington, especially the reds.
Nashville's are similar to what they were before, but I like the blues a little bit better. Not a fan of the white ones. You can't read the "Nashville" above the logo and the color scheme is weird. The white/gray thing doesn't work. And apparently they might be wearing a "Ten Seasons" patch, which would be great except for the fact that this is just their ninth season because of the lockout.
Columbus's new duds are sharp. I don't like the white collar on the blue jersey, but I think the jersey itself looks really nice.
I don't like the rumored Pens jerseys. Too much gold, and it's unnecessary on the sleeves. Their jerseys from the last couple years have been one of my two or three favorites. I hope they're not actually changing.
I'm not a fan of the new Sharks logo. No need to add orange. Their jerseys have been pretty nice since they've come into the league.
I've never liked LA's uniform schemes as it is, but the new ones look really goofy with no coloring at the bottom.
I'm not sure what to think of Florida's. Part of me actually likes it, and part of me thinks that the piping and those horizontal stripes look terrible. I think I like the blue ones better than the whites.
Edit: And courtesy of the New York Islanders, we now have an answer to the question, "Who has the worst jersey in the NHL"? Though a friend of mine works in the video game industry, and someone told him, "Wait until you see Dallas's" when he made a similar comment.
It's not that big of a big deal. It only affects three players on the team. And at least Rbk didn't screw with the actual design of the jersey. But I think this looks really friggin' stupid:
I guess I don't see what's the big deal about having the letter overlap a seam. Would they not be able to sew it in? Would having a letter sewn on have an effect on the player's range of motion?
The other question is should the Red Wings make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, where would that patch go? Would they put it on the sleeve like the VK/SM one was in the Finals in 1998? Would it just be for those three players?
Overall I think the new jerseys are a mixed bag. Some of these might be rumored changes. I haven't been keeping up on what's legit and what isn't. I think all of these are real though.
I like the new look for Washington, especially the reds.
Nashville's are similar to what they were before, but I like the blues a little bit better. Not a fan of the white ones. You can't read the "Nashville" above the logo and the color scheme is weird. The white/gray thing doesn't work. And apparently they might be wearing a "Ten Seasons" patch, which would be great except for the fact that this is just their ninth season because of the lockout.
Columbus's new duds are sharp. I don't like the white collar on the blue jersey, but I think the jersey itself looks really nice.
I don't like the rumored Pens jerseys. Too much gold, and it's unnecessary on the sleeves. Their jerseys from the last couple years have been one of my two or three favorites. I hope they're not actually changing.
I'm not a fan of the new Sharks logo. No need to add orange. Their jerseys have been pretty nice since they've come into the league.
I've never liked LA's uniform schemes as it is, but the new ones look really goofy with no coloring at the bottom.
I'm not sure what to think of Florida's. Part of me actually likes it, and part of me thinks that the piping and those horizontal stripes look terrible. I think I like the blue ones better than the whites.
Edit: And courtesy of the New York Islanders, we now have an answer to the question, "Who has the worst jersey in the NHL"? Though a friend of mine works in the video game industry, and someone told him, "Wait until you see Dallas's" when he made a similar comment.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Wings/JMFJ Offseason Stuff
Mike Cammalleri's arbitration hearing is today. Actually it's probably over by now. According to Brochu Is Hockey (which I have no idea about the credibility of), the Wings have called LA about his availability and there is definitely the possibility of a sign-and-trade (to some team, not necessarily Detroit).
One thing is certain though: As of last week, the Kings and Cammalleri were not close.
I still don't see how Detroit could fit him under the cap long-term, as long as they want to re-sign Zetterberg (which they obviously do). But the thought of Cammi in a Wings jersey still makes me very happy and I hope there's some way to get it done. Datsyuk, Cammalleri, Lidstrom, and Rafalski all would have high salaries though, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for Zetterberg to get his $5 million raise and still field a competitive team. That'd be like $33 million tied up in five players. If they've got information that Lidstrom is going to call it quits in the near future (and they signed Rafalski with the idea that he'll be our #1 dman once Nick is gone) then it would be more doable.
Another bit of news from the Cammalleri family, his cousin Anthony Agozzino, who the Wolverines were rumored to be interested in, has signed with an OHL team (HT: Western College Hockey).
The Anaheim Ducks have decided to not match that offer sheet for Dustin Penner and I think that's a wise move. Penner is a good player and all, but that's a lot of money and a lot of picks to give up for someone who only had 45 points last year. I mean, Tomas Holmstrom put up better numbers (more goals, more points, less games) and I wouldn't be in a hurry to pay him over $4 million. I bet the rest of the GMs in the NHL really hate Kevin Lowe now after the stunt with Vanek followed up by him signing Penner. And you better believe that Brian Burke is going to try and get Getzlaf and Perry locked up before they're RFAs next year. Anaheim can't be THAT bummed, though. They're getting a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounder for a guy they signed as an undrafted free agent--and who has really only had one big year. Side note: I wonder if there are any other JuCo transfers that have made the NHL. You don't usually see guys going the Junior College route before playing college hockey.
This interview is a couple of weeks old, but I just now saw it. Justin Spiro, a good friend of JMFJ's and a regular posted on the LetsGoKings board, interviewed Jack and posted it on the site. There's some good stuff in there. They still haven't revealed what his jersey number will be for next year. He was wearing 33, but he seems to be thinking of changing it. The smart money is on 78.
The best segment of the interview:
Additionally, Spiro has started a blog: The Converted King. He's been a Wings fan in the past--and will continue to be--but he's known Jack since they were in middle school, and it makes sense to follow--and root for--the team that your good friend is on. The site is mainly for his thoughts as a new Kings fan, but I expect there will be lots of good JMFJ stuff as well.
Lastly, if you've got 20 minutes or so to kill, the Canadian Business Journal has a database of every player in the NHL that you can sort by $/point, $/goal, $/penalty minute, and $/time on ice. It's easy to see why Anaheim did so well this past season. They had 5 of the top 43 players in Dollars Per Point. And that's the key to winning in the salary cap era. Get production out of guys while they're on their rookie contracts. Derian Hatcher was the worst in $/point this year, making a whopping $388,889 per point.
In terms of bang for the buck, Dion Phaneuf was the biggest bargain. The Flames paid him "just" $232 per minute that he was on the ice. Patrick Elias made $5,372/minute. It's amazing that despite the amount of time he spends on the ice, Nicklas Lidstrom was still 432/449 on this list. Basically that means that he makes a lot of money, folks.
One thing is certain though: As of last week, the Kings and Cammalleri were not close.
I still don't see how Detroit could fit him under the cap long-term, as long as they want to re-sign Zetterberg (which they obviously do). But the thought of Cammi in a Wings jersey still makes me very happy and I hope there's some way to get it done. Datsyuk, Cammalleri, Lidstrom, and Rafalski all would have high salaries though, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for Zetterberg to get his $5 million raise and still field a competitive team. That'd be like $33 million tied up in five players. If they've got information that Lidstrom is going to call it quits in the near future (and they signed Rafalski with the idea that he'll be our #1 dman once Nick is gone) then it would be more doable.
Another bit of news from the Cammalleri family, his cousin Anthony Agozzino, who the Wolverines were rumored to be interested in, has signed with an OHL team (HT: Western College Hockey).
The Anaheim Ducks have decided to not match that offer sheet for Dustin Penner and I think that's a wise move. Penner is a good player and all, but that's a lot of money and a lot of picks to give up for someone who only had 45 points last year. I mean, Tomas Holmstrom put up better numbers (more goals, more points, less games) and I wouldn't be in a hurry to pay him over $4 million. I bet the rest of the GMs in the NHL really hate Kevin Lowe now after the stunt with Vanek followed up by him signing Penner. And you better believe that Brian Burke is going to try and get Getzlaf and Perry locked up before they're RFAs next year. Anaheim can't be THAT bummed, though. They're getting a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounder for a guy they signed as an undrafted free agent--and who has really only had one big year. Side note: I wonder if there are any other JuCo transfers that have made the NHL. You don't usually see guys going the Junior College route before playing college hockey.
This interview is a couple of weeks old, but I just now saw it. Justin Spiro, a good friend of JMFJ's and a regular posted on the LetsGoKings board, interviewed Jack and posted it on the site. There's some good stuff in there. They still haven't revealed what his jersey number will be for next year. He was wearing 33, but he seems to be thinking of changing it. The smart money is on 78.
The best segment of the interview:
JS: You have gained a type of cult-status with Kings Fans. Many of them want to know if Jack Johnson has a “JMFJ” shirt of his own.Gotta pimp the product: The JMFJ shirts are still available.
JJ: I cannot say that I do. I have given a few of them out as gifts, though. I do not think I would feel right wearing one. It would be like walking around with a nametag.
Somebody gave my younger brother Kenny a “JMFJ” shirt (Ed Note: It came from The Blog That Yost Built store!). My Dad and I had to stress to him that the abbreviation stood for, “Jack ‘My Friend’ Johnson”. He wore it to school at the end of last year and we had to prepare a ready explanation for the teachers. The whole “JMFJ” thing has really taken off. I think it is hilarious, and in a weird way flattering.
Additionally, Spiro has started a blog: The Converted King. He's been a Wings fan in the past--and will continue to be--but he's known Jack since they were in middle school, and it makes sense to follow--and root for--the team that your good friend is on. The site is mainly for his thoughts as a new Kings fan, but I expect there will be lots of good JMFJ stuff as well.
Lastly, if you've got 20 minutes or so to kill, the Canadian Business Journal has a database of every player in the NHL that you can sort by $/point, $/goal, $/penalty minute, and $/time on ice. It's easy to see why Anaheim did so well this past season. They had 5 of the top 43 players in Dollars Per Point. And that's the key to winning in the salary cap era. Get production out of guys while they're on their rookie contracts. Derian Hatcher was the worst in $/point this year, making a whopping $388,889 per point.
In terms of bang for the buck, Dion Phaneuf was the biggest bargain. The Flames paid him "just" $232 per minute that he was on the ice. Patrick Elias made $5,372/minute. It's amazing that despite the amount of time he spends on the ice, Nicklas Lidstrom was still 432/449 on this list. Basically that means that he makes a lot of money, folks.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Two Quick Things
This post was actually written a few hours later than the date-stamp, but I rolled it back to get it beneath my Konstantinov tribute, since that's more important to me today.
Dominik Hasek's rumored return is now pretty much official. He hasn't signed a contract, but Holland says that he's returning and they don't anticipate any problems getting him signed. Whoo-hoo!
Deadspin just put up a very interesting article. The New York Islanders are going to credential bloggers, section off an area in the upper bowl for them to sit (meaning that cheering is still allowed), watch the game, and then allow them to ask questions to select players after the game.
It's a pretty great idea if you ask me. It's a way to encourage people to start blogs--and specifically blogs about the team. They appear to be the first organization in this struggling sport to realize that the more people there are covering the team, the better. This is in stark contrast to the NCAA, who booted a reporter at the University of Louisville for live-blogging the NCAA Baseball game. The NHL needs all the coverage it can get, and this is one way to accomplish that. I applaud the Islanders for doing something that fan-friendly. I don't expect the Wings to adopt a similar policy for a couple of reasons: 1) Their press box is too small to accommodate anyone as it is. 2) Games are almost always sold out, meaning that it'd be very difficult to block off a section of seats for the bloggers like the Islanders are doing.
It'd be cool though.
Anytime U of M wants to start giving me credentials to go sit in the stands for games, I'd be more than happy to accept when I'm in town.
Dominik Hasek's rumored return is now pretty much official. He hasn't signed a contract, but Holland says that he's returning and they don't anticipate any problems getting him signed. Whoo-hoo!
Deadspin just put up a very interesting article. The New York Islanders are going to credential bloggers, section off an area in the upper bowl for them to sit (meaning that cheering is still allowed), watch the game, and then allow them to ask questions to select players after the game.
It's a pretty great idea if you ask me. It's a way to encourage people to start blogs--and specifically blogs about the team. They appear to be the first organization in this struggling sport to realize that the more people there are covering the team, the better. This is in stark contrast to the NCAA, who booted a reporter at the University of Louisville for live-blogging the NCAA Baseball game. The NHL needs all the coverage it can get, and this is one way to accomplish that. I applaud the Islanders for doing something that fan-friendly. I don't expect the Wings to adopt a similar policy for a couple of reasons: 1) Their press box is too small to accommodate anyone as it is. 2) Games are almost always sold out, meaning that it'd be very difficult to block off a section of seats for the bloggers like the Islanders are doing.
It'd be cool though.
Anytime U of M wants to start giving me credentials to go sit in the stands for games, I'd be more than happy to accept when I'm in town.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thoughts on the NHL/NBA Playoffs
One quick thing before I get into the playoffs: Michigan received another commitment for the Class of 2009 today. Per Western College Hockey, Greg Pateryn, a defenseman from Birmingham Brother Rice has committed to play for Michigan. Ohio in the USHL holds his rights, so he may end up there next year. He's already 6'2", 195. Here's Bob Miller's post on the matter. I'm sure he'll have more soon.
Let's start with the Wings. The Sharks are showing exactly why I've been so scared of facing them for the last several months. They've just got so many big, young, skilled forwards and they just keep coming at you. Hasek was the only reason that this game wasn't out of hand.
It was a bummer, really, because the Wings looked outstanding in the first period and the first half of the second. Where we really blew this game was not putting in another goal or two in that span. It was kind of similar to the Michigan/Minnesota game in the 2003 Frozen Four in that regard. Once the momentum shifted, the only question was if the Wings could hold on long enough, and it obviously didn't happen.
Our top line has really struggled on the road, with the opposing coach able to get the matchup he wants against them. Plain and simple, Zetterberg and Datsyuk have to be better if we're going to win this series. They were strong in Game 2, which is a big reason we were able to come back and win.
Nabokov was giving up some huge rebounds tonight and we didn't have anyone crashing the net to capitalize. I'm not sure why we haven't had someone in Nabokov's face the entire time like we did against Calgary. Holmstrom being out obviously hurts the Wings' play around the net, but there's still no reason that Bertuzzi and Franzen can't get there. Calder's play in the playoffs has been disappointing as well--but I think he's got a broken hand so that could explain it. Kyle Quincey has been a nice surprise. He hasn't looked out of place at all--getting his first real taste of the NHL in a tough situation.
It goes without saying, but Game 4 is a must-win. There's no way that we're beating the Sharks three times in a row. Hopefully Holmstrom coming back will help make it that much tougher for Nabokov to see the shots coming through, and maybe he can put in one of those juicy rebounds. It's easy to forget that that's a 30 goal scorer out of the lineup for us.
As for the NBA, I'm so happy that series with Orlando is finally over. The only question was if the Pistons would sleep-walk enough to lose a game, or if Mr. Davidson wanted that extra home date. Thankfully they took care of it in 4 games, and didn't risk a sprained ankle or something, which always seems to happen when we mess around with a team that we should've beaten quicker. Thanks for coming, now give us your draft pick. Bring on the Bulls in the playoffs for the first time since Detroit Radio was playing "Three Peat Beat" and Chicago killed that dream.
The Bulls are a scary matchup to me. We've struggled against them, and they're obviously playing well, having swept the defending champs, injured or no. The one thing we've got going for us here is that they don't have a superstar that the refs can give all the calls to. That's the only thing that would scare me more about facing Cleveland. I still think it's dumb that the NBA doesn't re-seed.
I gotta give a call to the Golden State Warriors. I've watched quite a bit of that series, and that's just fun basketball. The atmosphere in Oakland is amazing. Those fans were just going buck the entire game. When the Mavs got an and-one to take a three point lead going to halftime, it took the crowd out a little bit, then Baron Davis goes and nails a half-court shot to get the place rocking again. I don't usually watch out-of-market NBA games, but that series has been a blast. Steven Jackson does some great things out there when he's not being a complete psycho.
Good God. Robert Horry just hit another three with 30 seconds left in a one-point playoff game. How the hell does he keep doing that. And how do teams keep leaving him open in those situations. You know he's getting the ball, and you know he's making the shot if he gets a good look.
White guys in the crowd shouldn't wear basketball jerseys without an undershirt. That really is about the most white-trash thing you can do.
Lastly, there was a lot of stuff on Detroit Bad Boys about Cheick Samb, a Pistons prospect that's been playing overseas. They got him from LA for trading Mo Evans. He's like 7'2" and it sounds like his game is developing nicely. If he keeps that up, we could have a really nice frontcourt with him, Johnson, and Maxiell. Or at least a huge shotblocker to throw in the rotation. Well worth a read.
Let's start with the Wings. The Sharks are showing exactly why I've been so scared of facing them for the last several months. They've just got so many big, young, skilled forwards and they just keep coming at you. Hasek was the only reason that this game wasn't out of hand.
It was a bummer, really, because the Wings looked outstanding in the first period and the first half of the second. Where we really blew this game was not putting in another goal or two in that span. It was kind of similar to the Michigan/Minnesota game in the 2003 Frozen Four in that regard. Once the momentum shifted, the only question was if the Wings could hold on long enough, and it obviously didn't happen.
Our top line has really struggled on the road, with the opposing coach able to get the matchup he wants against them. Plain and simple, Zetterberg and Datsyuk have to be better if we're going to win this series. They were strong in Game 2, which is a big reason we were able to come back and win.
Nabokov was giving up some huge rebounds tonight and we didn't have anyone crashing the net to capitalize. I'm not sure why we haven't had someone in Nabokov's face the entire time like we did against Calgary. Holmstrom being out obviously hurts the Wings' play around the net, but there's still no reason that Bertuzzi and Franzen can't get there. Calder's play in the playoffs has been disappointing as well--but I think he's got a broken hand so that could explain it. Kyle Quincey has been a nice surprise. He hasn't looked out of place at all--getting his first real taste of the NHL in a tough situation.
It goes without saying, but Game 4 is a must-win. There's no way that we're beating the Sharks three times in a row. Hopefully Holmstrom coming back will help make it that much tougher for Nabokov to see the shots coming through, and maybe he can put in one of those juicy rebounds. It's easy to forget that that's a 30 goal scorer out of the lineup for us.
As for the NBA, I'm so happy that series with Orlando is finally over. The only question was if the Pistons would sleep-walk enough to lose a game, or if Mr. Davidson wanted that extra home date. Thankfully they took care of it in 4 games, and didn't risk a sprained ankle or something, which always seems to happen when we mess around with a team that we should've beaten quicker. Thanks for coming, now give us your draft pick. Bring on the Bulls in the playoffs for the first time since Detroit Radio was playing "Three Peat Beat" and Chicago killed that dream.
The Bulls are a scary matchup to me. We've struggled against them, and they're obviously playing well, having swept the defending champs, injured or no. The one thing we've got going for us here is that they don't have a superstar that the refs can give all the calls to. That's the only thing that would scare me more about facing Cleveland. I still think it's dumb that the NBA doesn't re-seed.
I gotta give a call to the Golden State Warriors. I've watched quite a bit of that series, and that's just fun basketball. The atmosphere in Oakland is amazing. Those fans were just going buck the entire game. When the Mavs got an and-one to take a three point lead going to halftime, it took the crowd out a little bit, then Baron Davis goes and nails a half-court shot to get the place rocking again. I don't usually watch out-of-market NBA games, but that series has been a blast. Steven Jackson does some great things out there when he's not being a complete psycho.
Good God. Robert Horry just hit another three with 30 seconds left in a one-point playoff game. How the hell does he keep doing that. And how do teams keep leaving him open in those situations. You know he's getting the ball, and you know he's making the shot if he gets a good look.
White guys in the crowd shouldn't wear basketball jerseys without an undershirt. That really is about the most white-trash thing you can do.
Lastly, there was a lot of stuff on Detroit Bad Boys about Cheick Samb, a Pistons prospect that's been playing overseas. They got him from LA for trading Mo Evans. He's like 7'2" and it sounds like his game is developing nicely. If he keeps that up, we could have a really nice frontcourt with him, Johnson, and Maxiell. Or at least a huge shotblocker to throw in the rotation. Well worth a read.
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