Montreal had an awful start to the season. Their defense was still missing power-play quarterback Andrew Markov and free-agent signee Erik Cole was stumbling offensively and not providing the power and size to the Habs' diminutive group of forwards that he was supposed to. So who paid the price? Assistant Coach Perry Pearn. Subsequently the Canadiens have gone 7-2-1 over their past ten games.
The St.Louis Blues, also ravaged by injury, stumbled out of the gates - except for games against the Canucks, but those don't really count right now. They started the season still without uber-talented David Perron (the type of skilled top six guy the Canucks could really use right now, only they passed up in the draft), and quickly lost Andy McDonald. In fact a number of their offensive options have had poor starts to the 2011-12 season, and to sum it up, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is leading the team in scoring. To top it off their star goalie Jaroslav Halak was stinking the joint out so they had to go to journeyman Brian Elliot in net. And who took the fall? Head Coach Davis Payne.
The Blues' leadership duo of Doug Armstrong and John Davidson decided it was time to make a change, and if you thought the Canadiens were under pressure for their slow start consider the fact that there's new ownership rolling in to town in St. Louis and it's not exactly like new owners to keep a front office that is underachieving. Armstron and Davidson were happy to take Ken Hitchcock's salary off of Columbus' books and since he has turned the team around, saving the season and a lot of jobs, as the Blues have gone 6-3-1 in their past ten games.
There's some sort of recurring theme here isn't there?
In Vancovuer there's a total lack of secondary scoring and as always, injuries to key defenseman, and of course a goaltending controversy on top of it all. If hockey-mad Montreal can make a personnel change this early in the season why can't the Canucks?
Alain Vigneault got this team to within one win of the Stanley Cup last season, surely he should be afforded some grace in this tough start, right?
There are those who feel AV's lack of emotion and propensity to engage in unnecessary line-matching duels have actually cost this team, and there's an argument for that too. But each coach has their style and AV is relaxed, unforunately for him it looks like this team needs the type of emotional spark that comes from the top down because it sure isn't igniting in the dressing room amongst this group, as we have seen time and time again.
It's beginning to look like the hiring of Craig MacTavish in Chicago, the Nux AHL affiliate, is infact a safety net against this groups lack of response to their very Zen coach. AV has been (in my opinion) an excellent head coach and wouldn't be hard-up for work if the axe did fall. He has shown an ability to coach any style. When he arrived in Vancovuer he was known as a defensive specialist and then helped mould this team in to one of the top two or three offensive units in the league. But he hasn't shown the ability to alter his personality and it might be his undoing in Van.
Even coming off a Stanley Cup Finals appearance nobody in this league is safe if the results aren't there, and boy are they ever not there.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Fists to Match 'Steel Heart'
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It’s a long way from Ostrava, Czech Republic to the NHL but Adam Polasek knew that’s the road he wanted to travel.
It’s a long way from Ostrava, Czech Republic to the NHL but Adam Polasek knew that’s the road he wanted to travel.
“My dream was always the NHL.” Polasek states, as if there was ever a question about it.
Ostrava sits at the confluence of four major rivers, the second largest city in the Czech Republic next to Prague. It is a heavily industrialized area that during the years of Communist rule was dubbed “Steel Heart of the Republic”. It’s a coal mining town on the Czech-Poland border (one of the most polluted in the European Union) and is not exempt from the current global economic climate; many of the plants are shutting down. Of late Ostrava is better known for exporting big NHL defenseman than coal: Marek Malik, Roman Polak and Filip Kuba to name a few. The average height and weight of the trio is 6’3”, 228 Lb.
Unfortunately Ostrava’s hockey program allows gifted youth to either dominate a watered down Czech junior program or play reduced minutes in the men’s league, so when Adam landed in Fargo, ND for the 2009 IIHF World Under 18 Tournament to play amongst his true peers he knew he’d found a better path to his ultimate goal.
“I didn’t believe the first time but after the World Junior Under-18 in Fargo I had a couple meetings with scouts from the NHL. I started to believe that there was a real interest (in me) and decided to go to Canada.”
Adam soon landed in the QMJHL playing for the PEI Rocket. Prince Edward Island, ‘the Garden of the Gulf’ is a long ways from Ostrava, not just in distance but surroundings also. It may have been hard for a kid from an industrial Eastern European town to adapt to the wide-open landscape of Maritime Canada but it didn’t take long for his game to adjust to the new league.
“Here in Canada there’s a lot more scouts and people who care about your future and take care of you.”
Adam finished the 2009-10 season with 41 points in 66 games. His offense hadn’t fallen off as he transitioned to North American ice, and at 6’3”, 210 Lb. he welcomed the increased physicality and posted 91 PIM on his way to being selected in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Draft by the Vancouver Canucks.
Adam played one more year in PEI before joining the professional ranks. Once he dawned the green and blue of the Canuck’s it didn’t take him long to get noticed. Down 7-1 against a power-house Oiler squad in the 2011 Rookie Tournament Adam decided to do something he’d done only twice in his QMJHL career, fight.
Off a draw in his own zone Adam Polasek dropped the mitts with one of the Western Hockey League’s toughest combatants, Oiler prospect Colten Teubert. While Teubert, the experienced pugilist, got the jump on Adam it was the Czech defender that delivered a knock-out punch to the jaw of the young Oiler defenseman. It is about as clean as a blow can land amidst the elbow pads, shoulder pads, helmets, visors and jerseys that obstruct the space between hockey brawlers, and it was an absolute hay-maker.
Following the play the camera panned from a bleary-eyed Teubert, wiping blood from his face and straining his neck while adjusting his aching jaw, to Canucks’ prospect team coach Craig MacTavish and focused on him for an extended period of time as he stood on the bench mouth agape, eyes looking at nothing in particular, awestruck by what he just witnessed.
“He (MacTavish) was a little surprised but I was surprised also.” Adam laughs. “I know the guy after had a concussion and a broken nose, so ya, it was a pretty good punch.”
“I’m not a really big fighter or something like that, it just happened. The score was 7-1 and we had nothing to lose. I saw him, a big tough guy, so I fought him. Last year in the Quebec league I fought just twice.”
Polasek now plays for MacTavish in Chicago with the AHL Wolves. Through the first ten games of the season he’s set up a couple goals and is a plus-2. He hasn’t made another foray in to fist-to-cuffs but he does still use his physical gifts to his benefit.
He’s paired up with slick puck-mover Sebastian Erixon on a young Wolves’ defense corpse that features Chris Tanev, Yann Sauve and Kevin Connauton, all three played last year when the Canucks’ AHL affiliate was the Manitoba Moose.
“I think Yann and Kevin, they have already one year in pro, so all the questions I have or for help I’m going to ask them. They’re helping me a lot. They know what I should expect and what I should be prepared for.”
“I’ve already set up all the stuff outside of hockey, living and stuff. Now I’m in my routine and everyday I’m going to the rink, practicing; it’s starting to feel like any normal season.”
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Life without Lou
The cloud of mystery hovering about Roberto Luongo's upper body injury is even thicker than the fog he usually plays in each October, but just as he is rounding in to form Lou is sidelined. This in the midst of rumors the Canucks are interested in Evgeny Nabokov and the surprising back-to-back starst Lou got in Southern California. The play that speculatively caused the injury, a Mark Streit point shot that struck Luongo in the mask while he lunged cross-crease, seemed to have strained Lou's groin, a problem area for him in the past, but the team is calling it an upper body injury, and they're not going much further than that.
Could Luongo be suffering concussion like symptoms? The shot was hard enough to dent the cage of the mask but a major league catcher might take a 90/MPH foul tipped fastball to the mush once or twice a week during a 162 game season using the exact same gear so it doesn't seem likely that even a hard shooting Streit could concuss a goalie with a puck that strikes him flush in the mask. Directly after the play Cory Schneider was seen loosening up incase he had to come in for Lou, but Lou finished the game and did say he felt fine but missed two practices leading to the Nux confirming Schneider as the starter Wednesday at home against Chicago. Eddie Lack will likely be recalled from the Wolves to back-up Schneider until Lou is healthy.
Are the Canucks so tight-lipped because they allowed their big-money goalie to stay in a game while concussed and didn't issue base-line testing or sit Lou in the quiet room? Everyone seems to think that Alain Vigneault's referencing of the recent Buffalo/Boston goalie running incident alluded to the player/goalie contact issue, but maybe it had more to do with the fact that Sabres goalie Ryan Miller finished that game after being steamrolled by Bruin power-forward Milan Lucic and later was diagnosed with a concussion. It's evident that the team still kneels to Luongo's authority on many subjects as clearly demostrated in last year's playoffs; is there a chance they wanted to pull Lou from the Islander game to abide by the league's new concussion diagnosis rules but were veto'd by Louie?
All politicking aside there are bigger issues at hand here: what does this mean for the Canucks?
Cory Schneider has been saying all the right things as the better goalie stuck backing up the guy who is supposed to be number one. He's an RFA in the final season of a two year pact with the Canucks, but his restricted status does little to assure the team's brass and fanbase that he can be kept as a number one goalie playing second fiddle. If they go to arbitration, which isn't the Canucks style, it will get ugly, a lot ugglier than with a depth forward or role player, and Cory will likely get his due meaning the team won't be able to afford him anyway. Money aside they won't be able to sign him because it's not about the dollars but the opportunity to play number-one minutes and that's something the Canucks can't offer him, so if he isn't moved before the end of the season and they don't come to an agreement before the start of free agency they probably won't even have to worry about arbitration because he'll be getting an offer sheet from any of the many teams in the league that would kill to have a Cory Schneider. Of course the Canucks could also lose him on their own terms and trade his rights but that would hugely diminish his trade value which right now would be sky-high considering Semyon Varlamov netted a first and second round pick as an unsigned RFA rumored to be heading back home to Russia.
Luongo is a polarizing personality. Some of his comments in the media, as well as his interaction with the club and it's staff, haven't been great for his image, and his play at key times for the Canucks has been undeniably poor, but, he did get this team to within one game of the Stanley Cup and was a Vezina nominee...see what I mean, he's about as polarizing as a compass. Some people still love to Lou him when he makes a big save, others just see an albotross hanging from the neck of this organization for the next decade. Really, for the numbers he puts up his cap-hit isn't bad, it's the length of his retirement contract and the presence of Cory Schneider that get people upset.
Clearly the current structure of the Canucks goaltending position is about to change. The Canucks always say they have two number one goalies and in the face of years of Schneider trade rumors have said they intend to keep him around, and why wouldn't they, he's their best goalie, but now their hand is being forced.
Lou won't be out long, but if this injury somehow turns in to a Sidney Crosby-like episode then this team is going to be faced with some very hard decisions.
Another thing to consider is that Cory Schneider has never had to play under the pressures of being the starting goalie for a powerhouse NHL team. He has excelled in the some-what relaxed world of back-up, playing road games against lesser opponents, but now he is the number one goalie until Luongo is healthy. He should continue to play great hockey, but what if he doesn't?
Could Luongo be suffering concussion like symptoms? The shot was hard enough to dent the cage of the mask but a major league catcher might take a 90/MPH foul tipped fastball to the mush once or twice a week during a 162 game season using the exact same gear so it doesn't seem likely that even a hard shooting Streit could concuss a goalie with a puck that strikes him flush in the mask. Directly after the play Cory Schneider was seen loosening up incase he had to come in for Lou, but Lou finished the game and did say he felt fine but missed two practices leading to the Nux confirming Schneider as the starter Wednesday at home against Chicago. Eddie Lack will likely be recalled from the Wolves to back-up Schneider until Lou is healthy.
Are the Canucks so tight-lipped because they allowed their big-money goalie to stay in a game while concussed and didn't issue base-line testing or sit Lou in the quiet room? Everyone seems to think that Alain Vigneault's referencing of the recent Buffalo/Boston goalie running incident alluded to the player/goalie contact issue, but maybe it had more to do with the fact that Sabres goalie Ryan Miller finished that game after being steamrolled by Bruin power-forward Milan Lucic and later was diagnosed with a concussion. It's evident that the team still kneels to Luongo's authority on many subjects as clearly demostrated in last year's playoffs; is there a chance they wanted to pull Lou from the Islander game to abide by the league's new concussion diagnosis rules but were veto'd by Louie?
All politicking aside there are bigger issues at hand here: what does this mean for the Canucks?
Cory Schneider has been saying all the right things as the better goalie stuck backing up the guy who is supposed to be number one. He's an RFA in the final season of a two year pact with the Canucks, but his restricted status does little to assure the team's brass and fanbase that he can be kept as a number one goalie playing second fiddle. If they go to arbitration, which isn't the Canucks style, it will get ugly, a lot ugglier than with a depth forward or role player, and Cory will likely get his due meaning the team won't be able to afford him anyway. Money aside they won't be able to sign him because it's not about the dollars but the opportunity to play number-one minutes and that's something the Canucks can't offer him, so if he isn't moved before the end of the season and they don't come to an agreement before the start of free agency they probably won't even have to worry about arbitration because he'll be getting an offer sheet from any of the many teams in the league that would kill to have a Cory Schneider. Of course the Canucks could also lose him on their own terms and trade his rights but that would hugely diminish his trade value which right now would be sky-high considering Semyon Varlamov netted a first and second round pick as an unsigned RFA rumored to be heading back home to Russia.
Luongo is a polarizing personality. Some of his comments in the media, as well as his interaction with the club and it's staff, haven't been great for his image, and his play at key times for the Canucks has been undeniably poor, but, he did get this team to within one game of the Stanley Cup and was a Vezina nominee...see what I mean, he's about as polarizing as a compass. Some people still love to Lou him when he makes a big save, others just see an albotross hanging from the neck of this organization for the next decade. Really, for the numbers he puts up his cap-hit isn't bad, it's the length of his retirement contract and the presence of Cory Schneider that get people upset.
Clearly the current structure of the Canucks goaltending position is about to change. The Canucks always say they have two number one goalies and in the face of years of Schneider trade rumors have said they intend to keep him around, and why wouldn't they, he's their best goalie, but now their hand is being forced.
Lou won't be out long, but if this injury somehow turns in to a Sidney Crosby-like episode then this team is going to be faced with some very hard decisions.
Another thing to consider is that Cory Schneider has never had to play under the pressures of being the starting goalie for a powerhouse NHL team. He has excelled in the some-what relaxed world of back-up, playing road games against lesser opponents, but now he is the number one goalie until Luongo is healthy. He should continue to play great hockey, but what if he doesn't?
Sunday, November 13, 2011
As deep as it gets
After a win tonight at home against the Islander the Canucks will move above .500 with a 9-8-1 and become the sixth team in the West with 19 points, ranging from fifth to tenth. It's been an up and down start to the season, one that has included lengthy road trips and roster turnover, but the Nux seem to be working themselves out of a funk and finding new line combinations. With chemistry in mind here are a few things to consider and a look in to the future and at the current depth charts.
David Booth: No team (perhaps in the history of the league) has ever experienced such a massive roster overhaul in one single offseason as the Florida Panthers did this past summer. The new team made power winger David Booth and his 4.25 Million Dollar cap hit for this and three more seasons expendable. GM Mike Gillis hooked up with one of the Nux favourite trade partners to acquire Booth for a pair of injured veteran forwards, Marco Sturm and Mikael Samuelson. The thought was Booth would find chemistry with his former minor hockey teammate Ryan Kesler, but the two quickly showed they are far too alike to ever co-exist on the same line. No problem! Booth is a character player, and some of his ancillary skills include speed, forechecking and hitting (he's actually fourth among Canuck forwards in hits), this makes him a perfect hit on the third line. He looked good tonight with Cody Hodgson and Maxim Lapierre, who has played his way up the ranks in this young season. That line combined for five points and a plus-6 rating. So, will the Nux pay top-six money for a third line player? As long as Booth is OK with it and they can find this skilled third line the ice time I think they might stick together. They all had atleast 15 minutes of ice tonight.
Mason Raymond: The speedy winger is back skating with the team after joining them part way through the recent six game road trip, but where does he fit in? The Canucks, despite operating at an impressive 86.5%, have the 11th rated PK in the league and Mason Raymond is a big contributor shorthanded. I don't see a player returning from a major injury being traded without first proving himself to be healthy, but if he is he might be expendable. With the current forward depth you have to think he'll be slotted in on the fourth line and the way things are going I don't see him getting up above it. He'll find some extra ice on the PK but if he stays with the Nux he'll be taking on a new role, but only temporarily. He's in the last year of a two-year contract and with the number of other quality top-six guys under pact there's no way he's sticking around to play fourth line and special teams with the Nux. He had an off-year last season that ended in a serious back injury but his skill set is tremendous and some team will pick him up under value and scoop a speedster with 30+ goal potential.
Top Line Shuffle: Alex Burrows might have just lost his job with the twins as Jannik Hansen has finally hit his stride along side the twins. Burr is going to attempt to ignite Ryan Kesler. The two are reunited after their years as valuable depth players, now, they're expected to shore up secondary scoring for a team that sputtered at the most crucial momment last season. If Hansen continues to produce he'll keep his top line posting long term, and if Burr and Kess can find chemistry with Chris Higgins this team is going to make a lot better squads than the New York Islanders look second tier.
I admit I felt the Canucks needed to add another top six option, and we don't know how long this current incarnation of the Nux will last, but they are as of now looking like they're about as good as it gets lines one through four, I mean check out the current depth chart:
Sedin Sedin Hansen
Higgins Kesler Burrows
Hodgson Lapierre Booth
Weise Malhotra *Raymond
There's a lot of guys on this team taking jobs that could be considered below their skillset, but that's what it takes to win.
David Booth: No team (perhaps in the history of the league) has ever experienced such a massive roster overhaul in one single offseason as the Florida Panthers did this past summer. The new team made power winger David Booth and his 4.25 Million Dollar cap hit for this and three more seasons expendable. GM Mike Gillis hooked up with one of the Nux favourite trade partners to acquire Booth for a pair of injured veteran forwards, Marco Sturm and Mikael Samuelson. The thought was Booth would find chemistry with his former minor hockey teammate Ryan Kesler, but the two quickly showed they are far too alike to ever co-exist on the same line. No problem! Booth is a character player, and some of his ancillary skills include speed, forechecking and hitting (he's actually fourth among Canuck forwards in hits), this makes him a perfect hit on the third line. He looked good tonight with Cody Hodgson and Maxim Lapierre, who has played his way up the ranks in this young season. That line combined for five points and a plus-6 rating. So, will the Nux pay top-six money for a third line player? As long as Booth is OK with it and they can find this skilled third line the ice time I think they might stick together. They all had atleast 15 minutes of ice tonight.
Mason Raymond: The speedy winger is back skating with the team after joining them part way through the recent six game road trip, but where does he fit in? The Canucks, despite operating at an impressive 86.5%, have the 11th rated PK in the league and Mason Raymond is a big contributor shorthanded. I don't see a player returning from a major injury being traded without first proving himself to be healthy, but if he is he might be expendable. With the current forward depth you have to think he'll be slotted in on the fourth line and the way things are going I don't see him getting up above it. He'll find some extra ice on the PK but if he stays with the Nux he'll be taking on a new role, but only temporarily. He's in the last year of a two-year contract and with the number of other quality top-six guys under pact there's no way he's sticking around to play fourth line and special teams with the Nux. He had an off-year last season that ended in a serious back injury but his skill set is tremendous and some team will pick him up under value and scoop a speedster with 30+ goal potential.
Top Line Shuffle: Alex Burrows might have just lost his job with the twins as Jannik Hansen has finally hit his stride along side the twins. Burr is going to attempt to ignite Ryan Kesler. The two are reunited after their years as valuable depth players, now, they're expected to shore up secondary scoring for a team that sputtered at the most crucial momment last season. If Hansen continues to produce he'll keep his top line posting long term, and if Burr and Kess can find chemistry with Chris Higgins this team is going to make a lot better squads than the New York Islanders look second tier.
I admit I felt the Canucks needed to add another top six option, and we don't know how long this current incarnation of the Nux will last, but they are as of now looking like they're about as good as it gets lines one through four, I mean check out the current depth chart:
Sedin Sedin Hansen
Higgins Kesler Burrows
Hodgson Lapierre Booth
Weise Malhotra *Raymond
There's a lot of guys on this team taking jobs that could be considered below their skillset, but that's what it takes to win.
Open Season on Masked Men
Leaf Nation heaved a sigh of relief as Ben Scrivens stood on his head in place of injured puck-stop James Reimer but the bloom soon fell off the rose and buds are free falling back to their usual place at the trough. Optimus-Reim remains the only Leaf goalie with a save percentage over .900 as the tanden of Scrivens and Jonas 'The Monster' Gustavsson haven't been able to carry the load.
Reimer has been out since mid October. Gustavsson may have let the nature of Reimer's injury slip by accident but Leafs GM Brian Burke quickly clarified that Reimer was being treated for "concussion-like symptoms" after what was innitially reported as whip-last following a collision with Canadiens' forward Bryan Gionta. No one outside of team staff really knows what's going on with Reimer.
Whatever the case an NHL team lost the key copponent to their success and have since plummeted in the standings. It doesn't matter if this happened to the centre of the hockey universe in Leaf Land or the stark interior of the St. Pete Times Forum, it's a big problem, one that is escalating quickly.
Since the Reimer hit there has been a rash of goalie contact, most recently in a heated game between division rivals Buffalo and Boston, when Bruin forward Milan Lucic drilled a wandering Ryan Miller, (If you haven't seen Miller's post game interview click the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvE82q4yKEM and check out the hit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2AMdBpaA40), prompting Miller to address the issue of contact with the goalie following the game.
If Miller had been seriously injured on the play the Sabres wouldn't be as hard off as the Leafs were for losing their number one goalie as Sabre back-up Jonas Enroth acutally has better numbers than Miller this season, but the point is not how an NHL team can expect to cope with the loss of their number one netminder, but why they should have to.
The debate has long raged that a goalie out of the crease should be fair game. The issue of contact with the goaltender has been limited since the implimentation of the trapezoid, and we aren't seeing goalies exploit their cloak of invincibility as much as we did pre-lockout, but one would have to reason that this type of flagrant goaltender contact would not exist if the game were still policed by the players. The way NHL referees mete out penalties in todays game the risk of taking any unnecessary fouls is too high, so teams are forced to watch as their goalies are compromised time and again.
Let's consult the NHL rule book:
Rule 69 - Interference on the Goaltender: "Intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted."
Amazingly an NHL rule sounds pretty cut and dry to me. Clearly contacting the goaltender on purpose is not allowable in the NHL, so, why are so many tendies getting tenderized?
Could it be that Bruin's Vezina winner Tim Thomas threw down the gauntlet in game three of the Stanley Cup Finals this past June when he body checked a rightfully unsuspecting Sedin in his own crease? Has goalie contact become a two way street? I'm sure nobody wants to see that, least of all the goalies, so what's the answer?
I personally would like to see the rule inforced as it reads, that intentional goalie contact, like Lucic's very purposeful steamrolling of wee Ryan Miller, be penalized. Everyone knows the insitgator rule has got to go, so to balance it out that power grubbing law should be done away with so that if a forward bumps your goalie he can expect both a penalty and a pummeling as well as a resulting power play for the team defending their crease.
Wake up NHL. The NFL has gone to drastic measures to protect their most pivotal player, the quarterback, while the NHL has unleased the dogs of war on its most defenseless.
Reimer has been out since mid October. Gustavsson may have let the nature of Reimer's injury slip by accident but Leafs GM Brian Burke quickly clarified that Reimer was being treated for "concussion-like symptoms" after what was innitially reported as whip-last following a collision with Canadiens' forward Bryan Gionta. No one outside of team staff really knows what's going on with Reimer.
Whatever the case an NHL team lost the key copponent to their success and have since plummeted in the standings. It doesn't matter if this happened to the centre of the hockey universe in Leaf Land or the stark interior of the St. Pete Times Forum, it's a big problem, one that is escalating quickly.
Since the Reimer hit there has been a rash of goalie contact, most recently in a heated game between division rivals Buffalo and Boston, when Bruin forward Milan Lucic drilled a wandering Ryan Miller, (If you haven't seen Miller's post game interview click the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvE82q4yKEM and check out the hit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2AMdBpaA40), prompting Miller to address the issue of contact with the goalie following the game.
If Miller had been seriously injured on the play the Sabres wouldn't be as hard off as the Leafs were for losing their number one goalie as Sabre back-up Jonas Enroth acutally has better numbers than Miller this season, but the point is not how an NHL team can expect to cope with the loss of their number one netminder, but why they should have to.
The debate has long raged that a goalie out of the crease should be fair game. The issue of contact with the goaltender has been limited since the implimentation of the trapezoid, and we aren't seeing goalies exploit their cloak of invincibility as much as we did pre-lockout, but one would have to reason that this type of flagrant goaltender contact would not exist if the game were still policed by the players. The way NHL referees mete out penalties in todays game the risk of taking any unnecessary fouls is too high, so teams are forced to watch as their goalies are compromised time and again.
Let's consult the NHL rule book:
Rule 69 - Interference on the Goaltender: "Intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted."
Amazingly an NHL rule sounds pretty cut and dry to me. Clearly contacting the goaltender on purpose is not allowable in the NHL, so, why are so many tendies getting tenderized?
Could it be that Bruin's Vezina winner Tim Thomas threw down the gauntlet in game three of the Stanley Cup Finals this past June when he body checked a rightfully unsuspecting Sedin in his own crease? Has goalie contact become a two way street? I'm sure nobody wants to see that, least of all the goalies, so what's the answer?
I personally would like to see the rule inforced as it reads, that intentional goalie contact, like Lucic's very purposeful steamrolling of wee Ryan Miller, be penalized. Everyone knows the insitgator rule has got to go, so to balance it out that power grubbing law should be done away with so that if a forward bumps your goalie he can expect both a penalty and a pummeling as well as a resulting power play for the team defending their crease.
Wake up NHL. The NFL has gone to drastic measures to protect their most pivotal player, the quarterback, while the NHL has unleased the dogs of war on its most defenseless.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Radio, someone still loves you
While the Canucks were on the road in sunny California, hitting the links and soaking up the sunshine, I was somewhere in a muddy cut line or overgrown slash on Texada Island with leaky boots and dodging falling Alder limbs.
My fruitless four day hunting trip was highlited by end-of-the-day hot rums and the staticky Team1040 Canuck broadcasts and that was fine by me. I've been raised on the theory that the success of a hunting trip is rarely measured on the hunt.
Radio is a lost art. As a guy who has for the bulk of his life relied on BC Ferries for transport I get a healthy dosage of radio broadcast during ferry line-up waits while BC Ferries brass spend my money on lucrative playoff tickets. Picturing the unseen is so much more vivid than any high definition broadcast could ever make it to be. The mental image of the game is so much more grandiose than can ever be witnessed in moving picture or live action. The aura that surrounds the ancient practice of radio broadcast and the legendary names that made it that way offer something that in-game advertisements and shameless food-product plugs can never provide. I've never lost appreciation for radio broadcast and I never will. It is quite simply from a broadcast spectrum, far superior to television in every way. Radio broadcast compared to television is like baseball before the steroids, J-Lo before Bennifer or British office before the Steve Correl version. They're all essentially the same thing adapting to change, and while one may have become temporarily more popular, to the purist the pryor is prefered.
Three generations of hunters were at camp this year, most of them the friends and family of my hunting partner Alvin "Chicky" Cimglia. You can guess by the family name that as an Anglo-Canadian I was grossly outnumbered by Italians, some who immigrated in their early teen years even. The names of the hunters huddling around the oil barrel stove in the corner of the shack, known to the hunting community in the area as 30-30 Wop St., read like the film credits to a Mob flick: Sylvano, Vito, Felix, of course the mysteriously dubbed "Chicky" to name a few.
Despite the cultural differentials we had two very strong commonalities: a love of the national game, and, poor accuracy - and I'm not talking about the two-holer. Vito, Chicky's brother some 10+ years his senior, explains they were sperated by a sister and the second World War. Chicky, just six when the Cimaglia's uprooted, has no accent, but Vito speaks the warm and hearty tongue of Wop-anese, which makes even meddling hockey commentary Shakespeare. Vito has never returned to Italy but has heard that the unique dialects of each town are being lost because of the public school system. Here at deer camp the dialect is usually that of the common working man, beautifully blue collar and expletive rittled.
Their countrymen is off to a poor start, but Roberto Luongo earns the win in the first of back-to-back games in So-Cal as the Canucks stake an early three goal lead then play kitty bar the door, eaking out a one goal victory. Needless to say they weren't Lou-ing at 30-30 Wop St the next night in Orange County as The Ducks, losers of nine of their past 10 games chased Roberto Luongo after lighting him up for four goals. Tonight the Canucks were on the losing end of a come from behind one goal effort, but their were positives.
Jannik Hansen found some chemistry with the twins notching two late goals and Kevin Bieksa got his first of the season as the Canucks dug deep and showed some resiliency.
Aarom Rome may have cost the Canucks the game with an elbow to the head of Anaheim rookie Devante Smith-Pelly, but he has shown how much the team misses his physical play. Hopefully the ridiculous suspension he meted out to him in last year's Stanley Cup Final series earns him a pass from new league disciplinarian Brendan Shannahan.
The biggest negative of the 3-3-0 road trip was the decision to play "datfugginaluongo," as he was so often refered to, in back-to-back nights. The benefit would be to get his confidence up, only it's once again shattered. Worse off the obvious negative was the message that playing Lou in back-to-back nights sends to Cory Schneider, and, Canuck fans at large.
I do grasp what AV was trying to accomplish, but a quick positive/negative examination of the scenario quickly quashes the logical man from ever coming to this decision. Unless Schneider was injured that was a bonehead move, no two ways about it, and the tolerance for winnable games being flushed down the perverbial crapper as the Canucks' coaching staff try to massage Luongo's ego is at an all time low, just like AVs popularity rating. There cannot be another instance of Luongo favouritism until his play, not his pay, dictate that he is the number one guy.
The best part about the radio was not having to see another early night for Luongo, rather enjoy listening to the rest of the team play their hearts out to try to mount a four goal comeback in the final period of the last game of a long six game road trip.
My fruitless four day hunting trip was highlited by end-of-the-day hot rums and the staticky Team1040 Canuck broadcasts and that was fine by me. I've been raised on the theory that the success of a hunting trip is rarely measured on the hunt.
Radio is a lost art. As a guy who has for the bulk of his life relied on BC Ferries for transport I get a healthy dosage of radio broadcast during ferry line-up waits while BC Ferries brass spend my money on lucrative playoff tickets. Picturing the unseen is so much more vivid than any high definition broadcast could ever make it to be. The mental image of the game is so much more grandiose than can ever be witnessed in moving picture or live action. The aura that surrounds the ancient practice of radio broadcast and the legendary names that made it that way offer something that in-game advertisements and shameless food-product plugs can never provide. I've never lost appreciation for radio broadcast and I never will. It is quite simply from a broadcast spectrum, far superior to television in every way. Radio broadcast compared to television is like baseball before the steroids, J-Lo before Bennifer or British office before the Steve Correl version. They're all essentially the same thing adapting to change, and while one may have become temporarily more popular, to the purist the pryor is prefered.
Three generations of hunters were at camp this year, most of them the friends and family of my hunting partner Alvin "Chicky" Cimglia. You can guess by the family name that as an Anglo-Canadian I was grossly outnumbered by Italians, some who immigrated in their early teen years even. The names of the hunters huddling around the oil barrel stove in the corner of the shack, known to the hunting community in the area as 30-30 Wop St., read like the film credits to a Mob flick: Sylvano, Vito, Felix, of course the mysteriously dubbed "Chicky" to name a few.
Despite the cultural differentials we had two very strong commonalities: a love of the national game, and, poor accuracy - and I'm not talking about the two-holer. Vito, Chicky's brother some 10+ years his senior, explains they were sperated by a sister and the second World War. Chicky, just six when the Cimaglia's uprooted, has no accent, but Vito speaks the warm and hearty tongue of Wop-anese, which makes even meddling hockey commentary Shakespeare. Vito has never returned to Italy but has heard that the unique dialects of each town are being lost because of the public school system. Here at deer camp the dialect is usually that of the common working man, beautifully blue collar and expletive rittled.
Their countrymen is off to a poor start, but Roberto Luongo earns the win in the first of back-to-back games in So-Cal as the Canucks stake an early three goal lead then play kitty bar the door, eaking out a one goal victory. Needless to say they weren't Lou-ing at 30-30 Wop St the next night in Orange County as The Ducks, losers of nine of their past 10 games chased Roberto Luongo after lighting him up for four goals. Tonight the Canucks were on the losing end of a come from behind one goal effort, but their were positives.
Jannik Hansen found some chemistry with the twins notching two late goals and Kevin Bieksa got his first of the season as the Canucks dug deep and showed some resiliency.
Aarom Rome may have cost the Canucks the game with an elbow to the head of Anaheim rookie Devante Smith-Pelly, but he has shown how much the team misses his physical play. Hopefully the ridiculous suspension he meted out to him in last year's Stanley Cup Final series earns him a pass from new league disciplinarian Brendan Shannahan.
The biggest negative of the 3-3-0 road trip was the decision to play "datfugginaluongo," as he was so often refered to, in back-to-back nights. The benefit would be to get his confidence up, only it's once again shattered. Worse off the obvious negative was the message that playing Lou in back-to-back nights sends to Cory Schneider, and, Canuck fans at large.
I do grasp what AV was trying to accomplish, but a quick positive/negative examination of the scenario quickly quashes the logical man from ever coming to this decision. Unless Schneider was injured that was a bonehead move, no two ways about it, and the tolerance for winnable games being flushed down the perverbial crapper as the Canucks' coaching staff try to massage Luongo's ego is at an all time low, just like AVs popularity rating. There cannot be another instance of Luongo favouritism until his play, not his pay, dictate that he is the number one guy.
The best part about the radio was not having to see another early night for Luongo, rather enjoy listening to the rest of the team play their hearts out to try to mount a four goal comeback in the final period of the last game of a long six game road trip.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Trade Thoughts: Too Many Swordsmen
The news of Mason Raymond's imminent return does little to disuade my belief that Canucks GM Mike Gillis is still looking at improving his top-six forwards.
Raymond is a great penalty killer, and despite an off-year last season he has a skill set that we've seen produce a 25 goal campaign and there is no reason ot believe he can't re-establish that level of production or more. But can he do that coming off a horrific back injury? Probably not. They will likely ease Raymond back in to regular duty in the bottom-six forwards and give him as much PK time as they feel he can handle.
It seems like a crowded house with Raymond returning but is it? We saw the Nux break out in a big way against the hated Hawks, but five of their six goals were scored on the powerplay and nobody doubts their ability to create offense in an odd-man situation, it's 5-on5 that the Canucks need help with.
This leads me to today's trade topic, the Buffal Sabres. Terry Pegula rode in to Buffalo like a White Knight and promptly bought up some of the leagues most sought after free agents. The new bodies in Buffalo have pushed out some of last year's mainstays, namely Tyler Ennis and Brad Boyes.
Ennis posted 49 points as a rookie, playing in all 82 regular season games last year, but is scoreless to start the season. He's an RFA after this season and fellow diminutive yougnster Nate Gerbe seems to have eaten his lunch. Luke Adam is this year's super-rookie in Buffalo starting at a point-per-game pace. Putting even further pressure on Ennis is the crop of young stars still coming down the pipe in Buffalo, a list that includes the likes of Marcus Foligno, Corey Tropp, Paul Szezchura and Zack Kassian.
Boyes' production has suffered greatly in Buffalo. The former 40 goal man has posted only 6 points in 14 games behind a long list of gifted forwards. He's a UFA at the end of the season and is likely to be moved as a rental with the progression of young stars and need to find more ice for other veteran forwards like Ville Leino, Derek Roy and Drew Stafford.
Ennis makes more sense in Vancouver as he is a shifty playmaker that would probabl excel feeding pucks to David Booth and Ryan Kesler, but Boyes will go cheap, much less than what a 40 goal calibre forward usually would around the trade deadline and Gillis probably feels he has enough long term contracts in the top six as it stands so adding a UFA gives him flexibility.
Boyes for a 2nd rounder? I don't see him fitting in in Buffalo much longer and his goal scoring prowess could certainly pick up the Nux even strength play.
Raymond is a great penalty killer, and despite an off-year last season he has a skill set that we've seen produce a 25 goal campaign and there is no reason ot believe he can't re-establish that level of production or more. But can he do that coming off a horrific back injury? Probably not. They will likely ease Raymond back in to regular duty in the bottom-six forwards and give him as much PK time as they feel he can handle.
It seems like a crowded house with Raymond returning but is it? We saw the Nux break out in a big way against the hated Hawks, but five of their six goals were scored on the powerplay and nobody doubts their ability to create offense in an odd-man situation, it's 5-on5 that the Canucks need help with.
This leads me to today's trade topic, the Buffal Sabres. Terry Pegula rode in to Buffalo like a White Knight and promptly bought up some of the leagues most sought after free agents. The new bodies in Buffalo have pushed out some of last year's mainstays, namely Tyler Ennis and Brad Boyes.
Ennis posted 49 points as a rookie, playing in all 82 regular season games last year, but is scoreless to start the season. He's an RFA after this season and fellow diminutive yougnster Nate Gerbe seems to have eaten his lunch. Luke Adam is this year's super-rookie in Buffalo starting at a point-per-game pace. Putting even further pressure on Ennis is the crop of young stars still coming down the pipe in Buffalo, a list that includes the likes of Marcus Foligno, Corey Tropp, Paul Szezchura and Zack Kassian.
Boyes' production has suffered greatly in Buffalo. The former 40 goal man has posted only 6 points in 14 games behind a long list of gifted forwards. He's a UFA at the end of the season and is likely to be moved as a rental with the progression of young stars and need to find more ice for other veteran forwards like Ville Leino, Derek Roy and Drew Stafford.
Ennis makes more sense in Vancouver as he is a shifty playmaker that would probabl excel feeding pucks to David Booth and Ryan Kesler, but Boyes will go cheap, much less than what a 40 goal calibre forward usually would around the trade deadline and Gillis probably feels he has enough long term contracts in the top six as it stands so adding a UFA gives him flexibility.
Boyes for a 2nd rounder? I don't see him fitting in in Buffalo much longer and his goal scoring prowess could certainly pick up the Nux even strength play.
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