Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Weekes -79

While listening to the Penguins-Devils radio broadcast last night on Pittsburgh's 105.9 WXDX, I heard a story from color-man and ex-Penguin Phil Bourque (he's the Bourque with two Stanley Cup rings, mind you) that I hadn't heard before.

Devils goalie Kevin Weekes was brought in this year to back up future HHOF'er Martin Brodeur. Weekes, throughout his career, including stints with Carolina and the NY Rangers, had worn #80, as a tribute to legend NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice. When he got to New Jersey this year, he initially donned the number until one day during the pre-season when he walked into the locker room to discover all of is equipment had been changed to #1. Apparently, Mr. New Jersey Devil, Lou Lamoriello, had told the Devils' equipment guy to go into the locker room and change Weeks' number - no questions asked and without Weekes' knowledge or permission. Lamoriello is an "old school" guy and doesn't allow his players to wear high numbers. Weekes and Lamoriello never spoke about it - Weekes just accepted it because he wanted to be part of the team and moved on. Lamoriello is a system guy, a team guy, and doesn't like anybody to stand out from the pack.


You can't argue with success; but still, I don't know whether to love or hate Lou for something like this. It's approaching, but not quite, Steinbrenner territory.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Tortorella questions again?!

Listen, I understand the Lightning haven't won a road game yet. I understand they were up 4-1 on home ice vs. Atlanta and ended up losing 6-4. But what I don't understand is why every year since winning the Stanley Cup, questions about Head Coach John Tortorella's job have arisen.

NEWSFLASH: Filip Kuba and Brad Lukowich are your top two on Defense! Johan Holmqvist and Marc Denis are your one-two in net!

You have about half your salary being paid to three forwards (Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards). Sure they're great forwards and worth the money they make, but you need some Defense, man!
Maybe Jay Feaster should have kept Khabibulin and let one of those three go. This has been their problem since they won the Cup and will continue to be their problem until they let one of them go.

In this scenario, Tampa Bay is a good team - a playoff team most years. But that's all they are and all they will be until one of the big three forwards leaves town. Everyone needs to accept this and get off of Tortorella's back.

Tsn.ca article

Flyers/Pens Preview (more numbers)

You should know by now that the Penguins swept the Flyers last year - 8-0. Yep...


Philly got shutout by the Rangers on Monday, while the Penguins shutout the Devils.

Flyers- 4-0 home, 4-5 road.

Philly is getting outshot badly. They have only outshot their opponents 3 times this season.
In their last 7 games, they have been outshot by a combined 101 shots! That includes getting outshot by 20 vs NJ (win), 19 by Florida (loss), 22 by MTL (loss) and last night by 15 vs NYR (loss). Unreal.

Because of that, Martin Biron has been standing on his head every night. If it weren't for him, Philly would maybe be a .500 team.
He's seen 396 shots in only 11 games. The only 2 goalies to see more rubber this season have played in more games: Kiprusoff - 398 in 15, Vokoun - 420 in 13.

If the Pens outshoot the Flyers badly like every other team has been, and they still can't score, then something's really wrong with the Pens. But they will score. Crosby plays up for big games and every time the Penguins play the Flyers it's a huge game.

Only questions are:
1) Could Sabourin keeps it up?
2) Can any Penguins besides Sid and Geno score?
3) Is Simon Gagne over his concussion-like symptoms?
4) Can Joffrey Lupul convert some more of his shots on goal? (Lupul is 2nd on the team in SOG, but only has an 11.1 Shooting Percentage. The only other regular forward with a lower percentage is R.J. Umberger, who started the season injured.)

Monday, November 5, 2007

Running Some Easy Numbers

One of my favorite stats to keep tabs on NHL teams to help determine who's better than who when teams have similar point totals or who's better or worse than their record may show is goal differential. Total goals scored - Total goals scored against = goal differential. It's sort of a plus/minus for teams rather than players.

Not surprisingly, the top three teams p0ints-wise are also tops in goal differential:

1. Ottawa + 19
2. Detroit +18
3. Carolina +16

And the bottom 3 are all within the bottom 3 of their respective conferences points-wise:

30. Atlanta -20
29. Edmonton -15
28. Tampa Bay -8

But here's the interesting numbers:

-The Northwest-leading Minnesota Wild have the 3rd most points in the league (18), but is merely 8th overall (+4) in G.D.
-Columbus and the New York Rangers have an NHL best 23 goals against so far, but Columbus is +13 in G.D., while the Rangers have scored an NHL-worst 23 goals leaving them with an even (0) G.D. Atlanta has the worst G.D., as posted above, but have scored 14 more goals on the season than the Rangers.
-Toronto must be playing some wild games considering they have matched Atlanta's terrible goals against number (57), but are only a -5 and tied for 5th in the Eastern standings. Toskala? Raycroft? McCabe? Bueller?
- While the Sharks lead the Pacific in the standings, they have a -1 goal differential. Oddly enough this is tied for best G.D. in their division (Los Angeles). That's right - no team in the Pacific has even matched the amount of goals they've given up yet. Funny, considering I heard someone on the NHL Network describe the Southeast division as the "Southleast" again. At least the Southeast has Carolina; who's the other non-traditional division got right now?

Home Vs. Road

Philadelphia - Undefeated at home (4-0), .500 on road (4-4)
NY Rangers - 6-2 at MSG, 1 point in 5 road games (0-4-1)
Tampa Bay - 5-1-1 at home, 0-6 on the road. Good enough for 13th place in the east. Ouch.

San Jose - 1-3 at home, 6-3-1 on the road. They must have a thing for the road whites.
Colorado - 6-1 at home, 2-4 on road.
Vancouver and Phoenix - both 1-6 at home. Phoenix I can understand, but Vancouver winning one out of seven games at home is crazy. I don't care who's not scoring for the Canucks (apparently everybody).





Fanfare for Rivalry Weeks

Can you feel the excitement in the NHL-air?

Surely you noticed the plethora of billboards, newspaper ads, tv spots about the next two weeks? And talk radio is abuzz with enough chatter about the NHL's first Rivalry Weeks to make you forget all about who won the Colts-Patriots matchup yesterday.

Maybe if the NHL weren't guided by such incompetency...


I have to give the league credit for coming up with a positive in terms of scheduling and making the most out of the 8 divisional games each team will play against each other.
Twice this season, including the last two weeks of the regular season, every team will play from 7-9 straight games against their divisional rivals. Yes, it's only November, and the end of the season Rivalry Weeks will have more importance and excitement - but, does anyone even know it's happening right now?
I wouldn't be surprised if a number of dedicated hockey fans had no idea these Rivalry Weeks were even taking place and won't until some time next week when they start cursing the NHL schedule makers because the Preds are playing the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks for the second week in a row!
Again, I give the NHL credit for having a good idea and attempting to make the 8 divisional games mean more and hopefully be played with more vigor than usual. But, ultimately, it's the same problem as having a great on-ice product filled with young superstars, but no one is watching because you're on the VS network.
One step forward, two steps back.

The NHL obviously knows nothing about selling the game. Do the next two weeks even have a proper name? Is it Rivalry Weeks? I think I made that up.
God help us all.
 
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