It's time for the yearly event of televised pond hockey in form of NHL All-Star game. This year it's hosted by Ottawa and luckily the Senators have amazed everyone with solid play for the first half of this season. Against all odds, the host team's boys can proudly participate in the rink instead of humbly filling the water bottles for true stars.
Talking about true stars, I need to rant some about the guys that somehow got left out of the ceremonies. The screaming error here is Anaheim's Corey Perry taking the spot that by any standard belongs to the amazing Teemu Selänne. Perry was superb in the second half of last season and got credits for that. However, this season he has been one of the young bulls watching the old man beat them in any category: points, consistency and heart. Come on, NHL, Selänne is breaking all the records in 40+ forwards' history and still hangs in the top-15 in league scoring race. Need to point out that Perry is 6 points behing and -15 lower than Selänne. What a failure.
-- Correction: At least according to ESPN:s Pierre LeBrun, Selänne was asked to join but refused. Too bad. Hats off to Teemu anyway on his point per game pace and all!
Maybe this whole selection should reflect the season heroics a bit more. Now it seems rather arbitrary. Just to point out a few more flukes..
How did you get Patrick Kane ahead of so many forwards that have him beaten in scoring? He's a thrilling player, but Chicago alrady has Hossa and Toews. Guys like Anze Kopitar, James Neal or rejuvenated Patrick Elias should have been considered before Kane. Maybe it's the thrill of seeing him pull off some moves in the shootout competition, who knows..
And how on earth did you guys come up with Logan Couture? He's having a mediocre season in San Jose and should be considered only after perennial All-Stars Marleau and Thornton have refused to come over. Ridiculous!
Ovechkin probably got his ticket from injured Bäckström. Maybe that's the case with a few others here too.
And guys.. you never leave Niklas Lidström out of the All-Stars lineup. Never!
-- Correction: Again, according to ESPN, Lidström requested to pass the festival. Maybe he's had enough of those already to know he's pretty good in the game. Leave it for the kids.
Finally, when you take a look at the goaltenders, you see that the selection board got tired of picking and just took some random guys after Thomas, Lundqvist, Quick and Howard, who all deserve the recognition. Elliott has been fantastic as a backup. But if you started taking backup goalies, you should have gone with Tuukka Rask, who has the best stats in the league after 15 games. Carey Price? Who is this guy to keep getting the love from everyone without much proof to base it on? There's a dozen goalies that have had better seasons so far! Workhorses Fleury, Kiprusoff and Rinne. Solid number ones Niemi, Smith and Luongo. Just to name a few.
Well, it's a relaxed event, but you should keep the serious professionalism until the team has been built. Otherwise you'll risk the few remaining reasons to keep this tradition. For players, young and old, it's always a moment of recognition for a job well done. Please, don't mess it up with personal bias.
2012/01/17
2012/01/10
Half way there
The season is half baked with most teams reaching the 40 game plateau. For some teams it's actually fully baked by now. But anyway, it's time to see where we are with some words on clubs that seem to fill up the headlines this season.
The good teams of 2011-2012 are mostly as expected. Now that Minnesota has had its honeymoon and heading back to the familiar conference basement, there's just the familiar packs like Rangers, Bruins, Flyers, Canucks, Red Wings and Sharks sitting on top of the conferences. Only the disastrous first half by Washington Capitals has produced a quirk in Florida Panthers hovering on the top three in Eastern conference. The funny fact of the day is that the whole Southeast division is below zero in goal difference. The least bad team will make it to the playoffs.
At the moment my money goes for an encore by Boston Bruins. That team is just so talented, deep and tough that it will take a massive effort to squeeze four wins from their hands in a playoff series. In East, the biggest challenger was Pittsburgh, until they ended up losing most of their top tier talent to injuries. Maybe, if the Penguins regroup early enough to make it to the playoffs, they still have a chance for an upset. Philly could match Boston in a brawl series, but don't have the depth in hockey skills to win in a fair game. Rangers have a strong tradition of failing in the end of the season and while they look good now, I don't see them as a contender.
The finals opponent from West will likely be Vancouver Canucks for another try and miss. If they get surprised in the battle for Western crown, there's Chicago Blackhawks to take on the Bruins. That, too, would be a brilliantly entertaining series for the Cup.
It's great to see some spark on the former powerhouses like Ottawa and New Jersey. Maybe this is a sign of another push for the spot in the premier teams' shortlist.
St. Louis Blues are the black horse on this race. They have surprised everyone under new coach Ken Hitchcock by having a very long stretch of hard working and very productive hockey. If they can carry this momentum all the way through the season, who knows how far they can go. Compared to previous years, a playoff spot would already be counted as a success.
The second half of the season will still show us if the disappointments in Washington and Los Angeles can be turned to a sure playoff spot and even a run for the Cup. Hopefully so, both teams are way too talented to not play at their full potential for the fans of hockey.
In the bottom of the standings you can find the teams everyone expected to end up there. Columbus, Edmonton, Calgary, NY Islanders and Carolina are just that bad currently. And out of these, only Edmonton has some justification in being there with its roster full of kids fresh up from junior leagues. They have a bright future unless they lose the core of the team, but the rest of this pack is just sad.
Deep down in the darkness we can also find two potentially great teams in Anaheim Ducks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Both have tremendous talent in their rosters, should have decent supporting cast for the superstars and even have proven goaltending to back it all up. Anaheim even changed their coach to Bruce Boudreau, who had a stellar record from his last position. Despite of all this, both seem to be doomed for the season unless they can limit the losses to half a dozen for the second half.
Next time to look at the standings will be near the regular season end. The last 10 games or so are always a thrill. And naturally a perfect time to show some foresight.
The good teams of 2011-2012 are mostly as expected. Now that Minnesota has had its honeymoon and heading back to the familiar conference basement, there's just the familiar packs like Rangers, Bruins, Flyers, Canucks, Red Wings and Sharks sitting on top of the conferences. Only the disastrous first half by Washington Capitals has produced a quirk in Florida Panthers hovering on the top three in Eastern conference. The funny fact of the day is that the whole Southeast division is below zero in goal difference. The least bad team will make it to the playoffs.
At the moment my money goes for an encore by Boston Bruins. That team is just so talented, deep and tough that it will take a massive effort to squeeze four wins from their hands in a playoff series. In East, the biggest challenger was Pittsburgh, until they ended up losing most of their top tier talent to injuries. Maybe, if the Penguins regroup early enough to make it to the playoffs, they still have a chance for an upset. Philly could match Boston in a brawl series, but don't have the depth in hockey skills to win in a fair game. Rangers have a strong tradition of failing in the end of the season and while they look good now, I don't see them as a contender.
The finals opponent from West will likely be Vancouver Canucks for another try and miss. If they get surprised in the battle for Western crown, there's Chicago Blackhawks to take on the Bruins. That, too, would be a brilliantly entertaining series for the Cup.
It's great to see some spark on the former powerhouses like Ottawa and New Jersey. Maybe this is a sign of another push for the spot in the premier teams' shortlist.
St. Louis Blues are the black horse on this race. They have surprised everyone under new coach Ken Hitchcock by having a very long stretch of hard working and very productive hockey. If they can carry this momentum all the way through the season, who knows how far they can go. Compared to previous years, a playoff spot would already be counted as a success.
The second half of the season will still show us if the disappointments in Washington and Los Angeles can be turned to a sure playoff spot and even a run for the Cup. Hopefully so, both teams are way too talented to not play at their full potential for the fans of hockey.
In the bottom of the standings you can find the teams everyone expected to end up there. Columbus, Edmonton, Calgary, NY Islanders and Carolina are just that bad currently. And out of these, only Edmonton has some justification in being there with its roster full of kids fresh up from junior leagues. They have a bright future unless they lose the core of the team, but the rest of this pack is just sad.
Deep down in the darkness we can also find two potentially great teams in Anaheim Ducks and Tampa Bay Lightning. Both have tremendous talent in their rosters, should have decent supporting cast for the superstars and even have proven goaltending to back it all up. Anaheim even changed their coach to Bruce Boudreau, who had a stellar record from his last position. Despite of all this, both seem to be doomed for the season unless they can limit the losses to half a dozen for the second half.
Next time to look at the standings will be near the regular season end. The last 10 games or so are always a thrill. And naturally a perfect time to show some foresight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
