Hockey Newsletter - May 11, 2000
If there's a God in heaven...
... please, oh please, don't let it be a New Jersey-Dallas final! Maybe it's because we're still recovering from the sedated state we were placed in during the Toronto-NJ series, but we keep thinking that hockey -- make that NHL hockey -- is still in big trouble. Two years ago, the NHL moved the nets out another foot from the boards to give skaters more room to put pucks in the net. This year during the regular season, Mr. Bettman and the league changed the rules in overtime to make the game more exciting, to get more pucks in the net.
Yet come the post-season, the time when hockey should be at its most thrilling, we're embarrassed to say we're hockey fans. We're starting to think "we gave up a beautifully sunny spring day for another grinding 1-0 game? Are we crazy?" Somehow the NHL never gets around to fixing what is really wrong with the good ol' hockey game. It's become a boring, dull, trap-filled win-by-attrition non-event that awards trophies to teams that put the audience to sleep.
Case in point: love 'em or hate 'em, the Toronto Maple Leafs played an exciting season of hockey. They put bums in seats all over the continent. Yet in the post season, the league allowed those exciting offensive-minded players to be covered in hot Devil oatmeal porridge game in and game out. Seems the refs are supposed to put their whistles away when a clutch-and-grab team has a one-goal lead. The league is asking a lot of us at playoff time, asking us to stay interested in four 7-game series that begin in early spring and end near July 1st. So again: oh please, oh please, don't let it be the Devils and the Stars come Canada Day!
We're not the only ones thinking this way. The fans in the CTVSportsnet.com forums aren't taking any prisoners either.
"my team is out" says:
"Blame expansion for the trapping. All it comes down to is trying to eke through a season. People don't draft based on offensive talent and speed, but most draft picks are about size and defensive capabilities. Drafting a bunch of speed players is too risky because if you don't win enough you might lose your job as GM. Everyone is covering their asses. Coaches don't wanna get fired to so they turn to trapping styles to get better W-L stats to keep their jobs and suddenly the owners wonder why the fan base is down even though your team is winning. It's really pathetic I think.... Now with 2 more expansion teams there's gonna be more big checkers up from the minor leagues filling in the spots and everything is gonna be that much more crappy. Right now everyone is a mirror image of each other aside from 2 or 3 stars on each team (aside from big market teams). I just beg to god that they don't make any more expansion teams before NHL turns into NFL where each year a different team is good and everything is totally unpredictable and lame....boring too."
Are we there yet? part 3
PHILADELPHIA VS. NEW JERSEY -- Will the real goalie please stand up?
We'll ask it again: who the heck is Andy Delmore? This past season was his rookie year with the Flyers. He played in 27 games and averaged .3 points a game. Well, now it's more like .3 points per shift! Philadelphia, which lost four of five games against the Devils this season, may have finally found the way to win a Stanley Cup. In the past, they bought muscle, they bought elite players, they bullied goalies and tried to bully the refs. No Cup.
So this year, they're doing it the old fashioned way: with unknown playoff heroes. John Druce anyone? Lonny Bohonos? With all the soap opera nonsense this season with Bob "don't call me Bobby" Clarke, Eric Lindros, Eric Desjardins and Keith Primeau, the little guys have gone unnoticed. Defenceman Andy Delmore and goalie Brian Boucher may just bring some brotherly love back to a franchise in turmoil. The obstacle, though, is a goalie with different stripes and a team in front of him that will do everything to keep orange and black fellas away from him. And though we like the fairy tales that can still surprise us at playoff time, it may just end up being the experience of Martin Brodeur versus the storybook high of little Brian Boucher.
And what's the chatter in the CTVSportsnet forums? Pensfan says: "I think you guys are underestimating New Jersey's size. They can just as easily match the Flyers in size, strength, and aggression and will likely outscore them too. The Devils have a much better goaltender as well. Boucher didn't have to do much in the pit series because the Pens didn't crowd the net and when they shot it was from a ways out and he almost never had to face a rebound. The Devils on the other hand will crash the net and have the size to outmuscle the Flyer "D" for the rebounds. This should be a rough and tough series but in the end the Devils will prove to be too much and once again as has happened so many times in the recent past, the Flyers will once again lose because of the lack of a big game money goalie and the tears will once again be flowing through the streets of Flyersville."
Got something to add? Rant and Rave in the Fan Forums at:
(retired link)
DALLAS VS. COLORADO -- Speed versus... speed?
Look out Dallas, you're about to face your first post-season competition (no offence to the Oilers, who did give the Stars an early headache.) The LoneStar kids have some of the most talented players in the NHL right now with Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk and Eddie "spread 'em" Belfour playing their best hockey all year. They got enough goals to get past a depleted San Jose team, and played tough defensively in those close 1-goal (yawn) games. But the icemen cometh, wave after wave. While Dallas has 2 solid lines that can score from anywhere on the rink, the Avs have 4 lines that can kill you.
Centres Sakic, Forsberg and Drury can each cause plenty of damage on any given night. And then to have the choice of Tanguay or Yelle as your 4th line guy? Forget about it! On the wings: Deadmarsh, Hejduk and a hungry Andreychuk? Forget about it! A lot has been made of Ray Bourque's drive to the Cup, but this year, it looks like he's only one of many the Avs who are on missions.
As "armenius" says in the fan forum:
"Yup, Colorado. The Avs have something to prove, and they've been doing that ever since Bourque joined them. Here's a team that has still been built mostly by draft, and in my eyes, is still a small market team (Nords).. you just have to try to get around those horrible Denver fans at the games. A series where skill will actually win over smother and bore (and I hope that Modano, Nieuwendyk, Hatcher and Hull get pounded in the process.)" This is a team of players that may not be together much longer. Do they want it this year? You bet!
Calling all Hab fans! Or not.
What are we on about this time, you ask? It used to be that the Montreal Canadiens won a Stanley Cup in every year that ended with a 6 ('46, '56, '66, '76, '86.) That ended in '96 -- though Patrick Roy DID lead the Avs to victory that year. Another interesting Hab tidbit surrounding Cup wins is this: Montreal has never gone 7 years without winning the big one. Well, until this year. Since their unlikely win in '93, the Canadiens have been but a shadow of their firewagon ancestors. But maybe that Montreal Cup drive IS out there, just not in the La Belle Province. On behalf of Hab fans (and to allow non-Hab fans a snicker or two), we want to wish the following players, coaches and GMs good luck as they head into the conference finals:
John LeClair, Mark Recchi, Eric Desjardins, Patrick Roy, Guy Carbonneau, Dave Manson, Mike Keane, Kirk Muller, Scott Thornton, Bob Gainey, Claude Lemieux, Vladimir Malakhov, Larry Robinson.
'nuff said!