Hockey Newsletter - November 28 2000
Philly update/downdate
This is the fourth CTVSportsnet.com hockey newsletter of the season, and already the Philadelphia Flyers have been in our doghouse and in our hothouse. This week, we'll just poke 'em with a big stick.
A big goalie stick, to be precise. In back-to-back home games this week, Philly faced two of their rejected netminders and the results weren't pretty, unless you're Garth Snow and Sean Burke.
Pittsburgh's Snow made 36 saves and recorded his first shutout of the season, while Burke's 35 saves helped the Coyotes win their first game in Philadelphia since 1997. Never mind that John LeClair was back on the ice. Never mind that another Bob "don't call me Bobby" Clarke ghost, Eric Lindros, has been cleared by doctors to play for some other team sometime soon.
The Flyers are like the Steinbrenner Yankees of another era... loaded with talent, whiny prima donnas and enough wonky management to trip up another playoff run before it gets off the ground. Then again, that's this week. Stay tuned next week to the see the drama unfold in Bob Clark's (or is it Aaron Spelling's?) City of Brotherly Love.
Ouch! Volume 4
How ironic. Adam Foote has a heel injury. But he's not the only warrior who's been forced to put his feet up for a while: Peter Popovic, Mike Sillinger, Magnus Arvedson, Rick Tocchet and Todd Reirden are also deficient in the healthy foot department to the tune of one; while John Grahame, Ricard Persson and Petr Svoboda are suffering from various ankle ailments.
And is it just us, or is it also ironic that a guy named Hatcher and another named HACKett are out with hand injuries?
Okay, maybe it's just us. But Kevin and Jeff are at the top of the list hands down in this injury category. Others include Aaron Miller, Ian Moran and Bobby Dollas while Ronald Petrovicky and Bob Boughner have bum wrists. And you know how that must hurt!
Who's hot
Remember a couple of months ago? Two teams in a long, hard-fought Stanley Cup Final game? Yes, the New Jersey Devils were there and they eventually won it. But who were they playing again? Ah yes, the Dallas Stars! Almost forgot about them this year, what with Patrick Roy stealing Eddie Belfour's headlines on the police blotter and all.
Dallas and New Jersey are the hottest teams in the league right now, both sporting 5-game winning streaks after mediocre starts. The Stars are no longer the runaway winners of the Pacific Division, as the surprising Coyotes, Sharks and Kings all had great starts. Yet Ken Hitchcock's squad of aging veterans have a lot of pride and won't let go of their Western Crown that easily.
And talk about rising to the challenge: the Devils were in the doghouse a couple of weeks ago, suffering from post-Cup lethargy and falling under the spell of the Moose and his surging Rangers. But since Jason Arnott and Scott Niedermayer have been welcomed back, Lou Lamoriello's Devils are one big happy family again, with one big win streak to boot!
Who's not
All right, we'll say it: Mats Sundin. And this in a week when the New York Islanders lost their eighth in a row? How dare we say Mats is stinkier than that?
Sorry, but it's time we did. In Toronto's last game, a 4-2 loss to rival Ottawa, he managed just one shot on net. No wonder he hasn't had a goal in 13 games. Hmmm... unlucky number, eh Mats? We've been making excuses for him for years now: not a leader, doesn't score the big goal, can't get the team through to the Cup final...
But maybe it's a Toronto thing. CTVSportsnet.com's Jake Daniel says Toronto isn't quite the team it was last year:
"Short, crisp passes and a steady progression down the ice, controlling all the way and relying less and less on the dump and chase. It may not be as flashy as the wide-open scoring machine of the past few seasons, but this new approach may be the ticket to get this team past the third round. Now if only Mats Sundin would cream somebody once in a while..."
Read more at
[retired link]
Who is Canada's team?
It will never be Montreal unless there's revolution somewhere. Toronto? No, most of the country hates the Hogtown Millionaires. The folks in the CTVSportsnet.com fan forum are making a case for a team on the Pacific coast (and they don't mean the Lions.)
The One says this about those crazy Canucks:
"I think that perhaps the best thing about this team this year is their youth. They have stockpiled possibly the best young talent in the league...can you imagine how good they will be in 3 or 4 years? At the start of the year I had difficulty saying with any certainty that the Canucks would even make the playoffs, but now I think they have a good shot at winning their division. The sky truly is the limit with this team. And as for the genius who said Ottawa had more offensive talent than the Canucks, the last time I checked the Canucks were tied for first in the league in goals scored with the high flying Kings. The numbers don't lie. And as for their defence, the last time I checked the Nucks were without their best defenceman, Mattias Ohlund, and yet as of today have won 4 in a row and sit only 1 point behind last years President's Trophy winning St. Louis Blues."
CANADA RULZ concurs:
"Finally we have a team to cheer for. The Nucks are playing their best hockey and it is nice to see that everyone is contributing and the team isn't relying on a few guys to do all the scoring. Jovo sure has been the MVP of the team so far."
me makes a case for another team:
"Umm the Oilers are first in Canada. They have 5 fewer goals for, 1 fewer goal against, 2 more wins... Oilers are 3rd in the west with points and Vancouver is 7th. The Oilers also have at least 3 points more than any eastern conference team. The 'nucks aren't as good as they look right now. They were the same last season. So were the Flames."
The last word goes to Sunz Grey:
"I have to give the Canucks credit! GM Brian Burke really turned this club around when he hired a top coach and somehow pulled off getting the one-two punch of Europe! It's good to see that there's another competitive Canadian team in the NHL! If only the Flames and Habs could take a hint and start making some changes to their own clubs."