A footnote to history

Talk to any intelligent hockey fan and they will tell you that the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in sports to win, in fact most intelligent sports fans will agree.

• It takes 16 wins, 4 seven game series after an 82 game regular season.
• NFL takes at most 4 wins, at least 3, all of which are single elimination, following a 16 game regular season
• MLB uses 1 best of 5, and 2 best of 7 series, following a 182 (or there about) regular season
• NBA recently adopted an NHL style playoff, previously their first round was best of 5 (rather than 7)

Last night the Canes lost 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and 15 minutes later when Montreal won 2-0 over Boston, it became mathematically impossible for the Canes to make the post season. They become the 3rd team in NHL history to miss the playoffs following winning the Cup. They also add another footnote to NHL history as the first time in NHL history that both final teams (Edmonton and Carolina) failed to make the playoffs the following year.

It is disappointing? Yes, the one thing I wanted out of this year was to not have a collapse and endure the mouth-breathers comments about how it was a fluke, etc. Now that it’s done we can reminisce a bit.

The Canes won the Southeast division by 20 points, over the then defending Stanley Cup Champs, Tampa Bay
They only faced elimination 2 times, Game 7 of the Conference Finals against Buffalo and Game 7 of the Finals against Edmonton. Fluke? I don’t think so, you can fluke your way through 1 game, but not a 7 game series.

As much as missing the playoffs causes the Canes to be a footnote in history, the fact that they are still and will always be the 2006 Stanley Cup Champs isn’t diminished at all. When New Jersey won their first cup in 1995 they were considered a bit of a fluke team, it was a lockout shortened season, then they missed the playoffs the next year and the pundits had more ammunition. Now Jersey is a Eastern Conference powerhouse, they haven’t missed the playoffs since that year after the Cup, and won 2 more since then.

There are 16 franchises that have never won the Cup. Enough time has passed at this point that Toronto doesn’t have a band on the active cup (67-68). The 92-93 Canadiens are the last Canadian team to win the cup. The Southeast division winner has won the last two cups. No team captained by a non-north american born player has ever won the Cup.

My picks for this year? Nashville plays for the West, New Jersey for the east, and Broduer wins his 4th Cup.

The etiquette of violence

Any long time hockey fan will tell you, there is an etiquette to fighting (most of the time) in hockey. It’s not staged but there is a protocol that is generally followed when the ‘enforcers’ go at it. Watch the latter half of this video and you’ll hear Laraque (who happened to be mic’ed for the game) accept Ivanans invitation and wish him good luck.

Crazy Crazy Game

I’ve seen some wacky endings to hockey games, Game 1 Stanley cup finals was pretty memorable.  Game 2 of the 2nd round against New Jersey was amazing.  But this one is a top 5 for sure.

The clip doesn’t go into it but eventually Dallas won the shootout but they should have won in regulation.

We got a new defenseman!

Apparently the weather is good enough here for Pronger to stay.  How else do you explain a story about Cory Stillman missing tonights came against the Devil Dogs showing a picture of the great blonde wonder?

Or maybe it’s just an error, but I can dream can’t I?  Though honestly I’d rather have Scott Neidermeyer just for the Animal House references.

Love, Hate, and dedication

Love the Red Wings, hate the Red Wings, it’s hard not to appreciate the class of Steve Yserman.  His jersey now hangs at Joe Louis Arena, as everyone knew it would.  When a player retires there are always a lot of stories about their dedication, their charitable works, what they’ve done for the sport, the town, or the sick kids at the hospital.

As a new father I can’t imagine the converstations that have to happen when something like this happens, it breaks my heart.  But above all it shows true dedication.

Any which way to lose

With apologies to Clint Eastwood.  This road trip has been the pits.  The canes have managed to lose every game on it in every imaginable way.  Outplayed and shutout for 60 minutes?  Check.  Out ref’ed, out played for 40 minutes?  Check.  Outplayed for 40 minutes then showing heart and coming back to force overtime and losing in the extra frame?  Check.  Mailing it in with a 1 goal lead in the third and getting blown out?  Check.

I hope the boys have learned something about themselves on this trip, because it’s been pretty abysmal to watch and nothing good seems to come out of it.  But hopefully things will look up, home cooking is around the corner, and some days off to heal (and lick) their wounds.  Hopefully a reeling opponent to play at home on a Friday night will be just what the doctor ordered. 

Canes: 1 Oilers: 1 McGoo: 1 Leggo: 1

Before the rant begins, hats off to the oilers, they showed up last night.  The canes did for 35 minutes or so, but the Oil was there for 60 minutes, and in my opinion probably would have won regardless of the debacle that was the officiating last night.

The first goal was all Cam’s fault, I know you are 22, but how many times as the Stefan told you not to leave the short side.  On the second Oil goal, McGoo was the lower zone ref, which means he’s responsible for the net and the puck.  Leggo on the other hand is the high official which means he’s responsible for the play away from the puck.  The trip on Williams was about has blatant as they come and Leggo just watched it roll by.  Does Smith still score if Williams isn’t tripped up?  Maybe, but I doubt he even takes the shot because he’s not open and being pressured by a speedy forward.

The third goal I blame squarely on McGoo.  How does that conversation go anyway.  “I’m sorry Mr. Commodore, apparently you have spontaneously started bleeding, but I can’t call anything.” I still don’t get how he didn’t see it, he blew the whistle to stop play because Commodore was injured!  How do I pin the third goal on him you ask?  Discounting the fact is should have been a 4 minute minor, having such a blatant call missed frustrated the canes to no end which in no small way lead to the disarray which Pisani took advantage of. 

Though it burns me that Leggo and McGoo basically handed the game to the Oil, I can’t place all the blame on them.  The power play was anemic, the team looked tired in the third, and the grit was missing. 

I actually feel sad for McGoo (Leggo is not blameless in this though), he’s been reffing for a long time.  Since he’s been around a while he obviously was pretty good at one time.  He must love the game (how do you do it otherwise), but he’s old and he’s slipping.  This is the second game in a row that he’s missing a lot of obvious calls and called things that seasoned announcers can’t find.  The chippy play, the knee call on Williams, and Hedican’s (and probably Commodore’s) high sticks are all directly the fault of McGoo and Leggo not calling stuff throughout the game.  Players are smart, they will take advantage of every loophole and loose interpretation in the rules, that’s what they are paid to do.  If the refs put the whistles away the players are going to push it and people are going to get hurt and the game is going to suck.  I’ve never had a problem getting beat by a better team, or even getting beat by bad luck, but getting beat because the refs want to skate around and stare into the crowd is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

I know Oil Nation has an equal hatred for McGoo because of his blown call during the Dallas game, but I did a little digging and found that 2 of the 3 wins the Oilers had during the SCFs were officiated by McGoo. 

Now I don’t want to leave Mike Leggo out of my rant because he’s just as much to blame as McGoo.  I understand that you are a pair and that there is a veteran ref that kinda leads the pair, but grow a pair and make the calls when you see them.  At no time last night did I see Leggo make a call before McGoo raised his arm.  Why are you even out there if you wait for the other guy on every single play?!  If you won’t make the right call for the sake of the game, do it at least for the sake of your job.

I’ve heard a lot of rumblings about lax officiating creeping back into the game.  In the eastern conference I don’t see it.  I think the standard is there, sure there are off nights but it’s a human process all in all I think it’s good.  Now in the west I don’t watch many games, but what I’ve seen so far it’s 2002 all over again and it’s sad.  If it continues I guess the cup is going to go to whatever conference the officials are from.  The western teams seem to have a harder time with speedy aggressive teams when the officiating is good (Buffalo, Atlanta, etc), but the east gets handed when the officials shut down and go home.

It’s a sad way to go if it continues.

It's just practice…!

For those that don’t know I’ve been a season ticket holder for the Hurricanes for a several years (since ’02). One of the perks of being a STH is that every year the canes schedule a practice and invite the STH’s, give them breakfast etc. Last year it was neat b/c it was the first year I was able to go, but a little disappointing because it was right after the Olympic break. So all the canes players and coaches that were part of the Olympics weren’t present. This did everyone the oppourtunity to see occaisonal fill in goalie Tripp Tracy between the pipes.

This year was much better, not only was it Connor’s first trip to the arena (outside the womb), but almost the whole team was there, including the coach and for my money the best voice in Hockey Chuck Kaiton. One of the cool things about this year was that it was an optional practice, the guys were in two squads, the white squad and the red squad. Each squad had a general manager that ‘drafted’ the team. Andrew Ladd was the Red GM, while Chad LaRose was the White GM. With lunch on the line they did a series of 5 drills, that pitted each squad against the other.

The highlight was the shootout drill. Each squad lines up on one side of the ice at the blue line, with a pile of pucks at center ice. Each player in turn grabs a puck and attempts a shootout/breakaway goal on the opposing goaltender, first squad to finish wins. The catch is that if you miss you have to grab the puck and keep trying until you score. Poor Nic Wallin was first up for the white squad and tried a snap wrister from 20′ out which Cam Ward paddled aside. He then proceeded to try several other moves to no avail. I was watching Cam mostly (as I’m a goalie whore), so I missed most of the Red Teams moves, but when I did look they had 2 skaters left while white (Wallin) was still trying to score). At one point Nic was getting pretty frustrated and Cam was having his way with him, so Cam decided to lay down across the mouth of the crease and just make Nic shoot over him. After missing the net once, Nic then hit the crossbar while Cam lay napping on the ice. I wish I had a picture of Cam because his pose was exactly the same as the JumboTron graphic they use for a great save, with the goalie laying on his side, cradleing his head and reaching up to make a save. Finally Nic skated in and lifted the puck over Cam to a huge roar from the crowd (after a bit of snickering). At this point Red only had 1 skater left and soon the contest was over.

Nic got a bit of a ribbing but you could tell that everyone was having fun, no bag skate, no screaming coach, just a good workout of horsing around.

There were some funny moments between Chad LaRose and Mike Commodore. Apparently Chad took a bit of a run at Mike, now while he literally bounced off with no effect, Commodore returned the favor a couple of times. There was a sequence were Commodore grabbed LaRose, dragged him down to the ice then proceeded to hold him down for about 45 seconds. When he finally get let up LaRose threw up his arms in the classic ‘What?!? No Call!?!’ pose, which got a big laugh from the crowd.

Certainly all practices are not like this one, but this is one of the cooler things that the Canes do for their fans, and it’s certainly good to see them have some fun with it .

Gordie Howe paved the way…

In my nightly hockey readings I came across this nice post where he talks about the Sidney Crosbey hattrick (as well as the Alexander Ovechkin one as well). That got me thinking about the Gordie Howe hattrick and if there were others out there. So…

• Gordie Howe – 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 fight
• Sidney Crosby – 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 diving penalty
• Alex Ovechkin – 1 goal, 1 assist, 15 giveaways
• Sean Avery – 1 fighting major, 1 game misconduct, 1 team suspension
• Chris Pronger – 1 long term contract, 1 playoff run, 1 ticket to Anaheim
• Tripp Tracy – 1 mention of food, 1 meaningless story, 1 time broadcast partner has no clue what he saying
• Ty Conklin – 1 delay of game, 1 save, 1 giveaway behind the net (assist)
• Dom Hasik – 1 mental breakdown, 1 refusal to play, 1 untimely injury

hooray hockey!

So a couple of things on the playoffs so far. There have been some excellent games and in general the officiating has been the same as the regular season. By no means does that mean it’s consistent but I like this better than clutch and grab and they haven’t relaxed now that it’s the playoffs.

The Red Wings are done. I always said they were inflated somewhat by a weak division but they did beat up on the rest of the western conference as well. Legace could have been better but Linstrom *should* have been way better. The one thing I don’t understand is this. It’s game 6, you’re down 1 goal, 1:06 left in the third period, you’re facing elimination, the puck is in their end, you’ve pulled your goalie… How do you *NOT* put the heart and soul of your team, your best faceoff guy, the face of the franchise, in to take the draw. I don’t know what Babcock was thinking leaving him on the bench. Not that I really think it would have mattered since the Red Wings all had this “I can’t believe we’re about to lose to the oilers.” look on their faces and the game wasn’t even over. But still how do you leave Stevie Y on the bench in the final minute of your season?

The canes are in MTL for game 6 as well tonight, I’ll make no predictions or anything my only comment will be that no matter what they had better work, skate their butts off and don’t quit.

Speaking of MTL, I made the mistake of reading TSN.ca today. Apparently I was under the mistaken assumption that they attempt to be relativly objective in their articles. Boy was I wrong. Normally the team hating, making up conspiracy theory stuff is left to message board fanboys and bloggers not actual paid journalists.