Catching Up on Hockeytalk Links

So, I think I’m finally recovered from the pain and suffering of the Ducks’ first round exit.  It took almost two weeks but there are very few reminders out there now, and if Vancouver would just get to business and take care of Nashville it would help.

Anyway, I realized that I have been a little lacking in posting my Hockeytalk links here during the playoffs so here are all my links from the post season from newest to oldest.  Note:  some are desperately out of date (i.e. first round previews)

What Makes the Playoffs so Great?  Part 3:  Surprise Playoff Performers

What Makes the Playoffs so Great?  Part 2:  Crazy Week

NHL, NBC Announce 10-yr. Deal

What Makes the Playoffs so Great? Part 1:  Sheer Volume

Playoff Picks:  In which I dominated the first round and am in the process of crashing and burning in the second.

Detroit/Phoenix Preview

Boston/Montreal Preview

I Told You I Was Freaky

The stretch run is a stressfull time for most hockey fans.  Whether your team is fighting tooth and nail to hold onto a playoff spot, dangling by a thread to stay in the chase or even jockeying for a division crown, all the scoreboard watching, one goal games, three point games and even four point games can wear on you.  Yesterday was a break from all that for most fans of Western Conference teams.  The Kings and Sharks were the only game on tap in the West and the only thing on the line was the surely (don’t call me Shirley) inevitable Sharks clinching the Pacific Division Title, which they did, and the Kings will have to wait at least another night to be officially invited to the playoffs.

Adding to the break were some quirky links that I’d like to share.  First, a wacky collection of NHL Logo Mashups that Puck Daddy brought to the masses from a message board on reddit (here are a few more from HFBoards)  My personal favorite is the running Coyote with a Minnesota Wild head, and then there is the ultimate decedance of the Red Winged Flaming Buffaslug, and Philadelphia’s logo seems to go with just about anything.

Then there was a post from Houses of the Hockey on TheScore.com that suggested some new playoff rituals in addition to growing a playoff beard or not washing your lucky team memorabilia.  A fun to be sure, why not adopt a flock of Ducks and live amongst them in solidarity with the team’s namesake, but it was all leading up to one picture at the bottom of the post. 

SPOILER ALERT: A picture a Canadiens fan dressed in Habs themed priest attire giving communion to a dog in the streets of Montreal.  Must be seen to be beleived.

Anyway, the point of this pointless post is that it was nice to have a break and lighten the mood to start the final week of the regular season, which could get quite intense for the Ducks.

Tonight the Ducks are idle but Dallas begins their incredibly easy last four games by hosting Columbus, and Chicago can put Calgary one point away from official elimination with a win in the land of Catholic dogs.

Cam, Lubo and Fandom

I’m running out of ways to say that the Ducks can’t afford to lose this game tonight In Colorado.  Before Wednesday’s game I said that the Ducks need to win 10 of their last 16 to have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs; that comes out to roughly a two-to-one win/loss ratio.  Since that stretch of five losses in a row, the Ducks have actually been above that pace going 4-1, with the only loss coming at the hands of the top team in the league.  The Avs have gone 1-7-2 in their last ten.  Colorado is a team that the Ducks should beat, which can be scary at times.  This is one of the games that the Ducks need to win in order to keep pace until they play a direct opponent, Phoenix on Sunday.  The Kings are in Columbus tonight and Dallas hosts Minnesota in the other two games of note for the Western Conference playoff race.

I didn’t get around to mentioning it yesterday, but Cam Fowler has had a rough go of it in the last two games.  He was hung out to dry on the first goal Sunday against Vancouver, his turnover in the first minute of the second period against Vancouver gave the Canucks a dominant position to play from, and he way overplayed the puck to give the Rangers an early lead Wednesday.  Dan Ellis has been solid, but with Hiller out, the Ducks need their defense to step up a little bit more and Lubomir Visnovski has been leading that charge.

Lubo is absolutely on fire right now offensively with five goals and seven points in his last three games,  and Randy Carlyle has clearly instructed him to shoot whenever possible because pucks are just going in for him right now.  In fact he’s had a great season overall, as of this morning he’s behind only Kieth Yandle of the Phoenix Coyotes in scoring by a defenseman with 54 points and tied for third in the league with 14 goals from the blueline.  Matt Vevoda of Anaheimducks.com wrote a nice story on Lubo yesterday, and as such many of the comments circled around his underratedness and the idea that he should be considered for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman.

In his notes from practice yesterday, Eric Stephens wrote that Randy Carlyle blamed the media for not lauding Lubo as a Norris candidate as he should be.  Stephens also  chose a quote from Bobby Ryan saying that Lubo isn’t in the Norris conversation as much as he should be because he “plays in a market that doesn’t support it like other teams do.”  The fact that this comment wasn’t seen as a slight ot the fans and didn’t create a firestorm of criticism supports that point, however it also speaks to the reasonable nature of a fan base that isn’t blindly loyal and fanatically reactionary, we’ve seen enough of that this week (Montreal I’m looking at you). 

There is a give and take to either extreme type of fan base.  Anaheim is not the extreme by the way, *cough* *cough* Atlanta *cough* but we’re toward the low end of the spectrum.  Montreal is a Mecca of hockey, the atmosphere at the Bell Centre has to be the best in the world, and the fans can be great, speaking of the ovation that Saku Koivu got upon his return, not to mention when he came back from cancer in 2002. 

However, the Montreal media and fans can also be blood sucking psychopaths.  Booing Carey Price in the first period of the pre-season this year was simply outrageous, and the hysteria over the Chara/Pacioretty hit is a joke.  The police caving to pressure from the fans to investigate the hit in order to right the perceived wrong committed by Mike Murphy and Hockey Ops for letting Chara off without a suspension is mind boggling.  There is a place for police investigation into on ice incidents, (e.g. Bertuzzi, McSorely, Chris Simon, etc. and even some of those are arguable) but this was miles from crossing that line. 

To make a long story short (too late) it would be nice to get some more national recognition, but it can be a double edged sword.

Caps Top Ducks in Crazy Fashion

Where to begin?  Somehow I doubt that a pre-work blog recap can’t really do a game like that justice.  I guess the first thing you need to know about the Ducks’ 7-6 loss to Washington last night is that neither coach is particularly happy about it.  There was some serious sloppiness, as is usually the case with a 13 goal game.  Everything was just going into the net, from shorties to deflections, to floating wristers from the point, and even a goal scored while the net was off at the other end.  That fact made every rebound, turnover and blown coverage a breath-holding, cheek-clenching adventure.

Unfortunately Ducks fans didn’t get to enjoy it as much when Alex Semin’s hat trick goal with only 1:47 left sealed the deal for the Caps.  The culprit on that play was unfortunately The Boy Wonder, Cam Fowler, who got stuck in the corner and left his new part time partner, Francois Beauchamin, out to dry.  Semin drove the puck from the corner with youngster Marcus Johansson lying in wait in the slot and Beauch was caught in no man’s land betwixt the two. 

It’s always tough to lose a game in the final minutes, but especially when the stakes are this high in a race this tight.  The Ducks lost ground to Nashville and San Jose by virtue of the games played tiebreaker last night, but will look to get back on the horse tomorrow in Minnesota.

Going back to the defense situation though, there may be some resolution coming up.  In the short term, the Ducks may not have to dress seven defensemen for the next few games, as Andy Sutton should be getting a call from Colin Campbell about his hit from behind on Matt Hendricks.  While not quite on the Matt Cooke level, it was an ugly hit that should require some supplemental discipline, even though Hendricks wasn’t hurt on the play.  If fair was fair, which isn’t always a given with Colie, Sutton would probably get a two to three game suspension.

Meanwhile, Bob Murray was apparently busy during the game trying to find a more long term solution to the issue of extraneous defensemen.  As the game ended the team announced that they had traded Paul Mara to Montreal for a fifth round pick in the 2012 draft.  The move gives the Ducks a little wiggle room to bring up an extra forward and hopefully return to a standard six defensemen.

Mara didn’t really pan out as a Duck, but the worst part of his shortened tenure in Anaheim is that we never got to see his beard in its full playoff luster.

On a more serious note, I am afraid that Randy Carlyle will scratch Andreas Lilja, over Sutton (if he isn’t suspended or upon his return) because of Sutton’s price tag, and the fact that they have inexplicably scratched Lilja here and there throughout the season.  Lilja is a much more effective player than Sutton, especially on the penalty kill and even with blocking shots, which is supposed to be Sutton’s specialty, and the Ducks can’t afford to lose an effective player who will help them win games down the stretch.

Saku Koivu: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

In 2000, the Hockey Hall of Fame aired a five part documentary on Canadian TV titled “Legends of Hokckey.”  The show featured many of the legends themselves telling stories of their contemporaries.  One of the most common phrases heard during the series was “As great as he was a player, he was an even better person.”  I find it hard to believe that there is anyone whom that phrase describes better than Saku Koivu. 

His return to Montreal on Saturday was as emotional as one could have expected.  It wasn’t the eight minute standing ovation that he received in 2002 upon returning from a battle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, but touching nonetheless.  Koivu represents the Habs to an entire generation far removed from the dynasty Canadiens of old and too young to really remember the glory days of Patrick Roy.  He never won a Cup, the only thing that can truly make one a legend in Montreal, but like his play on the ice, his legacy goes far beyond statistics. 

Throughout the broadcast, Johnny Ahlers repeated Koivu’s assertion that he didn’t want to be remembered as a great captain or a great Canadien as much as he wanted to be remembered as a great Montrealer.  After 792 games, 191 goals, 450 assists and nine years of captaining the most storied franchise in the history of hockey, Koivu’s legacy will be measured by the countless lives he, and his foundation, helped improve and save by bringing Montreal its first PET Scan machine. 

As for the game itself, Koivu had an assist and three penalties, in the Ducks’ 4-3 shootout win.  The fan movement to name Koivu number one star regardless of the outcome was overruled by Max Pacioretty’s two goals, including one that sent the game into overtime with 12 seconds left.  But Koivu was named second star and came out to greet the fans who had stayed to give him one final round of applause. 

Tonight the Ducks play in Columbus, a game that can make this four game road trip a rousing success or a two and two wash out before the All-Star break; Here’s hoping for the former. 

Average Western Conference games in hand:  2.2