Currently Drinking: Black and Tan (Guinness and Warsteiner respectively).
1) Coaches have been and always will be underappreciated scapegoats.
Four coaches have been fired as of the time I write this: Davis Payne in St. Louis, Bruce Boudreau in Washington, Paul Maurice in Carolina, and Randy Carlyle in Anaheim. While the changing of a coach does often work wonders (see: 2011 New Jersey Devils or even the Blues since replacing Payne with Hitchcock), they are very rarely at fault. At the end of the day, the onus to perform is still on the players; the ability to listen and apply the work of the head coach is their responsibility. Ben probably knows where I’m going with this. I’m going to use Boudreau as an example. He was hired mid-season to replace Glen Hanlon. He took the Capitals from 14th in the east at Thanksgiving (ironically, the quarter-pole) to a Southeast division title, and would go on to win 3 more before he was fired last week…never having finished below FIRST PLACE in his division. Apparently the players in Washington were no longer receptive to his message, and unfortunately, it is far easier to fire a coach than a player. That being said, I still think Washington had one more move they should have tried before firing Boudreau (The Anaheim Ducks seems to agree). It should be obvious to anyone who is familiar with the Washington Capitals, and I hope they play that card before Dale Hunter meets the same fate. I could go on, but in the interest of (relative) brevity, I will move on.
2) The trapezoid is still stupid.
Seriously, NHL, are we done with this stupid experiment yet?
3) The only thing that exceeds the malign for the infamous neutral zone trap is the misunderstanding of how it works.
Earlier this season, this happened. It sparked a firestorm regarding the infamous “Neutral Zone Trap,” with some outlets going so far as to suggest it should be banned. Not only is banning a strategy completely moronic and antithetical to everything team sports are about, but this is not actually a neutral zone trap. Rather than be your professor for the evening, I will simply provide you with Wikipedia’s wonderful article on the strategy (the moving diagram explains it perfectly). A trap is a 1-2-2 setup, and this is a 1-3-1. A more accurate term would be “The Fortress.” If this were a trap, the Lightning player would have gone aggressively after the puck carrier and forced him to the boards. Notice that the word “trap” is not actually uttered by the broadcast crew, much to their credit, despite the name of the video itself. Now, as far as which team was in the wrong on this incident? I say none. Why should the Lightning not play a strategy that works for them, and why should the Flyers not try to draw the Lightning out of position by sitting and waiting? The referees handled it properly. They gave it a chance to play out, verbally called for the players to move it, and then called a faceoff, explaining to both coaches what would happen if it continued (presumably penalties). The fans were also correct in booing the lack of action. Nobody was in the wrong; it was merely the evolution of hockey happening before our very eyes.
4) The folks here at the Turnover absolutely suck at keeping up with this blog.
This is what having jobs that aren’t related to hockey do. I started this article on Thanksgiving Day, which is often regarded as the quarter-pole of the NHL. Among this article being presented in its (likely VERY imperfect) finality late, is a Game of the Night from a couple weeks ago that I have yet to polish and post, and I probably won’t. I can, however, say that we will try harder soon.
5) Goaltenders continue to be undervalued in the current market.
This one has me scratching my head. Many respected hockey outlets have mentioned that a Stanley Cup team can win with average goaltending; that it is easy to simply pick up as a free agent, and that the need for that franchise goaltender is rapidly vanishing. Really? Are we sure about that one? In order: Ward, Giguere, Hasek/Osgood, Fleury, Niemi, and Thomas are the post lockout Stanely Cup goaltenders. They all not only had to be good, but they had to be great. Chicago gave Niemi up in free agency after winning, and while there are other factors, you can bet that losing Niemi certainly didn’t help in Chicago’s failed quest to return to the finals. A great team with an average goalie won’t win anything (see: Washington Capitals recent years). An average team with great goaltending is a force to be reckoned with (see: 2006 Edmonton Oilers). I rest my case.
6) The Atlantic division is still the toughest division in hockey.
You can try and argue this if you want, but what the 5 teams of the aTlantic benefit from in lack of travel, they more than make up for in grit. Philadelphia is a gritty team that has consistently been among league leaders in penalty minutes. The Rangers and Devils post lockout identities have both been characterized by a blue-collar team-before-individual attitude, embodied by guys like Ryan Callahan and David Clarkson that can both beat you on the scoreboard and on your medical bill. The Penguins are consistently among the league’s elite, and always tough to play against, even without their stars, and as mocked as the Islanders are, they still have one playoff appearance post lockout, and ask any of the four other Atlantic division teams how well the Islanders play late in the season after they are all but eliminated. Like every team in this division, they are young, and will only get better. The addition of the Capitals and Hurricanes next season will ensure that only 4 of these 7 teams will be in the playoffs in any given season. You can bet that the yet-to-be-named successor of the Atlantic Division will be the most exciting playoff races that the league has ever seen. Still want to argue this point?
Post-lockout playoff berths by division:
Atlantic – 21
Pacific – 18
Northeast – 17
Central – 16
Northwest – 14
Southeast – 10
Yeah, and for a good chunk of time, there were 8 games each against division opponents. I rest my case.
7) Apparently, some NHL teams read our posts.
Seriously, is there any other explanation for how good Florida has been this year? J
8) The NHL General Managers’ meetings continue to be annoyingly topical.
Everytime these meetings happen, it seems that something noteworthy happens right before, and the GMs spend a disproportionate amount of time discussing the hot topic. Most recently, it was goaltender safety in the wake of the Lucic hit on Ryan Miller. I don’t mind this being discussed, but I’m sure there was an existing agenda, and I’m sure it was somewhat brushed aside in favor of the goaltender issue. Wasn’t something about getting rid of the trapezoid supposed to be discussed…? This happened last year after the Chara/Pacioretty incident as well, and it was equally annoying then. Let Shanahan deal with it, it’s his job, and regardless of how 4/5ths of the Northeast division feel, he’s doing a good job (see below).
9) Realignment is apparently much easier in reality than in theory.
What amazes me is that it took literally under an hour (according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman) to develop the new realignment plan, vote on it, and pass it. Any of the debate that has occurred since the Atlanta move to Winnipeg move was official seemed to indicate that it would be a messy process with no perfect solution that was fair to everyone. Western teams like Minnesota and Dallas wanted less travel; while Detroit, Columbus and Nashville made it clear that they wanted to make an Eastern move. On top of that, the financial concern of keeping rivalries together had to be addressed. Well, every armchair geographer/hockey fan came up with a solution, and none of them were as good as this. I think if anything, it is mildly unfair to the two Florida teams, but as the new scheduling matrix will encourage much more travel, this will likely level the playing field, since teams will do more traveling regardless of their new conference. The re-inclusion of every team seeing every team at least twice every season (guaranteeing one home and away versus every other team) should keep fans happy as well as create a more travel heavy (but not absurdly heavy) dynamic. Well done, NHL Board of Governors, well done indeed.
10) Brendan Shanahan has the absolute toughest job in hockey.
I don’t envy this man right now. With every decision Shanahan makes as the NHL’s new disciplinarian will most certainly anger at least one group of fans, if not 29. One may not agree with his strict policy and the amount of suspensions he has given, but with every one of his decisions comes a video in which he explains, point-by-point, how he arrived at his decision. What more can you ask? I don’t necessarily agree with the amount of suspensions he hands out, but he certainly backs up his decisions very clearly.
Until next time: Cheers, beers, sake and hockey.
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