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Ducks’ Defensive Depth Holding Their Own Despite Injuries

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Defensive injuries seem to be mounting throughout many NHL playoff teams, but the defensive depth of the Anaheim Ducks as well as their 2-0 lead over the Calgary Flames is why there is little mention of Anaheim’s struggles. Injuries to Cam Fowler (knee) and Sami Vatanen (upper body) as well as season ending losses of Clayton Stoner (abdominal surgery) and Simon Despres (concussion) have forced a lot of the Ducks’ young blueliners to take a greater role.

NHL’s Adam Brady writes that Korbinian Holzer, Josh Manson, Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore have all had to step up and play big minutes, despite only having 10 games of playoff experience combined, coming into Saturday’s game. Despite the lack of experience, they have shined, with the exception of a shaky 10-minute period between the first and second frames when the Flames scored twice to tie the game. Montour and Theodore even assisted on offense on Jakob Silfverberg’s first-period goal.

“We stated before the playoffs started, that we thought we were going to have to use nine defenseman through the course of the playoffs season,” coach Randy Carlyle said this morning just before his Ducks got on a plane to Calgary for Games 3 and 4. “We’ve at eight right now, and that’s great for our younger kids, getting the exposure and experience of playoff hockey and should only bode well for their future. I don’t see them intimidated by it, not in the first two games anyway.”

Holzer, at 29 years of age and hardly a youngster, played in his first-ever playoff game after Vatanen was forced to miss Game 2 yesterday. He was actually sent out as a starter with Manson to start the game. “For me, it was a great feeling and I was excited,” Holzer said. “There were a little more butterflies than normal. It was kind of like your first NHL game. But it was good that I started the game, to get those nerves out of the way early, and after that I thought it was a good experience.”

With Fowler out indefinitely, Vatanen will be reassessed tomorrow morning before Game 3. If he is forced to miss Game 3, the young defenders will be ready. “Obviously those guys are elite players, but for us as a whole core, anybody can play any role with the depth that we have,” Montour said. “So we were very calm out there. All of us can skate and play hard in our own end. I think that showed last night, and we’ve just got to keep it going.”

Eastern Notes: Yzerman, Tavares, Hellberg

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The Tampa Bay Lightning might be currently watching the playoffs rather than playing in them, but Steve Yzerman is already working on his offseason plans. The GM has said his top priority this season is to lock up three core restricted free agents in Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Drouin, which is expected to be quite a challenge, considering how up against the salary cap the Lightning are this offseason.

Tampa Bay Times writer Joe Smith suggests Yzerman might have trouble signing all three of them and acquire a top-four defenseman they desperately need and acquire a goaltender they need at the same time. That doesn’t include Victor Hedman’s $7.875MM extension that kicks in (and almost doubles) next year and the future contract they will have to negotiate with Nikita Kucherov in two years, which is likely to be huge.

Yzerman successfully helped Tampa Bay’s cap situation at the trade deadline when he moved the contracts of Ben Bishop ($4.76MM), Brian Boyle ($2MM) and Valtteri Filppula ($5MM). While all three were important to the Lightning, getting their cap numbers off their books only increased their chances of resigning the trio of young stars.

The scribe writes the Lightning should focus their efforts on resigning both Palat and Johnson who are integral to the team’s success and even went on to suggest that the team should consider trading the 22-year old Drouin, who enjoyed a breakout campaign this year. The thought being that Drouin may have the most trade value of the three and might net them a nice haul right before the 2017 NHL draft.

Smith also suggested other possibilities including looking to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, which has heavily scouted Tampa Bay in the last couple of months, as an option to move a player like Johnson as there is a potential replacement for him in rookie Brayden Point.

All said and done, Yzerman has his work cut out for him this offseason.

Other notes:

  • The New York Islanders, also sitting home during the playoffs, need to focus their attention on re-signing star player John Tavares. The belief is that the Islanders naming Doug Weight the permanent coach was critical to get the 26-year old star to return. Weight, who served as interim coach since January, produced a successful second half for the Islanders as he posted the second-best NHL record during that time. Unfortunately, they fell short of reaching the playoffs, but it is believed that Weight’s return will only help in Tavares opting to return. Tavares, who led the team with 28 goals and 38 assists for 66 points, is in line for a potential 8-year, $100MM extension this summer. A free agent defection would be crippling to the Islanders’ franchise.
  • The New York Rangers have recalled goaltender Magnus Hellberg for Game 3 of their playoff game with the Canadiens today. He will serve only as an emergency backup as the Hartford Wolf Pack just finished their regular season.

 

Montreal Confirmed As Birthplace Of NHL’s First Game

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For those who relish hockey history, the CBC News’ Randy Boswell wrote an intriguing piece this morning about the recently solved mystery of who played the NHL’s first game and who scored the NHL’s first goal. There has always been confusion of that first game, although the date is not in question. However, on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 19, 1917, two hockey games were played and there has never been any incontrovertible truth of which game was played first, and therefore, who scored that inaugural goal.

Boswell writes that everyone knows that one of the games was played in Ottawa between the Ottawa Hockey Club and the Montreal Canadiens, which was supposed to be played at 8:30 p.m. ET. However, it is the other game between the host Montreal Wanderers and the Toronto Hockey Club that was in question. New evidence verified by the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR) was found last month in an overlooked Montreal newspaper that clarified where the first NHL puck dropped first. While most Montreal newspapers didn’t report the start time of the Wanderers-Toronto Hockey Club, a recently digitized French newspaper Le Canada ran an advertisement for the game that clearly states the game time at 8:15 ET. What added to the confusion was that the Ottawa-Canadiens game, slated for an 8:30 start time, was rumored to have been delayed by 15 minutes due to a contract dispute, further pushing it back.

So, it turns out Montreal is the birthplace of the NHL as its game started first, while Montreal Wanderers’ defenseman Dave Ritchie scored the NHL’s first goal almost 100 years ago. The game took place less than a month after the NHL formally constituted at a team owners meeting on Nov. 26, 1917, in Montreal. The revelation takes place during the NHL’s year-long 100th-anniversary season.

According to the story, this ends a debate in which many people felt that Ottawa was where the NHL was inaugurated. Many believed that Montreal Canadiens’ Joe Malone was the first to score that inaugural goal as he scored in the first six and a half minutes of play in Ottawa. However, Ritchie scored his goal in the first minute of the game in Montreal.

The story adds one more interesting fact about that Wanderers’ game. The goaltender, Bert Lindsay, who now is considered to be the first NHL goaltender to earn an NHL victory, was the father of future NHL legend Ted Lindsay, who’s name adorns the trophy given to the league’s most outstanding player. Also, the Wanderers’ player coach Art Ross, who was named after the trophy given to the top point-getter, scored his first and only NHL goal in the game.

Predator Power: The Potential Upset That Should Shock No One

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Just yesterday, I wrote an article describing the ability of the Wild to come back in their series down 0-2. No one should doubt that the Blackhawks are entirely capable of achieving the same against the Predators. The question is whether they will.

The Predators were perhaps the most overlooked team this post-season, with nearly all analysts picking the Blackhawks to take the series rather easily. This is particularly odd because offensively, the teams were practically indistinguishable (at 2.43 GF60 and 2.42 GF60 respectively). At 5 on 5, the Predators only scored 5 less goals all season long. Down the home stretch of the season, the Predators won their last 4 while the Blackhawks went winless. Although both teams have had an increase in overall offense compared to last season, Nashville had less of a drastic up-hike, suggesting less deviation from the expected output. The Predators are also far less top heavy than the Hawks – their scoring is more evenly stretched out across their lineup and not concentrated around four particular players. The Hawks’ fourth line is noteworthy in how uninspiring it is –  Jordin Tootoo and John Hayden usually average 8 and 11 minutes a piece. Finally, Pekka Rinne had a historically bad season by his standards in 2015-16 (in which the Predators took the Western Conference champs to a Game 7) – but he has returned to form in a big way this season, with a respectable (if unremarkable) .918 save percentage.

Then there’s the defense – the Blackhawks have shown signs of weakness. Duncan Keith had a solid showing, but not his Norris standard. His Corsi For was his worst since his rookie season at 50.7%  – he has trended around 54%. Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook have also had down seasons, Seabrook at 50%, and Hjalmarsson at 45%. After these three defenders there is a massive gap in talent. Part of the reason that these top three are having a difficult time is because they have had to log massive amounts of minutes against top players. Both Johnny Oduya and Brian Campbell have struggled to log the minutes of years past, and both have faced lower quality of competition. Each has averaged around 18 minutes of ice and it doesn’t seem like Joel Quenneville is particularly confident in putting them out there in all situations these playoffs. Trevor van Reimsdyk has performed admirably in his role, but has yet to be a positive player in a post-season year.  Even against Keith, the speed of the Predators’ forwards has created fits and frantic backpedaling. With how dominant Ryan Ellis, Roman Josi and crew have looked, it is more than fair to draw comparisons.

Ultimately, the Blackhawks need to score in order to advance. Peter Laviolette has the Predators rolling as a fine-tuned forecheck machine, and Chicago seems to have been shell-shocked. Their zone time in the most recent game was frankly horrible. The 5-0 obliteration was a natural continuation of the frustrated offense the Hawks experienced in the first game, and it seems apparent that whatever game-planning occurred between the two matches fell far short of the mark. Shots were constantly blocked by the Preds and the ones that got through were not dangerous. The amount of hype that preceded Chicago headed into these playoffs was largely unwarranted – they didn’t dominate any advanced stat and only won the division by a slight margin, while their top players looked far less dynamic than the previous year. But let us not discount the effort and depth of the Predators. On paper, this isn’t a roster that is star-studded or wonderfully exciting, but they have been constructed well for playoff hockey and now have the experience to close a series. Their third line has performed well above expectations and their top guns are firing away. Underestimating this squad would be a deadly error for any team, no matter how many cups they’ve won in years past.

AHL Releases First Round Playoff Schedule

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The AHL has released the schedule for the first round of its Calder Cup Playoffs. Lots of squads are down top players with so many parent clubs still in contention, so the first round is always ripe with upsets. The schedule can be found here.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins had the league’s best record, and looks to have their best opportunity at a championship since their inception. Out West, the Chicago Wolves have gone from out of the playoffs and potential loss of affiliate to a dominant 1st seed performance. The action starts on Thursday, April 20th. The first round of semifinals includes a full 16 teams, but the series are only 5 games long.

The quality of play in the AHL only gets better as the years go by, and every hockey fan owes it to him/herself to catch a local playoff game when possible. Future stars and intriguing prospects can be caught up close and personal before they make an impact in the show. In terms of who to keep an eye out for:

San Jose – Daniel O’Regan (C) – 23G 35A

Stockton – Mark Jankowski (C) – 27G 29A

Chicago – Kenny Agostino (LW) – 24G 59A

Hershey – Christian Djoos (D) – 13G 45A

Wilkes-Barre – Casey DeSmith – .926 SV% 2.01 GAA

Providence – Zane McIntyre – .930 SV% 2.03 GAA

Morning Notes: Flames Burn Out, Toronto’s Unlikely Hero, Looking Ahead

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Saturday April 15th was a riveting evening of hockey for any fan of the sport. The Blackhawks were dominated 5-0 by the Predators in Game 2, but the other three games were all nail-biters. The Flames looked to take the lead after climbing out of a 2 goal deficit in the 2nd period, but the call on the ice of goalie interference against John Gibson kept the game tied. The Ducks would go on to get a bizarre ricochet goal from the stick of Ryan Getzlaf with just 4:46 remaining in regulation to secure an ugly win, and go up 2-0 in the series.

  • The Leafs’ Kasperi Kapanen has not been in the spotlight – the likes of Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Auston Matthews have been so phenomenal that he is easily forgotten in the mix. The promising young crafty forward was the centerpiece of the Phil Kessel deal, which until now, had undoubtedly looked to favor the Penguins. Serving 4th-line duty, the forward had only scored one goal in his 8 games up with big squad this season. In the second overtime of Saturday’s Game 2 versus the Capitals, the forward crept in to the back post as Brian Boyle used his lanky frame to fool the netminder into sealing the near post in anticipation. The result was a gorgeous finish to a game where an unlikely hero was desperately needed. If the forward can build on this huge goal, perhaps he can become an X-factor in a series where they are the underdogs. He seems to be confident in the team’s chances.
  • The Senators would not go down quietly. Down 2 goals through 40 minutes, the squad rallied to tie the game with tallies from Chris Wideman and Derick Brassard. As mentioned in an earlier post, Chara’s late regulation delay-of-game penalty proved quite costly, as the Senators capitalized on the powerplay’s momentum and ended the overtime quickly. Dion Phaneuf hammered one home after the team had hit two posts previously in quick succession. The series has been incredibly tight, but surely Bruins fans will lament the lost opportunity, especially in light of their badly bruised defensive squad.
  • Four games will take place this Sunday. The Wild will try to avoid going down 3-0 in hostile territory, the Blue Jackets will hope to dodge a similar fate with cannons firing, and the Sharks and Rangers look to go up at home after splitting the first two on the road.

Toronto’s Roman Polak Out For Playoffs

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Toronto’s Roman Polak suffered a brutal hit at the hands of Washington’s Brooks Orpik. Polak attempted to sidestep the brunt of the hit and ended up with severe knee-on-knee contact. Worse, when Polak landed, his stricken right knee buckled and caught under the weight of his body. Polak remained down on the ice in gut-wrenching pain for well over a minute before being helped off the ice by players. TSN reports that Polak will no longer be available for Toronto in these playoffs, which throws a massive question mark onto the team’s backend.

Polak has not been a particularly phenomenal defenseman in terms of analytics this season. His physical play and ability to stay healthy have arguably been his greatest assets to the team. His Corsi For % – simply, shot attempts for versus against when he is on the ice – is an abysmal 41% on the season. For reference, Jake Gardiner’s is 52.6%, Morgan Rielly’s is 50.4%, the injured Nikita Zaitsev’s is 49.4%, and Matt Hunwick’s is 49.1%. Each of the aforementioned Leafs have definitely contributed to leading the team back into the post-season. Toronto was a dismal 23rd in Goals Allowed this season, but notably better than the previous, where they were 28th, surpassed only by Calgary (who inexplicably made the playoffs that year) and Edmonton who were McDavid-less for a long stretch of time.

Toronto needs to keep pucks out of the net against the high-octane offense of Washington if they are to win this series. So far in the series, Babcock’s defensive strategies have been relatively effective. They held even in hits with Washington through a double overtime game – 50 a piece. They blocked 35 shots in Game 2, and forced plays to the outside whenever possible. And when the chances became glorious, Frederik Andersen was there to shut the play down. Although they surrendered 44 shots and 50 shots in each respective game, many of these chances did not come from high-scoring areas. In a series where Toronto’s defense was expected to be overwhelmed, they have held fast in the absence of Zaitsev. Still, Leafs’ fans are longing for his quick return to play in hopes of taking advantage of the next two raucous home games at the Air Canada Centre. The 23-year-old Connor Carrick and 25-year-old Martin Marincin both look capable of filling some of the void left by Polak – they each averaged over 16 minutes per game in the regular season.

Minnesota And The Wild Art Of The 0-2 Comeback

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The Minnesota Wild are in a predicament. They have out-shot their opponent 76-53 through 137 minutes of hockey, created the majority of the scoring chances, and dominated advanced stats. But they are down 0-2 in their series, largely due to the heroics of St. Louis net-minder Jake Allen. Per Elias Sports, teams that go down in a series 2-0 only have a 14.1% chance of winning the series. After all, winning 4 of 5 after is no simple task. This is only made more difficult by the fact that Minnesota lost its home ice advantage and has to split in St. Louis to avoid a sweep.

In Minnesota’s current situation, the main contributing factor to the struggles is a snakebitten offensive core. A few players have been on cold streaks, including captain Mikko Koivu who hasn’t scored in his last 16. Perhaps more important is the strength of St. Louis defense over the last 10 games, only surrendering 21 goals. In order for Minnesota to regain a foothold, one of these trends will need to reverse. A goal per game, even against a prime Patrick Roy, simply isn’t good enough.

All over but the crying, right? Well, not quite. Although a 14.1% chance sounds like a longshot, there are more factors to success than one might consider. PDO can really only trend upwards from here, and the bounces are far more likely to turn than not. There is due reason to suspect the unlikely. Minnesota is intimately familiar with the back of the twine – they finished only 2 behind Pittsburgh at 183 Goals For on the season, despite a roster with far fewer superstar names. Devan Dubnyk actually had a better season than Jake Allen 5v5, and is certainly capable of stealing a game of his own. And St. Louis has had wild swings of fortune just as often as Minnesota has. Minnesota, evidenced by a wonderful Wilderness writeup, was indeed beginning to trend back upward. The team stumbled mightily through early March, but recovered quite nicely in the home stretch – winning their last 4 games in convincing fashion.  By their relatively dominant, but ultimately fruitless, on-ice performances in the first 2 games, one might believe these successes were not aberrations.

If we discount the overblown importance of home ice advantage in modern hockey, the situation seems far more salvageable than many observers might believe. As Bruce Boudreau said, “it’s not as dire as they think.” They just should be sure to win the next one.

Over The Glass: Delay Of Game Penalties And Unintended Consequences

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Ever since returning from the lockout season of 2004-05, the league has enacted a wide array of rules with the sole aim of increasing goal totals. In the season of return, the league did away with the two-line pass rule in hopes of allowing more odd-man rushes. Penalties automatically brought the impending draw in front of the offending team’s net. Icings would not allow the offending team to make a change in players, resulting in tired defenders. The NHL created a delay-of-game infraction for shooting the puck over the glass in the defensive zone, regardless of intent, as to increase power plays. Additionally, the league instituted a trapezoid of playable area behind the net for goaltenders, apparently to destroy Martin Brodeur’s dreams of a 20-goal season.

Each of these rules is well-known, and to a new generation of hockey fans, widely accepted as the norm. Hockey has undoubtedly undergone numerous rule alterations since its early inception in Canada, as the roving 6th skater and backward-only passes have long since gone extinct in the name of excitement and simplicity. There is certainly no argument that all rule changes are detrimental – quite the contrary. However, there is undoubtedly a beauty to the game as it exists right now, which is the argument to which many purists adhere. Conversely, the golden scoring era of the 1980s is looked upon with reverence and extreme fondness, for all of its faults and shortcomings in parity and defensive play. Neither extreme fully or honestly represents the counterpoints to his position, and the result is a constant struggle between old-school and new-school, conservative and radical.

In Game 2 of the Ottawa-Boston series earlier this evening, a delay-of-game penalty was called against Zdeno Chara for clearing the puck over the glass with 12 seconds remaining in regulation. Ottawa’s Dion Phaneuf didn’t score on the ensuing powerplay in overtime, but did shortly thereafter, and largely a result of that powerplay’s momentum. The scene is one that was all-too-familiar – nearly any fan can recount a horror story resulting from this rule’s implementation. Pittsburgh nearly suffered a death blow last playoffs when they were forced into overtime following three of these infractions in a row. Although no fan is dissatisfied to see their own squad on the powerplay, the rule feels slightly unjustified and slightly tainted. For all intents and purposes, clearing the puck over the glass effectively achieves the same end as icing the puck. Not allowing line changes seems fair punishment to players who would opt to take the easy route after being hemmed in their own zone. Applying a two-minute penalty, regardless of the intent, seems frivolous and irrational.

It seems only a matter of time before a pivotal series is determined solely by this sort of inadvertent mishap.

Calvert Suspended One Game For Kuhnhackl Cross-Check

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Columbus Blue Jacket Matt Calvert has indeed been suspended by the Department of Player Safety for one game for his cross-check Friday night on Tom Kuhnhackl. This is the first suspension of the 2017 postseason. As referenced by colleague Mike Furlano earlier in the day, this suspension was one which was difficult to predict. The Department of Player Safety has been notoriously inconsistent in its application of league rules, especially when the playoffs are concerned.

The last suspension for a cross-check was assessed to Mike Hoffman of the Ottawa Senators on December 14th of last year, for a length of two games. The video of the infraction can be viewed here, with commentary from the DoPS. Although this play is certainly reckless, it occurs in front of the net in a tied game, in what could conceivably be construed as a “hockey play”. Hoffman, like Calvert, had no previous fines or suspensions – “prior history” in the eyes of the league. The Calvert play, meanwhile, occurs at center ice with little time in a game that is virtually over. Perhaps most importantly is the difference between reactions of the two players, on the ice and off. Hoffman attempted to justify his actions by explaining the riding of his stick upwards on the back of Logan Couture. On the ice, he stumbled over the player after delivering the blow. Calvert, conversely, changed his path and doubled back to deliver a body check to the hunched Kuhnhackl’s head following the cross-check.

Perhaps the greatest grievance of hockey fans is the inconsistency when it comes to intent. Not unlike ethical dilemmas, we often choose to judge the severity of a misstep by the underlying intent. Was the offender malicious and knowing in his action, or was the action merely a result of circumstance? Society functions in this way, the law works this way, and even the NHL rulebook provides a separate match penalty towards those who attempt to injury opponents. A large reason why the Scott Stevens headshots have left the game is because the intent was not merely to separate the player from the puck, but to inflict grievous bodily harm. One can only hope that a Todd Bertuzzi incident won’t be necessary for the league to take more substantial, decisive action to protect its players, postseason or regular, star or 4th -liner, history or not.

Officiating will likely continue to pose an issue this post-season, as fans’ patience for situational leniency will be tested.

 

 

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