Oh! The good ol' hockey game, is the best game you can name...

I started this blog about a year ago as a way of expressing my love for the good ol' hockey game without driving my friends and family crazy, but also as an attempt to get into the hockey writing world. It seemed to be working when, as the regular season turned to the playoffs, I was approached by another blogging platform to write for them. I quickly jumped at the chance and excitedly wrote a number of articles about the Pittsburgh Penguins' battles, first against the Columbus Blue Jackets then the New York Rangers. But as the final buzzer sounded in game 7 and the Penguins slowly made their way off the ice, my desire to write about hockey went with it.

As a diehard Penguins fan the next few weeks were hard; I knew Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma needed to be let go, but that didn’t make it any easier. The “Real Deal” James Neal trade was also expected, though hard to handle. Slowly the days turned to weeks, the Los Angeles Kings celebrated their second Stanley Cup in three years, the draft and free agency came and went, and before I knew it, it was the end of summer and not only had I not written about hockey, I had barely thought about it. I wasn’t really sure how I would react when the season started, whether I would bother to write again or if hockeythoughts19.blogspot.ca would just be another one of those projects that I started only to not finish.

The season opened with a 6-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks. In typical Penguins fashion it was a gong show featuring a blown 3-0 lead and a Corey Perry hat trick, but in the end the good guys won. I was happy, but I wasn’t watching the games with the same zeal I always had. Wins still made me smile, but the losses didn’t sting as much. I knew I had lost some of my passion when I didn’t want to kill every Philadelphia Flyer’s player after the 5-3 loss on October 22 and it made me kind of sad; if the Battle of Pennsylvania didn’t bring out the hardcore fan in me, what would??

The hockey portion of the season continued to progress much in the way you would expect for the Penguins, their roster was getting beaten up and they were somehow still winning most of their games. Marc Andre Fleury was playing lights out, which was a nice surprise, while Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were once again in the top five in NHL scoring, which was not a surprise. Off the ice, nothing was the way it was supposed to be in the NHL. Twenty year old Olli Maatta was diagnosed with low grade thyroid cancer and missed a few weeks for surgery; Pascal Dupuis got a blood clot and is expected to be out most, if not all, of the season; teams are being ravished by the mumps of all diseases; and Slava Voynov of the Kings was charged with a domestic violence felony for allegedly beating his wife (the details of which are too gruesome even to discuss). There was no shortage of stories to write, I even started to draft a few, but I never bothered to find the time to finish. I figured that "je ne sais quoi" that had always pulled me into the game was just gone. Sure it was fun while it lasted but all good things must come to an end right? Wrong, a last minute decision to attend a hockey roundtable featuring Pierre Lebrun, one of my favourite hockey insiders, is apparently all I needed to reignite the flame.

 

Sitting in the audience last night and hearing Dave Bedini recount the hardships of being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan in his book "Keon and Me: My Search for the Lost Soul of the Leafs" reminded me why I started to love this game in the first place. The joy and heartbreak this sport can bring to an entire city in one night is like nothing I've ever experienced. Fandoms can establish friendships through twitter and other social media sites between fans who live hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles from each other and have nothing else in common. It is like being part of a community, and maybe that's why this feels so much like coming home.

I don't know if this means I'll write more often, if my day job gives me the time I hope it does, but hearing stories from behind the scenes and in the locker rooms has renewed my love and appreciation for the game, and for now, as I sit watching the first period of the Penguins Avalanche game, that's enough.

Carey Price: Part Man, Part Brick Wall

I remember watching a Cabbie Presents clip last year in which he discussed how "beauty" is the most overused expression by hockey players. In my opinion, the most overused word by hockey writers is probably “clutch”. Clutch is used to describe a player who comes up big when his team needs him most, a “big players thrive in big moments” kind of thing. More often than not the word clutch is attributed to goal scorers because scoring more goals than your opponent is the key to winning the game.

Four years ago at the winter Olympics in Vancouver Sidney Crosby became one of the greatest example of a clutch player when he scored the overtime game winning goal against the United States to secure Canada’s gold medal on home soil. More recently Chicago Blackhawks forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have been clutch combining for seven of the eight game winning goals for the Hawks in the playoffs this year. Game 2 of the second round series against the Minnesota Wild is the only game so far this post-season that the Blackhawks have won where neither Kane nor Toews scored the game winning goal, and even then it was Toews who opened the scoring halfway through the first period. 

Most of the time when a goalie “stands on his head” to win a game for his team it is referred to as “stealing a game”, but when these game stealing performances become a recurring event, I don’t think you have any choice but to refer to said goalie as being clutch. A prime example of this is New York Ranger Henrik Lundqvist who has now won five straight game 7s for his team and dragged them into the Conference Final for the first time since 2012. After being outscored 11-5 in the first four games of the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Lundqvist allowed only one goal in each of the remaining three games, averaging a .971 save percentage, saving his team from elimination. None of this is surprising, Lundqvist is known as the King for a reason, but another goalie who has been equally impressive this year and has garnered almost none of the attention is Montreal Canadiens starting goaltender Carey Price.

Price played for Team Canada this year at the Sochi Olympics, starting in every one of the three elimination games; he would allow only one goal in the first of these games, during the first period, on a breakaway against Latvia. Price would shutout the Latvians for the remaining 44 minutes and 19 seconds of the game, before shutting out everyone else for the remainder of the tournament. He would finish the tournament with .979 save percentage in elimination games stopping 70 of 71 shots; impressive results, but would they translate to the NHL?

On Monday night, with his team backed against the wall and facing a tough, competitive Boston Bruins team, Carey Price answered with a resounding YES. He stopped all 26 shots he faced, securing another shutout and forcing a deciding game 7 back in at the TD Garden in Boston. Dating back to February, Price has now played in four “elimination” games and has gone 184 minutes and 19 seconds without allowing a goal. The way Price is playing, I can tell you this, I wouldn’t want to the Bruins. 

Probably the most shocking part of this entire story is that Price has yet to receive any real recognition for his strong performance in net. Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist topped the goalie rankings in Sochi, with Price finishing third behind Jonathan Quick from the United States. He was also left off the nomination list for the Vezina Trophy, an award given to the goaltender who is adjudged to the best at the position, though his injury following the Olympics may have played a part in this particular snub. Here’s to hoping that if Price knocks off the Bruins tonight and then caries his team through the Conference Final to the Stanley Cup Final, that he will finally be rewarded for his efforts and receive the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs. 

A year ago I thought Price was overrated and didn’t understand the hype, now I can’t wait to watch him prove me, and everyone else who doubted him, wrong. Go Habs Go!

Game 7: the Best (and Worst) words in Hockey

I don’t think I have ever felt so apprehensive before a game 7, and I am not even playing. The New York Rangers fan base celebrated when their team delayed elimination in games 5 and 6 to force a “do or die” game  7, but us Penguins fans couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong and how we ended up here. 

Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009, the Penguins have been the top seeded team in every playoff series they’ve played, securing home ice advantage, yet their 4-4 record is average at best. In the four post-seasons since winning the Cup they have only made it to the Conference Final once and have never made it back to the Stanley Cup Final. A pretty abysmal record when you consider that they have two of the best active players on their roster. It’s also not as though they have don’t have experience; they still have nine players from the winning team on their roster, seven of whom will be suiting up for the Penguins tonight (Pascal Dupuis and Brooks Orpik have been sidelined with injuries). I mean heck Rob Scuderi even went to Los Angeles and won a cup in 2012 before returning to the Penguins during the offseason last year. They should have the pedigree of a winning team, yet they seem to choke every spring when it really matters and Penguins fans are left heartbroken, confused and wondering how to fix it. 

The last few seasons weak goaltending has been the main storyline. After winning the Cup in game 7 against Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena, Marc Andre Fleury has seemed to crumble in the post-season. He finished the 2009-2010 playoffs with a 7-6 record and a .891 save percentage. He was slightly better in 2010-2011, finishing with a 3-4 record a .899 save percentage before imploding in 2011-2012 finishing with a 2-4 record a career low .834 save percentage. In 2012-2013 he didn’t even make it through a series, he was replaced by Tomas Vokoun in game 5 of the first round against the Islanders after going 2-2 in the first four games with finishing with a .883 save percentage. This year, after the Penguins promoted Mike Bales to goaltending coach, Marc Andre Fleury seems to once again have things under control. So far he has a 7-5 record and a .916 save percentage, a career high for him in the playoffs. Fleury also created Penguins history with back to back shutouts in games 2 and 3 and going 145 minutes without allowing a goal. Goaltending might have been the story in the past, but it seems to be working this year. 

In last year’s Conference Final against Boston goaltending definitely wasn’t the issue, Tomas Vokoun posted a .936 save percentage over three of his four games. In fact, game 2 was the only game where the team was down and out, Vokoun was pulled in favour Fleury after allowing three goals and he would finish with a .750 save percentage for the night. What the Penguins were missing in the series was scoring; they had two goals in four games and never once held a lead. 

For the most part that has been rectified this year as well. With the exception of the last two games, when the majority of the Penguins seemed to show no interest in playing, they have been competing, scoring and at times overwhelming the competition. Malkin has really shown up to play this year; he leads the Penguins in points and is tied for first in goals with 13 and 6 respectively. His monster game 6 in the first round against Columbus wherein he second career playoff hat trick is the reason the Penguins are still playing. Sidney Crosby, on the other hand, is getting a lot of flak for his “poor play”. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say his point production has been disappointing this post-season, nine points in 12 games is still respectable for most players, but it is low for Crosby. Lack of scoring does not mean that Crosby hasn’t been effective though, he has matched up against some of the other teams’ greatest players, and Marc Staal has hit his head more than he has hit the puck this series, and yet Crosby’s advanced stats still show that he has possession of the puck more often than not when he is on the ice. He might not be scoring for the Penguins, but, his play is still giving them a chance to win. What Crosby can’t afford to do it let his emotions get in the way of his game the way he did in game 6. If the Penguins want to succeed tonight, Crosby, Malkin and all their other stars will need to be focused on scoring and playing between the whistles.  

What the Penguins seem to be missing this year is that key player who steps up his game in the playoffs. There are a ton of these players in the NHL, Brian Bickell for the Chicago Blackhawks is a great example, the last couple of years he has almost doubled his point production in the playoffs and he provides the Hawks with clutch secondary scoring. The Penguins had this player in 2009 in the form of Max Talbot. He was a high energetic player who showed up when his team needed him the most. Whether it was game 6 of the first round against the Flyers when he fought Dan Carcillo to shift momentum or scoring the only two goals in game 7 to give his team the 2-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup Champions the Detroit Red Wings. Max “the Gamer” Talbot stepped up big when his team needed him to, and with him off the roster, that position is up for someone else to grab. Matt Niskanen and Brandon Sutter have been key at various times during these playoffs, perhaps tonight one of them will be the hero. 

Tonight feels bigger than just a game 7. It’s definitely do or die for the season, lose tonight and golf tomorrow; but it’s also so much more than that, lose tonight and the team as I know it, the team that I have been cheering for all season, will likely be gone. Lose and its unlikely Dan Bylsma will be back behind the bench. Younger defencemen will likely take over for veterans like Brooks Orpik. Tanner Glass has been a healthy scratch much of these playoffs so he is likely gone. There may even be some big names in play like James Neal who has been suspended numerous times since joining the Penguins in 2011 and who has 7 more penalties this playoffs than he does points. A loss tonight would be a team wide disappointment, another letdown in a series of letdowns and this team can’t recover from that, they’ve been too disappointing for too long. A loss tonight means losing teammates tomorrow. 

The Rangers are 4-0 in game 7s since losing 2-1 to the Washington Capitals in 2009, but are 0-16 when trying to come back from a 3-1 series deficit. One of these records is about to fall, and as I watch the game through my fingers while pacing around my apartment, I can only hope it will my Pittsburgh Penguins who come out on top. 

Montreal/Boston by the Numbers

The Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins are facing off in the playoffs this year for the first time since a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss in game 7 in 2011. So far this series has had everything the fans were hoping for, amazing comebacks, controversial calls, even more controversial non-calls, beautiful goals, excellent goaltending and all the hostility you would expect from an Original Six match up. 

“Original Six” is the term used to describe the six teams that formed the NHL for the 25 seasons between 1942 and the expansion to era of 1967. The four other teams who make up this group are the New York Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. These teams typically have strong fan bases, storied histories, and when they meet, the results don't usually disappoint. 

Here is a quick look at the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins match up through the numbers:

The Canadiens (Habs) have been in the NHL since its inaugural season in 2017-2018, and through their 96 seasons they have made 81 playoffs appearances and hoisted the Stanley Cup a total of 23 times. In that time they have accumulated 7366 points with a 3210-2094-109 record and 837 ties (before the shootout). The Bruins, on the other hand, entered the league during the 1924-1925 season and have made 69 playoff appearances winning the Cup 6 times. In 89 NHL seasons they have accumulated 6788 points with a 2938-2240-121 record and 791 ties. 

Their intense rivalry is likely due to the fact that they have played one another more than any other team, a total of 725 games (the Maple Leafs were a close second with 724 games against Montreal). The Habs have a slight edge with 351 wins, 264 losses, 103 ties and 7 overtime losses, giving them 812 points to the Bruins 654. They have scored 2194 goals against the Bruins, for an average of 3.03 per game, allowing 1916 goals against, for 2.64 per game.

Historical stats are interesting, but this year’s regular season stats are much more relevant for the current series. This season, Tuukka Rask was the starting goaltender for the Bruins; in 58 games he had 36 wins with a .930 save percentage and 2.04 goals against average. Carey Price was the go to netminder for the Habs; he had 34 wins in 59 games with a .927 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.32.

In four regular season games against Montreal, Rask finished with a .932 save percentage allowing eight goals for an average of two per game. Price only played one regular season game against Boston allowing one goal on 33 shots for a .970 save percentage.

In their four regular season match ups, the Bruins finished with 19 minor penalties, while the Habs finished with 15; both teams had 3 fighting majors. Despite being shorthanded against Boston 15 times in four games, Montreal allowed only one power play goal for a 93.3% success rate on the PK. They scored twice on their 19 attempts with the man advantage for a 12.5% success rate on the power play.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Canadiens is that they are a young, small team and cannot compete with the “Big Bad Bruins”. The numbers don’t seem to favour the Canadiens as  Brad Marchand and Torey Krug are the only Bruins player who are less than six feet tall and the average age of their roster is 29 years; the Habs have a total of seven player under six feet with an average age of 28 for their team.

Experience is another area where the Bruins seem to hold an advantage against Montreal. They have 13 players on their roster from their 2011 Stanley Cup winning team, with Shawn Thornton having also won the Cup in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks. The Canadiens have significantly less experience with only three Stanley Cup Champions, Captain Brian Gionta who won with the New Jersey Devils in 2003 and Travis Moen and George Parros who won with Anaheim in 2007.

These numbers are interesting and can help to write the narrative for the series, but the only number that actually matters for is four, the number of wins needed to advance to the Conference Finals. With the win last night, the Habs only need two more to pull off the upset and send the Bruins golfing, and I for one hope they can do it. 

Comback Complete: Kings move on to Round 2

The Los Angeles Kings completed their amazing comeback with a decisive 5-1 win against the San Jose Sharks. I say amazing not because they are only the fourth team in NHL history to successfully overcome a 3-0 series deficit, but because all of their wins were by a margin of at least 3 goals. They truly dominated the Sharks and did so while teetering on the edge of elimination in each game. It takes an entire team rallying around each other to achieve what the Kings did last night. 

The first period was close, exciting hard hitting hockey. The Kings has a slight edge in shots outshooting the Sharks 14-9, though they did have a two minute power play. 

Matt Irwin would get the Sharks got on the board just 28 second into the second period with his first playoff point of the season, and first ever playoff goal. Clutch performer Drew Doughty would even things up just 4:30 minutes later on the power play, with Anze Kopitar scoring the eventual game winning goal with less than 1:30 left in the period. The Kings may have finished the second period with the lead, but they did not make it easy for themselves. They took 4 penalties, giving the Sharks eight full minutes with the man advantage; the Sharks couldn’t capitalize and would finish the night 0-6 on the power play. 

The Kings continued their dominance in the third period with Tyler Toffoli scoring his third goal of the series to put Los Angeles up by two less than 5 minutes into the third. The Kings would add two empty net goals to finish the game 5-1, taking the series 4-3. 

I think it’s safe to say that, heading into this series, most people were expecting a game 7, but I don’t think anyone thought San Jose would dominate the way they in the first three games or that the Kings would have the resurgence they did in the last 4. In my opinion, the game changer from game 1 on April 17 to game 7 yesterday was without a doubt Jonathan Quick. 

Quick had a very rough start to the series allowing 12 goals in 2 games; it doesn’t matter how many goals your team scores, you aren’t likely to win if you are averaging 6 goals against per game. He started to turn things around in game 3, keeping his team in the game despite allowing a couple “soft” goals, but they just couldn’t pull out the win for him. Game 4, to me, was the turning point. He probably got back some of his confidence with the win, and the longer he played, the more he seemed comfortable in the net, the more he seemed to play his game. Quick allowed 19 goals through the first 4 games of the series, but after getting his first win in game 4, he allowed only 2 goals in the final 3 games. I think it’s safe to say Quick is back and more confident than ever. 

The Sharks were pushing and were definitely getting their chances, they didn’t just roll over these last few games, they just couldn’t solve Quick. In fact the only goal that got by him in game 7, was on a perfect screen by James Sheppard. If Quick can continue to play lights out for the rest of the playoffs, and can get the Kings have into the Stanley Cup Final again, you'd have to think he'd be a front runner for the Conn Smythe. This team seems to live and die by his play, and the way he's going, I wouldn't want to be the Anaheim Ducks right now. 

The San Jose Sharks meanwhile have another long offseason to evaluate why they can't seem to win when it matters most, and what they can do to prevent another collapse next season. 

The Kings look to make history tonight in Game 7

Its crazy how much can change in seven days! Last week was checkmate for the Los Angeles Kings; tonight they are trying to make history by becoming just the fourth team in NHL history to win a series in game 7 after going down 3-0. 

The first two games of this series were all San Jose. The Kings looked lost, had huge defensive breakdowns, weren’t producing enough offense and Jonathan Quick looked nothing like the elite goaltender who won the Conn Smythe trophy in 2012. Martin Jones started the third period of game 1 after Quick allowed 5 goals on 28 shots. He would stop all shots faced, but the Kings would fall 6-3, with San Jose scoring an empty net goal. 

Fans assumed game 2 would be better, I mean there was no way Quick would allow 5 goals again. They were partially correct, he wouldn’t allow 5 goals, he would allow 7 and, after taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Kings would fall 7-2. 

The Kings started to turn things around in game 3, but would ultimately lose 4-3, in overtime. The Brent Burns opening goal and the Patrick Marleau game winning goal were weak and people started to question whether Jones should be given the start for game 4. To Coach Daryl Sutter’s credit, he only pulled Quick once and started him in each game. While many were questioning Quick’s ability, Sutter's confidence in him never wavered. 

From game 4 on, Quick wouldn’t disappoint his teammates or his coach and the Kings would go on to win 3 straight games. Quick would win game 4 with a final score of 6-3, before getting a shutout in game 5 at the Shark Tank, and allow only one goal in the Kings’ 4-1 win in game 6. When his team faced elimination, when they needed him most, Jonathan Quick stood tall. 

Heading into game 7 tonight you’d have to think the Kings have all the momentum, the Sharks have now had 3 opportunities to close out the series, and haven’t yet come close to doing so. Now it’s not as though this series hasn’t been without controversy. I’m sure many Sharks fans feel “cheated” to paraphrase from Coach Todd McLellan, after the game winning goal in game 6, but you can’t deny these last three games have been quite entertaining. I mean when else will the Los Angeles Kings truly be seen as the underdogs in a series?

I also can’t help but wonder how instrumental former Philadelphia Flyers captain Mike Richards and leading goal scorer Jeff Carter have been in this Kings comeback. While Carter was injured during the series against the Boston Bruins, both were members of the 2010 Flyers team that was the last team in the NHL to successfully overcome a 3-0 series lead. As we all saw in the 2012 NHL36, Richards is still very vocal in both the dressing room and with the referees even though he no longer wear the ‘C’ so I can imagine he has been very impactful behind the camera these last few games. All teams preach that they need to take it one game at a time, or one period at a time, so that the task doesn’t become overwhelming, but that can’t be easy to accomplish. Having veteran experience who has been in this situation before must have been invaluable for the Kings. 

The Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and last year made it to the Conference Finals; they know how to win and how to shove the other team off the ledge once you have pushed them to the brink. They have closed out 6 of their last 7 playoff series’ and so that is why I will be cheering loudly for the Kings to make history tonight and win game 7.

Penguins Control Game 5 and Take a 3-2 Series Lead

The curse of the 3-1 lead turning into a 4-3 loss is finally over, the Penguins take Game 5 with a late 3-1 lead and head into game 6 with a 3-2 series lead.

The Penguins finally put together a good defensive game and peppered Sergei Bobrovsky with 52 shots in what can only be described as complete dominance over the Blue Jackets.

Game 6 is tomorrow at Nationwide Arena and, if it anything like the first five, it should be an exciting, fast paced game.