Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
For Your Consideration: Todd McLellan
by Mike Chen on 04/03/09 at 01:20 PM ET
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It’s a generally accepted philosophy that the winner of the Jack Adams award can’t go to someone coaching a team that was supposed to be good. You wind up with people saying that a monkey could pull line combinations out of a hat and they’d still win with that lineup.
With that in mind, you’ll find that Jack Adams talk swirls around people that have taken young teams to the next level, like Pete DeBoer, Ken Hitchcock, Andy Murray, or Barry Trotz. As for someone like Todd McLellan, the Sharks were supposed to be good anyways, right?
Well, sure, on paper. But when you play more than half the season with about half of your starting regulars injured, maybe you should get some consideration for coach of the year.
Filed in: San Jose Sharks | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Jack+Adams, Todd+McLellan,
Audition Time For Gaborik
by Mike Chen on 04/01/09 at 04:24 PM ET
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While Marian Gaborik’s current “audition” (and by audition, I mean showing off his skills for the free agent market) may not be as entertaining as Christopher Walken’s audition for Star Wars, it’s still interesting in that it’s got several different layers to it. Minnesota hasn’t gained any ground in the playoff race with Gaborik back in the lineup but his own personal stats have been fantastic. He’s showing his speed and skill, and he’s looking like a top-flight player again. One has to wonder how many close games Gaborik’s point-per-game pace could have tipped in Minnesota’s favor. If he was healthy all season, it’s probably safe to say that the Wild would safely be in a playoff spot right now with at least a handful more wins.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Marian+Gaborik,
No Clear Favorites
by Mike Chen on 03/30/09 at 02:02 PM ET
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I don’t know about you, but I look at the top of the standings and I vulnerabilities. Obviously, the Sharks, Red Wings, and Bruins are good teams—their records speak for themselves. But the great thing about an 82-game season is it gives teams time to understand and exploit the inherent flaws in each team. No team is perfect, and sometimes it just takes a little time to discover this.
That’s why I’m guessing that at least one of these three gets knocked out in the first round. Their inconsistent play in the second half of the season shows that they’re all vulnerable in their own ways. In fact, scanning down to the second tier of teams (Chicago, Calgary, Washington) and the New Jersey Devils, who are floating somewhere in between of the first and second tier, I wouldn’t put my money on anyone right now. Out of all of the “have” teams, I’d say that the most consistent going into the playoffs might just be the Devils—but the “have not” playoff teams really aren’t that far away.
Out west, if I was a top seed, the one team I’d try to avoid like the plague would be the Columbus Blue Jackets. In past seasons, I’ve had little reason to watch Columbus but since the All-Star break I’ve tuned into more and more of their games and I’m pretty sure that they’ll be loads of problems for whichever top seed they face.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Boston+Bruins, Columbus+Blue+Jackets, Detroit+Red+Wings, San+Jose+Sharks,
Another Take On Ron Wilson
by Mike Chen on 03/26/09 at 12:55 PM ET
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The boss had this Steve Simmons post about Ron Wilson and his first season in Toronto:
Wilson is having a remarkable first season coaching the Leafs. This awful roster he has been handed is playing highly entertaining hockey. The kids are getting better, growing up faster, learning and developing. A Leafs team with seven minor-leaguers in its lineup, and at least 10 players who could have cleared waivers without being claimed this season, has 10 wins in its past 15 games, 21 points during that period.
If Wilson wasn’t so caustic, occasionally abrasive and sarcastic—three of my favourite qualities—this city would warm up to him the way it hasn’t warmed up to a Leafs coach since Pat Burns.
Caustic, abrasive, and sarcastic—hey, we saw plenty of that in San Jose, and you can throw in “Really damn stubborn” as part of the Wilson equation. Like Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, you just didn’t know which Wilson you were getting depending on your mood. He could be witty and thoughtful or he could be biting and sarcastic, sometimes outright venomous.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Ron+Wilson, Toronto+Maple+Leafs,
In Honor of George Plimpton
by Mike Chen on 03/25/09 at 01:22 PM ET
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Saw this on Wil Wheaton’s blog today.
I was sitting in my bedroom, playing Dark Castle on my Mac while Morrissey sang songs about how nobody understood me.
There was a soft knock at the door, and then it opened.
“Do you have a minute?” My dad said.
“Hold on.” I clicked my mouse furiously, throwing rocks at divebombing birds. I miscalculated and my little adventurer guy Duncan died. It was my fault, and I knew it was my fault, but I sighed heavily and acted like he’d messed me up. I dramatically pushed my hair out of my face and turned around. My dad held something behind his back.
“I found this book that I think you’ll like. It was written by a journalist who would play professional sports and then write about them. He played baseball, football, golf, and ...” he revealed the book. The cover showed a familiar-looking guy wearing a Boston Bruins jersey. “...he also played hockey with the Boston Bruins.”
Three things I love about it: 1) It’s about hockey 2) It mentions Morrissey 3) It’s from someone who was on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Read the whole thing here.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: George+Plimpton, Hockey+Books, Morrissey, Wil+Wheaton,
Help Out HD Newbies
by Mike Chen on 03/24/09 at 05:21 PM ET
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You may have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet over the past few days. Turns out that I’ve been up to my eyeballs in HDTV research as we’ve finally decided to plunk down the money for one of them fancy-schmancy (and huge) LCD TVs. So while a lot of my free time’s been spent researching which is the best tube for our budget, now I’m faced with the decision of which HD service to get. More importantly, which has the best HD options for hockey.
I could be wrong, but I’ve read that the amount of Center Ice HD channels for Comcast varies from region to regions, and also the NHL Network isn’t always available. I know DirecTV is pretty good about HD Center Ice and the NHL Network comes with the Center Ice package. Still, Comcast advertises some pretty appealing deals to switch over from DirecTV (what we currently have).
As for other HD options, such as AT&T Uverse and Verizon’s Vios service, I have no idea what they get or even if they get Versus HD.
So, to my fellow hockey fans that have been enjoying glorious HD for a while now, help your friendly neighborhood hockey blogger out. What HD service do you use, do you have Center Ice/NHL Network, and are you satisfied with it? Please post in the comments, and I’ll post a recap to hopefully help out anyone else who’s making the plunge soon. Oh, and if you have Comcast, please specify your region. Obviously, I’m by San Jose (Palo Alto), so anyone with experience with that area would be appreciated.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Broadcasting, HDTV,
AO = TO or Selanne?
by Mike Chen on 03/20/09 at 02:45 PM ET
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Ok, so by now just about everyone’s seen Alex Ovechkin’s little showboating after he nabbed #50. Was it planned? Yep. Was it kinda stupid? I thought so, as planned celebrations go, but hey, whatever floats your boat. It’s not like there’s an Olympic judge scoring this thing.
Still, I get the sense that the pendulum seems to be shifting just a little bit in the Ovechkin vs. Crosby in the eyes of the general public. I think people are still on the Ovechkin bandwagon for the most part, but people seemed to have acknowledged the Marc Savard situation as points for Crosby and people are also starting to talk about how Ovechkin isn’t necessarily a complete or responsible player, along with being a little bit of a hot dogger. At least, for those that care about backchecking.
The funny thing is that this shift seemed to have started with Don Cherry’s somewhat xenophobic rant—something that just about everyone agreed was rather absurd. Still, that seemed to have planted the seeds of an Ovechkin backlash. This whole “flaming stick” thing, along with the fact that people are finally starting to talk about Ovechkin not being a complete player (at least not yet; he’s got years to avoid cementing a Pavel Bure level of one-dimensionality), shows that for the first time, people are starting to talk negative about Ovechkin.
Which leads back to the whole flaming stick thing. Was it Terrell Owens level of me-first showboating or was it just a goofy one-off thing to celebrate a milestone? Check out AO’s stuff on this post, then watch TO below:
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Alexander+Ovechkin,
Officiating Or Lack Thereof
by Mike Chen on 03/18/09 at 12:16 PM ET
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It’s become a running gag among hockey fans that the rules in the first half of the season don’t apply in the second half of the season. Now things have been noticeably better since the lockout but there was still a tendency to drift come February and March when it came to how strict the rules were being called, especially in the final minutes of the third period.
I’ve always been a big proponent of letting the players play—and by that, I mean calling the rules consistently so that the players with the most skill and work ethic won’t be bogged down by someone bear-hugging him to the ice. Why some people continue to assume that allowing clutching and grabbing is “letting the players play”, I’ll never understand but I’m pretty sure a guy named Mario Lemieux would like to debate that point.
In any case, this season’s officiating seems to have gone through its own little rollercoaster when it comes to quality. It was business as usual up until about January, then things started to slip. For the bulk of February, things were really bad, and—at least from my observations—things seem to have swung back towards more strict officiating over the past two weeks or so.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Officiating,
Everyone Hates Sid
by Mike Chen on 03/16/09 at 01:07 PM ET
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What’s it like to be Sidney Crosby? Here’s a guy who, at 18 years old, already had most of the hockey world hating him—and he hadn’t done anything yet. Of course, that probably was the problem, as the NHL deemed him The Next One prior to him playing a single NHL game.
We all know what happened after that. He had a great rookie season only to be overshadowed by Alexander Ovechkin, then went on to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP in his second season. By then, people had finally stopped blindly bashing Crosby and recognized how good he really was. In his third season, an injury took Crosby out of any awards but he was the strongest Penguin on a team that charged to within two wins of the Stanley Cup.
This year? He’s had an embarrassing fight, some nagging injuries, and the Crosby backlash seems to be in full force from pretty much everywhere (except for, shockingly, Don Cherry). In most hockey circles, discussion of the Penguins’ fortunes seems to focus more on Evgeni Malkin, and whenever Crosby is actually brought up, it’s often accompanied by the phrase “He’s not even the best player on the team.”
In the whole “Who’s the best player in the NHL?” argument, there are talks of Malkin’s scoring-race lead or Alexander Ovechkin’s supercharged goalscoring and enthusiasm. Crosby, however, seems to have slipped by the wayside in everything except NHL marketing pieces.
The strange thing is that facts dispute any naysayer dismissal of Crosby as one of the NHL’s best, if not the best. His points-per-game since he entered the league is better than Malkin or Ovechkin (though not by far); for this season, his points-per-game following Sunday’s three-assist performance over the Boston Bruins is neck-and-neck with Malkin—and both Penguins are just a hair above Ovechkin.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Alexander+Ovechkin, Evgeni+Malkin, Sidney+Crosby,
NBC Quick To Pimp Sean Avery
by Mike Chen on 03/13/09 at 12:13 PM ET
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Flipping around the XM dial last night, I caught a wide batch of games on my drive home and most carried this week’s NHL On NBC promo. Of course, because it’s NBC, it featured the New York Rangers. However, rather than mention Henrik Lundqvist or Scott Gomez, it went straight for whose career stats make him a third liner.
“Catch Sean Avery and the New York Rangers…”
Huh? Oh, I guess he’s back in the league. And I guess he’s back in the league’s good graces enough that they don’t mind him being the centerpiece of a promotional game for their biggest broadcast of the week. And I guess he’s good enough (that is, enough people know who he is because he pops up everywhere from US Magazine to Project Runway cross-promotions) to highlight as one of the biggest stars of the week.
Seriously folks. If people are going to go out on a limb to condemn the guy for using frat-boy language, then don’t shove him in the spotlight when he comes back.
9:42 AM PST: Just got this in my email—“Watch Jeff Carter and the Flyers head to the Garden to take on Sean Avery and the Rangers this Sunday on NBC!” It’s also got a nice graphic of Avery in the HTML message.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: NBC, Sean+Avery,
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