2009-10 NHL season preview and New York Ragners storylines for Metro (NY) Newspaper
Up in Flames: NHL Preview 2009-10
As the National Hockey League prepares to open its doors for the 91st season, there are dark storm clouds gathering overhead. The league is seeing some of its talent decide that the KHL is a more attractive option to ply their trade. At least five franchises could be forced to relocate due to dwindling-to-nonexistent fan support. The league and its ownership bylaws are being challenged in a federal courtroom in Phoenix by Blackberry magnate Jim Balsillie. One of the sport’s brightest young stars was involved in an ugly incident with a Buffalo cab driver. The NHLPA’s firing of Paul Kelly may portend a long, drawn out and bloody confrontation with the owners when the CBA expires following next season.There are, though, streams of light through the clouds. Original Six city Chicago has been re-established as a hockey hotbed. There is the routine greatness of the Detroit Red Wings, perhaps the blueprint for what a pre-eminent professional sports franchise should be. The individual brilliance of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Ilya Kovalchuck, Eric Staal and Rick Nash takes our breath away, while the hard-working Boston Bruins remind us of the game’s historical ethos. Those attributes join the physicality of a Marc Staal and the peskiness of a Steve Ott in making up the greatest sport the world has ever or will ever know (at least if you ask the puckheads).
Undoubtedly, the 2009-10 season will be a roller coaster, here's how we see it shakng out:
EASTERN CONFERENCE:
1) Boston Bruins: The reigning regular season conference champs have made cosmetic changes during the off-season, highlighted by the recent signing of coach Claude Julien to a contract extension. The biggest loss for the Bruins was RFA Phil Kessel, who was traded to division rival Toronto for two first round picks and a second round draft pick. Look for Milan Lucic to have the first of many 20 goal, 100 PIM seasons.
2) Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin is immensely likeable, a Pied Piper on skates. He’s also the best player in the world in any team sport, the first guy we’d choose if we could pick a player to build a team around. That said the Caps aren’t a one man band. Defenseman Mike Green is the reincarnation of Paul Coffey. If he can build on his playoff season, Semyon Varlamov should be a Calder candidate and the franchise netminder the organization has longed for.
3) Pittsburgh Penguins: Sidney, Evgeni, Marc-Andre, Jordan and all the rest of the baby Pens won the first of what could be many Cups last June, defeating Detroit in seven games. It would surprise absolutely no one if they won again this year, as all of the key components are back. We wonder, though, how the Penguins will react as now they are the hunted, instead of the hunters.
4) Carolina Hurricanes: For the most part, the Hurricanes stood pat following one of the most memorable playoff runs in franchise history. Carolina beat both the Devils and Bruins in seven games, before running out of gas in the Conference Finals against Pittsburgh. GM Jim Rutherford added size upfront and on the rearguard in the persons of Tom Kostopoulos, Stephane Yelle, Andrew Alberts and Aaron Ward. Still, the ‘Canes will go as far as Eric Staal and Cam Ward take them.
5) New Jersey Devils: The Devils were 1:20 away from a second round series against Alex Ovechkin. Enter Carolina Hurricane forwards Jussi Jokinen and Eric Staal. Exit the Devils from the playoffs and Brent Sutter, John Madden, Holik, Brian Gionta, Scott Clemmensen and Mike Rupp from Newark. Instead of promoting assistant coach John MacLean to the head job, Lou Lamoriello hired—rehired?—former coach Jacques Lemaire. Lemaire is more defensive-minded minded than Sutter, so don’t expect much, if any, of a falloff.
6) Philadelphia Flyers: The acquisition of Chris Pronger was the biggest player personnel move of the off-season. In his prime and among the best defensemen in the game, Pronger will bring offense to Philadelphia. Oh, he’ll also bring a pronounced mean streak. With Pronger, UFA signee Ian Laperriere, Riley Cote, Daniel Carcillo and Scott Hartnell, watch the Flyers finish with over 1,000 PIMs. As it always is, goaltending is a question.
7) Toronto Maple Leafs: Call them The Yonge Street Bullies. GM Brian Burke brought in plenty of muscle in the forms of Colton Orr, Francois Beauchemin, Mike Komisarek and Garnet Exelby, along with the man who had been widely considered the best goaltender not in the NHL, Jonas Gustavsson. Burke recently added 36-goal scorer Phil Kessel from Boston.
8) New York Rangers: Say this for Glen Sather: He has done a decent job drafting talent since the lockout. His free agent signings leave much to be desired, including this summer’s signing of Marian Gaborik. Yes, Gaborik is among the league’s pre-eminent snipers. He’s also oft-injured. If he can’t stay on the ice, the five year, $37.5 million deal will feel like an albatross—for both the player and the GM.
9) Tampa Bay Lightning: A sexy pick following a summer that saw GM Brian Lawton rebuild the defense corps, while franchise cornerstone Vincent Lecavalier recuperated from surgery. Lawton recently made two subtle personnel moves, trading for Drew Miller and signing UFA forward Alex Tanguay. Lecavalier, Ryan Malone, Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos and Tanguay should make many evenings unpleasant for opposing goaltenders.
10) Montreal Canadiens: Les Glorieux entered last season as one of the favorites to win the Cup. They ended it being dispatched in four games by hated Original Six rival Boston. GM Bob Gainey’s response to having seen his old and not-so-mighty mites be bounced around by bigger, stronger and often-times younger opponents was to trade for Scott Gomez and sign UFAs Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Travis Moen, Jaroslav Spacek, Hal Gill and Paul Mara. In other words, lateral moves for an organization that hasn’t won a Cup since 1993 and a city that thirsts for another one.
11) Buffalo Sabres: The small, smaller and smallest Sabres are watching their championship window close. Sniper Thomas Vanek, center Derek Roy and goaltender Ryan Miller are key components, but the trio needs more help than what’s around them.
12) New York Islanders: The reconstruction of a once-proud dynasty was sped up considerably when GM Garth Snow made John Tavares the first pick in June’s Entry Draft. In four seasons, Tavares was only the Ontario (Junior) Hockey League’s all-time goal scorer with 215. During the free agency period, Snow kept to his blueprint and did not spend money wildly; he did, however, smartly sign goaltenders Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron as insurance policies should Rick DiPietro not be able to start the season or if he struggles coming off of hip and knee surgery.
13) Ottawa Senators: The fact that Ottawa finished last season with 83 points and watched, instead of participated in the playoffs from home for the first time since 1996 was overshadowed this summer by the Dany Heatley saga. The 28-year old power forward was displeased with Coach Cory Clouston’s usage of his talents and asked GM Bryan Murray to trade him before June’s Entry Draft. Murray found takers for the two-time 50 goal scorer, but did not like the price until making a mid-September deal with San Jose for Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo and draft picks. The room might be better, but there's much to be done in Canada's Capital.
14) Atlanta Thrashers: GM Don Waddell has been adamant about re-signing UFA sniper Ilya Kovalchuk. We don’t think the additions of Nik Antropov and Pavel Kubina, along with reported negotiations with Nik Zherdev will be the positive acquisitions that cause Kovalchuk to sign long-term.
15) Florida Panthers: Former GM Jacques Marin read the writing on the wall and skipped town. Even with Stephen Weiss, Nathan Horton and David Booth, coach Peter DeBoer may wish he stayed in the junior ranks.
ATLANTIC DIVISION
*— 1) Pittsburgh Penguins
— 2) New Jersey Devils
— 3) Philadelphia Flyers
— 4) New York Rangers
5) New York Islanders
NORTHEAST DIVISION
***— 1) Boston Bruins
— 2) Toronto Maple Leafs
3) Montreal Canadiens
4) Buffalo Sabres
5) Ottawa Senators
SOUTHEAST DIVISION
*— 1) Washington Capitals
— 2) Carolina Hurricanes
3) Tampa Bay Lightning
4) Atlanta Thrashers
5) Florida Panthers
WESTERN CONFERENCE:
1) San Jose Sharks: The perennial tease. One of the NHL’s most talented teams, the Sharks believe themselves Cup contenders. However, a noticeable lack of snarl and resolve have conspired to guarantee yearly early playoff ousters in Northern California. Not much has changed in top heavy San Jose, who are led by Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Neither has ever been confused for one of the game’s great leaders. GM Doug Wilson, who publicly criticized his team after being eliminated in the first round by Anaheim, dealt forwards Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo and draft picks to Ottawa for disgruntled sniper Dany Heatley. Much like his new team, Heatley is a great regular season performer and something much less when the games matter. Even with Heatley, the Sharks will be nothing more than a regular season lion and a spring lamb.
2) Calgary Flames: GM Darryl Sutter added Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold at the trade deadline last year, in an attempt to bolster a Cup run. Instead, Mike Keenan’s crew lost in the first round to Chicago. The controversial and combustible Keenan was fired in the aftermath. Despite the inglorious finish, the Flames are not all that far away from a Cup. To that end, Sutter hired his brother, former Devils coach Brent Sutter, to run the bench, traded for Jay Bouwmeester and signed free agents Fredrik Sjostrom, Nigel Dawes, Brian McGrattan and Staffan Kronwall. The additions along with Jokinen, Jarome Iginla, Daymond Langkow, Craig Conroy, Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and Mikka Kiprusoff should have the Flames among the league’s elite—and Stanley Cup Champion in June.
3) Detroit Red Wings: Two games. The Detroit Red Wings were two games away from repeating as Stanley Cup Champions, two games away from winning the organization’s fifth Cup in 12 years. Then Detroit lost game six on the road, game seven at home and watched as Sidney Crosby and the Penguins celebrated the Cup at Joe Louis Arena. The losses continued into the off-season as Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Jiri Hudler, Tomas Kopecky, Ty Conklin and Chris Chelios all left Hockeytown. Still, the Wings are still among the league’s elite thanks to perhaps the best combination of ownership, management, coaching, players and player development in sports. That won’t change anytime soon.
4) Chicago Blackhawks: Hockey’s hot again in Original Six city Chicago. For years, Chicagoans stayed away from the United Center in droves, a not-so-subtle plea to the late Bill Wirtz to improve the team. After the patriarch died, his son Rocky and team president John McDonough went to work to bring the Blackhawks into the 21st Century. The first thing they did was to allow television broadcasts of all games. From there, fan fests, where players, coaches and management interacted with supporters, were enacted. All of that is nice, but if the product is lacking, no one would head to the United Center. The Blackhawks are one of the league’s most exciting young teams, headlined by captain Jonathan Toews; right wing and NHL 2010 cover boy Patrick Kane; Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg up front along with prized free agent Marian Hossa. A mean, mobile, high scoring defense corps which includes Brian Campbell, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook is among the league’s best. The only question mark is in nets, where Cristobal Huet is the No.1.
5) Anaheim Ducks: GM Bob Murray is the early leader for Executive of the Year. One of the worst secrets in the NHL was that the Ducks were going to trade defenseman Chris Pronger at June’s draft. Murray was still able to get forward Joffrey Lupul, defenseman Luca Sbisa, two first round draft picks and a third round pick from the Flyers. The continued stockpiling of young riches joins three of the game’s best players in 24-year-old Mark Messier clone Ryan Getzlaf; mean, high scoring 23-year old Corey Perry and soon-to-be perennial 40 goal scorer in 21-year-old Bobby Ryan. In short, the Ducks are going to be good for a long time.
6) Vancouver Canucks: Oh brother! Apologies for the terrible pun. But the Canucks will only go as far as the Sedin twins and Roberto Luongo take them. More scoring is needed before the Canucks can be considered a real Cup contender.
7) St. Louis Blues: On New Year’s Day, the Blues had the worst record in the league. When the playoffs began, the Blues were the Western Conference’s sixth seed. The credit goes to GM John Davidson and Coach Andy Murray. Davidson had trade offers for power forward Keith Tkachuk, but decided to stand pat. Murray had the Blues collection of young players buy into his system; if not for the remarkable job Claude Julien did with the Bruins, Murray might have been the Jack Adams winner.
8) Columbus Blue Jackets: Along with Carolina’s Eric Staal, Rick Nash is the best player that no one talks about. One of the NHL’s top goal scorers, Nash and the Jackets got their first taste of the playoffs last April, when they were swept by the Red Wings. Columbus has a wealth of young talent and is coached by the demanding Ken Hitchcock, who demands adherence to his system. Steve Mason, the reigning Calder Trophy winner, is on the cusp of being a franchise goaltender.
9) Los Angeles Kings: The widely accepted way to become a contender in the new salary cap NHL is by drafting and developing young talent. Pittsburgh, Boston and Chicago have all experienced success by building from within. Los Angeles is next in line. The Kings were in the Western Conference playoff race last season until the final month when their lack of scoring and experience caught up to them. Should the Kings be in a playoff race this year, they will be able to lean on veteran scorer Ryan Smyth (acquired in a trade with Colorado) and Stanley Cup winning defenseman Rob Scuderi (signed as a free agent). Still, we think the Kings are probably a year away from being really good.
10) Edmonton Oilers: It’s been a long time since The Cup was hoisted overhead in The City of Champions. The Mark Messier-captained 1990 Oilers dispatched Raymond Bourque and Cam Neely and the Bruins in five games for Edmonton’s fifth Cup. Since then, the Oilers have been alternated between being bad, non-descript and merely okay, along with a Cup Final appearance in 2006; a seven game series loss to Carolina. It’ll be more of the same in 2009-10 as the Oilers have too many young players and too many role players.
11) Dallas Stars: Big D was more than a nickname for the city of Dallas. It was the Stars’ organizational philosophy. Not anymore. With first year GM Joe Nieuwendyk and Coach Marc Crawford being handed the reins by owner Tom Hicks following a disastrous 2008-09 campaign, the mandate will be for up-tempo, high scoring hockey. The Stars won’t be a playoff team—it’ll take time for the new system to take hold—but they’ll be one of the league’s best teams at the end of the season.
12) Phoenix Coyotes: The Coyotes haven’t turned a profit in a decade. The team has not made the playoffs in seven years. Owner Jerry Moyes is trying to sell the team, specifically to Blackberry magnate Jim Balsillie. However, since Balsillie is not a favorite of Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Board of the Governors, the league wanted Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf to buy the team, but he backed out. Not even an in-his-prime Wayne Gretzky could salvage this mess.
13) Nashville Predators: David Poile and Barry Trotz are the best GM-head coach combination in the league. One wonders what they could do if they were allowed to spend money and in a market that actually cares about the game.
14) Minnesota Wild: The State of Hockey in Minneapolis is one of total rebuilding.
15) Colorado Avalanche: There’s a reason Patrick Roy did not want to take his former franchise’s head coaching job. Even with Matt Duchene, the Avalanche will be the worst team in the league.
CENTRAL DIVISION
*— 1) Detroit Red Wings
— 2) Chicago Blackhawks
— 3) St. Louis Blues
— 4) Columbus Blue Jackets
5) Nashville Predators
NORTHWEST DIVISION
***— 1) Calgary Flames
— 2) Vancouver Canucks
3) Edmonton Oilers
4) Minnesota Wild
5) Colorado Avalanche
PACIFIC DIVISION
*— 1) San Jose Sharks
— 2) Anaheim Ducks
3) Los Angeles Kings
4) Dallas Stars
5) Phoenix Coyotes
PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS:
FIRST ROUND:
EASTERN CONFERENCE:
(1) Boston Bruins over (8) New York Rangers in five games.
(2) Washington Capitals over (7) Toronto Maple Leafs in six games.
(6) Philadelphia Flyers over (3) Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games.
(5) New Jersey Devils over (4) Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.
WESTERN CONFERENCE:
(8) Columbus Blue Jackets over (1) San Jose Sharks in six games.
(2) Calgary Flames over (7) St. Louis Blues in five games.
(3) Detroit Red Wings over (6) Vancouver Canucks in six games.
(5) Anaheim Ducks over (4) Chicago Blackhawks in six games.
SECOND ROUND:
EASTERN CONFERENCE:
(1) Boston Bruins over (6) Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
(2) Washington Capitals over (5) New Jersey Devils in five games.
WESTERN CONFERENCE:
(2) Calgary Flames over (8) Columbus Blue Jackets in five games.
(5) Anaheim Ducks over (3) Detroit Red Wings in six games.
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS:
(1) Boston Bruins over (2) Washington Capitals in seven games.
EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Boston Bruins. The second round loss to Carolina to last year will be a rallying point for the Bruins.
WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS:
(2) Calgary Flames over (5) Anaheim Ducks in six games.
WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPION: Calgary Flames. The deepest blueline in the league resides in Calgary, as does one of the best goaltenders in the world (Mikka Kiprusoff) and two of the league’s pre-eminent power forwards (Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen).
STANLEY CUP FINAL:
(2) Calgary Flames over (1) Boston Bruins in seven games.
STANLEY CUP CHAMPION: Calgary Flames in seven games. A classic hard-hitting series comes to an end when Jarome Iginla shovels a rebound under Tim Thomas in the third overtime of the seventh game.
CONN SMYTHE TROPHY WINNER: Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames. Iginla dominates in his second Cup Final, scoring four goals and bouncing anyone wearing Black and Gold. The Cup and the Conn Smythe are the bow on a year which should include an Olympic Gold Medal and a 35 goal regular season.
HART TROPHY WINNER: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals. The game’s best player wins his third consecutive Hart following a 70 goal, 125 point campaign.
ART ROSS TROPHY WINNER: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals.
ROCKET RICHARD TROPHY WINNER: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals.
SELKE TROPHY WINNER: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings. Datsyuk is merely the best all-around player in the game.
NORRIS TROPHY WINNER: Nick Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings. The ultra-smooth Lidstrom is one of the top ten blueliners of all time. If he’s lost a step, the decline is going from an A + to an A.
VEZINA TROPHY WINNER: Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils. Limited to 31 games last season due to bicep surgery, Brodeur nonetheless became the all-time wins leader. Trailing the legendary Terry Sawchuk 103-101, expect the all-time shutout record to become Brodeur’s this season. Simply, Brodeur is the best goaltender most of us will be privileged to see in our lifetimes, and should win his fifth Vezina, especially with the uber-defensive minded Jacques Lemaire back behind the Devils’ bench,
CALDER TROPHY WINNER: John Tavares, New York Islanders. All eyes will be on the OHL’s all time leading goal scorer. He won’t be the next Gretzky, but may be the 21st Century version of Mike Bossy. A 30 goal season should be enough for Tavares to top Victor Hedman, Matt Duchene and Matt Gilroy to win the Rookie of the Year.
JACK ADAMS TROPHY WINNER: Rick Tocchet, Tampa Bay Lightning. Tocchet will win the Jack Adams after Tampa improves by 20 points over last season. Why the increase? Adding a healthy Vinny Lecavalier to a top six forward cast which includes Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, Ryan Malone and newly signed Alex Tanguay should mean plenty of nights with three or more goals. It’s the defense corps where the Lightning has dramatically improved. Victor Hedman is projected to be an amalgamation of Nik Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara. The No. 2 pick won’t have to do it all by himself as he’ll be joined by former Canuck star and fellow Swede Mattias Ohlund. Those two, along with a healthy Andrej Meszaros and Paul Ranger, should make for a better-than-competent blueline.
3 Things to know about the Rangers
Lost to Capitals in first round of NHL playoffs
1 Sniper attack
Marian Gaborik is among the NHL's elite snipers. At 27, he’s entering the prime of his career. There’s a solid amount of risk that comes with this signing, as Gaborik has not been able to stay healthy.
The winger played just 17 games last season with Minnesota. A full season from Gaborik in a trigger-happy system should vastly improve the Blueshirts’ 25th-ranked offense from last season.
2 Tort reformed
John Tortorella espouses the mantra, “safe is death.” In other words, the proper way to play is to control the puck and take offensive chances. This includes defensemen joining in on the rush. Of course, they still have to find that point man on the power play. They ranked 29th last season on the man-advantage. The pressure’s on Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden, who underperformed last season — Redden nearly notched a career low with 26 points. Look for Marc Staal to have his breakout year, which will improve their sub-.500 road record.
3 King of the castle
Henrik Lundqvist is their most important player — the masked face of an Original Six franchise.
King Henrik is among the league’s elite players at any position and should once again compete for the Vezina Trophy. He slipped to 11th last season in goals against average, but two seasons ago he was arguably the best netminder. He led the league with 10 shutouts and was sixth with a 2.23 GAA. Lundqvist will suit up for Sweden at the Olympics, so his workload needs to be monitored.
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:46 PM
<< Home