My RotoRob Conference Finals preview is up.
Enjoy!
I'm going to go ahead and turn my game one summary, a 4-1 Detroit win over Dallas, to Star captain Brenden Morrow, since he kind of captured things perfectly: "You can't stand around and watch the puck."
Dallas seemed to spend most of the game standing around, watching the Wings. When you think of Dallas, you tend to think of tight defense. Last night was more like the Stars were watching video. Spending so much time on the penalty kill didn't help things for Dallas. I'm not sure you can play a typical penaltykill box against the Wings. Since so much of their offense comes in from the point, I would seriously consider playing three up high and one in the crease, to at least try and pretend Johan Franzen can be contained (at one point last night, I actually saw Franzen making a sandwich in the crease; he's very comfortable there).
At least not too many people saw Detroit win. That's one thing Dallas can take away.
OK. In case you were wondering why the Leafs are such a mess, here is a nice example of how things roll in Toronto:
- Fire your coach (some people call him Maurice).
- Float a name as a possible GM (David Nonis, fresh off of his victorious tour through Vancouver).
- Float another name (Brian Burke of the Ducks), who'll replace the previous name, when the third name's contract expires.
Basically, the Leafs have not hired anyone yet and are already looking to replace them. Not only that, they're canning a coach without a GM. What if the new hire was content to let Maurice finish out the year on his contract?
Adrian Dater is already floating Colorado coach Joel Quenneville as a good coaching option for Toronto.
My main objection to that is I really don't want the NHL to become the incestuous fired-coach carousel that is the NBA. There are like 31 NBA coaches. It seems like no one new ever comes in; at best, a coach sits out a year before returning to the league. And that just adds to the parity. The NHL does not need that.
Before the playoffs started, I would have laughed at the idea the Penguins could play as physically as the Flyers. But one thing about the Penguins is they've really allowed their game to evolve in the post-season. While their series against Ottawa was like an exhibition game, their round two play against the Rangers grew tighter and more physical as the series progressed. And one of Pittsburgh's best backcheckers? Evgeni Malkin. I was blown away by his two-way game.
Meanwhile, while the Flyers are probably always going to have a physical edge to their game, they used a shocking amount of speed, speed I didn't know they had, against Montreal.
The Eastern Conference finals will be interesting.
The Western Conference finals will be interesting, too. I'm interested to see if Dallas goalie Marty Turco will get his first win at Joe Louis Arena. I'm not sure if this matters, but to be fair, Turco's never played a post-season game at the Joe.
Also, Chris Botta, the Islanders' vice president of media relations, has resigned. Normally, I don't even notice these kinds of moves, but Botta had a pretty nice blog about doing PR for the Isles. His resignation isn't mentioned on the blog yet but hopefully Botta's replacement will continue it.
I love the time between playoff rounds because it lets me catch up a little bit. Not so much on the playoff teams, but on the teams that were bounced out of the playoffs.
Or in the case of the Buffalo Sabres, the team that didn't even make the playoffs and is seeing two former players (Daniel Briere and Marty Biron) lead their team (the Flyers) into the Eastern Conference finals.
Over in Colorado, Adrian Dater pointed out Joe Sakic asked to be out on the ice for the final seconds of the Avs blowout loss to the Wings. That could be an indication Sakic won't be back next season. It could also be an indication he's a masochist. It's hard to say. Only time will tell.
Over in Washington, spurned goalie Olie Kolzing finally explained Nameplate Gate. It doesn't seem like he'll be back in DC, although I'm not sure what kind of starting opportunities he'll find with other teams.
Also, it looks like Jaromir Jagr will finally come off the Caps' cap. One of my favorite parts of having Jaromir Jagr in New York has been knowing that his time here is subsidized. It makes me feel like a farmer being paid not to grow something.
Now, onto the winners.
In Detroit, everyone is asking who the team MVP is so far. Drew Sharp says it's not Chris "Mr. Stable" Osgood. Jamie Samuelsen says it's coach Ken Holland. Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom is also in the mix for MVP, all the more amazing when you consider he has yet to record a hit in the playoffs.
Also, Dallas' four overtime win over the Sharks actually got pretty good ratings. What is it about Dallas and really long playoff games?
Oh. And I missed this because I didn't stay up, but apparently American hockey icons Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick had a nice moment on the handshake line.
Today is dedicated to the beat writers, the unsung heroes of the NHL. And honestly, the guys who supply most of my content.
Tim Panaccio says the worst thing about covering Peter Forsberg in Philadelphia was all of the medical drama. Panaccio says the Denver writers weren't/aren't fans of the Forsberg beat, either.
Also, how crazy is it that the Flyers are going to Eastern Conference finals? Did anyone pick the Flyers to do anything this year?
They'll be playing the Penguins, who beat the Rangers yesterday afternoon. Everyone pretty much saw that coming after the Penguins took the first three games. And that had a lot of the writers thinking about Jaromir Jagr, and if he'll play in New York next year. Sam Weinman seems like he'll miss Jags, as does John Dellapina.
Compare those to Jagr's exit from Pittsburgh. I don't quite feel the same love.
Finally, Alltop is a news aggregator based on inspired by popurls. They have a hockey version. It's pretty cool.
