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Penguins Need a Goalie Upgrade

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:39:18 +0000

It’s never fair to lay a team’s fortunes at the feet of their goalie since while the goalie is an important position, a lot of factors go into wins and losses.

For instance, Pittsburgh couldn’t get past Montreal, last night and in the series, for a few reasons.

Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak was super hot. He was very tough to beat.

The Penguins are tired. They’ve played a lot of hockey over the past few seasons. Playoff games. Olympic games. The Penguins looked exhausted for much of the second half of the season and these playoffs and I think it was because all of that extra hockey finally caught up with them.

The Penguins also missed Hal Gill’s size in their line-up. Montreal is a small team, but for whatever reason, the Penguins struggled to clear out the Habs from down low.

Conversely, the Penguins didn’t have an answer to Gill’s size.

But having said all of that, Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is the reason the Penguins aren’t advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.

He was horrible in game seven, giving up four weak goals before being mercifully yanked. But Fleury has rarely looked particularly strong during the playoffs.

In fact, Fleury has rarely looked strong throughout his career. If you remove last season’s Stanley Cup-winning run from Fleury’s portfolio, you don’t really see a dominant, confident stretch from the young goalie.

And I think that raises the single-most important question the Penguins need to ask themselves this off-season: Is Fleury the kind of goalie that can drive a dynasty?

Because I don’t think he is. And as good as the Penguins are, I’m not sure they have enough talent to compensate for inconsistent goaltending. Halak was hot for the Canadiens, the Penguins couldn’t score at will, and the series came down to defense. And Fleury just didn’t provide enough defense to keep the Penguins in the game or in the playoffs.

The Penguins don’t need an elite goaltender. They don’t need someone to steal games for them. But they do need a consistent goalie who makes the saves he needs to save and doesn’t knock the Penguins out of games too early.

In other words, they need to figure a way to upgrade over Fleury. A dynasty is only as strong as its weakest link. As we saw last night, right now, Fleury is Pittsburgh’s weakest link.

Matt Cooke Learns Revenge is a Dish Best Served Tired

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:00:15 +0000

Last night’s Bruins-Penguins was a great example of the need to get rid of the instigator rule.

The Bruins looked completed depleted, both physically and emotionally, battling both the flu and the need to avenge Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard.

The Bruins chose to spend their energy avenging Savard and wound up losing 3-0.

Boston looked like they had too much time to think about this game. Colin Campbell visited the Bruins before the game, reminding them that last night needed to be a hockey game and not an ambush. A veteran officiating crew also worked the game, just to make sure things stayed civilized.

Shawn Thornton wound up fighting Cooke, but I’m not sure any of the Bruins got any kind of closure.

Before the game, Fluto Shinzawa spoke to the legendary Bobby Orr, and Orr spoke of the need for players to be able to police themselves:

The problem we have now is that many players are protected…With the new rules, it’s a difficult thing to do. You go too far, you’re going to be in trouble. It’s a difficult thing to take care of…I do think that the league is going to start demanding the players to police themselves. In time, everyone will understand that it was a bad hit. It shouldn’t have happened.

Orr is right. Players are scared to protect each other. And when they do have to stand up for each other, like the Bruins had to last night, it’s completely unnatural. It looked like having to take care of Cooke completely distracted the Bruins last night and cost them two points they can’t afford to surrender.

If the Bruins had taken care of Cooke last Sunday, this would have just been another game. I’m sure no love would have been lost between the teams because of Cooke’s hit, but at least Boston would have gotten Cooke’s punishment out of the way.

I hope the NHL is noticing what an ecosystem the on-ice game is. When you take away the ability of players to police each other, the hits get dirtier and more severe. And instead of an ugly game last Sunday, the NHL got an ugly game last night.

Olympics Will Drain a Lot of Players

Steven Ovadia — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:54:22 +0000

Not to be a jerk about the Olympics, but what exactly is the NHL thinking?

The Penguins are obviously already gassed from their successful Stanley Cup run. They beat Atlanta last night, but had dropped their previous five. And now, instead of just focusing on making it to the All-Star break, they’re going to send key players to Vancouver?

Sidney Crosby and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury will represent Canada. Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar will represent Russia. Brooks Orpik will represent the U.S.

Basically, if you asked someone to pick five Penguins you’d want resting and not playing in a tournament in the middle of a season, it would probably be those five guys.

I know players love the chance to represent their country and I know the Olympics is good exposure for the NHL but it seems ridiculous that teams like the Penguins not only play deep into the post-season but then are expected to stock in-season Olympic teams, too.

Detroit, who also played deep into the post-season, is sending seven key players to Vancouver.

Most fans want to see teams as healthy as possible. No one wants to see Pittsburgh or Detroit make an early playoff exit because guys are too tired from a grueling two-year cycle of playing.

Sadly, I don’t have a solution, outlandish or otherwise. If you give Olympic players a week or so off after the games, you’ll have non-Olympians who haven’t played in a month or so. I would suggest coaches rest their Olympians whenever possible, but that’s not always feasible during a season — especially for a team that’s struggling.

The moral of all of this? Don’t make a Stanley Cup run the season before the Olympics.

Pittsburgh Tired; Vultures Circle Ducks

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:14:04 +0000

A tough night for Pittsburgh in Ottawa last night. The Penguins had Max Talbot and Sergei Gonchar back and they still blew an early lead to the Senators.

Pittsburgh looked tired. It could just be the time of season or it could be all of the injuries the healthy players have had to compensate for over the course of the season.

Someone asked Dave Molinari if he thought poor conditioning was behind all of the Penguins injuries. Molinari said going deep into the playoffs so frequently could end up taking a physical toll on the team. So Pittsburgh could literally wind up a victim of its own success.

Hopefully, the team will get some rest over American Thanksgiving. And hopefully Talbot and Gonchar will help since they have relatively fresh legs.

Meanwhile, over in Anaheim, the Ducks haven’t given up on their season, but opposing scouts are watching the team closely, getting ready for the inevitable fire sale of talent.

Things are pretty bad. I heard opposing scouts were placing red stickers on players they’re interested in obtaining.

Also, I took a look at the importance of system-oriented coaches in player develpment. Nikita Filatov obviously wasn’t a huge fan of that kind of coaching…

NHL Is a Two Financial Tier League

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:53:42 +0000

Forbes released their annual NHL franchise valuations and things actually look pretty good for the league. Or at least for some of the franchises. The average operating profit was $6.1 million, aggregate income increased, as did average franchise value.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an across the board thing for the all of the franchises. While successful teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Chicago are doing great (as one might expect), other franchises like Nashville, Atlanta, the Islanders, and, of course, the Coyotes, are struggling. Here is the Forbes valuation chart.

One thing the article doesn’t mention that I’m curious about: the Stars and Avs, two seemingly successful franchises, lost $10 million and $11 million in value, respectively. I’m not sure if that’s a business loss of some kind that has nothing to do with the actual franchises, or if something else is going on.

Looking at the list of struggling franchises (and I’m assuming Dallas and Colorado aren’t actually struggling, that they just lost some value this year), you can’t help but wonder when the NHL is going to contract. You have wildly successful teams rubbing elbows with teams that can’t fill their arenas and can’t attract a buyer. Why not cut the fat and streamline league profits?

Speaking of value, the Blackhawks are about to see some return on their investment in Marian Hossa: he’s expected to begin contact drills this week, putting him one step closer to making his season debut. Like everyone else, I’m very curious how/if he’ll fit in with the rest of the team.

Also, here is my look at Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s demand to be made the starting goalie in Anaheim.

Penguins Bourque the Capitals

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:58:43 +0000

There were some interesting moves yesterday.

The Caps waived Chris Bourque for salary purposes, hoping he would sneak through into the AHL. He didn’t and wound up claimed by the Penguins.

Bourque is bummed, yet psyched.

Bourque has a lot of upside. He’s looked great in the AHL, and while he’s small, that smallness has translated to great speed. I think the Caps underestimated the interest in Bourque.

The Penguins are pretty much set on lines one through three, so you have to assume he’ll spend some initial time on the fourth line, with the Penguins thinking he might eventually move up. The Penguins are using Pascal Dupuis with Evgeni Malkin while Max Talbot heals from shoulder surgery. Dupuis is crazy fast, so it seems Penguins coach Dan Bylsma is trying to get some more speed throughout his lineup. If that proves effective, Bourque is a useful piece to have.

Plus, if nothing else, the Penguins managed to remove a talented player from a major Eastern Conference rival.

Bylsma Lowering Expectations

Steven Ovadia — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:56:25 +0000

I like when training camp starts because it puts a real spotlight on coaches as everyone tries to figure out if successful coaches will be able to maintain their pace and if unsuccessful coaches will manage to turn things around.

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma would probably be considered a successful coach, what with his Stanley Cup at the end of last season. Even so, he’s already lowering expectations for the upcoming season. He never uses the term “Cup hangover,” but it seems to weigh strongly on his mind.

By the way, the Penguins are trying to re-sign defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang. Is it me or does Gonchar seem to have stopped aging? Someone should look into that.

Over in New Jersey, John MacLean continues to insist he’s not mad he was passed over for the Devils coaching job. Again. In an unrelated note, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire continues to insist he always had someone start his car and taste his food for him.

Blues coach Andy Murray had a nice surprise during the Blues’ pre-training camp practice sessions: a healthy Paul Kariya and Erik Johnson. The Blues will have around 56 players at training camp, which is about how many players they needed last season.

Finally, the NHL marketing department slipped-up and actually promoted a player from a west coast team. Heads will certainly roll for this. The first rule of NHL marketing is to never reveal the NHL has teams west of the Mississippi.

Briere: ‘Good Lines Come in Small Packages’

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:44:14 +0000

Tim Panaccio looked at some of the line combinations coming out of Flyers training camp.

It looks like Claude Giroux is going to spend a lot of time with Daniel Briere, making for a fast, dynamic, and small line. The interesting (and unsurprising) thing is, is that Briere doesn’t see size as an issue, pointing out that the Jordan Staal line had problems with Briere’s smaller line during the playoffs:

It got to the point where we had either Arron [Asham] or Powe on the other side of us, guys to much it up…They had their best games when they played against Richie or Carter’s lines. So size wasn’t the issue there, it was the matchup. When [Staal's line] played against a smaller line, they didn’t play as well.

Coming out of the lockout, a lot of GMs thought the days of size trumping everything were over. And speed is much more of a factor in the NHL game now. But size is still an important ingredient. Giroux and Briere were a tough match-up for a team that forechecks aggressively. But put them against a more passive defense, and they’re never going to get anywhere near the slot. Patience is to speed as Kryptonite is to Superman.

But reading Briere’s comments, I’m kind of curious if he somehow has the ear of a certain GM in Montreal. There’s nothing wrong with a team going small, but sadly, size still does matter in the NHL.

Despite all of that size talk, though, Giroux seems poised for a breakout season. He’ll be moved onto the powerplay and Flyers coach John Stevens seems quite ready to give Giroux as much ice time as he can spare. I know Flyer fans have been expecting great things from Giroux, so it’s nice to see him poised to step up.

If Only…

Steven Ovadia — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:56:44 +0000

One way you know it was a great game seven is that there just wasn’t much to say about it. It completely spoke for itself. The Penguins were flawless for two periods and strong enough for the third.

Defenseman Brad Stuart, whose turnovers and pinching led to both game seven Penguin goals, says he’d like a few of those moments back.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes are staying in Phoenix…for now. I can’t imagine they’ll be sold to anyone and stay there, but I guess the league will have more of a say in who the next owner is.

Derian Hatcher retired and took a job with the Flyers as a player development coach. Hatcher had lost quite a few steps over the years but in his prime, he was a scary presence along the blue line. I kind of wonder if he’ll try and get the Flyers to draft linebackers who they’ll then teach to skate. I always suspected that’s how Hatcher got into hockey.

Michael Russo has a great post explaining why the Wild went with San Jose’s Todd Richards as their new coach. The Wild wanted someone more offensive-minded than Jacques Lemaire, which isn’t very hard to accomplish, given Lemaire never fully embraced the forward pass. But the Wild also wanted a younger coach the players could relate to and who would take some time to explain coaching choices to the young Wild team.

Interestingly, Russo also suspects Richards would have gotten the coaching job in Pittsburgh, after Michel Therrien was fired, if he had stuck around the Penguins organization. Do you think Brad Stuart is thinking about that variable, too?

Tonight’s the Night

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:54:23 +0000

So tonight’s the night for Detroit or Pittsburgh.

Tim Panaccio says the Penguins need a role player to step-up and pull a Ruslan Fedotenko circa game seven of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals. I think Fedotenko, who now plays for Pittsburgh, is a logical candidate for that role, but maybe it’s too obvious.

Meanwhile, moving to the opposite of the Stanley Cup finals, the Islanders are looking for size in the draft. I mention this only because in the past, I feel the Islanders ignored their glaringly obvious flaws, but lately, it seems like the franchise is more in touch with its weaknesses.

If the Islanders want grit, they might want to look at Colorado’s beloved Ian Laperriere, who won’t be back with the Avs next season. Although, Laperriere isn’t that tall.