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John Hughes: Hockey Fan

Steven Ovadia — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:02:54 +0000

Vanity Fair has an interesting piece on John Hughes, the iconic director who died in August.

In addition to being a huge 80s director, Hughes was also a big hockey fan. In fact, one of his last public appearances might have been the Wings/’Hawks Winter Classic.

The article points out some cool things, like how in FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, despite being from Chicago, Cameron wears a Gordie Howe jersey the whole movie. Hughes was a big Howe fan, having lived in Michigan until he was 12.

Hughes’ friendship with the beloved John Candy was also partially based upon a mutual love of hockey: “Candy, though he was from Toronto rather than Chicago, led a life similar to Hughes’s: big hockey fan, big family man, strong marriage, two young kids.”

Candy owned a farm, which inspired Hughes to do the same. He named it Redwing Farms. Even more inspired, the farm was in Illinois.

I’m not a huge fan of Hughes film work. Like everyone, I’ve seen his movies, but they didn’t really change my life. But he seems like he was a really nice guy.

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.

Big Goalie Night

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:54:04 +0000

Last night was kind of interesting. There were 10 games played, with four shutouts.

Goalies Steve Mason (CBJ), Ryan Miller (BUF), Ty Conklin (backup; STL), and Nik Backstrom (MIN) each kept the red light off behind them.

So is this a sign defense is back in the NHL? Is the NHL reverting to its pre-lockout lockdown defensive mode?

Flipping around, it seems more like a sign the NHL season is just too long. Teams are out of gas and seem to be having trouble bringing the proper energy levels to each game.

Although, to be fair, Miller’s night against the Caps included some pretty amazing saves. But Minnesota-Colorado was pretty devoid of energy as was the Blues win over a tired-looking Detroit. Columbus played a strong defensive game against Florida, but the Panthers have looked tired since American Thanksgiving.

I don’t have data on the last time the NHL had this many shutouts in a night, but it seems to be a pretty rare thing. You can look at it as some strong goalies having solid games, but the reality is probably more that some strong and some struggling teams had a night where they didn’t have very much steam.

The NHL is cramming in games to make room for the Olympics and we’re starting to see the effect in the on-ice product. It’s good for goalies but probably dull for fans. Does anyone want to watch a bunch of exhausted men skate around?

Speaking of on-ice product, why is Ottawa both mad and surprised Alex Kovalev’s been slumping this season? How did they not realize this is what Kovalev does?

Darwin: ‘Hull Evolved More Than Most’

Steven Ovadia — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:29:27 +0000

Tim Panaccio took a quick look back at Brett Hull’s career.

That amazing wrist shot from the circle? It was actually his dad, Bobby Hull’s, idea. Which is shocking, since Bobby Hull is synonymous with the slapshot. But the elder Hull said the quicker NHL game required a quicker shot.

It’s funny how we’ve come full circle. You rarely see anyone scoring off the rush from the circles. And as great as Brett Hull was, I don’t think he’d have nearly as many of those kinds of goals if he played his prime in the modern NHL. Goalies are simply too big and there’s too much traffic in front of the net to score with any kind of regularity from that far out.

In fact, if I was going to tell a young player to develop any particular shot, I think I’d suggest they work on a slapshot — something that can get through to the net. Not that it would lead to many goals, but the ability to rocket the puck in from the blueline can certainly set up other people for goals.

And that’s really one the neat things about hockey. The game evolves (and sometimes devolves) over time. What works for one generation doesn’t work for another. The ability to evolve is what separates the good players from the great players. Brett Hull developed his wrist shot because it worked. But I have no doubt if he had played in the current era, he would have developed a mammoth slapshot that would have scared the padding out of opposing goalies.

Also, my latest column on how coaches tend to put too much faith in the impact of speed is up.

Ducks Future Hinges on Giguere’s Groin

Steven Ovadia — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:25:09 +0000

Anaheim has a couple of issues right now, mostly that they’re 3-5-1 and have dropped four of their last five.

But their most pressing problem might be goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s groin.

Giguere is making $6 million this season and $7 million next season, even as the Ducks have a much stronger, cheaper goaltending option in Jonas Hiller.

It’s been fairly obvious that Anaheim wants to trade Giguere and has been giving him starts to keep him sharp and to showcase him. And Giguere is a solid, proven goalie who would have attracted some interest.

Would have. Until he left Saturday’s loss to the Blue Jackets with a sore groin.

Teams won’t take a chance on an expensive goalie like Giguere if there are concerns about groin issues. And if Giguere doesn’t come off of the Anaheim cap, they can’t get in some secondary scoring and a shut-down defenseman, both of which the team needs.

Giguere’s health is the key to Anaheim’s immediate future. Not because they need him to play for them, but because they need him to play his way onto another team.

Also, here’s something I wrote about the current New York Rangers trying to re-create the 2001-02 Wings. Because if the Rangers love one thing, it’s old players.

Lemaire Opens Things Up…Perhaps Too Much

Steven Ovadia — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:10:59 +0000

The start of the season is tough, because you always want to make grand statements about teams when you’re really just working off of a small data set.

Watching last night’s Rangers-Devils, on Versus (I’m one of the 50 people left with Versus), I was very impressed by the Devils. They didn’t look like a typical Jacques Lemaire-coached team. Defensemen joined the rush and there were long stretches without a lot going on in the neutral zone. It was an up-and-down game.

Of course, given the Devils loss, their second in two games, maybe they need a little more defense. GM Lou Lamoriello says he’s not too worried the Devils are 0-2 on the season, but I’m assuming he wants the Devils to win eventually. Lemaire was almost fired as coach of the Wild last December for going 4-9-1, so he’s well aware that he’s being paid to coach wins.

The thing is, in the first two games, the Devils haven’t looked bad. Goalie Martin Brodeur has been a bit off, though. Especially his lateral work. I don’t know if something is tweaked or if it’s just taking him longer to get into game shape, but he hasn’t looked 100% in the Devils first two games.

Speaking of not making too early a proclamation, how great did the Blues look in Sweden? How ragged did the Wings look? I suspect both teams will eventually edge closer to their respective means of playing quality, but it made for a great kickoff to the season. Of course, now the Blues (and Wings) must prepare for their greatest challenge: jet lag.

Deja Bertuzzi

Steven Ovadia — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:56:55 +0000

So Todd Bertuzzi is back with the Wings.

I understand the attraction to Bertuzzi. He’s big. He once had great hands. In a lot of ways, he’s the North American version of the prototypical Detroit forward. But to be more precise, he was the North American version of the prototypical Detroit forward. He’s six-years removed from his huge 46-goal season in Vancouver. He’s three years removed from his last 20-goal season. And most alarmingly of all, he finished last season for the Flames a -13.

Detroit probably doesn’t want to hear this, but the only way Bertuzzi isn’t going to be a huge bust is if he reinvents himself as a defensive forward, something Detroit doesn’t make a lot of use of.

I’ve watched a fair amount of Bertuzzi since he left Vancouver, expecting, like so many other people, that Bertuzzi would one day return to his Vancouver glory days form. I’ve yet to see it happen. Not in Florida, not in Detroit, and not in Calgary. He has trouble getting down low. His shot has lost something. He’s simply not the same player, either due to age or lower-back surgery.

I think the Wings see Bertuzzi sliding in to replace Mikael Samuelsson (and his 19 goals). I don’t think that’s any kind of a given.

KHL Grabs Zubov and Hudler

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:58:00 +0000

I’m very surprised Sergei Zubov is close to signing a KHL deal.

Zubov is 39 and coming off an injury-plagued season, but I would think there might be a few NHL teams interested in signing one of the game’s all-time great offensive defensemen. If nothing else, Zubov could probably quarterback the powerplay as a special teams-type seventh defenseman. But I suspect he could play even more regularly.

Zubov will have some NHL-flavored company in Russia. Restricted free agent Jiri Hudler signed for two years at $5 million per year. It’s a sticky situation since Hudler is still under contract to the Wings and undergoing arbitration. Basically, the KHL is ignoring Hudler’s NHL contract.

At this point, you see that the KHL does have some ability to draw NHL talent, but not really elite NHL talent. While it would be great to have guys like Zubov and Hudler playing in North America, I’m not sure many people will be sitting around next season saying “Wow. I wish Jiri Hudler was playing in this game.”

Someone who probably won’t be going to the KHL is Brendan Shanahan. The Devils will have him if he’ll have the Devils. He’s expected to decide by the end of next week. Although I think it would be pretty funny if the KHL did make a serious run at Shanahan.

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.