Has it even been a week since the Detroit Red Wings returned to their seemingly perennial position atop the NHL standings?
Heading into the final playoff stretch, Dominik Hasek seems determined to wreak at least as much havoc with his team this year as he did with the Senators last spring.
This is exactly what a team that’s known for regular season success and playoff collapse needs. /sarcasm
It begins, Red Wings fans…
Nashville Predators forward Jordin Tootoo has been suspended for five games, without pay, for striking Dallas Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas during Game #1074 at Nashville, March 17, the National Hockey League announced today.
Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his annual average salary, Tootoo will forfeit $16,032.80. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
I’m starting to think more and more that the NHL needs to start taking whatever it feels is “fair” punishment and multiply it by about 5 or so. Here’s why:
In the context of other suspensions, five games feels about right; it might even be considered a little harsh, given that Robidas was obviously on his way over to be less than cordial. However, let’s consider some other contexts.
How about the context of money? Tootoo forfeits $16,000 for the games he will miss. Great, except that Tootoo is currently making $600,000. Whoopee.
How about the context of impact? Tootoo - with all due respect intended - could miss the rest of the regular season and it would hardly have an impact on the Predators or anyone else.
How about the context of the purpose of suspensions? Suspensions aren’t only intended to punish players for their transgressions, they are intended to send a message across the league. They are intended to make other players think twice before being stupid on the ice. And the problem is that 1, 3, 5 games just doesn’t send that message. Players like Tootoo, Cam Janssen and even Chris Neil (not this season) get to sit in the press box for five game stretches even when they’re just not playing well.
Saying a suspension is ‘fair’ or ‘justified’ only takes into account the context of other suspensions. That’s simply not enough. For suspensions to be effective and worthwhile they must serve all of their purposes. They do not do so as currently handed out.
Come on, Colin. Add a zero to the end of that number next time you’re handing out a suspension.
I’m always skeptical when a rookie goalkeeper is given a pivotal role in his second season. All too often, second-season players in the NHL fall prey to the dreaded “sophomore slump.” No position faces more pressure than starting goaltender. A goaltender such as Henrik Lundqvist, who came in last season with little expected of him and performed so well, came into this season with very, very lofty expectations. I questioned from before the preseason how well he would handle
himself now that he’s expected to carry the team with support from Kevin Weekes, rather than the other way around.
Well, as the Hockey Rodent points out, pretty damned well. Since January 12, 2007, Lundqvist has played more minutes than anyone in the league except for Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff, and he leads the league over that time span in both goals against average and save percentage. His sparkling numbers (1.742 GAA and 0.939 save %, to be precise) are head and shoulders above any of his competition for the playoff spots in the East and have almost single handedly given the Rangers the momentum heading into the final stretch of the regular season. He’s giving up almost a full third of a goal less per 60 minutes than his nearest rival (Marty Turco) and three-quarters of a goal per 60 minutes less than the nearest rival in the playoff race, the currently injured Rick DiPietro.
No penalty, bleeding all over the place.
Usually when Tucker gets nailed, by a body or a stick, legally or not, it just gets him all riled up and the Leafs benefit from it. It’s an even game right now, so it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues.
I’m looking forward to Tucker’s next shift.
My previous post about the Ottawa Senators got me thinking about the team going forward.
It seems all but certain that one (at least) of head coach Bryan Murray and General Manager John Muckler will be losing their jobs if the Senators fail to go deep in the playoffs this year. The Senators have changed goaltenders, changed players, changed coaches but success in the post-season has eluded them for many years. This has been true even following wildly successful regular seasons. So who’s to blame, per say?
GM Muckler has done very well on some fronts and not so well on others. Jason Spezza and Danny Heatley make a combined $9 million - not too bad for 163 points in 125 games. Daniel Alfredsson’s 75 points in 65 games is a pretty decent bargain at $4.339 million, either.
Muckler has managed to deal with several star players insisting on such high salaries they’ve been moved, and you rarely hear complaints about the loss of Martin Havlat, Marian Hossa or Zdeno Chara (of course there are some complaints, but Muckler has done pretty well all things considered).
On the other hand…
As things stand, the Senators have a little over $34 million dedicated to 13 players for next season. Up front there doesn’t seem to be much reason to worry, with Alfredsson, Heatley, Spezza, Peter Schaefer, Mike Fisher, Chris Neil, Antoine Vermette, Patrick Eaves and Brian McGrattan all returning. Only Mike Comrie (acquired for Alexei Kaigorodov earlier this year), Chris Kelly (RFA), Dean McAmmond and Oleg Saprykin (RFA) remain unsigned.
The blueline and goal are more worrisome. Wade Redden ($6.5 million), Joe Corvo ($2.625 million) and Andrej Meszaros ($0.984 million) are signed, but Chris Phillips (UFA), Anton Volchenkov (RFA), Tom Preissing (UFA) and Christoph Schubert (RFA) are not. Martin Gerber is signed for 2 more seasons, though he has yet to show more than flashes of being worth his $3.7 million. Perhaps the biggest worry has to be pending Restricted Free Agent Ray Emery, who has outplayed supposed starter Gerber from the first game of the season.
Redden is the highest paid Senator but plays only 2 minutes per game more than Phillips, Meszaros or Volchenkov. Phillips is expected to take a home-town discount to remain in Ottawa, but even that will likely see him make $3 to 4 million. Emery could demand $3.5 million or higher, given the success he has had over the past two seasons (his save percentage and GAA have been consistently near the top of the league since last year). This will all work together to put Ottawa in quite the salary cap squeeze.
The GM’s role won’t get any easier the following summer, either, with Redden, Heatley and Fisher all slated to become Unrestricted Free Agents and joined by RFA’s Spezza, Vermette, Eaves, McGratton and Meszaros.
So despite a number of smart moves, maybe Mucker is the one who needs to go. He’s been consistently criticized for not bringing in the character players his team has never really had, and this may finally outweigh his excellent handling of the likes of Havlat and Hossa.
Murray, after all, can only work with what he’s given.
Thanks to the Battle of Ontario for bringing to my attention an odd fact: with Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov getting the majority of playing time in Ottawa, does that make Wade Redden the number three man in Canada’s capital city?
Pointing to ice time (Phillips and Volchenkov over 27 minutes, Redden 21 in Tuesday’s game), and several comments from Bryan Murray, they ask several questions, including one in particular:
3) If Volchenkov is up for RFA this year (and he is), how fast do you think his agent clipped that quote out of today’s paper? ….
Perhaps the Senators organization is regretting choosing Redden over Zdeno Chara?
From ESPN:
One player was never drafted, but already has one MVP award to his name; another once passed through NHL waivers with no takers. Four are with the same team that originally drafted them, but only two were judged to be the best player available in their draft year. Two were traded for each other, while another was involved in last summer’s biggest blockbuster trade.
My choice from a few days ago, Roberto Luongo, is on his list (not surprising).
Mike Modano scored the 500th goal of his career last night, making him only the 2nd American player in history to do so. He’ll pas Joe Mullen this season (barring season-ending injury) for highest scoring American player.
James Mirtle says it better.