Off Wing Opinion

Left for dead only a few weeks ago, the New York Islanders spent the weekend dispatching two of the league's top teams -- first beating the New Jersey Devils 4-3 at the Meadowlands on Friday, then following it up with a 3-1 defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs back on home ice Saturday night. The win over the Maple Leafs stopped their 16-game standings point streak (14-0-0-1).

The Toronto Star's Rosie Dimanno doesn't seem to like Long Island much at all:

This is where civility comes to die. The Maple Leafs' streak didn't get out alive, either.

Inside the dreariest, dingiest rink in the NHL, before the rudest, most objectionable fans in the western hemisphere, six weeks of giddy success screeched to a halt last night.

The Islanders have won six straight at home, and eight of their last 11 (8-2-0-1), and have moved into the eighth playoff spot in the East, only a point behind seventh place Montreal.

After some of their own early season woes, the Dallas Stars have put together a winning streak of their own. On Friday the Stars dumped Nashville, 2-1 at home, with Marty Turco stopping 23 shots for Dallas. On Saturday in Columbus, they beat the Blue Jackets, 4-3 to climb above .500 for the first time this season. Dallas is now tied with Nashville for eighth place in the West.

The Red Wings weekend could have been better. On Friday, they got a third period goal from Kris Draper to earn a 2-2 tie with Minnesota. Draper, who is quietly putting together the best season of his career, already has 14 goals for Detroit. With the tie, Minnesota ran its unbeaten string to seven games (4-0-3).

The Chicago Blackhawks have won only 3 of their last 23 games. Unfortunately for the Detroit Red Wings, two of those wins have come at their expense, the latest a 3-0 shutout last night in Chicago. After the weekend, the Red Wings dropped to 8-9-3-1 on the road, though they still lead the Central Division with 49 points.

After their own early season woes, the San Jose Sharks have caught the Los Angeles Kings at the top of the Pacific Division. On Friday, the Sharks dropped-kicked the Kings 5-0 at the Shark Tank. Patrick Marleau and Jonathan Cheechoo both had a pair of goals for San Jose. On Saturday back in Los Angeles, Marleau scored again, but the team had to settle for a 4-4 tie with the Kings. Though the teams are tied for first place in the Pacific, the Kings have three more wins.

In their Sunday Magazine, the New York Times ran a short appreciation of 1980 Men's U.S. Olympic head coach Herb Brooks as part of their year in review. You can check out Off Wing's own obituary of Brooks, by clicking here.

Over at New York Sports Express, Steve Ovadia has some late Christmas gifts for the metropolitan area's three hockey teams.

Canucks Corner has been taking a look at the use of visors in the NHL. Start here, the check out PJ's take over at Sharkspage, and end your trip with this post back at Canucks Corner:

Studies have showns that full facial protection significantly reduces the incidence of concussion while reducing facial lacerations and eye injuries to near zero. In other words, there is a great deal of money sitting on the table ready to be saved. All they have to do is cage the players.

Fighting has survived in the NHL because hockey fans love a good scrap and hockey fans pay the bills. But can it survive when it costs the owners real money? Eliminating it might cost something. Keeping it is costing a lot.

Full face shields are inevitable.

I'm not so sure. The use (or non-use) of visors in the NHL is just another example of safety taking a back seat to comfort and convenience -- and the players are just as much to blame for this as management. It's more or less common knowledge that all NHL players modify equipment to increase comfort, visibility, and awareness on the ice. Besides eschewing visors, players regularly shave padding and remove protective ear flaps from their helmets.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2003 at 8:46 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It was a good weekend for the Oilers, as Edmonton posted three precious points on the road. On Friday in Phoenix, the Oilers had to settle for a 3-3 tie, despite firing more than twice as many shots as the Coyotes. Credit Sean Burke's 39 saves for saving the Coyotes a point. On Sunday in Anaheim, a third period goal by Raffi Torres gave the Oil a 3-2 win over the Ducks.

Jason Chimera -- not missing Mike Comrie.

On Saturday in Washington, new Caps head coach Glen Hanlon's pixie dust wore off after just one game, as the Red Wings crushed Washington 5-1. Pavel Datsyuk had two goals to lead the attack for Detroit. Before the game, Caps problem child Jaromir Jagr claimed that he did not want to be traded out of Washington. In other Caps news, the team called up goalie Maxime Ouellet from the minors, with the aim of giving him a shot at a start on the team's two-game road trip to Florida and Atlanta.

Glen Sather woke up the Rangers on Friday, as a line shake-up help propel the team to a 3-1 win over the Sabers in Buffalo. But on Saturday, the Rangers dropped their third straight game to Toronto, 3-1. Mikael Renburg had two goals for Toronto. The win gave the Leafs a five point lead over the Bruins in the Northeast Division. Toronto trails only Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference.

It was another great weekend for St. Louis, taking a 3-2 decision over Columbus, and then beat Los Angeles 2-1. Despite playing five fewer games than Central Division-leading Detroit, the Blues only trail the Red Wings by a single point.

Speaking of Philadelphia, they got the short end of a home and home series with their Atlantic Division nemesis, the New Jersey Devils. On Friday at the Meadowlands, a late third period goal from Keith Primeau helped the Flyers earn a 3-3 tie. On Saturday back in Philly, Martin Brodeur stopped 32 shots to earn the win with a 2-0 shutout. It was the Flyers first loss at home this season.

Deep in Upstate New York (which for a NYC native like myself is anything North of 125th Street in Manhattan), Jason Scavone got some face time with the Stanley Cup. Besides his blog entry, Jason also filed a story for his local paper, The Saratogian.

I've had two up close and personal experiences with the Cup: the first in October 1980, when it made an appearance at a convention on Long Island; and the second time a few hours before I got to see the Red Wings beat the Caps in Game Four of the 1998 Finals.

One thing that Jason Picks up on is the lack of security around the Cup. Back in 1980 when I first saw it, I was astonished to see the Cup displayed behind a rope line with nary a security guard in sight. Mike Bolt, one of the Cup's current guardians, explains why:

'It's really its own security,' Bolt said. 'I'm not really, truly worried about anybody stealing it. It is a priceless artifact, and it's insured for quite a bit. If someone stole it, they can't sell it. They can't melt it down. If they put it in their home, what fun is that? You can't enjoy it with anybody. People talk.'

I'd give my right arm just to skate the Cup once around the ice at the Nassau Colliseum. And it's one of my life's great regrets that I'll probably never get the chance.

UPDATE: Tom Benjamin has his own Cup memories.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2003 at 1:07 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

On Friday in Philadelphia, the Flyers easily overcame a 1-0 deficit to Phoenix to post a 3-2 victory. We're in the second week of December, and the Flyers still haven't lost at home. The following night in Boston, Jeff Hackett had 38 saves in a 1-1 tie with Boston, as the Flyers ended the week atop the Eastern Conference with 39 points.

The Calgary Flames completed a undefeated weekend, starting with a 2-1 win on Friday against Minnesota. Jarome Iginia had a goal in the last minute of regulation to give the Flames the win. They followed that performance up on Sunday with a 6-1 win over Pittsburgh. Shean Donovan had a hat trick. During Sunday's game, Pittsburgh announced that it would allow rookie goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to play for Canada in the World Junior Championships.

After getting toasted by the Thrashers 6-2 in Atlanta on Friday, the Ducks returned to Anaheim on Sunday and beat Dallas 4-0. Backup Martin Gerber got 32 saves in the shutout, and might not be the backup for much longer if J.S. Giguere continues to struggle. As for Dallas, the shutout was a fitting cap to a lost weekend that began with them dropping a 2-1 decision to San Jose.

The Thrashers completed a successful weekend of their own, beating the Panthers in Miami on Saturday, 4-3 in OT. Slava Kozlov had the game winner in OT, and Ilya Kovalchuck had two assists in the win for Atlanta. The Thrashers now lead the Southeast Division by a point over Tampa Bay.

In other action this weekend, the Islanders ended a six-game skid, beating the Blackhawks 5-2 on Long Island. In light of the team's performance so far this season, Newsday's Johnette Howard thinks Islanders GM Mike Milbury owes former head coach Peter Laviolette an apology. Meanwhile, rumors may have center Michael Peca leaving town in a trade, but other rumors about terrible headaches that won't go away, may be enough to derail any deal.

In Toronto on Saturday, Brett Hull got goal number 731 to move into a tie with Marcel Dionne for third place in career goal scoring, but the Red Wings still lost to the Maple Leafs, 5-2. Tampa Bay got a pair of weekend wins, beating Buffalo 3-1 on Saturday, and the Rangers 3-2 on Sunday. With a 4-1 win Saturday, the Blues ended Nashville's six game winning streak.

Finally, on Saturday in Ottawa, the Devils scored twice in the last two minutes to get a 2-1 win over Ottawa. A Scott Niedermayer goal tied the game, and Brian Gionta followed it up with the game winner with only 18 seconds left.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2003 at 5:43 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

In their admittedly short history, the Nashville Predators have never entered the month of December with a record better than .500. After this weekend, December 2003 looks like no other December before. On Friday, the Predators beat the Northeast Division-leading Boston Bruins 2-1 to raise their record to 12-10-1-0. Greg Johnson and David Legwand gave Nashville all the goals they needed in the first period. On Saturday, they followed it up with a 4-1 win over Buffalo courtesy of a hat trick from Vladimir Orszagh.

The Red Wings picked up two wins this weekend, drop-kicking the Islanders 6-0 at home on Friday, and then beating the Blues 2-1 in St. Louis on Saturday. With the four points, the Red Wings moved into first place in the Central Division. As for the goalie situation, with Dominik Hasek injured, and Curtis Joseph in the midst of a brain freeze, Manny Legace got the third straight start, and win, for Detroit.

Fresh off their Friday night licking at the hands of the Red Wings, the Islanders returned home Saturday and were promptly crushed by the Flyers, 5-1. The Flyers scored all five goals in the second period, and chased Rick DiPietro from the Islanders net. With the win, Philadelphia stretched their unbeaten streak to 12 games, and now sit atop the NHL with 34 points.

As the wins pile up in Philly, there's plenty of room for levity, says the Philadelphia Inquirer's Tim Panaccio:

The Flyers' top-scoring line of Jeremy Roenick, Tony Amonte and Mark Recchi may be due for a nickname change. They were referred to by one reporter as the Fine Whine Line because Recchi and Roenick griped in the preseason about coach Ken Hitchcock's desire to separate them. The three members of the line are a combined 101 years old, so Amonte suggested "The Fossil Line."

The latest version of the Battle of Ottawa went to the reviving Maple Leafs, who beat the Senators in Kanata 2-1 on Saturday. After the game, the Leafs flew to New York for a Sunday evening game with the Rangers that they took 4-2. Trevor Kidd had 33 saves in his first game this season for the Leafs. After their slow start, the Leafs are now tied with Boston atop the Northeast Division.

The Leafs started to turn it around 10 days ago, when the team held a closed door meeting after a road loss to the Oilers, says Mike Zeisburger of the Toronto Star:

The Leafs have yet to lose since their in-house chat, reeling off four consecutive victories, including a 2-1 decision over the Ottawa Senators last night in the latest chapter of the Battle of Ontario.

"The guys just decided we had to pull together," Matt Stajan said of the meeting. "We needed a wakeup call.

"It sure proved to be the turning point for us."

Mired in a five-game winless streak and peppered with questions about a potential players' mutiny against coach Pat Quinn, the Leafs left Alberta determined to get their collective act together.

Two wins over Vancouver and victories over Atlanta and Ottawa indicate the Leafs have accomplished just that.

Renberg and the Leafs are back.

Congratulations to referee Kerry Fraser, who worked the Leafs-Rangers game. It was the 1,500th of his career.

Given their dire straights, any weekend when the Capitals can post a .500 record has to be considered a good one. After getting beaten at home by the Canadiens on Friday night, 5-3 (Sheldon Souray had two goals for Montreal), the Caps traveled to Ohio to meet Western Conference doormat Columbus and beat them 5-3.

Despite the win, ESPN.com's Jim Kelly says that it's only a matter of time before either Jaromir Jagr gets traded, or head coach Butch Cassidy gets fired.

On the injury front, Dallas defenseman Phillipe Boucher is out indefinitely after having surgery on his eye socket over the weekend. The Devils' Jamie Langenbrunner, who's play of late had helped lift the team, is out two to three weeks after knee surgery, while Colorado's Peter Forsberg has returned to the injured reserve list with an abdominal injury.

POSTSCRIPT: When you have a moment, please check out the two latest additions to the blogroll -- Vancouver Canucks Op Ed and Sharkspage. Great stuff in both spots.

UPDATE: Decimated by injuries so far this season, the LA Kings have acquired Penguins forward Martin Straka. LA gets a player to plug into the lineup while others heal; Pittsburgh gets to dump a salary. Again.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2003 at 12:15 am by Eric McErlain and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.