Off Wing Opinion

If the New York Islanders make the playoffs this year, they ought to send a check for a playoff share to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Why? Because with a chance to clinch the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with a two-won weekend over Carolina and New Jersey (admittedly not a simple task), the Islanders bonked again, dropping both games (3-1 to Carolina and 3-2 to Jersey).

Luckily for the Islanders, the recently revived Penguins stormed back at home from two goals down to tie Buffalo, 2-2. After settling for the tie, Buffalo sits five points in back of New York with four games to go and a game in hand.

In Newsday Islanders beat writer Alan Hahn lays the blame for the team's recent blahs on the poor performance of the team's power play. But in the same article, there was this report, which ought to give Isles GM Mike Milbury some pause:

Former Islanders coach Peter Laviolette earned a win in his first game back at the Coliseum since he was fired last June. Early in the game, the center-ice scoreboard showed him on the JumboTron with the message, "Thank You, Peter," which drew applause from the sellout crowd.

"That was really special," he said. "It was really nice to hear the fans like that."

Looks like the fans don't blame Laviolette for whatever ailed the team last season. Instead, Milbury ought to take that reaction as a signal that he's finally going to be held accountable for the team's performance after this season. And if their recent play is any indicator, the outcome won't be positive for Milbury.

Out West, what was a four-team scrum for the last two playoff spots is now down to three, as Los Angeles has faded from contention. Edmonton, by contrast, has played heroically, defeating the aforementioned Kings 3-1 at the Pharmacy on Friday night, and then downing the Coyotes 4-2 on Sunday.

St. Louis took advantage of a two-game series with woeful Chicago, posting back-to-back 4-3 and 3-1 victories on Saturday and Sunday. Combined with a 3-2 Nashville loss on Saturday to Columbus, St Louis and Edmonton are tied in seventh with 87 points, while Nashville sits alone in ninth with 85 points. St. Louis and Nashville have four games each remaining, while Edomonton has three.

In St. Louis, today marks the first anniversary of Chris Pronger's return to the ice after a wrist injury many thought might end his career. But when it comes to the Blues' near-term success, much of it is being attributed to the acquisition of winger Mike Sillinger:

After the trade on March 4, Sillinger swept into a Blues dressing room that was cranky and emotionally raw because of prolonged stretches of winless hockey. But the position the Blues were in exhilarated him. He hadn't sniffed the playoffs in years.

In the trade he went from Phoenix to pulling a phoenix.

He played 21 minutes, 43 seconds in his first game as a Blue - a season high - and had two assists, his first assists in 18 games. The Blues have continued to use him everywhere, to the tune of 20:10 in ice time a game.

He feels rejuvenated.

Edmonton plays St. Louis tomorrow night.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2004 at 6:56 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.

Are the Tampa Bay Lightning running out of power? Lots of folks are going to be asking questions after a weekend where the Eastern Conference leaders dropped a pair of winnable games -- first, 5-4 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, followed by a listless 3-0 loss to the eighth place Islanders on Sunday. And, as per usual, head coach John Tortorella is bacck to using negative reinforcement with his team, focussing this time on his goaltending tandem:

"If Nikolai Khabibulin can't make that save at that point in time from where that shot was taken, we're in trouble," Tortorella told reporters in Florida. "If you can't make a save like that come playoff time, we're in trouble."

The former Coyotes assistant coach didn't stop there.

"We have the best (goaltending) tandem in the league when they're on, but they have to do it more consistently. .. So, do I have concerns? Yes."

Tortorella also told reporters that the Lightning may not be the Stanley Cup contender everybody thinks it is.

What is he doing and why is he doing it now?

Despite the lost weekend, the Lightning still lead the East by a point over Philadelphia. John at BoltsMag is distressed.

With a chance to catch New Jersey for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Canadiens made the most of it, taking three points of a possible four in their two game set against the Devils and tie them for sixth place at 90 points. After settling for a 1-1 tie on Friday night in New Jersey, the Canadiens got a goal and an assist from Michael Ryder on Saturday night on their way to a 3-2 win at the Bell Centre. With Trent Hunter of the New York Islanders mired in a scoring slump, Ryder and Boston's Andrew Raycroft look to be battling for the Calder Trophy down the stretch.

After watching Toronto dismantle Colorado on Saturday, I've concluded that Avalanche head coach Tony Granato will be quite happy spending the rest of the season waiting for his team to get healthy before the start of the playoffs.

Over the past two weeks, I've been remiss in mentioning how the gritty Edmonton Oilers have pulled themselves back into the playoff race. First, the Oil downed Nashville 5-4 on Friday, and followed it up with a 5-2 win over the Sharks on Sunday. With seven games remaining, Edmonton trails St. Louis by three points for the last playoff spot in the West.

Congratulations to Luc Robataille, who tied Johnny Bucyk for the most points by a left wing in NHL history during L.A.'s 4-2 loss to Detroit on Saturday night.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2004 at 1:42 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.

For the past few weeks we've concentrated on the top of the race, but with this weekend roundup, we'll look at the race for the eighth spot in each conference.

In the East, the Islanders are following much the same form as last season -- an 11th-hour fade that makes one wonder whether the team wants to be in the playoffs or not. It was for precisely this reason (along with the first round dismissal at the hands of Ottawa) that GM Mike Milbury dismissed former head coach Peter Laviolette and replaced him with NHL rookie head caoch Steve Stirling.

Last year, it was the Rangers chasing the Isles. This season, it's the Sabres. On Saturday night, the Isles snapped a six-game winless streak with a 3-1 win over the Ducks. After getting shelled on Thursday night in San Jose, Rick DiPietro turned in a strong performance for the Isles stopping 45 shots in the victory. Though Buffalo has played heroically of late to get back in the race, they actually lost ground this weekend, after losing 3-2 to Boston in OT.

If the Sabres miss the playoffs by a point, they'll probably blame Boston's Nick Boynton, who scored on a freak carom when a clearing attempt on a slapshot hit a stanchion at center ice. With Buffalo's Martin Biron out of the net to play the puck, he stood helpless as it ricocheted neatly into the back of the net to spark Boston after they fell behind 2-0. With 11 games to go for both Buffalo and New York, the Isles lead by five points, 76-71. Las Panteras are only a pair behind Buffalo, but only have nine games remaining.

Out West, the situation is far more complex, with three teams vying for the last two spots. St. Louis moved into eighth place momentarily after beating Columbus on Saturday 5-3, as deadline pickup Mike Sillinger scored twice. But they weren't there long, as the Kings beat up on the Ducks 5-1 on Sunday afternoon. Cristobal Huet, who is getting more time in net now that Roman Cechmanek is injured, had 29 saves in the win. My sources out in L.A. tell me Noble Roman is fine, but that head coach Andy Murray is happier with him on the bench.

Tied with LA at the end of the weekend in the seventh spot is scrappy Nashville. The fought to a 4-4 tie with Calgary on Saturday, and then hung with Detroit long enough to get a point in a 3-2 OT loss to Detroit on Sunday. If Nashville does hang on for a playoff spot, it will mean the first trip to the postseason for Scott Walker -- click here for an appreciation from Joe Tasca.

To top off the weekend, the Blues dropped a 3-0 decision to Calgary.

At the end of the weekend, the Kings and the Predators were tied for seventh place with 79 points, however, Nashville owns the tiebreaker. St. Louis is just one point back with 78. Both Nashville and St. Louis have 10 games remaining, while the Kings have 11.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2004 at 12:58 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.

Why do we watch ice hockey?

Is it the skill? That's part of it.

Is it the speed? Absolutely.

Is it the brutality? Well, despite what NHL Commissioner Gary Betmann might want to believe, that keeps us coming back too. And when a game comes apart at the seams like it did on Friday night in Philadelphia -- a 5-3 Flyers win over the Senators -- we can't help but sit up and notice.

The 419 penalty minutes set a new NHL record. And you know what? I loved every second of it. Heck, even Bobby Clarke wants back in on the action.

Once again, ditch the instigator penalty. Let players police themselves. And if you can't keep control of your stick, like Martin Havlat, expect to get a shot in the mouth -- a far more effective deterrent than a simple suspension.

But Philly's joy was most certainly short-lived, as the short-handed Flyers (several players were injured the evening before) had to bus down to D.C. to play the Caps on Saturday night. As luck would have, I was in attendance. After the game, I caught an exchange between a Caps fan and a Flyers fan that was rather telling:

Flyers Fan (explaining why his team lost): Half of our roster tonight was guys from the AHL!

Caps Fan: Excuse me, but our whole roster is guys from the AHL.

And after the fire sale that Caps GM George McPhee has conducted, you can't much argue with that, can you? For Caps fans, the game was a preview of things to come, as Trent Whitfield, Matt Pettinger, and Mike Grier took to the ice as starters for the Caps. All night long, you could see the Caps gameplan come together -- stay responsible, don't take risks, and we can hang with these guys.

Washington's most effective line was centered by Jeff Halpern, with Alexander Semin and Anson Carter on the wings. On the power play, Carter shifted to the point to play with Josef Boumediennne (Kip Miller taking Carter's spot on the wing) -- a make shift power play unit that scored twice for the Caps. No, the play wasn't pretty, but it was solid, and they kept the lanes open for Olie Kolzig -- something he hasn't been used to for most of the season. The result -- a 2-1 Caps win.

After the trade deadline, I'll have a more complete look at what the offseason holds for Washington. And, as promised, I'll be in attendance at tonight's game in D.C. against Ottawa. If you'd like to meet up for a beer before the game, I'll be kicking around RFD starting at about 6:00 p.m. Hope to see you there.

Left for dead last week, the Blues managed to stitch together a pair of wins to climb back into eighth place in the West. Chris Osgood put in a sterling performance against his former club, the New York Islanders, stopping 39 shots en route to a 4-2 win. Then on Sunday, St. Louis overwhelmed their hosts in Buffalo, 5-1. Though the Blues are tied with L.A. with 73 points, they have the tiebreaker because they have more victories.

The other team making a big move out West was Dallas, as they put together two victories, including a convincing 4-0 home win over Pacific leading San Jose, to close within two points of the Sharks for the division lead. Even worse for San Jose, they've lost Marco Sturm for an indefinite period of time to an ankle injury.

BTW, while nobody was looking, Tampa Bay took the top spot in the entire league, stringing together wins against New Jersey and Florida to be the first team to get to the 90-point mark this season.

Biggest move over the weekend: Chris Simon to Calgary for lots of lowly paid spare parts. Credit Simon -- after last season in Washington and Chicago, I thought he had nothing left in the tank, but he's actually managed to score 15 this year on a terrible Rangers team. Elsewhere, the Devils swapped Mike Rupp and a second round pick for center Jan Hrdina, while Minnesota parted with Sergei Zholtok and Brad Bombardir for some mid-round draft picks from Nashville. As always, keep up with the latest trades over at TSN or with Jamie Fitzpatrick.

Some neat links: here's a slideshow of goalie masks from the Hockey Hall of Fame; ESPN.com has put together a little app that tracks the playoff race; and speaking of the playoffs, Colby Cosh has crunched the numbers, and says we ought to look out for San Jose, Boston and Montreal. That, and we all better watch out once Florida manages to make the playoffs -- that is, if they survive the lockout next year.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2004 at 12:12 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 night in Toronto, Ed Belfour returned to the Maple Leafs lineup after missing 11 of 12 games, and proceeded to shutout the New Jersey Devils, in a 3-0 win. Though it was a dramatic return, this is a back injury we're talking about, and recoveries aren't always uniform. If Belfour looks less than 100 percent over the next eight days, look for Toronto to make a move.

On Sunday evening in Detroit, Robert Lang had an impressive debut at center for the Red Wings, posting three assists in a 4-2 win over Philadelphia. Lang centered a line with Steve Yzerman and Ray Whitney on his wings, something that's going to go a long way toward saving some serious wear and tear on the Detroit captain. Kudos to head coach Dave Lewis for coming up with a solution that's not only best for the team, but one that's been performed with a minimum of disruption to the lineup.

With Lang departed from Washington, Tom Boswell of the Washington Post is turning his deck guns on Caps owner Ted Leonsis for his player fire sale:

Leonsis should at least offer token atonement. Remember last spring when [Washington Wizards owner Abe] Pollin, after firing Michael Jordan, gave Wizards fans a chance to back out of their ticket commitments if they didn't like the product? Give Caps fans the option of getting their money back, if they want it, for the last six home games after March 9. By then, the Caps will be a shell. How can you call yourself a "fan friendly" owner, or even ethical, if you pocket the proceeds from $70 tickets after you've given away every player you used to merchandize those sales in the first place?

Of course, those who still call themselves Caps fans may actually want to attend those final few games. In case there aren't any more.

I wonder if Boswell has actually been watching this season. Because the way I see it, the Caps have played horribly no matter how many stars were in the lineup. If anything, Leonsis' actions have been responsible, and made incredible sense in light of the fact that the league's fiscal house may be turned completely upside down whenever it resumes play after the end of this season.

As for Caps defenseman Sergei Gonchar, some folks already have him in a Maple Leafs uniform. Then again, someone else might be looking to swipe Gonchar off the table.

In Atlanta, head coach Bob Hartley had a little discipline problem to deal with.

The race in the Pacific Division remains tight, as both San Jose and Dallas posted back to back wins over the weekend. For San Jose, it was a 4-2 win over Pittsburgh on Friday, followed by a 1-0 victory over St. Louis on Sunday. For Dallas, a team most of us left for dead in the first third of the season, it was a 3-1 decision over Minnesota, and a 5-4 defeat of Edmonton. At the end of the weekend, San Jose still led Dallas by six points, 81 to 75.

Elsewhere out West, life is looking different in Colorado, as reports out of Sweden say Peter Forsberg has already made arrangements to play for MoDo in the Swedish Elite League next season -- and that's whether or not the NHL has a work stoppage next season.

And finally, here's an interesting tidbit from ESPN.com's Peter Gammons:

Memo to NHL scouts: go see Kirk Gibson's two sons, who are hockey rats. Their team finished second in the country last year -- losing to a team with Patrick Roy's son. The thought of a Gibson on skates is terrifying.

Anybody got any info on these two kids?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2004 at 12:25 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.