The icing on the week: Final push
There are ten games left for most teams and while some have already pretty much wrote off their chances others are making a final push to ensure they book their opportunity to take a shot at lifting Lord Stanley’s trophy.
Teams such as San Jose are doing the pushing with their current form; winning eight in their last ten games. Washington have seven in that time and have only been bettered by the aforementioned Sharks along with Vancouver and Pittsburgh.
There are other teams hoping the deals they completed last week will put them into the post season mix or, in the case of Pittsburgh Penguins and fellow- GM nemesis Ray Shero , finalising deals to try and sew up the Cup before the real post-season action begins.
We all know games cannot be won on paper hence they are organised and played. It is also why the New York Rangers have not won a Cup in seventy two years, however with that in mind there are teams that will be feeling a little better about their chances – and some feeling worse – now that the rosters have been finalised and they know who they will be getting to know in and around the locker room between now and the end of April.
First of al,l let’s get the obvious out of the way. The Pens decided that leading the East was not enough, they also needed to try and get their ticket unofficially punched before they had the requisite points and in hindsight it may have been a wiser choice than it originally appeared after this happened to Sidney Crosby.
They extended their winning streak to fifteen before Jarome Iginla notched his first NHL goal out of a Calgary Flames jersey for seventeen years. Unfortunately that game against Buffalo was when the streak ended. That was always going to come to an end eventually, as Chicago finally found out with their run but the roster has been bolstered to the extent that some ‘experts’ are foolhardy enough to already be handing the Cup to the Pens.
As well as Iginla, Shero has also delivered Brendan Morrow, another franchise captain, this time from the Dallas Stars in return for prospect Joe Morrow (no relation) and a fifth round draft pick. Pittsburgh somehow managed to get a third round pick from the Stars but he was not finished there and added further strength in depth as well as valuable experience in the guise of Jussi Jokinen who has notched 185 points since 2008 with the Carolina Hurricanes alone.
They clinched their spot in the playoffs last night and that was the minimum expected from them this year. With those additions more is expected of them but only time will tell if that pressure has an adverse effect on the locker room.
Another team that has benefitted from the trade window is, for once, Columbus. The Blue Jackets have failed to name a captain this season maybe due to Todd Richards fearing they may lose another. Since Nash went to the Rangers in the summer fortunes have been transformed at both franchises.
Jon Tortorella’s team are scratching around to make it to the play-offs whilst the Blue Jackets were already making a charge for their first post-season participation since the 2008-09 season (the only time they have managed such a feat). That is not to say it is Nash’s influence that has caused that but the chemistry at the Blue Jackets is noticeably much more positive this year.
So it was that the focus, as usual, was on the Rangers. They announced the signing of Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and name-non-conformist John Moore on top of a draft pick dependent on post-season performance. That half of the deal worked well for New York as the strength of the roster, particularly bottom six has been lacking all season. This culminated in a 6-1 win over Stanley Cup ‘certainties’ Pittsburgh. This clip showing how effective those new signings could be.
The deal worked even better for Columbus though. Many fans may have thought the Blue Jackets have been stripped of quality in previous deals yet the Nash deal enabled them to add to their bottom two lines with Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov.
Losing the Deric(k)s and John Moore has allowed them to add another top line scorer with genuine depth by acquiring Marian Goborik, yes, Marian Gaborik, the man of 677 NHL points to the roster.
Gaborik has experience of ‘smaller’ franchises due to his time with the early days Minnesota Wild and that experience along with his undoubted quality ensures Columbus made the deal of the window. Yes, Flames fans, the biggest in terms of publicity was Iginla but this is arguably much more important in the scheme of the regular season.
Other teams that have benefitted from the window in the short-term at least are the Bruins. They have added their franchise to the list that have employed rent-a-scorer Jaromir Jagr after acquiring him from the odd-fit that was the Dallas Stars. Beantown’s first concern is, like most, to qualify for games beyond the end of this month and with the addition of Jagr and two time All Star Wade Redden should see them compliment their two front line behemoths Chara & Lucic well.
Whilst Reddens’ former team the St. Louis Blues have added Jay Bouwmeester and Jordan Leopold from losers of the window Calgary and Buffalo respectively. Keep an eye on the Blues between now and the end of the season, they are looking solid again.
While the teams above have signed to either cement their place or speculated to get in the post season others have appeared, from the outside at least, pleased with what they have. Chicago called stick rather than twist with the only addition being bottom six centre Michael Handzus. Since signing Handzus has won at least ten face off per game and Bryan Bickell is notchin points again. Let’s be honest though, if Stan Bowman and Joel Quenniville had conspired to shake that Blackhawks roster up we’d have all been piling down to the bookmakers for a Luongo trade to happen.
That was further underlined when Chicago became the first West Coast team to book their ticket to the post season party with a 5-3 win over the disappointment of the season so far, Nashville Predators.
Detroit, it should be no surprise was quiet too. Their prospects that are seemingly moving back and forth to Grand Rapids on a near daily basis are showing promise and big signings aren’t really Ken Holland’s style. Their only addition was Michigan born Danny Dekeyser, a lifelong Red Wings fan and D-man that was spoken to personally by Nick Lidstrom –that was the deal closed.
Vancouver is in the familiar position fellow perennial President Trophy candidates San Jose find themselves most years. The Western Conference has again given them easy picking throughout their games so far but what do they need to compete more effectively once this seasons forty eight games have concluded. The Canucks kept quiet signing Swedish prospect Ludwig Blomstrand and Derek Roy whilst San Jose went down the road of lesser name deals and the possibly hilarious addition of Raffi Torres.
But what has the deadline done to form since the rosters were finalised?
There are seven teams that have played more than a single game since Thursday 4 April that have gone undefeated. Dallas (2 wins). As we mentioned above lost their captain but importantly added to their roster amidst Shero’s pillaging of his enemies have managed the feat as well as Vancouver (2) who didn’t do much at all. St Louis have played three games with no losses and the others are Washington, Montreal, Phoenix and Buffalo all with two. Pittsburgh have won their only game since 4th April but the night before the deadline ended they were hammered 1-6 by the New York Rangers as you have seen above.
Of the six teams that have lost all of their games in the same timeframe (playing more than one again) the standout team bearing in mind the deadline deals is Calgary. Any team that loses not only the ability, but also the leadership of Jarome Iginla will struggle. Add to that the losses of Jay Bouwmeester to the unbeaten Blues (in the context of this article) and Blake Comeau and most would expect them to be in this list. The others are New Jersey (3 losses), Carolina (2), Edmonton (2), Colorado (2) and maybe surprisingly Nashville with three reverses.
Admittedly the timeframe does not allow an in depth study into the form of those teams, whether as sellers or buyers, that were heavily involved in the deadline shenanigans but it does show one thing can be predicted; lose your big players and fail to replace them and you will struggle.
The thing that you cannot predict and it is the one thing that Ray Shero and Dan Blysma will be all too well aware of is who will win on the night.
Winter Classic
If two established NHL franchises’ performances have been more of a surprising antithesis than the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs over the last fifteen or so years I’d love to hear of it. The Original Six outfits have a total of twenty four Cups between them but only one of them has overseen an engraving recently.
Next year they will renew rivalries more often with the realignment of the NHL Divisions going ahead meaning the Wings and Leafs will be competing in the so far named Eastern Conference Division C next year and with that news has come a more or less positive response across the board.
What was an exciting announcement for fans looking to see more Original Six match ups (the East will now have five of the six) has been made even more noteworthy after the not surprisingly announces Winter Classic 2014 yesterday.
The Winter Classic was due to take place at the Big House in Michigan this New Years Day passed but due to the internal bickering that was the Collective Bargaining Agreement it was postponed. Gary Bettman announced the re arrangement of the game to be attended by over 100,000 people on January 1st 2014 and with it the retro style jerseys were also unveiled.
(Image: NHL.com)
Beautiful I’m sure you’d agree.
Detroit will be looking to be only the second home team to win in the Winter Classic, Boston being the only other in Overtime 2010 versus the Flyers. Toronto on the other hand will be looking to have broken their playoff drought running from 2003-04 by the time the game comes around.
