Contenders Not Pretenders

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After 3 disappointing first round playoff exits, the Stars have finally found their game.

For the first time in two years, the Dallas Stars won a game in which Marty Turco did not shut out the opposition.  In doing so they served notice to the league that they are indisputable contenders, not pretenders.
- Bleacher Report

Contenders, not pretenders.  That’s exactly the message the Dallas Stars are sending to the rest of the league right now.

The Stars are leading the Anaheim Ducks 2-0 in their first round series.  2 straight wins against the Ducks is impressive, no doubt.  What makes this extra special is the Stars did it on the road, without their top playmaking defenseman Sergei Zubov, who is out due to Hernia surgery.

The key to Dallas success so far has been team-play.  The entire team has played well, and the chemistry issues that plagued the team going down the last stretch toward the playoffs appears to be a thing of the past.  Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow are dominating plays.  Mike Modano is showing he still has what it takes to be a top player in this league and newcomer Brad Richards is shining whenever his skates touch.  Richards appears to have gelled with young winger Loui Eriksson, who has a goal in each of the 2 games played in this series.  Jere Lehtinen and Steve Ott have also played a role in the scoring.

The Ducks travel to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX this Tuesday for game 3.

Image source: Yahoo Images 

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Consistant reffing a must for the Playoffs

It’s that time of year again.  The NHL Playoffs are just around the corner, and teams are already starting to prepare for the post-season.  In the West it’s highly possible that the 8 Playoff teams will be made up of 4 from the Northwest Division, 3 from the Pacific and 1 from the Central.  In the East it’s possible that there will be 4 from the Atlantic, 3 from the Northeast and just 1 from the Southeast.

One could argue that the Southeast and Central Divisions are the weakest in their respective divisions, and the current NHL schedule could be seen as biased towards strong teams from those divisions.   That is a topic for another day.

Today I want to touch on something that can make or break a game in the NHL, or in fact in any hockey league; Refereeing.

Bad calls are something we learn to live with in professional sports.  We must remember of course that the people in the black and white stripes don’t always see things the way we do.  There are times however when bad calls have influenced the result of a game.   Just this week referees made a bad call and caused a 2 minute minor on a team, then just 30 seconds later failed to pull up a goalie interference call on the opposition team, which resulted in a Powerplay Goal.

The Playoffs however are the be all and end all of NHL hockey.  Teams battle it out all season to make the Playoffs and the last thing they want or need are referees not doing their jobs properly.

We can only hope then that we will have a relatively clean Playoff Series, not just from the teams, but also the Referees.

Tags: Atlantic, black, call, Central Divisions, Consistant, corner, course, day, East, fact, Game, goal, Goalie, hockey, interference, league, minute, NHL, Northeast, Northwest Division, opposition, Pacific, playoff, playoffs, Powerplay, Refereeing, Referees, result, schedule, season, Series, something, Southeast, Team, time, today, topic, way, week, west, year

8 Games Suspension Not Enough For Pronger

NHL Disciplinarian Colin Campbell announced today that Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks will receive an 8 game suspension after stomping on the calf of Vancouver Canuck Ryan Kesler.

“In attempting to free himself, Pronger carelessly and recklessly brought his foot down,” Campbell said in a statement.
- Yahoo! Sport

The suspension has raised an outcry among the public who are shocked to yet again see a double standard from the NHL when it comes to handing out discipline to players.

Earlier this season the NHL suspended Chris Simon for 30 games after he was found guilty of stomping on the ankle of Pittsburgh Penguin Jarkko Ruutu.  Does it not seem odd then that Chris Pronger would only receive 8 games?

The Chris Simon suspension was long because Simon was considered a “repeat offender”, and someone that needed to learn the hard way.

What does that make Pronger, who now has been suspended 8 times in his career.   Surely we don’t need to remind you of last season where he received 2 suspensions during the playoffs for rough / dirty play, including that elbow to the head of Dean McAmmond in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The answer is there, if you look hard enough.  Chris Simon is not an all star player, nor a big point scorer, or a crowd drawing player.  Chris Pronger is.  Chris Simon is not a Norris quality player.  Chris Pronger is.

Is the NHL too scared, maybe even gutless to come down hard on an all star player?   Chris Pronger has shown that these stupidly small suspensions do nothing to encourage him to clean up his game, so why don’t Gary Bettman and the NHL do something about him?

Something to think about.

Pronger will be able to play again on the last day of the regular season, meaning he will be free to throw his weight around in the playoffs. Let’s hope, for the sake of the opposition players that he learns to control himself before then.

Tags: Anaheim, ankle, cam, Camp, Campbell, Care, career, Chris Pronger, chris simon, com, D, Dean, ducks, elbow, end, Finals, foot, Free, Game, games, Gary Bettman, hand, hat, jarkko ruutu, line, look, man, May, NHL, one, opposition, Peat, Pens, Pittsburgh, play, player, playoff, playoffs, point, rd, Red, Round, row, Ruutu, Ryan Kesler, score, scorer, season, something, Sport, Stanley Cup, Star, statement, suspension, th, THIS, Tim, time, today, Vancouver, yahoo

Redwings “bottom” out

There were a number of games going on around the NHL today, but none caused so much gasps as the Los Angeles Kings Vs the Detroit Redwings.

Going into todays game these 2 teams were at the extreme ends of the ladder. The Redwings in #1 spot in the Western Conference (and league) on 86pts and the Kings right at the other end of the ladder in last place on 47pts.

Today proved that any team can beat the best team on the right day.

The Kings looked down and out going into the third period trailing 1-3. Patrick O’Sullivan kicked started the comeback just 39 seconds in and the Redwings never seemed to recover. Frolov, Stuart and Kopitar all put the puck in the net giving the Kings a 5-3 victory over the League leading Redwings.

The Kings gained the best praise from the Detroit Redwings themselves;

“Their team won more battles and got more pucks to the net,” Babcock said. “Their power play was better than our penalty kill and their penalty kill was better than our power play.

“Every once in a while in life you need to be reminded. We know you can’t just come to the rink and put your jersey on. You’ve got to outwork the opposition.”
- Yahoo Sports

Although the Kings hold no chance of making the post-season this year, they can still go into each game playing for pride. If todays game is anything to go by, they are doing just that.

Image courtesy of Yahoo Sports

Tags: babcock, Detroit, detroit redwings, extreme ends, frolov, Game, game play, games, hockey, kopitar, ladder, league, Los Angeles, los angeles kings, NHL, NY, o sullivan, opposition, post, power play, puck, third period, today, Todays, Trick, victory, Western Conference, Wings