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NHL Trade Deadline: New Jersey Devils

February 21, 2011   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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The Devils have been hot lately — a ridiculous 15-1-2 in their last 18 — enough to drag them out of last in the league all the way to a nose-bleeding 27th. To overcome the four other teams and ten points between them and the eighth-place Hurricanes, the Devils are going to have to keep up this torrid pace for the rest of the season. James Mirtle estimates that the Devils have to go 21-5 down the stretch to make the playoffs. It’s highly unlikely but, I guess there is a chance.

So now Lou Lamoriello is in an unenviable position (as he has been for most of the season). Does he tear the team down and try to build for the future as the plan likely was during the team’s abysmal first half? Or does he keep with the current good mojo and hold serve or daringly try and be a buyer at the deadline?

 

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NHL Trade Deadline: New York Rangers

February 21, 2011   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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The Rangers have played solid hockey most of the season, at least enough to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. However, February has been unkind to them so far. They’re 2-5-1 in the month so far and have slipped to 7th in the conference standings, only two points ahead of eighth-place Carolina.

Defensively, the Rangers have been solid thanks to two very strong goaltenders in Henrik Lundqvist and backup Martin Biron. Lundqvist has seven shutouts on the year and the duo has combined for a stellar .922 save percentage. There’s a young, yet talented defense in front of them, leaving the biggest need for improvement up front on offense. Going into Sunday’s game against Philadelphia, the Rangers had six players with 10 goals or more but none of those players had yet to reach 20. To add to that, off-season acquisition Alex Frolov has been a bust and oft-injured star Marian Gaborik has missed 14 games to injury.

 

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NHL Trade Deadline: New York Islanders

February 21, 2011   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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Islanders GM Garth SnowNothing is certain, but the New York Islanders are expected to have a quiet trade deadline.

That’s something you probably don’t expect to hear about a team that is a perennial seller at the deadline, and formerly general managed by the always trigger-happy Mike Milbury.

This year, however, it appears the Islanders have already made their moves. Goalie Dwayne Roloson was sent to Tampa Bay in December and defenseman James Wisniewski was moved to Montreal. The only real remaining chip the team held that could be moved was free-agent-to-be Matt Moulson.

However, GM Garth Snow signed Moulson to a three-year extension at the end of January. Earlier this month, Snow also inked P.A. Parenteau to a one-year extension and what’s left in the pool that can be moved isn’t much.

While the team has had a downright mediocre 2011 at 11-11-1 since New Year’s, their dreadful finish to 2010 included a 14-game losing streak that cost ex-coach Scott Gordon his job and still has them among the worst in the league with no hope of a playoff spot.

NEEDS

They’re clearly a seller, but the question is who can be moved and, more importantly, will they? With the moves already made, they have five remaining free agents that can be moved before the deadline.

Doug Weight is likely to retire at the end of the year, as he hasn’t seen the ice since November 17 due to injury. Nathan Lawson and Trevor Gillies have no trade value, which leaves only two Islanders, Radek Martinek and Zenon Konopka, that have any value in the market.

 

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Mike Milbury’s Television Act is Getting Old

January 09, 2011   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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Saturday night on CBC’s Hot Stove, a panel discussion between Ron MacLean, Eric Francis, Pierre LeBrun and Mike Milbury devolved into a shouting match between panelists. The brunt of the fervent discourse was about hits to the head focusing on the recent destructions of Detroit’s Brad Stuart and Ottawa’s Peter Regin. Instead of intelligent discourse and debate on the subject we were left with a bunch of grown men yelling at each other on TV — something that’s a standard occurance when Mike Milbury is involved.

Whether it’s with Pierre McGuire on the NHL on NBC or the recent Hot Stove panel, Milbury seems intent on being the vocal minority for the “old school hockey” crowd — emphasis on vocal. No matter the subject, he’ll talk about his playing days and give any subject the “in my day” treatment similar to what you might hear out of Don Cherry. It almost seems as though Milbury is auditioning for Grapes’ job when he finally hangs up the microphone. To hear him debate the Stuart hit with the other panelists was an exercise in futility as much as it was inane.

“Loved it! Let’s go to namby pamby land because I know these guys have other thoughts,” Milbury exclaimed when MacLean asked for his thoughts on the Stuart hit. “Stuart had the puck, he’s trying to get rid of it. You guys just wanna keep. … You know, why don’t we all just go listen to Peter, Paul and Mary records.”

Instead of arguing his point in a more intelligent manner, we’re treated to Milbury accusing anyone he can — be it the panelists, league or Brad Stuart himself of being soft, not old school enough or just not seeing exactly what he’s seeing. He’s more than welcome to his opinion and if it’s from the Don Cherry “School of Old School Thinking” that’s fine with me. There’s certainly a sizeable segment of the audience that thinks the same way — although I do have an issue with referencing Milbury’s playing days since Milbury was going into the stands when Ron Artest was only one month old. The issue I’m taking up with Milbury is that he devolves the conversation into something more, how do you say, prehistoric.

 

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NHL Year in Review: Ilya Kovalchuk for Person of the Year

December 27, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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There have been a lot of big stories in the NHL during 2010, but there isn’t a person who has been talked about, tweeted about or written about as much as Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils. It was the year of Kovalchuk after his trade from Atlanta in February, through the summer of Kovalchuk and his seemingly never-ending quest for a free-agent contract, its subsequent rejection by the league, and now the hand wringing over what’s gone wrong with the Devils this season and how much (or little) it has to do with him.

On February 4, Kovalchuk was traded to the New Jersey Devils; the beginning of a free-agency saga that would last long into the summer. Before he could hit free agency, there was still hockey to be played as the Devils won the Atlantic Division and earned the second seed in the Eastern Conference. Their playoff run would end with a thud though, as they were ousted in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers. Kovalchuk did have 27 points in 27 games down the stretch for the Devils including a 2-4-6 line during the post-season.

More Nominees: Crosby | Toews | Wirtz

 

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Knuckle Puck: Rick DiPietro Gets the Dramatic Chipmunk Treatment

December 12, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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Every once in a while we here at FanHouse take a look at the random happenings and absurdities that occur in the world of hockey. These posts are tagged as ‘Knuckle Puck‘ so you know to laugh, kind of like an ‘applause’ sign on a television set. This is one of those posts.

One of the weirder internet memes out there is the Dramatic Chipmunk. A simple, six-second video of a chipmunk turning his head while super serious dramatic music plays in the background. It’s registered more than 25 million hits on YouTube, which if you were to do a sociological case study on it, who knows what you would learn about the human race. That we love adorable animals? That we like our dramatic actors to be small and furry? Who knows.

One thing I do know, is that you can give almost any video with a dramatic closeup the ‘Dramatic Chipmunk treatment’. Enter the New York Islanders enduring one of their worst losing streaks in franchise history and goalie Rick DiPietro. Sometimes, you just have to know how to laugh because it feels better than crying when your team has lost 19 of their last 20. Last night, as my colleague Adam Gretz reported, DiPietro gave up a goal directly off the face off to Atlanta’s Bryan Little. Add in an epic closeup from one of MSG’s fine camera men, some audio and ta-da! A new internet meme as been born; Dramatic DiPietro!

You’re welcome, Internet.

 

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‘Nordiques Nation’ Loudly, Politely Invades Coliseum for Islanders-Thrashers Game

December 11, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Saturday night the New York Islanders hosted the Atlanta Thrashers … and the Quebec Nordiques. This wasn’t any ordinary home game; it may be the only one in recent memory where there were three fanbases in attendance, but only two different teams on the ice.

A group of about 1,000 Québécois joined in an announced attendance of 10,056 at the Nassau Coliseum to pay tribute to their long lost hockey team and try to make enough noise to encourage the NHL to bring a team back to Quebec City. The city lost the Quebec Nordiques after the 1994-95 season when they moved to Denver. They now play as the Colorado Avalanche.

 

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Nordiques Nation to Invade Long Island

December 10, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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The Islanders could be in for yet another public relations headache on Saturday night, though it would be no fault of their own. Saturday, the team faces off against the Atlanta Thrashers at the Nassau Coliseum. Both teams are having issues drawing fans and have long been subjected to rumors of relocation, but nothing has come to pass. A group from North of the Border is looking to take advantage of this instability Saturday through as formal a demonstration as you can find at a hockey game.

“Nordiques Nation,” which is led by Vince Cauchon, a Quebec radio personality on 98.1 Radio X, will be making the 10 hour drive from Quebec City to Uniondale, NY for the game. Cauchon is leading 23 busloads of fans to the Coliseum according to Le Journal de Quebec.

The plan is that the large group of fans will sit in the lower bowl behind each net with light blue shirts that read ‘Nordiques Nation.” At the 15:00 mark of each period, the group plans to make a lot of noise to commemorate the 15 years it has been since the Nordiques left Quebec City for Denver. With rumors of relocation swirling for both the Thrashers and Islanders, the Nordiques supporters plan to make their voices heard in an attempt to help bring NHL hockey back to their hometown.

“We just want to show the N.H.L. that Quebec needs a team and is a better market,” Cauchon told the New York Times. “Maybe a third of the markets in the N.H.L. aren’t doing so well right now.”

 

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Video: Does Senators’ Matt Carkner Flick Blood at Rangers Bench?

December 09, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

Thursday night, the New York Rangers traveled to Ottawa to face the Senators and thanks to some odd actions from Ottawa’s Matt Carkner we may have a Colin Campbell Wheel of Justice spin coming in the near future. Towards the end of the first period Carkner got into a fight with Rangers tough guy Derek Boogaard. Carkner got cut open and was bleeding from the fight. Linesmen separated the pair and as Carkner skated away, he appeared to flick blood towards the Rangers bench.

There’s not really much doubt in the video that he wiped his face and made a flicking motion towards the Rangers bench. Whether or not Carkner intended to flick blood at the opposing team or was simply making the motion of doing so as some kind of weird intimidation threat is certainly up for interpretation. (He did receive a 10-minute misconduct for his antics.) What’s clear is that this is, at least in recent memory, an unprecedented action from one of the league’s tough guys.

What isn’t all that unprecedented is one of the league’s tough guys doing something a little off-center. So far this season we have had a throat slash gesture from Nick Boynton, James Wisniewski’s, um, censored action and Rick Rypien grabbing a fan in Minnesota. It’s certainly been a banner year for odd on-ice gestures and unique suspendable incidents.

 

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Sharks Show Resilience Despite Tough Start Against Flyers

December 08, 2010   Kevin Schultz   No comments

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SharksIt hasn’t been a normal year so far for the San Jose Sharks. Each of the last four seasons they have finished the year with at least 105 points and 49 wins. This year, the Sharks aren’t on pace for one of their “usual” finishes, but with 30 points in 26 games are on pace for 94 points. To add to that, the Western Conference is as tight as can be with only nine points separating the second-place team from the worst. Wednesday night, the Sharks showed why their regular-season experience from the last few years still makes them a very tough team to beat in the Western Conference.

Traveling cross-country in the middle of December against a very tough Philadelphia Flyers team, this was the easiest game in the book in which to roll over or take a night off. This is the time in the season that separates the tough teams from the soft ones and the Sharks were in the middle of an East Coast road trip. Make no mistake, the Sharks made a lot of noise in the hockey world tonight in a nationally televised game on Versus — and not just because of a disallowed Flyers goal.

Down 4-1 early in the third period with a trip to Buffalo later that night, it would have been easy for the Sharks to give up. You could argue the deficit should have only been 4-2, as the Sharks had a second-period goal disallowed for “a distinct kicking motion” that was a very tough call that could have gone either way. Packing it in and starting to think about a struggling Sabres team on Thursday night seems like an option a lot of teams or players might have taken.

 

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