Now since I am a big fan of hockey, I find it even more entertaining when these channels actually take a look at that sport, which is what Destin, the host of Smarter Every Day recently did. In particular he took a look at the physics involved in skating on ice, and those involved in firing off a slapshot in hockey. Some of the things he found out were surprising to me. Hope you enjoy them as well.
Sonntag, 30. März 2014
Hockey Science
Now since I am a big fan of hockey, I find it even more entertaining when these channels actually take a look at that sport, which is what Destin, the host of Smarter Every Day recently did. In particular he took a look at the physics involved in skating on ice, and those involved in firing off a slapshot in hockey. Some of the things he found out were surprising to me. Hope you enjoy them as well.
Samstag, 29. März 2014
Leaffire
Last night the Philadelphia Flyers played the Toronto Maple Leafs in what I deemed the most important game of the year for both teams. The Flyers were losers of two straight (to the Rangers and Kings) and only 3 points ahead of the Leafs who were entangled in a 4-way tie for the last two wild card spots. The Leafs should be desperate, since the only reason they are in that position was because they had dropped their last six games, all in regulation, and that is no good in March. If the Leafs win they are right back in a good position. Other teams still have games in hand but they made points and they could drag the Flyers into this mud-fight as well and perhaps open another opportunity to make the playoffs. If the Flyers win they close the gap on the Rangers and they put additional distance between them and the free-for-all for the wild card spots.
Thankfully the Flyers won. It wasn't super-pretty, but the result counts giving them some important points this late in the season. However, through most of the game neither team looked terribly interested in actually winning the thing. For the Flyers this is worrisome. For the Leafs it is an embarrassment, and it has reduced some of the more prominent supporters to drinking and talking about basketball. *shudder*
As the Leafs are dropping in the standings like an anvil from orbit, a lot of pundits have been arguing why exactly that is. A popular answer is "pressure". I don't buy it. A lot of teams from all sports face pressure from the media and fans all the time. As a Flyers fan I can tell you enough about. I will also tell you that yeah, sometimes reporters should just back off. However, if the Leafs can't deal with that they are doomed from the start.
A lot of blame has also been placed on Dion Phaneuf for showing poor leadership because he refused to talk to the media that one time. I call BS on that too. In fact, that is one thing Phaneuf has done right this year and showed his teammates to just ignore the media for once, because they are not as important as they occasionally appear to be. Claude Giroux pulled the same stunt in November and the Flyers were better for it.
However, Phaneuf is part of the problem in Toronto. He is not one if the causes though. Rather, he is a symptom. As of this writing Phaneuf is 16th from the bottom in Corsi On among all players that played at least 20 games this year. His defense partner Carl Gunnarsson is 8th from the bottom. That play is not conducive to a team's success, and it isn't exactly leadership material either. For Phaneuf means he needs to improve. For Toronto this means they shouldn't be getting and employing players like him.
The core problem with the Leafs is that they are terribly inept in evaluating talent and building a team. Their management is an absolute catastrophe as exemplified by the contracts for Phaneuf and David Clarkson, which are built around marketing, name-recognition and nebulous concepts like "truculence", rather than actual quality of play and the reasons behind it. They pay supporting cast talent like star players, and then send people like Clarke MacArthur and Mikhail Grabovski, players who can actually form a sound and decent supporting cast and who can be paid the appropriate price, away.
Personally I'm just glad Phaneuf signed this ridiculous contract extension, paying him $7 million a year for the next 7 years, with the Leafs. It means that other teams aren't tempted to make the same mistake. The Flyers in their desperate search for a true #1 defenseman would have been a prime candidate to do so, and I'm very glad they do not have the opportunity for it.
About this time last year there was some speculation going around what would have happened if the season had been the regular 82 games, rather than the 48 games season shortened by the lockout. A popular theory was that the Leafs would have faltered and entered their inevitable late-season collapse that has become pretty much routine. The question is who would have risen in their stead, with the Flyers a candidate as they were never able to put things together last year, but looked to play better just in time for it to no longer matter, and finished 8 points behind the Leafs last year and just above .500 in points percentage.
I think the result of last night actually gives some credence to that scenario.
Dienstag, 25. März 2014
James Neal should not be made of teflon
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| Here we see Neal inflicting grievous harm before swiftly exiting the ice for the bench. |
What is worse however is how the Flyers and the Penguins are being viewed by outsiders and more casual hockey fans. The Flyers have earned a reputation in the 70s as the Broad Street Bullies, a mean and physical team. They have suffered from this reputation ever since, never being awarded the benefit of doubt whenever something less than wholesome has happened.
On the other hand the Penguins are the darlings of the NHL and presented through its marketing, which routinely focuses on them due the presence of Sidney Crosby, as the dynasty-to-be and the clean-cut shining example of how a franchise should conduct itself.
However, anybody with more than a passing familiarity with the NHL knows that nothing is further from the truth. The Penguins are just as rotten as the rest of the NHL. They commit cheapshots and penalties just like everybody else. However, considering that they have employed the consensus dirtiest player in the league Matt Cooke for a long time they may have been even worse than the rest while masquerading as sheep.
Matt Cooke's history of dirty play has been chronicled pretty well. But to give credit where it is due, he has actually managed to turn his career around in the wake of a 10 game suspension and make his living as a defensively responsible player and penalty killer, as opposed to a cheapshot artist. He is still a pest, but at least he is a clean one. Cooke is however tainted which is why the Penguins opted to not bring him back during the 2013 offseason.
In his wake the Penguins quickly found a successor for the mantle of local cheapshot artist, and his name is James Neal. Neal is a very skilled player, has a great shot and is a genuine power forward impressing with size. He is also dirtier than a sewer rat, routinely getting his elbow and stick out against opposing players for little to no reason, often just because there is an opportunity.
What is odd however is how Neal appears to have somehow snuck into the blind spot of the Department of Player Safety, either being punished with a slap on the wrist or not at all.
Take for example his hit on Sean Couturier from the 2012 playoffs. It was a leaping headshot at an unsuspecting player who was not in control of the puck and hadn't been for several seconds. Neal was not called on a penalty, giving him the opportunity to deliver another cheapshot only seconds later on Claude Giroux. Neal was finally kicked out of the game for that one and was assessed a 1 game suspension for his hit on Giroux, but got no discipline at all for his hit on Couturier. How the NHL at all bites on Neal's excuse that he tried to brace himself for the hit on Couturier and it was incidental is beyond me, considering how deliberately he goes after Giroux only moments later. Seems to me like he was on the warpath from the get go.
What makes this decision truly bizarre is the fact that only a couple of days later, a similar incident between Raffi Torres of the Phoenix Coyotes and Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks occurred. The hit was in my opinion essentially identical to the one between Neal and Couturier. An unsuspecting player who has lost the puck gets drilled by a predatory, leaping hit. The only real difference is that there was a stretcher involved as Hossa had to be transported off the ice, unable to skate by himself. Torres was suspended initially for 25 games, which would later be reduced to 21.
While there is much to be said about Torres established history as opposed to Neal's only burgeoning reputation at the time, as well as the fact that Torres caused a severe injury while Neal thankfully did not, I can not understand for the life of me how the difference between the two incidents is 25 games.
Fast foward to this week. James Neal has now earned himself quite the rap sheet, over the last couple of years, including a 5 game suspension this season after planting a knee in the head of a downed Brad Marchand from the Bruins. This in and off itself should already be a travesty considering how obvious and deliberate he undertook that penalty.
However, to make things worse, this week Neal crosschecked Red Wings forward Luke Glendening in the head. Very deliberate and opportunistic. Considering how much the NHL is attempting to limit contact with heads in order to prevent injuries, and given Neal's status as a repeat offender, this should be another lengthy suspension, right?
Wrong. The NHL chose to only fine Neal for $5,000. What. The. ****. Compare this to the crosscheck Jesse Boulerice delivered to Ryan Kesler in 2007, which earned Boulerice a 25 game suspension. And this was before the NHL declared war on concussions. Do I think Boulerice's hit was worse? Most definitely. The puck was long gone and Boulerice made a bee-line for Kesler for no damn reason in a game which was decided for a while. Is there 25 games worth of difference between the two incidents? Most definitely not.
Or as a different example, here is Washington's Nicklas Backstrom cross-checking Bruin's forward Rich Peverley in the head. That at least got him a 1 game suspension in the playoffs.
The Department of Player Safety has a reputation problem as it is, with many of its decisions appearing to be completely arbitrary and not rooted in precedent or any formal logic whatsoever. There also seem to be different sets of rules applied to high scoring star players and bottom six plugs. And in the playoffs the entire system seems to go straight out of the window anyway. Stuff like the above is definitely not helping.
Something also needs to be said for the lack of initiative at the hands of the Penguins. Yes, Matt Cooke improved himself after a stern talking to by the Pens brass, but this was only after being severely punished by the NHL. For years they let things slide and let Cooke run amok before actually stepping in. And they seem to be content with letting Neal continue down the same path.
It also doesn't appear that Neal is at all remorseful or has any understanding of the consequences of his conduct. From Shanahan's videos we get relays of his cheap excuses. When asked by reporters he never admits fault or shows regret, and even on the plays themselves he is quick to exit for the bench rather than face the music.
Somebody has to step in and make Neal actually feel the some punishment for his transgressions, which appear to have become routine for him. I just hope that it is either the Department of Player Safety finally wising up, or the Penguins leadership doing what is necessary. Otherwise we might see things come down the way they did in 2011 when the Islanders chose to goon it up against the Penguins as they did not believe the NHL had served them in correcting previous wrongs inflicted at the hands of the Penguins. This prompted Mario Lemieux to write an angry letter to the NHL calling for stronger discipline and sharper suspensions, despite his own team being mostly the beneficiary of this lax situation and the root cause in how it got that far.
The situation is also becoming increasingly more dangerous. It is already borderline miraculous as it is that Neal hasn't severely injured a player already, but every cheapshot is a new opportunity for this to happen. I hope for all parties involved Neal corrects his path before then.
Somebody has to step in, as the lack of initiative to punish a "star" player like Neal is slowly but surely becoming an untenable embarrassment to the league.
Montag, 24. März 2014
Geeks and Hockey
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| There is nothing weird about this picture. |
One of the geekeries I do is Magic: The Gathering. For those who do not know, it is a collectible card game and it has a huge player-base. The largest public tournaments are called Grand Prix. There are about 50 Grand Prix a year, and each draws upwards of a thousand people pretty easily. For example this past weekend was Grand Prix Vienna 2014 in which I was one of 1208 players.
Since I am a geek and I have an obvious interest in hockey, I'm also always looking for intersections between the two, and the GP was a treasure trove for it. First I came into talk with one of the vendors who was sporting a Canadiens hat. He asked me about the Flyers Winter Classic cap, at first assuming I was from Philly. Turns out he is from Montreal but was at the event to do some work for a french shop. He however had already noticed that there was a lot of NHL paraphernalia in the room.
Over the weekend I spotted a guy wearing a Penguins sweatshirt, two diffferent Canucks T-Shirts (one being laser-spaghetti, one being in the current design with Daniel Sedin's name and number on the back), a Kopitar LA Kings jersey (from before the most recent redesign), a Sharks hat, a Sharks T-Shirt, and an Islanders sticker on a messenger bag. (Speaking of the Islanders, here's the Islanders blog Lighthouse Hockey having some fun with Magic cards). And yes, the inevitable matchup between me and the guy in the Penguins sweatshirt did happen, and I prevailed.
For context, I saw nobody wearing any football shirts, which I would have thought much more common in Austria (and by football I mean the sport where all the players kick a ball with your feet). I also saw no NBA merchandise except for one person wearing a Sixers hat. The same person also wore an Eagles NFL jersey, and making the rounds with a friend who was wearing a Seahawks jersey. On the final day of competition one player also wore a Ravens jersey. However, that's about it for sports merchandise, the NHL having the upper hand there as far as I saw.
Now maybe this is me having a selection bias, but for a while I've noticed hockey to be a sport more frequently being picked up as an interest by geeks. I several online-acquaintances who travel in similar circles as me and studied at RIT. They either became hockey fans there, or already were and brought some of their friends with no prior relationship to hockey into the fold.
It is also one of the reasons, if a very minor one, I think hockey succeeded and gained a steady fanbase in places like San Jose (smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley) and Raleigh (center of the Research Triangle) as students from North-Eastern Tech schools such as MIT or RIT that also have a hockey program often migrate to those places. It's also a minor reason why I think hockey would succeed in Seattle, though the city being placed in the north, having an untapped and enormous population, and the proximity to Canada with the built in rivalry with the Canucks far outweigh it.
In any case, I find it great that hockey has such a wide appeal, even in places where stereotypical it would be believed to be shunned.
Donnerstag, 20. März 2014
Claude Giroux should be the front runner for the Hart Trophy
Yes, the banner on my blog is Claude Giroux smiling and hugging Steve Mason. Yes, my blog is named after the general manager of the Flyers. Yes, I am very much biased in this matter, but hear me out.
In the recent months, Claude Giroux has risen through the ranks and is as of right now is sitting in 4th place in points scoring. He has scored the most points by any player since December 11th, and while that is kind of a cherry-picked date, it is nevertheless a very significant stretch of more than 3 months now. He is also a clutch player scoring amazing and timely goals such as this one and this one. He is the unquestioned leader of the Flyers, in terms of motivation as well as skill. He has all the things a candidate for the Hart Trophy needs, and then some.
However, it is also not exactly a secret that he had a very poor start. It took him 6 games to register his first point, and 16 to score his first goal on the season. The reasons for this are manifold, starting with a freak golf-injury late in the offseason, him missing the entirety of training camp because of said injury, to a coaching change very early in the season. As a result the Flyers lost 7 of their first 8 games and dropped to dead last, becoming the butt of dumb jokes such as "Q: Why are triangles higher than the Flyers in the NHL standings? A: Because a triangle has three points."
A lot of people use this poor start to knock Giroux. It was most certainly the leading cause for him being left off the Canadian Olympic Roster this year. People also proclaim that a Hart Trophy candidate has to be excellent year-round and Giroux is therefore not qualified. I disagree. I think this poor start showcases exactly why Giroux should be the front runner for the Hart Trophy.
If you recall, the Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to "the player judged to be the most valuable to his team". While the Professional Hockey Writers' Association frequently treats it as a de facto league-wide MVP award, it actually isn't as the last five words make a very important difference compared to the Ted Lindsay Award voted on by the players themselves. I am not arguing here that Giroux is the best player in the world (and for the record: nobody really has except for Peter Laviolette in the spur of the moment that one time). I think he has the potential to be, but he isn't there (yet). What I am saying is that Claude Giroux has the most importance to his team.
While this important distinction between the Hart and the Lindsay is often brought up, an actual quantifiable measure is hard to come by and thus the discussion is often left to speculation and inference. "How good would team X be without player A, and would that be worse than if team Y lost player B?" etc.
Only rarely are there actual circumstances to put this theory to the test. Would the Pittsburgh Penguins be a playoff team without Sidney Crosby? Almost certainly. Just look at the 2011-12 NHL season in which Crosby was limited to 22 games and the Penguins finished 4th in their conference because they have a "backup" in Evgeny Malkin who won the Art Ross Trophy that year. This fact alone should exclude both Crosby and Malkin from any consideration for the Hart Trophy unless the other misses a significant amount of the season due to injury. Now this doesn't mean they aren't excellent players, but their teams would also be able to compete without them, decreasing their relative importance to their team.
However, would the Flyers be a playoff team without Claude Giroux? Almost certainly not. They are on the bubble as it is, and that is after the monster of a performance Giroux has put in recently. This is also where the poor start comes in, because in the fifteen games before Giroux scored his first goal, the Flyers were the owners of a 4-10-1 record and many people had them already eliminated from contention, scoffing at Giroux guarantee that the Flyers would make the playoffs. However, when Giroux started to get going, the Flyers actually became a threat. Since the December 11th date I mentioned above, Giroux has score 51 points in 38 games for a 1.42 PPG pace. Not coincidentally the Flyers are also 23-11-4 in that span. He is the most important player of the team. The fulcrum around everything revolves.
In my opinion Giroux's season is an interesting study of what purpose the Hart Trophy really serves. Is it just a league-wide "best player" award voted on by a different set of people than the Ted Lindsay Award, or does it have its own meaning and parameters for gaining it? If the latter is the case, Giroux has to be one of the frontrunners for it.
Dienstag, 18. März 2014
Thank goodness the Dallas Stars went green again
Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and while this holiday is not really observed in my parts of the world, the NHL has a strange relationship with it. Every year the NHL carts out a bunch of merchandise that features some strange variations of player's names like "O'Vechkin" in a gaudy attempt to allude to a fake Irish heritage. The merchandise is also almost exclusively green, which is very very strange to me as hardly any team actually uses the color and it is very jarring to me when a teams logo is rendered into a color that is not associated with that franchise.
However, this also points at a certain situation: Green is a very under-appreciated color North American pro sports. There are plenty of teams wearing a shade of red or blue (or both) as their primary colors, but in the four major sports leagues there are only a handful of teams which use green as their primary color. There are the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA, the Oakland Athletics in MLB, and the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL, but other than that not much comes to mind. Of 92 franchises in those three leagues only six use green as their primary color. Seven if you count the Miami Dolphins (which I don't). And until recently in the NHL green was almost completely absent.
Take the uniforms from 2007-08 for example. Not a single primarily green uniform anywhere. Even teams like the Dallas Stars who have green as one of their primary colors opt for instead the super-safe black jersey option, which is supposed to be more marketable. Their green, their proprietary color, is relegated to an accent as if it is offensive to the eye.
To me that was a very sad state of affairs. Teams appeared to blend into one another and did not even attempt to carve out an identity of their own. The Oilers for example opted for a more timid copper instead of a more vibrant orange. The Flyers were also a similar case, though they used more orange on their uniforms. Even the San Jose Sharks felt the need of introducing a black jersey for some godforsaken reason, though at least they never relegated their traditional teal to an accent color.
Rather than using their primary colors, teams shewed away for them, attempting to appear more hip and more urban. But then the revolution came and thank goodness for that. While some teams like Boston opted to introduce a 2nd black uniform and the Kings actually put away the purple for some unknown reason, the Flyers brought back their original orange Uniforms, and what a welcome sight that was. The Oilers also went back into the closet and brought back the Gretzky era orange. However, the biggest step forward in terms of uniform came last year when the Dallas Stars introduced their new uniforms for a new era.
At first I was skeptical because the first thing I saw was the shoulder patch logo. I am not a fan of rings around logos spelling out the name and city of the team. However, I am very happy with the final design they chose. The sweaters grow on me every time I see them as they are clean, but most importantly they are unique. The Stars have their identity back, and it is green.
So far the Stars are the only green team in the NHL, but there are two other teams that have that option: The Minnesota Wild and the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks will be less likely to make a switch. They have a long and horrifying history with uniforms, involving the largest V-Neck possible, laser spaghetti and tie-dye before settling into a traditional uniform using blue as a primary and green as an accent, giving them an actually decent look.
I have big hopes for the Minnesota Wild though. While they still cling to the christmas-tree like red jerseys, their green secondary uniform is in my opinion the future of that franchise. Given that they use Green and Beige while the Stars use Green and Black, there shouldn't be too much of an overlap as well. The only thing they have to do is get rid of the word-mark and put their great logo on front instead. At worst we at least have a second team using a green sweater on occasion.
The Stars have finally found back to the right path in actually having an identity of their own and add to the color spectrum used in the NHL through it. I only wish the Los Angeles Kings would do the same and return to using purple, though I fear this is never going to happen. A large swath of Kings fans were gained through their 2012 Cup Win and they have no association between the color and that franchise, and that is a shame in my opinion.
However, this also points at a certain situation: Green is a very under-appreciated color North American pro sports. There are plenty of teams wearing a shade of red or blue (or both) as their primary colors, but in the four major sports leagues there are only a handful of teams which use green as their primary color. There are the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA, the Oakland Athletics in MLB, and the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL, but other than that not much comes to mind. Of 92 franchises in those three leagues only six use green as their primary color. Seven if you count the Miami Dolphins (which I don't). And until recently in the NHL green was almost completely absent.
Take the uniforms from 2007-08 for example. Not a single primarily green uniform anywhere. Even teams like the Dallas Stars who have green as one of their primary colors opt for instead the super-safe black jersey option, which is supposed to be more marketable. Their green, their proprietary color, is relegated to an accent as if it is offensive to the eye.
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| If you black out the logos, there isn't any green in this picture at all. |
To me that was a very sad state of affairs. Teams appeared to blend into one another and did not even attempt to carve out an identity of their own. The Oilers for example opted for a more timid copper instead of a more vibrant orange. The Flyers were also a similar case, though they used more orange on their uniforms. Even the San Jose Sharks felt the need of introducing a black jersey for some godforsaken reason, though at least they never relegated their traditional teal to an accent color.
Rather than using their primary colors, teams shewed away for them, attempting to appear more hip and more urban. But then the revolution came and thank goodness for that. While some teams like Boston opted to introduce a 2nd black uniform and the Kings actually put away the purple for some unknown reason, the Flyers brought back their original orange Uniforms, and what a welcome sight that was. The Oilers also went back into the closet and brought back the Gretzky era orange. However, the biggest step forward in terms of uniform came last year when the Dallas Stars introduced their new uniforms for a new era.
At first I was skeptical because the first thing I saw was the shoulder patch logo. I am not a fan of rings around logos spelling out the name and city of the team. However, I am very happy with the final design they chose. The sweaters grow on me every time I see them as they are clean, but most importantly they are unique. The Stars have their identity back, and it is green.
So far the Stars are the only green team in the NHL, but there are two other teams that have that option: The Minnesota Wild and the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks will be less likely to make a switch. They have a long and horrifying history with uniforms, involving the largest V-Neck possible, laser spaghetti and tie-dye before settling into a traditional uniform using blue as a primary and green as an accent, giving them an actually decent look.
I have big hopes for the Minnesota Wild though. While they still cling to the christmas-tree like red jerseys, their green secondary uniform is in my opinion the future of that franchise. Given that they use Green and Beige while the Stars use Green and Black, there shouldn't be too much of an overlap as well. The only thing they have to do is get rid of the word-mark and put their great logo on front instead. At worst we at least have a second team using a green sweater on occasion.
The Stars have finally found back to the right path in actually having an identity of their own and add to the color spectrum used in the NHL through it. I only wish the Los Angeles Kings would do the same and return to using purple, though I fear this is never going to happen. A large swath of Kings fans were gained through their 2012 Cup Win and they have no association between the color and that franchise, and that is a shame in my opinion.
Donnerstag, 13. März 2014
Revisiting the Richards and Carter trades Part II: The Results
After examining the Causes for the trades of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, the question to answer now is: Was it ultimately worth it?
For the two of them it seems to have worked out okay. After a short and sulky stint in Columbus, the Blue Jackets opted to ship Carter to the Kings themselves where he would be reunited with Richards. The two of them would win the Stanley Cup that year in one of the most remarkably lucky (by which I mean injury-free) runs at a Stanley Cup.
That in and off itself was a challenging fact for Flyers fans to accept and was largely seen as a condemnation of the trades themselves. It was proven that a team can win with the two in their line-up. However, that was in my opinion never in question. The difference in the situation between the Flyers and Kings is that their role was significantly reduced, as they were now relied upon as secondary contributors behind players like Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty.
I myself am happy for them. They should have already won the Cup in 2010 and it cemented Mike Richards as one of the ultimate winners. It also meant that other Flyers alumni deservedly got their names on the Cup as they should have had for a while now, namely Simon Gagne (himself acquired by the Kings as a free agent) and Ron Hextall as part of their management.
As for the Flyers, they tried their hardest. It helped that the lost scoring was replaced by acquiring some free agents like Jaromir Jagr returning from the KHL and performing a grandiose heel turn by signing with the Flyers instead of the Penguins, or unsigned college graduate Matt Read who turned some heads himself. After an absolutely ridiculous series against the Penguins, they would however fall short against the Devils who would advance to the Finals and be crushed by the Kings.
The trades themselves are also looking good from the perspective of the Flyers. All the key pieces have established themselves as core members. Voracek has become one of the better right wings in the league and is a constant threat on the side of Claude Giroux, who has wonderfully grown into the first line center role that was opened up by the departure of Richards and Carter. Wayne Simmonds has established himself as a great power-forward and a dominant presence in front of the net and on the boards. Sean Couturier made the NHL as an 18-year old and is at age 21 already one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL while hardly ever committing a penalty. His scoring needs work but he is an integral part of the line-up as a shut-down player. Brayden Schenn is also slowly realizing his promise, looking to break the 20-goal mark this year while centering the 2nd line.
The surrounding areas however are kind of a disaster. Ilya Bryzgalov's contract would ultimately be bought out in the wake of the changes brought upon by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement established in 2013. He had some very disappointing numbers and never fit in with the system or the team due to his eccentric personality, finishing up as one of the worst goalies in 2012, statistically.
However, this was not before the Flyers had traded Sergei Bobrovsky to the Blue Jackets, attempting to bring Bryzgalov around by removing some competition. The Blue Jackets would earn some crow calls from the peanut gallery as in "of course you go to Philadelphia to fix your problems in goal" for this move, but Bobrovsky would regain his confidence in Columbus and win the Vezina Trophy in the shortened 2013 season for his troubles, another dagger in the back of the battered Flyers fans suffering through a decidedly mediocre season.
The Flyers would return the favor by taking Steve Mason off the Jackets' hands in a separate trade a year later. Mason won the Calder Trophy as an outstanding goaltender in his rookie year and posting 10 shutouts. However, he was unable to follow this up behind a weak Columbus team and was seen as a lost cause, though he has been regaining some of his confidence with the Flyers.
Another goalie would also be acquired from Columbus in a more roundabout way, as the 2nd round pick the Flyers received in exchange for Bobrovsky was used to select Anthony Stolarz, who as of this writing shares the league lead in Save Percentage in the OHL.
However, far worse than the debacle that was Bryzgalov in net was the unfortunate end of Chris Pronger's career. Pronger was struck in the eye by the stick of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski on a follow-through. This injury coupled with some other hits caused a long lasting battle with post-concussion syndrome.
Pronger has not suited up for the Orange and Black since 2011, and his career is effectively over. With him the Flyers lost a stalwart on the blue line, which they are still attempting to replace. They also lost the leadership and guiding presence in the locker room they needed after trading away Mike Richards. The Flyers were also somewhat forced to retain his salary and cheat the system by placing him on injured reserve, rather than using one of their two compliance buyouts allowed with the new CBA on him, as they were used on Bryzgalov and Danny Briere.
There can be debate about whether it was wise of the Flyers management to build on Pronger, who signed his contract extension with a year left on an ongoing deal and whose new contract would run until he was 42 years old without the potential if relief in case of his retirement or just such a long term injury. However, injuries are by their very nature unforeseen and unpredictable, even less so for a guy like Chris Pronger who was occasionally and jokingly described as a sort of unstoppable Terminator.
As of now the Flyers have managed to mitigate the Bryzgalov debacle, but have a number of areas in which they can improve. They are still looking to fill the crater left by Chris Pronger, as attempts to sign Shea Weber and Ryan Suter have failed, but they have managed to acquire a number of good young prospects on defense, mostly through the draft. Samuel Morin, Mark Alt, Frederick Larson, Valeri Vasiliev and Robert Hagg are showing some promise, but the biggest hope for now is Shayne Gostisbehere who is one of the front runners for the Hobey Baker Award this year. He may very well play for the Flyers next season, though I hope they will not rush him into it.
In the wake of the Richards and Carter trades it is interesting how the Flyers of today resemble the Flyers of five or six years ago. They are again a team consisting of an elite and young forward group growing towards and/or about to enter its prime, with an uneasy and aging defense corps and rather questionable goaltending.
The positive is that unlike five or six years ago, the Flyers actually have a number of talented prospects in the system with hope that those will fill the gaps in the near future. If these defensemen can catch up to the forwards, and if Steve Mason can regain his Calder Trophy winning abilities in goal (or if Anthony Stolarz manages to supplant him), it may ultimately truly have proven worth it. However, in the face of Richards and Carter completing their dream in Los Angeles, anything short of a Stanley Cup victory will be unable to actually punctuate this.
For now, the trades themselves appear to be an absolute win-win-win, as all three teams, Columbus, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, appear to be happy with what they received in exchange for the assets they have given up.
Dienstag, 11. März 2014
Revisiting the Richards and Carter trades Part I: The Reasons
I love Mike Richards. There I said it. Not like a man loves a woman, but like a man likes a good cigar. Except fuck cigars.
Mike Richards is one of my favorite players, and definitely my favorite player not playing for the Flyers. He is a hard working role model. He is a leader by example. He is a proven winner having won a Stanley Cup, an Olympic Gold Medal, World Junior Championship Gold, a Memorial Cup and a Calder Cup. All he needs is a gold medal in the World Championship, which will be hard for him to get since the only time he ever was out of the playoffs is the season we do not speak off. He also should have a Selke in his trophy case if not for the voting system being really dumb. Richards is definitely one of the most underrated players in the league, and many teams can only dream of having a guy like him in its line-up.
He also seemed like the future of the Franchise in Philadelphia, having been named captain (a role tailor made for him) and with an admittedly ridiculous 12-year contract in the back pocket that would expire when he is 35 years old, with a rather manageable $5,750,000 cap hit. Seemingly he would be a Flyer for life. Plus his best friend and teammate Jeff Carter had also been locked up with a very similar contract.
I make no bones about it. I don't really like Jeff Carter as a person. However, he is a very talented hockey player and a true sniper. Someone that can add value to a team. However, I did believe that in 2010, when the Flyers trade away Simon Gagne to Tampa Bay for Matt Walker and a 4th round pick, the Flyers should have traded Carter instead and end the logjam at center while preserving a valuable winger. (Now that was a terrible trade, though I guess the Flyers owed the Lightning something for the Meszaros trade that happened just days earlier. The Sum total I guess is Simon Gagne and a 2nd round pikc for Andrej Meszaros, Matt Walker and a 4th, which makes it somewhat more palpable. And since leaving the Flyers, Gagne didn't exactly light the world on fire though I do find it nice that he did manage to get his name on The Cup).
All the more shocked was I when I woke up on the day of th 2011 NHL Entry Draft to learn that both Mike Richards and Jeff Carter had been traded, as I found out while checking my e-mails on my phone. The grogginess was immediately gone, replaced by pure anger. I was not ready for this. Nobody was. It was an absolutely unexpected bombshell that ripped the heart of the team out of the franchise. The fans reacted with immediate calls of mutiny, myself among them.
Well, after a day or two, I came down from the mad high I had gotten myself on and attempted to see the more rational side for the trades. It was time to actually look at what Paul Holmgren had received in exchange for his two super stars.
From Columbus the Flyers got Jakub Voracek, a 2011 first round pick and a 2011 third round pick which turned into Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins respectively. Voracek at the time was a young talent, a natural winger with some great goalscoring potential, as yet unrealized in the Columbus system (which has a terrible reputation with eastern european players). Couturier had been projected to go as high as 1st overall that draft, but contracted mononucleosis which kept his numbers down. At the time of the pick it was a gift however, as he was one of the most NHL ready players in the draft as he would prove in short order. Cousins was a troublemaker, but with some talent to back it up. He has as of yet to fulfill his potential in pro hockey, but finishing in the top 10 in OHL scoring in 2012 and 3rd in 2013 is promising (which could have been higher if not for a suspension).
From Los Angeles Holmgren received Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and their 2012 2nd round pick. Flyers had to chip in Rob Bordson, but that was acceptable (Bordson has yet to play in the NHL, and the Kings did not give him a qualifying offer when they had the chance to do so). Simmonds was a young, raw, grinding middle-six winger with some untapped promise to score goals. Schenn was considered perhaps the best prospect not yet in the NHL, a two time silver medalist at the World Juniors and a former WHL rookie of the year. The draft pick would be packaged with a 3rd round selection in 2012 and flipped to the Dallas Stars later that year in exchange for defenseman Nicklas Grossmann.
So the verdict in total was that the Flyers got some very good value for the two centers the gave up, though it was largely in young and mostly unproven players. With other players of similar talent already on the team looking for more responsibility, players like Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers seemed to have gotten a whole lot younger, but not necessarily a whole lot worse depending on how the NHL replacements Voracek and Simmonds would fill in, and how other players would step up.
A definitive positive was that the shelves were restocked, as the Flyers prospect pool was almost entirely devoid of any definitive NHL talent with many of them having graduated to the big club and little having come after as many draft picks were used in trades to acquire roster players instead.
What was more worrisome was that it did not solve one of their larger problems, which was a logjam at center. Yes, the Flyers had traded away two centers, but they had also picked up three centers in Couturier, Schenn and Cousins. Add that to the fact that Giroux was looking to completely takeover the center position on the top line and Danny Briere still sticking around, the Flyers seemed to have too many centers again.
The biggest problem however was the reasons that motivated the trades themselves. I guess we won't be able to avoid talking about "Dry Island" so we might as well get out of the way. The story is that head coach Peter Laviolette asked his players to remain completely sober for an entire month. The practice was dubbed "Dry Island" by the players and Richards and Carter were the only two players that refused to participate, supposedly causing a rift between them and the coach. That Captain Richards routinely had his problems with the intrusive Philadelphia sports media was no secret and this may have contributed to the factors as well to the trade, but that would be nothing to the field day they would have with this story and how it related to the trades. I personally am still skeptical about how much of that is actually truthful and how much it influenced the trades.
Another factor was the presence of another-larger than-life character in the locker room. His name is Chris Pronger, professional troll and hockey player, as well as winner of a Hart Trophy, a Norris Trophy and the Stanley Cup among many other awards. Pronger is undeniably an asshole, but he is also one of the best defensemen to ever play the sport and a natural leader. Rumor has it that there was a division between Pronger and Richards (who had won Olympic Gold together two years prior) and the organization favored Pronger's leadership despite him only playing 50 games due to a languishing knee-issue. Without the ability to actually transfer the captaincy to Pronger and leave Richards with any dignity, Richards was traded instead.
The largest influence however was definitely the issues in goal. In the 2011 playoffs the Flyers employed a three-headed monster in net. They had Sergei Bobrovsky, a young goaltender out of Siberia that was practically a complete unknown when he showed up at training camp, winning the starting goaltender's job solidified by a great performance in a 3-2 win against the hated Pittsburgh Penguins in the first game of the season, spoiling the opening of the new Consol Energy Arena.
Backing up "Bob" was Brian Boucher, a veteran goalie who always had talent but never really stood up as a starting netminder and falling into a backup role periodically. Boucher was in his third tour of duty with the Flyers, the team that had originally drafted him in 1995, and despite his strong play in the playoffs the previous year he was again outperformed by another goaltender.
Waiting behind them was Michael Leighton, a borderline NHL goalie with occasional flashes of brilliance. One of those was the year before where he was picked up by the Flyers from the waiver wire due to a season-ending (and career threatening) injury to Ray Emery, then posted a 16-5-2 record with a .920 save percentage before going down to a high ankle sprain himself. This kept him out of the playoffs until the 2nd round, the day Boucher suffered two overextended knees after a goal-crease collision. Leighton jumped into the game, finished the shutout 50-50 and followed it up by letting a 2-0 lead stand for 59 minutes before Boston could score an ultimately futile goal. The following round Leighton posted three shutouts in five games against the Canadiens. However, he was made the lone scapegoat in a disappointing finish due to giving up a wake goal in overtime of game 6 which would give the Blackhawks the Stanley Cup.
Leighton had been extended for two years, but an offseason back surgery meant that he would miss the start of the season. By the time he was ready to play again, Bobrovsky had supplanted him and Leighton was placed on waivers, which he cleared and was assigned to the Phantoms. However, later in the season Bobrovsky's confidence was crumbling, as was the entire team as it finished with a 9-9-7 record from late February to the end of the season. Leighton was recalled and the Flyers themselves hardly knew themselves which goalie would start any given playoff game. They barely got by the Sabres in the first round before being dispatched in four games by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Bruins.
Philadelphia was known for a long time as a goalie graveyard in large part due to the mounting pressure caused by the expectations of the city's sports fans and media. Management decided it had to stop so they went out and got the biggest fish in the pond: Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryz was the beneficiary of a very strong defensive system in Phoenix under the guidance of head coach Dave Tippet, but the Flyers would definitely get him come hell or high water. And so they traded a 3rd round pick and minor league player Matt Clackson for Bryzgalov's expiring contract which they swiftly extended to the tune of 9 years and $51 million, a $5,666,667 cap hit.
Personally I still believe this to have been marching orders from higher levels which caused ripple effects for years to come. The Flyers already had a good young goalie that just needed some grooming and time, but this would not be soon enough as it appears.
Bryzgalov's monstrous contract would require some restructuring for the Flyers and with high salaried players like Briere and Pronger having the advantage of No Trade or No Movement Clauses in their contracts, it was decided to rebuild "on the fly" by trading Richards and Carter for younger talent and gun for the Cup a couple of years down the line.
The same effect could probably have also been achieved by trading only one of Richards and Carter, so why both? The answer is simple: They are best friends. It is no secret how pissed the two of them were after the trades. Carter in particularly crawled up in his shell and was unavailable to the media after being traded away from a booming night life and a talented team in Philadelphia to the perennial bottom feeder in the sleepy Columbus. I don't think there would have been much of a difference had his best friend Mike Richards been traded away with him remaining in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, I believe that Carter was the sole player traded and Richards had remained, the increasing rift between Richards and the management would have in all likelihood immediately exploded into a full fledged mutiny. In either case, the Flyers would likely have had to trade the other man in the duo sooner or later as well, only for their trade value to have tanked in between. Management opted for the band-aid approach, tearing it off fast and efficiently.
Mike Richards is one of my favorite players, and definitely my favorite player not playing for the Flyers. He is a hard working role model. He is a leader by example. He is a proven winner having won a Stanley Cup, an Olympic Gold Medal, World Junior Championship Gold, a Memorial Cup and a Calder Cup. All he needs is a gold medal in the World Championship, which will be hard for him to get since the only time he ever was out of the playoffs is the season we do not speak off. He also should have a Selke in his trophy case if not for the voting system being really dumb. Richards is definitely one of the most underrated players in the league, and many teams can only dream of having a guy like him in its line-up.
He also seemed like the future of the Franchise in Philadelphia, having been named captain (a role tailor made for him) and with an admittedly ridiculous 12-year contract in the back pocket that would expire when he is 35 years old, with a rather manageable $5,750,000 cap hit. Seemingly he would be a Flyer for life. Plus his best friend and teammate Jeff Carter had also been locked up with a very similar contract.
I make no bones about it. I don't really like Jeff Carter as a person. However, he is a very talented hockey player and a true sniper. Someone that can add value to a team. However, I did believe that in 2010, when the Flyers trade away Simon Gagne to Tampa Bay for Matt Walker and a 4th round pick, the Flyers should have traded Carter instead and end the logjam at center while preserving a valuable winger. (Now that was a terrible trade, though I guess the Flyers owed the Lightning something for the Meszaros trade that happened just days earlier. The Sum total I guess is Simon Gagne and a 2nd round pikc for Andrej Meszaros, Matt Walker and a 4th, which makes it somewhat more palpable. And since leaving the Flyers, Gagne didn't exactly light the world on fire though I do find it nice that he did manage to get his name on The Cup).
All the more shocked was I when I woke up on the day of th 2011 NHL Entry Draft to learn that both Mike Richards and Jeff Carter had been traded, as I found out while checking my e-mails on my phone. The grogginess was immediately gone, replaced by pure anger. I was not ready for this. Nobody was. It was an absolutely unexpected bombshell that ripped the heart of the team out of the franchise. The fans reacted with immediate calls of mutiny, myself among them.
Well, after a day or two, I came down from the mad high I had gotten myself on and attempted to see the more rational side for the trades. It was time to actually look at what Paul Holmgren had received in exchange for his two super stars.
From Columbus the Flyers got Jakub Voracek, a 2011 first round pick and a 2011 third round pick which turned into Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins respectively. Voracek at the time was a young talent, a natural winger with some great goalscoring potential, as yet unrealized in the Columbus system (which has a terrible reputation with eastern european players). Couturier had been projected to go as high as 1st overall that draft, but contracted mononucleosis which kept his numbers down. At the time of the pick it was a gift however, as he was one of the most NHL ready players in the draft as he would prove in short order. Cousins was a troublemaker, but with some talent to back it up. He has as of yet to fulfill his potential in pro hockey, but finishing in the top 10 in OHL scoring in 2012 and 3rd in 2013 is promising (which could have been higher if not for a suspension).
From Los Angeles Holmgren received Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and their 2012 2nd round pick. Flyers had to chip in Rob Bordson, but that was acceptable (Bordson has yet to play in the NHL, and the Kings did not give him a qualifying offer when they had the chance to do so). Simmonds was a young, raw, grinding middle-six winger with some untapped promise to score goals. Schenn was considered perhaps the best prospect not yet in the NHL, a two time silver medalist at the World Juniors and a former WHL rookie of the year. The draft pick would be packaged with a 3rd round selection in 2012 and flipped to the Dallas Stars later that year in exchange for defenseman Nicklas Grossmann.
So the verdict in total was that the Flyers got some very good value for the two centers the gave up, though it was largely in young and mostly unproven players. With other players of similar talent already on the team looking for more responsibility, players like Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers seemed to have gotten a whole lot younger, but not necessarily a whole lot worse depending on how the NHL replacements Voracek and Simmonds would fill in, and how other players would step up.
A definitive positive was that the shelves were restocked, as the Flyers prospect pool was almost entirely devoid of any definitive NHL talent with many of them having graduated to the big club and little having come after as many draft picks were used in trades to acquire roster players instead.
What was more worrisome was that it did not solve one of their larger problems, which was a logjam at center. Yes, the Flyers had traded away two centers, but they had also picked up three centers in Couturier, Schenn and Cousins. Add that to the fact that Giroux was looking to completely takeover the center position on the top line and Danny Briere still sticking around, the Flyers seemed to have too many centers again.
The biggest problem however was the reasons that motivated the trades themselves. I guess we won't be able to avoid talking about "Dry Island" so we might as well get out of the way. The story is that head coach Peter Laviolette asked his players to remain completely sober for an entire month. The practice was dubbed "Dry Island" by the players and Richards and Carter were the only two players that refused to participate, supposedly causing a rift between them and the coach. That Captain Richards routinely had his problems with the intrusive Philadelphia sports media was no secret and this may have contributed to the factors as well to the trade, but that would be nothing to the field day they would have with this story and how it related to the trades. I personally am still skeptical about how much of that is actually truthful and how much it influenced the trades.
Another factor was the presence of another-larger than-life character in the locker room. His name is Chris Pronger, professional troll and hockey player, as well as winner of a Hart Trophy, a Norris Trophy and the Stanley Cup among many other awards. Pronger is undeniably an asshole, but he is also one of the best defensemen to ever play the sport and a natural leader. Rumor has it that there was a division between Pronger and Richards (who had won Olympic Gold together two years prior) and the organization favored Pronger's leadership despite him only playing 50 games due to a languishing knee-issue. Without the ability to actually transfer the captaincy to Pronger and leave Richards with any dignity, Richards was traded instead.
The largest influence however was definitely the issues in goal. In the 2011 playoffs the Flyers employed a three-headed monster in net. They had Sergei Bobrovsky, a young goaltender out of Siberia that was practically a complete unknown when he showed up at training camp, winning the starting goaltender's job solidified by a great performance in a 3-2 win against the hated Pittsburgh Penguins in the first game of the season, spoiling the opening of the new Consol Energy Arena.
Backing up "Bob" was Brian Boucher, a veteran goalie who always had talent but never really stood up as a starting netminder and falling into a backup role periodically. Boucher was in his third tour of duty with the Flyers, the team that had originally drafted him in 1995, and despite his strong play in the playoffs the previous year he was again outperformed by another goaltender.
Waiting behind them was Michael Leighton, a borderline NHL goalie with occasional flashes of brilliance. One of those was the year before where he was picked up by the Flyers from the waiver wire due to a season-ending (and career threatening) injury to Ray Emery, then posted a 16-5-2 record with a .920 save percentage before going down to a high ankle sprain himself. This kept him out of the playoffs until the 2nd round, the day Boucher suffered two overextended knees after a goal-crease collision. Leighton jumped into the game, finished the shutout 50-50 and followed it up by letting a 2-0 lead stand for 59 minutes before Boston could score an ultimately futile goal. The following round Leighton posted three shutouts in five games against the Canadiens. However, he was made the lone scapegoat in a disappointing finish due to giving up a wake goal in overtime of game 6 which would give the Blackhawks the Stanley Cup.
Leighton had been extended for two years, but an offseason back surgery meant that he would miss the start of the season. By the time he was ready to play again, Bobrovsky had supplanted him and Leighton was placed on waivers, which he cleared and was assigned to the Phantoms. However, later in the season Bobrovsky's confidence was crumbling, as was the entire team as it finished with a 9-9-7 record from late February to the end of the season. Leighton was recalled and the Flyers themselves hardly knew themselves which goalie would start any given playoff game. They barely got by the Sabres in the first round before being dispatched in four games by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Bruins.
Philadelphia was known for a long time as a goalie graveyard in large part due to the mounting pressure caused by the expectations of the city's sports fans and media. Management decided it had to stop so they went out and got the biggest fish in the pond: Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryz was the beneficiary of a very strong defensive system in Phoenix under the guidance of head coach Dave Tippet, but the Flyers would definitely get him come hell or high water. And so they traded a 3rd round pick and minor league player Matt Clackson for Bryzgalov's expiring contract which they swiftly extended to the tune of 9 years and $51 million, a $5,666,667 cap hit.
Personally I still believe this to have been marching orders from higher levels which caused ripple effects for years to come. The Flyers already had a good young goalie that just needed some grooming and time, but this would not be soon enough as it appears.
Bryzgalov's monstrous contract would require some restructuring for the Flyers and with high salaried players like Briere and Pronger having the advantage of No Trade or No Movement Clauses in their contracts, it was decided to rebuild "on the fly" by trading Richards and Carter for younger talent and gun for the Cup a couple of years down the line.
The same effect could probably have also been achieved by trading only one of Richards and Carter, so why both? The answer is simple: They are best friends. It is no secret how pissed the two of them were after the trades. Carter in particularly crawled up in his shell and was unavailable to the media after being traded away from a booming night life and a talented team in Philadelphia to the perennial bottom feeder in the sleepy Columbus. I don't think there would have been much of a difference had his best friend Mike Richards been traded away with him remaining in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, I believe that Carter was the sole player traded and Richards had remained, the increasing rift between Richards and the management would have in all likelihood immediately exploded into a full fledged mutiny. In either case, the Flyers would likely have had to trade the other man in the duo sooner or later as well, only for their trade value to have tanked in between. Management opted for the band-aid approach, tearing it off fast and efficiently.
Mittwoch, 5. März 2014
Flyers vs. Capitals: A blood feud in the making
There is no love lost between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals. Together with the Pittsburgh Penguins they are in a triangle disdain, with every team hating the other two very much. The Flyers-Penguins rivalry has been taking all the headlines, but now it seems that the matchup between the Flyers and Capitals is hitting its boiling point.
The two teams have been staring at each other pretty much since the end of the 04-05 Lockout. Alex Ovechkin was ascending to superstar status and the Flyers made a quick rebuild and played their typical Flyers hockey under the leadership of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. The two teams met in the first round of the 2008 playoffs which was decided in a game 7 overtime by a goal by Joffrey Lupul. Since then the two teams pretty much fought each other to a standstill with nine of the last fifteen regular season games decided by a goal or less, many of them in overtime, with each team getting one up on the other on various occasions (my personal favorite being the game on December 20th, 2008, in which goaltender Antero Niittymaki was the first star in a 7-1 Flyers win because he had 47 saves and miraculously kept the Capitals off the scoreboard in the first period. Perhaps the best game of his career).
But something changed this season. Perhaps it's that the two teams are back in one division as they were from 1979 to 1998, though I can't remember this rivalry ever hitting this level of intensity (mostly on the account of the Capitals sucking for most of their existence up to that point).
Many would say that the foundation was laid during the game on November 1st, but they might have forgotten about the chicken-wing elbow John Erskine dealt to Wayne Simmonds the previous season, earning Erskine a three game vacation. However, the first game of the season was indeed a doozy. The Flyers were down in the dumps after an absolutely horrid October in which they went 3-8-0. Though they had won two games against the Rangers and Islanders before being handed a 5-2 loss by the Ducks, the team was still in no mood and they were being outskated and outhustled by the Capitals. The Caps took a 4-0 lead with three goals in the first 3:49 of the 2nd period, and tempers flared and the Flyers lost newly acquired Steve Downie to an injury inflicted at the hands of Aaron Volpatti in a fight.
Joel Ward completed his hat trick early in the 3rd to finish off a 7-0 rout and then the game turned into a complete shit-show. The Flyers, frustrated and fed up with themselves and the Capitals skating circles around them, let it it all out and it ended in a line brawl that injured Vincent Lecavalier and made an enemy of the state of Ray Emery after he fought an unwilling opponent in Braden Holtby.
It was the absolute low point of the season for the Flyers. Bad play, bad sportsmanship and injuries. The future looked grim for the Flyers who had already dismissed Peter Laviolette after just three games and replaced him with Craig Berube. Nothing seemed to work and the team just completely embarrassed themselves.
Thankfully they could right the ship and went 7-1-2 immediately following the debacle against Washington, though they were struggling again when the teams met for a home-and-home in the middle of December. The Capitals were on a 12-5-3 run at that point, though 10 of those 20 games were decided in overtime or a shootout (7 of those won by Washington). The game on the 15th was no exception as the Capitals managed to rally from a 4-1 deficit and push the game to OT on a late tying goal by Ovechkin, and the game was decided in a shootout in which the Flyers are notoriously bad.
The rematch immediately followed on the 17th. The game was somewhat of a see-saw battle early in the 2nd period, but then the Flyers took a 4-2 lead by the end of it thanks to goals by Read, Streit and Voracek. The last two came on a power play following a vicious charging hit by Tom Wilson traveling the entire zone charge at Brayden Schenn, which earned him a 5 minute major. Wayne Simmonds added another tally in the 3rd for a Flyers 5-2 win.
The Wilson hit was subject of a review by the Department of Player Safety. The resulting explanation was a long-winded discussion about fore-checking by Brandon Shanahan, that seemed more like a distraction than anything else. It was very ambiguous in the end. No supplementary discipline was handed out and Shanahan failed to ever refer to the play as illegal, though he also not explicitly declaring the incident fair play. This gave fodder to people who believed that the play itself should not have resulted in a power play for the Flyers or a penalty on Wilson. Such was the opinion of Capitals General Manager George McPhee and head coach Adam Oates as well as many Capitals fans. Retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser disagreed, as did his former colleague Paul Stewart.
In the end it wouldn't much matter as Schenn, despite his dazed behavior directly following the hit, continued to play and did not miss a single game. However, it was undeniable that this hit cost the Capitals a win as the Flyers took all the momentum from the power play, grabbed a lead and never relinquished.
History would repeat itself in the next meeting of the two teams on March 2nd, now the two teams both in the hunt for a playoff spot and only separated by 1 point. The Capitals outplayed the Flyers in the 1st, outskating them and keeping the Flyers on the ropes. They had a 2-1 lead after the 1st period, which could have been greater if not for some great play by Steve Mason and an inconclusive goal review which was called no goal on the ice and could not be overturned.
The roles were reversed in the 2nd period with the Flyers coming out to play and Holtby having to keep them at bay with several unbelievable stops. The Flyers tied the game on a short-handed goal after a give-away by Ovechkin at the side of his own net, but the Capitals answered shortly after during a goal-mouth scramble and Dmitry Orlov would add his 2nd goal of the night (and 3rd of the season, all against the Flyers) with a low shot from the point through a maze of players. The Capitals lead 4-2 after two periods.
The Flyers struggled to get things going in the 3rd and things were looking grim when Brayden Schenn delivered a devastating but clean hit on Orlov. In retaliation Orlov ran Schenn into the boards seconds later. Orlov had to be put into protective custody immediately as Brayden's brother Luke was ready to rip his head off his shoulders, and this again resulted in a 5 minute major penalty that cost the Capitals a game against the Flyers. The Flyers scored once on the PP, then tied the game late with the goalie pulled and earned an overtime victory on a knuckler by Vincent Lecavalier that dipped just under Holtby's glove.
The Orlov hit again resulted in disagreement among hockey fans, with a minority faulting Schenn for putting himself into the position. The majority saw reason however, condemning Orlov for a dirty, high and leaping hit that was predatory and retaliatory. The Department of Player Safety saw fit to suspend Orlov for two games, which included the rematch on the following Wednesday.
The last game of the season series did not disappoint. The Flyers jumped to an early 2-0 lead on the account of a deke leaving Holtby stranded on his back, as well as a power-play goal by Jake Voracek. The game had been feisty up to that point with Zac Rinaldo attempting to turn Mike Green into a parking lot multiple times, but it erupted when a hit by Luke Schenn leveled Ryan Stoa, which prompted Tom Wilson to start a fight. Things did not get started at first as Schenn and Stoa had their legs tangled up, making both unable to get off the ice. When the two finally got separated, Wilson and Schenn dropped the gloves, but meanwhile John Erskine and Vincent Lecavalier looked to do about the same when Wayne Simmonds pulled down Erskine from behind. This lead to a full on line brawl. In the end Lecavalier and Erskine were both thrown out for the game, and after 56 penalty minutes were assessed in total the Capitals ended up on a power-play, which the Flyers killed off.
The 2nd period was not as grinding, but the Flyers extended their lead to 4-0 on goals by Giroux and Michael Raffl, which lead to the Capitals pulling Brayden Holtby in favor of Philipp Grubauer, their trade deadline acquisition Jaroslav Halak having not yet arrived. The Capitals looked just about dead by then with only 7 shots on goal up to that point and the Flyers skating circles around them. However, a power play goal Joel Ward gave them life.
That would be the story for the rest of the night. The Capitals came out guns blazing in the 3rd, putting in 12 shots on goal before the period was halfway done, but it would be the lopsided penalty calling which would work in their favor as the Capitals scored on two more power-play opportunities and a 4-on-4 from offsetting minors. Ovechkin's power-play goal appeared to punch straight through Mason's glove while that of Brooks Laich's tally was deflected with a stick just below the crossbar and sneaking just by Mason. Thankfully for the Flyers they never lost their lead as Jake Voracek scored an insurance goal for a 5-3 lead in between.
Many anticipated overtime with only a matter of time until Alex Ovechkin or someone would find the net, or the Flyers were called on yet another penalty, but the Flyers managed to hold them off until time ran out. Steve Downie scored on his second attempt for the empty net and the game ended, perhaps with things left undone.
What's left now is wait for the playoffs. With the new structure of the NHL, it is not entirely unlikely that the two teams meet in the first or second round. However, this would require the collapse of the Rangers, Maple Leafs or Red Wings, if not multiple of them. But if the two teams meet open warfare is to be expected with a slew of recent events resulting in bad blood. This rivalry has all the qualities to be a bitter one for years to come.
The two teams have been staring at each other pretty much since the end of the 04-05 Lockout. Alex Ovechkin was ascending to superstar status and the Flyers made a quick rebuild and played their typical Flyers hockey under the leadership of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. The two teams met in the first round of the 2008 playoffs which was decided in a game 7 overtime by a goal by Joffrey Lupul. Since then the two teams pretty much fought each other to a standstill with nine of the last fifteen regular season games decided by a goal or less, many of them in overtime, with each team getting one up on the other on various occasions (my personal favorite being the game on December 20th, 2008, in which goaltender Antero Niittymaki was the first star in a 7-1 Flyers win because he had 47 saves and miraculously kept the Capitals off the scoreboard in the first period. Perhaps the best game of his career).
But something changed this season. Perhaps it's that the two teams are back in one division as they were from 1979 to 1998, though I can't remember this rivalry ever hitting this level of intensity (mostly on the account of the Capitals sucking for most of their existence up to that point).
Many would say that the foundation was laid during the game on November 1st, but they might have forgotten about the chicken-wing elbow John Erskine dealt to Wayne Simmonds the previous season, earning Erskine a three game vacation. However, the first game of the season was indeed a doozy. The Flyers were down in the dumps after an absolutely horrid October in which they went 3-8-0. Though they had won two games against the Rangers and Islanders before being handed a 5-2 loss by the Ducks, the team was still in no mood and they were being outskated and outhustled by the Capitals. The Caps took a 4-0 lead with three goals in the first 3:49 of the 2nd period, and tempers flared and the Flyers lost newly acquired Steve Downie to an injury inflicted at the hands of Aaron Volpatti in a fight.
Joel Ward completed his hat trick early in the 3rd to finish off a 7-0 rout and then the game turned into a complete shit-show. The Flyers, frustrated and fed up with themselves and the Capitals skating circles around them, let it it all out and it ended in a line brawl that injured Vincent Lecavalier and made an enemy of the state of Ray Emery after he fought an unwilling opponent in Braden Holtby.
It was the absolute low point of the season for the Flyers. Bad play, bad sportsmanship and injuries. The future looked grim for the Flyers who had already dismissed Peter Laviolette after just three games and replaced him with Craig Berube. Nothing seemed to work and the team just completely embarrassed themselves.
Thankfully they could right the ship and went 7-1-2 immediately following the debacle against Washington, though they were struggling again when the teams met for a home-and-home in the middle of December. The Capitals were on a 12-5-3 run at that point, though 10 of those 20 games were decided in overtime or a shootout (7 of those won by Washington). The game on the 15th was no exception as the Capitals managed to rally from a 4-1 deficit and push the game to OT on a late tying goal by Ovechkin, and the game was decided in a shootout in which the Flyers are notoriously bad.
The rematch immediately followed on the 17th. The game was somewhat of a see-saw battle early in the 2nd period, but then the Flyers took a 4-2 lead by the end of it thanks to goals by Read, Streit and Voracek. The last two came on a power play following a vicious charging hit by Tom Wilson traveling the entire zone charge at Brayden Schenn, which earned him a 5 minute major. Wayne Simmonds added another tally in the 3rd for a Flyers 5-2 win.
The Wilson hit was subject of a review by the Department of Player Safety. The resulting explanation was a long-winded discussion about fore-checking by Brandon Shanahan, that seemed more like a distraction than anything else. It was very ambiguous in the end. No supplementary discipline was handed out and Shanahan failed to ever refer to the play as illegal, though he also not explicitly declaring the incident fair play. This gave fodder to people who believed that the play itself should not have resulted in a power play for the Flyers or a penalty on Wilson. Such was the opinion of Capitals General Manager George McPhee and head coach Adam Oates as well as many Capitals fans. Retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser disagreed, as did his former colleague Paul Stewart.
In the end it wouldn't much matter as Schenn, despite his dazed behavior directly following the hit, continued to play and did not miss a single game. However, it was undeniable that this hit cost the Capitals a win as the Flyers took all the momentum from the power play, grabbed a lead and never relinquished.
History would repeat itself in the next meeting of the two teams on March 2nd, now the two teams both in the hunt for a playoff spot and only separated by 1 point. The Capitals outplayed the Flyers in the 1st, outskating them and keeping the Flyers on the ropes. They had a 2-1 lead after the 1st period, which could have been greater if not for some great play by Steve Mason and an inconclusive goal review which was called no goal on the ice and could not be overturned.
The roles were reversed in the 2nd period with the Flyers coming out to play and Holtby having to keep them at bay with several unbelievable stops. The Flyers tied the game on a short-handed goal after a give-away by Ovechkin at the side of his own net, but the Capitals answered shortly after during a goal-mouth scramble and Dmitry Orlov would add his 2nd goal of the night (and 3rd of the season, all against the Flyers) with a low shot from the point through a maze of players. The Capitals lead 4-2 after two periods.
The Flyers struggled to get things going in the 3rd and things were looking grim when Brayden Schenn delivered a devastating but clean hit on Orlov. In retaliation Orlov ran Schenn into the boards seconds later. Orlov had to be put into protective custody immediately as Brayden's brother Luke was ready to rip his head off his shoulders, and this again resulted in a 5 minute major penalty that cost the Capitals a game against the Flyers. The Flyers scored once on the PP, then tied the game late with the goalie pulled and earned an overtime victory on a knuckler by Vincent Lecavalier that dipped just under Holtby's glove.
The Orlov hit again resulted in disagreement among hockey fans, with a minority faulting Schenn for putting himself into the position. The majority saw reason however, condemning Orlov for a dirty, high and leaping hit that was predatory and retaliatory. The Department of Player Safety saw fit to suspend Orlov for two games, which included the rematch on the following Wednesday.
The last game of the season series did not disappoint. The Flyers jumped to an early 2-0 lead on the account of a deke leaving Holtby stranded on his back, as well as a power-play goal by Jake Voracek. The game had been feisty up to that point with Zac Rinaldo attempting to turn Mike Green into a parking lot multiple times, but it erupted when a hit by Luke Schenn leveled Ryan Stoa, which prompted Tom Wilson to start a fight. Things did not get started at first as Schenn and Stoa had their legs tangled up, making both unable to get off the ice. When the two finally got separated, Wilson and Schenn dropped the gloves, but meanwhile John Erskine and Vincent Lecavalier looked to do about the same when Wayne Simmonds pulled down Erskine from behind. This lead to a full on line brawl. In the end Lecavalier and Erskine were both thrown out for the game, and after 56 penalty minutes were assessed in total the Capitals ended up on a power-play, which the Flyers killed off.
The 2nd period was not as grinding, but the Flyers extended their lead to 4-0 on goals by Giroux and Michael Raffl, which lead to the Capitals pulling Brayden Holtby in favor of Philipp Grubauer, their trade deadline acquisition Jaroslav Halak having not yet arrived. The Capitals looked just about dead by then with only 7 shots on goal up to that point and the Flyers skating circles around them. However, a power play goal Joel Ward gave them life.
That would be the story for the rest of the night. The Capitals came out guns blazing in the 3rd, putting in 12 shots on goal before the period was halfway done, but it would be the lopsided penalty calling which would work in their favor as the Capitals scored on two more power-play opportunities and a 4-on-4 from offsetting minors. Ovechkin's power-play goal appeared to punch straight through Mason's glove while that of Brooks Laich's tally was deflected with a stick just below the crossbar and sneaking just by Mason. Thankfully for the Flyers they never lost their lead as Jake Voracek scored an insurance goal for a 5-3 lead in between.
Many anticipated overtime with only a matter of time until Alex Ovechkin or someone would find the net, or the Flyers were called on yet another penalty, but the Flyers managed to hold them off until time ran out. Steve Downie scored on his second attempt for the empty net and the game ended, perhaps with things left undone.
What's left now is wait for the playoffs. With the new structure of the NHL, it is not entirely unlikely that the two teams meet in the first or second round. However, this would require the collapse of the Rangers, Maple Leafs or Red Wings, if not multiple of them. But if the two teams meet open warfare is to be expected with a slew of recent events resulting in bad blood. This rivalry has all the qualities to be a bitter one for years to come.
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