We started this week off with some bad news for a lot of teams and their goaltenders. The rest of the news stories were comprised of significantly better news. In the middle section of the show we covered two contract extensions. One that was very profitable for the player and the other that was very beneficial for the team. We finished the show off by covering the latest hiring of a new executive director of the NHLPA.
The Minnesota Wild’s unbeaten streak has come to a halt. The wild were defeated by the division rival Wednesday 6-3. The Wild looked strong ending the first period up 3-0. Early in the second the flames scored 3 unanswered goals. The flames scored 2 more to give them the win in the third period. The wild have still yet to score more than 3 goals in a game.
by Derek @ Cloud9 Sports
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Very interesting reporting from Dave Shoalts of the Globe and Mail has revealed that the Leafs are up to some trickery – or at least up to something other than underachieving. A very unique set of circumstances surrounding the OHL’s top goal scoring talent have prompted the Leafs to offer John Tavares an equally unique employment opportunity.
Much has been made about Tavares domination in the OHL and his failure to receive an exception for the next NHL draft – for which he is 5 days too young for eligibility. Tragic as it may be given the success of young talents like Toews, Kane, Cogliano, Gagner, and Price in the equally young season, the NHL has chosen to remain stringent on its draft eligibility policy.
Rather than play another season in the OHL, Tavares and his agent have some decisions to make. They have shopped around for interest in Europe, and now are considering an offer which would see Tavares opt out of the draft and play for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Read the conclusion of this article here….
This week we finally had three stories we could joke about! No suspensions, and no head-hunting. We did have to start the show off with some bad news though, at least for Bob Hartley as he was fired in Atlanta. Next we looked into the NHL testing heated skate blades. We capped the show off with the red hot Ottawa Senators and their acquisition of Randy Robitaille.
by Derek @ Cloud9 Sports
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It’s been a long time since the NHL saw a 60-goal scorer and the league is begging for this trend to be broken. Following Mario Lemieux’s ‘95-’96 season in which he buried on 69 separate occasions, the NHL has failed to produce a single-season goal scorer exceeding the 59 goals potted by Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers in ‘00-’01. While some have ventured closely — like Jonathan Cheechoos’ Thornton-aided 56-goal campaign in ‘05-’06, and the most recent victor of the Rocket Richard Trophy, Vinny Lecavalier, with 52 — the screeching reduction in goal scoring is well documented.
Few players in the NHL have the talent, skill and determination to score 60 goals, a fact that is quite evident in the statistics collected over the last 10 seasons, in addition to the tears of every hockey purist incensed over rule changes to beef up offensive production. While the numbers represent the historical precedent by which players of the last decade have failed to score, the newest rule changes and the evolution of the leagues’ top talent may allow us present a strong argument for the emergence of a 60-goal scorer in the 2007-8 NHL season. Article continues here….
From Cloud9 Sports. by Derek Braid
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With a new coach (John Paddock) and new GM (Brian Murray) at the helm in the Nations’ capitol, the Ottawa Senators are likely just catching their breath following their 4-0 start. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, they are being carried by their top line who has scored all but two of their goals landing Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson all amongst the top 5 scorers in the league. While all things are rosy for the reigning Eastern Conference champs in the infancy of the 07-08 season, things are due to heat up in the front office come the trade deadline.
Newly minted GM Brian Murray will face a slew of decisions that will undoubtedly impact the long term success of their organization. Several of their key players are pending restricted and unrestricted free agents making Murrays’ cozy office chair a proverbial hot seat. The focal point is the expensive unrestricted free agent defenseman Wade Redden, and restricted free agent Jason Spezza.
What must be considered when speaking of pending contract negotiation’s are those of other young stars, namely Jason Spezza, and the perennially underrated forwards Antoine Vermette and Patrick Eaves. Enforcer Brian McGrattan and defenseman Andrej Meszaros, can also be added to the list of players to become restricted free agents next summer, while All-Star defenseman Wade Redden is once again due for unrestricted FA talks.
How many teams will tender an offer sheet to Spezza (thats right, not might tender, but will)? Barring a outlandishly overweight RFA offer sheet, retaining Jason Spezza to play with Dany Heatley will be priority number one. Meszaros’ services will not come cheap either, and this is all in lieu of the negotiations with Redden, who in all likelihood will command the biggest piece of the pie.
We started this week’s show with the bad news up in Toronto for Jason Blake. The next story was a familiar sounding story as we discussed the Jesse Boulerice hit and subsequent suspension. We finished the show off talking about the NHL season opener for next year.
By: Derek Braid @ Cloud9 Sports.
—In all major sports there is an ebb and flow among their player personnel that is characterized by a combination of free agent signings, and player development – both internally among existing players and externally from players in the AHL, and junior.
The teams least favored to win, who will look to improve anyway they can, typically hold onto their cards and trust their blossoming talents will continue to develop and improve. It’s best we don’t burden ourselves with the equivalent of un-sinking the Titanic by trying to dissect their woes, so we’ll move on to consider contenders (and pretenders).
At this point in the season it is fun to put on the General Managers’ hat and think about what can be done to improve hockey clubs. For the likes of Ottawa, Pittsburgh, San Jose and Vancouver – all teams expected to be the at the pinnacle of their conference – it is most likely that free agent acquisitions, rather than development, will improve their chances of winning the Stanley Cup. They are granted this luxurious position largely to consistent success in player development. Their rosters feature a high relative percentage of mature young players that now CONTRIBUTE in their line up on a day to day basis. Think Spezza, Crosby, Cheechoo, and Bieksa. Listed from their respective teams above, they are exemplary models of what good player development can do for an organization.
Since we are playing GM, we can’t overlook another huge reason player development is vital to success in the NHL: it is cheap! Free agents are always costly and ubiquitously overpaid, whereas nursing and nurturing talent from within allows you to sign them at a discount. This is why the Detroit Red Wings dominate annually with a roster full of skaters you’ve never heard of. They scout, draft and develop better than any team in the league over the past decade. Their soft division aside, the savings on their developed talent award them a little more freedom come the trade deadline when a costly acquisition might bolster their chances of making it to the dance.
Presented as a polar opposite from Detroit are their Original Six rivals down the 401 in Toronto. The Maple Leafs’ model in the pre-salary cap era poo-pooed on talent development in favor of real time success. They would errantly discard prospects and draft picks for the good of that season and to the detriment of future campaigns. They were the NHL’s New York Yankees as they unsustainably bought wins (but not Cups – Ouch)! However, in todays NHL where the ~$50 million salary cap handcuffs the big spendings in a futile effort to achieve parity, player development is the be-all, end-all when it comes to the success of your franchise. Thats right, I said it. Player development and the ultimate contributions they make towards improving your franchise will determine where the final resting place in the standings.
The Leafs represent the utmost incompetence when it comes to strengthening your organization from within. On their current roster players like Wellwood, Stajan, Steen (24th overall), Coliacavo (17th Overall), Antropov (10th Overall) continue to disappoint. I could continue, but I won’t dare bore you with their mediocre numbers, personalities and contributions overall to the success of the Maple Leafs. Instead, I’ll submit to you what I think is the most overlooked factor in the careers and lives of these young men playing in Toronto; a team whose surfeit of hacks and underachievers that can’t seem to break out and make a name for themselves. But, why?
Toronto is the center of the hockey universe. The locker room is jammed with media personalities from the drop of the puck at the first practice of the pre-season. To think that it only picks up after that is just mind-numbing. Young Maple Leafs get the rock star treatment from day one and their celebrity status is instantaneous. They get recognized sooner, they get hot woman easier, they get more attention from everyone starting almost as prematurely as Leafs coverage on TSN. This is a phenomena almost unique to TO.
As a stark contrast to the Great White North, Americans largely don’t give a rats’ you-know-what about the NHL. In a big US city, the top 2-3 faces in the dressing room MIGHT be able to get into VIP at the hot local club, while the rest of the guys are waiting in line with the plumber from Boston, and the secretary from Washington. These small-market players are infused with a blue-collar type attitude that demands performance BEFORE recognition – something TO has entirely backwards.
As a result, Toronto players are bred with a poisonous heir of entitlement at a young age. This attitude, on both the conscious and subconscious levels is disastrous not just in sport, but many aspects of life. We can positively attribute their lack of development and subsequent mediocrity to this mental factor. Compare have and have-nots in any scenario in life and sport: the motivation to get out of the gutter is much greater when you don’t have a pot to pee in (or a window to throw it out of). In cities where your not getting the time of day unless you’re a top line player, the motivation for the young guys on 2nd and 3rd lines trying to make a name for themselves is immensely greater than that in Toronto. We can’t underestimate the intrinsic fury generated by being ignored or overlooked – especially among young, testosterone/ego fueled professional athletes. Having to perform and excel in order to get to get your name in the paper, causes one to work harder in the gym and on the ice. Up and coming players in small markets have more success early because they need to succeed in order to get a piece of face time on Sportscenter, or to jack up their market value in the eyes of general managers around the league. The drive to succeed when you have been overlooked is MUCH greater than that of an individual who feels they have little to prove in lieu of their perceived success.
Lets tackle the other side of the coin in the media infested Toronto locker room, since I know the most common argument regarding the medias’ affect on TO players is the added pressure. ‘So what about the intensified criticism they are subjected to as a result of their prolific status’, as many suggest? It doesn’t matter. Most young cocksure athletes are sufficiently full of themselves to overcome the degree of scrutiny and criticism they face. I’d argue it is much easier to get by in Toronto, where even the godly Mats Sundin can’t make it a week without his value being questioned. Once again, getting ripped is better than not getting noticed. Steen gets a pat on the back via a picture on Page One if he pops a game winner in TO. But, score 30+ goals in Colorado or Florida and you’ll still just the guy listed in the Box Scores near the back. The Broncos and the football-crazed state of Florida couldn’t care less about you, and more often then not I’d argue this defines the career of young up-and-comers in the NHL.
Just contrast the success rate for draft picks coming out of small markets and compare it to those from big market teams who echo TO’s struggle to develop players. The New York Rangers have been victimized by a parallel course of action, but they are finally staged to make a run this year on the shoulders of their stud Goaltender, and 7th round draft pick, Hendrik Lundqvist. Think the Leafs will right the ship?
In episode 2 we get into the format that show will normally follow. We covered the three big news stories of the week. We started things off with the Downie hit and subsequent suspension. Next we looked at the Anaheim Ducks and their slow start. Then we finished off the show talking about the big contract that Dany Heatley signed with the Ottawa Senators just before the season started. Feel free to email us and to leave comments in the blog and in the forums!
Game Theory 101: Professor Paul Maurice
Without officially announcing anything, the Toronto media deduced the starter for tonights Leafs v. Sens season opener: incumbent Andrew Raycroft. To many peoples surprise, the Leafs big off-season prize, Vesa Toskala, will be riding the pine. Inherent to this sticky situation is the ‘controversy’ that will brew for the next several months. Additionally, the brilliant declaration by Coach Paul Maurice, who claimed he will not announce his starting goaltender for the duration of the season, is a glowing indication for his plans this season. He is telling us, without telling us, that he is going with a goaltending-by-committee system. I love it. If this isn’t reason to shower Coach Maurice with the praise, then you just don’t get it.
The pre-season in Leaf Land was a venerable disaster (from a goaltending perspective) as neither Raycroft or Toskala could effective grab the bull by the horns and win the starting position. Rather than reduce his hairline further, the cunning and courageous Paul Maurice turned it into an opportunity to seize and exploit in an effort to improve his club. A top notch game theory lesson worthy of the Jack Adams Trophy (of course, only if it pays off).
Maurice may have come to realize that the best option for the Leafs is a tandem ‘tender system. If you can’t rely on one of them, make them compete – scratch and claw each others eyes out – for that starters role. This competition, among men nearing the prime of their career, will bring out the best in both of them just as it did for Jacques Lemaire in Minnesota when Roloson and Fernandez played their finest hockey to date. By the way, this move helped Lemaire take home the Jack Adams in 2002-03, for those wondering the potential dividends of move of this nature can have on the success of the team.
This move makes so much sense when you consider the following. Firstly, nothing in the hockey world aside from a trade will abolish the goaltending controversy talk in TO, so get used to it. Given the current Leafs lineup, there are only three logical hypothetical scenarios whereby the Leafs make the playoffs. We can dream that either Raycroft or Toskala will post Luongo & Brodeur-type numbers, but if you know enough, you’ll know better. The most probable scenario that sees the Leafs playing meaningful games in the Spring features both Raycroft and Toskala playing well. I’m talking well in the neighborhood of .905-.920 SV%, 2.66-2.88 GAA, and +20 wins (each), something that is both realistic and necessary for the Leafs to compete.
Furthermore, Toskala is a veteran of the tandem system, splitting time with Nabokov in San Jose for the past two seasons. This setup — not surprisingly — featured Toskala as the back-up, in other words in the same scenario he finds himself on opening night. Do you think Paul Maurice considered this when he gave Raycroft the nod for the season opener? If Raycrofts’ poor season last year is any indication, it is safe to assume that the money and the pressure that accompanies a starting keeper in Toronto is crippling. Placing Toskala in a scenario that he is very familiar with will only expedite comfort in the chaos that is playing the most scrutinized position, in the most scrutinized event in all of Canada. Well done, Mr. Maurice.
The END.
[PS — Another indication that this is the right play in Toronto is the fact that perennial foghorn Mike Milbury hasn’t gotten anything right in a decade, exemplified by his deplorable track record as a GM on Long Island. He thinks this is a terrible play by Maurice – thanks for the support Mad Mike, you’ll be proved wrong again at seasons end.]
From Cloud9 Sports @ http://floatoncloudnine.blogspot.com/
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