Japers' Rink: FanPosts

Better know your Caps prospects - meet Mackan

2009-11-06T07:33:46Z

"Mackan" being a Swedish colloquialism for "sandwich" and a Capitals colloquialism for "very intriguing draft pick".

Let's have a nice Rink welcome for young Marcus "Mackan" Johansson, the impressive Swedish center who was the Caps' first round selection (24th overall) in the 2009 NHL entry draft:

2009 NHL Draft selections 24 M Johansson (via reedosaurus)

Mackan is really well spoken. And a better interview than Nicky. 'Course we don't keep Nicky around just to chat:

Marcus Johansson Färjestad BK draft-interview (via gruvarbetarn)

But why did we draft him? Well, here are some (most likely incomplete) stats.

And you know, stats are a bit dry. Let's take a look at his game. He's been spending his time "down on the gård", playing for Farjestad BK in the SEL

Here he is from about a month ago with "two ~~great~~ ridiculous goals by # 90 at the start of the season 2009-2010":

Marcus Johansson Färjestad BK (via gruvarbetarn)

Here he is from about a week ago with a beautiful assist and then a nifty goal against Modo:

Marcus Johansson, assist och mål (via gruvarbetarn)

This is some older footage from a world juniors tournament, Tre Kronor v. Big Red. I don't speak Swedish, but the announcers definitely have a "Do you believe in miracles?" moment.

"Mackan, Mackan, Mackan!":

Marcus Johansson FBK / JVM (via gruvarbetarn)

And finally, Mackan was most recently in Ottawa with Team Sweden Under-20s. Recently as in this past Tuesday, November 3rd. They are playing a series of exhibitions against Canadian teams to get used to the NHL-size ice rinks. This game was against the Carleton (University) Ravens, and that would be Mr. Johansson at centre ice, wearing #11 and the captain's "C". (Tre Kronor 5, Ravens 1)

Click here to watch the entire game.

For some reason there's no sound until the end of the anthems, and the play-by-play guy is kind of annoying.

Farhan Devji got some quotes after the match.

Here are notes about the rest of the Tre Kronor tour of O Canada

Hockey mask not required?

2009-11-05T15:16:33Z

Not that I get my hockey news from Time magazine, but someone sent this article about the history of the mask to me yesterday - http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1934325,00.html

The last sentence of the article: "While the NHL has required all players wear helmets beginning with the draft class of 1979, there's still no rule forcing goalies to wear masks."

I'm not a rules maven, but this seems hard to believe (esp. when you know play is halted when a goalie loses his mask in the course of the action). Can anyone straighten this out?

Shake up? Will it happen? Time to play GM.

2009-11-05T14:34:02Z

Simple question, not so simple answer.

With a slew of boneheaded mistakes and indifferent play, most recently vs. the supposedly dreadful @home Devils, there has been much late evening and early morning talk of trading a certain star or a "message-sending" trade of a bottom 6 player.

My question is do we really think GMGM will pull the trigger on any sort of shake up of the current roster? What would YOU do if you were in his shoes and wanted to contend for the cup not only this year, but for the foreseeable future.

Give Perreault more time and bench Semin for a few games?

Trade away an asset to create cap space to recall Alzner and/or Carlson?

Get rid of the maddeningly inconsistent Poti and give the bulk of his time to 4pointSchultz?

Trade Semin for a grittier winger with good offensive instincts and solid two way play?

P.S. Semin is one of my favorite players on this team, which also makes me want to smash my head on the nearest wall when I see efforts like last night vs. NJ. I would love to see him stay, just based on his unbelievable skills, but am starting to believe the Caps might need to leverage that talent to gain some key players to make this team, overall, a better one. Meh...

Have your say.

via cache.daylife.com

Poll

Will GMGM shake things up in the near future?

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the NHLPA.

2009-11-03T14:34:03Z

A little while ago, some fool mused on the firing of NHL Players' Association Director Paul Kelly and the possible impact it would have on a lockout/strike after the 2010-11 season. At the time, I mused that League General Counsel (and interim Director) Ian Penny, union ombudsman Buzz Hargrove and former ombudsman Eric Lindros "should be given a short leash to work with," but if you had odds on what happened next, you'd be a rich man. More after the jump.

The biggest events by far would be Penny's resignation. Mirtle has posted the text of Penny's letter sent shortly before his dismissal, which I encourage everyone to read. Not only does it burn any possible bridge of reconciliation, but it salts the earth afterwards. The biggest culprit thrown under the bus would have to be Chris Chelios, one of four members of the Union's review committee which was put together to find out more about Kelly's firing and to serve as a housecleaning measure of sorts (Rob Blake, Nicklas Lidstrom and Mark Recchi are the others). Now, Kelly's dismissal was something that stuck in the craw of a few union members more for the way it was done than anything else, but it appears that Chelios was most offended by this, and appears to be waging a vendetta against those responsible for it. Penny was part of the Hargrove/Lindros camp that felt that Kelly's methods were unconventional and possibly damaging to the union. Frankly, if informally communicating to management could benefit the union in future labor negotiations, why anyone would object to the tactic is beyond me, but maybe that's naivete on my part.

Along with Penny's dismissal, Steve Larmer, former teammate of Chelios in Chicago, who served as one of the members of the Advisory Board resigned on Friday, citing the "long-term damage" that Chelios and the committee were doing to the union based on their current practices. He was not the only one; when turning in his resignation, advirosry board chairman Ron Pink questioned the constitutionality of what the committee was doing. Three other board members (Dan O'Neill, Ron Lloyd and Ian Troop) also stepped down from the board.

But the most important message in the wave of resignations may come from advisory board member (and former union VP and New York Islander) Ken Baumgartner, who tendered his resignation. His message was more passionate to the union members, whose continued apathy is both offensive and tragic. "The strength of the union lies in your locker rooms..." is something simple that the union can follow, yet continue not to adhere to. One can question Chelios' actions and intentions, but when union meetings need to suspended due to lack of a quorum, especially in light of recent events, having a 47-year old AHL player as the guy running the show for the Union might be what the Union deserves most of all right now.

Is Lazy Play Good for a Team?

2009-11-02T20:26:50Z

Okay, I admit that was link bait, but now that you're here, this is the real question at hand.

Does a team that is likely to have a high seed really need to play 100% for every game in the season, and is that really in their best interest?

I have thought about this question a LOT throughout my life watching and playing sports, and the answer is always a little different in each sport. Hockey is a tough one to decipher.

The first question that invariably comes to mind when considering the larger question is..
"Does it really hurt you to play down to the level of crappy opponents?"

The Caps clearly do this, and yet with the skill they have they are currently winning games (or at least getting points) on a fairly consistent basis, even when being outworked by inferior teams (skill wise). The big question is do they carry this over when playing the leagues other elite teams? So far the answer has been pretty clearly, no. Boston, Detroit, Philly, San Jose have all been solid efforts and they have taken points in almost every one of them.

So that leaves the question, if you're getting the points you need for a top seed, does playing hard only against good teams mean you are ready for playoff hockey?

Trying to apply last year's experience in the post-season to this question seems to return an unclear answer. The first round was a mix of a very young and inexperienced team meeting an elite goaltender who single-handedly won several games for his team. Were the Caps not ready to play after an "easy" regular season? Were they simply still learning about the intensity of playoff hockey? Was it simply running into a hot goaltender? Was it a little of column A, a little of Column B, etc.

Nothing resolved there in my mind.

So that brings us to the next question,
"Do you open yourself up to more injury playing hard every game?"

It's an oft-repeated idea that in NFL where contact is the goal of nearly every movement, a player who's playing a game "not-to-get-hurt" does seem to take on an almost higher risk of injury playing that way. The NHL on the other hand, is a fairly easy league to safely play "soft", for lack of a better word. Plenty of "finesse" players play their whole careers this way and avoid a lot of injuries that the rough and tumble teams/players deal more often with. So it seems hard to avoid the fact that "softer" games (if that's what happens when you don't put out a full effort) will likely mean less injuries. So the question becomes what is the trade-off in points and the standings, not to mention motivation level versus the value of a less injured team?

My Guess here is that the rougher the NHL gets, the more avoiding serious injury is going to play a role in who contends for the Stanley Cup each year. So again, it seems there may be some value here as well.

Next question,
Do you tire yourself, and your team, out by playing all 82 games full out?

Clearly this question squarely lands in the realm of the NBA. Anyone who has even a passing interest in pro basketball in this country accepts that NBA teams routinely do not put out full effort for much of the season. Even championship teams have been accused of coasting through some/much/most of the NBA season, and they don't seem to have trouble picking-it-up for the playoffs.

Does that work in the NHL? My first reaction is to say no.

Too many top seeded teams have been bounced in the playoffs lately to assume that an elite team can wait till the post season to turn it on. But is that the reason that San Jose was bounced in the first round last year or is it that they aren't built for the post-season for some reason? Do they not have the proper team makeup? Is the league parity so great that elite teams in general are ,year-in and year-out, at risk of upset?

My take... teams that have gotten bounced have run into hot teams that are better suited for the playoffs. I think much of this can be seen how you played against the better teams in the league during the regular season, perhaps the teams that get bounced got to their lofty position by beating up on crappy teams and not playing all that well against the other quality teams.

Next,
Is there any benefit to the top seed?

I have felt strong about this one for a while now. NO. There is no benefit.

Why? Because every year some team has had a rash of injuries, or picked up the right guy at the deadline and despite being a low seed is one of the toughest outs in the bracket. Who is that team going to be? Who knows, last year the Pens made a late run to move up to the 4 seed, but plenty of other times it's a 6,7 or 8 seed that is the one "nobody wants to play". Thus, it's a crap shoot that can't possibly be known until the last game is played as to how your matchup is going to work out.

Aside for having home ice advantage (which itself doesn't seem to be THAT important), there's little I can see that's of value to being the number one seed (or President's trophy winner). Of late they haven't been making much noise in the playoffs.

And finally,
Can you get the Mo going for the playoffs? (and no I don't mean either B or Sha)

This seems to me to be the single greatest failure of the teams that can't get themselves to take every game seriously. There IS something that comes from playing every game like it's genuinely important to the progression and intensity level of your team. When teams get to the playoffs who have been fighting for every last point in the regular season they invariably have that little extra something. They fight just that much harder for every puck, they are just that much more intense and sharp on every aspect of the game.

Thus my take is NO, you definitely have to have the Mo and intensity going when you ENTER the playoffs.

So what's the magic mix then? Well it seems like there's two ways to make it work for a strong playoff run.

Be a team that plays every second hard and hope that you have sturdy players (and that you get a little lucky on the injury front)
Be the team that can truly turn it on a few months out and be rollin when the post season begins.

So where does that leave our current group of Capitals?

Well, if you believe that the first round of the playoffs was an indicator that they weren't able to get things going until it was almost too late, it puts this teams square in the cross-hairs of an early round upset.

If you think that was mostly a playoff inexperience "thing", than their ability to get rollin late in the season is still an unknown.

Perhaps we shouldn't take our chances and get things rolling now... who knows perhaps we're a better fit for the first category.

JRHL - Fantasy Hockey, Real Update.

2009-11-02T17:38:37Z

HUNTER
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Natty's Ice	31	18	1	.630	--
Deb's Goon Emporium	19	21	10	.480	7.5
Disgruntled Goats	20	25	5	.450	9
Set Sail For Fail	20	28	2	.420	10.5
Dale City Magi	16	29	5	.370	13

LABRE
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Two Prongered Assault	35	11	4	.740	--
My Jokes Getzlafs	30	16	4	.640	5
Team Pervertedlyslow	23	20	7	.530	10.5
Prestige Worldwide	21	25	4	.460	14
The Royal Tenenbaums	15	29	6	.360	19

LANGWAY
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Two Bit Crew	31	16	3	.650	--
Ice Warriors X	29	16	5	.630	1
Gould's Grinders	26	17	7	.590	3
Let's Go Whalers!	17	28	5	.390	13
Winnipeg Jets	15	29	6	.360	14.5

GARTNER
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Don't Toews Me Sombrero	27	18	5	.590	--
Polar Bear Rebellion	21	20	9	.510	4
Harrisonburg Dukes	22	26	2	.460	6.5
Williamsburg Face Wash	17	27	6	.400	9.5
Champaign Ice Beagles	14	30	6	.340	12.

Ovechkin Injury Updates: Now Listed Week-to-Week

2009-11-02T02:08:44Z

This is the spot for discussion of AO's injury. Post your thoughts, links, rumors and whatnot here.

I'll start you off with this transcript of Tarik's post-game interview with Ovi

Sunday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets Alexander Ovechkin suffered an 'upper body injury,' probably to his left shoulder and/or arm, and left the game in the second period.

Ovechkin came out to speak with media after the game, and was brief in his comments. From his words and demeanor it didn't seem as though he was too concerned with the injury, although that could certainly be illusory. Here's a transcript of his comments. MH is Michael Hoffman of Examiner.com, TED is Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post. I didn't catch the identity of the TV guy.

Edit 8:56 pm: Video is on Capitals Outsider (Thanks to Philip Van der Vossen for taking/posting the clip!).

TEB: What happened there along the boards? It seemed to me that Chimera was angry from the hit in the first period and he kind of bumped you.
AO: Yeah, it was just a moment in the game, so nothing happened, he hit me and I hit him. It was a battle there, but nothing happened.
TEB: Did someone grab you? How did you get hurt?
I can’t tell you how I get hurt. But it’s day-to-day, but you know just in case I can go back on the ice.
TEB: So you don’t think it’s very serious?
I don’t know.
TV: What is it?
[laughing] You think I’m going to tell you?
Can you tell us kind of where it is?
No. Can’t.
Left, right, top, bottom?
Upper body.
MH: Before you left, what did you tell the team?
I just said to a couple guys ‘good luck'...[Edit 8:56 pm: According to Michael, Ovechkin said he was with Greg Smith (the trainer) and then came to the locker room]...you know it’s a tough game…
TEB: Are you made at all with the way Chimera bumped you and then Boll came over…?
No, it’s just a game. It’s just a game. Hits happen, if it wasn’t hurt, if it wasn’t injured, like I’m just playing then no one would think about it, but it is what it is.
TEB: So no practice tomorrow, but will you try to skate on your own?
They’re off, so no skating.

Gabby: Confessions of a Book Reviewer

2009-11-01T02:09:06Z

Bruce Boudreau (middle row, third from left) in his salad days as a centerman for the Johnstown Jets and day player for the Hyannisport Presidents, via misterirrelevant.com

Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer

So I went to Kettler Capitals Iceplex* and met Bruce and Tim today. Well, "met" is too strong perhaps, but they did both sign my book, and we chatted about the Philly-centric hoodie I was wearing (Eastern State Penitentiary and if you haven't toured it yet, you should.)

Read 1/3 of the book while waiting on line, 1/3 on the train ride home, and finished it earlier this evening.

Still internalizing it. Gabby has burned a few bridges for sure. Then gone back, scooped up all the ashes, and tied a rock to them and sank them in the deepest part of Lake Ontario.

But he truly loves him some Greener.

And it is entirely possible that he is secretly married to Tomas Fleischmann.

This book is highly recommended for all the regulars here at Japers'. I really felt like I was reading about old friends. The whole gang from Hershey, and so many of the rising stars from all over today's NHL.

We learn of the ups and many, many downs of a "hockey lifer", told with brutal honesty. Bruce brings us along as he plays and coaches with the men who are now coming at last into their own and rising with him into the ranks of major league coaches and executives.

And now the sons of those men are working on their own careers as their fathers before them, ping-ponging from major juniors to AHL to NHL and back, making their career decisions (both good and bad) along the way. They would be well-advised to pick up a copy of Coach Boudreau's book before that next long bus ride to Ft. Wayne or Kitchener.

* I know there was at least one other Rink Rat there today. We really need to develop some gang code to flash at these things so we can say "hey".

If it happens in the NBA, it could certainly be happening in the NHL

2009-10-30T15:17:34Z

Excerpts From The Book The NBA Doesn't Want You To Read

Click the link above, and reads what disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy has to say. You can certainly question the man's character, but you can also very easily believe everything he writes.

In both the NHL and the NBA there are star players, premier teams and better TV markets that make the league more money than others. If what Donaghy says is true, and if the NBA does indeed issue memos to their refs in attempts to subtly get messages across as to which teams they'd like to see advance, is it a stretch to think the same thing happens in the NHL? Bettman did work under NBA commish David Stern after all.

A few excerpts are below, but follow the link above for the full thing

In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls — calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.

"If we give the benefit of the calls to the team that's down in the series, nobody's going to complain. The series will be even at three apiece, and then the better team can win Game 7," Bavetta stated.

As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.

and one more

If a player of Kobe's stature collides with the likes of Raja Bell, the call will almost always go for Kobe and against Bell. As part of our ongoing training and game preparation, NBA referees regularly receive game-action video tape from the league office. Over the years, I have reviewed many recorded hours of video involving Raja Bell. The footage I analyzed usually illustrated fouls being called against Bell, rarely for him. The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he's hurting the game.

Just thought this might make for good discussion.

Cost of Replacing Ovechkin

2009-10-30T02:18:19Z

While watching the Caps vs. Atlanta (ie. watching my hyper child destroy my house), I had this interesting thought. What would it cost us to replace Alexander Ovechkin's goal production. I also came to the disturbing realization that Ovechkin reads as a misspelled word on a Caps blog...weird. Anyway, what I was thinking is looking at each team in the east, what do they spend to get the same number of goals that we get from our one guy. I wonder if we get our money's worth.

In doing this, I always took the highest priced player on the team for comparison that fit into the scoring profile. The higher priced players are more likely to consistently score goals at this pace (most of these guys are at the top of their teams score sheets). I also chose the quickest combinations to 13 goals. It doesn't make much sense to try to compare the production of 7 different guys when you can do it with 3. Besides, you couldn't fit 7 more guys on the team anyway.

For this exercise I am looking for exactly the same goal output as #8, no more and no less.

All numbers from http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/ .

So in alphabetical order by team, here we go, what they pay in salary, and to who for 13 goals.

Atlanta - Kovy (9g, $6,389,260) + Evander Kane (3g, $3,100,000) + Ron Hainsey (1g, $4,500,000) = $13,989,260

Boston - Savard (4g, $5,000,000) + Bergeron (3g, $4,750,000) + Ryder (3g, $4,000,000) + Wheeler (3g, 2,825,000) = $16,575,000

Buffalo - MacArthur (5g, $1,400,000) + Vanek (4g, $7,142,857) + Pominville (3g, $5,300,000) + Hecht (1g, $3,525,000) = $17,367,857

Carolina - Whitney (4g, $3,550,000) + Cullen (3g, $2,875,000) + Jokinen (3g, $1,700,000) + Staal (3g, $8,250,000) = $16,375,000

Florida - Reinprecht (5g, $2,050,000) + Weiss (3g, $3,100,000) + Booth (2g, $4,250,000) + Horton (2g, $4,000,000) + McCabe (1g, $5,750,000) = $19,150,000

Montreal - Cammalleri (5g, $6,000,000) + Gionta (4g, $5,000,000) + Plekanec (3g, $2,750,000) + Kostitsyn (1g, $3,250,000) = $17,000,000

Devils - Parise (6g, $3,125,000) + Zajac (5g, $3,887,500) + Rolston (2g, $5,062,500) = $12,075,000

Islanders - Moulson (6g, $575,000) + Tavares (4g, $3,750,000) + Tambellini (3g, $587,500) = $4,912,500

Rangers - Gaborik (10g, $7,500,000) + Dubinsky (3g, $1,850,000) = $9,350,000

Ottawa - Michalek (6g, $4,333,333) + Alfredsson (5g, $4,875,000) + Neil (2g, $2,000,000) = $11,208,333

Flyers - Richards (6g, $5,750,000) + Briere (5g, $6,500,000) + Pronger (2g, $6,250,000) = $18,500,000

Penguins - Crosby (9g, $8,700,000) + Malkin (4g, $8,700,000) = $17,400,000

Tampa - Stamkos (9g, $3,725,000) + St. Louis (3g, $5,250,000) + Lecavalier (1g, $7,727,273) = $16,702,273

Toronto - Hagman (6g, $3,000,000) + Stempniak (3g, $2,500,000) + Ponikarovsky (3g, $2,105,000) + Kaberle (1g, $4,250,000) = $11,855,000

Wow, I'd have to say we aren't doing too bad just paying Ovechkin $9,538,462 for his 13 goals. Only the Islanders and the Rangers are paying less. Besides, by having that production in just one player, it also allows us to fit the Professor onto the roster and his incredible goal pace from only one spot on the ice.

Those SOBs

2009-10-28T20:09:24Z

I think it's about time the Semin-Ovechkin-Backstrom line had a name. They're obviously very good together, and they're not some flash in the pan line. They'll be on the same team for a long time, or at least we can hope so. So, here's your chance to throw your ideas in the hat. We used the DC Politics for Rod Langway when we called him "The Secretary of Defense," I think we could do it again. I think we could call them "The Capital Gains Line."

The line names I'm not a big fan of most of the time are the names that play on letters of the guys names. Occasionally it works out, like the JOB line here in DC, of Juneau, Oates, Bondra. Can anyone else remember great initials lines? There was the KLM line, but they weren't NHL. If it spells something cool, I'm for it, but SOB line for Semin, Ovechkin, Backstrom isn't exactly awe-inspiring. I'm not against it, it's kinda funny, but I think we can do better.

These guys are all European, two Russians named Alex and a Swede. That makes all-Russian names difficult (You could try combining Swedish Tre Kronor and Russian Kremlin for a Tre Kremlin Line, but that's too complicated. Maybe Tre Komrade?). We've got DC politics to work with, not to mention the silly skills these guys have, though I doubt "The Sillynanny Line" would go over well. They're all young and multi-talented, so this shouldn't be too hard. Though I like the idea that the Flyers came down with "Stockholm Syndrome" after getting torched by Backstrom.

You could play on their fat contracts and call them the "Pork Barrel Line" because that's where all our discretionary funds are going, but then again, after the Ovechkin slaphsot Chris Clark took in 2007, maybe they should be the "Earmark Line." If we could all agree, maybe we could call them the "Consensus Line," but then again, a "Census Line" only comes around once every ten years. Too bad "The Party Line" has already been used once.

If you wanted to make a legal reference, you could call them the "No Contest Line" because they have no defense.

So, again, I think we should play off DC politics and call them the "Capital Gains Line." The only problem is the line that can shut them down is "The Line-Item Veto." Then again, I think our checking line could be called the "Filibuster Line," because they never let the other team spout off. Or maybe "The Beltway Line" because they clog lanes and cause traffic. I'd love to retroactively use one of those for the Konowalchuk-Halpern-Dahlen line. If we had a bunch of slow, big skaters, we could call them the "Monument Line."

I just know that if Kyle Wilson ever makes the team, his line should immediately be called "The Wilson Bridge."

I know it's all the rage to name lines. I can tell you, I was following hockey quite closely at that time and it's only in the last month I knew the name of the Bertuzzi-Morrison-Naslund line was "The West Coast Express." The other recent big name line was "The A Line" in New Jersey of Jason Arnott, Patrik Elias, and Petr Sykora; too bad they didn't stick together too long. Some of the great line names in history are well remembered, and many of them followed similar themes. You had lines made up of guys of the same ethnicity (The French Connection line of Glibert Perreault, Rene Robert and Richard Martin, all French Canadian, on the Buffalo Sabres in the 1970s). For the older crowd, Boston had a Uke line (all Ukrainian) of Bronco Horvath, Johnny Bucyk, Vic Stasiuk in the 1950s and a Kraut Line in Boston that included former Caps GM Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer in the 1940s. There was also the Mafia Line in New York with Phil Esposito, Don Maloney and Don Murdoch (Phil, the "Godfather," and two Dons, in the late 70s).

Then there were lines that had to do with the team name: The Long Island Lighting Company of Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies, because they always lit the lamp for the New York Islanders. (also known as the Trio Grande Line, which is awesome). How about the Triple Crown line for Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne, and Dave Taylor on the LA Kings, named for the giant crown on their jersey.

The Rangers from 1964-75 had a GAG line, for Goal a Game, renamed the TAG line, for Two a Game, that featured Jean Ratelle, Vic Hadfield and Rod Gilbert. I'm not too keen on what they'd call this line if they keep scoring four, though. You had lines for jersey numbers, "Crazy Eights" featuring Mark Recchi (8), Mikael Renberg (18) and Eric Lindros (88) in Philly. Lindros centered another line, the Legion of Doom, with John LeClair and Renberg, so named because they were huge, and they were really good.

During the dump and bump 90s, even checking lines had nicknames, like Detroit's Grind Line of Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, and Darren McCarty, and the Devils had the Crash Line of Bobby Holik, Randy McKay and Mike Peluso, another line of huge guys. I guess when you're winning Cups, you can do whatever you want.

Then there are opportunistic names that are fun, like late 30s Brett Hull playing with 20 somethings Pavel Datsyuk and Boyd Devereaux, he called it "Two Kids and a Goat." How about the Sedins and Jason King as the "Mattress Line" (2 twins and a King). And how about ' "The Option Line"—Pittsburgh Penguins (1990–91)—John Cullen, Mark Recchi, and Kevin Stevens – the line came together when all three players were in the option year of their respective contracts.'

Some fun names were the "Punch Line" with Rocket Richard, the Scooter Line with Stan Mikita, and the Party Line with Denis Savard. The greatest line name for me was the Production Line of Sid Abel (former Cap Brent Johnson's Pappy), "Terrible Ted" Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1950s, then the Production Line II of Howe, Alex Delvecchio and Frank Mahovlich (The Big M). I'm not a big fan normally of reusing line names, but in this case, Production related to the Detroit automotive industry, and the re-named line still had an original member. I guess if Detroit wanted a play on that these days, they'd have an offensive line called "The Strike Line" who plays for higher wages, a checking line called the "Shutdown Line" for the guys who don't let the opposition get started, and an all Swedish Line called the "Saab Story." How about an "Anti-Freeze Line" for blazing fast skaters?

(Citing sources, I knew about a lot of these from my own reading over the years. For some of the more obscure names or facts, I pulled from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ice_hockey_line_nicknames).

It's obvious, Ovechkin can't or won't play defense.

2009-10-28T18:47:44Z

Ok, not really.

I was looking at the NHL stats page, just wondering where Backstrom ranked in points after his 4 point night. For those that are curious, tied for 7th in the league.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/app?component=completePointLeadersList&page=statshome&service=direct

Anyway, while I was scanning the chart, there was a number that jumped out at me. The number 11. The number that is 37.5% better than the next best number in this column, 8. And yeah, I know that +/- is the worst stat in hockey. Regardless, when Ovechkin is on the ice, excluding the PP, the Caps score more goals than the opposition at a 37.5% better rate than any of the other top 13 (after a quick check, actually better than the entire first page of 30) goal scorers. And compared to some of the others, it's a much better rate than that (of course, that is where +/- becomes a weak stat, you can't compare Nash at Columbus to the high flying Caps).

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there actually might be a little defensive responsibility being executed by our top line. Either that, or offense really is the best defense in this instance, and they are just flat out outscoring everyone handily.

	Player	Team	Pos	GP	G	A	P	+/-	ESP	SHP	PPP	HmP	RdP	DvP	ODvP	P/G
1	Anze Kopitar	LAK	C	12	10	11	21	4	11	0	10	13	8	12	9	1.75
2	Alex Ovechkin	WSH	L	11	11	8	19	11	14	0	5	11	8	0	19	1.73
3	Marian Gaborik	NYR	R	12	10	8	18	6	12	0	6	10	8	3	15	1.50
4	Joe Thornton	SJS	C	12	3	14	17	-2	7	0	10	5	12	5	12	1.42
5	Patrick Marleau	SJS	C	12	9	7	16	2	9	1	6	3	13	1	15	1.33
6	Vinny Prospal	NYR	C	12	4	12	16	8	9	0	7	11	5	3	13	1.33
7	Dustin Penner	EDM	R	12	8	7	15	8	11	0	4	10	5	5	10	1.25
8	Dany Heatley	SJS	L	12	8	7	15	-1	7	0	8	5	10	5	10	1.25
9	Ryan Smyth	LAK	L	12	6	9	15	3	7	0	8	7	8	8	7	1.25
10	Rick Nash	CBJ	R	10	6	9	15	-2	10	2	3	3	12	0	15	1.50
11	Henrik Sedin	VAN	C	12	6	9	15	3	8	0	7	12	3	5	10	1.25
12	Nicklas Backstrom	WSH	C	11	3	12	15	6	9	0	6	9	6	0	15	1.36
13	Rene Bourque	CGY	L	10	5	9	14	-1	9	1	4	8	6	9	5	1.40
14	Alexander Semin	WSH	L	9	7	6	13	3	8	0	5	9	4	0	13	1.44
15	Evgeni Malkin	PIT	C	11	4	9	13	0	5	1	7	5	8	4	9	1.18
16	Brad Richards	DAL	C	9	3	10	13	5	9	0	4	4	9	2	11	1.44
17	Martin St Louis	TBL	R	9	3	10	13	-2	7	0	6	8	5	7	6	1.44
18	Wojtek Wolski	COL	L	12	7	5	12	8	9	0	3	6	6	5	7	1.00
19	James Neal	DAL	L	11	6	6	12	5	8	1	3	5	7	4	8	1.09
20	Zach Parise	NJD	L	9	6	6	12	6	9	0	3	4	8	6	6	1.33
21	Ales Kotalik	NYR	R	12	5	7	12	-3	3	0	9	8	4	4	8	1.00
22	Michael Cammalleri	MTL	L	11	5	7	12	4	9	0	3	8	4	3	9	1.09
23	Michael Del Zotto	NYR	D	12	4	8	12	4	4	0	8	7	5	2	10	1.00
24	Paul Stastny	COL	C	12	4	8	12	7	8	0	4	8	4	4	8	1.00
25	Dustin Brown	LAK	L	12	4	8	12	0	6	0	6	6	6	8	4	1.00
26	Daniel Alfredsson	OTT	R	9	4	8	12	0	6	3	3	8	4	4	8	1.33
27	Ales Hemsky	EDM	R	11	2	10	12	2	7	0	5	8	4	3	9	1.09
28	Dan Boyle	SJS	D	12	2	10	12	1	5	0	7	4	8	1	11	1.00
29	Steven Stamkos	TBL	C	9	7	4	11	1	6	0	5	7	4	4	7	1.22
30	Mike Richards	PHI	C	10	6	5	11	-3	4	0	7	8	3	3	8	1.10

Yes, the Caps were particularly bad at secondary scoring last year

2009-10-27T22:17:26Z

I was going to put this in CapsChick's earlier thread but it was just too long and different. I fiddled around with some numbers from '08-'09 just to see if there would be something notable in the numbers for the top tier teams. Basically similar to GINI coefficient (measure of inequality) to see how balanced the scoring is for the top nine teams, with 99 pts or more (calling that the Caps peer group). This is a bit different than secondary scoring (and my headline is misleading) but may point us in the right direction.

If someone can recommend a good way to post an excel spreadsheet anonymously I'm happy to share, not that there's anything too special in the numbers.

First I took all scorers with more than 10 pts for each team, ranked them by points scored, then normalized. So perfection would be everyone on the team scoring exactly the same (something above 10) no matter how many total points the players had. The Caps look by far the most unbalanced compared to the others. The unit numbers don't mean much but it went WAS (.215), PIT (.197), PHI (.189), NJD (.186), BOS (.178), DET (.165), VAN (.155), SAN (.153), and CHI (.147).

10 pts is probably low but it gets you towards a full measure of all "scorers" on the team while getting rid of most everyone who only played a few games.. I considered doing another cutoff at 20 or 30 pts but instead decided upon top 10 scorers for each team. By this approach the Pens are even slightly more unbalanced than the Caps (.150 vs .146), the Hawks, Sharks, Wings, and Bruins look very balanced (.067 to .079), and the Canucks, Devils, and Flyers are in the middle (.120 to .127).

This is partly just putting numbers onto an obvious result you can "see" by looking at the scoring lists.
And one number doesn't tell you everything - the Pens skew at the top thanks to Malkin and Crosby, while the Bruins had a ton of people getting 10+ pts. Problems include not accounting for games played, trades during the season, not accounting for lines/position in each game, getting an exact definition of secondary scoring, and the normalizing which gives the Wings 774 pts the same weight as the Devils 625. This is all psuedo-scientific at this point.

But while I do think there is a "there" worth looking at, I also think looking at the '09-'10 season so far (9-12 games) might be premature. Unless you're willing to rigorously define secondary scoring for each team, break apart line combinations, and do hard work for each game. In which case if that's what you're after do it now, instead of for the whole season.

Season Review Ramblings

2009-10-27T21:11:39Z

I thought I'd post a few thoughts about the Caps season so far.

There is a trend among the Caps to play lazy hockey. It's been there for a while, it reminds me of myself in college writing term papers when I was their age (not that I'm old). While it is a disturbing trend for a team trying to win a championship, the comfort I take from the Caps is their ability to win games when they're not at their best. If you have to play your best to win all the time, you're the NY Islanders this year. If the Caps can win games, I'm not so concerned how they do it right now as long as they can do it in the playoffs. Just keep winning and work out the kinks along the way.

I don't seem to remember people complaining about the Edmonton Oilers winning games 7-6 when they won 5 Stanley Cups. I don't think the Caps should try to outscore everyone as much as they can every game, for no other reason than they get lazy (6-1 vs the Leafs this year turned into 6-4 in a hurry.) Let the horses run free, let Ovi, Backis and the gang score 4 early goals, then start playing your checking lines more during the later stages game. It's not about protecting a lead or not attacking, it's about putting a line on the ice that's disciplined, a line that is willing to play defense when you're up 6-1. They, too, will go for more goals, but they won't cough up the puck doing it. The Caps should play to their strengths, and that's offense. Score more goals than the other team and let the goalie bail you out may not sound like a recipe for success, but with a little defensive discipline, the Caps ought to have a consistent winning formula. Remember Grant Fuhr? I'm sure he didn't like being hung out to dry by Wayne Gretzky all the time, but he had 400 career wins to go along with his monstrous GAA. Paul Coffey didn't win best defenseman for his defense, but Jari Kurri did backcheck and still had 600 goals. Take what you want from that, but the Caps have the pieces, or at least most of them, to be a championship team, now they've just got to mix them properly. I'm very confident in this team, I don't think any team in the East is a match for them. I don't know enough about the West to say that, though.

The Caps could use a thug on the team every now and then, just as a deterrent. I think Erskine fits the bill on most nights, but he's got to be healthy first, and while I like Big John, he's a #7 defenseman in this league and nothing more. Don't kid yourself. I think Bradley and Clarkie and whoever else wants to get in on the action can be effective in a fight, but I think people will get the message when guys like Brooks Laich, Dave Steckel, and Milan Jurcina take a jab at someone. Other teams have to realize that "enforcer by committee" means more than just three players, two of whom are middleweights, before we can say we have a deterrent. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we dropped Brashear, he was old and didn't fight and I don't think he was the deterrent people thought he was. He also has a reputation, meaning he gets calls against him all the time (including a phantom reputation call, a four minute high sticking penalty when not only was David Steckel the closest Cap to the play, the guy got hit by his own teammate.) Brashear can't fight Daniel Briere without getting tossed and maybe suspended, either. Daniel Briere, Ryan Whitney, and Darcy Tucker are the kind of sewage that we need enforcer by committee for. Brooks Laich can get away with pounding Briere's face in the next time he spears Ovi in the groin, but someone like Erskine couldn't. When it comes time to play a team with a real enforcer and we need a deterrent, let's call up a minor leaguer, but until then, some of our young guns need to get going when the going gets tough. It's the little cheap shots adding up that cost Bobby Orr his career, by the way. These types of hits have to be answered.

I think Jose Theodore has been the goalie we thought we were getting last year. I like what management did, keeping Theo to be the starter and letting Varlamov get starts here and there to bring him along. I think this will work out in the long run.

I can tell you Tom Poti is the best defenseman on the roster. Mike Green is the best offensive defenseman, obviously, but he needed to get his head on straight, and he seems to have woken up. It shouldn't have taken a knee on knee to do it, though. Milan Jurcina is the new Joe Reekie. He's starting to grow on me a bit. I like his physical style, and I'll be glad when the restraining fouls lessen, but until then, when he takes a penalty, at least it's entertaining. He's got a rocket for a shot and I'll be glad to see him use it more. I think Jeff Schultz is coming around. I don't care if he's slow as long as he's in position, and he doesn't have to hit all the time to be effective. I just think he's got some confidence and needs to keep it, because he's a pretty darn good player when he's got his head on straight, but he's another guy who needs to shoot more. What happened to the half-slapper? Brian Pothier has been invisible and I think we let his contract expire at the end of the year. Erskine has been Erskine, slow, mean, and prone to penalties because he's slow. I think he's a #7. Shaone Morrisonn looks solid, as usual, boring and effective. And then comes Tyler Sloan. I'm glad he made the team, he's a heck of a skater and a throwback defenseman who competes hard and gets his nose dirty. I think he's rough around the edges and could use some polish before he's anything like top-4 NHLer, but I think the pieces are there for him. In general the defenseman have been solid. I think Bob Woods has instilled in them the importance of being nasty around the crease, and I think he'll let them play their games.

The forwards have been interesting. It looks like the scoring has been pretty good all around, and in time players like Steckel, Gordon, Laing (maybe) and others will pot a few goals. All the players that are supposed to be scoring are scoring, so fear not. And secondary scoring is not as big a concern as you might think. Checking forwards aren't paid to score a bunch of goals, I don't get where this complaint is coming from. If primary scoring is from your top two lines, then Bradley, Fehr, Giroux, Aucoin, Clark, Schultz, and Green all count as secondary scoring, which means 10 goals from secondary sources in 10 games, so shut up. For all the talk about Mike Green, he's a Defenseman. With a D. Not primary scoring, any way you slice it. And for all the defenders who have scored 20 and 30 goals, it's rare for defenders to have multiple big-goal seasons, and though I think Green will continue to rack them up, it's rarer still to have consecutive big-goal seasons. There's usually a dip between big seasons (case in point - Kevin Hatcher had 24 goals in 90-91, he dipped to 17 the next year, then busted out with 34 in 92-93. Another guy was Sergei Gonchar, who had 21 goals in 53 games in 98-99 (including a career-high 13 PPG) then dipped under 20 the next two years before potting 26 in 2001-02.) Orr and Coffey were exceptions to this rule, they were consistently scoring big numbers for several years in a row, and while I'm not saying Green isn't in that class, he's not there yet. I'm not saying Green isn't in for a big year, I'm just saying his first job is defense, so don't count on it, hence calling it secondary scoring. The same can be said for the checking line forwards to a lesser degree, more of their job is scoring than defenders, yes, but still, they're not paid to score 20 goals, they're paid to shut down the other guys.

You can tell we miss Semin on the power play. I think it would be best for the Caps to not have Green and Ovi on the points at the same time. Ovi on the point has its advantages, it stretches out the penalty killers and usually gives him a little more room to get a shot off, but I don't think the defensive prowess of the two of them combined is doing us any favors back there. I'd like to see Poti on the top unit and move Ovi down low. Five forwards, because Green is a forward in disguise, is risky, and it's cost us two shorties in the last two games. Don't forget Poti has twice been a 40 point defenseman, three times has had double-digit goals, and he tied the Caps single-game playoff scoring record with four points against the Rangers last year. He knows what he's doing and won't cost us defensively, he might also bring maturity and better decision-making to the top unit that seems to be lacking a good deal of the time. Ovechkin is also our most physical player, and while he's great in space, I don't think it'll hurt us to have him play in traffic a bit. Ovi and Backis on the half boards, Knuble in front, Green and Poti on the points. Move Ovi to the point on the second unit and then have Morrison-Semin-Laich down low, perhaps. I like having Green, Backstrom, Ovechkin and Semin all on the same unit, because it's nasty when they get going, but I also think they get too cute. There needs to be more straight-forward players out there to mix in. If all 5 players are going for the perfect pass, they never shoot. Boudreau has got to mix it up. Maybe don't play your first unit for 90 seconds, either, get the second unit out after 60. If the other team can change up their penalty killers, they'll have more energy than a power-play guy who's already been out on a shift for 75 seconds, and the puck gets cleared.

Also, I'm not sure he'll ever change things at this point after the Ochocinco incident, but after Varlamov got the spelling of his first name corrected to Semyon from Simeon from Semen, I think it would be good for Alexander Semin to get his name corrected to Syomin. (It's the same E-umlaut letter that's pronounced "yo" that's in both of their names that got mistransliterated).

JRHL Standings Update

2009-10-27T20:02:33Z

Since WM hasn't posted this yet, chowdah's got your weekly update!

GARTNER
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Polar Bear Rebellion	20	12	8	.600	--
Don't Toews Me Sombrero	20	15	5	.563	1.5
Harrisonburg Dukes	18	21	1	.463	5.5
Williamsburg Face Wash	16	20	4	.450	6
Champaign Ice Beagles	11	24	5	.338	10.5

LABRE
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Two Prongered Assault	26	11	3	.688	--
My Jokes Getzlafs	24	13	3	.638	2
Team Pervertedlyslow	18	17	5	.513	7
Prestige Worldwide	18	20	2	.475	8.5
The Royal Tenenbaums	13	21	6	.400	11.5

HUNTER
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Natty's Ice	23	16	1	.588	--
Set Sail For Fail	20	19	1	.513	3
Deb's Goon Emporium	16	16	8	.500	3.5
Disgruntled Goats	15	22	3	.413	7
Dale City Magi	13	23	4	.375	8.5

LANGWAY
TEAM	W	L	T	PCT	GB
Gould's Grinders	21	13	6	.600	--
Two Bit Crew	23	15	2	.600	--
Ice Warriors X	22	15	3	.588	0.5
Winnipeg Jets	12	22	6	.375	9
Let's Go Whalers!	11	25	4	.325	11

I think I managed to do that without screwing up the formatting too bad. Yay me!

On Penalty Kill Rankings

2009-10-27T17:16:21Z

As promised, (and just in time for the post lunch slacking) I've compiled similar statistics for penalty kills as I did for power plays (note: the PP statistics will be be updated to include games through 10/26 soon).

Again, the idea is that keeping track of mere occurrences is a fairly coarse metric of penalty killing efficiencies (PK%). Instead, I determine rankings by the number of goals against per 2 minute short handed situation (PK G/2; thanks F&B!). I argue that this is a better metric because if two teams both allow goals on every power play, but one allows them in the first 30 seconds and the other in the last 30 seconds, the second team should have a higher ranking, even if the end result is the same. Also, teams get more credit for killing 5 minute majors in my system, as a full kill essentially counts as 2.5 kills, while under the old system it only counts as 1. Likewise, for my whipping boy play, the 9 minute PP the Caps had vs Calgary last year gave the Flames a perfect 3/3 for killing 7 minutes of penalties. That is the same 3/3 they would have had if the Caps remained ineffective and Nylander had not taken a minor. In my system they effectively killed 3.5 penalties in the game situation. They would have had 4.5 had the Caps not evened up the teams.

When looking at the numbers from the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons, we see that the old metric (PK/G (NHL)) tends to overestimate the number of short handed situations before a goal is given up (PK/G) by around 1. For teams with better PK units it overestimates by far more than one. I have included the number of goals allowed per 60 minutes of short handed time as well (PK G/60) because, while it is a mere scaling of PK G/2, I find it more readable.

For comparison to a rather well understood season, here are the data for 2008-2009:

		Old Stats					New Stats
Rank	Team	PK GA	PKs	PK/G (NHL)	PK%	Rank (NHL)	Min/PK	PK/G (New)	PK G/60	PK G/2
1	Minnesota Wild	36	291	8.08	87.63	2	01:42	6.90	4.35	0.1449
2	New York Rangers	40	329	8.23	87.84	1	01:38	6.73	4.46	0.1485
3	St. Louis Blues	58	357	6.16	83.75	3	01:38	5.06	5.93	0.1977
4	Calgary Flames	58	349	6.02	83.38	4	01:39	4.97	6.04	0.2013
5	Los Angeles Kings	62	362	5.84	82.87	7	01:40	4.90	6.12	0.2041
6	Philadelphia Flyers	67	393	5.87	82.95	6	01:38	4.81	6.24	0.2078
7	San Jose Sharks	51	304	5.96	83.22	5	01:35	4.76	6.31	0.2103
8	Pittsburgh Penguins	60	348	5.80	82.76	8	01:37	4.73	6.34	0.2113
9	Florida Panthers	54	311	5.76	82.64	9	01:37	4.69	6.40	0.2132
10	Nashville Predators	59	338	5.73	82.54	10	01:37	4.66	6.43	0.2144
11	Boston Bruins	54	307	5.69	82.41	12	01:37	4.63	6.48	0.2161
12	Columbus Blue Jackets	62	346	5.58	82.08	13	01:36	4.49	6.69	0.2229
13	Ottawa Senators	64	346	5.41	81.50	15	01:38	4.44	6.76	0.2254
14	Montreal Canadiens	65	370	5.69	82.43	11	01:33	4.42	6.79	0.2263
15	Buffalo Sabres	61	336	5.51	81.85	14	01:35	4.39	6.84	0.2280
16	Vancouver Canucks	69	371	5.38	81.40	16	01:34	4.24	7.08	0.2359
17	Carolina Hurricanes	59	301	5.10	80.40	18	01:36	4.10	7.32	0.2439
18	Chicago Blackhawks	64	324	5.06	80.25	19	01:36	4.06	7.40	0.2466
19	New Jersey Devils	65	324	4.99	79.94	20	01:37	4.04	7.42	0.2474
20	Anaheim Ducks	78	385	4.94	79.74	23	01:38	4.04	7.43	0.2476
21	Washington Capitals	75	387	5.16	80.62	17	01:33	4.04	7.43	0.2477
22	Colorado Avalanche	64	318	4.97	79.87	21	01:36	3.99	7.51	0.2504
23	New York Islanders	73	361	4.95	79.78	22	01:35	3.95	7.60	0.2535
24	Dallas Stars	70	326	4.66	78.53	24	01:40	3.90	7.69	0.2562
25	Detroit Red Wings	70	324	4.63	78.40	25	01:35	3.69	8.13	0.2708
26	Edmonton Oilers	76	338	4.45	77.51	27	01:37	3.60	8.32	0.2774
27	Tampa Bay Lightning	89	405	4.55	78.02	26	01:34	3.58	8.38	0.2793
28	Atlanta Thrashers	88	366	4.16	75.96	29	01:34	3.26	9.20	0.3067
29	Phoenix Coyotes	68	292	4.29	76.71	28	01:30	3.24	9.25	0.3084
30	Toronto Maple Leafs	78	308	3.95	74.68	30	01:33	3.07	9.76	0.3255

The data through October 26, 2009 for the 2009-2010 season is here:

		Old Stats					New Stats
Rank	Team	PK GA	PKs	PK/G (NHL)	PK%	Rank (NHL)	Min/PK	PK/G (New)	PK G/60	PK G/2
1	Minnesota Wild	4	38	9.50	89.47	2	01:48	8.58	3.50	0.1166
2	Ottawa Senators	4	39	9.75	89.74	1	01:41	8.24	3.64	0.1214
3	Atlanta Thrashers	5	36	7.20	86.11	4	01:41	6.11	4.91	0.1636
4	New York Rangers	8	59	7.38	86.44	3	01:34	5.79	5.18	0.1727
5	Colorado Avalanche	8	51	6.38	84.31	6	01:40	5.36	5.60	0.1866
6	Philadelphia Flyers	6	41	6.83	85.37	5	01:31	5.21	5.76	0.1921
7	Chicago Blackhawks	6	37	6.17	83.78	7	01:39	5.10	5.88	0.1960
8	Washington Capitals	8	49	6.13	83.67	8	01:34	4.81	6.24	0.2081
9	New York Islanders	7	37	5.29	81.08	11	01:42	4.53	6.62	0.2207
10	Pittsburgh Penguins	9	50	5.56	82.00	10	01:37	4.50	6.67	0.2224
11	San Jose Sharks	9	50	5.56	82.00	9	01:35	4.43	6.77	0.2256
12	Vancouver Canucks	9	47	5.22	80.85	14	01:39	4.31	6.96	0.2319
13	Carolina Hurricanes	11	58	5.27	81.03	12	01:36	4.26	7.05	0.2350
14	Columbus Blue Jackets	8	42	5.25	80.95	13	01:34	4.13	7.27	0.2424
15	St. Louis Blues	8	40	5.00	80.00	15	01:37	4.08	7.36	0.2453
16	New Jersey Devils	7	34	4.86	79.41	16	01:34	3.81	7.87	0.2623
17	Buffalo Sabres	6	28	4.67	78.57	17	01:35	3.71	8.08	0.2694
18	Tampa Bay Lightning	9	39	4.33	76.92	20	01:36	3.48	8.61	0.2870
19	Edmonton Oilers	10	43	4.30	76.74	21	01:36	3.45	8.69	0.2896
20	Detroit Red Wings	8	35	4.38	77.14	19	01:31	3.32	9.03	0.3010
21	Dallas Stars	10	41	4.10	75.61	23	01:36	3.30	9.10	0.3034
22	Calgary Flames	10	42	4.20	76.19	22	01:33	3.26	9.20	0.3067
23	Montreal Canadiens	10	44	4.40	77.27	18	01:27	3.19	9.40	0.3132
24	Anaheim Ducks	11	44	4.00	75.00	26	01:35	3.18	9.42	0.3141
25	Boston Bruins	10	41	4.10	75.61	25	01:32	3.17	9.46	0.3153
26	Phoenix Coyotes	10	41	4.10	75.61	24	01:27	2.98	10.06	0.3354
27	Los Angeles Kings	14	50	3.57	72.00	29	01:38	2.92	10.26	0.3419
28	Nashville Predators	9	35	3.89	74.29	27	01:23	2.69	11.14	0.3713
29	Florida Panthers	11	40	3.64	72.50	28	01:26	2.62	11.45	0.3817
30	Toronto Maple Leafs	13	35	2.69	62.86	30	01:29	2.02	14.89	0.4963

In this data we see that while Ottawa has the highest ranked power play in the old metric, Minnesota is truely the dominant team. And boy are they good. Their penalty kills last a full 7 seconds longer, on average, than the next closest team, 14 seconds longer than the average, and 25 seconds (almost 1/4 of a PP) longer than the worst. Additionally, while the old metric shows that they actually would allow a goal 30 seconds earlier than Ottawa, we see that they would actually last more than 30 seconds longer. We also see how bad they Leafs penalty kill really is. The Leafs are allowing goals at a rate of slightly less than 1 for every 2 full penalty kills.

As for the Caps (this being a Caps blog and me being a Caps fan, after all), they aren't too shabby given the relative lack of discipline. They don't take a hard hit in the new metric (unlike the new power play metric).

I'll be updateing these stats as the season progresses. When grad school gets out of the way for a few hours I will post everything on an external site, rather than cluttering fan posts with updates.

Next in the series will be a look at 5v3, 5v4, and 4v4 situations.

REVIEW: NHL's Online TV Feed -- NHL GAMECENTER LIVE

2009-10-27T02:51:04Z

Well, the Center Ice free preview is over, and I won't lie--I'm a bit bummed out by that.

If there are any folks out there thinking about renewing, or just considering their options in general for getting more hockey than they can (should) handle, let me offer my opinion of the NHL's official online offering, Gamecenter Live. This is my second year as a subscriber to this service, and so far I've been pretty happy with it.

You can access the service via NHL.com. This link should work to get information.

CONS:

It's not TV. For many, online viewing just isn't feasable. If it is, chances are your computer screen isn't as big as your TV screen, so there's also that to consider. I get to watch caps games locally on CSN, but if you're unable to do that, you may prefer to get a TV package.

It's not free. The prices changes as the season goes on, so I'm not going to quote prices, you can go to the website to check it out...but it's not "cheap". It appears they are offering a deal though the 31st. They do offer installment payments though, which helps. Plus, if you're considering the Center Ice package on cable, then chances are you've already considered having to spend some money anyway.

Blackouts. Of course, local market teams are blacked out, as well as any nationally televised games on Vs or NHL Network. If you're relying solely on your computer for hockey viewing, these games won't be available.

PROS:

Quality. I've been really happy with the overall improvements to the quality of the feeds this year. My cable company only offers Center Ice in low-def feeds, and I can honestly say that the quality of the online feeds I get are much better than what I can get through my cable company. If you have decent bandwidth and can get the 1600kbps feed, it's really crystal clear (and 16:9). I've actually hooked my PC up to my TV and watched it that way, with great results.

It's not taking over my TV. As I mentioned, I live in the DC area, and get Caps games broadcast locally, so I mainly use this service for non-Caps viewing, but I like being able to throw a game on my computer to watch in the background and still being able to watch other programming on my TV.

Reliability (& peace of mind). The main reason I decided to post this was due to the amount of times I see folks struggling to find pirated online feeds of Caps and other hockey games. Yeah, they're out there if you know where to look, but the availability and quality are always a question mark, and I've also heard several folks complain about getting viruses or malware on their computer after having visited one the pirate sites. Plus, many consider it a "gray area" legally, so you kinda take a risk there as well--most likely nothing will ever come of it if you stream a game from one of "those sites", but you're not getting help if you screw up your PC either. Not worth it in my opinion.

Portability. You can take it with you! Many times when I have had to go out of town to visit friends and/or family members or even travel on business I've watched games from my computer, whereas I couldn't have done that with a CI package from my cable provider.

Features. There are a lot of other features available as well, like in-game stats and replays, plus you can watch multiple games. I've never been able to actually use the multi-game feature myself, but if your ADD doesn't get the best of you maybe you'll enjoy this.

VERDICT:

No, it's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a non-market viewing option, it's definitely something to consider. As I've already mentioned, I've been quite pleased with the service so far. I just wish they'd make it free!

Colin Campbell is a joke

2009-10-26T17:16:21Z

Colin Campbell is the scourge of this league right now… he’s a buffoon. His decisions in the playoffs last year should have gotten him straight canned in the off-season. And thus, his continued employment is an embarrassment to the league.

In my book, you need to follow the NFL's lead here. Yes, they go way overboard on the No Fun League stuff, but when it comes to protecting the players they are dead-on.

They don't try to be a mind-reader and divine intention of a player's action... you make a dangerous play (helmet-to-helmet, horsecollar, chop-block, etc), regardless of whether that player was hurt (which is where the NHL REALLY drops the ball), you're gonna be punished.

That sends a clear message... do bad things (even if they don't catch you in the game), you're gonna pay for it. The NHL standard is, you do bad things... as long as you don't hurt the guy, you get away with it.

Ruling on these issues, is similar to judging how effectively you play the game (or any game for that matter); practice the right way, good things will happen, and vice versa. I have taught many people to play golf, and the easy mistake to make is to look at the results rather than the quality of shot. A duff that goes 10 feet from the pin, is easy to be excited about, but is far less effective than a pure stroke that went thirty feet right due to poor alignment. In the long run, the more quality strokes you make, the better your game will be.

There is a similar relationship between the players' actions and the results. In such an environment, an elbow to the head is a play that a high percentage of the time will do exactly what is intended. Shake the guy up, exact some revenge, throw him off his game and not seriously hurt the guy. And since the league doesn't usually penalize players for elbows that don't end up injuring anyone, you'll get away with likely little more than a 2 minute penalty (what? 90% of the time?). Seems like a fairly high percentage play. One who's only downside is that once every so often, somebody catches a guy the wrong way and will get suspended and fined. "Eh, that's the risk of being a physical player". It's not a stretch to suggest that this way of enforcement actually encourages dangerous behavior.

The fact that you are engaging in an activity that has NO respect for the health of your fellow player - if things go wrong, you can quite literally end someone career and give them life-long brain trauma - is certainly not on most players mind when they elbow someone. But that's where the league needs to step in and FORCE them to take that play out of their repertoire.

In the long run, the more you consistently rule against dangerous play, the more your players will respect it. The argument that consistent and firm ruling will take away some of the aggressive physical play is ridiculous in my book, aside from the rare accidental elbowing, most dangerous plays in the NHL, especially shots to the head, are intended. Isn't it worth fining/suspending a few accidental shots to the head, better than the current plan? I would think the number of accidental dangerous plays would drop too once players are more aware of safe play.

The NFL is one of the (if not THE) hardest hitting sports on the planet, and their players have been fined, suspended and brow-beaten into having the most respect for each others safety. The NFL seems to have no problem putting a tough, physical product out on the field that has, for the most part, a fairly strong sense of fair play and player safety.

Think back to Campbell NOT suspending Mike Cammalleri in the playoffs for reasons that had to do with the game situation, and you have the perfect example not adjudicating for actions but rather for intent (and even more egregiously, results).

P.S. We'll leave out the fact that they coddle their QBs too much... that's another discussion for another day.

:: UPDATED::
As requested here are some examples:

Puck Daddy lists a few examples of inconsistent punishment on head-shots from last years playoffs.

A few days later, Brashear is suspended for his head-hunt

While Mike Brown is given no league disciplinary action for his shot to the head of Jiri Hudler

This cheap shot from Patrick Kaleta, gets no suspension, even though he clearly jumped. While this similar cheap shot from Denis Gauthier draws a 5 game suspension because Josh Gorges is injured on the play. These two seem pretty similar to me and should get the same, firm punishment IMO.

You Make the Call: Scuderi on Chimera

2009-10-26T13:25:41Z

Last night, Rob Scuderi sent Jason Chimera skates-over-teakettle during the Kings-Jackets game. Video of the hit is available on Puck Daddy, and I won't steal his hit counter from him, so go here and watch. That's okay, I'll wait till you get back.

Scuderi was not called for a penalty, but the Jackets were outraged and Derek Dorsett jumped off the bench and went after Scuderi; Chimera ended up pulling two officials to the ice trying to get to him. Chimera ended up with a 10 minute misconduct, Dorsett with a too-many-men-on-the-ice bench minor and a game misconduct for leaving the bench.

Per the NHL rulebook, rule #45:

45.1 Clipping - Clipping is the act of throwing the body, from any direction, across or below the knees of an opponent.

A player or goalkeeper may not deliver a check in a “clipping” manner, nor lower his own body position to deliver a check on or below an opponent’s knees.

An illegal “low hit” is a check that is delivered by a player or goalkeeper who may or may not have both skates on the ice, with his sole intent to check the opponent in the area of his knees. A player or goalkeeper may not lower his body position to deliver a check to an opponent’s knees.

Moreover, because Chimera was injured - he was lucky it wasn't worse AFAIC - if this rule is invoked, Scuderi hits the showers.

45.3 Major Penalty - If an injury occurs as a result of this “clipping” check, the player or goalkeeper must be assessed a major penalty (see 45.5).

45.5 Game Misconduct Penalty - A game misconduct penalty must be assessed anytime a major penalty is applied for injuring an opponent by clipping.

I doubt intent to injure - I'm not sure Scuderi fully had his balance on this one. But, all the same....

UPDATE 10/27/09 - NHL.com reports that Scuderi has been fined for the hit, but doesn't say the exact fine.

Poll

You make the call: Is this a clean hit?

Caps Clips, Sunday Brunch edition

2009-10-25T16:28:39Z

Recaps!

Simply Sensational lists winners and losers. Craig Laughlin apparently trending down. At least until the end of soccer season.

Peerless thinks it would be hard to find a win in the last decade that the Caps deserved less. Kanoobie does not approve.

The Boss looks on the bright side.

Ed Frankovic gives Keith Aucoin a little credit:

Aucoin only had 8:47 of ice time but he sure was noticeable in a positive way. His 1:18 of power play time was the only one that the Caps had sustained pressure on the Islanders in their zone. He had the game tying tally tonight and will eventually get credit for two assists in the Thrashers win on Thursday. That is 3 points in under 15 minutes of ice time, perhaps he warrants some more time this week?

NylanderWatch: No goals, no assists, -1 in regulation/OT, but did pot the Griffins’ first shootout goal (SO finally decided 2 goals to one) for a Grand Rapids victory.

FlashWatch: No goals, no assists, -3 with 4 SOG (5-2 loss to Binghamton) in easily the most colorful performance of his minor league career:

via @Love4Greenie

And yes, the Bears' power play is suffering without Alexandre Giroux and Aucoin.

In other League news, Don Cherry remains utterly predictable, Pierre LeBrun dishes a little on the Nylander situation, and the NHL has a bright future with its two young leaders.