The future of the NHL at the Olympics

The future of the NHL at the Olympics

 

A lot of reporters stuck in Canada or the US, with not much to report during this short period without NHL action, have been shopping around the fact that the NHL and NHLPA have no agreement with the IOC to allow it's players to play beyond the current Winter Games. An argument that may have gained serious weight when New York Islanders captain John Tavares left Canada's quarter final with Latvia after receiving a knee-on-knee contact from winger Arturs Kulda.

 



The incident happened during the 2nd period. Tavares went away for examination, he never returned. That evening it was revealed that after an MRI on his knee that not only would John miss the rest of the Olympics, he would miss the rest of the entire season. Something that puts the idea of pulling NHL participation away in the future firmly in Islanders GM Garth Snow's mind.

 

The 23-year-old Canadian's season isn't the only casualty, the Florida Panthers lost rookie Alexander Barkov to a knee injury playing for Finland, and veteran forward Thomas Kopecky to a concussion playing for Slovakia. Also, the Detroit Red Wings lost captain and Sweden player Henrik Zetterberg to a back injury. Although this was already a niggling issue with the bearded centre. Diagnosed with a herniated disc, Zetterberg had surgery today (Friday 21st February) and could return in time for the playoffs should Detroit qualify.

 

A few injuries, which are to be expected in such a sport, coupled one pre-existing injury rearing it's head again shouldn't be enough to make anyone come to a rash decision. The Islanders and Panthers can seek solace in the fact that, with or without their fallen stars in their line-ups, their season was already over.

 

The NHL and NHLPA like to give us some spiel like "There are potential negative impacts with participating midseason in the Olympics and that factors into the overall analysis of whether it's a good idea for us to go or not," which was said by NHL Deputy Commissioner and chief legal officer Bill Daly.

 

USA & Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane has been quoted that he would like to go to the next games, what would be the NHL's 6th games, in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Patrick also said on the inclusion NHL players at the Olympics "It's pretty obvious to say it's good for the game," and universally the players want to continue with this way. The players that go love the chance to be able to represent their countries, as players like Kane are busy with the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the IIHF World Championships come around, and the players that don't go love the two week vacation.

 

I believe the players will compete in the Olympics as long as they want to. As we know, once the players want something they can be really stubborn. The last time the NHL and NHLPA butted heads we lost half a season.

 

And here's a little secret, that pretty much everyone knows. The NHL and NHLPA didn't agree to send the players to these games until eight months ago.

Stars - best of Saturday 30th November

Stars is our daily look at the previous night's action in the NHL and who stood out amongst the rest.


FIRST STAR

 

Chris Kreider - NEW YORK RANGERS vs Vancouver Canucks

Kreider scored his first career NHL hat trick against the team now coached by his favourite man the man who dropped him to the AHL for much of last season, John Tortorella. As John was run out of town by the Rangers for the 2nd time in 2013.




SECOND STAR

 

Max Pacioretty - MONTREAL CANADIENS vs Toronto Maple Leafs

Max continued his recent goal scoring form picking up two more goals and an assist. His first was from an fantastic breakout pass from P.K. Subban. His 2nd was this awesome short handed effort.




THIRD STAR

 

Evgeni Malkin - PITTSBURGH PENGUINS vs Florida Panthers

"Geno" had a goal, the game winner, and three assists in the Penguins 5-1 rout of the Panthers.




Honourable Mentions

Penguins backup goalie, Jeff Zatkoff, had 40 saves in the Pens win over Florida..... Semyon Varlamov had 37 saves in Colorado's 3-2 win against Minnesota.....

Subban had a nice goal.....



Tomas Plekanec also scored on a nice move.....



Alex Ovechkin scored, again.......




Look Away Moment of the Night

After all his brilliance recently, against Calgary, Ben Scrivens reminds us that he's just a man god damnit!!!

Stars - best of Monday 25th November

Stars is our daily look at the previous night's action in the NHL and who stood out amongst the rest.

FIRST STAR

 

Martin St Louis - TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs New York Rangers

It was a big night for Marty. It was his 1000th game in the NHL and he celebrated the best way he knows. By scoring twice and assisting on another.

SECOND STAR

 

Ben Bishop - TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs New York Rangers

Bishop had a 37 save shutout on a night when the skaters in front of him put goals passed two Rangers goaltenders.


THIRD STAR

 

James Neal - PITTSBURGH PENGUINS vs Boston Bruins

Neal had a huge night in the Pens 4-3 OT defeat. He picked up two goals and as assist. His goals bought the Penguins back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game. His assist came with a couple of seconds left as he threw the puck to the front of the net and watched on as Kunitz moved it on to Crosby, who scored with 0.3 seconds left to send it to OT.

 

Honourable Mentions

Ryan Johansen had two goals (5th and 6th) in the Blue Jackets 6-0 win in Toronto...... Tim Thomas went 38/39 for a .974 SV%...... Loui Eriksson had a goal and two assists in the Bruins win, including a secondary assist on the game winner..... Andrew Shaw had two goals and an assist as the Blackhawks overcame Edmonton....... Corey Crawford had a .960 SV% in the game, stopping 24 shots from 25...... Ben Scrivens gave up two goals off of 39 shots faced for a .949 SV% and had this four save effort to help the team to victory.

Daniel Sedin received a high stick to the face in Vancouver's loss at home to LA. He responded by pulling out his tooth

 

 

 

MY PICKS

2-3 on the night with St Louis and LA winning.

The Night Ahead - Friday 22nd November 2013

In "The Night Ahead" we take a look at a selection of the upcoming games for the evening (early hours here in the UK) and add a preview and opinion on the match ups.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS @ PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

The recently tumbling Isles face the Penguins for the second time this season. They won the first meeting, in Pittsburgh, 4-3 in regulation. Frans Nielsen, 1 goal & 2 assists, including an assist on the game winner, and Radek Martinek, 2 assists, had a big hand that night. They also had a large contribution from Evgeni Nabakov, who recorded 39 saves. The win put the Islanders comfortably in the Metropolitan top three places (a guaranteed playoff berth), but since then the Isles have accumulated just EIGHT points in the twelve games since and dropped to bottom in the division.

Pittsburgh on the other hand were top of the division back then and that loss didn't do much to halt their season. They've gone 6-5-0 since and are joint second in the conference at the quarter way point of the season. In no surprise it's yet again Crosby, Malkin, Kunitz and Dupuis who are amongst the Pens top scorers this year combining for 24 of the teams 55 goals, and 48 of the teams 97 assists. Marc Andre Fleury is also back to his regular season best. Posting a .924 save percentage and a 1.90 GAA.

I'm taking the Penguins in this one. There's been a lot of shocks recently with Vancouver, Colorado and other early leaders falling to bottom feeders, but this one has to be a home win for one of the East's perennial best teams.

MONTREAL CANADIENS @ WASHINGTON CAPITALS

The Montreal Canadiens march in to the Verizon Center tonight to face a side who were blown away by the Penguins on home ice Wednesday night, so expect some sort of response from the Caps.

After a difficult October, the Capitals entered the second month of the season 5-7-0. In November they've won all but three games and currently sit 12-9-1 in second in the Metro behind Pittsburgh. Alex Ovechkin has continued his hot form from last term notching up 17 of the teams 69 goals. They also have Backstrom, Grabovski and Johansson putting up 19, 11 and 16 assists respectively.

Montreal come into tonight on a somewhat opposite track to Washington. They enjoyed a very successful October but haven't kept it up this month only recording 3 wins so far. But might have once again pushed up a gear after beating Minnesota 6-2 in their last outing. Carey Price, like Fleury, has returned to form after a playoff meltdown last spring and has a .935 save percentage and a 2.05 GAA. It's hard to pinpoint a true dangerman in the Habs ranks as none of their 13 goal scorers have scored more than eight.

This is probably the toughest game of the night to call as the case for both teams is that you never which version will turn up.

I'll go for a narrow Caps win.

FLORIDA PANTHERS @ CALGARY FLAMES

This is one of those games that will probably get ignored by the casual fan. To put it in Premier League terms this would be like watching Reading vs QPR last season.

The Panthers changed coach after going 3-9-4 in their first 16 games and have limped to 6-13-4 since, although those three wins did come against Anaheim, Colorado and Vancouver. The latter two on the road. Similar to the Canadiens, none of their goal scorers have topped the 8 mark but it's the back end that suffers the most. They have Stanley Cup winner Tim Thomas between the pipes, ahem, and despite him being in better form than most expected it's still not his Boston Bruins cup winning form. He could be playing that well but with the players in front of him they'd still be in a similar position because with Thomas, Markstrom and Clemmenson combined the Panthers have shipped 76 goals in 23 games this season.

It's fair to say that Calgary are the Western conference equivalent to the Panthers. Both sit 2nd bottom in their respective conferences, and at 7-11-4 Calgary have given up 81 goals, 2nd to Provincial neighbours Edmonton on 84. In a hard to watch season for Flames fans they do have hope in the form of Jiri Hudler and rookie Sean Monahan. The teams top contributors with 21 and 14 points.

There's not much to say about these teams. They are terrible. I would usually go for the home team in this scenario but as mentioned above Florida have beaten Colorado and Vancouver on the road already.

I'm going for a Panthers win.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS @ VANCOUVER CANUCKS

This season has been a coming down to Earth with a bump for Columbus. Last season's surprise package they nearly made the playoffs for the first time in their history, on the back of some excellent goalie play from Sergei Bobrovsky. Now in the Eastern conference and, like many suggested towards the end of the last season, they are having rather a hard time. The player they made a huge "win now" trade for, Marian Gaborik, is out for the foreseeable future and big free agent acquisition Nathan Horton has yet to even play after having shoulder surgery in July. They currently sit on a 8-11-3 record that puts them four points off of a playoff place. With Gaborik out they still have four skaters who are ahead of him on the scorers list. Wisniewski, Dubinsky, Johansen and Umberger on 16. 15. 13 and 12 points.

The "struggle after realignment" tag was also lumped on the Vancouver Canucks. Coming out of a Northwest Division that they yearly won at a canter, and entering the fiercely contested Pacific Division. A bigger change some might say has been adapting to the style of John Totorella, and his more defensive game plan compared to previous coach Alain Vigneault. The Sedin twins have racked up huge minutes this year and have struggled immensely in the last couple of weeks. Daniel more than Henrik. One positive from the new style is the resurgence of Ryan Kesler who has 9 goals and 6 assists, but like the Sedins is playing an awful lot of minutes. At 11-8-4 they have dropped out of the playoff spots in the significantly stronger West.

The Jackets beat the Canucks on home ice a month ago, in a 3-1 win with goals coming from Gaborik, Johansen and Umberger. With backup netminder Curtis McElhinney putting up 38 saves. The Canucks goal was scored by Henrik Sedin and an assist awarded to Kesler.

Despite the recent struggles I'll go for a Canucks win.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING @ ANAHEIM DUCKS

This is another potentially great match up tonight. Both have very similar records. Tampa 14-8-0, Anaheim 15-6-3, and both are amongst the top scorers in their conferences.

A big moment came when Tampa's star and leading scorer, Steven Stamkos, broke his leg in Boston 11 days ago. But Tampa have pressed on unfazed and one of the seasons big surprises are continuing to go on well despite fears the Stamkos injury would derail the team. Martin St Louis continues to put up good numbers season after season, and the void left by Stamkos has been filled nicely by free agent signing Valtteri Filppula adding 9 goals and 7 assists to the teams totals.

Anaheim are coached by perennial regular season great Bruce Boudreau. They won the Pacific last year and looked good in a seven game series lost to Detroit. As of now they're tied for the divison lead with California rivals the San Jose Sharks. You wouldn't be shocked to see Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf lead the way for the Ducks, and despite trading away 30 goal a year man Bobby Ryan, they have enjoyed excellent play from Dustin Penner, Nick Bonino, Matthie Perreault and Andrew Cogliano.

Tampa beat Anaheim 5-1 in Florida last week but on their current West road trip have suffered three straight losses. Anaheim have also lost their three games since these sides last met but once in a shootout to Carolina, once in OT after scoring an own goal to win it for the Devils, and only once in regulation to the brilliant Penguins.

I'll go for a high scoring tight home win.



Tonight's picks: Pittsburgh, Washington, Florida, Vancouver, Anaheim.