Stanley Cup Final Review

Stanley Cup Final Review

After eight weeks of battle we are down to the last two. The Los Angeles Kings, vying for their 2nd cup in franchise history (and in three seasons), up against the New York Rangers, going for their 5th cup (2nd in 74 years). Coming into this post season the common opinion was whoever wins the West will win the cup. As that goes the Los Angeles Kings were heavy favourites with the bookmakers.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Finals Review

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Finals Review

We entered the second round with many predicting a repeat final four of Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Two out of the four are heading home, for a holiday retreat or golf course. Chicago and Los Angeles are heading for the Conference finals again and if Chicago repeat as Western Conference champions they'll defend their Stanley Cup against a team whose last appearance in the cup final ending with them lifting the legendary trophy, Montreal in 1993, when they beat LA, and the New York Rangers in 1994, when they beat Vancouver.

Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

The dust has settled on yet another Olympic hockey tournament, and for the 2nd consecutive games the Canadians have taken the top prize. But first we're going to look at what happened in the knockout phase (The next logical step after last weeks preview).

Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Sochi 2014 - The tournament so far......

Editorial note: I must apologise for only writing one half of the preview I promised. I have a real job in the real world. Who knew?

Today, 16th February, we come to the end of the preliminary round and start to see how the knockout stage will shape up. The first set of games start on Tuesday, the 18th, as the teams seeded 5th-12th fight for the right to join the top four seeds in the quarter finals.

GROUP A

The two shocks coning from the group containing host nation Russia is not that they've finished 2nd, but two defeats suffered by Slovakia. The 8th ranked team in the world were on the receiving end of two crushing losses at the hands of 6th ranked USA and 17th ranked Slovenia, Slovenia's first ever Olympic hockey win.

Americans dominate the top point scoring table with four different skaters in the top ten overall, Phil Kessel (4G 3A), T.J. Oshie (1G 3A), Joe Pavelski (1G 3A) and James van Riemsdyk (0G 4A). David Backes and Paul Stastny the only other players with more than one goal. Russia has five players on one goal (Kovalchuk, Malkin, Ovechkin, Belov and Nichushkin) and one player on two goals, Pavel Datsyuk.



GROUP B

No surprises in this group as the reigning Olympic champions top the 2nd ranked team in the world. It was always going to be Canada and Finland topping this group since the draw was made.

Canadian coach Mike Babcock has been busy shuffling line combinations about over the last four days. Montreal goalie Carey Price with two wins in net, including this evenings crucial overtime win over the Finnish. Defenseman Drew Doughty had four goals including both against Finland. All of Canada's goal scorers ply their trade in the Western Conference, Doughty (LA), Carter (LA), Weber (NSH), Benn (DAL) and Getzlaf (ANA).

Canada head into the knockout round as the 3rd seed and Finland as the 4th.

GROUP C

World number one and one of the strongest favourites pre tournament, Sweden, top the group with a 100% record and head into the knockout stage as the 1st seed.

One surprise that jumps out is the Czechs finishing in 3rd and that they could only manage a win against Latvia, the 2nd lowest ranked team in the tournament. Talking of Latvia, they will face the
Swiss again on Tuesday.


Scoring leaders after the Preliminary Round

KNOCKOUT STAGE PREVIEW

The qualification playoffs, or wildcard round, is on Tuesday. The four winners play against a team from the top four seeds on Wednesday. The semi finals are on Friday with the bronze medal game on Saturday, before the gold medal is contested for at the Bolshoy Ice Dome on Sunday.

These are the dates and UK times of the rest of the tournament.

Qualification playoffs (Tuesday 18th):

Russia vs Norway 8am
Switzerland vs Latvia - 12:30pm
Slovenia vs Austris - 5pm
Czech Republic vs Slovakia - 5pm

Quarter finals (Wednesday 19th):

Sweden vs Slovenia/Austria - 8am
Finland vs Russia/Norway - 12:30pm
Canada vs Switzerland/Latvia - 5pm
USA vs Czech Republic/Slovakia - 5pm

Semi finals (Friday 21st): Noon, 5pm

Bronze medal game (Saturday 22nd): 3pm

Gold medal game (Sunday 23rd): Noon

EDIT (17th Feb): The games for the first two rounds have been allocated to the time slots above.

Just the prospect of the Canada/US semi final is making my mouth water. This is where it really steps up a level. Unless Russia can cause an upset I can't see anyone other than the top four as the last four.

Hope all of you watching have enjoyed the games so far, and other sports. (GO JENNY JONES!!! GO LIZZY YARNOLD!!!)

Enjoy the rest of the games and the hockey.

Psst..... we're nine days from NHL action returning!!!

How to solve a problem like overtime.......

It's no secret that overtime, and the things that come with it, is a big talking point in the NHL. Perhaps the most debated point is the shootout. The "non-shootout" years pre-date my time as a hockey fan. So I don't have a nostalgic feeling of the old days when teams could tie games. Although, I am a football fan, and the idea of a Premier League game ending level, then going to any sort of overtime or shootout is ludicrous.

One problem with the shootout is that, once in overtime, some teams may decide to play to the shootout rather than go all out for a win, like a team in the NFL might decide to "tank" once they know they're destined for a top 10 draft pick. The post 2004-05 lockout rules would (and still do) reward teams with two points for a regulation, overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss, and no points for a regulation loss. But the problem started from there being no difference to your league position, whether you won in regulation or overtime with "team" play, or via the "skills" competition, you had your two points. In an attempt to try and put teams in a more attacking mind, the NHL introduced a new statistic to the standings in 2010. The ROW column, or Regulation/Overtime wins. This means that teams are given priority in standings and playoff seeding tiebreakers if they have more ROW than a team they tied with on points. Emphasising the importance of winning in "team" play. But, the problem of teams settling for a shootout still happens.

Many believe, in particular Detroit GM Ken Holland, that the way to help reduce the chance of going to a shootout is once the five minute 4-on-4 period ends tied, that they should go to another five minute period, and reduce teams to 3-on-3. This is one option of moving forward. One we got a short preview of in a recent LA Kings-New Jersey Devils game, when the teams skated 3-on-3 for a full two minutes after Dustin Brown (diving) and Jaromir Jagr (holding) took penalties.

Another solution, posed by Jeff Klein of the New York Times, is to increase the amount of points awarded, further increasing the importance of the regulation 60-minutes. This would mean 3 points for a regulation win; 2 points for an OT or shootout win; 1 point for an OT or shootout loss; and zero points for a regulation loss. It's used in international hockey games and makes sense, because after all, shouldn't regulation be worth more than the five extra overtime minutes?

I'm quite in favour of going to a 3-on-3 and the adoption of the 3-2-1-0 point system, eliminating the current 2-2-1-0 system. As fun as the shootout is to watch, it isn't "team" hockey, it should be saved for the all-star game.

These would be the "new" 2013/14 standings (Reg W - OT/SO W - OT/SO L - Reg L), with the adapted points total, actual current record, and current points/position;

EAST

Atlantic	"New" Record	(3-2-1-0) Points - Change	Actual Record (with ROW)	Actual Points
Boston Bruins	47-7-9-19	164	54-19-9 (51)	117
Tampa Bay Lightning	32-14-9-27	133 - down one	46-27-9 (38)	101
Montreal Canadiens	33-13-8-28	133 - up one	46-28-8 (40)	100
Detroit Red Wings	30-9-15-28	123	39-28-15 (34)	93
Ottawa Senators	27-10-14-31	115	37-31-14 (30)	88
Toronto Maple Leafs	24-14-8-36	108	38-36-8 (29)	84
Florida Panthers	21-8-8-45	87	29-45-8 (21)	66
Buffalo Sabres	11-10-10-51	63	21-51-10 (14)	52

Metropolitan	"New" Record	(3-2-1-0) Points - Change	Actual Record (with ROW)	Actual Points
Pittsburgh Penguins	40-11-7-24	149	51-24-7 (44)	109
New York Rangers	39-6-6-31	135	45-31-6 (41)	96
Philadelphia Flyers	35-7-10-30	129	42-30-10 (39)	94
Columbus Blue Jackets	35-8-7-32	128	43-32-7 (38)	93
Washington Capitals	24-14-14-30	114 - down one	38-30-14 (28)	90
New Jersey Devils	26-9-18-29	114 - up one	35-29-18 (35)	88
Carolina Hurricanes	30-6-11-35	113	36-35-11 (34)	83
New York Islanders	21-13-11-37	100	34-37-11 (25)	79

WEST

Central	"New" Record	(3-2-1-0) Points	Actual Record (with ROW)	Actual Points
Colorado Avalanche	37-15-8-22	149 - down one	52-22-8 (47)	112
St Louis Blues	40-12-7-23	151 - up one	52-23-7 (43)	111
Chicago Blackhawks	39-7-15-21	146	46-21-15 (40)	107
Minnesota Wild	32-11-12-27	130	43-27-12 (35)	98
Dallas Stars	34-6-11-31	125	40-31-11 (36)	91
Nashville Predators	33-5-12-32	121	38-32-12 (36)	88
Winnipeg Jets	24-13-10-35	108	37-35-10 (29)	84

Pacific	"New" Record	(3-2-1-0) Points	Actual Record (with ROW)	Actual Points
Anaheim Ducks	44-9-7-20	157	54-20-8 (51)	116
San Jose Sharks	37-14-9-22	148	51-22-9 (41)	111
Los Angeles Kings	34-12-8-28	134	46-28-8 (38)	100
Phoenix Coyotes	27-9-15-30	114	37-30-15 (31)	89
Vancouver Canucks	24-11-11-35	105	36-35-11 (31)	83
Calgary Flames	21-14-7-39	98	35-40-7 (28)	77
Edmonton Oilers	20-9-9-44	87	29-44-9 (25)	67

Under the new idea the Metropolitan Division gets the largest change, whilst the Central Division doesn't change at all. The Atlantic and Pacific Divisions would just see Montreal leap over Tampa, and Anaheim jump ahead of San Jose.

Personally, having seen several short 3-on-3's and the two minutes between the Kings and Devils, makes me want both, obviously there's no way of telling how teams would play if there was an extra point for regulation wins. But, why not? Both ideas are great, in my opinion. I would be campaigning for both if I was a GM or on the NHL board of Governors.

Maybe the way forward was revealed in July when the AHL announced a few rule changes. From the 2014/15 season the AHL will feature a seven minute overtime period. Teams will skate 4-on-4 for the first three minutes, after the first stop in play after three minutes the teams will reduce to 3-on-3 for the remainder of the period. Before the period there will be a dry scrape of the ice and overtime will also be played using the long change, like currently done in the 2nd period.

The AHL is a test market for the NHL. Many of the rules implemented into the league find themselves in the NHL if successful, and many an NHL rule has been put on trial in the AHL before being used in the NHL.

This change is similar to the proposal by Red Wings GM Ken Holland of a ten minute overtime, half 4-on-4 and half 3-on-3 but shorter. The NHL likes to keep things as quick as possible. This change should be a success in what it's ultimately designed to do, creating space on the ice and prevent the shootout. I like the idea and would welcome the NHL adapting it in 2015/16. But limiting the amount of shootouts games go to is only half of the solution. There's still the problem of the points system. They still need to do something to make the regulation sixty minutes worth more than anything that comes after it. The current system is what makes the comparison to teams 3-2-1-0 records so lop sided. There isn't a stat more telling of the fact teams happily get to a point where they play for overtime, or settle for the shootout, than comparing the current points record to what it could look like with the IIHF scoring used.