Colorado Avalanche

Well, if you didn't know, the Colorado Avalanche have a new head coach. You might have heard of him... Patrick Roy. Patrick's passion for the game of hockey both as a player and as a coach defines who he is as a person," Kroenke said. "He is a winner and is coming back to Denver, where he created numerous special moments on and off the ice while helping lead us to two Stanley Cup championships." Roy won three Vézina Trophies (1989, 1990, 1992) and was selected to the NHL All-Star team six times. There are questions about the Memorial Cup. The decades-old debate about the format of the Memorial Cup is not going to be settled this spring. Or, at least, the Saskatoon Blades are not going to be the team that settles it once and for all. The entire concept of the four-team tournament that features three league champions and a host club, regardless of the host’s record or quality, has been questioned for years. The idea, of course, is that having a home team adds intrigue and helps sell tickets, and last year in Shawinigan you had the perfect example of how it can work when the host Cataractes won the Memorial Cup final in overtime. Paul MacLean made some waves, but the National Post has some other awesome - if a bit cringe-worthy - interviews. Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean surprised reporters on Wednesday night with an out-of-character post-game news conference. With the Senators now trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins after a 7-3 blowout at home, MacLean did not have much to say. In fact, he spoke for barely 15 seconds and walked out of the room. “I think everything’s right here. It’s 7-3. See you in Pittsburgh,” he said while holding up the score sheet. “We’re going to Pittsburgh and we’re coming to play. Have a good night.” It was a little strange, but at least these reporters were left relatively unscathed. Here are five news conferences that did not end so well.

If you are a hockey fan, then you were probably very frustrated by the lockout that kept the first half of this year’s NHL season from happening. And while the league is finally back in session and the playoffs are well underway, the sad fact remains that hockey fans still lost half of what could have been an amazing season. So what caused the lockout, and what effects has it had on the league as a whole? The lockout started as a result of disagreements between the NHL players and the association.You can find a quick rundown here Essentially, neither side could agree on a reasonable salary cap; the players wanted more money, while the league did not want to give them any. Because of this, the season did not start on time and hockey fans across the world were both devastated and annoyed that money could get in the way of letting them watch their favorite sport. Fortunately, the conflict was resolved, but not without cost. Ratings for the NHL are now down, as fewer have been tuning into games and even fewer have been purchasing tickets to see their home teams. Hopefully, this will turn around now that the playoffs have finally gotten underway.

The Colorado Avalanche have proven Patrick Roy's bro correct by announcing the former goalie and 8-year veteran coach of the QMJHL as the new head coach. The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club announced today that the organization has reached an agreement in principle with Patrick Roy to become the franchise’s Head Coach/Vice President of Hockey Operations. Due to the Memorial Day weekend, the Avalanche will hold a press conference next week in Denver to formally introduce Roy. Roy, 47, becomes the sixth head coach in Avalanche history and the 14th in franchise history. In addition to his head coaching duties, Roy will also work with Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic in all player personnel decisions. (Additional info forthcoming...on a conference call.)

We've all heard the reasoning - taking defensemen too early in the first round is a bad idea because they take so much longer to develop and have a higher likelihood of being a bust. But is this really true? When you take a defenseman early, what sort of player are you likely to get? To answer these questions, I decided to conduct a study on the top 10 picks from the past 10 drafts. With technology changing how scouting is done, I didn't want to go too far back, and besides, stopping at 2003 meant that all the defensemen in question made their debut in the post-lockout NHL. By limiting the study in this way, I removed a number of variables while still providing an adequate sample size. Excluded Players Since 2003, there have been 33 defensemen drafted in the top 10. Of those, 9 have yet to play in an NHL game. Year Pick Name Team League '10 10 Dylan McIlrath NYR WHL '12 2 Ryan Murray CBJ WHL '12 4 Griffin Reinhart NYI WHL '12 5 Morgan Rielly TOR WHL '12 6 Hampus Lindholm ANA SEL-Jr. '12 7 Mathew Dumba MIN WHL '12 8 Derrick Pouliot PIT WHL '12 9 Jacob Trouba WPG USHL '12 10 Slater Koekkoek TBL OHL Of the 24 defensemen that remain, three were busts. It should be noted that Hickey is currently playing for NYI, so perhaps calling him a bust is premature, but he was a waiver-wire pickup who took 6 years to make the NHL and is only being given limited minutes. The other two no longer play in the league. Year Pick Name Draft League GP G A Pts '04 10 Boris Valabik ATL OHL 80 0 7 7 '05 10 Luc Bourdon VAN QMJHL 36 2 0 2 '07 4 Thomas Hickey LAK WHL 39 1 3 4 That narrows the field to the 21 serviceable defensemen who will be the focus of this study. Study Data The charts are sortable. Just click on the words in the blue box, and the table will sort to that column. Draft and Team Information: Year Pick Name League Entry D. Yrs. Draft Current Same '03 7 Ryan Suter USDP '05 2 NSH MIN N '03 8 Braydon Coburn WHL '06 3 ATL PHI N '03 9 Dion Phaneuf WHL '05 2 CGY TOR N '04 3 Cam Barker WHL '06 2 CHI VAN N '04 9 Ladislav Smid ELH '06 2 ANA EDM N '05 3 Jack Johnson USDP '07 2 CAR CBJ N '05 9 Brian Lee HS-MN '08 3 OTT TBL N '06 1 Erik Johnson USDP '07 1 STL COL N '07 5 Karl Alzner WHL '08 1 WSH WSH Y '07 10 Keaton Ellerby WHL '09 2 FLA LAK N '08 2 Drew Doughty OHL '08 0 LAK LAK Y '08 3 Zach Bogosian OHL '08 0 ATL WPG Y '08 4 Alex Pietrangelo OHL '10 2 STL STL Y '08 5 Luke Schenn WHL '08 0 TOR PHI N '09 2 Victor Hedman SEL '09 0 TBL TBL Y '09 6 Oliver Ekman-Larsson SEL-Jr. '10 1 PHX PHX Y '09 9 Jared Cowen WHL '11 2 OTT OTT Y '10 3 Erik Gudbranson OHL '11 1 FLA FLA Y '11 4 Adam Larsson SEL '11 0 NJD NJD Y '11 9 Dougie Hamilton OHL '12 1 BOS BOS Y '11 10 Jonas Brodin SEL '12 1 MIN MIN Y Entry = First year the player had over 10GP in the NHL. For example, " '05 " means the 2005-'06 season. D. Yrs. = "Development Years", or full seasons played at a minor league level before making the NHL full-time. Same = Indicates if player is still with his draft team or if he has been traded/signed elsewhere. One of the things that stands out is how few defensemen taken prior to 2007 are still on their draft teams. Perhaps these players just have had more time to be traded, but the fact that none of them are where they started implies that their organizations either lost patience with their development or were forced to move them somewhere along the way. None of these players (except perhaps

The Vancouver Canucks have fired their coach. Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault has paid the price for his team’s early exit from the playoffs. The club fired Vigneault and assistants Rick Bowness and Newell Brown on Wednesday, as the expected fallout from the Canucks’ first-round sweep at the hands of the San Jose Sharks finally came to pass. CBC has an article up about Roy potentially becoming the next Colorado Avalanche head coach. "You want to have some patience, because your best players are young," Sakic said. A fierce competitor on the ice, Roy could bring that same type of demeanour to the bench, even if he doesn't have NHL coaching experience. Since his retirement, Roy has been keeping busy by helping out the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He's served as the team's co-owner, general manager and coach. The two sides talked about Roy becoming a head coach in 2009, but he chose to remain in Quebec, where his teen sons were still playing junior hockey. The National Post has an article about the man that puts CBC's NHL montages together. The idea for a montage can come from a song, a moment, or a shot captured by one of the CBC cameras. Thompson never trained in film. He has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Guelph, where he studied philosophy and history. He also has a deep appreciation of music. He said his father was a deejay in university, and that the family was familiar with the live music scene around Toronto. The songs he uses in the montages can cost a few thousand dollars to use. That total can add up over the course of the playoffs, which is why songs that might cost more to license can sometimes be held for more important games in a series, or when the most people will be watching.

I’ve been asked a few times if I’m excited over the prospect of Patrick Roy becoming the new head coach of the Avalanche. No. Patrick Roy might be a great coach for the Avalanche. He may turn the team around, if he is hired. And he might not. The proof should be in his record, not in the glory of the past, not in his ability to stop a puck, and certainly not in his accomplishments as a junior coach and GM. There is nothing like coaching the NHL. The minors have a lot of movement. College and junior hockey have different goals, with new rosters every four years or so. There are no guaranteed contracts, no ‘no-movement clauses,’ rooms aren’t lost, players are. The NHL is very different. And as we have seen before, having the experience of being behind the bench is not the same as sitting on it. If he gets hired, I will happily wait to see what happens next. I have seen way too many people start the parade before the ink was dry on a contract, be it for a player or coach. No, I’ll get excited when the season starts. Not before. A note on comments: I am getting an s-ton of spam right now, and have turned comments off for the time being. I will turn them back on later, or start asking people to register to leave a comment. Sorry, I know it sucks.

Just a picture grabbed at random

The last time these two teams met they had so much fun they decided to play a whole extra period and change. #1 Pittsburgh Penguins (good lord, I almost typed Pirates. What's wrong with me) at #7 Ottawa Senators (2-1 PIT) 7:30 Eastern, NBC Sports, CBC, RDS Here's a couple of comparisons between the two playoffs these sides have had. Ottawa's top scorer is Daniel Alfredsson, with 8 points in 8 games. Pittsburgh has 5 with 9 or more points in 9 or fewer games: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jerome Iginla, Paul Martin, and Kris Letang. Both teams have used two goaltenders. Three of the four have SV% ≥ .940 and the fourth, around .890, is Marc-Andre Fleury. These teams have had a pretty well-placed two-day break between games, considering they played 2 overtimes on Sunday. Paul Martin, Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Marc Methot, Sergei Gonchar, and Erik Karlsson all pulled more than 30:00 TOI. Eat some bananas fellas.

Sandie called in sick today, so I'm pinch hitting in the Cupcake department. Try to disguise your disappointment, please. SI has article slideshow listing some notable Hall of Fame players who became coaches which seems oddly relevant to our interests. Spolier alert: out of 11 listed, three had a winning record in their coaching career - Jacques Lemaire, Bill Barber and Gerry Cheevers. Cheevers is also notable as one of the few former goalies to have success behind the bench. Sticking with the coaching theme, the Predators have hired one of my favorite players to be an assistant coach. Defenseman Phil Housley was a scoring machine in his career, scoring 50+ points 15 times. Only three defensemen have more career points, but he was not known for his, um, defensive acumen and so far the Hall of Fame has eluded him. Former Avalanche forward Wojtek Wolski is going to the KHL, signing with the Torpedo of Nizhny Novgorod. If you don't know much about the Torpedos, I'm not sure I can be of much help because I don't either. Although it will be exciting to see if Wolski can generate some chemistry on a line with Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev and Alexander Yevseyenkov. Ha ha, one of those guys is actually a defensemen, idiots. Future Avalanche Seth Jones isn't the only potential first rounder with some interesting family pedigree. Defenseman Darnell Nurse is the nephew of former Eagles QB Donovan McNabb. And Tie Domi's son Max has some mad skills as well (no really, check that out). And Warren Rychel's son, Kerby, is another prospect who doesn't suck. I'm sure there's more that I'm missing...I mean, deliberately not mentioning due to...time constraints. Happy Hump Day, people

Adrian Dater reports, that Stephane Roy's, Patrick Roy's brother, has said that Roy (Patrick, not Stephane) is going to be the next coach of the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs, for their part, are not commenting on it because the organization looked deep into Medusa's eyes years ago rendering them incapable of commenting on anything. I have mixed feelings on whether or not Patrick Roy will be a good head coach. I have mixed feelings about legends coming back to coach the team they achieved greatness with. I just have no idea what kind of coach Roy will be. The good news is that I think coaches generally get too much credit and too much blame for their teams' success and failure so I don't think it's as big of a deal (on the ice) as some people. Where I have the most concerns is that I haven't heard of them even interviewing another candidate yet. It's possible they have (they are notoriously secretive) but Dallas Eakins (Toronto Marlies) & Tippett (still Phoenix Coyotes), at least, are both unavailable for interview, so the Avs clearly have not even vetted them yet. Lindy Ruff is, but a high profile coach like that would have likely garnered a report somewhere. Same with a guy like Guy Carbonneau. Now maybe Roy is the first guy that has been brought in to interview, and is the early favorite to boot, and this is the first step in an truly exhaustive coaching search. In which case this is all just good fun rostercoacherbation. I hope this is the case, and there are leaks about other interviews. If the job goes to roy after that, then that's great news. But, as of right now, it has a whiff of the Avs business as usual: not doing their due diligence or doing a full search for a coach. In 2008 Tony Granato was hired after no coaching search what so ever. Here's what I wrote about it then: In fact I have nothing against Granato (we'll get to that in a minute), it was the way in which the search played out that really bothers me. The Avs didn't even bring Dineen, McLellan, or Burns in for a courtesy interview. Is Granato, mastermind of the kitten-killing powerplay, really that impressive that he deserves to be hired before even talking to qualified candidates? He may end up being a fine coach, but then again Kineen, McLellan may too, and waiting for an interview with either candidate certainly certainly would have done no harm. Both are promising young coaches and to not even give them the light of day is really unacceptable. Then Granato flamed out spectacularly, in one of the worst Avs seasons of all time, and GM Francois Giguere was fired, Granato was fired, and Joe Sacco was hired the day after the GM was hired (meaning Sherman had little to no choice in his own coach). I wrote a more profanity laced post that essentially said the same thing: Well Pierre Lacroix has clearly gone insane. Today it was revealed that he is promoting an unproven, and some could make the argument an unsuccessful, coach from within the orginization to run the team without even bothering to do a token search for someone who might actually have soem hockey knowledge and happens to be working within a different organization. Somehow promoting this greenhorn, who has very little success as a coach, is going to turn the Avs into contenders. After Joe Sacco was fired this year Terry Frei, probably the most astute and well informed Avs observer there is, wrote an excellent column in which this he seems nearly prophetic with a single line: No coaching search can be credible until the direction of the organization and the future makeup of the front office is clear. Can a credible coaching search consist of one candidate? Maybe this cynicism is a bit alienating, but this is the third time I've written a variation of this post in the last 5 years. Over that time the Avs have more top-5 draft picks than playoff wins. They have been at or near the bottom in total salary. The front office shake-up was supposed to change things, but the very early first in