Hockey

Now that everyone is furious with this horrible Mark Streit signing, it’s my job to settle everyone down. Or at least attempt to. I want to start off by pointing out that we got the best possible player on the market that fit the hole we had in our lineup: a puck moving defensemen. The two key things to take away from that last sentence are: quality addition for 2013-14, no subtractions. Are there better defenders on the trade market? Of course. Could we acquire them without giving up major assets? Nope. The first of three positives I want to point out is the fact that Mark Streit is a young 35 if there ever was one. He’s only played in 491 career NHL games. He played overseas before he came to the NHL, but the league he was in only had a 44 game schedule and was nowhere near the grind of the NHL (he played in the “Swiss-A League”). In addition to the fact he’s played less than 500 NHL regular season games, he’s only played 18 career post-season games. Positive number two has to deal with the fact that Streit is a very good puck-mover. Check out this table: Rk Active Player Games PPG 1 Gonchar 1177 0.658 2 Green 433 0.64 3 D. Boyle 879 0.597 4 Streit 491 0.587 9 Weber 528 0.551 11 Timonen 1015 0.528 15 Kieth 607 0.509 18 Suter 590 0.458 25 Bouwmeester 764 0.402 He’s got the fourth highest points per game for active defenders, behind only Gonchar, Green, and Boyle. And it’s not as if he’s hit his true decline yet. Streit had .56 PPG last year and was right around the same place the year before. Now that we know Mark Streit is an elite point producer in today’s game, I wanted to see how he compared to other players who put up similar PPG numbers---and then see how those players faired in the end of their careers. Streit has a .587 PPG. I compiled data for all defenders who had similar career PPG numbers (.62-.525, skewed to have more players of lesser PPG numbers to lower the total expectation for Streit) and had at roughly a half point per game in their 35 AND 36 year old season (Streit just played his 35 year old season). The results were honestly, shocking, and in a good way. Only a select handful of defensemen were able to be point producers in their 35 and 36 year-old seasons. Check out this table below: Career PPG% 35P 35G 35 PPG 36P 36G 36 PPG 37P 37G 37 PPG 38P 38G 38 PPG 39P 39G 39 PPG S. Niedermayer 6.04 194 0.586 48 80 0.60 48 80 0.60 D. Boyle 5.11 190 0.597 48 81 0.59 20 46 0.43 C. Pronger 6.06 220 0.598 55 82 0.67 25 50 0.50 12 13 0.92 R. Blake 6.04 225 0.612 46 74 0.62 51 81 0.63 34 72 0.47 31 71 0.44 45 73 0.62 B. Rafalsky 5.10 194 0.618 59 78 0.76 42 78 0.54 48 63 0.76 M. Schneider 5.11 192 0.576 46 78 0.59 59 72 0.82 52 68 0.76 39 65 0.60 32 67 0.48 C. Chelios 6.0 192 0.574 42 81 0.52 36 75 0.48 34 81 0.42 3 24 0.13 39 79 0.49 K. Timonen 5.10 194 0.528 37 82 0.45 43 76 0.57 29 45 0.64 The table is pretty simple. It’s each individuals yearly stats displayed horizontally. The number is the season, meaning “35” is the player’s 35th year old season. Eight players had 35 year-old seasons like Mark Streit in which they lit up the stat sheet and they wanted to play at least one more year. From there the results vary, but as you can see, 6 of the 8 played a third year, 3 of those 6 played a fourth year, and those three who played a fourth year also played a fifth year. As for the breakdown? Season P/G Points*82 35 0.6 49.2 36 0.581 47.642 37 0.611 50.102 38 0.456 37.392 39 0.53 43.46 y=-2.1578x + 52.012 , r^2= .42906 With elite puck-moving defenders,

The rumblings regarding Logan Couture being close to a contract extension with the San Jose Sharks have been percolating for a while now, so this should not come as a surprise: Breaking News: Logan Couture has just agreed to a contract extension with #sjsharks — Brodie Brazil (@brodiebrazilCSN) June 18, 2013 �� Big dayyyyy — Logan Couture (@Logancouture) June 18, 2013

Let's not expect to learn very much about whatever ails Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa over the next day or three: Quenneville: Hopeful Hossa will be available for next game. Made decision after warmup. Upper body — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 18, 2013 Joel Quenneville on Marian Hossa: "We'll say day to day. We're hopeful he'll be ready for the next game." — Brian Hamilton (@ChiTribHamilton) June 18, 2013 Quenneville says Hossa injury had nothing to do with what happened in warmup — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 18, 2013 Q, re: Hossa, "Nothing happened during warmup." Toews said they knew earlier today Hossa may not play tonight. #Blackhawks — Tracey Myers (@TramyersCSN) June 18, 2013 Ben Smith wasn't told he was going to play for #Blackhawks in Game 3 until after warmups. "It was a scramble to get ready and get warm." — Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) June 18, 2013

Holy crap. I'll grant you that the Chicago Blackhawks were playing without Marian Hossa's services, and I'll grant you that the last-minute shenanigans may have woken them up...But did they ever succumb to a sleeper hold placed upon their collective necks by the Boston Bruins. The Bruins just dismantled the Chicago Blackhawks, winning 2-0 and taking a 2-games-to-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final while rendering the Hossa-less Hawks impotent on the power play and downright vulnerable on the power play, on the penalty-kill, at even strength, in terms of physicality, puck possession, puck pursuit, forechecking, backchecking, discipline, intensity, focus, desire, I mean, you name the *#$%@& adjective or adverb. The Bruins out-classed Chicago on Tuesday night, and the Blackhawks were the team that looked like it'd played four games' worth of ice time, while the Bruins looked like a team that had swept Pittsburgh and was simply cashing the check that was increased energy reserves. Can the Hawks come back on Wendesday and tie this thing? Sure, but the Bruins just established a, "How to defeat the Blackhawks" blueprint for 28 other teams to use next season in nothing less than a command performance from Tuukka Rask on out.

Don Cherry adores chatting with the top draft prospects that the NHL brings to every Stanley Cup Final, and he chatted with the gents in a long Coach's Corner on Monday night. I'm posting it for tradition's sake as there isn't too much substance to the video otherwise:

Things got very interesting just prior to Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, as ESPN Chicago's Scott Powers noted... Chicago Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa was a late scratch from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins on Monday. Hossa, who has seven goals and eight assists in the playoffs, skated during the team's pregame warmups and was scratched with about 15 minutes left before the opening faceoff. An NBC announcer said Hossa was hit by a puck during warmups. Ben Smith filled in for Hossa. Smith scored one goal in one game for the Blackhawks in the regular season. He had three goals in seven playoff games in 2011. And things COULD have ended quite poorly for Zdeno Chara when he bumped both Milan Lucic Adam McQuaid during warm-ups, yielding a trip to the locker room for stitches to the back of his head and an in-game absence to have his skates re-sharpened:

Featuring Neil Young.

One team is going up 2-1 in the series after tonight's game. Will it be Boston with the home-ice advantage or Chicago playing the perfect road game? If things go as they have the last two games, expect the results around midnight or maybe even a little later. Puck drops just after 8:00pm ET and is on NBCSN, CBC and RDS. added 8:24pm, Hossa took the pre-game skate, but not in the lineup tonight. Reports say he may have taken a puck in the warmup.

from James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail, GM of the Year Toronto Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis received two second place votes (the potential difference between Murray winning over Shero) despite making few significant roster changes from the lineup he inherited upon taking over right before the season started. Even more curious, Greg Sherman, GM of the last place team in the West, picked up a third-place vote for helping steer his team into the basement. Vezina Trophy (top goaltender) Ray Emery (only 19 starts) received a first-place vote – putting him ahead of Bobrovsky, Henrik Lundqvist and everyone else. Jonas Hiller (who lost his starting job for long stretches to Viktor Fasth) received a second-place vote, and Carey Price and Niklas Backstrom both got third-place votes despite well below average save percentages (.905 and .909). Hart Trophy (league MVP) Alex Ovechkin beat out Sidney Crosby by only 32 points in one of the closest votes in history, meaning another half dozen votes one way or the other could have meant for a different winner. Some of those went to what are decidedly complementary players – Chris Kunitz (five points) and Pascal Dupuis (one point) – or those having off seasons like Evgeni Nabokov (five points), Backstrom and Price (three each). Anyone, anywhere, would be hard pressed to argue any of those five were among the top five most valuable players in the league this season. more

According to source, Alain Vigneault has agreed to 5-year deal w/ #Rangers. Told it's in the $2 Million per year range. #NHL — Louis Jean (@LouisJean_TVA) June 17, 2013 Confirming that Alain Vigneault gets 10 million over 5 years as coach of NYR.Told that was same offer that Dallas had on table for AV. — John Shannon (@JSportsnet) June 17, 2013