Hockey

Thanks to MLHS user “JVR” for submitting the following report after taking in the Marlies‘ final game of the season at the Ricoh last night: I was (un)fortunate enough to be at the Ricoh Coliseum to watch the Marlies take on the Griffins in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Toronto got off to [more…]

Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports After a back and forth series with the Washington Capitals and an emphatic Game 7 win in the nation’s capital, the Rangers had plenty of reasons to enter the second round with confidence. Although Rick Nash did not score a goal in the first round, he still had plenty of scoring chances which gave fans hope. After dropping Game 1 in Boston 3-2 at the hands of Brad Marchand‘s overtime goal, the Blueshirts knew they had to tie up the series heading back to New York. Unfortunately, that is not the way things panned out. New York dropped Game 2 as well losing by a final score of 5-2. Do not let that score fool you however, Rick Nash did score his first playoff goal, and up until the third period, I felt that the Rangers were playing their best playoff hockey so far. But, a third period collapse filled with defensive miscues and blown coverages would be their eventual downfall. So, the Rangers headed back to New York trailing 2-0 in the series, the same spot that they found themselves in against Washington. After watching last night’s debacle, it is clear that this team needs a makeover. Brad Richards once again looked invisible which is starting to become a daily occurance, Nash did not score, the powerplay was awful, and it looked like Henrik Lundqvist was the only player trying to get a win for his team. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Szagola-USA TODAY Sports John Tortorella I know this team cares and they are trying to win, but they aren’t going to be successful with John Tortorella at the helm of this squad. His grind it out and mega defensive system does not work when you have star players like Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, and Ryan Callahan. Although I agree that it is the players job to put the puck in the net, it can all be traced back to the system. The way Tortorella runs things just doesn’t work anymore on Broadway. The question that is being asked now is “Has Tortorella lost his team?” It has happened before in hockey, where players no longer respond to their coaches, and now the fear is the same thing may be happening in the Big Apple. It looks like Tortorella’s tyrannical way of running things is forcing the players to tune him out. Before last night’s game, the Rangers went 99 consecutive games without a defeat carrying a lead into the third period. You would have expected his team to come out with fire and swagger, but that didn’t happen. Instead, we saw the play taken to the RANGERS. If you want to hold a lead in this league, you have to bring a consistent and structured forecheck. Many times last night the Bruins were able to just waltz right out of their zone, with absolutely no pressure being applied. That just doesn’t work in this league, and it stems back to coaching. After a fluke bounce was put in by Daniel Paille, the Blueshirts trailed 2-1 with 3 minutes to play. So Tortorella called his team over to discuss some things, which was the right decision. Once the puck dropped and the Rangers controlled play in the offensive zone, there was not one guy in front of the net. If I was coaching, I would have told all three of my forwards to crash the net and look for rebounds and tip-ins. Instead, the Rangers kept play to the outside, and barely mustered a shot on goal. This is frustrating as a fan, and maybe it’s time to close the curtain on Tortorella’s Broadway show. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports Brad Richards Back in February, Larry Brooks of the NY Post reported that the Rangers could use their amnesty buyout to get out of Richards’ contract. Many fans thought that was absurd, a slow start to the season means that we talk about buying out players? Well, that buyout may become a necessity. Although he had a pretty good run at the end of the season with 11 points in 6 games and a hat trick against Buffalo, many people were describing that effort as “empty points.&

Joel Quenneville tried putting all his top guys on one power play unit, and it didn't work. So now he's trying to spread the wealth again. At Wednesday's practice, the Blackhawks' top power play unit had Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith at the points, with Patrick Sharp, Brandon Saad and Bryan Bickell up front. The second unit featured Michal Rozsival and either Brent Seabrook or Nick Leddy at the point, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Andrew Shaw. "We're just looking for a little more balance on the units," Quenneville said. "Hopefully, we'll get some production." The Hawks are just 3-of-22 on the power play this postseason, including 0-of-6 in losses to Detroit in Games 2 and 3. Even a unit featuring all-stars Keith, Sharp, Hossa, Toews and Kane struggled to get anything past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard. "The last couple games, it hasn't been very good," Keith said. "So probably expect some changes there." Bickell's addition in front of the net gives the Hawks a big body to both deflect shots and block Howard's vision. "Howard's playing great, he's a hot goaltender right now," Shaw said. "Getting big bodies like Bicks in front of the net and finding those loose pucks and putting them home, I think it's going to be great for us. ... They have big defensemen and they can move you pretty well. We've just got to battle and compete and try to take his eyes away as much as possible." As for 5-on-5 scenarios, Sharp again skated on the top line, to the left of Toews and Hossa. Saad again was with Dave Bolland and Kane on the second line. Quenneville made that move in Game 3, and liked the results. Toews and Saad have combined for no goals and four assists this postseason. "We weren't having a ton of success, so we mixed up the lines a little bit," Saad said. "And I thought we played well last time."

Updates on Flyers 2010 to 2012 Draft Classes The quality and depth of a draft class generally takes three to five years to judge accurately. Beyond a team's first-round pick, a draft can be retroactively deemed a success if at least one or two other players eventually make it to the NHL. Following are updates on the Flyers' 2010, 2011 and 2012 draft classes. 2010 Among the members of the More here: Bill Meltzer

Quote of the day. -

Lots of random stuff to talk about today, so we'll do it kind of like a midday Quick hits. First up: Danny DeKeyser expects to get cast off today. Moving closer to possible return at some point in playoffs. — Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) May 22, 2013 That's a huge bit of wishful thinking, but I like the news. DeKeyser broke his thumb two weeks ago. With the severity of the break and the need to have screws inserted to fix it, this is more a 6-8 weeks thing than a 4-6 weeks. If Dan DeKe can heal as fast as Ottawa's Erik Karlsson, we'd miraculously see him about midway through the conference finals. Otherwise, we're looking ahead two series. That's... well that's a lot of looking ahead, even as confident as we are right now. Next up, on the power play: Looks like Babcock will keep his top two forward units together on PP to try and get things going. So Nyquist off PP. Blue line stays same. — Chuck Pleiness (@wingsfrontman) May 22, 2013 I keep going back to the conversation I had with Michael Petrella earlier this season about the power play and how you need grinders out there. I've been impressed with about half of the Wings' power plays so far in this round, but none of them have gotten results and the sentiment about needing to be tougher on the puck keeps coming back. The Chicago PK is aggressive on the half-boards where the Wings like to play with the puck, often out-manning with the two near-side PKers while the other two move to the middle of the ice. The Wings need more puck support there to get it out of that scrum sooner and will need to move the puck much quicker to keep the Hawks from readjusting. I don't know necessarily that Nyquist has been the problem on the power play, but I do think the 2nd unit needs a bit more angry on it. I'd personally give Filppula's role as the zone-entry specialist to Nyquist and move Flip either off the PP or to the front of the net for a short time. I know that Filppula doesn't exactly strike fear as a Tomas Holmstrom-type, but you'd be surprised at how well stick-handlers can take defenders' attention away from loose pucks. Either way, I'm not questioning Babs. Elsewhere on the Wings Gregg Krupa was a quote machine on Twitter today in regards to Babcock Quotes. He talked about everything from Danny Cleary's play (which he likes) to Patrick Eaves to his planning for the series and home ice and about Jimmy Howard's goaltending. Just check the timeline, really. There's a lot of good stuff there. From Chicago: Doesn't look like Andrew Shaw will be benched for being a penis. That's too bad.... — Second City Hockey (@2ndCityHockey) May 22, 2013 Andrew Shaw in this series has been everything we were afraid of with the Jordin Tootoo signing. He's providing the kind of physicality that I'm sure the team wants, but he's also crossing the line at just about every opportunity and he's costing both himself and his team the benefit of the doubt on calls. If he doesn't reign it in, the guy's going to find himself suspended sooner or later. Everywhere Else First off, the Kings handed a radio DJ the controls of their Twitter account last night and it went poorly. We apologize for the tweets that came from a guest of our organization. They were inappropriate and do not reflect the LA Kings. — LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013 That's just the aftermath of the situation after Kevin Ryder of Kevin & Bean did a terrible job wording what should have been an innocuous joke and ended up making light of rape. Ryder did tweet out an apology about how he worded it poorly (before jumping on the defensive about his critics sensationalizing it, apparently). There's no need to defend it because he deserves the scorn he gets for having chosen his words this poorly and it's up to every individual to decide whether they're going to forgive him for this or not. It's a dumbass choice of words there to specifically say "rape" or "sexual

Ottawa didn't need to bottom-out for years to become a dangerous team - they just shrewdly built up through the draft. -

Daniel Alfredsson had the diagnosis for what ailed the Ottawa Senators penalty kill in Game 1 vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. “The goals they got were scramble goals,” he said after the 4-1 loss, in which the Penguins tallied two power-play goals. “We've got to be stronger in front of our net." Stronger, the Senators have been: They’ve shut down the best power-play unit still playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (27 percent conversion rate) to the tune of one goal in their last 12 chances. Ottawa's penalty kill went 6-for-6 in Game 3, and has gone 9-for-9 overall. That included a 5-on-3 kill against the Penguins in the second period, during which they only had two shots. Oh, yeah: There was also the matter of that Daniel Alfredsson shorthanded goal that knotted Game 3 with 29 seconds left. That too. Again, this is a Senators team stifling a Penguins power play that has slightly fewer stars than “This Is The End.” The kind of all-star unit you’d compile through trades, create-a-player and waiver wire chicanery on a hockey video game. Can the Senators keep the kill going in Wednesday night’s Game 4? Ottawa has the ninth best PK in the postseason (82.9 percent) after leading the NHL in shorthanded effectiveness in the regular season (88.0 percent on 167 times shorthanded). The rocks defensively for the Ottawa shorthanded unit have been Marc Methot and Chris Phillips, the only two Sens averaging over 3 minutes per game on the PK. But other than those two, the Sens share the wealth: They have nine players that are averaging over a minute per game on the penalty kill through eight games this postseason. Among them: Kyle Turris (2:11 on average) and Alfredsson (2:00). Goalie Craig Anderson’s numbers shorthanded weren’t stellar in the regular season or through the seven games of the playoffs, but he did make 12 saves shorthanded in his 49-save series-salvaging victory in Game 3. What’s been the key against an all-star Penguins power play that includes Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Jarome Iginla, Kris Letang and Chris Kunitz, among others? Via NHL.com, Methot said: "We've struggled the last couple of games against them," Methot said. "We wanted to be a lot more aggressive, I don't know if we were, but it seemed like we had more success tonight. "It discourages a team when they don't get things going early, especially when you have a talented group like that." The Penguins, who would be up 3-0 right now had the power-play not failed them in Game 3, are expected to add Jussi Jokinen to the man advantage unit for Game 4. So there’s a new challenge for Ottawa. But the most effective penalty kill is, of course, not having to kill a penalty. As Coach Paul MacLean said: “They have some very good players they can put out there. Taking six minor penalties in a game isn't going to be very successful for us.”

Voracek OK after totalling car in Czech Republic

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