The Two-Line Pass

Reader Robert Soderlind sent this in while I was out participating in the American night-before-Thanksgiving tradition of drinking with people you haven’t seen since you graduated high school:

Anyone that gets deked out of their Vapours by Johan Franzen (and isn’t within three inches of the crease) probably isn’t doing their job properly.

Ryan O’Byrne, who had his second gaffe in as many games, got smoked like a Lucky Strike on this one by a guy whose skill is bordering on Jeff Taffe levels of mediocrity.

Seriously, the Habs need to trade O’Byrne to a junior B team in Chicotoumi yesterday. At this point, NHL players are just embarrassing him.

The Lead

Despite having his busiest night of the year, Chris Mason was untouchable tonight.

In his first game back in Nashville since the Preds traded him in favor of Dan Ellis, Mason made 47 saves, a number of them very impressive, and two more in the shootout to record an extremely unlikely but completely deserved clean sheet and 1-0 win.

It was a hell of a homecoming for Mason, but not so much the rest of his team, which was held to just 17 shots and was incredibly lucky to escape with two points. The attack was listless and the transition game was ineffective. The defense? Non-existent, as you’d expect in a 47-shot game in which Nashville only had five power play opportunities. Shots by period for the Preds were 15 in the first, 12 in the second, 11 in the third and NINE in OT. The fact that Mason not only shut them out but didn’t allow six is amazing.

Go have a look at the highlights. There are at least four shots that would have gone in had Mason not been playing out of his mind. After the game, Mason made sure to credit his defense for blocking “a ton of shots” but in reality they blocked two fewer than Nashville (16-14). In all, the Predators attempted 70 shots (six more either went wide and THREE hit the post), so you can’t exactly say the Blues’ D did too good of a job in the “limiting chances” department.

They say a goalie has to take his defense out to dinner when he gets a shutout. The entire team should take Mason out for this one. The amount of work he had to do was ridiculous.

Think the Preds let the wrong goalie go? Even though Ellis is younger by far and led the league in goals-against average last year, his numbers this year have been pretty bad. Even with tonight’s “shutout” (not that he’ll get credit for it), he’s got a .898 save percentage and a 2.90 goals-against that’s up 56 points from last year’s total that paced the league. The fact that he’s 8-9-2 is a small miracle considering he’s given up four or more goals seven times and got the hook after giving up three on 19 against Calgary a couple weeks ago in another.

Mason, who has an awful record at 2-5-0, looks much better by comparison with a GAA of 2.33 (ninth in the league) and a save percentage of .927 (sixth) in limited action. He started out badly with 14 goals allowed in his first four games, but since then he has allowed two in three starts, and he got the loss in one of those.

Maybe it’s a salary issue. Mason makes $3 million against the cap compared to Ellis’ $1.75 million, but I have to imagine the upgrade in stats would be worth that much.

Also, and as an aside, those new Blues jerseys are pure class.

Also also, how awesome is this picture?

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My internet and television have both been spotty as hell tonight so I didn’t watch any hockey games. I did, however, get this sent to me by reader “Lexus Prime,” which I am assuming is his real name. As a consequence, you will get no Good Night. Settle for this and take your issues with my lack of posting up with Comcast.

Check this out: On a delayed call for the Habs, Ryan O’Byrne is pressured by Doug Weight back into his own zone and puts the puck into his own net. O’Byrne’s side of the story is that he was unaware of the delayed call and thought he could pass it back to Carey Price, who was enjoying some Gatorade on the bench. You see where this is going. Bill Guerin was credited with the goal.

The goal tied the game at 3-all inside of five minutes to go in the third period and the Habs ended up losing to the Islanders in the shootout. Also, it’s important to note that this happened IN Montreal, and the fans understandably got on him for the rest of the game.

This could be the best thing that ever happened. O’Byrne’s reaction is my new all-time favorite gesture. But he has to be traded now, right? He’s been awful all season, but this must be the end of the Ryan O’Byrne era with Les Habitants.

In the first semi-major trade of the season that will actually have a significant impact on both teams, the Maple Leafs acquired the white-hot Lee Stempniak from the St. Louis Blues for Alex Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo.

As mentioned in this week’s WWL, Ron Wilson was disenchanted of Colaiacovo’s lack of fitness, and the Leafs in general had to be unhappy with Steen’s 2-2-4 line through 20 games. Steen’s never scored less than 15 goals in his career and right now he’s on pace for about eight. Colaiacovo has one point in 10 games and is currently injured. Both are signed for next year.

It was also a good move by Toronto to get Stempniak, who has 13 points in 14 games this year and 12 in his last seven, for almost nothing. St. Louis made the deal, I suspect, simply because it needed warm bodies to fill out the lineup every night. There’s no other reason to trade a player as good as Stempniak, who scored 27-25-52 two years ago and is playing at almost a point-a-game pace. The move also clears up about half a million in cap space for the Leafs.

Phenomenal move for Toronto on all fronts, and an understandable one for St. Louis.

Because I tend to not blog on the weekends, here is a feature that will run through the entire season. It aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact about each team that played. And hell, there’s a ton of other crap for me to blather on about too. And yes, I’m totally ripping off just about every other blogger ever’s weekly column, but that’s something you’ll have to deal with on your own time.

Danger: This post contains language that some people might not like. This will be the only thing on the site that regularly does so.

I remember just a few weeks ago when everyone was talking about the New York Rangers being the team to beat in the East.

“Oh man,” fans of the Blueshirts were saying, “Look how good the Zherdev-Voros-Dubinski line is playing! Just wait until Naslund, Drury and Gomez come around! We’ll be UNSTOPPABLE then.”

But since the start of November, the Rangers are only 4-5-1 with two of those wins coming in shootouts? So what could have POSSIBLY happened to this top-three-in-the-league team to see them tank so badly?

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The Lead

The Colorado Avalanche played a hell of a game tonight and got shut out at home, 1-0, by a Flames team that had allowed 12 goals in their last two road games. How did that happen?

Well despite a very strong effort from Peter Budaj, who made stopped all of Calgary’s 33 shots save for Daymond Langkow’s try on a rebound in the second period, and a stalwart game by the Colorado defense, which blocked 21 shots, the Avs were absolutely pathetic in the attacking third of the ice. We’re talking 18 shots on net in the entire game and only five offensive-zone faceoff wins in 16 chances. It was actually kind of sad to watch this team send pass after pass to nobody in particular, turn the puck over down low and generally meander around the perimeter with no actual threat posed to Calgary all night.

And by all accounts it’s been that was since Joe Sakic got hurt ahead of the Avs’ Nov. 12 game with Vancouver. Even though the Avs are only 2-2-0 since then (not so bad, but both wins came in the shootout so they’ve given away points to division opponents Vancouver and Edmonton), they’ve leaned heavily upon Budaj who despite a slow start has stood on his head of late. He’s faced 151 shots in his last four games, including 51 against Calgary two nights ago, and stopped all but seven of them (a save percentage of .954). If Budaj regresses from that number even slightly in this little scoring slump of theirs — they’ve only scored 12 goals in eight games so far this month — the Avs are doing a hell of a lot worse than 3-5-0.

The lack of run support was especially bad tonight because Budaj and the defense itself played so well. The 15-shot disparity had more to do with the fact that Calgary had the lion’s share of possession, worked hard down low to draw penalties, and were helped by lazy, careless penalties on the Avs’ part as well. Example: Calgary’s seven power plays may not have yielded any goals, but that’s 14 minutes off the clock in a tight defensive game, and there were, at least, 11 shots Budaj had to deal with.

On the other hand, Calgary only gave up two power plays to the Avs, who proceeded to go 0 for 2 on those, didn’t put one shot on Miikka Kiprusoff and won neither of the two draws they took when up a man. Basically, the Avs’ power play strategy seemed to be to let the Flames win the draw to open the penalty, send the puck the length of the ice, retrieve it, bring it back through the neutral zone, turn it over, and then repeat until two minutes was up. If you were a peewee hockey coach and wanted to show kids how not to run their man-up situations, this was a graduate-level class on the subject.

Basically, the Avs forwards did and have been doing absolutely none of the “little things” correctly. Tonight they won a paltry 13 of their 36 even-strength draws (that’s just 36 percent), went 0 for 2 at the dot on the power play and 2 for 10 on the PK. Overall faceoff win percentage: thirty-freaking-one. They also turned the puck over seven times, had a whopping four shots on goal in the third period and committed six of Colorado’s eight penalties.

Marek Svatos (remember him?) had easily the best night of any Avs forward, posting two shots with two more blocked or wide, turning the puck over once, taking a penalty for diving on an already-obvious trip by Cory Sarich (thus negating a potential Colorado power play) and then putting the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. You have to hand it to him. That’s a hell of a goddamn show.

This team has been out-hustled, out-worked and generally outplayed for like two-thirds of this month. At some point, doesn’t someone have to pull Tony Granato aside and ask what the hell is with this awful, awful team? No offensive cohesion at all. Whoever’s running the power play, which is 2 for 35 (5.7 percent) in November, should be fired. The Avs should be ashamed of the way they’re playing in front of Budaj.

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In the Globe and Mail today, it was reported that because of the relative lack of strength of the Canadian dollar and decreased revenues, the salary cap is likely to take a serious dive next season. Well, kind of.

As I understand it (and being a hockey fan with an internet connection instantly qualifies me as an expert in both the economy and the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement), the actual salary cap itself will only drop about $1.5 million, but because revenues will decrease as the season goes on and the global economic crisis deepens, the players will have about $9 million in salary per team placed in escrow to make up the difference in revenues.

The amount of money the players put in escrow is determined at the start of every season by the NHLPA. In October, given the worsening state of the economy, the union decided every player should put 13.5 per cent of his salary in escrow, the largest amount yet. The amount is re-evaluated three more times before the end of the season, so the final percentage could be higher or lower.

On a few message boards, people are already tapdancing over their rival teams’ bad contracts and fretting about their own, but the reality is that this isn’t really that huge of a deal. The actual cap drops by between one and two million dollars, it’s what the players actually receive that will be taking the hit. No one’s going to have to offload two of their major stars, those stars will just see less money while their salaries remain the same because a higher percentage of their paycheck is put into said escrow funds.

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong by the way. Econ wasn’t my thing in school. If I’m right, however, feel free to lavish me with praise and gifts.

So Boston.com has named Aaron Ward one of the 25 most stylish Bostonians of 2008, which, while well-earned (Wardo is indeed a very fashionable gentleman; the first time I ever met him he was wearing an immaculate charcoal suit and his grandfather’s fur coat), is a little odd.

When reading the occupations of the other people on the list — jewelry designer, anchorwoman for Channel 7, PR coordinator for Saks Fifth Avenue, chairwoman of the fashion council at the Museum of Fine Arts, musician, artists/jewelry makers, director of sales for Montage furniture, co-owners of various “nerd bars” in the city, interior design business consultant, musician (again), musician (once more), curators of an art gallery, general manager of a hip restaurant in the Back Bay, editor-in-chief of a women’s fashion website, manager at a hipster restaurant, co-owners of an urban style shop, the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, VP of business development for an architecture firm, founder of a comm company, owner of a women’s clothing shop, an architecture professor at MIT, an Olympic swimmer/anesthesiologist, electrical engineer/fashion blogger, and consultant for international businesses and nonprofits — you don’t really expect to see “rugged NHL defenseman” alongside them.

Last year, though, Celtics guard Ray Allen and Pats defensive back Ellis Hobbs were named to the list despite the fact that the latter just rips off Kanye West’s style and Tom Brady dresses far better than both of them anyway.

One highlight, in which Ward almost comes across as Patrick Bateman from the book version of American Psycho:

So what are you wearing in this picture? It’s a gray suit by Zegna, shoes from Barneys New York, a shirt by Faconnable, a Burberry belt, and the tie’s Armani.

He works with a tailor out of New York because he doesn’t fit into off-the-rack suits, and the tailor also makes golf shorts for Marc Savard (who can’t fit into normal golf shorts?). He also lists his main fashion influences as the show “Boston Legal” (for real) and his father, who would go to Ward’s youth hockey games in a tie and sweater vest. Classy.

Ward’s one piece of fashion advice for you hockey blog-reading cretins in your Hartford Whaler sweatshirts with Cheeto dust on the front: “You can’t go wrong with a Ted Baker tie.”

The difference between why people will call Sean Avery gay for being into fashion but not Aaron Ward, by the way, is that Aaron Ward will literally beat you to death.

The Lead

Even when they spot their opponent four goals on the first nine shots, the Boston Bruins are unbeatable in November. In the eight games they’ve played in 19 days, which by the way is their busiest stretch of the year, they are 7-0-1 and have outscored opponents 34 to 14. The only loss, that in a shootout, was to the New York Rangers in a game the B’s led 2-0 with just under six minutes to go.

But consider this: their wild 7-4 win over the Sabres tonight was the first time all month they allowed more than two goals. It was also just about the wackiest goddamn game I’ve seen this season. The Sabres scored 1:41 in. The Bruins scored 1:18 later. Then the Sabres scored again 1:30 after that. Just 29 seconds later, they scored again. Boston answered 30 seconds later at 5:38. At 12:37 Buffalo made it 4-2, but Boston pulled back within one 31 seconds after that. The Sabres had to clear another puck off the line soon after that to hold onto the lead.

Bonkers.

But the Bruins grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck in the second period, outshooting Buffalo 12-8 and outscoring them 3-0. This was thanks in large part to Buffalo’s continual parade to the penalty box, which allowed Zdeno Chara to score a couple of booming power play goals wrapped around an even-strength goal from Chuck Kobasew to put the Bruins even, up, and then out of reach. Phil Kessel’s goal early in the third was all Lindy Ruff could stand from Ryan Miller, who left the game having surrendered seven goals on 20 shots (just slightly better than Pascal Leclaire’s gong show performance last night).

And while Manny Fernandez obviously fought the puck a little bit early on, he was solid after the first, though he was only asked to make 15 saves. It was, though, a game as choppy and without flow as a scoreline like that would indicate. Neither team could establish anything through the neutral zone and nor were they especially interested in maintaining offensive zone possession should they actually be lucky enough to gain it.

Chara had two goals, Kobasew had two goals, Tom Vanek had two goals, Dave Krejci scored and added two helpers and Marc Savard quietly had a goal and three assists to boost his total to 7-18-25 in 19 games, which is third-best in the league and Savard is still somehow undiscussed on the national stage.

But what this showed, to me at least, is that the Bruins’ early success is by no means a fluke. They’ve won just about every way you can this month. Big wins against Dallas, Toronto and Montreal in which they won 16-4 on aggregate show they can dominate. The wins of 3-1 over Buffalo and 2-1 over Chicago in a shootout show they can grind it out with highly-skilled teams if need be and still come out victorious. This win tonight shows that they can battle and overcome adversity, even despite shaky play from the backup netminder. The only nagging thing is that one game they blew against the Rangers. But if they can go the rest of the month without dropping a game — and with remaining opponents of Florida, a struggling Montreal, Buffalo again, the Islanders and Red Wings, it’s not entirely impossible — they won’t really be kicking themselves over one loss to the Rangers, to whom they are second in the conference by two points but benefit from three games in hand.

I didn’t really think it was possible, but as of right now, the Bruins are the best team in the East, and thus the one by which all others will be measured. It seems unlikely that anyone can match the varied skillset brought by the Bruins’ group of forwards (maybe Montreal, but they ain’t exactly going 2 for 6 on the powerplay these days). The D corps is clearly untouchable in the conference otherwise bereft of an imposing blue line that’s that deep at Nos. 1 to 6. And the goaltending, between Tim Thomas’ all-out awesomeness and Fernandez’s more-than-capable backup work despite tonight’s iffy performance, is unrivaled, perhaps in whole the league.

No one besides the Sharks are playing on the same level as the Bruins right now, and frankly I don’t think anyone in the East is even capable of it.

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The Lead

Not so fast, Blue Jackets!

I was actually uncomfortable watching tonight’s Columbus/Edmonton game. It’s rare that you see a game that thoroughly embarrassing from most college teams, let alone NHL teams with professional ice hockey players. Columbus may have outshot the injury-and-benching-depleted Oilers 39-19, but it was outscored a whopping 7-2. That’s right: Pascal Leclaire, apparently a professional athlete who was in fact quite good last year and not a bison friche puppy in goalie pads, gave up SEVEN goals on NINETEEN shots. To the Oilers.

I honestly cannot think of a worse night from any goaltender in the 15 years or so I’ve been watching hockey on an addictive level. At least, not one that played the entire game.

I don’t like to, and in fact I believe I never have, refered to a beat writer’s musings on a game when giving out my own, but I had to make an exception in this case. Aaron Portzline does a great, great job over at the Columbus Dispatch’s Puck Rakers blog, and his thoughts on tonight’s game were of great importance to me, in no small part because I wanted to make sure what I had actually seen was not some insane hallucination. It wasn’t, and that kind of made my soul hurt.

How could any NHL-caliber goaltender, let alone the one who was among the league’s elite in EVERY statistical category, lay an egg quite so humorously large?

Now, okay, to be fair to Leclaire, he only gave up three goals through the first two periods and the game was, at that point, still within reach, even if the Oilers had a 3-1 lead despite a 29-8 shot advantage for the Beejes. While you never want your goalie posting a .625 save percentage at any point in a hockey game, I can almost see not giving him the hook. Almost. Only two of those goals, after all, were at even strength.

But then the Oilers scored 7:44 into the third to spread the lead even wider and, I’m sure, the patience of those valiant Blue Jackets fans in attendance even thinner. It was Edmonton’s fourth goal on 11 shots. For some reason that I can only imagine involves some sort of sado-masochistic relationship between Leclaire and Ken Hitchcock, Steve Mason stayed on the bench as a fashionable hat model (pick up your official Steve Mason cap at shop.nhl.com!).

Then the Blue Jackets scored to pull within two again. No need to pull Leclaire now, there’s a game to be won! Except Leclaire didn’t stop the flow of blood that was cascading like a river from inside his crease. He instead decided to open the wounds further to facilitate the evacuation of said blood and gave up three goals on six shots in the space of just 2:03. Ballgame.

Portzline reported that after the game, Hitchcock said he didn’t give Leclaire the hook because, “it all happened too quick. If he had it to do over again, he said he would have pulled him after the fifth goal.”

The FIFTH? Why even trot him out there for the third period? Why let him stay in after the fourth goal put Edmonton up by three? How did a three-, four-, or five-goal deficit sneak up on an NHL coach? I understand that the team has little to no faith in any of its goaltenders, but Mason isn’t 12-of-19 bad. In fact, the worst he’s been is 22-of-26 bad. That’s a difference of .214 in the ol’ save percentage category on Mason’s WORST day. They fired Barry Melrose for less than this.

Not that the Blue Jackets helped Leclaire’s cause any. Their play in all three zones was poor, but they were especially woeful in their own end (gasp!). Relatively simple attacking plays were cutting through the Columbus D with surgical precision, and the penalty kill was just atrocious. Any time you give up a pair of PPGs to the Oil on three kills, two of which were abbreviated by previous Edmonton penalties (and one of those was just 29 seconds), you had a Lehman Brothers-type day at the office.

I don’t know who could have enjoyed a game like this. Even the staunchest Oiler supporter must have at least felt the slightest urge to pop in their “Old Yeller” DVD for a little bit of a pick-me-up.

It would be terribly tragic if it weren’t so goddamn hilarious.

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