The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Mike Richards really doesn’t get enough credit.

If I were to ask you to ballpark his production over the last two seasons, what would your guess be? Something like 100, 110 points maybe? Pretty respectable, eh? Yeah, try 155. One hundred and fifty-five points in 152 games. Goal totals: 28 and 30. Set your watch to that kinda production.

I understand he’s the Flyers captain, but can you think of a quieter point-a-game guy in the league? The guys ahead of him on the point totals list are routinely mentioned as being top-whatever in the world, and somehow Mike Richards has to sit there and have everyone act like he doesn’t put up huge numbers? You hear Eric Staal’s name brought up a lot more than you do Mike Richards’, and for what? One extraordinary season three years ago? Richards is every bit the player Staal and unlike Staal, who is overrated, he’s critically underappreciated.

Look at the goals he scored tonight, picking up a hattie as his Flyers crept by the Capitals in a really great 6-5 overtime win. The first two were absolute snipes the quality of which we haven’t seen since Dealey Plaza, and the third was one of those Johnny-On-The-Spot plays that good players always seem to be in position for.

Let’s put it this way: Alex Ovechkin is a man on a mission this year, yeah? Line of 6-3-9 in three games. Third player ever to score like that to start a season. That’s crazy. For real. And Mike Richards was considerably more impressive than him tonight. Wrap your head around that.

Elsewhere…

Ottawa 2, Toronto 1

Get this: Leafs fans are pushing the panic button because they gave up two to Ottawa. It’s both a commentary on how bad Ottawa is (very) and how reactionary the Leafs’ fans are (even more very). Bad start for THEMONSTERJONASGUSTAFFSON.. two goals allowed on 28 shots? Send him back to Finland or whatever, the kid’s a bum. Trade Kessel.

Carolina 2, Tampa Bay 1 (SO)

My guess is that if you gutted it out through this game, you’re either a family member of one of the players involved, or a psychotic. What little I watched was just hideous.

Minnesota 4, Anaheim 3 (OT)

Anaheim scored all their goals in 5:59 midway through the second period, then somehow left the door open for the Wild to storm back with three unanswered goals, all assisted by Marty Havlat, and got outshot 13-2 in the third. Not so good of a road third period, hey? Andrew Brunette cleaned up a mess at the side of the goal in OT to ice the game. New plan for Randy Carlyle: stop playing JS Giguere.

Calgary 4, Montreal 3

I think this is probably the first time ever that Calgary has won three games in a row to start a season, but here’s something even weirder: they’ve done it without Jarome Iginla, and despite Miikka Kiprusoff giving up three goals a night. Know who almost had hat trick tonight? Eric Nystrom. Yeah, the I’ve-been-in-the-NHL-for-124-games-and-have-eight-career-goals-to-show-for-it kid. Personally I thought he tipped Staffan Kronwall’s game-winner, but no such luck I guess. That’s too bad.

Edmonton 5, Dallas 4 (SO)

Edmonton’s still a gong show every night. It’s just Dallas is even more of a gong show. No way either team makes the playoffs.

Los Angeles 6, San Jose 4

For those Sharks fans that Dany Heatley might change his game to suit the Western Conference, fear not. That 1-2-3 line still came with a minus-1. It’s the same ol’ Heater. And by the way, Evgeni Nabokov has just looked awful so far this season. Thought I’d float that one out there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 3:51 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.