Chicago Blackhawks won their 4th pennant of the expansion era this afternoon in a hard fought (if brief) win over the San Jose Sharks. The Chicago club are led by an exceptional group of under 27's which includes Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane (21); Niklas Hjalmarsson (22); Kris Versteeg and Dave Bolland (23); Brent Seabrook, Troy Brouwer, Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien (24); Duncan Keith and Antti Niemi (26).
Chicago reaches the final very early in the cluster, which is in stark contrast to the San Jose Sharks. Unlike even the Ottawa Senators of the late '00s (largely regarded as a disappointing group) the Sharks have spent their youth without reaching Stanley's spring party. They remind me more and more of my beloved Expos in the late 70's and early 80's each spring. I don't think the future looks bright for the Sharks, what with major free agency ahead and a sense that the future belongs to America's Second City.
- Montreal (11): '68, '69, '71, '73, '76-'79, '86, '89, '93
- Boston (7): '70, '72, '74, '77, '78, '88, '90
- Edmonton (7): '83, '84, '85, '87, '88, '90, '06
- Philadephia (7): '74, '75, '76, '80, '85, '87, '97
- Detroit (6): '95, '97, '98, '02, '08, '09
- New York Islanders (5): '80, '81, '82, '83, '84
- Chicago (4): '71, '73, '92, '10
- Pittsburgh (4): '91, '92, '08, '09
- Dallas (4): '81, '91, '99, '00
- New Jersey (4): '95, '00, '01, '03
- Calgary (3): '86, '89, '04
- New York Rangers (3): '72, '79, '94
- St. Louis (3): '68, '69, '70
- Anaheim (2): '03, '07
- Buffalo (2): '75, '99
- Carolina (2): '02, '06
- Colorado (2): '96, '01
- Vancouver (2): '82, '94
- Florida (1): '96
- Los Angeles (1): '93
- Ottawa (1): '07
- Tampa Bay (1): '04
- Washington (1): '98
- Atlanta
- Columbus
- Minnesota
- Nashville
- Phoenix
- San Jose
- Toronto
Chicago now waits for the winner of the Philadelphia-Montreal EC finals, with the Blackhawks likely to be an extreme favorite no matter the outcome of their series.
Hawks win the cup in 4, and Toronto (along with... St. Louis and Buffalo?) becomes the new holder of the longest cup drought.
ReplyDeleteNice.
Nit-picky, but shouldn't Chicago be ahead of Pittsburgh in your list? They come first alphabetically, have the most recent pennant, and won their first pennant before Pittsburgh as well.
Jonathon Toews is a beauty... gonna win the Conn Smythe.
PDO: Fixed. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe drought since 1967 belongs to Toronto, Los Angeles and St. Louis. The other expansion teams moved (Oakland, Minnesota) or won (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia).
Only bothered to watch part of that Hawks game, but the Sharks just looked like a terrible team - heartless chokers - no emotion, regular season wonders. They're never going to win anything with Thornton and Heatley - geez talk about a perfectly matched set of playoff losers.
ReplyDeleteWere there players considered along the same lines as Heatley/Thornton say, 25+ years ago? Or is this a new trend - regular season superstars turned choke artistes.
Nit-picky, but shouldn't Chicago be ahead of Pittsburgh in your list? They come first alphabetically, have the most recent pennant, and won their first pennant before Pittsburgh as well.
ReplyDeleteBut Pittsburgh has the more recent cup.
Coach:
ReplyDeleteFor another 2 weeks :-).
Joe Thornton-the Marcel Dionne of his era?
ReplyDeleteFor another 2 weeks :-).
ReplyDeleteAre you too underrating the system and Halak? He is a clutch goalie!
Hold on a second...is that still the story?
Coach:
ReplyDeleteI only wish I was smart enough to find clutch goalies while intentionally have my team get out chanced 3-1.
I'd have more rings than fingers by now.
anyone know of an online stream for the Windsor vs. Wheaties final? I want to watch both the final and the final episode of Lost. My PVR only allows me to PVR 1 channel at a time. Thanks.
ReplyDeletei hope the Hawks win the cup, been too long!
ReplyDelete"Joe Thornton-the Marcel Dionne of his era?"
ReplyDeleteDionne toiled on one terrible Detroit then LA team after another, often playing to 8,000 fans. Thornton gets to play on one of the premiere teams in the league, then stinks it up when it counts.
Chicago looks great this year but then offseason brings them cap hell and they won't be as good going forward.
ReplyDeleteonline stream link: http://www.justin.tv/loo_loo#r=gHZjQhQ~
ReplyDeleteMy old man is happy tonight for sure. I was talking to him the other night and he said that he thought they were due.
ReplyDeleteDo you think?
I hope they win it all. Some tough decisions in the offseason - if they can find a taker for Campbell though then they can bury Huet and all of those problems will go away for a while. They have some nice kids in the pipeline as well.
And SJ has their own issues, Marleau is UFA, Pavelski and Setoguchi RFA. Plus Detroit has to deal with the eventual loss of Lidstrom.
PDO: Sad for you the Habs are actually outshooting this time around, and theyr loosing.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah i guess we should get outchanced again.
Everyone is forgetting something important: the Hawks are afflicted with the Curse of Hossa (i.e. make the finals and lose).
ReplyDeleteEveryone is forgetting something important: the Hawks are afflicted with the Curse of Hossa (i.e. make the finals and lose).
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of 'Stanley Cup' shopping, so I hope its true. I was glad to see Heatley go as well.
I totally understand why players want to go somewhere to 'win the cup', however, I like that the sport/league is unpredictable enough that doing so is very difficult.
If it were not, we would have teams with 4-5 top skill guys on single team with a one year 'discount' contract just to win the cup.
Marion will get his cup this time.Think Campbell and Huet end up in Edmonton?
ReplyDeleteWonder where Hall was on that play? ...besides deep in the slot, lifting Schenn's stick.
ReplyDelete;oP
Spoiler: Ethan Moreau does that on special occasions too.
ReplyDeleteI like Hossa. He was traded to the Pens and then this past summer he signed a longterm deal with the Hawks.
ReplyDeleteI don't even blame him for signing a one year deal with the Wings. Buddy wants to win. Why is that a problem?
It surely warmed my heart to see Heatley this past series. With Hossa when he isn't scoring he's doing everything else right. Heatley was a liability. Stupid penalties. Losing his man. Losing puck battles.
What a dink.
Personally, I don't mind what Hossa did. I just think it would be funny (in the coincidental sense) if he ends up on the losing side yet again.
ReplyDeleteI don't even blame him for signing a one year deal with the Wings. Buddy wants to win. Why is that a problem?
ReplyDeleteIn my comment I said that I don't have a problem with a player doing it (cup chasing) but that I am glad that its not so predictable that its easy to do by jumping around on discount one-year contracts or by signing with a team with another superstar (Heatley/Thornton).
If it was easy for superstars to cluster just to win the cup, it would be bad for the league.
So..
ReplyDeleteMarleau, Nabakov and Blake are all UFA's.
Presumably, SJS is looking for "winners" and/or Alpha Males.
Khabibulin, Souray, Moreau?
I don't think we could get anything exciting back, but...
PDO - dare to dream ;)
ReplyDeletebookie - they did it or tried to before the cap, remember Selanne and Kariya in Colorado (fail), Hull and Robataille in Detroit (success)
Pretty hard to do it now.
Hossa was a solid soldier for Ottawa right up until they traded him and then he played out his contract in Clark Gable's town. I have zero argument with his making the decisions that are best for him, find it refreshing he prefers winning to maxing the walking around money.
ReplyDeleteIf we want a bad guy, there's always Yashin.
flamingpavelbure said...
ReplyDeletePDO: Sad for you the Habs are actually outshooting this time around, and theyr loosing.
So yeah i guess we should get outchanced again.
Phil - MTL
G1: 16-13 (Olivier)
G2: 15-12 (Olivier)
G3: 8-22 (Olivier)
G4 20-12 (Copper n' Blue)
Yea the Habs are killing it FPV. It looks like getting outchanced is really working out well so far.
Speaking of Hossa, he went 60GP-15G-15A-30PTS at 19.
ReplyDeleteThat should likely be the high end expectation of MPS next year, no?
Kinger: Well Conference Finals ain't bad at all.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo worries FPV, it's better for hockey that Philly advances. Nobody likes to see one-sided hockey and a Chicago-MTL final would be a ridiculous mismatch. At least Philly has a chance.
ReplyDeleteKinger: Yeah. I mean cause that happened with Washington and Pittsburgh too heh?
ReplyDeleteKinger: Yeah. I mean cause that happened with Washington and Pittsburgh too heh?
ReplyDeleteOutside of the end result that's exactly what happened against Washington and Pittsburg.
Good thing the final result is measured with goals and not scoring chances.
ReplyDeleteYea, luck will only get you so far; sooner or later the results catch up with the process.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it must be re-assuring that your teams management will 'stay the course' this offseason. After all, you seem to think that they've built a real winner in Montreal. All they have to do next year squeak into the playoff so they can unleash the clutchiness of BIG GOALS and BIG SAVES all the way to the SCF.
Well when you can consider Carey Price as an extra goalie and asset that can be traded for reinforcements it ain't so bad.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't near as fucked as the Oilers seriously.
But seriously, why are you guys allways so moody and pissed about the Habs? It's a game god damit.
"So yeah i guess we should get outchanced again."
ReplyDeleteThat's what got me involved in the conversation.
FPV: It would be silly to trade Price in the offseason. The goalie market is still a buyers one and Montreal owns his rights for the foreseeable future. Also, his value is at an all time low right now (lost his starting job, playoff choker).
ReplyDeleteKinger: We don't have the choice. We have to sign Halak and Plekanec, and that means we can't afford a 2,2M$ goalie. Price has a bad attitude, and it's a nasty war being him and Halak who can't stand much longer.
ReplyDeleteIf they trade or let go of Halak i'm no longer a Habs fan.
(The 2,2M$ is for Price, as a Backup, Desjardins can do the job at a way lower pay)
ReplyDeleteBlack Dog: "Heatley was a liability. Stupid penalties. Losing his man. Losing puck battles. What a dink."
ReplyDeleteQ: Can you read everyone's mind or just mine?
There are some players that you follow down the corridor onto the ice and you just know they can get the job done.
There are other players that I'm sure teammates quietly question in their heart of hearts. A panoramic view of the Sharks locker room would reveal many of these.
Some recent quotes from Hall on playing for the Oilers
ReplyDeletehttp://www.torontosun.com/sports/hockey/2010/05/15/13962226.html
PJO: We got it, you like Hall.
ReplyDeleteFPV - more language lessons
ReplyDeleteFrench - decimal points represented by ,
English - decimal points represented by .
You have indicated that you are looking to become more proficient in English so this is meant as a friendly tip to help you in that effort not at all as a critisism.
Bookie: Ty, i knew. I just forget sometimes. (And i think the , is more pretty :P).
ReplyDeleteFPV - I figured that you knew, but like a grouchy old 'English Teacher' I am going to call you on it every time from now on!
ReplyDeleteBookie: That reminds me of last year's teacher.
ReplyDeleteOld fool is reading Catcher in the Rye for the 16th straight year now and still hasn't got the sense of it.
PJO: Haha, did you really just link us to an article where Hall talks about what a huge Flames fan he is to show how much he wants to play in Edmonton?
ReplyDeleteI find the whole "___ said ___" argument really dumb anyway. These kids have been coached for the last three years, they're not going to say anything negative about anywhere they might end up.
Heatley apparently had a very bad groin injury according to McLellan. I don't know the exact history of whether post-mortem injury info is actually accurate or just deflections for underachieving players but there it is.
ReplyDeletePlus Heatley has always been this way, a guy who gives a lot back. It's one of the most annoying player types, but it's not a San Jose Shark thing, it's a league-wide phenomenon.
Post-season success is largely luck driven, plus highly susceptible to cherry-picking (i.e. counting the Cups) so it's highly overrated when trying to determine the underlying skill of the players involved.
San Jose is flat-out a terrific team, and anybody who wouldn't take them in a heartbeat, playoff chockers and all, is being dishonest. They got killed by some terrible goaltending luck but the same happened to Chicago in many parallel universes.
"San Jose is flat-out a terrific team, and anybody who wouldn't take them in a heartbeat, playoff chockers and all, is being dishonest."
ReplyDeleteNo R O, no they're not. They stink in the playoffs. I've been celebrating their ineptitude for several years now; and nothing they've ever done has changed my mind that they will continue to lose. They simply do not have a properly built team for playoff success. From their overrated D to their choker goalie(s) to guys like Pavelski, Clowe, Michalek in the past...
They're not gonna win. They need to blow it up.
The only players left on the Sharks since we played them in '05-06:
ReplyDeleteJoe Thornton
Patrick Marleau
Evegeni Nabakov
Douglas Murray
.... how many times do you have to blow it up while remaining a top 2 team in the real conference?
I'm hardly a Patrick Marleau fan, and do think SJS should indeed let him walk, and will certainly listen to arguments about Nabakov having sucked donkey dick more often than not in the playoffs.... but past that?
Joe Thornton has always been the most dangerous player on the ice in pretty much every playoff series he has played in SJS. Not his fault nobody could fucking finish for him.
Douglas Murray is hardly a problem.
And hell, Patrick Marleau at the very worst put up some great counting numbers for this playoffs.
What's left to blow up?
Post-season success is largely luck driven, plus highly susceptible to cherry-picking (i.e. counting the Cups) so it's highly overrated when trying to determine the underlying skill of the players involved.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with RO, I still feel the need to point out that Phaneuf is overrated and overpaid.
ReplyDeleteJust so I feel less dirty.
God bless Pilsner :-).
While I agree with RO, I still feel the need to point out that Phaneuf is overrated and overpaid.
ReplyDeleteOverpaid, for sure, but I think he's taken so much shit, for about two years now, that it's to the point where he's now underrated.
He was never as good as his point totals suggested but damn his abilities as an EV defender took giant leaps forward this season, rickibear's "second-worst-GA" nonsense aside.
I could play armchair GM for just about any team. Except San Jose. I don't know what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteOh and for Brandon to lose like that twice is just embarrassing. Even if this Windsor team was one of the best in junior in the last several years.
RO
ReplyDelete"Post-season success is largely luck driven"
This will never cease to make me laugh. I know why you guys say it, but it still stuns me every time it happens. I never wandered around the ice thinking about if luck would favor me tonight and my team would be lucky enough to win. I highly doubt any of you did either.
PDO
The team still has the same makeup, I guess is what I was trying to get at. They're built a certain way and that certainly centers around Joe and Patrick, but also the general lack of quality depth players, and Nabokov just doesn't seem to cut it when the time comes. Their "model" reminds me of the Blues, who mowed through the regular season for a few years.
I never wandered around the ice thinking about if luck would favor me tonight and my team would be lucky enough to win. I highly doubt any of you did either.
ReplyDeleteFrom what they say in pressers, one would get the impression that even hockey players at the highest level do not have a goddamn clue about how their skills actually translate into success on the ice.
Example: clutch and doing your job really well when it counts. Pro-tip: it always counts.
This low-level thinking likely gets progressively worse the lower the level of hockey you look at.
According to Doug Maclean Byfugelin has been the go to guy for Chicago all playoffs.
ReplyDeleteNever mind Jonathon Toews.
Fuck.
This will never cease to make me laugh.
ReplyDeleteMe too, they totally don't think that way in hockey. I've never, ever heard a player talk about bounces or goalies stealing one in a post-game presser.
I mean, it can't possibly be luck unless someone specifically says luck and starts pulling out standard deviations, right?
I believe in the breaks. I also believe that for the most part the better team gets them. Chicago is deeper up front and on the back end and they had better goaltending. Not a surprise that they won the series, a surprise that they swept it.
ReplyDeleteSJ finished a point up on them and Chicago had some injury issues in the regular season so its not like WSH/MTL here.
But SJ, as we see, will be labelled chokers forever until they win.
Nabokov does have to go - call it choking, call it just poor play, call it bad luck, its been many years now. Its a pattern.
Same as Heatley. Groin injury or not, I suspect the results would have been the same. He stops scoring at some point. With Ottawa it happened when they reached the finals. In the Olympics and WCs it always happens once they stop playing Latvia and Japan.
I think that its as simple as he can't find the time and space against the best teams. Plus he's a bit of a pussy.
And as RO said, buddy gives a lot back anyway. If he's not scoring he's pretty well useless.
Chicago winning the Stanley Cup would be good for the NHL in the US market.
ReplyDeleteYeah i'l jump on the ''Luck makes me laugh'' bandwagon. I've been in the underdog position before, and yes you play different hockey when you know you can't compete with the talent level. You just block shots, limit the chances to one shot by clearing the rebounds and play rough. Sure there's always a bit of luck in everything, but you still have to work like a horse.
ReplyDeleteR O: No it doesn't. When it's 6-1 in the 3rd no one gives a damn.
And yes some players are good at doing the job with pressure, some can't handle pressure all that much.
Guess what? HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS.
Were there players considered along the same lines as Heatley/Thornton say, 25+ years ago? Or is this a new trend - regular season superstars turned choke artistes.
ReplyDeleteGretzky/Kurri, circa 1983.
But Pittsburgh has the more recent cup.
So does everyone else.
If they trade or let go of Halak i'm no longer a Habs fan.
Okay, good riddance, then. At least I quit the team when I was a kid because they traded a Hall of Famer along with half the '93 team.
Oh and for Brandon to lose like that twice is just embarrassing. Even if this Windsor team was one of the best in junior in the last several years.
The hockey gods strike back. No guarantee Calgary would've won, but I would lay down $100 that they'd keep it within five.
I believe in the breaks. I also believe that for the most part the better team gets them.
ReplyDeleteI would think that over a larger sample that luck (chaotic events) work out about 50/50. There is no reason that one team would get more luck than another team unless you believe in supernatural forces.
Thus, over the long term, it is factors like skill, coaching, intelligence, mental resilience, etc. that result in the success or failure of teams.
Bookie: I think what he meant is as the good thing you'l create more of these odd events. And by that you will most probably score more odd goals.
ReplyDeleteRe: Memorial Cup.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with having a host team in the tourney. They weren't good enough to win the WHL, but coasted as hosts. They road some hard work in the semi-final, the home town crowd and got it done.
The Hitmen would have made it a much better game, but that's the "luck" of a one game semi-final and home ice advantage.
Heatley apparently had a very bad groin injury according to McLellan.
ReplyDeleteThat much was obvious: he certainly played without balls.
Good one LF.
ReplyDelete