Archive for November, 2007

This week TheNeilShow sits down with Tampa Bay Lightning Radio play by play announcer Dave Mishkin.

TheNeilShow - What are your thoughts on the proposed sale falling apart when it looked as if it was completed?

Dave Mishkin - To be honest, I only know what I read in the paper, like everybody else. Much like the players and coaches have said regarding staying focused on their jobs, I try to stay focused on my job.

TheNeilShow - With the latest turn of events, the sale falling through, do you think it affected the Players on the Tampa Bay Lightning playing wise and morale wise?

Dave Mishkin - As referenced in the first answer, I get the feeling that the players are concentrating on what they need to do to win games. I can’t speak for what is going through each individual’s head, but I believe that the players do stay focused on what happens on the ice, not off of it. Some of the guys said as much in today’s newspaper articles.

TheNeilShow - We here at nhldigest.com were guests on the tpsradio.net show “Around the Boards”, and we were asked a interesting question on why goal scoring is down. Do you have any thoughts on why goal scoring might be down again?

Dave Mishkin - Goal scoring has not been down with the Lightning, which has some of the top offensive players in the game. League-wide scoring is down, however, and I think much of the credit (or blame, if you will) goes to the intelligence of NHL coaches.

The league instituted many new rules after the lockout in an attempt to open up the game. But coaches are smart enough to design systems that accentuate good defensive play even with these changes. Also, hockey is a game of mistakes and mistakes lead to goals.

Now in this day and age when so much emphasis is placed on watching video and learning to play a system flawlessly, players are simply making fewer mistakes than they did in past generations. Also, the level of goaltending play league-wide is very high.

TheNeilShow - Are the Tampa Bay Lightning satisfied with their goaltending situation? Or do you see them pursuing another Goalie that can grab the horns of that number 1 job? Maybe Khabibulin coming back?

Dave Mishkin -In my opinion, Johan Holmqvist has played quite well this year. There haven’t been many games (if any at all that come to mind) in which one could lay blame exclusively on the goaltending. On the other hand, there have been plenty of games in which Holmqvist has had a major hand in helping the Lightning win.

TheNeilShow - It seems like lately a lot of players around the league have been voicing their displeasure with facing the same teams night after night. What are your thoughts on playing a lot of the same teams all the time and not seeing “all” teams?

Dave Mishkin - I understand some players, as well as some fans, are disappointed at not seeing every other team in the league. Reports indicate that the league is planning on revisiting the schedule format for next season. I don’t know if it’s going to result in every team playing at least every other team twice (meaning once in each city), but my hunch is that they will examine taking some of those divisional games and make them out-of-conference.

My personal feeling is that as long as the playoff format remains the same, which is essentially a conference format (division winners get the top three seeds, but then it’s a conference-wide race for the remaining five slots), they shouldn’t “take” any of the four games each club plays against teams that are outside its division but within the conference.

TheNeilShow - Tampa Bay has been going through some struggles of late, in your opinion what do they need to improve on to get the team back on the tracks and on the right track again?

Dave Mishkin - In terms of its game-by-game won-loss record, the Lightning has been streaky. But I believe its play has been pretty solid this year. Having written that, during its losing skids, the team has not dealt well with opposition surges and has been stung for multiple goals in a short stretches.

The Bolts have seen some great goaltending performances, too. In this current losing streak, Henrik Lundqvist and Martin Brodeur were difference makers in two of those games.

TheNeilShow - I have always wondered this. Why do the Tampa Bay Lightning call themselves “Tampa Bay” when they Play out of St.Petersburg Florida and there is no city called “Tampa Bay”.

Dave Mishkin -The Lightning’s arena is in Tampa — the Bolts were based in St. Pete when they played at the “Thunderdome” (which is now called Tropicana Field). Tampa Bay is the region that includes the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater (as well as the smaller suburbs around those cities). The team represents the Tampa Bay area, just like the Buccaneers and Rays.

TheNeilShow - Who has been the biggest surprise for the Lightning this far into the season?

Dave Mishkin - Mike Lundin has been the biggest surprise. He was not slated to make the team before the season started, but he had a terrific camp and has continued to play well into the regular season. It’s rare for a young defenseman in his first professional season to show his poise and good hockey sense.

TheNeilShow - What areas in the Lightning lineup do you do feel needs improvement?

Dave Mishkin - Not necessarily “in the lineup”, but if the club can find a level of consistency in the win-loss department and avoid these losing streaks, it will be in good shape.

TheNeilShow -Being a Play By Play announcer you must have some funny stories. Have you had a on air embarrassing moment that you can share? Also,what NHL players’ name gives you the most problems as an announcer?

Dave Mishkin - Naturally, some of the European names can be a bit challenging. But typically, they are so distinctive that once you learn it, you never forget it.

As far as embarrassing moments, there have been times when I’ve fought the “giggles” on the air, maybe because of a funny video on the scoreboard — I assure you that calling a hockey game while laughing is not an easy task!

TheNeilShow -What is your favorite Play by Play moment in your time with the Lightning?

Dave Mishkin - The team’s run through the 2004 Playoffs was very special. Particularly the Lightning’s victories in Game Seven of the Conference Finals against Philadelphia and Games Six and Seven of the Finals versus Calgary.

TheNeilShow -There have been some “rumors” that the Lightning and Penguins may start the season off next year in Prague,Czech Republic. Do you see this happening or have you heard about it?

Dave Mishkin - The latest report that I read has the Lightning playing the Rangers in Prague and Penguins facing the Senators in Sweden. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out from the league if it’s going to happen!

TheNeilShow - Thank you so much for your time Dave!

Dave Mishkin is the Radio play by play announcer for the Tampa Bay lightning http://lightning.nhl.com
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&page=Radio

If you have any questions or comments, please share a comment on the site or email Neil at theneilshow(@)nhldigest.com

I recently mentioned how creative fans have used the power of the internet to garner All Star Game votes for their favorite players.

However, the buzz created by the recent fan web page votemikerichards.com has roused the marketing staff of the Philadelphia Flyers. It appears that the Flyers are offering up game tickets and autographed merchandise to fans who vote for Flyers players to go to the All-Star Game.

In my opinion, this is the political equivalent of paying for votes!

If a fan feels that a player deserves to be in the All-Star Game, the fans should vote accordingly. Fans should not be influenced by the lure of autographed merchandise, tickets and/or other prizes.

It is one thing for creative fans to try to hustle votes, but an entirely different thing for an organization to attempt to essentially buy votes for its players.

What do you think?

Update: 12/01/2007 

The Flyers have contacted NHL Digest and have offered this explanation.  Please take the time to read it and contact them with any questions:

The NHL is offering fans prizes for voting on the national level and we wanted more of our local fans to have a chance to win. Every fan has an equal chance to win and the names are drawn randomly from the registered users of the fan balloting site. Every user has an equal chance of winning, no matter who they select on the All-Star ballot. We are supporting the league initiative and doing our best to earn support in our market.

If you have further questions about the contest, you may contact us at flyerswebsite@comcast-spectacor.com.

With the advent of fan voting for the NHL All-Star game, we have seen many instances where creative fans have attempted to harness the power of the internet to take advantage of the “write-in” voting option and earn an All-Star nod for a player not nominated.

The most prolific and certainly the most recognized attempt was last season’s Vote For Rory Campaign that led to accusations the league altered the vote count in order to prevent Rory Fitzpatrick from being nominated to the All Star game via write in ballots.

This season we are witnessing a whole new campaign that actually has merit. A website has been developed to try to earn Mike Richards of the Philadelphia Flyers a spot on the Eastern Conference roster for this season’s NHL All-Star Game.

While the Vote For Rory campaign was clearly a farce, the Mike Richards campaign begs a valid question.

Should Mike Richards be in the NHL All Star Game?

Below are the latest voter statistics with the (*) indicating write in votes.

It appears that Mike Richards does have a solid following of fans and that Alexei Kovalev has won at least a few sappy hearts with his talented, yet lazy, play in Montreal this season.

So there you have it, another internet marketing campaign to get a player voted on to the All-Star roster.
Do you think that Mike Richards deserves to be an All-Star?

One of my newest favorite sites covering NHL Hockey is FlyerFlies.com. Flyer Flies consists of an active forum and several contributors that mainain their own blogs on the site.

“Buts”, one of the contributors, publishes a weekly column called Saturday Morning Coffee. This column is very opinionated and entertaining. I highly suggest that you take a couple of minutes to read it each week.

In order to give you a taste of “Saturday Morning Coffee”, here are some excerpts from this week’s edition.

• Brian Burke promised Bryzgalov that he would move him by this week so he could get a shot at being a #1 goalie somewhere. He put him on waivers so Bryzy could get his shot because he had no offers on the table, that is pure class keeping a promise like that.
• The Leafs are a 3 ring circus, It is beyond belief.
• Zetterberg is a MONSTER.
• So is Vinny.
• Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts have hung around too long, it is always sad to see great players hang around past the due date.
• Gary Bettman still has no clue.
• Patric Kane and Jonathon Toews are bringing sexy back, great to see the Hawks having a solid team again, that is good for the NHL and the city of Chicago.
• The Coyotes are supposed to be horrid and dead last, Gretzky has them playing some pretty good hockey, great to see.
• Did I mention the Leafs are a fiasco? Thought so.
• Kovalchuk is a machine.
• Teemu and Niedermayer are still in limbo and so are the Ducks, seriously boys make a decision.
• Flyers have another superstar out with a conky, I hope Gagne isn’t the next Flyer great to lose part of his career to conky’s, this happens too often in Philly
• Ken Hitchcock is a defensive genius, he has Jackets and Pascal Leclaire playing out of their minds.
• My wife Rebecca loves Dancing with the Stars, did anybody else notice 98% of the people on the show aren’t really stars anymore.
• Watch out for the Sharks, they are the real deal.
• Tomas “The Demolition Man” Holmstrom is the most underrated player in the NHL.
• Best of luck to Eric “Big E” Lindros as he is now Ombudsman for the NHLPA, Say what you want about him; in is prime he was a beast.
• My beloved Flyers are great for a game, then they are horrid for a game, Biron is best goalie in the NHL for a week, then he is crap and gets pulled. I have no clue if the Flyers are good, bad, or maybe just ugly?

For those of you who are Canadian Football fans, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have just won the 95th Grey Cup.

You can check out all of the excellent coverage at our sister site CFL Digest.com!

Scott Parker fights Eric Godard of the Calgary Flames after cross checking Dion Phaneuf with a deliberate cheap shot.

Check out more great hockey fights at hockey fights.com