Joe Sakic Versus Steve Yzerman

The following is a compilation of hockey links from the NHL Digest Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.  I’ve added some additional comments around these links.  I hope you enjoy them!

Joe Sakic’s Retirement

With Joe Sakic expected to officially retire on Thursday, Adrian Dater wants to know who was better – Sakic or Yzerman? http://ff.im/-4Yxzr

That’s a tough call.  Both had the intangible qualities of leadership and both are certainly in the best class of people both on and off the ice.

Adrian outlines some statistics in his article- They are eerily similar!

Stanley Cups Yzerman 3, Sakic 2.
Career pointsYzerman 1,755, Sakic 1,641.
Career playoff points: Sakic 188, Yzerman 185.
Postseason goals: Sakic 84, Yzerman 70.
Conn Smythe trophies: Sakic 1, Yzerman 1.
Olympic MVP awards: Sakic 1, Yzerman 0.

Sakic’s retirement and the turnover rate of Avalanche coaches got me thinking. How cool would it be if Joe Sakic pulled a “Gerry Cheevers” becoming the team’s coach the following season after his retirement?

According to @weeklyslapshot the name even (kinda) works: “Easy to confuse Joe Sakic with Joe Sacco… LOL”

Both players were very influential to me as a young hockey player and their careers so close statistically, it comes down to just Stanley Cups. That said, if I had to choose, I choose Steve Yzerman.

Free Agent Signings

@dchesnokov reported that former Detroit Red Wing and free agent, Jiri Hudler, will play for Dynamo Moscow of the KHL (per Sovetsky Sport).

Kuklas Korner had a translation of Hudler speaking on why he signed in Moscow  http://ff.im/-4YxWa

The article at Kuklas Korner has some great speculation as to the actual advantages to this signing for the Detroit Red Wings.  In particular, Detroit doesn’t have to give up anything in the form of money or draft picks and they retain Hudler’s NHL rights.  It is possible that when Detroit clears some salary cap space, in a year or two, that Hudler could be lured back to the Red Wings.

The Anaheim Ducks have signed Saku Koivu to a one-year, $3.25 million contract. via TSN http://ff.im/-4XYB4

There was much speculation that Koivu would go to Anaheim to play with Teemu Selanne for one season prior to Selanne’s retirement.  That speculation came true and Koivu stated for the record that Selanne did influence his decision to join the Ducks.

According to @TBLightning http://twitpic.com/9pn47 – The Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms with former Minnesota Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster.

More Hockey Links

RT @BladeTape Gillian Ferrari & Jayna Hefford have signed with BladeTape for the ’09-’10 hockey season! 2 of the best female players around!

Does anyone know of any certified medical doctors that have played in the NHL other than Randy Gregg?

Wednesday was also useless NHL Trivia day over at the NHL Digest Facebook page – check it out!  http://bit.ly/a7LfI

NHL Hockey Twitter Links July 7 2009

The following is a collection of today’s most important hockey links as found on the NHL Digest Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/nhldigest. I’ve added some of my thoughts and commentary to the links in order to expand on the subjects a little bit. Let me know what you think!

Joe Sakic To Retire

Joe Sakic is set to announce he’s retiring on Thursday according to Sportsnet.ca http://ff.im/-4VyQZ
Sakic turned 40 years old today and despite having the Winter Olympics in his home town of Vancouver next year, he has decided to hang up the blades.  Sakic will retire as one of the game’s most classy players, leaders and competitors. 

Joe Sakic is the current leader in career points per game (1.19) among active NHLers with more than 500 points (Guess who will be the leader after Sakic retires?)
You know I had to get Dany Heatley into the conversation somehow! Heatley will be the league’s leader in points per game (minimum 500 career points) once Sakic retires on Thursday.

Kovalev Speaks Out On Ottawa

 @kylerousselreports a nice farewell to Montreal from Alex Kovalev’s official site: http://www.ak27.com/

Kovalev says Stanley Cup within reach in Ottawa. http://ff.im/-4Vg7g
Kovalev believes that he can bring more offense to Ottawa in the form of a second line scoring presence that they didn’t have previously.  He believes that is what is holding the Senators back from success in the playoffs.  I agree with him to a point, but the Senators also need defense and a goaltender. I didn’t expect Alex to bash his new team off the bat, but something more realistic wouldn’t have hurt. 

 @fatheaddesign Also thinks Kovalev is as close to the Stanley Cup in Ottawa as he will ever get saying- “Ottawa is a short train ride away from the HHOF, they can visit it there easily”.

Bonus NHL Goodness

  If you are a Penguins fan in Ohio or Pennsylvania, visit your local Giant Eagle store. @Kicksavetwenty and @Brian_Metzer say the Penguins newly released Stanley Cup Championship DVD is only $12 there with your Giant Eagle advantage card.

 @HabsIO says Scott Gomez will wear #91 and Mike Cammalleri will wear #13 in Montreal next season http://snipurl.com/maycc . According to Habs fan Michael Kuyaz, they will form part of the Montreal Canadiens new “Smurf Line” next season as seen here.

Chris Pronger signs 7-year extension in Philadelphia -… http://ff.im/-4Vn6Y
Pronger stated a few days ago that he would like to finish his career in Philadelphia.  This 7-year extension will do just that for the 35 year old rearguard.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that Pronger retires in 5 years.

 @hosea24hoursWhat’s so exciting about Jonas Gustavsson? It’s Burke’s way of giving Leafs fans false hope. Remember Fabian Brunnstrom?
He’s right, and as Kyle Roussel said: “If Gustavsson is so great, then why did it take him so long to get to the NHL, and If he’s so great, why did he only get a 1-year deal?”  This highly touted “Monster” has a lot to prove and he will be asked to prove it under the bright lights and pressure of the cynical and fickle Toronto spotlight.

NHL Trivia:Which active NHL player has the best plus/minus rating at +409

Answer: N. Lidstrom

The good folks over at the Pensburgh blog have taken some lessons from this down economy and posted an article today about defending a championship on a budget. http://bit.ly/11gTvj

Avalanche vs. Sabres Preview (10/25/08)

Shane Giroux Submits:

It’s a battle of offensive juggernauts when the Buffaslugs make their way to Denver to face the Avalanche as part of the NHL’s Super Saturday.

If you’re a betting person, you might want to line up to place some cash on the over for this game. Colorado and Buffalo are two of the highest scoring teams in the league with 28 and 26 goals respectively in their first seven games.

A crucial difference is that while Colorado given up 23  goals so far, Buffalo has only allowed 13. With a 1.74 GAA and .935 save percentage, it appears Ryan Miller isn’t suffering from any post-contract performance issues while Patrick Lalime is being all the backup he can be with a 1.44 GAA and .953 save percentage. Lalime is the likely candidate in the Sabres goal tonight according to the Buffalo News.

Peter Budaj will be the man at the other end of the rink as he gets his second straight start. After giving up just one goal – a rather lucky powerplay goal no less – against Edmonton, it appears Budaj may be hitting his stride after a shaky start to the season.

If the defense can apply pressure down low while utilizing a newfound ability to clear the puck, it will go a long way to helping Budaj’s cause. Which is to vindicate the faithful while disproving the pundits. If he wins hockey games along the way, so be it.

David Jones is ready to go but it’s questionable whether Granato will insert him into the lineup. Ben Guite took his spot on Thursday and played a whale of a game, making it hard to argue for sitting Guite.

Buffalo is undefeated in regulation after 7 games while the Avalanche have reeled off four straight wins. One of those is likely to give tonight and it just might be in highlight-reel fashion.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll be getting the Altitude or MSG feed but either way there will be some excitable announcers calling this one.

Sakic Signs With Avalanche

Shane Giroux of the Colorado Avalanche Blog submits:

Holy out-of-the-blue, Batman! Joe Sakic has signed on with the Avalanche for one more year. Thanks to Sully for the tip in the comments of my previous Sakic post.

Honestly, I thought the press conference Sakic had scheduled for tomorrow would be uneventful. Maybe I was getting apathetic about the whole “Will he or won’t he?” angle. Or maybe I’m in that weird limbo phase of being disappointed about summer coming to a close but excited about hockey coming back causing my emotions to neutralize.

But it turns out I was dead wrong and couldn’t be happier. And with a price tag of $6M, I bet Francois Giguere is whistling zippety-do-da all day long today. I’ll take Sakic for $6M over Sundin for $10M any day of the week, twice on Friday and three times on Canada day.

At a cap hit hovering in the $50M area ($4,6M according to nhlnumbers.com, $50M according to nhlscap.com and $52M according to DD), the Avalanche have left themselves with plenty of wiggle room. Sources tell me Gomez is on the block but I hear he’s going to Phoenix straight up for Kurt Sauer.

And can you believe he signed with the Avalanche? Man, I know Vancouver was in the running until the very end and so were the Rangers but he pulled a 360 and went back to the Avs. Shocking.

I wonder where all the prognosticators will put the Avalanche in their pre-preseason rankings now.

…Actually, I don’t care.

Svatos Back With Avalanche

Shane Giroux of Avs Talk Submits:

Adrian Dater has been keeping us up-to-date on late breaking news this offseason – what little there has been – via his blog as well as Twitter and has just reported that Marek Svatos has re-signed with the Avalanche. The deal is $4.1M over 2 years which strikes me as quite reasonable. On a cost per goal basis, he will likely be the second-best deal for the Avalanche this coming season.

We all pick on Svatos for his injury issues – and for good reason – but I love watching him play. Not only does he have a nose for the net but he’s got a chip on his shoulder about his size. If he ever gets bowled over by someone, keep an eye on him. Odds are that he’s going to get up, shake himself off and lay a bone-crushing hit on the next opposing player he can catch. He may be small but that gives him a low center of gravity and he knows how to use it.

Injury Plagued History

Unfortunately for Svatos, he has been a bit fragile in his career. His career high for games played was in ’06/07 when he played 66 games while struggling with groin injuries. Prior to that he had surgery on his left shoulder. Last season he tore his ACL. You start adding that up and you can see why he wouldn’t ask for – nor would the team give him – a long-term, big money contract. For all his upside, he comes with a lot of risk.

Agree To Disagree

When Svatos filed for arbitration, it didn’t sound like the two sides were at a huge crossroads in negotiations. Svatos was even quoted in a Slovakian paper (to which I can’t find the link now) as saying he was looking for around $2M so it’s not shocking that he re-signed before his arbitration hearing. And given that the contract is only a $2M cap hit, any “Sign and trade!” folks will likely fall silent. Unfortunately anonymous hockey bloggers who thought Svatos would get $4M will likely keep yapping.

One thing I found amusing in TSN’s news article -aside from the typo in the headline – was a quote from Francois Giguere:
“Marek Svatos has been a key ingredient to our success the last few years,” said Avalanche Executive Vice President and General Manager Francois Giguere in a statement.

Was that the success of missing the playoffs two seasons ago or the sweep by the Wings last season? Ah, now I’m just being a bitter old (young) man.

Red Wings Versus Avalanche Preview

Shane Giroux Breaks Down the Series 

Break out your copy of Tomb Raider, slip on the Doc Martens and crank up the Pearl Jam. That’s right, it’s retro time!

The Colorado Avalanche are set to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Semi-finals in the NHL playoffs. And predictably we’ve been subjected to many lame quips – such as the one above – due to the history between these two clubs.

And if you don’t know the history, you might want to pick up Adrian Dater’s book Blood Feud. And I’d also hope that you’re a new fan to the game otherwise I’d ask what rock you’ve been under for the last few years.

History is just that…or is it?
However those days are long past and I much prefer to look to the future than to look to the past. I mean really, what does the series history between these teams mean to this series? Not a hell of a lot in my eyes.

Joe Sakic, however, begs to differ:

“I know the guys who were around for that time, we’re definitely excited. We can feel it. You know the buzz around the whole city is there,” said Sakic.

There are 12 players – 4 for the Avalanche and 8 for the Red Wings – still with a bittersweet taste left in their mouths from the rivalry. Well, Draper certainly still has the taste of something in his mouth still.

So it is entirely possible that the previous feud will ignite a passion in some of the older players that may not have been there if the Avalanche had ended up facing the Sharks and the Wings had to duke it out with the Stars.

Regular season routing
During the regular season, the Red Wings put a beating on the Lake Erie Monsters. The Wings shut them out on three separate occasions and also posted a 4-2 win late in December.

Avalanche fans can take solace in the fact that the squads iced by the Avalanche during those games were far different than the current squad.

Adam Foote, Ruslan Salei and Peter Forsberg were obviously not in an Avalanche uniform for those games, Joe Sakic has not played a game against the Red Wings this season, Paul Stastny and Ryan Smyth have only been in the lineup twice and Karlis Skrastins was in the lineup for all 4 games.

That’s a pretty significant boost. The team is stronger, tougher and more experienced than they were a couple months ago.

But how do they match up against a strong Red Wings team?

Offensive Output
The Avalanche need to fend off the first wave from Datsyuk and Zetterberg while keeping an eye out for the second wave from Hudler and Franzen.

Combine that with Lidstrom and Rafalski on the back end – and Tomas Holmstrom’s back end – and there is plenty of offensive firepower to keep an eye on.

On the flip side, Osgood will need to be wary of crash-and-bang players like Ben Guite, David Jones and Ryan Smyth.

Jordan Leopold and Ruslan Salei have stepped up on the back end for the Avalanche and have provided some much needed points from the point.

Defensive destruction
Deadline day acquisitions Adam Foote and Ruslan Salei have been dynamite for the Avalanche. Foote shut down Gaborik and anchored down a shaky defensive squad. Ruslan Salei plays on the PP and PK and has stepped it up physically. I don’t think I could ask for more from either of those players.

Scott Hannan has become invisible which is exactly the way I like him. If I’m not noticing him that much, then he’s not making mistakes. I invariably expect a defenceman to do his job so when he does, I tend not to make mention of it.

Frankly it’s because I spent so much time being defensively responsible during my hockey playing days that I simply expect it. If I could do it, I think an NHLer should be able to do it.

The Red Wings squad is led by Nik Lidstrom, supported by Brian Rafalski

Goaltending gonads
Yes, I used the word gonads. Mainly because I drew a blank while trying to think of a “G” word to go with goaltending.

Jose Theodore was brilliant down the stretch and turned it up a notch in the playoffs, as he has done in the past.

At the other end, Chris Osgood has taken over the reigns after Hasek let in one too many long shots for coach Mike Babcock’s lightning.

So you’ve got a resurging young goaltender battling it out with a resurging veteran. Can youth trump experience? I like to think so.

And make no bones about it, if the Avalanche are to win this series, they are going to require Jose Theodore to be no less than bloody brilliant in every game.

Coaching quarrel
Mike Babcock is an excellent coach. Joel Quenneville has been an above average coach thus far in the playoffs.

If Q wants to outcoach Babcock, he’s got to stay simple. Don’t screw with the lines after a loss and have your players know their roles.

During the Minnesota series, as soon as Gaborik set foot on the ice, Foote was already up and ready to hop over the boards without being told.

Having your players think on their feet certainly keeps the game interesting, but if they can settle into a routine, that helps them concentrate on their matchup much more effectively.

Oh, and don’t pull a Keenan and yank Theodore while down 4-2 in a game 7. Just don’t.

Stats breakdown
This will be quick and dirty as stats aren’t my forte.

						P
DET	6	4	2		0	0	.667	2.83	2.00	1.22	11.5	91.3	40.3	24.0
COL	6	4	2		0	0	.667	2.83	2.00	1.29	20.0	85.7	30.2	33.3

So after one round of playoff action, the basic stats are a draw for these two teams. The special teams game and shots for/against per game show something to keep an eye on.

The Wings are firing off 40 shots per game and the Avalanche are allowing 33. I don’t expect the Wings to be able to get off 40 per game against the Avalanche like they did with Nashville but even 30-35 shots from this team is a lot of rubber for Theodore to be handling every night.

And in a shocking turn of events, the Avalanche powerplay is nearly doubling the output of the Red Wings powerplay. That will even out a bit as the series wears on. You can see that the Wings are killing penalties with over 90% efficiency so don’t expect a 20% effective Avalanche powerplay.

With Tomas Holmstrom in one crease and Ryan Smyth in the other, it should be an interesting special teams battle. Hopefully the ride the Avalanche’s PP squad is on won’t end any time soon.

Final words
I don’t do series predictions but if I had to go with my gut, I would say Wings in 6. If I go with my heart, I would say Avs in 5. You know, one token win so Wings fans don’t feel too bad.

Now go ahead and prove me wrong, Avalanche.

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