10 Observations on Burnside's USA Article

I'll keep this introduction short because I assume if you're hockey savvy enough to know this blog or be reading it, you've probably read the Scott Burnside piece on how the US team was put together. If not you can read it here. All the talk about what this means for reporters and access is interesting, but if I'm being completely honest I don't really care (unless it means all access stops). What I do care about is some of the hockey discussions that went on, so without further adieu here are 10 observations from a revealing article:

1. I found it more than interesting that Burke thought teams would be "excited" to play against Yandle should an injury occur and he have to step into the top four, but the team had no problem naming Justin Faulk to the team and eventually settled on Fowler over Yandle too. What, Canada and Sweden wouldn't be excited to play a top four that contained Faulk or Fowler in it? 
2. Another note on Yandle was that USA was completely comfortable in simply saying "Pavelski is going to play the point on the power play." You have the highest scoring American defenseman over the last four years but you leave him off because you're going to have a forward on the point instead? I know Pavelski plays the point in San Jose, and he's great at it, but that's a huge task to ask of a guy on big ice when he's going to probably be up against penalty killers like Claude Giroux, maybe Patrick Sharp or Rick Nash, or whoever. Nothing against Pavelski, and I think he can reasonably play there, but why is it a forgone conclusion?
3. Couldn't help but get a laugh out of this: "Shero insists he'd still rather throw in his lot with the Detroit netminder given his playoff experience and the belief he'll rise to the challenge if called on. "I'm going to take my [bleeping] chances with Jimmy Howard," Shero says." This is to a "T" why Marc Andre Fleury is still Pittsburgh's goalie. 
4. As much slack as the management team is getting for Bobby Ryan not being on the team, the coaching staff didn't want him. In Toronto we hear from analysts all the time how the "top-six, bottom-six, model is dead" but the Pens coaches legitimately didn't want Bobby Ryan because that's the system they are running and Bobby Ryan wasn't going to play in their top six and they thought he wasn't a good fit for that bottom six grinding role. 
5. I didn't really care about Burke or anyone else ripping on Bobby Ryan, but the actual strange thing was Burke saying he should have drafted Johnson over Ryan.  Ryan is a four time 30 goal scorer with size, while Jack Johnson is a big, fast defenseman who isn’t very good defensively or offensively. How is this a real conversation?
6. One of the quieter worries about Ben Bishop was his poor World Championships. Let that be a lesson to all the people who don't think that tournament matters. Conversely, John Gibson took over and led USA to an unexpected bronze medal after Bishop struggled, and Gibson's name was on USA's radar to start the season. John Gibson has never played an NHL game and he was in USA's pool of goalies months into the season. Think about that. 
7. It was interesting hearing the debate on "I want the three best goalies" versus "who is playing well." Frankly, there was a lot of flip-flopping on that stance. When it came to Jack Johnson it was "he's been there before, he wont let us down for 12 days" and yet for goalies it was sometimes "who is playing well (hello Jimmy Howard)." And yet at forward it was also "Well Kyle Okposo is playing well but we wont hear from him years from now." One American has more points than Okposo this year. Taking the best versus who is playing well is a tough debate. Personally I'd take the best players and hope they get it together. I'd rather go down with my best struggling versus playing worse players who end up not being up to the task.
8. It was also interesting, and I know we didn't hear their full discussions, on how little they put into stats. When Dean Lombardi had his whole Yandle presentation he touched on him being the highest scoring defenseman over the last four years yet nobody seemed to care (he can't play D was the prevailing notion). The same thing when it came to Bobby Ryan and how good a point producer he's been. Frankly, I thought Dean Lombardi came off as the smartest guy in those meetings and it's not a surprise when you consider the team he's built and the overall success he's had in his career. You got a little glimpse into how little executives put into stats, and the stats I'm talking about are literally only goals and points. Imagine otherwise.
9. Conversely, I was a little surprised to hear Dean Lombardi be complimentary of Jack Johnson considering their history. If you don't know what I'm talking about just Google "Dean Lombardi Jack Johnson" and have fun.
10. Was surprised at the little talk of versatility. Maybe it simply wasn't included, but when it came to the defense it was like "who is a LD, who is a RD, okay let's pick each from these categories." On forward it was the same thing "who is a RW, who is a LW, okay let's go." Crazy things happen in these tournaments, guys get hurt, guys play like garbage, etc. The only thing they wanted for flexibility was five centers but otherwise they appear to be very certain of the match-ups and roles they want and there isn't much wiggle room otherwise. This scares me that Subban wont be on Canada simply because he's a RD.

Too Long for Twitter- November 6th

1. Claude Giroux has had a brutal start to the season, but I’m surprised at how many people have now decided that he’s not worthy of playing for Team Canada because of it. In the three seasons before this he put up 217 points in 207 games, he can play wing and center, he’s tough, he’s good on the PK, and he has 55 points in 50 career playoff games. Remember this shift against Pittsburgh in the playoffs? He actually skated by his own bench before he did and said “watch what I’m going to do.” But we’re not taking him cause of 14 bad games on a crap team? How is this real conversation? Giroux is a no-brainer to me.
2. Much like the Desharnais contract before it, I think the Habs made a mistake giving Emelin the money they did. And I like Emelin. He’s obviously really physical and he’s solid on the penalty kill, but he’s 27, has played two years in the league, and hasn’t averaged over 20 minutes of ice time so that makes him worth over $4million/year? At the very least, I think Emelin will play in their top four because he and Gorges are their only signed D-men (they’ll get Subban done; he’s an RFA), but he’s better suited to be a 4-5D, not a 3-4D. When are teams going to learn you don’t pay guys good money when they don’t up points?
3. Another player that falls under that category? Paul Gaustad. The Nashville Predators, of all teams, pay their fourth line center (Fisher, Cullen, Legwand are all ahead of him) $3.25M. I love trying to find good grinders that can be “glue guys” on your bottom lines, but it’s unbelievable how teams don’t focus on the talent portion of their roster first before trying to supplement it with grinders. Nashville can’t afford to pay their fourth line center that much. That’s the same money that Clarke MacArthur just signed for this summer.
4. It’s becoming more and more clear that the Oilers have to start trading some skill up front for some actual defensemen and/or goaltending. The crazy thing is that Hall, Eberle, RNH, Gagner, Yakupov, Perron, and Hemsky are players that are all cut from the same cloth if you know what I mean. It’s not like any of these guys are big, physical, excellent defensively or anything else; they are all simply skilled offensive players of varying degrees. The Oilers might challenge your defense, but they don’t challenge you in their own end and there’s no commitment on the back end to being a strong team and making the opposition work for their goals. Eakins basically said as much a few days ago talking about how his players loved to score but not play defense.
5. That said, the Yakupov talk reminds me of the Stamkos talk in his rookie season. Apparently, the Rangers actually agreed to a deal to bring him in that was nixed, but you get the point here. You don’t trade a kid before he’s barely even played in this league. Frankly, the Oilers should be trying to trade Eberle, or maybe Gagner. Obviously Hemsky too. Keep Yakupov, Hall, and RNH, and build around them.
6. And of course, now Yakupov is being linked to the Rangers. Sather tried to poach Stamkos as I just noted, and way back when he tried to steal Lecalvier from Tampa when he struggled early on. And those are only examples I know of. If Sather is trying to poach your young struggling player that you drafted first overall, that’s the seal of approval that he’s going to be a star.
7. I guess I’m in the minority here, and I’ll probably get ripped for it, but I really don’t believe the Lapierre hit on Boyle was THAT bad.  The bad hits from behind to me are the ones where a shoulder is driven through a guy’s back as he’s facing the other way. Boyle got to the puck first, which Lapierre knew was going to happen, and decided to turn the other way and reverse the play rather than try to chip it by Lapierre. Lapierre anticipated the chip and geared up to hammer Boyle but when Boyle reversed he kind of eased off and pushed him down.  He obviously made contact and it was stupid, but he didn’t make contact with the head and toss his head into the wall. The problem I find with a lot of these hits is that player’s anticipate the opponent is going to do something, but when they don’t they still finish the hit as if they did. Was it unnecessary? Yeah. Could it have been avoided once Boyle turned? I don’t think so Lapierre was going pretty fast. Could he have hammered him a lot harder? Yes. It was an unfortunate play, but I don’t think it was jaw dropping brutal.
8. In games featuring Dallas-Colorado and Nashville-Florida I saw icing plays in the dying minute where the winning team was protecting a lead, shot the puck down and the icing was waived off yet the defensive guy touched the puck first. That’s because the refs made subjective calls to keep the play alive. I don’t know how they fix that, but that’s a serious problem to me.  If a Canadian team got burned by that it’s all we’d hear about it. Look at the teams I mentioned when that happened.
9. If Moulson was a by-product of Tavares, the Islanders will win that trade. Otherwise, it was pointless because Vanek won’t score much more than what Moulson would have on the Isles (what, 40 goals by Vanek instead of 30 by Moulson?). So by that token they could have just traded the first and second round pick they tacked on in that deal for another legitimate goal scorer and kept Moulson.  One thing I will say about Moulson is that he reminds me of Heatley in terms of being a guy with size and a big shot but not a good skater, and we can all see how fast Heatley has declined. Heatley is two years older than Moulson.
10. Before the Leafs signed Mikhail Grabovski to his long-term contract that has since been bought out, they shopped him around to see if a trade was worthwhile. At the time, it was thought that the Leafs could have moved Grabovski to Chicago for Brandon Pirri and a draft pick. It was a trade I said I’d take at the time so Pirri has been someone I’ve monitored ever since to see how he progresses. He led the AHL in scoring last year and as of this writing he has 5 points in 10 games for the Blackhawks playing a little over 11 minutes a night. Something to monitor, I guess.
11. One last thing on the Leafs: If they are really looking to bring in a forward then they should be eyeing the Florida Panthers as a trade partner more than anyone else. Florida is open for business and has a bunch of center options the Leafs could get in on: Marcel Goc, Scott Gomez, Jesse Winchester, and maybe even Shawn Matthias (he hasn’t had a great start, so maybe Florida is finally fed up with him).  Most of those players won’t cost much and two of them are guys that can potentially help for years to come in Goc and Matthias.
12. I’m not sure where people get off talking about Brandon Saad playing on team USA just because he partners with Patrick Kane in Chicago. Here are USA forwards that are better than Saad: Kessel, JVR, Kesler, Pavelski, Ryan, Brown, Pacioretty, Backes, Stastny, Parise, Callahan, Wheeler, Stepan and the aforementioned Kane. That’s 14 right there.
13. Another American forward worth noting right now: Kyle Okposo. He’s playing with John Tavares and has 19 points in 15 games, but nobody is saying a word about this guy! He was compared to Jarome Iginla in his draft year and although he hasn’t become anything close to Iggy, maybe he’s finally starting to realize that potential a little bit. Okposo had 24 points (but only four goals) in 48 games last year, but then came up big in the playoffs with three goals and four points in six games.
14. At what point do we start taking Tampa Bay seriously? They are second in the East right now, but it’s worth noting they had a strong start last year too before falling fast. I said last season when Tampa got Ben Bishop that their tandem for this year reminded me of Reimer-Scrivens last year. The question is, is Bishop going to be a .925sv% goalie all year? Stamkos and St. Louis can score, Purcell can score, and Filppula has been an unbelievable acquisition so far. A few other things I question are: Is Alex Killorn seriously going to get the 70 points he’s on pace for? Sami Salo is in their top four; when is he going to inevitably get hurt?  Same goes for Ryan Malone who I’ve always like but just can’t seem to play a full season. Tampa will fight the question marks all season but they’ve had a hell of a start and have a great farm system. Maybe Yzerman does know what he’s doing?
15. Biggest difference I’ve seen in Dallas from the start of the season until right now (they started 2-3-0, and are 5-3-2 since): they’ve realized Dillon-Robidas are their best shutdown pairing, not Goligoski-Gonchar. They will be in tough to make the playoffs, but I love the direction of this team.

Too Long for Twitter- October 2nd

1.  I really enjoyed this interview with Mike Keenan, but one quote really stuck out and it was after he was asked who was the most difficult player he had to coach: “There’s always an interesting thing with Brett Hull. We’re buddies, friends. But he was an interesting player to coach. There are others, and people will know who they are. There’s no reason talking about them, because, for example, Joe Murphy was difficult, but people here wouldn’t even know who Joe Murphy is. Brett Hull had a mind of his own. He was very stubborn. A superstar, an excellent player, but very stubborn. He knew how he wanted to play.” I don’t think people realize how hard it is to co-exist with some of these superstars as a mere hockey coach- getting these guys to backcheck, block shots, sacrifice to make plays, etc. John MacLean and Ilya Kovalchuk with the New Jersey Devils comes to mind. Cory Clouston and Alex Kovalev in Ottawa does as well.
2. Dustin Penner is a healthy scratch to start the year in Anaheim after all he talked about in preseason was his bond with Getzlaf and Perry, hoping to prove himself, wanting to be marketable next year in free agency and all that. This is why so many people don’t put stock into quotes.
3. Yes the Flames got a first round pick in the Bouwmeester trade but it looked even worse than it originally did after the Flames waived Mark Cundari and he wasn’t claimed, along with Reto Berra not making the team. There’s no doubt the Flames needed to trade Bouwmeester to help push along their rebuild, but that doesn’t mean you trade a good defenseman for below market value. Bouwmeester had another year left on his contract and the Flames easily could have justified holding him and moving him at the draft or until an acceptable deal came along.
4. Conversely, the Blues traded Perron for Paajarvi in a bit of a cap move, but with the Morrow signing he might even struggle to get third line ice time. I count Roy, Backes, Steen, Stewart, Berglund, Oshie, and at least one of Schwartz/Tarasenko as top 9 forwards. Hitchcock also said Sobotka would be in the top nine but he said so before the Morrow signing, plus I’ll believe it when I see it due to their depth. The bottom line really is that the Blues traded a legit top six forward for a guy who will struggle to play in their top nine consistently. Imagine the backlash in Toronto or Montreal if the Leafs or Habs did that? Paajarvi was a healthy scratch to open the season.
5. Another move looking ugly right now? Martin Erat for Filip Forsberg. Erat started the season on a line with young players Tom Wilson and Michael Latta, and played only 9:01. He’s already questioning his role and while I don’t want to make this bigger than it is, the Caps traded a pretty promising player that they drafted 11^th overall for Erat so they better figure this out before it snowballs. The short-sightedness of the move is eerily similar to the Cody Eakin for Mike Ribeiro swap.
6. I have to give John Scott a little credit, at least he has a sense of humour. The day after the brawl he took a moment to say "No one is talking about the sick assist I got last night, the baby sauce pass in the middle." That’s pretty funny.
7. Varlamov stopped 59 of 62 shots in his two preseason games. This is not only a big year for him, but for new Avs goalie coach Francois Allaire who has been kicked to the curb a little bit the last few years with the fallout from Toronto. You can bet that if Varlamov has a good season it will be a bit of redemption for Allaire. In Colorado's season opener he stopped 36/37 shots.
8. One of the more honest things I’ve ever seen from John Tortorella came in his TSN interview with James Duthie where he said: “nobody came up to me and said 'you need to relax, you’re kicking the crap out of us.'” I thought that was so interesting and revealing. One- coaches can’t talk at players all the time, there needs to be a give and take. Two- players (presumably) can’t be too scared to go talk to the coach and tell him to tone it down; it’s a long season and it’s a grind, if you aren’t able to have an honest chat with the coach then something very wrong is happening. Three- Torts lost that dressing room and he knows it, so how will he change? Four- this might be the most important point, but it sounds like he is willing to change; I don’t care what he does with the media, it’s his relationship with the team that will push things for better or worse.
9. That said, I got a kick out of the media giving it Tortorella for being vocal about a phone going off during a press conference. Tortorella was right to do that. He, nor any coach, does not conduct these interviews for his livelihood. It’s not like coaches are looking forward to these things as it takes away time they could be using to make their teams better which is all any coach really cares about. In other words, Torts isn’t really doing those morning interviews for himself so the least you could do is show him some respect. Having your phone go off like that is just bush league, but all I heard other media members saying is “same old Torts.” How about “why does that goof not have his phone on silent?”
10. In the NFL teams rake over the waiver wire and spend arguably as much time watching their own guys, as they do others in preseason. I’m shocked the NHL isn’t the same. Luke Adam, Cory Emmerton, Adam Hall, TJ Brennan, etc. all went unclaimed. You can’t convince me not one team couldn’t afford to pick those guys (among others) up and stash them on their roster be it in the NHL or AHL.
11. I like hybrid icing and think it’s a great idea. One problem I can see happening is this: two players racing for a puck and the defensive guy begins to pull up around the faceoff dot because he’s expecting a whistle that never comes, and the offensive guy gets the puck making a play to score. Because it’s a judgement call you can see where the grey is in there. That said, utilitarianism rules apply here and it needed to be done.
12. I would have had Edmonton in the playoffs if it weren’t for these Gagner and RNH injuries to start the year. Even if they can survive them (looks like they won’t), it’s not as if once they return everything is okay either. There will be an adjustment period and those players will need to work themselves back into game shape to be able to bring it night in and night out. It’s a tough bounce for Edmonton and I hope they overcome it because they were –on paper—ready to take the next step this season.
13. If I’m picking an under the radar team that I think will make the playoffs, I would pick the New Jersey Devils. Last year they were good goaltending and a bit more scoring away from making it, and they addressed that this season with the Schneider acquisition plus forward additions. Their top six wingers –Jagr, Elias, Ryder, Clowe—have combined for the fourth most points as a group of top six wingers over the last two years, and then they added Damien Brunner just in case. I think their depth is underrated (Bernier, Zubrus, Carter, Josefson, etc. are all good players). Jersey led the league in shot differential last season, and while I think that’s a by-product of their system because they simply throw pucks on net from everywhere, I do think they are one of the best neutral zone teams in hockey and they bottle up the opposition with ease. Jersey is in a tough division, but I like them.
14. Jim Rutherford saying "If you really like fighting you should probably go to a fighting or wrestling match,” is pretty off-base considering he employs Kevin Westgarth who is strictly an enforcer. Look, I don’t really care where you stand on the fighting debate for this point all I’m saying is don’t be a hypocrite because you lose all credibility when you do. At least when Detroit speaks out on this we can all look and say “hey, they don’t employ one-dimensional enforcers.”
15. My award winning predictions for you all to rip on later:

• Hart- John Tavares
• Ross- Evgeni Malkin
• Norris- Erik Karlsson
• Vezina- Henrik Lundqvist
• Calder- Ryan Murray
• Selke- Patrice Bergeron
• Adams- Jack Capuano