First off, a round 1 summary:

Series	Winner	Racki	Steve-O	Trogdor
Hawks vs Wild	Hawks in 5	Hawks in 5	Hawks in 5	Hawks in 4
Ducks vs Wings	Wings in 7	Wings in 6	Ducks in 7	Ducks in 6
Canucks vs Sharks	Sharks in 4	Sharks in 6	Sharks in 6	Canucks in 6
Blues vs Kings	Kings in 6	Kings in 4	Blues in 7	Kings in 6
Pens vs Isles	Pens in 6	Pengs in 4	Pens in 5	Pens in 5
Habs vs Sens	Sens in 5	Habs in 6	Habs in 6	Habs in 6
Caps vs Rangers	Rangers in 7	Rangers in 7	Rangers in 7	Rangers in 6
Bruins vs Leafs	Bruins in 7	Bruins in 6	Bruins in 4	Bruins in 5

 

To sum:
Racki got 7 of the 8 series winners correct, matching 2 of the game lengths of those winners.
Steve-O got 5 of the 8 series winners correct, matching 2 of the game lengths of those winners.
Trogdor got 5 of the 8 series winners correct, matching 1 of the game lengths of those winners.

Big winner.. RACKIIIIII!

On to round two.. here are the match ups:

Hawks vs Wings
Kings vs Sharks
Pens vs Sens
Bruins vs Rangers

Submit your predictions in the comments! And if you predicted in round 1, mention how you did too for round 1.

In other news… how is Leaf Nation doing? That was a monumental loss. I can speak from experience in saying that it’s much easier to be blown out in a series/game than it is to have a win firmly in your grasp and completely blow it. I tend to smile whenever the Leafs suffer, but I think when you’ve suffered for 50 some years, it’s hard not to feel a little sorry, now and then.

So there’s some uproar that Lindy Ruff unfairly benched an offensive weapon in Taylor Hall against a team that has a stifling defense. The thought was that Canada needed a guy like Hall who such a penchant for generating scoring chances. Hall’s line seemingly saw some decreased ice time in the 2nd. In the 3rd, it was clear that Hall played his last shift of the game with 14:54 remaining in the 3rd period.

So.. was he unfairly benched?

I would like to break down the first half of the game more.. I didn’t start really paying attention until the 2nd, so I’ll probably come back to this. But here’s a quick breakdown of the mid 2nd and early 3rd: Continue reading 'Did Ruff unfairly bench Taylor Hall in game 2 of the WHC?'»

Well, it’s off-season. With off-season comes all the crazy talk. One recent bit of crazy talk comes courtesy of Jim Matheson at the Edmonton Journal. I typically agree with a lot Matty has to say. But this one is just way off to me. The suggestion is that we should bring back Nikolai Khabibulin for a year. This is just lunacy to me.

I want to start by saying I like both Khabibulin and Devan Dubnyk. I think when each are on their game, they can be really quite good. I do think too though that Dubnyk hasn’t shown that he can be a top end goalie for much more than 45-ish games. So that’s my margin for him.. about 45 games. That leaves 37 games left to play which, if you’re doing the math, is 45% of the season.. nearly half (“thank you, professor!”). That means I see Dubnyk in a 1A / 1B situation, meaning that I think he should share the starting duties with another goaltender. The most games that Dubnyk has ever played in his career was 47. Now, this year, they really pushed the envelope and gave him more games.. so it’s possible he can eat more games. This post isn’t so much about Dubnyk though as it is about Khabibulin.

Now, let’s talk Khabi. Matheson thinks this is a good idea because Khabibulin had hip surgery last April and says he feels the best he has in a while. He missed the start of the season from recovering from the injury. That I wouldn’t say is a black mark. Each game that he played this year, he did look fairly solid. However, was it clear that the fatigue/injury issues were behind him? I don’t think so. February 9, khabi debuts on the season and plays a rather stellar game vs. the Wings in which they lose (but he deserved the win). One week later, he bails out Dubnyk in relief and steals a win.. things are looking good so far. February 19th (3 days later), Khabi allows a mere two goals in another reliable performance. The Oilers rest Khabi for a game, and then he plays against Phoenix on the 23rd of February. This again is another reliable game from Khabi, as he gets the win. The Oilers press their luck and push him another game, on February 25th. Boom.. groin injury… so 5 games into the season, he’s out with a groin injury that keeps him out of the lineup for about a month. Is this reliable??

During the month that Khabibulin was out, the Oilers Continue reading 'Edmonton and goaltending'»

Craig MacTavish season wrap up

So let’s start with a summary of MacTavish’s season wrap up…

- Overall team strength and depth and competitiveness needs improvement.
- Says these will be addressed, through a large degree, through personnel changes (i.e. waiting for the current guys to get bigger, or stronger isn’t going to help)
- Needs core guys to be better defensively and without the puck. Need structure in their game to have success.
- They need to add some specific role players that have a threat to score, even marginally. He says their current role guys, the best they were ever going to be on a given night was a “non factor”. Not a lot of upside in their current group.
- Says the few times that the role guys had an impact, they ended up winning games.
- Defense needs more foot speed to play a style that best suits the skill set this team has. The defensemen have to be able to Continue reading 'Craig MacTavish season wrap up, plus our playoff predictions, and more'»

I have more and more respect for Craig MacTavish, and I feel the team is in very good hands under his management. Yes, the team should have considered other options, and I’m a little tired of the old boys club here, but I always considered Craig MacTavish to be a very intelligent hockey mind. Anyways.. the quotes…

When asked if he was surprised that the Oilers fell apart when they were in the fight for a playoff spot…
“As close as we were, I never had a tonne of confidence in our ability to get there (playoffs), because we seldom control the momentum swings in a game, which you need to if you’re a playoff hockey team. The other team always controlled the really critical moments when they had to. We had a great shot differential in most of the games, which is generally a pretty good indicator of team strength. The positive part of that is we didn’t need a lot of chances to score and there’s not a lot of teams that can say that.”

When asked about the biggest flaws of the Oilers team, he mentioned that the core guys could use improvement in their game without the puck, but went on more about the other players on the team – the role guys….
“And I think our role players have to be… I thought this year, to be kind of frank, that a lot of guys on our team on any given night were accepting of not being a positive factor.. or really doing something to contribute to the win or make a difference. That’s just not Oiler hockey, really. You have to be a positive factor in the game, and you can’t just go out there and not be involved in the game, or not show that you’re going to compete for your teammates, or go in the locker room and take your gear off and get ready for the next game. I just felt that our role players needed to be more impactful in the games. Maybe not impactful is the right word. But in the game of hockey you have to the opportunity every shift to go out and show that you’re going to go and do what you need to do to help the guy sitting beside you. I don’t think there was enough of that and for that reason I think it’s a bit of a shared responsibility for everybody.”

Hrudey noted that at the press conference, MacTavish mentioned he wasn’t a very patient person, and asked how this would benefit the team to change its future:
“I think we’re at the stage now where you go from almost a neglect style (of management) in a rebuilding mode to, at some point, you have to get into a more aggressive style of play and be more aggressive in the way we manage the team. I think we’re very much there. Everybody’s got to accept some responsibility to this. I really view my job is to make some moves here that clearly identify for the players what we’re looking for in terms of the personnel and the style of play and commitment and doing that will make a big difference.”

The key word in that one is “neglect”. Not sure if that was a shot at Tambellini, but I don’t think so. But it sure put into perspective what this management teams’ philosophy was before the MacTavish hiring. I said it all along.. Tambellini wasn’t avoiding filling holes because he couldn’t. It sounds from this quote that the plan, for whatever reason, had been to just sit back and see what happens and let the problems fix themselves, if they can, or accept another early draft pick. I think everyone would agree that this year should have been anything but that.. they should have tried to make this team competitive, but Tambellini was still in “neglect mode”. I think we’ll see a big difference under MacT’s management. I hope I’m not wrong.