NHL Power Play Tournament News

I was browsing my copy of “The 75th Anniversary of the NHL” and discovered that the 1933 Stanley Cup Final was decided 1-0 in overtime when the Rangers scored with a two-men advantage. Today, this result is, of course, the secret fantasy of the people currently running the NHL product into the ground.

Despite the Flyers handling their archrival, this hockey is horrible to watch. The past three games there have been almost fifty minor penalties called. That is right- almost fifty- and practically none of the off-setting kind. In the two games in Philadelphia, the teams have traded 29 power plays. And this is not a chippy, emotional series. How could it be? Everything is a potentially game-changing foul.

The Devils have been dominated: zero goals at even strength in the last two games. But that simply doesn’t matter in the NHL Power Play Tournament- as they managed to hang in, and had a chance to steal Game 3, by scoring three power play goals (including a 5 on 3 last night during an incredible stretch of three minor penalties called on Philadelphia in 3:02).

Kerry Frasers' last NHL game was the Flyers-Rangers' tilt that sent Philadelphia to the play-offs. It was a fun game with a lot of scraps and emotion- where Fraser was not part of the story. We can’t have that, can we? Fraser couldn’t get a play-off assignment??? But the four league toadies calling stick fouls right and left the past two games know the ticket to advancement in the NHL Power Play Tournament is to keep character teams (i.e. all teams without European Stars! or Crosby!) like the Flyers and Devils parading to the box.

The NHL is the only pro League where the best play was twenty years ago- not today. And this nonsense is why.

Plus, if you are going to call a game this tight- you need to get right, like the NFLofficals calling holding penalties right. And let’s face it, that sort of repeatable competence is not the NHL. Players are diving all over the place, a culture bred by tick-tack fouls being endlessly rewarded.

I watch the Devil’s feed here- and Doc Emrick was showing once again why he is the voice of hockey and in the Hall of Fame. He was wondering aloud about the state of play in the NHL- backed up by Ken Daneyko, a worthy elder statesmen, who was just killing the officials.

It is a bad, bad show. Sigh, at least the Flyers are winning.

A Long March Destined For Disappointment

Well, after a harrowing, disappointing regular season, the Flyers catch a break in the opening round of the play-offs. They perhaps deserve it- the last two seasons they’ve opened with Pittsburgh and Washington. Still, the true Flyers’ fan has trouble accepting any series with the New Jersey Devils is a lucky break- even if New Jersey is in the same “disappointing” category.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Flyers and Devils series is not exactly easy to decipher. Both teams have underachieved. Picked by some as the best team in the east, the Flyers have been a .500 team since the get go (41 wins in 82 games).They fought tooth and nail with the Rangers over the weekend to even get in the play-offs- and I don’t know anyone who thinks the Rangers are “good”. The Devils have been worse than .500 over the last forty games or so (18 wins in the last 41 games- ugh) as their defense and goaltender wore down.

So like a lot of teams where the sum is less than the apparent parts, the teams are hard to figure out. For example, both teams have missed on their key veteran pick-up. Chris Pronger was brought here to go toe-to-toe with Crosby and Ovechkin. Surely, he can do that better than most. Unfortunately, it turns out Pronger really doesn’t bring much more than “a good player” to match-ups versus the more routine forwards. He is more gangly than strong, not very quick. He doesn’t move the puck all that well. As we all saw in the Olympics, he is a nice player rather than elite- helped playing with the lead rather than having to force the play up ice.

By the same token, New Jersey is trying to fold Ilya Kovalchuk- a great scorer but merely okay in other facets- into a system that demands competence in many areas (like defense? Ilya is an amazing career "-75" despite scoring 338 career goals) that greatness in the offense zone. I mean, who on the Devils is a good line mate fit for Kovalchuk?

Add in a few merely overrated players and this series has a lot of “what are you going to get from who?” Mike Richards was a +36 total the last two years- and simply cannot be a season long “-2” playing on the top line (and a flat zero in the two key games versus the Rangers) and be considered an elite player.

Ultimately, I just think this rivalry has moved past the Brodeur hex. The Flyers no longer fear the guy- going twenty-five minutes without scoring isn’t going to mess with their heads and sticks. If anything, Brodeur is now a division opponent where familiarity breds contempt: everyone has beaten the guy, that team, repeatedly this year (five wins in six tries for Philadelphia).

Plus, the Flyers seem to have more ways to get to three goals again and again than New Jersey (better forwards, much better power play). And the Devils' big slide over the second half can be traced to their increasingly "less than average" defense- so the Flyers are probably better on the blueline too. Only the fact the Flyers are probably on their third goalie option gives the Devils hope.

But again, Brodeur isn’t the same guy. Flyers upset New Jersey in six.

An Homage

I don’t comment on the NHL anymore. For one thing, I haven’t watched sixty minutes of any game all year. I also freely admit I am one of the fans that left after the last strike, returned to graze at the new product- and chose to not return. But I really like hockey- and more importantly, I love to point out things the strike me as relevant- and regardless: no one fires away more effectively at the near worthless new NHL than my man Larry Brooks. Although this guy might object. Anyway, the quote below in from Sunday's NY Post:

Omission of Kerry Fraser from the roster of playoff referees at the expense of people like unqualified Mick McGeough and Brad Watson, to name just two, is an indication, indeed, that Gary Bettman's and Stephen Walkom's NHL has no place for officials who call the game on feel and instinct. The league wants officials who are robotic, who will call phantom fouls that lead to a parade of power plays and an interruption of flow.

Beyond that, we're told Fraser, the league's senior referee who has worked nearly 1,600 regular-season games and more than 250 playoff games since joining the NHL full-time in 1979, may not have a job next year.

Look, I hate the NHL product. It is vapid- increasingly NBA regular season like- progressively more effeminate. They have dared to turn a great game into a Czech Beer League- but with even less hitting. And if collecting faceless Euros and Russians and Simon Gagne types to skate, play devoid of passion, featuring penalties for touching people, and seen only by people with continuously more obscure premium pay sites on American cable (the “VS” channel?) is the new game… well, I opt out.

For generations, the NHL has been the world standard for professional hockey- all of sudden our product isn’t good enough?- and instead the Swedish Elite League is imported. How did that ever happen?

My homage to the man with the mane.
~