The Suprising Team of the 2012 Playoffs, All is Well in L.A.

After last nights 4-2 defeat of the St. Louis Blues, the Los Angeles Kings find themselves with a commanding 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Semi-finals. After eight games in the playoffs the Kings have been defeated only once by the number one seed Vancouver Canucks in the first round.  They are on the brink of reaching the Western Conference Finals for the first time since a man named Gretzky played in L.A. and led the Kings to the Cup Finals.  Also worth mentioning, the coach of that team was Mr. Mullet himself, Barry Melrose.  They lost in 1993 to Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens.

What is the secret to the Kings success this year?  It all starts with the goaltending of Jonathan Quick.  He has been a brick wall throughout the entire playoffs.  Quick leads all remaining goaltenders with a .948 save percentage, and is second to the Rangers’ Henrik Ludqvist in goals against average.

The Kings have also come this far with the way they play on the road.  They boast a 5-0 record away from the Staples Center, and their only loss so far in the playoffs came in the first round to the then number one seed Canucks at home.  When you go on the road to play a meaningful playoff game that your expected to lose, you get an extra jump in your step, and you play the game as hard as you can with nothing to lose.  As NBC hockey analyst  Jeremy Roenick puts it:

When you have no expectations and everybody is expecting you to lose, you can just play hard and prove everyone wrong. That’s a good situation to be in.

That’s exactly what the Kings are doing, proving everybody wrong.  I was highly critical of Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi for going out and making a deal for Jeff Carter at the trade deadline. But once again, I was wrong.  Carter has proven to be a timely goal scorer and good leader in Los Angeles, and seems to have parted ways with his old cry baby ways.

Hockey is hot again in L.A. It used to be Wayne Gretzky who was responsible for bringing celebrities to the old Great Western Forum to watch his magic in person, but now its the young core of talent, and team play that is bring them back in droves.  Alyssa Milano, Kurt Russell,  Bill Cowher, and Mathew Parry are among some of the latest to take in a game.  The fans are also showing their appreciation, standing on their feet and cheering the Kings to every victory.  The Players have taken notice, and it is becoming part of their motivation. Jarret Stoll commented on the fan support after game three:

“To get that standing ovation, the way they were cheering at the end, I had chills going through the pile at the end. It means a lot to us in here. We have a lot of pride and a lot of respect for our fans.”

It seems that the path in the Western Conference leads through the L.A. Kings, even if most of their games will be on the road.  Could we see another 8th seed win a Stanley Cup? The Kings are hot at the perfect time, and with the way they are playing the Cup could be heading to Hollywood.

Kurt Russell, Miracle star, takes in Game three at the Staples Center

Accountability, But at What Cost?

Imagine this scenario:

Your team is down one game to zero in the Western Conference semi-finals.  It’s Saturday night, and you have a game on Sunday that could possibly make or break the series for your club.  All-season long the night before a game your coach has given you a curfew to be in your room in time to get enough sleep and be rested for game day.  You and one of your teammates decide to go out and have a good time and you miss the curfew.  You are also your team’s leading scorer in the first round of the playoffs and labeled as one of the best players in the playoffs.  The next day, your team loses again and both you and your teammate are criticized for your terrible play.  You have just one shot in the series and are a minus 3 through two games.  Even during the game the announcers go out of their way to scrutinize your “unbelievable lack of effort.”  Jeremy Roenick says:

He was terrible on both sides of the puck. “When you want to win in the playoffs you have to have your best players be your best players. Radulov right now might be the Nashville Predators’ worst player.

You are Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators, and your teammate is Andrei Kostitsyn.  What should your consequences be?

The Nashville Predators answered that question by suspending both Radulov and Kostitsyn for Wednesday’s game 3 for a “violation of team rules.”  Many people would say that this is the right move, as the players should have to be held accountable for their actions.  However, by sitting their best player, the Predators put themselves at a huge disadvantage and could find themselves in a 3-0 hole if they lose game three.  This begs the question, if they were caught by Head Coach Barry Trotz prior to game two, why were they not suspended for that game?  To me it seems like they are being punished for their actions only because they played bad on Sunday.  If the team had won, or Radulov/Kostitsyn put up big numbers in the game, would their still have been repercussions for breaking curfew?

The move to suspend the two players has been scrutinized around the hockey world.  Some have called the move crazy and bold, while others fear the Predators will lose more then they gain from the punishment, causing some writers to criticize the timing of the suspension.

I think that this was the right move by the Nashville organization.  Sure, you lose one of your best players for one game, but with Radulov’s past abandoning of the franchise, an extreme action had to be done to get his attention.  Hopefully he will take the punishment and use it as motivation to play better in game four, and get the Predators back in the series.  I also think that other players can use this as fuel to light their fires in game three.

With Radulov and Kostitsyn out of the lineup, it will give Coach Trotz a chance to make lineup changes, and two necomers a chance to be inserted into the lineup and make an impact they have been waiting for all year.  Jordan Tootoo known around the league for his tenacity and toughness could provide the spark the Predators need to overtake the Coyotes.  Matt Halischuk and Craig Smith are two rookies who could make in impact as well, as Halischuk had 28 regular season points for the Predators.

It will be interesting to see how the Predators respond to this, and whether or not it will be a distraction not only for game three but the rest of the playoffs as well.  Game three is Wednesday night at 9 P.M. on CNBC.

Here is the video of Keith Jones ripping Radulov:

Observations from the First Round

Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are putting a first round scare into the hearts of Boston Bruin Fans.  Braden Holtby, the Capitals goaltender is the real story however, as he has boasts a .953 save percentage and allowed just one goal in game four as the Capitals evened the series at two games apiece.

Claude Giroux leads the 2012 NHL Playoffs in points, goals, and assists, and is second in the playoffs with a +4 rating, leading his team to a 3-1 series advantage and playing more like the best player in the world than is Sidney Crosby. Dan Bylsma, Pittsburgh head coach, got his team focused and looking to make a comeback in the series after a huge 10-3 drubbing of the Flyers on Wednesday night which could have shifted some of the momentum back to the Penguins as they return to Pittsburgh for game five on Friday night.

Everyone’s eyes should shift to the series that no one is talking about, the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers who are deadlocked at two games apiece. For the 24th time in his illustrious NHL career, Martin Brodeur recorded a playoff shutout in game four on Thursday night.  Great goaltending from a man who will go down as one of the greatest to ever play the position will be the key for the New Jersey Devils to advance to the next round of the playoffs. How many times have we debated whether or not Brodeur should retire, and then he comes out and has the performance of a life time just to shut everyone up?

Incredibly, the Los Angeles Kings have a commanding 3-1 series lead against the defending Western Conference Champion Vancouver Canucks.  Jonathan Quick has put himself into the conversation of the NHL’s best goaltenders with his performance against one of the best offenses in the regular season. Kevin Bieksa and the rest of the Vancouver Canucks will have to find a way to beat Quick and also keep LA’s speedy forwards from blowing past them and putting pucks in the net. Looks like we may be seeing a changing of the guard in net in Vancouver after Corey Schneider’s performance in game 4, in which he looked like a far superior goaltender to Roberto Luongo who just a couple of years ago was among the leagues best.

Maybe this year we will have a team representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals who has never been there before.  Nashville is dominating the finesse heavy and old Detroit Redwings lineup with their physical play giving them all of the momentum as they look to end the Red Wings’ season in Nashville Friday night. Of course, veteran experience is key in the playoffs, so look for Lidstrom and company to make this series interesting before its all said and done. Pekka Rinne has been solid between the pipes, but look for Pavel Datsyuk to try and change that.

Question marks surround the goaltending situation in Chicago, as the Blackhawks try to fend off their elimination, and people are starting to call for Ray Emory to get a start in net.  Raffi Torres’ hit on Marian Hossa was probably the dirtiest of the playoffs so far, as Hossa had to be carted off on a stretcher after Torres’ left his feet to make contact to the head of Hossa. Sometimes in the playoffs players seem to catch fire, and for the Coyote’s this postseason it has been Mikkel Boedker who has been the overtime hero in back to back games for the ‘Yotes.

The series between the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators has been my favorite to watch, as the two teams have battled each other hard with heavy hitting and timely goal scoring and I don’t think anyone saw the Senators putting up this big of a fight against the Rangers. Unfortunately for the Senators, I think that the Rangers are starting to figure it out and put this series to rest in six games, but the Senators will be a team to watch in the East next season. Vacation may be good for some of the players after the bumps and bruises from this series.

Whether or not the San Jose Sharks win another game in their series against the St. Louis Blues, it is clear that the Blues are the better team, and they have imposed their will on the Sharks, scoring first in all three games that they have won in this postseason. Xerotic; thats what the Sharks plays has looked like, very dry, as they look like they could care less if they win or loose each game, which as a fan makes you very angry. Yeah, I am sure they are trying to win, but they are not interested in doing what it takes to beat a team with a tough, strong defense like the St. Louis Blues.  Zigging and Zagging their way through the Sharks penalty kill the Blues have exposed the Sharks biggest weakness and are taking advantage of it, so much so that it looks as if they will move on to the next round with relative ease.

NHL or WWE?

To all my readers, I want to apologize for the terrible job I did at picking the first round matchups.  It is a good thing that I didn’t make predictions for all of the series, or I would probably really be in trouble.  I didn’t see the effort and determination of the Los Angeles Kings coming, as they are up 3-0 and going for the sweep, and I also didn’t think that the Flyers would be so dominate against Sid the Kid and Evgeni Malkin. My only pick that holds true is Nashville to beat Detroit.  So what I am 1 for 3, in baseball that gets you in the Hall of Fame!

But I digress. Lets get to the real story of this years NHL playoffs: the hits, fights, and subsequent suspensions that seem to be happening in every series on a nightly basis. Usually playoff hockey is more intense then the regular season because guys want it more when the playoffs arrive, knowing they are so close to reaching the ultimate dream, winning the Stanley Cup. But this year, most of the games look like wrestling matches.  Its like every team believes the old saying, If you cant beat ’em, beat ’em.  I am waiting for The Rock to dress for Pittsburgh and start laying the Rock Bottom on the Flyers, because it seems to be the only way Pittsburgh believes they can beat Philly.

Where did it all start? Obviously in the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series there is bad blood between the two teams that goes back for decades, but for the most part there are not any big “rivals” playing each other.  A couple of series (San Jose vs. St. Louis) and (Detroit vs. Nashville) feature older veteran teams against the young guns of the league, and perhaps the violence stems from younger guys trying to prove they are better then veterans who have been there before.

My theory is that it all goes back to the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins.  In last year’s playoffs, they showed that in order to win it all, you have to be willing to come together as a team, and stand up for one another in good times and bad.  They were not afraid to muck it up and get teams off of their game, and they would take advantage when teams couldn’t keep up late in games.  I would even argue at times they probably were a little bit dirty and cheap, but hey, if you get away with it and your winning do what you want. I think this year many teams are trying to play in the Boston mold.  Even teams who are usually not known for their toughness (Washinton Capitals, Phoenix Coyotes) are seeing their players suspended for dirty hits during games.

The biggest example of this is Nicklas Backstrom’s crosscheck on Rich Peverley at the end of game three. Backstrom is arguably one of the most skilled players in the game, not usually known for his dirty play.  He received a match penalty for intent to injure which carries with it an automatic one game suspension.

So far this post season the NHL has suspended 8 different players, and 5 of these players have received multiple game suspensions (Check out the player by player list).  Many of the hits that have driven the NHL to suspend players have resulted in injuries to the person being hit, but should they be getting more games just because they hurt someone? In my opinion a hit to the head is a hit to the head, and all hits should be punished equally.  If the NHL wants to stop these plays, they need to give out bigger punishments to all parties, not based on whether or not someone is injured.

Ryan Rudnansky in an article for The Bleacher Report, says that Brendan Shanahan, disciplinarian of the NHL, is to blame, not the in-game referees:

He’s the guy who has steadily become more lax since taking the job over a year ago. When you are basically giving players free rein to do as they wish without adequate consequence, in a playoff atmosphere, there is really nothing refs can do at that point.

I tend to agree with Rudnansky, if he laid down the law a little harder on Shea Weber’s hit on Henrik Zetterberg, it may have deterred players in other series from thinking with their fists first.

We also have to remember that there are two sides to every coin.  The violence in this years playoffs has done one thing the NHL Playoffs have not been able to do in recent years, draw huge television ratings.  Ratings for some games are the highest they have been since before the NHL moved to NBC networks.  So it begs the question, are ratings more important than players’ health, and is the violence good for the game? I personally think that the NHL is almost sitting back knowing that they are getting paid and letting this stuff happen. I want to see players play hard and stick up for each other, but there has to be a time and a place, and the guys that get involved should be the guys who are usually involved. Guys like Sidney Crosby, Backstrom, and other skilled players should stick to what they do best, scoring points.

As the playoffs move on it will be interesting to see if things start calming down, or if they escalate even more, and for the rest of this postseason it looks like Shanahan will have his hands full.