A Case of the Mondays: Your Day Probably Won't be as Bad as Dan Boyle's
by Hayley on Apr 19, 2010 9:57 AM PDT
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PrintAfter the press conference and green garbage bag day last Wednesday, it was a fairly slow week in terms of Flames news. The biggest item, of course, was Jarome Iginla telling the media that he would consider waiving his no-trade clause if asked and if he felt the move was right for him and his family. Makes the possibility of that happening a little more real, I suppose, but what else was he going to say? I've said my piece on Iggy already, for the most part, and I'd hate to see him go, but I'd also like to see the team get better. It might be a tradeoff the organization will have to decide if it's willing to make. The other pieces of news coming out of the Flames' camp last week was the addition of Mark Giordano and Rene Bourque to Team Canada's World Championship Roster. Giordano played for Canada and helped them to a gold medal in the 2007 Spengler Cup while playing in Russia and Rene Bourque has never played for Canada before. Good for both of them, I'm excited to see how they do. The rest of the team is very young with few veterans, so it should be an interesting tournament. Ales Kotalik, on the other hand, has not been asked to join the Czech Republic's team and was caught off guard by rumours that he was considering playing in Europe next season. Bummer.
Aside from that, it's been all playoffs all the time, and they've been great so far. Great goals, upsets, and rubber snakes galore. Read more about this weekend's playoff action including Dan Boyle's Steve Smith moment after the jump.
With seven series tied at one game a piece prior to yesterday's games after overtime heroics by Anze Kopitar, Niklas Backstrom, and Devin Setoguchi and Boston, Detroit, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh bouncing back to square their series, yesterday's action was all about the series lead.
The Blackhawks denied the Predators a chance to go up 2-0 in their series with a 2-0 shutout win last night. How appropriate. [NHL] [Second City Hockey] [On The Forecheck]
After losing what appeared to be a very tightly contested game 7-4 on Friday, the Coyotes bounced back with a convincing 4-2 victory to take the 2--1 series lead over the Red Wings yesterday afternoon, minus their captain Shane Doan, who was injured after crashing into the boards in the second period. Nik Lidstrom was -3 (!) in that game while somehow, Todd Bertuzzi managed a +1. [NHL] [Five For Howling] [Winging It In Motown]
The Penguins gained the edge in their series with the Senators after a 4-2 win yesterday with "Mr. Clutch" Maxime Talbot scoring the GWG. Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson was injured on a hit by Sidney Crosby. [NHL] [Pensburgh] [Silver Seven]
The Philadelphia Flyers took the lead in their series with a 3-2 overtime victory (GWG courtesy of none other than Dan Carcillo) over the New Jersey Devils after Brodeur stopped 31 Flyers shots, including twelve in the third period when the Devils only managed three. Brian Rolston scored twice in a losing cause, which is semi-good news for my fantasy team. [NHL] [In Lou We Trust] [Broad Street Hockey]
Poor Dan Boyle. With the San Jose Sharks out-shooting the Avalanche 51-16 after three periods and still tied at zeroes due to the magnificent play of Craig Anderson, Dan Boyle put a backhand shot past an unsuspecting Nabokov less than a minute into the first extra frame. The GWG was credited to the Avs' Ryan O'Reilly, giving Colorado the 2-1 series lead in typical Colorado fashion. A "History Will Be Made" parody ad was created promptly in his honour. [NHL] [Fear The Fin] [Mile High Hockey]
In other playoff news, the Hitmen tied their series with the Brandon Wheat Kings after a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday night and are headed to Brandon for Game Three today [Hitmen]. The Abbotsford Heat also find themselves tied in their series with Rochester after losing 4-1 Saturday, a game that Mitch Wahl missed due to undisclosed reasons. The Heat will host the Americans in Game Three back in Abbotsford tonight [Abbotsford Heat].
The finalists for all NHL awards will be announced this week starting today with the Vezina Trophy nominees; but did the NHL pick the wrong time to announce them? [The Globe & Mail] (Update: Brodeur, Bryzgalov, and Miller named finalists for Vezina trophy via Jeff Marek)
Steve Tambellini has a dig at the injury-prone Ales Hemsky [OilersNation] and more in this week's What We Learned Also, attempts to heal Shane Doan through the power of photo shop! [Puck Daddy]
Marc Savard is hopeful for a playoff return after passing an exertion test and skating on his own yesterday after missing over a month with a concussion as a result of being hit by Matt Cooke [The Boston Globe]
The folks at PPP take on William Houston via email [Deadspin] [PPP]
Could Olli Jokinen be headed to Russia next season? [The Hockey News]
Alex Ovechkin claims to have seen Canadiens' keeper Jaroslav Halak's hand shaking while drinking water after allowing a goal during game two of the series on Saturday night, in which he scored a goal and added three assists after being invisible for much of Game One [TSN]. Halak will get the start tonight while Varlamov will counter for the Caps.
Walkinvisible takes on the own-goal scoring tendencies of two of her favourite Sharks defencemen and what it could possibly mean for one Mark Giordano [Hit The Post]
The Fourth Line Blog tackles the pros and cons of a possible Iginla trade and, if you haven't done so already, check out their spiffy new digs
The final grades are in for the Flames' defencemen and goalies [FlamesNation]
This young Sabres fan shows off his impressive Rick Generette impression, hockey knowledge, and even knows the words to Canada's national anthem [WGRZ Buffalo via Greg Wyshynski]
Today's Playoff Schedule:
Game 3: Washington vs. Montreal (Series tied 1-1, TSN 7PM ET, 5MT)
Game 3: Buffalo vs. Boston (Series tied 1-1, CBC, 7PM ET, 5MT)
Game 3: Vancouver vs. Los Angeles (Series tied 1-1, CBC, 10PM ET, 8MT)
Game 3: Hitmen vs. Wheat Kings (Series tied 1-1, 7PM MT, The Fan 960 & Shaw TV)
Game 3: Rochester vs. Abbotsford (Series tied 1-1, 8PM MT)
Analyze Craig Anderson's Vezina snub and enjoy tonight's games in the comments everyone. I'm about to go watch my mom finish the Boston Marathon and enjoy my last day here in Beantown.
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lol at Koats, lol at Joker possibly going to Russia.
Big ups to the Heat taking game 1 and having a shot at wrapping up this playoff series, if they can rally off three straight victories as games 3, 4 and 5 are all in Abby.
I’m so bored I really need to go to Game 5 of the Hitmen/Wheaties series.
BTW…………………. THE PLAYOFFS HAVE BEEN AN EPICNESS OF GOODNESS.
Jump on the Coyotes Bandwagon, And throw a Snake or two.
Go Heat Go. THE CALDER CUP PLAYOFFS!!! THE FINEST ACTION AROUND.
Wahl back in the lineup for Abby tonight
http://www.abbotsfordheat.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=23800&ATCLID=204932336
Matchsticks and Gasoline
Go Hitmen, Heat, and whoever's playing the Canucks
I think Boyle would rather his house burned down again… That was awful.
Typical Colorado though, eh? They absolutely suck the entire night and rely entirely on Anderson and horseshoes.
I was hoping Thornton was the one who put it in his own net, because it might show he is capable of making an impact in a playoff hockey game.
Also, Daniel Carcillo is why I laugh my head off when people start talking about “karma”.
gold medal aside, dan boyle has GOT to be the unluckiest nhl’er of all time.
by walkinvisible on Apr 19, 2010 9:36 PM PDT up reply actions
8 goals against on 28 shots. Unless they were all break-aways or uncontested shots from the deep slot, that is some pathetic goaltending.
by Kent Wilson on Apr 19, 2010 11:15 PM PDT up reply actions
Does anyone know what happened in that game re: goaltending? I cannot figure it out from the score sheet. It appears(?) that Shantz started and Irving went in relief, but the times are weird. As well, Irving got credited with the loss although he allowed three goals.
It doesn’t make sense to me. The score is 8-4, not matter how you cut it, the goalie allowing the 5th goal should get the “L” – which you would think was Shantz.
Did they pull Shantz and then put him back in?
The times don’t give more perspective. Shantz 17-21 with 45:57 played. Irving 4-7 with 13:53 played. Score was 2-0 Abby until 18:57. And it was 5-2 Roch. at 39:52.
Weird.
Yup. They started Shantz, pulled him, and then put him back in after Irving allowed 3 GA on 9 shots.
Brilliant.
Doesn’t exactly fill you with hope for the Flames’ goaltending future, does it?
Matchsticks and Gasoline
Go Hitmen, Heat, and whoever's playing the Canucks
No, but I passed that signpost awhile back.
by Kent Wilson on Apr 20, 2010 10:50 AM PDT up reply actions
Well, let's not start beating our heads against the wall, yet.
I know that last year when I suggested the idea of discounting games against Kipper where his sv% was below 850% was very unpopular (calling them outliers), but there is a movement I have been reading about recently to do just that for advanced stats types.
Essentially it’s a ‘quality starts’ metric. The idea is to draw an arbitrary line (around .800% or .850%) and round up performances below that cut-off up to that number, cause likely it’s not just the goalie who hasn’t shown up during that game.
This is an example of just that:
Shantz – 16/21 (.762%)
Irving – 4/7 (.571)
First, it’s way too small of a sample to judge Irving.. 7 shots?, and even Shantz as well. But when both of them get hammered, sure the goalies didn’t win any hearts and minds, but the players/coaching sucked as well. Both guys are well below any level of sustainable number…so look no further than a group fail as a whole.
PS…I see now, they pulled Shantz after the 4th goal @ 13:54 (-6:06), put in Irving until the 7th Roch. goal at 7:47…for a total of 13:53. Got it.
Shantz came back in, and let in another one, the eighth, 22 seconds later. Man, ’twas a tough night to be a goalie.
Well, if it’s fair to judge Irving on 13:53 and 7 shots against in the negatives column, then let’s not forget to include the entire month where he was player of the month in the positives column, ok?
Irving’s results through the first two professional seasons are rather mediocre. He’s seen more about 2000 shots at the AHL level and his save rate doesn’t even crest .910. That’s not something that fills me with hope.
The kid’s still quite young, so he has years to improve. And I wish we could look at ES SV%, PK SV% for greater context. But from the information available, he doesn’t like much of a prospect.
I can’t get too excited about how minor-league goalies perform, to be honest. Take a look at the league leaders in SV%, and you’ll see as many guys that are on their second (or more) organization as not. It would be nice if Irving or someone else pans out, but the connection between a team and it’s prospect goalies isn’t nearly as strong as you’d see with skater prospects. With the cap situation the Flames currently find themselves in, Irving might have a hard time moving up, because he would likely be more expensive than what might be available in the UFA market, and there isn’t any guarantee he’d be as good, let alone better.
by Robert Cleave on Apr 20, 2010 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions
We do know that the Heat took an absolute ASSLOAD of penalties this year, though, so even without the exact numbers, I think it’s safe to say that he’s better than .910 under average conditions (although how much better, I wouldn’t venture to guess).
by SmellOfVictory on Apr 20, 2010 5:03 PM PDT up reply actions
Interesting item I found after reading the shenanigans between William Houston and PPP: Pension Plan Puppets
6-3 was the final I think
Matchsticks and Gasoline
Go Hitmen, Heat, and whoever's playing the Canucks
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