Another classic between the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche last night, this one decided 4-3 in a shootout after one of the best overtimes I've seen all year. In fact, that particular bit of 4 on 4 hockey, fast paced and open with chances at both ends, was the best argument you can make against the existence of the shootout (of which I am actually a fan). But that's a story for another day. I think a big rivalry is shaping up between my two favourite teams. Last time they played, it was a 6-2 drubbing the Jets laid on the Avs, but that was the exception, as most games between the two teams have been overtime events or one goal regulation nail-biters. The Avs and Jets made an excellent case to play a stadium series game against each other too.
At one point last night, the teams two captains, Gabe Landeskog and Andrew Ladd, went toe to toe in a passionate captain versus captain fight. Not a person in the rink or on either bench was sitting down, and it was one of the most dramatic, emotion-fuelled moments of what was a very dramatic, emotion-fuelled evening. It symbolizes the emerging rivalry between the two teams, and the fight was one of the big moments of the game.
And some people want to take that out of hockey.
I'm not going to make a logical defence of fighting here and now. I could, and there are logical, well thought out points on both sides, but for the moment I'm interested in the emotional response. I loved it! Hockey is a fast paced, emotional game, and sometimes those emotions boil over. When they do, the result can be an epic, rivalry-enducing fight like the one between Ladd and Landeskog. Some real hate is brewing between these two teams, and while some nasty incidents come from good rivalries, so do some of the best hockey games you'll ever see. Fighting is both an outpouring and a symbolism of those rivalries, and I love it. I love the emotion that comes with it.
Some people will say, "Well, other sports don't have fighting, why should hockey?" To which I would ask, why do we want hockey to be like other sports? Basketball lacks any appeal for me largely because points are too easy to come by, soccer sickens me with the diving antics (and also bores me), baseball is slower than molasses and capital-B Boring, and football has all the pace of car chase in which both drivers are blind and also dead. Fighting is one more thing that makes our already great sport unique. Please, keep it in the game. I don't want hockey to be like other sports, and neither should anyone else. We're better than that.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Friday, December 05, 2014
Edmonton Oil Spills
So the Avs decided to make me a liar, looking back at my last post. Just when it seems they had turned a corner, they blow both games on a two game back to back, the second in truly spectacular fashion tonight to the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets got their first ever hat trick at the MTS Centre, courtesy Brian Little, and if the playoffs started today, they'd be in. The Avs, obviously would not. People ask me what's the difference between this year and last and I'm tired of writing the same excuses: the goaltending is worse, they aren't moving their feet, pucks just aren't going in etc. I could make flashcards at this point. The fact is, the effort level doesn't seem to be there. Nothing upsets a fan more than that. That's one thing I've never been able to say of the Jets. Win or lose, they never had long stretches like the Avs have been having where effort is a four letter word. Oh well. Maybe this was just what the Avs needed to wake them up, or maybe it's just a function of the astounding number of injuries. Either way, it was fun to watch from a Jets fans point of view.
Once again I attended this game with my good friend Kyle, and while we were driving back from the game we started talking about the Edmonton Oilers, who right now are the best solace Avs fans have from their misery (at least we aren't Edmonton). What went wrong there? Other teams that were as bad or worse have gotten better. Look at who's on the right side of the NHL standings right now. Yeah, there's a lot of the usual suspects, but there's also teams like Nashville, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Calgary (that one hurts, doesn't it Oilers fans) and the New York Islanders who were as bad as Edmonton for stretches (recent stretches, though in Montreal's case it's easy to forget that). Now look where they are. But in Edmonton, as the great Yahtzee Croshaw would say, something f***ed up or more to the point EVERYTHING f***ed up.
The Islanders this year are a case study in everything the Oilers were and everything they could one day be. The Islanders have been abysmally bad for years, but suddenly turned a corner this year. They have a solid core of forwards, and this isn't just John Tavares' scoring roadshow anymore. They have a supporting cast of players with size and skill like Brock Nelson and Kyle Okposo, players with flash and dash like Michael Grabner and Frans Nielsen, and players with poise and patience like Ryan Strome. They have grit in the form of Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, and added solid defensive presences in Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy (both Stanley Cup winners) and good goaltending in the form of Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson. The Isles have finally built a winner, and what's more, many of their future stars like Ryan Pulock and Michael Dal Colle still haven't cracked the lineup (though Pulock has recently been recalled and has likely overtaken Griffen Reinhart as the team's top defensive prospect). Good as they are, the Isles could get better still.
As for Calgary, they've drafted well recently, quietly acquiring good pieces in trades, and are getting extraordinary years from several of their best defensemen. They're tough to play against, fast, physical, and have two solid goaltenders. In Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau, they have the future of their offense, to go along with the present in Jiri Hudler. They're also getting the most out of players like Josh Jooris, Lance Bouma and Michael Ferland, later picks and pickups who are contributing solid minutes at both ends and are tough to play against. They have slowly but surely built up a competitive young team.
But what about Edmonton? It's not like they didn't try to build a more defensively solid team. In recent years they've added Nikita Nikitin, Mark Fayne and Andrew Ference, all of whom were known as defensively solid players before coming to Edmonton. Up front they've added defensively responsible pieces like Benoit Pouliot and Boyd Gordon. They've completely overhauled their goaltending, picking up Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth, both of whom looked like, if not all star starters, competent 40-45 game goalies. Yet the goals keep going in.
They have explosive, fast, skilled young forwards like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. They have players with excellent vision like Ryan Nugent Hopkins. They have a future power centre in Leon Draisaitl. They have talented wingers like Nail Yakupov and David Perron and Teddy Purcell to supplement a promising young core. Yet the goals keep staying out.
They have toughness from guys like Luke Gazdic, one of the games better heavyweight fighters, and they have other players like Ference and Matt Hendricks who are tough to play against. Even their star players, Hall in particular, are willing to throw their weight around. Yet they get continually out hit and outmuscled.
So what's the answer? Is it bad drafting? You could make a case for that. How much different might the team be had they drafted Jacob Trouba or Ryan Murray or even Hampus Lindholm instead of Nail Yakupov? What about all the later picks they made that never panned out? What if, instead of picking up another small yet skilled forward in Ryan Nugent Hopkins, they added one with some real snarl in Gabriel Landeskog? It's not like Landeskog can't score. In fact, he's been just as good if not better with the puck than Nugent Hopkins.
Drafting is an issue, but it's not the only one. The chemistry isn't there the way it should be, and Edmonton seems to be a bit of a black hole. Free agents who go there seem to whither, much like they did in Toronto for years, and perhaps still do. But Toronto (and I'm no Leafs fan, trust me) is farther along in their development than Edmonton. Toronto has seen the playoffs recently (albeit briefly) and seems like they can contend to once again. The Oilers, as of this moment, have no such hope.
Is it the coach? I doubt it. The Oilers have been bad through too many coaches. Coaches have passed like the seasons in Edmonton, and the problems are the same. The players? Maybe, but the supporting cast is drastically different from years past, and no matter how desperate they get, the Oilers won't trade Taylor Hall, nor should they. Eberle might be available, but would trading him or Yakupov fix the problem? Who knows?
How about management? They're faced with a situation where making a trade would be foolish (as they are dealing from a position of extreme weakness) but it may be impossible not to (as they are in a position of extreme need). They've turned over this roster admirably in a relatively short time; very few pieces are the same from the Oilers team of three or even two years ago. Yet the results are the same. Kevin Lowe? He neither plays the games nor chooses the players, yet he's the only constant through all the losing. But is firing him really going to improve the on ice product?
In the end, I don't know the answer. All I know is, Edmonton is turning into a place where careers big and small go to die. I really hope Edmonton doesn't win the draft lottery. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I won't wish a black hole like the Oilers organization on a young talent, especially a generational talent like Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. Noah Hannifin or Oliver Kylington may be just what the doctor ordered, but for once I'd like to see Edmonton improve without being handed a top draft pick. The last thing I want is to watch one of those guys, McDavid especially, toil away his prime years in futility the way Taylor Hall is doing.
Once again I attended this game with my good friend Kyle, and while we were driving back from the game we started talking about the Edmonton Oilers, who right now are the best solace Avs fans have from their misery (at least we aren't Edmonton). What went wrong there? Other teams that were as bad or worse have gotten better. Look at who's on the right side of the NHL standings right now. Yeah, there's a lot of the usual suspects, but there's also teams like Nashville, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Calgary (that one hurts, doesn't it Oilers fans) and the New York Islanders who were as bad as Edmonton for stretches (recent stretches, though in Montreal's case it's easy to forget that). Now look where they are. But in Edmonton, as the great Yahtzee Croshaw would say, something f***ed up or more to the point EVERYTHING f***ed up.
The Islanders this year are a case study in everything the Oilers were and everything they could one day be. The Islanders have been abysmally bad for years, but suddenly turned a corner this year. They have a solid core of forwards, and this isn't just John Tavares' scoring roadshow anymore. They have a supporting cast of players with size and skill like Brock Nelson and Kyle Okposo, players with flash and dash like Michael Grabner and Frans Nielsen, and players with poise and patience like Ryan Strome. They have grit in the form of Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, and added solid defensive presences in Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy (both Stanley Cup winners) and good goaltending in the form of Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson. The Isles have finally built a winner, and what's more, many of their future stars like Ryan Pulock and Michael Dal Colle still haven't cracked the lineup (though Pulock has recently been recalled and has likely overtaken Griffen Reinhart as the team's top defensive prospect). Good as they are, the Isles could get better still.
As for Calgary, they've drafted well recently, quietly acquiring good pieces in trades, and are getting extraordinary years from several of their best defensemen. They're tough to play against, fast, physical, and have two solid goaltenders. In Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau, they have the future of their offense, to go along with the present in Jiri Hudler. They're also getting the most out of players like Josh Jooris, Lance Bouma and Michael Ferland, later picks and pickups who are contributing solid minutes at both ends and are tough to play against. They have slowly but surely built up a competitive young team.
But what about Edmonton? It's not like they didn't try to build a more defensively solid team. In recent years they've added Nikita Nikitin, Mark Fayne and Andrew Ference, all of whom were known as defensively solid players before coming to Edmonton. Up front they've added defensively responsible pieces like Benoit Pouliot and Boyd Gordon. They've completely overhauled their goaltending, picking up Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth, both of whom looked like, if not all star starters, competent 40-45 game goalies. Yet the goals keep going in.
They have explosive, fast, skilled young forwards like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. They have players with excellent vision like Ryan Nugent Hopkins. They have a future power centre in Leon Draisaitl. They have talented wingers like Nail Yakupov and David Perron and Teddy Purcell to supplement a promising young core. Yet the goals keep staying out.
They have toughness from guys like Luke Gazdic, one of the games better heavyweight fighters, and they have other players like Ference and Matt Hendricks who are tough to play against. Even their star players, Hall in particular, are willing to throw their weight around. Yet they get continually out hit and outmuscled.
So what's the answer? Is it bad drafting? You could make a case for that. How much different might the team be had they drafted Jacob Trouba or Ryan Murray or even Hampus Lindholm instead of Nail Yakupov? What about all the later picks they made that never panned out? What if, instead of picking up another small yet skilled forward in Ryan Nugent Hopkins, they added one with some real snarl in Gabriel Landeskog? It's not like Landeskog can't score. In fact, he's been just as good if not better with the puck than Nugent Hopkins.
Drafting is an issue, but it's not the only one. The chemistry isn't there the way it should be, and Edmonton seems to be a bit of a black hole. Free agents who go there seem to whither, much like they did in Toronto for years, and perhaps still do. But Toronto (and I'm no Leafs fan, trust me) is farther along in their development than Edmonton. Toronto has seen the playoffs recently (albeit briefly) and seems like they can contend to once again. The Oilers, as of this moment, have no such hope.
Is it the coach? I doubt it. The Oilers have been bad through too many coaches. Coaches have passed like the seasons in Edmonton, and the problems are the same. The players? Maybe, but the supporting cast is drastically different from years past, and no matter how desperate they get, the Oilers won't trade Taylor Hall, nor should they. Eberle might be available, but would trading him or Yakupov fix the problem? Who knows?
How about management? They're faced with a situation where making a trade would be foolish (as they are dealing from a position of extreme weakness) but it may be impossible not to (as they are in a position of extreme need). They've turned over this roster admirably in a relatively short time; very few pieces are the same from the Oilers team of three or even two years ago. Yet the results are the same. Kevin Lowe? He neither plays the games nor chooses the players, yet he's the only constant through all the losing. But is firing him really going to improve the on ice product?
In the end, I don't know the answer. All I know is, Edmonton is turning into a place where careers big and small go to die. I really hope Edmonton doesn't win the draft lottery. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I won't wish a black hole like the Oilers organization on a young talent, especially a generational talent like Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. Noah Hannifin or Oliver Kylington may be just what the doctor ordered, but for once I'd like to see Edmonton improve without being handed a top draft pick. The last thing I want is to watch one of those guys, McDavid especially, toil away his prime years in futility the way Taylor Hall is doing.
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