2008/09 NHL Thread

Since the second half of the season has begun, I thought it might make for a fun exercise for the SportsJournalists.com hockey cognoscenti to pick how the Original 30 will finish the 2008-09 season.

As of this morning, here are the Conference standings (via the fine folks at NHL.com):

Eastern

Western

Here are my picks, for whatever they're worth (or not). Feel free to add your reasons to your picks--the snarkier, the better!

Eastern
1] Boston Bruins: Messrs Orr, Esposito, Cheevers and Bucyk were on the last Bruins team to win the Stanley Cup. That changes come this spring.
2]Washington Capitals: Lose to Boston in a classic seven game Eastern Conference Finals. Ovechkin repeats as Hart/Pearson/Richard/Ross trophy winner.
3]New Jersey Devils: Brodeur returns and breaks Patrick Roy's record for wins by a goaltender.
4]Philadelphia Flyers: Don't trust the goaltending. Same song, different verse.
5]Montréal Canadiens: Enjoy the next 11 years with Vinny Lecavalier.
6]New York Rangers: What's one Cup in 68 years among friends? Glen Sather's free agent spending the last two summers hamstrings his ability to make much needed deals at the deadline.
7]Carolina Hurricanes: Eric Staal and Cam Ward carry Paul Maurice's crew into the playoffs.
8]Buffalo Sabres: Still plenty of scoring and skill in upstate New York, despite FA defections (Drury, Briere) and the Brian Campbell trade.
9]Pittsburgh Penguins: Obviously, Crosby and Malkin are two of the top five players in the league. Still, no matter how individually brilliant they are, the duo still needs scoring help.
10]Florida Panthers: After Jacques Martin trades Jay Bouwmeester, the South F-L-A Cats finish out of the money.
11]Toronto Maple Leafs: Brian Burke begins the rebuilding process. Watch for The Center Of The Hockey Universe's NHL Franchise to be in the playoffs next year.
12]Atlanta Thrashers: Don Waddell's phone will be a-ringing for men with the surnames Kovalchuk and Schneider. It'll be interesting to see if the GM overplays his hand as he did last year with Marian Hossa.
13]Tampa Bay Lightning: Circuses are fun. So will be the aftermath following the Lecavalier and St. Louis trades. Good luck, Steven Stamkos. You'll need it.
14]Ottawa Senators: So it wasn't all Ray Emery's fault?
15]New York Islanders: "With the first overall pick, the New York/Kansas City/Hamilton/Portland/Las Vegas Islanders select John Tavares..."

Western
1]San Jose Sharks: Silicon Valley's NHL franchise loses in seven games in the Western Finals. Next year, fueled by that memory, the Sharks win the Cup.
2]Calgary Flames: The league's hardest working team, in the league's toughest division, wins the West.
3]Detroit Red Wings: Can't put my finger on it, but there's something...off...about the reigning champions.
4]Chicago Blackhawks: It matters not that Chicago's Kiddy Brigade won't win the Cup. Re-establishing the Blackhawks into Chicago's consciousness is enough--for this year.
5]Anaheim Ducks: Too many great players to be as middling as they have shown. Best guess is that one big name gets shown the door at the deadline.
6]Columbus Blue Jackets: Rick Nash, welcome to the playoffs. Next step is to escape Columbus' anonymity.
7]Dallas Stars: Dave Tippett deserves Jack Adams consideration for getting the Stars back into playoff contention following the early season failings and the aftermath of Sean's Sloppy Seconds-gate.
8]Los Angeles Kings: The Kings young talent causes LA to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2001-02.
9]Phoenix Coyotes: While in playoff contention in the 2003 season, the Montreal Expos had to ask MLB for permission to make trades and call up minor leaguers. The owners nixed those requests and Montreal missed October's games by a handful of game. The NHL's version of the Expos, even with the Great Gretzky as coach, will experience much the same.
10]Vancouver Canucks: The good news is that Sweden's 2010 Men's Olympic Hockey Team--minus goaltender Henrik Lundqvist--can get a head start on training camp. The bad news is that the Swedes training camp starts this May at GM Place.
11]Edmonton Oilers: Edmonton needs a go-to guy.
12]Minnesota Wild: So, do you wish you had traded Marian Gaborik last summer?
13]Nashville Predators: "Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009-10 Nashville/Kansas City/Hamilton/Portland/Las Vegas Predators!"
14]Colorado Avalanche: Remember when Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy were winning Cups? Yeah, those were good times.
15]St Louis Blues: Erik Johnson and Victor Hedman may be St. Louis' 21st Century version of Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis.

 

The Ducks signed George Parros to a three year extension. Parros will clear a cool $875K a year.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/hockey/nhl/ducks/la-spw-ducks-selanne30-2009jan30,0,7594276.story

 

NHL Network is showing an episode of Don Cherry's Grapeline.

His guest?

Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

Tres cool.

 

Freudian slip by the public address announcer at the Air Canada Centre when introducing Doug Gilmour (whose numbered was retired Saturday): "They don't play hockey like that anymore".

True enough. Nik Antropov, you are no Doug Gilmour. Why on earth is Antropov a captain to begin with?

Also read that Tomas Kaberle is out 3-4 weeks with a broken hand.

 

Nice tribute to Doug Gilmour at the ACC. He didn't play here for very long but no one showed more heart and determination than the Killer

And my second favourite anthem singer John McDermott does both, and like a good Scot, in a no-nonsense tenor kinda way.

Oh, and they're playing the Pens. Garon is in goal, his first game for the Pens.

And Mark, that wasn't a Freudian slip by Andy Frost, at least in the Leafs' case

Antropov isn't the captain. The Leafs were all wearing Gilmour jerseys for the warm-up

EDIT: Antropov may be the captain for this game. The Leafs haven't named one.

 

Aw, OK. They haven't named a captain 45 games into the season?? I noticed Antropov was taking the ceremonial face-off with Crosby and that's usually reserved for the captains.

Where on earth does Don Cherry get these jackets? Do they sell that at Moore's?

 

There isn't anyone on the Leafs who's captain-worthy.

Wow, Luke Schenn just beat the crap out of Tyler Kennedy

Grape's jacket tonight was kinda low key. At least it didn't look like was wearing a sofa fabric

 

No argument there.

What is this deal with Don Cherry kissing Doug Gilmour? I realize Gilmour was a good player from Kingston who played for Cherry's favourite team. But kissing? That is almost as whacked as Isiah Thomas kissing Magic Johnson.

Anyone else Cherry ever kissed in public? Wendell Clark? Mats Sundin? Darcy Tucker? Curtis Joseph?

 

Mark,
One of those weird Don Cherry moments. Don loves Kingston players (see Kirk Muller)

Nah, he never smacked anyone else on the cheek.

Darcy Tucker? You mean Sideshow Bob?

One of the Muskoka Five.

Tucker is a puke

And the Leafs beat the Pens.

 

I saw some the Leafs-Avs game Thursday night, and I see what you're saying, JR. Not sure I can back a guy like that, either.

Whalercanes silenced the Thrashers ... yeah, shouldn't be a big deal, but Atlanta beat this bunch twice in a six-day earlier in the season. Embarrassing.

Thank goodness for Cam Ward.

 

Oh, I never liked Tucker, regardless of what sweater he wore. Just didn't get the Cherry-Gilmour love fest.

Vancouver looks horrible. Certainly not the Canucks I once knew and loved (Naslund, Bertuzzi, Morrison, Cooke, even Dan Cloutier).

Luongo is certainly not the Vezina candidate of 2006-07. But his defence isn't doing much to help out, either.

Sundin has been invisible at best, a liability at times. Even Daniel Sedin has stopped scoring. Can't win at home, can't kill penalties. This team is in big-time trouble.

 

Hope it lasts at least four more days. The Whalercanes will be in town Tuesday night.