While the Flyers didn’t end the season with a thud, I don’t think anyone thought they would be playing in the Eastern Conference finals. They were a team that couldn’t hold a lead, with a slow defense, and a top line that seemed to have run out of gas.

Suddenly, they’ve found a second gear, and Daniel Briere is playing like the free agent god-send the Flyers hoped he would be, although he was a bit silent in the Montreal series as he was booed every time he touched the puck. He’s put up 14 points in 12 games, amazingly while averaging a relatively modest 18 minutes or so a night. He’s effective and efficient.

Of course, Briere couldn’t do it alone. He’s joined by Vaclav Prospal, a trade deadline pickup who’s produced 12 points (three goals, nine assists) while clicking very nicely with Briere, and R.J. Umberger who’s put up 11 points (nine goals, two assists). He also has a 25 per cent shot percentage. Effective and efficient. And how about Umberger’s performance against the Habs? Eight goals in five games? Uh, ya. I bet you saw that coming.

Of course, some might argue Philadelphia’s best player has been goalie Marty Biron. If you look at his numbers, they’re really very ordinary (.914 save percentage, 2.72 goals against), but when you consider the Flyers haven’t had a solid presence in goal since Ron Hextall, it suddenly seems very comforting. Because Biron is nothing if not unflappable. And he’s going to need that unflappability with defenseman Kimmo Timonen gone for the rest of the playoffs with a blood clot.

The Flyers have to match up against an increasingly physical Penguin team. Obviously, when people talk about Pittsburgh, they’re going to talk about Sidney Crosby, but he wasn’t a huge factor in the second round. The Penguins’ big man in the second round was Evgeni Malkin, who has six goals and eight assists through two rounds, with four powerplay goals. You have to wonder if the people in Pittsburgh are going to turn in their 87s for 71s. I wish I were a tailor in Pittsburgh.

Powerplays are turning into an interesting indicator of playoff success. If you look at the playoff powerplay leaders from around the league, you see some familiar teams. Philadelphia. Dallas. Detroit. Pittsburgh. Obviously, converting powerplay opportunities is proving to be helpful, which while not surprising, is somehow reassuring. Penalty killing isn’t the answer. Offense still lives in the NHL…

Of course, Thursday night, in Game One of the Detroit-Dallas Western Conference Final, the powerplay was kind of a big deal. Detroit had powerplay goals from Brian Rafalski, Tomas Holmstrom, and of course, the increasingly unstoppable Johan Franzen. Franzen already has 12 playoff goals. That’s the same number of goals he had in his rookie season. An 80-game rookie season.

I don’t actually coach the Stars, but if I did, I wouldn’t give Detroit as much space as Dallas did during Game One. Detroit had the run of the ice, with plenty of red jerseys in front of Stars goalie Marty Turco. Dallas is a defensive team. It needs to remember its tight-checking roots, especially now that defenseman Sergei Zubov is back in the lineup. That guy just doesn’t like to play defense.

May 9th, 2008
Categories: HOCKEY, Ice Chips, Steven Ovadia . Author: Steven Ovadia . Comments: 1 Comment

As the Stanley Cup playoffs march on, player stats become a bit more challenging to interpret. Of course, if you spent the past week watching your team go to a Game Seven, you might not even be aware stats are still being given out.

For instance, looking at Flyer Daniel Briere’s line so far, it’s pretty impressive. He leads the NHL with 11 playoff points. But don’t forget, Briere (who is obviously well-loved in Montreal, by the way) has already played eight games. Compare that with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby. Crosby has eight points in just four games, a much more economical line. Heck, even New York Ranger Jaromir Jagr, a bit of a dud during the regular season, has eight points over five games. The moral of the story? If you’re not putting up great numbers, see if you can keep your series going. If your numbers are good, then end the series as quickly as you can.

Speaking of ending a series quickly, over in Minnesota, defensemen Kim Johnsson and Brent Burns probably couldn’t wait for their series against the Avs to end. The two blueliners averaged around 28 minutes of ice time per game during the playoffs. I haven’t checked in a while, but the Wild have other blueliners too, right?

One thing you have to love about the playoffs is that it really lets the clutch players rise to the top. Flyer Joffrey Lupul’s regular season line (20 goals, 26 assists) was solid if not spectacular (especially given his late-season struggles), and his playoff run started slowly but culminated in a first round clincher in overtime. Thursday night, in the second round opener against the Habs, Lupul struck again, putting up another goal (although I’m not convinced it should have counted). Sadly, it wasn’t enough as the Flyers went down in overtime.

Over in Round Six of the classic Detroit-Colorado rivalry, Johan Franzen picked up the pace also, scoring two goals and adding an assist in Detroit’s Game One win. Franzen ended the season on fire, but was pretty quiet in the Red Wings’ first round win over Nashville. You have to wonder how long Colorado will last in the second round, though. Peter Forsberg missed the opener with a groin injury, and honestly, if it wasn’t that, it would have been his ankle, or an in-grown hair, or morning sickness or rickets. If that wasn’t bad enough, Colorado goalie Jose Theodore gave up four goals on the first 16 shots he saw, before going home sick to the team hotel. Backup Peter Budaj stopped the next 20 shots, but Colorado does not want a goalie controversy. You know. Like in Detroit, where backup Chris Osgood started Game One over Dominik Hasek.

Round Two Previews

April 25th, 2008
Categories: HOCKEY, Ice Chips, Steven Ovadia . Author: Steven Ovadia . Comments: 2 Comments

Chances are you didn’t pick Marc-Andre Fleury in your playoff pool, but he’s been fantastic so far. (Sean Russell)

The beauty of the NHL playoffs is that it’s a process. You rarely watch just one game and know a team is definitely out. Teams adjust. Teams get embarrassed. Teams fold. There are a lot of variables.

Having said that, though, Ottawa looks pretty done, having gone down 4-0 in its Game One loss to the Penguins. I don’t think Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was a high draft pick in anyone’s playoff league, but he’s put up the first shutout of the playoffs. I don’t think people rushed to grab Pittsburgh’s Gary Roberts either, but he’s already got two goals, which is a little surprising given that he had just 30 goals in 119 previous playoff games. Also, in a bit of a surprise move, defenseman Darryl Sydor, a veteran of over 150 playoff games and two-time Cup-winner (with two different teams, no less), was a healthy scratch for the opener. Obviously, in Pittsburgh the only sure starter has an 87 on his back.

The Rangers-Devils playoff game went a bit more as planned. Scott Gomez, one of New York’s key off-season acquisitions and a former Devil, put up three assists. Henrik Lundquist, the Ranger rock-star goalie, made 26 saves, giving up just one goal. A bit more shocking was the distracted play of Devil goalie Martin Brodeur, who often seemed as if he didn’t realize he was in the crease. While it seems to be the inconsistent post-season Brodeur of the past few playoffs, it’s still a bit surprising for a goalie with 94 playoff wins, a 1.93 goals against and a .920 save percentage.

The Western Conference playoffs had its share of surprises, too. The Dallas Stars, who many have been predicting to implode since the trade deadline, beat the Ducks of Anaheim in Game One of the first round. Dallas goalie Marty Turco, whose reputation is pretty much based upon choking in the playoffs, put up a shutout and Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, owner of a 31-13 playoff record going into last night’s loss, gave a .892 save percentage performance. Given all of the padding both goalies wear, it wouldn’t shock me to find out they switched places for the night. That would be a little funny and certainly explain plenty.

Over in Detroit, even they were the West’s top seed, it was still a little surprising the Red Wings managed to beat the Predators in Game One, given Detroit’s recent propensity for early rounds playoff exits. Detroit’s Johan Franzen continues his sick goal-scoring pace. Having ended the season with 15 goals in about a month, he put up a goal last night against Nashville. At this point, if you want to stop Franzen, you’re going to need to bring in the National Guard.

On Tap

April 11th, 2008
Categories: HOCKEY, Ice Chips, Steven Ovadia . Author: Steven Ovadia . Comments: 1 Comment

Ray Bourque (er…he’s the one in the middle), is returning to the scene of his Stanley Cup glory, but don’t worry, he’s not bringing his two friends with him.

The Colorado Avalanche went back to the future to lock-in the final pieces of what they hope will be another Stanley Cup run, re-signing defenseman Ray Bourque and goalie Patrick Roy.

Bourque won the Cup with Colorado in 2001 and then retired, doing charity work in the Boston area. He was also a consultant to the Bruins. Roy retired in 2003 and became vice president of operations for the Quebec Remparts, part of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Most recently, he was suspended five games for sending his son into a playoff brawl.

“[The suspension] was definitely a factor in my decision to come back. It made me realize how much I missed the game. And I’ll deal with the fallout from my decisions when the NHL season ends,” Roy said at a press conference announcing the surprise signings.

Roy will displace goalie Jose Theodore, who, while having a strong season, is still not believed to be back to his Vezina form.

“I never really stopped preparing to come back, even when I wasn’t sure I would ever come back,” Roy said.

Theodore was not available for comment.

For Bourque, the decision to return to Colorado was more sudden: “I’ve been watching [Detroit defenseman Chris] Chelios, and I feel like if he can do it, I can do it.”

Bourque explored a comeback with Boston, but the Bruins ultimately said it would be more of a distraction.

“They told me to feel free to go back to Colorado, though,” Bourque laughed.

Bourque and Roy are eligible to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs due to a sly sleight of paperwork by Avs’ GM Francois Giguere. Giguere quietly signed both players as coaches before the trade deadline and an odd quirk of the CBA allows coaches to be eligible for the playoff rosters, as long as they did not play during the regular season.

“Trust me. No one knew about this,” Giguere said. “It was me, Paddy, and Ray. And believe me, I wanted to tell everyone.”

March 31st, 2008
Categories: HOCKEY, Steven Ovadia, Transactional analysis . Author: Steven Ovadia . Comments: 1 Comment

The future has arrived on the Island in the form of Kyle Okposo.

The beauty of an NHL system that lets more than half of the teams into the playoffs is that it makes it very exciting to watch those teams struggling to not be left out of the party. And, of course, struggle makes for both offense and injuries, the sad yin and yang of fantasy hockey.

Boston Bruin Marc Savard, an increasingly gifted scorer and puck-disher (15 goals and 63 assists), is out with a broken bone in his back, after taking a cross-check against Montreal. The Bruins are saying he’ll miss at least two games, which seems a bit conservative given that it’s a broken bone in his back. It’s not like the guy chipped a tooth. So if Savard is in your lineup, you might want to keep an eye on the situation.

Philadelphia Flyer Mike Richards has been feeling pretty good since returning to the lineup from a hamstring injury. He’s put up five goals in six games and has 71 points on the season. More importantly, the time off seems to have done him some good after a slow February.

The Buffalo Sabres just can’t catch a break. They can’t hold onto half of their players for financial reasons and the players they do have get injured. Tim Connolly is the latest victim, out not only for the rest of the regular season, but also for the playoffs, which luckily for Buffalo doesn’t seem like a big deal, since its outside of the playoff bubble. Connolly, the 1999 first-round draft pick, wasn’t an offensive juggernaut, but he put up decent enough numbers (seven goals and 33 assists in 48 games).

If you’re a little bit of a gambling fantasy player, you might consider taking a chance on Islander propsect Kyle Okposo. Okposo, the Islanders’ first-round draft pick in 2006, left the University of Minnesota early to sign with the Isles, and now that they’ve pretty much given up on any kind of playoff run, he’s seeing some NHL time and not looking too out of place. He’s got a goal and two assists in his first five NHL games. Factor in Islanders’ coach Ted Nolan needing some kind of hook to get a contract extension. Everyone knows there’s no better way to get re-signed (other than winning), than having the organization’s top prospect be a fan. How do you make a rookie like your coaching? Give him a lot of scoring chances and power play time.

Over in the Western Conference, St. Louis Blue Paul Kariya has gone stone cold. His last goal was on Valentine’s Day. That’s February 14, for those of you who shun the Hallmark-manufactured holiday. And now, it’s almost April. Kariya has 57 points on the season, and you have to figure with a goal drought this long, he’s bound to score eventually. But he might not be the best choice for your roster, given pretty much any other option.

Detroit Red Wing Johan Franzen continues his red-hot March. How’s this for a fantasy stat? There were only two games in March in which he didn’t score. And in one of those games, he still picked up an assist. So Franzen continues to be a great option if you’re smart enough to have on your roster.

The Week Ahead

March 28th, 2008
Categories: HOCKEY, Ice Chips, Steven Ovadia . Author: Steven Ovadia . Comments: No Comments