PHILADELPHIA — So if the Blues, who are only the most prominent feel-good story of the year in the NHL, were able to do what they did, then what are the excuses for the Islanders and Thrashers?
Give credit to John Davidson, give credit to Andy Murray, give credit to Keith Tkachuk and his teammates, but no one should dare overlook the contributions by Larry Pleau, doing for Davidson in St. Louis now what he once did for Neil Smith in New York.
The three-point game is a contrivance designed to combine with the salary cap to create the appearance of great playoff races. Well, the gimmick worked again this year, but only to a, well, point.
Because even though separation in the standings was kept to a minimum, the races were largely an illusion. That’s because the three-point game ensures little movement down the stretch, with losers able to minimize damage and winners deprived of dramatic gains. Teams move like glaciers, if they move at all.
With 26 percent of games going into overtime following the trade deadline (as opposed to the season total of 23.1 percent), there was just one change over the final month in the East’s playoff cast, with Carolina replacing Florida. There were two changes in the West, with St. Louis and Anaheim supplanting Edmonton and Nashville.
The best part of the final month wasn’t the contest for the playoffs, it was the way lottery-bound teams with more to lose than to gain by winning, notably the Islanders and Thrashers, competed like crazy against teams at the top.
Alex Ovechkin, the world’s most compelling player, and his value to the Caps is impossible to overstate, but it’s difficult to come up with an argument that makes sense for voting against Columbus rookie netminder Steve Mason as the Hart Trophy winner.
Speaking of making sense, there is nothing more absurd in sports than the NHL’s revenue-sharing system, under which the Maple Leafs, the league’s wealthiest and most profitable franchise, get a rebate check worth between $4-4.5 million because the rest of the teams’ combined payrolls created an excess of escrow money.
The Maple Leafs did not come close to spending at the $56.7M cap, coming in at an approximate $49M. They invested, what, maybe 40 percent of their hockey-related revenue on payroll, yet they will get a refund because other teams invested up to 65 percent of their income on players?
That would be tantamount to the Yankees getting revenue-share money from MLB because the Royals, Pirates, Marlins and Rockies went on a spending spree.
Understand this: The NHLPA will decide whether the cap remains flat, goes down slightly or increases again through its decision on whether to trigger the automatic 5-percent bump. The decision will be made by a vote of the 30 player reps, presumably at the conclusion of the playoffs.
Triggering the bump will mean larger escrow deductions for next season, there’s little doubt of that. But it also means that there will be more money in the system for free agents, more choices for free agents, and more freedom for general managers to keep strong teams intact.
Zdeno Chara and Mike Green seem like a coin flip for the Norris. Green’s the guy you would cite as the prototypical new-age NHL defenseman, but Chara’s the guy you would select for a two-month run for the Cup.
It’s impossible to go wrong choosing Pavel Datsyuk for the Selke as the league’s best defensive forward, but it’s equally impossible to make a mistake by voting for Mike Richards.
Jacques Lemaire was a great coach when he came to New Jersey in 1993. He stopped being a great coach immediately following the Devils’ 1995 Stanley Cup victory that he incorrectly interpreted as proof that coaches and coaches’ systems win championships, rather than players.
If, as seems likely, Lemaire leaves coaching after missing the playoffs again this season with the Wild, he will do so as the most underachieving coach of his time, a trap zealot who refused to adapt to the times.
I don’t think it’s accurate to suggest Charles Wang can’t get the necessary approval to build the new arena the Islanders need to remain in Long Island, because he can.
Seems to me he can’t get the necessary approval to build the entertainment and multi-purpose complex he wants in order to keep the Islanders where they are. Seems to me there’s a difference.
If Carey Price is the anti-Ken Dryden, does that make Bob Gainey the anti-Sam Pollock?
Is it wrong to wonder if the most significant play of the Rangers’ season wasn’t Scott Gomez’s collision with Ryan Miller behind the Sabres’ net in Buffalo on Feb. 21?
Oh, like Brian Burke wasn’t going to have Ron Wilson coaching the 2010 US Olympic Team?