Playoffs

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve written about the playoffs. I skipped a whole round!

It is Detroit and Pittsburgh in the finals. The first game is Saturday. I am not sure if I will watch it. I’ve got something going on that afternoon and am not sure what time it will be done. I will be recording it though, as this promises to be a really good series.

Detroit is the veterans while Pittsburgh is the young guys. Detroit has the dirty players while Pittsburgh has the whiners and divers. I think this will go all seven games. If it does, I will have to beg my dad to record it since I will be busy that day and not able to watch it.

The Detroit/Dallas series was very good. Turco played his little heart out. He was probably one of the best players for Dallas. He definitely got them out of the first round and the second round. If his teammates had been able to muster up the offense, he could have gotten them into the finals. I’m not going to go on and on about these series because they are over.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was a sad series. Philadelphia looked like a completely different team then the previous games. They did lose a lot of players to injuries but that should have made the other players step up. Briere did exactly what I thought he would. Disappeared.

Roster for next season

Let’s start with the obvious, Doan, Mueller, Hanzal and Turris are all under contract and will certainly be back next season. Rhino is under contract but I could see him involved in a trade. He’s still got a little bit left in him (could last season have just been an off year?). Or if he stays, a trade deadline deal.

Bryz will get to try his hand at a full season as starter and Telly will be the back up I don’t want Tordjy or Montoya to sit that much, they could be NHL goalies and need to play as much as possible. I could see Telly going at deadline if there is a good offer out there.

I’ve discussed the D a lot already, so in summary Jovo’s not going anywhere (doubt any would take that contract and he seems to be a favorite). Ballard, Z and Morris aren’t going anywhere. They are a good foundation. If Maloney gets an offer for Boynton, I’d say he’s gone. Some people said he wasn’t good last season, but he did great for having to pair with the revolving door of Jones and Yandle. I think Yandle will really need to step up his game to make the big club. If the Yotes draft a dman, he may have some competition, or if one of the other young guys step up.

Lisin, Winnik, MacLean, Porter and Kolarik are all going to have to have a great camp and fight for that roster spot. Lisin and Winnik have the advantage of playing in the big club last year. Porter and Kolarik have great chemistry together and I would think that if the yotes are smart, they keep them together at first. MacLean could make the big club out of camp but I’m not 100% sure on him. Sure he put up amazing numbers this season, but that doesn’t automatically mean he does well in the NHL. I think he’d benefit from some time in SA and then earn a call up and see how he does.

Carcillo, Perrault, Hossa and Jones are our big RFAs. Carcillo will definitely earn a new contract. Management and fans love him. Maybe they should put a clause in their where as he will lose money if he opens his mouth between the whistle. I think Maloney could negotiate that! Hossa I think will be signed just because he didn’t have much of a chance last year. He was coming off an injury and then traded. He didn’t step up, but I did see moments of great defensive play. Perrault will probably get a two way. I doubt he makes the big team next year with all the incoming talent at center. I like Perrault but can see he’s not as talented as others we have coming in. Jones will probably be resigned, especially if we don’t have anyone for that 6th dman spot. Frankly, I could care less if he was resigned. I believe Z4 pointed out that he hasn’t been able to create a niche for himself. He is not offensively great and he’s not as mean as say Ballard.

I can’t really comment on those in SA or the sundogs, as I haven’t followed them closely. I have read a few things but not enough to feel I could offer an educated analysis. RFAs include Montoya (I’m sure he will be resigned), Kaigordov (I doubt anything is done with him) and Redenbach (don’t know enough about him).

Now for the UFAs. I would like to see both Kapanen and Tjarnqvist resigned. Kapanen may be out because of all the young guys. But he is quick and has a lot of skill. My only knock to him is his size. He gets pushed off the puck a lot but when he’s got the puck; he can handle it and make some great plays. He did really well with Carcillo this year; maybe because Carcillo will hit anything on skates? Tjarnqvist is just too good on the PK that we can’t afford to lose him yet. Unless Ziggy makes the big club next year, we will need at least on decent forward for the PK and Tjarnqvist is that. Vrbata should be resigned as long as it’s a reasonable price and contract length. It’s looking more and more like he won’t be resigned. If that’s the case, I wish him well. I really liked him and hope he can do well elsewhere. Weller should be resigned to a two-way. He brings a needed toughness and also can bang the puck in. He is good at screening goalies, but needs to do it more often. He may be pushed out by one of the kids, but he could also do well for SA. York is gone. No need to discuss any more. As far as the minors, there is Durno, Paddock and Spina. I have followed Spina a little closer, as he is an Arizona native. He deserves another contract. He’s got speed and had pretty good numbers in SA. My only knock is the same for Kapanen, he is a tiny guy. Bell, Caldwell and Helmer are our D UFAs. I don’t know anything about Caldwell and Helmer but I don’t see Bell as an NHLer. Maybe resign him for SA, maybe on a two way. He had a pretty good year in SA.

RFAs from SA are DiSalvatore, Murley, Thomas, Vandermeer and Reese. Thomas will be gone. He just took a huge step backwards. I was expecting a lot more from him at camp and he just plain sucked! I don’t know anything about DiSalvatore and Murley. I did notice Reese at training camp and I would like to see him resigned. I think he’s got some good upside, maybe a career in the A. I have a feeling Vandermeer will be back. It seems like management likes him. Hell, they called him up a couple of times and he’s worse than Carcillo in PIMs and doesn’t have ¼ of the skill Carcill does.

There are a few prospects that need to be signed this summer: Wheeler, Latal, Bendfeld and Engassar. A preliminary offer has been made to Wheeler. I hope we get him signed. He could do well for us in the A and then get a call up to the big club during the season. The rest of them I don’t really know anything about, so I can not comment.

Ok, well there is my opinion.

Next up I will write a little on the playoffs. I've got a lot to say there but just haven't had the time to update with all the games, seeing my friends and working out!

Team Canada news!!!! And my shift key doesn't work properly

Fucking wings; what the hell is wrong with Colorado? Come on boys, kick the dead things ass!!! Red Wings now lead the series 2-0. I got to see the game today. I couldn’t believe red wings kept getting goals. I walked out to get the mail, came back in and they had scored in like the minute I was gone! Although the wings won the game, Colorado won the fight! It wasn’t as good as say a Carcillo fight, but it was good to see a fight.

I didn't actually watch the games Friday night (I had a bunch of errands to run). Stars also won in OT. I am so happy about that. I hope the Stars can keep it up and beat the Sharks in this round.

I also didn’t get to watch the games Thursday night. Both were early games for me and I thought hitting the gym was more important then coming in for half the game.

I’m a little disappointed that the Rangers let the Penguins come back and beat them 5-4. Next game.

Montreal beat the Flyers in OT. Looks like Flyers are up 3-1 in the second, as I type.

In Coyotes news, they signed two of their European prospects. Goalie Joel Gistedt. He was one of the higher rated goalies in last year’s draft. He had a bad season. From my understanding, the coach didn’t give him much of a chance and basically wrote him off before the season begun. Hopefully he will come over this year and get a better chance somewhere in the Coyotes’ system. He seemed to be one of the better goalies at rookie camp (Tordjman was probably the best, IMO).
They also signed Jonas Ahnelov. It sounds like he is ready to come over and play where ever management thinks is best, which is always good. It also sounds like him and Gistedt are friends, so that should help the two of them adjust to the changes.

Word is rookie camp starts Monday June 23rd. Last year it started on a weekend and was open to the public. I am hoping they have some open sessions on the following weekend, as that would be when I am able to go. I don’t know if I could take any days off that week. I think someone in my department is taking that whole week off. :(

Team Canada has been busy with our yotes lately. Turris has been added to the training camp roster but will not be on the actual playing roster. And none other than our own Shane Doan will again be Team Canada captain. That just goes to show we have one of the better captains out there. He is always ready and willing to serve his country for hockey. I just hope this year we don’t have to go through the whole ordeal that we did last year. It was absolutely ridiculous. Damn politicians.

Rumors:
Flames will likely try to keep Cujo. I am all for this. I want to see Cujo play longer. He is awesome!

Not much else to report on the rumors front. Most of it is too general to post all of them!

It's turning out to be a sad day for me

Iget home and turn on the Caps game. Its tied. Then it ges to OT. Then the Caps get a penalty. Then the Flyers get a goal. NOOOOOO. Fuck. And those were the exact words out of my mouth.

So it's Flyers and Montreal (Go Montreal!)
and Rangers and Penguins (Go Rangers!)

And now currently I am watching the Flames/Sharks game and it was 2-2 and hten suddenly it's 5-2 Sharks. Flames pull Kipper and put in the great Cujo though! Go Cujo!!!

Looks like it will be Detroit and Colorado (Go Colorado!)
and Dallas and Sharks - unless of course Calgary bounces back (Go Dallas!)

I was looking through forcasters website and found this today:
BOOK OF DANIEL The poster boy for "old-time hockey" Daniel Carcillo had a goal and two minor penalties in the first period alone against the Dallas Stars Friday. The NHL leader in penalty minutes added a power play goal in the second period and an empty netter in the third. INTEL Despite being the polar opposite to his former style of play, Phoenix Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky loves Carcillo. With the ice time The Great One is giving him (nearly 13 minutes a game), the feisty winger will be the penalty minute king for years to come.

Also, Nashville extends the contract of all their coaches. It looks like they will try to resign Ellis and Suter. Although with 8 dmen, they may need to make a trade. I'll take Suter and give you Jovo. Straight up. Good thing I am not a GM. I would end up with all dmen and Goalies. And a couple of forwards.

Nothing new in rumors. Same old stuff floating around out there.

Well that's it for me today. It's been a long day.

Playoffs, Yet Again

Both the Caps and Canadiens won tonight. That means the Habs move on and Caps force game 7.

San Antonio Rampage won against the Toronto Marlies tonight. 3-2. They now lead the series 2-1.

That's it for me tonight. I can't think much after spending the day looking at housing websites. haha

I checked the rumors and there wasn't anything that interesting out there. The one somewhat involving the Coyotes has Mike York going back the Germany to play next season. I predict this will probably happen because he didn't really prove that he belonged in the NHL this past season. All he proved was he was good at falling down. :)

WooHoo!

Calgary beat San Jose!!
They are forcing a game 7; I just hope they can win game 7.

Dallas beat Anaheim!!! Final score 4-1.
That makes me so happy. Selanne and Niedermayer should have stayed retired; they would have went out on a good note, not a loss in the first round. haha. Sorry, I can't help but laugh at them!

Looks like it's going to be Detroit and Colorado, Dallas and the winner of Calgary/San Jose (according to Hockey Central).

In the East, we still have to wait for the winners of Philadelphia/Washington and Montreal/Boston. Washington needs a win to force a game 7. No word on what the match ups will be yet. If there was, I missed it.

I am just so glad Dallas beat Anaheim. It almost makes up for Nashvilles loss to Detroit earlier today. Almost. :)

And I discovered the Winchester is from Wisconsin also. I have another Wisconsinite to cheer for now that Suter is out. Well, and Kessel is still in but I really want Montreal to win!

WARNING: Long Ass Post Ahead. Mostly Detroit/Preds Game and Rumors.

Preds fans were loud and proud at the start of the game. I wish I was able to be there to cheer them on. I am thinking about maybe taking a trip next season to Nashville. I don’t know if I would go when they play the Coyotes or not.

After watching Detroit four times this year against the Coyotes and the games in this series I have come to the realization I really don’t like Detroit. They get away with so much more than most teams because of who plays there and probably because of their history. Just because you’re an original six team or you are a “superstar” doesn’t mean you should get to play dirty. It reminds me of the Chris Simon/Chris Pronger and the disparity there. Also, the comments from Bettman about Chris Simon and then what he said about Tocchet were very hypocritical. Anyway, I am just sick of refs and the NHL favoring certain teams and certain players. I can’t wait for Bettman to be done. Can the NBA take him back please?

Ok, now that I am done with that rant, I will focus on the games.

Colorado won last night. Thank god. I watched the game and was surprised that Minnesota didn’t start playing dirty in the third. They usually do when they are losing. Every game I’ve seen, if they are losing, they will start to play dirty in the third so they can win. Looking at the other teams in the playoffs in the west, I wouldn’t mind Colorado advancing. I wouldn’t mind Colorado, Calgary or Dallas going all the way. I will in no way cheer for the Ducks, Sharks, or Detroit.

Looks like the Stars game will be on tonight instead of Sharks. My original program listing showed Sharks; now it shows Dallas. I am not sure if I will watch this game or not. I guess it depends how I feel at 6 and if the game holds my interest. I am a little tired of the Ducks and Stars. I’ve already had to endure them eight times this season (thank god for the schedule change!). It’s looking like I may not be watching this whole game. I need to make dinner and get a work out in yet today.

Ok, so the first period of the Preds game was great. The Preds really seemed to control most of the first period. They had a lot of really good shots on goals. Arnott is still out but Legwand was back in and he was getting a lot of good chances. Ryan Suter was getting a little bit feisty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him fight. I saw a clip on youtube once of him trying to fight (in defense of Ellis) and it wasn’t that good. Suter, leave the fighting to Hordichuk and Tootoo. But keep up the big hits!

In the second period, Detroit got a lucky bounce off a dump in (what it looked like to me). There was no way Ellis could have known which way the puck would bounce. It should not have been a goal. Preds seemed to be falling apart a bit in the second. They were getting sloppy. They had almost a full minute of 5-on-3 yet couldn’t do much with it.

Start of the third and the fans were still going strong. Detroit was still up to their tricks, diving and making it look good. Legwand had a good chance shorthanded; too bad he couldn’t get it past Osgood. Not too soon afterwards, Detroit scored to make it 2-0. Detroit also scored on the empty netter. Preds are out and Detroit moves on to round two.

I am still proud of the Preds. They played well and forced Detroit to play six games. At the start of the season, it didn’t look like they would even make the playoffs. But Ellis emerged as a great goalie and they were able to fight their way to the playoffs. Since the Coyotes couldn’t make that 8th spot, I’m glad it was the Preds. I think the games would have gone different had Arnott and Legwand played Friday night and Arnott played tonight. They were missing a big presence without them.

During the season, I tried to do quote of the day. Towards the end of the season, I kind of tapered off but I will try to do that again with the start of the season. For now, I am going to start trying to post some daily rumors and my opinions on them. Most will be from Spectors, Forecaster or Eklund (Hockey Buzz) So here we go (I had to play catch up, so there is a quite a few):

Ryan Miller has one year left on his contract in Buffalo. I just read on Forecasters that Detroit is interested. Now this could just be because Miller is from Michigan. But then again, Hasek is getting up there in age and as he showed during the first few playoff games, he’s not as good as he once was (don’t get me wrong, he is still great, but you can tell he’s not the goalie he once was). Detroit has Osgood now. I don’t know what his contract is but I would imagine they keep him around as he has done well for them. I am not sure what Detroit has in their farm system but they are known for developing players no one else thought would be great into amazing players.

There are a lot of rumors surrounding Minnesota so soon after losing in the first round. Gaborik (1 year left on his contract) may be part of a trade and head coach Lemaire may not be back. He said he needs time to think. One of Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra probably won’t be back next season (both are UFAs). According to our own Jim G, Rolston may be a guy the Coyotes target this summer. A lot of people have the opinion that Minnesota will resign him but according to Spectors there will be many changes with Minnesota this summer. Maybe Maloney will pursue Rolston.

Big news in Ottawa: they will most likely buy out Ray Emery’s contract if they can’t trade him by June 1. Also, Wade Redden will probably be UFA this summer. I doubt we will see either of these two in Phoenix. Our goalie situation is set (and I doubt our owners/coaches would want the drama here). Our d is pretty much set. I can only see us signing another dman if we trade one of Boynton, Jovo or Morris. I don’t see a trade for any of them except maybe Boynton. Morris was outstanding this year and well, Jovo is just too difficult to trade (no movement clause and a huge salary). Plus, if we don’t get any offense players, we could always move Jovo to forward!

Penguins may have trouble keeping both Malone and Hossa, even if they spend to the cap. I know, I know, this is nothing new but I just thought I’d throw it out there. Malone has been thrown around as a possible signing for Phoenix. I would prefer him over Hossa. Hossa we would have to pay out the butt to get and I’d rather not tie up all our money on him when we have some great young guys coming up who will eventually require more money. Plus I think they would have to sign Hossa to a much longer contract then Malone, JMO. I feel that Malone would fit in better with the young team too. I know we have the other Hossa, but I don’t think that’s going to be the driving force that gets him signed. He hasn’t really expressed much interest in playing with his brother and for Phoenix. I’ve read more about him wanting to play with Chara.

I found a good article on HF about our rookies:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/10302/coyotes200708_rookie_review/
The part on my fav rookie Daniel Carcillo:

You can never blame Daniel Carcillo for not trying. That is, trying everyone’s nerves. While he’s shown to be an irritating middleweight, much of Carcillo’s full potential has been locked away as his mouth and muscles have kept him of the ice. If he wanted to show everyone that he could lead the league in penalty minutes well, he won. Racking up a whopping 324 minutes in 57 games - including a league-leading four game misconducts - it’s astonishing that Carcillo wasn’t able to muster up a match penalty with all his antics. Regardless, when he wanted to play some effective two-way hockey, he was able to play at a high level. He was able to display this when he scored five goals in the last two games of the season – which even left Gretzky laughing at the anomaly – even though the Coyotes were out of postseason contention. He finished with 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) and was a plus-1.No one discredits Carcillo for being loyal to the franchise and defending his teammates. However, as it was seen during the season, Carcillo really lacked a sense of when and where it was acceptable to flex his muscles and his jaw. It didn’t help that the Coyotes had one of the weaker penalty-kill units in the league. It even got to the point in the season where the Coyotes had to send him a stern message by shipping him out to San Antonio to play in the AHL for a brief stint.Come next year, Carcillo needs to really balance out his game. Seeing how he has the tools, great drive, and some good upside, he shouldn’t look to covet the league’s pest award.

I believe that after his stint in San Antonio, Carcillo got the message. He received a lot of phantom calls after that and then showed he does have skill with that last stretch of games, especially the last two games.

Also included were Peter Mueller, Martin Hanzal, Daniel Winnik, Enver Lisin, and Keith Yandle. It’s a good read. I recommend it to any Phoenix Coyotes fan or anyone interested in a good up-and-coming core of young guys.