What’s in The News

30 Oct 2008 by Craig in National Hockey League

We are about ten games into the season and it time to look at what is making news around the league. Things are starting to even out a little bit, and we are starting to see the storylines develop. So far this year we are seeing a lot of big name goalies struggling, is it because of the equipment change? Teams that were struggling are starting to get into form and others are coming back down to earth. There are still a lot of things to shake out throughout the year, but things are starting to heat up.

Alfredsson re-signs - The Ottawa Senators have re-signed there captain and best all around player Daniel Alfredsson. Daniel inked a four year extension that should keep him in Canada’s nation capitol for the rest of his career. This wasn’t a big surprise, Alfredsson has been the captain of this team for a long time and it looks like he will be a career Senator. Ottawa is off to a slow start and a lot of rumors are swirling around the organization, but with some better defense and goaltending this team should be good. Its always nice to see a player and an organization come to an agreement that works for both sides, Sens fans should be happy that they will have Daniel for a few more years.

Marian Hossa - Hossa caught a lot of criticism after signing a one year deal in Detroit in the off season. Well after a slow start he is starting to look like the true all star he is. Playing along side Pavel Datsyuk, Hossa is on fire and near the league lead in points. He has 9 points he his last 5 games and if he keeps it up the gamble he took in the off season will pay off. The Red Wings are a great team and with Hossa playing this well they will be tough to beat every night.

Trade Deadline – Well the NHL made a mistake, but an agreement was reached quickly. The league has decided to push the trade deadline back one day to March the 4th. The reason for the move was because there are to many games scheduled on the original date. With a lot of games scheduled it would make it tough for teams to make trades and still be able to ice a full team on the same day. The NHL and the NHLPA came to a fast agreement and pushed the date back one day.

Steven Stamkos - The 1st overall selection in this past years NHL entry draft has finally recorded his first career point. There has been a lot of talk recently about Stamkos and the ice time he has been receiving in Tampa Bay. The Lightning are talented in the forward lines, and they are still searching for the best mix of lines. Stamkos will have a great career and he is off to a slow start, but I wouldn’t panic just yet. Tampa Bay has a lot of new players on there roster and once they find the right mix and chemistry Stamkos will start to produce on a regular basis. I hope the coaching staff in Tampa starts giving him the proper ice time, he need to be playing more then just 10 minutes per game. Play him in some power play situation and let him play with the stars like Lecavalier and St Louis and you will see the numbers jump.

Phoenix Coyotes claim Ken Klee off re-entry waivers from the Anaheim Ducks. Claiming someone off re-entry waivers means that Phoenix will pick up half his salary and Anaheim will be on the hook for the other half. Klee is a veteran and still has the skills to play a decent NHL defense for the Coyotes.

Alexander Ovechkin - Last years MVP has made a trip back to his homeland, Russia, to visit with an ailing family member. Ovechkin had played more 200 hundred consecutive games and has proved that he is a consistent NHL player. This isn’t a huge deal for the Capitols, it’s a part of life, family comes first. It’s a bigger deal for fantasy owners out there who will miss “Alex the Great” for a few games this early in the year. Ovechkin should be back in Washington’s lineup early next week.

Rick Dipietro - Seems to be a big secret on long island, but there is one thing for sure is that it will be hard for them to win without Rick. Its listed as a lower body injury? Who knows what that means. Dipietro is coming off knee surgery in the off season and hopefully the injury hasn’t re-occurred. Rick is a great goaltender, but he seems to get hurt an awful lot and the Islanders will struggle to win without him. I for one am sick of this upper body, lower body injury stuff, lets just be honest and let us know what is really going on. Hopefully Dipietro will be back soon and helping the Islanders win some hockey games.

Luke Schenn will be staying with the Leafs, as he has played in his 10th game of the season. Playing 10 games means his entry level contract kicks in and its more then likely he will be in Toronto for the rest of the season. The 18 year old defenseman has looked solid defensively for Toronto and they feel the best way for him to develop is to stay with the big club.

The product has been good so far this years, fights and goals are up which make everyone happy. Alexander Semin is leading the league in goals and points, while Ryan Miller leads the goalies with a 1.60 goals against average. Nikolai Zherdev surprisingly leads the league in plus / minus and Evgeni Malkin leads with 12 assists. The season is off and running and hopefully there will be plenty of more great storylines throughout the year.

Hockey Night in Europe

30 Sep 2008 by Craig in National Hockey League

Part of a new annual event the NHL has sent four teams to start the NHL season off in Europe. It’s part of the leagues continued efforts to increase its market and make the NHL the globally excepted best hockey league in the world. The NHL is an international league and it makes sense that they would want to show off in Europe. Its yet to be determined whether or not these games have a positive effect on the game or not, but it all gets underway on Saturday October 4th.

Stockholm Sweden - The Pittsburgh Penguins and. Ottawa Senators, will play two regular season games in Sweden. The NHL has sent there poster boy Sydney Crosby across the pond to grow the game in new markets. The league has shown that they will use Crosby in special events and he will participate in high profile games for the second straight year, last year he played in the Winter Classic. Last years Winter Classic was a success for the league and they hope that this years European schedule will be much of the same. The Penguins are going to use this trip as a team building experience, they hope this trip will bring the team closer together. There are big expectations on Pittsburgh this season after they made the Cup final a year ago. The team has some new faces in the locker room this year and there hope is when they come back to North America the team will be one and ready to have a great year. Yes Crosby is in Sweden, but he probably isn’t going to be the fan favorite, Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson is a home town hero. Alfredsson will be met with great fan fair and the expectations of putting on a good show in his home country. Daniel will skate on the top line with Spezza and Heatley, and they will look to put on a show. Ottawa will be looking for a bounce back year and will need to get off to a good start in Europe. These teams will play two games one on Saturday night and the other on Sunday night and should be fun to watch.

Prague Czech Republic - In Prague the New York Rangers will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in two regular season games. Both these teams made big changes in the off season and are looking forward to having big seasons. The Rangers have two Czech players in Petr Prucha and Michal Rozisal, that will no doubt be the fan favorites. The Lightning have some of the NHL’s biggest stars in Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St Louis and 1st overall selection Steven Stamkos. Stamkos will play in his much anticipated NHL debut and will draw attention from both sides of the pond. Tampa Bay has a lot of new players and will be looking to build some chemistry and build towards what they hope is a much improved season.  The Rangers are a big market team and the NHL will be looking to draw a lot of fans out to the games. Both these teams will be looking to get off to good starts, to prove that they are favorite teams in the Eastern Conference. The games will be Saturday and Sunday, the crowds should be rocking and hopefully the NHL gives them a good product.

Traveling to Europe has ups and downfalls for these four teams.  The travel and time change can take a lot of the players and put a damper on early season expectations. On the other hand, you can use these trips as team building experiences and bring the teams closer together. The teams are going to end up being in Europe for almost two weeks this season, I would expect when they get home it will take a while to get readjusted. Last year Anaheim and Los Angeles played in London and both teams got off to rough starts when they got home. Hopefully all four of these teams will adapt well and there will only be positive impacts on there seasons.

The future in Europe for the NHL is yet to be determined, but it makes sense for the league to expand its European fan base. The NHL more then any other North American professional sports league has a lot of European talent. Stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa and Henrik Lundqvist all are European, and could go along way to the NHL being a success in Europe. In my opinion I like that four teams are going to these countries to start the year, but that is enough. You don’t need to send anymore then that, go over to Europe for a couple weeks and show off the great product the league has. This is not a vacation for these teams, the games matter and it will be important for them to get off to good starts.

It has been said that maybe there will NHL franchises in Europe within the next 10 years. I’m not sure I agree with that, the travel would be tough on everyone and the time changes would make it hard on the schedule makers. In my opinion if there is a good European league I could see an opportunity for the NHL’s Stanley Cup Champions to play the European Champion in a series at the seasons end. I’m not sure that will ever happen, but it might be interesting.  Whatever the NHL does, they need to capture the hockey market in Europe. Hockey is big in Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic and the league has a lot of great stars from those countries. Who knows what the future holds, I hope the fans in Europe enjoy the NHL games this weekend and continue there love for hockey.