The Puck Stops Here
Top Rookie So Far This Season
by PuckStopsHere on 11/14/08 at 04:37 PM ET
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In the earlier portions of the season, I picked Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks as the best rookie in the NHL. I not longer believe that to be true. Versteeg has fallen to second in the rookie scoring race (tied with Mikhail Grabovski of the Toronto Maple Leafs - who has three more games played). The rookie scoring leader is Derick Brassard of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I think he has been the top rookie in the NHL so far this year.
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Brian Burke Out As Anaheim GM
by PuckStopsHere on 11/13/08 at 03:36 PM ET
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Brian Burke has been replaced as the Anaheim Duck GM. Burke will remain as an advisor to the Ducks. He is free to negotiate employment opportunities with other teams. Bob Murray takes over as the Anaheim GM. Burke was in the last year of his contract with Anaheim and it was widely believed that he would leave the team at the end of the season. Burke had refused to sign a contract extension. Anaheim decided that they would rather have an unproven GM who is staying with the franchise than have one of the best GM’s in the business who is on his way out the door. If Anaheim had realized this during the summer, they would have had better options as a replacement GM than Bob Murray. That would have been preferable if they were unwilling to complete the season with Brian Burke. It is not uncommon for teams to complete seasons with GMs who do not return (either as the team fired him or as he chose to not re-sign). That seems like a preferable situation for the Ducks - assuming we have all the facts of the situation.
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The AHL Leader
by PuckStopsHere on 11/12/08 at 03:28 PM ET
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It is often valuable to look at the leaders in the AHL to learn about which NHL franchises have depth and players available who might make a significant NHL impact. Currently, the first place team in the AHL is the Portland Pirates. They have a 9-2 record (with one overtime loss). This gives them 19 points in 21 games. They are the Buffalo Sabres minor league affiliate. So not only is Buffalo off to a good start with 19 points in their 14 games, which has them in seventh place, they have plenty of depth in the minors.
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Likely Masterton Winner
by PuckStopsHere on 11/11/08 at 04:01 PM ET
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The Masterton Trophy is given annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. In practise this means that a player who overcomes a significant handicap (injury, illness etc.) to continue his NHL career and make a significant impact on his team. This working definition is a more meaningful one than worrying about which player is more sportsmanlike.
By that definition, I think it is quite clear that Teppo Numminen of the Buffalo Sabres will likely win it this season, assuming he has any level of success with his team. Numminen is a solid defenceman with a good team. He plays about twenty minutes a night and has six points in 14 games played. He is even on the All Star ballot.
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Best Team So Far This Season
by PuckStopsHere on 11/10/08 at 03:10 PM ET
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Yesterday, I decided that I would write something today about how the San Jose Sharks have been the best team in the NHL so far this season. They made me second guess that decision when they lost 4-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes last night. However, a second look at the standings after the loss only helped to show how well San Jose had been playing. Even with the loss, San Jose sits first in the league with 26 points. San Jose has the best “winning percentage” of .813 (in their case it is a true winning percentage as they have no regulation ties that became losses). San Jose has the best team +/- as they score 0.87 more goals per game than they allow (Montreal is second at 0.75).
Last year, San Jose was a good team that finished second in the league. They were good enough to have expected a playoff run and fire coach Ron Wilson when it didn’t happen. They are doing even better this year. It is a reasonable question to ask what has improved.
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Top Coach This Season
by PuckStopsHere on 11/09/08 at 10:43 AM ET
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Generally I disagree with the mainstream media when they pick coach of the year candidates. I feel that picking the coach of the most improved team as coach of the year is usually wrong. There are lots of reasons why teams improve. Coaching is only one reason.
If Bruce Boudreau is such a wonderful coach. why is he not a coach of the year candidate this season? Is it because Carolina leads the Southeast Division this year? That is likely because their goaltending is not so strong with Jose Theodore in net and they missed Alexander Ovechkin for a few games and he is not among the NHL’s top scorers. Boudreau came into a good young team that was ready to take off and they did under his coaching.
For several years, including this one, I have believed that Jacques Lemaire is the best coach in the NHL.
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I NOW Consider Sergei Fedorov A Hall Of Famer
by PuckStopsHere on 11/08/08 at 10:45 AM ET
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I like to try to pick the point in a player’s career where they establish themselves as a Hall of Famer. They have to have Hall of Fame credentials that will remain untarnished regardless of what happens or does not happen for the remainder of their career. Here are the standards I use to decide if a player is Hall of Fame worthy. Today I am ready to declare that Sergei Fedorov has reached that level.
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Best Goalie So Far
by PuckStopsHere on 11/07/08 at 03:18 PM ET
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Earlier this season I picked Mike Smith of the Tampa Bay Lightning as the best goaltender so far this season. His fast start is over and he seems to be dropping off of his early levels. I think the best goalie so far this season has been Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins.
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Injuries And Buyouts
by PuckStopsHere on 11/06/08 at 08:44 PM ET
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Hockey is a rough game. Anyone who plays regularly for many years will have a sore shoulder, knee, back or some other body part. This would be a recurring injury or a degenerative condition. This is especially true at the NHL level.
In the current CBA, teams can buyout players during a period in the summer. Generally, underperforming players get their contracts bought out. Teams save money in this process. They pay out 2/3 of the remaining money on the contract to a player over a time period of two times the remaining time on the contract. This reduces the annual salary cap hit to 1/3 of what it otherwise would have been and allows teams (with this salary cap penalty) to use the remaining salary cap room to pay for other players. Problems can come in this arrangement when players are injured. Injured players cannot be bought out - although they can be placed on long term injury exemption lists to free up salary cap space. The problem is most players who have had lengthy careers will have recurring or degenerative injury conditions and can use these to claim that they are injured and cannot be bought out, if they believe they will not get another NHL contract.
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All Star Fan Ballot
by PuckStopsHere on 11/05/08 at 04:16 PM ET
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Yesterday, the NHL released the list of players that will appear on the ballot for the NHL All Star Game. Voting begins online on November 12th and continues until January 2nd. The voting will occur at vote.NHL.com which is currently an unavailable website (the NHL would have been better advised to have this site up when they announced the ballot).
Here is the list of players on the ballot:
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About The Puck Stops Here
The Puck Stops Here was founded during the 2004/05 lockout as a place to rant about hockey. The original site contains over 1000 posts, some of which were also published on FoxSports.com.
Who am I? A diehard hockey fan.
Why am I blogging? I want to.
Why are you reading it? ???
Email: y2kfhl@hotmail.com
