Winter Classic 2012 Review; Success?

This year's NHL Winter Classic was an interesting selection. The 5th WC didn't have some of the aspects that the other games had. The first one in Buffalo had A) the football stadium surrounding with all of those fans and B) Sidney Crosby. The next year in Chicago they had the game in a historic ball park, a feature that drew a lot of attention. The same thing happened the next year with the game in Fenway Park in Boston. And then who can forget the Crosby-Ovechkin matchup next year. 

This season, the NHL didn't have the appeal of a historic location or a complete superstar playing in the game. The game was in the somewhat new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and had the Rangers matched up against the Flyers. This year the NHL went with the rivalry Winter Classic. 

Did it work?

Not really.

As far as drawing in views, which is pretty much the only feedback available, this was the worst year of the Winter Classic.

2008: Pittsburgh @ Buffalo; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.6 Overnight rating

2009: Detroit @ Chicago; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.9 Overnight rating

2010: Philadelphia @ Boston; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.6 Overnight rating

2011: Washington @ Pittsburgh; Jan 1st; 7 PM (primetime): 2.8 Overnight rating

2012: New York @ Philadelphia; Jan 2nd; 3 PM: 2.4 Overnight rating

Well, to this game's defense, it wasn't the first WC, it wasn't in a historic ball park, it wasn't in a historic ball park, and it wasn't hyped up for months and months in advanced Crosby vs. Ovechkin. Additionally, this game was on January 2nd which may have lost a handful of views. And the fact that the start of the game was pushed back to the odd time of 3:00 didn't help. 

But this doesn't necessarily matter. In my opinion, the flow of this year's game was better of the ones in years past. The players said it was because of the ice which may be. The conditions for the ice were perfect at 3 o' clock making the playing smoother. Also, while the snow in '08 was pretty awesome, the skies were clear for the most part (besides for a slight flurry that lasted just a few minutes).

The game itself was an exciting one. The first period was physical and had a great feeling to it including a Jaromir Jagr move that was more classic than the Rangers jersey. Jagr took the puck up the ice and then split the two defenseman only to have his chance denied by Rangers' goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Jagr ended up leaving the game, however, due to a groin injury. 

The Flyers got 2 goals in the second (including Brayden Schenn's first career goal). The Rangers responded a couple of minutes later by Mike Rupp who ripped the puck past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky. Rupp then did his best Jagr impersonation. 

In the third Rupp added another goal followed by a goal by Brad Richards 2 and a half minutes later to put the Rangers up 3-2. The game kept moving and then with 1 minute remaining, there was a controversial penalty call that I'll get to in a second. With the Flyers goalie pulled and Ryan Callahan of the Rangers racing towards the puck, Philly's Kimmo Timonen interfered with Callahan. However, the refs called matching penalties; 2 minutes to Timonen for interference and 2 minutes to Callahan for holding the stick. This kept the teams even strength on the ice. 

A minute later, with 20 seconds left, this happened:

Just to remind you, Danny Briere faced Lundqvist 2 years ago on the last day of the season in the shootout to decide who made it to the playoffs. Briere won that matchup. Lundqvist won this one.

Just a stat about penalty shots in the last minute for teams down 1 goal. Shooters are now 0-11 on penalty shots with a chance to tie the game in the final minute over the last 15 years. A combination of the pressure, the choppy ice (because it's the end of the game), and the goaltending probably causes this statistic.

The Rangers held on and won 3-2.

Many argued that this incredible finished was really a fixed event so the game would have a more exciting finish. Well it definitely was that but I wouldn't go that far. What about you John Tortorella?

Go to 8:50 of this press conference. Tortorella completely bashes the reffing in the game. In my opinion, that's what he had to do. It's wrong but those calls shouldn't be acceptable in the NHL. However, the NHL fined Tortorella $30,000 for his comments about the officiating, a fair move as well.

As a blogger, I wasn't given press tickets for the game, but given that I live in Ranger territory, I had an abundance of friends who attended the festivities in Philly. As one friend put it, "Words can't even explain the experience."

From the pictures I saw, I can agree, being in a building filled with the best fans on earth, there can be nothing better. Here were a few great images:

So good job to the NHL. (On the right side of the blog, vote for your favourite Winter Classic!) See you next year in Detroit!

The Importance of Family/Friends in the NHL

Days like Thanksgiving and Christmas are days when Americans can join together with their closest friends and family, share a meal, and love one another.

Every year, the NFL has two three games on Thanksgiving day/night. Now let me ask you realistically; how many times has it occurred that you ignored your family while you and the other males in your family ditched the Thanksgiving meal and watched football. The answer is probably a lot.

Apparently the NBA has some tradition thing-y with games on Christmas but I wouldn't know because I don't watch basketball. But these games, I'm sure interfere with family time as well. (by the way, congratulations to the NBA on missing several months of their season! Yay!)

Well the NHL has got it right. No games on Thanksgiving so Puck Heads can relax and enjoy the holiday. Additionally, they not only have off Christmas day, but they also don't have games on Christmas Eve so you won't miss any games while being with family.

So Puck Heads, spend the day off with family while you have no reason to spend time watching sports.

So on behalf of Robin's Nest, Happy Holidays to all! And to you too Benoit Pouliot.

Heartless Celebration Leads To 38 PIM, misconducts; Overtime First

Last night in the Rangers-Lightning game, Artem Anisimov scored a shorthanded goal to put the Rangers up 2-1 with about 6:30 left in the second period. It's not necessarily the scoring that got people upset. Rather it was how he celebrated that resulted in over 38 penalty minutes and 2 game misconducts.

Now I'm not sure exactly why he did it. Perhaps it was saying he's a sharpshooter and doesn't miss or maybe that it was a signal saying that the Lightning were done for the night and that he scored the winner. But whatever reason he had for doing was silly and immature.

Now everyone has seen Teemu Selanne's sick shooting goal celebration back from his Winnipeg days but that celebration was a bit different considering the jovial attitude of it all. The symbolism was obvious. It was like him shooting at a clay disc in the sky.
Here, the Lightning had to interpret on their own what Anisimov was shooting at. Immediately after he did the shooting, Tampa forward, Vincent Lecavalier, who skated right into the line of fire of Anisimov, skated right toward him in anger. And before you knew it we had a whole line brawl.

Tampa forward Steve Downie skated onto the ice from the Tampa bench to get into some of the fighting. Now believe it or not, this was technically allowed because it was ruled as a legal line change because a Tampa forward had already skated off the ice just prior to Downie going on. Downie (and Anisimov) were given game misconducts and everyone combined totaled 38 penalty minutes. It's still realistic for Downie to receive a suspension for going on the ice to fight but we'll have to wait and see. And I doubt Anisimov will get suspended either. If you have an opinion on what should happen leave a comment.

In the end, the Lightning pulled off a 3-2 shootout win.
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Last night in the Devils-Senators game, the Devils had a 4 on 3 man advantage going into overtime. However, the rule book says that a team must have at least 3 men on the ice at all times. So the Devils had a 4 on 3 to start overtime. However, once all the penalties expired and the penalized players went onto the ice, both teams had 5 skaters aside for about a minute. This was a very interesting and unusual occurrence. I'm not sure if it has ever happened before but I doubt it.
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This year there have been a larger amount of suspensions due to headshots in the NHL. Brendan Shanahan has been busy making explanation videos since the beginning of the pre-season. Well Shanahan didn't have to make 1 video thanks to Philadelphia's Claude Giroux's great reflexes. Watch:

Malkin clearly was aiming for the head and would probably have warranted a suspension had he connected with his deliberate head shot. But Giroux somehow ducked under the punch just in the nick of time.

NHL Realignment Plans Finalized

When the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, the NHL was in dire need for a realignment. Winnipeg would have had to stay in the Southeast Division for at least a year giving the southern teams and the Jets a difficult traveling schedule. While they were already planning on switching up the Divisions, the question for the NHL was whether or not they should completely shake up the way the teams are divided.

Well they did.

NHL Division Map Before Realignment.

After an hour long meeting yesterday with the NHL Board of Governors, the league decided to adopt a system where there are 4 different conferences. The teams were split up for traveling convenience. There are 2 conferences with 8 teams (those two conferences are with Western teams) and then the two 7 team conferences are with Eastern teams. All 30 NHL teams voted whether or not they liked the proposal and an astonishing 26 teams voted yes for it (they required at least 20 teams to vote for it). So the four conferences are:

Western Teams:
Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose' Sharks, Phoenix Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers.

Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Eastern Teams:
Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning.

New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Carolina Hurricanes.

NHL Conference Map After Realignment

Well here's how the scheduling is going to work. For teams in the 7 team conference, you play each conference team six times and then play a home and home with every other team in the NHL.


Now for the playoffs schedule. The top 4 teams in each conference make the playoffs. Yes that means that if there's a good team in a difficult division and they finish fifth in their conference, they won't make the playoffs while a not-as-good team in a weak conference will. Let's say the Devils have 84 points in their tough conference and finish 5th, a team with 80 pionts may make the playoffs in a weaker conference. And this is definitely something that's going to occur and it WILL agitate many fans.

So the first two rounds are inter-conference games. The 1 seed vs. the 4 seed and the 2 seed vs. the 3 seed. Then the winners of those games meet. That means that there won't be any chance of a rivalry game past the second round. Most rivalry matchups will be wasted within the first two rounds. Great series like the Rangers-Devils or Penguins-Capitals will be done with quickly and we won't see them late in the playoffs. That's one slight thing that's disappointing for the NHL who's had memorable Conference Finals in years past. Another problem is that the 2 best teams in the league might end up playing in the second round if they're in the same division instead of those teams making it deep into the playoffs. That will definitely take away from the excitement of those late rounds.

The NHL has not yet announced its plans for post-second round of the playoffs.

The change obviously has its ups and downs. For starters, they set up the conferences with rivalries in mind so each team will play their rival a good 6 times. We will see Crosby against Ovechkin a lot more than we normally would. Also, we will automatically see rare Eastern team vs. Western teams on a daily basis now. With every team playing each other at least two times a year, we'll see good games like Vancouver against Boston.

Now for some problems with this idea.

The Buffalo Sabres play the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders the same amount of times they play teams like the Ducks or Sharks. This doesn't quite make sense geographically. 

Another thing, the Carolina Hurricanes pretty much lost every single rivalry they made. Their only division team they have left with them next year is the Washington Capitals who we all know is A) not much of a rivalry anymore and B) the Caps are sure to move on to new/past rivals like the Islanders or the Penguins.

The change did make several teams happy though with their traveling. These teams were stuck in the Western Conference having to play a lot on the West Coast which was an inconvenience to the team's traveling schedule and the fans' viewing schedule. Those teams included the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, and Minnesota Wild.

Another inconvenience this change presents is that the Winnipeg Jets only play other Canadian teams twice a year each. These are marquee matchups that aren't going to happen too often after this season.

But there are still some good things about this. The likelihood of seeing those rivalry playoff series are much greater. Year after year we'll be seeing series with the Rangers-Devils, Penguins-Capitals, Oilers-Flames, Bruins-Canadiens etc. That is definitely a good thing for the NHL.

The fact though that 26 out of the 30 NHL teams voted for this was pretty amazing. It shows that most teams are on board with this idea. As for the 4 teams that didn't vote for it? Well analyst Pierre LeBrun hypothesized that among those 4 teams were the Rangers and Lightning. I personally think that the Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers, and Islanders were the teams.

In my opinion, I think that realignment was necessary; we all did. But I don't think we needed something THIS radical. I don't like the playoff system for previously stated reasons. I kind of like the fact that the regular season means more. There are less playoff spots for bubble teams to make it now. If the Washington Capitals slack off for a part of the season (like they're doing this year) they might not make the playoffs. So this makes regular season games more important. But I also don't like that teams play other teams on the different side of the map as many times as they play teams a few miles away from them. It just doesn't make sense.

A couple of more pressing matters.

Firstly (and most important,) is what are we going to name these conferences? A lot of speculation is going around (including this great article by Puck Daddy on Yahoo! sports) but nobody knows for sure. Possibilities are the classic Northeast, Atlantic, Pacific, and Central. But the NHL has had divisions like the Patrick, Smythe, or Adams, honouring past players. So people are wondering if there will be more recent legends being honoured (e.g. Gretzky, Orr, Hull, etc.)

Another issue is what will we do with the Wales and Campbell Trophies. Those trophies are presented to the champions of the Eastern and Western Conference respectively. Well now those trophies seem obsolete. But it's not like players touch it anyway...

Note: Please vote on the side of the page for if you like the realignment plans or not.

Top 4 Empty Net Fails in NHL History

Last night we saw a unique fail in the NHL. Rookie sensation Craig Smith, forward on the Nashville Predators, had a chance to put his team up 4-1 with a minute left in the game and with the Toronto net empty. Well things didn't quite work out.

This wasn't the first time we saw a terrible mistake happen with an empty net. Here are my top 4 fails of all time with the net empty.

4. Philadelphia Flyers

It doesn't look like much but here's what happened. On a delayed penalty, the Flyers pulled their goalie for the extra skater. After a Martin Brodeur save and a few bad Flyer passes, the puck wound up in their own net giving Brodeur (the last player on the Devils to touch the puck) the goal, the second of his career. What makes this fail so unique? Well the Flyers scored again to make the game 3-2 in favour of the Devils but failed to score another. This gave Brodeur the only game winning goal by a goalie ever. Which means the Flyers literally scored the game winning goal off of themselves.

3. Niclas Wallin

This one was probably the worst own goal in NHL history. Although he didn't intend to, it appeared Wallin shot it perfectly into his own net. Their truly was no explanation for it. The goal was credited to Dainius Zubrus. The Hurricanes later came back and won the game.

2. Craig Smith

I decided to put this one at Number 2 and you'll see why momentarily. But Craig was literally four feet away from the net. That means he had to shoot it at a 45 degree angle in order to actually miss it (that's college physics baby.) The Predators scored the empty net goal a little bit later and won 4-1. The funniest part of the play was A) the fact that the fans cheered B) the announcers thought it went in C) the stadium goal spotlights went on D) the goal horn sounded E) the cute embarrassment of an NHL rookie F) seeing his teammates hold in the laughter. The worst part of the play? He's on my fantasy team.

1. Patrik Stefan

Patrik Stefan is rather synonymous with the word "suck". And this play proves it. He came right in and took his eyes off the puck for a fraction of a second and then swung and miss. And then, in a desperate attempt to redeem himself, he comically slips and gives the puck right to a guy on the Oilers. To make things even better (or worse), the Oilers went right down the ice and scored within the ten seconds they had. The Stars won the game in a shootout but his play will forever be remembered by hockey fans. "Can you. Believe. What we. Just saw?"

The Disrespect Hockey Fans Get From ESPN

We expect it at this point. But that does NOT mean that it's okay for it to be done.

ESPN, the "World Wide Leader" in "Sports" has quite the history with hockey. It is an understatement to say that hockey is an after thought in their premier show Sportscenter. But the WWL stooped to an all new low in my opinion.

The St. Louis Blues haven't been doing too well this season. This led to their head coach, Davis Payne, getting fired in favor of their new head coach, Ken Hitchcock. (I'd like to use this moment to point out that Davis Payne treated this situation like a pro. He said "It's shocking and it's disappointing, but in the end, you're responsible for all the areas of your hockey team. There were pieces that weren't firing on all cylinders and it's under my umbrella of responsibility. But I also can say that we were looking at a favorable schedule ahead and ready to turn the corner. That said, if this is what gets things going, then I'm all for it. I wish nothing but the best for the team and this group of guys. They deserve it." This shows how great a guy Davis Payne was. Wish him success.)

Well when I saw this, I was astonished. The disrespect that the WWL showed to hockey, to St. Louis, to Davis Payne, and others was truly mind boggling. Watch:

Just in case this video is removed, I'll go through the dialogue:

Woman: That's it for us, Monday Night Countdown 7 Eastern on ESPN

Man: That's it for Davis Payne too. He's fired as Blues head coach.

Woman: Bye

Outro Music

Sportscenter is an hour show. 

Really? 

They couldn't fit this noteworthy piece of hockey news into an hour long show? 

Pathetic. 

But again, this is the nature of the show. Hockey lower down on the list. Even on a day where sport news was slow (what actually happened this weekend (besides for football which can only take up SO much space)?).

I've been meaning to write a nicely length-ed feature article on the prejudiced of ESPN (in addition to one about the abolition of the shootout) but I haven't had much time. However, I'll give you guys a pretty well written ESPN vs. hockey article by none other than Puck Daddy, the Yahoo! hockey blog. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/About-ESPN-SportsCenter-and-its-perceived-anti-;_ylt=A2KLOzLjjbhOQXgAF2BNbK5_?urn=nhl-255184

It makes some great points and I highly suggest it.

Off Ice Controversy; Racism and Tortorella

Over the past couple of days, a couple of events stirred the internet.

First off, was an event that occurred on Halloween night. Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres dressed up with his wife for a Halloween party. Their costume was creative and cute yet many found it offensive.

Torres wore a mask of rapper Jay-Z and Mrs. Torres wore the mask of Jay-Z's pregnant wife Beyonce'. 

Harmless? Apparently not. The argument ensued (mostly of Twitter). While it seemed most analysts and players were backing up Raffi's costume, there still seemed to be a handful of fans who found it offensive. One person in particular, even took offense to Paul Bissonnette (aka @BizNasty2point0) backing up his teammate.

For me, I don't understand what the big deal is. I've seen plenty of "white" kids dressing up as Lebron James before. Was that racist? It's only respect. And I found it troubling that so many people didn't understand it. 

The other controversial situation happened today. Last night, the San Jose' Sharks completed their East Coast Road Trip with an ugly 5-2 loss against the New York Rangers. Out of frustration, Sharks captain Joe Thornton issued a statement saying that the Rangers were the "softest team we played on the road trip."

Now was that a nice thing to say? Well not exactly. It's never a good thing to downgrade your opponent even after the game and especially not if they just defeated you. So I'll say it wasn't the right thing to do on Joe's part.

Let's look at the Sharks road trip though. They started off with a shootout come-from-behind win in New Jersey. Then they went on to beat Boston, Detroit, and Nashville in a row (not an easy task). Next they beat the Islanders on a cheap overtime goal. Next, after going 5-0 on this difficult road trip, they fell to the Rangers.

First let's see the position of the Rangers going into last night vs. the other teams the Sharks played on their road trip.

Nashville: 12 points

Detroit: 10 points

Devils: 9 points

Rangers: 9 points

Islanders: 8 points

Boston: 6 points

So statistically the Rangers weren't even the worst team. The top 5 teams shown are all doing pretty well this year while Boston is struggling pretty badly. But I'll take Thornton's word for it that the Rangers seemed to be the weakest of the bunch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUzz9_864zo&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Well no controversy with the Rangers passes without a word from their often colourful head coach John Tortorella. The coach is known for getting into disputes with reporters, to spraying fans in the first row with water. Well he bounced back by pointing out the obvious in that "Joe (Thornton) hasn't won a goddamn thing in this league."

Brutal.

My question is did John go over the line or was he defending himself after Thornton went over the line (as always, I'm interested to hear what my audience thinks so let me know). 

In my opinion, Tortorella has a history of saying bad things at bad times so I want to put him at fault but I think he was sort of right. In today's sport, this demonstration of poor sportsmanship isn't acceptable. Joe may not have been trying to point out the weakness of the Rangers team, he probably just was disappointed with his team against a team they should have beat, but he shouldn't have said.