NHL Round Up January 8th to January 14th
Before we get started, another reminder about the fundraiser for Denna Laing. Feitelberg posted yesterday that the total amount raised so far is $43,000. Great job by the Stoolies, again. The best, big-hearted, and most loyal readership on the internet. Wouldn’t trade you guys for anyone. If you haven’t heard about Denna Laing’s story yet, you should read this blog Pres wrote. And if you haven’t bought a shirt yet, you can click on the shirt below to do so.
And now….the return of the roundup
1) Joel Quenneville now sits alone in 2nd place for all time wins with 783 regular season wins.
You can add another 115 wins to that total if you include the playoffs. Congrats to Coach Q. A living Chicago legend and a first ballot Hall Of Fame coach. When it’s all said and done, Coach Q will definitely be in the discussion with Scotty Bowman for the greatest coach of all-time.
2) Alex Ovechkin scores his 500th career goal
Congratulations to Ovi. The best pure goal-scorer in my lifetime. Everyone thinks I hate Ovechkin. That’s not true. He’s so exciting to watch. I love the celebrations and the enthusiasm. He’s great for the sport. All I’ve ever said is that I don’t think he’s got the right stuff to be the best player and captain on the best team. You can say that about a lot of Hall Of Fame players. Roenick fits that description to a T. I hate the people that try to make him into something he’s not. This is probably Ovi’s best team and best shot to make it beyond the 2nd round, but I think he’s destined to be the Dan Marino of this era. That doesn’t take away from his accomplishments though. In 30-40 years Ovechkin will be one of the most memorable players of this era with or without a Stanley Cup.
3) Chip & Chase is now on iTunes.
We are going to try to do these more frequently in the 2nd half of the season and really ramp up for the playoffs. Share, tweet, subscribe, rate, all that shit. And also, give feedback/suggestions. Works better when you guys give content ideas.
This week we had Connor and 610 talking Rangers and Islanders plus a look at the Metro division as a whole.
4) Goals of The Week
Sam Bennett’s 4th goal of the night. A Texas Hat trick
His look at the end was basically the Jordan shrug
Not a great goal, but the flukiest goal I’ve ever seen.
These North Dakota goals aren’t from this week, but the compilation is new. The #1 team in the country has been scoring beauties all year long and deserved a shout.
Nice little passing play on the rush by the Hawks. The Shaw-Toews-Hossa line has really been clicking
This video was a second too short on the front end. Kane’s moves at the blueline to deke by two guys was incredible. He’s on a different planet this year
Brent Burns smoking the Leafs
5) Hit of The Week
Brayden Schenn levels Krug
Fight of the week…Kevan Miller retaliating
7) Saves of The Week
Roberto Luongo limber AF for a 36 year-old
Kick save and a beauty by King Henrik
Some euro guy with a great glove save
8) We had a big debate on twitter last night about this punch in the KHL. The question was whether or not this was a sucker punch
I said it’s a great punch in boxing, its a gutless punch in hockey. Have to give your opponent a chance to protect himself. I can understand the other side of the argument, and people on twitter were split seeming 50/50 with a ton of people chiming in.
Resident stoolie tough guy Bollig says it’s a sucker punch
9) Canada is super poor and that’s a big problem for Salary Cap teams.
This is a hockey blog, not an econ class, but this is definitely something to look out for going forward. Daley and Bettman have both said that the Canadian dollar falling is something they’ve planned for and it won’t have a huge impact, but other experts are speculating that it will have an impact on the Cap. Canadian teams receive revenue in Canadian dollars, but all players are paid in American dollars. Canadian teams’ revenue will decline dramatically if the Canadian dollar falls to .59 on the USD as some are predicting. That is a problem for Cap teams like the Hawks. So…we need oil to go up. Drive everywhere, turn your heat up, buy a Hummer. Not the H2 hummer either. The Desert Storm hummers that get like 7 MPG. Sucks for the environment, but I’d rather starve to death from famine then live in a world where the Hawks can’t afford Toews and Kane.
10) Jonathan Drouin
The rumors for Drouin and heating up. My best guess is that he ends up in Anaheim. The Ducks need scoring more than any team in the league pretty much and they can ship back Nick Ritchie. A big, young, power forward who can play in the NHL right now and is on an entry level deal. Anaheim would likely have to sweeten the deal a little with a draft pick or two, but I don’t think TB is going to get some huge package for Drouin. There’s also a rumor that the Wild are interested and would be willing to part with Dumba. Which is really just the Johansen-Jones trade at a lower level. Montreal still needs a game-breaker type forward. Drouin back in Quebec could be a big hit. Drouin is still a big time talent and he could definitely impact a race this year if his head is on straight in his next city
11) Keith Yandle
610 talked about this at length on the podcast. He speculated that the Rangers could be very active at the deadline. Both because they are going to lose Yandle as a UFA this summer and because they need a bit of a shake up. Yandle for a forward and Kreider for Shattenkirk would be the fastest way to make everyone forget about Glen Sather.
12) Power Rankings
#1 Washington Capitals: The Caps are running away with the Eastern Conference, and it’s not the old run-and-gun Caps. They play a pretty good team game and Holtby is a top 3 goalie in the league. He’s probably the favorite for the Vezina right now. I think the Caps are for real, but as always with them its a wait and see thing.
#2 Chicago Blackhawks: Winners of 9 straight and playing great hockey. They seem to have settled on some lines that are working for them. Shaw has given a jolt to the Toews-Hossa line and they are producing now. In the early part of the year, the Hawks were carried by Panarin-Anisimov-Kane. Now the Hawks have balanced scoring they’re murdering everyone in their path. Stan has made a few moves and has some flexibility to pick up a piece at the deadline.
#3 Dallas Stars: The Stars have come back to earth a little bit and are in a virtual tie now with Chicago for 1st in the Central. The Stars have some cap space to add another D at the deadline if they need to. They play fast and will be a tough out in the playoffs.
#4 LA Kings: The Kings are back. They’ve got Kopitar locked up for the future. I don’t understand the Schenn and Lecavalier trade though. That move ate up all of their Cap space for this year. Maybe that trade was more of a look for next season as they clear room for Kopitar and maybe try to re-sign Lucic, but if you have a shot to win the Cup now, I think you have to take it. Either way, they’ll be in the Western Conf finals because the Pacific Division stinks.
#5 Florida Panthers: The Panthers had ripped off 12 straight before dropping their last two. They’re not a great metrics team, but Luongo keeps them in every game and they really capitalize on the chances they do get. The Panthers sneaky have a ton of veterans who have won to go with their core of young talent. Bolland, Campbell, Thornton, Jagr, Luongo, and Willie Mitchell have all been through the wars. I don’t know how deep of a run they’ll make, but the Panthers are going to the
13) Teams That Are Dead
This has been a running thing all year. Declaring team dead. Dead teams are teams that had Stanley Cup aspirations in October, but have since died.
Blues, Rangers, Islanders, Penguins, Tampa Bay, Nashville, Minnesota…all dead. Bruins, Montreal, Anaheim, Detroit are on life support. Could die any minute.