Young Guys Taking Over.

So, while I was working today, I was e-mailing one of my friends and I asked him to help me come up with something to write about. His assignment to me seemed simple enough.

Why do you think the young guys are taking over hockey while the veterans are starting to call it quits?

And, no offense to my friend who asked me this...but he has very limited knowledge of hockey, and what it is all about...but I will get to that later. I wanted to keep this just to me...but, I had to enlist the help of some of my lovely HLOG. The lovely CapsChick came up with the easiest answer. She said that well the game has gotten faster. This isn't the same game that it was before. It's not the game they grew up playing. This is a game about speed and skill. It's not a game about who can hit the hardest or who can fight the best (even though our defending Stanley Cup Champs could prove me wrong). Sherry said basically the same thing. She said that they are getting older and it's harder for them to keep up.

Steph seemed to think along the same lines as me.

I don't know....it's kind of sad though, I mean, I love seeing the kids able to step up, but seeing all the guys you grew up watching retiring is sad... And it's funny the way they're adding more pads and cutting down on fighting, you'd think it would make people end up playing longer, but people do seem to be retiring at earlier ages.

Thinking of guys like Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne retiring makes me frustrated. Scott seems to think that the NHL has nothing left to offer him. And, Teemu probably wants to go out on top. But, I think the game needs them. Anyway, that's really off topic...another day perhaps.

I don't know that the game is actually being "taken over" by the young guys...although I suppose you could look at it that way. Veterans play a part in the game just like the young guys do. You need the veteran guys on your team. Look at the Ducks. Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Teemu Selanne, and Brad May, older guys who played an important role in winning the Stanley Cup. Would the Ducks have won the Cup without them? No, they would not. You need veterans to lead, on and off the ice. And, the veterans will always a spot in the game.

So there ya go buddy. I made my midnight deadline...enjoy and I expect a critique...be gentle ;)

Souray Sweepstakes: We All Missed the Obvious

For the past two weeks the Sheldon Souray Sweepstakes has intrigued everyone. Speculation has centered mostly around the Kings, Sharks, Ducks, Devils, Rangers, etc. But this stallion (offensively at least) went to a "dark horse" candidate - the Oilers.

One could argue that Souray being an Alberta native, combined with Kevin's Lowe's ability and need to spend big bucks to land a thoroughbred UFA, would have made the Oilers one of the favourites all along. Those issues were probably a factor, but the most important element and main reason why Souray will be doing his skating (and shooting) in Edmonton this year is because he is not living with his wife. Since Angelica Bridges is a Los Angeles based actress, there is currently no Mrs. Souray accompanying him - telling him to choose between her and the City of Edmonton. Where Kevin Lowe failed with Mrs. Pronger and Mrs. Nylander, he never had to worry about with Souray. Although we all should have known this, we never saw it coming.

In fact as an offshoot of the Souray situation, Kevin Lowe may have brilliantly hatched an effective new strategy: target the most talented, maritally non-attached free agents in the NHL. He could further enhance this strategy by turning Edmonton into a singles haven. Don't be surprised if the next contracts he signs are with Hooters or Playboy Enterprises, before resuming his pursuit of elite hockey talent. Let's not underestimate Kevin Lowe again. He's a great competitor, who may have just learned how to turn a liability into an asset.

Stanley Cup takes a hit in SoCal

Hold the presses...the Stanley Cup has been dented in sunny California!

Jes Golbez writes:
I know the Stanley Cup has been beat up more than a GW Bush piñata at Osama Bin Laden’s 50th birthday bash, but can’t these teams show a little more respect and care for the holy chalice?

Nice choice of words Jes!
Check out his post and take a look at the picture he included, clearly showing a dent.

And here's a nice little cartoon I found while scanning the net, thanks to Offside Sports

--BBR

Pronger Suspended Again?

Should Pronger be suspended AGAIN for this?


Thanks to Kukla's Korner for the picture.


UPDATE Pronger was suspended for one game...way to take care of the repeat offender NHL. Article and Interview with Carlyle

Chris Pronger blasts Canadian media...

"The league should make its own calls, not be pressured into anything by the media, and more to the point, the Canadian media."

"I think inconsistency in the refereeing has been there all season, let alone in the playoffs. All you've got to do is look at our games against Detroit. You could bring in other series. The referees have been very inconsistent from series to series, from game to game and from team to team. As you witnessed, (Thursday) night was an absolute joke. But that's neither here nor there. It's over with. I just hope going forward we're going to be on a level playing field."

-TSN

Actually Chris, the refereeing (apart from a few Sabres-related calls and non-calls) has been pretty strong this postseason.

On a side note, Kevin Pollock has really been the best of this crop.

But come on man, really, you're CHRIS PRONGER, you put yourself in this situation when:

a) You were born in CANADA
b) You played for a CANADIAN team
c) You were surrounded by CANADIAN media
d) You played for Team CANADA at the Olympics last year
e) You're damn CANADIAN
f) Hockey is CANADA'S Sport
e) You play HOCKEY.

Well, well, and how can you not want the NHL to base its decision through the media, where do you think they get the majority of their ideas from anyway?

Oh and besides, the second you requested a trade out of Edmonton, was the same second that you signed up for the "Canadian media hounding 4 life" feature.

Cut with the crap, and be lucky you didn't get more than one game, ya pansy.

And if you don't remember, Pronger was suspended for Game 5 of the Ducks-Wings series, after delivering a violent head-on hit on Tomas Holmstrom in Game 4 of this series.

I have more on this, if you missed it, a few posts below.

"It's a nothing play if Robbie doesn't hit him," he told the Times on Friday.

The only reason you say that is because the ref called the penalty on "Robbie" because that was who he saw hit Holmstrom from his angle, you were the real culprit there.

--BBR

Pronger says he was just ''finishing hit''...

As many people probably expected, the Anaheim Ducks were not enthusiastic about talking to the media that bowled over mountains just to interview them, get a quote worthy of a front page story, anything.

Besides the Detroit Red Wings shelling the Anaheim Ducks 5-0 at the Honda Centre last night, reporters had other things they wanted to talk about, more precisely, Ducks' defenceman Chris Pronger hit-from-behind on Wings pest Tomas Holmstrom along the right wing boards in the 2nd period.

Pronger and Rob Nierdemayer both went into Holmstrom, probably because they wanted to give him a piece of his own medecine, what it feels like when some guy sticks his rear end in front of your goalie.

Pronger's hit was by far more violent, he lifted both his arms with his stick parallel to ice and just smashed, just made mashed potatoes out of Tomas Holmstrom, who really, had nowhere to go.

Actually, it was probably more out of frustration that they both hit Holmstrom, after all, he had already gotten his name onto the scoresheet.

Holmstrom finished the night with 2 goals and 1 assist, and must've felt good about himself, especially after he left the game, got 13 stitches to the head, and came back to score some more.

"I had two guys on me and fell into the boards," the veteran Swede said about the hit. "I never saw the guys come from behind."

Pronger on hitting Holmstrom:
"I was just trying to finish my hit, it was good to see him back."

The referee completely missed out on the call, and sent Rob Nierdemayer to the dressing room, while the real culprit, Chris Pronger, remained on the ice.

The NHL now had a choice to make: do you suspend Pronger or not?

At first, I would say yes, you suspend Pronger for hitting from behind to the head, but, Holmstrom came back to play in the 3rd, so that may soften the severity of Pronger's actions, in certain people's eyes, Holmstrom was not injured as bad as first thought.

But, it was still there, the intention was there to injure, come on, it's bull that Pronger wanted to only finish hitting Holmstrom, he wanted to hurt him, to dump a valuable asset off of Detroit's roster.

Tell me, if referees penalize hooking for the intention and not the result, shouldn't the NHL do the same when it comes to these kind of situations?

TSN: Andrei Markov will be examined by Habs doctors after being the subject of a knee-on-knee hit at the Worlds, Saku Koivu also had succesful eye surgery.

--BBR

How the Edmonton Oilers went from the Stanley Cup finals to a sad, sad season...

Chris Pronger (left) and Ryan Smyth (right) stand next to Oilers GM Kevin Lowe (centre). The pair proved to be invaluable to the Oilers, and after their departures, the once respectable franchise became a sad mockery.

The Edmonton Oilers were a bad team in 2006-2007.

Face it, it's not pretty, but it's the truth.

This team went from making the playoffs on the last day of the season and coming oh-so-close to winning the Stanley Cup to a sad bunch who seem like they've lost all interest in playing hockey.

Let us evaluate what the players brought to the table.

Petr Sykora, signed to a 1-year deal late in the free agency period, has proved to be this team's top scorer after a previously miserable season with the Ducks and Rangers.
He finished with 53 points, and had the inversed stats of the departed Ryan Smyth, who equally had 53 points but he put that up in 53 contests while battling injuries and then eventually being dealt to the New York Islanders on Trade Deadline Day.
Sykora had 22 goals and 31 assists while Smyth put up those numbers...but inversed, 31 goals and 22 assists.

The young Ales Hemsky is set for a great career and is taking it one step at a time, he finished with 53 points as well and put up 40 assists in 64 games, he could've scored more, he has a great shot, but nevertheless, he would've beat out Sykora had it not been for injuries too.
The pair were argurably the only Oilers to have a strong season, if you want to call a measly 53 points as your team lead "strong", go ahead, but that's not good enough for most GM's and Kevin Lowe acknowledged that.

Lowe told the media yesterday, that they should expect 6 to 8 new faces this offseason in Edmonton.
When asked which positions, Lowe said practically all of them, and it's true.

The Oilers struggled on defence; Ladislav Smid, Matt Greene and Jan Hejda were not enough to compensate for the losses of Chris Pronger, Jaroslav Spacek and even the belated Dick Tarnstrom.

Injuries to Jan Hejda (shoulder), Daniel Tjarnqvist (inflamed pubic bone) and Steve Staios (kneecap) thrust many unproven minor-league players and prospects into the Oilers lineup.

Marc-Andre Bergeron was let go by the Oilers, he traded to the New York Islanders, and went off to have a superb second half which saw the young defenceman score 6 goals and add 15 assists for a total of 21 points in just 23 contests with the Islanders. The Oilers got a lost prospect back in Denis Grebeshkov, who hopefully, will return and play for Edmonton next season.
With Edmonton, however, he was not the Bergeron that the organisation saw last season, he struggled on defence and his offensive side was inconsistent.
He eventually was stuck in Craig McTavish's doghouse and then sent to the New York Islanders.

Bergeron was a steal for Snow, Pronger's flourishing in Anaheim, Spacek is a secondary powerplay quarterback for the Sabres and Dick Tarnstrom's putting up 29 points in 44 games so far with Lugano of the Swiss League.

The Oilers' defence was non-existant on offense, Steve Staios managed to get 17 points in 58 games after going down with surgery.

Other than that, only Daniel Tjarnqvist hit the 15 point plateau, the rest were stuck in mediocrity.

Tjarnqvist was also amazingly the only Oilers point man with a +/- rating above 0 (3), and he only played in 37 games, you could argue he's their best blueliner now.
Other than that, the Oilers combined for a horrific -83 +/- rating and managed to score a mere 15 goals and Tjarnqvist was the only one with a powerplay goal (he had 2).
And ironically, he missed more than half the season with multiple injuries.

Geez, this is already giving me a headache, and worse, the Oilers used 6 rookies on their blue-line throughout the course of the season, more importantly in their second half.

And to top it all off, the Oilers finished last in the league with a miniscule 2.34 GF per game, this stat was hugely affected after the Oilers lost Ryan Smyth on Trade Deadline Day.

They had already lost Ethan Moreau to shoulder surgery for the season, forward Jarett Stoll possibly forever with a devastating concussion, and they just didn't get anything from Fernando Pisani after a magical playoff run last year, Shawn Horcoff was invisible after Smyth was traded and after scoring 27 times last season, Raffi Torres dissapeared into the wind along with the non-existant Joffrey Lupul.

Yup, and here's the stat that mattered most: 2-18.
What's this? It's just the record the Oilers put up without Ryan Smyth after he was dealt, which ultimately cost them a chance to make the playoffs but gave them the oppertunity to go golfing in the month of March.

Jean-Francois Jacques, a promising player in Hamilton, was thrust between Wilkes/Barre and Edmonton 12 times throughout the season and he put up nothing on the scoresheet; he was pointless in 37 games.
Danny Syvret, one of the many rookie defencemen used by Craig McTavish and a promising point man, showed limited talent with only one assists and a -10 rating in 16 contests.
Zach Stortini scored 1 goal in 27 games and showed scouts why he will be destined for fourth line duty at best.
Tom Gilbert had a decent year, and averaged half a point per game (better than Sergei Samsonov) for the Oilers...in 12 contests.
Bryan Young, a defenceman, was equally a no-show in his rookie campaign and didn't put up a point in 15 games with the Oilers and managed only 2 shots on goal.

I know I'm not an Oilers insider, but it doesn't take a genius to see why the Oilers struggled last season, especially when they lacked talent and offensive production from their forwards, and stability on the back-end.

Dwayne Roloson had an OK season, and he was the reason the Oilers weren't worse than their 32-47-7 record.

I hope Lowe's right when he says there will be changes, as this team is desperate for some.

A next year for Stoll?

Wait 'till next year.

As frustrating as that might be to fans of the Edmonton Oilers, it has an entirely different eaning for forward Jarret Stoll.
Out of action since Feb. 1 with a concussion, Stoll has no guarantee there will be a next year.
While Stoll is hopeful he'll be back this season, he understands that his first concussion with the Oilers could be his last.

-Edmonton/Canadian Press

This is very, very sad news indeed for Stoll. Out since February 1st, Stoll's career is now endangered of coming to an end. Stoll claims Samuel Pahlsson of the Anaheim Ducks began his concussion problems in early February in game when he threw Stoll against the boards from behind.
He recovered but his return was short lived as just 2 days later, a vicious hit from the Canucks' Kevin Bieksa put him out of action for good.

Stoll has 13 goals and 26 assists for a total of 39 points and is +2 in 51 games this season. This is a huge decline compared to last year's 68 point campaign.

He's looked brilliant in his first few years as an NHL'er despite flashes of wild inconsistency.
The Oilers have already lost many pieces to their puzzle this season thru injuries and a certain trade which has devastated their win-loss record since and they now find themselves in a race for the bottom. Patrick Kane? Here we come!

They've lost production out of Fernando Pisani, he looks like he's up in the stars when he plays.
Shawn Horcoff has not lived up to the expectations after a career year last season. Goaltender Dwayne Roloson has had to fight many difficult moments in the Oilers' net with a shoddy defence in front of him, the loss of Chris Pronger took a harder hit than expected as the Oilers' troubles have begun on defence.
Joffrey Lupul has been a total bust this season and has not put up respectable numbers.
They have a couple of AHL-calibre defencemen playing every game, namely Jan Hejda...and inexperienced rookies getting full-time playing time (Brad Winchester, J.F. Jacques...).
Here's the best one: their leading point-getter among defenceman is...wait for it...JASON SMITH, yep, the hearty captain with only SEVEN.

You see, and now you wonder why the Oilers are losing big...all these items just can't co-exist on the same team, at least for now.
Covered In Oil had an interesting post a few days ago and compared the current Oilers lineup to the Stanley Cup finals' lineup. You can see a huge difference.

I'm not the Oil expert, but it doesn't take a genius to see that the city of Edmonton is now in mourning...I feel for you Oilers fans, I've said it before and I'll say it again...