NHL Draft Review

While M is presently away, I'll do my own draft review. First off, the first couple picks were as expected (Tavares #1, Hedman #2, etc.). Admittingly, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a Leaf fan hurdled in the fetal position after seeing both Tavares and Schenn be picked before they could step toward the stage. It is nice to see them deliver their own blow since they stole Nazem Kadri from Ottawa.

Now to Montreal's first round pick: Louis Leblanc. I do like this pick but it also scares me a bit. For one, he's going to play for Harvard next season.....HARVARD!!! I just have a bad feeling that, later on, he'll be falling back on his degree than wearing a CH. With this also being a hometown pick (nothing against it), it just has a feeling of being the good news before the bad (in this case, Free Agency).

Now that the Draft is done, Free Agent season is next...I hope it takes a long time to get here.

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NHL Draft Preview

The NHL Draft is in Montreal and only a couple days away. Here is our take on what will happen:


B: It is a safe bet that the Islanders will take John Tavares as the first overall pick. Unless....


The New York Islanders select Havnan Markosian of Armenia as the First Overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft.

Damn I miss that game, why they don't continue it is a shame. Anyway, back to the draft. It's almost guarenteed that Tampa will take Victor Hedman. By the looks of the rankings there doesn't seem to be any major jump to happen early on. My hope is that the Habs are able to get either Zack Kassian or Jordan Schroeder. They are ranks a little higher than the Habs picking spot (#18) but we need more physicality (Kassian) or leadership (Schroeder) if Koivu becomes a free agent.


M: No doubt Tavares will become the first overall pick. While I wish the Leafs would get him, I have to laugh at B because we got the higher pick. So here are the 5 guys I would like to see the Leafs pick from:

1. Brayden Schenn
2. Jared Cowan
3. Dmitri Kulikov
4. Scott Glennie
5. Ryan Ellis

A Couple of Thoughts

Before we post a draft blog, there has been a lot of stuff happening in the hockey world. So here it is:

• Congratulations to Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Brian Leetch for being the four players picked to be inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame. They've had outstanding careers and deserve this honour.

• On the topic of Stevie Y, I do have to disagree with picking Mike Babcock to be the Canadian Olympic Coach. I know he has a good track record (3 Finals in the span of 7 years is very good) but the only Canadians he has in Detroit are all grinders, not one solid 2nd liner. I should let this slide, that is until i see Osgood the starting goalie, then there has to be something up with this.

• HOLY.....talk about getting punished (too severely) for delaying. German National player Florian Busch was suspend for a late drug test. The kicker: IT WAS NEGATIVE. The original punishment of a fine and community service is good enough. This sucks too since he has talent (should have been drafted).

• And last: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH MONTREAL?!?!?! I've tried to ignore this issue for a while (a day is enough right?). I like the sale back to the Molson brothers, but the firing after firing is going to kill the team. First they get rid of their AHL coaches, who have done very well on developing players. Now they are clearing their bench of coaches. A year ago I wouldn't have put this, but if there is one firing that should happen, it should be done in the front office department (hint: new GM). At the very least, the Habs should retain Koivu (but thats starting to look like a pipedream).

That's it for now, tomorrow we should have a draft preview posted.

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A Look At The KHL: Awards

Until the excitement of the draft and free agency, we'll stick with this. Before the main feature, sorry for our NHL awards column (it was hastily made).

Now for an overview:


Basic Awards

There are the usual awards. Playoff Champions (Ak Bars), Regular Season Champs (Salvat Yulaev), Forward Points Leader (Sergei Mozyakin), Top Scorer (Jan Marek), Top Goalie (Georgi Gelashvili), Coach Award (Zinetula Bilaletdinov), Rookie Award (Ilya Proskuryakov), Gentleman Award (Sergei Mozyakin & Andrei Pervyshin), Dedication Award (Oleg Petrov), Regular Season MVP (Danis Zaripov), Playoff MVP (Alexei Morozov).

There is also a Defense Points Leader (Kevin Dallman) but a Canadian won so it'll be renamed for next season.


Good Awards

I might be against the KHL, but I'll give them a break for this. A Most Active Fan Trophy that is given to a team that work with fans the most (Dynamo Riga) and Regional TV awards which gives local stations who cover hockey prizes. Maybe the NHL could use awards like this (actually...it would be hard to see Phoenix win the Fans Award)


WHAT? Awards

I think there's a couple words missing but lets move on. Top Scoring Team Award (Ak Bars) makes it seems like your handing out one-too-many team awards (not necessarily a bad thing though). A Top Scoring Trio however, does go a step too far. The Iron Man Trophy does seem ok, but considering they are trying to change from its predecessor (Russian Super League) its too early to have this award. The weirdest ones are the fastest and latest goals. Honestly, what is the point of having those awards? Might as well give every player in the league an award.


The Leaf Awards

Being a Habs fan, I got to try and find new ways to make fun of Toronto. Using the KHL's GM, Journalist, and Referee awards is how I'll do it. First off is the GM Award, and how Brian Burke should win it every year if the NHL had it. The Journalist Award would probably go to Damien Cox (and would receive the opposite reaction as the previous award). One more Award: the Best Referee Award. How does this one relate to the Leafs: if it was around in 1993...enough said (besides the fact that it was too easy).

NHL Award Results

While the Awards show is "live" right now, here are the results of the awards we guessed on.

Bill Masterton - Steve Sullivan
Calder - Steve Mason
Jack Adams - Claude Julien
Hart - Alex Ovechkin
Lady Byng - Pavel Datsyuk
Lester B. Pearson - Alex Ovechkin
Messier Leadership - Jarome Iginla
Norris - Zdeno Chara
Selke - Pavel Datsyuk
Vezina - Tim Thomas


Our results:

B: 5/10
M: 4/10

Key Picks:
B: Steve Sullivan (Bill Masterton), Zdeno Chara (Norris)
M: Pavel Datsyuk (Lady Byng)

Thats it for now, we'll be back Monday with a new feature.

NHL Awards Predictions

The NHL Awards are tonight so here are our predictions for each award.


Bill Masterton Trophy
Finalist:
Chris Chelios (Detroit Red Wings)
Steve Sullivan (Nashville Predators)
Richard Zednik (Florida Panthers)

B: Steve Sullivan
M: Richard Zednik


Calder Trophy
Finalist:
Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Bobby Ryan (Anaheim Ducks)
Kris Versteeg (Chicago Blackhawks)

B: Steve Mason
M: Steve Mason


Jack Adams Award
Finalist:
Claude Julien (Boston Bruins)
Todd McLellan (San Jose Sharks)
Andy Murray (St. Louis Blues)

B: Todd McLellan
M: Todd McLellan


Hart Memorial Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)

B: Alex Ovechkin
M: Alex Ovechkin (regrettable pick)


Lady Byng Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils)

B: Martin St. Louis
M: Pavel Datsyuk


Lester B. Pearson Award
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)

B: Evgeni Malkin
M: Evgeni Malkin


Mark Messier Leadership Award
Finalist:
Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)
Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames)

B: Sidney Crosby
M: Sidney Crosby


Norris Trophy
Finalist:
Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)
Mike Green (Washington Capitals)
Niklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings)

B: Zdeno Chara (regrettable pick, but he is overdued)
M: Mike Green


Selke Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Ryan Kesler (Vancouver Canucks)
Mike Richards (Philadelphia Flyers)

B: Ryan Kesler
M: Ryan Kesler


Vezina Trophy
Finalist:
Niklas Backstrom (Minnesota Wild)
Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Tim Thomas (Boston Bruins)

B: Tim Thomas (another regrettable pick)
M: Tim Thomas

Off-Season Plans

First off, congrats to Pittsburg for winning the Stanley Cup. It was a close game with what could be considered the save of the year (it won the cup for them, why shouldn't it be?).

Now that their is no hockey for a while, what to do? We here have an off-season plan to keep us entertained (and possibly off Prozac) for the next little bit:

• NHL Awards


• Make fun of KHL equivalent


• NHL Draft


• Make fun of KHL equivalent
  

Why look at the KHL? Well for one it’s the off-season (nothing else to do), and because it's annoying how they considered themselves the NHL of Europe. It's probably not a good idea to say how great you are when you kick out 2 teams for financial reasons* and have one of your better teams lose to one in a "lower league".

For now, let the Off-season begin.

* Atleast they know what to do with a Phoenix-like team.

I Called It...ish

While I didn't exactly say that the series would go to game 7, I had a feeling it would. I'm still (slightly) hoping that Pittsburg pulls off the victory, but if Detroit wins I wouldn't mind.



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