There is no Cinderella at this year’s Stanley Cup ball, as the two teams left standing truly represent the best of both the Eastern and Western Conferences.
In a season where parity was the catch phrase, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings have clearly been in a class of their own.
After going 6-2 in my Round 1 prognostication, my attempt at looking for a few upsets backfired as I limped home with a measly 1-3 record in Round 2.
With a record of 7-5 so far, I’m not exactly on fire, but if there is one thing that the record shows it’s that in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs the teams are so evenly matched that any team can beat the other on any given night.
The 2007-08 regular season was one of incredible parity in the NHL, and the playoffs have followed suit.
As advertised, round one featured some very good hockey, a couple of upsets, and one big disappointment in our nation’s capital. As hesitant as I was to make predictions in round one, most of them played out the way I had thought. If you are keeping score at home, round one went 6-2.
The upset of round one had to be the Dallas Stars' disposal of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks. For most of the last month of the season, the Stars were a team that couldn’t find their game, but in round one, they came together perfectly as they frustrated and picked apart the defending champs, and at times made Anaheim look like a bunch of undisciplined whiners. Well done to Dave Tippett and his staff.
For 16 teams the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup finally begins. For the next two months teams will fight a battle of attrition in order to be the last ones standing to take home the Stanley Cup.
This season had closer races than most in recent memory, as it took Game 81 in the Western Conference for the last team to clinch a playoff berth, and in the East, the improbable comeback run of the Washington Capitals took them to their 82nd and final game of the season to not only make the playoffs, but win the Southeast Division.
The one great thing about playoff hockey is that for both teams and individuals it is the great equalizer of a season. It doesn’t matter how well or how poorly you performed during the regular season, for the teams and players who make it, the post-season is where you are judged, and where great seasons can come to a crashing end, or poor seasons are resurrected over the course of four grueling rounds of play.
With three games left in their season and the playoffs still not a certainty, you would have to characterize the 2007-2008 regular season for the Calgary Flames as a big disappointment.
Remember, last season’s 43-win and 96-point campaign and first-round elimination was considered such a failure by general manager Darryl Sutter that it cost head coach Jim Playfair his job.
For a few years now, those who know me would agree that I have been quick to defend the quality of the post-lockout NHL game.
For many in the media world, it is often easy to sit back and take shots at the game. After all, a negative perspective on the game is much easier to come up with than finding a positive slant and it seldom needs any creativity to produce.
People love to complain, and many relish in other people’s failures. Unfortunately, it is a part of human nature.
The fact that the Edmonton Oilers are even in the playoff race with eight games to go is in itself an accomplishment.
But winning 10 of 12 at such a critical time in the season to get them there is even more impressive.
It has to go down as one of the best trades in Vancouver Canucks history.
March 20, 1996, general manager Pat Quinn turned Alex Stojanov into Markus Naslund.
He was selected 10th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1988 entry draft after scoring 43 goals in 33 games as an 18-year-old in the Finnish junior league.
By the time Selanne would first step on the ice as a member of the Jets, Mike Modano, the first pick in that 88 draft, had three seasons under his belt and was well on his way to becoming the highest-scoring U.S. born player in the NHL.
In 1992, four years after Winnipeg made Teemu Selanne their first pick, Jets fans got their first look at the Finnish Flash and what an impact he would make.
Let me start this column by stating that Mats Sundin has nothing to apologize for.
He has earned the right with his style of play over the last decade for us not to question his desire to help the Toronto Maple Leafs win, and through his negotiation of a no-trade clause in his contract, had every right to refuse an offer to move. That’s not the issue here.
The question that has to be asked though, with his refusal to move, has Sundin announced his retirement?
Former NHL player, coach and broadcaster Craig Simpson brings over 18 years of expertise to his analyst role on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. Craig played 10 years in the NHL with Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Edmonton, capturing two Stanley Cups with the Oilers in 1988 and 1990. He continues to hold the distinction of being the last Oiler to score 50 goals in one season (56 goals in 1987-88).
Injuries cut his playing career short in 1995, but the native of London, Ont., didn’t stray far from the game. Simpson worked for eight seasons as a hockey commentator with TSN, FoxSportsNet and Rogers Sportsnet and was an assistant coach with the Oilers organization for the past four years (2003-07) before joining CBC.
Simpson lives in Edmonton with his wife and three children. Viewers can catch Craig on Saturday nights providing analysis and commentary during the second game on HNIC. His blog appears every Tuesday on CBCSports.ca.
