Sorts of Sports

82 Reasons to Remember

The 2009-2010 NHL Season has come and went.  There are many many memories that stick out in my head but there a few major ones that I’ll focus on.  Later this week early next week look for my free agent preview, where me and my friend will play fortune teller and try to predict what team the free agent is least likely to sign with.  We really try to pick the correct team, but that rarely goes in our favor.

For me, the beginning of the NHL season is somewhere around the draft.  This year’s draft saw a major trade go down before the 1^st pick (John Tavares) was even selected by the New York Islanders.  The Anaheim Mighty Ducks traded start defenseman Chris Pronger to the Philadelphia Flyers in an effort to get younger and cheaper.  It was also rumored that Pronger didn’t want to be in Anaheim anymore.  This trade brought Philly an anchor on the blue line, and led by him, they would make an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.  This trade is a new thing for the NHL where superstars get moved during the off season.  We saw the rights of players also be traded as Jay Bouwmeester was shipped by the Florida Panthers to the Calgary Flames where he would eventually sign a contract.  The new fad of signing players to lower dollar amounts against the cap, but for years beyond their worth continued as Chicago made a big splash by landing Marian Hossa with a 12 year deal.  The Flyers also gave Pronger an extension of seven years, paying him til the ripe age of 42.  The NHL looked into this deal and some others, like Prongers or teammate Mike Richards, to see if there was specific maneuvering around the cap by giving players that should be making a lot less, over a much longer period of time.  Chances are these players will never make it to the end of their contract, thus not counting against the cap.  In Pronger’s case the contract will count since it goes into effect as a 35 year old, but the trend will continue as more superstars become free agents and teams can’t afford to lose those gigantic pieces.

The other major story of the off season was regarding the Phoenix Coyotes and the sale of the franchise.  Canadian billionaire JIM BASILLIE wanted to purchase the team and move them to Hamilton, Ontario.  The NHL had opposed to him and his group as owners of the Nashville Predators and got involved in this potential purchase as well.  An arbiter had to make the decision to back the NHL and prevent BASILLIE from purchasing a team.  The NHL would run the Coyotes for the season and then look to sell them during the current off season.  This turmoil led to the departure of head coach Wayne Gretzky who wasn’t helping much anyway as the Coyotes had missed the playoffs for six years running.   So in stepped Dave Tippett, who had some good success with the Stars during the early part of the previous decade, and all he did was make Ilya Bryzgalov a 40 win goalie, who is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.  The Coyotes broke the 100 point plateau and were the fourth seed in the Western Conference.  This story is sure to continue as there are potential suitors who would move the Coyotes this time around to Winnipeg, the location of the Coyotes before their move to Phoenix.

The ongoing story of the NHL Season was the hits to the head that led to many significant injuries, suspensions, and the overall question of why players disrespect each other so much.  During the season we saw a 2 game suspension to Matt Cooke get two games, Curtis Glencross get two games, and various other questionable blindsided hits that led to a discussion during the course of the season on whether to eliminate the blind side hit.  The two biggest hits came at different ends of the season.  First hit from Philadelphia Flyer Captain, Mike Richards, to Florida Panthers star, David Booth.  This hit had Booth lying motionless on the ice before eventually being taken off.  He would suffer a concussion and would miss 45 games due to the hit.  He would suffer his second concussion a month after coming back and would miss the final weeks of the regular season.  This hit saw Richards come across the ice and hit a vulnerable Booth with a vicious shoulder to the head lunging him across the ice.  The second major hit came in a game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins.  Bruin center Marc Savard was skating left to right across the Pittsburgh defensive zone when Matt Cooke came the opposite way and stretched out his shoulder knocking Savard out for the remainder of the regular season with a major hit that caused an even bigger uproar through the league then the Mike Richards hit.  There would be no suspension as a result of the hit, but there is no question that hit was a dirty attempt to injure Boston’s star player.  There were talks during the regular season of the importance of banning such hits and the NHL competition committee worked with the General Managers and got it done this off season.  These hits will now be eligible for suspension with a unanimous vote coming from the GMs.  Players don’t look to hit their opponents anymore they look to injure them for the remainder of the season.  Blindside hits are unprotected hits to the head and frankly they are ruining the game as many star players are being the targets of these hits.  It was good to see the rule change and now all it will take is Colin Campbell to fully back it up and not make wacky decisions next year when it comes to suspending players that deserve suspensions, yeah Matt Cooke, we are talking to you.

The NHL in mid February took a two week long break as the top NHL athletes joined the rest of the world’s athletes in Vancouver for the Olympic Winter games.  The tournament overall was very good, with Canada winning the gold in a dramatic overtime win over the United States.  Sidney Crosby loved by Canadians and hated by Americans beat United States goaltender Ryan Miller between the legs to end it.  Zach Parise scored with seconds left to tie the game for the United States who surprised many by making it to the gold medal game.  The tournament saw names like Vikingstad from Norway gain popularity in the States, and the game against Canada was one of the most watched hockey events in the United States ever.  Teams fed off the Olympics by seeing increased attendance and increased ratings after the NHL season resumed.  The Stanley Cup Finals also saw some of the better ratings it has seen in many years.  The Olympics overall were important for NHL standards and the question of whether or not NHL players should be allowed to play in the 2014 Sochi Olympics should be a no brainer.  If they remove the NHL players the tournament won’t be as interesting to fans in the United States.  They won’t recognize any of the players, and while there might be interest with patriotism and true hockey fans, there will be no connections to the NHL and that will severely hurt the NHL.  Right now there is no definitive word on whether or not the NHL will keep its players from participating, but if they do that they will not only hurt the players that are playing in the league but they will be hurting the league themselves.

Every time the playoffs roll along we always hope to see dramatic endings with long overtime games and our team advance all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.  First for me, my favorite team the New Jersey Devils, laid an egg and were the first team eliminated from the playoffs.  So as a result I had plenty of time to watch the other series’ going on.  In the first round in the Eastern Conference we saw the #7 seed Flyers beat the #2 seed Devils.  The #1 seed Washington Capitals had a three to one game lead against the #8 Montreal Canadiens.  Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak had been pulled for Game 4, but returned for Game 5, and well to say he stole the last three games would be an understatement.  The Canadiens would eventually beat them then move on to Pittsburgh and after being down 3-2 in that series beat them in seven games.  The Boston Bruins had beat the #3 seed Buffalo and then had the biggest collapse in recent NHL history.  In the semi finals they were up 3-0 against Philadelphia before watching the Flyers force a game 7.  In game 7, the Bruins went up 3-0 in the first period but could not hold it and lost to the Flyers 4-3.  The Flyers beat the Canadiens in less dramatic fashion in the conference finals, it only took five games.  In the Western Conference things went a little more smoothly.  The #1 seed and #2 seed San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks would make the conference finals and the only upset was of the minor variety, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes in the 5-4 matchup.  The Blackhawks beat the #3 seed Vancouver Canucks with great play from Dustin Byfuglien, who for the second straight year seemingly dominated the Canucks blue line, and their goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Overall the season was solid.  With the Coyotes situation, the recklessness of certain players, the situation regarding the NHLPA and lack of quality leadership the NHL did see some downfalls and had some bad moments that they had to, and continue to deal with.  However, there was a lot of promise.  The Winter Classic continued with a good game between the Bruins and Flyers.  Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin continued to put on a show.  Steven Stamkos, last year’s number 1 overall pick scored 50 goals.  Martin Brodeur added to his records by having the most shutouts by a goaltender.  The Calgary Flames traded star defenseman Dion Phaneuf to Toronto, and the Atlanta Thrashers traded big star Ilya Kovalchuk to New Jersey in near deadline deals.  We watched the end of Rob Blake’s career and may have seen the end of Mike Modano’s career as well.  In five years we will watch Modano be enshrined in the Hall of Fame and a solid argument can be made in Blake’s favor as well.  Heading into the off season there will be many more stories to follow, and with the salary cap going up to $59.5 million teams will have a little extra money to throw around to the top free agents.