The 2013 NHL campaign is a little more than a quarter
through, and I`ve seen more than enough to entail a few observations pertaining
to the first month of the season.
Blue Bliss
If I were to build a NHL franchise, I would certainly try to
model it after the St.Louis Blues. General Manager Doug Armstrong and Head
Coach, former Kamloops Blazer bench boss Ken Hitchcock have put together a
nucleus that is the right mix between youthful exuberance and enough size that
provides a headache to opposing organizations. What I love about the way Hitch
has handled this Missouri juggernaut is that he`s not afraid to give big
minutes to his unproven but maybe slightly more effective players such as
Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz. In Tarasenko`s case, his play has
catapulted him into top six minutes, and with Schwartz, even though the
production has been sub par, he`s providing a element of electricity on the
fourth line which is a dynamic a plug like Cam Jannsen just can`t bring.
Hitchcock`s confidence in the youngsters is against every principle he`s had in
previous tenures, which is probably why other than an aberration of the
1999-2000 season in Dallas, he`s had limited success. Scouring message boards
over the years, I can say with complete certainty that fans in Columbus pleaded
with management to give more opportunity to the younger players who needed
development in which Hitchcock never seemed willing to return the favor. Is it
possible that through all of these failed stops, hes finally learned his lesson
and realized this is a young mans league and the NHL is played differently then
it was in the mid-nineties? Blues fans
obviously feel he has.
Calgary Flaming out
For years (certainly for the last three or four years) I’ve
had the opinion that it was time for the Flames to drop the veteran mantle and
divulge in full on rebuild mode. Well, Darryl Sutter didn’t cooperate with that
philosophy and as karma would have it got kicked out of an unwinnable situation
in cow town. and landed in Stanley Cup Championship land. After one Sutter was
punted, and inevitably the second Sutter was kicked to the curb not long later
Jay Feaster was given the reigns for which he has stuck to the same principles
that Darryl had. The Flames are not a playoff team. How many year does Feaster
have to analyze this team to know that the likes of Mike Cammalleri and Jarome
Iginla CANNOT lead this team to any kind of playoff success. Feaster is an
educated man and did wonders with Tampa Bay when he was employed as the General
Manager there, so he didn’t fall from the tree which has me wondering if
pressures from team president Ken King is disabling him from making such
important organizational moves, such as parting with the aging fan favourite
Iginla. Credit Jay for being innovative
this summer with a signing such as Czech Republican Jiri Hudler, but so far the
sixteen million dollar deal over the course of four years has seen the Flames
not get a positive return on the investment thusfar. I realize Hudler has
suffered through some minor ailments but there’s no excuse for one of your
higher paid players only tallying ten points.
The bottom line is, players like Sven Baertschl and goaltender Leland
Irving are the future of the team, so it’s about time the brass sees if they
can individually step up and take control of the inconsistencies that has
plagued this team for quite some time. Further to that point, it is extremely
puzzling as to why the Flames re-assigned Irving back to Abbotsford of the
American Hockey League. I apologize, I
forgot that Joey McDonald is the next Mikka Kiprusoff(tongue in cheek)
A trade to remember
Huge deal for the Habs.
A goaltender swap that exchanged Cedrick Desjardins for Dustin Tokarski.
Now, the average fan is probably wondering how a trade involving two
goaltenders that have almost virtually no National Hockey League experience
could be classified as a huge trade? Well, there are a multitude of reasons.
First and foremost, behind Carey Price the Canadians don’t, or didn’t have any
feasible backup options. If you really believed Peter Budaj was a feasible
option than you never saw the Colorado Avalanche in action a few years ago.
Secondly, and in my eyes most importantly, Dustin Tokarski is a winner through
and through. Everywere he has went, he’s won. From Midget AAA in Saskatchewan
by winning a national title with the Prince Albert Mintos, in which he defeated
fellow World Junior legend and Regina product Jordan Eberle in the final. Then
he went on to the WHL, after being cut by both the Swift Current Broncos and
Calgary Hitmen, he walked on with the Spokane Chiefs and then became an
eighteen year old starter and led the youthful Chiefs to a Memorial Cup title,
which was marred(or was made memorable, whichever way you want to slice it) by
the infamous cup dropping incident. After his memorial cup triumph, he
represented Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, and surprise,surprise…..a
Gold medal was had. And, if you needed any more evidence that all, what fellow
players refer to as “Tik” does is win, look no further than the 2011-2012 AHL
Calder Cup. With Tampa Bay’s farm team at the Norfolk, he and fellow Chief
alumni Tyler Johnson were instrumental in leading the Admirals to glory. He
doesn’t lose, he’s calm in pressure situations. His calmness in big games will
serve him well in the hockey mecca that is Montreal. In the Western Hockey
League, the Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs are bitter rivals and in a
twist of fate the Habs will now or in the future employ an American and Chief
as friendly compatriots. Remember this trade, because in any playoff scenarios
that the Habs find themselves in, they now have somebody that can admirably
fill in if Price gets injured or struggles.
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