I thought I was going to have a hard time finding interesting things to write with the NHL in the off-season, and my general lack of interest in baseball so far this year.Boy was I wrong.
The news is simple and complex in so many ways.The Chicago Blackhawk’s signed free agent goaltender Marty Turco to a one year, $1.3 deal.Ordinarily this wouldn’t be newsworthy but the way the Hawks got there is newsworthy. I’ll start back in June, when the Hawks won the Stanley Cup. The team was overloaded with players in the final year of their contracts, which is how they managed to get so good and stay under the salary cap. Goaltender Antti Niemi was in his first full year with the Hawks, and earned the starting job earlier in the year.Niemi was making a modest $825,000 which isn’t all that bad for a young goalie.Niemi went on to backstop the Hawks to the Cup and went looking for a substantial raise.
The Hawks had already dumped the likes of Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Andrew Ladd to make salary room.Neimi and the Hawks went all the way to salary arbitration, and the arbitrator sided with Neimi.He was awarded a one year $2.75 contract.The Hawks had a couple of days to decide to accept the ruling or allow their rookie goaltender to become an unrestricted free agent.The Blackhawk’s made the decision to let Niemi walk, and signed Turco to the $1.3 million deal. That’s how the Hawks go from winning the Cup, to signing a goalie whose reputation is built on playoff futility.I’m sure occurrences like this are normal in the NBA and the NFL, but the salary cap is still new to the NHL, so teams are still learning to adapt to it.I’m sure there will be more instances like this one in the future, but this one sets the precedence. Neimi is rumored to land in Philadelphia or San Jose. Both cities are in dire need of goaltending.
The arbitrator in the NHL v. Kovalchuk case should rule early this week, so this may be quite a historic week in the league.Stay tuned!
The Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years.Game six was a back and forth, tightly contested affair, much like the previous five games.The Flyers played with much grit and determination again, and even managed to force overtime with a goal late in the third period. The Blackhawks were just the better team, and they proved it in overtime.
Goalie Antti Niemi stood on his head for the last ten minutes of regulation. One save in particular was especially impressive on Mike Richards from point-blank range. The overtime game winner was scored by Patrick Kane a little more than five minutes into the overtime period.Kane put a sweet head fake on Philly defensemen Kimo Timmonen and drove to the net, a lot like another Chicago legend drove to the basket in the early 90’s.The shot slipped under Leighton’s stick and pads and stuck under the pad that goes around the inside of the net.Kane knew the puck was in immediately, as did Patrick Sharp.Everyone else, including the game’s broadcasters and other players had no idea the Cup had just been won.Kane streaked down the ice shedding his gloves and stick as he did.It took about a minute for the goal to become “official”, but once the players saw the puck in the goal, the party was on.
It was a surreal ending. I was watching on TV and I remember looking up as I heard Mike “Doc” Emerik start to say the word “score”, but he too lost the puck and continued the call for a couple of extra seconds.There was no controversy after seeing the overhead replay. It was clearly a good goal.
I talked to a teammate of mine last night, and found out the feeling of confusion that was in the WachoviaCenter last night was mainly due to the fact that the Flyers never showed a single replay of the game winning goal.No goal light came on, nothing.He said he saw Kane shoot the puck and then gear was everywhere.Folks in the rink were very confused. Overall though, the Philly faithful were respectful and well behaved during the post-game ceremonies.I saw some towels get thrown on the ice, but not a lot.They booed Gary Bettman, the NHL Commissioner, but everyone boos the commissioner. It’s like booing a politician. Jonathan Tows won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the MVP of the playoffs.Patrick Kane had better numbers but Toews is the captain of the Hawks, so he’s going to get more votes.
The Flyers have nothing to be ashamed of. I know it’s very easy for me to sit here and type that, but think about it. They were one shootout goal away from not even making the playoffs, next they were down three games to none to the Bruins, only to get down three to nothing in game seven of that series.The Flyers never quit, and proved that “History will be made” was the correct slogan for this year’s playoffs. Their run was magical and most of their fans know it.
Overall, the series was a lot of fun to watch.It wasn’t an epic, nor will it be compared to the best series of all time, but I believe it brought more new people to the game.I was also pleasantly surprised to see the game on NBC.Weeknight games had been traditionally carried by Versus as NBC didn’t want to take the ratings hit.It got good overnight ratings too, especially the overtime.
Lastly, I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about hockey for this blog since I started a few months ago, and thank Dan for the opportunity.Thank you for taking the time to read it.I’m looking forward to writing about some other sports as the summer and fall go on, and then getting back in to Hockey in the fall.Congrats to the Blackhawks….but look out for the Caps in 2011!
Game two was the exact opposite of game one. A tight checking, defensive battle that put stellar goaltending on display.The Blackhawks scored two goals somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 seconds apart in the second period, and that’s all they would need.Philly goalie Michael Leighton rebounded nicely from a tough game one, but still took the loss.The legend that is Antti Neimi continues to grow as the rookie is now only two wins away from a Stanley Cup Championship.The Flyers activated Dan Carcillo for game two for some reason.He had little to no impact on the game. His accidental hit on teammate Mike Richards, will stick in most people’s memory; I would be surprised if he plays again in the series.The Hawks are still waiting for a breakout game from Patrick Kane.He played well, just hasn’t been the offensive force that he was all year long.The Hawks’ goals were scored by Marian Hossa and Ben Eager.The Flyers’ lone goal came courtesy of Simon Gagne.
I watched game two with a friend of mine who does not follow hockey.I very much enjoyed getting his perspective on the game.Avid hockey fans can enjoy a tight checking defensive battle; much like a die hard baseball fan can enjoy a 1-0 pitchers duel. I tried to explain to him that games like this are not what the league is looking for from the finals.The NHL wants a more wide open, run and gun, 6-5 final.(See my post about game one) The league believes that more scoring will entice the “casual fan” to pay more attention to the game, hence the changes to the red line rule, the goalie equipment sizes, the trapezoid, etc.Overall, it was a fun game to watch, both teams have proven they can play wide open and tight defensive hockey.Game three is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.Enjoy!
