Hockey Blog 2008 (I)

(I meant to do this yesterday, before the season started, but instead had an enjoyable day at the Caledonia Fair, watching my parents handling their miniature horses to victory in virtually every class they entered. Pictures and commentary to follow).

Yup, that's right, the season's started already, and unless you're a fan of the Ducks or Kings you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The first game was played in London, England, yesterday (Kings 4, Ducks 1) for reasons that will become clear the same day Steve Downie wins the Lady Byng Trophy as most gentlemanly player.
What is the NHL thinking, anyway? It's bad enough they have the gall to play a preseason game in Winnipeg ("Hi. Remember us? We're just here to tantalize and taunt you with a taste of what you'll never have again, bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha"). Or Hamilton ("and you thought you were getting a team? You'll never get a team. If we give you a team, Toronto might want one, bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha.")
Now they compound this by playing a couple of real, meaningful games in jolly ol' London, England. I would have thought you could fit all the hockey fans in Britain into one pub. Guess I was wrong there: the arena sold out. There's actually a good deal of excitement "over 'ome", though in typical NHL fashion they've done next to nothing to promote themselves. (If there's anything the National Hockey League needs more than a new commissioner, it's a new marketing strategy. Hell, any marketing strategy.)
Eventually, of course, there will be a World Series of Hockey, with the NHL champion facing off against a pan-European champion. But that won't be anytime soon, and so, attendance aside, playing games in London is just one more ill-advised promotional stunt. "See this? Neato game, isn't it? Well, you can only watch more on satellite at three in the morning. Cheerio, then."

Okay, so what's going to happen this year? Ducked if I know, but here goes.

STANLEY CUP WINNER: SAN JOSE SHARKS over PITTSBURGH PENGUINS in six games
LEADING SCORER: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins (that's a slam dunk)
MOST IMPROVED TEAM: Philadelphia Flyers (should make the playoffs, but are likely first-round fodder against those very same Penguins)
TEAM THAT SHOULD MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, BUT WON'T: Toronto Maple Leafs
TEAM THAT SHOULDN'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, BUT WILL: Florida Panthers
HIGHEST-FINISHING CANADIAN TEAM: Ottawa, with Vancouver very close behind
LOWEST-FINISHING CANADIAN TEAM: Montreal (oh, they're hurtin' this year)

If I get more than three of those right, I'll be amazed. Last year I was wrong almost everywhere.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS OUTLOOK:

...is not good. I'm not going to dump on Toskala for what has been a pretty awful pre-season showing: I think he'll be okay, certainly better than Andrew ("if you shoot high glove side, I wave to the puck as it goes by!") Raycroft. But he's going to look bad, because...well, back in San Jose there were these players in front of him, see, called defensemen, and their job was to help their goalie out by doing things like blocking shots, getting people out of the crease, things of that nature. Here in Toronto, we don't have those defenseman thingies. We have offensemen instead. They do a good job from center ice up to the opponent's goal line, but on their side of center they're practically useless. So there are going to be a lot of players skating in on Toskala unchallenged, and unless your name is Roberto Luongo, you're not used to that kind of thing.
Even worse than our smelly D is our downright reeky FO%. Simply put, this team can not win faceoffs. If a Leaf wins a draw, his name is either Sundin or Lucky. So you're going to see a lot of teams getting the puck off the draw and playing keep-away.
Bright spots: I think Blake might steal the team scoring title from Sundin this year. Kaberle will again be an All-Star. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say Kilger will score 20 goals. I don't think scoring goals is going to be too much of a problem. Keeping them out might be. Until Toronto realizes their highly touted "depth" of defensemen is an illusion--as I said, they have offensemen in abundance and next to no defensemen at all--they're going to be on the outside, looking in. Usually into their own net.