Archive for March, 2010

I’m no fan of the man currently in charge of NHL discipline; in my opinion Colin Campbell and his wheel of justice are one of the things wrong with the league. Still, I was surprised to see William Houston comment in his Truth and Rumours blog that Campbell may be on his way out:

The speculation among many NHL insiders is that Colin Campbell will be replaced at the end of the season – he will either announce his retirement or take another league job.

Given Campbell’s lamentable track record as the league’s chief law enforcement officer, it is a move that is long overdue.

Houston touches on some of Campbell’s mistakes and inconsistencies while suggesting the Canadian media have given him “a free pass” for years. If the report is accurate, this is good news for the NHL.

On a different tack, Ryan Dixon of The Hockey News comments on an upcoming film about the life of iconic commentator Don Cherry, and I’ll admit that the prospect has me excited. As much as I dislike Cherry’s on-air persona, I’ve enjoyed his books and the glimpses he gives of his life as a player were some of the best material in them. Long before he was a celebrated broadcaster he was a hard-nosed minor league defenceman who eked out a living playing the sport he loved.

Finally, I was asked in the comments section of an earlier article to comment on defenceman Anton Volchenkov and the officiating in last night’s game between the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers. I’ve struggled to do so because I’d already read Greg Wyshynski’s take on the incidents, and I’d mostly be reiterating his comments. In short: I didn’t mind the hit on Daniel Carcillo, I thought the goal call looked wrong (though given that my fantasy hockey opponent has Brian Elliott in net I may be biased), and I felt the hit on Simon Gagne was a vicious shot that the Flyers forward didn’t deserve.

Follow @JonathanWillis

By now, most everyone has heard about the allegations leveled against members of the Washington Capitals organization by Douglas Nagel, a chiropractor who is charged with selling performance enhancing drugs. Nagel has an office next to the Capitals’ practice facility, and the team has acknowledged that some of their players had chiropractic work done at his office. Law enforcement confirms that Nagel had clients who were NHL players.

Before I get into the specifics of this instance, I should acknowledge that I believe both steroids and other substances are used by at least a few NHL players. The use of stimulants is widespread and has been acknowledged by many, and there have been whispers that NHL players have used other substances as well. Former cup-of-coffee NHL tough guy Dave Morissette admitted that he used steroids, and although he declined to name other players he said that the use of steroids is common. Those thoughts aren’t confined to Morissette, as other players have acknowledged they believe it is an issue, although there isn’t a consensus that it’s a problem in the NHL.

The NHL’s rather lax drug testing policy has caught one player, Sean Hill, who was suspended 20 games in the spring of 2007 for violating the league’s performance enhancing substances policy. Even that case should be marked with an asterisk; Hill has maintained his innocence, and in an attempt to clear his name had another test performed by an independent lab and undergone a polygraph test – both of which he passed. More notable than Hill was Bryan Berard, who was caught by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency rather than the NHL, and thus faced no NHL sanctions for taking a banned substance. Berard admitted his guilt, calling it a “mistake” and vowing never to use such substances again.

Put another way, the allegations in this story are not shocking. NHL players are normal human beings, and thus as prone to the same moral failings as other human beings, and they’re all competitive men trying to carve out a niche in the world’s toughest league. It would not be surprising to find some using performance enhancing drugs; it would be more surprising if none were.

That said, while this is a newsworthy story, and an area which is in my opinion underreported on, it would be wrong to come to any conclusions at this point about either the Capitals as an organization or the players as individuals. No charges have been laid, and aside from statements made by a man facing a prison sentence (statements which contradict earlier statements by the same man) and some circumstantial evidence, there is no reason to think any differently about the team or its players.

That may change if more evidence is revealed. But for the time being, there simply isn’t enough evidence to form any conclusions.

Follow @JonathanWillis

<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=489dccc7c4" >Puck Daddy Hockey Live Chat</a>

Follow @JonathanWillis

Canadiens Notebook is a new series here at Hockey or Die; it will run every Wednesday morning and take a look at the last week from the perspective of the Montreal Canadiens. We will be looking at both mainstream and blogger views, and if there is a good site that’s been overlooked, let me know at jonathan dot willis at live dot ca or in the comments section below.

The Big Story: Cammalleri Returns

With the Atlanta Thrashers threatening to claim a playoff spot from one of the Eastern Conference’s bubble teams, and with Montreal on said bubble, the return of forward Mike Cammalleri couldn’t have come at a better time. Despite his injury, Cammalleri still leads the team in goals with 26, and all forwards with a plus-10 rating. He’s a key contributor on both the power play and at even-strength. Coming back at the same time is defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who can help on the power play.

Notebook

After Andrei Markov missed 35 games when his tendon was sliced by Carey Price’s skate, the Canadiens defenceman, and many members of the team, have switched to armoured hockey socks – socks which may have helped Travis Moen avoid injury. [Montreal Gazette]
Also in Travis Moen injury news, the forward suffered no damage to his eye after taking a skate to the face in Montreal’s loss to Ottawa on Monday night. The link is to video of the incident, and a trip down skate-to-the-face memory lane. [Ya! The Habs Rule!]
Canadiens’ legend Guy Lafleur says that his favourite hockey movie is Slapshot, but that might soon change, as a new film will look at his life and career. [CanWest]
The Canadiens have bolstered their prospect ranks by signing college free agent Hunter Bishop. [Canadiens]
Montreal’s recent success has come about thanks in large part to some unlikely players, hockey nomads who have wandered from team to team but are now contributing for the Canadiens. [Lions in Winter]
An updated look at the Canadiens’ top-20 prospects, which lists P.K. Subban as the team’s most promising youngster. [Hockey’s Future]
Goaltending controversies aren’t new territory for the Canadiens, who had to deal with one just four games into their existence! [Eyes on the Prize]
On his 50th birthday, ex-Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau looks back at being fired by the team and his relationship with the man who fired him, his friend Bob Gainey. [Montreal Gazette]
Looking back at the riots instigated 55 years ago when NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended Maurice Richard for striking Hal Laycoe with his stick and punching a linesman. [Eyes on the Prize]

Follow @JonathanWillis

Over the last 15 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had a bit of a renaissance when down a man. To be sure, they’re still dead last in the NHL while short-handed, killing off penalties at a woeful 73.3% rate, but there are signs of life, as the good folks at Maple Leafs Hot Stove point out:

January 31st, 2010 may go down as Brian Burke’s best day in his career as Leafs GM, as the trades he made have had a larger impact than many realize. In the 15 games that have followed (as of Thursday night’s win against New Jersey), the Leafs have surrendered 8 goals in 51 times shorthanded. This figure amounts to a stunning 84.3% Penalty Kill. Seriously. 84.3%. To put this into perspective, the Chicago Blackhawks have an 84.4% PK this season (fifth best PK in the league).

What has been the reason for this monumental jump, which represents half as many goals against (give or take)? The article linked above does a good job considering possible answers, suggesting a variety of possibilities before coming to the logical conclusion that it’s a combination of all of the above.

I’m personally not convinced that the answer is all that complicated, and I say that on the basis of the save percentage numbers put up by the Leafs goaltenders. NHL.com is good enough to split those numbers up based on the situation, so without further ado, the penalty-killing save percentages of the three goalies who have spent the most time in the Leafs’ net this year:

Jean-Sebastien Giguere: 10GP, 39 saves on 42 shots, .929 SV%
Jonas Gustavsson: 37GP, 151 saves on 179 shots, .844 SV%
Vesa Toskala: 26GP, 105 saves on 135 shots, .778 SV%

That’s an incredible difference with Giguere in net. Thinking about it from the perspective of the opposition power play, on 100 shots they’ll score seven times on Giguere, 16 times on Gustavsson and 22 times on Toskala. Put another way, the opposition was three times as likely to score a power play goal on nay given shot against Toskala as they were against Giguere, and more than twice as likely to score on Gustavsson as Giguere.

This is also bad news for the Leafs – since it is all but certain that Giguere can’t keep up that 0.929 short-handed save percentage (a far better number than his overall save percentage of 0.915). Here are Giguere’s career numbers on the penalty kill:

2009-10 (Leafs): 0.929
2009-10 (Ducks): 0.869
2008-09: 0.867
2007-08: 0.867
2006-07: 0.889
2005-06: 0.862

It’s a nice run that Giguere’s on, and while it’s perhaps a bit harsh to dismiss it as a fluke, there is very little doubt that he cannot sustain those numbers over the long haul. If he falls back to his career range, he’ll be the Leafs’ best penalty-killing goaltender, and a substantial improvement on Toskala, but the Leafs penalty-killing efficiency will still fall back to Earth.

Follow @JonathanWillis

Of all the players who moved teams at or around the trade deadline, the guy having the biggest immediate impact is a player I (and I imagine most others) would never have suspected: Lee Stempniak. Whatever else Stempniak’s incredible start in Phoenix is, it is probably appropriate that an unheralded and often underrated player emerges as a surprise on a team that was both unheralded and underrated entering the season.

In nine games with the Coyotes, Stempniak has scored nine goals, added two assists, and recorded a plus-8 rating. The Coyotes won eight of those games, are on a nine-game winning streak, and have taken over the lead in the Pacific Division, and Stempniak’s offence is a big part of the reason why.

While it’s a definite surprise to see Stempniak doing as well as he is, his offence didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. Stempniak scored 27 goals and topped 50 points with the Blues in 2006-07, and has had 38 and 44 points in the last two seasons. He does have offensive ability, although it was shown rarely with the Leafs.

The bad news is that it can’t continue. Stempniak’s shooting more with less ice-time, but that is not the primary reason for his offence. He’s carrying a 31.0% shooting percentage so far as a Coyote, just over twice his career best – set in 2006-07 when he scored 27 goals.

The good news is that the strengths in Stempniak’s game will remain: his intelligence, his willingness to play a two-way game, along with some offensive touch. But for now, it’s worth enjoying the finest run of his career.

Follow @JonathanWillis

Kirill Kabanov is one of the top-rated prospects for this summer’s NHL Entry Draft. He came over to North America to play Major Junior, joining the Moncton Wildcats, but injuries have limited him to just 23 games, in which he has recorded 23 points. He was virtually guaranteed to go in the first half of the draft, despite his difficulty staying in the line-up.

Now, it’s anyone’s guess where he’ll end up getting selected. I’m in total agreement with Guy Flaming’s take on the move:

This is a very strange decision for a player in his draft year, especially one who has tried so hard to distance himself from the idea that Russian players are a risk to select because they mind not come over.
This could really backfire on Kabanov come June 25th in Los Angeles. The Russian has been a top 15-rated prospect all season despite a lengthy injury.

There’s really no good way to spin this. The official reason provided by the team is that Kabanov wants to take part in the Under-18 World Championship, but given that Moncton’s in the middle of the playoff run and the tournament doesn’t start for nearly a month, it’s a fairly ridiculous story.

Flaming also passes on that Kabanov was benched for the third period of Moncton’s first playoff game, and then scratched for the second game; as a result he speculates that head coach Danny Flynn may have been the motivation behind Kabanov’s move.

While this decision is almost certainly going to hurt Kabanov more than anyone else, it’s difficult to see how this moves makes sense for Moncton. Kabanov’s one of only three forwards to perform at a point-per-game clip and a key component of their power play; unless there is some significant behind-the-scenes stuff (although that’s possible) going on I’d imagine the team deserves some heat here as well.

Hopefully we’ll be getting more information soon.

Follow @JonathanWillis