Archive for May, 2010

Hockey fans have become somewhat used to seeing Wayne Gretzky have his name or image plastered on a variety of products in recent years. Whether he’s shooting goofy television spots for McDonald’s, selling cars for Ford, or getting behind the bench in Phoenix, there’s always an ample dosage of the “Great One” to be found somewhere in pop culture.

Using his star power to sell video games is nothing new for number 99, although this is probably the first time he’s done so in an Oilers’ jersey. Since he first endorsed a line of video games with Wayne Gretzky Hockey for the Atari ST back in 1989, there has been one consistent among games graced with Gretzky’s presence: mediocrity.

As details strategically spill out around EA Sports’ upcoming NHL Slapshot for the Nintendo Wii, there’s reason to believe that Gretz may have gotten it right this time with his decision to be the cover boy for a hockey video game. For starters, this will be the first time that Gretzky has joined forces with the industry’s leading sports game developer EA Sports. Electronic Arts has not produced their hit NHL series of games for the Nintendo Wii, thus previously allowing the less popular 2K Sports series to hold a hockey game monopoly in the Nintendo market. Throw in the fun factor of the the game’s planned inclusion of a hockey stick peripheral, and there’s no doubt that NHL Slapshot will be arriving with some degree of buzz from anxious gamers.

Early industry reports and developer interviews touch on the ability for gamers to use the peripheral stick to shoot, pass, play goal, and even throw body checks like the pros. Although the game is said to include a traditional season simulation game mode, there will also be a “Peewees to Pros” mode where players will either create a 12-year old skater or choose from prepubescent versions of their favourite NHL stars including Gretzky himself.

Gretzky’s last attempt to drum up interest in an alternative hockey game was with the 1996 Nintendo 64 release Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey. Originally an arcade release, the fun if not authentic game was later released for Sony Playstation in 1998. 3D Hockey was by no means a work of originality, it was more of an updated version of the classic two-on-two game Hit The Ice, with the addition of real NHL players and teams.

Prior to his foray into the polygon plagued world of the N64, Gretzky had endorsed a 1995 SNES and Sega Genesis release by the name of Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars. Of course, a mid-90s hockey video game was going to require licensing from both the NHL and NHLPA in order to compete with EA’s burgeoning series, but Gretzky’s game did feature some decent gameplay to go along with solid graphics.

If the peripheral stick delivers on the fun that it’s promising then Gretzky may have finally found himself a winner in the video game market. It wouldn’t be the first time that Gretz was considered on the cutting-edge of hockey gaming. The 1991 NES release Wayne Gretzky Hockey was the first fully licensed NHL video game product, building on the popularity of early hockey titles like Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel with the inclusion of several NHL teams and their likenesses.

There are currently no plans for the game to be released on next-generation consoles like the XBox 360 or Playstation 3, but NHL Slapshot is tentatively scheduled to be released along with EA Sport’s NHL 11 in September.

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- The Tampa Rays were sporting hockey jerseys on their flight to Toronto. Reliever Grant Balfour was reportedly wearing an Ed Belfour throwback; WIN! [Tampa Bay Online]

- Ottawa to get 20-metre high Stanley Cup statue. Stop snickering, it’s true! [Globe and Mail]

- Chicago fixes that hot pink fountain mess, now spouting blood red. [Puck Daddy]

- Taylor or Tyler? As long as it’s not Steve Kelly, everything should be copacetic. [Colby Cosh]

- Bruins sign 21-year old defenseman Yuri Alexandrov. [Black and Gold Blog]

- Is Scott Arniel ready to coach in the NHL? His resume points to yes. [The Hockey Writers]

- Habs’ prospect Alexei Emelin considering the NHL for next season. [Russian Hockey Fans]

- Mike Brophy says it’s Michael Leighton’s last chance, with the obligatory Bernie Parent mention. [Rogers Sportsnet]

- Columbus Blue Jackets given permission to speak with Hamilton Bulldogs’ head coach Guy Boucher regarding vacant coaching position. [Habs Inside/Out]

- Scotty Wazz’s A.G.M. (absurd goalie Monday, for the uninitiated) is probably the most comprehensive career recap ever crafted for Bob Essensa.

- No one can really argue that TSN doesn’t go all out for hockey coverage, Scott Cullen breaks down the NHL Scouting Combine that was in detail. [TSN]

- Outlining the impact of the Oilers selecting Seguin or Hall, as it relates to Sam Gagner. [Lowetide]

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UFA Watch is a new series that will look at this summer’s unrestricted free agents.

After looking like a scoring star for periods of time in Montreal, Saku Koivu has settled into the 15-20 goal/50-60 point range. The last three seasons have seen him be remarkably consistent, always scoring somewhere in that area, and a move last season to the Anaheim Ducks didn’t change that. After a slow start, Koivu caught fire down the stretch (13GP – 7G – 11A – 18PTS, +9) to finish in the same range as the last two seasons.

Of course, Koivu also brings more to the table then supplementary scoring. He’s served as an NHL captain in Montreal – perhaps the league’s most difficult market to fill that role – and he plays a two-way game which makes him more attractive as a forward option. Koivu played significant minutes at both even-strength and on the power play and penalty kill, and he was also one of the Ducks’ best faceoff men, averaging a 51.4% success rate in the circle.

There are two concerns with Koivu: age and injury, and those concerns probably mean he’ll get a short-term contract. He’s 35 years old (he’ll turn 36 early next season) and has topped the 75 games played mark only four times in 14 seasons. That said, he’s been relatively healthy since the lockout, averaging 73 games per season.

Koivu may not hit the open market, however. At the end of the season, Koivu expressed an interest in returning to the Ducks, saying “At this point, I’m not even looking at really the possibility of becoming a free agent again. I’m hoping to get it done here before that. But obviously we need two sides for that.”

Ducks fans as a whole, seem to want Koivu back. Over at Anaheim Calling, they’ve laid out a few possible scenarios for Koivu to return to the fold, any of which would likely appeal to the forward. It seems likely that Koivu is a back-burner contract for the Ducks, who still have a full month to get a deal done.

All things considered, it’s a fair bet that Koivu returns to the Ducks (although it’s probably less certain than Selanne/Niedermayer doing so if they play another year) but if he does test the open market he’ll have suitors.

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A lot has been written about Chicago Blackhawks’ forward Dave Bolland in these playoffs.

I’ll admit that I didn’t see much of Bolland against Nashville, but he was generally matched up against the Sedins in Round Two and played a lot against Joe Thornton in Round 3. He sparked a rare blow-up from Daniel Sedin in the Vancouver series and got under Thornton’s skin to such a degree that Thornton repeatedly went after the Chicago pest.

Despite that, those players got their chances against the Bolland line. In Round 2, Bolland did a good job limiting them, but was still out-chanced 19 to 22. Round 3 was a similar story, with Bolland out-chanced 14 to 24. That’s a total of 33 to 46 over those two rounds, meaning that when Bolland was on the ice, the opposition had 58% of the scoring chances.

On the surface, those are hideous numbers, and it’s tempting to say that Bolland’s been getting a lot of undeserved attention. Certainly, if he were playing fairly normal minutes, that would be the case.

But Bolland isn’t playing anything close to normal minutes. His line leads the Blackhawks in Quality of Competition, which fits with what we’ve just said about matching up against Thornton and the Sedin twins. More importantly though, he’s always sent out for defensive zone draws, and very rarely sent out for offensive zone draws.

According to Behind the Net, for every offensive zone draw Bolland gets, he’s one the ice for more than three defensive zone draws – a 24.0% offensive zone start rate. That’s a staggering total – the NHL’s regular season leader (min 10GP) was Dave Scatchard, and his rate was 37.8%.

In fact, even without Bolland’s surprising scoring touch and even if he weren’t constantly getting tough matchups, he’d deserve praise. Toss those things in, and he’s a major contributor to Chicago’s success, an even more important piece than he’s been made out to be so far.

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Entering this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, Jonathan Toews is a bona fide star; he has been brilliant almost from the get-go in Chicago and he played an important role in this year’s gold medal win for Team Canada. He’s also arguably the most important piece of the Blackhawks team. This seemed like an appropriate time to revisit his performance at the 2007 World Juniors – a time when his star status was not nearly as assured as it is now. The following excerpt comes from Gare Joyce’s excellent book, Future Greats and Heartbreaks, and the events written here transpired on December 27, 2006.

No player has more to prove at this year’s tournament than Jonathan Toews. His season has been poor so far. The scouts are saying it, and he admits it. His team at the University of North Dakota has struggled mightily, and he has all of four goals for the Fighting Sioux. Chicago’s selection of Toews at No. 3 looked like great value in June, less so now, given that Phil Kessel has scored more goals for the Boston Bruins than Toews has against college players.

In Vancouver, Toews has a limited role, much like Sam Gagner’s assignment here: defence and energy first. Here he’s supposed to centre the first line, man the power play and kill penalties. Even with Steve Downie, Canadian Anti-Hero, on hand, even with all the returning defencemen, the defending champs are likely only going as far as Toews can take them.

Canadian coach Craig Hartsburg matches him against Peter Mueller on every shift, and Toews owns him. Mueller may be the best player in the Western league… but he’s the second-best centre every time he steps on the ice here.

Downie opens the scoring in the second period, scoring with a wrist shot on a two-on-one. I don’t get the number of the Canadian player who’s skating on the ice with Downie – and evidently Downie doesn’t, either, because he never even glances at him. From centre ice until he hits the top of the faceoff circle, Downie’s focused on U.S. goaltender Jeffrey Zatkoff. He never has any intention of passing the puck, which is fine if you score.

The Canadians go ahead 2-0 later in the period on a goal by Tom Pyatt and seem in control of the game at the intermission. It looks as if a rout is in the making when Toews scores on a power play early in the second period, skating through some heavy traffic and bouncing off U.S. defenders, flashing a sleight-of-hand deke that he must have kept under wraps at the last world juniors.

The Americans rally late in the period. Goals by Erik Johnson, the first pick in the 2006 draft, and Mike Carmen, another University of Minnesota player, make it 3-2 going into the third and pump oxygen and energy into an American team that looked ready to roll over.

All this sets the stage for Toews. With about ten minutes to go in regulation, he slips behind the Johnsons, Erik and Jack, and has a clean breakaway. Erik Johnson slings his stick thirty feet like a javelin in an attempt to try to knock the puck off Toew’s’s stick – an impetuous act you’ll see every now and then in a peewee game, but not with near-pros. The ref awards Toews a penalty shot, which he coolly finishes off, snapping the puck into the top corner on Zatkoff’s glove side. In their war room the Blue Jackets scouts expressed doubt about Toews being a “game-breaker”, but the finish on the penalty shot might be cause for reconsidering that.

Capping a bravura performance, Toews is sent out late in the game when the U.S. has a five-on-three power play and forces a face-off in the Canadian end. Toews wins the draw cleanly and clears the zone, snuffing out the last U.S. threat.

Toews isn’t the happiest person at the rink. Top honours would go to Dale Tallon, the Chicago Blackhawks’ general manager. Tallon won’t admit to having been concerned about Toews’s play at UND, but the Hawks needed some validation of their selection in the last draft. This game gives them that and more. Tallon says Toews’s last turn, the penalty kill, says as much about him as the clinical finishes on his two goals. “He’s very conscientious defensively and has great instincts for the game,” Tallon tells me. “He’s not chasing the puck but going where the puck is heading.”

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It’s been a banner year for Norwegian forward Patrick Thoresen.

The former NHL’er was one of the best players in the KHL this season, scoring 24 goals and topping the point per game mark with 57 in 56 games. He represented his country at the Olympics, recording five assists in four contests, and he also played for them at the World Championships, where he put up six points in six games.

Back in February, I suggested that Thoresen probably deserved another NHL contract for next season, and now it seems like that is his primary goal. In an article that ran yesterday on a Norwegian site, Thoresen made it plain that he wishes to play in the NHL next season. After acknowledging that he would be taking a significant pay cut from what he earned last season in Russia, Thoresen explained why that didn’t matter:

“I know I can score 20-25 goals in the NHL. If so, I’m going to earn the lost money and play in the NHL for many years. I have faith in myself and know what kind of potential I have.”

The one sticking point is that Thoresen wants a one way contract, a deal that will pay him the same amount in the NHL or the AHL. Thoresen expects to know one way or the other whether the Philadelphia Flyers (the team that owns his NHL rights) are willing to commit to that kind of deal.

Thoresen also stressed how difficult it was to bounce back and forth between the minors and the NHL, but says that a season adjusting to playing in Russia – both on and off the ice – has better prepared him for an NHL encore.

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The Blackhawks and Flyers have taken 2 very different paths, but have met at the end of the line…in the Stanley Cup Final.

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The rumour that the NHL would schedule two outdoor games for 2010-11 – one in Canada and one in the United States – appears to have come to fruition. The league is set to announce a game between Washington and Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day at Heinz Field, while the Canadian edition will go on February 20 at McMahon Stadium, and feature the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens.

It’s a strange matchup in a lot of ways. Calgary and Montreal have some history (the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals come to mind) but they aren’t natural rivals. They play in different conferences, and Montreal/Toronto or Calgary/Edmonton would seem like more logical rivalries. Mike Cammalleri aside, there really isn’t much in the way of emotion to market here. Given the kind of ratings Toronto generates for Hockey Night in Canada, it’s a little odd not to see them involved as well (although far be it for me to complain that Toronto isn’t getting enough attention).

Still, it’s nice to see the outdoor game coming back to Canada; the Oilers and Canadiens started the trend with the “Heritage Classic” and while it started a bit of a slide for the Oilers it’s a fun spectacle that normally excludes the six teams north of the border.

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Just four years ago, Riku Helenius could claim to be one of the top goaltending prospects in the entire world. He had just been drafted 15th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning, four spots back of Kings prospect Jonathan Bernier, and ahead of players like Semyon Varlamov. Michael Neuvirth and Steve Mason. He had been brilliant as a goaltender in the Finnish junior system, and starred representing his country at the Under-18 tournament, posting a 0.942 SV% over six games for Finland. He was regarded as a future NHL starter; a superb athlete benefitting from quality coaching in Ilves.

The future looked very bright leaving the 2006 draft, but things haven’t exactly gone as planned since.

2006-07 was a write-off, as Helenius missed almost the entire season with a shoulder injury. He came over to the WHL for 2007-08 and posted decent numbers for Seattle, but struggled to hold off a much younger Jacob DeSerres, who posted superior numbers to Helenius and ended up splitting time with him in both the regular season and the playoffs. Helenius also struggled at the Under-20 World Juniors, posting a miserable 0.864 SV% through four games.

Helenius made his professional debut in 2008-09, and ended up playing a total of 39 games for five different teams, with the bulk of his time spent in the AHL with Norfolk, Tampa Bay’s farm team. Helenius was up and down during his limited time in the ECHL, but played well for Norfolk, outplaying journeyman Mike McKenna (who spent 15 games in the NHL that season) and prospect Karri Ramo (who played 24 games for the parent Lightning).

This season, Helenius found himself in a three-way battle for playing time in Norfolk, squaring off against Slovakian goaltender Jaroslav Janus, a player the Lightning took in the sixth round of the 2009 draft as an overager, and Dustin Tokarski, the Lightning’s fifth-round pick from 2008 (more on Tokarski here). Tokarski won the battle handily, Janus impressed, and Helenius found himself in the Swedish Elite League, where he’s been pretty good in limited time.

I bring all this up today because Helenius’ agent has announced that he’ll be spending next season in Sweden as well; the Lightning apparently deciding to use their Norfolk slots for their other prospects. The decline in Helenius’s stock is evident from his Hockey News prospect ranking: in 2008, he was regarded by the journal as the team’s top prospect; in 2010, he didn’t even crack their top-10 list.

It’s an indication that the club doesn’t have room for him, but while the Lightning have at least four legitimate goaltending prospects (Helenius, Tokarski, Janus and Ramo) other organizations aren’t so lucky, and Helenius is still a legitimate prospect, just one who has had the bad fortune of playing in a stocked system. He’s only 22, he’ stands 6’3” and all the strengths the scouts extol – his calm, systematic approach to the position, his tremendous athleticism – are still strengths.

I know if I were an NHL G.M. with room for an AHL goaltender in my system, I’d be calling up Steve Yzerman and finding out what it would take to acquire Helenius. The odds are that it wouldn’t take much.

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The Conference Finals are in the rear-view mirror now, but some of the most spectacular plays from them are still worth a look as we prepare for the Stanley Cup finals.

There are a lot of pretty plays here – the Asham and Leino goals come to mind, in particular – but for my money the best one is Jonathan Toews sliding the puck cross-crease to Patrick Sharp for the tap-in goal.

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