Ryan Lambert

Recent Posts

Has anyone noticed the Bruins aren’t even that good yet?

Posted by Ryan Lambert under Observation on Feb 13, 2013

There really hasn't even been that much of this.

There really hasn’t even been that much of this.

The Boston Bruins are currently 8-1-2, first in their division by two points even with at least a game in hand on everybody, including three against second-place Toronto. They’re also only one point behind the East-leading Devils, who have played two additional games.

Obviously being 4-0-1 on the road is a really good way to inflate your point total, as is being 4-1-1 at home, with that one regulation loss being the kind of defensive disaster teams like the Bruins see once every three years at most.

But one thing that’s been kind of lost in Boston making yet another run toward the top of the conference, if not the league, is that it has not been all that impressive in doing so. At least, not in the way to which the hockey world at large may have become accustomed over the last two seasons. They played 30 games last season in which they scored four goals or more, and they won 20 by a margin of three-plus. This was a team that would back opponents against the ropes and just pummel them. Mercilessly. Until they were battered and bloodied, sometimes both figuratively and literally. Christ, they had six games last season in which they beat their opponent by six or more goals. All of them were shutouts. Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments

So how exactly did Marc Bergevin win here?

Posted by Ryan Lambert under Free Agency on Jan 29, 2013

The Habs got their guy but did so in the stupidest way possible.

Last night PK Subban signed a new contract with Montreal that will pay him $2 million pro-rated this season and $3.75 million next season. Two years, $2.875 against the cap.

In the immediate aftermath of the team announcing the deal, everyone came out in full support of Marc Bergevin, who had to make his first tough decision as Habs GM in not bending to Subban’s demands for a five-year deal. “He stuck to his guns,” they said with approving nods. Indeed, he didn’t want to look “weak” after saying he wanted a two-year deal and nothing besides, and thus this is what he got. For all the sitting out, Subban only pulled an additional $250,000 from the two years, $5.5 million he rejected in August. Chump change for of one of the richest organizations in hockey.

As many have pointed out, the money Subban got was Mike Del Zotto money, and there can’t be too many people in hockey who think Mike Del Zotto is as good a defenseman as PK Subban. So in that regard, yes, Bergevin “won” by “sticking to his guns” with this deal. Subban lost because he didn’t cash in at anywhere near the amount he wanted.

But if we look a little farther up the road, this is a not-very-bright move by a guy who’s only just now trying to prove himself in his new job. But in reality, the new Subban contract is only a win if you think the NHL stops existing after next season.

Read the rest of this entry »

29 Comments

New CBA, same old no offer sheets

Posted by Ryan Lambert under Opinion on Jan 17, 2013

Wow you can sign these guys and it would make your team better!

I think we can all agree that the Shea Weber offer sheet did not in any way usher in a new era of fun-and-gun offer sheeting of the league’s various ridiculously high-quality and valuable restricted free agents and was never going to do so.

The reasons why are obvious: Philadelphia is a team that is essentially capable of printing its own money, and Weber is a player who despite being an RFA is also one of the three best defensemen in hockey who puts up crazy points as well. If ever a player was worthy of the kind of insane offer sheet to which the Flyers signed him this summer it’s… well it’s probably not anybody, but he’s the closest that would ever get to the point where he could sign an offer sheet at all. He’s worth just about league max, he got just about that much. It’s all fine and on the up-and-up. But what I don’t understand now that there’s a new CBA in place is why notable RFAs aren’t being courted constantly by other teams’ general managers.

Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments

While You Were Sleeping: America wins gold, Canada wins nothing

Posted by Ryan Lambert under 2013 World Juniors on Jan 05, 2013

You can't imagine how much fun we're having (CP)

“I think we’re the best team.” – Seth Jones, Dec. 20, 2012

Of course the guy that everyone points to after the U.S. beat Sweden 3-1 to win its second gold medal in the last four years at the IIHF World Junior Championship (two more than Canada, for those scoring at home) is John Gibson. Hard to argue that he should have been anything less than tournament MVP.

He allowed just nine goals on 202 shots in seven games, good for a save percentage of .955 and a GAA 1.36. As he sparkled against the Canadians, he similarly shined against the defending gold medal-winning Swedes, making 26 saves on 27 shots. Not too many of those shots really troubled him as much as those in the semifinal did, and perhaps that’s to be expected, but nonetheless, he was the rock upon which Phil Housley built his gold medal-winning team.

What will get mentioned less often than Gibson, who really cannot be mentioned enough, is how well the U.S. defense played not only in this clinching gold medal game, but throughout the tournament. They gave up three goals just once, in a game in which they still beat Slovakia by six and barely broke a sweat. But those defenders earned their freight against Canada and, especially, Sweden. Jacob Trouba, in particular, struck me as being especially effective, not so much because he was diving to block shots like Mark Scheifele does at the slightest contact, but because he displayed an overwhelming amount of defensive awareness. The number of rushes he broke up with a quick stick and a little shove can’t be counted on fingers and toes alone, and that was more or less indicative of just how good the whole blue line was for the vast majority of the tournament.

Read the rest of this entry »

11 Comments

While You Were Sleeping: Why did Russia need a shootout to beat Switzerland?, US rolls over Czechs

Posted by Ryan Lambert under 2013 World Juniors on Jan 02, 2013

It should have never gotten to this point (IIHF)

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but wasn’t Russia, with its wealth of super-talented forwards and its excellent goaltenders and competent defenders and the whole advantage that’s supposed to come from hosting this tournament, meant to be the team to beat? So why, then, does it struggle so mightily against, oh I don’t know, every team it has played in this entire tournament save for the lowly Germans, who look primed for yet another relegation? The problem reared its ugly head again today for the Russians when they needed a shootout, an actual shootout, to beat Switzerland 4-3, and really required a fair bit of luck to even get that far.

Just how bad was the Russians’ performance today? Well, the Swiss outshot them 44-36, which you gotta figure is, like, not good. That includes getting outshot 13-8 and 16-9 in the second and third periods, respectively. In fact, the Russians only got things going with an 8-4 shooting advantage in OT because of hooking penalty on Christian Marti that gave them a 4-on-3 for two minutes.

And it’s not like things didn’t start well enough for Russia, as they got a goal and two power plays in the first 10 minutes of the game. But on that second one, Cristoph Bertschy scored a shorthanded goal, because why wouldn’t he? The teams traded goals again in the second period as well, and through 40 minutes, it was 2-2, and I doubt too many people would have said that would be the case headed into this one. I might attribute some of it to Eliot Antonietti’s backchecking, because he singlehandedly broke up a pair of full-on Russian breakaways as clean as you like. The third time, though, he took a hooking penalty. Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments

Who’s happiest the NHL may come back soon? Minor leaguers

Posted by Ryan Lambert under AHL on Jan 02, 2013

Jordan Eberle isn't keeping it fair

I was watching a video yesterday of Jordan Eberle scoring three goals for the Oklahoma City Barons in 2:43 (you can watch it here if you want to feel bad and ashamed for the Texas Stars), including the first two coming just NINE seconds apart, and I thought to myself that maybe all that scoring has to grate on the other team. No one likes to lose, obviously, but man, you gotta think the average AHLer is getting pretty damn sick of watching 22-year-old guys who were nearly a point a game in the NHL last year blow past them at 50 miles an hour and make their goalies look ridiculous.

So any progress in CBA negotiations, which seem likely to end in the not-so-distant future, has to give these guys hope. Fun as it may be to watch Justin Schultz put up 45 points in 31 games from the blue line to the average fan, it seems very unlikely his opponents feel the same way. And it’s not just an issue for whatever poor team plays Oklahoma City, which is currently sporting the third-best winning percentage in the AHL’s Western Conference because like any other Oilers team it’s dutifully giving up too many goals, the entire league is being ripped up by guys who should be playing in the NHL. Not that this should come as any sort of surprise, I guess, but when you look at it from a purely points-per-game perspective, the AHL’s best players are all NHLers on holiday. Of the 18 guys in the league who are running at a point a game or better with a decent amount of games under their belts (as of this writing), I figure just about all of them, save for Keith Aucoin, would have been at least considered for full-time gigs in the NHL were they not locked out. Read the rest of this entry »

21 Comments

While You Were Sleeping: Canada demolishes US 2-1, and other predictable results

Posted by Ryan Lambert under 2013 World Juniors on Dec 30, 2012

Canada's high-powered offense picked apart the weak Americans for two whole goals.

As with the game against the Russians, the US was arguably the better team on the ice with the obvious caveat that it didn’t score the most goals.

Coming into the tournament anyone with a functioning brain — i.e. not a sandbagging member of the Canadian media eager to sell what should in theory be another credible run at the gold medal as some sort of underdog story that is in any way interesting — would have told you Canada is the clear favorite in this and theoretically any other World Junior Championship. All that stuff about how they’ve never lost a game during an NHL lockout and how they have a handful of NHL-ready players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Dougie Hamilton, Jonathan Huberdeau, and maybe Mark Scheifele if you’re being generous, are pretty good arguments for this being the case.

But with that having been said, this US team, which has largely underwhelmed in its last two games, dictated the terms in this one. Apart from an uninspiring first period, during which Canada mustered its meager two goals, there’s a very credible argument to be made that the Americans were the best team on the ice and, results aside, perhaps in the tournament. This, like the Russia game before it, was a tilt they should have won.

Both Canada goals came on miscues by American players, and in quick bursts, rather than the kind of sustained pressure that you might expect from The Most Talented Team In The Tournament. Nugent-Hopkins’ strike to make it 1-0 came on a rare Canadian faceoff win (the US won 40 of 70, 57.1 percent) and JT Miller, who has been invisible for most of his three games despite his top-line role, lost the Oilers phenom in coverage. Not sure how you let that happen, but the finish was predictably lethal. Read the rest of this entry »

10 Comments
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »