Clancy’s Corner

That’s right people, the playoffs are here. I don’t feel like writing any cute stuff today, so here are my picks:

Eastern Conference
(1) Buffalo Sabres vs. (8) New York Islanders
Buffalo in 5. The Isles are feeling good after gaining a spot in the last game of the season, but the Sabres will prove they deserve the President’s Trophy for the league’s best regular season team and carve them up easily.

(2) New Jersey Devils vs. (7) Tampa Bay Lightning
New Jersey in 6. Martin Brodeur is so good he won a Stanley Cup while going through a divorce (though I think he may have been sleeping with his wife’s sister, so it may not have been that traumatizing). Lecavalier and St. Louis may be the best duo in the NHL, but they aren’t going to be able to score enough to beat the Devils defense.

(3) Atlanta Thrashers vs. (6) New York Rangers
Atlanta in 6. The Thrashers offense (one of the best in the league) will overpower Jagr and the Rangers, no questions asked.

(4) Ottawa Senators vs. (5) Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh in 7. This was the hardest decision of the first round. I have faith in the league’s youngest team, and Sid will lead his kids over a Senators team with a shaky defense since the loss of Chara last year. Marc Andre Fleury must have his head on straight in net for the Penguins though; if he struggles, the Penguins struggle.

Western Conference
(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (8) Calgary Flames
Calgary in 6. Though I made this decision, I’m betting on the Wings in my own pool, because I don’t have a lot of faith in this decision. The Wings aren’t going to be able to score enough on Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and their defensive corps. If Datsyuk decides to actually score a goal in the playoffs however, I retract my previous statements.

(2) Anaheim Ducks vs. (7) Minnesota Wild
Anaheim in 5. Deleting the ‘Mighty’ in front of the ‘Duck’ has actually made them mighty, there’s no stopping Anaheim in the first round.

(3) Vancouver Canucks vs. (6) Dallas Stars
Vancouver in 6. Luongo over Turco. And Vancouver has those cute Swedish twins everybody’s talking about. Marty Turco is having nightmares in Swedish, because Marcus Naslund is going to be free to work his magic with the defense focused on the Sedin twins.

(4) Nashville Predators vs. (5) San Jose Sharks
Nashville in 6. If they played any other team in the West, San Jose would be my pick for an upset. Unfortunately, they’re playing Nashville, who is the best team in the west (sorry Wings). Forsberg’s been saving himself for the playoffs like he always does, and Kariya is hungry for a ring. Oh yeah, and Nashville has not one, but two starting-caliber goalies to pick from if Thornton gets inside one’s head.

That’s right people, the playoffs are here. I don’t feel like writing any cute stuff today, so here are my picks:

Eastern Conference
(1) Buffalo Sabres vs. (8) New York Islanders
Buffalo in 5. The Isles are feeling good after gaining a spot in the last game of the season, but the Sabres will prove they deserve the President’s Trophy for the league’s best regular season team and carve them up easily.

(2) New Jersey Devils vs. (7) Tampa Bay Lightning
New Jersey in 6. Martin Brodeur is so good he won a Stanley Cup while going through a divorce (though I think he may have been sleeping with his wife’s sister, so it may not have been that traumatizing). Lecavalier and St. Louis may be the best duo in the NHL, but they aren’t going to be able to score enough to beat the Devils defense.

(3) Atlanta Thrashers vs. (6) New York Rangers
Atlanta in 6. The Thrashers offense (one of the best in the league) will overpower Jagr and the Rangers, no questions asked.

(4) Ottawa Senators vs. (5) Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh in 7. This was the hardest decision of the first round. I have faith in the league’s youngest team, and Sid will lead his kids over a Senators team with a shaky defense since the loss of Chara last year. Marc Andre Fleury must have his head on straight in net for the Penguins though; if he struggles, the Penguins struggle.

Western Conference
(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (8) Calgary Flames
Calgary in 6. Though I made this decision, I’m betting on the Wings in my own pool, because I don’t have a lot of faith in this decision. The Wings aren’t going to be able to score enough on Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and their defensive corps. If Datsyuk decides to actually score a goal in the playoffs however, I retract my previous statements.

(2) Anaheim Ducks vs. (7) Minnesota Wild
Anaheim in 5. Deleting the ‘Mighty’ in front of the ‘Duck’ has actually made them mighty, there’s no stopping Anaheim in the first round.

(3) Vancouver Canucks vs. (6) Dallas Stars
Vancouver in 6. Luongo over Turco. And Vancouver has those cute Swedish twins everybody’s talking about. Marty Turco is having nightmares in Swedish, because Marcus Naslund is going to be free to work his magic with the defense focused on the Sedin twins.

(4) Nashville Predators vs. (5) San Jose Sharks
Nashville in 6. If they played any other team in the West, San Jose would be my pick for an upset. Unfortunately, they’re playing Nashville, who is the best team in the west (sorry Wings). Forsberg’s been saving himself for the playoffs like he always does, and Kariya is hungry for a ring. Oh yeah, and Nashville has not one, but two starting-caliber goalies to pick from if Thornton gets inside one’s head.

NEWS FLASH

Move over Sid the Kid, the next ‘next one’ will be arriving to the NHL shortly. John Tavares, a 16-year-old skating with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, is quickly proving that when league officials bent the long-standing rules to let him in a year earlier than the age requirement, it wasn’t a mistake. On March 16, Tavares had two goals against the Ottawa 67’s to cap a 72 goal season, good enough to a significant record; Wayne Gretzky held the record for most goals by a 16-year-old in the OHL with 71, set in 1978.

Tavares, whose uncle John Tavares is a famous Canadian lacrosse player, is someone to keep your eyes on as he accelerates towards the NHL. He’s 6’2” and 180 lbs, and obviously still growing, yet possesses soft hands to the likes of some of the best. To put in perspective what he’s currently doing, here are two statements to sum it up:

A. The only person younger than Tavares to play in the OHL was Bobby Orr
B. He broke a Wayne Gretzky record, enough said

If those don’t paint a picture, I don’t know what will.

Compare him to Eric Lindros, huge potential with great size yet great finesse. There are two advantages for Tavares as he grows. First, he can learn from Lindros’s mistakes and second, his way has been paved by Sidney Crosby, and will never be forced to carry the weight of ‘the next one’ like Crosby has been.

Keep an eye on him, he’s going to be a good one if he keeps his head on straight.

I would like to start this piece by thanking Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and the New York Rangers’ Ryan Hollweg for doing something everyone in hockey and the rest of professional sports to take note of; they didn’t press charges.
Hockey’s violent attacks of recent years have been addressed both in NHL law and government law, and the latter needs to be dropped.
The moment the puck hits the ice in a hockey game is the same moment public law is broken. Don’t close out of the blog after reading this sentence; keep reading and let me make my case. Hockey is a form of athleticism and entertainment built around ideas not approved of by laws that govern our actions in public. If you were to arrest someone every time they broke a law during a hockey game, every slash, every body-check, and every fist thrown would lead to not only a march to the penalty box, but to the jail cell after the game. The game of hockey is built around fighting and checking and abusing others with a long metal or wood stick; all things that wouldn’t fly in front of a police officer if you were doing it on a street corner. To pick and choose which altercations are taken to court is absurd; it’s like choosing which car should be pulled over for running a red light. If you want to arrest a player for something he does on the ice, then you have to arrest EVERY player for what they do on the ice. Yes people, even the great Steve Yzerman has broken public law, because he’s hit people with a long metal stick. Wayne Gretzky should be serving 10 to life.
The prime example of what I’m arguing here is the situation surrounding the newest Red Wing, the bad man himself, Todd Bertuzzi. I am in no way defending his actions, but they must be discussed. His attack on the Avalanche’s Steve Moore was gruesome, devastating, and wrong for the game; much like the recent actions of Chris Simon. However, I feel obligated to point out that Bertuzzi’s action is almost a commonplace in hockey, with a freak accident attached at the end. People discuss how violent his attack was, how wrong it was; yet they still praise actions done by their beloved Red Wings a decade ago with the infamous Claude Lemieux. Is Darren McCarty viewed as a villain or a hero? The people of Michigan still love him though he doesn’t even play for their home team anymore, all for the same reasons Todd Bertuzzi is hated. McCarty was the ultimate team player, am I right? Revenge, standing up for a teammate, taking care of business; all things associated with him taking some shots at Lemieux for his hit on Kris Draper. Nobody cares to mention that Bertuzzi did the same; his attack on Moore was defense of his captain Markus Naslund, who had been knocked out of the game by Moore in the previous game. Darren McCarty’s assult on Lemieux that resulted in Lemieux ‘turtling’ on the ice was the same type of blindsiding shot to the head as Bertuzzi’s, and McCarty took it one farther and continued to pummel him when he was on the ground. Bertuzzi was arrested, and McCarty goes down in Red Wings legend.
Hockey is a violent game, and it cannot be addressed in public court. The Red Wings/Avalanche rivalry was born from illegal actions, and people paid hundreds of dollars to go to a sporting event to watch illegal actions. The teams made millions of dollars off their players breaking the law on a nightly basis. Mickey York, the FSN Detroit anchorman, described the Wings/Avalanche rivalry days as “once upon a time, it was the best.” If the hockey world wishes to continue to hold that opinion, that fighting and rivalries and violent actions are what makes the game ‘the best’, then its players cannot fall victim in the courtoom.

March 8, 2007 was a terrible day for hockey, and all the blame can be put on the shoulders of Chris Simon.

The New York Islanders’ forward violently slashed Ryan Hollweg of the New York Rangers across the face with his stick after Hollweg hit him into the boards. Fortunately, Hollweg was not seriously hurt in the play, and was able to return to the ice for his next game. If you haven’t seen the video of the slash, here’s a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLmon0XoH3I

Chris Simon’s punishment was handed out the following Sunday; he is to miss the next 25 games, whether that means this year or carries over to next year. This is a record for a suspension in the NHL, beating out the suspension of Marty McSorely for 23 games on the same type of incident. However, I have two words for the people in charge of the NHL: NOT ENOUGH.

The NHL is fragile right now; compare it to a glass sculpture. Its fan base is dropping, its ratings are low; it’s everything you don’t want a professional league to be. The people trying to save it want to put together a cleaner, more family-friendly show for the general public. This has been done mainly by cutting back on fighting; but violence is still flying high. People have said to not throw the book at a person to make an example of him, but it is needed. Chris Simon needs to be locked up and watch the key flushed down the toilet. Somebody has to take the fall for the NHL to clear up their stance on ridiculous violence; why not have it be somebody who has performed the worst violence a hockey player can do? Slashing someone with intent to injure may be on top of the list of ‘Hockey Laws’. YOU DON’T DO IT.

Fifty games for Simon. One hundred games for Simon. Two million dollars for Simon. Hand out a punishment that screams to hockey players of all shapes and sizes to keep the sticks down and out of harm’s way. Show the NHL players you won’t tolerate that type of treatment to any of your players, even if it’s an unknown player like Hollweg. What if this happened to Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby? Prevent it now, prevent it for good, by making a statement. Mainly, show the world that your league won’t tolerate what he did, and that you have control of your players. In case nobody noticed, THE NHL HAS GOTTEN MORE PRESS WITH THIS INCIDENT THAN ANYTHING ELSE ALL YEAR. They needed to take advantage of the opportunity to show everyone that hockey is not all big goons killing people, but a sport with talent and skill and a management wanting to exploit that aspect. It was their chance to show the world their new identity and they blew it. Period.

Today is Valentine’s Day, and lets face it, the pressure’s on for girls and boys alike to get a Valentine’s Day card from as many people as possible. I’m not giving out Valentines this year, due to the fact that I view it as a ‘Hallmark Holiday’ suckering me into spending way too much on flowers (just kidding).

I’d like to take us all back to second grade, when you brought in cards and candy (sweet Godzilla Valentine’s Day cards, yessss) for everybody in class. Are you getting a good visual? Come on, think of you’re new 128 pack of crayons and three different recesses to prove your worth on four-square.

That’s what I will be doing for you readers today; imagining that I’m back in second grade giving out Valentines. But not to little Sally and the fat kid in class, but hockey figures. Just as immature, but they make a whole lot more money. Enjoy.

Who’s getting the Power Rangers cards? (The best ones, duh)
- The entire Pittsburgh Penguins line-up, coaching staff, trainers, janitors, concession stand workers, etc. – They haven’t lost a game in regulation since January 10, with a record of 12-0-2 since. I can’t put it any simpler than this; they’re the fifth grade team beating the crap out of the fourth grade team in two-hand touch football every, single, day. It’s really not fair, they’re like the freaking Mighty Ducks out there (think D3, the first game, before the collapse). Oh yeah, and the last time a team had three players under 20 years of age scoring 20 plus goals each? Edmonton Oilers of the 1980’s, and if memory serves me right, I think they faired quite well in the post-season for a few years.
- Peter Forsberg, forward, Philadelphia Flyers – Foppa has returned, just in time to beat the pants off the Detroit Red Wings 6-1. He’s the green AND the red Power Ranger, he cannot be stopped. Due to his no trade clause, he gets to cut to the front of the lunch line, and take everybody else’s cookie. In the summer, he’ll be stealing everybody’s lunch money too, provided he gets those feet of his healed.
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Who’s going home empty-handed to cry to their mommy?
- Tim Connolly, forward, Buffalo Sabres – Mr. Connolly just suffered a leg stress fracture, right after returning from a nine month absence due to concussion related headaches. I can’t be spotted on the playground with this guy. He’s like Eugene from Hey Arnold; the dude never stops hurting himself. He’s spent more time in the nurse’s office than on the ice lately, and I’m getting tired of having nobody to play wally-ball with on recess.
- Ken Holland, General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings – Holland’s team is in fourth place of the Western Conference, looking in at the top three division leaders. This guy needs to trade for Peter Forsberg like Timmy needs to trade me his Charizard Japenese Pokemon card. Let’s face it, acquiring Forsberg would be like adding Mewtwo to your line-up: completely unstoppable. And I tend to be a fan of the kid that pulls the trigger on the big risky trade to go for the win. He can get himself some Nerds if he wakes up and gets active on the blacktop trading grounds.
- Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner – Gary’s formally announced he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Give him the silent treatment! Lets face it guys, if we can get the entire third grade class to ignore him, that would be a real good slap in the face, right?

History of Hockey, Part I

Who, might you ask, ever decided they were going to strap metal blades to their feet and attempt to skate on frozen water? Besides the fact that he or she was a moron, nobody knows exactly who came up with the unique, yet stupid, idea. I personally like to give the credit to the Martians, but hockey historians disagree with me.

Hockey for Dummies, along with nhl.com point to Great Britain and France as the birthplace to my beloved. My apologies to Canada, our neighbors to the north, for not being able to claim that they invented their national sport (but they’ve still got curling). Historians say that over 500 years ago, field hockey enthusiasts moved the game to ice in the cold winters. In the 1820’s, the game’s main ideals appeared in England; people used sticks carved from tree branches to swat a cork ball around the frozen marshland. They used the name of our game today; the origin of the word is thought to come from the French word ‘hoquet’, which means ‘bent stick’. Hockey for Dummies also revealed that the game drew a lot of press coverage, yet some writers said the game needed to be stopped because it disrupted open skating on the pond. This leads me to a point I feel obligated to make; dump some pucks out onto the ice during open skate and let the slapshots fly…

In hopes of not being attacked by my Canadian friends (I’m actually part Canadian, and was damn proud of it when I found out), I feel obliged to point out that they were host to the first hockey games played in North America. British soldiers in Nova Scotia played hockey on their downtime. This means that the birthplace of Sidney Crosby is also the birthplace of North American hockey…sorry, I’m probably the only person in the world, including Mr. Crosby, to find that either ironic or incredibly cool. Around the same time (1870’s, sorry about that) McGill University students in Montreal began organizing games in the downtown rink. See, us stupid college kids are good for something, like the birth of a sport.

Ever since, the game has been off and running, err skating. Teams from all across Canada, primarily from Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto, began competing for bragging rights. Lord Stanley of Preston, the English Governor General of Canada, became so grew so impressed with the game that he upped the bragging rights, donating a silver cup with gold lining to be awarded to ‘the best team in Canada’. If you can’t put together the pieces to understand the significance of that cup, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Ask a friend.

So I’ve been analyzing where this blog’s future is heading, and I’ve come to one conclusion; nowhere, unless people understand what I’m talking about. That’s why I’ve devised a plan to help the hockey illiterate catch up to us smarter people. In the upcoming days, weeks, whatever, I will be conducting classes about my one true love. Topics will include the history of hockey, the game itself, hockey law, hockey lingo, and anything else I decide to teach you about. Assigned reading/viewing include the movies Slapshot and Mystery Alaska.

At the same time, I will attempt to entertain the hockey savvy, because everyone knows you cannot get bored either, am I correct?

If anyone has any questions they would like me to answer, please consult my genius at caplesmi@msu.edu

With the All-Star weekend completed, it’s time to look ahead to the second half of the NHL season. Here is my take on where the whirlwind is going to stop when the playoffs begin in April.

First half let downs:
Alex Tanguay, Calgary Flames – When the Avalanche shipped one of their top guns to the Flames last summer, I was calling for the Cup to rest in Calgary come this May. Tanguay was the answer to the Flames’ lack of offense, or so I thought. Thus far, he’s only putting up average numbers, when he should be the right hand man for star Jerome Iginla and finally give the Flames the second scoring threat they need. (13 goals, 29 assists, 42 points)

Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets – The former Rocket Richard Trophy winner (most goals in a season), is coming into his prime, and is supposed to be one of the young guns of the new NHL. However, Nash has been hobbled with injuries, and he’s not producing the way Ohio has expected him to. With superstar Sergei Federov and young Nikolai Zherdev assisting him, Nash should be at least in the top ten in scoring, if not higher. (14 goals, 17 assists, 31 points)

First half surpises:
Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings – Like I wrote about in one of my prior blogs, Kopitar has exploded onto the hockey world, and isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Relatively unheard of before the season started, only Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin surpasses him in rookie scoring. I had never even heard of the guy until three or four games into the year, when he was leading all rookies in scoring. (13 goals, 31 assists, 44 points)

The Phoenix Coyotes – Head coach Wayne Gretzky has finally woken his sleeping giant in the deserts of Arizona, and the Coyotes are on a tear. Starting out in the cellar of the standings, the Coyotes, with the help of Yanic Perreault (17 goals, 13 assists, 30 points), are quickly climbing into play off contention. (23-25-2)

The Stories to watch in the second half:
The Peter Forsberg race: With one of the game’s elite talents wallowing away his time with one of the few teams not even in the playoff race, it’s time to play ‘Peter Forsberg gets traded to…’. His injury-prone feet are in question, but Forsberg has stated he’d be willing to play through the pain if he was playing for a contender. Rumors have stated that the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, and the Detroit Red Wings have shown interest in him. Forsberg holds all the cards, however, due to the fact that he has a ‘No Trade’ clause on his contract and that he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, so teams will only be willing to pick him up if he agrees to sign with them in the summer.

The playoff chase: The new salary cap makes its mark in the NHL standings above all else; at the all-star break, only the Philadelphia Flyers are truly out of playoff contention (which is why they are shipping out their highly touted and highly paid star, above). Let the 29 team rat race begin! When the trading deadline comes next month, expect key trades to fly, and big names being found in new cities. Teams low in payroll, like Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins, could quickly become buyers and find the key player to make a Stanley Cup run.

Crosby’s points-management: ‘Sid the Kid’ is now ‘Sid the NHL Scoring Leader’; after a 7-2 win over Phoenix, he extended his points lead to 78 total, 10 above the rest of the pack. Will he hold on to win the Art Ross Trophy (league points leader at the end of the season), becoming the youngest to do so? Crosby may have missed out on Rookie of the Year honors last season, but he’s eying bigger hardware this year.

In the fall of 2006, Boston Bruins center Phil Kessel had the world at his fingertips. Just months after leaving the University of Minnesota to enter the NHL Draft after one collegiate season, he was drafted fifth overall, made the opening day roster, and scored his first professional goal on October 21.

Everything changed, however, when on December 11, Kessel’s family released a statement saying their boy would be out due to a non-hockey related ailment. Speculations of Kessel having a form of cancer were confirmed by the media the next day, stating that the young star had testicular cancer.

Fortunately for Kessel, the cancer was diagnosed at an early stage. He underwent a successful surgery on the 16th to prevent any spreading, and like any exceptional athlete, started looking for the quickest route back to his trade. Apparently, a month was too long to wait after undergoing treatments for such a dangerous disease, because Kessel was back on the ice with Boston’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, on January 5 to undergo a quick conditioning stint to get back in shape.

On January 9, Kessel returned to his NHL squad, exactly one month after his last game before being diagnosed. His return started out slowly; Kessel was held off the score sheet in his first five games back, with the Bruins posting a 1-4 record during that time. But in his last two games, Kessel has showed the offensive abilities that led scouts to name him the next U.S. hockey superstar years before his draft day. On January 17, he scored two goals against goaltender Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabres, one of the best defensive teams in hockey. On the next night versus Pittsburgh, Kessel had an assist in regulation, and then with the game on his shoulders, scored in the sudden death shootout to win the game in front of his home crowd; a fitting message to his fans that he has returned to hockey, and ready to begin his takeover.

Phil Kessel, along with other phenomenal prospects, will be able to showcase his talents in the NHL Young Stars Game on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, the day before the NHL All-Star Game. Watch him, appreciate him, and enjoy him. Sports need more people like Phil Kessel; athletes who love the sport they play and will do anything it takes to compete. His story represents the heart and soul of hockey players, possibly the most humble and gracious of all athletes. The vast majority of NHLers play with a team first attitude, putting their coaches and their teammates in front of their checkbooks. No pointing fingers at teammates for mistakes, no shootings outside of strip clubs, and no steroid-induced scandals. If you’re sick of the Terrell Owens’s and Carmelo Anthony’s of professional sports, take a look at the NHL, and players like Phil Kessel.