-Whose fault is it? There are many contestants. Here are my four: Legace,
Lidstrom, Shanahan, and Bettman:
Legace played his way right out of the starters job in Detroit (and maybe
any starters job in the NHL next year), plain and simple. He wasn't
horrible, he just wasn't very good. On the proverbial scale of 1 to 10 I'd
give him a resounding 5. Not nearly good enough from a guy who had to get
it done this year.
Lidstrom was absolutely invisible, start to finish. Even worse, the lead
defenseman for the other team was the series MVP, in my opinion. The max?
Blow me, Lidstrom. I don't even care if you win the Norris (which you
probably will). 4 mil, maybe 5. Tops. Don't like it? Take a hike.
Shanahan also likely played his way out of town, or at least cost himself
about 3 million of the 5 million I -would- have wanted to see him get, had
he not been useless in the playoffs.
Finally, Bettman. Oh, Gary... why do you lie to us? While the playoffs
weren't the gagging abortion I feared they might be, the way the games were
called reinforces what the core of my fear was: The NHL doesn't want skill
teams that play a skill style to succeed in the playoffs. It's that simple,
and it spells the final doom of anything remotely resembling a
'puck-possession' offense, which lets be honest, is the most fun type of
offense from a spectator perspective. Here's what the NHL wants in their
Cup Champs: 1) Get a big time goalie (or just have a hot goalie on the
roster). 2) Get a team full of fast skaters. 3) Have maybe two or three of
them possess something resembling offensive skills. 4) Dump and chase the
shit out of the puck and hurry back into a 1-2-2. Ah, well. I'm sure
watching every postseason filled with teams that fire the puck into a corner
of the ice from the center line and then chase it around for 15 seconds will
make for -riveting- hockey. Way to grow the sport. All due respect to the
Oilers, but the zebras could have called -50- obstruction penalties a game
against them. At least. That they also could have called around 30 a game
against Detroit epitomizes why building a team around good non-goalies is
foolish. The individual players, for the very most part, don't matter in
the playoffs in Bettman's utopia. Just do like Buffalo and ice a bunch of
kids in front of a hot (and very good) goaltender.
-The Avs, and their fans:
I love the basic dichotomy of the Avs fan and their logic. Harangue Detroit
all year for misleading regular season success due to poor opposition, and
then crow when Colorado gets by maybe the weakest opponent of any first
round team. Awesome. I -especially- like all the adjectives thrown
JimBob's way, words like 'spectacular' and 'great'. Outstanding. There's
nothing I like more than seeing goalies with 3+ postseason GAA's a .901
postseason save percentages get feted like they are the reincarnation of
Patrick Roy. I mean, you guys do know that Theodore's given up more goals
than any other playoff goalie this year, right? Really, how many of the
TWENTY-SIX goals he has allowed in 8 games so far were the goaltender's
fault? Swap the first round opponents and Colorado goes home and Detroit
goes on... but yeah, keep puffing out your collective chests. Way to run up
all the Wolski for Prime Minister flags after his one good game, too. That
was touching.
Next season:
I think Holland has a chance to really turn this team over. Walk mentioned
something about this earlier, but I think Shanny, Yzerman, Woolley and
Chelios will not be re-signed. Datsyuk will be trade bait. I don't think
he will get a deal for a larger yearly amount than what he makes now, if he
stays. Legace and Osgood are both gone. That clears 7 mil off the cap, not
including Datsyuk. Lidstrom comes back for between 4-5, or he doesn't come
back at all. Now we're at almost 15 million. The cap goes up by 5+. Now
we're up to almost 20 million. Howard or Liv (probably Liv) comes over as
the backup, and Detroit goes into the offseason with a big-time goalie their
#1 priority. Get ready for the Assault of the Prospects, because they
are -all- going to get long looks in camp. My earlier predictions with
regards to prospects moving up may be low. They're cheap, many have two-way
deals, and that frees up a ton of money to give some goalie the max... like,
oh, Luongo. Hell, I'd move Zetterberg and a couple firsts if that is what
it would take. Like I said, non-goalies really don't matter all that much,
as long as you keep around a couple that can score a little.
E.
Posted by Edl in
Here is a really funny post by a microcephalic