really? (more armchair stuff)
April 2nd, 2008 by Ianwho’d you rather face StL/Chi or Edm/Cal? the Preds get the Central matchups and the Canucks get the Northwest matchups. i’m thinking this isn’t looking good for you Canuck fans, sorry to say.
Tampa can do the Caps a solid by beating the Canes and then laying down for them tomorrow night. the Panthers can do the same thing on the weekend when they face Carolina on Saturday and the Caps on Sunday, nothing like getting the benefits of facing a tired team on two back to backs like that.
only the Pens have more pts than the Caps in the East since the Caps fired their coach at the quarter pole. how about Bruce Boudreau for coach of the year and AO for the Hart? even if the Caps don’t make it in this is a huge burst in production and i’m not on board the AO for the Hart bandwagon (i wasn’t before if they didn’t make the playoffs).
the Preds were down 3 goals against the Blues and came back to steal that game. Chris Mason stopped everything and got the win after Dan “Frodo” Ellis got pulled. i’m still staying far away from Mason in keeper leagues, Rinne is the guy to look at there for keepers.
did you watch the Flames/Oilers last night? kinda deflating to lose by a goal at home to your biggest geographical rival. happy golfing Oilers.
now that Dallas and Colorado are both in, perhaps one of them should tank their last couple games so they can have the honour of finishing 6th and get Minny in the first round. you finish 5th and you get Anaheim, good luck with that. then again any of the bottom teams could still sneak into 6th place leaving you to face either Detroit or San Jose in the first round, and you don’t want that either. i’m not even so sure that facing Minny is what you want, they could surprise but they’re still the best matchup for any of the bottom dwellers.
Buffalo’s still breathing, barely. no doubt the Leafs would’ve loved to put the nail in the coffin but they couldn’t hold a lead … again. the Leafs blogger here on the site noted that McCabe needs to go and i just want to say that i wholeheartedly agree.
the Sens are lost. unless the matchup against the Canes in the first round i don’t see them as being able to beat anybody who’s going to be in. maybe they should sign Ryan Miller and get rid of both goalie options they have available right now. what am i saying, there’s no way they’d be able to find the money to sign Miller to a sheet.
stupid freaking Bruins and Flyers. i’d rather have the Sabres in than you. maybe the silver lining is that the Flyers might get the Pens in the first round and they’d get turfed quickly. if you’re in a playoff pool like mine where you can only pick guys for one round and then can’t pick them again, you might want to wait on picking your Pens til the face the Habs, now that series will be a shootout.
the New York Rangers are going to surprise teams in the playoffs this year.
the Sharks are still in line to take away the President’s trophy and with the way they’re playing i wouldn’t put it past them. the Wings only need a point in their last 3 games to shut the door on the Pacific Division champs though.
Owen Nolan has come up big in big games for the Flames. he’s still a RW4 at best in fantasy but it’s good to see the greyheads still contributing.
Ales Hemsky left the ice with a lower body injury and if there’s any reason for him to sit out the last game of the season i think this is it. he’s contributed a ton to that team this season, let him rest.
Justin Williams and Ray Whitney returned for the Canes last night although Williams apparently left again with an injury. both may have some value if you count playoffs in your pool, although i doubt it either will have significant value.
Posted in armchair
7 Responses to “really? (more armchair stuff)”
By Arose on Apr 3, 2008
wait. are you pro or con AO for the Hart? I’m having trouble understanding the sentence.
If you’re against who is better suited?
By Ian on Apr 3, 2008
i’m FOR it now but i wasn’t earlier if they weren’t going to make the playoffs. when i look at what he’s done and what the Caps have done since they fired their coach then he’s easily the best option for the Hart. some people consider Marty Brodeur the next best option but i don’t, i say it’s either Nicklas Lidstrom or Alexei Kovalev for 2nd place.
By Postman on Apr 4, 2008
I don’t understand what’s the big deal about giving the Hart under the circumstance that the team HAS to make the playoffs. I mean Ovechkin is a one man scoring tank but even he can only do so much in keeping the team as playoff contenders. There’s defenders who defend and goalies who block shots. He scores goals, makes the plays and does some defending but making the TEAM’S performance to make the playoffs determine whether the ONE should get the Hart seems kinda ridiculous to me.
By Ian on Apr 4, 2008
well, it goes to the argument that what good is all the individual stats in the world if the team doesn’t succeed. in the end AO could break every record on the books for a season but if the Caps don’t go anywhere then what’s the point? every team will have it’s MVP but to be the league MVP one would hope that the team itself should succeed.
By Arose on Apr 6, 2008
Ya i’m with Postman on this. The definition of the Hart is that it’s, “given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team.” I can’t think of someone more valuable than Ovechkin, making the playoffs or not. He’s scored something 25% of their goals and assisted on another 25%. That’s valuable.
By Guiguibob80 on Apr 7, 2008
but if they didn’t make the playoff he wasn’t valuable enough as the point of the regular season is to go to the playoffs, not having great stats. A defenceman won’t have offesive player stats but might be really valuable to his team. So you would need an equal measure of success. I’d define that as making your team more succesfull and as I said success in the regular season is making the playoffs.
I understand the point that Ovechkin has been icredibly valuable to his team, but in the same way Lecavalier has been to his team or Kovalchuk, you don’t hear anybody talking about them for MVP as their team didn’t make the playoffs.
My choice is Ovechkin followed by Lidstrom, Brodeur and Iginla
By Postman on Apr 8, 2008
The thing is that Ovechkin can’t play all four lines for the Caps nor can he play goalie. No, he naturally plays for the scoring line and PP line but I am just saying that there are plenty of other players in the team to help the team to the playoffs. The only way I could see the unwritten rule apply is if he played every line, the entire game, every game for the season because the one player helps determine their path to playoffs and his Hart trophy chances. Like I said, making the team’s performance (Ovechkin + 19 other players, four forward lines and three d-man lines) for the one player’s (Ovechkin + his linemates at the time) chances at getting the Hart determined by making the playoffs seems ridiculous.