Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Re: UNH Wildcats 2015-2016 (Part Three) - Living in Interesting Times
I'll wade into the B's discussion with some outside perspective ... it's been dinosaur hockey for far too long, and it's finally caught up with the B's over the last two seasons. They've been fortunate to have had Zdeno Chara in the prime of his career, and the only difference in between his time with the B's and that of Ray Bourque is that Chara had Tim Thomas to thank for his Stanley Cup ring, while Bourque had to get his ring courtesy of Patrick Roy in Colorado. It's always amazed me in what high esteem most around the B's seem to hold Tuuka Rask. What did he have yesterday - a tummy ache?
Shadows of Brent Hemingway, I guess. I'm not sure the B's have actually ever had an elite goalie during my lifetime, but guys like Thomas and Cheevers back in the day had the ability to raise their games in the postseason (which is no small feat to be dismissed as a statistical anomaly BTW).
I think the B's have to get rid of Neely, first and foremost. Sweeney's been in his current job for one season now, so they're realistically committed to him for another year or two at least. Sadly for Julien, I think he will be scapegoated, even though he did a decent job at trying to meet the off-season remit of making the B's a more wide open attacking team this season. The B's defense is a pale shadow of its former self and I don't see that improving quickly any time soon.
To be completely honest about all of this ... the DRW aren't really in that much of a different position right now than the B's. They ended up with the same number of points, and only a quirk in the playoffs system not only got them in over the B's, but handed them a pairing with a suddenly weakened TB team they took to 7 games last postseason. And say what you will about the B's not putting a premium on talented skaters ... but the DRW forwards who at least on paper and on highlight reel goals would *seem* to be the talented kind of group that the B's fans might think would be an improvement, scored significantly less goals than the B's this season. Too few DRW's won't go to the net and pay the price, and that' still an important attribute for a winning team. Otherwise, the goalie situation has two overrated guys - one who is grossly overpaid (see Howard, Jimmy and Rask, Tuuka)), and another who is still coasting on some big games in international games and the Calder Cup a few years ago. And the situation on defense is a collection of far too mediocre players, with the one quality guy (DeKeyser, who is a borderline first pairing guy at best) being asked to do far too much to make up for everyone else.
And now with the news that Datsyuk will be leaving to return to Russia after the playoffs ... all that's left to hope for is whether GM Kenny Holland can pawn off the last year of Pavel's contract onto a team needing to meet the salary cap bottom threshold, and *maybe* try to land Stamkos, and make some decisions on which of the underachieving waterbug forwards (I'm looking at you. Gustav Nyquist) to dump to try to get another legit top pairing defenseman. Holland is another guy who has been riding on his reputation for a little too long now. and needs to remind folks why he's in the job, while his former protégés Steve Yzerman (TB) and Jim Nill (Dallas) have built strong young well-rounded teams elsewhere.
So as you can see ... there's really not that much difference between the B's and DRW. Both are well past their sell-by dates, and both are trying to do their rebuilds on the fly. It's something DRW have only succeeded at marginally (and I mean infinitesimally marginally) better than the B's have so far. Frankly, unless Sweeney or Holland pull rabbits out of their respective hats in the offseason, I think their respective teams can probably start planning for mid-April 2017 golf dates. Sad but true, I'm afraid.
I'll wade into the B's discussion with some outside perspective ... it's been dinosaur hockey for far too long, and it's finally caught up with the B's over the last two seasons. They've been fortunate to have had Zdeno Chara in the prime of his career, and the only difference in between his time with the B's and that of Ray Bourque is that Chara had Tim Thomas to thank for his Stanley Cup ring, while Bourque had to get his ring courtesy of Patrick Roy in Colorado. It's always amazed me in what high esteem most around the B's seem to hold Tuuka Rask. What did he have yesterday - a tummy ache?
Shadows of Brent Hemingway, I guess. I'm not sure the B's have actually ever had an elite goalie during my lifetime, but guys like Thomas and Cheevers back in the day had the ability to raise their games in the postseason (which is no small feat to be dismissed as a statistical anomaly BTW).I think the B's have to get rid of Neely, first and foremost. Sweeney's been in his current job for one season now, so they're realistically committed to him for another year or two at least. Sadly for Julien, I think he will be scapegoated, even though he did a decent job at trying to meet the off-season remit of making the B's a more wide open attacking team this season. The B's defense is a pale shadow of its former self and I don't see that improving quickly any time soon.
To be completely honest about all of this ... the DRW aren't really in that much of a different position right now than the B's. They ended up with the same number of points, and only a quirk in the playoffs system not only got them in over the B's, but handed them a pairing with a suddenly weakened TB team they took to 7 games last postseason. And say what you will about the B's not putting a premium on talented skaters ... but the DRW forwards who at least on paper and on highlight reel goals would *seem* to be the talented kind of group that the B's fans might think would be an improvement, scored significantly less goals than the B's this season. Too few DRW's won't go to the net and pay the price, and that' still an important attribute for a winning team. Otherwise, the goalie situation has two overrated guys - one who is grossly overpaid (see Howard, Jimmy and Rask, Tuuka)), and another who is still coasting on some big games in international games and the Calder Cup a few years ago. And the situation on defense is a collection of far too mediocre players, with the one quality guy (DeKeyser, who is a borderline first pairing guy at best) being asked to do far too much to make up for everyone else.
And now with the news that Datsyuk will be leaving to return to Russia after the playoffs ... all that's left to hope for is whether GM Kenny Holland can pawn off the last year of Pavel's contract onto a team needing to meet the salary cap bottom threshold, and *maybe* try to land Stamkos, and make some decisions on which of the underachieving waterbug forwards (I'm looking at you. Gustav Nyquist) to dump to try to get another legit top pairing defenseman. Holland is another guy who has been riding on his reputation for a little too long now. and needs to remind folks why he's in the job, while his former protégés Steve Yzerman (TB) and Jim Nill (Dallas) have built strong young well-rounded teams elsewhere.
So as you can see ... there's really not that much difference between the B's and DRW. Both are well past their sell-by dates, and both are trying to do their rebuilds on the fly. It's something DRW have only succeeded at marginally (and I mean infinitesimally marginally) better than the B's have so far. Frankly, unless Sweeney or Holland pull rabbits out of their respective hats in the offseason, I think their respective teams can probably start planning for mid-April 2017 golf dates. Sad but true, I'm afraid.
