Eaten raw...

Well friends, I can’t think of much else to talk about today aside from losing.

It’s so strange to me that losing is something we each experience almost daily as sports fans. Ultimately there is little difference between a big loss or a tight-scoring game that goes down to the wire. CFL fans were treated to a pair of tight games yesterday, with the Tiger-Cats losing despite a late rally, and the Lions losing in overtime. But in the end, fans in both Hamilton and BC, separated by nearly the entirety of this land, went home feeling sad and blue, and sick and green.

For the Tiger-Cats, it’s a disappointing end to a season that was supposed to have ended with at least a trip to the East Final. Through the fog of disappointment, it’s sometimes hard to remember some of the good things that happened this season. And with season ticket renewal letters coming shortly after Christmas, it’s going to be important for this club to remind their fans of the good things they saw on the field in 2010.

The best thing Ti-Cats fans saw this season? Anguish. Looking at Kevin Glenn and other Tiger-Cats after yesterday’s game, it was clear and easy to see this game meant more to the guys in black than to the people in the stands. In today’s sports world, that kind of emotion seems rare, and you certainly can’t fake it. The Tiger-Cats had it in spades.

Staying with Kevin Glenn, it’s hard to ignore the kind of season he had. He threw for more than 5,000 yards and 33 touchdowns, both numbers good for second in the league. No greater authority than Eastern nominee for Outstanding Player Anthony Calvillo suggests Glenn could have been the Eastern nominee. DeAndra’ Cobb quietly out-rushed the likes of Avon Cobourne and Wes Cates with nearly 1,200 yards, and he scored more touchdowns than the Argos’ heralded Cory Boyd. Hamilton was one of three teams with two 1,000-yard receivers and Marquay McDaniel was just 6 yards shy of making Hamilton one of two teams with three 1,000-yard receivers. So clearly, the offense was working.

For all the headlines generated by signing Stevie Baggs, the Ti-Cats had other strong contributions on defense. Jamall Johnson was second in the league in tackles and Garrett McIntyre finished fifth in sacks. Markeith Knowlton led perhaps the league’s best group of linebackers that helped cover up a rash of injuries that tore through the defensive backs.

Dave Stala, one of those 1,000-yard receivers is the Eastern nominee for Outstanding Canadian, Knowlton is up for Outstanding Defensive Player, Marwan Hage is up for Outstanding Lineman and Marcus Thigpen is not only up for Outstanding Rookie but was also Hamilton’s nominee for Outstanding Special Teams Player, although the Eastern nomination rightly went to Toronto’s Chad Owens. Having the nominees in four of six award categories is something to be proud of. No other team can boast such a feat.

This team even won a game in Montreal!

Sadly, all this praise and all these award nominations didn’t add up to a trip to Edmonton in two weeks. But the Tiger-Cats have a lot of the right pieces in the right places, and should enter the 2011 season as real Grey Cup contenders. And from a crushing loss against our most-hated rival, hope springs.

Thanks for the season boys. Until next June, Oskee Wee Wee.

--Steve

Conference semis

Round two, here we go. After a 6-2 performance in the first round, I’m out to prove it was no fluke. So without further delay, the conference semi finals…

Montreal Canadiens v Philadelphia Flyers.
We’re looking at a pretty even matchup, right down to the fact both teams nearly succeeded in blowing 3-1 series leads.
These are two young teams, that lean heavily on their youth, and the invaluable contributions of a few cagey vets to get the job done.
Up front, two very strong offenses, led by lethal power play units. With seven players registering more than 50 points, the Habs were about as balanced as it comes in the regular season. The Flyers counter with six players over 50 points, including three players with more than 70, compared to just Alex Kovalev for Montreal.
Montreal had the league’s best power play in the regular season, Philadelphia was second, though the Flyers maintained their power play against Washington while Montreal’s fizzled against Boston.
Both teams have underrated puck-movers on defense, both teams have goalies looking to prove their worth. Both teams have fans that believe their coaches are in way over their heads.
In the end, does Philly’s grit win out over the Montreal’s abundant talent? If Montreal can play this series the way they played games one and seven against Boston, and if Martin Biron keeps coughing up leads the way he did against Washington, the Canadiens should win this series.
Also of note: the Habs swept the season series, winning all four games while outscoring the Flyers 15-6.
Montreal in six.

Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Rangers.
After disappointing runs in last year’s playoffs, both teams look to make their mark on this year’s proceedings. This series may come down to home-ice advantage, with the Penguins enjoying a 28-10-5 mark at home this season (including playoffs), and the Rangers putting up a fairly pedestrian 17-14-10 mark away from the Garden in the regular season-- though they’re 3-0 in the playoffs.
In their opening series, both the Pens’ and Rangers’ best players were just that. Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and New York’s Jaromir Jagr each posted eight points in making quick work of their first-round opponents. Evgeni Malkin and Scott Gomez each contributed seven points, and New York’s Chris Drury offered all the things Chris Drury offers, almost none of which ever appear on a score sheet.
Of course, for all the offensive firepower these teams have, this series will be won and lost on the blue line, and in the blue paint of the goal crease.
In both of those departments the Rangers have a very clear edge. The Penguins have a solid defense corps, but Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Whitney and Hall Gill have all been dogged by questions about their ability to defend their own zone. The Rangers on the other hand, just seems to keep improving. Watching Dan Girardi and Marc Staal start to come into their own in the New Jersey series was a pleasure.
And in goal, it’s no contest between Vezina-candidate Henrik Lundvist and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Both teams fared well in the first round against favourable opposition, and will face their first real test against one another in the second round. This series is the reason Gomez and Drury were given those contracts last summer.
New York in seven.

Detroit Red Wings v Colorado Avalanche.
Don’t tell Darren McCarty, Chris Osgood, Nick Lidstrom, Kirk Maltby, Adam Foote, Peter Forsberg or Joe Sakic that it’s not 1998.
Sure, it’s been a long time since this rivalry’s heyday, but it’s still fresh in the minds of fans, those seven players, and the people that provide the programming for the NHL Network, and this one should be as good as any of those series were, if less bloody.
Purely on the levels of talent two teams can offer, this series is one of the most compelling. Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the world, and one of the five best to ever play the game. Around him, Brian Rafalski and Chris Chelios are pretty good. They’ll be moving pucks to Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and gifted speedsters like Jiri Hudler and Dan Cleary. Countering for Colorado are capable puck movers John-Michael Liles and Ruslan Salei, looking to spring Sakic, Forsberg, Paul Stastny, Milan Hejduk, and the gaggle of talented forwards the Avalanche have to offer.
And the speed. Oh the speed. With good ice in both Denver and Detroit, and offense-oriented systems, look for Osgood and Jose Theodore to face heavy fire throughout this series.
In fact, it doesn’t even matter which team wins this series, because the fans are going to be the real winners.
In the end, Detroit’s very slight edge in goal, and hefty edge on the blue line will carry them to the Western final.
Detroit in six.

San Jose Sharks v Dallas Stars.
Much like the Montreal-Philly series, this is another one of those wonderfully-even match-ups. The teams split the season series, with Dallas actually gaining more points by virtue of a pair of overtime losses.
It’s tough not to like what the Stars showed in their first-round series with Anaheim. Dallas dominated that series from start to finish, save for game five. They showed great patience, which was on display moreso than ever in game six, a game the Stars trailed at the beginning of the third period.
The Sharks, meanwhile, didn’t show a whole lot during their series with Calgary, being taken to the brink of elimination by the underdog Flames.
In that series, Evgeni Nabokov showed flashes of brilliance, but plenty of ordinary. Against a better-coached Stars team, those stretches of ordinary will haunt the Sharks. At the other end of the rink, Marty Turco looks ready to exorcise all of his playoff demons. After an excellent performance in last season’s first round, when he was simply outdone by Roberto Luongo, Turco put on another display of excellence in knocking off the defending champs.
The Stars also have an x-factor in defenseman Sergei Zubov, who resumed skating the day the Sharks were busy with a game seven. His return should only boost the Dallas power play, which went cold in the second half of their opening series, but has the ability to get hot at any time.
Also of note, when these teams met in the last game of the regular season, with no way to alter their seedings, the game got quite heated. As the tension mounted in that game, the Stars were able to turn in a rock solid performance. Yes, I just questioned the Sharks toughness, again.
Dallas in seven.

Beating a dead horse

Look, if the Knicks can wise up and fire Isiah, the Jays have to wake up at some point and fire Ricciardi, right?

Today, the Blue Jays released Frank Thomas, the 39-year old slugger with diminishing returns they’d signed before last season to fill the hole in their offense.

The slugger, at the time 37-years old, they signed for $10 million a year, instead of locking up, say, a pitcher.

The slugger, viewed as a locker-room cancer in his final days in Chicago. The slugger, who eventually sulked and complained to the media when he was benched for a game in Toronto.

The slugger, who suggested his playing time was being slashed so the Blue Jays wouldn’t be on the hook for another year of his $10 million contract.

The slugger, with a .167 batting average so far this season.

Good riddance to you , Frank Thomas. And here’s hoping someone at the top of the Blue Jays’ ladder is keeping a running tab of the mistakes they’re letting Ricciardi make.

Egg on the Sens' faces

Well, Ottawa, all I have to say to you is that you really deserved this. The Senators used to be a model franchise in the NHL. They were built through the draft after struggles early in their existence. They held on to their most important home-grown talent, and were able to turn mistakes like Alexei Yashin’s contract into important pieces like Zdeno Chara and the pick they used to draft Jason Spezza.

For a while, the Sens played underdogs to the big, bad, big-budget Maple Leafs, and on a place in the hearts of almost everyone outside of Toronto.

The Sens used to be loyal-- to a fault, keeping guys like Damien Rhodes, Jacques Martin and Magnes Arvedson around well beyond their best-before dates.

Coming into this season, new head coach John Paddock had to like the way his future looked. An intensely-loyal organization that he’d been loyal to. An organization that loves to build from within, as guys like Daniel Alfredsson, Anton Volchenkov, Andrej Meszaros, Chris Phillips and Ray Emery can attest to. The Sens were coming off a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, and were favourites to win their division, and get back to at least the Eastern Conference final.

But they stumbled along the way, and Bryan Murray, the man behind every shake-up in Ottawa the last two years, sent Paddock packing midway through the year. Murray stepped back behind the bench himself, helping to lead the Senators to just 18 wins in their final 38 games this season.

That run culminated with the Senators being bounced from the playoffs, on home ice, in just four games.

The blame for this disappointing season can’t all be put on Murray, or any other one player. But if nothing else, it proves Paddock was clearly not responsible for the mess the Senators find themselves in this post-season.

Looks good on them, if you ask me.

Memo to Montreal: that was the worst performance I’ve ever seen in a potential clinching game. Wearing mittens I could count the number of smart plays and good passes the Habs made in the third period.

In other news, happy trails to Steve McNair-- one of the best video-game quarterbacks of all time, and one of the best real-life quarterbacks of the last decade. His Titans were fun to watch, and I don’t think there’s anyone that dislikes McNair. Much the way it’s hard to think anyone will ever forget his, and the Titans, memorable performance in Super Bowl XXXIV. All the best, Steve, you were one of the best.

Goodbye Peter Griffin

I may just be a lowly guy with a lowly blog, whose readership includes his mother-- and not much else.

So I know I have no right to question TSN’s Bob McKenzie or ESPN’s E.J. Hradek, but in the case of former Vancouver GM Dave Nonis, I have to.

The Canucks let Nonis go this week after missing the playoffs, and this space couldn’t think of a better move (other than not hiring him in the first place). Now it’s no secret I’m no fan of Nonis, but that’s mostly because he hasn’t done much of anything to warrant a fan.

He took over Brian Burke’s Canucks team, and has left the team basically intact. Eight regulars, plus Matt Cooke, who was traded at this season’s trading deadline, remain. The Sedins were probably worth keeping, since it’s almost impossible to judge fair value in a return package. The Canucks can’t give away captain Markus Naslund or Brendan Morrison, both of whom are mere shadows of their former selves. Ryan Kesler is the only forward that has improved since Nonis took over the team. Trevor Linden was given a three-season goodbye lap, and as much as I’m a fan of Mattias Ohlund and Sami Salo, you’ve eventually gotta cut ties with players that can’t stay in the lineup-- especially when those players are 30 and 32, respectively.

As for the guys that have come in since Nonis took over, obviously Roberto Luongo has been spectacular. And Nonis was a big winner in that trade. Luongo and Lukas Krajicek have been much more important to the Canucks than Alex Auld (now with Boston), Todd Bertuzzi (now with Anaheim) and Bryan Allen have been the Panthers. Though Nonis loses points for failing to acquire a viable backup goalie to give Luongo a rest every now and then.

At a $1.6 million cap hit, Taylor Pyatt hasn’t been a horrible signing, but 37 points this season (and last) is hardly something to write home about. Jeff Cowan is another of Nonis’ guys. In 88 games in two seasons, his eight goals and four assists are un-paralleled. But it’s OK because Brad Isbister was able to turn in a serious contract-year performance of six goals and five assists in his 55 games. With 11 points in 71 games, was Byron Ritchie really the most reliable of the Canucks’ recent free-agent signings?

Admittedly, Alexandre Burrows had a pretty good season, and carved out a really nice niche for himself as the pest the Canucks haven’t had since Jarkko Ruutu. Of course, he was signed as a free agent by Bukre, not Nonis.

Alex Edler, Luc Bourdon, Kevin Bieksa, they’ve all become young stalwarts on the Canucks’ blue line. Of the three, only Bourdon was drafted by Nonis, 10th overall in the 2005 draft, which turned out a pretty impressive top-10.

From his three drafts, Nonis has exactly two players in the lineup regularly, and that’s if we’re generous and call Mason Raymond’s 49 games this season “regularly appearing.” Montreal and Columbus each boast three regulars from the 2005 draft alone. And sure, there are 10 teams that haven’t had a single player from those drafts appear regularly, but that’s hardly a good measuring stick, and the Canucks aren’t exactly overflowing with prospects.

What’s better, instead of trading older, veteran, oft-injured guys for decent prospects and picks, the Canucks are saddled with limited resources in the system, loads of cap room in 2008-09, but face the free agency of the Sedins, Pyatt, Krajicek, Edler and Burrows in 2009-10, and probably new deals for Naslund and Morrison this summer, eating up any cap space they had.

So in short, Nonis doesn’t draft well, doesn’t manage the cap well, and doesn’t know when to move his assets while they still have value. Sounds like a man that should be out of a job. And, in this very space, it was written about Nonis, “you won’t even get a chance to be a hypocrite when all is said and done because you’ll be out of a job before Sidney Crosby is an unrestricted free agent.” Another point for Steve. At least I never called him “Ted” this time…

Tomorrow we take on the Senators.

A legend in the making?

Yeah, it’s very early to call it, but clearly, it’s worth wondering.

Just one season and three playoff games into his NHL career, Boston’s Milan Lucic is making quite an impression, and showing a knack for coming up big on big stages.

We saw glimpses of what the future holds for this 19-year old pro at the 2007 World Junior Tournament, where he was one of Team Canada’s best players. The people of Vancouver saw it during the 2007 Western League playoffs, when Lucic practically carried the Giants past Medicine Hat in the final, and again when Lucic almost single-handedly led the Giants to the Memorial Cup championship. Lucic took home MVP honours, and was named to the tournament all-star team.

All Lucic did to follow that performance was to captain Team Canada during the Super Series last summer. Canada dominated the Russians in the eight-game set, winning seven of the eight games. After that, Lucic went ahead and won a roster spot with the rebuilding Bruins.

He showed grit and leadership all season long with the Bruins, and took on all comers, including a memorable season-long battle with Montreal’s Mike Komisarek, en route to an improbable playoff berth.

And it was against Montreal Lucic had his brightest moment of the season, scoring early in the first period of game three to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead on home ice. It’s well-documented that the goal gave Boston their first lead against Montreal all season long, but it’s worth mentioning again because of the magnitude. At a time when former all stars like Marc Savard and team captain Zdeno Chara had no way to solve the Canadiens, Lucic scored the biggest goal of the season.

It was a huge goal that only those special big-time performers can score. Lucic may have just three playoff games under his belt, but it certainly looks like he’s poised to become a big-time performer for a long time.

Just some thoughts.

Some thoughts that rattled around after the first night of the 2008 playoffs.

Evgeni Malkin’s goal. Oh. My. God. Seriously, he kicked it to his stick, which was being lifted at the moment he kicked the puck, got his stick back down, and flipped the puck past Martin Gerber from a nearly-impossible angle. Just wow.

Still in the Ottawa game, just one night ago, this very space criticized Wade Redden, and wondered what Wade’s got left in the tank. And while even my little sister could tell you Redden has been playing like hell lately, that fight was huge. Sure, he fights about as well as he’s played this season, but it was the message he sent to his teammates. The Senators were written off by almost everyone going into this game, and were sure to be written off by even more after. But Redden may have helped get the team focused again.

Out west, sure Colorado won, but they had to blow a two-goal lead to do so. Andrew Brunette is one of those guys that just gets the job done in the playoffs. He had an assist, and provided the screen on Joe Sakic’s overtime winner. If I may borrow from, and butcher a line from Wesley Snipes: always bet on Brunette.

Martin Brodeur looked pretty ordinary in game one. TSN showed a great clip of Brodeur at the end of the warm-up, leaning against the boards at the bench, looking completely disinterested. It followed a clip of Henrik Lundqvist looking so pumped up he might burst. None of this bodes well for the Devils. Of note, Sergei Brylin is another one of those playoff guys.

Speaking of those playoff guys, the Calgary Flames have one in Stephane Yelle. Maybe it was a one-off, and maybe Yelle goes back to his normal unproductive ways in game two, but I don’t see it. Playing with Jarome Iginla, Yelle is too smart, and too good to falter. Ryan Clowe scored a pair of goals for the Sharks, and while it’s premature to give him the label, he may be on his way to being one of those playoff guys as well.

Last note on the Sharks. The last minute of game one was nothing short of frantic, but is it just me, or did the Sharks seem a little too desperate to not lose? Might be worth keeping an eye on.

Elsewhere, this has been eating at my brain since the draft lottery, so I’m just going to put it out there: is there any way Tampa Bay doesn’t screw up the first pick? They don’t have amateur scouts (or so it seems), and don’t seem to know how to properly evaluate talent as said talent would fit within the organization, so they can’t afford to trade down-- not even to flip with Los Angeles. The Kings will at least be able to decide between Alex Pietrangelo (can’t tell you how happy I am to have that surname back in my world) and Drew Daughty with the number two pick. And they’ll be wise enough to not rush their pick to the NHL. Can’t say the same about Tampa.

We know Tampa is taking Steve Stamkos first overall. We know Stamkos is too small to play in the NHL and dominate right now. We know he needs at least one more year in junior. We know John Tortorella rides his players exceptionally hard. And we know Tampa is more than likely to rush Stamkos to the NHL.

This is not a Patrick Kane-and-Jonathan Toews or Kyle Turris situation. The Bolts won’t look at Stamkos as the first perfect chip in a rebuilding project, and there will be a lot of pressure on him, and him alone, to take the Bolts back to the promised land-- in year one.

Please, Tampa Bay, do all hockey fans a favour, and trade the pick to Columbus for Nik Zherdev and their first-round pick. It’s the only way to save this kid’s career.