Bleacher Report - Articles by Tom Collins

It Starts: Hockey Season Begins Tonight

Tom Collins — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:02:13 -0400

Today is the day.

My NHL preview begins at 1 p.m. with a preview of the Calgary Flames, and continues every hour with a new team preview. You can see the complete list by clicking the NHL preview link at the top of the page.

Just some things to note if you plan on coming back to read some of the previews:

I’ve been writing these over the past couple of weeks, so a couple of things may have happened after I finished a particular team’s preview (such as Chicago putting one of its goalies on waivers).

The hockey pool picks are for players that may be off the radar. So no flak for me not writing that Sidney Crosby isn’t on the list. If you don’t know enough to draft Crosby, you shouldn’t be in a hockey pool.

I’ll be providing links to the posts from the NHL preview tab every once in a while, so you can visit there to find your team’s post more easily.

See the previews at http://theryancokeexperience.wordpress.com.

Sit back and enjoy!

NHL Team Previews to Come on the Hour Next Week

Tom Collins — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:51:51 -0400

It’s coming. Starting at 1 p.m. on Oct. 8, I will post an NHL team preview every hour until the first game begins on Oct. 9.

The teams will be broken down by position, with predictions on how they will finish, and some hockey pool picks. Please note for the pool picks, I will not be choosing obvious players. It will be some players who could have a good year, and who you should stay away from.

I’ll also be giving my predictions on who will win the Stanley Cup, all the hardware, and maybe a crazy prediction or two (like where will Mats Sundin end up).

The complete list of when each team will be posted is found at the top of my blog, under NHL preview. I will be providing links to the team previews from that page as they go up, so, if you miss one, go there to be able to find it quickly.

If you have any comments, predictions, or questions, post them below.

Patrick Roy's #33 to hang from the rafters in Montreal

Tom Collins — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:47:53 -0400

The Montreal Canadiens announced yesterday that Patrick Roy’s #33 will be retired on Nov. 22, in a game against the Boston Bruins.

This is Roy’s first real public appearance with the Canadiens since the disaster of the game that led him to be traded all those years ago.

For those who don’t know, Patrick Roy was my favourite player. I had a Roy jersey that I wore to school two or three times a week. I had newspaper clippings. He was the first player that I wrote, asking for an autograph. Like every young Montreal fan at the time, I idolized him.

What’s weird is that I never got a chance to watch him play in person. I tried. My dad took me to a game in 1993, against L.A. The Habs won 7-2, but their backup was in net.

When I moved to Ottawa in 1995, I bought a six-pack of Senators games, and made sure Montreal was one of them. He was traded before the game happened. And I went to a Colorado-Ottawa game, but back then, the Sens sucked, so the backup always played against them.

The last game of Roy’s Montreal career holds a different type of memory for me than it probably does for most people. It was my first year of university, and I had just started to get to know a good friend of mine, Wendy. She’s from Montreal, and is also a huge Habs fan.

So she kept telling me stories about how she would go to see the Canadiens play in person. She told me the Habs had never lost a game that she has been at. She stressed the word never. She encouraged, no, almost begged me, to make sure I watched that hockey game. She pretty much guaranteed a victory.

So I watched. I would have anyways. I’m a huge Habs fan, remember?

You all know the rest. Patrick Roy was left in net for nine goals, as the Habs lost 12-1 to the Detroit Red Wings. When he was pulled, he went past the coach, Mario Tremblay, and told team president Ronald Correy that he would never play a game for Montreal again.

Four days later, he and captain Mike Keane was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for Andre Kovalenko, Martin Rucinsky and Jocelyn Thibault.

Now that 13 years have passed, it’s time to answer questions left over from that day.

Did Montreal get enough in the trade?Yes. Roy forced Montreal to make a trade. They had little choice. They ended up getting a few players that had the chance to blossom into top players. It didn’t work out, but they in return for Roy, they got a young #1 goalie (who stood on his head at first: remember the chants of Thibault during games?) and two guys who had the opportunity to be offensive players.

Did the trade screw Montreal, helping them become a poor team for the next 10 years?No. Bad trades and bad draft picks did that. From 1994 to 2000, Montreal used their first round picks on Brad Brown, Terry Ryan, Matt Higgins, Jason Ward, Eric Chouinard, Ron Hainsey, and Marcel Hossa. Not exactly a group you can build a team around. In fact, in 1999, Montreal didn’t have a first-round pick. Instead, they used their second-round pick on Alexander Buturlin (yeah, I’ve never heard of him either).

Is this the reason Roy kept fighting Detroit players?Perhaps. In Colorado, Roy got into fights with Mike Vernon, Dominic Hasek and Chris Osgoode, all Detroit goalies. Although the two teams had a huge rivalry, but I wonder if Roy held an extra grudge against them for running up the score that night in Montreal.

Should Roy have been traded? Yes. The egos in play were too big. Tremblay and Roy could never have a player-coach relationship after this, and you have to show that the players are not bigger than the game.

Anyways, Roy brought the Habs to the promised land. Twice.

Both times they won the Stanley Cup, he was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. With Montreal, he won the Jennings trophy four times and the Vezina trophy three times. He is usually seen as the best goalie of all time. He revolutionized the goalie position, wearing bigger equipment and bringing in the butterfly style.

Despite what happened in that one game, Roy gave it his all for the Habs. He was a leader on the ice. He kept the Habs respectable when they couldn’t score throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Without Roy, our last Stanley Cup won have been in 1979, not 1993.

He deserves to have his jersey hanging from the rafters. And he deserves a standing ovation. I may not idolize him like I once did, but there’s doubt he was something special on the ice.

Top 10 Montreal Canadiens That Never Lived Up to Their Potential

Tom Collins — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:03:42 -0400

Over the years, there have been 707 players that have played at least one game with the Montreal Canadiens. Of those, there were plenty that I liked that never played up to their full potential in Montreal.

Here is my top 10. Keep in mind that I have been a fan since the late 80s, so obviously the players will come from that timeline. I also didn’t want to mention players who are still with the team, because they still have a chance to live up to that potential.

10) Marcel Hossa

Marian Hossa’s little brother, drafted 16th overall by the Habs in 2000. I wanted him to be half as good as his brother, someone who could score 20 goals a season. Instead, he was half of half, never scoring more than 10 goals. He’s since been traded to the Rangers and Phoenix.

9) Yannick Perreault

A great faceoff man, arguably the best in the NHL. But he had defensive problems—so bad that the coach wouldn’t put him on the ice for a faceoff in the last minute of a game.

8 ) Brad Brown

A Newfie who was drafted by the Habs, he had no points in 13 games before being traded to Chicago. He ended up playing more than 300 NHL games with teams such as Blackhawks, Rangers, Wild, and Sabres.

7) Terry Ryan

Another Newfie who was drafted by the Habs, he played left wing, and once scored 50 goals and 60 assists in the WHL. Had no points in eight games for the Habs, and never seemed to play as well in the AHL as he did in the WHL.

6) Gilbert Dionne

The way-younger brother of Marcel Dionne, Gilbert managed to win a Cup in his first full season—he had played 39 games the year before. He ended up going to Philly as part of the Leclair-Recchi trade, but only played 27 more games after that.

Dionne had one breakout year, with 21 goals and 34 points in 39 games, and followed it up with two straight seasons of 45-plus points. I was disappointed when he was traded, because I thought he still had a lot of potential.

5) Sergei Samsonov

I was so excited when Montreal signed him two years ago. Here was a former first-round draft pick, taken eighth overall. He had the speed that matched other Montreal players. He had just come off a good playoff run with the Oilers. I kept thinking he would be good for 25-30 goals and 70 points or so.

But Samsonov was a major bust. He had nine goals in 63 games. He complained when he was demoted to the fourth line, despite not playing well. He requested a trade after only a couple of months.

He was finally traded to Chicago, where he was a bust, but has now seemed to rediscover his game in Carolina.

4 and 3) The Lebeau brothers

These guys set records in juniors. Stephan had three straight seasons of more than 145 points, culminating in a 94-goal, 94-assist campaign. Patrick scored more than 60 goals in his last two years of junior.

Both were drafted by the Habs. Stephen had a great season the year they won the Cup, with 31 goals and 49 assists to lead the team.

The next season started off slower, and Stephen was traded to Anaheim. He only played 60 more games before going to the Swiss League.

Patrick never made it in the NHL. He played two games for Montreal and 15 NHL games total, but did win a silver medal in the Olympics in 1992. He always played well in the minors, so I’m not sure why he was never called up.

2) Valeri Bure

Lots of brothers on this list. This guy could straight-out fly. I kept hoping he could be like his brother, but he couldn’t seem to finish. He only score more than 20 goals for Montreal once before being traded to Calgary, where he had some good seasons.

The best thing Bure ever did while playing for Montreal was marrying Candice Cameron from Full House.

1) Oleg Petrov

Petrov was another player with lots of speed. I liked the fact he always tried hard, skated fast and he had that underdog quality about him. He scored 40-plus points twice, but that was it. He had two stints with Montreal, leaving for the Swiss league in between. He now plays in Russia.

Honorable mentions: Alexander Perezhogin, Jocelyn Thibault, Turner Stevenson, Paul DiPietro, Andrew Cassels, Jyrki Lumme

Ottawa Senators Predictions in the Hockey News Make Me Happy

Tom Collins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:54:54 -0400

So the Hockey News has come out with its hockey fantasy pool guide.

It has most of the Montreal Canadiens taking a dive point-wise. That’s fine. I can live with that as long as the Habs keep winning.

But the best news has to do with the Ottawa Senators. It was Martin Gerber winning 15 games, and his backup winning 10. That equals 25 wins, which is only 50 points. Even if they gets 15 points from shootout/overtime losses, that gives them only 65 points.

ESPN has put the Sens as finishing 10th in the Eastern conference. They don’t take a guess at points, but that would have them out of the playoffs.

So either the Hockey News is expecting the Sens to trade for a goalie at some point, or they’re predicting Ottawa will have their worst NHL season since 1995-96, when they had only 41 points.

Personally, I’d like to see the latter. It’d be fun to watch the Sens continue their brutal second half performance of last season for a full year.