NHL: Mike Green, Tim Thomas and 17 Biggest Surprises of Season's First Half
Every NHL season has it's share of surprises. Can't miss favourites fall by the wayside while unheralded, unheard of players suddenly become stars. For good or ill the surprises come.
This is a collection of some of the events, teams and players who have surprised me the most in the first half of this NHL season.
Here they are, my top 17 surprises from the first half of the 2010/11 NHL season.
17. Sidney Crosby Is The Best Player In The League
1 of 17
Sidney Crosby had established himself as one of the five or six best players in the game since he broke in as a rookie, with 102 points. The debate has raged about how good he is historically and how good he is relative to his peers. The consensus had been that he was one of the best five or six players in the league right now and probably 1-1a with the other big young star in the game, Alex Ovechkin.
This season he had upset that dynamic before he was hurt. He was on pace for a best ever for him 132 point season. That combined with Ovechkin's step back this year placed him above the rest of the NHL. He was also on the verge, at age 23, of having an all-time great kind of season. Now 132 points isn't Wayne Gretzky great or Mario Lemieux great, but it is a Dennis Savard, Bernie Nicholls, Jaromir Jagr kind of great. It's been too long since the NHL has seen a season or a player of that quality.
Crosby looks now to be that kind of player and hopefully he has many more of those kind of seasons in him.
16. NHL Writes Confusing Rule
2 of 17
After years of complaints about the danger of head-shots in the NHL complete with medical studies on the long term consequences of concussions in collision sports, and after a few particularly brutal unpenalized head shots last season the NHL finally put a rule in place to penalize for a head-shot.
Despite the time they spent considering it, the NHL gave their referees an unclear rule to administer. The result has been predictable. Some head shots seem to have been over-penalized and some have been ignored.
Sidney Crosby was struck from the blind-side in the winter classic by Washington Capital checker Dave Steckel. That hit likely concussed him and a subsequent hit in the next game versus Tampa Bay has him out of the line-up for an indeterminant period of time. So the NHL's rule put in place to protect it's players from blind-side head-shots proved ineffective when it came to protecting the leagues #1 star. It wasn't even applied in the case where any reading of the rule would seem to indicate it was violated.
48.1 Illegal Check to the Head- A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted.
48.2 Minor Penalty- There is no provision for a minor penalty for this rule.
48.3 Major Penalty- For a violation of this rule, a major penalty shall be assessed (see 48.4).
48.4 Game Misconduct- An automatic game misconduct penalty shall be assessed whenever a major penalty is assessed under this rule.
48.5 Match Penalty- The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent with an illegal check to the head.
48.6 Fines and Suspensions- Any player who incurs a total of two (2) game misconducts under this rule, in either regular League or playoff games, shall be suspended automatically for the next game his team plays. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game
If deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion (refer to Rule 28).
Rather than a simple workable rule the NHL has put in place a rule that requires the referee to be among other things a mind-reader, as he is expected to evaluate intent. I'm less concerned with why a player did what he did or whether he intended to do or not. What did the player do? Penalize accordingly. They can debate intent in the tribunal the next morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUQziwabMKk
To these old eyes that looks like a hit to the head from behind. I'm willing to assume intent as well and hand out a match penalty. I guess I shouldn't be surprised the NHL put such a dysfunctional poorly applied rule in place but I am.
John Phen did a nice piece on this rule earlier in the season.
15. Carey Price Doesn't Fold In Montreal
3 of 17
Carey Price has been handed the keys to the Montreal Canadien's car several times already in his short career. He has managed to crash it just about every time he's gotten his hands on the wheel.
After Montreal got rid of the beloved regular season and playoff star goalie Jaroslav Halak, Carey Price was again handed the starting job. A rough outing in an exhibition game lead the volatile Price to suggest the fans in Montreal should "Chill Out". In a counter intuitive display of maturity the Montreal fans did just that.
After a couple of nervous moments in his first few games Price has settled in as the NHL's busiest goalie. Carey still has another half season to prove he can't hack it in the pressure cooker in Montreal but right now he's been as cool as the legendary George Vezina.
.png?w=256 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=256 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=256)
14. Dan Ellis Fails In Tampa Bay
4 of 17
Dan Ellis is another in a long line of great Nashville Predator drafted or developed goalies who have gone on to NHL success. Tomas Vokoun and Chris mason both moved on to success. Now it was Dan Ellis's turn.
Ellis won the starting job in 2007-08 with a .924 save percentage and 6 shut-outs in 44 games played. Since then he's been supplanted by the skilled Pekka Rinne. His rights last year were traded to Montreal but then he was signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning as a free agent.
Tampa Bay was that up and coming club that was supposed to contend for a playoff spot and maybe soon another Stanley Cup. Ellis was supposed to be that last piece of the puzzle.
Unfortunately he proved incapable of doing the job and was replaced by the venerable but steady Dwayne Roloson. Ellis had a miserable .880 save percentage and 3.13 goals against average in Tampa Bay.
13. St Louis Blues Don't Step Forward
5 of 17
The Blues are one of those teams that have struggled for a while now in the tough NHL Central division. They've only made the playoffs once in the last five years and haven't won a playoff series since they beat the Blackhawks in the first round in 2002.
St Louis has been adding young talent for years now. The latest addition of Montreal Canadien's playoff hero Jaroslav Halak seemed to be move that would propel them into the playoffs. They were my choice at the beginning of the season to be the third most improved team in the league this season. Their 40-32-10 record last year doesn't look much different than the 21-16-6 record they have so far this year.
They still sit outside the playoffs and in a logjam with eight other teams who are in range of the final five playoff spots in the west.
The Blues have suffered injuries to key players Andy McDonald and TJ Oshie. Neither Brad Boyes nor Patrick Berglund have been able to recapture the offensive year they had in 2008-09. Last years league best penalty kill has been poached and they are 19th in the league this year.
Halak's .911 save percentage is fine but it's a far cry from last years spectacular .924 in Montreal.
The Blues still have half a season to put it all together. Halak got better last year as the games got more important. St Louis will be battling a lot of good teams for that final playoff spot all while playing in the NHL's toughest division.
12. Ilya Kovalchuk Can't Score
6 of 17Ilya Kovalchuk has been since he joined the league with the Thrashers in 2001 one of the best offensive players in the NHL. The sniper had 29 goals in his rookie year. He's a natural scorer who hasn't scored fewer than 41 goals in a year since 2003.
I was sure his presence would be disruptive in New Jersey but I was also positive playing with Zach Parise at the age of 27 he would score at least that many again in New Jersey. NHL players often have their best offensive seasons when they're in their prime (say 26-31).
The injury to Parise has certainly slowed him down. Apparently so has the controversy surrounding his signing. Still a man who scored 29 as a rookie and has routinely scored forty and twice more than 50 is currently on pace to score 20 goals and 46 points this year.
He's tied with rookie defenseman Cam Fowler, Hab cast-off Sergei Kostitsyn, the player he was traded for Niclas Bergfors, former energy player Troy Brouwer and the much-maligned Olli Jokinen with 23 points so far this season.
It's a shocking surprise to me that a sniper with so much natural talent is having this bad an offensive year.
11. Kari Lehtonen Stays Healthy
7 of 17
Kari Lehtonen was chosen by the Atlanta Thrashers second overall in the NHL's 2002 entry draft behind Rick Nash and ahead of Jay Bouwmeester. The Helsinki native was to be Atlanta's franchise goalie.
He played 68 games for the Thrashers in 2006/07 and the next year had his best season with a .916 save percentage and a 2.90 GAA in 48 games for a defensively weak Atlanta team.
Groin injuries troubled him in Atlanta occuring at inconvenient times for the team. He missed most of last year and was traded to Dallas in February for Ivan Vishnevsky and a 4th round pick. He got in 12 games with Dallas before the end of last season.
This year in Dallas he has a .920 save percentage in 33 games. At 27 he could be the Stars quality starting goalie for years to come, as long as he can stay healthy.
10. New Jersey Devils Are Worst In The League
8 of 17
I've been predicting the demise of the Devils ever since they lost the first round series to the Rangers back in 2008. Yet both seasons since then they've won the Atlantic division beating out superior Pittsburgh and Philadelphia teams in the regular season with 106 and 103 point seasons.
I looked for them again this year to miss the playoffs barely. Instead they've collapsed all at once. Cap strapped and with a veteran goalie that seems to have come to the end the Devils have 24 points in 42 games. They are not on pace to get half the points they've managed in any of their 7 last NHL seasons.
I expected them to be bad this year not worse then everyone. The Devils are suddenly staggeringly, epically bad all while spending the maximum possible on players.
They have already traded away team Captain Jamie Langebrunner for a third round draft pick. The garage sale of New Jersey veterans can be expected to be epic as well.
9. Jeff Skinner The Best Rookie In Hockey
9 of 17NHL teams have become very focused on working young talent into the line-up as quickly as possible. This season seems to have seen an unprecedented number of rookies making their NHL team and contributing.
Jeff Skinner was picked seventh overall in last years NHL entry draft behind the much more highly regarded Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. There was a long list of rookies that were supposed to be better than Jeff Skinner this year. An early analysis I saw written expected him to go back to junior this year.
Instead Jeff Skinner is leading all rookies with 34 points. His fifteen goals are second only to Logan Couture's 19 in San Jose. He has an eight point lead on the charging Taylor Hall. This race will probably get much more interesting before the end of the year. Right now however Jeff Skinner is the best rookie in the NHL.
8. Glen Sather Dumps More Salary
10 of 17
Glen Sather was well on his way to being the most reviled man in New York. For years he was signing the wrong player for way too much money in an attempt to make the Rangers successful.
In the last couple of years a new plan has evolved where he dumps salary in an attempt to make some cap room. Markus Naslund conveniently retired, Scott Gomez and his unmovable contract was moved to the Montreal Canadiens for a prospect. He traded Alex Kotalik's contract to the Flames last year Pruswt and Jokinen and he simply allowed Olli to sign elsewhere.
Ranger's fans couldn't reasonably expect Glen to manage to get rid of more of his idiot contracts. How many suckers are there out there?
He started the season by burying Wade Redden's $6.5 million a year contract for the next four years in the AHL. Now that doesn't really require much smarts just an organization with the money and the willingness to bury their GM's mistakes in the minors.
Now though he's traded troubled defensman Michael Rozsival and his $5 million a year contract to Phoenix for forward Wotjek Wolski and his $3.8 million a year contract. Sather has completely reworked his defense following the Dallas Star model of young, talented, mobile and relatively inexpensive.
I hate to give kudo's to the former Oiler GM but I can't believe he got rid of another contract let alone two. The Rangers next year have $43 million in salary dedicated to 15 players. That's the best ratio they've had since the cap came in.
Now he just has to keep himself from signing some over the hill veteran to a crazy, high salary, long-term contract.
7. Mike Green Isn't The Best Offensive Defenseman In Hockey
11 of 17Mike Green of the Washington Capitals was threatening to be one of the best offensive defensman in history. He's had two consecutive point a game seasons. He scored a spectacular 31 goals from the back-end in 2007-08.
A demoralizing first round lost to the Montreal Canadiens last year seems to have brought all of that to a halt. The Capitals aren't scoring or winning like they did last year. Mike Green the scoring champion among NHL defenseman the last two years in a row is suddenly 26th in scoring by defensemen.
6. Tim Thomas Wins His Job Back
12 of 17The tiny athletic goalie has been swimming against a current of hulking butterfly goalies his entire career. Probably told he was too small to play nets in grade school, the acrobatic Thomas often reminds me of another old time Boston great Gerry Cheevers.
He finally had his moment of glory when in 2008-09 as a 34 year old highly dependent on his reflexes he won the Vezina trophy as the NHL's best goalie.
He was good last year with a .915 save percentage, 5 shut-outs and a 2.56 GAA. Unfortunately on a Bruin team that couldn't score he was replaced by 23 year old Tuukka Rask who with a .931 save percentage, 5 shut-outs and a 1.97 GAA was just better than him.
This year however Thomas is back. He's 36, 37 in April. Yet he has won the starting job back in Boston with an incredible league leading performance. Thomas is the first half of the season leader in save percentage (.940) and goals against average (1.88) while appearing in 31 games for the Bruins.
Thomas's story is one of the more inspiring ones this year, but maybe I shouldn't be so surprised by it.
5.Washington Capitals No Longer Southeast Champs
13 of 17
The Washington Capitals have been Southeast champs for the last three years in a row and last year lead the league in the regular season.
A demoralizing first round loss to the Montreal Canadiens and a much improved Southeast division has left the capitals fifth and the east and fighting with Tampa Bay and Atlanta for the Southeast division title. This is a shocking decline for the President's trophy holding Capitals.
The offense is down in Washington. They lead the league in goals scored last year ,but are 14th in the league this year. They're fourth in scoring in the Southeast division ahead of only Florida.
The good news is there is a half season left to play and the Capitals are only two points out of first in the Southeast and four points out of first in the Eastern Conference.
4. Evgeni Malkin Is No Longer a Point a Game Player
14 of 17Evgeni Malkin is a top grade offensive talent. He had the second of his 100+ point seasons in 2008-09 and was one of those players among the five or so who were in the discussion with Sidney Crosby about who the best player in the league is.
He's not in the discussion anymore. Thirty five points in 40 games is a good total. It's just not an elite number.
After four point a game seasons Malkin has taken a significant step backwards. A guy who has challenged for the league lead in scoring is suddenly 41st. A player who once challenged for the leadership in Pittsburgh is suddenly a distant second.
3. Atlanta Thrashers Are a Good Team
15 of 17
The Atlanta Thrashers have played in exactly one playoff series in their ten seasons in the league. They have won exactly zero playoff games.
This season's version looks like they're ready to change all that. After trying desperately to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a crippling $10 million a year long term contract they instead traded him to New Jersey for prospects and picks.
Atlanta management then used their cap space to sign some key free agents and they traded mostly with the cap-strapped Blackhawks for some more key pieces to their puzzle. That along with the development of their own quality draft picks has produced an Atlanta Thrasher team that is tough to play and is currently in a playoff spot.
The Thrashers 140 goals for is the seventh highest total in the league. Ondrej Pavelec their young goalie has a second best .930 save percentage and an eighth best in the league 2.33 GAA.
The Thrashers need to get their league worst 34.4 shots against per game under control and their goals against count down. Their line-up features a bevy of young talent that will only improve with age.
After years of futility the Thrashers are a good team and look to be a good team for a long time to come.
2. Dustin Byfuglien Is a Norris Trophy Candidate
16 of 17
Dustin Byfuglien was a role player for the Stanley cup winning Chicago Blackhawks. A power forward he was impossible to move off the puck, was a nice big screen in front of the net, and had soft hands near the net. The big man wasn't quick off the mark and could be left behind in a hurry if he lost the puck.
The 25 year old was a half a point a game energy player in Chicago. He was a big hitter and played a crucial role for the Blackhawks.
The Atlanta Thrashers tried Byfuglien out on defense, a position he'd played on occasion in Chicago. His 41 points in only 45 games is the highest scoring total he's ever had in a complete season so far (36 points was his best season).
He is leading the Thrashers in goal scoring and points. The transformation from fair power forward into one of the best offensive defensemen in the league is shocking. Atlanta is maximizing his assets and minimizing his deficiencies. A lot of the credit has to go to Coach Craig Ramsey and of course Dustin Byfuglien himself.
1. Dallas Stars Are The Most Improved Team In Hockey
17 of 17
The Dallas Stars finished last in the Pacific division last year with 88 points. They currently lead the Pacific with 57 points in 44 games, on pace for 106 points this year. Their line-up is little changed from the one they had at the end of last season.
Kari Lehtonen has proven to be an upgrade from the aging Marty Turco. In Loui Ericksson, Brendan Morrow, James Neal, and Jamie Benn the Stars seem to have collected a group of the most skilled defensively responsible sets of forwards in the league.
The defense is young and mobile and inexpensive. Brad Richards is having a top drawer offensive season. Statistically as a team they're middle of the road yet in Dallas the sum seems to be more than the parts.
Along with the Thrashers, Dallas is the most surprising team to me this NHL season.
.png?w=480 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=480 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=480)
.png?w=600 "B/R NHL Staff Second-Round Predictions 🏒")
