Hockeytown Beatdown

The title says it all. Yep. That’s exactly what Detroit’s 5-0 victory, on Saturday was. Actually, you know what; it was more then just a beat down. It was a: drag ‘em out, curb-stomping, gun in mouth, strip you down, dress you up in a little school girl’s outfit and send you off to class without a bag lunch. I won’t comment much on the defeat because MOST of us saw the game (my fellow co-writer was too busy playing dress up with his wife*, notice the asterix) and we all watched as Detroit piled on 3 PPGs, Fleury was pulled mid-way through the 2nd period, Datsyuk returned to provide 2 assists and the Red Wings improved to 11-1 at home in the playoffs; however, I would like to mention 3 points I have noticed…

1 – Momentum means absolutely nothing in this series.
2 – Discipline means everything in this series.
3a – A 70% Datsyuk DOES make all the difference in the world.
3b – Do you need more of an example why I put Datsyuk ahead of Crosby?

One other note, the Red Wings got another break as Game 6 isn’t slated until Tuesday, giving Datsyuk an extra day to recover further. Also, if Game 7 is needed, it doesn’t go until Friday, giving players even MORE time to recover from lingering injuries.

Now, on to other news around the league…

I – The Avs hiring of Joe Sacco was a bit of a surprising one, given his lack of resume and experience, but plenty of good NHL coaches have come from the AHL: Bruce Boudreaux and Dan Bylsma immediately come to mind. Sacco takes over a team with plenty of talent and youth: Smyth, Svatos, Stastny, Liles, Wolski, Hejduk and Sakic (if he returns); however, they do have cap issues and both Raycroft and Budaj remained unsigned.

II – Ray Emery. ESPN is reporting that he will agree to term with the Flyers on a one-year deal for a ‘low salary’. This is not the same Ray Emery that self-destructed the last season; he underwent 8 weeks of behavioral training before shuffling off to the KHL, where he had impressive numbers. A 1-2 punch of Biron-Emery would greatly help the Flyers compete in a division that features Brodeur, Fleury and Lundqvist.

III – The list of names being thrown around, for the vacant Florida Panthers GM job, is a who’s-who of past NHL successes including: Doug MacLean, Neil Smith, Doug Risebrough, Rick Dudley and everyone’s favorite television ANALyst (yes, that was on purpose) Pierre Mcguire.

IV – When even the NHLPA President says it is time to ‘pull the plug’ on Phoenix, then it’s probably time, Gary.

V - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jim_kelley/06/04/balsillie.coyotes.battle/index.html

Read the portion of this article about the character of Jim Ballsilie and the NHL’s shady past of owners… It’s just so ironic.

VI – Sports Illustrated counted down the top 10 ‘Tough, but Classy Players’… Here’s how they broke it down…

1 – Bobby Orr
2 – Brendan Shanahan
3 – Mario Lemieux
4 – Steve Yzerman
5 – Mark Messier
6 – Bryan Trottier
7 – Vinny Lecavalier
8 – Adam Graves
9 – Ian Laperriere
10 – George Parros

VII – My fellow blogger, teammate and friend, John Kyle Sporer the 3rd, told me, via text message that, he does not care about the NHL, he only cares about the Oilers.

VIII – I know the above statement may seem shocking to some people, but don’t forget, this is the same guy who missed a Maroons (yes, THE Maroons) hockey game for marriage courses and chose not to watch last nights pivotal game 5 because he was, and I quote ‘making table centers’…

Cheers.
-Smith

p.s. this is just a great picture of, possibly, the 4 greatest New York Rangers of all time.