Seven Things – 9 May 2011
1. The Vancouver Canucks have made the Conference Finals for the first time since 1994, and just the third time in their 40-year history. The first time they were on the shoulders of King Richard Brodeur – the second time, it was Captain Kirk McLean who got them to the third round. This time they sit atop the broad shoulders of Ryan Kesler. Nickname him as you will, just don’t call him Clark. He hates that.
This guy signed a jersey. We’re raffling it off for charity. Buy a ticket, will ya?
2. Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne was merely outstanding in game six. Y’know, as opposed to OUT-FUCK-ME-WITH-A-BANDSAW-STANDING as he’d been the previous five games. At the other end, Roberto Luongo boasted a miniscule 1.83 goals against average in this series and an equally impressive .933 save percentage. (The stats are more impressive if you consider only goals scored via actual shots on net. Remarkably, David Legwand and Joel Ward magicked the puck into the Vancouver goal from behind the goal line four times in this series.) Even with those numbers, you won’t find a single hockey fan who wouldn’t call him the second-best goaltender in the series. At $3.4 million dollars per over the next two seasons, the Preds have a bargain in goal.
3. Nashville GM David Poile has done a decent job piecing together a workmanlike team that seems to perennially outperform expectations. That said, WTF is up with Martin Erat? Sure, Sergei Kotstitsyn was invisible in this series, but he’s only jacking the Preds for a few hundred grand next year. Erat, a talented winger with Nashville’s top points-per-game ratio during the regular season, scored all of three assists and zero goals in six games against Vancouver. He’s scheduled to make a cool four and a half million bucks a season until 2014-5.
4. Joel Ward has got to be one of the best feel-good stories in Music City this spring. In 80 games with the Preds this season, he was eighth in team scoring. Let’s put this in perspective: he was eighth on a team whose top scorer was 91st overall in the NHL. Ward had a measly 29 points in those 80 games, and just one point in four games against the Canucks. This playoff, however, saw Ward emerge as a gritty talent: he had four goals and four assists for 8 points in the six games. Nashville only scored 11 goals, and he was in on eight of them. If Kesler hadn’t stepped up to propel the Canucks to the third round, Ward and Rinne would be fighting over the Photoshopped cape.
5. Like the Vancouver Canucks, the Nashville Predators were a penalty killing machine during the regular season. Both were in the top five in the NHL; Vancouver finished with an 85.6% efficiency rating on the PK, while Nashville wasn’t too far behind at 84.9%. Unlike the Canucks, the boys from Smashville weren’t able to keep it up in the post-season. They gave up power play goals on a full 30% of their penalties. At Bridgestone Arena, they gave up 8 goals on 20 chances, the worst home playoff percentage in 20 years. Sure, the female talent in the crowd is something to admire – as one of my buddies aptly noted, “Hey, man, that Carrie Underwood chick is all kinds of hot” – but perhaps come playoff time, Shane O’Brien needs to spend less time admiring the beer girls, and more time sitting guys like Ryan Kesler on his can. (Note: Perhaps the Preds shouldn’t feel bad. Just one year ago, based on their first round futility against the Los Angeles Kings power play, these same Vancouver Canucks gave up 11 goals on 30 chances at home for a similarly embarrassing record. The only question is, will they fire their special teams coach in the off-season as the Canucks did last summer?)
(Article continued after the following sports-related ad content, which you really ought to read.)
Vancouver-based fanzoo offers signed memorabilia for reasonable prices. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing. Howzabout a signed, framed Alex Burrows 8×10 for under two hundred bucks? Give ’em a looksee. And if you pull out the plastic, tell ’em Pucked in the Head sentcha.
(Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled chicanery.)
6. In addition to their regular season hardware, the Sedins are now the most prolific playoff brothers of all time. Henrik and Daniel have now played in 78 playoff games together, tops for brothers lining up for the post-season on the same team. Next are multiple Cup-winners Duane & Brent Sutter, who played 77 games on Long Island, Bob and Barclay Plaget, whose 66 games took them to three consecutive Cup finals (all losses) in the late 60s, and Jimmy & Joe Watson, with 63 games on the Broad Street Bully teams that brought Cups to Philadelphia. Barring injury, Hank and Dank are guaranteed to hit 82 in the next series, but would love to make it a minimum of 86, I’m sure.
7. The Canucks scored 14 goals during the six-game series against the Nashville Predators. Kesler was in on 11 of them, and now leads the NHL in playoff scoring. People were calling for MVP status for RK17 even before he scored a single goal. Now that he’s off the schneid, he’s a threat every time he jumps over the boards, and deserves the Conn Smythe talk. It’s said that he has facial reconstructive surgery every three years, and only sleeps one hour a night. Rumours also abound that he despises anyone who doesn’t get subtle Fight Club references in obscure hockey blogs. This conversation is over.