Rooting for the Enemy

Ten years ago (hell, even five years ago) if you had told me I would own a Jaromir Jagr shirt, I would have called you crazy and then kicked you out of my house.  The guy tortured Flyers fans for 17 years.  The Spectrum played Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady” when Jagr was an opponent.  An anagram for his name (Jaromir) is Mario Jr., and he was the enemy, just like Mario was.  Even after he moved away from Mario to Washington and later New York, two more teams we hate, we continued  to despise him.  It was a perfect fit, one of our favorite players to hate playing for three of our most hated teams.

But the shirt is in a dresser in my room.  Orange and black with the #68 on it.  I own a shirt that says “Jagr” on it.  He is one of us.  The guy we called “Jagirl”.  We root for him now.

How can we, as Flyers fans, root for a guy who torched the Flyers for 54 goals and 120 points in 95 regular season and playoff games?

Just End the Stamkos Drama

Enough with it. End the drama.

Is there a chance Stamkos doesn’t play for the Lightning next year? Surely, but it’s pretty small.  GM Steve Yzerman is trying to do everything in his power to keep Stamkos in Tampa.  Stamkos is the team’s biggest marketing tool, and the future of the franchise.  Trading (or letting Stamkos go) would be Stevie Y’s last resort, but there’s no rush at the moment.

Are teams like the Flyers, Maple Leafs, among other teams,  interested in adding Stamkos? Of course.  He’s one of the best players in the league, everyone’s going to have interest.  How much interest and whether they are willing to part with some pieces is a different story.

A lot of these types of rumors are started because the NHL offseason has hit a dead spot.  Everyone’s bored.  Fans are playing NHL11 and seeing how different players look in different uniforms.  Media members have written stories about “no new news” with the Stamkos negotiations and then fans begin speculating (despite the insistence of “no new news”).  Rumors start, such as that Stamkos “doesn’t want to play in Tampa”, even though no credible reports have said this.  Also, it has been denied over and over.  Yet the rumors persist.

So what do Lightning fans think?  

Bleeps And Bloops: Free Agents Still Available

Looking at some of the still available unrestricted free agents that could help a team this year.

Alex Kovalev (PHOTO: Getty Images)

FORWARD:

Brendan Morrison, Center (UPDATE:  Re-Signed with Calgary 7/15/11)

Cory Stillman, Left Wing: 39 points split between Florida and Carolina last year, would be a good addition to anyone looking for powerplay help (12 of 39 points came on the man advantage).

Sergei Samsonov, Left Wing: 40 points last year, still capable of producing offensively. But he’s only for a team that could put him on a line with a decent centerman.  If the team can provide that, he could be a nice addition.

John Madden, Center: If you need a depth center who’s willing to grind it out, he’s your man.  25 points with Minnesota last year despite a -9 +/- rating.

Vinny Prospal, Center: Despite a knee injury last year, still managed 29 points with The Rangers. Another option for those seeking powerplay help (10/29 pts came on the man advantage) and/or a veteran presence in the locker room who can contribute on and off the ice.

Alex Kovalev, Right Wing: Not quite what he used to be, but still worth a sign if  and only if the price is right. Managed 34 points between Ottawa and Pittsburgh last year.

Brent Sopel (PHOTO: Getty Images)

DEFENSE:

Steve Staios: A veteran who can still block a shot and contribute offensively every once in a while (10 pts in 39 games w/ Calgary last year), far from a top pairing guy, but could prove valuable depth wise.

Craig Rivet: Despite a knee injury and sitting out most of last year, well worth a pickup for the right price as a depth defenseman and nothing more.  A decent shot blocker.

Ruslan Salei: Very limited offensive abilities, but another good depth move for a final pairing.  3rd on the team in shot blocks last year with Detroit.

Brent Sopel: This defensive defenseman would be a good addition to any team.

Bryan Mccabe: He’s still got some gas left in the tank, 28 points split between Florida and New York last year. Would be a decent addition to a good powerplay, but he isn’t too shabby at even strength either.

Ray Emery (PHOTO: CBC)

GOALTENDER:

Ray Emery: Coming back from a potentially career ending medical condition, Emery shined in Anaheim going 7-2-0 with a .926 save percentage and a 2.28 goals against average. Could be a valuable backup or 1B goalie.

Marty Turco: While last season didn’t go as well as he would have liked, he would still be a decent backup on any team, he’s  past being a #1 goalie.

Pascal Leclaire: A risky sign ( as he’s been known to injure himself picking up a pen to sign a contract) but Pascal still has the ability to be a goaltender in the NHL, just not sure if it is as a #1.

CS Hockey Tournament: Part II

Two of the unbeatens squared off at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, where Dan’s Flyers took on Jeremy’s Kings. The crowd was rocking pregame and it continued as Eric Lindros scored 26 seconds into the game. The Kings quieted the Philadelphia faithful with two goals less than two minutes apart, one by Wayne Gretzky and the other by Ian Laperriere. At the 13:41 mark of the second period, Kevin Stevens took a high sticking penalty, and the Flyers capitalized on the ensuing powerplay. Rod Brind’Amour knotted the game up at 2. The score remained the same heading into the third, but not for long. Six seconds into the final period, Eric Desjardins scored to give the Flyers the lead. Justin Williams added an empty net goal to seal the deal.

Andy’s Bruins hosted Joey’s Penguins at TD Garden in Boston.  The Penguins took an early penalty by John Cullen, leading to a Ray Bourque powerplay goal 45 seconds into the game.  Midway through the first, Ed Olczyk scored the Penguins’ first tournament goal to tie it at 1.  Mario Lemieux scored the only goal in the second period, giving Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead heading into the third.  The Bruins wouldn’t quit, and their persistence turned into a Joe Thornton goal with nine minutes remaining in regulation.  The teams battled through overtime, but with twelve seconds left, Mario Lemieux scored his second of the night to give Pittsburgh two points.  Both Tim Thomas and Tom Barrasso were on their games, as each team had over 50 shots.

Out Of The Blue — An Introduction

In recent seasons, I have found myself taking in a number of games from teams outside of my rooting interests. You know by now that I am a Penguins fan but my second favorite team for the last decade has been the Kings.  A few seasons ago, I happened to watch quite a few Sharks games out of interest but didn’t continue that the following season.

Last year, I found myself having a pretty decent interest in the Blue Jackets by nothing more than mere chance. In addition to viewing games, I also found myself learning about the team and the market and even putting my Armchair GM thinking cap on. Perhaps I was trying to improve myself as a hockey fan by finally taking an interest in a team a mere three hour drive down I-70 that I have been sheltered from thanks to them being in the Western Conference for their existence. Whatever it may be, unlike other casual interests in recent years, the Blue Jackets will get another season of interest from me.

CSH Hockey Tourney Part 1

The Crimespree Hockey tournament kicked off in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, where Gabbi’s Rangers hosted Andy’s Bruins. Ted Donato scored the first tournament goal, five minutes into the game, assisted by Patrice Bergeron. Five minutes later, Nathan Horton scored on a P.J. Axelsson rebound to put the Bruins up 2-0. The Rangers’ Eric Christensen cut the lead at 12:29, but Ray Bourque put the Bruins back up by two 34 seconds later. Shortly after, Joe Thornton took a high sticking penalty and the Rangers made them pay when Alexei Kovalev scored on the powerplay. Tim Thomas and Henrik Lundqvist stood on their heads throughout the remainder of the game as the final score was 3-2, Bruins.

Rob’s Blue Jackets traveled to Los Angeles to take on Jeremy’s Kings. From the start, the Kings were ready to go, as they scored two goals in the first 90 seconds (Ferraro and Robitaille). Later in the first, Nikolai Zherdev gave Columbus life as he made the score 2-1. Both the Kings and Jackets traded goals in the second period two minutes apart (by Gretzky and Fritsche) to give a 3-2 LA lead heading into the third. But the third period was all Kings, as Eric Belanger and Gretzky each scored on the powerplay and Kevin Stevens added late goal to give the Kings a 6-2 win.

A Day at Prospect Camp

Yesterday, I spent the day at Flyers Development Camp, where Flyers prospects and invitees worked on drills to hone their skills with the Flyers’ development team, including Derian Hatcher, Ian Laperriere and Riley Cote.  Obviously at these camps, you won’t learn a whole lot about a player, especially doing repetitive drills.  Many of the drills were set up to see what the players could do, with the Flyers brass (including Paul Holmgren) watching.  The day was split into two sessions, defensemen early and forwards later.

Most of the fans’ eyes were on both Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier.  Schenn seemed to struggle in some of the early drills, but the team will probably take a deeper look at the young center during Flyers’ training camp in September.  Couturier showed some nice hands throughout the session.  His goal this year is to make the NHL, but between the Flyers’ lack of roster space and no need to rush him, he will likely find himself back with Drummondville of the QMJHL.

Zac Rinaldo is a curious case.  Not drafted by the Flyers for his scoring prowess, Rinaldo’s three years in the OHL got him 27 goals, 69 points and 669 PIM.  If you include postseason, he has yet to have a season under 200 PIM.  He had 331 PIM with the Phantoms in the AHL last year, and collected more suspensions (4) than goals (3).  So why is he even worth watching?  Well, it’s just development camp, but he looked impressive yesterday.  While some of his counterparts coasted through the drills, Rinaldo seemed to give his all throughout the morning.  If he can tone down his antics, maybe he can develop into solid role player.  That’s a big if though at this point.

Some other quick thoughts:

CSH WhatIfSports Tournament & Rosters

For fun, six of us (Andy, Dan, Gabbi, Jeremy, Joey and Rob) created a league on What If Sports. We decided to only take players from our teams in the past 20 years, with the website’s $50 million cap. We could only choose a player for a year he played for our team, and could pick no player more than once.

After our rosters are set, each team will play each other twice in an 10 game season, and we’ll highlight the games throughout the summer. The team with the most points at the end of the schedule will be the winner!

So without further ado, here are our rosters:

Blue Jackets (Rob)
Centers: Andrew Cassels (2003), Dan Fritsche (2007), Derick Brassard (2011), Kevyn Adams (2001), Sean Pronger (2003)
Left Wings: Rick Nash (2010), Fredrik Modin (2007), Ray Whitney (2003), Lasse Pirjeta (2003)
Right Wings: Nikolai Zherdev (2008), David Vyborny (2006), Trevor Letowski (2006), Kevin Dineen (2001), Jared Boll (2009)
Defense: Fedor Tyutin (2011), Grant Clitsome (2011), Deron Quint (2001), Ron Hainsey (2007), Marc Methot (2007), Lyle Odelein (2001)
Goalies: Steve Mason (2009), Pascal Leclaire (2008), Fredrik Norrena (2007)

Bruins (Andy)
Centers: Joe Juneau (1994), Joe Thornton (2002), Patrice Bergeron (2007), Travis Green (2006), Marc Savard (2007), Rob DiMaio (2000), P.J. Stock (2003)
Left Wings: P.J. Axelsson (2003), Andy Brickley (1992), Ted Donato (1997), Dave Andreychuk (2000), Mikko Eloranta (2002), Kevin Stevens (1996)
Right Wings: Nathan Horton (2011), Martin Lapointe (2004)
Defense: Zdeno Chara (2007), Raymond Bourque (2000), Aaron Ward (2007), Dennis Wideman (2007), Andrew Ference (2008), Steve Staios (1997)
Goalies: Tim Thomas (2009), Jon Casey (1994)

July 4th’s All Time American Hockey Team

In honor of our country’s Independence Day, I’ve decided to compile a full 23 man roster of the greatest American hockey players.

Centers
Pat LaFontaine scored over 1000 points in a career that was cut short. He was surpassed as the American points leader by Mike Modano, who has 561 goals and 1374 points (and still going?). Another player with 500 goals and 1000 points is Jeremy Roenick. The recently retired Doug Weight played for various teams in the NHL for 19 seasons, also scoring over 1000 points. Neal Broten, a member of the 1980 Olympic hockey team, played 1099 NHL games, being named an All Star twice.

Left Wings
Keith Tkachuk is only one of four Americans to score 500 goals, and went to five All Star games. In Montreal, John LeClair was a 3rd line center, but when he was traded to Philly in 1995, his career took off. 3 straight 50 goal seasons (only American to do that) and 5 straight 40 goal seasons, LeClair finished with over 400 goals. Brian Rolston has played over 1100 games and scored over 700 points in the NHL. Even though he never played an NHL game, Mike Eruzione scored the biggest goal in American hockey history, as he captained the 1980 Miracle on Ice team.

Kings Show They’re Serious About Winning – Now.

It’s good to be back in the saddle here, and I hope to be able to post more frequently leading up to and during the 2011-2012 season.

When the 2010-2011 season ended, the Kings found themselves on the short end of a 6 game series with San Jose. Kings were minus their best player, and it still took the Sharks 3 overtime victories to vanquish a resilient Kings’ squad. I’ll not discuss this much, as I’m still bitter we lost, and every time I see anything teal I want to kick babies. OK, maybe not babies. Anyway…

The loss of one player made a significant dent in the Kings, particularly defensively. The Kings were thin up the middle without Kopitar, and it cost them. Fortunately. Dean Lombardi took notice of this and made it his priority to shore up center ice for the Kings. Just before the 2001 NHL Draft, Lombardi was able to engineer a deal with Philadelphia to acquire Flyers’ captain Mike Richards. The Kings had to part with fan favorite Wayne Simmonds, top prospect Brayden Schenn and a second round pick in 2012; but for a guy with Richards’ credentials, that’s more than a fair price to pay. The emergence of Kyle Clifford made Simmonds expendable, and Schenn is still probably a season away from full time NHL duty. In acquiring Richards, the Kings now have a 1-2 punch at center that matches up with any team in the West. If Kopitar were to be inured again, Richards is could not only fill in for Kopitar’s offense but also his defensive play. His addition makes the team exponentially better.

Winger Ryan Smyth in the meantime, requested that Lombardi send him home to Alberta if a trade could be worked out. The event created a bit of a shitstorm in the local hockey media, with Smyth denying his trade request initially. After what ended up being days worth of drama, Smyth was sent to Edmonton for Colin Fraser and a pick. Fraser was found to be injured, and Lombardi neglected to reverse the deal. The Oilers owe the Kings additional compensation over the mishap but don’t expect that to be much. Smyth will be missed, but the Kings do gain a TON of cap space from the deal and Fraser, if healthy, can be a serviceable bottom 6 player who has a Cup ring from his time in Chicago two seasons ago.

Smyth’s departure left a gaping hole in the Kings top 6 heading into the start of free agency on July 1st. Lombardi and company- an entourage including the Kings’ coaching staff and AEG CEO Tim Lieweke – made a hard pitch for Brad Richards that included testimony from Wayne Gretzky and Kobe Bryant about the joys of playing in LA on Friday. Richards chose the Rangers and former head coach John Tortorella on Saturday, and the Kings immediately took to plan 1A and signed LW Simon Gagne, the longtime Philadelphia Flyer most recently a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, to a two year deal. Gagne has scored 20 or more goals 7 times in his career, 30 or more goals 4 times, and 40+ goals twice. He comes with some risk as he’s had some unfortunate injuries later in his career, but Gagne is a gifted scorer who has spent several productive seasons alongside new Kings #2 Center Mike Richards in Philly. Provided Gagne can stay healthy, he can score 30 + on Richards’ flank, and he makes the Kings a much better team. Unlike last summer, when the Kings had no plan beyond their pursuit of Ilya Kovalchuk, Lombardi and co went out and got the necessary pieces to make the Kings a contender right now, without giving up their entire farm system to do so.

So, as of July 3rd, the Kings’ top 6 looks like Penner-Kopitar-Williams and Gagne-Richards-Brown. The best and most balanced top 6 the Kings have had in a decade or more. I expect the Kings to add perhaps another serviceable bottom 6 guy before camp, but that’s perhaps not even necessary as the Kings have Bud Holloway, Tyler Toffoli and Brandon Kozun on the cusp of cracking the lineup. We’ll see how it plays out, but Lombardi has options.

One interesting thing for those in the twitterverse: Dennis Bernstein of The Fouth Period has hinted over the past couple of days that he thinks the Kings have one more big move coming before camp, and has indicated it involves a forward. I’ll not speculate much here now, but one has to wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with Zack Parise – who’s arbitration award may be more than the Devils can swallow. NJ needs an heir for Martin Brodeur, which leads me to believe hypothetically at least that Bernier would be part of any such deal. Again, pure speculation on my part as Bernstein hasn’t divulged any info on the Kings’ possible dance partner, and for all we know it could be something off the board. It all remains to be seen.

The sum of all the moves that have been made up to now, and the potential of another big move on the horizon is this: The Kings are contenders, right now. Dean Lombardi has responded to critics who’ve hung the “Can’t make the big move” tag on him with two dynamite additions to the roster. Lomardi knows these Kings are ready to make a run at the Cup this season. It would be fair, and by all means accurate, to call them frontrunners for the Pacific Division title in 2011-12, and one of the teams to beat in the West. I’ll withhold my in depth analysis of that as there’s a lot of time between now and the opening of camp in September.

Needless to say, if you’re a Kings’ fan like I am, there hasn’t been this much excitement surrounding our team in a long time. I know it’s got me waking up daily asking “Is it October yet?”.

GO KINGS!

-JS

(Cross posted from my other blog, The Throne Room)