PowerPlayGoal.com – Hockey From A Different Angle

After so many months of no games, to the tedious weeks of games which don’t actually amount to many points and in which freak line changes make you question the stability of your team.

Wait no more. The season is back.

PowerPlayGoal.com has now officially left its almost 3 month long beta stage and is ready to cover hockey from a different angle. Granted, the layouts changed a lot, and the contents going to be better – but don’t worry, the team behind it are still the same as ever before, and our previosuly large wallpaper section will return, with new, more stylish and larger designs.

The 2008 / 2009 season will be the last chance for teams to win the Stanely Cup season this decade, so lets sit back, grab bag of your favourite deep fried snack, tape/cork the dog/cat, unplug the phone and turn on your 52″ plasma screen. Unless your lucky enough to live near an arena when you can catch all the action in front of your face.

We thank you for coosing to join us this season to provde a lighter, more informative edge to the fastest game on earth, and we all hope that you enjoy the new season and, our new site.

PowerPlayGoal.com – Hockey from a different angle.

And on a final note, 3rd member scrd119 is (as usual) non existant, feel free to drop him an email scrd119@googlemail.com

Here is the final part of the Aftermath series for this year, which will cover the Pacific Division.

Anaheim Ducks

Final standings: 47W, 27L, 8OTL, 102 points, 2^nd Pacific, 4^th Western Conference, 5^th NHL

The Anaheim Ducks entered this season as the defending Stanley Cup Champions. They lost star players Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne to semi-retirement and signed Todd Burtuzzi and Mathieu Schneider as temporary replacements. They also started the season in London, England for a two game series against the Los Angeles Kings, and afterwards returned to the US for a three game road trip where they lost two games and another in OT, before going back to Anaheim for their home opener against the Boston Bruins. The Ducks had a rough start in October, possibly something to do with their trip across the Atlantic, going 3-6-2, and their performance improved afterwards. Scott Niedermayer finally joined the Ducks roster in December (and almost immediately afterwards became one of four Ducks to represent the Western Conference at the All-Star game) and Teemu Selanne signed a one year contract with them near the end of January. The Ducks made the playoffs for the third straight season, but were up against a Division rival that they had trouble against during the regular season, the Dallas Stars, and lost in six games, bringing their defence of the Cup to an end.

Dallas Stars

Final standings: 45W, 30L, 7OTL, 97 points, 3^rd Pacific, 5^th Western Conference, 8^th NHL

The Dallas Stars this year were notable for replacing their mainly green home jersey with a mainly black, college-style one, almost completely eliminating green from the colour scheme. During the regular season, they played fairly good hockey during the first three months of the season, and then slightly worse in January, going 5-7-1. They then had an excellent record in February, losing just two out of 14 games, and then performed much worse in March, going 2-7-3. They later made the playoffs, and in the first round were up against Division rivals and defending Stanley Cup Champions the Anaheim Ducks: the Stars defeated the Ducks in six games, allowing them to make it past the first round for the first time in four seasons. In the second round, they played against another Division rival, the San Jose Sharks, and also beat them in six games. Game 6 of that series went in quadruple OT, and set a record for the 8^th longest game in NHL history. Dallas made it to the Western Conference finals, were they lost to eventual Stanley Cup Champions the Detroit Red Wings in six games.

Los Angeles Kings

Final standings: 32W, 43L, 7OTL, 71 points, 5^th Pacific, 15^th Western Conference, 29^th NHL

Changes for the Los Angeles Kings for this year included their new RBK EDGE jerseys, which simply removed the bottom stripe, and they replaced their goal horn, a foghorn, with a train horn. The Kings began the year by going on a brief exhibition trip in Europe, beating EC Red Bull 6-7 and Farjestads BK Karlstad 4-3 before going to London, England to play two games against Southern California rivals and defending Stanley Cup Champions the Anaheim Ducks, where they both lost and won a game each, 4-1. Afterwards, the Kings played poorly for the rest of the year, with their only good months being October, where they went 6-7-0, and January, where they went 6-5-0. For the fifth straight season, the Kings failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Phoenix Coyotes

Final standings: 38W, 37L, 7OTL, 83 points, 4^th Pacific, 12^th Western Conference, 23^rd NHL

The Phoenix Coyotes this year celebrated their franchise’s 35^th season, although it was their 28^th in the NHL, and 10^th as the Phoenix Coyotes (even though they had the patches on their jerseys last season…). The Coyotes had a fairly “evened-out” season, as shown by their overall record. While it was poor, they still won the majority of their games… well, only just. Their best month was in January when they went 9-4-1, and their worst month was March, when they went 4-9-1. The Coyotes missed the playoffs for the 5^th straight season, and for the second straight season, the Coyotes were last in revenue, losing $30 million this season.

San Jose Sharks

Final standings: 49W, 23L, 10OTL, 108 points, 1^st Pacific, 2^nd Western Conference, 2^nd NHL

The San Jose Sharks, in order to fit in with the new RBK EDGE uniform system, made a couple of changes to their identity. Firstly, they had a new set of logos designed for them, including an updated version of their original logo (both the old and new were designed by the same person), and also switched to a slightly different shade of teal, and replaced the grey in the colour scheme with orange. Their jerseys are now also of a more traditional style. The Sharks entered the season as a favourite pick by many to win the Stanley Cup, which their overall record does reflect on. While San Jose did have an impressive overall record, their best month was March, when they were almost unstoppable, going 13-0-2. In a game on February 9^th against the Nashville Predators, the Sharks won 4-3, giving head coach Ron Wilson his 500^th win, making him the 11^th coach in NHL history to win 500 games. After a very good season, the Sharks went on to win their third Pacific Division championship in franchise history, and made the playoffs for the fourth straight season. In the first round, they defeated the Calgary Flames in seven games, but in the second round they lost to Division rivals the Dallas Stars in six.

That’s pretty much it for the Aftermath this year. Next time, I’ll try to finish it faster…

Part 5 of The Aftermath series will cover the Northwest Division.

Calgary Flames

Final standings: 42W, 30L, 10OTL, 94 points, 3^rd Northwest, 7^th Western Conference, 14^th NHL

The Calgary Flames entered the 2007-08 season as a favourite by some to win the Stanley Cup (Or at the very least, just me. Only because of a strange pattern I noticed with recent Stanley Cup Champions*). They started off by demoting former head coach Jim Playfair to associate coach, and replaced him with Mike Keenan. During the season, Flames captain Jarome Ignila set both personal and franchise records when he played in his 804^th game on November 29^th, setting a franchise record for games played in a Flames uniform, and then scoring his 700^th career point two nights later against Columbus, and then scoring his 365^th goal on March 3^rd, surpassing former Flame and NHLer Theoren Fleury’s record of 364, to become Calgary’s all-time scoring leader. In December, the Flames also became notable by becoming the third team in NHL history to win every game of a six game road trip. Calgary made the playoffs in the end, going up against the San Jose Sharks in the first round, and for the third straight year, they were unable to make it past the first round as the Sharks defeated the Flames in seven games.

Colorado Avalanche

Final standings: 44W, 31L, 7OTL, 95 points, 2^nd Northwest, 6^th Western Conference, 10^th NHL

To begin the season, the Avs signed free agents Scott Hannan, a defenceman, and Ryan Smyth, a left winger, who were both expected to help the team make an impact in the playoffs. Colorado had a good season, and there wasn’t a month when their losses overtook their wins: in November and February, Colorado’s worst months, the number of wins matched that of the losses, and their records for both months were 6-6-1 and 6-6-2, respectively. In February also, the Colorado Avalanche signed free agent and former long-time Av Peter Forsberg, signing him for the remainder of the season. They also acquired Adam Foote from Columbus and Ruslan Salei from Florida. The Avs made it to the playoffs when in the first round they went up against division rivals Minnesota, beating them in six games. They then moved on to the second round, where they were swept by long-time playoff rivals Detroit, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Edmonton Oilers

Final standings: 41W, 35L, 6OTL, 88 points, 4^th Northwest, 9^th Western Conference, 19^th NHL

After losing several key players, becoming one of the worst teams in the league and missing the playoffs last year, the Edmonton Oilers went into a mass rebuilding session. They made many changes before the season started, with one of the most notable being the controversial signing of former Anaheim forward Dustin Penner, who was offered a 5 year, $21.25 million contract: the offer was heavily criticised by the media, as well as and especially Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke, due to him only being in his second NHL season and being overpaid. Despite this, he went on to become the Oilers leading scorer this season: he scored 23 goals. The team’s performance throughout the first half of the year was poor, and they lost the majority of their games. After December, however, the team turned things around, and improved their performance by winning more games. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for them to make the playoffs, and they missed out for the second straight season. Edmonton fans do have some positives to look back at though, such as Denis Grebeshkov scoring the franchise’s 8,000^th goal, as well as the Oilers’ setting of a new NHL record of 13 shootout wins in a season, a record previously held by the Dallas Stars at 12 wins.

Minnesota Wild

Final standings: 44W, 28L, 10OTL, 98 points, 1^st Northwest, 3^rd Western Conference, 7^th NHL

The Minnesota Wild had an overall successful 2007-08 campaign. Building on their franchise-best record of 104 points last year, the Wild ruled the Northwest Division and clinched their first Division title in franchise history. The Wild started off with an eight game points streak, including seven wins and one shootout loss, and then went into a 14 game slump in which they went 4-9-1. Afterwards, it was pretty much solid hockey for the rest of the season except for two winless streaks that took place in February and March: a four game one in which they lost in a shootout and lost in regulation for three straight games, and a five game one in which they lost twice and then lost in 3 consecutive shootouts. The Wild went into the first round of the playoffs and faced division rivals Colorado, however Minnesota would end up losing to the Avs in six games.

Vancouver Canucks

Final standings: 39W, 32L, 10OTL, 88 points, 5^th Northwest, 11^th Western Conference, 21^st NHL

The Vancouver Canucks started by introducing a new (sort of) look to fit with the league-wide change to the RBK EDGE uniform system: they blended a mix of old and new, using their original colours of blue and green, and then a recoloured version of the Canucks’ most recent primary logo, along with an arching ‘Vancouver’ that didn’t go down too well with some people. The 2007-08 season however did not go too well for the ‘Nucks, starting with injuries that would hurt the team’s performance in October. November was a better month however, in which they went 9-2-2, earning the best record in the league during that month. After December however, the team would go on a bumpy road for the rest of the season, resulting in the Canucks missing the playoffs for the second time in three years, and General Manager Dave Nonis being fired and replaced with Mike Gillis.

For the sixth and final part coming up next, the Pacific Division will be covered.

(*And the aforementioned pattern I noticed? Here we go: Carolina lost in the 2002 Finals, Anaheim lost in the 2003 Finals, and then Calgary lost in the 2004 Finals. After the lockout, Carolina won the Cup in 2006, Anaheim won in 2007, so I was expecting Calgary to win it this year. I was wrong.)