Tag Archives: The Aftermath

The Aftermath – 2011 edition: Part 6

October 01, 2011   wildwing64   No comments

The 2010-11 NHL season is now finished. After a 39 year drought, the Boston Bruins came out of nowhere and beat the Vancouver Canucks to win their sixth Stanley Cup.

This six part series will consist of brief summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 6, the final part of the series, will finalise coverage of the Western Conference with the Pacific Division.

Anaheim Ducks

Final standings: 47W, 30L, 5OTL, 99 points, 2nd Pacific, 4th Western Conference, 9th NHL

With Captain Scott Niedermayer retiring after the Ducks’ disappointing 2009-10 campaign, the team needed to rebuild its defence: they managed to snag Cam Fowler 12th overall at the Draft, and then immediately signed him to an entry level contract for the upcoming season. As usual, Anaheim had a rough flight path ahead of them as the start of their 2010-11 season was once again lacklustre: but they finally took off in November, playing more consistently until a six game winless streak. At times the Ducks were plagued by a number of lengthy injuries to key players including Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf, even rookie Cam Fowler; and most notably goaltender Jonas Hiller who suffered from a severe case of Vertigo following the NHL All Star game, which forced him to sit out for pretty much the rest of the season trying to recover. Backup Curtis McElhinney just wasn’t a good enough replacement, so Anaheim traded him and acquired Dan Ellis from the Tampa Bay Lightning before the trade deadline. The Ducks also signed Ray Emery, who would soon play his first NHL game in a whole year, after recovering from hip surgery. Emery and Ellis made up for Hiller’s absence as they both helped the Ducks on their way to clinching a playoff berth in game 81, before bumping up to 4th in the Western Standings. The Ducks were matched up against the Nashville Predators, but their goalie situation along with a top-heavy lineup and a lacklustre third line was taken advantage of by Nashville, ultimately leading to Anaheim’s defeat in six games.

Dallas Stars

Final standings: 42W, 29L, 11OTL, 95 points, 5th Pacific, 9th Western Conference, 16th NHL

The 2010 offseason marked the end of an era for the Dallas Stars as their 20-year franchise face Mike Modano, after pondering retirement, was not re-signed and he joined the Red Wings. Veteran goalie Marty Turco was also not re-signed, and he instead went to play for Chicago. After signing Adam Burish and goalie Andrew Raycroft to serve as a backup to Kari Lehtonen, the Stars got off to a strong start compared to other teams in the West and by the end of December had a comfortable 22-13-4 record, which was made even better by their last game of January as they improved to 30-15-5, and from 48 points to 65 over the eleven game span. Following the All Star game, Dallas suddenly became worse and went into a nasty ten game skid; not much was done to resolve this issue as the Stars were one of the least active teams before the trade deadline, sending forward James Neal and defenseman Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh in exchange for d-man Alex Goligoski. After a horrendous February the Stars improved and much like other Western Conference teams were now making their final playoff push. Over March and February they earned a 9-5-5 record before their final game of the season, in which they were eliminated after a loss to Minnesota. Their record of 95 points however tied the record set by Colorado in 2006-07 for the team with the highest point total that failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Los Angeles Kings

Final standings: 46W, 30L, 6OTL, 98 points, 4th Pacific, 7th Western Conference, 12th NHL

After making the playoffs for the first time since 2002 last season, the Kings aimed to do so again and in the offseason hoped to bolster their lineup, and were in talks with Ilya Kovalchuk until he ultimately chose to sign with the Devils. Los Angeles then signed veteran Willie Mitchell – who would be paired up with Drew Doughty on defence – and forward Alexei Ponikarovsky. At the start of the season the Kings ruled the standings as they got off to a strong start with a 12-3-0 record over their first fifteen games, however this early success wouldn’t last long as they then went into an eight game skid (1-7-0). This was shortly followed by a reasonably strong twelve game stretch of 9-2-1 in December which was again followed by a twelve game skid in which the Kings only won two games. At this point the Kings had an uncomfortably inconsistent record which saw them earn just more than a point-per-game record, yet despite this they didn’t do a whole lot to their roster to rectify this issue – however, LA did continue onwards with a stronger, more consistently winning record for the rest of the season, and before the trade deadline acquired Dustin Penner from the Oilers in hopes of making the team stronger down the stretch and in the postseason. The Kings hoped to finish with a higher position in the standings but their efforts were thwarted by both the Sharks and Ducks in the final games this season, and thus LA had to settle for 7th instead. In the quarterfinals the Kings were matched up against state rivals San Jose in only the third ever all-California playoff series, but their postseason run came to an early end as the Sharks finished them off in six.

Phoenix Coyotes

Final standings: 43W, 26L, 13OTL, 99 points, 3rd Pacific, 6th Western Conference, 11th NHL

After a disappointing yet hardly surprising loss to Detroit in last year’s quarterfinals, the Coyotes, happy with the roster as it was, made no apparent changes and this season were one of the teams that headed over to Europe for the NHL Premiere event, where they first played in an exhibition game against Dinamo Riga in Latvia, and then opened their season against the Boston Bruins in Prague, winning 5-2 in the first game and then losing 3-0 in the second game, taking home just the two points. Their return home wasn’t great as they entered a twelve game slump, having only 13 points after their first 14 games, but this was followed by a seven game win streak in November. The Coyotes had a number of these rough patches throughout their season along with some strong performances to make up for that, and eventually managed to overtake division rivals Los Angeles in the final playoff standings. However for the second year in a row in the first round they were faced against the Red Wings, who trampled over the Coyotes and swept them in four. As the Coyotes have been the favourite subject of much relocation discussion, this was presumed to be their final time on the ice before they moved back to their original city of Winnipeg: however, that was not to be as it was instead the Atlanta Thrashers who were purchased and relocated to become the new Winnipeg Jets.

San Jose Sharks

Final standings: 48W, 25L, 9OTL, 105 points, 1st Pacific, 2nd Western Conference, 5th NHL

After a disappointing defeat to the eventual champion Blackhawks in last year’s Conference Final, the San Jose Sharks then saw a number of changes as team captain Rob Blake retired, and goalie Evgeni Nabokov was not signed to a new contract. Familiar faces such as Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski were signed to new deals, and the Sharks would see a new face as their starting goaltender in Antti Niemi, who won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks last year. San Jose were one of the few teams to take part in this year’s NHL Premiere event, with an exhibition game in Germany against Adler Mannheim, and then a pair of games against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Stockholm (the latter of these two being the first NHL game of two of our three writers, yay!): San Jose won the first game 3-2 and lost the second 3-2 in OT, taking three out of a possible four points home with them. They got off to a rocky start, but soon the Sharks picked up and would yet again be one of the best teams in the West, and after November had a consistently strong record save for a six game losing streak in January. The Sharks had no trouble getting to the playoffs, and earned both their fourth consecutive Division title and their seventh consecutive playoff appearance. The quarterfinals saw them participate in only the third ever all-California series against Los Angeles, and the Sharks beat the Kings in six games. In the next round they played against the Red Wings: San Jose managed to lose three in a row after taking the first three games in the series, but luckily won in game seven. The Sharks were then in their second consecutive – and third ever- Conference Finals appearance against the Vancouver Canucks, but the Wings had clearly worn the Sharks out as the Canucks made short work of them in five.

That’s it for the Aftermath 2011 Edition, hope you enjoyed reading it.

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The Aftermath – 2011 edition: Part 5

September 01, 2011   wildwing64   No comments

The 2010-11 NHL season is now finished. After a 39 year drought, the Boston Bruins came out of nowhere and beat the Vancouver Canucks to win their sixth Stanley Cup.

This six part series will consist of brief summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 5 will cover the Northwest Division.

Calgary Flames

Final standings: 41W, 29L, 12OTL, 94 points, 2nd Northwest, 10th Western Conference, 17th NHL

Following their disappointing end to last season where they missed out by only 5 points, the Calgary Flames like many other teams made some changes to their staff during the offseason. Former Tampa Bay GM Jay Feaster was hired to be Darryl Sutter’s assistant, and three of the Flames scouts were fired (pardon the pun). During the preseason a number of key players for the Flames including Daymond Langkow and Matt Stajan among others suffered from injuries. As a result of these injuries the Flames got off to a weak start to begin the season, quite the opposite of last year. Three more players suffered injuries in October, and Calgary’s record looked even worse with them having won only 10 games by the end of November (10-12-2); however, the Flames franchise did reach a milestone this month, as Curtis Glancross scored Calgary’s 10,000th goal in a 3-2 win against Philadelphia. The Flames began to look like a better team in January, and from there until the end of February the team earned a 15-5-6: also in February the Flames hosted Canada’s first outdoor NHL game since 2003, the Heritage Classic, against the Canadiens. Calgary won 4-0, the most lopsided victory of all outdoor NHL games to date. Following this the highly competitive Western Conference saw a number of teams including the Flames making a big, final push to get a playoff spot, but for the Flames in the second year in a row, it was not to be and they finished with a record almost identical to last year’s, missing the 8th place spot by just 3 points behind Chicago.

Colorado Avalanche

Final standings: 30W, 44L, 8OTL, 68 points, 4th Northwest, 14th Western Conference, 29th NHL

The Avalanche, having made a disappointingly early exit in the playoffs last year, clearly had their eyes set on going further… at least, during the first half of the season. The team was not very active in the offseason, but they started off good out of the gate with a 6-4-1 record in October. However, October was when one of Colorado’s problems began to kick in: starting goalie Craig Anderson suffered an injury during the team’s pre-game drill on October 26th, and was replaced by backup Peter Budaj for the next ten games. November and December both saw the Avs once again earn fairly decent records (totalling 14-9-4) and the team had a six game winning streak in December, but from January onwards the Avalanche began tumbling downhill and out of the playoff race. February was a particularly notable month which saw Peter Forsberg make a brief return to his former team, playing for just two games on the road before retiring because of foot problems and in his own words an “inability to defend” himself on the ice. Craig Anderson continued to struggle in net and was soon traded to Ottawa for Brian Elliot, and the Avs finished February with an embarrassing 1-11-1 record, followed by a marginally better 2-10-1 in March. Much like two seasons prior, the Avs’ hopes of going anywhere near the playoffs were flushed down the toilet as they eventually finished with their worst overall record since the franchise moved to Denver.

Edmonton Oilers

Final standings: 25W, 45L, 12OTL, 62 points, 5th Northwest, 15th Western Conference, 30th NHL

Having failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight season and finishing with their second worst record in franchise history, the Edmonton Oilers decided to make some changes to their staff with Tom Renney being named head coach. This year was hoped by the Oilers faithful to be the start of a new era for the franchise as their abysmal record last season allowed them to take their first ever first overall pick at the NHL draft in June, which they used to select Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires, who was immediately signed by the Oilers with the largest rookie contract in franchise history. It was clearly evident that this was to be another season of rebuilding for the Oilers as they once again played with an overall weak record, finishing with the exact same points total as last year and finishing dead last for the second year in a row. But again, much like last year, the crappy overall record allowed them to get the first overall pick at the draft for the second straight year, which they used to take Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Red Deer Rebels. They’ve been a very busy team since, so could the Oilers be on the rise next season? Only time will tell.

Minnesota Wild

Final standings: 39W, 35L, 8OTL, 86 points, 3rd Northwest, 12th Western Conference, 21st NHL

The Minnesota Wild were one of a few teams to take part in the NHL Premiere this season, and they flew over to Finland with the Carolina Hurricanes to open their regular season in Helsinki. Beforehand, the Wild played in a preseason game against Ilves in Tampare, beating the home team 5-1. In their games against Carolina, the Wild got the short end of the stick as they lost the first game 4-3 before losing the next game 2-1 after a shootout, flying back home with just 1 point. Upon returning they signed goalie Jose Theodore to a one year contract, and he went on to earn 15 wins in 32 games with the Wild. Minnesota picked up four wins before the end of the month, and at the end of December after 37 games had an almost point-per-game record with 39 points (17-15-5). Minnesota appeared to be a stronger team for the two months that followed (16-9-1), but as the other Western teams made their final playoff pushes, the Wild struggled to compete and they lost most of the remainder of their games. They were officially eliminated in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 78, making them miss the playoffs for the third straight year, but their final game made for a bittersweet end for fans as the Wild were also the team to eliminate the Dallas Stars from postseason contention.

Vancouver Canucks

Final standings: 54W, 19L, 9OTL, 117 points, 1st Northwest, 1st Western Conference, 1st NHL

The Canucks’ 40th anniversary season was very close to being one they would remember forever, and once again they were a favourite pick to win the Cup this year. A number of trades and signings were made, and this really paid off for the Canucks as while they scored 10 fewer goals than last year (262 vs. 272), they instead earned five more wins and nine fewer losses. Their total number of wins to end the regular season set a new franchise record, as did their final points total which beat their previous record of 105, set in the 2006-07 season. The Canucks were also well disciplined compared to previous year’s teams, and their penalty minutes total of 943 was the fewest by the franchise since the 1977-78 season, in which they got 962 penalty minutes. For their regular season the Canucks didn’t get off to as strong a start as they would have liked in October (4-3-2), but from then on out they would shoot upwards and remain at the top of the Western standings all year long. Their consistent winning record was marred only by three bad spots: a four game winless streak in both November and January, and an 11 game stretch through February and March which saw them alternating between wins and losses every game. None of these losses mattered in the end however, as the Canucks went on to earn their eighth division title and earn their first President’s Trophy for the league’s best overall record, giving them home ice advantage throughout the postseason.  In the first round of the playoffs the Canucks were up against defending Stanley Cup Champions the Blackhawks, and came close to losing the series after winning the first three and then losing the next three games, however they managed a 2-1 OT win in game seven to advance further. Their next two opponents, the Predators and Sharks were comparatively easy, and they beat these teams in six and five games respectively, and made their third Stanley Cup Finals appearance, and their first since 1994. In the Final they were up against the Boston Bruins, and after winning the first game, the rest of the series became heated and physical, and despite Vancouver leading the series twice they ultimately lost to the Bruins in game seven.

Coming up next in the sixth and final part will be the Pacific Division.

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The Aftermath – 2011 edition: Part 4

August 15, 2011   wildwing64   No comments

The 2010-11 NHL season is now finished. After a 39 year drought, the Boston Bruins came out of nowhere and beat the Vancouver Canucks to win their sixth Stanley Cup.

This six part series will consist of brief summaries of every team’s performance this season. Part 4 will begin coverage of the Western Conference with the Central Division.

Chicago Blackhawks

Final standings: 44W, 29L, 9OTL, 97 points, 3rd Central, 8th Western Conference, 13th NHL

As soon as they won the Stanley Cup last season, the Chicago Blackhawks found themselves in a dilemma for the offseason. With their whole roster now having Cups under their belts, some of their players became more expensive, pushing the Blackhawks over the salary cap and forcing them to shed their salary by trading these players away in exchange for cheaper players and future draft picks in order to fit underneath the cap. As a result of their salary shedding the Blackhawks were a very different team when compared to the powerhouse that took home Lord Stanley’s Mug last year, and weren’t anywhere near as consistent with their winning ways early on in the season, particularly evident in November and December when their win/loss records were almost split down the middle (7-6-1 and 6-5-1). The team wasn’t exactly horrible, but with the Western Conference being as tough as it was and the Blackhawks having four of their defencemen injured, a number of changes had to be made such as calling players up from their AHL farm team and acquiring players in trades from other teams, as soon Chicago started to look more like the championship winning team from the year before, starting their final playoff push as early as February, winning the majority of the rest of their games and barely clinching a playoff berth as Dallas, competing for that very same spot, lost to Minnesota in their final regular season game. The Blackhawks made a valiant effort to defend their Championship in the quarterfinals against Vancouver, losing the first three games, and then winning the next three, becoming only the seventh team in NHL history to force a game seven in that situation, and came close to making history again until the Canucks scored in overtime, eliminating the Blackhawks from the playoffs and ending their defence of the Stanley Cup.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Final standings: 34W, 35L, 13OTL, 81 points, 5th Central, 13th Western Conference, 27th NHL

Having gone through two head coaches last season, the Blue Jackets tried again, hiring Scott Arniel to replace interim head coach Claude Noel. To begin their regular season Columbus and a number of other teams flew over to Europe to take part in the NHL’s annual Premiere event, playing exhibition games against European teams and then playing back to back games against an opponent. The Blue Jackets played in an exhibition game against a Swedish team, the Malmö Redhawks, winning 4-1, and then two games in Stockholm VS the San Jose Sharks, losing 3-2 in one and then winning 3-2 in overtime in the second game, which also happened to be the PowerPlayGoal.com team’s first live NHL game. Early on the Jackets looked like they would have a stronger season than usual, winning most of their games over the first two months (14-8-0), but then went into a fifteen game slump which saw them earn just 9 points in December (3-7-3). They improved again by the end of February (8-3-1) and with 68 points looked like they still had a legitimate shot at the playoffs, but that was not to be as they lost most of the rest of their games, winning just three of them, and missed the postseason yet again.

Detroit Red Wings

Final standings: 47W, 25L, 10OTL, 104 points, 1st Central, 3rd Western Conference, 6th NHL

After losing to the Sharks in the second round of the playoffs last season, the Detroit Red Wings signed former Dallas Star Mike Modano to a one year contract, returning him to the very same city where he began playing hockey. The Red Wings then did their usual thing, being the big powerhouse team in the Western Conference and winning most of their games. About the only bad month for the Wings was March, in which their record was almost evenly split (5-5-4), but this year’s Wings did not have any long losing skids, unless you count their four game winless streak (0-2-2) at the beginning of March. The ever consistent Wings made the playoffs once again, and this year marked their 20th consecutive appearance in the postseason, the longest active streak among all current NHL teams, and also the longest in all four North American major professional sports leagues. In the quarterfinals the Wings pretty much steamrolled the Phoenix Coyotes in a series sweep, but in the second round were matched up with the very same Sharks who beat them last year. Like Chicago, Detroit managed to force a game seven after losing the first three in the series, becoming the eighth team in NHL history to do so, but just like last year the Red Wings ultimately lost to San Jose.

Nashville Predators

Final standings: 44W, 27L, 11OTL, 99 points, 2nd Central, 5th Western Conference, 10th NHL

Like other teams in the highly competitive Western Conference, the Nashville Predators had a tough time trying to remain consistently strong all the time, but whenever they got going with winning games, they were able to pull off a number of impressive winning streaks. They started the season with an 8 game points streak (5-0-3), but this was immediately followed by a five game losing skid. From the end of November was a 10 game points streak (8-0-2) which was again followed by a five game skid, and then by a six game winning streak. February was somewhat bumpy for Nashville but in March when every other team made their final playoff push, the Predators did the same thing with a very strong record over the final two months of the season (12-4-3) and made their sixth overall playoff appearance. In the quarterfinals the Preds would get their first ever series win as they beat Anaheim in six games, somewhat controversially as there was supposedly diving from the Predators involved. They would meet their end in the semi-finals however, as they were beaten by Vancouver in six.

St. Louis Blues

Final standings: 38W, 33L, 11OTL, 87 points, 4th Central, 11th Western Conference, 20th NHL

The St. Louis Blues had a staff overhaul over the Summer as Davis Payne went from being interim to full time head coach, new assistant and goaltender coaches were hired, and Doug Armstrong was promoted to General Manager, with Dave Taylor being given Armstrong’s former position as director of player personnel. Also, the Blues team doctor Jerome Gilden, who worked for the team since its inception, passed away on August 12th. The Blues lost forward Paul Kariya to free agency, but they couldn’t re-sign him anyway as he chose to miss this season as he suffered from post concussion syndrome – he eventually announced his retirement after this season was finished. The Blues looked like they were going to have a strong start, as they had a seven game winning streak that lasted from the middle of October into the middle of November, but this was followed by a five game winless streak, followed by three wins, and then five more winless games. The Blues would continue to have their ups and downs with a strong December (8-4-2) and a weak January (2-8-2), and in March were plagued by a number of injuries, which didn’t help the fact that they were less successful than other teams when it came to their final playoff push. On April 1st they were officially eliminated from the playoffs after losing 3-2 to the Calgary Flames, missing the postseason for the second straight year.

Coming up next in Part 5 will be the Northwest Division.

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