I’ve gone into more detail about why the 3-point system is an obvious choice for the NHL so I won’t get into all of the reasons again.  Instead you can click here to read that post.

Basically the just of it is that the NHL is rewarding teams for going to overtime.  This creates teams playing for a tie in regulation and sitting back with 5 minutes left to go in order to guarantee a point, especially against out of Conference teams.  This ends up resulting in lower scoring games because just looking at simple math a team that plays in lower scoring games will end up with more regulation ties than a team who plays a higher scoring style (if a team averages 2 goals for and 2 against a game they will be in more ties than a team that averages 3 goals for and against).  Basically the current system goes against everything that the GM’s say they want in the game (more scoring and competitiveness) just because they want the standings to “appear” to be tighter so that fans get the impression their team is better than they are.  A GM or coach can say their team is a .500 club when they are 20-20-15, when in reality they are a horrible team at that record.  The NHL seriously needs to look at this and keep the competitiveness and fairness in the game so that the best teams make the playoffs.

Luckily this year the 3-point system wouldn’t have had too much of an affect on which teams made the playoffs, but the seedings would have been slightly different and a different team would have won the president’s trophy.  Let’s take a look.

Eastern Conference

Regular Standings vs 3-point System Standings

As you can see the only change in the Eastern Conference would have been the Tamp Bay Lightning dropping 2 places to 12th in the East, which would have bumped the Jets and Hurricanes each up one spot.  This is primarily because of the number of Lightning overtime/shootout wins in the regular season.  The Playoff match-ups would have remained the same in the East which is quite rare.

Western Conference

Regular Standings vs 3-point System Standings

In the Western Conference there was one change in the playoff positionings and it would have turned out to be quite a significant change because the St Louis Blues would have moved to first place in the Western Conference and in the league, which would have won the Blues the President’s Trophy and a different first round matchup. Who knows if the Blues would have been able to handle the Kings or if the Canucks would have had an easier time with the Sharks.

The only other change was Anaheim moving ahead of Minnesota by a significant margin due to the vast number of overtime/shootout wins by the Wild.

This year the changes in the standings weren’t drastic, but other years they have determined whether a team makes or misses the playoffs.  The NHL really needs to take a look at this 3-point system and give it serious consideration.

Written by: Niko de Jonge

Now that the Sens are there it’s time to assess their chances at putting it all together and winning the Stanley Cup.  What a story that would be.  Come from 30th on the power rankings entering the season to the Stanley Cup Champions.  I for one am not closing the door on this possibility.  Sportsbook 5Dimes.eu has the Senators at +4000 to win the Stanley Cup which is tied for 16th in the league along with the Coyotes (the Sabres and Capitals still have shorter odds than the Senators even though they haven’t yet clinched a playoff spot and the Stars are +4400 even while they are almost mathematically eliminated).  Bet365 is a little bit kinder having the Senators at +2800, which is better than the Sabres, Capitals and Panthers and equal to the Coyotes.  But if you want to bet on the Sens to win the Cup you should do so at 5Dimes.eu.

I agree that Ottawa is a huge long shot to win the Cup and if it all played out 40 times I would still likely be surprised if one of those times Alfredsson was receiving the Cup from Commissioner Bettman, but I do believe that have a better chance than many of the other teams in the hunt.

Bryan Murray said it earlier in the season that he was not ruling out a deep playoff run and he gave a great reason for this.  The puck moving ability of Ottawa’s d-men.  Erik Karlsson is the best combination of puck moving and skating for a d-man in the league as his regular season point total no doubt confirms.  Gonchar is no slouch either and I expect him to bring his game to another level in the playoffs.  Kuba is another player who can make that breakout pass and newly acquired Matt Gilroy has shown that he has the skating ability, now he just has to show some better decision making when it comes to jumping into the rush or trying to take on 3 opposition players rather than dumping and allowing his forwards to chase.  If the Senators plan to go far their defensemen need to be on top of their game and I believe that their top 5 are extremely solid and if Gilroy can play within himself the Sens 6 D could be the top in the league.

As for goal scoring that will surely fall to Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek, Daniel Alfredsson, Kyle Turris and Nick Foligno.  These five players have to put the puck in the net for the Senators in order for the team to win games.  Jason Spezza will be a primary focus of opposition shutdown players, which means that Kyle Turris will have to step up and put up points for the Senators to win games.  In the first round Zdeno Chara will surely be matched up against Spezza and everyone knows that Chara is the best shutdown defenseman in the game.  I believe Spezza is shifty enough to matchup fairly well against Chara, but a lot of production responsibility will still fall to the Turris and Alfredsson line throughout the playoffs.

The Senators will be a tough out in this years playoffs if they can do the following things.

Senators Keys To Victory

• Karlsson, Spezza and Michalek continue production from regular season.
• Turris line steps up when Spezza line is shut down by superior defensemen.
• Gilroy plays within himself.
• Anderson gets hot.
• Less penalties than in regular season. (14.1 minutes per game – 2nd most in NHL)
• Power play has to start working again.

When I talk about an online sportsbook I do not mean one of the other government run sports lotteries like Sports Action out West or Proline Stadium in the Maritimes, but a real online sportsbook with no government affiliation such as SportsInteraction.com, a great sportsbook for Canadian sports fans.  I was looking at the odds of a couple of these government run sports lotteries (Sports Action and Proline) and wanted to share with you my findings compared to Sports Interaction.

Examples

Tonight there are 6 games in the NHL so let’s make this easy and select all of the away teams in our 6 team parlay.  This means tonight we will be taking the Devils, Blackhawks, Rangers, Wild, Stars and Flames.  Here are the odds at each of the various Canadian sports lotteries in that order, with a $10 risk associated.

Sports Action: (1.90 x 1.90 x 1.60 x 3.00 x 1.85 x 2.15) x $10 = $689.20
Proline: (1.90 x 2.00 x 1.50 x 3.00 x 1.60 x 2.10) x $10 = $574.60

Sports Interaction: (2.10 x 2.15 x 1.69 x 3.30 x 1.87 x 2.50) x $10 = $1176.66

As you can see the people gambling on Sports Action out West are getting slightly better odds than the Proline bettors in Ontario, but neither comes close to the potential payout from Sports Interaction.  If you bet through a Canadian sports lottery you are leaving money on the table.

There are no Sports Action or Proline tips or strategies that will enable you to win with such poor odds.  Even if you are the best Proline prediction guy in the world you are wasting your talents betting through a program that does not offer the best odds.

Conclusion

All Canadian sports lotteries provide remarkably horrible odds for their players.  Proline is basically a tax for stupid sports fans that are ignorant about the extra money they would be making betting online.  This doesn`t even factor in the sign up bonuses and promotions that you receive online at a site like Sports Interaction.  If you are Canadian I highly recommend signing up at SportsInteraction.com for your NHL betting needs.

My other site, NHLBettingTips.com will hopefully be offering a NHL playoff bracket competition and also a free no strings attached $20 bet at Sports Interaction come the playoffs.  Stay tuned for more information on that.

For those of you who don’t know, PROLINE is a betting game run by the Ontario provincial government.  It actually classified a “sports lottery” and bettors are only able to make parlay bets of between 3 and 6 selections.  I assume this it to make it more lottery-esque, but also to give the appearance of the possibility of big wins.

Anyways, when I was writing my predictions for my NHL predictions site today I chose 4 teams that I thought would win tonight and found their odds at two of my favourite sportsbooks, 5Dimes.com and Sports Interaction.  I included these odds with my write-up so that my visitors would know the odds I am betting at.  Then, just for fun I went to the PROLINE website and checked the payout of a 4 team parlay using the same four selections to see the difference in price.  Here is what I found:

Payout at Online Sportsbooks with 4 team Parlay

Predators 2.20
Lightning 1.746
Oilers 2.55
Canucks 1.80

With a $20 wager the payout online would be (2.20 x 1.746 x 2.55 x 1.80 x 20) $352.62.  A very healthy payout for four games that I believe will have these outcomes.  Now look at the PROLINE payout….

Payout at PROLINE with 4 team Parlay

Predators 2.10
Lightning 1.40
Oilers 2.20
Canucks 1.60

With a $20 wager the payout at PROLINE would be (2.10 x 1.40 x 2.20 x 1.60 x 20) $206.98 with the same picks on PROLINE.  So with a $20 wager on this 4 team NHL parlay bet you would make $145 more betting online!

But wait there’s more! Not only is the payout almost double at an online sportsbook than with PROLINE, but if any of your teams win in a shootout then the PROLINE ticket is a loser, while your online sportsbook parlay bet is still a winner.  That’s right, if any game goes to a shootout then it is considered a “draw” in the eyes of PROLINE.

So Why Do NHL Fans Bet On Proline?

The only reason I can come up with is they are simply ignorant to just how awful the PROLINE odds are and how much more money they could be making online.  Either that or they want to be ignorant and not actually know how much money they waste betting on PROLINE every year.  I just want to be able to shake everyone who bets on PROLINE and tell them there’s a better way.  A better way then paying yet another “ignorance” tax to the Ontario Government.

You can sign up at SportsInteraction.com and actually earn a profit, or at the very least lose less money than you do at PROLINE.  Plus you get all the perks that  come with an online sports betting account.  The sign up bonus ($125 at SportsInteraction.com), the promotions, the wide selection of odds, the convenience of not having to go to your local convenience store to get your winnings, not having to worry about where you left your winning ticket and much, much more.

This post was made to try to educate Canadians about PROLINE and that there is a much better option.  Visit SportsInteraction.com to set up an account today and start actually having a chance to profit betting on the NHL.

Can They Keep It Up?

If the Senators can do the exact same in the second half of the season they would finish with 94 points, which would surely earn them a playoff spot.  Last season 94 points would have resulted in an 8th place finish, while the year before it would have resulted in a 5th place finish (which just so happened to be where the Sens finished that season with exactly 94 points).

So the question becomes can they do at least the same in the second half.  In my opinion, yes and possibly even better.  As mentioned earlier the Sens got off to a horrible start and that likely will not happen in this second half, which means they will not have to be “catching up” the entire time.

The Kyle Turris trade filled a whole that was created when Regin was injured and so far Turris has looked fairly good and I only expect him to get better as his confidence builds (his beauty tip goal last night should help this).  In net Anderson has been playing tremendously, but the team does need Auld to win a game here and there to give Anderson some time off now and then.

The third and fourth line players on the Senators have been over performing compared to preseason analysis, which is a big reason the Sens have been playing so well and I don’t see this slowing down anytime soon.  Eric Condra and Zack Smith are two great penalty killers with offensive upside, each of whom are big +’s on the team.  Another big surprise would have to be the play of Jared Cowen who could easily be in a competition with Karlsson as the team’s top d-man.  The two compliment each other so well and they should be a great tandem on the back end for the Senators moving forward.

Do The Sens Have A Chance at the Stanley Cup?

The oddsmakers still do not believe in the Senators this season.  Sportsbook 5Dimes.com has the Senators at +10,000 odds to win the Cup, which is only better than 6 other teams.  Even teams that are almost out of the playoff hunt such as the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning have shorter odds.  If you do want to place a bet at 5Dimes, make sure you use a 5Dimes marketing code to get the best bonus possible.

In my opinion the Senators don’t have a great shot at the Stanley Cup this year, but nothing is out of the question.  Craig Anderson could stand on his head and the team has the offensive fire power and experience to make something happen if they do make the playoffs.  The big bad Bruins would be extremely hard to beat however.

PROS

Home and Away With All Teams – This is a definite pro for the league and the fans.  With the new alignment every team will play home and away against every other team in the NHL.  This will allow fans in every NHL city to have Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos come to their city to play hockey.

New Conference Rivalries Will Form – At the current time the divisions each contain 5 teams.  Teams play against their divisional foes 6 times per year.  With the current alignment this means that each team has 4 teams that they play often and can build rivalries against.  However, once the playoffs come the teams can play anyone from their Conference.  With the new alignment teams will play a greater number of teams a greater number of times.  By that I mean in the 7-team Conferences teams will play 6 different teams 6 times, which adds 2 more teams that can be regular season rivals.  Also, in the playoffs teams will often face each other year after year, which should build hate and result in more heated first and second round series between teams that despise each other.

Time Zones – Current Western Conference teams that are in the eastern end of the continent (Detroit, Minnesota, Dallas) have problems with time zones with regard to their away games.  Dallas even has to play divisional games in time zones that are 2 hours different.  This new format should allow teams to play more games closer to their home city, which will result in less time zone problems.  This also means that fans out West won’t have to place as many mobile sports bets because they are still at work when their team starts playing as often.

Relocation Much Easier – This isn’t a big plus, but if teams move it is much easier to adjust a four-conference system than the current 6 division system with 2 conferences.  For example, if Phoenix does end up moving to eastern Canada, that team could just be added to one of the 7-team conferences and there would be no hassle.

CONS

Travel – Teams will likely have more travel with the new alignment because they will be heading to every other NHL city each season.  That being said the new alignment might allow for schedule makers to schedule road trips for teams where they can hit cities on the way, which should help battle the travel expense problem.

Best Teams Don’t Make Playoffs – With the new alignment the LA Kings would have missed the playoffs last year even though they had more points than the Stars.  This will be a regular occurrence when certain divisions are superior to others.

Playoff Races Aren’t As Exciting – Last season the playoff races in both Conferences were very exciting, but if you look at how the races would have played out in the new 4-conference format it becomes much less interesting.  The playoff races are the second most exciting time of the NHL season, next to the playoffs and the races in the new alignment won’t be nearly as exciting.

Care About Less Teams – I’m a fan of the Ottawa Senators and at the moment I care about how every team in the Eastern Conference does because it affects the Sens chances of making the playoffs.  With the new alignment I will only care about the 6 other teams in their Conference, which will make things somewhat less interesting for fans.

Underrated – Ottawa Senators

The Senators were ranked 30th on almost every power ranking that you could find prior to the season.  They are now around 22 or so on most, but when looking at the odds you will still notice that the Senators are almost always the underdogs because they public and the bookmakers still don’t believe in the team.  Just today the Senators at home was a pick’em game against at Lightning team that is 4-8-2 on the road and on a 3 game losing streak.

Underrated – St. Louis Blues

The Blues have been great since changing coaches this season and they have the personnel to continue to perform.  The odds haven’t quite caught up to their recent success, so you can still find some great odds for the Blues.  I expect the Blues to make the playoffs and put up a good showing once there.

Overrated – Colorado Avalanche

The Avs are the worst team in the league according to me.  They are on a 3 game winning streak right now, but I have made a lot of money betting against the Avs this year.  I haven’t bet against them recently because the odds had caught up with them when they were playing so poorly, but now that they have won some games I expect some sharp bets against the Avs in the future.

Overrated – Winnipeg Jets

The Jets are another team that I generally don’t like to bet on.  I see the Jets as a bottom 3 team in the Eastern Conference, but with all of the press surrounding the team this season it seems like they are favourites or considered contenders in games when they really shouldn’t be.  In fact, last Tuesday the Jets were hosting the Senators and even though I was out of town the odds were so good that I went online to one of my favourite iphone betting sites and placed a bet on the Senators at +110 to defeat the Jets.

The teams that are underrated and overrated can change quickly throughout the season and as an NHL bettor you have to be ready to change with them.  The NHL is a very streaky league, especially for young teams and one thing that I take into account when placing my bets is a teams current streak and how they are playing heading into the game.  Overrated/underrated views is just one ingredient to use when placing NHL bets.

The first month has been very eventful with a lot of surprises in the NHL.

Ottawa Senators Surprise October

Everyone had the Sens pegged in as #30 in the preseason power rankings and in the first 6 games all of these so called “experts” were patting themselves on the backs saying “I told you so” and “I’m a genius”.  Being a Sens fan it made me a little sick to see everyone telling me that they were going to be one of the worst teams in NHL history, that they expected them to get the fewest points of any team since the lockout.  Ridiculous comments and I knew better, but I still wanted my Sens to step up and deliver.  Lucky for me it happened and the Senators pulled off a 6 game winning streak to finish the month with a (7-5-0) record for 4th in the Eastern Conference.  They even topped it off with a win over the rival Leafs.  The Senators have been preaching “compete” throughout the winning streak and they did just that.  Their methods of victory were almost more impressive than the actual results.  Of their 7 win this season 3 came in shootouts (2 as the result of epic 3rd period comebacks) and 2 came within the last 5 seconds of regulation to not allow their opponents a point.  In the Columbus game they were down by a goal with 40 seconds left before scoring 2 in regulation to keep the Blue Jackets without a win.  It’s been epic and everyone is stepping up including Gonchar and Kuba who were horrible last season.  It will be interesting to see how November shapes up.  They lost their first one against the Bruins, but here is hoping they bounce back.

Colorado Avalanche Surprise October

I was chirping experts for having the Sens as 30th on the power rankings so now is when I have to swallow my pride and admit that I had the Avs as 30th and they proved me wrong in October.  The Avalanche finished the month with a 7-4-0 record that included a 5 game win streak that had them sitting at 5-1-0 after 6 games.  A big thanks has to go to Semyon Varlamov who is 5-3-0 with a .924 save percentage and a shutout.  I thought it was one of the dumbest trades in history to trade for Varlamov and his nearly $3,000,000 contract for a first and second round pick when he has never even been a legit starter in the NHL.  Not to mention that I thought the pick would at least be a lottery after the way the Avs finished last year.  So far so good though for Varly and the Avs, but I have to say I still have my doubts and I expect them to plummet at some point soon.

Boston Bruins Surprise October

Who would have thought the defending Stanley Cup Champions would be in 2nd last place in the league after October with a 3-7-0 record.  I for one did not, but that’s where the defending champs found themselves.  That being said the Bruins were losing tight games, are in the top 5 in shots per game and the top half in shots against per game.  The Bruins beat the Sens to start out November the way they wanted, but they do have some catching up to do, which is hard in this league, even only after 1 month.

Those are my thoughts on a few surprises from the first month of the NHL season.  I am going to be continuing to put up my NHL predictions at NHLBettingTips.com so check out the site daily if you like to bet on hockey!

Here Is Why

The Senators top 7 defencemen are actually very solid and I wouldn’t trade them for the top 7 d-men on at least 20 other teams in the league.  You have Erik Karlsson, a young guy with about as much playmaking talent as a d-man could have.  He will make sure that the Sens score powerplay goals and you can expect his plus-minus to be much better this year, as his defensive game improves.  Add in Sergei Gonchar, who we all know can be a top guy on any team if he plays like he has throughout his career and the Sens powerplays should have two legitimate quarterbacks.  Then you have Chris Phillips who has been a top shutdown guy his entire year and who anchored his team to the cup finals only a few years ago.  Alright, I don’t like Filip Kuba, but that is the only slot in the top 7 I’m not fond of.  Matt Carkner is the perfect 6th d-man on a team, with a toughness and presence that can help against rough opposition, and then you have two rookies who are ready for the big time.  David Rundblad was the Swedish Elite League’s top d-man last season and you can tell by watching him play that he will be another great puck mover from the back-end and he is a 3rd legit powerplay quarterback.  Then Jared Cowen, who is showing shades of Tyler Myers, is another big guy who can shutdown down low and has already showed he has the ability to provide offense with his two goals in the first preseason game.  The Sens are fine at the back end and they will get the puck to their forwards.

The goaltending situation is also solved.  Craig Anderson slipped a little at the start of last season, but the Avs are a worse team than the Sens and he showed in his games with the Senators he still has what it takes.  Anderson is a legitimate number 1 goaltender who has the ability to steal games, a few of which will be needed for the Senators to make the playoffs this season.

The Problem

The problem lies in the forwards.  Spezza can’t do it all.  Alfredsson and Michalek need to play at their best and then other goals have to come from the likes of Foligno, Butler, Regin and hopefully Filatov.  A few of these lesser known Senators will break out this year with the absence of Fisher and Kelly, but this is necessary for the team to win games.  I hope that GM Brian Murray doesn’t just keep Greening and Condra at the big club because he signed them to one-way contracts even if guys like Da Costa, Filatov, etc are more deserving and are better pieces to the puzzle.  The Senators need goals from up front.  Spezza and Alffy can’t do it all.

I think the Senators will surprise some people this year.  They have nothing to lose, with a young team that is eager to win and many players that know how to win from their Binghamton Calder Cup last season.  I for one am going to check out some sports gambling sites and hopefully find some great odds for the Senators throughout the season, due to the fact they are being underestimated by the masses.

Weber Deserves His $7.5 Million

With this 1 year, $7.5 million contract Weber has become the highest paid defenseman in the National Hockey League.  As for the people who think that the highest paid defenseman should be the best, that theory is flawed because there are many things to consider.  First of all, when the other d-men earned their contract (their season(s) leading into that contract and the salary cap at the time).  And second of all, the length and situation of the contract.

Shea Weber

Last season, Weber had 16 goals and 48 points with a +7 rating and was a finalist for the Norris trophy, coming 2nd in voting, just 9 points back of Nicklas Lidstrom.  This Norris candidacy shows that Weber does more on the ice than just put up points, he is an all around defenseman that usually matches up against the top players on opposing teams.  Since the 06-07 season, Weber is tied with Mike Green for the most defenseman goals.  Weber was also a key player in helping Nashville make it to the second round for the first time in team history, he scored 5 points and was a +3 in 12 games.

Weber earned $7.5 million for 1 season.  Salary Cap $64.3 million.

Dion Phaneuf

Phaneuf scored 60 points, including 17 goals and had a +12 rating the season before his contract, which began in the 08-09 season.  Phaneuf also had 7 points in 7 playoff games and was a -2, but the Flames lost in the first round.  Phaneuf was a very similar player to Weber, but he did score a few more points, and he was also a runner up for the Norris, just like Weber.  One year contracts are usually more lucrative for the player because there is no job security and the cap hit percentage of 11.66% of the cap, is very close to the 11.46% percentage of the cap that Phaneuf’s salary demanded that year.

Phaneuf earned a cap hit of $6.5 million for 6 seasons.  Salary Cap $56.7 million.

Zdeno Chara

Chara signed a contract prior to this season that holds a $6.917 million cap hit with a 7 year length.  That being said Chara earns $8.5 million this year and the final 2 years of his contract only earn him $9 million total, which shows that this is another one of the front heavy contracts that have become popular in the NHL.  Chara is currently 34, so this contract brings him to his 41st birthday.  There is a good chance that Chara doesn’t play the final two years of his contract, which is probably why the amount is lower.  With this theory (if Chara does not play the final 2 years of his contract), he is earning $7.3 million per season, which is very close to what Weber earned.  Add in the job security Chara receives by signing long term and I would say Weber would have much preferred the contract that Chara received.  Chara is also a very good comparison, because he was also a Norris trophy candidate and his contract begins the same year as Weber’s.

Weber’s cap hit is the highest in the league, but it’s hard to look at just the cap hit nowadays when so many teams are doing the front heavy contracts.  Weber is actually the fifth highest paid defenseman this season, behind Chara ($8.5 million that we mentioned before), Pronger ($7.6 million), Keith ($8 million) and Ehrhoff ($10 million this season with a $4 million cap hit – don’t know how teams get away with this).

Weber is worth every penny and when you include the variables such as the length (1 year means no job security), the salary cap (cap increased $4.9 million over just last season) and the other comparable players front heavy contracts you can see that Weber could have easily justified the $8.5 million that he was asking.

It will be interesting to see how the Nashville Predators do next year.  I’m not going to go and put down $100 on them winning the cup, but with Weber in place they could definitely win a lot of games and once again return to the playoffs.  A new betting tool that will be fun to try next season is live hockey betting.  When you’re watching a hockey game you can see the momentum swings, as well as key injuries or anything that could affect how the game may turn out.  Now with in play hockey betting you can use this information to make a profit!

Chicago Blackhawks @ +1500

The Blackhawks are the 8th favourites to win the Stanley Cup next season and I personally have them slotted much higher.  I don’t necessarily think they will finish atop their division or even have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but the Blackhawks have the pieces in place to be a contender every year.  If they score the goal in overtime of game 7 against Vancouver this season I can guarantee that their odds would be closer to 10/1 right now.  People are quick to forget how a team played and instead just remember that they lost in the first round.  The Blackhawks have the top two lines in the NHL, with possibly the exception of San Jose, and their top defensemen are elite and will be hungry to get back to the top.  The loss of Brian Campbell will hurt this team more than most people think, but Nick Leddy is ready to step up with more ice time and Hjalmarsson should play better than he did last season when he let his play slip slightly.  The additions of Brunette, Carcillo and Mayers should bolster the teams depth and tenacity up front, but it really comes down to the fact that Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp and Bolland are just too good.  Corey Crawford is no slouch in goal either.  If the Blackhawks can get the best out of their players and add a bit more depth on defense they should have a very good chance to win the Cup this season.

San Jose Sharks @ +1200

The Sharks are the 6th rated team according to the oddsmakers.  They have made the Conference Finals two years in a row, but haven’t put up much of a fight at that stage.  The Sharks were just too slow and lacked the depth on defense both years.  The addition of Brent Burns should help the defense and take some of the responsibility away from Dan Boyle, while the Havlat for Heatley trade will bring more speed and and greater drive to win when it matters most.  The Sharks still have some positions open for depth forwards and they could do with adding a solid shutdown defenseman with speed.  Niemi is solid in goal, having already won a Stanley Cup, so it’s really the depth up front and the defensive d-men that this team is lacking in order to become a Stanley Cup Champion.  I have confidence that Doug Wilson will address these needs.  I’ve liked what he’s done so far this summer.

For Those Interested…

Here are the odds for the other 8 from the top 10 at 5Dimes.com.  Once it gets past them there really is no hope for finding a Cup Champion.

• Vancouver Canucks +675
• Pittsburgh Penguins +850
• Washington Capitals +1000
• Boston Bruins +1100
• Philadelphia Flyers +1100
• Detroit Red Wings +1250
• LA Kings +1700
• Buffalo Sabres, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning +2000 each

**On an unrelated note a friend of mine is starting a Financial Spread Betting website. Just wanted to give him a little shout out.

The Money

Dany Heatley has 3 years left on his deal that carries a cap hit of $7.5 Million, while Havlat has 4 years left on a deal that has a $5 M cap hit per season.  This more than compensates for the $0.5 M extra the Sharks took on with the Burns for Setoguchi swap and leaves the Sharks with $2M of space left to work with.  This cash can be used to add some depth to the bottom 6 forwards as well as add some stronger defensive d-men for crucial situations (the defense of the Sharks were outplayed against the Canucks this playoffs).

Winner: San Jose Sharks

The Needs

Doug Wilson came out and said that the Sharks needed to add speed to their top 6 forwards and Marty Havlat is one of the quicker players in the league and has breakaway type speed.  Needless to say that Dany Heatley’s game is not built around speed and it seemed like he lost a step the past couple seasons.  With Brunette likely to not resign in Minnesota the Wild needed a similar player to score goals around the net.  Heatley can do this and he also has a superior shot to Brunette if he can get to the open spots.  Koivu is known more of a hardnose working type player that has the skills to score, but by no means is he known as your typical playmaker like Heatley has had with Thornton and Spezza over the past several seasons.  Havlat and Koivu never really had a chance to mesh their styles of play because the Koivu/Brunette/Miettinen line was so strong and had been together for several years.  Heatley should definitely get the chance to play with Koivu and it will be interesting to see if the two mesh.

Winner: Remains to be seen

Better All Around Player

Martin Havlat is a very underrated player in the league for a variety of reasons.  Number one Havlat is known as a player who is always one hit away from injury.  That argument may not be fair as he has adjusted his game in recent years and has averaged 77 games each season over those past few seasons.  Havlat has also never played with as talented as players as himself.  In Minnesota Havlat was not on the top line due to their previous chemistry and instead usually lined up with Latendresse, Clutterbuck or Brodziak.  In Chicago it was much of the same with Havlat playing mostly with Dave Bolland, Andrew Ladd and other second tier players compared to himself (and Kane, Toews and Sharp), yet Havlat still led the team in scoring in both the regular season and the playoffs.  Even back in Ottawa Havlat was generally the 3rd RW on the depth chart behind Alfredsson and Hossa.  Havlat has the ability to make players around him better and has shown throughout his career that he does not need superstar teammates to produce.

Heatley on the other hand has typically had top tier linemates and it seems like his best days are behind him.  Heatley set the bar pretty high in Ottawa with a high points per game output of about 1.25 points/game, but this has dwindled of late and last season he only managed 0.8 points per game and even less in the playoffs.

Havlat will be able to play with any of the solid top 6 forwards on the Sharks, while it remains to be seen if Heatley will produce without an elite playmaking center.

Winner: San Jose Sharks

Playoff Performance

Havlat lives for the playoffs and he stated that playing for a top quality team and being able to play in the playoffs was the reason he waived his no movement clause.  If you watched any of the Blackhawks Conference Finals run in Havlat’s last year with the team you will know he brings it when it matters most.  His 15 points in 16 games led the team (even though he missed a couple games in the Detroit series from the Kronwall hit – which he did try to comeback from the next game showing his heart).  In his last 26 playoff games Havlat has 28 points and many of these were very important points for the team including a few series winning goals that I remember (overtime against Calgary in round 1 with the Blackhawks, overtime against Philly in round 1 with the Senators – just off the top of my head).

Heatley had a horrible playoffs last season scoring 9 points in 18 games and just not looking dangerous whatsoever.  He did have a good playoffs when the Senators made the Cup Finals a few years back, but Heatley just doesn’t seem to be the same player with the same drive.

Winner: It’s hard to say when we will likely only see Havlat in the playoffs over the next few seasons, but I’m sure he won’t disappoint – San Jose Sharks

I for one see this as a great move for the San Jose Sharks and I am even going to go as far as place a wager at an online betting site for the San Jose Sharks to win the Stanley Cup next season with the help of Havlat and Burns!

Since that first round series Luongo has looked fairly sharp, playing solid for the most part, while allowing a few soft goals here and there.  In the 8-1 shellacking by Boston, however, Luongo did not look sharp at all.  He should have saved at least half of the 8 goals and I am interested to see which Luongo we see tonight.

I half expect the Bruins to come out with another high scoring affair, which is why I’m looking at the -1.5 line for the Bruins tonight at +248.  This line is from 5Dimes and could be considered similar to spread betting bonuses because the juice is reduced, which makes this likely the best Bruins puck line you will find.

Luongo has shown the ability in the past to bounce back from bad games, but he has also shown many instances where he plays just as bad the second time around.  Which Luongo will we see tonight in Boston?  Who do you think will show up?

Let me know in the comments if you are experiencing the same thing when attempting to visit the NHL website.  Most of the ads I have seen are NHL related with many pointing the NHL shop, or to purchase NHL tickets or even just to the NHL network subscription.  The ad displayed may be similar to the one below:

In the meantime a good alternative to NHL.com in terms of hockey information and statistics is the TSN website.

**EDIT – NHL.com is now working!

If you asked me a week ago which player is more deserving I would have immediately said Daniel Sedin.  The top scorer in the league, leading his team to the Presidents Trophy as the best team during the regular season.  What more can you really ask for?  However, in the past week Corey Perry has put on a scoring clinic reaching 50 goals (solidifying the Maurice Richard trophy), pulling within 3 points of Daniel for the Art Ross and playing his best hockey when the Ducks needed points the most.  This is really going to be a tough call but at this exact moment I’m going to make a call.  Read on to find out which way I’m leaning.

Why Daniel Sedin Will Win The Hart Trophy

• He is leading the league in scoring.  100 points after 80 games.
• He led the Canucks to the best overall record in the league by a wide margin. (Vancouver clinched the Presidents trophy with about 2 weeks remaining in the season)
• He was able to maintain his stellar pace from last season after coming back from his ankle injury.
• His brother Henrik won last year and it would be awesome to see the twins win back to back years.
• He is a plus 28 this season.
• The best player on the best team should be the league MVP.

Why People Will Say Daniel Shouldn’t Win The Hart

• He played the entire season with his brother Henrik. (This is ridiculous. If you remove every player who has a good line mate from Hart Trophy contention who are you left with??)
• His team is too good and they would have succeeded without him. (Who is to say they know exactly how well Vancouver would have done without Daniel this season.  The fact is they won the league with him. End of story)

Why Corey Perry Will Win the Hart Trophy

• He leads the NHL with 50 goals at this moment.  He will win the Maurice Richard and likely be the only player to reach 50 this season.
• He turned around a struggling Ducks team without Ryan Getzlaf and put them in a position to most likely make the playoffs.
• He had a terrific second half of the season playing his best hockey when the points mattered the most.
• He has 19 more points than Selanne who is the second leading scorer on the Ducks and the two only play together on the powerplay.
• The player who’s team would have struggled the most without him should be the league MVP.

Why People Say Corey Perry Shouldn’t Win the Hart

• He plays on perhaps the best line in the league with Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan. (Once again ridiculous.  Who is to say that this line is not dominant because of Perry)
• He is only a +9 while his line mates Getzlaf and Ryan are both +14. (This is not a big enough difference to be a legitimate statistic when looking at these players)

This battle basically comes down to the last point for each player.  What type of player are voters looking for?  The best player on the best team, or the player who’s team hypothetically needs him the most.  The second part of that sentence is completely opinion based which is why I would prefer to see Daniel Sedin win the Hart Trophy this year.  That being said if I was to bet on a player winning it I would have to take Perry.  Too many people consider the Sedins a package deal and the only reason Henrik won last season was because Daniel was hurt which gave Henrik a chance to prove that he can still dominate on his own.  This season Daniel was never given that chance and that fact alone will be the reason he doesn’t win the Hart.  Perry’s linemate Getzlaf got hurt and Perry kept producing.  It seems like you need one of your top line mates to get hurt in order to prove yourself and win a Hart Trophy in this league.

I haven’t seen any betting lines for this, but I’m sure some will pop up eventually.  Check out a variety of betting websites if you are interested in placing a wager on which player will win the Hart Trophy this season.

For those of you who don’t know what the 3-point system is here is a quick overview.  Using the 3-point system teams would receive 3 points for a win in regulation, 2 points for an overtime/shootout win and 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss.  This would make the game much more entertaining and fair because you wouldn’t have teams shut it down in the third period just hoping to secure a point and take their chances in overtime.  At the current time teams get 2 points for a win, whether it’s in regulation, overtime or a shootout and 1 point for overtime/shootout losses.  So basically, some games award 2 points and some award 3.  If you can be in as many games that award 3 as possible you will have a better chance at making the playoffs.

The NHL is the only professional sports organization to use such a silly and downright stupid point allocation system.  They say they use it to keep the standings tight and to make the playoff race more exciting.  This is just code for “we want to give fans the illusion that every team is close in the standings”.  When in reality, the 3-point system would allow for much more movement in the standings and actually keep teams in playoff hunt further into the season.  Right now teams can only hope to get 2 points in a game.  With the 3-point system teams could go on a great run winning every game in regulation to make a playoff push.  You may even see teams pulling their goaltender’s in tied games in the last few games of the season in order to try for the 3 points, rather than settle for 1 or 2.

Another reason the NHL states for the 2 + 1 point system is for histories sake and to compare point totals with teams from the past.  Is it just me or did they throw the record books out the window the moment they added 3-point games at all.

All of those reasons to switch to the 3-point system are great, but it really comes down to one main reason that should trump them all.  That is the integrity of the league.  A league that awards 2 points in some games and 3 points in others is not a fair league and it really just makes the NHL seem silly.  I’m a big hockey fan and I can’t get my head around the current system.  Here is a look at what the standings would have looked like using the 3-point system last season.  You may be surprised at some of the changes.

Eastern Conference

Standings Using Current System vs 3-Point System

As you can see the Montreal Canadiens played a tremendous amount of overtime games throughout the season (25 in total), which helped them make the playoffs.  Using the 3-point system they would have finished tied for 9th position.  The Habs won 10 less regulation games than the Rangers last year, but managed to sneak into 8th place by 1 point.  The Rangers would have even passed the Bruins, who played 27 overtime/shootout games.  As you can see the playoff situation in the East would have been completely different with 3 of the 4 first round match-ups changing and the Rangers making the playoffs over the Habs.

Western Conference

Standings Using Current System vs 3-Point System

In the West there wouldn’t have been many changes.  The only notable change would have been Nashville and LA swapping spots, changing two of the first round matchups.  Calgary also would have jumped ahead of St Louis for 9th place and would have been in it right until the end.  That would have made for a much more interesting race in the West, with Calgary only missing the playoffs by 4 points in a league where it is possible to jump 3 points every game, rather than both the Blues and Flames missing by 5 points in a league that awards a maximum 2 points.

This was the second year I’ve done this for and both years the Montreal Canadiens would have missed the playoffs using the 3-point system.  They must have a organizational objective to just try to get to overtime and see what happens.  That should be the objective in the league today.  If a team ties every single game in regulation and has a 50/50 chance of winning in OT that perfectly average team would win the President’s Trophy every year with 123 points.  The NHL needs to smarten up and use a logical point allocation system.

This would also help with NHL betting because bettors would know that their team isn’t going to shut it down in the third to go for the single point.  Spread bets and more would all be much more interesting.

Getting a little off topic I just want to leave everyone with a great web page they should check out if they are into NBA betting at all.  This NBA betting tips article is one of the best sports betting tips articles I’ve ever read.  Read it and become instantly smarter.

Pascal Leclaire

This Season

Leclaire started the first 4 games for Ottawa this season, but was injured very early in the fourth game of the season vs the Hurricanes.  Here are the stats:

• 0 wins, 3 losses
• .903 save percentage and 3.24 goals against average
• 103 shots against over 185 minutes in goal = 0.56 shots against per minute

Last Season

Leclaire was hurt or the back-up for much of last season, but he did get 34 starts for the Sens:

• 12 wins, 16 losses
• .887 save percentage and 3.20 goals against average
• 822 shots against over 1745 minutes in goal = 0.47 shots against per minute

Brian Elliot

This Season

Elliot has started every game since Leclaire’s injury.  Here are the stats:

• 5 wins, 4 losses
• .900 save percentage, 3.22 goals against average
• 271 shots against over 503 minutes in goal = 0.54 shots against per minute

Last Season

Elliot was the Senators starter for the majority of last season:

• 29 wins, 22 losses
• .909 save percentage and 2.57 goals against average
• 1424 shots against over 3038 minutes in goal = 0.47 shots against per minute

Now a few numbers should jump at you right away.  First off all, the Senators are a winning team with Elliot in net, while they are a losing team with Leclaire.  This is true for both seasons.  That right there is enough reason for the Senators to stick with Elliot in my opinion.

I hate hearing how fans will see Leclaire make a few big saves against the Maple Leafs in a 5-1 loss and say that if it weren’t for Leclaire the score would have been 10-1.  That is ridiculous.  It’s not like he got 100 shots against.  Sure, if you want a goalie to make some spectacular saves in a losing cause Leclaire is your man.  But if you want a goaltender to make the saves that should be made and the key saves that need to be made to win a game then it’s fairly obvious that Elliot is the man for the job.  How many times does Elliot have to fight and earn the starting job, then play well and still have it taken away from him to give an unproven goaltender who had one good season in Columbus another shot.  The only reason I can see that Leclaire is getting more chances is his big contract and the trade that sent away a solid player, Antoine Vermette, for absolutely nothing except a big contract with a goaltender who knows how to lose.

Watch Leclaire next time he starts and focus on his rebound control.  He has none.  He attacks the puck, making some big saves, but he will almost always let out a big rebound into a dangerous scoring position.  Sure, Elliot isn’t the perfect goaltender, but if you watch him he doesn’t let out many rebounds and he finds the puck well in scrambles and he makes the key saves, while not allowing many soft goals.  What more can you ask from the guy.  The team seems to appreciate his simple do the right thing in the first place style and they play better in front of him which shows by the teams winning percentages.

I just hope Cory Clouston realizes that Leclaire is not the man for the job.  Last season the Sens started their huge win streak when Leclaire got hurt.  This year they turned their season around with a win when Leclaire got hurt and have been over .500 every since.

If Leclaire starts then my NHL betting strategy will be to wager against the Senators every time.  Otherwise I’m going to be going with the Sens to win most games for proline betting picks.  I like the Sens this season and as long as they can stay away from Pascal Leclaire the playoffs are right around the corner.

Hockey Betting Option 1: Money Line

One of the best ways to bet on the outcome of any sporting contest is by playing the money line, which is really just like a standards odds bet. Instead of comparing the payout odds to 1, however (ex. 3-to-1, 8-to-1) they are compared to $100.

Money line example: New Jersey -140/+120 Phoenix. This money line means that a bet on New Jersey to win the game will cost $140 to win $100. A bet on Phoenix, on the other hand, requires only a $100 wager to win $120. Expressed in terms of odds, someone betting on New Jersey is laying (giving up) 1.4-to-1, while someone betting on Phoenix is getting 1.2-to-1.

Hockey Betting Option 2: Puck Line

The puck line is a variation on the money line that better takes into account the relative strength of the two teams. A puck line may look like this: New Jersey -1.5 -110/-110 +1.5 Phoenix. This means that whether you bet on New Jersey or Phoenix, you will have to wager $110 to win $100. However, if you take Phoenix, you get one and a half goals, meaning that even if Phoenix loses, you win, as long as they lose by only one goal. In contrast, you get better odds than before for taking New Jersey, but if the Devils win by only one goal, it still counts as a loss.

Deciding Which Hockey Betting Option to Take

If you’re confident in your team’s ability to win and feel like you can win playing slot machines but your team is the underdog, you are probably better off taking the better odds offered by the money line. If you think your team needs a little help, the puck line may be better for you. If you’re going with the favorite, you should take the money line unless you are confident that your team will blow out the opponent, in which case you might take the puck line with the preferred odds.

Now, onto why Kovalchuk signing in New Jersey is not good for the team or for him individually.  If you look at his numbers last season in Atlanta compared to in New Jersey, Kovalchuk’s production dropped significantly in New Jersey.  He only managed a point a game in New Jersey, while in Atlanta he was ripping it up at a much higher output.  The Devils are known as a defensive team who don’t score a tremendous amount of goals and this just isn’t what Kovalchuk was made for.

The team also sputtered after adding Kovalchuk to the lineup and went out quickly in the first round of the playoffs, only managing one win.  Kovalchuk did lead the team in scoring in the playoffs so you can’t put the blame directly on him, but I think the Devils should be Parise’s team and I’m just not convinced that Kovalchuk will ever find chemistry or find his place on a team such as the Devils.

In Los Angeles, Kovalchuk would have been on a younger, up and coming team who play much more his style of game.  He would have blossomed even further offensively in LA playing with the likes of Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and the other young stars on the team.  In New Jersey Kovalchuk will not be challenging for any individual awards anymore, whereas in Los Angeles he could have been a threat for the Art Ross or Maurice Richard trophies for years to come.

I don’t like the deal for either side and I don’t like how the NHL is allowing teams to blatantly take advantage of the salary cap loop holes by allowing ridiculously front loaded deals for ridiculous amounts of time.  If I look at this in terms of betting it likely means the oddsmakers will likely set the ice hockey odds in New Jerseys favour, which means I’m going to be wagering against them all season long!

Hossa deserved the cup as well.  I give him mad respect for only wanting to play for teams who had a legitimate chance at the Stanley Cup.  He’s played a tremendous amount of games over the past three years making the finals each of the last three years with different teams and also representing his country at the Olympics.  Good for you Hossa.

Kane proved me wrong this year.  He has definitely matured into a much more well rounded player.  One that I would love to have on my team.  I’m glad he scored the overtime goal because it’s nice when a star player can score that goal to win the Stanley Cup for his team.

This Stanley Cup also proves that paying the depth players what they have and handcuffing themselves for next season paid off.  If a team could win the cup one year only to miss the playoffs the next 4 years in a row they should take that deal any day.  And the great thing about the ‘Hawks is even if the lose some players they still have the cornerstones in place for them to be a great team for a long time, so they don’t even have to worry about becoming a losing team.  Dale Tallon deserves a lot of credit for building this team.  Maybe he actually did know what he was doing when he paid those players what he did!

Anyways, I’m going to wrap this up.  Congrats to the Blackhawks.  Next year it’s going to be a Sens vs Wild finals !

Before I discuss the playoffs I will share what my predictions were

I had Detroit, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Chicago coming out of the West.

I had Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Washington, and Buffalo coming out of the East.

Things aren’t that far off so I’m content.

Detroit Phoenix Series

This series has been the best by far.  The Yotes are definitely out hitting the Wings, but the Wings are coming alive in the physical department with the addition of Justin Abdelkater.  Him and Darren Helm are hitting anything that moves, but they are both overshadowed by the play of Coyotes captain Shane Doan.  Doan has been a machine for the Coyotes, this is costing the team as Doan has taking two minor penalties (Charging on Kronwall, and interference on Lidstrom), both of which resulted in a Detroit goal.

Now this is all lost as Doan left game 3 with an unknown upper body injury when he slammed into the boards after tripping over Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard.  This might be the end of the series for Phoenix.  Without Doan they lose one of their best players, and their captain.  I can’t see Detroit losing two in a row at home, and specially if Doan is out for game 4.  Expect a win tomorrow at the Joe Louis Arena, and then a exciting finish for the last three games of the series.

San Jose

I know every spring the Sharks always lose out in the playoffs with an amazing team, so far this year it isn’t looking any different.  We have to give the Sharks credit though, they brutally outshot the Avs and lost in overtime to a fluke goal.  They need a big bounce back game in game 4, but I don’t know if I see this happening.  Dany Heatley didn’t play in game three because of an undisclosed upper body injury, if he isn’t back for game 4 it’ll be a tough game for the Sharks.  With Thorton and Marleau goaless, and with the overtime goal shadowing Boyle the Sharks need to dig deep for the win.  The Avs are a young, hungry, and confident team now except them to come out of the gate early in game four.

If the Sharks lose this series, and get eliminated from the playoffs early again the team needs to do some serious roster moves.

Take the Toronto Maple Leafs for example.  Leaf fans are the worst.  Most of them probably still think their team is going to win the Stanley Cup this year.  The will say things like, “we are just 7 points out of the playoffs.  That’s just four wins.”  But the truth is that’s four wins for the Leafs, four losses for the 8th place team, three losses for the ninth, tenth and eleventh place teams, and two losses for the 12th placed team.  That equals out to 19 games having to go as planned, and a lot of the time that’s just not possible because these teams that have to lose will likely be playing each other.  Not to mention that these losses have to be in regulation.  The extra point makes it even more difficult for teams to come from behind to make playoffs because even when teams ahead of them are losing they will still be receiving a single point many of these times.

Let’s look at this logically.  I think even fans making these outrageous NHL predictions in favour of their favourite team can agree that a playoff team needs 90 points at an absolute minimum.  The average of the two 8th placed teams last season was 92 so we will use that number to make our following calculations.  The Maple Leafs currently have 25 points in 29 games.  This means that they need to earn, at an absolute minimum, 67 points in their remaining 53 games.  That is an average of 1.265 points per game.  So far this season, only the top 6 teams in the league have a point % greater than 1.265.  To put it into perspective at an absolute minimum, the Leafs would have to win about 31 of their last 53 games, lose 17 in regulation and lose 5 in OT/SO.  Does anyone really think the Maple Leafs can be a top 6 NHL team for the last two-thirds of the season?  I certainly don’t.

Once a team falls behind in this new NHL where the teams are all very equal and many games award the loser a point it is very difficult to make up any ground.  The games at this time of year are extremely important, so if your team is starting to fall off the pace, I advise you to treat every game like it’s the playoffs and watch it intently.

Yours truly,

F***ING PISSED OFF LEAF FAN

I feel that the current system of awarding 2 points some games and 3 points others is completely ridiculous because it encourages regulation ties and makes it difficult for teams to gain any ground in the standings during the playoff races.

I’m going to be adding a detailed article outline why I think the NHL should make the switch to the 3-point system in the near future.  In the mean time I have done some research and analyzed how the standings would have looked last year had the 3-point system been used:

Eastern Conference

Standings Using Current System vs Standings Using 3-Point System

As you can see using the 3-point system would have made some significant changes in the Eastern Conference.  Most notably, the Florida Panthers would have finished seventh with 127 points, passing the New York Rangers and pushing the Montreal Canadiens out of the playoffs.  The Habs played 22 overtime/shootout games in 08-09 and this played a major role in allowing them to sneak into the 8th playoff spot in the East.  Another change would be the Penguins falling from 4th to 6th position.  This would have meant that the Penguins play the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs, which could have caused the entire Stanley Cup run to play out differently.  Most people would agree at the Panthers deserved to be in the playoffs and likely would have put up more of a fight than the Canadiens.

Western Conference

Standings Using Current System vs Standings Using 3-Point System

Using the 3-point system, the Minnesota Wild would have squeaked into the 8th place spot and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks would have missed the playoffs but 1 point.  If that’s not a good race then I don’t know what is.  Sixth through ninth in the West has only a 2 point difference in the West.  This was a 4 point difference using the current system and it’s much more difficult to make up points the way points are currently allotted.  So there goes the argument that the playoff races would be less exciting with the 3-point system.  Both Nashville and Edmonton would have been in it right to the end as well with 116 points a piece.  The only other change the 3-point system would have made is Calgary and Vancouver switching places (but they would both have likely still lost to Havlat and the ‘Hawks anyways ).

As you can see the 3-point system isn’t going to drastically change the standings.  However, it is the fairer way to award points and the slight differences would have been huge for both Florida and Minnesota who really each deserved to be in the playoffs based on their records.  Minnesota played in 3 less overtime games than the Ducks and Florida played in 4 fewer OT games than the Habs.  The current NHL point system is supposedly rewarding competition, but in reality it is rewarding mediocrity.  The teams that play for a tie are rewarded, while the teams that play for the win are penalized.

That’s it for now.  I’ll have another post on this topic within the few days outlining why the NHL should switch to the 3-point system.

I personally was a Blackhawks fan last year, but I hated watching Patrick Kane on the ice and was very happy when they limited his ice time in the playoffs.  He is a liability on the ice.  What kind of player is a -1 playing on the top line of the 3rd best team in the West from the regular season.  Compare this to my boy Martin Havlat’s +30 numbers at the same position on the checking line and you will see that Patrick Kane is extremely overrated.  He shouldn’t have even been mentioned in the same sentence as Havlat.

Now that Havlat is gone I no longer consider myself a Blackhawks fan, but I can see the ‘Hawks are in a lot of trouble when it comes to keeping players after this season.  The team is currently almost $5M over the cap for this season and then when you factor in that Toews, Kane and Keith are all restricted free agents next year you have to wonder what Chicago will do.

I think Chicago should trade Kane this year, early in the season and try to get some players who will actually put in what it takes to win.  Sports betting sites have already placed odds on his return next year.  This means backchecking and going into the corners.  Neither of which Kane will do.  Out of the three restricted free agents Kane is the obvious choice not to sign next year because Toews is the captain and will likely be a lifetime ‘Hawk and Keith is currently one of the best defensemen in the league.  Why not trade Kane early and actually get something back for him when his stock is relative high.  I have no clue why it would be high because I think Kane is as good as he will ever get and that’s a guy who can score, but can’t win.  But if other GM’s think he has an upside let them take him off the Blackhawks hands and get something in return.

If Stan Bowman can deal Kane for a couple solid players or a goalie depending on how Huet pans out the Blackhawks may have a shot at the cup this year.  If not then I can’t see them doing any better than last year.  Especially with no Martin Havlat in the line-up.

Then the traditional overseas games will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of October. The Red Wings and Blues will face off for a couple games in Stockholm, Sweden, while the Panthers and the Blackhawks will be playing not far away in Helsinki, Finland.

Then the real fun starts on October 3rd with all 30 teams in action. Look for the Ottawa Senators and the Minnesota “Martin Havlat” Wild to start their seasons off with a bang.

The winter classic game has also been announced. The game will take place on New Years day at Fenway Park in Boston. The Flyers and Bruins will put on the touques, scarves and tar, as well as strap on the skates for some old time hockey in front of a 100,000 fans. I’m hoping to see Bruins forward, Milan Lucic, put Chris Pronger through the glass and over the boards onto the frozen tundra that is Fenway Park field.

It’s going to be a great year for hockey. It’s anyones guess to win the cup and thanks to the parity of the league, everyone has a chance almost every year. The Olympics will also be a great two week break for players to either represent their country with national pride on the line or rest up for the playoff stretch. Hockey Opinions will be covering all of the action with plenty of opinions and biases to be shown. Check back soon for some early Stanley Cup predictions from our panel of hockey experts fans.

In my hockey opinion the NHL should change the rule to be the same as the icing rule, where if a player flips the puck over the boards the penalty is that they are not allowed to change.  It’s been widely said that the reason this penalty was introduced was because players would flip the puck over the boards when they were tired in order to try to get a change.  This sounds very similar to why players decide to ice the puck.  However the difference is if players flip the puck over the boards they get a two-minute penalty, whereas if they ice the puck they just aren’t allowed to change.  Players make both plays for the same reason and both plays result in the same outcome of a delay in the game, so in my opinion both plays should be penalized the same way.

The over the glass delay of game penalty was to prevent players from intentionally playing the puck over the glass.  Of course nobody intentionally plays the puck over the glass now, but it still happens because in some cases it is inevitable and it’s just a few inches between a solid clear off the glass out of danger and a two minute penalty.  By replacing the two minute penalty for clearing the puck over the glass with the current icing rule that players aren’t allowed to change the NHL will still be able to deter players from intentionally clearing the puck over the glass when they are tired and not risk drastically affecting games from slight misplays.

A perfect example would be when Rick Nash took a penalty for clearing the puck over the glass and Russia went on to score on the powerplay and win the gold over Canada in last years IIHF Hockey Championships.  This is not the way teams should be winning games.  Everyone wants the best team to have the best chance at winning and this penalty only adds variance to the game, which decreases the chances of the right team winning.  I know the NHL wants parity and more goals and awarding silly penalties is one way to get both, but in reality this “delay of game puck over glass” penalty is hurting a lot more than it’s helping.  The penalty was added to do a job.  Now that the NHL has found another way to deter players from delaying the game (not allowing changes) they should quickly do away with this minor penalty and avoid any more controversial finishes.

On The West side of things the Vancouver Chicago series is turning into a good ‘greasy’ battle (As Bieksa would put it), these two teams are fighting hard and it will go a long way.  Byfuglien has been working hard in front of Luongo and he might start to be in the goaltenders head, we will see how game 4 plays out.

The Wings series is turning out to be the series with, maybe the most buzz.  First off we have to discuss game one and the antics that took place there.  The Brown hit on Hudler is the most talked about item of that game.  In my opinion it was a dirty hit, but the refs called it right on the ice.  It was a head shot, that was late.  Even though there was no elbow it was a blow to the head, and specifically the type of hit we want out of the game.  Also Brown jumped off the ice to hit the much smaller, and more skilled Hudler.  The emergence of Ericsson has been amazing.  This rookie is playing more minutes a game than the best defensemen in the league (Lidstrom), this will most likely change when Rafalski gets back, but it is nice to see Ericsson play at this level, and even fight with Perry (and win).

Game two saw Rafalski sit out again, and the Wings need him their power play isnt as efficient and they are playing worse.  I always like the long overtime games, and this one wasn’t any different. Some people are arguing that these overtime game lack in substance, but they are amazing the watch, and also the way the games in the playoffs should be decided.  Even though the Wings lost this one, it was a good game to watch and Hiller deserved the win for the way he played.

Game 3 is where everything spins out of control.  First off the Ducks second goal was interference by Niedermayer.  You can’t jump on the goalie when he is trying to make a save.  This ticks me off, and surely every Wings fan out there.  Holmstrom gets within an inch of the goalie and gets called for interference, but Niedermayer can jump on the goalie to prevent Osgood from making a goal stopping save?  I fail to see the logic in that.  Now at the end of the game the puck clearly went in before the whistle, but it is intent to blow the whistle that matter, not the actual sound.  Brad Watson  the referee in question was in a horrible position, all the way in the corner when the play was at the net, but Bob Mckenzie said it best on tsn.  Stating that human error will happen by the officials as long as their are human officials and not everything is reviewable.  Now this one will get blow up because of the time, but their is nothing we can do about it now.  The Wings need to forget about this and move to game 4.  Datsyuk, and Hossa really need to start scoring, or Babcock has to mix up the lines but losing game 4 would be horrible for the Wings chances.  Now, game aside hopefully Wisnieski has a speedy recovery, taking off on a strecher is scary, and their is no u pdate on what happend to him, other then he is in stable condition

A quick note on the Pheonix situation.  Balsillie made a bid to buy the team with a clause that they would be moved to Southern Ontario.  This is great for hockey, while I do support all teams, these lower market teams (Nashville, Pheonix, Florida etc.. ) are losing money and it makes sense to move them to a place where they make money.  In the past we have seen some teams get revitalized such as Chicago, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Tampa after they won the cup.  Saying that it’s best to weigh all the option, but the bottom line is Pheonix has fallen under and their is a dedicated owner willing to buy them and move them to a great market.  Balsillie learnt from his previous outings and used the bankruptcy court this time.  He is putting all the power in the courts hands, and the question is does the bankruptcy court have the right to dictate a move by an nhl franchise?  This situation will unfold thrusday as all parties are meeting to start discussions.

The best player in this series was no doubt Hiller, followed closely by Getzlaf.  The sharks have been favored for years to advance far into the stanley cup playoffs, nothing change this year.  After being out scored, out hit, and out goaltendended again in the playoffs Thorton and Marleau’s leadership abilities have come into question.  Their are even rumours swirling that Marleau and\or Thorton are on the out’s from San Jose.  Enough about San Jose, lets talk bout the winners.  The top line from the Ducks featuring Ryan, Getzlaf, and Perry played amazing, arguably one of the best in the first series.  Niedermayer led the way on defence, and Pronger had a great series.  We must not forget about hte efforts of Beauchemain, and Wisneski.  I Called San Jose in this series, but this is the last time I bank on San Jose

Detroit Vs. Columbus

Best player in the series was Osgood, showing why hes one of the best playoff goalies of our generation.  There isnt much to write about this series.  No one took Columbus as a threat and the Wings just mowed over the Blue Jackets.  I called this series correctly, but then again who didn’t.

Vancover Vs. St-Louis

Best player in this series was Luongo.  Once again no surprises here, even though the Blues were the hottest team going into the playoffs, Vancover was superior on paper, and that translated nicely onto the ice.  A physical series that didn’t last very long.  I called this series correctly.

Chicago Vs. Calgary

By far the best series in the west, with the best player being Seabrook.  Seabrook is now the highest scoring defensemen in the playoffs played a good shut-down role alongside Keith and really gave it to Igilna, who was mediocore, at best in this series.  This series has intense physical battles, Byfuglien, Burrish played their roles perfectly.  Byfuglien was a force all series even scoring goals, and being a good finess player (See his play in the last game where he circled Leopold).  Toews played great in his frist series, but Kane, Jokinen, and Cammaleri weren’t anything amazing but nevertheless fun to watch.  I took Chicago in this series.

Boston Vs. Montreal

Its hard to pick a best player in this Series I will give the award to Kessel, Savard, Chara, and Ryder.  It’s hard to say anything positive about this series Montreal centenial season was plagued with downs, and this series was another one of those downs.  Boston played a physical game and this took its toll on the Habs and threw them off their game. Like everyone else I took Boston in this series

Washington Vs. Rangers

Varlemov was probably the best player in this series, but facing a low scoring Rangers offence can make any goalie look good.  The star players from the Capitals didnt play particularily good, but luckily neither did the Ranger’s.  I tookl the Rangers to win this series for one reason.  I didnt think a team backstopped by Theodore could win a series, and I was technically right, but I know now to not overestimate the ranger.  Lundquist could steal a game or two b ut not 4.

New Jersey Vs. Carolina

You have to say Stall was the best player in this series.  What an end to game 7, kudos to the Canes for not quitting.  I expected alot more from the Devils after a terrific season without Brodeur, but I guess even Brodeur couldnt prevent Gleason from making that amazing play to keep the puck alive in the final minutes of game 7.  I took New Jersey in this series, but I would still do the same pick, and don’t regret it.

Pittsburg Vs. Philidelpia

The best players in this series was Crosby and Malkin.  Another tough chapter in the battle of Pensylvania once again the Pens come out as victors.  I would have liked to see more of Gonchar in this series, not just Gonchar, but also all of the Pittsburg defense squad wasent too engaged in the series.  The Flyers put up a good fight but their highest paid player in Briere wasn’t anywhere to be found.  Also, nice to see Giroux stand up and show how good of a player he actually is. I called Pittsburg to win this series.

Round Two Predictions to come

Pavel Datsyuk

Datsyuk may not quite be at the top with Malkin and Ovechkin when it comes to points, but for the second year in a row, he is up for the Selke trophy (best defensive forward). Being as good as he is defensively may not put quite as many fans in the stands but it is very valuable to any successfuly team. On top of being one of the top forwards defensively, he also has undeniably amazing skills, and he did get 97 points which is notable on its own. The only downside to Datsyuk for the Hart is that he has an amazing team, therefore it is arguable that they could be good even without this all-around all-star.

Evgeni Malkin

This young star has been shadowed since his arrival by the presence of Crosby, but this year he has emerged and shown that he can be just as good if not better than Sid the Kid. He lead the league in points this year, and led his team back from a shaky start into the fourth spot in the Eastern conference and also past the Flyers in round 1. The problem that i see with giving Malkin the Hart is much the same one as giving it to Datsyuk, I mean he is on the same team as Sid, and either of these guys could easily be called the best in the game, so how do you say that they were the most valuable to any single team?

Alexander Ovechkin

Last but not least, Alex the Great. This guy is my personal nominee. Once again he has lead the league in goals scored in a season, only this time he missed the points title by 3. My arguments for both of the other players were the same, and you could say the same about Ovi and the Caps. Ovechkin had the help of Semin, Green, and Backstrom to get his team to 2nd place. I think the difference is that every year, the Caps exceed expectations, and I believe that Ovechkin has a lot to do with that. Who expected Washington to finish 2nd in the East? I sure didn’t. You can’t say the same for the likes of Detroit or Pittsburgh, both these teams won their conferences last year, and had minimal losses last offseason (except for Hossa going from one to the other). But the Caps exceeded expectations this season, and i think that is the deciding factor, Ovi did the most with the least.

The Sharks struck out bigtime again. How long is GM Doug Wilson going to let this happen? ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE. Who’s to go? Is it Thorton or Marleau.. or is one player just not the answer. The sharks have a solid foundation. There’s no need to restructure. I think it’s time Nabakov is given the boot. He’s been riding win after win playing infront of an amazing Sharks team. While him and Toskala were playing together the Sharks finished with 107 points. Any goalie playing infront of that team could get the credit that nabakov has. I think its time for the sharks to either trade for a true winner between the pipes, or draft a solid keeper. This way they will have a good shot at the cup in a couple of years. But now that theyre out of the playoffs, a minus on the scoreboard won’t look so bad.

As Pierre McGuire would say .. Staal, Whitney, and especially Cam Ward were MONSTERS in this series. Carolina looked like the old stanley cup champs in game 7. As me and my buddies were watching (just after exams so we were loaded) … we knew that the game wasn’t just over yet. In the last 5 minutes Carolina just kept pushing and pushing. Finally Jussi Jokinen (who is not just a shootout specialist anymore) came through in the clutch scoring a goal on a beautiful pass from Pitkanen to tie it up.  A minute later Staal put the icing on the series with a pretty weak goal.  But you can’t blame Brodeur.. He was phenomenal. I remember counting the shots from games 4-5-6.. it was 127!! Thats averaging over 42 shots per game.. which is just nuts. Brodeur was pooped. If you looked and Lundqvist in the NYR he was tired and didn’t even have close to that many shots. Carolina was just to strong and Paul Maurice had a good strategy in place.. GET PUCKS TO THE NET.  Well it worked.

Anyways its 340 in the morning and ive had a couple too many sodas…  So have a good night  ladies n gents

Einz

First of all Anaheim.  In my bracket with my buddies there were 7 entries and I was the only one who took Anaheim over SJ.  I like to look at recent games in the season to predict what is going on in the playoffs.  San Jose was 17 wins and 19 losses in their last 36 games.  That’s brutal when you consider they are a presidents trophy, first place in the NHL team.  Let’s compare this to the Ducks who were 10 wins and 3 losses in their last 13.  Who do you think has the momentum going into the playoffs.

Sure, Hiller played his ass off and the stats would show that San Jose outplayed Anaheim throughout the series.  San Jose’s shots were often from non threatening positions and even though Hiller did play amazing he was not the difference in the series.  Anaheim played solid defensively keeping most of the Sharks chances to the outside.  The Ducks even only needed 1 line, of Ryan, Perry and Getzlaf, to score enough goals to win the series.  The stars of the Ducks stepped up, which includes the line mentioned above, as well as Niedermayer and Pronger.  The stars of the Ducks outplayed the stars of the Sharks and that was the difference in the series.  Don’t expect the Ducks to have much chance next round against the high octane offense of the Detroit Red Wings, because the Red Wings, unlike the Sharks, actually have weapons at their disposal.

Same thing goes for my other underdog pick the Canes.  8 and 2 in their last 10 compared to New Jerseys 4 and 6.  I also felt that Ward would outplay Brodeur.  This last piece of the puzzle didn’t come together until Brodeur was unable to hold the 2-1 lead with about 2 minutes left in the third period of game 7.  For such a supposedly “clutch” goaltender Brodeur really dropped the ball against the Canes.  Two goals in the last few minutes of a seventh game to drop the series is pretty disappointing no matter who you are.  Maybe Brodeur needed to freak out at the end of game 6 and throw his stick a bit to ensure he came to play in game 7.  Brodeur is an overrated goalie who in my opinion does not deserve the respect he has accumulated over his many years in the league.

For those of you who are interested, or for those of you who want to profit off of my knowledge, my picks for next round are Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Chicago.  I’m 8 for 8 so far and only 7 series left to go.  If you are interested in betting you should check out bookmaker.com and use Bookmaker.com bonus code ‘BMBONUS’ when signing up to receive your bonus.  I’m planning to go 15 for 15 and if I do, I expect to take Maggie the Monkeys job at TSN.

Also, for those of you who care, I am in a solid position in the bracket pool with my buddies after going 8 for 8.  The next closest is Davey who went  7 for 8, but since he has SJ winning the cup he’s hard pressed to take down the bracket.   Einz is the main competition at this point as he had 6 of 8 right from the first round.  Jizzm was a donkey and took PHI to the finals so he is out.  It should be an interesting rest of the playoffs.  Stay tuned.