2012 Stanley Cup Favourites

The Boston Bruins have won the Cup, the entry draft has completed and free agent frenzy is winding to a halt.  The only place I can get my NHL fix is thinking about next season and which teams have the best shot at lifting the Stanley Cup.  I check out 5Dimes.com to see the Stanley Cup odds for next season and it really got me thinking about which teams have a legit shot.  Here are a few teams I like to go far next season and who I will be placing wagers on because their odds are too good to pass up:

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.

San Jose Sharks Win the Havlat for Heatley Trade

The San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild once again came out of nowhere announcing a blockbuster deal last night that will send Dany Heatley to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Martin Havlat (the two teams dealt Burns for Setoguchi a few days earlier).  I’ve taken a look at this deal from a variety of perspectives and have to say that the Sharks definitely seem to have made a solid move here, but the Wild also needed a shake up and if they can get the best out of Dany Heatley the deal could work for both teams.

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!

Can Luongo Bounce Back?

Roberto Luongo made 30 saves on 38 shots in game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs in Boston.  Alain Vigneault apparently did not feel that his goaltender needed to be pulled from the game when it got out of hand.  This could be a tactical decision to show his goaltender that he and the entire team will be sticking with him throughout this series no matter what.  In game four in the Chicago series, Luongo let in 6 goals on 28 shots before being pulled in the third period.  Luongo did not bounce back favourably allowing 4 goals on 12 shots and being pulled early in the second period in game 5.  In game 6 of that series Vigneault went with Schneider, who played a decent game before being injured when he was beaten on a penalty shot by Frolik.  Luongo only allowed one goal in that game, but it was an important one scored by Ben Smith in overtime.  It took these 3 straight losses before Luongo stepped up his game allowing only 1 goal in game seven against the Blackhawks.

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?

NHL.com Not Working – Hacked to Display an Advertisement

Today as I was doing my usual check on NHL.com (which happens about every fifteen minutes) I noticed a very strange thing.  The website redirected me to a page with just a banner advertisement in the top left corner.  As I was trying to get back to nhl.com to check out the previews of tonights game the same redirect kept occuring.  I thought this was strange, so I asked a few friends online if it was doing the same for them and it was.  The only thing I can come up with is that NHL.com has been hacked and every click on that banner advertisement is making the hacker a few cents.  I’m sure this will be fixed quickly and taken care of, but it is surprising to think that NHL.com does not have a better online security system to prevent these sort of attacks.

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!

Hart Trophy Prediction – Daniel Sedin or Corey Perry?

With approximately two games remaining in the regular season the Hart Memorial trophy seems to be coming down to a two-horse race.  Daniel Sedin and Corey Perry, not coincidentally the top two leading scorers in the league at the moment are being talked about non stop as to which player is more deserving of this honour of league MVP.  There are of course a few other names jumping around in the conversation, namely Martin St. Louis, Tim Thomas and Marc Andre Fleury, but most people have agreed that one of either D. Sedin or Corey Perry will take home the hardware.  The third nominee is of little concern.

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.

NHL 09-10 Standings Using a 3-Point System

Today I had the urge to check out how the standings would have looked last year had the NHL been doing the smart thing and using the 3-point system.  Last year we looked at the 08-09 standings using the 3-point system and we found that the playoff picture would have looked very different and the Penguins would have had a tougher road to the Stanley Cup.

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.

Sens Should Stick with Brian Elliot over Pascal Leclaire

Pascal Leclaire is just about ready to return from his injury and I, as an Ottawa Senators fan, am very worried about this.  I’m not a believer in Pascal Leclaire and I don’t think many Senators fans are.  Sure he makes big saves now and then, but I’m just not a fan of his style and his record with the Senators speaks for itself.  Let’s take a look at each players stats over this season and last:

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.

Ways To Bet On Hockey

Hockey stands apart somewhat from games like basketball and football in that there is low scoring and a low scoring differential between teams. This makes betting on hockey slightly different from betting on these other sports, but it’s still pretty simple  like playing video poker if you know what you’re doing.

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.

Kovalchuk Resigning with New Jersey is Bad for Player and Team

Ilya Kovalchuk has just signed a new seventeen year deal to stay a New Jersey Devil for his foreseeable future.  The cap hit will be only $6 Million a season, but Kovalchuk and the Devils played the system by only really paying Kovalchuk what he wanted and deserves for the first ten years of the deal.  The final seven years were just meant to bring the cap hit down, by paying only $750,000.  I think the NHL needs to look at this problem with the cap because teams are exploiting this and nobody can blame them for it because if there is a loophole it is the general managers right and obligation to use it to the best advantage of the team.  Kovalchuk will now retire after 10 years when the money he receives starts to decrease and he will in effect have been paid by the team ~$10,000,000 a season.

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!

Congrats To The Chicago Blackhawks

I just wanted to write a quick post to say congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks.  They had a terrific year and deserved to win the Stanley Cup.  I couldn’t have said the same about the Flyers so I’m happy the Blackhawks won.  I like underdog stories, but I prefer for the best team to win when possible to maintain the integrity of the league.  Sure it’s great if anyone can win, but it’s also nice if there are better teams than others in order to show that the game involves skill and not luck.

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 !

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