Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Ode to the Sleepers and Stinkers

There’s nothing I love more than watching sports analysts be proven wrong. I don’t know why, and it’s strange considering I am a budding sports journalist who one day hopes to be one of these analysts. There’s just some weird, undiscovered pleasure to be found when a team proves one of these guys wrong.
Going into every NHL season, the so-called “experts” make their picks and predictions as to who will win each division, and who will qualify in a playoff spot, and so on and so forth. And every year there’s a few teams who just screw everything up, whether it’s by being a feel-good story taking everyone by surprise, or a team who just manages to stink it up. This week I salute those sleepers and call out the stinkers, and thank them for disrupting the experts since, well, as long as there’s been experts to disrupt.

Eastern Conference
Sleepers
Florida Panthers – who would have picked this group to be leading the Southeast division right now? For the past few years it’s almost been a gimme pick to have Washington atop the divisional standings as a pre-season prediction, but led offensively by Kris Versteeg and helped by Brian Campbell from the blueline, it seems as though Florida is set to take the division. It doesn’t hurt that Jose Theodore has managed to re-discover what it’s like to be an adequate goaltender, and he’s been in net for 19 of the Panthers’ 32 wins this season. A no-name group of players for sure, but one which is ready to de-throne Washington as perennial division champions.

New Jersey Devils – Every year the Devils are picked to be out of the playoff picture, and every year they make playoffs. This year will be no different, as once again the Devils give the metaphorical middle finger to all those doubters. They won’t win the Atlantic division (Rangers, Penguins and Flyers are all ahead of them in the standings), but they’ll still provide an interesting playoff matchup for whoever they play. Ilya Kovalchuk is maintaining his superstar status, while the ageless wonder Martin Brodeur is still, yes still backstopping Jersey to a respectable playoff position. In all likelihood, they’ll finish sixth, but there is a chance they could catch Philadelphia for fifth place in the East. Take that, doubters!

Ottawa Senators – Rank these kids right up there with Florida as surprise team of the year. Not many could have seen the Sens in any type of playoff position in September, with such a young team on the ice every night. However this group of kids has had the right type of veteran leadership provided by Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, and Erik Karlsson could very well be the next great NHL superstar defenceman. Craig Anderson has been steady all season, and Robin Lehner and Ben Bishop have stepped up well in his relief recently. A balanced offensive outburst aided by players like Chris Neil and Zack Smith has allowed Ottawa to find themselves comfortably in sixth place in the East, where they will likely end up. And don’t even try and tell me Paul MacLean’s moustache has nothing to do with their success this year…

Winnipeg Jets – So I know right now the Jets are in tenth in the East, four points behind Washington; but did anyone predict they would be anywhere near this spot? None of the experts did, but I bet the city of Winnipeg saw this coming. Ok, maybe not even they saw it coming, but that’s beside the point, which is that Winnipeg is still realistically in the playoff race. Right in the middle of it. Andrew Ladd’s leadership and the fanbase of Winnipeg have spurred the Jets on all season long, and while they’ve stumbled recently it isn’t because of goaltending. Ondrej Pavelec has been outstanding recently, allowing the former Atlanta Thrashers, who had only made playoffs once in their franchise’s history, to find themselves with a shot. A team essentially ignored by the experts at the beginning of the season has proven they have what it takes to prove these experts wrong, so I salute you Winnipeg!

Stinkers
Washington Capitals – At times this season it seems like the Capitals can’t buy a goal. Which brings me to this thought, which is that they’re paying Alexander Semin way too much money. A coaching change mid-season hasn’t brought about a change in their success, although they do now find themselves in the eighth playoff spot. Still, in a division with teams like Florida and Tampa Bay, you’d think Alexander Ovechkin’s Caps would be able to run away with the division. You would think.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Again, a team making a late-season charge at a playoff spot, but it might be too little, too late for the Lightning, who seemed destined to be a playoff team after making it all the way to the Conference Final  a year ago. Dwayne Roloson hasn’t been the same goalie, and Steven Stamkos has only recently turned on the little goal light in his head that makes him score on a regular basis. Too bad really, they seemed like they were about to challenge for the Southeast division title…

Toronto Maple Leafs – As if you thought they were actually going to make playoffs. Shame on you if you did.

Western Conference
Sleepers
St Louis Blues – Can you believe that the Blues are first overall in the NHL? Can you believe that nobody would have thought that at the beginning of the year? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you’re definitely not alone. Incredible goaltending from Jaro Halak and Brian Elliott has boosted the Blues in the standings all season long, and now they find themselves on top. They don’t have a point-per-game player, but they do have eight players with double-digit goals, showing that any player can contribute offensively on any given night. They’re sure giving these experts the Blues now.

Dallas Stars – Yes, Dallas, the team of the NHL’s best players you’ve never heard of. In the media vacuum that is hockey in Texas, players like Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson provide the offensive spark, while Michael Ryder has scored 30 goals for the first time in five years. Kari Lehtonen has been rock-solid in net for the Pacific-leading Stars, who only lead the division by two points, yet are 9-0-1 in their last ten. If they stay on this roll, playoff hockey will be coming to Texas once again. Not that anybody there really cares.

Phoenix Coyotes – it is truly amazing how this ragtag team of rejects does it year after year. They’re in seventh in the West right now, only two points back of the Pacific Division lead, and they’re doing it with players like Radim Vrbata and Ray Whitney leading the charge. Vrbata, who went through five teams in nine years before finding a home in the desert, Whitney, who had played for six different teams and is now 39 years old. Up and down the roster, you can find players who you remember scoring goals for some other team five years ago, and who you hadn’t heard from in a couple of seasons. Well, they’re emerging (sort of) now in Phoenix, and thriving under Dave Tippett’s coaching. When all is said and done, the team will likely make playoffs for the third year in a row, once again likely amidst rumours of relocation and ownership changes. Take that, experts!

Colorado Avalanche – Oh, those pesky Avalanche, always screwing things up in the Northwest division. Experts tend to take the sexier picks like Calgary, or even this year Edmonton (good one), but the Avs are showing they can never be counted out. Or maybe they should always be counted out, because that’s when they’ve thrived recently. Winners of seven of their last ten, and winners of seventeen games in 2012, the Avalanche are currently holding down eighth spot in the Western playoff picture, ahead of perennial playoff teams like San Jose and Anaheim. A playoff spot would look good on this group, led offensively by a young man named Ryan O’Reilly (sure he’s no Burnaby Joe, but the kid’s got talent).

Stinkers
Los Angeles Kings – I remember one of TSN’s “experts” prior to the season commenting how the Kings were going to have no problem finding offence this season, and the only question mark would be their goaltending. Well, the Kings can now laugh heartily in this “expert’s” egg-covered face, because you guessed it, the opposite has happened! LA has had no luck offensively this season, and goalie Jonathan Quick has single-handedly been what has kept them in the playoff race for so long. They’re not completely out of it (yet), but they desperately need to find that lost offence really soon if they want to have a chance. Nobody knows how to take an expert’s prediction to heart like the LA Kings, they really showed that guy!

San Jose Sharks – Again, a team not completely out of it, sitting only one game back of Colorado with three games in hand. But the Sharks, on paper, should be division leaders, no? Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Ryane Clowe, a Cup-winning goaltender in Antti Niemi. No? This doesn’t sound like a perennial division champion to you? Ok good, me either, I was just trying to appease the hungry Sharks. But they should definitely be a playoff team, and the fact they are in ninth is somewhat surprising. Maybe the only good news for the Sharks is that if they make the playoffs, it wouldn’t be very likely at all that they’d play their playoff-nemesis Nashville Predators until the third round at least.

Calgary Flames – Oh, those pesky Flames, always screwing things up in the Northwest division. Sound familiar? It seems like when the consensus is for the Flames to do well, they suck, and when the consensus is for the Flames to do poorly, they do well. This year I don’t think there really was a consensus either way, which explains why the Flames are now floundering in the middle of a tight group racing for the final two playoff spots in the West. Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff, as always, lead the Flames’ charge, which is starting to heat up a bit, as is Curtis Glencross. Still, the Flames should be doing better than tenth in the West, especially in the same division as perennial stinkers Colorado, Minnesota, and Edmonton.

Anaheim Ducks – While I do take great pleasure in watching the Ducks fail this season (they just haven’t been the same in my eyes since they ditched the “Mighty”), it is with some surprise. On paper they look like more than a sleeper team, but they’ve turned into a bit of a stinker this year. I guess that’s what can happen when a 41-year old leads your team in scoring, and the guy who’s supposedly the best power forward in hockey (hey Ryan Getzlaf, ever heard of Jarome Iginla?) only scores nine goals. Jonas Hiller has been missing in action as well, with a personal record far below .500. 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Top 15 moments from Mountie Hockey 2011-12


Top 15 moments from Mountie hockey 2011-12

2011-12 was a season which ended in disappointment for the Mount Allison Womens’ Hockey team as they fell 3-0 in the AUS championship game, but the record-setting season will not soon be forgotten.
Some incredible individual performances, combined with some amazing team efforts, helped put together the finest season in the ten-year history of the program.
As fifth-year defender Sara Diamond admitted after the championship game, it was tough to believe where they found themselves after the rough seasons they endured early in her career.
This week’s blog celebrates the top fifteen highlights from the season.

15. The outpouring of support preceding the championship game. It was absolutely incredible to see how many other Mountie athletes, students, and alumni were talking about the game. On Facebook, Twitter, and even over Webmail, the congratulations and well-wishes were flooding in to the Mounties. A fan bus was thrown together in about half an hour (very impressive for late on a Saturday night), and several Mount Allison administrators, professors, students, and alumni were spotted in the crowd for Sunday’s final, creating the best atmosphere that I have ever experienced at a Mountie hockey game.

14. The third line explodes against Dalhousie. February 11 at home, the line of Megan Entwistle and sisters Chelsea and Courtney King combined for four goals and nine points in a 7-4 victory over the Tigers. The offensive capitalization for this trio was a welcome sight to Head Coach Zach Ball, who had mentioned to me only the weekend before that sooner or later that line would soon start taking advantage of their opportunities in front of the net. They sure did that, with Entwistle recording a goal and two assists, Chelsea notching two goals, and Courtney adding a goal on a penalty shot to her three helpers. What was more a welcome sight to Ball was that he was able to get a big offensive game from this line, which epitomized the balanced offensive attack of the Mounties over the last half of the season.

13. Lauren Oickle’s goal while falling down vs Dalhousie. Oickle corralled the puck at her own blueline and sped through the neutral zone before blowing past the Dalhousie defender down the right wing. The left-handed shooter fired a hard shot into the near top corner of the net just as she lost her balance, spilling to the ice. It was the fourth goal in the 7-4 win mentioned above, and was the second of three goals in three minutes, showing the quick-strike potential of Oickle and the Mounties.

12. Outscoring Saint Mary’s 26-3 over four games. Looking back to two seasons ago when the Mounties only scored 37 goals in 24 games, it was nice to see the Mounties show their dominance over another team. Wins of 4-1, 8-1, 5-0 and 9-1 asserted the Mounties’ position over the Huskies, and it is worth noting that five different Mounties recorded multi-goal games against Saint Mary’s over the four game season series. Not only did Mt. A dominate on the scoreboard, but they controlled the faceoff circle against the Huskies, winning over 54% of the draws. Katelyn Morton led the Mounties offensively during the season series, while Lindsay James notched five points in four games against SMU.

11. After facing a nation-leading 879 shots in her sophomore season, Meghan Corley-Byrne had a much easier time this season, and helped by capable backup Jenelle Hulan, the goaltending duo combined to post the second-highest save percentage in the CIS, stopping 92.8% of the shots they faced. The team they were behind? The McGill Martlets, led by two-time Olympic gold-medal winning netminder Charline Labonte. Corley-Byrne finished fourth among individual save percentages (93.7%), and we’ll hear more about Hulan in a moment. A stingier defence, coupled with an easier workload and a stronger offensive attack no doubt contributed to the boosted save percentage, but ultimately the save percentage comes down to the talented netminders which the Mounties have been able to recruit over the past few seasons. The steady blueline was led by veteran Meg Davies, while Beth Deveaux stepped in admirably into a second-pairing role, joining the team at Christmas.

10. Jenelle Hulan continues to dominate Dalhousie. The third-year netminder didn’t get many opportunities this year, behind two-time first-team all-star Corley-Byrne, but she seems to enjoy playing against the Tigers. This season, she went 4-0-0 against Dalhousie, while facing over 30 shots three of the four times. In her career, she has gone 8-1-1 while facing the Tigers, so it hasn’t been a surprise over the past two seasons especially to see Corley-Byrne on the bench when the Mounties and Tigers face off. Hulan has always filled in very capably when called on, and will enter her fourth year in the fall, and will hope to log more minutes with the graduation of Corley-Byrne.

9. Six different Mounties scoring their first CIS goals. Rookies Emily van Diepen, Riki Krentz, Kristy Lanigan and Hailey Munroe all found the net in their first season, while sophomore defenders Meg Cameron and Carmanah Hunter scored their first goals as Mounties. Something that is always a thrill at any level of hockey is scoring the first goal, and Ball must have been ecstatic that so many players on the roster were able to get on the scoresheet, and again this truly exemplifies the balanced scoring attack which the Mounties possessed this season.

8. Snapping U de Moncton’s winning streak. Prior to their meeting on November 20 in Sackville, the U de Moncton Aigles Bleues were 8-0-0, but Kristen Cooze and the Mounties had something to say about that. With the game tied 2-2 in the third, Cooze carried the puck through the neutral zone, danced around both Moncton blueliners, and deposited a forehand shot past the Moncton goalie to give the Mounties a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. This was very much a statement game for the Mounties, showing the league they were ready to do more than just compete this season, and they backed up that statement following the game, only losing three more times in regulation the rest of the season.

7. Courtney King’s tying goal vs. STU in playoffs. It’s tough to overlook this goal’s importance to the Mounties’ season. When King jammed home a shot with 54 seconds left in the third period to tie the game 1-1 against the Tommies, it gave the Mounties a chance to win in overtime. While they did not do so, the overtime loss granted them one point in the playoff tournament standings. This allowed the Mounties to advance to the Championship game when they beat Moncton in regulation the following day. Without this goal with time running out, it’s hard to see a scenario where the Mounties would have qualified for the final game.

6. Katelyn Morton’s beauty vs U de M in playoffs. Down 2-1 in the second, Morton took the puck behind her own net, and gathered a head of steam up the right wing, skating all the way into the offensive zone. After crossing the blue line, Morton dangled around the Moncton defender before embarrassing the goaltender, backhanding a shot top shelf for a very important goal, her second of the game at that point. Morton would score again to complete the hat trick, but this goal has got to be considered as one of the goals of the playoffs, if not the entire season for the Mounties and AUS.

5. Comeback win at U de M to keep winning streak intact. On February 22, the Mounties found themselves down 2-1 after two periods, putting their five-game winning streak in jeopardy. With just over one minute remaining in regulation, Jenica Bastarache’s shot bounced in to tie the game 2-2. Not long into overtime, Courtney King deflected Ashlyn Somers’ shot in to extend the winning streak to six games. This winning streak would close off the regular season at seven games, and this game maybe put a seed of doubt in Moncton’s brains while motivating the Mounties, who had beaten nationally-ranked Moncton twice at this point. And boy would this be important.

4. Lauren Oickle’s natural hat-trick in UPEI. Facing a 1-0 deficit after one period, the Mounties turned to their captain to put on a show in Charlottetown. Her first goal, six and a half minutes into the second, was a rebound opportunity from the slot. The second was an absolute cannon from the left wing which the UPEI goaltender never had a chance at seeing, and she scored her third goal in a row working a beautiful give-and-go with Meg Cameron on the powerplay. As much as the winning streak mentioned previously was about the Mounties’ team success, Oickle really came on strong during that February streak, scoring seven goals and four assists, while not taking a single penalty during the streak.

3. Katelyn Morton’s 4 goals in 1 period vs SMU. While some people were surprised to see Morton in the lineup (she had missed the previous two games due to injury), Morton wasted absolutely no time making her impact. Starting only 13 seconds into the game, the fourth-year winger scored all four goals in the first period, and added an assist on the first goal of the second while pacing the Mounties to a 9-1 win. It was her second of three hat-tricks on the season, helping Morton on her way to leading the Mounties in goals for the fourth year in a row. Her offensive production helped the emergence of linemates Ashlyn Somers and Lisa Riley, who both set career numbers in goals, assists and points.

2. Comeback win at St FX. I had this at number one until three days ago, but this is likely the biggest regular season win in Mounties history. Down 2-0 after one period, it may have looked to some like the perennially nationally-ranked X-Women were on their way to another easy win. The second period saw the momentum begin to shift, as goals by Oickle and Cooze knotted the game up 2-2 before an unusual goal put the Mounties ahead. In a rare 3-on-3 situation, Courtney King was able to knock Meg Cameron’s shot into the twine to give the Mounties yet another comeback victory on the season. As it would turn out, it was the second win of their long winning streak, and was also the first ever regulation win over St FX and first ever win at St FX for the Mounties.

1.       Comeback win against U de M in playoffs. Following Saturday’s emotional playoff win, this was a no-brainer for number one. Facing potential elimination from the playoffs with either a loss or any overtime, needing a regulation win to advance to their first ever AUS final, the Mounties put together one of the most thrilling and emotional playoff comebacks in AUS history. Down 2-0 during the first period, and 4-2 after two periods, the Mounties scored three unanswered goals in the third to complete the comeback over the Aigles Bleues. Katelyn Morton’s goal described at number six tied the game 2-2, but Moncton scored twice before the second period ended. Morton scored the first of the epic comeback goals early in the third, and Meg Davies scored a weird one soon after. After her point shot got deflected high in the air, the puck spiralled down, landing perfectly between the knees of U de M goalie Kathy Desjardins before rolling into the net, tying the game 4-4. With less than seven minutes to go, and the Mounties on the powerplay, Emily van Diepen’s shot was stopped, but Ashlyn Somers was all over the rebound, putting it top corner and blowing the roof off of the Dalhousie arena. The most important game and goal in Mountie history propelled them into the final game, where they would meet their disappointing end, but this is without a doubt many Mountie fans and AUS fans won’t be forgetting for a while.