Links! Links! Thursday NW Division Link Time

Thanks to James for giving me the keys to CLS, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna regret it. My name is Vancity Canuck, and you may know me from previous CLS writings or my other blog tHB. I’m gonna start off small here with a little tour around the Northwest division. I didn’t realize that signing up to find some stories about the NW Division would actually require me to read about other teams besides the Canucks.

Let’s start our tour, shall we?

The KB has compiled a list of Getting to Know Your Backup Goalies. If you haven’t ever read the Kurtenblog before, well let me introduce the j-ckasses that are paid to write about sports and chat on messenger by the MSM. In this week’s list they introduce the Swedish backup, who learns that “The biggest difference in the NHL is how all the players can skate forwards and backwards.“

Jibblescribbits has also complied a list! Their is about Why the Flames received their Flu shots. As a Canadian, Albertans seem like they would be the type to do anything for Kevin Sorbo’s Nerdy Little Brother, Jay Bouwmeester.

Hitting the Post did not have a list. Disappointing. But they did address the question: is their team the Least Intriguing team in the NHL? So what about this Wild team is interesting, right now? Their answer: nothing. Nada. Nathan. Nil. Bopkus. At least we’re all on the same page.

Low on Oil looks at being an Oilers fan and compares it to Myth Busters, exes and Mac Ads.

And if you want to read the latest issue of Tigerbeat, or Teen Beat or whatever they have Lipgloss/Tswizzle’s face all over, I put together a collection of underage, androgynous faces of popstars and teen actors attending recent hockey games, so I ask the question is the NHL celebrity trendy these days? Maybe I should have asked the question: why are these people famous?

Do you think that you’ve written something worthy of next week’s list? Are you a reader of a smaller blog and feel it deserves some attention? Drop me an e-mail at thevancitycanuck [at] gmail.com and maybe you’ll end up in the next NW Links around the League, I promise to be relatively nice.

If you liked Hockey Orphan, you might like:

There have been a bunch of Hockey Orphan entries the last couple weeks, so we thought it would be a smart idea to point fans of the recently represented teams to posts that they might find interesting and/or entertaining.

Montreal Canadiens (Written by HabsFan29 from Four Habs Fans)

Twinsies: How the Montreal Canadiens are the NHL’s version of the Boston Celtics

The Canadiens would be the most exciting matchup for the Boston Bruins

Columbus Blue Jackets (Written by Bethany from Bethany’s Rants)

Chris Kontos thought the Blue Jackets would be the San Jose Sharks’ best dance partner

Florida Panthers (Written by Whale4Ever from Litter Box Cats)

Who IS Jay Bouwmeester, anyway?

The Return of the Rat Pack

10 Things that are cool about the Florida Panthers

New Jersey Devils (Written by John Fischer from In Lou We Trust)

A post with a bunch of the Brodeur links

Comparing Brodeur to the Plantes and Vezinas of yore is a losing endeavor

Brodeur is voted the goalie of the aughts

Are Brodeur-type workhorse goalies a dying breed?

Remember when the hockey world was stunned that the Devils seemed like they didn’t miss a beat without Brody?

Philadelphia Flyers (Written by FGSB from Flyers Goal Scored By)

Salary Cap Outlook: Flyers

San Jose Sharks (Written by Gray from Couch Tarts)

Dance Partners: San Jose

Both teams have had their struggles, but it’s interesting that Boston – San Jose still might have been a Stanley Cup preview

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Of course, there is also a bunch of content on all the Hockey Orphan teams in our trade deadline coverage as well.

Afternoon Cycle: Brodeur and Friends

• Before we get to the meatier portions, CLS must acknowledge its namesakes when they are in the news. In case you were unaware, the Sedin twins are at some sort of impasse with the Vancouver Canucks when it comes to twin contract extensions. (Spector by way of Puck Daddy)

The Sedins are more than a novelty act, but my feeling is that the pairing should probably knock a million off their asking price if they want to continue to be a package deal. And it would be wrong if the two were split up. Wrong and foreign. Like a pair of male ginger twins dancing at your bachelor party.

Two three-year contracts for $5.5 million per year strikes me as a reasonable compromise. I mean, they only have one digestive system anyway, right? RIGHT?

• Things might be a little light on the contributor front for the next week or so. Chris Kontos is going on a wild’n’crazy five week adventure, our other contributors are possibly kidnapped in a trunk somewhere and the Next Decade team process will be pushed to the summer.

Hopefully my limited brain power can produce a few worthwhile posts in the meantime. Please don’t leave me. This world is cold and lonely.

• With an malnourished inbox, the quest for the best Brodeur clips will just have to amount to what I’ve come across so far. However, if you stumble on this list and feel your work is missing simply drop me a line and it will probably be updated. Probably.

Perhaps the most comprehensive Brodeur study was made by friend of CLS Joe Pelletier. He did a great job of breaking down Brodeur’s career against the work of his best contemporaries Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek.

Eyes on the Prize featured an amusing take on the Brodeur vs. Roy debate: “Ten Things Martin Brodeur will never have on Patrick Roy.”

James Mirtle picks Roy by a hair at From the Rink.

John from in Lou we Trust points out that while career milestones are nice, the goal for this season is for the Devils to raise their fourth Cup. He also makes the point of saying, “what good is a 2.00 GAA if you only win 20 games a season?”

Much like ESPN following Barry Bonds until he broke Hank Aaron‘s home run record, NHL Network will follow Brodeur until he slides above Roy for the all-time wins record. At this point, I love NHL Network to the point that if it beat me up, I’d be back the next day with sunglasses to mask my black eye and a fresh “I fell down the stairs” excuse. Yup, it’s my umbrella.
Whenever someone quits an online NHL 09 game early so my team cannot record a shutout, my message is always a snarky “Stay Classy.” Apparently, Frozen Fiend shows that you can use the term in a non-derisive fashion. Go figure.

The New York Times hockey blog rightly questions Greg Millen’s strange statement made right after Brodeur tied Roy’s record: “You think this isn’t a hockey market?” Finally, the Montreal Canadiens show that hockey can work in Montreal, the NASHVILLE of CANADA! Seriously, though, what was Millen thinking? People rioted in Montreal after they won a first round series. Hopefully Millen was drunk.

Maybe the “but he has shootout wins!” argument would matter more if this was Brodeur’s retirement tour, but MB will probably pad his record pretty comfortably as long as he remains durable. Can we please stop with this argument unless he retires with less regulation wins? Please?

Lastly, the Program has some Brodeur videos for your viewing pleasure.

Stay tuned! (plus the week in review)

As recently as last month, things would really taper off during the weekend. That no longer seems to be the trend thanks to Sleek last weekend and what’s coming up.

At the very least, the blog will feature the choices of Eric McErlain (one of the most well-respected, influential members of the hockey blogosphere) as well as my own (one of the people who will eventually be considered influenza* to the hockey blogosphere).

In fact, CLS is in negotiations^ with a few other prominent hockey bloggers to submit their All-Decade Team picks as well. Sure, the process is taking a while … but it’s not like you get to name the players of the decade very often, right?

ANYWAY, here’s this week’s highlights:

Snarky relections on the Montreal scandal
Chris Kontos gives his All-Decade picks
Joe Pelletier shares his All-Decade team
Two posts on the rise of goaltender duos
All-Decade Center: Pro-Thornton take by Couch Tarts
Jibblescribbits: Sakic for all decade C (check the comments for a jaw dropping beating Doug Gilmour received from Burnaby Joe)
Morning cycle: on NBC’s poor game choice, Therrien firing, Russians on the Caps and a question regarding the Blackhawks’ place in the Western Conference
Sleek’s take on the Pronger vs. Niedermayer debate

Make sure you check out those guest posts.

Oh, one more thing:

CLS now features three more posts in 2009 than 2008 (59 counting this one versus 56 last year). The site *really* started in October, so it’s not as huge of a jump as it might seem. Still, this year’s already a lot more productive. Hopefully the blog remains that way.

* – Like what I did there? Ho ho.

^ – This means sending a couple e-mails

The All-Goose Egg Team or The Robert Parrish Decade Squad

Is anyone sort of dumbfounded that it’s already 2009? Seriously, has it been about 10 years since we thought that Y2K would destroy the internet and everyone would eat soup for three months? Crazy.

Even though there’s two-half seasons left before 2010 hits, I thought it would be fun to get a head start by beginning the process of determining who would be on an All-Decade team. To still keep it somewhat resembling a decade, we’ll start from the 1999-2000 season up to today (January 13). Since it would be greedy to leave the voting to me, I will look to the masses for support, opinions and votes. In fact, the first poll is of considerable importance (vote below).

Don’t hold me to this, but the plan is to have a post per category.

All-Decade Center

Two All-Decade Wingers (because these guys tend to switch around)

Two All-Decade Defensemen

All-Decade Goalie

and maybe some fun categories:

All-Decade Loudmouth

All-Decade Goat

All-Decade Pugilist

Any other categories you’d like to see?

How should the CLS All-Decade team be determined
( polls)

10 Noteworthy Cycles from 2008

“Hockey – Rocky – Shmockey – BUKKAKE! I need this list like I need a shotgun blast to the face!”

Being that Cycle like the Sedins started more or less at the beginning of the 2008-09 season, there isn’t a huge pool of mind blowing posts quite yet. (Are there any?) That being said, there have been a few solid posts that help justify the epic timesuck that is posting without any monetary encouragement.

(The only necktar there is to feed off is your sinfully delicious comments. Rare, sweet necktar.)

Anyway, enough hivemind. Let’s take a look at 10 stories that were memorable (oddly enough, I didn’t plan it out to be ten it just sort of happened. Eat it, Letterman.)

The First Bertuzzday: how the Vancouver Canucks resembled Cobra Kai

While maintaining a weekly Bertuzzday proved too much to handle, it started off with a bang. The above post featured a deep analysis of Bertuzzday’s namesake, delving into the Steve Moore neck breaking fiasco, the Cobra Kai parallels to those former Canucks and finished with the question: what would Todd Bertuzzi need to do to gain forgiveness?

Never got a definitive answer on that one, but some of the comments between SLS and BoC were certainly intriguing.

Two major blows to the hockey blogosphere

Easily the most linked post in CLS’s brief history. Oddly enough, when I posted about the Dave Berry fiasco it seemed like my post would be at the tail end of the discussion. Boy, was I ever wrong about that…

Bertuzzday: Dale Hunter

Say what you want about the dirty Bertuzzi hit, at least it was in the heat of the moment. Hunter’s hit was made all the more sickening by the fact that Pierre Turgeon had absolutely no reason to expect contact. He just scored a fucking goal.

That hit redefined the standards for a late hit and possibly stunted Turgeon’s career. You have to wonder if he never felt quite felt safe on a sheet of ice ever again. Seriously, you cannot even safely celebrate a goal?

Can’t spell Gaborik without “IR”

This post doesn’t exactly make me some Puck Nostradamus. Seriously, pointing out Gabby’s injury prone nature is about as out-on-a-limb as predicting that Marisa Tomei will look good topless.

Still, sometimes it’s surprising how much this stuff is like clockwork. Martin Havlat breaking his trend would be equally surprising if it weren’t for this being his contract year (the timing of Havlat’s health > the timing of Minnesota fielding trade offers).

Being that the Wild will probably have to let Gaborik go for nothing, this could be one awkward breakup.

Half court Hockey

This post contemplates an idea proposed in a Bucci column: what if the NHL allowed the offensive zone to stretch to the red line once the attacking team entered the zone? Not everyone was on board with this idea (if I remember correctly, Greg W/Puck Daddy compared it to roller hockey), but it would certainly be interesting to see what the Ovechkins and Kovalchuks of the world would do with all that space.

Come on, it’s not THAT bad an idea, is it?
Which team would be the best for Oldmanahan?

It’s pretty amazing that this late-October post is still fairly relevant. Who would have thought that Brian Burke would lay rest to the Maple Leafs rumors and flea to Toronto before Shanahan would find a team to play for?

An in-depth look at the wildly unappreciated career of Jaromir Jagr

With all the hate thrown around for arguably the most talented European player in NHL history, it seemed right to smother the Czech in stat-heavy love. Admiring his jaw dropping goal against the Chicago Blackhawks does not assure the universe that you own a soul, but disavowing it definitely disqualifies you.

Ovechkin to Oven: what European hockey names would look like with the “Ellis Island” treatment

There’s a scene in the Andy Kaufman biopic “Man of the Moon” where Kaufman and Bob Zmuda are (Spoiler alert for complete, jarring idiots) swindling audiences by sharing the role of Tony Clifton. They have a good, hearty laugh as Kaufman’s manager quizzically states the obvious: what good is a joke if you’re the only two people in the world who get it?

That Ellis Island post is the Cycle like Sedins equivalent. Writing it during one night of inspiration with a smile from ear to ear, I showed it to my buddies who ate it up. And yet, if there was an Internet equivalent to a cricket chirping, the 0 comments on that post would be it.

Eh, fuck you guys. That shit’s funny.

Great things come in pairs

Solid little article about the dynamic duos of the NHL past and present. Justified partially though not entirely by a Toe Jam and Earl reference. Consider this the Ron Francis of CLS posts.

Picking the brain of a fantasy hockey guru

This guy’s been the ace up my sleeve in fantasy hockey for years now (although, honestly, if any one facing me in any of my three leagues read my blog they’d know about him by now). Thanks to a sublime combination of my own hockey knowledge, his Q & A’s and idiotic panic moves by other league owners I’m in first place in two of my leagues and second in the league where I suffered an autopick fate for the first four rounds.

Interviewing the guy was enjoyable and he generally shook off my absurd, silly questions.

******

Not a bad first four months. It helps put the ‘ol paralyzing anonymity in perspective. At times it’s been discouraging as the concept of the blog fell apart like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ powerplay, but no need to dwell on the negative.

Here’s to a 2009 that hopefully makes those posts pale in comparison.

Bertuzzday: Great things come in pairs

These duos are less Batman and Robin and more Toe Jam & Earl (two great teammates who rocked the world fairly equally)

Even though sports market individuals, just about every successful sports star needed a second banana or running mate. Joe Montana needed Jerry Rice. Michael Jordan never truly took off until the Bulls found Scottie Pippen. David Ortiz was unstoppable when Manny was being Manny.

The NHL is no different. Over the years, the league’s most exciting and successful teams typically featured some terrific combinations. Often they’re more than the sum of two players, but many of them center depend on two great athletes. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best duos past and present.

Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin and Henrik Zetterberg/Pavel Datsyuk

You only need to look back to last season’s Stanley Cup Finals to see a prime example of dynamic duos.

On one hand, there was media darling Sidney Crosby and silent assassin Evgeni Malkin. They only play on the same line sporadically – both being natural centers – but when put together the results are lethal. No doubt about it, that Penguins team had great supporting cast members but Crosby/Malkin accelerated their run to the final round sooner than most expected.

Unfortunately for Pens fans, the Zetterberg-Datsyuk combination proved even more deadly. Surely those two benefited from outstanding support players including top five all-time defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, but Zetterberg and Datsyuk showed a keen ability to shut down the Penguins great forwards while pitching in some key goals.

Joe Sakic/Peter Forsberg

Along with Patrick Roy, arguably the best goaltender in NHL history, Forsberg and Sakic were the preeminent pivot 1-2 punch back in the early part of this decade and late Nineties. With their seemingly cohesive skills (Forsberg’s cerebral playmaking and Sakic’s supreme wrist shot), you’d think they’d make ideal linemates. Instead, Forsberg made good players like Alex Tanguay and Milan Hedjuk into All-Stars while Sakic provided opposing defenses with the impossible riddle of “who do you stop?”

Forsberg’s game seemed a bit more transcendent than Sakic’s but Burnaby Joe was more dependable and was just as much of a clutch performer as Foppa. Either way the two combined for 2 Stanley Cups, a few Hart trophies and a tense rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings.

Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr

It didn’t end well, but few pairings in NHL history compare to Lemieux-Jagr. With Lemieux being a center and Jagr being a right wing, the two were able to make music together for a few unforgettable seasons. And few defenses had an answer when the Penguins also lined up fellow hockey HoFer Ron Francis with the two superstars.

I’ll never forget the quirky stat that was broken once Mario Lemieux came back from retirement: at that time, Lemieux assisted on 68 of Jagr’s career goals and Jagr assisted 66 of Lemieux’s career goals. Sometimes obscure stats become downright spooky.

Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger/Scott Stevens

Niedermayer played on some of the most dominant defensive teams of the last 20 years and has up close experience with two of the sport’s most controversial hitters. However you feel about Stompy Pronger’s line-pushing intimidation and Stevens’ head hunting, their work with the smooth skating Niedermayer accounted for four Stanley Cup championships and suffocating defense.

Brian Trottier/Mike Bossy

Retrospectively overshadowed by the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers dynasty, the New York Islanders accomplished the extremely rare four-peat on the back of this stunning combination. Trottier ranks as one of the best two-way forwards in hockey history while Bossy is considered by some to be the purest goal scorer the league’s every seen.

Sadly, I was a but a twinkle in my father’s eye during this time so my only account is through the eyes of others.

Wayne Gretzky/Mark Messier or is it Wayne Gretzky/Jari Kurri?

Those Oilers teams were loaded like a Madden dynasty full of players with 99 ratings. Still, I’m a Penguins fan and plenty of ink has been spilled to praise the Great One. So, take this time to remember how great they were. Didn’t get to see much of them myself.

Bobby Hull’s balls made one of the greatest players of all-time. All mine have done is make a towel crusty.

Stan Mikita/Bobby Hull

Greatest Hockey Legends featured an illuminating piece on Stan Mikita, who for many younger fans was known only as the namesake for a Wayne’s World restaurant but clearly was much more. It’s arguable that Mikita was far superior to his famous, Archie Manning-ish counterpart in Bobby Hull. (Of course, Mikita cannot claim that a 600-goal scorer came from his balls)

Check out Pelletier’s great piece on Mikita to get some nice perspective on a forgotten great.

Phil Esposito/Bobby Orr

“Jesus saves, but Espo scores on the rebound.”

A great bumper sticker that highlighted just how beloved the Bruins once were in Beantown. Few Masser sports figures can match Bobby Orr’s greatness, but who knows if #4 Bobby Orr would’ve hoisted a single Cup if the Bruins hadn’t gotten Esposito in one of the most one-sided trades in sports history.

They didn’t like each other, but they didn’t have to. Their nicely meshing skills did all the necessary complimenting. Orr would captivate with end-to-end rushes and then get the puck to an eager Espo. A combination that was good for 2 Cups, plenty of goals and a lot of “What-ifs?” because of Orr’s sadly brief career.

Not always the best of friends, but Orr and Espo were borderline unstoppable

Some close, but not quite good enough two-somes

Paul Kariya/Teemu Selanne

Two borderline Hall of Famers who put up some pretty impressive numbers. The passage of time hurts their impact but the biggest problems are Kariya’s decline and the fact that those Ducks teams were gawd awful.

Markus Naslund/Todd Bertuzzi

It’s hard to believe that the former Canucks duo was once the next big thing. Then Bertuzzi broke Steve Moore’s neck and Naslund slid far away from elite status. Both are now on different teams, with Bertuzzi shuffling from Florida to Detroit to Anaheim to Calgary in a blindingly bad three years.

Eric Lindros/John LeClair

Their best years were too few and they ended up with no Stanley Cups. Maybe if Lindros didn’t have so many lackluster final seasons.