Penguins Don't Take Flight

So, time to haul out the record books with the Wings and Chris Osgood's second shutout in two games in this so-called "dream" matchup in the Stanley Cup Final.

In 2003, a Final (noted mainly by the Scott Stevens hit on Paul Kariya) one saw the deadly dull Devils and Martin Brodeur shut out Anaheim two games in a row but it still went seven thanks to the Michelin Man Giguere in the Ducks' net. Satan's minions still won the Cup though, of course, with a shutout in Game 7.

Have faith Pens fans, the 1945 Final had the Leafs and Frank McCool shutting out Detroit in the first three games before the Almost Dead Things stormed back to tie the series with two of their three wins being shutouts also...then losing Game 7 to the Leafs.

We have to go back to the 1926 Final to find that the Montreal (in the words of Bugs Bunny: "What a Bunch of") Maroons shut out the Victoria Cougars of the old pro Western Hockey League in Games 1 and 2 of a sweep to win the Cup. The Maroons even threw a shutout in game 4 making it a hat trick of whitewashing for Hannibal Lechter lookalike Clint Benedict in the Final.

So, there is hope of making this a series, if the Pens can get the puck off the Wings for enough time to actually pressure Ozzie.

My Kingdom For A Backup Goalie

This may sound counterintuitive, but if new GM Mike Gillis wants to keep Bingo Bango Luongo happy, he needs to find a better CuJo-like backup goalie and convince Coach Vigneault to play that backup a minimum of 13 games.

If the ultimate goal is winning a Stanley Cup...or even going deep into the playoffs, playing over 70 games a season will not get you there.

Here are the regular season GP by the Final Four goalies over the past three playoff seasons.

06/07
Ana--Giguere 56 GP
Ott--Emery 58
Det--Hasek 56
Buff--Miller 63

05/06
Car-Ward 28
Edm--Roloson 43
Buff--Miller 48
Ana--Giguere 60

03/04
TB--Khabibulin 55
Calg--Kiprusoff 39
Phil--Esche 40
SJ-Nabokov 59


Conclusion: Uberstar all-world, but overworked, goalie = no Cup for you!
Fresh (preferably young) goalie = shot at glory.

Meaning, maybe Bob Gainey is onto a good thing dumping Cristobal Huet for Carey Price.
Hey, stranger Steve Penney-ness has happened in Montreal in past playoffs.

Riot on, Hab fans!

Free At Last! Brian Burke is Free At Last!

With the Anaheim (Not Mighty Anymore) Ducks one and done, the "Brian Burke is headed here (Vancouver), there (Toronto) and everywhere (take your pick) as the new GM" rumors will go nuclear. Maybe, just maybe, some teams will step back and realize he is maybe not the best hockey GM on the planet.

I would argue the Cup-winning Ducks of '07 were made more by Bryan Murray's draft picks (Perry, Getzlaf, Lupul--the player that netted the Dux, Pronger in the deal with Edmonton) with a helping hand from Burkey (the Pronger and Beauchemin pickups being primary). As Canuck fans know, Burke's '07/08 was more atypical of the moves Brian tends to make. Like Mike Keenan, he loves "assembling the troops" hence the signing of Todd "all of 0 G 2 A in the playoffs" Bertuzzi and the re-signings of Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer halfway through the season. Problem was he had already signed Mathieu Schneider to replace Niedermayer. This created the salary cap problem that basically created no backup plan in the playoffs when J.S. Giguere faltered and Doug Weight turned out to be...well, not Andy McDonald.

The Burke-ster tried to trade backup netminder Ilya Bryzgalov during the fall, but ending up having to put him on waivers. Phoenix said thank you very much and turned their season around thanks to Ilya's 26-22-5 a record with a phenomenal .921 save pct. Maybe the Desert Dogs did not make the playoffs but they did make things a whole lot more interesting in Glendale, AZ.

The loss of Bryz-y also meant when Anaheim drew Dallas in rd. 1 so Giguere was their only option (apologies to rookie backup Jonas Hiller). Given Giggy had his troubles vs. Dallas during the season (.877 save pct, 3W 5L), it was sort of in the cards that the Stars knew how to get to the Ninja Turtle Man. Bryzgalov was certainly a key guy (.937 career playoff save pct) in spelling Giggy when things got rough, especially in '06 when the Dux went three rds (that was the season Giggy was distracted during the playoffs by his young kid's medical problems).

Then when Corey Perry went down and had to miss the first three games vs. Dallas, it was time for Doug Weight to step up since Andy McDonald was long gone to St. Louis. The 35 y/o Weight, with all that playoff experience, managed all of 1 assist vs. Dallas in rd. 1.

Sure, Pronger reverted to his old St. Louis days by taking stupid penalties and Stephane Robidas did a great Zubov impersonation helping the Dallas powerplay (10 PP goals in the series) to keep on clicking, but the seeds of the Ducks' "lameout" were sown by a certain GM who mismanaged his roster the season following the Cup run.

Now was it worth re-signing Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer? Maybe in Selanne's case it's a wash, but the "Playoff Beard To End All Playoff Beards" Norris Trophy D-man had no jump at all maybe bar Game 5. Niedermayer ended up with just two assists and was a minus player in the series. Scott is headed to the Hall, but he might want to rethink that retirement idea.

So Brian Burke has "won" a Cup, and I'm sure whatever team gets him will be happy when he drafts those Nathan Smiths and Kirill Koltsovs for them. Until then, thanks, Brian, for giving us the Sedins! I enjoy cycling now so much I'm actually thinking of entering the Tour de France.