Again?!

Detroit drama aside, the league must be really wondering about Alfredsson.  I mean, the last all-star game was basically an Alfie-lovefest.  He has a rebound year and helped take a rebuilding team into the playoffs.  And then, after that high note, he came back.

Last year he had a respectable year,  an unexpected appearance in the second round of playoffs, and the league ackowledged his special career with the Marc Messier leadership award.

...and he comes back again.

The league has to be wondering what it will take this for this guy to quit!  

I wouldn't expect any serious award, though, unless it is something like the Brian Burke award for neatest laces tying.

Alfredsson to Detroit

Betrayal?

Really?

The man gives you his all for 17 years, becomes the heart, soul, and backbone of the franchise, and you call it betrayal that he goes to play with another team?

Look.  Daniel Alfredsson has earned the right to do whatever he pleases as far as hockey is concerned.  If he is more concerned about trying for a cup before he retires than filling in for another year of Ottawa mediocrity, that is his right, and the only thing Ottawa fans should do is wish him well and thank him for his service.

Ottawa won't win a cup this year. There are many things you can say about this team, but "they will contend for the cup in 2013-2014" isn't one of them.  Maybe it is a budget issue, maybe it is a lack of availability of quality players, maybe it is a systemic problem that prevents the right pieces from being assembled.

Detroit's chances at a cup this year may be thin, yes -- but that's light years ahead of Ottawa's chances.

Alfredsson ran out of time waiting on Ottawa's window to open again.  Don't blame him for chasing the ultimate reward while he still can.

Lets hope he decides to come back to Ottawa after he has retired.

Round Two Prediction Time

So: on to Round Two.

I did make some round one predictions, albeit elsewhere:

...and albeit incorrectly, but I did make them.

My round two prediction: I think that the Penguins may have problems, but overall the gap between their offence and our defense is greater than the gap between our offence and their defense.  I think this series is Pittsburgh's to lose, and they'll make a mighty effort to do just that -- but in the end will come up short.

Pittsburgh in six.

This Is Why I Don't Watch Playoff Hockey

What We Learned: Why ‘letting them play’ is nonsense in the NHL:

But the problem with this insistence on letting guys play is that when you do so, they tend to start committing penalties, and that, in turn, necessitates that, at some point, some of the infractions actually have to be called.

In a nutshell: hilariously inconsistent officiating gets even worse.

Hypocracy from team staff and boosters is to be expected (ie: an offensive call against one of your players would be just fine if the same call had been made against the opposition), but the fact that the rules are apparently different in period one than they are in overtime is just plain unacceptable.

Frankly it is hard enough to watch during the meaningless regular season games.  But when there is actually something riding on the outcome, I just can't do it any more.

Choosing to not call a penalty affects the game's outcome just as much -- if not more -- than calling a penalty.  Why more?  Because if a penalty goes uncalled, it will likely be repeated again, and again, and again if the game lasts long enough.

Add in the random acts of goonery that seem required for a playoff game and the Random Wheel Of Shahan-a-ban Justice, and it is just too much work to get invested in playoffs.

See you in the summer.

Jerk Them Knees

So, in evidence that trading Ben Bishop was a bad idea, I offer you this single data point:

• Ben Bishop debuts for Tampa with a shutout; and
• Robin Lehner coughs up two goals in twelve seconds enroute to a 4-2 loss.

Since this is the Internet, we can therefore extrapolate the rest of their careers from tonight and conclude that Bishop is the greatest goalie to ever play the game, and Lehner is a pinball machine.

I jest.

Sort of.

(Update: Here's an article which calmly compares the Bishop-Lehner situation to that of Chara and Redden.  I think he's on to something, and this deal will be talked about for the next couple years at least as both goalies move through the next phase of their careers.)

Shipping Bishop

And while we're on the topic of writing knee-jerk, poorly thought out headscratcher blog posts about deadline-day trades:

I'll call it right now: trading Ben Bishop is a mistake.  I know we can't keep three goalies on the team, and Anderson's return is supposedly imminent (and lets hope he's really healthy when he comes back, ankles in goalies can be tricky things) -- but I'm not sold on Lehner.  I don't think he's the man.  When he plays things are wild and exciting and he gets lit up like a pinball machine. He's one of those players who thinks his balls click together when he walks around*. I just don't have a good feeling for him.

Bishop I thought had much more upside potential.  He was more quiet, more professional, more just-get-the-job-done.  I don't think his potential will be realized terribly well in Tampa, where he'll suffer from the same problem that Ottawa goalies have had -- that being, playing behind a terrible team -- but of the two, I'd rather of kept him.

I don't even care about this rookie-of-the-year candidate we got back in exchange right now.

I will go on record as admitting that I wasn't a fan of the Runblad-for-Turris trade, and overall that worked out quite nicely.

---

*: and we've played that game before, a certain Mr. Ray Emery.

Now That's Crazy

You gotta wonder if someone in Boston has a head injury.  In a deadline-day deal, we have this story that Boston has traded... to acquire... Wade Redden. On purpose.

I... uh...

I really have nothing.