It’s All-Star weekend and Frank Doyle looks ahead to the second half of the hockey season as the teams hurtle towards the playoffs!
The great players of the NHL are exhibiting their skills in Ottawa this weekend at the All-Star Game, but don’t be fooled. Whatever those guys do on the ice at the Scotiabank Place, they could do in their sleep. Their minds will be thinking one thing and one thing only: playoffs.
How could they not? The NHL season is like a rocket launched into the space. First, we watch amazed as it soars into the skies. Then it hangs there, in a frozen moment of time, before tipping over to come hurtling back to Earth and start some explosions.
The team that’s primed to deliver the biggest bangs are the Boston Bruins. Detroit was the last team to retain Lord Stanley’s Cup in 1997 and 1998 but the Bruins are an NHL gambling favorite to retain their World Title. Nobody’s getting past them without a fight.
Vancouver is the second favorite. The Canucks remain one of most potent offenses in the League, but their dilemma between the pipes is going to haunt them. Unless they post shutouts all through the playoffs, people are always going to say the other guy would have stopped that one for every goal that’s scored against them in every game they play. That starts to get into guys’ heads after a while.
We’ll say nothing about the crippling pressure of having a whole country torn between the need to see a Canadian team win and the torture that it might be the Canucks and not the Leafs, Habs, Jets, Sens, Flames or Oilers. We won’t go there.
After that, all the potential stories make for compelling action. Can the Sharks finally deliver? What about the Red Wings or the Flyers? Wouldn’t it be something if Ken Hitchcock and the Blues could win it all? The playoffs will be a deep dish of delight. There’s no question about that.
On the player side, the usual infinity of stories. Of particular note is the tale of two Russians.
Evgeni Malkin is putting himself in contention for the Hart Trophy for the nightly heroics he’s performing for Pittsburgh. Every time another Penguin gets injured, Malkin just puts another part of the team up on his back as he tries to get them to the playoffs through sheer strength of will alone.
Wouldn’t they like to see the same leadership from Alex Ovechkin in Washington? One of the reasons Bruce Boudreau was fired was because the organisation wanted to keep Ovechkin happy, but it seems keeping Ovechkin happy is no trivial task.
Will Ovechkin end his career as a star that flamed out too early? That’s pretty much up to himself – it not like the Southeast is the toughest division in hockey. His talent is still there if he wants to apply it and if he doesn’t, someone else walks away with the cup. No-one is bigger than the game.
Related posts:
- Time to Shine for Stars, Lightning After All-Star Game?
- Somewhere, Ovi the Rainbow – Caps Look Good in NHL East
- Bombing Bruins and Can-Do Canucks Talked About Teams of the NHL Playoffs
- Down But Not Out – Fighting to the Last in the NHL Playoffs
- Vancouver Canucks Green Men Celebrities of Stanley Cup Playoffs
