Afternoon Scrum 2/11/10

Hockey headlines for the CBJ and from around the league. Mmmmm... hockey

• How about those CBJ?! Defense kept things simple and made few turnovers (not perfect, but much improved over most of the season), Forwards took the transition feeds from the D-men and did things like get the puck deep WITH possession, then put a shot on net when there is traffic near the goalie... you know, things that lead to goals! And how about Jake getting off the schnide? It was a beautiful play from the turnover all the way to the cannon blast. And last but not least, Steve Mason was outstanding in net last night. The glove save against Huskins was a beauty, but it was his movement and positioning that was most impressive. Lateral movement and recovery time looked to be as quick and sure as last season. Check out Mike Arace's commentary about the suddenly hot Steve Mason.
• I didn't get this posted yesterday, but David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News has a very interesting blog entry regarding Claude Noel and his tie to the movie Slap Shot. Be sure to check this one out. 1st assist to Stick on the Ice for the link.
• And here's another interesting piece on Noel, this one from USA Today
• If Ryan Getzlaf isn't healthy enough to play in the Olympics for Team Canada, Flyers C Jeff Carter has been tabbed as his replacement.
• More Olympic news as it has been announced that Peter Forsberg will play for Team Sweden, and that Johan Franzen may replace the injured Tomas Holmstrom as the Swedes look to defend their Olympic Gold.
• The Capitals had a 14 game winning streak ended last night at the Belle Centre in Montreal. Game came complete with a come-from-behind performance by the Caps and a controversial goal/no-goal involving Ovechkin. Check out the game recap and the breakdown of the controversy, courtesy of ESPN.com.

Four Lines Deep - 2/10/10

Sharks at Blue Jackets; Nationwide Arena

7 p.m. (EST); Fox Sports Ohio (HD)

The Sharks have kept their puck hunger on the road.

I don't want to be a "kill joy," but the Jackets face a much tougher challenge than an average Dallas team or a slumping group of Buffalo Sabres tonight. The Sharks are arguably the best team in the league right now and they've won the first three games on a six-game road trip. The Sharks have 20 wins on the road this season -- including their last eight -- and that's obviously a big reason why they're the best in the West and hold a 4-point lead over Chicago for that honor.

The Jackets have a lot of good energy right now and certainly seem to be embracing the Noel Era with some fun, high-tempo winning hockey. The true test of this team's improvement and emerging style of hockey will come during the next five days, as they face the three top teams in the division.

The Jackets will see a few familiar faces around Nationwide today. Jody Shelley pounded Colton Orr in Toronto in their last game -- should be interesting to see if he drops the gloves in Nationwide. On a side note, I had the honor of meeting Mr. Shelley once and couldn't have been more impressed by him. He is truly an outstanding individual. And I hope his team loses.  According to some fans commenting on David Pollak's Mercury News blog, our old friend (and Hitch translator) Manny Malhotra was limping badly in the airport after doing the "Bambi Splits" in Toronto.  Best to Manny, but I'd rather not have him available in the faceoff circle. On another side note, two-thirds of Pollak's post was about our little snow squall. I was on my way to Cleveland by 7 a.m. yesterday morning -- the West Coast is extraordinary but it does make you soft.

First Line: Turn off the faucet.  During the first two games of this season's series, the Jackets' blueline was absolutely flooded by the Sharks first line. Heatley hung a hat trick in the first game and Joe Thornton tied a franchise record with four assists. The second game wasn't as bad, but Heatley and Thornton both scored again. San Jose has tremendous offensive weapons - one of the best is blueliner - and Miami alum - Dan Boyle.  The Sharks' top line is disgusting it's so good -- they have combined for more than 200 points this season. The Jackets will have plenty of challenges in this game, but the chances for getting two points are zero if the CBJ can't hold this line in check -- Pahlsson will have to do yeoman's work in shutting down Thornton.

Second Line:  Stay Loose.   If the Jackets win this game, it's not going to happen without some adversity. This Sharks team is just too good to go quietly into the night. The Jackets must continue in their new mentality of "mistakes happen" and not to get rattled during the rough patches in the game. Good communication on the bench and on the ice will go a long way in keeping an even keel. This will be especially true for the blueliners and Mason.

Third Line:  Take a page from Detroit's playbook. The only team that has had any consistent success against the Sharks this year is Detroit. The Wings are 3-0 against the Sharks and have outscored them 10-4. By coincidence, the Wings are the next game for the Sharks and San Jose may be overlooking the CBJ in favor of that game. Regardless, we know the Wings, and we know the style the Wings play. Even in a "down year," they possess and pass the puck with great efficiency -- ultimately, so they can counterattack quickly and come at you from a bunch of different angles. If the Jackets can sustain the intense forecheck and speedy transition game they showed against Buffalo, they'll have a chance to overwhelm the Sharks' d-men and give Nabokov some problems.

Fourth Line:  Attack and then attack some more - and then attack even more in the third. The tables have finally turned -- the Jackets are now facing teams that are in the middle of extended road trips. San Jose played in Toronto on Monday and then had a bumpy trip to Cbus. They will be tired in the third, and I suspect that's why Noel had the Jackets doing conditioning drillls AFTER a spirited 50-minute practice the other day. He wants the Jackets to show some jump in the third period and take advantage of the scheduling drain on the visitors. Since they haven't played a game since Saturday, the Jackets should be able to bring a lot of pressure for 60 minutes tonight.

RIP Brendan Burke

Tragedy strikes "The Brotherhood"

Oxford, Ohio (Feb. 9) - As you probably know by now, Miami student hockey manager, Brendan Burke, son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, died Friday afternoon when the 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving slid into an oncoming truck. The 21-year old Burke and another man, 18-year old Mark Reedy, were killed at the scene. Brendan's much publicized story of coming out was broken by John Buccigross of espn.com back in late November making the news of his death all the more ironic.

Today, the entire Miami RedHawks team traveled to Brendan's funeral in Canton, Mass. where they were joined by members of hockey's elite including most, if not all, current members of the Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, former NHL'ers Mark Messier and Brendan Shanahan and current NHL GM's and coaches Pat Quinn, Darryl Sutter, John Tortorella, Peter Chiarelli and Glen Sather, among others.

Wearing their red away Miami sweaters freshly adorned with a black shamrock and the letters "BB," the team comprised 25 of over 600 people who came to support the entire Burke family in their time of need and pay their respects to a remarkable young man. Head coach Enrico Blasi served as one of the pall bearers.

Brendan was a 4.0 student at Miami who would have graduated this spring. Before the accident occurred, he was returning from a visit to Michigan State University Law School where he was considering applying upon completing his work in Oxford. It's clear by the outpouring of support that Brendan would have gone on to greatness. He will be missed.

Here are links to a very detailed story from the Toronto Star and one by the Toronto Sun which has several moving photographs.

Afternoon Scrum 2/9/10

Hockey headlines for the CBJ and from around the league. Mmmmm... hockey

• Bob Gainey has resigned as the Big Cheese in Montreal. Talk about impressive: Gainey played 16 seasons with the Habs, half of them as Captain, and won 5 Stanley Cups. He also won a cup as GM of the Dallas Starts in 1999. Gainey will remain in an advisory role.


• Former Lightning GM Jay Feaster writes that Hitch got a raw deal from the Blue Jackets. As I've stated before about the firing, reasonable minds can differ as to whether or not it was the prudent thing to do, but Feaster's arguments on Hitch's behalf don't cut the mustard.


• Lindsay Kramer, the astute and entertaining beat writer for the Syracuse Crunch, is happy to have Ole-Kristian Tollefsen back in the AHL. OKT was traded from the Flyers to the Wings over the weekend. Have to admit, Ole was one of my favs too.


• PuckDaddy discusses the Tim Thomas To Chicago rumor. I'm not buying this one. I know neither Cristobal Huet or Antti Niemi have been outstanding for the Hawks, but I don't see Stan Bowman taking on the additional 4 yr/20 million contract that Thomas has.


• And on a wintry day like today, how about a little Get To Know Your Pepsi Power Patrol?!?!? Today's PPPer is Ashlinn. Ashlinn's favorite holidays are Christmas and her birthday. She loves shopping and considers South Beach to be her dream place to live. She has an entrepreneurial spirit when it comes to time travel, and says Lil Wayne is the best rapper ever, even if you disagree with her. WHAAAT? Anywho, glad to meet you Ashlinn!

Four Lines Deep - 2/6/10

Sabres at Blue Jackets; Nationwide Arena

7 p.m. (EST); Fox Sports Ohio (HD)

The Sabres are looking to get back on track in Columbus tonight.

The recent storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on Central Ohio should make all the Buffalo fans attending tonight's game in Nationwide feel right at home -- but the Jackets don't plan on extending much else in the way of hospitality. The Jackets have weathered more than one storm this week and the snowstorm was the easiest of the two -- the Jackets lost their head coach and perhaps, a piece of their identity. However, that old identity had them playing uninspired sub.500 hockey, so change isn't always bad. In fact, the Jackets played loose and very competitively against the Stars, and seem to be responding to interim coach Claude Noel in a big way.

The Buffalo Sabres, who make their one and only meeting of the season with the Jackets this evening, are a much better team than the Dallas Stars.  With 71 points, they currently sit in first place in the Northeast Division. However, they have struggled recently and lost three games in a row. In fact, they've only earned two points in two of their last nine games. It is their worst slump of the season and the Sabres lost a heartbreaker against Carolina last night after giving up a lead late in the third period.

The Sabres have Lindy Ruff behind the bench, who is one of the longest tenured coaches in the league, and they play a consistently hard checking style. The Sabres have an exceptionally balanced attack with seven players having 12 or more goals.  Buffalo is strong up the middle with Tim Connolly, Derek Roy and Paul Gaustad, who wins nearly 60 percent of his faceoff attempts. And Thomas Vanek is always a scoring threat -- he leads Buffalo with 17 goals.

First Line: The game will be won at even strength.  Buffalo has the top PK unit in the league (87.4 pct). With the likely absence of Tyutin on the point, the Jackets will be even harder pressed to play to the unit's strength -- which is to generate quick, fluid puck movement and scoring opportunities from the points.  Further, Coach Noel has relinquished responsibility for the PP unit and given that to Asst. Coach Agnew -- it's not a big shift, but it could be one more change to disrupt the flow of the unit.  The Jackets can't rely too heavily on the PP to generate goals tonight, which for some reason, have been very hard to come by at home even in the best of conditions.


Second Line: Challenge Lalime.  Team USA starting netminder Ryan Miller has struggled with the rest of the team. Patrick Lalime is expected between the pipes tonight -- he has only seen limited action this year (3-3-2) and is giving up more than 3 goals/game. He hasn't made a start in nearly a month.  The Jackets have to jump on him early and get him shaken -- that means no over-passing the puck in the offensive zone for an attempt at the next ESPY. The Jackets need to generate a minimum of 30 shots tonight, even if the bulk of those are quick wristers after gaining the line. He should give up rebounds aplenty if they can keep the shots on net.


Third Line:  Take advantage of the road fatigue.  Buffalo suffered a tough loss last night and hasn't fared well in tight games recently. They are going to be fatigued and the Jackets have a good opportunity to take advantage of some rested legs and fresh faces in the lineup -- fellow JR correspondent Top Shelf will be happy to see Mike Blunden back on the ice. (He recently purchased one of his used sticks at Nationwide). "Oh. It's a Blunden," was a quote that was echoed in the D league locker room the following night. I digress. Blunden needs to play big and take the body. Buffalo is not a team to play softly -- they demand a physical presence and tight checking for 60 minutes, or they will embarrass the Jackets at home.


Fourth Line: Go Four Lines Deep. The Jackets have a new spirit about them -- certainly, this was evident from the top of the lineup, but I thought it even more impactful to see how players like Andrew Murray responded. They were fired up and eager to get some more ice time. It was as if they had finally been unchained. Further, the young guns, such as Voracek and Brassard were shown a lot of trust late in the game. If the Jackets can sustain energy on all four lines and spread out the responsibilities, they have a really good shot tonight. Noel claimed they "made the decision easy" on Thursday and he didn't have to worry about rolling all four lines because of their consistently solid style of play throughout the game. Clearly, the team plays more effectively when all lines feel equally engaged and they will surely wear down a tired Buffalo team in the later stages of the game if they're checking hard and driving the net on every shift.  

Weekend Preview - Feb 5 & 6

Miami takes on Lakers while Buckeyes order up UNO

Oxford, Ohio (Feb. 5) - This weekend, #1 Miami (18-4-6, 15-1-4-2 CCHA) hosts the three-time NCAA champions, the Lake Superior State Lakers (14-9-5, 9-8-3-2 CCHA) at Steve Cady Arena. The Lakers of the iconic logo and sweet uniforms have been somewhat of a surprise this year as they enter tonight's game in fifth place in the CCHA, just two points behind fourth place Michigan with one game in hand. The Wolverines leap-frogged the Lakers last night on the strength of a 2-1 road victory over Bowling Green.

Founded in 1946 in Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., Lake Superior State is a small school of just 3,000 students. However, they have found success on the largest stage having won three national titles in 1988, 1992 and 1994 narrowly missing the three-peat when they lost to Paul Kariya and Maine. Only nine other schools have won as many as three national titles, eight of which consist of the largest names in college hockey, and in some cases, all of collegiate sports.

Last season, Miami swept the Lakers in the Soo 2-1 and 4-0 en route to the national title game. And, Miami has won four straight and seven of the last nine but those two Laker wins were huge because they knocked the RedHawks out of the 2007 CCHA tournament sweeping two games in Oxford. Overall, the Lakers own a 54-32-10 advantage in the all-time series which was absolutely dominated by Lake State in the 80s and early 90s when Miami's program was still gathering steam.

Offensively, the Lakers are led by junior forwards Rick Schofield (13-10-23) and Will Acton (7-13-20) who along with senior Zac MacVoy are the only Lakers with at least 20 points. But, like Miami the scoring is spread out with ten Lakers having compiled at least ten points this year.

In net, junior Brian Mahoney-Wilson has logged the vast majority of minutes and features a record of 12-8-5, a 2.63 GAA and 91.5 save percentage. Unlike last season when he and senior Pat Inglis split time, Mahoney-Wilson has been head coach Jim Roque's guy and something he felt was necessary to give the team the best chance to win.

"I think, if anything, it has been more of my fault in not settling on one guy,” Roque said. “It’s always tough when you keep changing stuff. This summer, I said no matter what, I was going to make a decision and stick with it.” INCH

This will be an interesting series. The Lakers are coming off a bye week, one in which they endured more of Jeff Jackson's ranting, and are desperately fighting for a top four league finish and an important first round bye in the CCHA playoffs. On the other hand, Miami is in the midst of an 18-game CCHA unbeaten streak and leads the standings by ten points over second place Michigan State. Will the RedHawks continue to match the intensity of their opponents? Can the Lakers keep up their solid, but surprising play against the nation's number one team? And, Miami has an outside chance of wrapping up the regular season title this weekend should Ferris State be swept by Northern Michigan and if MSU splits its series at Alaska.

Notes:

• Lake State will be without leading scorer Rick Schofield for tonight's game due to incurring a major penalty and game disqualification 11 seconds into the Jan. 23 game against Notre Dame.
• Miami sophomore defenseman Cameron Schilling missed last Saturday's game against Western Michigan. It is unclear if Schilling was injured or scratched and what impact that may have on this weekend's series.
• Faceoff tonight is at 7:35pm; tomorrow at 7:05pm. Both games can be seen around the great state of Ohio on ONN.

Omaha, Neb. (Feb. 5) - The Ohio State Buckeyes (11-13-2, 9-9-2-1 CCHA) will attempt to win a road series at Nebraska-Omaha (13-12-5, 9-11-2-1 CCHA) where they are just 3-8-2 all-time. In doing so, they must battle not only 2010 U.S. World Junior gold medal coach Dean Blais, but what is expected to be a sold-out, all-time record crowd at Omaha's Qwest Center of 15,907.

Ohio State and UNO are tied for eighth place in the CCHA, which just happens to be the final home-ice spot in the first round of the CCHA playoffs as the fifth place through twelfth place teams will do battle in round one. Of course, both squads must be thinking higher in the tightly packed CCHA where just six points (2 wins) separates fourth, and a first-round playoff bye, from tenth place.

To illustrate just how big this series is, the Mavericks have launched a microsite where they are encouraging the Omaha faithful to rally around them and sell-out the Qwest Center tonight for the first time in school history. Check it out - www.selloutohiostate.com - I have to give them props for trying. As Ohio State knows all too well, a big building is difficult to sell out when there are so many other attractions competing for dollars in a mid-sized city on a Friday night.

The Mavericks are led by former CBJ assistant and former North Dakota head coach Dean Blais, who piloted the Fighting Sioux to two national championships. And, Blais just won gold at the U20 World Championships in Saskatoon by taking Team USA to its first gold medal since 2004. Before the season, Blais was tapped by new AD Trev Alberts, yes that Trev Alberts, to turn around the struggling hockey program. Furthermore, Alberts used the WCHA as a negotiating ploy to lure Blais as he then announced the Mavericks would leave the CCHA after this season and move to the WCHA who will also welcome Bemidji State to the league beginning this fall.

On the ice, Omaha is led by forwards Jeric Agosta (13-7-20) and Rich Purslow (11-9-20) and by senior defensman Eddie Del Grosso (4-15-19) who is having a nice final season with the Mavericks.

In net, the Mavs have split time with sophomore John Faulkner (9-8-4, 2.53 GAA, .904) getting the majority of the starts over senior Jeremie Dupont (4-4-1, 2.98 GAA, .886) who has seemingly been at Omaha for the better part of the last decade.

The Mavericks started the year especially strong at 5-1-3 but then lost six of their next eight en route to a wildly inconsistent season. Last weekend, the Mavs split at Notre Dame, but need to find their scoring touch as they have averaged just 2.73 goals per game this year and are allowing roughly the same. Dean Blais' hallmark is "race horse hockey," but that assumes you have the horses to unleash. Perhaps when Blais has time to assemble his own recruiting classes, he'll be able to play his kind of game.

Notes:

• The Buckeyes swept the Mavericks last season in Columbus winning a pair of one-goal games 4-3 and 3-2.
• This weekend's series is the first between the teams since November 28-29, 2008.
• Both games can be heard online at wosu.org/hockey. Face off time is 8:35pm and 8:05pm, Friday and Saturday, respectively.
• Dean Blais replaced long time UNO head coach Mike Kemp who was retained at Omaha as the associate athletic director with primary oversight of hockey, golf, cross country/track and field and soccer.

Four Lines Deep - 2/4/10

Dallas Stars at Blue Jackets; Nationwide Arena

7 p.m. (EST); Fox Sports Ohio

Claude Noel will be wearing a Jacket behind the bench on Thursday night, as he will look to earn his first win as an NHL head coach.

The Jackets don't need an excuse to be emotionally charged for a game with the Dallas Stars. Injuries, friendships, rivalries and scars all bear testament to the recent history of these two clubs facing each other on the ice. The sudden firing of Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock yesterday, who won a Cup while coaching the Dallas Stars, only adds another layer of intrigue to the game. 

The departure of Ken Hitchcock deserves its own post and analysis, but as it pertains to this game, it will be very interesting to see how the young Jackets team responds to interim coach Claude Noel. Noel has been with the team since June 2007 and he certainly knows the system in place. Noel has promised not to make any sweeping lineup changes prior to tonight's game, but this blogger is paritcularly interested to see if he gives a line more than one period to gel and generate some energy. He has shown great success at the AHL level, which generally means that he excels at motivating and molding young talent into a cohesive team. Certainly, those would be good assets to bring to the head coaching job in Columbus, but time will tell if he can really do it.

Dallas (25-20-11) currently sits in 10th place in the Western Conference with 61 points. The Stars are not a particularly strong club on the road -- they have only eight victories as the visiting team this season. The Stars start their road trip in Columbus after an impressive win 4-2 against Minnesota on Tuesday night in Dallas. Veterans Modano and Turco are playing very well lately.  Some consider Dallas to be a dirty team, and with players such as Ott, Morrow and Barch in the lineup, it's not too difficult to see why. Regardless, they play hard and one can assume they'll be looking for revenge as they were shutout by the Jackets in the previous meeting.

First Line: There is no place like home. Who knows how the faithful in Nationwide will react to the coaching change, but the Jackets simply have to dominate in the biggest - and most important - homestand of the year. I'm not counting any playoff chickens just yet. I tend to agree with most that the playoffs are all but out of reach this year, but the team has to build some momentum in this last quarter of the season. It's crucial for the health of the franchise. I think the Jackets will come out on fire tonight -- they have plenty of bad blood with the Stars and they just lost their coach. I believe that Noel will preach a simple and fun style of hockey with an emphasis on phsical play. When the Jackets rattle the boards with some energy, they tend to win. When you add in the sound of a cannon and some fans hungry for a win, I think the energy will be good in Nationwide tonight. You can bet that our friends in the R Bar will be pouring plenty of drinks tall and long before the game.

Second Line:Make the special teams special.  The Jackets hold the statistical advantage both on the PK and the PP. Dallas is always good for a couple of bonehead penalties and I don't anticipate that to be any different tonight with Boll and Dorsett on the ice. The PK has continued to look very strong and was finally rewarded with the first shorty in months against Colorado. Vermette and Nash on the points are quite a counter-attack. The PP has also continued to play well -- with the very notable exception of the Colorado game. Has anyone ever given up two shorties on the same powerplay? I didn't even know that was possible -- ok I did, but I've never seen it happen. Wow. They should get ample opportunities to erase that hideous memory and cash in tonight. Stralman has been great on the point and I like how Umberger has been positioning himself in front the net with regularity. Noel has been coaching that unit, so let's hope his focus isn't divided too much with the additional coaching responsibilities.

Third Line: Fire up the Young Guns. NO MORE EXCUSES. Voracek, Mason and Brassard are a big part of this franchise's future. They haven't played to expectations this year and now they have been relieved of any excuses from a coaching perspective. Noel will give them some breathing room and confidence. They have to turn it on, and with a new sheriff in town, there couldn't be a better time. Voracek and Brassard both have to look to shoot more often -- once they start scoring, I predict they'll both go on long streaks. It's clear they have been undone via "paralysis by analysis."They should be linemates for years to come. Mason also needs a healthy dose of confidence and a five-game homestand should be just what the doctor ordered. Those three are integral to the success of the team as it's currently built.

Fourth Line: Let history be your guide.  The Jackets know how to beat the Stars. They have to take care of the puck -- Dallas has 150 points on its first line and two 20+ goal scorers. Neal must be neutralized -- I'm eager to see how Dorsett treats him this evening. The Jackets have to press the Dallas blueliners, who just aren't the caliber that used to play there. There will be turnovers and the speed of the Jackets could create plenty of problems for Turco in the transition game. Finally, the Jackets' blueliners will have to play much better than they did in Colorado. Players such as Tyutin and Methot can't get lost on the rush and have to be much more responsible with the puck through the neutral zone. MUCH MORE RESPONSIBLE.