Coyotes Re-Sign Upshall

The Coyotes announced on Wednesday night that they have re-signed forward Scottie Upshall to a new 1-year deal worth $2.25 million.  Upshall was scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1st after finishng another 1-year deal, which had a cap hit of $1.5 million.  This new deal for Upshall will lead him into unrestricted free agency in 2011, for he'll be over the ripe age of 27 when July 1st rolls around next year.

Upshall had a pretty tough year, suffering a serious right knee injury in January, which cut his season short, playing in only 49 games in 2010.  In those games, he did score 18 goals and add 14 assists, which gave him a pretty decent scoring rate of 0.65 points per game, which put him in the top 200 in the league, but his points ranked him at 263rd overall, 187th among forwards.  If Upshall can remain healthy, he could eclipse the 50-point barrier, but his health is a concern, not having played a full 82-game season in the NHL yet.

The Coyotes also announced that they re-signed tough guy Ryan Hollweg to a 1-year deal as well.  Hollweg spent the entire 2010 season in the minors and will be kept in the organization as insurance.  Robert Lang and Mathieu Schneider, two veteran players signed on last year by the club, will both be going to unrestricted free agency, as they will not be offered new deals for the 2011 season.  It would not be surprising if either (or both) announced their retirement this year.

As for the salary cap implications, Upshall's new deal is a nice chunk of change to help the team reach the cap floor at the moment.  The Coyotes have 13 players expected on the 2011 roster signed on at an approximate cost of $31.4 million.  Now, the cap number does not include some of the young players that have new deals or existing deals, because they haven't really made the team yet and won't count right away.  Kyle Turris, Viktor Tikhonov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson all spring to mind in that category.  If there is an announcement saying that they have got a roster spot, then they will be on the table.

The Blackhawks Win in Six

The Chicago Blackhawks did it! They are officially 2010 Stanley Cup Champions, beating the Philadelphia Flyers in the Finals in six games, winning Game Six in a tightly-played affair in overtime, 4-3.  The high-powered, awfully expensive roster made good on the money spent and they were well deserving of the end result with some solid play, both offensively and defensively.

So, now that we have ourselves a Cup champion, we can now crown our Playoff Pool winner this year... Scott G. takes the crown this year, holding onto a lead since Game Four of the Philadelphia Flyers/Montreal Canadiens series and never had to look back.  Scott had passed Neil B. after a great night from Claude Giroux and Kimmo Timonen and never looked back from there on in.  Scott had to hold off a big charge from Myles D., who was using the star players of the Blackhawks to close the gap on Scott, but the gap finished off at 4 points in the end.

The prize for the pool has not been fully determined, I hadn't found the time to count up all of the teams who had paid in the end, but I figure it's just about $400, so that will be coming to Scott in the next week or so.  Congratulations to him!  I'm hoping that next year, I can get a few more people into the pool and go back into the 2nd and 3rd place money, like 2009, but I didn't have time to chase people for money, so the funding is down a bit for prizes.

Taking the crown for the top scorer in the pool this year was actually Daniel Briere, who snuck past Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, with 34 points this year.  Briere finished with 12 goals, 4 game-winners and 18 assists, 2 points better than Toews for the title.  Briere actually had a great Cup Finals series, picking up 12 points, despite losing the series in six games.

Taking the title for game-winning goals this year was Dustin Byfuglien of the Blackhawks, finishing with 5 bonus points in 2010.   He was a massive force for the Blackhawks after the 1st round of the playoffs.  He didn't register a point versus the Predators, but he came out of nowhere against the Canucks and just kept the big train going.

The 2010 Playoff Pool All-Star Team or the highest points possible team looks something like this...

Box 1  - CHI - Patrick Kane 29 points

Box 2  - CHI - Jonathan Toews 32

Box 3  - DET - Johan Franzen 19

Box 4  - CHI - Patrick Sharp 23

Box 5  - SAN - Joe Pavelski 20

Box 6  - VAN - Mikael Samuelsson 16

Box 7  - COL - Brandon Yip 4

Box 8  - SAN - Dan Boyle 14

Box 9  - DET - Brian Rafalski 11

Box 10 - VAN - Sami Salo 6

Box 11 - VAN - Kevin Bieksa 9

Box 12 - SAN - Evgeni Nabokov 18

Box 13 - PIT - Sidney Crosby 20

Box 14 - PHI - Mike Richards 24

Box 15 - PHI - Daniel Briere 34

Box 16 - MTL - Brian Gionta 16

Box 17 - PIT - Chris Kunitz 11

Box 18 - PHI - Claude Giroux 23

Box 19 - BOS - Milan Lucic 10

Box 20 - BOS - Zdeno Chara 8

Box 21 - MTL - Roman Hamrlik 9

Box 22 - BOS - Dennis Wideman 12

Box 23 - OTT - Erik Karlsson 6

Box 24 - MTL - Jaroslav Halak 18

If you had selected this team, you would have run away with the pool, scoring a whopping 392 points in total, including 22 game-winners and 17 wins from the two goalies.  Toews, Franzen, Sharp and Salo are all repeat All-Stars from 2009 in the West, while Crosby and Lucic are the only two in the East that re-appear.  Those six could be safe bets for next year's pool as well, you could get to thinking.

It was another great year in the hockey pools and I really hope everyone had a good time participating in them! Check back on the blog throughout the Summer for news in the league and more announcements for pools in the 2011 season! There will be all sorts of good stuff available through the Summer, including hints and tips and possibly some other neat tidbits. 

Have a good Summer everyone!

Rangers Ink Stepan

Another one of the young players that I highlighted in my one's to watch, this time for the New York Rangers, Derek Stepan, has signed his 3-year entry-level deal on Wednesday, according to the New York Post. Stepan was without a doubt one of the biggest standouts on the USA U-20 team that won gold at the World Juniors in Saskatoon in January and now he is taking one step closer to his professional career. 

Signing a deal with the Rangers should end his university hockey career and he should get a pretty good look in Rangers camp, although there doesn't seem to be high expectations that he'll be cracking the Rangers line-up too quickly, mainly due to his smaller stature.  I will personally have a close eye on the news for this youngster, because he showed some real talent at the Junior tourney during the games I managed to catch.

Rob Blake Retires

A 21-year NHL career has come to an end with the announcement of Rob Blake's retirement on Wednesday.  The news came unofficially down the wire on Wednesday afternoon with a full announcement set do be done in the next week or so, waiting for the Stanley Cup Finals to conclude.  Obviously, with breaking news like this, all that the news conference will do is give him time to thank those who he wants to thank and so on and so forth, but it looks like it's the real deal here, so we can strike him off our lists for the 2011 season.

The 40-year old blueliner had himself a pretty good career as an elite defenseman, winning a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001, a Norris Trophy in 1998, numerous All-Star team appearances, First and Second Team All-Star nods and an Olympic Gold are under his belt or on his mantle after the last 21 seasons.  He finished with 240 goals, 537 assists in 1,270 games between Los Angeles, Colorado and San Jose, managing to stay in the Western Conference for his entire career.

In 2010, Blake finished 48th among all blueliners in scoring with 30 points in 70 games with the Sharks.  This means you might have to dig a little deeper to find your last defenseman, since Blake won't be around at your next Draft. 

Blake was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, finishing a deal that had a cap hit of $3.5 million.

Hernias in the Shark Tank

I think it's pretty fair to look back at playoff performances when looking at potential players in your fantasy draft each year, so it should be keen to mention that both Devin Setoguchi and Jed Ortmeyer were playing injured through the playoffs and had their numbers drop off a bit in the process.  Both players underwent surgery to repair sports hernias, Ortmeyer had a double sports hernia to repair, and the prognosis does look good for training camp in September. 

Setoguchi is coming off a disappointing season in 2010, finishing with 36 points in 70 games, but there was no word if the injury dated back into the regular season or not.  Setoguchi is primed to be a restricted free agent on July 1st, but after a disappointing year, I don't think anyone will be tracking him down for an offer sheet.  Ortmeyer, on the other hand, is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this Summer and he finished the 2010 season with 19 points in 76 games.  His scoring really doesn't leave much to be desired in the fantasy sense, since he ranked 274th among forwards.

I would remain weary with Setoguchi and only pick Ortmeyer if you have a ridiculously deep fantasy pool.

Game Six in Philly

Well, we've seen this graphic before, haven't we? Yes, the Philadelphia Flyers have found themselves in a familiar situation, but this time it's in the biggest series of them all.  The Flyers are going home to the Wachovia Center behind the 8-Ball and they'll be in a do-or-die situation in Game Six, either heading back to Chicago with the opportunity to win the Cup or unboxing the Holy Grail in their own building on Wednesday night.

The good news for the Philadelphia Flyers is that they haven't struggled at home in this series, so there is a big positive they can take from that.  The Flyers have won the two games they've hosted, what seems to be in large part the crowd and the energy they get from their raucous fans.  I would imagine that there will be a lot of anxiousness, people on the edge of their seat and fingernail chewing in the stands, but in between, they'll be loud.

For the Flyers and their game, they will have to go back to the banging and crashing game that has held them in these playoffs, forcing the play along the boards, getting the puck to the front of the net and creating scrambles in front of Niemi, looking for rebounds.  In the games that Philadelphia has been successful at crashing the net, the Blackhawks do reinforce the crease with their defensemen, leaving the slot open for clear shots in the lane, which has been another key to the Flyers success.

The Blackhawks are going to have to try to keep their emotions in check on Wednesday night, as the Cup will be in the building.  They can't stretch themselves too thin or else the Flyers will break right through and beat them handily with sound, non-panicky play in all three zones.  If the Blackhawks can resort to the same kind of road game (simple first passes and having men back all the time) that helped them beat Vancouver and San Jose, they can easily shift the pressure onto the Flyers and force them to make mistakes.

Right now, I would say the pressure is on the Blackhawks to dictate this game, because they don't want to take any chances with the Flyers and giving them another game to beat them.  I have to think that the Flyers will make that early push, like the home team does to start most games, but it will be the response of the Blackhawks and their ability to transition and force turnovers that will be the key in the first five minutes.

Team	Scott G.	Myles D.	Derek B.
Points	271	-8	-19
Patrick Sharp	x	x	x
Dustin Byfuglien	x
Brian Campbell	x
Patrick Kane		x	x
Jonathan Toews		x
Duncan Keith			x
Scott Hartnell	x	x
Claude Giroux	x	x	x
Kimmo Timonen	x
Chris Pronger		x

Well, this could be it for our heroes tonight.  Scott G. could really use a low-scoring Blackhawks win tonight to seal the deal against Myles D. and get it all over and done with, although that would crush his spirits, being the Flyers fan that he is.  Somehow, he'll need a huge game from Kimmo Timonen, preferably in a low-scoring affair, to force a Game Seven and have his Flyers in the mix for the Cup once again.  If the Flyers defense can stand up to the Blackhawks top line, then Game Seven would be fine and dandy.

If the Flyers can force a Game Seven, Scott will not be sweating bullets if he can come away from Game Six with more than a 6-point lead, I'd say.  Scott does have all the tie-breakers to decide the pool, if there is a tie like last year, so Myles will have to win it outright, which would mean a huge night from Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

It's awfully exciting in the pool, even if it is only two teams left fighting it out for the prize money.

Byfuglien Leads Blackhawks in Game Five

The Blackhawks were revved from the drop of the puck on Sunday night and they were able to put all sorts of pressure on the Flyers goaltending, making it long night in the Philadelphia crease. 

At first, the Flyers were doing really well to weather the storm from the Blackhawks, who were still getting shots away, but the quality wasn't quite as high as the quantity in most cases.  That wasn't to say Michael Leighton wasn't busy, because he certainly was.  Leighton did have to make a couple of big saves early, but the Blackhawks offense was only building up steam.

For the Flyers the 1st period really started to crumble down when Brent Seabrook managed to open the scoring not too long past the midway point of the period and that sent the Blackhawks offense back to the Flyers net, over and over, as they built a 3-0 lead after the opening stanza. 

The Flyers were not prepared to back down, as they opened the 2nd period scoring only 32 seconds into the frame, thanks to a Scott Hartnell tap-in, after Antti Niemi let a puck slide through his pads, left lying in the crease.  But like in the series leading up to this, the Blackhawks were not fazed by the goal against, as Patrick Kane took the goal back about three minutes later.  A couple more goals were traded in the 2nd period and there was a sense that the Flyers were not out of it down 5-2 after two.

The 3rd period started out fairly hesitant, as neither team was giving too much away, until James Van Riemsdyk pounced on a fat rebound in the slot and wristed it past Niemi to bring the lead back down to two goals.  The Flyers were then much harder on the puck and on the body, trying to generate some more offense, but the Blackhawks stayed right with them, not wanting to let the Flyers back in, like they did in Game One of the series.  Just after the 16-minute mark of the 3rd, the Blackhawks were able to transform a turnover into an offensive zone scramble, which led to a Patrick Sharp goal, which brought the lead back up to three, only to see Simon Gagne put another back in over a minute later and finally an empty-netter from Dustin Byfuglien really capped it all off and the game finished as a 7-4 final.

It was a monster game for Dustin Byfuglien, who ended the night with a pair of goals, including the winner, and a pair of assists for a 5-point night in the pool, which has now broken open the lead in the pool and eliminated a number of teams passed the 20-point level in just one game.  More on that in a little bit.  The winning goal is now his 5th winner of these playoffs, which now gives him the lead in the pool with a maximum of two goal left to be scored and the only player that can catch him for the title is Daniel Briere, who has 4 GWGs in these playoffs as well.  Byfuglien now ranks 8th in pool scoring in these playoffs with 20 points and tied for 4th in series scoring with 6 points. 

Now, the series shifts back to Philadelphia for Game Six, but that doesn't go until Wednesday night, giving both teams an extra day's worth of rest and it likely gives the league a little bit more lead time to get the Stanley Cup all polished up and ready to show, because it will be in the building, just in case the Blackhawks can close it all down on the road.

So, I guess we can go to the pool numbers then, since that's what a lot of you are here for.  Thanks to the monster night from Dustin Byfuglien, Scott G. opened up his lead a little further.  Scott managed to put 4 more points in between himself and Myles D. on Sunday night, bringing the lead up to 8 points.  Byfuglien had 5 points, Kimmo Timonen was good for 2 points giving Scott 7 for the night, while Patrick Kane had 2 points and Jonathan Toews had 1 point.

Now the lead stands at 8 points with a maximum of two games remaining.  It does seem to be a long shot for Myles to overtake Scott, unless Chris Pronger can register a 4-point bounce back night in Game Six, with the Flyers shutting down the Blackhawks completely and Kimmo Timonen getting shutout from the scoresheet as well... or Kane and Toews run wild to clinch the Cup, with Byfuglien getting hurt early and not giving him a chance to get on the scoresheet at all.  It's all rather improbable, but not impossible, so Scott will have to hold his breath for just a little while longer.

Back to the Madhouse

Our best of seven series has now turned into the best of three and home ice advantage really seems to be worth the price of all the hard work and regular season success. The Blackhawks do have home-ice advantage in the final three games, starting Sunday night with Game Five of the series.

Much like going to Philadelphia for Games Three and Four, I didn't think winning the two games at home for the Blackhawks were going to mean as much away from home and they certainly were not.  This thinking does apply again for Game Five, as I don't think there is a lot of momentum that can be brought forward into the United Center by the Flyers, especially since one game was in overtime and the only game of the series that wasn't won by a single goal, was won by two, including an empty-netter.  This series is close and home-ice does seem to make a difference.

The Flyers did exceptionally well to find a lot of open ice in their own building, making themselves much more accessible for good passing plays and cutting through the slot for good shots on Antti Niemi.  This has to continue for the Flyers, if they want to be successful, especially with the series being so close.  Chris Pronger is becoming more and more of a factor for the Flyers wins and if he grows in confidence, especially in Chicago, this could mean a tougher uphill climb for the Blackhawks, even in the confines of their own building. 

The Blackhawks will have to get revved up in their own building again, they will need that crowd to help their big guns find their legs again.  Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were almost unseen on the scoresheets away from the United Center and those are the two kids that really helped guide the Blackhawks to this point in the series.  They may not have their own brand of momentum to guide them into this game, but one of their best assets in this playoff run is how they have managed to create something out of generally nothing.

Game Five will definitely be decided in front of the goaltenders again and if either team can make an early impact on their opposition goalkeeper, they might be able to draw from that for 60 minutes.  In order to get the puck to the front of the net, there will also need to be some great play along the boards, being physical and hard on the puck.  He who dares, wins.

Team	Scott G.	Myles D.	Derek B.	Neil B.	Russ D.	Stuart G.
Points	261	-4	-14	-15	-17	-19
Patrick Sharp	x	x	x		x
Dustin Byfuglien	x
Brian Campbell	x
Patrick Kane		x	x	x		x
Jonathan Toews		x		x		x
Marian Hossa				x	x	x
Duncan Keith			x		x
Brent Seabrook
Scott Hartnell	x	x
Claude Giroux	x	x	x			x
Kimmo Timonen	x
James Van Riemsdyk
Chris Pronger		x
Daniel Briere					x
Braydon Coburn					x

Another elimination from the table, as Leo fell underneath the 20-point cushion, especially with only three games (potentially) remaining in the series.  That now leaves us with the top six teams left on the table, with risk of losing one more to the 20-point cushion by the end of Game Five.

The pool did get somewhat more interesting when the series started out, as Myles did see some good improvements in his standing when the series started in Chicago.  The more games this series goes, the more chances he has to close in on Scott G..  If Marian Hossa can score a boatload of goals tomorrow and Duncan Keith assists on all of them, both Derek B. and Neil B. might find themselves on a real hot streak... but I'm just messing around there.  This series has been way too tight to predict, let alone expect, that sort of scoring.

Seidenberg Becomes a Rent-To-Own Player

The Boston Bruins announced a signing on Saturday morning, keeping Dennis Seidenberg away from unrestricted free agency on July 1st with a 4-year deal, worth $13 million.  The 28-year old German has been ever-improving in his time in the NHL and you can see by the way his deals have come about and the raises he has earned.  Seidenberg now has a cap hit of $3.25 million for the next four seasons, which is $1 million better than the cap hit he occupied with in the 2010 season and $2.05 million than the cap hit he had in 2009.

Playing between both the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins in the 2010 season, Seidenberg was a deadline day deal player, thought to be more of a rental for the remainder of the season and the playoffs, but obviously, he did more than enough to impress the Bruins brass and earned himself a new deal for some stability in the next four years.  Seidenberg's final totals through the 2010 were 4 goals and 28 assists in 79 games, which were good enough to be the 44th ranked defenseman in scoring and is now getting paid reasonably to try and remain in that neighbourhood. 

With the signing of Seidenberg and also the signing of Shawn Thornton on June 3rd, the the Bruins cap figure now stands at $49.7 million for 14 players, which could be considered pretty high at this point of the Summer, but probably isn't too bad, considering Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman and their goaltending is all signed on and ready to go for the 2011 season.  The Bruins can fill the remaining roster spots with affordable depth and youth players and still make for a very competitive team in the coming year.  The core is signed on in Boston, so the toughest task for them will be to build around it.

Philly Taking Their Two

The chips really fell the Philadelphia Flyers way early on in Game Four and it looks like they were able to really capitalize on what was left for them in a 5-3 win on Friday night, tying up the series at two games a piece.  I was able to catch the first 10 minutes of the 1st period and you could see there was a little more confidence in that Flyers team.  Once Mike Richards potted that first power play goal against Antti Niemi, a soft goal, at best, it didn't appear that the Blackhawks were going to stop the Flyers, in theory.

The Flyers did seem to have an answer for just about everything in the game that the Blackhawks could throw at them.  After Patrick Sharp scored with a minute and a half remaining in the 1st to cut the lead to 2-1 and get some momentum from a late-period goal, Claude Giroux took a sweet feed from Kimmo Timonen down low under a minute later and snagged both the 2-goal lead and the momentum back. 

According to the full highlights on NHL.com, the latter half of the 2nd period looked to be all goalies, hanging on for their dear lives.  Both Niemi and Michael Leighton made some key stops, not letting the game get too out of hand and keeping it a 3-1 game after two periods. 

The third really didn't look to crank up until Ville Leino scored almost seven minutes to make the game into a 4-1 game, but if anything, all it did was finally spark up that Blackhawks offense, which we have seen get cranked up after an opponents goal in these playoffs, but not too often when they go down three goals like this.  Nevertheless, the Flyers did help things along for the Blackhawks, going down two men for which Dave Bolland was able to get onto the right end of a Duncan Keith slap pass cross crease and make the game of the 2-goal variety at 4-2.  Almost four minutes later, Brian Campbell crossed the blueline with the puck, as bodies went in towards Leighton and somehow a little wrist shot snuck through and made it a 1-goal game late. 

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be enough, especially with an empty-net goal by Jeff Carter to seal the deal and the Flyers managed to take good care of their home-ice, winning both of their games and now get to go back to Chicago with a series that is tied at two.  It looked like quite a game from the highlights and the first part that I was able to catch, so hopefully I'll be able to catch all of Game Five, which should be a doozy.

Game-Winning Goals
So, now that we are through Game Four, I could have a look at the game-winning goals again. This should provide some ample separation between the game recap and the pool recap, so we'll go with this. In Game Four, it was Ville Leino who snuck another point out of the pool with his game-winner on Friday night.  That was his second game-winner of these playoffs and he's quickly becoming the player I wish I had in the pool, but didn't... there always seems to be one every year.

For players in the pool, both Dustin Byfuglien and Daniel Briere lead the way with 4 bonus points each this year, which looks good on both teams in the Cup Finals, each having a player in this category.  It would be awfully fitting for either one of these two to score another winner to lift their team to the Championship, wouldn't it?

In the pool, Russ D. continues to lead this category, now with 17 bonus points this year.  He's up in 5th place in the standings, thanks in part to his lucky player decisions, in terms of those extra points.  1st place, Scott G., he is alone in 2nd place in the category with 16 bonus points.  Nice to see them helping him along in the pool.

Since this post is getting to be so long, I thought I'd add another picture.

So, now to the pool standings and what it all meant in the end. The best player in the game for points in the pool was actually Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks, who tallied 3 assists, but you have to be on the winning side to get your picture posted. Two teams in the top seven were able to make good on Keith's effort, Derek B. moved into 3rd place and Russ D. moved into 5th.

But let's talk turkey, the all-important 1st place prize at the end of the rainbow.  Scott G. managed to extend the lead to 4 points over Myles D., thanks to a Kimmo Timonen point to Chris Pronger's zero, while Brian Campbell's goal was cancelled out by Patrick Kane's assist.  Unfortunately, in a 5-3 game, there wasn't a lot of points up at the top, but that's one of the breaks of this pool, that's for sure.

The lead has been extended slightly and we'll now have at least six games to work through, with a good possibility of this being a seven game series.  Roll on, Sunday!

Detroit Gives Holmstrom Two More

The Detroit Red Wings have made themselves one hell of a deal on Friday morning, announcing that they have re-signed Swedish forward Tomas Holmstrom to a new 2-year contract extenstion worth $3.75 million in total.  The deal is said to pay Holmstrom $2.25 million for the 2011 season and $1.5 million in the 2012 season, rounding out to a cap hit of $1.875 million for both years.  Holmstrom was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st after finishing a 3-year deal which had a cap hit of $2.25 million per season.

In 2010, Holmstrom enjoyed a productive season, scoring 25 goals and 20 assists in 68 games for the Red Wings, which is fairly par for the course in his career during the regular season, although he has enjoyed a 30-goal season once in his career.  Holmstrom ranked 154th in pool scoring in 2010, 115th among forwards, so he still has plenty of merit left to be a good fantasy pick-up.

The knock on Holmstrom, however, is that his style of play does get him hurt more often than not, having played only one full 82-game season (1998-'99) and one season where he missed only one game (2005-'06) and this defintiely has to be taken into account when looking at him in the fantasy drafts.  The likelihood of him missing a lot of games is greater than him playing all 82 games, so you likely should discount his overall production that way.

This Holmstrom deal is definitely a bargain, even if you considered that he is an older winger (age 37) and he doesn't have a great deal of time left in his NHL career, but he still managed to score 25 goals in 68 games for the Red Wings and he's still a valuable member of the team come playoff time.  That being said, the Red Wings are in desperate need of some bargains, especially since they now have only 15 players signed onto their roster for approximately $50.8 million against the cap.  Of course, they should be looking to fill depth positions with Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and their goaltending sorted out already.

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Game Four goes tonight in Philadelphia and I won't get a chance to watch any of this one as well, which kind of sucks and my recap probably won't be as detail oriented as I'd like. Nevertheless, this again turns out to be another swing game in this series, much like Game Three was, but possibly a bit more of a positive spin for the home team, if they can drum out a win tonight.

Just because they lost a road game on Wednesday night, does not make them any less of a good road team in these playoffs and that's what the Blackhawks really have to stand on going into Game Four tonight. They have withstood a lot of pressure from three other teams in this series and have still played well in their buildings throughtout. With Game Three going into overtime means that the game was still very close and all it would have taken was once bounce either way to make the Blackhawks up 3-0 in the series, instead of only up 2-1. A simple game plan tonight, doing a lot of the same things that they have done in the first three games can just as easily have the Flyers behind the 8-Ball going into Sunday's tilt.

The Flyers are definitely on the wrong side of a weighted coin at the moment in these playoffs, but that isn't to say that the coin won't land their way by the end of Game Four tonight. As I was saying in the Blackhawks' paragraph, this series has been way too close and both teams have now lost their games by only a goal, so it's hard to really point out what the teams are doing so wrong, when they have to keep it so close. Being down a game still, the Flyers cannot go out and try and make this game a big statement game on the scoresheet, because those are the kind of ideas that lead to mistakes on the ice. I'm expecting the Flyers to keep it close, but possibly make more of a statement in the physical department, giving the Blackhawks something to think about for Game Five.

Team	Scott G.	Myles D.	Neil B.	Derek B.	Stuart G.	Russ D.	Leo M.
Points	256	-3	-11	-15	-16	-17	-18
Patrick Sharp	x	x		x		x
Dustin Byfuglien	x
Brian Campbell	x
Patrick Kane		x	x	x	x		x
Jonathan Toews		x	x		x
Marian Hossa			x		x	x	x
Duncan Keith				x		x
Brent Seabrook							x
Scott Hartnell	x	x
Claude Giroux	x	x		x	x
Kimmo Timonen	x						x
James Van Riemsdyk							x
Chris Pronger		x					x
Daniel Briere						x
Braydon Coburn						x

Well, with only four players left on her team and bottom of the rung on the table, Kalenab has officially been eliminated from the table on the preview blog, but only after a great effort and a good team through these playoffs. A little different outcome in the Conference Finals and she'd likely be in the mix for the win.

In all honesty, this is really a 2-horse race, but the bigger table does look a little bit better on the blog than a skinny one with only three columns. Scott is looking to defend against an epic comeback by Myles, who has had the most amount of players out of the 2nd round, but had to make up for a bit of a lacklustre opening round to be put in this position. It has been a good story throughout these last couple rounds and with still at least two games left to be played, maybe more, in this series, we are in for one hell of a finish.

Let's drop the puck already!

Avalanche Re-Sign Budaj, Koci

On Thursday afternoon, word came down that the Colorado Avalanche started to make a couple transactions, taking care of a couple potential free agents before the Summer hits. The Avalanche went ahead and re-signed goaltender Peter Budaj and tough guy forward David Koci to new 1-year deals.  Both players were scheduled to become unrestricted free agents on July 1st, but they were cut off at the pass to stay with the team for at least another season.

Budaj made 15 appearances for the Avalanche in the 2010 season, amassing a record of 5-5-2 with 1 shutout and an assist, earning him 13 points for the hockey pool this year. It was almost immediate, how quickly he became the back-up to Craig Anderson, who took the bulk of the starts through the regular season and the playoffs. This forced Budaj's appearances to really fall off the map from the 2009 season and his ranking as well. Budaj finished 2010 as the 59th ranked goaltender in the pool, which will likely keep him from being picked for the 2011 edition.

Saying all of that, his 1-year deal with the club will be worth $1.25 million.

Koci was not used a great deal in 2010, only playing in 43 games with the club in 2010.  The 6'6", 238 lbs. enforcer didn't make the biggest impact in his playing time either, scoring only 1 goal and picking up 84 PIM.  His use at the fantasy level is also quite limited, especially since he doesn't see all of the games.  The Avalanche do retain some toughness with this signing, but not a lot of offense.

Koci's deal is worth $575,000 for the single season.

Budaj should remain as the back-up and Koci did play half the season for the Avalanche, so both will be added to the team table when I get the next team update in, which means they will both factor into the salary cap figure for the 2011 season. The Avalanche still sit in pretty good shape for the coming year, having 16 players signed for $32.9 million against the cap at the moment. I would be expecting some more shorter-term deals to come out of Denver, since they are filling quite a few gaps with entry-level deals, keeping the cap hit low.

Home-Ice Advantage Through Game Three

I read an amazing statistic last night, but I can't remember who it was from, saying that this is the fifth consecutive year that the home team has won the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final. That's a statistic you just don't expect to see, is it?

Anyways, I only managed to see a bit of the overtime, so my actual frame of reference from this game is a lot of the highlights, the disallowed goal and the allowed goal in overtime, but it doesn't really take too much to conclude that the Flyers have made good use of their surroundings by taking Game Three at home in the Wachovia Center, 4-3 in overtime, bringing the series a little closer at two games to one.

Claude Giroux was the number one star of the game, as he made it to the scoresheet three times, the overtime winning goal and a pair of assists to go with it, giving him a 4-point game, bringing his Cup Final total to 5 points and overall total to 23 points.  Giroux is now tied for 3rd in points in the pool with teammate, Mike Richards, who didn't have a point in Game Three and only 1 point in the series so far.  Daniel Briere finished the night with 2 points, goal and an assist, closing the gap on the playoff pool lead in points, now with 28 points, thanks to 6 points in this Finals series.  Scott Hartnell, goal and an assist, and Matt Carle, 2 assists, also finished the night with 2 points for the Flyers, giving a bit more life to the hockey pool as well. 

For the Blackhawks, Patrick Kane finally picked up his first two points of the series, thanks to a goal and an assist in Game Three, but it wasn't enough to help seal a victory.

From the highlights that I had seen, it looks like the Flyers were ready to lift their level of play up to where it needed to be and help them overcome those 1-goal losses, by getting a 1-goal win in overtime on Wednesday night.  The Flyers have been close enough and I've been saying it through the first two games of the series and the proof is in the pudding there.  The overtime period had an orange flavour to it and they were seemingly destined to have that puck go over the line, one way or the other, which was also the case.

In the pool, the 4-3 scoring fest that took place again brought our leaders a little closer together.  Myles D. has closed the gap down to 3 points, which is now starting to be some shaky ground for our leader, Scott G., who really didn't have any of his unique players make a difference for him in the game.  Both teams shared Giroux's 4 points, so that was a wash, also sharing Hartnell's pair of points, so that's just 6 points to their totals more than anything.  Chris Pronger beat Kimmo Timonen in the defenseman battle, 1-0 to Myles.  Kane and Jonathan Toews combined for 3 points on the other side, so there was the 4 points that Myles made up right there and now we'll have an extra game, at the very least, to help stir the pot a little further.

Through Game Three, Myles D. and Jamie C. now lead the Stanley Cup Finals in points in the pool, both having 18 points in the series.  We all know where Myles is in the standings, but unfortunately, Jamie is down in 17th, but he should be moving up the ranks, possibly with an eye on the top ten, being only 7 points out.

Canucks Re-Sign Schneider

Another signing from the One to Watch paragraphs, but instead of watching this player get dealt this Summer, it looks like he'll stay with the club for a while longer.  Cory Schneider signed a new deal on Wednesday afternoon, which was reported to be a 2-year deal worth just shy of $1 million per season.  This suggests to me that Schneider will indeed be the back-up goalie for Roberto Luongo in 2011, showcasing his talents in a small number of games to the rest of the league, likely vying for a starting job in the next two to three years. 

Since the salary cap details are not official yet, I'm going to hesitate posting more on the cap implications of this deal.  If Schneider does become a full-time player on the Canucks roster, a sub-$1 million hit will look good on the numbers posted on the Pool Outlook last month.  

You should keep a closer eye on Schneider now for your fantasy pool, especially a keeper league, because now he can register points, if and when he's the back-up.  Don't be over-zealous, I'm thinking that he'll only be looking at 12 to 20 starts in 2011, likely more to the former end.

Home Cooking for Philadelphia, Is It Enough?

It should be rather straight-forward to pick a side and stick with it in this series now, as you either subscribe to the notion that the Philadelphia Flyers are either not quite out of it with the series going back to Philly tonight or that the Chicago Blackhawks are just going to do away with the Flyers quickly and mercifully. Myself, personally, I'm not going to sell the Flyers short, as I really haven't in the first two games of the series (much to my chagrin) and hope that they have some sort of magic left from their series against the Bruins to make a remarkable comeback.

The biggest trouble for the Flyers tonight is that the Blackhawks are an excellent road team in these playoffs and there is a good chance that they will be ready to play away from the Madhouse again tonight.  Loud buildings shouldn't scare the Blackhawks now, especially playing well through GM Place in Vancouver and the HP Pavilion in San Jose, both high rated visiting buildings.  The coaching staff of the Blackhawks has a knack of being able to make their player fall in line, keeping it simple and playing great road games.  Jonathan Toews leads all scorers in the NHL playoffs for points on the road, accumulating 6 goals and 11 assists in only 8 games.  With that sort of production, it could be a big impact game on the pool tonight from the Blackhawks side.

The Flyers are now going home, looking to build on some good things that they had on the road in Chicago already in this series.  The Flyers were able to skate with the Blackhawks in the first two games of the series and they only lost by one goal in both games, so they are definitely hoping that the home crowd and cooking.  If the Flyers can keep up a certain level of physical play and forechecking on the back end of the Blackhawks, they may be able to force a few more turnovers in the offensive zone, then they will need to crash the net and make things exceptionally difficult for Antti Niemi.  The Flyers defense will also need to take better care of Michael Leighton in their own net, as his play has shown some cracks against a well-placed Chicago attack.  At home in the playoffs, the Flyers have been led by Daniel Briere, who has 5 goals and 4 assists in 8 games at the Wachovia Center. 

Team	Scott G.	Myles D.	Neil B.	Russ D.	Leo M.	Derek B.	Kalenab G.	Stuart G.
Points	250	-7	-9	-16	-16	-16	-17	-18
Patrick Sharp	x	x		x		x
Dustin Byfuglien	x
Brian Campbell	x
Patrick Kane		x	x		x	x	x	x
Jonathan Toews		x	x				x	x
Marian Hossa			x	x	x			x
Duncan Keith				x		x	x
Brent Seabrook					x
Scott Hartnell	x	x
Claude Giroux	x	x				x		x
Kimmo Timonen	x				x		x
James Van Riemsdyk					x
Chris Pronger		x			x
Daniel Briere				x
Braydon Coburn				x

Well, in order for this pool to get any closer, Game Three will likely have to be a repeat of Game One... an absolute barn-burner.  I've got to know that Myles is hoping for a huge night from the two best Blackhawks on the team, scoring-wise.  If either Kane or Toews can somehow assist on the other's hat-trick tonight, then we have ourselves a brand new ball game, likely with only one game to go.  Scott G. has to be hoping for a low-scoring affair, likely with a Flyers win (since he is a Flyers fan and all) and an even bigger night from Kimmo Timonen. 

Oilers Ink Paajarvi-Svensson

The word has come down from Edmonton that they have inked another one of their star prospects to his entry-level deal on Tuesday, putting pen to paper with Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson.  Paajarvi-Svensson was Edmonton's 1st round draft pick in 2009, going 10th overall that year, and has agreed to attend the Oilers Summer camp for their prospects, starting to pave his way into the NHL sooner rather than later.  The 19-year old winger has dazzled many in international tournaments for Sweden, so he should be coming with some higher expectations, but he will likely jump in close to the same time as Jordan Eberle, Linus Omark and/or whoever the Oilers pick with the 1st pick overall this Summer.

No salary details have been released as of the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday, but I would imagine that the Swedish phenom will be getting somewhere close to the rookie max, being the high pick that he is and if he makes the Oilers roster, he'll be a healthy cap hit to help the team up closer to the ceiling.

In the Swedish Elite League last season, Paajarvi-Svensson had 29 points in 49 games with Timra IK and 1 assist in 5 playoff games as well.

Lidstrom to Return for 2011

The Detroit Red Wings can breathe one sigh of relief heading into this off-season, as they have locked up their captain for another year on Tuesday, signing Nicklas Lidstrom to a new deal.  Lidstrom was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but the Red Wings were obviously keen not to see that happen on their watch or even have him retire too soon.  The deal is reportedly worth $6.2 million, which is a slight pay cut to the $7.4 million that Lidstrom earned in the 2010 season.

Lidstrom, who turned 40 in April, didn't have a standout season in 2010 with the Red Wings, but he still picked up 49 points (9 goals and 40 assists), playing in all 82 games, which was good enough to be 9th in scoring among all defensemen.  Lidstrom's production has been tailing off in the past couple seasons, dropping from 70 points in 2008 to 59 points in 2009 and now 49 in 2010.

Defensively, Lidstrom is still known as one of the smarter players in the game, which makes him a valued member of the Red Wings, despite his drop in scoring.  He again finished the year well in the black when it came to his plus/minus rating, finishing with a +22 in 2010.  That also has taken a bit of a slide in recent years, but you could at least argue that his offense hasn't been supplementing his plus/minus, which should still mean good things for his defense. 

In terms of the salary cap, the Red Wings go into this deal having a good portion of their cap space spoken for, but now with this deal on the books, Detroit now has 14 players ready for 2011 at a cap hit of $48.9 million, now ranking them 4th among active cap hits in the league, according to my spreadsheet.

At $6.2 million against the cap, Lidstrom ranks 35th among all signed players for the 2011 in cap value, 9th among all defensemen.  Out of those eight defensemen ahead of Lidstrom on the list, Lidstrom outscored seven of them.

A Closer Game, Same Result

It's pretty safe to say that Game Two was a far more tighter game than Game One and I would also say that it was equally enjoyable as well. The Blackhawks and the Flyers really buckled down their defenses a lot more and their goaltenders were ready for the task at hand, as it was a lot more difficult to score goals, which turned up the dial on the angst and desperation at a number of points in the game.

In the end, it was the Blackhawks who were on the right side of the scoresheet, as they held onto a 2nd intermission 2-0 lead in the 3rd period, only giving up one goal in the final frame for a final score of 2-1 and now the Chicago Blackhawks will leave home for Philadelphia with a 2-0 series lead.

The 1st period had to be the best period for those who really like defense, since there were no goals scored and only a combined 12 shots on goal in the period, so the goalies were not even tested all that much. The 2nd period was a lot of the same, except for a 28-second segment, where the Blackhawks managed to go up 2-0 in the game. Marian Hossa scored his first goal of the series to open the scoring and it was Ben Eager who scored the eventual winning goal of the game.  In the 3rd period, the Blackhawks had to hold on for dear life, as the Flyers outshot them 15-4 in the final frame, but the shutout was broken only five minutes in, as Simon Gagne scored a powerplay goal to make the game all that much closer.  Eventually, the Blackhawks heard the final horn and the game was over.

The Flyers might be heading home down 2-0 in this series, but I don't think there is any reason for them to be down on themselves in this situation.  Despite Game One having 11 goals in it, it was a 1-goal decision and even when the scoring was low, the Flyers only lost by one, so the Flyers are prepared to play with the Blackhawks, it was just a matter of not having quite enough to lift them over top.  That being said, I don't think this series is quite as close to being over as some of the panicky people are suggesting, because the Flyers could just as easily take how close they were in the first two games, turn it around in Game Three and only be a game down.  Of course, the result could just as easily go the other way and the Blackhawks could steal Game Three with another close result, then we can talk about how close the Flyers are to caving in.

In the pool, the low-scoring result was exactly what Scott G. needed to cement his possibility finishing at the top, in fact he actually was able to extend his lead by a single point, thanks to a Dustin Byfuglien assist on the winning goal being the difference.  Russ D. had a good game, capitalizing on the Marian Hossa goal, with a Duncan Keith assist, to take the pool lead in scoring for the Cup Finals, now sitting with 11 points.  Russ has now moved into a tie for 4th and taking the position due to tiebreakers.

It really is turning into that 3-horse race I was talking about in the preview and if the series remains tight like Game Two was, it should be a cake walk for Scott to hold off Myles D. for the win.