It was decided, or more like *I* decided, to recap the happenings in the NHL on a weekly basis once the new CBA was agreed upon by the two culprits of the lockout and things were looking good at first. We had the press conference announcing the new deal…then we had the NHL draft and then things started going downhill.
On August 1, the NHL’s swap meet opened up and Florida scooped up Joe Niewendyk and Gary Robert.. Then EVERYONE jumped in and before you knew it guys were signing with new teams left and right and I went for the “save as” button rather than trying to keep up with everything in one piece.
Free agency hasn’t been the only talk in the NHL, however.
Gretzky decides to coach the Coyotes
Several years ago, Wayne Gretzky decided to participate in one of the Coyotes practices and suddenly the talk was that he was coming back to play. Gretzky quickly shot down those rumors and remained content in his front office role. He had his Kings jersey retired, he put together Canada’s Olympic hockey team in 2002 and was a strong voice against any sort of lockout. Now, Wayne Gretzky is back as the new head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. He’ll be coaching young stars such as Mike Comrie, Ladislav Nagy, Shane Doan and one old-timer who won’t be retiring until he’s #2 on the NHL’s all time goal scoring list, Brett Hull. Of course, despite even talking out of his elbows sometimes, Hull will never admit that the reason he’s still playing. However, that all might change once he feels he’s not getting enough power play time and starts whining about it. The new rules are supposed to help the fast, slick players….sit down and suck it up.
Gretzky will do a decent job. His team sits in the Pacific Division which holds four other teams that are comparable to Gretzky’s Coyotes, so it won’t be easy, but they’ll challenge for a playoff spot if nothing else. That’s not saying much as every team in the Western Conference, with the exception of Minnesota who has done nothing to make themselves better, has a shot at making it to the postseason.
The biggest challenge for Gretzky will his control over the players. As a player it was always said that Gretzky made everyone feel they could be better. He made sure to include everyone in his celebrity and made sure not to make anyone feel that the team was about him and no one else. When he played better, his teammates played better. This is going to have to be the same type of attitude that Gretzky holds behind the bench, all the while rooting for his young stars to play at their potential while also not doing anything that would change people’s perceptions of his well known reputation….that of being the all around nice guy who also happens to be the greatest hockey player of all time.
Bettman reinstates Todd Bertuzzi
More qualified people than me have already said more about this than is needed.
Of course, they’re all wrong.
Thrashers trade Dany Heatley to Ottawa for Marian Hossa
Now for something a little more up to date as the Thrashers sent one half of their marquee youngsters to Canada. There was talk that Heatley wanted out of Atlanta…for SOME reason. Yes they’re still not a proven commodity in the league, but injuries to himself and Ilya Kovalchuk have really hindered the franchises progress. The hiring of Bob Hartley made this team a .500 team or better, a full season this year would have only made things better, but the trade has been made and now Heatley can shine as much as he can in his home country. It’s a deal that makes sense for both clubs as Atlanta gets a perrenial All Star in Hossa while the Sens now have one of the brightest stars in the league, assuming he can regain the form he once posessed.
Fellow Inside Pulse Sports Guy Wonders What Old Playoff Format Was
Our good friend Patrick Nguyen wants to know or WANTED to know what the old divisional playoff system in the NHL was but that fact is that I don’t even remember, but I’m sure it went something like this:
Up until the ’93-’94 season the NHL consisted of The Clarence Campbell Conference (which is now the Western Conference) and The Princes of Wales Conference (which is now the Eastern Conference) and these names were changed because the NHL basically feared that they were alienating new fans who had no idea what the “Campbell” and “Wales” names were all about. They were right, weren’t they? What made the old names unique, aside from showing off some of the sports vast history, was that it meant that the conferences didn’t have to be regional. Unlike the NFL of years past where New Orleans was in the NFC West, with non-region based conferences the NHL could justify having Toronto in the Campbell Conference despite it clearly having more west coast based teams.
So, at this time the NHL only had 24 teams and each Conference (12 teams per conference) had two divisons each.
Each division had 6 teams and the top 4 in each division would make the playoffs, making it 8 teams per conference and 16 of the 24 teams in the league making it to the post-season. No one won their division in the regular season, they won it in the post-season. These days the division is won during the regular season.
In each division, the first place team opposed the fourth place team and the second place team would take on the third place team in the Division Semi-Finals. Then those two winners would take on each other in the Division Finals which would determine who would be the Division Champion. Then the two division champions would play in the Conference Finals.
In the Wales Conference, the Adams Division winner would take on the Patrick Division winner and in the Campbell Conference the Norris Division winner would oppose the Smyth Division winner. Finally, the Conference Champions would meet in the Stanley Cup Finals.
So each round meant something more than ‘just moving on’. It meant winning the right to challenge for the division title, then playing for the division title, followed by playing for the conference title and encompassing all that, the opportunity to play for the Cup in the final round.
Nowadays, the 3 division winners in each conference are automatically seeded 1, 2, 3 in order of highest regular season point totals amongst them and the other 5 teams are determined in the same manner, but no non-division winner can be seeded higher than a division winner even if they have more regular season points.
The old system promoted rivalries and the new schedule for the upcoming NHL season only brings back memories of it. Granted the NHL is now made up of 30 teams and the conferences have 3 divisions rather than 2 but hopefully the new division oriented regular season schedule can spark things up again between division rivals.
How’s that for an explanation?
Anyhow, NHL free agency has seen many teams bolster their roster with big names and lots of other minor signings. The biggest trade thus far has been the Heatley/Hossa deal and Jeremy Roenick getting shipped off to Los Angeles. There’s Toronto giving Jason Allison and Eric Lindros a shot and Temmu Selanne returning to Anaheim after Kariya signed a two year deal with Nashville. Michael Peca and Chris Pronger in Edmonton and Adam Foote in Columbus should be nice for their fans. Chances are that fans in Pittsburgh are rather happy for these reasons: Lemeuix, Crosby, Palffy, Gonchar, LeClair, Recchi and Thibault. #1 seed in the East this year? VERY possible.
Training camps open in a couple of weeks, see you then.
