It's been a while since we got off the single-issue train and took a look around at a number of issues in the National Hockey League.
Maybe it's because we're still basking in a post-Christmas glow, but there is much good to report.
First up in the glad-tidings department are the Calgary Flames. You may recall a few weeks ago when the Flames appeared to be in near-total disarray that we noted there was still time to pull a good season together and it could start the night that the Sidney Crosby show made its first stop in Calgary.
Needless to say the boys shunned our advice (we told them it could all start anew for them should they beat the Penguins on Saddledome ice) and lost to the Crosby Kids, 3-2 in a shootout, but they showed something there and have been improving ever since. They've gotten so good in fact that the team that couldn't win away from home the previous season rolled off six consecutive wins on the road, vaulting into the West's upper eight and making believers out of a team that was thought to be too old, too slow and two "old school" to win consistently.
Having seen so many teams run hot and cold so far this mercurial season, we will withhold judgment as to whether these Flames are for real, but we will restate something we've believed from the get go: Mike Keenan still knows how to coach.
It's taken a while for him to put his stamp on this team and surely much of the credit for the recent victories has to go to the improved play of goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and the sterling play of captain Jarome Iginla, but there's a noticeable up tick in overall accountability regarding team defence in Calgary and that is a Keenan trademark
Going into tonight's game with Vancouver the Flames have cooled just a bit, not winning in consecutive games at home, but they did pick up a point in both those games and now have picked up points in 11 straight (7-0-4). A noteworthy achievement.
Another team we weren't all that impressed with a short while ago, the Buffalo Sabres, have also righted the ship - at least for now.
Once again, credit has to go to coaching as Lindy Ruff has refocused his team after a dreadful start.
When last we looked in on the Sabres they were in the throes of a dreadful skid, the result of the loss of co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury in a botched free-agent season, some poor play from goaltender Ryan Miller, a failure to respond to the pressure of a grossly outsized contract by third-year pro Tomas Vanek (the result of an offseason signing sheet offer that made him a $50 million man thanks to the Edmonton Oilers) and some lingering resentment regarding the treatment of veteran defenceman Teppo Numminen who was suspended prior to the start of training camp after team doctors felt his heart condition didn't warrant his passing a physical.
That's a lot on any coach's plate. The Sabres were leaderless, punchless, disorganized and discouraged and they were also playing a style that wasn't conducive to winning in a vastly tighter NHL, but in early December it started to come together. In a turnaround much like Calgary's, Miller started to play to the form he showed almost since entering the league three seasons ago. Ruff experimented until he found a line combination that worked for Vanek, special teams play improved and the defence, which had some injury problems, started to get healthy again. Most importantly, Ruff refocused his troops, weaning them off the run-and-gun format that served them so well last season and toward a more deliberate and conservative style of play. It's working.
The Sabres - with Miller allowing just 15 goals along the way - had won six in a row before Wednesday's loss to Ottawa and except for a pair of fall-back performances out west, have played well. They won 13 of 17 games going into the Christmas break, including an impressive home-and-home sweep of Philadelphia. Buffalo went to the break with a 19-14-1 record and more importantly, moved from last in the division and near last in the Eastern Conference to sixth in the East with a bullet.
Like the Flames, the Sabres aren't exactly home free, not with the distraction of Crosby and the "Ice Bowl" outdoor game as part of a stretch of 13 of their next 17 games on the road. However, they do appear to be willing and able to play within the structure Ruff has laid out for them. It's not nearly as pretty or entertaining as last season and they certainly haven't figured out how to beat the Senators (4-11-1 in their last 16 vs. the Sens), but they have improved on their disastrous start. and are back in playoff contention.
That's what good coaches do. You never heard Keenan complain about the hand he was dealt or cry for an upgrade in talent. He took what he had and made it play better. Iron Mike gets a lot of bad press but he has always adapted to the times as well as the teams he gets. He does it by making his players accountable.
Ruff did the same and not in a truly different way. He had a better, deeper team last season and though he surely fumed when ownership bumbled away his two best offensive players and team leaders and pulled the chute on their most experienced defenceman, he didn't panic or openly complain. Instead he refocused his team, improving its strengths, compensating for its weaknesses and demanding that those who remained be accountable and play to the best of their ability.
It wasn't easy and it certainly took time, but then even the best of coaches are simply coaches, not miracle workers.
It's not likely either will win the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. That tends to go to the coach who has a world-class goaltender suddenly fall into his lap or gets behind a team that has under-performed for the coach it managed to get fired and gets its act together for his replacement (hey, maybe Keenan does have a chance).
Still, closing in on the halfway point of the season, both men have done their jobs and shown they know how to do them very well.
Some other issues that deserve praise:
What's all the complaining about the outdoor game in Buffalo? Sure it's been done before - once in the NHL and in the college ranks - but does that mean it can't ever be done again? I agree playing in an oversized arena is not conducive to good sight lines and it's certainly has nothing to do with the "roots and traditions" of the game. It's also not like to be a "winter classic", but outdoor games have a cache. They also tend to sell out because fans embrace the unique qualities. In addition, players seem to enjoy the change in an otherwise endless cycle of sameness that inhabits the schedule and many of the league's newer arenas.
Simply put, they are fun and fans and players seem to like them. Are we media types all so grumpy that we can't see the value in giving people what they both want and enjoy?
Sometimes you wonder if even a five-goal game is enough to get Minnesota Wild forward Marion Gaborik the attention he deserves. Maybe not, at least not outside the land of lakes, but the good thing is this oft-overlooked star not only is great, but seemingly capable of even better things. Even in the tightly controlled Minnesota system one can envision Gaborik producing a six-goal night or even matching Darryl Sittler's famed 10-point game. To bad the football stadium in Minneapolis had a roof on it; this guy could be a shining star in an outdoor arena and in Minnesota could likely fill it all by himself.