BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca
We continue with our previews leading up to opening night on Oct. 7 as sportsnet.ca NHL analysts Mark Spector, Mike Brophy get you ready for the season by asking a few of the burning questions surrounding each team.
In addition, Hall of Fame writer Jim Kelley presents five features that examines the top prospects to watch, top rookies, coaches on the hot seat, season storylines and narrowing down who has a shot at supplanting Henrik Sedin as league MVP.
Today, we examine the final of the six previews with the Central Division.
Beware the very good team coming off a rare short spring.
After playing all eight playoff rounds in the springs of ’08 and ’09, the Red Wings succumbed to San Jose in Round 2 last post-season. Since the lockout, Detroit has played 14 of a possible 20 playoff rounds — a testament to the consistency of the best organization in hockey.
The players are rested, everyone of note is back, and the Red Wings are ready to re-take its place atop the Central Division.
On to the Burning Qs:
Can this group just keep on dominating?
Pavel Datsyuk is 32. That’s experienced; not old. Henrik Zetterberg is almost 30. Johan Franzen, who only played 27 games last season due to a knee injury, will soon be 31. Valtteri Filppula, an under-rated but excellent player, is 26. Sure, there are some ageing stars in this lineup as well: Nik Lidstrom (40), Brian Rafalski (37); Tomas Holmstrom (37); Todd Bertuzzi (35); Mike Modano (40); Chris Osgood (37). So there is a mix of players here with a wealth of experience, and enough younger guys to carry the ball on a lot of nights.
Can Jimmy Howard take Detroit all the way?
Howard had the fourth best saves percentage in the NHL last year (.924) and the fifth best GAA (2.26). He played 63 games and won 37 in his first year as an NHL No. 1. On one hand, Detroit has been able to win in past seasons without what most hockey “experts” would refer to as a high-end goalie, in Chris Osgood. On the other, Howard will be far more comfortable this season than last, as it’s his second go-round as the main guy. Detroit GM Ken Holland has a knack for discovering players everyone else missed. Howard just may be another one of those guys.
What, if anything, does Mike Modano have left?
The best thing about the first franchise shift in the 22-year career of Modano is, he is now a support player and a second PP unit guy. The reason Detroit has been this good for this long is, apart from the front line stars, they’ve always had supreme talent on second- and third-lines. Modano is on the downside of a fine career, for sure. But as a supporting player who will chip in goals and make plays — almost exclusively playing against the opposition’s second and third defensive pairing now — the former Dallas Star will be just fine. Jiri Hudler is back from the KHL as well, and Ruslan Salei solidifies the defence.
How will the Red Wings do this year?
They’ll win the Central, grab one of the Top 3 seeds, and win a Round 1 series. After that, health and matchup will dictate whether the Red Wings can make it back to their third Stanley Cup final in four years. This much we know for sure, however: Detroit is a team nobody will want to run into this spring, if they’re healthy.
So, what’s going to make it harder for the Blackhawks to repeat this season?
The loss of nine guys from the 20-man lineup that beat Philly in Game 6 last spring? Or the fact that of the players who remain, many are young, fun-loving 20-somethings who spent a summer being rock stars in one of America’s greatest summer cities?
Are the Blackhawks, a team that lost much of the depth that made it what it was, hungry enough? Even if they are, can they be good enough after losing all of those players?
VOTE NOW: The Hockeycentral Season Preview Show wants to know what you think about the a few of the hot button issues before the puck drops Thursday night. POLLSExcellent questions. Now ...
On to the Burning Qs:
What about in goal? Should Chicago have kept Antti Niemi?
At 35, the odds are working against new Hawks No. 1 Marty Turco. His stats were in decline before he turned in a much better season for Dallas in a contract year in 2009-10: a .913 saves percentage and a 2.72 GAA. The Hawks were wise to keep Turco on a one-year deal, however history tells us that ageing goalies who trend upwards for a year late in their careers often don’t stay there. Turco was prone to letting in the bad goal on a nightly basis late in his Dallas days. The departed Niemi did likewise some nights, but this season, Chicago might not be deep enough in talent to survive inconsistent goaltending.
Can any team survive this many losses, and repeat?
This one would likely be the first, that’s for sure. Gone from their Cup lineup are Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, John Madden, Ben Eager, Adam Burish, Cristobal Huet and of course, Niemi. Colin Fraser could have stepped up as a depth guy, but he left too. The good news? The Top 5 scorers from last season all stayed, and the Top 4 defencemen return, a good a Top 4 as there is in the league.
What about depth? Wasn’t that what put the Blackhawks over the top?
No question, the Byfuglien-Versteeg line, often with Andrew Ladd or Brouwer, was the one unit that the Vancouver Canucks could never handle in the post-season. Same in the San Jose series. Eager, Ladd and Byfuglien are big, rugged players who can score when they get a chance, providing an aura of “hard to play against” that the Canucks, for one, have never been able to capture. If the Hawks think they can win it this year on skill alone, well, it never seems to work quite that way in the playoffs.
How will the Blackhawks do?
Typically, there will be a period during the regular season when the Hawks will struggle as defending champs. Four hard rounds last spring, and now everybody plays you like the Cup is on the line every night — that always makes for some midseason blues for a young group that has never been the hunted before. We’re not sold on Turco either. With Detroit coming off a sub-par year, Chicago looks to finish second in the Central, fourth or fifth in the Western Conference, and throw its hat into the playoff ring just like everyone else.
Three years out of the playoffs. One year in.
Then last year? Another miss.
Are the St. Louis Blues an organization that’s building something special, one that finally has the goaltending it has lacked in Jaroslav Halak? Or is the young group that makes up the core in St. Louis simply not turning out to be as good as GM Larry Pleau and president John Davidson thought they were going to be?
This is the year we find out the answers to all of those questions in St. Louis.
On to the Burning Qs:
What’s the story on that core?
If this franchise is going to emerge the way a Chicago, Washington or L.A. did, T.J. Oshie, David Perron and David Backes are going to lead the way up front. The problem is, all three saw their production slip last season after they helped to take the Blues into the playoffs for the first time in four seasons in 2008-09. It’s one thing to be a team no one fears, quite another when you’re taken seriously. Oshie went from 39 points in 57 games two seasons ago to 48 in 76 games last year; Backes went from 54 points to 48; Perron went from 50 points to 47. The good news? Alex Steen was comfortable outside the Toronto spotlight, having the best year in his career last season with 24 goals and 47 points. And defenceman Erik Johnson, who missed an entire season when he ripped up his knee in a golf cart accident, returned to post 39 points and a plus-1.
Is Halak the answer in St. Loo?
As fantastic as Halak was in the playoffs last spring, he has never entered a season as the clear cut No. 1 on an NHL club, the way he does this season in St. Louis. Even last season, as he wrestled the job away from Carey Price in Montreal, Halak only played in 45 regular season games — a career high, but barely more than half the schedule. Did the Canadiens pick the right guy to let go, thinking he’d never be able to recreate the magic Halak spun in the ’10 playoffs? Or are the Blues the benefactors of one of the most controversial goaltending decisions in Canadiens history?
No Tkachuk? No Kariya? No veteran leadership?
Absolutely not. Though both are long-time NHL vets with a combined 2,190 regular season game between them, neither will go down in history as playoff winners. Combined, the playoff teams of Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya have advanced past the first round just four times in 19 post-seasons. It’s time the Blues find out if the aforementioned core group is ready. Out with the old, in with the new.
How will the Blues do?
St. Louis finished with 90 points last season — in ninth spot in the West, five points behind No. 8 Colorado. Of course, 90 points would have been good for seventh seed in the East. In terms up and-up-comes out West, the Blues were passed by L.A., Colorado and Phoenix last season. If they catch two of those clubs this year, they’re in the Top 8. It’ll be a race to the wire for St. Louis, a bubble team in the West.
The ultimate glass ceiling team, you can never look at Nashville in October and say they don’t have a viable playoff team.
Nashville has made the playoffs in five of the past six seasons, but somehow, they have never won a playoff round in franchise history. With more key losses this season, it’s going to be tougher than ever for GM Dave Poile to keep those Nashville plates spinning in the West.
How many good players did Nashville lose this season?
Only their captain, Jason Arnott, and second best defenceman in Dan Hamhuis, the most sought after blue-liner on the market this summer. Nashville also lost backup goalie Dan Ellis, but with No. 1 Pekka Rinne, the Preds are better in goal than most. Until they lose him, of course, when his contract is up after next season.
Who is filing the voids?
To replace some solid, consistent NHLers, the Preds have brought in a bunch of guys who have been hit-and-miss throughout their NHL careers. The best of the bunch is Matthew Lombardi, a swift centre who has averaged 45 points over the past four seasons, the most productive ones of his career. Sergei Kostitsyn, the unruly brother of Andrei, comes from Montreal. He needs to get focused in Nashville, a tempting town for guys who are not. Jamie Lundmark, a fringe NHLer, comes to town alongside two young defencemen trying to stay as regulars in the NHL: Ryan Parent and Matt Halischuk.
How are the finances in Nashville?
Brutal, thanks for asking. As usual, the Preds will seek revenue sharing by remaining in the bottom five spenders in the NHL. It is testimony to the fact Poile is one of the game’s finest GMs that the Predators compete every season, but how long will the few loyal fans they have in Nashville keep paying to watch the same old movie? This is one of those “Dead Man Walking” American franchises.
How will the Predators do?
For a team that operates in the bottom 15 percent of the league financially year after year after year, they usually make the playoffs. This year several factors will work against that. The West is so strong, as is the once week Central Division. Nashville gets Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis too much. Losing Arnott and Hamhuis hurts too much. Predators aren’t a Top 8 team this year.
Another season, another Columbus team that makes a hockey fan excited. Not.
Columbus made the playoffs two seasons ago and everyone got excited. They built on that momentum last season by firing head coach ken Hitchcock midseason, then finishing 14th in the West.
Are they better this season? Does it really matter?
What has changed in Columbus?
There have been neither major additions nor significant losses on a rather vanilla roster, save for new head coach Scott Arniel. Ethan Moreau comes in from Edmonton, though at the end of a good career and fighting injuries a lot of the time now. Columbus ranked 20th in scoring last season and did not acquire any major offensive upgrades. That may be why GM Scott Howson, with the 14th-ranked powerplay last season, may be keeping an eye on the waiver wire to see if the Oilers put Sheldon Souray on re-entry waivers.
Can Steve Mason bounce back?
He’d better, or this team has no chance. Mason won the Calder Trophy with 33 wins and 10 shutouts two seasons ago, then suffered a sophomore slump last season that cost Columbus any momentum it had, and cost Hitchcock his job. Generally, good players rebound from years like last season, when Mason’s wins fell by 43%, his shutouts by 50%, his goals against went from 2.29 to 3.06 and his saves percentage shrunk from .916 to .901. Let’s face it: Teams are only as good as their No. 1 allows them to be. Mason needs to steal some games for the Jackets this season, and be more consistent the rest of the time.
Is this franchise slipping?
To open their 10th NHL season, Columbus flies to Stockholm for a pair of games against the San Jose Sharks. It may be the first time in a decade the phrase “Columbus Blue Jackets” was uttered more than once in the same calendar week in Sweden. Once a hot American market in a beautiful downtown arena, interest in Columbus is waning as the Jackets continue to spin their wheels. Fans are losing patience, and so is ownership. One playoff appearance — a 4-0 sweep at the hands of Detroit two springs ago — will do that to you.
The Hockeycentral Season Preview Show airs Tuesday, Oct. 5, 8pm ET (East and Ontario), 8pm MT (West) and 8pm PT (Pacific).How will Columbus do?
Not so well, we fear. They reside in the Central, the Division from which the far tougher Western Conference has found its winner in each of the last three seasons. Chicago and Detroit are leagues ahead of the Jackets — that’s 12 games. St. Louis has far more promise, with a better young core than Columbus. Nashville is every bit as plucky and likely better. So the Jackets will have to survive the Central, and make some hay against the rest of the Conference. If they were in the East, that might be a plan. Out West, they’ll surprise if the Blue Jackets make the Top 10.
