With the 2014-15 regular season behind us, it’s time to reflect on the year that was.
We will see a new Stanley Cup champion in 2015. A no-name goaltender can help a team burglarize a playoff spot. A goaltender who appeared to be on his way out of the league rescued a franchise’s season and a head coach’s job. This year’s crop of rookies delivered on offence.
Here are five things we learned in the 2014-15 NHL season.
The playoffs will have much more Canadian flavour
Five Canadian teams qualified for the post-season for the first time since the 2003-04 season.
The Montreal Canadiens appeared to be the only sure bet among Canadian teams to reach the playoffs for most of the 2014-15 campaign. The Vancouver Canucks persevered through goaltending injuries and punched their ticket, while the rest of the lot took much more dramatic routes.
The Calgary Flames defied expectations and turned in the most surprising story of the season, knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings in Game 81 to secure a playoff berth.
The Winnipeg Jets hung out in wild card territory for most of the season, riding one of the league’s stingiest defence corps and the hot hands of rookie goaltender Michael Hutchison and perennial underachiever Ondrej Pavelec (who enjoyed the best season of his career). Mid-season drama surrounding Evander Kane saw the 23-year-old eventually shipped to Buffalo in exchange for a package centred around Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford.
Winnipeg will experience playoff hockey for the first time since the franchise found its way north from Atlanta.
The Ottawa Senators looked lottery-bound until they morphed into the league’s hottest team behind a push that began in mid-February and culminated with a post-season berth in the final week of the season.
Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond became a household name thanks to an improbable 20-1-2 run between the pipes. The undrafted rookie posted a 1.79 goals-against average and .941 save percentage in 24 games after injuries felled Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner.
Every province that has a hockey team to call its own will receive a taste of post-season hockey. It’s great for Canada and Canadian hockey fans.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers will try their luck in the lottery with hopes of landing Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel.
The future is in good hands
The kids are alright.
Three rookies eclipsed 60 points for the first time since the 2006-07 season when Evgeni Malkin, Paul Stastny, and Anze Kopitar all did it.
Ottawa Senators forward Mark Stone led the way with 26 goals and 64 points, Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau also had 64 points with 24 goals and Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators finished with 26 goals and 63 points.
2014 first overall pick Aaron Ekblad patrolled the Florida Panthers’ blueline with the poise and presence of men 10 years his senior. The 18-year-old didn’t put up the gaudy point totals that his forward counterparts did, but 12 goals and 38 points from a rookie defenceman is a helluva entrance into the NHL.
The future IS in good hands.
In the case of Forsberg and Gaudreau, it’s in very, very good hands.
With Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel on the way, it only gets better from here.
Crosby vs. Ovechkin is still a great debate
You wouldn’t be alone if you count yourself among hockey fans who ultimately suffered from Crosby vs. Ovechkin fatigue after years of media shoving it in your face.
A Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup in 2009, two Olympic gold medals, and a return to dominance for a healthy Crosby over the past couple of seasons appeared to cement his status as the greatest player in the world.
Ovechkin, despite maintaining his status as the most dangerous scorer in the league, took a back seat as the rivalry withered away when the Washington Capitals missed the playoffs in 2013-14. Detractors pounced on Ovechkin’s minus-35 plus/minus rating from a season ago as some sort of proof that he was inferior to Crosby.
Enter: 2014-15.
In a season where scoring was down drastically, Crosby and Ovechkin dominated in their own ways while battling for the league’s scoring title.
Ovechkin flourished under head coach Barry Trotz, scoring 50 goals for the second consecutive season while sporting a plus-10 rating that effectively silenced the old guard who still leaned on the statistic for their flawed reasoning.
Although the Penguins nearly suffered a devastating late-season collapse, Crosby competed for the Art Ross Trophy right up until the end. No. 87 fell short of the scoring title with 84 points, but even in what would be considered a down year (a case of the mumps slowed Crosby, too) by his own standards, Crosby was dominant at both ends of the ice.
Was the rivalry manufactured in the first place? Sure.
They’re vastly different players. To have them both at or near the top of their respective games is great for business. It’s even better for hockey fans.
A changing of the guard
Since 2011, one of the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings has made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. The Bruins won in 2011, while the Kings took home the prize in 2012 and again in 2014.
The Bruins captured the Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s best record last season. For the first time in NHL history, neither the previous year’s Presidents’ Trophy winner or Stanley Cup champion managed to reach the post-season.
Instead, it’s the likes of the Jets, Flames, Islanders, and Predators who emerged as playoff teams in 2014-15.
With the top end talent that the Kings and Bruins possess, this seeming bout of parity could be short-lived.
Whatever the case, it sure was fun.
It was the year of the goaltender
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is a lock to take home some hardware come awards season. The only question is how much hardware will Price walk away with?
Price’s team record 44 wins, 1.96 goals-against average, and .933 save percentage all but guarantee him the Vezina Trophy, but he should garner some votes for the the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, too.
Elsewhere, Pekka Rinne turned in a Vezina-worthy performance of his own with the Nashville Predators with 41 wins, a .923 save percentage and 2.18 goals-against average. No goaltender played more games than Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals. Holtby appeared in 73 contests and sported a 2.22 goals-against average to go along with 41 wins and a .923 save percentage as a major piece of the Capitals’ resurgence.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we saw outstanding performances from Andrew Hammond in Ottawa and Devan Dubnyk with the Minnesota Wild.
Dubnyk looked like a goaltender whose NHL career was on the ropes at the end of the 2013-14 season, having fallen out of favour in Edmonton and well down the depth charts in stops with the Predators and Canadiens.
He resuscitated his career with strong play on the woeful Arizona Coyotes before the Wild, desperate for help in net, sent a third-round pick to the desert for his services.
Dubnyk went on to start 39 consecutive games, effectively saving the Wild’s season and head coach Mike Yeo’s job. Dubnyk finished 27-9-2 with a .936 save percentage and 1.78 goals-against average in 39 games with the Wild.
In 57 games overall Dubnyk posted a 36-13-4 record to go along with a .930 save percentage and 2.04 goals-against average.
