It’s hard to imagine two NHL teams hit harder in the solar plexus over the weekend by news involving their superstar players than Tampa Bay and Detroit. The news could have an impact well beyond this season.
For the Lightning, centre Steven Stamkos will be sidelined 1-to-3 months while he gets treatment for a blood clot near his right collarbone. Scary stuff, but treatable, we are told.
For the Red Wings, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday that speculation of Pavel Datsyuk one day returning to his native Russia to play could become reality after this season. Given that Detroit would be on the hook for the 37-year-old Datsyuk’s $7.5 million cap hit whether he plays or not makes this a potentially major problem.
In both cases, this creates enormous short-term and long-term uncertainty for the NHL teams involved.
For Tampa, a team already without defenceman Anton Stralman, it impacts how the Lightning prepare for the playoffs. Jonathan Drouin could be recalled, except he missed a game due to injury for Syracuse on the weekend.
Beyond that, the Bolts and Stamkos have been unable to reach agreement on a new contract during the course of this season, and a serious health situation like this only complicates matters. Stamkos, meanwhile, could have his marketability as a free agent limited to some degree, although all indications are this vascular condition is treatable and should have no long-term effects.
He was also one of the first 16 players named to Team Canada for next fall’s World Cup of Hockey, and his availability for that competition will depend on how quickly he can recover.
Datsyuk, meanwhile, has been a fixture in Motor City since 2001. He declined to speak after Saturday’s win in Toronto and his agent deflected inquiries by saying Datsyuk will talk to the Wings after the regular season. Detroit GM Ken Holland called it “all rumours.”
The Wings are in a life and death battle to make the playoffs for a 25th straight year. They have a group of very good young players, but could use at least another season out of Datsyuk, who has struggled to stay healthy in recent years but is still a magical player.
Detroit has battled cap issues all season long, losing Landon Ferraro to Boston on waivers at one point, and with the cap expected to either go up slightly or stay flat, being stuck with Datsyuk’s cap hit even if he doesn’t play could be a major issue.
More drama, please
As disappointed as Canadian hockey fans have to be with the fact that all seven of Canada’s NHL clubs will miss the post-season, the fact the final week of the season is almost bereft of any playoff-related drama is something the league really needs to look at.
As we head into the final week, there is really only one “race” left, with three teams fighting for two spots in the Eastern Conference. One of Detroit, Philly or Boston will be left on the sidelines.
And that’s it, other than the tortoise race for last overall.
There are actually battles for first place in three of the NHL’s four divisions, but the fact securing a first place finish gains a team very little advantage makes it close to meaningless. It’s long been said in this space that the NHL needs to reward teams more for finishing first. An extra playoff game at home in the first and second round would suffice.
If that were the case, this would be a heckuva week of hockey drama ahead. And if you’re going to tinker with the lottery to give teams less incentive to tank, why not tinker with the formula at the top of the standings to give teams more incentive to win?
And give fans more reason to watch.
NHL emails
The concussion issue for the NHL, particularly as it relates to the ongoing lawsuit from former players, continues to percolate. A “smoking gun” that would show the NHL knew its players were endangering themselves and did nothing about it has not yet emerged.
What has emerged are a lot of emails, some of them embarrassing, and some of them enlightening. What seems abundantly clear is that concussions and head shots and fighting have certainly been a topic of debate internally with the NHL for years, with some holding down “old school” positions and others pushing for a more progressive approach.
The NHL could have eliminated these problems or at least controlled them by being more aggressive and proactive on the issue of head and brain trauma. The league could have moved to a no-tolerance position on head shots after Marc Savard was badly injured. It could have declared an intention to change the rules on fighting to give a game misconduct to any player who fights and then battled that issue out with the union.
Instead, we have seen the NHL try to slice and dice this issue for years, arguing that this kind contract to the head is OK and that kind isn’t. Most absurd has been the notion that you can’t bodycheck an opponent in the head, but you can drop your gloves and beat that opponent about the head with bare fists. Bare knuckle prize fighting, of course, was banned in North America decades ago.
The NHL gave Chicago’s star defenceman Duncan Keith a paltry six-game suspension last week for whipping his stick to the head of Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle. While that suspension seemed to satisfy no one, it’s worth noting that had Keith dropped his gloves and punched Coyle repeatedly in the head, he would have received only a five-minute penalty.
Trying to be half-pregnant on this issue has been a problem for the NHL for years. That has finally caught up with the Bettman adminstration.
Tearing apart the Oilers
It’s hard to believe that Edmonton may have to tear down most of what it thought had been built.
Think about it. The message from the Oiler “core” to ownership and management on the weekend was a 5-0 loss at home in the final Battle of Alberta at the old Northlands barn, an unmistakable “we don’t care” from the group of young players the Oilers thought would bring the team back to competitiveness, at least.
Now GM Peter Chiarelli has to rip it all up, and one move won’t do. For it to have the necessary impact on the organization, Taylor Hall has to be the player to go, and fortuitously for Chiarelli, he’s the player likely to bring the greatest return.
But what will that return be? What Boston got for Tyler Seguin (Loui Eriksson and three prospects, the best of which was Reilly Smith)? What Minnesota got for Brent Burns (Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and a first round pick)?
In other words, it seems unlikely the Oilers will replace Hall, or others, with a new crew of star players. They’ll have to take what the market will bear, and the market, already compressed by salary cap restrictions, knows Chiarelli has to deal.
Roy rips Duchene
Speaking of young players under the microscope, how about Colorado head coach Patrick Roy’s comments on winger Matt Duchene for his celebration after scoring his 30th goal of the season with the Avs trailing St. Louis 4-0 score en route to a 5-1 defeat.
“The thing I have a hard time with is the reaction of (Duchene) after he scores. It’s a 4-0 goal. Big cheer. Are you kidding me? What is that? I mean, it’s not the reflect we want from our guys. Not at all,” said Roy.
Fair? It probably speaks less to this exact incident and more to Roy’s frustration over the play of his younger players and his team in general.
The Avs were close to a playoff berth in mid-March, and have stumbled badly down the stretch. They’ll miss the playoffs for a second straight year baring a miracle after making post-season play in Roy’s first season. It will be interesting to see the moves GM Joe Sakic has in mind.
Interesting week for Kadri
We’ve really seen all sides of the intriguing and enigmatic Nazem Kadri over the past week.
He scored a hat trick against the Florida Panthers, and showed his skill on Saturday with a dazzling set up to William Nylander. In between, he was fined by the NHL for diving, and was suspended for the rest of the regular season (four games) on Monday for a high stick delivered to Luke Glendening of the Red Wings. The league seems to have decided Kadri merits special and unusual attention.
All of this is Kadri in a nutshell. Infuriating, yet filled with enormous promise, and a player who unabashedly plays on the edge, something every team wants.
His future in Toronto is utterly unclear. Head coach Mike Babcock likes a lot of what he sees. But if the Leafs land Auston Matthews and sign Stamkos, maybe they move Kadri.
Last year he was suspended by the team for off-ice behavior. Since being drafted by the Brian Burke regime back in 2009, he has been a constant story, whether for displays of his ability or complaints that he wasn’t progressing quickly enough.
He’s not everyone’s cup of team. But one thing Kadri has never been? Boring.
Ice issues
The quality of ice at Barclay’s Centre in Brooklyn could be a major problem for the NHL when the playoffs start.
The league’s ice guru, Dan Craig, has been at the arena since Wednesday, and will stay there for the early part of this week, trying to install a working dehumidification system to improve the ice at the Islanders home rink.
Craig’s brilliant at his job, and he’ll probably be able to come up with a quick fix. But what about the long-term? It’s likely millions of dollars will have to be invested to install a new ice plant at the arena, which wasn’t built for hockey. With the future of the Islanders in Brooklyn still a talking point, it will be interesting to see how much the arena’s owners want to invest.
One more thought: John Tavares can be a free agent in the summer of 2018. One might wonder if he’ll be willing to commit indefinitely to a career skating on horrible ice.
Norris talk
Kris Letang sure is making a late run at the Norris.
The Pittsburgh defenceman has been nothing short of brilliant, adding another variable to a Norris Trophy discussion already heated enough with passionate advocates demanding the trophy be giving to Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty or Burns and his 27 goals.
The challenge for Letang is that half of his season has been so much better than the other half. That said, the same goes for Sidney Crosby, and the terrific play of the Penguins down the stretch has certainly advanced Crosby’s case for the Hart Trophy.
So Letang for the Norris? I’m still with Doughty. But you can definitely make a strong argument for the Penguin blue-liner as part of a Norris conversation that has become extraordinarily complicated for voters of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
