On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- We discuss what's left of the playoff races
- Bo Horvat slams the Canucks
- Chris Wideman and the Habs gets their feelings hurt
- The Leafs' part-time goalies and other cap shenanigans
- Why my lottery replacement idea is so great
- OGWACs, Bruins, awards and more...
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So that was … interesting.
One of the most common complaints about the modern NHL is that the league’s product is occasionally boring. And when it comes to the action on the ice, that’s often true. But in the bigger picture, 2016 couldn’t be accused of being dull. The year was a lot of things – ridiculous, controversial, head-scratching – but it was rarely boring.
Here are 10 of the biggest stories from an undeniably weird but entertaining year in the NHL.
By the end of 2015, the Penguins were a mess. They’d just fired their coach, they were barely hanging in the playoff race, and they seemed more like a collection of aging, overpaid stars than an actual team.
By the end of 2016, they were the best team in hockey.
Nobody had a better 2016 than the Penguins, who close out the year near the top of the NHL standings and as defending Stanley Cup champions. They won that Cup thanks to a dominant performance by Sidney Crosby, now fully healthy and once again the undisputed best player in the world. He was supported by an unlikely hero in goal, as rookie Matt Murray took over the job despite having just 13 career starts heading into the playoffs.
And then there was Phil Kessel, the much-maligned winger who’d been acquired the previous summer. He went from league-wide punch line to the Penguins’ leading postseason scorer, not to mention one of the sport’s most lovable memes. By September, he was even throwing bombs on Twitter.
Phil Kessel is the best. In 2016, the Penguins were too.
June 29 seemed like it would be a relatively normal day in the NHL. The draft had just passed, and the start of unrestricted free agency was still two days away. The rumor mill was busy, as it always is this time of year, but nobody was expecting anything too crazy.
Then everyone lots their minds.
First came word that the Oilers had traded former first overall pick Taylor Hall to the Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson, in a move that stood as easily the most stunning one-for-one deal in recent NHL history. It held that honor for all of a half hour or so, before we learned that Montreal had sent PK Subban to the Predators for Shea Weber. You could hear hockey fans’ heads exploding around the world.
By the time reports emerged that Steven Stamkos had re-signed in Tampa, the day seemed almost incomprehensible. The Stamkos free agency auction was the biggest story in the league when the day began; by the time it ended, fans barely noticed.
In a league where nobody makes big moves anymore, we got three within an hour. It was madness. Here’s hoping it happens again someday soon.
It’s been less than a week since the Penguins won the Stanley Cup, and we’re already well into the NHL offseason. Teams are making trades, there’s a new franchise on the way, and we’re only a few days away from the entry draft and free agency. This is just how hockey works – there’s virtually no downtime between the end of one season and the start of the next.
That’s why it’s important to occasionally take a few moments to reflect. So today, let’s look back on the just completed year in the NHL and hand out some awards. Not the real hardware – that part’s also on the schedule for next week. Instead, we’ll make up a few of our own, to recognize the best and worst of a season that already feels like it’s fading into the distant past.
The Sharks defenseman has been one of the league’s better blueliners for years now. But he posted career-best numbers this season, earning a nod as a Norris finalist and a spot on Team Canada in the process. And he did it all while being… well, being Brent Burns. Which as it turns out, is a pretty interesting thing to be.
Whether it was the crazy beard or the Don Cherry-esque wardrobe or the solid soundbites or the whole Chewbacca thing at the all-star game, Burns emerged as a fun personality in a league that doesn’t have many. He may have flown under the radar for too long, thanks to West Coast start times. But the Sharks run to the Cup final put him solidly in the spotlight, and he embraced it.
And the hockey world embraced him right back … at least for now. No doubt, it won’t be long until Burns gets the PK Subban/Alexander Ovechkin treatment and we all start complaining about him being too eccentric or enigmatic or whatever other word we come up with. But for now, we can enjoy the presence of a star player who actually seems to enjoy the role.
On the first day of free agency during last year’s offseason, the Leafs sent their best player to the Penguins in exchange for a package of picks and prospects. The deal ended the disappointing Kessel era in Toronto, and it didn’t take long for the knives to come out. Many felt the Leafs hadn’t got enough in return for a legitimate offensive star, while others worried that the Penguins had just gone all-in on a sullen, me-first distraction.
Less than a year later, the Pens are Stanley Cup champions largely thanks to Kessel, who led the team in playoff scoring. Meanwhile, the Leafs bottomed out, won the draft lottery, and will pick Auston Matthews with the top choice in next weekend’s draft. In a league where GMs are constantly complaining that it’s too hard to make a trade, the Leafs and Penguins managed to pull one off that worked out just about perfectly for both sides.
Kessel says he’s going to spend his day with the Stanley Cup in Toronto, by the way. Fair warning: If he poses for a photo with it next to a hot dog cart, the Internet will explode.
>> Read the full post at The Guardian
In the Friday Grab Bag:
- Why everyone should want new draft lottery rules (yes, even Oiler fans)
- An obscure Patrick who wasn't a star but somehow played for Team Canada in 1987
- Enough with the useless rule changes, NHL GMs
- Comedy stars
- And one of the most requested YouTube clips ever... one that also managed to cost the Oilers Patrick Kane.
Every great farce needs a fitting ending. The NHL may have finally found theirs when it comes to the Dennis Wideman case.
On Friday, neutral arbitrator James C. Oldham finally delivered his ruling on Wideman's appeal, cutting the 20-game ban that Gary Bettman had slapped on the Flames' defenceman in half. The decision marked the apparent (we'll get to that) end of an ongoing saga that started when Wideman launched himself at linesman Don Henderson, and had already included an initial suspension and an appeal to Bettman, both of which were considered overkill by many.
Of course, this being the NHL, nothing can ever be that simple. There was the small matter of timing—Oldham took two weeks to deliver his ruling, by which point Wideman had already missed 19 games. The reduced suspension will return a good chunk of money to Wideman's pocket, but he can't get those games back.
There's also the ongoing issue of the concussion that Wideman and the Flames say he suffered in the moments before the incident, one that Oldham agreed had rendered him unable to fully form intent. We've yet to learn what consequences, if any, the Flames will face for ignoring the league-mandated spotter's call for Wideman to leave the game. And we don't yet know whether the Wideman case will establish a precedent for players who lash out after taking a big hit. That sort of play happens more often than you think—Bobby Farnham's four-game suspension was a recent example, as was the $5,000 fine levied at Brad Marchand—and you can bet that we'll start hearing more of the "I had my bell rung" defence in the future.
It gets worse. Over the weekend, we also learned that Henderson will miss the remainder of the season after reportedly suffering a concussion of his own on the play. The Flames were widely ripped for allowing Wideman to finish the game, as they should have been. But shouldn't we be directing the same criticism to the NHL? Officials aren't players; they don't go the bench between shifts, and they don't have trainers on hand to monitor their health during games. But surely there needs to be some sort of protocol in place to prevent a referee or linesman from finishing a game despite being concussed badly enough to cause them to miss the rest of the season.
We haven't even mentioned the confusion around Wideman's text messages, which now somehow involves Gregory Campbell. That would be the same Campbell whose father, Colin, is the league official who delivered the initial 20-game ruling. The two aren't teammates and never have been, so it certainly seems odd that Wideman was reaching out to Campbell in the incident's aftermath.
This situation is getting even weirder. —Photo by Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports
Nobody is happy here. The league looks awful. The officials are furious. Wideman can't get those nine games back. And the NHLPA still says there shouldn't have been any discipline at all.
But at least the whole thing is mercifully over. Unless, of course, it isn't. While Oldham's decision marks the end of the appeals process, the NHL could potentially try to continue the case in court, and has already announced that it will review its options to "determine what next steps may be appropriate."
It's hard to imagine what the league could hope to gain by dragging this whole mess on even further. Then again, anything approaching logic or common sense seems to have gone out the window the moment Wideman started his fateful skate toward Henderson. With a story this ridiculous, a bonus chapter or two of silliness would hardly feel out of place.
The five teams with the best shot at winning the Stanley Cup.
5. Los Angeles Kings (40-22-5, +26 true goals differential)—With the Ducks losing three straight, the Kings narrowly regain first place in the Pacific and a spot in our top five.
In the Friday Grab Bag:
- How the Dennis Wideman case might be screwing things up for every future suspension
- Don Maloney kind of sort of admits to tanking
- An obscure player who reminds us to be careful at the trade deadline
- A country music star makes the comedy stars
- And a YouTube breakdown of the North Stars saying goodbye to Minnesota, in just about the saddest way possible
In this week's grab bag:
- Dennis Wideman, abuse of officials, and the NHL's joke of a concussion policy
- How the NHL league should run next year's all-star fan voting
- Comedy all-stars, including the definitive power ranking of the all-star breakaway contest
- An obscure Panther who once almost killed me
- And a YouTube breakdown of Jaromir Jagr admitting to doing something with his groin that you'll never be able to un-know
Let’s get this straight before we go any further: hockey fans don’t do nuance.
Oh, make no mistake, we like to argue. These days, it’s pretty much all we seem to do. Throw out a topic – a contending team’s chances, a star player’s legacy, the color of the sky – and we’ll drop the rhetorical gloves and clear the benches.
But what we don’t do is shades of grey. John Scott’s all-star appearance was either the greatest thing to ever happen or an unmitigated disgrace. Gary Bettman is either a mustache-twirling supervillain or a misunderstood genius. Any questionable hit is either squeaky clean or grounds for a lifetime ban. The middle ground? That’s for suckers.
And that’s what made the Dennis Wideman case so fascinating. On Thursday, the NHL handed out its punishment for Wideman: 20 games. For once, we were right: there was no middle ground. There couldn’t be.
Here’s the background, in case you need to get caught up. Last Wednesday, midway through a game between the Flames and Predators, Wideman collected the puck in his own zone. He played it up to a teammate, then took a hit from Nashville’s Miikka Salomaki. It wasn’t a big hit, but it caught the Flames’ defenseman off balance, spinning him and appearing to bounce his head off the glass.
Wideman got up, looking momentarily shaken, and headed for the bench on a line change. Seconds before arriving, he suddenly seemed to launch himself into linesman Don Henderson, using his stick to shove the official from behind and send him to the ice (and eventually, to the hospital).
After the game, Wideman pleaded innocent, explaining that he simply hadn’t seen Henderson until it was too late to avoid a collision. There’s some evidence to support that; Wideman’s stutter-step right before contact suggests he’d been caught him off guard. Others wonder if he hadn’t been knocked woozy by Salomaki’s hit and somehow confused Henderson for an opponent.
So was it intentional? On the one hand, there’s no history that we know of between Wideman and Henderson, no especially controversial calls in this game or any other. There’s simply no conceivable reason why Wideman would pick that moment to attack an official. On the other hand … well, go back and watch the clip again. If that’s not an intentional cross-check, it’s a darn good impression of one. It’s nice to establish a motive, but you don’t need one for a conviction when you’ve got the crime captured in slow motion and high-def.
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The Athletic Hockey Show runs four days a week during the season, and will feature me with Other Sean Gentille on Wednesdays.
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