Necessary Roughness
by Aaron Isaac Feldstein
The football season is over, but I still have a bitter taste in my mouth and the need to watch more physical confrontations. I want to watch people getting hit, punches thrown, and fast paced action.
Wherever does one turn in this time between the football and baseball season?
Thank God for the National Hockey League.
With less than two months left in the season, the race is looking like one of the closest the NHL has ever seen. In the Western Conference, only nine points separates the No. 4 team from the No. 11. In the East, three teams are one win away from jumping into that final eighth spot.
Unfortunately, one of the best players in the league is stuck in the worst division in the NHL.
Not Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
Stuck on a team that if overtime losses were credited as a regular loss, the NHL’s leading scorer’s team would be under .500. Ovechkin is on pace for 68 goals this season, the most since Mario Lemieux scored 69 in the ’95-’96 season. He leads the league in even-strength goals (30) and power play goals (16). There isn’t a net in this league that Ovechkin hasn’t found yet.
But if the Capitals don’t make some sort of move to bring the latest $100 million athlete a productive teammate, the NHL will watch it’s newest star get ousted in the first round of the playoffs.
If the season ended right now, the Capitals would take on the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round. Behind stars Mike Knuble, Danny Briere and Mike Richards, the Flyers are scoring more goals and allowing less. The Capitals and goalie Olie Kolzig have allowed 20 more goals than their possible playoff opponent.
And this is only if they are lucky enough to make it.
Washington is only one point ahead of both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Atlanta Thrashers and only two points ahead of the Florida Panthers. With a loss and a win by any of these three teams, Ovechkin is looking at watching the Stanley Cup playoffs from the cozy confines of his easy chair.
This is the same guy that last year scored a one-handed goal against Phoenix while sliding on his back, facing away from the goal. This is the same guy that scored four goals and one assists in a single game with a broken nose.
The NHL certainly doesn’t want this young start to be sitting at home come April. But if the Washington Capitals don’t get their act together with the trade deadline coming in 13 days, Ovechkin could be the NHL’s answer to Alex Rodriguez when he was a Texas Ranger. The league’s best player won’t be playing in the post-season.
Lucky for the NHL, Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins look on their way to the post-season. As of Sunday, the Penguins have fared fine since Crosby went down. Pittsburgh is 6-2-2 since its star was injured with a high-ankle sprain nearly a month ago.
Evgeni Malkin has stepped up and proved he is the go-to guy without Crosby around. Including Sunday’s game-winner, the Russian-born center leads the team in both points and goals in only his second season in the league. Once Crosby returns, this duo could skate and score their way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
But it looks like the NHL is Detroit’s league and the rest of the teams are just playing in it.
Or is it?
Currently the Red Wings lead the league in goals allowed and are second in goals scored. Detroit goalkeepers Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood are one and two in the league in goals allowed per game. Osgood has allowed an impressive 1.96 goals per game. In a league that has seen scoring skyrocket since the 2004-2005 strike; to average less than two goals a game is impressive. Hasek is just over that with 2.07 per game.
But the Detroit Red Wings are like the Atlanta Braves of the NHL. A team that is amazing during the regular season and forgets how to play in the post-season. Two years ago, the Wings won the President’s Cup for best record in the league, and lost in the first round of the post-season to the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers in five games. Last year, they tied for the best record in the league, and lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference finals.
The Red Wings haven’t missed the post-season since 1990, and it doesn’t appear like they are going to miss this one. But what happens when they get there is the question. In the last 10 years, Detroit has only brought the Stanley Cup back to the Motor City once. In fact, that one time was head coach Scotty Bowman’s final season. Since then, the Western Conference finals are the closest the Wings have come to smelling the Cup.
As of Sunday, the Red Wings are heading in the wrong direction, losing three straight, including a 3-2 loss to the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks.
The Ducks are quickly becoming the Red Wings nemesis.
In two of the last four post-seasons, Anaheim has had the Red Wings number. But this season, the Ducks are barely treading water. The current Stanley Cup champions have been shut out the most this season (8) of any team and have the most penalties in the league (411). In the penalty department, the Ducks have an astonishing 47 more penalties than the next team, Philadelphia.
It’s hard to win games when you players are always in the penalty box.
But don’t look now, the Ducks are sitting fifth in the Western Conference and just completed the Tri-State Trifeca defeating the Devils, the Islanders and the Rangers to go along with Sunday’s victory against Detroit. Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer took their time deciding whether or not to retire, but since they’ve come back, the Ducks are 16-6-4.
In two months, the Stanley Cup playoffs will begin. For me, watching the battle that leads up to it is much better than watching Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks fall apart, AGAIN!
*****
A Few Finals Thoughts…
Did anybody see the amazing performance by the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson at the Pro Bowl this past Sunday? Neither did I.
Two weeks ago, I claimed to have placed a bet on Tony Stewart starting a fight in the practice rounds of the Daytona 500. I was being facetious and don’t believe in gambling, unless you live in Atlantic City or Vegas. That being said, I really wish I had placed that bet since this past Friday, ESPN reported that Stewart punched Kurt Busch during a discussion about an incident on the track.
With this kind of intuition, I could become a rich man.
Finally, with the Daytona 500 this Sunday, the Hendrick Motorsports team looks like they are poised at yet another run at the cup. Jimmie Johnson sits on the pole, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won last Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout and the always-dangerous Jeff Gordon starts tenth. If you thought the Patriots were dominating, wait until you watch this team. Although, I think the final result will be a little different.
MLB Season Starts in 40 days!
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