Tom Benjamin's NHL Blog
More Short Snappers
Posted by Tom on Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Stories that caught my eye in the past few weeks: 1) Habswatch published a study that describes how the NHL has dramatically cut recruitment efforts in Europe, replacing European (except Sweden) drafts with Americans. His conclusions: The NHL isn’t losing talent with fringe players or those near the end of their careers going overseas, it’s losing European talent that’s no longer being drafted at all. It’s still too early to know if the increased number of North American kids being drafted to fill the void can develop into comperable talent but I can’t help but think the... [Read more]
Summer Potpourri
Posted by Tom on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I haven’t posted much lately for a number of reasons but I have been following things and I’ve very nearly made several different posts on the news (or lack of news) this summer. The short version of about six posts: 1) In Cowtown – Even though I thought Daryl Sutter was nuts to trade for Olli Jokinen and then crazy to trade him, Sutter’s decision to bring him back does make some sense to me. The Flames chose not to fire Sutter, which means they are still trying to win. To win they need more offense. Jokinen and Tanquay were relatively cheap and Sutter probably couldn’t... [Read more]
The Fehr Factor
Posted by Tom on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 11:41 am
James Mirtle has an interesting story about Donald Fehr and the decision the players have to make on the salary cap early next week. While Fehr and most players and player agents are keeping mum about the way things are leaning, here’s something an unidentified agent told James: “[Fehr is] either going to take the position that he’s going to evaluate what the players decide and that will affect in turn his decision, or he will urge the players to take the [cap] escalator, extend the [collective agreement] and then if they don’t go along with that vote, he knows where he stands and... [Read more]
On the Cap
Posted by Tom on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 8:50 am
Larry Brooks spends a lot of words to explain why the players should vote to see the salary cap go up by 5% again next season. After all, if they don’t the salary cap might go down: A lower cap will all but shut down the big-market engines that fuel the league and drive salaries. Close enough to the cap as it is, a reduction would all but force big market clubs out of the free agent market. A lower cap minimizes options for everyone. A lower cap could conceivably create the necessity for fewer qualifying offers, more buyouts and more salary arbitration walkaways. Tyler Dellow has a good... [Read more]
Ron and Gary
Posted by Tom on Friday, June 4, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Ron MacLean did his annual interview with Gary Bettman on Thursday. After being braced on a number of issues relating to troubled franchises, Bettman interrupted Ron with this beauty: “We’ve had a great season. The hockey has been terrific. The playoffs have been great and we’re watching a wonderful game tonight and you just want to tick off franchise after franchise? What is it inside of you that compels you to want to go in that direction? Because I don’t think the viewers are really that interested in the franchise status.” Kudos to MacLean for asking some of the... [Read more]
Henrik’s Hart
Posted by Tom on Monday, May 17, 2010 at 9:22 am
Tyler Dellow explains why he favours Sidney Crosby for the Hart: As you can see from the table though, the on-ice shooting percentage for Henrik was significantly higher than it was for Ovechkin or Crosby. If you bring them all to Ovechkin’s on-ice shooting percentage, Henrik’s ES scoring falls dramatically. There are a couple of schools of thought here – what happened, happened and whether those goals were lucky or not doesn’t matter. I’m of the other school of thought – if you’re giving an award to “the player adjudged to be most valuable to his team”, well it seems... [Read more]
The Habs and Chance
Posted by Tom on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 10:37 am
Mirtle has a nice post up about Gabe Desjardins and Gabe’s opinion about Montreal’s run: In his opinion, time’s running out. Or, more specifically, Montreal’s luck can’t last forever. Gabe usually evaluates teams by looking closely at scoring chances, shots on goal and possession statistics (like one called Corsi), and in all of those areas, the Canadiens were beat up pretty badly by Washington and Pittsburgh. Halak saving so many pucks obviously is a big help, but can a team continue to win while on the wrong end of the shot count so often? Desjardins says no. And... [Read more]
Willie Mitchell
Posted by Tom on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Willie Mitchell threw another hand grenade into league headquarters when he called for a change to the way discipline is handed out. A second Vancouver Canuck has questioned the league’s integrity: “I think the league needs to, along with our players’ union, take a look at how they run the discipline in the league. Colin Campbell had a lot of relationships with general managers and ownership and stuff like that. It’s very tough to hand down decisions on matters like this when you are friends with people. It’s something the league and players need to look at, to have... [Read more]
