Presidents’ Trophy History

The Vancouver Canucks were widely considered the Stanley Cup favorite heading into this season. Reigning Hart Trophy winner; check. Current Hart Trophy favorite; check. Gold medal winning goaltender; check. Depth additions to their defense and forward corps; check. No Byfuglien in Chicago; check.  They have been so dominant that a 24-5-4 run by San Jose since the All Star break still has them 10 points back of the West lead. But winning the Presidents’ Trophy, the first in their history, doesn’t always translate into success in the playoffs:

 The Presidents’ Trophy was introduced in the 1985-86 season and has been won by 14 different teams (15 including Vancouver). The only team to have won it more than twice is the Detroit Red Wings….with six :). Here are the playoff results of the previous 24 winners of the trophy:

First round elimination: 5 times (including three times in between 2006 and 2010)
Second round elimination: 5 times
Third round elimination: 5 times
Lost in Cup Final: 2 times (Boston in 1990 and Detroit in 1995)
Won Stanley Cup: 7 times (Edmonton ’87, Calgary ’89, NYR ’94, Dallas ’99, Colorado ’01, Detroit in ’02 and ’08)

The good news here is that the Presidents’ Trophy winner has won seven out of nine if they’re lucky enough to get to the Finals. The bad news is that they have only made it there 38% of the time (9 out of 24 seasons).

I think the best thing for the Canucks would be to face the Blackhawks in the first round. Although it’s definitely not the same team they’ve played in previous years, the psychological momentum they would gain from finally defeating their rivals would be a huge step in finally taking that next step.

Thursday’s Scenarios

With a rare quiet Thursday night in the NHL, here is a look at what things could look like come Friday morning in the playoff races.

– A Montreal win combined with a Rangers’ loss confirms that Montreal will either finish 6th or 7th in the Conference.

– A Rangers’ win means that they could still finish anywhere between 6th and 8th, but since Carolina has the tiebreaker with them, could still finish out of the playoffs.

– A Dallas overtime loss would clinch a playoff spot for Nashville and Phoenix.

– A Dallas regulation loss would clinch a playoff spot for the two above, as well as Anaheim and Chicago, because although Dallas would still only be four points back with two games remaining, they would not be able to catch their 45 and 43 wins. Thankfully, they play the Avs.

Poor Calgary

Wow….I think I’ve had enough of this fear of overturning what the ref on the ice saw. Get the call right!!

Last week we saw the NHL make one of the worst calls at one of the most important times in a game between Calgary and Anaheim (start at 1:00 mark), this week the Flames are getting screwed in a game that they’re not even involved in.

Again, the best view comes at the 1:00 mark. I don’t get how this decision was not overturned by the league office. First of all, there is zero evidence showing that Hossa even touched the puck with his stick, which would it have happened, would negate the kicking motion. Secondly, there is zero evidence that the puck even crosses the line in this situation.

The Hawks were down 0-2 at that point, but rallied around this marker on route to a 4-3 OT win. That, combined with Anaheim’s big win over San Jose officially eliminated Calgary from playoff contention.

50!!!

The first player to score 50 goals in the NHL this season is not named Ovechkin, Stamkos or even Sedin; it’s none other than my formerly most hated player turned fantasy favorite after he won my keeper league for me……….COREY PERRY!

Perry has broken out in a big way over the second half of the season, 25 goals and 22 assists in his last 28 games (since Feb  1), and has vaulted himself into Hart Trophy consideration. Prior to this season, he was considered an extremely valuable player to his team, and was on the cusp of the elite wingers in the league. His career highs were 32 goals in 08-09 and 76 points last season; now he is on the verge of cracking 100!

For those interested, on February 1 Steven Stamkos had 38 goals and now sits at 44. Do the math for Perry; it’s a phenomenal streak and it better not be thrown aside because he lines up with Ryan Getzlaf and one of the league’s best powerplays every night.

Halak’s Own Goal

This goal is absolutely one of the craziest I have ever seen. Halak tries what has become almost a common move by a goaltender, to swat the puck in mid air out of harm’s way after save, but it backfires as it hits two points on his stick and ends up in the back of the net.

I can see the TSN Top 10 now….

The Wings were actually outplayed over the first two periods and outshot 24-17 over that span. Then the Wings scored four goals in just over three minutes in the third period.

Some Thoughts on the NHL

I know I’ve been slowing down here lately, but I am looking into doing some sort of a rebuild for this site right now. So here is a little insight to every team in the West.

Kovalchuk Stat

We all know Ilya Kovalchuk is struggling right now. The New Jersey Devils are struggling even more. But how about these following discoveries I made this morning. Below are the records of ALL of the teams Kovalchuk has played for in his career over the first 13 games, as well as how many points he had over that span.

Season	Record	Points		Goals	Assists
2001-02	3-7-1-2	9		7	1
2002-03	2-9-1-1	6		8	3
2003-04	6-3-3-1	16		12	8
2005-06	4-8-1	9		9	10
2006-07	8-2-3	19		9	8
2007-08	4-9-0	8		10	6
2008-09	4-7-2	10		5	5
2009-10	6-6-1	13		12	8
2010-11	3-9-1	7		3	3

The Devils’ start this year is the second worst that team start the Kovalchuk has been apart of. That is pretty shocking considering he played for an Atlanta team that only made the playoffs once in his tenure there. Even more shocking is that his six points so far are the lowest he has had in his entire career. It’s shocking because Kovalchuk has always been a fast starter; scoring 20 points in his first 13 games twice, and 19 points once.

Capital Struggles

With the second overall pick in my yearly money league, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world when someone picked Stamkos over Ovechkin first overall. But now it looks as though Ovechkin is actually human, even going as far as to somewhat complain about the coverage against him thus far in 2010-11.

I don’t expect it average-ness to last, but it is definitely something worth pointing out, especially when it’s not only Ovechkin who isn’t producing. Here is a look at their big guns through 10 games compared to last season.

Alex Ovechkin
2010-11
5 goals, 5 assists, +1
50 shots
0 PPG

2009-10
9 goals, 8 assists, +8
67 shots
1 PPG

Niklas Backstrom

2010-11
3 goals, 3 assists, even
24 shots
1 PPG, 2 PPA 

2009-10
2 goals, 9 assists, +3
23 shots
1 PPG, 4 PPA

Alex Semin

2010-11
5 goals, 3 assists, +4
30 shots
1 PPG

2009-10
7 goals, 6 assists, +3
33 shots
2 PPG

Leafs and Wings Season Comparison

I have added a section to the sidebar on the right which will compare the Leafs and Wings year this year, with their progress during the 2009-10 season. The original request I got was to just do the Leafs, but I can’t give the Leafs credit for improvement when I fully expect the Wings to improve on their season as well. As you can see, the Leafs 5th win didnt’ come until November 25 last year!

I also want to add a side note that will track some of the prospects for both teams throughout this season, I just need to ensure that I will be able to keep it up to date enough to make it worthwhile.

Canucks vs Hawks

Speaking of the highest paid players in the game, Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks face off against their Playoff kryptonite, the Chicago Blackhawks. Luongo’s struggles against the Hawks have been well documented, mainly because they were the team that knocked Vancouver out of  the post season the past two seasons. Starting with their second round series in 2008-09, here is how Luongo has fared against Chicago:

2008-09 Playoffs

W: 5-3. 0.903%
L: 3-6. 0.839%
W: 3-1. 0.958%
OTL: 1-2. 0.929%
L: 2-4. 0.897%
L: 5-7. 0.767%

2009-10 Season

W: 3-2. 0.900%
L: 0-1. 0.941%
W: 5-1. 0.977%
L: 3-6. 0.643%

2009-10 Playoffs

W: 5-1. 0.973%
L: 2-4. 0.909%
L: 2-5. 0.857%
L: 4-7. 0.818%
W: 4-1. 0.967%
L: 1-5. 0.857%

That comes out to a record of 6-9-1, with the Hawks scoring an average of 4.5 goals in the games that they win. Tonight’s regular season game pales in comparison to the intensity and pressure of the Playoffs, but I found it interesting that in the two games where Vancouver were knocked out of the Playoffs, Luongo let in a total of 12 goals.

While a lot of the blame does fall on the shoulders of Luongo, and even more because he was the captain last year, you also have to look at how the Sedin’s have been somewhat contained over their two series against Chicago. In 2008-09, Henrik had three goals and three assists, while Daniel only had three assists over the first five games of the series, then finally scored two in their 7-5 elimination loss. Last season, Henrik again led the way with two goals and four assists (way below his 1.36 points per game average from the season); Daniel only had one goal and three assists over six games.