Around The Rink 02.19.08: Is The Red Machine Slowing Down?

Posted by Jeremy Yoder on 02.19.2008

Around The Rink this week, another young star is signed to an extension, Peter Forsberg rules out a comeback, a quick update on Richard Zednik and I’ll talk briefly about the rapidly approaching trade deadline. The Western Conference’s Central Division will be the weekly divisional focus this week and we’ll also talk about the week in Penguins hockey.

Main Topics...

The New York Rangers secured themselves a starting goaltender for the next six years by signing third year goalie Henrik Lundqvist to an extension last Wednesday. The contract is good for a total of $41.25 million with an average of $6.87 million over the next six years. Also included in the contract is an interesting no-trade clause. The clause is interesting because it doesn't begin until the '09-'10 season.

This is a very good signing for the New York Rangers. Lundqvist has proven himself to be a capable starting goaltender at the NHL level. He started 70 games for the Rangers last year, winning 37 of those games while carrying a 2.34GAA and a .917SV%. He has played in 52 games for the Rangers so far this year and is 26-21-5 with a 2.32GAA and .909SV%. He has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy in each of his first two years in the league. If that isn't evidence enough that Lundqvist is a big gamer, one can look to his performance in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Lundqvist led his native Sweden to the gold medal, defeating archrival Finland in the goal medal game. At 25 years old, Lundqvist will be a good goalie in this league for many years to come.

Peter Forsberg, who most recently played in the NHL with the Nashville Predators, has all but ruled out a comeback to the NHL this year. Forsberg, who has been relatively injury-prone throughout his career, has said that he doesn't have enough confidence in his foot issue to return to the NHL this year. For teams that were looking to acquire his services for the stretch run, the news that Forsberg will not return to the NHL is discouraging. To opponents of those teams, this couldn't be better news. Despite being injury-prone, Forsberg is a beast of a hockey player. He's a physical, play-making presence that can also provide leadership to a team. The only thing this news really means to me is that I don't have to hear the soap opera that is Forsberg's return anymore.

Last week I wrote about Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers who was cut when a teammates skate hit him in the throat during a game in Buffalo. Zednik was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. The surgery was successful and less than a week after the incident, Zednik was released from the hospital this past Saturday. I wrote last week that I thought Zednik would make a full recovery and indeed I believe he will. However, as one reader pointed out, how will he recover mentally from this? It's hard to say. TSN is reporting that Zednik will miss the rest of this season.

Ah the trade deadline. The trade deadline is a funny time of year for me. Rumors run rampant about what team will be shipping what player where. I don't find much interest in the rumors. Most of the rumors don't come true and while it is mildly fun to speculate about players coming to your favorite team via a trade, it generally just annoys me. What I do enjoy are the trades that actually happen. It's interesting to see a deal made and see how that deal will help the teams that made the deal. Some of the big names this season that are rumored to be on the move include Mats Sundin, Marian Hossa, Olli Jokinen and Brian Campbell. If any of those players are moved, it will be a huge, multi-player deal. Any of those players would make an instant impact on the club they were dealt to. At what price though? Are teams pursuing these types of players willing to give up valuable players on their team for a player that could end up being a rent-a-player? My take is that only teams that think they need one of these players to have a shot at Lord Stanley's cup this year would be willing to do that. That being said, I think most teams won't be interested in trying to acquire one of these players. The price to get them will be steep and there will be little to no long term gain for the team. I do hope that there are some recognizable names dealt at the deadline. It always makes things interesting. I found the Carolina/Ottawa deal last week to be very interesting. I would be willing to bet that if Carolina would have known that a few days later they would lose Rod Brind'Amour for the season, they wouldn't have made this deal.

The Red Wings Still Dominate The Central

In one of my only accurate predictions from this division, the Red Wings are still the team to beat. The Red Wings are 41-15-5 with 87 points making them the number one team in this division and the NHL. Is there trouble in Title Town though? The Wings have now lost six straight and are 4-5-1 in their last ten games. Anyone who thinks this will be a long-term issue for the Wings is mistaken. If anything, this will work to their benefit. I read an article earlier this season about Detroit and how they hadn't faced any adversity to that point in the season. The author of the article argued that it builds a teams character to face adversity. I tend to agree with that to an extent. Based on that, I think this streak is probably a good thing for the Wings. It gives them a chance to see what weaknesses they may have, especially crucial days before the trade deadline. The bottom line for the Wings is that they still have two of the most exciting offensive players in the league in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, two of the best offensive defensemen in the league in Niklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski and two veteran goaltenders who are having great seasons in Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood. On top of that, Detroit is up to their eyeballs in role players. The Wings will be just fine for at least the rest of the regular season. I don't think anyone will catch them in the division, or the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings will be your Central Division, and Presidents Cup, champs.

Second place sees the surging Nashville Predators with a record of 31-23-7 and 69 points. When I last wrote about the Central Division, the Predators were dead last in the division and in the midst of losing seven of eight games. Since then, they are 17-8-4 and have moved into second place in the Central Division. More importantly, the Predators find themselves at sixth in the conference. The Predators jump to life can be largely correlated to their increase in offensive production. Players like JP Dumont, Alexander Radulov, Martin Erat and David Legwand have been producing a lot of points for the Predators. In addition, they have been getting a fantastic surprise in goal with the play of Dan Ellis who is 14-5-2 with a .922SV% and a 2.25GAA. From what I can gather, Ellis is splitting time with Chris Mason. They seem to be alternating starts every game. I don't quite understand that because Mason's numbers are very underwhelming. It seems to be getting the job done though, so I guess I wouldn't change a whole lot. While I predicted that the team would struggle all season in my last review of the Central, I'm going to modify my prediction for this team and say that they will finish second in this division, making the playoffs. I know that St. Louis is only six points back with three games in hand, but Nashville is a more experienced team than St. Louis and I think now that they have found their stride, they'll play good hockey to the end of the season.

As I just mentioned, the St. Louis Blues are in third in this division with a record of 27-22-9 for 63 points. I predicted the Blues to finish second in this division, but based on the recent play of Nashville, I don't think that is going to happen. The Blues are having a great year and can already consider this season a success based on the fact that they are fighting for a playoff spot. They're losing that fight right now, but I wouldn't have given this team a chance to be anywhere near they are right now. A big reason they are where they are is Manny Legace. Legace is having a great year with a record of 22-15-6, a SV% of .915 and a GAA of 2.26. On a team that only has one player with 20 or more goals, clearly Legace is the reason this team is still in the playoff hunt. Andy McDonald seems to be playing pretty well since he was acquired from the Ducks in a deal for Doug Weight, but he's also a -13. Like I said before, I think the Blues are a scoring forward away from being a very legit playoff team. They are middle-of-the-road on defense as far as goals allowed, so that group is doing their job. They're almost dead last in goals scored though, so that's a problem. It's a tough call right now, but I'm going to say that this team stays put and finishes third in this division. As for the playoffs, I don't think they'll have quite enough to make the grade. Third place in the Central will not get you into the playoffs.

Sitting in fourth in this division, by virtue of having played more games, are the Columbus Blue Jackets. Their record is 27-25-9 and they have the same amount of points as the Blues with 63. The last time I reviewed this division, the Blue Jackets were sitting in third and I predicted they would fall to fourth and finish the season there. At this point, that's looking like a pretty safe prediction. The Blue Jackets fall into the same category as the Blues. They have a goaltender who, despite slumping a little recently, is having an outstanding season in Pascal Leclaire, but they are not scoring goals. They actually have scored the fewest goals of any team in the league. When you look at the teams stats, it's no surprise. They have two players with 20 or more goals, but only one other player even in the double digits in goal scoring. The Blue Jackets have some good young talent on the team, but they are collectively under-achieving. Hopefully for the Blue Jackets sake, this is not a sign of the future for them. I would imagine that management has put a lot of stock into the young players on this team and hopes that they'll come out of their shells soon. It won't be soon enough to salvage this season though. The team will actually fall to last in this division and miss the playoffs this year.

Last in the division right now are the Chicago Blackhawks. They are 27-25-6 with 60 points. They are only three points behind third and fourth places with three games in hand over the fourth place Blue Jackets. The name of the Blackhawks game this season has been inconsistency. One moment they put together a nice little win streak, the next minute they're on a 7 game losing streak. The one thing the Hawks have that neither the Blues or the Blue Jackets have is some consistency in scoring goals. They are shaping up to have at least four 20 goal scorers on their team which is a good thing. Obviously this means that they're slipping a little in other areas and goaltending is one of those areas. Nikolai Khabibulin has not been getting the job done and backup Patrick Lalime hasn't been much better. To add to the goaltending issues, Khabibulin has missed the last couple of games with a knee-sprain and I'm not sure how long he'll be out. I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot because this team isn't ready to make the playoffs yet. They'll jump over Columbus for fourth in the division, but that'll be the high point of their season. I originally predicted them at third in the division, but I don't think they'll be able to get there.

Weekly Pens Update

The Pens stumbled ever so slightly this week dropping two of the three games they played. They lost a 2-1 battle to the Bruins, a 4-2 contest against the Carolina Hurricanes but bounced back for a big 4-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres. The constant in all of the games was Evgeni Malkin who continues to be outstanding during Sidney Crosby's absence. The young Russian forward has moved into second place in scoring in the NHL, only one point behind leader Alexander Ovechkin.

The biggest news in Penguins hockey this week is that the team is slowly but surely returning to health. Tyler Kennedy is back in a Penguins uniform after missing a month with mononucleosis. I continue to hear news that Gary Roberts is on the comeback trail after his broken leg injury. Obviously though, the most important update is on Sidney Crosby. Crosby continues to skate in practice and from what I've read and heard is on track for an early return to the ice. Crosby was originally projected to be out 6-8 weeks, but it is looking more like the actual timeline will be about five weeks. I don't expect to see Sid back in the lineup before the end of February, but I wouldn't be surprised about it either.

The Penguins have a difficult decision in the very near future. Marc-Andre Fleury has made a couple of successful starts with the Wilkes-Barre club and is very close to being back with the Pens. This presents the Pens with a difficult decision for a couple of reasons.

First, who should be the starter when Fleury comes back? Obviously Ty Conklin has been amazing since Fleury's injury, but does that mean that he should be the starter when Fleury returns? Many will say you can't lose a starting job to injury and I agree with that. Moreover, Ty Conklin is not the goalie that will win playoff hockey games. Marc-Andre Fleury will. I think the right decision is to reinstate Fleury into goal giving him his starting job back.

The other tough decision then is what to do with Ty Conklin and/or Danny Sabourin. There really is no benefit to having three goalies on an NHL roster. Why don't they just send one down you ask? Well, they can, but it won't be easy. If they wanted to send Conklin back down, it would have to be done as soon as Fleury is put back on the NHL roster. Since Conklin was an emergency call-up, he could be sent back down without having to clear waivers but only if it were done as soon as Fleury is back. I don't see that happening. What is more likely to happen is the Pens gambling on sending Sabourin to the Baby Pens. Sabourin will also have to clear waivers in order to make it to Wilkes-Barre, but I think the Pens are more willing to take that risk on him than Conklin right now. That's how I see it anyway.

Lastly, what will the Pens do at the trade deadline? I know the Pens have been associated with some pretty big names including Marian Hossa, Mats Sundin and Olli Jokinen. However, I don't see the Pens making any major moves at the deadline. They have a young team and are currently second in the Atlantic Division. Making a major deal would mean moving one of those young players and I don't see the benefit in that right now. They definitely could surprise me, but I wouldn't look for any major deals from the Pens in the next week before the trade deadline ends.

This will be a wild week for the Pens as they take on the Panthers on Tuesday night, the Canadiens on Thursday, the Senators on Saturday and the Sharks on Sunday. The Panthers aren't a great team, but they are a team that's battling for it's playoff life in the Southeast Division. The Canadiens are having a great year and have been playing good hockey all season long. The Senators and Sharks really need no introduction. It will be another exciting week of Penguins hockey!!!

Random Thoughts

What's with all the disrespectful kids these days? I don't know about elsewhere in the United States and/or the world, but in Pittsburgh, kids are punks. They have no respect for anything. Once while driving, I came upon a group of kids walking down the middle of the street. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but they make sidewalks for a reason, right? Anyway, these kids slowly get out of the way, making sure to give me dirty looks and even run their mouths. The temptation to get out of the car and give these 11 and 12 year olds the beating they obviously desperately need was almost overwhelming. I resisted though. I leave you with this: If you have kids, please, for the sake of everyone, teach them some respect.

More Next Tuesday...

I'll be back next week with another column. Please send any comments, questions, suggestions or a topic that would interest you to [e-mail].