NHL - TOP 5 THINGS WE LEARNED THIS YEAR
#5 Connor McDavid Can’t Resurrect The Oilers Alone
This is easy pickings, I know. The Oilers are a disaster of an organization and no, one single, player is going to change that. The sad fact of the matter is that Oilers’ fans far and wide genuinely thought McDavid was going to ride in on a golden horse and bring them back into the world of NHL relevancy. The Oilers are so far off from being a complete team it’s mind boggling. Any team that gets the first overall pick in the NHL draft 4 out of 6 years should be finely tuned, stocked and ready to begin a decade or more of NHL dominance filled with Stanley Cups and President’s Trophies coming abundantly. The Oilers are still somehow bottom feeders in a league with more parity today than any other time in its history. It’s been over ten years since the salary cap was instituted in the NHL and the product they are giving us today is the text book model of what they hoped it would be. Talent is spread across the league evenly, any team can beat any team on any given night, and speed and talent have prevailed over the old school ways of intimidation, clutching and grabbing. This all leads me to conclude that the Oilers’ issues are rooted in the organization itself and their front office’s fundamental approach to running an NHL club. It’s easy for a hockey blogger to sit back and pick apart the draft choices the Oilers have made but I’m not going to do that. The bottom line is the Oilers undoubtedly drafted a generational talent when they selected Connor McDavid. The kid’s raw talent jumps off the tv screen. The fact that he is only 18 years old is scary. If the Oilers player their cards right McDavid could convert his raw talent into one of the best hockey players we’ve ever seen. The Oilers need to take a HUGE step back and reassess their roster and organization. They are loaded with trade assets right now. They need to put McDavid at the focal point and view absolutely everyone else in the whole organization as expendable and create a team that will play to Connor’s strengths.
#4 This Has To Be The Caps Last Stand With Ovi
It’s no secret that I’ve been fairly critical of Ovechkin’s ability to lead a team to a Stanley Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I would be completely fine with Detroit giving up some really good players to bring Ovi to Hockeytown. The guy is a pure bread goal scorer, the likes of which I’ve never seen before in my 26 years of being alive. But flashy goals, perfect one timers, and an overwhelming offense do not traditionally bring home the Cup. As cliche as it sounds, the Stanley Cup is won by warriors. Holding that 35 lb Cup above your head is a right of passage into hockey eternity that only a chosen few get to experience. It’s been over ten years since Ovi’s rookie season and I stand here today still questioning Ovi’s ability to adapt, sacrifice, suffer, and lead a team out of chaos when everything is on the line. Repeatedly, Ovechkin has faced tremendous adversity and accepted his fate and settled on the prospect of “there’s always next year”. No one gets to feel the cool, polished, silver of an earned Stanley Cup in their hands after considering any other possible outcome. There is no argument coming from me against Ovechkin’s ability to score incredible goals at a high volume. My issue is with Alex Ovechkin’s willingness to sacrifice what is necessary as a captain of an NHL team. He has spent a decade on a team that has been entirely focused around him and he hasn’t even been to a conference finals. The regular season is a grind, no doubt about it. But the playoffs are the only thing that matter and Alex Ovechkin has a decade long resume of failing miserably when things get serious. The Caps are locked and loaded this year with Alex The Great playing the lead role as usual. If Washington doesn’t make a deep run in these playoffs and come within arms reach of a Stanley Cup why the fuck should they keep going down this road? Ten years with one guy as the focal point of your team is more than enough time to tell if he has what it takes to be the leader you need or not.
#3 Jaromir Jagr Could Be The GOAT
Before you get your panties in a bunch and google Gretzky’s stats to copy and paste in the comments hear me out. Jagr’s NHL debut was 26 years ago in 1990. Since then he has played in 22 NHL seasons, missing 4 NHL seasons after temporarily departing from the NHL to play in Europe. In 2008 Jagr left the NHL for 3 seasons after putting up 25 goals and 71 points for the New York Rangers. He has consistently, throughout his career been a goal scoring and point producing machine. At the age of 44 he has 23 goals through 67 games. Wayne Gretzky’s last year featured The Great One finding the back of the net a mere 9 times in 70 games. Age is inescapable for all hockey players, and Gretzky was no exception. Jagr is leading his division leading team in scoring and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. If this scientific anomaly of a hockey player hadn’t left the NHL behind for half a decade it’s not a leap to argue he could have been the greatest goal scorer the game has ever seen. What makes someone the greatest player of all time? Is it what they do in their prime? Or is it the body of work they put in over their entire career? Logic tells me the answer lies in the latter and Jagr excels in that regard. His ability to adapt to a drastically changing style of play while playing on numerous NHL teams and maintain an above average level of scoring output has to land him in the conversation of the greatest ever. The fact that he is leading the Florida Panthers comfortably to a nice playoff spot at the age or 44 speaks volumes to his immense talent and goal scoring ability no matter what style of play goalies approach him with. He has to be considered as one of the best players of all time, if not the best. Gretzky dropped off long before his mid 40’s, Jagr is still going steady.
#2 We Know Nothing About Goalies
What makes a goalie great? Save percentage is archaic as bringing a long bow to war. Goals against average says more about a team as a whole than anything else. So what makes a goalie great? It’s arguably the most important position in hockey and in 2016 we still know little to nothing about scouting and identifying a great goaltender. Sure, as fans, coaches, and players we can point out a great goalie after they have an established resume of dominance in the position but how the fuck do we not have any real way of identifying the next Patrick Roy before it’s already upon us? NHL scouts can tell us who the next great defensemen and the next great goal scorers are with some degree of precision. But when it comes to goalies we are stuck in the middle ages. Goalies are drafted, tested, and tossed away at a staggering rate in today’s NHL. Somehow the ability to pick out who the future great goalies are going to be has completely escaped the NHL scouting core. Maybe it’s the uniqueness of the position. Being an NHL goalie might be the loneliest job in the world. It requires an incredible amount of self reliance and an uncanny ability to get over devastating failures in a matter of seconds. Maybe these intangible aspects of the position are too much for stats and metrics to accurately read. Maybe we just haven’t paid enough attention to the position. Who knows for sure. The one thing I do know is that we don’t know who the 18 year old goalies are right now that will be the future all stars of their position in 5-10 years.
#1 West Is Still Best.
The Western Conference still dominates this league. Chicago, Saint Louis, Anaheim, Nashville, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Dallas. The list can go on if you want. The bottom line is the level of play and competitiveness in the West far surpasses the East and it’s nothing new. It’s going to be a blood bath in the Western Conference Playoffs this year; no different than any of the recent years prior. I don’t know why the balance of power is so heavily tilted to the West in the NHL but it undeniably is. The East has it’s teams; the Caps, Lightning, Panthers, Wings, Islanders, Rangers, and Penguins are all extremely solid organizations. Outside of that group? The drop off is substantial and noticeable. Not only that, if you put Dallas, Chicago, Anaheim, LA, Minnesota or several other Western Conference teams in the East it would be devastating to the hierarchy of power. I would take Dallas, Chicago, Anaheim, or Minnesota in a series against any Eastern Conference team every single time. Just look at the Stanley Cup Finals last year. The East put forth their best, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it wasn’t even close when it came down to it. The Blackhawks had a harder time getting through almost every series in conference play than they did in the Stanley Cup Finals. Overall, it is undeniable that the West is a superior conference. That’s coming from a die hard Detroit Red Wings fan.
