2014-15 Outlook: Pacific Division

Its a look at California, Western Canada, and that team in the desert. Enjoy!

Meet The New Divisions: Pacific Division

Today we look at the new Pacific Division:

Rise

Tonight, the Minnesota Wild, losers of eight out of their past eleven games, will take to the ice at Xcel Energy Center against the defending Stanley Cup Champion, Los Angeles Kings. The Wild enter the game tied with Columbus for 7th in the West at 51 points and are up 1 point on 9th place Detroit, after dominating the Coyotes 4-0 last night.

The Wild are coming off an embarrassing 4-1 loss to Calgary at home on Sunday. The loss now makes tonight's game a MUST win for the home squad, if they want to remain in the hunt for a playoff berth.

I know many of you have just given up and said this team is finished. Yesterday, I went against the grain and went over some positive thoughts about the final week of the season for this team. For those who still think negatively, please, don't give in to those thoughts.

In the team's remaining three games, they play LA at home, Edmonton at home, and Colorado on the road. The final two games are games the Wild SHOULD WIN and CAN WIN. I know, I know, we learned that games they should win are no easy wins, on Sunday. But the fact is, the Wild have owned Edmonton at home in recent years, and Colorado is just a joke. If the Wild can bring the same effort to those games like they did in the first half of the Calgary game on Sunday, they should have two easy wins right there.

But that brings us to tonight's game, against the Kings. The season series is tied between the two, as Minnesota won a 4-3 shootout game at home, then five days later lost in LA 3-0. The Kings enter tonight with a 6-2-2 record in their last 10 and are holders of the 4th seed in the West, with a two point cushion on fifth place San Jose. LA has been playing very outstanding hockey lately, and they will give you a very tough 60 minutes. They do the little things in a game so well (Getting sticks in the passing lanes, creating turnovers in the neutral zone, etc), that its just frustrating to play against them. After all, they are the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Tonight, you should expect a bit of desperation in Minnesota's game, something they did not bring on Sunday. That will help them, if they can use that the right way against Los Angeles. But, this is a team that lost just FOUR games last postseason, so they have a way of channeling a team's desperation in their favor.

The Wild win this game, if they can get 3 or more goals past Jonathon Quick tonight. If its a 1-0 or 2-1 game, the advantage goes to LA. Minnesota is too snake bitten offensively lately to win those close low scoring games. As was the case with their victory earlier in the year against the Kings, four goals would be a good number to get the two points. They just need to catch a break or two along the way.

If Minnesota can pull out a victory tonight, you can lock them into the postseason. A big win during a bad stretch will greatly help the team's confidence going into their final two games of the season, especially when those two games are against bottom feeder teams. They will certainly roll over Edmonton and Colorado, after gaining the confidence from a victory tonight.

So sit back, and try to watch the game peacefully tonight. All you can do, at this point, is hope that this team can rise up in their darkest hour...

"They are the team Minnesota deserves, not the one they need right now."

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Being Positive

Last night, the Wild suffered their worst loss of the season, losing 4-1 to the Calgary Flames, in an almost must win game. The Wild came out strong, peppering the Calgary net, but could only get one shot past Joey MacDonald.  The team has lost eight of eleven games in April, and are now tied for the 7th seed in the West, with the red hot Columbus Blue Jackets.

There was much negativity on the internet following the game. The "Fire Yeo" squad was out in force last night. Folks don't seem to think the Wild will win another game this year and will miss the playoffs.

So instead of joining the crowd, I'm gonna take the high road here and give you some positive notes today:

• There are three games left in the season. Two of them are at home, and two of them are against teams who sit at the bottom of the NHL standings.
• If the Wild can get four points in the last two games, they are a lock to make the playoffs.
• Mikko Koivu finally found the scoresheet last night, ending a streak of not registering a point in nine out of his previous ten games played.
• If Minnesota can consistently get 36 shots on net, like last night, good chance they win some games with that kind of shot total.
• Mike Yeo is the head coach of this team, and will be behind the bench to start the 2013-14 season. The front office has total confidence in him, and you should too.
• Niklas Backstrom has been playing well in net. He has been the unfortunate victim of some bad bounces and some sloppy defensive play lately. If the Wild can clean that up, Backstrom will have the numbers to back up his good play.
• Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund were sent down today. They will greatly help the Houston Aeros in their playoff run. They will get their games turned around, and will be back to help the Wild in their playoff run.
• The Wild WILL make the playoffs. Just do yourself a favor and say that out loud and see how that sounds, compared to the "They are finished" which has been uttered several times in the past day.

Be positive folks.

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Northwest Division

5. Calgary Flames-One would think that with the fifth highest payroll in the league, Calgary would be destined to finish high up in this division, right? Wrong. The reason Calgary has such a high payroll, is they have brought in overrated players and massively overpaid them (Cammalleri-$6M, Bouwmeester-$6.68M, Wideman-$5.25M, Giordano-$4.02M), to prevent fans from thinking they are rebuilding. The fact is, Calgary should be rebuilding. They have a stale offense, overhyped defense, and a goaltender (Kiprusoff) who will eventually run out of gas from starting so many games a season. With all the other teams in this division getting better, Calgary has nowhere to go but last.

4. Colorado Avalanche-Colorado was probably the hardest team in this division to pick. They have some blossoming young stars (Landeskog, Duchene), but still have some question marks on the squad (Defense, goaltending). The Avs top defensive unit consists of Erik Johnson and Jan Hejda (Yikes!), and their #1 goaltender heading into the season is Semyon Varlamov. All these players have shown signs of brilliance, but they also have shown horrible stretches of play. Colorado doesnt get off to the best start in 2013, but they have a strong finish. But it only gets them a fourth place finish.

3. Edmonton Oilers-At long last, Edmonton gets out of the Northwest's basement. They had 11 players playing during the 119 day lockout, including their top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle (They played on the same line for Oklahoma City, too). Since they have had the #1 pick in the draft for the past decade (Slight exaggeration), Edmonton now has the best crop of young forwards, and now has the best defenseman prospect in all of hockey, when they signed Justin Schultz this summer. The Oilers however, still have a lack of depth at defenseman, and have a big question mark in net, handing over the reigns to Devan Dubnyk while letting Nikolai Khabibulin sit on the bench. Edmonton gets off to a fast start in 2013, but the leaders of the division will catch up and pass them eventually. But the question remains, can Edmonton hold on for a playoff spot?


2. Minnesota Wild-As we saw yesterday, Minnesota made a flurry of moves this offseason, capped off by the July 4th signing of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Even with Suter, the Wild will need increased production from D-Men Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella (When he recovers from injury), to stand a chance in this division. Minnesota has tremendous depth in the entire organization, so should someone go down with an injury, they have boatloads of talent to replace them. The Wild may not get off to a fast start, but they recover quickly and take second place in this division, and sneak their way into a playoff spot for the first time since 2008.

1. Vancouver Canucks-Despite injuries to Ryan Kesler and David Booth, this is still the team to beat in the Northwest. Perhaps the greatest strength for Vancouver this year, will be that they will have Corey Schneider and Roberto Luongo sharing time between the pipes (Unless Luongo finally gets moved). Both are #1 goalies, and Vancouver will most definitely use this to their advantage. The Canucks went out and bolstered their blue line, by signing Jason Garrison away from Florida. Garrison gives the Defense a little more offensive punch. Up front Vancouver is still led by the Sedin twins, and they still are the best tandem in the league. Vancouver has to a work a bit more to earn it, but they still take the division.


Check back tomorrow for playoff predictions.




Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Suter Watch: Preds To Make One Last Effort

I had a Suter Watch entry on the blog yesterday, but I felt there was sufficient news today on the subject to post another one.

In his blog today, Preds beat writer Josh Cooper, gave us an update on where the Ryan Suter situation stands with the Predators. He says that Nashville GM David Poile will make "one last ditch effort" to re-sign the all star defenseman before he becomes a unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

Suter is by no means expected to re-sign with Nashville before July 1st, but Cooper has often speculated that Ryan could very well end up returning to Nashville after testing the free agent waters.

But, to make matters worse for Nashville, today, one of their plan B options for if Suter left, Dennis Wideman, had his rights traded from Washington to Calgary and the Flames instantly inked him to a 5 year, $26.25 million deal (Well done Calgary...not!)

When healthy, Wideman can put up similar numbers to Suter (Wideman can score goals a shade better than Suter). So should we expect Suter to sign a similar type of deal come July 1st? No. Suter has been considered the best defenseman on the market, so at minimum you can expect him to make $6 million per year. And Suter will definitely be receiving a contract that is longer than 5 years. Bank on it.

The stakes just got that much higher for Ryan Suter. Man I can't wait till July 1st.


Here are my previous posts in the Suter Watch series:
"Is There Really A Chance?"
"Extension Talks Over"
"Potential Suitors"

Penalties Will Kill

Tuesday, the Wild took 9 penalties in their game against Calgary. 7 of those penalties, resulted in a Flames power play. Luckily for the Wild, Calgary has a worse power play than them, so the Flames ended up going 0-7 in a 3-0 Wild win.

Yesterday, the Wild were sent to the box 6 times. 5 of them, resulted in a Sharks power play. And as we saw, their power play has sharp teeth. The Sharks got two power play goals from Patrick Marleau in the second, and coasted to a easy 3-1 win over Minnesota at HP Pavilion.

After the game Mike Yeo acknowledged those power plays his team has been handing out too frequently saying, "We played a game of chance in Calgary and won, played a game of chance tonight and lost."

I guess its nice that Yeo has acknowledged his teams bad play in the last two games, but my concern is that it has to be fixed sooner rather than later, especially when your next three games are on the road (two of which coming against tough opponents in Los Angeles and Anaheim).

The Wild are not as talented as many teams in the Western Conference, just yet. So they have to rely on playing a very disciplined, hard working kind of hockey game to come out with a win every night (No better example of that then the November 3 game vs Vancouver). So taking all these trips to the penalty box on a nightly basis really dampens their chances of winning a game, and playing more games in the spring.

So please, for the love of all things hockey, stay out of the penalty box. Or it will undo that nice 5 game winning streak we just enjoyed...

NHL 2011 Preview-Northwest Division

5. Edmonton Oilers-The best crop of young prospects can be found in Edmonton. Problem is, that’s all they have going for them at the moment. Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi, and #1 overall pick (2011 Draft) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lead the young prospects of Edmonton as they try and pry their way out of the NHL’s basement. But, they will not do so this year. The young guys will be major contributors to the team this year, but, their inexperience will be their undoing. Also, the Oilers defense and goaltending will once again be one of the league’s worse. Look for Edmonton to be in the hunt for the worst record in the NHL once again this year.

4. Colorado Avalanche-Coming in a close second to the Oilers in the NHL’s basement, was the Colorado Avalanche. The team has some nice young offensive forwards (Matt Duchene, Paul Stastny, and the #2 overall pick in the 2011 draft Gabriel Landeskog), and should put up some good offensive numbers. But why the Avs failed last year, was the fact they had poor defense and goaltending. The Avs traded for Washington G Semyon Varlamov (Giving up a #1 and #2 pick for him), to help fix that problem. The thing is, Varlamov has never played a full season yet. So giving up that much for him is a big time gamble, in my opinion. As for the Avs going into this season, they will do better than last year, but not well enough to contend for a playoff spot.

3. Minnesota Wild-Full team breakdown will be in tomorrow's post.

2. Calgary Flames-Last December, the Flames were playing like one of the worst teams in the NHL. But then, their GM Darryl Sutter was fired, and the team suddenly took off. They finished the season on a 27-11-9 tear, and finished just 2 points out of a playoff spot. This team is solid offensively (led by RW Jarome Iginla), and have a very solid presence in goal with Mikka Kiprusoff. However, their defense is average at best. They will need top blue liners Matt Giordano and Jay Bouwmeester to step up and now lead the defense, after Robyn Regehr was dealt to Buffalo this summer. I really can't explain why I believe in Calgary to finish second. It's really just a gut feeling. They somehow always find a way to get it done. And as long as they have Iginla, they should be good.

1. Vancouver Canucks-It’s hard to believe that the Canucks did not win the Cup last year. They simply were the complete package. They had the #1 ranked offense, #1 ranked defense, and arguably the #1 goalie in the NHL. But they were just simply outplayed in Game 7 against Boston. Not many changes for Vancouver heading in to this season. The only notable losses for the Canucks this summer were D Christian Erhoff and LW Raffi Torres. So essentially, they are bringing back the same team for 2011-12. And they should be just fine. This is still one of, if not the best team in the league. Look for Vancouver to compete for the West’s and NHL’s best record this season and make another deep run in the playoffs.