The Hockey News: Ryan Dixon's blog: THN.com Blog: Rounding the hockey bases in July

THN.com Blog: Rounding the hockey bases in July

Mikhail Grabovski was picked up by the Leafs for a 2010 second round pick and prospect Greg Pateryn. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Ryan Dixon
2008-07-23 13:45:59

A few NHL musings with upside no bigger than a paragraph…

• Hayley Wickenheiser is a female hockey player who’s good enough to play the sport professionally with men at a high level in Sweden. She’s also an Olympic gold medalist in hockey who participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics as a softball player. And she’s a pro athlete with enough personality and intelligence to serve as a color commentator for CBC’s Olympic coverage of softball this summer. This woman sprung from an incredible gene pool…

• As of right now, four of the five teams I’d peg as potential Cup winners in 2009 come from the West. Pittsburgh is the only Eastern team I’d lump in with Detroit, San Jose, Dallas and Anaheim as legit Cup contenders 11 months before the silver mug gets handed out…

• Year 2 on Broadway is going to be more productive for Chris Drury as the Rangers slowly, but surely, become his team…

• It’s a small move, but picking up Mikhail Grabovski for very little from Montreal could be a transaction that ends up being celebrated in Toronto. He’s way more silky than Selke, but a team desperate for talented forwards will take that tradeoff in a heartbeat. Grabovski, 24, will start the year on one of the Leafs’ top two lines…

• Jordan Staal is a great, emerging two-way player, but can you imagine if the Pens had drafted Steve Yzerman clone Jonathan Toews – not Staal – with the No. 2 pick in ’06? Scratch my back with a hacksaw…

• The Kings are a surprise goalie performance away from making the playoffs…

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• If Nashville makes the post-season again and Barry Trotz doesn’t win the Jack Adams, the trophy loses all credibility…

• Somebody could tell me they’ve got the Ottawa Senators slotted anywhere between one and 12 in their Eastern Conference predictions and I wouldn’t bat an eye. A team that used to be the model of regular season consistency is far and away the most unpredictable squad out there…

• One more year out of the post-season and Columbus and Florida each get relegated to the American League. I mean, seriously. Give the last two Calder Cup winners a crack…

• I was all set to chastise the NHL for wearing out a good thing by having an Outdoor Classic in consecutive years, but then they put it in one of sport’s most hallowed grounds in a city that’s beginning to rediscover its love for the sport. I don’t think Steve Bartman himself could ruin Hawks-Wings at Wrigley.

Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog normally appears Wednesdays and his column, Top Shelf, appears Fridays.

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COMMENTS (35)

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Rob Yaz Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:41)

Nice, I've been saying for years that the NHL should go Euro-style and relegate/elevate teams year-to-year between a "super league" and a "first division," "second divison," etc. That way the League can satisfy the empirical urges of Bettman & Co. and expand to xx-number of cities, all of whom theoretically have a shot at some point of playing for and winning the cup. The first part of the season would determine who would stick around for sure. Then take the ten bottom feeders who would then have a playoffs of sorts to fight it out for five super league spots and top top remaining 20 teams would have a round robin to determine final playoff seedings. This way, all the games would truly matter, and even the bottom feeders would still be playing truly meaningful games at the end of the year. The top 5 teams from the first division would then move up and take the spots of the bottom five from the (30-team) super league, who get relegated. ... That, or go back to a 21-team (or 24, I could live that) league and not mention expansion ever again.

william hallacy Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:35)

"Rosby... is a very good player, but until he LEADS his team to the promised land (as captain), and puts a ring on his own finger in the process... that is all he shall be. He is an offensive talent without a doubt, but has work to do on defense. Zetterberg is the better and more complete player at this point in the NHL. He can and does, do it all. More or less, the Steve Yzerman of his day. Datsyuk is pretty close as well, great in ANY situation. Till 'Rosby gets his defense at the level of his offense, he is just that... an offensive player.

william hallacy Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:34)

James Sheehy... the "habs" have a great opportunity to go deep in the playoffs this coming season, and the addition of Tanguay will more than offset Streits departure. They surprised everyone last year with a great effort... I see it improving even more. Maybe we shall see an ORIGINAL 6 matchup... Montreal and Detroit battling as they did in the 50's! Some look at hockey with hopes instead of reality... the reality is that Montreal and Detroit are once again, of the top teams to beat. Such a matchup would be a throw-back without comparison.

Flyerguy 16 Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:29)

Troy, it sucks going up against the wings every year and yes they lost some players but getting an average group of players into the playoffs ( in the easiest division in hockey no less) each year and losing in the first round doesn't qualify Trotz for coach of the year and it certainly isn't any kind of travesty that he doesn't win it.

A.K. Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:28)

How is Dallas a contender? after years of not going deep into the playoffs when they should have, they overachieved this past year. Because who exactly is going to score goals after Ribeiro and Morrow (and i can't see either getting even 35). They let Hagman (27 goals) go and Modano is one year older. Lehtinen can score when he's healthy but he's not healthy so often anymore. Are there any up and coming young goal scorers on this team? as far as i can tell, there's no secondary scoring anymore. No more Jokinen, Young, Guerin etc. No way they are Stanley Cup contenders.

Zumbuehl Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:23)

Though it doesn't seem to be right, it still feels good to hear that the Ducks are named as potential Cup winners (after all these years of laughing between 1993 and 2004). And I hope Streit will make it to a high recognized player all over the league when he's at Long Island.

Troy Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:23)

Nick Eman, you are a colossal idiot. Trotz had nothnig to work with this year after his team was pretty much gutted and he still got them into the playoffs and won 2 games against the stanley cup champs. give your head a shake or try a real sport like knitting

Nicole Timko Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:21)

Please... Chicago coming out of the west... They have to make the playoffs first. As for Malkin... can't blame the guy for only scoring one goal when he couldn't even keep food down. And where was Crosby in the finals as well?

Nick Eman Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:21)

"Barry Trotz doesn’t win the Jack Adams, the trophy loses all credibility…" I am amazed he has not been fired yet. He clearly cannot coach a team out of the first round.

James Sheehy Posted
(2009-04-30 06:39:21)

As a Habs fan, I'm dissapointed to only see the pens as a possible cup winner from the east. I agree that the West is stronger, but the Ducks are clearly not in the upper echelon anymore and SJ can't seem to get out of the second round. Dallas is scary good and Detroit is one of the most dominating teams I've EVER seen, so I'll give you that. But don't be so quick to assume the East has only one chance. We added Tanguay and are one year more experienced. NY could be very good, and Philly will be scary if they can stay healthy (in fact I'd pick them to win the ultra competative Atlantic). Even Boston could do some damage if Ryder gets back to form and Thomas plays well. Either way, the offensive minded East is going to be more fun to watch then the West (Though if I could see only one game this year, it would be in Wrigley).

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