The Final Stretch

With the calendars turning over to April, the NHL has officially reached the home stretch of the regular season.  With just games left to go before playoff time, teams still in the race for a playoff spot are desperately in need of points.  The final days of the regular season plan to be a great prelude to this years quest for Lord Stanley's Cup.

In the East, the top 2 spots have easily been clinched by the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The powerhouse Bruins have been running away with the top spot in the conference since their remarkable winning streak back before the Olympics.  The Bruins clinched their playoff spot and the Atlantic Division weeks ago, and are the team everyone in the East wants to avoid.  The Penguins, despite a slide within the past few weeks continue to dominate the Metropolitan Division.  They also clinched their spot weeks ago. Despite their success this season, some might not feel that the Penguins are as dangerous as the Bruins.  Any team in the East could slide by the Penguins in a grueling six or seven game series.  What is your opinion on the Penguins?  Could they be defeated, despite their strength?  History has shown us that the Penguins can easily be gunned down come Playoff time.

Staying in the East, the fight for the final two spots in the Metropolitan Division continue to be battled for by the Flyers, Rangers and Blue Jackets.  Just a couple of points separates the teams.  The Flyers and Rangers have already punched their ticket, but where they end up is still to be seen.  Columbus still battles for the Wild Card spot, but with a few points here and there could move into a seeding.  Unfortunately for Columbus, their first round opponent could be the Bruins, depending on how the Red Wings manage their final few games of the season.

Despite their success this season, and their captain Alex Ovechkin reaching the 50 goal mark (despite being a minus-36 overall) Washington will most likely miss the Playoffs this season.  So the debate becomes...what do you want more?  A leader that can score 50 goals?  Or a team that makes the Playoffs?  Ovechkin's future certainly will be a hot topic this Summer if the Caps end up on a golf course early this Spring.



Out West, Anaheim and St Louis also continue to run away with the top spots in the conference.  Colorado, San Jose, Chicago, Minnesota and LA have punched their ticket to the Playoffs, but their exact seeding is still to be seen.

What's amazing yet, and this seems to always be the case, the West clearly is the big dog this year once again.  The 8th seed in the West continues to have almost the same amount of points as the 5th seed in the East.  Needless to say, do not be surprised to Lord Stanley end up in a Western Conference city once again this year.

Post #2: Trade Deadline

3:00 on deadline day came and went as always in the NHL, but this year, for the first time in years, there was a flurry of activity around the league as teams try to make last minute moves to help their chances of winning the Stanley Cup in June.

The major activity began well before the deadline, when Ryan Miller was traded from Buffalo to St Louis on Friday along with forward Steve Ott.  In exchange the Sabres received goaltender Jaroslav Halak, foward Chris Stewart and a draft pick.  The blockbuster deal saw Miller leave his long time home, but came as no surprise to hockey fans.  Miller has expressed interest for several weeks that he wanted to be moved, and it was only a matter of time before the Sabres found him a new home.  Buffalo currently sits in last place in the entire league.

On Monday, rumors began circulating that Martin Brodeur was seeking a trade from his career long home in New Jersey.  Brodeur, who no doubt will be a first ballot Hall of Famer when he retires, has not played as much in goal this season for the Devils, since the team acquired Cory Schneider in June.  And while Brodeur does not have youth on his side, everyone who is a hockey fan has to hope that he decides to finish his career in New Jersey.  As of 3:00 on Tuesday, he is staying in Jersey.

Also on Monday, the big deal involving Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was made.  For months Luongo has wanted out of Vancouver.  It was amazing to hockey fans everywhere that he stayed after last season.  When Vancouver moved Cory Schneider to New Jersey, it was assumed that Luongo would stay and be the Canucks starter.  But when rookie Eddie Lack quickly grabbed the spotlight, Luongo once again began riding the bench as the backup.  And after he was snubbed from the starting job for the Outdoor Game, it was clear "Lou" was on the move.  He now returns to where he started his career many years again, in sunny Miami.

The blockbuster deal of 2014 was the trade of Martin St. Louis from Tampa Bay to the New York Rangers in exchange for Rangers captain Ryan Callahan and two draft picks.  It has been well known since before the Olympics that St. Louis has wanted a trade out of Tampa and away from GM Steve Yzerman, who snubbed St Louis originally from the Team Canada roster.  St Louis made it known that his only destination would be New York, to play with former teammate Steven Stamkos.  The real shock was that the Rangers packaged their own captain in the deal.  The only other Ranger captain in history to be traded during his captaincy was Mark Messier in 2003.

Some of the other major trades included a deal that sent Edmonton star Ales Hemsky to Ottawa in exchange for draft picks.  Devyn Dubnyk was moved from Edmonton to accompany the trade, but then was quickly moved to Montreal, which was shocking due to Montreal's strong depth in goal.  Hurricane Tuomo Ruutu was moved to New Jersey and Panther Marcel Goc was moved to Pittsburgh, where he will join a star-studded team (and as a Flyers fan, that is hard to admit).

Another interesting move was Florida moving Tim Thomas to Dallas after the team acquired Luongo.  The two have been combatants ever since the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals that saw Thomas and the Bruins defeat the Canucks in seven games.  After taking a full season off, Thomas returned to the NHL this year signing with Florida.  It comes as no surprise that the team moved him after a lousy season, number wise, now that they have Luongo.  Thomas can expect to see alot of time on the end of the bench in Dallas, since the team already has their starter in Kari Lehtonen.

Post #1: The Half-Way Point

Around this time of year, the NHL usually takes a four or five day break for the NHL All-Star Game.  This is usually considered the half way point of the season.  But this year, the NHL took a three week break while 140-plus NHL players compete at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

With the league on break for the Games, teams have a chance to take a small break from competition and examine where they are at the halfway point of the NHL season.

In the East, there remains a tight race for second place in both divisions.  In the Atlantic Division, the Boston Bruins hold a seven point lead over Tampa Bay in the first seed in the division.  Tampa is closely trailed by Montreal and Toronto, both tied for third with 70 points.  1 point separates these three teams from second place in the division.  Expect them to leap frog each other the rest of the season.

In the Metropolitan Divsion, Pittsburgh holds a commanding lead of the first seed, with a 16 point differential between themselves and the second place New York Rangers.  2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place are all separated by four points, with the Rangers holding 67 points, Philadelphia holding 66 points, and Columbus and Washington both with 63 points.

Out West, the Central Division has a tie for first place, with St Louis and Chicago both having 84 points.  Colorado sits in 3rd place with 79 points.  They are trailed by Minnesota, who are 10 points back in 4th.  Expect the division to come down to those top 3 teams.

In the Pacific, the Ducks hold a commanding lead of the division.  Their stellar play lead by veteran Teemu Selanne has them in first with 87 points.  Behind them is San Jose with 80 points.  LA sits behind them with 68 points.  Expect the Ducks to continue to play solid hockey the rest of the way, and easily win the division title in April.

The Men's Hockey competition of the Olympic Games ended on the final day of the Olympics, February 23rd.  Canada captured their second gold medal in a row, and their third in four Olympic Games.  Sweden took home silver, and Finland managed to win bronze, defeating the US.  The US came out on the disappointing end of the Games this year after a great start, but was shutout in their final two games, coming home with no medal.

Welcome

Welcome!

While this may not be the first post to this blog, I want to welcome everyone to my NHL Hockey Blog I've created for the ENG 320 class in the Spring 2014 semester.

My name is DJ Mark (yes, that is my real name).  I am a Junior at WCU and a Communications major with a History minor.  I am a huge hockey fan, taking part in the game in so many ways, especially playing the game and officiating the game at some very high levels.  I decided to blog about the NHL because hockey plays a very large role in my life, and I figured I could easily blog about the league and the game for this class.  Its something that is interesting to me, and since I would like to some day be someone who writes about (or talks about on TV or Radio) hockey, I figured I could get good practice in with this blog.