The Penguins are going to stay in Pittsburgh.
****
Now check-out Ted Saskin who, as the polar opposite of things that are good, holy, and turning an obscene profit - has (almost without warning) exploded in a hail of increasingly rancid goo.
The faction of the Union that felt his installation was less than by the book (Chelios, Roloson, Lindros, Klatt, etc.) never faded into the background completely, even when they appeared to have lost momentum, and now they finally appear to have the goods on Saskin.
The damage appears to be fatal, Saskin's blackberry, e-mail, etc. were confiscated or turned off - the modern day equivalent of having your badge and gun taken away, and he's home on paid leave. At least one NHL player said 'he's done'.
A more thorough time-line (in occasionally overwhelming detail) can be found here.
I guess it's just me, but it's all so..."now is the winter of our discontent"-ish.
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***
In the Good news -Bad news department;
Good news for the Severed Heads: Malkin breaks out of a 6 game slump by scoring four points in his last two games.
Bad news for the Severed Heads: Stastny, the P1 traded away to get Malkin, continues to go ballistic by notching a ridiculous (and now record setting) 18 game point streak. It's Teemu Selanne flashbacks for the SH GM. The horror, the horror.
Good news for the Highlanders: Crosby is going to win his first of what looks to be many scoring titles. (That is unless you include FUNHL goaltending stats in the scoring race, in which case he'll finish no better than 5th or 6th - see below for my complete thoughts on the goaltending stats debacle).
Bad news for the Highlanders: Despite Sid's offensive ascension, the Bladerunners simply refuse to go away. Thornton still has not rekindled the magic he had with Cheechoo (though he still is doing well), and while the revolving 2nd FP has settled on the aging but still highly effective, Chris Pronger, he promptly busted up his ankle taking him out of the playoff race.
Good news for the Great Whites: The team is loaded with RFA's and prospects to make a run next year.
Bad news for the Great Whites: Two of their building blocks, FP Marleau, and RFA Nash, are having horrible second halves of the year. In particular, Nash seems to be struggling mightily with Hitchcock's defense first-last-always system.
Good news for the Edge: Spezza has been exactly what the team needed, giving them a complimentary scoring threat to Ovechkin. Also in the good news department is the slide of the Severed Heads in the standings as the Edge own the Heads 1st rnd pick as part of the Spezza deal.
Bad news for the Edge: It may not be enough to hold off the hard charging Scourge.
Good news for the Shadowmen: They took one of their games against the Bladerunners in the playoffs - an upset is not out of the question.
Bad news for the Shadowmen: Like many previous seasons, the team has two FP's that are weak to awful, and no significant assets on the farm team to build around. Another scorched earth season to finish no better than 5th.
Good news for the Wolves: Phaneuf, Stastny, and Kopitar are three awesome building blocks for the team to use as its foundation.
Bad news for the Wolves: Too far away to make a real run at the title, they have to content with their steady rise up the standings and waiting for next year. All things considered, not very bad news to have to deal with.
Good news for the Knights Templar: last years collapse over the final quarter that saw the team plunge all the way from 4th to the 9th circle of hell (12th place and a Herbivore award) doesn't look like it will repeat itself.
Bad news for the Knights Templar: Naslund and Hejduk both appear to be finished as elite FPs. Hejduk looks to be done in by the loss of talent that surrounded him, as well as the loss of explosiveness in his first step acceleration. Naslund hasn't declined physically so much as his team has reconfigured itself to be a defensive first squad in the New Jersey mold. How the KT respond to the decline in the production by their wingers will be key.
Good news for the Bladerunners: They are less than 20 pts out of the lead, Lecavalier has turned his talent dial all the way up to '11' , his chief competition is battling some serious injuries, and the BRs have aquired GM favourite Jarome Iginla as 2nd FP.
Bad news for the Bladerunners: The Highlanders appear to be more talented at depth positions (especially the third line spots), and while Lecavalier has been awesome, the risk is that he is going to cool off sooner or later.
Good news for the Personal Vendetta: Forsberg is alive and well in Nashville.
Bad news for the Personal Vendetta: The two Swedes that have formed the spine of the club for a large portion of the last decade are both nearing the end of the line. Perpetually injured Forsberg is a serious threat to retire, and Lidstrom always appears to be a bout of home-sickness away from packing it in. Replacing one of them would be an unprecedented overhaul of the club, but it's a growing possibility that he could lose both.
Good news for the Ramapithicines: FP's Turco and Chara were both question marks at the start of the season, and both have delivered at a high level - Turco: 91pts, Chara: 61pts (TG)
Bad news for the Ramapithicines: Both FP's Turco and Chara continue to carry question marks. Turco because his team needs him to win a playoff round at least once in his career to solidify his presence with the team, and Chara because Boston is a horrible team that is unlikely to assist his totals in rising further.
Good news for the Lost Boys: Against all expectations, the team didn't furiously suck. Despite never threatening for the league lead, the LB's had a pretty good season, replacing a defective FP with assist happy Brad Richards, shoring up the goaltending situation for next year by trading/drafting for both Shark netminders (who are both RFA's), and in general taking the baby steps towards success that are necessary. They even threaten to take a run at the Severed Heads in the standings (won't happen. the Heads just aren't that lousy. I hope).
Bad news for the Lost Boys: Next year will be much tougher as the Gm will need to manage the team from overseas.
Good news for the Scourge: Taking a serious run at the Omnivore award - something unheard of for rookies, and there is still a good chance they will catch and pass the Edge to avoid last place.
Bad news for the Scourge: The injury to Zetterberg removes a key engine from the squad at a critical time for the team. Not inconceivable that they could win both the Omnivore and Herbivore in the same year (a feat, I believe, completed once previously by the Dogs - perhaps one of the FUNHL historians can confirm?)! If that wasn't bad enough, both the teams FPs are suspect, and the farm team wasn't restocked adequately by the teams first prospect draft.
*****
"The Imperfect Storm: It's Raining 100Pt Goaltenders!"
One of the off-season rule changes we enacted was to return goaltending stats to a base-line of 4pts per 60 min shutout. How has this affected the pool?
Here are the three FP net-minders with an 1/8th of the season to go;
Brodeur - 122.76
Luongo - 106.24
Turco - 98.61
Here are the rest of the top 10 scoring goalies this year;
Kiprusoff - 97.02
Hasek - 9o.25
Giguere - 89.5
Lundqvist - 87.78
Di Pietro - 79.8
Roloson - 76.2
Emery - 71.04
(Notes: The above stats are all approximations - use Darrell's figures for the real numbers. Further, keep in mind that there is still 12.5% of the season remaining, and that these stats will only go upwards from here)
The obvious issue is that Brodeur is going to have what amounts to a 140pt season, and both Luongo and Turco aren't far behind. All three will post well over 120pt seasons. In an era where we will be lucky to have three forwards hit 100 pts, or 50 goals, this is needless to say, provocative.
However, the real obscenity is what has happened to the goalies at the bottom end. Take the human sieve Dwayne Roloson for example - a goaltender who isn't going to the playoffs, plays behind a terrible defense corps, who has a losing record (25-29), and who for all intents and purposes is now unwanted and washed up at age 37 - is nevertheless thanks to our fine statistical methods for goalies - outscoring most first line FUNHL players.
He's 3 points behind Jagr, and Iginla. He's outscoring half the league's FPs.
It's Sick and Wrong that Roloson be considered in the same breath as these players.
And let's be clear, we are talking about Dwayne 'career backup' Roloson.
It's not an exact science getting the goaltending stats right, and I'm the first to say that compelling evidence is required for us to make a change. That said, the smell test for me on Roloson is enough to make the subject worthy of serious thought in the off-season.
I expect that the three GMs with FP goalies might object (they have a perceivable if statistically marginal incentive to do so), but hopefully considering the absurdity of Rollie the backup goalie as equivalent or greater in contributory value as to their other FP will give them pause.
Getting everyone to agree that this is the case and what we need to do to fix it might still be a tough sell - but until then, 100 pt goalies for EVERYONE!
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