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Rattling Sabres
Click here to send an NHL question to Kostya Kennedy. We're little more than a week away from the start of the second season. Hallelujah. You guys have stayed in excellent midseason form for a while now so I'm looking forward to the final playoff push of great letters. Nice batch this week so, why wait? On to your questions ...
The Sabres have the most wins since the All-Star break and still they
receive no respect or accolades from the national media. Why is Buffalo always
overlooked? The Sabres have the world's best goaltender, who always slumps at
the beginning of the year, and everyone is always surprised that he rises when
the pressure is on.
You're right that this club slips through the crack sometimes. It partly comes from playing in small market, and so close to the flashier (but not as good) Maple Leafs. The Sabres play a steady, stingy defense and they don't have compelling stars or personalities beyond Dominik Hasek. I still pump up the Dominator whenever I can; despite his occasional inconsistency he remains the most spectacular goalie in the game. Unfortunately there's a sort of been-there-done-that quality to the general media's view on Hasek. He got so much press during the years he was winning the back-to-back Harts. Now, there's an attitude that's sort of, "Well, Buffalo's all about Hasek and we've paid enough attention to him so let's look elsewhere." I'm not saying it's right -- Buffalo's a tough team that could be angling for a playoff upset -- but that's the way it is.
I don't understand how you can rank the Leafs so high in your Power Rankings.
They didn't make any moves to improve their team at the trade deadline and are
treading water in the East in preparation for another embarrassing encounter
with the Devils. If they didn't have CuJo, the Leafs wouldn't even make the
playoffs. Even their own fans are disgusted! Please explain why you have the
Leafs are so high.
A No. 12 spot in the World-Famous Power Rankings is not so high at all. The Leafs are a troubled and vulnerable team but their talent and decent record certainly warrants that middle-of the-pack status. Their record is only slightly worse than that of the Penguins and Canucks, and Toronto gets my nod because its goaltending is vastly superior to the netminding of either one of those teams.
What is the future of Tampa Bay's Kevin Weekes? In his last year with New
York, he was their team MVP and then he was traded. The same could be said for
this year -- he has kept Tampa Bay in a lot of games when they should have been
blown out. Still, the Lightning went out and got another goalie.
The Lightning will be making changes in the offseason, so it's difficult to predict the future of any but a few core players on the club. They definitely see Nikolai Khabibulin as their No. 1, but as of now they'd like to keep Weekes as an able backup to play about 25 games. They'll deal him if they can get a good, experienced defenseman in return. Weekes is a solid goalie who keeps getting stuck on bad defensive teams, so his potential to be a No. 1 keeper is unclear. Most NHL scouts, though, think he's better suited to sharing a top job.
Since the NHL started keeping statistics on faceoffs a few years ago, I
sometimes have heard an announcer mention that "so-and-so centerman is the
league's best faceoff man" and he's somewhere around 60 percent. Maybe I'm
missing something, but shouldn't the league's best faceoff man have a higher
percentage than that?
It "shouldn't" be anything more than it is. Statistics align themselves to natural tendencies. I mean, shouldn't the best baseball batters get hits more than 33 percent of the time? Almost anybody taking regular faceoffs in the NHL is extremely experienced at it, so beating an opponent 60 percent of the time is a feat. There's also the wild card of the referee's drop, which can favor one or other of the faceoff guys on any given draw. A lot of guesswork goes into faceoffs that helps even things out. You pick a way that you're going to try to pull (or push) the puck and hope that your opponent isn't going to do something to thwart that.
I just read a story in the Newark Star-Ledger that if any hockey
club could duplicate the Oilers' dynasty of the '80s, it would be the New Jersey
Devils. How accurate is that? And even if that's not entirely accurate, are the
Devils the best-run organization in sports? They spend very wisely, make some of
the best trades in hockey, and have a great farm system. Also, do you think the
Devils have a better chance of winning the Cup than the Red Wings or the
Avalanche, since New Jersey plays in a less talented conference without taking
the regular-season pounding that Detroit and Colorado do?
The playoff grind is so grueling, and players are so jacked up on adrenaline by the finals, that the toughness of the regular season doesn't have much of an impact. I can't see any team duplicating that Edmonton dynasty -- there's too much parity. Yet every single year the Devils are in the running for the Cup. They definitely have a good chance this year. That they are a leading contender year in and year out is at the heart of why they very well might be the best-run organization in any of the major sports. For all the reasons you state, the Devils could stake that claim and get a lot of support.
You know, if you listened to the media, you'd think Boston had all but
secured the final playoff spot in the East. Why does everyone overlook the
'Canes? They have a couple of great centermen and a hot goal scorer in Jeff
O'Neill. Will you please be the first to address their playoff potential?
Not everyone overlooks the 'Canes. Most people, myself included, like the Bruins slightly better on balance -- if goalie Byron Dafoe is healthy for Boston, that is. The Hurricanes are extremely inconsistent from game to game. O'Neill is having a nice year and there's a smattering of other talent on the roster; Arturs Irbe is the most underrated veteran goalkeeper in the game. The Hurricanes have a good chance of getting to the postseason, but if they do they will be thrashed in the first round by either the Devils or the Senators.
I read your piece extolling the participation of
Wayne Gretzky in the 2002 Winter Olympics. I work for the Minnesota
Wild, have been a lifelong hockey player and admire Gretzky. However, the
tendency these days seems to be to pull out the bankable marketing tool whenever
a league isn't succeeding like it once was. There has been a discussion of a
Jordan comeback in basketball, which would undoubtedly benefit the NBA. Your
proposal of a Gretzky return for Olympic play would be a clearly defined, last
sampling of Gretzky's greatness. However, until league chiefs acknowledge that
current players, teams and the games themselves need to be marketed in an
appealing way, they will continue to look to their alums to make yet another
return to bail them out of present hardships. It's a bad habit to develop,
because soon Gretzky won't be able to skate and score, and Jordan won't be able
to jump and shoot, like they did when they were in their 20s.
Pat, there will never be another Wayne Gretzky, so whatever final touches he puts on his game would be welcome. You're right that all sports leagues need to look to the future. But as we've seen countless times, the pull of the past -- the history and interwoven magic of a given sport -- lures people. (Hey, there's an entire television station devoted to showing old, classic games.) That's what Gretzky represents. He wouldn't score like he used to and nobody would expect him to. A return to the NHL would not be a good idea. But seeing him for a couple of weeks in the Olympics would do what no dazzling young star could: Make a lot of people feel young again.
What's going to happen with Jaromir Jagr at the end of this season? Do you
think he'll agree to a contract restructuring, or are the Pens going to have to
trade him?
He may well get traded. Of the Penguins' big three -- Jagr, Mario Lemieux and Alexei Kovalev -- only two will be with the team next year. Jagr's future depends on how healthy Lemieux feels at the end of this season and how the contract negotiations proceed with Kovalev. If those two both come back, Lemieux knows he could deal Jagr and get a nice collection of good young players to set Pittsburgh up for years to come.
Who will start in net for the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs, Dan
Cloutier or Bob Essensa? Also, do you think that the Canucks regret trading
Felix Potvin to L.A? It seemed to me that Potvin needed a fresh start elsewhere.
That Vancouver job is up still up in the air. I talked with coach Marc Crawford about the Canucks' goaltending a few days ago and he said that he won't pick a starter until the last week of the season, when one of the two keepers asserts himself. Said Crawford: "I hope that their play will make the decision for us. If not, we as the coaching staff will make the decision for them." Crawford definitely plans on having a No. 1 in place to start the playoffs. The Canucks don't regret moving Potvin, who was one of the worst goalies in the league when he was traded. The Cat's on a nice run in L.A. but he still shows signs of serious vulnerability and many people expect his run to be short lived.
Sports Illustrated staff writer Kostya Kennedy covers the NHL and is a
regular contributor to CNNSI.com. To send a question to his mailbag, click here.
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