NHL Trade Deadline Thoughts

Believe it or not, we are now less than a month away from the NHL trading deadline. Just some of my thoughts.

-The Senators have made up some ground in what looked like a lost playoff chase since firing Coach Craig Hartsburg, but all signs point to this surge as being too little too late. I'm sure owner Eugene Melnyk wants to assess the team's playoff chances all the way up until the trade deadline, but I believe the Senators would be better served just calling this a lost season. Antoine Vermette has been on the trading block for a while now, but the Senators would be doing a half-assed rebuilding job if only Vermette was traded at the deadline. As tough as it might be to find takers for Jason Spezza and his sizable contract especially in this market, the Senators would be gipping their fan base if they don't seriously shop him around the league. For a player who was once rumored to be a piece in bringing Roberto Luongo from Vancouver to Ottawa, the Senators know they could get a sizable haul in return for Spezza. 

-Not surprised at all by Michel Therien's firing in Pittsburgh. It was well understood very early on when the Penguins showed they weren't of the same calibur of last year's team, that if they missed the playoffs, Therien would be gone.

 The Penguins seem to be catching some breaks. It appears the Rangers and Canadiens are intent on  giving the Penguins as many chances to get back in the playoff race as possible. But for the Penguins to ask Malkin and Crosby to be even better than they have been this year is unlikely, because at this point thats the Penguin's only hope for Hockey in late April.

The last thing GM Ray Shero should be doing for the Penguins at the deadline is looking to pick up a rental Sniper like a Marian Gaborik to play on a line with either Malkin or Crosby. The Penguins should at least dangle Jordan Staal at the deadline. He's still in his rookie contract so he's a real bargain that will be easy to move with a very large return. Staal and the Penguins still have not seriously talked extension yet, because it's still very much a numbers game with Staal. Staal is best as a Centerman, but because of the two wunderkinds ahead of him, cannot crack the top six forward realm. If the Penguins were to sign Staal to an extension it would be a very expensive luxury for the team to have a player the calibur of Staal to get Checking Line Center ice time. Shero needs to put Staal on the trading block for the deadline when Stanley Cup dreams can make clubs shortsighted. Either that or place him back on the block before the draft so a bargaining war can be drawn out by other clubs.

-GM Brian Burke really wishes his Maple Leafs would stop dragging out their playoff fate. Burke sure wouldn't want Leaf's nation getting any delusions of the playoffs that could set up a P.R. annoyance when Burke tries to trade some high cost Leafs at the deadline. This overachieving Leaf's team has already made their chances at getting the number one draft pick remote, where they almost certainly would've drafted the London Knight's C John Tavares. Now if this Leaf's team plays the same way they played on saturday scoring a 6-2 win over Pittsburgh, Burke will be torn. 'Course, if the Leaf's had been as bad as expected, a guy like Dominic Moore wouldn't be playing as well thus keeping his trade value low.

I may be over-exaggerating the problem here for Toronto. It's not like if they trade a Moore or Nikolai Antropov at the deadline while still possessing a shot at the playoffs, means they'll sell less season tickets next year. Those are gonna' be sold either way. But this I do know: Burke would have just as soon liked to have seen this team be the worst in hockey rather than make a meaningless early playoff exit.

-D Jay Bouwmeester is not coming back to Florida. CBC'S Pierre Lebrun just reported Bouwmeester's camp turned down a $6.5 million a year deal from the team. He also reported that Florida would only trade Bouwmeester if they could get back parts that would help them currently in the playoff race. An Alexander Semin for Jay Bouwmeester deal was rumored a couple of weeks ago that would bring Bouwmeester to the Capital's, but that deal seemed unlikely even at the time. The Flyers and Devils are also in the mix. However the Flyers are right up against the Salary cap, so my preliminary guess for Bouwmeester's destination is New Jersey, who are one of the few contenders in good salary cap shape.

Just Some Random Sports Thoughts

Like the title says.

-Absolutely awful stuff to hear about Robbie Alomar. I'll try to remember him as the best Second Baseman of the 90's and the best since Ryne Sandberg, though this is hard to forget.

-It's no coincidence Favre announced his retirement five days after the A-Rod story broke. Brett could only take so much coverage not devoted to him. 

-Don't be so fast about all this talk of this retirement sticking; My sources tell me Favres been looking at houses in the Twin Cities.

-Move over Peter King. Favre's got a new best buddy and his name is Ed Werder.

-Last night's Duke-UNC game was the first full College Basketball game I've seen all year so I'm nowhere close to being an expert. However, I can offer this up: does anyone honestly think Wake Forest, or Duke, or Pitt are honestly better than the Tar Heels. UNC is in "La Joga Bonita" mode to me and my untrained basketball viewing eyes.

-Does Dick Vitale just seem to randomly choose who his play by play man is each game? No Dan Shulman, the man for Dickie V tonight was Mike "Holy Cow!" Patrick.

-File this into the category of things I wish ESPN would do, while knowing it will never, ever happen: How about putting the dreadfully underrated Brad Nessler on some of these mega college basketball contests. This may be asking too much, but how about putting him and Jay Bilas together for the next Duke-UNC matchup? Jay Bilas seems to actually follow the sport closely and seems to have a great depth of knowledge about it. 'Course, when did not having these skills stop ESPN from putting you on TV?

-The Orioles would've taken peanuts in return for Miguel Tejada if they knew they weren't going to have to deal with this mess again. The cunning of Ed Wade, everybody!

Sharks vs. Bruins reaction

Okay so what makes both the Sharks and Bruins such good hockey clubs? I watched last night's game to see for myself, and here's what I observed.

-Everything the Sharks do, it's coming out of their defenseman. Dan Boyle, Rob Blake, Marc- Edouard Vlasic, and Christian Ehrhoff are all really, really good. I don't think I've ever seen a team break out of it's own zone as quickly as the Sharks do, and that's all coming off excellent passes off the defenseman's stick.

And they're active too. I saw Dan Boyle act as the first forechecker into the offensive zone, which is just so rare among defenseman. Coach Todd McLellan really trusts his defenseman because their pinching and all around aggresive play in the offensive zone rarely causes the Sharks to give up any odd man rushes.

-It's been well publicized how Coach McLellan came over from Detroit to San Jose. With him, he brought so the same puck possesion system the Red Wings have been using for going on about twenty years now. Well, the Sharks aren't there yet. Not that twenty years in one system versus half a season should garner equal results, though. The Sharks have alot of skill and are very well equipped to play that style, but I'm sure Todd McLellan also knows this team's bread and butter. The Sharks are big and rough and let you know it. A line with Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Ryan Clowe winning puck battles in the corner could absolutely punish opposing defensman come playoff time.

-With Boston first in the east and Montreal fifth, a Boston-Montreal playoff rematch in the second round could very well happen. These teams are so darn similar. Both teams love to trap in the neutral zone and gain speed the other way off of it. Forward and Defenseman depth are also as good as it gets in the league for both teams.

-Okay, Bruins fans. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Either David Krecji's the next Cam Neely or Milan Lucic is. They can't both be. Personally, I say Lucic is. Krecji's game is too European, too much puck possesion. Neely was about winning puck battles in the corner and being impossible to move in front of the net, along with possessing that great shot. The Neely comparisons are more appropriate for Lucic.

-You don't think Bruins Coach Claude Julien hasn't learned some tricks after stops in Montreal and New Jersey. This team is really well coached with about a million set plays that are more affective than you think. He gauges what his players can do as well as any coach in the league. He's done a particulurly good job in grooming Phil Kessel.

Baseball Notes 2/5

Here's what I think we know about the St. Louis Cardinals: They have a reasonably powerful offensive ballclub. (Only three teams in the NL scored more runs in 2008) They currently possess the best hitter in the world, Albert Pujols, who's also supposedly entering a hitter's peak years between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-two. (He turned Twenty-Eight in January) They have a surplus of potential plus-hitting outfielders in Rick Ankiel, Skip Schumaker, Chris Duncan and Ryan Ludwick. We also know GM John Mozeliak might feel the urge to trade one of those four any time this season and could expect a reasonable haul in return, instantly bolstering his ballclub from a spare part. We also know they're getting a great bargain in starting RHP Kyle Lohse, who gave the team fifteen wins and a 3.78 ERA in 2008. But what will shape the outcome of the 2009 Cardinal's is something the team and the rest of baseball know absolutely nothing about: Just how effective will RHP Chris Carpenter be this season?

Bernie Milkasz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently talked to Cardinal's pitching coach Dave Duncan. One of the topics: coincidentally enough, Chris Carpenter's prospects for Spring Training.

Duncan said that team trainer Barry Weinberg told him that Carpenter can have a normal routine in spring training. Carpenter doesn’t have to be held back, or handled with extra care. He can throw and get his work in like all of the other pitchers.  That’s why Duncan is optimistic. Because Carpenter will be ready to go from Day 1 of spring training. No baby steps are needed.

So maybe that sheds a little light on the dark, dark tunnel that has been Chris Carpenter over the last three years. Before then, Chris Carpenter was as good as any pitcher in Baseball. He put together one of the more brilliant pitching seasons of the decade in 2005 when he was 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA. Hitters have always hated facing him, and many around baseball have lauded his 'stuff' as being the best in the game. However, instant domination shouldn't be expected from Carpenter this season. Being a solid anchor of a starting staff with occasional flashes of brilliance should. 

Would Cardinal's Manager Tony La Russa be disappointed that a pitcher once annually expected to win twenty games may only be pegged to win a fraction of that? Not at all, because if Carpenter wins fifteen games, thats fifteen more wins than last year. Any Carpenter is better than no Carpenter. And that's why the cardinal's don't mind being patient with their ace. This may seem like tedium for Cardinal's fans, but they know in their hearts just how much of a difference maker Carpenter can be. The Cardinal's don't mind talking Spring Training prospects for Carpenter as long as the conversation eventually shifts to postseason prospects for the team, as the two invariably go hand in hand.

Quick Super Bowl Thoughts

Your going to be reading about the Superbowl everywhere for the next week, so I just have a couple of quick thoughts.

-This topic was discussed heartily with those who watched the Super Bowl with me: Starting with Titans-Rams, we have lived in the greatest decade of Super Bowls ever. I still might go with Giants-Bills as the best ever, but the rest of the top five are all populated by Super Bowls in this decade for me.

-Four hundred plus yards of offense against statistically one of the best defenses in NFL history? Cards, its official: you guys aren't a fluke.

-Troy Polamalu didn't look fully healed to me last night. He didn't have the same burst, and he missed alot of plays he'd normally make.

-Santonio Holmes, meet John Taylor and David Tyree.

-Big Ben, meet Tom Brady and Joe Montana.

-Darnell Dockett played with a chip on his shoulder last night. He was unblockable for most of the game.

-Ditto for Lamar Woodley. Answer me truthfully: Has there ever been a better 3-4 outdside linebacking duo than James Harrison and Lamar Woodley? Really think about it, and leave your answer in the comments section. 

-Any inkling that Dan Rooney's been through this before? Right next to the Packers, the Steelers still have the best ownership in sports.

-Finally somebody rips off the NHL. I know they've been doing this for a couple of years now, but don't you think Joe Namath bringing out the Lombardi Trophy was reminiscent of another championship trophy ceremony? Perhaps next, all fifty three players could get one day to do whatever they want with the Lombardi Trophy.

-What will Ken Whisenhunt be preaching to his team once Mini Camp starts? Let's make it easier on ourselves to get back to this point next year and try to get a bye instead of having to win three playoff games.

-Two Super Bowls in four years? Are the Steelers the team of the second half of the 2000's?

-Enjoy this one, Pittsburgh. 

Super Bowl Blowout

Just some thoughts I had about Sunday's Game.

-Steelers CB Ike Taylor is going to have to be the Steelers best defensive player sunday. He's going to be matched up against Larry Fitzgerald alot. Taylor's come a long way from being benched during the 2006 season. Along with other Steeler corners Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend, he's had a fantastic year. 

Taylor's best attribute as a corner and specifically for covering Larry Fitzgerald is his height.  Taller than most Cornerbacks at 6'2, Taylor has demonstrated the ability, when asked to, play physical man to man coverage and jam receivers at the line. Often though, Taylor is not often asked to play man to man, but rather zone coverage in defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau's zone blitz scheme. However, I believe Ike Taylor could flourish in a role like the one Packers cornerback Al Harris has been asked to play in the last couple of seasons. Harris makes a living off jamming and rerouting receivers at the line of scrimmage. (oddly enough, Harris's team, The Packers, are switching to a defensive scheme very similar to the one Taylor currently plays in with the Steelers)

I believe the Steelers will obviously mix up coverage looks throughout the game, but the one I think they'll continually go back to is one were Taylor's on the line with Fitzgerald, but has a Safety clouding over the top of those two. That way, Taylor can pretty much do what he wants with Fitzgerald within the five yard bump zone, i.e. jump routes inside or outside, play trail coverage etc., with the knowledge that there's a Safety behind him if Fitzgerald beats him at the line. Watch for Lebeau to mix up this "cloud" look with zone coverages on the other side to force Kurt Warner to read the enitre field, not just one side of it.

The most important aspect to the Super Bowl will be how well Ike Taylor can reroute Larry Fitzgerald. The Steeler's shouldn't care much about what Fitzgerald does after he's been rerouted by Taylor. The important thing should be that Fitzgerald was rerouted at all. On almost every play, Fitzgerald is Warner's first passing option, and when Warner can't consistently throw to his first option, that could give the Steelers the extra split second they need for Woodley and Harrison to hurry and sack Warner.

-Cardinals G Deuce Lutui, C Lyle Sendlein and G Reggie Wells all have to be able to get some movement on Steelers Nose Tackle Casey Hampton. Any combination of Lutui with Sendlien or Wells with Sendlein needs to end with Hampton being moved and one of those players scraping either James Farrior or Larry Foote on the second level. The Cardinal's won't run it much, but believe me, if you just tee up the pass against the Steelers, then your Quarterback will end up hurt.

-Cris Collinsworth pointed out in the Cardinal's Wild Card Game against the Falcons that Cardinal's defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast had given inside/middle linebacker Gerald Hayes responsibility for just one gap in that game. Hayes has played exceptionally since Pendergast made the change, because it simplified things for Hayes and he was able to quickly diagnose plays and run to them without thought of much else. The Cardinal's have lots of talented players on defense, but many times I think they're effectiveness has been hampered by Pendergast's over-aggresive play calling. I have doubts about Pendergast's ability as a coordinator but he's done a smart job with Gerald Hayes.

-That said, I still think Pendergast does more bad than good for this Cardinal's defense. If he blitzes on Sunday as much as he has this season, I believe his corners will struggle matched up with no help against the Steeler's receivers.

-Steelers Safety Ryan Clark is one of the best Safeties in football. There was an article in Friday's Washington Post that talked about Clark's connection with his former team the Redskins. Clark had previously played with Sean Taylor in Washington, and Taylor was known to make big plays, but not without being caught out of position in other plays because of his freelancing ways. Ryan Clark helped fill the gaps in coverage that Sean Taylor left when he went to freelance, and he's continued to play that same way with the freelancing Troy Polamalu. Clark has great instincts with unbelievable range, and these skills help nurture Safeties the like of Polamalu and Taylor because he allows them to be great. 

The best comparison to another sport I can come up with to talk about the effectiveness of Clark's play is to compare him to Bobby Orr's defense partner. Orr's coaches knew they couldn't put another player like Bobby (not that there was one) out on the ice the same time as Bobby, because they'd have two defenseman out of position all the time because they tried to make plays. Orr needed a player who was his exact opposite: not very flashy but steady and did his assignments right. Thats what Clark is to Polamalu.

Baseball Notes-1/28

-Just when I talk about Don Sutton rotting away with the insufferable Bob Carpenter in Washington, news today broke that Don Sutton will be rejoining the Braves to call their games on the radio. So whose going to take Sutton's place as the color man in Washington: former Baseball Tonight analyst and Best Damn Sports Show host Rob Dibble. No more awkward celebrity interviews for you Mr. Dibble.

-I know there's been a ton of Braves talk around here lately, but then this was broken by dugoutcentral.com: The Yankees, with their surplus of outfielders could be talking to the Braves about dealing OF Xavier Nady. 

It sure seems John Scheurholz just refuses to rebuild with this club. I see them as the fourth best team in the NL East, Xavier Nady or no Xavier Nady. Last year they caught some bad breaks, but this team isn't much better than eighty-five wins to me.

-MLB.com reports a story that with ace setup man Pat Neshek out for 2009 with Tommy John surgery, the Twins setup job is between Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain.

I slightly favor the Twins to win the AL Central with whomever they choose to setup Joe Nathan. But, it would've been nice for Ron Gardenhire to know his offense would only have to scratch out a few runs until the seventh inning behind a remarkably solid starting staff and then #*BAM*-$Neshek and Nathan. 

-While I'm on the Twins, it's still hard for me not to imagine Twins RF Delmon Young not  becoming an elite hitter someday. It'll be a miracle if he DOESN'T break out, and stroke it all over the place this year.