It's not completely old time hockey because you're not going to see the Charlestown Chiefs take on the Syracuse Bulldogs for the championship of the Federal League, but tonight's Game 7 is a battle between two cultures, two cities and good versus evil. I guess it all depends on where you live in this small part of North America.
We will not see a brawl involving Ogie Oglethorpe nor will we witness anything resembling this scene:
Only 32 Penalty Minutes! Are you kidding me? And how did Derek Sanderson get on Montreal's bench?
The game has changed to the displeasure of hockey dinosaurs like Don Cherry, Barry Melrose and the Boston Globe's Kevin Paul DuPont; the game is now based on speed, skill and goaltending. Cherry loathes the European influence and DuPont wants to see the Bruins style of play revert to the big, bad Bruins of the 1970's. Melrose was trumpeting how physical play leads to victory, but the data on hits per game is not as convincing. You would think one of these guys might take the time to read yesterday's New York Times, and this is not the first time the NY Times has offered this statistical analysis.
From Jeff Z. Klein and Lou Serviss:
Pummeled to Victory
If you outhit the other team, you will win. That is one of hockey’s most basic assumptions, but statistical studies have shown it to be untrue.
Once again this spring, the results on the ice illustrate that dishing out physical punishment may be entirely beside the point when it comes to winning games.
Through the first 35 games of this season’s playoffs, the team that held the advantage in hits won 16 times and lost 17 (the hit count was equal in two other games).
That record included such extreme examples as those of Thursday night, when Colorado beat Minnesota, 3-2, despite being outhit, 24-12, and Boston trounced Montreal, 5-1, despite being on the short side of a 36-21 hit differential.
Those figures are not unusual. Recent statistical studies have shown that teams that are outhit tend to win more often than those that like to take the body.
Dirk Hoag, proprietor of the blog On The Forecheck, found that in the 2006-7 season the statistical correlation between winning and being outhit was a suggestive minus-0.23. (A correlation of minus-1.0 would have shown an absolute and perfect relationship, while a plus-1.0 would have shown that outhitting the other team inevitably leads to victory.) For the 2005-6 season, he found a still stronger minus-0.40 correlation.
Body checks are certainly thrilling to watch — Alex Ovechkin of Washington has averaged 6.5 hits a game this postseason, followed closely by such disparate talents as the Rangers’ Dan Girardi, the Stars’ Stéphane Robidas, the Flames’ Dion Phaneuf and the Bruins’ Milan Lucic — but their overall effectiveness is questionable, as many physically beaten-up teams that have hoisted the Stanley Cup can testify.
I've watched enough of the playoffs to unequivocally write the NHL has a very good product. It's a shame that the NHL struggles to market its product and that certain media monoliths choose to virtually ignore the NHL. We can look forward to tonight's Game 7 between the Bruins and the Canadiens, and then tomorrow night the Flames and Sharks will conclude a positively scintillating series.
Tonight's Game 7 in Montreal will be decided by Boston's goaltender Tim Thomas or Montreal's netminder Carey Price. Right now, you have to give the edge to Thomas. In the last two games of the series, Price has played like Sean Avery is haunting his every thought and action. Someone on the Canadiens had better tell Price that Avery plays for the Rangers.
If you didn't have the chance to watch Game 6, you missed a fantastic night of hockey. This might very well be the best game I've seen in recent memory as the Bruins triumphed 5-4. There were six goals scored in a spectacular third period. The most spectacular of which, was Phil Kessel's Gretzky-like assault on the net at 4:15 of the third, which Montreal's Chris Higgins responded to by scoring 11 seconds after Kessel's tally. Marco Sturm scored the game-winner, through sheer will, with 2:37 left on the clock. This was a fantastic game that defied reason. I've never seen a game so unpredictable with a thrilling plot twist seemingly after every face-off.
If the Bruins win in Montreal tonight, it will be the first time in this historic rivalry that the B's have come back from a 3-1 series deficit to win a playoff series.
Montreal's Bell Centre will be rocking tonight. Will Celine Dion perform the national anthem?
I like the Bruins tonight.
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Kevin Paul DuPont has used more column inches to criticize Joe Thornton than any other player in recent memory, with the possible exception, of former Bruins netminder Jon Casey. No matter that Thornton led the league in assists (67) and finished with 96 points for fifth place in the NHL.
DuPont is correct that Thornton is not a physical player, but Thornton is what he is - an assist machine. In Game Five of the Sharks series with the Flames, Thornton made an unbelievable flutter pass to, I believe, Jonathan Cheechoo. The announcers on Versus could not get over how skillful Thornton was to float the puck over a Flames defender's stick and have it gently land in front of Cheechoo.
It's personal between DuPont and Thornton, and you would like to see DuPont employ an ounce of journalistic integrity or watch a Sharks game.
Martin Brodeur did not shake Sean Avery's hand at the conclusion of their playoff series. Back in the day, Islanders goalie Billy Smith refused to shake anyone's hand. It's fairly apparent Avery got into Brodeur's head (like Mariah Carey did to Derek Jeter) and that may earn Avery a huge contract from the Rangers. How can the Rangers afford to have Avery leave, via free agency, when he is MAR-TIN's kryptonite?
If Avery stays with the Rangers, look for the Devils to eliminate the Avery factor using someone familiar with the Bourne Ultimatum.
The Islanders paid tribute to their Al Arbour coached championship teams this year and showed footage from the Isles dynasty years on the pre-game. After the Isles' last championship season in 1983, video was shown of Billy Smith holding a can of Bud in his hands as he rode atop one of the championship parade cars. Now, that's old time hockey.
Can someone reach out to What Not To Wear for Brian Engblom or does he moonlight as a roadie for that Canadian rock giant Loverboy? Stacy and Clinton need to help Mr. Engblom who is firmly planted in the eighties. Does Engblom endorse mousse products in Canada?
