NHL: Islanders get it right
You may have noticed the Stanley Cup is up for grabs. But that might not be the most important news for hockey handicappers this week.
The Carolina Hurricanes appear to be firmly in the driver?s seat in the NHL finals. They?re up two games to none in their best-of-seven series against the Edmonton Oilers, who lost No. 1 goaltender Dwayne Roloson in the opener with a knee injury. Roloson led the Oilers into the finals with a sparkling .927 save percentage. Jussi Markkanen proved not to be up to the task in Game 2, losing 5-0, but the Oilers played so poorly in that game, not even Roloson would have helped them. Three of Carolina?s goals were scored on the power play.
?We kind of abandoned (Markkanen) when we continued to take penalties,? Michael Peca told the Associated Press. ?The last thing you want to do is to continue to give a team more opportunities to try and score on a guy who hasn?t played in four months.?
Whether it?s Markkanen or Ty Conklin between the pipes for Edmonton in Saturday?s Game 3 (coach Craig MacTavish said before Game 2 that it would be Markkanen for the rest of the series), the Oilers are up against the wall. At least they?ll be in front of a raucous crowd at Rexall Place. That made the difference in the Western Conference semis, when the Oil came home down 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks and proceeded to win the next four games. It?s also enough to make Edmonton a slight favorite in Saturday?s matchup. The puckline reads Oilers ?1 ?, +240. But Carolina remains a ?900 chalk to win the Stanley Cup.
Although Roloson?s injury has taken a lot of the drama out of the finals, there is big-time news coming out of Long Island. Neil Smith was hired Thursday as the new general manager of the New York Islanders, and Ted Nolan has been released from hockey purgatory and brought back to the NHL as head coach. Long-suffering Islanders supporters finally have reason to look to the future with some sense of optimism ? and handicappers have a textbook ?bounce-back? candidate on their hands.
The Smith/Nolan hirings reflect a major change in thinking by Islanders ownership. The past 10 years under Mike Milbury?s stewardship have been an unmitigated disaster. New York failed to win a single playoff series while he was there. He dumped first-round draft picks like Roberto Luongo, J.P. Dumont, Raffi Torres, Tim Connolly, Eric Brewer and the pick that would be spent on Jason Spezza in search of quick-fix solutions that never panned out. He also fired coach Peter Laviolette, who is on the verge of leading the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup.
Smith?s track record is substantially better. He assembled the New York Rangers team that won the Cup in 1994, but was jettisoned in favor of Glen Sather, whose reputation has taken a hit since coming to Broadway in 2000. That slight is nothing compared to what Nolan has been forced to deal with. After winning the Jack Adams Award in 1996-97 for guiding the Buffalo Sabres to respectability, Nolan walked away from the team when he was unhappy with the contract offer he received. He was virtually blackballed from the league afterward.
Nolan had a difference of opinion in Buffalo with then-GM John Muckler that ended up costing Muckler his job, as well. It?s believed Muckler?s influence in the league had something to do with Nolan?s situation; institutional racism (Nolan is from the Ojibway First Nation) may also have played a role. Either way, the fact the Islanders were willing to take on both Smith and Nolan speaks volumes about their willingness to start winning hockey games.
The Islanders finished the 2005-06 season with a record of 36-40-6, going 36-46 against the puckline and losing 27.3 units along the way. Only the disappointing defending Stanley Cup champions from Tampa Bay did worse at the pay window: 36.6 units in the hole despite making the playoffs. There?s pretty much nowhere to go but up for the Islanders from here.
It?s not as if the Isles are devoid of talent. Goaltender Rick DiPietro is developing into a top-flight goaltender, compiling a 30-24 record last year with a respectable .900 save percentage. New York has a trio of goal scorers in Miroslav Satan, Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake, as well as some defensive promise in Radek Martinek and Chris Campoli. It?s easy to forget that the Islanders actually made the playoffs as the 8-seed in the East before the lockout. But the sharp handicappers are the ones with the long memories.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
You may have noticed the Stanley Cup is up for grabs. But that might not be the most important news for hockey handicappers this week.
The Carolina Hurricanes appear to be firmly in the driver?s seat in the NHL finals. They?re up two games to none in their best-of-seven series against the Edmonton Oilers, who lost No. 1 goaltender Dwayne Roloson in the opener with a knee injury. Roloson led the Oilers into the finals with a sparkling .927 save percentage. Jussi Markkanen proved not to be up to the task in Game 2, losing 5-0, but the Oilers played so poorly in that game, not even Roloson would have helped them. Three of Carolina?s goals were scored on the power play.
?We kind of abandoned (Markkanen) when we continued to take penalties,? Michael Peca told the Associated Press. ?The last thing you want to do is to continue to give a team more opportunities to try and score on a guy who hasn?t played in four months.?
Whether it?s Markkanen or Ty Conklin between the pipes for Edmonton in Saturday?s Game 3 (coach Craig MacTavish said before Game 2 that it would be Markkanen for the rest of the series), the Oilers are up against the wall. At least they?ll be in front of a raucous crowd at Rexall Place. That made the difference in the Western Conference semis, when the Oil came home down 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks and proceeded to win the next four games. It?s also enough to make Edmonton a slight favorite in Saturday?s matchup. The puckline reads Oilers ?1 ?, +240. But Carolina remains a ?900 chalk to win the Stanley Cup.
Although Roloson?s injury has taken a lot of the drama out of the finals, there is big-time news coming out of Long Island. Neil Smith was hired Thursday as the new general manager of the New York Islanders, and Ted Nolan has been released from hockey purgatory and brought back to the NHL as head coach. Long-suffering Islanders supporters finally have reason to look to the future with some sense of optimism ? and handicappers have a textbook ?bounce-back? candidate on their hands.
The Smith/Nolan hirings reflect a major change in thinking by Islanders ownership. The past 10 years under Mike Milbury?s stewardship have been an unmitigated disaster. New York failed to win a single playoff series while he was there. He dumped first-round draft picks like Roberto Luongo, J.P. Dumont, Raffi Torres, Tim Connolly, Eric Brewer and the pick that would be spent on Jason Spezza in search of quick-fix solutions that never panned out. He also fired coach Peter Laviolette, who is on the verge of leading the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup.
Smith?s track record is substantially better. He assembled the New York Rangers team that won the Cup in 1994, but was jettisoned in favor of Glen Sather, whose reputation has taken a hit since coming to Broadway in 2000. That slight is nothing compared to what Nolan has been forced to deal with. After winning the Jack Adams Award in 1996-97 for guiding the Buffalo Sabres to respectability, Nolan walked away from the team when he was unhappy with the contract offer he received. He was virtually blackballed from the league afterward.
Nolan had a difference of opinion in Buffalo with then-GM John Muckler that ended up costing Muckler his job, as well. It?s believed Muckler?s influence in the league had something to do with Nolan?s situation; institutional racism (Nolan is from the Ojibway First Nation) may also have played a role. Either way, the fact the Islanders were willing to take on both Smith and Nolan speaks volumes about their willingness to start winning hockey games.
The Islanders finished the 2005-06 season with a record of 36-40-6, going 36-46 against the puckline and losing 27.3 units along the way. Only the disappointing defending Stanley Cup champions from Tampa Bay did worse at the pay window: 36.6 units in the hole despite making the playoffs. There?s pretty much nowhere to go but up for the Islanders from here.
It?s not as if the Isles are devoid of talent. Goaltender Rick DiPietro is developing into a top-flight goaltender, compiling a 30-24 record last year with a respectable .900 save percentage. New York has a trio of goal scorers in Miroslav Satan, Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake, as well as some defensive promise in Radek Martinek and Chris Campoli. It?s easy to forget that the Islanders actually made the playoffs as the 8-seed in the East before the lockout. But the sharp handicappers are the ones with the long memories.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
