Offseason moves

Thrashers checklist:
Improve front office
Draft well
Top 6 forward
Top 4 defenseman
Sign Kovy

Thanks to the Thrashers bloggers who have been covering this very well. I have been watching but too busy to post anything.

Fans and Kovy have been asking for some major changes to improve the team. It now appears like these prayers have been answered. I won't want to jump to conclusions, but look at what has happened so far:

Hired Anderson, a great coach and had a pretty good year considering the state of the team when he arrived
Hired Dudley, who has a lot of experience and success with putting together great teams
Drafted well this year. Thrashers were one of the teams that did better than average in the draft, securing our desired 1st rounder and catching 2 others in the second round that we expected to be first rounders.
Signed some awesome free agents. Kubina and Tim Stapleton for Ex and Stuart was an amazing trade. As a fan I love Exelby, but as a statistician I hate him. So I have to go with my head on this one. He was exciting to watch, but in reality he was a 7th rounder who we payed for 6 years to play like a 7th rounder. Kubina, on the other hand, is a great player and scorer, perfect for Anderson's system. Tim Stapleton is only a prospect but in 4 games with Toronto he scored one in regulation and scored a game-winning shootout goal. In the minors he was just over a point per game. While Stuart was great on the PK, I don't think his future was as bright as Stapleton's. Antropov for 4 years was an amazing signing. Could he play right wing for Kovy? He said he wanted some good linemates, I think we have found one.
Thor returning with a multi-year deal is also sweet because our 4th line with him was awesome. Kovy said he thought it was one of the best in the league.

FromTheRink is probably going to be pissed about us ransacking their free agents. I have gotten the feeling that they don't think low income teams will ever improve and shouldn't be in the NHL. Well guess who is eating their lunch.

Rick Dudley

I know the success or failure of a team doesn't depend on the GM, but out of all individuals both on and off the ice they carry more of the weight. So lets look at Rick Dudley's stats.

NHL coaching record: 98-87-43
Overall coaching record: 592-321-62

Here is how the his stood before and after Dudley appeared as GM or assistant GM

Tampa: before 26th/26, after 28th/30 (but 8th the next season and Stanley Cup winners the year after that)

Florida: before 12th, after 12th

Chicago: before 9th, after 3rd

So I think that his coaching record was good and he was a huge positive for Tampa and Chicago with little effect on Florida. In my opinion quite a good deal for the Thrashers.

Stanley Cup Roundup

Today I'll be summing up the Stanley Cup win and celebration, Conan O'Brien style.

After their devastating 5-0 loss in game 5, Mario Lemieux sent a positive text message to each of the team member's cell phones to lift their spirits. When asked what he thought of the message Bill Guerin replied, "What's a cell phone?"

During the celebration following game 7, as with tradition, many of the players drank champagne from the cup itself. It could not be passed to Sidney Crosby however because a sippy-cup attachment could not be found.

Each player got a few minutes to hold the cup for photos after the win. When it was Tyler Kennedy's turn, he tried to play the Cup like a guitar with a horrible rendition of a Metallica song. "EEEEEEXIIIIIIIIT LIIIIIGH- no wait, EEEEEEXIIIIIIIIIT LIIIIIIGH- no wait, hang on..."

When asked what made him the happiest about wining the Stanley Cup, Jordan Staal replied, "Hopefully now I won't be locked in the tool shed anymore."

When asked if he was relieved that the playoffs were over, Evgeni Malkin replied, "Yes, now I can finally shave off this itchy playoff beard."

Seriously now, congrats to the new champions the Pittsburgh Penguins. Its amazing how they turned around their franchise several years ago with some smart moves in their office. Almost gives you hope about the Thrashers.

Hossa requests to be traded to Pittsburgh

Saturday, June 13
DETROIT - Less than 24 hours after losing the Stanley Cup championship, Marian Hossa has requested to be traded -- again. In a statement released to media earlier this afternoon, Hossa's agent has made it clear that he intends to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"We are prepared to take any offer from the Penguins at this point. He doesn't want to lose another Cup", said agent Ritch Winter.

Last year Hossa was in nearly the same situation: he and the Penguins lost in the final round of the championship. Despite boos and ridicule of fans, Hossa opted to take a salary decrease and sign a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Last night Hossa and the Red Wings lost, ironically, to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hossa told media that he understands that there will be some repercussions. "I know I'm going to receive a pretty severe towel-whipping from Tyler Kennedy for this" he added.

The Red Wings general manager, Ken Holland, says the franchise will be glad to be rid of him.

"We're done with this rent-a-player. The Penguins can have him" said Holland.

The Penguins head coach, Dan Bylsma expressed some concern over the ordeal.

"I'm not sure if we'll want him back" Bylsma said. "We're not sure if the new arena is rated to sustain the number of boos that will surely result."

The preceding story was 100% made up.

Detroit stops turning over the puck

When the Detroit embarassed the Penguins last night, it was due to a lot of things. Undiciplined penalties on the part of the Penguins, Datsyuk back, Osgood was on, etc. But theres something that I've noticed in the play that struck me. In the first 4 games of the series the Penguins dominated in the neutral zone. With their 2 man forechecking pressure they turned over the puck numerous times. How much more? Well the giveaways/takeaways stats show that they did so about twice as much as the Red Wings. Thats huge. In the first 4 games the Penguins had 36 takeaways and 36 giveaways while the Red Wings had only 23 takeaways and 45 takeaways. In the 5-0 blowout the Red Wings reversed this trend. I think that giveaways and takeaways are a big part of the game because they result in more puck possession and therefore more shots on goal plus forcing fatigue on the opposition.

There is a problem with these stats in that it is up to interpretation what constitutes a giveaway and a takeaway. If you look at the league wide stats the Islanders have some of the highest takeaways, unlikely for the last ranked team. But in this case using the stats is valuable because we're comparing two teams from 2 home games each. If they standardized this statistic I think it could be a really good metric to compare individual players for potential trades and aquisitions since they don't rely on team efforts like zone shift, shots, and even goals do. Someone who makes a great individual effort to steal a puck would likely be able to do so on any squad.

Hossa and the Red Wings

I have a great idea. Let's put a bunch of cheesy dance moves together, build an entire industry around it, and call it Bollywood. Oh wait, thats already been done. Let's talk about the likely Red Wings/Penguins Stanley Cup rematch. Yeah, that sounds better.

Each team is one win away from advancing to the finals and by the way they are playing its pretty safe to say they'll do it. The Penguins look really good this year but I think they are one star away from being a Stanley Cup champion team. And worse yet, that star is playing for the Red Wings now. Its funny the reaction of the Penguins fans when Hossa defected to the Red Wings, all the crying and sobbing and crap. They had him for like what, 12 games and a playoff run? A far cry from the 3 full seasons he helped the Thrashers in building a decent offense. I hope that Hossa and the Red Wings crush the Penguins.

The Staal vs. Staal references and montages are catching on faster than forearm tattoos among female fast food workers. Here is something to clear your mind before tonight's game:

1:20, lol