Crossing The NHL’s Atlantic Division: Week 20
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
We’ve completed Week 20 of the NHL season, which means there are only about seven weeks left. The league is off until February 25 to accommodate player participation in the Olympics, which means our Crossing The Atlantic feature will be off for the next two weeks as well.
Last week, some teams continued their torrid hot streaks (Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins), others are just doing enough to stay near the top (Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens), a couple are keeping pace at the edge of the playoff race (Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators), while two teams are just playing for pride at this point (Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres).
It all makes for a pretty compelling final playoff stretch in the Atlantic Division. But before we get to that, plenty of Atlantic superstars (Phil Kessel, Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron, Martin St. Louis, Ryan Miller, Erik Karlsson, Carey Price) are in Sochi right now, kicking off what will be a fantastic two weeks of the craziest international hockey tournament in the world.
It’s a good time to be a hockey fan.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Red Wings
By John Evans of Octopus Thrower
Detroit has itself in a precarious position, but it is a playoff position! The Red Wings beat those pesky Florida Panthers 3-1 last Wednesday, only to fall to the Tampa Bay lightning 4-2 on Saturday before the Olympic break. Hopefully the rest does the Wings some good because they’ll have a great opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division as they take on the Canadiens and the Senators in back-to-back games right after the break.
Most of the Red Wings’ focus on the Olympics has come as a result of Pavel Datsyuk. He looks as though he’ll be ready to go Thursday but that hasn’t been the case all week. Some of us have even started to wonder if he maybe has focused more on the Olympics than he has on the Red Wings. This is to say nothing, of course, of the nine other Red Wings taking part in the Olympics, including six for Team Sweden. Let’s hope it doesn’t end up burning them out when the NHL kicks back up.
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Boston Bruins
By Andrew Thompson of Causeway Crowd
The Boston Bruins are the hottest team in hockey going into the winter break. They are the only team that has just one regulation loss in their last 10 games. They have put up three six- and one seven-goal game in that time period. The Bruins’ top line (David Krejci, Jarome Iginla and Milan Lucic) has been hot and the Patrice Bergeron line has been hotter. They finally have a team that’s healthy (minus Dennis Seidenberg) and they’re playing consistent 60-minute hockey.
The Black and Gold still lead the Atlantic Division and expanded their lead to seven points. They’ve also cut the lead of the Pittsburgh Penguins in half, and now trail them by five points for the race for the best team in the Eastern Conference. Kevan Miller‘s two-year contract with Boston has only encouraged him to greater play, and his one-sided fight with Zach Smith during the 7-2 Ottawa blowout shows just how strong the Bruins’ organizational depth is.
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Florida Panthers
By Rogerio Istiraneopulos of The Rat Trick
After having the five-game winning streak back in December (yes, this might seem insignificant to other teams but to us Panthers fans it is one of the few bright spots this season) there was a mutual understanding in the locker room that in order to make a push for the playoffs the Panthers would have to be a .500 team come Sochi. Well, the Panthers find themselves very far from .500 (22-29-7) with 26 games left in their season. Post-game interviews after the 5-1 loss to Carolina expressed the feeling of realization of another playoff-less year in sunny South Florida. The long rebuild process will have yet another chapter after the Olympics when deals can resume up until the trade deadline. Dale Tallon has his work cut out for him.
On a bright note, we are about to witness one of the best Olympic hockey tournaments in history. Cats fans are excited and ready to wake up early to cheer for our 18-year-old rookie Aleksander Barkov. He will be skating on the big ice for Finland. News broke that he will be centering Finland’s top line of Mikael Granlund and none other than Teemu Selanne, one of Barkov’s idols. This is character building at its finest and we look forward to everything Barkov can soak up from this experience. Sochi hockey 2014: Tape it, record it, YouTube it, do whatever you have to do to watch it because it doesn’t get any better than what is about to follow.
Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
Tampa Bay Lightning
By Tasha Meares of Bolts By The Bay
This has been another week of twists and turns for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Steven Stamkos was optimistic that he would be able to make his return to the ice on Saturday; however, that never came to be. After a visit with the team’s physicians it was determined that his leg was not fully healed, and would not be able to return to NHL ice just yet. This also meant that he would be forced to miss the Olympics as well. This was certainly a blow to both the alternate captain and the entirety of Bolts Nation.
In his place is Lightning captain Martin St. Louis representing Team Canada at the Games. We could argue all day that he should have been on Team Canada’s roster in the first place, which he should have, but at the end of the day at least he is getting to represent his country.
Prior to the break, the Bolts had a pretty tough couple of days. Thankfully, after dropping two games in a row, the Lightning were able to go into the break strong with a 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Bolts have six players participating in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games: Martin St. Louis, Kristers Gudlevskis, Radko Gudas, Ondrej Palat, Sami Salo and Richard Panik. This gives us plenty of reasons to keep our eyes tuned to the biggest international stage of them all.
I would definitely keep my eyes on the young guns suiting up for the Czech Republic. Gudas and Palat have been playing great so far this season, and having some young, hungry blood on a team is certainly never a bad thing. Also, all eyes will be on Team Canada as Martin St. Louis gets ready for action.
This will certainly be an action-packed couple of weeks.
Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
Buffalo Sabres
By James Gleason of Editor In Leaf
Well the Olympics could not come at a better time for the Buffalo Sabres as they head into the break on the short side of things. With rumours swirling about the future of players like Ryan Miller, Matt Moulson and Drew Stafford, times have not been good for the fans. Right now, Sabres fans should be happy that the two weeks off means less Sabres hockey and more Canada winning gold because it relieves them of the constant disappointment the Sabres put on the ice with the exception of Ryan Miller. It will be a good feeling seeing him succeed (but not win gold) in the Games because it would be nice to see Miller happy and actually achieving silver.
As for the events today, Jonas Enroth and Henrik Tallinder made their Olympic debuts today against the Czech Republic. Sweden won it by a score of 4-2. The Americans’ first game against Slovakia is on Thursday and can be seen on TSN starting at 7:30 a.m. EST while Canada gets started tomorrow against Norway at noon EST.
Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports
Ottawa Senators
By Jared Crozier of SenShot
The Senators head to the Olympic break in good, but not great, position as they push for a playoff spot. Following wins over the St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, they pulled a no-show against the Boston Bruins to head into the break on a sour note. However, a blessing in disguise for the Senators is the fact they have only two players (Erik Karlsson and Milan Michalek) heading to Sochi and the rest of the team can get some R&R and heal some bumps and bruises and focus on what needs to be done over the stretch run to the playoffs.
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Montreal Canadiens
By Andy Bayer
Could the return of Ryan White be the turning point of Montreal’s season? Unlikely. But White contributed with a pair of goals and an assist in his first two games as the Habs enter the Olympic break on a three-game winning streak. The fourth line of newly acquired Dale Weise, White and Michael Bournival has been fast and physical and seems to have given the Habs a boost. Of course, Carey Price has continued to be huge in net during this winning streak.
Max Pacioretty sure had (is having) a week to remember. Against the Vancouver Canucks last Thursday he had two penalty shots in the span of a couple of minutes. He missed them both. So it was a disappointing game for Pacioretty, right? Not at all. He went on to score a hat trick. Then on Saturday in the final game before the break MaxPac went into the Carolina goal post hard in what looked like a serious injury. But he is known for his quick healing powers and lo and behold MaxPac was good to go for the Olympics the next day.
It will be interesting to see how Pacioretty can contribute on a grinding USA team that desperately needs goal scorers. Right now he’s projected to be on a line with Patrick Kane. The other main Habs to watch in Sochi are Carey Price and P.K. Subban. There are many questions about what kind of role they will play. Will Price be the starter? For the first game at least, yes. Will Subban play a regular role, or be used as a power-play specialist? Babcock seems hesitant to use specialists, so P.K. may be in the stands to start the tournament. There are a total of eight Habs participating in the Games, so it will be interesting to see how fatigued the team gets down the stretch.