NHL Winter Classic – A Celebration of Hockey

Posted on January 5, 2012 by
The 2012 NHL Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park

The opening ceremony of the 2012 NHL Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA.

The 2012 NHL Winter Classic was held Monday, January 2nd in Philadephia at Citizens Bank Park, normally the home of MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies. In the 5th annual game held at the beginning of the New Year, it was a classic matchup of long time rivals the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers.

It was the 264th game between the two division rivals, which ranks 6th among New York Ranger opponents* and 1st among Philadelphia Flyer opponents.

*Being a member of the National Hockey League’s Original Six, the New York Rangers have five other opponents they’ve played a tad more than 264 times not to mention playing 41 more years in the NHL than the Philadelphia Flyers. That being said, the Philadelphia Flyers have arguably been their biggest rival since entering the league in the 1967 NHL expansion. The rivalry even has a couple nicknames, Battle of the Broads and Broad Street vs Broadway.

The National Hockey League has had a pretty good history of choosing the right opponents for their annual regular season event. Announced on September 26th, it couldn’t have been written any better.

The teams were two points apart in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings with the New York Rangers at 50 points and the Philadelphia Flyers at 48 points so the winning team would be in first place in one way or another.

Due to warm conditions and sun glare, the National Hockey League decided to delay the game by a couple hours, which may have caused some people to miss the end of the game (and by some people, I mean ME!)

At 2:20pm, the puck (or was it the ClutterPuck?) was dropped and the conditions had improved to 41˚F with overcast skies so the NHL knew what they were doing when they decided to delay the game. It allowed for the game to go from day to night and even included some snow flurries during the second period. Starting during the day and then needing to turn on the stadium lights to keep the game lit properly at night was a nice perk for delaying the game. The weather has been pretty amazing at every Winter Classic.

Game Summary
The game went more than halfway through the 2nd period before the 1st goal was scored in the 2012 Winter Classic. It was scored by the Philadelphia Flyers Braydon Schenn and it was his first career NHL goal* off a bad rebound from Henrik Lundqvist save of a Matt Carle shot from the left point. This is why you shoot the puck and why you shoot it low.

*How ‘bout that for your first career goal? That makes two players and two Philadelphia Flyers to score their first career NHL goal in the Winter Classic. Danny Syvret scored his first career goal in the 2010 NHL Winter Classic in Boston at Fenway Park. It was the first goal of that game too…in the 2nd period…and Mark Recchi was there. This is getting crazy.

Claude Giroux scored just 1:55 later for the Flyers on a nice Backhand Shelf move and all of a sudden the Flyers were up 2-0. The Rangers got a little too aggressive on the forecheck (4 Rangers in so 4-check?) resulting in a 2-on-1 and Giroux made a beautiful move on Lundqvist up over the blocker after getting the pass from Maxime Talbot. He tried a similar move earlier in the game but Lundqvist came out more than he expected and stopped it.

Just 30 seconds later, journeyman Mike Rupp got the New York Rangers on the board with a shot from the top of the circles that Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t get a good look at. Rupp used Philly defenseman Andrei Meszaros as a screen and saluted the crowd (moves like Jagr?) with his celly making it a 2-1 game.

Just 2:41 into the 3rd period, Mike Rupp tied the game at 2 with a quick, bad angle shot that snuck by Bobrovsky on the short side and Mike Rupp had his 2nd goal of the game and 3rd of the season. The last time Mike Rupp scored before this game was last year! Seriously though, it was on October 18th in the 4th game of the season in a 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Where have you been Mike Rupp? I’m sure Bobrovsky would like to have that one back.

The New York Rangers had all the momentum now and scored 2:40 later when Brad Richards put in a rebound at the right side of the net. Dan Girardi, at the right half-wall, sent the puck around the boards to Ryan Callahan behind the net. Callahan was cut off by Meszaros so he made a short behind the back pass to the left of the net and Brandon Dubinsky got a couple quick shots off. The second shot rebounded right to Richards for the go-ahead goal. The Rangers now led 3-2 with 14:39 left in regulation.

The Flyers made a push to tie the game and got very close even getting a penalty shot when Ryan McDonagh was called for covering the puck in the crease with 20 seconds left in the 3rd period. Danny Briere was chosen by coach Peter Laviolette to take the shot. Briere came in and tried to go 5-hole but Henrik “Hank” Lundqvist made the save of the game.

It was a great game featuring two rival teams who played very physical (a Winter Classic record 91 hits proved that) and intense hockey to a sold out Citizens Bank Park crowd of 46,967.

Conclusion
The NHL Winter Classic has become the National Hockey League’s Super Bowl – a marquee event for everyone to get together to watch on New Year’s Day (or later.) New commercials are made just to be seen on the Winter Classic and its just a great day overall. You get fans complaining about the site and the teams in the event when its announced but when it comes around, I think everyone enjoys the celebration of hockey that the Winter Classic has become over the last five years.

The last two Winter Classics have been chronicled by HBO with its 24/7 Road to the NHL Winter Classic documentary that goes on for 4 weeks, starting 3 weeks before and ending the week after the Winter Classic. What an amazing series that shows a real side of hockey that we’ve never really been able to see. You get to see how the players prepare for games, how they talk to each other, their opponents and the officials, how the coaches motivate the players, how hard the players work to rehab an injury and what the players do off the ice.

So now we have to wait months to find out where the next NHL Winter Classic will be. It sounds like Detroit is the favorite with Washington, New York and Minnesota also rumored to be in the conversation.

So how does the National Hockey League decide who gets to host the Winter Classic? What all goes into it? Well, it’s easy to see that there’s a few big factors that they want from the host. They want a great venue in a big market, marquee players and marquee teams and a good, healthy rivalry.

Let’s skip right to Minnesota as the other teams listed pretty much meet all factors of venue, great players, great teams and healthy rivalries.

Great venue?
Target Field and TCF Bank Stadium are both great venues. I’d lean towards Target Field because of location, beer sales and parking just off the top of my head.
Big market?
I would say Minnesota should be a big enough market. The NHL were very happy with the 2006 All-Star Game that was played at the Xcel Energy Center so they know the event would be done right.
Marquee players and marquee teams?
The Minnesota Wild are getting there with both of these but I still don’t think their up to that standard yet. I don’t think the rest of the NHL cities are too excited to watch the Wild right now. Their best player, Mikko Koivu, is not really talked about as one of the marquee players in the NHL. They have some players coming soon that should definitely help them in Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Jonas Brodin and others who are going to be helping the Wild soon.
Good, healthy rivalry?
This could be a problem. I would say the Minnesota Wild’s biggest rival right now is Vancouver or Colorado and you could maybe put Dallas in there for obvious reasons. The biggest problem is that a rivalry usually needs a lot of time to develop and the Wild is only in their 11th season so they haven’t really built up that much of a rivalry with anyone yet or at least a rivalry that the league sees as marketable. Now if we’re talking about realignment then I would probably say Chicago or Dallas.

It would be fun to see the Wild against Dallas with the Wild wearing old school Minneapolis Millers or Minnesota Fighting Saints jerseys or some other vintage Minnesota hockey team. Of course the best jersey they could don would be the old school North Stars jerseys. Ahhh….I can hear the “Norm Green SUCKS” chants right now.

I don’t see the Winter Classic getting to Minnesota until probably 2015 or so. The NHL will probably take care of all the Original Six teams and the bigger markets with bigger rivalries before they hit Minnesota.

Other Thoughts:

  • NHL Network replays the whole game and they air the Canadian broadcast as well as the American broadcast. I heard like 10 minutes of the Canadian broadcast and it was so much better than NBC Sports. Doc Emrick, Ed Olcyk and Pierre Maguire don’t come close to the Canadian broadcasters expertise at their jobs. They analyzed the game better and they seemed to have more (or maybe just better) cameras. Their NHL Network is better too. I don’t like that. I should be able to watch that broadcast live!
  • Football stadium or Baseball Stadium? Are the sight lines really that great for the whole stadium? It looks like fans would be better off sitting higher than lower. Also, it seems like it would be better to place the rink closer to one side of the park rather than in the center and then put up some seating on the actual field. It’s probably a pretty good guess that the stadiums don’t want to erect stands on their fields for fear of ruining the turf and needing to replace it.
  • Would they ever consider doing an All-Star game outside? That would be pretty interesting and very fun!
  • Can they do it in a warm climate? Florida applied to be a part of it. How would that work? It’s been done before in a warm climate as evidenced by an exhibition game in Las Vegas in ‘91.

Did you watch the 2012 NHL Winter Classic? Do you think Minnesota will host one soon? Is this article too long? Tell us what you think in the comments. 

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Mikko Koivu Kronwalls Kronwall, Detroit Gets Koivued

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

Until Tuesday night, Mikko Koivu hadn’t scored a goal in 19 straight* regular season games dating back to last season. He did have 5 assists (2 on the power play) before the 59-minute mark of the 3rd period in Detroit when he tipped a Justin Falk shot from the point to tie the game at 1 and send it into OVERTIME!!! Free hockey! YESSS!

*If you want to be technical, it was 19 games, 66 minutes and 46 seconds. Mikko’s last goal was on March 20th in an 8-1 shellacking at the X! His goal made it 7 to ONE at the 12:14 mark of the 3rd period. NO SHUTOUT FOR YOU, Mr. Price! (It was actually Alex Auld in goal but Mr. Auld sounded dumb to me.) I was at that game with my friend who likes the Habs. BAH! It was beyond ugly!

Once the monkey was off his back, Mikko Koivu went into beast mode! Maybe this was due to receiving a big hit from Johan Franzen in the 3rd period but something woke up Kaptain Koivu. Mikko gets more aggressive when he gets mad! It’s really a beautiful thing to watch.

After the 3rd interference penalty, and the second goaltender interference penalty, from Detroit, the Wild went on their 8th power play of the game and this didn’t appear to be a good thing as the previous 7 attempts lacked power and play. The Wild were 5-40 on the season and in a 2-27 power play slump before the night began.

With the Wild on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime, Mikko Koivu gets his shot from the top of the right circle gets blocked to the half-wall. Koivu lays out Niklas Kronwall in a physical battle for the puck, takes it to the slot, passes it back to Setoguchi on the right side of the net who takes a quick shot, gets a quick rebound and throws it into the net for the game-winner! You could say Mikko used the legendary “exploding shoulder!”

Detroit fans unleash the boos wanting a penalty for Koivu “Kronwalling” Niklas Kronwall or were they saying ‘GUUUUUUUUUU-chi? Or maybe it was Koi-vuuuuuuuuuuuuuu? NO PENALTY! Just a great play by the captain and leader of the Minnesota Wild! Niklas Kronwall got Mikko Koivued!

Obviously the funny (or best) thing about the hit is that Niklas Kronwall does this to other players all the time, thus the term, Kronwalled. So to see & hear Detroit fans boo when it happens to their guy is kind of ironic and kind of hypocritical.

Could this send Mikko Koivu on a tear?

Lidstrom questions the call while Kronwall says no penalty was warranted!

Now this was probably the biggest play of the game because it was the game-winning play but Josh Harding stole the show and has now beaten Detroit in 2 straight games making his record 2-0-1 (W-L-OTL) against them this season with a 1.30 GAA (4 goals against in 3 games (all starts) and 185 minutes) and .965 save percentage (110 saves on 114 shots against) including one shutout. His career numbers against Detroit before this season are a 2-4-1 (W-L-OTL) with a 3.59 GAA (24 goals against in 8 games (7 starts) and 401 minutes) and a .901 save percentage (218 saves on 242 shots against.)

That’s quite a turnaround but Detroit isn’t playing that well right now and the Wild are getting Mike Yeo’s system down and playing well defensively. Also, it’s strange to play the Detroit Red Wings 3 times in the first 12 games of a season. It may be strange but it’s nice to see Harding have some success after the tough season he had last year.

The Wild get the Canucks tonight! Harding will be ‘tending the net again! He is on fire right now. It will be interesting to see how the Wild come to play against Vancouver.

Other takes:
Fraser: Analyzing Mikko Koivu’s Hit on Niklas Kronwall – (TSN.ca – Kerry Fraser) – 11/2/2011
Koivu Hits, Setoguchi Scores – (Kukla’s Korner – Paul) – 11/2/2011
Mikko Koivu Kronwalling Niklas Kronwall – (FirstRoundBust.com – Nate W.) – 11/2/2011
Rulebook: Mikko Koivu’s Hit on Niklas Kronwall – (thehosers.com – Colin Bruckel) – 11/2/2011

Let’s Go WILD!
BRING THE CLUTTER!

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Bouchard Suspended for 2 games – The Bouchard Incident

Posted on October 10, 2011 by

Pierre-Marc Bouchard suspended for 2 games has been hot news since he’s not the type of player to get suspended for anything let alone a hit to the head.

The NHL is serious about getting hits to the head out of the game. They don’t care if it was intentional or an accident. A player will be held accountable for targeting the head or anything resulting in a hit to the head of another player. With everything that has happened in recent years with concussions and head injuries, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Is this a good thing for the game?

On Saturday night in the Wild’s home opener and first game of the season during a face-off after the Wild scored, Pierre-Marc Bouchard took a penalty for high-sticking Columbus forward Matt Calvert in the face. It drew blood and Calvert had to leave the ice. The stick to the face knocked out one of his teeth and parts of two others. Looking at the video of the incident, it’s easy to see that Bouchard did not intend to hit him in the face but he did intend to hit him.

The video shows Calvert initiating contact with Bouchard and Bouchard retaliating by trying to slash Calvert on the hands at his waist. As Calvert lifts Bouchard’s stick with his own stick, he moves Bouchard’s stick into his own face. Bouchard reacts to the incident by dropping his stick and throwing his hands to the side as if to say he didn’t mean to do that. Was there intent to injure? No. If a player steps on your stick and trips, it’s still a tripping penalty. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to do it. The message is clear. You are responsible for and must control your stick!

Back in the preseason, Columbus defenseman James Wisniewski was suspended for a hit to Cal Clutterbuck’s head after the 3rd period came to an end. From some of the quotes after the Bouchard incident, you would think that Columbus is looking for redemption from the Wisniewski.

Columbus coach Scott Arniel said after the game:

“It’s definitely an attempt to injure. Our whole bench saw it. Their whole bench saw it. We want to talk about getting hits from behind and shots to the head, but we allow a guy to stay in the game after taking a baseball swing at a guy’s face? That’s a joke.”

Pierre-Marc Bouchard’s agent emailed the StarTribune on the matter:

“What message is Brendan Shanahan sending with this unwarranted suspension? All perennial Lady Byng candidates should now be on notice that when an opponent high sticks himself in the mouth, he can expect a minimum suspension of 2 regular season NHL games. This result is a shameful farce for the League.”

“All in all, these 20 minute disciplinary hearings are nothing more than kangaroo courts. More League effort goes into writing scripts and producing slick video’s than in getting to the real facts of what occurred on the ice. It’s an inherent conflict of interest for an employee of the NHL to be conducting these hearings and imposing suspensions on players. It’s time for a neutral 3rd party not associated with the league or the players to take over supplementary discipline as this system clearly does not work.”

Those are heavy words. I don’t think he can get any sort of fine or suspension from the league for this response.* Maybe the NHLPA could do something? I don’t know but it seems wrong that an agent can spout off like that and not face some sort of repercussion.

*Does anyone really care what an agent thinks? He’s trying to protect himself and his client from losing money – Bouchard forfeits two days salary, $44,108.10 to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The players are really building that fund up, huh? They are already past ¾ of a million dollars! Thanks and keep up the good work! Wait…no…that’s not right!

The bottom line is every player is responsible for their stick. If Bouchard’s stick hits Calvert up higher or lower, maybe on his visor or helmet or even his chin, he probably doesn’t get suspended. Is this unfortunate? Of course it is, Calvert lost one tooth and parts of two others. The Wild lose Bouchard for two games and Bouchard loses a couple days pay.

The Bourne Incident Bouchard incident also serves as an example for the rest of the players in the NHL to be responsible for what they do with their stick. Hopefully it lessens the amount of stickwork we see in the game although there will always be the litte slashes and stick taps to let a player know you’re there. Now players may think twice about where they are swinging their stick. We all want less injuries in the game especially if they can be prevented. That would be a good thing.

What’s your opinion on this debate?

Is the NHL going too far with this suspension? Is it consistent with what they’ve already done?

Shanahan has a tough job filled with controversy that will come under scrutiny from time to time.  So far I believe he’s done a great job!

Pierre-Marc Bouchard has 22 career hits and 1 suspension. Cal Clutterbuck has 1014 career hits and zero suspensions.

Related stories:
Pierre-Marc Bouchard suspended two games – (StarTribune.com – Russo’s Rants – Michael Russo) – 10/9/2011
Bouchard’s agent decries “kangaroo court” – (StarTribune.com – Russo’s Rants – Michael Russo) – 10/9/2011
Minnesota’s Bouchard suspended for two games – (NHL.com – video explanation from Brendan Shanahan) – 10/9/2011
With PMB Suspension, It’s All About Consistency – (HittingThePost.blogspot.com – Nick) – 10/9/2011
On Brendan Shanahan and Controversial Suspensions – (UnitedStatesOfHockey.com – Chris Peters) – 10/10/2011
Wild’s Bouchard suspension appeal denied, as well as good judgement – (Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy Blog – Greg Wyshynski) – 10/10/2011

Somebody started a pretty cool site called The Shanabans at Shanabans.com that keeps track of all the suspensions that have happened this season. Check it out!

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Robb Dahlen

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ClutterPuck Update on Minnesota Wild – 7-7-2011 – Roster Shakeup

Posted on July 7, 2011 by

Its been a crazy couple weeks since the 2011 NHL Draft for the Minnesota Wild. There’s been a couple major roster changes in that time.

General Manager Chuck Fletcher has been working to improve his team so they can make the playoffs while still building for the future by drafting talent and making spots available to some of the young players in the Wild’s developmental system. I’m sure Fletcher was making it clear to every team in the NHL that he’d consider trading anyone except Mikko Koivu* to improve the roster. Once he named a coach, Chuck could get to work on improving his team.

*He probably should’ve added Clutterbuck to that list! I don’t know what he’s thinking! That’s just lunacy! I mean, its Cal Clutterbuck!!! If they trade him, my blog sounds stupid! He shouldn’t be taking those kinds of risks! That’s very careless on his part!

It doesn’t take a diehard fan to realize that Brent Burns was the biggest asset the Wild had to get something in a trade. He has game-breaking ability and plays with a lot of heart. The Wild needed shooters and goal-scorers on the roster in order to get over the hump of making the playoffs. With Burns as their biggest asset and little else, they didn’t have enough to get guys like Jeff Carter or Mike Richards from the Flyers.

The San Jose Sharks wanted to make some changes to their roster to fill some weaknesses that were exposed in the playoffs. One of them was a puck-moving defenseman and Brent Burns fit the bill but they had to meet the Brown Fox’s asking price and Fletch wanted something big in return for Burnsie. They agreed to exchange Brent Burns and a 2012 2nd-round pick for Devin Setoguchi, 2010 1st-round pick Charlie Coyle and the 28th pick (Wild selected F Zach Phillips) in the 2011 NHL Draft.

Most fans are excited for Setoguchi but don’t know much about Charlie Coyle and the trade never would’ve been made if he wasn’t included in the deal. He’s a big kid at 6’2”, 202 pounds. He played his 2010-11 season at Boston University as a freshman and had 7 goals and 19 assists in 37 games. He also played for team USA at the U20 World Junior Championships and helped lead the team to a Bronze Medal. He tied for the team lead in points with 6 points (2 G, 4 A) in 6 games. He might be the best part of this trade.

We’ll miss Brent Burns but the Wild needed to get better quickly so they can get back into the playoffs race and see if they can make something happen.

After arguably the biggest blockbuster trade in franchise history, I’m sure, like me, most Wild fans were not expecting anything big in free agency. I could see a depth signing but nothing shocking.

They did acquire Darroll Powe from the Flyers for a 2013 3rd-round pick. Darroll Powe (pronounced POW) is compared to Cal Clutterbuck* because he throws big hits and kills penalties. He led the Flyers in hits last season with 196 and had the second most minutes on the Flyers’ penalty kill units with 257.

*TWO CLUTTERBUCKS!!! NO WAY!!! Call the engraver! How can any team compete against two Clutterbucks? He doesn’t have the shot that Cal does but, c’mon, who does? Only Cal can BRING THE CLUTTERSHOT!!! Darroll Powe is 5’11” and 212 pounds which compares to the Clutterbuck, who is listed at 5’10” and 202 pounds. They may even be on the same line! Forechecking with CLUTTER-POWE will definitely be intimidating!

There were some rumors that the Wild and Chuck Fletcher had something up their sleeve but that could mean anything and it could mean absolutely nothing with some of the rumors out there. There was a rumor that the Wild were going to sign Tomas Kaberle and that didn’t happen!

How many Wild fans were sitting around on Sunday night wondering if the Wild would sign a free agent anytime soon since free agency started the Friday before? Probably not very many since we knew they weren’t going to try to get any of the big free agents. Then around 10pm, it came out that the Wild had done it again! Another blockbuster trade! This one was even bigger considering the players involved.

The first I saw of it was on Facebook through EA Sports NHL Facebook page and I didn’t believe it at first. I thought it was some video game trade or something. I started checking various sources and there was nothing else posted yet which made me more suspicious. Then I finally saw it start to get tweeted from more and more people and reality was setting in. The Wild had traded Martin Havlat to the San Jose Sharks for Dany Heatley!

Dany Heatley will be playing for the Minnesota Wild for the next 3 Seasons!!! He’s the kind of player that can change a whole franchise around. He scores goals and has averaged a point a game throughout his entire career. The Wild haven’t had a 30 goal scorer since the days of Gaborik in 2007-08! Their top goal-scorers by season since then are Owen Nolan with 25 in 08-09, Brunette & Latendresse with 25 each in 09-10 and Martin Havlat last season with a measley 22!!! He was the only player over 20 last season!

Let’s just say that Dany Heatley might be all over the franchise record book if he plays like he’s capable of playing. A top line of Heatley, Koivu and Bouchard and a second line of Latendresse, Cullen/Brodziak and Setoguchi is a good start to changing the offense of this team from too many passers to guys who like to shoot the puck and shoot it often! Practice your passing Butch!!!

Tell us what you think of the Wild’s offseason so far! Do you like what they’ve done? Don’t like it? Are they going to make the playoffs next season? Will Dany Heatley break some Wild season records? Goals? Points? Bouchard break his own assists record?

Here are some interesting articles I’ve read over the past couple weeks:
Report: Gary Bettman proposes major NHL realignment – (SportingNews.com) – 6/23/2011
Glamorous free-agent fare fails to tempt Wild – (StarTribune.com – Michael Russo) – 7/2/2011
Brunette’s leap is a no-brainer – (StarTribune.com – Michael Russo) – 7/2/2011

  • Andrew Brunette signed with the Chicago Blackhawks – Why was it an easy choice and a good fit for him?

Sharks trade Dany Heatley to Wild – (ESPN.com – Associated Press) – 7/4/2011
Digesting Heatley-Havlat Trade – (StarTribune.com – Michael Russo) – 7/4/2011
Dany Heatley welcomes trade to Minnesota, ready to become Wild’s go-to scorer – (Winnipeg Free Press) – 7/4/2011
Why the San Jose Sharks traded Dany Heatley for Martin Havlat – (Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog – Greg Wyshynski) – 7/4/2011
Why the Minnesota Wild traded for Dany Heatley – (Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog – Greg Wyshynski) – 7/4/2011
Fletcher and Heatley React to Sunday’s Trade – (Wild.com) – 7/4/2011

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ClutterPuck – The NHL Draft the Best Draft

Posted on June 26, 2011 by

The NHL Draft, like every draft for every sport, is a time for hope for every fan of every team. It’s a chance for every team to get better right then and there. It’s a beginning to a new season so everybody has the hope that your team could be on the verge of something special. Any pick can be the next great player for your team or the next favorite player for you or anyone in the world and could inspire some little kid to start playing the game.

Maybe your team makes a big trade that can get them to the playoffs or get another piece closer to making them a contender for the Stanley Cup. A trade could also get your team that high-profile prospect who could turn into the best player on your team in the next season or two.

The NHL moves the draft around to a different team’s city every year so fans of every team have the chance to experience what it’s like to be at the NHL Draft. That city is the center of the NHL for about a week and every team’s front office along with their scouts are there. This makes for easy communication between teams which is a big reason why the draft has become a time for big trades.

A team can find any kind of player in the NHL Draft. Everybody wants the top 6 forward, the goal scorer, the playmaker, the offensive defenseman who can quarterback the power play or the #1 goalie who can shut down the other team. Teams also need role players like checking forwards, penalty killers, two-way forwards, defensive defensemen to block shots and shut down other team’s top lines and enforcers or pests so the other team doesn’t take liberties with their best players.

There’s always great players in the first round but great players can be found in eveyr round of the draft. Maybe the pick in the 3rd round will be Cal Clutterbuck or the 6th round pick will be Pavel Datsyuk or a pick in the 7th round could be Derek Boogaard. Who would’ve thought back in 2001 that a 6’7″, 265 pound kid from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan would mean so much to people of Minnesota and around the NHL?

It’s a worldwide draft so your team could pick a player from Russia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Germany, Norway and more. A player could be picked and you could know absolutely nothing about them. Luckily today we have the internet and the ability to Google them to alleviate this problem. It wasn’t always like that.

Here’s the thing about players from other continents, they could be playing in a league like the Swedish Elite League (SEL), the Finnish Elite League (SM-liiga) or a league in Russia. These leagues are pro leagues like the NHL in North America so usually a 17 or 18-year-old kid playing in a professional league isn’t going to put up a lot of points because they aren’t usually the best players on their team but they’ve shown the talent to play in the best hockey leagues in their countries.

Take someone like Mikko Koivu, who was drafted in 2001 out of Finland as an 18-year-old. He had just started playing for TPS Turku of the Finnish Elite League (SM-liiga) and all there was to look at was his current stats which showed him playing 21 games and having a total of 1 assist* in those games. Wild fans were wondering what the Wild were thinking taking this guy with the 6th pick. Back in 2001, we were at the mercy of the coverage on ESPN and the local reporters. They said Mikko was a great player, of course, but that’s hard to tell with stats or highlight videos. I might be able to put together a video that makes me look like an NHL player! Ok, probably not but you see what I mean.

*I thought the same thing about the first overall pick in 2001, a Russian kid by the name of Ovechkin. He was playing in the Russian SuperLeague (RSL) and his stats were a whopping 2 goals and 2 assists in 21 games played! WHAT? He’s the best player in the whole draft? What’s going on? Turns out he’s pretty good!

Another reason I love the NHL Draft is because each team has a table on the draft floor and they come up to announce their picks so you get to see the front office personnel who make the decisions for the organization, the General Manager, the Director of Scouting and the many Amateur Scouts that evaluate the talent all around the world. This is their time to shine so why shouldn’t they get to be a part of it? The NBA and the NFL has the league commissioner announce the first round and the teams are in their war rooms back in their team cities like it’s a big secret. Major League Baseball just started televising their first round and they are more like the NBA & NFL with the way they do their draft.

One of the coolest parts of having each team announce their first round picks is that most of the players picked are in the crowd with their friends and families so when they get picked, they hug or shake the hands of some 10-20 people on their way to the stage. When they get up to the stage, they are given a hat and a jersey, they shake hands with team representatives and they get the draft photograph. The player, of course, is always in the middle and they always throw their arms around the team employees and it’s just a great sight to see every year. It’s just cool to see all the emotion for these kids on what is probably the best day of their lives so far.

One of the greatest things about the NHL draft is the announcement of the first trade of the two-day event. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman gets booed* every time he speaks but he says, “we have a trade to announce” and the crowd perks up with enthusiastic “ohs” throughout the arena. Bettman always seems surprised by the response, unless that’s just a reaction that he’s surprised they actually want to hear what he has to say like, “oh now you care?” He then announces the trade and no matter what arena the draft is in, the crowd always reacts with oohs and ahhs like they are watching fireworks on Independence Day.

*I’ve never really understood why NHL fans hate NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He’s a big reason for the lockouts in 1994-95 and 2004-05 and he’s made changes to the game that include renaming the conferences and divisions, expansion watering down the talent in the league and the current NHL TV Deal with Versus. These may be valid reasons but the league is in a good place right now so maybe we can quit booing the man every time he speaks!

The bottom line is every player picked by every team has a story that has brought them to this point in their lives. They’ve gone through some adversity along the way and have now been drafted into the NHL to get paid to play a game. A majority of them will never make it to the NHL but they will get the experience of living out their dreams of playing hockey professionally and will make new friends and connections that will forever change their lives. How many 18 year olds get to say that about their jobs.

Good luck to every player drafted this weekend! Play hard and Bring the Clutter every day!!!

What do you think about the NHL Draft? Is it the best draft? Is there something that could make it better? Is there something that makes it bad?

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You’ve been CLUTTERPUCKED!!!

Robb Dahlen

Posted in Cal Clutterbuck, College Hockey, Hockey In Minnesota, Minnesota Wild, News/Transactions, NHL Hockey | Leave a comment