Hockey World Blog

All Things Hockey

Posts Tagged John Madden

Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Chicago Blackhawks

Sep 29

Posted by EB in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Antti Niemi, Andrew Ladd, John Madden, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager, Dustin Byfuglien, Cristobal Huet

Key Offseason Additions: Ryan Potulny, Marty Turco

Last Season Ranking: 2nd, West. Stanley Cup Champions

Offense: Much is to be desired about the defending Stanley Cup Champions and their offensive power. Young leaders Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane had very good stats last season. Toews was one point shy of his career high posting 68 points in 76 games and a very impressive +22 rating. Kane however did go above and beyond his previous career high of 72 points, only to match his player number at 88 points. That total came from 30 goals and 58 assists, 29 of those points on the powerplay.

The team however has lost a lot of talent, mainly to the Atlanta Thrashers in a 7 man deal, but still looks to compete in this upcoming season and defend their reigning title. Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa need to have another excellent year to help carry the load. Sharp alos had a career high of 66 points last season, while Hossa nearly had a career low with only 51 points. Hossa was battling injuries from his head to his toes last season, but if healthy, could very well reach numbers in the 70 and up range.

Defense: What a great year for Duncan Keith last season. A career high of 69 points, loses almost all his teeth, and a Stanley Cup ring. Keith will be the backbone of the defense and will most likely be the leading time on ice player for the Blackhawks.

The rest of the defending core needs to step up this year. Young Niklas Hjalmarsson looks to improve upon his first career full season, 17 points in 77 games and a +9 rating. Injury plagued Brian Campbell looks to play a full season and returning to his once 50+ point season days. Lastly, Brent Seabrook will be given more time on ice after his 30 point, +20 season last year.

Sure Andrew Ladd may not be with team, as many other players, still you cannot count out the young and talented Chicago Blackhawks for a reapeat.

Sure Andrew Ladd may not be with team, as many other players, still you cannot count out the young and talented Chicago Blackhawks for a repeat.

Goaltending: If there ever was a question of GM Stan Bowman’s decisions, it lies in the goalie fiasco. Cristobal Huet is heading to the Swiss league and Antti Niemi is now on Conference rival the San Jose Sharks. Together, two combined for a 52-21-8 record. That is a whole lot of wins gone out the door.

The Blackhawks instead have decided to sign veteran, on his way out of the league, Marty Turco. Turco has spent all his days in the Dallas Stars organization, so it will be interesting to see how he fares with a new team. In Turco’s career he has a 262-154-37 record, as well as 26 ties in there from the old days, as well as a combined 2.31 goals against average and .911 save percentage.

Since Turco is not quite a young whipper snapper, backup net-minder Corey Crawford will get more playing time this season.  With only 8 game splayed in 3 seasons, it sure will be interesting to see how he does with more time. Crawford is a butterfly goalie excelling at stopping the first initial shot.

Season Outlook: It is tough to say what to expect from the reigning Stanley Cup Champions the Chicago Blackhawks. Indeed the team went all out last season in going for victory or nothing, but the team still does have a talented, young core of players. Many fans have written them off this year, however once they make the playoffs, anything can happen in a 7 game series.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 14 Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Derek Boogard, Owen Nolan

Key Offseason Additions: John Madden, Matt Cullen

Last Season Ranking: 13th, West

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Offense: The Minnesota Wild have a 1-2-3 punch in captain Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette. Koivu and Havlat are both balanced players capable of putting the puck in the net while Brunette is a good set up man.

Antti Miettinen, new addition Matt Cullen and winger Guillaume Latendresse are also key roles for the team. Miettinen should reach the 40 point mark if not even more this season. Cullen will be the pivotal tool for the team’s second line, netting only 16 goals last season, but adding 32 assists between both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators. Latendresse, since coming to Minnesota, has really clicked posting 37 points in 55 games played. Latendresse is really an under rated player and should be considered for depth in any fantasy team.

From there another true player worth watching, partly because of the name, the other part of his physical play style, is Cal Clutterbuck. If Clutterbuck can stay healthy, the team may have a decent three lines that should help the team in close games.

Defense: You can guarantee veteran Marek Zidlicky will post at least 40 points this upcoming season. Brent Burns looks to stay healthy after playing reduced schedules in his last two seasons and Nick Schultz looks to do better than his previous seasons career high of 20 points. The remaining 3 defenseman look to add some talent as well as a lock down defense keeping the shots toa minnimum.

Goaltending: Niklas Backstrom will be the number one goalie again with Josh Harding normally backing him up, however harding has recently torn an ACL and MCL and is expected to be out for a bit leaving either Anton Khudobin or Wade Dubielewicz to see NHL play time.

Backstrom has had trouble fighting with back problems last season, but if healthy, could put up some decent statistics. Those statistics though will come in the likes of save percentage only, as with the lack of depth in the defense, Backstrom will be facing a lot of shots this seasons. If you do happen to pick him up on your fantasy team, play him as your number two goalie, and watch for good match-ups as it is very possible he could rebound from a poor season last year in shutouts. He only had 2 shutouts last season, a career low, but two seasons ago he had 8.

Season Outlook: The Minnesota Wild are still one to two players away from a competitive team, which not only sucks for the fans, but the team itself. Strong minded players will determine if the team is competitive or not on a day to day basis, but it is highly unlikely that the Wild will make the post season this year. Watch them for what it is worth and try not to worry too much, you could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The Wild are developing and should be back in the mix in a few years.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicago Blackhawks

Sep 29

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 1 Comment

Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Blackhawks to the Stnaley Cup.

Captain Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup this season.

A young speedy team who finished 2nd in the tough Central Division, and 4th in the Western Conference, looks to improve upon their Cup ending loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals.

During the offseason the Blackhawks received some negative press about ousting general manager Dale Tallon to be replaced by Stan Bowman. Stan, the son of retired NHL coach Scotty Bowman, replaced Tallon due to a filed grievance from the NHL Players Association pertaining to the team missing deadlines for sending qualifying offers to restricted free agents. The team has since moved forward with the off season acquisitions of some pretty big names.

The Blackhawks were unable to resign unrestricted free agent Martin Havlat who eventually signed with the Minnesota Wild. Havlat scored 29 goals with 48 assists to total 77 points. He also posted 15 points in 16 games played in the playoffs last season, which happened to lead the team.

The void is to be replaced by NHL All Star player Marian Hossa who played for the Detroit Red Wings in the previous year. Hossa, who played for the Pittsburg Penguins before the Wings, has made the NHL finals 2 years in a row, yet both times have come up empty handed. Hossa underwent shoulder surgery in the off season and is expected to make his debut you in a Hawk’s jersey in late November. A question of full rehabilitation, game ready physical capability and team chemistry will be answered when he returns to the ice.

Center John Madden joins the mix of the Blackhawks this year. Madden has played for the New Jersey Devils for all his NHL career, posting 297 points in 712 regular season games and 41 points in 112 playoff games.

The Blackhawks have parted ways with goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in hopes that Cristobal Huet will be able to carry the workload. The two goaltenders split time last year during the regular season, only one game difference. However, come playoff time, Khabibulin played all but 3 games. With the success of last year, one would think the possibility of doing the same two goalie system again, or if having to choose between the one, would have chosen to stay with Khabibulin, but that is not the case.

All hope is not lost though as the 34 year old Cristobal Huet has a respectable record and stats. Last season he had a 20-15-4-3 record in 41 games, with a .909 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average. This number is down in comparison to the ’07-’08 season where he had a combined 32-14-6-4 record between Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals.

The team is led by young stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Together the duo is nearly impossible to stop, all things considering they are only 21 and 20 years of age. Together the two were able to net 59 goals and 80 assists between their 162 games played.

Defensively the team is led by offensive defenseman Brian Campbell. Campbell was 5th in points last year with 52, the majority of them being 45 assists. Shortly behind in points are defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook who both have better +/- ratings then Campbell. Keith tallied in at + 33 while Seabrook with +23.

The Chicago Blackhawks lack no skill in scoring points, and have a solid defensive core that also are able to contribute offensively. The goaltender position will be a test this year, but should not be a factor as the team is projected to be first within the Central Division as last year’s leader the Detroit Red Wings have suffered a major rebuild of new and young players.

Last year’s playoff’s were a learning experience for the young team. This year with one more year under their belt, and the addition of some veteran playoff performers, the Chicago Blackhawks have their eyes set on the Cup.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Jersey Devils

Sep 1

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 3 Comments

NewJerseyDevils_logoThe New Jersey Devils had a remarkable year last season considering goaltender Martin Brodeur was out majority of the season with surgery to repair a torn bicep muscle. One would expect the Devils to be even better this upcoming season as Brodeur is healthy and in top shape as always, however during the off season the Devils have lost a big part of their team.

Savior goaltender Scott Clemmensen has gone to the Florida Panthers leaving the backup position to the Devils only acquisition, goaltender Yann Dannis from the New York Islanders. This however is not a worry as Brodeur is the Iron Man of goaltenders.

The problem that will be faced is the loss of forwards Brian Gionta and John Madden. Last season Gionta posted 60 points in 81 games with 3 of those points being shorthanded goals. Madden on the other hand only 23 points in 76 games, yet contributed greatly to the depth of the team. He too also posted a shorthanded goal and 2 short handed assists.

The Devils were able to not only secure a playoff spot last season, but were able to clinch first in the tough Atlantic division. This year expect them to drop to 3rd if not farther within the division as the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers look tougher this season with their off season acquisitions, as well as defending Stanley Cup Champions Pittsburgh Penguins look to go back to back.

Tags: , , , , ,