Saturday, May 30, 2009
Conference finals wrap-up and Cup prediction
One up, one down, but a bonus point for the Detroit series. So cumulatively I'm 9/14, 12 points.
Pittsburgh 4 Carolina 3. I certainly didn't see this coming. The Canes ran out of gas. I'll give Boston credit and say that they wore them down. As it turned out, Ward did not outplay Fleury; and the Carolina depth was nowhere in evidence. And clearly I underrated the Penguins, or at least their momentum and determination.
Detroit 4 Chicago 1. Got this one on the money. Detroit was just way too much.
And now, the Cup. Of course, as everyone has pointed out, it's a rematch of last year's final - the first rematch since Edmonton beat the Islanders. I remember that series. At least, I remember this much: I thought the Isles would win, and I was wrong. (I picked the Oilers in the first meeting, and I was wrong that time too.) And I remember the defending champions looking very old and very slow. So will this year be a replay of that changing of the guard? I don't think so, and here's why.
First, Pittsburgh in 2009 is not the Oilers of 1984. Yes, they have Malkin and Crosby, and they're both playing terrific hockey right now. But while Sid may be another Messier in terms of leadership, and better than him as a playmaker, Malkin is not quite Gretzky. The third centre on that Oilers team was Ken Linseman. Eat my dust, Jordan Staal. And who is Pittsburgh's Kurri? Its Glenn Anderson? Obviously, there is no one close. On defence, Sergei Gonchar is pretty good, but he's not in the same league as Paul Coffey. Defensively, Edmonton's remaining corps of Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Lee Fogolin, and Randy Gregg was way better than Pittsburgh's group. In goal, Fleury is not better than Grant Fuhr.
Second, the 2009 Red Wings are better than the 1984 Islanders. Not a lot better, I think, but deeper. The Islanders had Trottier, Bossy, Gillies, Brent Sutter, and Greg Gilbert all playing well offensively. John Tonelli was still in his prime, but had a poor play-offs. Other forwards were slowing down (e.g., Butch Goring, Bob Nystrom) or not there yet (e.g., Pat LaFontaine). The Red Wings have Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, Cleary, Filppula, Helm, Hudler, and Samuelsson. That's nine, and the rest of the cast aren't slouches either. On defence, Nicklas Lidstrom is the equal of the great Denis Potvin. The rest of the defence crew, however, is far superior in my view to what the Islanders had. (And, more importantly, what the Pens have.) Chris Osgood is in many ways similar to Billy Smith - a tough, money goalie.
Okay, Pittsburgh is more ready this year than they were last year. They come in with a lot of momentum. They're young and they're fast. Except for the first factor, all of these things also applied to the Hawks, and the Red Wings crushed them. (Okay, assuming Fleury doesn't get hurt, they're not going to hand Detroit easy goals.) The schedule favours Pittsburgh, and so does the injury situation, although Lidstrom and Ericsson are expected to play in game 1 and I expect Datsyuk will return for game 2 or at worst game 3. Still, the Wings are just too deep, too skilled, too disciplined, too well coached, and too damn good.
Detroit 4 Pittsburgh 3.
Pittsburgh 4 Carolina 3. I certainly didn't see this coming. The Canes ran out of gas. I'll give Boston credit and say that they wore them down. As it turned out, Ward did not outplay Fleury; and the Carolina depth was nowhere in evidence. And clearly I underrated the Penguins, or at least their momentum and determination.
Detroit 4 Chicago 1. Got this one on the money. Detroit was just way too much.
And now, the Cup. Of course, as everyone has pointed out, it's a rematch of last year's final - the first rematch since Edmonton beat the Islanders. I remember that series. At least, I remember this much: I thought the Isles would win, and I was wrong. (I picked the Oilers in the first meeting, and I was wrong that time too.) And I remember the defending champions looking very old and very slow. So will this year be a replay of that changing of the guard? I don't think so, and here's why.
First, Pittsburgh in 2009 is not the Oilers of 1984. Yes, they have Malkin and Crosby, and they're both playing terrific hockey right now. But while Sid may be another Messier in terms of leadership, and better than him as a playmaker, Malkin is not quite Gretzky. The third centre on that Oilers team was Ken Linseman. Eat my dust, Jordan Staal. And who is Pittsburgh's Kurri? Its Glenn Anderson? Obviously, there is no one close. On defence, Sergei Gonchar is pretty good, but he's not in the same league as Paul Coffey. Defensively, Edmonton's remaining corps of Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Lee Fogolin, and Randy Gregg was way better than Pittsburgh's group. In goal, Fleury is not better than Grant Fuhr.
Second, the 2009 Red Wings are better than the 1984 Islanders. Not a lot better, I think, but deeper. The Islanders had Trottier, Bossy, Gillies, Brent Sutter, and Greg Gilbert all playing well offensively. John Tonelli was still in his prime, but had a poor play-offs. Other forwards were slowing down (e.g., Butch Goring, Bob Nystrom) or not there yet (e.g., Pat LaFontaine). The Red Wings have Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, Cleary, Filppula, Helm, Hudler, and Samuelsson. That's nine, and the rest of the cast aren't slouches either. On defence, Nicklas Lidstrom is the equal of the great Denis Potvin. The rest of the defence crew, however, is far superior in my view to what the Islanders had. (And, more importantly, what the Pens have.) Chris Osgood is in many ways similar to Billy Smith - a tough, money goalie.
Okay, Pittsburgh is more ready this year than they were last year. They come in with a lot of momentum. They're young and they're fast. Except for the first factor, all of these things also applied to the Hawks, and the Red Wings crushed them. (Okay, assuming Fleury doesn't get hurt, they're not going to hand Detroit easy goals.) The schedule favours Pittsburgh, and so does the injury situation, although Lidstrom and Ericsson are expected to play in game 1 and I expect Datsyuk will return for game 2 or at worst game 3. Still, the Wings are just too deep, too skilled, too disciplined, too well coached, and too damn good.
Detroit 4 Pittsburgh 3.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Street food
After a very long wait with plenty of attendant hoopla, the new A La Cart street foods are available. Yonge and St. Clair got the jerk chicken, and I tried it today.
Very disappointing. It's a chicken breast, presumably marinated or at least dusted in a jerk dressing, charcoal broiled, wrapped in a pita with some shredded lettuce and mango strips. Sounds good, eh? But the chicken was dry, the lettuce crappy, and the mango a bit underripe. Worst, the jerk was missing any pepper. It had some flavour, but it was so bland. They've got to spice it up and add some sauce or dressing. And it was five bucks!
So street dog is still king, at least at this corner. An Italian sausage is only $3.50, is more filling, and - given the fat content - much moister. Plus you can get a drink, which the jerk cart doesn't offer.
One more point. As I was about to pay, the lady doing the transactions - I don't know who she is, the operators are a Jamaican man and woman - asked me to go around the "front" because I was with Archie. Hey, lady, you're on the sidewalk! What's Archie supposed to do, walk on the street? He's already walked past your cart about six times since you opened. Also, your front is where your back should be. That is, you're selling to pedestrians, you should be facing the pedestrian traffic, not the street. In fact, they face the street (I assume) because they want to attract cars going by, which they do. And parking enforcement, who is already cleaning up from this operation. When I was coming back from Sobey's, the lady was talking to an inspector from the City. I wonder if he mentioned that.
As we got home, I saw Angry Drunk Guy having a beer in the sports bar patio. I almost didn't recognize him at first: he looked sane. It struck me that he must come here around lunch time and drink all day until he's completely pissed.
It's Mr. T's birthday. He's 57. Another guy who ought to be older than me but isn't.
Very disappointing. It's a chicken breast, presumably marinated or at least dusted in a jerk dressing, charcoal broiled, wrapped in a pita with some shredded lettuce and mango strips. Sounds good, eh? But the chicken was dry, the lettuce crappy, and the mango a bit underripe. Worst, the jerk was missing any pepper. It had some flavour, but it was so bland. They've got to spice it up and add some sauce or dressing. And it was five bucks!
So street dog is still king, at least at this corner. An Italian sausage is only $3.50, is more filling, and - given the fat content - much moister. Plus you can get a drink, which the jerk cart doesn't offer.
One more point. As I was about to pay, the lady doing the transactions - I don't know who she is, the operators are a Jamaican man and woman - asked me to go around the "front" because I was with Archie. Hey, lady, you're on the sidewalk! What's Archie supposed to do, walk on the street? He's already walked past your cart about six times since you opened. Also, your front is where your back should be. That is, you're selling to pedestrians, you should be facing the pedestrian traffic, not the street. In fact, they face the street (I assume) because they want to attract cars going by, which they do. And parking enforcement, who is already cleaning up from this operation. When I was coming back from Sobey's, the lady was talking to an inspector from the City. I wonder if he mentioned that.
As we got home, I saw Angry Drunk Guy having a beer in the sports bar patio. I almost didn't recognize him at first: he looked sane. It struck me that he must come here around lunch time and drink all day until he's completely pissed.
It's Mr. T's birthday. He's 57. Another guy who ought to be older than me but isn't.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Second round wrap-up and conference final predictions
A decent performance: 2 points, plus 1 bonus point, for total of 3. Cumulative score: 8/12, 10 points.
Carolina 4 Boston 3. This was, aside from being a great disappointment, a surprise. The reason, I think, was the collapse of the Bruins power play. Claude Julien is a fine coach and did an excellent job all season with the Bruins, but I can't help thinking that he should have been able to find a way to adjust to whatever it was - collapsing in front of the net, it seemed to me - that allowed Carolina to shut down the Boston power play. I must also admit that I did not realize how solid the Hurricanes are.
Pittsburgh 4 Washington 3. I had this one fairly well handicapped. The problem was certainly not Ovechkin -he played Crosby to a draw - but the secondary players. Malkin played very well for the last five games of the series, while Semin and Green never produced. And of course in the 7th game, Varlamov cracked like a teacup. Again, I think there was a coaching mismatch here. But Scotty Bowman couldn't have taught the Caps to play defence when they haven't really done it all year.
Detroit 4 Anaheim 3. I had this one.
Chicago 4 Vancouver 2. Luongo Shmuongo.
And now, the next round.
Carolina 4 Pittsburgh 3. Pittsburgh has home-ice advantage, but that doesn't seem to matter. I think Carolina is a better team: they beat New Jersey and Boston to get here, Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia and Washington. Fleury can be very good, but Ward is better. He's the best goalie left in the play-offs by quite a margin. Pittsburgh has Crosby and Malkin, and Carolina has not had to face two top offensive players at the same time yet. But they don't panic, and they're much deeper than Pittsburgh.
Detroit 4 Chicago 1. Sorry, Hawks fans, but the party's over. Yes, Chicago has a lot of talent, they're hot, and they're confident. But they haven't faced anything close to the juggernaut that is the Red Wings, who can beat you any way you want to play it. If Chicago steals a game in Detroit they might make it interesting, but I think they'll lose both of the first two and the bubble will have burst - especially if one or both of those games isn't close.
Carolina 4 Boston 3. This was, aside from being a great disappointment, a surprise. The reason, I think, was the collapse of the Bruins power play. Claude Julien is a fine coach and did an excellent job all season with the Bruins, but I can't help thinking that he should have been able to find a way to adjust to whatever it was - collapsing in front of the net, it seemed to me - that allowed Carolina to shut down the Boston power play. I must also admit that I did not realize how solid the Hurricanes are.
Pittsburgh 4 Washington 3. I had this one fairly well handicapped. The problem was certainly not Ovechkin -he played Crosby to a draw - but the secondary players. Malkin played very well for the last five games of the series, while Semin and Green never produced. And of course in the 7th game, Varlamov cracked like a teacup. Again, I think there was a coaching mismatch here. But Scotty Bowman couldn't have taught the Caps to play defence when they haven't really done it all year.
Detroit 4 Anaheim 3. I had this one.
Chicago 4 Vancouver 2. Luongo Shmuongo.
And now, the next round.
Carolina 4 Pittsburgh 3. Pittsburgh has home-ice advantage, but that doesn't seem to matter. I think Carolina is a better team: they beat New Jersey and Boston to get here, Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia and Washington. Fleury can be very good, but Ward is better. He's the best goalie left in the play-offs by quite a margin. Pittsburgh has Crosby and Malkin, and Carolina has not had to face two top offensive players at the same time yet. But they don't panic, and they're much deeper than Pittsburgh.
Detroit 4 Chicago 1. Sorry, Hawks fans, but the party's over. Yes, Chicago has a lot of talent, they're hot, and they're confident. But they haven't faced anything close to the juggernaut that is the Red Wings, who can beat you any way you want to play it. If Chicago steals a game in Detroit they might make it interesting, but I think they'll lose both of the first two and the bubble will have burst - especially if one or both of those games isn't close.
