I wrote out some thoughts on the New York Rangers hiring of Alain Vigneault yesterday. 

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In terms of the fantasy impact of Alain Vigneault coaching in New York, it’s worth keeping in mind that while Rick Nash and Derek Stepan are very likely to receive the “Sedin treatment” from Vigneault next season in terms of their deployment, those two were already handled in a calibrated, offense oriented manner by Tortorella last season. While I’d wager that’ll become even more dramatic with Vigneault as their head coach, it’ll be a marginal difference as opposed to a seachange.

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Also, Vigneault has tended to reward solid two-way effort guys with plum offensive minutes in the past (think Chris Higgins, Jannik Hansen, Alex Burrows), and  I wonder if Vigneault might be worth a few extra points for the likes of Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin – especially since Vigneault will, if he stays true in New York to his M.O. in Vancouver, likely bury Brian Boyle, optimize the Stepan line, and use Callahan’s group to wreck opponent’s third and fourth lines.

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Finally, Vigneault’s teams in Vancouver were built around an active defense that looked to regularly join the rush. While I’ll be curious to see if he can overlook Michael Del Zottto’s occassional defensive blunders, ultimately I’d wager he probably can. Perhaps Del Zotto will get Ehrhoff type zone-starts and face secondary competition next year, in which case he could be a very interesting gamble a bit earlier in your fantasy draft next year.

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Ovechkin won the Hart, while Crosby won the Lindsay – which result makes more sense to you? I’m going to go with the latter, and by a long shot. Interesting and unsurprising how the writers arbitrarily penalized Crosby for missing time, while the players had no trouble identifying the league’s best player this past season… Anyway, I really think it’s time to take the awards votes out of the writers hands, it’s crystal clear that too many don’t care enough or don’t understand the game well enough to cast knowledgable votes. To their credit they nailed Subban as the clear cut Norris winner, but still, Ovechkin won the Hart, Toews won the Selke, and Brodin wasn’t even nominated for the Calder. That’s kind of embarrassing.

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My sollution? More “voted by peer” awards like the Ted Lindsay. For example, how cool would it be if the top-50 forwards in NHL scoring all got to cast a vote for the Selke? If you want to know which player is the best defensive forward in any given season, ask the guys he’s tasked with shutting down on a nightly basis. I’m pretty sure more of them would answer with “Patrice Bergeron” than with “Jonathan Toews.”

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Continuing on with hockey news, it was reported during the Hockey Night in Canada panel yesterday that the Calgary Flames had offered three first round picks (the 6th pick, the 22nd pick, the 28th pick) to the Colorado Avalanche for the first overall selection at the 2013 NHL draft. On the one hand, Calgary has an awful lot of holes to fill and a relatively shallow prospect pool that arguably stands to benefit more from three first round selections in a historically deep draft than just the first overall pick. On the other, if you have a chance to acquire Nathan MacKinnon or Jonathan Drouin at this years draft – yeah,  you should probably get MacKinnon or Drouin.

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If I’m the General Manager of a team with a shallow prospect pool and a mid-first round pick, I’m definitely keeping Feaster’s Flames in mind to move back and add a first overall pick (at the expense of a higher pick). Scouts and General Managers league wide are salivating about this particular draft class, and I tend to think this is one of those drafts with available talent through the 75th overall pick.  If this draft class is anything like, say, the 2003 NHL Draft class – you’re probably better off with two picks in the 20s then just one in the teens.

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Another interesting report from the Hockey Night in Canada panel dealt with the prospect of the Phoenix Coyotes relocating to Seattle next season if the league is unable to make a deal with the city of Glendale (or another would be owner of the club/pauper). Apparently this possibility explains why the Canucks were unable to strike a deal to place an American Hockey League affiliate in the Pacific Northwest, and instead turned their attention to Utica and the Mohawk Valley. 

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If the Coyotes relocate to Seattle, what happens to Shane Doan? Do we spend another summer speculating about his future?

I say we do!

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And what about Dave Tippett? I think he’s the best coach in the league, frankly, and his contract expires on June 30th (or a day before the most recent Glendale deadline). If the Coyotes move to the Pacific Northwest, does Tippett move with them? 

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Alright, let’s make like an Arizonan and forget the Coyotes. How good have the first two games of this Stanley Cup Final series been? We thought going in that the Bruins and Blackhawks might put on a showcase for the sport and the league and boy have they delivered. Game one was an unforgettable thriller, maybe the best Stanley Cup Final game in the better part of a decade. Game two was extraordinary too, partly because of the seismic shifts in “momentum” between the two clubs. The Blackhawks looked, for forty-five minutes, like they were primed to blow the doors off this series at any moment. But while they beat the Bruins on shift after shift, they couldn’t beat Tuuka Rask. Eventually, in overtime and the final fifteen minutes or so, the Bruins found their legs and began to carry play. Ultimately they escaped with a victory, and managed to take home ice away from the Blackhawks. 

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The Bruins first goal was the result of a graceful power move from Dan Paille, who left Nick Leddy in the dust as he brought the puck out front and created a gimme for Chris Kelly. The overtime winner, meanwhile, was scored by Dan Paille who launched a wobbly twenty-foot wrister that baffled Corey Crawford. So in a series featuring Patrick’s Kane and Sharp, Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton, it was the offensive efforts of Dan Paille that proved decisive in game two. And that’s why hockey is the best.

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Tyler Seguin has been criticized all postseason long for his lack of offense, but that pass to Paille was marvelous and generally he’s been a lot better than the results suggest. One more thing about Seguin that I was talking about last night is that I’m always amazed by just how explosive he is. At one point in game two he crossed over a Blackhawks defenceman (I think it was Duncan Keith), and while the play only resulted in an outside shot it was kind of jaw dropping. There definitely aren’t more than four or five players in the league with better skating technique and feet…

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Jonathan Toews hasn’t been criticized all postseason long and I don’t get it. He should be getting carved for his lack of production and instead he’s winning Selke’s that rightfully belong to Patrice Bergeron.

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Earlier this season the Globe and Mail’s media critic Bruce Dowbiggin criticized the broadcast networks for “missing the story” on Manny Malhotra. Malhotra was, he argued, a “revolutionary player” during his Canucks tenure, a player whose deployment patterns changed the way defensive specialists were used across the league.

First of all, Dowbiggin is absolutely correct. Secondly, that was on full display yesterday night as Boston’s Rich Peverley was on the ice for 55% of Boston’s even-strength defensive zone faceoffs, and started eleven shifts in the defensive zone and only one in Chicago’s end of the rink at five-on-five. Meanwhile Chicago’s Marcus Kruger was on the ice for 47.6% of Chicago’s even-strength defensive zone draws, starting ten shifts in the defensive zone and only one in the atmosphere (O-zone). Both players were on the ice for an even-strength goal against, but overall, Kruger’s Manny Malhotra impression was better than Peverley’s.