February 1st, 2015

Thomas Drance

2015-02-01

Carey Price is unconscious, should Mike Smith be a buyout candidate?, and why isn’t John Klingberg generating Calder buzz?

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Let’s begin with the Washington Capitals and the Montreal Canadiens, who played to a 0-0 draw through 60 minutes before Max Pacioretty gave the Habs an extra point with an overtime goal.

Pacioretty’s tally, his 23rd goal of the year, gave Canadiens goaltender Carey Price his fourth shutout of the season. The Olympic gold medal winning netminder has been outrageously good over the past two months, and has managed a .949 save percentage in 19 games since December 1st. That’s the best mark for any goaltender with more than five games played (only Chicago Blackhawks third-stringer Scott Darling has been better overall, but in only four appearances).

Price is second in the entire league in wins, second in save percentage, third in goals against average, and is tied for fifth in shutouts. Considering the quality of the team he plays behind (young and improving, but with serious issues controling play at 5-on-5), he’d be my slamdunk pick for the Vezina Trophy if the season ended today.

Though he didn’t find the back of the net and was on the ice for the game-winning goal against, Alex Ovechkin still had something of a monster game recording eight shots on goal and managing five hits. Shooting on a human goaltender, he probably would’ve had a really big afternoon.

The Detroit Red Wings stayed red hot on Saturday, defeating the New York Islanders and Chad Johnson in a battle of backup goaltenders. The victory gave the Red Wings their seventh win in the past eight games, which is a nice run for a team being mentioned by precisely nobody as a bona fide contender this season.

Detroit is also the second best team by score adjusted Corsi For percentage (Tulsky method) since December 1st, so this isn’t just a run of favorable bounces.

Can a blue-line that thin really make noise in the postseason though?

The Arizona Coyotes got blown out (again) by the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night 7-2, but this time it felt different. Whether it was Don Maloney’s over the top reaction to his club’s performance, or Dave Tippett ripping into Mike Smith’s performance after the contest; it’s hard to escape the feeling that something is bound to change in Arizona.

We all know that the Coyotes are going to be major sellers at the trade deadline (or perhaps before), but you’ve got to wonder if they might even consider buying out Smith this June. No player has cost their club more dearly this season, not even Darcy Kuemper. Smith is due 24 million over the next four seasons after this one, so his buyout will be expensive (8-years, $3 million per). It would leaves the Coyotes with almost $5 million in pure buyouts tied up in Smith and Ribeiro alone through 2020.

The New Jersey Devils defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Saturday night, thanks to a two point night from former Panther Steve Bernier. You know the Devils have had an awful season because Bernier leads the team in even-strength scoring rate by a lot.

The Toronto Maple Leafs couldn’t find the back of the net yet again on Saturday night, falling 1-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers in the shootout. The bounces that have gone against the Maple Leafs in January are unbelievable. Like a correction several years in the making has hit them like a tidal wave.

In 12 games in January the Maple Leafs managed to score a league worst 16 goals (two worse than the Buffalo Sabres… somehow). They scored those 16 goals while shooting only 4.6 percent – over two full points worse than the next worst team in the league (the Sabres). Yeah the Maple Leafs aren’t very good, but that’s clearly bad luck. A quick glance at that roster and a beginners guide to regression is sufficient for us to know that there’s no reason to expect this sort of offensive ineptitude to continue…

Let’s give some credit to Steve Mason by the way. The Flyers goaltender is generally sub-average, but he’s been anything but over the past two months. Since December 1 Mason has managed a league best .960 save percentage at 5-on-5, while stopping very close to 95 percent of total shots faced. He’s basically been the second best goalie in hockey aside from Price over the past two months.

So if the Flyers end up with Oliver Klyington rather than Connor McDavid, you’ll know who to blame.

Dallas Stars rookie defender John Klingberg potted a couple of goals and picked up two assists for a four point night – his second consecutive multi-point game – on Saturday night. The 22-year-old right-handed shooter now has nine goals on the season, leads all Stars defender in even-strength ice-time per game, and is Dallas’ best defender by shot attempt differential.

Where is this kid’s Calder buzz?

Consider that when Klingberg made his first appearance this season on November 11th the Dallas Stars were sitting dead last in the West (yep, even behind the Edmonton Oilers). Now they’re four points out of a playoff spot with a game-in-hand on fourth place Calgary.

I’d honestly be a bit surprised if this Stars team didn’t make the postseason at this point, and Klingberg’s play and the way he’s stabilized that still iffy Stars defense corps is a major reason why. What the likes of Aaron Ekblad, Filip Forsberg, Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Hutchinson have accomplished this season is extremely impressive. But Klingberg has a place in my Calder top-five…

Garret Hohl pointed out in his new column in the Winnipeg Free Press on Saturday morning that the Winnipeg Jets were taking too many penalties, and that it was likely to catch up to them. On Saturday night Dustin Byfuglien racked up 14 penalties in minutes and the Stars scored four power-play goals. So… Good debut for Hohl then?

Ryan Johansen is a beast because he came out ahead in his matchup against Steve Stamkos on Saturday night. The Tampa Bay Lightning are Stanley Cup contenders because it didn’t even nearly matter. While Stamkos lost his head-to-head matchup against Johansen, the rest of the Lightning just ran roughshod over Columbus’ relatively inferior depth. That’s what a serious contender looks like.

Another nice defensive effort from a Calgary Flames team that won’t go away. While the Flames don’t score enough to hold off the likes of the Kings and the Stars, in my opinion, you’ve got to give them credit for their team defense. By holding the Edmonton Oilers to 19 shots on Saturday night the Flames moved into 7th in the league in terms of allowing the lowest number of shots per game. That, their top-pair, and the play of Sean Monahan and Gaudreau have allowed Calgary to outperform their underlying numbers so far.

Still, this team has regressed significantly. They’re currently 16th in the league in point percentage and with two teams of objectively higher quality still chasing them – I’d still be very surprised if they qualified for the postseason.

The weirdo line of David Jones, Lance Bouma, and Mikael Backlund combined for a couple of goals on Saturday night. Flames fans were hoping that Backlund’s return from injury might spur the team, and yeah, it has. Backlund has both been extremely productive with 10 points in 10 games since getting back into the lineup, and the team is doing way better at controlling play 5-on-5. Since Backlund returned from injury on January 9th the club has managed a 48.2 percent score adjusted Corsi For rate (per war-on-ice.com).

48.2 percent is a number you can generally do something with. It remains to be seen whether the Flames can sustain that, but the early returns on Backlund’s impact are auspicious for a team in thick of a playoff race.

Finally Antti Niemi outdueled his Antti-man Antti Raanta in a 2-0 Sharks victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. Melker Karlsson and Joe Thornton each managed two points on the evening, while Niemi made 31 shots in the shutout victory.

Thomas Drance is the editor in chief of the Nation Network.