There were quite a few rumblings in the media and from fans that the 2004 Stanley Cup finals weren’t living up to their billing. People had been led to expect tons of scoring, lots of open ice and incredible flow. Well, four straight one-goal games and two overtime affairs down the stretch of the series counts to me as awesome action.
After the opening three games of the series, the Lightning were down a game, being outscored 8-5 and struggling with a Calgary power play unit that hadn’t been able to hit the side of an Alberta barn with the puck going into the series. With their season on the line in Game 4 the Lightning were lucky to escape with a 1-0 win. Khabiboulin made an early Brad Richards goal, scored on a two-man advantage, stand up for over 57 minutes on the road. But the Bolts lost the pivotal game 5, in overtime, at home.
Heading into Calgary with the series on the line, the Lightning looked finished. Calgary had closed out two previous playoff series at home in game 6 after the series was tied through four. Tampa Bay had shown no ability to score goals at even strength throughout the series. All Calgary needed to do was stay out of the box in game 6 and they should win the game. But they didn’t and Brad Richards made them pay twice.
Pavel Kubina was a –3 heading into game 6. He’d missed a game in the series already with an undisclosed injury. His defensive partner Darryl Sydor was struggling as well. Neither player had turned in a plus performance since game 5 of the Conference finals against Philly. Jarome Iginla was having his way with the Lightning defense in the series. But in game 6, both players turned up their game and shut Iginla down.
Still it wasn’t good enough to win through eighty minutes. The pesky Flames kept battling back. Martin St. Louis’s goal thirty seconds into the fifth period represented a reversal of fortunes for the Lightning. That moment was the first time in the series where the Bolts had momentum in their favor and held the advantage heading into the following game.
Look at it this way: when the higher seed loses the odd numbered games in a series they are left in a reactionary role. They have to prevent being down 0-2, falling behind 3-1, being one loss away with two games to play. Sooner or later, the higher seed has to win an odd-numbered game. You’d like to do it a heck of a lot sooner than game 7 though.
Going into game 7 the Lightning hadn’t notched back-to-back wins since the last game of the Conference semifinals against Montreal and the opening game of the Conference finals against Philly. They were 6-6 across their previous 12 games and playing a team that was 10-3 on the road in the playoffs.
But you work so hard in the regular season to clinch a high seed precisely because home-ice in a game 7 is a tremendous advantage. Tampa took advantage of it in both the Conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals. Calgary lost the series in game 6 when St. Louis scored in the second overtime. They were in no position to win a record 11th road game with the Cup on the line.
Kubina and Sydor deserve a lot of the credit for the wins in games 6 and 7. In those two games they held Iginla to only two shots on goal (he recorded no shots in game 7), no goals, no assists and a –1. If Iginla doesn’t have success, the Flames don’t have success. Kubina and Sydor had their share of struggles but with the season on the line they came through in a big way.
The Conn-Smythe voters got it right in their selection of Brad Richards as the playoff MVP. Not only did he lead the league in playoff scoring, Richards scored a record seven game-winning goals. In game 6, facing elimination, Richards scored both of Tampa’s regulation goals and assisted on St. Louis’s OT game-winner. He also led the way in power play scoring while anchoring the top power play unit in the playoffs. Richards won a huge salary increase from an arbitrator last summer that seemed way out of whack given that he didn’t score a goal for the Lightning in last spring’s playoffs. But his performance in these playoffs made it worth every penny. He was the only player in the post-season as dominant as Iginla. And when Iginla was shut down in games 6 and 7, Richards shined. Without Richards the Flames would have won the series four games to one. In fact, Richards was the only Lightning player to record at least a goal or an assist in every game of the finals except game 3 when the Bolts were shutout.
The future doesn’t look bright for the Calgary Flames. The last two teams to finish as runners up failed to make the playoffs the following season. Both Carolina and Anaheim followed up their improbable playoff runs with seasons in which they weren’t ever seriously in the playoff hunt. The Stars haven’t been serious threats following their 1999 Stanley Cup win with a second place finish in 2000. They list goes on as well. The Capitals (1998 finals) and the Sabres (1999 finals) have struggled in the last couple of years.
On the other hand, teams winning the Stanley Cup usually remain strong for at least a couple of seasons, which bodes well for the Lightning. Dallas and New Jersey followed up Stanley Cup wins with appearances in the finals the following year. The Avs made it to the Western Conference finals following their Cup win in 2001. Interestingly, Tampa and Dallas are the only teams besides Colorado, Detroit and Jersey to win the Stanley Cup since 1995. Tampa Bay has joined some exclusive company. And their core is young and intact for the long term.
No Goal?
The league has done a surprisingly good job of preventing the controversy of the disputed goal in game 6 from boiling over. With just a handful of minutes to go in the third period of game 6, Martin Gelinas appeared to direct a puck off his skate just across the line for what, in all likelihood, would have been the Cup-winning goal. The NHL claims that their video officials in both Calgary and at the league offices in Toronto quickly analyzed the play and determined that the video was insufficient to score the goal. Neither the goal judge nor the on-ice official signaled a goal. Therefore the video evidence has to be conclusive to count the goal. But the video sure looked like the puck was across the line.
This type of thing is becoming more common in big games. In game 3 of the 2003 Eastern Conference finals, New Jersey scored a goal that wasn’t counted. The sped-up face-off procedures didn’t give the video replay officials sufficient time to call down to the ice to signal that a replay was underway. Luckily for the league the Devils went on to win that game anyway.
The situation on Saturday night was similar in that sped-up face-off procedures don’t leave sufficient time for the video replay booth to call the scoring table and stop play until a correct call can be made. The real tragedy is that technology exists to get things right but we’re not using it.
For example, when the Fox network briefly held the contract to cover the NHL on American television a few years back, they devised a computer chip to place inside the puck. They used the technology to make the puck show up better on TV. It was goofy and corny and really unnecessary. But the technology itself could hold some promise in a disputed goal situation. It seems to me that the same type of puck technology could be used to determine the location of the puck on the ice. Sensors could even be installed on the goal posts so that an alarm would be set off whenever the puck crosses the line. This would even be helpful in situations where a puck is on the goal line but under the goaltender’s body or equipment, which makes video replays useless.
The technology probably wouldn’t be perfect and video would still be necessary. But if measures could be taken so that the computer sensor didn’t change the performance of the puck itself, it is something that deserves exploration. The most important thing is that the league gets it right when the stakes are so high.
In Other News…
The Ottawa Senators shocked their fans and the media by hiring Anaheim GM Bryan Murray to succeed Jacques Martin behind the bench next season. It had been widely reported that former Blues coach Joel Quenneville and Leafs assistant Keith Acton were the front-runners for the Sens job. In fact, there wasn’t a single media report up until a week ago that even mentioned the possibility of Murray.
This move leaves Joel Quenneville free to decide between the New York Rangers and Phoenix. He’ll end up in Phoenix. Paul Maurice is another head coaching candidate that hasn’t received much attention. Columbus might be his destination of choice.
The real question is what to make of the Rangers. They’ve had a terrible time convincing anyone to even consider taking the job. One possibility is promoting current assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld. Glen Sather is probably reluctant to turn this expensive toy over to a minor league head-coach without NHL experience. But the junior coach most likely to make the jump to the NHL head-coaching ranks is Kelowna’s Marc Habscheid. It’s not without precedent. Spokane’s Mike Babcock guided Anaheim to the Stanley Cup finals in his first year as an NHL head coach after moving up from the WHL.
Habscheid might be a possibility in St. Louis if the Blues decide not to keep Mike Kitchen on as head coach. Although it’s looking more and more like Kitchen will keep the job, as the Blues haven’t made any moves to interview a potential replacement yet.
Looking Ahead
The summer of 2004 could be perhaps the most eventful off-season in the history of the NHL. The first challenge is for the league to make some progress with the Player’s Association on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. There’s a two and a half month window of opportunity available but it doesn’t look good.
Unfortunately for the fans, the success of the Flames and the Lightning makes a powerful argument for the player’s against a hard salary cap. Both teams succeeded despite being in the middle to lower half of the league in total payroll. The players seem very immovable on the issue of a salary cap at this point. Without some form of cost control in a new CBA, the owners will lock the players out on September 1st. It seems as if there is a train wreck in the works.
The number of unrestricted and restricted free agents available this off-season is the highest in recent memory. Most teams are facing some tough decisions with their highest paid stars. In many cases, teams are reluctant to sign mega-deals with players until they can be sure their money will be going to good use in the fall.
In the coming weeks ahead I’ll be going through the issues surrounding the CBA and a looming lockout. We’ll also take a look at each team in terms of free agency as well as cover the entry draft from top to bottom. If there is NHL hockey next season the game will have undergone some serious changes. There’s a slate of new rules waiting to take effect. We’ll analyze what effect they’ll have on scoring.
If things aren’t looking promising for the NHL by mid-August we’ll at least be able to turn our attention to the World Cup. I’ll be covering the World Cup for Sportsfiends.com from St. Paul in early September.
Just because the NHL playoffs are over doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of hockey to talk about.
Eric Slusher resides in Spokane, WA and covers the NHL for SportsFiends.com through his weekly Wednesday Morning Skate column and other hockey related articles. Readers can contribute to the Wednesday Morning Skate or send comments to Eric by emailing him at eslusher@sportsfiends.com.
