A 56.7 million dollar cap ?

The League will be recording an another hike in revenu which will likely raise the salary cap for 2008-09, to certain estimations around 54 million. Don’t forget that last year, the NHLPA used the 5 percent option in the CBA to hike it to 50.3 million. If the Association should do it again this year, this will mean that we will have a 56.7 million cap, with a minimum of 40.7 million as the cap floor.

During the off-season, teams can exceed the cap by 10 % of the limit, so if the cap limit for next season is 56.7 million, teams can go as high as 62.370 million, from July 1^st til the last day of training camp.

So let’s say the limit is 56.7 million next season, here is an estimated look at what the Gm’s have to work with.

Eastern Conference

Team	Est cap hit hit 08-09	Space available
Boston	48,311,667	8,388,333
Buffalo	39,706,224	16,993,776
Montreal	37,418,633	19,281,367
Ottawa	41,438,996	15,261,004
Toronto	43,929,167	12,770,833
Avg/Team	42,160,937	14,539,063
New Jersey	41,751,073	14,948,927
Islanders	35,259,067	21,440,933
Rangers	42,424,260	14,275,740
Philadelphia*	49,868,333	6,831,667
Pittsburgh	34,557,567	22,142,433
Avg/Team	40,772,060	15,927,940
Atlanta	36,309,676	20,390,324
Florida	40,962,500	15,737,500
Carolina	39,825,000	16,875,000
Tampa Bay	37,378,056	19,321,944
Washington	39,198,878	17,501,122
Avg/Team	38,734,822	17,965,178

Western Conference

Team	Est cap hit hit 08-09	Space available
Chicago	49,247,087	7,452,913
Columbus	28,040,833	28,659,167
Detroit	40,122,778	16,577,222
Nashville	39,041,087	17,658,913
St-Louis	44,615,833	12,084,167
Avg/Team	40,213,524	16,486,476
Calgary	47,598,333	9,101,667
Colorado	30,326,667	26,373,333
Edmonton	44,390,053	12,309,947
Minnesota	37,455,500	19,244,500
Vancouver	35,700,000	21,000,000
Avg/Team	39,094,111	17,605,889
Anaheim	53,026,667	3,673,333
Los Angeles	$37,719,617.00	18,980,383
Phoenix	35,231,667	21,468,333
Dallas	48,573,889	8,126,111
San Jose	41,779,167	14,920,833
Avg/Team	43,266,201	13,433,799

If you need explanations, go visit NHLSCAP.COM

Eighty-five Games later

Yes folks, that’s what it took the league to find a champion in 2008. 85 games, 4 rounds and 15 playoff series. The New Stanley cup Champions played a total of 22 games to win the magic 16.

In the eighty-five games, a total of 458 goals, which comes up to an average of 5.39 per game. Each playoff series took an average of 5.67 games to play.

Round by Round breakdown

Round 1

8 Series - 48 games and 258 goals scored (5.37 per game)

· 3 ----------- 7 game series

· 3 ------------6 game series

· 1-------------5 game series

· 1-------------4 game series

Round 2

4 Series – 20 games and 117 goals scored (5.85 per game)

· 1-----------6 game series

· 2-----------5 game series

· 1-----------4 game series

Round 3

2 Series – 11 games and 56 goals scored (5.09 per game)

· 1-------5 game series

· 1-------6 game series

The Stanley cup Final

1 Series – 6 games and 27 goals (4.50 per game )

Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Stanley cup Champions

Room for Osgood in the Record book

The NHL created an alternate site for the playoffs and on that site, you can find Both playoff and final series records and in different categories.

One record that could be with in his reach, is one that his teammate Hasek established the last time the Red Wings win the cup. In 2002, Dominik Hasek had gone 166 mins and 3 seconds without letting a goal in against the Carolina Hurricanes, which was 22 mins and 32 seconds shy of Frank McCool’s record. Except McCool had established his record from game 1 in the 1945 cup Final against Detroit. With an another goaless performance by Osgood in game three, he would be only 8 mins and 36 seconds from re-writting Mr.McCool’s record, that has held up for the last 43 years now.

Osgood also could tie a record if he goes unscored on in game three. The most shoutouts in a final series. Martin Brodeur was the last to do it in 2003 against Mike Babcock’s Anaheim team.

If he let’s in less than 3 goals in this series, he would tie Terry Sawchuck for the fewest goals in one series.

Bowman : Red Wings secret weapon

The legendary coach won’t be stopping pucks on Penguins rushes, he won’t be playing the point on the powerplay with Nicklas Lidstrom, he won’t be in front of net chasing loose pucks, but he will be useful in an another way.

Scotty Bowman will have a birds eye view on what Pittsburgh coach Therrien will be throwing on the ice, taking notes and giving his recommendations to Wings coach Mike Babcock.

Pittsburgh coach, Michel Therrien, has said that he does not believe in line matching, one of Bowman’s masterfull skills in his coaching days. Therrien can say that all he wants, but I’m sure he knows that the legendary coach has always had a few tricks up his sleeve. True, Babcock is not Bowman, and has his own way in coaching, which is good, and Scotty won’t deny it, but at the back of Babcock’s mind, he has to say to himself, ‘’ I have a fountain of information, coaching knowledge and experience right in my backward, why not use it.’’

And Why not. You have to be brain dead or not have lived on this planet to not dig in to that vast and immense fountain of information. Babcock is far from being brain dead and has lived on this planet long enough to know that you don’t pass up chance like this, espacially that you have the better chance of winning a Stanley cup this time around then in the first one.Babcock was the coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks when they went to the cup finals in 2003 against the New Jersey Devils.

Bowman has won more games in both regular season and playoffs combined, than any player on both sides will ever play in their careers, and that includes both coaches.

A whisper from Bowman to Babcock, could change the series, and we will never know what was said, but it won’t matter once Lidstrom picks up the Stanley cup.

The Detroit Red Wings are headed to their fourth Stanley cup final in eleven years, which comes up to about a cup final appearance every 2.7 years. The Pittsburgh Penguins will make their first in 16 years. Sidney Crosby was not even 5 years old when now owner Mario Lemieux hoisted the big mug and the Conn Smythe Trophy for the second straight time.

The only common point between these teams besides their respective high octane offense, is that Scotty Bowman was behind the bench when both teams last won a Stanley Cup.

Scorring First

Detroit’s record when scoring first during these playoffs is 10-1, when trailing it’s 2-3. Pittsburgh has not lossed when they have scored first, and are even when trailing at 2-2. When leading after period 1, Detroit is 11-1, Pittsburgh is 7-0. Trailing after 1, Detroit is 0-1, Pittsburgh is 1-1.

Leading after two, Detroit is 11-0, Pittsburgh is 9-0. When trailing, Detroit is 0-3 and the Pens are 1-2.

No real advantage for either.

Face-offs

Advantage to Detroit, they are really good in the circle and it’s become their bread and butter. Detroit is at 55.7 % and Pittsburgh is at 46.7 %

Detroit has very good face-off guys in Draper and Zetterberg. Draper is at 63.4 and Zetterberg is at 57.9 %.

Jordan Staal has been the best for Pittsburgh so far in this run, but Crosby and the rest will have to step up their face-off skills to beat a very good Red Wings team.

Turnovers

As we saw in the Dallas-Detroit series, turnovers killed the Stars. Zetterberg and Datsyuk have 34 takeaways between the both of them. Pittsburgh is not too bad in that area either, as the Crosby line totals 40 takeaways, so beware Detroit.

I will say Detroit in 5

Finals Stats

Face-off circle is doing in Dallas and Philadelphia

Face-offs are key to the success you have in the playoffs, but not always. Detroit is ripping the Dallas Stars appart in the face-off circle, and in is being transformed into goals.

Look at the table for the three games played so far. These are face-offs in all three zones.

% percentage for the series.

Detroit	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	16	9	10	35	58	60.3
Game 2	13	12	14	39	55	70.9
Game 3	6	8	17	31	54	57.4
	35	29	41	105	167	62.9
	59.3	65.9	64.1

Dallas	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	10	6	7	23	58	39.7
Game 2	6	4	6	16	55	29.1
Game 3	8	5	10	23	54	42.6
	24	15	23	62	167	37.1
	40.7	34.1	35.9

You can’t expect to win to many games or series with averages like the ones obtained by Dallas.

In the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh series, the guys leading the series are miserable on the face-offs, but the pucks seems to follow them to the net and in.

Pittsburgh	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	7	9	12	28	54	51.9
Game 2	10	8	13	31	72	43.1
Game 3	5	5	11	21	50	42.0
	22	22	36	80	176	45.5

Philadelphia	OFF	DEF	NEUT	TOT	Gametotal	%
Game 1	8	3	15	26	54	48.1
Game 2	15	13	13	41	72	56.9
Game 3	8	3	18	29	50	58.0
	31	19.0	46.0	96	176	54.5

Winning face-offs don’t mean anything if your not doing anything with it afterwards.Detroit is steamrolling the Stars, and the Flyers are getting steamrolled, as they are not completing the work after the puck drops.

Most likely we will have a Pittsburgh-Detroit Stanley cup final. You can be sure that Detroit will want to continue it’s winning ways in the face-off circle, so Penguins beware, sharpen up your skills as the Wings mean business.

The 5 K’s spot win for Habs and …

Team captain Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, The Kostityn brothers and Tom Kostopolous shine for the Habs in game 1 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

The Canadiens got off to a pretty good start, but was luck was not on their side, a few goal post, and open net, but could not get one in. The Flyers where able to capitalise on the bad bounces from the Canadiens defensemen. First, Patrice Brisebois tried to intercept a pass and deflected it in back of Carey Price. A few minutes later, an another mistake caused the second Flyers goal. The Flyers went in to the dressing room with a 2-0 lead.

The Canadiens got their legs back and took advantage of the Flyers lack of speed on defense and Andrei Kostityn scored on a missed pass from brother Sergei. The Habs number 46 had missed on a penalty shot. On contraversial goal by Alex Kovalev while short-handed.

In the third, in the opening seconds, Carey Price mishandled a shot, and bounced of Joffrey Lupul skate and landed behind the Habs goaltender. With a minute and nine seconds to go in the game, Flyers take a penalty, Coach Carbonneau calls a time out and pulls Carey Price in favour of a sixth player on the powerplay. Alex Kovalev flips a wrist shot past Flyers goaltender, Martin Biron, to tie things up with 29 seconds left.

In the early stages of the overtime, with less than a minute played, journeyman, Tom Kostopolous ticks one in behind Biron and wins it for the Habs to the joy of the Full house fans in the Bell Centre.

Alex Kovalev and Tom Kostopolous got Stars one and three, and also honoured as NHL.com’s stars two and three.

Habs and Flyers return for game two tomorrow night at 7 pm at the Bell Centre on RDS or CBC’s Hockey night in Canada.

After shinning in the series against the Minnesota Wild, Jose Theodore had a nightmare evening last night in game 1 of the Detroit and Colorado semi-final. After seeing his team take a 1-0 lead, he was victim of four unanswered Detroit goals, before being pulled by Colorado coach Joel Quenneville for Peter Budaj, who gave up nothing. Colorado got a lift and stormed towards a comeback, but fell short a goal. Will Quenneville go back with Theodore or will he chance it with Budaj ? We shall find out tomorrow afternoon at 3pm in Detroit, catch the game on NBC or on TSN.

The other two conference semi-finals start tonight in Pittsburgh and in San Jose.

Stanley Cup up for grabs

Last year's Stanley Cup champions, the Anaheim Ducks were eliminated last night by the Dallas Stars. The Ducks elimination should really come as no surprise, as the team struggled in the first half of the season. The Niedermayer and Selanne lack of decision on their possiblement retirements created a distraction, and the team never really blended together. The speculation and the rumour mill will run wild now, will Burke stay in Anaheim, or take on a new challenge ? Will it be Vancouver or will he go east to Toronto? The same can be said about Niedermayer and Selanne. Stay tuned folks.

Habs and Boston play the decisif game 7 tonight in Montreal. For the young Habs this is turning out to be one learning experience in playoff hockey. This is the second time in four years that theboth teams play a game 7. In 2004, The Habs had shutout the Bruins 2-0, Richard Zednick was the hero in that game. Guy Carbonneau will be looking at the guys with game 7 experience to calme the younger guys down. This could turn out to be Carey Price's biggest game in his young career. Price seems to shine in tight situations, he will be put to the test for sure.

Detroit, Colorado, Pittsburgh, New York and Dallas will be watching the outcomes in the remaining series to find out who their next opponents will be.

Should be interesting folks, stay tuned.

The Real season begins tonight

Well after close to 7 months of regular season play, the real season begins tonight, as the first games of the playoffs take place. In the East, the return series between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins.Last year, The Sens made the Penguins look like amateurs, but this year the roles could reversed. The Ottawa team struggled all thru the second half of the season, they changed coach, and now they are without three key players that helped in last spring’s cup run. We will find out if they can get their focus back. It will be interesting to see how they react. The Penguins on the other hand, played well while Crosby was out with an injury, and did not miss a beat. As it has been proven in the past, games 1,3 and 5 are the pivotal games in a series, the team that wins those games, win the series. For Ottawa to have any chance at winning this match up with Pittsburgh, they must split the first two, if not, they could be in big trouble in games 3 and 4 in Ottawa, as the hill maybe to steep to go up, and time is never on your side when your down in a series. This goes also for all series, and all teams, win game 1. It puts pressure on the other team to get back in the series and gives you momemtum.

Predictions for round one:

East

Montreal in 5

Piitsburgh in 6

Washington in 7

New York Rangers in 7

West

Detroit in 5

Calgary in 7

Minnesota in 6

Anaheim in 5

Last night on Hockey night in Canada’s preview show, Ron Maclean sat with legendary coach, Scotty Bowman and went thru all the series in the hour long show. Scotty has a great memory, he had no notes or anything, knew everything he needed to know about key players and situations that arise during the playoffs. You can see the replay on CBC website.

Habs, Red Wings, Penguins and Sharks have qualified

The NHL’s oldest and most storied franchise has qualified for the 2008 Stanley cup playoffs. They did got their pass on Monday when beating the Ottawa Senators. The Canadiens are five wins away from matching the number of wins they had when they won the Stanley Cup fifteen years ago. In that season, teams played 84 games, the actual format of 82 was adopted in the 1995-96 season. It will be interesting to see if the Canadiens will start the playoffs in first, second or fourth in the East. With a first place or second place finish, the Habs could possibly meet either Boston or Philadelphia, two that have been manhandled by Les Glorieux all season.

For the Red Wings, up until a month ago, the season had just been routine, an another day at the office. As I write this, the Wings first place parking spot is not as safe, as the San Jose Sharks, are only 8 points out of first, and have a game in hand. The Detroit team has not missed playoffs since the 1989-90 season. They won three Stanley Cups during Scotty Bowman’s nine years as bench boss.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have made the playoffs for a second consecutive season since the end of the lock-out. Before last season’s appearance, they had missed them four consecutive seasons, not including the cancelled season. They are in a deep three way race to finish first in the Eastern conference with the Montreal Canadiens and the New Jersey Devils.

The San Jose Sharks with a surprising 10 game winning streak, is within striking range of first place with the Detroit Red Wings. Under the coaching of Ron Wilson the Sharks have not missed the playoffs, they made a good run in 2003-04 against the Calgary Flames. They have lost in the second round in previous two appearances. Could this be the year of the Shark ?

The Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers could very well get invitations to the playoffs in the next week or less, but most likely, as it has been since the end of the lock out, will be a tight race until April 6^th, the final day of season. Invitations could as well go out to Anaheim, the cup champions, Dallas and Minnesota. Vancouver, Colorado, Nashville and Edmonton will most likely fight it out until the end for spots 5 thru 8 in the Western conference. It will most likely be the same in the East between the Rangers, Flyers, Bruins and the Capitals. These guys have less than two weeks to settle all, as the playoffs start April 9^th.