oo mimi cat om

 

 

 
   

Garth McLennan
sports editor

ell, Game 1 is in the books and
the Vancouver Canucks scored
a pretty convincing victory

over Chicago with a 5-1 win. However,
it’s a long series, with a long way to go,
and if Alain Vigneault’s club wants to win
this one, several dominoes will have to
fall their way.

1)Roberto Luongo: After a shake
first round against Los Angeles,
the Canucks captain was excellent
in Game 1, making 36 saves and
keeping the Canucks in the game
early until the offense revved up.
Basically, Luongo was everything
that he was supposed to be, and
he displayed why he can be one of
the best goalies in the world. That
level of performance needs to be
maintained if the Canucks are going
to continue to win against a team
with snipers like Patrick Kane,
Jonathon Toews and Marian Hossa.

2)Team effort: When the Canucks beat
Chicago on Saturday, it was through
a complete, thorough effort. All four
lines rolled effectively, and scored,
and all six defenseman (yes, even
Andrew Alberts) played solid at both
ends of the rink. While it would be
unreasonable to expect that sort of
sustained play from everyone, it sure
was nice seeing names like Michael
Grabner Kyle Wellwood and Rick
Rypien contribute offensively.

3) Pressure Antti Niemi: One of the
major weaknesses that was easy
to identify heading into this series
was the goaltending of Antti Niemi,
who was clearly designated as the
main man for Chicago’s playoff run.

How to beat the ‘Hawks

 

He wasn’t great against Nashville,
which was easy to miss because he
posted a pair of shutouts in Chicago’s
six-game victory in that series (let’s
be honest here though; notching a
shutout against the Predators should
really only count as half with the
offence, or lack thereof, that they
have in Memphis).

Against the Canucks in Game
1, Niemi did little to install any sort
of confidence in his team. While he
didn’t have a lot of help, he let in
weak goals against Mason Raymond
at the end of the first, Henrik Sedin to
start the second and Wellwood mid-
way through the second. Christian
Ehrhoff’s blast to open the game’s
scoring was stoppable as well. By
the time he was yanked in favour of
Cristoball Huet, he looked beyond
shell-shocked.

4) Aggressive forecheck: The
Blackhawks are renowned for
having one of the most mobile and
offensively gifted defence corps
in the entire NHL. Duncan Keith,
Brent Seabrook (both Team Canada
blueliners at the Olympics) and Brian
Campbell are all capable of creating
a rush and with the forwards that
Chicago has that can be deadly.

The key to preventing this, as
the Canucks employed to great effect
on Saturday, is to hit the Chicago
defence hard after dumping the
puck in. Campbell in particular,
who is coming off a multitude of
injuries after getting rammed into the
boards a few months back by Alex

.. Ovechkin, has a history of avoiding
bodychecks at all costs, even if
that means sacrificing the puck and
the play. Both Keith and Seabrook
slowed considerably in Game 1 after
the consistent pressure from Alex
Burrows and Ryan Kesler.

 

&
Sorts.

 

How did Miller not get nominated?

Buffalo goalie deserves Hart nod for exceptional play

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

he NHL announced its
list of potential award
winners last week,

including nominations for its
most prestigious honour, the Hart
Trophy.

Henrik Sedin, Alexander
Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby
all have their merits as to why

-| they should take home the Hart

Trophy this year, but there is one
guy who was conspicuously left
out; Goaltender Ryan Miller of
the Buffalo Sabres, and to put

it bluntly, his exclusion was a
travesty.

The NHL defines the winner
of the Hart Trophy as the “player
adjudged most valuable to his
team.” If that is indeed the case,
and the Professional Hockey
Writers Association (who vote on
the annual Hart winner) follow
that definition, then there is no
legitimate reason why Miller
should not be included.

If the Vancouver Canucks
were without Henrik Sedin for
the entire year, they’d have
missed the playoffs. If the
Capitals were without Ovechkin,
they still would have been good
(they had a winning record in
games he missed). Pittsburgh
without Crosby would have still
contended for a playoff spot. But
Buffalo without Miller? They
would have been worse than
Toronto, and that’s hard to do.

The Sabres gave up the
fourth fewest goals this year,
and that is in large part due to
Miller, whose stats this year are
indicative of just how important
he has been to his team. Miller
played 69 games this season and
was second in the NHL in saves
percentage with a sterling .929
rating (Tukka Rask, who led the
league in that stat, played just
45 games, 24 fewer than Miller).
The Sabres, who stunned the

hockey world by winning their
division and finishing third in the
Eastern Conference, didn’t make
things particularly easy on their
keeper either. Only three goalies
faced more shots than the 2098
that Miller stared down, and the
Buffalo goalie, who also starred
for Team USA at the Olympics
and was named tournament MVP,
also finished third in saves with
1948. His 41 wins placed him
just four back of league leader
Martin Broduer, who played on

a considerably stronger club in
New Jersey, and his goals-against-
average (GAA) was a shining
2.22, which was good enough

to place him second in the NHL
(again, with an asterisk behind
Rask).

The only other team who
depended so heavily on one
player for their club’s success was
the Phoenix Coyotes, with their
own goaltender Ilya Brzgalov,
whose numbers slightly trailed
Miller’s. There’s little doubt that
when all the votes are tallied
at the awards ceremony in Las
Vegas as the end of the year,
Miller will have finished fourth in
voting and Bryzgalov fifth.

It’s still somewhat of a
mystery as to why it’s so difficult
for goalies to capture the league’s
biggest individual prize. The
last netminder to take home the
Hart was Dominick Haskek in
1998 (oddly enough, he did it
with Buffalo), but since then it
has almost exclusively been the
domain of high-scoring forwards.
There has been somewhat of a
perception that goalies shouldn’t
be given as much weight in voting
for the Hart, as they have their
own award (the Vezina Trophy,
which Miller is a shoe-in to win).
That may be the case, but when a
squad is as dependant on one guy,
no matter what position he plays,
that player should get his props.

 

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