More Crosby & Gretzky

Today is a perfect time to further compare the current exploits of Sidney Crosby to the greatness of Gretzky...no, not that Gretzky above, the mullet-laden one below (I'll take any chance I can to put a picture of Paulina on the Den).

Anyway rather than look at the streaks of each, I wanted to further examine just the raw season stats.

Sid has now played 38 games and tallied 32 goals and 33 assists. In 1981/82, after Wayner had played 38 games he had 45 goals and 57 assists. Of course, the next game he went out and ventilated Pete Peeters and the Flyers for 5 goals and a helper. At first glance it's obvious that Gretz's 102 points in 38 games blows Sid's 65 out of the water. I am here however to provide more than a "first glance", that's where the calculator comes in.

We all know that a straight-up comparison of different eras doesn't give a clear picture, especially the free-wheeling early '80s versus today's game. Over the entire 1981/82 season each and every game produced an average of 8.03 goals per match, today the average is 5.61/game. If we want to look at the numbers they have to be put on a level field.

Scoring today is almost exactly 70% than that of 1981/82's rate. If Gretzky's first half of that season is equated into today's rate of scoring it translates into 31 goals, 40 assists for 71 points in 38 games. Gretz still leads Sid by six points, but Sid actually is scoring at a comparitively better rate. I distinctly remember following as a kid the progress of Gretzky's run to 50 in 39, (I still have the scrapbook of newspaper clippings I kept) so to watch Crosby collect goals and points as he is now is that much more impressive and fascinating to me.

One other weird thing about Crosby's last calendar year is the amazing increase in his goals/game average. Over the first 330 games of his career (up until Jan 1, 2010) his goal rate was 0.470/GP and assist rate was 0.879/GP. Since the beginning of 2010, he has now played 78 games and tallied 60 goals, 66 assists and 126 points. His assist rate is pretty much the same at 0.846/GP but his goals have increase almost by almost two-thirds to 0.769/GP. This is no small sample size either. How does a guy who was already a superstar increase his goal scoring by that much? Was it the Olympic spotlight that spawned the goal scoring spurt, or is it the HBO camera's following him around for the last few months? Whatever it is, it is ridiculously impressive.

Don Simmons, 1962 Cup Winner

On this evenings' Leaf broadcast, play by play man Joe Bowen offered his condolences for the recent passing of ex-Leaf goalie Don Simmons. The strange thing about that is the fact that Simmons actually passed away this past September. Apparently it was his wish that the news be kept low key. Simmons was a solid back up for most of his NHL career as well as a terrfic minor leaguer. He produced 321 professional wins over 18 seasons including 101 in the big leagues.

In January of 1957 he made his NHL debut with Boston when he was purchased from Springfield of the AHL. The Bruins Terry Sawchuk would be out for the remainder of the year with "nervous exhaustion". 25 year old Simmons filled in admirably going 13-9-4 with 2.42 GAA. He then lead them past the first place Red Wings before losing four games to one to Montreal in the final.

The following year Simmons shared the net duties with Harry Lumley and once again led the B's to the finals. His 2.41 regular season GAA was third in the circuit and he improved to 2.24 in 11 post season tilts. 1958/59 was Smmons only season as undisputed starter. playing 58 games. However by the time the playoff rolled around, Harry Lumley had usurped Simmons as starter and played every game in a first round loss to Toronto.

In January of 1961 Simmons was traded to the Leafs and served as Johnny Bower's main back-up for three years. In 1962/63 he actually led the NHL with a 2.46 GAA while playing 28 games.

It was in the spring of 1962 when Don Simmons proved instrumental in Toronto's first Stanley Cup victory in eleven years. He had played a mere 9 games in relief of the "China Wall" Bower but had to step into game four of the finals when the old vet went down with a leg injury.

Simmons played the final 45 minutes of a 4-1 loss to Chicago after Bower was injured making a save on Bobby Hull. He was in civilian clothes in the stands when summoned to fill in, and the final five minutes of the first were added onto the start of the second allowing Simmons time to get dressed. When the series returned to Toronto for game five there was thoughts of freezing Bower's leg to get him between the pipes,but Simmons was called again and stopped 26 of 30 shots in 8-4 Leaf win.

In game six Simmons earned his keep in stopping 20 of 21 shots allowing only a 3rd period Bobby Hull marker. Don Simmons finished the three finals games with two wins, one loss and an average of 2.91, and was the man in charge of the twine-tent when the Leaf's "curse of Barilko" was broken.

That would be Simmons' last ever NHL playoff match as he would play bits of three seasons with the Rangers backing up Ed Giacomin. Simmons would post years of 35 and 38 victories in the minors before retiring at the age of 37. Born in Port Colborne, Ont in 1931, Don Simmons was 69 years old.

Spengler Cup, Familiar faces

The Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland kicks off today. I have always been somewhat interested in this tournament due to some of the names that resurface. Also, the rink in Davos is a spectacular looking facility that looks great on TV. Team Canada is usually a cobbled together "all-star" squad of players toiling away in the Swiss League. A look at this year's rosters seems to show even more recognizable names than normal.

Moscow Spartak

Dominik Hasek,12-16-3, 2.68, 3 SO

One month shy of his 46th birthday, The Dominator continues to ply his trade for the sub.500 KHL squad.

Branko Radivojevic, 38-5-16-21

His third year in the KHL after scoring 120 points in 393 NHL games. Last season he
finished 7th in league scoring with 54 points.

SKA St.Petersburg

Mattias Weinhandl, 37-18-19-37

The ex-Islander and Wild sits 5th in KHL scoring the same spot he finished last year with 60 points.

Alexei Yashin, 35-11-14-25

After finishing 3rd in scoring, two points off the lead last year, it appears old man time has started to catch up with the 37 year old.

Maxim Afinogenov, 37-9-15-24

Not quite the season that was expected of a guy who had 61 points for the Thrashers last year.

Geneva Servette

Brian Pothier, 30-4-17-21

Veteran of 362 NHL games including Washington and Carolina last year, Pothier is one of the top scoring d-men in the Swiss circuit.

Richard Park, 31-12-12-24

34 year old vet of 684 NHL matches played the last four seasons with the New York Islanders.

Sparta Prague

David Vyborny, 34-6-6-12

The 35 year old is playing for Sparta Praha for his tenth total season of the last nineteen. He played seven full years with the Columbus Blue Jackets scoring 317 points in 543 games.

HC Davos

Reto Von Arx, 36-14-22-36

In his fifteenth season with Davos Von Arx had one year stint with Chicago and their farm team Norolk in 2000-01. Other than that, he is a consitent point-per-game producer in the Swiss league.

Canada

Mark Bell, 36-13-8-21, Kloten

Back to back 20 goal seasons for Chicago in the mid-2000s, Bell is in his second year playing in Europe.

Josh Holden, 29-13-24-37, Zug

Ex-Canuck and Leaf, in his sixth season as a consistent top scorer in the Swiss league.

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, 4-5-2, 3.34, Oklahoma City AHL

He of 48 NHL games last year is on loan from the Oilers farm team.

Martin Kariya, 25-4-12-16, Ambri-Piotta

The 29 year old undrafted brother of Paul Kariya is in his third year playing in Europe after scorin 53 points in the AHL in 2007-08.

Johnny Bower and Honky the Christmas Goose

Exactly 45 years ago, Maple Leaf goaltender Johnny Bower was approached by a CBC producer to make a Christmas record. Although hesitant, he soon recorded Honky the Christmas Goose with the help of his nine year old son Johnny Jr. and some neighbourhood kids. The record sold 40,000 copies during Christmas 1965, the proceeds of which were donated to charity.

The Christmas break in the NHL is a good time look back on the year that was. The following are the top NHL scorers from last years Christmas break to now. (GP-G-A-PTS)

Sidney Crosby 80-58-65-123

Steven Stamkos 80-57-51-108

Henrik Sedin 78-21-87-108

Daniel Sedin 77-39-66-105

Alex Ovechkin 80-38-66-104

Martin St.Louis 80-36-62-98

Niklas Backstrom 82-29-64-93

Brad Richards 80-30-59-89

Alex Semin 79-44-43-87

Eric Staal 76-39-46-85

The 123 points would represent a career season for Crosby, and Ovechkin's 38 goals would be by far his lowest full-season total.

Old Man Point Producers

Teemu Selanne is a pretty special player, has been for a long time. What he's doing this season however is almost unprecedented. Only two men in the history of the NHL have scored at least a point per game in a season in which they were at least 40 years of age. Teemu is well on his way to becoming the third.

Selanne turned 40 this past July and has played 29 games for Anaheim this season. He has 32 points for 1.10 points per game. The first man to accomplish this was Gordie Howe in 1968/69 at 40 years even. He scored an amazing 103 points in 76 games for 1.36 Pts/GP. Howe would go on to score almost 700 more points in the NHL and WHA combined.

The second and last man to score at a point-per-game clip as a 40 year old was Johnny Bucyk of Boston in 1975/76 who was also exactly 40. The Chief scored 83 points in 77 games, at 1.08 Pts/GP just behind Selanne's rate. Bucyk almost repeated his productivity the following year with 43 points in 49 games before falling off the pace in his last year.

As for Selanne, who knows if he plays even next year. It's obvious he is still quite capable of playing at a high level.

Lynn Zimmerman, Goalie Assist Machine

Years before Grant Fuhr set the NHL mark with 14 goalie assists in 1983/84, a minor league tender accomplished the same feat...and he almost matched it the following year as well.

5"8" Lynn Zimmerman from Fort Erie, Ontario began his professional career in 1966/67 with the Eastern League Charlotte Checkers and was a Second Team All-Star. He played most of the next eight years in the AHL, mainly with Rochester. By 1975/76 he was in the North American Hockey League with the Erie Blades. He had 30 wins in 54 games, and more impressively he also had 13 assists. He also spent three weeks filling in for the soon-to-fold Denver/Ottawa WHA team where he garnered another helper.

Apparently Zimmerman was so able and active with the puck, Erie coach Nick Polano devised a breakout plan around him. "This year Nick put in a system where I handle the puck instead of the defenseman. We work on it in practice everyday. When the other team comes in after the puck we just break out and trap them." says Zimmerman in the March 19, '76 issue of Hockey News. Imagine a goalie today making the first pass as a defenseman does. The issue also states that he once collected three assists in one AHL game. Jeff Reese, with Calgary in Feb, 1993. is the only other pro goalie to accomplish this.

The following year with Erie, he collected another 12 assists for a two season total of 26. He would finish up his career the following season in the WHA with the Houston Aeros.

Fed Up with Phil

I had my first chance to see Phil Kessel play in person last night. I sat 13 rows above Luongo's left side in the corner for two periods and had a terrific angle on most of the Leaf "chances" as well as the deciding 2-0 Vancouver goal in the second. The Canucks (rather lackadaisically) beat the Leafs 4-1 in a game in which the entertainment value was derived mainly from the atmosphere in the crowd. The Leafs simply do not have the talent to compete effectively against an elite team such as Vancouver, especially with Phil Kessel playing well below his potential. I'm starting to lean more towards the thinking that what we're seeing in fact is his full potential, and that makes me sad and angry.

Kessel certainly has dynamic hockey skills, great speed and a terrific shot. These are displayed far too infrequently however to have much of an impact on a game. His one move on a rush, the "outside/inside toe-drag" works far less than half the time. It worked once last night on Dan Hamhuis (0:24 mark on video below) but led to a weak back-handed attempt that Luongo turned aside easily. Kessel ended up with six shots on goal while playing 19:25. More importantly he finished with a minus 2 rating. His worst display was on the back-breaker 2-0 Vancouver goal which I saw unfold as it happened.

Kessel made a simply awful fly-by on a puck just inside the offensive zone (awful even for Rec beer league hockey) with the intimidating Jeff Tambellini closing in on him. (1:35 mark below, top of the screen) and leaves Luke Schenn hung out to dry. Tamby simply chips it past Schenn as Kessel falls on his own into the boards. Four seconds later it's in the back of the net. How he just allows this puck to be picked up unmolested is beyond my comprehension.




Kessel is the type of purely offinsive minded player that has little care for his own end but admittedly should be surrounded with players of slightly better quality. Bozak and Versteeg are not first-liners, sorry Burkie. This being the case, Kessel absolutely needs to produce when his chances present themselves...and any defensive consciousness would be welcomed.

On another note regarding last night's affair. It really is mind-boggling how Roberto Luongo received the First Star selection. He made perhaps 3 or 4 above average saves, and bobbled at least twice as many shots. The Grabovski goal over his glove hand simply should have been stopped. Oh well, another example of home town bias.

So, Toronto hasn't won in Vancouver since before the lockout, yet myself and many other Leafs still attend. It's getting to the point where we as Leaf fans are made to look like idiots for caring so much when it seems the teams' management and star player have minimal concern for the continuing ineptitude.

The Just Missed All-Stars

I recently came across the official, end of season All-Star voting results from the late 1970's onward. It's interesting to look at the numbers to see where players were ranked and how the All-Star votes compared to individual Trophy voting.

Back in 1988 there was some strange voting for the Goaltender All-Stars and the Vezina voting.
Grant Fuhr won the Vezina and was named First Team All-Star by collecting 297 voting points, Patrick Roy was voted to the Second Team with a distant 64 points. In the Vezina voting, for some reason, Roy didn't fare as well. Fuhr won again going away with 78 points over second place Tom Barrasso (22 points) and third place Kelly Hrudey (17 points). Roy somehow only garnered 2 second place and 2 third place votes for 8 points total to finish EIGHTH overall in Vezina voting. Also finishing ahead of him was Mike Vernon, John Vanbiesbrouck, Rejean Lemelin and Roy's teammate Brian Hayward. Puzzling.

The 1983/84 season proved to be one of the more difficult ever to choose the best goaltender.
Sure, Tom Barrasso was both the Vezina winner and First Team All-Star but what a tight vote it was. In a four man race, try choosing the best netminder out of these numbers;

Tom Barrasso 26-12-3, 2.84
Rejean Lemelin 21-12-9, 3.50
Pat Riggin, 21-14-2, 2.66
Al Jensen, 25-13-3, 2.91

This was the same order of Vezina Trophy voting, their vote totals were 42, 39, 37 and 37.
The All-Star voting had Riggin and Lemelin reversed and the four vote totals were 141, 131, 104 and 100.

Another incident of strange voting was for Norris Trophy in 1982/83 when Rod Langway won the first of his back-to-back. Although Langway won the Norris 180 votes to 155 over Mark Howe, he was well behind in the All-Star voting. Howe collected 262 All-Star points to Langway's 228.

Another neat thing to look at is players who almost were voted First or Second All-Stars, but never actually made it.

In 1980/81 Mike Bossy ran away with the Right Wing voting getting 299 points. Dave Taylor gained 85 points for Second Team just ahead of Wayne Babych's 71. This would be as close as Babych would ever get to being an All-Star.

Newly elected Hall-of-Famer Dino Ciccarelli came close twice to being a Second All-Star. In 1981/82 he was third in voting behind Mike Bossy and Rick Middleton. Even though Dino had 55 goals and 106 points to Middleton's 51 goals, 94 points it was Middleton who got two first place votes. Overall he had 102 voting points to Dino's 64.

Ciccarelli was slightly closer in 1986/87 when he finished third by 25 points, this time to Jari Kurri and Tim Kerr. That year, he finished sixth in the league in points with 103 but his 52 goals was 6 behind Kerr.

Craig Hartsburg came extremely close to being an All-Star in 81/82 when he finished fifth in voting just behind Brian Engblom (108 points to 112). Hartsburg actually received 14 first place votes, more than both Second Teamers, Paul Coffey and Engblom. In the past I discussed the selection of Engblom as an All-Star. http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.com/2008/09/worst-all-star-ever.html

A 12 point night

The Toronto Star recently had an in depth article detailing the Greater Metro Hockey League, and more specifically the Shelburne Red Wings. The GMHL labels itself as a Junior A (Tier II)league but is not officially sanctioned by Hockey Canada. The main reason for Hockey Canada's disapproval is the extremely unconventional route most teams went in filling their rosters. In the small town of Shelburne about an hour northwest of Toronto, the Red Wings 22 man roster consists of 19 Russian-born players.

The management of the team outwardly recruited in Russia, offering Russian youngsters a chance to develop their careers in Canada. Shelburne isn't the only team ignoring Hockey Canada's rules about Canadian content on their roster. Bobcaygeon has 11 Europeans on it's roster and the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jets have 23 Americans, 2 Russians and a Kazak on it's squad...zero Canadians. The Eliot Lake Bobcats have 7 Americans, 7 Slovaks and 2 players born in France and Bradford has only 3 Canadians to go with 18 Europeans.

The Shelburne experiment appears to be working fairly well too. In the thirteen team league Shelburne sits fourth overall with a 15-9-1 record. More impressively is the fact they sport the leagues top two point prodecers...by a ridiculous margin. 17 year olds Alexander Nikulnikov and Stanislav Dzakhov, both from Moscow have 84 and 83 points respectively in 25 games. The GMHL's third place scorer has 52 points. As well, Shelburne has scored a total of 129 goals on the season meaning these two have each garnered a point on almost two-thirds of the team's goals.

Understandably, the overall talent level in the GMHL may not be the greatest, but these two are impressive non-the-less. This past Friday Dzakhov did something that is impressive in ANY league. In a 13-8 win over the Algoma Avalanche he scored 5 goals and 7 assists for 12 points. His pal Nikulnikov had a mere 9 points with 5 goals. Last month the Columbus Blue Jackets were inquiring about the 6' 1", 205 lb Dzakhov, perhaps there will be more interest soon in this "renegade" league.

NitzyLeaks

As the WikiLeaks scandal unfolds, Nitzy's Hockey Den has just as damaging revelations that the hockey world would rather keep secret. Through a network of spies, moles and informants I present...NitzyLeaks.

1. Brian Burke has a secret 40% ownership stake in the Boston Bruins.

2. Henrik Sedin and Tanner Glass have a personal bet on who scores more goals this season, loser has to wash Luongo's Trans-Am

3. Marc Savard has removed Colin Campbell from his Christmas card list.

4. Ilya Kovalchuk is being paid 6.6 million a year to acurately impersonate the scoring talents of long gone Lou Lamoriello favourite, Hector Marini.

5. The entire Maple Leafs roster has vowed to not score goals while Jonas Gustavsson is in net, all goals are purely accidental. They apparently don't think too much of Giggy either.

6. Mike Green is so intent on winning a Norris Trophy he has decided to score just like Rod Langway.

7. This past summer, Tim Thomas broke into the Hockey Hall of Fame and stole the goalie pads of George Hainsworth.

8. Dustin Byfuglien doesn't need to be in an opponent's crease to score goals.

9. Gary Bettman plans on moving the Coyotes to Brantford, Ont. where they will be coached by Keith Gretzky.

10. In true HBO fashion, the Pens and Caps will engage in an expletive laden, yet darkly comedic gunfight during the first intermission of the Winter Classic.

Crosby's Dominance

As of the morning of Dec.9 Sid the Kid has scored a point in 17 consecutive games in which he has scored 35 points, just over 2 points per game. He has tallied 50 points in 30 games, 10 clear of second place Steven Stamkos.

Almost as impressive is the fact that after he started this year with only 3 points in his first 5 games, Crosby now has counted 47 points in 25 games. This works out to 1.88 points per match. If he were to continue at that pace over the remaining 52 games he will finish with 148 points while Stamkos is on pace for 117 points. This would be the largest margin for a scoring leader since the days of the original Kid, Gretzky.

If Crosby is to win a scoring title by at least 30 points (remember, Ovechkin has been fairly quiet still so far) it would be the first time since Gretzky had 163 points to Brett Hull's 131 in 1990/91.

Of course if he does end up scoring 148 points or anywhere near that many, that will be the real impressive story. Remember, nowadays goals are much more harder to come by than they were even 20 years ago. Today, each NHL game averages 5.59 goals while in 1990/91 the average was 6.91. Crosby's projected 148 would equate to 183 at 1991 scoring levels. If we take his season back to 1985/86 when the NHL average was 7.94 goals per game, his 148 becomes 210.

85/86 of course was the year Gretzky scored his record 215 points. Safe to say, the current season is only a third of the way through, but what Crosby is currently doing is fairly historic.

Ilya Kovalchuk, The Worst Season in History?

Is New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk in the midst of the worst single season for a forward in NHL history? At his current pace, he will finish with 79 games, 16 goals, 19 assists, 35 points and a minus 47 +/- rating. If so, he will be only the 12th man in history to have 16 or less goals and a +/- so low (remember +/- didn't become an official stat until 1967). A truly awful season for Kovy, especially considering the money he is getting paid.

Below are a few more seasons that would be in the running for worst all-time.

Jude Drouin,
Winnipeg Jets 1979/80
78-8-16-24, -38
At 31 years old in 79/80, Drouin was near the end of the line and would indeed play only 7 more games the following season. Drouin had just three years prior tallied 24 goals, and the year before 62 points. He topped out with 27 goals and 73 points in 72/73.

Eddie Joyal,
Los Angeles & Philadelphia 1971/72
70-14-7-21, -43
This would be Joyal's last year in the NHL after having seasons of 33 goals one year and 57 points another with the Kings. He jumped to the WHA in 72/73 and spent the last four years of his career with the Alberta/Edmonton Oilers.

Alexandre Daigle,
Ottawa 1995/96
50-5-12-17, -30
The first overall pick a mere two years prior to this clunker of a season, Daigle was at this point well on his way to fashioning what very well may be one of the worst careers ever in NHL history.

Pat Boutette,

Pittsburgh 1983/84

73-14-26-40, -58

Boutette had scored the previous three years 28, 27 and 23 goals. In 83/84 he would record the third worst +/- rating by a forward in NHL history. He would retire after 47 games the following year.

Dwight Foster,

Colorado 1981/82

70-12-19-31, -53

Foster had tallied 24 goals and 52 points with the Bruins the previous year before this clunker. He would also score 17 with a +/- of only -9 the next year. Must have just had some real bad luck in '82.

Bob Bourne,

Los Angeles 1987/88

72-7-22-18, -31

A once integral part of a Cup dynasty, Bourne had three 30 goal years with the Isles and had scored 17 just two years before this, the last one of his career.
Johan Garpenlov,

Atlanta 1999/00

73-2-14-16, -30

This one may be the actual worst of all-time...2 (TWO) goals for a guy who had scored 18 as a rookie with Detroit and years of 22, 18 and 23 with San Jose and Florida. Somehow, Garpenlov was given over 15 minutes of ice time per game this season.

Brian Sutter,

St. Louis 1977/78

78-9-13-22, -38

Sure he was only 21 years old this season and sure the Blues were pretty awful this year but for a guy who would score 41 the following year, this one is simply brutal.

Merlin Malinowski

New Jersey & Hartford 1982/83

80-8-25-33, -40

This one has it all, a player who scored 25 goals just two years earlier notching a mere 8 in 80
games. Plus he had a -40 rating. This would be Merlin's last NHL season at the age of 24 as he went to Switzerland and played until he was 31. He even represented Canad in the 1988 Olympics.

Leaf woes....the numbers

As awful as the Leafs have been recently, (and they have been awful) it's probably only going to get worse before it gets better...in the near future and distant future.
Here's a look at a few numbers:

• over their last four losses their opponents collective Winning Pct. entering each game was .473, Leafs were outscored 15-4.
• their next five games are against teams with a collective Win Pct. of .667
• Leafs have only one more point after 24 games this season than last season, at this point last year they reeled off 6 wins in the next 9 games.
• they have been shutout 6 times in the last 16 games after being blanked only 4 times all last year.
• since starting this year with 4 wins, the Leafs have gone 4-12-4, they have scored 1.75 goals/game and allowed 3.05. If the last 20 games is a true indication of this team and they continue at this pace the Leafs will finish with 55 points this season. That would be the worst record since the heyday's of John Brophy in 1987/88

At least, after finishing that poorly in 1988 they were able to draft such re-building blocks as Scott Pearson, Tie Domi, Peter Ing and Ted...Crowley and Len...ummm...Esau...good lord, they truly have been a mess for my entire life.