The NHL Awards and Draft were in the same week this year, making it easier for those coming from the east and north to Las Vegas for the Awards and Los Angeles for the Entry Draft. It was a bit of a crazy week for everyone, but definitely exciting.

This year’s show seemed a bit more polished than last year’s even if some of Jay Mohr’s jokes didn’t go over well with everyone. I heard a couple people complain that the NHL was trying to be too funny at the Awards, but I think we all need to remember that they’re trying to appeal to the masses and it’s hard to please everyone. Who knows. Maybe it’s possible that someone will flip by the NHL Network or Versus at the right time, see Jay Mohr, and watch because they think he’s funny. I suppose stranger things have happened, though many people who are huge hockey fans don’t watch the NHL Awards, so I’d say it’s pretty unlikely.

Most of the awards this year were about as predictable as last year. I think that until Datsyuk retires they should just print his name on the Frank J. Selke Trophy at the start of the season. He’s won it three years in a row now and doesn’t seem to be letting up any on the defensive aspect of his game. It was a bit surprising that this year he only won by 33 points and only received one more vote for 1st place than Ryan Kesler of Vancouver. Perhaps he’s getting close to being dethroned as the Selke winner.

Though I expected Henrik Sedin to win the Hart and he did, I think if you take the Hart trophy as they say it should be (“the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team”) that Ovechkin should have won it. Since Henrik’s twin Daniel Sedin was only .02 points per game behind Henrik, I’m not sure Henrik was as important to his team as Alex Ovechkin was to his – especially when you take into consideration the fact that Roberto Luongo is the goalie behind the Sedin twins. Clearly, the 46 people who voted for Henrik Sedin for the Hart 1st place disagree with me, but it’s something to consider.

I had never attended the NHL Entry Draft (or any other league’s draft, for that matter), so I didn’t really know what to expect having just seen the draft on TV. It’s definitely different to watch the draft from the back of the floor of the arena where everything is happening and be able to duck out to interview those drafted right away. The excitement of the draft doesn’t seem to come across well enough on a TV even in HD.

Not too surprisingly, Versus disappointed me yet again. I’m glad I attended this year’s draft live, since otherwise I would have watched it in standard definition. The first round of the draft was shown in standard definition on Versus HD for some reason. Someone messed up the feeds, I guess, since the NHL Network re-aired the TSN feed (same thing Versus was showing) in HD on NHL Network HD. Thankfully, I thought to check this out and got to watch the parts of the draft I wanted to see in HD. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the way Versus makes their decisions. If they can get the HD feed, I don’t see why they would choose not to use it. I’m sure there was some complicated reason behind it, but the NHL Network aired rounds 2-7 live in HD from TSN, so Versus should have been able to do the same with the first round.

As usual, there were some surprises with players dropping farther than anyone predicted (like Fowler, Gormley, & Etem), but teams always have their reasons for who they choose to draft and most GMs are understandably pretty tight lipped on the matter.

I missed it when I watched the broadcast, but I did hear TSN correct their previous statement during the second day of the draft… My dad pointed out when I talked to him that TSN had said there were eleven US players selected in the first round of the draft, breaking the record previously set. I re-counted the US players at that point and still came up with ten (the same number the NHL had mentioned in their press release immediately handed to us after the round ended). I told him that they probably got confused, since one of the non-US born players did come from a US hockey amateur club. From TSN’s discussion the second day, that seemed to be the confusion. I was pretty shocked that TSN would get anything so black and white wrong, since they’ve been covering the draft forever, but I know that draft day is pretty nuts and I’m sure they just looked in the wrong column when they were tallying the American players.

As always, there is debate about what team did best in this year’s draft and (also as always) the truth of the matter is that there is no way to tell how well a team did until years down the line. Look at the steal the Kings got in Lucky Luc Robitaille, selected 171st overall in the 9th round. Though I wasn’t a hockey fan yet in 1984, I can’t imagine anyone on TSN or anywhere else predicting that the Kings did a great job with that pick.

This is my first trip to the Olympics where the Olympics are my main goal and the only reason for being here. I’d only attended one Olympic event before (gymnastics in the Barcelona 1992 Olympics). Now that I’ve been to a few events, I can say without a doubt that the 2012 Olympics in London (which I’d already planned to attend with friends) will not be my last. My friend, travel companion, and organizer of this great trip, Stacy, said once you attend one Olympics it’s addictive and you want to go back. I’ve only been to three events so far and I couldn’t agree more.

Our first event was the Russia vs. Latvia men’s ice hockey game at Canada Hockey Place (GM Place). We were in the 4th row, near the corner. Typically a bit close to be my ideal hockey seat, but they were great for my first Winter Olympic event. The crowd was amazing and the game was fun to watch, though the Russians were definitely in a different class than the Latvia team. With Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and the other amazing Russian players, Russia was expected to dominate the game and didn’t disappoint the spectators. At that point, it still looked like Canada was the best team in the Olympics this year. At this point, it really doesn’t seem that way. They just barely beat Switzerland in a shootout (a team the US beat by two goals in regulation). Sunday’s USA vs. Canada game is definitely going to be interesting and I can’t imagine many people in Canada paying attention to anything else. I feel sorry for the other sports going on at that time. There aren’t a lot of events going on at the time, but there are events that end right before the game or shortly after it starts that will make things tight for some of the spectators and athletes who want to find a place to watch the game.

My hockey thoughts can be found at HockeyBuzz. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my Olympic experience so far. I’ve seen two hockey games including Alexander Ovechkin’s 1st Olympic game (and first couple goals), Evgeni Malkin’s 1st Olympic goal (& game), Team USA’s 6-1 win over Norway, and much more.

Our second day in Vancouver, we spent most of the morning getting to the curling matches we attended. Neither of us had ever seen curling in person before and it was a lot of fun. The US vs. Switzerland match was very exciting. It went to an extra end, so we got to see overtime in our very first curling match. Denmark and Germany also had a very close match. The other matches ended before they got to the 10th end, since the one team knew they were too far behind to tie it up.

The woman who sat next to us at curling is Canadian and was a wealth of information on curling. It was really great to talk to her about the sport, since she’s played it before and is a big fan of curling. Every time we had an odd question (like about how they smooth out the ice, which apparently was the wrong question, since the ice surface isn’t actually smooth like hockey ice), she had the answer. This is part of the fun of the Olympic games. Wherever you go, there are fans who love the sport and the Olympics. You may not be rooting for the same team, but everyone seems to have a deep respect for good competition and those who are willing to support their team (say, by wearing Team USA hockey jerseys). On our way out of the Canada Hockey Place in our USA hockey jerseys (along with many others in USA hockey jerseys), the Canadians heading inside for their game were chanting for Canada and we chanted back for USA. It was very similar to the spontaneous shouting I heard on the streets in New York City during the Subway Series in 2000.

We don’t have internet access in our room, which we hadn’t anticipated at all, but other than that our trip has been completely perfect. There have been fireworks we can see off our balcony every night (if we’re back in time, which we haven’t always been).

The coverage of the Olympics here has been amazing and it’s great to watch from another perspective. The Canadian media doesn’t seem as Canadian-centered as the NBC coverage is American-centered, but perhaps if we were recording everything possible on a DVR here, we’d see that it is a lot more Canadian coverage. I liked that TSN had a special on Shaun White. Another great thing the competing media do here is tell you what’s airing on every other channel showing the Olympics. NBC doesn’t do that in their broadcasts and they actually own every channel airing the Olympics in the US. Coverage has been live here – even for things like figure skating, which NBC airs on a delay for the west coast. Canada’s coverage seems to be less east coast centered. They realize that there are people no the west coast who would like to see events as they happen.

There are some amazing commercials here relating to the Olympics. Chevrolet (which many know is not a car I’d typically plug) has a great series of ads where the cars talk to each other about the Olympics, taking athletes to and from the games, etc. Coke also has a great commercial talking about how hockey is Canada’s game. RBC has a series of commercials with various sports. Visa has a funny gravity commercial that’s related to the Olympics. I’m sure they’re available online and I suggest checking them out.

The cauldron was surprisingly difficult to locate – especially given the fact that Stacy and I had both noted that it was by the Convention Center. We tried to find it after the Russia/Latvia hockey game, but didn’t go quite far enough. Fortunately, when the ramp that gives you the perfect unobstructed view was open, they also had people telling you where to go. The only sign we saw for the cauldron was located close enough to the cauldron that you could see the cauldron well before anyone with binoculars could see the sign. However, if you’re going to the Olympic Cauldron I can definitely say the wait (we waited 20-25 minutes) is worth it for the ramp. Wait a little while and enjoy the best view of the cauldron. We got some amazing pictures there.

Everyone here (volunteers for the Olympics and just average Canadians) has been amazingly friendly and helpful. The events have been well organized (especially with start times so close to the end of the previous games). Signage (with the obvious exception of the Olympic Cauldron) is very well done and there are maps in many locations.

Getting tickets for events on the mountains seems to be a bit more difficult than we’d anticipated and shuttles to get up there are a bit difficult to organize when you have no internet access (we were supposed to, but do not and both of our phone carriers charge too much for us to bother using the internet on our phones) is a bit difficult.

My only complaint about the Olympics here in Vancouver would be that the free Wi-Fi access that has been advertised widely about the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics does exist. However, it is not connected to the internet. That means even though Stacy has an iPhone and I have a Centro (both Wi-Fi capable), we could not get to the internet from the Olympic venues. We talked to quite a few people at the various events who were similarly disappointed. If they hadn’t advertised the free Wi-Fi access, I wouldn’t have a problem with the Wi-Fi they have not being connected to the internet, but what good is Wi-Fi without internet access?

The weather here has been amazing and it’s still beautiful, sunny, and fairly warm. We’re enjoying seeing as much of Vancouver as possible, though Vancouver is a gorgeous city and I’d love to come back here when the Olympics aren’t in town so I can check out more of the city and mountains.

GO USA!

Normally in sports when I think of Alexander the Great, I have to admit that I think of Alex Ovechkin. This time around, though, it’s for Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada. Bilodeau is the first Canadian to win a gold medal on Canadian soil and though I’m very pro USA (being born and raised here) for the Olympics, I’m thrilled that he was able to accomplish this goal and to please everyone in Canada. When I heard NBC mentioning that Canada had never won a gold medal in a home Olympics before (having hosted two previous Olympic Games), I was stunned.

The excitement on everyone’s faces as Bilodeau won the gold medal for Men’s Moguls was amazing to watch and must have been great to experience in person. I’m so happy for everyone who was able to attend that event (and the medal ceremony I just got to watch, since prime time is delayed 3 hours on the west coast). Everyone they showed in the audience for the medal ceremony looked very proud to be singing their national anthem at a medal ceremony at home. I’m sure like many great moments in sports history many people who weren’t there will say they were present, but those who really got to experience those moments in person will surely never forget them.

Congratulations to the Canadian Alexandre the Great! He managed to take the lead and win the first gold medal for Canada at home. This surely takes some of the pressure off of the other Canadian Olympians, though I’m sure the men’s ice hockey team still feels a great deal of pressure to win gold.

As a side note, I’m no happier with the skating rules that allow someone who falls to win a medal (which happened in Torino) than I was when it happened in Torino. Ice skating and gymnastics just are not the same since they messed with the scoring.

The Los Angeles Kings have two of the top 10 scorers in the NHL this season. Anze Kopitar is 1st with 26 points (13-13) and Ryan Smith is 7th with 20 points (8-12). Like every team, the Kings have had some moments where they haven’t looked that great, but this season they’ve managed to come back from those more times than not and win the game. When the Kings were on the east coast, they had their only losing streak longer than 2 games and their only set of consecutive games without points this season. A lot of people don’t watch late night games the next day or stay up late regularly, so they miss the rest of the Kings games.

Beating the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins might help the Kings. However, I have a feeling a lot of people will talk more about the fact that some of the Penguins’ key players (Malkin, Gonchar, Kennedy, Talbot) were missing from the Stanley Cup Champion team than they do about the fact that the Kings beat the Penguins. Of course, what those people will be missing is that the Penguins have been beating teams without some of those players. Until Colorado played last night, the Penguins were in first place in the NHL. Though the standings don’t matter much this early in the season, since they change so much between the first month and the end of the season, the Penguins had won80% of their games this season before playing the Kings. That’s an amazing percentage and the Kings beat them.

The Kings of the 08-09 season would not have won the game against the Penguins. Pittsburgh scored the only goal in the 2nd period of the game, though the Kings had outshot them 13-7. Last year’s team would have gone into the locker room dejected and come out ready to go home. The Penguins would have scored a few extra goals that no one would have been able to blame on Jon Quick. Instead, the Kings came out in the third period determined to win. They were not going to fold and let the Penguins walk away with a win (easy or otherwise). They showed their fans what they’re made of and extended their streak of games where they get at least one point to 8 (they’re 6-0-2 in their last 8 games).

They put on a good show for people like my dad who were excited to see the #1 scorer in the NHL for the only time they can this season. My dad has DirecTV, so he won’t get the Kings game on Versus Monday and he doesn’t have Center Ice. The only time he could see the Kings play this season was when his team (the Penguins) played them. This is why every team should play the rest of the teams in the league at least twice (once at home, once away). At least then everyone following any team in the NHL would be able to see Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar, and all the other great NHL players at least once a year in person (if they’re not injured – we only saw Malkin in a suit this time, though the injured players were traveling with the team).

If the Kings keep on playing well on their road trip, they’ll start to get recognized as a good team that’s not just getting lucky. I guess we’ll see. The Kings begin a five game road trip in Chicago on Monday with their only nationally televised game of the season. Unfortunately, their only nationally televised game of the season is airing on Versus, so those with DirecTV who can’t find a bar willing to play a Blackhawks/Kings game when Monday Night Football is airing will not be able to see the Kings unless they’re playing their home team or have paid for NHL Center Ice. This is true of a lot of teams in the NHL. Though Bettman says he’s trying to expand interest in the NHL across the country, he doesn’t work to show different teams in national coverage. If you always show the teams with a huge fan base already (original 6 teams and other popular northeast teams), how will you improve your fan base? I understand that Sidney Crosby is the face of the NHL and I don’t argue that point. However, there are a lot of talented players out there and they’re not all on the teams in the northeast. Maybe someday the NHL will figure out a way to actually market the team, rather than just talking about it.

If Kings fans missed the game last night against Vancouver, they might have thought they were seeing things when they read that their team lost 2-1 in a shootout. The only difference in the simple box scores was the game in San Jose taking 3 more rounds of the shootout to end the game.

Though he always went on to say that he liked the shootout for the fans and realized that the fans like the shootout and get excited, Terry Murray made it very clear that he hates the shootout. Many of us think it’s a bit ridiculous to decide a game by a team with a skill competition. Yes, penalty shots are exciting and the skills competition of the All Star game is always my favorite part. However, other sports don’t end team games with individual competition, why does the NHL? Could you imagine after 9 innings of baseball deciding the game in a home run competition instead of continuing to play? What about the team that loses in 22 innings getting a point for that in the standings? Didn’t think so. What about the NBA ending in a free throw competition or a game of HORSE? So why give a goaltender who’s played well enough to keep his team in the game and get them through 65 minutes of play a loss (even if it is in the separate overtime loss column)? Okay, enough of my anti-shootout rant.

Naturally, the Kings didn’t look as good in the second night of their back to back games. I still think that teams in back to back games should be facing other teams who played the day before on their second night (which would have worked if the Canucks had played the Ducks on Wednesday instead of playing them Friday). The Canucks will have the disadvantage against the rested Ducks tonight and the Ducks will be at a disadvantage on Saturday when they play in Phoenix. Somehow, it seems it could have been coordinated a bit better.

On the bright side for Kings fans, their team got a point for the shootout loss in both of their last two games and points in their last 6 (4-0-2) games. The Kings had two four game winning streaks in the same month for the first time since… I’m not sure when. I went back to the late 90s and couldn’t find another time when the Kings put together two winning streaks of 4 games or more in the same month. The Kings are at the head of their division and despite many reports to the contrary, when they were tied in points with the Sharks the Kings were in the lead of the division, since they’ve gotten 3 points in their 2 games with the Sharks and the Sharks have only gotten 2. They only had two four game winning streaks in their entire last season (and none longer).

It’ll be very interesting to see the Kings play the Penguins next week. They’ve played the Sharks, but the Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and (having lost only two games so far) are clearly still at the top of their game. The Penguins haven’t been to LA since November of 2006. For some reason, they tend to come to southern California in November or December (escaping the Pennsylvania weather for a bit?). I’ve seen the Penguins play so often the last couple years in Pittsburgh that I sometimes forget how little most southern California hockey fans have seen of the Penguins. The last time the Penguins were in LA was the season where they made the playoffs for the first time in years. It was Sidney Crosby’s first trip to California in the NHL and Evgeni Malkin’s first year in the NHL. They both had fairly big nights in LA and the Kings lost in overtime (Malkin scored the OT goal). Both teams have changed quite a bit since then. The Penguins have found a coach (Dan Bylsma) who seems to know exactly how to lead a group of young superstars. Bylsma’s record in his 61 games as a coach of the Penguins is 44-13-4 (they’ve won 72% of their games, 83% since his first training camp with the team). The Kings have done well with Terry Murray’s system focusing on defense and seem to have found a goaltender (in Jon Quick) capable of making the saves to give the Kings a chance to win every night. They’ve also added a few key players to help them achieve a higher level of play. Anze Kopitar has definitely stepped up his game this season. It’s early, but Kopi’s on pace to score almost 60 goals this season and has scored 1.5 points per game so far. (He was leading the NHL in points until Alex Ovechkin passed him last night.) Next Thursday’s game should be very interesting and will certainly be the biggest test the Kings have faced so far this season.

The NHL Awards will be in Vegas for the next three years. I know the traditionalists don’t like that the awards will be taking place in the US, but the nice thing about the awards moving to Las Vegas is that flights to Vegas are almost always very inexpensive. It’s also a great tourist destination, perhaps making it easier for more fans to attend the awards to see their favorites walk the red carpet. Some of the events surrounding the awards are open to the public. Tickets to the actual awards were very expensive, but the red carpet was free and (of course) the players have been seen in and around the casino and hotel by many fans.

There were a lot of fans outside getting pictures and autographs from their favorite NHL stars and I saw a group of girls following Alex Ovechkin around yesterday when I arrived to pick up my credentials. A lot of fans seemed to travel from outside the Vegas area for a vacation including their NHL stars.

Most of the awards presented tonight weren’t particularly surprising. I was a little surprised that some of the awards were won by large margins when I thought they might be a bit less of a blowout, but in the end the winner wins and the runner up doesn’t – whether the runner up was 3 points behind or over 700.

Some of the presenters seemed to have more issues reading their lines than in previous years, but they got through the show.

It was particularly nice to see Tim Thomas win the Vezina Trophy. I’ve never thought Thomas got enough credit for how well he plays and it’s really nice to see him recognized for his amazing performance.

Hopefully, the awards will be advertised a bit better next year and even more fans will be able to make it to Vegas to enjoy the NHL Awards.

After the tight series the Penguins and Capitals had (only one game decided by more than one goal, a 5-3 win by the Penguins in game 4), 3 of their first 6 games of the series went into overtime, one of their games had Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin’s first playoff hat tricks… This was the series to watch in the 2009 NHL playoffs, so game 7 should be an amazing contest that keeps me on the edge of my seat and makes me a nervous wreck (since I’m a Penguins fan), right? Wrong.

The Penguins had a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period. Not even close to a huge lead with Washington’s fire power. Just 28 seconds into the 2nd period, Guerin increased the Pens’ lead to 3. Less than 2 minutes later, Letang scored Pittsburgh’s 4th goal. By this point, Penguins fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. In spite of the hell the Penguins put their fans through earlier in the series with the Capitals; they decided to win decisively in game 7. The final score was 6-2 and Guerin (who many seemed to think the Pens shouldn’t have picked up) had the game winning goal.

Sidney Crosby had 2 power play goals in the game as he started and ended the Penguins’ scoring. The last Penguins goal of the game was a great goal Sid scored on a breakaway. This is why Sidney Crosby is so much fun to watch and why fans of other teams enjoy watching players like him. The NHL would have wanted a closer game, but they couldn’t have asked for a much closer series.

One game 7 down, 2 to go. Tomorrow there are two game 7s being played in the NHL and unless they have Center Ice or live in the Carolina or Boston areas, you can only see the Ducks/Red Wings game and the end (assuming the Ducks/Red Wings game doesn’t last too long) Hurricanes/Bruins game. It’s really a shame, since game 7s really are the highlight of the playoffs and in spite of ¾ of the current round having 7 games, they’re not that common. Hopefully, tomorrow night’s games will be more interesting, though I’m sure the fans of the Hurricanes, Bruins, Ducks, and Red Wings will disagree with me a bit on that one.

The NHL couldn’t have scripted last night’s game with Crosby vs. Ovechkin better (though I’d bet they would have picked Pittsburgh to win, since they want the series to go to 7 games). In spite of the fact that Malkin won the NHL scoring title this year and until last night had more points than Sid in the playoffs, all the buzz has been about Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin. Alexander Semin had more points than Alex Ovechkin until last night, too. Now, advertising Sid vs. Alex seems to make sense. Crosby stands alone in 2nd place (behind Ryan Getzlaf and no one is going to talk about him – he’s from a southern California team that people still seem to think is lucky for having beaten the Sharks). Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are tied for 3rd with 11 points, though Malkin’s 1.38 points per game beats Ovechkin’s 1.22. At least now they’re talking about the top scoring player on each team, which they weren’t before last night’s hat tricks.

Who would have ever guessed that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin would both get their first playoff hat tricks in the same game? The league really couldn’t have planned it better unless it was in game 7 of the conference finals. That would be a bit better. Otherwise, it was perfect. The two players the NHL cares to market both got their first playoff hat tricks in the same game. Alex’s third goal in his hat trick was the game winning goal. It really was perfect.

The only problem is that the NHL has no clue how to market itself. Drive around and look at the billboards in any major city and you’ll see ads for the MLB, NBA, NFL – I’ve even seen one for tennis. I’ve never seen a billboard with NHL stars telling me I should watch the NHL. Watch the NHL on NBC and you’ll see ads (I stopped fast forwarding to watch it, since it looked interesting) for watching poker. They even have a hockey themed ad for poker explaining how the games are similar and why those watching the NHL game should stay tuned and watch the poker tournament that follows. Conversely, if you watch the poker tournament or baseball or anything other than the NHL on any channel other than Versus, you’ll never see the NHL playoff ads. The NHL could really use a better marketing director.

Perhaps the NHL will prove me wrong this time, but I’d be completely stunned. They don’t seem to realize that advertising during a hockey game for a hockey game is pretty pointless. I’m already watching. Heck, knowing what channel Versus is on my DVR is a huge step – it’s something your average person on the street wouldn’t know. Ask them where they find ESPN, though, and I’d bet you get a much higher percentage of correct answers and 0% of the people going “What’s that?” Somehow, I think if you polled people on a street corner asking where they can find Versus on their cable or satellite, you’d get a lot of puzzled looks and people saying they’re not sure if they get that channel – and they might not. Versus is a part of my sports package, though ESPN & ESPN2 are both standard. Those of us who are already watching Versus don’t need to be convinced. We watched Sid and Alex both get their first playoff hat tricks last night, but non-hockey fans could have been won over last night. A lot of hockey fans who don’t normally watch other team’s games got sucked into the Ducks/Red Wings game Sunday, since it was exciting. A game going into 3OT where there is one winner and one loser (and no point for losing in overtime) is exciting – especially when it’s a fast-paced game like hockey. Since that game was on NBC, perhaps a few people who don’t normally watch hockey did stumble upon it and get sucked into the action, but without a better marketing strategy I don’t see how the NHL can improve their ratings.

Of course, some cities are better at advertising than others. This may be where some of the people saying that southern California shouldn’t have NHL teams get the support for their argument. In Pittsburgh, during the playoffs, there are banners all over. I drove through Anaheim Saturday night and there was no way anyone could possibly tell that just a few blocks away was the home of the Ducks – in round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don’t have experience with the surrounding areas of most teams in the playoffs, but I know that in Pittsburgh stores have signs in their windows and are happy about the Penguins being in the playoffs. That doesn’t happen around here and without the NHL having billboards or any other advertising to let people know, it’s no wonder people only care about the NBA playoffs. If you live in the US and haven’t seen a TNT billboard for the NBA, I’d be pretty surprised. I haven’t watched a playoff NBA game since Rick Fox played for the Lakers, but I know what channel it’s on if someone asked me in random conversation. It just goes to show you that the NBA knows how to advertise. I have a DVR and don’t even watch most games live, but I see ads in magazines and billboards. It would be nice if someday the random person on the street could tell me where you could find the NHL playoffs, just as someone who doesn’t care about the NBA playoffs still knows where to find them.

I know many will say “Finally? Therrien just took the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals last season!” However, I would argue that the talented team got Therrien to the finals and not the other way around. Sometimes, a team is just too talented to allow management to see that their coaching choice wasn’t the best. I’ve wanted Therrien fired for a long time (ask anyone who knows me well – they’ll all say I was the first to mention the idea to them. Therrien often said his team wasn’t prepared when the Pens didn’t show up for a game. As I’ve mentioned many times, that seems to be the number one job of a head coach – make sure your team shows up for each and every game. With a team like the Penguins (they have the #1 & 2 scorers in the NHL), this should not be difficult. Barry Melrose didn’t last long in Tampa Bay, but I’m guessing even he could motivate these guys.

I’ve always thought the way Therrien changes lines during each game was an issue. Though Colby Armstrong pointed out that the Penguins knew Therrien changed lines more often than any other coach out there before they promoted him to the Penguins head coach (from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, their AHL affiliate), I’m not sure they fully examined the down side of this approach at the NHL level. Perhaps it works better with young players, which would explain why it was initially effective for the Penguins.

I don’t see how a team with the two top scorers in the NHL (or two of the top three, since Ovechkin and Crosby have gone back and forth this season) can excuse having a power play that’s 6th worst in the NHL. While I understand that the Pittsburgh power play took a huge hit without Gonchar and Whitney earlier in the season, a team with so many talented players should be able to move past that obstacle. I also understand how important Colby Armstrong and Ryan Malone were to the Penguins. However, as in the days of Mario Lemieux & Jaromir Jagr, the Penguins should be able to move on and keep winning with qualified substitutions as other players move to other teams making more money than they may currently be worth.

Dan Bylsma may have better luck with the NHL Penguins than his predecessor. I’m sure all Penguins are hoping he will. If nothing else, the Pens should have the initial winning streak most teams experience when they get a new coach. The good news for all Penguins fans is that (unlike many teams in the past) the Penguins have made the move to fire Therrien in plenty of time to turn the down turn of their season around and make the playoffs. Shero saw the Penguins fall out of the playoff standings and took action. The Penguins are currently ranked 10th in the east, 5 points behind 7th and 8th.

With Therrien gone from the Penguins, the talk will certainly turn to who’s next to lose his job as head coach in the NHL. Will it be Tom Renney of the New York Rangers? Randy Carlyle of the Anaheim Ducks? Someone else? Time will tell. A few people I talked to tonight at the Ducks game think Randy Carlyle should be worried and I’m sure he’s thought about the possibility that he might lose his job, but I think there might be enough excuses in Anaheim to save him long enough for Tom Renney to be fired first. New York is also a much tougher market than Anaheim. The Ducks just don’t have the fan base the Rangers do and the intensity of the media coverage may be another factor in how long each coach can last. Of course, I did not think the Penguins (who gave Therrien a 3-year contract extension after they made the Stanley Cup Finals last year) would be the first to fire their coach, so perhaps the Ducks will surprise me and move more quickly than the Rangers. Either way, I think both coaches are probably thinking about what they plan to do after their current team fires them.

Jonas Hiller stopped all 29 of the Kings’ shots and got his first NHL shutout tonight, ending the Ducks losing streak at 3 games. In my opinion, Hiller (with a save percentage of 90.8% & record of 2-1-1 before tonight’s shutout) has looked a lot better than Giguere (save percentage of 90.5% & record of 7-6-1) this season. Will tonight’s shutout give Hiller a bit more of a chance to play? Time will tell.

The Kings managed to keep the Ducks from scoring on their 2 man advantage (which they had for almost 2 minutes), but could not score against Hiller. Clearly, it’s impossible to win if you can’t score. Terry Murray thought the 5 on 3 power play the Ducks had seemed to take the wind out of the Kings’ sales. Murray attributed it to being the turning point of the game for his team.

Though Erik Ersberg stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced (a save percentage of 92.3%) and looked fairly strong in goal tonight, he got his second regulation loss of the season. The Kings were clearly frustrated by both of their losses this weekend. They have the day off tomorrow. They’ll start working on turning things around on Tuesday and hope to come out strong when they play the Capitals on Thursday.

In spite of the fires in southern California, the sold out Honda Center was pretty full. Most fans made the effort to get to the game to see the Ducks and Kings match up. I was impressed by the crowd, given the circumstances and the fact that the Ducks had lost a couple games.

Wednesday & Thursday’s games with the Capitals in southern California (Wednesday against the Ducks, Thursday against the Kings) should be exciting. The Capitals haven’t been to southern California in three years. Though Alexander Semin is really shining this year, I’m sure most fans in attendance will be looking forward to seeing Alex Ovechkin in person. At least with the NHL schedule changes, the Capitals should be here every other year, but seeing Ovechkin in person is definitely exciting for those of us who don’t get to see him very often.

Home viewers were surely happy that the entire game was not shown in the rinkside view format tonight. Fans were very vocal about hating the rinkside view and in spite of public comments to the contrary, apparently, FSN West/Prime Ticket does care about fans watching the game.