|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 12, 2010Glenn HealeyKeith JonesPierre McGuireMike MilburySCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Thank you everyone for joining us today for this 2010 Stanley Cup Playoff preview. On the call with us today are top flight NHL analysts, Mike Milbury from CBC and NBC, Pierre McGuire from TSN and NBC, and Glenn Healy from CBC, and Keith Jones from VERSUS. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday April 14th. That day CBC's Hockey Night in Canada kicks off its schedule at 7:00 p.m. eastern, as the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins host the Ottawa Senators at Mellon Arena. For the second game of the doubleheader, they will go to HP Pavilion in San Jose at 10:30 eastern as the Sharks host the Avalanche. CBC on Thursday will begin its coverage of the Los Angeles-Vancouver, and Boston-Buffalo series. TSN's coverage of the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs gets underway Wednesday with Philadelphia at New Jersey at 7:30 eastern, followed by Detroit at Phoenix at 10:00 p.m. eastern. TSN opens its exclusive English language coverage in Canada of the Montreal-Washington series on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., and opens its coverage of the Chicago-Nashville series on TSN2 on Friday night. VERSUS opens its nightly coverage nearly every series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday, with Ottawa at Pittsburgh, followed by Detroit at Phoenix. NBC during the first weekend of the Playoffs presents Game 2 of the Boston-Buffalo series at 1:00 p.m. eastern on Saturday. And Game 3 on Sunday of the Phoenix-Detroit series at 3:00 p.m. eastern. With that, I'm going to ask all of our guests to have a couple of comments on a few of the series. Mike, I'd like to start with you. We're going to start in the Western Conference. Can you give us a few seconds on your thoughts of the Colorado-San Jose series? MIKE MILBURY: Well, for my money, and this is kind of a no?brainer, really. The character question is on the line yet again in San Jose. If they keep rolling snake eyes, then they're going to have to change the formula out in San Jose. And this is something that's been building to, and this is really a critical point in their franchise development. To think that they wouldn't at least make the Stanley Cup Finals and come back with the same cast of characters is almost unthinkable. So I think they know what's on the line. I think Thornton and Marleau and Heatley and Nabokov all understand that they need to find a way to dial it up at a time when all the eyes are on them. And they've been close in the past. They've got a pretty good team there. Obviously, they've kind of run through the regular season. But the questions will be answered now. And if they're not answered in a positive fashion, I can't in any way fathom that this team wouldn't be severely altered. On the other hand, Colorado has already achieved more than anybody thought that they would achieve, with a rookie coach in Joe Sacco. They played with boundless enthusiasm, stumbled near the end, but managed to find a way to secure the spot that they needed. So you have to give them credit. I think they'll be dangerous to the extent that they have, you know, a serious goaltender when he's on. They have great legs and good offensive capabilities, and they're too young to know any better. They're just going to come hard and loose, and I suspect they'll give San Jose more trouble than they expect. The other series you asked me about in the East was the Boston-Buffalo series. And we talked about this in Boston about a week or ten days ago. If there was a match?up, which one would you want for Boston? And all things pointed to the Buffalo Sabres. And that's not a slam on the Sabres, it's just that they're quite a bit like the Bruins in some facets. Their penalty killing is excellent, so is Boston's. Their power play is middle of the road. Boston is at the bottom of the pile. They're somewhat challenged offensively with great goaltenders in Miller and Rask. They both have these towering defensemen in Myers and Chara, so the question for me comes down to who can score the most goals. And Boston has had such a tough time. But last game of the season yesterday, Ryder scored a pair of goals which is great news for him getting off the mark near the end of the season. Wheeler scored recently. I mean, those are guys that are better than what they've shown. Lucic needs to step up and play well. The question is: Can they match the offensive output of the Sabres’ Vanek has been a pretty good player against Boston over the years. But the series went 4?2 against Boston this year. Although you can point to Lalime having played two of those games and not Miller. But for me, it's the best thing that could happen to Boston in terms of a match-up. SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Pierre, handing a couple of series to you in the West: Nashville-Chicago and then Montreal-Washington in the East. PIERRE MCGUIRE: We'll start off with the battle of the Finnish goaltenders, Pekke Rinne for Nashville and Antti Niemi for Chicago. That will be an interesting one to watch. Because if you do the tale of the tape, Pekka Rinne in Nashville has better credentials than Antti Niemi. So that could be a difference maker. But the thing that is troublesome with Nashville is the help of Patric Hornquist, their only 30 goal scorer. If he's not 100%, and he wasn't to finish the season, that could be a problem. The strength of Nashville on defense with their big three - when you look at the way they've developed, Danny Hamhuis over the years that he's been there, and you look at Shea Weber who has had a tremendous Olympics. He has been a lynchpin on their defense. And Ryan Suter had an amazing Olympics with team USA. So the big three on defense on Nashville have to matter and make a difference. They're going to have to find way to stymie the better offensive attack for Chicago. That's going to be one of the things to watch is which goaltender can step up with all those scenarios and deliver? Right now if you're looking at the tale of the tape, Pekka Rinne has a little bit of an advantage over Niemi. But for Chicago, it's hard to look past the leadership of Jonathan Toews. It's hard to look past the quick-strike ability of Marian Hossa. Very difficult to look past the big two on defense in Seabrook and Keith. And obviously, Duncan Keith is a Norris Trophy candidate, a legitimate candidate, and that's tough to look past. It's going to be an interesting series but I think Chicago has a little bit of an edge, they have a little more pure offense going into this series than Nashville does. But the one thing that will be on the other side without the players being involved will be Joel Quenneville versus Barry Trotz. They're very familiar with one another. They've coached against each other as long as Barry Trotz has been the Head Coach in Nashville. They've coached against each other because Quenneville was in St. Louis and then obviously as he moves on to Chicago. So there is a huge sense of familiarity between the two coaching staffs that will be interesting to watch. But just a little bit of an edge because of the more balanced offense of Chicago in that series. But it should be a more difficult series than people think. Nashville is going to give them all they can handle. In terms of the East: Montreal sneaking in and the big reason why the second of the last weekend of the season, back-to-back shutouts by Jaroslav Halak, first in Philadelphia where it was sheer larceny over the Flyers. And then on a Saturday night against a rested Buffalo Sabres team, and beating Ryan Miller in Montreal. That put the Montreal Canadiens in a very good position to make the playoffs. If they did not have success in those two games, they probably don't make the playoffs. But they make it. And they're really comfortable in this match?up, and he they think they can turn it loose offensively and attack some of the weak points on the Washington defense. I'm not sure I agree with that. Just watching, again, the balanced offense of the Washington Capitals. The fact that they were able to rest people going in. And what George McPhee did in the off-season by adding Brendan Morrison and Mike Knuble was huge for them. And at the trade deadline bringing in Scotty Walker, and Eric Belanger, and Joe Corvo on your team without hurting the infrastructure of your team is fantastic by the general manager. Washington should probably win this series. I know lots of people are questioning their goaltender and maybe give the tale of the tape edge to Montreal. But Jaroslav Halak looked tired on Saturday night, and he didn't look right this whole last week, so that will be something to watch. But this should be a good, fast-paced series, with Washington obviously having the edge. SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Glenn, a couple of words on L.A. and Vancouver in a series I know you're going to be at Ottawa-Pittsburgh. GLENN HEALY: Okay, let's start with L.A. and Vancouver. I expect this to be a real hard?fought series. If you look at the two teams, two points separate the two teams through the season. Vancouver, obviously, their strengths with Daniel Sedin having a breakthrough year. He's won the Art Ross, he's going to get votes for the Hart, and votes for the Lester B. Pearson. And the magic he has with his brother is something to watch. I don't think there is a one?two punch like that in the league. Vancouver has the second best home record in the National Hockey League. That is a big factor when it comes to postseason hockey. They've got a great power play with the guys that we had mentioned. And I think the big thing for them is Luongo. He probably played in one of the most pressure-filled hockey games ever in the history of Canadian hockey in the Olympics, and championed that. So the advantage has to go to Vancouver when it comes to the goaltending. So L.A. has a team that obviously it's been a real successful year for them. It will be a coming-out party for Dew Doughty. He's had a wonderful year. Gold at the Olympics. And watching him play through the year his confidence has just steadily grown. And they've got a surprise guy in net as well. Quick is a guy who has had a sparkling season, and you kind of waited for the wheels to fall off the cart with him, and they just never have. So both teams are pretty well suited. I think it will be a real competitive series. The Ottawa-Pittsburgh series, it's tough to bet against the champions, because they are a team when you're a Stanley Cup champion, you don't go down easy. The only team really over the past two years that's found a recipe to beat this Pittsburgh Penguin team has been Detroit. No one else has found a way to beat them over a two-week war. So they're a club that obviously they've got Sidney Crosby, and they've got some incredible offense up front. Obviously, probably would take the advantage in almost every area versus Ottawa. However, that being said, I think it's going to be a long series. And I think Ottawa is in a perfect spot in the sense that they played great the last ten games, they got seven wins. No one's expecting them to win. It's no pressure on them. It's going to be about Pittsburgh and Crosby. But they're in a real sneaky great spot. No expectations for them. I would imagine that they're going to play a very tight game with Kovalev out. You cannot play run-and-gun versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Play a very, very tight game and wait for their opportunities. Ottawa is a team that has six forwards. Their top six they can all score. And I think they really believe in Elliot, and I think he believes in himself and has shown great composure through the year. So expect that to be a real long series. I wouldn't imagine who is going to win the series, because I think it's going to go long and be very competitive. SCHULER BAEHMAN: Keith, if you could give us a couple of words on Detroit and Phoenix, and Philadelphia-New Jersey. KEITH JONES: Absolutely. For the Phoenix Coyotes it's been as everyone knows a phenomenal season. Who would think that the Phoenix Coyotes would have 107 points at the end of the regular season? And the Detroit Red Wings at 102. But I still think the Red Wings will be highly favored in the series. Terrific coaching job by Dave Tippett. Has a very disciplined Coyotes team into the playoffs. I think that will continue. But when you're up against a team like the Detroit Red Wings who have had an extremely difficult season, but one that I think Mike Babcock should consider one of his best coaching jobs ever, they're in perfect position now as far as health goes. They've got a wealth of playoff experience and Stanley Cup championships. I do think the Coyotes defense will play a major role in the series. I think they're very underrated. They've scored 40 goals on the season from the blue line. That is second best to just the Vancouver Canucks. Keith Yandle had a very underrated season and has really jumped up and done a lot of great things for the Coyotes, as has Ed Jovanoski and Adrian Aucoin. They've been a major reason why the Coyotes have been so successful, not just keeping pucks out of their net but also jumping up and adding to the offense. Coyotes forwards don't score a whole lot, and they'll be relying on their defense to chip in offensively as well. For Detroit it's a matter of Zetterberg picking his game up over the last few weeks of the season. That is great news. You've got Franzen back, playing healthy now as well. Datsyuk, the names we can go up-and-down the lineup. Detroit I think will eventually overpower Phoenix. But the most important thing is they play an extremely disciplined game as well. Very unselfish game from their top players, and by the end, I think they'll wear down the Coyotes team that's going to fall a little bit short. Though Bryzgalov will be busy and can certainly steal a couple of games. As far as the Devils and Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers have had a very good season against the New Jersey Devils. They've been very consistent in the way that they've played. They're 5-1 in the six games. The Devils have had Kovalchuk in the lineup for a couple of those games against Philadelphia. I think you can count on a lot of shots in the series. Parise and Kovalchuk have combined for over 600 shots and Jeff Carter over 300 shots for the Flyers. Those guys should be key contributors to their team's success. Goaltending – the edge goes to Martin Brodeur, no question about that. But Brian Boucher should be feeling pretty good about himself after getting that shootout victory to get into the playoffs just yesterday. They have played each other before in the playoffs. Boucher as a Flyer back in 2000 and the conference finals. It was a seven-game series where Boucher fared extremely well, of course, to Brodeur. I would think that the Devils will be heavily favored though. You look at their top experience that far outweighs the Flyers. Just one Flyer has won a Stanley Cup before, and that is Chris Pronger. I would expect him to put his imprint on the season. He's been terrific during the regular season especially against the Devils. He's matched up against Zach Parise, and has proven to be a guy that can cause problems for Parise. I would expect that to continue as well. Kimmo Timonen should see a lot of Ilya Kovalchuk. But the Devils having that one-two punch, surrounded by guys like Patrick Elias, and Jamie Langenbrunner, and Brian Rolston would get the nod come playoff time, especially with the amount of experience and the Head Coach in Jacques Lemaire that has a very disciplined team. Again, that word, against a Flyers team that was one of the highest, if not the highest penalized team during the regular season. If they continue to take penalties, it will be a short series, but if they can somehow rein in some of that emotion and stay out of the penalty box, they could put themselves in a position to make a big surprise. Q. The old adage is the defense wins championships. Might it be a little bit different this year either because of questionable goal keeping on some of the teams or because of the high scoring nature of the NHL game? Pierre? PIERRE MCGUIRE: Well, I really think the Washington Capitals who are not known for playing great overall team defense, as the highest scoring team in the NHL, has a chance to debunk the “defense first” mentality is the only way to win. If they do it, I think that will be tremendous news for the rest of the NHL because usually there is a mimic factor that happens. And I think that would be very, very positive for the league. So I think the Capitals are one of those teams that can do it through offense. And contrary to popular opinion, the Detroit Red Wings, even though a lot of people were surprised they were in a battle to make the playoffs, even though they made the playoffs and they struggle to get in since the end of the Olympic break, they've been fantastic. I believe they only had two regulation time losses in all the games that they've played, and they've been playing a high octane offensive game as well. Especially Filppula, Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg. So I do think that offense can overcome defense this playoff season. GLENN HEALY: I would agree with all of the points that Pierre has made. I think in a salary cap world, you have to allot your dollars in different areas. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there is probably not enough dollars to address every single area with regards to every single hockey club. So teams like Washington that have that run-and-gun system, maybe don't have the dollars then to spend to load up on the back end, and load up in goal as well. So that's, I think, the excitement of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You do have a number of teams particularly in the West who when you talk about goaltending are unproven. You have teams that you'd look at their defensive core and say that you wish you had one or two more shut-down guys on the back end. But at some point all of these teams are going to get a chance to write their script and to paint the canvas that will eventually lead to a Stanley Cup champion. When we look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been in the finals the past two years, lots of question marks about a lot of their stars in net. You look at Fleury what he did at the end of Game 7 last year to make the biggest save of his career. So there will be a goaltender or two who will paint the script. I have no doubt when I look at all the teams, there is a weakness on every team. There is something you can point to and say, boy, they really should have shored that up. But that's through all 16 teams in the postseason. So any two-week war, anybody can win at any time. So I wouldn't discount any team or anyone in the East or west to not have a chance at the Cup. Q. Glenn, should Hawks fans be concerned with Antti Niemi? What are your thoughts of what you've seen of him this year? GLENN HEALY: I've really thought he's matured as the year has gone on. I think the Chicago Blackhawks are a team that is pretty aware of the fact that that group's not going to stay together for a long time because of their cap issues, so their time to win is now or now in the next couple of years. They've got a kind of a young, brash group of players that have enough swagger that they don't realize sometimes the enormity of the situations they're in. They just play. They have a good time, they're a fun group to watch. They'll be a fun team to play with, no question about it. When you look at their first round match-up, I think Nashville's probably happy they're not playing San Jose in that win yesterday. They've never matched up good with San Jose. So now they get the Chicago Blackhawks. So, you know, I think it's going to be more of a team game than it's going to be whether they're goaltender can handle the first round or second round. Nashville's going to play a very tight game. They're not going to play the run-and-gun game obviously. Their goaltender is unproven as well. You've got both guys that are unproven going into the series, and to me it's going to be the best team that finds a way to get it done. But every goaltender at some point gets an opportunity in the postseason to really make a name for themselves and really to set a standard and to make had history. And this is his opportunity. You've had other goaltenders in the past with bigger names that have had Stanley Cup rings, particularly Khabibulin, and that match hasn't worked. So you get a chance now with a young guy who is going to paint the canvas and write the script. You look at their club, they are a 112-point team. That's a pretty darn good team. Their goals against is sparkling. 209 against, I mean, those are incredible stats. So that dress rehearsal you called the season, this guy has passed all the tests. It's not by fluke. It's because he's passed them, he's done it, he's got the skill. Now he's got to transpose that into the postseason. You know, you can always look at experience and say he doesn't have it or he's going to get it now. SCHUYLER BAEHMAN: Thank you all very much. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|