Monthly Archives: February 2012

Feb 28

2011-12 Acquisition Showdown: Team Offseason vs. Team Midseason

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Another year, another underwhelming trade deadline. The lack of trades can be blamed on a lot of things, parity, the salary cap, cautious teams, or a league run by copy cats. It seems like the best time to make a big swap in the summer when the cap is less of a concern, but is that really the case?

In this post, we’ll look at the best players traded either during the offseason or midseason. We can break it down into five categories, based on position, and give a score to each team from there.

It’s important to note that this is only players traded, so free agents like Brad Richards are obviously not part of the equation, and neither are players whose rights were traded before July 1 like Ilya Bryzgalov and James Wiznewski, since they were more or less free agents to begin with.

Goaltenders

Team Offseason

Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche: The Avs massively overpaid here, and they haven’t gotten exactly what they wanted with their new goalie, but he was the only one to get properly traded this summer and has a tremendous upside

Team Midseason

Ben Bishop, Ottawa Senators: The (former) Giant of Illinois was traded the other day to Ottawa. While he doesn’t have a ton of experience, he could very well see some regular minutes down the stretch with Anderson hurt.

VERDICT: Neither keeper has proven very much in the big leagues yet, but we’ve got to give the nod to Team Offseason (henceforth referred to as TO for awesome reasons) based on what Varly has done. When all is said and done, this may end up switching back the other way.

Offseason: 1
Midseason: 0

TOP PAIR DEFENSE

TEAM OFFSEASON

Brian Campbell, Florida Panthers: When the Panthers took this albatross of a contract away from the Blackhawks many snickered and thought that Chicago was a clear winner. However months later Campbell played in the All-Star game and sits second in defensemen scoring.

Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks: The Sharks pulled off a shocker in getting Burns at the draft. He seemed to struggle at first but has really picked things up of late.

Team Midseason

Jack Johnson, Columbus Blue Jackets: The smooth-skating, Tebowing D-man recently found a new address. He does have some good offensive upside, but his -12 on the defense-first Kings raises a few eyebrows

Kyle Quincey, Detroit Red Wings: A long time underrated defenseman may finally get his time to shin in Motown. I love this pickup for the Red Wings and it really should help them in the playoffs.

VERDICT: Hard to overlook Campbell’s All-Star appearance here, sure he has a ridiculous contract, but that doesn’t matter in this little game.

Offseason: 2
Midseason: 0

Second Pair Defense

Team Offseason

Robin Reghr, Buffalo Sabres: It’s hard not to be a fan of Robin Reghr. He may be a little slow, but he is a very solid defender. That being said, he hasn’t seemed to fit in in Buffalo, sitting currently at an embarrassing -15. Then again, has anything not been embarrassing in Buffalo this year?

John-Michael Lilles, Toronto Maple Leafs: The acquisition of Lilles just before the draft was clearly an attempt to fill the void that Tomas Kaberle left when he went to Boston and got terrible. While he has missed time due to injury, his 22 points —including 10 on the powerplay— in 46 games played is certainly respectable.

Team Midseason

Pavel Kubina, Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers needed someone to fill the void left by Pronger’s injury and this was most certainly a good option. He’s a giant 6’4″ and has a Cup ring to his name.

Hal Gill, Nashville Predators: Even taller than Kubina, with a more recent ring. He will make the Preds defense even scarier in the playoffs and add more punishment.

VERDICT: The Twin Towers of TM are clearly a better option to the Twin Disappointments.

Offseason: 2
Midseason: 1

First Line Forwards

Team Offseason

Centre – Mike Richards, Los Angeles Kings:  Maybe it was the concussion, maybe it’s the defensive systems in LA, maybe it’s the Pacific air, maybe it’s the bars on the beach, but Richards doesn’t seem like the player he was in Philadelphia that flirted with 80 points while earning Selke considerations. Still though, he’s probably the best option down the middle for TO.

Winger – Kris Versteeg, Florida Panthers: Hands up if you saw this coming. LIARS! After being a bad fit last year in both Toronto and Philadelphia, it seems that Mrs. Versteeg’s baby boy has found a home. While he has cooled down immensely from his torrid start, he is still on pace for a respectable 65 points, which is 12 more than his previous career high.

Winger – Dany Heatley, Minnesota Wild: As a Sens fan it pains me to put him here, really it does. Heatley is not having the usual dynamo year on a new team that he has had previously, but has still been very quietly having a decent year in Minnesota. While he is far from the 50 goal, 100 point superstar he once was, he is leading his team in goals and points.

Team Midseason

Centre – Jeff Carter, Los Angeles Kings: Easily the biggest name traded during the season. Things worked out terribly for him in Columbus, despite the occasional flash of brilliance. He’s new on the West Coast, but things are sure to get better going forward.

Winger – Michael Cammalleri, Calgary Flames: We can all agree that this was the strangest trade so far this season. First he badmouths the Canadiens, then in a Royesque move he is traded. But instead of going to a strong contending team in a new market, he ends up back with the team that he walked away from three years prior. He really hasn’t been that great this year and truly seems like a shadow of his 80 point glory days.

Winger – Steve Downie, Colorado Avalanche: The Lightning didn’t appear to be shopping Downie, but next thing you know he’s on a flight to Denver. Like everyone in Tampa he was struggling offensively this year but seems to be playing great in Colorado scoring a spectacular seven points in his first four games.

VERDICT: These lines match-up pretty well, we have two surprising fits on new teams, two formerly dangerous scorers in big slumps, and the inhabitants of Not-So-Dry Island. I’ll give this nod to Offseason based on Kris Versteeg’s start to the season if nothing else. Had there been a Rick Nash trade, this would have swung the other way.

Offseason: 3
Midseason: 1

Second Line Forwards

Team Offseason

Centre – Jeff Carter, Columbus Blue Jackets: In a temporal anomaly Jeff Carter is able to be in two places at once. This will be the Blue Jackets version of Carter not the Kings one, so expect this one to be much poutier.

Winger – Wayne Simmonds, Philadelphia Flyers: A man who is tangentially linked to his linemate, and directly linked to the teams other centre. Simmods has really added a great deal of spark and depth to the Flyers. His current nine powerplay goals have him tied with Daniel Sedin and one ahead of Steven Stamkos.

Winger – Ryan Smyth, Edmonton Oilers: This has been quite an up-and-down year for Mr. Smyth. First all the drama over his trade from LA, then his superhot start, then his inevitable regression, followed by the trade rumours. Yet somehow Ryan didn’t even cry once. That’s good enough for a spot on this team.

Martin Havlat out due to his injuries, he most certainly would have made the team otherwise

Team Midseason

Centre – Kyle Turris, Ottawa Senators: After years of not fitting in in the desert, Turris was shipped to Ottawa in December. He started out very hot but has since cooled down. Still though, he has been good enough to ride shotgun to Alfie, which makes him slightly edge out Paul Gaustad for this spot.

Winger - Antoine Vermette, Phoenix Coyotes: The first one to abandon the sinking ship in Central Ohio. He’s always been a consistent two-way player and should fit in very well with the workman’s attitude they have going on in Phoenix.

Winger – Andrei Kostitsyn, Nashville Predators: Easily the biggest wildcard here, Andrei’s dynamic play has him on this list. Expect big things with he and Sergei going forward.

VERDICT: This is a pretty big cakewalk for TO, who would get a clean sweep in this category. To finish off a pretty one sided victory for their team.

Offseason: 4
Midseason: 1

This very unofficial exercise has helped us show a few things.

  1. Don’t expect to trade for a goalie, you better draft them or take a chance and give out a huMANGous big contract to a free agent
  2. Forwards are much easier to come by in the offseason, especially secondary scoring
  3. Depth defense is sold during the regular season
  4. Jeff Carter can be in two places at once, just like Daniel Sedin.


Feb 27

Does the Trade Deadline Even Matter Anymore?

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Here we are around 8 hours until the NHL Trade Deadline and I feel like a kid trying to get to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Will Santa deliver my Deadline wish? A Rick Nash blockbuster followed by Bernier and Roy getting moved, and hell let’s throw some other big swaps like Miller or Bobby Ryan while we’re at it. Or will we be talking about the huge moves involving Jaroslav Spacek and Steve Ott?

Sadly, I think that we’ll get the later and I can’t say that I’m surprised.

With the exception of the Carter for Johnson trade, we haven’t had much of note this season. Sure we saw Kyle Turris, David Booth, Marek Zidlicky, and Hal Gill all move this year. But these are hardly household names. The Downie for Quincey for a 1st three-way was fun, but that’s not going to prompt some conversations around the water cooler.

It seems like the best trades happen in the summer. In the build up to the draft we saw Carter and Richards both move within an hour, we saw Brent Burns for Devon Setoguchi, and Danny Heatley get swapped for Martin Havlat. These are much bigger moves than we’ve seen this year. An All-Traded-in-the-Summer team would smoke an All-Traded-in-the-Winter team is what I’m trying to say here.

But why? The obvious reason to blame is the Salary Cap. It really isn’t that simple.

The first season after the lockout saw Doug Weight and Mark Recchi get traded to Carolina en route to their Cup Run. The next year saw Nashville and Atlanta try to copy this approach by renting Peter Forsberg and Keith Tkachuk respectively. Then in 2008 Pittsburgh made a huge splash in trading for Marian Hossa. With the exception of the Great Kovi-fleece of 2010 few true marquee names have moved since then.

Sure teams have learned to manage their salary cap a bit better and there is quite a bit more parity now with only the Oilers and Jackets truly out of the playoff hunt. But that’s really ignoring the big rental trades that took place between 2006 and the Hossa deal in 2008.

That trade of Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, Angelo Esposito and a First Round Pick marked a clear change in philosophy for in-season trades. The reason is not the salary cap or parity, it’s based on the simple fact that the Penguins did not win the Cup that year. Despite a valiant effort from Hossa the Hired Gun, the Penguins lost to the most conservative team in the league, the Detroit Red Wings.

Suddenly sticking to your guns became the “in” thing to do in the league and fewer and fewer blockbuster moves happened. Instead, teams started tweaking, adding secondary scoring or depth defense.

The following two years saw the Penguins and Blackhawks go from first at the podium to Champions and suddenly you had to build through the draft. Ignoring the fact that the Florida Panthers and Columbus Blue Jackets have been consistently among the worst teams in the league for the better part of a decade.

Fact is that this is a copycat league. We saw everyone try the trap after the Devils Won the Cup in 1995. After the Stars and Avalanche spent their way to a title in the 1999 and 2001, the Leafs, Flyers, and Rangers tried the same. After the Hawks and Flyers rode unknown goalies to the Cup Final, everyone thought goaltending wasn’t important, until the next year two Vezina Nominees were playing in Game 7 of the Cup Final, now everyone is looking for a goalie.

Nobody does any blockbuster midseason moves, because of the simple fact that none of them have paid off since the Hurricanes’ gambit in 2006. Since then tweaking has been in, and it doesn’t seem to be changing. The biggest midseason moves in recent years was in January 2010 when Toronto acquired Dion Phaneuf and J-S Gigure on the same day, but they have always been golfing in early April since then.

Fans of midseason moves have two hopes. We can either have Jeff Carter be totally reinvigorated and lead the LA Kings deep in the playoffs.  Given the fact that if they even make it to the dance they’ll probably get a date with the Red Wings or Canucks, hardly conducive to a deep run.

The other option is to have an already strong team like Vancouver, Boston, or New York trade for Rick Nash and go on to win the Cup. At this point, this seems unlikely since none of these teams want to upset their chemistry or give up too many assets here.

But the real reason that they don’t want to jump in on this deal is because it’s too risky. There is no set precedent for a successful move like this in recent years and teams are too scared. In a catch-22 situation, nobody will make a bold, franchise changing midseason move to take a shot at the Cup until someone else makes a bold, franchise changing midseason move to win the Cup.

So feel free to hurry downstairs and unwrap your Jaroslav Spaceks and your Paul Gaustads. Sure you’ll enjoy them, but know that under that tree there will be no Ponies or X-Boxes or Rick Nashes. Trade Deadline Day, just like Christmas is about managing your expectations and being happy with what you get. Of course, that’s much easier said that done.

Feb 25

Deal or No Deal: NHL Trade Deadline Edition

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The NHL Trade Deadline is approaching fast, and there are some very big names in discussion of being on the move. In this post we’ll look at the most intriguing names being discussed and try to see if they are on the move or not.

Jonathan Bernier: The LA Kings backup is definitely ready for prime time. He only has one more year left on his contract and will no longer want to play second fiddle to the other Jonathan on his team. There was a lot of talk that Bernier would be the centre piece for a deal to bring Nash to the West Coast. However, after the Kings went for Jeff Carter instead, it seems like they won’t get Rick Nash, making it less likely that they will ship Bernier out.

Verdict: NO DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: Columbus, Toronto, Tampa Bay

Derek Roy:  The Buffalo Sabres have been one of the biggest train wrecks in the league this year and things need to change, especially since they actually have the highest payroll in the league this year — a result of the long-term front-loaded deals to Christian Erhoff, Tyler Myers, and Ville Leino. Roy could be one of the easiest pieces to move and since he’s not a rental player they could get some decent assets for him to address things like their lack of toughness.

Verdict: DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: Calgary, Nashville, Winnipeg

Luke Schenn: He’s been linked to rumours ever since he was drafted by the Leafs. Most recently there was talk of him being swapped to Philadelphia for James Van Riemsdyk. Toronto needs help with goaltending and down the middle, and has defense to spare. Many teams would obviously be interested in getting him, but the Leafs would only give him up to get a top forward, and those are hard to find outside of Columbus.

Verdict: NO DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: Philadelphia, Columbus

Nikolai Khabibulin: The Oilers are well out of the playoffs for the sixth straight year, and really need to hurry up with their rebuild. Khabibulin started out excellent this year but has since fallen back to reality. While on the surface he may not fetch much, there is the fact that a lot of teams suddenly seem to have goaltending issues. The Oilers would want to get younger goaltending or get some defensive prospects for the future.

Verdict: DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, Ottawa

Jaroslav Spacek: Why on earth did the Habs trade him for Kaberle so early in the year? Now that Gleason is off the market, Ryan Suter will not be traded, while Hall Gill and Pavel Kubina were already moved, there aren’t too many other defensemen out there. So I imagine teams looking to bolster their blue line will push hard to rent Spacek for a playoff run.

Verdict: DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: Detroit, Vancouver, New York Rangers, San Jose

Rick Nash: For the past few weeks Nash’s name has been in the trade rumours as someone who could be moved. The big names mentioned include LA, Toronto, San Jose, Vancouver, Boston, and the Rangers. Nash has six year’s left on his contract with a $7.8 million cap hit, with a no trade clause. He is the face of the franchise, and easily the best player in their history, so he won’t come for cheap and there aren’t many teams that can take that kind of hit right now. I think he’s more likely to go at the draft when the Salary Cap is less of an issue.

Verdict: NO DEAL

Possible Teams in the Event of a Deal: New York Rangers, San Jose

Enjoy the day on Monday, it should be fun!
Feb 24

Weekly Plus/Minus: Santino Marella, NHL Playoff Seedings, Carter and Johnson, John Cena, and Heat on Everyone!

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What a week this has been in our strange little world! We had a surprisingly good WWE Elimination Chamber where a comedy act had the performance of a lifetime, a monster trade taking place, a team went from 9th to 3rd and another may jump four spots this week, and John Cena cut a truly legendary promo.

Santino Marella: Out of everyone in both the hockey and wrestling world, the Milan Miracle has had the most upward mobility of anyone this week. Since last weeks post, he won a Battle Royal to get into the Elimination Chamber, then went out and pinned both Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett, two quickly rising superstars.

The best moment came when Santino was shockingly in the final two with World Champion Daniel Bryan and he hit his trademark Cobra and covered the Champ. He had a very long two count and near fall. The building was electric as the Milwaukee crowd thought they had witnessed the impossible. Of course, Santino was unable to pull it off and lost to Daniel Bryan shortly thereafter. While Santino didn’t leave the building with the gold, he most certainly made huge strides to become a star. Hopefully he’ll get a good spot on the Wrestlemania card to continue his Rockyesque run.

Cursed Battle Royal: This past Monday we had a 10 man Battle Royale to determine CM Punk’s challenger for Wrestelmania. The biggest story from the match wasn’t Chris Jericho’s predictable victory, but the injuries that came out from it.

Both Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett sustained injuries in this match, and things just seemed messy. Luckily Ziggler was fine, but Wade Barrett suffered an arm injury when he was eliminated, which was worsened by Santino Marella falling on him as he was thrown out.

The loss of Barrett is a pretty big one as he had to be considered a favourite to win the Money in the Bank Match at Wrestlemania, and now it looks like he won’t be on the card.

While accidents most certainly happen, to have Truth, Kingston, and Marella all wrestle two matches a mere 24 hours after participating in Elimination Chamber matches is just poor decision making and we are lucky that things weren’t worse.

Scott Howson and Dean Lombardi: Well this sure made things interesting didn’t it? The big swap of Jeff Carter for Jack Johnson and a first round pick is sure to send some shock waves through the NHL. The plug has clearly been pulled on this current Columbus squad and the LA Kings are not satisfied with having the 30th ranked offense going into the playoff push.

Howson and Lombardi have been walking on thin ice for a while now and this move may have saved both of their jobs this offseason. Columbus shed salary and kicked off their rebuild, while LA got a scoring winger to play with either Kopitar or Richards — I know Carter is a natural centre, but he makes a great winger, and there is no way you want him third on your depth chart.

As much as Howson has been critized this year, the fact is that he turned impending RFA Jakob Voracek and a high 1st round pick into signed for several years Jack Johnson and  mid-1st rounder. Which really isn’t that bad. Of course you may have to convince people that this entire season has been some sort of a bad dream, which may be easier said that done.

Heat on Everyone: I don’t know what’s going on with the WWE right now. It seems like nobody is well liked backstage.

Several different reports this week came out that there was Alberto Del Rio was too arrogant, that The Miz was too lazy, Brodus Clay is too reckless, and that Rey Mysterio is taking too long to come back from injury.

I don’t know what’s going on right now, but they need to shut people up about this, especially at Wrestlemania time. The company does not want bad publicity their way at this time. The backstage tensions need to be kept to a minimum and nobody needs to do anything stupid. A backstage fight or public drunkenness could most certainly cost someone their job.

What’s more troubling is the reports that people are upset with the Rock, which brings us to…

John Cena: Mr. Cena really kicked the generational showdown kicks into high gear with a truly unreal promo this past week. He, quite rightly, called out The Rock for leaving even after he said that he never would. He said this week that Dwayne will “bury him”, and he probably will.

The fact that Cena stands up for the business, continues to be a company man, and gets shat on for it is an absolute crime. The man works his ass off week in, week out, and does more to promote the product than anyone else since probably Hulk Hogan in the 80s. I can’t wait to see him beat The Rock on April 1.

NHL Standings: Thursday night, the Winnipeg Jets jumped from 9th in the East to 3rd, while the Panthers fell from 3rd to 8th, the Capitals, currently in 9th have the potential to jump up to 3rd with a few wins. Meanwhile in the West, the Coyotes and Sharks are tied for 3rd and 7th, but a full 10 points behind the 4th place St. Louis Blues

Division leaders are guaranteed the top 3 seeds in the Conference in the NHL, and this has often been some point of contention, but this is getting ridiculous. The NBA had a similar problem to this after the Spurs and Mavericks were consistently two of the best teams in the league but were forced to split the first and fourth seeds in the West. This problem seems to be there for the Central Division, and potentially the Atlantic as well. The Southeast division has been perennially weak, and last years toughest division  — the Pacific — seems to have been somehow neutered.

If you are the Nashville Predators, currently sitting in fifth in the West with 77 points, do you try to win the rest of your games and face a very tough St. Louis team, or do you try to slide down and play San Jose, who currently has six fewer points? If it’s in your teams best interests to not win, then something is deeply flawed.

If the playoffs started today we would get Vancouver-Dallas, Detroit-Phoenix (again!), San Jose-Chicago, St. Louis-Nashville in the West, with New York-Florida, Boston-Ottawa, Winnipeg-Pittsburgh, and New Jersey-Philadelphia in the East. This makes me feel really bad for St. Louis and Nashville, two fun, tough, teams poised for deep runs, who through the luck of the draw are forced to play each other while San Jose and Chicago, two teams that are limping at the moment, get a much more favourable matchup.

A few years ago, the NBA changed it so that the division leader was guarenteed a top four seed, and it seems to have worked out nicely. If the NHL followed suit we would get: Vancouver-Dallas, Detroit-Phoenix, St. Louis-Chicago, San Jose-Nashville, New York-Florida, Boston-Ottawa, New Jersey-Pittsburgh, Winnipeg-Philadelphia. Tell me that isn’t more equitable?

 

Prediction for Next Week: Rick Nash remains a Columbus Blue Jacket.

Feb 22

40 Blogs in 40 Days

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While I may not be given a VIP pass to the Vatican, I was still baptized Catholic. When this post goes live it will officially be the beginning of Lent.

Every year, I like to give up something. This isn’t because of any sort of religious conviction, but I think that self-denial is a valuable and important thing to do every so often. This isn’t out of any great religious need, but rather I think it’s good to test yourself every so often.

In the past I gave up swearing, drinking, and pop. I consider coffee, beer, laziness, and some other things, but as you can probably tell from the title, I settled on one thing. I am giving up excuses for not blogging. I like it, I should do it, right?

I did a “Daily Post” thing a few years ago, even if it wasn’t nearly so long. This can’t be much harder I suppose. So for all of Lent I will be posting every day either here or on my own personal site Glen Thoughts. Of course astute readers will notice that Easter is 46 Days away, so like the Lord I’ll take Sundays off.

I have lots of plans here, but lots more should just flow, either way it should be fun!

1 Down, 39 to Go

Feb 18

Wrestlemania 28: Predicting the Card Six Weeks in Advance

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In six short weeks we’ll see the matchup of a generation. In six short weeks the greatest streak in sports entertainment gets put on the line. In six short weeks the “best in the world” debate can come to an end.

But what else is going to happen?

Here is the first of a few attempts of mine to predict the card for the grand event. One match has been set, with the booking of Taker-Triple H and Punk-Jericho a mere formality. This leaves some really interesting possibilities for the likes of Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Kane, Big Show and lots more. Left to my best guesses, I think it may just end up like this…

Matches are in order that I think they will happen

Dark Match: WWE Tag Team Title Match: Hunico and Epico (c) vs. Justin Gabriel and Ted Dibiase

Gabriel and Dibiase could be a fun tag team and this could be a fun match to get the crowd going. Maybe it could be a Lumberjack Match to make sure that everyone gets a spot on the card. As much as I would love to see the Tag Titles on the main show, I think that Evan Bourne’s suspension made that highly unlikely.

Fireworks! Explosions! God Bless America!

R-Truth vs. The Miz

I love the symmetry of The Miz going from opening the card to closing it back to opening it in the past three events. Hopefully they can keep this feud going six more weeks and let them blow it off here. I think that these two could be a fun choice to open the show up as they are both over enough. I would put money on Truth winning, given the heat that is rumoured to be on The Miz.

Cody Rhodes vs. Wade Barrett vs. Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio
Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry vs. Santino Marella
Money in the Bank Ladder Match

I am so thrilled to see this match come back to the Grandest Stage of Them All, where it truly belongs. The dual-briefcase was a strange scenario, and was starting to burn the concept out a bit. This field comprises of all the guys I couldn’t find room for elsewhere. I put them in order of preferred winners. That’s right, I would love to see Cody Rhodes win the briefcase and go around running his mouth about being the third man in history to hold both a World Title and the Intercontinental Title. What’s better – he should cash it in successfully while he’s still holding the secondary title. I know that there were rumours of Cody feuding with Goldust at Mania, but I just don’t see that putting buts in the seats, maybe they can have a feud after the event. I know that this match is way too heavy on the heels, but I think that Henry is going to be a face soon, which should help balance things out a bit. I don’t have Rey Mysterio in here since I am not certain that he’ll be back in time, but he could replace Santino Marella or someone else easily.

Mick Foley vs. Dolph Ziggler
No DQ Match

 Like everyone else, I got really excited at the thought of this showdown when they had their promo duel before the Rumble. Hopefully they bring Foley back into the fold and let him put over the next hot heel like he did for Edge and Orton before him.

Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
World Title Match

This may feel like an odd placement, but with the other huge matches, we may want to separate it from the likes of Triple H-Undertaker and of course Rock-Cena.

We haven’t had a Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania in a few years, and this seems like as good of one as any to make happen. This of course assumes that Orton will recover from his concussion, which I think that he will. The fact that he missed out on his Elimination Chamber spot is great for the storyline here. He gets a clear claim to a title match, which can help set up this showdown. I’d like to see Sheamus win cleanly here, but I wouldn’t be upset to see any of these three guys standing tall at the end.

 Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal

Probably the worst kept secret in the industry. This match has the potential to be on of the more entertaining and fun celebrity matches ever. The build up and intrigue could really help sell some tickets. I kind of want to see a tag match involving Show teaming with Kane to take on Shaq and a face Mark Henry, but a one-on-one match against a recognizable star like Show is probably the best way to spike the buy rate.

 Zack Ryder vs. Kane

As I mentioned yesterday, if the current nonsense with Ryder doesn’t lead to a match against Kane at Wrestlemania, then it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Ryder is a perfect plucky underdog, and Kane is a great monster for him to go up against. The WWE had plans to break the record for most masks worn at a single event, and with Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara both missing in action, Kane is the next most logical choice to focus on. Maybe they could have Ryder get the crowd to wear these masks to throw Kane off. Long Island Iced Z would be great to hype this record attempt as it really plays into his interactive nature.

This match is somewhere in a cool down spot after some big time matches and before things kick it to overdrive with the big matches.

Triple H vs. The Undertaker
Special Guest Referee: Shawn Michaels

As I said yesterday, this is a match that I’m getting very excited for. Despite both of their ages, they gave a great match last year. Sure it looked a bit like a video game at the end with the power move, two-count, lather, rinse, repeat set that they had going on at the end, but I am confident that they can repeat it here. Hopefully Taker goes 20-0 to set up a huge match next year against John Cena.

Beth Phoenix, Kharma and the Bella Twins
vs.
Kelly Kelly, Eve, Alicia Fox, and Tamina Snuka
Eight Diva Tag

 This diva’s match is given the clear death spot on the card. I know that the big match is going to be Beth-Kharma, but if we can’t give it the time it needs it is best to not do it. They could work effectively as partners here before getting into a fight after a loss, setting up a huge match at Extreme Rules. This also gets all the Diva’s on the card, which seems to be a priority for this event

Chris Jericho (c) vs. CM Punk
WWE Title Match

 In many ways this match is the anti Rock-Cena, two men of different generations who truly believe that they are the best in the world (at what they do). This match will be an absolute delight for fans and I believe that Punk will stand tall at the end of this one. I do have Jericho heading into the match as Champ as I think that he’ll leave the Elimination Chamber with the belt, but it’s not required. Also note: I’m writing this before the Chamber takes place, so maybe something will change here.

The Rock vs. John Cena

 This match is so exciting and I for one can’t wait to see it happen. This is the Hogan-Rock for a new generation. A decade Hogan did the right thing and laid down for the top star of the new generation and I hope that Rock does the same thing here.

So that’s ten matches, which is as many as they had at Wrestlemania XXVI but two more than they had last year. Maybe Foley can take the night off, or either of the lower card singles matches could be cancelled and the Money in the Bank could be either modified or expanded.

What about everyone else, do you want a card like this?

Feb 17

Weekly Plus/Minus: Rick Nash Trade Talk, Triple H-Shawn Michaels Segment, Evgeni Malkin Dominance, The Detroit Red Wings Streak, Kane Ridiculousness, Leafs Trade Rumours, and More!!

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Welcome to the first in a weekly feature here at Bladejobs of Steel! The premise of the Weekly Plus/Minus is pretty simple. Highlight some people or groups in the hockey and wrestling world who have had great weeks, and some who have had not so great weeks.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels: These two flat out delivered on the microphone this past Monday night. When the rumours started to swirl that the WWE was planning on doing HHH-Taker III at Mania, I was very underwhelmed. I was really hoping for Triple H to go one-on-one with The Miz and Taker to face either Chris Jericho, or an young up-and-comer like Sheamus or Wade Barrett.  But as the weeks went on I grew to accept the showdown between two franchise cornerstones. This week though, I bought it. I’m damn excited for this match now. Triple H was fully believable in his respect for The Streak, and it’s impact on the bottom line, while Shawn was right in calling him out on it.  Taker’s video appearance was great as usual, and I can’t wait to see them all stand in the same ring. I hope that everyone in the business was watching this past Monday, as they gave a true lesson in hype. Not only am I excited to see the inevitable showdown now, but also I’m even more intrigued on how exactly they will get there.

Hey, speaking of streaks…

Red Wings Haters: This week the Detroit Red Wings won at home for a stunning 21st straight time, passing the 1929-30 Bruins and the 75-76 Flyers to set a new NHL Record. As they approached you could hear the haters start to add asterisks to this mark as they won three of those games in Overtime and one in the Shootout. The Flyers did not have the benefit of the extra period while neither team had the benefit of the regular season skills competition. This attempt to disregard the truly remarkable feat of the Red Wings is just plain sad. While I have tended to root against the Red Wings, it’s foolish to not be in flat out awe of their accomplishments this year. It’s flat out impossible to stack up teams across different eras, as the game evolves and rules change over time. It’s not the Red Wings fault that there is a shootout, so to try to hold that over their head is flat out wrong. If anything, the current streak of the Red Wings is more impressive now in the Age of Parity that the Salary Cap has given us. Remember the Flyers were playing in a time when the NHL had just tripled in size in a very short amount of time, so there were some pretty terrible, watered-down teams. Shall we put an asterisk on them too?

Evgeni Malkin, Mega Beast: I honestly feel like Evgeni Malkin is the most underrated player in the world. Sure he’s an All-Star, sure he’s won a Conn Smythe, but he’s never in conversation with the Crosby’s, the Ovechkin’s, the Sedin’s, or the Toews’s’s’s’s’s as the best in the world. On Sunday, Malkin had five points in a game for the third times this year and he’s really separating himself from the rest of the pack in the scoring race. The first few months had everyone strapping their cart to Kessel, Giroux, Stamkos, or one of the Sedins to win the scoring title, and now there is very little question as to who will be the winner. Sure he doesn’t have the good looks of a Crosby or Sedin, and he doesn’t have the personality of an Ovechkin or Kane, but he’s getting it done. If he wins the Art Ross he’ll be the first two-time winner since Jagr won his last one in 2001. No matter how much you may love your own favourite star, it’s time to acknowledge that it’s Evgeni’s world and we’re all just living in it.

Kane, Ryder, and Cena: This Kane-Cena feud sounded great in theory. It gives Cena a big name to kill time feuding with until he gets ready to face The Rock. The “Embrace the Hate” idea sounded like it could be interesting and could lead us down some interesting paths. Instead, it has failed in every conceivable way.  The cheesiness involving Zack Ryder, Eve, and the return of Kane’s evil magic has made for some of the least compelling TV in recent months, and that’s saying something. This has really done a lot of damage to Zack Ryder, distracted Kane from a simple Monster Feud with Mark Henry, and has not done anything to get me more excited to see Rock-Cena. If we don’t get a Ryder-Kane grudge match at Wrestlemania then the WWE may have another Hurricane Helms in ’03 on their hands.

The Columbus Blue Jackets:  With the rumours swirling about them deciding to trade the Face of the Franchise (Trademark: Smyth, Ryan 2007), they did something no one else has done this year. They added intrigue to an otherwise dull trade season. I don’t want to watch Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger talk about who will win the Hal Gill or Travis Moen sweepstakes; I want them to talk about stars. I want to see exactly who will pony up what for a truly elite talent in this league. The Blue Jackets massively overestimated their team this year and it quite obviously has blown up in their faces. If they can get some real, tangible assets for Nash, and possibly Carter, then they can seriously fast track their rebuild, which will help this team out tremendously long term.

This segues nicely to…

Maple Leafs Trade Rumours: Let me get this out of the way first, I’m a Sens fan, so perhaps I’m a tad biased here. But  do the Leafs have some sort of a clause in their league contract that requires them to be in every single trade rumour? Toronto does not have anywhere close to the assets to get Rick Nash, they just don’t. Schenn, Kadri, and Kulemin is a decent start, but it doesn’t compare to the offers that the Jackets are no doubt going to field. Also, Rick Nash has a No Movement Clause, if you were he would you want to go to Toronto? He’s spent his entire career in relative anonymity on a losing team. Why would he want to be in the supreme spotlight on a losing team? Sure the Leafs are trending upwards, but they are a long way from being a true contender. Nash wants to win, and he wants to win now. Toronto is not the place for that to happen. Besides, Nash hasn’t found the connection with Carter, a fellow sniper, would he really find it with Kessel? In my own personal opinion, I think that he’ll end up in LA, Boston, or New York, although I would kill to see him go to Pittsburgh.

 

Prediction for Next Week: Jericho leaves the Chamber with the WWE Title after not spending anytime in the match with Punk.

Feb 15

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal – Fear and Relocating in Las Vegas (Part III)

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My last post in this series I looked at the hopes and joys of Canadians, this time we’ll look at their nightmare scenario, the Coyotes move to Las Vegas or even worse, stay in Phoenix. All of this through the eye of a radical paradigm shift. Instead of having each Conference have three divisions of five, each Conference will get five divisions of three.

A team in Las Vegas gives us some tough questions on the West Coast. Clearly they would want to get placed with the two LA Area teams, given their geographic proximity. Sadly, this would have to split the Sharks away from their cross-state rivals. While this may seem strange, remember California is a very big state and LA is about 100km closer to Vegas than the Bay Area. Also, this would no doubt help the new market in Sin City establish itself.

This would leave the Sharks to join the Canucks and Avalanche, their next two closest teams, which would let the rest of the West shape up as follows:

After looking at different possibilities for the Eastern Conference in previous posts, I think I like this one the best, it gives every team 1-2 rivals and lumps Columbus in with the two strong Ontario markets — plus it leaves the option for their potential relocation to Hamilton/Toronto. I guess looking at it I could be open for a swap of Ottawa and Buffalo, but as a Sens fan I want a chance to beat Toronto year after year, until the playoffs.

I’m a huge fan of the Central Division as it plays off of the NFL and MLB where Detroit, Chicago, and Minnesota all share divisions. We would just need the NBA to stop considering Minnesota close to Portland and Salt Lake City and we could be set.

Now should the unthinkable happen and the Coyotes stay in Phoenix, things could be pretty different. The California teams could stick together, same with the Western Canadian teams. This would lump Phoenix in with Colorado and Dallas in an all-relocated-in-the-90s division. Winnipeg and Minnesota would get lumped in with St. Louis, leaving Detroit-Chicago-Nashville as a very fun and highly competitive trio.

For the visual learners in the audience it would look like this…

From last time you’ll remember…

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

And that concludes this particular realignment series. I’ve got a few other ideas to bring up later on.  Personally I like this get up with a Seattle, Kansas, or Quebec City team, which seem to be the most likely anyway. Chances are we won’t be seeing this anytime, it’s a bit too radical, and you know the rules, the NHL doesn’t do anything until the NBA does it first!

Feb 13

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal — Part II

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Get ready Canadians, you are about to have a sportsgasm. In yesterday’s post, I looked at possible ten division alignments contingent on the Coyotes moving to either Seattle or Kansas. Today we will look at the possible alignments that could happen if the team moves to either Quebec City or Hamilton.

Should the ‘Yotes move to Quebec, it’s pretty obvious that they would lump in with Montreal and Boston, giving the Habs their obvious two rivals. This leaves Buffalo with the two Ontario squads, and the rest of the Eastern Conference to fall into place easily.

The Western Conference is slightly more complicated for a change. Chicago-Detroit-Columbus is a good Central Division, leaving a few choices for the other six Midwest Markets. Winnipeg and Minnesota are going to be partnered up leaving either Colorado or St. Louis to join them. I like the idea of a vertical Midwest Division, putting Colorado-Dallas-Nashville for the Southwest. You could switch St. Louis and Colorado around, but that looks familiar.

Alternatively we could have Detroit-Columbus-Nashville as the Central Division, Chicago-Minnesota-Winnipeg as the Midwest and St. Louis-Dallas-Colorado as the Southwest, but I am really opposed to a Wings-Hawks split, and Columbus is along for the ride.

Now should the former Blackberry CEO get his wish and the team moves from the Desert to the (Canadian) Steel City. My Southern-Ontarian-Heart is giddy at the thought of a Hamilton-Toronto-Ottawa, leaving Montreal-Boston-Buffalo to give us a rivalry rich trio.

Columbus gets booted away from Detroit and Chicago in favour of an old school Norris Division Triad. Columbus may not be “South” but it fits in fairly nicely with Nashville and Dallas, neither of which have strong historic rivalries, also one of them will be guarenteed to make the playoffs every year which will be good for two struggling and one developing market.

From last time you’ll remember…

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

Now that we’ve looked at the Northwest, the Midwest, and the Great White North. Only one more stop for next time, Vegas Baby!

Feb 12

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal — Part I

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After examining all of the simple changes that could take place to the NHL Realignment based on the Coyotes moving, it’s time to look at breaking the paradigm a bit more.

Since 1998 the NHL has had six divisions, each composing of five teams, this came after expansion made the four divisions of six-seven teams model obsolete. This has led to some strange peculiarities like Dallas sharing a division with San Jose while Minnesota shares one with Vancouver, not to mention Winnipeg being joined with Tampa Bay.

The scenarios I looked at before were unable to completely fix these problems, hell the plan that the NHL pushed had the Florida teams listed as “Northeast”, which we can all laugh at for a moment or two. Maybe the five-team division model just doesn’t work with the current distribution of teams in the NHL, and maybe it never really did work.

In this post, we’ll look at inverting that model, instead of six divisions of five, let’s for for ten divisions of three. Clearly there needs to be an even number of divisions, keeping with the current set up of two Conferences— although five divisions of six can actually work nicely— maybe we’ll cover that one later.

Admittedly, I got this idea from Tom Fulery, who looked at this possibility with a Phoenix move to Quebec. I’ll take it one step further and examine the options depending on the Coyotes moving to Seattle, and Kansas in this post, with Quebec, Hamilton, Las Vegas, and Phoenix examined later on this week.

Should they move to Seattle, which I still think is the most likely scenario, obviously a Seattle team should share a division with Vancouver, so there are two teams covered. Geographically, the third team would either be San Jose or one of the Alberta teams, but both of them are probably taken. The Alberta teams should stay together, and so should the California teams, meaning their third team would most certainly be Colorado. This enables an All-California division, and a Winnipeg-Calgary-Edmonton option.

Letting the dominoes fall, it should end up like this.

I tried to keep the names as standard as possible, with the obvious need to add a few names, including “Empire” which I loved so much that I stole from Tom Fulery as well. The West was pretty easy to figure out and so was most of the East. Obviously Detroit could be moved East instead of Columbus with little need to readjust things. I considered an All-Eastern Canadian division, but Montreal would not want to lose Boston as a rival, so they were kept together, this necessitated Buffalo joining them or else the New York Metro teams would have to be split up. Clearly Columbus could benefit greatly from sharing a division with Toronto, and hey they may end up being the team that moves to Hamilton, so we can avoid the later headache now.

Another, more geographically incongruous option, was to have Toronto-Ottawa-Buffalo, Pittsburgh-Columbus-Philadelphia, then Montreal-Boston-Washington, but I would like to stay as logical as possible, while preserving as many traditional rivalries as we can.

The only real losers I see here are Colorado and St. Louis would both lose some of their stronger rivalries, the Pennsylvania teams would probably like to stay with the New York teams, but they get reunited with Washington which is probably a good thing. Also, the three Southeast teams are really missing any sort of marquee names, but the guarantee of at least one of them in the playoffs could really help sustain these markets.

Now what if we end up with the Kansas City Coyotes? Their obvious divisional opponents would be the cross-state St. Louis Blues. Looking around they are close to Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, and Dallas. As much as they would love to stay with the Hawks, it probably doesn’t make too much sense to take them away from Detroit, same with Nashville. The Avalanche and Wild probably need to join the Jets, leaving the otherwise isolated Stars to join the Missouri dominated division, making everything else look like this.

I tried playing around with an All-Eastern-Canadian Division, which led to a few more dominoes falling. I tried to focus on Geography, which leads to the New York City teams going with Boston — building off of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and the Devils going with the Flyers and the Capitals. The Pittsburgh-Columbus-Buffalo division is very geographically logical, but separates some big-time NHL rivalries. I guess we could get a Boston-Buffalo-Columbus division, which may make less people unhappy in the long run.

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

Really, what’s not to like?