Tag Archives: Weekly Plus/Minus

Feb 16

Weekly Plus/Minus: European GMs, Blame Being Thrown Around, Great Matches, and MORE!!!

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After taking a week off, we’re back with a look back at an eventful week. We had our first GM casualty of the 2012-13 season. After a volatile start, some NHL teams are getting settling into where they should be, and some teams are the Washington Capitals. We had some great matches on free TV and some pretty terrible ones as well. Oh and the reigning Norris Trophy winner can barely walk today. Lot’s to talk about, let’s get to it.

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Plus Thumbnail Breaking Down Walls: Sadly, this isn’t a blurb about Chris Jericho, that comes later. This is about of all things, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Since this team’s inception in 1998 this team has alternated between being the but of every NHL fans jokes and being completely forgotten. This franchise hit an all-time low after giving up a kings randsom for Jeff Carter, signing James Wisnewski, and thinking that would make a terrible team good. Well we all know how that worked out, especially since they couldn’t even fail for Nail.

Well in a long overdo move they decided to fire Scott Howson, a man considered among the worst general managers in the sport. In a bit of a shocking move they go out and hire Jarmo Kekäläinen making him the first European general manager in NHL history. Kekäläinen has a very strong history in player development with the Ottawa Senators and the St. Louis Blues, two teams that have pretty strong future outlooks at the moment.

John Davidson and the entire Blue Jackets organization deserves a heap of praise for ignoring the conventional ”wisdom” that you need North Americans in the front office. With the contributions that players from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia have made on the ice in the last few decades, it’s great to see someone get a chance to contribute off the ice finally.

Minus ThumbnailCooke the Blame: Do people really think that Matt Cooke injured Erik Karlsson on purpose?

Had this been almost any other player in the NHL then this would have been regarded as a freak accident and everyone could have moved on with their lives. However, it’s a player with a terrible reputation and a long history of violent, reckless behaviour.

But to suggest that he tried to sever the tendon of a player is foolish. If he wanted to hurt Karlsson he would have done in the old fashion way: with an elbow to the head. It was reckless on Cooke’s part, but not malicious, and this is coming from a Sens fans.

True story: when I heard about Karlsson missing the rest of the season all the colour left my face and my wife was worried that someone had died. “Oh nobody, just my hopes and dreams for the Spring”.. is what I should have said.

Plus ThumbnailQuality Workrate: How lucky have wrestling fans been this week?

On RAW we saw an absolute classic between Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan to whet our appetites for the inevitable PPV encounter between these two. Just when we think that we’ve seen the best free match of the week, if not year, along comes Main Event where Ziggler and Del Rio deliver poetry in the ring. A few nights later Jericho and Big Show give us a very good match, that while a step-down was still a high quality TV main event.

It’s hard not to get excited for the in-ring future of the company when you think of the absolute glut of talent that they have, with so many waiting to burst through. Now it wasn’t all perfect however…

Minus ThumbnailSquandered Time: In typical fashion for this company, they take one step forward and two steps back. They deliver some very good matches and also a fair share of stinkers.

Cody Rhodes, one of their best and brightest talents, was squashed by The Miz this week. Why on earth would they book that? He has serious potential to be a top level talent and he’s booked to lose in less than five minutes. Sure he doesn’t have to win, but he needs to be at least competitive. A similar thing happened to his “former” partner, Damien Sandow against Del Rio. Why were they not hyping up their match against the Hip Hop Hippos this Sunday? Why do they even have a match this Sunday again?

The ‘E has all the talent in the world, it’s a shame that they just don’t know how to utilize it somedays.

Plus ThumbnailChicago Blackhawks: Honestly, who saw this coming?

I mean everyone must have thought that they were going to be good, but THIS good? This team has gone 14 games now without tasting a regulation loss, and in a 48 game season, that’s over a quarter of the time.

Everything seems to be going their way right now and it’s hard not to start to believe that they will be serious contenders to get their second Stanley Cup in four seasons. What’s better: Vancouver is on quite the roll too and it’s hard not to get excited about another playoff matchup between these two!

Minus ThumbnailWashington Capitals: What is their excuse here? How on earth can a team with this much talent have less points than the Panthers and Islanders? It’s unbelievable!

It’s too soon to fire their third coach in two seasons, so it would not be surprising if they rock the boat with a big trade, if not we can expect to see George MacPee out of Washington and Seth Jones come in.

 

Prediction for the Week: The Undertaker shows up on RAW.

Feb 01

Weekly Plus Minus: Rumble Fall-out, Dominant Sharks, Nail Fails (or does he?) and More!

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What a week it was! Since the last retrospective we had our first new WWE Champion since November 2011, a 19 year old phenom raked through the coals, and our favourite goalie in the world troll us with his excellent play. Oh so much to discuss!

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Predictable Booking: Most of the Royal Rumble went as we said it would happen, and you know, that’s not really a bad thing. Rock-Cena II is the money match, with an outside chance of a Triple Threat involving Punk, and the best way to do that was to have Punk drop the title and have Cena win the Rumble, otherwise it would just feel a little forced.

Before anyone complains about the predictability, remember all the times when the WWE swerved us for the sake of swerving us? Remember when Batista won the WWE Title back in 2009 only to have him drop it due to injury the next night and get it back to Orton through BS reasons? We should be glad that the WWE didn’t do something weird like that with having someone else win the Rumble and give us the most predictable Elimination Chamber match in history.

Add in the fact that we got the “shocking” reveal that The Shield and Brad Maddox are in cahoots with Punk and Heyman. This gives us a potential Dangerous Alliance 2.0 which also includes Brock Lesnar. If the strong booking of The Shield continues, then we have some real potential for the rookies to be elevated like few have been in recent memory.

If anyone is complaining about the straight forward story progression, remember the Road to Wrestlemania is just getting started, there will surely be some bumps and detours.

However, not everything predictable has been good this week..
Minus ThumbnailPredictable Deadlines: Was anyone in the world not surprised when Greg Jameson missed his deadline to secure money to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes?

Things are quite bleak for a franchise that has been through some very rough times over the past several years. It’s hard not to feel bad for Coyotes fans today…yes, we’re sure that they do exist.

Now hockey fans in the Seattle area on the other hand should be thrilled.

Plus ThumbnailTrolluongo: It’s almost as if Roberto Luongo figures out how people in Vancouver want him to play, and he goes out and does the opposite.

They want him to pitch a shutout, he goes out and shits the bed in front of Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin just to see what would happen. They want him to be terrible so everyone can feel good about Cory Schneider and what does he do? Play lights out, earning a shutout in his most recent game and earning the nod against the hated Blackhawks and the Canucks fans are cheering for him.

Sure he’s increasing his trade value, but it’s also incredibly distracting for the Canucks and their always reasonable fans. It’s actually getting hilarious to watch.

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Break in the Streak?: Recent rumblings have Undertaker’s status for Wrestlemania in doubt which could lead to the first Wrestlemania in 13 years and only the third since they started having double digits to not feature The Dead Man.

Of course this shouldn’t be too surprising consider The Undertaker’s age and already limited schedule, but it sure is not good news. One could easily argue that The Undertaker has been involved in the best match in each of the past six Wrestlemanias, going all the way back to his war with Batista at Wrestlemania XXIII and to not have a dependable, high quality contest and if the rumours of CM Punk being this years streak victim are to be believed, then we could just well be robbed of something great.

Plus ThumbnailJaws has Nothing on These Sharks: One of the biggest surprises so far this season has been the insane start of the San Jose Sharks who have roared out to a 7-0 start. All of this on the heels of them being finally discounted by hockey pundits everywhere (maybe even here too…).

For this teams entire history there has been one pretty clear pattern. Whenever people count them out they are at their best. When people expect good things out of them, down they go.

So it’s clear, we should never believe in them, then they will be dominante. Which will most certainly make people start to believe in them again, which will make them choke, which will make everyone doubt them, which will…

Minus ThumbnailFails Against Nail: Last week we ignored the entire Nail Yakupov celebration hooplah, hoping instead it would go away. Yet here we are.

A nineteen-year old scores his first big goal and celebrates and everyone nearly crucifies him. A few days later he scores another huge goal and does a very subdued celebration with his teammates and everyone is still all over him.

Make no mistake, this is about one very clear thing, the country he is from. Don’t believe me? Wait until Nate McKinnon gets his first big goal for the Columbus Blue Jackets or Calgary Flames and see what the reaction is.

 

Prediction for the Week: Luongo gets pulled in the Chicago game and everyone goes back to hating him.

Jun 26

Weekly Plus/Minus: NHL Draft, Dark Anniversaries, Summerslam Plans, Brotherly Love, and More!

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Welcome to a slightly delayed edition of the Weekly Plus/Minus! The NHL Draft came and went and provided spills, thrills, and chills. Meanwhile the anniversary of the lowest moment in the history of professional wrestling passes, and lots more! Without further ado…

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Pittsburgh Penguins: The unequivocal winners of the NHL Draft Weekend were the host Penguins. They start out by making a very bold trade, shipping Jordan Staal to Carolina for three very good, young assets and then things just started to get better from there. They lucked out when Oli Maata, considered a Top 15 prospect by many, fell down to their spot at 22, and then were able to trade away Zybnek Michalek, who really wasn’t fitting in anyway.

With these two deals, they were able to shed almost $9 million in cap space and rumors are abound that they are going to make a run at Zack Parise and/or Ryan Sutter come July 1. The rich get richer.

Copy Cat NHL: Need further proof that the NHL is run by schoolyard copycats? Why look at this NHL Draft. This past spring, defense was the order of the day, as the defensive minded Rangers, Coyotes, Blues, and (somehow) Capitals all advanced to the second round. So what does every team looking to explode on the scene do?

Draft defense of course! Eight of the top ten picks went to defense, with only can’t miss forwards (and teammates) Nail Yakupov and Alex Galchenyuk stopping the sweep. While this was a defense heavy year, allowing Top 10 talents like Filip Forsberg, Mikael Grigorenko and Teuvo Teravinen to fall is something that many General Managers are going to regret soon enough. This is doubly, nay triply true for teams that are light on offensive prospects like Toronto and Winnipeg.

Forward Thinking: There have been rumblings that at Summerslam, we may very well get Punk-Cena III — technically IV, but their match on the Raw after Summerslam last year doesn’t count because it was stupid. The logic behind this decision is that the event will be headlined by HHH-Lesnar and they want John Cena to be near the top of the marquee, given that this is the second biggest show of the year coming from the second largest city in North America.

While this was initially met with disdain, as everyone was hoping for Punk-Bryan XVIII, or whatever they are up to by now. But with a little bit of thought, this is one of the few possible matchups for Cena. Since they are set on HHH-Lesnar in the Main Event, then they need Cena in the second highest match, and if they give him a non-title match then it will further devalue the already devalued WWE Title. During Punk’s current reign, he has only closed out a Pay-Per-View once, at TLC in December, when Cena was not wrestling. While this match will almost certainly not go last, it will still get a great deal of attention during the build up to the event.

The only other possibilities for a Cena match are Bryan or Sheamus, both of which would be very interesting, but may not look great on the marquee just yet. The build to their matches last year was downright fantastic, and it could be great again this year. More importantly though, Punk and Cena flat out delivered in their matches last year and it would be pretty excellent to see if they can try to top it this time.

General Managers Gone Wild: With the high pressure of the NHL Entry Draft and free agency coming soon. It seems like several General Managers are going crazy.
First Jay Feater figures out that he gave away a 2nd round pick to Buffalo to take Robyn Reghr off their hand last year. Realize that maybe they should have one this year, so decide to trade down in the first round and end up with Buffalo’s second round pick as well as a lower first rounder.

So far, not the worst series of decisions, but then things got really dumb. In trading down they allowed the Sabres to take Zemgus Girgensons, a big centre that the Flames severely lack. Then instead of taking the aforementioned Maata, they decide to take Mark Jankowski, a player that they almost certainly could have gotten with the second round pick they just acquired from the Sabres.

To make it even worse, Jay Feaster justified this lunacy by saying he’ll be the best player in the draft in 10-12 years time. Newsflash Feaster: if you keep making bonehead moves like that, you won’t be employed in 10-12 years time to see how well this kid if playing.

Then the news breaks that the water in Pittsburgh must have been laced with liquid insanity! Apparently Garth Snow and the New York Islanders were so enamored with defenseman Ryan Murray that they offered the Columbus Blue Jackets all seven of their draft picks in order to take him. Somehow, someway the Scott Howson refused this deal, thinking that Murray was too great to pass on. This despite the massive glut of defensive talent, including Griffin Reinhart who plays a pretty similar game to Ryan Murray who Columbus could have just as easily drafted in the four spot.

How on earth these three can justify such lunacy? Of the three, it seems like Garth Snow is the only one who will not live to regret this insane decision, since Howson was dumb enough to not let him have his way.

Brothers in the NHL: This weekend was a great weekend for most families in the league. It stated on Friday night when Jordan Staal was traded to Carolina to join his brother Eric and Jarred — who plays in Carolina’s farm system. Then things got more entertaining on Saturday when Toronto traded defenseman Luke Schenn to Philadelphia where he gets to join his brother Brayden in the City of Brotherly Love.

But the most interesting one happened when Boston stepped up to the Draft Podium on Friday night and took the brother of the player that their fans hate the most. When they took PK Subban’s younger brother Malcolm in the first round, they added a whole new, interesting story to the NHL’s most storied rivalry. Sure, Malcolm will not see any time in the pros for another few years, but it sure will be fascinating when he does, now won’t it?

Really the only NHL brother duo that got father apart was the Michaleks. But apparently, the Senators were close to reuniting them. Perhaps the Suter’s can get back together somehow to make it a hat trick

Anniversaries: Has it really been that long?

This past week sees the five-year anniversary of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Obviously this horrible moment was not mentioned on WWE TV, nor should it be. But it makes one reflect on where they were of when they found out the news.

Should you be interested in finding out my own personal thoughts from that day, please read here. While I hoped that I would be able to move on by now, the second last paragraph sticks out to me:

I guess I have some deep thinking to do for the next little while. In the mean time though I will not throw away my Chris Benoit DVD, which I was so excited to receive as a gift one Christmas. But I’m not making any special plans to watch it.

In five years those thoughts haven’t changed, and it appears as though they never will.

 

 

Prediction for the Week Ahead: Chris Jericho returns as a face and starts to plant the seeds for a feud with Daniel Bryan.

Jun 15

2012 Stanley Cup Playoff Plus/Minus: LA Kings, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and More!

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After a one week hiatus welcome back to the Weekly Plus/Minus here at Bladejobs of Steel. This edition will be slightly different, as instead of looking at the events of the past week, we’ll look at the events of the past two months or so. We will be looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly for the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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Los Angeles Kings: Let’s get the obvious one out of the way now shall we?

The Kings were absolutely unbelievable this spring and could not possibly get enough praise. They lost a mere four games en route to their 16 wins, which is a third of the loses that last years Big Bad Bruins had by the way. They never once trailed a series, and had a stunning 10-1 record on the road. All of this while beating the top three teams in the Western Conference, and a “sixth seed” in the finals, that actually had the ninth highest point total in the league.

What’s even more exciting about this team is the fact that baring a complete overhaul of the CBA, they should be able to stay together for a long, long time. Kopitar, Doughty, Richards, and Carter are all locked up long term, with Jonathan Quick on the ticket for one more year and Dustin Brown on for two more years. It’s easy to think that this team could be a force for a few years to come. Which should be detrimental to the rest of the Western Conference.

Marc-Andre Fleury: Did anyone else’s reputation take a bigger hit this spring than his?

The narrative was simple, on one end you had the poised, playoff experienced net-minder who guided his team to the finals in 2008 and the Cup in 2009. On the other end you had a man who talked about bears and the size of the Universe. It was an easy pick in the most intriguing first round series.

Well things didn’t turn out that way at all. Both goalies looked bad in the Keystone State Showdown, but Marc-Andre Fleury was a new breed of terrible during those six games. Things were so rough that Penguins General Manager Ray Shero went out and acquired Tomas Vokoun to shoulder some starts next year and to provide effective relief.

Hopefully Fleury responds to the pressure like it was 2009 and doesn’t wilt under it like it’s 2012.

Ilya Kovalchuk: Of course the entire Devils teams deserves some love here, but special mention has to Mr. Job Security here.

After signing his massive, and sub-legal, contract in the summer of 2010, things did not go according to plan. Kovalchuk struggled in his first full season in Newark, as everyone cried that he was a “typical Russian” only playing for the money and would proceed to coast for the next 15 years.

Then something funny happened this year — he got better. This year, and especially these playoffs, Kovalchuk played better than he ever had before. He was suddenly a two way player who could be relied on in clutch situations. Sure his team lost in the end, but Kovalchuk finished one point behind the lead for playoff scoring, not bad for a coasting commie now is it?

Vancouver Canucks: Yet another wasted President’s Trophy for this squad.

This team was given the reputation as playoff underachievers after blowing a 3-2 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final last year. This year it was supposed to be different. They were supposed to show everyone what they were made of and win the Cup for the first time in franchise history.

But then things fell apart. They struggled to score, which was of course their goalies fault, and then completely fell apart, going down to the Kings in five games. If anything they were lucky that the Kigns plowed through everyone else, since it made them look a touch better…or should we say less bad.

Regardless of how well the team that beat them played, the fact remains this vaunted Cup contender is 2-8 in their last ten playoff games, which is hardly reason for optimism.

Braden Holtby: On the excellent Backhand Shelf blog, writer Daniel Wagner proposed the Dino Ciccarelli award for best rookie in a playoff series. The winner was pretty obviously Capitals goaltender, Braden Holtby.

Holtby started the first round as the third-string goalie after injured to both Neuvirth and Vokoun. Yet somehow he went toe-to-toe with last year Vezina winner, and this year’s probable winner. It was quite the shock to see how well he played throughout the entire playoffs, and it looks like the Capitals may finally have that starting goalie they’ve been looking for.

Phoenix Coyotes Fans: Seriously, where have these people been for the past three years?

As much flak as LA was getting for riding the band-wagon, that city has nothing on these guys….

Jun 01

Weekly Plus/Minus: RAW is Show, Wrestlemania XXIX, Lidstrom Retires, Still no Plan B for the Coyotes

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Wow, what a crazy week it’s been! The Stanley Cup Final gets underway, while Wrestlemania XXIX starts to get planned. But you know what there is no plan for? The Phoenix Coyotes! 

So much to talk about, only one thing needs to be said…

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Eighteen Year Monkey Off the Back: Unless you are from Manhattan, how could you not have cheered last Friday?

Despite being more successful in recent history, the Devils have long been in the shadows of the Rangers. This seems to have been made oddly emphatic since the 1994 Conference finals, when the Rangers defeated the Devils.

Even though since that goal Stephan Matteau scored, the Devils have won three Stanley Cups and made one other trek to the finals, they still don’t have the same cache as the Rangers. This seems to be complicated by the fact that the Rangers seem to so frequently get the better of their cross-river rivals in the Spring.

Yet somehow this Friday when Adam Henrique channeled his inner Martin Gelinas, that all changed. David was able to slay goliath, just  for one night. How could you not love that?

Plus it stopped us from getting a New York City Stanley Cup and Super Bowl sweep…although technically teams that play in New Jersey can do that this year.

60 Days for Idiocy: Just when you think Randy Orton has grown up, word comes out that he was given his second Wellness Violation, and will be suspended for the next sixty days. His next Wellness Violation will lead to his termination, per company policy. Orton was also suspended for behavioural issues a few years back.

This is clearly disasterous for the company that is already spreading it’s top names too thing. The slack will need to be picked up by the likes of Cena, Punk and Sheamus. While The Miz and Dolph Ziggler had feuds teased with the Viper this past week, and now will need to find a new opponent.

To make things worse, he will miss the 1000th RAW in July, which is slated to be in his hometown of St. Louis.

You stay classy, Mr. Orton.

Goodbye to a Legend: Arguably the greatest defenseman of a generation announced that he will hang up his skates. After 20 season, 4 Stanley Cups, and 7 Norris Trophies, Nicklas Lidstrom is set to retire at the age of 42.

Even if you are one of the many Red Wings haters out there, it’s hard not to have the utmost respect for their captain. He has been an absolute model for class and consistency over the past two decades. One has to wonder exactly how the Red Wings will replace this hugely important member of their blueline, and how much Ryan Sutter will ask to fill those skates.

Ratings Nightmare: This past edition of Monday Night RAW gave the lowest rating of the year, coming in at an abysmal 2.7.

This has reportedly lead to a mass panic backstage at the WWE. Apparently the CM Punk-Daniel Bryan match lost viewers, which could lead to some pretty disastrous consequences for us fans of workrate. Add in the fact that this was the first Monday night to not include John Cena in a very long time, and it’s pretty clear what is going to happen going forward.

While blame will be thrown at the likes of Brodus Clay, Big Show, Daniel Bryan, or Alberto Del Rio, the fact remains that the WWE has done a terrible job building any new stars in a very, very long time. The fact remains that Cena is 35 years old now, and can’t have much more than 2-3 years left of his current work load. Somebody needs to both step up individually and be given the support from the company to do so. Punk was close last year, but the company dropped the ball huge with his return and non-feud with Kevin Nash. Hopefully they can do something to ensure that this doesn’t happen with anyone else.


Lesnar vs. Taker: Apparently the plan in the works is to have Brock Lesnar challenge The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXIX. This obviously plays off their infamous face-off from a few years ago, and can even go back to Lesnar’s feud with Taker in his first run with the company.

Obviously a match like this will give the company a massive pay day, but more importantly it gives us the chance to have John Cean defeat The Rock in a rematch at the big event, which would most certainly be the other side of this exciting coin.

Ohh and we could get Cena-Taker at Wrestlemania XXX, what’s not to love about that speculation?

No Plan B? In his “State of the NHL” Address before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Gary Bettman once again address the Phoenix Coyotes. He stated that the NHL is committed to the Jameson group, but as of right now there is no Plan B. So neither finding another buyer or relocation has been considered.

This is either a straight face lie, or flat out idiocy. There are so many problems with the proposal for Jameson to buy the Coyotes, that certainly a snag will be hit somewhere. Something is going to happen where the NHL will be forced to own the team again, or the team will end up in Quebec, where they should have been years ago.

 

Prediction for this Week: The Stanley Cup Final is 3-1 for the Kings after four games.

May 25

Weekly Plus/Minus: LA Kings Advance, Punk and Bryan Dazzle, Big Show Bores, Nobody Guarantees and More!

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The Stanley Cup Finals are nearly set, while the WWE put on most of a good Pay-Per-View followed by a pretty average RAW. Needless to say there have been some highs and some lows this past week. Let’s get to it.

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When Punk Met Bryan: Their match at Over the Limit was faced with a very good (but difficult) problem. How could it possibly live up to it’s own hype? Heading into Sunday, this match was set up to become hyperbole.

Yet somehow, it delivered. These two went out and put on an absolute technical classic. These two traded holds, counters, and moves after moves after moves. The ending was amazing, with Punk reversing the Yes Lock into a pinning combination and then having a photo finish.

Somehow these two were able to deliver a great match with a slightly controversial finish that was both satisfying and left people wanting more.

How can anyone not be excited for the rematches between these two?

As the Big Show Turns: Has there been a heel or face turn more predictable in recent memory than this one?

Really, who the hell asked for this anyway? Big Show was going along just fine as a happy face that punches Cody Rhodes every so often, and could have transitioned nicely into a decent power feud to establish Tensai. So why this? There is a ton of fresh blood on the heel side who could easily feud with John Cena, so why do a rehash of the worst feud of 2009? It simply makes no sense in the long term and is downright boring in the short term.

To top things off, Show’s attack on Cena at the end of RAW seemed very dull. There is some potential for a Nuremberg style “Only Following Orders” heel and Show could do it, but it seems like he’s already evil.

Long Live the Kings: Mad congratulations are in order for the LA Kings. How could one not be impressed by these guys?

Even with Jonathan Quick having a bad (read: not super human) game the Kings are still able to get it done. They have four lines rolling and are simply amazing.

It’s great that the Kings may just be catching on in Southern California. They have rarely had traction in a very crowded sports market, so this run could help things out in the long run.

Us Against The World: Was anyone else struck by the paranoid nature of the Coyotes post game comments?

Mike Smith talks about how Dustin Brown should be “Gone Forever”,. Shane Doan says that he doesn’t know where he got those penalties. Keith Yandle says that having no owner somehow hurts the teams chances. One can’t help but wonder if the Coyotes helmets are lined with tinfoil.

Maybe this explains the success of the team in the last three years. Perhaps the culture of the team is to instill an Us Against the World mentality. They have no owner, they are given no credit, and yet the succeed. If true, it clearly works on the ice so there is no arguing.

But please, leave it in the dressing room, it looks classless, or at least they need to learn how to say “conspiracy” in French. They may need it come training camp…

As the Rumour Turns: With twenty-seven teams now focused on the off-season now, we’re finally starting to see the rumour mill heating up.

First we hear rumblings that Edmonton and Columbus are considering swapping picks — a great move for both teams.

Next we hear that Vancouver may keep both goalies, and that Tampa will try to draft or sign a goalie and may not make a trade after all — so clearly Luongo is going to Tampa, why would either team try to deny it at this point other than to drive up the market?

No matter what happens with Tampa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Columbus or anyone else, it’s great to be talking trades again!

Leave Messier Alone! Yes, everyone who was watching hockey in 1994 remembers Messier’s famous guarantee heading to New Jersey in Game 6. Yes, everyone who is watching know as well notices a similar situation.

But we should all notice that Messier isn’t playing anymore, so everyone needs to stop goading the Rangers into making a similar statement. Other than Martin Brodeur and Lou Lamorelio there are no connections between 1994 and 2012, leave it alone people.

It’s a historical curiosity and nothing more…unless Callahan gets a hat trick, then it’s getting eerie.

 

Prediction for the Week: Zack Praise scores a hat trick in Game 6 to clinch a trip to the Finals.

May 18

Weekly Plus/Minus: Adaptable New Jersey Devils, Orton vs. Sheamus, World Hockey Championship, Staples Center Staff, Big Show Cries, and More!

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Welcome back one and all to our weekly examination of the best and worst in the land of professional hockey and wrestling. This week the Conference finals got rolling, the World Hockey Championship kicked into the medal round, and the build to Over the Limit got into high gear and a ton more happened!

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Evolving Devils: How can you not be impressed with the New Jersey Devils performance in Game 2?

The started the series in the first game looking like a team that had a week off. They had a chance to pounce on an exhausted New York Rangers squad, but squandered that in the opening game of the series getting shut out 3-0.

So Peter DeBoer went out and made some changes reuniting Parise, Zajac, and Kovalchuk as the top line. This could easily backfire against a team that could easily unite Dan Girardi and Marc Staal into a shutdown duo that could easily neutralize them.

Yet, the Devils went out and outplayed the Rangers getting goals from their 1st, 3rd, and 4th line and changed how they played. They were able to get around the Great Shot Blocking Menace that is the New York Rangers by getting low and changing their shot selection. Peter DeBoer deserves a ton of credit for that win, and should get credit for the eight previous victories that team has earned this Spring.

World Hockey Championship No Shows: Every year we hear the same thing — The World Hockey Championships mean the world to Europeans and next to nothing to North Americans. This year helped fulfill this prophecy once more.

Take a look at the rosters for Canada and the United States, and it’s no surprise that both of these teams lost in the quarter finals. For team Canada, only Jonathan Tavares, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Cam Ward, Duncan Keith, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and maybe Jamie Benn and Dion Phaneuf will be on the long list for the 2014 Olympic Team, that’s really unacceptable. When you have the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Henrik Zetterberg, and Erik Karlsson joining their teams after being eliminated from the playoffs you’ve got to wonder were our support is exactly.

Sure Duncan Keith, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Kyle Quincey, Alexandre Burrows, Patrick Sharp, and Kris Russell came, but other than the Blackhawks, those men don’t exactly inspire terror. Where was Rick Nash, Eric Staal, Jarome Iginla, or the usual international hockey star Dany Heatley? Why didn’t Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux, or Shea Weber come for support?

The United States team was even worse on paper. Outside of Jimmy Howard, Bobby Ryan, Jack Johnson, and Cam Fowler this was not a good team.

Something needs to be done next year. It will be the last time to experiment with line combinations and chemistry before the Olympics, and if either of these teams are going to be ready then the players need to get on board and fast.

Orton vs. Sheamus Slow Build: The last few weeks have seen tensions grow between Randy Orton and Sheamus. It started in a tag team match last week, but it has turned into some DQ run ins like this past Monday.

Sure, they are giving away Randy Orton vs. Sheamus for free on Smackdown, but they seem to be slowly building to a big-time match between these two. Hopefully they stick with this plan, and maybe just maybe, we can see Orton turn to his much more stronger role as a heel.

Big Show Cries: This past Monday we saw the Big Show “fired” and then stop to cry about it. It consistently astonishes me that the largest athlete in the world is constantly seen as such a wussy. He should be a monster who kills people dead, and defeating him should be a very large accomplishment, yet here we are. The worlds largest cry baby.

Does anyone out there NOT see Big Show interfering in the Cena-Laurinitus match? He’s clearly not employed so he can’t get fired. We’ll see Show turn heel and join Team Johnny in a very predictable fashion and have him feud with Cena for the summer in the match-up nobody wanted.

Staples Center Staff: For the first time in history the city of Los Angeles is going multi-sport playoff crazy at the same time. We have the Kings, Lakers, and Clippers all playing this late in the year.

While this is great for the second largest city in North America, but it’s creating quite the extra work for the staff at the Staples Center who need to change everything from Lakers to Clippers to Kings and back again time and time again. What is intriguing is that an overtime or two in the Kings-Coyotes games could push back the start time of some of the basketball games in what would amount to be a nightmare for television. It’s funny, joint hockey and basketball arenas are commonplace, but the logistic nightmare this is going to cause may cause some hesitation going forward.

Despite all of that, the staff in LA deserve a ton of credit for the quick transformations they are forced to make here. If you haven’t read Harrison Mooney’s piece about this on Puck Daddy, give it a read, very thorough description of the work these people have to do.

John Tortorella’s Pouting: Seriously this is getting out of hand! At first John Tortorella’s curt responses during press conferences was kind of entertaining, but now he’s just being a jerk.

Seriously, this man needs to be pulled aside by the NHL and told that he has to do at least a little bit of PR. If the Rangers are in the Finals against the Kings, can you imagine just how short and gruff the press conferences are going to be?

Because this isn’t cool…

Prediction for this Coming Week: No Titles change hands at Over the Limit this weekend
May 04

Weekly Plus/Minus: WWE Extreme Rules, Second Round Showdowns, Brock Lesnar, Partying Russians, and More!

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Has it been seven days already? With the second round of the playoffs in full-swing and a dynamite event from the WWE time just keeps flying by! What was good? What was bad? Well let’s just see here…

Extreme Rules – The Matches: Wow! What an event the WWE put on this past week. The company put on arguably their best event since last years Money in the Bank, coincidently in the same city.

In many ways, this event was what Wrestlemania could have been. Cena-Brock had a feeling of hatred that Cena-Rock didn’t, while Daniel Bryan and Sheamus showed what happens if they are given more than 18 seconds to do their thing. While Punk and Jericho really showed how to blow off a blood feud.

Add in the fact that we had a very good Orton-Kane match to start things out, and we had ourselves a damn fine PPV that sets the bar very high for the rest of the year.

Extreme Rules – The Decisions: Why on earth would they have Brock Lesnar lose his first match in eight years? Why on earth would they have John Cena cut that very bizarre (and wildly ignored) promo at the end?

Apparently after the match Brock Lesnar went crazy backstage, flipping out over the loss and Cena no-selling the beating he took. Or did he? Later reports were that this was exaggerated to “work the boys”. The reasons for this really aren’t clear. Of course, we all must keep an open mind as for what happens next, but at this moment it feels like things are not going in the direction that they should be.

Kneel Before the King: Sure the LA Kings are not your typical 8th seed. They could have finished as high as 3rd up until the last day of the season, so to label them as a Cinderella team is misleading.

Having said that, who on earth saw this coming? After their 4-2 win in Game 3, they have a record of 7-1 in the playoffs, which is easily the best out of any team. What’s more impressive, is the fact that they have been playing against the top two regular season teams in the league, so victories are very tough to come by.

This team looks damn scary, and after those first three games against St. Louis, should be a favourite to come out of the West. Who the hell saw this coming?!?!?

Phoenix Rising: The Phoenix Coyotes shocked many by defeating the Blackhawks in round one, and shocked many more by jumping out to a 2-0 lead against the Predators.

But the most shocking thing of all is clearly the fact that the games are selling out. Even more shocking, news came out today the Coyotes are once again one step closer to staying in the desert.

The fans at Coyotes games seem knowledgable. They are all decked out in ‘Yotes gear and/or white, they are cheering at the right time and booing at the right time. So the most obvious question comes out: where the hell have they been for the past three years? Sure it makes sense to not go see a bad team, but this is their third year in a row in the playoffs and only now these people are showing up. If, and this remains a huge if, the Coyotes stay in Phoenix next year, it will be incredibly interesting, and probably frustrating, to see how many of them are showing up to Tuesday night games in November…

Punk vs. Bryan, YES! YES! YES!: Daniel Bryan defeated Jerry Lawler at the end of RAW this past week to win the Beat the Clock Challenge and earn a chance to challenge CM Punk for the WWE Title at Over the Limit.

With all due respect to Mr. Jericho, this truly is a match between the two best in the world, and it’s hard not to get excited at the thought of it. When these two were tearing it up in Ring of Honor, could anyone have imagined that they would one day be fighting for the WWE Title on a Pay-Per-View? The thought of this is beyond surreal.

The outcome of the match is really intriguing. Daniel Bryan is very hot right now and Punk’s six-month reign is the longest the company has had in a while, so logic may dictate that veganism defeats straight edge. Yet, things are rarely that simple. Could this just be a chance to get people to boo Bryan? Could this just be a chance to have Jericho interfere in one of Punk’s matches? Or could this be the start of a long feud that would destroy the internet by making all of our dreams come true?


Blame it on the Russians: You gotta hand it to David Poile. The GM of the Predators chose to bench two of their most dynamic forwards for violating team curfews prior to Game 2. Sure Andrei Kostitsyn had been pretty average these playoffs, and Radulov certainly looked hungover that game, but this was a gamble. The Preds were having trouble scoring, and you would think that these dynamic players would be part of the solution, and not the problem. Yet the classiest organization that doesn’t play in Detroit stuck to their guns and went on and won a must win game without two of their Top Six forwards.

But this is in the minus camp for a reason. The narrative in several places on the media has been overly simplistic: these guys are Russians, and therefore care more about drinking in Scottsdale than drinking from Stanley.

Let’s count the reasons that it’s a flawed idea:

- The Kostitsyns are from Belarus not Russia, let’s get that out of the way right now.
- Do you really think that Evgeni Malkin or Pavel Datsyuk would break these rules?
- Why was nobody saying “Typical American hockey player” when Patrick Kane got drunk and punched a cab driver? Or “Typical Canadian” whenever Sean Avery did anything?

It’s 2012 this type of xenophobia is completely unfounded. The vast majority of players in the NHL want to win. Sure some make dumb life decisions, and some of these dumb ones may be from Russia, but there are plenty of Canadian, American, Swedish, Finish, Swiss, Belarusian, Korean, Slovenian, Moroccan, Brazilian, and Martian hockey players that do stupid things off the ice. Keep with the time, ladies and gents, the Cold War is long over.

 

Prediction for this Week: The Phoenix Coyotes don’t win another playoff game.

Apr 27

Weekly Plus/Minus: Playoff Eliminations, RAW starring Brock Lesnar, Mysterio Suspended, and more!

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Welcome back to our weekly talk about the best and worst of our favourite sport and pseudo-sport! Since we left off last week, we’ve had an Extreme Edition of RAW, and the NHL Playoff Field get cut in half. We’ve got lots to get to, hit the damn banner!

Playoff Overtime: There has been a lot to love, and a lot to loathe with the first round of the playoffs so far. For every crazy-fun Philly-Pittsburgh game or close goaltending duel between Ottawa and New York, there have been some dull trapfests between Florida and New Jersey or Boston and Washington.

But we can most certainly all agree that the insanely high amount of Overtime games is a ton of fun. We get such loveably unlikely heroes as Joel Ward and Michael Boedcker or superstar clutch moments from Niklas Backstrom or Jonathan Toews. The NHL does Sudden Death better than anyone else, and it’s hard not to get incredibly excited by moments like this.

Blaming Luo: Astute readers will look at the banner at the top of this page and presume that we here at Blade Jobs of Steels are not the biggest fans of the soon to be former Canucks goaltender. Having said that, the fact that he has become, in the words of Don Cherry, an escape goat in Vancouver is nothing short of shocking.

Luongo loses two games and is a pariah, Schneider loses two games and is a saint. Sure Luongo has his issues and certainly shares some of the burden here, but this is a team that was only able to score eight goals in five games when it mattered the most. Sure Daniel Sedin was injured, but where was Henrik? Where was Kesler? Where was Booth? Where was Raymond? Where was Burrows? This team has serious problems with clutch goals and finding a new goalie to blame — make no mistake about it Schneider will take the fall someday – won’t solve this.

WWE Monday Night Raw, Staring Brock Lesnar: There is nothing to not love about Brock Lesnar’s contract signing this past week. The stipulation that if he beats John Cena that the name of the show needs to change is nothing short of brilliant.

Lesnar is bound to get some cheers, he’s a huge cross-over name and he’s going after John Cena. But he is coming across like he has utter contempt for the WWE, and there is no way that doesn’t get him some serious heat with even the smarkiest of fans. This run is already starting to remind me of The Rock’s 2003 heel run, which is arguably the greatest that the Great One has ever been. Hopes are insanely high for this right now!

Viva La Roidza! News broke late Thursday night that Rey Mysterio was suspended for his second violation of the WWE Wellness Policy and will miss 60 days after failing a drug test. The next failure on his part leaves him on the unemployed line.

This is horrible news for the company, as Rey Mysterio is consistently one of the top draws in the company and could have made a huge impact on his return. The Smackdown roster has an abundance of heels looking to move up the ladder, and a feud with a returning Mysterio would have helped any of them out immensely. Sadly, they’ll have to wait two months as Rey-Rey clearly hasn’t learned much from his first lesson a few years back.

New Blood Rising: As we talked about once before here, there is a sea change taking place in the Western Conference. None of the four teams still playing in the West have won a Stanley Cup before, so we are guaranteed to have at least one team get a shot at their first sip of the Cup.

Add in the Washington Capitals, and the very strong performances in the first round by the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers and we have some optimism that a few teams will have their names engraved on the Cup for the first time. What remains to be seen is if they can use that to build momentum in the market like Tampa Bay and Dallas, or if they will still have attendance problems and struggle in their market like Carolina and to a lesser extent, Anaheim.

Racist Tools: If you have no read Harrison Mooney’s excellent piece on Puck Daddy about the ridiculous reaction to Joel Ward’s overtime goal, give it a read.

There’s not much to add that Mr. Mooney did not cover, and his perspective as a person of colour really helps drive this home.

Seriously, it’s 2012, why is racism still a thing?

 

 

Prediction for the Week: Cody Rhodes and Kharma leave Extreme Rules as champions.

Apr 20

Weekly Plus/Minus: NHL Playoffs, Brock Lesnar/John Cena, Goalies, Violence, and More!

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Greetings one and all! After taking a couple of weeks off, welcome back to the Weekly Plus/Minus were we look at the best and worst in the ring and on the ice. With the NHL Playoffs well underway and the WWE being in a great post-Wrestlemania period, there is certainly a ton to discuss. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

American Born Goalies: For the longest time Canada, and especially Quebec was seen as the Goalie Factory. In recent years, some have made the argument that Finland has supplanted French Canada as the new place to look to find a good back-stopper.

This post-season could end up as a bit of a coming out for American Born goalies. While Tim Thomas has taken a slight step back he’s still been very good. Scott Clemmensen has played very good in relief, Corey Schneider has been even better, and Craig Anderson has flown under the radar this post season, and has been keeping pace with Henrik Lundqvist since the 3rd Period of Game 1.

Of course the one American goalie who has been down right spectacular has been LA Kings netminder Jonathan Quick. This entire season has been a coming out party for Quick, but he has really upped his game against one of the best offenses in the league. If they awarded a Conn Smythe every round, Quick would be the runaway favourite to take it for the first round. Make no mistake here we are watching something very special here with Jonathan Quick, and it wouldn’t be very surprising to see them make it pretty far this Spring.

If you’re still not sold on the strength of American goalies, remember their 2010 Olympic Hero is out golfing. These guys are going to be very tough to score on in Sochi.

Goalies That Play in Pennsylvania: This series has flown in the face of all logical, sane predictions. Everyone expected the big names on Pittsburgh to run roughshod over the Flyers and give us a very long, intense series.

Instead we’ve had Claude Giroux and Sean Coturier top the scoring, we’ve had the Penguins blow two 3-0 leads, and we’ve had three straight blow outs that have been better known for the cheap shots and violence than the majesty on ice which we were all expecting.

At the core of it though, there are the men behind the net. Before the playoffs everyone was trumpeting Marc-Andre Fleury as a money goalie and that currency has certainly been devalued. Ilya Bryzgalov has (perhaps less surprisingly) been impossible to predict. On one moment he absolutely robs Kris Letang with the save of the year, and the next moment it looks like the Tupac Hologram would be a more serviceable goaltender.

Both teams were hyped as Cup contenders before the playoffs, but whoever wins this Keystate Showdown is going to be in serious trouble if they come up against Tim Thomas or Henrik Lundqvist in the future.

New Stars Rising: WWE Legend Mick Foley has recently been engaged in an on-line feud with prospect Dean Ambrose, these two calling each other out on Twitter has been blurring the lines between fiction and reality quite nicely. Apparently the plan is to give Ambrose a huge program right away and make him a major name very quickly.

Add in the fact that recently (re) debuted Lord Tensai got a huge win over John Cena, and it looks like we may finally be seeing some new stars come in. Sure it won’t be as big as the Class of 2002 which included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Shelton Benjamin, but it looks like we may finally be getting some new big names on the horizon.

Randy Orton vs. Kane: This feud is still going on, really?

It was boring and obvious filler before Wrestlemania, it’s boring and obvious filler for Extreme Rules, and damnit it’s boring and obvious filler in this column.

Orton deserves better, and so do you, Dear Readers.

 

Brock Lesnar: The return of The Next Big Thing, could be one of the best things to happen to the WWE in a very long tim. He’s brought with him a ton of buzz, cross-over appeal, and some legitimacy.

While many would obviously question matching him up with Cena right away and not holding off until Wrestlemania, sometimes you have to strike while the iron is hot. Having him give an F5 to John Cena the night after Wrestlemania was an amazing way to have him return, and to have those two face off so soon really helps carry the post-Wrestlemania buzz even longer.

The possibilities for Lesnar going forward are incredibly exciting, and it’s fun to imagine potential matchups with The Rock, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, or CM Punk, and it’ll be even more fun to not have to imagine them anymore.

Obvious Double Standards: Here at a site that’s 50% Dedicated to professional wrestling, you certainly won’t find a ton of complaining about violence in sports.

The complaint here is coming out of the Department of Player Safety. Brendan Shanahan has the hardest job in the league, and for the most part has been very good at it. However, some things here are a little strange.

Aaron Asham cross-checks a guy during play and gets four games while Niklas Backstrom gets only one game for a cross-check to the face when the clock ran out. The book will certainly be thrown at Raffi Torres for his late hit on Marian Hossa, but James Neal only got one game for obvious head-hunting. Shea Weber gets nothing for ramming Zetterberg’s head into the boards, but Andrew Shaw gets three for bumping a goalie, of a team owned by the league no less.

The message is clear, third and fourth liners are fair game for suspensions but people who have the ability to dictate the game like Neal, Backstrom, and Weber can get slaps on the wrist. This makes it seem like Johnny Laurinitus is in charge and all of these top liners are people like Mark Henry and Dolph Ziggler, and that’s in nobody’s best interest.

 

 

Prediction for the Week: Only one series goes to seven games.