Salt on Monday

It’s been a busy start of summer here at SOM – and yes our heads have gotten big enough that we can refer to ourselves in the third person with a cool acronym – with work going nuts, and my fiancé trying to see how long this old man can work seven days a week without collapsing.

( My betrothed has taken on a Rachel Ray quote - “I like to work like an Ox” - as her personal mantra. Aside from my personal belief that Ms Ray is the love child of John Madden and Martha Stewart, her mantra is killing this particular Ox…)

Thankfully there is precious little going on in the sports world at this time. They have apparently canceled the Cup finals, and no one is going to stop San Antonio from grabbing another NBA title, so that’s it for Salt this week. See you all next week….

Bye!

See ya at training camp!

*$^*&%^#(*!!!!

Fine then.





While walking home from getting Loblaws billionaire owner Galen Weston to sell me two primo sandwiches for the price of one my gleeful reverie was interrupted by the sight of an Ottawa Senator banner flying large and in charge on the second floor of a duplex on my Beloved Dupont street.

I stopped in my tracks. My worst nightmare had come true. (Well, actually my worst nightmare involves the ghost of Harold Ballard returning to run the Leafs, that is if he doesn’t get the Iraq War Czar position first...)

The HATED Ottawa Senators have made the cup final.

Truly, it isn’t that bad when you think about it, having the hated Sens reach the final. Add to that Blackberry Billionaire Jim Balsillie – J Ball from the west side Yo! – threatening to put a team in Southern Ontario and we finally might have the perfect storm for forcing the Maple Leaf Money machine to think about putting a winning tradition.

But then I see that two tower condo monster (The Residence at Maple Leaf Square) is 99% sold and I realize that there will be so much money floating around MLSE that they won’t care if the Leafs finish first or last or if they only sell twenty thousand jerseys instead of thirty thousand. So until Richard Pettie stops unzipping the Teachers Pension Fund and/or his feud with chairman of the board Larry Tanenbaum comes to an end and they give the job of Hockey operations to a G.M. who won’t be cowed by the money and influence - Brian Burke come on down – floating around the MLSE offices, we will be stuck with a team that has more money than hope.

I digress.

I said earlier that no one was going to stop the Ottawa team except for a Detroit team with Hasek standing on his head. Well, I was wrong there cause it seems that JS Gigeure has his playoff mojo back and outplayed the legendary Hasek in their recent match up. The Ducks also have no problems matching the Sens in outright surliness and cheap shots, so I am predicting a final that will be as physically tough as any we have seen in recent years.

The Match ups

Duck Defence vs Senator Defence.




Those who have followed my playoff predictions will remember that I called Chris Phillips the leading candidate for the honorary ‘Darien Hatcher Rolling Stick Violation Award’, but I left out Chris Pronger in my calculations. As mean as Phillips has become (and as cavalier as he has become about it) he still might have a way to go to match the well trained elbows of Mr Pronger. The 6’6” native of Dryden Ontario is a nasty bit of work as evidenced by his attempt to crush Tomas Holmstroms head with his elbow. The fact that the refs didn’t see the blow is nothing new, as Pronger is a master at using his massive frame to hide fouls.
The Ducks also have a Norris trophy guy named Scott Niedermayer along with the up and coming Francois Beauchemin as their second and third best defensemen. Niedermayer is perhaps the best offensive defenseman in the league, but has been hit and miss this playoff season. His good games have been great, and his bad games have been Brian McCabesque – Leaf fans you know what I’m talking about, those games where McCabe goes running around looking to jump into the rush while letting forwards stream by him in the transition game.

The rest of the Ducks defence – Huskins, DiPenta and whoever - , are a bunch of guys who get the eight to nine minutes of ice time scraps that Pronger, Niedermayer, and Beauchemin - O’Donnell too – leave to them.
Look for these guys to play the last three of four minutes of any blow out games.

The Ottawa Defence is deep and solid.
Phillips has gone all Anakin Skywalker and decided to use his skating ability for evil and his shut down partner Anton Volchenkov has blocked more shots than Leaf starting goaltender Andrew Raycroft.
Joe (Who?) Corvo has found the mark and his 4.8 shooting percentage on forty three shots on goal in the playoffs has nowhere to go but up. His partner Tom Preissing is the invisible man in these playoffs; he hasn’t made any mistakes and he hasn’t made any noticeable plays. The third pairing is Wade Redden and Andrei Meszaros.
The third pairing.
Redden and Meszaros.
That’s really really deep.
The Ottawa defensemen all average about 20 minutes a game.

Who has the edge? The depth and consistency of Ottawa or the Norris Trophy pair on Anaheim. Well Anaheim has two players who can play at a level that Ottawa just can’t match.

Edge: Anaheim

Forwards

Everyone knows about Ottawa’s big line. The Heatly/Spezza/Alfredsson line is playing as well as any line in recent playoff history. Heatly is flying right now, and is using his size to get scoring opportunities – lord knows he isn’t using his size to check anyone.. – and his finishing ability is only matched by Jason Spezza’s set up skills and on ice vision. Add to this Daniel Alfredsson who is playing like a man possessed and you have a solid playoff fact.

This line can’t be stopped.

That wasn’t easy for me to say believe me, (I think I threw up a little in my mouth),
but the facts are there.
You can’t stop this line.
You can only hope to contain them.

They have gone from impressive to unstoppable in these playoffs. They will get three to four quality scoring chances every game while they are playing at this level – and they have been converting those chances at about a 75% clip so far. Not even the menacing Chris Pronger will be able to shut them down. The only guy who can shut down the HAS line – HAS? ASH? SHA? I got nothing here people… - is Jean Sebastian……more on that in a minute.

As well as the HAS line is playing, the rest of the Ottawa forwards have to be given credit also. I hate the sight of them, but Fisher, McAmmond, Sheaffer, and Kelly are like buzzing bees that keep a hard fore check on the opposition and pot the occasional goal. I forsee the Ottawa irritants dumping the puck into Prongers corner in an attempt to wear him down. The series will hinge in part on this. If the Ottawa irritants – basically any forward not on the HAS line – can take a few good runs at Pronger and get him off the ice or off his game then it’s parade time in the nations capital.

The Duck forwards aren’t as celebrated, but they are something that Ottawa hasn’t seen yet this playoff season and that is they are BIG.
And they play big.
No Eric Daze softies here, these guys were running through that depleted Red Wing Defence as if they weren’t there. Getzlaf, Moen, Perry, and Rob Niedermeyer are integral parts of the Anaheim attack. They are young, fast, strong, and BIG. These four average 6’2” 208lbs with skating skills. The Ottawa Defence won’t be able to feast on this group like they did with the munchkin courage deficient forwards from Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Even New Jersey doesn’t have forwards with this kind of jam.

Add in the venerable Teemu Selanne, and Andy McDonald and you have a team that is a solid three lines deep. Problem for The Ducks is that Ottawa is Four lines deep and the top line is unstoppable.

Edge: Ottawa

And finally we get to goaltending.
As always in the new NHL, the final tournament seems to hinge on the play of the goalkeeper. And no goal keeper has played better this spring than……Ray Emery.

Yes Ray Emery.

He has played every minute in goal for the Senators and comes out with a sparkling .919 save percentage. Emery will give up the occasional early bad goal. He will let a big rebound out from time to time, but like that other famous money goalie Grant Fuhr, Emery has been money during crunch time. He won’t be swayed by the big Anaheim forwards crashing the net, in fact I predict an Emery / Coery Perry/ Rob Niedermeyer fight sometime in the first two games.

JS Giguere just knocked off the Dominator, so how can I pick Ray Emery over Jean Sebastian who even boasts Stanley Cup Final experience. Well, JS has been knocked out of a few games this spring and if anyone is going to get a goalie all twisted up and left with a shattered psyche it is the Ottawa Senators and their big HAS line.

So saying that, it is with full nausea and personal disgust that I have to pick the Ottawa Senators over the Anaheim Ducks in six bone crushing, rock-em-sock-em playoff hockey games.

I really hate the Leafs right now……