December 11th Column

Has anything remotely interesting happened in the NHL this week? I've been looking for three days to find a story to lead off with, and honestly, I can't think of anything that great. The biggest story this week may have happened all the way back in the middle of last week, when it was declared that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick had gotten more votes than ANY OTHER PLAYER in the entire NHL All-Star voting for the week they had been counting from, and is, probably as we speak, climbing up even further in voting. While I think Fitzpatrick is the wrong player for this, I believe that this could open us up to a new category of All-Star Voting. Like the 25th Man Voting in the MLB, set aside five slots for a hard-working player who's never gonna make an All-Star game. Jay Pandolfo, Sammy Pahlsson, Radek Bonk, someone akin to that who plays on a checking line and does his job the best he can every night.

It's a 12-10 exhibition every year that players wanna skip; consider it a gift to the guys who don't wanna be there.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard's spin-o-rama goal in a shootout against Chicago on Wednesday is just another reason shootouts should be banned. Now that players are doing these spin-o-ramas and trick shots, it's become even worse than an Skills Competition. Marty Brodeur made the point last week that a shooter could flip the puck on his stick, lacrosse style, and carry it in and just whip the puck into the net. There's nothing in the rule against it. The shootout, even worse, has become an insult to the overtime played before it. Have you seen how exciting 4-on-4 OT has been lately? Can't we have 20 minutes, even 10 minutes of that to decide a game instead of this shootout nonsense?

Since I'm such a positive guy, let's name the 10 worst players in terms of plus/minus rating so far this season:

1. A tie between Petr Nedved and Kyle Calder, both of the Flyers, at -20.

3. Enver Lisin, which sounds like a type of medication that Tim Conway should be promoting in infomercials, of Phoenix at -18

4. Back to Philly, all-world defender Joni Pitkanen is at -17

5. Brian Willsie of the Kings at -16

6. Bryce Salvador of the hapless Blues at -15

7. A three-way tie between Jozef Stumpel, R. J. Umberger, and Adam Foote, -13

10. Fleet-footed defenseman Derian Hatcher of Philadelphia at -12

An interesting read in The Hockey News each week has been Ken Campbell's compilation of key statistics to show a player's value. Instead of just goals and assists, he assigns points and half-points to goals and assists that are or set up the first goal, a tying goal or assist, a winning goal or assist, and so on. It definitely makes you think twice about who has value in the NHL.

Now, apparently, everyone and their mothers must be between the benches to call a hockey game. Networks around hockey are trying out different ways of using people in between the panes of glass at center ice. TSN has put both the play-by-play man and color commentator there in Buffalo (with the dependable Chris Cuthbert and Glenn Healy doing a fine job), FSN Detroit is putting Ken Daniels there and leaving color guy Mickey Redmond in the press box for a game, and Versus has also planned to experiment with this during the season. It's interesting that an American network started this trend, with NBC and its inside-the-glass reporters, which will continue this season. Hopefully, NHL players are just as willing to comply with the people standing next to them. It's been reported that Pierre McGuire's gotten into shouting matches with guys because of things he's said. Thankfully, they won't be airing a Phoenix Coyotes game this year will NBC; no JR equals no controversy.

Teemu Selanne just keeps scoring. I'm convinced that the gritless wonder just will not stop his torrid pace. In fact, I'll say it right now: the Finnish Flash has the best chance out of anyone in the current Top 5 scoring leaders (Jagr, Hossa, St. Louis and Crosby) to keep it going and win the Art Ross Trophy at season's end.

Speaking of awards, it's crazy to think that Olaf Kolzig has been the league's MVP to this point in the season. The fact is, when Ovechkin and Semin are on your team, you are not the sole reason for your team's victories. While key to his team's success, a 3.15 GAA and only 10 wins in 21 starts is not MVP-type material. I hate to honk the homer-horn, but Martin Brodeur may be, among goaltenders, the lone namesake to a possible Hart Trophy run. Brodeur has been rock solid, and was in no way responsible for the Devils west coast losing streak in late November. 17 wins, a .919 save %, a defense void of Stevens, Niedermayer and Daneyko, and more saves than any goalie (except, obviously, Roberto Luongo) makes him a prime candidate for more than a Vezina.

-SFM-