Sens crush Canes 6-0, Walker loses his head

On Wednesday afternoon, I got a text message from our friend The Sliding Pokecheck. She was under the weather and offered her ticket for the Sens game to me. It all went downhill from there. It ended with the Canes taking a 6-0 beating and Scott Walker awaiting a suspension.

Ole' Crazy Eye Heatley got the Sens off and running at 1:46 with a shot from the right circle that beat Ward high on the glove side. Jason Spezza and Joe Corvo got the assists. This would turn out to be the game-winning goal.

Mike Fisher potted his eighth goal of the season at 5:24. It was a little soft, but it counts. Alfredsson and Luke Richardson assisted. He came down the left wing without really controlling the puck, but somehow he regained control of it and tucked it past Cam Ward from close range. Curiously, Ray Emery was lifted after the goal, making way for Martin Gerber. I didn't notice anything, but someone near me said they thought he had aggravated a pre-existing injury.

The goal of the night came at 19:08 of the first on a very nice individual effort by Spezza. coming down the left wing on an odd-man rush, he made a gorgeous outside-in move to make Tim Gleason and the late-arriving Craig Adams look like little boys. Randy Robitaille and Dany Heatley had the assists.

The second period got off to a bad start, but the second period as a whole was by far and away the Canes best work. They spent almost the entire period killing penalties, and they did it very well. They did a very good job keeping the Sens at bay and actually had a couple of shorthanded chances.

It started at 0:51 of the third with a tussle down on the north end of the ice. Scott Walker was called for interfering with the Sens' Swiss keeper. Mike Fisher took him to task, and the two came to blows. At the end of it all, Scott Walker made the unfortunate decision to head-butt Fisher. This got Walker the gate and will probably also get him a one game suspension. The result was a five minute power play for the Sens. Fortunately, the Canes penalty killers showed up enough to pitch a second period shutout.

Carolina was never able to get any sustained pressure going. They could barely stay on side, and in the third period it almost looked as if they were mailing it in.

Shean Donovan made it 4-0 at 8:39. Eric Staal was terrible all night long, but on this play, he was just gliding around aimlessly, looking like my paternal grandmother does at the home for Alzheimer's patients. Donovan was in the right place at the right time following a turnover deep in the Canes end and neatly beat Ward with a wrister from the low slot. Dean McAmmond had the only assist.

Dany Heatley had his second goal of the night on a breakaway at 11:53. Spezza and Gerber with the helpers.

The scoring was capped by a really bad goal. Dean McAmmond at 16:17. After a long shot from the right point was stopped by Ward, the bouncing puck found its way to the back of the net. Christopher Schubert and Brian McGratton (who has the worst haircut I've seen in a long time) got the helpers.

There was nothing good about this game. The forwards were awful. The defensemen were awful. Cam was shaky. The Canes couldn't mount any offensive pressure, or make any tape-to-tape passes, or stay on side. Conversely, every time the Sens entered the Canes zone, they had numbers. They had time and space all night long. Carolina never had time or space. Carolina's shots were low-percentage, their passes were more often in each other's skates than on their tape.

With no intent to discredit the fantastic play by the Sens, the Canes were lousy. They deserved to lose. The way they played, they could have lost to the Miami Dolphins. At the same time, the Sens deserved to win. They clearly wanted to.

Carolina will have a long day ahead of them tomorrow. Probably no bag skate, but they'll be looking at a lot of film that will be painful for them to watch. They've got a lot of questions to answer. Rod Brind'Amour is going to have to make his teammates come up with the answers. I would imagine there will be more than one "players only" meeting tomorrow, and a lot of language that would make Glen Wesley's sensitive ears bleed.

The Flames come a' calling on Friday night. I sure hope the Canes are ready.

When the Scott Walker suspension comes down, I'm guessing the Canes will recall Keith Aucoin to fill that roster spot.

The "official" three stars went to Martin Gerber (third), Jason Spezza (second) and Dany Heatley (first). Although Emery gets the win, Gerber did most of the work. It's unfortunate for him that he won't get credit for a shutout or even a win. I agree with the three stars, but just not the ordering of them. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Jason Spezza, OTT --- 1 goal, 2 assists
SECOND STAR Martin Gerber, OTT --- 31 saves (including 17 in the third)
FIRST STAR Dany Heatley, OTT --- 2 goals, one assist, GWG.

For some bloggerific Sens coverage, check out the very capable Scarlett Ice

Eric Staal on cover of EA's NHL '08

This week, EA Sports announced that Carolina Hurricanes center Eric Staal will be on the cover of NHL 2008, which will be released in September. People quickly started talking about the "EA Curse". I see no reason to be alarmed. It doesn't work with hockey games. This applies mainly to the Madden football games. The cover star of that game almost always goes on to have a horrible season or suffer a terrible injury that season. Or go to jail.
Mike Chen once wrote something about the EA Hockey curse, but I'm not buying it. Neither is "Stormbringer". In her words:

My personal take on a good chunk of the above is that a lot of it is *really* a stretch. To me, a "curse" would be solidified by the bad things happening to the cover boys in the season that their respective EA game is supposed to represent, NOT a few seasons later.

A few years ago, on the other blog, I wrote this piece to debunk the Sports Illustrated Superbowl Jinx. You can read about that here and also here.

For now, I'll just go over the EA NHL games since 1997, which was the first year that they used a "cover boy"

1997 -- John Vanbiesbrouck
After helping the Panthers reach the Stanley Cup Final in 1996, goalie John Vanbiesbrouck had a slightly better season while he was featured on the game box.
His record went from 26-20-7 in '96 to 27-19-10 in '97. His GAA went from 2.68 to 2.29 and his save % went from .904 to .919. He had a few more decent seasons after.

1998 -- Peter Forsberg
Foppa's game was also slightly better while he was the cover boy. In 1997, he had 86 points (28/58) in 65 games. While he was on the game box, he had 91 points (25/66) in 72 games. The points per game production was down by a hair, but he was healthier, and being on the box wasn't anything like a "curse" that season.

1999 -- Eric Lindros
Big E's numbers went up pretty significantly after being on the box. In 1998, he had 71 (30/41) points in 63 games. After starring on the box, he had 93 (40/53) points in 71 games. It would be his last "great" season


2000 -- Chrissy Pronger
The former Whaler had his career best season while he was on the game box. He had 62 points on 14 goals and 48 assists. All of these were -- and still are -- career high marks. He also won the Bud Light Plus/Minus award for the second time that year, finishing the season with an amazing +52 rating. Also a career best.

2001 -- Owen Nolan
This guy had a bad season while on the box. He had a career best (playing over ability) 84 point (44/40) season the previous year, but was riddled with injuries and only mustered 49 (24/25) points in 57 games for the Sharks in 2001. Although his points were down, they were back on the "normal" level after the extraordinary season in 2000. Not so much a "curse" as a return to normalcy.

2002 -- SuperMario
Mario Lemieux played half a season in 2001, but still managed to put up awesome numbers with 76 (35/41) points in just 43 games. He beat cancer and came back with a great half-season, and it was an obvious thing to put him on the box. He suffered injuries in 2002, and was limited to 24 games. However, he tallied 31 points (6/25), which would be equal to having 106 points over 82 games. Not bad at all. He rebounded the following year some outstanding numbers, but his health caused him to be a shadow of the player he once was.

2003 -- Jarome Iginla
Iggy had a bit of a letdown after winning the Rocket Richard trophy in 2002. He went from 96 (52/44) points in '02 to a paltry 67 (35/32) points in '03. Like Owen Nolan, though, his big season was a flash in the pan, and the "letdown" was really just a return to normalcy. He did, however reach the 90 point plateau again this past season.

2004 (a) -- Dany Heatley
We don't need to discuss what happened there. Actually, he put up pretty decent numbers after returning from the massive injury, and while he was battling inner demons the whole time.
2004 (b) -- Joe Sakic
Sakic had a big season for the Avs, maintaining his career average of slightly better than a point a night. He totaled 87 (33/54) points in 81 games.

2005 -- Markus Naslund
There was no season, due to the lockout, so we can't really comment there.

2006 -- Vincent LaCavalier
Before the lockout, the Horseman had a "fair" 66 (32/34) point season, but led his team to the Stanley Cup Championship. In '06, he put up 75 (35/40) points, but his best was yet to come. In '07, he tallied 108 (52/56) points and won the Rocket Richard.

2007 -- Alexander Ovechkin

AO's career has been too short to talk about things like "career averages" and things of that nature, so we'll just say that there was a slight decline in points production during his sophomore season. He put up 106 (52/54) points in his rookie campaign, then "dropped" to "just" 92 (46/46) points last year. Not enough of a drop to be worthy of note, and not enough data to make any other judgement.




2008 -- Eric Staal
Staalsy blew up in his sophomore season, hitting the 100 point (45/55) mark, but fell considerably to just 70 (30/40)points last season. We're looking forward to a return to the 100 point club next year.

No reason to sweat it. There's no curse.