Penton: Finally, some smiles from Sabres’ fans
By Bruce Penton
With the world’s best hockey players returning home from the Milan Olympics this week, the bizarre National Hockey League regular season can continue. Why bizarre? Let us count the ways, via two sections — pleasant surprises and disappointments.
Pleasant Surprises
1. Buffalo Sabres — Fans in New York state haven’t seen the Sabres win a playoff series since 2007. Led this year by Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, the Sabres are making loud playoff noises. There’s still no guarantee they’ll make the post season, but when the Olympic break began, coach Lindy Ruff’s team was securely in a wildcard position.
2. Morgan Geekie — Blessed with one of the hardest, most accurate shots in the NHL, the native of Strathclair, Man., never scored more than 35 goals in a Western Hockey League season with Tri-City Americans. Now, after a 33-goal campaign with Boston last year, Geekie will almost certainly surpass the 40-goal mark with the Bruins this year. He might even hit 50.
3. Eastern Conference playoff teams — Unless they avoid colossal collapses, four teams that missed the playoffs last season are en route to making post-season appearances this year. Pittsburgh, led by the ageless wonder Sidney Crosby; Detroit, with Dylan Larkin leading the way; Boston, thanks to David Pastrnak, Geekie and new coach Marco Sturm; and the aforementioned Sabres all appear destined for late-April/early May hockey.
Disappointments
1. No disappointment list would be legitimate without mentioning the Toronto Maple leafs and their 59-year Stanley Cup drought. Things looked promising last year when Toronto finished first in the Atlantic Division with 108 points. Mitch Marner’s departure (via free agency to Vegas) has had a bigger impact than expected, and the Leafs went into the Olympic break six points out of a wildcard position in the East. Leadership (we’re looking at you, Auston Matthews) seems to be lagging.
2. Florida Panthers, reigning Stanley Cup champs, appear to be headed for an early end to their season. Beset by injuries to their two best players, Sasha Barkov (entire season) and Matthew Tkachuk (the season’s first half), the Panthers have languished in the lower half of the Eastern Conference standings all season. Coach Paul Maurice will need a miracle March to get back into the playoff picture.
3. Calgary Flames offence — While the team has seven players with double-figure goal totals, their most productive sniper is Matt Coronato, with 14. That goal ranks him a dismal 120th in the league and is tied with Jake Neighbours of St. Louis Blues for the lowest team-leading goal total in the league. Which leads to speculation that offence will be top of mind when the Flames go to the NHL draft this summer with one of the higher picks. Could Gavin McKenna (unless he’s in a Pennsylvania pen) return to Alberta and spark the Flames to greater heights?
The regular season ends April 16 and while some players (Olympians) may be on the verge of exhaustion, many others who enjoyed warm-weather vacations for a couple of weeks will be fresh for the playoff grind.
Headline at the onion.com: “Rest Of Lakers Trying To Act Casual While LeBron James Spanks Bronny.”
Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail, on Sidney Crosby’s humble Canadianism: “If Canada called Crosby up to do a tour on an Arctic trawler, he’d ask what time he should show up and what to pack.”
Kelly again, on travel woes getting to the Olympics: “There are two places in the world you can experience truly exquisite, saintlike levels of frustration – the hospital and the airport – and we only volunteer to go to one of them.”
Dr. Bucky Isotope, on Bluesky, on the morning after the Super Bowl: “Only 364 more days until the Dallas Cowboys aren’t in the Super Bowl again.”
Michael Rosenberg of SI.com, on the U.S. women’s hockey team thrashing Canada 5-0 in their round-robin game: “Do you know how unsettling it is when Canadians look feeble at hockey? It’s like watching a surgeon spill beer in a patient.”
Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “If we didn't have the Olympics how many of us would ever hear, and nod along, with the phrase ‘a slight glitch coming out of his twizzle?’”
Another one from Janice Hough: “Curling has an ever increasing fan base. Makes sense. Not that it’s an easy sport but have to think armchair athletes have to think they have a better chance of placing that shot rock than of landing a quadruple lutz.”
RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “So far his week I opened an umbrella indoors, broke a mirror and followed a black cat under a ladder. Still think I had more luck than the Patriots did against the Seahawks on Super Bowl Sunday.”
Another one from Kelly, on Auston Matthews showing a relaxed happiness with the U.S. team in Milan: “He hasn’t looked like he’s had this much fun since the 10 minutes between being drafted first overall and being handed a map.”
Headline at theonion.com: “Keys, Spare Change Fly Out Of Luge Athlete’s Pocket On First Turn:”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca