Baptism By Fire and the Pittsburgh Penguins
Jonathan Willis
August 09 2009 05:00AM
The 2003-04 Pittsburgh Penguins were a miserable team – the worst in the NHL in fact. They went 23-47-8-4, and were led in scoring by defenseman Dick Tarnstrom (52 points) and had ten different players who recorded a -20 rating or worse. The team also featured 17 players aged 25 or younger, including many high draft picks.
Five years later, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup – showing that the baptism-by-fire method helped develop those young players into champions, right? Wrong.
Best of The Rest: Free Agent Goaltenders
Jonathan Willis
August 05 2009 01:11PM
It’s early August, and the NHL is about as far off of the radar as it could possibly be. Free agency has cooled down, the draft is far in the rear-view mirror and the fact of the matter is that there aren’t a lot of stories to cover (side point: how stupid is it that the draft and free agency both get jammed together at the end of June/very start of July?).
However - there remain teams with holes (most of them) and players capable of filling those holes. We’ll start by considering free agent goaltenders.
Hitting and Winning Games
Jonathan Willis
July 16 2009 07:30PM
It’s frequently stated that physicality and a strong hitting game lead to winning. With that in mind, I decided to look at how the five highest hitting teams each season over the past decade compared with the five lowest hitting teams.
Ask And Ye Shall Receive
Jonathan Willis
July 16 2009 09:03AM
Back in January, TSN had an article up on their website about Canucks’ GM Mike Gillis approaching the NHL to request a softer schedule. With the NHL schedule coming out yesterday, what has the result been?
Northwest Division Goaltenders Vs. Average
Jonathan Willis
July 09 2009 08:44AM
What kind of player is a league-average goaltender? How do goaltenders in the Northwest Division stack up?
