The Best Deals You Make Are Often the Deals You Don’t Make, Part 4,604:
If Kevin Shattenkirk had taken the Devils’ money on a long-term contract this summer, there is little chance Will Butcher would have signed with the club as a Mike Van Ryn-Blake Wheeler-Jordan Schultz-Kevin Hayes-Jimmy Vesey-type free agent.
Butcher is the 22-year-old lefty who won the Hobey Baker Award at the University of Denver before eschewing the Avalanche, following his 123rd-overall selection in 2013, to survey the open market. As general manager Ray Shero’s surprise summer get, Butcher has become a driving influence among the band of young Devils on a franchise that finally seems to be turning the page on the Lou Lamoriello Age.
There is a long, challenging road ahead for this team — witness a shutout defeat Friday night by San Jose — and for these energized youngsters who are still on the highs they established in training camp in earning NHL jobs. Rookies Butcher, the supremely talented if not necessarily generational first-overall Nico Hischier and 2016’s 162rd-overall pick Jesper Bratt could hit the proverbial wall in their first pro seasons. Pavel Zacha, a sophomore drafted immediately ahead of Ivan Provorov and Zach Werenski in 2015, hasn’t made the hard turn yet.
But for the first time since Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise were teammates for the last time in 2011-12, the Devils can come at you and score. Taylor Hall — who still hasn’t appeared in a playoff game and despite 24 points (9-15) in three World Championships covering 28 games, has never been on a Team Canada best-on-best squad and has thus suffered from limited exposure — is always great to watch and has some help. Cory Schneider, who suffered a lower-body injury on Thursday, has rebounded from a sub-par 2016-17.
The Devils, whose compete level was unacceptable last season, are playing hungry hockey for John Hynes, the coach who was unafraid to go with nine forwards for essentially the final 30 minutes of the 3-2 victory over the Rangers at the Garden on Oct. 14 while benching Zacha, Marcus Johansson and Jimmy Hayes. And unafraid to have Hischier on in the final minute protecting a one-goal lead in a 5-on-6 situation.
The franchise that established the high bar of excellence during the Lamoriello Age has not been to the playoffs in five years. Once that would have been unthinkable. Now, though, there is reason to believe better days are ahead in New Jersey, and perhaps sooner than expected.
It is inconceivable the NHL hasn’t been able to install chips in the puck and in skates that would yield real-time measurement and display of the speed of shots and of players. The league is missing an opportunity to capitalize in an industry whose customers have an insatiable desire for a combination of video and data.
Connor McDavid was measured by Sportsnet in Canada at 25.4 mph on an opening night rush up the right side against Calgary. It sure seemed fast. But relative to the rest of the league, how fast was it? Was the jet propulsion as extraordinary as it seemed?
What is the next fastest rush speed generated by a player? Who is the next fastest player, not in a skills competition oval, but on the ice in a real-time situation? What about Auston Matthews?
Who knows.
How hard did Phil Kessel snap that one from the right circle that beat Henrik Lundqvist on Tuesday? At what angle was it launched? From exactly how many feet away was it, as determined by computer tracking rather than by an off-ice official’s best read? Who knows?
Maybe the NHL could do something about this.
There was Jaro Halak, early in the third period at the Garden on Thursday, at least five feet outside of his crease and with no Rangers around him to threaten harm, covering the puck to get a whistle once a Blueshirt moseyed over in obligatory fashion.
Which the Islanders’ goaltender received because all goaltenders are granted that courtesy by referees even if it is against the rules.
For just as referees routinely ignored slashing and faceoff violations for years until the league ordered a course correction, officials have paid no mind to Rule 67.3 that states, “A goalkeeper who holds the puck with his hands for longer than three seconds shall be given a minor penalty unless he is actually being checked by an opponent. The object of this rule is to keep the puck in play continuously and any action taken by the goaltender that causes unnecessary stoppages must be penalized without warning.”
Goaltenders getting whistles for no reason has long been one of my pet peeves, and when I saw @IneffectiveMath tweet on Friday, “Goalies who freeze the puck should get a penalty,” I was reminded of this rule that the league has decided not to enforce.
Final minute, Tuesday night at the Garden, Rangers attempting to protect a 4-3 lead against attacking Pittsburgh. Patric Hornqvist bats the puck down with his glove. Sidney Crosby stays away from it as not to trigger a hand-pass violation. Kevin Shattenkirk (unwisely) plays it, Crosby pounces, takes it, and banks one off Lundqvist to tie the score.
Now, here is the question: How on earth did Hornqvist and Evgeni Malkin get assists on the play?
see also
Cancer-stricken broadcaster to call games between treatments
Eddie Olczyk is in the middle of fighting cancer, but…
The pleasures of the game are all about the people in it, and there are few people in it more universally liked and admired than Eddie Olczyk. It naturally follows Wednesday’s return to the NBC’s game analyst’s chair by the Heave-Ho hero of ’94, was as heartwarming as it gets.
Finally, at this rate, Rick Nash is going to wind up with about 12 goals … and with nine of them coming for Ken Hitchcock’s Stars after No. 61’s trade to Dallas at the deadline for Valeri Nichushkin.