5 Best Stories Of The 2014 NHL Playoffs

While the conference championships are in full swing, the 2014 playoff have brought quite a few interesting story lines.  Here are the 5 best so far.

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Ryan Miller Won’t Stay –The St. Louis Blues acquired Ryan Miller from the Buffalo Sabers right before the trade deadline and he was supposed to be the missing piece of the puzzle for the Blues going deep into the playoffs.  After winning the first 2 games of the first round, the Blues lost 4 straight games against the Chicago Blackhawks.  The Blues recently signed goaltender Brian Elliott to a 3 year extension and will not be bringing Ryan Miller back. I thought Miller would be the Blues’ answer, especially with the great team they had around him.  Ryan will be a free agent this summer, so don’t feel bad.  He can sit back and wait for a team to give him a lot of money.

Kings Do What Few Have Done, Ever – The Los Angeles Kings came back from a 0-3 deficit in the first round to beat the San Jose Sharks in 7 games. 

Only 3 other teams have done this before. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1975 New York Islanders, and the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers.  To put this into even more perspective, outside of hockey, only the 2004 Boston Red Socks have come back from a 0-3 deficit.  No team in the NBA has ever done this and no NFL team has ever done this either (NFL is 1 game elimination).

Milan Lucic Inspires T-Shirt – It was no surprise that the child like antics of the Boston Bruin’s Milan Lucic inspired a T-shirt that went viral shortly after their game 7 loss to the Montreal Canadians.  Lucic was on camera saying some pretty unsportsmanlike things to the Montreal players during the post game handshake

Needless to say, if you can’t read his lips, the t-shirt says it all.

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Canadians Skip to 3^rd String Goalie – It is always unfortunate when a starting goaltender gets injured during the playoffs and even worse when it’s your best player.  Montreal’s Carey Price went down in game 1 of the conference finals and in game 2 the Canadians skipped over their backup goalie Peter Budaj and started their third stringer, AHL’s Dustin Tomarski.  

Tomarski had 10 total NHL games before the start and is expected to play the rest of the series.  Good luck Montreal.

Rangers Keep Winning – Well well well.  I will be the first to say I was wrong about the New York Rangers this playoff season.  They have survived 2 game 7s and are two wins away from going to the Stanley Cup finals.  

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Henrik Lundqvist has played well and the Rangers’ offense has scored when they needed to.  Is this the year they end their 20 year Stanley Cup drought?  With Chicago or Los Angeles coming out of the west, probably not.

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Detroit Red Wings Get New Arena

Before I talk about the new arena the Detroit Red Wings were recently approved for, let’s take a look back at how they got there. 

Olympia Stadium

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The Detroit Red Wings were founded in 1926 as the Detroit Cougars and after their inaugural season in Windsor, began playing at Olympia Stadium on October 26, 1927.  The arena initially held 11,500 seats.  It was one of the premier venues at the time and held championship boxing matches as well as circuses and concerts.  The Red Wings won 7 Stanley Cups at Olympia, however over time the arena became run down and in 1979 the Wings played their last home game at the historic venue.

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Joe Louis Arena

In the same year Olympia closed its doors, Joe Louis Arena opened next to Cobo Hall.  With 20,000 seats and originally planned to host both the Red Wings and Detroit Pistons, the Joe became the sole home of the then nicknamed “Dead Wings.”  There was much speculation the Red Wings' franchise needed to be sold after compiling 2 decades of terrible seasons. 

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 In 1982 the owner of Little Caesars Pizza chain, Mike Ilitch, bought the Red Wings and although the team struggled in the 80s, turned things around in the 90s.  Beginning in 1991, Detroit has made the playoffs 23 consecutive seasons (current sports record), made 6 finals appearances, and won 4 Stanley Cups.

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I never made it to Olympia but I have been to at least 75 games at the Joe.  It is one of the funnest venues for any sporting event.  It is old and worn down but the atmosphere is better than anywhere I’ve ever been.  It’s bitter sweet they are leaving Joe Louis.  

Game 4 of this year's playoffs from my phone

Warm ups from game 4 of playoffs from my phone

New Arena

Now after 35 years playing at Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Red Wings finally get a new home.  A new arena was recently approved by the City of Detroit and is set to begin construction this spring with doors scheduled to open for the 2016 – 2017 season.  The news comes as no surprise as Ilitch Holdings, owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch, have been discussing the possibility of moving from Joe Louis since 2010 when they renewed their lease of the arena.  The new arena will be located on the corner of Woodward and the I-75 service drive, across the street from Hockey Town Café.  

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The venue is expected to cost $450 million and generate some 8,300 jobs for Detroiters. No name or design of the arena has been made public, but we do know it will hold 18,000 seats.  This is a big deal for the Detroit Red Wings, their fans, and most importantly a revenue booster for the City of Detroit.

King, R., & Littmann, D. (2014). Hat Trick. dbusiness, 9(3), 69-73.

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2014 NHL Award Finalists

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The NHL has announced its 2014 award trophy finalists.   Some are obvious nominees and some may be a little surprising.  Winners will be announced on June 24 during the 2014 NHL awards ceremony at the Wynn in Las Vegas.  I break down the awards, the finalists, and who will be going home with the hardware.

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Lady Bing Trophy(Player with best sportsmanship) 

Finalists:  Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Ryan O’Reilly (Colorado Avalanche), Martin St. Louis (New York Rangers).

Prediction:  Patrick Marleau.  He captured his seventh 30 goal season in 9 years and helped San Jose to another 100 point season.  He’s the heart of the San Jose Sharks and leads by example. This is his 2^nd nomination for the trophy.

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Calder Trophy (Top rookie)

Finalists: Tyler Johnson (Tampa Bay Lightning), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), Ondrej Palat (Tampa Bay Lightning)

Prediction: Nathan Mackinnon.  Nathan was electric for the Avs in his rookie season.  He led all rookies in points (63) and broke a Wayne Gretzky record for single season point streak (13 games with a point) for a player 18 or under.  Anytime you break a Gretzky record you deserve to win something.

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SelkeTrophy (Best defensive forward)

Finalists:  Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins), Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings), Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)

Prediction: Anze Kopitar.  Anze is one of the premier back checkers in the league.  He logged the most shorthanded ice time among the top 30 scorers in the league and is tied for fourth in the league in plus-minus (+34).  Having seen all 3 players in person he is the best choice for this award.

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VezinaTrophy (Best goalie) 

Finalists:  Ben Bishop (Tampa Bay Lightning), Tuukka Rask (Boston Bruins), Semyon Varlamov (Colorado Avalanche)

Prediction: Tuukka Rask.  Helping lead the Bruins to their first Presidents Trophy (best team) since 1990, Tuukka was the only goaltender in the league to be top 5 in all major statistical categories.  He was 4^th in GAA (2.04), 5^th in wins (36), 2^nd in save percentage (.930), and 1^st in shutouts (7).  He also led Finland to a Bronze medal in the Sochi Olympics and is currently having a good playoff performance.

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NorrisTrophy (Best defensemen)  

Finalists:  Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins), Duncan Keith (Chicago Blackhawks), Shea Weber (Nashville Predators)

Prediction: Zdeno Chara.  He is a 6’9”, 255 lbs menace and may be the best defensemen in the league.  Boston was ranked 2^nd in the league with goals against (177) and Chara was ranked top ten among defensemen with goals (17), plus/ minus (+25), power play goals (10), and game winning goals (3).

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JackAdams Trophy (Best coach)

Finalists:  Mike Babcock (Detroit Red Wings), Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning), Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche)

Prediction: Patrick Roy.  As well as Mike Babcock did this year with half of his team being new and under the age of 25, Patrick Roy got the Colorado Avalanche back into the playoffs with new purpose.  This was Roy’s rookie season and after the Avs finished 29^th overall last year, Patrick propelled them to 112 points and 2^nd place in the west.  Colorado also tied a franchise record with 52 wins.

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HartTrophy (MVP)

Finalists:  Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins), Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks), Claude Giroux (Philadelphia Flyers)

Prediction: Ryan Getzlaf.  With a career high 31 goals and 87 points (second in the league), Getzlaf helped the Ducks take the top spot in the West this season.  Ryan posted a 14 game point streak and set a career high with game winning goals (7).  He was also part of the gold medal winning Canadian hockey team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Don’t forget to follow me @EJ_Hockey_Post on twitter or my Facebook fan page ericjhockeypost