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Puck Daddy Power Rankings: Trading the Sedins, Stamkos narrative and Norris Trophy

Puck Daddy Power Rankings: Trading the Sedins, Stamkos narrative and Norris Trophy

[Author's note: Power rankings are usually three things: Bad, wrong, and boring. You typically know just as well as the authors which teams won what games against who and what it all means, so our moving the Red Wings up four spots or whatever really doesn't tell you anything you didn't know. Who's hot, who's not, who cares? For this reason, we're doing a power ranking of things that are usually not teams. You'll see what I mean.] 

7. Adjustments

Every coach is obviously going to tinker with the lineup a little bit when things don't necessarily go their way. That's human nature, and in some cases it may be part of unlocking some secret into how they can beat their opponents. But going on gut alone isn't necessarily a good idea.

Jack Capuano learned this.

Capuano, and the Islanders as a whole, are not averse to the application of quote-unquote advanced statistics to the sport. During Game 7, he matter-of-factly told Pierre “If I were GM I'd fire any coach who said 'corsi' to me” McGuire that the team with the most shot attempts ended up winning every game of the series. And yet, when it came time to make the lineup for Game 6, he included Colin McDonald and not Anders Lee.

For those scoring at home, it's McDonald (2-6-8 in just 18 games for the Isles this year) over Lee (25-16-41 in 76). Now, the series was a bit of a grind and maybe you say that's not suited to Lee's skills. It certainly is to McDonald's. And not-including Lee didn't come back to bite the Isles in Game 6, either, as they won a nervy Game 6 in Nassau to force a final game. McDonald played 9:54.

And because it didn't hurt the first time, Lee was healthy-scratched again (at least, that's what Capuano said afterward; Lee was fine, it was a coach's decision, etc.) for Game 7. The Capitals held the Islanders to 11 shots — Trotz Hockey at its finest — and only three of those came from Isles forwards. Frans Nielsen had two, Kyle Okposo one. Lee, from the pressbox, finished in a tie 12 Islanders skaters and Jaroslav Halak with no shots on goal in a 60-minute hockey game.

Maybe you say Lee wouldn't have made a difference, not even on the game's only power play with less than three minutes to go in regulation and New York trailing by a goal. And the fact is we'll never know for sure. What we can say with absolute certainty, however, was that McDonald predictably didn't help the cause. He generated two tries but ended up a minus-6 in attempts overall, not as bad as Scott Mayfield (minus-15) or John Tavares (minus-10) but certainly not good.

And that's not to say, “Colin McDonald blew the series,” or anything like that. McDonald did what McDonald does; he's a player whose role is defined by his limitations. But this decision isn't a good look for Capuano, nor is failing to pull his goaltender for the entirety of that lone power play opportunity.

There are a lot of reasons the Islanders didn't advance, and Capuano overthinking things is a major one.

6. The Canucks

Awful way to go out, really.

The Eddie Lack/Ryan Miller goaltending tandem was never going to inspire confidence, but when your depth gets bossed around by the Flames' — when the Sedins were off the ice, Vancouver was sub-50 percent possession in a series it mostly trailed — you deserve to get bounced. Frankly, making it through six games was too good for them.

It's possible that plenty of changes will come for the Canucks this summer, and deservedly so. This team is a mess, and Jim Benning is already proving that he's not very good at this whole “giving out contracts to the right people” thing. Newly extended Luca Sbisa was on the ice for five goals against at 5-on-5, and only three for. He was also on the ice 85 shot attempts against and only 78 for (49 and 37 of which, respectively, ended up on net). It's a player problem, it's a coaching problem, it's a management problem.

So here's a question: Should they trade the Sedins?

Because make no mistake, this is a team that's nowhere near capable of competing for anything much in this conference. The Sedins are expensive and still very good pieces, but by the time this team is even remotely fixed, they'll be in the 37-38 range, in a best-case scenario.

Get value for them while you can? Sure. Will it be easy? No. Those are big contracts and big contracts are hard to move, especially for aging players who were once again playoff washouts, and who would likely have to go as a package deal. Henrik playing in Edmonton while Daniel goes off to Columbus, for example, doesn't seem all that likely to happen.

But on some level, this feels like one of those situations where the Canucks kind of owe the Sedins the chance to play for teams that do not lose to the Calgary Flames in embarrassing fashion. Get the picks and prospects for them that you can (if you can) and see where you land in a few years. Otherwise, it's a decade and a half of Vancouver perpetually never being good enough to get two Hall of Famers more than one kick at winning the Cup.

UNIONDALE, NY - APRIL 25: New York Islanders fans prepare for could be the final game in this building against the Washington Capitals in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on April 25, 2015 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NY - APRIL 25: New York Islanders fans prepare for could be the final game in this building against the Washington Capitals in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on April 25, 2015 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

5. So long, Nassau Coliseum

Ah, the wistful sighing of people who two years ago wouldn't have given half a crap if the dump burned to the ground. Brooklyn is going to be great. Go Brooklyn.

4. Narratives

The Red Wings are experienced playoff veterans and the Bolts are young kids who don't know any better.

Mike Babcock is the chess master who has figured out how to stifle Tampa's best-in-the-league offense in a way no one else has.

You've heard both of these things a lot over the last week and a half or so, and neither of them are particularly true. In this series, the Wings have two shutouts. That's true. But it's the same number of games in which they've allowed five goals, which doesn't really lend itself to the idea of Tampa's offensive struggles; for the Bolts the series has gone 2-3, 5-1, 0-3, 3-2, 0-4, and 5-2.

By my count that's 15 goals for Tampa, and 15 for Detroit. Take out empty-netters and it's 14-13 for Tampa. Look at just the goals scored during five-a-side time and it's 11-6 Tampa. Plus-5 is the best goal differential at 5-on-5 in the postseason.

Maybe, and stick with me on this crazy theory: Mike Babcock doesn't have anything in particular figured out, except that he keeps playing the goalie with the .924 save percentage. I don't know, though, could be anything!

And to that end, let's also touch on the whole, “Steven Stamkos is a no-scoring bum!” narrative that has swirled around this series since, approximately, halfway through the first period of Game 1. Why don't the best players score goals in every playoff game they play? Well, it's hard to do that sometimes, especially when playoff-caliber teams are focusing in on you almost exclusively. If the game plan is “We have to stop Crosby/Stamkos/Malkin/Tavares/Ovechkin” and it appears to work, then that player is a Bad Loser. It doesn't matter that Ovechkin averaged four shots a game, or Stamkos is north of three. This is Chess Master Mike at it again.

Meanwhile, have you heard a goddamn word about Henrik Zetterberg going 0-3-3 with 15 shots in six games? Is Jon Cooper a genius tactician here? Or is that just how hockey goes, even when you're one of the best players in the world?

Because believe me, if Ovechkin went minus-3 in a Game 6 at home, you'd never hear the end of what a pile of garbage he is. Zetterberg, though, is bulletproof.

3. Game 7 in Tampa

All of which, though, sets up tonight's game to be a mega-classic. Or it might be another blowout. We'll see how Babcock decides to play this!

2. Norris balloting

The PHWA gets a lot of criticism for the way it doles out awards every year, and often it's well-deserved.

But the Norris ballot that came out Monday night was perfect in every way. It discounted the impressive work of Mark Giordano and Kris Letang, who got hurt and missed a little too much of the season, which is totally fair. It did not include Shea Weber, whose numbers don't suggest — as the eye test alone does — that he is a particularly elite, top-three defenseman in the league.

And it did include three of the best defensemen who drew the toughest assignments and still drove play in the right direction. Erik Karlsson got rewarded for contributing almost 40 percent more goals above replacement level than the next-closest guy on the list. PK Subban was also “up there” in this regard on a league-wide basis, and his offense plus the quality of the rest of his team clearly stood out. And finally, Drew Doughty made the cut once again, albeit as what I'm assuming is a distant third.

If you were trying to pick the three best defensemen in the league this past season, it's hard to pick a better trio than these guys. And that's rare from the PHWA. I thought for sure Karlsson was gonna get screwed because he “doesn't play defense” and so on. But they got it right.

1. DOPS is back from vacation

Nicklas Kronwall actually got a suspension?

(Not ranked this week: Gary Bettman.

For a guy who is as immensely smart as Bettman very clearly is, he sure does say some dumb, disingenuous garbage in service of keeping the league's image clean. “Was the Katy Perry chant sexist?” is an easy question to answer because the answer is 'yup it sure was, sorry about that,' and then no one talks about it and you only have to do more to make sure that sexist crap doesn't get chanted at games. Pretty easy, and something you should be doing anyway.

Then he goes and doubles down on the whole “no fans want a Capgeek-type site from the NHL” schtick he's been peddling since before Matthew Wuest passed away. That's instead of saying what he really ought to say, which is “Yeah that doesn't seem like it would be in our clubs' or players' best interest,” which is also, rather conveniently, the truth.

I think I have a lot more time for Bettman than do most people, but this was not a good week for him. And it would have been so easy to have one. All you have to do is tell the truth and be, like, 4 percent less slitheringly politic.)

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