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Three Periods: The tanking paradox; dramatic drop in power plays; NHL notes

Three Periods: The tanking paradox; dramatic drop in power plays; NHL notes

Nicholas J. Cotsonika’s Three Periods column appears on Thursdays. This week’s topics include the dueling agendas when teams tank; the reason for the lack of power plays across the NHL; an interesting idea for the draft lottery; another potential angle for video review; and a funny exchange between coaches Todd McLellan and Mike Babcock.

FIRST PERIOD: When a team tanks, coaches and players aren’t trying to lose

GMs tank. Coaches and players don’t.

“As a player,” said Coyotes captain Shane Doan, “there is not a chance in anything that I ever want to be last. As a competitor, it makes you sick to think that, embarrassed and disgusted that you’re even in the situation. The fact that’s even a possibility is just disgusting.”

Remember that as the Sabres and Coyotes, the leaders in the race for last place, play Thursday night in Buffalo and Monday night in Arizona. There are dueling agendas in each organization.

General managers have a long-term view. The ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and if their team isn’t in position to compete for it, their job is to maneuver within the system to put their team in position to compete for it.

The chance to draft tantalizing talents such as Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid has led to all the tank talk. (Getty)
The chance to draft tantalizing talents such as Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid has led to all the tank talk. (Getty)

How do you acquire elite players? Free agency? Elite players rarely make it to unrestricted free agency, and if they do, you have to be able to sign them. Trades? Elite players often have no-trade clauses. They often have warts if they are available. They cost lots of money and assets if you can swing a deal.

That leaves the draft, and there are two huge prizes this year: Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. The system accounts for tanking. The system actually accounts for McDavid and Eichel specifically, because the lottery was changed for this draft, lessening the odds of the bottom-feeders landing the No. 1 pick.

The last-place team will have a 20-percent chance at No. 1 and an 80-percent chance at No. 2. The second-to-last-place team will have an 13.5-percent chance at No. 1, a 20-percent chance at No. 2 and a 66.5-percent chance at No. 3 if one of the other non-playoff teams wins the No. 1 pick.

If you were Sabres GM Tim Murray or Coyotes GM Don Maloney, what would you do? Put the best team possible on the ice so you could maybe finish higher, miss the playoffs anyway and hurt your lottery odds? Or trade players for assets and better odds? Are all teams that sell before the trade deadline tanking? Where’s the line?

It’s a calculated decision, subtracting from your lineup now to add to it later, akin to a contender locked in a playoff spot resting players down the stretch.

Coaches and players have a different view, though. They are not trying to lose.

“Losing sucks,” said Coyotes coach Dave Tippett. “I can’t say anymore about it. We haven’t found ways to win games, and you’re in this business to win. When you don’t win, it sucks.”

Did you see the Coyotes’ faces after their 5-4 overtime victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night? Did you see the smiles after they earned two points for only the second time in 20 games and gave the Sabres a five-point “lead” in the ‘McEichel’ race?

“Nobody ever wants to be in this position,” Doan said. “No one wants to be put in this position. And when you are, I don’t think anyone’s too excited about it.”

Listen to that again: No one wants to be “put in” this situation.

The coaches and players share responsibility for their plight. If they were better, the team would be better, and the GMs wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. Doan, for one, said he had been “horrendous.” He has 13 goals and 32 points in 72 games this season.

But they don’t build the rosters. When GMs trade players for assets, it takes a toll. The losing itself takes a toll. Being worn down mentally and not performing your best is not the same as not caring. Often it means you do care and can’t do what you want about it.

The Sabres and Coyotes look like last-place teams, but which one will get the first overall draft pick? (AP)
The Sabres and Coyotes look like last-place teams, but which one will get the first overall draft pick? (AP)

“It’s obviously frustrating when you’re in a position like this,” said Coyotes center Sam Gagner, who has never made the playoffs in eight NHL seasons – seven with the Edmonton Oilers, one with Arizona. “It’s a tough thing to do, to let go of things that happen and move forward and try to get better. But you have to do that.”

Some players can see the big picture. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is 23 years old. He has his whole career in front of him. He’s a cornerstone of the Coyotes’ future, wants to be in Arizona and can afford to wait for the team to develop around him. Tippett said he has shown more leadership on and off the ice.

But take a guy like Doan: He has been loyal to one franchise – moving from Winnipeg, weathering ownership issues in Arizona, selling hockey in the desert. But he’s 38 and has one more year on his contract. He has only so much time left, has never won the Cup and needs to decide whether he wants to stick around. You can see the frustration on his face and the effect on the ice. Tippett keeps playing him a ton for two reasons: One, it keeps Doan from thinking too much. Two, he doesn’t have anyone better, frankly.

“We’re in a league that’s not a developmental league,” Doan said. “This isn’t a league where you come to develop. When you get here, you should be able to win. We’ve got to find ways to win. You can try to take moral victories or whatever, but if you start setting yourself up to be an organization and a team that is finding moral victories and finding things that you can be excited about other than wins, then you’re in trouble. And we don’t want to ever get to that spot. That’s obviously something you’ve got to be careful of.”

Asked about two first-round picks the Coyotes have this year and next, Doan said: “I’m not really too concerned what they have for draft picks the next two years. It is what it is. I’m disappointed in the way we’re finishing off here, the way it’s finished, and we have to be better as a team.”

Then there are the guys in between – veterans playing for pride, youngsters playing for jobs. The irony of this situation: Though the GMs have stripped their rosters, they are evaluating the guys still on their rosters. Though they don’t want to win now, they want guys who want to win now, because those are the kind of guys who might help them win someday.

“I think if you ever have that thought, where you’re playing to tank or not playing to win every night, you’re probably not going to be around very long,” Gagner said. “If as a player you’re looking to get the first overall pick, you’re probably not going to be around to see it. You play to win every night. That has to be your focus.”

SECOND PERIOD: The lack of power plays in the NHL is a good thing

Sharks coach Todd McLellan has the numbers on his board in his office in San Jose.

When he broke into the NHL as an assistant coach with the Red Wings, he ran the power play. In three years, the Wings had 461 power-play opportunities, then 398, then 391. That was right after the 2004-05 lockout, when the NHL tightened enforcement of infractions like hooking, holding and interference.

The number of power plays in the NHL has dropped dramatically over the past decade. (USA Today)
The number of power plays in the NHL has dropped dramatically over the past decade. (USA Today)

“There was a real clampdown,” McLellan said. “You could have 11 power plays in one night.”

Now? The Sharks have had 225 power-play opportunities this season, putting them on pace for 252.

In 2005-06, teams ranged from 541 power-play opportunities to 411. The average team had 480. This season, no one is one pace for more than 297 power-play opportunities. One team is on pace for as few as 211.

Another way to look at it: The average NHL game had 11.7 power plays in 2005-06. The average NHL game has had about 6.2 this season.

But that doesn’t mean hooking, holding and interference have crept back into the game to a large degree and the referees have been swallowing their whistles. It means hooking, holding and interference have left the game to a large degree. The referees have less to call.

“I think there’s fewer infractions,” McLellan said, echoing comments some GMs made at their meetings last week in Boca Raton, Fla. “The referees don’t turn their eyes to 250 penalties on every team in the league. There’s no way that happens. So I think the infractions are down.”

Fewer and fewer players are left from the pre-clampdown days. Those who are left have adjusted. The players who have entered the league since have not had to break old habits.

“They don’t know any other rules,” McLellan said. “They only know the rules that we play with now. They don’t know you used to be able to tackle a guy in the corner and lay on him for three minutes.”

The same principle applies to infractions like boarding and illegal checks to the head, thanks to efforts from minor hockey to the NHL. Suspensions are down this season, too.

“Do we ever talk about checking from behind anymore?” McLellan said. “How come? Because all those little stop signs eventually worked. Because [players who grew up with them are] in the NHL now. It’s not happening anywhere.”

THIRD PERIOD: Notes from around the NHL

— Here’s an interesting idea I heard the other day: Allow teams to trade lottery balls. Not necessarily the first-round pick itself. Just the lottery balls – all of them or just some of them. One team could give up assets in exchange for increasing its odds of landing the No. 1 pick. The other could give up its odds of landing the No. 1 pick in exchange for assets. Conditions could be applied, so the price could be higher or lower depending on the outcome of the lottery. Would any GMs be bold enough to do it? What would be the reaction if a traded ball turned out to be the winner?

The Wings' Justin Abdelkader scored an OT winner with a broken stick against the Blues. (AP)
The Wings' Justin Abdelkader scored an OT winner with a broken stick against the Blues. (AP)

— After the Red Wings’ Justin Abdelkader scored an overtime winner with a broken stick Sunday, the NHL’s hockey operations department discussed the issue internally, and senior vice-president Colin Campbell started canvassing opinions of people in the game. Referee Eric Furlatt looked right at the play and signaled goal, when he should have disallowed the goal and given Abdelkader a minor penalty. But in fairness, it was hard for Furlatt to see at ice level in real time that the stick shaft had broken as Abdelkader held it in his hands and shoved the puck into the net. As clear as it was on the replay, it was not reviewable. Last week, the GMs recommended a coach’s challenge and video review for goalie interference and delay of game when pucks are shot over the glass. The referees would make the final call on goalie interference in consultation with hockey ops; hockey ops would repeal a delay-of-game call if there is conclusive evidence that a puck didn’t leave play cleanly. My opinion: Some type of video review should be available for all plays in which the puck enters the net. The play moves too fast. The possibilities are too vast. If the puck is in the net, the clock is stopped, so there is no issue about rewinding the action. Help the refs get it right.

— McLellan was speaking in the hallway at Joe Louis Arena after practice Wednesday, when a reporter asked if he ever second-guessed moving Brent Burns from forward back to defense. “We’re coaches,” he said. “We second-guess everything we do.” Just then, his old boss, Wings coach Mike Babcock, walked past. “Babs, do you ever second-guess anything you do?” McLellan asked with a smile. “Everything,” Babcock replied. “Can you come help me with his answer?” McLellan asked. “See ya, guys,” Babcock said.

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