FAUXRUMORS

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Pre-Turkey Day Picks

1) For our readers in the States, tomorrow is Thanks Giving. We want to wish all our readers a wonderful holiday. Before we get there though we have to pick tonight's 11 scheduled contests.

2) Philadelphia vs-Carolina: Hurricane

Atlanta vs-Washington : Thrasher

Ottawa vs-Buffalo : Sabres

New Jersey vs-Pittsburgh : Penguin

Vancouver vs-Minnesota: Wild

Los Angeles vs-Phoenix: LA

Montreal vs-NY Islanders: Isles

Florida vs-Columbus: Blue Jackets( Tonight's Lock!)

St. Louis vs-Detroit: Red Wings

NY Rangers vs-Tampa Bay: Rangers

Anaheim vs-Dallas: Ducks

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

1) With nearly all teams having now played 20% of their schedules we decided to project the finals standings. Obviously there is plenty of time for teams outside of the playoffs to get back in, but some trends are clearly becoming evident.

2) We merely projected an 82 game season point total based upon each teams current point total/games played.

First in the East:

Ottawa-138

Islanders-106

Carolina- 105

Montreal- 102

Philadelphia-99

Rangers--97

Boston-91

Tampa Bay-90

_________________________________

Toronto- 82

Atlanta- 82

New Jersey- 74

Pittsburgh- 74

Florida- 71

Buffalo- 68

Washington- 53

3) Next the West:

Detroit- 119

Colorado- 99

San Jose- 98

St Louis- 100

Minnesota- 98

Chicago- 94

Vancouver- 91

Anaheim- 90

_________________________

Nashville- 90

Dallas- 90

Columbus- 90

Calgary- 78

Phoenix- 73

LA- 70

Edmonton- 62

4) Some surprises to be sure. We understand that with 3/4 of the games remaining the subtle differences of one point or a game or two in hand are magnified, but those are accurate projections, and teams needing 90+ points to qualify for the playoffs consistent with past years. It also shows a VERY close race for the final playoff spots in both Conferences. Again, mirroring what we have seen the last few years.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Who's On The Firing Line Today?

1) In a follow up to our preseason question of who-gets-axe-first. We decided it may be time to update that list and get the latest of who may next be looking for work.
2) Here are the coaches that right now should not get too comfortable in their surroundings as their next game could be their last:

Mike Keenan (Calgary Flame)- Is anyone surprised with this turn of events? 'Iron Mike' has not been successful since leading the Rangers to a Cup 13+ years ago! As we wrote here exclusively 2 weeks ago there has been trouble-in-alberta. long before today. It started from day 1 of training camp and has worsened from there. The team is in veritable free fall, and our sources tell us that Sutter is contemplating doing what he dreads; Firing Keenan and becoming the interim head coach. However, waiting a few more weeks could place their playoff hopes in jeopardy. The season is still very salvageable as of now, but that can change if Sutter waits a few more weeks.

Glen Hanlon ( D.C. Crapitals)- Even in the usually sedate, almost apathetic(except for a few well informed bloggers) Nations' capital the heat is being turned up on head coach Glen Hanlon. The team is off to an awful start. Actually they started off to an improbable 3-0 beginning and have gone a pathetic 3-12-1 since. Plummeting them into the basement not only of their division, but also the Eastern Conference and entire NHL! Many had this team as a dark horse playoff team after their off season additions. While some point to injuries, (They lost Semin and Clark for long stretches) it still doesn't explain away such a record AND more ominous the lack of effort for a full 60 minutes; Their trade mark the previous 2 seasons under Hanlon. A change could come as early as this week if they have a poor home stand against opponents that are not in the top 8 either. Bruce Boudreau, their coach with their AHL affiliate Hershey Bears is the most likely candidate to replace Hanlon.

Brent Sutter (N.J. Devil)- No coach is EVER safe in Jersey. Ask Claude Julian. He was having arguably a Coach of the year type season last year only to be cut down by Lou Lamarello a few short weeks before the playoffs. (Claude has been vindicated by the Devils early playoff ouster as well as his success in Boston) The early slow start in NJ was attributed to their long road trip to start the season(To put finishing touches on their new arena in Newark). However, since the team has returned home, they have NOT turned things around. In fact they are 3-4 at The Rock, and hovering in 10th in the East. In Sutter's defense, the team he was given was hardly a playoff team on paper. Their defense continues to be gutted with each off season. Broduer is not playing Vezina goal, and team captain Patrick Elias seems to have lost his touch. However as we have already pointed out team GM/president Lamarello doesn't care for excuses, but only results. How much longer will he let his team be coached and look mediocre? Our guess is that Sutter has until Christmas at most to turn things around, else he'll be back in Alberta by the New year!

Craig MacTavish (Edmonton Oiler) No one expected the Oilers to be very good, so perhaps its not fair to place Craig on this list. However, the Oilers are at the bottom of the conference and as one scout told us recently, 'many nights play uninspired hockey'. That's the thing that will get upper managements attention, fast. Kevin Lowe, already under the gun himself for his off season antics of almost guaranteeing to fans he'd make a block buster trade/addition, only to be rebuffed/the Penner RFA acquisition, may not wait too long to make a switch if things progress as they have. The team is not only a dreadful 3-6-1 in their last 10, but a horrendous 3-6 at Rexall. Nothing gets attention of management faster than teams losing at home! Craig may not last the season, or even the calender year if things don't improve.

Dave Tippett (Dallas Star) Don't think for a minute that the firing last week of Doug Armstrong saved Tippett's butt. It may have given him a short reprieve, but he is clearly still under the gun. It may take new GM's Brett Hull/Les Jackson a few weeks to sort things out, but once they get settled and the team continues to sputter/struggle look for one of their first duties to be to replace Tippet with new blood/their own guy. An aside to this; A well placed source in Dallas tells FAUXRUMORS that the duel GM job is temporary until Hicks feels Hull is ready to assume the position full time himself. Hull felt he wasn't yet to be the top guy, but will likely be named the team's full time GM after the season.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Bad Blood Forces Burke's Hand?

1) As soon as we were told this past Friday morning of the Ducks intention to waive their back up goalie Ilya Bryzgalov we started our quest to find the REAL reason for such an apparently mystifying course of action. Why were we mystified:

By placing Ilya on 'waivers' the Ducks will lose him and get no compensation other than modest salary cap relief(Bryzgalov makes a mere 1.36 mil and already 20% of this has been paid)
If they retained him he most likely would have been one of the more sought after goalies available at the trade deadline. As Fauxrumors alluded to in their post shopping-for-goalies. that there are few decent goalies that a team could pick up right now. They lose an important potential trade chip, for no apparent reason.
If they were trying to unload him during the summer/at the draft would have been the more logical time period for this.

2) So why now? Why not wait another month or two when inevitably a team might need a goalie due to injury, poor play, etc? When Bryzgalov's modest salary would be a far less bite into a team payroll. This what we have been hearing:

Since the Ducks won the Cup, starter J-S Giguere has had an ego that has annoyed even his best buddies on the team. As one Duck writer told us yesterday, "Giguere's been a dick since they won". There have been rumblings that team mates were miffed at his cockiness, but no one was more affected by the change in personality than the team's back up, Ilya Bryzgalov.
Apparently the two were never buddies, but had a professional appreciation for each other's abilities. Ilya felt he earned more playing time than he garnered last season, and felt that the team, and Giguere especially forget that it was Bryzgalov who started the playoffs last spring.
Winning seemed to at least temporarily put the turmoil under cover. For the off season anyway. Burke had much bigger issues to deal with, and the last thing he needed was to deal with personality conflicts among his goalies. To hedge his bets he signed 25 year old Swiss goalie sensation Jonas Hiller. Feeling that he could use him to eventually replace Bryzgalov next season.
From the first day of camp Bryzgalov felt like he was an unwanted man. Giguere with his Cup win, and long term contract was insufferably a jerk to Ilya. Treating him like an untested rookie at his first camp. Meanwhile Bryzgalov felt he deserved to play a larger role with the team OR be traded before the season.
It got worse from there. There was even an altercation that occurred while the team was in London for the silly 2 games with the Kings. Evidently Giguere said something that Ilya felt was the last straw, and he threatened to walk off the team and head back to play in Russia. Burke and coach Randy Carlyle persuaded Bryzgalov to stay with the team, but Burke told Ilya he'd start to look into a trade
As the weeks went by Burke could not seem to get a deal consummated. Sure he had offers, but nothing that made sense to his team at the time, so he told Ilya he was going to wait on a deal until after the beginning of the New year.
At first Bryzgalov was OK with that, but as one insider told us, 'you couldn't even cut the tension between Ilya and J-S with a knife, it was that thick!'. It all came to a head we're told last weekend. After a practice Ilya stormed off and called his agent, who in turn informed the Ducks they had 10 days to either trade his client or waive him else Bryzgalov was going to back to Russia to play on his old team, Tolyatti Lada who were eager to get back his services.
Burke had little choice but to quickly field what offers he could, but the word was out, and no GM was going to help out the fiery Burke at his time of need, so Burke did what he had to, placed Bryzgalov on waivers and promote Hiller from the AHL to back up Giguere.

3) As more information becomes available we will of course send it along here. As always, keep it here for all the latest!

On Tonight's Play Bill

1) Firstly, we want to thank FR2 for their excellent(as always) Power rankings. They also tell us that they are working on a post listing their current as well as an all time hated team. We're told to look for it sometime early next week.

2) Anyway, we at Fauxrumors risk our recent winning streak with tonight's NHL program of 10 contests

Phoenix vs-Los Angeles : Kings

Florida vs-Carolina: Hurricanes ( Tonight's Lock)

New Jersey vs-Philadelphia : Flyers

NY Rangers vs-Pittsburgh : Rangers

Calgary vs-Edmonton :Flames

Chicago vs-Detroit: Red Wings

Boston vs-Montreal: Canadians

Ottawa vs-Toronto:Maple Leafs

St. Louis vs-Nashville : Predators

Anaheim vs-San Jose: Shark

Friday, November 16, 2007

November Power Rankings

1) Unlike others we will continue to only do this monthly. Any sooner in our opinion wouldn't give a full view of any possible trends. Anyway here is today's Edition. Number in parentheses is last month's ranking:

1 Ottawa Senators (1)- The Senators started off hot and have not looked back and as such remain at the top of the Power rankings.

2 Detroit Red Wing (5)- The Red Wing have continued their good start in the surprisingly strong Central. Moving up 3 slots. Zetterburg and Datsyk proving to be a lethal combo

3 Carolina Hurricanes (3)- The 'canes continue their strong play as they remain in 3rd position. The SE division appears to be even weaker than many thought it would, helping the boys from Carolina pad their totals

4 Colorado Avalanche(15)- Moving up 11 slots despite continued struggles on the road, but are lights out in Denver during a recent home stand. The dynamic soph duo of Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny are propelling the Avs. An exciting team to watch. If they get their road situation turned around they will be competing for the Conference title.

5 Montreal Canadians(8)- Moving up 3 slots, improbably the Habs special teams continue to propel them despite the loss of Souray. Corey Price, has gone from goalie prospect to potential star in the making as he and Huet are playing well, allowing the team to potentially use Harlock as a trade chip later this season.

6 NY Rangers (25)- Moving up an incredible 19 slots, long gone/forgotten are the early season locker room problems May be it merely took the new acquisitions a bit longer than expected to gel together. Lundqvist continues to play Vezina calibre goal, and the defense has been surprisingly steady. The scoring appears to be ready to finally break out. Look out East!

7 San Jose Shark-(9) Have been road warriors thus far. Not looking too good in the Shark tank, and continue to look uneven at times, They have all talent to be THE team , and we fully expect they'll improve their home record and rise in the standings.

8 Philadelphia Flyers-(4) Fall 4 slots as the boys from Phillie start to come back to Earth. Have been a .500 team the last 3 weeks, falling out of the top spot in the Atlantic. They still appear to be a far improved version of the pathetic display of 2006-07

9 Columbus Blue Jackets-(24) Move up a very healthy 13 slots. One of the pleasant surprises here early on. Hitchcock has the Jackets playing exceptionally well, especially at Nationwide where they are an outstanding 6-2-1. They have received stellar goaltending from both Leclaire and Norrena. Something we at FAUXRUMORS didn't expect.

10 NY Islanders-(16) Move up 6 slots. Have played the fewest games thus far, but have one of the better winning %'s. Are/have been flirting with the division lead. As FAUXRUMORS mentions in his excellent Ted Nolan piece, he deserves much credit piecing together this rag-tag group.

11 Nashville Predator-(27) Up an amazing 17 slots. Though no longer the power house team we have seen in recent seasons they have been coming on as of late and may prove to their detractors(including us) that we were wrong writing them off.

12 Minnesota Wild-(2) Fall 10 spots. Started off on fire, they have abruptly come back to the pack with a thud. Injuries have hurt them, on offense though they continue to be decently stingy on defense. They aren't an elite team, but still one that should never be taken lightly

13 Boston Bruins- (6) Have fallen 7 spots, but continue to generally play good hockey for Julian (We wonder if he's chuckling at the Devil's troubles?) Play in the very competitive NE division so they can't afford to let their game slip up for a moment. So far, so good in Beantown.

14 Chicago Black Hawk-(13) The Boys from the Windy City have been able to maintain their placement above the top 15. One of the many of surprises in the central, their young phenoms Patrick Kane and Jonathan Towes continue to impress adding to the hope of their fans that the death of Wirtz initiated last month

15 TB Lightning- (11) Seemed to be reeling but have recently rebounded a bit, actually winning 2 road games now. Their Big 3-4( Vinny&Vinny, St.Louis, and Richards) are carrying the team despite huge loss of Dan Boyle. Explosive coach Tortorella got a vote of confidence from his GM jay Feaster. Of course as we saw in Dallas, is Feater's job safe if the Lightning falter?

16 Los Angeles King-(29) A team many gave up for dead after their dreadful post European start, they have been one of the better teams the past month. Up 13 spots. Resurrecting their season. Lets see how they do once they hit the road for a long stretch

17 Toronto Maple Leafs-(21) Continue to be a Jekyll and Hyde team looking horrendous one night, and like world beaters the next. To make the playoffs they'll have to be more consistent, and have fewer, um, distractions!

18 Vancouver Canuck-(14) Have fallen into plane mediocrity, which is what we expected last year. Luongo seems to have lost his winning touch,and the Sedins can't do it all themselves. This was the coach of the year??

19 Anaheim Duck-(13) A continued tough start for the champs. After their European adventure and long road trip that followed we thought they would rebound nicely at home. However we would count out the champs just yet. A return of Niedermayer by the holidays is rumored. We of course will look into that for our readers

20 Atlanta Thrashers-(30) Jumped 10 spots. They really had no place to go but up after looking dreadful out of the gate. Costing Hartley his job. GM, now also coach Waddell SHOULD have been the one axed but now he will be given the credit for the turn around. It doesn't hurt when your resident superstar Ilya Kovalchuk has played like a man possessed the last few weeks.

21 Dallas Star-(19) Continue to tread water. As we suspected a change in management was coming soon. What we didn't expect was that Mr. Tippet would survive(for now) and the GM, Armstong would be looking for work. Regardless, this team has serious flaws that won't be changed by this. This is a team in decline, and soon will realize that they are in rebuild mode

22 St. Louis Blue-(10) Have fallen in our rankings, but still are playing well above last years team. Shocking/beating the Wings at home the other night. Will be interesting to see if they can stay above .500. They are probably not yet a playoff team, but the future looks better in St. Louis

23 Calgary Flame-(20) As FAUXRUMORS alluded to in their post trouble-in-alberta, things are not going well in Calgary. The team is sputtering. Even losing at home to their hated rival Oilers recently. If this continues a change in coaching might be possible.

24 NJ Devils-(22) Can no longer point to being road weary as an excuse, as they are only 3-3 in their new digs, The Rock. The anemic PP clearly is missing Rafalski and Gomez. A search party needs to be sent out to find Elias's hockey skills. Clearly he's lost them. Sutter has looked baffled on the bench. Looking like the rookie coach he is. Add to that Brodeur has looked ordinary, and you have a recipe for a non playoff year.

25 Pittsburgh Penguins- (18) There is NO excuse for this team to be where it is. Coach of the year finalist Therrian not looking as smart this year we guess? M-A Fleury continues to not play like the super star in the making we've been told he is. Shero would be best served to change coaches, as this collection, even with its goaltending, is good enough to make the playoffs.

26 Buffalo Sabres-(17) (See above) Have continued their very poor start. Winning a mere 3 of their last 10 games! Despite free agent losses they still have considerable fire power/depth at forward. So another coach of the year finalist having trouble we see. If Ruff had take THIS club and won the President's trophy we'd say he deserves consideration. Thus far he and the team are NOT doing the job.

27 Edmonton Oiler-(28) We didn't see them as a playoff team, but not as an awful team either. The McTavish watch may begin very soon if this continues. The Souray injury hurts as does high priced RFA acquisition Dustin Penner's anemic 3 goals in 18 games. Perhaps Lowe should be the one relieved of his duties?

28 Phoenix Coyote-(26) Have neither looked terribly good or bad. If TGO would keep them near .500 he'd deserve Adams consideration. Most, including us, are waiting for the inevitable long losing streak.

29 Florida Panthers-(23) Have been consistently inconsistent. A dreadful 2-7-1 on the road, these cats have been tame kittys. Jacques Martin's time may be running out in south Florida. There are some expectations there, and patience may be wearing thin

30 Washington Capitals-(7) Oh, how the mighty have fallen. From looking like a sure playoff team to a sure lottery-pick team in 4 short weeks. Probably this team is neither, but is in need of a coaching change to get the most out of this group. Injuries are being blamed, but in actuality, they have not been playing well as a group, and that problem falls on coaching.