Some random thoughts now that the postseason's first round is in the books, and we wait to see if Alexei Yashin -- he of the zero playoff points as a fourth-liner and the $7.6 million annual salary -- gets bought out of his last four contract years by the New York Islanders.
Or if coaches Jim Playfair in Calgary and Barry Trotz in Nashville keep their jobs after both their teams underwhelmed so thoroughly.
In the meantime, it's fair to wonder if Sidney Crosby could have sparked the Pittsburgh Penguins the way he did during the regular season had he not been playing with a broken foot (unlikely), or why it took New Jersey's Martin Brodeur four games to look like the goalie who set a new record for wins in a season (irrelevant).
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| Marty Turco notched three shutouts in one seven-game series ... and the Stars still lost. (Getty Images) |
And what do the Dallas Stars say to Marty Turco after he recorded three shutouts in a seven-game series they couldn't win for him? Sorry? Surely there are some GMs who feel that way after mortgaging their futures at the trade deadline for rentals like Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth, Keith Tkachuk and Gary Roberts who ultimately made little difference at crunch time. Maybe they'll think twice about acting that way next season. Then again, maybe not.
OK, but is it fair to call the opening-round sweep by the East's sixth-seeded Rangers over Atlanta an upset considering New York went 17-6-5 over the final two months of the season while the Thrashers played just .500 hockey? Not that it really matters now, because the Rangers are among the eight still standing.
It just goes to show that where you start the playoffs isn't necessarily an indication of where you'll end up. Consider that one of the lessons of the first round. Here are a few others:
You get what you pay for: Spending nearly $1.4 million for someone who played just one game might seem a little excessive, but New Jersey has no complaints about Richard Matvichuk's compensation. The veteran defenseman returned for the regular-season finale after recuperating from back surgery, yet took a regular turn against Tampa Bay and was the Devils' most dynamic player at their own end. Matvichuk was the big shutdown guy against Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis over the last few games and threw his body around fearlessly, clearing out people, blocking shots and doing whatever was required to keep Tampa Bay away from the Devils net.
Numbers don't have to add up: Special teams are critical to success these days, yet the San Jose Sharks managed to blow away Nashville despite a power play that connected only twice in 30 tries. But all the man advantages provided value to the Sharks, who used their considerable size and strength advantages to wear down the smallish Predators defense and, more important, keep Nashville's best offensive players from getting the ice time they needed to be effective.
Besides, even if the Sharks didn't score much with Predators in the box, they managed to tally five times within 60 seconds of Nashville penalties ending, so the cumulative impact was there.
It's a big deal to have been there, done that: The Senators had trouble with the Penguins during the regular season, but showed the young upstarts from Pittsburgh that life is quite different in the playoffs. It's something the Senators have learned the hard way over the years when their character and grit was generally in question. Ottawa was feisty, physical and schooled the Penguins in every aspect of the game, showing the kind of discipline and patience so necessary at this time of year, but rarely demonstrated by the Senators in the past. The lessons about what it takes might have finally sunk in for Ottawa.
Age is only a state of other people's minds: The Red Wings have gotten used to the graybeard label over the last few seasons, but obviously being the oldest team in these playoffs wasn't much of a problem. Physically, Detroit had no trouble matching the rough-and-tumble tactics or the speed of the Flames, and traveling through two times zones twice in three days wasn't an issue. More important, the Red Wings' excellence moving the puck out of their end helped them dominate so completely that Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff should be entitled to sue his teammates for a lack of support.
Dull Sabres can still be sharp: There were times the Sabres looked like they were sleepwalking around the inferior Islanders, and it might have left the impression that the games were closer than they were. Don't be fooled though. Buffalo did let New York hang around too much, but ultimately it was just a tease.
