Tuesday, December 04, 2007

 

Two things...

...while I resist irrational exuberance (!!)

1. Millions and Garrett are in unqualified agreement that Keith Tkachuk is going to the Hockey Hall of Fame someday. I spend very little time thinking about the HHOF, but... really? He hasn't hit 500 goals or 1000 points; hasn't won a Cup, or for that matter, come within a million miles of winning one; and has had stretches of his career where a non-trivial segment of the hockey world has thought, "I wouldn't want him on my team at any salary." I don't hate the guy, and he's had a long and relatively productive career, but he's not really a Hall-of-Famer, is he?

2. John Garrett used the phrase "shots directed at the net" late in the 3rd. It's not the first time I've heard an analyst refer to the number of Shots + Misses, or Shots + Misses + Blocked (though it's rare); however, it's the first time I've heard that phrase used. Perhaps Garrett has been chatting with Jim Corsi recently.

Comments:

No, Matt, the man should not and will not be inducted to the HHoF. The same goes for Owen Nolan.
 


I noticed both peculiarities as well. I also agree with you on Tkachuk - I've never considered him HHOF material.

As for the "shots directed at the net", I was amazed at the number the Flames put up AND the fact that Garrett was referring to that metric. Think he's been perusing the blogs?
 


We're assuming Garrett can read now?
 


Normally I find hockey commentators attempts at humour to be pretty weak--at best. But the guy doing the game wrap up on The Fan had a decent one. He announced a new sponsorship for the hockey games: Joe's Wig Shop, because this Flames team will have you tearing your hair out.

Why, oh why, can we not play like that every game? I realize that it won't always result in a victory. See the overtime period against Columbus for evidence of that. But if we can play like that, or close to that, every game, we'll win enough for a playoff spot.

Speaking of playoff spots, we have 54 games to get the 74 points needed for 100, requiring a win percentage of 0.685.
 


Can you explain that "!!" table please? It's not immediately clear what those figures mean.
 


Roughly, "stuff that happened at even strength while that player was on the ice, for & against".

Corsi +/- is the grand total (net); F+/- is the same, excluding Blocked Shots for & against.

PP and PK events are not tallied, nor are events while one team has their goalie pulled for whatever reason.
 


Theoren Fleury should be in Hall of Fame, not Tkachuk. In fact, Tkachuk should only go to the HHoF to see Fleury's name there.
 


i think everyone needs to remember that millions and garrett are flames and canucks fans respectively. they have very low expectations...even when it comes to the HHOF.
 


I haven't looked at the numbers, but I imagine that if you accounted for the fact that Tkachuk played the heart of his career during the deadball era, his offensive numbers are in line with Fleury's.

Tkachuk played against the other team's best players a lot more, and drove possession as well. On of the best players in the league over a ten year span I think.

Fleury, on the other hand, always cheated for offense. There is a great angry quote from the Sutter that coached the Flames a decade ago. With expletives deleted, it went something like "all he has to do is go is go back down to the hashmarks like a robot. This referring to Theo's penchant for cherrypicking when he was the weak side winger.

I suspect that, as a hockey player, Tkachuk was more popular with his teammates than Theo. Though he was/is so abrasive with the press that he never had a chance of being painted as anything other than an ass.
 


One other thing on Tkachuk, and this is a story from a FedEx guy a couple of years ago. He always seemed like a straightforward guy, so I bleieve it. Apparently knew an equipment guy for the Blues or some such.

He said that when the Blues came to town Tkachuk would arrange for a street person to get kitted out in STL Blues winter gear. Apparently the same guy for the most part. Invited him to practice as well if I remember the story right.

Now that's probably free swag for Tkachuk. And the beneficiary may very well have pawned it off and spent the money on drugs, or got beaten up and had the gear stolen, I dunno. Still, a solid gesture.

And doesn't Tkachuk still run a charity golf tournament in Winnipeg? I know he did for at least a few years after the Jets left the peg.

And on a similar vein, the single biggest benefactor of inner city minor hockey programs in Edmonton ... Messier? Nope. Gretzky? Nope.

The correct answer is Dominick Hasek. And that's his own money. Granted if the cash-is-king lottery had been successful then the Oilers would have jumped into the running.
 

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