With just four teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs (and all of BP’s picks now watching May’s games from the 19th hole), it’s time to name the two players who will have the biggest impact on their teams’ trip through to the finals.
You mean the goalies? Nope. King Henrik Lundquist and Jonathan Quick are both among the best goaltenders in the world, and they will star as they lead the Rangers and the Kings very close to the Cup. But it’ll be two skaters who truly carry their teams by scoring, assisting, and inspiring their teammates.
Brad Richards of the New York Rangers, and Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings.
Richards is a blue-chip veteran who’s had success on each of his two previous teams. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Stanley Cup as a 24-year-old in Tampa, and at 32 still has the jump and the leadership to be the Rangers’ key player. Although he didn’t stand out in the Rangers’ Game 1 win over New Jersey, he will soon step up with key plays at crucial times. He’s one of those players that does everything well, without any one part of his game standing out above the others. Richards is a complete player and a leader – that’s why the Rangers spent so freely to grab him in last summer’s UFA sweepstakes.
The Kings’ Dustin Brown has a similar effect on his teammates, though he gets things done a little differently than Richards does. Brown is skillful, for sure – but he’s also a fireplug and an agitator. He’ll score a key goal with sheer hustle, after levelling the other team’s top guy with a brutal hit. In these playoffs, he seems to have been operating at a different speed than anyone else on the ice, and he’s why the Kings’ #1 line (Brown, with Kopitar and Williams) has been the most dynamic of the post-season.
Watch for both these guys in a showdown for this year’s Conn Smythe.
Braden Who? morphed into Braden Holtby, giant-killer, over the last two weeks as he backstopped his Washington Capitals to a 7-game series win over the defending Stanley Cup champ Boston Bruins.
In helping the Caps upset the heavily favoured Bruins, 22-year-old Holtby also outplayed Boston’s goaltender Tim Thomas, 2011′s Conn Smythe and Vezina Trophy winner. Holtby is only the third rookie goaltender to upset a previous-season Stanley Cup winner, and in doing so, he joins an elite group that includes only Ken Dryden and Mike Vernon.
Hardworking Holtby arrives in the Caps' dressing room direct from the construction site
Who is Braden Holtby? He was drafted by the Caps from the Saskatoon Blades in 2008 and toiled for a while in the minors before seeing a little NHL action in 2010 and 2011 as the Caps struggled with injuries and inconsistency in net. Although he has generally played well with the Capitals, he was playing in the minors again as recently as two months ago, and only found himself in net against the Bruins because of – again – injuries, this time to goalies Tomas Vokoun and Michael Neuwirth.
Holtby was solid against the Bruins and is sure to see more action in the Capitals’ next series. Meanwhile, he’s done a great favour for the politically astute Tim Thomas, who now won’t have to lose any sleep deciding whether it would be wise to skip the Cup winners’ White House visit a second straight year. Barack Obama will still be there in June – but Thomas won’t.
Not long ago, Roberto Luongo was rightly considered one of the best goalies in the world.
When he was obtained by Vancouver a half-dozen years ago, he was hailed by all as the guy who would lead the Canucks to the Stanley Cup. He still hasn’t got there, but he and the Canucks did get to within one game of the Grail last year. Along the way, Luongo also backstopped the Canadian Olympic team to a 2010 gold medal.
But Luongo’s history hasn’t been all ups. He’s notoriously streaky, and while at times brilliant, he can go stone-cold as well. That’s why the Canucks turned to Cory Schneider with their backs against the wall against LA, and why the loving “Luuuuu”s have sometimes lately turned to boos at Vancouver’s Rogers Centre.
At one point – ridiculously – the Canucks’ captain, Luongo now looks a good bet to be on the move this summer. And he could land in Toronto, a town with a team that has way more money and fans than success, and that needs a proven #1 goalie in the worst way.
I think Luongo still has some great hockey left in him. Will Leafs GM Brian Burke, the Great Pontificator, will abandon his hitherto sketchy long-term plans in order to gamble on an aging player with a large long-term contract? Leafs fans will be hoping that if he does, he can swing the deal without giving up any of the few bright young lights in blue & white.
Many fans of great hockey players will be disappointed today with the news that the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season is over.
Done in by shaky goaltending and unable to solve the Philadelphia Flyers’ own typically shaky goaltender today, the Pens are heading for the golf course. The rest of the playoffs will continue without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jordan Staal et al.
soon to be seen on Pittsburgh's private courses
Regardless of whether you’re a Philly fan or not (and they have their own players worth cheering for, like the sublime Claude Giroux and fast, shifty Danny Briere) – and regardless of what you think of the endless violence, suspensions, and bitching that has marked these games – the playoffs without the Penguins are less interesting.
I suggest a foursome of Crosby & Malkin along with Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg and Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. Nineteenth-hole conversation can revolve around how to underachieve in the post-season…
“His game tonight was monstrous,” Flyers bench boss Peter Laviolette said. “When your best player makes a statement like that … Claude Giroux led us to the second round.”
In a telling anecdote, Laviolette told reporters Giroux asked to start the game –”I don’t know who you plan on starting, but I want that first shift,” he said — then went out and flattened Crosby. It was a move that impressed Laviolette enough to shower Giroux with praise.
“He’s the best player in the world,” Laviolette said.
