The NHL has hit its All-Star break. With all the festivities happening this week in Dallas, it is now time to reflect on the surprises and outcomes of the season and predictions for the stretch run.
What's With These Teams (Disappointments):
To be sure, there has not been much to look at in regards to disappointment at this stage of the season. With 30 games left, only a handful of teams are playing toward next year. The rest are in the hunt for the playoffs and this will make the stretch run well worth watching.
That being the case, there are still a few disappointments at the break.
For those familiar with my post on Talk Freedom's sports forum last year ("Approaching 50 (Games)...A Review") this will sound like a broken record, but...Chicago and Columbus have proven (once again) to be the poorest tango partners in the NHL. These teams have been world class underachievers again this season.
In one respect, this is a tale of two teams. Columbus has looked like they could break through at any time since play started again after the lockout. This has not materialised and it has cost the head coach at the start of the season (Gerard Gallant) his job. I can't imagine that GM Doug MacLean would be far behind. If they are not noticeably better down the stretch, I would be surprised if he still had a job when Columbus hosts the Draft Day festivities in June. At least the Blue Jackets had enough sense to hire Ken Hitchcock as head coach. Hitchcock has never failed to lead a team to the playoffs in any full season in his coaching career. Next year will be a stiff test for that claim to fame.
Chicago is quickly becoming a non-factor in the west every year. The Wirtz family seemingly has no inclination to improve this team and that is highly reflective in the performance of the organisation across the board. The tradition of this team in Chicago remains strong, but the losses that continue to pile up for this organisation is making it evident that the Blackhawks are becoming the Cleveland Browns of the NHL (great fan support of a lousy product on the field). They don't look to be a factor in the west anytime soon.
Two teams in the Atlantic have performed dubiously enough to warrent mention in this section. Obviously, one is Philadelphia. I realise that I didn't pick them to be a playoff team this year. That being said, I never expected that they would have the freefall from grace that they have had. This is clearly the worst team in the NHL at present. And being 19 points away from their next closest team in the east and 11 points away from the next closest leaguewide the difference is pronounced. It is nearly safe to assume that the Flyers are on the clock as we speak.
The Rangers are in the middle of the playoff hunt, but they are the one team at this point that has underachieved and is a surprise to be tied for the final playoff slot in the east. Inconsistent defense and no real fire lit under this team in general has to be a cause for concern. There is too much talent on this team to be on the edge of playoff contention. If they fail to make it in to the playoffs heads could roll at MSG.
Pleasant Surprises
The great thing about the 2006-07 campaign is the number of teams that are vying for a spot in the playoffs. Even teams that didn't appear to have a chance at the start of the year (i.e. St. Louis, Phoenix, etc.) look to have a glimmer of hope a a chance with about 30 to 35 games remaining. It would appear that at least 90 points will be necessary to qualify for the playoffs. Two thirds of the teams in the league have 50 to this point. These teams are more than in the hunt. Another six have between 45 and 50. With a great flourish to end the regular season any of these teams could enter the second season.
The biggest surprise at this stage of the season is the play of the emerging Pittsburgh Penguins. Even with the unsettled status of the team past this season, the Penuins appear to be ahead of schedule as far as developing a winning mentality and a style of play that can match with any team in the league. This team will be a handful after this season and should be a perennial playoff team for many years to come. For this season, this appears to be a team that opponents do not want to see down the stretch.
Montreal has also been better than advertised. If the season ended today, they would have home ice for the first round. For a team in a town as religious about hockey as Montreal, the presence of the Canadiens will do the league a world of good.
Teams To Watch
New Jersey has looked exceedingly good and Martin Brodeur has been his usual HOF-bound self. The thing with the Devils is whether they will be able to get any additional scoring punch to help for the remainder of the season. It would stand to reason that unless Brodeur was to take his game up yet another notch (how would that be possible?) that the Devils may be susceptible to a team with an unusually high-powered attack (Buffalo, Ottawa).
Nashville enters the break as the clubhouse leader in team points. Now, along with Detroit, is it that these teams are really that good or are these teams getting fat at the expense of Chicago and Columbus? Detroit was a #1 seed and a first round loser last year. We have seen that result more than once from the Red Wings. Is history poised to repeat itself for the Winged Wheelers?
And what about Nashville? The Preds have looked good...very good...so far. But are they a key injury away from humility like they were last year when they lost Vokoun? Who knows. All I can say is that the Predators should be a handful in any round in the playoffs, but their opposition should be equal to the task.
That said, the western playoffs should have no light touches and right now there are at least six teams in the conference who have a darkhorse chance or better of making it to the Cup finals.
How Do I Look?
So far, it appears that I have done well at projecting the best teams in the league this year from the start of the season. Teams will continue to have high and low points, but a large factor in playoff success will be how the teams that have been there before will show up when the moment of truth startes them in the face. Buffalo and San Jose (the pre-season matchup for the finals) appears to be a good bet at this point.
Buffalo should get its stiffest challenge from Ottawa. So far, the Senators have been a reliable thorn in the side of the eastern runners-up from last year. The Sabres must get better goal keeping from Miller and the defence will need to ramp things up against Ottawa's formidable attack. The Sens, if they are to be knocked out, are going to go by taking a chunk of flesh from whoever eliminates them and they should have a fairly sizeable chip on their shoulder going in to the post-season anyway.
San Jose isn't the clear-cut frontrunner in the west like Buffalo is in the east. They have had, among other good things so far, undeniably quality goalkeeping and a platoon between the pipes that should be noteworthy in the playoffs. Anaheim appears to be in the same boat on the back line, so they are to be feared in any playoff series. One thing to take note of with the western playoffs is that the conference semis and the finals should all be dogfights. There will be one or two teams that could be reliably considered for the conference finals in the east who will knocked out of the first round in the west.
Strap in, hockey fans. The stretch run should be filled with everything that makes a great sport great.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
BC And The Acceptable Outcome For My Steelers
Bill Cowher, 15 years the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has passed up the final year of his contract and announced his resignation from the team he coached to the win in Super Bowl XL just 11 months ago. It's Sunday, two days after the news of his "retirement", for now, maybe.
Now I have a confession to make to my friends in my home town of Cleveland...I have been a fan of the Steelers since the 1980s and over the years I have grown to be an increasingly hardcore fan of the Black and Gold. The Pittsburgh Steelers, on Sundays in the fall and early winter, are my team.
I look at Friday's developments with the Steelers as the passing of a era. I developed a much greater affinity for the team under Cowher's leadership. I grew to admire his tenacious coaching style and the way he dealt with his players. He was very much a player's coach. He was a coach that, to a man, the players loved. He enjoyed a mythical, god-like status in Pittsburgh and among the Steeler Nation.
The Proof Is In The Outcome
The thing that created the human Bill Cowher was his lack of success in the truly big games (AFC Championships and Super Bowls). He was 3-5 in those games. He split a pair of SBs and was 2-4 in AFCCs, 1-4 on home field in those games. It seemed like he could never get over the hump in those games. It created a legion of naysayers in Steeler Nation and sullied what would have otherwise been an excellent reputation.
My view, until the 2005 season was this guy had a very real "proof problem". Cowher's problem was that he really needed what I would term as "the acceptible outcome" to a season, any season, to be considered among the upper echelon of all-time NFL head coaches. He needed to prove that he was worthy of the legend of the truly great coaches.
My mantra for the 2005 season was simple..."there is no acceptable outcome to this season short of a Super Bowl championship". The Steelers, without a Super Bowl win in the 2005 season, would be a suspect team with an increasingly suspect coach.
As the Steelers 2005 season became 12 games old, the 7-5 record they had to that point suggested an impending failure of "no acceptable outcome". The unacceptable was about to become a very real probability, particularly in the light of the almost freakish AFC playoff race.
That was when the Steelers threw the proverbial switch on their season. Four consecutive wins to finish the season only guaranteed them the final playoff spot in the AFC. The 2005 Steelers, in order to reach "the acceptable outcome" would need to become "the road warriors".
They would face Cincinnati in the first game. The good news was that this was a road game. The Steelers had beaten the Bengals on their home field four consecutive times. A slow start worked its way to a robust finish and a decisive Steelers win. One down, three to go, next stop...Indianapolis.
The Colts drove the Steelers into the ground like a rental car in the regular season Monday night meeting. For the Steelers, the fact still remained that there would be "no acceptable outcome...". For the Steelers, this would be a required road win at the scene of an unspeakable mugging only two months earlier.
The Steelers played that game from the opening kickoff like someone set their rear ends on fire. How come they couldn't have played like this in the regular season game? Despite efforts to give away the game with time expiring, the Steelers would get revenge for the obscene display of the November matchup with the Colts. The Steelers were now halfway to the goal line of "the acceptable outcome".
The road warriors would write chapter three in the Rocky Mountains. To Denver they would go.
Would this game be like almost all the other AFC Championship games? They were favorites every time if for no better reason that they were the home team. This time, the comforts of home would elude them. They must have one final road win to get the matchup they needed. No team had ever won three straight on the road to reach the Super Bowl.
For the Steelers and Bill Cowher, there would be "no acceptable outcome".
They would play one of their more convincing 60 minute stretches of football of the 2005 season. They would go into the no-man's-land of Denver and , to paraphrase the legendary Pittsburgh Penguins announcer Mike Lange, they "beat the Broncos like a rented mule".
The "acceptable outcome" was one win away.
For the first time, a NFL team had won three road games to reach the Super Bowl. It was only for one reason this happened...there would be no acceptable outcome for the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and for the career of Bill Cowher.
They would play the Seattle Seahawks, a team making its first ever appearance in the NFLs showcase game. They would be playing the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, making their sixth Super Bowl appearance six hours from home in the Motor City. Detroit, Michigan. For two weeks, Detroit would become the nerve center for Steeler Nation.
The Steelers had sixty minutes of football left. For the team and their coach to fight off their backs and to get this far would mean a far more unacceptable outcome if they would come this far and lose.
From the gritty play of Ben Roethlisberger to the flair of MVP Hines Ward and sensational running of Willie Parker...an undrafted free agent, this combination would add up to the end of the futility of Bill Cowher's quest for football's ultimate prize.
As the final seconds ticked away, I would be heard to say "I accept this outcome!"
The Legacy of Bill Cowher
The Steelers would add a fifth Vince Lombardi Trophy to the case at team headquarters...and William Laird Cowher pulled a huge monkey off his back.
Eleven months later, the coach has decided to put impending legend on ice after the struggle of a .500 season, hardly the way a winner should top off an accomplished career.
For me, I will always want Bill Cowher to be the coach of the Steelers and only the Steelers. Unless the Steelers fire his successor to bring him back to the fold once he is ready to come back it is unlikely he will ever coach his hometown team again.
Will Bill Cowher coach again? Odds are good that he will. He is 49 years old. He has proclaimed himself to not be "burned out". He wants to enjoy the comforts of his new home in Raleigh, NC where he attended college at North Carolina State. He would like to watch his daughters play hoops.
Many speculate that he will be on the sidelines for only a short time. That he will have a new job come 2008. In my opinion, I wouldn't be so sure that will happen. He may decide that he actually likes retirement. It happened to John Madden. It nearly happened to Joe Gibbs. Both are Hall of Fame coaches.
Will Cowher follow those two to Canton? Perhaps. Although it is my feeling that Cowher still needs another Super Bowl win, or about five more years of successful head coaching to stamp his ticket. If he were to stand on his accumulated record to this point, I get the impression that it might be enough, but he certainly wouldn't be considered on many first ballots outside of Western Pennsylvania. I feel he needs another trip to the Super Bowl to be a sure first ballot inductee.
The legacy of Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh has been one of success. The only coach in Steelers history who doesn't have to look up to the standard he set was a guy named Chuck Noll. His teams won four Super Bowls. Needless to say, he is enshrined in Canton. Cowher may one day join him. Between these two men is 37 years of mostly unfettered excellence. Between these two men, they have carried the fortunes of half of the Steelers history to the one of the most sustained legends of any team in the National Football League.
Whoever's Next...I Wish Him Luck
The next coach has a nearly impossible standard to keep up with. There are many candidates for this job, now an elite situation for any aspiring NFL coach. One of the few things more rare than a coaching search in Pittsburgh is an NFL Championship search for the Cardinals (one championship in 85 years in existence).
Whoever it is, they will be inheriting a team that is one season removed from the NFL title. Many of the components of that team will still be present in 2007. Whoever the Steelers select will be well-fortified for success from his first day on the job. The rest of what he inherits will be up to him. No pressure at all. He'll only be succeeding two head coaches who are already in the Hall of Fame or an excellent candidate to be in one day.
Whatever happens next and whoever guides the Steeler Nation there I know only one thing...that I will be along for the ride to the next acceptable outcome.
Now I have a confession to make to my friends in my home town of Cleveland...I have been a fan of the Steelers since the 1980s and over the years I have grown to be an increasingly hardcore fan of the Black and Gold. The Pittsburgh Steelers, on Sundays in the fall and early winter, are my team.
I look at Friday's developments with the Steelers as the passing of a era. I developed a much greater affinity for the team under Cowher's leadership. I grew to admire his tenacious coaching style and the way he dealt with his players. He was very much a player's coach. He was a coach that, to a man, the players loved. He enjoyed a mythical, god-like status in Pittsburgh and among the Steeler Nation.
The Proof Is In The Outcome
The thing that created the human Bill Cowher was his lack of success in the truly big games (AFC Championships and Super Bowls). He was 3-5 in those games. He split a pair of SBs and was 2-4 in AFCCs, 1-4 on home field in those games. It seemed like he could never get over the hump in those games. It created a legion of naysayers in Steeler Nation and sullied what would have otherwise been an excellent reputation.
My view, until the 2005 season was this guy had a very real "proof problem". Cowher's problem was that he really needed what I would term as "the acceptible outcome" to a season, any season, to be considered among the upper echelon of all-time NFL head coaches. He needed to prove that he was worthy of the legend of the truly great coaches.
My mantra for the 2005 season was simple..."there is no acceptable outcome to this season short of a Super Bowl championship". The Steelers, without a Super Bowl win in the 2005 season, would be a suspect team with an increasingly suspect coach.
As the Steelers 2005 season became 12 games old, the 7-5 record they had to that point suggested an impending failure of "no acceptable outcome". The unacceptable was about to become a very real probability, particularly in the light of the almost freakish AFC playoff race.
That was when the Steelers threw the proverbial switch on their season. Four consecutive wins to finish the season only guaranteed them the final playoff spot in the AFC. The 2005 Steelers, in order to reach "the acceptable outcome" would need to become "the road warriors".
They would face Cincinnati in the first game. The good news was that this was a road game. The Steelers had beaten the Bengals on their home field four consecutive times. A slow start worked its way to a robust finish and a decisive Steelers win. One down, three to go, next stop...Indianapolis.
The Colts drove the Steelers into the ground like a rental car in the regular season Monday night meeting. For the Steelers, the fact still remained that there would be "no acceptable outcome...". For the Steelers, this would be a required road win at the scene of an unspeakable mugging only two months earlier.
The Steelers played that game from the opening kickoff like someone set their rear ends on fire. How come they couldn't have played like this in the regular season game? Despite efforts to give away the game with time expiring, the Steelers would get revenge for the obscene display of the November matchup with the Colts. The Steelers were now halfway to the goal line of "the acceptable outcome".
The road warriors would write chapter three in the Rocky Mountains. To Denver they would go.
Would this game be like almost all the other AFC Championship games? They were favorites every time if for no better reason that they were the home team. This time, the comforts of home would elude them. They must have one final road win to get the matchup they needed. No team had ever won three straight on the road to reach the Super Bowl.
For the Steelers and Bill Cowher, there would be "no acceptable outcome".
They would play one of their more convincing 60 minute stretches of football of the 2005 season. They would go into the no-man's-land of Denver and , to paraphrase the legendary Pittsburgh Penguins announcer Mike Lange, they "beat the Broncos like a rented mule".
The "acceptable outcome" was one win away.
For the first time, a NFL team had won three road games to reach the Super Bowl. It was only for one reason this happened...there would be no acceptable outcome for the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and for the career of Bill Cowher.
They would play the Seattle Seahawks, a team making its first ever appearance in the NFLs showcase game. They would be playing the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, making their sixth Super Bowl appearance six hours from home in the Motor City. Detroit, Michigan. For two weeks, Detroit would become the nerve center for Steeler Nation.
The Steelers had sixty minutes of football left. For the team and their coach to fight off their backs and to get this far would mean a far more unacceptable outcome if they would come this far and lose.
From the gritty play of Ben Roethlisberger to the flair of MVP Hines Ward and sensational running of Willie Parker...an undrafted free agent, this combination would add up to the end of the futility of Bill Cowher's quest for football's ultimate prize.
As the final seconds ticked away, I would be heard to say "I accept this outcome!"
The Legacy of Bill Cowher
The Steelers would add a fifth Vince Lombardi Trophy to the case at team headquarters...and William Laird Cowher pulled a huge monkey off his back.
Eleven months later, the coach has decided to put impending legend on ice after the struggle of a .500 season, hardly the way a winner should top off an accomplished career.
For me, I will always want Bill Cowher to be the coach of the Steelers and only the Steelers. Unless the Steelers fire his successor to bring him back to the fold once he is ready to come back it is unlikely he will ever coach his hometown team again.
Will Bill Cowher coach again? Odds are good that he will. He is 49 years old. He has proclaimed himself to not be "burned out". He wants to enjoy the comforts of his new home in Raleigh, NC where he attended college at North Carolina State. He would like to watch his daughters play hoops.
Many speculate that he will be on the sidelines for only a short time. That he will have a new job come 2008. In my opinion, I wouldn't be so sure that will happen. He may decide that he actually likes retirement. It happened to John Madden. It nearly happened to Joe Gibbs. Both are Hall of Fame coaches.
Will Cowher follow those two to Canton? Perhaps. Although it is my feeling that Cowher still needs another Super Bowl win, or about five more years of successful head coaching to stamp his ticket. If he were to stand on his accumulated record to this point, I get the impression that it might be enough, but he certainly wouldn't be considered on many first ballots outside of Western Pennsylvania. I feel he needs another trip to the Super Bowl to be a sure first ballot inductee.
The legacy of Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh has been one of success. The only coach in Steelers history who doesn't have to look up to the standard he set was a guy named Chuck Noll. His teams won four Super Bowls. Needless to say, he is enshrined in Canton. Cowher may one day join him. Between these two men is 37 years of mostly unfettered excellence. Between these two men, they have carried the fortunes of half of the Steelers history to the one of the most sustained legends of any team in the National Football League.
Whoever's Next...I Wish Him Luck
The next coach has a nearly impossible standard to keep up with. There are many candidates for this job, now an elite situation for any aspiring NFL coach. One of the few things more rare than a coaching search in Pittsburgh is an NFL Championship search for the Cardinals (one championship in 85 years in existence).
Whoever it is, they will be inheriting a team that is one season removed from the NFL title. Many of the components of that team will still be present in 2007. Whoever the Steelers select will be well-fortified for success from his first day on the job. The rest of what he inherits will be up to him. No pressure at all. He'll only be succeeding two head coaches who are already in the Hall of Fame or an excellent candidate to be in one day.
Whatever happens next and whoever guides the Steeler Nation there I know only one thing...that I will be along for the ride to the next acceptable outcome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
