The topic of the week was the Czech legend Jaromir Jagrin shirt freezing ceremonies that actually lasted the whole weekend. In Pittsburgh, it wasn’t enough just to raise the number 68 to the roof structures, but the event was made into a show lasting the whole weekend. Jagr was featured at every turn and even practiced with the team. Bringing Jagr, 52, who is still playing in the Czech Republic, to the ice was one of the best feel-good stories of the current season. Even after the long journeys, a good mood prevailed over the weekend, which was the latest proof of the NHL’s amazing abilities to create stories and market its product.
– That’s what this entertainment business is. Stories must be created and players must be appreciated. It appeals to the paying public, the expert Ismo Lehkonen anneal.
Especially seeing Jagr on the ice made many nostalgic. Especially at the turn of the millennium, Jagr, who sometimes even dominated the league in a superior style, is an important figure for many ice hockey fans across borders. There was also a mind-blowing statistical fact: no fewer than 38 percent of all players who have ever played in the NHL have played with or against Jagr. The reading is huge, considering the 107-year history of the NHL. Of course, it also says a lot about the length of the career of the Czech player who is passionate about the sport.
– For many hockey people, Jagr has been such a mystical figure that has been really easy to like. He has always been in the minds of Finns as well, because he is a colorful guy who did almost anything in the world’s best series. A great character that I haven’t really heard anyone say anything bad about yet. As a player, he played wrestling hockey in the era of ice hockey that died at the turn of the millennium and still managed to subdue even the big boys there. And if you still think that he wouldn’t have jumped to the KHL for a couple of years, there were quite a lot of points left. What would those effects be, Lehkonen laughs.
Who surprised?
Florida can’t be said to have surprised, but in a positive spirit the team must be highlighted. Even the Panthers, who have become the biggest champions, are rolling convincingly in the Eastern Conference without much noise. The balance of the previous twenty matches is recorded as a deafeningly convincing 15-3-2. In actual game time, the team has lost only two matches.
What enables continuous brilliance?
– They have put together a hockey team that can play just about any game. The other side can bring anything, but this group does not squat. Whether it was jungle hockey, prison rules, anything, they just get excited. If you want to go head-to-head hard, if you want to play regional ice hockey, Florida is also suitable. It’s really great to watch this. If after last spring’s finals in Finland it was said that Paul Maurice is tactically somehow a weak coach, so morjes, Lehkonen laughs.
Of course, a good team needs good individuals, and Florida has enough of them. The team has found excellent chain compositions with great dynamics. Alexander Barkov one battered weapon is built around, by Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk you can find another one all around and a chain of three by Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen such excellent two-way locomotives. If the results of the aforementioned Finns still improve towards spring, it may be impossible to stop Florida.
– Barkov is my favorite person to follow, a grandmaster and chess player. All kinds of things can be said about him, but the best thing is how he doesn’t care about running after points. He doesn’t have to be the winner of the point exchange, but when it comes to winning games, he recognizes pretty quickly what he needs to do to win. One after the other, he submits some very hard fives. It’s worth watching how he tactically bundles chains that are harder than each other there, advises Lehkonen.
Florida’s strength would seem to be a strong unselfish collective, where, contrary to the entertainment business league, they focus on winning matches instead of chasing their own strengths.
Who cheated?
Pittsburgh’s playoff dreams are falling apart for the second year in a row. It’s not a huge surprise, but it can be considered disappointing how little support the captain Sidney Crosby you can get from the other team.
Perhaps the best and most comprehensive individual in the history of the sport is individually playing a top season again and tearing the rest of the team apart with all his might, but Crosby alone is not enough to lead a flock of penguins to the climax of the spring. Where is it Yevgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter and other backing violinists in tight spots?
Pittsburgh is already eight points behind the last playoff spot.
– When you look at the age structure of that team, would it be the case that there really are miles full of them. They don’t seem to be able to make the change of rhythm that getting to the top of the line would require. Malkin has started to become a bit of an annoying player for himself, because he doesn’t light up. He has become an odorless and tasteless grandfather who moves around there quite leisurely. Carter takes care of his work, but he has no direction for the show anymore, says Lehkonen.
The biggest mystery in Pittsburgh’s case is the power play. It’s amazing how Crosby, Malkin, By Jake Guentzel and Erik Karlsson with the lead, the team is able to rotate less than 14% superiority. This has eaten playoff dreams enormously.
– Unfathomable. It’s been a little bit like it was back in San Jose when Karlsson went there by Brent Burns as a friend. Two top level puck defenders couldn’t get the job done. Now Kris Letang’s seems to be the same thing with And I don’t blame Karlsson, he plays well, but something in the dynamics has changed.
Goal of the week
The goal of the week is of Quinton Byfield solo from Wednesday morning.
– Siinä is a big boy who has taken his time to adapt and break through, but I have always been convinced that he will still be an important piece for Los Angeles, says Lehkonen.
What next?
The Arizona coyotes got off to a positive start to the season, but the last month has shattered their playoff dreams. The difference to the playoff line is already ten points. The side slide has been quite a bit, as the team has not won any of the previous 11 matches. Only one game has been taken beyond the actual game time. Alivoima is classless, Alivoima is miserable, own head is bleeding with an average of almost five passes and so on. The ship is going down in the middle of the season in an ugly way.
– I watch Arizona games a lot and still say that team plays good hockey. It’s not that they’re playing a bad game. However, for some reason they can’t reach the winning wall and it always feels like things are going to break in the last round every time. For some reason or another, that team can’t even win a single game. Maybe the self-confidence has been eaten up on the way, thinks expert Lehkonen.
The surprises of the early season have completely disappeared from the picture, and there have been no top players. Clayton Keller has scored three hits in 11 previous matches, Matias Maccelli two. Jason Zucker, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse go in the same bundle. Arizona is actually a really dull team in the last hand, if you compare it to Vegas, Dallas, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton and so on in the Western Conference.
– Should we consider a more comprehensive player to replace Keller? Sometimes in the middle of a heavy season, you just have to be able to grind out those wins. They don’t have the quality for this kind of game. When you compare the other team’s top players, the players are able to forcefully turn around games even in a difficult phase of the season, that’s where you take the team on your back, but Arizona doesn’t have that, Lehkonen to decide.