Logos for the past and present teams of the NHL - gotta catch 'em all!

A month ago, I posted my explanation of the “Curse of the Shark Tank” [link]. In the comments, Tomi wondered if any other team had a record similar to the Sharks, and that made me wonder as well – were there? Since I had a little time today (and I want to refrain from commenting on the free agency period until everything has been sorted out for the Sharks), I decided to go to the internet and investigate this query.

Immediately, you can throw out any team that has been to the Stanley Cup Finals and lost, which leaves only eight teams in the modern-day NHL (i.e. the current thirty teams): Atlanta Thrashers, Colorado Avalanche, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. As this is a comparison to the Sharks, they can be thrown out as the baseline, leaving seven teams.

On an interesting note, both the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning have made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but every time they have made it they won the Cup.

Anyways, of those seven, two teams have only made the playoffs once – the Atlanta Thrashers and the Columbus Blue Jackets (coincidentially, both were swept in their sole appearances). Both of them lost to a team that did NOT go on to win the Cup – the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings, respectively – and so their potential for having the curse is still there. However, since they only made the playoffs once, neither of them qualify.

Now for the teams that made the playoffs more than once.
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After two long weeks of drafting (not really, but it seemed like it while watching the broadcast), the 2009 NHL entry draft is over. As expected, John Tavares was drafted by the Islanders first overall (to much applause at the draft party in Nassau Coliseum). Victor Hedmen went to the Lightning, and Matt Duchene was claimed by the Avalanche (a fact which he was quite happy about – his favorite team growing up was the Avs).

The Sharks, after starting out with four picks – two in the second round, one in the fifth, and one in the seventh – kept all of their picks as they were and added one seventh round pick (189th overall) through a trade with Dallas using one of the picks from next year’s draft. Of course, the announcers failed to mention it, so for the longest time I was wondering how the hell the Sharks got that pick. That marks the second time a pick has been entertaining in the draft, after the slutty 26th pick, of course.

There were a fair number of Canadians drafted, as always, and quite a few Swedes; although Americans came up second in percentage drafted, despite being held out of the top ten. The Sharks, as always, drafted the lone German in the draft with their last pick, who I’ll be getting to later.

The Germans that the Sharks have drafted, as per PRC over at From the Rink, are: Christian Ehrhoff, Marcel Goc, Patrick Ehelechner, Kai Hospelt, Michel Larocque, Marco Sturm, Thomas Greiss, Timo Pielmeier and Dominik Bielke. When you consider that Christian Ehrhoff, a 27-year-old defenseman, is 7th all-time in German scoring in the NHL, its easy to see that Germany is not quite the greatest hockey country ever. At least its better than France, where goalie Cristobel Huet is the 3rd all-time leading scorer with 3 points.

But, anyways, back to the draft. The announcers, particularly Pierre McGuire, were set on calling every draft pick a “steal” and making out every defenseman to be like Nik Lidstrom and every forward like a weird Joe Thornton/Jonathan Cheechoo hybrid (Brayden Schenn) or Jerome Iginla (Evander Kane). They were also rather obsessed with the “bloodlines” of the players that were drafted, so much so that I was wondering if I was watching some reenactment of nobility in medieval times.
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Kyle Palmieri: Or, the only form of entertainment during the draft

I am a Sharks fan, have been all my life. As a Sharks fan, I hate the Ducks. They suck. Its just that simple. However, extenuating circumstances have caused me to follow one of their draftees, a certain Kyle Palmieri.

Way back on July 4, 2008, Doug Wilson acquired Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Matt Carle, Ty Wishart, and the 1st and 4th round picks for the 2009 entry draft. It was probably Wilson’s second best trade (first being the infamous Thornton trade, of course), and most Shark fans were happy with it – at least, they were once Boyle showed how great he was.

But back on track. That first round pick was later traded to the Ottawa Senators in the Meszaros deal. It was then traded by Ottawa to the New York Islanders in the Comrie deal.

Then comes the draft. The first round pick – now revealed as #26 overall – is held by the Islanders as their second pick after the first overall. But wait! It was traded in a package for the Columbus Blue Jacket’s 12th overall pick. Columbus, not satisfied with that being their first pick, then packages #26 to the Anaheim Ducks for #21 overall. The pick does not move after that, and the Ducks draft Kyle Palmieri with it.

In all, the pick was traded five times in less than a year before being used, what is likely a record [link]. If it physically traveled between all of the NHL cities, it would travel approximately 8,889 miles – or the distance between San Jose, CA and Kanuvai, India. [link]
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The 1997 draft, featuring Sharks Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Joe Thornton's hair (RIP).

Ahh, draft day, the day where 29 teams get to use their first round picks on hopeful NHL prospects, boys my age (no, seriously – this is my draft class, if I was a guy and played hockey) who have been talked about and analyzed to death. Particularly if their last name is “Tavares.” And, like last year, us Sharks fans are left sitting on their hands because of the wheelings and dealings of GM Doug Wilson.

To be fair, I don’t think any Sharks fan is complaining about the reason why we don’t have a first round pick, as that was in the Boyle deal and Boyle is already universally loved by Sharks fans in the one season he has played in San Jose, but still. To look on the bright side, at least we have a pick before the fourth round, which wasn’t the case last year.

As it stands right now, the Sharks have a pitiful 4 draft picks in this year’s draft, which are as follows:
Second Round: 43 (from BUF), 57
Fifth Round: 146
Seventh Round: 206

Luckily, the Sharks have a tendency to have bona fide NHL players develop out of the later rounds (Ehrhoff=4th round, Pavelski=7th round, Nabokov=9th round, Murray=8th round, etc.), so the position isn’t that bothersome – its just the lack of picks. Of course, Doug Wilson is always in the position to trade players for more picks (like Cheechoo, who will likely be moved purely for cap purposes), or even to trade down, but he’s always been the “trade up for players you want” sort of GM.

And for those who want to know what kind of players the Sharks normally draft, its pretty well-known that Doug Wilson cannot avoid three types of players: goalies, Germans, and Ottawa 67’s. Look for any of the three, or a combination of them, and you’ll be sure that the Sharks have taken an extra-hard look at them. I mean, the Sharks have drafted 9 goalies in the past 5 years, and have produced two of the all-time top-scoring German players in the NHL (the fact that 27-year-old defenseman Christian Ehrhoff is 7th on the list is beside the point).

As the draft progresses, I’ll update this post with the picks. No analysis, since I don’t know enough about the prospects or each team’s needs.

2:05pm PST: I’m getting bored; nothing has happened yet and the draft doesn’t start for two more hours. I’ve taken to recreating a game. Currently, its tied 1-1, Pavs with the PP goal.

3:37pm PST: Abandoned that, and now I’m looking at trade rumors. Pronger to the Sharks? Boooo. Clowe for the 7th pick? Ehhh.

4:29pm PST: Pronger and Dingle to Philly for Lupul, Sbisa, two firsts, and a conditional third rounder. Overpayment by Philly for a guy with just one more year on his contract.

5:03pm PST: Islanders and Blue Jackets swap picks, including San Jose’s well-traveled first round pick.

7:01pm PST: San Jose’s pick traded once again, from Blue Jackets to the Ducks.

Draft Picks:
Islanders – John Tavares
Lightning – Victor Hedman
Avalanche – Matt Duchene
Thrashers – Evander Kane
Kings – Brayden Schenn
Coyotes – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Maple Leafs – Nazem Kadri
Stars – Scott Glennie
Senators – Jared Cowen
Oilers – Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson
Predators – Ryan Ellis
Islanders (from Wild) – Calvin de Haan
Sabres – Zack Kassian
Panthers – Dimitri Kulikov
Ducks – Peter Holland
Wild – Nick Leddy
Blues – David Rundblad
Canadiens – Louis Leblanc
Rangers – Chris Kreider
Devils – Jacob Josefson
Blue Jackets – John Moore
Canucks – Jordan Schroeder
Flames – Tim Erixon
Capitals – Marcus Johansson
Bruins – Jordan Caron
Ducks – Kyle Palmieri
Hurricanes – Philippe Paradis
Blackhawks – Dylan Olsen
Lightning – Carter Ashton
Penguins – Simon Despres

So, the draft is over, and three teams – Sharks, Red Wings, and Flyers – ended up not having a pick in the first round. There was a lot of exchanging picks, but no big trades other than the Pronger one already mentioned.

I gotta say, the most interesting part of the draft was seeing where the #26 pick would go. Before the draft, it went from San Jose to Tampa Bay to Ottawa to Long Island, but then during the draft from Long Island it went to Columbus and then back to California in Anaheim. It delights me somewhat as a Sharks fan that Anaheim got our “sloppy sixths,” as a certain agitator might say.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, for the better part of a decade, have been the poster franchise for a successful sunbelt team. They made money (almost enough to contribute into revenue sharing), had a great attendance record, and iced a competitive team that won the Stanley Cup in 2004. They – along with Dallas and San Jose – proved that a city didn’t need to have snow to be successful.

In 2008, that all changed.

The franchise was sold to the due of Oren Koules and Len Barrie, the former a proprietor of the Saw movie franchise and the latter a real estate mogul. It started out alright – they drafted Steven Stamkos first overall, and used a 7th round pick on David Carle (who, after being considered a top defensive prospect, was told he could never play hockey again due to a heart defect). In fact, things were looking almost peachy. But then came free agency.
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So, the playoffs ended about a week ago. The awards show was on Thursday (along with the generous helping of east coast bias). There’s still a week until the draft, another week until Hockey Christmas no. 2, aka the beginning of the free agency period and my birthday. Of course, GMs are making trades, but there likely won’t be much going until after the draft or the free agency period. So, nothing to watch. Or so you think.

As I consider myself somewhat of a television connoisseur, here is a list I have compiled of shows that I have found to replace my daily dose of hockey. Only in terms of time, of course, since nothing can really replace the awesomeness.

Regular Season Show You Need to Get Caught Up On
Chuck
I started watching the show after I saw the previews for it a few years ago. It was like, “Hey, nerd guy somehow becomes a spy. That’s pretty sweet.” In the first episode, there was a completely awesome car chase involving a Prius. In the second, a car exploded. Oh, and that’s all wrapped up in witty comedic banter and enough workplace shenanigans to put The Office to shame. The show got a little heavy on the mythology in the second half of the second season, but other than that its rather easy to watch it as you like. “Chuck Versus the Alma Mater” and “Chuck Versus the Colonel” are two of my favorite episodes, but I suggest not watching the latter until you’ve really gotten into the show.

Its Canadian, Eh
The Listener
As an import from Canada, the show is about a paramedic who can read minds, and so he suddenly decides to become Mr. Detective. Obviously, like most shows that deal with secret identities/hidden abilities, he raises suspicions from people. It has a fairly basic criminal mystery set-up that you can find in literally any crime-based show, but that’s not the draw. The thing is, the lead guy (Craig Olejnik) is insanely hot. Most of the time, I’m not even paying attention to the story, instead just admiring his face or the way he looks in his uniform.

Reality TV
So You Think You Can Dance
I know, I know. Its reality tv, a genre that has been over-done this past decade and needs to die. Except, this show is different. The reality series is currently in its fifth season, and has only gotten better as the years have gone by. It draws its inspiration from American Idol, in that talented individuals compete for America’s vote. The thing is, all the dancers that make it into the top twenty are insanely talented and most have had years of training. Watching them attempt styles outside of their own is a treat, especially when they end up like the Table Dance, Bleeding Love, and so on. Oh, and my pick for the winner this season? Evan Kasprzak, a Fred Astaire-like dancer. Yeah, that good.

At Least There’s Hockey
Bones
Okay, okay, I admit – this CSI-like series isn’t exactly the first place I’d look for my hockey fix, but its there. The male lead (Seeley Booth) loves hockey; he has several hockey photos in his office, had a hallucination of playing with Luc Robataille, plays in his rec league, and owns a framed (and presumably signed) Mario Lemieux jersey. And then besides that, it has a great will-they-won’t-they romance dynamic between the two leads while they solve mysteries. Well-written, with a great group of supporting characters, and the plot doesn’t get too murder-heavy for those who can’t take it. “Fire in the Ice” is the most hockey-heavy episode there is, as the entire episode revolves around hockey, but all the episodes are good, albeit in a less-hockey manner.

Hey I Saw This on YouTube!
Whose Line Is It Anyways?
This brilliantly simple show was canceled back in 2003 because of low ratings (most likely due to being up against the insanely popular Friends), and not because it got any less funny. I’d actually rate the show as the funniest thing I’ve seen, hands-down. The basis of the show is that it gets four comedians (Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, and some guest comedian) to act out things based on suggestions written on cards. So, yeah, its improv. Amazing improv, at that. Oh, and the reason for the category? You can find virtually any game played on the show on youtube. PLUS, you can also find hilarious (if NSFW) outtakes that include Bill Cosby and Hitler being roommates for a sitcom. Yes, totally serious about that.

I graduated from high school on Thursday. It has yet to hit me that I’m officially a college student.

Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in Game 7 of the Finals, 2-1, today off of a two-goal effort from Max Talbot.

Pretty big stuff. Add Grad Night and a trip to Great America in the past three days, and you’ll understand why I haven’t been posting.

Oh, and since this is too good to pass up:

Note: I originally wrote this for a college application, but since said college rejected me, I have no qualms about posting this here – especially since it is hockey related and I’m pretty proud of it. This will also be the most-edited piece you will ever read here. Enjoy!

It was really just a game, a competition between two groups of individuals to see who could follow a set of arbitrary rules to the best of their ability and win. Generally, all sports are like that; meaningless in the grand scheme of things, their purpose to entertain. In this case, it was a hockey game, played between two teams that each represented a country. It also happened to be February 20, 1980, and the two countries involved were the United States and the Soviet Union.

On the surface, it was a hockey game between a team that had dominated the sport for the better part of two decades, and a team composed of players who had no recollection of a time that preceded the former team’s dominance. It was the equivalent of professional players matched against a ragtag bunch of college kids, with what was supposed to be a predictable result. Yet, the college kids upset the professionals, transforming an Olympic hockey game into a “Miracle on Ice.”

Pulling off what is widely considered to be the greatest upset in sports history was not enough to make the game so famous and memorable. It was in the context, when the game was viewed as just a small aspect of a much larger battle. The game became symbolic as a battlefield between capitalism and communism, between the two world powers. It was a way for one, the winner, to assert their dominance over the other on a world stage, where one country could point out and say, “My people are better than your people.” For the American people, it also became a ray of hope after the depressing, crisis-plagued 1970s. Yes, there were the two oil crises, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviets invading Afghanistan – but there was also a group of kids refusing to succumb to their supposed inferiority, and doing better than anyone thought they would. The little hockey team that could had reached the medal round against all expectations. A win against what was considered the evilest of empires would surely be a sign of better things to come. The win would give Americans hope and a reason to have pride in their country.

When the game is examined on a much deeper level, more facets emerge. No longer is the team thought of as a single organism, but as a unit composed of individuals. There was the story of Herb Brooks, the coach who was cut from the 1960 gold medal US hockey team just weeks before the Olympics, and who would do anything for a gold medal. Jim Craig was the goalie whose mother had died and father got fired. There was the geographic rivalry within the very core of the US team. On the other side were the expectations that were thrust upon the Soviet players, and their need to win to remain prominent and privileged in their society. Al Michaels was the commentator who strove for impartiality, only to disregard it in the final seconds of the game to deliver one of the most famous calls in sports history: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” All of these subplots factored into the game, making it more than just win or lose.

But then, going even further into the play of the hockey game itself, it becomes a simple numbers game filled with statistics. The object of the game was to put more pucks into your opponent’s net than they do in yours. The team that achieved that objective would win, the other team would lose. The game did not care about world politics nor the wants and needs of individual players. It was uncaring and impartial, awarding the win to the better, luckier team. It rewards crisp, clean passes and successful breakouts. It rewarded the goalie that controlled their rebounds – as Vladislav Tretiak found out, when he gave up a rebound that led to the United States’ tying goal. The game did not care that Tretiak was considered the best goalie in the world, or any preconceived reputation of the Soviet team. All it that mattered was the play and the actions taken by the players. Everything else faded away into the background, and the players became faceless parts of a whole once more.

The “Miracle on Ice” – the 1980 Winter Olympic upset of the Soviet men’s hockey team by the US – varies in complexity based on the depth of observation. It becomes more and more complex as it is examined further, taking into account everything that is in and around the game, but then it suddenly becomes simple when broken down to its very core – a hockey game. Everything else becomes just the atmosphere, the circumstances surrounding the game.

I get pretty bored in some of my classes. So what do I do? Doodle hockey stuff, of course. Some touching up in photoshop, obviously, but not much. Actually, next to nothing if you don’t include the coloring.

10. Penguins are infinitely cooler than octopi (octopuses?).
9. Those NHL commercials from the Finals last year that depict the Penguins winning wouldn’t be biased, just clairvoyant. 
8. The Pensblog.
7. Osgood in the Hall of Fame? Seriously?
6. Red Wings fans are annoying enough already.
5. A repeat of the whole Islanders-Oilers thing would be pretty cool. As long as the Sharks win next year, that is.
4. Crosby and Malkin have been insane during the playoffs. They should win it on that merit alone.
3. Detroit sucks.
2. Seriously, have you seen Detroit? Its a shithole. 
1. The look on Hossa’s face.