Leadership Reflections from Round 1 of the NHL Playoffs

The first round of the NHL playoffs are now over and my predictions were not too badly off... I picked Montreal over Boston in seven games (right on!) and Philadelphia over Washington, though it took them an extra game. I figured Sid the Kid and the Penguins would take out Ottawa... but not in four straight. WOW!!! The one East conf series I was really wrong on was NYR over NJ in five (I'd picked NJ in 7).

In the West, I was proud of my Flames for taking San Jose to seven games (I thought they'd be luck to win one game in the series), and I picked Detroit over Nashville (I said in 5, not 6) and Colorado over Minnesota in six (right on) but I never would have picked Dallas to destroy Anaheim as they did. So... here's some leadership "thoughts" emerging from round 1 of the NHL playoffs.


1) Leaders and Co-leaders - when the Flames fell behind 3-0 in the first four minutes of Game #3 against San Jose, Curtis Joseph replaced Miikka Kiprusoff in net and the Flames came back to win 4-3. The post-game interview with CuJo, Coach Mike Keenan's comments in the next few days as Kipper started game #4 and the team's response was such a great example of a team needing to have people who know their role, are ready to be the "backup," and still honour and appreciate the top guy. The same thing happened in the Detroit series where Chris Osgood came in net for the Red Wings in games 5 & 6 and won after Hasek was supposed to be the #1 guy!



2) Get Rid of Poison - as Don Cherry summarized so well last week, the Ottawa Senators either needed to get rid of Ray Emery (the goaltender who led them to the Stanley Cup Finals last year) or play him. You cannot have a "poison" in the dressing room just sitting there poubting. Yes, the Sens had some unfortunate injury problems at the end of the season but they looked like a peewee team (a really bad peewee team), not a team that were legitimate contenders most of the year. The Senators goaltender, Martin Gerber was not bad, but he certainly was not strong during the stretch run of the season or the playoffs, and to leave your backup goalie just sitting there as your team collapses doesn't send a message to the rest of the team... it sends you to the golf course!


3) Expecting Leadership? - I am still trying to grasp that Alexei Kovalev is wearing the "C" for the Montreal Canadiens... and that the people who assigned it to him are great former Canadiens captains like Bob Gainey (GM), Guy Carbonneau (coach), Doug Jarvis (ass't coach), etc. Admittedly, Saku Koivu's injury is more the reason someone else has to where the "C", but still... Alexei Kovalev? Kovalev has always been a flake, who dives when he gets hooked, who flops like a fish out of water, who goes 100% on random occasions, and who is generally a pretty selfish hockey player (eg. the retaliation slash in Game 2 against Boston was more the "real Kovalev"). And yet the Canadiens coaches, players and fans seem to love Kovalev and he seems to have responded to being asked to "step up and be a leader." Whatever speech Carbo gave to this guy should be recorded and published!

4) Changing of the Guard - Last year's Stanley Cup finalists, Ottawa and Anaheim, both had decent regular seasons but did not seem at all "hungry" some this year's playoffs and both Pittsburgh and Dallas were clearly deserving of advancing to the next round. Meanwhile, a guy who is normally an exceptional playoff performer, Martin Brodeur, was quite average and thus the Rangers took care of the Devils easily. Jose Theodore was superb for Colorado against Minnesota and Marty Turco (Dallas) and Carey Price (Montreal) seem to be ready to show their ability to lead their teams deep into the playoffs. You can't be "on top" forever and if you aren't ready to change with the next season of life, your leadership will end with a bitter taste.

A couple birthday pics

Just a couple pics for those family & friends who are too far away to see Caleb regularly.

The first picture was taken on April 3 as Caleb brought his mommy some daffodils for her birthday. The second picture is of Caleb on his one month birthday (April 8).

Hockey Playoff Season

Before giving my predictions on this year's NHL playoff season, this past weekend our team (and town) hosted the Hockey Alberta Junior B Provincial Championships... and it was one incredible weekend of hockey action!

After the round robin portion of the tournament (Thurs, Friday & Saturday) we finished first in our pool (B) and thus we battled the champions from our league, Heritage Junior B Hockey League, the Cochrane Generals in the one semi-final game. Although Cochrane carried the territorial advantage in play and totally outshot us (50-23 by my stats), we won 4-2 due to some timely goals and some spectacular goaltending by Coulter Haugen (aka "Haugy"). Unfortunately, we did not play nearly as well on Sunday afternoon in the gold medal game against the Sherwood Park Knights and so we had to settle for the silver medal. Its disappointing (obviously) but it was such a super weekend with such amazing fan support... standing room only crowds Friday night, Saturday and Sunday afternoon! Also, it looks like our Head Coach, Reid Fenton, will be stepping down after six years as the coach of the team and so it was great for him to go out with a silver medal after all he's put into the team. He's an excellent coach and a good friend!

Now... onto my NHL playoff predictions... which I'm sure will once again be less successful than TSN's "Maggie the Monkey":

Western Conference
Detroit over Nashville in 5 games, San Jose over Calgary in 5 games, Colorado over Minnesota in 6 games, and Anaheim over Dallas in 7 games. My pick to come out of the West - the San Jose Sharks! Yes, Anaheim the defending champion and they are good... but they'll have at least two very tough series against Dallas and then Detroit, so I think San Jose will have the advantage.

Note: yes, I am still a Flames fan but they barely got into the playoffs and although they could suddenly go on a hot streak after being on such a cold streak... don't count on it!

Eastern Conference
Montreal over Boston in 7 games; Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 7 games; Philadelphia over Washington in 6 games; and NJ over NYR in 7 games. Some great matchups in the East! My pick to come out of the East: New Jersey... though I really don't like to pick them its hard to see anyone outdueling Martin Brodeur, esp Carey Price or Martin Biron. Marc-Andre Fleury may be able to do so, but I just don't think the Penguins have the defencemen to give Fleury enough of a break to hold off some pretty decent Devils offense.

At the very least, the NHL playoffs, esp the opening round, will provide a lot of tv double-headers... Fortunately Sarah likes to sit on the loveseat in the tv room and feed Caleb... so I suspect Caleb will do a lot of feeding and growing these next few weeks as he sits on mommy's lap and eats while we all watch the NHL playoffs!

Sport's cliche: "There's no I in team"
Steve's response: But there is an I in l'equipe (french word for "team")

Just read the shirt

A couple more pics of our dear son, Caleb, taken tonight. He is such an incredible gift from God!
And tomorrow is my amazing wife Sarah's birthday!
Yes, I am a blessed man. Thank You, Lord!
To whom much is given, much will be required.
(sorry I cannot find the Scripture reference at the moment)