Friday (Unassisted)

Can someone please find video of Pavel Datsyuk catching the flying puck on his stick during the All-star game? By now our readers know that we are big fans of #13 #dats here at Friday (Unassisted), and that play reaffirmed our faith that he is the most talented healthy hockey player on the planet and therefore universe. I'll ask Bryz for confirmation on the latter just to make sure. I couldn't quite believe the play when I saw it: the puck dropping from some fifteen feet above the ice (I don't know, and it probably doesn't either, what it was doing up there) when Datsyuk brought his stick up to meet it and calmly eased the disc back to its rightful place on the ice. Now, know that the play separated from its context is not all that difficult. But to do it in a game setting, albeit an all-star game, is downright preposterous. Above all, Datsyuk's smoothness in executing the difficult plays separates him from a litany of other very talented players. Alex Ovechkin flails at flying pucks like a child might swipe at a fly: swinging tirelessly, hoping to smack the fly just so he can show it off to his friends. Datsyuk on the other hand, reaches up and plucks the wings off the same fly in mid-flight and leaves his admirers in awe.
Enough about him, let's take a look at some other things.

All-Star Player Draft
I was only needling my Sharks fan friend when I told him that Logan Couture would be the last pick in the All-Star player draft, but I was still right. Not my first correct prediction, nor my boldest (I correctly predicted that Santonio Holmes would win MVP of the Super Bowl three years back. I will always brag about that), but it was an educated prediction. Couture plays for the very good, but consistently anonymous San Jose Sharks. I say anonymous in the sense that if you asked a general sports who's not necessarily a hockey fan to try and name every team in the NHL, he would undoubtedly struggle to name the Sharks. In other words, the Sharks don't receive the kind of national exposure that they probably deserve. A humble Couture took his status as last pick quite well explaining, "He's a young guy," and as a young guy he must acquiesce to the veterans. I like the player draft, I do. But I think there's something to the notion that the school yard style draft embarrasses those who get picked in later rounds. Although Couture, and Phil Kessel last year, handled the selection admirably, they day will surely come when someone won't. The NHL couldn't handle such an occurrence whilst they're on the national sports radar for the weekend. My solution is similar to Don Cherry's, who believes that the captains should resort to the old sticks in the middle way of picking teams: goalies' sticks first, followed by defensemen's, and then concluding with the forwards'. I agree that goalies should be selected separately, but why not let the forward and d-men sticks stay intermingled? So what if one team has nine d-men and the other has three. I'd like to see how some of the games most talented forwards would fare on the blue line. The dangle-fest that is the All-Star game would only become more danglier as Marian Gaborik gets walked routinely for Team Nash while playing the point. Plus d-men, I know from experience, love going forward. In regular games coaches might chastise them, calling out "You're not f-ing Bobby Orr!" (I've heard that one before). Here though, they can go forward all they want, and get this, not back check just to get back at all those lazy forwards. I'm emailing a link to Gary Bettman right now.

Pay to Watch Players
Recently Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber asserted that the league lacks "pay to watch" players. Farber called the dearth of these stars "a looming crisis." Certainly with Sidney Crosby injured and Alex Ovechkin tamed, there is a vacuum of star power growing the league. Evgeni Malkin has been playing on another level recently (see last week's post), but he lacks his countryman Ovechkin's flair. Jonathon Toews is the consummate team captain: he scores, kills penalties, wins faceoffs, and works to milk every drop of talent out of his Chicago teammates. But Toews lacks the obvious talent. He produces consistently but his goals are rarely of the highlight variety. And then there's Pavel Datsyuk. Farber sums up Pavel's plight as a "pay to watch" player superbly: "No hockey connoisseur can get enough of the Red Wings center, who, like Lucy's ballet music or sweetbreads, requires a more refined pallet." In other words, the average fan, let alone the casual sports fan, cannot appreciate the smooth Russian.
I think the problem lies not in a dearth of uber-talented players, but rather in the league's inability to market those players. For five years now the NHL has seemed to put all of its eggs in the Crosby-Ovechkin basket while also relying on the success of national teams such as the Red Wings, Flyers, Blackhawks, and the Stanley Cup champion Bruins. Now, with Crosby out and Ovechkin struggling through a comparatively mediocre season, the NHL has lost some of its star power on the national sports level. Penguins and Capitals highlights are no longer featured on Sportscenter, and their road games don't produce the kind of attendance they have in recent years. I'd like to see the NHL work to market some of the other young players who are taking their games to new heights such as Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay, Claude Giroux in Philadelphia, John Tavares in New York, and the aforementioned Couture in San Jose. These players have the talent to carry the NHL while appeasing Mr. Farber's concern.
The question still remains though: Who would you pay to see live? For me, I'm traveling to the Le Centre Bell this Saturday to watch the Capitals take on the Habs (The rare environment that you'd pay to see). I'm hoping Ovechkin does something crazy.

I'll leave you with this cheese from our boy.

 

We'll talk again when I return from the Mecca of hockey.

That's Friday (Unassisted)