Stress over Sochi
Bubble players are under the microscope
Coaches have long wondered after a player makes a play, particularly one that ends badly, “What was he thinking?”
Getting into a player’s head would be a fascinating trip at any time, but never more so than during these weeks leading up to the Olympic roster selections.
For example, what was P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens thinking the other night against the New Jersey Devils when he lost the puck with a little over a minute to go in the third period, gift-wrapping a chance for Patrick Elias? Elias scored with 1:06 left to tie the game, sending it to overtime and a shootout, where the Habs rescued the extra point.
As Elias scored, Subban hung his head in disgust. Finally, he earns the trust of head coach Michel Therrien to be out late in games, protecting a lead, and this happens?
Subban, like Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators, is a Norris Trophy winner better known as an offensive catalyst than for his defensive play. There isn’t much doubt Karlsson will make Sweden’s team, but what about Subban for Canada?
Canadian selectors have to balance the lefty-righty mix on defence, as well as the type of game players bring (Chicago’s Duncan Keith, for example, is already there in the offensive catalyst department). Given Canada’s depth on the blueline, Subban is probably a bubble candidate, with a few weeks left to make his case as an all-around defenceman (or alternatively, learn to shoot left instead of right).
What was going through Claude Giroux’s mind on Wednesday, when he put on a show in Detroit (one goal, one assist, four shots) in the Flyers’ 6-3 victory?
Looking on were Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman as well as Canadian bench boss Mike Babcock, who coaches the Red Wings in his day job.
Giroux and his Philadelphia Flyers have had a weird ride this season. Coinciding with the team’s horrible, coach-killing start, Giroux was trying to get the strength back in his hand, which he injured playing in a summertime golf tournament in Ottawa.
That injury caused Giroux to miss the Canadian Olympic orientation camp, to which he was invited.
No big deal, Yzerman says. Players will make the team on merit.
Recently, as Giroux has gone, so have the Flyers. After a 1-7 start, Philadelphia rebounded, then got hot — 9-3-2 in the past 14 games.
And after not scoring a goal in his first 15 games of the season, Giroux has improved to five goals and 15 assists, going at a point-per-game pace in his last 13 outings.
Does Canada need him at centre, where Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Getzlaf and John Tavares also reside?
Hint: “The reality is a lot of top Canadian players are centremen,” Yzerman told the Philadelphia Daily News.
“We don’t want to take 14 centremen. We want to have some natural wingers.”
Finally, what has been going through the mind of Senators goaltender Craig Anderson?
Coming off a career year statistically — albeit in a lockout-shortened season, shrunk further due to Anderson’s ankle injury — he was invited to the U.S. Olympic camp in August.
Today? Anderson seems to be clinging to his “No. 1” status with the Senators in name only, never mind earning one of the three American goaltending spots in Sochi.
Not since 2005-06, when he was a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, has Anderson been associated with such poor numbers.
In 18 games played this season, Anderson has a 7-82 record, 3.42 goals-against and .897 save percentage. Eight years ago, in his final season in Chicago before he was moved in a trade to the Florida Panthers, Anderson was 6-12-4, with a 3.32 goalsagainst and .886 save percentage.
Timing is everything. If Anderson could have duplicated or saved those career-best numbers of 2012- 13, when he had a 1.69 goalsagainst average and .941 save percentage, he could have punched his ticket for the Olympics.
On Tuesday, Anderson beat his old Panthers team 4-2. By Thursday, he was back on the bench to watch Robin Lehner start against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
All around the league, two months in, auditioning players have risen and fallen in the eyes of selectors.
While players say they are focused on their own team, I liked the honesty of the Capitals’ John Carlson recently, talking to a Washington reporter about the long shadow of Sochi.
“It’s a little tough,” Carlson said. “You want to worry about the (NHL) team because that’s what you do for a living, and certainly that’s what I’ve been trying to do and let the rest take care of itself.
“But I think everyone would be lying if they said they weren’t thinking about it a little bit.”
Carlson probably doesn’t have to worry, as he looks like a top four defenceman for the USA.
Still, he has a point. With Sochi invitations pending, there’s a lot on the minds of certain NHL players.