The Five Biggest Disappointments of Last Season in the NHL
While the 2010 National Hockey League season was intriguing and exciting on many levels, nothing can possibly be flawless. Thus, here are the five most disappointing aspects of last season.
The Pittsburgh Penguins: As the defending Stanley Cup champions, the expectations were high for Pittsburgh. They had one of the League’s most dynamic offences, centred on young superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. This was complimented by one of the NHL’s best defence lines consisting of veterans Sergei Gonchar and Brooks Orpik and up-and-comers Kristopher Letang and Alex Goligosky. Seemingly, a Stanley Cup repeat was in the making.
The Penguins started strong but something just fell apart in the second half of the season. Pittsburgh finished fifth overall in total goals, with 249, and Sidney Crosby individually racked up 109 points on 51 goals and 58 assists, but most of these numbers were in the early stages of the season.
By the end of the season, the team ranked 19th in power-play goals and was soundly defeated by an eight-seed Montreal Canadiens team in the second round of the play-offs.
The St. Louis Blues: Expectations were also relatively high for the Blues at the start of the season. In 2008-09, the Blues had the strongest second-half finish of any team in the League. They even made it into the play-offs, though they were subsequently swept by the Vancouver Canucks.
Veteran winger Paul Kariya was slated to finally be in full health for 2010, and many predicted a strong season for the Blues on par with their 2000-01 trip to the Western Conference Finals.
The Blues simply never clicked and consistently were plagued by an inability to hold leads or score on the power-play and poor goaltending. In the end they didn’t even make the play-offs. With the signing of Jaroslav Halak from Montreal, they once again look promising, but could easily show up on this list next year.
Martin Brodeur: Brodeur is one of hockey’s most established goalies and without question a future Hall-of-Famer. Unfortunately, he is not exempt from under-performing. Brodeur’s disappointing season still had 45 victories, but Brodeur cracked during essential times. The Philadelphia Flyers destroyed him and his New Jersey Devils in the NHL Play-offs and earlier Brodeur had lost the starting job on Team Canada after a 5-3 loss to the U.S.A. to start the Olympics.
Brodeur is coming back, most likely with vengeance, and it would be unfortunate to see him repeat the 3.01 GAA and .881 save percentage he exhibited in the playoffs.
Nikolai Khabibulin: Khabibulin had been nicknamed the ‘Bulin Wall’ for his ability to block shots. Like the wall he was nicknamed after, Khabibulin had a rather serious collapse.
He left the Chicago Blackhawks the season before and was signed to a four-year, $15 million deal by the Edmonton Oilers. Khabibulin was expected to be the new franchise goalie but ended up playing only 18 games, half of which he lost.
He then needed season-ending surgery and Edmonton went on to have the worst record in the League. As if his on-ice performances weren’t disappointing enough, Khabibulin was also arrested for a DUI in Arizona during the season.
The Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers went on a rather dynamic run to the Stanley Cup Finals, but even their presence in the play-offs was a disappointment. The Flyers qualified for the play-offs on a shoot-out with the New York Rangers, essentially boiling down an 82-game season into a ten minute skills competition. Although they were the 8th seed in the East, at the time of qualifying the Flyers were actually the 19th overall team in the NHL.
Additionally they were thoroughly outmatched by the Chicago Blackhawks in the Finals to a point the score lines cannot truly reflect. They have shown serious off-season initiative though and have added some serious talent. Perhaps next year they will legitimately earn a place in the play-offs.
Tags: