In the NHL, several men say this every night: “We don’t want to use injuries as an excuse, but . . .”
But they are. Subtly.
Despite what some folks — whether coaches, team-employed broadcasters or anyone else — want you to believe, no one team is the only team in the NHL to suffer injuries in any season.
The “man-games lost to injury” figure, cited in most teams’ game notes, can be a useful statistic, but only to a point. It is not an official league statistic, and it’s up to individual teams to calculate and disclose. It also is meaningless when it isn’t compared to the figure of other teams. But more important, even then it’s misleading.
The problem is that “mangames lost to injury” is democratic, treating the absence of a fourth-line winger the same as the absence of a leading scorer.
As of Friday, in a comparison of figures calculated by teams themselves and compiled by the Avs’ public-relations staff, Colorado ranked seventh in man-games lost, at 322. The six teams with more were Florida (396), New York Islanders (390), Chicago (352), Boston (352), Edmonton (340), and Carolina (333). That made the Avalanche the only team in the top seven in the Western Conference playoff field.
The NHL (or someone with the time to track it) should come up with a system for measuring “salary lost to injury.” Neither “salary” nor “lost” could be taken literally, but it would be a fair team vs. team measure. It should be based on a player’s cap figure, or average annual compensation in the length of a contract, which might or might not be the same as his season salary. The salary is paid, of course, so the word “lost” applies to lost services of a player, and not money.
When Joe Sakic ($6.75 million cap number) missed a game, that was $82,317 in “salary lost to injury.” When he missed 38 games because of a hernia, that represented a total of $3.13 million in “salary lost to injury.” After Brett Clark ($1.5 million) was lost for the season with a shoulder injury, that was $18,292 per game in “salary lost to injury.” When Scott Parker ($475,000) was unavailable with an ankle injury, that was $5,792 in “salary lost to injury” per game.
In this instance, my assumption is that the Avalanche’s “right” to cite injuries as a factor would have been enhanced, given the high profile of such injured players as Sakic and Ryan Smyth ($6.25 million). The leader in man-games lost to injury, Florida, for example, had seen Olli Jokinen, Nathan Horton and Jay Bouwmeester — arguably three of its four best skaters — play in all 80 games heading into the weekend. (The fourth, Richard Zednik, will miss 28.)
The major catch would be that this salary-lost system is based on the premise that salary measures worth, and that’s not always true because younger players in their first contracts often are “underpaid.” Paul Stastny’s cap number, for example, is “only” $850,000 this season.
In the NHL, all men aren’t created equal. So “mangames” shouldn’t be treated equally, either.
Awards.
Votes for NHL awards aren’t due until Wednesday. So this is subject to changes of heart. Here are my choices, as of this typing.
• Hart Trophy (MVP): Alex Ovechkin, Washington. The Capitals’ rally from an awful start has been one of the highlights of the NHL season, and Ovechkin — with his swagger — has been refreshing. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, another Russian, was terrific, especially in stepping up during Sidney Crosby’s absence, and is a justifiable pick as well. Despite his team’s baffling underachievement, Calgary’s Jarome Iginla should be the other finalist.
• Norris Trophy (top defenseman): Nick Lidstrom, Detroit. This would make it six times in the last seven seasons, but he deserves it. Sergei Gonchar of Pittsburgh might win if a somebody-else’s-turn sentiment prevails.
• Calder Trophy (top rookie): Jonathan Toews, Chicago. The favorite is his teammate, Patrick Kane, and Toews missed nearly 20 games for the Blackhawks. But I’ll take Toews and Phoenix’s Peter Mueller over Kane, and it’s unfair defenseman Erik Johnson — forced to grow up fast in a tough situation at St. Louis — isn’t getting more mention.
• Adams Award (top coach): Writers don’t vote for this one (broadcasters do), but my choice would be Barry Trotz of Nashville. Yes, the Predators’ Central Division is still soft, but making the playoffs with that roster after all the offseason turmoil is amazing. Montreal’s Guy Carbonneau, Detroit’s Mike Babcock, Pittsburgh’s Michel Therrien and Washington’s Bruce Boudreau all merit consideration.
Spotlight on . . .
Canucks feeling intense heat after collapse
On the morning of March 21, the Vancouver Canucks had 86 points and were in sixth place in the Western Conference as part of a Northwest Division logjam.
The Canucks had the same record (38-26-10) as Calgary but were listed sixth because of a 4-1 record against the Flames.
At the time, Minnesota, the Northwest Division leader, was only one point ahead of the Canucks, at 87.
The Avalanche was in fourth in the division and eighth in the conference, at 84 points.
What it all meant was that barely two weeks ago, any of the four teams — Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary and Colorado — could have won the division and the No. 3 seed in the West. Although the final stretch of the schedule called for intradivisional matchups and the teams would be beating each other up, it seemed unlikely that any of the four could fall out of the playoff field altogether, because Nashville was four points and Edmonton five points behind Colorado.
It would have taken one team to completely collapse.
The Canucks managed it.
Going into their final game of the season, at home against Calgary on Saturday, the Canucks have lost six of their last seven. The Avalanche might have sent them over the edge Tuesday, coming from behind for a 4-2 win that dropped the Canucks behind Nashville.
What went wrong? Roberto Luongo is one of the best goalies in the league, and with six shutouts and a .918 save percentage going into the weekend, he has strong numbers again. But greatness is being able to lift a team, and he didn’t even come close to doing that down the stretch, perhaps distracted by returning to Florida for the birth of his daughter. Markus Naslund has yet to prove he’s as good a captain as he can be a player. And the Sedin twins, while they’re fun to watch and have made a lot of progress, still aren’t living up to expectations.
And, yes, the Canucks are hearing about all of that in Vancouver.
