State of The Blog

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post there are going to be a couple of changes on this site.  Most notably, the content on the Lightning is going to go way down.  That’s because I just picked up a gig writing for The Hockey Writers, and quite frankly, I’m way too lazy to come up with original content for both sites.  I will be linking to my articles over there, so if you’re interested you’ll just have to click one more link.

I will still be doing the Lightning Card of the Week here as well as Raw Charge’s Question of the Week.  Other than that I think I’ll be getting back into writing more about baseball. I haven’t caught the spring training bug yet, but once the season starts up I’m sure I’ll have some random Orioles and Cubs opinions to spout.

Despite the lack of page views they generate, I will be posting more about boxing, both local and national.  After all both Mayweather and Pacquiao are fighting this year (sadly not against each other) so I will spout off about those boxing contests.

There will be a couple of box breaks coming up. I treated myself to a $16 box of Pacific Vanguard from Atlanta Sports Cards and Heritage should be released in the next week or so.  I’m sure there will continue to be card-related topics to talk about as the year rolls on (maybe Rally Squirrel gets a spot in Heritage? Heads will as-plode!)

I’m going to make a conscious effort to post more about this great city I live in and will bring back the Chicago photo series, maybe at some point I’ll take a picture that I actually like.

So I guess things aren’t going to change that much.  Thanks for reading.

Question of The Week - What Would You Do?

Coming up soon I’ll have a quick post about some changes regarding this here blog – that’ right I’m going to start charging for it.  $99 bucks for a year’s subscription!  Just kidding, this site will always be free, because frankly that’s what this content is worth. I mean who wants to pay to read lame jokes about hockey cards?

Now, it’s time for the good ol’ Raw Charge Question of The Week!  This week it’s a nice general topic about the NHL in general. 

What would you change about the NHL?

Antennas optional

Make the players wear the Great Gazoo’s helmet.  Boom concussion problem solved. Now everyone can get back to watching their favorite players without wondering if the next hit will force them to spend the rest of their life in a dark room. That was easy enough, eh?

Actually, as I think about the question and scroll over some of the other folk’s answers I keep coming back to an idea I’ve been kicking around for a couple of seasons.  Pretty much since I returned from my one year protest following the lock out:

Make the playing surface bigger.

According to Rule 1.2: “the official size of the rink shall be two hundred feet (200’) long and eighty-five (85’) wide.”  The rinks have generally been that size since the NHL began play.  Some of the older barns like the Boston Garden may have had slight variations, but now, as the new buildings become more uniform, most of them play to those regulations.

According to Wikipedia (where this picture is taken from) The Garden measured 191x83

The problem is, while the rinks have stayed the same, the players have gotten bigger.  When the Toronto Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup in 1966-67 their biggest everyday skater was Frank Mahovlich who was listed at 6’ 205lbs.  Last season’s Bruins team featured 13 players on the roster bigger than that with Zdeno Chara logging an impressive 6’9” 255lbs.

1940's player meets 2010's player

Add in two referees and two linesmen and that’s a lot of human flesh cluttering up the ice. Even with some of the rule tweaks that were instituted post lock-out it’s easy for defensive minded teams to clog up the neutral zone and choke off entry into the offensive zone.

Any time widening the playing surface is mentioned the immediate outcry is that owner won’t go for it because it’ll eliminate too many expensive seats along the glass. That’s true, but at least it’ll give them an excuse to raise ticket prices as opposed to doing it for no apparent reason.  Or, maybe they can see past the short term loss of revenue to the long term benefit of strengthening the game.

Smart owners will find ways to recover the revenue lost from removing a couple rows of seats.  After all, Lightning owner Jeff Vinik made the audacious move of removing luxury suites during the latest Ice Palace renovation and hasn’t suffered from it.  In fact, he’s received nothing but praise (and boosted attendance) for the recent makeover.

Expanding out to full international ice (210 x 98) might not be the answer, but adding 2 or 3 feet of width on each side will make it hard for teams like the Lightning to stack the blue line with three or four defenders to prevent the opposing teams from skating freely into the zone.  Of course, with the way the Lightning defenders have been letting the other team into the zone uncontested all year that really hasn’t been a problem yet.

Wider ice surfaces might not be a cure all for the concussion rampage that is currently sweeping through the league but it can’t hurt either.  Space equals time in the NHL.  Making a defender skate an extra foot or two to deliver a crunching hit along the boards could be the difference between Sidney Crosby suffering another brain bruise or him slipping by and scoring a goal.

Some critics complain that games played on international ice by European professional teams are low-scoring and boring.  That the large ice surface makes the game resemble soccer more than the high-impact, rock ‘em-sock ‘em NHL hockey they’re used to watching.  Well, yeah of course it’s not the same – they’re not using NHL-caliber talent.  While they’re pretty good, they’re not the best. Moving to larger ice won’t eliminate hitting, but players will have to be more conscious about making sure they are in the proper position to make the hit.

The league has a lot on its table this summer.  From negotiating a new CBA, to realignment, ownership issues, concussion problems and a serious decline in the quality and consistency of officiating the last thing they’re thinking about is redesigning the ice rink. However, as the game moves forward and the players keep getting bigger and faster it is an issue that will require more attention.

Gonna keep postin' 'em! AP David Zalubowski

Dustin Tokarski Gets The Call

An extremely bad Photoshop I made earlier in the season for Twitter (based on a billboard in Norfolk)

If you’ve read any of my hockey stuff over the past year or so, you know I’m a bit of a mark for Dustin Tokarski.  Heck, he’s even one of the folks on my Personal Collection list, so you know I’m a fan.  Even back in 2010 I thought he’d be something to look forward to.That means I’m super excited about the news out of Channelside that he’s been promoted, right?  Not really.

The Tampa Bay Lightning organization hasn’t exactly been a hot bed for goaltending prospects over its 20-year history.  As a matter of fact, it’s been more like the place where young goalies go to disappear.  Every regime that has come through the Tampa Bay Area has had their “Chosen One” who would lead the team in net for the coming years. Names like Evgeny Konstantinov, Gerald Coleman, Riku Helenius and Zack Bierk (aka Sebastian Bach’s brother-in-law) have all been pitched to the fan base as a potential hot young goalie in the system.  The combined number of NHL games for them in a Lightning uniform – 31. The number of wins – 5 (all of them by Bierk).

If you look at the Lightning’s history of goaltenders that they’ve drafted, it’s not pretty.  The all-time games leader for Tampa Bay drafted goalies is Karri Ramo with 48, that is barely over a half of a season’s worth of games. Even for a relatively young franchise that’s pathetic.

Ramo did have one of the best masks in Lightning history - BRAINS!

Most likely it is because the organization has never concerned itself with using top picks to draft goaltenders. In the sixteen drafts that the Lightning have used their first round pick (they traded away their number one picks in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2007), only once have they used it for a goaltender.  That was for Helenius in 2006 when he went 15^th overall (with Semyon Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Jhonas Enroth still available). Only Tyler Moss (2^nd round 1993) and Konstatinov (3^rd round 1999) have been drafted in the top 3 rounds.

With that lack of top-end talents in the prospect pool it’s no wonder that they’ve never developed an elite starting goaltender in the NHL.  They have also had a tendency to rush whichever prospects they do have through their system and throw them into the fire with horrendous teams in front of them. Ramo was 20 when he appeared in his first game, Bierk was 21 and Coleman was 20 when he appeared in two games before being shipped out to Anaheim in the Shane O’Brien deal.

Tokarski has been in the organization since 2008 when he was drafted in the 5^th round by the Bolts.  There was a lot of excitement about him early in his career as he dominated his last season in junior hockey, winning the Memorial Cup MVP and the Hap Emms Memorial Trophy as the top goaltender.  He was also the starting goaltender for Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships where he led them to their 5^th straight goal medal (even if his play was uneven at best).

I have this card! Well not this exact one, but one just like it!

He immediately made the jump to the AHL where he won 27 games in his first year at Norfolk while sharing playing time with Helenius and Jaroslav Janus.  Tokarski would win 21 games in 2010-11 and seem to take a step back on the prospect depth chart as Janus and newcomer Cedrick Desjardins would look like they might have higher potential.

This season, with Desjardins out of the system, the battle for the future of the organization has come down to Tokarski and Janus. After splitting time earlier in the season, Tokarski has wrestled his way to the starting job and has matched his career best with 27 wins, 8 of which have come in his last 8 starts. The Admirals are in the midst of the playoff hunt in the AHL, mostly due to the outstanding play in net by their two keepers.

Before Tuesday night’s game it looked like the plan was simple.  Despite the uneven play of Dwayne Roloson and Mathieu Garon, Tokarski would stay in Norfolk and wet his teeth on AHL playoff pressure. Roloson will most likely be gone next season and Tokarski could enter camp with the chance of battling for the number one position with Garon or any other goalie brought in by Mr. Yzerman.  The kid, he is still 23, wouldn’t be rushed nor would he waste away on the bench.

Then, at about 7:47pm EST, Garon deflected an Erik Karlson shot with his glove. In doing so he shredded his groin like our cat shreds a newspaper. Immediate thoughts on the Twitter-verse were that Mr. Yzerman would be putting a call into the league and swooping in to take Marty Turco off of waivers.  Alas, it wasn’t to be.  They waited for the diagnosis and on Wednesday morning, in the shadow of the news that Peyton Manning was being released by the Colts, announced that Tokarski was getting the call up.

How much the young netminder plays in the next 3-4 weeks hasn’t been determined yet.  With the Bolts only 4 points out of a playoff spot, one has to think that the team will rely heavily on the veteran Roloson.  There are only two sets of back-to-back games left on their schedule (March 26,27 and April 4,5) so they may try to ride him down the stretch.  However, his play has been spotty at best throughout this season so there is a slimmer of a chance that Coach Boucher will give the younger goalie a shot.

The Tampa Bay Lightning Card of the Week - Radim Vrbata 2008-09 Victory

Here we go with another weekly (yeah, right) feature.  I know there are folks out there that have similar gimmicks going on their websites, heck some writers even manage to do a “card of a day”.  First of all, I’m way too lazy to do the same thing every day. Secondly, I figure if I only do one card a week, I can really stretch out my collection for the foreseeable future.

I’ve started slowly organizing the Lightning cards I have up here in my northern compound and figured I’d share a few with you readers out.  After all, there aren’t too many bloggers out there posting about Lightning cards.  I’ll try my best to keep the players and sets varied, Zeus knows there have been enough players sporting the Lightning’s colors over the years to do that.

First up we have:

I bet there were more Lightning cards with "Victory" on it then actual Lightning Victories that year

Radim Vrbata 2008-09 Upper Deck Victory Gold Parallel

What’s that you say?  You didn’t know he suited up for the Tampa Bay Lightning?  Well, some of us are trying to block out his playing days as well.  His one season, well part of one season, was during the dark days. Signed to a 3 year deal on July 1, 2008 he was part of the free agent flurry that signaled that those who will not be named planned on treating the Lightning like their own personal fantasy hockey team.

The former 7^th round pick of the Colorado Avalanche, Vrbata was supposed to be the elite scoring winger that would round out Vincent Lecavalier’s and Marty St. Louis’ top line.  He was coming off a 27-goal season for the Phoenix Coyotes and the $3 million a year contract didn’t seem like a bad bargain at the time.

To say it didn’t work out well would be an understatement.  Vrbata lasted only 18 games with the Lightning (two games more than head coach Barry Melrose) before heading to the Czech Republic to play.  The reason originally given at the time was that he was struggling with personal problems and his confidence was shattered.  Later it would be revealed that his wife was having a difficult pregnancy and her struggle was weighing heavily on his mind.  The chaos that was the Lightning organization probably didn’t help much either.

The fact that he wasn’t producing on the ice helped make the transition a bit more amicable, and the fact that the cash-strapped ownership wouldn’t have to pay his salary didn’t hurt either. Vrbata would spend the rest of the season in the Czech Republic playing for Mlada Boleslav BK and Librec Bili Tyqri HC.

Following the season, and the healthy birth of a baby boy, Vrbata announced that he wanted to return to the NHL. The Lightning, however, had moved on. With Alex Tanguay and Stephane Veilleux on the roster of course there was no room for him (please note the sarcasm meter on the previous sentence was an 8).

So the General Manager gave Vrbata’s agent permission to seek a trade.  Low and behold his previous employers, the Coyotes, were willing to take him back.  So on July 21^st, 2009 he was traded to Phoenix for Todd Fedoruk and David Hale.  The trade didn’t do much for the Lightning, other than provide me with my fantasy hockey avatar.

Honestly, the missing teeth are the scariest part of the picture for me.

Vrbata, on the other hand, flourished upon his return to the desert where he has scored 73 goals and counting for the beleaguered franchise.

It’s a shame that Vrbata’s tenure in Tampa didn’t turn out better. He was a hard working, quiet player who went about his business professionally. As he’s proven in Phoenix he can score goals, and if things had been different the organization’s long-running quest for scoring depth might have not still be on-going.

The Upper Deck Victory set this card is a part of has an interesting history with the company. Sometimes released as its own set, it has also been released as an insert set in other Upper Deck products such as their flagship base series.  It is considered a lower-end set with packs usually costing no more than a dollar or so in the retail market.

 Inserts are limited, as are parallels such as the gold version shown above. They do tend to feature a healthy amount of rookies, so collectors looking to pick up cheap versions of their favorite player’s early cards may turn to this set.

I'm Calling Them Out

Panini
Upper Deck
In The Game

If this isn't on a slab of cardboard next year then someone dropped the ball.

Photo by Phil Ellsworth/ NHLI via Getty Images

For the record I think it was an iffy penalty at best. Skinner's  Brandon Sutter's only option was to stop and Stamkos still would have plowed him into Garon. Then, again if the 'Canes hadn't blown a two-goal lead they wouldn't have been in overtime in the first place.

My Pappy used to tell me, if you're in a position where an official decides the game then you don't deserve the win. I think it was my dad, sounds like something he would say since he was a umpire and all.

Trade Time: Or What I Got in the Mail Yesterday

I was banging around on the internets a few weeks ago and decided to upload some images to Zistle.  I’ve been using their site to track my progress on completing the 2011-12 Score Hockey set (progress is not going well…so many cards still needed) so I figured I’d help them out and with some images. As I was doing that I noticed a gentleman needing some 2009-10 UD Champs.

Justin from Off-Centered is working on completing some of the vintage-esque newer sets like Champs and Allen & Ginter.  I can’t blame him since over the last few years those sets have garnered a lot of positive feedback in the industry.  As I’ve mentioned in the past – Champs has been my go-to set for hand-signed autographs of older and newer players. 

Needing to clear out some space in my hockey box I flipped through my doubles and saw that I had about 16 base cards that he needed.  A message here, a response there, a trip to the post office and we had ourselves a trade.

On Friday I saw a delightful, yellow, padded envelope in my mail slot and it was my return haul for the cards.  With hockey trades I’m trying a new system, since I don’t have a lot of wants outside of the Lightning I’ve given folks the option of just sending me a pack of 2011-12 Score.

The reason for this is two-fold.

1.       It saves me from having to spend money on packs and it isn’t that expensive for others. I think retail is 99 cents for a pack. That way I can chase a set and it won’t cost me too much out of pocket.

2.       I get a chance of actually pulling a Vincent Lecavalier card from a pack.  My inability to pull cards of my favorite player from packs is getting to be annoying. So I figured if someone else bought the packs I could fool the card gods into getting a card I wanted.  Would it work?

First off – some of the extras that Justin threw in.  As one of the few Lightning collectors out here I think people just feel obliged to throw in their extra Lightning cards – I ain’t got a problem with that.

Hey Steve…how ya doin’ in Colorado?  Pretty good, eh?  Just wanted to say I miss you. 

Was that creepy? It felt a little creepy….

My Marty, that’s an awful big trophy you got there. I mean look at it, it looks like it’s almost half of his size.  One thing I like about Pinnacle is that they use non-traditional photos to break up the set a bit. There are only so many ways to take photos of guys skating down the ice so it’s nice to see something different every once in a while.

Now onto the packs.

 Each pack had a Hot Rookie in it so I feel like I beat the odds a bit on that.

Bobby Luongo looking like he’s not in a happy place. I wonder if he’ll be looking for a new address this summer.

And finally – could it be? Is it? My God, that’s VINNY LECAVALIER’S MUSIC!!!!!!

Yup, so my theory has been proven sound.  The only way I will ever pull a Vinny out of a pack is to have someone else buy it for me.

Thanks, for the cards Justin and good luck in finishing your set!

Question of the Week - Final Thoughts on the Deadline

At the 2000 deadline the Lightning acquired the immortal Dwayne Hay. So yeah, this year wasn't too bad.

Here we go with round two of The Raw Charge Question of the Week!  Yeah, I missed last week’s question what with all of that boxing stuff I posted, but now I’m back on point and raring to write some hockey stuff.  The question, put forth by Editor John Fontana, is:

How would you describe the Tampa Bay Lightning’s tradedeadline moves?

In one word – strategery.  

Just kidding. 

I would say progress.

Taking into consideration the moves made before the actual deadline day on the 27^th, General Manager Steve Yzerman brought in several assets that will benefit the organization in the long term. While it did cost him a popular player in Steve Downie and left the team with essentially one scoring line as it fights for its playoff life, the draft picks and young players he brought in continues the rebuild he started when he took over control of the club.

Please remember that the product on the ice is still a work in progress.  He openly admitted that he delayed some of his plans to restructure the farm system when last year’s squad got themselves involved in a legitimate Stanley Cup run.  This season’s are-they-aren’t-they-in-the-race run hasn’t been easy for him to judge either.  Sure they were only 8 points out of a playoff spot at one time, but they were also only a point or two away from last in the conference and a top 4 draft pick at the same time.

With the Dominic Moore, Pavel Kubina and Downie moves he signaled that he wouldn’t be a buyer as the deadline moved in, but that’s not the same as being a seller.  The Steve Yzerman Garage Sell and Pancake Social never opened.  Rather he kept his phone lines open and waited to see what would end up in his lap.

In the end, he brought in three new defensemen in Keith Aulie, Mike Commodore and Brian Lee (who I will call Chris Lee at least once in the foreseeable future. I can’t help it, I worked with a Chris Lee for a long time) in exchange for Carter Ashton, Matt Gilroy and a conditional draft pick.

For the record I think Commodore is here for the next 20 games and that’s it. It was purely a depth move for a defensive unit that lost Victor Hedman and doesn’t know when Marc-Andre Bergeron and his 65-year-old back will return.  I have no problem with Mr. Yzerman bringing in a veteran player for basically a couple of game checks and a pick that the Bolts will probably end up keeping.

The Gilroy-for-Lee deal I see as a lateral move.  They are two young defensemen who have potential that may have stalled in their current organization.  More so in Lee’s case than Gilroy’s.  The former Boston University Terrier showed some offensive promise in Coach Boucher’s scheme, but also struggled with defensive zone coverage.  Given a full season I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him figuring it out and even eventually manning a power play point, but in the end the play of Brendan Mikkelson made him expendable. 

Now, the one move I’m still questioning is the Carter Ashton trade.  A lot of Lightning fans have mentioned that the organization has a lot of offensive prospects in the farm system.  I say you can never have enough.  The jump from the American Hockey League to the NHL is prodigious. No matter how good Cory Conacher or Tyler Johnson has looked in Norfolk there is no guarantee that they are going to be able to do the same with the big boys.

Having as many potential contributors available to promote heightens the chances that at least one of them will succeed.  Especially one who is a big-bodied forward willing to crash the net.  However, in order to get something of value one has to trade something of value (despite what people on message boards tend to think).

If Mr. Yzerman believes Keith Aulie can develop into a top-pairing defenseman then moving Ashton is worth it.  A Hedman-Aulie pairing could be a defensive foundation for the Lightning for many years to come.  If that happens then this trade ends up looking like genius while I, as usual, have to admit I was wrong.

There was a lot of screaming on the internet and radio about Mr. Yzerman needing to pick up a goalie at the deadline.  That wasn’t going to happen.  When Paul Gaustad, basically a solid defensive forward, goes for a first round pick then Corey Schneider and Jonathan Bernier are going to cost a fortune.  It was a seller’s market and Mr. Yzerman wasn’t going to overpay for what he wanted.

Yes, I will use this everytime I mention SY's "vision".

The GM had a vision for this team when he took it over, and he’s not going to change it to meet expectation based off the team overperforming last season. He knows that to make this team competitive for the long haul he needs to find and build off of young talent.  That’s what he did in this deadline and I can’t feel bad about that.