CrashingTheGoalie

By Bill Heintz

Well, the truth is: not yet.

But there’s been lots of positive signs as we hit the halfway point. Bob Luongo’s been steady. The Sedins have been magic. Mason Raymond has emerged. Kesler and Burrows have continued to produce points and antagonize enemies. And we’ve shown we can be one of the tougher teams in the league with guys like Rypien, Hordichuk, Bieksa, O’Brien and Mitchell all standing tough and tall.

Let’s deal with the last point first.

We’ve lost Bieksa for what looks like a considerable length of time but we’ve still got lots of toughness in this line-up…and maybe the toughest of all in Rick Rypien.

My Centre Ice package only ran the St Louis feed last night and just shortly after the announcers were extolling the virtues of Blues’ tough guy Cam Janssen who was running around and hitting everything moving…bam, it was on. Rypien asked the musical question and the two of them started the dance.

Now, I’ll defer to colleague Ron Spence, whose knowledge of NHL tough guys is well known, but for my money Rypien ranks right up there with the best fighters we’ve ever had. Could he have beaten Gino Odjick? Maybe, maybe not.

But we now know he can beat Janssen…beat him like a pinata on Neuvo Anos. It was amusing listening to the St Lou announcers. First talking about all the shots that Janssen got in and then about how Rypien eventually held his own. They showed Jansen in the penalty box with blood on his hand and extolled his virtues as a hard punching tough guy. Then they ran the replay of the fight in slow motion.

And that shut them up.

Jansen’s first four shots bounced off Rypien’s helmet. Rypien’s first four shots bounced off Janssen’s shnozz. As did the next dozen punches. Jansen got one clean shot to the side of Rypien’s head. And that was it. Rypien responded with a half dozen jabs to Janssen’s mug.

Rypien plucked the tough right off that skeezer.

The blood on Janssen’s hand was from his own, smashed up, broken nose. He removed his bloodied jersey in the penalty box and did not run around hitting guys the rest of the night.

Next, let’s look at Luongo’s play. The best news for me is that he’s playing good. Not great, mind you. And that is good news cause he can be better. Lots better. And if he can get into that zone down the stretch and then into the playoffs…we are a contender.

The emergence of Mason Raymond has been predicted for the last year. The danger was that he would be the next Moe Lemay. A guy with lots of speed, NHL moves and all the finish of an IKEA student’s desk. But Mason has suddenly discovered that showing a little less speed at times gives him an opportunity to put his head up and see what else is happening out there. That has lead to some great passes and some laser like goals. And he’ll still get better as well.

Kesler and Burrows numbers are down a bit, but their effectiveness is still crucial to this team’s success. Both kill penalties, drive the opposition to distraction, draw penalties (yet take remarkably few themselves) and still put up respectable point totals. Great team guys!

And then we have the Sedins. There can be no question now as to their elite status. Henrik is flirting with the league lead in scoring and Daniel has come off his injuries with a blistering scoring pace that sees his point per game total even higher than Henrik’s.
The haters out there still whine about “endless cycling” or they “haven’t won a cup.”

Yet.

Of course the same people used to bullshit us about the Sedins not being tough or not scoring clutch goals. I’ve said previously that the Sedin’s have put up with more guff in front of the net than most players. And that’s because they continually go to the front of the net…right into the dirty area where you pay the price to score.
That’s toughness.

As for clutch…well, how much more evidence would they need. Once again, like last night’s tying goal by Hank. Yep, pretty clutch alright. As for the cup, well Luongo hasn’t won either. And he is always automatically assigned that “elite” designation. Lots of elite players didn’t win the cup. There is now no denying the Sedins are elite players and the five year contracts at $6.1 million per are virtual steals. And they are just entering their prime. Still time to grab the big prize.

Will that be with this year’s team? Well, first we have to make the playoffs…no easy feat in the crazy west these days. Injuries, 14 game road trips, goaltending and scoring slumps will all play a role.

But I’m a fan. I still believe.