Slew Footers Amateur Panel: Guessing and Undressing the 2013 NHL Season
Hockey is four days old and that means it’s time to turn in our past-due predictions for the lockout-shortened 2013 NHL season. Slew Footers ventures its guesses at the teams and players to emerge from the field for individual awards, the postseason and the Stanley Cup.
The roundtable is comprised of Slew’s finest (only) hockey minds. James Conley is the occasionally-credentialed writer guy in charge of Slew who also contributes to The Hockey Writers and Pensburgh. Brian Zagorac is a Youth and Amateur Hockey Development intern with the Pittsburgh Penguins and NHL contributor to Slew Footers. Evan Mulgrave is a Devils fan.
Hart Memorial Trophy
Conley: Alex Ovechkin was the last player to win back-to-back MVP honors in 2007-08 and ’08-09, so the precedent is there for it to happen. Malkin has every chance to win it again this season. He’s going to score unlimited points with Neal and Crosby. But in winning it last season, Malkin overcame knee surgery and Crosby’s absence. If healthy, the Pens will run away with the East, but MVP will probably go to someone who single-handedly carries their team into the playoffs. The Flyers are hurt and lost key roster pieces, but Claude Giroux will carry them to the dance nonetheless and pick up the Hart in the process.
Zagorac: Evgeni Malkin. This is a clear cut two-horse race between Pittsburgh Penguins teammates Sidney Crosby and Malkin. Crosby is finally at full health, but Malkin tearing up the KHL during the lockout showed he has no intentions of slowing down. The leading point scorer from the best team in the East takes home the trophy.
Mulgrave: I’m sure everyone else is picking Malkin or Crosby because they are loathsome homers. Since I’m not, I’m going with Johnny Toews out there in Chicago. Hawks are going to take the Central and he’s going to be the reason. Plus they got those deep dish pizzas out there and “Deep Dish” was my nickname in the GED equivalency class I took. Which I failed.
Art Ross Trophy
Conley: Malkin by a mile. The Pens appear to finally have a power play that produces like its members’ pedigrees would suggest and Malkin is going to key that unit. Playing with Neal, who I think is going to win the Rocket Richard this year, won’t hurt. I can see Malkin taking the Art Ross by double digits once again.
Zagorac: Malkin. He was the only player in the NHL to score triple-digit points last season (109). No other player broke 100 and only two others scored more than 90. Having James Neal on your wing is beneficial, to say the least.
Mulgrave: I got to go with Malkin here. Going get mad assists dishing to James Neal and going to get mad goals because because he is sick wit it. Also going to give him the Biggest Dope Award for not taking that cold $30 million Putin offered him to stay in the KHL.
Rocket Richard Trophy
Conley: Like I mentioned earlier, Neal. He’s comfortable in Pittsburgh now, both in the systems and that cushy new $30 million contract extension, and his chemistry with Malkin is plain stupid. Plus, he’ll never be more than the second-most important defensive assignment on the ice. With defenders scanning for 87 and 71 he’s going to have more open ice than any 40-goal scorer in the game.
Zagorac: Patrick Kane. Probably the most surprising of my picks, but what the hell. I am essentially calling out Patrick Kane. He has world-class talent in all facets of his game. There is no reason for him to ever finish outside of the top-ten in any of the offensive categories, yet he continues to lack consistency. The pressure is on him in Chicago. We’ll see if he can rise to the occasion.
Mulgrave: Ilya Kovalchuk. He’s got a healthy Zajac dishing him the puck and he plays like thirty minutes a game. If I had to venture a guess on how many he will end up with in a 48-game season, I’d say about 25 to 30. Thousand. Go Devils.
Frank J. Selke Award
Conley: John Toews. Chicago is skilled enough to jump to near the top of the Central while other systems-based teams trudge through the first few weeks of the season still searching for their groove. Also, the West is awful. Toews should have a bounceback year if he can keep his skull in one piece.
Zagorac: Pavel Datsyuk. The three-time Selke winner (’08,’09,’10) is going to have to step up this year both offensively and defensively with the retirement of Nicklas Lidstrom. Datsyuk, 34, should be off to a good start after playing in the KHL during the lockout where he was elected to the All-Star game. Watching Datsyuk strip an unexpecting defenseman from behind and turn it into a goal will never get old.
Mulgrave: Joel Ward? I don’t know, who cares?
Norris Trophy
Conley: Shea Weber is first in line to receive the award, and there’s still every chance that the voting process will get him his first based on “okay, it’s probably your turn now.” But, I think Nashville is going to fall off hard in the Central and his status will take a hit. Letang would win but he never stays healthy, not even in an owner-shortened joke season. Alex Pietrangelo is the best piece of the best defensive unit in hockey with the Blues. He’ll take the Norris.
Zagorac: Alex Pietrangelo. As good as Erik Karlsson was in his Norris campaign last year, he wasn’t too far from being labeled a liability defensively. With a defensive system that plays to his skills, Pietrangelo is an emerging star on the back end. The former 4th overall pick is becoming a shutdown workhorse for the Blues while finishing in the top-5 in scoring amongst d-men last season.
Mulgrave: Shea Day All Day. I’m going Shea Weber. And my reasoning is, Lidstrom retired.
Vezina Trophy
Conley: Ryan Miller. Buffalo is going to play like pricks in front of Miller after Lucic pirouetted him last season, and he figures to get most of the 48 starts this year. I think he just outplays Tuukka Rask in Boston and gets the nod. His win total might be what does it.
Zagorac: Mike Smith. It will always be a challenge for a Phoenix Coyotes player to get recognition, but Smith’s play cannot be denied any longer. Only Pekka Rinne and Cam Ward had more saves than Smith last year, both of whom had higher GAA than Smith (2.21). He is a monster in net at 6’4, can handle the puck superbly and should lead his team to the playoffs out of a weak division.
Mulgrave: With Tim Thomas doing what any truly great team player would do, sitting out one of his final years of usefulness and making his team eat his entire cap hit, I’m going to go with his replacement, Tuukka Rask. The Bruins are a deep team that play great defense and he has been the best goalie without a starting spot for years. Plus he’s going to have Tim Thomas cheering him on from the bench, albeit with chunks of Chik-fil-a sandwich flying out of his mouth and getting stuck in his beard.
Eastern Conference Champ
Conley: Penguins. I’m not convinced of the Rangers’ supremacy, even after the Rick Nash signing. If they win the Cup as a shot-blocking, net-trapping team that doesn’t take chances offensively, they’ll be the first to do it in the post-post-lockout-lockout era. Or since hockey eliminated the red line and everything that used to make New Jersey unbeatable. Plus, Pittsburgh had winning or split records against every East playoff team not named the Flyers last season. They should finally get a division win and favorable match-ups in the first few rounds, enough to take them to the dance.
Zagorac: Pittsburgh Penguins. They are stacked with talent and they are hungry. With every game Brandon Sutter plays, people will remember Jordan Staal less and less.
Mulgrave: Devils. As Seven Mary Three once so eloquently put it, “They did it once, they’re gonna do it again.” Sure, they lost Parise in the offseason and to a lesser degree, Sykora. But you know who they gained? Scott Stevens. Sure, he’s just an assistant coach now, but I would expect by April he has reactivated himself and is playing on the second pairing with Larsson, where he will be deactivating opposing players’ cerebral cortices.
Western Conference Champ
Conley: St. Louis is going to be a machine this year. They’ll get off to a flying start under Hitchcock, and have enough legitimate scoring talent in Oshie, Backes, Perron, Schwartz and Tarasenko to offset Hitchcock’s God-awful trapping tendencies. Plus, everyone else in the West is terrible. Blues will make the jump to the finals.
Zagorac: St. Louis. They have the coaching, goaltending, defense and now with the addition of promising rookie dynamo Vladimir Tarasenko, there offense may finally be turning the corner.
Mulgrave: Blackhawks. If that offense is firing on all cylinders, which I think it will (based on nothing), I don’t see anyone in the West stopping them. Defense and goaltending are a little soft, but so is most of the West.
Stanley Cup Champ
Conley: The Pens have the roster, on paper, to win it all. They did last year, too. I think by mid-season the Blues stop messing around with their goalie rotation and send Brian Elliott in to start for good, which they’ll need to get through the West playoffs. I think Pittsburgh will win, or has the best roster to make it happen, but I can’t put that on paper. Not again. Blues in 7
Zagorac: The Pens are too strong up front and they keep coming at opponents in waves. Their defensive corps will be improved because Paul Martin knows he has to play better and will live up to his contract. Goalie Marc-Andre Fluery still, after all the regular season wins and one Stanley Cup, knows he has to perform better in the playoffs and there is no other goalie I would rather have in a Game 7, despite his recent playoff struggles. Fleury is a gamer and if the Penguins are going to the promised land, it will be on Flower’s back. Pens in 6
Mulgrave: Here’s a stat for you. In the number of lockout-shortened seasons that I am personally aware of—one—who has won the Stanley Cup? The New Jersey Devils. History will repeat itself. Grab your Blossom reruns on VHS and cue up Regulators on your stereo, because it is going to be like 1995 up in this bitch. Devils in 3
Wild Card Predictions
Conley: Crosby finishes more than 15 points out of the Art Ross race and Malkin wins it by at least 10 more points than the guy who finishes second. The San Jose Sharks sign Scott Gomez but still somehow come within a game of reaching the Cup Finals. Also, Kings miss the postseason.
Zagorac: The Florida Panthers will make the Eastern Conference Finals led by rookie sensation Jonathan Huberdeau. A playoff team last year the came within an overtime goal in game 7 against New Jersey of advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Panthers return virtually everybody. New addition and veteran sniper Alex Kovalev can still shoot the puck with the best of them, and playing on a line with Huberdeau will open up chances for “AK-27.” Huberdeau will finish top-ten in the overall scoring race.
Mulgrave: Me and my dad finally finish the vert ramp we have been building in our backyard and the Oilers get the 6th seed in the West.
About the Author
James Conley is the owner of Slew Footers. A Pitt grad and freelance writer, James also contributes to the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Baseball News Source and SB Nation's Pensburgh.
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