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PHILADELPHIA — What happened to parity in the NHL?
After the lockout, parity was the most important word of all. It was to be the result of the salary cap, erasing the boundaries between the haves and the have-nots.
Since the lockout ended in the summer of 2005, four of the old have-nots have been in the Stanley Cup final, and none of them are around for this year's conference finals. In 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers for the Cup, and last year, the Anaheim Ducks won their first Cup, over the Ottawa Senators. None of those teams were ever big spenders.
In this year's regular season, a mere five points separated the fourth-place New Jersey Devils from the eighth-place Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference. The Montreal Canadiens shaded the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points to finish first in the East.
It was not as close in the Western Conference; the Detroit Red Wings ran away with it and finished with 115 points. But by the end of the season, the San Jose Sharks were the picks of many to win the Stanley Cup. Then the Sharks wobbled through the playoffs before being dispatched by the Dallas Stars in six games.
Now the conference finals are upon us and the Red Wings and Penguins are mowing down the opposition. Before last night's game, the Red Wings were up 3-0 on the Stars, and the Philadelphia Flyers await their fate tonight as the Penguins hold a 3-0 lead in the Eastern final. The Penguins have lost one game in three rounds of this year's playoffs.
So what happened? Are we looking at the emergence of two superpowers who will rule the hockey world for the next several years?
Well, according to our hockey experts, goaltending and injuries are what happened. Marty Turco of the Stars and Marty Biron of the Flyers can carry their teams through one or two series, but if they go cold, so do their teams.
On the injury front, the impact of losing a key player or two is not nearly as severe as in the regular season. But lose them in a playoff series, where elimination awaits in as little as four games, and it's a disaster.
“The only thing I can think of is injuries,” broadcaster Don Cherry said. “I said it's survival of the fittest in the playoffs, and it's still true.”
The Penguins had to deal with the loss of important players such as Sidney Crosby and goaltender Marc-André Fleury for long periods in the regular season. And they are a young team and were still developing their defensive game.
Now, months later, Crosby and Fleury are healthy. Evgeni Malkin established himself as a budding superstar in Crosby's absence, the team came together defensively and it now looks invincible.
“Early in the year, we didn't play great defensively and we didn't have a great record,” Penguins winger Jarkko Ruutu said. “We went through some controversy, some adversity and we had some injuries. But guys came in and they skated really well. [Goaltender] Ty Conklin was unbelievable and Geno [Malkin] took over.
“That was a big part of our confidence growing. We have that now, and everyone is healthy, so we're better.”
Another difference is the quality of playoff opponent.
The Senators were without their best player, Daniel Alfredsson, and their No. 2 centre, Mike Fisher, and presented little opposition to the Penguins in the first round. The New York Rangers tried a little harder, but won only one game.
The Dallas Stars, on the other hand, had to fight off a physical team in the Ducks, then battle hard with the Sharks in the second round. Now, they are without a key forward, Jere Lehtinen, because of a leg injury and appear to have run out of gas.
Last year, the Red Wings had to play the Ducks in the conference final without two of their top three defencemen – Mathieu Schneider and Niklas Kronwall. The Wings were gone in six games.
This year, the Wings are healthy and they're rolling. They had a little trouble with the Nashville Predators in the first round, but it was not a physical series, and they swept the Colorado Avalanche in the second round when goaltender Jose Theodore was awful.
The Flyers went into their series with the Penguins on a roll, too, as Biron was outstanding. But by the time the third game started, they had lost their two best defencemen, Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, to injuries, Biron was ordinary and now they are doomed.
