Apr 9, 2016
Thumbs up to Red Wings and Reimer
TSN's Dave Hodge extends his thumbs to the Detroit Red Wings and their pursuit to a 25th straight playoff appearance, and to James Reimer and whatever might lie ahead for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent.
By Dave Hodge
It’s all about Detroit’s streak, as the Red Wings’ 24 straight playoff appearances take the spotlight on the final weekend of the NHL’s regular season.
The Wings need a win against the Rangers to extend their amazing run to 25 in a row. They also need it to mask the way they have stumbled into this precarious position. If the Red Wings fail to make the playoffs for the first time in a quarter-century, the bigger story will be how they failed.
The trademark consistency that allowed Detroit to be among the NHL’s playoff teams year after year has gone missing. For a large part of this season, it appeared the Red Wings had moved forward positively from the Mike Babcock era and were in good hands with rookie coach Jeff Blashill. Now, there are doubts. This Detroit team does what all those other Detroit teams didn’t do, and what playoff teams don’t do - it comes apart at crucial times.
The latest loss, Thursday’s 5-2 defeat in Boston that denied the Wings their playoff security, saw them fall behind 2-0 in the first three minutes of the game. It brought to mind a recent loss in Philadelphia, where the Wings were down 2-0 before the seven-minute mark. And a 0-2 deficit in the first 10 minutes against Tampa Bay. There have been blank spots at other times. A 1-0 lead over Pittsburgh was wiped out by four straight Pens goals in the second period. Final score: 7-2. Detroit took a one-goal lead to the third period in Montreal and lost by one. The worst late-game meltdown was narrowly averted. A empty-net goal put Detroit ahead of Buffalo 3-0, only to see the Sabres score two later goals and almost a third.
And we shouldn’t forget Detroit’s 1-0 loss on home ice to Babcock’s Toronto Maple Leafs - a “thumbs down” moment, to be sure. If Detroit is eliminated today, it will be the Rangers’ doing, but that excruciating loss to the Leafs will still seem like the killer.
If Detroit wins today, 25 will sound sweet. Nothing else will matter. For a few days, anyway.
Staying Optimus-tic
The assumption is that goalie James Reimer has found his way to unrestricted free agency at exactly the wrong time. To be precise, Reimer is said to be a good fit in Calgary, and nowhere else. If true, that gives him little or no bargaining power.
I believe he’ll do better than whatever might be offered by the Flames in a limited market. Other teams don’t have to be desperate to show interest in Reimer once they examine his 2015-2016 numbers.
For the last-place Toronto Maple Leafs, 11-12-7 with a .918 save percentage can be called respectable. For the San Jose Sharks, 6-2-0 and a .938 save percentage, plus three shutouts, is an indication of what Reimer might be able to do with a better team in front of him.
Maybe the Sharks themselves are that team. Let’s see how the playoffs go before ruling anything out in San Jose.
Same for Dallas. The Stars could finish with the second-best record in the league despite less-than-impressive goalie stats from Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen, so, admittedly, it’s not essential that they make a change. It’s also not easy, as they’ve got more than $20 million tied up in their two netminders over the next two years. But if the Stars disappoint in the playoffs, and goaltending is a reason, there will be pressure on general manager Jim Nill to get creative.
Naturally, neither San Jose nor Dallas would give Reimer an open road to a first-string position, and apart from money, that’s what he’ll be seeking.
Okay, try out these scenarios:
Carolina - Cam Ward, a free agent-to-be himself, does not re-sign with the Hurricanes.
Colorado - A shakeup is on the horizon and it could involve goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Vancouver - Reimer offers the Canucks goaltending security beyond next season when the contracts of both Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom are due to expire, thus prompting a trade prior to next season.
Columbus - Sergei Bobrovsky is good when he’s healthy, but he’s too often injured.
Toronto - I don’t see it happening, but some do.
Las Vegas - This assumes a lot, but an expansion announcement will get 30 teams thinking about what to do with goalies and goalies will be moving all over the place if an expansion draft is due in the future.
Calgary - If I’m right and there is some goaltending activity this summer, the Flames won’t look out their window and see only Reimer, but he has to be of interest to them at this point and there’s a free-agent deal to be made that could satisfy both.
“Thumbs up” to James Reimer, for whatever he might do in his remaining time in San Jose, and for whatever might lie ahead somewhere else.