Browse: Home / Christopher Schellenbach

Christopher Schellenbach

Christopher Schellenbach

I've played various levels of hockey for the better part of two decades. I enjoy analyzing and dissecting the games that happen within the game.

Thoughts on Olympic Hockey Tournament

By Christopher Schellenbach on March 1, 2010

First off, what a tournament! The best players in the world on the biggest stage, what else do you expect. A lot of surprises and a lot of nail biting moments. Team USA coming within a bounce of winning the gold medal is about as close as most Blues hockey fans have been to any championship for quite a long time, although hopefully that will change soon. I’ve put together some of my thoughts about the Olympics. I’m sure to have missed a few things, but here you go:

Surprise Teams – Good: USA, Switzerland & Slovakia

Did anyone really expect the USA to get as far as they did? I didn’t. I figured they’d do well and hope to contend for a medal but they exceeded my expectations by far. They really seem to be on an upswing and really have put their foot in the door when it comes to top 2-3 hockey nations in the world. From the juniors tournament, women’s and now men’s hockey, they really have come close to taking over that second spot. Fans of Sweden and Russia may disagree, but the results do speak for themselves. Some may say the Olympics were stacked on one side of the bracket, but I still contend that they had to beat Canada to get there.

The Swiss team really put up a fight against both the Americans and Canadian teams. Their style of play seemed to match up well. They are obviously well behind the top 5-7 teams in the world, but they are improving year in and year out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a star or two come out of Switzerland in the next few years. Jonas Hiller really stepped it up.

Slovakia really exceeded expectations. They had aging but NHL quality players but they really did make a good stand. A lot of their quality players are in their 30’s, so I doubt they really make a splash in the next Olympics unless the NHL players don’t participate. They should be commended for their showing.

Surprise Teams – Bad: Russia, Sweden & Finland

Russia, what’s going on with them? They seemed more worried about fighting with each other than playing a team game. A country historically known for playing a good team game looked like a group of individuals masquerading as a team. Too egos and history to go around. This team had gold medal expectations and ended up playing four and out. Malkin and Ovechkin have history and it showed.

The team from Sweden came in as defending gold medalists with their eye on a second straight gold medal but also were ousted after four games. I think Sweden was looking past Slovakia and not giving them respect, especially after being up by 2 in the deciding game. They were busy looking ahead to playing Canada or Russia but instead got shown the door. Their top players didn’t show up, simple as that.

Finland played a good tournament up until their last game, but it was a horrible game. They got down early and never recovered against the USA. Bad coaching decisions, bad goaltending and poof, they were out of the game before the 10 minute mark. There must be a bad taste in their mouths after coming up lame against the USA.

Surprise Players – Good: Ryan Miller, Jonas Hiller, Pavol Demitra & Brian Rafalski

Jonas Hiller:
While Miller won MVP, I feel that Hiller played extremely well. He kept his overmatched team in games they had no business being in. If the Swiss went further, maybe he would have had an outside chance of best goaltender in the tournament, but Miller’s outstanding efforts overshadowed him.

Ryan Miller:
Miller was fantastic and put Team USA on his back on the way to the silver medal. Not much else needs to be said, but a .942 save percentage in huge game situations? Look out Eastern Conference if Miller can translate his Olympic success back to the NHL for the stretch run.

Pavol Demitra:
10 points in 7 games is great. With skilled guys around him and playing for his country he showed he really can step it up. We’ve seen him falter in the past in big games, but he came through for Slovakia

Brian Rafalski:
He played a great tournament and really set the pace for the younger players on the team. He scored a lot of points for a defenseman, but his role as a mentor to me was just as important.

Surprise Players – Bad: Martin Brodeur, Mikka Kiprusoff & the Sedin twins

Martin Brodeur:
Bad decisions gave Team USA the crack in the door to wedge their foot in and the confidence that propelled them to a silver medal. His poor puck decisions along with poorly timed dives left him out of position and unable to recover. One bad game on a team with 2 other NHL All-Star level goaltenders waiting meant he never saw the ice gain.

Mikka Kiprusoff:
Like I said above with the Finns, one bad game. His head was not in the game from the get go. Outside of his one good year in Calgary when they road him to the finals, he hasn’t shown that he can be a big game goalie. If I was Calgary I’d be concerned about him come playoff time, but we’ll see.

Sedin twins:
Did they even show up? I don’t even remember their names being called. The two top scorers on the Canucks didn’t contribute for Sweden and that’s probably the reason why they didn’t get past Slovakia. They weren’t even mentioned in the recap against Slovakia.

Final thoughts on Canada winning along with the future of USA Hockey:

This tournament can draw a lot of parallels with the Summit series back in the 1972. Canada was expected to trounce the Soviets in the Summit Series, didn’t give the Soviets as much respect and in turn were surprised and barely pulled out the victory. After the Summit Series Hockey Canada did not re-tool as much as some people think they should have. During this Olympic tournament no one gave Team USA any chance of beating Canada once, not to mention twice. Canada had to squeak it out. Do the Canadians put the gold medal in their back pocket and continue on business as usual? Who knows.

In the 70’s, before and after the 1972 Summit Series, the Soviets really had an uptick in their national program. With the USA coming within a goal of knocking Canada off to take the gold with what many consider the ‘new faces’ of USA Hockey, I feel that things should get really interesting for Team USA over the next few years. With players that were responsible for beating Canada for the junior title a few years ago almost beating Canada for the gold this year and with the USA taking this years junior tournament, Canada has to watch out. They are number one, but the USA has shown that they belong.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in | Tagged , | Leave a response

Officiating in the NHL

By Christopher Schellenbach on January 12, 2010

RefereeOfficials in the NHL have been at the front of mind for Blues fans lately and with the Alexandre Burrows situation last night, it’s at the front of a lot of other minds as well. I love the sport of hockey, but something needs to be done about the officiating in the NHL. Officiating is an extremely hard job and is very thankless. A good official is one you never notice. I’ve officiated a game or two before and I know how hard it is. I don’t pretend that it’s an easy job.

The NHL put another official on the ice in order to attempt to get the calls more accurate. I think instead of helping it has hurt the game because the NHL had to bring inexperienced officials up and put them into action. While it has been awhile since the NHL has instituted the two referee system but you still see newer referees in games.

How many times have you seen the back official make a call from 100 feet away when the official 5-10 feet away lets it go? How often does a less experienced referee makes the call from a distance but the veteran official who is much closer lets it go? Some take this as the lesser experienced official showing up the more experienced official. Personally I just want the call right.

For as long as I remember in the NFL and recently in the MLB, officials will get together to discuss calls. They will get together and determine if the right call has been made and if not they will rescind their call and play will continue. I have seen numerous times in the NFL where an official throws a flag, they get together and discuss the issue and determine no foul occurred. Why can’t this be done in hockey?

Officials

I understand you can’t pull your arm down on a delayed penalty and the play must be whistled as one team has pulled their goalie, but why don’t you have the two referees discuss what happened and pull it back if need be? The face-off would be at center ice and play continues. The referee calling the penalty needs to go to the scorekeeper to make the it official anyway, so why don’t they talk to the other referee to see if they saw the play the same way and that it warrants a penalty or infraction? Get together, get on the same page and make the right call. Maybe they currently do this but I have never seen a referee pull back a delayed penalty. It’s almost as if they can’t take it back as soon as they raise their arm.

I don’t think the NHL is leveraging the veteran officials experience properly. Eventually this will turn around and bite them as good officials ride off into the sunset. A good veteran official knows how to control the game without controlling the outcome of the game. Newer officials do not know how to do that. Maybe they can learn it, maybe they can’t. Only after a call has been made or after a game the lesser experienced official is made aware of something that could have been done differently. Why not do that at the time of the play, possibly correcting a game changing bad call? Why not leverage the veteran officials experience and their view of the play? If there is a disagreement, the original call stands.

‘After further review, there was no foul on the play therefore no penalty will be assessed’ is a phrase heard in the NFL, why not in the NHL? Pushing the egos of referees out of the way in order to get the call right should be paramount. Something needs to be done about officiating in our great sport and soon.

Posted in , | Leave a response

USA wins World Junior Championship Gold Medal Game in overtime, 6 to 5

By Christopher Schellenbach on January 6, 2010

Team USA Wins WJC Gold I hope you were able to see tonight’s World Junior Championship Gold medal game, a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory by Team USA ending Team Canada’s quest for 6 straight. First off, what a game! This game had a bit of everything. A bit of coaching, a lot of hitting and a scoresheet full of goals. It was only fitting that this game down to the last shot winning it all. Momentum seesawed back and forth between both teams. Just when it seemed like Canada would come out and dominate the entire game, USA got back in it with the first of its fluky goals. This game was for the ages.

Both teams pulled their goalies at one point or another, so neither team had an advantage in net. Both teams had their injury woes so no excuses there. It did seem to me that USA had the better jump. It seemed as if Canada wasn’t prepared for the jump the USA team had throughout the entire game. I felt that Canada was not really tested throughout the tournament except when playing the USA. While the USA lost the New Years Eve game, it proved to the USA that they could hang with the team from the north. Canada was able to turn it up a notch to tie it up late in the game, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

I really love the enthusiasm and the spirit that every team in the tournament displays. While you end up seeing a lot of future NHL players in this tournament you also see what the difference is between good young players and future NHL players. There was a lot of raw talent in this game who were forced to make quick decisions in a fast paced high pressure environment that is probably the biggest game of their young careers. Some decisions were successful, some were not. This was a definite growing opportunity for all of these players.

There were a few moments where you would scream ‘What was he thinking?’ such as crashing the net up by two goals with 5 minutes left, or ‘Get him out of there, his head’s not in it!’ when both goalies gave up fluky goals. I’m glad it happened fairly even on both sides, so the talent eventually decided the outcome of the game.

The end result was a game that was sent to overtime by Canada scoring two late goals and the USA holding on by their fingernails. Jordan Eberle put Team Canada on his back and almost single handedly carried them to the championship with his two late goals. Once the two teams came out for overtime, both had decided to end it early. Players pinching in on the play in overtime is not something you’d see in a game 7 overtime in the NHL, but young players did it in this game and I’m glad they didn’t fall into a defensives shell. The goal by John Carlson was a goal that John, a fine young talent, will remember for a long time.

Both teams and both nations should be proud. They played a heck of a game. We will definitely see some of these good young players in the NHL soon. I can’t wait until the Olympics, is this a precursor?

We’ll have to wait and see!

Posted in , | Tagged , | 2 Responses

Right coach, right time?

By Christopher Schellenbach on January 4, 2010

A few months ago I thought about coaching in the NHL and what it means to have the ‘right coach at the right time’. I have thought off and on since about the subject. In light of the recent coaching change the Blues have made I have started thinking about it again, to see if the Blues really did pick the right guy for the job.

I believe there are different ’stages’ to a team that is completely rebuilding from scratch, such as the Blues had to do coming out of the lock out. I’ve identified the three different styles of coaches as: foundation coach, a players coach & an elite coach. No one coach can take a team from scratch to Stanley Cup winner, not completely. There is a right coach for the right time during the building of a Stanley Cup winner.

When you are building a building from the ground up, you need a good foundation. When building a potentially successful team, you need to start off with a coach that builds a good ‘foundation’ which includes at minimum a sense of responsibility and a system of accountability.  This ‘foundation’ coach needs to come in with a game plan, a way to implement it and the complete backing of the organization.

The shelf life of a ‘foundation’ coach is not too long, I’ve usually seen 2-4 years. This is usually due to the veterans tuning out the coach or the coach not relating to the younger players and losing them. At the end of the day, a foundation coach may or may not get his team into the playoffs. If he leads his team to the playoffs it usually is a case of overachieving. When the foundation coach asks his team to wash, rinse and repeat, the players seem to tune them out. That’s when you need to let the foundation coach go, such as Blues did recently with Andy Murray.

The value of what he has done cannot go unnoticed but most people agree that it is time for a change. When it is all said and done, you find yourself with younger players that should know what it means to be a pro. When it’s time to move on, it’s time to bring in a breath of fresh air, a coach that has something to prove, relates to the players and lets the chains off a bit. You find that former NHL players who are extremely cerebral and picked up coaching as their career wound down are extremely suited for this role. Think Joel Quennville when he was hired by the Blues.

A successful ‘players’ coach relates to the players. He understands what it’s like to be in the show and treats them with more respect which in turn allows them to use their skills the way they should be used. What he also does is build upon the foundation the previous coach built. He builds upon that system of accountability and provides enough structure for the team to succeed but allows the players to use their skills. I feel that the proper candidate has to be able to take criticism and take heat even when he feels the team is completely at fault. You need to rebuild that trust that was lost with the previous coach and the only way to do that is to earn it.

The players coach usually seems to take over a team that has playoff expectations, not just feel lucky they got there. He’ll probably get the team to the 2nd or 3rd round of the playoffs consistently, but he doesn’t have that ‘experience’ of losing the big game as a coach. How does he handle the pressure? That is key. Does he learn from it? Does he have enough time to apply what he has learned? Probably not. Think Quennville again, when he was let go by the Blues. That’s when you bring in the coach that you hope to take you that final step, the one that gets you over the hump. The elite ‘Stanley Cup or bust’ coach.

The elite ‘Stanley Cup or bust’ coach comes in with one thing in mind, taking a team to a Stanley Cup championship. Think Mike Babcock with the Red Wings or Mike Keenan with the Rangers. This is a coach that has put it all together. He will provide that gel that binds the team together, whether through motivation or intimidation. With a good foundation that has suffered playoff defeats but still has a phenomenal core of players, he has been provided a team that is hopefully ready to fully sacrifice in order to fully win. Sacrifice to some means physical sacrifice, throwing your body in front of pucks, laying someone out, etc. While that is extremely important, I feel that is only part of the sacrifice. There is a whole other dimension of said sacrifice that needs to happen before you take that next step.

I know this has been long winded, but I felt it necessary to truly understand what the Blues are going through right now. They are making that transition from ‘foundation’ coach to ‘players coach’. I feel that the Blues have made the correct coaching change. I feel that Andy Murray was the right coach at the right time but that time has come and gone.

Time will tell whether or not Davis Payne is the correct coach. Some people have advocated hiring Peter Laviolette. To me this team is not ready for a Peter Laviolette type coach. This team is not ready to make the sacrifices both mentally, physically and emotionally to take it to the Stanley Cup just yet. They need a coach that will listen to their concerns, allow them to grow and develop into a more playoff ready team. They need a coach that is a breath of fresh air from the hard nose ‘foundation building’ that has gone on the last few years. They need to be taught to believe in their skills again.

Time will tell what step the Blues will make next. I believe they will be a playoff team under Davis Payne, but I don’t think they will be a Stanley Cup winning team under him. Not unless they land a Crosby or Malkin any time soon.

All in all, it’s a long road and the first guy that’s hired is just as important as the guy that gets them to the cup victory. Without him you don’t have that strong foundation to build a team.

Thanks for listening.

Posted in , | Tagged , , | 3 Responses

Share this blog

Share |

AD