STATS: Lemieux vs. Giroux

Jaromir Jagr took to Twitter after last night's game with this tweet:

@28CGiroux3+3=6 points in one playoff game. beginning of the year i called u little Mario- now i can scratch out the little.
— Jaromir Jagr (@68Jagr) April 14, 2012

This tweet got me thinking. Now assuming Giroux played in the same time period as Lemieux, how similar would their statistics be? Is Giroux an appropriate player to be called "Mario Jr" according to Jagr? Here is a statistical breakdown of Lemieux in his first 3 seasons in the NHL and Giroux in his first 3. I calculated the NHL's goals per game in Lemieux's first 3 seasons and the NHL's goals per game in Giroux's first 3 seasons. From that, I multiplied Giroux's stats by the multiplier difference of goals per game per season. The last three columns are goals per 82 games, assists per 82 games, and points per 82 games. The Lemieux chart shows his actual stats. The first Giroux chart shows his actual stats while the second shows the adjusted stats.


Also, Giroux's PPG is 22nd of active players in their first 5 seasons. Hockey Reference

Brian Burke and His Draft History vs. The Pittsburgh Model

Burke quotes from PuckDaddy

"They got a lottery. They won a god damn lottery and they got the best player in the game. Is that available to me? Should we do that? Should we ask the League to have a lottery this year, and maybe we pick first? The Pittsburgh model? My ass. They got the best player in the game in a lottery. Ray Shero's done a good job. He's an excellent GM and he's a friend of mine. But I love when people talk about the Pittsburgh model. The simple fact is that they got the best player … we came in second that year in Anaheim. We got Bobby Ryan. Impact player, good player. They got Sidney Crosby in the lottery."

This got me thinking... if Burke doesn't think "The Pittsburgh Model" is a model, then what kind of strategy does he take?

Let's take a look at his drafting history (H/T: HockeyDB's draft pages):

Hartford Whalers 1992 (hired just before draft)
First round - Robert Petrovicky - 208 games, 65 points
Second round - Andrei Nikolishin - 628 games, 280 points
Third round - Jan Vopat - 126 games, 31 points
Fourth round - Kevin Smyth - 58 games, 14 points
Fourth round - Jason McBain - 9 games, 0 points
Sixth round - Jarrett Reid - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Ken Belanger - 248 games, 23 points
Eighth round - Konstantin Korotkov - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Greg Zwakman - 0 games, 0 points
Tenth round - Steve Halko - 155 games, 15 points
Eleventh round - Joakim Esbjors - 0 games, 0 points

Whalers 1993 (fired shortly after draft)
First round - Chris Pronger - 1154 games, 686 points
Third round - Marek Malik - 691 games, 198 points
Fourth round - Trevor Roenick - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Nolan Pratt - 592 games, 65 points
Eighth round - Manny Legace - 365 games, .912 save %
Ninth round - Dmitri Gorenko - 0 games, 0 points
Tenth round - Wes Swinson - 0 games, 0 points
11th round - Igor Chibirev - 45 games, 19 points

Vancouver Canucks 1998 (hired just before draft)
First round - Bryan Allen - 519 games, 104 points
Second round - Artem Chubarov - 228 games, 58 points
Third round - Jarkko Ruutu - 652 games, 142 points
Third round - Justin Morrison - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Regan Darby - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - David Jonsson - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Rick Bertran - 0 games, 0 points
Sixth round - Paul Cabana - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Vince Malts - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Graig Mischler - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Curtis Valentine - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Jason Metcalfe - 0 games, 0 points

Canucks 1999 (BEST DRAFT for obvious reasons)
First round - Daniel Sedin - 787 games, 651 points
First round - Henrik Sedin - 810 games, 666 points
Third round - Rene Vydareny - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Ryan Thorpe - 0 games, 0 points
Sixth round - Josh Reed - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Kevin Swanson - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Markus Kankaanpera - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Darrell Hay - 0 games, 0 points

Canucks 2000
First round - Nathan Smith - 26 games, 0 points
Third round - Thatcher Bell - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - Tim Branham - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Pavel Duma - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Brandon Reid - 13 games, 6 points
Eighth round - Nathan Barrett - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Tim Smith - 0 games, 0 points

Canucks 2001 (not too shabby)
First round - R.J. Umberger - 474 games, 274 points
Third round - Fedor Fedorov - 18 games, 2 points
Fourth round - Evgeny Gladskikh - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Kevin Bieksa - 347 games, 147 points
Seventh round - Jason King - 59 games, 23 points
Eighth round - Konstantin Mikhailov - 0 games, 0 points


Canucks 2002 (terrible, 12 total games played)
Second round - Kirill Koltsov - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Denis Grot - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - Brett Skinner - 11 games, 0 points
Third round - Lukas Mensator - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - John Laliberte - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Rob McVicar - 1 games, 0.00 save% (played 3 minutes)
Seventh round - Marc-Andre Roy - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Ilya Krikunov - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Matt Violin - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Thomas Nussli - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Matt Gens - 0 games, 0 points

Canucks 2003
First round - Ryan Kesler - 484 games, 288 points
Second round - Marc-Andre Bernier - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Ty Morris - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Brandon Nolan - 6 games, 1 point
Fifth round - Nicklas Danielsson - 0 games, 0 points
Sixth round - Chad Brownlee - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Francois-Pierre Guenette - 0 games, 0 points
Eighth round - Nathan McIver - 36 games, 1 point
Eighth round - Sergei Topol - 0 games, 0 points
Ninth round - Matthew Hansen - 0 games, 0 points

Anaheim Ducks 2005 (Crosby year)
First round - Bobby Ryan - 250 games, 202 points
Second round - Brendan Mikkelson - 86 games, 6 points
Third round - Jason Bailey - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Bobby Bolt - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Brian Salcido - 2 games, 1 points
Seventh round - Jean-Philippe Levasseur - 0 games, 0 points

Ducks 2006
First round - Mark Mitera - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Bryce Swan - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - John de Gray - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Matt Beleskey - 97 games, 28 points
Sixth round - Petteri Wirtanen - 3 games, 1 point

Ducks 2007
First round - Logan MacMillan - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Eric Tangradi - 16 games, 3 points
Third round - Maxime Macenauer - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Justin Vaive - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Steven Kampfer - 38 games, 10 points
Fourth round - Sebastian Stefaniszin - 0 games, 0 points
Fourth round - Mattias Modig - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Brett Morrison - 0 games, 0 points

Ducks 2008 (DEEP draft)
First round - Jake Gardiner - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Nicolas Deschamps - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Eric O'Dell - 0 games, 0 points
Second round - Justin Schultz - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - Josh Brittain - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - Marco Cousineau - 0 games, 0 points
Third round - Brandon McMillan - 60 games, 21 points
Fourth round - Ryan Hegarty - 0 games, 0 points
Fifth round - Stefan Warg - 0 games, 0 points
Seventh round - Nick Pryor - 0 games, 0 point

You get the picture...

The Penguins Model is going deep in the draft and it has proven to work for them.  Brian Burke's model is to draft terribly.  Besides his picks in Pronger, the Sedins, Kesler, and Ryan, he has failed miserably in the draft.

Maybe instead of complaining about the Penguins winning a lottery for Crosby, Mr. Burke should worry more about his own talent evaluation and attempt to go deeper in the draft.

The Pittsburgh Model:
Adams: 9th round
Asham: 3rd round
Cooke: 6th round
Crosby: 1st round (1st overall)
Dupuis: Undrafted
Engelland: 6th round
Fleury: 1st round (1st overall)
Jeffrey: 6th round
Johnson: 5th round
Kennedy: 4th round
Kunitz: Undrafted
Letang: 3rd round
Lovejoy: Undrafted
Malkin: 1st round (2nd overall)
Martin: 2nd round
Michalek: Undrafted
Neal: 2nd round
Niskanen: 1st round
Orpik: 1st round
Park: 2nd round
Staal: 1st round (2nd overall)
Sullivan: 9th round
Tangradi: 2nd round
Vitale: 7th round

I rest my case, Mr. Burke.

John Tortorella Calls Pens "Arrogant Organization": CROSBY RESPONDS

Once again Seth Rorabaugh comes up huge. Some quotes from Torts after tonight's game: EmptyNetters Twitter

In reference to Orpik's knee on knee hit on Stepan:

"I wonder what would happen if it happened to their two whining stars"

"It’s a cheap dirty hit. I wonder what would happen if we did it to their two whining stars over there. I wonder what would happen."

Also:

"Its ridiculous. But they’ll whine about something else over there will they? Starting with their two #$&#ing stars."

On Penguins' "arrogance:

"It’s one of the most arrogant organizations in the league. They whine about this stuff all the time and look at what happens."

Seth also adds:

"Torts punctuated everything with a hearty F bomb."

Here's a video of the interview:



And a perfect response by Benstonium:



Sidney Crosby has responded, thanks to Shelly Anderson:

Sidney Crosby on recent trash talk:

"I don't know if this is part of the new tactics heading in the playoffs, but it's garbage."

 On Torts:

"I figured he was just blowing up. I'm sure he'll apologize today about it and everything will be forgotten. I really hope [officials] are not listening to that crap because it’s nonsense. They’re trying every which way to gain an advantage. We’re not paying a lot of attention. It’s getting old. I’ll be the first one to admit my first couple of years I was pretty hard on the refs. I’ve come a long way since then. But I’m nowhere near where I was then and to get those kinds of remarks every day is uncalled for and not warranted. It's experience, and I’m a pretty competitive guy, but you’ve got to learn to kind of control that sometimes. You've got to put your energy towards things that matter, and that’s playing hockey. I think it’s been a gradual thing. There’s no doubt I’m emotional. There are times when I’m going to get fired up, but not enough to warrant all that. It's nonsense. You can put a camera on me all game if you want. It’s not even close. It’s not even close."

Flyers Assistant Calls Crosby, Malkin Dirty

Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube was interviewed on Daily News Live on CSNPhilly last night and had this to say about Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

"Let me tell you something, Crosby and Malkin are the two dirtiest players on their hockey team. They slash, they punch guys in the face. They do all these little things-- I got no problem with what Schenn does. And if someone runs [Crosby] over-- that’s great. They should run him over. This guy gets away with too much, in my opinion, whines to the refs all day and all night. It’s a joke. And the guy did something to Schenner a little bit earlier, so he just went at gave him a little shot. It wasn’t like it was a tough, bad cross-check. The guy dove. And I understand all that, they’re going to protect their guy, and they should."

So let's see here: apparently Crosby and Malkin slash and punch players in the face.  In my years of watching the game of hockey, I believe all NHL players slash.  Find me one player without a slashing minor. (Anyone? Anyone?)   Mr. Berube also believes that what Brayden Schenn did, by cross-checking Crosby in the back, is perfectly O.K.  Double standard much?  Even though this quote is from practically a no-name, it still adds fuel to the fire.  The Flyers-Penguins first round match-up will be great.

Here is Schenn's cross-check which Berube thinks is just fine:




Here is the man who said "I got no problem"

 

Grammar is your friend, big guy... 

Also Mr. Berube punched a referee (45 second mark):

H/T:

CrossingBroad 

Tough Guy Mike Milbury Tries to Apologize

Sexist and all around tough-guy, Mike Milbury attempted to apologize to the Penguins and their fans today:

"I reached out to (team president) David Morehouse and the Penguins about the comments I made yesterday on Philadelphia radio. In hindsight, I realize what I said was inappropriate and wrong, and I want to apologize to the Penguins organization and their fans,"

Too late buddy, our coach in his skirt and our captain and his 35 concussions will see you (NBC) and you're favorite team (Philadelphia Flyers) in the first round of the playoffs next week.  We'll see who has the last laugh when all is said and done.  Also, where are the direct apologizes to Dan Bylsma and Sidney Crosby, the two people who were insulted in the interview?

Mike <3 Peter 4 Life

Shero's comments on the matter:

"If it was an attempt at comedy, it falls real short. It’s fine to have an opinion on players but when you’re making light of concussions, that’s not right,” said Shero. "I’ve gone through this with my own kid (who had a concussion), obviously we’ve gone through it as a team with Sidney Crosby and saw what it took for him to battle back from it over the past year, there’s nothing funny about post-concussion syndrome. I don’t think it would have been very funny had he made fun of [concussed Flyers captain] Chris Pronger in that light. There’s nothing funny about [former Flyers captain] Keith Primeau having to retire from it. This is an issue that is at the forefront of our league right now and to make light of these concussions is a real lame attempt at humor. He should know better than this."

On Milbury calling Crosby a "goody two-shoes"

"I’m not sure what he’s implying there. Sidney Crosby is a fierce competitor, that’s what makes him great, that’s what makes him a great captain. It’s no different than a Peter Forsberg -- they’re fierce competitors and they play to win the game." 

H/T:
Sporting News
ESPN

Comparing Bombay and the Ducks to Bylsma and the Pens

Dan Bylsma and his Pittsburgh Penguins have a striking resemblance to Gordon Bombay and his Mighty Ducks.  Check out our comparisons below and let us know what you think.

Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter, @GotKasparaitis

Gordon Bombay Coach of District 5, Mighty Ducks, and Team USA Junior Goodwill Games team Played in the AHL before his career was cut short due to injury And to a lesser extent Ted Orion Orion takes over the Ducks to coach them in D3 for Eden Hall Academy Played in the NHL for the Minnesota North Stars	Dan Bylsma Coach of the Wilkes-Berre Scranton Penguins and Pittsburgh Penguins Played in the NHL before his career was cut short due to injury
Jack Reilly Gordon Bombay's former coach for the Hawks Bombay coached against Reilley in the championship of the first movie	Mike Babcock Dan Bylsma's coach for the Mighty Ducks Bylsma coached against Babcock for the Penguins 3rd Stanley Cup victory in Bylsma's first season as coach
Charlie Conway Captain of the Mighty Ducks Slight anger issues Was taught to dive in the first movie DIFFERENCE: Not the most skillful player	Sidney Crosby Captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins Feisty player Was called a diver in his rookie season DIFFERENCE: Most skillful player in the game
Hans Gordon and Charlie's mentor and father figure Talks to Gordon and Charlie in crucial times	Mario Lemieux Sidney Crosby lived in his house for years Sent a text out to the team before their Stanley Cup victory
Don Tibbles Gives Gordon some new players in D2 Owner of Hendrick's Hockey Apparel DIFFERENCE: The dude is crazy	Ray Shero Signs players, trades for players GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins
Adam Banks The Mighty Ducks best player and leading scorer Stolen from the Hawks	Evgeni Malkin The Penguins best player this season and leading scorer Stolen from Russia
Julie Gafney Took a while for her to get the permanent starting goalie position Best goalie on the team	Marc-Andre Fleury First joined the NHL in 2003, locked up starter position in 2005 One of the best goalies in the NHL
Fulton Reed Enforcer with the hardest slapshot on the team	Arron Asham 4th liner with an above average slapshot
Dean Portman Brought to the Ducks in D2 because of his enforcer skills	Deryk Engelland Earned a spot on the Penguins because of a combination of his enforcer and defensive skills
Ken Wu Added to the team in D2	Richard Park Added to the team this past off-season
Russ Tyler Most well known for his shot	Tyler Kennedy Shoot-first mentality
Guy Germaine 2nd best player on the Mighty Ducks Often overlooked and overshadowed by Conway and Banks	Jordan Staal / James Neal Two of the best players on the Penguins Overshadowed by Crosby and Malkin
Luis Mendoza Small and quick Added to the team in D2	Steve Sullivan Small and quick Added to the team this past off-season EDIT: Another Possibility is Pascal Dupuis
Les Averman The Mighty Ducks' prankster	Matt Cooke The Penguins' prankster
Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson Coach of Team Iceland in the Junior Goodwill Games Former NHL player	Guy Boucher Coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning Former NHL player
Gunnar Stahl Leading scorer in the Junior Goodwill Games Tournament Overshadowed by the Mighty Ducks' star players	Steven Stamkos Leading goal-scorer in the NHL Overshadowed by the Penguins' star players
Josh (That weird kid who announces in D3)	Bob Errey