Bouncing back in 2012-13
As hockey fans struggle to get through the dog days of summer, this is the time they really start looking forward toward next season (fingers crossed). Save for the potential moves of Roberto Luongo, Shane Doan and Bobby Ryan, there’s not much left for this offseason to provide. This makes it easy to envision what the 2012-13 hockey year will bring.
The players are looking ahead as well. And while every player’s goal is to win the Stanley Cup, they have each set personal goals they want to achieve. For some players, that goal is simply to prove their worth again after a sub-par showing in 2011-12.
Two players that come to mind when expecting bounce back years are Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Two seasons ago, those two combined with Ryan to form the best line in hockey. Perry won the Hart Trophy with a 50-goal campaign and Getzlaf had a 60-assist pace for the fourth consecutive season, but their production slowed significantly to 37-23-60 and 11-46-57, respectively.
Anaheim finished 24th-overall with 204 goals and added little help in the offseason, so the two superstars will have to regain their offensive prowess for the Ducks to have any shot at the postseason. Teemu Selanne is one of the greatest offensive forces the game has ever seen, but he’s 42 and the record for most points in a season at that age is 52 by Gordie Howe in 1970-71.
The expectations for the players should be different though. Perry averaged 26 goals per year in the four seasons prior to his 50-goal campaign, so the 37 he scored last year is more akin to his standard pace. But his overall point total should go up as Perry failed to reach 40 assists for the first time since 2007-08.
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Getzlaf should improve in all areas. Eleven goals is nowhere near enough for a player of his caliber, even one who passes as much he does. Nineteen fewer points in 15 more games was only an aberration. For a better estimate of Getzlaf’s production, look to his previous four seasons when he posted 318 points in 291 games.
In the Eastern Conference, Ville Leino should have a resurgence of sorts for the Sabres if for no other reason than there’s no where else to go but up. After signing a six-year, $27 million contract, he vastly underwhelmed last season with only eight goals and 25 points, less than half his production from the season before.
Towering expectations hurt Leino and the Sabres last season, but more reasonable hopes will help. Maybe Leino isn’t the guy who can carry a team for extended stretches, but given the chance to loosen up and play a supporting role instead of a leading, the points should come again.
Leino still needs a bigger body on his line to help create room, but he won’t slump that badly two years in a row. Steve Ott should fill the same role on Leino’s line that Scott Hartnell did in Philadelphia. Both players can crash and bang and score the gritty goals set up by Leino’s wheeling-and-dealing style of play. Fifty points should be the expectation again. Asking for anything else, like sustaining the numbers he put up in the 2010 postseason (7-14-21 in 19 games), is too optimistic.
Sometimes it’s an entire team, not just a player or two that experiences a down year. After reaching the Eastern Conference final in 2011, the Tampa Bay Lightning finished 10th, allowing a league-high 281 goals.
They were in the hunt despite an atrocious defense, which GM Steve Yzerman has improved. Steven Stamkos has officially become the top goal-scorer in the NHL, Martin St. Louis is still a top set-up man and Teddy Purcell found his stride as a solid point producer.
The difference, however, is on the backend. Anders Lindback has been tagged as the starting goalie and although he only has 38 games of experience, he should provide much more stability than the 42-year-old Dwayne Roloson. In front of Lindback, free agent signings Matt Carle and Sami Salo give them puck movement and offense from the blue line. They have a very intriguing mix of veterans and young stars on defense that will drastically reduce the amount of goals against and make up the eight-point gap by which they missed the playoffs.
Victor Hedman, Keith Aulie and Brian Lee, acquired at last season’s trade deadline, are all 25 or under and oozing potential, and have a wealth of experience in the steady Eric Brewer and offensively-minded Marc-Andre Bergeron to mark a clear improvement of last season’s group.
The Lightning didn’t need to make major changes, they just needed to shore up their weakest link. That was accomplished and the Lightning are the most improved team in the Southeast Division. Next season they’ll want to prove there is more to Tampa than just Stamkos.
The New Jersey Devils were able to shake off a poor season in 2010-11 and have everything come together without any major additions; there’s all the potential for Tampa to do the same.
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