Ray Irwin found formula for success in the AFHL
October 3rd, 2011
2010-11 was a fantastic season for the Washington Power whose Stanley Cup victory will rank as one of the greatest victories in AFHL history. In just a one year span, Washington went from the bottom of the league to the top, going from 17th place in the 09-10 season to Stanley Cup champions in the 10-11 season.
What the team accomplished last spring left many people shaking their heads in a combination of amazement and disbelief. Washington’s meteoric rise was led by their (now former) GM Ray Irwin and the key trades he made on his way to an AFHL Stanley Cup. During last year’s regular season, Irwin traded for superstar goaltender Roberto Luongo. Rumor has it that Irwin spent thanksgiving dinner with the Luongo family trying and eventually convincing Roberto to waive his no-trade clause and join the Power. Luckily he did because Roberto’s heroic efforts during the AFHL Playoffs would help the Power on their way to the title.
Irwin made his riskiest move just minutes before the AFHL Trade Deadline, by trading his last three blue-chip prospects for veteran winger Teemu Selanne. Next to Luongo, Selanne carried the Power’s offense during the playoffs, making a deadly combination with Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley as Washington’s first line of offense.
Trading for Luongo and Selanne were just two of the many trades Irwin made to completely transform the 2009 Washington Power to the 2010-11 Washington Power…
Washington Power pro team at the beginning on the 2009 season
OFFENSE:
Daniel Sedin (LW) – Vincent Lecavalier (C) – Patrick Kane (RW)
Nikita Filatov (LW) – Kyle Turris (C) – Drew Stafford (RW)
Andrei Kostitsyn (LW) – Cody Hodgson (C) – Eric Fehr (RW)
DEFENSE:
Eric Johnson (D) – Drew Doughty (D)
Jonathan Ericsson (D) – Kris Russell (D)
GOALTENDING:
Tomas Vokoun (G)
Ondrej Pavelec (G)
Cory Schneider (G)
BENCH:
Artem Anisimov (C), Mattias Tedenby (LW), PK Subban (D), Logan Couture (C),
Lars Eller (C), Jamie McBain (D), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (D)
Washington Power pro team at the beginning of the 2010 regular season
OFFENSE:
Dany Heatley – Vencent Lecavalier – Claude Giroux
James Neal – Mike Richards – Alexei Kovalev
Steve Sullivan – Thomas Fleischmann – Nikolai Zherdev
DEFENSE:
Mike Green – Kris Letang
Erik Karlsson – Victor Hedman
GOALTENDING
Marty Turco
Tim Thomas
Antti Niemi
BENCH:
Steve Downie, Brandon Yip, Colin Wilson, Eric Fehr,
Logan Couture, Joffrey Lupul, Dennis Seidenberg
Washington Power 2010-11 Stanley Cup Champions
OFFENSE:
Dany Heatley – Joe Thornton – Teemu Selanne
Simon Gagne – Mike Richards – Dany Briere
Joffrey Lupul – Patrick Marleau – David Backes
DEFENSE:
Dan Boyle – Kris Letang
Ryan Suter – Dennis Seidenberg
GOALTENDING:
Roberto Luongo
Tim Thomas
Dwayne Roloson
BENCH:
Jason Arnott, Brent Burns, Scott Gomez, Mike Knuble,
Alex Kovalev, Andrew MacDonald, Andrew Raycroft
While much of Washington’s Cup victory was being attributed to talented athletes such as Luongo, Thornton, Thomas, and Selanne, players insist that the credit goes to the GM for making trades “The Ray Way”.
“The safe thing would have been to not touch a thing and let it go,” said Irwin at a retirement press conference a couple of months ago. “Sure I could have thought we had a decent shot by maintaining the status quo, but in my mind, we weren’t going to win the Stanley Cup without making the trades that I made. Trading guys like Claude Giroux, Mike Green, and the Sedin Twins was not something we wanted to do. But in the end, it worked out.”
Gaborik shines in Buffalo; American Conference wins third straight All-Star Game
January 30th, 2012
Boston Giants‘ forward Marian Gaborik walked away with MVP honors at the third annual AFHL All-Star Game. The superstar forward had a hat trick and an assist for four points in helping the American Conference beat the Canadian Conference by a final score of 4-3.
“I wasn’t even thinking about a hat trick,” said Gaborik after the game. “I was just pumped to be here. I just wanted to come in and enjoy the weekend.”
Although the American Conference outscored the Canadian Conference by a point total of 21 to 12, the game was close all the way through.
Steven Stamkos of the Lakehead Thunderwolves said if the American Conference didn’t get back-to-back-to-back goals from Gaborik and Evgeni Malkin to erase an early deficit midway through the first, then the Canadian Conference probably would have kept their initial momentum and won the game.
“About half way through the third period is when it really started getting intense and you could tell neither team wanted to lose,” said Stamkos who scored a goal in the game. “But win or lose, it was still awesome. Everything was just so in sync, and the skill was unbelievable. The fans were so involved with everything that was happening on the ice. It was just a great ending to a great weekend.”
The third annual AFHL All-Star Game was exciting from beginning to end and aside from the high number of players participating in their first AFHL All-Star Game, there were sure to be a lot of guys collecting their first career All-Star goal in Buffalo. John Tavares and Zdeno Chara of the Oshawa City Leafs’, Henrik Sedin of the Pittsburgh Heroes, and Marian Hossa of the Buffalo Phantoms each put their name in the AFHL All-Star record book with their first tally in the event.
Deer Park Chiefs forward Scott Hartnell, who was credited with the game’s only hit, had pledged to give $1,000 to charity for each time he fell down. By his count, he fell to the ice five or six times. During one shift, Claude Giroux of the Hamilton Firestorm, tried unsuccessfully to knock him down.
“I raised maybe $5,000 or $6,000 bucks. It’s pretty cool,” said Hartnell, whose constant falls on the ice started a #HartnellDown surge on Twitter that led to T-shirts that are sold for charitable causes.
Hartnell said Giroux was trying to trip him on every faceoff but “he got me down during warm-up”.
“I tried to trip him a whole shift and wasn’t able to,” said a smiling Giroux, who scored a goal in the game. “It was for charity, and I didn’t think he fell enough, so I was trying to help a good cause.”
Zdeno Chara and Fort Drum‘s Brian Campbell were each +7 which is pretty remarkable considering the fact that it was such a high scoring game.
“I was surprised,” said Campbell. “But I’m just happy to have been a part of it. The stage was set nicely and I really think all of the players had a great game. The fans got to see a lot of skill and it must have been fun to watch.”
As mentioned, Gaborik was given the MVP award for his electrifying performance that included scoring two goals against Deer Park Chiefs’ goalie Henrik Lundqvist and pretending his stick was a machine gun during the celebration.
Lundqvist jokingly lamented about giving up three goals on eight shots, including the two by Gaborik.
“There’s been a lot of trash talk, but it feels like it’s game over already,” said Lundqvist, who was wearing a microphone during the opening period. “But I’m happy for him.”
While many say this game is often meaningless, this game could prove to be huge for Gaborik. During the game, he looked loose and happy. He was under a lot of pressure coming into this season as he had to deal with two tragedies and wanted to rebound from a unimpressive 2010-11 season. But with Gaborik in good spirits and oozing confidence, this break could prove to be huge for him as he continues to suit up for the Giants. He’s currently on pace to eclipse his career-high of 42 goals and if he can score goals at the pace he did during the All-Star Game, good things will come for Gaborik and the Boston Giants.
After a five day hiatus for the All-Star Game, AFHL GMs and players around the league are now looking to improve this season as the second half begins.
“We all want to improve this season,” said Manhattan GM Tony Furino. “But there are a few teams that currently sit at a fork in the road including my own. We can either get ourselves into the playoffs for a third straight year or flounder and slip further back into the pack of American Conference squads. Pretty soon we’re going to make a decision because the Trade Deadline is now one month away.”
For a team like the Fort Drum Killers, who currently hold a tenuous grasp on the eighth and final playoff spot, they will begin to determine its path with important games against the third place Hamilton Firestorm this week, and the fifth place Lakehead Thunderwolves next week. That the Killers ultimately control their own fate is a luxury, players said, given how up-and-down this season has been.
“For how we’ve played, I think we’re pretty lucky — where we stand is pretty good,” Killers GM Steven Stryska said. “I don’t think we’ve played our best yet this season, but if we don’t show improvement in the next couple of weeks, then I might be pretty active at the Trade Deadline.”
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QUICK HITS
– The mascots for the Vikings, Thunderwolves, Red Devils and Knights repelled from the ceiling to begin the pregame festitivies, while the remainder of the mascots entered in a conga line at center ice.
– Tim Thomas of the Hamilton Firestorm, whose spectacular goaltending led the Power to the Stanley Cup championship last season, was considered the best goalie in this year’s game after he stopped 18 of 21 shots in the third period.
– Leading up to the day of the event, the AFHL Commissioner was unaware that the NHL had eliminated the annual Young Stars Game, so it was announced late that rookies would not factor into the scoring for this year’s All-Star Game.
– The two biggest stars, Buffalo’s Sidney Crosby and North Bay’s Alex Ovechkin, missed the All-Star Game, but that did not seem to matter. The event was its usual just-for-fun exhibition, the climax of a happy weekend for a league that continues to prosper. “You obviously want to have those guys, but there are a lot of other great young talents in the game,” said Victoria’s Phil Kessel, smiling after signing the sweater of a teammate for the day, Toronto defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Playoff hopes still alive for Mustangs, Killers, and Power
March 5th, 2012
This is the time of the season when hockey players turn into math junkies and the only thing as important as the game being played is the out-of-town scoreboard.
With only one matchup remaining in the regular season, calculators have become just as critical as hockey sticks now that eight points separate the three teams still battling for the 8th and final spot in the 2012 AFHL Playoffs.
The London Mustangs, who gutted out a 6-5 win over the Lakehead Thunderwolves last week, continue to hold the 8th spot with 264 points, but the Washington Power and the Fort Drum Killers are nipping at their heels with 256 points each.
“These are anxious times for our fans,” Washington GM Rick Charron told reporters after last week’s 7-1 loss to Fort Drum. “We’re just 8 points shy of that final playoff seed. We need to get as big of a win as possible against the Deer Park this week.”
The Killers are playing inspired hockey right now with Miikka Kiprusoff leading the way.
“Kipper has been incredible all year,” Fort Drum GM Steve Stryska said after last week’s win over Washington. “In his last showing he stopped 38 of 40 shots. He’s got a 2.34 GAA and a .921 save percentage on the season. He’s the biggest reason we’re still in this hunt.”
Earlier in the season, there was a rumor going around that there was some division in the Killers dressing room. According to Stryska, it was just a bad rumor.
“There was a bit of a fairy tale going around that we have tension in the room,” said Stryska. “I haven’t seen any. We’ve got a good mix of old guys and young guys. Obviously, when you don’t produce on the ice, people look for something. People have concluded that it must be in the locker room, but I think right now we’re proving them wrong because we’re still in the hunt for the playoffs.”
Mustangs GM Matt Plachta said the team played well in last week’s win over Lakehead, but they need to play better this week against the first place North Bay Warriors.
“We’re fighting for our lives right now,” Plachta told a reporter after a Monday morning skate. “We fought hard against the T’wolves. We need to fight even harder against the Warriors. We’d like to be sitting up there with 300 points like the Warriors, but we’re not. We’re in a dogfight.”
Matchups to watch in Week 21:
London Mustangs (8th) vs. North Bay Warriors (1st) – North Bay defeated London 8-3 in Week 2
Washington Power (9th) vs. Deer Park Chiefs (2nd) – Deer Park defeated Washington 7-4 in Week 2
Fort Drum Killers (9th) vs. Buffalo Phantoms (6th) – Buffalo defeated Fort Drum 6-3 in Week 2
So who will grab the last playoff spot? London certainly has the advantage because they’re already there, but right now the only sure thing is that a lot can change between now and Sunday night.
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QUICK HITS:
– The second place Deer Park Chiefs are now only 9 points behind the first place North Bay Warriors. “We’re not worried about who we’re going to play,” said Chiefs GM Mike Nellany who will be among the candidates for this year’s Jack Adams award which is given to the league’s best GM based on a number of categories. “A true champion doesn’t size up the competition. A true champion fears nothing and no one.”
– Lakehead Thunderwolves (4th) vs. Toronto Red Devils (5th) in a first round playoff series? Fireworks have erupted between these two clubs several times this season. Lots of bad blood between Lakehead GM Jason Briggs and Toronto GM Jordan Carbone. For the first time in AFHL history, two rivals could faceoff in the first round of the playoffs.
– Media caught up with Vipers GM Chris Hartley shortly after the team clinched a spot in the playoffs late last night. “The entire Victoria organization is extremely happy to be a participant in the AFHL playoffs for the first time in franchise history,” Hartley said. “If positions remain the same one week from today, then we’re going up against the Chiefs in the opener. We got pounded by them 10-1 a few weeks ago. I promise to our fans it will be a different result this time around.”