Hey all! Here is our feature running Monday through Friday that will bring you up to date on what’s going on in the media pertaining to the Winnipeg Jets and elsewhere in the NHL.
Ed. Note: Now that we have reached the Stanley Cup Finals, Altitude Check will only be running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Here is what's in the news for Monday, June 4, 2012:
The Winnipeg Jets were prepared for last Friday's rookie combine in Toronto, ON as they sent strength and conditioning coach Lee Stubbs to preform player evaluations: "I try to gather all that information and then pass it on to Chevy, Zing, (assistant GM Craig Heisinger) and our scouts. They can take that and use it for the draft. They'll probably be asking me about muscular development, what kind of leg strength a kid has. Is he a powerful kid? You can take the statistics from the draft and convey them so they can be used at the draft. Things like: is he strong? Is he explosive? Those kinds of things." [WFP]
Tim Campbell provides a list of players that the Jets may covet at the ninth spot including — shock of all shocks — Tanner Pearson!? [WFP]
Campbell also gets insight from Kevin Cheveldayoff on what to expect at this years draft: “I think that this year’s draft, it’s going to be really tough to predict. You’ve got a lot of guys who have had injuries throughout the year and missed a good portion of the year. You’ve got a lot of team dynamics, different teams that may want to draft more for position than player. I think you’ll see a lot of players ranked very differently on each and every team.” [WFP]
More draft and free agency scuttlebutt, including speculation on Jim Slater. [WFP]
The guys over at Illegal Curve review the 2011 NHL Draft, including Corey Pronman’s analysis on the development of Mark Scheifele: “Scheifele has fantastic hockey sense and good puck skills. He needed to work on his skating and strength level coming into the year and towards the end of the season, especially when I saw him in the AHL playoffs his skating looked notably better, at times flashing pro-average. Scheifele’s strength is still not where it needs to be though. In the AHL playoffs he didn’t really stand out all too much and if Winnipeg keeps him around next year, he likely will have to be very sheltered and won’t log a whole lot of even strength minutes. He seems to be a classic case of a top prospect way too good for the CHL and not ready to be a notable player in the NHL. He projects as a fringe 1st line center/great 2nd line center although if the skating improvement I saw in the AHL was for real I could see legit top line upside.” [Illegal Curve]
The Los Angeles Kings are carrying the narrowest of two game leads back to the west coast for tonight’s Game 3. The Kings gutted out both Games 1 and 2 in overtime, continuing their road dominance these playoffs. [Jewels from the Crown, In Lou We Trust]
Ilya Kovalchuk’s take on what needs to change now that the Devils are down 0-2: “I think 5-on-5 and short-handed, we played really well, (but) the power play has got to be better. We’ve got to be simple. We tried to do too much. We try to make the pass to five guys, four guys. It’s not going to happen.” [TSN]
Meanwhile, Drew Doughty has been a cog for the Kings in these Stanley Cup Finals and revelling in the fact that he’s been looked to as “the guy“: “Before I was even drafted I had a ton of meetings with the L.A. Kings staff. Every single one of those meetings, Dean always brought it up to me: ‘Are you going to be that guy to help us win that first Stanley Cup in franchise history? My answer was always ‘Yes.”‘ [CBC]
Greg Wyshynski analyzes the top five potential Conn Smythe candidates. SURPRISE ALERT: Jonathan Quick is your frontrunner!, said no one, ever. [Puck Daddy]
The Boston Bruins have confirmed that goaltender Tim Thomas will be taking a year away from hockey for personal reasons. What does this mean for both the Bruins and Thomas going forward? [SCOC]
Talks for a new CBA will be heating up soon and with that the league has imposed a tentative salary cap of 70.3MM heading into next season. [SB Nation]
Cam Charron explains the misinterpretation of "Money Puck". [Backhand Shelf]
Jonathan Willis debates percentages versus timing. [NHL Numbers]
The NHL best prepare for the arrival of Vladimir Tarasenko. [St. Louis Game Time]
Finally, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers gave Nicklas Lidstrom one last send-off at the Joe Louis Arena. [Puck Daddy]
