Andreas Lilja is teh suck. Big time.

Stars shut out the Senators...in their house! WHOOT!

This Leafs/Islanders game is madness. It's 4-4 at the end of the first. A frantic pace if I've ever seen one. Just absolute madness out there. Horrible defense, everyone running around like, shots coming from everywhere...

And this is with DiPietro and Belfour in net.

Now there is a scrum at the end of the period... Nice!!

The Sabres just can't lose right now...

Lindy Ruff gambles by putting Ryan Miller in goal instead of the smolten Marty Biron and they still pull out the shootout win.

Good times! :)

It's good to see.

I watched some of the game. The guys who call the Sabres' games mumble a lot and often sound like they are doing commentary on a golf tournament. They seem to whisper.

That is, when they aren't bitching about EVERY.. SINGLE.. CALL... against the Sabres.

:)

Toronto beats New York 9-6. Jay Feeley missed the FG at the end to tie it.

Gretzky's mom died tonight.

Sorry to hear that. :(

The Wings are playing Columbus right now and this booing of Fedorov is really irritating me. Seriously. I didn't think they should have booed him two years ago, but now it's just getting ridiculous. All this guy did was help the team win three Stanley Cups and lead the team in playoff scoring during his tenure. Yeah, we should boo him.

Bah!

I was equally displeased when Pistons fans booed Larry Brown earlier this year. It was crass.

Bah!

hey, LA fans still boo Rob Blake.

You know what I heard about Rob Blake's hands?

And the Sharks fans...Ed Belfour. Because he signed in Dallas. As a free agent.

Hell, Leaf fans boo Curtis Joseph for signing with Detroit as a FA for more money, even though he previously signed with us as a FA because we offered more money. And probably will again in the off-season.

The Canadian Olympic Team has been announced (from espn.com):

Defense
Rob Blake
Adam Foote
Scott Niedermayer
Chris Pronger
Robyn Regehr
Ed Jovanovski
Wade Redden

Forwards
Vincent Lecavalier
Joe Sakic (Captain)
Joe Thornton
Simon Gagne
Dany Heatley
Jarome Iginla
Ryan Smyth
Shane Doan
Martin St. Louis
Brad Richards
Rick Nash
Chris (um......Kris?, lol) Draper
Todd Bertuzzi

Alternates
Jason Spezza
Bryan McCabe
Eric Staal

I like the makeup of the team, although I've been reading everyone complaining about it, especially Nash, which I can't fathom. All the kid did was win the Rocket Richard trophy as a 19 year old, dominate at the World Championships, win in Switzerland with Joe Thorton, Gretz (i believe) called him the best forward at the Olympic Camp in August, comes back through 2 tough injuries and scores 2 in 2.

Goalies:
Martin Brodeur
Marty Turco
Roberto Luongo

Not too many surprises here. A very solid squad, but we expected that. I guess having Luongo and Turco there and leaving CuJo and Belfour behind could be a mild surprise, but nothing more. Luongo has carried the load internationally for a while, Turco has been playing lights out, and Brodeur is, well, Brodeur. He's your starter.

The D is as advertized. Good to see McCabe on the taxi squad.

I was very happy to see Draper make the team. He's really having an off year at the moment. He got hit in the eye with the puck early on and just hasn't been the same at all. I hope this jump starts him a bit. He's been a solid contributor to Team Canada for many years in World Championships, so I am glad to see him get a shot for Olympic gold. I also approve of picking Staal and Spezza over Crosby. They are both playing better than him right now and are (a bit) older. A wise decision.

Nothing too deep to post here, but the last 3 or 4 Oilers games have been absolutely awesome to watch. Game of the year so far for them was the tilt against Calgary on Monday. Tonight's was just edge of the seat action for the most part with the goalies just trying to keep up. This is going to be a hell of a team in a couple years if we can keep the young guys together and hope they catch onto the positives of a work ethic like Ethan Moreau's. Give us a real #5 defenseman so we're not forced to play Cross and Ulanov every night and we'll win these games 7-3 instead of 7-6 too.

I couldn't agree more. I have been able to watch them and it's been as exciting regular season hockey as I have seen in years. Great end to end action. I love watching this Oiler team.

Man, tonight is crazy!

14 games, only the Rags and the Ducks don't play!

Crazy Wings/Blackhawks game. The Wings scored two goals in the last 38 seconds with the goalie pulled to tie the game at 2-2. Datsyuk scored with 0.1 seconds left in OT to give the Wings the win. The Wings were seriously outplayed for almost the entire game and were lucky to come away with the win. It was Christmas come early.

Wow. That's really funny, especially how Ruutu just heads to the bench as if nothing had happened.

Man, what is it with the Isles verse the Senators. The last two times, we've thoroughly outplayed them, but the Sens breakout is just so god-damned good and fast against us.

I haven't watched a single game since the Thornton trade. I'm still in mourning.

I hate Ruutu. He's up there with Darcy Tucker and Sean Avery for me.

Most definitely. He even looks like a complete prick. He's just got that asshole face. He's definitely an agitator, that said, I always like having those guys around to some extent. It can be fun (see: the video posted above).

Argh- I was listening back and forth on the radio to the Hawks game (both the Detroit and Chicago stations- it's amazing how much stuff you can get when traveling on the road in the midwest) and the KU bowl game on the road Friday night. That was just killer :(

SI

Back to back shutouts by Michael Garnett (the first in franchise history) have pulled the Thrashers back to .500

Still 3 points out of the 8th playoff spot but at least this step has been taken & it comes as Kari Lehtonen finally comes off the DL ... although right now I wouldn't touch Garnett until he cools off a little.

I look forward to getting a look at Lehtonen. Even though Garnett has put up good numbers lately, I think he's one of the worst goalies to start more than a game or two this year (although he is definitely better than Garth Fucking Snow!!!).

Well, you must have watched the game last night and Snow could hardly be blamed for the loss. The Isles have absolutely no work ethic outside of Jason Blake and the Sabres made them look like a bad AHL team for most of the game (outside the last ten minutes of the first).

The Sabres were possessed last night once again, playing with unbelievable determination and again came back from a third period deficit. And it's not just work ethic that's getting them there; they're now 8th overall in the NHL in goal scoring and still only two points back of Ottawa for 1st OVERALL in the league.

Wow. :) What a great ride!

We had no work ethic, you're right. With that said, Snow is pathetic. The goal from Campbell in the 3rd period was HORRENDOUS. From the blue line, 6 inches off the ice, no screen, no deflection. I can make that save.

I see no way anybody could walk away from that without saying that despite our best efforts to take ourselves out of the game, we hung around and got a late lead, and Snow's terrrible play cost us the game.

I'm sure the Sabres will still be ranked like 15th in the TSN Power Poll, biased asses...

Go Sabres! :)

since I don't want to talk about the Avs right now, I thought I'd mention that my in-laws gave me Ken Dryden's "The Game" for Christmas. I'm probably the last person on the planet to read it, but I'd still like to say that it is an EXCELLENT read so far.

Another great Sabres win last night over Atlanta. Ryan Miller stood on his head the whole game.

I'm going to make my call right now. Somehow, someway, Miller is going to be the main man in net for the US at the Olympics, even though he didn't make the team.

Waddell has to be kicking himself for leaving him off, considering how bad DiPietro, Grahame and Esche (injured) have been. My guess is Miller makes the US taxi squad and gets substituted in for one of the injured guys.

I was thinking the same thing last night when I saw DePietro go down. It looked bad at first, but early reports were that the knee injury wasn't too serious. Still, Miller has picked up exactly where he left off before the broken thumb. He's playing great hockey and is certainly without a doubt, the best US goaltender at the moment.

Haven't posted in a bit (on vacation), but got to watch a couple of Canes games on TV while in NC. After sweeping out the last homestand, Carolina took an OT loss at Tampa, then got roughed up by Ottawa (fortunately, it's the last time we play this year) before dropping another tough OT game against Philly. Beat Montreal 5-3 tonight to go 1-1-2 in the last four. Now up 11 points on the Lightning in the Southeast.

At this point, I'd have to say Carolina should be able to win whatever opening-round series they draw, but I have doubts beyond that. I watched the Ottawa game and if our goaltending is not superb, we're going to get killed in a series with them. We're fast, but they're faster and they pass better. Adding Heatley to that team was almost unfair. We beat them twice because Gerber was able to stand on his head in both games and we made timely goals to win.

Fortunately, if we win the division, we'll likely be on the opposite side of the bracket from them as they'll likely be #1 and would only get them in the Eastern final (if we get past the second round against most likely Philadelphia).

So Ottawa was in Atlanta today. Heatley's first game back, and he was given a real rough ride by the fans -- lots of booing, lots of signs, etc. My guess it had more to do with him demanding a trade than with the accident. It seems like fans can forgive pretty much anything these days, except for wanting out.

But here's the strange thing: as you'd expect, there was a fair amount of coverage of the game leading up to it, with articles in most of the major papers and web sites. Even ESPN noticed that the NHL existed for a day. But all the articles I read had something in common: they pretty much whitewashed what actually happened to Dan Snyder.

The stories all mentioned Snyder's death, but in every case it was referred to as "the accident", with a note that Heatley was driving. If you didn't know the story and just happened to read the coverage this week, you'd think that Heatley and Snyder were minding their own business at an interestion when some maniac plowed into them. No mention of Heatley racing down a residential road at 80 mph, as he apparently did often. No mention of him being charged with first-degree vehicular homicide. No mention that, if it weren't for Snyder's family asking the court for mercy, Heatley would probably be in jail now.

Now I know it was an accident, and I know kids make mistakes. I understand that if Snyder's family can forgive, then the rest of us have to as well. I see that Heatley's career turnaround is a happy story. I'm fine with that. But do we really need to just pretend it never happened at all? Is anyone else a little uncomfortable with the way the history books have been slammed shut on this one?

Yes. But isn't that what we expected?

I would submit that the accident story has been done already. It's not the story anymore. The story is how Heatley has turned his career around. To go over and over the details of the accident is redundant even for our media.

I don't think anyone should forget what happened, but I think it's time to move on for sure.

I believe it had pretty much everything to do with him wanting out, and particuarly with the way he handled it.

And I don't think it's so much that he wanted out, it's that the fans feel specifically betrayed by him wanting out. I had mixed feelings about the guy coming back but I was very much in the minority as far as I could tell. He got as much support as I've ever seen any athlete get in this town, at least as much as any collection of rank strangers can provide from a distance.

The fan quotes from today's AJC sums up a lot of the reaction IMO:
"We supported you, you jerk,"
"Through the whole accident, the community supported him," ... "I felt he let the community down. It seemed like he kind of left us high and dry."
"He thumbed his nose at the support the city gave him ... "I thought he showed a lot of integrity through the ordeal, then a complete lack of integrity when he asked to be traded."

To some degree I think it was something that fans needed to get out of their systems a little bit. Their reaction was pretty much what mine would have been & I know I'm pretty hostile about his timing. I don't think he'll ever be warmly welcome here, but since he's wearing a different sweater now, I think that's as it should be. It's still the most controversial thing to happen with the team in their short existence, and it's the conversational third-rail at a game. The only really heated fan confrontations I've ever seen there (only 2 or 3, not like it's a lot) centered on that subject, and interestingly it's the pro-Heatley people who go after those who are anti-Heatley (the Heatley jersey's with the name covered, circle-and-slash, etc weren't debuting yesterday, I've seen them from Day 1 this year).

The best thing to come from the yesterday's game perhaps was that the fans combined their disdain for Heatley with a new found acceptance of Marian Hossa. After hearing "Hossa, Hossa, Hossa" chants for a good part of the game, the new young star in town told the paper "It's a special feeling," he said of the chanting. "You don't see that every game. . . . I feel so much better."

I would have booed him even if he was still on the team. I am a little entertained by the people booing him that were busy having pity parties when the accident happened. They're more upset that he went to another team than about what he did, though they disguise that rage as having to do with the accident, the death of Snyder, and the resulting criminal charges. If they really cared about those things, they wouldn't have been so anxious to paint him as "a great character guy who made a little mistake" back then.

He should never have been in a position to ask for a release/trade. The team should've started soliciting offers right after the accident hit the news and not stopped until they got an offer worth taking.

I really haven't seen anybody boo the guy for the actual incident, and haven't heard/seen anything from yesterday that indicates that even came up.
So where's the "disguised rage"?

Not saying it isn't out there, just saying I haven't seen it.

I have talked with people who were at the game and, based on a lot of the signage and comments made, people were calling him out on the criminal charges, community service, accident, and Snyder's death. Since there wasn't that much rage when he made his return to the ice as a Thrasher, I'd say those people are only now calling him out for it because he left town.

But isn't that the rub? They were supporting him and he turned his back on them by wanting out. It's not like he got traded and all the Atlanta fans said "hey, wasn't that the guy who got in the accident? Boy he's going to hear about this when he gets back here!". It was an ongoing process that he intentionally got up from and left.

I guess that's the part that doesn't fit for me. If the story is done, and he's just another player, then fine. But you can't have the inspirational comeback story without talking about what he's actually coming back from. He's not coming back from some unfortunate fluke accident. He's coming back from an accident he caused, directly, that left someone dead and him with a police record. This wink, wink, nudge business where we're not supposed to mention that part seems dishonest to me.

To go over and over the details, to beat it into the ground in every city he goes to (cough, Bertuzzi) would be unfair here, I agree. But there has to be a middle ground between overkill and pretending it never happened, isn't there?

I guess my problem with it is this... If you think it is right and proper to forgive somebody for that sort of incident, many going so far as to call it a "simple mistake", then why not be able to forgive him for wanting to go to a new team? One is a criminal act that contributed to the death of another person and one is just changing which hockey team you play for. It is as if they would forgive a home team player for nearly anything. It just doesn't seem consistent to me.

Tonight, Patrik Elias returned to the ice for the New Jersey Devils. For those who don't know, he has spent the past several months battling and recovering from Hepatitis A. He played a decent first period, and he looks like he's in good enough shape to help the team throughout the entire game. I'm very glad to see him back.

Actually the first sentence there seems to be pretty consistent. The key is whether he's "our guy" or "somebody else's guy".

Killing Dan Snyder was not perceived as a personal slight by the majority of fans. Asking to be traded, especially since he was getting a lot of support & understanding (rightly or wrongly) from the fans, well, that's going to be taken pretty personally most of the time I think. It may not always make sense, but I think it'd be a pretty consistent reaction.

I meant that it doesn't seem consistent to forgive a guy for doing what he did, but not forgive him for wanting to be released/traded. You're right that it is a case of a bunch of homers. We'll forgive anything by the home team, but once you leave we will act like you were a bastard from the start.

Anyone see Garth Snow appear to blow both of his knees out tonight? Geez, that was ugly.

Looks like Snow only sprained knee ligaments in both knees. Very lucky. Even with all that equipment on him it looked much worse than it was.

Thrasher/Penguins tonight at the Phillips.

I'm almost afraid to jinx myself here, but it looks like I'm finally going to make it to a game we've got tickets to after missing the last two in a row.

Avs have won 3 straight and their next two opponents are Columbus and St Louis - the two worst (and lowest scoring) teams in the NHL.

but, more importantly, this Saturday is the big day: Hockey Day in Canada. 13 hours of hockey, including tons of local stories. It's great viewing for hockey fans...especially those like me who are fascinated about how hockey is a culture in Canada, as opposed to a sport in the US. Coverage starts at noon...Center Ice is carrying it.

I just love the way the AP story paints this picture.


What the story doesn't bother to explain is what Kovy meant when he said that Crosby "can't play like this".

The penalty in question (that Crosby was in the box for) was a slashing call late in the 2nd period. Atlanta had done a shockingly good job of shutting the kid down most of the night to that point. They were very physical with him, always somebody keeping a body on him BUT very clean about it. That's what surprised me the most, nobody was doing stupid stuff to get penalties, they were just keeping someone in his personal space at all times, but literally playing it so safe that at times defenders would actually pull their hands back to make it clear that he wasn't being held/impeded/interfered with ... they were just generally annoying the crap out of him. And that's what brought on the penalty, which was about as stupid a rookie mistake as you'll see made out of frustration -- after yet another unproductive shift, Crosby snapped & slashed the hell out of Andy Sutton (one of several Thrashers who were rotating "spy duty" on Crosby) ... right in front of the goal and more importantly, with the ref two feet away looking straight at them. I mean he looked like somebody trying to kill a snake with a garden tool, just "whack", so obvious that the ref actually seemed to hesitate for a second in disbelief. I really don't think the kid is a bad guy, he just snapped out of utter frustration & made a classic mistake.

The Kovalchuk goal followed 24 seconds later, very much like a homerun following a beanball, and that's when the gesture was made to the penalty box (and brought a great reaction from the fans by doing so). It didn't seem so much like "that's for you asshole" as it did "welcome to the big leagues Rook, that's the way we do it up here"

But of course nothing that explains any of that made it into the wire service story. Just seemed like crappy writing to me since that was what they chose as the focus for the whole game recap, because the way it happened & the way it was written really don't seem in synch to me.

Naturally, I'm "True Blue", so I've got a take on this that isn't wholly unbiased, but apparently neither is the writer of tomorrow's game preview either.

edit to add: Okay, either my eyes are really bad or ... well, damn, I guess that's about the only answer I've got for it. Here's a quote from the local article about the same incident --"...Crosby sat for slashing Kovalchuk 24 seconds earlier."

I know Sutton was shadowing Crosby right before the slash (I had taken to watching them work on him instead of following the puck at all times by that point). All I can figure is that when I looked to the puck in the corner, Sutton had headed for it & Kovalchuk had picked up Crosby & I didn't realize it.

From the same article, in the interest of full disclosure or whatever, "The exchange appeared to have its roots in the first period, when Kovalchuk delivered a fierce hit along the boards to Crosby, who was in an awkward position and went down hard. Crosby said the play was a cross-check."

Atlanta's playing some inspired hockey right now. They've turned a two-team race into a three-team race in the Southeast. That win Carolina had the other night after getting down 3-1 is looking better and better. Need every point we can get against other division foes because I expect Tampa and Atlanta to now make some serious pushes between now and the end of the year. We're a combined 3-4-1 against both teams right now, which means we're actually doing better outside the division rather than inside of it. We have an 8-4-1 division record because we swept the other five games we played against Washington and Florida.

Please don't take this as defending Crosby, but based on Kovalchuk's history, I doubt it was the latter. Buddy of mine and I saw the replay of the events last night and had a chuckle because he has just commented that we hadn't seen Ilya act like a prick in a little while. Kovalchuk is still hated here for his actions against the Oilers (re: fight with Comrie and his goal celebration) which is saying something because Comrie isn't exactly all that popular around here anymore.

It's not like Kovalchuk has spent enough time in the league acting like a seasoned vet to deliver the sort of message you're describing. It's not like Kovalchuk hasn't done stuff like this before, and with him it always seems to be a case of vindictive one upmanship.

Personally, I don't like guys that do that, no matter what they've got backing it up, but I can see why people would cheer for the guy's talent. I choose not to, but the only message he was sending was pretty much, "I'm better than you", not something to teach Crosby anything about the way the game should be played in the NHL.

BTW, if anyone got in on the free Upper Deck hockey cards promotion before the season started, they look like they're shipping out. I remembered 4 of 8 weeks so I have Gonchar, Heatley, Khabibulin, and Zhamnov on their way.

SI

I think I only ended up getting Forsberg, but haven't seen anything yet.

I got email messages saying they're on their way. Haven't gotten them yet but I'm guessing I will this week.

SI

And I certainly can't say that you aren't exactly right ... but somehow, sitting there watching the whole thing play out in person, it just didn't "feel" quite like that. And I say that right alongside acknowledging that I've seen him hotdog stuff on several occasions, so I'm not claiming he's above that or anything like that.

Canes sweep back-to-back games against the Islanders with a 3-0 shutout tonight on Long Island. After the head-banging, profanity-laced fiasco I sat through earlier watching State lose to Carolina (again), it felt damn good to have the Canes beat up the Isles like they did. Carolina's now 12 points clear of Atlanta, which apparently has moved in front of Tampa Bay for second. (Am I imagining things or did a lot of teams do back-to-backs last night and tonight?)

I think the schedule gets really bunched up from here on out b/c of the Olympics.

Why the NHL didn't spread things out evenly for the first half of the year, I have no idea.

Don Cherry's take on this:

*shot of Kovalchuk pointing at Crosby in the penalty box*

"Somebody should've broke his arm, but they didn't."

Yeah, but TB has a game in hand on the Thrashers (43 played vs ATL's 44), and the 'Canes actually have 3 in hand right now, so the lead is probably a little bigger than it appears

But we'll just take 'em one game at a time (I hope), including a 4-3 win tonight in Pittsburgh. BTW, in the wake of last night's activities, " Crosby didn't do much to help his reputation by taking four penalties Saturday - including a diving minor late in the second period that led to an unsportsmanlike conduct call when he gestured to referee Stephane Auger from the penalty box.

Meanwhile Kovalchuk answers the persistent booing of the Mellon Arena crowd with a pair of power-play goals ... including one courtesy of a Crosby hooking call :D

As much as Kovalchuk annoys me, having him play the bad guy in a rivalry with Crosby would sell some tickets.

Rangers picked up Petr Sykora from Anaheim for Max Kondratiev.

Funny, but kinda scary story from a Montreal Canadiens practice earlier today:

hxxp://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=150086&hubname

Canadian Press
1/9/2006 4:33:49 PM

MONTREAL (CP) - Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore got a shock Monday when a stranger in full hockey equipment jumped on the ice during a Montreal practice and shot a puck at him.

The 28-year-old man from Montreal, who would only say his name was Raphael, went onto the Verdun Auditorium ice when most of the players were at the far end of the rink.

Wearing skates, full gear and a plain white hockey jersey, the man skated in on the star goalie with a stick and a puck. He was poke-checked on his first attempt and Theodore then stopped a weak wrist shot to the high glove side.

The practice crasher was chased to the side boards by coach Claude Julien but wouldn't get off the ice until he was pulled away by an arena worker.

Police later released the man.

"I didn't really know what was going on until the guy came on," a grinning Theodore said later. "He came at me with his head down so I just wanted to say `Welcome to the big boys.'

"I poke-checked him to say `You have to keep your head up.' When he came back, I though about going out of the net and not playing into his game, but then I thought he had the (courage) to go on the ice, so I let him have a free shot at me.

"He couldn't beat me. That's the main thing."

While waiting for the police to arrive, Raphael told reporters that while Theodore is a "great goalie," he didn't score because "I didn't have time."

Although most of what the recreational hockey player said was incoherent, he said he had planned crashing the practice to show the Canadiens what he could do on the ice.

"For many years I wanted to play high-calibre hockey," he said. "I had nothing to lose."

Police spokesman Olivier Lapointe said that although two officers spoke to the man, it was "not really a police matter" and he was not arrested.

With Julien ordering him off the ice, defenceman Craig Rivet stood close by in case there was trouble, but the man went off peacefully.

"It's funny now that everything is OK, but it's a little scary," said Rivet. "You don't know what intentions people have.

"You don't know if he was stable. It was a bit amusing, I guess, but hopefully it won't happen again."

The Habs practise at the suburban arena, where fans are allowed to watch the session, when the Bell Centre is unavailable - because of a Rolling Stones concert this time.

About 15 to 20 fans, mostly schoolkids, were on hand Monday at the practice arena.

The man had spent most of the practice sitting up in the seats in his hockey gear. Winger Alex Kovalev wondered if he was a player waiting to go on after the Canadiens practice until he moved down next to the boards, tightened his skate laces and jumped on the ice.

"He's one of those people, like whoever her name was (Morgana) who used to go out on the baseball field to kiss the players," Kovalev said. "He's probably one of those.

"And maybe he was wondering if we need a right-handed shot and tried to prove he can play on our team. You need one of those things to give us a laugh."

I would officially like to say that the Western Conference Central Division is godawful. Haven't been doing a lot of standing watching but I just looked today. Somehow, even carrying around a 10 game losing streak can't put the Hawks in the cellar. Even more impressive is that they aren't even in 4th, they're actually ahead of both Columbus and St Louis. Oof.

SI

I'm sure Nashville and Detroit aren't upset about sharing a division with the 3 worst teams in hockey. It was a nice time for Colorado to play these clowns - first Columbus on Saturday where a hot goalie kept the Blue Jackets in the game, and then last nights embarrassment where it looked like the Blues were just helping the Avs practice their offensive drills.

Eric Brewer cheapshots Dan Hinote early in the game right in front of the ref, killing a Blues powerplay. Avs score right away, camera cuts to Brewer waiting to get out of the box...but the official points to the scoreboard - it was still 4 on 4 hockey. ha ha. Avs score a real power play goal shortly after that with Brewer in the box, and he's in the box later when they get their 3rd. In a new twist, he's on the ice for the 4th goal, at which point, I think he'd probably just want to give up.

Marek Svatos got another hat trick and game winning goal (his 8th, I believe). Haven't popped over to the Avs board yet, but I bet I'll find plenty of posts from people wanting to have his baby or something, or spouting off nonesense about how they wouldn't trade him straight up for Crosby. yay.

Aebischer has 4 straight wins, allowing 4 goals in those 4 games. (Colorado has 5 straight).

and, heck, freaking Patrice Brisebois got in a fight last night. he even started the silly thing. I'm loving it.

speaking of divisions, the northwest division is the tightest in hockey - 4 teams over 50 points and all 5 teams have 20 wins, the only division that can say that right now.

Got my cards from Upper Deck today. Nothing too special but always cool to get free stuff :)

SI

my wife just called to tell me that Joe Thornton was ejected from the game tonight against the Bruins.

from AP

...Thornton got a major penalty and an automatic game misconduct from referee Chris Rooney for hitting Bruins defenseman Hal Gill from behind at 5:13 of the period. Gill and Thornton were teammates as Bruins rookies in 1997-98.

Gill fell to the ice, reached with his left hand toward his right shoulder and rolled over. He got up and went directly to Boston's locker room and didn't return. He said he suffered a pinched nerve in his left shoulder.

Thornton, skating behind Gill, actually hit him in his left side, driving Gills' right shoulder hard into the corner boards to the left of Boston's net. The crowd, which gave Thornton a loud ovation when he was introduced before the game, was subdued when Gill and Thornton left the ice.

fun finish to the wings/hurricanes game. though detroit didn't win, it was cool to see a 6 on 4 at the end of the game. hurricanes did a great job in the last minute.

That's a good woman ;)

Tho it begs the question "why weren't you at the game and she was"

SI

more like why is she at home right now watching TV while I'm here laboring at work over a hot internet connection. :D

"You call this fun?! This look like Playland to you??"

A great, great win for Carolina, but I never realized how badly I wanted them to win until I found myself trying to get my emotions back under control afterwards (I guess it's similar to finding yourself in an accident and discovering you're okay). I wasn't jumping for joy or giddy or anything like that, just overwhelmingly relieved.

SEVEN in a row, baby. beating Philadelphia certainly helped take some of the sting away from the Pats loss last night.

unreal

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...15naptime.html

I never knew this, so I got a kick out of the article.
It's about the tradition of NHL players taking afternoon naps. It's from the Atlanta paper, so it's Thrasher-centric, but from the way they talk about it I imagine it'd be pretty similar for most teams.

I'd never heard of that before. But, man, I'd fit in with hockey players. I can fall asleep in 5 minutes pretty much anywhere and I'm a big fan of the afternoon nap :)

SI

Did anyone see Ovechkin's goal today?

If he did that on purpose, it may be the greatest goal of all time. If not, it's still top 20.

Very good hockey day for me, although not NHL.

We took advantage of the holiday & joined about 6,500 others at a 12:30 afternoon start for the Gwinnett Gladiators & the Columbia Inferno in ECHL action.

Bonus time too, as Mike Dunham was in goal for Gwinnett (rehab assignment from Atlanta), allowed 2 goals in the first 4 minutes & then nothing afterwards en route to a 6-2 Gwinnett win.

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of play, at least by Gwinnett (Columbia looks like a team that may actually be worse than their last place record).

And an extra bonus as the merchandise rack happened to have a few pieces of game used equipment ... including a Adam Berkhoel stick that now sits proudly just a few feet away from my very thrilled son :)

I miss going to ECHL games. The Brass folded a few years ago, and now I'm stuck about halfway between Wheeling and Johnstown. Johnstown is closer, but the drive is hell. Wheeling is farther away and in West Virginia (urgh), but it's a much easier drive. :/ Yeah, I don't go to a lot of hockey games anymore. :(

I really don't think there's a better bang for the buck in pro sports than minor league hockey, as long as you're talking about a team that has enough talent (i.e. money) to be competitive in their league.

I saw that on the highlights, what a ridiculous goal. I'm not sure its the GOAT, but it is certainly gonna be the top contender for goal of this season.

Tim Connolly had a really nice goal tonight too, not to the level of Ovechkins but it was pretty sweet nonetheless.

I agree. Tickets are typically dirt cheap and the play isn't all that bad. The best "bang for the buck" I ever had (outside of freebies) was going to a prospect tournament the Wings and a couple other teams held up in Traverse City, MI. They still hold the camp, usually the week before training camp. The tournament is usually 6 or so teams comprised of each team's prospects, including undrafted free agents.

The tickets were $5 a day and there was usually 2-3 games a day. The rink was nothing more than your local ice rink. There were two sheets of ice in the complex and bleachers on one side of each.

The Wings' games were usually pretty well attended, but no one care too much about the other games. Me and a buddy of mine went up in 2000 and 2001. We hit every game. There were coaches, GMs, scouts all over the place and even some of the players' families who came to watch their kids play.

The two years I went they had prospects for the Wings, Blues, Thrashers, Predators, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks playing. We saw, up close and personal, the likes of Kovalchuk, Heatly, Datsyuk, Jason Williams, Sean Avery, Darcy Hordichuk, and a bunch of other lesser known current NHLers out there. Great hockey. Very physical, always a couple of fights between tough guys trying to make a name for themselves. Some serious talent too.

Was at the game tonight, and for as pretty as Connolly's goal was, it followed an absolute travesty of officiating which really made it hard to swallow. He and Afinogenov played lights out hockey tonight though, as did Hemsky even after the knee on knee hit.

We've loved going to Manchester Monarch's games (AHL). We were 10-game season ticket holders for the first couple of years, but now with the kids and schedules and stuff (not to mention that the rink is an hour away) we're down to just a game or two.

It's good hockey, tickets are $10, and the worst seats are better than I'd be able to afford at the Boston Garden (and the $210 I paid for 2 9th row Bruins/Devils tickets for next month is about what we would pay for 2 10-game season tickets for the Monarchs).

it's also fun to see the former Monarchs playing for the Kings and elsewhere in the NHL.

I still can't believe Waddell couldn't find room on the US Olympic team for Connolly and ESPECIALLY Ryan Miller.

Dumb, DUMB move. He is by far the best US goalie in the world right now. Hopefully, they rectify the mistake by putting him on the taxi squad and inserting him for the injured Esche.

no argument from me there. I would have taken Miller over any of those 3.

For anyone who hasn't seen Ovechkin's goal:

Direct Link:
http://www.rh71.com/Projects/Ovechkin/vids/goal32.avi

Actually, I do that move all the time.

Well, the first part. Right up until the part where he shoots the puck into the net. That part is new, but the rest he stole from me.

:eek:

Heck of an effort, but the goalie was massively stupid on that play by my judgement. Ovechkin's all tied up and really has no shot and the goalie's diving on the ground anyway. If he'd have stayed up on his skates and backed to the goal and let his defender do the work, he'd have been in position to block the shot. It wasn't like the shot was a rocket. Still, something to watch a few times over just to hear the "oohs" and "aahs".

Fantastic goal, but I'll still stick with Marek Malik's shootout goal as the best of the year.

Nah... I know plenty of guys who can do that move in a shootout situation. The fact that is was a goofy defenceman who pulled it off is worth bonus points (as is his hilarious, deadpan celebreation), but I've seen it before. I'd never seen anyone do what Ovechkin did.

I love the call of "We can't see this enough... well, we can because it's against the Phoenix Coyotes" ;)

SI

YES! Canes win 4-3 in a shootout in Philadelphia. Eight in a row and they now lead the Southeast by 16 points over Atlanta. It's not been an easy eight teams either. In addition to beating Philly tonight, they beat both Detroit and Nashville in back-to-back games last week.

Momentarily, they actually have the lead in the league standings, one point ahead of Ottawa.

hello, 1st place and 8 wins in a row for the Avalanche. it may be short-lived, but I'm enjoying it just the same. best part is Cody McCormick beating Belfour 5-hole. ha ha.

:)