A Tutor shooter.

Wait, you could play goal???

Give me a call!

Signed,

Don Waddell

Steve Shields resurfaced...

Might as well have been my 86 year old grandmother.

Interesting though, Hartley defended Shields a bit afterwards and that did match my impression that the lack of help from the skaters did leave him in a situation where pretty much any goalie was doomed to fail. Special teams play has got to improve or no goalie is going to stand a chance. And the best way to improve the special teams play right now appears to be avoiding the short-handed situation in the first place.

Kovalchuk took 4 minors last night, but the PP goals came after penalties to: Slater, Exelby, Kozlov, Bench, Savard, and Hossa; point being, there's plenty of blame to go around.

The bench penalty, for too many men on the ice, was particuarly irritating -- it led to the game-tying goal. And the subsequent double minor for roughing/holding that Savard took was a killer. Looking over the scoresheet, it appears to been part of a delayed penalty sequence that led to the tying goal AND set up the Pens go-ahead goal just :31 later.

Well I'm just glad that most of the goals against Atlanta came on the powerplay. That way, Marc Savard finished even last night and didn't sink my fantasy team! WHOOT!

During the too many me power play, the Pens scored during a delayed penalty to Savard. After the goal there was a penalty for roughing on Savard. On that power play the Pens got the go-ahead goal.

Well then, Sachmo's fantasy team should suffer in same way, shape, or form due to Mr. Savard's apparent idiocy that led to this unfortunate chain of events.

He actually would benefit, since PIMs are good in fantasy hockey. Don't know why but they are.

Because hockey is a violent sport, and all of its fans like ice violence.

I have been in one league where they actually hurt you. I guess I could see why they would do it that way (because it's not good being short handed), but I like it when PIMs are a good thing. It's kind of a proxy for "team toughness."

yep, back when I played fantasy hockey, we tried it both ways. It seemed much more "realistic" when PIMs were a good thing.

Hey Sach,

Thanks for the win last night. :)

Well the sky is falling again... the Leafs loose 8-0. But I made a killing in fantasy points because I have Heatley, Spezza, and Redden on my team.

But the more important news... HOCKEY DAY IN CANADA IS IN STEPHENVILLE, NEWFOUNDLAND THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an 8 hour drive from St. John's... but who cares, I'll be making the drive out their that weekend for sure!!

8 hours?!?!!? I could be South of the Mason-Dixon line in that amount driving... and, well, based on how people around here's accents that's a long freaking way!

sabres finally get their heads out of their asses to beat the Isles

You did me a huge favor...

I was thinking of not reading this thread, and watching the Isles game on DVR... had I watched us fucking blow a 3rd period lead I would have been off the wall after RPI did the same thing tonight.

So, thanks!!!

480 Miles... which is about 750 km with stopping and the like it's around 8 hours. If you look at a map of Newfoundland, while St. John's and Stephenville are on opposite sides of the island it doesn't seem like they are that far apart. But our highway system basiclly follows the coast because of all the small outports and fishing communities.

If there was a highway straight across the interior it would probably cut the drive down by 3 hours or so.

Thrashers blow a 2-0 lead and lose again, this time 3-2 to Tampa Bay.

Game-winner from Modin hits the skate or stick of Havelid & goes in with 12:57 left.
Thrashers pull Shields in the final minute ... and Kovalchuk promptly takes an interference penalty to negate the man-advantage. Less than 4 minutes into the game, Ilya got 2 minutes (and a 4.9 from the Russian judge) for diving.

And, just for those keeping score ... Andy Sutton doesn't make it through the 1st period, courtesy of this sequence
ATL, A. SUTTON, 16:12 - Elbowing
T.B, V. LECAVALIER, 16:12 - Fighting (maj)
ATL, A. SUTTON, 16:12 - Game misconduct
ATL, A. SUTTON, 16:12 - Fighting (maj)

But that score is misleading... if you didn't see the game, the Leafs came very close to getting a late touchdown that would have given them a shot at tying it up on the two-pointer.

And I thought Vinny got the best of him in the short fight, too.

I spent a half hour there, sitting in an Air Canada jet when I was a kid. I was on a flight to Gander with my grandparents. Seemed like a really small town, other than the big runway we landed on.

:)

I saw the game... the score should have been 20-1. There was a point where I thought the Leafs would get a goal, the rest of the game the Leafs just sucked.

The town has roughly 8,000 people right now.

However, and if you saw the HNIC announcement they touched on this briefly, the Pulp & Paper Mill there is being closed. The company that owns it said they were going to close it months ago because of power difficulties, so the government agreed to give them $120 Million to help the situation and to keep those jubs secure. Now the company wants the union to make concessions on it's last CBA. Basiclly the whole thing was a union busting tactic... the union won't budge, and so aprox. half the town are now out of a job.

That in addition to half the town being flooded last month... and I mean New Orleans flooding, not just water in your basement... it's been a pretty crappy few months for the folks of Stephenville.

Hopefully they'll get a boost in tourism from this, and a bit of fun as well.

PS - Was your grandfather in the US military?

Nope, that was earned.

Stars must lead the league in penalties taken in the last 4 minutes of a game. Sheesh.

Now here's an odd little blurb from the ajc.com game story: Sutton's game misconduct was "for not having his sweater tied down during a fight". I don't know if I've ever heard that one before.

That has been a rule for several years now.

No, he is from Shoal Harbour, which is close to Clarenville, I believe. We were going up to visit family.

Call it the Rob Ray rule.

(But seriously, who doesn't tie their jerseys down now?)

Oh I knew there was some sort of rule about it, I just couldn't recall seeing it come up before.

It usually happens to a handful of guys a year. Even rarer is the automatic game misconduct for three fighting majors in a game. I was at a game in Nashville where, after Jeremy Stevenson had been in two fights, the Oilers goaded him into another one and got him tossed.

I've always been a big fan of the automatic match penalty for fighting with tape on your fingers.

Now that probably only happens once a season these days.

How many 5-hole goals did Eddie give up? I switched it after the first two. A horrific display in goaltending.

He could've used a few defensemen, but those guys didn't feel like playing hockey last night.

Can someone explain to me how Heatley scored four goal last night, the Leafs scored zero... yet his plus\minus was a +3?

He had a power play goal

SI

I still have wood from that Avs comeback win last night. Colorado is 2nd in the league in scoring (HB can tell you who is first). Freaking Carolina is 3rd in the league in scoring, and hasn't even played Atlanta yet :)

any word on Cloutier? he got his bell rung pretty good last night.

To prevent unrealistic stats-whoring, the league passed a rule that goals scored when Belak is on the ice don't count towards +/-.

Wade Belak is still in the league? really?

They don't count towards your +\-?

power play goals don't, short handed goals do.

I could be wrong, but I think you don't get a + for a goal on the powerplay, and you don't get a - for conceding while killing a penalty.

you are correct...and one minute late. :D
empty net goals, btw, count (unless it's on a PP)

Not wrong :)

I'm amazed somebody named 'Canadian' doesn't know this.

I don't believe Joe Canadian is his real name. :cool:

Dude, you really need to come up with some better material...

That wasn't meant as a joke! It just shocked me, that question coming from you.

you'd think a Saint would be nicer to other people...

ok, I'll stop now.

anywho, back to hockey and a fun little thing from Friday night's Sharks Kings game:
midway through the 2nd period, with the game tied 3-3, San Jose scored a goal and Murray pulled Mathieu Garon. While the switch was being made, the reviewed the goal and ultimately ruled (correctly) that it was not a goal (it was kicked in). But it's not like Murray could change his mind at that point, so Garon ultimately got pulled for a goal he didn't allow.