News and Notes

The all star captains have been named: Lidstrom and E. Staal. While I'm ok with the nod to Lidstrom based on oh I don't know his whole career, but Staal? Had this event been anywhere else, Staal isn't even in the running.

Which sort of leads nicely into this next bit of news. There is a story going around that Sid Crosby will sit out of the all star game in protest of the head shots. Look, I love Sid but he's vanilla. He's not going to sit out. Period. He'll go and if he can't play, he'll make nice just like he did in Montreal. He's the NHL corporate boy. He knows his role (plus he was voted in. He's bright enough to know that fans want to see him there; he will not disappoint). However I wonder if that rumor had anything to do with Crosby not being named one of the captains.

Or is the league *gasp* trying to expose other players? Say it's not so! What will all the haters do when Sid and Ovie are not "shoved down their throats"?

The Panthers coasted to a 2-0 lead over Atlanta only to watch the Thrash score two goals in the last two minutes of the game to push it to a shootout. Atlanta won. Florida is finding new and creative ways to lose games. If there is a case study in contraction, may I give you exhibit A.

Finally there are game on TV tonight that I actually care about. Granted I won't be able to see two of them (the wings play the pens so that will be blacked out and the Buffalo v Montreal game is on Versus) so that leaves me Colorado and Vancouver. Starting at 9 my time. Stupid time zones. My dog Max is a patient sort of guy but he won't wait that long for an end of the game potty break.

Another day, another dollar or two...

Good morning friends and neighbours out in the land of Puck. It's Monday, which means nothing other than there is a shitty game on Versus and I rolled into work at 9:30; but only because I have a standing 10:00 meeting. *sighs like Sid playing PSP*

And the party is over here in Tipsville as of about 10pm on Saturday night. The boys gave it a good ride, but just couldn't keep up with Tri-Cities; and so the season has come to an end. Considering a lot of experts picked the boys to finish 9th or 10th in the Western Conference, I think that coming in as 7th and making the playoffs is an achievement. It's just too bad that they had so many injuries and dropped some games that they looked like they had won; otherwise they might have finished higher and with a winning record.

I should have a season end post, but I think I might have to wait a few more days... I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to them, especially the three 20 year olds: Taylor Ellington, Graham Potuer and Daniel Bartek. They're really great guys; and with Tay and Potsie, they've been here 5 years, along with I've gotten to know Taylor a little better than the other two.

I guess the upside is that they will be going on to bigger and better things with either school or professionally; and that is where Taylor will be. He will either be playing in Victoria with the Canucks' ECHL club, the Salmon Kings, which is where another of our good pals Dan Gendur has had a great rookie campaign; or if he has a good camp, he might start the season in Winnipeg with the AHL Manitoba Moose with another former Tip, Shaun Heshka.

So, we're going into the second to the last week of the NHL season, and there are still logjams in both conferences for the last few spots, and I think it's going to come down to that last weekend. Talk about nail biters! I have two teams that are pretty sure of a spot unless they somehow lose all of their remaining games; but the last, aka Les Canards, are playing well but they're dependent on a few teams in front of them losing as well. *sends bad juju to Nashville and St. Louis* I know Lisa is feeling the same way for the Buffaslugs and maybe even the Kitties too since they're 10th and 9th right now, but only by a few points behind. *sends more bad juju to Montreal and the dirty Rangers*

And I also have some video this morning for those of you who also have a case of the Mondays...

Courtesy of the girls from Puckhuffers is a super funny video of Cabbie on the Street from Score Network, that has a few of my favorite boys in it.



I also wanted to share the video from the fabulous line brawl that was surrounded by the Canucks-Blackhawks game last night. The only bad part about this? Ben Eager didn't finish the job and rip Kevin Bieksa's shirt completely off! ;9 And holy shit are the sin bins huge at the Hawks' barn. I know the one at Comcast will fit only three comfortably or maybe 4 if they're the skinnier boys. ;)




Anywho... that's about it from me today. Have a good one youse guys!

The weekend comes and I fall off the planet

With Amy out of town, the blogging ball was in my court and man, did I whiff or what?

Turns out that Vancouver pushed the hardest to get JayBo away from the kitties. From the Sun Sentenital:

Vancouver General Manager Mike Gillis was willing to give up winger Mason Raymond and a first-round pick, the Vancouver Province reported, but when Panthers GM Jacques Martin made it clear he wanted either defensemen Kevin Bieksa or Alex Elder, a potential deal was dead.

I gotta say I don't blame Gillis for not trading for him at that price. Again, I ask will Martin have his job if JayBo is in another sweater come fall?

I wonder if the Flames deadline sploosh will make a difference in the long run or not? The west is still a brutal division and it will be tough to get out it without a lot of banged up players. Their trades might make things closer out their way.

Considering I started this post three days ago, I can now toss in some hockey. Pittsburgh got a big two points last night. I watched the third period and it was some damn good hockey. I got the Cats feed and groan are they awful. I'm sure someone likes 'em but I'm not a fan. Granted Steggy and Bob can be a bit much but geeze. When you are scrambling as the Panthers were in the third, you're going to take some penalties. We they all heinous penalties? No. We they callable penalties? Yes.

I'm not gonna talk about the Philly game. I might start to cry. CRUNCHY COME BACK!

The Wings had to go to overtime against the desert dogs. A game I did not see one second of live and caught the highlights on NHL on the Fly this morning over breakfast.

Who is this team from Ohio and what have you done with the real Blue Jackets? Tenth shut out? Seriously? When you are 20th in the league in scoring, I suppose it's a good idea to have someone back in net who can stop the pucks (for the record, they are 8th in goals against). The 6th place Columbus Blue Jackets (that's still cool to say this late in the season) have a real shot at making some playoff noise and I'm just tickled about it. If I'm Rick Nash (I'd be tall, rich and good at hockey), I'm looking forward to the post season and hopeful the Jackets play Detroit - meaning they'd have to fall to 7th or 8th, but still, a first round playoff series is a real possibility for this team. Big win for them against Boston last night. Huge win (as both the Sharks and Wings got two points).

Who else played last night: Colorado? They were on the schedule but apparently forgot to show up. Shut out by Atlanta? Groan. Devils continued to roll and beat the Flames (guess those trades are not helping so much just yet), and in a game of "Who cares" versus "First pick overall or bust", Who cares....er, Toronto beat the Islanders.

That's all for now folks, you've read plenty!

That might go down as the most boring trade deadline day in history

Holy snooze, Batman. I kept waiting for something big to happen but gotta admit, the cluster Edmonton-Carolina-Kings deal was the most interesting just because of the WTF factor.

Now the playoff push gets really interesting.

Question of the day: Does Jacques Martin keep his job if the Panthers miss the playoffs AND they lose JayBo?

Also not a question but a comment - the Wings have been slowly moving up closer to San Jose... nicely played taking over the top spot boys. But don't be too happy, SJ will be back at it and some teams in the East are moving fast.

random musings from the resistance

I have a car payment that is just a little less than $250 a month. I like my car, so I will continue to pay it. However, if I lived in the greater Tampa area, I could have season tickets to the Lightening for less than that. Tickets for an ENTIRE SEASON. Color me dumbfounded. I mean good for them citing the national economic spiral, but then again, would you wanna pay to see the 'Ning to play all their home games? Also, if you pay it off before some time in March, you get 3% of your cost back in "Forum dollars" for food and drink. I kid mostly about them being a bad team, and really kudos to ownership realizing that when you put a less than stellar team on the ice, you best lure folks to seats any way you can. This is definitely one way. More information about this can be found here.

Buffalo put up a damn fine fight last night in front of a sickly goal tender. Patty Lala was sick and he still played a heck of a game. Too bad they only walked away with a point.

Big win by the Kitties, BJackets, and Boston last night, but I really think teams in the East should keep an eye on East Rutherford. Marty is back and in apparently top form (granted, they beat up a Colorado team which is akin to kicking a kitten after you pull it's whiskers, but I digress). Not to mention they didn't collapse when he went out way the heck back in the beginning of the season. They are gonna bring a lot to the playoff race.

The Guins made a trade yesterday but I think Amy was gonna write that up so I'll be nice and not steal her thunder.

Just a few more days until the trade deadline. Do I remember this wrong, but wasn't last years deadline in February? Personally, I think it should be around the middle of January. But then again, I think each team should have to put a defenseman in the top three of a shootout.

Happily this month will end tomorrow and hopefully Spring will soon be on our minds instead of snow and ice. Hey, don't mock....a girl can dream!

one day off, one day on, one day off....

Hopefully Amy is feeling better and back at work today because I'm home. A combination of too little sleep, too much stress, and fighting off the drek for too long has finally caught up with me. So home I sit.

Buffalo won a nice game last night. I missed the first part (hurrah for DVR) but hear that Ryan Miller kept them in it at the start. I'm not shy about admitting how much I've grown to adore him (this is a man who in his blog said Besides, this a blog written by a professional athlete and I don't want to undermine the stereotype that we are all dumb jocks... We worked hard for that stigma so that when people underestimate our intelligence we can make them look really stupid. It is one of the perks... That and naps. We nap a lot. Nap are a big perk. This after saying he'd like to keep politics out of his blog. The fact that he even is AWARE there is a political landscape out there is big. It's also no secret that smart guys are instantly more attractive/interesting to me anyway). I'll have to watch that today and see how well he really did. That and the puck seems to keep finding Stafford. I'm all for that!

Interesting news out of Montreal. When you tell the player who has been one of your top scorers to stay home on your roadtrip without him being injured, that's a big sign of trouble. Calling him ineffective to the press just tosses a whole can of lighter fluid onto the fire. Gotta think he's not long for Montreal. I bet I could think of some takers. Also in the Habs world - the players are partying too much. Like this is a shock to anyone? Find me some young men who make lots of money who don't party (other than Sidney Crosby I mean)? There is a big deal about seeing Carey Price smoking....wasn't there a photo of Kiprusoff chain smoking with some ladies of .... lets just say, most likely, "negotiable affection" a few years back? Chalk that up to saying boys will be boys.

The kitties are at it again. Playing the devils and coming out with two points is big - bigger when the devils don't get any. Nicely played.

Going to dip into the west pool again and talk about two guys. First up, John-Michael Liles. Seems that he's got some sort of hand/wrist injury that will keep him out for the next few days. Man the hits just keep coming for that team. Hopefully he'll be back before we know it.

PattyMarleau (you just gotta say that in a sing song voice PaaaatyMARleau) is on fire. This pleases me a lot. Seeing him damn near broken and talk of trade rumors and hearing how he wasn't a good captain really ..well, hurt. I like Patty a whole bunch and think there are 29 other teams out there who wouldn't drool for a chance to have him on their roster. I'm sorta rooting for them to win it all this year just so I can hear The Count say "Patrick Marleau, come get the Stanley Cup" and know that somewhere Ron Wilson is seething.

Mike Green won't give his record setting stick to the Hall of Fame. A douchebag move? Color me shocked. Reason number 9,862,621 to dislike the Craps? Boudreau, who appeared as an extra in “Slap Shot,” was happy to learn that a studio is planning a remake of the 1977 classic hockey movie. Sorry Bruce, you don't remake that sort of movie. Tool.

Oh one more thing:

Eastern-ish time zone recap

Lots of hockey happened last night and some of it was even pretty good.

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo? What are we going to do with you? You are like my dog - faced with what he sees as a bully, he goes nuts, barking his wee brown head off. But then when he sees someone he deems weaker than he is, he rolls over and shows the dog his belly. After a huge emotional and much needed two points against the Sharks on Friday (side note, if you saw the game, have you ever heard a more quiet moment of silence?) and then they choke and give up two very very lazy goals early and make the game almost out of reach in the first period. I'm not being a homer here, but I can't blame Miller for either one - as much as I hate to admit it, Robby (the intermission dude for those not in the Buffalo area or who don't have center ice) was right - you can't stick check a Staal (The Staals are brothers?) and stop him. Lindy called this a distance game (or something like that) but they didn't get any distance on anyone last night. The only possible saving grace is that the Panthers didn't win.

Speaking of the Kitties. They may look on last night and miss those two points. If I'm reading things right, they could have moved into fourth place last night with a win. Sigh. Now they are tied with Buffalo in points (in 7th place with a game in hand)

The Penguins fired their coach yesterday. Color me not surprised. When you have a team that went to the cup final last year and have the top two scores in the league, you shouldn't be in 10th place. I know I know, but what of the injuries? There have been too many games that Gonch or Whit or Rusty would have helped. They very well could be on the outside looking in this year.

Their opponents in the final last year, Redwings for those following at home, started off slow against Colorado, made a push to tie it, then stepped on their collective members in the shootout. As much as it pains me to say it, I don't think they'll come out of the west this year. I don't think they have the goal tending. Then again, San Jose has looked pretty beatable in the last few games so maybe there is hope.

I can't be the only one who really enjoyed the Rangers having their asses handed to them, am I? Oh yeah, Sean Avery will help that club out.

Breakfast and cleaning await (bummer way to spend the day off), so that's it for now. Happy Monday!