Something's Not Right...

Ok, so I don't post as often as I like. In fairness, laziness is an uncontrollable disease...or not.

Anyways, there are a couple things that aren't right in the Hockey World:

• Philadelphia (a team known for toughness) hired a coach who's up for wimpiest coach of the decade.
• CSKA Moscow's defense is so thin, they started signing old guys to help out (oh, just one...a Russian legend...moving on...)
• The Habs are still intended on using Price over Halak (ok, so that is expected).
• Price is making saves right and center (unless they're easy shots, and still no word on where his left side went to).
• And finally, the Leafs finding ways to win a game.

Ok, I guess some aren't as weird as they should be.

On a side note, I hope there is some footage of Fetisov's "comeback" out there soon.

The Super Series

So it looks like it's a bit late to start on this. Still, congrats to the QMJHL All-Stars for out-scoring (and out-diving) the Russian Selects.

The other 2 series should look like this:

OHL All-Stars vs. Russian Selects
Both games are most likely going to be high-scoring affairs, making any goaltending unnecessary (if you want to know the shots on goal for each team, look at the score).

WHL All-Stars vs. Russian Selects
Game one should end with most of the Russian team in hospital...anyone alive for them will be forced to play game two.

Scary NHL Thoughts

In the spirit of Hallowe'en, here are 30-ish scary things that could happen to all the NHL teams (in no particular order):

Montreal Canadiens: Due to the "goalie controversy", Carey Price becomes crazy and bites Jaroslav Halak's head off.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Being able to win a game.

Anaheim Ducks: Not knowing how to spend Brian Burke's bribe money.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Crosby decides to shoot every time he has the puck.

Washington Capitals: Ovechkin decides to pass every time he gets the puck.

New York Islanders: John Tavares gets hit so hard that a mask flies from his head to reveal he is really Alexandre Daigle.

Ottawa Senators: After there hot start, they slowing trickle down the standings until they are out of the playoffs (I have a feeling that I'm speaking too soon).

Philadelphia Flyers: Start playing a finesse game.

New York Rangers: Sean Avery decides to shut up for a second.

Chicago Blackhawks: Make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, only to lose automatically because of the "Marian Hossa" Rule.

Vancouver Canucks: Someone gets infected with the swine flu every time Kyle Wellwood sneezes.

Minnesota Wild: Actually being use to play the puck in the defensive zone.

Colorado Avalanche: Craig Anderson reveals that he is actually Patrick Roy trying to prevent anymore of his records being broken.

Detroit Red Wings: Start to play so bad, the Lions start taking notes from them (that was probably too harsh).

San Jose Sharks: The team makes it past the first round, leaving every player to reschedule their tee times they booked in January.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Due to Steve Mason's slow start, they bring in an unknown rookie goalie that turns out to be a Calder candidate...rinse and repeat every season.

Boston Bruins: Zdeno Chara gets emotional when the Bruins announce the signing oif his brother - Franken-Chara

Los Angeles Kings: Players develop "Twisted Neck Syndrome" when celebrities start showing up at games.

Buffalo Sabres: Hamilton gets a team.

Calgary Flames: After trading for every player on the Florida Panthers, they still can't figure out why they can't get a deep playoff run going.

Edmonton Oilers: Actually get a star player to come play with the team.

St. Louis Blues: Keith Tkachuk devours the whole team. Feeling threaten by this, Kyle Wellwood responds by eating Tkachuk.

New Jersey Devils: Brodeur gets injured again, leaving the team to (once again) rely on Scott Clemme...Oh wait, he's with Florida...the Devils are screwed.

Sun Belt Teams (Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning): Win the Cup.

Phoenix Coyotes: The team stays in Phoenix next season.

Hamilton ???: See Phoenix.

What Just Happened?

I can't believe it...Price actually won against Toronto!!!

in fairness, he did play a preety good game and couldn't be blamed for a couple goals. The first one Gill over-committed on a Leaf player and let the puck go, while another one he was too busy taking out Markov's leg to stop the puck.

In the end the Habs won, so I'm happy, for now...

NHL Predictions

Usually these things are done by conference and before training camps start, well we like to mix it up a little. Our predictions are divison-based and are done as close as possible to the start of the season. So here are our predictons on the Division Board (Note: some logos are old)


BEK:




MDK:




A good friend of ours also decided to make a couple predictions of his own, so here is what AB thinks:

Congrats to...Zurich?!?!

Wow, that was a surprise. ZSC Lions WON!!!

In a way (despite hoping for the Blackhawks) I'm kind of glad they won, they deserve it.

Victoria Cup

Today is the biggest exhibition game of the preseason, with the Chicago Blackhawks facing the CHL (Champions Hockey League) winners ZSC Lions for the Victoria Cup.

Right now it seems to be going the same way as last year's competition with the Blackhawks beating Davos by 7 (much like the New York Rangers beat SC Bern last year). The hope is that the Cup game won't turn out like last year with the Rangers being down 3-0 then coming back and winning in it with the game-winning goal coming in the last 20 seconds against Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Hopefully, Chicago will be able to defend the Cup for the NHL without the need of a 3rd period comeback.

Another KHL Medical Disaster

Making this one of the KHL features would take a while (it already bad enough that I have to resort to a Campbell article now that the KHL site has changed to only Russian), but the KHL has to up it's health standards. After seeing Martin Kariya being carried off on a tarp, along with medical personnel failing to respond immediately, the KHL has dropped the ball on another serious accident. While fines and suspensions have been handed out, it still won't change how incidents like this will keep being handled.

The Phaneuf Hit

By now the issue of the hit that Dion Phaneuf laid on Kyle Okposo during a preseason game has come and gone. While the hit is questionable, it is something that should be saved for the regular season.

In all fairness, someone probably told Phaneuf that they were playing New York that night, and forgot to mention which team.

Maybe The KHL Is Onto Something

I was going to do another KHL feature on their Opening Cup* which is between the winner and finalist of last year's playoff finals. First, I thought that it was a dumb idea (mainly because it was a season game), but this might not be that bad of an idea. As long as its a pre-season game, introducing trophies to create/promote a rivalry. Here is a list of potential pre-season cups:

Capital Cup
Ottawa vs. Washington
(This was an actual game years ago, they should bring it back)

Canadian Cup
Montreal vs. Vancouver

Nature Cup
Colorado vs. Minnesota

Rocky Mountain Cup
Calgary vs. Edmonton

The Sunshine Cup
Florida vs. Tampa Bay

The Weather Cup
Carolina vs. Tampa Bay

The Bruiser Cup
Boston vs. Philadelphia

The Bird Cup
Anaheim vs. Pittsburgh

The "What Are We Doing Here" Cup (East)
Atlanta vs. Carolina

The "What Are We Doing Here" Cup (West)
Nashville vs. Phoenix

The "We Deserve Something" Cup
Chicago vs. Toronto

*Only english article on the KHL site.

What Did I Just Say?!?!

Closing in on auction day, two things happened: Balsillie increased his bid and Ice Edge dropped out of the bidding.



While this feud is unlikely to end after the bidding, Balsillie should just give up (on Phoenix). With the news on Del Jail-io going to prison and giving up his assets (inluding his share of Nashville). Since a part of Nashville is up for sale, Balsille should buy the stakes and then buy-out other shareholders.

Bettman will never see it coming.

Give Him The Team Already

All summer, the major news in the hockey world was the Phoenix Coyote situation (besides that Patrick "20 Cent" Kane-Cabbie incident). Yesterday was suppose to be judgement day, and the verdict was...NO DECISION!!! After months of legal fights, nothing has come from what was suppose to be the final day. Even if Balsillie isn't allowed to put in a bid, this will only continue.



There is only one option that would satisfy both sides: Expansion



It's not one that will happen, but it's the only way that Balsille will get a team in Hamilton and Bettman keeps one of his "prized Southern teams". This way it would also allow Winnipeg to get the Jets back. Kansas and Las Vegas were other viable locations, but Winnipeg deserves first pick (they might want to put in a couple thousand more seat first).

Everyone's A Critic About Team Canada...So Why Not Me?

There are four things I learned at the final day of Team Canada's Orentation Camp Thursday night:

1. Despite his age, Brodeur is still the best goaltender still playing.


2. Even though Team White had a lot of the fire-power, Team Red was the better team all-around team.


3. Powerplays are Canada's biggest weakness since neither team were able to set up for one, and sometimes it seem like the team on the penalty kill had the man advantage.


4. Beer and popcorn don't taste great together.
   

But back to the game. It was pretty much back and forth once Team Red offense slowed down (they still put a lot of off-the-puck pressure on Team White). Besides the powerplay, Canada also needs to work on line changes. A couple times it looked like their should have been a too many men call. Overall it was a good game that ended 2-2 with Team Red owning in shots on goal (42-22). The shootout at the end was won by Team Red 6-2. The funny part about the shootout was to see Dany Heatley go from mosted hated to fan favourite after scoring.

Now that the camp is over, the fun now begins.

Olympic Camps

Tonight, I get the chance to see the final day of Canada's Olympic hockey camp.

And while on the subject of Olympic hockey camps...

Appearently some KHL teams refused to released a couple of Slovakian stars to their national team's camp (yes this is old-ish news). While I'm sure it's for insurance reasons (couldn't find an actual answer), it is a chance to say the Russia is scared of Slovakia.

Ok, that shot wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

Crosby Comes Home

Me and my brother were at Cole Harbour Place to see my favorite player Sidney Crosby. It was a hot day, and very sunny out. We had an awesome time there. There was posters you can buy for 10 dollars and you get to put your name in a ballot to have a picture with Sid and the cup. There was a lot of stuff to do there and I read the paper the next day saying there were about 75,000 people that showed up. The parade was very exciting. Sid came out on a firetruck with the cup. When the parade was over, Crosby went on the stage and said a few words about his success to the NHL and Stanley Cup victory. The mayor of Halifax came out to congrats to Sid and announce that August 7th will be Sidney Crosby Day. It was a great day for everyone in Nova Scotia. :)

Transfer Hell

Since this came back up last week, I don't feel as lazy on posting this since I meant to when it first came out.

This is somewhat old news, but IIHF.com columnist Andrew Podnieks hit the nail on the head about the transfers between the NHL and the KHL. Specifically with Jiri Hudler being signed by a KHL team and Joel Kwaitkowski signing with Atlanta while both were under contract (in Hudler's case, an arbitration hearing). Apparently the NHL honoured Kwaitkowski's contract with SKA St.Petersburg while the KHL recently said they would wait and see how the arbitration hearing between Hudler and the Red Wings work out. Now, its official that Hudler will spend next season in Russia.

Basically, the IIHF is starting (again) to take the role of mom in the NHL-KHL kid fight. It's painful to say, especially since the NHL is (a) the bigger league and (b) is not under the IIHF like the KHL is. Russia has, for years, refused to sign the NHL-IIHF transfer agreement, leaving incidents like these to happen more often.

A Look At The KHL: Draft

This was a while back (and about a month overdue), but I'm going to post it now. Here is another KHL feature: the Draft.

Overview:


First Round

Just to beat the NHL, they've decided to draft players as young as 17. The funny thing about this is that the first ever draft pick, Mikhail Pashnin (selected by CSKA Moscow), is 20 years old. Another funny thing, two of the first ten picks were not used, which somewhat devalues the reason for the draft. A couple notable picks include three Russians who play over here in North American, headed by the Quebec Remparts Mikhail Stefanovich, who was drafted second overall by Dynamo Minsk.


Canadians Picked

There was only two Canadians picked. The most notable one would be Taylor Hall, who was selected in the fourth round. I doubt that Ak Bars Kazan will sign him, but just knowing that the early 1st overall favourite for next years NHL draft could be playing in the KHL for years before the NHL has a shot at bringing him back is kinda scary. Zach Kassian was the only other, taken in the third round by Dynamo Moscow.


Unnecessary Picks

Most of these picks come from drafting players that are with other teams in the KHL, but they apparently offer some kind of compensation for player lost. Victor Hedman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and (possibly) Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson could be considered under here since they were first round picks in the NHL draft (side note: Paajarvi-Svensson is the first player to be drafted in the first round of both drafts).


Dumb Picks

There aren’t really any dumb picks (unless you count Alexandre Daigle. Zing!) but some teams found a way to pick them. I know that drafts are for getting a player’s exclusive negotiation rights, but when you pick ones that are playing in the AHL and under an NHL contract, your just wasting a pick.

A Look At The KHL: Khimik Voskresensk (and how they are the Russian Winnipeg Jets)

An interesting article at IIHF.com about legendary Russian team Khimik Voskresensk. Like many companies in this economy, they have gone bankrupt and folded. This sounds very similar to the Phoenix Coyotes situation in the NHL. Since the Coyotes were originally the Winnipeg Jets, why not compare the two franchises.

Overview:


Early Years

Khimik Voskresensk was founded in the 1950’and was soon promoted to the top Russian league. Since they joined, Khimik was able to contend for the title against top teams CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Moscow.

The Winnipeg Jets joined the WHA (World Hockey Association) in 1972 and became an instant powerhouse. They won the Avco Cup three times between their creation and the collapse of the WHA.


The Players

Khimik Voskresensk has produced many great players over the years. NHL stars Igor Larionov, German Titov, Valeri Zelepukin, Sergei Berezin, Valeri Kamensky, Andrei Markov have started their careers with Khimik.

The Jets have drafted and developed NHL stars like Teemu Selanne, Nikolai Khabibulin, Shane Doan, Keith Tkachuk, Dale Hawerchuk, and Thomas Steen.


Awards

Khimik Voskresensk – Finalist: 1989
Bronze Medalist: 1965, 1970, 1984, 1990

Winnipeg Jet – Avco Cup: 1976, 1978, 1979


Relocation

The Khimik Voskresensk franchise still lives since the owners just moved the team to Mytishchi (in the Moscow region) and was renamed Atlant Mytishchi. Fortunately, local investors were able to continue the team by buying a second-tier team and relocating them.

The Winnipeg situation is similar. With the team being a small-market one, the NHL commissioner had no problem moving the team to Phoenix. The Manitoba Moose came in to fill the arena shortly after, while Phoenix enjoying early success by making the playoffs in five of their first six years. They have yet to make the playoffs since 2002.


Present Day

After fighting their way back to the top Russian league (this time the KHL), Khimik Voskresensk finished in last place with a record of 8-36-3-9 (Wins-Losses-OT/SOW-OT/SOL) and was forced to relinquish their position because they lacked the funding needed to compete. Fan rallies and proposed help from former player Valeri Kamensky have been unsuccessful in saving the team.

The Phoenix Coyotes are currently up for auction after the "infamous" court case of Balsillie v. Bettman (a.k.a. The Rat) that was covered by almost everyone in the Canadian media (and that one Phoenix reporter who walked into the wrong courtroom). Meanwhile, Manitoba provincial politicans, fan rallies, and websites have tried to convince the NHL to bring back the Jets.

I Can't Believe It

This past week, something happened that was somewhat unexpected...and that would be:

Saku Koivu signing with the Duck

Actually, that was traumatic for me but not the purpose of this post. Its really about the retirement of Joe Sakic. He should have stayed one more year for the Olympics and go out on that, but with age, speculation, and the injury of the year, it was expected that he would retire soon. With everything said about Sakic, there's not much to add outside of his quick release, dedication to the franchise, and his play in the 2002 Olympics.

Have fun in retirement Joe, you will be missed.

This Is Crazy

Since there was no signing activity yesterday, I'm going to temporary crawl out of the hole I've been in, waiting for Koivu to come back to Montreal. Day 1 did provide an upside to Montreal though. They did sign Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri, Hal Gill, and Jaroslav Spacek (no reason is given from signing Spacek). The biggest signing wasn't Cammalleri or Gionta, not Havlat, not Gaborik, not Khabibulin, not Ohlund, not Hossa, and not Komisarek. It's......John Madden to Chicago. Ok, so it's really not that important, but it gives me an excuse to mention EHM (this time, 2005 version). See, while this isn't important, this does provide evidence that this game is a prophet.





The game signed him in 2007, that is crazy.

Disclaimer: The game does all the signing for Chicago. No human interferance in any of their signings.

NHL Draft Review

While M is presently away, I'll do my own draft review. First off, the first couple picks were as expected (Tavares #1, Hedman #2, etc.). Admittingly, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a Leaf fan hurdled in the fetal position after seeing both Tavares and Schenn be picked before they could step toward the stage. It is nice to see them deliver their own blow since they stole Nazem Kadri from Ottawa.

Now to Montreal's first round pick: Louis Leblanc. I do like this pick but it also scares me a bit. For one, he's going to play for Harvard next season.....HARVARD!!! I just have a bad feeling that, later on, he'll be falling back on his degree than wearing a CH. With this also being a hometown pick (nothing against it), it just has a feeling of being the good news before the bad (in this case, Free Agency).

Now that the Draft is done, Free Agent season is next...I hope it takes a long time to get here.

B

NHL Draft Preview

The NHL Draft is in Montreal and only a couple days away. Here is our take on what will happen:


B: It is a safe bet that the Islanders will take John Tavares as the first overall pick. Unless....


The New York Islanders select Havnan Markosian of Armenia as the First Overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft.

Damn I miss that game, why they don't continue it is a shame. Anyway, back to the draft. It's almost guarenteed that Tampa will take Victor Hedman. By the looks of the rankings there doesn't seem to be any major jump to happen early on. My hope is that the Habs are able to get either Zack Kassian or Jordan Schroeder. They are ranks a little higher than the Habs picking spot (#18) but we need more physicality (Kassian) or leadership (Schroeder) if Koivu becomes a free agent.


M: No doubt Tavares will become the first overall pick. While I wish the Leafs would get him, I have to laugh at B because we got the higher pick. So here are the 5 guys I would like to see the Leafs pick from:

1. Brayden Schenn
2. Jared Cowan
3. Dmitri Kulikov
4. Scott Glennie
5. Ryan Ellis

A Couple of Thoughts

Before we post a draft blog, there has been a lot of stuff happening in the hockey world. So here it is:

• Congratulations to Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Brian Leetch for being the four players picked to be inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame. They've had outstanding careers and deserve this honour.

• On the topic of Stevie Y, I do have to disagree with picking Mike Babcock to be the Canadian Olympic Coach. I know he has a good track record (3 Finals in the span of 7 years is very good) but the only Canadians he has in Detroit are all grinders, not one solid 2nd liner. I should let this slide, that is until i see Osgood the starting goalie, then there has to be something up with this.

• HOLY.....talk about getting punished (too severely) for delaying. German National player Florian Busch was suspend for a late drug test. The kicker: IT WAS NEGATIVE. The original punishment of a fine and community service is good enough. This sucks too since he has talent (should have been drafted).

• And last: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH MONTREAL?!?!?! I've tried to ignore this issue for a while (a day is enough right?). I like the sale back to the Molson brothers, but the firing after firing is going to kill the team. First they get rid of their AHL coaches, who have done very well on developing players. Now they are clearing their bench of coaches. A year ago I wouldn't have put this, but if there is one firing that should happen, it should be done in the front office department (hint: new GM). At the very least, the Habs should retain Koivu (but thats starting to look like a pipedream).

That's it for now, tomorrow we should have a draft preview posted.

B

A Look At The KHL: Awards

Until the excitement of the draft and free agency, we'll stick with this. Before the main feature, sorry for our NHL awards column (it was hastily made).

Now for an overview:


Basic Awards

There are the usual awards. Playoff Champions (Ak Bars), Regular Season Champs (Salvat Yulaev), Forward Points Leader (Sergei Mozyakin), Top Scorer (Jan Marek), Top Goalie (Georgi Gelashvili), Coach Award (Zinetula Bilaletdinov), Rookie Award (Ilya Proskuryakov), Gentleman Award (Sergei Mozyakin & Andrei Pervyshin), Dedication Award (Oleg Petrov), Regular Season MVP (Danis Zaripov), Playoff MVP (Alexei Morozov).

There is also a Defense Points Leader (Kevin Dallman) but a Canadian won so it'll be renamed for next season.


Good Awards

I might be against the KHL, but I'll give them a break for this. A Most Active Fan Trophy that is given to a team that work with fans the most (Dynamo Riga) and Regional TV awards which gives local stations who cover hockey prizes. Maybe the NHL could use awards like this (actually...it would be hard to see Phoenix win the Fans Award)


WHAT? Awards

I think there's a couple words missing but lets move on. Top Scoring Team Award (Ak Bars) makes it seems like your handing out one-too-many team awards (not necessarily a bad thing though). A Top Scoring Trio however, does go a step too far. The Iron Man Trophy does seem ok, but considering they are trying to change from its predecessor (Russian Super League) its too early to have this award. The weirdest ones are the fastest and latest goals. Honestly, what is the point of having those awards? Might as well give every player in the league an award.


The Leaf Awards

Being a Habs fan, I got to try and find new ways to make fun of Toronto. Using the KHL's GM, Journalist, and Referee awards is how I'll do it. First off is the GM Award, and how Brian Burke should win it every year if the NHL had it. The Journalist Award would probably go to Damien Cox (and would receive the opposite reaction as the previous award). One more Award: the Best Referee Award. How does this one relate to the Leafs: if it was around in 1993...enough said (besides the fact that it was too easy).

NHL Award Results

While the Awards show is "live" right now, here are the results of the awards we guessed on.

Bill Masterton - Steve Sullivan
Calder - Steve Mason
Jack Adams - Claude Julien
Hart - Alex Ovechkin
Lady Byng - Pavel Datsyuk
Lester B. Pearson - Alex Ovechkin
Messier Leadership - Jarome Iginla
Norris - Zdeno Chara
Selke - Pavel Datsyuk
Vezina - Tim Thomas


Our results:

B: 5/10
M: 4/10

Key Picks:
B: Steve Sullivan (Bill Masterton), Zdeno Chara (Norris)
M: Pavel Datsyuk (Lady Byng)

Thats it for now, we'll be back Monday with a new feature.

NHL Awards Predictions

The NHL Awards are tonight so here are our predictions for each award.


Bill Masterton Trophy
Finalist:
Chris Chelios (Detroit Red Wings)
Steve Sullivan (Nashville Predators)
Richard Zednik (Florida Panthers)

B: Steve Sullivan
M: Richard Zednik


Calder Trophy
Finalist:
Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Bobby Ryan (Anaheim Ducks)
Kris Versteeg (Chicago Blackhawks)

B: Steve Mason
M: Steve Mason


Jack Adams Award
Finalist:
Claude Julien (Boston Bruins)
Todd McLellan (San Jose Sharks)
Andy Murray (St. Louis Blues)

B: Todd McLellan
M: Todd McLellan


Hart Memorial Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)

B: Alex Ovechkin
M: Alex Ovechkin (regrettable pick)


Lady Byng Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils)

B: Martin St. Louis
M: Pavel Datsyuk


Lester B. Pearson Award
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)

B: Evgeni Malkin
M: Evgeni Malkin


Mark Messier Leadership Award
Finalist:
Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)
Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames)

B: Sidney Crosby
M: Sidney Crosby


Norris Trophy
Finalist:
Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins)
Mike Green (Washington Capitals)
Niklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings)

B: Zdeno Chara (regrettable pick, but he is overdued)
M: Mike Green


Selke Trophy
Finalist:
Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit Red Wings)
Ryan Kesler (Vancouver Canucks)
Mike Richards (Philadelphia Flyers)

B: Ryan Kesler
M: Ryan Kesler


Vezina Trophy
Finalist:
Niklas Backstrom (Minnesota Wild)
Steve Mason (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Tim Thomas (Boston Bruins)

B: Tim Thomas (another regrettable pick)
M: Tim Thomas

Off-Season Plans

First off, congrats to Pittsburg for winning the Stanley Cup. It was a close game with what could be considered the save of the year (it won the cup for them, why shouldn't it be?).

Now that their is no hockey for a while, what to do? We here have an off-season plan to keep us entertained (and possibly off Prozac) for the next little bit:

• NHL Awards


• Make fun of KHL equivalent


• NHL Draft


• Make fun of KHL equivalent
  

Why look at the KHL? Well for one it’s the off-season (nothing else to do), and because it's annoying how they considered themselves the NHL of Europe. It's probably not a good idea to say how great you are when you kick out 2 teams for financial reasons* and have one of your better teams lose to one in a "lower league".

For now, let the Off-season begin.

* Atleast they know what to do with a Phoenix-like team.

I Called It...ish

While I didn't exactly say that the series would go to game 7, I had a feeling it would. I'm still (slightly) hoping that Pittsburg pulls off the victory, but if Detroit wins I wouldn't mind.



B

Stanley Cup Preview

So the Detroit Red Wings (or team Sweden, they're pretty much the same) are facing the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second year in a row. The last time two teams faced each other in back-to-back finals were the Islanders and Oilers. Anyway, here at this new blog we might as well join everyone else in predicting who will win the Stanley Cup.



B: I don’t know who to choose. On one hand Pittsburgh has a Canadian captain (when it comes to the NHL, there are some "traditions" i like to keep). On the other Detroit is, well, Detroit. While Pittsburgh let me down last year, if anyone deserved to break the barrier it was Lidstrom*. I don’t know, maybe it was a one-time thing, maybe it’s a start of a new era. While it would be nice to see a team pull off back-to-back cups again, I’ll pull for Crosby and co. As long as the series goes to game seven I’ll be entertained.

*Side Note: being a Habs fan, why couldn’t Koivu be the first?!



M: Go Penguins WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO