2009-10 NHL Thread

Buffalo.

 

Agreed JC, on all counts.

 

And the Caps blog The Russian Machine Never Breaks is trying to figure out why Obama hasn't been to a Caps game even after several invitations.

Barack the Red!!

http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/

And I love their T-shirts.

 

This is a league, this is an establishment, that sent Scott Stevens to the Hockey Hall of Fame for exactly these kinds of hits.

And now we're supposed to care, all of a sudden, that hockey is a brutal sport in which people can get hurt? Oh, okay.

I wonder if, sometime in the late 1950s or early '60s, editorial writers opined that, gee whiz, wouldn't it be swell if that Gordie Howe guy just concentrated on scoring goals and didn't abuse those other players so much with his stick and his fists and his elbows?

 

No one's taking hitting out of the game but sorry blindside hits are beginning more and more of a problem.

Players now are on average, what 3-4" taller and probably 30-40 pounds heavier? The game is exponentially faster than back in the 50's and 60's.

And even under these new rules, the Stevens hit on Lindros would be considered legal.

And Brendan Shanahan, one of the league's tougher guys when he played, doesn't have a problem with the new rule.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/a-change-is-going-to-come/article1496914/

“Now there's something punishable and players want to know that, what they can and cannot do,” said Brendan Shanahan, a former player who is now the NHL's vice-president of hockey and business development. “I think it's a great first step, but we have time to continue to have it evolve.”

Shanahan said a push came from the players to eliminate these types of hits, but the league now has to educate its 700 players before next season about what kind of hits will no longer be legal.

And I hope someone beats the everloving shit out of Matt Cooke.

 

Canadian dollar expected to pass up American dollar this year:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100310/wl_canada_afp/canadaeconomyforexus

In other news, Calgary will soon be subsidizing the New York Rangers.

 

By the way, it's the height of hilarity that Bill Guerin, who is Cooke's teammate, thinks head shots should be outlawed and expected Cooke to be suspended.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/guerin-nhl-should-outlaw-hits-to-head/article1497502/

This is a guy who chopped another teammate across the neck during training camp one year. He also once slashed Patrik Stefan in the face, breaking his jaw, and got a measly three games for it.

STFU, Guerin.

 

Wasn't Guerin one of the fine Olympic athletes who trashed the US dorm in Nagano?

 

He was on the team. Whether or not he was in on the trashing has never been confirmed - not everybody was involved, nobody pointed fingers and nobody ever fessed up.

 

Here's a great profile of Babcock by Tim Wharnsby. Babcock is a real blue collar guy. His old man was a miner.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2010/03/11/sp-nhl-redwings-babcock.html?ref=rss

This (hard work) is a trait he learned from his father. Babcock recalled how years ago he asked his Dad about life as a man and about being a boss yet remaining a friend to his workers. He wondered how his father — a hard-rock mine pit boss — could become so angry with his miners yet remain popular with them.

"Dad, how can you get people to work so hard?" the son queried.

"You can't ask people to work hard if you don't work hard yourself," Babcock Sr. replied.


Also like the fact that he's the only coach in history to win an Olympic gold medal, a world championship and a Stanley Cup. PLUS, he won a World Junior and a CIS (Canadian University) championship.

 

OK, those of you who follow the league much more than I do, what is the perception of the Ducks?
Seems as though it might be a curse that they had more Olympians than any other team. Whatever, they now stand 13th in the West, seven points out of eighth, after closing to one before the break. They are 0-3-1 since the break, three of those games at home with five more in a row at home upcoming.
Is Randy Carlyle a goner? GM Bob Murray? Is it mostly Brian Burke's fault for the contracts he wrote while still there? Niedermayer too old? Selanne too old?
What do y'all think?

 

It's stating the obvious, but Steven Stamkos is something really, really special.

Scored his 17th goal in the Lightning's last 17 games tonight, and is third in the league in goals with 42.

He could end up being the third-youngest player to score 50 goals in a season, as pointed out in this post by Pierre LeBrun.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/blog/_/name/lebrun_pierre/id/4986879/stamkos-closing-50-goal-plateau