All-purpose hockey thread...

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

One of the most screwed up calls I have ever seen. I have no idea who was reffing that game, but I can bet his last name was Jackson. He hates the Oilers and always finds away to fuck them over. I was half way through a 26 of vodka at that point, that play gave me the motivation to finish off the bottle. Lots of throwing up in the morning.
The Oil, however, made up for it tonight and gave Phoenix a 7-1 shit kicking, but because the game was on fucking pay per view all I could do was listen to Rod Phillips, which really is not a down grade, but it's nice to have the visual.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

phillips and scott are good guys -- and those oiler pay-per-views are atrocious.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

I'm not going out on a limb, but Carolina's my pick to come out of the East. Ottawa should be eliminated by the eight seed, be it Jersey or Atlanta; I'm not sold on Montreal.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

HB, sorry, Ottawa is still one helluva team and Emery's been an admirable replacement for Hasek.

I figure it's Ottawa and Carolina in the Eastern final. Carolina in six.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

I have yet to pony up the $10 for one, but if Gene Principe (or however his name is spelt) is doing the PBP My hopes aren't too high. rather listen to Rod Philips lose his voice and catch the highlights.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Kornheiser, the noted hockey hater chimes in about the Caps.

Tony, we know you don't give a rat's ass about hockey and even though we love PTI, STFU

Oh, Gerard Gallant is the coach of the Blue Jackets.

Quick, Tony, name the manager of the Blue Jays.

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He Shoots, He Scores, America Snores

By Tony Kornheiser
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; E02

Hockey is dead.

At least it's dead right here, right now.

The Caps have played 74 games. They only have eight left, and they've been playing since October. And when was the last time they came up at all in conversation? Not just the Caps, any NHL team? For five bucks, name the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, I dare you.

Hockey is so dead in America, the players may as well still be locked out. You can't find hockey anywhere on television unless you're looking for the Bicycle Race network. The biggest NHL story all season was the accusation that Wayne Gretzky's once-hot actress wife was betting with Gretzky's bookmaking assistant coach. The games pass unnoticed.

The Caps have the rookie of the year -- maybe the rookie of the last 10 years. And when was the last time somebody walked up to you and said, "How 'bout that Ovechkin?" That only happened, oh, 30 times a few weeks ago when the Redskins signed Randle El. Even with Ovechkin, the Caps haven't made a dent this season. Stories about them are rarely on the front page of the sports section; they're usually buried inside, in what I like to call "MLS Hell."

In one big game tonight, more people will root for and care about the Maryland women's basketball team than have cared about the Capitals in 74 games. (By the way, Cindy and I are calling the Maryland team, the "Gurtles," a combination of "girls" and "turtles." Catchy, huh? Fear the Gurtles!) Beyond Ovechkin, Olie the Goalie and Montpelier, how many Capitals can you name? And what kind of scheduling bozo gave the Caps three straight games against Carolina this late in the season? Earth to Gary Bettman: This isn't baseball. They're not the Yanks and Sawx.

Hockey didn't just lose last season. It appears to have lost its place.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Around the N.H.L.

Niedermayer Defends Trophy From Lidstrom

By JASON DIAMOS

Published: April 2, 2006

Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, was asked last week who should win this season's award as the league's most valuable defenseman.

"You look at Lidstrom," Niedermayer said in a telephone interview, referring to Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom, a three-time Norris winner, who led all defensemen with 73 points and 59 assists entering Friday's games. "He's doing extremely well in the stat department. I suppose it would be him."

Lidstrom is one of the main reasons the Red Wings had the most points (107) in the 30-team league heading into the weekend.

But a strong argument could also be made for Niedermayer, who, in his first season with the Mighty Ducks, had already equaled his season high of 57 points heading into Friday night's home game against Dallas.

Niedermayer, 32, has especially lifted his play since opting to skip last month's Turin Olympics to have arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Feb. 13.

Without Niedermayer, a key ingredient of gold-medal winning teams at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and the 2004 World Cup, Canada did not win a medal at Turin.

"It wasn't fun at all," Niedermayer said of his choice to skip the Olympics. "I would have loved to have gone over and played with Team Canada in the Olympics. But I had to, I guess, make a decision between two things I wanted to do. And the Ducks are paying me to play, and they're paying me well. So I just had to make a choice."

Niedermayer was referring to the four-year, $27 million deal he signed last summer with Anaheim after playing his first 12 seasons in New Jersey, where he helped the Devils win three Stanley Cups.

By the time Anaheim resumed its post-Olympic schedule on March 1, Niedermayer was back in the lineup. Even though he hurt his knee just before Christmas, Niedermayer has yet to miss a game this season. Heading into Friday's games, the Mighty Ducks were 10-4-1 after the break and tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with Vancouver and Edmonton.

The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs, something Anaheim failed to do in 2003-4, just one season after the upstart Ducks advanced to the Stanley Cup finals (they lost to Niedermayer and the Devils in a deciding seventh game).

This week, Phoenix Coach Wayne Gretzky — Canada's executive director for the last two Olympics and the World Cup — said that the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr should win the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player, and that Niedermayer was the most valuable player in the Western Conference.

"I don't feel I'm playing any differently," said Niedermayer, who had 54 points in 81 games for the Devils when he was awarded the Norris Trophy in 2003-4. "I pretty much feel like I'm playing the same way I did in New Jersey."

Keenan Has a Point to Make

Mike Keenan, the general manager of the Florida Panthers, is a strong proponent of a system that would reward 3 points for a regulation victory, instead of the current 2.

"I'm hoping that the league looks at and evaluates the points system that we're using presently," Keenan said recently in Sunrise, Fla., as he lobbied for a system similar to professional soccer's. "And I would be in favor of — I would suggest it would be more fair — if we had a 3-point-win system."

When the N.H.L.'s 30 general managers meet before the entry draft on June 24 in Vancouver, British Columbia, they are expected to discuss the issue.

The league eliminated ties and introduced the shootout this season. When a game is tied after regulation, a victory in overtime or a shootout is worth 2 points, the same as a regulation victory, while the loser receives 1 point.

"If you do the arithmetic, it doesn't make sense where you see teams with better records lower in the standings," Keenan said. "The arithmetic doesn't work this way."

After a brutal start, the Panthers entered this weekend as one of the hottest teams in the league. They had won 10 of 11 games, and 7 straight, entering Friday's game at Carolina.

But a 3-point system would not appear to have benefited Keenan's team this season. The Panthers entered Friday's game in 10th place in the Eastern Conference with 75 points, trailing Tampa Bay, Montreal and the Devils by 6 points for the eighth and final playoff berth.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, under a 3-point system, there would be no change in the standings entering Friday among the top eight teams in each conference or the three division leaders. But Florida would have been in 11th place, not 10th, 11 points behind the Devils in the race for the final playoff berth.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Sorry, JR. I totally agree with TK and I'm a hockey fan who has absolutely lost touch with the game because I can never see it on TV. I don't even know who is going to make the playoffs. He makes a very valid point.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Hokie

I actually agree with TK but if no one's watching it and since he's a confessed hockey hater, why write about it?
Nothing about Georgetown to write about?

I feel kinda sorry for hockey fans like yourself in the US. The NHL has fucked up things so badly that unless you live in Detroit or New York, you'd have a better chance of finding lawnmower racing on the tube than hockey.

Fuck Bettman.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

JR, you're kidding about New York hockey fans being able to find games easily, right?

One-fourth of the Rangers' games this season has been on something called MSG2. For people/media outlets who have NYC Time Warner Cable, you might as well have crystal ball. Same with OLN. When I'm at work, I end up having to listen to NHLRadio.com in order to follow the games.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

April 5, 2006

Rangers 3, Flyers 2, O.T

It's No Misprint: Rangers Clinch a Playoff Berth

By JASON DIAMOS

Jaromir Jagr all but guaranteed the Rangers would make the playoffs on the first day of training camp last September. He might have been the only one outside the organization who actually believed it.

Jagr was right, and just about everybody else was wrong — thanks, of course, to Jagr.

The Rangers ended seven seasons of futility last night when they clinched a playoff berth, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, in a shootout at Madison Square Garden.

The victory also enabled the Rangers (42-21-12) to pull 3 points ahead of the Flyers (41-23-11) in the race for first place in the Atlantic Division, 96 points to 93. Both teams have seven games remaining. They will face each other once again on April 15.

Kevin Weekes, in goal for the injured Henrik Lundqvist (hip flexor), won back the crowd on his 31st birthday by playing a sensational third period. A minute after Martin Straka tied the score at 2-2 at 5 minutes 34 seconds of the third period, Weekes dived through the crease to make a stick save on Jeff Carter to preserve the tie.

The save brought the crowd to its feet, and chants of "Weekes! Weekes!" were heard for the first time this season. The fans also roared when Weekes stoned Sami Kapanen on a shorthanded breakaway with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation.

The Rangers prevailed, 2-1, in the shootout, on goals by Michael Nylander and Petr Sykora. Afterward, Weekes (21 saves) was again bathed in a chorus of appreciation when he was named the first star.

"It doesn't matter who believes you," Jagr, who increased his league-leading point total to 115 with a first-period assist, said before the game. "Even if somebody picks you first, you still have to prove it. They don't give you the Stanley Cup just because somebody picks you to win it.

"There probably was no reason to believe that we could make it. But we, as players, it's all a matter of how many guys on your team believe you can do it. It's always been that way. It doesn't matter what the media thinks."

Not to mention the rest of the 30-team N.H.L..

The Rangers, whose last playoff appearance was the 1996-97 season, ended their longest playoff drought in club history and the longest current streak in the league.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Colorado Rockies/Devils franchise holds the record for N.H.L. futility, with nine consecutive seasons without a playoff berth from 1978-79 to 1986-87.

With the 34-year-old Jagr leading the way in his first full season in New York, the Rangers were able to accomplish what no other version of the team had done since Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky were reunited for a final season together in 1996-97.

That spring, the Rangers made an unlikely run to the Eastern Conference finals, where they eventually succumbed to the heavily favored Flyers in five games.

Messier's departure for Vancouver via free agency that summer seemed to signal the Rangers' demise. Gretzky played two more seasons without another playoff berth, before retiring in April 1999.

No matter who the Rangers brought in to play with Brian Leetch (Pat LaFontaine in 1997-98, Petr Nedved in 1998-99, Theo Fleury in 1999-2000, Messier for an encore in 2000-2001, Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure in 2001-2002, Bobby Holik and then Alexei Kovalev for an encore in 2002-2003, and finally Jagr in 2004); no matter how high their record-payrolls soared (to over $90 million in 2003-4), the Rangers' season inevitably ended ignominiously on the final day of the regular season.

Until last night.

"It means, personally, that as a group we did something pretty special here and that we have work to do yet," Rangers Coach Tom Renney said before the game.

In his first full season behind the Rangers' bench, the bespectacled 51-year-old Renney was able to accomplish what no Rangers coach since Colin Campbell.

Less than a year after guiding the Rangers through their run to the conference finals, Campbell was dismissed in Febuary 1998. He was followed by John Muckler (who was dismissed along with team president and general manager Neil Smith in March 2000); John Tortorella (who coached the final last four games of 1999-2000); Ron Low (who lasted two full seasons); Bryan Trottier (who was fired 52 games into the 2002-2003 season); and Glen Sather, the president and general manager who succeeded Trottier before stepping down in favor of his chief assistant coach, Renney, on Feb. 25, 2004.

"It's certainly an important milestone for us, but that's exactly what it is," Renney said.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Ottawa worries me most. But the Hurricanes have shown they have enough offense to get in a shootout with the Sens and survive. Of course, any numbers of teams could get hot (see Carolina in '02 and dozens of others), but it's fun in Raleigh. A lot of fun.