All-purpose hockey thread...

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

For all you Leafs haters (Hi, Beef!), this is very funny shit;

http://www.sportsfilter.com/columns/index.cfm?id=177

There are many reasons why my own particular shortcomings in the workplace and bedroom can be blamed on Aki Berg. At my office, you can now select Aki Berg as one of the drop-down options on the 'lost business' report: Competition, Business Sold, Aki Berg, Changed Broker...

 

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

The Leafs are the Chicago Cubs of hockey.

 

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

Because the NHL and NBC have done such a bang-up job in promoting hockey...

4/6/06 NHL on NBC games:

Rangers at Bruins
Blues at Avalanche
Mighty Ducks at Kings.

 

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

What would that make the Chicago Blackhawks?

 

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

Pitiful. At least the Cubs and Leafs draw.

 

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

Hockey broadcaster and ex-goalie Brian Hayward wins a battle of wits Friday with a woefully unarmed Sean Avery:

LOS ANGELES (CP) — Sean Avery can’t seem to get enough of the spotlight.
The Los Angeles Kings player had a heated verbal exchange with Anaheim broadcaster and former NHL goalie Brian Hayward in the dressing room Friday before players and media.
Hayward, a former Montreal Canadiens goalie, criticized Avery during Tuesday’s Anaheim broadcast and accused him of running away from a confrontation with the Ducks’ Todd Fedoruk. Hayward was doing prep work for Saturday’s Ducks-Kings game on NBC when he visited the Kings’ dressing room Friday, only to be welcomed by a profanity-laced tirade from Avery, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hayward stood his ground.
“You’re an embarrassment,” the Times quoted Avery as saying and Hayward responded by saying, “You want to see an embarrassment? Look in the mirror, Sean.”
Avery walked towards Hayward at one point but was pulled away by assistant coach Ray Bennett.
“You’re the reason the league doesn’t have a national television deal. You’re a (terrible) announcer and you were a (terrible) player,” Avery said during the exchange.
Hayward responded: “How would you know? When I played, you were in your third year of eighth grade.”
Avery has been in and out of hot water all year long:
• In pre-season, Avery said a hit by then-Phoenix defenceman Denis Gauthier on Kings centre Jeremy Roenick “was typical of most French guys in our league with a visor on, running around and playing tough and not back anything up.”
• In an October game, Avery was accused by Edmonton’s Georges Laraque of using a racial slur.
• He was the first NHL player this season to be fined $1,000 US for diving and reacted by hammering the league for it.
“How can a guy sitting in an office in New York determine if you dived or not by watching a tape?” Avery said. “They don’t know if you had a bad ankle or torn bursa sac or something. I can’t even tell you what play they are talking about. They don’t have to tell you a play, just what game they are looking at.
“No question that this is a way (for the league) to do something to me. It has nothing to do with diving. How can Colin Campbell, or whoever it is, sit at a desk and make that call? They should send the tape to all seven members of the competition committee and let them look at it.”

 

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

Those who remember him from his days in the Ontario Hockey League as a junior will confirm that he was an asshole back then.
Even this teammates thought he was a jerk.

Huggy has a good story about that but I'll let him tell it ---if he wants to.

 

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

Jaromir Jagr just passed Adam Graves for the Rangers' single season goal scoring list with his 53rd.

 

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

Is that the story about the Kingston Frontenacs rookies hot-boxing him on a road trip? He was either in his third or fourth year of junior at the time. That's a pretty good indicator of how much he was hated – hot-boxed by rookies (!) while the other veterans either stood back and did nothing or actively encouraged it.

 

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

That's the one.

Beautiful.

 

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

April 9, 2006
Around the N.H.L.

Oohs and Ahs in Montreal For Huet (Say It oo-AY)

By JASON DIAMOS

Montreal goaltender Cristobal Huet cannot help but feel at home when the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," is played over the Bell Center sound system every time he makes a big save.

Huet, from the parish of St.-Martin-d'Heres in Grenoble, France, is the biggest sensation to hit French-speaking Canada since José Théodore won the Hart Trophy (most valuable player) and the Vezina Trophy (most valuable goaltender) for the 2001-2 season.

Huet succeeded Théodore as the Canadiens' No. 1 goaltender in February, and played so well that Montreal shipped Théodore to Colorado before the trading deadline last month.

Entering last night's game against the Devils, Huet was riding a six-game winning streak. (The Canadiens had won eight in a row.) He was tied with Ottawa's Dominik Hasek for the league lead in goals against average (2.09) and had the best save percentage (.932). Huet, with seven shutouts (in 33 games), was second only to Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff (eight in 69 games) in that category.

Huet, 30, came out of the hockey equivalent of nowhere, otherwise known as Los Angeles, where he was a backup for two seasons before the lockout.

"It's been quite a change for sure," said Huet, the second French-born player to make it to the N.H.L. (Philippe Bozon, from Chamonix, played for the St. Louis Blues from 1991 to 1995.) "Living in the States was a great experience, and the L.A. lifestyle is pretty good. But there's the Lakers and the movie industry."

In Montreal, there are only Les Habitants.

"Playing in Montreal is a dream come true for all hockey players," Huet (pronounced oo-AY) said. "And I live in Old Montreal now. So, yes, I feel a little bit at home."

When he was 18, Huet attended a goaltender school run by François Allaire in Verbier, France. Huet remained in France for three more years, then migrated to the Swiss League, where he said he led Lugano to a championship in his first season there, 1998-99.

"The major thing for me there was I was considered an import, and usually they came from the N.H.L. or the A.H.L.," said Huet, who played four seasons in Switzerland. "So I had to prove that I belonged there."

Huet was drafted by the Kings in the seventh round in 2001. The Canadiens obtained him and Radek Bonk in June 2004 for Mathieu Garon. During the 2004-5 lockout, Huet played in Germany and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

He underwent reconstructive surgery after the season and missed Montreal's training camp this season. He was expected to be Théodore's backup when he healed.

"I've never been truly a No. 1 goalie in the N.H.L.," Huet said.

He is now. And the Canadiens, who have won the Stanley Cup at least once in every decade since the 1920's, are hoping to ride the strains of "La Marseillaise" through the playoffs.

For Modano, Best Move Was No Move

After experiencing the worst season of his 17-year N.H.L. career in 2003-4, a year off did wonders for Mike Modano, captain of the Dallas Stars.

"I had played an awful lot of hockey to that point," Modano said Friday in a telephone interview. "Mentally and physically, I was feeling a little tired."

After the lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the 2004-5 season, Modano was refreshed — and an unrestricted free agent. He nearly left Dallas before re-signing with the Stars.

"It was Chicago or Boston," Modano said of his choices. "And look at those two organizations now."

The Blackhawks and the Bruins are not going to make the playoffs this season. In Modano's case, the best move was to stay put. He has played his entire career with the Stars, making his debut in the playoffs in 1989, when the franchise was based in Minnesota.

Modano registered career lows for a full season in goals (14), assists (30), points (44) and plus-minus rating (minus-21) in 2003-4. But at age 35, he entered last night's game against Phoenix leading the Stars with 74 points in 75 games (27 goals and 47 assists). His plus-minus rating is plus-21. And the Stars, who were eliminated in the first round of the 2003-4 playoffs, clinched first place in the Pacific Division with their 5-3 victory at Anaheim on Thursday night.

"There was a lot of pressure and high expectations with all the new faces we had on the team," Modano said, referring to 2003-4, when many observers picked the Stars to challenge for the Stanley Cup. "It just seemed like it never came together. So I think the lockout probably came at a good time for us."

The salary cap put in place for this season ended the Stars' free-spending ways.

"I just think that comes with the amount of money our team was making," Modano said. "When your payroll is around $68 million or $69 million, people say they should be going far in the playoffs. Now, with everybody around $35 million, there wasn't a word about Dallas going far this season."

 

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

April 9, 2006
Rangers 4, Bruins 3, Overtime

Jagr Scores to Set Record and Sets Up Winning Goal

By JASON DIAMOS

BOSTON, April 8 — Sometimes a golfer joins a country club and asks about the course record, suggesting that he intends to break it. But when Jaromir Jagr joined the Rangers two years ago, he did not check the franchise records for goals and points.

Jagr, a 34-year-old right wing, knows about them now. On Saturday afternoon at TD Banknorth Garden, Jagr scored his league-leading 53rd goal of the season to eclipse the club-record 52 that Adam Graves scored in 1993-94, the Rangers' Stanley Cup championship season.

Jagr then added two assists, including one on Michael Nylander's goal 40 seconds into overtime that gave the Rangers a 4-3 victory.

Nylander's winner, his 22nd goal of the season, increased the Rangers' point total to 100 and bolstered their lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in the Atlantic Division.

Jagr's 3 points increased his team-record and league-leading total to 118.

"It's a little bit of a relief," said Jagr, who had gone four games without a goal since tying Graves's record March 27. "A lot of people have been asking me about it, when am I going to do it. And it's not that easy. I was lucky. I was scoring almost every game until I got to 52, then I couldn't score for four games."

For anyone else, that would not be considered a drought. But Jagr, in his 15th N.H.L. season, is chasing after his sixth career scoring title. He last won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leader in points in 2000-1, his last season with Pittsburgh.

Against the Bruins, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Jagr dominated on almost every one of his shifts. It only seemed as if he had the puck on his stick the entire game.

"He looks like Shaq down there in the post," Boston defenseman Brian Leetch, a former Ranger, said, referring to the 7-1, 325-pound Shaquille O'Neal of the N.B.A.'s Miami Heat. "He just backs his way to the net. And he's too strong, with the new rules, for anybody to be able to do anything legally to stop it."

Speaking about the new rules, which were instituted to help increase scoring, Leetch said: "The best players in the world are being able to separate themselves again. And Jaromir is either the best player or one of a couple guys. And that's the way the game is supposed to be played."

Leetch said that while Jagr was on the ice, "we had players looking at me and going, 'Did you see that play?'

"We were just shaking our heads because that's what talent is supposed to be able to do," he added. "Just go out there and put on a show. It's the way the league's supposed to be."

For his record-setting goal, Jagr took a pass from Nylander and beat goaltender Tim Thomas with a low wrist shot from the face-off dot in the left circle 13 minutes 35 seconds into the first period.

Nylander retrieved the puck for Jagr, who assisted on both of Nylander's goals. His first assist came 3:48 into the second period and tied the score at 2-2.

Jagr had the puck near the boards just inside the Boston blue line, and he used his long reach to fake the rookie defenseman Mark Stuart out of position. A forehand-to-backhand move enabled Jagr to get a step ahead of Stuart.

With Stuart chasing him in vain, Jagr swooped down the right side and around the net. He stopped with his back to the goal in the left circle, pirouetted and fired a forehand shot on Thomas.

Thomas made the save, but Nylander was alone in front because defenseman Brad Stuart (no relation to Mark) had skated over to help Mark Stuart with Jagr. Nylander pounced on the rebound and beat a prone Thomas with a backhand shot.

Jarko Immonen, in just his second N.H.L. game, scored a power-play goal with 59 seconds left in the period to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. The Bruins' Brad Boyes tied the score at 3:51 of the third.

Jagr said that on his goal, which pulled the Rangers to 2-1, he was not thinking about the record.

"I was thinking that we needed one more to tie the game," he said.

Jagr has maintained that he does not consider himself a goal scorer.

"But with the new rules, I think they have been a little bit of an advantage to me," he said. "I'm 250 with the equipment. It's a little bit easier to get scoring chances now. But I still don't think I'm a goal scorer."