Running 2007 NHL regular season thread

Rangers up two-zip on goals from Avery and Shanahan...

 

Ponikarowski (sp?) cuts the Rangers lead in half. 2-1.

 

Thanks for the updates hockeybeat!

 

A minute and twenty seconds later, Ponikarowski ties the game.

 

Did the fight get underway...

 

Nope.

Shanahan and Hossa scored in the shootout while Valiquette stopped the Leafs' two shooters. Rangers win!

 

...Jason Smith slashes Crosby on the hand, no penalty, no defense by his teammates.
...Evgeni Malkin checks Smith shoulder-to-shoulder, no penalty, players on the ice skate after the Russian star.

There is going to be a lot of calls in Pittsburgh for Ray Shero to fire Michel Therrien because fans hate the trap and they've been waiting for an opportunity to voice their displeasure over it. Therrien didn't help himself tonight when no one on the ice knew what to do at the faceoff circle after a long delay and the net empty.

 

I'll say this for the Pens: They've played about as bad a 180 minutes of hockey the past three games as any team I've ever seen.

 

The Pens' lack of unity for lack of a better word is pretty troubling. They were pretty gutless and took stupid penalties in New York.

 

Everyone seems to have forgotten the mess left by former GM Craig Patrick. The Penguins didn't have the financial wealth or trade assets to go after a badly needed right-handed shooting forward, a big strong defenseman, and veteran goaltender to backup Fleury.

The minor league team has a few defenseman worth watching over the next season but the only forward in the organization worth a sniff is Angelo Esposito and he's going to need another year's worth of physical development to be prepared for the NHL.

Last season's success may have hurt this franchise's development because I'm not sure Recchi, Roberts, Sykora, or Sydor have done their jobs as veterans.

 

Interesting discussion on the HNIC post game show. The panel is debating whether the Robyn Regher cross-check/boarding of Ales Hemskey should have been a five-minute major.

 

Hrudy and Oake have Theo Fleury on After Hours.

His thoughts on the Calgary-Edmonton bloodlettings in the 1980s and early 1990s compared to how it is now are rather interesting. "These days, you tap a guy and it's [two minutes]. When I played, we were taking baseball swings at each other."

He's now talking about his battle with drug and alcohol addiction.