Running 2007 NHL regular season thread

Sam, two points are two points. You have to beat the bad teams. We've seen too many times of late when that hasn't happened.

The Canes have established themselves as being able to do that. I'll be rooting for pre-hockey tailgating and bbq in april and may.

 

You, me and most of the Eastern Conference.

I could have retired if I had a dime for the number of times I heard fans from Montreal and Toronto rave about the tailgating going on at the ESA six years ago. They loved coming down for better weather, cheap tickets and artery-clogging good food.

Some of the Buffalo fans really liked it in Raleigh two years ago. Except for dropping the series, that is.

 

So if I come down, we can pound some Carolina Blonde and eat Bojangles before a game?

 

You go with Carolina Blonde, and I'll stick with my beverage of choice. Otherwise, sounds good ... and save me some of the dirty rice, please.

 

The report I heard was broken femur. That was a terrible hit.

On another note, I just saw Dave Tippet's postgame presser after the Stars went 0-for-7 on the power play in a loss to the Ducks. You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. Very curt, while not being a dick, in his responses.

 

There's an inappropriate line in there somewhere . . .

 

I actually had a similar goal scored against me when I was in Atom in my first year of hockey, except the puck wasn't bouncing. I was bored in net and thought of instead of playing the puck with my stick, I would try to stop the puck with the inside of my skate and kick it up to my stick soccer-style. Instead I missed the puck altogether and it slid between my legs and into the net. I looked over at my coach and all he could do was shake his head. I felt shame. We lost 3-1. I think it was the go ahead goal. My goaltending days did not stretch into my second season of atom hockey. I feel I made up for it later in the season by scoring the game-winning goal in our first win of the season (it was like December) as a forward.

 

He gets like that sometimes, I hear.

Postgame show said Teppo Numminen will start skating with the team today, although he's still officially on the suspended list until he's cleared to play.

 

Displaced fracture left leg. Surgery. Steel rod inserted.

 

Rangers losses to Florida and Tampa Bay over the weekend, then victories over Pittsburgh and New Jersey four days later is just about par for this season's Caddy Shack course known as their season.
Whatever will be will be, I gave up on this team Saturday.
Oh well, who knows?
I feel like one of Skinner's rats or Pavlov's dogs. Just when I think something good is going to happen, zap.
Sit down, Boo, Boo :-[
-- Dawes is 4-of-6 in sudden death penalty shots.
-- Rangers are 6-0 against Devils this season.
-- Graphic came up before Florida game that Jagr hadn't scored a power-play goal in 26 games if I'm not mistaken; well, make that 29 and counting ...

 

They did beat Pittsburgh Tuesday night.

Rangers are at 87 points and have consecutive games (Friday and Tuesday, I believe), home and home, against the fading Flyers. The way I figure it, 95 points should be more than enough to guarantee a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

 

With the Bruins and the Flyers fading, something is possible that seemed highly unlikely about a month ago: Three playoff teams out of the Southeast Division. Although the Craps got beat up by the Hawks last night, they've been playing inspired hockey and the Panthers -- who hopefully get beat tonight by my Canes -- have been on a roll of late.

The Thrashers still are playing like they don't want the division to lose the title SouthLeast Division, though.