Reminds me of when Mike Ayers of UNH flipped his shit on the UNH bench after Minny went up 3-1 or 4-1 in a lopsided championship game in 03. UNH really had no business being there, but overachieved a lot that year. Looking back, so many of those guys on minny went on to play in the NHL, and not so many from the UNH side.
Holy shit, this has to be a first. 29 minutes in penalties, plus 4 game suspension for Carcillo. This type of stuff they need to get rid of in the NHL. Bradley throws a completely clean hit, and Carcillo decides to give him a small (albeit very small) cross check in the back when Bradley's down, then he throws down his gloves, waits for Bradley to motion to dropping his gloves and clocks him right square in the face before Bradley's glove's are even completely off his hands. I love fighting in hockey as much as the next guy, but this is horseshit.
The Red Wings can not catch a break. It seems like 80% of the team is injured. The latest being Daniel Cleary, who is out for about a month. Rough season for Detroit so far.
This isn't NHL related per se, but if you didn't watch the World Junior gold medal game between Canada and the USA tonight, you missed one of the classics of the decade. Absolutely insane, and check the highlights for a taste of what the game was like if you are into hockey even slightly. What made this even more ridiculous was what happened between my buddies and I during the game. Canada was down 4 -3 with about 15 minutes and change to go. The whistle blows at 15:37. Buddy 1: I bet any of you $50 that the US scores another quick goal. Buddy 2: Done. How long are you saying though? Buddy 1: I'll give it 2 minutes. Buddy 2. Easiest $50 I've ever made. (hand shake). Me: Buddy 1, you're a fucking idiot. Low and fucking behold, doesn't the US score at 13:38. ONE FUCKING SECOND AWAY. With less than 5 to go (still 5 -3), Buddy 1 pipes up again: Buddy 1: I swear to God, Eberle is going to tie this shit and force overtime. Me: $50, right now, I'll take that bet. Buddy 1: Done. (hand shake) Watch the highlights. Un-fucking-real.
Wendel, that Canada-USA game was insane. Actually, both Canada-USA games this tournament were unreal. Sheer highlight reel material. Your buddy cleaned up. I wish I would've placed some bets with my friends on Eberle lighting it up. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough. I think that stupid "Eh-O' Canada Go!" cheer is some sort of curse. Without that shit, Canada would've locked down that gold.
Great to see Cleary and Zetterberg back for the Wings the yesterday against the Kings. Howard played out of his skin, he was amazing during the penalty killing.
He was a clutch tender when he was playing at the University of Maine as well. Kind of surprised it has taken him this long to break into the NHL.
Not overly surprising when you look at it though. Detroit had Hasek and Osgood tending well over three fairly deep runs in the playoffs and howard wasn't exactly having breakout seasons with Grand Rapids. I'm glad he is staking his claim now though good to see him do well.
Luckily the injuries have just provided further evidence that Osgood is not actually a very good goalie
Bit harsh on Ossie, last year in play offs he was awesome and the season before he was even better. People have been bagging him for a long time but he has 4 rings now? It doesn't matter how good your D is the simple fact remains that if you get shots on goal with a shitty goalie you are going to leak points like a sieve. He was a good goalie just seems like Hasek his time has come and is now going.
.897, .907, .914, .887 those are his regular season save % for the past four seasons. He's been faded for a while, rings or not he's had a behemoth in front of him helping him out. If it wasn't for the .914 I'd argue those are Raycroftian numbers.
Umm...yeah, it pretty much does. You have to be pretty good even to get the chance to play in those two months. And then if you you were to dominate...seems like it would make you good, at the very least.
He has had a lot of help in getting where he got don't get me wrong. But damned if he didn't continue to come up with big time saves right when the Wings needed them.
With the amount of Canadians on this board, I'm surprised this thread remains so dead. I guess you can attribute it to a lack of goings-on in the actual NHL, where Avery is relatively quiet and there haven't been any insanely ridiculous Rick Nash or Ovechkin goals, but overall, the hockey has been awesome. However, since there isn't much I can point to in the NHL for fucked up shit happening, I present you two hits from the Canadian major junior leagues that have sports talk radio in a tizzy, as well as the national sports television stations (SportsNet & TSN): The first is just a plain old cheap shot, and fortunately the kid was okay. Most expect a lengthy suspension. This, on the other hand, is borderline sickening, mainly because of the aftermath following the hit. I'll warn you, the kid getting elbowed is severely injured, and what follows is disturbing. Maybe not to you, but to me, it's chilling, especially if that was your kid on the ice. I've never been an advocate of bringing the law onto the ice when it concerns hits or fighting or stick work, because once you do, you begin a journey down a VERY slippery slope. However, I don't see how Cormier, after seeing the video, can get away with this kid of bullshit and not get charged.
I dunno dude, I hesitate to say the kid should get charged. Also, as a Devils fan I don't care how good this kid is, Lou needs to cut bait with him, and I believe he will. That wasn't a mistake, it wasn't an accident, it wasn't spur of the moment. He could have laid a solid check on the kid, gotten 2 minutes for charging or interference and felt good about whatever grudge he had. Unless he was in a dissociative fugue state, it's going to be pretty goddamn hard to argue he wasn't trying to accomplish exactly what he did.
Look who's back talkin' hackey! Lou actually came out and defended the kid and talked about how great he was. Clearly it's something he should do as GM, but I highly doubt they'd cut bait. I think it was Jeff Marek that said that his type of play is still in demand, and that NHL teams would rather "tame a tiger than train the kitty to be like one".
Pierre LeBrun odds and ends column What I found most interesting was his take about Toronto being both buyers and sellers in free agency this season. Wonder if anyone will actually be down for trading away prospects for an opportunity to dump salary.