The playoffs have started so let's move into a new thread. First bit of business, new NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan has suspended Blue Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski for the rest of the pre-season and 8 regular season games. This is a pretty big deal. http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/...ion-that-includes-eight-regular-season-games/ First off, totally warranted. I don't see how you can argueagainst the suspension, only its length. Next, I like how Shanny gave a detailed explanation of his ruling. Public disclosure can only benefit the league. Finally, I like that the ruling did NOT depend on whether an injury occurred. Campbell let so much bullshit slide because the victim was able to skate away from it and that is not why we have rules. Other news: Wayne Simmonds called Sean Avery a "fucking faggot" tonight. (video) This is a big deal because (1) Sean Avery is very active in the gay rights community and (2) Simmonds was the victim of a possibly racist act when someone threw a banana on the ice as he was taking a shootout attempt a few days ago. Kind of shitty that a guy who just talked about having to deal with bigotry in his sport lowers himself to that as well and makes himself out to look like a hypocrite. At the post game presser, Simmonds said he "can't remember" what he said. I hate Avery, but props to him for calling out a fellow player. That's generally frowned upon, but Avery is sticking to his principles of trying to make hockey a less homophobic environment.
File this in the obvious folder, but is anyone else expecting the Blackhawks to go deep/all the way this year? It seems to me that they put in quality role players around that strong nucleus and found a goalie who is reliable. I'm a hockey neophyte, but they have elite talent on both ends with their front line and their 2nd line defense is also strong (I'm expecting Hjalmarsson to wear his big boy pants this year) .
Chicago will be good, but are probably not as strong a force in the west as teams like Vancouver. Detroit and San Jose will probably be interesting, due to advancing age in the former, and the recent changes in the latter - both I'd probably put just ahead of Chicago right now though. East is a clusterfuck, and I love it that way.
After the Hawk's 5-2 win, they are connecting as a team unlike the game last night and even last season. There was some great passing and overall teamwork done tonight. I felt like last season they didn't connect until the end of the season. I'm obviously hoping they go all the way to the end. That parade was just too amazing to not want one again. Does anyone know why Sharp basically got kicked out of the game tonight?
Bit early to tell but it looks as though once again the Red Wings have some great young players coming through to fill the gaps left by retirement. Emmerton looks the goods after his first couple of games and Kindl has stepped up a lot from his first stint with the side last year.
What has two thumbs and went to the Penguins' home opener tonight? THIS GUY. Oh yeah, second row too. Pretty, pretty good. Pens are looking really good so far. 7 out of a possible 8 points, 5 of which came on a road trip. All this without their top scorer Crosby, their #1 defensive Dman Orpik, and no Malkin for the past two games. Nice to get that trip to western Canada out of the way early too. Special teams have been great. The powerplay is tapering off the last two games, but the PK is 15 for 15 thus far. Kudos to Tony Granato. Still not thrilled with their play in the third period though. Seeing plenty of bad passes and half-assed clearance attempts. That might be laziness or it might be fatigue. The early injuries to a good chunk of their payroll mean other guys have to play a hefty number of minutes. Staal's had 23 and 21 minutes for the past two games I think, and I believe Kennedy is averaging a decent number two. Kris Letang is leading a ton of categories among defensemen, and James Neal is getting pucks in the net. Oh, and Matt Cooke is currently tied for first in the league in goals, ha. I like how this team is doing. Once Crosby and Malkin are both back, they should be one of the favorites in the East. I didn't continue my NHL Gamecenter subscription since I moved back to my home market and can watch every Pens game on TV now. That means I can't watch every game, which is disappointing, but I can't justify spending all that money right now. I might get the half season package come January.
TSN's Bob McKenzie writes about realignment due to the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg. http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/bob_mckenzie/?id=377916
Red Wings 4th game today and there is no reason why they shouldn't make it a 4-0 start to the season. Be ncie if that powerplay can get started though.
Is there a team that is more fun to watch than the Oilers right now? Their offense is fast as shit (the first line couldnt grow a beard between the three of them) but their defense sucks at the moment. I'm expecting them to win or lose 7-6 every night.
This Penguins team can't do anything without their two stars. If it wasn't for James Neal there'd be almost no offensive production. Last night they started the game 11 minutes without a shot on goal. Again, not having Orpik is a big blow to to the defense too. Before last night's game, Zbynek Michalek was second worst in the league with a -7 rating. Seen a lot of mental lapses in their own end of the rink. Basically, without Malkin and Crosby this team is going to be like the one that ended last season. Meh. They're best hope for every night will be to keep it close, pray for a regulation win or else play for an overtime point and hope for the best. Incredibly frustrating.
Enjoying how the Islanders are playing at the moment. Montoya is very solid between the pipes and Taveres looks to have finally grown into his body and is owning right across the ice.
I'm not convinced he'll ever be able to play the game like he did. Ten months to recover from a concussion is a long fucking time. He'll always be good. Because let's be serious - he's Crosby. Him at 50% is still better than a lot of NHLers at 100% - but I have a feeling he'll never be what he was before the injury. And frankly, it's really sad.
He's been cleared for contact for 2 weeks, yet still hasn't taken a hit. I find that odd and disconcerting. I'm also skeptical about Malkin returning anytime soon. The man's ligaments are obviously made out of paper towels.
My gut feeling on Crosby is that it's going to be another Savard situation - which really, really sucks. Savard's been suffering from post-concussion issues since that hit he took from Cooke, in March 2010. He only played 32 games in the year and a half. The Crosby thing seems eerily similar. It sucks for Malkin because he was finally man enough to admit that he needed to do some work to get his ass in gear, to play at the level he's capable of playing at (there's a handful of others who could take a page out of his playbook this year). I love Malkin because of the story that was told of him at the international coaching conference I was at a couple years ago. One of his ex coaches was on stage discussing how important it is for non-American players to learn the language when they're NHL material. He said the most stubborn player he ever coached was Malkin, and that every time he had a serious discussion with him (through a translator, of course) about it, Malkin would give him the exact same response; "I only need to learn one English word, Coach. Million."
Why is Marchand not playing like the beast he was in the playoffs last year? Talk about a bad read on that, by me. Fuck.
He just missed a goal against the Habs, beating Price bad but hitting pipe. The biggest problem is all the penalties he has been taking. The whole offense has been shitty so far, except for maybe Seguin.
What is wrong with the Wings oofense lately. Datsyuk gives Franzen an awesome feed and he shoots it two feet over the bar. Zetterberg misses an open goal. It's all going to pot at the moment after an awesome start.