No Stars On Ice?

It's the question on everyone's minds: Can the Pittsburgh Penguins be successful in the playoffs without their star players Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin?

Three months ago the Penguins were cruising; they had just ridden a 13-game winning streak and their captain Sidney Crosby was on pace for a 60+ goal season. In the east they chewed on the heels of the Philadelphia Flyers for top spot.

But injuries forced Crosby and his right-hand man Evgeni Malkin off the ice for the majority of February and suddenly doubts arose as to whether the Penguins would be the tour de force in the playoffs as previously expected. Without the 2 superstars, the team has dropped 7 of their last 10 games. Players who were expected to carry the weight of the team, Jordan Staal and Kris Letang, haven't been as outstanding as fans hoped.
A usually composed team, they let frustration get the best of them when, trailing by several goals to the New York Islanders, both teams erupted in a BRAWL. The game resulted in over 200 penalty minutes and several suspensions and fines, most significantly Eric Godard's 10-game suspension for leaving the bench to defend goalie Brent Johnson.

In the midst of the losses and meltdowns, Tyler Kennedy and Mark Letestu stepped up to give the Penguins' waning offence a spark, and they did it well. Unfortunately both had to miss several games due to minor injuries.

The good news for Penguins fans: Kennedy and Letestu are expected to be back in the lineup within the next few games, and newly acquired players James Neal, Matt Niskanen and Alex Kovalev have helped to inject some new energy and boost morale into the team.

While Crosby and Malkin are not expected back anytime soon (Crosby's lingering concussion symptoms suggest he won't be back at all this season), the 4th ranked Penguins are still guaranteed to make it into the playoffs. The only question is how far will they get in the post-season?

The fact is, despite the absence of their 2 most enigmatic players, the team still has reliable goalie Marc-Andre Fleury minding the net and a roster full of weathered veterans who have made Cup runs or had the pleasure of lifting Lord Stanley.

Most likely, the Penguins will make it past the first or second round of the playoffs, but if they want to get any further than that the team will need to learn how to step up their game without relying solely on their superstars.

Head-ing In The Wrong Direction

Do you remember when you were a kid and someone told you not to do something, and you did it anyways just to spite them? Seems like that attitude is showing up tenfold this season in the NHL when it comes to headshots and illegal hits.

In the 2009-2010 season, 2 fines and 3 suspensions were doled out for headshots. In March, Matt Cooke's concussion-inducing hit on Marc Savard forced the NHL to take a closer look at blindside hits, and what is and is not acceptable. The severity of Savard's concussion prompted the league to implement Rule 48, which banished blindside hits.

With these stricter guidelines in effect going into the 2010-2011 season, you would think that the number of injuries caused by illegal hits would decrease. But instead, they multiplied. So far, 8 suspensions have been handed out and 4 players have been heftily fined. The Calgary Flames' Tom Kostopolous received the harshest punishment, a 6-game suspension for his hit on Brad Stuart.

The league has been riddled with headshot-related injuries of late, and perhaps the most significant of the concussion victims is the NHL's poster boy Sidney Crosby. An unintentional hit by the Washington Capitals' David Steckel during the 2011 Winter Classic visibly shook Crosby up. A few days later against the Tampa Bay Lightning, another hit by Victor Hedman aggravated the injury and took him out of the game. Crosby, who had just come off of a 25-game point streak, has been out due to concussion since January 5th.

The only good thing to come out of Crosby's injury was the fact that the NHL once again was forced to re-examine the rules of the game. Since then, illegal hits have gone down in number, with only one instance (Danny Paille's hit on Raymond Sawada) in the past 2 months.

The halfway mark to the season has come and gone, and while dirty hockey seems to be on its way out, it is far from being gone completely. Here's to hoping the trend of increased illegal hits doesn't follow the game into the next season.

Stubborn As A Mule

February 2, 2011
Detroit Red Wings vs Ottawa Senators

The unsuspected "mule" Johan Franzen nets 5 goals in the span of 2 periods, giving the Detroit Red Wings a 7-5 victory over the struggling Ottawa Senators. Franzen's five goals notches the first natural hat trick since Marian Gaborik's in 2007.

Click HERE to see the video

Fire On Ice

Over 40,000 hockey fans braved the bitter cold on Sunday, February 2oth, to watch the much-hyped Heritage Classic. Old rivals met again as the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens squared off to play outdoors in Calgary's McMahon Stadium.
The 2 most prominent meetings between these clubs happened in 1986 and 1989, both of which were Stanley Cup Finals. The Habs won the '86 Championship, while the Flames were the very first team to hoist Lord Stanley in Montreal's Bell Center in '89.

Despite the -15 degree weather, McMahon Stadium was filled from end to end in jerseys of red, with a surprising amount of blue and white as well. At least the sun was shining and the beer and hot chocolate flowed freely.
Opening ceremonies included a quick aerial show of 5 jets above the stadium, performances by Tokyo Police Club, Paul Brandt singing the national anthem, and the ceremonial puck drop that saw legends Bob Gainey and Lanny McDonald on the ice with Jarome Iginla and Brian Gionta.

It was an exciting game, with both teams playing well but there were 2 key factors that determined the outcome.

1. Calgary's offence was just too much for Carey Price. Rene Borque's two goals and Anton Babchuk's slick move boosted the Flames to a 4 goal lead over the Habs.

2. Kiprusoff was a door. Despite windy conditions going against him, Kipper denied any chance of a Habs goal and earned his 41st career shutout.

In NHL outdoor game history, the visiting team was usually the one to skate away with a victory, but the Flames, who have been very hot of late, picked up the two points this time around. A home win over a storied rival helped add to the electric "C of Red" atmosphere.

It had been 8 years since the last outdoor NHL game was played in Canada, but it seemed to be well worth the wait. Overall, the Heritage Classic weekend was a success, and it became clear early on that hockey fans are unlike any other; willing to sit for hours in weather well below freezing, all for the love of the game.






Calgary Flames vs Montreal Canadiens, February 20th, 2011

Seeing Double

Okay, so this post is not exactly hockey news or anything but...


Has anyone noticed that former Oilers coach Craig Mactavish and current Oilers coach Tom Renney look exactly alike??

Seperated at birth!

Hockey C-ANNA-Da's NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft

Just for fun, I thought I'd play hockey god and pretend to know the team outcomes of the upcoming NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft. Here's what I came up with:

CAPTAIN: Sidney Crosby

FORWARDS:
Evgeni Malkin
Jarome Iginla
Matt Duchene
Eric Staal
Steven Stamkos
Corey Perry
Rick Nash
Martin St. Louis
David Backes
Henrik Sedin
Brad Richards

DEFENSEMEN:

Mike Green
Kris Letang
Dustin Byfuglien
Nicklas Lidstrom
Erik Karlsson
Dan Boyle

GOALTENDERS:

Marc-Andre Fleury (Starting)
Tim Thomas
Cam Ward

CAPTAIN: Jonathon Toews

FORWARDS:

Claude Giroux
Anze Kopitar
Ales Hemsky
Phil Kessel
Patrik Elias
Patrick Kane
Alex Ovechkin
Daniel Sedin
Ryan Kesler
Patrick Sharp
Louis Eriksson

DEFENSEMEN:

Marc Staal
Duncan Keith
Brent Burns
Tobias Enstrom
Shea Weber
Zdeno Chara

GOALTENDERS:

Carey Price (Starting)
Jonas Hiller
Henrik Lundqvist

*Notice that I split up both the Sedin twins and the Staal brothers? There's no brotherly love in this competition!

The Man In The Iron Mask

April 18, 2010

Stanley Cup Playoffs
Colorado Avalanche vs San Jose Sharks

Both teams were held scoreless throughout regulation, and in the first minutes of OT Ryan O' Reilly scored the only goal of the game for Colorado. But the real story of the night was the specatcular 51 saves made by Craig Anderson. Needless to say, Anderson received a standing ovation that night.

Click HERE to see the video