The first round of the playoffs has had it all, overtime, big hits, great goals, and tons of excitement. One thing that seems to be missing, is a goalie that steps up to steal a series or even a game for that matter. Now I am not saying that there has not been good goaltending. I just feet that there has not been that one or two prime time goalie performances that we are used to in the playoffs. The goaltending of Tuukka Rask has probably been the most consistent, and best performance thus far
The final period of game four pretty much summed up the Lightning’s entire season. Great work ethic, disappointment, hard pressure, success, only to have bad luck strike them down and end their season. The Lightning season was filled with hard luck. First a broken leg to team leader Steven Stamkos put the season in question. The Lightning fought through this, and posted a 100 plus point season. Then star goalie Ben Bishop goes down with an injury, but the Lighting still managed to win home ice
Bryzgalov Talks Retirement One of the biggest surprises of the season was the signing of Ilya Bryzgalov in Edmonton, and the subsequent trade of him to the Minnesota Wild. Many people shook their heads in amazement, but Ilya has proven all his critics wrong. He is 7-0-3 since coming to Minnesota, and has been the key to the Wild solidifying a wild card spot. Bryzgalov will become a UFA this summer, but he is uncertain of what the future brings him. According to TwinCities.com Bryzgalov is up
The end of the regular season is just a week away for NHL teams, and many of the key playoff teams are battling the injury bug. Injuries are always a part of the game, but there is nothing worse than having late season injuries. It is much easier to go into the difficult, and grueling playoffs when your team is healthy. The Detroit Red Wings have been devastated with injuries all year. The Red Wings have actually looked more like their American Hockey League affiliate the Grand Rapids Griffi
There have been numerous instances this year where Alexander Ovechkin’s defensive play has been called into question. Last weeks situation may have been the most glaring situation of lack of effort yet. Last Tuesday night the Washington Capitals played host to the Dallas Stars. Both teams are fighting for the final wildcard spot in their conference, so you would think it would be a highly contested game. Well not so much, at least from the Washington Capitals intensity level. The game ended
The Marty St Louis for Callahan trade will pay off Veteran has struggled offensively for Broadway Blue-shirts Fans must be patient with Marty St. Louis as he is still looking to score his first goal as a New York Ranger uniform. The NHL’s leading scorer since the 2005 lockout demanded a trade out of Tampa Bay due to lack of respect from GM Steve Yzerman in regards to the Canadian Olympic squad. He was then traded to New York for Captain Ryan Callahan, who was asking for too much money as a
Roberto Luongo is finally able to move on from his much publicized contract in Vancouver, and just go home to Florida and play hockey. Last year, NHL trade rumors involving the Vancouver Canuck franchise goalie were the hottest gossip in all of sports. Today, one day before the 2014 NHL trade deadline a day filled with mostly small deals, Roberto Luongo once again manages to steal the spotlight. By some miracle the Vancouver Canucks were able to work out a deal with the Florida Panthers taking
NHL Trade Talk: March 2, 2014 TRADE DEADLINE – Top 10 Players Most Likely to be Moved By Deadline Day 10 - Ryan Callahan, RW, New York Rangers, $4.275 Cap Hit, Pending UFA, Age 28 Callahan wants big dollars, and a long-term deal from the NY Rangers. The Rangers want to resign their captain, but cannot afford his current asking price. Solid player, but definitely expecting more than his play warrants. Looks like a rental player for the remainder of this season, and he will test the free-agent mar
NHL Trade Talk: February 26, 2014 St. Louis Wants Trade to New York - Martin St. Louis has admitted that he was hurt by not being selected to Team Canada in 2010, but when he was snubbed again by his general manager Steve Yzerman for the second time this year, he was openly upset. St. Louis was later added to the team because of an injury, and went on to win a gold medal. Most people thought that this was a dead issue, including myself. Upon returning from Sochi, Russia St. Louis reported
Team Canada never strayed from their business-like approach to defeat team Sweden and repeat as men’s Olympic hockey champions in Sochi Russia. Canada became the first team in over 20 years to win back-to-back Olympic hockey gold medals, beating Sweden 3-0 in the tournament finale at the Bolshoy Ice Dome. With the win, Canada also became the first two-time gold medalist since NHLers began participating in the Olympics at Nagano ’98. Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz scored the Canad
Drew Doughty scored his second goal of the game at 2:32 in overtime to win against Finland at Bolshoy Ice Dome Sunday night to secure a birth in the quarterfinals. With the goal Canada (2-0-1) is the third seeded team going into the quarterfinals as they played the last game of the round robin tournament in Sochi. Doughty led the offensive charge for Canada scoring his third and fourth goals of the tournament against the Finns. Tuomo Ruutu scored the lone goal from the Finns (2-1-0) who also qua
The National Hockey League is now on break until February 26th. The shut-down is to allow elite players to represent their countries in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The NHL will be all quiet. This will allow players to play in the Olympics, and will allow others to rest and prepare for the play off stretch run. General managers will remain very busy determining team needs, and talking with other teams about possible transactions. When the league starts up again there will be only one we
San Jose Sharks forwards Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau will continue their illustrious careers in teal after each signing three-year extensions to remain with the team. Both players will remain key cogs to the team after being the franchise’s cornerstone players for the better part of the last nine seasons. What do these deals mean for the Sharks moving forward? A few things to keep in mind. It would appear that both the length and terms of the deals benefitted the Sharks organization as a te
I might get a lot of flak for this, but California is not a state necessarily known for ice hockey. As a native, I feel I have the right to say this. But this season, the left coasters are giving the reigning ‘Hawks a run for their money. San Jose is known for its physical, hard-fought games often leading to a shootout; they are third in the league with shootout wins. Veterans Thornton, Pavelski and Marleau are crucial reasons the Sharks have built something so solid and successful, with all of
NHL Trade Talk: February 3, 2014 Vanek On the Move – For Sure! - Thomas Vanek has turned down a reportedly big contract from the New York Islanders. This means they will be moving him before the trade deadline. I think that it will actually happen before the Olympic trade freeze this Friday. I have heard numerous people talking that the currently slumping Los Angeles Kings are making a solid bid to acquire Vanek. I am not sure how this will happen based on the Kings current cap space.
It took Henrik Lundqvist half the 2013-2014 season to become the goaltender he has been of the past. Lundqvist has brought the New York Rangers back into a solid playoff position with consistency and leadership, especially over his last team games. The timing could not be more perfect as the Rangers headed into the Stadium Series at Yankee Stadium today at 12:30pm vs the New Jersey Devils. He has anchored the club to five post season berths in his first six seasons as a Ranger earning himself a
NHL Trade Talk: January 22, 2014 St. Louis Ready to Pull Trigger NOW! - Talk out of St. Louis is that it is time for a change in net, and it has nothing to do with last nights score against New Jersey. It has been thought for multiple years that the goalie tandem of Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak was perfect. Lately that has come into question, and now Blues management is ready to make the move to bring in the goalie that will lead them to the Stanley Cup. There is a rumbling that the Blues ar
The San Jose Sharks recent injury bug has left the team with a forward group that resembles a third of what their Worcester Sharks team should look like. Players have been called up from the team’s AHL affiliate in order to buy time for the regulars to get healthy. While that would seem to be a problem for most teams, this may in fact benefit the Sharks and in multiple ways. Firstly, the Sharks have never had to deal with this rash of injuries during the last decade of success. Star forward Loga
With just three wins in their last eight games, the Bruins are officially in a mid-season slump. After managing to take two points out of their very difficult three-game west coast road trip with a 1-0 shutout of the San Jose Sharks Saturday night, the Bruins failed to build from that momentum as they dropped a 4-3 contest to the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night. Tuesday’s win over the Bruins was just Toronto’s third regulation win in their previous 27 games. In other words, Tuesday’s Atlantic
NHL Trade Talk: January 16, 2014 Miller to St. Louis for a Cup Run? - St. Louis has two good goalies in Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott. Both of their play has been slightly up and down this year for the Blues, and that has left many people wondering if its time to call in a solid starter. The Blues have had amazing season thus far, and with the fact that the salary cap will be jumping up to possibly 100 million in the next few years the Blues may be running out of time. They will not be able t
The lone bright spot on a under achieving New York Rangers roster has been Norwegian Mats Zuccarello known as “the hobbit”. Virtually unknown within the NHL realm, Zuccarello has quietly risen to stardom in New York. Zuccarello has been the most consistent player on the Rangers providing skill, confidence and clutch plays all season long. The hobbit is becoming a wizard on broadway. Zuccarello spent time in NHL and AHL the previous two seasons with New York and Hartford. He was able to produce i
The Eastern Conference is a little more up for grabs than the Western Conference. There have been four teams that have proved to all that they will be in the playoffs. Boston (58) and Pittsburgh (63) have clearing proven that they are the class of the conference. Not far behind is Montreal (55) and Tampa Bay (54). These teams are a little bit of a surprise, but have been consistent in the first half of the season, and have basically solidified themselves as playoff teams. The next category is th
NHL Trade Talk: January 5, 2014 Goalie Shuffle - Goalie trade talk is everywhere. Where do we start. Here is a short breakdown of who needs a goalie and who would fill their void. - New Jersey- There is talk that Martin Brodeur will be on the move this year. Talk that Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Washington all have interest. I call this crazy. I don’t see him going anywhere, and I have no idea why Chicago or Washington would have any interest. - Washington- Now as for Washington, talk is that Micha
